random bits (and browser-tab-cleanup day)

[cellio]

Query to the brain trust: I have USB headphones that include a microphone. What free software can I use to record voice from that microphone (preferably on Windows XP but I also have an iBook with OS 10.4 available) and produce something like WAV files? (I know I'm not going to get stellar audio quality from this setup; that's ok. The immediate goal is to record torah chanting -- think "teaching tapes", except no one uses tape any more.)

Followup on UJF: I spoke with the campaign manager on Friday and she was very apologetic. She promised to take appropriate action. (I've updated the original entry to reflect this.)

This week my employer's landlord started giving preferred parking spots to people driving green vehicles (definition not provided). Not that I'm going to turn down the convenience (my Honda Fit qualifies), but as one of my coworkers pointed out, are those the cars for which they want to minimize driving? (Should we try to get the gas guzzlers to stop on the first floor instead?) I used to always park on the top indoor floor, mostly so I could park in the same place every day and not have to worry about remembering at the end of the day. Now that I think about it, that decision represented about 2-3% of my commuting distance.

You know that "25 things about me" meme that's been going around? Maybe it's older than you thought. Or maybe not. :-)

The local SCA got some decent TV coverage recently.

Via jducoeur: Facebook company secrets were revealed by someone who applied paper analogies to digital media. Oops. No, white-out doesn't work on bits. (From the news story it sounds like it might have been the court that screwed up, which presumably means they can't sue anyone for the leak.)

Birkat ha Chamah is a once-every-28-years observance, and it's coming up this April. I wonder if anyone local is doing anything for this. It sounds kind of peculiar, but it'll be a while before I could next satisfy my curiosity. (The timing is inconvenient with respect to Pesach, however.)

Glow-in-the-dark body cream, pointed out by browngirl.

Thanks to xiphias for pointing out this comic to me:

Comments

[siderea]

I suspect "mad engineers" is redundant, and possibly what happens to scientists who get prion diseases.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Birkat ha Chamah will be a big deal here in Brooklyn, eruv Pesach or not.

Not that it would hurt to get an early start *that* day - and maybe it's enough of an event to engender a siyyum for beckorim...

[cellio]

One unanswered question (so far) for me is whether our presumed obligation to be in another city before the seder starts will preclude my attending anything. :-(

("Presumed" obligation because that's where Dani's family is and I'd like to see them, but their s'darim are religiously unsatisfactory for me and I'm tired of that, so Dani and I are still talking about what to do about that. I think "go find my own seder in Toronto for one night" is more likely than my staying home, but an open question is who is going to be how torqued off by which options.)

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, al pi halacha, all you need to do for birchat hachamah is say "baruch ... oseh ma'aseh v'reishit." Everything else is added to make the once-every-28-years thing feel more significant. And yes, it is awfully inconvenient that it falls on the busiest morning of the year.

[cellio]

Yeah, there's what halacha requires, and then there's taking advantage of a rare event to do something more. I wonder what my local community will be up to.

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

I would be very surprised if Audacity could not record for you.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

[...] are those the cars for which they want to minimize driving?

I have that issue out here, where a certain number of passes were sold allowing hybrid/electric vehicles to use the high-occupancy lanes no matter how many people are in the car. It makes sense to give people an incentive to purchase more efficient vehicles, but really, I'd rather the person getting 3mpg is allowed to get off the road first, even if that is a horrible negative incentive.

[bitsy-legend.livejournal.com]

>Should we try to get the gas guzzlers to stop on the first floor instead?

How much sense does it make to force the drivers of heavy gashogs to actually move them farther up in the parking building, going at super-slow speeds, potentially with lots of idling during peak hours? One of those no-good-answer dilemmas which generally points to flaws in the underlying design/assumptions.

Like a thumbnail of the human condition.

[cellio]

Yeah, no good answers here -- reward the behavior you don't actually want (choosing gas-guzzlers) or admit that what you're doing is only a feel-good move -- which is fine so long as you don't have illusions to the contrary. Me, I'm taking advantage of our landlord's feel-good program, not anything that actually encourages green choices.