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Happy New Year again -
We were supposed to go to Atlantic City with a bunch of friends this weekend, but one of our group organizers came down with the flu, so we've postponed that trip. The good news is that now I have a little time to catch up with posting photos. This album's from our New Year's Eve party. If the mark of a good party is guests who don't want to leave, I'd say this one was a big success — we didn't get to bed til 5:30am!
—Mike @ 16:19
Did you win? - The top ten finalists in the "Create a hybrid car slogan" contest have been announced. (Nope, my entry didn't even make the top 100.)
—Mike @ 14:32
Ads run amok - The marketing people have crossed the line, and we all know it. Any Rooney's piece on 60 Minutes tonight was about how there are just too many ads all around us, and we'll do anything to tune them out. A NYC Councilwoman has introduced a bill that would require movie theaters to list the time the movie actually starts, not the ads that come before it. It's a shame when the law is the only way to reign in the abuses of advertisers.
—Mike @ 22:10
Hey, what'ya know - The weather forecast was actually right -- we're in for up to half a foot of snow tonight, and it's already piling up.
—Mike @ 21:01
Valentine's Day - came a few days late this year, to avoid the crowded restaurants and jacked-up prices (and because I'm still too busy at work). But we celebrated last night with Bob and Angie at the Frog and Peach. Their son Chris drove over from Rutgers to join us, the first time he's been part of our Valentine's Day tradition since he was a baby some 20 years ago (where did THAT time go??) Afterward, we four oldsters took a brisk walk through downtown New Brunswick to see Lend Me A Tenor, a hilarious farce at the George Street Playhouse. It's amazing how built-up the New Brunswick area has become over the last few years. The restaurant was surrounded by empty lots last time we were there (10-15 years ago). Now it's surrounded by luxury apartment buildings! Quite a comeback.
Tonight, Mike and Laura are coming over for dinner, then Phil tomorrow, to round out a nice weekend. They're calling for snow Sunday night. Do they know what they're talking about? Stay tuned.
—Mike @ 15:22
The first robin - was spotted in our backyard this morning. Unfortunately, he was all puffed up because it was 19° at the time, and we could swear we heard him saying "What the hell am I doing here??"
—Mike @ 15:20
A robot toddler - From the world of robotics research comes this pretty impressive development:The difference between man and machine is shrinking. Scientists have developed a robot that "learns" to walk like a toddler, improving its step and balance with every stride
—Mike @ 21:50
Ever the future optimists - Trekkers are uniting in an online fund-raising effort to save the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise from its recently announced cancellation. It's hard to remember the last time there was no Star Trek series to look forward to. Gotta love it.
—Mike @ 00:13
Dying at 130 - an Ode to AT&T.
—Mike @ 20:28
Let the computer do the travel research for you - A service called Kayak.com will automatically search nearly 100 online travel sites at once to find the best deal matching your travel needs.
—Mike @ 20:32
Christmas Day -
in February? Well, that's how long it's taken me to get the pictures together; sorry for the delay. We had 30 of Veronica's cousins and their families over for the day, yet we survived to tell about it. (I didn't publish the picture of me drinking from the wine bottle just before everyone arrived).
—Mike @ 18:22
A dizzying pace - My first week back from vacation has been nothing short of frenetic, as you may have gathered by the lack of entries here. I have Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, all those recent icons of corporate malfeasance to thank, as they were responsible for Congress passing what has become known as Sarbanes-Oxley. This law has caused corporations throughout the country to switch into high gear to meet new federal deadlines which require, among other things, the full documentation and disclosure of internal process flows in such a way that they can be audited as part of a company's annual reports. What that means for those of us in the trenches is a lot of churn, overtime, documenting, testing, re-testing, etc.
When there's a big deadline that can't move, that means more and more resources, people and money get thrown into the mix. This makes progress even slower and hours even longer, because there's a steep learning curve, and much to be done. Anyway, this has been most of my life the last few months, so there's been little time to read or catch up on the interesting things that usually make it to the blog. The good news is, there's light at the end of the tunnel as the deadlines approach to have this all done.
On a sad note, we learned that another former co-worker from AT&T, Anne Ripley, passed away after a valiant fight against cancer. Anne was one of the smartest women I've had the pleasure of working with. She also knew how to have a good time. I'll always remember back in the day (in my 20s), when we were allowed to travel first class on cross-country business trips, I was amazed to learn that drinks were free. I confidently ordered myself a beer. Anne, who was sitting across the aisle and obviously more experienced at this, matter-of-factly ordered a six-pack. I knew I was in good hands.
Then, of course, there's the story of AT&T itself, which is being bought out by SBC, as announced while I was away. I spent some of the best years of my life working at AT&T; how the mighty have fallen. It didn't have to be this way. Increasingly stupid executive decisions over the decades did them in. If there was a profitable technology that would pop up, you can be sure it would be sold off, spun off, or just given away. I'm sure there's a good book about it all somewhere. There were over a million employees in the Bell System when I joined in '79. The handful of people I know who are still there are survivors and very skilled. The outlook looks grim for them to stay, but I wish them the best.
—Mike @ 17:43
Here's proof - that beer saves lives!
—Mike @ 17:15
Google Maps! - The latest beta offering from the folks at Google is draggable, zoomable maps. Once again, they've come up with a great implementation. The map sizes itself according to your screen size, and you don't need to wait for it to re-load when you want to pan around -- you just drag it with your mouse. It's like having one map of the whole world that can be dragged around, on any scale you like. Other search features are incredibly easy-to-use as well; learn more about them all here.
—Mike @ 11:15
Ahead of her time - My grandmother's last surviving sibling, Sister Anna Suttman, has passed away at the age of 83. Among her remarkable accomplishments outlined in this article, she received her MBA and served as the hospital administrator at Dayton, Ohio's Good Samaritan Hospital in 1960. She was always so easy to talk with, and we'd occasionally catch up on politics and baseball over the phone. We visited her in Cincinnati several years ago, and always enjoyed her company.
—Mike @ 16:36
Everybody's in Florida - We've just returned from a mini-cruise to Key West and the Bahamas, and spent another several days visiting several friends and family members throughout Florida. Pictures will be posted here someday soon. While passing the time criss-crossing the state, we decided to keep track of all the different license plates we spotted, and were amazed to find 25 different states within just two hours of looking! No wonder the traffic is so horrendous down there in winter!
—Mike @ 15:36
More? - There's additional reading available in the Archives.
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