Blogger sucks

That's why I never post here anymore.

Ben Bridge

Ben Bridge Signature Diamond™ solitaire ring in platinum, 3/4 ct.

Ben Bridge Signature Diamond™ princess cut ring in platinum, 3/4 ct.

Ikuma™ Canadian ideal cut diamond solitaire ring 14K, 3/4 ct. (less interested)

Notes
* Color
- Clear - D, E, F
- Nearly Clear - G, H, I
- Questionable - J, K, L
* Clarity
- Internally Flawless, Very Very Slightly included 1-2, Very
Slightly included 1-2, Slightly Included 1-2, Included 1-3
* Cut ratings
- GIA - Excellent, Very Good [, Good, Fair, Poor]
- AGS - Ideal, Excellent, Very Good [, Good, Fai, Poor]

Tiffanys - Tiffanys setting and Lucida



Cut proportions
* Table - 57%
* Crown angle - 34 degrees

I (heart) my commute

This is why I take the bus. Except today I get to drive home because I felt like driving this morning. Weak.

Complaining about ABC's 12:30 pm college football broadcasts

Why aren't they in HD? Every other game that ABC and ESPN broadcast in full 16:9, 720p resolution. The 12:30pm (pst) games, however, are always 4:3, 480i/p video upconverted to be broadcast in HD. What's the deal?

I completely forgot Michigan-Ohio State was on this morning at 9am, and was pleasantly surprised to find it on ABC when I switched on the TV. Of course it was in ABC's HD. The 9am ESPN game (Illinois-Northwestern) was in HD. Now Washington-Cal is on ABC, and it's SD upconverted to HD. Meanwhile Penn State-Michigan State, on ESPN, is in ABC's HD.

It can't be a bandwidth restriction, because regardless of original source video, my cable box is getting a 720p signal. That, and both CBS and NBC are showing football games in HD as well.

My guess is that ABC has some kind of technical restriction, either in the number of HD cameras (and related equipment) they can distribute each weekend, or that their equipment they use to receive feeds from their games can only handle so much input.

Regardless of the reason, ABC has ESPN for their sports department, and they should understand the value of broadcasting every game possible in HD. The viewing experience is simply better in HD.

Hopefully this won't be an issue in the coming years.

Safari 3 finally got released

I've been banging my head against the wall trying to use the Safari 3 beta since the summer.  I figured the actual release would occur with the release of Leopard, but I guess Apple had some things to work out with the Tiger version.  Anyway, I got the auto-update notification last night, installed it immediately, and.... it just works.  The litmus test was to load up google reader and try to read blogs as normal.  Google reader worked horribly under the beta.  Now it works as well as it does in Firefox (my standard windows browser).  For extra credit, I decided to try getting internet radio from my favorite sports station, kjram.com, which does its streaming through windows media player.  This never worked before, but now, with the help of a plugin - flip4mac (which I had before, but still, didn't work) - it works like a charm.

Stuff like this, along with better support from Parallels, is what will get me to switch.

Experience vs. Books

A couple years ago, when I was just getting started as a software developer, having to work within a multithreaded framework was probably the most intimidating part of my job.  I remember talking with my manager about getting a book to help get me up to speed.  A book like this, which, at the time, didn't exist.  In the two-plus years since then, I've probably taken in 70%-80% of the information in that book via the school of hard knocks.  I don't have all of the formality that would come with reading the book, but I can tell you what works, what doesn't work, and what sorts of pitfalls to look out for.

With that said, I still wish I'd had that book back in early 2005.  Multithreaded programming is a beast.  You can't stop it, you can only hope to contain it.

The Chronic 2001

Currently listening to this album for the first time in a couple of years. I think it's been seven or eight years since it came out. The beats still hold up (some are better now). The lyrics are just as humorous (if you can get past the fact that, really, they're quite offensive). I've heard a number of the tracks used as bumpers on some of my talk radio shows, so I thought I'd toss it in. Love it.

Maybe it's good not to be ranked that highly on google

Gotta start blogging again. The NFL one died right about when the Seahawks started sucking. Fairweathered? Guilty as charged, I guess. I prefer to think of it as having better things to do than lament about a team that is obviously past its Super Bowl window.

Anyway, as some point I'd like to have a decent number of readers that aren't people who know me personally. On top of that, if my blog ever does get ranked high enough that a future (or current) employer can easily find it by searching "Shane Arney", I've got some less than flattering posts that need to be taken down. So, I'll get to that in the next few days.