Avatar! (Forgot to Post)

Oops! I've once again forgotten to post! I have a tendency to do that, it seems.

Anyway! Megan and I watched a bunch of Avatar "last night" (I'm posting this into the past.) We powered through the second half of the Earth part of the show, and watched the first few episodes of the Fire part. In the next few weeks, I am hopefully going to finish the rest of the Fire part of the show, while audio-chatting with Megan. The idea is that we'll have pretty much watched the whole thing together.

Anyway, sorry I keep posting these things into the past, but I keep forgetting to post when I "should."

Visit!

I'm happy to say that after a few long weeks, Megan is back in flagstaff visiting. She and Meaghan have gone off to play, and hopefully there can be some Pita Pit as well.

Other than that, I didn't post a blog entry yesterday, which is like my tenth failure to post since I started trying to write a blog post every day. I'm not too terribly regretful of it, because it's really not that big of a deal to me. I started writing a post last night, and that post is probably one I'll finish writing and use as a pre-written post for my vacation time.

Missed a Day

Whoops! I missed a day. This post is therefore being posted retroactively.

Today (Yesterday, when I'm writing this) has been (was) very "full." I got up at about 10:30 and prepared to head out to the NAU Bookstore to pick up the T-Shirt I ordered back in March for Megan. (Oops, a bit of a delay in the delivery, but I can't say I mind too terribly much.) I also happen to have received the video card for flatdell and the hundred-stack of Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs yesterday, which was a nice bonus. I did also actually go shooting with the D300 and everything. There's even some nice images I think, but I haven't really had a chance to go through them yet.

Flatdell's new video card installed perfectly. I had to bring the machine and the card into the office to get it all set up, because I lack my own tools right now, but once Mel and I got the brackets rearranged, the card installed great and the drivers installed pretty easily.

Not too terribly much progress was made on the ThinkPad/OPENSTEP project. I burned the CD and the OPENSTEP boot discs seem to realize that the CD is there, but the machine seems still unable to read the disc -- that or I burned it wrong. I may try another (more conventional) CD to see if the machine is physically capable of reading the Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs, and I'm also getting a different CD image to try.

I also lacked progress on Meaghan's laptop, mainly because I had a bunch of other things going on. I'll work on that more today or tomorrow.

Missed a Day!

Well, well. Glenn and I put so much effort into moving and going to Village Inn than sleeping and writing blog posts, so I missed posting yesterday, even though I had already started to write a new post.

So this is an apology post for having missed the mark on that particular post. I'll probably go ahead and finish writing yesterday's actual post and put it up tomorrow, and from there the blog will resume a fairly normal schedule.

Blogging about Work

Today I came across an interesting situation at work, and decided it would be worthy of a blog post. However because of the sensitive nature of the situation I was about to post on my blog, I decided it might be a good idea to check with some of my coworkers and one of the full time staff members to see whether or not the thing I was about to post on my blog would get me fired.

I've been told that while the tidbit I was about to post had no real personal information, it was still not a very good thing about which to post, and that it would probably turn into a situation where "do that again, and you're fired."

I'm sure that in the future though, there will be topics I would like to address with more broad strokes than the post I'd previously written for today, and for those days, I've elected one of the full time staff members to be my blog pre-reader, just to make sure that I'm not writing anything that could cost me my job.

So from this point forward for posts other than those I get approved, while I will probably blog at work, I'm going to have to try not to blog so much about work.

Photo365

Last night Megan linked me to an article on the PhotoJojo site, detailing a project that anyone can do called Photo365. If you've been looking at my flickr feed, you're probably fairly well-aware of the fact that I use my iPhone to take photos and post them online quite often.

Although, I wouldn't mind a good excuse to carry around the D300 a bit more often. And it sounds like there's gains abound to be had while participating in the Photo365 project -- Especially the part where...

Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.

Although I can't really start right now with it, I'd really like to start this summer, and hopefully be able to keep up with it next school year. Although I've been pretty good at blogging every day, I know that taking photos sometimes becomes difficult for me, because it's not really something I can do during classes. (Although between-class photos are better anyway.)

So I intend to start the project over the summer, I am probably going to either get Flickr Pro, or set up my blog on the U60, but that's a project for the summer, rather than posting every image to Blogger or Flickr. Things to consider later on, anyway.

Diety of iPods

Note: This post was pre-written last night using a feature in the latest Blogger In Draft version of the Blogger Dashboard.

Well, I've just now fixed what will officially be the second iPod I've repaired. I reattached a little cable in formerly-Megan's 4th generation iPod (20gig.) I can now load songs into it and play them! I think there's still some pretty massive hard disk damage, but the songs it does play, it plays loud and clear through the headphone ports.

The other iPod I've repaired was Megan's 5.5th generation iPod with video (80gig) which I transformed into a 32-gig SSD based iPod. For now, we'll call it 5.7th Generation iPod with Video. I eventually need to decide whether or not to go ahead and replace the hard disc in this 20gigger, and then I need to decide whether I want to go the compact flash route, or with another rotating drive. (I've even been considering replacing the hdd in my 5.5th Generation 30GB iPod with a 32 gig CF card, mainly for the increase in battery life, but for now it's fine as I use it so little, and when I do use it, I'm pretty careful with it.)

Another recent repair is the Mighty Mouse that was included with my iMac. I've got to start using the Logitech mouse with the R61i for awhile, as a result of it's recent aversion to properly working with the TrackPoint. Unfortunately, I think it may be time to give the R61i a clean install, especially now that I'm set in the software I'm using on Vista, and won't really need to run around installing and uninstalling every other piece of software I see, which I think is one of the things that killed it.

As another note, this post is being written on my iMac with Blogger's "in draft" post manager. It's basically exactly like the normal Blogger dashboard, except it supports scheduling of posts. What I wonder myself is when this particular feature will trickle down into standard Blogger. Almost more importantly, I wonder when Windows Live Writer will be able to take advantage of it. I'd really like to start being able to pre-determine the exact release time of some of my bigger project articles, many of which have been late as a result of me not being able to be online or at my computer when I wanted them to be released.

Worth noting: I can imagine the blog being very, very epic this coming summer. My intent is to really step up my game as far as finding things to write about, and with some of my project posts. I've got the Digital Imaging Series, which I will probably re-write, and the Advice for College Students, which I will probably rewrite, if I've got any of them written by then. I also intend to do a series on Computer Networking Technologies, and of course, my venerable series, which will inevitably receive a re-titling and re-working, Helpdesk. (Actually, I don't yet have a series called Helpdesk, but one of the things I'd like to do on my blog is start separating the types of posts a bit better, and one of my projects on the blog seems to include writing about my job at the ACHD.)

Also, Happy Birthday, Megan!

Blogging as a Career.

Recently there was a very interesting article on ZDNet, talking about the high-stress world of blogging for pay. The focus of the article is on the instantness of the Internet as a publishing medium, and the stress that's caused by the fact that anybody can get to any given story, and he who gets to the story first gets the most clicks.

One of the main points of the article is how there have been two fairly recent and fairly well-documented cases of bloggers having health problems, potentially related to the stress of their profession. It's great that blogging is now considered to be a very legitimate form of journalism, but it's unfortunate that in order to be successful at all at it, you need to be awake all hours of the day so you can be the blog that has the information first.

This is one of the things that admittedly makes me quite happy that I'm not really blogging for pay, or for another website where I'm stuck to someone else's publishing schedule. Although I'll admit I've had a few moments where I wasn't really sure I'd be able to get a post up onto the blog on time (my main goal is one per day, I haven't been strict with exactly when that post shows up, and sometimes a post will show up a few hours early or late, but since spring break there has been one post that corresponds with each day.

One thing I wonder about this relates to my intent to become a professional photographer. If this is what it's like to do freelance writing on the Internet, do some of the same stresses apply to being an independent or freelance photographer? Or will I find some job where I've got a predictable, reasonable schedule for shooting and delivering?

Maybe I'll start or be a part of a successful photo-blog. That would be cool.

Windows XP will never die.

Very recently, like in the past fifty minutes, I found  a very interesting article on the ArsTechnica website. Basically, in an interesting "turn of events" (read: the inevitable) it turns out that Microsoft is giving yet another extension to the life of Windows XP. They're extending production of it for budget laptops another two years. 2008 + 2 = 2010.

I've just go to say... "wow."

Microsoft is the only company on the planet to have this problem. On the day of the release of Mac OS X 10.5 last year, 10.4 was probably gone and destroyed from all Apple Store shelves, and the computers bundled with 10.4 were being equipped with the drop-in Leopard discs.

Not only is it a year and a quarter after the Vista launch date, but Microsoft has already extended the life of XP twice, and has now done so a third time.

I wonder what the implications of this for Windows XP Professional are. Currently both XP Home and Pro are up to SP2, and SP3 is in beta testing right now. Two more years is a long time though. Will there be another XP service pack? Will there be two more service packs? Since only sales of XP home are continuing, and only through OEM channels, will only XP Home receive XPSP4 treatment?

Another thought: Did you know that HP and Lenovo both sell mobile computers today that can have Windows 2000 installed. Lenovo puts the drivers right up on their website. And 2000 didn't even receive any special extensions. Imagine how far into the future we'll be able to get business-class computers and install XP onto them. Especially if it's still getting security updates.

Almost more importantly, what does this mean for organizations still embracing Windows XP? Especially those already having paid Microsoft for their site licenses. I may be wrong, but my impression is that NAU owns site licenses of Windows XP Professional, which is why many of the computers here in the lab have an XP Home COA on them, yet are running Pro. With it currently being so much less expensive to buy desktops shipping with open source software, will NAU's next wave of lab computers ship with Linux or FreeDOS installed on them, only to have ITS' XP Pro image applied to them?

Is there a certain point where businesses, and even home users simply will not need any more oomph from the OS? Can all additional functions that are needed be added to XP by third parties or with applications? Presumably if Dell decides to continue offering Windows XP drivers for their business computers, (whether or not they ship with XP preinstalled mind you) an organization like NAU could potentially stall on upgrading to the next version for a very long time. There will be another post about this before too long.

The last big question I want to ask in this post is what the benefit will be for the customers to have computers shipping with as many as five different versions of Windows. This is especially frustrating to me when one of them, the most affordable, will be a version nearly a decade old, potentially not supporting some important applications.

As a sidenote, this post is officially my 200th post to this weblog. Also, this post has had two or three different posts spun out of it. Cool, I'll have a few pre-written posts in the next few weeks, I think.

Recognition of Encouragement

Recently, this blog received a comment. The comment was posted to an entry I wrote about trying to write a blog entry every day, and to which I attached a horrible horrible youtube video. I've got to admit I'm impressed that anyone would feel the need or desire to post a comment to such a post.

But the important bit is that somebody did. Laurel, one of my supervisors at the Academic Computing Helpdesk, posted a comment reading "Good luck!" to the awful entry including a youtube video.

So this is my official recognition of the first comment my blog has received in a very long time, and I'd just like ot say, "Thank you, Laurel!"

Also worth noting, I do not support or condone Office Terrorism.

Nuclear Winter Will Never End

Let me begin by saying that I really admire people who actually find time to write on their blogs every single day. Even if it’s something small. I tried yesterday, to write and post something, but once I got to Peter Piper to start writing my blog entry, and Megan and I had finished lunch, they decided to let Megan go early, thus cutting my writing time short. (Although I’m very appreciative of the time spent with Megan.)
At any rate, today’s blog entry is about what I’m calling Nuclear Winter. Basically, it started snowing in November or December of last year, and it hasn’t stopped since. It was definitely cool for the first month or so, and the first cumulative foot of snow, but after awhile it really prevented me being able to or wanting to go out and do anything other than that which I was required to, like classes and work. I even went through a period this semester where I was eating significantly less because I was never willing to take a trip to the store to just get some food.
Luckily, Megan and I went to the store yesterday and I stocked up for spring break, but the fact that it’s snowed worries me for other reasons. My dad was supposed to come up for a visit sometime over this break, and if I have to say to him “oh, it’s just snowed last weekend” then he is unlikely to want to come visit.
The other bummer is that I wanted to get out and take some photos with the D300, but I’m not super comfortable walking around outside with it in the snow. Plus, I’ve got a lot of other unattractive snow pictures. I really just can’t wait for it to be July or August again. Flagstaff looks amazing at that time of year.

Video Blog Entry

Eric J. from work has been posting blog entries daily, and has been including snippets of video with his blog. Actually, it's apparently rather common at the helpdesk to participate in such shenanigans. I've personally, as you know, been shooting for once per week, but maybe what I'll try to do is post short entries daily, and big significant  posts once or twice per week, depending really upon how often big signficant post worthy thoughts come up.

So, look out for blog posts on a much more regular basis!

Publishing Schedules

One of the things I've noticed about some of my favorite web logs, even personal ones, is that they come out on a fairly regular basis. One of my intents for Strapped to a Desk has been to publish it on a fairly regular basis, my original plan for that was just to always be writing, and then I'd always have something to post to the blog. What ended up happening was a bit different. I kept writing, into a document called NaNoNovel 2007, and so I didn't have anything to publish during November. Between that, and not really having a dedicated blog-writing time, not only has my publishing schedule been sporadic at best, I've somewhat slowed down in my writing.

So one of my goals for 2008 is to start publishing my blog more often. I'm going to achieve this by just writing more, plus I intend to use a calendar, which will help me keep track of when I've started to write things, and when I intend to finish them. I've already started the calendar, I'm using Windows Calendar on my ThinkPad R61i to keep track of when I start writing things, and when I intend to publish them. My intent is to have something fairly major ready for publishing every Monday, and I've already started filling in Mondays in 2008.

One thing I've definitely noticed is that I think to my blog a lot, or at the very least, I think in things I write that could potentially end up on my blog. Another thing I suppose I would like to do is write some more things that don't get published to the public weblog, but that do get written, primarily as a personal record. It's a need I have because there are a lot of things I see and hear and experience that most people don't need to know about, but that I'd like to have in the future. I may just start writing Word documents into a separate folder for that.