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Who says "Macintosh" anymore?

A quote from Teddy Roosevelt:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't get to criticize someone else (politicians, sports figures, etc.), it just means there's a limit to how much our criticism actually matters.

Carey and I have now been married for five years. Last year we forgot our anniversary until several days later. This year, no.

What will we do? Nothing. 🙂 Like our birthdays, it's just another day. Carey plays in her golf league later this evening and I'll be at the Academy most of the day.

Our marriage hasn't always been perfect. Nobody's is. EVER. But I can't imagine it going much better than it has, and there's still nobody I'd rather spend my time with than my wife.

And yes, five years is longer than her previous marriage. Ha.

Mmmmmmmmm. OK. Only $400k and coming in 2012, though? I configured my own and it let me download a JPEG… but the JPEG wasn't even large enough to use as a desktop picture (wallpaper).

Section 5B of the YouTube Terms of Service says:

Content is provided to you AS IS. You may access Content for your information and personal use solely as intended through the provided functionality of the Service and as permitted under these Terms of Service. You shall not download any Content unless you see a "download" or similar link displayed by YouTube on the Service for that Content. You shall not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any Content for any other purposes without the prior written consent of YouTube or the respective licensors of the Content. YouTube and its licensors reserve all rights not expressly granted in and to the Service and the Content.

So, why then are things like ClickToFlash (which can download just about any YouTube video) allowed? Why then are sites like YouTubeDownloader.com - which even uses the YouTube logo and has the name right in the URL - not asked to stop?

Is it just a laissez-faire approach to their terms of service? Does this mean - since they've not enforced their terms of service for so long - that they're going to have trouble enforcing it in the future?

I ask because the software I'm helping to develop will include a "download from the Internet" feature that will download videos from, well, just YouTube for now. So, what gives?

The guy on the left came from the David Leadbetter Academy. He spent two months and several, several thousand dollars there.

The guy on the right has spent about half the time and about a quarter of the money here in Erie, PA.

Go go Stack and Tilt. 😀 Go go Ivan!

P.S. Ivan's here from Russia. He's on loan to us. 🙂

So lately I've been falling behind on the blog. I still write something nearly every day, but most days they amount to something like this:

"BK ND / Other students"

Yeah, that's what I had for nearly two weeks for yesterday's post.

Not that anyone cares (hi), I've vowed to catch up. I will catch up. I promise.

Brian Kelley was going to be at the Stack and Tilt school today. He cancelled at the last minute, but Dave's heading to Notre Dame to teach him next week.

Who is Brian Kelley? Oh, just the head football coach of Notre Dame. He's replaced the despised-by-everyone Charlie Weis.

Stack and Tilt - and Golf Evolution - is spreading.

The school today was great. We had a lot of hard workers and some students were really showing good signs of improvement. Many of the students are newer to golf in general now, which is great because it shows how well the S&T method works - first-time golfers are hitting push-draws with solid contact all day long. It's a sight to see.

Oh yeah - Dave says he'll pick up a "Play like a champion today" sign for over the door to the Academy. 😉

Uhm, yes, please!

(I don't know if embedding a Facebook video will work, but I hope so.)

I read about DirecTV's Whole Home service today and excitedly logged in to my account to upgrade.

I quickly saw that the button to upgrade was not listed as available, but took heart in the "please call to activate" text.

Turns out that my two HD DVRs with ethernet (both of which are connected to the same network) are apparently not qualified and DirecTV needs an installer to come to my home with a NEW receiver, effectively replacing one HD DVR with another HD DVR.

Say what? Isn't it just a software thing?

It should be. More digging to come, though… until then, pffffffft. Lame.

Update: Software thing. I called, said I was in on the beta test for this and wanted to use my own networking in an unsupported fashion, and I was hooked right up. $3/month. I also got $10/month credit for my HD package because I'm on AutoBillPay. So for two years I'm saving $7/month over my previous package. Woo.

This bug - what else can you call it when a rather popular browser just completely drops support for a somewhat common way to encode an incredibly popular file type - cost me several hours of time. JPEGs encoded in the CMYK simply show up as the little red "x" with no explanation whatsoever.

I wonder what percentage of the world's JPEGs are now unviewable in IE 8…

And come to think of it, imagine how bizarre this scenario would have seemed to a Mac user ten years ago: Apple ships one of the best browsers in the world, free, for Mac OS and Windows while IE is only available for Windows.

What???? 🙂

DirecTV has a new "Parental" thing which uses common sense media to let parents know about the shows.

Big Bang Theory is rated "Iffy for 13+" ((Does that mean it's not iffy for 13 and under?)) and carries with it the following descriptive blocks:

Parents Need to Know:
Parents need to know that htere's a fair amount of sexual innuendo in this sitcom about a group of socially dysfunctional geniuses who start up a friendship with their pretty female neighbor. Expect references to masturbation as well as words like "penis" and "coitus" amid the scientifically oriented dialogue. The characters are somewhat stereotypical; the guys' "nerdiness" is evidenced by their love of science fiction, abstract theoretical discussions, and inability to talk to women, while Penny exhibits a lot of "blonde bimbo" traits.

Families can talk about the characteristics typically associated with intelligent people - particularly in the media. What do terms like "geek" and "nerd" really mean? Are they intended to be insulting or a recognition of someone's intelligence? Families can also discuss whether stereotypes are ever appropriate. Although sitcom writers often use stereotypes to create humor (and sometimes call attention to intolerance), do they ever go too far?

Messages:
Although it's clear that the main guys are good people who just haven't developed the ability to interact with anyone outside of their comfort zone, there's a lot of stereotyping - both within their group (they love sci-fi and can't talk to women) and on Penny's side of the hall (she exhibits dumb, "bimbo-like" behavior). Raj is Asian; the rest of the cast is Caucasian. Secondary characters of various racial/ethnic backgrounds are occasionally visible.

Violence:
Comical references to some rough behavior; a confrontation with Penny's ex-boyfriend leads to some violence, but the incident isn't shown.

Sex:
Some sexual innuendo. Clear references to masturbation, and characters use words like "penis," "coitus," and "Mac Daddy." Leonard and Sheldon visit a sperm bank. Subtle reference to a homosexual relationship. Penny appears wearing only a towel; Leonard and Sheldon are seen in their underwear.

Language:
Words include "bitch," "bastard," "hell," "damn," etc. - though a fair amount of the "swearing" is made up of scientific jargon.

Consumerism:
References to sci-fi shows and films and characters, including Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Battlestar Galactica, and Klingons. Sheldon wears a Flash Gordon T-shirt. Penny works at the Cheesecake Factory. The show's theme song is by the band Bare Naked Ladies.

Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
References to alcohol, although the guys seem to prefer juice boxes, soda, and bottled water.

Consumerism? Really? Though I did like the part about how cursing is all scientific and the guys prefer juice boxes. 😛

I've scheduled my PGA/PGM Qualifying test. I've probably pushed it off too far but it's scheduled for July 15 at 9:00am. I'll travel to Buffalo to do it - the nearest testing facility - and I think it should not be that difficult.

But with a deadline set, it'll force me to actually read the materials. You know, in a month and a half or so… 😛

I've recently come to the nearly final conclusion that the hinge in the MacBook is affecting the AirPort card. A loose wire or a loose connection somewhere is likely at fault, because when the screen is in a range of about +/- 20° from a right angle to the keyboard portion, the wireless signal seems to work.

It could also be one of the many software things I tried to fix, but for now Carey's computer isn't going to sleep and it's working out well.

Update: This comment says: "You might have one of those models where the airport card is inside the cllutch/hinge of the display panel. Those machines are quite sensible to misplaced flex cable connectors…"

The comment goes on to talk about booting off an external system or using Target Disk Mode, but since it has no Firewire, that ain't happenin' any time soon, unfortunately.

I'm a dope.

I just now realized that my HP LaserJet 1320 (it's been a great printer for our house) can print on both sides of a sheet of paper.

D'oh.

That'll save me over 60 sheets of paper when I finally print my pre-qualifying level courses for the PGA program.