Ride in Style

This is how you should ride to a Hawkeye football victory in style. Click on the picture to go to a gallery with more pictures.



For those interested, this is a 1949 Chevrolet 3600 3/4 ton. It was originally my great-grandfather E.B. Null's truck (Huck to most people, hence the lettering on the tailgate), and my dad recently had it restored. It's a driver, not a showpiece, so it has made it to 2 games for tailgating already this year.

It's pretty cool rolling down the road in a vehicle built in the 40's with absolutely nothing automatic in it. A/C, heater, wipers, power windows, locks, seat belts, radio...yeah we don't need any of those.

Stuff I Didn't Know

Learning is good for you. Yes, it really is, and I try to learn new things as often as possible. Often they tend to be just stupid, simple things that I didn't previously know or understand. The Internet is often my tool of choice to tackle these issues, and that was the case tonight.

Item #1 - What does being an at-will state really mean?
It turns out that my state, like many others, is an at-will employment state. I always pretty much understood that to mean that at any point in time myself or my employer could tell the other to hit the road, with paychecks ceasing. I was not sure however how this all played into severance and potential litigation after a termination. I now know the answer:
http://research.lawyers.com/Iowa/Employment-Law-in-Iowa.html

Item #2 - How do you really distinguish between a muffin and a cupcake?
This question came up during dinner, as we were discussing some tasty insomnia cupcakes I ate at work. I still don't think I really have a satisfactory answer after searching a bit though. I'll go with Shannon's definition of cupcakes having frosting, and muffins not. Here was another guy's take on it (and I like his statement of having a "Seinfeld moment"):
http://calderonline.blogspot.com/2006/10/seinfeld-moment-muffins-vs-cupcakes.html

Apple - You Fail It

I've been sitting on this post for a while, but I needed to get something back out there after taking a little break.

I've talked before (although I can't easily seem to search for where) about how much I want a nicely integrated system update service. All applications could tie into it to update themselves. Very similar to how I think backup should work. Let the system control it all, but each application can register with it, since who better than the app to decide what to backup or update.

Ryan has also said several times how ridiculous it is that due to the lack of this, every app feels the need to bundle their own updater. Apple it turns out is no exception. When iTunes 7 rolled around, Apple created something called Apple Software Update, and included it with iTunes. I groaned, but I thought, "Hey, Apple stuff is generally simple and just works." So, I installed it.

Then, after fixing a ton of bugs in iTunes 7, they released an update. I thought, "awesome, I'll have it automatically thanks to that update package, right?" Wrong. Not even when I tried to use it to check for an updated manually. Check the screen shot. The software updater doesn't have a clue, but iTunes itself prompted me to do the update.




Yep, that was the end of Apple Software Update. Promptly uninstalled.

I hope the next operating system that convinces me it is worthy of being installed finds a way to integrate these services that I want.

Extreme Stupidity

(Click here to skip the background, and go straight to the stupidity)

First, some background. I am not particularly fond of cell phones. I hate when the ring, pretty much always. I hate when people talk on them very loudly, about worthless and mundane topics. I think they are the single biggest contributor to ADD in existence currently. What I really dislike personally though is paying for them.

I had a cell phone for about 4 years in college. I remember being excited to move from my analog to a digital phone. I liked them occasionally. However, I really didn't like paying lots of money, so that people could get a hold of me immediately, rather than waiting until I was near another phone. Sometimes it's actually nice to just disappear for a bit. So, even though I never moved beyond a $25 per month plan, I eventually dropped the phone about 3 years ago, and haven't regretted it since.

People are often amazed that I am able to survive without one. Apparently, generations previous to us were just lucky that they didn't die on a daily basis without a mobile telephone.

Now, to the point. Our friends at one of the plethora of cellular service providers have decided they need to help people out, give back to the community. They have a new deal for those less-fortunate, who somehow can't manage to pay their bills, but absolutely have to have a cell phone (and a satellite, and new sneakers, and...sorry, getting off-topic).

Now, if you already qualify for low-cost utilities or subsidized phone service, they will give you an extra special package. It has 700 minutes, free incoming everything, blah blah blah. All for the low, low cost of $37 per month. $37 per month!!! That's over 1/3 more than the point where I considered my service too expensive to continue. And this is for those who are struggling with money? Bullshit. This is just one more excuse for the cell companies to line their pockets.

However, lest you think all lost, the Hawks won big today. All is now well with the cosmos again.

Hawks 47, Purdue 17