Think Secret - Updated Mac minis arriving, details revealed [updated]

It's like they don't want me to by a mac mini.

Slow Wireless Network? Get some of this

Wi-Fi Speed Spray DramaticalIy Increase Data Throughput

Selling the house

So... I'm in the process of selling my condo. And of course all that goes with it. Painting, cleaning, de-cluttering, fixing little things I've been meaning to get around to. The place looks so nice, I don't want to leave it.

So I've been interviewing three agents. Two of them essentially came up with the same asking price. The third, who lives in the neighborhood (so I assumed she'd be very familar with the pricing etc) suggested a price.... wait for it. $100,000 higher than the other two realtors. Which would be great, but it would mean that my humble garden unit would sell for almost $35k more than the penthouse, and $130,000 more than the other garden that sold last year. I wish. Yikes. small mistake? good thing I did my homework.

Sex Retreat

No, seriously. The Jesuit group I work with, Charis, is sponsoring a weekend retreat on sexuality, 'Sex in the City of God'. I've worked with this group on several occasions, and highly reccommend them. This is their first attempt at this particular topic however.

I arrived late to a recognition dinner for the group, and Jenene asked me if I had plans for the summer. I should have suspected something right away. I have some plans, but nothing grandiose, no month long escapes to Italy. So when Jenene asked if I'd do music for the summer retreat, I agreed. Not making the connection that I'd be doing music from 70's porn flicks....

Ok I admit, that part was my idea, but it could be an interesting retreat, and we'll have some fun with the music for sure. And I can't wait to see what kind of a crowd it draws.

That one's going on my resume.

Brain Fart Theater

Well, I pretty much packed a year's worth of brain farts into one Mass. I forgot to tell the priest that there was no Gloria, accidentally banged the strings during the gospel, forgot to turn the guitar on for another song, and after reminding the cantor to announce the number of the mass parts I played over the top of her.

Wow. Just not my day. Couldn't seem to get the brain and body working together today. God was teaching me humility.

Good vs. Great Marketing

Good marketing: I found a locksmith's business card tucked into the window seal of my car.

Great marketing: If I had found it inside my car.

Free m4pia

It was only a matter of time.... Not before someone broke the copy protection, but before I stumbled onto it. hymn -- decrypt iTunes and iPod music / unprotect AAC files (m4p --> m4a)

Isn't that just normal pay then?

"Under the terms of Mr. Zander’s signing agreement, he’s entitled to a base salary of $1.5 million, a bonus of at least $2 million and incentive pay worth at least $3.8 million.":

A bonus of at least $2 million? Umm... if he has to receive at least $2million is it still a bonus? I'd be willing to give up my salary if I had to receive a bonus of $2 million.

Hold 'Em Poker Pub Crawl

You won't lose as much money as Vegas, and you will be inebriated. Festa Hold 'Em Poker Pub Crawl.

Brian, you coming to town?

Timely Dilbert

Half the people in our room our moving out of their cubes into a
different department. Hopefully Scott Adams can see my future.

Proving once again Dilbert is not a fictional series but, a documentary.

The Most Useless Tech Support Response Ever

Automated responses are one thing, but for goodness sake, at least answer the question. Here's my original email:

Why can't I use the home media features with TiVo?
I want to use these features and will not continue
subscribing to DirecTv when I move later this summer if I can't
have them.  When will they be enabled?

And here's DirecTV's response:

Dear John,

Thanks for writing. I'm sorry to hear that you are having
trouble with your DIRECTV System. You may be able to answer
your question by referring to your owner's manual. If you
don't have an owner's manual, you can find a copy on our web
site at DIRECTV.com/manuals.

If you can't find the answer to your question in the
manual, please call 1-800-531-5000 and select the option for
technical assistance.

Sincerely,

Frederick
DIRECTV Customer Service

How useless is that? Suddenly I think the folks 'stealing' the satellite service might have something.

Pope Joke

As in the Pope made a good joke. And if you've ever visited or traveled via Train in Italy and Germany, you'll enjoy it.

The Pope also shared a joke after apologising for arriving late. "The Germans are used to punctuality," he said. "I have become a bit of an Italian."

Full article here

Konfabulous?

While reading an article on Mac's upcoming Tiger release in Time, I noticed a link to Konfabulator! Not saying who pimped who here, but some of these widgets look kind of cool. Check them out, let me know what you think.

Swingers

Yeah baby! I still got it. After answering the call from John Predny, and filling in as a lead at the last two Swing I classes at Old Town School, I went to their graduation night at the Green Dolphin. I admit to being a bit rusty, but picked up a lot of new moves, and actually helped the ladies practice a bit.

All in all, it was a blast. I forgot how much fun that could be. My favorite part was learning a bunch of closing moves with dips. Soooo much fun. Now I just need more chances to use these moves.... Too bad life isn't more like a musical. You know, the kind with happy endings, pretty girls, and me getting both at the end.

Mr. Lucky is Back

Making me want to come back. Brian stops to tie his shoe. I notice an open slot machine perfectly named 'Little green men.' That title matched a PR flyer I used in my Glee Club days. Back then it got the highest attendance at a GC concert ever. This time I put ten dollars in the machine. First bet was 3.75 and with one pull made 137.50. Sweet action. Brian nearly tackles me going for the cash out button.

Don't worry buddy. I'm taking this money and running.

The Road to Redemption

My 1st winning ticket from the sports book at Mandalay Bay. Bet the bulls over magic giving 8.5 points. Final score 117 77 bulls.

Gotta love the home team. We met Brian's Uncle, Aunt, and cousin for a comped dinner at the buffet and then Brian and I got a free look at Shark's Reef. Very cool, thanks to the Nevada Dauernheims.

Vegas is a cruel mistress

I picked a bad time to stop betting conservatively. Usually I put aside some of my winnings but not tonight. Up a grand. Lost it. Bet 500 on one hand. Lost. Climbed back to 250 down. Then lost that. Now down 400. On the positive side played for over six hours. Brian tried valiantly to stop me from the big bets.

But we had both been on such a great run, and had a couple or three or four or five drinks, that I couldn't lose. Plus I can be a little stubborn, and the numbers were on my side.

I'm getting too old for this...

Took a bunch of the Motorola team out on the town tonight. Great dinner at Cafe 28, then on to Justin's. Was surprised to find out how many people had never taken the 'L' before. Then on to the Hange Uppe (the only place I'll go in the area of Rush and Division). Now, maybe I'm getting old, but there was no room to dance, the staff was incredibly rude on several occasions, and honestly I just wasn't digging it.

One of my colleague's husband and I were talking about it, and we'd rather kick back and chill with some friends than hit the clubs. Cheaper too. Even the hotties were a bit questionable. Don't get me wrong, there were some fine looking ladies, but some not so fine ones too. And even the hot ones just seemed too young, or like they were trying to hard. Every time you try to dance you get bumped around. Ack... I paid money for this?

Give me Wrigleyville, Lakeview or Bucktown. No more Gold Coast for me. I'm getting too old for this.

Tivo on PSP

According to this BBC NEWS article, people are already hacking the PSP. IRC and web browsers of course. But also transferring TIVO files to your PSP. Cool.

Cool New iPod Accessories

Check out Griffin's newest iPod accessories!

First up is the Smart Deck! This nifty device uses the mechanical motion of the tapedeck to control the iPod. So you can use the steering wheel or radio controls to change to the next or last song. Plus it will automatically pause the iPod if the tape deck stops spinning. So no need to pause the iPod when you switch over to check traffic, anytime the tape deck stops spinning, the smart deck pauses the iPod.

Up next is the Air Click. It's an RF remote control for the iPod or alternatively your music player on Mac or PC. There's a pass through for the headset output. Useful stuff if you're in another room, or in the car. Handy with the Mac Airtunes devices too!