Scott's random thoughts

Creatures of habit

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:28:00 +0000

Humans by nature are creatures of habit, myself especially. When I find something I like, I stick with it. That means going to the same restaurants, choosing the same things off menus, buying the same wine at the same store, and doing the same workout. My workout was very consistent - run for 30 minutes on the treadmill while watching an old Star Trek episode that the DVR grabbed for me (apparently Girls Gone Wild has a huge audience with the Star Trek Voyager following, as evidenced by the 90 second commercial they play on EVERY break - thank you 30 second skip). This run became very routine, and even though I knew that you should mix it up in order to keep your muscles from becoming used to a workout, my habit won out.

Last week I decided to go for a run outside. I have no idea why I was suddenly insipred to do this, as I have always preferred running on the treadmill. I did a very easy out and back / loop combo that was only 2.4 miles. Even though it was pretty much completely flat it totally kicked my butt. I also got to run around the lake by my house while the sun came up, shining across the perfect glass surface with the flatirons in the background. I was sold. So Saturday I lost my mind and added the Davidson Mesa out and back in as well doing 5.4 miles, which is way longer than my normal 3 miles. Today I did 4.5 and while there's no doubt that I had a hard run (legs are sore), I'm not writhing in pain on the floor.

My new routine feels great, and now I have to figure out how to keep it from becoming a habit again...

Facebook, you finally got me

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:59:00 +0000

I have been resisting Facebook for years now. Some of my friends have been pushing me toward it, but I held my ground firmly. Clearly if you're reading this blog you can see that it's not a resistence to technology. I embrace technology, web 2.0, blah blah blah. The reason I've been resisting Facebook is partially because I felt facebook was for teenagers and pedofiles, but also because I didn't see the point. I should have realized that this has happened for me before. When I first learned of Twitter, I really didn't get it. My first tweet was something like "Working for a software company in Boulder". It wasn't until I started following people that I understood it really meant it when it said, "what are you doing RIGHT NOW?". I've tried lots of other "web 2.0" technologies and most didn't stick. Twitter did, and now facebook has as well. Part of the clincher was that Becca was on it and honestly that really surprised me. She's not a big fan of technology in general, so if she found value in it there must really be something there.

So, I created a facebook account and started filling out my profile info. Then I searched for the people I knew were on facebook (as they were the ones giving me grief about not having an account). Soon I started getting accepted friend requests. OK, cool, so now what? Hmm, let's look at their friend list. Wow, so-and-so is on here. Friend request sent. Hey, look who else is here. Friend request sent. Oh look, on my info tab I can click on my high school name. Whoa! There's some people I haven't talked to in 18 years. You get the picture.

So I quickly became hooked and started finding people I haven't spoken with in many years. I still haven't caught up with emailing everyone I've found (or have found me), but I'm getting there. I'm trying hard to not let Facebook interfere with my job, which is tough, because I sit in front of a computer all day. It's just way too tempting to keep checking it. Yea, another computer thing to suck up my time. Becca will be thrilled...

Poorly placed space bar usage

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:56:00 +0000

Sometimes I type too fast for my own good. When I was in high school, they offered typing classes. I took 2 semesters of it, and although it was tedious (we actually typed on typewriters believe it or not) it has been a fantastic skill to have. I've timed myself on programs that measure that type of thing and can get between 80 and 100 words per minute.

However, sometimes my typing speed is to my detriment. I have noticed that I tend to use the same phrases quite often when I write, as I'm sure most people do. A phrase I use a lot is "about it". An example is, "I would like to hear about it." In and of itself, this is a perfectly normal, mundane phrase. However, when I get into speed typing mode, at least half the time my thumb decides to hit the space bar at the wrong time with those two words. So instead of "about it", I end up typing "abou tit". A simple mistake, but resulting in a somewhat embarrasing situation (especially when IMing to a woman, and you can't hit the backspace to correc tit before she see sit). :)

Your weight changes like Oprah!

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:34:00 +0000

I have joked a lot with friends and family that my weight fluctuates like Oprah. It's funny to me at least, and is definitely a way to make me feel better when I gain a few pounds. In the picture I captured the graph of my Gyminee weight tracking. I joined Gyminee in October of last year when I heard of a challenge posted by Brad Feld which he called his weight jihad. I joined the Boulder Boys weight loss challenge, and it worked pretty well. I lost about 12 pounds in the three months we had the competition. You can see from the graph that I lost a lot of weight right away in a very short period of time. That's what I call my obsessive period. Then, you can see that it starts to fall apart, going up and down and for the most part staying flat (or maybe even creeping up at a small incline). That's what I call my post-obsessive period.

Typically, after the post-obsessive period, I have a gluttony period. For whatever reason, I work out hard and starve myself for a few weeks, or even a month. Then I just can't take it anymore, and I start eating the things I have been depriving myself of. For me, that's essentially chips (potato chips, corn chips, etc). I can go on in that mode still working out hard, telling myself that I'm "maintaining" now. Then I'll say things like, "this must be my natural body weight, because I'm not losing any more." Being completely honest, that's all a load of BS. If I would just "maintain" a healthy eating and workout plan, then I likely wouldn't lose my mind from deprivation and binge on a family size bag of Doritos.

So, right now I'm back into an early stage, but I'm trying not to be too obsessive about it. I realized that I started getting into the gluttony period a few weeks ago, and I cut it off before it could do serious damage. I'm trying a new plan I'm calling obsessive maintenance. With this plan I still hit the treadmill, and I still eat healthy and small portions for the most part. However, I'll let myself have a snack size bag of chips every few days, and a couple of cheese and crackers, etc. I'm hoping that by using portion control and not complete deprivation I will stem the post-obsessive phase and stick to my guns this time. If I can maintain this for a few months, the hope is that it will become natural habit, and much easier to continue.

The big gap in the data points on the graph was me entering the gluttony period and then back into obsessive. I don't know what my weight climbed back up to as I decided I didn't want to know until I had tried lowering it again for a while. I'm psyched that I'm back on track and the lowest I've been since I started tracking it. Wish me luck and strength of will, and soon enough I'll reach my goal.

The Masters

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:46:00 +0000

I'm not a big golfer, so much so that I play maybe once every couple of years. However, it was still unbelievable to walk onto the course at Augusta. This has to be one of the most beautiful courses I have ever seen, and the organization and number of people is unbelievable. I got a few shirts as souvenirs and I'm still waiting for the picture of Tiger (he hasn't appeared as of this post).

So this week the bizdev plan is:

1) Shmooze at the Masters

2) ?

3) Profit

Playing Roulette on airplanes

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:00:00 +0000

So whenever I'm on planes I play roulette with who is going to sit beside me. It used to be that it was unusual if the middle seat wasn't empty. Back in the good old days there were a lot more flights, and they didn't get full. Now they've cut back enough that every plane is oversold, and therefore completely packed.

So, I end up playing "who will sit next to me" roulette. I am one of the first people on a plane, having status. So that lets me make sure I have space to put my bag in the overhead and get settled in my seat. Then, as I sit there I watch all the people coming on the plane. Since I now know that the odds of having an empty middle seat are close to zero, I hope for a "small person". I don't care if the person is male or female, tall or short, but what I do care about is width. I want someone without wide shoulders, and especially without a wide middle. Bottom line, I want space so I don't feel like I have to lean away from them.

As people walk onto the plane, I'm watching them and in my head saying, "no, no, please God no, liveable, no, yes - bummer, no, no, no, liveable, liveable, no". You get the picture. Clearly, I have no real choice in the matter, but it's my little game I play in my head and it makes me feel like I have some bit of control.

Today, I got liveable twice in a row for each of my flights. I'll take it. So as you walk on planes, watch the people watching you and see if they're mouthing anything to themselves. Hopefully you get a yes when they look at you...

"BizDev" is pretty cool

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:41:00 +0000

So this year I added yet another hat at work: business development. At first it was a little confusing as to what I was supposed to do. However, I've been on a roll lately meeting and greeting with the best of them.

Last night I attended Intel's Nehalem launch event held at the NASDAQ Times Square building. While "networking", they were filming Fast Money below us. There were some definite big players in attendance, and the catering and wine stations were supurb.

So I have to say that bizdev is pretty cool. As far as I can tell it's lots of shmoozing, lots of talking, and lots of asking. I need to engage phase 2 soon: somehow increase our revenue because of the shmoozing. It makes me think of South Park:

1) Collect underpants

2) ?

3) Profit!

Or in my case:

1) Shmooze

2) ?

3) Profit!

Once I figure out the ?, I'm golden.

Stuck in Aspen

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:50:00 +0000

The family and I headed up to Aspen for spring break on Saturday. We were planning 2 days of skiing, and the rest of the time I either had to work (it's the end of the quarter) or we did other activities (like the awesome Aspen rec center). So I looked at the weather report and changed our tuesday/wed. ski plan into Sunday/wed. I thought a nice warm day of skiing would be great for everyone. Boy was I wrong. They hadn't gotten any snow in a very long time, and it was either solid ice in the shade, or total slush in the sun. Bad call on my part. However, they got a big storm tuesday night, and wednesday skiing was some of the best I have ever had. There were times I had powder up to my knees, which is very cool except when you fall.

So now it's thursday morning, and our plan to drive back to Boulder is shot. We saw last night that a big storm was coming, but we thought we could get up early today and beat it. No such luck, as it's already beginning to hit here, and will be in full force on the front range by noon. We're talking up to almost 2 feet of snow in a matter of hours. Not worth the risk of being on the road. So, alas, we are stuck in Aspen until late Friday or Saturday. I guess I will just have to suffer.

Nathan Fillion rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:37:00 +0000

Ok, going to geek out for a bit here. My first introduction to Nathan Fillion was in Firefly. As soon as I saw the first episode, he became a favorite of mine. Since then, I've seen him in Serenity (the movie based on Firefly), Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (truly amazing web show) and Desperate Housewives. Just to clarify, Becca watches Desperate Housewives while I play games on my laptop, and because it's on in the background I can't help but hear all the lines and glance up and see what's going on. Yes, it can be funny at times, but I digress.

I set up the DVR to grab Castle last week (after seeing that Nathan was starring in it), and all I have to say is WOW! Not only is that a very well written show, but Nathan brings the perfect touch to it. I'm already hooked and look forward to being able to watch many episodes to come.

I have realized recently that there are 4 actors that have played roles that seem to have a theme to them that I very much enjoy. They are Nathan Fillion, Richard Dean Anderson, Ben Browder and Joe Flanigan. They have all played characters that are tough, yet very sarcastically funny. 3 of the 4 were in Stargate shows, which sure doesn't hurt since I love that franchise. If you know of other actors that fit into this grouping, please let me know and I'll pick up their works.

In the meantime, we need more of the other guys in new shows. I hear rumor that Stargate Universe may actually happen, so hopefully I'll get weekly doses of a few of those guys, plus bonus for David Hewlett.

Speaking of scifi, are they going to create another Star Trek show or let the franchise wither into dust? Yeah, the new movie is coming out, but I want to be back in the nirvana of 3 trek shows on the air at the same time. Having STNG, DS9 and Voyager on was mucho happiness.

If it smells like poo outside, cold weather is coming

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:15:00 +0000

It's a well known fact for those of us that live in the Boulder area that if you go outside and get the overwhelming smell of poo, bad weather is coming. When the wind shifts and blows from the north, it brings with it the smells of northern Colorado. Now, I don't want to rag on northern Colorado too much, but dude, it stinks up there. There are a lot of farms, and Greeley is the epicenter of bovine slaughterhouses.

So, much like how old people say they can feel the weather changing in their bones, we of the Boulder area know the weather is changing when the air smells like poo. Yes, I had to say poo yet one more time.

Poo.

P.S. Poo

iPhone 3.0 OS cometh!

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:15:00 +0000

Rock on Apple. Massive chocolately goodness coming to the iPhone. Read the details on TIPB.

Google "interest-based" advertizing

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:35:00 +0000

I just received an email from Google telling me that I need to update the privacy policy on my web site. Since "my" web site is Blogger, owned and run by Google, I figure I'm ok.

The disturbing part is why it needs to be updated. Google is now going to track where users go and build up a database about them. It will then assign a type to that person. The example they give is if someone visits a lot of sports sites, they will be labeled as a "sports enthusiast". The reason they are doing this is of course for advertizing. The more specialized person that Google can promise to see someone's ads, the more they can charge for them.

This reminds me of the early days of Tivo. There was an article from back in 2002 in the WSJ (subscription required for the link, sorry) about a man who's Tivo thought he was "gay". Turns out he had the audacity to give a thumbs up to shows like Will & Grace. Tivo decided to start recommending (and recording automatically) anything they had labeled as "homosexual".

That can be somewhat funny and annoying when it's only happening on your personal Tivo. However, in this instance, we're talking about major privacy infringement. Lots of people have Google accounts, so it's not like Google won't know who is visiting which sites. Heck, I clearly use Google and I have a my account page with my name, age, etc. Google may claim they aren't associating this data together, but it's all there and would be very easy to do.

Google will learn quickly that I'm a geek, and I expect to start seeing lots of ads for Star Wars the Clone Wars, technology gadgets and the like. What do you think? Is this going to make the ads more appealing, or is the privacy infringement simply too much? What happens if you are incorrectly labeled?

I have a feeling Google's biggest label category will turn out to be "porn enthusiast".

Largest, most un-reliable 3G network

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:00:00 +0000

OK, firstly, I stole the cool death star image from wired.

The point of this post though is to pontificate on AT&T's 3G network. I am truly baffled by the behavior I have seen with my iPhone. Of course, being completely in love with the iPhone, I blame all the problems on AT&T, and will continue to do so until proven otherwise.

Problem 1: Phantom incoming call

This issue has to do with a scenario which keeps happening lately. I will have my phone sitting on my desk, mere inches from my hand. If I glance at it at any particular moment in time, it will show me somewhere between 2 and 5 bars of 3G connectivity. However, said phone will all of a sudden play the standard iPhone voicemail sound seemingly for no reason. I think to myself, "What? I can't have new voicemail, my phone didn't ring." I look at it and low and behold, I have new voicemail. I think, "wait, how can this be possible, I didn't miss a call did I?" Looking in the recent calls list confirms that no, I didn't miss a call. My phone had no idea that someone was trying to call me. So for whatever reason, the network didn't have my phone registered for the exact moment of that call.

Problem 2: Network strength all over the place

Possibly the cause of problem #1 is that the signal strength will vary greatly, even without moving the phone. Let me emphasize that the phone is 100% stationary, but I can watch the signal strength go from 5 bars of 3G, to 4 bars of edge, to 2 bars of 3G, to no signal, to 5 bars of edge...you get the picture. Now, how can the signal possibly be changing like that when the phone isn't even moving? I'm guessing that the "no signal" times are what are making me miss calls.

Problem 3: 3G data not working

There are times when my signal changes from edge to 3G where the data doesn't work. The phone will say it has plenty of 3G chocolately goodness, but any data app I try to use returns an error. If I change the settings to NOT use 3G, then things work. However, if I want 3G speed I have to cycle the power on the phone and then 3G works again. What the heck is the deal with that?

Solution: I found that if I leave my phone on edge all the time, I don't miss calls, the signal doesn't go up and down like a yo-yo, and I can consistently receive data (VERY slowly). Obviously this is not ideal, as edge speeds really suck.

So, the real solution is that AT&T needs to clean up their "largest, most reliable 3G network" to actually be reliable. Come on AT&T, I know you're not motivated to do squat for me considering that I have no other choice than to use you if I want my iPhone, but don't you still want your customers to be happy?

International networking at the Dean's home

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:05:00 +0000

I attended a great IBCircle event last night at Dean Ahlburg's home in Boulder. I met lots of new people, and have some very interesting conversations. Some of the topics included organic wine requirements/creation/distribution, green energy options and solar legislation, semiconductors, the real estate market, New Zealand, and others.

I truly enjoy talking with the members of this group, as their insights and global awareness make for very stimulating conversation.

New tech meetup / reunion

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:49:00 +0000

Last night I attended the new tech meetup once again. It was a great crowd, and some really good presentations with some solid ideas. As an added bonus, there were several people from the old Rogue Wave crew on hand. I had a great time catching up and realized that with Boulder being such a small community, Rogue Wave has been home at one time or another to quite a few tech people over the last 14 years.

I'm thinking that a Rogue Wave alumni reunion is in order, for both past and current employees. I'll send a feeler out on the linked in alumni group, but also comment here or email me if you're interested.

Starbucks happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:45:00 +0000

OK, I'll admit that I'm a bit of a Starbucks junkie. This situation only worsened when my local Starbucks closed down in lieu of the new one built down the street with a drive-thru. It is simply too easy now to stop there on my way to work and make sure I get my venti skinny caramel latte.

One thing I noticed right away though with the drive-thru was the way they greet you. When you pull up to the little speaker-box, you are greeted with something very much like, "Good morning and welcome to Starbucks, how are you today?"

At first, I was very irritated by this greeting. I wanted them to ask me what I wanted, not how I'm doing. I blamed my grouchiness on the fact that I didn't have my morning coffee yet, so of course I couldn't possibly respond in a friendly manner. However, after discussing this with my wife, she suggested that I "go with it" for a week and see what happens.

I did just that, and low and behold, I actually enjoy it now (yes, my wife was right, which she usually is about these types of things). Since I see the same people there several times a week, they recognize me and it makes for a more pleasant experience. So now instead of being irritated that I have to make nice with the coffee people, I get to start out on the right foot with a smile and cordial greeting to some genuinely nice people. Slowly but surely my gruffness is being eroded away. Pretty soon I may not even recognize myself...

Nah, don't get your hopes up.

Losing the desire to blog

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:02:00 +0000

For some reason my desire to write new posts dried up a while ago, and the one that I did was more of just a complaint than anything else. I've been thinking about why this has happened, as I used to really enjoy blogging.

My only conclusion on the matter is simply that I was overwhelmed, overworked, and just plain stressed about too many things. I recently got back from a week-long vacation in Mexico with my wife (just the 2 of us for 3 days) and lots of sales people from my company. It was a fantastic week off, and just what the doctor ordered.

I'm going to start posting again and hopefully enjoy it like I used to.

More to come...

The unfriendly skies

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:16:00 +0000

United has definitely been going downhill. They canceled the direct flight from Denver to Heathrow 3 months after starting it, and now they've started using 767s a lot. If you haven't been on a 767, it's an old plane with very small overhead space (standard American size carry-on suitcase barely fits in sideways, definitely not end-in). The flight I just took from Denver to Chicago actually had one of those 3 color projection TVs with a big screen that pulled down to project on. It flickered, had incorrect tint and stopped working for several mintues at a time repeatedly.

Come on United, I know the times are tough, but even though oil is amazingly cheap now, your prices haven't gone down. Step it up and keep your frequent flyers happy.

The iPhone is life changing

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:35:00 +0000

It's not often that a piece of technology will change a person's life, but it does happen. Consider the car, the refrigerator, the microwave, and the PC to name a few. However, I believe that the iPhone has changed my life in several ways.

Background:

I was an early user of the blackberry, back when it was just a pager with a few lines of screen real-estate. I moved on to the larger version (PDA size) and was addicted to it at the time. When it broke several years ago, I did a trade-in deal with RIM and had them send me a refurbished one. That broke after about 6 months, and I decided that it wasn't worth keeping it. One reason was that I had to carry around two devices (this was before they integrated phones with blackberry) and the other was that I was getting fed up with it buzzing constantly from all the email. Granted, I could have turned that off, but I wasn't as wise in my younger days. So for quite a while I lived with only a cell phone, telling people that if something was urgent enough they can call me, otherwise it would wait until I was checking mail on my laptop.

I got my iPhone on July 11th, and it has been an unbelievable change. Here are the specifics on what I feel are dramatic enough to list out:

1. Remote email. OK, so I had this before with blackberry, but I was without it for so long that it's new to me again. I learned from past mistakes and have the iPhone set to silently acquire email, allowing me to check it occasionally when I feel the need to. One advantage the iPhone has over blackberry is that it connects to my gmail account as well as my exchange account, putting it in one simple location with the same interface. Where before the blackberry made me feel like I never left work, now I feel more freedom in being able to check email wherever I am and not have to worry about firing up the laptop.

2. Web browsing. My last phone before the iPhone did have a browser on it. It was absolutely pathetic however. Now, if I have something on the tip of my tongue, or want to look something up, it's all there in a real browser just like I would have on my laptop.

3. Google maps. I used to always have to remember to print a map when going to an unfamiliar location before leaving. Now, I can simply enter the address into the google maps application, tell it to give directions from my current location and voila. The fact that it shows real-time my current location on the map is huge, as I then know where I am relative to my next turn. If Apple would allow voice directions, I couldn't ask for more. (bonus feature: click on an address in an email and it goes straight to the map and shows you the location)

4. iPod. On a recent trip with the family, my daughter watched a movie on my laptop on the plane. The movie was a bit too intense for my 4 year old son, so ahead of time I downloaded some cartoons from iTunes to my phone and he watched those. There were times before that we lugged two laptops onto a plane to solve this problem, but now life got much simpler.

There are other things about the iPhone that make it a fun, cool device that I love owning, but I wouldn't call life changing.

If you don't have an iPhone, you're missing out...

Keeping spam off my iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:44:00 +0000

I absolutely hate spam, whether it's email, junk snail mail, text messages, etc. When I got my new iPhone one of the first things I did was connect it to the exchange server at work. It was a beautiful thing, as with a few entries within minutes I was live via activesync just like my Outlook client on my PC. But then the spam started coming in. I was completely baffled when I looked on my iPhone and noticed 3 new messages. Wow, lots of email coming in. But when I looked they were your typical "enhancement" or "get your degree now" emails.

I spent a lot of time tweaking Outlook to be quite good at keeping spam out of my inbox. So I couldn't understand why the spam was zipping through to my iPhone. After doing some googling I learned that there is no spam filtering software on the iPhone. My next step was to go look at my Outlook/exchange settings and figure out what wasn't working. What I learned was that my main spam filtering rule was a client-only rule. So it only runs when the Outlook client is connected to exchange. Eureka! But why was it client only and how do I fix it?

After more googling I found a site that explained the problem. It seems I had a condition in my rule that forced it to be client only. We use Spam Assassin at work to filter messages. When it determines through its magic that a message is spam, it inserts a line into the email header that says "X-Spam-Flag: YES". My rule would look into the message header and if it found that string it would mark it as read, and permanently delete it. I believe the culprit was the mark it as read part. I took that out, and instead of permanently delete it I changed it to move it to the deleted items folder. Voila. When I saved that rule it didn't put the little (client-only) tag next to it.

The good news? I haven't had a spam email on my iPhone since. Rock-on iPhone.

My iPhone 3G Story

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:25:00 +0000

I've been waiting for the iPhone 3G for many months now. The anticipation was becoming overwhelming to the point that my wife told me she doesn't want to hear the word iPhone from me again. This morning I awoke at 4:00 a.m. and headed over to my local AT&T store. I had done my research ahead of time. I talked to the employees at that store and they said that the Boulder store would be a madhouse, but with their obscure location, they should be fine. I took no chances anyway and got there at about 4:30.

While driving there I was an obsessive, paranoid freak. Every car I saw in front of me on the road I thought was going to the store and was going to get there in line in front of me. It turns out that none of them were going to the AT&T store, so it's a good thing I didn't speed (I figured that getting pulled over would take longer than just going the speed limit). When I finally arrived there I was thrilled. I was 5th in line. No matter what happened, I figured they had to have at least 5 iPhones, and my odds of getting the one I wanted were very good.

I met some of the other iPhone obsessors and the time actually passed rather quickly. There was a Starbucks next door, but I only got a grande knowing that a venti would likely push my bladder over the edge. At about 7:45, the store manager came out to talk to the line (at least 100 people at this point, likely more) to tell us the basic rules, etc, and also to inform us that they only had 55 phones. Shock and dismay rippled through the crowd, but what do you expect when you arrive 30 minutes before the store opens when trying to get the most widely sought after mobile device ever?

8:00 comes and they open the doors. A woman says she wants the first 7 people in line to enter the store. I got in and was directed to a sales associate. He asked for my current phone number, brought up my account and asked which phone I wanted. "The 16 gigabyte iPhone white please." Once the box was laid on the counter in front of me I knew I was golden. "Do you want the AppleCare plan?", "Yes, since you can't replace the battery." He asks if I want any accessories and I plunk down a strategically shelved Jawbone 2 bluetooth headset. He activates my phone, gives me a new sim card, and tells me, "you're all set, just take it home and synch it with iTunes and it will finish activation." I leave the store on cloud nine, with my AT&T bag stuffed with goodies even Santa can't get his hands on.

I walked into my house at 8:25. The 15 minute activation process promised by AT&T actually lived up to the billing. I plopped down on the couch and started opening boxes while booting my laptop. All is good, all will soon be great. I get everything out and plug in the USB cable. The 2 seconds it took for iTunes to recognize it and display "iPhone" in the left side navigation area were excrutiating. Then the store area went all white with only the silver words "iPhone". I waited as patiently as possible while the little bar spun and the words "Accessing iTunes Store" were displayed above it. Then I got the popup window you see for this post. Oh, yeah, tons of activiations going on, it's going to take a few tries.

It's now almost 1:00, and after at least 100 tries, I'm still not activated. So I have the most amazing, powerful, revolutionary mobile computing platform in the world in the palm of my hand, and all it can do is call 911. I called the rep from the AT&T store to see if they could do something, but immediately got a voice recording explaining that activations are overwhelming the system, apologies, try later in the day. The wait continues.

UPDATE: OK, I guess if you bitch about Apple the Jobs-God hears and corrects it. At 1:02 p.m. I got in and activated my phone. I am now synching calendars, contacts, email, bookmarks, etc. It's ALIVE!!!!

New Tech Meetup Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:32:00 +0000

So I attended my first Boulder New Tech Meetup tonight. It turned out to be a lot of fun. There were several companies presented, but the one that stood out and I keep thinking about is Idyllon. Idyllon is an early stage company creating a full 3D social network. Think world of warcraft without the game part of it. It seems like a really interesting idea, and the demo graphics are amazingly beautiful. It made me think of the old Keanu movie called Johnny Mnemonic. If you've seen it, you may remember the scenes where he "surfs" through a 3D internet. This type of technology could eventually replace the standard browser/desktop interface. Think about it.

Google maps street view

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Recently I needed to look up an address for a meeting and noticed a new link on the pop-up on google maps: street view. I clicked this and was amazed with a 360 degree panning view of that location. The great part is that I was able to look "across the street" from where I was going and spotted a landmark I am familiar with. That made it very easy to determine where I needed to go.

However, I then mapped my house and did the street view there. It was a little creepy to have the amount of detail that I did of my house from the street. Luckily my garage door was closed, but when doing the same for my mother's place, her garage door was open and her jeep was visible inside. Zooming in I could almost make out the license plate and with some photoshopping I imagine it wouldn't be hard to get the detail. This raises a very interesting question about privacy. Taking a picture from a public street seems legal enough, but then creating a database that anyone in the world can access takes it to a new level. Let's say that someone wants to look for a neighborhood to burgle. Clicking down the streets might show you an area where lots of people had their garage door open and there are nice cars inside. It's also disturbing to think of people being caught in the images. While I didn't see anyone in the images I looked at, my mother said that while clicking down the main street in her town she saw someone on a bike "in front" of her and then they disappeared in a frame down the way. And as you can see in the image I captured of Pearl and 28th streets in Boulder, there are a lot of cars visible in the image.

There are clearly advantages to having this data available when trying to get to a location you're unfamiliar with, but is this opening the door to potentially massive problems?

Why British Airways sucks

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:09:00 +0000

So I'm sitting in the Paris CDG airport right now 3+ hours before my flight to Heathrow. There's a flight in about a little over an hour that would be "lovely" to take. However, when I asked if I can go standby, they tell me that my ticket is a special fare and it's not exchangable. Huh? So I ask, "Don't you have the concept of standby here?" To which the reply was, "Yes, but not with your ticket." I then ask if I can pay a fee to "upgrade" my ticket and allow me to get on the earlier flight. The response was not pleasant, and essentially "no". They weren't nice about it at all, didn't apologize that I have to sit here for 3 hours when there are plenty of empty seats on the earlier flight. Seriously, what the heck kind of policy is this? It doesn't make any sense to me. Screw these guys. This is the last time I fly on BA.

Mass Effect: We don't need no stinkin Star Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Lasica) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:39:00 +0000

My two favorite games so far on Xbox 360 by far are Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 without a doubt. I love the mix of first person shooter with role play. Since KOTOR 2 I've been in a Star Wars drought for games. While I am anxiously anticipating the release of the new title, with amazing looking force powers I was introduced to a gem that's been out for a while now. Mass Effect is made by Bioware, the same guys that made the KOTOR games. It's obviously the same engine, and I've heard that they simply lost their license from Lucasarts. The game has biotech abilities which are suspiciously similar to force powers, but it's still tons of fun. They've improved the engine a bit, and if you hadn't played KOTOR before you wouldn't know it was "supposed" to be Star Wars. I'm still early in the game, but I'm having a blast. I highly recommend it if you don't mind becoming quickly addicted.

Take that Lucas!