Marc's Musings

An interesting social experiment

We currently have an expensive radio in our office--expensive when it was purchased anyway. We have tasked an eMac that we used to use for development work. Often times we're listening to the music that the oldest guy in the office has on his ipod. Sometimes we'll listen to internet radio, but that gets tired pretty quickly.

Pandora has been the radio of choice for the last week or so. If you don't know what Pandora is, run--don't walk--to go check it out. You seed a "station" with an artist or song, and it will find songs that relate. They've gone through most non-classical music and categorized it pretty excessively. You have the ability to add seeds, and thumbs up (you like it) or thumbs down (you despise it) songs that it plays. Over time it generates a pretty good algorithm for tunes.

Today we got into a discussion about what a "lowest common denominator" radio station would play that would cater to all of our tastes. I suggested that we should create an office station, with the following rule: anyone can thumbs down a song, but we all have to agree to thumbs up a song. It will be interesting to see what the station ends up with.

I'll report back in a few weeks.

Did someone put a quarter in the bed?

Apparently there was an earthquake (5.4 on the good old Richter) this morning in Southern Illinois that could be felt in Milwaukee. Did I feel it? I didn't wake up, if that's what you're asking. I probably subconsciously thought someone put a quarter into the bed.

Beth slept through it as well. When I told her about it shortly after she woke up (still asleep, really), she thought she was dreaming and we had moved to California or something.

The jet taking off from (landing at?) Palwaukee--er Chicago Executive--did wake wake me up at 6a. Maybe I'm just more in tune with noise than "touch."

Heh. As I was writing this, apparently there was another, slightly less powerful one just a few miles away. Didn't feel that one, either. There have been other very minor ones in that area all morning according to the USGS.

Random Thoughts

I have a few random thoughts from the past week...

• NBA Draft -- I think my worst fears came to fruition on Thursday. Joakim Noah, the freak of nature, is now a Chicago Bull. Great. It's a good thing I don't watch a whole lot of NBA hoops.
• Flying -- I think that Beth had a realization this weekend. Flying rocks. We went to Evansville, IN for her cousin's wedding. Here's an interesting comparison based on events (not exaggerated):

  	Beth's Parents	Us
  1330 CDT	Leave Arlingon Heights, IL	Pack
  1530 CDT	Sit in Traffic somewhere in Chicago area	Leave Mount Prospect
  1700 CDT	Finally on 41	Wheels up @ LL10 (we had to kill some time)
  1830 CDT	Are we there yet? No.	Oops, we can't land until 1900, time to slow down
  1903 CDT	Almost to Terre Haute	Land in Evansville
  1930 CDT	Phew. Terre Haute	Headed to dinner
  2100 CDT	Almost thereeee	Checking into hotel
  2115 CDT	We made it!

  I am now required to get my instrument rating so that there are more chances for us to fly down there (she likes to go down there at least once a year, usually 2-3 times). It also increases the probability of us going elsewhere, too.
• Weddings -- I heard a saying that if it rains on a wedding, it means good luck--or irony. What does it mean if you get a military flyby (and you aren't military)? It just so happened that the church was between the airport and the location along the river for the Evansville Freedom Festival--also the reason we couldn't land before 7 on Friday. Right after the pastor said "You may kiss the bride" I heard a 2 or 3 ship flight outside. Obviously I couldn't run outside and look (as is my normal inclination), but I thought that it was pretty neat. There was also an F-117 doing passes as we were driving to the church from the hotel.

Re-heally???

This is in the don't spend it all in one place department:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN®) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?

Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006* -- $.03 has been placed into your Go Daddy® account

The 5 domains I have registered are really gonna net me a whole bunch. Maybe it'll help pay for the difference in one gallon of premium gas.

It probably cost you more to send me the email to tell me the "Good news" (once you take into account the electricity, etc.).

Pet washing

I came across this "Pet Spa" today, and at first you think it's a great idea. You put the puppy in dirty, and (s)he comes out clean. I bet my puppy would love it, although she would probably try to eat the water. From every nozzle. At the same time.

There seems to be a problem with cats, though. Apparently, cats don't like water, especially not in enclosed spaces.

It's done

I finally succumbed for the season.

The heat is now on in our house.

It was 64 at the thermostat and 63.1 upstairs when I turned it on. I'm surprised we lasted this long.

I wanna be an illegal alien

I received a copy of this letter in email, and I wanna know how to become an illegal alien and get a refund on 2 yrs taxes...

The Honorable Paul S. Sarbanes
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510

Dear Senator Sarbanes,

As a native Marylander and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My reasons for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stem from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill’s provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, what I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years.

I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out. Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I’m excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine.

Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.

Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications.

If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance.

Your Loyal Constituent,
xxxx

I don't know if the letter was actually sent, but for anyone interested, the bill referenced is S.2611. In summary, you have to prove that you've been here for 5 years, but they will only collect taxes with the statutory collection period (previous 3 yeras, I believe).

What a crock.

Angry

TLEMK tells me that I should blog more when I'm angry because it makes her laugh (HAH!).

So right now I am "angry" that nobody wants $5.

All seriousness aside, we had a good time last night having a few drinks at Jimmy's in Naperthrill (I don't know Jimmy, too) for Tony's birthday--he'll get to 30 before me, if only by a few weeks. Oh, and he's funnier than I am, so go check him out, too.

It's too early to be blogging.

They're coming to take me away..

I got this little cartoon about a week ago. I looked at it again and decided it was blogworthy.

Enjoy.

5th sentence meme

I'll bite (I'm waiting for a test to run anyway).

The Rules:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or close to it.)
3. Find the fifth sentence (or close to it.)
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.

Do doooo do doo do

Listening to Radio Paradise this morning I heard the greatest thing. Take a little Jim Henson, sprinkle it with a little dessert, and you have Cake singing the Muppet's classic "Mahna Mahna."

I guess it's from an album called
For The Kids where a bunch of pop artist are singing songs that kids like.

/me ponders an iTunes download, or just getting the entire album...

Milestones

mile·stone
n.

Source: dictionary.com

Today marks a significant point in the life of my car. Today is the day that the extended warrany ends, and I have to pay for non-scheduled maintenance myself. You may think, "Why did he ever buy that sucker punch extended warranty thing?" Well, let me explain. When I bought the car, I was driving 35 miles each way to work, and at that rate (along with other driving), I'd blow through the 36mo/36,000 mile warranty in about 18 months, give or take. Then (and then...) I started driving 40mi each way to work. I think the first year I owned the car, I put 24K or 25K miles on it--and I'm not even a travelling salesman.

I went through all of the warranty work that I had done after the factory warranty, during the extended warranty period, and my $1200 investment saved my about $4000 worth of repairs, with the most expensive being the transmission rebuild a few months ago.

So here on my car's fifth birthday, it has 99,350 miles--just short of the 100K for the warranty. I think I did ok timing it. I'm guessing that by the end of next week I will be over the 100K mark as well.

What fun milestones have you had lately?

Some Random Thoughts

None of these has been blogworthy on its own, but here are some things that I have thought about over the past week or so...

• Great America rocks during the "offseason"--before the k-12 kiddies get out of school. We went last Wednesday and got through every coaster at least once in less than 2 hours. At the end of the day we rode V2 about 6 times--without getting off of the ride--and the front of Batman twice, also without having to remove our butts from the painful seats.
• We Like to Party (the Six Flags theme song) isn't as annoying if you make fun of it.
• My Kyocera 7135 palm phone crapped out yet again. Same thing--wouldn't find a signal, or when it did, it wouldn't make a call. After a few minutes on the phone with Verizon tech support, they told me they are no longer supporting the 7135 (gee, I wonder why), so they couldn't send me a replacement 7135. Instead they sent me a Treo 600. After less than a week, I generally like this phone better than the 7135. Now all I have to do is figure out a way to get a cheap Treo 650...
• Rich's boss gets great tickets to the Cubs (thanks again, Rich).. We were right behind the visitor's dugout, and got to see Prior get his arm taken off.
• Electrical wiring in old houses sucks. I spent the better part of Sunday trying to rewire one circuit to make a circuit availble for the bathroom (and only the bathroom). I thought that it would be easy to convert the unused 220 outlet (there for an air conditioner a long time ago) to it's own circuit. 8 hours later we got it taken care of, but I'm still a bit sore from pulling.
• It was a beautiful weekend for flying, but of course I didn't do any. C'est la vie

I had thought of more when I started this post, but of course I got distracted and forget them. At any rate, at least it's a "real" blog post, right Ness?

Weighing My Options

I've been watching my < href="http://marcolson.net/blog/archives/000142.php">new teevee quite a bit lately and I really like the HD content that is available over the air. Thankfully I live in the Chicago area and get quite a good number of digital stations (check this and search for zip 60056), many of which broadcast in HD (although some stretch their normal broadcasts [boo]). I do miss tivo (or tivo like functionality) on the HD stations, and I also would like to have some of the non-OTA statiions in HD (ESPN, HDNet, etc.).

Here are the options as I see it, although one is pretty much out of the question. See if you can figure out which one...

DirecTV
Cost for HD: ~$300 for standard HD receiver, or ~1000 ($600 on eBay) for HD TiVo, $10/mo on top of current service
Pros:
- Great picture quality
Cons:
- DirecTV is changing the encoding of their HD stations within the next year from mpeg-2 to mpeg-4. I don't want to buy a doorstop for a grand.
- TiVo lacks modern functionality (no usb ports, no HMO, etc.)
- No locals in HD

Comcast
Costs: ~$47 + 5 (HD) + 15 (DVR)/mo for 16 months for switching from DirecTV. May switch my cable modem to them too ($46/mo 6Md/384ku)
Pros:
- cost. they have a great deal for those switching over from satellite. that cost is for digital cable, with one premium channel and on demand content.
- Motorola 83xx HD DVR with firewire port enabled
Cons:
- I've heard pq isn't that great--Comcast gets their HD OTA signals with a large antenna, instead of directly from the stations over fiber (like they do for the SD stations)
- Not impressed with the dippy do that answered the phone last night--after 10m on hold

Wide Open West
Cost: ~$140/mo with all the movies (~110 w/ no movies), HD, DVR, and current cable modem
Pros:
- good PQ. WOW gets their broadcast signals over fiber from the stations. No interference.
- already a cable modem customer
- I've had great luck with their customer service--usually < 1m hold times
Cons:
- no deals to switch over from satellite, or to keep an existing customer (customer support girl said "yeah, oh well...")

Did you find the one that's out of the question (that is unless a HD box comes falling out of the sky)? I think the other option may be to see if I can get *just* the HD and DVR service from WOW (like $15/mo).

I don't like the idea of losing my TiVo, nor do I not like the idea of not being able to build a MythTV box to record "encrypted" HD stations (espn, hdnet, etc.). TV is changing, but I'm still on the early adopter side of things. I know that things will be different in a year or two (comcast DVR w/TiVo, etc.), but I want an oompaloompa now!

150 pounds down, 110 to go

I think today is the first time that I have ever seen a FedEx driver pull into a driveway--let alone back in. Of course, that's discounting my parent's old house and their 800 foot long driveway...

The stand for my new TV came today, now I am anxiously awaiting the business end of this whole thing--the TV itself. It's pretty funny that the stand weighs a whole lot more than the set itself, but I guess that's what it takes to support a beeg teevee.

Been a long time...

Warning, random stram of conscious brain dump...

I realized that it's been a long time since I've had a real post here. There have been a lot of things going on in the past month. Illini are 29-0--going to play to make it 30-0 today. A big thanks to Josh for being out of town two weeks ago and not using his ticket--I had a great time at the game.

For those of you that haven't heard, my lovely bride gave me a wonderful Christmas gift of a new digital camera. I've been a shutterbug the past month or so. One of these days I'll have to get some of the pictures up, but most of them have been just "farting" around trying to figure out how the thing works and how I will use it. I am working on a bridges project and will start to post pictures to my gallery when I get more of them.

Been working a lot on some new, pretty cool stuff. I wish I could tell you more, but unfortunately I can't. It should change the way companies manage their email, and if it doesn't--well we won't talk about that. It's neat to be in on the ground level of yet another project--and this time I didn't have to change jobs for it to happen. Don't think it's all been cakework, though--it's been really tough getting people from different backgrounds (real time C to GUI C#) all working together. One of the more painful things is been trying to implement a new software process within the company at the same time.

Beth and I started finalizing some of our fixture decisions for the upstairs bathroom. Now all I have to do is get the work done... Actually had some time this weekend to get closer to finishing the demo, and also got in there and just cleaned up the little debris with a shop vac--that was much needed. It's looking better every day, it's just tough when you only spend 2hrs per week on it with everything else going on.

Had a great flight the other morning to Rochester, IN for breakfast. The place that we ate was cheap and decent, but not great. There was about a 5m time period where I had to fly fairly low (still at 2000 MSL) underneath some non-precipitating snow clouds--that was exciting. It was great going someplace different for a change. I think one of the things I would like to try to do is land at all of the public airports (except for maybe O'hare) in the State of Illinois. IThere are a bunch, but it would be a fun challenge. So far I've got about 21 and I figure that's probably in the 10-15% range. I can probably knock out a bunch of the ones in the chicago area in a few hours--it's the ones further south that will be mroe difficult. If anyone wants to go with on any of my runs, let me know--ballast is always fun to have.

I think that's enough for now.

+++ATH0

I need a sippy cup.

This is the second time in as many weeks that I dumped water on my keyboard. At least this time it was on one detached from my laptop, and is now dry and works fine.

Doh!

Someone get me a sippy cup.

Get Out the Vote

As many of you know, tomorrow (tuesday) is Election Day here in the US. It is your duty to vote for the turd sandwich of your choice. If you don't vote, you cannot complain about how the country is being run.

In light of that, there was a very amusing message on my answering machine this evening. It was from the Republican party reminding me to vote tomorrow. This was not amusing because the call happened, but more because the lady that left the message sounded like she would be more enthusiastic about watching paint dry. For something that many people are so "flamboyant" about, this lady saw these phone calls as something that was keeping her away from Monday night TV--even though she probably volunteered for it.

It definately inspired me to vote for the president.

Illinois is a "Strong Kerry" state, so regardless of who I vote for in the presidential election, it really doesn't matter.

I was going to leave my election reform stuff out, but couldn't resist touching on the issue. If I want to make a difference, I really believe that it starts at the state level. Get more independents into local office, and you will start to get rid of the two-party system that the current electoral college fosters and grows. If you really want your vote to count, this is the first step.

I even used being tags this time. I hope Nick and the W3C are happy.

Happy Sysadmin Day!

For all of you that are sysadmins, here's to you! For all of those that aren't, go thank your sysadmin--they work harder than you think.

UPDATE: As usual, UserFriendly has something to say about current events...

Down with the shizzle

Fun link to do any web page doggy style...

http://www.asksnoop.com

Ever wonder ...

Ever wonder how much sex with your girlfriend really costs? Here's a neat calculator that tells you...

http://costofsex.com/

Slashdot Moderation

You have moderator access and 5 points (expire on 2004-04-08). Welcome to those of you just joining: please read the moderator guidelines for instructions.

· You can't post & moderate the same discussion.
· Concentrate on promoting more than demoting.
· Browse at -1 to keep an eye out for abuses.
· Mail the admin URLs showing abuse (the cid link please!).

Whoop-dee-doo. I feel like going through there and demoting everything. I barely ever read the comments anymore, and I have my threshold set so that I don't see anything that is less than a 5.

I just love the "Concentrate on promoting more than demoting" line. Everything worthwhile has already been promoted...

Long live The Onion

Let me just say that The Onion rocks. Because of them I found out a new feature of Yahoo! that I never knew existed. It will help me answer all the tough problems that life has to offer...

Yahoo's new soul-search engine

Security RSS Feeds

Just a curious thought...

Why is it that none of the major security reporting organizations (securityfocus, cert, etc.) have an RSS feed for new alerts? With the number of geeks that use RSS, this would seem to be incredibly more timely than emails, and easier than visiting a web page every other day...

If anyone knows of RSS feeds for something like this, drop it in the comments...

Vacationitis

I realized this morning that it's still 2 days away, but I definately have "vacationitis" at work. I keep looking at webpages to check the snow forecast, etc. Hopefully when I get back I don't have brokenboneitis.

2 days until Vail!

Wierd

Every day that I look in my RSS feed list I get freaked out by seeing my name day in and day out.

Thanks for freaking me out Kenny.....

Gift Baskets

I never really understood gift baskets. Some company takes a $3 basket, stuffs it 3/4 full with confetti, and gets a whole bunch of little items--1 oz. bag of gummi bears, a handful of popcorn, a little choclate, a pot's worth of coffee, etc. Then they wrap it in celophane.

Total cost to them, probably less than $10. Total cost to the purchaser, more like $40-50 and sometimes even more. That doesn't include any shipping charges.

Our home office just sent us one of those.

Whoop.

Save the $50 and give us a nice bottle of tequilla or vodka.