On the way: 8GB CF card and CF to 2.5″-IDE adapter.

Total cost: $140 (I got the super-fast CF card)

This could be just what my aging mininote needs to be useful a while longer.

Stephen Brust just released his Firefly novel for free.

Stephen Brust is my favorite fantasy author, and Firefly is my favorite western-themed sci fi series by Joss Whedon, so a double win!

It’s pretty frickin’ nice. Once 3rd party apps start being released (SDK next month) I think I’m going to have a hard time holding off getting one myself. Why can’t anyone but Apple make stuff like this???

Dear Apple,

Please make a desktop machine that is neither a $3000 behemoth nor an unexpandable micro-PC. How about something in-between? If you do, I will buy one.

Your friend,

Andy

this is crazy…

c’mon Google, hook me up with some Gmail IMAP lovin!

In connection with getting an $80 power bill, I went around and measured all the electrical items in my office with a Kill-a-Watt, and it was most instructive.

In watts:

• printer (idle): 4
• Bass Pod Pro: 12
• Yamaha keyboard: 6
• Power amp: 24
• laptop: 20 (12 when screen off)
• NAS box: 48
• LCD: 48 (0 when off)
• Computer: 72 (5 when off)
• Behringer Truth B2031 speakers: 32 (32 also when “auto-off”)
• Linksys AP: 5
• Desk lamp: 40
• DSL modem and ethernet hub: 10

The big surprises for me were that the Bass Pod drew so much, as well as that the speakers drew the same power, even when “off”! I’ve been pretty lax about just leaving stuff on all the time, but it adds up.

According to my math, at $0.10/KwH, each watt costs ~7 cents a month. If I saved 100 watts, I’d save $7 a month, or $84 a year. Not bad. We also have a number of servers lurking around the house, and this shows how much those machines are affecting the power bill, too.

Jen, myself, and some friends went to see Smashing Pumpkins last night. Very good concert! Afterwards back at the car, we were approached by some other fans who has bought an actual PUMPKIN to SMASH at the SMASHING PUMPKINS concert!

Genius!!!

It smashed nicely. Alas no pics.

Other bands deserving the purchase of produce or other food item:
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
Phish
Depeche (a la) Mode
The Cranberries
Fiona Apple
Morphine
The Orb (any melon or round fruit)
Pink Martini
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Spoon
Tonic

I just accepted a position with Oracle, in their Linux group! I’m very excited. I’ll get to work from home on Linux, can’t beat that! I’m officially starting October 1.

For those of you who are last.fm users, check out http://lastgraph.aeracode.org

It takes a while to generate your graph once requested, but mine is done, from sept 2006 to sept 2007:

http://lastgraph.aeracode.org/graph/8238