Obviously, there are many products that can’t be small and simple, but if you approach software development as both an art and a craft, as I do, then this is a very inspirational work. Highly recommended.

Arranged for comparison, with Kate Bush as (a) and Mathematica as (b), we have:

This matches
a: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582
b: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582

This is just wrong
a: 31
b: 0

Kate skipped this section
a:
b: 9986280348253421170679

The final section is correct
a: 8214808651328230664709384460955058223
b: 8214808651328230664709384460955058223

It seems really bizarre to me for Kate to write a song about someone obsessed with pi, and then get the digit sequence wrong.

In any case, it’s a great album. Highly Recommended.

I wrote back and told them they’re insane if they think Mac users are going to hold off switching to Tiger just because Now couldn’t get their act together to release a Tiger-compatible version of NUTD in time. I’ve used NUTD (and Now Contact) since they were first released, which I believe was about 10 years ago. It’s a pretty good product.

So, much as my wife hates to change programs, I’ve switched us to using iCal + Address Book, and using iSync to keep the calendars and addresses consistent between my two computers and hers. This turned out to be fairly simple, given that I have a .Mac account that I wasn’t using for much anyway, but I had to set up my wife’s computer to connect to the same .Mac account. This has the unfortunate side-effect of making my address card “Me” on her computer as well as mine. I hope this doesn’t cause any problems.

It appears that Tiger will allow address-book syncing between separate .Mac accounts. I don’t see anything about syncing calendars that way as well. I sure hope it does, since the main drawback with iCal is that there’s no way to share editable calendars between people.

iCal and iSync have come a long way, but they don’t replace NUTD’s server functionality, except in limited cases. Now may have stepped in it with this delay, but if they’re lucky, they’ll survive with a bunch of unhappy customers.

Meanwhile, switching will let us take advantages of the new Tiger integration, which sounds pretty spiffy!

Although they tend to be on the pricy side (for Concord), Aigo Bistro is Highly Recommended.

For several years, Aigo Bistro was known as “Guida’s Coast Cuisine”, which still appears on the credit card slips, but Guida went elsewhere, and the former owner/cook took it back over. The style is still “Mediterranean”, but the quality remains excellent.

We went there most recently on May 9, 2003 for my wife’s birthday, and had an excellent dinner. I was surprised, given that it was a Friday night, that the place was only about half full. It’s not that large to begin with. I hope that this doesn’t mean anything, because I’d really hate to lose them.

The service was very attentive, the presentation was top notch, and the food was delicious. Nothing more needs to be said.

My wife and I ate dinner here on Saturday, May 17, 2003. It was a disaster. Even allowing 90 minutes for dinner before a show (across the street), our dinner arrived 10 minutes before we had to leave, and it was grossly overcooked to the point of being charred (tenderloin in puff pastry).

The manager was polite about not charging us for the inedible food, but the bad service plus the horrible preparation of the entree earns Walden Grille a rating of Not Recommended.

Walden Grille was formerly known as Walden Station. I’ve eaten there quite a few times, and it was always pleasant. Walden Grille has apparently gone seriously downhill.

I noticed the same entree that I ordered being served to other customers, and it looked delicious. I was astonished to have a charred pastry served to me, and when I said to the server “This can’t be right”, she shrugged it off. The waiter only said “would you like to talk to the manager?”.

I’ve had a good lunch here before, so they’re not uniformly bad, but the comments I’ve heard from neighbors about similar horrible experiences here has convinced me to avoid them from now on.

It’s a real shame, since the location is great for a dinner prior to a show at 51 Walden, across the street, so I can only hope that the current management gets its act together.
]]> http://stoney.sb.org/wordpress/2003/05/walden-grille/feed/ 0 http://stoney.sb.org/wordpress/2002/10/toys/ http://stoney.sb.org/wordpress/2002/10/toys/#comments Mon, 07 Oct 2002 17:00:00 +0000 stoney http://stoney.sb.org/?p=3 I love electronic and mechanical toys. Here are some of my favorites.

Garmin Street Pilot III – Works very well. Routing is not as good as I would hope, since it seems to ignore the delay caused by stop signs and lights, but I wouldn’t be without it. Its main problem is that the mapping software doesn’t run on Macintosh.

Silly Putty – I bought five pounds of blue Silly Putty from Crayola after seeing an article about bulk Silly Putty purchasing in the Wall Street Journal. It’s a wonderful desk toy. You have to be careful not to let it sit on anything porous, or to let cats sit on it.

Macintosh – The best toy is a Macintosh. I have three in my office, and five more around the house. I have a PC too, but it’s not a toy, it’s an aggravation.

Sony DSC-F707 – An absolutely wonderful digital camera. Excellent picture quality. This is my third Sony digital camera, and they’ve all been just great.

Kurzweil K2600X – There’s something about the sound of a Kurzweil synth that puts it well above anything else. I think it’s the variable sample rate, producing very clean, un-aliased sound.

Roland HandSonic – An outstanding percussion controller. This replaced a DrumKat for me, but does so much more. Convenience (you’ve always got your hands with you), good sound quality, responsive pads, and lots of presets. I keep it in my office so I can just turn around and whack at it. It has an optical sensor that lets you wave your hand over it to play an instrument or for the cat to sit on and swish her tail over.