Category Archives: General Stuff

2013-03-31 · 18:31

Edgar Anthony Babin, 1937-2013

Edgar Anthony Babin, 76, a native of Terrebonne Parish and resident of Houma, died at 4:13 a.m. Thursday, March 28, 2013. Visitation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. today at Falgout Funeral Home and from 9 a.m. until funeral time Monday at St. Bernadette Catholic Church. A military service will be at 10 a.m. Monday at the church. A Mass of Christian burial will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the church, with burial to be held at a later date.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Norma Jean Marie Robichaux Babin; sons, Ricky and wife, Tonya, Carey and wife, Venetia, and Robert Babin and wife, Earline; brother, Sidney Babin Jr. and wife, Lindy; eight grandchildren, Shane and wife, Amy, Steven and wife, Tracey, Chris and fiancee, Taylor Hoob, Becky and Seth Babin, Christine and husband, Stuart Lewis, and Craig Denison and Nicole Crochet; four great-grandchildren, Rayler, Ryan and Johnny Babin, and Kaydyn Crochet; good friends, Keith and wife, Andrea Faul; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Sidney Sr. and Vivian Cadiere Babin. Pallbearers are: Steven and Donald Babin, Douglas Chauvin Sr., Keith Faul, Mike Robichaux and Stuart Lewis.

He was a man dedicated to the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s office for more than 46 years, a charter member of Bayou Cane Volunteer Fire Department, and a 1955 through 1957 U.S. Navy veteran who loved fishing, hunting and gardening. The family gives thanks and appreciation to Haydel Hospice, Terrebonne General Medical Center and all medical staff who gave Edgar their care and concern during his illness. Falgout Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

My Uncle Edgar was one of the hardest-working men I ever knew. (He was also the first person I ever knew who actually had a tattoo, courtesy of his time in the Navy.) He was perpetually busy with his job,  with the Sheriff’s Department, or the volunteer fire department, and he was an avid sportsman in his free time. He raised a solid, loving family, and my cousins and I enjoyed many an hour fishing, trawling for shrimp, or talking about fishing with him growing up. It is remarkable to me that he and my Aunt Norma were married for 57 years. That is an enviable accomplishment that reflects a lifelong love and commitment that is too rarely seen today.  I will miss him. R.I.P., podna.

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2013-03-21 · 00:01

Thursday trivia #91

  • I went from hale and hearty on Monday morning to throwing up and feeling miserable by dinnertime Monday evening. After two days of incarceration on my sofa, I can say a) I blame my commercial flight Saturday for getting me all germed up b) thank you, Instacart, for bringing me needed supplies so I didn’t have to go out in the rain and c) I am thankful for my general good health.
  • With the impending death of Google Reader, I’ve switched over to Newsblur. So far I am semi-impressed. It looks good, but it has had terrible performance and uptime problems, brought on by the onslaught of tens of thousands of new users. The iOS client is only OK, and the two Windows Phone clients I’ve found (Feed Me and Metroblur) are both slow and clunky. I hope to see NextGen Reader and Byline support Newsblur; if not I’ll be stuck with the web client, I guess… still, better than nothing.
  • I’m loving “The Americans,” although they’re showing signs of falling into the “Game of Thrones” trap of including too much gratuitous sex as a substitute for actual plot or character development.
  • My condolences to the families of the seven Marines killed in the mortar accident at Hawthorne Army Depot earlier this week. (And shame on Senator Harry Reid, the shameless one, for linking their deaths to budget cuts brought on by sequestration.)
  • It’s funny how Intuit always manages to jack up the cost of TurboTax about 3 weeks before the April 15th filing deadline. They’ll get their extra money this year, as I am in no way ready to file my taxes yet.
  • I’ve been accepted as a speaker for TechEd 2013– in both North America and Europe! I’m doing a talk on developing mobile applications with Exchange Web Services. Should be fun; I love New Orleans and haven’t ever been to Madrid.

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2013-03-14 · 04:15

Thursday trivia #90

  • Had my first sample of Vietnamese food yesterday, courtesy of (and thanks to!) Bo Williams. The food and company were both top-notch. For the record, I had the clay pot.
  • Damnit, Google. Why couldn’t you have killed Orkut, or one of the other worthless services you offer, instead of Google Reader?
  • This morning two of the newspresenters on WAAY-TV were handling a large snake. Is it ratings week, or has the Bay Area just changed my tastes in TV news?
  • Just wrapped chapter 6 (Exchange 2013 message hygiene) of the book and sent it off for review. Now I’m working on chapter 4, the client chapter. Lots to say about Outlook and the all-new Exchange 2013 version of OWA.
  • Two more books added to my reading queue: The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us (think: the opposite of Malcom Gladwell’s Blink) and Broken Hearts: The Tangled History of Cardiac Care (which claims, among other things, that most catheterizations and other invasive procedures don’t actually improve survival outcomes). Finding time to read them, of course, is a completely different matter.
  • Apropos of which, my reading lately has focused on the study guides for my instrument flight rating…

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2013-02-14 · 04:20

Thursday trivia #88

  • Happy birthday to the one and only Julie A. Robichaux! My dear sister is a terrific writer who can tear a strip off of a miscreant or write a sweet paen to motherhood and apple pie, sometimes in the same post, while making it look easy. I’m grateful that her rapier wit, good looks, and artistic sense help raise the family average of same above my own mediocre levels.
  • In the third quarter of calendar 2012, Huntsville was the #1 airport in the nation… for airfare, with an average fare of $522. When I only pay $500 for a trip SFO-HSV I consider myself lucky.
  • Surface Pro observation du jour: thé Staples in Madison, Alabama has gotten “tons of phone calls” about the Surface Pro 128, and has run out of stock every day on the 64GB model– as soon as they get one or two in, they sell them again. “I could have sold 10 or more on Saturday,” said the manager to me tonight. Anecdotes, of course, but if a smallish city like Huntsville has strong demand…
  • Got to do a presentation to a group of MVPs this week on how to get into the publishing business. It was fun– thanks for coming, y’all!
  • This article is a decent summary of why I fear the upcoming merger between American and US Airways. I prefer to fly Delta when I can, but American’s schedule from the Bay Area to Huntsville is better, so I often fly them… but if they descend to US Airways’ service level, I won’t.
  • Speaking of publishing: the first two book chapters are in Microsoft’s hands, and I’m busily working away on the third. I’ve also edited the first two of Tony’s chapters. More to follow.
  • Nice to see the Toledo Blade in the news again.
  • Right after I posted my thoughts on auto-kill-drone-scary-things, I saw this article about the “domestic drone industry” pressuring the FAA. Good luck with that, guys; the FAA doesn’t pressure all that well.

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2013-02-07 · 17:54

Thursday trivia #87

  • My Kickstarter record of late hasn’t been so great. I’m still waiting for the Pebble I ordered, and today I got a notice from the Honey Badger BBQ sauce folks that said “DO NOT CONSUME ANY OF YOUR SAUCE; IMMEDIATELY DISPOSE OF YOUR SAUCE.” Oh well.
  • Lots to say about the Surface Pro; I just need to collect and organize my thoughts first. I want one, I think. But with the next generation Intel CPUs promising dramatically lower power usage, I might wait.
  • I’m not going to the MVP Summit this year; too much work and too little time. I have to be in Seattle the day before the seminar starts, so I may drop in for a short while on Monday though– hit me up if you want to meet.
  • Ross Anderson’s seminal Security Engineering is now available online for free. You should read it (yes, even you, Mom.)
  • Lots of events coming up! Next up: I’m doing a three-session webcast on Exchange 2013 at the end of the month. I’ve just sent off session proposals for TechEd North America and TechEd Europe, too.
  • The first chapter of my book has gone off to Microsoft Press for editing; the second chapter, on mobile device management, has gone off to my crack team of volunteer reviewers. Onward…

Bonus fun fact: even FedEx isn’t immune to the charms of Mardi Gras.

fedex

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2013-01-31 · 07:46

Thursday trivia #86

  • The boys and I have really enjoyed the Huntsville Havoc games we’ve been to. Our next one will be next weekend– can’t decide if we should go see the Havoc beat Pensacola or the dreaded Louisiana Ice Gators.
  • The second chapter for Exchange 2013 Inside Out is well underway– this one is on Exchange ActiveSync and mobile device management. There’s a lot to say on that topic.
  • Sadly I haven’t had time to fly since my cross-country with Matthew to Nashville a couple of weeks ago. I hope to remedy that really soon, at which point I’ll have some more aviation stuff to write about.

Bonus: if you didn’t see Wreck-It Ralph in theaters: a) you missed out and b) you probably haven’t seen the animated short that preceded it. In that case you are missing a real treat, and Disney was kind enough to post the full version on YouTube. Take a few minutes and watch it; you’ll be glad you did.

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2013-01-25 · 11:26

What Delta thinks they know about you..

Thanks to this post over at View from the Wing, I now know a little about what Delta thinks it knows about me as a customer; they use Experian’s Mosaic targeting service, which is supposed to aggregate many data sources to give Experian customers a profile of their own customers or web site visitors.

How’d they do? Well, they got my home zip code, gender, birth date, SkyMiles number, and SkyMiles balance right– as you’d hope, given that I gave them my address, gender, and birth date, and they know my SkyMiles data. They got my income and home value wrong by a wide margin, along with the number and type of American Express cards I have. According to Experian, my profile code is K39. From the list here, I learned that a K39 is a “Metro Fusion” in the  “Significant Singles” category.. so at least they got the “single” part right. Here’s a description of K39s from a group that sells demographic targeting services to churches; it says that people in this segment are “creative, outspoken, unconventional, and very liberal” (not so much), “well educated and restless, ready to start their own business or climb the career ladder” (yeah), and “notable for their enthusiasm for the internet, and their passion for gaming…The digital world and the real world may have blurred boundaries.”

The Experian PDF itself is even better: people in this demographic segment “enjoy an active singles scene with plenty of nightlife, progressive values and robust leisure lives”, “rarely own GPS systems, satellite radios, or GPS players,” “seem to have champagne tastes on beer budgets,” and “describe themselves as liberal Democrats.” But wait, there’s more: “they’re unlikely to access the Internet for e-commerce transactions – few have interest in online shopping, banking, and booking travel plans”, but “they visit websites that offer auctions, gambling, celebrity news, and New Age information.” Nailed it!

The detailed description is much more interesting, and describes me considerably more accurately (see p194-196 of the PDF). Apparently people in my segment play video games at 3-4x the national average, are early adopters of consumer electronics, distrust large banks, are only “modestly interested” in most TV programs, and “have a particular fondness for American Express prestige brands.”

Suffice it to say any organization that thinks I am “very liberal” or that I can’t tell the difference between the real and virtual worlds is going to be in for a mighty big surprise when they use those assumptions to market to me. Perhaps that explains why the only marketing offers I ever get from Delta are things that are either useless to me (discount fares out of Detroit? Um, no) or uninteresting (get SkyMiles for buying wine? Nope). Perhaps I should be comforted that the all-seeing digital eye is so inaccurate.

I bet you’re wondering what Experian thinks about you now, aren’t you? There’s much more detail in this FlyerTalk thread.

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2013-01-25 · 05:51

Thursday trivia #85

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2012-12-27 · 10:00

Thursday trivia #83

The boys and I had a wonderful Christmas– in fact, we’re still having it, evidenced by the wrapping paper and assorted detritus in the living room. Last night we went to see Monsters Inc during its re-release; later in the week, I’ll take each of them on a 1:1 outing, and we have a few other things planned. David’s been reading; Tom’s been composing electronic dance music, and Matt has been doing a little of everything.. it’s been a real blessing to get to spend the holiday with them.

  • This list of the metropolitan areas with the highest, and lowest, numbers of electric and hybrid vehicles is a little surprising– not because of the top areas (most of which are in California), but because so many of the bottom areas are smack in the middle of the oil patch– Lafayette made the list, as did Shreveport, Beaumont, and Baton Rouge. The bottom 15 areas have 5% the EV registrations as the top areas.
  • Microsoft is now shipping an iOS version of the popular Wordament game for Windows Phone. No big deal? Well, it includes Xbox LIVE achievements. That’s certainly a departure.
  • It’s better to have a 100kt plane and a 130kt brain than a 100kt brain and a 130kt plane.
  • By this definition, it looks like I’m a libertarian too (but you might have already guessed that.)
  • More than twice as many men as women die in pedestrian-vehicle accidents. I wouldn’t have guessed that, but the possible reasons why make sense. Be careful out there, guys.

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2012-12-27 · 05:45

Bad experience at Larry’s Pistol and Pawn in Huntsville

I’m not really a complainer by nature (thank goodness), and I don’t tend to have problems with customer service at most of the businesses I deal with– in part because I am picky about who gets my money. Having said that, I had a bad experience with Larry’s Pistol and Pawn in Huntsville that I wanted to document.

Larry’s has been in business for a long time; when I moved to Huntsville in 1991, they had the only indoor pistol range in town. As long as I’ve lived in the area, I’ve shopped there, and I’ve never had a bad experience. Yesterday, though, I had a salesman who was both discourteous and uninformed about the law. He refused to sell me a rifle because I am a dual resident of California and Alabama– “I won’t sell you this because it’s not legal in California,” he said. 

I explained that I’d just gone through the same process at another local store, which had called the local Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) office to confirm that it was legal. According to 27 CFR 478 § 11, it is in fact legal for a US citizen who resides in more than one state to purchase a long gun in any state of residence. I meet the legal residency definitions for both Alabama and California, and if you read Example 2 in the definition for “State of Residence” it’s clearly applicable.

Rude Guy wasn’t in the mood to listen; he told me that the other store where I’d made a previous purchase had broken the law. That didn’t seem likely; gun stores tend to be terrifically careful to follow the law and ATF regulations because failure to do so can get them shut down and their employees jailed. I politely thanked him and left. Then I called the local ATF field office myself and spoke to a very helpful ATF employee. I explained my situation, she cited 478§11 to me, told me I was good to go, and gave me her phone number to have Larry’s call her if they had any questions.

Armed with this information (ed.: see what I did there?) I went back to Larry’s, stood in line for the same guy, and explained my phone call. He was even ruder than before: “I don’t care what she said,” he said angrily; “I still won’t sell to you.” Clearly there was no point in arguing, so I left.

I’ve sent Larry Burnett, the owner, a detailed letter explaining what happened, so we’ll see what action, if any, he takes. Until I hear back, though, Larry’s is off my shopping list. If you’re in the market for firearms, ammunition, or supplies, I suggest you go elsewhere.

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2012-12-20 · 00:05

Thursday trivia #82

No time for trivia this week, sorry. Instead, let me leave you with a mashup for your listening pleasure:

Or if your tastes run more towards Christmas music I strongly encourage you to give this a listen:

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2012-12-13 · 16:51

Thursday trivia #81

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2012-11-15 · 18:50

Thursday trivia #80

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2012-11-08 · 18:30

Thursday trivia #79

  • Rule #1 of aviation: don’t hit anything.
    Clear violation of rule #1
  • Windows IT Pro has a new compendium of its articles and coverage of Exchange 2013. Check it out.
  • The ability to do discovery searches from a single locationin Office 2013/Lync 2013/SharePoint 2013/Exchange 2013 is going to sell a lot of SharePoint seats.
  • Halo 4 has been terrific so far and I’m only partway through the second mission. 343 has a winner.
  • I think some new gadgets may be coming to join the stable in the next week or two.

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2012-11-01 · 00:30

Thursday trivia #78

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