Guardian of the Non Sequitur

Merry Mac-mass

Apple rolled out it’s January surprises today. The MacBook Air is fabulous and super pretty, but I’m not so much of a mobile computer, so I’m not really tempted.

The new AppleTV at $230 is tempting. And the iPod Touch now with Mail is also tempting.

What I’m really wondering is if the MacBook or Mac Mini are up for an update any time soon. They’ve both had minor upgrades recently, but no real redesigns (which the MacBook is due for).

Next month’s iPhone Software Development Kit will be interesting.

January 15th, 2008 Posted by bshirley | tech | no comments

The Inflated Worth of MySpace

Why doesn’t myspace want me to block spammers?

1. I get an email from a new “friend” and have to click the link.
2. I have to log in manually, because myspace is too stupid to provide me with a link in the email that will log me in and/or keep me logged in from last time. The link already has “id=901C2C3E- C4C7- 4B01- 8C3A- B8E67467D47F” in it, and it still couldn’t log me on.
3. I’m shown the invitation and have to click through to the profile.
4. I click “block user”.
5. Java script pops up a confirmation panel and I have to click “OK”. Yes I really want to block this user. If I did it accidentally, I could always go unblock them.
6. Another page reloads to re-confirm that yes, I really want to block this user. I click “block this user”.
7. Back on the invite page, I take one more click to “mark as spam”.

There could easily have been a “mark as spam and block user” button there, and with auto-login, it could have taken me two steps. Why doesn’t myspace do this? Because they’re stupid? Yes, that’s true. But I think the reason they don’t is they like spam users. It drives up their “usage” stats, and makes them look somehow still relevant.It’s January 1 - and I have one spam friend invite. Come December 31 2007, I’d wager I’ve had 200 more. And hopefully, the slow to the party print media will have pronounced “MySpace is Dead”!

January 1st, 2008 Posted by bshirley | corporations, tech, web | 3 comments

Thursday Games

Thursday night I left work and went straight to the Sharpstown Mall - Houston’s Premier Urban Mall (mostly out of a need to avoid the Galleria - the other mall on the way home from work). I had quite fun with the cultural experience. Did a little shopping, and have been humored by the people who literally think i was in imminent danger by going there.

From there I went straight to Greg’s house for game night, where he Peter and I were the only attendees. (Paul showed up as I was leaving - and I think he and Greg continued gaming).

We played 4 games. Race for the Galaxy (2007) was ranked #31 on BGG! An interesting colonization themed card-based game. It takes most of your first play to get the mechanics down enough to pay attention to any strategy. I wasn’t wowwed, but would certainly play it a few more times to determine if I liked it or not.

If Wishes Were Fishes (2007) GBB Rank 988 - a very light fish market themed game. I liked it more than I thought I would. It would be easy to tech to kids, and has nice fun purple worms as part of the game.

Hansa (2004) BGG Rank 159 - TG recently acquired this at an Internet fire sale, but I hadn’t yet played it. So, Greg taught this one and it is a nice shorter length game but with some interesting mechanics providing for some definite strategies with a variety of levels of antagonism. I have sine played it with two-players (with TG) and with three again. I definitely like it. Minimal, but good.

Aqua Romana (2005) BGG Rank 638 - This was a nice closer to the evening. Not too long, interesting mechanics. Building aqueducts with tiles that are determined by men moving about the field of tiles. Definitely worth a place in the rotation.

I got home around midnight to find my DSL disconnected. The phone repair guy had come to fix the dead phone - which had fixed itself already - but he saw there were “wiring problems” from outside so the disconnected the “upstairs line” so the other phones would work. What he actually did was disconnect the DSL.

Many days talking to many idiots finally payed off and this morning a competent repair man replaced many parts of the 10 year old DSL wiring - and hopefully it will remove the static I’ve had on my phone for over a year.

I also get DHCP directly fed from AT&T/SBC. Apparently no one else in Houston is like that. I was one of the first ADSL customers to get hooked up (working software design out of my house - paid by the company) and they’ve maintained it for those who have stayed. I’m one of the last.

I remember when it used to feed an unlimited number of IP addresses (because they didn’t know what they were doing). That lasted a few years, but they finally figured it out and now will only feed one IP address per DSL connection.

December 24th, 2007 Posted by bshirley | friends, games, latenight, tech, web | one comment

twitter

Does anyone out there twitter?  Do you know anyone who does?  I guess since I’m cell phone-less that it’s of limited use for me.  (Though if I had an iPod Touch I could use that, perhaps.)

November 24th, 2007 Posted by bshirley | tech, web | 2 comments

Give Me Leopard

So, last week I bought a new Mac. Last Saturday I ordered the “free” Leopard upgrade. Tuesday Apple informed me it was shipping. Today FedEx still isn’t aware of the package.

Lucky for me, we got our upgrade copy at the office today, and the boss (who was going to take it home and install) doesn’t have time, so I’ve offed with the copy and will be installing it as soon as I can shut down this browser.

November 1st, 2007 Posted by bshirley | tech | one comment

Frazer Ltd.

So, my not having a job, then waiting for a job, then that job vaporizing into atoms, then me finally getting a job is a long story. I’ll tell you the ending:

I have a new job! I’m one of a few IT guys at Frazer Ltd. They are an ambulance manufacturer. They used to do oilfield stuff, but figured that people are more consistently in need of ambulatory service than of petroleum.

So, now I’m back to a 9 to 5 job – haven’t had that since last December, and a real software development position – haven’t had that since February 2001. And, if you have any hints on how to turn on these compyewters, or what all these new acronyms mean, I’d appreciate the help.

And Droubi’s (houstonpress, zagat) is just a few blocks away. Is it Mediterranean or Middle Eastern? Who cares, it’s good.

October 9th, 2007 Posted by bshirley | job, tech | one comment