Beautiful work by FreezeLight! (read more »)

MacBook Pro with Intel X25-M SSD and second 500GB SATA drive

Photographer Tony Wu is excited by the new 15″ MacBook Pro I’ve put together for him. It features a 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo processor w/6MB shared L2 cache, 8GB RAM and dual internal hard disks: a 160GB Intel X25-M SSD G2 and the stock 500GB drive it shipped with. I purchased a third-party SSD because the SSD Apple ships is embarrassingly slow. (read more »)

• Apple iPhone 3GS 32 GB Black for sale on eBay: http://bit.ly/52uu8z #
• Sorry I’ve been out of touch and unresponsive to email. I just got back in town and am sick. I’ll be back in a couple of days, I’m sure. #
• RT @andybiggs: Quiet launch from Canon for new 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II pro lens http://bit.ly/6peWqP #
• @viennateng Funny that “sustain a full-length phone call” isn’t on your iPhone list. ;) in reply to viennateng #
• Holy shit. The Ady Gil, the Sea Shepherd stealth boat, was rammed by the Shonan Maru No. 2!! The boat may sink. Should be in news soon. #
• Anti-whaling boat Ady Gill rammed and crippled by Japanese whalers http://bit.ly/5N2Hg1 #
• RSS feed for “that RSS hating bastard” over at dontevenreply.com (using pipes). I heart pipes! http://bit.ly/4suYY9 #
• Ady Gil ramming on YouTube (from Japanese whaler side): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaEpLsff4HI #
• Hey, everyone! Please vote for my friend Jeff Leicher’s video at the Aqualung contest site! Just takes 1 click. :) http://bit.ly/5VLpQp #
• Someone just asked me, “Do you know what Skype is?” #
• “I have to see if I can set an LRAD as my alarm clock.” -Adam Lau #
• I uploaded a YouTube video — Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil rammed by Shonan Maru No 2 http://youtu.be/pBKYjHUUN4Q?a #
• I can only OCR 65 pages at a time in Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0. Any more, and it fails. Out of memory? #
• In case you missed it,the new Sea Shepherd ship is called the Bob Barker. I keep thinking, “The price is right, BITCH!” http://bit.ly/920ds4 #
• I have been on full dose Benadryl for 3 days. Like having an out of body experience. So out of it. I love it — no, I hate it. Wait, what? #
• @uwfotog Wish I could be diving Maldives with you! in reply to uwfotog #
• I am disassembling a dead guinea pig’s den. #
• Anti-whaling boat sinks in Antarctica http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201…..ca_whaling #
• I uploaded a YouTube video — Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil rammed by Shonan Maru No 2 in Antarctica LON… http://youtu.be/ETZQx6boY2M?a #
• The Walrus video of all walrus videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ros73m7xBRA #
• secret US Postal Service in the Macy’s at Union Square? bizarre! #
• Fill out change of address form at USPS, get expired coupons! #
• Leaked video of ramming from Ady Gil’s perspective. Final proof that they were just idling and were rammed. http://bit.ly/5L1E6P #
• Does anyone have advise for a service for selling files online? Kagi has a good rep, but their config is not easy to use + requires a person #
• Forced break: RAM test on main correspondence machine. #
• “No plugin or theme is more important than your [Wordpress] site’s security.” -Alex King http://bit.ly/5v8Ecf #
• @uwfotog I definitely wish I were with you guys. Next time!! in reply to uwfotog #
• Good bye, IMAP. Hello (again), POP. IMAP too hard to use when I’m away on bad connections. #
• I tried using my Droid’s camera. Massive FAIL. That’s one thing that is 100x better on the iPhone 3GS. #
• @trhall I disagree. IMAP has too many round-trips, and you’re stuck with headers when you get disconnected. Not talking smartphones here. in reply to trhall #
• @johnolilly Happy Birthday, John!! in reply to johnolilly #
• It’s good to see other manufacturers releasing compact digitals with wide lenses (Sony — 24mm and 25mm). http://bit.ly/7AqeZK #
• I can see Patchen on Latitude, and I’m not leaving the house until he does. #
• @sterlingz Is @boxee worth a try again? I settled on Plex back when Boxee was really buggee. in reply to sterlingz #
• Coming to realization that Blackberry is still king in phone/SMS/email. iPhone wins for apps/media but fails due to AT&T. Droid is geek toy. #
• @RogierDiver Sorry, Rogier. I’m surrounded by AT&T phones, and people still can’t make calls. in reply to RogierDiver #
• @RogierDiver I drop 1 call a month on Verizon. Maybe. AT&T is still in 2-digit percentages. in reply to RogierDiver #
• Blue Bottle Cafe affogato @ SFMOMA rooftop garden on a chilly SF afternoon. #
• I uploaded a YouTube video — MacBook Pro boot with 160GB Intel X25-M SSD boot / 500GB (spinning) data http://youtu.be/4PLwX665dIU?a #
• I just joined Quora as a beta user. There are 20 answers on the home page, and I know the people behind 19 of them. #
• Tweets and emails from strangers are the same. You have to introduce yourself before you can message in a familiar tone. Else — intrusion. #
• I’m going to start disabling comments when posting about Sea Shepherd. There are too many rude idiots out there. Bad combo. #
• @dane Hi, Dane! Thank you for the introduction — my first Twitter introduction ever. I am Eric. I like fish and computers and the cello. :) in reply to dane #
• RCA Airnergy – harvest Wifi power! http://bit.ly/75FyOp #
• HILARIOUS. http://bit.ly/4reLyO Now… someone translate! :) #

Those of you who think that the Ady Gil moved into the path of the Shonan Maru should watch at this video (also embedded here), which was leaked and then pulled from YouTube — but not before someone grabbed it and uploaded it again. Aside from the fact that it is obvious that the Shonan Maru turns starboard to intercept, the Ady Gil clearly cuts her engines and only motors at the end in an attempt to get out of the way.

I’m not sure why so many couch-laden landlubbers analyzed the previous videos available and concluded things like, “The Ady Gil’s engines were on. Therefore, she moved into the path of the Shonan Maru.”

Note that I didn’t post this video. I’m just linking to it on YouTube.

I can’t wait to see next season’s Whale Wars. It will be a different experience to watch it not having been there in person!

On January 6, 2010, Sea Shepherd’s fast-intercept catamaran the Ady Gil was rammed (formerly, Earthrace) by the Japanese whaling fleet’s security vessel, the Shonan Maro No 2. The front 8 feet or so of the Ady Gil was sheared off, and one crew member suffered broken ribs. All crew were rescued by the M/V Bob Barker.

This video shows the collision from two angles and was put together from videos released by both Sea Shepherd and the ICR. (videos synchronized by Eric Cheng)

UPDATE: Those of you who think that the Ady Gil moved into the path of the Shonan Maru should look at this video, which was leaked (without permission). Aside from the fact that it is obvious that the Shonan Maru turns starboard to intercept, the Ady Gil is just idling and only motors at the end in an attempt to get out of the way. Note that I didn’t post this video. I’m just linking to it on YouTube. (read more »)

Those of you who have ADSL broadband at home will probably have noticed that download bandwidth drops to almost nothing when you upload at full speed. Before last week, I was on a 6Mbps down / 768Kbps up connection (megabits) via Speakeasy. I could easily download at 600 KB/s (kilobytes) and upload at 80 KB/s, but if I uploaded at 80 KB/s, download speeds would slow to a crawl.

Luckily, I am a die-hard user of Throttled Pro. Throttled Pro implements ACK packet priority and also allows you to set upload limits globally or for specific ports. While ACK packet priority does increase download speeds when uploading at full speed, I found that if I reduced my upload speed just a little bit, download speeds would increase dramatically. On my 6Mbps / 768Kbps connection, throttling outbound uploads to 70 KB/s (versus a max of 80 KB/s) allowed me to simultaneously download at nearly full speed.

On my new Sonic.net 30Mbps down / 2Mbps up connection, I can download at 3 MB/s and upload at 220 KB/s. But when I upload at 220 KB/s, I find that download speeds are reduced to less than 200 KB/s — with ACK packet priority turned on. I throttled outbound traffic to 180 KB/s, and download speeds instantly increased to over 2 MB/s.

If you’re a frequent uploader, Throttled Pro is an absolute necessity. Buy it now.

• Bank of America’s SafePass is not ready to be used consistently. #
• Love the Droid, but hate the keyboards (both soft and hard). #
• The Making of Avatar, The Bootleg. http://gizmodo.com/5435497/the…..he-bootleg #
• 30Mb down / 2 Mb up ADSL2 is live! (tested at 25.85mb/1.8mb). I love it. #
• @gilesshaxted 1Mb/s down? Ouch — unacceptable! in reply to gilesshaxted #
• @gilesshaxted your clarification is confusing, and I think, wrong. But I understand. :) in reply to gilesshaxted #
• My Canon 24-105/f4 L IS lens is doing terrible things in Live View and video mode. $126 to repair (20% discount with CPS Silver). #
• On the Ground, a SNL digital short. hilarious! http://www.hulu.com/watch/9994…..the-ground #
• @RogierDiver Sonic.net in reply to RogierDiver #
• “Crew Uses Crazy Futuristic EarthRace Boat and Lasers to Fight Japanese Whalers” http://bit.ly/6Nxb07 #
• Happy New Year’s Eve! I will be having an early evening, with a 7am flight tomorrow. What are your plans for tonight? #
• Hrm. My Sigma 20mm/1.8 appears to not focus well on my 5D Mark II. I have to adjust it. *sigh* #
• Hanging out at Gary Danko’s birthday party at 12 Gallagher Lane. It is quite the SF scene! #
• Holy crap. I forgot both my phones this morning. Hijacked Pam’s phone for weekend. Everyone, use my 830 number! (Google voice) #
• @viennateng extra points for being extra geeky on the first day of the new year! in reply to viennateng #
• I am using a pen to write things down. A pen!! That is so 1900s. #
• In Kansas City. There is snow everywhere and the weather report says, “bitterly cold.” #
• New Vertex 2 Pro MLC SSD better than Intel X25-M G2? http://anandtech.com/storage/s…..2&p=1 #
• Loud manly cheering overheard from the hotel hallway. I think there is a sport of some kind on TV. #
• Watching CNN. Apparently, you are an American hero if you “rotated crackers and beer” for 8 days after your boat floods. #
• SFO bound — in Denver for layover after fantastic wedding weekend in Kansas City. Congratulations, Victor and Annie! #

After sleeping for 3 hours last night, I woke up at 4:45am to get ready for this morning’s flight. I was so well organized, I thought, until I realized that I had forgotten both of my phones! This has never happened before, and I was sort of horrified.

Luckily, Pam has a Blackberry Bold she has graciously agreed to loan me for the weekend. I promptly installed both TwitterBerry and Google Voice, and redirected my Google Voice number to her phone (this required a real browser — their mobile site didn’t offer me the option to add a phone). Hopefully, I’ve pummeled my Google Voice number into my friends’ heads by not being responsive when I’m called on direct lines. I love Google Voice!

// end kool-aid

Pam and I popped over to a party at 12 Gallagher Lane to meet Brian and Derek, the owners of the new gallery. The event also happened to be Gary Danko’s birthday party, and while it was strange to be at the party without knowing the birthday boy, we did get to meet him briefly.

Happy new year!