Wednesday, April 30, 2008
News!
We leave for our long vacation one week from today -- from last night, actually. Next Tuesday, we drive to LA; we fly from LAX to MCO on Wednesday and the ship sails on Saturday. A neighbor will be house- and cat-sitting for us while we're gone. We've never taken this long of a trip and I'm a bit apprehensive. We've had more than a year to prepare, though, and I think we've done everything we can possibly do to ensure it goes smoothly. I'm especially looking forward to the Panama Canal transit.
The Monterey Pine tree in our back patio, which was infected with Pine Pitch Canker, was removed yesterday. It was a decision we really didn't want to make and put off as long as possible, but the base of the trunk was decaying and weakened, and if the tree fell it would have taken out our house. On the bright side, with the tree gone the back patio will get more sun and not be covered in pine needles and sap all the time. In order to remove the tree, the arborist had to chainsaw out some of our back fence -- not really a problem since it was rotted and falling apart anyway. Don't get any ideas, though -- we've put up a temporary fence and the permanent replacement will be installed next week.
I'm still working for Nokia as a result of the Avvenu acquisition from last year. I'm also on the Board of Directors for the Homeowners Association of Mission Palo Alto, and I put in a lot of time in various capacities at MousePlanet. Jennifer is doing very well at CSAA (though they are apparently changing their name for some reason) and not incidentally gets us great travel deals whenever we go anywhere. She's also copy-editing some MousePlanet columns.
The cats are doing well. Watson had his lower left fang removed a few months ago because it had started to decay. He'd lost the upper left a few years ago so now his mouth is a little lopsided, but he's still very cute. Rita and Linus are, after only eight years, finally starting to make friends. Actually it's Rita who is starting to warm up -- Linus has always wanted to be friends but until recently, Rita was having none of it.
This November will mark our tenth wedding anniversary. I know, I'm amazed too.
The Monterey Pine tree in our back patio, which was infected with Pine Pitch Canker, was removed yesterday. It was a decision we really didn't want to make and put off as long as possible, but the base of the trunk was decaying and weakened, and if the tree fell it would have taken out our house. On the bright side, with the tree gone the back patio will get more sun and not be covered in pine needles and sap all the time. In order to remove the tree, the arborist had to chainsaw out some of our back fence -- not really a problem since it was rotted and falling apart anyway. Don't get any ideas, though -- we've put up a temporary fence and the permanent replacement will be installed next week.
I'm still working for Nokia as a result of the Avvenu acquisition from last year. I'm also on the Board of Directors for the Homeowners Association of Mission Palo Alto, and I put in a lot of time in various capacities at MousePlanet. Jennifer is doing very well at CSAA (though they are apparently changing their name for some reason) and not incidentally gets us great travel deals whenever we go anywhere. She's also copy-editing some MousePlanet columns.
The cats are doing well. Watson had his lower left fang removed a few months ago because it had started to decay. He'd lost the upper left a few years ago so now his mouth is a little lopsided, but he's still very cute. Rita and Linus are, after only eight years, finally starting to make friends. Actually it's Rita who is starting to warm up -- Linus has always wanted to be friends but until recently, Rita was having none of it.
This November will mark our tenth wedding anniversary. I know, I'm amazed too.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Followup to off-air NBC last night
Received this response to my email to the station:
I suppose I'll watch 30 Rock on Hulu or grab it from bittorrent.
Andrew - Than you for your note. We lease a fiber optic line from AT&T to provide DirecTV with the best possible quality HD signal. Unfortunately, AT&T tells us that yesterday someone accidentally cut the fiber line between us and DirecTV. As of this morning they have repaired the damage, but we are also talking with DirecTV to better understand why they did not take advantage of the backup options available to them.
We are not able to show last night's programming again soon, but most of the programs should be rebroadcast over the coming months.
Thank you again for writing,
I suppose I'll watch 30 Rock on Hulu or grab it from bittorrent.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
San Francisco NBC affiliate goes off-air just in time for 30 Rock
First new 30 Rock in months, and KNTV-DT picks tonight to have 'technical difficulties'. The SD channel was apparently working, so my SD-TiVo recorded Scrubs. The HD channel was not, so my DirecTV HD-DVR recorded 30 minutes of "We are having technical difficulties, so NO TINA FEY FOR YOU!"
Nobody answers the phone at the NBC station, and DirecTV can only tell me they are "aware of the problem" but don't have any other information. I wonder if there's any chance the station will re-broadcast the shows that were messed up tonight.
SF Chronicle TV critic Tim Goodman told me in email that he had the same problem. I don't know if he has DirecTV or Comcast or DISH, though.
Nobody answers the phone at the NBC station, and DirecTV can only tell me they are "aware of the problem" but don't have any other information. I wonder if there's any chance the station will re-broadcast the shows that were messed up tonight.
SF Chronicle TV critic Tim Goodman told me in email that he had the same problem. I don't know if he has DirecTV or Comcast or DISH, though.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
A Request Of Visitors To Our Home
As you probably know, we have three cats. Three cats who are cute, lovable, adorable and in all other ways wonderful. However, they are also autonomous poop-and-shed machines. So here's the request:
If you visit our home and find an objectionable odor, a cat box we've neglected, a carpet stain we've missed or a pile of recently-shed cat hair, please tell us! We don't always notice right away, especially since people tend to get used to the way their home smells. We absolutely won't be offended or upset.
Thank you as always for your support.
If you visit our home and find an objectionable odor, a cat box we've neglected, a carpet stain we've missed or a pile of recently-shed cat hair, please tell us! We don't always notice right away, especially since people tend to get used to the way their home smells. We absolutely won't be offended or upset.
Thank you as always for your support.
Labels: cats
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
A Helpful Tip For An Admittedly Narrow Audience
If you:
You can add a filter (called a Blocking Pattern) to the Todo List which will automatically cancel recording the rebroadcasts. Here's how:
I hope this helps someone. I'm very pleased to no longer have to manually delete the rebroadcasts from my Playlist and Todo list.
- Have a hacked DirecTiVo (or hacked standalone TiVo),
- Use TivoWebPlus to manage recordings,
- Have a Season Pass for Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and
- Are annoyed at having to manually delete the rebroadcast showings of Countdown--especially now that there are two rebroadcasts every night--because the rebroadcasts are not properly marked as "repeats",
You can add a filter (called a Blocking Pattern) to the Todo List which will automatically cancel recording the rebroadcasts. Here's how:
- In TivoWebPlus, go to the /todo page and then click the "Title Blocklists and Blocking Patterns" link (/gbl_edit).
- In the right pane, add "Countdown+!17" -- that means "don't record anything named 'Countdown' if it doesn't start at 5:00 pm". Readers in time zones other than Pacific should alter the time accordingly, e.g. "Countdown+!20" for Eastern time.
- Click "Save Changes" and you're done.
I hope this helps someone. I'm very pleased to no longer have to manually delete the rebroadcasts from my Playlist and Todo list.
Your 2008 San Francisco Giants
Sigh.
Baseball sure is pretty in HD on the 58" plasma. Even watching Your 2008 San Francisco Giants blow it in ways previously thought unblowable was... well... yeah, never mind.
Let's go Oakland?
Baseball sure is pretty in HD on the 58" plasma. Even watching Your 2008 San Francisco Giants blow it in ways previously thought unblowable was... well... yeah, never mind.
Let's go Oakland?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Writing for Peanuts and Loving It
Writing for Peanuts and Loving It:
I've been doing a bit more writing for MousePlanet lately and I find that the more I write, the easier it seems to flow, but when I don't write anything for a long time it seems to be difficult to get the first words out. So I'm considering trying one or more of these services to see if, even if I don't actually make any money, I can do some topical writing that will be reviewed and commented on.
The Internet is full of words written for no money at all, just for passion. And it's veined with pieces (like this one) written in someone's regular line of work. Now, though, more and more online copy is being cranked out by a hybrid class: people like Papple, happy to serve as ultra-low-cost freelancers for sites that — unlike many personal blogs — actually get readers.
Greasing the wheels are sites like Helium, ThisIsBy.Us and Associated Content, which dangle micro amounts of pay to amateur writers willing to contribute material. Virtually any topic is open, from advice about child-rearing to an exegesis of mood rings.
I've been doing a bit more writing for MousePlanet lately and I find that the more I write, the easier it seems to flow, but when I don't write anything for a long time it seems to be difficult to get the first words out. So I'm considering trying one or more of these services to see if, even if I don't actually make any money, I can do some topical writing that will be reviewed and commented on.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter!
(bok bok!)
Monday, March 10, 2008
It's Mogulicious!
The long-awaited firmware update for the Sprint-branded HTC Mogul is finally available:
Firmware download link -- it's taking a nail-bitingly long time to download, probable due to every Mogul owner trying to grab it all at once. Isn't this why BitTorrent exists? I'll report on the upgrade experience and performance gains when it's done.
Sprint said Monday it was releasing a software update for the Mogul phone, made by HTC Corp. of Taiwan, that will enable the phone to connect at Rev. A speeds. Downloads speeds should be 600 kilobits per second to 1,400 kbps, up from a range of 400 kbps to 700 kbps with Rev. 0. It will be capable of uploads of 350 to 500 kbps, up from 50 kbps to 70 kbps.
Firmware download link -- it's taking a nail-bitingly long time to download, probable due to every Mogul owner trying to grab it all at once. Isn't this why BitTorrent exists? I'll report on the upgrade experience and performance gains when it's done.
Bad Day
I first saw one segment of this clever compilation over ten years ago. Funny how it still resonates.
I also really like the accompanying song--Rachel Maddow plays it whenever some hapless Republican gets indicted or loses another election.
I also really like the accompanying song--Rachel Maddow plays it whenever some hapless Republican gets indicted or loses another election.
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- San Francisco NBC affiliate goes off-air just in t...
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