2006-03-30
NASA - Crew Experiences a Total Solar Eclipse
New Favorite Song
I heard BrainsBodyBoth off George Hrab's Coelacanth CD on a podcast (can't remember which one, probably Accident Hash and/or Pacific Coast Hellway) and said that I've got to have that song. Since ordering my CD from CD Baby, I've heard it on several other podcasts including again on Accident Hash.
2006-03-09
What does TTFN mean?
TTFN = Ta ta for now.
Back when geeks could type faster than the Internet could transmit, it was important to condence as much meaning into as few key strokes as possible. Many of the abreviations that kids use on instant messaging systems today had their beginings in e-mail twenty years ago.
TTFN is also a quote of Tigger from Disney's Winnie the Pooh movies. I'm not sure which came first.
Back when geeks could type faster than the Internet could transmit, it was important to condence as much meaning into as few key strokes as possible. Many of the abreviations that kids use on instant messaging systems today had their beginings in e-mail twenty years ago.
TTFN is also a quote of Tigger from Disney's Winnie the Pooh movies. I'm not sure which came first.
2006-03-06
Personal News of Note
The toothbrush building business is not worth talking about other then to say I'd like to get out of it.
As many other head coaches can probably attest to, leading a vaulting club can suck up every spare hour and brain cell you're willing to give it. Which most of the time is a good thing. This winter has been a little hard on my club as we lost our longeur back in December and have just recently found a new parent that seems up to the task.
In other news of note that you might find interesting:
As many other head coaches can probably attest to, leading a vaulting club can suck up every spare hour and brain cell you're willing to give it. Which most of the time is a good thing. This winter has been a little hard on my club as we lost our longeur back in December and have just recently found a new parent that seems up to the task.
In other news of note that you might find interesting:
- I've given up on Microsoft products on my desktop(s) and have successfully made the switch to Ubuntu Linux, OpenOffice.org, etc.. I just am not willing to shell out the bucks to upgrade my Microsoft products when good free [both as in speech and beer] alternatives exist.
- Still haven't taken the plunge into either emacs or vi. I seem to be stuck on gedit (a tabbed word pad clone with nice syntax highlighting).
- Heavily using both Firefox and Thunderbird. Thunderbird in particular did a relatively good job moving from Win2k to Ubuntu. In Firefox I'm also running the Yahoo Toolbar. I tried the Google tool bar but it seemed a bit invasive.
- I'm currently subscribed to nearly 50 podcasts and on average listen to about eight hours a day (~500Mb). [One of the few upsides to the toothbrush factory is that I can listen to my ear buds as I keep the machines fed and running.] On my ToDo list is to post an edited list of what I'm listening to on my blog.
- I've been hacking together a customized set of bash scripts, initially based on BashPodder, to download podcasts and burn them to CDs. I want to put a multiuser PHP front end on the system and start a little podcasts on CD by snail mail service.
- I've put together a nice little podcasting setup (Behringer 802 mixer, MXL 990 mike w/ shock mount, cool home brew goose neck mike stand, iRiver recorder). However I don't seem to have time to record / produce the kind of programs I want.
- I've got a couple of different blogs going including "TomS Words of Wisdom" and "CascadeVaulters.org". And I try to keep them more or less up to date. One of my sources of materials is e-mail replys to friends and family, like this one.
- The Geek Jeep is coming up on 350k miles. Like most elderly jeeps it leaks, currently both power steering and engine oil, though neither at critical rates.
2006-03-03
Implications of QoS
The roll out of QoS (quality of service) protocols could lead to multi-tier Internet services (WSJ.com - Consumers Could See New Web Rates: Use More, Pay More). Though the flat fee Internet isn't going away any time soon. The only places where it will is where one company has a monopoly on broadband service.
If and when these companies do exercise their monopoly powers to impose 'pay-as-you-go broadband" or start blocking competitors services, there will be backlash both by customers and by regulators. [There's already backlash going against Comcast for blocking or slowing down Vonage.] Just look back at how we got to flat-fee Internet access in the first place.
Also as soon as one wireless carrier offers all you can eat service for under $50 a month per line, all the others will be forced to follow.
Customers don't like paying for extra minutes and they won't like paying for extra GBytes.
If and when these companies do exercise their monopoly powers to impose 'pay-as-you-go broadband" or start blocking competitors services, there will be backlash both by customers and by regulators. [There's already backlash going against Comcast for blocking or slowing down Vonage.] Just look back at how we got to flat-fee Internet access in the first place.
Also as soon as one wireless carrier offers all you can eat service for under $50 a month per line, all the others will be forced to follow.
Customers don't like paying for extra minutes and they won't like paying for extra GBytes.
Is Windows Vista the new micro-channel architecture?
Hadn't seen the WSJ commentary "Software Hardball". But as a free software advocate, I'm well aware of the issues had have been using open formats for some time.
The whole system of closed proprietary software is on the way out [probably gradually over about five to ten years]. Sun, IBM, Yahoo and others in the open source software movement are doing to Microsoft software what MS, Compaq, Gateway, Dell and the open architecture movement did to IBM hardware back in the late eighties.
Is Windows Vista the new micro-channel architecture?
The whole system of closed proprietary software is on the way out [probably gradually over about five to ten years]. Sun, IBM, Yahoo and others in the open source software movement are doing to Microsoft software what MS, Compaq, Gateway, Dell and the open architecture movement did to IBM hardware back in the late eighties.
Is Windows Vista the new micro-channel architecture?
2006-03-02
"Stop AOL's Email Tax!"
AOL says it will start charging senders for incoming
mails to AOL users. Read the letter and sign on if you want to save free
email! http://www.dearaol.com
mails to AOL users. Read the letter and sign on if you want to save free
email! http://www.dearaol.com
Copyright by Tom Sayles.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License.
