A fascinating day!

•April 26, 2009 • 8 Comments

So, today was a pretty kick-butt day. I solved a few problems here and there, visited another reception hall, drove with my sunroof open, found my sandals, met new folks, and played strip rock band with them.

That is the definition of fun, right?

Penguicon is coming up next weekend, and I am geeked about it. Ha, right?

Jane McGonigal, my guest of honor, has a sweet game she’s running, starting at 6pm on Friday. Winners get, possibly among other things, a Signtific lab coat. How cool is that?

Also, this year we’ve got a new thing going on, PenguiconTV. If you turn to Channel 13 anywhere in the hotel, you’ll get to see photos, the schedule of events, and shout-outs (you can text in!), as well as promos and perhaps some cool rough cut video from the show itself. Check it out, if you’re going to be there.

•April 24, 2009 • 6 Comments

You know, you think google can answer any question until you try to find a power steering diagram for your car.

I’m kinda stuck in Livonia (at the castle) with no power steering, no answer at the dealer, and very little understanding of what to look for in the car. Whee!

EDIT: Uhhh…. it fixed itself?

What I -really- want

•April 23, 2009 • 6 Comments

… is a workhorse desktop computer that has a high-speed wireless connection with a tablet – something powerful enough to let me edit video from the couch or watch DVDs that are playing on the desktop. Something where all the number crunching is happening in a central place, but the data connection is fast enough for real-time video or high speed rendering.

Maybe I should get into professional basket-weaving – it’s much cheaper.

•April 22, 2009 • 6 Comments

I texted Ben, who works for Apple, saying that I was interested in a macbook pro until I compared prices between that and a Dell. (Almost fully loaded (except RAM), a 15.6″ Dell Studio comes out to almost $1,800 – a 15″ macbook pro STARTS at $2,000.)

To which he said, “Do you want a Kia or a Cadillac?”

To which I replied, “Choose between a Korean car or a GM?”

hmmm, tough call …

Seriously though – half the RAM, 5400 rpm hard drive (instead of the much faster 7200 rpm), smaller display … I’m not a designer jeans guy, y’know? It bugs me to spend money on a label.

Protected: I’m torn

•April 16, 2009 • Enter your password to view comments.

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Regarding paying for internet service by the gigabyte

•April 15, 2009 • 3 Comments

All companies and organizations should realize this thing:

If I am forced, ever, to pay for my internet connection by the amount of data I am downloading, I will only download what I desire. That means I’ll turn back on the ad blocker and ratchet up the firewall.

I am not paying to watch ads, I’m sorry. It’s not the fault of companies that live by their ad dollars, but they’ll be the ones punished.

The Bacon Torch

•April 15, 2009 • 5 Comments

•April 15, 2009 • 16 Comments

I’m thinking of stepping away from Verizon at some point – they’re still using bass-ackwards CDMA, and the phones they offer are pretty lame compared to the alternatives.

So the question becomes: AT&T or T-Mobile?

(note: I pay for unlimited texts (since I use them more frequently than I call, anyway), and would be looking for a good service for a family (couple) who likes to be internetting. I’m interested in the iPhone and the series of Android phones like the G2)

What say you, and why?

Show me how you do that trick / the one that makes me scream, she said

•April 14, 2009 • Comments Off on Show me how you do that trick / the one that makes me scream, she said

More Q’s

1. If your hair would cooperate into ANY style, what would you do with it?

Well, if I weren’t going slowly bald, I would probably give a shot at growing it out again. My hair’s pretty workable in general – thick and wavy/curly, I can do ringlets if I scrunch it up after I’m out of the shower. :)

The honest reason for that is because I’m pretty sensually sensitive, and people playing with/pulling my hair is kinda a little awesome, y’know? Having ultra-short hair, though, has similar benefits; fuzzy-bunny hair is fun to pet!

2. If you had to spend $1M at a single online store, which would it be?

Well! Amusingly, I would have chosen Amazon, probably, for their huge diversity of product. I’m not really a one-store shopper, and I don’t have much in the way of brand loyalty, so that’s hard to say.

Where’s the online store for build-a-home, eh?

Seriously, I don’t need much. You could satisfy my every dream of computer glory with 100 grand, and build me an entire metalworking shop with another 100 grand, and get me every piece of media I ever wanted and more for another 10 grand, deck a place far larger than mine out with furniture for 20 grand at the most …

I’m just not good at spending that much money. :) Brewster, I am not!

EDIT: B & H Photo and Video. I could spend a million dollars there.

3. What are the best and worst things about Modern Science(tm)?

The worst thing about modern science is it’s isolation from society. Whether because of political will or the natural insulation of educational institutions, there is very little integration with our world, and that leads to abnormal behavior on both sides, and a big whole where progress could be.

The best thing about modern science today is the acceleration of learning and effectiveness. I think scientists today are even more capable of discarding their preconceived notions (perhaps due to a wider diversity of talent) than they were in the past. In direct contradiction of what I said above, we are just beginning to seriously address the problems in our world, as a culture, and that’s very exciting.

4. How do you feel about being a grownup?

As netmouse asked, am I a grownup? *smiles*

I’m not very dignified, most of the time. On the other hand, I was spending most of my time with much older people, including older adults, from a very early age. I concerned myself with whether or not being young or being male was the worse stereotype for people to color my perspective with before puberty… and yet I dressed as the stay-puft marshmallow man for halloween and stick my finger in Lucy’s mouth when she yawns.

I guess my point is that in the incline of understanding and wisdom from birth to death, I see a fairly even slope with peaks of “a ha!” that don’t seem to have anything to do with my age. It’s a trite saying, but I’m not done growing up, and I’ll never be done growing up, and my growing up can’t be compared to someone else’s, only to who I was yesterday.

So how do I feel about being more fully-grown than I was last year? Fucking fabulous. :D

5. What’s one thing you hope comes out of the Economic Crisis(again, tm)?

I hope people understand that Consumer Spending is a shitty and unreliable way to drive an economy – we need to find another way to make a profit besides massive credit debt on personal and institutional scales.

For those of you following “AmazonFail” (can we stop with the fail appendage now?)

•April 14, 2009 • 9 Comments

Hello,

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

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