electric relaxation

This was a bitch to figure out. It had been working for months, and I have no idea why it broke, but anyway, the tip in this ArsTechnica forum thread did the trick:

Start->Run->secpol.msc

Find “Network security: Minimum session security for NTLM SSP based (including secure RPC) clients”, untick all the boxes.

Find “Network security: LAN Manager authentication level”, change to “Send LM & NTLM — use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated”.

I fucking hate CIFS/SMB/Samba/whatever-the-fuck. And I hate computer security. What a bunch of bullshit.

The art gallery on the second floor always has pretty cool exhibits.  They also have nice work up down all of the main hallways. People are friendly. Though I suspect it’s because I’m the best-dressed person in this airport. Yeah I said it, don’t forget it.

I got selected for extra screening for the first time since 9/11. It brought back such fond memories. I’m sure the security folks must have been confused about why I was smiling so much; it was because I’ve always wanted to know what goes down in the puff test machine, and now I do. The experience did not disappoint.

Update:
Forgot to mention what inspired me to write the post in the first place: there’s free WiFi here (you watch a fifteen second video ad and then you’re good to go), and plenty of tables and comfy chairs all over the place.

I ran the Bay to Breakers race this year. Dan and I signed up at the last minute so we were stuck in Corral E (walkers). This was the first race I’ve ever run (well at least since elementary school anyway), and the longest distance I’ve ever covered (sad, I know). So I was pretty nervous about it.

I didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours last night, both because of the jitters and also because it was way too hot in my room and I still haven’t brought my stupid air conditioner home; it’s just sitting there taking up a huge amount of space in my office. And of course on race day it was dumb hot.

Given those circumstances (actually I’ve got a bunch more excuses but they’re even more lame) as well as the fact that Dan, bless him, convinced me that I needed to run the entire race wearing strap-on butterfly wings and bobbing golf ball antennae, I was pretty happy with my finish. According to the RFID tag I had on my shoe, my final time was 1:11:25, for a pace of 9:35.

Of course, Dan deserves most of the credit, since he stuck with me and pretty much pulled me through the whole thing. He finally took off at around 6.5 miles and managed to smoke some non-costumed clown in a foot race to the finish.

On today’s lunchtime run with Dpheezy and your boy Ginzton, I ran up to Coit Tower (not actually up the tower, but up all the stairs from Embarcadero all the way to the base). It wasn’t easy, but it was easier than I expected. I think I actually find it easier to run up stairs versus long uphill slopes; Matt theorized that this was related to the fact that I run like a basketball player – lots of high-steppin’. Better than half-steppin’, I guess.

Two ideas for applications that I think I would find useful, though I’ll probably be too lazy to ever write them:

1. Automatically guided media purchases
   The basic idea would be to have a service which automatically spends money out of a dedicated/auto-debited account with a preset limit. The funds are spent on a selection of movies, music, TV shows etc. You could control the ratio of how you spend your dollars and/or how you want your content composed; e.g. $20/mth on stuff my friends liked, $20/mth on what Pitchfork thinks is hot shit, and $20/mth on Amazon recommendations. This makes the most sense to me when combined with actual ownership a la iTunes, but I suppose the selection is really the point so it could be just as useful as a set of filters on top of say Rhapsody. Actually, I think you could do this just for Kindle books, like guided Kindle purchases. I wonder if Amazon has thought of this already.
   
2. Automatic lyric quoting via Last.fm/Scrobbling + some lyrics service
   I don’t know if there are any good free lyrics services out there; I assume there’s some decent freetard one. So the idea here would be to just have a Facebook app that automatically updates your status with quotes from songs you’re listening to in realtime. Basically automating what I do with my Facebook status by hand. Yes, I am that lazy.

I tried a few boxes in the terrain park at Heavenly today. Nailed the first two, they were nice and wide with an easy lead up so this was no big achievement, more of just breaking down a psychological barrier. On the third one I went for the grind; didn’t really end up as impressive as I was hoping but I didn’t eat it. 

For an encore, the next time through I went for airtime, hit two big jumps in a row and then with my confidence at an all-time high, I tried to go for a 180 transfer off the side of another jump. That ended badly. I’m real glad I wear a helmet. Also my tongue has a welt on it from where I bit down at impact, so I’ll be sucking on ice for a day or so.

I went with my friend Tony to see Steve Yockey’s Skin earlier tonight at the Climate Theatre on 9th st. It was simple, cute, and thoroughly entertaining. I’m not much of a theatre buff, but most plays that I do see are far more “serious”; it was nice to see a play that was interesting and entertaining without feeling like I was participating in an exercise in intellectual masturbation.

Good enough for the high score.

Seen online (guess where):

I have an issue with consumerism and don’t understand excessive
income unless your saving the world with it. I’m on the never ending
search for that perfect career and don’t believe in settling for
something just because it pays the bills.

Amdur made my day by pointing out the your/you’re mistake. Take your flannel shirt and your indie pop idealism back to your parents’ country house in Marin, hippie. I’m sick of subsidizing health care for the entire staff of your urban-arts-collective-slash-coffee-shop-slash-organic-pilates-studio.

Holy crap I need to move.

Track one on Black Milk’s Tronic is now my favorite song for 2009. I coined a new term to describe it: it’s a “punch em in the mouth” song. That is to say, it’s one of those tracks that you play for somebody when they tell you they like hip-hop, and then you punch them in the mouth for being full of shit.