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  • Email, PowerPoint, and Breaking Up

    Accordian Guy writes about the growing trend of people getting dumped via email.

    The underlying idea of using email to deliver unpleasant news isn’t all that novel. You’ve probably had to phone someone to cancel plans and were relieved to get their voice mail or answering machine rather than the actual person, and you may have even heard of situations where people have broken up over the phone. Breaking up in writing was common enough for the term “Dear John Letter” to be coined. In these situations, the bearer of bad news is trying to weasel out of having to deal with the reaction.

    Listing the reasons for a breakup, whether the breakup is taking place in person, by postal mail, over the phone or email, isn’t new, either. What is new is listing the reasons in point form. [Accordian Guy]

    Definitely a fun read.

  • : Sysadmin Appreciation Day

    Not being a part of the working world these days I completely forgot that today was Sysadmin Appreciation Day.

    : Sysadmin Appreciation Day

    w00t! It’s Sysadmin Appreciation day! What could be better?

    System Administrator Appreciation Day – A special day, once a year, to acknowledge the worthiness and appreciation of the person occupying the role, especially as it is often this person who really keeps the wheels of your company turning.

    1. Read about the day: www.sysadminday.com
    2. UserFriendly’s cartoon: www.userfriendly.org
    3. Do something good for yourself and join Usenix/SAGE: www.sage.org
    4. Schedule some “me time” and register for LISA in the US, or SANE in Europe.

    [Everything Sysadmin]

  • Make

    O’Reilly has announced a new magazine coming in 2005 called Make.

    make_cover1Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

    Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O’Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books and Hardware Hacking Projects, but it takes a highly visual and personal approach. [Make]

     

    Sounds pretty cool, I can’t wait to check it out.

  • Real, Apple, and Tethering

    There’s an interesting article over on engadget.com about “tethering”. Tethering is where one product is tied into another, one example given is the little packets of coffee for use in a certain coffee maker.

    So we looked on with enthusiasm at the new pressurized personal coffee makers. They push hot water through a sealed “pod” filled with a precise measure of coffee. It was neat, slick, well-designed, and promised a strong, good, dependable dose. It’s the same technology that supplies those surprisingly good coffee available from coin machines in public spaces in Europe.

    After a half-hour of debating the pros and cons of such a radical “format shift,” we left without one of these cool new machines. We opted out because these specialized “pods” are essentially “tethered” to this brand of coffee maker. [engadget.com]

    The author goes on to mention other devices that are tethered in this way (or becoming tethered) such as printers makers and garage-door opener companies. He also talks about the whole Apple vs Real situation and how it is becoming another example of this. I personally think Apple is blowing it. As much as I’m not a fan of Real this doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me.

  • Depression

    Selma points to a fun little flash movie about depression and a cure.

  • Philips DVP642: Initial Impressions

    I’d been looking to pick up a new DVD player recently, since my old one croaked on me recently. After doing some hunting around online I decided on the Philips DVP642. I decided on this one for a few reasons.
    First, it supports DivX. This was a big deal for me because I watch a lot of anime that is encoded in this format. Second, the price was right. At $69.99 it wasn’t too expensive a risk. Some of the reviews indicated that the DVD playback wasn’t that great, but I figured at $70 even if it was good I’d be happy.

    Today I picked up my player at a local CompUSA (the only place locally that had them in stock). Initial setup was easy, as was updating the firmware to the latest version. This entailed downloading two files from the philips.com website and burning them to CD and starting up the dvd player letting it read the CD. I haven’t tested a DVD yet, but I did test with a DVD-RW that had a few files on it. The good: it read the DVD-R and could play some of the files. The bad: it couldn’t play them all. I’m trying to figure out what the differences were in the files it wouldn’t play, but so far nothing is jumping out at me.

    I’ve also set up a page on my wiki about this player so that I can keep notes on what works and what doesn’t. If anyone has anything they think would be useful to add, please let me know.

  • Welcome to the Police State of MA

    It hasn’t taken long for someone I know to get his bag searched on the T. I’m so glad the T is just something I can’t do that easily these days, it means I don’t have to put up with crap like this.

  • The W is for Washington

    Ellen asks “Is this serious?” Sadly, I think it just might be. Though I never really thought of my hot dog toppings as being that political.

  • Interesting Little Puzzle

    I found this a few days ago and I can’t for the life of me remember where I got the link to it. But at least I’m finally getting around to posting it. So here’s a link to Petals Around the Roses.

  • The Cruise of a Lifetime

    Halsted has found the cruise of a lifetime. Though I’m not sure whose lifetime, but certainly not mine.

    In between editing boring documentation on student assistants, I keep pondering my dream vacation. For those of you too terrified to click that link — and really, I can’t blame you — it’s a cruise. But not any cruise, no. I will quote part of the website:

    You will have “absolute inside access”, spending a week vacationing in the Caribbean featuring 3 of Rock’s biggest artists, Journey, REO Speedwagon & Styx.

    Journey, REO and Styx have agreed to this once in a lifetime experience for you, but space is extremely limited and cabins will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Relive some of the best days of Rock & Roll while you get up-close and personal with the bands. This is not a regular stop on a tour.

    [cygnoir’s quill]