Twitter has given me a real problem.  It’s sucked the inspiration to blog out of me, 140 characters at a time.
Sometimes, smaller and faster may not be better.
I’m back from WWDC 2009.  What a wonderful time!  Sorry I didn’t update much about it, I was just too busy with my head buried in all the Apple goodness.  Oh my, do they have some good stuff in the pipe for you.
One of the greatest things about WWDC is the fabulous music they play before each and every session to keep the devs jazzed up.  There was a thread about collecting the songs that were played before each session because Apple wasn’t posting a playlist.  Fortunately, thanks to the iPhone, devs were walking into the sessions with Shazzam running and collecting information on any songs that weren’t recognizable and posting it to the thread.
The new film Terminator Salvation is not just bad… it’s absurd, ridiculous, boneheaded and an absolute atrocity.  The producers of this film should be vastly ashamed for not just killing the series (Terminator III already started the slow death, this one just deals the final blow), but for making me lose all interest in any Terminator film or storyline ever again.
I had a hint that this film was in a sad state when it seemed that McG, the “visionary director” behind this enormous waste of time had forgotten that he showed the name of the film once in the opening credits.  It’s truly baffling.  It’s as if he was totally not paying attention or, as I said to my friend upon exit, he just wanted us to be really sure we wanted to sit through this disaster.  The opening credits have the typical summer blockbuster 3-D titles swirling about in the background… yeah, those letters that you know will eventually come together to spell TERMINATOR SALVATION.  But uhh, before that, a white font pops up on the screen to tell us that.  Then after a few more names, the letters finally do what you expect: they come together to form the title of the film again.  TERMINATOR SALVATION.  It reminded me of a flight attendant who starts every flight with an announcement of the final destination and advises that if this is not your final destination, you should deplane at this time.
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Image by <a href="http://www.daylife.com/source/Getty_Images">AFP/Getty Images</a> via <a href="http://www.daylife.com">Daylife</a>
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FOREWARNING: SPOILERS. Â IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN STAR TREK, STOP READING NOW.
While I’ve been on a trip for the day job this week in downtown Dallas, TX, some of us found time to check out of the action and head over to catch Star Trek a second time.  It’s purely logical that a few NASA geeks want to check it out again, yes?
There is a really disturbing trend developing in health care.  I can sum it up thusly: the insurance company will decide the fate of a patient’s treatment.
One company in particular seems to know better than any medical professional that has ever taken a medical class: Aetna.  You see, Aetna thinks that because the doctor didn’t do a sleep study on me and there is no “official” diagnosis, then he has no right to request that I obtain a prescription to fight the narcolepsy for a month while they line up some time in the clinic.  Therefore, there simply refuse to let me have it.
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Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/89665467@N00/3057326221">Fuschia Foot</a> via Flickr
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An old, old friend of mine runs the website Needcoffee.com.  It’s a fun website, full of twists, turns and cunning wit.  It also centers its existence around the thesis that humans do not need to sleep.
Two weeks ago I was in New Orleans, LA on a trip for work.  While we’re sitting at our chosen location pounding away on keyboards and debating serious elements of our system and the politics behind it, I found myself engaged in a conversation with one of my coworkers.  It was the chief engineer, of whom I highly respect.  When he speaks on all things NASA IT, I listen.
Words cannot express the birthday present I was given today.
I have a dual trip to California coming up in June – first to CalConnect to represent NASA on the standards body board there in Redwood Shores, then WWDC 2009.  I combined both trips into one, which left me with an empty weekend.
Today I turn 37 years of age.
I used to completely ignore the fact that I had a birthday and only acknowledge it to people who mentioned it, but today I’m openly declaring that I’m 37 years of age.
Why am I turning against my own tide and bringing this up?  I’m not sure.  It might have something to do with the fact that I need to openly declare that I’m in the final stretch to 40 and I need to GET OFF MY ASS and get healthier.
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Image via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mobileme_Logo.png">Wikipedia</a>
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If you find that there’s an address book card out there that isn’t syncing with MobileMe, your iPhone, or another Mac… check to see if there is an ampersand in the failing record anywhere.  Apparently once a card hits MobileMe, it doesn’t like the ampersand in the vcard and chokes on it.  If MobileMe chokes on it, all of your devices will be unable to find the new card.
Hi, just dropping in from raiding the lands of healthy heroes and creamy young virgins to let you in on a quick Apple Mail tip.
Do you use Apple Mail in an environment with Outlook? Â In particular, do those Outlook users prefer HTML mail? Â Do you receive mail from them with a microscopic font size?
Thanks to the tip I found here you can correct this issue.
Hope this helps. Â Flying back out to meet up with my sister Vermithrax and raid a few kingdoms today. Â Wednesdays are always fun like that.