mahalo.

Google Talk went public today and I’m excited about it. For one, it uses an open protocol… for two, it uses an open protocol… and for three, there’s actually the potential for large scale adoption!

What an open protocol means is that weenie developers like me, all over the world, can write their own chat program that will allow them to talk with other google talk users. this is different from AIM, which largely uses a proprietary protocol which you can only communicate through using the AOL IM client, or other clients like gaim or trillian who have partially reverse engineered the protocol.

what’s the big deal? innovation. the more people you have trying to build on top of this, the more likely it is that someone will hit upon a cool idea. you would have more people writing automated bots like SmarterChild. You could do something like write a bot that runs at home, but when you send it certain IMs from work, it would programmatically do tasks for you like fetch your email and send it to you, start your VNC server, or download the latest tv torrents =).

why hasn’t this happened already? because jabber (the open protocol that google talk uses) hasn’t had enough people adopt it, largely because AIM, yahoo!, and MSN had already dominated the IM market with their chat protocols.

However, with iChat (the default mac chat application) using jabber, and now a big name like google behind it, there’s hope - and that’s exciting. the immediate adoption of an IM protocol is really important. because without it, the standard consumer out there will try it out, and think one thing (justifiably), “what’s the point of using this IM client if none of my friends are using it?” (and not so justifiably, “this isn’t as cool as AIM.”) which is why adoption really needs to be viral. since AIM (including ICQ) has been around (approx 40 million users in the US), Yahoo! (20 million users) and MSN (10 million users) have been around, but the only major player to make a dent is Skype (50 million worldwide), which is a perfect example of a viral technology successfully penetrating the IM arena.

As with all other businesses, competition in the marketplace translates to the ideal situation for consumers. If it happens that AIM has to innovate again after all this time (since they bought ICQ, effectively), it’d be cool to see what AOL still has to throw into the mix… I wonder if they would decide to open their protocol in an attempt to attract the developer community.

But aside from that, Google seems like it’s still a nice, happy, open family that knows how to bring good, consumer-focused products to the market and give people what they want, and i have a lot of faith in them.

the point of all this? go download google talk and help spread the word.

CNN

i was up in sonoma for a wedding this weekend. at night, back in the hotel room, i caught a bit of the west wing before i passed out… but luckily, i woke up just as one of my favorite bits came on. i had tried searching for this dialogue before, but i could never remember exactly how it went. now here it is:

President Josiah Bartlet: You’re Dr. Jenna Jacobs, right?
Jenna Jacobs: Yes, sir.
Bartlet: …Forgive me, Dr. Jacobs. Are you an M.D.?
Jacobs: A Ph.D.
Bartlet: A Ph.D.
Jacobs: Yes, sir.
Bartlet: Psychology?
Jacobs: No, sir.
Bartlet: Theology?
Jacobs: No.
Bartlet: Social work?
Jacobs: I have a Ph.D. in English literature.
Bartlet: I’m asking because on your show, people call in for advice and you go by the name Dr. Jacobs on your show, and I didn’t know if maybe your listeners were confused by that and assumed you had advanced training in psychology, theology or health care.
Jacobs: I don’t believe they are confused, no, sir.
Bartlet: Good. I like your show. I like how you call homosexuality an abomination.
Jacobs: I don’t say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President, the Bible does.
Bartlet: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
Jacobs: 18:22.
Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here. I’m interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She’s a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?

While thinking about that, can I ask another? My chief of staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or is it okay to call the police?

Here’s one that’s really important because we’ve got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point?

Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side-by-side?

Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you?

One last thing, while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.

owned.

i’m pretty sure i’m a republican, but the skewering of the far right is always satisfying. and yeah. she was sitting while everyone else was standing.

Battlestar Galactica Season 1 coming 9/20/05

i lost two key pieces of sporting equipment in the last two weeks. first, i somehow managed to lose my hockey stick. don’t ask me how you manage to lose a 5 foot long pole, but i managed to do it. and then, i lost my goggles - tyr socket rockets that i had since my high school days. they were awesome goggles of the minimal profile design (no cushion, fit right inside the socket).

i’ve since replaced both.

i set out to replace my hockey stick with the exact same one, an easton ultra lite senior 100 flex. turns out however, that that stick was out of stock, so epuck.com, this great online hockey vendor along with hockeymonkey and hockey giant, offered me a free upgrade to an ultra lite senior grip 100 flex. man, i used that stick tuesday (yesterday) and it feels great.

easton ultra lite senior grip 100 flex

notice that it is a nice, fiery red.

when i went to look for my socket rockets (i wanted the exact same pair if possible), i found out that they had been discontinued in favor of socket rockets version 2.0. after going to sportmart and big 5 and not finding them, i went to a small swim shop on central and lawrence and found both a few remaining of the original socket rockets, plus the new socket rocket version 2.0s. i ended up buying both because i wanted to see what the new model was like.

i have to say, they’re super cool. they basically added a thin layer of rubber over the plastic that contacts your eyes for a better seal (they call it TPR - thermo plastic rubber), they’re really comfortable and very low profile.

socket rocket 2.0 metallized

the BEST part however, is that because i got the metallized version (reflective material on the outside) of the socket rockets version 2.0, whenever i get out of the water, the reflection of the sun off my goggles makes these two red dots on whatever surface i’m looking at- which helps me imagine that i’m shooting lasers out of my eyes.

i was at the gym today when i ran into one of my co-workers. we were just talking randomly about stuff when she mentioned that she got migraines and had an interesting way of chasing them. she’d discovered that whenever she got auras, she would take an excedrin, drink a shot of espresso and then lock herself in a dark room with very little/no sensory input for about 15 minutes. from time to time she’d test her vision against her hand to see if she could still only see 4 of her fingers, and if it was the case, she’d go back into the room until it either passed, or the pain inevitably came. when she was done, she’d have go eat a piece of bread or have some pasta to balance out the effect of the big dose of caffeine she had.

she had tried a number of medications, including imitrex, a standard prescription medication for migraines, with no effect. one actually included her being upside down, dripping something down her nose to help numb the pain area right about her nose and eye cavity. didn’t help.

it just gets me thinking about a lot of things about migraines in general. for one, migraines are supposed to affect girls a lot more than guys. i seem to remember that the number is 3 out of 4 migraine sufferers are women. i didn’t know actually personally know anyone that had migraines besides me (and my dad, but he is very infrequent) until i started working. i always found that kind of strange that i never heard of anyone having it before - especially if you’ve ever seen someone suffering from a migraine, it’s not one of those things you’d just brush off when you hear of it.

migraines are also triggered by different things for different people. caffeine is one of the things that act as triggers for about half the people, and suppressants for the other half. for example, caffeine is a trigger for my dad, but for this girl, she could use it to actually chase her migraine away. i know that my trigger is a lack of sleep (less than 6 hours consecutive nights) and physical activity or stress. this is very unfortunate because i think if it weren’t for migraines, i would really sleep very little.

i actually kind of like the feeling of forcing myself awake and lounging around half asleep. if sleepy at work, taking a little walk or eating usually cures it. there is nothing really unpleasant about being tired for me… it just makes me enjoy the next night’s sleep more. but with migraines, every time i wake up at 6 to go to the gym, if i’m feeling especially tired, i am afraid to go because i’m not sure if my tiredness should be taken as a sign that my body won’t be able to take much more before it gives to the next onset. in general, feeling very tired and knowing that i have gotten very little sleep actually makes me very uneasy because of migraine attacks.

when migraines actually come, it is a unique sense of dread that is hard to describe. it is not simply the feeling that something bad is going to happen. it is the acquired knowledge of past experiences of exactly what is going to happen. it starts with some blind spots, which you hope may have just come around from you looking at a bright spot and not knowing it. then comes the reading (fingers/missing limbs test) where i look at a sheet full of words and notice that i am seeing white spots where there should be text. i try it again 2 minutes later hoping it will go away, but after the first test, it’s usually here to stay.

now’s where i wonder how much time i have to get home, into bed, and hopefully pass out before the pain hits. if i can get in the sack and manage to sleep for 4-5 hours, i’ll actually miss most of the pain and the nausea. at this point i would feel very tense, physically. it just becomes difficult to relax any muscles for some reason. i’ll drive home, get undressed, get some water (in case i have to throw up), close the doors, turn off any lights, close all the shades and get under the covers. part of the pain of migraines is caused by the blood vessels in your brain expanding, and i’ve heard that part of the reason it hurts is because the vessels actually get too close to the pain receptors in your brain. in my own superstitious way, i keep the half of my head that’s not hurting on the pillow… hoping that it might help the other side drain some blood out.

once the pain begins it is a unique sensation that i think can really only be understood among migraine sufferers. the closest thing i can think of to describe it, is a brain freeze that doesn’t go away, pounds, and is extremely focused to the point of pain. associating brain freeze with a migraine doesn’t quite make it feel that painful, but in comparison, i’ve thought about it, and all these things i would rather have happen to me than suffer a migraine for 4 hours (discounting permantly deforming/damaging effects):
1. be shot in both hands and the feet
2. place my hand on a hot stove
3. have my jaw dislocated with a strong force
4. a lot of other things i guess…

Obviously I haven’t ever experienced any of these things before, but I just think if i were suffering from a migraine and someone told me that i could suffer any of those things to make it go away, i would not be afraid.

I guess a better thing would be what i wouldn’t trade for a migraine:
1. being sliced extensively with a scalpel
2. being scourged or dragged over sharp objects
3. having some seriously messed up dental work being done to me (a la alias)

i just have to say, it is a unique sense of pain… it doesn’t quite compare with any of the things i listed, but just in terms of intensity, that should give you an idea. another way to look at it is: (1) makes me not want to have kids just so they won’t have to suffer it (it’s hereditery) and (2) in general, i’m not one to complain about pain, but it is the one thing that i have to ask God during it, “Why me?”

anyways, i was just thinking about it, and people have asked me to explain what it feels like before. and if there are those of you that read this that know people who suffer from migraines and think “it’s just a headache,” it is much worse than a headache. for most people it is debilitating.

if you for some reason play loud music, or run in and out of the room, paint your nails, or just throw up the blinds around someone who has a migraine - bad idea. the senses are hypersensitive during a migraine.

if someone who has a migraine is able to fall asleep, it is a sweet time of mercy for them, and if they manage to sleep it off, it is the luckiest sensation ever to wake up and have it be gone. if on the other hand you wake them up? even if they don’t say anything, they’re going to be thinking “wtf… you could have help me avoid all this but now i have writhe for another 30 minutes before i can fall asleep again.”

maybe you’re just nice and want to help. but really, when someone has a migraine, if he/she can find a nice, cool, quiet, dark room. that’s the best situation you can be in. just leave the person alone.

that’s my peace. it’s 12:16 now and i want to get up around 6:30 tomorrow so it’s time for bed.

it’s an exciting time eh? the big stars are flying all over the place thanks to retroactive free agency kicking into affect.

it’s rumored that the sharks are in the running for niedermeyer and kariya. holy moly if we got both of those guys, it woudl be so awesome. we would just be this unbelievably fast rocket of a team. we’re lacking some grit on the front lines, but hopefully thornton and parker can still help us out there.

if we want pure speed and skill though, marleau, sturm, michalek, goc, korolyuk, cheechoo, mccauley, ekman, dimitrakos, smith… all good young players, and if we added kariya? it would be good times.

on defense we still have stuart, hannan, mclaren, erhoff, fahey, and davison… it’s not like none of those guys got significant ice time last season.

and of course, last but not least, our wonderful duo that we take for granted, nabokov and toskala. this will be an exciting team to watch under the tutelage of free-wheeling ron wilson.

it’s been really crazy at work. i think i’ve been there 12 hours every day this week and i’ve been there at 9am or earlier. the bankers laugh at me, but the engineers feel my pain.

i’ve been thinking about a phenomenon that occurs when you’re really busy. normally when you have something important to do, you sort of keep it in the back of your head until you get out of all your meetings and you go do it. i’ve noticed however, if i leave a meeting and am about to start doing my task, thinking about what to do and so forth, and if someone comes and brings me into another meeting or there’s a fire to fight, that’s when i’ll forget to do what i was supposed to do in the first place. the moment my little reminder escaped and was about ot jump into action, that’s when it’s most vulnerable.

then when i’m free again, the first thing i remember to do is the next item that was behind the original task in my “back of my mind” queue. this is why i’m going to start using the “tasks” view in outlook. in general, seems like the older or more complicated your life gets, the more you want to outsource memory to other tools. so you can function with what little of your noggin you have left.

mike rathje left us for the flyers?

i feel dissed.

oh and one more thing i did this weekend! i watched “march of the penguins (sfgate)!”

rotten tomatoes = 94%!

i liked this quote. it’s really how you feel after watching this movie:

“I decided long ago that I needed no further proof that animals have souls. But if I did need some, I could find it in March of the Penguins.”
– Lawrence Toppman, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

penguins are amazing. it might have been dramaticized a little, but in the end, there are certain things they definitely do that are really extraordinary.

the way the movie starts is during mating season. for the most part, penguins just swim around in the ocean eating and chillin. but once every year (although it seems to take like, half of the year) they come out to mate. that’s where the cool stuff starts. these penguins basically all return to the same place they were born. and it’s not like some haphazard thing where they just jump out of the water and bunch up. multiple groups of them (it seemed like ~100/group) would jump (yes, they actually look like they just leap out) out of the water onto the surface and walk 70 miles SINGLE FILE to their location. along the way, they merge up with other groups heading to the same location.

the evolutionary explanation for why it’s the same place every year is that it’s the place where the ice is thickest. so if you imagine these giant glaciers thawing and reforming every year, the thickest part of the glacier should remain at the same place.

once there, they each find one mate. they are monogomous (and very devoted) every year. after they do their thing, they just hang out, huddle up (it gets way below zero… i think the temperature they talked about with the sun out was -58 degrees), until the egg comes.

then the egg comes. penguins are pretty cool in that they have this little pouch where they can hold the egg and cover it up by lowering and raising a part of their tummy. i don’t know quite how to explain it, but imagine if you had really big feet and a really big furry belly that you could raise and lower at will to cover whatever you’re holding on top of your feet.

when the egg comes, the mother will have been without food for two months, and on top of that, she’s been sharing nutrients with this baby. so the mother and father have to do this careful handoff where the mother scoots the egg onto the father’s feet. they show one couple who drop their egg, and you watch it as it cracks and freezes almost instantaneously (probably like 10 seconds) on the ice surface.

once the egg is handed off, the fathers huddle up together in a giant… huddle. they are now in the deepest part of the winter so they need to use each other to stay warm against the storms. meanwhile, the mothers head back on that 70 mile trek back to the water where they can get food. the other thing about the antarctic winter is that there is barely any sun out. so for the mothers, the walk back is much more dangerous than the initial walk to the breeding area.

after they’ve fed, the mothers walk back and switch places with the father. by this time, the fathers have been standing still with that egg on their feet for quite some time, and right before the mothers get back, that’s about when the eggs begin to hatch. the babies are hungry but mommy is on the way to bring them food the way that only birds can do.

and that’s as far as i’ll go because i’m just rehashing the movie now. but really, it was pretty touching to see what penguins do for that little egg.