Random thoughts, organized and categorized for your consumption.
General
Things so normal as to not fit neatly into any other area.
It's back!
Sep 16th
Thanks to the quick work of one of the hosting site support guys I have most of my blog back. I’m still not sure how it got deleted, but I am going through and changing all the passwords and such now. Hopefully this will cut down on incidents in the future.
Oh, and I’m going to start doing backups now, too.
Calling it Fixed
Aug 8th
I’m sure this will jinx it, but I’ve driven the 4Runner enough by now to call it fixed. It’s still the slow, top heavy, cargo hauler it has always been, but at least it is running right. I am sort of baby-ing the shifts a bit right now, but it seems to be back to normal.
Good thing, too. All this home improvement is eating into the budget. Next car stop (hopefully) is the fabled sports car. Mmmm, sports car.
See the World, Pick-up the Miles
Jul 13th
I’m off on yet another business trip this week. This time around it’s a visit to Microsoft, then on to Canada for another LAN gaming show. With any luck I might spend a huge 10 hours in the house this week. On the other hand, I’ll have another 2000 miles on American Airlines.
I wonder what will kill me first: the job or the airport food?
On the Road Again
Jun 12th
I’m sitting here on a smoggy Sunday afternoon, 33 stories up in a hotel in Taipei, Taiwan. Thanks to the busy travel season I’m here two full days before I normally would be. I contemplate the mound of work I should be doing as well as the plethora of crummy television on in Asia.
One thing that I am reminded of is how poorly Amercians are perceived outside the US. Bush has basically burned bridges the world over, and the general public will be paying for this long after he’s gone. It’s really, really sad, actually.
In the meantime I think I’ll More >
Can Tivo Survive?
Jun 9th
There has been some news of late (here and here) where it looks like DirecTV and Tivo may be on the outs. This matters a great deal to me because I love my Tivo, and it is a strong reason for having DirecTV.
But, that aside, Tivo’s very livelyhood rests on the ability to keep subscribers (and thus revenue) flowing to the company. So why does this matter? Well, DirecTV = 1 million Tivo subscribers. Tivo on its own has only 500K subscribers. I think you can see why it would be bad for DirecTV to leave Tivo in the cold.
I More >
New Gadget Lust
Jun 8th
It’s hard to believe that I would be tempted by the potential goodness of new, unreleased and untested products (really!) but two have caught my eye recently, and I don’t know how I can live without them.
Motorola V600 GSM camera flip phone Apple Airport Express WiFi G + audio extender
Now, go find and discuss. I’ll just wait here until someone gives me one of them.
Privacy Online
Apr 10th
I received an email last night from a guy who has his email address posted on another site I manage. He was concerned that there weren’t safeguards on the email addresses and that they could be picked up by spammers. Good point.
In fact, as I look through several sites I find this to be a common problem: it is hard to be both open and informationally available while also being closed off from ill doers. As I search for the solution, if there is one, I suppose I’ll err on providing less information for the sake of better privacy.
It makes More >
Drinkin' in Lincoln
Apr 8th
As I sit here in my hotel room at 11:51pm I now realize how little there actually is to do out in the midwest. I am in Lincoln, NE and there is two things I’ve seen to do (and confirmed with a local): drink and tip cows.
Let it be known that I have verified these facts first hand, or at least the drinking part. Now I recall why I left this region in the first place
Friends
Apr 4th
I had one of those good days today where I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have friends. I had breakfast with one (and her daughter) that I hadn’t seen in a while. I chatted with a couple online for a few hours. And I spent more than hour on the phone with a third. The day pretty much zipped by. Talking and chatting with these folks does make time spent home alone less singular.
Now if only I could have squeezed some more work into the day, I would be caught up for Monday morning.
Back in town
Mar 8th
I’ve made it back from two weeks abroad. I have a cold of some kind that won’t go away and I’ve spent many hours getting DSL to work again. When you think of being on the road for so long you never assume that there will be so much cleanup at the end. Alas, that’s what today is for, I think.