Christmas Day started with breakfast and the opening of presents at Grammy and Grandpa’s house. Everybody got some pretty cool presents — including a camera tripod for Uncle Paco, maybe now he can get in some of the pictures! Lunch followed at Grandma’s house, where we were treated to a snowfall before dessert.

Click the image to see the album, two videos follow below.

A couple of hours of snow dropped as a bonus Christmas present. Target practice? Oh sure, there’s Uncle Paco:

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Snow is cold — and wet! Who’s to blame for getting this lovely new coat wet?

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(Or, how to publish sound files in WordPress.)

I signed up for Soundcloud and recorded my first message.

Truly, a voice made for print media.

IMMEDIATE REACTIONS:

1. Might be better served recording audio on my PC using Audacity and then uploading after clean-up.
2. I wonder if I can change the size/look of the audio player?
3. Can I edit online?
4. Only 2 hours worth of audio. That might be enough, really. Let’s look at alternatives.

Second test

I have no idea what’s going to happen next:

AudacityTest

OK, so I recorded an MP3 using Audacity and basically I get a link to an MP3 file. Which is what I expected.

Third test

Using a plugin with instructions in Hungarian Czech, so your guess is as good as mine:

http://paco.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/AudacityTest.mp3

Fourth test

Very nice! Downloaded and installed the Mini Audio Player plugin and installed it, and the second test link came to life! This may be the way to go…

Recently subscribed to the Radiolab podcast, to fill in the hours while Howard Stern is on vacation, and it’s programming like this that makes me wish The King of All Media would just retire already, or make good on his promise to only work one day a week, so I can pay attention to something else.

Long story short, this NPR show is not easy to describe, but suffice it to say they talk about killer Argentine ants, how Bugs Bunny saved Mel Blanc and how researchers are working on programming better, smarter artificial intelligence. The latter episode is titled “Talking to Machines,” and if there’s one URL I’ll keep visiting for at least the next couple of weeks, it would be http://cleverbot.com, a result of efforts like ELIZA, a program I had all but forgotten about.

Good show.

The first computer ID I was assigned was the number 2013, when I was 11 years old and enrolled in the gifted-and-talented program in my junior high school.

By gifted and talented, the school meant students should use computers to solve second-grade math problems. Luckily, the teachers in charge knew nothing about the system, and a couple of friends of mine and soon enough found the password to the system and made it our own.

I need to start preparing a list for things that need to happen in 2013. What kind of list? The answer to that will be the first bullet point.

I tend to agree.