Day Off

This was from a day off that I took a couple weeks ago.

Just a Small Software Update

This is why people don't trust IT. We said there'd be a small policy change on the Blackberries and instead this is what we get. This is my Blackberry, bluescreened. I can only imagine how the non-technical people feel about this sort of thing.

Ops and latency

This is the view from my desktop the other day. I'm watching operations per second, and transactions' latency, so that I can tell another department which pieces of their storage are safe to move to "slow" disks.

This is one of those times where I suddenly realize just how much I've learned in the past few years.

Short Slices of Focus

Every week I have a recurring meeting with a department that only shows up for the meeting when they need something. So every week I get this wonderful fifteen minute break, in a quiet conference room, where I can do whatever I like. Maybe some day I'll actually have a desk this big, in an office this size, with these minimal distractions. Focus is nice. Maybe I should try sequestering myself for ten minutes here or there as part of my official routine.

Eyeballs R Noms

Google bought reCaptcha.  For the technology or for the click-trails?  After all, they already know all the "monetized" blogs you visit and how long you spend there, because the "Ads by Google" hits tell them.  But what about those pesky free-lovin', non-advertising, un-google-hosted blogs that don't generate hits on google servers?  Thanks to the ubiquity of comment-spam, now those hits will phone home to the googlemind, too!

This could be fun ... I'm imagining smart-ads following my pheromone trail, trying to cross it with similar ones, hoping to steer me gently toward familiar-smelling products and services.  And I've got a python script pretending to be me that's randomly generating hits to some totally nutty interests ... as if it's firing flares and chaff out of my fleeing browser.  And now two bots are having a completely meaningless conversation because they don't understand real human behavior.  Wait, now I've gone full-circle. :)

Chad Hagen's Nonsensical Infographics

In a field where every screen is full of information to be parsed and processed, sometimes it's nice to sit back and enjoy pretty graphics that mean absolutely nothing.

I wish I was more plugged-in to the San Diego art community. I miss attending Anon salon events. I wonder if there's anything similar down here. I'll have to start looking!

Destruction Project

This is a fifteen dollar, waterproof, flexible, rubber keyboard. I don't know yet what it wants to be when it grows up, but I'll bet you can do some cool stuff with 104 on/off switches and some Processing code.

ModNation Beta Code

I got this present, the other day. I'm looking forward to the ModNation game, mostly because anyone can make and share a track with the world. There are jillions of "beginners' minds" who see possibilities that a seasoned level-creator-person has learned to discard outright.

In LittleBigPlanet the popular UGC pieces were cars and rockets ... so what will we get when the pre-fab pieces *are* cars.

White Rabbit

I'm tired of running late, and it's been my habit lately. Gonna get a grip on this. So far this week I'm running 100% on-time, but I'd like to get myself running a little early, since it's nice to arrive and still have time to compose and orient myself.

Favorite Things

I've added this post-it to my page full of professional goals and things. It seems that my favorite projects have one of these things involved. They're customer facing, or I'm working with artists, or people consider the solution "clever." Good to know. Thanks, me!

Ride Route : Sept 6, 2009

We started at Pizza Port, for a salad and a slice of pizza.  We went down the coast through Point Loma.  We swung through downtown, and looped north to stop at Extraordinary Desserts for some coffee.  We swung past my place, and then I showed Scott how I can get to his place on surface streets.
View Motorcycle Ride, Sept. 6, 2009 in a larger map

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Motorcycle License

Officially.