Nationals Departure Update

The latest from Tamea is that the parts for the truck should arrive late afternoon / early evening on Tuesday, and the truck should be ready Wednesday evening. Which means that we'll be hauling out no earlier then Thursday morning. Thus arriving in Colorado Saturday evening.

As if the truck problems weren't enough, Cali also threw a shoe. Tamea and Bonnie are working to get this fixed ASAP. Cali went just fine this morning for two rounds of team style compulsories, four individual freestyles and a standing contest in only three shoes. [Danielle stood at canter for over 100 strides and Sandy stood for over 75 canter strides.]

Nationals Departure Delayed

Got a call late this afternoon from Tamea. When she took her truck in for the pre-nationals servicing and checks, they found that the torque converter is nearly blown. Up shot is that we will not be able to leave mid-day Monday as planned. Our actual departure will likely depend on how quickly replacement parts can be shipped to our area and installed in the truck.

Moves Completed

Both my personal move and my vaulting team's move have been completed. I got the last stuff out of the house in Bellevue last weekend and am now resonably settled into the house in Woodinville.

Note that my mailing address hasn't changed and is still PO Box 27664, Seattle, WA 98165.

Blogging as Social Tool

At Gnomedex this morning I experienced a truly moving
presentation by Julie Leung, that I really enjoyed.

Gnomedex Going Well

The Gnomedex conference I went last night [Thursday] and all day today [Friday], is going very well. I've met plenty of interesting and influential people in the Blogging and Podcasting community. More importantly I've gotten my name and the name of my blog / podcast heard by the entire audience several times, mostly by asking interesting and relevant questions.

For more information about what's going on at the conference check out the Wiki.

I'd also like to remind anyone from the conference that's visiting my site this weekend that I'm just in the early stages of developing my vision for TomS Words of Wisdom and that they should be sure to check back this Fall when I plan to have some interesting and compelling content. Listen for promos on some of your favorite podcasts.

I'm a podcaster!

I finally got my first podcasts posted, here. I'm still working out some of the various details, like what bitrates are best. I'm also hoping to automate much of the post-processor so that I can get my podcasts up within a day of when I recorded them.

Very busy week/weekend

Been very busy getting ready for a competition down at DevonWood this weekend. Still have lots to do before I head out, hopefully some time mid-day Friday.

Looks like the vaulting may take somewhat of a break over the Memorial Day weekend. So I'm hoping to do some major web site updates, including the launch of my podcasts.

Feature Request: structured Blog Entries for Hello/Picassa

I've been using Google's Picassa to manage my pictures for the past several weeks. It's really cool tool. Highly recommended.

This evening I posted a couple of pictures right from Picassa using their Hello product/service. It left a little to be desired so I sent folks at Hello/Picassa/Google a feature request that more or less said the following.

I'd like the next version of Hello to include a more structured way to post pictures to my Blogger blogs. I'd especially like the ability to give posts a title and more options for posting multiple images. I'd also like to see more formatting options for the resulting posts. Maybe by adding a CSS reference to my template pointing to some Hello/Picassa/Google defined styles used in posts via Hello.

No reply required, just pass this on to your development team.

Oh yah... a Linux versions of Picassa, Hello, etc. would be nice too. [I'm using Debian w/ Gnome.]

New Hat

Grandma safe version of me in my new hat.

Me in my new navy blue "Gangster" fedora. 

More info on Podcasting

Daily Source Code
A daily audio blog post by Adam Curry in mp3
This podcast tends to have some good information and perspective form some of the early movers and shakers in podcasting. I've been listening to Adam's show for a bout a week now and I think he presents an interesting perspective on podcasting. (Skip over the flying stuff.)

Podshow Strategy Cast 2.0

The Podshow Strategy 'cast 2.0, recorded on location in New York by Adam Curry and Ron Bloom present a very good (though not concise) assessment of where podcasting might be going in the near future.

Podcast Alley
Podcast Alley is the podcast lovers portal. Featuring the best Podcast Directory and the Top 10 podcasts (as voted on by the listeners). You will also find podcast software, the podcast forum and great podcasting info.

Other interesting related links.
iPodder The default podcasting client / downloading tool.
Download iPodder software

RSS and Podcasting

As I've been spending plenty of time in my Jeep driving to and from composite team practices, so I decided to look into this thing I heard about called "podcasting". It turns out to be a really amazing confluents of technologies, primarily portable digital media players (like the iPod) and Really Simple Syndication [RSS]. It feels like a "killer app" on the up swing to me. [By a "killer app" I mean a wildly popular application looking for supporting technologies, not cool new technology in search of a use.] So I'm setting out to become an expert in it, in the hops that it will lead me back into being a well paid professional computer geek.

As soon as I get a few more bits set up, I hope to start a podcast version of this blog (that I can create content for while I'm driving) and maybe a "PunFight" podcast.

Insanely Busy

Sorry that it's been over a month since my last post. I've been insanely busy, both at work and coaching vaulting as many as five times a week.

In addition to my normal work at the toothbrush factory, for the past five weeks I've been covering for at least two of my coworkers. Which has lead to a couple of long days. One is out on maternity leave. Two others have vacation time they have been needing to use or loose.

Since my last post I've successfully lead the Cascade Vaulters have through our first two competitions. Check the club web site for photos and details. Many thanks to Tamea Denault and the Emerald City Vaulters for their help and the use of their horses.

I've also been playing a much more central role coaching the NW Ladies composite team. I'm the primary technical person for the composite team preparing music, etc. We've also been recording digital video at the end of each practice for review at the start off the next practice and by doing so really accelerated our progress. But it means an additional hour or so of prep time between composite team practices [twice a week], dumping the video off my camera, editing the segments together and burning them on CD.

To top this all off I've decided that it's time to look for a new job outside the toothbrush factory, so I've been posting resumes, applying for jobs and going on interviews.

Mt. St. Helens

I took some time out of my very busy schedule a little over a week ago to visit Mt. St Helens. Evidence of that week’s eruption and ash fall were still evident as a gray dusting on the east side of the mountain’s crater and east slopes. Steam rose almost continuously from the lava dome and the dome was noticeably bigger than my last trip.



In other news, I’ve been getting the Cascade Vaulters ready for our first competition on March 19. It was just a barrel fest, but had competitors from most of the clubs in our region. I’ve been spending time editing music, composing freestyle routines, and developing lesson plans.

Also one of my vaulters, Sandy, is participating in composite team with the Emerald City and Mt. Rainier Vaulters. I’ve been active in coaching this composite team and preparing the team’s music. As part of this effort I’ve been attending a practice in Buckley, WA every Monday after work.

On Feb. 26th we had Penny Maydack came up from Scapoose, OR and gave a clinic for the Cascade Vaulters. After practice Penny and I had lunch at Ixtapa (the Cascade Vaulter’s official after practice meeting location) and spent several hours working as the Ad Hoc Bylaws Committee on revising our region’s bylaws and rules.

Best Sandwich = Reuben

A good Reuben is everything a sandwich should be and more.


The problem is finding a good one, as not all Reubens are created equal. Those who have tasted this holy grail of sandwiches are compelled to undertake the perpetual hunt for the best Reuben. In my twenty plus year quest, the best I've found was at Padows in downtown Richmond, VA back in '96.


Anybody know a good Reuben in the greater Seattle? Or even western Washington. (A really good Reuben is worth the drive.)

Is G-Mail good?

Got the following question from my Dad, and figured a reply was worth posting here.

Tom
As I recall you were beta tester for G-Mail. Is it any good? Should Mom and I sign up? IF it is free, how do they make money?
I got an invitation from them this weekend.
Dad

I've had an account on Google's g-mail since their early beta testing last year. To be honest I haven't used it very much, as it's yet another place I have to check for new messages.

What I have seen doesn't seem that particularly better than Yahoo's free mail service. Google does have a larger mail box, 1000 MB vs Yahoo's 250 MB. But Yahoo has more integrated services, like calendar, groups, virus scanning, etc.

At this point I wouldn't make any particular recommendation one way or the other for Yahoo vs G-mail, unless you're trying to protect a particular user name.

These days I'm using Mozilla's Thunderbird, for most of my e-mail and Yahoo as a secondary.

If I decide at some point that I don't like Mozilla's Thunderbird, I may direct more of my soot-n-smoke.com e-mail to g-mail and give it a better testing.

As for how does g-mail make money, the short term answer is they sold a whole bunch of stock last year. The longer term answer is that they will probably sell search keyed advertising when you search your e-mail. I suspect that they'll also offer various premium services much like yahoo does.

Microsoft in decline.

Ever since my visit to Comdex in 1999, I've noted that the buzz / feel / smell around Linux and the open source movement is very reminiscent of the early days of Microsoft and Windows [circa 1985]. Evidently I'm not the only industry watcher that seems to think that Microsoft isn't doing as well as it once was. I tend to agree with Michael Malone's recent article that there is a faint smell of rot about MS. I see definite similarities between where Microsoft and Longhorn are today with where IBM was in 1987 with it's ill-fated attempt at industry remonoplization, the PS/2 and Micro-Channel Architecture.

If nothing else Big Bad Bill and company have lost the coolness that is the hallmark of the up and coming in the tech world. The real innovation is not in OS upgrades, security patches and the pathetic myth that is digital rights management. [Does anyone else remember copy protected software flop of the 1980s?]

Cool today are Slashdot, Google, Mozilla/Firefox LAMP and the blogosphere.

Sorry for the lack of posts.

It's been a busy couple of weeks getting the Cascade Vaulters ready for our first public event. Which hasn't left much time to blog.
There have been many things that I've wanted to post about but never seem to have enough time. Things like: Installing a new stereo in my jeep.; Dog Sitting; CD-R Drive dead?; and my comments on a host of technology news items.

Hard Core Programming

I spent most of Friday and Saturday cranking out code for the FAQ page I mentioned in my last post. I ported it to other parts of my web site, but there are still some essential features to implement before I can release it. It is the first serious database / software project I've done since beginning this blog. It felt really good to spend the better part of two days hunkered down and hacking out code. It's nice to know that the skills are still there, even though I haven't been using them much over the past couple of years. And the experience makes me think I should spend some more time trying to find a job where I can do this professionally again.

Database driven FAQ page

I have created a database driven FAQ page for the Cascade Vaulters web site. I'm planning to make it portable to most websites running PHP & MySQL. This project is the first in a series working toward RaceWriter.