The word of the week is ambivalent. Not that I really care, mind you...
Feb 21 - Summaries
Of late, I've been starting out the weekly blog's first entry with somewhat of a personal summary - my thoughts or observations of where I am and where I'm going, more than what I'm doing. I'm not sure if this is more for me than for other people, but it does provide some consistency, if I want to go back and look over my blog for the past 3 years or so. It's all there, getting briefer as time progresses, perhaps because I'm spending less time recording and more time doing - or so I like to think. One thing I've tried to do more of is to record my ideas / observations during the day, so that I have a selection of noted thoughts to fall back on and collate when I'm drumming up writing ideas. The blog doesn't really help with that... the ideas should be there when you have the time to turn them into something larger.
Feb 22 - Paper Computing
I try to keep my nose in the tech world's leading advances, as I love seeing how people can come up with new ways to make tech work for us. I was surprised therefore, that I had missed any mention of the SixthSense technology concept that was demoed in India over a year ago. Have a look at the presentation below and tell me you're not amazed at the possibilities that are discussed within:
Tech keeps advancing quickly, bringing costs down to levels that make your eyes pop when compared to previous years. Cell phones are an example; what an iPhone does down could not be duplicated ten years ago even given tech costing ten times as much, yet people take it all for granted today. I just purchased a replacement all-in-one full-colour scanner / copier / printer for my parents for $27.00 ... yes, that's right, less than THIRTY dollars got them something that ten years ago would easily have cost close to a thousand and probably not in colour printing. Unbelievable, the way tech just keeps advancing...
Feb 23 - Full Signal Joy
The benefits of being cheap AND a tech-head sometimes pans out. Take, for example, the problem of a poor cell signal in my bedroom – so poor I can't even get text msgs, let alone make a phone call. Enter the Cell Ranger, which for just $40.00 shipped on eBay promises to add 2 bars to your cell signal – and it works! It's NOT one of those 'Amazing' decal antennas, but rather a power-lighter plug-in powered antenna booster. Problem is, it's for a car... and I can't keep a car in my bedroom just for the cigarette-lighter power plug. Ebay to the rescue again; a $7.00 adaptor on the cheap and I can now plug in the 'car-only' Cell Ranger at home, for perfect performance! The combo works like a charm, and my cell signal from the VERY close-by Telus tower is now 4-5 full bars – huzzah! Now all I have to do is find a few local friends to call me once in a while...
Feb 24 - Firefly
I may not be a Browncoat, but I do love the short-lived TV series Firefly... as well as cutaway posters. So when I saw that ThinkGeek had put up a set of posters that detailed the inner workings of the primary ship of the series, Serenity, I had to order it. On my shelf are various cutaway books from years past, including almost all of the Star Wars series - I'd always wondered just how BIG the Death Star was and how the internals were all laid out. And who hasn't wondered about what was where inside the Milennium Falcon, at some point? I'll admit that the idea of a 3D-flythrough has a lot of appeal, but until those arrive( if they ever do )then I'll be content to gaze at the cutaway posters on my wall, and dream the dreams of a younger boy who didn't yet know that nearby space wasn't filled with zooming spaceships...
Feb 25 - Funding Dreams
An example of money wasted, or a cool idea being made into reality? Funding has reached its goal already for a RoboCop statue in Detriot, but there's always the question of whether the $60K USD could be better spent on social programs for that city rather than idolizing a fictional robotic enforcer. Myself, I think it's very cool and another excellent example of social sites like Kickstarter.com catching people's imaginations to fund projects that otherwise may never see the light of day. Heck, if I had to plan a trip out that way I'd be sure to include the statue on my itinerary - what g33k wouldn't, really? I just hope the final design is cooler than the image showing a cross-legged RoboCop - that's just plain silly.
Feb 26 - Snow, winds and COLD !
We received more snow today, but people were well-prepared for it – all the main roads were clear, and the cold air was bracing instead of biting. I expected some problems coming home up the mountain, but the road was heavily-salted and perfectly clear – something the person driving in front of me couldn't grasp, as they did 30K the entire 4.5K drive up... in an SUV. Obviously they had little winter-driving experience; I can thank my years in ON for being able to judge a winter road as to being icy, salted, clear or slippery... as well as the various levels of snow-covered. Nothing wrong with being cautious however, especially on roads where the only crash barriers are the trees that slope away into the dark down the hillside... anyway. I was out for a while after work( which was insanely busy so I finished 2hrs late )and just crashed for the evening, sleeping, watching parts of TV shows and ending up in a lovely hours-long chat with Mike up until the witching hour, which tried the patience of Skype( it crashed and complained )and my bluetooth headset.
Feb 27 - Catching up on daytime sleep
Finally: my first full day off in 12 days in a row of working, and MAN I was tired; I woke to breakfast at 9am and then fell back asleep until noon, something totally uncharacteristic for me – I had NO energy and I think the heavy rain outside just sapped any attempts to leave the warm bed. I'm glad to see the rain though, as it's quickly reducing the piles of snow outside to puddles at a rate that makes my heart glad. I went out to the Bean after lunch, perhaps for the last time, as the staff there said they will receive news about the sale tomorrow - I'm hoping hard that it will be business as usual under the new owners. I dozed on and off fitfully for the rest of the afternoon, as I was still exhausted. After dinner I participated in a great NWN, session which saw two of my longtime friends appear( Gwen & Nab )though one just stayed on to shop... but otherwise much fun was had by all. I barely paid any attention to the Oscars, apart from Sandra Bullock's presentation, and just finished the day with some low-energy blog puttering.
Looks like the winter weather here is abating - it rained buckets today, alternating with slushy snowfall, so the piles of the white stuff were greatly reduced. Given the coming week's forecast, I'd be surprised to see anything resembling snow left on the ground by the weekend - another win for BC winters!
Feb 21 - Summaries
Of late, I've been starting out the weekly blog's first entry with somewhat of a personal summary - my thoughts or observations of where I am and where I'm going, more than what I'm doing. I'm not sure if this is more for me than for other people, but it does provide some consistency, if I want to go back and look over my blog for the past 3 years or so. It's all there, getting briefer as time progresses, perhaps because I'm spending less time recording and more time doing - or so I like to think. One thing I've tried to do more of is to record my ideas / observations during the day, so that I have a selection of noted thoughts to fall back on and collate when I'm drumming up writing ideas. The blog doesn't really help with that... the ideas should be there when you have the time to turn them into something larger.
Feb 22 - Paper Computing
I try to keep my nose in the tech world's leading advances, as I love seeing how people can come up with new ways to make tech work for us. I was surprised therefore, that I had missed any mention of the SixthSense technology concept that was demoed in India over a year ago. Have a look at the presentation below and tell me you're not amazed at the possibilities that are discussed within:
Tech keeps advancing quickly, bringing costs down to levels that make your eyes pop when compared to previous years. Cell phones are an example; what an iPhone does down could not be duplicated ten years ago even given tech costing ten times as much, yet people take it all for granted today. I just purchased a replacement all-in-one full-colour scanner / copier / printer for my parents for $27.00 ... yes, that's right, less than THIRTY dollars got them something that ten years ago would easily have cost close to a thousand and probably not in colour printing. Unbelievable, the way tech just keeps advancing...
Feb 23 - Full Signal Joy
The benefits of being cheap AND a tech-head sometimes pans out. Take, for example, the problem of a poor cell signal in my bedroom – so poor I can't even get text msgs, let alone make a phone call. Enter the Cell Ranger, which for just $40.00 shipped on eBay promises to add 2 bars to your cell signal – and it works! It's NOT one of those 'Amazing' decal antennas, but rather a power-lighter plug-in powered antenna booster. Problem is, it's for a car... and I can't keep a car in my bedroom just for the cigarette-lighter power plug. Ebay to the rescue again; a $7.00 adaptor on the cheap and I can now plug in the 'car-only' Cell Ranger at home, for perfect performance! The combo works like a charm, and my cell signal from the VERY close-by Telus tower is now 4-5 full bars – huzzah! Now all I have to do is find a few local friends to call me once in a while...
Feb 24 - Firefly
I may not be a Browncoat, but I do love the short-lived TV series Firefly... as well as cutaway posters. So when I saw that ThinkGeek had put up a set of posters that detailed the inner workings of the primary ship of the series, Serenity, I had to order it. On my shelf are various cutaway books from years past, including almost all of the Star Wars series - I'd always wondered just how BIG the Death Star was and how the internals were all laid out. And who hasn't wondered about what was where inside the Milennium Falcon, at some point? I'll admit that the idea of a 3D-flythrough has a lot of appeal, but until those arrive( if they ever do )then I'll be content to gaze at the cutaway posters on my wall, and dream the dreams of a younger boy who didn't yet know that nearby space wasn't filled with zooming spaceships...
Feb 25 - Funding Dreams
An example of money wasted, or a cool idea being made into reality? Funding has reached its goal already for a RoboCop statue in Detriot, but there's always the question of whether the $60K USD could be better spent on social programs for that city rather than idolizing a fictional robotic enforcer. Myself, I think it's very cool and another excellent example of social sites like Kickstarter.com catching people's imaginations to fund projects that otherwise may never see the light of day. Heck, if I had to plan a trip out that way I'd be sure to include the statue on my itinerary - what g33k wouldn't, really? I just hope the final design is cooler than the image showing a cross-legged RoboCop - that's just plain silly.
Feb 26 - Snow, winds and COLD !
We received more snow today, but people were well-prepared for it – all the main roads were clear, and the cold air was bracing instead of biting. I expected some problems coming home up the mountain, but the road was heavily-salted and perfectly clear – something the person driving in front of me couldn't grasp, as they did 30K the entire 4.5K drive up... in an SUV. Obviously they had little winter-driving experience; I can thank my years in ON for being able to judge a winter road as to being icy, salted, clear or slippery... as well as the various levels of snow-covered. Nothing wrong with being cautious however, especially on roads where the only crash barriers are the trees that slope away into the dark down the hillside... anyway. I was out for a while after work( which was insanely busy so I finished 2hrs late )and just crashed for the evening, sleeping, watching parts of TV shows and ending up in a lovely hours-long chat with Mike up until the witching hour, which tried the patience of Skype( it crashed and complained )and my bluetooth headset.
Feb 27 - Catching up on daytime sleep
Finally: my first full day off in 12 days in a row of working, and MAN I was tired; I woke to breakfast at 9am and then fell back asleep until noon, something totally uncharacteristic for me – I had NO energy and I think the heavy rain outside just sapped any attempts to leave the warm bed. I'm glad to see the rain though, as it's quickly reducing the piles of snow outside to puddles at a rate that makes my heart glad. I went out to the Bean after lunch, perhaps for the last time, as the staff there said they will receive news about the sale tomorrow - I'm hoping hard that it will be business as usual under the new owners. I dozed on and off fitfully for the rest of the afternoon, as I was still exhausted. After dinner I participated in a great NWN, session which saw two of my longtime friends appear( Gwen & Nab )though one just stayed on to shop... but otherwise much fun was had by all. I barely paid any attention to the Oscars, apart from Sandra Bullock's presentation, and just finished the day with some low-energy blog puttering.
Looks like the winter weather here is abating - it rained buckets today, alternating with slushy snowfall, so the piles of the white stuff were greatly reduced. Given the coming week's forecast, I'd be surprised to see anything resembling snow left on the ground by the weekend - another win for BC winters!
