mashby | The personal blog of Michael Ashby

October 2, 2004

Can You Hear Me Now?

Antique Radio I know I haven’t posted here in a long time. I’ve been out of town a good bit and under a deluge of work, which is always a good thing, and I just got back from a two-day ride with my buddy Dan and I hope to have a travelogue posted one day, but in the meantime, you can at least see the route we took at this link.
I’m in one of those phases where there is so much going on that I don’t have time to write it all down! Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up this next week, but I think posts will be a little thin for the time being. In the meantime though, I do have an audio goodie for you.
On September 16th, I was on the Computer Outlook radio show with Page Murray, the VP of Marketing at pa1m0ne. They just posted the archive, which can be found at this link. Just scroll down to 09/16/04 and click on the link.

It looks like I will be a co-host of the 3rd Thursday show which will focus on the Palm Handheld Lifestyle. This is a new “theme show” that they are just starting, so there are a lot of ideas and energy behind what this show can be and I’m very excited about what we’ll be able to do for the show. This is a new role for me, but one that I’m very excited about and hope I can make a solid contribution to the show.

Anyway, there’s a quick update and I’ll try to begin posting more frequently as things settle down over the next few weeks.

September 14, 2004

Quick Update

Brain Dump It’s been almost 3 weeks since my last entry, so it’s about time that I at least posted an update of some sort. It’s not that I haven’t been writing, it’s just that every entry I’ve started has turned into this gargantuan entry that takes forever to try and finish. I must have 20 entries in one draft version or another that I continually inch toward completing. Until I do finish one, here’s a quick update of what’s been going on.

I bought a tandem bicycle (aka bicycle built for two)
My business is booming again, which is nice 🙂
Holly and I spent a weekend in Louisville and I had the best meal of my entire life there.
I went to Ocean Springs for Caroline Griswold’s wedding last weekend.
I also played my trumpet at her wedding.
I can now fit into suits that used to wear in my twenties. They’re snug, but they fit.
BRAT starts this weekend, so I’m getting ready physically for it, as well as figuring out how I can be away from my business for a whole week.
I’ve ridden over 830 miles so far this year. My goal this year is 1000.
After BRAT, I’m estimating that I should be over 1200 miles if not more.
My pool and I are locked in a never-ending battle as leaves begin to dump from the trees.
I have a very big project that I’m hoping will launch in October.
I beta tested MoveableType 3.1, which was an honor, but have not installed it here as of yet.
Dan is in town from Guam. He headed to DC today, but will be back next week and we’ll go out for a day and back ride somewhere.
I’m going to be on the radio show Computer Outlook on Thursday evening. It may turn into an ongoing co-host position for the Thursday time slot if all goes well.

There’s a ton more that I could list, but at the moment that’s all that I could think about at the moment. This “brain dump” has been brought to you by Bubba’s Pick N’ Eat – where pickin’ is just the beginin’. 😉

August 26, 2004

The World’s Largest Pink Ribbon

3M Corporation, the company that makes Post-It Notes, is building the World’s Largest Pink Ribbon, which will be on display in Times Square, NYC for breast cancer awareness month in October. As nice of a gesture as that is, they are also donating $1 to the City of Hope Cancer Center for every person that enters their information on their web site.
Normally, I would stop right there and chaulk this gesture up as yet another method of gathering up user data. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case!
All 3M is asking for is your First and Last Name, City and State. This information will be printed onto one of the Post-It Notes used in the World’s Largest Pink Ribbon. So for each of the first 75,000 people who sign up to show that they are “sticking up for breast cancer”, your name will appear on the ribbon and $1 will be donated to the City of Hope Cancer Center.

In a world where your personal information is constantly under attack in order to sell you more stuff, it’s nice to see a large corporation “take the high road” and do something honorable. It’s this type of gesture that makes me want to support a company and purchase their products.

To submit your name, and for more information, please visit this link.

August 19, 2004

The Long And Winding Road Of VoIP

Two VoIP telephones Voice Over IP, otherwise known as VoIP is nothing really new. It’s been talked about and hyped for years now; however like other technologies such as Bluetooth, it’s never really appeared in wide release and reached a mass market appeal. If you’re not familar with just what VoIP is, in a nutshell it’s when you use a data network for voice. Instead of using a telephone (a voice network), you use a data network, such as the Internet. Why would you want to do that? Well the biggest reason is price. If you use your Internet connection, which is typically a flat-rate monthly fee, then you don’t have to pay for long distance charges.
If the idea of not having to pay for long distance charges appeals to you, you may be wondering why there aren’t more VoIP products out there on the market, or maybe why you haven’t even heard of it. The biggest hurdle is that it’s a new technology and thus there aren’t a lot of elegent solutions that are easy to use “out-of-the-box”. The only instances that I’m aware of where VoIP technolgies have been implemented consistentaly and successfully are with large corporations.

Here’s a typical example, a company has an office in the States and an office in Singapore. The company establishes a data connection between the two offices so that for all intents and purposes they are on the same network. So even though there’s servers in the US and Singapore, they appear to be side-by-side. With their networks in place, they then add VoIP technologies to the mix so that the two offices can communicate between each other over their data network. The end result is that the system works no differently than a regular voice call. The end user doesn’t notice any difference in the quality, or overall experience. Only the one cutting the checks sees the cost savings and in this scenario it’s usually well worth it. 🙂

August 12, 2004

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way Through iTunes

A broken pencil It’s funny how ideas can come clear out of the blue. I was chatting via IM this morning with my good buddy Mike Rohde and I was commenting on how good my random mix was in iTunes. I had selected the category “Electronic”, hit “Random” and then let her rip. Normally this can yield a bizarre mix, but for some reason this morning’s random play list was really, really good. It was so good in fact, that I started typing in the song names as they would come up.

The weather was a cool 68F. I had the window in my office open wide and Gracie was sleeping at my feet. With the music playing, I was just really entering a great groove. My taxes are done, I’ve got bills going out and I’m was just flush with the feeling that “Life Is Good!” So every time a new song comes up, I type it into my IM window to Mike. Here’s just a sample:

Soul Coughing – “Idiot Kings”
Lamb – “Gold (Hip Optimist Mix)”
The Beloved – “Let The Music Take You”
Lamb vs. Cosmos – “What Sound”
Mandalay – “Beautiful”
Paul Oakenfold – “Decent (Original Mix)”
Paul van Dyk – “The Politics Of Dancing”
DJ Rap – “Bad Girl”
The Crystal Method – “The Winner”
Hooverphonic – “Renaissance Affair”
Rinocerose – “Dead Flowers”
Tosca – “Worksong”
Patchwork – “Psychym”
Paul Van Dyk – “Out There”
The New Deal – “Receiver”

August 10, 2004

A Letter To The Editor – Part Two

A broken pencil Much to my surprise, I received a response from my letter to Mr. Schoen regarding his article “Cycling is just not a big deal” yesterday. I certain was not expecting one given the fact that we all live in a busy society and e-mail has become less useful than it used to be. Yet, Mr. Schoen took the time to respond in detail and I post his comments for your perusal:

Mr. Ashby –

Thanks for reading and I appreciate the letter.

Please excuse me if I’m a little short in my response as I’ve been doing corresponding with writers for the last couple of weeks about this subject.

First, you raise several valid points, although I did make a concerted effort to watch the Tour on OLN and read several articles before my own “bottom of the barrel” commentary.

While winning the Tour de France requires incredible mental and physical stamina, which I respect immensly, it doesn’t change my opinion on the sport itself. Maybe by not caring for cycling you (and many others) perceive that as a slight toward Lance Armstrong.

Lance Armstrong has done more than anybody, including Greg LeMond, to raise awareness of cycling in the U.S., you are correct. Yet, it’s still a sport that many Americans only pay token attention to, and it’s 3 weeks out of the year.

If you believe that football is nothing more than “just a bunch of grown men playing grabass,” that golf is “nothing more than over-privileged men hitting a silly ball with a stick” and hockey is “really nothing more than a bunch of ballerinas on ice skates pushing each other around” that is every sports fan’s right, just as it’s mine to see cycling as nothing more than “riding a bike.”

Is winning six Tour de Frances an incredible feat? Absolutely. Physically, it’s much tougher than winning the Masters or even Wimbledon. However, I happen to believe that while it is certainly newsworthy, cycling is a fringe sport in this country and to call it the greatest athletic accomplishment in sports, as many have, is hyperbole.

Again, I appreciate the comments and I hope you will write again in the future.

dave

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“Eat your cereal with a fork and do your homework in the dark.”

August 9, 2004

The Taxman Cometh

A man wraped in computer paper stressing out. On April 15th, I filed and extension with the IRS for the first time in my life. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I was left with no other alternative because I simply wasn’t ready. As I called in my extension, which was a really cool way to do it, I vowed to get serious about my accounting and get things in order in the next 30 days. Unfortunately, instead of “getting serious”, I paved a few more miles to hell with my good intentions. So with August 15th looming just around the bend, I spent all weekend getting my records in order.
All weekend you ask? Yes, I was that far behind. I had let things slide for quite some time and now I was having to make up for it by doing over a year’s worth of work in a weekend. Why would I let things get this bad? Well, if I have to be completely honest, it’s because I’m a spoiled brat when it comes to all things accounting. My mother is a CPA, so I’ve been content to be a slacker and let her do most of the work. Granted I handle billing, checks, etc., but for taxes and all things government, I’ve let her carry the brunt of the load. Yet can you consider yourself a spoiled brat if you’re self aware of your brat-ness?

August 7, 2004

A Letter To The Editor

A broken pencil I normally don’t write letters to the editor. I guess it’s because I don’t see the point. I think that the author, or editor will never read it, or even if they do it won’t change anything. Besides everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even if it’s one that I don’t agree with. However, I came across an article written by David Schoen entitled “Cycling is just not a big deal” and I just couldn’t sit idly by. I felt I had to voice a complaint. Schoen goes to great lengths to tear not only Lance Armstrong, but the entire sport of cycling.

Just in case ANG Newspapers takes Schoen’s article off of their web site, here it is in it’s entirety:

August 6, 2004

My New Favorite Weblog

Alton Brown shouting into a megaphone Thanks to a entry on one of my favorite weblogs Simple Bits, I stumbled onto a new weblog that after the first read has become my new favorite weblog. It’s the “Rants & Raves” section of Alton Brown’s web site and it’s an absolute hoot!
For those of you not familiar with Alton Brown, he hosts the Food Network show Good Eats. Before losing cable, something I’m still struggling with demons to try and keep from getting back, I use to watch his show regularly. Brown has this innate ability to go into great detail regarding food and cooking and yet make it VERY entertaining. He lives in Atlanta, which isn’t very far from here (so what that makes him a neighbor?) and in his show and now his weblog he comes across as a regular Joe. Well, a regular Joe who knows a LOT about food. I guess you could call him kind of a cooking geek and I mean that in a good way.

August 3, 2004

Dashed Upon The Rocks Of Reality

A painting depicting the fall of Icarus from the sky. After the Natchez Trace Bicycle Tour, I made a vow to try and do two short bicycle tours a year. I didn’t have any clear idea of when or where when I made this vow, but I enjoyed being out on the open road so much that I just knew I had to get back out there as soon as possible. My thought was that I would do one bicycle tour in the Spring and one in the Fall. Money, time and energy permitting, I would try and do an extra tour in the Summer if possible. However much like Icarus, I have soared too high on my dreams of cycling and I’ve been dashed upon the rocks of reality – I’ll be lucky if I can get one tour in this year. 🙁

The first tour I had hoped to make was up to Milwaukee Wisconsin to visit my good friend Mike Rohde during the month of June. He and I planned on doing an extended weekend about like I had done for the Natchez Trace last year. I would fly into Chicago, he’d pick me up and then for the next 4 days, he and I would ride a large loop around his house. If we ran out of time, his wife could rescue us. 🙂 We had the rough outline all planned out, but as is typical in this day and age, we simply didn’t have the time to make it happen. It was nobody’s fault, we just couldn’t get it scheduled.

With my spring tour cancelled, I set my sights on where I would try and go in the fall. “Ok, so I can’t make two tours this year, I can still make one”, I thought to myself. Ideally, I would get a bunch of friends together and we’d all go riding, but I didn’t limit myself to that ideal. I’m just as happy going solo, so I thought about where I could ride close to home.

While standing in my local REI store, I eyed a Hatch Show Print poster hanging on the wall in the bicycle section. It was for a ride called the Bicycle Ride Across Tennessee (BRAT). My interest was instantly piqued and when I got home, I looked it up on the web to learn more about this ride.