Ice Cavern Studios

I’d like to warn people that what I’m about to say wreaks of Kool-aid. Ok, so Groove is part of (Microsoft) Office; which means a lot of coordinating has to go on between us and the people in Redmond. So right now, I’m involved in a meeting in Redmond. How am I involved? We’re using Microsoft Live Meeting. No, seriously. We’re using Live Meeting. This program actually works. Mind you, we aren’t using Live Meeting’s audio stuff, but in terms of watching people do stuff and seeing demo’s, it’s pretty tight. Ok, that is all.

Software, Technology, The Internet

I’m currently watching the the Brazil/Ghana Soccer match on my DVR and I’m really enjoying this. And yes, I seriously watching a match I DVR’d. In fact, I avoided ESPN.com and the TV downstairs so I wouldn’t know what goes on.

It’s just pretty to watch this. It really is. It’s funny, I’ve actually becoming a fan of the sport. I’ve begun to think I might pick up Fox Soccer Channel so I can watch professional soccer during the year. But man, this is great.

Sports, World Cup

This past weekend is the kind of weekend I need more of. It was filled with friends, but yet wasn’t so tiring that I need a weekend to recover from it. I was social the entire weekend, saw different people, and yet…I never had the feeling of wanting to get away.

Friday night, a bunch of us got together to celebrate my friend Kate’s half-birthday. I know, I know, but it was a good excuse to get together and have a good time. We watched Eddie Izzard, talked, ate, and generally just had a good time.

Saturday was fun because I spent most of it with Nicole. We started with a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond. After that, we came back to my apartment and just kind chilled. We watched Argentina and Mexico finish their game, and then we took a nap. After getting a nice pizza for dinner, we went into Boston to meet up with Nicole’s friends from high school, Siobhan and Courtney (who was in town from Albany). Siobhan was having people over because it’s her last week in Boston and wanted to party. Unfortunatly, Nicole and I were not in much of a bar-hopping mood, so when everyone decided to go into Boston, we headed back to Cambridge.

Sunday morning started off with Courtney, Nicole, two of Courtney’s friends and me grabbing brunch at this little place up in Central Square. After that, I walked back with them to Nicole’s so I could grab my parking pass, which she accidently took with her. I then met up with Spector to go replace his 360, which was having problems. After the replacement happens, Dan and I did what we often do, which is sit around playing video games and shooting the breeze.

A brisk walk back across the river found me at m apartment with a few hours before bed; so of course, I cleaned up a bit. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? But yeah, It was a good weekend. Maybe I can put another one together like that soon.

Life and Times

I just fixed the posts that were causing the feed to break. Thinks should be back to normal now. Sorry about that.

Programming, The Internet, Web Development

So I mentioned last week that I now have internet access from the train, and after a week of using it, I can only think just how bad dial-up speeds are. I mean, I know this is how half of the country accesses the internet; and man, it’s god awful.

I’ve been on broadband for close to eight years, now. Via my mobil phone is the first way I’ve made repeated uses of the internet on a connection slower than 386 k. After all this time, the modern internet…scratch that…the modern computer, isn’t even designed to be running at these speeds.

Just thinking about email, not the web, makes me shudder. Eight years ago, before broadband was common place (read in 40% of computer using households), people used to send just text only emails. Considering at the time that people also didn’t have digital cameras, this wasn’t a problem. But now, everyone wants to send HTML formatted emails with pictures and lord knows what else. The amount of time it takes to sync my email on this connection is crazy. On my cable connection, email is instantaneous. On the train, just getting the headers (base information, no body) takes about a minute, minute and a half.

Now add on Instant Messenger, and a web browser, maybe with multiple tabs open. My already full connection has been completely saturated with data. And this is how I routinely use my machine. Usually it’s at least 3/4 browser tabs. My email is constantly checking. And I have a bunch of IM windows.

And the web, well…I’ve already made that rant at least once before. Let’s just say that all the nifty stuff google does…not so friendly on a modem. And any page with more than two or three images, or flash? I don’t even bother. I just come back later at work. It’s really that bad.

I used to think just the web was not meant for modem connections. It’s really more than that. The typical digital lifestyle requires broadband. Or a lot more patience than I have.

Technology, The Internet