Me want!
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Technology
I am one well-dressed man today
I want one of these for myself now…a BlackBerry 8700. Since I don’t have a laptop this would come in handy when I’m traveling, not that I do that very often. The Treo 700 has additional capabilities like camera phone (already got one), music player (Ipod solves that) and movie viewer (okay, score one for Treo).
This one is the 8700c which only Cingular offers. I’d rather have the 8700g because it also lets you do Yahoo/AIM instant messaging, but cell coverage is very sketchy where I live so I’m not sure the carriers that offer it will work for me.
Getting attachment viewing working was a bear though. The included attachment viewer only works if you use the $1500 BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) which also requires an SQL server and there was no way I was installing all that noise for two BlackBerries. I ended up eating those words later with nothing to wash it down.
First I tried a 3rd party utility called Repligo. Essentially whenever you open an attachment it gets forwarded to the Repligo servers which then send it back as a picture which you can view easily. This was going to cost $99 per year for each person that used the device – potentially $500-600 in annually recurring costs.
Thankfully someone on Experts-Exchange mentioned there was a free Express version of BES 4.1. I was able to install that along with MS Desktop Engine (MSDE) on my spare machine in short order. I did have to increase the RAM since all these extra processes are real resource hogs. BES Express comes with one free license so we just have to purchase one extra for a one-time fee of $99 and we’re home free. Nothing like saving the boss a few pennies especially with my annual review coming in a few months.
I look damn good today.
Night of the living dead
Posted by Steve | Filed under Amore & Vita, General, Uncategorized
I was sick yesterday. I was queasy and it felt like I was on the verge of puking the entire time. Once I actually went to the bathroom to do it but it was a false alarm. The feeling lessened a little bit in the evening, at least enough to sleep…or so I thought.
I could not get to sleep for the life of me last night. I don’t normally have trouble getting shuteye. I got up and walked around the apartment in my birthday suit a few times, sat with the cat that spends half the night staring at the crack under the door waiting for a shadow to go by. I got on Elite for a few minutes, which was apparently Insomniacs Anonymous Central, then back to bed…nothing.
I ended up lying in bed listening to The Best of Ambient Lounge on my Ipod…an excellent choice. Listening to music this way was a different experience for me. Normally I use music either as Muzak-esque background filler or to put me in a certain mood to do something. I use rap or metal to get ready for the gym; Pop or R&B when I’m driving and more mellow stuff at night. In any case its really the beat that I key into. Last night I actually got into the lyrics more, at least to the extent that I could as it was a European album so some of the lyrics were not English. It felt as if I was just listening to an audio book or something. Interesting how different the experience was.
In any case that didn’t put me to sleep but it did allow me to achieve a vegetative state sufficient to get some semblance of rest. I began to wonder whats become of those weird goth/gay/punk friends I had from my countless nights at Club Rio and Backstreet in Atlanta.
I finally did get to sleep around 5 AM which gave me an hour of peace before the dog jumped on the bed for his morning pet ritual at 6 AM, followed by the alarm at 6:15.
The latest object of my lust
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Triathlon
well….other than Belle. Rolf Prima Vigor RS wheelset. Light weight, fast and dead sexy! At $700 they’re less than half the price of a pair of Zipp 440′s. When you ride as slow as I do it’s important to look good. 
CNN.com – Study: Chocolate may boost brain power – May 25, 2006
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Newsworthy
See! All those times I was shoveling Snickers bars down my throat I had a master plan after all.
CNN.com – Study: Chocolate may boost brain power – May 25, 2006
In other news I am really feeling the effects of carbohydrate deprivation this morning. I am dragging myself around the office today. It’s going to be difficult getting thru this evening’s ride. I will have some oatmeal before I head home but I don’t think that’s gonna make much difference once I get past the first tne miles or so. Luckily I get to begin adding carbs back in right after that all the way thru Sunday evening.
That reminds me to get some groceries. I’m out of eggs and a few other necessities.
You know you’re old when you get up to do something and by the time you get around your desk to go do it you’ve forgotten what it is you got up to do.
Training week in review
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Triathlon
This was a rough week at work so I missed a few workouts. That’s mostly an excuse but I’ll go with it anyway.
Monday
nothing
Tuesday
skipped
Wed
Gym workout
squats 5×5
front squats 3×8
leg press 4×10
Elliptical machine 20 minutes (basically I do enough cardio to make this workout last one hour in total)
Thursday
skipped
Friday
off
Saturday
45 mile road bike ride @ 151 avg HR, 171 max HR
Sunday
35 mile road ride @ 147 avg HR, 168 max HR
This was a shortened version of yesterday’s ride. My quads were still pretty sore from the day before so its good I cut it short. I’m trying to do 100 miles per week now so this wasn’t too bad. Monday off is just in time.
I really want to take a week off work and go for a 250 mile week. I think the most I’ve ever done in a week is 225 and that was including the MS 150 ride.
This can’t be good….
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Triathlon, Uncategorized
Gone in Sixty Seconds
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Work
Life in the big city just got worse. We were robbed yesterday in broad daylight, right under our noses. Someone walked into our office during lunch, walked right past the front desk person carrying a box under his arm, to the only office with a laptop and walked right back out with that laptop. Delivery/maintenance men are in and out all day long and since this person was dressed in similiar colors to a bldg maintenance he didn’t set off any alarms. Well, actually he did.
As he was walking out of my boss’ office the person in the next office came out to check the printer. He sees him and starts following him out to the elevator area. The guy walks down the hall and coworker calls out to him, then the guy bolts down a back stairwell that’s basically never used.
There’s a couple of things that strongly smell of inside job.
- We are on the 6th floor of an 8 story building. Our office door is solid wood with no windows looking in. For all that person knew our front door could’ve opened into a room with 30 people right there….UNLESS they had been in before. We have less than 10 employees total.
- My boss (the victim) had just left for lunch 10 minutes earlier and HE SAW THE GUY hanging around near the elevators. He thought he looked suspicious and didn’t want to get on the elevator with him so he came back to the office, only 15-20 feet, checked the door then left down the elevator.
- The thief must’ve known that a) my boss who he just saw was now gone meaning his office which is as far away from the front door as you can get was now empty b) that he had a laptop sittin in the open and that he wouldn’t raise suspicion in those color clothes.
- He was wearing white shirt and brown pants – maintenance colors – although no one got a good enough look verify if it was an official uniform. He had to know where he was going and that he had time to get there and back before anyone thought twice about him.
- Two weeks ago he and his wife (both my bosses) were robbed at knife point (okay, box cutter point) in the parking garage. He got a couple hundred bucks then. The parking space, where it happened, has our company name on it. Maybe somebody put 2 + 2 together and saw a bigger target.
- Building management has changed recently and the replacements are not well liked by tenant nor employees. Some longtime employees (maintenance men…imagine that) have left in the past month.
To add insult to injury this is right across from LAX and TSA, the airport security company, has the entire floor above us. What really sucks is that my office looks right down the hall so I even saw the guy myself. However I sit at my desk without my glasses because my monitor is so close it hurts my eyes.
The security desk to this building is about 30-40 yards from the front door, plus the building provides overnight parking for airport visitors so strangers in the building is nothing new. Oh well, at least the ass hats did the important things like lock all the restroom doors a month. Gotta stop those lunatic toilet paper thieves at all costs. No key – no pee, suckas! This probably means we’ll be moving when the lease is up so I’ll have to wire a new office in the near future….man, I hate that.
On a positive note Belle was concerned enough for my safety to call as soon as she could. Kinda neat to have someone that gives a shit, unlike in past RELATIONSHIPS (which according to Webster means “the connections between or among persons, nations….go figure) where actual feelings were more a liability and irritant than anything else.
