June 2008
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Welcome to the Out Age
I’d forgotten how it is, dealing with Cox High Speed Internet here in Santa Barbara. We got spoiled with Verizon FiOS in Boston. It’s never down. Customer support is solid. And the data rates rock: 15-20Mb/s, symmetrical, for about the same as we’re paying here. But here we are, back in town for as much… Continue reading
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A few shots across the continental divide
The trip across the country on Friday yielded very little photography, at least for me: a set just 26 shots long. Our 3-person family had row 12 on the left side of a United 757-200. That’s one of the rows with a blank wall where a window might otherwise be. Our only window was usable… Continue reading
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Cacheing up
This was my first piece about The Giant Zero, from October 2006. Holds up pretty well. Continue reading
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Home again
It’s great to be back at our house in Santa Barbara, with our pool and a climate that is almost criminally nice … cool, dry and breezy while most of the rest of the country swelters. Spent a bunch of time yesterday in Cambridge trying to find a portable 250 Gb hard drive so I… Continue reading
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Could be worse
Sitting with the family between planes while delayed at SFO. One good thing: checked the speed and I’m getting 2841kbps down and 3670kbps up. Not bad for airport wi-fi. Can’t wait to get back home to Santa Barbara. The Kid calls our Cambridge place “alt.home” or “SHIFT_HOME”. But, much as I love Boston (even the… Continue reading
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Quote du jour
Alpha male philandering is the oldest form of recreational arrogance. — Britt Blaser. From a now-old post. But I think it’s still true. Continue reading
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Ones for the road
I’m not a car nut — I could never afford to be, lacking both the money and the time — but I do enjoy and appreciate them as works of arts, science, culture and plain necessity. So, about a month ago the kid and I joined Britt Blaser at the Concours d’Elegance in Newport Harbor,… Continue reading
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Days vs. Daze
Maarten is going into Day 10 of chemo. Writes Lori, He slept a little, and is finally eating something, but I think this has been the toughest day for him physically so far. According to the nurses, tomorrow, day 10, is when his immune system will be at it’s lowest point in the cycle.… Continue reading
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Making real health care happen
So now it’s time to put lessons to work. The Patient as the Platform is my latest post over at Linux Journal, and it proposes something that goes beyond merely giving patients control of their health care records. (As do, say, Google Health and HealthVault.) Specifically, I believe that having a data store for health… Continue reading
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Obama as Reagan 2.0
Caught a bit of Michael Krasny’s Forum yesterday on KQED, and heard that George Lakoff will be on the second hour today: 10-11am, Pacific time. Michael is among the most intellectual and probing of interviewers, and I look forward to hearing how he does with George. If you miss that, get the podcast. What you’ll… Continue reading
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Bye, George
George Carlin, one of smartest and most challenging comedians who ever lived, is gone. Heart failure. 71. Continue reading
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Out but not yet about
In the hospital I had neither the means nor the energy to get pictures from my little Canon point & shoot to the blog. But I’m home now, so I just put up a small set of shots I took there over the last week. The ones with my face show a happier guy than… Continue reading
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Bulletin from the future
I’m almost old. Sixty-one next month. But old enough for the wear to do more than show. It’s performing now. The trick to longevity at this point is to dodge the complete failure of any one of many systems that are all wearing down. Aging is fatal, and the number of single points of failure… Continue reading
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Hospital food never tasted so good
Got my first “thin” meal with my second breakfast this morning. The first breakfast was the usual broth and tea. Then for lunch I had my first real meal: baked scrod, a salad with strawberries and dried cranberries with a few almond slices and a lowfat dressing. Chicken noodle soup with a few crackers. Generic… Continue reading
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What radio is all aboot
I discovered JazzFM91 on a recent trip to Toronto, and keep going back. It’s sooo good. Right now Danny Marks is talking to … who is it? dunno, just tuned in. (Later… it’s Terry Gilespie.) But the subject is John Lee Hooker. The music that follows reminds me of the time John Lee gave one… Continue reading
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Solving the “brand” thing
If I still had a Santa Barbarian blogroll, I’d be quick to add Uncle Saul’s infoChachkie to it. Cool to read in his latest post another piece of the “branding” derivation puzzle: The word “brand” is derived from the Old English word baernan, which means “to burn.” For thousands of years, ranchers have branded… Continue reading
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Lasting
I still have three of these, my MRI says. So, for the first time, I’m watching The Last Lecture, with absolute intentions not to give my own Last Anything for another few decades. Highly recommended, by the way. Continue reading
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Hallelujah
There’s a light at the end of the digestive tunnel. (Sorry, can’t resist.) Four bowls of broth, two teas, a bit of jello, four glasses of water and an Italian ice have all made it past my pancreas, now once again the cooperative beast it was for close to 61 years before it revolted a… Continue reading
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Quote du jour
Mike Taht: Some level of realism regarding our energy requirements is called for. I’m not expecting any until we are reduced to watching television by candlelight. Nice back and forth in the post and comments about a Subject That Matters. Continue reading
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Getting down before getting out
Bear with me while I rehabilitate with radio. If that doesn’t do it for ya, tune out now. It’s cool. Gotta say that I’ve been learning to love WMBR/88.1, MIT’s student station, on Saturday mornings. Been listening for the last half hour or so to Doug Gesler’s excellent “Lost Highway”: Country music for folks without… Continue reading