I have been catching back up on my backlog of IT Conversations and listened to Bran Ferren - the Chief Creative Officer for Applied Minds talk from the Web 2.0 conference. This is one guy that I’d love to meet! Or at least hear speak publically… The presentation was funny, dynamic, and really really interesting. (worth a listen! - it’s only a 20 minute long MP3). The talk is really about the idea that some new interface is yet pending a great breakthrough for human computer interaction.
But really, I mean Applied Minds itself is just a cool, goofy idea.
I’ve been working with MS Project lately, trying to find the most effective ways of using it. And you know what? The Microsoft site on Project is just freakin’ useless. They talk all about how you can plug in VBA applications and connect things to a dozen other Microsoft servers that I haven’t a clue what actual value they provide. What they DON’T have is some real information on how to apply MS project to real-world problems. Like how to deal with the reality of resource constraints when people are doing two things at once. Or that a review of a project takes everyone for 1 hour - but putting that review into project seems to absorb either 0 or 1 days. Not that I really even want to keep track of people’s time down to the hour.
It would be really nice to have a “this is how we’re using it” series of articles that I could read and get up to speed. Otherwise it’s calling in all sorts of contacts and favors to get a sense of what tribal knowledge can be gleamed.
Now I’m going to have to pull down the whole webkit codebase to see how they put together the UI for the web inspector.
If it’s such a damned important message, then have a HUMAN talking to me, not some recording turned up way to high so that my cats can hear the message while they’re in the basement.
Oh - and it was important that I hang up on you too!
While I did well over Thanksgiving, my weight is up a skosh after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. So I’m back to my routine and working to walk it off. The treadmill is working really well for me, although I’m beginning to think I’ll need to move it around in the house before too long.
I’ve mostly been watching movies - the latest being the series I, Claudius that aired on PBS nearly 30 years ago. Watching movies while walking has been fantastic, and keeps me at least mentally occupied, which is proof against the bane of going to a gym - I get bored to death. I do wish I had the space for a weight machine though.
I do love this time of year
Karen and I have been talking about a new TV and stereo recently, which sort of cascades down to a lot of things happening inside the house - but most specifically converting the area where our TV is currently located into a built-ins area. The interior of the house is craftsman styling (wood painted white, not the wonderful dark wood that some of our friends have), so the idea is to mimic that style and make it accent out interior of the house even further, while allowing room for a 42″ plasma TV.
It just so happens that I saw a woodworking store across the street from Fusion Beads over on Stone Way today, so I headed over to check it out (bead stores are sort of boring for me). While I was there, I saw a copy of The Furniture of Gustav Stickley, and ended up picking it up for the woodworking projects and general lines. I like the styling quite a bit, and plan to use it for ideas. None of our furniture is craftsman, just the interior walls and woodwork. Along the same lines, Karen pulled out all the copies we could find of Old House Journal - and they even had an issue with a bunch of details on making craftsman style built-ins.
Now I have no idea when we’ll actually attack this project, but some movement is happening!
Most cats, at least by reputation, don’t like water. Not mine. He’s a freak. Of course, I like that about him. Even still, this one astounded me.
We’ve got this little water problem you see. Nearing the record rainfall in Seattle, the groundwater is thoroughly saturated, and we’re seeing an upwelling through a french drain set outside our basement steps (and 3 1/2′ below grade). It periodically causes a small stream through our basement to the floor drain, where it happily goes away. But not without leaving the periodic puddle.
And there’s where this story comes in. While Karen was downstairs today putting in some laundry, this bizarre cat of mine sits down in one of the puddles. Maybe only 1/8″ deep, but he just sits right down. Looks around, his ears all forward and interested. Then I think he saw the reflections in the water, because it became playtime and he started batting at the water. This, of course, made everything move. And that is just so much more interesting, that (as a cat) you simply have to bat at it some more.
After a good 15 minutes of this, I guess he got tired. So he just laid down. Yep, in that puddle. He was soaked. Karen brought him upstairs in a towel another 30 minutes later, just so he wouldn’t track water all over the place.
Is that a weird cat or what?
I like water. Really. Just not in my basement. Not seeping in from the odd corners that I don’t expect and rolling up and in from a french drain near the back yard. 27 straight days of rain - real rain, not the usual seattle style rain and the groundwater is just amazing. Everything is saturated, mudslides all over the place. I’ll shoot the driver of a car that goes over my verge right now!
Lordy - so tomorrow is dealing with water in the basement. Our floor drain is working, but it still sucks - because the floor isn’t canted perfectly and you can really see the low spots after the flow has stopped and it’s dried up a bit.
I watched the MacWorld keynote video this evening, and as I was watching it I noticed that the whole announcement about the iPod and sports didn’t really bring much applause. Especially when compared to the announcement about getting Saturday Night Live clips. So I am taking from that Mac fans who attend MacWorld aren’t generally sports fans.
Just one of those things I guess.
