That was a nice little break. It was becoming pretty hard to come up with new stuff every day. I don’t know what pace I’ll resume at, so, we’ll see how it goes.On a totally related note, welcome home, Brad. My Spring Break starts, well, right now. I’ll be gone skiing tomorrow and might try to skydive at some point in the coming week. We’ll see!
Many of you associate CU Boulder with any number of things. Sex, drugs, football and rock and roll are just a few of the things we’ve become well known for (not the nationally recognized physics professor, the volunteerism nor the Nobel Laureate). In any case, football has been a cornerstone in the school’s culture. That’s why I’m excited to see Dan Hawkins coaching. He understands the culture and wants to help re-establish CU as a classy school.
Hawkins came in and spoke to a large group of us the other night and I enjoyed hearing what he had to say. He’s full of wisdom that will (hopefully) rub off onto the players and the school. He was actually very candid and openly talked a lot about himself and where he’s coming from. Hawkins has come a long way. He pointed out the fact that his salary was less than $20,000 at one point. He’d even been on welfare. But, he said, he’s one of those people who “takes care of the details.” Life is full of the little things, the details, and he’s gone through life focusing on those.. not the money. Now he’s coaching and making $900,00 (with potential to earn double that).
He put up a nice acronym (for life and success) on the board. It was ‘GAMES’. I vividly remember him talking about ‘G’ becuase it stood for ‘Goals’… something I’ve started thinking about more and more, lately.
Anyway, I’ve been embarassed for my school. I entered CU as the sex scandals emerged. I was there for the student section ejection. The students don’t care, though. Nobody does anything about this.
If you’re reading this you’re subscribed to my feed and not reading from my website. My provider is very broken and I’m very not happy. Then again, I don’t pay anything for it. Sigh. Anyone have any ideas? I was more upset about my email, though. If anything was sent in the last 5 days and I haven’t responded please re-send.
Scott Adams, yesterday: “I was taking a shower one day ? that?s where all my good ideas are born…” vs Devin Reams, 3 weeks ago: “I was doing some quality thinking in the shower (my best ideas originate while soaking in hot water)”. I thought I was the only crazy shower thinker.
What’s your Entreprenurial Quotient? I got a 72%. I’m okay with that because a few of the questions ask what are the ‘best’ and, well, I get to pick what’s ‘best’ right? But seriously, they’re some good questions. Oh, and why make us go through the Tickle sign up? If I can make a FIRO-B assessment you can put together a quiz that doesn’t require my birthdate!
This is very disconcerning. This guy ripped up a credit card offer, changed the address and phone number… and was approved. Dammit. Now I have to go buy a shredder.
Despite popular belief, television is still great and still very alive. Sure, technology and the internet are awesome. But what I’ve found to be more awesome is the combination of the two. Windows Media Center Edition brings my TV to my computer. No longer do I need two seperate screens in my room (hah, but I do anyway). I just pull up Media Center and can tune into my cable TV. Besides, I watch the History Channel like it’s my job and I’m glad I can take screenshots from Modern Marvels:
In fact, I use Media Center to watch TV more than I use my bigscreen. Why? For beginners, MCE downloads program data into the ‘Guide’. When we had basic cable I had to sit and watch the TV Guide channel for 10 minutes before I realized there was absolutely nothing on. MCE let’s me search and sort by genre (Movie, Children, etc).
My favorite feature is the ability to record shows. I have a bunch of storage space (about 250g) and I have no problem finding space to record three or four different programs each day. The best part is I can Suspend the computer and it will automatically wake itself up to record shows when I’m not around.
I’ve also found Media Center’s ‘My Pictures’ to be a great feature. I can watch professional looking slideshows with no effort at all. It’s also simple enough to play music in the background. When you’ve got a nice looking slideshow all you need to do is then hit the ‘Burn’ button and you’re good to go.
But, some of my favorite features are found under the ‘Online Spotlight’ section. Here I can pull up MTV’s Overdrive and watch music videos, on demand, with my remote. I can visit Comedy Central’s channel and watch clips. Even the Associated Press has news clips and a scrolling news ticker.
If Media Center’s Music capabilities were a bit better (it doesn’t handle my 12,000 MP3s very well) then I’d really have no reason to ever close the window. So, to recap, Media Center is the best because:
In short, I don’t think most people realize how useful Media Center Edition is. I use it constantly and can’t picture myself having another computer without it. I’m sure Nathan would agree.
[tags]tv, entertainment, media center, mce, windows, pictures[/tags]
Filed under the “you can’t make this stuff up” category is the following email I received from Microsoft today. (Click for full view)
Look carefully and see if you can spot the typo. Hint: how does a company misspell it’s own product name?
Ben put up some maps of where he’s travelled. I’m actually surprised he hasn’t been more places (yet). In any case, he beat me to blogging about travel…
A month or so ago I created profiles on 43 things, 43 people, and 43 places (all found on my About page). I played around with the profiles and found the websites to very interesting. But, hands down, 43 places interested me the most.
Aside: Interviewing potential rushees for AKPsi was interesting becuase nearly every student said they’d “travel” if they had unlimited free time. It seems that traveling may be one of the greater human desires (right below socializing).
Many people are very visual. I wouldn’t necessairly classify myself as a ‘visual’ person but when I take a look at a map of the world denoting where I’ve been… well, that’s pretty neat looking. Have you ever been to a touristy location and seen one of those push-pin maps? It’s fun to look at because everyone who has visited puts a pin on the map to show where they came from.
This is the exact opposite. This is the home version. I’ve seen a few people who have a push-pin map for where they’ve travelled… but they’ve travelled a lot. 43 places is fun because it’s easy, informative, and I can see everyone’s map. In addition, I can list where I want to go and solicit advice from other users. If you’re just looking for some reference material you can browse the site and learn about places people have already been and see the pictures they’ve taken.
I dreamed (literally, it was in a dream) about creating a travel-related site like this a long time ago. I’m glad someone beat me to it. Post a link to your profile in the comments once you’ve created it… I’m interested to see where my readers (family, friends) have been.
[tags]personal, travel, maps, 43 places[/tags]
Quote of the Day: ?If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.? via Dave