mpeay: I’m a big @OmniFocus fan and live in wine country (Temecula, CA). Maybe *I* should combine the two interests? Hmmm…. http://t.co/17zFR4n8h9
mpeay: “The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.” –Thomas Carlyle
mpeay: Wrestling with the email system for a meeting invite. Trying to not make me grumpy.
mpeay: An old take for a new sound http://t.co/hqQRuosNos
Kickstarter is a crowd-funding site to back creative projects. I’ve heard of plenty of projects and considered backing a few, but the first one I bit on was Brassft Punk. The concept was a creative one. Take a few tracks from the electronic music group Daft Punk and arrange them for a New Orleans brass band. I got my download code this week and am very pleased with the results.
Here’s a preview of “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”:
You can preview the other tracks or purchase them at Juno Download.
I was able to attend the Trace3 EBC a few weeks ago in Las Vegas. I can honestly say it was well worth the few days in being away from the office. One of the best speakers was Peter Hinssen whose presentation was like a long TED talk. I re-watched it with my family a week ago and they enjoyed it which confirms it’s not just me being overly geeky. If you watch it, comment below with how many slide you think make up the presentation. I might have a surprise for you.
Trace3 EBC 2013 Peter Hinssen from Trace3 on Vimeo.
This is good to think about as the world in certainly changing and you’d be best to think how so that it doesn’t take you by surprise.
I had an unexpected event occur yesterday and, honestly, it’s got me a bit concerned. Yesterday, while making breakfast, one of the outlets by the range started smoking. Nothing was plugged into it and nothing splashed onto it, but a trickle of smoke was there, nonetheless. After quickly throwing the breaker and allowing it to cool down I removed the faceplate and found this:
With no specific electrical experience, I wasn’t sure where to turn. I decided to stop by the local fire department to see if they had any thoughts. They didn’t have any specific comments, but did recommend talking to the local building and safety department which should provide some good perspective. If there’s some defect or age-related problem, I certainly want to know so I can take the necessary steps to remediate it.
What’s got me concerned is the unclear cause. Honestly, it’s a blessing that I was standing right next to it. If we weren’t home, there’s a chance there wouldn’t be a home to be sitting in right now to write this. Without knowing the root cause, it’s a bit hard to sleep comfortably at night.
I called building and safety today, but with the holiday, I wasn’t surprised to only get voicemail. I’ll be staying home tomorrow to see if I can learn something useful. I won’t be comfortable until I do.
 Update (02/19/13):
I visited my local city hall and spoke with a gentleman from building and safety. He was quite helpful partially due to the fact he was a professional electrician before becoming a building inspector. He mentioned that about 90% of all house fires are due to situations like this. What likely happened was that a downstream outlet was pulling some significant current that ended up arcing through the neutral screw terminal. While it was 12 gauge wire, if they aren’t screwed down tightly or completely, it can end up arcing.
At this point, I’m satisfied that the replacement outlet or any other ones won’t just spontaneously ignite (like when we’re not home), but will certainly entertain evaluating all of the kitchen outlets for proper condition. On the plus side, I now have a bonus fourth day to my three-day weekend.
I first ran across this nifty idea on Lifehacker though the original is from Snapguide. I recently had to throw away a MagSafe charger due to a crimped connector. The idea is simple, which some of the best ideas tend to be.
In short:
That’s it. I’ve already done it for my work computer and am happy with the result. My only challenge is to find a dead or dying pen to harvest another spring from for some home laptops. I just can’t bring myself to destroy a sufficiently-working pen; call me cheap, eh?
My preferred method
So, our house has a detached garage in our backyard. The reason I mention that will make sense in a moment. In that garage, I keep a rat trap placed in the corner as we’ve seen evidence of rats about. No biggie. I check on it every few days and once or twice a year, I dispose of anything that falls victim to it.
About five weeks ago, the rat trap (show left) was missing. Since it’s near some cabinets, I suspected that a trapped rat dragged it behind one of the pedestal. Nope. Under the shelves? No. Next to some bags? Uh uh. It was just gone. Very strange, indeed.
This past weekend I was working on the pond and I saw something at the bottom. I believed that one of the fish had died. Unfortunate, but it happens. When I went to scoop it out, something didn’t look right. I first noticed the nose and whiskers and then quickly saw the trap hanging off the right shoulder. The body was a bit bloated, but that’s to be expected.
I’m glad the mystery is finally solved, but, man, what a way to go.
With my two kids at 15 and 12, we’ve been discussing and evaluating the options in higher education. There’s no question that things have changed considerably since I attended university. As a hiring manager, I can attest that while a degree is important, a brick-and-mortar degree isn’t all that necessary. It’s about what you’ve done rather than where you did it.
We’re investigating online options which will be an adventure. Meanwhile, here’s an interesting infographic from The 5 Biggest Myths About Online Learning:
