Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

International (Post)Man of Mystery
May 12, 2009

I recently had the opportunity to indulge in my impish fantasies of being an international importer/exporter. I’ve always thought that it would be neat to have a network of folks, connected via the internet, that would export specific local goodies to other countries to make them available faster in the destination country. Japanese animation comes to mind specifically.

Anyway, I was sending a couple of toys to Norway, and I found myself at the post office. As it turns out, the only way to avoid spending more than $40 on shipping from the US to Norway is to use first class mail. And when you’re using first class mail, you cannot buy postage online and print it like you can with priority or express mail, even though it’s pretty much flat rate for a box under certain dimensions and weight. No, you must go to the post office.

You Didn't Notice
May 07, 2009

You didn’t notice, but I complete changed the way I look today.

No, it’s ok. I put hours, literal hours into looking this good, and you’ve said nothing about it. But that’s fine.

Photoshop Sucks for Web Design
May 05, 2009

Friends, I stand before you unabashed and in contempt. I refuse to be an enabler for mindless tolerance any more.

You know it in your heart that this is true. If you have any competence at interface design, you cannot deny it. If you’ve used any of the other packages for design out there, you know that Photoshop has nothing essential or unique except a complete lack of intuitiveness.

Kids on Computers
May 01, 2009

We got Abby a new computer for her birthday last week, and she’s now starting to use it fairly regularly. She has a current school assignment to do a research project on an endangered species. She had to look up a list of species and choose three interesting ones, from which the teacher would determine on what topic her report would be written. We looked at a few sites and found the island fox, which has since been learning more about online.

Of course, one of the concerns you have when you let kids browse the internet is that they would encounter inappropriate content. I’ve installed Microsoft’s Live Family Safety on her computer, which does a handy job of blocking everything on the web until Beta or I approve it. It also manages her contact list, so I can add approved family members to her instant messenger (Live).

Wizard's First Rule
April 30, 2009

Yesterday, I finished the book Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I originally became interested in the book as a result of seeing the TV show Legend of the Seeker, which is loosely based on the book.

In the novel, Richard Cypher is an unassuming woodland guide in a region called Westland. His land is separated from the two other lands of the world, Midland and D’Hara, by the “boundary”, a magical wall where the separation between the living world and the underworld has been removed. The intention of the boundary is to protect Westland’s residents from the effects of magic, which is prevalent in the other regions.