12/14/2008

Wow, it’s cold out there today. In fact, it’s booger-freezing cold, which I is a technical term I use to refer to the fact that when you step outside your boogers immediately freeze up.

Alex and I walked over to Blockbuster to return our movie, and it was maybe a quarter-mile but by the time we got back home my cheeks were burning and my fingers were chilled (even through my thick ski gloves).

It looks like the rest of the week is going to be more of the same. Winter is definitely here.

12/13/2008

I just bought a new hard drive online. One terabyte. One hundred bucks.

Holy cow. I still remember my first hard drive, a forty megabyte monster that sat on my desk and was bigger (and much louder) than the laptop I’m using to write this. It cost something like four hundred dollars used. Now, for a quarter of the price, I get twenty-five thousand times more storage.

Isn’t technological progress marvelous?

12/12/2008

Tonight I was out walking to the grocery store and noticed the moon was pretty darn bright. It turns out that tonight it’s at perigee (its closest orbital point to Earth) and in fact is closer than it’s been in the past fifteen years.

Evidently that makes it about 14% larger than any other full moon this year, and correspondingly it’s 30% brighter. Wow.

12/10/2008

I often crack myself up as I’m working on projects for clients. For example, I built an online survey system for a local company, and to demonstrate it I entered a few sample questions so they could see how it works:

If these guys aren’t Monty Python fans this won’t mean much to them, of course, but at least I get a good chuckle out of it.

12/06/2008

Dirk sent me a request for proposal for a web site. It’s for a well-known educational institution who shall remain nameless, but in the request it includes this caveat:

The final draft will include a full mock up of a visible HTML web site that shows design, layout, and functionality capabilities. If at this point (the institution) is not satisfied with the product… then (the institution) reserves the right to cancel the purchase order, and will not be responsible for any payments.

Wow. That means after we’ve designed and built the entire web site, database, and content management system, they can walk away without paying a dime.

If any web development firm bids on this, I pray for their souls.

12/05/2008

Doing appears risky, because it exposes you to criticism and perhaps failure. Experiencing is hot right now: being part of the social network, helping maintain that online tribe you belong to. Getting your ducks in a row is not nearly as powerful as actually doing something with your duck.”

— Seth Godin