Yup, that's where I'm headed!
My company is opening the NASDAQ on Thursday, November 8 and I will be there! I might do a little sightseeing and will be bringing my Cell Phone. Watch the Moblog on Wednesday and Thursday for pictures throughout the trip!
If you want to watch the opening bell ceremony on the 8th, check out the NASDAQ Marketsite for the webcam (link is on the bottom of the page).
-Kal
 |
| Rachel's Belly Pictures |
Everyone, meet the newest member of the Miller clan, Kameron Michael (Kam).
Those of you who didn't already know, now know that Rachel and I have a baby on the way. Those that did know, and those that didn't, now know that it's a baby boy. And boy, are we excited. :-)
Here's one of his first shots, posing with his little fist in the air.
Rachel is about 5 months along, Kam is due January 2nd, 2008. And yes, as many have noted we wouldn't mind him being about 3 days early (that's our little tax deduction, yep). We'll keep you up to date!
-Kal
Greetings from Washington!
One of the valued subscribers to the Kal in Space blog is apparently from Norway. He/She uses the Opera browser. Such interesting things you can learn from an RSS reader, eh? Please leave a note and let me know who you are! And most importantly, thanks for reading!
To the rest of my readers who may not be subscribers, you can get Kal in Space updates right from your MyYahoo, iGoogle, NetVibes, other homepage service, or standalone RSS reader! Check the icons in the sidebar to sign up. Included are two-click buttons to add Kal in Space to your MyYahoo, iGoogle, or Netvibes page. Also, if you're more knowledgable about RSS, you can also grab the Kal's Moblog RSS feed further down on the page (right-click on the counter for the link).
Thanks and keep reading!
-Kal
[8/15 UPDATE: Ok, so it turns out that everyone using an Opera Browser reflects an origin of Norway. That is, of course, because Opera Software is IN Norway. So it's probably more likely that Mike's added the Kal in Space RSS to his Wii Opera Browser than that I have a reader in Norway. Oh well...I'll leave the post up so you can all laugh at me.]
(This was an email response to our friend Jillian. She's considering a new PC or Mac laptop. I cleaned a few lines of thought up and added some missing pieces for posting purposes.)
Mac vs. PC is a matter of personal preference, or a religious war, depending on who you are. :-)
Our iBook occasionally gives us some "spinning beach balls of doom" but partially because it's using old technology and I tax the heck out of it. If you got a new Mac, that wouldn't be an issue. The Macbooks that Apple replaced the iBook with are really nice machines. The default $1099 configuration is reasonably fast, is pretty solid and you wouldn't need to do much customization (and can’t) as you might by going with a PC.
You can get a cheaper PC, definitely, but when you configure a comparable PC to what Apple has to offer it's not much cheaper than the Mac.
The main concern if you switch is that you'll have to shell out for new software (read: Microsoft Office). The other consideration is that if you can wait for a few months (October?), you can get a Mac with the new upcoming OS X "Leopard" operating system, and sometime this fall Microsoft is releasing Office 2008 for Mac. We bought our iBook right before they released OS X “Tiger” and it has burned me up ever since.
As Rachel said, we don't run antivirus software and don't get infected with anything, so if you really just don't want to worry about it, then a Mac would be good too. (Mac = Small Target, Windows = HUGE Target.)
That being said, I'm pretty sure you can get a discount through Dell as a Federal employee also and their new laptop line is pretty nice -- especially if you want one in Pink or Yellow (or Red, Green, Blue, Brown, Black, or White). If you're comfortable sticking with Windows or don't want to learn a new system I think you'd probably be best served by getting a Dell. With Dell you'll definitely get more “bang for your buck,” so to speak. AMD’s “Turion” processor is somewhat cheaper but the Intel Core 2 Duo is much faster than the Turion even at the slowest clock speeds.
Go mess with the Macbooks at the Apple Store if you haven't already and you should get at least a feel for OS X – and the absence of a right mouse button. I’ve gotten pretty proficient with the Ctrl+Click but it isn’t the same. For when you’re at a desk, make sure you get a scroll mouse with 2+ buttons. I recommend Logitech or, oddly enough, a Microsoft mouse.
The new Macs can run Windows these days, but you really need a large amount of RAM (and $$$) to do it.
For me, I'm beginning to lean against the Macintosh, but that's mainly because I'm a geek who likes games and programming. :-D
-Kal
p.s. The next installment in my sermon series is a discussion of the iPhone.
UPDATE: Actually, tech columnist John C. Dvorak (a fairly well known Mac skeptic) actually did a column about his use of the Mac for PC Magazine. Check it out here.
One of my favorite shows on the old TechTV...the best part of this commercial is hearing Leo say "Word!"...
UPDATE: The TSS intro got pulled, so I submit to you instead...Leo Laporte on the Microsoft Zune.
Enjoy!
-Kal
While usually my inner geek comes out in the evening, the last couple weeks have seen it spring to life during the day while at work!
My primary responsibility is calculating sales commissions. At my company, that means I spend the better part of my day in Microsoft Excel. First off, let me say that I "heart" Excel 2003. However, lately I've been trying to minimize the mindless time I spend using it.
By mindless, I mean doing repetitious tasks that could be just as easily performed by your common college intern or even a trained chimp. Some things aren't that bad, but they just take a long time. The answer, I've found, is to delve completely into the wonderful world of VBA: Visual Basic for Applications.
So for the last several days I've been programming my brains out, to automate - as much as possible - part of our commission calculations. To the large extent, I've been successful. I'd say we're at Beta stage now. It pretty much works, but things like bug squashing and fine tuning what little GUI there needs to be.
I'm such a l33t haXor with my mad Excel skillz. Or just a geek. Yep, that'll do.
-Kal
I have the most scenic commute of anyone I know (save for my coworker, Chris -- the "Ninja" -- who practically has the same one).
Traffic in the Washington Metro Area is some of the worst in the country -- second only to Los Angeles, so I'm told. So I think I've lucked out. My daily commute to Bethesda, Maryland is largely opposite the flow of traffic. Most people are headed inside the Capital Beltway from the outside in the morning, and the other way in the evening. The largest distance of my commute, however, is "outbound" in the morning and "inbound" in the evening.
The largest distance is covered on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The GW Parkway (or G-Dub for short) is actually run by the national parks service, and goes right along the Potomac on the Virginia side. It starts (or ends) at the north side of the Capital Beltway and goes south, finally ending (or starting) in front of George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate. I'd say I travel about half -- the northern part between I-395 and the Beltway. The whole northern stretch is green. By green, I mean, teeming with plant life. Adding to the beautiful scenery is the Potomac, and the many sights of DC.
On my trip I get to see:
The Pentagon
The Washington Monument
The Lincoln Memorial
The Kennedy Center
The Air Force Memorial
The Memorial Bridge
The National Cathedral
The Capitol Rotunda
Georgetown
...pretty much every day. It's beautiful in the Spring and in the Winter (when there's snow, at least), especially. Sometimes, depending on the route I can catch a glimpse of the Jefferson Memorial and the "tippy-top" of the White House.
However, particularly in the evening, I get to intimately know every tree and blade of grass, and especially every pothole. But it sure is purdy. I guess if I need to be stuck in a traffic jam, at least I can enjoy the view.
-Kal
Do you like free stuff? I do, especially in the form of full-featured operating systems! Ubuntu 7.04 (codenamed "Feisty Fawn") is being released on Thursday, April 19th. Available in a "LiveCD" format, you can try it on your current computer without actually installing it.
Don't misunderstand, this is a complete operating system - a replacement for even Windows, some may say. It has an office suite (OpenOffice.org), a web browser (Firefox), chat client (Gaim), photo management (F-Spot), image editor (the GIMP), and many other programs available -- for free -- along with it. Just download the .iso and burn it to a CD and reboot your machine to try it.
Visit the Ubuntu website for the details. And especially for Ryan, if he's still using that hunk of junk Windows 95 machine, check out Xubuntu - engineered to run on older machines. So resurrect your old computer into something usable with Xubuntu, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu (my flavor of the week) on Thursday. Let me know how it turns out.
-Kal
The schools around here close for snow (of course), they close for ice (ditto), they close for fog, they close a day early in some cases for snow and ice. They close for cold, they close for flood watches/warnings, for bad thunderstorms and even the occasional hurricane.
After two and a half years in the DC area, I really thought I'd heard everything with regards to school closings. Well, I was proven wrong today when Fairfax County schools closed 3 hours early this afternoon because of the wind.
The education funding in this area seems to be degrading so quickly that the patchwork of trailer (park) classrooms that house a significant portion of the desks in the area schools can't protect the kids from the elements. Fairfax County apparently has enough of these makeshift schoolrooms that it's worth closing school early.
When we have kids they are SO going to go to private school.
-Kal
(So there it is. The first post in over a month. Keep reading. I've got more in the queue, just need to put it to words...and Rich, if you want to give us a daily account of your eating habits, the comments remain open!)
After a brief hiatus, the Space has returned to Kal in Space. It took a while, but Kal has finally outsmarted the blogger designers.
Really, though...I moved to the "new" blogger a while back but since I couldn't figure out the layouts, I kept my "classic" HTML template that I could tweak to my heart's content. However, I wanted to easily move things around and take advantage of all the new features in the "new" blogger.
What you saw during the past week was that transition. I have finally gotten my background and banners back to spec. Enjoy the return!
Also, be sure to keep an eye on the moblog. Go me.
-Kal
It's time again for an update. What's been going on? Quite a few things, actually.
First and foremost, I've been pretty busy with work. At the end of January, I helped put together the "board book" - a package of information for our Board of Directors' meeting. Some long hours were required.
Also, in the last weekend of January, our new Pastor closed on his new home, and I pitched in to help paint. He was installed on the afternoon of the 4th, which also happened to be the same day as our latest Praise-Team led service at the church, so Rachel and I as the fearless leaders of that group were busy preparing for that too. And of course, the Super Bowl. Oh the grief I took for deciding to cheer for Peyton.
A couple weeks ago I did a full reinstall of OSX on the iBook. This time I saved enough space to install Ubuntu, and now I have a fully functional dual-boot machine. The Airport Extreme wireless card even works with WPA2!! Go me!
Early in January, a group of guys and I got together to brew some beer at the Shenandoah Brewing Company in Alexandria. (They have great root beer too.) This weekend, our Heavy Scottish Ale (7.7% Alcohol by Volume, Rachel says it tastes like wheat bread...maybe it does) was ready for bottling. Now we have a case and a quarter each to enjoy. That was pretty fun.
Also this weekend, I started Kal's Moblog. Check it out. What is a 'moblog,' you ask? It's a blog that you update using your mobile phone (mobile + blog = moblog) via text or MMS message. Since a 450 character blog post isn't that big, and because it would be a pain to type a whole post out in T9 or whatever your phone uses, it's usually confined to a picture with a caption. That's what I'm going with. The bottling from the brewery provided the first entries. Expect to see more...I especially want to show the readers in Michigan Bethesda's white pavement. Pretty spectacular.
Be sure to check out Kal's Classic Homemade Root Beer on the moblog. The yeast is working its magic on the counter right now. If it works well, we'll see the dawn of Kal's Diet Homemade Root Beer and Kal's Premium Homemade Root Beer (honey sweetened).
I also did our taxes yesterday. I was quite pleased to see a federal refund of $155! Compare that to last year's tax bill of $1,458 and you would too.
Finally, Deedle has been to the vet's a lot the last few weeks. First it was a routine check-up. From there we found we needed to have a small mass on her shoulder removed, and her teeth cleaned. Before the appointment came, he mass (which was a cyst), decided to burst, so she went back and it was determined she was fine, and it'd go away. When we took her in for the teeth cleaning this week, though, they said the cyst (caused by a glandular tumor) was back, and would keep coming back if we didn't remove it. So Deedle got more than she bargained for -- dental work and surgery! She's doing well now, except for the wounded pride of having a shaved patch on her back and on her front-left paw where the IV went. She's such a good sport!
-Kal
There is hope for me yet, with the Wii Sports Workout Regimen.
Now I just need to get a Wii...
Subscribe to Kal's Moblog:
| 
| 
© 2005-2009 Kalvin Miller.
