Get this man a gold Rolex, pronto!

Meet the inventor of 'CtrlAltDelete' - retiring today after 28.5 years with IBM.

Snow Day?

This is the kind of day I dreamed of as a kid. (Though back then, the schools rarely closed.)

But every once in a while it would snow enough to close the schools, and my friends and I would head to the park for some serious sledding.

When you work in Manhattan, there are no snow days. Thanks to the MTA, I have no excuse to stay home.

Boooo!!

Gadget madness

iPod envy has driven me to new heights of gadget madness. Determined not to give in to hoards of targeted advertising, and equally determined not to be the fool easily separated from her money, I did the logical thing and purchased not one, not two but THREE audio alternatives. Oops.

RHAPSODY
First, Rhaspsody. For months I had a free trial to what I think is the best online music subscription service. When that expired I broke down and got the $9.99/month subscription. Its worth it. On-demand CD-quality streaming, burn tracks at $0.79 a pop, or listen to any of their pre-programmed radio stations (that let you SKIP SONGS.) Download a trial at Listen.com



iRIVER IMP-550
My next purchase was the iRiver IMP-550, an extraordinary CD/MP3 player. Which means it will play just about anything on a flat shiny disc. It was between this and the iPod, and at $149, I think this is the better deal. Besides, who has time to rip their entire CD collection? I can rip what I want then burn to a CD, and create playlists using the 550 itself, or Winamp (it supports Winamp playlists.) Or just play regular CDs. Too many additional features to list here.



XM
Music subscription service - check. MP3 player - check (well, sort of.) What's missing....oh right, satellite radio! XM, specifically. This purchase was Eric's idea, and while I was sort of opposed to it at first, when when tried it out...wow. We'll never need to listen to the radio in the car ever again. Or home for that matter. We went with the SkyFi with car and home kits.

Rover update

NASA team loses contact with Mars rover- I think the Martians got at it.

Mars 3 in 3D!

NewsNight with Aaron Brown will feature an exclusive 3D tour of Mars tonight. If you don't have 3D glasses hanging around from the 7-11 Swamp Thing promotion, you can roll your own.

Holiday Recap

What better way to spend Christmas Day than enjoying cocktails at the recently completed Mandarin Oriental in the yet-to-be completed Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle? The Oak Bar at the Plaza was my first choice, but it was packed with tourists. Yuck. So we wandered over to the west side to check out the bar at the Mandarin.

Very cool, but I couldn't help but notice an alarming amount of shoddy workmanship throughout - note how the particleboard covering the bar bows under my drink.

Better times were had in Montreal the following week. Those Canadians know how to enjoy winter...I love this lamppost spotted near an outdoor ice skating rink.



More holiday photos coming soon to the gallery.

Average Phuc

I haven't been keeping up with my reality shows so I've missed all of Average Joe 2. But how could I miss this! One of the contestants is named Phuc. I believe its a Vietnamese name; I've seen it as a last name, but never as a first name - I can't imagine what this guy had to deal with growing up in Massachusetts. But how bad can you feel for a guy on Average Joe, who lists Alyssa Milano and Jennifer Love Hewitt as his "dream girls"?

In other reality news, The Apprentice premieres tonight and I can't wait!

Jaws 3 in 3D!

The 3D craze has hit NASA, where reporters were treated to scenes from a 1950s cult film where Earth sends a spaceship to Mars.

Fast User Switching, anyone?

I can't get terminal services to start in Windows XP. As a result, fast user switching will not start, which really sucks, because now Eric and I can't be logged in at the same time. Which means I have to close everything and logout before he can login, and vice versa. Ugh.

I'm getting a 1083 error when I try to start terminal services. I tried this registry patch but it didn't work.

Help! Help!