The fourth episode of Vermis is up now. Look for my name in the credits!

Everyone should go watch it. It’s fantastic animation, and it needs to be popular or Uth TV won’t keep buying episodes from Alan. And if you like it, you can digg it here.

And, once you’ve watched it, you can view the uncensored version here.

The BMAC meeting last night turned out to be pretty fun and worthwhile. The presenter for the night was Rich Siegel the guy who wrote BBEdit (pretty much the text editor for coders working on Macs) and started Bare Bones Software. He talked about the changes in the latest major update (8.5) of BBEdit as well as their relatively new product, Yojimbo.

Being a long-time Mac user, BBEdit has pretty much always been on the radar. Although, to be honest, I’ve never really used it (I generally use SubEthaEdit for my coding when I’m not using Emacs). But after his talk about it, I’m seriously considering it. Two of the features in particular (folding and clippings) really caught my attention. I’m definitely going to give a try on my next project to test it out and see if it’s worth the somewhat hefty price tag of $125.

I’m also giving Yojimbo a try. I looked at it when they first released it about 6 months ago and didn’t really see the point. Since then, however, I’ve often wished I had a good program to use as a repository for all that random information you tend to accumulate like serial numbers and passwords. There are a number of solutions out there such as SOHO Notes (which I can get for free, but don’t really like), but after last night I obviously have Yojimbo in mind and so am giving it a shot. Fortunately it’s much cheaper ($39), so if I decide I like it there won’t be much reason not to get it.

In other news, I just got my copy of OS X Server in the mail thanks to the highly discounted prices offered by the Apple Consultants Network. I’m planning on installing it on my PowerMac G5 to use as a home server (as well as a testbed for various other things), but first I want to make some hardware upgrades to the machine to better suit it’s new role. In particular, I want to move the two 160 GB hard drives currently in it into an external enclosure (probably this one with an eSATA PCI-X card) and configure them into some sort of RAID (haven’t decided yet) as a backup store, then put some bigger drives into the internal bays (possibly two 500s, maybe two 250s). Should be a fun project, and will definitely make it easier for me to keep on top of my OS X server skills. I’ve also got a few ideas for hosted services that I could offer with a setup like this, although I’d want faster, more reliable internet and some hefty UPSs first.

Also, for those of you who may care, there’s a new episode of Vermis. As of right now it’s not showing up on the site, but it should be soon. An interesting note on this episode is that I got a writing credit (I can do creative stuff too!).

Door to Door dropped off the containers today. So far I have to say I’ve been very impressed with them. Not only have they made things more convenient than any of the others by being able to pick up the containers over the weekend and still being cheaper than the alternatives, but they’re actually punctual too! Since I had to be at work today, my friend Alan (creator of Vermis) went over to my place to take delivery of the containers. All I had to do was tell them that he would be the one to sign for them and it was taken care of. But the most impressive part: they said the containers would be dropped off between 12 and 3, they were dropped off at 12 sharp. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of a delivery actually being made on time before.

So my impression of Door to Door, so far, is very good. Let’s hope they live up to expectations and deliver my stuff to Boston safely and on time!

Also today, I went to the Bank of America to open up a new account. Currently I bank with Wells Fargo, but they have no presence in the Boston area which would be rather inconvenient. Apparently, however, the California branches of BofA are on a different computer system than the rest of the country so that if I were to open my account in California, the branches in Boston wouldn’t have full access to them. So the banker I talked to recommended that I wait until I get to Boston to open the account. He also gave me the good advice that the best way to do it is to close out my Wells Fargo account and get a cashier’s check made out to me for the full amount which I can then just use to open the BofA account. Unfortunately, I want to leave my Wells Fargo account open until at least the end of the month so that I don’t have to go through any annoying paperwork in getting my paycheck direct deposited into a new account for the one last check. So I’ll still have to figure out how to best to do that. But really, what the hell, Bank of America?

Actually, I have run into something similar before. When I first went to college in Minnesota (at Carleton College) they didn’t have Wells Fargo there either. However they did have Norwest Bank, which had recently been bought by Wells Fargo. I could use my ATM card at Norwest Bank ATMs without getting any fees, but they weren’t able to get full access to my account. However within two years they had switched everything fully over to the Wells Fargo systems and it was all nice and easy. But Bank of America has been operating in Calfornia for at least the past 14 years (as long as I’ve been living here) and I can’t imagine they’re only a recent entry to the Boston area. So still, what the hell, Bank of America?

Well so far the results of the poll are dead even on whether I should take the job or not. I suppose I’ll give it some more time to see if more people respond (according to FeedBurner I have 8 subscribers now, and I voted and I know at least two other people did who didn’t actually read the blog, so there should be at least 5 more people who might still vote). Fortunately (and probably smartly), I don’t actually intend on making an important life decision based on the results of one web poll on a relatively low traffic site.

Anyway, this isn’t strictly relevant to my topic, but my good friend Alan is a freelance animator, so I’ll pretend that makes it relevant enough. Alan has just premiered the first episode of Vermis, a series of clay-mation shorts about a group of worms on Uth TV. It’s well done, funny, and more episodes are on the way as soon as he can make more clay worms, so check it out and support a freelancer and artist.

On a more germane note, I’m now exactly three weeks out from my last day in San Francisco. I still haven’t made any arrangements for the move, but after doing a little more research (and checking out the links that you all sent me) I think I’ve decided that I’m going to follow my first instinct and go with Help U Move. I just need to call them and make sure there’s going to be enough space on my street for them to leave the trailer during the time I’ll need it. Details will follow of my experience with them, as I’m sure it will be useful to anyone else planning a move.