Saturday, February 28, 2009

Lack of Updates

While I only have a few loyal readers I do feel bad about not being motivated enough to write anything recently. I'd rather say nothing than say something that is not original or at least insightful. I also started this blog to experiment with longer form content and I haven't had the time to invest into it as of late. However if you combine enough short form content with long form content it all works out:

President Obama: He's doing exactly what he was elected to do. I don't know how much milage the Republicans are going to get out of "OMG! He's CHANGING THINGS!!!" given the fact that Americans, in a landslide, elected him to do just that. Obviously we were dissatisfied with the way things were going. We've certainly spent a lot of money in the last 8 years supporting the military industrial welfare state, building roads & bridges for Iraq, and cutting taxes for the most wealthy Americans in the name of "job creation" Maybe it's time we spent some money elsewhere. I know it's a crazy idea but since the old method wasn't working I fail to see any downside in trying another direction at this point.

Bi-Partisanship: The Republicans talk about their representation in government today like they didn't lose in a landslide at all levels. Bi-partisanship doesn't mean you let the minority rule. The great trick the Republicans always play when Democrats have power is to act like they deserve majority rule status. They certainly have every right to disagree with the President's agenda but it's very dishonest to act like they deserve more power than the American people decided to let them have in November. If you want to help us improve our agenda then fantastic -- welcome aboard. Don't expect minority rule to set the agenda though.

Music: I've been totally indulging in the Miles Davis & Gil Evans era recordings. I think I've probably listened to Sketches of Spain a dozen times in the last week. It's the type of record you could just leave on repeat forever.

Books: I'm presently reading Churchill & America. It surprised me that despite my interest in WW1/2 I have almost no knowledge of Winston Churchill. My boss recommended it to me as a good introduction. I have a massive biography on Churchill that I've just never got around to reading. I'm interested, just not THAT interested. I need something a bit more casual to start off with.

Work: Things have calmed down a bit after a few hectic weeks. I've got a few big projects lined up for mid to late March so I get a little mini-vacation from working too hard until then. Just cleaning up some things, trying to refine some things, and keep everything running smoothly. One of the major things I want to work on is to increase overall availability of the network. Without getting into too much specifics We're hanging around the 98% mark system wide. Some of that is simply out of our control but I feel like we should be able to hit 99% and maintain it.


Safari 4


I dig the Top Sites feature. I arranged each row (more or less) for a different class of site, blog, news, forum, work, etc. Hopefully in the future the thunbnails will update more often and will authenticate on sites automatically to get a proper thumbnail.

A broader comment on Apple's visual design: I enjoy spending my considerable time in front of a computer in an elegant and visually pleasing environment. I'm not sure it makes me anymore productive but it definitely makes things more comfortable working on a long project. A big factor is the participation of third party developers. They generally stick within the overall idea that apps should look good, be somewhat minimalist in their functionality, and fit into the OSX way of doing things. It's a much less disjointed experience than using Windows or Linux.

I fully expect blogspot to fuckify this image so:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98796339@N00/3316713425/