In case anyone didn't pick up on it, I don't really have an overwhelming desire for all the things on my birthday list. Sure, they'd all be cool to have, but that doesn't mean I'm actually staying up nights hoping for them. Honest.
On the other hand, if I get any of those things (or the pony!) from anyone, I sure as heck won't send them back. Because they are cool. I'm hoping gamma (that's Grandma) snags the iSight even though I don't really have a use for it, because they can have fun with their grandkid using it to babble with him. And I'd get enjoyment from watching the spectacle. But I don't even need that, really.
You see, I don't really pay significant attention to any holidays, including the traditional gift-giving holidays. I don't really pay much attention to my birthday, either. It's just fun to ask for goofy stuff every now and then, and my birthday is a good excuse.
I guess I'd have to send the pony back, now that I think about it. We just don't have the room. Unless maybe it was one of those midget seeing-eye-type ponies. But that'd be a little too weird, no to mention that you can't really litter-train a pony as far as I know.
Unfortunately, you can't litter-train a toddler, either. If you could, we would have done it by now!
Technical discovery of the day: My friend Mark told me about the Ultimate Boot CD yesterday. I checked it out, and downloaded it when I got home from the BNUG meeting. It's a periodically updated ISO image that has every conceivable free diagnostics, repair, and antivirus tool on it ready-to-use. A must-have in every sysadmin's toolkit, even when the acceptable fix is just to re-CASSI a machine (hint, hint). As far as I can tell, it works on any CD-bootable x86 machine.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Errors and Omissions
I was mistaken - the razor I bought is called the Bump Fighter, not the Bump Stopper. Oops.
Monday, March 29, 2004
Shaving tips
Through a Bravo message board post, I found out what the razor was that Rob M. was given a couple of weeks ago on Queer Eye. It was called the Bump Stopper, and I picked up one at the local CVS yesterday.
You know how every razor advertises "closest shave ever" as their gimmick? Well Bump Stopper is the opposite. It puts a funky covering on the blade to actually keep the blade off your face. As a result, you may wind up with a 5 o' clock shadow by 10AM, but it avoids razor burn and (hopefully) ingrown hairs.
It's funny in a way, because I haven't used a single-blade razor in nearly 20 years. So there's some getting used to it to do.
You know how every razor advertises "closest shave ever" as their gimmick? Well Bump Stopper is the opposite. It puts a funky covering on the blade to actually keep the blade off your face. As a result, you may wind up with a 5 o' clock shadow by 10AM, but it avoids razor burn and (hopefully) ingrown hairs.
It's funny in a way, because I haven't used a single-blade razor in nearly 20 years. So there's some getting used to it to do.
Also on the list
I'd really love a Red Sox jacket.
One interesting note about power management - I took my Dell home this weekend, leaving it in sleep mode. I never used it, though, and this morning when I plugged it in it was roughly at half-charge.
This compares unfavorably with my old PowerBook, which would lose about half as much over a comparable period when it was new (it's over two years old now, with a degraded battery). Actual usage power consumption remains pretty good, though, on the Dell.
One interesting note about power management - I took my Dell home this weekend, leaving it in sleep mode. I never used it, though, and this morning when I plugged it in it was roughly at half-charge.
This compares unfavorably with my old PowerBook, which would lose about half as much over a comparable period when it was new (it's over two years old now, with a degraded battery). Actual usage power consumption remains pretty good, though, on the Dell.
Saturday, March 27, 2004
Busy weekend so far
Our friend Jimmy got married today. Whoo! My folks babysat the munchkin while we attended - we got home around 5:30 this afternoon and had a pizza for supper. They all had a blast here in the home without us.
My birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Here's my list of Stuff I Would Love To Own - feel free to get me anything on the list:
- An Apple iSight camera (so David can videoconference with his grandparents and all).
- A 512MB PC2700 SO-DIMM for my iMac. I'd like to stick 768MB total in it. It would help even more when I run Virtual PC.
- A replica WWE Championship belt. The one from Smackdown - not the warmed-over version of the old NWA/WCW belt that they use on Raw.
- You know my camera that I take all the cool Dude pictures with? Well, I'd love one that's pocket-sized. The really small cameras now have equivalent specs to my almost three-year-old Olympus that's much bulkier. 3 megapixels, 3x optical zoom.
- A new extended-life battery for my camcorder.
- I'd also like a few more customers. That would be most cool, as well.
I think I have decent hopes for the last item on the list, and I asked Jane for the SO-DIMM, because they're pretty cheap. Other than that, I don't seriously expect anything.
But if I get the belt, it's going up on the wall of my office. Framed.
My birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Here's my list of Stuff I Would Love To Own - feel free to get me anything on the list:
- An Apple iSight camera (so David can videoconference with his grandparents and all).
- A 512MB PC2700 SO-DIMM for my iMac. I'd like to stick 768MB total in it. It would help even more when I run Virtual PC.
- A replica WWE Championship belt. The one from Smackdown - not the warmed-over version of the old NWA/WCW belt that they use on Raw.
- You know my camera that I take all the cool Dude pictures with? Well, I'd love one that's pocket-sized. The really small cameras now have equivalent specs to my almost three-year-old Olympus that's much bulkier. 3 megapixels, 3x optical zoom.
- A new extended-life battery for my camcorder.
- I'd also like a few more customers. That would be most cool, as well.
I think I have decent hopes for the last item on the list, and I asked Jane for the SO-DIMM, because they're pretty cheap. Other than that, I don't seriously expect anything.
But if I get the belt, it's going up on the wall of my office. Framed.
Friday, March 26, 2004
Business Irony 101
Way back when, I was working in the retail ad business. One of our customers was Star Markets, a Boston-area institution founded by the Mugar family (Some of you may have heard of David Mugar - he's the fellow who bankrolls the Pops concert on the Esplanade avery July 4th). Many years ago - before my time, Star was sold to American Stores - a rather diverse company that owned, among others, Osco Drug, Jewel Markets, and Acme Markets. They did OK, but I think they were kind of neglected up here in New England (American was Utah-based). So in the mid-90's, A group of Star managers led by former Staples bigwig Henry Nasella bought Star away from American. Star did pretty well under the new management, investing in stores, starting up a natural foods spinoff market, but ultimately sold out - to Shaw's, another New England chain that was owned by J Sainsbury, a large British grocery company.
The marriage worked pretty well - Shaw's stores are primarily in outer Boston suburbs and beyond, while Star was mainly inside the metro Boston area.
Well, this morning it was announced that Sainsbury just sold Shaw's to Albertsons, a huge Idaho-based company. Albertson's has done a superb job of growing through acquisition over recent years. One of their most notable purchases was...
American Stores. They bought them back in 1999. So Star is now right back where they started - just in an even bigger company.
Which is pretty much proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The marriage worked pretty well - Shaw's stores are primarily in outer Boston suburbs and beyond, while Star was mainly inside the metro Boston area.
Well, this morning it was announced that Sainsbury just sold Shaw's to Albertsons, a huge Idaho-based company. Albertson's has done a superb job of growing through acquisition over recent years. One of their most notable purchases was...
American Stores. They bought them back in 1999. So Star is now right back where they started - just in an even bigger company.
Which is pretty much proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Oops.
Memo to self:
When paying bills, don't get so excited that the checks laserprinted correctly on the first try that you forget to sign them. That's kinda dumb.
When paying bills, don't get so excited that the checks laserprinted correctly on the first try that you forget to sign them. That's kinda dumb.
May I have your attention, please?
Mr. Insincerely M. Sapsuckers - I don't need to see hot babes doing anything online, I married one of my own.
To coolest coolest and kelvin johns - I'm not that interested in m0rtgage rates - in fact, I'm not sure what a m0rtgage is. If it's anything like a mortgage, though, I'm fine. Don't need a new one.
Weirdest P. Narcissistic - no, I don't need any steroids. Same goes for you, Squelching H. Centenarians.
And to Colette Sosa - I really don't need any prescription drugs cheap on the net - I have this thing called a "copay" that lets me buy them cheaply anyway. You should try one.
And to all of you who send me spam in Spanish, Portugese, and whatever Asian language I get (Korean, I think), I don't speak any of them. However, SpamAssassin 2.63 speaks them well enough to keep them all out of my Inbox. Including the above.
What's intersting about these spams isn't the products or services being spammed - it's that spammers know that filtering is common nowadays. So spams have become more and more bizarre and illegible to try and defeat the filters. As a result, though, the spam that makes it through isn't even really comprehensible to the average human, let alone the spam filter. And the human can easily recognize it as spam, making it a no-brainer to delete.
So though the volume of spam has exploded over the last year or so, the anti-spammers are clearly winning. When spam snuck in among your legit e-mails and was cleverly titled to get you to open it, that was one thing. But we don't see those anymore. Current spam is typically blatant - making it easily recognized and deleted.
Now we just need to send Vinnie the Legbreaker to the houses of a few big-time spammers, and the volume should finally start dropping off. Between Bayesian filtering and bodily harm, the incentives to spam should go away.
To coolest coolest and kelvin johns - I'm not that interested in m0rtgage rates - in fact, I'm not sure what a m0rtgage is. If it's anything like a mortgage, though, I'm fine. Don't need a new one.
Weirdest P. Narcissistic - no, I don't need any steroids. Same goes for you, Squelching H. Centenarians.
And to Colette Sosa - I really don't need any prescription drugs cheap on the net - I have this thing called a "copay" that lets me buy them cheaply anyway. You should try one.
And to all of you who send me spam in Spanish, Portugese, and whatever Asian language I get (Korean, I think), I don't speak any of them. However, SpamAssassin 2.63 speaks them well enough to keep them all out of my Inbox. Including the above.
What's intersting about these spams isn't the products or services being spammed - it's that spammers know that filtering is common nowadays. So spams have become more and more bizarre and illegible to try and defeat the filters. As a result, though, the spam that makes it through isn't even really comprehensible to the average human, let alone the spam filter. And the human can easily recognize it as spam, making it a no-brainer to delete.
So though the volume of spam has exploded over the last year or so, the anti-spammers are clearly winning. When spam snuck in among your legit e-mails and was cleverly titled to get you to open it, that was one thing. But we don't see those anymore. Current spam is typically blatant - making it easily recognized and deleted.
Now we just need to send Vinnie the Legbreaker to the houses of a few big-time spammers, and the volume should finally start dropping off. Between Bayesian filtering and bodily harm, the incentives to spam should go away.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
A prospectin' we will go
Today I set out to try and do two things - reconnaissance and prospecting. The initial prospecting went well - I followed up on a contact Jane had made earlier, and that was good. However, I broke my voice (which is still recovering from the combination of a cold and teaching a class last week), and could only croak by mid-day.
So after resting it for a while (I had lunch and got some other stuff done in the meanwhile), I set out again to explore. 100 Cummings Center is a huge building - at one point it was the world's largest reinforced concrete structure. I've seen the third floor where my office is, and much of the first floor, so today I went to poke around the second and fourth floors.
It's still huge.
I didn't find a lot of places on those floors that were "JH Turiel-sized" companies - the sort of places with 5-20 employees. I did see a lot of one-man shops and a few huge (75+) type places. Almost everyone, though, had shades drawn and big "No Soliciting" signs in the windows. Not the most inviting, that's for sure.
After doing a little research, I did identify a few that I will need to make some form of contact with, and I'll figure out the best way to do it tonight. I'll drop in on a few places on my floor tomorrow as long as my voice holds out. It's definitely getting better (and I feel fine now), but I have to pace the speaking. Jane's happy, though, because I talk a lot less around the house than usual right now.
Early next week I'm going to go prospecting in the 900 building next door, which has a lot more of the smaller businesses located there. I'm in this building instead because the rents here are a little cheaper, though there are fewer frills.
So after resting it for a while (I had lunch and got some other stuff done in the meanwhile), I set out again to explore. 100 Cummings Center is a huge building - at one point it was the world's largest reinforced concrete structure. I've seen the third floor where my office is, and much of the first floor, so today I went to poke around the second and fourth floors.
It's still huge.
I didn't find a lot of places on those floors that were "JH Turiel-sized" companies - the sort of places with 5-20 employees. I did see a lot of one-man shops and a few huge (75+) type places. Almost everyone, though, had shades drawn and big "No Soliciting" signs in the windows. Not the most inviting, that's for sure.
After doing a little research, I did identify a few that I will need to make some form of contact with, and I'll figure out the best way to do it tonight. I'll drop in on a few places on my floor tomorrow as long as my voice holds out. It's definitely getting better (and I feel fine now), but I have to pace the speaking. Jane's happy, though, because I talk a lot less around the house than usual right now.
Early next week I'm going to go prospecting in the 900 building next door, which has a lot more of the smaller businesses located there. I'm in this building instead because the rents here are a little cheaper, though there are fewer frills.
In other news
My first newspaper ad ran today, with decent placement in the front section. I think they shot my camera-ready printout, though, and didn't use the digital files I uploaded. It's OK - the ad still looks pretty good. Just not quite as crisp as the digital would be.
I also spent a few hours yesterday at a customer site doing billable work. This is, of course, a Good Thing.
My website is getting a facelift, courtesy of a friend of mine who's way better at it than I am. I hope to upload the new site in the next day or two if all goes well.
I also spent a few hours yesterday at a customer site doing billable work. This is, of course, a Good Thing.
My website is getting a facelift, courtesy of a friend of mine who's way better at it than I am. I hope to upload the new site in the next day or two if all goes well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
