I don't remember what I was reading, but I came across the following words. Makes sense to me.

It is better to be apart and wish you were together, than it is to be together and wish you were apart.

Speaks volumes to me.

Posted in: Philosophy,

A coworker recently setup a Comcast Digital Video Recorder (DVR), which is basically a mini-computer recording TV onto a hard-drive much like a VCR. He listed an amazing and convenient feature set which almost impressed me. I asked him one simple question: Must it be left on 24/7? Answer: Yes. He admitted that he didn't like that part either.

This brings up my frustration with many similar new gagdets, appliances and most software. Either no one conceived that such a basic feature (turning it off) was a good idea or their design approach forced them to remove that option entirely. Either way I see it as a design flaw. I know many people might disagree with that assertion but I see it more apparent now than ever before.

I've sampled many free software applications on the internet that perform DVR-like capabilities (think similar to Windows Media Center) and most of them also expect you to keep your system on continuously (with 24/7 high speed internet connection). When I ask if there is some way to have such a feature, I get such resistence: "Why would you do that?" or "You don't want that!". Ack. The best would be: "Keeping it on isn't a big deal. Power costs aren't that much". Yeah, right!!! ... To a similar extent I see many free software projects with what I would call similar design flaws. Question: How do I reduce memory usage? Answer: Add a stick of memory. Memory is cheap. Question: How do I reduce disk consumption? Answer: Buy a bigger harddrive. Disk space is cheap. ... I cannot express how annoying such responses are. Did the answer the question? Could they?

The days of intelligent design are numbered while the end of bad assumptions is no where in sight. One of the many reasons why I'm more inclined to do things myself rather than rely on the flawed decisions of others.

Posted in: Technology, Stuff,

Mark you calendars: the seasoned comedy pro will return to SNL on May 14! Don't get your hopes up, he's only hosting.

Posted in: Funny, Television,

I remember reading somewhere that the greatest minds put forth their most significant accomplishments before the age of 30. I'm no Einstein, but I don't need to be to see that the potential of my youth is being wasted away. And I don't know what I'm doing. I know I could possibly take some risks or be more aggressive but I just can't seem to find it in me. Sometimes when the sure bet is very convenient it's very hard to find the motivation to dream that more is possible. I keep trying to tell myself that "good enough" is really NOT good enough but I'm not sure I'm even listening. So, maybe when I'm reading this at the age of 30 I can kick myself really hard. Maybe that's what I'll deserve.

Posted in: Life, Philosophy,

I normally don't do plugs but I am impressed with the latest version of Opera. In my honest opinion they really improved after version 7. And in the grand scheme of things I'd be happier if there were plenty of different web browsers accessing the world wide web. It would force the a lot of people to fix things. Anyways, I've yet to try it out on windows, I'm posting this with Opera on Linux. Works better than the last time I tried it, and as far as I can tell my entire website renders correctly (apology to IE users).

So I urge people to download and try it out, I may not be 100% ready to switch anytime soon but maybe some others might dump IE for it.

Oh yeah, with 250 unique clicks of the banner I'm supposed to get a free license. So far I've got ... ummm ... 1.

Posted in: Website, Internet,