2009-03-04 · 13:45

Dear Zipcar: first impressions matter

image943888651.jpgFirst impressions matter sooooo much. Here’s what I saw when I approached the car; obviously it’s been parked near Big Bird’s nest a little too long.

Other than that, it was a good experience. It was fun driving a hybrid, and the car location was perfect for what I needed. I will definitely use Zipcar again.
Update: not long after I posted this, I coincidentally got an e-mail from someone in the Zipcar Seattle office asking how my first Zipcar rental went. I sent her a link to this post, and within two hours I got an e-mail response telling me that she had dispatched someone to pick up the car and get it cleaned. With that kind of responsiveness I’ll absolutely use Zipcar in the future.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

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Filed under Musings, Travel

2009-03-03 · 13:12

New York Times surrenders to Marines

Well, not really. They did, however, overturn their longstanding style rule that says that “Marines” shouldn’t be capitalized. The Marine Corps Times has the whole story, drawn from the Times’ Philip Corbett’s blog entry here. Semper fi, Old Gray Lady!

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Filed under General Stuff, Smackdown!

2009-03-03 · 12:46

Outlook 2007 programming chapters online

Long-time Outlook MVP Sue Mosher (who is a really interesting person besides!) wrote Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming: Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
a year or two ago, and Microsoft just put three chapters online from it. If you’re doing Outlook development at all, this will probably be a valuable read. Sue points out that the chapter on working with item bodies has a lot of information that she’s never seen published anywhere else.

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2009-03-03 · 12:24

At the MVP Summit

I’m excited to be at this year’s MVP Summit. (In fact, I’m in an Exchange 14-themed session right now). The summit team has their own blog, and lots of other MVPs are blogging about it. I have a huge backlog of blog entries to write, but I won’t be blogging much about the specific sessions because they’re under NDA. Too bad, because there are some E14 features that totally rock my socks off.

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2009-02-24 · 10:12

My next vehicle: not a Chrysler

I’ve been a loyal Chrysler/Dodge owner since I bought my first new car back in 1990. In general, their cars (and especially their minivans) have fit my needs really well, and they’ve been reliable enough. However, in the last month, our 2005 Grand Caravan’s reliability has fallen off a cliff. To wit, here are the repairs it’s needed recently:

  • a new water pump
  • a new set of plugs and wires
  • a new shaft and seal for the power steering system
  • a new front blower motor, without which there’s no heat

That’s not including the things that should be fixed but are too much hassle, like the intermittent fault that sets off the alarm about a third of the time when you use the power liftgate. (Update: I forgot to include the oxygen sensor in the above list.)

So, sorry, Chrysler. Bankruptcy or not, the next time I buy a vehicle it won’t be one of yours. It will most likely be an American-made Honda. (Update: Missy suggests an American-made Nissan Quest– something I’ll definitely look into.)

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2009-02-09 · 11:48

Wayne Hale five years later

In January 2004, I posted a note about Wayne Hale, the NASA deputy program manager for shuttle operations. He was taking responsibility for the Columbia disaster. Five years later, he’s still stirring things up. Godspeed, Mr. Hale.   

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2009-02-07 · 20:44

Rotary auction haul

I bought a portable air compressor/brad nailer kit and a Blu-Ray player. Go charity!

Tags:

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

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2009-02-05 · 11:12

Important travel tip

This is very helpful advice, though I don’t know where it came from: always fly first class.

image001.jpg

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Filed under Musings, Travel

2009-01-30 · 16:47

TempleStudy.com

www.templestudy.com is a well-written and beautifully presented blog that focuses on one thing: temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Bonus: this site has some great temple pictures.) If you’re LDS, you’ll enjoy it; if you’re not, you may learn from it why we consider temples, and the ordinances performed therein, so important.

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Filed under Spiritual Nourishment

2009-01-30 · 09:43

Saturday Morning Science at the University of Toledo

UT is doing a series of “Saturday Morning Science” presentations on topics ranging from wind farming to inflammation to aluminum. I’ll definitely be hitting these with the boys. Here’s the link (hat tip: Mark Chandler)

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Filed under General Stuff

2009-01-27 · 11:33

Rotary program with BlueWater Technologies

We always have a fairly eclectic assortment of speakers at Perrysburg Rotary. This Friday, though, we’re actually having a technology demo of sorts. Cheryl Outly from BlueWater Technologies is coming to talk about some of their technologies. The best intro, though, is this YouTube video– check it out and you’ll see why I’m excited about hearing Cheryl speak.

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2009-01-21 · 09:39

Lotus to license Exchange ActiveSync (updated)

Apparently IBM has decided that the best way to get mobile e-mail out of Notes/Domino is to license their primary competitor’s protocol! Network World ran a story today (“Lotus Notes/iPhone users to get their wish: real-time e-mail access“) claiming that IBM will include Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support in a future release of Lotus Notes Traveler, IBM’s existing mobility solution. (Ed Brill mentioned it this morning, when I was revising this draft, too.)

This is fascinating for several reasons. First, it further solidifies EAS’ position as the dominant mobile sync protocol for e-mail, calendar, and contact data. When your biggest competitors (like Apple and Nokia in mobile devices and now IBM in collaboration software) come hat in hand to license your stuff, that’s a good sign. The original decision to license EAS to outside parties some years ago looks better and better– especially in light of the EU’s continued and bizarre insistence that Microsoft isn’t documenting and opening its protocols enough.

Second, this move implies some things about the state of the relationship between IBM (or at least the Lotus division) and Apple. IBM certainly has enough skilled developers to build their own equivalent of EAS, and to get it to run comfortably on the iPhone. Apparently, though, they don’t have the market leverage to get Apple to ship that protocol as a peer of EAS, or to allow IBM to evade the SDK restrictions on backgrounding. Of course, Apple only added EAS support in the first place to give them another attack (a submission, if you will, to borrow a little BJJ lingo) against RIM and WM. Apple apparently doesn’t feel the need to have a similar move up their sleeve for those shops running Notes.

Third, follow the money. I couldn’t find any evidence of an IBM-Microsoft cross-license for patents (which makes perfect sense given the companies’ respective stances on Linux). IBM doesn’t break out many separate numbers for sales of individual products, but given what I know about EAS licensing I expect that they’ll have to pay Microsoft a per-unit fee for the server software that implements EAS on the Domino side. That in turn gives Microsoft some interesting data they didn’t have before: how many licenses of Traveler IBM is selling. Oh, and cash money, too.

Fourth, can you imagine the field day Microsoft’s sales and marketing team is going to have with this? This is like one of those “write your own caption” contests.

Fifth, this represents a win for Windows Mobile too. Now they too can work seamlessly with Domino installations with no additional client software.

Meta-thought: IBM must have really wanted to get Notes on the iPhone. Why? It’s hard to imagine that it’s because of the huge overlap between Notes users and iPhone users, because I don’t believe such an overlap exists. Could this be an attempt by IBM to cash in on some of the halo generated by the iPhone? Does the iPhone coattail effect make up for having to license a protocol from the hated Redmondites? I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

Update: IBM’s actual press release is here. I like the phrase in the intro paragraph: “…intended support for Microsoft Active Sync”. I wonder what “intended” means in this context?

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2009-01-20 · 11:21

Microsoft releases public beta of Entourage EWS

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Microsoft had announced their plans to release an Exchange Web Services-based version of Entourage 2008. Well, they’ve gone and done it: this Mactopia page has the link you need to sign in to Microsoft Connect and get the beta bits. Just to reiterate: you won’t see any major changes in the user interface, because there aren’t any. Consider this release to be the UI of Entourage 2008 with a completely different (and much improved!) mechanism for talking to Exchange under the hood.

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2009-01-14 · 21:41

Firsthand lessons from the Seattle flooding

From a friend in the Seattle area who wanted to stay anonymous:

  • Most of my disasters preparations; food, water, generator, water filters, supplies, etc… are for the days after things go bad. Getting through the first 24 hours in the best possible condition is much more important. How you get through and what you do in the first 24 hours will set the tone for everything that follows.
  • Do you know where your community rally point is? Where emergency services will be available? Where to get sandbags? Closest chopper pad?
  • Disasters are a come as you are event. I spent the first three hours of the flood in slip on moccasins and sweat pants. No gun, no multi-tool, just my Spyderco knife and a Sharpie. If it isn’t on-hand in three minutes or if you don’t remember that you have it or exactly where it is, it might as well be on the moon.
  • Don’t overfill sandbags. 90% full is about optimum. That way, there’s room in the bag for the sand to shift, conform to the space to fill in the gaps.
  • A wheelbarrow. Its not just for farmers. You can move twice as much material for less effort in a wheelbarrow than by carrying it. I recommend the dual-wheeled models as they’re more stable and less likely to get stuck in the mud.
  • Energy drinks. Legalized “speed” that will carry you through with extra energy when you need it.
  • An American flag, pole and holder. Hanging the flag outside your residence is a good way to signal to aid/rescue that your house is occupied.
  • Pre-packed disaster equipment. Hoses with your pumps, extension cords with your generator. Saves time and effort as everything is in the box ready to go so you don’t have to gather it up or remember where it is under pressure.
  • Physical skills. Do you know how to build a sandbag wall quickly and efficiently? (I never thought about it before now.) Do you know how to drive your SUV through deep water? How deep can you safely go?
  • You might be prepared and know what you’re doing, but there’s lots of idiots out there. Law enforcement and officials are going to assume you’re the latter until they see otherwise.
  • Hand sanitizer.
  • Your most useful tool is the one between your ears.

There’s some very thought-provoking advice in the above, especially knowing your community and convincing the local law that you’re not an idiot. I know I’ll be applying this list to our family’s disaster planning.

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Filed under General Stuff, Musings

2009-01-14 · 16:45

Queuing system FAIL

I’m trying to sign my oldest son up for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ summer youth program, Especially For Youth. Frankly, I’m jealous that he gets to go. It’s sort of a combination summer camp and mini-seminary, and everyone I know who’s attended it (or whose kids have been) has raved about it. However, the signup process is giving me a headache. Here’s what’s on my screen right now:

SafariScreenSnapz001.png

So let me count the ways that this reeks of FAIL.

First, it doesn’t tell you what your queue position is. Having a queue length is meaningless; all it does is tell you the total number of people who may (or may not) be waiting for the service. Without some estimate of where you are, knowing the number of people in line or the wait time isn’t helpful.

Second, what does “the average wait time for the entire line” mean? If it’s for the entire line, is it really a total time, or is it the average time that someone has to wait in the queue? It can’t be the latter, because it keeps bouncing up and down. I’ve seen it as high as 130 and as low as 85– during the 240+ minutes that I’ve been waiting.

Third, how about an estimate for when it will be my turn? Is that too much to ask?

Here’s the best part: the registration isn’t first-come, first-served! There’s no hurry to register, but that little detail is several clicks beneath the actual registration screen.

Managing signup queues for high-demand events like EFY is a well-understood problem. If you’ve ever used Disney’s FastPass system, you know about one possible solution (and one that would certainly apply here). The LDS Church does such a good job with its use of technology in general that it’s a real disappointment to see this kind of junk.

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