In your shadow...

All across the country, millions of MySpace users are screaming...

2006-07-23T03:33:08Z

All because some po-dunk data center in downtown LA forgot to service their UPS units.

Blah.

--S

The future of the human race.

2006-02-18T09:39:18Z

Once upon a time, I believed that the human race would eventually have to go to the stars to survive, simply to have enough room to hold all the people.

That has changed.

I now believe that the human race eventually must go to the stars because none of us can seem to get along sufficiently in large groups, and we're all going to eventually kill each other off.

--S

Patent madness

2006-02-10T20:51:21Z

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1923218,00.asp

Our patent law is pretty messed up. It lets companies build their businesses around a given technology for several years, at which point another company can come along and go "Oops! You're infringing our patents! Pay up!". How messed up is that? I think we need to rename Intellectual Property to Intellectual Extortion.

I'm not generally against patents (although software patents are iffy in my book), but I do think that there needs to be a requirement that companies attempt to enforce their patents. If you let a company use it for years without saying anything, then it should be taken legally as an implicit royalty-free license. The only exception would be if you didn't know that the company's product existed (which can definitely NOT be the case in this example).

And for another example, we have the whole Blackberry deal.

--S

Learn something new every day...

2006-01-24T11:48:02Z

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Cockmaster

Cauldron bottoms?

2005-12-10T21:28:08Z

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/basketball/nba/12/09/shorts.grievance.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

They must be bored.

--S

Looking for good help...

2005-12-07T21:24:14Z

If you know any really good Linux admins in the Los Angeles/Santa Monica area, please send them my way. I'm looking for a couple.

If I know you, you're a good Linux admin, and you're interested in moving here, let me know that too.

I'm still not saying publically where I work, but suffice to say that it's one of the top 5 web sites in the US, and it's a great place to work. Seriously, I need people. I'm not joking.

Seems I don't really know anyone in the tech industry in LA anymore...

--S

Hmph.

2005-11-29T01:41:37Z

Sometimes, life makes you wonder.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/28/macdonald.wendy.ap/index.html

--S

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2005-11-25T19:57:59Z

I've been bad and haven't posted in a while or two. I promise, I'll post soon.

But first, I have to help my parents start decorating for Christmas, and then go play some golf.

--S

::sigh::

2005-11-02T09:26:58Z

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/01/alqaeda.escape.ap/index.html

I'm not sure what's scarier: the fact that three fricking AL QUEDA operatives were in US custody and ESCAPED...

...or the fact that it's so convenient relative to this dude's abuse trial.

I worry about the state of our government sometimes. Well, okay, a LOT since Bush Junior took office.

--S

grrr.

2005-10-24T18:03:56Z

OMG OMG OMG! There's mist falling from the sky over Pacific Coast Highway! It's the end of the world! If we drive faster than 5MPH we're all going to die!

--S

Another day, another new Canon

2005-10-23T20:00:41Z

For anyone who's thinking about buying the new Canon EOS 5D, you should check out this review. It's got a tremendous amount of useful information (including one particular image that, for the first time that I've seen, visually explains the difference between APS and full-frame sensors.

My personal inclination, based on what I read in that review, is to skip the 5D and wait for the next generation (for reasons entirely aside from the fact that I just updated to the 20D to begin with).

Quite possibly the biggest surprise to me about the 5D is that it does not have a built-in flash (neither, it turns out, do any of the models in the 1D(s) line, near as I can tell -- something I didn't know until now). Until I get ready to do really and truly serious photography, that built-in flash will remain pretty useful to me, and would be sorely missed. I'm not a pro, and I don't want to have to lug my 420EX everywhere just in case I need to use a flash.

That said, the full-frame sensor would be really REALLY nice. But I really don't want to pick up yet another camera body -- not until the end of 2006 probably, unless Canon releases something miraculous. Gotta get some use out of the 20D, and may as well do it while they improve the cameras that much more...

--S

small world...

2005-10-22T01:12:15Z

If anyone remembers OmniDynmc from the Undernet days of old, it turns out that I've been working with him for the last month without realizing it. He's our network geek.

Go figure. :-)

--S

Amusement for the day

2005-10-15T05:34:53Z

If I weren't single, I'd probably be silly enough to wear something like this...

*goes back to browsing*

-S

Sometimes you just gotta wonder...

2005-10-14T04:20:32Z

"Whatever people say about America, it is still one of the most wonderful countries in the world, despite the politics, religion and everything else that goes on." --Peter Mayhew

--S

Sometimes I feel lucky...

2005-10-08T06:01:28Z

The view from my office...

--S

Hrm.

2005-10-06T08:38:41Z

I don't like this whole concept of "the week is for work." It's lame. I want more free time.

I am enjoying my new job though, which is good.

And I have a new LJ icon, courtesy of the city of Santa Monica! Yay!

Off to sleep, so I can get up in 6 hours and drive to downtown LA for my "orientation." I hate those things...

--S

Heh. Lamers.

2005-10-04T21:52:48Z

Dude at CDW just told me that you can't get dual DVI ports on a PCI graphics card because "the PCI bus doesn't have enough bandwidth." Yeah. Whatever, moron.

--S

What a world.

2005-10-03T05:28:50Z

Just finished moving. Whirlwind trip to the bay, all the usual annoyances with the people I give my money away to, etc. Got it all done though, so now I can at least live entirely in one place.

I will be going up for haloween though if I can swing it.

On an aside, Liz and I went to see Serenity on Friday evening. GREAT freakin' movie. I'd heard about the show but I hadn't seen it, and I loved it. I now own (and have watched) the DVD's. I'm very disappointed that there's only a half season of it -- if it had stayed around it may well have become my favorite SF show. :-(

Oh well, I wouldn't mind re-watching an ep before I head to sleep. I'm friggin' exhausted.

--S (*yaaaawwwwnnnn*)

The LA lights are as bright as in the movies...

2005-09-29T04:13:31Z

The view from my home...

--S

Busy!

2005-09-28T02:52:17Z

I just got home from work. That place is a madhouse.

I think it's going to keep me... BUSY!

Oh well. I have a few "days off" now. Note the quotes -- I have to go move the rest of the way out of my apartment during those "days off". Ugh.

Too frazzled to post anything more intelligent than this...

--S

pant

2005-09-19T18:18:31Z

My day today started with a trip to the driving range for my Monday morning lesson. Was up at 6:30AM (!!) and out the door by 7:15AM. Lesson at 8:00, home by 9:30. Then, after spending a half hour or so getting an upgrade started on Hedwig (ugh, I hate gcc compiles on slow machines!), it was time to hit the treadmill.

I'd guess I ran about a mile and a half. Wasn't paying too much attention.

Now it's time to go watch Friday's Stargate while I cool down, then I have to spend the rest of the day actually working...

It's gonna be a long day. :-)

--S

Another Day, Another Golf Course

2005-09-18T03:00:50Z

Today was exhausting, but quite fun. Woodley lakes is a much longer course than Westlake (and, as a result, a bit more difficult distance-wise). I didn't score as good as I did at Westlake (edit: I take that back. Relative to par I was one stroke better!), but there wasn't too much of a differential -- given the extra 1500 yards, I think I did pretty well overall.

My scores for the day (I'm going to start adjusting them to +/- par so I can backreference this later :-):

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Totals
Distance (yards)	339	314	166	491	363	362	147	476	412	426	314	119	460	363	172	401	411	488	6224
Par	4	4	3	5	4	4	3	5	4	4	4	3	5	4	3	4	4	5	72
Score	+4	+2	+2	+6	+7	+6	+2	+5	+5	+6	+3	+2	+5	+5	+2	+6	+7	+8	+83 [155]

As you can see, the jury is in: I officially suck. :-) On the other hand, if you adjust this for distance, I actually did a bit better than Westlake (40.15 yards/stroke vs. 29.30 at Westlake). I'd consider that good progress considering this was only my second time playing a full 18-hole course. With any luck, the next time I play I'll make 60 or so. :-)

We actually had a really good time today. It took a little over four hours to play 18 holes (including a stop at the snack bar on the 7th hole); the people in front of us were a tad slow today, so we also got to watch the model planes from the adjacent model airfield, which is a blast. I miss playing with R/C planes.

We also had a solo player added to our group; he was really good natured and patient (and a much better player than me, though that's hardly surprising ;-). The only downside was on the 17th and 18th holes when the group behind us started playing up on us. The first time they landed a ball right between my feet -- I was a little peeved. From what I've heard, those things HURT when they hit you.

Overall though, a good and exhausting day. A nice 4 mile walk (punctuated by ball hitting) and a good dinner at Red Lobster afterwards. Can't complain. :-) Next up is some sleep for the Shadow...

--S

Backhoe Operator Tires of Telecomm, Goes For Something Bigger

2005-09-13T00:22:43Z

LA Power Outage [latimes.com]

Isn't it nice to know that the power grid in LA is redundant enough to handle a single cable being cut? I'll bet the downtown data centers just LOVED this.

*smirk*

Of course, I also find it disconcerting how quickly people asked if a frigging *POWER OUTAGE* was caused by terrorism... The Bush administration has certainly managed to sell that message, and I think that's terribly unfortunate. "Hi, we're Amercians, and we live in fear." How lame.

--S

So. Tired.

2005-09-12T04:48:01Z

So I played my first real 18 holes of golf today (I don't count the Executive course over at Van Nuys -- that was, relatively speaking, way too easy). It took us about 4 hours to play the course, and I am officially exhausted. If you think golf is easy on the body, think again.... 4 hours of walking, carrying and swinging clubs, etc. -- especially for a formerly-sedentary geek -- that's a LOT of work.

The first few times I went to the driving range, I was hitting really well -- straight up the middle -- but for some reason, a couple of days after my (one and only) lesson, I started hitting with a really nasty -- and highly consistent -- slice. I can't get rid of it. That alone probably cost me at least half the extra strokes.

I have another lesson tomorrow morning, and I'm damn well going to get that fixed.

I just figured out that the course itself is 2.5 miles long. Given that you don't travel in anything remotely resembling a straight line (especially when you lose your ball) down any given hole, I'm thinking it's probably closer to 3.5 miles worth of walking. Some people walk a lot more than that daily -- but I don't. That was pretty tiring.

Damn was that a blast, though, even considering my scorecard:

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Totals
Distance (yards)	275	140	361	259	240	485	139	258	87	300	368	287	100	138	431	134	266	157	4425
Par	4	3	4	4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	3	3	5	3	4	3	67
Score	+12	+2	+3	+4	+6	+6	+3	+4	+3	+7	+7	+4	+3	+1	+7	+4	+6	+2	+84 [151]

The highlight: making a 65-yard pitch onto the green, and actually managing to hit the pin. Unfortunately, it bounced off...

Now if I could only find a hobby that ISN'T expensive...

--S

[edit: update to +/- par scoring, it's a better method! :-)]

Hrm.

2005-09-08T08:04:37Z

I am presently considering deleting the entire contents of my livejournal ("erasing my past"?) and starting over. Much of the tripe in here is fairly useless, and I have no clue what the deal is with all my security settings these days...

Thoughts?

(Actually, for the record, "archiving" would be a better way to put it. I would keep copies, just not publically accessible).

--S

In your shadow...

All across the country, millions of MySpace users are screaming...

The future of the human race.

Patent madness

Learn something new every day...

Cauldron bottoms?

Looking for good help...

Hmph.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

::sigh::

grrr.

Another day, another new Canon

small world...

Amusement for the day

Sometimes you just gotta wonder...

Sometimes I feel lucky...

Hrm.

Heh. Lamers.

What a world.

The LA lights *are* as bright as in the movies...

Busy!

*pant*

Another Day, Another Golf Course

Backhoe Operator Tires of Telecomm, Goes For Something Bigger

So. Tired.

Hrm.

The LA lights are as bright as in the movies...

pant