desktoptopia is a wallpaper changing application. sure, this has been done before, but what makes this particular program difference from others is the selection of wallpapers. i think that this set of wallpapers are pretty compelling. there were some other programs that i’ve tried that have wallpapers that just aren’t that attractive.

what’s cool about this is that i have it changing my wallpaper every 5 minutes. it’s a nice change of pace and from what i hear it is now freely available where once it used to be a paid product. there’s a windows and mac version out and though the windows version seems to be in beta, it has been working for me just fine. the mac version feels a little more polished, though.

after doing a lot of research, i finally decided on an espresso machine. there seems to be a huge sea of options and it was difficult trying to figure out which way to go. it seems that one of the high end brands of automatic espresso machines is jura-capresso. part of what is important for an automatic espresso machine is the ability to produce consistent espresso in an easy fashion.

i was torn between a few brands, but after reading reviews online decided that i would try out the jura-capresso e8. there were some saeco models that i had considered as well, but after doing the research, i felt the jura-capresso model would be the one.

now, mind you, the company offers two models at this level, the E8 and the E9. the difference? one has a black plastic exterior, the other a silver plastic exterior. for $100 more, you can get the silver plastic model. i opted against it.

so we’ve had the espresso machine for about a week now and i’ve been making mochas and lattes with it. the one thing that i will have to say about this model is that consistency is pretty good between brews of coffee. i’ve been pretty happy with the performance of the espresso machine in those regards.

i have also ordered a frothing pitcher and a thermometer so that i can more easily gauge when the milk is properly steamed and frothed. my big fear is oversteaming the milk and having it curdle.

now the next step is to figure out how to make pearl milk tea with this thing…

i have not read the book that the movie is based on, but when i first popped the disc into the player i saw that i had two versions that i could choose from. i decided to watch the theatrical release and at the end, i was confused as to why the movie had ended the way it did. it just didn’t make sense.

i read online that the movie was actually rewritten and changed from the book to end this way so that it would be more commercially palatable. so i watched the alternate ending that was on the disc and it COMPLETELY changes the entire relationship between the zombies and dr. neville. though i liked the theatrical release, the ending did feel a little forced and i felt like there were some loose ends. the alternate version really changes the tone of the entire movie and wraps up some references made in the movie earlier much better.

definitely check out the alternate ending, it is fantastic.

i’ve added gravat support into the comment section of the blog and lo and behold, no one uses gravatars. big surprise there as i’ve never even heard of a gravatar until a few weeks ago. oh well, maybe it’ll catch on. otherwise, i guess i’ll be the only one with a picture next to my comments. =P

the office got a new order of instant swiss miss milk chocolate with marshmallow packets and on the packaging prominently displayed is:

“As Much Calcium as a Glass of Milk”

wow. really? you’re going to try to market this stuff as being healthy for you? i mean, that’s great for me, but not so great for people who believe that drinking this will be as good for you as drinking milk. i guess you gotta get your calcium somewhere, though.

sometimes a movie will suck you in and completely take you by surprise. the movie that did that to me in the first few minutes was dan in real life. i love characters who show some insight and dan’s youngest daughter tells him early in the movie when asked why his other daughters are upset at him, “you’re a good father, but sometimes a bad dad.” it’s one of those moments in a movie where i did a double take. there are few times when watching a movie that you are struck by something that someone said that leaves a lasting impression.

it’s true that this movie is completely formulaic and predictable. why then is it that i like the movie so much? i think part of it is that there were some better than expected performances by steve carell and dane cook. part of it is that there was some great writing and dialogue between characters. i love the interactions between steve carell and his youngest daughter.

the basic story, though, is one that you would think i wouldn’t like. it’s about a guy who falls for a girl who turns out to be his brother’s girlfriend. there is a moral struggle between the guy and this girl who actually falls for the guy more than her current beau. whatever are they to do?

i think the movie ends rather abruptly and ties itself up neatly and too quickly, but for some reason i forgive the movie for bailing out so quickly on me and giving it a quick ending. still, i think it’s well worth the watch and i give it a strong recommendation.

should i be concerned that the local l&l hawaiian bbq cooks don’t wear hairnets, hats, or some other device to prevent hair from slipping into my food?

i never really noticed before but i signed up to volunteer at this year’s nikkei matsuri festival and one of the requirements for a volunteer who handles food is to wear a hat. i don’t know why that reminded me that i’ve never seen any l&l employee wear a hat before, but it did. and now i’m starting to wonder if i should be concerned…

is that even the correct term for it these days? sure, you could spin records. i can even sort of understand spinning CDs. but in this age of flash memory-based mp3 players, there are no moving parts. nothing is spinning anymore, so really, i guess it would be more accurate to say what’s accessing in the ipod?

anyhow, i was in a nostalgic mood this morning, so before i left for work i put some new songs on the ipod to fit my mood. what found its way on my ipod was a mix of pet shop boys, erasure, depeche mode, rem, phil collins, chicago, the bangles, and other one hit wonders from the 80s. it was the music that i grew up on.

and as i listened to these songs, i was brought back to the memories of the day. it seems that many of these songs are actually rather depressing in tone. but some of these songs have such specific memories, some that i had completely forgotten about until just now.
Continue reading what’s spinning in the ipod →

i was hopeful that the 2.20 firmware update would fix all of my divx/xvid streaming woes with the addition of more codecs and better support for playing video files in general. and after the firmware update, it’s true, the ps3 does play more files than it used to. but, i am still getting the dreaded streaming error. part of the movie will play and then it’ll crash at the same place over and over. the xbox can play the movies fine, so i’m hoping that eventually when ps3 streaming support is more mature, it’ll work itself out.

in the meantime, this means that the ps3 has been demoted as my media center (which really was the dream) and is now just a blu-ray and rock band player. i hope that sony resolves these issues soon because it’s a shame not being able to use the ps3 as a media center.

i’m currently using mediatomb as my DLNA server on a D-Link DNS-323 NAS.