Driss-A-Blog

Big Red

Avi — 2010-02-11T19:39:59-05:00

Verizon is Big Red?

It's a hilarious self-aware parody, and I love the kissing couple homage in the hotel lobby scenes. If you dig around, you'll find the original commercial this is based off of:

Not only is half of it a shot-for-shot remake, the music is note-for-note the same. I didn't realize (until digging around) that you can date these ads by the music (this one and that one share the music and are from the '80s, while this one is much newer, this one goes for a harder rock sound, and this one is a horrible retro abomination).

--Avi

Fish and chips in the city

Avi — 2009-12-29T14:25:01-05:00

Happy 150th to you!

There haven't been too many good places I've been to here in NYC. Here's a brief overview:

Arthur Treacher's
251 E 14th St
★☆☆☆☆
A sad joke. The fish is a rectangular block that mocks the natural shape and taste of fish.

One and One
76 1 Ave
★★★☆☆
The fish is good, but someone there needs to take Batter 101. Presentation is nice but the slightest touch causes the fish to fall to pieces and the batter to slide off. Redemption comes from the 2-for-1 special on Sunday nights at 7pm.

A Salt & Battery
112 Greenwich Ave
★★★★☆
The star off isn't from the awful name, but the prices. The meal is good, but rather expensive. And how can you sell fish and chips separately?

Chipshop
129 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn
★★★★★
Yes, to get awesome fish and chips you have to go to Brooklyn. Suck it up. The price is reasonable, the serving size is large, and the taste is great.

--Avi

New Wicks Work!

Shira — 2009-12-18T01:13:51-05:00

Happy Chanukah! Chodesh Tov! Shabbat Shalom!

I started using a new kind of wick about four nights ago, and it's working out well. It's the type with a metal tab at the bottom with a wick sticking straight up. You fill the little glass with oil, drop the wick in - make sure there's some wick above the oil - and light. Thank goodness.

All is well here. Hope all is well with everyone out there.
Shira

--Shira

Unhappy Wicks

Shira — 2009-12-13T23:22:14-05:00

I've been lighting oil for the last few years (at least) and I haven't had this kind of a problem yet. My wicks keep drowning themselves. I can't figure it out - they can't be that unhappy.

It's the third night of Chanukah - and they did it again. I had changed the oil (in case it really was the oil) but I'm thinking it's the wicks. I used these wicks last year, so I didn't expect trouble. Tomorrow I'm going wick shopping - we'll try something else.

I didn't want to change the oil and the wick at the same time, otherwise I wouldn't know what worked. So one thing at a time - oil today - we'll try wicks tomorrow.

I'll let you know!
Shira

--Shira

Happy Chanukah!

Shira — 2009-12-11T01:00:37-05:00

Just thought I'd stop by and give a short update on my life.

I'm in Toronto (shockingly enough) and thank G-d all is going well.

Immigration Front - we've received a notice that Jeff has given the okay to be my sponsor. The rest of the permanent residency application has been forwarded to the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo, New York to be reviewed.

The Apartment - it's finally shaping up. We're due to put up pictures (hopefully) this week. Yay!

My Writings - not to worry, I'm still involved. I have two websites:
http://shiradrissman.com - political musings
http://shiradrissman.org - Jewish musings - new article up on Chanukah!

That's my life. I'm still not allowed to work, but various projects are keeping me busy and out of trouble.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Chanukah!
Shira

--Shira

What the bleep?

Avi — 2009-12-07T10:20:21-05:00

What the Bleep Do We Know!?
★☆☆☆☆

Twenty two minutes into the movie I learned a new logical technique I'm calling Advanced Logical Bullshitting. It goes something like this:

Make a bad analogy: “In empty space, matter flits in and out of existence. Kinda like thoughts do.”
Turn it into a simile: “Matter is like thought.”
Assume it to be literal truth: “Therefore, we've established that thoughts create matter.”

I'm not joking. That's the actual argument made by the movie 22 minutes in. That was enough for me; I turned it off.

This seriously angers me. I've seen girls on Facebook who list “Quantum Physics” under “Interests.” Nuh, uh, honey. Not with nothing else in your profile listing the slightest bit of scientific interest. (And no, random quotes from Einstein about God don't count.)

If you want to claim that you create your own reality through your thoughts, fine. That was done in the 70s by Jane Roberts and her Seth books. But don't defend it by making a mockery of logic and science.

--Avi

Dubai

Avi — 2009-11-27T00:10:54-05:00

Bounce a check in Dubai and you go to jail.

Bounce a check and you're Dubai, well, too bad.

--Avi

NSRectFill() and +[NSColor clearColor]

Avi — 2009-10-09T14:55:20-05:00

I'm reading a code review from a colleague when I see this:

[[NSColor clearColor] set]; NSRectFill(rect);

Ouch. I see that's broken, but only because I made the same mistake yesterday. What's wrong?

(more...)

--Avi

CrossFitting

Avi — 2009-09-08T21:22:48-05:00

I learned about CrossFit from the My Fat Ass challenge that I did with some friends of mine (we hope to be restarting it soon). I'd had mixed results from doing P90X (mostly involving knees feeling like they were going to tear), and so the opportunity to do things under professional supervision was appealing.

So I joined up at CrossFit Virtuosity and started on their Foundations classes. Once I've got the basic form down I hope to move up to the “regular” classes. But I got a taste of that yesterday when we had a joint Labor Day class.

(more...)

--Avi

Adventures in Immigration

Shira — 2009-08-17T17:22:47-05:00

Immigration to Canada is no simple thing, even for an American. One would think, "Hey! I'm an American - here I am." Nope, that doesn't happen sorry to say.

I've been working on my permanent residency papers. Which means that I've been given 6 months to get the papers and information collected that will allow me to continue living in Canada. My 6 month deadline is approaching at the end of September.

Here is the excitement so far.

(more...)

--Shira

Replacement foam earpads

Avi — 2009-07-27T21:02:57-05:00

One of the fun things about using earbuds is having to occasionally replace the foam pads.

Option #1: Go to Radio Shack. Get a 4-pack for $4 plus tax. Bought this twice already. Ow.

Option #2: eBay seller ZanyZap's 450-pack for $9. Shipped.

Hmmm...

--Avi

Appreciation time

Avi — 2009-06-23T11:32:41-05:00

http://twitter.com/aviappreciates

--Avi

Can't get an iPhone?

Avi — 2009-06-21T15:35:06-05:00

I'm giving up and getting an iPhone. Well, trying to, anyway. I was halfway through my order when I punched in my current phone number and got a notice that it was ineligible for transfer. I did a live chat with an agent:

Rene: Does your number belong to a different state than the one you are in?
Avi: yes
Avi: why would that matter?
Rene: That matters because there is a Federal Law by the FCC that prevents the transfer of numbers from state to state.

Seriously? I can't take my number with me because I live in a different state?

Rene: You would have to get a new number. Would that be alright with you?
Avi: Ugh
Avi: no, I've had that # for nine years
Rene: I am sorry about that.
Rene: What would you like to do?
Rene: Sometimes change is good.

Sometimes change is good?! I'm already starting to dread working with AT&T...

--Avi

Reverse-Engineering in OS X on x86

Avi — 2009-05-16T15:15:14-05:00

The other day at work I had a task: to figure out how to change the displayed title of a minimized window in the Dock without actually changing the window's title. (Please trust that I had a very good reason for wanting to do this.)

While there are some excellent articles about how to reverse-engineer under OS X, they're all PowerPC-based. And even though the future of the Mac is x86, it seems like people have lots of anxiety about having to work with it.

I think the problem is not a lack of documentation on x86 assembly, but a surfeit of it. Most of it is Windows- or DOS-centric, usually with the wrong syntax (Intel syntax vs the AT&T syntax that GCC uses), and with the aim of teaching how to write it. But reading x86 assembly really isn't that hard. If all you want to do is learn how to read the code generated by GCC, it's probably just as easy as PowerPC.

The other day I took notes of my discoveries. Let's touch on two functions, both in PowerPC and x86 flavors. For those of you who only know PowerPC assembly, I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised.

(more...)

--Avi

In the beginning...

Talya — 2009-05-14T15:49:47-05:00

My mom has always said that each person consists of four parts: the emotional, the physical, the mental, and the physical, and that you need to "feed" each part in order to stay balanced. I work out regularly, I read all the time and learn a lot practicing law, I look over myself emotionally, but I have been negligent with my spiritual side. I have had a rough go of things the past two and a half years, and decided that I had reached the last straw. Though I understand that I'm not truly in control of my life (G-d is), I do have some say in the matter, and thus, decided 2009 was my year, the year where I regain control of my life and who I really am. I started studying Torah (Old Testament) with Rabbi Shea Werner this week.

(more...)

--Talya