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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Doug Orleans' LiveJournal:

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    Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
    10:44 pm
    Auto-forwarding text messages?
     When I'm at home, I often don't notice when I get text messages on my phone (T-Mobile G1), but I usually check my email on my desktop regularly. I'd like to auto-forward text messages to email. Anyone know how to do this? I could do it with Google Voice, but not if I want to keep my current phone number. There's an Android app txtForward that claims to do this, but it's £2.99, and there's only one comment in the Android Market (complaining about screen locking or something). Anyone tried it? Are there other apps?

    Also, by the way, I have 16 Google Wave invitations. Let me know if you'd like one. So far Google Wave is underwhelming, but I figure it can't hurt to claim an address.
    Thursday, November 12th, 2009
    7:01 pm
    Something I learned from Antichrist:
     Beneath despair is the wrench.



    Also, my next band is called Soft Sun Operator. Thank you Fred Gottfried.
    Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
    2:46 pm
    Aspect-oriented supermarket
     Some more examples of the Tyranny of the Dominant Decomposition, at the Porter Square Shaw's:
    • The ground turkey is not in the Turkey section, it's in the Ground Meat section.
    • The Kashi brand cereal is not in the Cereal section, it's in the Wild Harvest section.
    • The grated cheese is not in the Cheese section next to the Deli, it's in the Cheese section next to the Milk.
    I feel like I need a card catalog.
    Friday, September 11th, 2009
    8:38 pm
    Happy Tower Day
     An excerpt from the play "Happy 9/11" (formerly "Season's Greetings") by Chris Lockheardt:

    ( Read more... )
    Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
    6:41 pm
    Moon, Defying Gravity
     I've been trying to write an essay about the recent film Moon and the new TV show "Defying Gravity". They're both set in the near future (mid-21st century) and involve mostly-realistic space travel, and I was going to use them to jump off into my taste in science fiction in general. But the more I think about it, the less I understand exactly what it is I like and don't like in SF, so I'm just going to point them out and wave my hands a bit. I have mixed feelings about them both; in the wider scheme of things they are good-but-not-great, solid B+, but in the genre of SF film and TV (which is a continual disappointment to me) they are remarkable and groundbreaking, and I hope they will lead the way to more of their ilk. Unfortunately, "Defying Gravity" is not getting good ratings, and might not even complete its 8-episode run (they've aired 4 so far). But check it out while you can, if a show that was pitched as "Grey's Anatomy in space" sounds at all appealing.

    Current Music: Soft Circle, "Avalanche"
    Sunday, July 19th, 2009
    12:12 pm
    Game night this Tuesday
     For locals who aren't on my Nutting Lake Gamers list:

    I'm having some game parties before I pack up the games for the move, starting this Tuesday, July 21, from 6pm to midnight. Let me know if you're coming, or just show up!

    4 Crest Rd, Billerica, MA 01821
    (978) 987-5084
    Friday, July 17th, 2009
    10:59 pm
    Won't you be my neighbor?
     I signed the lease for my new apartment on Tuesday. I move on September 1 (along with everyone else in the greater Boston area), but there's a slight chance that I can move earlier if the current tenants find another place sooner. Recommendations for movers would be welcome; I've used Gentle Giant the last three times, and been very happy with them, but I've heard that there are cheaper moving companies that do just as good a job (Roadrunner being one recommended by [info]dictator555).

    The new address is 882 Broadway #3R in Somerville, just west of Powderhouse Square. It's above an unused commercial space, which looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago: there are decades-old signs for Cabot Farms Catering and Garden Room. I had been meaning for years to take pictures of it for [info]urban_decay but I never got around to it... now I'll have no excuse! Anyway, the apartment is about two-thirds of the top (third) floor, and I think it's quite nice; it's old but not rundown, and it's spacious, with two bedrooms, full dining room, eat-in kitchen, and high ceilings. (This is where I was going to link to the Craigslist ad with pictures, but apparently Craigslist doesn't keep old posts for more than a couple weeks. Oh well.)

    The building has four units, two on each of the second and third floors; the one below me is staying occupied, but the other two are available, in case you want to be my neighbor! I didn't look at the second floor unit, but I quite liked the third floor unit. It wasn't as much space as I wanted, but it's a big one-bedroom unit, with an "open plan" living/dining area with a great big corner window that overlooks Tufts and Powderhouse. The second floor unit splits the dining area into a second bedroom, but I imagine it's otherwise similar. Let me know if you're interested in one or the other, or contact the landlords through the Craigslist ads directly. They were willing to lower the rent for me from the advertised price, so I'm pretty sure they'd be willing to negotiate on these units too, especially if I can vouch for you.

    Also, if these don't interest you but you're looking for a rental broker, I can recommend Scott Allison at Apartment Rental Experts near Porter Square. He was the best of the three brokers I worked with; we didn't end up finding anything together, but he was friendly, helpful, and patient while I was being picky and indecisive (we looked at over a dozen places over a few days). He also was good at keeping in touch and forwarding me new listings that he thought might appeal to me. Mail him at scott.apartmentx@gmail.com or call him at 413-687-3700.

    Current Music: Built To Spill, streaming live from the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago
    Sunday, July 12th, 2009
    11:33 pm
    New job, new apartment
     I have a new job. Well, it's more like an arrangement than a job: I'm subcontracting for Appleseed Software Consulting, a.k.a. [info]prog. Basically he slices off chunks from his clients' tasks (currently, Perl web app stuff using Catalyst) and hands them to me, and pays me slightly less than he charges his clients (the difference paying for his managerial overhead, not to mention the fact that he finds and deals with clients so I don't have to). It's not an exclusive contract, so in theory I could call myself a full-fledged consultant and find my own clients, but unless something falls into my lap this is not generally likely to happen. (In fact, something did just fall into my lap, but I'm still thinking over whether I want to do it. It's somewhat southeast of center in the How To Be Happy In Business Venn diagram: I'm not sure I want to do it, and I'm not sure I can do it. Weirdly, though, these sort of cancel each other out. We'll see.)

    My job search, which started with gusto in mid-February and petered out sometime last month, was a big bust. I inquired at about 15 places, went to interviews at four of them (Vistaprint, BAE/AIT, Google, and Ab Initio), and got zero offers. I limited my inquiries to places where I knew someone; I could have spread my net much further and more vigorously, but by the time I realized I was going to turn up dry with my contact network, the whole job search process had left a bad taste in my mouth and I was not inspired to start sending out "cold" applications. I could write a lot more about my interview experiences, but it's really hard to avoid it sounding like sour grapes—and who knows, maybe it is just sour grapes; that, or it's just a symptom of the bad job market. And I don't want to burn any bridges... But, honestly, I did get the feeling I was being jerked around more than necessary. Enough said for now.

    Once I made up my mind to stop looking for a full-time salary job, I started looking for a new place to live. I had moved to Billerica to reduce the commute to my job in Burlington, but that's been moot for 19 months now, and lately I've been driving to Somerville almost as often as I was commuting to Burlington when I lived in Somerville. So, after another lengthy, exhausting, and somewhat demoralizing search, I settled on an apartment pretty close to where I used to live, right near Powderhouse Square. I'll post more details after I sign the lease this week.

    An interesting footnote: right as I was about to commit to staying in the Boston area for another year, I got two out-of-town job nibbles, one from Amazon.com in Seattle, the other from a very interesting-sounding startup in Silicon Valley. If these had arrived a couple months earlier, I would have seriously considered them, but the timing was just off so I passed. But, if you're interested in a Silicon Valley startup job that involves a "pure-functional, lazily-evaluated, functional-reactive language that compiles to JavaScript for execution on both the server and the browser", ping me and I'll connect you up.

    Current Music: Herbie Hancock, "Hidden Shadows"
    Thursday, April 30th, 2009
    9:25 pm
    Obvious joke
     Surely I can't be the first one to make a "Specter turned by Republican clerics" joke?

    Current Music: Global Communication, "Delta Phase"
    Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
    12:12 pm
    Four Seasons
     Four Seasons

    ...in 36 hours.
    Monday, April 20th, 2009
    1:42 pm
    Oracle to buy Sun
     Oracle is buying Sun. I know Sun's been on death watch for a while now, but it's still kind of sad to see them no longer exist as an independent company. I worked for Sun for a summer in college, and I would have liked to work for them again, e.g. in the Programming Language Research Group, but I'm not really sure if I'd want to work for Oracle (and who knows if they'll keep all of Sun's research teams, let alone start hiring again). I have a general impression of Oracle as kind of evil, but maybe that's just FUD.

    Anyone want to speculate on the ramifications of this?
    Saturday, April 4th, 2009
    1:17 pm
    A real corker
     CBS News:
    Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said that the Obama administration's demands of General Motors and Chrysler set "a dangerous precedent."

    "I think for all of us who believe in free enterprise, this is the crossing of a major threshold, and it actually should send a chill to people all across the country," Corker said.
    This is incredible doublethink. The administration is asking for changes in the auto companies because we gave them billions of dollars and they're asking for more. If they don't want to make the changes, they are more than welcome to give us the damn money back. You know what's not free enterprise? Asking the government for free money, no strings attached. Corker (and the pundits who are echoing his talking points, or is it the other way around?) should be criticizing GM for wanting to go on welfare, not the administration for offering them a deal that protects the people's interest.
    1:12 am
    More new TV shows
     I watch TV so you don't have to... ( Read more... )
    Saturday, March 28th, 2009
    12:58 pm
    An investment opportunity!
     I have a low promotional rate on my Discover card balance, but it goes up in a couple weeks when the promotional period expires. So I called up Bank of America (where I have two credit cards, due to past mergers) to see if they could give me a better rate; I've had luck with that before. At worst, I was expecting them to say "sorry, no offers right now", but instead, they instantly lowered my existing credit limits to be my current balance + $500! That's about a 25% cut! It's not a total disaster, but it makes my safety net smaller. And it makes me think that maybe now's not the best time to have credit card debt, if they might start changing more things about my accounts willy-nilly.

    So, here's a brainstorm: any of you private investors out there sitting on a pile of cash and want to "recapitalize" me? I'm not FDIC-insured, but I think I'm a pretty safe investment; the job search is taking a bit longer than I'd hoped, but I do expect to be making a pretty comfortable salary again in the not-too-distant future (two interviews next week). And I can probably double any one-year CD rate you could find these days. (If not more; make me an offer...)

    Current Music: Asobi Seksu, "Strawberries"
    Friday, March 20th, 2009
    11:41 am
    Fast & Furious
     The latest sequel to The Fast & the Furious is called Fast & Furious. Here are some other sequels in the works:
    • Good, Bad, & Ugly
    • Quick & Dead
    • Gone With Wind
    • Fellowship of Ring
    • Return of Jedi
    • Silence of Lambs
    • Planet of Apes
    • Friday Thirteenth
    • Day Earth Stood Still
    • Boot
    • Godfar
    • Y Live


    Current Music: Rafter - Adventurers | Powered by Last.fm
    Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
    7:47 pm
    The Krugman view
     I've been following Paul Krugman's blog and columns for a couple years now. He's the only political writer that I read consistently—and even though his blog is called "The Conscience of a Liberal", he's really still more of an economist than a political writer; that is, he has strong viewpoints about politics and policy, but he backs it up with a lot of economic data and theory. I don't agree with him on everything—he supported Hillary over Obama in the primary—but generally the things he says make a lot of sense (though sometimes they are a bit hard to follow when he gets wonkish). It's frustrating, though, how seldom his views seem to filter out into the mainstream media and popular mindset. Perhaps it's just that he's wrong, and I should venture outside the Krugman bubble and read some opposing viewpoints; I would happily accept suggestions for blogs that are similarly grounded in data and science but draw different conclusions. But I also sometimes worry that he just doesn't speak plainly and emphatically enough for his (often counterintuitive) positions to get noticed and understood. So, in the interest of public education, I'm going to try to summarize his stance on the current economic situation as I understand it. (I've never taken an economics class or anything, so my understanding is probably pretty shallow; please correct me if I get anything wrong.)

    ( Read more... )
    Sunday, March 15th, 2009
    4:53 pm
    Public newspapers?
     The future of the newspaper business is looking pretty dire, as people prefer to read news online rather than get printed copies, and it's a lot harder to charge for news online; also, newspaper classified sections can't compete with Craigslist, and that was a big part of their revenue. It makes me wonder, though, why newspapers must be a business. We have public television and public radio, why don't we have public newspapers? Maybe it smacks too much of Pravda, the state newspaper of the Soviet Union. But PBS and NPR certainly aren't propaganda outlets, so it should be possible to have non-profit newspapers, funded by the government and by private donations, that are journalistically independent. How come this hasn't happened yet? Do you think it will happen?

    Update: I just found out about MinnPost, Voice of San Diego, and St. Louis Beacon, non-profit local papers. Are there others?

    Current Music: Kriss Kross, "Guillemots" (another [info]fennel mix)
    2:46 pm
    Charlie Rose tech interviews
     Charlie Rose did a bunch of very interesting in-depth interviews with tech people last month. You can watch them in full online for free, and I recommend them if you have the time (most are an hour, some are a half-hour).

    Current Music: Aimee Mann, "Borrowing Time" (from a [info]fennel mix)
    Saturday, March 7th, 2009
    11:16 pm
    Saturday Night Videos
     Since [info]urbaniak seems to be falling down on the job:



    More from where that first video came from at Kutiman - Thru-You. Awesome idea, brilliant execution, very satisfying.
    Friday, March 6th, 2009
    11:17 am
    Starting the job search
     I am finally getting back into the job market. I've sent my resume to 11 different places so far, but if you know of any interesting places that are hiring, please let me know! Ideally I would like a more research-oriented position, since that's why I got a PhD, but I am keeping a very open mind and considering all opportunities.
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