The next time you’re in a meeting, say this:
At this point, if anyone in your meeting nods their head, slap them.
The other day, the boss slid the term ‘tactical metrics’ into a meeting. I asked if we were going to learn how to field strip a Glock.
‘Ghost’, or ‘ghost mode’ in GranTurismo 4 (GT4) is a semi-transparent copy of your fastest run around that particular track. It’s designed to let you see your fastest pace around the track while you drive. You can even load other peoples ‘ghost save’ to pace (or outpace) them through the course.
I’m no doubt sure it’s useful, but I can’t stand it. Semi-transparent or not, it’s another car on the track. No matter how many times I’ve tried to convince myself that I can drive right through it, my brain sees it as ‘another car on the track’ and will try to avoid it. So instead of matching my fastest line through the corner, I late apex without thinking so I can dodge the invisible car on the inside.
There used to be a setting that would turn this feature off. After a few hours of searching (It’s not in the manual, or in ‘Settings’.) I found it: Press UP on the Digital pad while driving. The blue dot on the map will go away along with the problems found with racing against yourself.
My new host bluehost.com has just opened up their firewall to allow outbound pings to pingomatic. This, so far, is the only issue I’ve had. All my domains are moved over. I have 3 installs of WordPress. I have 1.6GB of space left, 75GB monthly transfer, and all the email addresses I’ll ever want. I have shell access, but I really don’t need it with their kick ass control panel. An awesome deal for $6.95 a month.
If you want to sign up click here to let them know that Kris sent’ya.
I added the “moo” to the subject for search ability. This way I can search technorati for “pingomatic moo” and find if it worked for sure.
Please note that the mechanism to temporarily disable delivery of Windows XP SP2 is only available for a period of 240 days (8 months) from August 16, 2004. At the end of this period (after April 12, 2005), Windows XP SP2 will be delivered to all Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 1 systems. link
Microsoft has decided what’s good for you. I hope you like service pack 2! If it causes or fixes problems is not even the issue. The issue lies in a large multinational corporation enacting control over every possible installation of their software. Just because I chose to buy and install XP2 shouldn’t give Microsoft the ultimate power of it’s update and control. You want that control back? Turn off “auto-update” and go off grid.
Last week my buddy KC (from Rhode Island) asked me if I lived close to San Diego. “Very close. Why?” “SCCA Autocross National Tour San Diego!” Christine and I have been wanting to take a trip down there, so we planned to make a stop at Qualcomm Stadium and visit with KC and the rest of the crazy autocross guys for the day.
Besides the traffic on the I-5 after a tour bus got crushed, it was a fun trip. We spent about 5 hours in the parking lot of the stadium watching some fast drivers fight for hundreths of a second. I’ve been to an SCCA National Tour event before in Massachusetts and you don’t get to see cars like the Lotus Elise, or Caterham 7’s. “Lot’s of fair weather cars out here.” KC remarked.
I got to use my new lenses to their limit. I received a telephoto and wide angle lens for Christmas. (thanks mom & dad) I personally love the “close up / giant wide lens” look. I had the tripod and it was fairly sunny out – so my 6X shots are pretty crisp. Check them out in the gallery!
In the afternoon Tine and I went out to Coronado. Spent a nice relaxing evening walking around the island. Then we drove around downtown. It reminds me a lot of Portland, Maine… On a sunny summer day in June. 
This evening Christine and I traveled across the UCI campus to watch a PowerPoint presentation. This is the first time I’ve ever waited in line to see slides on an overhead projector.
David Byrne uses PowerPoint as a meta medium. A catch all for music, pictures, and text. He points out that a lot of applications don’t allow this sort of flexibility. “Try opening an mp3 with Photoshop,” he exlaimed. But he’s quick to point out it’s shortcomings. “You can make one thing fly across the screen, but when you ask it to do 5 images it doesn’t know what to do. It throws up it’s arms – I can’t do THAT, but how about THIS!” He’s excited when he gets an unexpected result. When you get something that you didn’t anticipate.
He went on to talk about how powerful a medium it is in the business world and how it can give a false weight to even meaningless presentation topics. How it’s wizard can suggest content, even if you don’t have any! The social implications of taking long complex topics and condensing them down into 7 bullet points.
I asked David if he was drawn to this sort of niche medium and if he was worried that future “enhancements” to the product may limit his creativity. He used the analogy of the pencil – “You don’t see people picking up the pencil and saying ‘I need to make this better! This needs to be in color!” He explained there are limitiations in PowerPoint that don’t need to be overcome. It’s what makes the program simple and easy to use. If it’s changed radically – it stops being what it is – a simple media basket for images, text and music. An interesting way to express ideas visually.
He presented us with several slides that he had found on the web. Marriage counseling; a jar of pants; suggestions for dealing with the homeless. All funny examples of slides that were intended to be serious, but it’s meaning somehow got lost in the translation.
I too ♥ PowerPoint. Read more about this on BoingBoing.