Only 11 days from the blog being back online for me to get my first comment spam. As always, I can’t decide if this makes me feel good because someone reacted to me (even if it was just a spam bot) or if I should be unhappy that 80% of all Internet traffic is junk and that I can expect 80% of my personal traffic to be junk as well.
As a side thought, does anyone else think it completely plausible that Symantec is behind things like Storm Botnet as a way to drum up business?
Runners Age More Slowly, Study Says – Health News Story – WTVJ | Miami.
Running slowed cardiovascular deaths and was also associated with fewer early deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.
Last night I finally got tired of the elliptical trainer and decided to go running. 2.8 miles later (thank you Google Maps) I was very tired but without the pain and general “I’m going to die” sensations that other running experiences have brought in the past few years. I suppose it pays to ease your way into such things.
After a while, a Wal-Mart employee accosts me and tells me that I can’t do that because those images are “Copyright to the studios that took them.” I look down at my pictures. The picture she is pointing to is one of my great grandmother, taken about 1925. She has been dead since 1998.
I can’t speak for Wal-Mart specifically but I would guess that the minimum wage employee monitoring the photo center was handed a pamphlet by the corporate training staff about Copyright and suddenly became an “expert”. Even granting the utterly ridiculous premise that the images this chap was scanning were Copyrighted, its not the store’s place to judge such things.
Thanks to the media industry groups who have tried to make it a crime to do anything with their products other than buy them, there is a dangerous misconception about Copyright in many circles. The concept of Fair Use is never NEVER mentioned in any talk about Copyright. Again, assuming the pictures WERE Copyrighted, there would still be any number of completely legal grounds for anyone to make a scan of it. For use in an academic paper for instance.
I keep telling my kids that before they leave high school they will have an experience where someone in a nominal position of authority will take it upon themselves to arbitrarily trample one or more of their rights. Today Wal-Mart, tomorrow Starbucks, next month it will be some random maintenace guy at the park who claims that playing my MP3s loud enough for others to hear constitutes illegal rebroadcast and will try to make a citizens arrest on my music player.
I am just now beginning week 4 of the 6 week 100 push-up plan. So far so good. I did have to go from the top category to one with a more moderate progression but I am keeping pace with the schedule.
I’ve also rediscovered the exercise equipment hiding in the basement. To be fair, it hasn’t actually been hiding. Its been patiently waiting for me to notice it again. But until I started doing push ups 3 times a week there might as well have been an SEP field around the bike and the eliptical trainer. But with renewed activity it would seem that my eyes can focus on them again. I’ve used the eliptical trainer 4 times last week and again today and I’ve noticed a weird thing happening.
Friday night I was ready to be a lazy bum. Lie around the house sucking back pizza and watching whatever drivel was on the Turner Networks only to pass out in the middle of the movie as my body pulled every available ounce of blood to the digestive system in an attempt to cope with a whole large veggie pizza from Papa Johns. (I’m not a glutton, really, I just can’t resist those things if they’re in front of me.) But somewhere around 9:30 I started getting restless. Couldn’t sit still. Actually considered going for a run. WTF? I thought back…. No caffeine today, not nervous about anything. What is making me feel the need to move?
Routine. We are all creatures of routine and I had been exercising between 9 and 10 most of the week. Damn it, my body was robbing me of my blessed traditions of sloth! So with an annoyed grumble I got up, threw on my shoes and decided to punish my body with extra time on the equipment. 45 minutes instead of 30 and since you’re so uppity tonight, we’ll try that “high performance” program instead of a nice leisurely calorie burn.
This had mixed results.
First, I learned the obvious. Punishing your body is roughly the same as punishing yourself unless you have a lot more zen Buddist in you than I do. Second, it is certainly possible that something as benign as an eliptical trainer can force you to exert yourself to the point of vomiting (I didn’t, but I absolutely know it can happen now). And finally, watching Road House while exercising is oddly more enjoyable than sleeping on the couch while trying to watch Road House.
Well, it has happened again. The power of three seems most prevalent in celebrity deaths. Yes, I know that it is complete coincidence and it only seems like it ALWAYS happens this way. But it still bears mention when it does come up.
So this summer we have the following:
George Carlin – There may be a few people funnier, a few more determined to effect change, a few sharper wits in the world by there is no one who combined intellect, humor and brutal direct revalation the way Carlin did. I listened to a lot of his material growing up and along with making me laugh he taught me that language is a complete package. The vulgar and the sublime are not mutually exclusive but exist next to each other. Carlin´ś gift was to use the whole language to make us all see both the promise and the pain of being human.
Bernie Mac – I have much less to say about Bernie Mac since I was not as big of a fan. I certainly had my share of sore ribs watching him and as a contribution to the world, that´s a pretty good legacy.
Isaac Hayes – I know that Isaac Hayes is known in many places primarily as a musician but I can´t say I´ve ever heard any of his albums. I am a huge fan of the theme from Shaft (but who doesn´t). I know him mostly as the King of New York opposite Kurt Russel in Escape from New York. Every where I saw him make an appearance on TV he just commanded the room. A huge personality and someone who seemed to really enjoy the life he had found himself in.
Who will it be next season? The celebrity death watch continues.
Today marked two firsts for me in the geek realm.
First, I finally had a reason to use RealVNC for a small task at work. With that success under my belt I rushed home to download the version for the Nokia tablet. All I can say is wow. While I havent tried conncting to a windows machine with it yet, on my Linux boxes it is a gem. Even with the N800 I can get total access to the desktop of the remote machine with minimal lag and excellent color depth. Remote desktop tools have come a long way and I am now sold on the value of VNC.
The second new event is happening right now. I am posting to the blog from the N800 using a bluetooth keyboard and the WordPress client ported to the tablet by Daniel Martín Yerga. It is not a laptop, but with full sized buttons on the keyboard and the ability to compose entries offline in a package that will fit a case no bigger than a hard back book the whole thing has a greater flexibility than a laptop and is infinitley more portable.
I am expecting to get a new camera next month And will start posting some pictures of the setup.
Just a quick note on the items in the sidebar. I am a devoted user of Google Reader. In fact I probably spend entirely too much time flipping through posts from several dozen sites all day long.
The items appearing in the side bar are ones I´ve flagged as interesting to me. As I ease my way back into blogging with a few updates per week, you will probably learn more about what Im interested in by scanning those items.
I am a gadget hound. If it plugs in I want one. Luckily for my domestic tranquility my budget prevents me from filling the house with things that go “boop!”. The budget is restrictive enough that I tend to be one or even two generations behind in my gadget purchases. Palm pilots on the discount shelf because Palm isn’t really going to make PDAs anymore? Right up my alley. I’ll take two please.
So it was that I found myself with a little extra cash from birthday well wishers and purchased the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. Since then it has become a constant companion. It isn’t quite a laptop replacement but it does a great job in several areas and a moderate job in others.
Nokia N800
Imagine a PDA on steroids. Built to surf the web comfortably from the palm of your hand with a fully functioning web browser and you will have an idea of what the N800 is designed for. In addition it makes an excellent PMP with several different media players that handle music and videos smoothly. The built in speakers or plenty loud to annoy your cubicle neighbors if you don’t want to plug in your headphones and the bright touchscreen makes the whole thing easy and fun to look at and navigate.
In the future I’ll layout more about how I use my N800 and what I’ve got installed on it. In particular, I’ll be stretching it to its limits at the end of the month when I go to a weeklong conference in Nashville without my laptop. Just the trusty Internet Tablet, a bluetooth keyboard and less hassle at airport security.
So my daughter is scheduled to fly to see her grandfather. First time she’s flown by herself. Even though she is flying as an unaccompanied minor and the airline charges a hefty fee to babysit a fairly self sufficient pre-teen, I am sweating a little. I’m a parent, we worry.
So I go over everything I can think of with her and I double check everything with the airline. It seems that in my dilligent zeal I covered every concievable point. Well, except for one.
I had fixed in my mind that her flight was on Tuesday. It was, in fact, on Monday. So Monday morning a mere 30 minutes before her flight was scheduled to leave I am at work blissfully tackling the work-a-day challenges when my dad calls to ask what she will be wearing on the flight so he will recognize her. “I don’t know, but I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know.”
Long pause from the other end of the conversation.
“That’s not going to help much when I pick her up today.”
Its the little things that make the big difference folks.
Luckily, my daughter is a trooper and was able to get packed in a flash. I rescheduled the flight for later in the morning and all was well. As mistakes go, that one should have cost me more than the $50 rescheduling fee. And in the future, I will actually look at the flight itinerary a few days in advance.
I came to a realization sometime in the last few months punctuated by a recent experience with a really unflattering photo taken of me this week. I’ve gotten bigger. Now, I’m not the Goodyear blimp or anything but the fact is, I’m about 50 pounds heavier than when I graduated high school. Its been a gradual thing and I’ve made all the usual excuses (most notably that I looked downright skeletal then) so I have no grand illusions about getting back to 150 pounds.
But something really needs to be done to get rid of the 20 or 30 pounds that is making me look less like a greyhound and more like Droopy Dog. So I have undertaken a few initiatives that will hopefully combat my natural dislike of exercise.
The first is 100 push ups. This is just a six week plan that will (in theory) guide you towards being able to do 100 consecutive push ups. An admirable goal and something I’ve certainly never been able to do even when I was in great shape. So instead of exercise it becomes a game to play. I’m starting week three on Monday and I’ll let you all know how things progress. So far I am up to roughly 5 sets of 15-20 push ups.
If this succeeds I’ll be tackling the Couch to 5K plan as another game. This one should be a bit easier since I can already run around 2 miles when the need or mood arises. Until that plan starts I’ll be hitting the elliptical trainer in the basement to try and add some cardio work to my upper body adventure.
Now, as someone once said, there’s nothing more boring than another person’s diet so if reading about my sweat induced hysteria isn’t for you then feel free to ignore the fitness posts. If they do appeal to you, drop a comment and let me know what kind of things you have done that seemed less liek exercise and more like fun in your own quest to condtition.
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