A colleague at work had a birthday this past Thursday and, to be honest, I thought he was a year or two older than me. As it turns out, he is three years younger than me.
It’s not a big deal, but it’s a bit of a bummer to realize that you are pretty much the oldest in the group (aside from managers). Of course, I never expected that I was the youngest in a the group, but when you realize that you are not, it is a bit tough.
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For the lack of something better to write about, here’s my normal workday:
Nothing exciting, but I figured I might as well make it part of the “official” record.
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Easy, just work for the company. In all seriousness, unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve likely heard that the Playstation 3 was released to North America (Japan was last week and Europe is next year). While I’m not any kind of über-gamer, I am a geek and a company man so, of course, I wanted to make sure I got a system.
SCEA executives were quite generous and even though units are quite constrained and significantly lower than was originally hoped or planned, they are allowing any full-time employee that wants one to order one. Not only that, they assure us that we’ll receive them before Christmas. We are also getting them for a discount. No, it isn’t much (and it would be inappropriate for me to say what it is), but I don’t have to buy a HD tv (like some CompUSA’s and Circuit City’s are requiring) nor did I have to wait in line.
As a sign that I’m more parent than gamer, the feature that I’m most looking forward to is the wireless controllers. I’m tired of tripping over and wrapping up the cords and extenders. That’ll be nie. It’s also nice that every game supports widescreen (a feature that any PS2 title could support but few do).
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We went to Blue Man Group’s How to be a Megastar 2.0 concert Saturday night. It was largely the same as their Complex Rock Tour from a few years back which wasn’t surprising as they haven’t come out with a new album since then. Everyone enjoyed it and it was the kids’ first rock concert.
My shirt was a fun addition. I originally thought that it wasn’t sensitive enough when I first turned it on when I got it at the office, but it turned out to be perfect for the sound level of the concert. I was also afraid that I would be an annoyance to those around me but with so much going on on the stage, it didn’t seem to bother anybody.
I took some snaps with my phone. Click the picture to the right to go to the gallery. Sorry for the quality.
I also had to point out a pretty interesting drum kit that Tracy Bonham‘s drummer used during her opening act performance. It’s called the GigPig and looks to be an interesting and compact kit. Part of me really would like to pick one up.
I’d write more, but I’m writing this while in a hotel room for LOPSA’s SysAdmin Days in Phoenix, AZ. I’m tired and can’t really think of much more to say (intelligently, at least).
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Pretty stagnant lately, huh. I don’t really have a reason why I haven’t made the effort. Sure, I’ve been busy at work and there are some things going on with our extended family, but does it really take a lot of time and effort to put a note up?
Not really.
I’ll try to be better.
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One of the perks for working in my department at SCEA is that our director buys a copy of each SCEA published game. This week, I got a copy of the new PSP title Loco Roco. It is fun. It works in almost every aspect. The graphics are bright and fun but simple so load times are practically instantaneous, the music is infectious, the controls are simple (only three buttons), it’s a simple concept to start with but it gets more challenging.
As an employee, I am hopeful that it is a big success, but alliances aside, it is a legitimately well-produced title.
I’ve kept the kids away from my PSP up until now. I may have to hide it lest I risk losing it to them.
Our two dogs have done a number on our back yard. I’ve fought off-and-on for years trying to keep the lawn in reasonable shape, but just couldn’t make it work. Combine that with the fact Becky has always wanted a waterfall we decided that it was worth investigating.
We decided to dive in, so-to-speak, and last week replaced a significant portion of our small yard with a waterfall and pond. It was installed/built by Exotic Aquatics who did a wonderful job (thanks, Brian). It turned out to be both larger and more impressive than I, at least, had imagined.
You can see a few pictures of the progress and the result on the gallery album. We’ll be going fish shopping this weekend as fish represent an important component of the whole ecosystem. Of course, my friend at work thinks I should just liberate a few from the gigantic koi pond at the Karl Strauss Brewery next to work but we’ll go the more honest route.
I’m sure there will be additional stories and pictures as this whole thing develops. I’ll keep you posted.
An old collegue of mine from Gryphon Software (the founder and the guy who hired me, in fact) IM’d me today with news he’s at a new venture. Chumby Industries is working on developing a new device which, in essence, is going to be a new generation of clock radio. It’s a small device with WiFi that can display content based on Flash widgets. Weather, horroscope, headlines, music, and, of course, the time.
They’re just getting started but they seem to have thought about all the options and are going down a good path. They are going to provide premium fee-based content but will also support custom and/or cummunity developed widgets. Unlike a Tivo, if you don’t want the service, it will still work but you’ll forego the content you’d get from the service.
While attending WWDC has been fun and educational this week, I am certainly ready to get home.
Last night, I was able to spend time with my old friend Cary, who works for Apple, at the beer bash at the Apple campus. That was fun, I got a small tour of his building and his office. He has seven computers crammed in there, but somehow, it works.
Of course, with the current raised travel threat level the flight home may be fun. I’m going to check one of my bags (I normally try to do carry-on only) to make sure I can get everything home. I also decided to move my reservation to one that leaves 45 minutes later to make sure that any delays getting through security don’t cost me my flight home.
I’ve been a Mac user since 1985 and have been in IT for about 14 years professionally. This week, I have the opporunity to attend Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. While its primary audience is OS X developers, there is a fairly substantial IT track of sessions for the week covering all sorts of client, server, and storage needs. Among my many other responsibilites at work, I also am responsible for the OS X infrastructure, gathering the 150 or so OS X workstations in our campus into a managed group and attempt to provide the same enterprise-level management and support that is currently available with our Active Directory domain. As a result, many of the sessions are very apropos for our situation.
Additionally, we’re trying to get Apple hardware to a “first-class” status so that hardware can be purchased more easily. Not that it’s hard now. There is just some additional justification that you need to go through which could be avoided if it can be shown that Apple is indeed serious about the enterprise and is not just the consumer oriented “iPod company” that also makes other hardware. As an interesting aside, the IT department, which I am a member, is going to be getting quite a few MacBooks as they are just so gosh darn versitile for us geek-types. Mac OS and Unix all in one box and with the addition of Parallels (and soon VMware) Windows, Linux, or any other Intel OS is just too cool.