Prices on 2GB laptop chips have finally started to come down, and I just upped the RAM in my MacBook Pro to 4GB. VMWare Fusion is much snappier now, as is the rest of the system when it is running. Slickdeals has a link to a good deal today if you're looking to do the same thing.
This weekend, my mom is participating in a fundraiser to raise money to fight Multiple Myeloma, the cancer that my dad was diagnosed with last year. Please help her meet her fundraising goal by donating some money to a very worthy cause. The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation has a four star rating with Charity Navigator, and they fund research, like the experimental therapy my dad is now receiving.
Established in 1998, The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) is dedicated to accelerating the search for a cure for multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cell, is an incurable but treatable disease. As the world's number-one private funder of myeloma specific research, the MMRF has raised more than $60 million to fund 51 laboratories worldwide. Our tremendous investment has already resulted in significant advances in the field of myeloma, including pivotal research that contributed to the recent approval of Velcade, the first myeloma drug in more than a decade. Currently, the MMRF is funding 20 new therapies now in Phase I, II, and III clinical trials - such as Revlimid - that have shown promise in treating myeloma patients at all stages of disease.
We tried to watch Weeds Season 2 last night on my Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player, but the disc wouldn't work the second time we tried to play it, though it had worked fine the first time (though the menus were really slow). After much cussing, cleaning of the immaculate disc, and scratching my head, and rebooting of my player, I found this thread at AVSForum that indicates I'm not alone. Hopefully Samsung will fix this with a firmware update soon to fix this issue. In the mean time, I'll just be thankful that I rented the disc from Netflix, and I'm not stuck owning this turkey.
I spent much of the weekend playing through the new game Bioshock on my Xbox 360. Wow, what a game, and a work of art. It took me around 20 hours to play through, but I want to go back and do it again, as the choices you make in the game influence how the story progresses. I'd like to make a few different choices, and see what happens. What makes this game so special? Outstanding story telling (which is pretty rare in a video game), excellent art design, and game mechanics that let you play in radically different ways. Most first-person shooters are just that, you run around shooting things. In this game, if you want, you barely even have to use a gun.
The game is set in an art deco underwater city that was founded in 1946 by Andrew Ryan (Andy Ryan = Ayn Rand) in an attempt to create a utopia where science and art would be unconstrained by morality, government, and religion. Of course, things sort of went wrong...
I'd write more, but I don't want to give away any of the story, and it's very engrossing. Here's a blurb from IGN's review that sums up how I feel too:
But to call this game simply a first-person shooter, a game that successfully fuses gameplay and narrative, is really doing it a disservice. This game is a beacon. It's one of those monumental experiences you'll never forget, and the benchmark against which games for years to come will, and indeed must, be measured. This isn't merely an evolution of System Shock 2, but a wake-up call to the industry at large. Play this, and you'll see why you should demand something more from publishers and developers, more than all those derivative sequels forced down our throats year after year with only minor tweaks in their formulas. It's a shining example of how it's possible to bring together all elements of game design and succeed to the wildest degree.
Congratulations to Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan, two Iowa State students who became the first same-sex couple to get married in Iowa, during a narrow window today in which the Defense of Marriage Act was declared unconstitutional, but before a judge could issue a stay. Let's hope that many more couples are able to get married in the future.
Here's something I didn't know, apparently many Koreans (including doctors!) believe that if you sleep with an electric fan in your room at night, and the door is closed, you may die. Perhaps my wife is trying to kill me when she closes the door to lock our cat out at night.
I've tested this myth extensively, and I've found no evidence that I've died.
I had a headhunter call me today, trying to recruit for an IT position in Waterloo. I'm extremely direct when I get these calls, because most of the time, they're not willing to pay anything close to what I'm making now, or their benefits are laughable in comparison to the University's. They generally find me via a Google search of my resume because I match a number of their keywords. I've found that simply laying out what I make now (our salaries are open, as state employees) and saying that they'll need to beat that will get rid of most "recruiters" in short order, and today proved to be no exception. The job market for IT people in Iowa is tightening quite a bit, but there really are very few firms that are large enough (and pay well enough) to need someone with my skills, and most of the ones that do have stacks of people lining up to get in the doors, they don't need to have recruiters cold-calling people they find on Google.
My new mantra is that the only people who complain about Microsoft software are people who haven't had to deal with Oracle software. I've spent the last couple days attempting to install version 10g of their Calendar software, as we're currently running an ancient version. It takes real talent to screw up software this much. In version 5.4, you double click an .exe file and 2 minutes later you have a working server. Version 10 requires you to put the software on the web, as they've removed the handy GUI administration app, and replace it with...well... I'll let you know if I ever get to see it, but it's supposed to be a web administration app. I should have brought a book with me to work, to read in between updates from "Bob", the Oracle Support guy in India who's helping me.
My supervisor is moving away, so we're hiring his replacement. If you'd like to boss me around, and you meet these requirements, apply!
NECESSARY QUALIFICATIONS: Bachelor's degree plus at least five years of experience in network design and/or administration of large, complex switched wired/wireless network environment including VLANs required. Associate’s degree plus at least nine years of experience may be substituted. Working knowledge of Ethernet, TCP/IP, SNMP, 802.11a/b/g, and RADIUS also required. Experience with packet analysis, Windows 2003 System Administration, and policy development preferred.
The following plea is from my wife:
While in Fiji, we enjoyed a visit with the students and teachers at the primary school in the village of Tiliva on the island of Kadavu. The students entertained us by signing songs, and the parents Bokelman entertained them by making balloon animals (in between frightening them by loudly popping about a dozen). The school building has four rooms for grades first through eighth and serves about 120 students if I remember correctly. Students from outside the village spend the week boarded at the school. From the posted schedule it appears that they devote the entire week, evenings included, to their studies. The local guide said that while it is a public school, government support does not quite reach the smaller islands, and families are required to pay some form of tuition. While the students are polite, well-mannered, and seemingly eager to learn, their supplies and resources are slim--which is particularly sad to those of us who work in education and are familiar with the educational interest and devotion of most American students.
We'll be sending some supplies to the school, and we invite you to help us. You can send money to me via PayPal (hbokelman at gmail.com) or to 125 Oregon Road, Cedar Falls, IA 50613. I plan on sending a donation in addition to basic, consumable supplies like pencils and crayons as well as teaching materials that the teachers can use for the long term. Our travel books said that the Fijian people were the most hospitable people you'd likely find in the South Pacific, and our hosts proved that true. Please help if you can, and thank you!
