? Alan Porter (@rockhopper)

Raleigh, NC, USA

The below is an off-site archive of all tweets posted by @rockhopper ever

August 2013

I am tried of: bottled water, hotel wifi captive portals, VPNs.

via web

@rubikfruit I am not *that* Rockhopper. But any friend of his is OK in my book.

via web in reply to rubikfruit

Ohmygosh! I am in China… by myself… surrounded by Chinese people… speaking Chinese… in China!

via Twitter for iPhone

7pm in Beijing, and the sky is an improbable shade of brownish grey.

via Twitter for iPhone

Always annoyed when my Mac software changes ‘…’ (3 dots) to ‘…’ (ellipsis). Learned today that’s an OS setting in prefs, lang&text, text.

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I was told about 30 seconds ago that there is no internet access from this lab.

via web

The insanity begins: before we are allowed into the lab building, we must pass a multiple choice fire safety & policy quiz (in Chinese).

via Twitter for iPhone

Getting into character… playing the part of an international businessman, starting the day with breakfast at a posh Beijing hotel.

via Twitter for iPhone

August had been the month where everybody calls me “Robert”.

via Twitter for iPhone

A journey of thousand miles begins with an unexpected side-trip to Washington to get a sticker in a passport.

via Twitter for iPhone

With all the talk of conjugal felicity, intercourse and love-making, it would be easy to mistake “Pride and Prejudice” for a steamy novel.

via Twitter for iPhone

Oops, rain… windows down!

via Twitter for iPhone

Morrisville is constipated.

via iOS

iOS7 tip: time-entry widget defaults to 1-minute wheel, double-tap to switch to 5-minute wheel.

via Twitter for iPhone

Congratulations to @ncnearspace for retrieving their NSL-14 payload from the Burlington Maker Faire launch!

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ncnearspace NSL-14 has been recovered!

via Twitter for iPhone (retweeted on 6:08 PM, Aug 18th, 2013 via web)

Woah, it looks like @ncnearspace has sent up another balloon! http://t.co/yLt3UUYQEU Launched from Burlington Mini Maker Faire.

via web

I recently did a re-spin of Tipster, my 2009 tip calculator app. It hit the App Store today. A muted celebration ensues.

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D2 lost 2 teeth today. One needed help from the dentist. The other one willingly escaped before the dental visit.

via Twitter for iPhone

Went out to check on the . Saw a few dim blips that very well could be imagination. Finally 1 gorgeous sparkler to prove it’s real.

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Star Wars has invaded Club Penguin!

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Hmm, how do I test the battery in my voltmeter?

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D1 is a “hacktress”. She quickly figured out how to game the system on an online quiz to show all correct answers w/o penalty. I’m so proud.

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Brain is confused by Mac OSX natural scrolling (trackpad OK, mouse seems backwards). ScrollReverser pilotmoon.com/scrollreverser/ to the rescue.

via web

There is no “I” in “breakfast”.

via Twitter for iPhone

Today’s login “fortune” = The moon may be smaller than Earth, but it’s further away.

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Shortest-lived Linux installation ever… colleague (a Linux software dev) blew away his Win7, then had immediate regrets, scrambled back.

via Twitter for iPhone

@romanmars Your tech did the WP plugin magic… now I have a lot of catching up to do. Thanks for sharing your podcast with the world.

via web in reply to romanmars

Making my kids change the spark plug and air filter on the lawn mower. Now it runs a lot better. But now they’re running a bit slower.

via Twitter for iPhone

@500px_Help You have to admit, though, at 15x15 px, your (∞) looks a lot like their (cc). Larger image would be easier to differentiate.

via web in reply to 500px_Help

@500px Your tiny “license circle infinity” sure looks a lot like the much more well-known Creative Commons logo, misleading.

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@nonrecursive Site requires sign-up before a visitor can even see previous content, to see if it’s worthwhile or a ghost town. Make it easy.

via web in reply to nonrecursive

@romanmars Wanted to catch up on old 99% podcasts, but many older episodes (1-22,24-52) MP3s give “AccessDenied” error. Bummer. Fix?

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Linux tip: running a service as an unprivileged user? Start the service using ‘cron’, use special time code ‘@reboot’.

via Twitter for iPhone

iPhone Twitter app has gotten so slow to load, I start it and then do something else while it loads. Distractions²

via Twitter for iPhone

Perfectly-timed thunder puts an end to our after-supper pool plans.

via Twitter for iPhone

Irritated when I read a magazine article, and it’s only a teaser for their lengthier online article. If I’d wanted to read a web page…

via Twitter for iPhone

I kept asking myself: How would Apple have done it?

via Twitter for iPhone

Not much pomp and circumstance on our first day at Oracle. In fact, it was “crickets” all around. I was disappointed, but not surprised.

via Twitter for iPhone

There’s an oncologist in Florida with the same name as me, and so now I am getting spear-phishing spam with oncology subject lines.

via web