Woxidu

It's too dangerous to go alone. Take this.

Archive for March, 2008


Tactlessly Loud

Vocals

I have a really big voice. It’s been that way since high school. While most wouldn’t say it’s harsh or abrasive, I never have any trouble being heard. In a crowd, on a busy street, or from the back of the lecture hall, I stand out. Clearly this has its advantages. My thoughts and opinions generally will be heard and acknowledged. I’m hard to ignore if I’m set on expressing myself. And like most things, there’s disadvantages. Since I’m never not heard, there’s no room for me to hold a “private” conversation with anyone in a public place unless I’m whispering conspicuously. I think that a consequence of growing up like this is that I tend to assume that everyone can always hear everything I say and so I should only say things that are okay to say around everybody. Sometimes I slip up and then everyone hears something awkward or inappropriate.

Work

I’m working on the new-school testing engine for OkCupid. We’re seeing lots of traffic lately and an overhaul of our test system is overdue. I can’t give too much away, but the thing that we have in the works is very slick. Much respect to Chris Coyne’s work in laying the groundwork for it.

Storage/Media

I think the solution to my storage/media problem is easier than I thought. It turns out that a software hack exists for the Apple TV “Take 2″ which involves making a bootable Patch Stick. The instructions look scary, but lots of people seem to be having luck with it, so I think it’s worth the risk. I’ve already bought a 1 Terabyte MyBook World drive with Ethernet and USB connectivity. It should arrive on Monday. Once I get the drive working like I want it, I’ll add an Apple TV to the mix and try to bring it all together. Updates to come.

Misc

  • I just bought CoverSutra and it rocks. I was baited by the free sample I got via MacHeist and the search menu was enough to sell me on the upgrade.
  • I’m working on an OS X Chinese – English dictionary called Cidian. It’s based on CEDICT, the same source used by MandarinTools.com. MarndarinTools.com is great, but its UI is pretty tiresome.
  • Much respect to my old co-worker Aston Motes and his friends at GetDropBox.com. They’re making headlines in some pretty visible places these days. I’ve seen them on the Digg homepage, TechCrunch, and even the venerable DaringFireball.net. Good to see startups with talented people get the attention they deserve.

The Unix-y Perspective

A short conversation between Julian and me.

(15:24:59) Eli: have you ever wished you could close IM tabs with ctrl+d ?
(15:25:11) Julian: not particularly, no
(15:26:23) Eli: it sort of makes sense, from a really unix-y perspective
(15:28:24) Eli: my way of letting the system know that I’m done talking to you is by sending you EOF
(15:29:22) Julian: I guess
(15:29:32) Eli: same for closing terminal windows
(15:29:39) Eli: and deep down, I do consider you a terminal window
(15:29:49) Julian: I can tell
(15:30:44) Eli: exec 2>&-
(15:30:53) Eli: that’s what I say to you when I get sick of your whining “errors”
(15:31:08) Julian: message received
(15:31:14) Eli: reboot
(15:31:20) Julian has signed off.
(15:31:39) Julian has signed on.