Monthly Archive for October, 2006

Your Mother is watching what you listen to

Published on October 30, 2006 in Geekery and Muse. 2 Comments Tags: , .

Mother – Mother USA, that is – is now offering a service to tell you when your favorite songs are coming on the radio.  I suppose this isn’t breaking news, since the company that does it is ‘patent pending’ and has a number of clients.  But it was still an interesting real world “Duh!” moment about how technology changes our world.
Basically, you subscribe and set alerts on your favorite songs, so that right before W-insert-client-station-logo-here -FM plays one of your songs, you get a text message.
Personally, I’d be happy to sign up if they paid me, since the real win is for their listener stats and advertising revenue.  But slap an enterprise-level filtering mechanisim on it (don’t text me at night, or when my phone’s on mute) and it’s an excellent example of just-in-time information delivered where the user wants.

See: http://mike411.motherfm.com/ (and various other branded URLs)

Ya, we watch West Wing

Published on October 26, 2006 in Muse. 1 Comment Tags: , .

Well, a bit late, actually.  See, although Roxanne now likes watching West Wing – no idea how that happened, it having a stunning lack of Pooh and Tigger in it – it’s really a bit too old for her.  But more to the point: we don’t watch TV when it’s on TV.  We really only watch stuff on DVDs.  In this particular case, when our friend (who bought the series) mails us the next season’s set of disks.

Amy’s way ahead of me at the moment, so it’s a bit confusing.  But I’m hoping to slowly catch up at night, if we can ever get Roxanne back onto a more normal bedtime.  Then I figure I can watch one catch up episode a night and eventually figure out why Josh is working for Santos before Amy watches the season closer.

The dialog is good.  Although I’m also re-reading some old MFK Fisher, and realizing that it’s even more quotable than WW gets to most of the time.

“…one proof that we are human…”

Published on October 25, 2006 in Food and Muse. 1 Comment Tags: .

“… They will feel, until their final days on earth, a kind of culinary caution: butter, no matter how unlimited, is a precious substance not lightly to be wasted; meats, too, and eggs, and all the far-brought spices of the world, take on a new significance, having once been so rare. And that is good, for there can be no more shameful carelessness than with the food we eat for life itself. When we exist without thought or thanksgiving we are not men, but beasts.

War is a beastly business, it is true, but one proof that we are human is our ability to learn, even from it, how better to exist. If this book, written in one wartime, still goes on helping to solve that unavoidable problem, it is worth reading again, no matter what its quaint superficiality, it’s sometims unintentionally grim humor.”

Somehow that seems to fit these days. I’m not sure most of the first paragraph is necessary to establish the contect. But I’ll see if I can fit it on a quotes page.

Bonus points to whoever recognizes the original author.

Aaaaugh! Where can I buy a warrantee for teeth?

Published on October 23, 2006 in Muse. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I was just thinking how much I liked irony the other day – both the Alanis song, as well as the concept.  But I was clearly thinking about the fun, or amusing in some way, side of irony.

But not the annoying side.

Like going to the dentist for the cleaning appointment – a bit late, as I always end up feeling horrible in the morning before an appointment.  Then, having a (reasonably) good checkup, going to work, having an afternoon snack, and having a filling crack.  Ugh.  Time to make another appointment.
But not the hippopotamus.  (Sorry, kids book reference there)

Linked-In spam – the fun and friendly kind

Published on October 19, 2006 in Geekery. 0 Comments Tags: , .

A new form of friendly spam. Searching for old friends and co-workers/cow-workers on professional networking sites like linkedin, and then sending them invites to join your network.

It’s kind of fun, reminiscing over people you worked with ages ago you wanted to have an excuse to get in contact with again. Especially when you take the boilerplate “introduction” email the systems give you and re-write it to be funny.

Well, I thought it was funny anyway. Will pimp my “linkedinlisting” later, once I have a big enough score on my list.

Back at work, ho hum – but Roxie’s fun

Published on October 19, 2006 in Muse. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Duh, been at work all day; except yesterday was home with Roxanne since Amy was on a business trip.  Got a ton of work (&BigCo; and ASF) done in the morning and during Roxanne’s nap.  After she woke up we went on an adventure to Wilson Farms, a local farmstand – that I thought offered hayrides.

They do offer hayrides, but only M-Th-F and part time on weekends.  Ooops.  Luckily there was plenty of stuff to see in the market and in their seasonal outdoor shop, so Roxanne was still having fun.  It’s amazing if you have the right attitude just how many completely mundane things can be fun with a 2 year old.

We bought some cider (I’m so glad she likes apple cider!) and a scone, and then sat in the parking lot – far away from the flowers with their scary bumblebees – and had a snack.  It was an eating day: after picking out all the raisins, she demolished more than half of the scone.  Too bad dad.  Then I let her get in the front seat of the car to play.  Oh boy.  45 min later – after all the change from the holder has been lost under the seats – I finally convinced her to sit in her seat so we could go home.

But it was fun though.  Now I need lunch and a drink, and go whack on some work stuff.  I did most of the urgent technical bits – now comes working on the organizational problems, which tend not to be as fun.

Home is where the family is

Published on October 15, 2006 in Muse. 0 Comments Tags: .

Back home again – it’s so gratifying to see your 2 year old running across the airport baggage claim to give you a hug.  Spent a reasonably quiet (given the 2 year old’s slight cold and fussiness) weekend at home with Susan, who loves Roxanne.  A quick trip to Ikea to check out the finishes and have a cheap lunch.  Then, unfortunately, Amy had to pack for her business trip – close timing to ApacheCon too.

Actually wrote up one document review for ASF stuff, but mostly relaxing.  Roxanne was so tired she actually went to sleep at a decent hour, so stayed up watching a Buffy to relax.  A whole week of moving and talking to people and it’s nice to let your brain rot for just a little while.  (The only TV I even glanced at last week was in a bar, and we were only interested in MST3K’ing the latest Nip/Tuck/Whatever episode.

“Why I love the ASF”

Published on October 14, 2006 in Muse. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

With apologies to Arlo.

You can hack anything you want, at the good old ASF
You can hack anything you want, at the good old ASF
Browse right in, don’t pay no tax
Just a click of your mouse like that
You can hack anything you want, at the good old ASF

Yes, the rumors are true, I actually sang this (twice!) on stage: during the Lightning Talks and in the closing Plenary.  It was a delightful coincidence (well, perhaps not a coincidence) that Lars’ “Axis of Evil” talk came right afterwards.