I had the opportunity to play around with Microsoft Surface yesterday. There has been a lot of fun poked at the Softies for this product. Maybe it is because of their Zune launch and their repeated failures at bringing a tablet PC to the market. One of the funnier parodies:
After seeing it in person, I think it is one of the cooler devices I have ever seen. I feel as if it was probably like seeing a television for the first time. Just seeing the demonstration applications gave me a sense of all the possibilities. Altogether, it was a pretty amazing experience and I can see Surface starting to make an appearance in hotels, bars, and other public areas.
I have one hesitation. Why couldn’t it have been Sun or Novell or Google some other open-source friendly company to develop this? I imagine that it will be shipped with some onerous and locked-down SDK. I’m guessing it will be very, very hard to develop for that platform.
Here is my itinerary through July. I’m missing the last few days because I am not sure when this project is ending. I believe I will be done with Arkansas at the end of July!
Thu, Jun 28
Flight: AA 1383
From: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Departs: 4:45pm
To: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Arrives: 6:30pm
Flight: AA 1383
From: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Departs: 7:15pm
To: MINNEAPOLIS ST PL, MN (MSP) Arrives: 8:45pm
Sun, Jul 1
Flight: AA 0422
From: MINNEAPOLIS ST PL, MN (MSP) Departs: 6:00pm
To: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Arrives: 7:20pm
Flight: AA 4035
Operated by AMERICAN EAGLE
From: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Departs: 8:55pm
To: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Arrives: 10:30pm
Tue, Jul 3*
Flight: AA 5480
Operated by AMERICAN CONNECTION/TRANS STATES
From: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Departs: 4:45pm
To: ST LOUIS INTL, MO (STL) Arrives: 5:55pm
Flight: AA 1790
From: ST LOUIS INTL, MO (STL) Departs: 6:35pm
To: BOSTON, MA (BOS) Arrives: 10:10pm
*Spending week of July 4th in Boston
Sun, Jul 8
Flight: AA 0611
From: BOSTON, MA (BOS) Departs: 5:50pm
To: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Arrives: 7:40pm
Flight: AA 4035
Operated by AMERICAN EAGLE
From: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Departs: 8:55pm
To: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Arrives: 10:30pm
Thu, Jul 12
Flight: AA 1947
From: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Departs: 6:00pm
To: DALLAS FT WORTH, TX (DFW) Arrives: 7:10pm
Flight: AA 1636
From: DALLAS FT WORTH, TX (DFW) Departs: 7:50pm
To: MINNEAPOLIS ST PL, MN (MSP) Arrives: 10:10pm
Sun, Jul 15
Flight: AA 0422
From: MINNEAPOLIS ST PL, MN (MSP) Departs: 6:00pm
To: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Arrives: 7:20pm
Flight: AA 4035
Operated by AMERICAN EAGLE
From: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Departs: 8:55pm
To: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Arrives: 10:30pm
Thu, Jul 19*
Flight: AA 5480
Operated by AMERICAN CONNECTION/TRANS STATES
From: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Departs: 4:45pm
To: ST LOUIS INTL, MO (STL) Arrives: 5:55pm
Flight: AA 1790
From: ST LOUIS INTL, MO (STL) Departs: 6:35pm
To: BOSTON, MA (BOS) Arrives: 10:10pm
*Bachelor party for Matt Thornton this weekend
Mon, Jul 23
Flight: AA 0877
From: BOSTON, MA (BOS) Departs: 8:55am
To: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Arrives: 10:30am
Flight: AA 4275
Operated by AMERICAN EAGLE
From: CHICAGO OHARE, IL (ORD) Departs: 12:05pm
To: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Arrives: 1:40pm
Thu, Jul 26
Flight: AA 1947
From: N W ARKANSAS REG, AR (XNA) Departs: 6:00pm
To: DALLAS FT WORTH, TX (DFW) Arrives: 7:10pm
Flight: AA 1636
From: DALLAS FT WORTH, TX (DFW) Departs: 7:50pm
To: MINNEAPOLIS ST PL, MN (MSP) Arrives: 10:10pm
I hinted at a secret announcement last week. So, I am happy to say that I have launched an alpha version of ROWTR.com (pronounced like “Router”).
What is it? Well, it is the beginning of a mobile travel portal. I made it because I was frustrated at the airport when I was trying to get a phone number for an airline. So far I have most domestic airlines and their corresponding mobile portals to check for flight information. Also, it has all the “rule 240s” for domestic airlines.
What do I plan on doing for the future? I plan on putting up some international travel information. I’d like to write some PHP code so that you can do flight status from the home page. And I may start posting other relevant travel content.
If you have any suggestions for improvement, feel free to email me. I have no business plan. However, I am willing to consider VC investments ($20+ million) or buyouts ($80+ million).
When I heard that Michael Bloomberg left the Republican Party, my immediate reaction was to think of Unity ‘08. Unity ‘08 needs Bloomberg. They also need a new website, but that’s another story.
I did a quick search online, and it turns out that my wacko theory isn’t all that wacko. The Nation seems to think he will team up with Chuck Hagel, the Senator from Nebraska, for an independent bid on the Unity ticket. Read about it in John Nichols’ blog here.
The concept behind the Unity ‘08 party is really intriguing. It could really change the level of participation in our democracy. I’m not sure if this election will be their election, but I think that it could really take off in the future.
One of the many IT projects I have in queue is the building of a few new websites. I am tired of building static sites and have decided to explore some CMS options. Ben Menoza (don’t bother checking his site, he never updates it) used Textpattern (TXP) to create his.
I installed TXP on my home server and I am pleased with its ease-of-use and its minimalist interface. I am pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to install LAMP, not bad for a non-technical person! If I build something with it I can be confident that I can teach a non-computer person how to update the site.
The next step is to build and host a website for my older brother using TXP. Also, some of my coworkers know that I have been working on a secret project. I hope to unveil that in the next week.
My big task for today was to create a document that documented how we create documentation for this project. It wasn’t a hard task to complete. I actually enjoyed listening to Dean & Britta while working on it. I just hope that this task doesn’t make the highlight reel of my working career.
I failed to upgrade from Edgy Eft to Feisty Fawn. I blame it on myself for attempting to go from Ubuntu to Kubuntu at the same time. I ran across a puzzling error trying to load up X. Also, I encountered issues with my Broadcom 4306 wireless card. I shouldn’t be surprised since it has given me trouble ever since I switched to GNU/Linux.
The last straw was when I went to get root privileges to troubleshoot my situation. I forgot that Ubuntu reserves the root account for the system for security reasons. That made me switch to Debian.
It is funny, without the desktop pattern Debian is a very minimal install. I know because I have a server running off of a laptop. I think that when I installed the desktop pattern it gave me a lot of stuff I don’t need (games, 3 text editors, etc.). I think I may have to remove a bunch of packages to get it back to a nice minimal install!
All of this reminds me of the funny geek phrase – Ubuntu is an ancient african word, meaning “I can’t configure Debian”.
I am inundated with home IT projects! This is ironic because I am barely ever home. My apartment is a complete mess right now because I have purchased some new equipment.
I no longer have access to the Minneapolis office, which was shut down recently. So, I bought myself a Canon Pixma iP3300 for general printing purposes. Of course I will expense it to Novell when I do my expenses, which are much easier with a printer. I really lucked out because drivers for printers are hard to find, and I found the right driver on the Canon Australia site.
I wanted to scan in some Holga photographs from my trip. So, I found a returned merchandise Epson 4490 photo scanner at Microcenter. Thankfully, there are Linux drivers available here. And of course, it would be impossible to scan anything without Sane and Xsane
Now I can concentrate on the 100 websites I have to build, the home server, the workstation, and the media center linux box.
I boarded a flight to Chicago (ORD) yesterday with the hope that I could catch a connection to Minneapolis (MSP). Apparently there was some weather in MSP, so my connecting flight was cancelled. I tried to rebook for an early-morning flight, but the first availability was at 2:30 PM.
When I got off of the plane and was trying to rebook at the rebooking center, I asked for a hotel voucher. American Airlines refused to give me one because it was a weather-related problem! I was pissed! After I got off of the phone, a nice lady came up to me and said she got a hotel voucher for the same reason at the gate. So for future reference, if you are ever stranded and can’t get a hotel voucher from the re-booking centers, try the gates.
I’ve been keeping track of the amount of time that I spend in the hour and traveling. My productivity has plummeted. I spend a minimum of about 16 hours a week traveling. This week, if you include the time I am in a hotel in ORD, I lost close to 26 hours just getting to and from the client site. I am still getting in my hours at work, but it is KILLING my personal life and my personal productivity. On top of that I am eating unhealthy and not getting enough exercise.
