MY APARTMENT!!! or: Google SketchUp evaluation and review

N.B.: I don't normally post personal items on this blog, so this will be thinly disguised as a technology review article.

I'm moving into my own apartment soon, and I'm pretty excited about it. In preparation, I've been shopping for some furniture, as well as thinking about how I'm going to arrange the furniture in the limited space that I have. When I was at IKEA, I saw booths set up where people were using some custom software to design their furniture layouts, and I thought it would be a good idea to try to do some "interior design" of my apartment using some 3D software to better visualize the space.

I had heard good things about Google SketchUp, so I thought I would give that a shot. SketchUp is a pretty generic 3D modeling tool, but it seems like most people use it to create architectural designs. After watching some of the video tutorials on the site, and some experimentation with the interface, I was able to whip up something pretty quickly.

Voila:


This is the living room.




I'm considering maybe putting another shelf next to the TV for additional storage of books, DVDs, or whatever. On the other hand, it's good to have some empty space so that it's not too cluttered. There's also a pretty large storage closet in the apartment, so anything that doesn't need to always be conveniently available, I can just put in the closet.

Here's the bedroom.




The bedroom seemed small to me when I first looked at the floorplan and at the empty apartment, but now I've seen it in 3D with the furniture models, it's not so bad.

So in conclusion: Google SketchUp is pretty good. Pretty, pretty good. 9/10

Radiohead fanboy ambivalence

So Radiohead announced the release of a new album called "In Rainbows", coming out October 10th. I don't think I've ever seen an album announcement so close to its release date. Usually there's months of anticipation before a release, but this time they've decided to spring this on us on short notice. Like "Hey, new album next week!" Apparently, they're able to do this because they're no longer signed to a record contract; this is basically an "indie" release.

Because of their newly gained indie status, the band is also doing things a little differently in terms of distributing and pricing the release. The album is coming out as an online download at first. The price: "It's up to you." Kind of like selling it through an honour system. You can even download it for free, and they won't mind. (I'm going to give them a couple of bucks anyway. You know, for their trouble.) This is great and very forward-thinking of them, and gives fanboys like myself ammunition when discussing the greatness of Radiohead with fans of other, more inferior bands.

BUT

They're also selling the album as a boxset to be released later this year. The boxset will have CD and vinyl versions of the album, which makes for good collector's items to be sure. But the thing that's killing me is, there's a second CD with more songs, that's only available in the boxset. It's like they're selling a double album where you can download the first part for free, but you have to buy the special collector's edition for the second part. And how much is the boxset? £40. Or about $80 CAD. (Or $80 USD, ha!) That's a long way from "It's up to you."

I know I'll probably buy the boxset anyways, and the fanboy in me wants to forgive them, but this is really a rip-off. It's like they're trying to trick us into thinking they're really cool by giving away the free download, just so we'll be happy to spend the money on the boxset. I only hope they'll come to their senses and make the second CD available as a standalone purchase. Otherwise, I'm boycotting Radiohead forever. Oh, who am I kidding? I love you, Thom Yorke.

Thoughts on The God Delusion: "Darwinism"

I was reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and something occurred to me. While I worked my way through the section about the evolution vs. intelligent design debate (which any book about atheism should address), the word "Darwinism" kept popping up. Every time the word was used, I became more and more conscious of it; something about it bothered me.

The thing that struck me is this: why is Darwinism an "-ism"? The -ism suffix is generally used for names of religions (e.g. Judaism, Catholicism, Hinduism), or a philosophical stance (e.g. existentialism, Marxism, even atheism itself), or a political movement (e.g. feminism, abolitionism).

Darwinism, being a scientific theory, doesn't fit into these categories. I can't think of any other scientific theories with the -ism suffix. Wouldn't it be like calling the Laws of Motion "Newtonism", or general relativity "Einsteinism", or genetics "Watson and Crickism"? (Or maybe "Watsonism-and-Crickism" to be more fair to Watson.)

I wonder if the use of the word "Darwinism" weakens the evolution argument in the public eye, because it makes it sound like something less than an established theory. Maybe "Darwinism" has a very precise meaning that I'm unclear on, but it is commonly used when discussing evolution and natural selection. The debate between evolution and creationism (which is appropriately an -ism) is a public, cultural one; and the public, in my opinion, is not so concerned with precisely defining terms.

A word like "Darwinism" lends itself to attacks of this sort: "See? It's just some guy's opinion!" I'd like to see the word used less, at least for the purposes of cultural debate. Charles Darwin obviously deserves a lot of credit, but in this case, a more decisive term may be more useful.

Sponsored by Del Monte

My buddy made an interesting post about the perception of "straight acting" among homosexuals. It just goes to show how every group has its own prejudices.

One thing I want to comment on, his comparison between "straight acting" and "banana":

This is analogous to referring to an Asian person as a "banana" (which doesn't seem to carry the same negative connotations).

This isn't quite accurate. The term "banana" is not as neutral as my friend makes it out to be. Personally, I don't take offense at being called a banana, but the whole concept of an Asian person acting white can be the cause of some friction. My banana status is ambiguous enough that sometimes I've been able to listen in at conversations between parents of more full-fledged bananas, and I can tell, it's really something that they have strong feelings about. They sincerely wish that their kids were "more Chinese." In my own family, there's never been outright unhappiness about the issue, but I can occasionally sense an air of passive disapproval. (We don't call it "banana" in Cantonese, there's another term for it that I won't even attempt a translation of... it's some shit about bamboo or something.)

And I can only guess what FOBs think about bananas. I wouldn't know, because I stay away from those people as much as I can...

Wheel... Of.... FortAHHHH!

I was watching Wheel of Fortune the other day, and I have a message for the producers of the show: if a contestant can't properly pronounce the 26 letters of the alphabet, please don't let them on the show. This one player just kept yelling out "letters" and I just couldn't tell what she was saying.

Player: "I'll spin..." Spin. "Is there an AHHHHH?"

Pat Sajak: "Yes, there are two R's."

Player: "I'd like to buy a vowel... an AHHHHH."

Pat Sajak: "There is one I."

Player: "Spin..." Spin. "AHHHHH?"

Pat Sajak: "No, sorry, there are no Q's."

Pat Sajak didn't seem to have a problem deciphering it, but I guess that's why he's a game show host and I'm not. Either that, or there are hours of edited footage on the cutting room floor of Pat Sajak going "What? What letter did you just say?!"

I felt like I was on The Amazing Race

Of all the days to be travelling, and of all the airports to catch a flight connection, I had to choose January 1st, and Denver International, respectively.  January 1st, when everybody is flying to get home after the holidays.  Denver, where a blizzard had halted the entire city just days before.  Lesson learned: never try to make a flight connection where the arrival-departure gap is only 1 hour.

The customs lineup at YYZ was one of those that wrapped around multiple times, through multiple rooms.  You think the line is moving, but then you just end up standing 2 feet away from where you just were 15 minutes ago, but facing the other direction.  You'd think that with such an epic queue, they'd lighten up on the customs questioning, but I got the full interrogation.

"What is your profession?"
"What was your major?"
"Why would a Canadian ever travel to the States for work?"
"What school did you graduate from?" (I was asked this twice.)

But I made it.  It took only a Mild Airport Sprint to get to the flight with time to spare.  The Toronto-Denver flight was only slightly late in taking off, and we landed pretty much on time.  I relaxed.  I even enjoyed seeing the snow, my first sight of snow this winter.  The plane actually taxied on top of snow.  All was well, until the following:

"Uh... this is the pilot.  Unfortunately, our gate is occupied.  So, unfortunately, we will have to wait until they clear us to enter the gate, unfortunately.  Uh, unfortunately, I apologize for the inconvenience."

Yes, she actually used the word "unfortunately" four times.

There was still about a half hour before the departure time of my second leg.  I talked to some of the guys seated around me.  Apparently, several of us were making the same connection to San Jose.  I told them, cocksure, "Well, since there are a few of us, they'll see that this flight is late in arriving and hold it for us.  We should be okay."  Sure enough, the plane started moving again.  We had been assigned to another gate.  Fortunately.

"This is the pilot.  Our gate is open, but we need to wait for the marshal to guide us in."  The marshal?  How about the sheriff, or the deputy?  Do we have to wait for them to show up too?

Thirty minutes passed before we finally pulled in.  I've never heard so many buckles being disengaged prior to "the captain has determined it safe to leave your seats, and has turned off the seat belt sign".  Now it was time for a Fierce Airport Sprint.  One of my temporary airplane friends and I arrived at the departure gate, but it was too late.  We would have to stay the night in Denver.

Let's look at the bright side, shall we?  I got a free hotel stay.  I got nine dollars for dinner.  I got four dollars for breakfast.  More accurately, since this is a business trip, I earned my company a free hotel stay and thirteen dollars of food vouchers.  Most importantly, when I arrived at my final destination in the afternoon the next day, it was too late to go to work, but not so late that I had to go right to bed.  So I went and saw "Apocalypto".  Good movie.