It was... a Wednesday? Maybe a Wednesday, and probably during the second week I was in Bangkok. I'd fallen asleep in a taxi cab on my way to see one of the hotels and of course I had no idea when the taxi got there (I'm sleeping, remember) but somehow I snapped right out of it just as we pulled in, dreaming of Her but not meaning it, just bumped into on the street (or maybe I saw from afar?) anyhow, reeled to catch the waist, and then leg kick eyes open and I'm awake, gasping for a breath like you see in the movies.
¶ Permalink 8/12/2003 07:31:00 PM0 comments
RE:Blaster worm... I was in an Atlanta warehouse yesterday afternoon where many of Delta Airline's outdated computers go when they do company-wide upgrades. Piles and piles and piles of machines that sometimes stacked up to fifty feet high. It was a beautifully scary tech graveyard.
As I waited for the front clerk to finish processing my order, a stocky Russian man ran through the waiting room and into the owner's office. Jeff hadn't been able to access his Access database to give me a good price quote, but the clerk wasn't even able to print out an invoice had we those prices. Boris the Sys Admin was paged over the intercom, and now here he was.
I;d like to think what happened next is a good summary of what might be happening in a lot of I.T. departments across the world. Boris stops and leans against Jeff's door frame and lights a cigarette. He takes a big drag and, in a very thick Russian accent, lays it out. "It's bad, Jeff. Really bad." He shakes his head as I begin wondering how a woman's Russian accent can be so sexy and a man's Russian accent can be so intimidating. "Must be a virus. We're going to be here late."
Jeff ballparks a figure and we do some light paperwork like it is 1988. I called back today to see what the damage was. "Over $10,000 in lost on-line orders, systems still down."
Psst! I heard that Local Telephone Company has figured out an easy way to offer SMS reception on any of their land-line numbers using existing customer hardware. The catch is that you have got to have Caller ID, but who uses SMS and doesn't have Caller ID these days.
Future follows: Cell user transmits SMS, entering the land-line destination number as the message recipient. Cell provider routes the message to Local Telephone Company . Local Telco strips and repackages the message in order to ring the destination land-line with (here's the awesome part!) the SMS message and number of sender wrapped inside of the Caller ID headers. Your phone line at home lets out a single ring to notify you of the new message, which is only as far away as your "Caller ID Review" button.
Octopus vulgaris Camera approaching coral with no sign of animal. As the camera gets closer, an O. vulgaris that was camouflaged changes color to white and becomes visible. watch the video per metafilter
I'm glad you like BoingBoing. You might also like Blogdex (good for fresh links), Gawker (good for trashy NYC gossip), and Gizmodo (good for geeks).
I heard some incredible anecdotes about the country of Columbia last night and really wanted to share them. I tried to call and relate on my drive home; maybe you weren't getting service?
¶ Permalink 8/08/2003 09:44:00 AM0 comments
Current: Mobile telephone systems have Caller ID. When you receive a call, the number (and sometimes name of the caller) is displayed on a numeric LCD screen before you answer your phone.
Future: Mobile telephones have integrated GPS positioning cabaility, and cellular telephone systems continue to have Caller ID. When you receive a call, the number and location (and sometimes map of the caller's location) is displayed to you on an OLED screen.
Imagine not only knowing who is calling- but precisely where they are calling from.
Past- "Hello? Who is this?"
Present-"Tom, where are you?"
Future-BREAKDOWN
What else will integrated GPS mean for the way we communicate with our mobiles? updateThis future isn't very futuristic- it will be a reality within 18 or 24 months. The phones are already out (or in deployment), and some moblogs in Tokyo already post photos with GPS coordinates attached. Maybe I need to start learning Lat/Long coordinates of major cities...
¶ Permalink 8/07/2003 12:14:00 AM0 comments
Nick Gray WFU: Dean, Dean, Dean hegemnon: i'm warming up to him hegemnon: you sent him money yet?
update 8/14/2003
E-mail from Jason Miller: And I forgot to mention...I was working for Howard Dean before I started working for Graham (saw your posting on your blog). He's a great guy, but I had to support my Senator. I thought you were a Bush fan back in 2000? Or is my presumption that you're a Dean fan wrong?
I'm still trying to keep away from politics (although you can chalk up ignorance to any Republican claims I may have made in earlier years). I posted that IM quip on my blog because, two weeks prior, the same person (who is usually as politically active as yourself, but currently studies in New Zealand so is somewhat out of the loop) said that he didn't follow Dean, his platform was unelectable, Dean represented a bunch of yuppies, etc. But, after reading over Dean's blog and following him a little more closely, he's starting to think Dean might have a chance. I think that Jacob's opinion swap represents where some of Dean's strongest supporters could (and have) come from. If Howard Dean can get supporters like Jacob involved- in addition to the hundreds of thousands of politrendies like me... (ERROR:cliche)
¶ Permalink 8/06/2003 05:40:00 AM0 comments
Today is the last day that I will miss my ride to work because I was out late in a Patpong club seeing an insane transvestite face painting show meets modern art performance with a very superstitious girl named Aom as my date who models for big companies six or seven days a week so she can support her mother and brother. It is the last time that I can buy my breakfast of grilled chicken, strawberry yogurt and two cups of espresso from the dozens of street vendors that assemble themselves like clockwork outside of our office building from the hours of 7:00AM until 3:00PM. And it is the last time that I will show my coworkers the seventy seven pictures I snapped in half as many minutes as we walked through a fruit and vegetable market the day before.
¶ Permalink 8/04/2003 01:15:00 AM0 comments