So sad. We’ll miss you Oolong.
This review of Windows XP Media Center Edition is a good informative read. I was curious, despite my entertainment hobbled living room layout, if this is something I should be considering. If they had found a way to make these machines also play Xbox games, they would have added another selling point.
Oops. Seems that the power went out in my house at some point when I wasn’t there in the last two days, and I failed to notice. As a result, I haven’t been able to update. I should have checked this out last night, but I changed my sleep schedule this week to a much earlier to bed and earlier to rise one. Updates resume, well, now.
Apple has already updated the .Mac home page with information about some of the things that are being announced in relation to that service at MacWorld today. The biggest seems to be an online address book that is iSync compatible.
Macromedia has made Mac OS X compatible developer editions of JRun and ColdFusion available as of today. This is a landmark moment for both companies in my opinion, and a major boon to those of us who develop with ColdFusion, but also enjoy the chewy goodness of Mac OS X.
Update: Infoworld Article on the Subject. I find the fact that Apple refused comment amusing. When I was at Macromedia Devcon 2002, I talked at length to Phil Costa, the Product Manager for ColdFusion, and to the Apple folks that were at the show about this particular subject. Apple said that they wanted Macromedia to support their platform with their server technologies and that was one of the reasons that they were at Devcon in the first place. So, when they finally get this, they refuse comment?
Here’s Apple’s worst move yet, assuming it’s true. They have continued to squeeze more and more revenue out of their customers, and I can only imagine that it is now getting to the point where people will begin abandoning them for this. This move takes away one of their competitive advantages over Windows in a big way. No a good vibe at all, but it sticks with the theme set by iTools, get people used to something when it is free, then charge them for it.
In keeping with resolution number one below, I have started the year off by delving into some books. I read on a regular basis, and I probably read close to 100 books in 2002, but I wanted to create a formal goal that would make me want to strive to read even more than I had been. So this week I’m reading:
I’m very amused by this listing of Cockney Rhyming Slang. Part of the reason I’m amused by it is the fact that I needed it in order to understand something someone I work with said.
At the risk of embarassing myself quite badly, I thought I would go ahead and post my New Year’s Resolutions here. Somehow, I think that makes them more real. So here goes, in no particular order:
- Read 100 books this year.
- Drink more water, less coffee and soda.
- Go to the gym two out of every three days this year.
- Worry more about myself, and less about others.
- Get up earlier, go to bed earlier.
- Relearn to read non-fiction.
- Quit smoking.
- Make this Web site a labor of love.
- Write more.
- Learn Object Oriented Programming better.
- Do one major house project each month.
- Be more financially responsible.
- Enjoy things you already own rather than buying more stuff.
- Be a better friend.
- Meet a new girl.
- Improve my work ethic.
Welcome to 2003. I look forward to this being a year of personal growth, enhanced learning, and increased health. My New Year’s Eve was enjoyable and a little wild, and I spent it and New Year’s Day with some great new friends. One thing I know for sure, I am excited by the opportunities that life has presented me with for the New Year. I hope everyone else had a good safe New Year’s Eve, and I wish everyone the best in the new year.
FlyGuy is incredibly amusing. (via Boing Boing)
The NFL is complaining that Midway’s NFL Blitz doesn’t accurately reflect what happens on the field with late hits and violence. This is crap. It’s a video game, I’m not certain if people in the league office are familiar with video games, but they often do not mirror “reality” very well. Umm, it’s sort of the point y’all.
My summary version of 2002:
- Still Laid off, doing small projects. Boring.
- Lots of sitting around the house. Boring.
- I go to SXSW. Fun.
- I go to Las Vegas. Fun.
- I go to California. Fun.
- Working again full time as an independent consultant. Rewarding.
- We settle with our former employer. Finally.
- I go to Maine and Nova Scotia. Great Fun.
- I loved her for eight years, she breaks my heart in an instant. Not so much fun.
- I attempt to recover. Eeesh.
- I go to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. Fun.
- I continue to attempt to recover. Aaargh.
- I return to Connecticut and New York for Christmas. Fun.
- I am tired of the recovery process and decide that I have to move on. Hooray!
Top Five Things I bought this year.
FlyGuy is incredibly amusing. (via Boing Boing)
So I’m back in Atlanta after my whirlwind tour of the Northeast, back at work and trying to figure out where exactly I left off before Christmas, which is proving to be a more difficult task than I would have thought. I return from the holiday personally energized in a way that I was not energized prior to the holiday. The one thing that I can say with some level of certainty is that family is perhaps the most vital thing in a person’s life. This Christmas, we severely limited the gift giving. I actually liked it much better than I would have thought. It put the emphasis on what the holidays are really about for me, catching up with the family, and getting to spend time with them. My brothers and parents are great people, and by being a part of the family, it makes me feel like a great person too. It centers me in a way that no interaction with non-family members can. It really makes me look forward to having a family of my own some day. Not that I’m in any rush on that front mind you.
I’m in New York City, enjoying my brothers' company before departing for Atlanta in the morning. We went into a Tower Records downtown, and I didn’t buy a thing. Compact Discs have gotten way too expensive if you ask me. Case in point, I looked at the Goldmember Soundtrack because we’ve been laughing and enjoying the song that Dr. Evil performs in the movie. The soundtrack cost $18.99. The movie, on DVD, was priced at $19.99. How the hell can the soundtrack cost only one dollar less than the entire movie? It’s just ridiculous.
White Christmas here in the North East. It feels great, I just went out and wandered around in the still falling snow, took some pictures, and enjoyed the feeling of the flakes hitting my face. What a wonderful Christmas, I’m glad we didn’t have to leave the safe haven of my parent’s house, driving doesn’t look too pretty here in Connecticut. It’s not too deep, but it’s great snowball snow.
Spherical PC from Japan. Over time, more and more of these non-traditional PC shapes are appearing. Even more interesting, however, are all of the non-PC devices that are Internet connected now. My Danger has really impressed upon me that the always connected device is where things are going, and that there will soon be more devices like this connected to the Internet than PC’s. (link via Gizmodo)
Merry Christmas.
The Register: Microsoft plots Macromedia coup against Java One of the strengths of Macromedia’s toolset is its crossplatform nature. Especially with the increased focus on server side Java. It would be a shame to see this company gobbled up by someone who would end this strength.
I’m home in Connecticut for the holidays with my family. In the past, this has meant either a return to dialup access or using my parents oldish PC for my computing needs. However, my brother and I discovered that someone in our parent’s neighborhood has a WiFi network that we can connect to. I intend to use some stumbling software to figure out exactly who it is and let them know that people can hop on to make sure they have no problem with it, but it’s nice to be able to do the things I normally do online from the comfort of my parents' living room.