SwimFinsSF

Some Geek Stuff

Pace   سلام   שלום   Hasîtî   शान्ति   Barış   和平   Мир

One of the things I do for a living is to make Final Cut Pro/Express work in multiple languages. This involves both the engineering work required to translate the User Interface of the Application into languages such as German, Japanese, and French as well as the work required to let people use the application in their native language regardless of the language of the application. For example, even if the application is running with an English user interface, a user who speaks Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, or Korean should be able to use Final Cut and enter text in their native language for movie titles, file names, or whereever.

To make this happen I implemented support for Unicode Text in the application. I won’t go into details of what unicode is or how it works – if you want to know more check out this page. But as part of this I’ve been trying to get my blog supporting international text too and I’ve FINALLY got it working…

The entry below is a cool page I found here that demonstrats functional unicode text… If your browser is showing garbage below then it isn’t unicode savvy.. I’d be curious to know who is seeing garbage and who is seeing what looks like arrabic or hebrew text…

Nuff geek stuff… for now… ;)…
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People Are People…

So Saturday night we watched this show called Sex 2K on MTV… The episode we caught was on a Gay Cruise and it was totally silly… It followed 3 gay guys as they got ready for and went on a Gay Cruise… I’ve known LOTS of people that have gone on those and haven’t heard a single person say they hated it… but I’ve also not heard a single person that said they got a lot of reading done and had plenty of quiet time either.. So the whole time i’m thinkin ‘GOD – I hope my mom and my sister aren’t watching this’…

Turned out the show wasn’t that scandelous. I’m sure there was plenty in there that would have horrified the christian coalition (or thrilled them to provide more fuel – who knows – who cares) but there wasn’t anything that surprised me.. Actually looked like fun. Still didn’t want my mom and sister catchin it though..

But then I watched a couple more episodes of the same show… One on ‘Speed Dating’ and another on ‘Sex Doctors’ (dating coaches)… LORD… They made the gay episode look like no big deal.. In the grand scheme of things none of the shows were that big of a deal in my mind.. but the straight scenarios were JUST as tawdry, tragic, tantelizing, and wierd as the gay one.. probably more so… All of the shows, gay or straight, showed people trying to find the loves of their life, and occasionally being complete tragedies or whores in the process..

Just funny… not a big deal.. but did feel better about the gay ‘scene’… Just goes to show that people are people.. gay or straight… we all have our skeletons in our closets… all lookin for similar things… there are odd balls everywhere..

just made me giggle so I had to share… check out that show some time… not a good show mind you.. but it is fun..

Gay Bars and the Fire Marshall

So the fire marshall has really started ruining people’s evenings in San Francisco… Can’t say I hold it against him (them? I assume there is more than one of those guys / gals)… Ever since those fires in Chicago and on the East Coast the fire marshall in San Francisco has started cracking down on bars in San Francisco for cramming too many people in a place with one exit.

Scary part is, ever since I started going out to gay bars / clubs the thought has crossed my mind that they pack WAY too many people into those places… While that might increase the lure and intrigue of these places it does seem kinda scary… I don’t know if this is unique to gay places but the straight clubs I’ve been in don’t seem to pack NEARLY as many people into them..

Anyway.. First the Pilsner got busted for having a TON of people in the palce and only one fire escape… Cracking down on that just drove the preppie boys down the street into the heart of the castro… Then the Lone Star got busted which resulted in an influx of bears into the Eagle’s sunday beer bust.. And the latest casualty was fridy night at the Loading Dock.. This resulted in a large group of hard core Leather / Latex boys showing up at the powerhouse…

Gotta admit I do find the migration patterns of the native San Francisco gay man funny and facinating. Even so – MAN – while before they were REALLY packed (too packed really to be safe) now with only 49 people in these places they sure seem empty… guess I’ll just have to head for places with more doors.. :):)

Damn Good Book

Just picked up Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation and its great… Totally Pete book – funny but factual. It talks about the mating habits of animals and plants across the planet but does it in the form of Dear Abby like letters which makes it really fun to read… Sections that start out like

“Dear Dr. Tatiana,

Perhaps you can help. I don’t know wha’s happened to me. I’m a twenty-seven-year-old African elephant, and I ussed to enjoy showering at the water hole and other idle pleasures. But the joy has gone from my life. I feel angry all the time – if I see another bull elephant, I want to kill him. And i’m obsessed with sex. Night after night I have erotic dreams, and the sight of a beautiful cow sends me into a frenzy. Worst of all, my penis has turned green. Am I ill?

Anxious in Amboseli”

She then goes on to answer the leter with a lot of interesting and fun facts.. And the animals range from humans to trees, to bees, to elephants, to you name it…

Late night sillyness…

This test thanks to TXT Guckloch….

Danke sch&#246n – Jetzt m&#252&#223 ich ins Bett! 😉

You are Neo, from “The Matrix.” You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.