What a BuzzKill

I just installed AOL on a client’s computer. Deliberately.

Dear God, what have I done?

This entry just threw up in its mouth … just a little.

National Geographic has a very interesting article on their website about swarm theory. It’s about how simple creatures like ants and bees are able to act more intelligently as a group than would be possible as individuals. There are people already basing studies and experiments on how this might come to work for people as well. Businesses, government, and military could potentially find innovative ways to apply this to improve their operations.

This entry has a new respect for ants.

For a time I’ve got another webcam set up in my living room. This one is extra-tasty-cool-and-shit … it’s robotic! So if you want to give it a whirl, be my guest and check it out.

Username: webcam1, webcam2, or webcam3

NOTE: This only works on Internet Explorer only. It’ll require you to allow the installation of an ActiveX component.

Robotic BuzzKill Cam

Please don’t comment on the mess, because I really don’t care.

This entry might do a dance for you, if you watch.

4 weeks and counting, and I haven’t gone a day at work without some mention or discussion or troubleshooting something to do with one of those infernal hand-held devices. Sure they’re about as handy as a rubber glove in a sex shop, but by golly I’d love it if I could just not have to deal with them for ONE STINKING DAY. I swear, it’s been enough to put me into another “Eggs with flippers” mood.

Segue into the sickness … I flew up to Sacramento on Monday to attend a course on Blackberry Enterprise Server Administration on Tuesday. I could tell that I was getting sick, but since the class, flight, and hotel had already been paid for, I started taking Airborne and hoped for the best. Well the best isn’t what happened and I found myself spending Monday waking up every 2 hours in a fevered sweat. It was fortunate that I had hopped into bed about 9 pm, otherwise I would have been a complete zombie for the training class.

After enjoying a lovely buffet breakfast Tuesday morning, I caught a taxi to the facility hosting the training. The course was definitely worth the time, and I learned quite a bit that I should have known BEFORE I was told to install the blasted platform and rolled it out to the CEO. It did become rather difficult to concentrate later in the afternoon as I could feel myself begin to come down with another fever.

The class eventually ended, I got my certificate of completion and I was off to catch a taxi to the airport. This turned out to be unnecessary, since one of the guys attending the class had a rental and was also headed there. Dexter turned out to be a real cool guy and we spent the time waiting for our respective flights talking shop over crappy Chinese food at the airport food court. The flight home was uneventful (as one would hope), but I was unable to sleep on the plane, as usual.

Christine, who had been gracious enough to watch Rece while I was away, came to pick me up at the airport. She was nice enough to tolerate my whining and got me back to my car, which I had left at work before my trip. That night’s sleep was good, thanks to a double shot of Nyquil.

I ended up calling in sick for the next couple of days (Wednesday & Thursday). To be honest, I almost wish I had done so today as well. On my way back from lunch I ran into the CEO in the parking structure and she brought up the Blackberry again. Damn it.

This entry used to like blackberries.

My inbox is where I keep all pending work requests, unanswered emails, etc. For the first time in probably 6 months, I’ve managed to get it down to this…

This is a sight for sore eyes!This entry likes to celebrate the simple things in life.

Well after my previous venting about the forced switch to Time-Warner Road Runner service, I’ve made at least a little progress with things. I sent an email to their tech support, explaining to them my problems with email (via Outlook) and webmail. This was done from the office during my lunch break. Later that same day, I get home and magically Outlook is working again. Oh wonders of wonder! No response, no confirmation of receiving my email – but hey, at least one part now works!

The situation with their webmail logon and interface seems to have improved, but it still does the oddball thing about not accepting my username after the timeout period has passed – and only letting me in if I use my email address as my username… well, not all the time, but some of the time – and never when I think it’s going to do it. Frustrating!

All right, that’s enough venting for now.

This entry wishes he had gotten a pony for Easter.

From the DUH! department:

I find it ludicrous that NASA, the central hub for probably 95% of the smartest people in the world, didn’t think to create a clock for the space shuttle that would understand the rollover of a year. We’re almost 7 years beyond the Y2K scare; you’d think this would have been addressed back then – at the latest. How long has the shuttle been around, again? Uh, yeah, thought so…

This entry just felt a little smarter.