Raible Designs

Forest Fires Hit Home

I'm the only person in my family that isn't a professional Forest Fire Fighter. Kalin (my sister) fought fires in Montana and Washington for a number of years before she opened Chelan Cider Company. My mom and dad have over 20 years worth of experience. However, this year, they decided to take a break. But that break will be short lived. A fricken fire is threatening the cabin! Well, not yet - but it's getting pretty fucking close!!

• Yesterday: Crazy Horse fire hits 5,500 acres; evacuations ordered
• Today: Condon-area residents prepare to flee

Residents in Kraft Creek, Glacier Creek and along Guest Ranch Road have been under an evacuation warning since Sunday, when Crazy Horse first blew up and ran across national forest and Plum Creek Timber Co. lands. It jumped Kraft Creek Road on Tuesday, heading toward homes a short two miles distant.

I used to catch the school bus at the end of Guest Ranch Road.

"It's disconcerting," said Christian Wohlfeil, owner of Holland Lake Lodge. "But we are not in panic mode yet - the fire hasn't crossed the highway."

We are (luckily) on the side of the highway that it hasn't crossed. I can tell my parents are professionals - they knew this was coming. They booked flights to the cabin a couple of weeks ago - but they're scheduled to arrive next Friday. My dad is ready to hammer their Subaru 11 hours to Montana at a moments notice - so stories like these might be the trigger.

I know they'll stop the fires if they get that close - but I might have to join them. It's like a loved one's life being threatened - you'll do anything to stop the attacker.

My Blunder of the Day

I woke up early this morning and put in a days work before noon. This afternoon, a friend and I drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming (1.5 hours north) to meet a friend from Nebraska for an afternoon of golf. Golf was great and we had a fun time. When my buddy dropped me off at my car (in Denver), I realized I left my keys in the golf cart. The problem? We only have one set of keys for the car I was driving.

Damn, I missed the DJUG tonight. Tomorrow should be a fun day driving to Cheyenne and back...

Using the T68i as a GRPS Modem

I got inspired by Russ's post and decided to try once again to connect my PowerBook to the Internet using Bluetooth/GRPS. I found an OS X GRPS HowTo on AT&T's site, and whaddya know - I'm connected 10 minutes later. Very cool - 29.8 KB per second (according to http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest). Hopefully, I'll never need to use this, but it's nifty to know it's there.

New Gig starts Monday

After searching and interviewing for the last few weeks, I finally decided on my next gig this morning. Phew - I'm glad that process is over with.

I've accepted a position with ResortQuest [quote] in Lafayette, CO (about 30 miles north of my house). They run a high traffic (I think) website for booking vacation rentals and own many local property management companies. Currently, it's written in Cold Fusion and I'll be helping them migrate it to a Struts-based architecture. They've already done their Smoky Mountain site in Tennessee, and now there's a big push to get the mountain resort properties done for the ski season.

I'm pretty pumped about the position - there's a team of about 10 and also a Graphics Design group. I've never been on a team with a Graphics Design group - so that should be awesome - no more worrying about look and feel, just coding. The commute might kinda suck, but most traffic is going the other way. Not being able to ride my bike to work will be a bummer, but none of my other opportunities had that either - so I can't fault them for that. One of the biggest perks is that they don't have a BYOL policy, and they've already got the machines in house, so I can hit the ground running.

Because I don't need to bring my own laptop, I will be returning the ZX7 today. Who knows if I'll get a new computer anytime soon - I don't really need one now. My newly installed XP box is humming along just fine, and all I really need is a DVD burner. Does anyone know if it's possible to buy/connect an external DVD burner to a PowerBook? Julie has recently got into iMovie video-editing and we'd like to burn these to DVD w/o buying a whole new computer.

New Patio Furniture

We bought some new patio furniture (a steal at $79 found by my penny-pinching lover) yesterday and I set it up this morning. Sure is nice to be outside on the ol' wireless network and writing this post. Yesterday was my last day in an office for at least a week - now if I can only find a way to wear shorts at work for the rest of the summer. Hmmm, that'll be a question I'll ask my next employer/client - "Can I wear shorts to work?" ;-) I think that's one of the best perks there is.

Laptop Issues

Today, my new laptop is trying my patience. So much so that I asked if I could return it (15% restocking fee, or 0% if I buy another system from them). The problem? The power cord quit working (it's been gradually dying), not to mention that the 802.11b/Bluetooth doesn't work and it feels like I'm packing around a desktop. Oh, and then there's the problem that every-so-often, I can't connect to the internet via a browser. I have IE and Firebird installed, and neither will connect. A flash, and then a "Done" status. I still have connectivity, proven by ping and e-mail, but no websites come up. What a pain - rebooting fixes the problem. Don't get me wrong, I love the performance and large screen - but only when I'm using it. Today it hasn't been useable - so it's just sitting next to me saying "look at how loud and heavy I am."

I called Hypersonic and I was impressed in how quickly I was able to talk with someone, though I was a little disappointed that they hadn't returned an e-mail that I sent last night (I called at 9 this morning, 11 their time). I told them that the powercord was dead and I needed a new one. They said they could send it out Monday and it'd be here by next Thursday. That's when I asked about returning it and now it'll be here tomorrow. This is actually the second time I've had to threaten to get something done sooner. The good thing is that it works - the bad is that they should just give me the overnight option since I remember that being a big plus about the company over AlienWare (I read it in a review or something).

The other reason I'm thinking of returning it is that I don't really need a laptop - at least not yet. I don't know what my next gig will be and if they will require a laptop - if they don't - I probably don't need it (except to save the marriage). What I mean is I don't need it for development, which makes me lean towards a new PowerBook (slow is OK sans development). Damn, I wish there was a 2 GHz PowerBook. Then again, refreshing my XP Desktop with a Sonic Boom doesn't sound so bad either.

Pictures you requested...

What a 3 GHz Processor will do for you

I finally got around to installing Java, Ant and Tomcat today, so here's some compilation numbers for you (from the new laptop):

• Running "ant clean package-web" on AppFuse: 12 seconds (vs. 2GHz/512MB Desktop: 18 seconds)
• Running "ant rebuild" on Roller: 24 seconds (vs. 2GHz/512MB Desktop: 36 seconds)

Now those are numbers I like to see! Does that mean that you get a 33% performance increase for every GHz of CPU you add to your machine? The annoying thing I'm experiencing today is that the fan comes on about a minute after it shuts off, and then it stays on. Not a big deal if I've got headphones on, but in cube land (where you can hear each other typing) it's kinda loud. I'm also growing to loath the mouse (same as PowerBook, but two buttons - yeah!) - just b/c it's a laptop mouse (solution: KVM)

In other news, tomorrow is my last day at Comcast. It's been great working here - awesome folks to work with, cool company, very cool project. I'm leaving a week early b/c I got a small contract to write a webapp for a company in Florida. It should only take me a week or so, and I'll be doing it out of Raible Designs' HQ, so it'll be nice to see the fam a bit more. After that - who knows? I have a few irons in the fire (as Russ would say), but nothing is final yet.

First impressions of the ZX7

When I bought my PowerBook, it was at a disadvantage because all of my comparisons where not only Laptop vs. Desktop, but also OS X vs. Windows XP. With this laptop, it's really just Laptop vs. Laptop. First impression of this thing - it's HUGE! The screen is awesome and it's tough to watch TV and work on this at the same time. I was expecting better resolution (1400 x 900 max), but it's good enough. The keyboard rocks - it's actually a full size keyboard! I keep making typing mistakes because I'm used to the (smaller) PowerBook's keyboard. Even better - it's got a keypad! I really like the plastic piece where my wrists sit. On the PowerBook, this is metal - and it quickly got scratched up from my watch. The speakers are great (the PowerBooks sucked) and I dig the webcam at the top of the monitor (though it's a bit dark - maybe it's just cause it's night time). I like Hypersonic's setup - very minimal as far as packaging. All the CDs are on the hard drive as well as in a small bag, which was enclosed in a leather (or maybe it's pleather?) carrying case.

Now for the cons. It's heavy and hot - both which I expected. You gotta install Java - both OS X and Linux come with it installed. The embedded wireless card only seems to work when I'm 5 feet from my access point. I have a couple of wireless cards, so I plugged one in and now I'm able to write this from my living room. Hopefully Hypersonic will be able to fix that. I kinda like the CD drive on the PowerBook better - though it can be a real pain when you can't get a CD out. The power cord has a humongous adapter-thingy on it - makes me long for the rather small PowerBook's cord. No NetNewsWire - good thing I still have a PowerBook. There are two folders on my C-Drive (with GUID-like names) that I can't delete. That sucks - I've been here before and never found a way to delete them (save re-installing Windows). Also, the lit-up keyboard on the new PowerBooks is a nice feature that I could really use right now.

Lastly, the performance numbers for opening Photoshop and Eclipse:

• Opening Photoshop 7.0: 5 seconds
• Opening Eclipse 3.0 M2: 5 seconds

Damn, not the performance jump I was hoping for. I'll post AppFuse and Roller compilation numbers when I get everything setup. Here are numbers to compare against the 2 GHz desktop I have at work. Am I happy with my decision? You bet - it's a wicked laptop.

A beautiful e-mail

From Julie:

your laptop is here. love you!

I'm starting to shake with anxiety! Today shouldn't be as bad as the day I received my PowerBook. It was January 2002 and there was an Apple conference where Steve Jobs was giving his keynote. I was worried that he would announce new PowerBooks, and I was going to return it if he did. So I had to sit there for hours with the un-opened box saying "OPEN ME". At least today, I'm stuck at work and I've got plans for most of the evening. Then an interview first thing tomorrow morning. The anxiety might be around for quite some time.