I was daydreaming during this morning’s meeting about a cool application I’d like to have. It would work with a soundcard and microphone to react to sounds it hears.

Lots of stuff around the house offer audible feedback for one thing or another. Phones and doorbells ring, smoke alarms sound, oven timers beep. (Glass breaks and doors get forced open, etc). You name it. Wouldn’t it be great for your computer to recognize these sounds and react appropriately to them?

Seems like I’ve seen some apps that do some of this, but nothing exactly doing what I want. If anyone has seen similar apps, drop me a line!
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Nothing keeps me focused on driving like driving through Monday morning stop-and-go traffic behind a truck loaded with explosives.

Dang. It’s March already. Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?

Shamelessly stolen from Wade‘s blog, check out these hacked closing announcements which ran on News14 Carolina‘s channel.

Here’s an archive of the fake announcements.

Too funny.

Seems we’ve got a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” weather policy here at the office. Not a word was said about office status, road conditions, etc.

Roads were in good shape, if slushy in some places. Looks like the road crews did a great job keeping things under control (after all, they’ve had enough practice).

I’m glad I came in because we’ve got pizza for lunch. Also, the bird feeder is getting some quality time with tufted titmouses, Carolina chickadees, and goldfinches this morning.
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There was some news this past week about a DoD report warning of massive global climate change within twenty years. The UK paper The Observer was first to report it.

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

It sounds a lot like the doom-and-gloom predictions you’d expect from cult leaders, not the Department of Defense. Still, it makes you wonder either:

(a) what they know that we don’t, or…
(b) what they’re smoking.

I haven’t read the report myself, but I did find it last night. As usual, Cryptome has the goods.

[UPDATE]: Surprise, surprise. The European press has blown this out of proportion. It is just one scenario, not the most likely. The Oakland Tribune has the story on how this threat was exaggerated.

The word from the meteorologists I know says that we can expect anywhere between half a foot to a foot of snow from this storm.

Let me say that again: half a foot to a foot of snow.

At the first sign of white stuff falling, I am so out of here.

How I’m tired of announcing snow. The radar has a huge green-and-yellow spot over Fayetteville now which is slowly moving into the Triangle. The forecast discussion has some details. Essentially you might make it in to work this morning, but getting home is going to be a bitch.

I’m staying at home today, for safety reasons as well as to visit my family, whom I haven’t seen in a week.

It’s my last day here in Orlando. I’ll be catching a flight back home this evening, preferably one earlier than the one I booked. Whatever attraction traveling to trade shows once held is gone. I just want to be home.

The rain hasn’t let up for two straight days. I heard mention of a flood warning today. The weather is affecting my mood, that’s for sure. I might have felt more at home had I been able to see that dazzling Florida night sky. Then again, with all the strip-mall neon in this area, the odds of seeing anything up there are slim.

The best way to see Florida is from offshore.

Didn’t get out last night. I wasn’t feeling well, likely spawned from the stress of the show, so I grabbed dinner with my coworker and was back in the room by 8. We managed to cross the streets without getting too soaked by the rain.

I’ll soon be on the show floor, but my mind and my heart are already back home.