Raible Designs

Action Packed Week in California

Morning light on the Golden Gate Bridge
Originally uploaded by TravelnFotog

This week is shaping up to be quite the action-packed week in California. First of all, the MacWorld 2008 Keynote is happening today. This is the event where new Apple products are announced and everyone yawns. I hope they announce some interesting stuff, but I'm not getting my hopes up. The only thing I'd likely buy is a screaming laptop with 8 GB of RAM.

Tonight, there's a presentation on GWT at Google. Since this is only a few blocks from LinkedIn, I'm going to try to make the meeting and checkout the "Googleplex" for the first time.

Finally, tomorrow night a bunch of us are getting together for a Silicon Valley Tech Meetup at The Old Pro in Palo Alto. Start time is 6:30.

Snow White gets Molested

I walked out to Snow White on Tuesday morning to discovered she'd been molested by a thief. In other words, my stereo got stolen on Monday night. It was a fancy one too - navigation system, DVD player, XM Radio and many other bells and whistles. I filed a police report and reported it to my insurance, so hopefully I'll be able to replace it in the near future. For some reason, the perpetrator decided not to take the DVD player that powers the TVs in the backs of the front seats.

While the sounds system is busted, I was pleased to discover this evening that the DVD still powers the TVs and the kids' wireless headphones still work. This should make for a much easier ski trip tomorrow. With ski traffic on I-70, I've spent a lot of time traveling to and from the slopes on the weekends. We hope to miss the morning traffic by leaving early (6:30). However, they don't get out of ski school until 3:00, so we might be smack dab in the middle of the afternoon jam.

With fresh powder in the forecast, I think it'll be worth it. I just hope my knee holds up. I promise I'll go to the doctor in a couple weeks - after a few more powder days.

Bad Knee

The first time I went skiing this season (back in mid-December), I had a lot of pain in my left knee. It hurt tremendously when I'd get on and off the lift. It seemed to be caused by bending it. I tried skiing a bump run in the afternoon, but that hurt even worse and it took me about 30 minutes to work my way down Drunken Frenchman at Mary Jane. The next week, I went to the doctor and he said it looks like I have a cartilage tear. He said I could relax and reduce my activities for a month and I'd have a 50/50 chance of having to have surgery (notice that he didn't say should). Apparently, the surgery is pretty minor and I could be back in action in a week or so.

The rest of December, I stuck to blues and my knee quit bothering me so much. Even the powder day at Steamboat wasn't too bad. Earlier this week, I was able to ski 7 runs in 2 hours at Mary Jane - 5 of those being bump runs. So am I back in action w/o surgery? No, not really. I am able to ski blacks w/o too much pain, but afterwards it does tend to be pretty sore. Same thing after riding my bike to work or playing basketball.

What would you do? This is turning out to be one of the best ski seasons ever and I feel like I'm at 80% of where I could be w/o the torn cartilage. I feel like I can make it a couple more months, have surgery in March and be ready for mountain bike season in April. Am I putting my knee in grave danger or is it just a matter of handling the pain at this point?

The Wrong Day

Apparently, today was the wrong day to ride to work.

This morning when I rode to work, it was a sunny winter day. When I walked to lunch with some office mates, it was pretty nice out. Around 3 o'clock, I looked out my 18th floor office window and gulped - it was snowing like the dickens. Then I remembered that riding in the snow (or rain) always makes me feel more alive. When I unlocked my bike for the snowy ride home, I had a smile on my face. I wasn't smiling when I wiped out in Wash Park trying to take a corner too fast. Luckily, I didn't get hurt and made it home just fine.

A Weekend in Nebraska

This weekend, a college friend (Miller) and I hopped in his car and headed to Nebraska to visit an old friend. We went to college with the guy and he is appropriately named "Cletus". Friday night, we stayed at Cletus's girlfriend's house in Torrington, Wyoming. The highlight of that evening was going to the drive-through liquor store and ordering some Guinness. The guy working there looked at us a bit funny, but they did have it. We learned that up until last year, you could get a mixed drink at the drive-up liquor store and drink it on the way home.

After having a couple beers, we asked Cletus what the plan was for Saturday. He said he had to work in the morning and we could meet somewhere to watch the football games in the afternoon. I told him we wanted him to put us to work. He said he'd call us later in the morning and we could come out and meet him. I said I'd rather do it the right way and get up and start at the crack of dawn like he does.

The next morning (or rather 5 hours later), he woke us up, we had some black coffee and cough drops for breakfast and we headed out to Gering, Nebraska. The drive to Cletus's Feedlot was one of the highlights of our trip. When we left Torrington, it was dark and the Sun was just beginning to rise. The drive was 30 minutes and we got to enjoy one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen.

The smell of cow shit began in Torrington and didn't end when we arrived at Cletus's workplace. Instead, it proceeded to get worse, and stuck with us for most of the weekend (as it eventually ended up on our clothes). That morning, we started off by shoveling the snow and ice from the feeders. Then we fed some cows by driving through the fields and "flaking" off bales of hay. Next, we drove around the feedlot with shotguns and tried to scare off the black birds that were eating the cows' food. Our shot-to-kill ratio was abysmal. Then we helped Cletus shuffle the cattle around while he "scraped" their pens with a front-end loader. Walking around in 6" deep cow shit was quite the experience. To end the day, we helped "doctor" a calf that was bloated. This consisted of sticking a pipe down its throat, then shoving a tube through the pipe into its stomach. Miller got to experience the smell from the end of the hose and he's surely traumatized for life.

One interesting technology-related thing I noticed was how much they used wireless and laptops on the feedlot. The main office (or rather trailer) has a wireless network setup and they have laptops in various buildings that connect to it. These laptops were Dells running Windows (I didn't see what version) that used applications to track the cows (by ear tag). Within seconds, they were always able to find out the medical history of a cow and enter new data after they treated it. It certainly wasn't modern-looking as there was lots of dust and dirt on the laptops. However, it was interesting to see how they effectively used technology to track everything.

After working on the feedlot, everything was pretty much standard for a visit to Nebraska. We enjoyed some beers at the local bar during the Seattle game, took a nap and then headed to "The Pink Palace" for the best steaks in town (or so the locals thought). Following that, we played some pool at the "OT" and retired way too late.

Sunday we drove back and laughed at all the memories we created while in Nebraska. It was truly a fun weekend, one I won't soon forget.

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

Last year, I did an exhaustive year in review. This year, I don't have as much desire to spend hours writing a blog entry. Sorry - that's what archives are for.

The last couple of weeks, I've managed to spend 6 days skiing, enjoyed lots of time with family + friends and had a great Holiday Season. I'm also still having a blast being a dad. Abbie got a "She's a natural skier" on her report card from Ski School last weekend and I had an awesome 9" day at Steamboat with the soon-to-be-famous Jarvis Barton. Life couldn't be much better right now - especially considering my New Year's Resolution:

Ski more. Read more. Be Happy.

With any luck, Abbie and Jack will be skiing blues with me by the end of the year. Next weekend we hope to take the Ski Train to Winter Park. This will surely be one of Jack's favorite days ever.

Happy New Year Y'all!

It's been c-c-c-cold in Denver

Last weekend, it snowed about 6 inches on Saturday afternoon. Ever since then, it's been c-c-c-cold (as Jack says) in Denver. During the day it's not too bad (in the 30s), but at night it's been getting into the teens. Apparently, last night was one of the coldest nights of this winter.

With all the cold, my house has become considerably colder in spots - particularly the living room (with high ceilings) and my office. Both of these rooms have vents in them, but they don't work. I've known this for quite some time - ever since I had Central A/C installed in August. The reasons these vents didn't work -- I concluded -- was because someone has severed the duct work behind them. I was telling a friend this a few days ago and he mentioned I should check to make sure ducts existed before I had anyone come out to "reconnect" them.

Yesterday, I pulled 2 of the 4 vents and had a look. Sure enough - no ducts! WTF?! Whoever added the back addition onto this house (in the 70s) must've put the vents in both rooms to pass an inspection, and that's about it. I'm having a guy come out to install a blower on my rear fireplace today in hopes of getting more heat into both rooms. If that doesn't work, I'll be getting some space heaters. I'm tired of being c-c-c-cold in my own house!

On a related note, it snowed another 4 inches yesterday, so we now have plenty of snow in Denver and the ski resorts are doing awesome. In the last 2 weeks, I've received 4-5 9" reports from the ski resorts on the front range. Crested Butte has over 5 feet of snow in the past 7 days.

With all the snow, it's been nice having Snow White. I'm so glad I'm driving her around instead of my old Accord. It should be fun taking her into the hills for a little pow-pow this weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thanks for leaving such good comments on this blog and making the web such an enjoyable place to write stuff. Here's a Thanksgiving smile from Abbie in November 2003. Damn they grow up fast.

I'd also like to thank my parents for making the drive to Colorado from Oregon (via Montana). I've had a lot of fun with them in town this week. I'm looking forward to teaching my Dad how to play pool over the next couple days.

Related: Past Thanksgiving entries.

Introducing the Cadillac named Snow White

Today I completed something I've been hoping to do for a couple months now - I bought a new car! I started looking a few weeks ago and today I let Janet the Used Car Sales Lady talk me into buying a 2004 Cadillac Escalade. I was planning on buying a used Yukon, but took a fully-loaded one for a test-drive this morning and found it to be sluggish and kind of a rough ride. Since I like the look of the Escalade, I decided to test-drive one of those this afternoon. 2 hours later, I'd made a screaming deal that I couldn't pass up. I wanted the shorter SUV, but ended up with the longer one. Oh well, I went from a car to an SUV to get more room so I don't feel too bad.

The main reason I wanted to get an SUV (and a big one at that) was because I've found my Honda Accord to be too small to cart the kids around in. While it works, it's tough to pack any sort of gear (bikes, skis, etc.) with us. I know, I could have boughten a roof rack and taken my 12" subs out of the trunk to free up some room, but I was ready for a truck. After the Blizzard of 2006, I didn't want to get snowed in for days at a time. Also, the kids and I got Winter Park/Copper Ski passes so I want to be able to take them skiing a lot this winter.

Disclaimer: I realize this is about the least green thing I could do and I'm not helping the environment at all. My only justification is 1) I had a very low carbon footprint the first 16 years of my life growing up at the cabin with no electricity or running water and 2) I don't really drive a whole lot. I averaged around 7,000 miles a year on my Honda - having only 36,000 miles after 5 years. With this one, I'll probably drive it a fair bit this winter and hardly drive it at all next summer and beyond. By then, hopefully the Bus is done and I can cruise around town in the sweetest ride I've ever owned.

As for the name "Snow White" - that was Abbie's idea. We'll see if it sticks.

Update: I forgot to mention one of my favorite features - a direct iPod hookup. I can navigate playlists from the stereo in the car. The display is only limited to 8 characters, but it's a lot better than broadcasting over FM.

The last external hard drive I'll ever need?

Today I pre-ordered a 1TB LaCie 2big Network (2-disk RAID) hard drive. Looks pretty beefy eh?

Why did I get this? Because it's time to get serious about backup. I currently have 3 external hard drives and none of them are big enough to backup everything. I also tend to use them as alternative storage rather than backup. I'm running out of space on my Linux box ... the list goes on. In reality, you can never have too much disk space can you?

I have a 250 GB Lacie d2 that I'm using on my MacBook Pro with Time Machine. I also have a Lacie Rugged that I use when I travel. I try to backup before I go to do major things - like a training class or speak a conference. That way, if my laptop dies, I can use someone else's Mac and be good to go. If there are no Macs, I keep all my materials in Subversion. Lastly, I have a 200 GB Maxtor that I use as a backup on my Windows box.

My ideal solution is 1) each machine has its own backup hard drive and 2) each machine can store files on a central server. I used to use Samba on Linux, but it seems easier to use my Airport Extreme and a big ol' drive like this Lacie. What's your setup and/or advice?

January 30, 2008 Update: Because of the feedback on my post, I never purchased this hard drive. I still need a back up solution and I'm thinking of using Apple's new Time Capsule. If it works with Windows and Linux - I'm sold.