New Year's Resolution

This isn't exactly timely, but I just came across it. I had wanted to make a new year's resolution, but I couldn't think of anything good. And today, I find the answer to my problem: The random new years resolution generator. Here's mine. What's yours?

In the year 2005 I resolve to: Never use chapstick. Get your resolution here

Try this at home

Here's an exercise I've seen floating about various blogs lately (I've seen it attributed to here, but who knows). It's supposed to give some insight into your personality.

Go to the address bar in your browser, type in the letter 'a', and see what the autocomplete function turns up. Repeat for each letter. Here are my results:

A: Apple, also ATrpms (a linux download site)
B: Blockbuster Online, and BugMeNot (a site for bypassing subscriptions to otherwise free content)
C: my blog, also CNN and Cinemark
D: a couple linux-related download sites, also the Dallas Morning News
E: Epicurious.com (I ordered a couple magazine subscriptions as christmas gifts), also evite.com (for my oh-so-busy social life)
F: Froogle (google's online shopping site), also FedEx (for tracking inbound christmas presents)
G: a couple yahoo groups of which I'm a member, also some linux mailing list archives, google (surprised it wasn't first), and GoldenPalace (not sure how that got there.)
H: h was amazingly weak. a link to a 'weird news' story that I must've followed from somewhere else, a link to someone's house for sale, and halloweencostumes4u.com (presumably from my less than successful quest to find a costume last year)
I: the Internet Movie Database (one of my fav sites), but also a bunch of ivtv sites (a linux tv project), and ipodsdirtysecret.com
J: another weak letter in my chain. The *only* thing that came up was from an ad in the dfw.forsale newsgroup
K: website for the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning radio show and the official linux kernel website
L: a bunch of linux sites, also liz's blog
M: my.yahoo.com (naturally), also the Miami Herald, some articles from money.cnn.com, a mythtv (a linux tv project), and this (must've been from dave barry's blog. honest!)
N: news, news, and news ... from bbc, NY Times, and newsday
O: had absolutely nothing ... maybe if I were an Oprah fan
P: various people's yahoo photos pages, but also this, and more linux mailing list sites (but really, I'm feeling geeky enough by now)
Q: nothing for q, but that's no big suprise. it's the unloved letter
R: roger ebert's website, radio shack
S: my favorite comic strip, Sherman's Lagoon
T: not much of interest here (more linux sites), so I'll post this
U: USA Today, and a surprising number of articles about urinals (again, I blame dave barry's blog)
V: video4linux.net
W: woot.com, also washingtonpost.com, and Dave Barry's blog
X: empty
Y: a bunch of yahoo sites
Z: zipzoomfly.com (online discount retailer)

How geeks define irony

First of all, let me warn you that this post has a geek rating that's righ off the charts. But I got a chuckle out of it, so I'll share it.

Remember how the music industry started suing people who distributed MP3's online? Well, now the movie industry is following suit and launching action against people who share movies online. One of the ways that people share movies is through a website called suprnova.com. At least, they did until yesterday.

I was reading this article (not sure how long the link will be valid) about how the Motion Picture Association of America has filed suit against suprnova.com, and the site had been taken offline in response. So, where's the irony?

Well, at the bottom of the article were several ads served up by Google's ad-matching technology. Many of the ads were for file sharing sites proclaiming "unlimited access to thousands of movies." And there was even an ad for ... drum roll ... suprnova.com!

Gentlemen, make sure the "boys" are protected

Yet one more hazard of the modern information age.

One teensy typo

I got this email yesterday from Best Buy ...

A promotional e-mail that we sent to you on December 1 contains a typographical error. The e-mail incorrectly stated: 'Plus get $10,000 bonus points just for joining.'

It should have stated: 'Plus get 10,000 bonus points just for joining.'

We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Wooops!

Ultimate House

Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, has designed and built what he calls "Dilbert's Ultimate House." Naturally, there's an element of humor to the project (note the observatory with two round windows - remind you of anyone?), but don't be fooled. The objective was quite serious: to challenge established preconceptions of home design and create an eminently livable space.

Check out the design requirements, too.

Can I get a "woot, woot?"

I heard about this website the other day, called Woot.com. They're a severely no-frills online retailer. They offer one item for sale each day, allegedly at deep discount prices. A brand new item appears each day at midnight, which they make available until it sells out. And the process repeats itself the following day.

I can't explain it, but I'm oddly addicted. Each morning, I have to click over to see what the item of the day is. And, so far, they've been sold-out by 9:00 or 10:00 am. Maybe it's the whole "you only want what you can't have" phenomenon, but I feel a tinge of regret when I can't buy the standalone CD duplicator or coffee pot with the insulated travel mugs.

Their faq page is also mildly entertaining. Gotta love an eTailer with attitude.

Observations from KY

1. Kentucky has lousy restaurants. They all seem to be cut from the same cloth: bar and grill style with mediocre steaks, ribs, and burgers.

2. There's one up-side to sleeping in a hotel. Hotels have cable. Cable has comedy central. And comedy central has The Daily Show with John Stewart and South Park. Yeah!

3. We were close to Fort Knox, and I wanted to take a tour. Turns out, though, that Fort Knox doesn't *have* a tour. I can't possibly imagine what issues they'd have parading thousands of people through a room full of gold. Go figure.

"Just when I think I'm out ..."

"... they pull me BACK IN!"

Okay, I'm feeling a little like Michael Corleone in the Godfather, Part III. (*) It's my last week at the company - my last friggin' week - and they're sending me back to Kentucky. Needless to say, we got issues.

The customer's all shades of pissed off at us. They've decided our support sucks. So, we decided it may not be such a good idea to send a new hire up there all by his lone self. So, I'm the backup. Or, as I like to think of it, the relief pitcher.

I told my boss I know how to solve the problem: I'll make a big scene up in KY, tell off their VP or something. Then, he can tell them he fired me, and that all their support issues have been my fault anyway.

He didn't go for it.


(*) One more cultural reference for you to look up, Manjote.

Oddities for the day

Yep ... one week left at my job, and I'm busily slaving away ...

More proof that lions and Christians just don't mix.

Hmmm ... here's a story about a National Guard jet pilot, whom the military refuses to name. You don't suppose someone was taking a little victory lap, do you?

Bought some dvd's

I bought some DVD's last night ... two for $20 at blockbusters.

The Professional - I finally got to see this movie. A loner reluctantly shelters a twelve year-old girl, and gradually his life takes on new meaning. Oh, and did I mention that he's a ruthless hitman? It's a refreshingly nuanced film in this age of in-your-face blockbusters. #63 on IMDB's Top 250 list.

Master and Commander - A day in the life of the 18th century british navy. I liked the attention to detail, the naval strategy, and the performances were pretty good too.

Star Wars, Episode II - Yes, I know the story was crap. But, come on, I'd buy it for Yoda's lightsaber duel alone.

Kill Bill, Volume I - I liked Lucy Liu's management style. I have no urge to buy Volume II, though. Big disappointment for me. #57 on IMDB's Top 250 list.

Chicken Run - "The chickens ... they're getting organized" That line still cracks me up.

And a few weeks back I bought a few others.

The Godfather - the ultimate guy movie. Women just don't seem to get it, do they? #1 on IMDB's Top 250 list.

Glengary Glen Ross - A stellar cast, dynamite script, ... and the most hostile office environment I've ever seen.

Moulin Rouge! - Haven't gotten around to watching this again. We'll see how it holds up for me.

The Program - best football movie ever made. (Well, I liked it at least.)

MyYahoo ...

First of all, let me warn you that the geek rating on this post will be through the roof. So, read on at your own risk.

I've been using the MyYahoo service since it first debuted. It's a great service that lets you build a custom web page - cherry picking only the content that's appealing to you. But the content selection has always been limited to that which Yahoo and partners could serve up. Extensive, perhaps, but limited by nature.

That's about to change.

I've been trying a beta version of the latest MyYahoo upgrade. Its key feature is support for syndicated web content (RSS and other XML-based schemes). If you're not familiar with this, let me just say that there's been a quiet revolution occuring out on the web. Thousands of sites have started making content available in a form that's easily digested and integrated by other content management systems.

So what's the point? Well, my new Yahoo page is now packed with content from friends' blogs, my local newspaper, Time magazine, Dave Barry, and others. If you use MyYahoo, and fancy yourself a web aficianado, then you might want to check it out.

For the person who has everything ...

More proof that you can buy anything on eBay.

Sleeping on the job

So I had to work late last night. We were upgrading a customer in Omaha, and we had to start the procedure at 11:00 pm to minimize the impact to their paying customers. So, picture this: I'm sitting at home alone in the dark, dialed into a conference bridge, logged into the remote system. We've got two or three guys from my company on the bridge, plus a couple folks from the customer site.

Things went well for the first couple of hours. I find it helps to pretend that you're working in NASA's mission control. Like if you say things like "Moving on to procedure 3.12, step 6 'stopping replication on the RTX' ... please standby," though I drew the line at saying "Roger" in response to each statement.

Anyway ... things went well, that is, until we hit a snag (go figure!). We couldn't copy the data from the old database into the new database. Things pretty much came to a standstill while we got some designers from India to log into the system and start mucking around in the database. In my defense, let me just say that this took a long, long time.

I'm not entirely sure what time I fell asleep, but I was awakened by my cell phone at 4:30 am. Well, "awakened" is probably being optimistic. I don't remember exactly what he said - something about the database being ready, and had I finished step something or other. But I got the general sense that we were finished. At least, I hope so, 'cause I went to bed after I hung up. So, I probably didn't earn a merit badge in dependability last night, but everything turned out just fine.

At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Announcement time

After six months, sixty thousand frequent flyer miles, three trips to the UK, two to Paris, and one each to Slovakia, Switzerland, Guam and Kentucky (yes, exotic Kentucky), I'm saying goodbye to Kodiak Networks. I've accepted a position at Samsung Telecommunications America, starting on November 22.

It was a tough call, actually. I've always wanted to be involved in a successful startup company. And, by all measures, Kodiak has been successful and has a bright future ahead of it. They're an excellent candidate for acquisition sometime in the next couple of years, and some of the employees are going to see a nice chunk of change.

But my job there just didn't thrill me. I'm a designer at heart. I like to build things - take new ideas, craft them into something tangible, and then sit back and watch them work. I couldn't do that at Kodiak. Plus, the travel was pretty grueling. I just couldn't see keeping that up for the four or five years it'd take to reach payoff.

So I'll give Samsung a try. I'll be doing design work again, working with some exciting new technology. Wish me luck!

Burkett ... Stephen Burkett

So I had to renew my driver license on my most recent birthday. Naturally, I procrastinated until the last minute. And then, naturally, I totally forgot about it until three weeks it had passed.

But no problem. I just went onto the DPS website and, click-click-click, ordered me up a new driver license. Another example of how the internet makes my life simpler and more efficient. At least that's what I thought until the confirmation page told me I should receive my new license within 45 days.

The point to this whole story is that I've been kinda anxious lately, driving around with an expired license (shhh, don't tell anyone). I mean, I printed out the little confirmation page and stuck that in my wallet, but who knows if it'd get me out of trouble with "the man."

So it was with a sigh of relief when I pulled an envelope from the State of Texas, Department of Public Safety out of my mailbox last night. I tore that baby open, intent to rectify my perpetual misdimeanor, and found myself staring right into the face of one Stephen Kent Burkett.

The DPS sent me the wrong license.

ps.

Does anyone else think "driver license" sounds funny? That's how the DPS says it. I prefer "driver's license" myself. Though I guess if you wanted to be grammatically correct, it would actually be a "driving license."

Arc De Triomphe

Been meaning to post some more Paris photos ... here's some.

The Eiffel Tower may be the most famous icon in Paris, but the Arc De Triomphe has always been my favorite outdoor monument. The size and scope of it overwhelm me, as does the intricacy of the design work and sculptures on its face.

Arc De Triomphe...

	View from Avenue du Friedland
	Looking up at the center of the Arch
	François Rude's The Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 (aka La Marseillaise). One of the bas-relief sculptures that adorn the face of the arch.
	One crazy couple decides to tempt fate by crossing the round-about that circles the Arch and is fed by several large avenues, most notably the Champs Élysées. That's about six lanes of the busiest traffic in the world (which is why they helpfully installed underground walkways to and from monument). I'm thinking it was some kind of lover's suicide pact.

Kentucky Fried Blog Post

Okay ... so I've been here in Bowling Green, KY for the week. Absolutely nothing of interest has happened to me (besides that whole work thing). I had to extend my trip through the weekend to finish up some stuff. (I don't think I've taken a trip yet that hasn't been extended. This has become something of a running joke between me and my pet sitter (hi Laurie!)). At any rate, there's apparently a marching band competition going on this weekend. Maybe I'll check it out once I finish up with work today.

I'm tired of restaurant food. Well, let me be more clear. I'm tired of steak places and bbq joints. Yes, I never thought that could happen, but that's all they seem to have around here. I went on a quest last night for a good italian place. My standards were low. I just wanted something that didn't involve ordering at a counter. No dice. I wound up at the Spitfire Grill, mainly because it reminded me of a movie by the same name.

Speaking of movies, I almost didn't make it out to dinner last night. I'd gotten involved watching The Professional (#63 on IMDB's Top 250 list), starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and an adorably young Natalie Portman (pre star wars fame). It's been on my watch list for some time, but I've never managed to see it.

I was enjoying it immensely, though the edited-for-tv cuts were pretty rough. Luc Besson's stylized direction. Jean Reno was devastatingly understated. Gary Oldman was wonderfully over-the-top. And Natalie Portman was just remarkable. The sequence where she pleads for sanctuary outside Reno's door was unforgettable.

Nevertheless, hunger drove me away from the last half. Gonna have to catch it again sometime.

Anyway ... that's all the news that's fit to print here from Kentucky.

Home sweet home

I arrived home yesterday without any major issues. It's always good to be back, even though I'm still coping with jet lag, and have to tackle the piles of dirty laundry and unopened mail.

Here are a couple of photos. I'll try to post a few others later on. If you're interested, you can see all photos at my yahoo photo site. Click on the folder titled "Paris Sept 2004" and view in slideshow mode to view any comments.

Gary and Cedric in Paris ...

Final update

Well, work ended a bit early today, so I'm sitting in the conference room scanning through email. Enough of this, though. I'm going to sign off and head out for the day. Tomorrow, I catch a train back to Paris and will have one last night there. Will probably hook up with Cedric (assuming he's managed to stay out of jail) for some dinner. Then, I catch a flight home on friday. Hopefully my cats will still be talking to me.

I may not get a chance to go online again before arriving at home. So to anyone who's been following along (hi mom!), I'll say adieu, au revoir, and good night.