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CodePrairie .NET

South Dakota .NET User Group

I Hate Linux

August 2008 - Posts

  • Must resist urge to spend money...

    My favorite Microsoft product (Windows Home Server) is made successful not only through great software, but also through the availability of inexpensive massive hard drives (and plenty of them) and last month when Seagate announced their upcoming 1.5 terabyte disk... there were quite a few smiles to be seen as it was another sign of the importance of disk storage and how important a product like Windows Home Server is with effectively using it.

    <side note>... I really need to stop listening to the marketing folks don't I?</side note>

    Like many I'd been wondering when these bad boys would be coming to market and for how much... and today I heard it through the grape vine today that Seagate has gone on sale with their massive ST31500341AS's for an MSRP of ~$300... but it seems Amazon is now selling them for $215.99... oh so tempting despite my typical price point for buying HD's is ~$100-$120.

    As things sit today, my Home Server today has a nice 2.5 terabytes of disk space within (1x500gb & 3x750gb) and currently *only* have ~500 gigs free... I just may need to think about swapping out one of those 750's one of these weeks... oh so tempting.

  • Time for a potentially career limiting move?

    After a (sarcastic) discussion last week about how soon everyone would be work for me one way or another I came to realize that I've come to learn much at Microsoft, and in that time have seen gaps that I believe only I can properly fill and as a result I think it is time to lead... not just a small group of developers, a team or even a division... but the entire company... something that if unsuccessful will almost certainly be a career limiting move.

    With that in mind, I am announcing today my formation of an exploratory to explore the possibility of a bid for the office of President (and CEO) of the Microsoft Corporation.

    Sure I'm young and haven't seen and learned all there is yet... but why should that stop me? I'm young(ish), idealistic, full of great ideas and even a fairly good speaker, heck, I figure that if Barack Obama can serve 143 days in the US Senate and think himself qualified to lead the United States... surely I'm qualified to lead Microsoft after my 144 days of working in Building 43.

    Lets compare resumes:

    • Barack Obama was a community organizer
    • Brendan Grant is active in the developer community


    • Barack Obama will meet without precondition (but with preparations) with the enemies of this country in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries
    • Brendan Grant meet without precondition (but with preparations) with the competitors of this company in order to bridge the interoperability gaps that divide our technologies


    • Barack Obama has associated with people who hate America
    • Brendan Grant has associated with people who hate Microsoft

    • Barack Obama opposed the Iraq war from the beginning
    • Brendan Grant opposed Microsoft Bob from the beginning


    • Barack Obama supports universal healthcare
    • Brendan Grant supports ubiquitous computing

    • Barack Obama has been accused of playing the "race card" so as to defect criticism
    • Brendan Grant has been accused of playing the "it's not a bug it's a feature" card so as to deflect criticism

    • Barack Obama got his start on the mean streets of South Chicago
    • Brendan Grant got his start on the tough streets of South Dakota

    And that's just a start… care to help bolster my campaign? Can you think of any other good comparisons?

    More so... can I count on your support?

    </sarcasm>

    In all seriousness (no the above should not be in anyway construed as serious) at this point plenty are wondering "where is the similar comparison to John McCain?" (of whom I am not currently a supporter)… given that the Senator first began his time on Washington 1983… he has a few years on me in terms of experience and I figure I'd have to to wait about 16 years or 24 years before trying again (at least with the founding premise of this post)... though even then that might not qualify me for the CEO job as Steve Ballmer has been with Microsoft since 1980.

  • 200

    ...or "Two century club"

    ...or "longest 8 lbs ever!"

    My long running weight loss campaign has hit another milestone today with the scale telling me I'd reached 215 lbs, 200.2 lbs down from where I'd started back in May of 2006.

    Believe it or not... I don't mind it taking ~2 years to reach this milestone. I mind the fact that 3 months to lose the last 8 lbs to bring me to this point from the 2 year in blog post back in May.

    Why'd it take so long? Two reasons I see... first and foremost is that my body has now caught on to what I'm trying to do to it and where it is actively fighting back against me. Coupled with the fact that I keep having people putting good food in my face at work and me not always saying no... things have slowed pretty good.

    It's all good though... 200 down... 20 to go and yet another reminder I REALLY need to get into the gym and use the free membership I've got more than I have (twice in 4 months).

  • 200

    ...or "Two century club"

    ...or "longest 8 lbs ever!"

    My long running weight loss campaign has hit another milestone today with the scale telling me I'd reached 215 lbs, 200.2 lbs down from where I'd started back in May of 2006.

    Believe it or not... I don't mind it taking ~2 years to reach this milestone. I mind the fact that 3 months to lose the last 8 lbs to bring me to this point from the 2 year in blog post back in May.

    Why'd it take so long? Two reasons I see... first and foremost is that my body has now caught on to what I'm trying to do to it and where it is actively fighting back against me. Coupled with the fact that I keep having people putting good food in my face at work and me not always saying no... things have slowed pretty good.

    It's all good though... 200 down... 20 to go and yet another reminder I REALLY need to get into the gym and use the free membership I've got more than I have (twice in 4 months).

  • Maybe this state isn't so bad

    Those who know me know I haven't been overly thrilled with the Seattle area and what I've seen of Washington in general as it's just too big/crowded/busy of a place.

    The news last week of the Washington Governor being refused entry to a bar because she didn't have an id on her I had to have faith... yesterday though I saw/heard awesomeness.

    Back in South Dakota it was not uncommon to walk out of my house and hear cows mooing in the distance... this evening after I walked out of Building 43 I heard a sound in the distance I'd not heard outdoors in quite some time... bag pipe music and after a bit of exploration I found a 5 bag pipe players and 5 drummers on top of the building 41 parking garage... unfortunately moments after they saw me they quit so I left... but still neat to see.

    Today though, just before getting home to finish this blog post I saw something that swung things back into the bad column... while waiting to cross the last street on my way home I saw a maroon Toyota Prius with a large hammer and sickle emblem on the hood.

    I knew there were communists around here... but I didn't think many would be so bold.

  • Ooo what a savings

    The laptop I use today is a rather slow Gateway M275 tablet device which is really only useful to me as a remote desktop client to the faster PC in my second bedroom and when I got an email this evening advertising a great deal on a laptop I was interested... only to click to the page and find:

    image

    And after clicking on Special Price we see that price to be...

    image

    Ok... maybe that's not the stellar deal they think it is... I think I'll pass this time around.

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