From my Netbook: Entry 1

Alright, so I am poking around Microsoft’s online store for the different Office products and discovered that there are too many options. This was one of the problems when Vista came out just a few years ago. MS needs to follow the K.I.S.S. principle when it comes to offering products. Aim one at business people with serious IT departments, one at smaller business groups with basic database needs and one at home/students with the basics. Word, Excel, PowePoint, Outlook and OneNote all should be included in the most basic level of Office. I can see losing Outlook, but don’t make two different versions of the software, one without Outlook and with OneNote, and one without OneNote and with Outlook. It is just a silly way to do things. Microsoft continues to try to push the envelope just a little more but they need to give their customers what the customers ask for. I would condense the Student and Teacher edition and Standard editions of Office into one edition. Well, hopefully they will do it in 2010. Here’s to 2010.

Christmas 2009

Got The Alchemist from Eldon and Meghann today. Well, didn't get it today, but opened it today. Looking at netbooks, seeing what Best Buy might have in stock.

As I keep looking I continue to wonder why people seem to think that these little laptops are hindered by the lack of a heavy optical drive. They are not meant for more than surfing, writing, and coffee house culture. The little boxes are meant no more than what the perfect computer for most Gen X's parents will ever use it for. Writing their friends, leaving inane comments for their children on Facebook, and keeping in touch as they learn to live on less and less.

To me they mean so much more. They mean home servers, wired housing, and everything that Gates, the two Steves, Linus, and many sci-fi writers predicted. They are ideal for students who need something other than the heavy duty laptop/desktop left in their room. Wired up rooms, houses you can monitor from home, your own little Big Brother. Beautiful baby, beautiful. It is a little machine I can take my D&D character with me, stop at a Starbucks and pull down my book from Dropbox or my own server, and can post my homework before I roll some twenties with my friends. When I started college this was what I was looking for out of a laptop. Small, light, good batt life, and able to keep up with my typing. Woo... sleep time now.

SW:RPG Players needed.

I have always wanted to play this with people. Most of the time, however, I cannot seem to find a group willing to keep going for longer than one or two sessions. People just don't seem to be that into the Star Wars RPG thing. I like the D&D group I'm in right now, but would like to run my own campaign. I would like to use the Dawn of Defiance setting as the over-arching storyline with some of my own adventures sprinkled within to keep the players busy.

Right now it is just a thought in my head. No players to speak of, and other than having downloaded the campaign and no follow up/replacement for players who drive without rails adventures this will remain on the whiteboard for a little while longer.

Worn thin

It is Christmas week now and some of the gifts are on their way. Just waiting for money to buy a netbook now. Feeling really spent now. Just sore and tired. The cold is really killing me.

Finished Cuckoo's Egg today

I finished Cliff Stoll's book today. Nothing a whole lot of special. Spent most of the post work period reading the book and looking up more and more information about whatever. Kind of boring lately, not a whole lot going down in my neck of the woods. NaNoWriMo didn't go off this year; didn't plan out the story as well as I wanted to have done. Got a few new ideas running in my head about it though so that should be interesting. Pouring over "Local" by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly. This is one of the most beautiful collections I have seen without it being a special collection. It's a wonderful trip through the world of a, well, let's call her a normal person getting lost in the world. There's probably more history to it than that, but I see little things in it that remind me of hipsters and music snobs. And things that remind me of me.

I just think that it is such a strange thing with the world lately. Green Day writes a concept album about growing up and finding your way, I hear a lot about late 20's children stumbling about and getting lost in the big cities, and mostly about just being a being. It is a little dark sometimes, and quite a bit off to me. I hear people my age talking about their IRA or 401k all the time. It seems like things people were talking about who were my parents age have trickled down and become things we talk about. And how left isn't left like it used to be, right is worse and don't get Bill started on the NSA and his crazy theories because you know that will kill your buzz faster than crashing into the snow bank ass first. I just keep plugging long here. I seem to not be the only one without the questions that can't be answered, but I seem to be the only one who still searches for those answers.

The question is posed of "Why are we here?". The answer is not quite what anyone wants to hear but the most basic standings are these two pillars: "We are here to reproduce" and "We are here to be good people". What the hell either of those means seems so damn arbitrary that I wonder if anyone really believes that or those are just canned responses to a question like "How are you today?" "I'm fine.". It amazes me where people end up somedays. I shall continue on in my little corner of the galaxy for now and dream of the better days to come.