infrequent posts, mostly about tech, music, baseball, and beer.
Did you know…
In 1950, the average home size in the US was 950 sq. feet.
In 2007, the average home size in the US was 2400 sq. feet.
I was curious to see what the population was then and is now:
1950: 150,520,798
2008: 303,327,905 at the time of the blog post being written – you can see the population clock at the U.S. Census Bureau website.
It’s funny that we’ve more than doubled in population over 58 years, yet the average home size has more than doubled in sq. feet.
Melissa and I joined some friends for a one week trip to Kauai, Hawaii. We got back last week, late Thursday night…then woke up Friday with the flu. I guess I’m not that surprised. We’re both fully recovered though, so back to work we go.
We went to Poipu beach -
We played golf…
…we went hiking…
…and we went diving! Right off those rocks. 
Everyone had a blast. For more Kauai photos, check them out here.
We got a couple cloudy, windy days, but for the most part it was sunny and beautiful. A few quick notes:
Apparently, Tiger is a frequent patron, so at least I can say I’ve played on a course which he has played. No, I’m not going to tell you my score.I can’t wait to go back!
I played some Guitar Hero II over the Christmas break and now I’m completely hooked. When I got back home, I immediately called up a friend who I knew already had Guitar Hero and was interested in selling it. We struck a deal and a couple hours later we were rockin’ in our living room.
If you’ve played the game at all, you’ll be impressed with this video of an 8-year-old beating a song on expert(expert is the hardest level of difficulty on the game):
The Chevy Volt was on campus this week and we got to check it out up close, and talk to a couple of the engineers that worked on the car.
It seems really cool. Some of it’s features that separate it from other electric/hybrid cars:
I believe it’s on schedule to hit production in 2010, with a target price of around $30,000. I was really impressed with the appearance of the car, too. And I got a free t-shirt.
It’s Thursday morning, and I’m anxiously awaiting the Mitchell Report, which is due out 2 p.m. E.S.T., or in about 20 minutes. There’s a leaked report making the rounds right now, but I think I’ll just wait for the official report.
Some things I’ll be curious to see:
I do hope this cleans up the game of baseball, but I’m not very happy about the government’s “role” in this. I really think they should stay out of this; you know, stick to doing government things.
If you’re not familiar with a t.v. show called Aqua Teen Hunger Force, you should be; it’s hilarious. One of my favorite characters is Carl, the neighbor. Here’s a video of his take on the College Football BCS and the New York Giants football team. Thanks Chad for the pointer.
One month is way to long between blog posts. I’ll have to make sure not to wait that long, because then I’m forced to squish way to many things into one or two posts and either throw out or forget a lot of the content.
I’ve been quite busy lately. Besides normal work stuff, I have:
We also got to briefly meet Tom Lehman, pro golfer in the PGA. Very nice guy.
Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s been an interesting week in the world of high-profile musicians and record labels. In case you haven’t heard, a handful of artists have decided to dump their record label and go it alone. Radiohead was the first, deciding to release their latest album sans third party record label, and offered a digital download directly from their website. The coolest part? You decide how much you want to pay. I paid four pounds(about eight dollars) for mine. I normally wouldn’t voluntarily pay this much for an mp3 download, especially for a relatively low-quality bitrate(160 Kbps), no album art, etc., but I’ve gotta give props to Thom and the crew for taking such a leap.
Other artists have begun to follow suit, including:
These artists have yet to report how they plan on distributing their music. I’m definitely anxious to see what unfolds. The only bad thing about the route that Radiohead took is that it will likely overshadow the actual quality of the album, albeit a trivial point considering.
I’ve come to loathe music with DRM – that’s Digital Rights Management; follow the link for more info about what it is, and why it seriously sucks. In short, it’s basically a way to prevent digital media – music in this case – from being copied without the distributor’s consent. It makes it a real pain in the ass for people who simply want to easily transfer music they already own to other devices like mp3 players or other computers in the house. There seems to be more and more action around DRM lately, such as the new Amazon DRM-free mp3 downloads store. I still think 1$ for a song(iTunes) is too much, but if it were DRM-free, I may re-consider.
I’m anxious to see what unfolds ff big artists continue this trend of dropping their record labels. Will Radiohead divulge sales numbers? If they’re successful, would it be simply because they were the first? If this continues, will there be a simple, cheap and scalable platform for future artists who wish to distribute digital music?
My wonderful wife Melissa just accepted a new position as Director of Development for the Girls Middle School in Mountain View, CA. She’s really excited about the new opportunity, and I’m really proud of her for such an achievement. She starts officially on October 22nd.
I’m excited to see all the great things she’ll accomplish for the school. Congratulations!