Rants and musings, without care for substance.
Posted in gadgets, gaming, technology on Aug 28th, 2008
There’s something undeniably cool about a MacGuffin in a case, like in Ronin or Pulp Fiction. It’s not just about the plot device itself, though. My fascination extends to case-mounted hardware too, including all manner of tactical weapons — HK’s MP5-in-a-suitcase being a choice and rarely found example — and communications gear. Needless to say [...]
Posted in advertising, gadgets, oddities, technology, things i'd like to see on Jan 14th, 2008
Heading north on Russell Street just before Ravens stadium there’s a billboard that proclaims “Marriage works” while depicting a cheery-faced couple. What are the advertisers trying to sell here in Baltimore? A church? the institution of marriage itself? As far as I can see from the street there isn’t a sponsor listed. Lots a people [...]
Posted in Tech, gadgets, music, technology on Nov 10th, 2007
It’s been over ten years since I first heard Third Eye Blind on the side stage of HFStival 1997. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do so again at UMD College Park’s Ritchie Coliseum, this time while working on the show providing support to the Technical Director. As usual, I got a kick out of [...]
Posted in oddities, technology, things i'd like to see on Nov 1st, 2007
Every once in a while I’ll stumble upon something that I want to know more about. It could be the most remote thing that has absolutely nothing to do with what I’m doing or what I’m usually interested in. Then I have to stop what I’m doing and figure it out. It is akin to [...]
Posted in technology on Aug 23rd, 2007
With a small degree of sadness, I removed the catch-all from my domain today.
I’ve owned this domain for almost a decade. In all of that time I’ve had a catch-all. It was convenient and handy to be able to create email addresses at the drop of a hat. At Bob’s Electronics Depot and need to [...]
Posted in complaints, technology on Aug 16th, 2007
I the course of four hours I got hammered with backscatter from someone’s spam run. It looks like the batch included a lot of the recent PDF spam that is circulating. The mail server handled it pretty well, but I still had to clean out the 1,600 bounce emails this afternoon. If I weren’t insistent [...]
Posted in housing, life in general, technology on May 27th, 2007
Friday afternoon I got home from work and did the unthinkable. I turned on the air conditioning. Turning on the AC is something I postpone until absolutely necessary. As cheap as I can be, I just couldn’t help it. It was 83° in my living room and I was expecting people over that evening for [...]
Posted in culture, gadgets, oddities, technology, wireless on Apr 12th, 2007
Leaving the grocery store yesterday, I walked past a women with long hair. She was loading groceries into her car’s trunk and talking as if she were in the middle of a conversation. She looked as me as I walked past and kept talking. Not to me, clearly.
A year or two ago I would have [...]
Posted in technology, wireless on Apr 2nd, 2007
I rarely use wireless when I’m in the house. So rarely that I’ve got it disabled on the router. When I came back from running some errands out, I forgot to disable my card. All of these are all being picked up in the basement. Last time I checked I could pickup 12-15 access points [...]
Posted in complaints, gadgets, money, technology, television on Mar 7th, 2007
Comcast has been irritating me lately with their lack of support and continuous price increases. After numerous complaints and their failure to fix problems I’ve decided to take my business elsewhere. I don’t watch a lot of television and have been watching fewer movies on HBO and Showtime, so I decided to dump the television [...]
Posted in complaints, google, oddities, software, technology, troubleshooting, web sites on Jan 28th, 2007
I use Mailman to provide mailing list services to friends, family, and non-profit groups in addition to running a few administrative lists. Doing so has recently exposed a problem with Gmail’s mail delivery.
Posted in technology, web sites on Nov 24th, 2006
A friend of mine runs a server that streams live dispatch for Loudon County Fire & Rescue using the same software that I used to stream MP3’s to buddies in college. Pretty cool use of technology if you ask me. I quickly discovered that some guy does the same for Anne Arundel County Fire Department [...]
Posted in gadgets, oddities, technology, travel on Nov 4th, 2006
These days, the front desk programs a few magnetic stripe cards when you check in. Can you remember when the front desk would hand you a set of keys? What if we used our credit cards instead?
Posted in humor, oddities, technology on Oct 2nd, 2006
Although collaboration isn’t a new idea, Douglas Adams describes modern day collaboration in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; the concept that currently lives on…
Posted in legal rights, privacy, technology on Feb 21st, 2006
Verizon Wireless refuses to reactivate Motorola StarTAC handsets on account that they aren’t GPS-enabled, yet there isn’t any law prohibiting them from doing so.
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