Category: Rants

If I have a problem with something, here it will be.

Categories
Rants Work

Back from CES

I have just returned from CES, that large consumer electronics and computer show in Las Vegas, and I am just beat.  Why people must insist on smoking so much I will never know, but I now have the smell to remind me of the time spent there this past week.

It was 4 days of meetings, endless walking, dinners, drinking, and for some (not yours truly) gambling.  2006 will be the year of both big screen (hi-def) and small screen (portable video) given what I saw there.  Plenty of reasons to go out and buy that HDTV or new phone / PDA / portable device you’ve been swearing off.

There were also some of the most amazing looking women on the planet there too, but precious few of them are in the industry.  I managed to miss the high-wattage star power in attendance as well: Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Kevin Federline, Britney Spears, Tom Hanks, Bill Gates, just to name a few. 

I did see Lazlow, and hear that he’s continuing to rock on with his other jobs, despite his weekly radio experiment being over.  One can only hope that it rises from the ashes to help shake us from the lameness that is today’s free radio experience.

Categories
Rants Travel

The snow trip that wasn't

Yesterday I got up before dawn, staggered around the house, and gathered up all of my skiing possessions in the hope of a day of snow induced bliss.  This sadly did not happen.

Quite the opposite happened, actually.

After it was all finished, the people going spent about 9 hours in transit to-and-from Tahoe only to be taught a recurring lesson: Ski resorts lie about their weather conditions.  It was raining and windy, and 50 F at the mountains, completely unsuitable for skiing.

I will wait for the weather situation to improve before trying to travel up to Tahoe again, that is for sure.

Categories
General Rants

Home at last

I pushed on through and drove direct from San Diego to San Jose tonight (or today). It took longer than I had hoped, starting at around 7pm or so, and ending at 12:45am. The car is finally in a home garage again, extremely wet, and slightly dinged, but in pretty good shape all things considered.

It was 4 days and 2000 miles of driving, but I’m glad to finally be home. Next time I will definitely take the plane. When I wake up sometime today I’ll try to post some new pictures of the ride in the gallery area.

Categories
General Rants

California Drivers are the Weakest Link

I had always believed that Californians were poorer drivers than the rest of the country since moving here 10 years ago. However, I now have definitive proof that they are the worst. Take this sampling of data, for instance:

  • States travelled through: 5 (OK, TX, NM, AZ, CA)
  • Worst roads encountered: New Mexico (washboard consistency)
  • Fastest speed limits: Arizona (75 MPH most freeways)
  • Least traffic encountered: New Mexico (desolate in most places)
  • Dead wildlife leader: Texas (nearly every 10 miles something was toast)
  • Most stop and go traffic: California (starts at the border near Interstate -8)
  • Most police on road: California (from mile 3 onward)
  • Largest percentage of slow left lane drivers: California (if people pass you on the right its time to move over a lane)
  • Greatest speed drop in short distance: California (one stretch went from 70 to 45 in less than 10 miles)
  • The only site where I used brakes/downshifted on the highway: California (if traffic is moving too fast for you, or you really must see that abandoned vehicle, get in the right lane)

This is but a small sampling of the frustration happening near the end of this trip. I’m only to San Diego and I’m tired of the driving here. If I don’t find a route around LA I may have to revise this post and add all the pain of sitting in traffic for hours and hours going nowhere.

Categories
General Rants

Don't Tempt Fate

Today I had one of those moments that I try so hard to avoid, the one where the rational brain and impulsive brain are fighting it out for control. Let me give you the rundown:

  • I had two good flights on my largest R/C airplane
  • There was no real damage, save for some gear scraping, making it a good day
  • The wind was just starting to pick up, so it would had been good to pack it in
  • No one around was pushing me to fly again

So with all of this known, my rational brain told me to call it a day and go home. My impulsive brain said “wait, you can squeeze in one more flight on your own.” So armed with this information I took the plane up again. The takeoff roll was good, the circuits around the field are fine, even the wind buffeting isn’t a big deal.

And then I land. Or I should say I hit the runway.

Now I have a broken rudder, a crunched wing, and a lot of work ahead of me (or someone who fixes things for me) before its flight-worthy again. Sometimes fate is a cruel master, and this time it reminded me that its not always smart to listen to the impulsive thoughts in my head. Doh.

Categories
Rants Work

Tired and Out of Sorts

I’ve entered month two of very little to no sleep during the week, thanks to a grueling and completely unrealistic product shipment schedule. In a move I will forever regret, I volunteered my services to be both product manager and UI/layout developer, ensuring that I work the same crazy hours I normally assign to the engineering team.

I have to say now that I don’t know how the tech folks live like this, because on weekends all I do is get up around noon, watch a little TV, do a little more work, then head back to sleep. I really hope this project ends soon, as I can’t imagine what a third month of this zombie state would be like.

Categories
General Rants Technology

Two-fer Mess Up

I combined three things I’m really good at today to great effect:

  • Betting on the goodness of technology
  • Trying to make things go fast
  • Spending money

What I came up with was: an unflyable airplane and a dead hard drive. The airplane won’t fly because its internal wiring is so lengthy as to be its own distortion amplification device (aka an antenna). The hard drive died (less than 6 months old!) for reasons unknown to me, but it was being moved from one PC case to another.

There are a lot of other things worse in the world, but these two events have conspired against my state of zen today.

Categories
General Rants

Good Weekend / Bad Week

The labor day weekend was pretty good to me this year. I did as little as I possibly had to, flew one of my R/C planes, did some light work around the house, and generally avoided work email. I was all set to call it a good weekend all around.

Then I sat down and turned on CNN.

I had read about Katrina and the goings ons down in New Orleans, but I just hadn’t seen video of the situation. It certainly put things into perspective for me and reminded me once again just how much things (and people) are taken for granted. Thinking back to a year or two ago when I was in the French Quarter its hard to imagine that much of the area I’ve seen before is now utterly ruined, with many lives taken along with it.

I plan to donate shortly, but something nagging at me says that just won’t be enough. I really do feel for the displaced folks out there and I am reminded once again about what a complete inept government we have elected in recent years. Dumb.

Categories
Rants Site News

When upgrades don't go smoothly

I saw a post earlier this week proclaiming a new version of WordPress (my current blogging software) was out. Having missed the previous two updates, I downloaded it, checked it over, read the directions and installed it. After putting a post in, everything seemed to work. I got a little text message that looked odd, but all seemed fine. Peachy.

On Saturday I got back around to looking at what caused this text error. To my horror it had gone from mere annoyance to full blown site wide chaos. Text error messages sprung out of nearly every page. When I poked around to find out why nothing jumped out. Worse still, some of my images were now broken. What had happened?

To shorten this story to its final conclusion, there was an old plug-in I was using on a previous version of WordPress that went south, taking everything it touched (which was the whole site) with it. Now that it is disabled things seem fine again… until the next time I try to be smart with the upgrades. Doh!

Categories
General Rants

Walking is rough stuff

It’s official: I’m a complete klutz. I was walking around today, doing some errands, and while stepping off a curb my ankle twisted and became my heel. The twist was so bad that a woman standing nearby actually cried out “oh my!” when it happened. It was a serious challenge just limping back to the truck and driving home.

Looks like there will be very little exercise for me in the near future and a whole lot more limping around and cold packs. Joy for me.