Dumping Grounds

I think I’ll have WordPress make 1 post from my daily posts to Twitter, rather than 1 for every post. That was a bit excessive.

Ever seen someone come up with an idea on the internet that was so cool, so useful that you really wanted it to work, even if it didn’t?

That’s where I am with Twitter. I know I have posted about this before. But at least I get it now. Imagine a mini-blog. Where you just post one liners. It’s WAY easier to keep up with than an actual blog. If I’m at work, and I come across a cool link, or have a funny thought, I’m way less guilty about posting it to Twitter, which I can do in 10 seconds, than I am about posting to my blog, which, of course, I am doing now.

Examples of recent tweets: “If the San Antonio Spurs love Avery Johnson so much, then they can have him.” And a whole array of commentary on jury duty.

See? Just super short blog entries.

There’s two main issues with Twitter. It really requires that you have a certain critical mass of “friends” or people following you. This, at the moment, I don’t have.

The other is, that in the words of John Gruber… it’s great, except for problems with “uptime, consistency, and reliability.” I could not agree more. Twitter could be far more of a phenomenon than it is already, if only it worked more often.

I use Twitterific as a client on the Mac, I don’t know what you can use on Windows. There’s even a really nice client on the iPhone called “PocketTweets” (it’s actually a web site, optimized for iPhone.)

I figure the second problem will take care of itself, someday. I assume that they are working to make it better.

For the first problem, if you read this, and you use Twitter, please try following “ender3″

But EVERY.SINGLE.TIME that there is some big event that I might actually be interested in using Twitter to follow what is going on… the Twitter servers collapse in a steaming heap under the load.

What a pile of crap.

Nathaniel Abraham, an Indian national who describes himself as a “Bible-believing Christian,” said in the suit filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston that he was fired in 2004 because he would not accept evolution as scientific fact.

No, he was fired because he was a lousy biologist. I’m sorry, but “because God did it that way” does not cut it as your answer to everything in a research facility. /sigh

People like this really do give Christians a bad name.

Abraham, 35, is now a biology professor at Liberty University, a Baptist school in Virginia founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a Christian pastor and televangelist.

(snicker) Naw, this is far too easy of a target. Even I’m not going to take the bait on this one.

Link

At the end of his career, the late, great Harry Caray was almost incoherent. Also at the end of his career, it was obvious that Pat Summerall could not longer follow the game.

However, Bryant Gumbel appears to be, without a doubt, apparently the most clueless, spectacularly and apparently unqualified and apparently the most untalented sportscaster in history. He makes the unlistenable Brent Musburger seem like a superstar of the industry.

The NFL should be ashamed.

For retailers who play Christmas carols in their establishment before Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). This weekend both Kroger and Kohl’s were found guilty of this heinous crime.

Further Kroger is guilty of playing Bruce Springsteen’s Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the playing of which on any day of the year should be a crime so terrible, so… obscene that the penalty could never live up to the act.

I know that I have promised to keep up with this site better in the past, and it still gets short shrift when I get busy. So I won’t promise anything, but I am writing today.

For the first time in almost 12 years, I started a new job this week. It’s going to be a hell of a challenge. It’s a big step up the food chain, and a big increase in responsibility from what I have had before. But I think this is a very good thing. I had gotten bored, and the quality of my work had shown it.

I can certainly say that in my first week, I am not bored.

All of the normal small office stereotypes are here… geeks, tremendously talented folks, and some that make me want to slit my wrists. Ok… only one that makes me want to slit my wrists. I’ve already nicknamed them “Kyrptonite.”

It’s also interesting in that while I’m going off on this new adventure, my girlfriend is in the Caribbean, and my parents are in London. It’s been a very non-standard week. My dogs are, as usual, hyperactive and seemingly on speed. And on top of that, it’s been a heinous week on the stock market. Heaping helpings of suck on toast.

I have posted several pictures to Flickr in the past month, and I have some from Las Vegas that I will be putting up soon.

Live Free or Die Hard

Entertaining movie… however… undoubtedly the stupidest, most incoherent story I have ever seen in a major motion picture. Again though, this does not mean that the movie is not fun to watch. Just be sure to be drunk before you enter the theatre. someday, someone will be able to explain to me how he got that SUV to the 4th floor of that building.

iPhone, two weeks later

Still love it. Every time I look up a number from Google Maps and cal it all while in my Jeep, I am newly amazed. The keyboard in portrait mode is a little difficult to use, but the keyboard in landscape mode is a dream to use. I am looking forward to the rumored 1.1 update, which will fix some issues and enhance some capabilities.

New (x2) MacBook Pro

The battery life in the new models is nothing short of amazing. There is a squeak in my keyboard… specifically in the space bar… I’ll need to work on that. So far, this one has proven to be much more theft-resistant than my last one

“There’s no way either of my two teams’ fans have the level of intense passion that Liverpool has,” said Hicks, who also owns baseball’s Texas Rangers and the NHL’s Dallas Stars. “I want them to. Hopefully, someday they will.”

Let’s consider this.

Mr. Hicks was speaking of his team that was playing for the Champions League title. EVERY teams fans are passionate when you are playing for the ultimate title in your sport. Let’s see how the Liverpool fans cheer when Hicks returns to his “tighter than the stripe on a 9-ball” tendencies and hires an incompetent general manager, as history has shown he inevitably will. As the losses mount, the passion will dissipate… even in England.

The Rangers are in the bottom third of the league in payroll, with a significant number still paying for A-Rod. I believe they finally paid off Chan Ho Park, although Phil Nevin may still be costing them something. What they do spend, they do not spend wisely. They are talent-poor, and Ron Washington is going to take the fall for what is clearly a sub-standard team.

The Stars, like Liverpool, were a championship quality team when Hicks acquired them. Since then, they have been abysmal at growing young talent, they have been FAR too loyal to long-time team members who have outstayed their welcome (ask Jerry Jones how well that works), and are so bereft of offensive talent that they could not score on a Plano East cheerleader. I have resigned my Stars season tickets after 9 years. I just couldn’t watch anymore.

Welcome to the club, Liverpool. Hicks is a vampire, and he’ll suck the passion out of you, too.

Go get any magazine targeted at women. I saw this in “Playbill” while watching the already mentioned really bad musical.

Find the ad for Ambien (I am sure that there is one there… they advertise like crazy), even AmbienCR will do. Heck, if you are in a pinch, find the ad for Lunesta.

These are all glorified sleeping pills.

Now, check the required listing of side effects.

Look closely.

“Drowsiness”

Since these side effects are based on what was reported during the clinical trials… some idiot took a sleeping pill, then complained that it made them sleepy. Or possibly the manufacturer wanted to warn people that their sleeping pill might possibly make you sleepy, in case they couldn’t figure that out for themselves.

Good Lord, people are stupid.