DanBailey.net

11/11

A friend asked me, as I’ve been categorized as “in a fulfilling relationship” as to what my must-haves are. My first reaction is:

• Kate

In all seriousness, however, I must admit that Kate is definitely unlike anyone I’ve dated before, and I think that that is why we’ve been as good as we are. I’ve dated a lot of people, I’ve been in a few serious relationships, even been married once.

What I’ve learned is that you cannot have a concrete list of things that are absolutely necessary. When you find the right one, you’ll know. Kate’s the one — we’re different in a bunch of our interests, but have a few in common. We’re different politically: I’m more engaged than she is. We differ on the abortion issue. I love football, she fell asleep at a Vikings game. She dislikes bicycling, I don’t need to point out my obvious addiction.

But we come together where it matters. We agree on the things that are truly important — the need to secure our financial future, the desire to be parents, that we support each other in pursuit of our dreams — and that our lives are richer for having fallen in love with each other.

I don’t know how to quantify her, and that’s part of what I love about her. She’s a complex woman, smart and funny and possessing of a mushy interior hidden by a tough outer shell. I do know that I can laugh with her, that I love the mischievous glint she gets in her eye sometimes, and that waking up with her in my arms is the best start to a day that I could ask for.

Chalk this up as sentimental, and not true to the original challenge, but I don’t think that love is something you can find by checking off boxes on a list.

11/6

I could talk about the emotional reaction I had to Tuesday night’s win by President-Elect Obama. I could talk about the impromptu party that burst into existence not far from my apartment and how the sounds of it kept me up until all hours. I could talk about being nervous to fall asleep and then to wake up and find out that it had all been undone. But you’ve already heard all those stories. You’ve heard them from your neighbors, co-workers, and friends. You’ve read them on the Internet. You know them.

What I’m going to say is that for the first time in over a decade, I’m hopeful about the future — not just for myself, or for those I call family and friends, hell, not even for just my country. For all of us.

Maybe we’re getting past the racism that’s plagued this country (or maybe people have learned that their needs should outweigh their fears). Maybe we’re getting to a point where we realize that America can’t go it alone and that we’re part of a bigger whole. Maybe we’ve realized that this isn’t a zero-sum game and that other people don’t have to lose for us to win.

Whatever the case, I’m glad I was right.

See, in 2004, after the DNC was over, I downloaded some of the speeches from the then-fledgling iTunes store. And when I listened to Barack Obama’s address, I was moved to tears at the idea of America actually fulfilling its promise. I told my then-wife, who listened to it, too, “That man is going to be President someday.”

I hope that I’m right and that his election signifies an underlying change in how we, as a people, see the world and each other. I hope that his willpower and political savy will be enough to move us forward economically and socially in such a way that everyone truly benefits, and so that the idea of trickle-down economics is finally laid to a well-deserved grave. I hope that we move toward true energy independence. I hope that we’ll be out of Iraq as soon as possible, and that the proper protections are put into place for our troops in Afghanistan. I hope that eight years from now, we’re moving into a new, amazing age in which peace and prosperity hold sway and that we learn from the hard work it will take to get us there.

I hope.

10/16

10/6

I was always highly impressed with the Icepick project. It’s a neat concept, and if you don’t mind the whole world knowing that you went to the can at 3:30am, it’s even a little fun. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized more and more that it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever find a girlfriend/spouse that will allow such intrusions into our life.

Thus, in the name of compromise, I am going to keep my geek haus a little more low-key. I just want to have some neat stuff.

1. Free public wifi. I already have wifi in my domicile, which is all well and good. But being the generous sort, I’m all for sharing my access with the neighbors. I’m also a big fan of a.) having plenty of bandwidth, and b.) keeping my LAN secure. So the plan is to build a small Wintel box, one that doesn’t draw too much power (Atom chip?), with minimal RAM and hard drive space, that I’ll be turning into a router. Public access will be severely throttled, with some services (torrents) disabled, and a lot of sites (porn) blocked. There will be serious firewalling of the rest of the network.

2. Time-lapse webcam. This will be an external-facing camera, looking out the front window of the place. It will update on a regular basis, plus will take a picture at the exact same time every day, so I can do a cool time-lapse movie of the exterior comings-and-goings over the course of our time in the new place. (Subject to Kate’s approval.)

3. Data hidey hole. We won’t be using landlines — Kate and I are both cellular-only types. I’m going to go ahead and get an outlet plate, a decent-sized keychain drive from Micro Center, and spend a little time setting one of these up, just for the geeky factor. (Must remember to disconnect it and restore phone line before moving out.)

Any other suggestions?

10/3

So things are coming along here. When last I gave you guys the run-down on things, a little over two weeks ago, things were afoot. Since then, much has changed.

• Kate and I found a place that we’re absolutely in love with, over in NE Minneapolis, and we’ve gotten it. We take possession of the keys on November 1st, and do the brunt of the moving work on November 9th. I’ll be getting as much of the smaller stuff over there as possible in order to keep my enlisted-aid from rebelling.
• Made a huge jump forward in my swimming lesson this week — swimming! Granted, it ain’t pretty and I’m switching between face-down and rolling over into a back-float-with-kicking in order to breathe, but it’s still propulsion and I’m not drowning. Good thing, that.
• The new novel has been dropping ideas in my lap left and right. I’ve recently discovered why it’s better to host your writing on a Google App, rather than to carry it around on a USB stick — when you have the killer idea and forgot the stick, you can’t easily add it to the narrative. I know where the USB device is, I just don’t have it with me is all. Going to move the manuscript over to Google Docs again.
• The bike projects are coming along — the 29′er more than the track bike. I have all the brake parts, handlebar, crankset/BB, and grips. I will probably order the rims tonight (DT Swiss TK 7.1d), and the stem, seatpost, and seat next week.
• The Linux/WinXP box is running, and I’m getting my Civ3 fix.

So that’s about where things are at, currently. I’ve got more, but there’s stuff to be done.

09/17

As my workload at home and the office has increased, I have found myself gradually updating this page less and less. Hell, I’ve even gotten spotty with my Twitter updates.

So things that are worth noting:

• Kate and I are still very much in love and I can’t remember being more comfortable or happy to be with someone else. Last night, we decided to move in together, with a target date of December 1st. This means I’ll be paying double rent in December (the last month in my old place), but that’s a small price to pay. When we made the decision, I got butterflies in my stomach — nervous, excited, and happy, all at once. She’s the one. And I’ve never been more sure of anything.
   
• Swimming lessons are going…swimmingly. Okay, it might be a little too early for a pun like that, but tonight is the second of my fifteen lessons. By the end of this, I should be swimming on my own. I’m going to take further lessons to work on improving my stroke and efficiency, of course. For now, though, I am very excited. I’m doing something I’ve meant to do for a long time now, and hitting one of my New Year’s Resolutions (”take classes, learn more stuff”).
   
• I shelved my weird adventure novel in favor of a more obtuse idea, which is going to be more interesting to write. Indirect first contact with an alien species dubbed “the CEOs”, post-humans, and all sorts of other weirdness tied together. Should be a fun time.
   
• I have two simultaneous bike projects underway — a singlespeed 29′er mountain bike and (finally) my track bike. The MTB is the priority because over the winter, I’ll be able to use it. Both are going to go slowly, as when Kate and I move in, we’re going to need to buy stuff like more bookshelves, and one of those fancy-schmancy Sleep Number Bed Mattress Things.
   
• I’ve got an Ubuntu box on my desk now, running alongside the Mac. It’s working (more or less), but anyone who tells me that Linux is a desktop-ready solution for an operating system is going to get bitchslapped. Near future upgrades will include a new wifi card with a compatible chipset (so that I can get rid of the 50-foot ethernet cable running across the living room), and a second SATA drive with a WinXP Home install.
   
• Shut up! It’s so I can run productivity software. Like Civilization 3 and 4.
   
• In the same vein, I need to reorganize my LAN — no more DHCP. Going to have to assign IPs to the Mac, Linux/Winbox, Wii, PS3, and iPhone. (My network seems less crowded without the Vonage box between the Airport and Internet, and without the TiVo.)
   
• More later.

08/28

Screencap from Yahoo!, by the author. Click for larger images and more detail.

In the technology world, there’s this talk of ubiquitous computing — having supercomputer processing at your fingertips, wherever you are, and paired with access to the world’s knowledge. If the systems continue to pair data like above, I think that the usefulness (or lack thereof) will render such systems stillborn.

To explain my statement above, I must rely on anecdote. I was reading an article about Karl Rove trying to squash Joe Lieberman’s VP chances, and saw the phrase, “John McCain’s high command”, wherein ‘high command’ was hyperlinked. I clicked the link and got a pop-up window talking about the German high command of the Third Reich. Now, I may think that the Republicans are borderline fascists, but calling them Nazis isn’t applicable until they start a full-blown pogrom.

In other bad pairings, Microsoft recently announced it’ll be answering Apple’s well-received Mac vs. PC ads with it’s own ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld. This, of course, is proof that Microsoft is capable of making bad pairings with interesting undertones, as well.

When I first heard the news, I was like, “Jerry Seinfeld? Dear god, he hasn’t done anything worthwhile in a decade.”

“Ohhhhhhhh.”

Because neither has Microsoft.

Jerry Seinfeld: tedious, has more money than God, currently ineffectual in producing anything worthwhile, peaked more than a decade ago, is riding on past successes, and is only liked by insecure 17-year olds.

Microsoft: tedious, has more money than God, currently ineffectual in producing anything worthwhile, peaked more than a decade ago, is riding on past successes, and is only liked by insecure 17-year olds.

08/4

So this morning on the way to work, I saw a Minnesota license plate that read, “NATV TXN”. And I couldn’t figure it out. I puzzled over it for a few minutes and came to the conclusion that it was:

NA = Not Applicable
TV = Television
TXN = Transmission

It hit me when I pulled into the lot at work this morning what it really read (”native Texan”), and I knew my day was off to a bad start.

Got in line with my breakfast, only to discover that I had left the MagicMoneyCard at home. Crap.

Which brings us to now. I’ve got a meeting in five minutes.

07/30

I bought a 16-gig White iPhone 3G the Tuesday following their release, and while I was initially wowed by it, the glow has started to wear off, and I’m thinking I have something approaching a lemon.

While I am impressed with the concept, the execution has left me cold, both from a hardware and software standpoint.

From the hardware side, my only complaint thus far is in regards to the cracking issue (more here). I’m infuriated. You’d think that Apple would have learned its lesson after the debacle with the G4 Cube systems. But no. Now I’m stuck with an iPhone that’s going to look progressively more and more shitty as time goes on because someone at Apple either decided that using a cheaper plastic was acceptable, or that they could skip the QA process.

On the software side, I have a laundry list of complaints. Those are:

• When purchasing from the iTunes store directly to the iPhone, I would frequently lose the song from both the iPhone and iTunes when trying to sync the purchases. I think (but am not 100% sure) that this is due to trying to do the sync while the iPhone is backing itself up.
• Oh, and here’s another one — why in the name of Christ do I need to sit through a tedious, time-consuming backup every time I dock my iPhone? There ought to be a setting in the config that lets me select my own backup interval, rather than be stuck with someone’s “good idea” as to what constitutes “back up often”.
• Dear god, has Apple’s coding really gotten so bad that the keyboard lags? Because I, and many others, are seeing that. I even experienced it last night while trying to dial a phone number from the keypad.
• This thing loses its connection constantly and I mean constantly. I can be walking through the middle of the parking lot at work, and about half the time I have five bars, and the other half I have “No Service”.

Now, let me state explicitly that I have treated this phone with kid gloves — with what I paid for this phone, I’m treating it with kid gloves and am not going to do anything to put it in harm’s way.

So. This was my first iPhone and it might very well be my last. What I expected from Apple would be what I’ve historically gotten from them — rock-solid hardware and software that performs well and is aesthetically pleasing. With what I’ve received, in the case of the iPhone 3G, I’m so beyond disappointed that it’s not even funny.

(Pictures of the cracking in my case to follow.)