Are We There Yet?

Incredible. I've only been calling radio stations for years trying to win free stuff. For once, I did.

Every night at 8pm, Lazer 103 runs something called the Krash Test. Two bands pitted against one another. After hearing each song, callers vote on the better song. The winning song is put up against another song the next night until it loses. The first song to reach 11 votes wins. The caller that makes the 11th vote wins some free stuff.

Tonight, it was a terrible song by the Deftones (whom I usually like) called Hexology and the latest from Marilyn Manson. I voted Manson (making it a six time winner). What did I win? Two tickets to a moto-cross event, two tickets to see Hoobastank at the Rave, and a copy of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on DVD.

w00t.

Is there anything that takes more out of you for doing less than driving for hours?

It was a good trip though. We spent some time at a park on Saturday that was absolutely gorgeous. There was plenty of shade which made the sun a moot point. If someone could just figure out how to inform the catering business that there's more to catering a get together than cooking the food and running, we'd be all set.

The Cubs lost a chance to snatch the lead in the NL Central from the Houston Astros getting blown away by the Diamonbacks yesterday. I don't know how I expected anything less with Shawn Estes on the mound, but as a Cubs fan I am an eternal optimist when it comes to the team, so I can't help it I guess. We'll see how they do tonight. I also saw that Tony Womack is injured. Boo hoo. Someone should tell Jim Hendry that the money was wasted either way.

I took down the comments system. I couldn't get it to work right on my web server with PHP writing to the files locally. I know there's a way to get it working and if I figure it out, I'll put it back up. Otherwise, I'll probably write my own. I might even write my own anyway because it sounds like fun.

[14:05.34] FutureViperOwner: I'm too poor to pursue MMO anymore......
[14:06.03] AIMBuddy: actually so am I
[14:06.10] AIMBuddy: but I can still get excited that it is progressing
[14:06.20] AIMBuddy: I think if it hits critical mass
[14:06.22] AIMBuddy: the price will fall
[14:06.27] AIMBuddy: (thats my hope)
[14:09.47] FutureViperOwner: my faith in the game publishing industry to realize the financial situations of their target audience is equivalent to my faith in the general public's ability to intelligently use a computer.
[14:10.06] AIMBuddy: put that in your BLOG
[14:10.09] AIMBuddy: on MMRPGs

I've got a lot more to say about massively multiplayer online computer games, but it would take to long to write about now (I AM at work). Perhaps I'll say more once I've had a chance to organize my arguments a bit better.

Oh...and you're welcome, Ian.

Remember when all the rage in the scientific community was finding the so-called "fat gene"? You know, the gene that you're born with which means you'll be overweight some day and there's nothing you can do about it?

Well, 3 years ago they found the fat gene and the scientists then discovered what the general populace already knew: finding a fat gene only gives an excuse - not a solution.

Demonstrating yet again that responsibility is dead in today's society, we are in search for yet another excuse. Except this time, it's political:
From Fark.com:

The Left: The food industry and advertisers are big bullies that practically force feed people with gimmicks and high-calorie treats. The Right: You're fat, your fault

Until I see McDonald's start posting shotgun toting Ronald McDonald's by the trash bins in their restaurants, I don't think the "left" has a notion to stand on. Unfortunately, this is just the type of ammunition litigators need to clog our court systems with more frivolous, big money lawsuits as they attempt to right the wrongs done to their clients that can't say no.

I spent a little over an hour driving from Oconomowoc to Milwaukee this evening due to two accidents, both involving motorcycles. In case you're hard of hearing or live in a hole, you should know that it's Harley-Davidson's 100th anniversary this year and they like to make sure that everyone who owns a Harley knows they're invited. What that means is that the Milwaukee metropolitan area has been flooded with literally tens of thousands of Hogs this past week. During my drive this evening, I had some time to reflect upon this.

• Harley's like to rev their engines when going under an overpass to hear the growl echo.
• It's very tough to hear your stereo over a pack of Harley's on the interstate.
• The sheer volume of motorcyclists on the interstate has highlighted some of the stupid and sometimes dangerous things motorcyclists do in taking advantage of their size during traffic.
• You can hear a Harley when it's in your blind spot. Thank God it's not Kawasaki-Fest or something...
• It's tough to determine what lane a motorcyle is approaching in when you want to change lanes on the interstate in the dark.
• Police officers don't seem to care what speed the Harley's are riding at this week.
• I pity the guy that pulls up to a stoplight riding his Ninja next to a group of Harley's.
• It's tough to appreciate the sheer volume of motorcycles on the road right now when they can (and do) pack 10 or 12 of them in to the space of a single tractor trailer.

Is there a better comic for my industry than the immortal Dilbert? Dilbert connects with geeks in a way that Calvin & Hobbes never could. While both comics have an innate, childish sense of humor that appeals to anyone human, geeks find Dilbert especially funny because there isn't a strip of the comic that we haven't lived.

The author, Scott Adams, regularly solicits the DNRC (Dogbert New Ruling Class) members for trends in the industry that he can mock in his comic. He's writing about our life mixed lovingly with his talent for presentation that makes it accessible to everyone topped with a dash of satire. Secretaries, human resources, tech support, engineers, admins...it doesn't matter. If you have a tie to the industry, the comic strikes a chord within your very soul that resonates throughout every fiber of your being. It connects with you in such an elegant manner that you never knew comics were capable of this kind of communication. And when it's all over, if you don't have the beginnings of a smile on your face, a tear in your eye, or a stitch in your side from laughing, then Scott Adams has a Dilbert character with your name on it.

On that note, I leave you with the comic that inspired this entry:

My boss recently added a Culligan bottled water cooler to our office. Of course, this is a good thing since our tap water made liquid copper look capable of quenching your thirst. It's also cheaper than cases of soda, healthier for a room full of geeks that don't leave their computers, and suits the needs of the 50% of our workforce currently on the Atkins diet. All in all, it's something we're very happy about.

On the other side of things, however, I don't think I've seen my blood sugar this low since my tonsils were removed in 1998...

Ian forwarded me this image today. Talk about truth in advertising. Where was this kind of reality check when I applied to Mozee? :-p

First sign the apocalyspe (AKA another Wisconsin winter) is coming - I went out to get lunch a few moments ago and could see the exhaust from cars. I imagine it to be the exhaled breath of a laughing Jack Frost as he ponders all the cruel things he's going to do to me this year.

*sigh*

It was a good weekend to be a Chicago sports fan (more on that later), but a bad one if you wanted to watch the Bears play where I live. I have the blessing to live in south-east Wisconsin, which in case you don't follow anything sports related is through and through Green Bay Packer country. It doesn't matter where you live in this state, it is full of Packer-backers from International Falls to La Crosse to Racine. How strong is this tidal wave of love for the local NFL football team? So contagious is the football fever in this state, so strong is the support for one Brett Fav-ruh, so crazy are this state's inhabitants that they made my mother a die-hard, every Sunday, holler at the idiot in black and white stripes Packer fan.

Wow.

Naturally, finding fellow Chicago Bears fans who aren't hiding behind green and gold can be a bit of a problem for me. Don't misunderstand, there's plenty of us, especially in SE Wisconsin where we're closer to Chicago than Green Bay. But showing blue and orange around here will do more than get you arrested by the fashion police. You'll have to endure the ridicule of Packer fans who won't miss an opportunity to point out our paltry record against the Packers since the QB from Southern Miss took the reins (4-19 with 10 straight losses at home).

It was with great relief that I visited ESPN.com Sunday morning to see that the Seattle @ Green Bay "Reunion of Former and Current Packer Coach Hate Fest 2003" game would be broadcast on Fox while the Oakland @ Chicago "Da Bears Still Suck" game would have a home on CBS. I diligently went to work getting some important assembly programming done in the morning in anticipation of seeing my Bears' feeble attempts at crossing the elusive goal line in the afternoon.

Imagine my surprise when I turned on CBS several hours later when I saw not an NFL football game, but an infomercial for Chef Tony's stainless steel, super sharp, imported from Taiwan, whizzbang, super-duper, all-in-one cutting utensil!

Sadly, this has happened before. As if it's not bad enough that Bears fans must endure disappointing season's dotted with successful campaigns labeled flukes by opponents. Or the embarassment of the Super Bowl Shuffle during our most recent days on top of the NFL. Or the voicing of disappointment from former Bear's great, Dick Butkus, on the current state of a proud franchise.

No, the state of Wisconsin also sees to it that the misplaced, disenfranchised fans of Da Bears living in the refugee camp of Wisconsin aren't able to watch their team on television when their precious Packers game is being broadcast on an entirely different channel. As if I'd find Brett Favre dancing and hugging other men in the end zone more entertaining than the lovable Chef Tony.

Bah.

Busy.

I haven't given up on blogging. I've just been incredibly busy lately. What with my assembly programming, tight deadline at work, and family related plans these past few weekends, I haven't had time for anything lately. I've got some things queued up that I'm going to comment on, so stay tuned.

A while back, Fark posted a link to an MSN Dating article entitled Loving your geek, tolerating his hobbies. Fark readers are suckers for this kind of stuff, so it's only natural that such a link submission would get posted. I checked out the article with a bit of skepticism. Was the article written by someone with one foot in the geek kingdom or is it just another dating "how-to" that purports to have the inside scoop on the mindset of the elusive geek?

I found it to be a little bit of both. I agree with some of the points brought up in the article but I'm also a bit annoyed at other parts of it. One area of the article that I take issue with concerns social skills. The general consensus amongst the public is that geeks lack normal social skills until the tender age of 30. The article doesn't attempt to deny this, instead pointing out that we "grow out of it". My experiences have taught me that within the geek community, there are no more people lacking basic social skills than from any other sampling of society.

I think that what most people believe to be a lack of social skills is really the manifestation of something else that describes more geeks than the average person: introverts. Geeks tend to be more of a thinker than the average person. We are observers of all things that interest us and tend to remain that way until we feel we have something to contribute.

Another area of the article that I feel is a mistake concerns the writer's recommendation about what to do when confronted with some of our more esoteric hobbies. He feels we should be left to our devices so that we can indulge in our geekdom free from the possiblity of causing our loved one to see just how weird we can be. He adds, "(t)his conveniently frees you from having to be part of it." I think that's a terrible recommendation to anyone looking to have a healthy, lasting relationship. I don't mean to say that you should attempt to assimilate your significant other in to the Geek culture, but to say that leaving us on our own while maintaining that social divide is convenient is silly.

Having said that, there are points where the author hits the nail on the head. Namely, I'm talking about letting us have our own space where we can indulge in our hobbies and "geek out". My wife and I have previously lived in apartments where space was limited and I wasn't able to have "my" space. I didn't have a lot of spare time during which this really mattered, but now that we own a house, I have a corner of the basement where I can spread out hardware, build computers, listen to music, code, and game to my heart's content (although my time to do this is still severly limited). The funny thing about this is that geek's aren't the only ones who can benefit from such an arrangement. I think the reason geek's are more eager to have their space is that our hobbies tend to require intense concentration. You can't socialize while coding or painting the beard of a dwarf unless you want a dozen errors or brown fingers.

I think the thing that bothers me about the article is how he uses stereotypes to describe himself and other geeks early on while pointing out in the end that most geek stereotypes are no longer applicable as a generalization. Perhaps that was his intent from the start, but since he uses the stereotypes to justify several points of the article, I doubt it. I'd be curious to know the author's age as it seems he came from an earlier era of geeks where all he said was true. But today's world is full of geeks from all walks of life. We're as much an active part of society as the valley girl, socialite, and athlete. And I think we like it that way.

I'm trying to do 2 entries a week on the blog. So far so good. I certainly have the material to post on, but I don't always have the time. Maybe one of these days, I'll be able to post on the same days per week as well. Baby steps.

Today's AWTY™ rant (look! I learned a new HTML tag) is brought to you by Best Buy!

Back in late October, I was suckered in by the McDonald's Monopoly game that offered a guaranteed Best Buy Buck on every order of large or super sized French Fries. I figured that a large French Fry costs about $1.25 and I can always find use of some money or discounts for geeky stuff, so I looked on it as more of an investment than anything else. I've got a history with Best Buy that spans several years in which I've become increasingly disappointed with them and their business practices that started with a brief (3 months) stint of employment with them selling computers and printers back over the holiday season of 1997. But, I could fill an entire blog with rants and raves on Best Buy. Suffice to say that a couple coworkers and I declared the last two weeks of October "French Fry Week" and a daily trek was made to McDonald's to purchase French Fries.

These Best Buy Bucks expired on 12/31/03, so on 12/29/03, I started browsing BestBuy.com for things I could use my $10 on. One co-worker decided he wasn't going to use his coupons before 12/31/03, so I inherited another $7. I settled on purchasing an 8MB memory card for my Xbox from MadCatz. It's officially licensed by Microsoft, includes a protective case, and game saves. At an MSRP of $19.99, I figured I couldn't go wrong paying $3 + tax. I was in need of the memory card anyway since my Xbox has recently been on the fritz again (more on this another time).

Being that it was the holiday season, the item was out of stock and on back order. Shortly after confirming my purchase, BestBuy.com emailed me informing me of the fact and stating that they expected to ship it by 01/07/04 - very reasonable, in my opinion. On 01/07/04, I received another email from BestBuy.com stating that the item was still on back order. Expected ship date? "Within the next 3 weeks" was what the email said.

Now, I'm not an idiot. Best Buy may be out of stock of an item and only the manufacturer can supply them with more, so they aren't at the top of this food chain. However, when Walmart.com, EBGames.com, Outpost / Fry's all have them in stock, then what's the problem? I'll admit that Amazon.com claims they are out of stock as well, but every other place I searched for that carried the MadCatz memory card claimed they were in stock.

I was frustrated, but I didn't have a choice and besides...I was still only paying $4.09 for it. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more until 21 days later, I received a 3rd email from Best Buy. This email informed me that the item I had purchased was still on back order and had not shipped. If it did not ship in 5 days, they were going to cancel my order. To keep this from happening, I needed to call an 800 number.

This pushed me over the edge. I had patiently waited a month for a simple accessory to be shipped to me. When it was all said and done, I had to take action to keep my order alive or it would be automatically cancelled on me. That's not good business practice.

But of course the REAL reason I was mad is this undermined my master plan to get something dirt cheap from Best Buy in the first place through the Monopoly game. A cancelled order meant my coupons were expired and NO GOOD. I called the 800 number to see if an expected ship was known yet. The woman I spoke to was pleasant enough, however her English with a strong Indian accent touched on yet another sore subject for geeks. Unfortunately, she couldn't provide a ship date so I asked about the coupons I used. Of course, they were "unrecoverable". I gave up and told her to just cancel the order.

Their systems were "down". She couldn't cancel the order herself.

I later wrote a lengthy letter to Best Buy and submitted it via their "contact" link on their web site detailing the ordeal I had just been through highlighting how their marketing campaign ultimately failed in generating money from me since they couldn't provide the merchandise I required. I used all my business writing skills to compose a calm, yet stern letter of disappointment that asked for reparations (a $17 off coupon to replace the ones I wasted) and stated the consequences of the business' failure to make the customer happy (I'd use the $25 gift card I received for Christmas [and not a cent more] since that is unreturnable and then go elsewhere to shop). Previous experience with Best Buy customer service told me not to expect a satisfactory resolution to the matter.

You're not going to believe the "personal" response I received a day later:

Thank you for contacting Best Buy about our online store. I'm xXx with Customer Care.

We are sorry that your experience with placing orders was frustrating.

Best Buy strives to make each experience you have with us to be as positive and as fun as possible, and we are disappointed if we don't live up to that expectation. We have forwarded your message to the appropriate personnel for their review.

Have you ever thought of getting a Best Buy Gift Card? It can be the perfect gift for that impossible to shop for person. Available in six denominations, a Gift Card allows its recipient to pick out their perfect present from any Best Buy store. To purchase a Gift Card, either pick one up at your local Best Buy retail store, or get it online at: <incomprehensible URL>

Thank you for sharing your comments with Best Buy. Please do not hesitate to contact us with additional questions or concerns.

Best wishes from Best Buy,

xXx and the Customer Care Team

One of my favorite web sites to check out is the well-known (amongst the initiated) ThinkGeek. My main purpose for going there is to check out the selection of geek approved t-shirts. The t-shirts themselves are relatively straight forward. They're your standard fare cotton t-shirt with a few words or phrases printed on the front and back with the occasional one containing an image or two as well. The thing that sets the ThinkGeek t-shirts apart is what they say.

As a proud owner of the Binary People, Computer Repair, TCP/IP crawler (for my son), and the apparently discontinued "Don't blame me, it's a hardware problem" t-shirts, I'm a very satisfied customer.

The latest introduction in to the ThinkGeek product line had me rolling on the floor with laughter the other day. Just in time for Valetine's Day: HTTPanties.

Geeks are notorious for not taking subtle hints too well or missing what others consider to be meaningful forms of communcation (body language anyone?). Giving us machine readable response codes that are defined in a published, IETF approved standards document is something we can parse and make an intelligent (and predictable) response to. My only question is where the "401 Unauthorized" or request for https:// ones are. Shouldn't we be encouraging secure communications?

Want to let your imagination run a little? Check out the rest of the HTTP response codes.

I spent this past weekend in Las Vegas for a "team building exercise" held by my work. Thankfully, we don't take ourselves seriously enough to actually believe that was the intent of the trip (sssshh, don't tell the IRS). We left for Vegas midday on Friday and headed back Sunday evening. Honestly, I'm not sure I would want to stay there any longer for a variety of reasons ranging from sensory overload to the fact that staying in Vegas and being entertained requires truck loads of money.

I should probably clarify a bit in saying that like most other people's trips to Las Vegas, it was more of a trip to "The Strip" than to the city itself. I'm sure there are residents of the city of Las Vegas that would take offense to any generalizations about their city that don't come with that disclaimer. Although I did not see it myself, there's got to be a section of the city that isn't represented by the obscene gaudiness of everything on display on Las Vegas Boulevard. After all, the city did look quite large from the plane. So keep that in mind - in this post, Vegas == The Strip.

Visiting Las Vegas is like being in the middle of a 4th of July fireworks display. Everyday. We stayed at the Luxor hotel (the pyramid shaped one), which is next door to the very large Mandalay Bay. As I slept at night (yes, I slept while in Vegas), it was necessary to ensure that there wasn't the slightest crack in the curtains or the Mandalay Bay's video screen advertising the line up in their theater would have been like a movie usher's flashlight in my face. There were several times while we walked from place to place that I had to squint my eyes at the brightness of the signs and video screens as we passed underneath them.

Having said that, it's an incredible place to visit. There's nothing else that I can think of which is like it. It's almost impossible to describe everything you see from the half-scale Eiffel Tower restaurant to the kingdom of the Excalibur hotel & casino or the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace. It's overwhelming. You just stare at all of it wondering how the city ever became what it is today. Who built the first of these monumental hotel/casinos starting the game of one-upmanship that continues to this day? Incredible.

Despite the brief stay, we did manage to pack a lot in to our trip. Friday night, we had an excellent dinner from Emeril's restaurant in the MGM Grand. I had the best bowl of gumbo you can imagine and a fantastic salmon fillet. I also took special notice that the MGM Grand has a group of slot machines where you could win a brand-new Dodge Viper. Needless to say, I did not win nor did I spend enough to justify it anyway (although a co-worker did win $120 from one pull of a single slot machine in their casino). We wandered the Strip for a while that night and I lost my first $20 playing roulette at the Luxor.

Saturday was packed with highlights. The day started with me taking a $25 chip donation from my boss and turning it in to $80 at Blackjack; a $55 profit for 30 minutes "work" putting me up $35 for the trip. We spent a few hours at the Hoover Dam, also beyond words for description, where we learned that there are NOT people buried in the dam, contrary to urban legend, although the dam is 100% concrete without any rebar or steel reinforcements of any kind. That evening, we saw a performance by the Blue Man Group. Thankfully, I visited their website ahead of time to discover that our front row seats were considered the "Poncho section" and dressed accordingly. I'm still trying to figure what that concoction of liquified Twinkie mass that they shot at us is really made of. The performance was incredible and has made my decision on how to spend my last $25 at Best Buy. The post-BMG show time was spent at a Blackjack table in the Luxor with a bunch of Chicago Bears fans where we all promptly lost more money than any of us cared to admit. Thankfully, it wasn't my money anyway and I still had a lot of fun.

Sunday was our final day in Vegas. We went to Caesar's Palace to eat breakfast at Cafe Lago (although the line to get in coupled with the buffet line made it more of a brunch). Still, any breakfast buffet that includes sushi is okay in my book. After watching people in my party with more money (and less sense) than me gamble at the blackjack tables of Caesar's Palace, we headed to the Hilton to check out The Star Trek Experience. An hour and one mini-Warp Core Breach later (5 shots of rum and "fruit juices" served in a small bucket with dry ice), we were laughing at my incredibly buzzed co-worker and his futile attempts to stop his head from spinning by eating a cheeseburger 10 minutes and 5 shots of liquor too late.

I didn't take many pictures (most were of the Hoover Dam), but when I check them out, if there are any note worthy, I might put them up here.

Please welcome back Mr Inconsistency.

Yeah, yeah. Two posts a week, I said. It's a good thing I stopped making promises I can't keep. When spur of the moment free time (aka - discovering you can't sleep) arises, there are other things on my agenda that take precedence at 2am. Either that, or I'm just lazy.

So, despite my lack of posts, I have kept my sidebar updated with things that may or may not be more interesting than what you're reading right now. Certainly, the ramblings and rantings of a 23 year-old computer programmer can't compare to the writings of Timothy Zahn or the exquisite production values found in a game from Blizzard, but we all have delusions of grandeur that we entertain from time to time and I am no different.

A quick scan of the sidebar will show that I'm still re-reading the Timothy Zahn Star Wars trilogy of books - this time with my wife as I introduce her to the expanded Star Wars universe. She seems to be really enjoying them. Grand Admiral Thrawn is certainly a worthy adversary to be writing about, Mara Jade's character comes alive at the hands of Zahn, and Talon Karrde gives readers a glimpse in to what a younger Han Solo may have found himself doing before the Rebellion. A fantastic set of books that any fan of the Star Wars trilogy would enjoy reading. I've recently purchased 2 more books that Zahn wrote in the Star Wars universe (along with another Neal Stephenson book, Snow Crash) that I am eargerly anticipating the arrival of from the Post Office.

Late night forays on the computer have been filled with time on WarCraft III. I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition of it from GameStop back before it was released, but 8 months later when I actually received it, I found myself as a new father and full-time employee with no free time as opposed to a full-time college student that *cough* MADE time to game when he needed to decompress. As such, I never got further in to the game than 3/4 through the Undead campaign. A stellar waste of $80, no doubt, although the CD soundtrack has gotten its share of usage. I'd like to actually FINISH the game this time so I can look in to picking up the expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Blizzard redefined what an expansion pack was with it's release of StarCraft: Brood Wars. The addition of new units, more story and cinematics makes it a continuation of the original worthy of a reinvestment in time and money. Besides, like a good boy, I never watched the cinematic DVD that game with my Collector's Edition and I'm dying to see their gorgeous cinematics in full television screen glory.

Prince of Persia remains on my "currently playing" list but has been stagnant for several weeks. My last save game showed me to be 54% complete with it after about 9 hours of play time (I think). As much as I've enjoyed playing it, my last save point puts me in a very difficult situation that I haven't been able to overcome just yet due to the first sighting of shoddy level design that I've seen in an otherwise excellently designed game. I know that Ian is no longer enamored with the title having already tired of what is essentially glorified jumping puzzles. I enjoy the acrobatics in the game and feel they did an excellent job disguising the (unavoidable) repetitiveness of it. However, to get past my current spot, I'll probably have to load an earlier save game and play better to get back to my current point so I have more "rewinds" to fix my screw ups. Not a pleasant thought. Not only that, but with the Xbox residing in our family room, it's difficult to schedule playing time on it.

My CD is currently filled with Blue Man Group CDs that I picked up using my last $25 from Best Buy. After seeing them perform in Las Vegas, I am positively hooked.

In addition, I continue to wait, with bated breath, for the start of the MLB season. I've watched anxiously as Jim Hendry and Co. have improved the Chicago Cubs this offseason and I can't wait to get rolling. The signing of Mad Dog for at least 2 years with the Cubs has made me absolutely giddy. Seeing him dressed in Cub blue again puts a smile on my face that I can't, nor do I want to, get rid of. And now I hear we've just signed Kerry Wood to a 3-year contract through 2006 with a mutual option for 2007. Yes, it's good to be a Cubs fan.

Back in November of 2002, I purchased my first "new" used vehicle as the car I (mostly) drove since turning 16 used its last lifeline to turn the 110,000 mile marker. Both vehicles that I had owned previously were Pontiacs and I had been very pleased with them, so my time car shopping eventually found me settling on a practically new (7,000 miles) Grand AM SE. Since my previous car was built in 1991, sitting in a car that was 11 years newer was like going from from a 486-DX2 to a P4 3GHz computer. The highly touted features of the previous vehicle consisted of A/C and an automatic transmission. It didn't even have a tape deck. Now I'm spoiled with power locks, automatic headlights, and intermittent wipers. The sad part is that my vehicle doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of "standard" features that a slightly more expensive vehicle would have.

One of the more intriguing, if not esoteric, functions of the Grand Am is the radio. It supports something called the Radio Data System. Reading about this feature in the manual really piqued my interest and I was excited to give it a go. In a nutshell, RDS lets radio stations embed information in to their broadcast signals that radios supporting RDS can then display. Types of information that might be included is the name of the radio station, a musical genre that describes the station's content, and even information about songs and artists.

Sadly, I was very disappointed to discover that very few stations in the metro-Milwaukee area supported this feature in late 2002. IIRC, the only one I found at the time was a Christian music station that came up as "The Fish" whenever it was the active radio station. In due time, more stations in the area have slowly started adding support for RDS. In my 5 radio presets, 3 support display of the station name - Rock 102 One, FM106, and 99WMYX with Rock 102 One being the only station I regularly listen to (the other two stations being "family friendly" ones I save for times when I'm not traveling alone). My other 2 rock stations STILL don't support it.

As "cool" as it is to see the station name be displayed by the radio when tuning in to one of the aforementioned 3 radio stations, it is pretty useless. I mean, the novelty wears off pretty quick that "oooh...it knows it's name". I mean, come on. My 19-month old daughter knows her name, too, and she doesn't have the financial backing of a mult-billion dollar media company. So, I was extremely impressed to discover the other day that one station has finally forged ahead to start using this potential - 99WMYX.

While scanning through my radio stations, I noticed a bit more text than normal being displayed while the radio was on 99 WMYX. I paid a bit more attention to it and noticed that it was broadcasting the artist name and song name that was currently being played by the station. Hallelujah! Why can't more radio stations do this? Nothing is more annoying than hearing a song you like and not knowing who or what the name is! I'm not patient enough to sit through 3 more songs (which I probably won't like) for a DJ to mumble out the names as if we already know who they are. It's one of my biggest beefs with radio stations and a solution has been available to it for years. Talk about slow adoption of new technology! Perhaps that explains why Googling for "Radio Data System" yields pages of results to URLs in Europe.

In my last post a couple weeks ago, I talked about the Radio Data System, which is supported by the radio in my car.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday evening as I climbed in to my car after work to discover that my favorite local radio station, Lazer 103, has finally graduated to knowing its name! Now, instead of seeing that pesky, uninformative frequency setting of 102.9 when tuned in to their radio station, I am greeted with the infinitely more personable and altogether more fulfilling label of "Lazer 103".

Kudos to Lazer for becoming the second to last station in my presets to become semi-intelligent *cough* JJO *cough*

Sinus infections are terrible. There are few things I fear about the winter more than sinus infections. Well, those and psychotic salt trucks. Don't get me wrong, I know there are fates worse than a sinus infection. I've witnessed the charming and sloppy arrivals of both my adorable kids with no less than a huge chunk of respect for my wife's "tolerance". I've been the unwilling host on multiple occassions for kidney stones making mass exodus towards the freedom afforded by the sewer system.

But when staring at a computer screen for 9+ hours a day is your job, the pulsing pain from eye socket to eye teeth of a sinus infection is the pits.

After foolishly believing that the nagging cough and congestion of the past 10 days would clear up after "just one more day", I finally dragged my sorry kiester in to the doctor's office so he could proclaim the existence of said sinus infection. Five minute wait, five minutes with the nurse, another five minute wait, and a final five minutes with the doctor. A pretty exciting 20 minute doctor visit, isn't it?

It wasn't until visiting the local Walgreens to fill my prescription that today's imponderable question presented itself.

Why does it take so freaking long to get a prescription filled?

I'm not trying to disrespect pharmacists or anything, but is it really that difficult to transfer 20 pills from one bottle to another and print a label up for the container? Why did it take 40 minutes for Walgreens to do this? Am I leaving out the voodoo ritual that gives the pills their potentcy? Are the pills custom made by the pharmacist on-duty with his Chemlab 1100 Chemistry Set (methane tank for bunsen burner not included)?

I guess that'll teach me to forget to bring a long a book next time.

Back in November, I received a 20GB iPod as a gift from my bosses on my 5-year employment anniversary. They also gave me an FM adapter so I could listen to it in my car, which is a welcome accessory to make my daily 1 hour round-trip commute go more quickly. I've read a lot about iPods and dreamed of owning a portable mp3 player for quite some time. All I can say is that everything good you might have read about iPods is true.

For Christmas, I asked for and received the Belkin TuneDok Car Holder for my iPod, which makes listening to my iPod in my car even easier. It fills a cup holder in my car that sits next to the cigarette adapter where the FM adapter plugs in and securely holds my iPod as it faces me at a comfortable viewing angle while I drive. While the FM adapter doesn't maintain the high quality of the mp3s on the iPod, I'm not going to buy a new car radio just for that reason alone. All in all, I'd say I'm set up pretty well.

Having used this setup for several weeks now, I've come to wish for a few minor tweaks I'd like to see in the iPod to make it even easier and more "portable friendly":

• The iPod makes a "clicking" noise as you scroll through entries on the display. It'd be handy if this noise could somehow be a part of the audio output of the iPod rather than come from a teeny internal speaker. While plugged in to my FM adapter in the car, scrolling through entries is a visually accomplished task - something that's not very safe while driving. The click can't be heard over normal interstate noise or music that's already playing on the iPod. The click exists to assist in navigation by tapping another sense, but it is too easily drowned out under these circumstances.
• "Power Profiles". Modern notebook computer can decrease screen brightness and cut back on processor speed when running on battery to conserve power. I'd like something similar for my iPod so that I can define different settings for how my iPod operates based upon the current power source. If it's on battery, I want the backlight display to turn off as quickly as possible. When it's plugged in, however I'd like it to stay on longer (again - something to assist me while driving). It'd be nice to be able to have the equalizer work in the same way. If my iPod is plugged in to a power source, chances are it's in my car or connected to my computer. In both cases, I'm using an external audio player with its own equalizer to listen to the music. If it's unplugged, chances are that I'm using the headphones and would like to use the built-in equalizer. While these two examples are contrary in that one seeks to conserve power while the other consumes more, they're just examples of how power profiles provide more flexibility and customization for this awesome device.

Check out this movie trailer. How appropriate that the first word that reaches my lips is "whoah". Cel shading as a graphical technology used in games is nothing new (see Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker [Gamecube], Jet Set Radio Future [Xbox], and most recently XIII [PC & consoles] for further reference), but in a major motion picture? Keanu Reeves is certainly carving a niche for himself as the lead actor in movies with mind-bending and unique plot lines.

I'm intrigued enough to go buy the book. At 288 pages, it's pretty "light reading" for me, which should make it easy to fit in around the 4 or 5 other books on the shelf waiting for me to read. If it's as "acclaimed" as the trailer says, hopefully the story will translate to the big screen well and the cel shading turns out to be more than a gimmick.

A heavy thunderstorm rolled through the area last night knocking out power to most of my block, including my house, which unfortunately took this server offline and all the wonderful services it provides me with. That's the first time this machine has been rebooted since a motherboard and CPU upgrade, which took place back in Mid-June. Not bad for a Windows 2000 Professional computer that is running 24/7 with quite a few services installed on it.

I've added a "Fark Tagline Hilarity" box to the left-hand sidebar. Whenever I spot a tagline on Fark that makes me chuckle, I'll update the hilarity box. Perhaps once I get enough content entered in to it, I'll create a page to browse through them and randomize the quote that's displayed on the main page. Nothing like a clever Fark tagline to brighten up the day a bit.

The notebook computer I recently bought is performing well so far. I don't use it too much, as it's primarily my wife's computer. She spends most of the time during the day taking care of the kids (she just started work part-time again), so having a wireless notebook in the house is good for her. It lets her check email, drop me a quick IM while at work, or pay some bills without having to go to the basement (where my computers are located) and take her chances that the kids won't hang each other from the drapes while she's gone.

Talking about the new notebook seems to have brought a fair amount of new traffic to the site from search engines. It would seem a lot of people are doing research on the Compaq R4000 notebook. One person reached here looking for a car adaptor for their R4000. Another is curious about the adjusting the brightness on the display of their R4000. Still another wants to install Windows 2000 on theirs. And a final person is looking for information on the screen dying on their notebook.

I recently wrote a Konfabulator widget that displays the recent playlist for your favorite station from SomaFM. SomaFM is a commercial free, streaming radio station (using ShoutCast) that is supported through listener donations and some affiliate programs giving them a small kickback on music purchases coming from links on their site's playlist pages. A friend introduced me to SomaFM a few months ago and I've loved it ever since. I listen to it constantly while at work or messing around on the computer. It's introduced me to some great bands that I would have never heard listening to music through "traditional" sources. You can download the widget here, which also has a screenshot and a complete version history that describes some of the neat features I've recently added to it.

Finally, Ars Technica has a great editorial on the recent media frenzy over Tivo and it's built-in support for DRM-protected content. It's nothing new people. Like Caesar says in the editorial, you can either shoot the messenger (Tivo) that has no choice but to the follow the rules to do their business, or you can get on the case of those that make the rules. Don't let the FCC/RIAA/MPAA dictate what you can do with the media you acquire through legal means.

Who hasn't had to deal with interference of some kind at one point or another in their life? Sometimes, it's a trivial thing like your cordless phone causing intermittent problems with your wireless network. Or when I'm taking a trip in to town and someone else's iPod cuts in over my car's speakers as I pass a fellow iPod FM transmitter user who has discovered that 89.5 is the only frequency in town suitable for our use.

Those kinds of interference are usually pretty easy to identify and remove. If your cordless phone is causing problems with your wireless network, try changing your network to use another channel. If you can afford it, upgrade your cordless phone to a 5.8 GHz model to get it out of the 2.4 GHz range in use by most wireless networks. If you can't stand your fellow motorist's choice in music as he overwhelms your FM transmitter, speed up, slow down, or change the station. Simple, right?

Six weeks ago, my monthly TiVo newsletter informed me of a partnership they had formed with Amazon to provide their Unbox video download service to TiVo subscribers. The Unbox service allows you to purchase or "rent" movies and television episodes through the Amazon website. Once your purchase is made, you can download the video to your computer (or potentially multiple computers if the copyright allows) for watching. Your rental is good for 30 days, however that changes to 24 hours once you start playing the video for the first time. Your purchased videos can always be downloaded from the service, so you don't have to store it permanently on your hard drive or TiVo (where space is at a higher premium).

The notice from TiVo came along with a $15 credit to the Unbox service if I signed up by April 30. If you have a TiVo connected to your home network, you've still got a few days to sign up and get the credit, too. Who doesn't like getting something for free? So I signed up so I could try out the service at a later date.

...it's bullet time (boooooo).

• A rumor out of a Chinese publication, Commercial Times, states that production on Xbox 360's containing the scaled down 65nm processor could begin this May in time for a Fall release. A less power hungry, cooler-running Xbox 360 would be the straw that breaks this camel's back. Cooler internal temperatures translates in to more reliable hardware, which allays my great fear of the investment. A redesigned main board to take advantage of the changes means an eventual price drop. (via Ars Technica)
• On my way to work every day, I've been watching a new building get constructed on the side of the road. It's finally completed and looks like it's been occupied by an entrepreneur. The name of the store is "Forgotten Treasures" and the windows of the store are filled with dated clothing, old knick-knacks, and other various tchotchke. The store's superficial similarity to Leland Gaunt's Needful Things is rather eerie.
• I rented another movie through Amazon Unbox for my TiVo. It took 2 hours 35 minutes to download a 1 hour 55 minute movie. Until I can watch a movie as it downloads, I still don't see the value of this service. I guess I'm not as opposed to driving to a rental store (or, more likely, skipping the rental altogether) as most people.
• The movie we rented was Man of the Year. We thought we were renting a comedy about a comedian that gets elected the President of the United States. What we got was a not-even-remotely-funny comedy crossed with a thriller about buggy software in a company's electronic voting machines that elects the wrong candidate (who happens to be a comedian) and their subsequent attempts to silence a potential whistle-blower. It's a good thing nothing like that could ever happen, huh?