aaand the cable is coming back

in an hilarious update, comcast has sold me on restoring cable!

instead of $60/mo for (officially) 20 Mbps internet and (officially) no cable TV, we'll be getting 50 Mbps internet for $50/mo -- for a year -- plus a non-DVR basic cable service w/ 6 free months of HBO.

iow, comcast jumped when i mentioned potentially switching to RCN.

cable is cancelled! aaand i still get TV through comcast.

i finally told Comcast to cancel the cable TV last week. this ended a series of frustrating phonecalls with them trying to gather enough information to decide if i wanted to. e.g. such hard hitters as "how much will my internet cost if i cancel the cable portion of my service?"

(after being passed around to several departments, i ended up speaking with a woman in California who had no access to my account and was demanding to know why i wanted to speak with her).

my other question was about how the TV portion worked. i'd read that, when getting internet, the cable providers still push some basic cable. seems it used to be required, now they're allowed to encrypt it. trying to get an answer from comcast on if/how that worked was more than useless.

instead, i waited for it to be cancelled and then plugged the 75-ohm cable into the TV and told it to scan for channels. half an hour later, it had found 98! Looks to be the same channels offered over the air digitally, and comcast had not encrypted it (it's called QAM).

lovely! except i'll confess i miss the DVR conveniences of pausing live video and scheduling recordings. for the moment, we'll see how we like the combination of QAM, Hulu, Roku, Amazon Prime and Plex. we'll probably add Netflix before too long.

should we miss DVR too much, i may invest in the combo of the HDHomeRun tuner and eyeTV osx software. in addition to DVR, it would have the added benefit of bringing the QAM signal through the receiver and the better speakers, instead of relying on the tuner built into the TV.

all of this is much more complicated than having cable, but good god is it cheaper. even when factoring in the cost of the mac mini to run plex and the monthly fees on the content, it won't take long to break even.

and the answer to my original question is $15/mo. internet bundled price was $50, unbundled is $65 for 25 Mbps down. after bitching about the price, was given $5/mo off for the next 6 mo. So the answer is actually $10/mo, for now. Let us note that RCN is offering DSL (over fiber, it seems) for $50/mo for 30 Mbps. might have to check into that, though i'm wary of DSL, and i did buy that cable modem. hate to have to retire it so soon.

our automated society

for the gf's birthday, we caught a matinee at a local mega-cinema owned by Regal:

Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) operates the largest and most geographically diverse theatre circuit in the United States, consisting of 6,607 screens in 521 theatres in 37 states and the District of Columbia as of October 25, 2012, with over 211 million attendees for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2011 ("fiscal 2011").

gloriously, we were the only two in attendance. i wondered if the movie would not play if they hadn't sold any tickets. and if not, was that all built-in to their computer/ticket system, or did they actually have a human looking in?

on the way out, we asked. we were told that the movies all play automatically, whether there was anyone in the theater or not. (seems like a waste). I also thought about the tissue paper i jammed in my ears, which made the soundtrack merely Quite Loud (next time, i'll be bringing along my sound pressure meter; i fear some of the peaks are in the 110-120 dB range).

so not only do the movies play automatically, i reckon the volume levels are beyond the control of anyone at the facility. same with the dimming lights and the curtain screen that quietly whooshed to a wider aspect after the previews/commercials and before the main feature. the projectors are all digital, so no one needs to operate them (i wonder how they're loaded/configured).

we didn't visit the concession stand, which i'm pretty sure is still staffed by humans. we bought our tickets from a human, but that's obviously un-necessary these days. a human took our tickets, and another wandered into the theater in the middle of the showing (to make sure we weren't disturbing other patrons?).

in all, i think we saw fewer humans -- including patrons -- than there are theaters. granted, it was an off time (Monday 2:45 showing), and this megaplex definitely gets crowded. i reckon Regal has found a way to maximize profit while minimizing payroll.

the wild west of content delivery

in a flurry of activity this week, i signed up for Amazon Prime and hulu+, and bought a Roku and a new cable modem.

the ultimate goal is to cut down the monthly and outrageous Comcast bill, through which we currently get internet and tv.

the small part of the savings will be the cable modem, which we've been renting for $7/mo. replaced that with a Motorola SURFboard SB6121, which has proven to be about 15-20% faster on the downloads.

the larger savings will be eliminating the cable tv and getting our content via streaming. today started an experiment to see if the $79/year amazon prime and $8/month hulu+ covers enough ground.

i think the difficult transition for me will be going from a "what's on" model to "let's narrow down this incredible catalog to something we both want to watch now" model.

i've had the roku hooked up for less than 24 hours, but here are my initial impressions:

1. hulu+ shouldn't bother me with commercials
2. it's disappointing that i'm not allowed to stream certain shows through the roku (e.g. Good Eats), but am allowed to do so in a browser. wtf?
3. Top Gear (via Amazon VOD) has the full show, including the news! BBC America chopped it all to hell
4. there's an incredible disparity of what's paid content and what's free. i can see Top Gear series 15 and older for free, but Prime Suspect all the way from 1991 is $5/episode
5. interaction is embarrassingly primitive. browsing isn't well organized, and i'd like a way to indicate interest in items, e.g. Arrested Development, then have it organize my viewing history so i can easily tell what i've seen and what's left to see. Bonus points for putting together a single place to go to see what i should logically view next.
6. so far, the streaming has been high quality with no hiccups or sync issues. nice job that.
7. the roku box is actually *too* small and light -- it's in danger of being dragged off the shelf by the weight of the cables
8. some content we currently enjoy, like HBO shows and AMC shows, will probably be inaccessible to us for a couple years unless we feel like paying extra for them (which i don't). Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, the Killing -- might be hard to basically give them up for a couple years.

despite the impressive libraries available, not to mention the impressive tech to make all this possible, i do wish the content providers would be just a little more consumer friendly and not make the licensing so absurd. being able to stream on one device but not another, despite paying for it, just seems anti-consumer to me. and needlessly confusing.

sausages!

we received a meat grinder for xmas (this one) and last night made some sausages!

the recipe was for a Romanian Jewish beef sausage. we had most stuff on hand, except beef suet, so we used lamb suet instead. and guess what -- it tastes like gyros. really tasty gyros.

no casings on our first try, we made patties and rolled up a few, seen in the photo.

only one mishap, seems the forward/reverse buttons on the grinder were wired up backwards. took me a few minutes to figure out why i couldn't get anything through it. once that was sussed out, the grind went very well. i'm happy with performance of the machine.

as the reverse switch is momentary, i did get an RMA for this one, and a replacement machine is on its way. hopefully that one will work as expected.

traveling light

this was the lightest i've packed for a (nearly) 2 week trip, taking only my MEI* purple backpack.

i normally take a slightly larger Kelty backpack -- main body is about the same size, but it has a couple wings. the difference is enough where i can reasonably carry-on the MEI, but no the Kelty.

this was an experiment. it mostly worked well, but there was no room to spare. my rain jacket and thicker jumper took up over half the capacity, leaving space for 5 days of clothing (t-shirt, undies, socks), plus light jumper, dress shirt, hat, phrase books, novel, iphone charger, small camera, maps and toiletries. i wore a single pair of pants and single pair of shoes.

next time, i'll likely return to the Kelty.

* i bought the excellent MEI many years ago (15? more?) from Uncle Dan's. then they seemed to drop off the face of the earth. i found that they still exist ( http://www.meipacks.com/ ) and sell online. they have a lifetime warranty, and repaired mine (the straps were coming off) for only the cost of shipping it to them.

if i ever need a new pack with the form factor and size they now offer, i might fly to san francisco and try it out.

this photo was taken in Copenhagen, during a layover (gf and i went to the city since the layover was 4 hours).

we're gonna xooma xooma, xoom xoom xoom

mere days after telling my boss that between my iphone and macbook pro, i have no need for a tablet, all employees were presented with Motorola Xooms (oops).

this is not only my first experience with a tablet, other than a few minutes with an ipad, but it's also my first experience with Android. the xoom comes with a version called Honeycomb, which i'm told is new and designed with tablets in mind.

the hardware is nice. a good size, solid, with a reasonably sharp screen. after comparing its size directly to that of an ipad, i found that the ipad is just a tad bit wider, making a big difference in how it sits in my lap. oddly, after using the xoom in my lap for a while, i discover that my abs are sore. with the ipad's tapered edge and better shape, even though the dimensional differences are slight, i do find the ipad works better in this regard.

rear camera: no better than my iphone 3gs in a couple test shots, despite the greater megapixel count (not that i put a lot of stock into that). power button: badly placed! Not only can i not find it when i want, smudging up the rear camera lens instead, but i find i'm constantly hitting it during normal use and shutting off the screen.

i also find i don't like the "neat" feature that the xoom can be used in any orientation. i like that my iphone has a button on the front, so i know which way is "up". on the xoom, any way you want is "up" -- until you need to find the power button or adjust the volume. then it's not so neat.

software-wise, i can't say i'm the biggest fan of the Android user-experience. new version glitches aside (and there are many, from brief image glitches to constant crash problems with the browser and facebook app), i find it looks better than iOS, but isn't nearly as intuitive.

there are navigation buttons on the lower-left that do have some nice features. the home button is styled as navigation button, pointing up, demonstrating some nice consistency with the "go left" button. a very nice navigation feature is that the go-left button always takes you where you came from, even if you came from a different app. it's a nice switching feature that i think iOS could benefit from. further, if you're in some kind of pop-up form, that button changes to "go down" to dismiss that form.

however, i wish the buttons were in the upper-left of the screen, closer to where my fingers are. navigation ends up being about as comfortable as hitting ctrl-z on a keyboard with your left hand.

i think Motorola had a bit of a goof on the homepage, as well. out of the box, the homepage has a cool iridescent clock in the center, with a small collection of app icons laid out horizontally below (browser, gmail, android market [i.e. app store] et. al.). It's a nice look.

But when you go to market and download your first app, by default it places it on your homepage in the first open spot, which is in the upper-left of the screen. it looks completely out of place, and congratulations you've already ruined the drama of turning on the device.

speaking of which, upon power-up, after an initial splash screen, you're presented with a horrific, eye-straining honeycomb animation that plays during boot up. it's pretty awful in any light, but if you've been using the tablet in the dark for a while, and need to reboot it (e.g. the browser likes to stop pretending there's an internet every 10 minutes or so, and i've yet to find a way to restart an app sans a reboot), the honeycomb animation can be nothing short of blinding.

the other night, in a fit or pure optimism, i broke out the USB cable and plugged the xoom into my laptop. i expected... something? iTunes to launch? a desktop icon? maybe even an offer to sync contacts and music?

silly me. nothing happened. at all. after some googling, failed experiments with DoubleTwist, and more googling, i was able to get my contacts on my Xoom by first exporting a vcard from Address Book and uploading it to GMail. hardly a "sync". i was able to transfer music by using an app that opens up the Xoom's file system on the laptop. yuck.

still, with all these issues, i find that i'm using it at home for many things i typically do with my laptop. and if i'm being honest, i'm also finding my year-old macbook pro feels a little... old-fashioned.

i will be doing some programming for the xoom (on my laptop, natch), which in Eclipse I expect will be a more pleasant, or at least familiar, exercise than using apple's iOS IDE.

from a pure user's perspective though, i strongly suspect i would be happier with an ipad.

11" macbook air = want

i visited the apple store yesterday to get some hands-on with the wee macbook air. i have very little actual need for such a machine, but damn is it excellent.

not quite enough for a main machine: there's no firewire port, so it couldn't support recording audio. and the screen may be a little too limiting to be able to run Eclipse/FlashBuilder and actually see enough of a file to code.

but aside from that, what can't it do?

- it seems fast enough for daily use for most tasks
- disk space is short, but it seems we're on the verge of a cloud-based revolution on which i could store the large music and photo libraries currently eating up a lot of space on my mbpro
- it lacks keyboard backlighting, but c'mon that's not a showstopper
- the screen, despite its small size, feels surprisingly roomy for most apps

the thing is hilariously portable. i could definitely see it as a business travel machine for me -- it could probably handle all but the largest Flex projects, I could get exchange email through the web (yuck, but still), and i could run open office if i really needed to edit Office docs. Assuming i could get a mini-display port to VGA cable for presenting, what's not to love?

Apple is pitching this as a laptop/iPad hybrid. I don't quite see that right now -- it seems all laptop and not iPad -- but Apple is dropping hints that Lion will add some iOS-ness to the device.

what I'd like to see hardware-wise, and frankly by now I thought this would be featured in all Apple laptops, is a 3G chip. I think it would make a lot of sense for this 11.6" MBA to be able to grab internet anywhere. maybe the next version?

costco, item of interest #2

must fruit continually get larger? this does not look appetizing to me, it just makes me feel that the growers 1) concentrate on embiggening fruit without regard to taste or health, and 2) believe size is all that matters to consumers.

i like to think that a piece of a particular kind of fruit has a fixed amount of flavor, and that flavor is distributed throughout the fruit. strawberries larger than golfballs is where i obtained this theory (oh Driscoll, i shall never buy produce from you again).

when will the madness end? and where can i find a watermelon the size of volkswagen?

that was rhetorical. the answer is, of course, Costco.

costco, item of interest #1

three times the heat of *what*, exactly?

i stopped a shopper and pointed at the sign which i thought was so hilariously ambiguous. not understanding that i was pointing out a flaw, she was dually impressed that this item did, apparently, offer three times the heat.

realizing she didn't quite get it, i said, "do you see? it says three times the heat. but three times the heat of what?"

"wow, that's a lot of heat," was her response.

indeed.

... got a brand new bag

some time ago, i think in the early 90's, i picked up a purple backpack at Uncle Dan's by MEI. at the time, i had no idea who MEI was, what kind of fan base they had, or how they would almost disappear as a company (now they only sell direct).

earlier this year, the good people at MEI were (or is it good person at MEI was?) incredibly kind to repair two broken straps on the bag, completely free of charge. this is a bag i still use every day to/from work.

however, the time had come to upgrade, for two reasons:
1. i'll soon be at a client site, and need a more professional looking bag
2. i need this new bag to be waterproof

after a lot of looking around on the web, especially at messenger bag sites, trying out a few bags at stores, going back and forth between one-strap and two-strap bags, and nearly pulling the trigger on a Chrome Pawn, i finally settled on a two-strap bag from small Philadelphia manufacturer Reload.

it's a bit of a splurge, as every bag is custom-made, but that did allow me to put together some colors that i found professional (enough) but still had a bit of personality. the model i picked is the minipack, and it arrived today, 3 weeks after ordering. (their production times are running slightly longer than that, but CS rep damian kindly moved mine through a little faster, in time for this coming weekend).

i think it looks great, and i love the craftsmanship. it's actually a little smaller than i thought it would be, but no worries as i thought it would be slightly larger than i needed.

i definitely jammed it full for tonight's commute, as i needed to haul not only my normal bag contents (including lunch bag and containers), but a rain jacket and my purple MEI bag. it did so no problem.

my only concern is that, towards the end of commute, the straps were digging into my pecs a little bit. granted, this was under a load larger than i'd normally expect, and under lighter loads the pack felt very comfortable. it rides high, but when strapped tight i don't feel myself straining to carry it.

initial impressions are very positive, and i look forward to the first time i'm caught in a downpour. okay not really, but it wouldn't take long for my MEI to soak through...

eggs

some years ago, when i would occasionally buy a dozen eggs from the grocery store, i was completely lost when trying to figure out the difference between eggs labeled "cage free", "free range", "organic" and "omega-3".

i was also unsure how i was supposed to decide among all the providers.

with the recent salmonella outbreak, traced to two large producers in Iowa, i'm seeing that it doesn't really matter whose branding you like best.

Wednesday's recall covers eggs branded as Albertsons, Farm Fresh, James Farms, Glenview, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma, Lund, Kemps and Pacific Coast [...] The earlier recall covered the Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemps brands

wow, that's a lot of brands from two producers. i wonder if there are additional brands that haven't (yet) been recalled.

the gf and i lucky to have quality egg producers available to us every Saturday. i don't know what i'd be doing otherwise.

wtf is a Downers Grove?

for a 2-day training seminar, I recently found myself in the suburban hell known as Downers Grove, IL. (as the joke at work went, "I can't recall the name, something like Upper's Meadow").

Chicago is one of those cities that, given a feature limiting its expansion (specifically, a giant lake), has grown on a hub and spoke system. this has given rise to a number of communities that sprang up along railroad stops. though it's not exactly my style, downtowns like Arlington Heights have a certain charm to them, especially given a fairly-recent rejuvenation of pedestrian and bike traffic in some suburbs centered around the trainstop. Keeping with my example, one can detrain in Arlington Heights and have quick walking access to a number of new shops, restaurants, and condos, in a semi-dense area with a mixture of new construction, rehab, and new-cum-olde.

this makes it all the more distressing to end up in a Downers Grove. maybe there's a nice downtown i just didn't come across (and let's not pretend that all of Arlington Heights is pedestrian/bicycle friendly), but what I did see is a travesty: networks of high-capacity expressways and thoroughfares, small clusters of mini-skyscrapers adorned with company names (Microsoft, SAP), with all other areas filled in by malls, stripmalls, box stores, parking lots, and only one neighborhood that i happened to stumble into (read as: i got lost).

had i been plopped down into this area without context, i would have had a very difficult time naming it as a Chicago suburb, or even taking an educated guess on which state I was in. my first guess probably would have been southern California.

stuck in traffic on Butterfield Road, headed to meet some co-workers for dinner (in a stripmall, naturally), I surveyed the stores and read off the chains: Chili's, Best Buy, Toys R Us, etc etc. Like catalog shopping that you get to do in person, and all the parking lots are connected. And that's what Butterfield felt like to me, with its 6 lanes, not including the double-turn lanes, and lights designed to funnel traffic in and out of parking lots: just a way of shuttling you between the places where you make the money and where to stop off to spend the money.

certainly, there must be more to DG than what i saw, because the alternative is that the 50,000 some people who live there find comfort in all their box stores.

happily, it's a convenient 1 hour and 20 minutes from where i live (unless there's a Cubs game, then add 40 minutes to my return trip), and kind of in the middle of friggin' nowhere. Even the flown-in trainer had to rent a car, as DG is nowhere near an airport or downtown Chicago, both of which I can reasonably access from my house without a car.

though i understand the reasons how a place like DG came to be, including the homeowner's desire to "get away from the city", the village's desire to attract commerce, and the corporations desire for tax breaks and their logo on their own building, i am stunned that anyone would wake up, take a serious look at what's out their window, and proclaim, "yes, this is what i've always wanted."

i'm really trying to put aside my own biases and imagine myself as someone who would want to live in place like Downers Grove. and i'm failing.

i don't know how to walk

image from here.

i suffer from chronic lower-back pain, though weekly massages and adjustments keep that at bay. i also suffer from chronic knee pain, which flares up after i've been doing a lot of walking, like i've been doing over the past month or so.

climbing stairs is the worst, which i can make bearable by applying a slight downward pressure at the top of my kneecap while pushing off.

both my massage therapist and chiropractor are telling me my leg muscles are too tight, and i should be stretching more. that seems to help, marginally. but i'm wondering if i'm causing the issues by wearing shoes with too much padding / arch support, and that i'm just flat out walking incorrectly.

the gf bought a pair of Vibram 5-Fingers today, which is making me jealous as I can't locate any in my size (even Vibram themselves are out). I like the idea of the "shoes", and have been walking barefoot in the house lately. What I've found is that I make a great clomping sound by coming down heel first; barefoot, that feels un-natural and un-coordinated. i then switch to ball-first (or ball-only), and that feels better but seems un-sustainable. in response, i actually googled "how to walk barefoot" and came across the posted image.

i'm hoping to re-learn how to walk, and further hoping that the effort will have a positive effect on my knees, lower-back, hips, etc.

i've spent the last year re-learning how to eat, but i'm afraid the walking may actually pose more of a challenge.

update: this Masai Barefoot Technology looks interesting, as well.

good god, backup really is that complicated

at least if one wants to duplicate the convenience of apple's Time Capsule.

i've been combing over posts @ readynas.com, which is an excellent resource for Netgear NAS products. though it seems easier than ever to run Time Machine software with non-Apple devices, there are still a lot of issues. upgrading osx versions, running multiple Time Machine users, and running Parallels caused issues for a number of users.

those anecdotes are also peppered with cries of "NAS isn't a backup solution!" Which is a shame, given that's exactly what i wanted to use it for. so then i was pricing out 2 TB external drives to back up the NAS.

Time Machine tracks revisions to files, such that one restore their computer to the exact state from a date in the past (chewing up a lot of extra disk space in the process). That's a neat use case, but one I don't really need. I version my own files when it's important to me, what I need from a backup system is something for that rainy day if my laptop is stolen or the drive dies.

iow, I need the latest snapshot, that's it.

seems I already have everything I need for that: external firewire drives and Super Duper. I contacted the author and he confirmed for me that NAS solutions, while having some nice features, doesn't allow Super Duper to make a bootable backup the way it does with a dedicated device.

so I suppose I'll stick with my 3-prong approach, using Mobile Me Sync, Backup of some files to the apple servers, and Super Duper for the entire image.

good god, is backup really this complicated?

today I learned about NAS: network attached storage.

now that i've moved into the 21st century with the purchase of a new mac laptop running Snow Leopard (previously was running Tiger, skipping Leopard entirely), AND designating my laptop as my new "main machine", i thought it high-time to modernize my backup procedures. And to get the gf's machine running regular backups, as well.

naturally, i first investigated Apple's solution, Time Machine and Time Capsule. it didn't take me long to find the accounts of the multitudes with failed Time Capsules, seemingly due to a bad thermal design. That, and there's no built-in RAID, so Time Capsule is off the list. Would still like to use the Time Machine s/w, though. after some googling, I found that what I was looking for was an NAS device.

anyone been to Linksys' site lately? it's now streamlined and fantastically worthless. what is Valet? haven't a clue, other than beautiful people can use it easily.

the Iomega Ix2-200 looked promising, but some devastating reviews @ amazon has put me off. the Netgear Stora stuff also looks interesting, but it seems it also has its fair share of issues. That, and I'm not *at all* convinced that I want the same device storing my backups to also be serving files and media to devices outside my home.

after more research, including finding the (netgear) readynas site and its osx section, the leading contender is a diskless Netgear ReadyNAS duo, which i'll fill with a pair of 2-terabyte Western Digital drives.

i'm still doing research, and need to verify that i can RAID those for a total of 2-terabytes of backup. even with full-bandwidth audio files to back up, and 2 users, that should be enough space for the foreseeable future. And it looks like Time Machine setup is relatively painless.

i think it'll work completely wirelessly, so i can chuck it in a closet and not have to worry about running an ethernet cable between it and my (aged) Linksys router.

updated MB Pro benchmarks

i visited the apple store again and re-ran XBench for the 13" 2.66 GHz mb pro, providing results that i think are closer to reality (correcting that out-of-whack UI Interface value).

	MB Pro 2.53GHz C2D (Nov 2009)	13" MB Pro 2.66GHz C2D (Apr 2010)	15" MB Pro 2.53GHz i5	15" MB Pro 2.66GHz i7
RAM, gig	4	4	4	4
Overall Score	128.33	139.19	166.23	174.52
CPU	181.45	190.23	201.96	221.38
Thread	309.72	280.11	491.01	539.79
Memory	190.57	196.82	314.76	330.08
Quartz Graphics	197.14	164.88	209.01	233.53
OpenGL Graphics	90.44	168.13	198.13	204.90
User Interface	278.42	199.38	324.52	353.68
Disk, Overall	47.99	51.67	52.55	53.42
Disk, Sequential	95.06	100.12	107.92	116.04
Disk, Random	32.09	34.82	34.73	34.69

XBench figures for April 2010 MacBook Pro lineup

i last did this back in November, but with this week's release of the new laptops, I thought it was time for new benchmarks.

So tonight I stopped by the AppleStore tonight and grabbed some figures, with the same version of XBench (1.3). Again, usual caveats apply wrt variances from test to test, most notably with the User Interface score for the new 13" MB Pro. Sadly, I did only one run. More sadly, they didn't have all versions of the machines, so I grabbed what I could.

For comparison, I included the MB Pro 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo from last fall. Interesting how it and the new 13" 2.66 are not much different, performance-wise, despite the doubled RAM and "improved" graphics card. The move up to the 15" i5 seems a clear step up, though I'm thoroughly unconvinced I need or want a 15" form factor.

	MB Pro 2.53GHz C2D (Nov 2009)	13" MB Pro 2.66GHz C2D (Apr 2010)	15" MB Pro 2.53GHz i5	15" MB Pro 2.66GHz i7
RAM, gig	4	4	4	4
Overall Score	128.33	71.97	166.23	174.52
CPU	181.45	190.54	201.96	221.38
Thread	309.72	214.07	491.01	539.79
Memory	190.57	198.92	314.76	330.08
Quartz Graphics	197.14	157.52	209.01	233.53
OpenGL Graphics	90.44	170.67	198.13	204.90
User Interface	278.42	20.29	324.52	353.68
Disk, Overall	47.99	48.02	52.55	53.42
Disk, Sequential	95.06	89.78	107.92	116.04
Disk, Random	32.09	32.77	34.73	34.69

is it possible to draw real-world conclusions from playing GT5?

i recently picked up Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for PS3, which is a great bit of fun. lovely graphics, good gameplay, boatloads of depth and addictive -- what's not to like? you race, you get money, you buy new cars for your garage. and then race those (complete car list here).

you can pit your mini cooper against other hot hatches, like the Ford Focus ST, or you can be a dick and race your Ferrari against them.

i like that the cars are pretty distinct, though given my lack of real-world experience, i can't say how close of an analogue they are.

still, i'm happy to pretend that these are valid impressions and will state some.

Biggest disappointment: the 4WD Audi TT Coupe. it's just too underpowered. That's followed closely by the Alfa Romeo Brera 4WD. Really sluggish in the low gears for a 6 cylinder.

Biggest surprise: the Fords! i'm not at all surprised that the Ford ST does well (i get better times in it than i do in the Mini Cooper S). The Mustang doesn't suck! My times in it are similar to those I get with the 2005 Subaru Impreza WRX STI. And I must say I like the Ford GT a lot. It's ridiculously over-powered, and I initially thought it didn't corner well. Then I realized I was taking those corners > 100 mph, much faster than I had tried previously.

The GT compares favorably to the Ferrari F430. Not in every way, but the Ferrari is a good bit twitchier. Also, the Audi R8 makes up for the TT, my times in it are nearly as fast as the GT and F430.

Other nice surprises are the Renault Clio Sport V6 and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX. I get consistently better times in the Lancer vs the Impreza, the latter feeling a little too heavy and weak in the low gears.

other impressions: the BMW M3 is heavy but handles well for its weight. The Lotus Elise 111R is one of my favorites -- tough but rewarding. The Honda Integra is fast and undramatic. And the 2001 VW GTI is slow, predictable and boring.

regarding my original question, after playing this game, is it fair to say i'm no longer interested in the Audi TT?

the absurdity of cold-weather dressing

it's dipped to single digits in Chicago and, along with my much-lower fat profile, I finally admitted that my $50 Sears Carharrt coat, purchased some 13 winters ago, was no longer up to the task.

so i bought a new coat, a Cloudveil Down Patrol, that I'll describe not only as the warmest coat i've bought, but probably the only warm coat i've ever owned.

i still layer! With a mid-day temp of 8 yesterday, here's what I wore: the new coat (hood up), atop a hoodie (also hood up), atop a thin thermal top, atop a cotton t-shirt. Also, a thinsulate knit hat, thinsulate gloves, jeans, wool socks, cotton underwear and Ecco boots.

for my torso, that's 4 layers, including a 650 down layer, and for my legs, a thin layer of jeans.

it is true that my legs and face were the most cold. further, despite all my other efforts at staying warm, i neglected to put on some long underwear.

this is absurd. clearly the legs aren't as "important" as the torso, but the disparity of my treatment of them is absurd. as was the dress of others on the street around me: the same jeans-only bottom, it seems. men without hats or gloves. one guy with a thin Bears jacket riding a bike. it's friggin' cold here! why is everyone dressing like a high school boy who's too tough to admit he's cold?