Archive for February, 2010

Time warp.

13 years
by in Uncategorized

I watch a lot of TV… well, I should qualify that; I do a lot of stuff with the TV on. I pay attention to the shows, but I’ll be doing other things. Since about halfway through November I started losing track of shows- mainly because of the stupid seasonal holiday crap. Here’s the stuff that I’ve watched at one time and lost track of:

  • Dollhouse (Finished)
  • Defying Gravity (Finished)
  • Fringe (Caught up as of Feb 12th)
  • Tosh.0 (Currently Follow)
  • Caprica (Currently Follow)
  • Lost (Caught up as of Mar 21th)
  • Stargate Universe (Caught up as of Feb 12th)
  • Heroes (Caught up as of Mar 21th)
  • CSI (Followed)
  • Scrubs (Followed)
  • House (haven’t followed but like it)
  • Chuck (haven’t followed but like it)
  • Bones (haven’t followed but like it)
  • Dexter (haven’t followed but like it)
  • Big Bang Theory (haven’t followed but like it)
  • Dirty Jobs (haven’t followed but like it)
  • Mythbusters (haven’t followed but like it)
  • CSI: Miami (haven’t followed but like it)
  • Doctor Who (Caught up as of Jan 1st)
  • Legend of the Seeker (Binge)
  • Supernatural (Binge)

Seems like a lot, but I never really watched them all at the same time. Shows like Chuck and House I’ve caught bits of over the years and like, where as Supernatural and Doctor Who I watched episodes back-to-back, devouring entire seasons over the course of a few days. So how did I get so far behind on the others? Combination of “christmas break” in programming combined with new job and crazy schedule didn’t help, but the standard “show stopped and I have no idea when it’ll be back on” yearly routine was what really killed it.

Anyways, now that the 2009/2010 season is picking back up and I need to figure out what I’ve missed, and how to catch up. I wish that the networks would better utilize Hulu, too- I can’t afford boxed sets, so that gives me the option of watching it on Hulu with commercials, or finding it elsewhere and them not getting a cent. My budget dictates what I watch- I’d like to watch the TrueBlood, but I can’t afford HBO. If they put their shows on Hulu behind a paywall, I won’t watch them, either.

OH, and a special shoutout to CW. They have flash all over their site, unless you try to watch their shows- they they want to install their own little EXE, which means their either too stupid to use one of the bazillion flash video players out there, or they want/need functionality that flash doesn’t provide- something lower level, like spyware would need. To CW, I say “thank you for Supernatural, lose the shitty website and maybe I’ll use it.”

A New Low/High in Nerddom

13 years
by in Uncategorized

So I’ve mentioned before that I picked up a motorola droid recently for my new job and have been playing with it relentlessly. One of the many things I like to do with a moment of downtime is browse the android marketplace- lots of interesting things in there (I browse just the free section currently).

Anyways, in the marketplace is an app that looks like a star trek tricorder. When I first saw it, I downloaded it thinking it would be a neat little image display that I could taunt my friend The General with (he’s a big trek fan) when I see him later this year.

I didn’t expect the damn thing to actually *WORK*. Here’s a list of functionality from it’s site:

tricorder

  • GRAV: monitor the local gravitational field and acceleration
  • MAG: monitor the local magnetic field
  • ACO: acoustic analysis; waveform, frequency and sound level analysis of the ambient sound
  • GEO: display geographical information
  • EMS: scan the electromagnetic spectrum for radio signals — currently displays cellular and WiFi signals
  • SOL: display current solar activity data — downloads current solar data in the background and displays it along with current images

So, there you have it- I have a working tricorder, beeps and all. It’s not that useful, really, but does it matter? HELLO! touch screen tricorder! Nerd, right?

Wait, it gets better. Jackie and I are looking at getting a bigger vehicle, and this weekend we plan on going for some test drives. One thing car commercials always say is “it’s such a smooth ride…” Well, now I have a way to MEASURE how the smoothness of the ride.

To repeat, I have a working tricorder that I plan on using for real world decisions.

This image? That was just me picking up the phone- it shows how much it was jostled. If I set that on the console as Jackie drives around the same area, it will give me an idea of how bumpy the ride will be. This is an actual *useful* application of the motion sensor if it was used in an app built for this purpose. Sadly, I don’t have the time to write it myself, so when we go for a test drive, I’ll use the tricorder app.

Now, picture it- Jackie and I are sitting in a new car with a salesman telling me how awesome his car is, and I’m sitting there, WITH A TRICORDER, going “BEEE-LOOP BOOPBEEP” while he’s trying to talk, monitoring how rough the ride is while he tells me it’s smooth.

So should I be stoked or embarrassed?

Dear Signature Consulting…

13 years
by in Uncategorized

My resume says “does not wish to relocate.”

1) You’re calling me about a position in Iowa. I live in Michigan. It says Michigan on my resume. Right next to “does not wish to relocate.” You think I’m gonna bite? Even if (on the off chance) the job paid a small fortune… really? Iowa? IT’S WINTER! Michigan is cold, but at least there’s stuff to look at here. …Now, if it was in Tahiti you might get my attention.

2) Stop calling. You’re calling my wife’s phone and I’m working 3rd shift currently, so I’m a) not gonna get your call and b) not gonna call back if you’re calling about a job I said I wasn’t interested in. If I don’t return your call, I’m not interested. My resume already says I’m not interested. Evan, I’m looking at you. Stop calling.

3) Oh, and as a side note, you guys should get together and figure out a system of “one recruiter per resume per position,” because if I tell Dan “no thanks,” Gary, Ed, Frank, Little Joey, Hooch, Evan and Ringo aren’t gonna have any more luck. To the guy I spoke to on the phone, you’re cool; I was right there, you were non-obnoxious, and took no for an answer. The rest of you? You can stop now… not that I expect you to stop.

The funny part is I’m not actively looking for a job; I just never remove my resume from monster- never know when opportunity will come knocking; but it’s knuckleheads like these than make me want to take it down.

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