I’ve gotten lots of inquires regarding Asterisk since my presentation two weeks ago. It’s taking up what little free time I have left. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I love being a phone geek!
Seems that people are getting wise to the benefits of the Asterisk system, and how VoIP can really save them money. More importantly, it can fit their business, rather than the other way around. Why use anything else?
On my morning commute Friday I passed a large tanker truck with “powered by biodiesel” written on the back. It was owned by a biodiesel company, the name which escapes me now. I thought it was pretty cool running a vehicle on vegetable oil. Today, I got an email from the City of Raleigh’s recycling mailing list with a link to the Greasecar, a kit that will let you burn biodiesel in your your diesel engine.
Like a lot of things, there’s a trick to it. The diesel engine has already be warm in order for it to burn biodiesel. And it only works with mechanically-injected diesel engines. All in all, these are small caveats for the privilege of using essentially free fuel!
Maybe there’s an upside to having a McDonald’s on every corner, after all.
I had a busy, but fun day, overall. Lots of variety. I started “making hay” around 6 AM and didn’t stop until 9 PM. I won’t bore you with details. I’ll only say that I’m feeling pretty good about things.
I’ll be accompanying the family up to K’s parent’s house this weekend. They’ll stay the week while I drive back with the car I’m buying from my in-laws: a Honda CR-V. While it will be nice to have the car, I’m sure gonna miss the daily dose of smiles and laughter from the kids and wife.
This website makes use of a cool new blog tracking service called Blogbeat. It provides detailed statistics about who is reading your blog, what’s most popular, and other cool stuff.
The service is free and only requires you to add some Javascript code to your pages. If you want to get the most out of your blog, you need to check out Blogbeat!
The other night, Kelly and I watched the movie Sideways. While it was an okay movie, I remember one particular scene where the characters drove past a California gas station. The price for a gallon of gas was $1.81. Whoa! Can you say ‘dated?’
Gas is now $2.58 per gallon at the cheap places in Raleigh. A picture in today’s paper shows gas at a California station at $3.15. A little while ago I wrote about peak oil. Perhaps its closer than I thought?
Take a minute to participate in my gas price poll on the right of the page.
When music is at its best, you’ll hear a song and it just charges you up again. This one did it for me this morning. Rock on.
—
Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth
The Dandy Warhols
I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passe.
But today, If you think that I don’t know about depression and emotional pain,
You’re insane.
And you’re a fool who hasn’t paid attention to a word that I say.
In a way,
I can’t help but feel responsible, I always knew that you were insane.
With your pain.
But I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passe.
Heroin is so passe.
Heroin is so passe.
So passe. Nowaday,
You never thought you’d get addicted, Just be cooler in an obvious way.
I could say,
Shouldn’t you have got a couple piercings and decided maybe that you were gay.
In a way,
I can’t help but feel responsible, I always knew that you were insane,
With your pain.
But I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passé.
Heroin is so passe.
Heroin is so passe. Ahh, ahh, ahh. Heroin is so passe.
Heroin is so passé. Heroin is so passe. Ahh, ahh, hey, hey.
Robert Cringley looks at the effects of the FCC ruling on DSL that I mentioned in my previous post. Like me, he is doubtful that this is anything but a giveaway to the phone companies.
I believe larger companies are in general too conservative in rolling out new products. This has been especially true with phone companies. Telephone companies missed the broadband boat by 5 years at least. Cable companies aren’t much better. Countries like Korea and Japan are eclipsing us.
In the software industry, the startup comapnies lead the way with inovation (sorry, Bill G.). They do this because they have to, because brains are their biggest weapon against entrenched old-school companies. How many startup phone companes (outside of pure VoIP ones) can you name?
Giving the keys to these larger players will, in my opinion, further accelerate our slide into becoming a broadband backwater.
The Old Nole, my 1990 Honda Accord EX, up for sale. For those not in the know, the Old Nole got its name from the license plate it wore under its previous ownership (my Dad). The name “Not-Quite-As-Old Wolfpacker” never seemed to catch on, so I went with what works!
It’s been a fantastic car in every respect. It has taken the Turners over 221,000 miles. That’s the distance to the Moon! And it still has plenty of life left in it. It comes with sunroof, 4-speed automatic transmission, power windows and locks, ice-cold air conditioning, and AM/FM CD player. It regularly gets 26 MPG in city driving and 28 MPG on the highway: amazing for a car of its vintage.
If you’d like a piece of Turner history, it can be yours for $1800 or best offer. Contact me via email ( markt at markturner dot net) or call eight four six nine three one seven (area code nine one nine, of course). I’ll see if I can’t post some pictures, after I go give it a proper bath.
I went to Crazy Fire for lunch Friday, the first time in a long while. I handed my bowl of food to the cook working the grill and continued a conversation with my coworker.
In a few minutes, my lunch was ready. The cook, a large Latino, brought me my lunch and waited to hear what type of rice I preferred.
“White,” I said.
He stared at me blankly. Too much noise in the restaurant, I thought. Time for a different tack.
“Blanco,” I told him.
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