Mr. E tag:erik.ogan.net,2008-03-04://2 2008-09-02T21:51:52Z Just Add Silent 'E' Movable Type Open Source 4.1 Grabbing My Destiny (By the Antennae?) tag:erik.ogan.net,2008://2.3961 2008-09-02T21:33:43Z 2008-09-02T21:51:52Z This afternoon I tendered my resignation. I leave behind a great group of people on the cusp of major to stratospheric success. It was a very hard decision, but my destiny lies elsewhere. The top half of the page... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ The Tick Escapes the Asylum

This afternoon I tendered my resignation. I leave behind a great group of people on the cusp of major to stratospheric success. It was a very hard decision, but my destiny lies elsewhere.

The top half of the page at left isn’t as true as it’s been in the past, making the decision all the more difficult. But the bottom half sings a profound truth.

I was not looking for a new gig. But a few kept landing in my lap that I couldn’t pass up. I’ve accepted the senior developer position at Emmet Labs, an early-stage social platform startup in San Francisco.

There are many reasons this excites me: learning a lot while working on interesting problems in a cool (metaphorical) space surrounded by fascinating (and occasionally famous) people in a dynamic and passion-driven environment. That’s where I thrive!

Obviously there are a lot of other, less exciting emotions tied to the coming and the going, but I feel the need to keep this entry short. Perhaps I’ll catalogue them in a future post.

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Golden Gate Social Bike Ride! (Take 3) tag:erik.ogan.net,2008://2.3865 2008-06-13T13:13:41Z 2008-07-02T06:46:20Z Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ ...This time with 4 part harmony and feeling.

I’m putting together another all-abilities, all-ages, slow as molasses, stop & smell the roses bicycle ride over the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday, June 22.

When:
Sunday, June 22th (next Sunday, not the day after tomorrow). My plan is to start at my house at noon or 1pm. If I’m riding alone, I can probably be at the bridge in 30 minutes, but connecting with people will modify that, and the schedule for this ride is necessarily a bit flexible. I’m also open to other ideas (see below)
Who:
Anyone who has a bike, can manage to stay (mostly) upright on it, and wants to ride across the Golden Gate (C’mon! It’s fun! You should do it at least once!)
What:
Riding a bicycle across the Golden Gate Bridge. Also, you might want to consult your doctor about ADHD, and/or cut down on the fine herb clouding your short-term memory.
Where:
At a minimum, the Bridge, but see below
]]> I plan to ride from my house and over the Bridge, at a minimum. I expect to connect with people along the way. I will stress again, for the ADHD sufferers out there, that this is a slow, fun, social ride. There are some options to consider, however: (nearly all of these can be played by ear)

Options on the Near End

  1. Ride with me from my house. (Ha!)
  2. Ride Caltrain to 22nd St, start from there, taking a flat route around Potrero Hill. Mostly for South Bay denizens.
  3. Ride BART to 16th Street, and meet me there. Mostly for inhabitants of the Beast, but South Bay folks who are nervous about traffic might consider riding Caltrain to Milbrae & taking BART. This will avoid all but 5 blocks of 16th St. (Once we turn off onto Sanchez it’s all quiet streets and/or bike lanes)
  4. New! Ride Caltrain to 4th/King, or BART to Embarcadero, pick up the Bay Trail a few blocks away. This isn't nearly as nice as the ride through Golden Gate Park & the Presidio (and it's longer), but it's all but completely removed from traffic (Caltrain more than BART)
  5. Park in the garage in the Marina (at Pier 39), meet us at the bridge. This may be the best option for folks worried about distance / fitness. (Though the climb from the Marina to the bridge is a lot less gradual than through the park, and you’ll need to find your own way (I can give you directions), unless everyone decides to take one of the Embarcadero options).
  6. Miraculously find parking in the parking lot at the bridge, or on the streets surrounding, join us there, ride over the bridge, ride right back, get into the car, go home, secure in the accomplishment of actually riding a bicycle over the bridge. I strongly recommend against this approach, but it is an option.

Options on the Far End

  1. Turn around at the Marin end of the bridge, and backtrack. Certainly an option, but take a look at #2 before you settle on this.
  2. Continue (almost entirely downhill, with one climb) into Sausalito, have lunch / snacks, or just sit in the park. Take the Ferry back to SF (which lets out close to the garage in the Marina.)
  3. Same as above, minus the ferry. (What goes down, must come up. It does, however, feel great to conquer it.)
  4. Continue from Sausalito to Tiburon (a gorgeous ride, but it’s another 10-15 miles) I, myself, will only consider doing this on the condition that everyone is going. We can take the ferry back from Tiburon.
  5. Or not. Complete the circuit. I might be up for this, but I reserve the right to wimp out. Contingent on more of the same above.

(Added!) Distances Involved

22nd St - 16th St. BART
2.2mi
16th St. BART - Fell & Baker
1.9mi
Fell & Baker - Presidio
2.4mi
Presidio - Bridge
2.2mi
Bridge!
2.1mi
Bridge - Sausalito
2.7mi

Alternate Route Distances

4th/King - Ferry Building
1.6mi
Ferry Building - Blue & Gold Ferry Terminal (Pier 39)
0.9mi
Pier 39 - Bridge
5.8mi

Deviations from these options are highly encouraged! Any questions? ASK!

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<![CDATA[It’s Dead, Jim]]> tag:erik.ogan.net,2008://2.3788 2008-04-11T15:44:41Z 2008-04-11T16:29:49Z My Treo 650 was acting a little strange during my travails in travel on Tuesday. Wednesday morning it got even weirder, and by noon it stopped working at all. I’m in Miami for the week, and I feel a bit... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ My Treo 650 was acting a little strange during my travails in travel on Tuesday. Wednesday morning it got even weirder, and by noon it stopped working at all.

I’m in Miami for the week, and I feel a bit vulnerable without having the ability to connect with folks, either at home, in the family, or people I want to see/meet here.

But beyond that, I don’t know what to do moving forward. Palm is dead as a platform. The rumored impending release of the 3G network iPhone would be absolutely perfect, except:

  1. The rumor is completely unsubstantiated, it started as an off-hand comment by Walt Mossberg, and is fueled entirely by wanton wishful thinking
  2. I need something now, not in a month or two
  3. It would mean giving a(nother) red cent to AT&T after they:
    1. flagrantly and recklessly colluded with the NSA to violate the law and our Constitutional rights.
    2. decided all of your personal information? yeah, that’s now “Marketing Information” they're free to use (and sell) as they see fit.
    3. etc, etc, etc…

It’s that last one that is so problematic. I feel completely hypocritical even considering an iPhone. Yeah, sure, Android, um, see #2 above.

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Further Evidence of Geekdom tag:erik.ogan.net,2008://2.3758 2008-03-29T19:03:19Z 2008-03-29T19:36:14Z In preparation for a demo that could lead to a huge opportunity, I worked two weeks straight, most nights until midnight, sometimes until after 2am. No rest for the wicked weary on the two weekends, I just plowed straight through.I’m... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ huge opportunity, I worked two weeks straight, most nights until midnight, sometimes until after 2am. No rest for the wicked weary on the two weekends, I just plowed straight through.

I’m done, back banging on the stuff on which I should be working, and I was very much looking forward to a respite this weekend.

There’s just one minor glitch. The problem I left on Friday evening is sticking in my craw. It’s interesting. I know I should leave it until Monday, but here I am logging into the VPN to grab the file so I can at least map out how I think it should be solved.

Hopefully that will exorcise this demon, and I can go back to enjoying a weekend with my sweetie.
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The First Word was Hartford... tag:erik.ogan.net,2008://2.3750 2008-03-24T20:03:48Z 2008-03-29T19:34:42Z [This has been rolling around my head for a few weeks, and I’ve been chomping at the bit (until my site redesign was finished and MT was working again for me) for the time I could write it.] I play... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ [This has been rolling around my head for a few weeks, and I’ve been chomping at the bit (until my site redesign was finished and MT was working again for me) for the time I could write it.]

I play at being a misanthrope. It’s not all charade, there is certainly a fair bit of my character that is completely anti-social, and while I’ve come out of my shell in shocking and scary ways in recent years, I’m still rather introverted.

But at the deepest level, the essential kernel, I am an optimist. A humanist. A romantic.

There hasn’t been much fuel for that spark in the public space in recent years, in fact in most ways we haven’t been sliding toward oblivion so much a stampeding toward it.

And yet, as I observed the political process recently I’ve found myself experiencing some odd emotions. While reading reading Jon Taplin’s Blog I put my finger on it. The odd sensation I couldn’t quite grasp was hope.

I feel hopeful. Not that we’ve turned around and are headed in the right direction, but that maybe we’ve turned a (slight) corner. That some more people are starting to ask hard, important questions. That people might actually be willing to put aside differences, and dig in for the herculean task of rebuilding everything the last 8-10 years has torn down.

I fully expect these hopes to be dashed. We, as a nation, have been coddled and encouraged to stick our heads in the sand for too long for it change overnight. And the siren song of blissful ignorance is powerful. But, if the cards fall well, that dashing could be delayed until after January. Several months of hope could do me (and many of us) a world of good.

Edit: I finally figured out what was breaking the crossposting of this entry. The original draft of this entry, had I been able to publish it, would have coincided perfectly with the speech about which everyone is talking. It’s gratifying to see so many of us feel the same way.

I know it’s more of that blinding hope, but I can’t help but feel that the choice before us is between the politicians of the past; and a statesman, the likes of which we haven’t seen in a generation, who will lead us into the future.

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Redesign tag:erik.ogan.net,2008://2.3749 2008-03-22T19:08:52Z 2008-03-22T19:40:28Z Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ A scientific breakthrough! I compressed another 9 years of slacking and ambivalence into just two.

In reality, my hand was forced. When Six Apart announced plans to release Movable Type 4 under the GPL, I was overjoyed. I’d been itching to upgrade our installation (version 2.65, circa 1999-2000), and it was the perfect opportunity. I’m very glad that WordPress’s design (single blog, single author) made me put off spending any time seriously considering it.

But it left me with dilemmas: First, the ljcrosspost plugin for 2.x was abandon-ware (I submitted a few patches, and the website disappeared shortly thereafter), and even if it wasn’t, it suffered some major flaws. After failing to find a suitable replacement[*], I resigned myself (with some excitement, I’ll admit) to write my own.

And then there was the design for my site. If I was going to have to rework my Movable Type templates for my blog, I might as well revert the templates to the new defaults and update the design as well.

And here we are. It’s not finished, but most of the major pieces are in place. And I don’t hate it. This in itself is a victory. I’m actually more or less pleased with it, for now.

[*] I’ve since found a cross-post plugin that is written by someone who knows what he’s doing, has a nice preference UI, and does more than just LJ. But he doesn’t have all the features mine has (though arguably some of those could/should be a separate plugin), and the license terms are less than ideal. So I’ll keep working on mine. (With the intent of releasing it under the GPL)

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The Plea (And Confession) of a Type Torturer tag:erik.ogan.net,2008:/blog//2.3403 2008-01-14T01:33:13Z 2008-04-16T00:41:00Z Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ Please believe me. I’ve tried. I will grant that some of those attempts may have been half-hearted, but I was weary, down-hearted. I didn’t think that I could do it (and I’m still skeptical), but I can’t live this lie, maintain this charade any longer, and so this voice cries in the wilderness, hoping someone out there can help me out of jam of a mental block:

I need a replacement for Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed:

One with an honest italic (not just slanted romans). One that will contrast as beautifully against my body font (currently a simple Bodoni Book, with both lining and old-style numerals as appropriate) without clashing.

You see, I don’t want the world, I just want your half.

My current front-runner is Agenda Semibold Extra (or Ultra, I haven’t decided yet) Condensed (Italic):

[ I've decided to remove the samples for Agenda, you can find it if you care, but as I said in comments in the cross-post I realized I liked it a lot less once this was posted.]

While it is quite nice in its own right, it's too round, lacks the subtle, oblique stress that (was one of the elements that) drew me to Franklin Gothic, and the lack of a branch terminal on the spine & bowl mating of some forms (“b,” in particular) doesn’t sit well with me. It doesn’t feel as . . . classy. You see, I’m still hoping for a long-lost italic cousin to come out of the woodwork.

I can’t seem to shake that sense. A little help?

]]> How I came to be in this pickle is a longer story, one of interest to no-one except myself, I suspect.

The romance began slightly more than 10 years ago. I don’t remember now if it was love at first sight, but it was something close. It definitely led to the awakening of my interest in the arcane world of typography.

Oh, sure, I’d long known about fonts, and I collected as many as I could find. I’d long before hit the 127 face limit in MacOS. But typography still lay just outside my purview. This project would prove to be the first step on that awakening.

It came at a perfect confluence of events, I had just read[1] Robin Williams’s Non-Designers’ Design Book (it's been through a few revisions since) and just attended a re-employment seminar that charged me to rewrite my résumé from the ground up. Granted, most of the results are now cringe-worthy, but at the time I felt on top of the world.

I was using Times Roman[2] as my body font (I know, I know, they were baby steps at first), so I wanted a very strong sans serif with a much darker color for my titles. The speed and satisfaction with which I settled on Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed was rather unsusual for me at that time.

I soon realized that I needed to distinguish between employers and job titles, so I applied an italic style to the titles. PageMaker, not finding an italic font dutifully slanted the romans. I can hear the type geeks screaming in pain, and I wish that was the extent of the sins I must confess, but there is more. And I think (in my defense) the ungainly, mildly disturbing width of those letters eventually pushed me in the direction of learning what an italic really was, and started opening the world of typography to me.

When I migrated away from PageMaker into building the PDF from XML source using FOP, I lost my slanted roman “italics.” After casting around for a replacement font, I eventually dug in, learned the PDF file format and figured out how PageMaker transformed the letterforms, and spent far too much effort perpetrating that particular crime. I eventually wrote a Perl script to apply the matrix transformation to the right text in my PDFs, and as I upgraded FOP a few times spent time hacking my script to work again.

With the latest upgrade I finally said, “Enough!” I no longer had an excuse — I know what I was doing was wrong. I must correct myself. My inner type geek can turn a blind eye no more.

And so, here I am, trying to replace my first lover. The one who opened my eyes to a new world, in so many ways. Yes, she’s a troll. But I’ll always have a speical place for her.


...And I just realized that this whole entry could have been condensed down to a pithy, personal ad format. I’m sure anyone still reading to here would have gotten more amusement out of that than this missive. Oh well. Next time.


[1] (or was about to read, chronology of events has always been a slippery thing for me, and events from this time in my life are particularly elusive)

[2] It wasn’t until much later that I moved my body font to Bodoni Book, not realizing that in so doing I was using two very different faces by the same designer, Morris Fuller Benton.

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Synchronicity tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3363 2007-12-15T18:25:26Z 2007-12-16T18:56:29Z [While this may not be the first time I've heard this song since certain facts came to light (to me), it's definitely the first time I've considered the lyrics:] Really, who but a candidate for a doctorate in astrophysics (now... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ [While this may not be the first time I've heard this song since certain facts came to light (to me), it's definitely the first time I've considered the lyrics:]

Really, who but a candidate for a doctorate in astrophysics (now properly defended) could write such a heart-wrenching song about the perils of relativistic space travel?

I know I've had my suspicions over the years, and, sure, it could be argued there are other interpretations (I'd expect nothing less from such a master), but this coincidence is too strong to ignore.

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Open Letters tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3357 2007-12-11T18:56:22Z 2007-12-11T19:08:15Z Dear USPS: Look, I know things are busy for you right now, so you probably won't even hear my cries over the din of all of the mail you're processing, however I have two comments: "package tracking" != "delivery confirmation!"... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ Dear USPS:

Look, I know things are busy for you right now, so you probably won't even hear my cries over the din of all of the mail you're processing, however I have two comments:

  1. "package tracking" != "delivery confirmation!" Please stop trying to confuse the issue
  2. "Express Mail" my fat, pale, hairy ass!

In short, my package should have been here overnight 1 week ago (even giving you the benefit of the doubt). I have no visibility into your process. I just want my damn package!

no love,
E


Dear Random Cyclist Who Likes to Draft Me on Moffett Park Blvd.:

First off, I am greatly honored by your obvious trust in my abilities, but I have two questions for you as well:

  1. Dude, seriously, what the fuck? That shit is dangerous done with people you know how to anticipate, but a random stranger? Yes, yes, I'm in awe of your mad skillz and your obviously far stronger cojones, but what the hell is wrong with you?
  2. We've done this a few times now, you know I turn left at Borregas, do you not realize that when I look behind me I'm trying to gauge the likelihood of being mauled by a death machine as I enter the lane? Seeing your smiling face blocking my view is not helpful.

In short: thanks, now please back the fuck off!

No Love,
You Don't Even Know My Name


Dear Random Other Cyclist I'd Never Seen Before:

I'm sorry my passing you was such an affront to your machismo that you felt you had to be a complete prick about it. But let's compare:

  1. I passed you, on the left, letting you know I was there, ("On your left")
  2. You passed me, on the right (seriously, are you dense?) with nary a peep, at a stop sign, where you immediately made a left turn across my path!

I nearly ran right into you, asshat! If I'd been aware of what you were about to pull I might have out of spite. I hope your manhood has been vindicated. Now kindly cut that shit out.

Whatever.

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Reaping What I've Sown tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3339 2007-12-03T00:00:07Z 2007-12-03T00:08:20Z For once, I'm using that metaphor for something positive! After a most delectable Thanksgiving dinner[*], I contemplated the carcass of the bird and said "We can't just throw that out," (You can take the boy out of New England, but... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ For once, I'm using that metaphor for something positive!

After a most delectable Thanksgiving dinner[*], I contemplated the carcass of the bird and said "We can't just throw that out," (You can take the boy out of New England, but you can't take New England out of the boy) "I'll make stock!"

So I gathered up a mirpois, some additional aromatics, and some leftover herbage, and put the bird on to boil.

[Note to future self: wishing either of your 8Q stock pots are large enough to handle 4lbs of carcass doesn't make it so. If you plan to do this again, buy a proper stock pot!]

10 hours of boiling, scumming, and topping off later the bones had given up quite a bit of collagen, but there was still some left. On the other hand, it was 1am and it would take about an hour[**] to cool the stock to the point it could safely be stored in the refrigerator. So I pulled it, strained it through cheese cloth and started the cooling process.

When I finally dealt with it, I found that while it wasn't as gelatinous as it might be, it was most assuredly more than a mere broth! Success![***] I then dutifully broke out the muffin tins and portioned it into 1/2 & 1c amounts, plus a few pints and into the freezer it went.

And now, with Chiara off at a baby shower, I went to the kitchen to contemplate lunch. Once there I was hit with a revelation like a bolt of lightning:

Consommé!

Another mirpois (diced this time), one of my frozen pints, a little salt, a little pepper (ok, a lot of pepper. Probably too much, my nose is still running) and some egg noodles I didn't know we had. (Yes, I threw it all together into the pot at the same time, sue me.) Finished with a squeeze of lemon juice.

In a word, sublime.

[*] I think Chiara's tired of me raving about the carmelized onion & balsamic gravy that she couldn't eat, but really, everything we ate was fantastic. That gravy, however, was a mind-expanding substance.

[**] In the other stock pot, surrounded by ice, with two frozen nalgene bottles full in the middle to speed the process. That's all AB's idea.

[***] Ok,I also found it to be a bit murkier than I might like, probably meaning that I cooked it too high and didn't scum as effectively as I should have. It was also curiously lacking in schmaltz. Oh well, for a first (solo) effort, it wasn't bad.

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Band Geek 4 Life! tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3334 2007-11-30T14:14:41Z 2007-11-30T17:05:53Z The plethora of emotions this brought to the surface was a bit surprising, actually: Unfortunately, I can't find one from the "correct" perspective. Represent, yo (via Play this Thing)... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ The plethora of emotions this brought to the surface was a bit surprising, actually:


Unfortunately, I can't find one from the "correct" perspective.

Represent, yo

(via Play this Thing)

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Dissonance tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3289 2007-11-10T02:49:10Z 2007-11-10T03:30:19Z I'm sweaty, smell faintly of smoky beeswax, and I have (mild) first degree burns on my hands and forearms. I also feel giddy, and more centered than I have in a long time. Even though pretty much everything I tried... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ I'm sweaty, smell faintly of smoky beeswax, and I have (mild) first degree burns on my hands and forearms.

I also feel giddy, and more centered than I have in a long time. Even though pretty much everything I tried failed, most of it spectacularly.

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Emulation tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3257 2007-10-12T15:57:12Z 2007-10-12T16:31:42Z I just suffered a strong sense of cognative dissonance this morning reading David Byrne wax poetic on Justin Timberlake's Madison Square Garden concert [about 2/3 of the way down, "JT on HBO"]. I would have assumed . . . Well,... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ I just suffered a strong sense of cognative dissonance this morning reading David Byrne wax poetic on Justin Timberlake's Madison Square Garden concert [about 2/3 of the way down, "JT on HBO"]. I would have assumed . . . Well, I would have assumed that he was as closed-minded as I am.

Sure, I could write it off as simply one artist's appreciation for the craft execution of another. But that would miss an important lesson here: one of the things I admire and respect about Byrne is the gusto with which he tries new things!

As an artist, it benefits him greatly to be able to embace the new. But the same could be said for all of us as human beings.

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RSS Is . . . tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3246 2007-10-08T20:53:47Z 2007-10-08T20:53:47Z RSS is a long, protracted exercise in letting go. . . .And a constant reminder that I need more practice.... Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ RSS is a long, protracted exercise in letting go.

. . .And a constant reminder that I need more practice.

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Pick Me! Pick ME! tag:erik.ogan.net,2007:/blog//2.3244 2007-10-05T16:45:45Z 2007-10-05T16:46:16Z Erik http://erik.ogan.net/ I just listened to the following, meme tags never end up with a list this good:

"Five Man Army" — Massive Attack
"Don't Stop Me Now" — Queen
"Down Under" — Men at Work
"The Dead Heart" — Midnight Oil
"Parsec" — Stereolab
"Cecilia" — Simon & Garfunkel
"Stretch Out and Wait" — The Smiths
"Stuck in a Loop" — Devo
"If You Want To Sing Out" — Cat Stevens

Sure, it's not my perfect list, nor is each song necessarily the best choice from that artist, but each one of them has me moving in my chair in degrees varying from a little bit to full-on embarrassing.

I think I'll pull a Teletubbies: Again! Again!

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