Wonder and Wander
Hello anonymous person who asked via GoDaddy.
I’m not interested in selling my domain. It’s been part of my identity and businesses since the mid-90s. If you look at the domain registration, you’ll see I’ve had it continually registered and maintained since 2000 with the same registrar.
I’m flattered, but no.
Sincerely,
Martin
Mandie and I discovered a great little bakery not far from our house on Parmer Lane! It’s called “Heaven’s Bistro Bakery” and it’s in the most UNIQUE building I’ve seen. It houses the bakery/cafe on the first floor, an architecture firm on the second, and three modern AirBNB apartments on the third floor.
They have awesome pastries and are a very welcome addition to our neck of the woods.
I got an email the other day… “Your website never updates” it said, and the person asked if I would give him the domain name… you know .. for charity.
Domain names are MUCH more than just for websites. I have my email ( for 20 years now ) on this domain. I do my finances on it and run multiple services on my server based on the igotu.com/.net domains. I have voicemail and phone services…
So, no… you can’t have my domain name. It’s part of my identity now.
My web server hosting provider is going away, so I have to migrate my data from the old machine to this new one. Â Â In the process, I lost most of my WordPress install ( it’s two years old! ).
So, this is a backup of the old database. Â I’ll see if I can restore the posts afterwards.
Well, the theory the Genius had seems not to hold.  The phone is still acting oddly, so I’ll likely go back.
Now .. there is one other thing. The power of the Apple Store compelled me … oh god did it ever compel me. Allow me to show you what happens when you need to do a Capital Expenditure for a business near the end of the year:
Today was the first (of many) processing meetings were the Department of Mutant Vehicles sorts through the submissions coming in to select the 2009 vehicles that will make it to the Playa. The people with early submissions were, for the most part, well thought out!
Can’t wait to see what’s in store in the year to come … and I hope to share some of the most creative ones here.
A simulation/benchmark that I’m running at work, and started mid-friday afternoon .. just crashed. It takes about 36 hours to run it, and because of the crash I have to go back into the office and restart it.
The 64-thousand-penny question is, now, did the test checkpoint (aka, save it’s state) before crashing? If it did, only the remaining tests have to be run. If it didn’t .. it has to be restarted from the top
ARGH!
Today I —
Crunched and crunched and crunched both on the hardware design and linux kernel modifications needed at the early stages of designing the seeekret project I’m contracting on.  Brain was dialed to 11 for most of the day.
I picked up a ‘Flip’ camera from Woot.com to hack on. They come with 2Gb of memory, and I’m going to see if I can use some Toshiba flash chips to get it up to a massive 8gb. The firmware seems to support variable storage, and even better — there’s an SD card carrier that isn’t populated on the motherboard. So, perhaps with some rework I might be able to solder one in.  The controller chip does seem to be present as part of the chip that runs the camera.
*grump* I also went to the gym, and huffed and puffed for an hour after work.  I don’t like the gym, but it’s the only way I’m going to get back in shape and get both my heart and body healthy again.
Finally, I made plans to go to the movies tonight with a new friend… and I think I made a complete, utter, total fool of myself doing so.  I really, really, really need to learn to let myself wind fully down from work before trying to be social.  As it was, I was nervous, and I know it both showed and make me feel foolish as all get go.   I enjoyed the movie thoroughly.  3D movies rock.
Sometimes I wonder if I ever will really be as socially smooth as my peers.  I’m good in groups, so/so when I’m one-on-one. Go figure.
Well .. It’s late, but I think I’m going to hack on the Flip camera for a while.  Then try to figure out how the 3D glasses from the theater work. Then sleep.
Yesterday was Bar Camp Austin, and Whurley and company put together a great hacker unconference in the middle of SxSW.  Frankly, SxSW is an overblown, bloated mess. Tickets are $495, and I hate to say it .. but it’s mostly a bunch of geeks circle-bleeping with each other. SxSW was originally about independent music, independent film, and the creative spirit.   The addition of SxSW interactive was originally meant to do the same, and bring out the creative side of online content…
… what it’s devolved into is a tech conference, and an exclusionary one at that.  Dorkbot was there LOCKED BEHIND A FENCE. “Platinum badge, Gold badge, VIP…”
VI-fucking-P for a Dorkbot meetup. With a tent, music, and god knows what else.
So, thank you William Hurley for putting together Bar Camp Austin!  Thank you to the sponsors who pitched into the BarCamp and made it free for anyone to come and attend.  Somehow, I feel that more and better things happened there that day, than were going on at the big conference.
Bitter? No.  Not really.   I just have this feeling that enjoying independent film, music, and enjoying some time with hackerly peers doesn’t have to come with a $500, $700 or even $1000 price tag.