I spent the morning working with my brother Jeff to get his neighbor’s living room wired for surround sound. Then it was home for a quick nap before cleaning all the useless junk out of my garage.
I’m turning in early tonight for a well-deserved good night’s sleep.
Also, I’m headed to Mississippi for the first half of next week on a business trip. Yay. What was that part about ‘never having to travel’ that was mentioned during my interview?
Man, what I wouldn’t do to have my guitar right now. All this snow’s got me dreaming of being “someplace other than here,” as the Jimmy Buffett song goes. I’m having the hardest time stopping myself from belting out a song right here at my desk.
I thought I found a fantastic way to keep American jobs from migrating overseas. Colorado legislators are pushing a state bill mandating that companies sending jobs overseas will lose their state contracts. It’s only fair that companies that make their money off taxpayer-supported government contracts not ship jobs to other countries, right? Is it fine for government to place stipulations on its contracts? After all, nothing compels you to accept the contract: its your choice.
I blew a gasket when the Reagan Administration forced states to lower their speed limit or lose federal highway funds. I suppose in that case I saw it as a matter of the federal government meddling in affairs of the states. It’s different when its government-to-contractor, isn’t it? Or is it?
What about government contracts that require drug testing? I am firmly opposed to drug testing, except in positions where the safety of the public could be at risk. What one does on one’s own time is no one else’s business. Yet, drug testing has become an ugly reality at many large companies because of government contracts which require drug testing of its contractors.
I’m thinking out loud (out blog?) here. So let me toss this out to the Peanut Gallery: is there a conflict between these two examples of contract stipulations? Is prohibiting companies that “offshore” from government contracts a good thing, or is it another example of government social-engineering?
I’ve been drawn into making travel plans for next week. I’ve been traveling way too much lately. And the last-minute travel thing is twice as bad.
Part of my planning is choosing a hotel, of course. One thing I insist upon is some sort of Internet access. That’s why I was glad I remembered a press release from this week announcing Best Western hotels will offer free Internet access chainwide.
Good to see Best Western taking note of its traveler’s needs and making it happen. I’ll look for them when I make my future travel plans (which, hopefully, will be few and far between).
My buddy Scott Greenough has a birthday today. For the past week, we shared the same age. Not anymore. Scotty leads the way once again!
Surf on over to his site and drop him a congratulatory note! Or maybe condolences.
Few of the nine mt.net readers realize that some of the most popular search engine terms leading to this site have to do with the Asterisk PBX software. The top one, of course, is “Clay Aiken naked.” Heh. Just kidding. I just mentioned that to bait the search engines.
Yes, I know I’ve blabbered on about Asterisk, but believe it or not some people seem to be listening. There’s a lot of interest in this software, and rightfully so. It squeezes the power of a $100k proprietary PBX system into a $500 desktop PC.
Asterisk is great software, but it suffers from poor-to-nonexistent documentation. Though the software is stable and mature, working with Asterisk still requires a hard hat. I am going to change that. I am going to write a book about Asterisk and how to use it.
You see, the way I figure it there can be two outcomes to this project. Outcome One has the book becoming a fabulous success, providing me the income needed to keep my yacht moored nicely in some tax-free Carribean harbor. I go on to fame and fortune, culminating in taking over the helm of The Tonight Show, of course.
Outcome Two has the book becoming liner for catboxes everywhere. I waste months of work, suffer a bad case of carpel-tunnel syndrome, and have a better chance of winning the lottery (or becoming host of The Tonight Show) than I do of ever making a penny on the book.
Even if Outcome Two wins, I’ve gained a lot. For instance, I will have become an expert on Asterisk. Perhaps even gaining the hallowed title of recognized expert. I could raise the profile of an amazing project. I could raise my own profile, perhaps gaining consulting and becoming a trusted source of information. I will have also filled an important need, and — at the very least — will have learned something in the process.
It will take a lot of learning, and a lot of work, but the project is just too fascinating to me to let it go. So its time to get busy!
I watched the evening news for the first time in a long while last night. One of the top stories was the winter weather affecting the south. The reporter droned on about all the calamity taking place due to the ice and snow.
He said the storm left “three hundred thousand people without power.” Wow, you say. Three hundred thousand sounds like a large amount of people, right? It does, that is, until you realize it’s the total from the entire south, home to multiple millions of people. Heck, you could probably find 300,000 people living without power right now in the south, and not because of any storm.
Another thing that ticked me off was the sensationalist images they showed on TV. Now, this storm hit over a weekend, meaning most people were already safe at home. And the truth is, most people stayed at home! We’ve had such misfortune of lousy winter weather lately that only an idiot wouldn’t take it seriously by now.
So, who gets shown on the TV news? The idiots, of course!! See, Martha? There they are, skidding their cars down some iced-over hill, a gift for the snickering, waiting cameramen. The handful of poor bastards with no sense to stay off the roads make the many thousands of wiser people look bad. The rest of the country sees us and thinks “oh those poor country bumpkins…”
Now I know that the TV news wants eye-catching images to keep people glued to their sets. But these clips are almost always an aberration. Is it REALLY too much to ask for one shot of a family playing inside at home, gathered around a fireplace, or sledding in the street? Sure, it’s not as exciting as a car wreck, but it’s far closer to the truth.
The whole topic touches on a topic that I’ve had brewing for at least a month now. I’ve been putting off writing about it because I want to give it the attention it truly deserves. Last month, it dawned on me how much American society is driven by fear.
I’ll save the full-blown post for another night, but chew on that for a while. In the meantime, I’ll think I’ll continue to leave my TV set off.
Former Tonight Show legend Jack Parr died Tuesday in Greenwich, Conn. after a long illness. He was 85.
The man blazed a trail for Carson, Letterman, and Leno, putting a mark on television that is still felt today.
His death got me thinking that the job of late night talk-show host has got to be one of the best jobs around. Maybe I can take Letterman’s place when he retires. Or maybe not, as the Peanut Gallery will probably tell me. 🙂
I managed to brave the slick roads to drag myself into work. The worst parts were Timber Drive in Garner, most of which is shaded by trees, and the parking lot here at the office. I-40 and I-440 were both moving at 70 MPH.
Looks like most of the office is here, too. Don’t know what to make of that…
I’ve been seeing lots of virus messages in my inbox the past few days. The MyDoom virus is making the rounds. CNET is calling it the fastest-spreading virus.
I suspect it was responsible for crashing the WebEx session I was using this afternoon. I was entering in an appointment when suddenly their server dropped off the Internet.
This virus just another infuriating example of the danger of a Microsoft-centric tech industry. Anyone using Microsoft email products deserves the headaches this will cause. Good thing our fearless leaders have chosen Microsoft to protect our borders. I’m sure that’s got Osama quaking in his sandals.
On the other hand, the virus is set to DOS SCO‘s website, so it ain’t all bad…
