The poetry of spam.

I use Gmail as my primary email account because Google seems to have figured out how to filter spam.  A spam message rarely makes it to my inbox, and I’ve probably only had one case where a legitimate message ended up in my Spam folder. 
Still, it’s fun to peak into the Spam folder now [...]

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Is it The Gazz or The Onion?

Once a week Charleston Newspapers publishes a local entertainment guide  called The Gazz and includes it as an insert with the daily paper.
I almost spit out my tea when I saw one of the headlines in today’s edition (April 24-30, 2008, 14D):
“Guitarist says he didn’t quit the band.”
Shouldn’t that be “Area guitarist”?
I can’t wait to [...]

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Amazon could learn a lesson from Sony and Microsoft.

Amazon’s Kindle(tm) was in the news again recently, as Amazon announced they had restocked their pricey e-book reader, making them ready for instant delivery and thereby spoiling the party for many enterprising eBayers hoping to sell them to impatient buyers at a hefty profit.
[There's a special place in Hell for people who buy up [...]

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My PC adjustment period.

It has been about a week since I retired my Mac mini(TM) and switched back to a Windows PC for home use.  I’ve spent most of that time finding the Windows equivalents of the Mac programs I had become comfortable with, and adjusting to all new workflows for everything from photo management to CD/DVD-authoring.
What I [...]

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One of the good guys.

Yesterday at Target I ran into local news anchor Jack Kane from WOWK-TV.  Many moons ago I had the pleasure of working with Jack for a couple of years, and it was good seeing him again.
Rather than just the obligatory (and mostly disingenuous) “Hi.  How have you been?  Let’s do lunch.” exchange that usually [...]

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Yeah, I’ll get right on that.

Our family has a past-due medical bill.  It happens now and then because either our insurance company has taken their time getting the statement of benefits to us, or we’re waiting for the insurance company to explain the “explanation of benefits.”
In this case it’s a bit of both, but more of the latter.  We’ve [...]

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It’s geocaching time again.

Now that decent weather is returning it’s time to start prepping for another season of geocaching.  Time to dust off my eXplorist 210 and Palm Pilot, charge some extra batteries, and double-check my pack for the necessities (bug spray, sunscreen, pens, hallucinogens, etc.).
Another part of my prep this season is setting up my new PC [...]

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Thanks, Mac fans.

Who knew that writing an opinion piece about Apple computers would be the blog equivalent of dropping Ron Paul’s name on your blog early in this year’s primary?  My humble look back at my life with the Mac ended up being my most popular post ever, by a wide margin.
My thanks go out to Mac [...]

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My life with the Mac: a debriefing.

In 2002 journalist Jon Ronson published a fascinating book called Them, in which he documents his investigations into “extremist” groups.  He embedded himself among such folks as the KKK and radical Islamic militants to get an inside look at what drives those groups and how they operate.
My tale of life among “them” is definitely not [...]

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