I wrote a lengthy bit on a heavy topic about secrets tonight, then decided it was better suited for my alter-ego site, Mindblogging.com.

Click over if you want to learn a secret about secrets.

Let’s see. CompUSA has a Seagate 200GB drive for $99, after rebates.

Kelly and I own in the neighborhood of, oh, say 500 compact discs. Each holds an average of 600 MB of music in CDDA format. Shorten losslessly compresses music to roughly half its original size.

500 x 600 MB = 300,000 MB / 2 = 150,000 MB * (1/1000) = 150 GB.

I could store all of our music digitally in lossless format, and still have 50 gigs left to play with. It may finally be time to build the Mother Of All Audio Servers. Continue reading →

Jamie Gaines, one of the few, the proud readers of MT.net, alerted me to this story of how John McCain (why isn’t he president?) is prodding the cable industry to quit masking the price of cable channels through their tier packages. He’s drafting a bill to force cable and satellite providers to offer a la carte pricing.

Says McCain:

“When I go to the grocery store to buy a quart of milk, I don’t have to buy a package of celery and a bunch of broccoli,” McCain said. “I don’t like broccoli.”

This is long overdue, of course. To the point that it may not go far enough. Now that Tivo has made a la carte shows a reality, I’d like to see this being offered. Then, we could cut out the middlemen and buy our shows straight from the production companies.

Cable beats broadcast. Satellite beats cable. The duo of DVR and a-la carte shows will beat them all.

The television channel is now redundant.

I got a new check card in the mail this week, thanks to a security breach this month at B.J.’s Wholesale Club. It seems some script kiddies spent time in the parking lot, capturing unencrypted point-of-sale 802.11b traffic (my speculation only, as I can’t find many details on the actual attack). Their haul was a few hundred card numbers at the most, but enough to get the attention of BJ’s and many banks.

Odds that our card number was swiped are pretty low, considering the theft occured at only a few stores. Still, it shows that many retailers and other businessess aren’t taking the most basic care to keep your data safe.

Now would be a good time to hang out your shingle if you were in the security business. I guarantee you won’t be bored.

All of this aside, I’ve long had a beef with just how insecure credit cards are in general. With the advent of smartcards and digital cash, you’d think we’d be so far beyond this by now.

Spent a good part of the weekend resting up in front of NCAA basketball. I was on the fence as to who I wanted to win yesterday’s game of Xavier vs. Duke. I love a good Cinderella story as much as the next guy, but I ended up wanting an all-ACC championship game.

With any luck, we’ll see Georgia Tech beat Duke next Monday for the national championship. I won’t be down at all if Duke wins, but competition in the conference helps us all. Let’s see if someone else has what it takes to win it all.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. The damaged Unit 2 remains sealed, but Unit 1 still churns out megawatts of electricity.

On a related note, I found this account called Ghost Town, where the daughter of a nuclear scientist takes her camera along for a motorcycle ride through the Chernobyl area. It’s eerie seeing this city stopped dead in its tracks, with thousands of roengens per hour blasting out of the cripped reactor one morning in 1986. It makes you wonder how those people felt to have been left cooking in deadly radiation for over a week before officials announced the accident.

A recent news story mentioned that the local Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant had four unplanned shutdowns last year, while most nuke plants typically have none. I don’t know if there are more serious problems here, or if they’re just being extra careful. I don’t think another TMI-scope accident is likely, but there is always the possibility of trouble, however small that possibility may be. I hope we’ve learned our lesson.

Once again, my visit to the hospital has shown me humanity at its best. Doctors may spend thirty seconds with you (if you’re lucky), but the real heroes are the nurses. I am constantly amazed at how these people deal with the toughest situations with real grace. When you’re at your filthy lowest, they are there to pick you up. Sure, there are one or two who seem to just be punching the clock, but for the most part, its a job that one just has to love.

I can’t complain about anything with my job when I see what these people deal with day in and day out. God bless ’em.

Today was the first day I really felt “back.” I gave it my best shot Friday, but towards evening my body felt like it was ravaged inside by a storm. I was resting in the recliner, doing some reading, when I felt my neck become extremely stiff. Within a span of ten minutes, I went from feeling comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts to wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Chills broke out and I cowered under the sheets, shivering. I tossed and turned all night, my pulse racing in my ears.

My body apparently has a way of reacting to infection, or stress, or something unknown, by breaking out in a full-body rash. It doesn’t itch, but it can knock me over from the temperature changes it creates. Right now my skin looks like I’ve got sunburn. None of my doctors have been able to figure out what causes it. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen often.

Today was a better day, in spite of my lack of sleep. Hallie was still not feeling well herself, so she presented a challenge to us. She could not understand why she would be refused when she said “pick up Hallie” in front of her Daddy. I’ve been limited in what I can lift, which means not lifting Hallie. It breaks my heart to see her cry when I can’t pick her up; she is such a Daddy’s girl.

We went to the park for a bit around noon, but the sun was quite hot: above 80 degrees. Hallie’s still running a fever, so she quickly overheated, which didn’t help her mood any. We retreated to the cool of the house, where our attitudes improved. We napped some until Hallie’s sleep was interrupted by a coughing fit. I tried to coax Hallie into watching basketball with me but she was elusive. After a pre-dinner walk to the park, though, she seemed to be feeling better. In fact, we all were. I felt well enough to cook dinner for us: scrambled eggs and grits (anything beats Ensure).

I’m now feeling rested and full. Of the changes I’ve already felt, one is my ability to lie down without my throat getting irritated. I never realized what effect my stomach had on this until it was patched up. I can also lie on my stomach with no problem, too, which is something I avoided for the longest time and for the same reason. My stomach stays closed now, which is how it should be. Very cool.

Also, my sneezing is different. I sneezed twice today, which is about one-fifth of my typical daily quota! When I did, my sneezing felt solid. I don’t know if this is from the esophageal swelling or if it’s a permanent change. Just different.

I can also still belch, though I was told that this might not come easy. Again, this is not something I aspire to do, but nice to have the choice. 🙂

So I’m starting to feel somewhat normal again, and starting to notice the benefits of the surgery. The only pain I’ve felt today has been the pain of hunger, as a soft diet doesn’t take me too far. Still, that’s a welcome change for me, as I’ve been concerned for years that my lack of hunger pangs was a sign of my broken stomach.

One of my biggest challenges now is resisting the urge to get active right away. With the warm weather, I’ve been fighting the urge to get out and go biking. Just a few more days, I suppose.

Ensure is big sux.