Google Reader

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Seth's Pilots

I stated out disagreeing with Seth when he says that companies don't need pilots anymore. But in going through the thought exercise, I think he's right.

Our need for Pilots is declining. Instead of hiring several people who can do something consistantly and repeatbly, we hire one person to program a computer to do it. You still need someone with an eye for detail to check up on the computer (QA department). And probably any time you interact with people you need at least a few pilots (support).

Google Reader

I've switch from RSS bandit to google reader. I like it so far. When will reader and blogger get together though?

black is the new getting hit by a car

it's getting dark in seattle

Microsoft and Dell cooperating to degrade computer use experience

This just in... Dell and Microsoft have forged a new alliance to create an even worse out of the box experience on new windows computers. Unsightly empty space at the bottom of your screen will be replaced with a task manager full of useful replacement programs for everything.

Here's how I understand the strategy to work. Microsoft creates a half-assed implementation of a feature... for example, wireless networking. Then Dell bundles in software that has "more features" and is 200% more confusing to use. Not to mention uglier and less reliable.

It's taking more and more time to "setup" a new dell computer.

usernames are obsolete

I am so tired of "sorry that name is already in use, how about these crappy names?" messages when I'm signing up for a service. Just use my email address... always my email address. It's guaranteed unique, and I can always remember it. All you need to do is build in a service that allows you to change the email address associated with your account if you need to change your email address for some reason.

If you disagree, you can find me on instant messenger as garythegaryowentheowen2062006

83 yamaha 650 heritage special

Well, the result of the harley rental has left me in a place where I think I"m going to buy a yamaha 650 to tide me over in the meantime. I just don't think I can justify spending as much money on a harley and I would need too to get the one I want.

Mostly I just like to ride, and if it's on an older bike, I wont feel like as much of a poser. ;-)

I think I will arrange to buy it, and maybe Todd will help me do a little work to customize it and fix some of the annoyances. I want to see about adjusting the front brake and clutch to be a little easier to use. I also need to adjust the position of the front break, and possibly adjust how the clutch engages. It's probably due for an oil change as well...

Anyway, if I do end up purchasing it, I will put some pictures up.

movie and moving

Thom Yorke's solo album is pretty sweet. Currently listening to Black Swan.

We just had some folks over to watch labrinyth. Pretty sure I'm spelling that right... could be wrong though... who knows.

Tomorrow we'll probably have lunch with Ken Maiuri, which should be fun. I'm pretty tired now though... bed will be good.

Oh and I bought some long sleeve shirts at road runner sports for fall running. I ran 5.6 miles today (rough estimate) and it took just over 1 hour. It was a very nice jog. I was going slow enough that I could enjoy the run, but it was still tiring.

itunes album art

I was very excited to hear that itunes finally has good album art integration. Now you can click on an album and just click advanced -> get album art, and itunes will automatically down the album art.

Sounds great right? Except that for some reason you need to be signed into the itunes music store... why in the world would I need to have an account with the iTunes music store to download album art? Windows Media Player has automatically associated album art with albums for years without requiring me to submit my credit card information (step 3 of the itunes sign-up process).

smoking ban results in less smoking

Technically they said it results in less "pollutants" but I'm pretty sure this article simply says "banning smoking indoors results in less smoking indoors".

Maybe the Seattle PI is scraping content from The Onion...

a bigger bike

I'm currently renting a harley davidson 2006 dyna low rider. I just got back from riding it up to Steve's pass and back. Four hours on the bike and I'm just about ready to hop back on. I might wait until tonight though, now that I'm back in Seattle. I'll wait for the traffic to clear out before I go anywhere else... plus I'm getting hungry.

So anyway... what do I think of the bike?

It certainly isn't the smoothest bike at idle. It tends to rock a fair bit at a stoplight. I'm not sure it's a bad thing though. It reminds me that I'm riding, which in my book is a good thing. The 06 and 07's both have the 6 speed transmision. It's a very nice aspect of the bike. To be cruising at 60 at about 2,900 rpm and then to be able to drop it into sixth and let the rpm's fall to 2,400 is pretty nice. Smooths out the ride a lot. And the bike still has plenty of power to push you onward and upward in sixth. Hitting 80 on the bike is easy... not that I have... errr yeah.

I guess my biggest hangup is going to be that I don't know how this bike compares to the softails. I'm sure the 88B or 96B engine is going to be a bit smoother than the 88, but I'm not sure that the rest of the bike would fit me as well. So far I am liking the mid mounted controls on the low rider, and being able to stretch out to the forward pegs on longer cruises is nice.

In summary... hells yeah.

damian and cosmas

_MG_1661.jpg
Originally uploaded by garyowen.

pictures are up from the damian and cosmas party.

europe pictures

_MG_0013
Originally uploaded by garyowen.

Finally uploaded the picture from our trip to europe.

my brain is broken

I can't remember anybody's name... and the few names I can remember, I can't remember how to spell.

more on the zune

After 3 plays or 3 days, you can no longer play the song; however, you can still see a listing of the songs with the associated metadata.

I still think this was simply the wrong design from the user's perspective. Sharing music and playlists while people are in range seems much more interesting to me... at least from a social aspect. Perhaps this is an add-on feature they could implement. All the required hardware is there...

I fixed myspace

Using the firefox browser, here is what you can do to fix myspace.

Open Preferences
Content tab
Under Fonts & Colors choose Colors
Uncheck "Allow pages to choose their own colors instead of my selections above"

You'll have to recheck the box to view the internet as normal... I wonder if there is a way to force that selection only for specific domains (www.myspace.com)

reboot

reboot
Originally uploaded by garyowen.

I just wanted to open a PDF.

What zune should've done

Microsoft's Zune

The music sharing feature is being touted as a killer feature for the zune. I think they've failed in their implementation though. The current design has them copying the songs over to the other zune, and then allowing the zune to play it three times, or for three days, whichever comes first.

The problem with this design is that it highlights how arbitrarily restrictive the drm technology is. When you go back to play the song for a fourth time and you can't, even though it's still there on your device, you realize that you never really owned a zune... at least not all of it. Something deep inside it still belongs to Microsoft.

A better implementation in my opinion:
Allow music to be streamed to any other zune, so long as they are within wifi range. Exactly how iTunes works today. When the zune is out of range, so is the music.

This emulates digitally, what is already possible in real life. If somebody is close to you, and they have music, you can join in listening to it. They could have made it even more interesting by making it so that you can listen to what other's are listening to. Think of the interesting effect that could have connecting other zune owners...

Ah well, instead, it's crippled drm... and I'm not interested.

myspace = the internet circa 1998

When or where else did everyone use such horrific design on their personal websites. I'm surprised though that people don't use the old standby <blink></blink>.

Also, why am I so grumpy?

influencers

One of the great values that companies try to derive from bloggers is their "influence". They call bloggers influencers because they have reach into a community of people who value their opinion.

Here's a thought: People who sell themselves, aren't influencers.

In society these days, it is becoming more and more difficult to influence people once they know you were paid to do so...