wshaffer

I'm heading to the VMworld conference tomorrow evening, and the current list of electronic devices I'm contemplating taking consists of: 2 laptops, a digital camera, an iPad, an iPod, a phone, and a Kindle. Oh, and a Fitbit. That means I'm going to need to remember 6 distinct power/charging cables.

I probably ought to throw a power strip in there as well.

I think I can fit it all in the super-cool electronics bag my mother got me after I managed to mislay both a laptop power cord and a Kindle during a single 3 day trip. We'll see.

I spent a good chunk of the day at Maker Faire with my sister-in-law and my nephews. It's actually a lot like going to the fair was when I was a kid, with carnival rides and stands hawking overpriced corn dogs and cotton candy. Except it also has battling robots, people zipping around in giant cupcakes on wheels, and lots of things that shoot fire.

Younger Nephew enjoys Minecraft:


But the thing that I think enthralled Younger Nephew more than anything else was tiny robotic air cannon that used a camera to home in on a red target, and then fired a mini-marshmallow at it. He got such a kick of holding up the target, waiting for the marshmallow to fire, and then trying to catch and eat the marshmallow.

Older Nephew had fun with the giant cardboard robot arms:


He also enjoyed various battling robot exhibits, and spent quite a bit of time in the Meccano booth.

Older Nephew was quite curious about the demographics of the event:
Older Nephew: Why are there so many teenagers here?
Me: Well, kids grow up into teenagers.
Older Nephew: I know, but there are so many of them. Look - there's another one!
Me: I guess teenagers like robots?

It was a fun day out, though I think if I go again, I'd like to try to go when it's less crowded.

Daniel and I went to see Eklipse, Delain, and Kamelot the Friday before last, so I got a chance to try out my new camera again.

By the way, I've taken to posting my concert reviews over on the blog I started for my podcast, Stumbling in the Dark: http://stumbledark.wordpress.com. (Here's my review of the Kamelot show; and here's my review of the Mission show.)

( Pics of the latest show below the cut )

My much-abused iPhone 4 seems to have well and truly given up the ghost - since Monday evening, it won't do anything except go into a perpetual power cycle. I've been mulling over what I should do about it, and I think I'll probably just upgrade to an iPhone 5.

Some of the conundra not having a working phone presents:
- How do I set my alarm clock? (Currently using the timer function on an iPod nano plugged into an external speaker.)
- How do I check the weather when I'm deciding what to wear in the morning?
- When I'm in my 9 a.m. meeting and I realize I've forgotten where my 10 a.m. meeting is being held, how do I find out where it is?
- How do I take a picture of the cool new Temple of Void badge I've put on my battle jacket so I can post it on Facebook?
- How do I look up random factoids that come up in conversation while I'm riding in the car?
- How do I search the Pathfinder rule book when a rules question comes up during the game?

"How do I make and receive phone calls?" is actually fairly low on the list.

So, I have a new iPhone. So far, I have learned that a) Verizon's system for transferring contacts from your old phone to a new iPhone sucks, and b) just because I can now check my email before I even get out of bed in the morning doesn't mean I should.

So, my next order of business is to find a case with a belt clip for the thing. (The iPhone is really too big to carry in my pockets, and besides, my old phone has had a substantial portion of its casing worn off by years of knocking around in my pocket with keys, coins, and other gadgets.) Next order of business is to find some useful apps to put on it - there's a Shakespeare app I've got my eye on, and a couple of cooking apps, and a running app. All you existing iPhone users - what are your favorite apps?

Since discovering that I'd burned a load of CDs that won't play in my car CD player, I've done some experiments.

First, I discovered that if I took the burn rate all the way down to 1x speed, I could create CDs that would play in my car CD player - but with extremely poor sound quality.

Second, I discovered that switching to TDK-brand "Music" CD-Rs produced CDs that play beautifully, even when burned at max speed. Problem temporarily solved.

Alas, I can't re-burn the audiobooks that were burned to unplayable CDs, because I bought them from audible.com, which only allows you to burn a book to CD 1.5 times. (You can burn it once, and then you can burn half of it again - useful for replacing a couple of damaged or lost discs, but not very useful if your entire first attempt to burn the book was a loss.)

While I will be sending a politely worded email to audible pointing out that their DRM is preventing me from doing something entirely sensible and legal, I can't complain too much - I've known about audible's DRM policies all along, and have generally considered them an irritating but acceptable price to pay for being able to get a variety of audiobooks relatively cheaply and conveniently. However, this does serve as a reminder that if I really want to be able to do what I want with a piece of audio content, I'm better off getting it from other sources.

Still can't find the iPod FM transmitter I know I've got somewhere. It's looking like a better option all the time.

Been having a good weekend. Yesterday, we went to a party to bid Mary Anne and Kevin and their adorable daughter, Kavi, farewell as they leave the Bay Area and head back to Chicago. It was fun, there was lots of scrumptious Indian food (there was a dish involving beets, coconut milk, and turmeric that I must try making sometime), and I got to spend time with people that I only ever see at parties.

The drive to and from the party gave us an opportunity to road-test a new gadget that we were given for Chanukah: a Garmin GPS unit. I'd used one of these when we were on vacation in Florida, and already knew that they were wonderful for travel. I have a particular uncanny ability to get lost in Oakland while trying to find the freeway. With the Garmin in hand, no problem.

In addition to the party, I managed to cross several items off my to-do list yesterday, although I still haven't cleaned my desk. (Well, okay, I recycled a few stray unneeded papers, but you really wouldn't notice.)

This afternoon we went to see The Golden Compass. It was much better than reports of the early reviews had lead me to believe. I didn't find it terribly gripping, but it was entertaining, and there were some really wonderful bits. And the armored bears were not naff, like I was afraid they'd be. (Probably helps if you get Ian McKellen to voice your lead bear.) And despite the much-publicized removal of all direct references to God and the church, it really didn't feel to me like they'd tampered with Pullman's text all that much. (Okay, the movie doesn't leave you wondering whether C.S. Lewis used to beat up Pullman and take his lunch money when Pullman was a boy. Which was what the book made me wonder. But still...)

Though, you could tell I've been watching too much Doctor Who*, because every time somebody referred to "The Master," I jumped. And then when Derek Jacobi showed up, I jumped again.

*"We knew that already!" I hear you say. Oh, hush.

Meme via frankwu, who is always surrounded by interesting things. I can't really compete, but here are a few of the more interesting things I can see on my desk at the moment:

• Toy sonic screwdriver


• Most recent issue of Locus magazine, a couple of issues of National Geographic, and a couple of issues of Cooking Light and Cook's Illustrated


• A broken Kodak Easy Share digital camera


• A handful of Doctor Who DVDs


• My culinary "lab notebook" in which I jot down ideas about things I want to cook or recipes I'm inventing


• A "vintage" (it's probably older than I am, but not actually antique) Parker 45 medium point fountain pen


• A stack of assorted opened mail, waiting to be filed or shredded


• A small assortment of CDs of BBC radio plays


• A 5 port firewire hub, not connected to anything


• A big floppy black suede hat


• An iPod


• A dozen blank notebooks of various shapes and sizes

I should do this from my desk at work on Monday, and compare and contrast.

Had lunch yesterday with a former coworker from my last job. (She had worked there as a contractor, and is now working as a contractor just up the street.) Neither of us had realized until yesterday that we'd both bailed out of Ph.D. programs in the sciences and fallen into tech writing. We drank a toast: "Here's to bailing out of your Ph.D. program!"

Honestly, I've told my manager that we ought to start trawling local grad programs for disaffected grad students as part of our recruiting efforts. She's still skeptical.

The sonic screwdriver toy I'd ordered from Who North America arrived yesterday. I found it quite funny that you actually need a Phillips-head screwdriver to open the battery compartment of your sonic screwdriver. The sonic screwdriver is, of course, useless as a screwdriver, but it emits UV light, useful for revealing hidden messages written with the included UV-activated invisible ink. I keep thinking that there ought to be all sorts of glow-in-the-dark possibilities with this.

I am very, very glad that today is Friday