bryan – Page 20 – overt.org

synchronize itunes libraries with unison

A few months ago I wrote a python script based on unison for synchronizing the iTunes libraries between my computer and Leslie’s. Although you can’t actually merge changes from both libraries, you can push or pull updates, which works well when one computer is a “master” where changes are made and the other is a “slave” where music is usually just played, but the library isn’t added to. You are able to manually push updates from the slave to the master if you like.

Anyway, I finally got around to commenting it a bit and I present it here for download in case others might find it useful: itunes_sync_0.1.tar.gz

I run it from a cron script hourly right now, which is maybe a bit excessive, but it’s all on the local network, so who cares? A better way of doing things would be to only sync when changes have been made, but I haven’t had time to fancy things up like that yet. I run the script only on OS X boxes, but I’m sure if you’re enterprising enough to get unison running on a windows machine it would work fine there too.

overt update and gallery comments

Today Ali and I completed what has become the biennial server upgrade. We added a pair of 500GB drives that should slake the endless thirst of our users for ever more space to put their photos and email. This was stressful for me, but even more of a pain for Ali who has to drive a couple of hours out to where the server is stuck in a data center. I imagine the thing had gotten pretty lonely sitting there in its little cage for the last two years, and appreciated the visit and TLC. Anyway, things seem to be mostly back to normal now. Let me know if you see any problems.

On a somewhat related note, I fixed gallery up so that you can post comments again. I’m glad I got this taken care of because I get about 20 emails a day from irate gallery browsers who want to chip in their two cents. Ok, not really.

fat dawg is my kind of hippie

One of my new year’s resolutions was to practice my guitar more, and thanks to our spreadsheet that tracks resolution-keeping performance, I’ve actually managed to stick with it. So my guitar has been getting much more of a workout than usual, and so developed an annoying buzz when playing certain notes. These notes come up a lot, so I eventually I decided that it had to be fixed one way or another. I dread this, because most places charge quite a bit for fixing up your guitar (I paid a place in Palo Alto $80 to fix the action on it after I bought it).

So I did some research, and found places offering to fix the setup for $120, and I’d just need to leave it there for 2-3 weeks, etc. I found one sketchy looking webpage that advertised repairs in the $20 range, and so decided to give them a call. Thinking the place must have gone out of business and the webpage was some 1996 remnant, I tried calling with little hope, but a friendly voice answered and told me to bring my guitar by. I did, and after they checked to make sure I’d parked somewhere that my car would be safe from ticketing, they pulled out my guitar, diagnosed and fixed the buzz, and handed it back to me in the space of about 2 minutes. When I asked how much I owed them, they waved me off.

The place itself was amazing… I little house on the corner in residential Berkeley, filled with hundreds and hundreds of guitars. While I talked with one guy about my guitar’s merits, another played some amazing licks on an electric in the corner while the third (who I presume was fat dawg himself) scheduled a jam session/”chance to smoke some fat dubes” with someone who called. Classic Berkeley.

When I got home I did some digging and found the home page for the place, Subway Guitars. It seems these guys made some huge scores of overstock guitar parts in the 60’s and have been building guitars out of the parts for dirt cheap ever since. They call them “proletarian” guitars, and I love the concept. Here’s an excerpt from Fat Do(aw)g’s philosophy of custom guitar construction:

You must ask yourself honestly: Will you be satisfied with what is adequate and functional? Or do you prefer to spend a lot more for super-polished and shiny appointments? If yes, there are many builders who will charge you thousands of dollars for it.

Madison Avenue and Hollywood have sold some of us a value system where our self-esteem is coupled to a superficial, shiny product. You must be honest and ask yourself: is this me?

I certainly am not in the market for a guitar at the moment, but if I ever am I think I know where I’m going to go for something adequate and functional. Guitars for the people, man!

i’m drinking my beer!

Okay, so I’m a bit early. I’ve only waited two weeks where I was supposed two wait four. But damn, it’s actually beer. When I popped off the top, it made that little hiss noise just like it was supposed to. It smelled like hefewiessen. The taste was good… a bit too hoppy, and not as clove-y or fruity as I had hoped, but it was beer! Leslie agreed. It’s thrill for sure that for $25 I can make five gallons of good beer… actual beer. What fun. We’ll see how it tastes when it’s been through it’s full bottle-sitting time.

I’ve settled into my classes for the semester… I’m taking three, which is one more than even I expected. I thought at first I’d stick to one, but Jonathan persuaded me to stick with my theory class by reminding me that it’s actually not necessary to ace every class you take. So I’m planning on a nice B+ and by the end of the semester, I’ll only have one more class to take for the Ph.D.

In other news, three distinct Wii modchips have been announced. Those of you who know of my video gaming proclivities are no doubt aware that all the other consoles in my life (PS2, Xbox, DS) have been mercilessly soldered into submission to deliver me free games, emulators, media centers and whatnot. The potential to do the same to my Wii brings me joy… I can go back and take a look at some of those Gamecube games I never had a chance to buy (the Gamecube avoided my onslaught by such simple physical measures as having mini-DVDs burned backwards), as well as trying out the new Wii gimmicks without throwing down $50/pop. I’ll be sure to document the debasement of my little white beauty.

beer in bottles, now we wait.

Last night I moved the beer from the carboy (giant glass bottle where it ferments) into the bottles. The beer at this point was totally flat, and very dry tasting, but my book says that’s the way it’s supposed to be so I’m not too worried. The only thing I’m worried about is that it tasted a bit too hoppy for a hefewiesen (which is what I was trying to make) Now we just wait 2-4 weeks for the extra sugar I added to get turned into bubbles by the yeast, and for all the flavors to develop, then we can drink it!

I meant to get cool pictures of the process of brewing and bottling, but I couldn’t find the camera on either occasion. As a consolation I present you with this picture of the beer all wrapped up:

beer in bottles

And for the interested here is my ghetto brewing log:

beer log

batch 1.
brew date: 13 jan 2007

“hefewiezen ale kit”
6 lbs. Wheat dry malt extract
1.5 oz Tettnanger hops 4.0 alpha acid
.75 oz Tettnanger hops
1 whirlfloc tablet
3/4 cup corn sugar

put duct tape on 6 gal carboy marking 1-5 gallons

began heating 3 gal water 11:30
at 12:00 added bittering hops
at 12:30 added irish moss tablet
at 12:55 added aromatic hops
at 1:00 put in bath tub to cool,
added a gallon cold water to wort
at 1:35 was at 80 degrees, funneled into 6.5 gallon carboy, added gallon cold water, put on fermentation lock

21 jan – all sign of foam on top is gone

22 jan, 8pm – bottling

dipped the 24 (new) 12oz bottles

siphoned out of the carboy basically until the top of the layer of sediment, although there was a lot more liquid in there… it seemed like the right thing to do. once it was in the bucket, added 3/4 cup corn sugar
dissolved in 1 cup boiling water (then cooled) for carbonation. Siphoned it into 24 12oz bottles and 12 22 oz bottles, for a total of 4.3 gallons of beer. Seems shy of my 5 gallon recipe, but it could be that I overfilled
the bottles or was too conservative about leaving the sediment in the carboy and lost beer with it.

the semester begins; also, making beer

This was the first week of class in my 6th (!) semester at Berkeley. Here at Berkeley EECS they believe in making grad students take plenty of classes, and I’ve got a few more to get through before I’ll be done. I’m taking one class that’s a full-blown lecture setup, with problem sets, a project, and even a midterm and a final. Yuck… but if I make it through I will have completed my inside minor in “Theory,” and I’ll have just one more class left to take. I’m also in a “reading” class taught by James, which basically consists of reading a paper or two every week and discussing it in a group–much lower work load. If only I could find a theory class that fit that same mold, I’d be a happy camper. I’ve got a paper deadline in April, and also around that time I’ll be giving my quals, which if I pass I will be “ABD” (all but dissertation), very exciting.

Also exciting is the 6-gallon glass jar on the floor in my kitchen that is filled with fermenting beer. Now, lest you think too much of me, brewing beer is not, as far as I can tell, cool to do anymore. No, it’s squarely in that awkward stage between being cool and retro. I know this because whenever I mention that I’m doing it to someone the response is usually “You too?” or “Oh yeah, I used to brew beer a few years ago,” or something along these lines. But ponder this, hipsters: beer for $0.10/bottle in raw materials never goes out of style. My first batch is a wheat beer, which has been fermenting for about a week and is ready to go into bottles. After it’s in there, I’ll have to wait a couple of more weeks before I can try it. I’ll be sure to give a full report, assuming I’m not killed by some super bacteria I’ve bred along with the yeast.

it’s like having christmas twice

We’ve just returned from Christmas in Texas, which we capped off with a Utah ski adventure. It was a complete vacation. Besides exchanging a few emails, I didn’t do a lick of work the whole time I was gone. I did, however, manage to bowl over a hundred (in real life, second time ever). I think I owe a lot more to Marc’s coaching expertise than any intuition gained in Wii bowling. If someday I can make the ball go where I want consistently, maybe I can put that knowledge to use.

bowling scores

Not only this, but I survived three days of snowboarding in Utah with no serious injuries, which for me is always a success. Again I have Marc to thank for conceiving the trip and making our condo a home, and Matt for tackling the logistics of where, when, and how much. Here we are in the tunnel they’ve drilled through the mountain at Snowbird so you can get to the backside without waiting for the Gondola:

snowbird tunnel

And, as if all of this isn’t enough, I also decided not to try to publish my latest research in SIGGRAPH, but to wait instead for a later conference deadline. Which means that instead being greeted in Berkeley maelstrom of stress, I’ll instead be able to ease back into work as is proper after such an excellent break.

if only i could bowl like this in real life

Well, classes for the semester are over. In machine learning, I trained a computer overmind to automatically tell when a DJ starts blabbing on the radio and change the channel. No, really. My last computational geometry homework (if you’re a glutton for punishment you’ll want a look at that, too) went like a great weight being lifted off of my shoulders. I’m working full time on tetrahedra these days, and I hope to even have some pictures for you soon.

I bowled 216 today in Wii bowling. Four strikes in a row at one point. It turns out that Marc’s excellent advice to “shake the hand of the head pin” works in the virtual world. If only I could translate my skill with pixels to the real thing. You should see the spin I can put on it.

In a week we leave for Christmas festivities in Texas, which include a lot of quality time in Dallas, some wedding-related festivities, and, after the new year, some skiing in Utah, which should be fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a lot more skiing in my future, as my parents are looking into picking up part of a condo that my uncle owns just down the street from Winter park. Amazing.

This is the calmest I’ve been at this time of year since I started at Berkeley. Why? Because I probably won’t have a SIGGRAPH submission (due late January), and even if I do, it will be on my terms and the fruit of a project I really love. Also, I picked up a (virtual) 6-4 split–Leslie as my witness–and that alone should keep a smile on my face for weeks.

berkeley food #22: la cascada

2975 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 704-1789

This is another place we at with Leslie’s parents. I feel like it’s a nice counterpoint to Rivoli–cheap, counter-service mexican food in the middle of a cute little shopping district south of campus.

I had the fish tacos, made with wild salmon. Usually fish tacos are made with some heavily seasoned white fish, and that’s pretty good. Here, the salmon tastes great on it’s own, helped out by the breading and seasoning they add for the perfect crunch. A little skimpy as far as size for the price, but great taste–ranking among the best fish tacos I’ve had.

I also tasted Susan’s mole, which was nice and spicy but too sweet for me. It also came in enchilada form, a particular mexican food trope I’m not a huge fan of.

In any case, it’s one to remember when in the mood for a quick lunch/dinner south of campus.

and wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…

Yes, you heard right. Just as I had resigned myself to waiting until after Christmas to get my mitts on a Wii, one of the three most coveted toys this holiday season (along with the PS3 and, of course, Tickle-me-Elmo EXTREME). I thought about preordering it, but decided I wasn’t that hardcore, then wistfully watched as reports of the launch yesterday came in, with happy new Wii owners from coast to coast exultant.

Then I got to our usual Sunday dinner yesterday, and after the excellent home-cooked German fare, Doug laid a pleasantly heavy and large box in my lap, with a tag inscribed “Briian.” I totally missed the joke, but soon I didn’t care as I cradled in my arms my very own Wii (every sentence with that word just begs to be made into a joke…). It turns out that Doug had mobilized the troops, returned early from his excursion to Monterrey, and gotten people in three distinct lines at three distinct stores, rising at 5am to make it there for openings. In the end, it went off without a hitch (as most things researched by Doug tend to), and they landed three distinct Wiis (why not? plenty of other people in the friend group wanted one…), but most importantly I got mine. It was a joint present from Doug, Phil, George, Ali (way out in MI), and Jeff.

We got some great pics of people playing, best of all though is this movie of George boxing virtually. Also included with my Wii is the new Zelda game, which has arrived to universal acclaim. This is good because I just got done beating Final Fantasy XII (yup, they lied again about the last one being final… I don’t trust them this time either). I’ll let you know how it goes.

One other key feature of the Wii is the ability to build little models of yourself and your friends, so you can play sports and whatnot with an accurate virtual likeness. They’re called (wait for it) Miis. Even though Ali couldn’t be there with us, we brought him in virtually:

ali's mii

Isn’t that a spitting image? I think so. Click the above link and check out the nearby pics for more hot Wii action. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of getting toys for my birthday. I think there is some requirement that when writing about the Wii, you must make some sort of pun in the headline. So I went with an old favorite, in case you were wondering.