mashby | The personal blog of Michael Ashby

March 30, 2006

Of Podcasts, Cola And Magic

Sticking your finger in a glass of Coca-Cola to stop the fizz I was listening to an Ebert & Roper Podcast the other day. In this particular episode, they were reviewing the movie Duck Season and Roper made mention of the fact that in the movie a boy sticks his finger in his Coke as it’s being poured to keep it from overflowing. Ebert acted as if everyone should know this trick and attested to it’s effectiveness, not just with soda, but beer as well. Maybe this was common knowledge to Ebert’s generation, but this was the first I had ever heard of fit.

Later that afternoon, I was pouring myself a Diet Coke from a two liter bottle and since it was a fresh bottle, there was a lot of foam rising to the top. Suddenly remembering the trick mentioned in the podcast, I quickly stuck my finger in the glass and much to my surprise, it worked! :O Not only that, I could keep pouring the cola beverage and the fizz never crested the top of the glass. I’m sure there’s a reasonable and no doubt scientific reason for why this works, but given all my many years of pouring Coke into a glass, I’m here to tell you — it looked like magic.

Since then I’ve been sticking my finger in my carbonated beverages everytime I pour and I know it may look a bit bizarre to people who haven’t heard of this nifty little trick, but it works so splendidly. Yet that begs the question, was I the only one who never heard of this before? Please post a comment and let me know.

March 21, 2006

March Episode Podcast Posted

Computer Outlook Radio Show with John Iasiuolo

Last Thursday, I co-hosted the Computer Outlook radio show. Our guests were Toshi Hokari of Altec Lansing and Keith Barraclough, the CEO of Avvenu.

Toshi talked about the new speaker systems that Altec Lansing has released for the Treo, iPod and laptop. I’d love to get my hands on a pair, but everyone says that these things sound great.

Keith discussed the free remote access system Avvenu. Avvenu allows you to access the data on your PC using any browser. Since it uses a web browser and not a special application, you can access your data from a connected mobile device, such as a Treo. I installed it during the show and I have to say, it’s pretty sweet.

Show notes for this episode can be found at this link, and the .mp3 file can be found at this link.

March 20, 2006

The Sprint PCS Coffee Bar

My Treo 600 had an unfortunate accident again and this time it didn’t survive the fall. The screen was cracked and the microphone no longer functioned. Being a smart user, I have insurance on the phone and I run a backup routine every nice with BackupMan. So all I had to do is go down to the local Sprint store and swap out the device. As anyone who has gone into a mobile phone store knows, the wait is never short, so I came prepared.

For starters, I brought my “jump bag” with all the mobile tech I needed to get a little work done while I waited. Additionally, I had stopped by Caffeine earlier to get a little coffee too. When I arrived at the Sprint Store, I stood in line for a few minutes to put my name into the queue and while I waited, I scanned the store to find a good spot to plant myself. As luck would have it, a couple of their computer kiosks were down.

Sprint now has four terminals with touch screen LCDs where you can interactively shop for products and services. They have stools in front of them so that you can sit semi-comfortably while you learn how to spend more money with Sprint. With two terminals down, I had an instant desk and stool from which to work, so I sat down with my Dana Wireless and began to type away.

After about 15 minutes of working, my name was called and I got to meet with a technician. Explaining the malady of my phone, he entered my information in and logged the issue. I wiped out the data on my phone, removed the SD card and turned it over to the technician. He explained that it would be about 45 minutes before my new phone would be ready. 45 minutes? Good thing I had come prepared!

I went back out to the car to retrieve my coffee and sat back down at the kiosk to go back to work. As long e-mails were written, weblog articles penned (such as this one) and proposals drafted, soothing semi-techno and pop music wafted from the overhead speakers. Taking a sip of my delicious coffee, I realized that I the experience I was having was much like that of a coffee shop, not a retail business. Here I was enjoying coffee, mellow-ish music from “Sprint Radio” and typing away at a keyboard. Isn’t this exactly what I do at Caffeine? The only thing missing was wi-fi, but I can be disconnected for an hour or two without having withdrawals. 😛

Two hours later, I was handed a newly refurbished Treo 600 and I quickly packed up and headed to my next appointment. It was a long wait, but thankfully I was able to get plenty of work done and enjoy the process as a whole.

A Little Side Note
As nice as the experience was, the highlight of my visit to the Sprint store was a small child. There was a little boy was climbing around the front display, playing as boys of his age do. His mother’s name was called and she asked her son by name to “come here.” Having fun on the display, the child didn’t want to stop playing and replied, “Never!” I burst out laughing at his response. I’ve heard of kids saying “No” to their parents before, but saying “Never!” takes some serious commitment and I’m laughing now as I type this because I know that I’m going to hang onto this one for awhile as I reuse it in every situation I can shoe horn it in. LOL

March 13, 2006

Well This Sucks

Zempt I’m a big fan of desktop weblog clients. They make it really easy to publish and manage a weblog and my favorite for Windows has been Zempt. It’s an open source project, which means that it’s free to use, and it strikes the right balance of features and simplicity. Great little app that I recommend to everyone I can.

Unfortunately, Adam Kalsey made the announcement today that there will be no future development for this wonderful program. Luckily for us, he’s keeping the files on Sourceforge, so we can still download and run the program to our heart’s content. I know that there hasn’t been any updates in over a year, but it’s still sad to see the final nail put in the coffin.

March 6, 2006

Windows Noise

Going through my RSS feeds this morning, I came across a very cool Flash video that I just had to share. The name of the video is called Windows Noises and was created by Clown Staples back in 2004. Using only the built-in Windows sound recorder, he creates an entire song out of manipulating Windows error sounds. Pretty clever use of a very simple tool and it’s fun to watch and see how he created the remix. Very cool.

»Select this link to watch/listen to “Windows Noise”.

March 3, 2006

“The IT Crowd” – Farce At It’s Best

Like most people who have become fans of the Channel 4 UK hit, “The IT Crowd“, I heard about the show through Boing Boing and other tech web sites. After watching the first episode, “Yesterday’s Jam”, I fell in love. In fact, I like the show so much, I bought the company. Err… OK, I didn’t buy the company, but I DID become the Editor for the show over at TV.com. 🙂

March 2, 2006

Guess Who I Saw The Other Day?

On Monday of this week (February 27^th), I had had a very crazy morning. By the time I stopped for lunch at 2pm, I had been to Downtown Nashville twice and I was in Cool Springs for the second time that morning. It had been hectic to say the least, but at the same time I was feeling pretty good that I had accomplished so much in so little time. As a treat to myself, I headed to my favorite Greek restaurant that was in the area – the Greek Cafe.

I’ve been a customer of the Greek Cafe since they opened several years ago. At the time of their Grand Opening, I was doing a lot of work in the area, so I’d stop in at least once or twice a week. I’m not in Cool Springs all that often for lunch anymore, so when I am, it’s a real treat. It was after the lunch crush when I arrived, so I had my choice of seat and leisurely placed my order. Their french fries are really good, but since it was slow, they didn’t have any ready, so they had to make a fresh batch. No complaint from me! 😛

I took my gyro sandwich and Diet Coke and went and sat down in a booth. After taking my food off the tray, I began reading an article I had printed out earlier that morning just for such an occasion. There were a couple of other customers in the restaurant besides myself. There were two people in the far booth, one gentleman reading the paper at a table and there was one man standing near the register talking on his cell phone. The man on the cellphone hadn’t ordered yet, because his conversation must have been too important.

March 1, 2006

Shaking Things Up A Bit

Bartender shaking a martini I know postings here have been a little sparse. This hasn’t been by choice, of course, it’s just a culmination of several things that have made writing somewhat difficult. Like most things in life, it’s not just one reason that causes things to break down, but a number of things that cascade together to cause the problem. I’ve thought long and hard as to why my posts have been few and far between and I think I have a plan to get things back on track.

Issue #1: Too Many Blogs
For starters, I have two other blogs that I write on, so often times I just don’t have the bandwidth to write on this one. One is at TV.com and the other is at NPUG. The blog at TV.com really deals with my activity with TV.com and isn’t really all that interesting, unless you’re a member. I’ve thought about combining it with this blog, but do you really want to read about how many points I have as an Editor for “The IT Crowd?” Yeah, I didn’t think so either. 😛

The “Director’s Log” at NPUG is going to be going away though. The idea was to have a place to talk about running a PUG, much like the TV.com blog is about being an Editor at TV.com. Unfortunately, there’s so much work that goes into producing the monthly meetings and maintaining the site, that everything I want to say has already been said. There’s simply too many other areas in which I can and do have a voice that the Director’s Log is a bit redundant – so it’s going away.

February 13, 2006

Perfect Clip For A Monday Morning

Found this clip this morning courtesy of my good friend Kerry Woo and I just had to share it. If you’ve ever seen the cult classic movie Office Space, this is a video using the “SuperFriends” with some of the choice audio from Office Spaceoverdubbed. It’s a wicked combination that makes for a nice Monday pickup.

One small warning, Office Space was rated R, so some of the language is PG-13 or higher. So if you’re at YOUR office, I thought you might want to be aware of that fact before a few choice curse words flew out of your speakers. 🙂

February 8, 2006

Check Out “Bones” Tonight

John F**kin' Mese I haven’t been a big fan of the new FOX television show “Bones“, but tonight is a “must see” night to watch, because my good friend John Mese . The episode is entitled “The Superhero In The Alley” and John will be playing the part of Ted McGruder. I don’t know how big of a role he’ll have in the episode, but I’m hoping it’s pretty big.

John told me he landed the role after his performance on “Law & Order in the episode Acid (which you can download on iTunes by the way). Someone saw him and from that he was cast in this episode of “Bones”. My hope is that his role will be fairly prominent, since his role on Law & Order, as Jason Corely, was pretty large as the “bad guy.”

Anyway, be sure to check out “Bones” tonight to see John’s performance. Regardless of the size of his role, I’m sure that it will be memorable. John’s really good at making his character’s stand out. 🙂