If this is Paradise, I wish I had a lawn-mower. Ryan's blog, musings on transportation, Jersey City, transportation, sports and technology

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

iPod in the shop

iPod in the shop

Okay, so this isn't actually a picture of myPod (I've got one of the 3G
units with the row of four buttons across the top of the wheel) - but
it does share the error icon that mine had before I sent it in for
warranty repair. It should be back this week. Let this be a reminder to
you to either get AppleCare for your iPod to extend the warranty - or
use a credit card that does that for you when you buy it (AmEx, for
example, doubles the warranty).

It's coming.

It's coming.

Friday, December 2nd. Two tuners. Comcast's new DVR (digital video
recorder) box arrives in Jersey City. Let's just say that I'm a little
bit excited.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Won't you take me to... Turkey Town

Won't you take me to... Turkey Town

A belated happy Thanksgiving to everyone... I thought I'd give you just
a taste of one of the greatest sandwich creations... well... ever.

It starts off with an entire sheet of potato rolls (make sure they're
still attached!). Slide it in half, down the center... making it into
one giant roll. Next slather it with mayo (a major key - skipping this
step will result in a dry sandwich). Turkey and lots of it followed by
stuffing and a layer of cranberry sauce.

Welcome to Turkey Town.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Haul out the holly (early)

Haul out the holly (early)

I know it's a little early, but I don't really care. I got a cheap tree
at Target and put some lights up.

A note on my "list" that follows in the next post - it's mostly me
rambling about the latest gadgets. It really has nothing to do with me
suggesting people buy me things. Seriously.

All I want for Christmas (but won't get)

In no particular order...
All I want for Christmas (but won't get)

The 2005 Toyota Prius. This thing gets almost 70 MPG (yes, 7-0), has bluetooth and a GPS navigation system, and comes with a nice tax credit.


All I want for Christmas (but won't get) Who doesn't like a good soda? The Jones Soda company this year has a holiday set complete with turkey soda, mashed potato soda, green bean casserole soda, fruitcake soda and cranberry sauce soda. Too bad the set is pretty much sold out.




All I want for Christmas (but won't get) Every guy needs a good tablesaw. Not a portable one, not a radial arm saw... a big, heavy, cast metal table saw. A big precision rip fence is nice too, and maybe an extended outfeed table... but they can be added later. It's the giant motor and cabinet that are important.



We're talking at LEAST 5 megapixels here folks and 3x OPTICAL zoom. If it mentions digital zoom, just pretend it's not there... because I'm not going to use it. I'd prefer one that uses "SD" storage cards... because that's what palm uses. It's also got to work with iPhoto but pretty much any decent camera does. All I want for Christmas (but won't get)




All I want for Christmas (but won't get) PalmOne's Treo 650. This is it folks, right here. It's a palm, it's a phone, it's a camera. It's got bluetooth (to connect with the Toyota Prius, of course) and supports 1XRTT and EDGE data networks on Sprint or AT&T. Since I've got Verizon... I'll either have to switch to Sprint or what for hell to freeze over (they're not the quickest bunch when it comes to releasing new phones).


All I want for Christmas (but won't get)


Oh, and a giant HDTV. That's it... that's all I want.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

The other kind of clerk

The other kind of clerk

I accepted a clerkship in the NJ Appellate Divisoin, Part C, up in Hackensack (ack ack ack ack ack)! I'm pretty excited... now... to battle severe senioritis...

In other news, I'm doing a presentation on VoIP privacy tonight... I'll post the slides soon (I did it in Keynote, so it looks stunning).

(This photo was the closest thing to "clerk" I could find... I won't be this kind... don't worry)

Monday, November 15, 2004

Eagles, Eagles and Eagles.


Eagles, Eagles and Eagles.
Originally uploaded by pdcryan.
Dallas - Philly on Monday Night Football tonight, so fellow Eagles fans stuck in the "Jets/Gaints or bust" mentality of the New York TV region, bask in Philadelphia's warming glowing warming glow.

Boston College's Eagles remain at #1 (hockey) and #19 (Football, AP & ESPN Polls) in the nation. It's interesting that both BC and the Philly Eagles had disappointing losses to Pittsburgh teams (U Pitt and the Steelers respectively) this season, but I'm not going to play the "what if" game just yet.

On another Eagles note... my brother Dan got to interview this guy (see above photo) for Syracuse U's Hill TV. WTG Dan! (Syracuse ends their season this year at BC... interestingly enough. See... it all comes full circle...)

E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!

Monday, November 08, 2004

Really REALLY Cool

If you've got a Mac and an iSight. You need this. If you don't... then you need a Mac and an iSight ;-)

It's called Delicious Library. What does it do? Well... not really that much, actually. It creates a catalog of your DVDs, books, music and video games in an iTunes like interface. But it's more than a glorified spreadsheet, thanks in part to the beautiful interface, but mostly to the really REALLY cool way you input your collection. Basically, you hold up a CD, DVD, book or video game's UPC barcode up to your iSight and it is entered supermarket style. Way cool.

Once the item is "scanned" it is looked up on Amazon.com, library downloads a cover picture and all the important data on the item and then gives you a list of other related items that you could buy (with the software author getting a commission).

$40 for this is a little steep - especially for somebody like me who doesn't have a big collection of media (or even a stand alone DVD player), but I see where this is going... or at least where I want it to go. Give this program the ability to handle more types of items, access to other databases like froogle and mysimon type sites, library meta data sharing (via .mac maybe?), the ability to quickly publish to eBay things that you want to sell and hook it into some kind of general inventory management system (for tax and insurance purposes). Oh... and then encrypt it.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Arson and the Artists?

Fox5's 10:00 news is reporting a suspicious fire at 111 First Street in Jersey City. The word arson came up. With the artist/tenants due in court tomorrow for their eviction hearings, the timing seems suspect to say the least. Since New Jersey doesn't have any TV news, or even a news website that updates before the newspapers publish - there's no official word.

I'll be down at the Hudson County courthouse tomorrow for an interview - it will be interesting to see what happens. With Jersey city's ship currently having no captain - Billionaire Lloyd Goldman might think he can burn the artists out of his building with nobody noticing. He is wrong.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Maps... Charts... Graphs...

Maps... Charts... Graphs...

If nothing else - elections really push the bar for charts and
graphics. Turn on any channel (HGTV and Cartoon Network aside) and
you'll see the great flashy scrolling updates. This year's have been
the best by far (Fox even had swooshing and exploding star
transitions).

I'm following the Jersey City Mayor's race quite closely - hitting
"reload" on Hudson County's real-time results page about every 12
seconds. I'm pulling for Healy, by the way (yes, he's a Democrat and
yes, he's the Democrat backed by the Hudson County Democratic Party).

Hillary Says...



Mrs. Clinton didn't call me from her cell phone, like the good General McPeak or Mrs. Edwards... she called me from "0000000000."

Monday, November 01, 2004

Oh Mrs. Edwards... who should I vote for?

Thank God she called to tell me.




I got another message from my "wireless caller" friend. This time calling from 617 231-2029. Amazingly this message from the Senator's wife was "not approved by any candidate." Yeah right.

More to come...