Hello again

August 2nd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

It’s been a while since I last posted here on the Hopp Stop, but I think it’s time to get back in the swing of things. What better way to kick that off than with a photo of our puppy Bismarck, coming up on his 13-month birthday (he’ll be a pup until he’s 2 years old or thereabouts)? As you can see, he is now able to fill up the couch by himself, and he sleeps in some amusing poses.

Biz doing some snoozing

Hopp links for Saturday, December 18

December 18th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

  • Cut the Rope, a very fun iPhone/iPad game, has a free holiday version out. Recommended.
  • Marco the Tumblr gets to use an enduring rotary phone with his Verizon FiOS connection.
  • Spencer Hall with another hilarious column at Every Day Should Be Saturday, this time centering on the West Virginia hiring of a football coach-in-waiting.
  • The Times has been running a series over the last week on the 1960 plane collision over NYC that resulted in a plane crashing in Park Slope. This article on the state of the neighborhood in 1960 is a great read if you’ve seen the vitality of the neighborhood today, or are interested in urban planning and post-war urban decay in US cities. It’s remarkable how much of urban decay was caused by a combination of lending practices (encouraging a move to suburbs by middle-class whites) and racism.
  • This post, another in the Park Slope crash series, has a great 1960/2010 matched photo of the wreckage.
  • I love the National, so I really enjoyed this Pitchfork interview with Aaron Dressner, one of the musical forces behind the band.

Hopp links for Sunday, December 12

December 12th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

I wish we were getting snow, but instead it’s heavy rain.
  • Let’s start things off with some fresh sunset photos from one of my fellow DRA founding fathers, Chris Walton.
  • I think my recent link posts have fired up the spambots, as I’ve been getting some amusing spam comments (they never show up on the site, as WordPress’ spam filter does a nice job catching them). Here’s a response to my post on Gmail setup under iOS 4: “Unhappy for the  analyze, but I’m truly fatherly the new Zune, and comic this, as compartment as the excellent reviews few additional fill have longhand, testament cater you terminate if it’s the aright prime for you.”
  • Ha ha, the Taiwanese video site NMA (they quickly put together videos of current events and computer animate them, such as Tigers Woods crashing his truck or Stephen Slater jumping out of the plane) has a video up on the Chinese Confucius Peace Prize, celebrating “peace from the Chinese perspective”. Love it. And I love the armed giant Pandas serving as Chinese soldiers.
  • Wild to see the aftermath of this 1960 plane crash in Park Slope in Brooklyn, given that I now live blocks away from the crash site.

Amazing video inspired by Modest Mouse

December 12th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

Check out this great video for “Fly Trapped In A Jar” by the Saline Project. Apparently the Mouse had it pulled from the Interwebs a couple years ago, but now it’s authorized and back up. Thanks to Underwire for the video.

 

Hopp links for Monday, December 6

December 6th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

We’re now seeing snow flurries and wind chills in the low 20s. Winter has arrived in NYC!
  • A blogger installed a SSD hard drive in his 2009 13″ MacBook Pro. This is exactly what I did (replacing the optical drive so that I now have a 100GB SSD for the OS and a 1TB regular hard drive for my files), and it’s easily the best computer upgrade I have ever done, well worth the money. My computer is so much more responsive, it’s almost unbelievable. Moving to an SSD really opens your eyes to how much the storage system serves as a bottleneck in today’s computers. I went with an OWC SSD, as the reviews were all glowing.
  • This week’s NY Times Magazine has a long article on Oregon’s high-speed football offense.
  • Burrito Justice is up to his usual cool work in San Francisco, putting together some resources on the Cone of Invisibility for Mission/Bernal residents, in which the BoA building blocks the Transamerica Pyramid. One note from the end of the post: there used to be a quarry on top of Bernal, evident in one of the photos.
  • The NY Times has an article about increasing use of rabbit ears to get HDTV. I’ve actually been using a $40 HDTV antenna (complete with rabbit ears for VHF frequences, as well as quasi-futuristic ray gun part for UHF frequencies–or perhaps it is the other way around) for a month now, and it works quite well, especially since I can connect it to my TiVo for DVR usage. There is some susceptibility to interference if you move the antenna or sit by it when watching, but it’s tough to complain given the monthly price ($0). We’ve also been using Netflix streaming and Hulu Plus to get our TV fill, and have purchased some shows via iTunes (e.g., Mad Men). The only thing missing is live sports, which would be covered if Cablevision was an ESPN3 partner–then I could watch live sports on my Xbox 360.
  • Road trains in Europe? Sounds pretty good to me, as it means more efficient utilization of roads without road infrastructure investments. I expect that automated driving will involve a mesh network between cars, not communication with the roads, given the cost of building out a smart road infrastructure combined with challenges of keeping it current.

Hopp’s Links for Thursday, December 2

December 2nd, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

Enjoyed some cold, rainy weather out here in NY over the last couple days, but now it’s beautiful–clear and crisp…
  • Published just before this week’s US State Dept. leaks from WikiLeaks, Forbes has an in-depth look at WikiLeaks and the future of data security.
  • This NY Times article on port (and the recent decline in consumption) reminds me that it has been too long since I’ve had a nice glass of port after dinner. I used to regularly get a glass at Garçon on 22nd and Guerrero in SF when V and I would pop in for dessert on a weekend evening.
  • Carcassone is coming for the iPad this month. This should make Vanessa very happy.
  • This is the first detailed story I’ve seen on the Stuxnet virus that someone (the article proposes a consortium of Western intelligence agencies) created and deployed to cripple Iranian centrifuges used in their nuclear program. Fascinating story. Hat tip to Daring Fireball for the link.
  • A new life form has been discovered in Mono Lake (by Yosemite) that ”is made of arsenic, something that was thought to be completely impossible.”
  • Via Daring Fireball, a great overview of using Google Voice on the iPhone. I’m still holding back from jumping in with both feet on a move to using my GVoice # as my primary number, in part because there are still advantages to the native apps. Also, I tried to start texting via Google Voice and ran into problems receiving replies.
  • Is this a joke? Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup over the US? WTF. Moving beyond my disappointment that the Cup won’t be here in the States, I don’t think I’ll travel to Qatar for the games. 118 degree temps and no social life in the country? Sign me up. I imagine ticket sales will be really strong, given that US fans bought more tickets than anyone outside of South Africa for the most recent Cup. [/sarcasm] Final complaint: in a warming world, how is it socially conscious for FIFA to endorse a plan that makes the oppressive heat tolerable by air-conditioning outdoor stadium?

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