Tuesday, October 22, 2002

I'm sitting in a graduate school class this evening.  It's a little bit of bizarre.  It's been something like eight years since I set foot in a classroom. My old school has changed a bit.  The main part of the campus is the same, though they've added some art objects.  The building where the CS courses are taught.  In fact, it's a whole new building.  Very swanky, given that it's state-funded architechture. One major difference from when I was in school: All the students have cell phones.  I didn't even own a cell phone till my last quarter there, and that was because I was working days and could afford it. 9:29:38 PM

One big thing Radio is missing is a spell checker.  I have found a solution: ieSpell is a wonderful little tool that adds a menu option to IE and will spell check anything on a web page.  It's designed for use with HTML forms input, but it works quite will with Radio's WYSIWYG editor.  I just have to "select all" and then pick the ieSpell option from the tools menu.  Kick *ss! 12:13:14 AM

Too much to do I've been taking a small break the last few days, and deliberately not blogging news feeds.  I'm still reading, though I also cut back my RSS subscriptions from 30-ish to something more manageable given current priorities.  Also, reading this article in the NY Times inspired me to think about how much time I was spending in front of the screen, and how many other things just weren't getting done. I've been examining the areas in my house and thinking about how the technology there could be hidden.  The office is clearly out.  It's where my wife and I like to work, so the tech is just going to be there.  But in the rest of the house, we might be able to do something. In our master bedroom, we put in a new set of bookcases with glass doors.  I put the phone inside one of them, so I don't have to look at it.  I'd like to find a way to hide the stereo without killing the sound quality.  Growing up, my folks had these old, sixties-era console stereo systems, where everything was contained in a big, wooden cabinet.  I hinged top lifted to expose the tuner and turntable, and the speakers where "hidden" behind ornate wood and cloth panels.  I always thought they were cheesy as a teenager, but now I can appreciate the beauty of them.  I wonder if I could find an old one whose cabinet is in good shape and retro-fit a modern stereo with Cd player? Our bigger problem is the TV/DVD/VCR/Satellite receiver.  This stuff is currently in an open cabinet, and it's just plain obnoxious.  I want to find a nice TV cabinet that could hold it all, but with opaque doors that can be closed to hide it all. 12:09:23 AM