drew's blog

iPad Porn

2010-04-30T17:49:00.006-05:00

New Apple Gadgets

2010-04-26T14:53:00.003-05:00

When you combine this with this I realize that maybe I shouldn't have bought the new iPad.

Makers by Cory Doctorow

2010-04-24T22:00:00.001-05:00

Makers by Cory Doctorow.

Work Intelligence Test

2010-04-23T16:54:00.001-05:00

iPad

2010-04-18T19:27:00.003-05:00

I just ordered one from the Apple site. It seems to do all the things I want to do, like email and Internet browsing from my couch or when I'm on the road. It has a Kindle app so there's no built-in obsolescence if Apple loses the ebook format war, and it can do everything my iPod can do with a much bigger screen. I don't need the 3G, since I'll have wireless most places I would want to use it. I got the 64Gig version, I have about 30Gig of music, and I like to have everything with me so I don't always have to pick and choose.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

2010-04-08T19:00:00.002-05:00

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Our topic is Southern Authors. Our next meeting is 5/12/2010.

From the "I could play as well as those guys" department

2010-04-06T14:08:00.003-05:00

North Toward Home by Willie Morris

2010-02-25T19:00:00.001-06:00

North Toward Home by Willie Morris. Our topic is Southern Authors. Our next meeting is 4/8/2010.

Quadragesima IV (no, it's not a surround-sound format)

2010-02-17T08:07:00.003-06:00

Quadragesima is the Latin term for Lent, meaning "forty days". The Lentan period starts today on Ash Wednesday, it is marked in many places by Mardi Gras celebrations on the previous day. For early Christians the rules of fasting during Lent were strict: just one meal a day, in the evening, and no meat, fish, eggs, or butter is permitted. Most religions have relaxed these rules, for example, since 1966 Roman Catholics only require strict fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

I posted about Quadragesima in 2007 and in 2008. Traditionally Lutherans aren't required to fast or sacrifice something for Lent as some other denominations require (see here for a brief theological discussion), but I will be doing it again this year. Last year I didn't make a Lentan sacrifice, but in previous years I have given up desserts and sweets, alcohol, sodas, and other dietary things.

This year I chose to give up television. I quit watching television completely for a week in college, during my senior finals, but it was still very difficult to do. Lent is actually 46 days (the Sundays in the Lentan period don't count towards the 40 days), and it has been difficult to maintain my will power for this long a period, so I decided not to leave it to chance. I had been considering television but I actually decided to do it when I heard a commercial from DirecTV about temporarily suspending service for free. I called them to set it up, suspending service from today until Saturday April 3rd. The good: they set up the suspension at no cost, automatically. The indifferent: any time remaining to fulfill a contract doesn't count during the time of suspension (that makes sense, since I'm not paying during that time, and my account has to be fully paid up before they will schedule the suspension (since the biggest leverage they have to make me pay their bill is to threaten to cut off service). The bad: the suspension time will count towards any promotions I have, like free HBO for six months. That doesn't really seem fair, it just seems spiteful.

My rules:

No television at home, including no DVDs, DVR, VCR, etc.

No television on Sundays or on Solemnities

No Hulu to watch television shows on my computer

Youtube is okay, within reason

If I'm at someone else's house or at a restaurant I won't leave or ask them to turn off the television, after all, this is my sacrifice, not theirs

Movies at a movie theater are okay

I will be disappointed to miss some of the series that I am following, but in order to make it a true sacrifice, as a way of remembering and personalizing the great sacrifices made for me, it has to be something that's significant.

SCAM: Domain Name Dispute

2010-02-15T13:44:00.003-06:00

I received the following email, a quick Google told me it was just a scam that this Chinese registration company is using to scare me into registering domains with them. The contact information used to register domains is not supposed to be used for commercial purposes. I use a dedicated email address for domain registration, so I can tell when it is being spammed. Don't fall for this stuff.

----------------------------------------------------------
From: Tracy [mailto:Tracy@jsntwifi.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:02 AM
To: [my secret email address that I only use for registering domains]
Subject: Dispute From Domain

Dear Sir or Madam 2010-1-30
We are a domain name registration service organization in Asia,
Recently we received a formal application submited by Paul Martin who wanted to use the keyword "[my full name]" to register the Internet Brand and domain names with suffix such as .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn/.hk/ .asia
After our initial examination, we found that these domain names to be applied for registration are same as your domain name and trademark. If you think that these domain names to be regisrated would produce possible dispute with you or effect your current business, you would contact us as soon as possible by Fax ,Telephone or Email in the next 5 working days.otherwise we have to approve his regisration application without your any reply.

Yours sincerely

Tracy
Checking Department
Tel: 86 513 8532 1087
Fax: 86 513 8532 2065
Email:Tracy@jsntwifi..com
Website: www.jsntwifi.com or www.jsntwifi.com.cn
Our File No.:2884349

Changes to the site

2010-02-03T13:33:00.002-06:00

Blogger has announced that it will no longer support ftp publishing after March 26, 2010. Since this site is published using ftp, that means that there will be some changes, especially since some of the features of my website are not supported by blogger's hosted sites. And in addition to that, it means that I will have to put in a bunch of work to convert over, at a time when I am not putting in a bunch of work to the site.

At this point, it's not clear how much of this you will see. Some features will go away for sure, like the server-side includes that add the Thought of the Day and What I'm Reading and What I'm Reading for Book Club boxes. There may be a way to keep these, but since I really haven't been updating these regularly, if I can't find a really easy way to update these (like tweeting from my phone) they might go away. Another thought is the whole website idea goes away. I already do Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and having a personal web presence might be a distraction from my professional activities (like if I ever have to look for a new job). There are some advantages in having some web space that I control, but I'm paying $11 or $12 per month to maintain a hosted domain, and I may give that up and go completely into the cloud.

Other options are to migrate to another blog software, but that either takes more money or more work or both. Facebook is cheesey but it has a couple advantages, limited access and free and easy. Just like me!

This is a geeky topic but since I am a total geek I will keep you updated.

How Long?

2010-02-03T12:33:00.005-06:00

How long before you can buy the entire Library of Congress collection or every Amazon book on a disk? What about the all the music on iTunes? Every movie or television program ever made in any language all the time. In a relatively short period of time¹, these will all fit on a single memory stick. And that memory stick will eventually cost just a few dollars. And once someone buys it is only a short time before these media are available on the internet (pirated). It's like that Qwest commercial. What will it be like to have instant access everywhere to everything for free?

How to Fall 35,000 Feet�And Survive

2010-01-30T22:00:00.000-06:00

You're six miles up, alone and falling without a parachute. Though the odds are long, a small number of people have found themselves in similar situations�and lived to tell the tale. Here's Popular Mechanic's 120-mph, 35,000-ft, 3-minutes-to-impact survival guide.

Joke of the Day

2010-01-29T11:31:00.000-06:00

Q: What do a tornado and a redneck divorce have in common?

A: In the end, someone is going to lose a trailer.

The Moses Tablet

2010-01-27T15:35:00.008-06:00

From my previous post about the Apple tablet (now the iPad):

I would buy a tablet from Apple if it would:

✔Widescreen hi-res

✔Connect via wireless

✔Browse the internet

✔Read books

✔Have 4+ hours of battery life

✔Run iTunes and play music, podcasts, TV & movies

I would wait in line like the fanboys if it would:

✔Do STMP email

✔Keep my calendar, contacts and to-do list (e.g. run Outlook)

✘Sync with my Outlook on my laptop

✔Read magazines and newspapers

✔Run aps from the iPhone Aps store

Ikea Demo on New Apple Tablet?

2010-01-25T10:42:00.000-06:00

Are You Tying Your Shoes Wrong?

2010-01-19T14:55:00.001-06:00

Dead Over Heels by Charlaine Harris

2010-01-14T19:00:00.001-06:00

Dead Over Heels by Charlaine Harris. Our topic is Southern Authors. Our next meeting is 2/25/2010.

Brrr

2010-01-08T14:26:00.000-06:00

The cold hard facts of freezing to death here.

The Best Christmas Song of All Time

2009-12-24T13:15:00.000-06:00

2010 Ferrari 458 Italia

2009-12-17T16:27:00.003-06:00

It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. Means=$210k.

Video of the Day: Fishing Show Bloopers

2009-12-17T12:41:00.003-06:00

Best blooper show evar!

10 Worst Phrases to Use in Business

2009-12-15T10:23:00.003-06:00

From MSN Careers, Today's 10 Worst Phrases to Use in Business.

My personal pet peeves:

All sports metaphors - I had a boss who wasn't a big sports fan, and would say things like "we're already on the 99 yard line". He was surprised when I told him that it only went up to 50.

Granularity - widely misused by people (intentionally!) trying to sound corporate, it refers to the level of detail to "drill down to".

Work smarter not harder - this is used when management does not plan to give you the resources you need.

I'll take that under advisement - it really means that I won't take that under advisement.

Thinking outside the box - this is so tired and cliche that it is inside the box.

Thought leader - new but stupid

At the end of the day - loses all effectiveness when used in every third sentence.

Rain Gods by James Lee Burke

2009-12-03T19:00:00.001-06:00

Rain Gods by James Lee Burke. Our topic is Southern Authors. Our next meeting is 1/14/2010.

Jobless Rate for People Like You

2009-11-25T10:33:00.004-06:00

Click on the picture to do your own. I was interested to see that less women were jobless than men, overall 7.6% vs. 9.5%. Having a high school dimploma makes you twice as likely to be jobless as a college degree, and not having a high school dimploma makes you almost twice as likely to be jobless as having one. The highest jobless rate is for black men ages 15 to 24 without a high school degree, the rate is near 49%. The lowest rate is for white women ages 25 to 44 with a college degree, at 3.6%. Also note that the trend in joblessness is upward, the recession does not appear to be over.

From New York Times.