Strange. I did not buy one Christmas present online this year. I have always been a huge proponent of online shopping (and still am), but for some reason, I did not make one purchase using the Internet this year. Hmm... perhaps Dell should start selling in retail outlets...

ATM for the visually impaired driver

This was taken at a drive-through ATM. Is it possible to be too blind to use an ATM, but not quite blind enough to drive? 

Best album ever

I'm sitting here - admittedly half drunk - listening to one of the best albums ever recorded. I am a huge Kiss fan. I don't think that anybody reading this (assuming you know me) would deny this fact. However, it has been a long while since I have sat down and queued up a Kiss album. Well, tonight I decided that I should give "Alive!" a listen. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. The album simply rocks. If you're not a Kiss fan, you should promptly download this album, or visit your local CD store and procure a copy. You will quickly realize that you should have been a member of the Kiss Army for years, and feel shame for not realizing that fact before tonight. If you are already a member, then you know what I'm talking about...

Fortune Cookie

I received this "fortune" in my cookie today at a local Chinese-ish restaurant:

You should stop procrastinating - starting tomorrow.

The Sword

I recently discovered a very cool new band called The Sword (visit their MySpace site, which has more content than their official site). They're from right here in Austin. Check 'em out. They sound a lot like Black Sabbath from back in the day. My only complaint is that most of their songs are very similar in style - but they still rock. I hope to see them the next time they're back in town.

Update on Amazon S3 Backup Software

I'm getting close to releasing a beta version of my backup software. I have a rather crude version that I've used to back up a few hundred MB of data, but I don't think it's ready for any kind of public use. The UI still needs some major re-work, and I need to add much better exception management. I'll probably have something in about a week.

Tony awards

They take place tonight. Does anybody give a rat's ass?

Amazon S3

Amazon recently announced their S3 web service. S3 stands for "Simple Storage Service", and enables a very cost-effective way to store large amounts of data. The cost structure is pretty simple: $0.15 per GB of storage used, plus $0.20 per GB transferred. I currently have about 6GB of photos on my HD, making the total cost to back it up a meager $1.20 to upload the data, plus $0.90 each month thereafter. That is dirt cheap (compared to other online storage sites).

I plan to write a little application to do this, and I'll be happy to share it with anybody who wants to use S3 for storage.

More Beer

I'm going to try my hand and brewing some beer again today. My last batch was quite successful (at least I thought it was). Today's beer should be a nice refreshing beer for the hot months ahead. It's a Bavarian Hefeweizen, with a pretty simple ingredients list:

• Grain (1/2 lb of German Pilsner and 1/2 lb of Carapils)
• Wheat extract (7 lbs)
• Hops (1 oz Hallertau)
• Yeast (Hefeweizen ale yeast)
• Water

Of course, these are the main ingredients for all beers, but this one is about as simple as it gets as far as the variety of grains and hops go. If all goes well, it should be ready to consume in about 5 weeks. I'll keep you posted.

30-second update

Hello faithful readers (all 3 of you). It's been a while. I don't feel like writing much, so here's what's new:

1. With the help of Heidi's dad, I managed to get the Blazer running quite well. We replaced the intake manifold and carburetor. It now stays at idle pretty well (albeit a somewhat rough idle), and no longer spews nasty black exhaust. It's been my daily-driver for the past couple of weeks. It's quite a fuel hog though.
2. I went to England for work - and unfortunately I worked the whole time. I did drink a couple of warm pints of ale and saw Big Ben, but not much beyond that. I'll post some pics when I'm feeling less lazy.
3. I bought an Xbox 360 on the weekend (I finally used some gift certificates that have been burning holes in my pockets since Christmas). It's very cool, but I haven't had much time to use it. I spent a couple of nights playing Ghost Recon, which is awesome (I really suck). Aside from its gaming capabilities, it integrates nicely with any PC on your network that contains music and pictures. It is also a Media Center extender, but I haven't tried that feature yet.

That's all for now. Ciao.

Worst Superbowl™ Commercials Ever?

I think so. In my opinion, Budweiser had the two best:

1. The Clydesdale foal, trying to pull the cart
2. The crowd at a stadium, simulating beer pouring into a glass by holding colored cards over their heads

There were obviously a whole bunch of commercials that I can't remember, which means that they just didn't work. And then there was the worst: The Burger King song and dance (wtf!?)

Since I can actually remember the BK commercial, I suppose it could be considered a success. It was so bad though, that it really makes me want avoid Burger King, rather than eat there.

You can see all the commercials at ifilm.com.

Please don't do this...

I flew recently. I noticed something that really, really, really annoyed me when flying.

Why do some people find it absolutely necessary to turn on their cell phone and call somebody the second the plane hits the ground!? Argh... it drives me nuts! Can they not wait 5 more minutes until they're in the terminal? Are they so important that they must call somebody, just to say, "Look at me! I have my cell phone! We just landed and I'll call you again in a few minutes when I get off the plane!"