My last computer purchase was in 2000. Yes, it's time. This Dell has held up well with only one rebuild in the last 8 years (that is, once I got rid of that awful, awful beast called WindowsME and moved to XP), but it will soon be time to move along to something new. So, I wanted to pick your brains out there (figuratively speaking, of course):

Do I go Mac or PC?

As some background, I use Photoshop A LOT, and I'd also like to be able to put together home movies and burn them out to DVDs and at some point scan really ancient negatives from the 1940s. I also build the occasional website. Also, I last used a Mac back in 2000, and have flitted back and forth between platforms since I started using computers back in '91.

 I have read that Macs can run your old PC software. I was curious how useful/practical this is in reality. Will my existing peripherals (USB printer, SCSI negative scanner, modems) work with a Mac? I have to say, I'm somewhat unenthusiastic about the PC prospect in that it can't be good when manufacturers start offering the OLD operating system as an alternative to the latest and greatest. Does Vista suck that bad?

like ray, i compose posts in my head all the time. i haven't yet found a system for documenting them easily, so most die on the vine. and these days, the time i actually find 'free' are times when i am drained or momentarily free. so let's see how i do with a dump of bits and pieces that have probably piled up:

1. the new underworld album, 'oblivion with bells.' i wasn't in love with it the first time i listened, but it has begun to grow on me some after 5 or 6 listens. i still think the first three tracks make an excellent 20 minutes-ish of listening; the jury is out a little more about the rest.

2. i've moved my ticket to la a bit, so that i can be there in time to attend a screening of cece's movie, 'i'll believe you.' cece and i grew up a couple doors apart from each other; she is out in la writing and acting. she is lead in this movie, shot in '03 and finally seeing a limited theatrical release this weekend.

3. we are moving offices at work tomorrow. this means that today is the last day i will be working in downtown sf proper. monday, i will be reporting at the new office, right by the giants ballpark. one day, i might even work up the energy to tell you what i do for a living these days. needless to say, it involves media and programming. a lot of both.

4. i just saw an owens and minor truck, parked on a road. i'm on the train, rolling up to the city. o&m was the first place i worked out of college, with matthew, on their internet/intranet sites. that's been about 10 years and feels like 4 lifetimes, so it always surprises me when little things like trucks pop up.

5. i took my mac mini in on halloween to get repaired. the consistent kernel panics had turned into the machine failing to boot. when the guy at the genius bar tried to turn it, it wouldn't do a thing. a pretend brick. so they took it to repair. "5 to 7 days." on day 7, i called apple. my motherboard had died. so they had ordered a new one to put in. guess what? that one was defective too. so they had to order another one. and that's why we are on day 9 of the repair.

even better, apple's site says 'repair in progress' and offers no more information. and when i called and got the above info, i was also told that there 'was no eta'. awesome. i look forward to the repair taking forever. i'm unsure at what point i can ask for compensation, nor am i sure what i can actually for. which means i can't really ask for anything. i have no desire to be the guy who tries to get a free copy of leopard or something. (like the guy next to me at the genius bar when i dropped the machine off.)

5. rachael is out of town now. i stayed up until 1 last night, playing videogames. and then screwed up the alarm clock. this i blame on the fact that she is the alarm clock setter of the two of us. i turned it on when i went to bed. sadly, we have 2 alarm clocks and i turned on the one we no longer use. so my alarm was set to go off at midnight, having never been changed from the last time the power went out. i woke up in time, mostly. still, i see another night of not moving from the tv in my immediate future. (for two reasons: 1. i have to wake up early for this flight to la and 2. nick never responded to my email about going to see dmitiri from paris tonight for 10 bucks.)

6. programming time.

a looking glass book

so i used to have a blog over on the usc site; set up mainly to help with my thesis. then i floundered for a bit and wasnt doing a lot of video work.

but im back in the fold, as many of you know. i'm doing a lot of video work now, along with web application development and social networking stuff.

so i moved the content over here, where i can keep a more firm grasp on it and have started throwing up development related things on the research subdomain.

you're more than welcome over there, but it will certainly be more nerdy in a computer/media way that mog is for me. least this way you wont have to listen to thoughts on the internet, video online and php. well, anymore than you already do.

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Solving the Korean Stalemate, One Step at a Time - New York Times

as an aside, a really good opinion piece about north korea by jimmy carter. worth reading, via kottke

where to begin?

i feel like i have been silent on here a lot recently. it hasnt been intentional in the slightest and its something that ill be trying my best to correct.

my weekend was just what the doctor ordered — too many movies, drinks, a little roller skating and a game called 'dress roxy up and take pictures'. it was really great hanging out with keren (and her new, giant-sized 'little nemo' book). and then this weekend, a visit with dutton and 3 days of carter staying with us.

ive got more stories, but in the interest of typing everything up, im moving on. ive been quiet typing on here, but ive been working. ive been rewriting parts of the site in the background and debugging quirks. did you know that firefox has trouble with document height when items are floated? surprise surprise.

so ive been writing code. and im planning on moving the site to wordpress at some point in the nearish future. itll be a mess of some kind — the site is custom-built in asp right now, so moving all the data and functionality to a box solution (plus rewriting it all from asp to php) isnt going to be a small feat. but i dont have the time anymore to continue rewriting it and there just isnt a good asp/.net blogging solution (that i have found). rather than recreate the wheel over and over, id like to leverage the stuff thats already been done so i can do cooler stuff.

and then there is the rest of my life. im keeping on keeping on. ive got a semi-schedule now; my exercise has continued, my writing is ongoing (and functional); ill be setting up some billpay tonight. its a slow process, but i continue to feel like i am making headway in organizing and optimizing my life. whee!

and when was the last time you went roller skating? and who wants to visit so we can go again?