BunkBlog

I know I’ve made mention of this before, but I am really curious and very much wonder if it is possible to do some of LJ’s unique functions away from LJ. With little further ado, my query:

Is there a simple RSS/RDF aggregator I can put on my personal website that would be able to act as the LJ “friends” page does? I want to be able to continue to read all these journals as well as the RSS feeds that I have on my friends page, but avoid the central server problem that LJ has.

Just pondering the possibility of maybe someday moving my journal to Movable Type and still maintaining a “friends page” type thing to make weblog-reading easier.
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Anyone flown United lately? They’ve changed the layout of their planes to better serve their “premium” members, giving them more legroom. They did this without changing the number of seats on the plane, though. You know how? By pushing all the seats in the back half of the plane a couple inches closer together. Now, when they guy in the seat in front of you reclines the 3 degrees permissible, his seatback ends up bumping your forehead. If you’re over 5’7″, you will hate being past row 10 on these things. Ick.

Meanwhile, my coworker Paul has just returned from the most arduous flight I’ve heard of to take place on only one continent. He was traveling for over 20 hours yesterday, just to get from DC to Tucson. He spent 8 hours on tarmacs waiting for gates. Don’t you love air travel today?
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Friday Five is slacking off a bit this week…

1. Where are you right now? At work, bored.
2. What time is it? 9:45am
3. What are you wearing? Sounds like a bad chat… I’m wearing baggy jeans and a polo shirt.
4. Any people or animals around you? Describe them. None in sight. I hear Bill down the trailer. He’s a tall skinny guy, looks like the guy in the Curious George books.
5. What are your plans for the weekend? Hang out with The Boy, try to avoid strangling him when he asks, “What’s that?” for the 100th time in an hour.

current_music: 3 Doors Down – The Better Life
current_mood: tired

My mom gave me the Clie NX60 for Christmas (and my next birthday – it’s not cheap). We got to talking about its capabilities compared to my first computer, and compared to my first IBM-clone (which is what they were called 10 years ago).

For comparison purposes, the first computer I had was a Commodore VIC20 in 1981; the first PC I had was a 486 made by CompUSA in 1992.

RAM – VIC20 had 3.5k, PC had 4 megs (I splurged), and the Clie has 16 megs.
CPU Mhz – VIC20 had a 1.01MHz 6502A, PC was 33Mhz 80486, and Clie has a 200 Mhz ARM.
Resolution – VIC20 was 176×184 pixels with 16 colors (or 22×23 text blocks), the PC had VGA standard settings (640×480 at 256 colors and so on), the Clie has 320×480 and 16-bit (65,536 colors).
Storage – VIC20 had a tape drive (not even going to guess the capacity of that), PC had 120 MB hard drive (I had the upgraded model), Clie can handle a removable 128 MB memory stick.
Cost – VIC20 cost $300 without a monitor or tape drive; PC cost about $2000 with monitor and mouse and all, Clie costs $500 without any storage (add a 128 MB memory stick for 65 bucks from Amazon and it is still under $600).

In pretty much every way, the Clie is more powerful and more upgradeable than the PC ten years ago, and I think my watch is more powerful than the VIC20 from 20 years ago.

Is there any way to extrapolate and guess where things will be in another 10 years? I think we’re going to be surprised.
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Recent conversation:

• What program does your camera use to save the images?
  • I dunno. I’m a complete computer moron.

I was stunned into silence at that point. I mean, the NAME of the PROGRAM is too hard to figure out? Can’t you look at the damned title bar? You know, the thingie at the top of the TV-screen thing that has, like, words, in it? DUH!

Shamelessly stolen from , this bike looks like something from Akira. I think I’d hurt myself with that thing.
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CDNow has joined the Amazon megalith? Will wonders never cease…

More importantly, did my CDnow wishlist and preference migrate? Should have known Amazon would eat CDNow eventually.
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Anyone in the DC area want to get some dinner on my expense account Tuesday night? Gotta love these one-day meetings. I will spend more time on layovers in Denver than working next week. Your tax dollars at work.

But I am serious about getting dinner. Without a dining partner I end up eating BK Fish sandwiches all too often.
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Knowing that I had no travel scheduled for January (February I’m gone half the month or more), I planned a little gathering for friends on the 8th, to play silly games and talk, drink, watch TV, whatever.

After getting back from San Diego in December, I spent one day at home before beginning my vacation. I got back from that on the 1st, returned to work yesterday, and finished up the few tasks that were awaiting me. Past 3 in the afternoon, I was told that I need to make travel arrangements to go to DC on Monday. I’ll be attending a one-day meeting on Tuesday, flying back on Wednesday. Wednesday is what date, sports fans? That’s right – the 8th. So, I need to get things ready for the party this weekend, leave them in place while I fly to the frozen North, and then come back to entertain. Hope there are no plane delays on Wednesday. Oh, well – nobody has RSVPed that they’re coming anyhow.

Why is my house a mess if I’m never there, a reasonable person may ask. Well, when I get back from these trips, I drop my junk, do my laundry, pack my bags and leave. Straightening up a house that nobody will see for a week is not on my list of things to do. So, now I’ve got a month of dross to clean up. I did get all my bills paid, so that’s something anyway.

Anyone have a job in Tucson or Sierra Vista that doesn’t involve constant and unexpected travel?
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