Miscellaneous

Man-made flying objects are almost universally inspiring. As a kid, I launched Estes rockets and always wanted the model that had the 110 camera (film!) built in (http://www.apogeerockets.com/estes_snapshot.asp). Looks like even that has been replaced with video now: http://www.apogeerockets.com/Estes_Astrovision_Video_Rocket.asp. Well, I still have the rockets, but figured I'd start small. A local toy shop had a nice selection of kites. I found a plain, triangular kite with a 7' wingspan.

Been meaning to post something about the iPhone purchasing experience. On the day the iPhone 3G was released, I went to an AT&T store and placed an order for two phones, and received them 3 days later. The salesperson I dealt with was an absolute professional, and a pleasure to work with during the provisioning and transfer process (I was formerly on Verizon). Overall, it was just about the easiest process ever, which is why I've been confused by reports of people having a difficult time or still waiting in line. There's a simple remedy: go to an AT&T store.

Dell had submitted an application to trademark "Cloud Computing." While Dell may participate in this space, the term didn't originate with Dell. Thankfully, this request was turned down by the USPTO. Is that the difference between engineers and (some) businesspeople? Engineers just want to create and release those creations, but the businessperson wants to bottle these up control access? I'm not sure what it is, but there are some fundamental differences.

I have completely neglected this site. The book project was pretty consuming to say the least, and I only feel now that I’m getting my bearings again for everything else. Between the book, starting a new position on the Mac team at Google and trying to be a human being (aka spend time with my family and handle house chores), I pretty much dropped off the face of the map. I will have some bits to post soon!

Between writing the Advanced Sysadmin book, writing for MacTech and Editing at Mactech (and other sundry things), these days, I live in Microsoft Word. After Macworld this year, I wound up with a few copies of Office 2008 and immediately started using Word 2008. Overall, I'm pretty happy. It's Intel native (although it takes longer to launch - ?!?), and has some nicer features than 2004 (not many, though). If I had to purchase it with my own $$, I wouldn't have. Unfortunately, Word is so deep seated that it's sometimes mandatory, depending on who you're working with.

Thank goodness for good sense! The US Patent system is unfortunately broken, handing out patents in this digital age that make little sense, and show little understanding modern technology. Barracuda, as a company, is trying to stop Trend Micro, a patent troll.

Trend was granted a patent that covers scanning files that pass through a proxy. Huh?

Help Barracuda show prior art. Story here:

Linux World

I don't know exactly how the term "geek" and "nerd" actually came about for the technically inclined, however, it really is its own (sub-)culture with its own language and humor. Two great examples I've seen in the last two days:

"Understanding Art for Geeks"

and

"Rap Lyrics Explained with Charts and Graphs"

Oftentimes, I see the word “belief” or even “thought” on tech mailing lists. Interestingly, technology and “belief” don’t go together. That’s not to say that there’s no place for it. You do need an initial belief to follow the time-honored scientific method, something all tech-types should be familiar with.

The scientific method has four steps, and seeks to sidestep the scientist’s biases. The four steps are (short version):

1. Define the question or statement.
2. Form a hypothesis (a “belief”).
3. Experiment/analyze results.

    I finally made a little time to start cleaning out the "computer graveyard" that has been growing a bit too large in my basement. It was actually a sobering experience in many ways.