General Musings

Yet another update.

Apple Menu –> Software Update…

One of my favorite authors has passed.

from The Chicago Tribune…

LOS ANGELES – Michael Crichton, the doctor-turned-author of bestselling thrillers such as “The Terminal Man” and “Jurassic Park” and a Hollywood writer and director whose credits include “Westworld” and “Coma,” has died. He was 66.

Crichton died in Los Angeles on Tuesday “after a courageous and private battle against cancer,” his family said in a statement.

For nearly four decades, the 6-foot-9 writer was a towering presence in the worlds of publishing and filmmaking.

“There was no one like Crichton, because he could both entertain and educate,” Lynn Nesbit, Crichton’s agent since the late ’60s, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. “His brilliance was indisputable, and he had a grasp of so many subjects — from art to science to technology.

He will be missed.

I’ve been sitting at my desk in Hershey PA watching friends and co-workers getting laid off due to the slow economic conditions and due to the fact that Hershey Gifts isn’t really selling as much as they’d like to.

I’ve been wondering when it was going to be my turn to get laid off. This afternoon, the radio squawked as my boss asked me to join him in his office. I expected really bad news. It didn’t come.

I got really good news instead.

My boss requested that I be transfered to our corporate headquarters. It’s a step up and I am still a little taken back by it. In a move to keep key personnel, my company has decided to move people around rather than to remove them. It is a part of their core beliefs and philosophy.

I’ll be moving from the Hershey location to a brand new office building in Lancaster, PA. (Amish Country)

This is nothing more than a complete blessing to me and my family.

This election night, I really do know what I am thankful for.

Update (11-05-08): Obama winning the Presidential election…not so much of a blessing.

I went to leave work today and the unexpected happened…

…car trouble. My car sounded and felt like I was missing a few cylinders.

The frustration.

The “I’m not sure what I’m going to do right this second because my car JUST stopped working and I didn’t have time to write a dissertation before I called you for help” thing.

I saw you drive by me Christina while I was walking back to work so my ride could pick me up! You snickered. I saw it!

No. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.

What does it sound like? Not sure. It sounds bad to me.

Mac had an update yesterday. I captured the window like I usually do and was ready to post it to the website and then…

…I forgot all about it.

I’ll post the details below after I get home. I’m still working and stuff.

Update: The Pic…

*** My dad shot the video this morning ***

Another few days, another update.

Although I can read the update summary as well as anyone else, I’m still not sure what this update actually does.

I’m sure it’s important though.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of “beer goggles” but here comes something really cool and really necessary for a few folks. (I used to need this but since I don’t really even drink an occasional adult beverage anymore, it doesn’t apply to me.)

If you have Google Mail or GMail, this option can be turned on inside of your preference settings. It’s under “Labs.”

The idea is that before you are allowed to send an email, you must first answer a few math questions. Obviously, if you’ve had too much to drink you will not be able to answer them and can avoid sending an email that you possibly shouldn’t.

Here’s Tekzilla’s Patrick Norton explaining the feature.

Get er done!

Ha!

Amazon sells more than books. They also sell music. They don’t have a handy little app like iTunes to help you navigate and browse around looking for music but if you can type it in the search field and it exists, chances are that Amazon has it.

They have no DRM attached to the file either. You buy it. It’s yours. You can play it on any MP3 device you like.

For the past few years, even knowing that Amazon was selling MP3s without DRM wasn’t enough to sway me to buying my songs from Amazon.

Until…

I decided to change my credit card in iTunes.

I have tried numerous times to change my credit card within iTunes and I usually get a ‘your card information doesn’t match what the bank says.’ Meanwhile, literally everyone else is accepting my new bank card and as well they should, it’s a valid card.

Because of all of these needless iTunes problems with simply changing credit cards, I have made the switch to Amazon. I had to change my credit card information with Amazon and had absolutely no trouble doing so.

iTunes never even presented me with a number to call to help me fix the problem. Just gave me an error message and nothing more.

Now I give them nothing more too. Right back at ya! 🙂