Here’s a bit more of our call log.

But I do know what the world doesn’t need:

Here’s the deal. The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact – we’ve established that. Guilty as charged. Anyone who’s been to a bar in the last 10 years is well . . . → Read More: What the world needs…]]> Well, I’m not exactly sure what the world needs (“love, sweet love” perhaps?).

But I do know what the world doesn’t need:

• Another cover band that performs “Brick House”.

Here’s the deal. The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact – we’ve established that. Guilty as charged. Anyone who’s been to a bar in the last 10 years is well aware of it. It’s time to move on and cover deeper issues like:

• What the hell is Manfred Mann talking about in “Blinded by the Light”?
• Why is Gwen Stefani singing about b-a-n-a-n-a-s?

I don’t know why homeowners’ associations seem to love blowing (pun intended) money on this frivolous expense. I don’t really notice any significant difference in the way the grounds look and I’m sure whatever the effect is, it’s very short-lived anyway. Rather than blow . . . → Read More: Leaf blowers]]> I hate waking up to the sound of a team of leaf blowers.

I don’t know why homeowners’ associations seem to love blowing (pun intended) money on this frivolous expense. I don’t really notice any significant difference in the way the grounds look and I’m sure whatever the effect is, it’s very short-lived anyway. Rather than blow a bunch of foliage around, I’d rather that they do something with the strip of land in front of our place besides growing peet moss in the dirt. Put some sod down, get a little bit of landscaping. Remove the 3 foot wide cob webs above everyone’s front door. At least that has a chance of permanently making the place nicer and maybe even increasing its sale value too.

But then we’re not in the HOA because we’re renters.

What is . . . → Read More: SMS spam?]]> Last night I got a bunch of SMS messages from 1111302000 with insightful comments like “//SVAgIBMQBAAO5UJGo30rG…”. It’s annoying because I pay for incoming SMS messages and because my ringer was off but the Treo vibrated on my nightstands and woke me and my wife up, so I had to put the Treo in another room.

What is this stuff? Wrong number? Message garbled by a character set conversion? Is it possible to get a carrier to blocking incoming SMS from certain numbers?

I hate San Francisco. Every time I drive there, I spend an hour trying to park. So this time we thought that we’d be clever and take public transportation. We took the . . . → Read More: Gavin DeGraw in Golden Gate Park]]> Yesterday, we headed up to the city to see Gavin DeGraw give a free concert at Footstock, the after-party for the Bay to Breakers race.

I hate San Francisco. Every time I drive there, I spend an hour trying to park. So this time we thought that we’d be clever and take public transportation. We took the Caltrain from Sunnyvale to the city and then took the Muni N-Judah line to somewhere near the park. In total, it was about 3 hours of sitting on public transportation each way. So in the end, we spent 6+ hours on public transportation and spent something like $30, just to see a concert that lasted for an hour and ten minutes.

Luckily, I had my Treo 650 with me so at least I was able to browse news feeds much of the time when the train wasn’t underground.

Oh great. We went from:

crappy blogs -> crappy podcasts -> crappy video

With each step, we move to something that needs more professionalism to be good, is more difficult to search, and wastes more bandwidth. Considering that I have yet to find a podcast that holds my attention, I will probably pass . . . → Read More: Video blogging]]> Google is getting into video blogging.

Oh great. We went from:

crappy blogs -> crappy podcasts -> crappy video

With each step, we move to something that needs more professionalism to be good, is more difficult to search, and wastes more bandwidth. Considering that I have yet to find a podcast that holds my attention, I will probably pass on video blogging.

From Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

Accretive Ac*cre”tive, a. Relating to . . . → Read More: accretive design => headaches]]> Somebody summed up my thoughts succintly today about a particular piece of software that I had been playing with: “accretive design => headaches”. He also pointed out that “accretive design” is an oxymoron, which I also think is true.

From Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

Accretive Ac*cre”tive, a.
Relating to accretion; increasing, or adding to, by growth.
–Glanvill.

Simple, elegant designs tend to evolve gracefully, whereas bad designs tend to lead to hack upon hack. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.