Nathan's Occasional Blog

Man 1: So, how do you like your laptop?
Man 2: Oh it’s nice.  I just got it over the holidays.
1: Isn’t that wonderful.  What kind is it?
2: It’s a Toshiba.  I have a Toshiba TV, so I figured I’d give this one a try.  I got it at Best Buy…

Wow.  So that’s how the “real world” chooses a computer?  Folks I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried – I just overheard that in a hospital waiting room.

Speaking of hospital waiting rooms, I’m not sure when this post will actually get published.  You see the hospital I’m at today doesn’t have WiFi available for public consumption.  Oh they’ve got a WiFi network, and I seem to be sitting within inches of an access point judging by my signal strength, but the one network they have is locked.

Come on folks – provide public access!  Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, WA provides campus-wide WiFi for guests … free.  It was AWESOME to be able to get online when Alicea and Kaitlyn were in the hospital last year.  Sure, they’ve got an encrypted network too, but providing guest access is essentially free for them.

Why?  Because pretty much every enterprise-class access point these days supports multiple SSIDs (wireless networks) with independent security and independent network connectivity (using 802.1q VLAN tagging on the wired port for those of you who understand what I’m talking about).  The point is it would take them an extra 5 minutes to set up a guest network on their existing infrastructure.

A hospital runs in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars per day for room and board alone.  I’m sure they can shave off a few pennies to provide a valuable service to their guests and patients.

What’s the best way to politely tell off someone who keeps getting your kid’s gender wrong? – Blogging Baby.

Oh I’m totally all over this one.  Alicea and I just aren’t pink people, and while Kaitly does have a number of outfits that are pink, there are just as many (probably more) that are blue … or yellow … or green.  I’m sure we’re causing some sort of colossal rift in the space-time continuum, and that Martha Stewart is willing to go back to jail to sort out this grave situation, but oh well.

How hard is it to say, “How old is your baby” or, “what a cute little one”?  I’m horrible with remembering people’s names, but that doesn’t stop me from having a conversation with them.  I just use generics and nicknames and the like.

Bah … whatever.  The world’s not going to change is it?  Well, enjoy a clip from the article:

Look, most babies are bald. They don’t have boobs or beards. They depend on you to follow a rigid orthodoxy of color and clothing style in order to establish their gender to the outside world. But my wife and I don’t buy into any of that crap, so usually we dress our daughter Juniper in boyish t-shirts and osh-kosh b’gosh farmer’s overalls. We don’t care when people tell us we have a very cute little boy. We have some stock answers ready for when we receive such a compliment:

“Thank you very much. When she’s a butch teenage lesbian we’ll tell her you thought so.”

“Eh, she’s alright.”

I never thought I’d be the person who would get all mushy at the prospect of leaving home for 9 days.  I mean I always miss Alicea when I travel, but I’ve never turned into a sobering idiot.  That changed tonight.

So what’s different this time?  I think a huge part of it is Kaitlyn.  She’s so aware of what’s going on these days, and the development she’s made in the last couple weeks is simply astonishing.  She’s now sitting up for extended periods with no problems, she can roll back to front – and now front to back, and she’s finally figuring out that solid food is a pretty cool thing.

I got to the airport here in Seattle, on my way to Charlotte via red eye flight (yuck), and had to find the nearest bar.  One nice big Alaskan Amber later I don’t necessarily feel better about leaving my beautiful girls behind, but I sure am tired enough to guarantee I’ll sleep on the flight.  Plus I got myself moved to an exit row so I’ll have plenty of leg room.  [Good thing it’s an aisle seat with all that beer I just had].

The other think that’s got me down is the whole reason I’m headed to Charlotte.  My dad is going in for surgery on Wednesday morning.  Cancer.  They caught it early and all that, but still.  Yuck.

When my folks were out for Christmas they brought along all this stuff to read … probably 25 pages of materials.  I read 2 pages, and skimmed Dad’s test results.  I just couldn’t motivate myself to read the rest.  Hell, motivate?  I completely put it out of my mind.

For better or worse, I just ignore stuff that I don’t want to overwhelm me.  I did the same when Alicea got sick, and Kaitlyn was born so early.  Why worry about the details?  I figure a doc will let me know the pertinent parts if I need to know.  I’ll ask a few questions to get the general idea, but that’s really it.

It’s served me well so far, hopefully that track record will continue.

Well that’s all for now.  Time to go sit in a cramped airline seat.  BLAH.

I love you Kaitlyn.  I love you Alicea.  Miss you already.

Now I’m not one of those people who go all crazy with flashy lights and what-nots on their computer cases.  BUT, I’ve got to respect this…

AnandTech: ATI’s OCUR Brings CableCard and HDTV Support to Windows Vista

And here’s our mystery manufacturer of Dell’s CableCard box now.  Thanks ATI!

Windows Vista Media Center Supports Cable Card!:

Microsoft has just announced full CableCard support for Windows Vista’s Media Center.  They are currently demoing an external CableCard supporting tuner, branded by Dell.

More to come soon [Y].

Continue to this article at Bink.nu

[Via Bink.nu]

ROCK ON!  I can’t wait for this stuff to come out … and a Dell-branded external tuner?  Sweet! 

Of course that just means they’ve “white-boxed” someone else’s hardware and put a pretty Dell logo on the driver’s control panel.  Oh, and it will take them 6 months to approve driver updates from the original manufacturer.  Can you tell I’ve been burned by that before?  Maybe I’ll shop around for another vendor…

Yeah, so I remember me saying that I’d try to do better about blogging every day.  About that.  Sorry.

One of my Christmas presents was Season 5 of The West Wing.  Alicea and I got hooked on this show late this summer.  She got me seasons 1–4 on DVD for my birthday, and we finished about a month ago (we go in spurts – watching 3 or 4 episodes at a sitting).  Also, I’ve been recording season 7 on our Windows MCE computer this fall.

So we finished season 5 on Saturday … and of course it was a bit of a cliff hanger.  Bastards!  Obviously we can’t reliably try to catch season 6 reruns in order (nor do we want to wait … we’ve got season 7 ready to go).  So I set off trying to find episode summaries online.

Enter some of the best writing I’ve seen in a long time.  They’ve got a lot of other shows as well

Television Without Pity » The West Wing

I can’t wait to watch season 7!

Dear All SUV Owners…:

YOU DO NOT OWN A COMPACT CAR. AT NO POINT IN YOUR SUBURBAN UTILITY VEHICLE’S LIFE WILL IT EVER TURN INTO A COMPACT CAR, SO STOP THINKING IT’S ANYTHING BUT AN SUV. YOU’RE NOT DRIVING A CAR, YOU’RE DRIVING A GAS-GUZZLING TANK. I DON’T CARE WHAT YOUR REASONS ARE FOR PURCHASING SUCH A MONSTROSITY, BUT PLEASE (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY) STOP TRYING TO PARK IN PARKING SPOTS CLEARLY MARKED FOR COMPACT CARS!!! BE AN IDIOT ON YOUR OWN TIME IN YOUR OWN DRIVEWAY, BUT STOP MAKING IT SUCH A PAIN FOR THE REST OF US WHO HAVE TO SHARE THE FUCKING ROAD WITH YOU. IF YOU’RE OVERCOMPENSATING FOR SOMETHING ELSE, GREAT. YOU’RE NOT A COMPACT CAR!!! YOU CAN’T FIT INTO A COMPACT CAR’S PARKING SPOT SO PLEASE STOP TRYING!!! IT’S SIMPLE PHYSICS, YOU FOOL! IF I SEE ANOTHER ONE OF YOU LAZY-ASS SUV DRIVERS TRYING TO CRAM YOUR VEHICLE INTO A SPACE THAT’S TOO SMALL FOR IT, I’M GOING TO WRITE DOWN YOUR LICENSE PLATE NUMBER AND POST IT ON THE INTERNET FOR EVERYBODY TO SEE. STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!! STOP IT!!!

[Via Chris Pirillo]

Sing it like Chris Farley: “big truck in a little spot…”.  Hell, I drive a Honda Accord coupe and even I avoid certain spaces because I think they’re too small.  Meanwhile a certain special someone in my office drives an H3 … but at least he doesn’t park in compact spots.

Now if we can get everyone else to pay attention to the FRIGGIN WHITE LINES!!!

One of the problems with writing Seattle forecasts in winter is finding new ways to say “45 degrees and rainy”, so I can understand the desire for occasional flights of fancy.  Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters: Seattle Weather Forecasts.

The scan of the newspaper’s weather for the week is a must see.  Too funny!

It seems our President decided to turn the powers of the NSA (spying) on our own citizens without judicial or Congressional oversight.  Here’s an AP article about the story.  I was just listening to NPR’s hourly news broadcast and Bush said today that those who disclosed this activity were “irresponsible”.  Pot calling the kettle black, now aren’t we?

Bush went on to declare those Senators who are blocking renewal of some expiring components of the Patriot Act “irresponsible” as well.  Perhaps they’re just against spying on our own citizens.  Don’t we have law enforcement at the city, county, state, and national (FBI, ATF, etc.) for that already?

Here’s the real pisser, why can’t our leaders have a healthy discussion about the issues on stuff like this?  Why does Bush have to come out and slam those who have a different opinion as “irresponsible”?  That’s personal slander, and gets us nowhere.  Frankly that’s why most folks in my generation can’t stand politicians … they’re they’re the popular kids from school who bullied everyone else with insults because they thought it was funny.  Never mind the fact that they don’t have any real ideas.  Instead of “[those who disagree are] irresponsible” why not just say “we had to do this to ensure our national security and I’m willing to take the heat for that.”

It seems to me that those who say everyone else is irresponsible need to take a hard look in the mirror and take some responsibility on themselves.

Just my $0.02.