Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Windows Home Server Thoughts
April 18, 2007

I’ve been part of the top-secret beta program over the past month or so of Microsoft’s new Home Server product, and since it’s now been released CTP, I can finally talk about it.

The software is actually really cool in concept. You basically allocate a box as your “home server”. Many of us are getting so many computers around the house that it’s becoming impractical not to have a dedicated server machine for sharing files and running printers, so it’s a good idea to offer software that helps automate some of those tasks.

Better RSS Notification
April 17, 2007

I’ve complained about this before, but maybe I’ll do it again and someone will listen this time.

I need a little tray gadget that notifies me of RSS updates. It shouldn’t be a full reader. It should just display a pretty little popup box when a new entry is added to one of the feeds I read. It should display the content of the entry as text, nothing fancy, and a link to the actual post.

Who Am I?
April 17, 2007

In one of his movies, Jackie Chan is a military agent of some kind who has forgotten who he is. He has many adventures while trying to figure out what’s going on with him and discover his true identity. I’ve been feeling a bit like this lately, but without the desert racing and self-performed stunts.

When we got the treadmill, I really had no idea how big it was going to be, or how difficult it would be to move. When I returned alone to the mall to pick it up in the van, I hadn’t considered moving the 6-foot tall, 4-foot wide, 200-300 pound box to my second floor bedroom.

I Apparently Owe $25k in Back Taxes
April 16, 2007

We were up until 3am this morning, even with work only a few hours after that. I was working, as usual, and Berta was doing taxes.

I’ve done our taxes using H&R Block’s TaxCut software for the past three years. Strangely, it’s something I kind of enjoy. We haven’t had any problems with it, and we were going to use it again this year except we figured that with the sale of the house and the change in jobs and the liquidation in some of our stock assets to pay for things, maybe we ought to have someone professional do it.