New Computer - A Mac Mini

Last weekend I finally went out and made the move. The home computer was a P3-900 HP. It worked but it was very slow. As with many Windows machines, quite a lot of cruft had snuck in over the years, it didn't have USB 2.0, and it just needed to go. It may ultimately turn into a linux machine but then again, maybe not.

Now to the Mac. Much like the ads it just works. We picked it up on Saturday evening, and plugged it in. Plugged in my wireless mouse and keyboard, monitor and external 160GB drive off of the PC and fired it up. Worked great, and the USB2.0 external drive was smoking fast when connected to a USB2.0 capable machine. Her iPod needed to be re-initialized and updated to work with the Mac, but after that was done, the movement of files between the iPod and the Mac was smoking fast, again USB2.0 wins. I moved all of our pictures and music over in rather short order. My younger daughter pulled in the video from her first gym meet, picked out only the pieces she wanted and burned it to DVD. It took a while to actually render and create the DVD but it worked just fine. She also took a batch of pictures of the dog and created a video of his various stages of hair.

Yesterday I burned all my old data to DVD for safe keeping. There was a slight problem copying data direct from the external drive and burning it to DVD, so I had to copy it to the internal drive before going to DVD. I didn't investigate the problem very much since when I copied to internal and burned it worked just fine. The interesting thing that surprised me a little bit was that I was able to snap the DVD into my office laptop and it worked just fine, not sure why I thought it wouldn't work but I was a bit suspicious.

One other problem it has was in setting up quicken the setup just didn't want to import the data from my old PC, and instead insisted on breaking my link to the bank for synchronization. Ultimately I had to call the bank and have them mail me a new pin. I did some reading about the Mac version of Quicken, so downloaded the PC version onto my laptop and migrated to that. Still need to wait until the new pin comes in to synchronize, but I think that will ultimately be a better solution anyway.

I took all of my mp3 files, converted them to m4a files and saved about 50MB of space. The ripping of CDs through iTunes could not be simpler. I was always a MusicMatch user, until I started using iTunes - far superior interface. I followed the directions for creating a shared folder for keeping all of the iTunes data so that I don't end up with multiple copies of the same thing and needlessly waste disk space.

As for iPhoto - (Apple likes the i) - I've done a bit of reading and the sharing of photos between users doesn't seem to be quite seemless, but that will be the next thing that I tackle.

Network file sharing seems to just work. I turned it on so that I could move files between the two machines and was again impressed that I didn't need to do anything fancy to make it work. Somewhere along the line, some security patch or somethign prevented me from mounting drives from my home machine on my laptop. Happily, I can once again save my personal files from my laptop, quickly and easily to my home machine. I need to investigate encryption, but haven't had the chance to do so yet.

A few times I've clicked the terminal application to get a window into the underlying Unix type OS. Seems to look like the real deal, but I haven't really investigated all of the details yet. All in all I am quite pleased - I'd give it 8 out of 10, the shared iPhoto, and problems with Quicken knock it down a few pegs.

New York Mets - Hope I don't jinx it

Well it is starting to look like it just might be a reality. 14 Games ahead with 41 to play. MLB Standings show the Magic Number as 28 vs. the Phillies. With all of that a comparison to the cross town rivals would put them only 1/2 game ahead. Mets @ 73-48, dreaded Yankess @ 72-48. As most who know me know I've been travelling extensively to Detroit. It would certainly be interesting if it turned out to be a Mets-Tigers series. I haven't been watching closely following the personnel movements or which facets of the team are working or not, I'm just enjoying catching the results and watching the highlights. It's been 20 years since we won the big one. The season feels a lot like 1986 - commanding lead for most of the season. Everybody talking about the team, etc. In 1986 I was in Pittsburgh and didn't get to fully enjoy it, except for the playoffs and series. This is a lot more fun this time. Let's just hope they keep it up and stay on track and keep the key guys healthy.

Spyware and other malware

I was speaking with the team this weak and once again I'm puzzled. Why is it that spyware is such an ongoing problem, and to quote some, "why do we have to load additional software simply to protect us from the inability of operating system developers to create decent software." I had to guide my mom into removing 20+ high impact nasty bits from her system. This was identified by Microsoft's Defender. Point One - To me it seems that spyware should be as simple to alleviate from our systems as viruses. Symantec, CA and McAfee along with some other niche players all do a very good job at protecting us from viruses - including from mail and web sites. There continue to be new viruses, trojans and such, and in general they respond to these fairly quickly. Much of the Spyware that I have encountered does load files onto my system, it should be rather easy to develop signatures that detect this spyware, tag it and alert when it attempts to save. If there is a financial reason for buying new elements of protection, that I can at least understand, then simply charge a fee for enabling the spyware protection, it shouldn't require different software. Point Two - There seems to be an explosion of this nasty stuff and the load that it places on the system is rather high. I am still curious as to what this software 'spies' upon, what information it collects and what is the value to the producers. Many of the warnings about this stuff warn of personal information being stolen and abused, but I for one have never read or heard of a report of this happening. All are accused to collect marketing information - what they are collecting is obviously what web sites are browsed and such which I suppose could be used by marketeers, but I don't see reputable companies looking to the likes of comet cursor for marketing data. Then again sleaze associates with sleaze and I suppose all of them simply share data amongst themselves.

Diagnosis

Turns out I have a Distal Radius Fracture. I now have a bright blue half cast as they call it. I have finger motion although limited. I can type at about 60% of normal pace. Mousing is a bit tougher. All in all not too bad an outcome. I return to the Dr. on 6/23. I've kept all of my travel arrangements and schedule, I only missed a day of work. It sometimes hurts a bit in the morning, but not enough to cause me to use anything stronger than tylenol.

Injured

Well I guess I need to learn to slow down a bit. Yesterday we went into Manhattan to walk around buy some knock-offs and basically hang out. While walking in the area of city hall my daughter started walking on some posts. She does gymnastics so she was going pretty well. I decided to try as well. I've done it before so figured it would be easy. I started to go along and Kellie decided to pause for a moment. I told her to go to the next one as I stepped, but she didn't. In an effort to not knock her down I lost my balance and fell (I am not a gymnast). I managed to not hit my head but did land rather hard on my hands and both of my wrists hurt. We walked towards Chinatown and my right wrist started hurting more and more. I started to get flushed and our neighbor went in to get some ice at McD's. Putting ice on it really helped.

After applying ice we noticed we were standing outside the Chinatown Health Clinic. Great we'll go in, get an ace bandage and I'll be fine. We went into the first floor, and this was the women's section so they sent us up to floor 2. We'd tried to explain the situation to the woman behind the counter and explained that we wanted an Ace bandage, and would be happy to pay for it. She went into the back and returned with a handful of band-aids. I guess all she heard was bandage, my daughter and her friend almost laughed out loud. We tried to explain wrapping my arm, she said they didn't have anything. We walked until we found a pharmacy. I purchased an Ace bandage, and an instant ice pak. Wrapped my wrist, popped a few advils and it felt much better.

We walked around a bit more and my arm started to hurt some more. I unwrapped and checked and there was a good sized knot on my wrist. We determined an x-ray may be in order so we headed for the ferry. On the way to the ferry we (meaning my wife and neighbor) purchased two more purses. We caught the 5:00 ferry and my arm was really starting to hurt. We drove to the emergency room, hung out for a bit, got an x-ray. Diagnosis: broken! I now have a splint, and bandage and will likely need a cast, I'm going to an orthopaedist on Tuesday. I hope no pins or anything.

More Tuesday!!

Our new dog Peanut

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Yes that's a dog. Our new dog. He is a long haired Chihuahua - very small, very cute. Click the link to see the slides. The picture with my foot also contains the plastic page divider from my Franklin Planner - he is that small. 2 Lbs, and no more than a foot long - fully extended. He is yippy, bouncy and energetic - everything you'd expect from a miniature puppy.

Charlie Sheen

Listening to commercials on HBO there was a tidbit from the upcoming Bill Mahr episode: "Don't be surprised if you marry Charlie Sheen and he turns out to be Charlie Sheen! Come on the guy paid for hookers with personal checks". Interesting that I made a similar point a few weeks ago: 9/11 Government Conspiracies

Nancy Grace

She has entered the list of people that annoy me quite a lot. I don't even really watch her all that much. When I am sitting in the hotel I click around the dial looking for stuff - and in a 'full service' Marriott this is quite limiting. Invariably I wander into her blather. All she does is scream at the screen trying to appear what annoyed, upset, sad, I can't tell what she's trying to project, her emotions all appear the same on the screen. I'm also convinced that without her war paint she would have to sneak up on a glass of water to get a drink. I think I need to find out what brand she uses and invest in this company - they have to be making a ton of money.

Take our sons and daughters to work day

I just received an email about this from my employer. I want to go on record as questioning the value of this on a few fronts.

#1 - this originally started as a way for young girls to see what opportunities are out there for women in the workplace. It has transformed into a bring any boy or girl which is admirable but I think loses some of the intent.

#2 - this is the more important point. I have 2 daughters neither of which have had the opportunity to do this due to my travel achedule and school policy that it was not an excused absence. I can not for the life if me understand why this needs to occur during the school year. Mid July or August would allow more to participate and also not be as intrusive on work as there is always less stuff happening in the summer.

Yet another fun flying day

Part I
I arrive a little early for my flight from DTW - EWR hoping to catch a standby. Good news the standby is late so I have a good chance to catch it. Bad news it is sold out. I decide to wait to see what might happen so find a seat and wait. Delay changes from 6:15 to 5:45 - it was originally scheduled for 5:00. At 5:20 they start boarding. At 5:40 they start calling names. A group of Japanese folks start hollaring into cell phones trying to get people. The gate agent starts calling an entire gaggle of names many Japanese many others. At least 5 times the gate agent asks the Japanese group if their entire group is with them. It is clear they speak no english as they do not even acknowledge that she is asking them questions. Ultimately the group of 8 finally all get to the gate from being scattered to the four corners of the airport and board the plane. After another several minutes two heavy set ladies come running and panting to the gate: "We thought it was 6:15. We were getting food, pant, pant, cough, cough". They finally catch their breath and board the plane. The calls for people continue, by name and by group. Two more stragglers wander to the gate at a leisurely pace - "Oh look its boarding", "I thought it was 6:15 its only ten to six." After several more calls the final couple meander to the gate and board. The gate agent states: "attention all standy by passengers the flight has checked in full". Now I was dissappointed but I was just completeley amazed that people would walk so far away from a delayed flight that they could not keep an eye on the time. Flights frequently change times and possibly even gates. How incredibly silly.

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Part II
I go down to my gate and plop into a chair. After about 30 minutes they start to board. I have no status so I am forced to wait for my row. They call first class, elites, exits and finally start row calling. 18-22 go on, a few minutes later 15-18 go. Then nothing. One gate agent leaves the area to go do something. The remaining gate agent starts dealing with standby passengers and time continues to tick away. Fifteen minutes later the lone gate agent is joined by the original plus another plus a pilot trying to catch a ride. The three gate agents now start to type furiously into the computer (I am truly amazed at the number of keystrokes it takes to do seemingly simple things on these computers). They call some row, in fact the same rows they've already called but 19-22, then 15 and higher. Of course nobody goes up so they return to typing their epic adventure novel on the small gate computer. After a few more minutes they finally call my row and I board the plane. I work my way to my seat and watch three people load their bags sideways so as to use up the most amount of overhead space (leaving none near my seat) and sit down. I then proceed to turn them all the correct way with roller wheel towards the back of the bin and lo and behold there's room for my bag. I slam my bag in and sit.

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Part III
I started typing this in anticipation of not being able to post before we pushed off. How naïve I was. We now have a 'minor' mechanical problem. Who knows when and if this plane will take off.

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Part IV
Well its been one hour and five minutes since Part III.

We're still here. They've swapped a few computer components and even went so far as to completely reboot the plane. They actually did a full power down - ten count - restart. No dice we're still here. No communication for the last 15 minutes. I feel like a trapped rat. Not sure what the rules are for false imprisonment. Maybe I can sue them. That might be fun. The interesting part is that people are standing in the aisles walking up and down throughout the plane. Talking and yapping, general muddling around. For goodness sake we are at Northwest's hub. Just wheel another airplane out of the damned hangar, and put us on it. It really doesn't seem like that hard of a process.

On one small note - perhaps I would have been better off not getting on the plane so soon. Had the novelists taken a bit longer I'd be sitting in my cramped little seat slightly less.

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Part V
Changing planes. Well we've finally tried everything there is to try on the first plane. Now we're finally off to plane number two. I'm typing this piece from the new gate. Which by the way - even though this is a crappy way to spend an evening - the new Midfield Terminal in Detroit - actually is a very nice facility. Very clean - nice wide open aisles - comfortable chairs and a lot of power outlets to plug in laptops and other various devices. The walkway between A, B and C concourses is underground under the runways and has a very cool soothing art display with cool music playing. It gives you a very underwater kind of feeling.

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Part VI
Well they're starting to call rows again - let's see if this process goes any better the second time around.

Newark Airport

Yet another fun travel day at Newark airport. I get to parking, no problem, for once the garage isn't full. I go up to level 5 grab a spot and head for the elevator. Go across to the AirTrain and the escalators are broken. Wait for the elevator and head up. Catch the AirTrain and shuttle off to terminal B. Yet another broken escalator. Now I realize that things break, but they really should try to have this stuff working for Monday rush.

Car finally fixed

Well my car is finally back together. There is one minor thing that needs to still be remedied - a small clip on the trunk liner was not re-attached properly. This too will be noted to the shop that did the work (see below). Here is a picture of the motor mount that was damaged in the accident. Initially the insurance company claimed that it wasn't caused in the accident and was likely just worn or pre-existing. I think had they not agreed to pay for it these photos would have certainly proved my point.


The body shop that did the work: Ryan's Auto Body in Ocean Township New Jersey was unable to detect what was making the clunking sound I had described after having the car for two full weeks. When they put it up on the lift they noticed that the drive shaft moved a little when it was put into gear and that seemed a little bit odd to them, but they didn't know what to do to investigate or repair the problem. I will be sending them a rather unfriendly letter about their stunning ineptness.

More mediocre performance - this time Continental Airlines

Contained below is a message I sent to Continental about their excellent web site and their President's club. Let's see what happens. During the last tirade I netted 2,500 miles.

Subject: More tiring experiences with your company

Message: On Monday March 13, 2006 I was anticipating an mid-morning flight and needed to avail myself of the use of the Presidents Club early the next morning. Thinking erroneously that online would be a nice fast easy way to get my membership and have a temporary card in my hand for the morning, I went to the web site to sign in. It dutifully took all of my personal information, including credit card data and One Pass number. When the process was completed it said to check my email. Great I thought, I'll go over pick up my temporary card and go into the club in the morning. Instead, I received this email:


>Thank you for purchasing a Presidents Club membership.
>Your application should be processed within 48
>hours and you may begin enjoying the benefits of
>membership at any of our Presidents Club locations.
>If you visit a Presidents Club prior to
>receiving your card, simply provide the clubroom
>representative with a copy of this e-mail and
>photo identification.


There was no warning that this process was not an instant process and that there would be delays that I should anticipate. So I did as the mail said and took the printout and my id to the club. How unfortunate for me that the system didn't know anything about me and I had to hold up the line while waiting for the people at the club to determine that I should be granted access. To this date I have not received either permanent or temporary card so while I may be able to get into a Contintental club, I can not avail myself of the services of any of your partner airlines clubs. Thank you once again for continuing to meet my ever decreasing expectations on my dealings with Continental and your wonderful hub airport of Newark NJ, which 80% of the time has broken AirTrans, and generally miserable service.

It is so nice being nearly held hostage by hub and spoke airlines.

9/11 Government Conspiracies

Have you heard the latest Charlie Sheen tirade. Charlie apparently thinks there is some conspiracy about the collapse of the third building in the 9/11 attacks. Is it just me or can someone who is a notable womanizer, both in real life and has made a fairly good career of representing this role on Spin City and Two and a Half Men, really expect to be take seriously? I'm not actually saying that he's even wrong in his accusations, for all I know there may have been some grand conspiracy to cover up whatever actually caused the collapse. It just seems to me that he lowers awareness for this issue rather than raising awareness. I mean seriously I for one thought: "this just has to be a farce if he's behind it". Yet CNN was reporting it the other day, and seeing if "Now that Sheen is behind it maybe the story will get some legs", seems like wishful thinking.

World's Largest Microsoft Error Message

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You asbolutely gotta love this, Network world had an article about one of the giant screens in Times Square displaying a Windows Error message. Not sure if this is the kind of advertising Bill Gates really wants. Additionally, a few weeks ago I was returning home from Detroit and the lane markers that tell you which security lane is open and which is closed on a 17" TV screen (why are 4:3 TV screens always odd numbers?) had a virtual memory error displayed on it. This screen simply sits there with the equivalent of a screen saver (well not really because I'm sure it will burn in) on it and yet it had a virual memory error.

Selfish Airline Passengers

So what has irritated me today? Airline passengers that feel they are sooooooooo important that they MUST USE ALL THE OVERHEADS. I have several times had to check my bags when catching a flight and being one of the later passengers to board. Today I witnessed a complete jerk that simply had to have all of his stuff in the overheads. I managed to get early boarding status for my flight - which I don't normally get primarily due to the shorter flights I take - and was on board early. I also managed to score an exit row seat (again not enough status for First class or Business Class) so I had decent leg room. I stuffed my smallish carryon in the overhead, crumpled my overcoat up and jammed it in on top of my carryon, and then threw my PC under the seat in front of me. I had plenty of leg room to be quite comfortable for a 1 hour or so flight. The guy right behind me piles his fairly large carryon (nearly the limit) into the overhead, then hoists his laptop bag also into the overhead, then tosses his coat in, and pours himself into the exit seat across the aisle from me. Now he had a slightly larger bag than me, but he fully consumed an overhead whereas I left enough room for some other soul to place their bag in should they need to do so. Why is it that so many people have to be so selfish.

Accident

Well - it happened. On Friday, I was almost into the Lincoln Tunnel. The person in front of me stopped hard and so did I. Unfortunately the person behind me did not. The result was >$2,000 of damage to my bumper and rear deck lid. At least that's what Allstate appraised the damage to be. Adding to the mess - my coffee cup decided to vent all of the contents all over the inside of the car and down my back. Fortunately the Big Green Clean Machine was up to the task and got all remnants out of the carpet, the seats and most importantly the headliner. Should be a week or so until it is back in order. Key Sera Sera

CNN Data Security - Do you want Miles O'Brien's cell phone number?

Yesterday during my morning hotel routine watching CNN with O'Brien and O'Brien, Miles was discussing the potential impending blackberry shutdown with another member of the CNN team. To show how blackberry's can send messages quickly from one place to another Miles sent a test message to his co-worker. His co-worker showed the message on his screen - including Miles' personal cell phone number. So if you want to speak directly to him - give me a call or drop me a note and I can give you the number.

New New Jersey Slogan - "New Jersey: Come See For Yourself"

A little bit stale news, but New Jersey has a new slogan. New Jersey: Come See For Yourself. I personally would have voted for: "New Jersey: You Got a Problem With That?". There were a few interesting others including: "New Jersey: Most of Our Elected Officials Have Not Been Indicted." which I'm not so sure of. There certainly seems to be a lot of corruption around. I think Monmouth county (in which I reside) went for the record and came up short to a few counties in New York and parishes in New Orleans - must be something to do with being New. It has been just about a year since we moved in to our new house. I can't say that I have totally adopted the attitude of my new home town, but it certainly exists. I almost bought my wife a T-shirt with "New Jersey - Attitude Capital of the World" on it, but decided against it. I will say this - New Jersey is not just Newark and Trenton - the area we live is quite suburban, albeit there are homes in the area that do appear to be very similar in external view to Tony Soprano's.

Newark Airport Experience - or why I hate Continental

I am currently sitting at gate 111a at Newark airport waiting to take flight 2227 to Detroit scheduled departure time 8:00PM. As I type this message it is 8:40PM. There is no gate agent, the board states that we are on time, and yet we are sitting here. I have called the reservations number twice to no avail. It sure would be nice if in fact there was a person to tell us what is happening with the flight rather than continuing to display "On Time" and a departure time of 8:00PM. I have spoken to other gate agents all who say: "It states 8:00 according to my computer", they then look further and say: "Oh wait - it is delayed - we are waiting for a flight from Dayton". Interestingly enough - none of these people took the initiative to update the board, call someone to man (or should I say person) the gate. Basically giving me the information is to them more than enough and is the end of their duties. What an absolutely miserable experience. I have been flying Northwest to Detroit for the past few weeks, and will very likely be traveling to/from Detroit and Newark for a while. It certainly looks like I will be using the services of Northwest rather than Continental in the future. I am rapidly running out of airlines.....