NSLog();

In the past minute, this blog has seen spamments from a yahoo.com and an msn.com email address that contain the content:

I can't believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $60006. Isn't that crazy!

… and …

Have you seen this before? It's a number guessing game: [url snipped]. I guessed 80584, and it got it right! Pretty neat.

Neither spammenter even left a URL in the URL field, and the URL in the second one is not a "spammy" site at all (I suppose that could change).

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Question: What are your least favorite songs that, for whatever reason, are still in your iTunes library??

My Answer: Anything by Lauryn Hill. Her voice is more grating than nails on a chalkboard. I keep them because some people like them and I'm not exactly low on disk space. But boy do I skip them quickly when they come up!

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I last wrote about the 404 Search in February 2003 (both here and here. Since that time, I've been using the 404 search code quite heavily on every site with MovableType (or any other blogging package).

It's undergone some improvements, however, and the version currently used on The Sand Trap looks like this. An explanation - and a question - follow.

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Carey and I painted our bedroom a pale blue color recently and with a vaulted ceiling, we had a lot of solid, pale blue over the headboard. To save some money (six-foot-wide pictures run, oh, $400 and up) and to make something that we were sure would look good, we purchased three 18 x 24" canvases ($3 apiece), three paints ($0.50 apiece - light blue, dark blue, and red), and three sets of paintbrushes ($0.99 apiece - one-time use throwaways).

We shoved the canvases together and painted as if it was one canvas. Then, to mirror the arch in the headboard, we raised the middle one up a little (and also to break up some of the lines that continued from one canvas to another). Our bedspread has white, several shades of blue, and red, the carpet is blue, the walls are blue, and as it happens, some of the pictures we have are matted in blue. So, all told, it looks great and cost less than $14 (we had a 40% off coupon and applied it to a pack of $0.99 brushes - the canvases were on sale).

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Question: What's your favorite thing to do with leaves?

My Answer: When I was a kid, I used to make leaf rubbings all the time. Just a few colorful crayons, a few leaves, and some paper and I could create some pretty nifty little pieces of art. Well, for an eight-year old, they weren't too shabby, anyway.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

So Millcreek Township dictates that all residents who are looking to dispose of leaves from their yards (and we have plenty) must use biodegradable green trash bags. They put a large article in the paper on Saturday reminding residents of this fact.

Carey and I purchase a leaf vacuum/blower/mulcher from Lowe's and stop by the Township building to buy some bags, which in turns tells us to visit any of five different retailers. I stop by one, Ferrier's Hardware, and am told "we've been sold out for a week and so has everyone else. The Township building is open Monday but they don't expect any more until Tuesday. I don't know when we'll get more."

Way to go, Millcreek!

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the news:

Q: "If you bought the Pirates would you give up day-to-day operation of the Mavericks?"
A: "No."
Q: "Are you really interested in buying the Pirates or are you just a long-time frustrated fan who's disappointed with the way the team is being run?"
A: "Both."
Q: "You told the Associated Press the Pirates said the team wasn't for sale. Were you just inquiring or did you make a firm offer?"
A: "Inquiring."
Q: "If the team goes on the market after the 2006 season, would you still be interested?"
A: "Yes."

Is it any coincidence that my own interest in the Pirates has been in decline since 1992? No. The current ownership takes "small market team mentality" to a whole new level. I hope Mark Cuban buys the team, or finds a way to oust McClatchy.

Question: What book are you currently reading? If you're not reading one, why not?

My Answer: A book called "Hogan." It's about Ben Hogan, one of the greatest golfers of all time. I'm also reading (when I can figure out where I left it) a book called "Little Children." I don't like it very much, but it's easy reading and I'll finish quickly.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

This is a bad link. I'm using it to test my 404 Search Code. Just ignore this entry, ok?

Question: Are you afraid of needles? Do you get a flu shot every year?

My Answer: No, and no. But I just got one today. Carey made me. 🙂

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

vBulletin 3.5.x (I use it here) now includes an easier way to make plugins. Great… but I haven't seen a ton of useful plugins lately.

You know what would be a nifty plugin? One that allowed you to send and receive TrackBacks. Then, I could ping the blog (http://thesandtrap.com/) from the forum and vice versa whenever an article or thread is mentioned in the other.

I'm not an audio technician. I can get around an audio application, I know what waveforms represent, and so forth, but when it comes to editing audio my skills are limited.

I've begun using Soundtrack pro to produce my weekly podcast and I have a few questions. Perhaps some people out there can answer them for me.

1. Why, when I "collect" my audio samples, aren't they included in the bundle? Is that even an option? Bundles are great - iMovie keeps all of its files inside the bundle so that they can't (easily) be deleted. Soundtrack Pro just gathers them into the same directory… which very well could be a mess. And then you rename a file and Soundtrack can't find it. What's up with that?
2. Why can't I export my final creation as an MP3? Why must I save it as a high-quality AIFF file, drag it into iTunes, and have it create the MP3. Am I missing something?
3. Can I somehow tell iTunes to work in mono all the time? There's a button near the volume slider that turns mono playback on: can I permanently turn it on?
4. What's the best way to adjust audio levels (volume) across the whole track, remove any fuzz or sound (pops, etc.), and produce a clean, crisp podcast? The first two episodes (and I could be wrong) seem a bit quiet.

I have other questions and I may add to the bottom of this list as I remember them. Right now, the second and third bug me most. The first I can deal with and the fourth I've managed to handle at least moderately well so far.

Question: Has the camera phone craze peaked?

My Answer: I think so. Usage may still be increasing, but I don't know that I'd call it a "craze" anymore.

Since I almost always have my cell phone with me, I don't mind the convergence of cell phones and cameras. What I do mind is the altogether crappy resolution found in camera phones. As that improves, usage will continue to increase, but the "hot new thing," the craze, is over.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

My thoughts mirror Khoi's. I don't want to know how to manipulate pictures, and I already know how to download pictures: what I want is a class that teaches me how to take good pictures to begin with.

I should check into local colleges. Not that there are too many great ones nearby, but it could be worthwhile.

I watched I, Robot last night, and contrary to what I'd heard, I kinda liked the movie. The concept was sound. The plot and acting left a little to be desired, as always, but the idea, the concept, and what I have to imagine was Isaac Asimov's true intent, lesson, purpose, etc. stood out as an interesting thing.

Perhaps the movie appealed to me a bit more than the general public because I've worked closely with computers most of my life. "The ghost in the machine" is not a foreign concept to me, and I understood it a bit more than, say, Carey who, true to form, fell asleep quite promptly.