Skip to content

General

Stuff that doesn’t fit in any other category

CSI, meet reality; reality, meet CSI…

Now you might think this post is going to discuss the unreality of the whole CSI franchise (CSI lab techs doing detective work? Getting results back in hours, not days or weeks? Finding unique ways of getting a DNA sample from a suspect?), but that's not the point. Well, that's not true. That last example there is actually the point of this post. From this article on Portland's KATU news station site:

Peter Jacob Inouye, 24, of Parkland, was arrested shortly before 7 p.m. as he returned to his parents' house a few blocks from the rape scene, Olympia police said in a news release.

Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said detectives collected Inouye's DNA recently after Inouye spit on the street, and the sample was analyzed by a lab.

Bjornstad said an officer watched Inouye spit on the sidewalk, and then rushed to collect that saliva off the sidewalk.

So perhaps at least one Olympia detective has been watching CSI? Or perhaps they're just particularly diligent? Whichever; I'm just glad this menace is off the streets, thanks to the alert detective's actions. Though as they used say on TV, "all parties are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."



How network television lost a ‘new series’ viewer

I'm old enough to remember the "good old days" of network television. Perhaps you are, too--you know, back when a new show was given a commitment for an entire season's production? Take, for instance, 1981's Hill Street Blues, a groundbreaking drama set in a New York police station. Ratings the first season were absolutely abysmal, and yet, NBC left it on the air for the entire season. At the end of the year, the drama picked up eight Emmys, was renewed for season two, and went on to run for seven full seasons.

Fast forward to 2006. I don't watch a ton of television, mainly 24 and CSI (Las Vegas, not New York or Miami). But when the fall 2006 season started, two new shows caught my eye: NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and ABC's Day Break. Studio 60 was a potentially intriguing "behind the scenes" look at a live weekend comedy show (i.e. Saturday Night Live), produced by Aaron Sorkin, whose work I've liked in the past. Day Break's premise was more unique and complicated--a police detective is framed for a murder, and he keeps waking up to the same day, over and over (ala Groundhog Day). He then spends the repetitive day slowly figuring out who framed him and why.
[continue reading…]



A little (simulated) flying fun…

If you've been reading here much, or have ever seen me speak, you know that I'm somewhat of an aviation fan. I'm an instrument-rated private pilot (though not current, thanks to family, money, and Oregon weather!), and X-Plane is one of my favorite diversions. I love being able to pilot aircraft I'll never have the chance to fly here in reality, and to fly in weather conditions that I wouldn't dare to go near in a real airplane. X-Plane also features real-world weather, so I can fly around the Portland area in conditions that closely match what I see out the office window.

Yesterday, it was foggy here. Really foggy. Almost all day. So during lunch, I took the Nike LearJet (OK, the X-Plane version thereof) out from Portland International for a little spin. Take-off in foggy conditions is relatively straightforward--full thrust, max rate of climb, maintain runway heading (instrument departure procedure? Nah!), and I broke out into the blue skies above at about 3,500 feet above the ground. I flew off to a clearer airport for a couple touch-and-goes, then headed back to Portland. Given the fog, an instrument approach was definitely required. I chose the ILS for runway 28R, and maneuvered the plane towards the final approach course.

Then I got lazy, something I couldn't ever do when flying instruments in the Piper Warrior I trained in: I set up a fully-coupled autopilot approach, including auto-throttles. As pilot, my job was now reduced to system monitor--I only had to choose the desired airspeed on the autopilot panel, remember to drop the flaps and gear, monitor the system's progress, and then the autopilot would take care of the rest. Just for fun, I used SnapzPro to record the approach, from the ILS intercept to touchdown, and uploaded them in case anyone wants to see X-Plane, or what a really foggy approach might look like.
[continue reading…]



Timing is everything!

It figures; just days after getting everything together and uploading the first major revision to Robservatory, WordPress goes off and releases version 2.1! Sigh.

I intsalled version 2.1 on my local copy of the site, then ran the upgrader. That portion of the process went quite well. However, in trying to re-enable my collection of plug-ins and widgets, I found that many of them don't seem to get along with WordPress 2.1 at all--enabling certain plug-ins completely breaks the site's display, for instance.

So, for now, I'll be keeping the site on the 2.0.7 release until more of the plug-ins are updated.



Behind the scenes: plug-ins and widgets

A couple of people emailed me, asking about the collection of widgets and plug-ins I'm using on the site. I've also found that the links in the Plugins page of WordPress' management screen are often incorrect, so documenting the updated URLs seems like a smart thing to do.

So without further ado, you'll find the list just below the (now expanding-in-place!) jump...
[continue reading…]



Site upgrade completed

Welcome to Robservatory 2.0!

We're now running the latest and greatest version of WordPress, but the big news is that I've spent a fair bit of time digging for and installing useful add-ons. (I've also converted the sidebar to WordPress widgets, a cool plug-in that makes it much easier to add and remove things from the sidebar.)

Read on to see some of the new features, as well as some notes from the conversion process...
[continue reading…]



Some notes on 24’s sixth season

24 logoOn Sunday, the sixth season (see note below) of 24 started. In typical fashion, things started very quickly, and there were the usual plot holes and logical inconsistencies (just how quickly can one shave one's own beard off, cut one's own hair (perfectly), shower, and dress? If you're Jack Bauer, in about 10 minutes, apparently!). Despite these issues, I'm already hooked on the new season, and eagerly anticipating each week's episode.

Note: Although this is the start of the sixth season of 24, Jack Bauer is now at least nine years older than he was at the start of season one--18 months passed after season one, 36 months after season two, and then 18 months after each of seasons three, four, and five. Add it all up, and that's 108 months, or exactly nine years.

Caution: There are spoilers below, both for the current season as well as past seasons. If you're not current with season six, or you're working your way through prior seasons, you may not wish to read on. No plot details are revealed, however if you keep reading, you will learn the fate of some of the characters on the show. You have been warned...
[continue reading…]



Rob talks! It’s a podcast…

Macworld logoThis afternoon, I sat down in a room with fellow Macworld employees Jason Snell (our esteemed leader; VP and Editorial Director), Philip Michaels (Executive Editor, Online), and Jonathan Seff (Senior News Editor) to talk about the keynote--what it was, what it wasn't, and when we think what wasn't might turn into what is :).

You can listen to our ramblings from the links on this page over at macworld.com--it's episode #64, in case there are others posted there as well. I haven't done much in the way of podcasting, either creating or participating. It was kind of fun, and I heard some ideas about things I hadn't considered, even though I sat and listened to the same keynote as the others. Hopefully you'll find it interesting as well.



How not to start an Expo presentation

Macworld logoToday was my first presentation day of the show. Although the presentations went well (I was asked to give my talk twice, to accomodate everyone who wanted to hear it), I had a bit of a misadventure in getting everything going.

You can read about exactly what happened over on macworld.com. First time (and hopefully the last) I've ever combined a workout with a presentation!



Why I love air travel…

And before you ask, yes, there's a "Why I hate air travel" post coming. It's in progress on my home machine, though, so I thought I'd post this one first.

Early Sunday morning, Portland Oregon: The weather is abysmal. Winds are 20 to 30mph, the rain is falling lightly but continuously, getting blown sideways. It's not cold, but it's far from warm. Sunday morning traffic is light, and 30 minutes later I'm being dropped off at the airport, saying goodbye to the girls (always the worst part of any business trip...they seemingly change so much in a week!).

Although I checked in at home and have my boarding pass, I do have a bag to check (a larger-than-standard bag is requisite for Macworld Expo travel, in order to bring home any potential loot acquired at the show!). So it's off to the United counter, where the lines are non-existent. A few minutes later, I'm in security, where there are also, amazingly, no lines. The only hold-up here is that removing two laptops, coat, and shoes takes a while (two laptops because I need a demo machine in addition to my Keynote slides machine for my presentation; it's hard to demo a hint that requires a logout while running Keynote!).

Boarding starts on time, and I settle into my window seat in the workhorse Boeing 737 (a -300 variant this time). Yes, I know experienced travelers prefer the aisle, but not me--I hate having to stand up every time a "row mate" wants to get up for a restroom break, to reach something in the overhead, etc. I also love watching the world go by, as it makes the flight go more quickly, and there are often some wondrous things to see.
[continue reading…]