Endopolis

Great stuff from VH1's Rock Honors 2008 (honoring The Who).

Pearl Jam:

Foo Fighters:

Posted by senders at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The other day I was all set to install 2GB of new RAM in my (old but still good) 17" PowerBook G4. I was excited about this, so after getting the RAM shipment in the mail I quickly flipped my Mac over, popped the battery out, and discovered that I needed a really small screwdriver that I didn't own. So, I clicked the battery back in, plugged in the computer and started it... up.  Wait a second... it didn't start. I get a blue screen with a cursor, but it won't do anything. It never boots. It's like the dreaded blue screen of death normally associated with PCs. Nothing. Not even a sad Mac face or a question mark looking for the system folder.

WTF?

After a lot of forum-reading with my dad who was in town, we couldn't get the thing going. We tried just about every diagnostic/repair trick in the book (short of sticking it in the freezer). Apparently this blue screen is somewhat notorious to PowerBooks, and I'm not the first person to encounter this sorry state. I don't have Apple Care, the computer is not under warranty, and I'm faced with taking it into an Apple store for advice, which no doubt will be packed with iPhone shoppers (or angry iPhone shoppers looking for support).

I'm afraid this problem, in the end, is going to cost me money. In short, I'm hosed.

Meanwhile, my HP laptop for work is dying -- it freezes and crashes, won't start sometimes, and is generally totally unstable. I cleared out a lot of temp folders and defragged the hard drive last night. That seems to have helped today, but who knows. Yahoo says they're out of replacement computers, so I'm stuck.

If you own a PC, probably best to stay away from me for awhile. I'm a walking blue screen of death.

Posted by senders at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night I flew up the coast from LAX to SJC. On these flights I like to sit on the ocean-side of the plane so I can try to spot all my favorite landmarks on the way: Santa Barbara, SLO, Morro Bay, Big Sur, Monterey and Santa Cruz. I couldn't see much yesterday because the coast south of Pt. Conception was shrouded in fog, while north of the point was covered in smoke and haze.

When we started our descent, I could make out the Monterey Bay to the northwest, and then just out to the west was Big Sur. Once I was able to focus through the hazy sky, I could see the smoke bellowing up from the Santa Lucia Mountains below. It appeared the whole range was on fire -- smoke was coming up from seemingly everywhere. I was shocked by how expansive the fires were.

Here's what it looks like from space today: 

We normally visit Big Sur over the July 4th holiday. This year we opted to go in the Fall instead. That turned out to be a good choice, since the whole area was evacuated and shut down during the holiday. I just hope there's something to go back to in September. Cooler air is supposed to come back this weekend, so hopefully it'll help. I understand that burning is often good for nature, but seeing the all that smoke hurt. I can't imagine what life is like for those who've been evacuated from Big Sur, not to mention all the other fires burning in the state.

Last night, I threw together a collection of my favorite photos of Big Sur from flickr -- better and happier times from my favorite place on earth. 

Posted by senders at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Campfires are in the air again today. It's super hazy outside.

A friend sent me a link to the image I was looking for that really tells the story of how the fire smoke is blanketing our region. Amazing.

Posted by senders at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The media business is a pretty small world, but I thought this clip epitomized it for me.

The background: Charlene Birkeland is parenting editor and blogger for Yahoo! Shine, (not to mention a fine writer and downright nice person). She's also married to my first boss at Yahoo, Jeff Birkeland (a fine fellow in his own right). In this clip, she's talking to Michaela Pereira, who I worked with at TechTV. Michaela has been rocking the morning news at KTLA Los Angeles for a few years now.

Small world.

Posted by senders at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)