This afternoon I did a little shopping for the holiday feast tomorrow, and I got to observe some prime high quality behavior. First, how hard is it to put your damn shopping cart in one of the little corrals that they provide? Seriously, there are at least three per row of cars, but alas, it is too damn far for most people to put them where they are out of the way of other shoppers. There must...
I have a few websites, and I have all of them (except this one) in my Google Analytics account. I don’t obsessively watch it, but I keep track of trends. My main site, Tralfaz, I run on Joomla! which does a pretty good job of internally monitoring the page visits. I find that on days where I make a new post, I typically get 100 – 130 page views of that (mostly from the Product...
I have been trying really hard to use my Nexus 7 as my tablet and media consumption device. In general, it is a worthy competitor to the iOS based iPad’s, but there are some notable differences. 1) The built in Safari “Reader” function is something I use heavily. If you are unfamiliar with it, it takes a web page, strips out all the marginal things, formats it in larger, more...
When I first started making money (delivering the San Jose Mercury News), I put together a hifi system (old components, amplifier, and turntable) and started buying music. I was addicted to the extension of my collection, which ran to hundreds of LPs, including some rarities, and bootlegs. I remember the thrill when I first got a car and was able to drive to Santa Cruz, not to visit the beach...
A week or so ago, my wife and I were shopping (at a local office supply store), and they had the two Microsoft Surfaces. The RT which is ARM powered, and the other one (pro?) with a Core i5 and full windows compatibility. I was expecting to be underwhelmed, but the Metro interface, and the responsiveness of the product was surprising. Metro (the Windows 8) UI is well suited for touch...
Not really a secret, I prefer to do my exercise out of doors. Whether it is hiking, or cycling, or even jogging, I vastly prefer to get out and pound the pavement (or trail). But it can be challenging when summer happens here in Arizona. When the thermometer goes past 100F by 10:00AM, and at 5:00AM it is already 88F, it is difficult to get out and exercise. Yet I do it nonetheless. But I do take...
I was cleaning up some programs that I am not likely to use on my new MacBook Air (iPhoto, iMovie), and I figured I would also blow away Garage Band. Before I deleted it, I thought I would open it up and see what it was all about. Then I found the Lessons part. Damn, that is cool. Really cool. Now I need to buy widget to get my guitar plugged into my Mac. I bought the Artist Lesson of Alex...
I took a plunge and went for one of the new MBA’s that were announced this month. (I am claiming that my boys got it for me as a Father’s day gift. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone). Of course, the design, the fit and the finish are outstanding. I got the 13” version, and I opted for the 8G memory on the system, so I had to wait until it built and was shipped from Foxconn. I gently unboxed it and fired...
I have long been a photographer. I began back in high school with my grandfather’s old Canon from the ’60’s. I shot a lot of B&W film in high school (it was super cheap, and we learned how to process it ourselves, so it was a no brainer. I have stayed true to Canon over the years, with several film cameras, and not I am fully in the digital realm. Last year, on a whim, I...
In my job, I often must write long, boring, detailed technical specifications for products under development. A full set of requirements includes the up front market justification that is needed to “sell” the proposal, an accounting of the types of customers who will buy (buyer personas, user personas) and the actual requirements in excruciating detail. It is not hard, once I get...