http://boulter.com/blog Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:45:30 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There's been a lot of talk about the US vs. Canada in terms of who "won" the Olympics. The US had more medals won, but Canada won more gold medals. What they should be measuring is how productive each country is by population. Here's a list of countries who won ... http://boulter.com/blog/2010/02/28/norway-won-the-olympics/ A few days ago, my trusty 3.5 year old MacBook Pro started making some strange sounds. It was just a little rattling at first, then it got louder. And louder. And louder until it sounded like this: It was impossible to concentrate or watch a video on it with all the ... http://boulter.com/blog/2010/02/18/giving-my-macbook-a-lube-and-oil-change/ The iPad was announced yesterday after months of speculation and rumors. I didn't think I needed a tablet computer and tried to ignore all the coverage, but with so much hype, I couldn't help but be drawn into it and watch the live coverage as it was demoed. Steve Jobs unveiled ... http://boulter.com/blog/2010/01/28/10-reasons-you-shouldnt-buy-an-ipad/ We have our home phone forwarding to a Google Voice number on no answer. It replaces the crappy Verizon voicemail service we used before. Best of all, Verizon set up the call forwarding for free. While it's convenient to be able to check our voicemail via email, the transcriptions are ... http://boulter.com/blog/2009/12/05/todays-nonsensical-google-voice-transcription/ It's been a week since I got my BlackBerry Tour (for cheap) and I'm getting used to it. There's lots to notice, but here's the highlights: The good The keyboard is nice. It's easy to peck away at and lights up when dark. The camera takes good pictures. With 3.2 megapixels and autofocus, ... http://boulter.com/blog/2009/11/04/week-one-the-goodberry-and-the-badberry/ Two years ago, I signed up for Sprint's super-cheap SERO plan. For $30 a month, you get 500 minutes, unlimited texting and unlimited data. They've since discontinued the plan, but as long as you have it, you can continue to use it. Many of the newer high-end phones aren't allowed ... http://boulter.com/blog/2009/10/27/how-i-got-my-blackberry-tour-for-11/ I reached 500 Facebook "friends" today. My first thought was "I have 500 friends?" Really, for not being that social of a person, it seems impossible that I could know that many people and share a real mutual liking with them. Of course, it is impossible. I don't have 500 ... http://boulter.com/blog/2009/10/17/im-sorry-were-no-longer-friends/ Audrey turns 2 tomorrow. It's hard to believe. While it's exciting to see her learn and grow, there's one thing we'll miss about her being under 2 - flying for free. It's a perk we've taken advantage a lot and not just when we lived on the West coast. I ... http://boulter.com/blog/2009/07/23/audrey-has-flown-around-the-world-twice/ I keep reading stuff about most engineers being too stupid to understand how to program threads. I don't get it. I never used threads until I started programming in Java 10+ years ago and it seemed pretty easy. You create a new thread, let it do some stuff and join() ... http://boulter.com/blog/2009/07/18/why-is-programming-threads-hard/ The other night I was awake at 4:30. I'm not sure if it was the pattering of rain outside, the occasional car or the heavy breathing of Audrey I could hear from all the way down the hall. Whatever it was, I was awake and not settling easily. Then I ... http://boulter.com/blog/2009/05/08/creatures-in-the-attic/