ken-jennings.com: “The recipes aren’t going to sing Gilbert and Sullivan for you, or write a little one-act play, or have you over for cocktails. ‘Entertaining, delicious recipes’ doesn’t make sense, ergo: no comma.”
All posts by warwick
Sky and Solstice evolve for the better
Autoblog: “Rather than wait until the new model year, the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice are getting ‘continuous changes’ such as a power door lock button and an electronically height-adjustable driver’s seat.”
This is truly extraordinary for a car marker to embrace criticism and roll out changes so quickly. Welcome to the world of weblogs and what it can do for you (other than give you a place to talk about deviled bones, of course).
My brain is Cisco-certified
Since I started a new job, I’ve been studying for something that I’ve put off for too long: a Cisco certification. Two weeks ago, I hit that milestone with a successful test for CCDA–Cisco Certified Design Associate. It was hard and forced me to focus my brain on what I could remember and what I could learn in only two months.
I’m proud of myself for making the goal. I used my fair-share of test aids, but I also spent time inside some rather large (and boring) textbooks to get there.
Next stop: CCNA
Scary Programmer
James Duncan Davidson: “At the Rails Edge in Denver today, Jim Weirich had a slide that asked what a Scary Programmer was. Making a joke, I stuck up my hand and said, ‘me’.”
I'm on my way – I'm making it.
I’m working on a new life. I know it sounds weird, but since I started my weblog, I’ve been evolving as a person. I’ve learned to write and speaker better. I’ve learned more about who I am emotionally and spiritually. I’ve also *learned*. In the last two and a half months, I’ve learned (and remembered) more about networks and engineering than I thought possible.
Wow.
I’m going to make content changes in houseofwarwick, the weblog. I’m going to be talking about food more than anything because talking about technology is something I do all day. I’ll post more recipes and how-to type articles because that’s what Google is telling me: people come to my site from searches about “how to do” something.
What would you readers like to see?
I for one welcome my new HDTV overseers
I bought a new television Tuesday night, a Westinghouse 32″ HDTV (32w6 if you keep up with that kind of thing) and I love it. It’s a great TV and at a great price. It’s the dirty secret of the LCD-TV world because a good portion of it appears to be made by Sony or with some Sony parts. I’m told the LCD is similar or identical to the one in 32″ Sony displays and the video circuitry is just step below, too.
I set up the TV and read the brief instruction manual. A couple of quick menu choices and it was happily sniffing away at my cable connection. I chose the automatic detection settings and I was not disappointed. I found hundreds of digital channels but most were block or contained no content. It did find all of the standard channels without problems and it was at this point that I got my first glimpse of what analog TV really looks like: yuk!
I was wondering if my money had been spent in vain when I hit channel 16.1 — my local NBC station broadcasting in 1080i, the highest resolution/quality my new baby could understand. It was near midnight and Conan O’Brian was on.
It was stunning!
I sat slack-jawed, stupefied at HDTV. It was so clear, much clearer than anything I’d seen before, even in the demo rooms and back wall of Best Buy. I found myself not listening to the words and instead staring at the textures of the clothing, the curtain behind Conan (you could almost see the fabric texture) and the color blotches on Robin Williams’ face.
When done right, HDTV is marvelous. I know now that I will have to replace all of my standard stuff for HD. A Series 3 HD TiVo is $799 plus $199 to transfer the lifetime subscription. That’s a little rich for my blood right now, but I’ll keep an eye on it in case I can find a way to pick one up on the cheap.
One of the best parts was connecting my original Xbox up to the component video connectors. I reconfigured the Xbox to display 480p (a higher resolution than standard) and made it aware that I now had a “16:9” TV. Combine that with the DVD kit and now I’m watching DVDs at probably twice the clarity that I had before.
It’s three days later and I’m still marveling at the quality. If you’re on the fence, buy a HDTV and you won’t be disappointed.
Urgh! A Music War
jwz: “Update: The VH1 showing was the same as the Sundance showing, except they omitted three more acts: Surf Punks, My Beach My Wave; The Cramps, Tear It Up; and Invisible Sex, Valium. “
Urgh! A Music War
jwz: “The long out-of-print Urgh! A Music War will be showing on VH1C on Mon, Oct 30 at 6pm PST (9pm EST). They have it listed as ‘2 hours’, which I hope means it’s the 124-minute edit, not the 96-minute edit that ran on IFC a few years ago.”
If anyone is able to get this tonight in digital form, email me (srk at mac dot com) and I’ll buy a copy from you.
Scott Adams: Good News Day
The Dilbert Blog: “As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.”
Dear Hunting
Daring Fireball Linked List: “Excellent William Safire ‘On Language’ piece on how to start an email. I prefer the cold start, with no salutation.”
Steve Kirks 