Category: Longform
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A much-needed improvement...
I’ve been using Google Reader for some time now as my feed reader, and one of the more frustrating things has been its really bad email feature. When you find a blog post that you want to share with a friend, the email feature should make it easy, right? Unfortunately, Google Reader ended up dumping a bunch (but not all) of the text from the post in a horribly-formatted email. If I were Google I would’ve been embarrassed that it was even an option. It was that bad.
Today, though, I find that they’ve updated the email feature. Now when you click it, it just opens a little panel right in the blog post, lets you type in an email address (which it will auto-fill from your gmail address book if possible), and add a personal message. The email that it sends out then looks good; it includes all the original formatting, pictures, and a link back to Google Reader. Very nice.
Yet another reason to consider moving to Google Reader if you need a feed reader.
Flying it!
Part of the goofiness with my job is that by the time we get these announcements, I’ve been done with the software for months. Still, it’s fun to know that they’re flying these things now.
From AvWeb:
FIRST CITATION ENCORE+ DELIVERED TO CUSTOMER
Cessna Aircraft announced Tuesday that it delivered the first Citation Encore+ to an undisclosed customer. The latest Citation V derivative is powered by two FADEC-equipped, 3,400-pound-thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada PW535B engines that offer “high durability and reliability,” and “surpasses the most stringent environmental standards for emissions, set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.”
Besides the upgraded powerplants, the $8.273 million Encore+ has an increased gross weight that allows for a full-fuel payload of 1,170 pounds, 340 pounds more than the original Encore. According to Cessna, this weight increase also extends the airplane’s range with higher passenger loads. In the flight deck, the Encore+ sports a Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 integrated avionics suite, which marks a significant change from its predecessor’s Honeywell Primus 1000 avionics.
Softball 2007
One of my very first posts on my blog was about softball; hard to believe that’s been two years ago. But yesterday night we started up the church softball season for another year. It was a beautiful night; the day was hot (at least, hot for April in Iowa) - it got close to 90 degrees in the afternoon. But by evening the breeze was blowing and the temps had cooled; what a great night for softball!
The first game of the year is always a bit of an adventure, seeing who will show up and how the team will fill out. To be sure, we have some regulars in their places; Nate at shortstop, Becky pitching, me at third, Shaun in left. But there’s always a new guy or two you pick up who really help you out. This year it looks like we’ve got two of them: Joel out in center field, and Nick at first. (It does this infielder’s heart good to have a tall, left-handed first-baseman to throw to.)
Last night we played against one of the teams from New Covenant. It was the typical back-and-forth game; we were behind by a few runs, but then made a comeback as time was running out; I had a two-out, two-run single to tie up the game. It wasn’t all heroics for me, though - I failed to tag up and advance on a base running play the inning before that would’ve given us another run. :-( Oh well, one game at a time.
After playing the 6:00 game, I umped the 7:00 game. I actually really enjoy umping softball games, and it’s something that I’ve improved on quite a bit over the past few years. It drives me nuts, though, that even in our C-league church league softball there are guys who will yell at the ump during the game for calls they don’t like. Come on, guys. It’s just a game. It’s not worth it. (I know, I know - I better get used to it if I want to keep umping games. :-))
The church softball season runs through July and into early August. It definitely gives me something to look forward to on Monday nights.
Good Motivation
I just filled out the entry forms for two 5K races in upcoming months: the Marion Arts Festival 5K (May 19) and the Hog Wild Days Squeal’n’Run 5K (June 16). The latter, happily, starts and ends at Gutheridge Park, only 4 blocks or so from my house. While I don’t expect to be competitive in either of the races, they provide some good motivation for me to keep training. I’ve been getting lazy these last few weeks. Can’t let that continue!
Random Thought #2
I’m sitting on my PC waiting for the Microsoft Visual C++ .NET development suite to install. And on one of the little information boxes that it brings up while I’m waiting, it highlights one of the benefits of MSVC++.NET:
A “mature and intelligent” developer community? Intelligent, perhaps, but when I think about most of the coders I know, mature?!? :-) To quote Groucho Marx, “I’d never join a club that would have someone like me for a member.”
At Becky's request... more pictures!
No, this place isn’t turning into a photoblog. But when you have a new toy… :-)
A time to read...
A month ago today I resolved I was going to put down my endless string of library books and spend a month just reading the Bible. Today is the end of that month.
April 20 I started reading in Genesis 1 and decided I’d just read through, getting a feel for the breadth of the story. A month later I’m through the book of Ezra, maybe a third of the way through the whole Book if you just look at how many pages I’ve covered. It’s been good reading and good reminder.
There have been some times I’ve really missed having some other good book to read - most notably the hours I was on an airplane traveling to Salt Lake City and back, and occasionally in the evenings when something less-than-memorable is on TV and I’m in the habit of reading while the TV’s on.
I think it was a worthwhile exercise, though. It made me more convinced that I need to focus on reading quality books, things that will be worth my time, and avoid just rushing through a long string of mediocre titles just to max out my reading list. (I know there’s no way my list will be as long as Kari’s - no sense in going crazy trying.)
I’m going to be done with work a little big early today. I’m going to suggest to Becky that we make an “overdue” stop at the library. :-)
New toy coming...
Thanks to some unexpected cash influx, I was able to purchase this earlier this week:
It’s a Nikon D70s, a quite nice Digital SLR camera. Only 6 megapixels, but that should be plenty for me.
Fedex promises it’ll be delivered tomorrow… can’t wait. Looking forward to posting more pictures here… you can be bet I’ll be taking a lot of pictures. :-)
Sunday Sermon
This morning I had the privilege to preach at the Noelridge Sunday morning services. My text was Exodus 18, entitled “A Father-In-Law’s Lesson” - based on the lesson that Jethro had for Moses. I think it went pretty well, I was excited to have the chance to preach again. For those of you interested, you can download the sermon (mp3, 7.1 MB) or stream it here.
Edit: It sounds like I screwed up the audio; instead of converting it to mono, I managed to just delete one of the tracks. I also need to amplify the whole thing a bit. Maybe tonight. Still, if you can stand just listening to it in one ear, go for it.
I uploaded the new audio just now - converted it to full mono and amplified it so that it is about the right volume. Gotta love Audacity.
Stuff
Life has been crazy this week, keeping me from writing much in the way of a thoughtful post about anything. I will inadequately attempt to make up for this by providing some random bullets from my week.
- Orlando, here we come. My employer has decided to send me to a “technology forum” put on by a microprocessor company. It appears to me that “technology forum” is code words for “wine and dine the engineers so they’ll buy our product.” It’s the last week in June, and we’re planning that Becky will come along on the trip. She’s just slightly excited.
- Sermon preparation. I will be in the pulpit Sunday at Noelridge. (I’ll try to remember to post audio next week for the 0.03% of you that are interested.) Secret sneak preview for my few NPC readers: Jethro. You can figure it out from there. Actually, you probably can’t. So you have to come and listen on Sunday. Ha!
- Jabber servers, MySQL, PHP. Set up a Jabber server on a machine here at work for a project this week. Used Wildfire, it went super-easy. Then learned enough PHP to generate web pages that display a given days’ chat logs by pulling them out of the database. Good times.
- Arcade Fire. Been listening to their latest album Neon Bible this morning and I like it.
- “Get the picture.” With some unexpected funds coming in I am hoping to buy a digital SLR camera. I have my eye on a Nikon D70s, hoping to be able to order it next week.