News:

CNN's hologram technology is pretty cool. They need to interview Carrie Fisher with this thing. Then the circle will be complete. In case you don't know, the people in the newsroom see nothing. It's only the viewers at home that see it.

Wednesday November 5, 2008

We live in interesting times. It is about time we had a black president. I just wish he were a Republican. I do hope he makes lots of changes. I hope the Republicans get out of his way and let him make his changes. Only then can we evaluate the effectiveness of his political philosophy. Actions speak louder than words. I want to see his actions.

BTW – Now that Democrats are in charge, the whole global warming thing will be proven to be bad science. Problem solved. Wait and see.

Friday September 19, 2008

Woody Allen recently told some foreign journalists “It would be a disgrace and humiliation if Barack Obama does not win.” I do have to begrudgingly admit that Woody Allen knows what he is talking about. He is an authority on disgrace and humiliation. After all, he did marry his ex-wife's adopted daughter.

Saturday September 13, 2008

Obama has been having some hard times lately. Obama is best when he is giving flowery speeches. But lately, he’s had to play hardball. He comes across much less likeable when he is rebuking an attack than when he is talking about changing the world. Oddly, McCain seems to be at his best when he is deflecting an attack. As the campaigning gets rougher and the attacks get harsher, I don’t think Obama will fair very well. I’m sure Obama would like to take the high road, but by an odd twist of fate, Obama is forced to strongly rebuke attacks. Remember Kerry? Kerry responded too late to the swift boat attacks. The Democrats remember that very well. So Obama seems forced to rebuke attacks to avoid being compared to Kerry. If Obama takes the high road, he’ll be called wimpy, but if he takes on McCain head-on, he will be put off his game. Obama is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

Biden’s recent remarks that Hillary would might have been a better VP pick than himself are amazing to me. Either he is a complete idiot, or he is trying to sabotage Obama. Either way, I would be very concerned if I were Obama. What else is Biden going to say in the heat of the campaign? It would only take a few more comments like that to ruin Obama’s chances of winning.

I find it very amusing to watch the media interview Palin. Charlie Gibson gilled Palin, trying to break her. He failed. He asked followed-up questions again and again (something no one does to Obama). I thought Palin did extremely well. She is a very strong and smart woman who is also very warm and charming. Hillary could learn a lot from her.

Thursday September 4, 2008

Congratulations, Nicole: Nicole will be playing the part of Isabella in The Nutcracker Ballet at the Cobb Civic Center this Christmas. Isabella is the younger sister of the lead character, Clara. Nicole is one of two girls who will be playing the role of Isabella this year. Fifteen girls auditioned for the role.

Tuesday September 2, 2008

We MUST stop Big Floral before its too late. In recent days, it has come to my attention that the US is facing a looming floral crisis, the like of which we have never seen before. The US imports 80% of its flowers. International flower producing conglomerates who control this $100 Billion a year industry are colluding with Democrats to create an artificial flower shortage which will destroy the American flower industry, thus placing us entirely at the mercy of Big Floral. American flower shops are being squeezed into bankruptcy by Big Floral, which manipulates prices at will to drive locally owned flower shops out of business. Eventually, all the American owned flower shops will be gone and in their place massive foreign-owned floral warehouses will rise up. Instead of arranging flowers locally in small flower shops as has been done for generations, flower arrangements will be manufactured on a massive scale by children working in floral arrangement sweatshops. These flower factories will pump out millions of arrangements each month in order to meet the world’s ever increasing and insatiable thirst for flowers. Local US flower arranging jobs will leave our shores for good. Our US flower arranging jobs will go to third world countries where poor children will be forced to slave all day under the topical sun to satisfy our floral arrangement addiction.

The Democratic Party has been in bed with Big Floral since the sixties. Code words such as “flower power”, “flower children”, and “the flower generation” were used to hide the insidious influence Big Floral was starting to exert in American politics. The flower generation of the sixties has been in control of the Democratic Party for years. The Clintons did their best to destroy the domestic floral industry during their first term. Even though Hillary failed to gain her parties nomination, you can be assured that Democratic leaders who control the agenda behind the scenes are still in the back pocket of Big Floral. Do you really think it is just a coincidence that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii?

Thankfully, the Republicans have been long time friends of the domestic flower industry. Through small business incentives, tax breaks, and targeted financial stimulus packages the Republicans have managed to keep our domestic floral industry alive. Republicans have also been working to pass legislation to encourage the development of domestic alternatives to foreign flowers, such as wheat grass and cornflowers.

If you want to continue to be able to enjoy reasonably priced flower arrangements made in the USA and keep floral jobs at home, please support the Republican Party. We need to act now to stop Big Floral. Our floral future is at stake. We must reduce our dependence on foreign flowers and develop our domestic floral industry before its too late.

Thurday August 28, 2008

I was wrong on my prediction regarding Clinton’s speech. It was dry an unemotional. It was good, but was not full of emotion, as I was expecting. It must have been the speech he was going to use if Hillary got the nomination.

Monday August 25, 2008

When I first heard that Obama picked Biden to be his running mate, I thought he had made a big mistake. I thought he should have picked a younger man, more like himself in order to emphasize the different between himself and McCain. But the more I think about it, the more I think it was a smart move. By picking a VP candidate that is very similar to McCain in experience and age, Obama is relegating McCain’s age and experience to a VP role. Subconsciously, people will equate McCain to Biden and thus will consider McCain to be inferior to Obama in the same way Biden is inferior to Obama on the democratic ticket. It will be as if Obama is only true presidential candidate running against someone who is only worthy to be a VP.

I have a prediction about the Democratic convention. I think Hillary will give a strong but forgettable speech, but I think Bill Clinton’s speech will be the most dramatic and memorable speech of the convention. I think Bill Clinton will tell a story. I think the story will be about how Clinton went form not believing in Obama to being his most ardent supporter. In the climax of his speech, Clinton will pause, holding back tears, as he delivers a line that will cause the convention to erupt in thunderous applause. I can’t stand the way the Bill Clinton uses emotions to manipulate people. But I do acknowledge that he is very good at it. We will see the master at work one more time.

I do believe Obama will win big. I don’t like his politics, but I do think that his presidency will leave the United States stronger, in the long run.

Sunday August 24, 2008

Last week, two of the computer’s in Tess’s office got infected with the “Antivirus 2008” virus. What a pain. Luckily, that virus isn’t very destructive; it’s just very annoying. On one computer, I had to repair the Windows XP installation because installing XP SP3 made the machine unable to boot. On the other, I was able to remove the virus by using AVG. Seems like AVG and Avast are the most useful free anit-virus programs available right now. I made the user accounts that they use in the office “limited accounts”. Hopefully, that will make it harder for malware to be installed in the future.

Yesterday, we all went to Stone Mountain Park. Tess’s brother, Steve was visiting from the Philippines. The kids and I went on the Sky Hike at Stone Mountain Park. I think it’s a great concept. It’s fun and gives you a little exercise. We stayed to watch the laser show. It drizzled a little, but not enough to really affect us too much. Tess spent most of the week sightseeing with Steve. They went to The World of Coke, The Georgia Aquarium, and The Atlanta Zoo. Tess took Steve to the airport early this morning to catch his return flight to the Philippines.

Saturday August 23, 2008

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Saturday August 16, 2008

I have fond memories of my grandfather playing 78 records at family gatherings. The records I remember most were by Spike Jones. Thanks to this web site I can relive some of those memories with the click of a mouse. A couple of my favorites are You Always Hurt the Ones You Love and Der Fuehrer's Face.

Sunday August 3, 2008

We spent all day today at Whitewater. (Whitewater is a water-themed amusement park near our house). We went there to mark the end of summer vacation for the kids. They will be starting school in a couple of weeks.

I had a great time going down the water slides and swimming with my kids. It was like being a kid again.

Friday August 1, 2008

Recent discoveries made by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have the potential to change the world. For years, I have thought that photovoltaic technology (direct transformation of sunlight into electricity) would solve the world’s energy needs. In recent years scientists have increased the efficiency of photovoltaic panels. Now MIT has developed a technology that will cheaply split water into hydrogen and oxygen – allowing for efficient storage of energy. This new electrolysis technique has the potential to revolutionize the green power industry and transform our world from one powered by fossil fuels to one powered by hydrogen.

Thursday July 31, 2008

We are going to have a sequel to TRON - 28 years after the original. Better late than never. A Tron sequel has talked about since 1999, but a teaser trailer was recently shown at Comic Con, confirming it is for real. Tron was an influential movie in my life. It was the first feature film to showcase computer-generated special effect. I was in high school at the time it came out. Tron strengthened my interest in computers at a critical time in my life when I was deciding what I was going to do with the rest of my life. The coolest news about the sequel is that Jeff Bridges will be reprising his role - 28 years after the original! That is the coolest thing ever! Additionally, it looks like one of the characters will be the young Jeff Bridges from the first movie – digitally reconstructed, no doubt! That is the coolest thing ever. Seriously, I am very excited about this movie. I hate to admit it, but I will love this movie whether it is good or terrible. But the teaser trailer looks pretty cool. The computer-generated effects will be first class this time around. The possibilities are staggering.

Saturday July 27, 2008

Randy Pausch recently passed away at the age of 47 from pancreatic cancer. Unless you have been living under a rock without Internet access, you have probably already heard The Last Lecture, but if you haven’t, it is definitely worth a listen.

Thursday July 17, 2008

On Monday morning I call the Sears help line (or whatever they call it) to make an appointment for someone to come look at my washing machine. They scheduled someone to come on Wednesday. The repairman replaced the pressure switch (the error code (F32) indicated a bad pressure switch) which fixed the washing machine. He warned us to only use HE detergent in the washer since normal detergent produces too much suds. Apparently it’s not safe to put SOAP in the washing machine. How stupid does an engineer have to be to design a washing machine that you can’t put SOAP in? I suppose that if I spill liquid soap on my shirt I am not supposed to wash it in my $1000 front-loading Kenmore HE3t. That’s great.

I give a lot of credit to Sears for fixing the washer for free (at least I think it was free). But I would strongly discourage anyone from buying a Kenmore HE3t washing machine. If I knew I wasn’t able to put SOAP in it, I wouldn’t have bought it. I suspect I will have more trouble with this machine in the future. If they designed it such that SOAP breaks it, I suspect it’s easily broken. Next time, I will spend a little more to get more ruggedly built machine.

Sunday July 13, 2008

In March we bought a new washer and dryer. Our old washer and dryer were 14 years old so we figured it was about time to buy new ones. The agitator on the old washer finally broke, so we really didn’t have much of a choice. We bought a high end Kenmore set that cost a little over $2000. Well, less than 4 months later, the washing machine has stopped working. The Kenmore HE3t refuses to wash clothes. It displays the error “F32”, which is a bad pressure switch, whatever that is. Since it’s less than a year old, I expect all cost will be covered under the warranty. We shall see. I will keep you posted.

Wednesday July 9, 2008

Regarding the Rev. Jesse Jackson saying he wanted to cut off some of Obama’s body parts…I am sure that Jackson knew he was on a live microphone. Think about it. He was on Fox. As I have said before people life Jackson and Al Sharpton do not what to see Obama elected. He is bad for their business. Jackson knows he has to support Obama publicly. But he finally found a way to dis Obama and drive a wedge between black voters and Obama by sayd Obama is “talking down to black people”. Jackson is dissing Obama and standing up for black people at the same time. I admire Jackson’s masterful ability to walk that thin line between dissing Obama and keeping the black man down. I really want to see Obama elected. I like firework shows.

Tuesday July 8, 2008

Tess and I have been married 13 years as of today.

Wednesday July 2, 2008

I came across some great videos on YouTube regarding global warming:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Friday May 23, 2008

I have got to say that recent comments from Hillary Clinton have made me consider something that I have not considered until now: Could it be that Democratic party leaders are pressuring her to quit because they don’t want a female candidate? She brings up the point that her husband did not get the nomination until June. No male candidate has ever been asked to quit their campaign, have they? It’s funny, but I never realized that until now. Seems like the Democratic Party’s leadership might have some ulterior motives in suggesting it’s all over.

Tuesday May 20, 2008

I never updated my blog to summarize our Spring break vacation. We went on vacation a few weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to writing about it.

Over Spring break we all went down to Florida. Along the way, we stopped by my Mom’s house. Lot’s of family from Savannah came over to eat supper at my Mom’s house. Mom and Roy were fabulous hosts, as always. It was great seeing everyone. After a couple of days at Mom and Roy’s, we continued down to West Palm Beach. We have some good friends there. After one night in West Palm Beach, Kyle and I took a side trip to the Peace River, which we paddled for three days last year. This year, we decided not to camp. Instead, we stayed in a hotel and went out paddling and fossil collecting during the day.

The water level in the Peace River was much higher than it was last year. So we couldn’t look for fossils in the river itself, as we had planned. Instead, we dug on the banks of the river, where we found some decent shark teeth. One day as we were driving around, I took a wrong turn. We ended up at a construction site where a house was being built. There was a big pile of sand on the site that looked like it might contain fossils. So we got out of the car and started looking around. In just a few minutes, we found a large shark tooth. We stayed there for a couple of hours and found over a hundred shark teeth.

After two days at the Peace River, we started our trip back across Florida to West Palm. Along the way, we stopped at Gatorama, an alligator park near lake Okeechobee. We spent a few hours there, then continued our trip.

The day after getting back to West Palm, we all went to the beach. We had a great time in the sand and surf. The waves were some of the biggest waves I have ever been in at the beach. It was a lot of fun.

Much thanks goes out to our friends in West Palm. They know who they are.

Monday May 19, 2008

On Saturday, the kids got the pets they have been begging for over the past several months. Kyle got a bearded dragon (named Herman) and Nicole got a guinea pig (named Chi-Chi).

Wednesday April 30, 2008

Back on december 14, I wrote that so-called black leaders do not want Obama elected. Well look what’s happened. Rev. Wrong has been making a public nuisance of himself and Al Sharpton has been dissing Obama. The truth is there is a multi-billion dollar industry in this country based on perpetuating the myth that the black people can’t win. The last thing in the world that Sharpton, Jackson, et al. want is for a black man to get elected president of the most powerful nation on Earth and prove them wrong. If black people start to actually believe they are part of the system then the “You can’t win / whitety’s out to get you” bossiness will go into a tailspin.

As I said earlier, I would actually like to see Obama get elected even though I consider myself to be a rather conservative Republican. What is happening now is exactly the reason I think we need to have a black president. We, as a country, need to send a message to ourselves and the world that racisms truly is ending in the US. It’s not completely dead yet, but having a black president is an inevitable step that we must take. I would rather have had Collin Powell in the white house, but I’ll settle for Obama.

Wednesday March 5, 2008

Greg Solomon is back!

Friday February 29, 2008

Happy leap day.

Thursday February 21, 2008

Just want to make sure everyone got the message we just gave the world – “We can knock your satellites out of the sky at will.” I think there is a ban on testing anti-satellite weapons. But we skirted that little annoyance by claiming we were protected the world from the affects on the environment resulting from the satellite falling back to earth. That was sweet. We used the same message the UN has been using to try to control the US to skirt the ban on anti-satellite weapons. That’s pretty funny. I bet they had a big laugh about that at the White House. And let me be clear. I am not against the shoot down. It’s getting easier and easier to put satellites into space. We need to be prepared. And now we are. Congratulations to all the engineers who’s hard work made that test successful on the first attempt. Just goes to show the US hasn’t lost it’s edge.

The technology used to shoot down the satellite was actually developed for the missile defense system. I think it’s a fitting tribute to the foresight of Ronald Reagan to have an outgoing republican President send this message to the world.

Tuesday January 8, 2008

Regarding the "Iron my Shirt" protester at the Clinton rally, the “Iron my Shirt” sign is a visual joke that has been circulating on the web for a while now. Even the color of the poster exactly matched the joke picture. This guy was making a joke. He’s probably is not even into politics.

Monday January 7, 2008

For the last eight months I have been doing nasal irrigation (also called sinus rinse). I use a product by NeilMed, but there are a few companies that make similar products. I hear about this on public radio and decided I’d give it a try. It works great. I breathe easier at night and I haven’t had a cold since I started using it. I think that in a few years this will be a common as flossing your teeth. It cleans out the nasal passages and moisturizes them. During these Winter months it’s especially helpful.

Sunday January 6, 2008

Watch Hillary Clinton change. Now that Obama is kicking her butt, she will do what the Clintons always do – change her message. They don’t have principles, other than manipulating the public, so her campaign will study the polls, identify why she lost, then retool her message to get the votes. I think that whole “change” theme completely backfired for her. Why tout change when it’s clear that Obama offers the most change? Probably because that’s what the polls said the public wanted. So they blindly did what the Clintons have always done, regurgitated what the polls said the public wanted to hear. But this time, they shot themselves in the foot. They should have realized they can’t out-change Obama. I’ll bet Clinton stops talking about change. She will start talking about hope now. After all, her husband was the master of the hope message. Let’s see if the public is dumb enough to fall for it again.

Friday January 4, 2008

What a great way to start the new year.

I thought so. I didn’t think people wanted to see the Mrs. Rodham Clinton in charge. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, could get elected again in a minute. Good thing he’s not allowed. I’m glad to see Obama do well. Like I said before, if he gets nominated, I will vote for him, even though I’m a Republican.

If Mrs. Rodham Clinton manages to recover and gets nominated, we will see a Republican in the White House next year. Too many people strongly dislike her, regardless of the opponent. I also think she would self destruct under the pressure of a year-long campaign. It would be amusing to watch, but I'd rather Obama get the nomination.

Monday December 31, 2007

We had a great Christmas, as usual. The best part being that we are all healthy and happy. The kids racked up yet again. Kyle received a new amplifier for his guitar, guitar hero III for PC, some CDs, DVDs, and a DS and PC games. Nicole received a Nintendo Wii, some Wii games, some DS games, lots of clothes, DVDs, and some hair stuff.

2007 has been a very good year for us. Even though the startup I was working for did not startup, I landed on my feet and am working with great people at a great company. Tess’s company is healthy and growing. And 2008 looks brighter than 2007.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Sunday December 23, 2007

Last night I took Kyle out to see the best guitar player in Atlanta, Barry Richman. Kyle has been playing guitar since he got one for Christmas last year. He has been taking lessons for about 5 months. A few weeks ago, I asked one of the guitarists who work where Kyle takes lessons for advice on taking Kyle to see a local guitarist. He told me about Barry Richman. He said he was the best guitarist in Atlanta. Last night Barry Richman was playing just down the street from our house at Wild Wings café. Kyle and I arrived just a few minutes before the show began at 10:00 pm. It was amazing. Barry Richman is a master of the electric guitar. As we were watching him, I couldn’t believe someone as amazingly talented as he is was playing in a small local bar in front of a couple dozen people. But that made it all the better for Kyle and I. We were able to talk with Barry and the singer during breaks. I bought a CD and had Barry sign it for Kyle. It was a very intimate experience.

Barry played several of his own songs, four Jimmy Hendrix songs and covers of a few other songs. It was just amazing. I would not be a bit surprised if Barry Richman becomes nationally or internationally famous in the coming years.

Friday December 14, 2007

It looks like Hillary is loosing it. I have mixed feelings about that. I think she will be the easiest Democrat to beat so I’d like to see her win the nomination. On the other hand, I think this country desperately needs a black president, so I’d like to see Obama win. Believe it or not, I would most likely vote for Obama if he gets nominated, even though I am a Republican.

I believe there are more Democrats than Republicans who don’t want a black president. Republicans don’t care what race a person is. That’s the truth, despite what Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would have you believe. I personally, don’t believe there is such a thing as race. It’s a made up term that has no meaning. Ethiopians are more closely related to Europeans than they are many other populations in Africa. Yet, most people would consider them to be black. My wife and I are of different races, so what does that make our children? The point is I don’t believe the term “race” holds any meaning. Whereas most Democrats attribute a great deal of meaning to one’s race.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (both Democrats) certainly place a lot of significance on a person’s race. People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton make their living off of inequality. Equality would put them out of business. These people (let’s call then leaches) brainwash people into thinking they can’t succeed. These leaches suck the spirit from people then extort protection money from governments and businesses.

Mark my words: no leaches will support Obama. If Obama gets the nomination, we will have the pleasure of watching the leaches squirm. The leaches will use some excuse to say why they can’t fully support Obama. They will say he isn’t black enough. They will say he doesn’t care enough about his own people. They might even call him a traitor. There’s no telling. And if he gets elected, the leaches will make unreasonable demands, then criticize him for not doing the impossible.

The United States needs a black president to prove that what we Americans say is actually true: All men are created equal.

I am willing to put aside my political differences with Obama in order to do what is in the long-term best interest of this country. I want all people to feel like they are part of the process, not excluded from it. If we don’t all come together, we risk tearing this country apart in the coming years. We need to put issues of race behind us. We need to raise the playing field to the next level.

Monday November 12, 2007

Today Intel launches their new line of CPUs manufactured using a 45 nanometer process. This new generation of chips uses many new and revolutionary process technologies. It’s quite a historic day for Intel and the personal computer industry as a whole. These chips are the first commercially available chips made using a 45 nm process. And thanks to economies of scale, you can buy a desktop computer that uses one for about $1000. This is capitalism at its finest.

One thing I’ve noticed about this launch that I haven’t seen other people point out is the significance of Intel choosing to maintain the power envelope it used in the prior generation of chips. If Intel wanted to, they could increase the power envelope and release chips at much higher clock frequencies. Instead, Intel has chosen to show restraint and release chips running at relatively modest clock frequencies. One reason they can do this is that the multi-core chips are able to self-overclock if all CPUs are not being exercised in order to maximize single-CPU performance while maintaining the rated power envelope. If pressured by competition from AMD, Intel can easily release chips at running at higher frequencies (and higher power envelops). Intel has the luxury of not having to push their new technology very hard to maintain the lead.

Saturday November 10, 2007

It looks like the new Star Trek movie in production now will be very Spock centric. I am very happy about that. I am a huge Star Trek fan, but I am very tired of William Shatner as captain Kirk. I always liked Spock and Scotty more than Kirk and I always liked Nimoy and Doohan more than Shatner. The new movie will be released in the summer of 2008 and will tell Spock’s story. Since Nimoy is in the film, I suspect most of the film we be a flashback. We will see Spock serving under Captain Pike on the Enterprise before Kirk became its captain. I can barely contain my excitement. This storey goes back to the very beginnings of Star Trek. The original Star Trek pilot featured Pike and Spock on the Enterprise. Now we will see them again, first without Kirk. Then we will see the captain Kirk taking command of the Enterprise for the first time. The circle is complete, 40 years later. Roddenberry would be proud.

Sunday October 28, 2007

Kyle and Nicole have been taking music lessons for a about a month now. Both are doing well.

Kyle has formed a band at school with a couple of his friends. They plan on performing in the school variety show at the end of the year if all goes well. Kyle recently won the T-shirt design contest at his school. All students (K-8 grades) were able to submit an entry. The shirts are sold to raise money for the school. Students will be able to wear them on special days.

Nicole has started practicing for The Nutcracker ballet put on by here ballet school. She will be playing a soldier this year.

Last weekend I setup a 10-gallon aquarium and moved the algae eater fish that we’ve had for almost two years from the cramped bowl we had him in to the new accommodations. Last night we bought another two fish and some ornaments. This is the first real aquarium we’ve had.

Friday October 19, 2007

A recent study suggests that short men have a chip on their shoulder and are more likely to negatively evaluate their own health. The doctors who did the study say that for short men, adding an inch of height has positive health benefits equivalent to an overweight person loosing weight. I think they are making this all up in an attempt to make height surgery and growth hormones reimbursable by insurance. If those I ever met those doctors, I’d kick their butts like there was no tomorrow. (At least I wouldn't fall into their shortest category.)

Wednesday October 17, 2007

Some recent research reinforces what many anthropologists (and I) believe: That humans may have first become humans at the beach. Prior evidence suggested that the earliest human migrations out of Africa were along the coast. The first Americans probably traveled along the coast. Now it seems that our ancestors have been living along the coast for over 150,000 years. I guess that explains why we like being near the coast. It’s in our genes.

Thursday September 20, 2007

So one of the hosts of The View doesn’t know if the world is round or flat. But I’m sure she thinks George Bush is an idiot. See for yourself here.

Monday September 17, 2007

Now that Star Trek fans are getting older, I guess it was logical that casket manufacturers would start courting them. Casket and urn maker Eternal Image has announced that they will market Star Trek branded products this year. I think I’d like to be buried in one of these. I'd like to go out the way Spock did the first time he died.

Wednesday September 12, 2007

Regarding Britney, I thought she did fine on MTV. And I think she looks great for someone who’s had two kids and parties like there’s no tomorrow. I think the media is driving the Britney bashing. They love to build people up, tear them down, and then build them up again. I predict we will be hearing “Britney’s Back and Better than Ever” stories in a few months. It’s ridiculous. You don’t hear them bashing the Rolling Stones. The media are whores. They sell their souls for the almighty story. They reuse the same tired story day after day because it is easier than presenting real news and real issues. Why do we even listen any more? I think traditional media is old and busted. It’s not relevant anymore. It’s all about trash and rumor now; playing to the least common denominator. (I am starting to sound like a grumpy old man.)

This entire event can be spun to Britney’s advantage. She should say that the entire show was to make a point that the media are whores who take, take, take from people (Gimme More) destroying people along the way. The song was telling the media who they are and setting them up at the same time. She would instantly become a hero. Britney needs to hire me.

Tuesday September 6, 2007

This morning I wake up to find my computer in hibernate mode. At least I thought it was in hibernate mode. The power light was on, but the machine was not running. Which I thought was weird because I disabled hibernate mode. My computer is used to run my web site and it’s also the main file server for my wife’s computers, so I never want it to go to sleep. Anyway, I figured that maybe it crashed overnight. I powered it off and back on. Then I got a surprise. It didn’t boot. It stayed in hibernate mode: the power light turned on, but it just sat there, not booting. So I thought to myself, “This is going to be an interesting morning.”

I quickly opened up the machine, pulled the video card and tried again. No luck. My computer had passed on during the night along with Luciano Pavarotti. They were both dead. So today during lunch, I stopped by Microcenter and bought the cheapest desktop they had ($399 after rebate). I rushed it home, pulled the drive out of my old machine put it in the new machine, and then prayed it would boot. It did. One life ends, another begins.

But I wasn’t done yet. I noticed my web server was not starting properly. I did not have time to look at it then. I had to rush back to work. So when I got back home from work today, I started troubleshooting. I installed all the new drivers but my web server was still down. I finally figured out that when Windows XP determined it was running on new hardware, it when back to the default network settings. That screwed things up because my home router/firewall forwards HTTP requests to my machine via a static IP address. But my machine had reverted back to using a dynamic IP address. I reconfigured the network properties and my web server started.

So now I am back up and running with a new machine. When I go through something like this, it reminds my just what a pain computers can be. I am amazed that people who don’t work with computers for a living can cope with computers at all.

Monday September 3, 2007

On Saturday we packed up the canoe and went down to Fort Valley Georgia. We spent the night at a Days Inn at Fort Valley, then drove to the Flint River where is flows under highway 96. We paddled a short distance upstream to a sandbar where we spent the rest of the day swimming and fishing. We caught two very small fish. I think they were bass, but I’m not sure. Nicole caught and released a few butterflies.

The Flint River was fairly low, but higher than it has been because of recent rains. Since we were going to return to the put in point, we paddled upstream so that we would have an easy return trip. However, the river narrows just upstream from Highway 96, so we couldn’t paddle very far. That was OK, because we ended up spending the whole day on the first sandbar we came to. If we ever go back to that location, I think I would paddle downstream from Highway 96. The water moved a lot slower downstream, so I don’t think we would have any trouble making the return trip.

We did not see anyone else on the river, however we did see a couple of fishermen at the ramp at Highway 96 who were checking the height of the river.

Tuesday August 21, 2007

The kids are back at school. Kyle is starting fifth grade and Nicole is starting third grade. We had a good summer, but it was too short (as usual) and we ran out of time before we could do everything we wanted to do. But we did a lot. We went to the South Florida and The Bahamas, Kyle and I did the canoe trip we have been talking about for years, we visited Savannah, Shellman’s Bluff, and Athens. I made the transition from working at Perspective Labs to The Intercontinental Exchange. Things are good. Busy, but good.

This morning I was taking the kids to school and we were listening to Back in Black. We were all singing along to Back in Black. AC/DC has enjoyed a rise in popularity recently. It’s surprising to me how many kids are wearing AC/DC T-shirts and caps. Kyle loves AC/DC and know how to play many of their guitar licks on his guitar. It’s funny that years ago, when I was in high school, my friends and I would drive around Savannah late into the morning drinking beverages we should not have been drinking and listening to Back in Black cranked up to eleven. We thought we were cool. We thought we were tough. Now I’m divining my kids to school at 7:45 in the morning and we’re all singing to AC/DC. As they say: some things change and some things will never change.

Saturday August 11, 2007

We took a day trip to High Falls State Park today. We took the canoe to take out on the lake there. The park was a real letdown. There wasn’t much to it. Years ago, High Falls was probably a very scenic location. But they damned up the river to create the recreational lake, and now the falls are dry except for when there is a heavy rain. The lake was relatively small and lined with residences. The Park itself does not contain much lakefront property. The park’s lakefront property is limited to a small area around the damn. Swimming and walking on the rocks that used to be the river bottom are forbidden. They do rent paddleboats and canoes. There is a scenic trail that looks like it follows the dry riverbed. There is also a pool at the park, but we decided to go home and swim in our neighborhood pool instead of paying $3.50 per child and $5.50 per adult. They park does provide public access to the small lake and not much else. I would not recommend High Falls State Park. It’s just not worth the trouble.

We did enjoy our brief paddle in the canoe, but we couldn’t stop anywhere because the entire lake is surrounded by private homes. The kids did have lots of fun feeding bread to the ducks in the lake, so the day wasn’t a complete loss.

Sunday July 29, 2007

Tomorrow I start working at The Intercontinental Exchange. The ICE operates the leading global, electronic marketplace for trading both futures and OTC energy contracts. I am looking forward to this new opportunity. The ICE is an extremely successful company and I feel honored to be joining their team.

Until recently I had been working at Perspective Labs, a startup company that developed collaboration software. My time with Perspective Labs was very enjoyable and rewarding. We developed a great product, but unfortunately we were not able to generate enough interest to make it a sustainable endeavor. The software we produced will continue to be sold and supported by AGT, the parent company of Perspective Labs.

Saturday July 28, 2007

We saw The Order of the Phoenix tonight. I think it’s my favorite Harry Potter movie so far. None of us read the books, but we have seen all the movies. This latest movie is faster paced than the prior movies. It's is very dark and might be too scary for some children. I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Thursday July 19, 2007

So now my image of Linda Ronstadt is nowhere to be found on Google’s image search results. Weird, how that works. (See my previous post.)

Sunday July 15, 2007

I received an email today from someone who found my web site while searching for information about Linda Ronstadt. I was curious, so I did my own searches. I was amazed to find out that an image on my web site is the first image returned when you do an image search on “Linda Ronstadt”. Wow. I don’t know what algorithm Google is using. Maybe they use some measure of the number of times an image is clicked on in order to rank the image. The image on my site is not flattering so I imagine a lot of people click on it. I wonder if Linda herself has visited my site.

Sunday July 8, 2007

We recently got back home from a much-needed vacation in The Bahamas and Florida. We drove down to West Palm Beach where some very close friends live on the June 21. We stayed there for a day to rest, then went to Ft. Lauderdale early on the morning of June 23 to take a cruise ship to The Bahamas. The cruise ship (The Discovery Sun) is really more like a ferry. It goes from Ft. Lauderdale to The Bahamas every morning and returns every evening. We wanted to go by ship because the kids have never been on a large ship before. Actually, I had never been on a ship that big before either.

We spent three nights at the Westin on Grand Bahamas Island at the Our Lucaya Resort. We arrived in the afternoon, checked in to our hotel, and then walked over to the market area across the street to eat. Most of the restaurants in the market next to the harbor are Greek restaurants. We ate at several of them during our stay and were never disappointed. All of them serve conch and a variety of other Greek and non-Greek food. Since we were in The Bahamas, I felt obligated to eat plenty of conch, so I did. We had conch salad, conch fritters, and fried conch. By the time we had left, I didn’t care if I ever ate conch again. It’s very bland meat. It has hardly any taste.

On our first full day we went on a dolphin encounter. We took a short boat ride to their dolphin facility where we all got a chance to touch and kiss a dolphin. On the second day we went on a ride in a glass bottom boat. The boat took us a coupe of miles out where we were able to do a little snorkeling. When we got back from snorkeling we went to the beach at the hotel where spent the rest of the day. We did some more snorkeling at the beach.

After getting back Florida we took a day of rest, then Tess took Kyle and me to the Peace River at Zolfo Springs. Our plan was to paddle from Zolfo Springs to Arcadia taking stops along the way to look for fossils. Kyle and I had a great time on the river and found plenty of fossils. We found over one hundred small shark teeth, two fossilized alligator teeth, petrified wood, and manatee rib bones. We saw lots of animals during the trip: birds, alligators, turtles, a river otter, deer, and cows. Several ranches border the river.

After 3 days and two nights on the river, Tess came back from West Palm Beach to pick us up. While we were canoeing Tess and Nicole had done some shopping and swimming. Nicole also went to an animal safari and water park near West Palm Beach.

We went back to West Palm Beach where we spent a few more days with our friends there before heading back home.

Wednesday June 20, 2007

Everybody panic! Global cooling is coming. I hope governments around the world do the right thing and accelerating greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible. It may be our only hope. There is so much as risk here, can we really afford to take a wait and see attitude? I think not.

Sunday June 10, 2007

Big News – I just bought a canoe. It’s a Bell Northwind 16’6” canoe rebranded as the Galyan Woodsman canoe. I bought it second hand. I found it via placing a “canoe wanted” add on Craig’s List. Craig’s List is awesome. I’m looking forward to taking it on a canoe/camping trip before the end of the Summer.

Tuesday June 5, 2007

We saw Shrek 3 last weekend. We were not impressed. It’s not a terrible movie, but it isn’t as good as the first two. I’d recommend renting or buying the DVD instead of seeing the movie.

Thursday May 24, 2007

A long, long time ago… Star Wars debuted thirty years ago today.

I remember it well. I was just the right age for it to make a huge impression on me. Back then it was common for movies having space themes to cut in actual NASA footage. It always annoyed me when they did that because it distracted from the movie. It was like a slap in the face that took you out of the movie. I remember watching the scene in Star Wars where C3PO and R2D2 activated the escape pod. The scene was so realistic and looked so much like the Apollo footage I had grown up seeing on TV that I thought they had used actual NASA footage. It annoyed me. I was expecting more. Of course the irony is that it was all special effects produced explicitly for the movie.

When I was a child I spent many hours fantasizing about Star Wars. It was an escape for me. It took me away from the stress of my life. I still enjoy it. Thank you George Lucas. I forgive you for the Ewoks. I forgive you for Jar-Jar. No one is perfect.

Thursday February 22, 2007

For the first time, scientists have analyzed light reflective from distant planets to determine the characteristics of their atmospheres. This is open a new door in space exploration. Form the comfort of our own planet we can securitize distant planets, determine the composition of their atmosphere and even look for the signatures of life. At present we can only resolve light from giant planets, but in the coming years new instruments will allow us to look for and analyze light from distant planets similar to Earth. I look forward to the day when we definitively know that we are not the only planet in the universe that harbors life.

Thursday February 15, 2007

A couple of months ago I started using ancestry.com to investigate my ancestors. They have a feature on the site that lets you find famous people that you are related to. It turns out that I am the 17th great grandson of Geoffrey Chaucer on my mom’s side, assuming that the information on their site is correct.

Here are the details:

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) -> Thomas Chaucer (1367-1434) -> Alice Chaucer (1385-1475) -> John De La Pole (1442-1492) -> unknown De La Pole or unknown Harcope (????-????) -> Isabella De La Pole (1525-1584) -> Clement Miner (1585-1640) -> Thomas Miner (1608-1690) -> Clement Miner (1638-1700) -> William Minor (1670-1725) -> Stephen Minor (1706-1750) -> Sarah Minor (1743-1810) -> James Dye (1769-1842) -> Andrew Dye (1787-1870) -> Reason Debolt Dye (1808-1882) -> Martha Dye (1828-????) -> Marshall Michael Prouty (1859-1937) -> Dean Melton Prouty (1884-1960) -> Melton Joseph Prouty (1912-1994) -> Patricia M. Prouty -> Scott P. Smith

Although Isabella De La Pole is listed in the records as the daughter of John De La Pole, she must really be his granddaughter (probably born out of wedlock) by one of his daughters, because she was born 33 years after John De La Pole died. Isabella De La Pole might instead be the daughter of an illegitimate daughter of John De La Pole. She is listed some records as Isabella Harcope. The third option is that she was adopted by one of John De La Pole’s daughters, but listed as John De La Pole's daughter to avoid the appearance of being born out of wedlock. All this in conjecture on my part.

Sunday February 11, 2007

Last night Nicole and I went to a father daughter dance at her ballet school. It was fun. We had our picture taken while we were there. Unfortunately, the photographers did not seem very skilled. They were using a digital camera and computer to print out the pictures as they were taken. The pictures all came out underexposed so they had to adjust them on the computer to increase the brightness. Of course, a picture that is adjusted for brightness is not as good as one that was taken with the correct brightness. It seems like one of the negative side effects of electronic photography is that it has lead to less a decrease in the quality of professional photography. Either experienced photographers are struggling to adjust to a digital world, or there is an influx of new and less skilled photographers entering the market because technology has lowered some of the barriers of entry.

Saturday February 10, 2007

Someone I work with recently bought a Sony Reader. It’s a handheld tablet that was specifically made to read electronic books. It uses a new display technology that allows a page to be displayed without using power. Power is only used when changing the display from one static state to another (turning the page).

Seeing that got me thinking about using my new Smartphone as an electronic book reader. I was already aware of Project Gutenberg, which hosts electronic versions of books that are in the public domain. I first tried using the build in document reader on the phone with text files I downloaded from Project Gutenberg. The built in document reader just didn’t cut it. It scrolled text line-by-line instead of by page.

After a little more research, I found eReader and ManyBooks. The eReader website has free versions of it’s reader program available for download. ManyBooks has public domain books that are available in a large variety of formats including an eReader format. I installed the eReader software on my phone and downloaded a few sample books. It worked great. The small screen on the SmartPhone is definitely not an ideal screen for reading, but it is useable.

Friday February 9, 2007

There is an Islamic school in England that uses textbooks that call Jews “apes” and call Christians “pigs”. This raises some interesting questions: What are the limits of religion freedom? Should modern societies tolerate such blatant intolerance? I would think that most people would say that we should not allow textbooks that promulgate religious intolerance to be used in schools. Now, what should we do when a religion’s core beliefs promulgate religious intolerance? Should we make those religions illegal? That’s a harder question. We have laws against hate crimes. Should we have laws against hate thought? That’s a tough one.

Sunday February 4, 2007

Goodbye Anna Nicole Smith (no relation) 1967-2007. We hardly knew her. To me, she seemed like a candle in the wind: never knowing who to run to when the rain came in. The candle burned out, but the legend never will.

Sunday February 4, 2007

I got a new cell phone last week. I had been using a Motorola MPx220. It was always a little quirky. A few weeks ago, it had a major malfunction. I couldn’t change any setting, it wouldn’t sync to my computer, and I couldn’t copy data files to or from it. My new phone is a Cingular 3125. It runs Windows Mobile 5.0. It’s a nice step up from my old phone. One of the best features is that it’s also an MP3 player.

Tuesday January 30, 2007

Kyle recently bought a PC game called Jaws Unleashed. In it, the player gets to control a great white shark. The point of the game (as far as I can tell) is to eat as many animals and people as possible, avoid capture, and escape your cage, if captured. It takes violence to comic levels. I think an adults would grow tired of the game rapidly. But kids are enthralled by it. In the course of 10 minutes, your shark eats more people than are killed by sharks over twenty years in the real world.

Sunday January 28, 2007

Kyle’s indoor soccer season ended last week and his basketball season ends next week. Soon, outdoor soccer will start its spring season. Kyle loves both basketball and soccer. It’s nice to see him enjoying sports so much. I never really took much interest in sports. Nicole continues to love ballet. She now goes to dance class two days a week. Her class alternates between jazz and ballet. Nicole is currently selling Girl Scout cookies. I took her by work last week and the people there were very generous.

For the last several weeks I have been cleaning out the basement. It’s amazing how much stuff/junk we have accumulated during the 11 years we have lived in our house.

I think I’ll be getting a new cell phone soon. I’ve had my current phone (a Motorola MPx220) for almost two years now, and it’s starting to malfunction. I want to burn a new firmware image, but the web site drop support for phones so fast that I haven’t been able to find the firmware.

Friday January 26, 2007

The end times may be nigh. First the water filter on the hot water dispenser where I work gets replaced and now this: Van Halen is going to do a reunion tour with David Lee Roth. The years have been very bad to Eddie Van Halen. He should go on TV to show what abusing alcohol, drugs (?), and smoking do to a body over thirty years. I have never paid to go to a concert, but this one is tempting. It is Van Halen after all. It is too bad that Michael Anthony won’t be there. Then it would be a perfect reunion. I guess they had to hold something back for the next tour.

Wednesday January 3, 2007

An entire legion of troops awaits you. Behold the fully operational marching band and accompanying floats.

Monday January 1, 2007

I am sorry to have to report that my wife’s brother Pete Tanchuling just passed away in the Philippines. He died of injuries he received from a fire at his house a few days ago. I did not know Pete very well. We only spent a few days together 11 years ago, when my wife and I went to the Philippines to get married. Pete was a very considerate person. Because of the recent typhoon, Pete was letting several families stay with him because their houses had been destroyed. The typhoon was one the most severe storms to hit the Bicol area in decades. The storm knocked out electricity and we believe that a candle being used in the house must have started the fire. Pete helped other people to safety during the fire before leaving the building.

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