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Stuff + nonsense. Updated daily. So far. Pretty much. Overwrought by Scott Knaster.
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Saturday, March 15, 2003
Notable Mac OS X feature #1
Mac OS X lets you set your desktop picture to change by itself periodically. That's great -- I like gratuitous random choices. But the wacky thing is that you can make the picture change every 5 seconds!. Just for fun, I tried that out. It's very distracting -- almost hypnotic -- if any of your desktop is showing. The cool part is that it crossfades the pictures, so if they're similar at all, it's kind of subtle. I guess it's a like a screen saver that live behind your windows.
Friday, March 14, 2003
This guy saved my life
...even though I never met William Dement. In 1991 I was having weird problems with sleepiness. I started falling asleep in meetings, at dinner, and during the opening credits of movies just from being in a darkened theater. At Disneyland I fell asleep on the darkened lift hill inside the Matterhorn. I could fall asleep anywhere, any time, on demand, in seconds. At night I snored so loudly that I drove my wife to the couch. I went to see my doctor and he told me I had "stress fatigue". He suggested I try relaxation techniques. That didn't seem right. The next day I was browsing the health section at a bookstore and found Dement's book The Sleepwatchers. I had heard about something called sleep apnea and I wanted to find out more. While leafing through Dement's book, I found a remarkable sentence: If you are a male, in your 30s or older, overweight, a very loud snorer, and you find yourself frequently falling asleep inappropriately during the day, you almost certainly have sleep apnea. (I'm paraphrasing.) Wow! What a bold statement. And in my case, in turned out to be exactly right. After spending a night at the Stanford Sleep Clinic (founded by Dement) wired up like a sleep-deprived Christmas tree, I learned I had severe obstructive sleep apnea. I had an average of 59 apneas per hour: all night long, every minute, I stopped breathing. Then I started choking, gagging, and kicking until I woke up, started breathing again, then fell back asleep. All night. Every minute. And in the morning, I had no memory of any of this, but I was sleepy all the time. Here's a picture of me at the time. I'm the guy with the beard. See how my eyes are half-closed? That's because I had to struggle to keep them open. After I was diagnosed, I received a machine to keep my airway open while I slept. This device, affectionately known in our house as Edna (after the hurricane), consisted of a small compressor connect to a mask I wore over my nose. It allowed me to sleep peacefully and vastly improved the quality of my life. When I was diagnosed, I weighed close to 300 pounds. The doctor told me I might get rid of the apnea if I lost a lot of weight. Sure enough, years later I lost 100 pounds, and the apnea vanished as well. I haven't seen it since. Our society jokes a lot about snoring, but sleep apnea is deadly serious. It messes up your life and can cause high blood pressure and possibly heart problems. If you think you or your bed partner has sleep apnea, find out more.
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Seasoning accumulation
Here's the story you've been waiting for all your life. Of course, I'm referring to the one about the giant Chee-to. "This giant Chee-to could be a boon to our local economy," said Tom Straub, owner of Algona's Sister Sarah's Bar. Who can disagree?
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Second-class
Editing this blog on a Mac sucks. If I use Internet Explorer, I don't get all the cool tools, such as the hyperlink button that lets me select text, type a URL, and automagically turn it into a properly formatted href tag. If I use NetNewsWire's weblog editor, I can't enter a title, because the Blogger API won't allow it. If I try to use Safari, Blogger refuses and tells me to upgrade my browser. Are these all Blogger's fault? I think the API one is, and it seems like the hyperlink button could work. Safari, I don't know. Hey Blogger guys, how about looking at your Mac support?
Hangin with the homies
The next big buzzword: embedded reporters. These are journalists who are basically going to be non-fighting soldiers, living with American troops in Iraq and getting uncensored access to the war, including the front lines. This story, written by one of the embeddees, describes the unprecedented process in matter-of-fact detail. This seems like a good thing: reporters getting to tell the world about the horrors of war. But I'm puzzled how the administration will twist and spin the news that writers and photographers are witnessing firsthand. I guess we'll see what really happens.
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
What goes around
Last month I wrote about the wonderful Flash Mind Reader. Lots of forums and bulletin boards linked to my explanation, and it has been getting a couple hundred hits a day since then. But yesterday I learned the Flash Mind Reader phenomenon has reached new heights: my mother knows about it. She forwarded a mail to me about it -- one of those lovely multi-level AOL forwards, where every previous message is a recursive enclosure. My mother is 73 years old and using her first computer. She's about as far outside the nerd mainstream as you can get. Of course, she had no idea I had written an explanation when she forwarded the mail to me. So now I know how big the web really is.
Monday, March 10, 2003
Ode to dentistry
I have to get a crown this morning, the inevitable followup to my recent adventure in root canal. Wish me luck.
West of the story
Barbara and I are catching up on Tivo'd West Wing episodes. Last night we watched the two-part "Inauguration", and it was excellent. Some great funny moments. The wacky gang was having trouble finding a bible for the President's swearing-in, which led to the following (paraphrased): Josh: You know, the president doesn't have to be sworn in on a bible. Pres. Bartlett: He doesn't? Josh: Nah. You could use the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Pres. Bartlett: Think that's a good idea? Josh: Nope. And like that.
Sunday, March 09, 2003
I am sort of not working at Microsoft any more (Epilog)
In which I am terminated:
