(Me? Not interested in iPhone 1.0. Maybe another rev or two.)

I’ve done it. I rode my bike through a bunch of still-wet asphalt in a street-paving project. Those tracks will be permanent, baby!

So, there you go. Granted, it’s not your handprints in the sidewalk in Hollywood, but it’s the best I could manage.

Also, my weblog has been receiving truck spam – “Dodge trucks cheap”, “truck parts”, that kind of thing. Is this a market for blog spam? I guess it is. That and a lot of internet pharmacy spam. Not so much porn spam these days.

Maybe it goes in a phases. Porn, then pharma, then trucks, then back to porn.

... can be easily summed up in this article.

The USA is fast losing it’s public spaces; the death of the downtown (to be replaced by the shopping mall) was just the first step, it seems.

Why wouldn’t I trust them? Let’s see…

Kneuer, who previously served with a Washington DC law firm representing telecoms companies, had fueled the crowd’s anger during a short Supernova presentation.

Oh, yeah. That’s why. Read the whole thing here.

Random life update:

I’ve managed to start exercising in the mornings again, to good results. However, I forgot that your lungs could ever feel like that. And to think I used to ride a bike all the time when I was a kid. Granted, I had a lot less mass to haul around…

We went to the beach this last weekend; the boys had a great time. It was quite a bit warmer and brighter than usual – the normal coastal fog was, apparently, elsewhere. The boys had a 18 month-old playmate who insisted on helping them, much to the annoyance of the dad and (I think) girlfriend who were trying to keep him under control. I wish them luck – the fact that he was unnaturally cute does not help them.

On the way there we came across a guy with his van decorated with a hand-painted plywood board that had the international “red circle with a slash through it” and the slash was through the word “Selfish”. On the othe side of the road he had a big sign which he held up and rotated; one side said “Come eat with us” and the other side said www.ideafarm.com.

What is IdeaFarm? Well, I’ve read the website and… I have no idea. It seems to be a rather odd social club of some kind. The promises of “A New Kind Of Computer” is, um, interesting. It certainly is different (says the guy with toe rings, day-glo anklets and who doesn’t like to wear shoes). There is also a YouTube video at the bottom of the page if you wish to hear the proprietor explain his ideas.

The end of the quarter madness is upon us at my job so I’m a coding and training fool right now. I can now work at home 4 out of 5 days, and as a result my efficiency seems to have improved… along with my attitude. Speaking of work, I have things to do so I’d best get to it.

I managed to reduce my mailbox from over 300 messages – many of them automated messages – to just 17.

Wow, that felt good.

For some time now I’ve been reading various web log postings about people having their computers searched by customs when they cross the US border.

We’re not talking about “please boot your machine so we can verify that it is a working computer” – that is perfectly reasonable. So is a sniffer test to verify that it isn’t being used to smuggle drugs or other items.

The issue is that border agents are booting the machine, having you log in and then rummaging around in your files looking for anything “prohibited”. At times they are actually confiscating the machine, copying the hard drive and returning the machine to you (usually weeks later).

This has finally reached the 9th Circuit Court; the EFF is (of course) involved, as are a few other surprising groups. You can read the Wired story here.

So, I managed to get some early Father’s Day gifts from my wife and sons. I guess they just could not wait…

First off is the Tri-Fold Wallet. I’ve been wanting to thin down my Constanza Wallet and one of the first things I need to do is make the dimensions of the wallet fit my jacket… and this fits the bill. PLUS… it’s a classic Father’s Day gift and, unlike a tie, it’s actually useful.

I also received a few books… Empire of the East and Ardneh’s Sword, both by Fred Saberhagen.

Generally speaking you can buy me almost anything by Fred Saberhagen and I’ll enjoy it.

I also received a Mont Blanc pen… sort of. You see, I love a good pen. I don’t really “collect” them, but I have a few that I consider to be very good ones, including a cartridge-based fountain pen. With some good paper (not the crap used in printers) it can be quite enjoyable.

However, I’m too cheap to spend $200 on a pen, even if it is a Mont Blanc. So, if you want a Mont Blanc, what do you do?

The solution is found here – in short, you take a Pilot G-2 Pro pen, along with a Mont Blanc refill and a little filing and… Tada! You have a pen that writes just as well as a Mont Blanc, but only cost you $15.

In my case I used my fantastic, not-plastic Gerber tool to finish the job – the Mont Blanc refill is just a bit too long. You can see the small bit of plastic I trimmed off in the lousy camera-phone pictures below:

So, I will say that the new pen writes like a dream. Thank you one and all.

Also, I received a bonus “Ruby on Rails for Dummies” book. The title is demeaning, but this series of books is very good – and when it comes to Ruby on Rails I’m certainly a beginner.