Done yesterday (20090831)

[mdlbear]

0831 Mo
  * up 6:45ish; W=196.4; coffee; drugs, nose, teeth
  @ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/weekinreview/30pennebaker.html
    The Mediocre Multitasker
    http://www.igda.org/articles/erobinson_crunch.php
    Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work: 6 Lessons
    from http://jenk.livejournal.com/917780.html
  @ http://zgp.org/~dmarti/mlp/appliances/
    MLP: Appliance beats cloud?
    Amazon S3 may be cheaper than a full-bore home server, but it's more than
    a slug plus a hard drive.  (Or a hard drive attached to a machine you're
    using anyway.)
  * re-fax drawing affidavit to Dell
  ! starting to realize how out-of-it I've been (reading about the March email
    re: leaving Rahul in this morning's to.done)
  @ http://gizmodo.com/5348571/caffeine-dreams-tasting-the-perfect-coffee
    Caffeine Dreams: Tasting the Perfect Coffee
  @ http://gizmodo.com/5348516/cd-case-features-built+in-theremin-and-artistic-circuitry-match-that-bittorrent
    CD Case Features Built-In Theremin and Artistic Circuitry
  * walk:  twice around pond.  10 min. meditation
  * banking: pay bills - Costco renewal needs to be mailed
  * car will be ready Tuesday.  Windows under warranty, but not door handles.
  * Mini-10 on its way from Dell  
  *- use a silicone potholder to keep things from sliding off plates
  * good start on $project at work
  * bring home Mac because it can run the setup s/w for ij.
  & Stupid damned Kindle is broken again.
  * get ij hooked up on ethernet (ij0)
    It probably can't be both wired and wireless at the same time.
    *- the Windows subnet really doesn't work, because SMB isn't routable.
  ! busy, distracted, and snappish all evening; upset Colleen
    -> I need to tell Colleen what I'm doing when I'm working on a project and
       distracted, running hither and yon.  Otherwise she gets upset.
  x it might make sense to move the -w subnet to the dmz.
    Not as friendly to dual-boot machines, but we don't have any now.
    makes it too hard to have network-aware devices that are too stupid to
    multi-home themselves, so no.  Just give it up.
  * bed 11ish - too late

I don't remember yesterday with much fondness, though I got a couple of things done. One, hooking up the "new" printer, has been hanging fire literally for months. I think I bought it in April or May. And I made a good start on a soon-to-be-vital subproject at work.

But the productivity came at a price: I was snappish and distracted all evening, and Colleen got pretty upset. We agreed that I need to tell her when I'm going to be working on a project -- or simply puttering madly -- so that she knows I'm likely to be flitting about the house distractedly even if I seem to be paying attention for a moment or two.

I did get a walk in, and 10 minutes of fairly well-focussed meditation. And the Mini-10 that I won in Dell's drawing at Open Source World will presumably be on its way. On the other hand, Colleen's stupid Kindle is giving errors again. I suspect a bad flash chip.

I got to bed 11ish, which proved to be too late. I slept badly, and overslept this morning.

Link sausage:

As it turns out, multitaskers aren't as good at things as unitaskers. And in other news, the 40-hour work week is right at the peak for sustained productivity. Work more hours over the long haul, and your productivity actually goes negative. (From this post by jenk.)

In other not-so-surprising news, a dedicated appliance beats the cloud for cost-effective backup storage. Yeah, Amazon S3 might cost less than a honking big server, when you take startup cost and power consumption into account. (It looks even better in California.) But Don Marti's analysis shows that a low-power storage appliance like the NSLU2 is cheaper still, and the bandwidth is higher, too.

From the ever-fascinating Gizmodo we get Tasting the Perfect Coffee (though their opinions are open to considerable question) and a CD case that includes a built-in theremin. I have no idea what their music is like, but... theremin!

Comments

[hms42]

I have no idea what their music is like, but... theremin!

Its seriously worth thinking about ordering... (But at $50, I am not so sure.) It would definitely make a fun interfilk item.

[phoenixpdx.livejournal.com]

You, my dear sir, must connect with my John (jopalko, same email domain as I am) because he LOVES theremins (? thereminnae?...oh never mind). We even have a tape about Clara Rock (uh-oh...moor?). Have you seen it?

[mdlbear]

I don't think I've seen the video, but I have a CD of Clara Rockmore(?)'s performances. It's wonderful.