CarlSeibert

My current opinion on selling property (or buying for that matter) is that the only way to survive the ordeal is to use an absolutely kick ass realtor and lawyer. What a freakin nightmare. The difference between an ordinary realtor and a great one is enormous. My only experience with bad or mediocre lawyers has been opposing my good one, so I have to say that I've had only positive experiences on that front, but I imagine mileage varies. ) The USPS is funny. In my neighborhood, to and from, they're fabulous. As good as FedEx. I use whichever one has the product that "fits" best. (For me that means "is cheaper" . ) UPS here is gawdawful.

Tiny Desk Concerts FTW.

Hmm. There should be something....

Does that tablet have an IR transmitter? The subject is suddenly interesting because I just read the the new Galaxy S4 phone does and indeed has a remote control app. Which means that an app to turn off annoying televisions in public places can't be far behind. Imagine being able to zap TVs in restaurants as easily as blasting aliens in the original Space Invaders. The mind boggles. There are apps to control most music servers from phones and tablets via WiFi but that's probably not what you're looking for.

We went to the fireworks for Youth Day (which is an idiosyncratic local holiday in our idiosyncratic little municipality). It was magnificent - perfect cool clear night. From our vantage, you could see the mortars, hear the fluttering sounds some of the shells make in flight and then the bursts were directly overhead. excellent. I tried to explain to my friend Alan exactly what Youth Day is and why it's such a big deal. I guess it's not a very precise concept. "Excuse for a parade and kick ass fireworks" sounded a little thin.

Happy Birthday!!!

Colin - If you want to control the player with a tablet or phone and don't need the Squeezebox's display, there's the VAMP. It's an open source SB player clone. Plays hi-res straight out of the "box" (it's slightly DIY) and costs about $30. Doesn't have WiFi. That adds another $30. And its output is USB, so if you might need a USB to S/PDIF converter. There's a tread at Vortexbox.org. I'm interested to see where the Olive goes.

Saw the Fred Hersch Trio tonight in the concert hall at Nova. Absolutely silent in the hall. Nobody breathed let alone coughed. The show was spellbinding. If you get a chance - see these guys.

Ran into one of our city commissioners in the hardware store. He took us over to his house so he could show Bonnie his garden. Fascinating. He has the whole aquaculture thing going on, with the nutrients cycling from fish to plants, a big vegetable garden in dozens and dozens of five gallon buckets, chickens, the whole deal. All this in a modest house in the city. He could have big future as a survivalist if he was to decide to go that way. Later we went to a Fred Hersch concert.

If you follow the Comic Sans wars, here's the latest salvo.. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole

It's so you can subsidize the employers, silly.

I don't use cash much, so I've always got something like a single and fifty. I hate that. How much of a schmuck does it it make me when I ask the guy to make change for his tip? CJ -- only in effing Boca!

It would shock me if Bonnie listed her birthday in her profile. It's today. Happy Birthday, my love!

Has anybody seen the double-page ad in Rolling Stone that is an article on the history of vinyl? Does anybody have any idea what it means? It's a pretty decent article. It has jump lines at the beginning and end to make it look like it continues later in the magazine, but it doesn't. There's a little ad-within-the-ad for some TV show, which has nothing, AFAIK, to do with vinyl, or even music at all. Very odd

I think Brent is convincing. I'm going to keep the thing for years, so I might as well start out on the latest generation.

The gift that keeps on giving....... (It's from the Wall St Journal. It hadn't been up long enough to use Google to beat the pay wall when I posted. In a few hours, Googling the headline should do the trick.) Dr. Dre in Trademark “Beat”-Down By Jacob Gershman Getty Images Last week we learned you could trademark “Jesus.” Here’s another trademark dustup that doesn’t involve a religious figure, but a legendary rapper. Beats Electronics, a maker of high-end headphones, speakers and audio software co-founded by rapper-turned-entrepreneur Dr. Dre, is carrying out its own trademark crusade. The company, which operates a flagship store in downtown Manhattan and sells headphones under the brand Beats By Dr. Dre, has been challenging applicants attempting to register “beat” or “beats” as a trademark, even ones not selling headphones and using the term in combination with other words. . . . .

Rowland stuff is spectacular - audio jewelry. And for the most part, it sounds spectacular (or sounds like it's not there at all). But the price......

Galaxy S III at a discount now or Galaxy S IV in a couple months? Has there been any new intelligence since we last talked about this? Sprint is now offering the S III for a hundred bucks. (For new lines, according to the ads, but I would be surprised if not for upgrades as well.)

Zowwee!

Dusty, I think the new seasons of Archer are on Amazon. I'm afraid to look because if there's a box set.... For what it's worth, we haven't had TV in twenty years. We watch the occasional show on streaming, but mostly Blu-Rays, which we either buy or get from Netflix. So what if we are three seasons behind on Mad Men. There wasn't even a an adjustment. We've never missed TV. The one huge caveat is that we don't watch (or want to watch) live sports. That could be a deal breaker unless you're a real regular at your local bar.

Dare I ask how much that costs?

Good news Shelly. Steve - Did the fire consume all the fuel that's too close to your house? Is it the kind of stuff that stays away for years or the kind that grows back in in the next season? We're really lucky that the little preserve behind us is wetland. Wildfires suck.

Get rid of the glare in the photo, you mean? Careful and likely frustrating Photoshop work. I would probably go with doing the corrections in Curves and painting them on with the History Brush (in whatever mode looks best) or doing the same thing with a layer mask. The tricky bit is making the transition undetectable. Bonnie says feather, grab the affected area and dupe it back on top in multiply mode. Which could also be done with a layer mask to make it less frustrating. Or a combination of those techniques. They all sort of do the same thing. It looks like a quick Free Transform would be in order to square it up, too.

Happy Birthday!!

And the bearing.