Roland’s Blog

I just got a marketing email from drugstore.com with the subject “Diaper blowout: save on Pampers, Huggies, Seventh Generation and more.”  If you’re not a parent and you don’t know why that’s unintentionally hilarious, just do a web search for “diaper blowout.”  Suffice it to say that when placed next to the word “diaper,” the word “blowout” does not usually connote slashed prices.

A play in two scenes.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

• X – a senior manager
• X’s admin - keeper of X’s schedule
• Y - a hard-working developer

SCENE I

setting: X’s admin’s desk

X’s admin: Hi, Y.

Y: Hi.  I’d like to get some time with X when there’s an opening.

X’s admin: How about next Tuesday at 1?

Y: Perfect.  Please put me on the schedule then.

SCENE II

setting: X’s office, next Tuesday at 1

X: Hi, Y.

Y: Hi, good to see you.

X: Thanks for coming by.  We haven’t talked for a while and I just wanted to touch base.

Y: …

Seen at the library: a dude with a stack of Cathy books on the table in front of him, barely controlling his laughter as he reads My Granddaughter Has Fleas!!

I just saw a dude order a 4-shot red eye.

Why I didn’t answer much email last week:

With Google’s big OpenSocial announcement, I find myself thinking about social networking in general. I think I may be a generation or so too old to really “get it,” but I do use four social networking sites at least a little bit:

• advogato: I’ve had an account there for quite a while, but the only thing I’ve done with it for years has been to syndicate this blog there. The theory of the certification network is very interesting, but it’s probably been five years since I’ve certified anyone or gotten a certification…
• ohloh: I created an account and claimed all the committer identities I could there a few months ago, but too be honest I don’t see much reason to look at the site. Besides, I’m very unimpressed that they seem to have completely ignored all the research from advogato on how to compute scores and just hacked up something hokey. And they can’t even seem to keep their kernel git tree updated properly.
• linkedin: I’ve had an account there for a while, and it seems like the most useful social networking site for what I want to do, which is really just to keep track of the email address of people I know and get back in touch with people I’ve lost touch with. I’ve even had one friend of a friend referred to me for a job opening, which I guess is exactly what the site is supposed to be for.
• facebook: I recently created an account there for the same reason I use linkedin. Like I said before, I think I’m too old to get into all the widgets and movie quizzes and share my favorite music and buy fish for my aquarium and so on, but I do have friends who aren’t on linked in who are on facebook. And it is nice to get birthday reminders I guess.

If Google can open all this up so I have better control of my own information and don’t have to deal with three or four different sites all the time, that would be cool. But I doubt they can pull off anything so pro-consumer….

I know I’m not in the shape I once was, but it seems rather cruel of the Cantabrigians to send around huge signs on buses that say “Run, Fatboy, Run” when I go out for a morning jog.

I went to the little mini post office in the grocery store today and bought some stamps.  The conversation went something like this:

Me: “I’d like a sheet of 41-cent stamps and two sheets of 2-cent stamps, please.”

Counter person: “That will be $9.  Do you need any stamps or postal supplies today?”

Me: “Um.  Just the stamps I already asked for, thanks.”

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ll be traveling to Cambridge next month.  I haven’t been to the UK in nearly 10 years, and so I’m in the market for an electrical adapter, since even after powertop’s best efforts, I still need to charge my laptop occasionally.  So I’m looking for something I can use between a North American plug and a UK receptacle.  Ideally the adapter would be neither impossible tight nor prone to coming out, and wouldn’t fall apart until after my trip.  I don’t need any gold-plated active phase skew compensation or anything like that, though.

Any suggestions?  Thanks….

This past Thursday was Bike to Work Day here in Silicon Valley, and while biking to work I thought about why I really like living in the Bay Area while other people seem to hate it. See, I pretty much never drive to work: I work from home three days a week and on the days where I actually go to the office, I ride my bike or light rail.

One of the main complaints I hear about the Bay Area is the traffic, and I can’t disagree really. But the simple solution is just to avoid driving. As I said, I bike to work, and I live downtown where I can walk to almost everywhere else I want to go. When I do get in my car it’s usually to go to the beach or Tahoe or the redwoods or something like that, and living near that stuff is the whole point of being in the Bay Area.

The other usual complaint about the Bay Area is that it’s too expensive, and I guess I can’t argue with that. But pay is higher here too, and the advantage of having a 1300-square-foot house is that I don’t have to worry about finding enough stuff to fill my rooms.

Anyway, if you don’t like the Bay Area, please don’t move here (or move away if you’re already here). We have enough people without you haters and your negative attitude….