Archive → November 10th, 2008
Veterans Day Eve
This morning I woke up around 7:00 AM and it was raining with a strong and cold South wind and I thought I was going to cry ;-D. It is not often that I get to see rain when I am off work and I am loving it. I decided to take off today so I could have a four day weekend since tomorrow (Tuesday) is Veterans Day. I have five and half days of use or lose leave that I have to burn up before January 3rd so this makes a good time to take off. Sunday has to burn some leave too so she took off also. Wow! I just heard some thunder outside. To me that is the equivalence of angels singing because after all, I just love rain. I really should be doing some homework but I have been slow to get motivated this weekend. I only have one more semester after this one and I will be finished and then I will have some weekends to do things again.
My dad just had cataract surgery done on both his eyes in the past couple weeks and he is very pleased with the results. This morning he has an appointment with the doctor to follow up after the surgery. I am glad he had it done since his vision was getting pretty bad. He says that he can see without glasses.
It looks like Firefox has finally captured 20% of the browser market. I really like Firefox though I really wish it was more automated to install Windows Media Player plugin. I love the ability to customize the browser with all the plugins like mail retrieval, social networking, and photography. Virtually anything you would like to do can be done with this browser. I really love it when new web based toys are invented.
I am doing research to find a new 3G phone or third generation phone that can be used on a GSM system. I have been a T-Mobile customer since they were Voicestream back in 2000. They have been very good to me. Now that they have the broadband speeds, I want to get a new phone that has faster Internet and a full QWERTY keyboard. I know it will be sort of expensive but I like being able to have the Internet with me when I travel. The sad thing is that most of the phones that I find are not available in the United States. Having a good camera phone that can post directly to Flickr is real hand when you are out on the street witnessing a crime or something. I like to take my camera places with me so I do not miss anything but it is not convenient where I work. My office is in a very large bay with many cubicles in pods. I really do not feel comfortable leaving an expensive camera in that environment. The Google G1 phone is looking very attractive as an option.
I know most of you are thinking that I am crazy for wanting to be connected all the time. That is who I am, I mean after all I became a ham radio operator for a reason. I think it is wonderful being able to keep in touch even when I am on the road. I can just send a Twitter message and it shows up on the website so you can keep people up to date where ever you are. Unlike many people, I am not concerned about privacy. As long as I am not posting my social security number, I am not worried about anything else. Your address and pictures of your house are already on the Internet whether you realize it or not. I can look at the front of virtually anyone’s house using Google Maps/Street View. For those of you not aware of this, Google hired a company to drive up and down every street with a pole on the top of the vehicle with six cameras on it.
You can zoom right up on your front door. I actually think this is exciting technology and do not worry about privacy at all. If you use Google Earth you can zoom up even closer. Now Microsoft has Virtual Earth and Yahoo has Yahoo Maps.
I know I have spent a considerable amount of time chastising the Google worshipers but I must say I am becoming a convert. I have been amazed with the integration of Gmail, with GTalk, Google Documents, Google Calendar, and the contacts. With the prospect of getting a G1 phone, the possibilities of syncing my Gmail contacts and calendar with the phone sounds pretty exciting. I am still in my anti-Apple mood though 
. To use an Iphone would mean that I would have to switch to AT&T. I really do not want to do that if I can get out of that. Secondly Apple products are way over priced and I cannot support them in their gouging efforts. Oh well… I will get away from my Apple bashing . I just received a Skype message from Larry, KD5MAF telling me there is a 40 meter net about to come on 7290 KHz that he wants me to join. I better send this post in so I can check in on the net. If you are a ham radio operator, join us.