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Recent Comments
| On College Football 2022: Week 6 Recap and Week 7 Pre... Ken said: |
| Yeah, we've both had our share of hope and disappointment in this game. Let's just hope for a good b... |
| On College Football 2022: Week 6 Recap and Week 7 Pre... Dan* said: |
| I'm not sure how I feel about this game. On one hand, I feel pretty optimistic that we have the tale... |
| On College Football 2022: Week 1 Preview Dan* said: |
| Glad to see you'll be back writing football again, Ken! Congrats on the easy win today. You didn't ... |
| On College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 P... Ken said: |
| Yeah, sorry one of our teams had to lose. I've come to appreciate Penn State as a classy and sympath... |
| On College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 P... Dan* said: |
| Hey Ken, congratulations on the win yesterday! Some really odd choices by our coaching staff in that... |
Articles
Page 1 | ... | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | ... | Page 41| Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Fajita Steak | Tuesday, 2010 January 5 - 12:45 pm |
"Beef in a Spicy Southwestern Style Sauce, Whole Grain Rice, Vegetable Blend & Caramel Apple Multigrain Crisp".  Read more... |
Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Today's Frozen Meal: Healthy Choice Fire Roasted Tomato Chicken | Monday, 2010 January 4 - 12:16 pm |
"Chicken Tenderloins in Roasted Tomato Sauce, Whole Grain Penne, Vegetables & Apple Cranberry Multigrain Crisp".  Read more... |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| It Ain't Julie and Julia | Monday, 2010 January 4 - 12:14 pm |
| I had this idea for my blog this year... each day, I'll take a different frozen entree or meal to work, and post a review of it. It shouldn't be much of a stretch, since I typically eat these kinds of things for lunch anyway. So accounting for days I work from home, or go out to eat, I should be able to post three reviews a week, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 over the course of the year. That should cover a large percentage of the frozen meals available at the supermarket. I'll score each entree based on taste, nutrition, and packaging, with the most weight given to taste. I'll have today's review up in a couple of minutes. |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: food, site-business |
| The Ohs | Friday, 2010 January 1 - 11:31 am |
| First of all, I refuse to use the term "the noughties" to describe the decade from 2000 to 2009. It seems like such an affectation. No one called 2009 "noughty-nine"; it was "two thousand nine" or "oh nine". So when people refer to the decade in actual speech, they'll probably say "the two thousands" or "the ohs". So I think it's safe to say that my life was dramatically transformed in the ohs. Ten years ago, I was dreadfully single, and just starting to dip into the seedy world of Internet dating. I was working at Nortel. I had dial-up Internet, and I didn't have a blog. I wore white tennis shoes with blue jeans. I was, frankly, a clueless mess. But since then, I dated lots of women. I learned how to dress better. I got out of a job that I hated. I found my voice through blogging. And that all culminated in getting married to Amy, which I still consider to be the best thing I've ever done. So I'd say it was a successful decade, probably the best of my life. Sure, in the 1970s I learned how not to poop in my pants (mostly), and the 1980s I became educated. But it wasn't until the ohs that I learned self-confidence and style, and that seems like the most important achievement of my life. So yeah, I'm starting to get old now, and I have years of aches, pains, and prostate exams to look forward to. But at least now, heading into the 10s (the teens? the dixes?) my life has direction, and it's hard to ask for anything more. |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: life |
| Apple Watch: 2010 Predictions | Friday, 2010 January 1 - 10:41 am |
| Happy New Year, everyone. It's time for my annual rundown of Apple predictions. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| College Football Coaching News | Sunday, 2009 December 27 - 10:56 am |
| For those of you who are college football fans, you probably did a spit-take with your coffee this morning upon hearing that Urban Meyer is resigning as head coach of Florida. Meyer, one of the most successful coaches in the game, is stepping down due to concerns over a heart condition. Florida now faces a potentially difficult transition year, as they'll have a new coach and a new quarterback. Michigan fans know a little something about that. Read more... |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: sports |
| Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie | Tuesday, 2009 December 22 - 5:14 pm |
So here's my wonderful Nablopomo prize package from Elizabeth:  I've duly researched each item and I now know what a Tim Tam Slam is; I'm planning to try it tomorrow morning. The ANZAC biscuits are surprisingly tasty for what was essentially a military ration... they're like hard crunchy oatmeal cookies, though I've read that I should never call them "cookies". And of course no Australian collection would be complete without Vegemite. On the next Australia Day, I'm going to put on the Australia temporary tattoos and make everyone at work try a bite of Vegemite on toast. Heh heh heh. Thanks, Elizabeth! I'm greatly enjoying the prize. |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: bloggers, food |
| Ken's Tacky Christmas Tour 2009 | Friday, 2009 December 18 - 8:30 pm |
| You may remember Tacky Christmas Tour 2005, where I took you on a wondrous journey of North Carolina Christmas decorating. I have some new treats for you, after the jump... Read more... |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, interesting, life |
| Sing Off | Friday, 2009 December 18 - 2:31 pm |
| So, is anyone else watching "Sing Off" on NBC? It's like "Glee" meets "American Idol". In fact, it's so obviously a mash-up of those two shows, it almost makes you pity poor NBC for not having the ability to come up with any new ideas. Next year on NBC: We put eight high school glee clubs on a deserted island, where they must sing and dance for food and firewood! We'll call it "Lord of the Dance (and the Flies), Plus Eight". (Kate Gosselin hosts.) I mean, "Sing Off" even features Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger playing the role of bubble-headed blabberer (a role made famous, of course, by Paula Abdul). And there's Boyz II Men's Shawn Stockman, who gleefully throws around terms like "pitchy" and "make it your own" so often that you keep expecting him to call someone "dawg" at any minute. They've got an awkwardly metro host in Nick Lachey. If they'd only found a crotchety Brit to be the third judge instead of Ben Folds, they'd have duplicated the Idol formula precisely. Oh, and did I mention that one of the groups sang an a capella version of "Don't Stop Believing"? They might as well have been wearing "Glee" t-shirts. Now, all that being said, we're fans of the show. The groups are sincere, and the performances are fun to watch. We like the Beelzebubs, a bunch of college guys from Tufts, who seem to be the most inventive group of the contestants. NBC is slamming through the competition quickly (three two-hour episodes, and a finale next week), making this seem like more of a trial balloon than an ongoing series. I'm hoping that if they do decide to make this a recurring show, we'll get to see more of the early auditions and the elimination process. |
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Posted by Ken in: music, television |
| Oh Yeah, Blogging | Wednesday, 2009 December 16 - 10:10 am |
| Remember, like four posts ago, when I said I'd try to keep blogging on a regular basis? And that kind of seemed like a New Year's resolution? Well, yeah. It's EXACTLY like a New Year's resolution, because it lasted all of a couple of days. It's not as if there hasn't been anything to talk about: health care reform and Joe Lieberman's douchebaggery; the Big Ten expanding to twelve teams; "Sing Off" on NBC; a trip we took to Schenectady; a big package of Australian goodies that arrived yesterday... so many topics! Argh. I'll try to catch up over the next few days. Really. No, REALLY. |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: life |
| Math Humor | Thursday, 2009 December 3 - 11:38 pm |
| Amy: So they need to put Vitamin C in vodka so it doesn't make you have to pee as much. Me: You know alcohol turns into Vitamin C, right? Amy: With me, it turns to Vitamin Pee. (later) Amy: Are you making Vitamin C or Vitamin Pee? Me: You should have seen the Vitamin Poo I was making earlier. Amy: Vitamin P O squared? Me: Vitamin POPO? Amy: No, you only square the "O". Me: Did you just square the circle? Amy: Say what? Me: Only nerds are going to understand this. |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha |
| Blu-Ray | Wednesday, 2009 December 2 - 11:56 pm |
| I bought the Star Trek movie on Blu-Ray to showcase my new system... but not before I had put it on my NetFlix queue. So with both the DVD and the Blu-Ray disc here at the same time, I figured this would be a good chance to compare quality. I can tell you: even from ten feet away, the difference is noticeable. Here's a closeup comparison. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image (a bit less than a quarter of the full screen).   I wasn't convinced before about how much I'd notice the difference... but I think it's safe to say that any movies that I purchase in the future will probably be Blu-Ray. In other tech news, I'm a bit concerned about the new TV... on occasion, it's refused to display a picture from the HDMI inputs. I'm concerned because this is exactly the same problem other people on the Internets have complained about with this model. It seems to require some power-cycling and resetting to get things to work again... if the problem doesn't go away, I might have to (shudder) call for tech support. |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Good Times | Wednesday, 2009 December 2 - 1:26 am |
| So first of all, I won a prize for NaBloPoMo, which is awesome because I never win prizes ever. And to top it off, it's actually something I appreciate: food. Some of the other prizes were baby bibs and handmade jewelry... I'm sure they're lovely, but I haven't worn a baby bib in like, months. The prize is being provided by Elizabeth of Scarlet Words, which I immediately added to my RSS feed list and my sidebar because both the blog and the blogger are cute and brilliant. In other news, Blu-Ray (PS3) plus new flat panel TV plus digital surround sound plus Star Trek equals geekgasm. Even Amy shuddered at the awesomeness. Sunday will be movie night here... let me know if you want to come over. |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: bloggers, techwatch |
| Last Day of NaBloPoMo | Monday, 2009 November 30 - 3:58 pm |
I was going to just fire off another short obligatory post to fulfill my NaBloPoMo requirements, until I realized it was the last day of the month. NaBloPoMo: done!  Looking back on the month, I'd say it was a fairly successful string of blogging... a little bit of everything, and no "I don't have anything to blog about today" posts. I am tempted to give NaNoWriMo a try next year, though I fear the time commitment of having to write nearly 1700 words a day. But on the other hand, I think I'd be more likely to finish a novel that way, than if I were allowed to procrastinate and delay over the course of several years. I'll have to think about it. I'll continue to try to post on a regular basis even though NaBloPoMo is over. I'm sure everyone says that; it's like a New Year's resolution. But really... I'll try. |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: bloggers |
| Still Enjoying | Sunday, 2009 November 29 - 3:10 pm |
This doesn't happen often, but we're having to call in reinforcements to help us finish off Thanksgiving leftovers. We're taking some over to Anna's this evening. Whatever's left after that is going into FoodSaver bags and into the freezer... they'll be my lunches for the next several weeks. |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: food |
| Canonical Christmas Songs | Saturday, 2009 November 28 - 12:54 pm |
| One way for sure to know it's after Thanksgiving is that you can find radio stations on non-stop Christmas music mode. Around Raleigh, it's Mix 101.5. I think I need to make a playlist of canonical Christmas songs. I don't mean just the Perry Como stuff, but the best version of each song, old or new. For example, for me, the best version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is the one by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan. And I admit that I kind of like Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". I'll be running through my collection to find the best stuff, and I'll post it some time in the coming weeks. Feel free to offer suggestions. But no one had better suggest that treacly abomination "Christmas Shoes", which wins the award for Worst Christmas Song for the 13th year in a row. |
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Posted by Ken in: music |
| Gaming Like It's 2006 | Friday, 2009 November 27 - 8:34 pm |
| I've never been the sort of guy who needs to have the hottest gaming computer to play the most recent, graphically intensive games. I find that playing three-year-old games on hardware that's less than state-of-the-art has a lot of advantages. For one thing, I can wait for other people to figure out which games are any good. For another, I save a bunch of money on both hardware and software... I spent just $8 picking up a copy of Bioshock, which runs just fine on my Mac mini under Boot Camp. And I don't believe I'm having any less fun playing it now than I would have if I'd picked it up for $50 when it was new. What should I pick up next? Perhaps Halo 2? |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Turkey Day | Thursday, 2009 November 26 - 5:38 pm |
| One Thanksgiving dinner down, two to go. Seriously. We went to Amy's uncle's house this afternoon; we're hosting an "orphans'" dinner tonight; and then there's another dinner Saturday with more of Amy's family. Judging from my friends' Facebook statuses, it's not all that uncommon these days for people to have more than one Thanksgiving dinner. I suppose that's a sign of the times. I don't have a problem with this. Most people who know me know how much I love turkey. In other news, Michigan won its basketball game today (yay), and Detroit lost in football as usual (boo). Hope everyone is having a safe and happy Thanksgiving. |
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Posted by Ken in: food, life |
| It Must Be Thanksgiving | Wednesday, 2009 November 25 - 4:31 pm |
| I just bought three pounds of bacon and four pounds of cheese. Yep, it's gonna be a good holiday. To the other shoppers at the Harris Teeter today: I hope you were not alarmed by the appearance of my car, which looked like a bird exploded on it after eating a tub of cream cheese. Also, I hope you did not associate the appearance of my car with the appearance of my jeans, which had dirt stains all over it from doing outdoor work today. In short: I do not ordinarily leave the house covered in poo (and if I did, I'd usually elect to go to the Food Lion instead of the Harris Teeter, so I wouldn't stand out so much). Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! |
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Posted by Ken in: food, life |
| Shut Up Already | Tuesday, 2009 November 24 - 2:03 pm |
| The AP headline today: "Rodriguez's Job at Michigan Seems Safe - for Now". "Seems"? "For now"? What's with the weasel words? Despite the ridiculous hyperbole from the mainstream media, Rodriguez will be the Michigan coach next season. I'd bet a million dollars on it. No one in the administration has given any indication to the contrary. The only source for the media speculation is other media speculation. It's the MSM echo chamber at its worst. I mean, really. What would be the plan? Yet another high profile coaching search, and a multi-million dollar contract buyout for Rodriguez and whatever coach we might try to snatch away? Does anyone seriously believe that another coaching transition and scheme change would help the team to improve next season? And what coach would want to come to Michigan if they knew they only had two years to prove themselves after inheriting another coach's players? So just shut up already about Rodriguez. There will be no coaching change. There will be no significant fallout from the NCAA investigation. Save your schadenfreude for Charlie Weis, ok? |
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Posted by Ken in: sports |
| Television Upgrade | Monday, 2009 November 23 - 4:37 pm |
| Well, I've bit the bullet, and decided not to wait for a Black Friday deal: I'm finally ditching my old behemoth rear-projection TV for an LCD flat panel model. (Amy will be enormously pleased to recover some square footage in our living room.) Sony has a promotion going on right now: discounted TVs along with a free Playstation 3. I'm not terribly interested in having another game console to suck down my time and money, but the PS3 is one of the best Blu-Ray players available, so it's worth it just for that. Nice things about the new TV, as compared to my old one:
The only bad thing I can think of is that it doesn't have the picture-by-picture mode that my old TV has, which is far superior to the picture-in-picture mode that the cable box provides. The TV should arrive in less than a week. Whee, reckless consumerism! I mean... whee, doing my part to stimulate the economy! |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch, television |
| Mom and Dad | Sunday, 2009 November 22 - 5:58 pm |
| When I visited my parents in Japan this past summer, they gave me one of their old wedding photos. I think it's awesome, so I wanted to share it. The photo paper is textured and it made the picture a bit hard to scan, but I cleaned it up as best I could. Click on the photo for a larger version.  |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: life |
| Michigan Football Haiku | Saturday, 2009 November 21 - 3:13 pm |
| Another tough loss, too many interceptions; there's always next year. |
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Posted by Ken in: sports |
| Company Potluck Haiku | Friday, 2009 November 20 - 4:26 pm |
| Company potluck; when engineers cook you get nine kinds of meatballs. |
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Posted by Ken in: food, funnyhaha |
| Tot Haiku | Thursday, 2009 November 19 - 8:00 pm |
| I love tater tots Napoleon Dynamite made me remember |
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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha |
| Dear Sarah Palin | Thursday, 2009 November 19 - 7:49 pm |
| Please run for President. That will be the greatest thing you could do for the Democratic party. Your key talking points:
|
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Posted by Ken in: politics |
| Not Good | Wednesday, 2009 November 18 - 12:44 pm |
| In local economic news, Sony Ericsson is closing its RTP facility. 425 jobs will be lost. I can't say I'm surprised, but all the same, it sucks for the people working there. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Vegas Photo | Tuesday, 2009 November 17 - 7:35 pm |
This is one of my favorite photos from this year's Vegas trip. Click on the image for a larger version. I'll have a few more photos posted here on realkato.com, but for the complete album, you'll need to be my Facebook friend. |
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Posted by Ken in: life, travel |
| Television: The Prisoner | Monday, 2009 November 16 - 11:22 pm |
| Today was part 2 of 3 of AMC's remake of "The Prisoner". Thus far, it is as I feared: it doesn't live up to the original. Perhaps they're deliberately not trying to recapture the same feel as the original show, and I can appreciate the desire to make something novel. But I greatly prefer Patrick McGoohan's clever subversiveness to Jim Caviezel's outright rebellion. And you know, a disjointed plot is not the same as a mysterious plot. In this version, there's just no subtlety. Instead of mind games, there are psychotropic drugs and coercion. I keep waiting for the shocking plot twist that doesn't come. Maybe they're just setting up for one big surprise? There's one episode left tomorrow... we'll see. And OH! I almost forgot... how could you have The Prisoner without the Village font, the beautiful Albertus derivative that was ubiquitous in the original show? In this version, we get... Avant Garde Gothic Bold and Optima Bold Italic? Really? |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| College Football Recap | Sunday, 2009 November 15 - 1:39 pm |
| Michigan, N.C. State lose again; USC, ND lose. It's a day for losing. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: sports |
| Day Four | Sunday, 2009 November 15 - 12:25 pm |
| Fever is down today. Amy bought a thermometer yesterday and it read 100.1°F; today it's back down to my normal temperature, 97.1°F. My throat is still sore but less so. So I may be on the road to recovery... just after missing what I hear was a great party yesterday, and just in time to go back to work tomorrow. Whee. Now I hear Amy with the same-sounding cough and runny nose that I had four days ago... it's just starting for her. At least, hopefully, I'll be well enough to take care of her. |
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Posted by Ken in: life |
| Day Three | Saturday, 2009 November 14 - 11:27 am |
| This month is turning into more of KaFluPoMo than NaBloPoMo. When I was sick as a kid, I used to have two vivid recurring nightmares. In one, I was in one of those garden mazes, at night. Solving the maze wasn't the problem; the problem was, I had to traverse one edge of the maze to get from one corner to another, while being shot at by red laser beams. I knew that all I had to do was make a dash for the corner to get to safety, but I felt like my feet were stuck in molasses and I was scared I wouldn't be fast enough. The other dream was that I lived in a charming little house with a charming little yard, like something you'd see in a fairy tale. It was very serene except the house was surrounded by giant churning gears that would crush you if you went beyond the boundaries of the yard. The nightmare I had last night was that I actually had three different strains of the flu at the same time, and all of them were covered by different insurance plans. I had to make sure to have the right plan activated at the right time, depending on which flu strain was presenting symptoms at that time. I think I'd rather have the lasers. |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: life |
| Fall TV | Friday, 2009 November 13 - 12:43 pm |
| Well, being at home sick does mean I get to catch up with all my TV shows on the DVR. Here's what I'm watching this season... Read more... |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: television |
| It's Here | Thursday, 2009 November 12 - 8:58 am |
| Fever: can't find the thermometer, but I'm pretty sure, yes. Cough: like I'm trying to turn my lungs inside out. Sore throat: yes, from all the coughing. Runny nose: yes. Body aches: oy, yes. Headache: pounding. Chills: yes. Fatigue: I could sleep all day. Diarrhea and vomiting: not yet, but I wouldn't be surprised. I had a seasonal flu shot so it's not that. So yeah, this could well be the dreaded swine flu. I was at work yesterday and out at a hockey game last night... sorry for the Typhoid Mary thing, guys. Amy is also starting to show symptoms. This will be a fun weekend. |
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Posted by Ken in: life |
| Quadruple Assortant H1N1 | Wednesday, 2009 November 11 - 5:17 pm |
| ... also known "2009 H1N1 Type A Influenza", or the "swine flu", even though it is a human disease, not a pig disease. Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue; in some cases, diarrhea and vomiting. I'm kind of a hypochondriac so I probably should avoid reading about stuff like this... but I have to say, I'm not feeling so great today. |
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Posted by Ken in: life |
| Update | Tuesday, 2009 November 10 - 6:18 pm |
| Sooo, for those of you who didn't see my Facebook status updates, I did make it home Sunday night. The connection from Dallas to Raleigh was also delayed with mechanical problems, so I managed to get there in time to catch it. However, when I got to the gate, my seat had already been reassigned to a standby passenger. Grrr. So instead of my luxurious exit row seat, I had to sit in 29F. In that steerage-class sardine-can seat, I couldn't even bend down to get something out of my bag on the floor, because the seatback in front of me was about eight inches from my face. And of course, when I lost my original seat, they diverted my luggage as well. So after I arrived in Raleigh at 12:45 AM, I had to wait around another 45 minutes until the luggage carousel shut down without spitting out my bag. But I did get home, and that was infinitely better than having to stay overnight in Dallas and flying in on Monday. And my bag was delivered to my house Monday evening by the "delivery service" (which was just some guy in an old Honda Civic). So all is well now. I'm still trying to figure out if I caught the swine flu while I was in Vegas; I have a bit of a scratchy throat but otherwise don't feel sick. Hmm. Pictures and other Vegas thoughts will appear here and on Facebook soon. |
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Posted by Ken in: life, travel |
| College Football Recap | Monday, 2009 November 9 - 3:45 pm |
| Michigan ugh; N.C. State wins; Iowa, Oregon fall. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: sports |
| Well, POO. | Sunday, 2009 November 8 - 5:14 pm |
| My flight out of Las Vegas is delayed, so I might miss my connection to Raleigh and have to stay in Dallas overnight. It's a good thing I scheduled a vacation day for tomorrow, but I really didn't want to spend any of it traveling. And I was really, really looking forward to sleeping at home tonight. This is one of those times that I wish airline tickets were binding contracts. American Airlines, I paid money so you would get me to where I wanted, when I wanted. If you can't fulfill even get me to my destination on the day I asked for, you should have to pay me restitution. You should do whatever it takes to make that happen: keep extra planes stashed at airports around the country, add more required layover times, run flights later into the evening. I know what the airlines say to that: "If we did that, then fares would have to go up". Well, let them go up. I'd pay extra for that peace of mind. |
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Posted by Ken in: life, travel |
| Down time | Saturday, 2009 November 7 - 2:18 pm |
| One of the nice things about these trips is that we don't feel the need to cram in a lot of activities while we're here. It's not like we haven't already seen just about everything, and it's not like we won't be back again. So we can afford to sit around watching football, or hang out at the pool. I wouldn't normally associate Vegas with relaxation, but that's just what I'm doing now. Now if I could only do something about these nosebleeds. I've drank enough water to fill Lake Mead and I'm still turning into Ken jerky. |
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Posted by Ken in: life |
| Vegas, baby | Friday, 2009 November 6 - 11:29 am |
| Yeah, I'm in Las Vegas again, for our annual Monkey Boys trip. I'm rooming with Javi. One thing that tickles me is that Javi has fans and if they were here, it'd be like they won a contest or something. Don't get me wrong, I feel privileged to be here. I just think it's great that we get to enjoy Javi in his full uncensored shirtless glory. In other Vegas news, the first bottle of whiskey is gone and I just ate like half a pound of smoked salmon at the breakfast buffet. Ah, Vegas. |
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Posted by Ken in: life |
| We live in the future | Thursday, 2009 November 5 - 8:29 am |
| I'm sure others have said this before, but the iPhone really makes me feel like I live in the future. Here I am, blogging from my phone in an airport. All my travel info is stored on my phone. While in flight, I can bring up an app that gives me a virtual cockpit display. (Or can I? Are you allowed to use GPS on an airplane? Guess I'll find out shortly.) By the way, I've never been a Blackberry-style thumb typer before, but I'm just now discovering that it seems to be more efficient for me when I'm in landscape mode. Also discovered today: if you use frequent flyer miles on American, you get priority seating (exit row) and priority boarding. Sweet. Gotta go, boarding now! |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Motorola/Google/Verizon Droid Phone Friday | Wednesday, 2009 November 4 - 12:40 pm |
| The new "Droid" phone, built by Motorola with Google's Android software, will be available on the Verizon network this Friday. All the preliminary reports indicate that it's an impressive phone, with features and quality to rival the iPhone. So of course, everyone's calling it an "iPhone killer". Of course, they said that about the Blackberry Storm and the Palm Pre, and the iPhone certainly isn't dead yet. You know, I would love to see the iPhone get some real competition. I would love to see other companies get innovative and come up with something revolutionary. But unfortunately, it seems like the best anyone can do is to build a product that's almost as good as what Apple already developed two years ago. Sure, you can talk about Android's open development policies, or things like physical keyboards and removable batteries, but those aren't revolutionary. It's as if Motorola, Google, and Verizon started with the iPhone, wrote down every complaint anyone has ever had about it, and then blended everything together into the Droid phone. There just aren't any new ideas there. Apple's iPhone, when it came out, was truly new. There would be no Pre or Droid without the groundbreaking precedents established by the iPhone. There are certainly inferior products and technologies that have achieved market dominance, by virtue of being first, being cheaper, or aided by a monopoly. But the iPhone competitors have none of those crutches. So listen up, makers of would-be iPhone "killers": this isn't one of those cases where you can just make something "good enough" and hope to succeed simply on anti-Apple sentiment. Make something better. Spend some brainpower and R&D money on making something truly new. I'm a long-time user and admirer of Apple products, but that doesn't mean I don't want Apple to face some competition. We all want to see innovation. And what we don't need is for another Microsoftian purveyor of copy-cat inferior technology to rise to market dominance. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Wondering | Tuesday, 2009 November 3 - 8:16 am |
| Why is the process of making something cold called refrigeration? It's not like it was previously naturally, uh, frigerated. Also, it bothers me that the abbreviation for "refrigerator" is "fridge" with a "d" in it. Of course, while I was growing up, our family called it the "rif", which didn't make much sense either. |
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Posted by Ken in: interesting |
| Word of the Day | Monday, 2009 November 2 - 9:56 am |
| The word of the day is "cinereal", which means "ashen" (as in "grey"), because it's so grey outside today. I would totally have thought the word had something to do with documentaries, as in "cinema + reality". But it actually comes from the Latin word cineris, meaning "of ashes". By the way, I've signed up for NaBloPoMo this month, so expect many more posts in this vein. |
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Posted by Ken in: bloggers, interesting |
| College Football Recap | Sunday, 2009 November 1 - 6:08 pm |
| Michigan ennui; N.C. State loses in a shootout; USC, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia fall. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: sports |
| Five Lessons: How to tell how old you are | Tuesday, 2009 October 27 - 5:43 pm |
| It's been a while since I've posted a "Five Lessons" blog. I kinda ran dry on interesting topics. Five signs you're a guy who's either under 25 or over 65: 1. Your pants are too big for you. Under 25: "These pants are gangsta. You're lucky I don't bust a cap in ya ass." Over 65: "These pants are comfortable. You're lucky I'm wearing pants at all." 2. You call people "son" even though they're not your son. Under 25: "I own your ass in 'Call of Duty', son." Over 65: "I own 200 shares of Standard Oil, son." 3. You know nothing about politics. Under 25: you don't know who your senator is, but you're pretty sure you voted for the other guy. Over 65: you don't know who the President is, but you're pretty sure things were better under Eisenhower. 4. You're a lousy driver. Under 25: you talk on your cell phone while driving. Over 65: you tried to make a phone call using the stereo while you were driving. 5. You wear a baseball cap that you got for free. Under 25: the cap probably says "ass" on it. Over 65: the cap probably has a picture of a bass on it. |
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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, interesting |
| College Football Recap | Sunday, 2009 October 25 - 2:12 pm |
| Michigan gets whacked; N.C. State is idle; three squeakers and an upset in the top 10. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: sports |
| New iMac, Mac mini, Macbook, as expected | Tuesday, 2009 October 20 - 12:17 pm |
| The quick scoop: New iMac: Now with display sizes 21.5" (at 1920x1080, true 1080p!) and an enormous 27" (at 2560x1440). All the models now sport a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, except the top end, which gets a 2.66 GHz quad-core Core i5. 4GB of RAM even on the base model. Hard drive boosted to 500GB on the low-end model (from 320GB) and 1TB on the others (from 640GB). Graphics are 9400M on the low-end model, ATI Radeon 4670 HD on the mid-range models, and ATI Radeon 4850 HD on the high end; perhaps Apple's rumored falling-out with Nvidia is real after all. SD card slot built in. Build-to-order options include a 3.3 GHz Core 2 Duo, or a 2.8 GHz quad-core Core i7 on the high end model. There's no Blu-Ray, and the pricing range still starts at $1199; the top-end drops from $2199 to $1999. The high-end model is definitely targeted for pro users who don't want to go all the way to the Mac Pro. The mid-range models are for high-end consumers. The low-end version is an exceptional entry level machine; if not for the slightly underpowered graphics (for gaming enthusiasts), it'd be the clear value winner. New Mac mini. No form factor change, just a processor speed bump (to 2.26 GHz and 2.53 GHz), a RAM upgrade on the low-end to 2GB (at last!), and a hard-drive upgrade on the low-end to 160GB. No price cut. There's also a dual hard drive, no optical drive version that comes with Mac OS X Server! This is the macminicolo.net special, I guess; we'd heard inklings about this back in January, and it's finally come to fruition. New Macbook. Still a white polycarbonate shell, but Apple says this is a "unibody" design, and with somewhat rounded edges for a sleeker appearance. It's a quarter inch deeper and wider, but a third of a pound lighter. Multi-touch glass trackpad, like on the Pro models. Non-removable 7-hour battery. Slightly faster processor (2.26 GHz), larger hard drive (250 GB), but no more Firewire port. LED-backlit display. No price cut (remains $999); odd for a machine with largely the same specs as its predecessor. Magic Mouse. Apple's new multi-touch button-less mouse; right click by touching the right side as you "click" the whole mouse, scroll by simply moving your finger across the surface, swipe using a two-finger gesture. Slick. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Apple Store is Down | Tuesday, 2009 October 20 - 9:10 am |
| The Apple Store is down, a sure sign that new products are getting ready to be introduced. Stay tuned. Also, Apple announced blowout revenues and profits last quarter, sending their stock soaring. As of this writing, the stock is just shy of $200. More news shortly. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Apple: New Macs coming? | Sunday, 2009 October 18 - 10:54 am |
| The iMac is approaching the end of its usual 6-month release cycle. With the holiday season approaching, it's quite possible we'll see a new model come out... and it might even come out this week, to take some of the headlines away from Windows 7. I can already see the ad campaign: John Hodgman will be fretting over how to upgrade to Windows 7 without losing all his data, while Justin Long will note how new Mac users can simply go to the Apple Genius Bar if they switch from PC to Mac. There's very little information, or even speculation, on what the new iMacs will include. Some say Blu-Ray will be an option, some say not. Some say Intel Core i7 ("Nehalem") processors will be included. Most predict a thinner enclosure and a price cut. There's also talk of a new Mac mini to go along with the new iMacs, but at this point, I'd expect just a RAM and hard drive boost, plus a $100 price cut. The 1GB of RAM and 120GB HD on the base model is just inexcusable; the wholesale price difference to make that 2GB and 200GB has got to be on the order of fifteen bucks. Meanwhile, there's buzz about the Mac Pro getting Intel's new six-core "Gulftown" Core i9 processors. That probably won't happen until sometime early next year. On the laptop front, a new low-end Macbook to replace the aging white polycarbonate design seems very likely. It might not have an aluminum enclosure like the Pro models, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a thinner, lighter enclosure and a non-removable battery. A price cut seems quite possible as well, as Apple wouldn't really be introducing much in the way of cutting-edge components. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
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