Miscellaneous

More (Race) Data Nerdery

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 19:32

So, another race (Habitat for Humanity 5k charity, 2011), another batch of data. Unlike the last batch of data, I had less pre-conceived notions about the makeup, as I was paying more attention to our 9-year-old who ran her first 5k with us. Like the last set of data, the bulk of people came from towns in close proximity:

Ronkonkoma        Bohemia
   35                31 
Oakdale           Sayville 
   18                12 
Holbrook          Patchogue 
   11                11 
Manorville       West Babylon

Challenge Your Assumptions

Submitted by ladmin on Tue, 12/06/2011 - 09:36

I've been on a small data analysis kick lately. It was great news when a recent race I ran freely shared the race data in a nice plain-text format (http://www.flrrt.com/results/sea11.txt). I converted this into a CSV file and read it into R. Now, just looking at the crowd, I would have guessed that there were a 'few hundred' people, the bulk of which were men. In fact, there were 969 runners overall with nearly an even split between men and women (480 female and 489 male - that's a pretty insignificant margin).

MacTech Conf 2010 Intro Playlist

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 13:49

A number of people have asked me about the music that I had playing during various points at MacTech Conference 2010. Here's the intro playlist I had set up:

1. Robyn Miller, Myst Soundtrack - Myst Island: Planetarium
2. Power of Seven - Marathon 2: Durandal Theme Music
3. Autostar - Dreadland
4. Gamer Symphony Orchestra - Portal Live from [SUBJECT HOMETOWN HERE] Still Alive

WebKit Web Inspector Anywhere

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 12:50

Pretty awesome utility: most people know that you can pull up a web/javascript debugger under Safari. But did you know that you can expose this on (nearly) any WebKit frame? Try this:

defaults write -GlobalDomain WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

...and then launch (or, quit and relaunch) any app that exposes a WebKitUIView. Right-click on the WebKitUIView and choose "Inspect Element" - Bingo! Up pops the WebKit web debugger.

Now, some applications block this ability unintentionally, or sometimes very intentionally (Mail.app, I'm looking at *you*).

Believe the Hype?

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Fri, 11/21/2008 - 16:48

So many people talk about things they just don't understand. Some are even proclaimed as experts on topics that clearly elude them a bit. In their insecurity, they like to try to drag others down with them, or, just make others look bad so they don't look so bad themselves. That's why you need to trust yourself, be comfortable with moving into new territory, and ignore those who want to be negative just to be negative. I love these quotes from people looking to put down the iPhone; I think it illustrates the point nicely:

What a Kite Sees

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Wed, 11/12/2008 - 07:37

Man-made flying objects are almost universally inspiring. As a kid, I launched Estes rockets and always wanted the model that had the 110 camera (film!) built in (http://www.apogeerockets.com/estes_snapshot.asp). Looks like even that has been replaced with video now: http://www.apogeerockets.com/Estes_Astrovision_Video_Rocket.asp. Well, I still have the rockets, but figured I'd start small. A local toy shop had a nice selection of kites. I found a plain, triangular kite with a 7' wingspan.

iPhone Experiences

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Tue, 08/19/2008 - 10:11

Been meaning to post something about the iPhone purchasing experience. On the day the iPhone 3G was released, I went to an AT&T store and placed an order for two phones, and received them 3 days later. The salesperson I dealt with was an absolute professional, and a pleasure to work with during the provisioning and transfer process (I was formerly on Verizon). Overall, it was just about the easiest process ever, which is why I've been confused by reports of people having a difficult time or still waiting in line. There's a simple remedy: go to an AT&T store.

More Questionable Patents and Trademarks

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 11:26

Dell had submitted an application to trademark "Cloud Computing." While Dell may participate in this space, the term didn't originate with Dell. Thankfully, this request was turned down by the USPTO. Is that the difference between engineers and (some) businesspeople? Engineers just want to create and release those creations, but the businessperson wants to bottle these up control access? I'm not sure what it is, but there are some fundamental differences.

Neglect

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 10:45

I have completely neglected this site. The book project was pretty consuming to say the least, and I only feel now that I’m getting my bearings again for everything else. Between the book, starting a new position on the Mac team at Google and trying to be a human being (aka spend time with my family and handle house chores), I pretty much dropped off the face of the map. I will have some bits to post soon!

Word Weirdness

Submitted by Edward Marczak on Sun, 04/27/2008 - 01:33

Between writing the Advanced Sysadmin book, writing for MacTech and Editing at Mactech (and other sundry things), these days, I live in Microsoft Word. After Macworld this year, I wound up with a few copies of Office 2008 and immediately started using Word 2008. Overall, I'm pretty happy. It's Intel native (although it takes longer to launch - ?!?), and has some nicer features than 2004 (not many, though). If I had to purchase it with my own $$, I wouldn't have. Unfortunately, Word is so deep seated that it's sometimes mandatory, depending on who you're working with.

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