Random thoughts, organized and categorized for your consumption.
Rants
If I have a problem with something, here it will be.
Why Commercial Flights Suck, Again
Sep 16th
This week I took a series of flights from San Jose to Austin, Texas, then on to Denver, Colorado, and back to San Jose again. I shouldn’t be surprised at it any more, but the terrible conditions that now exist in airports is quite appalling.
Previously I would almost never check my bag. Now, because I’d like to have toothpaste and shampoo available when I fly I must check bags in. This leads to more time in line, more chances for missed flights, and of course, lost or severely delayed luggage. Going through Denver, I experienced the severe delay and ended More >
Commercial Flight Suckage
Aug 16th
Again today I had to take a flight somewhere for just the day, then return home. And again the wonderful TSA had to find a way to make it miserable. In San Jose they have so few checkpoints that the line to get into the waiting area was out the door. They also had only small paper signs telling people what could or couldn’t be taken on planes, so of course many people missed those signs and then got combatitive at the checkpoints.
On the way back, in Burbank’s airport, for an unknown reason all TSA checkpoints were shut down for More >
Friendly Reminder: I'm A White Guy
Aug 6th
It seems that I keep forgetting that I am a lanky white guy. This week I decided to go to lunch with some of the old NVIDIA co-workers at a local Indian food restaurant. The food was good and I was careful to pick things I knew I could handle. Or so I thought. When
I got back to work things seemed to be heating up just a bit in my stomach. Then, of the course of a few hours, that spicy chicken got into a shouting match with my breakfast and things just went downhill from there. Two days later More >
Why Adding More Features Doesn't Work
Jul 26th
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again): adding lots of features to a product because your competitors do isn’t a smart strategy. You end up being a follower all the time and you don’t have a good, rational argument for adding the feature (did the customer tell you they wanted it???).
But don’t take my word for it, go read this story that makes it clear (again) that adding features for features (or competitors) sake is just a dead-end deal. Nice graphs on the subject there too.
New Server Move Not-So-Complete
Jun 19th
After having spent a few days on the new service, Bluehost.com, I can say that I’m having some problems that don’t allow me to say that all is well.
First off, all of my scripts that do site redirection are broken with an Server Error 500 page. The reason, according to the logs, is that the headers (hidden stuff at the front of all good web pages) aren’t being sent. But I’ve checked things out and they are being sent. Wonderful, another set of problems to track down.
On top of that the host has been down twice in 2 weeks, not More >
Short Take: Driving on a Saturday
May 13th
It was warm out today so I decided to take the car out for an extended spin. Little did I know that I would get to experience all of the following:
- - Massive amounts of traffic
- - Crazed drivers who must race and pass me every 5 miles
- - That “bad fish” smell that comes from certain areas near the ocean
- - Many dead skunks on the road (and now on my tires)
- - Large 4×4 trucks with muck falling off of them
- - Roads closed due to mudslides
- - A Saturn that nearly became part of the rear of my car
All that for a few pictures More >
The Day the PSP Fell Down
May 5th
It is with some sadness that I must write today that my PSP’s analog joystick has died. Quite simply, it separated itself from the main body of the device and ceased working. This was proceeded by the joystick becoming stuck, spinning my character in circles for the better part of a game, and the other players in the game using me as easy target practice.
Given that I work for the company that makes this device, it seems well and truly sad that such a spot of bad luck would befall my purchase. The PSP is only a few months old More >
A Friendly Reminder: Don't Valet Park
Apr 16th
I just had another of those experiences where I kick myself for knowing better, but then I go ahead and do something anyway. I convinced myself that it might be OK to allow someone to valet park the C6.
The guy who took the keys could barely speak English, and he couldn’t tell me how he was going to park the car (yes, the vette requires a special shutdown and park procedure) and he had to summon someone over who spoke a little English to notify me that yes, he had parked “one of these” before. I would later learn that More >