jonathan.bare.to

The first week at my new job is over. Yay!

Actually, it was a quick week. Today dragged on a bit, but in the end I
was there half an hour late cursing at a password that did not work. I'll
have to get there early on Monday to see if I can fix that... and
apologize to the user who was on vacation this week and won't be able to
use his Mac on Monday without the password.

They tell me that I will get my own desk next week... even if it will
still be in the
"team room." (Think four-person conference room with a 3/4 wall and no
door.)

I've met some very interesting people. They all are really very nice too.
Sometimes I regret that I have to interrupt them from talking about
various other things to get back to the problem at hand. Oh well, that's
work.

I think I'll probably go back next week. :D

Posted by jonathan at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

align="left" style="padding-right: 5px;" />It's href="http://www.ifoapplestore.com/">rumored that the new Bethesda,
Md. Apple Store will open on Saturday, May 8th!

And, while I did not get a Mac Genius job there, I am happy that they are
opening. I grow tired of driving down to Tyson's Corner, Va. to the store
there whenever I need my Mac retail fix. So, let me be one of the first to
say:

Welcome Apple!

While I wasn't doing anything today (will change next week), I took the
short drive out to the mall and snapped a couple photos with my Motorola
V600 cell phone. The phone actually does pretty well as a digital camera
replacement. Though the colors and contrasts are a little funky.

One of the photos you see at the left. There's a slightly larger version
here. Another one is href="/images/bethesdastore2.jpg">here.

The next dorky thing to do is try and be first in line for the opening on
May 8th. We'll see if Mike wants to get out of bed early and go... though
somehow I think I know what he'll say...

Posted by jonathan at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Just got the confirmation... Monday morning it's back to work for me!

Dress is substantially different from my days at the "Dog and Pony". I
would regularly go to work in clothes that probably should have been
thrown away or saved for summer days mowing the lawn or cleaning out the
gutters.

This job is "tie optional," which means I will be wearing a tie on
Monday... Tuesday, well, we'll see how it goes.

Posted by jonathan at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a pretty fun TV week, especially for a href="http://www.tivocommunity.com">Tivo owner like myself. New Scrubs
episode last night; new Enterprise (finally, after a six-week hiatus), new
West Wing, new Law & Order tonight; new Scrubs (yes, two in one week!),
new ER tomorrow night; and new Third Watch on Friday night.

There's probably some other stuff in there that I'm forgetting. CSI: Miami
was typically bad on Monday. NCIS last night was OK, better than usual
acutally, but the show still suffers from a weirdo cast. Sunday's Arrested
Development got bumped by 24, which had been bumped by the President
speaking on live TV last Tuesday night. Too bad, because that episode of
A.D. probably won't air until the summer repeat schedule.

Two new Scrubses in one week is though, by far, the best part. (CSI:
tomorrow is a repeat, making recording Scrubs on the Tivo much easier.)

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Posted by jonathan at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The web cam does not move.

Please stop asking to see the tulips and daffodils.

Attempts will be made to photograph the flowers this week.

Thank you.

Posted by jonathan at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

height="400">Jim Davis, The Boston Globe

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I know, I know. Three entries in 10 minutes. This is NOT the beginning of
a trend, rest assured.

Anyway, all week, I've been humming and/or singing to myself the music
from an MST3K host segment called " href="http://www.d.umn.edu/~molson2/mst3k/hired.html">Hired!"

"I got a job last Friday / I hope to bring home good pay / I just got
hiiiirrreeddd / HIRED!"

Catchy tune, ain't it?

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Posted by jonathan at 06:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Good news everyone.

I received a job offer for a part-time/temporary Mac tech support position
in Alexandria, Va. on Friday.

"Part time" and "temporary" were not two things that I was really looking
for, but it beats "no time" and "don't call us we'll call you." I was very
happy to hear back from them, after the interview three weeks ago.

There is some hope (OK, not really a measurable amount... but anyway, some
hope!) that this could become a full-time job in the future.

If nothing else, it gets me back in to the habit of working and should
help sharpen some of my now-rusty tech support skills. It also signals a
clear turn around in my job search luck!

Posted by jonathan at 06:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Who's tired of the webcam already?

Well, it's back to EvoCam. They updated their software and made the
workaround for the stalled video problem publicly available.

You can now view the href="/automate/webcam/movies/yesterday.mov">previous 24 hours in a
timelapse video. It's about 10 MB, so download wisely.

It still keeps the most recent 48 images on the server, so I'll try and
get an interface for that up at some point.

I like the old text-based temperature tag better than the Wunderground.com
widget, but EvoCam doesn't come with a similar weather script like
ImageCaster does. That small downside is the only thing that ImageCaster
has on EvoCam, which is by far better in everything else.

Posted by jonathan at 06:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Do you know what Ted is? Tedheads, a term I came up with all on my own
this week, describes members of the Ted marketing crew. Dressed in
"marigold" shirts and piling out of a "marigold" limo, they show up at
local events, Starbucks, and other people-friendly locations talking about
Ted and handing out Ted flyers.

Ted. Part of United. United Airlines.

Ted is a new airline-within-an-airline. Kind of like Delta's Song. United
hopes that Ted will attract... um, well, I'm not at all sure who they hope
to attract. Ted features all-coach seating and no on-board ammenities
(JetBlue, Frontier, and Song have live TV at each seat and a variety of
snacks).

Already, unhappy Ted travelers have started to complain. href="http://www.dontflyted.com/">DontFlyTed.com is one extreme
example of an unhappy United frequent flier.

Ted can't win the airline fare wars. Ted can't beat Southwest (and JetBlue
and Frontier and America West and AirTran and Spirit) at Southwest's game.
Ted is the dismal hope of a failing airline. Ted should not exist.

United tried this once -- it was called Shuttle by United and flew up and
down the West coast. Delta tried it too -- Delta Express. US Airways had
MetroJet. Those three airlines-within-an-airline failed, Ted won't be any
different.

But still, Ted bought me a venti coffee and muffin at Starbucks on
Sunday...

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Posted by jonathan at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)