FremLog

Description: Chasing a moving vehicle through deserted alleyways in the middle of a large city.
Status: Completed

Now, to work on movie inspired fantasy #3477: Catching previously mentioned vehicle.

I have a vague idea that I’m easily amused…

In what looks to be an extremely hypish marketing move, Microsoft is hosting an all-day Windows Vista/Office 2007 launch event in Dallas on the 21st. In exchange for sitting through a bunch of presentations about how Vista and Office are the best things since sliced bread, you get a free copy of Office 2007 pro and Groove.

Yes, I am a Linux advocate and such. Normally, I wouldn’t care about such things. However, this evening I recieved and email from the campus ACM chapter. Basically, if I apply and my application to attend is accepted, I get sponsored to go. This turns it into a completely different matter. Office 2007’s DOCX format, while technically an open standard, is currently only completely supported by Office ‘07, and I believe the school has plans to upgrade the labs in the near future. I am also a poorish student, and getting $500+ of useful software in echange for sitting through a day of potentially interesting presentations on Windows development is extremely tempting. As they say, “know thy enemy.” Worst case, it’s boring and I make notes about how much better Ubuntu is. Best case for Microsoft, I come back and blog about how l33t Office and Vista are. Rest assured, the latter won’t be happening, though though there’s always the wonderful chance that I’ve been wrong about Vista. I hope I’ve been wrong about Vista, for the sake of clueless desktop users everywhere.

I got my LeTourneau dorm assignment yesterday. I didn’t get my first choice, but it has a wifi network, a severe lack of communal bathrooms, and a lobbyish type thing, so I’m happy.

About the same time I obtained my UNIX book, I also received a suitcase. But not just any suitcase. The inside is padded, it has two locks, and the outside is covered in dull aluminum. If this case was in a movie, a gangster would be carrying it. And he’d like, put it on a table and open it, and it’d be full of guns or money. And then the cops would burst in, and there would be a big gun fight. It would be a long, hard battle, but the police would finally win, arrest the crime lord, and confiscate the case. Not for the money inside, of course, but because the police chief had always wanted a suitcase this cool.
Seriously, if I sent it though airport security, it would probably set off three different alarms. I’d be asked to open the case and then detained as burly officials speculated about the chances of my laptop being wired with a bomb.

I think I’ll line it with lead.

We went up to Massachusetts for Christmas, a 1100 mile drive. No, that’s not a typo. It takes like 18 hours on average. Between naps, here is a list of random things I observed and thought about.

• Why do so many people drive with their high-beams on? It’s really annoying.
• Stuck in a traffic jam in Virginia, I noticed a white limo with a custom license place that read “Brittney”. Was this the Brittney Spears mobile?
• We saw this car by the side of the road engulfed in flames. Apparently, it was on the local news. I googled it at the end of the journey, but could not find any info. I hope no one was hurt.
• TI-83+ graphing calculators make excellent portable gaming devices. Wizards, Bomber Kids, Final Fantasy (!), Cave, and Tetris were some of the highlights of my game collection this trip.
• You never notice how slow an old laptop is until you start surfing the net again.
• My new laptop case is dog hair proof. All those evil white strands just slide right off it. Good thing, too. Buddy (Our cocker spaniel) was sleeping on it for most of the voyage.

…Yeah, I slept a lot.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.