Category: General

Things so normal as to not fit neatly into any other area.

Categories
General Humor

Fruit Bar Goodness

I’ll admit it, I’m finicky when it comes to food items.  But this week I discovered Dreyer’s Grape Fruit Bars and I’m hooked.  They taste great and seem to be somewhat healthy.  At least more healthy than ice cream or other sweets.  I don’t see how you could pass up such goodness if you encountered it in your local supermarket frozen foods section.  It really is that good.

But now I’ve finished off the box and I want more.  There is none to be had in the local store, so I guess I’ll have to wait a bit.  But no!  I can be notified whenever my local store gets more of the grape flavor.  Is this really what I need, yet another email notification?

Categories
General Humor

Using Google for Dating

I saw this story and just had to laugh all the way through it. Literally, its a tongue-in-cheek take on the average geek (that’s me) using virtually all the Google services (still me) to get a girl. Besides being entertaining, it makes me wonder just how much of that stuff will work. I think I’ll have to look into the AdWords idea, though.

Categories
General Photos Travel

Flying Over the North Part of the South Bay

Yesterday I took a short flight in a Robinson R22 helicopter over part of the Bay. It was pretty nifty to be flying again, this time courtesy of Mark P (thanks!). At around 800 feet above the ground and around 80 knots airspeed, the flight took me from San Carlos to Fremont and back again.

It was a cool way to see part of the area I thought I knew and get some photos in the process. You can see a selection of those photo’s in this album. Hopefully there will be more of these flights with interesting pictures in the future.

Categories
General

Oh How the Google Has Fallen

In a pre-apocalyptic notice to the technology industry, I found this interesting article of how the product cycle must work inside of Google.
It is funny to be sure, but I’m not entirely convinced its that made up. I know a little something about product ideas, launches, back room feature quarterbacking, and the like. And this story smells so familiar it’s scary.

I use a lot of Google products and I like using them. But to think that things might actually be this way on the inside of their world kind of frightens me. Oh well, back to my Gcal/Gmail/Gmaps/GDS/Google Earth trapped existence.

Categories
General

Photo Gallery Gets Prettier

Through some determined nosing around and a little elbow grease (does anyone really speak that way any more?) I’ve managed to get my photo gallery web site cleaned up and ready for viewing again.

Feel free to take a look.

Categories
General Work

You Just Never Know Who Knows You

I had an interesting talk today with someone I’d never met, but had worked in the same industry with for the last 10 or so years. Without having talked to me before, and based solely on where I had been and what I had said in the public eye this person recommended me to others. I just sat there stunned.

It seems that whenever I need a reminder of the old rule “don’t burn your bridges” one comes along to remind me. This occasion offered just such a reminder and I’m greatful that, thus far, I haven’t managed to make all that many technology people mad at me over the years. Customers, well, they are a different story 😛

Categories
General Site News

Transition Complete?

Could I be so fortunate as to have this post be the defining moment of the domain transfer from one host to another?  We shall see.  If so, welcome to the new site!.

Categories
General Rants

Short Take: Driving on a Saturday

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 and some driving around town (and then some). Sometimes I wonder why I bother getting up in the morning.

Categories
General House

Good Flights, Bad Disposal

As the ski season has drawn to a close, I switch my attention to aircraft again. This past weekend saw both of the airplanes up and flying again after the winter weather kept them indoors. I was a little rusty, but quickly found my skills coming back after some circuits around the field. That is good news, to be sure, since it means no need to quickly replace another airplane (or all the parts that go with it) in the fleet.

On the down side, my under sink disposal unit decided to go belly up. For those who have not had to replace one of these devices let me just say that its a hard, ugly, and smelly job that you really should pay someone else to do if you can afford to. Me, I thought it would be cake, so I opted to do it myself.� Half a day after I started I finally had all the parts and tools needed, minus about $120 for the disposal unit. It works now but I certainly don’t want to have to replace something like that again any time soon.

Categories
General Rants

A Friendly Reminder: Don't Valet Park

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 he had not.

So, with that pain behind me I went in to eat, trying not to think of that fateful scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where the valet’s fly out the back of the garage at full speed.

When I exited to retrieve the car, a new set of valet’s were around, and sure enough, they had problems. First, they tried to bring the car around with another car parked directly in front of the C6. Once they woke up enough to realize that wouldn’t work (and moved the other car) one of them hopped in my car and proceeded to wave his hands around frantically, starring at the dash for what seemed like minutes, only to exit the car and say “I need some help.” Yes, the C6 managed to befuddle him to the point of not being able to find the start button.

In the end, I took my key back, hopped in the car, fired it up, and got out of there before someone else took a swipe at the vehicle roulette wheel. Lesson learned, again.