an interview?! do I remember how they work?

Hmm, out of a clear blue sky comes an invitation to come talk about a job opportunity. Could the income drought be near its end?

I’ve met with this outfit before and it was unclear why we didn’t go further last time. But in the meantime, they’ve stayed in business for a year. Nothing wrong with that.

Zero Configuration Networking

Interview with Stuart Cheshire – The Idea Basket

My hope is that in the future — distant future perhaps — your computer will only need one wired communication technology. [ . . . ] I would much rather have a computer with a row of identical universal IP communications ports, where I can connect anything I want to any port, instead of today’s situation where the computer has a row of different sockets, each dedicated to its own specialized function.

How many times have you wanted it to be simpler to hook things together and wondered if anyone cared enough to make it happen? You only have to spend a little time debugging a balky SCSI bus to appreciate FireWire or USB: imagine all of your pluggable peripherals being that easy to manage.

Wonder when MSFT will announce a similar effort in XP?

From Frank

summer delights

Smoothies are a nice thing to have at hand, and I keep thinking my kids will like them, but no such luck. They even think so, ’cause they ask for them, but then never drink them.

How easy are they to make? This easy:


  • 1 cup yogurt (or one container, any flavor you like)
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1 cup frozen berries (strawberries and blueberries work better than seedy berries like black- or raspberries).
  • options include a couple tablespoons wheat germ and/or honey (I find this needs a little sweetening).

Blend the ingredients in your machine of choice, Cuisinart or blender, until smooth. Enjoy.

Amazon.com is tired of wasting Gold Box offers on me

Amazon.com: buying info: Imagine

I check every day in hopes of finding something useful, but I’m out of chances. Yesterday and today, no Gold Box.

But on their movers and shakers list, I see a new Eva Cassidy release (the #1 selling item today). A beautiful voice, and I’m glad her catalog is still growing, but I hate to think her talent may be obscured by stuff that may not be top-quality.

If you don’t know who she is, this may help.

Why do people use Radio, anyway?

I was getting ready to add a weblog I occasionally read to my list of links, now that the owner supports comments, but as I entered one on a recent topic, I found the edit window was obscuring new lines as I typed them, and then when I submitted, it dropped the whole thing for the lack of an email address.

Bah. Perhaps it’s wonderful from the writer’s side of things, but it’s still a publishing tool. If it’s this hard to interact, why would anyone bother?

MovableType seems to do all I need and the price is right.

The Chieftains: not to be missed

the Chieftains

Went to see these lads again, this time with the whole clan. They played on a stage in the North Meadow at the Woodland Park Zoo for the ZooTunes series. Sadly, the setting sun was shining directly on the stage, so much of the first part of the show was visually obstructed by large umbrellas used as sun shades. By the time the break rolled around, things were more manageable, but they sounded great, regardless.

As usual, they had some guests with them, notably some practitioners of Ottawa Valley stepdancing which seemed like full-on tap dancing with traditional Irish rhythm. Unlike the more traditional style, with lots of leg kicks but no arm action, this was full-body dancing. Very impressive. There were also some traditional step dancers, including the required element of a willowy female dancer with long red hair, kicking up a storm. By the time all was said and done, there were more dancers than musicians, even with the addition of a bluegrass picker (Keith Little) and Patty Griffin, a singer they worked with on some recent recordings and whose tour crossed theirs here in Seattle.

All in all, an enjoyable show. Kids got a little bored, mostly because it was hard to see much from the lawn, but I thought it was great. Some great solo turns by Sean Keane and Matt Molloy, more singing by Kevin Conneff than the last show we saw, just lots to like.

STP training

According to Yahoo, my inaugural training ride was 16.2 miles. The mile markers along the route suggested it was more like 20, but still that seems like a pretty good ride. I covered the outbound leg in 30 minutes, and the return in about 45. I had the wind against me coming back and I was starting to feel the distance by the end of the ride.

I added some more lift to my saddle and that made a lot of difference. The few small inclines I came to were easy to do without even changing my cadence.

That felt really good.