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Interesting, but I hope he’s wrong. Here’s an alternate take: Apple WANTS DRM to die. As noted, they don’t make much money on content from the iTunes Store, and the overhead has got to be huge.
But, unlike Microsoft, Apple has CONSISTIENTLY kept their
links for 2007-01-11
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Can’t say I’m exactly disappointed with this one
links for 2007-01-10
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Conceptually, the Internet is a lot like the general-purpose computer. Here’s this little box, right, and it can do basically anything. Depending on what kind of program you load into it, it can be a movie theater or a movie studio. You can write a
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Why do I see this as absolutely essential for the living room?
Bummed
The iPhone‘s got a built-in camera.
Which means I can’t take it to work….
He’s not dead, Gym
In advance I’ve got to apologize to the woman who was doing crunches almost the entire time on the rowing machine – I did not mean to stare – I was looking at the TV in proximity to you. And, by all means, continue what it is you’re doing – it is working wonderfully.
In the spirit of my 2007 resolutions, I did not take my rest day lightly. At lunch, I headed down to the gym, and gutted out 2878 meters (15 minutes) on the rowing machine, and a quick 10 minutes of intervals (40 seconds spinning easy at 90 RPM, 40 seconds hard at 105-115 RPM) on the stationary bike. Plus some stretching, and the before-mentioned sightseeing (Again, I apologize.) All-in-all, a very effective cardio workout.
Though, the part that impresses me most is that I ended up with a blister on my left hand – clearly, life has been way too easy for me.
Susan in Dallas (not to be confused with Susie in Virginia) turned me on to Traineo – not quite sure what it does, but I think I’m going to give it a go as a public way to commit to weight-loss. It’s full of all kinds of Ajax-y goodness.
A couple of personal notes this evening:
First, I did a quick “StrenghtsFinder” profile today at the behest of my boss. it’s based off of the book “Now, Discover Your Strengths” – won’t link to it as I think they’ve got enough press. I don’t place a whole lot of stock in any of the “pop” leadership/management books, but the guy I’m working for does, and I think he’s a pretty sharp guy. So, I clicked through the survey, being as honest as I could be.
No huge shocks – my five strengths came out as
- Learner
- Ideation
- Activator
- Woo
- Responsibility
Actually, the “Woo” kind of took me for a loop – I did not think that I had much in the way of people skills at all, but “Woo” makes sense – I’m all about selling people on wild ideas, ‘specially if I’m convincing them that they should be the ones really taking the risks.
“Learner” was a no-brainer – show me something I’m not at least conversant in, and I can show you a credit-card charge later that week for an O’Reilly book on the subject. “Ideation” – likewise, let me read the book, and I’m hatching all sorts of “what-if” plans.
“Activator” – if there’s a group sitting on its duff, I’m incredibly impatient. Do something, don’t just sit there. And “Responsibility” – well, the description said that:
Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution.
Wow – talk about the story of my freakin’ life. Actually, this was a relief to me to read – even though I’m not a planner and have no real skills at execution once a project is started, my dad drilling into me “Ultimately, all you have is your name” seems to have stuck.
Now, to re-examine myself and see how to build on my strengths…
Second, I went and watched the first three quarters of the BCS game. I was on the OSU bandwagon, as it turns out that my wife’s Grandfather is not only an OSU grad, but an Engineer (I knew about the engineer part, but not the OSU part). I would have cried, but I got to watch it with a couple of friends in the Harp and Hound in downtown Mystic. There are few things better than a winter’s evening in a 200 year old pub where you can actually carry on a conversation and watch football.
Lastly, a huge and belated happy birthday to my little brother, Doc. He’s a good man.
Goin’ to the Dog Park!
Stopped by the Copp Family park on the way home from drill on Sunday to kick out the 2.5 miles I needed to make 20 on the Nike+iPod record for the week. Total mileage for the week was already over 20, thanks to a wonderful run with my lovely wife on New Year’s Day, but I’m dedicated to becoming a slave to corporate fitness, and haven’t been able to figure out how to hack miles back into the system…
Anyway, the run was fabulous – I could feel the successful week in my legs, a tiredness that I haven’t felt in a while. I went back through my logs, and I’m set to pass both my October and September running totals by the end of this week, barring losing the bubble completely.
Oh, and there’s an interesting message at the NikePlus website –
Due to increased traffic (we’re happy to see you are taking your New Year’s resolutions seriously!), we needed to temporarily shut down certain areas of the nikeplus site in order to make some changes and stabilize the platform for you. The site messages what areas are impacted. We apologize for the inconvenience but can assure you that your workout data is safe. So go for a run and revisit us shortly!
I can only hope it’s true! Wave to the new runners, everyone, flash them a smile, and encourage them to keep it up!
Keep in the spirit of the article Susie linked to – motivate by the positive, instead of using fear of fat/death/whatever…
Tale of the Scales
So, I’ve been noticing that the jeans I’d bought in the middle of last year were getting tight. AND I decided that it was time to step on the scale to see exactly how much damage I’d done over Christmas with Queso and cookies during the trip to Texas:
175, and that’s being charitable.
Uggh.
For the record, this is 8 lbs from my lowest weight of 2006, and at least 6 lbs heavier than I was this time last year.
What the heck happened?
The answer, amigos y amigas, is that I completely lost the bubble regarding watching what goes in my piehole. (Cakehole, jerkeyhole, candyhole, whatever) Chomp, chomp, chomp. No amount of running is going to deal with that.
So, come Monday, it’s back to the record book. Nothing in or out without recording it, and then doing a bit of calorie calculation.
Bluff Point
The upside, though, is that I had a wonderful run at Bluff Point yesterday evening. Instead of running the perimeter at the Navy base during drill, I headed south, parked the car, and spent 35 wonderful minutes in sticky, stinky mud, all bathed in the glow of a gentle twilight.
I love that the days are getting longer.
I love that the breeze still blows cold across the sound
I love that it’s 2007, and I’m on track for my weekly and monthly goals.
I love that I finally cleared my running blogs RSS feed. If I didn’t hit you, please drop me a line and I’ll stop by.
4 miles, 35 minutes. Tomorrow’s a rest day, by which I mean cross-training.
links for 2007-01-07
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Pretty cool tool
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Susie posted on this today – pretty interesting stuff on motivation. What struck me was one bit that went “…In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thou
2007 New Year’s Resolutions
OOOOK, Ladies and Gentlemen!
So, it’s 6 days late, and I haven’t had a chance to check on anyone else’s plans for the New Year. But, it’s about time to crank out a goals post for 2007 – But first, a little bit of
reflection
This is my third set of running goals. The first, in 2005 was too ambitious – I don’t think I was ready to tackle marathon training, and, even though I was ultimately successful in running the marathon in pretty close to goal time, 2005 almost made me a couch potato again. Although, looking back through those posts, I really cannot find anything that comes close to capturing the near depression I was feeling at the time.
Last year, for 2006, I did two – one back in November, when I was still going through “Denial” part of my post-marathon funk, and a better one in January, when I was going through “Coping”. For the goals in November – well, missed every one of them except for running New Haven. I’m at least 5 lbs heavier than I was then, didn’t run Bluff Point (I give myself an out on this one, since the Wife did, and our babysitter backed out), and didn’t do any of the Terramuggus tri series. For the resolutions in January – I think I finally lived up to “Fun” – I liked working out again by the end of this year.
advice
Seein’ as how I’ve been around the block with this running thing at least a couple of years (an infinity by internet standards), I’d like to offer a couple words of experience to anyone looking to get started this year:
- listen to your brain as much as you listen to your body. At least for the first couple of years, don’t completely devote yourself to a plan. setting out to run a marathon may be a great way to get started running, but not at the expense of a physical injury, or worse – a mental injury
- I cannot emphasize the mental bit enough – unless you’re in high school or college, you’re running for long-term health. Burning out and getting disillusioned is the biggest reason folks quit running. They may blame it on injury, but the mind is the easiest part to injur.
- Lastly, be ambitious, if that’s your style. Me? I like having a mountain to climb. My wife, on the other hand, just likes having a quiet half hour each day.
resolution
- Against my better judgement, I’m going to sign up for a fall marathon. Probably Mystic Places again, but I’m dropping an application for NYC. We’ll be up at Hartford for moral support – Missy’s thinking about doing the half.
- The fall marathon will be in support of either Austin or Oklahoma City in early 2008 with my little brother.
- Continue to maintain the 20 mile/week baseline until marathon training starts in May/June, but begin to add some cycling and swimming again. I do want to get back into triathlon, but don’t want to burn out again.
- Drop weight. I don’t drop weight if I don’t think about it. I need to start thinking about it.
- Start writing for CRN again.
XC Running
Meeting up in Northeastern Mass yesterday. Absolutely cool meeting – the company we were at is putting HUGE amounts of computing power into small spaces. My work on Monday is going to be to actually translate their marketing material into small words so that I can understand it. I really am feeling the need to go back to school – this stuff is completely cool.
The meeting was really close to Great Brook Farm, which is apparently a pretty decent place to XC ski. However, there was absolutely NO SNOW at the park, and temps in the 60s. So, I ran.
The run was great – not sure why, but probably because it was
- in the woods, and
- during work hours – it was somewhat on my way home from the meeting, but I still felt like I was playing hooky. I made up the time once I got back to the house.
But there’s something just absolutely great about running through the late fall/winter woods – the leaves were off the trees and had been off long enough that they were quiet while I ran through. The overcast and light fog in spots was great, as was dodging babies heads on the trails.
I didn’t run the entire thing – did about 2.5 miles running, walked for about a half mile, ran another 1.5 to get my 4 for the day, and walked another mile in a half.
In shorts.
In January.
In an XC Ski area.
Deene – stop hoarding snow.