PolarLava::Blog » Archive of December 2009

Droid Does: Kevin

So it's been 6 months since I said GoodBiPhone and it certainly was a major adjustment going from an iPhone to no phone at all.  But that all changed as of 7pm tonight.

I'm now the proud and happy owner of a Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless!  I've wait a long time for a new phone and once I learned about the Droid and my wife's desire to stay on Verizon it was just a matter of time.

At some point I'll elaborate on why I'm happier with this than an iPhone, but I need to get it setup and play with it a bit first.  Suffice to say I've been researching it since it was announced in October and have been lusting for this day to finally come.

And last but not least, thanks to my Mom and Dad for this wonderful Christmas gift.  It might even be better than My New Cars! from them. ;)

December 30, 2009 @ 10:22 pm | Category: Brainwork

My New Cars!

So Christmas has brought me two really cool items from my parents. The first is my new family sedan, a Maserati Quattroporte in bluegrey metallic finish:

The family will surely be traveling in style now!

And secondly my new commuter car, a bright red Chevrolet C6 Corvette:

I'm so looking forward to racing this against Frank! I sure hope he's spending his time off getting his Vette ready for a serious challenge.

Now that I look at them, they seem a lot bigger in the pictures. I wonder if that has anything to do with the "Hot Wheels" stamp on the bottom. ;)

December 26, 2009 @ 11:16 am | Category: Brainwork

7th Blogversary

So apparently I sadly missed posting about my 6th Blogversary last year as I didn't post in December of last year at all.  Anyhow, today marks my 7th year of spewing out this pointless, self-serving drivel.  More than ever, this year I posted largely to the Beer topic and a little less so to the PhotoBlog.  Recently I've been trying to post more to Brainwork topic to pump some life back into it.  Being it's been two years, I did make my way back to Twitter without completely abandoning my blog.  My posts here get posted there with a link to the full entry.  This seems to work and actually, it's largely replaced my comments section as a feedback mechanism.

This will likely be one of my last posts while still running this on PolarBlog.  I'm getting close to migrating away and I'm optimistic that I'll be off of it before the end of the year.

Seven years of blogging certainly isn't a record, but it's definitely a lot longer that a lot of people I know.  Anyhow, here's to another year.

Here's the obligatory links to previous blogveraries:

December 14, 2009 @ 06:51 am | Category: PolarLava Website

The Facebook Dilemma

OK, I've caved in and signed-up…I feel dirty now.

—

So as most of you know, I've been a big Twitter user for a longtime.  I'm a big fan and often encourage others to use it.  I find it very useful as a means to keep up with friends, but more importantly as a new source.  It's spoon feeding of a lot of what I used to follow via RSS.

Meanwhile, I've had little interest in Facebook.  I get really annoyed when people post links on Twitter or send me links to their Facebook page, but when I click it I can't see it!  You're required to login to view it.  Welcome my friend to the walled garden.  You can't just view the content, no you have to join the cult first.  Grrr.  I don't want to join, I don't want to really participate, I just want to be able to absorb what has been sent to me.

So over the past several months my reluctance to join has been decreasing.  I mean, I get why it's so popular and it is beginning to appeal to me somewhat.  And it's not like it's going away as it's kind of a pretty big thing.  ;)  Thus I've been toying with the idea of signing up and getting a Facebook account.

And now I'm really at a crossroads; Chris Muench is the first person to actually reach out and send me an invite to join.  Damn you Chris!  ;)  So now I feel I'm going to have to make a decision.  It's join now or keep being a curmudgeon —which really isn't difficult for me to do, and resisting.  Part of me is sad because I'm leaning towards doing it.  :(

Interesting…I got the invite on Monday (12/7 appropriately enough), but in the body it has "Invite sent: Oct 26, 2009".  That makes the USPS look like a pretty speedy service!

December 9, 2009 @ 12:58 pm | Category: Brainwork

Scarlet Ibises

Categorize Module

As part of my migration from PolarBlog to Chyrp, I need to carry over the various Topics that subdivide things. The best choice in Chyrp to do that is the Categorize module. Unfortunately it hadn't been updated to work with 2.0 and is no longer supported by the original developer. I was planning on getting involved in the Chyrp community once I got setup and migrated. I needed the Categorize module now so working through updating it I sort of had to get involved now.

You can now download the Categorize 2.1.0 module updated to work with Chyrp 2.0. :)

There will likely be more contributions in the future to this project as well as a project page here once I get around to it.

December 6, 2009 @ 09:46 am | Category: Software Development