Bob Thompson: Professional Customer

I was joking with the waitresses at a restaurant I frequent that I should introduce myself as "professional customer." Today was unusually busy for an ordinary winter day. I don't personally understand why it's as slow as it is in the winter. I guess people associate bar-b-q with summer time.

I've become friends with the owners and employees by virtue of the frequency of my visits, and all will gather at my table to chit-chat whenever they have the time. On busy days that amounts to whispering over their shoulders as they walk briskly past my table-each expressing anger or frustration with the other. I find it amusing, as long as they don't hurt each other. I'm like the reverse bartender.

Very Scary

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/20/first_brain_controlled_video_gaming_headset_unveiled_/

Hopefully this will be used for enabling technology. I feel strongly that we need to be careful about how far we advance technology. Computer chips, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering... Let's face facts. We don't know what we're doing, or what the consequences are. It's quite possible to end up in a Frankenstein, Matrix, or Terminator scenario as the technology approaches biological complexity.

Ode to Internet

The internet is like a stream of consciousness, but its not your consciousness, and it's less like a stream than a bog that you wade out into then get stuck.

Show Me Your Desktop

The power of the internet. I was reading Sarah Meyers' blog, who wrote about an interview she gave for someone else's blog, the topic of which was, "Show Me Your Desktop." Sarah asked for readers to post theirs. Here's mine.

This is my personal computer. The applications I use daily are Firefox. Yep, that's it. Boring. I use it to connect to my various emails, voicemails, calendars, chatters, etc. Top among those are GMail/Calendar, Yahoo! Mail, Meebo, and CommuniKate for business voice mail, email, and web conferencing.

I am a computer systems engineer, so at work I use Outlook, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Word, Visio, Excel, Access, Microsoft Management Console with a long list of snap-ins, and VMWare to build test environments.

No Business Like Snow Business

We're having our first big snow storm of the year. I'm at the office, carefully planning my commute home. Snow was more fun when I only worried about how long Mom would let me roll around in it before making me come back inside.

Do you hear that? No, you don't, do you?

I just fixed my toilet, which has been running slowly for the better part of a year. At first I pretended it was a relaxing fountain trickling in the background. It takes me a long time to take action, but I attacked that little rubber stopper with a fury.

Sunday

The problem with Sundays is that by the time I'm finished napping, all the stores have closed, everyone has gone home and I have nothing to do.