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April 28, 2006
Battlestar Galactica
Brad, Kat and I went to B.I. Sushi for dinner, and I went to their place afterwards and watched the first episode of Battlestar Galactica. I'd watched the mini-series a while back, and Brad has been threatening me with bodily harm if I don't acquiesce and actually watch the show.
The "sexy spice" blonde cylon played by Tricia Helfer (that's way to close to "heffer", I can't imagine she had fun with that as a child) - annoys me for reasons I can't completely name, as does the whining, self-indulgent, wimp-ass traitor/doctor/guy.
But I have to say, it's way lots better than, say, B5 was in it's first season.
By a lot, even.
Posted by dberger at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)
Starting to Look Forward
I realized this afternoon that I'm actually starting to get excited about the new gig. I've got a ton of questions, and I may drop Kathy a note to see if there's someone I can/should start exchanging mail with.
Oh, and have I mentioned that the commute worries me? Seriously.
Posted by dberger at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
That Meeting I was Expecting...
On Wednesday I had an hour-long conversation with the VP of HR. It went well, I think - I reinforced that my primary reason for leaving was a compelling opportunity, and that while I was using this pulpit to point out issues and challenges in the organization, that shouldn't be interpreted as the cause of my exit.
I told him most of the stuff I've recorded here, and some things that are politically too sensitive to post in any sort of semi-public forum. He took notes, and I suspect that the highlights will be distilled and passed on to the CEO.
Continue reading "That Meeting I was Expecting..."
Posted by dberger at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2006
Holy Crap that Sounds Good
I've been re-ripping my CD collection into Flac, I'm about 60 albums in (under 10%, this may take a while). On average, it's about 350M per CD.
But damn it sounds good. Even through the relatively cheap Yamaha speakers+sub-woofer I have on my computer.
Now all I need is a portable jukebox with 250+G of storage ;)
Posted by dberger at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)
Sometimes, The Music is Perfect
Today was absolutely gorgeous. I was on the 6:20 boat home, and I went up onto the sun deck and enjoyed the weather and scenery.
Just as the boat was making the final turn toward the dock, my jukebox shuffled to Billy Idol's rendition of Don't You (Forget About Me), from his Greatest Hits collection.
Standing on deck, wind in my hair, looking into the sun, I had a total Judd Nelson moment.
Cheezy, eh?
Posted by dberger at 8:59 PM | Comments (1)
So much for BMW of Bellevue
I've been having an email exchange with Richard Hard - an Internet Sales Manager at BMW of Bellevue, about our search for a lease return 3-series convertible.
Yesterday, he completely destroyed any possibility of earning commission from me, and insured that I'll continue working with BMW of Seattle.
Continue reading "So much for BMW of Bellevue"
Posted by dberger at 7:14 AM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2006
Always Good To Know
I got notes back from a couple of the folks at exbiblio.
Continue reading "Always Good To Know"
Posted by dberger at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
Tea Time
I've been really enjoying the Ginger Peach Tea Dawnise picked up from Market Spice.
Posted by dberger at 8:40 AM | Comments (0)
Done and Done
I just emailed the good folks at exbiblio; thanked them for their time, wished them the best of luck in their endeavor, and informed them that I won't be joining them.
And I called Kathy at Valve and told her I'm in.
Now on to the next major source of stress, figuring out how to tell my team. Ugh.
Posted by dberger at 7:33 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2006
I think I've made a decision...
Survey says...
Continue reading "I think I've made a decision... "
Posted by dberger at 5:38 PM | Comments (0)
Business Plan
Coz and I were chatting while driving around Vancouver this weekend, and hit on an idea for a business. It seems terribly obvious, but neither of us can find any evidence that it's been tried.
Continue reading "Business Plan"
Posted by dberger at 8:25 AM | Comments (1)
Slllooowwww...
I picked up a 250G drive from Tiger Direct and have started re-ripping my CD collection into FLAC. The "re-rip to end all re-rips," as they say.
I'm sorta disappointed that I'm only getting 6x real time extraction/compression rates - it seems I/O bound to the ROM drive, as the CPU is mostly idle, as is the destination drive. It seems silly that I can burn a CD faster than I can read one.
So far, with 20 albums ripped, the average on-disk size is 337M, so I might be able to fit my entire collection on this disk, but it'll be close.
Posted by dberger at 8:17 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2006
I Think I'm Approaching a Decision
Before leaving for Scott & Amanda's on Saturday morning, I drafted a thanks-but-no-thanks email to all the folks at exbiblio, and one to Kathy, Jay and Gabe at Valve.
I wanted to see which one "felt" right.
Continue reading "I Think I'm Approaching a Decision"
Posted by dberger at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)
Blame Canada
Yesterday morning Dawnise and I hopped the 8am ferry, made a stop at Pike Market for crumpets, donuts, and a quick run through Market Spice, before hopping on I5 North toward Scott and Amanda's.
We made one unscheduled stop at a Victory dealer at Dawnise's insistence to check out the Vegas. As Dawnise pointed out while I was dragging her bodily out of the dealership - "how many guys have to drag their wives out of a motorcycle dealership?"
We got to their place around 12:30, after a very brief delay at the border crossing, and found Amanda and Will waiting for Scott and Zoe to return from Zoe's dance class.
Continue reading "Blame Canada"
Posted by dberger at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2006
Lisa Stansfield
Despite a publicity photo that I'd kill my publicist over (the cover picture on her self-titled release is much better than the artist pic), you should check out Lisa Stansfield.
You might have heard the first track off Affection, which got some radio play in the early 90's, but I'm enjoying most of what I've listened to.
Posted by dberger at 2:51 PM | Comments (0)
One more down
The crack in door on the Microsoft opportunity has finally been closed - Mary Bresticker @ BINC gets full points; for professionalism, enthusiasm, and finally, for losing graciously. She took a ton of time with me on the phone to understand what I was looking for, and sift through the maze of possibilities within Microsoft to find an opportunity that was intriguing enough that I didn't reject it out of hand.
I think I'm going to deliver my notice this coming Wednesday. Now all that remains is to choose my destination and inform the two contenders.
Posted by dberger at 9:17 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2006
Stomp
Dawnise and I had been meaning to see Stomp since it premiered years ago, but had never actually bought the tickets. A few weeks ago Dawnise learned it was coming to Seattle, so we picked a night and bought tickets.
The show was pretty cool - worth checking out if you're into percussion or dance/choreography. We got home late, I woke up early, and I'm on the boat wondering how soon I'll be in the office so I can make coffee.
Posted by dberger at 8:15 AM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Now the fun begins...
I just officially told Brian and Edmond that I'm close to accepting a position outside the company.
Now they tell HR.
HR tells the CEO.
And I suspect I'll have a meeting appear on my calendar very soon.
Posted by dberger at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
Be Careful What You Wish For
The other day I had a vivid flashback to a time in '96 or '97, while I was at Disney, when I set a goal to be a"director" by 35. I then promptly forgot about the entire thing and just kept making what seemed like the "right" short term decisions, with little conscious thought to the long term.
So here I am, nearly 10 years later, 3-some years from my 35th, acting director of engineering at a public company, and hating it.
Be careful what you wish for indeed.
Continue reading "Be Careful What You Wish For"
Posted by dberger at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
Random Picks
Caught a couple of Crowded House tracks this morning. They're a generally underappreciated band - most people know their big hits ("Don't Dream it's Over", "Something So Strong") but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
On a completely different note, I've been really enjoying Ian Van Dahl lately. Vocally driven trancy dance tracks.
Check 'em out.
Posted by dberger at 10:32 AM | Comments (1)
April 16, 2006
Analysis Paralysis
I've got another conversation with Microsoft on Tuesday - I've already told the recruiter that I can't imagine what they could say to make them more interesting than the two front-runners , but they want to talk, so I'm willing to listen.
In the mean time, I'm stressing out big time over the decision. If I hadn't talked to both of them, either one of them would "clearly" be the right answer out of the conversations I've had. But I have talked to both of them, and I can't decide which of the two "right" answers is "righter."
Continue reading "Analysis Paralysis"
Posted by dberger at 5:08 PM | Comments (0)
V for Vendetta
After seeing the recently released movie, I picked up a copy of the graphic novel and just finished it. It was, as the critics of the movie were fond of pointing out, different from the film, but much like the Lord of the Rings adaptations differed from the novels, not everything different is bad.
Read it, watch it, make up your own mind.
Posted by dberger at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2006
The Plot Thins (again)
After sleeping on my conversation with Amazon, and letting is stew in the back of my head today, I've sent Rakhel a note saying "thanks again, but not this time." It's the second time I've given Amazon the brush off, and I can't imagine I've got many more chances there before they get annoyed, but my heart is pretty evenly split between Options #1 and #2 .
Posted by dberger at 1:14 PM | Comments (0)
The Plot Thickens
Last night I sat down for coffee with the VP and four of the managers in Amazon's "digital media" division. I went in figuring it was just a formality, and came out more intrigued than I expected. They're definitely doing some interesting stuff, though I can't quite shake the uncomfortable feeling in my gut. Amazon's a big company, and my gut's saying "smaller."
Continue reading "The Plot Thickens"
Posted by dberger at 8:06 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2006
Considering a complete re-rip/encode
I've got pretty much all my music in Ogg, and I have a Neuros portable jukebox that plays back all my content (had it for years). I've upgraded it with a 60G drive, of which 36G is free at the moment. It's functional, but getting long in the tooth, and a bit bulky, so I've been looking for it's replacement. (On the other hand, I got 12 hours on a single charge going back and forth from SEA to BOS - which amazed me. I didn't intend to not charge it, I just forgot to plug it in in BOS, and was pleasantly surprised when the music was still playing when I had to shut it down for arrival in SEA.)
I'd like it's successor to support Ogg (so I don't have to re rip and encode my entire collection), and I'd like it to support Microsoft's tethered DRM (i.e. Rhapsody ToGo).
This seems to be a mutually exclusive set (not surprising, companies that implement DRM don't tend to love OpenSource, and vice-versa).
So I'm trying to decide if getting a jukebox that supports tethered downloads is worth re-ripping and encoding 600-odd CDs.
I've thought about paying someone to do it for me, but at $1/cd, that's a *lot* of money. And if I do this again, I'm going to rip to FLAC so I can transcode across lossy formats without re-ripping, which makes it $1.20/cd.
What I really need is a CD-ROM jukebox, but they seem to run several thousand dollars (vs. a CD jukebox, which can be had for less than $200, but lacks CDDA extraction capabilities).
Posted by dberger at 1:29 PM | Comments (0)
Decisions, Decisions
I'm heading back over to the start-up this afternoon to have another chat with the founder and a couple other members of the team. There's all of 14 of them or something. It's very early stage, and it's very intriguing.
I'm also still actively engaged with the folks from whom I have an offer .
If I had to guess, it's going to come down to one of them. I'm meeting with some folks from Amazon tonight (a VP of something or other), but after navigating the bureaucracy at a 1000 person company, it feels like smaller is better. Hence I don't hold out much hope for the Microsoft conversation, either -- they're just too big (and, as much as I've tried to be open minded, I just can't shake the feeling that they're evil).
So let's try to talk this through...
Continue reading "Decisions, Decisions"
Posted by dberger at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2006
Job Hunting
Movable Type doesn't have a way to publish entries to "friends only", so I'm writing this as it happens, knowing that I can't publish it 'till after all the dust has settled - so by the time you see this, it's all old news.
Continue reading "Job Hunting"
Posted by dberger at 8:56 PM | Comments (0)
Voices you probably know, songs you probably don't
Picked up one of Colin Hay's solo releases: Man At Work the other day. You know Colin as the front man for Men At Work. There are a few alternate versions of Men At Work songs on the album (I really like his acoustic style) and several "new" tracks. Worth a listen.
Similarly, you might know Glen Phillips from his days as the front man for Toad The Wet Sprocket, but you may not have heard his subsequent solo work. I enjoyed Abulum, and recently picked up his latest release: Winter Pays for Summer. Listening to it on the ferry now, and so far, so good.
Posted by dberger at 8:10 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
Roku Number 2
A while back I mentioned buying a Roku SoundBridge.
I had initially put it downstairs in the room with the TV (and good sound system), but it turned out that Dawnise wasn't getting any use out of it down there. So (thanks to the fact that it's got builtin WiFi) I moved it upstairs into the front room, attached to an inexpensive Aiwa bookshelf stereo system. It got a lot more use up there, but every time I wanted to listen to music, I wanted to do it downstairs -- on the good stereo.
So I stopped into Best Buy yesterday and picked up another one. I had considered buying a SqueezeBox, but the additional $100, and lack of Rhapsody support, dissuaded me. I spent about an hour last night trying to get the RealSlim plugin working with SlimServer and Rhapsody 3, so we could mix Rhapsody streams and local content in play-lists, but didn't get any further than the rest of the folks who've tried.
I guess the best endorsement I can give a product is buying another one.
Posted by dberger at 7:14 AM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2006
Boston (III)
Woke up this morning at 6:30, and convinced myself to go back to sleep 'till around 8. Eswar had agreed to meet us for brunch around 10:30, and Tony suggested the East Coast Standard in Kenmore Square, so Edmond, Holly and I hopped a cab over, only to arrive and discover they had closed the kitchen between breakfast and lunch, and wouldn't start serving again 'till 11:30.
We walked over to Newbury St. and tried two other places - one of which sat us but didn't mention it was self-service (coffee and pastries only) 'till 11:30, and the other was serving but packed before Eswar's road-warrior training kicked in and he led us to a chain hotel (Marriott?) where we had completely unremarkable food and great conversation.
After breakfast, we went back to Tony's car and retrieved Ed and Holly's bags, before they headed off to find a rental car and visit Larry in Acton, Eswar headed off to pick up his son, and Tony and I headed for the Star Wars exhibit at the Museum of Science.
Continue reading "Boston (III)"
Posted by dberger at 2:06 PM | Comments (0)
April 7, 2006
Boston (II)
Our meeting this morning went well, and by 4pm we were in the Boston Museum of Fine Art perusing their modern art exhibit. Edmond and Holly thought it was weak tea, but I found several pieces I liked, so it was worth the price of admission for me.
From there we hit Harvard square and met up with Larry - another friend and sometimes colleague. Grabbed a few margaritas at a local Mexican place (now those were weak tea) and killed time before walking to Chez for our 8pm reservation. We were joined by Clark and Lisa, and dinner was fabulous. If you're ever in Boston (ok, Cambridge, technically) I can't recommend Chez highly enough. Really one of my favorite restaurants, period.
Tomorrow morning we have a brunch date at 10:30, and in theory, Eswar's going to join us. I'll believe it when I'm sitting across the table from him, but my fingers are crossed.
On a totally unrelated note, a friend from High School (one of the very few I keep in touch with) forwarded me a one-page Maxim article on another high school class mate (Noah) who was profiled as a successful entrepreneur. He's got a party organizing business in New Orleans, and is apparently doing well. Funny article (same Noah), bad picture.
Posted by dberger at 9:07 PM | Comments (0)
Boston
I haven't been back to Boston since the end of my tenure at OpenMarket c. 2001. (Gads, has it really been that long?) So sitting down in the bar at Chez Henri last night for a cuban and a periodista (ok, two) with Edmond, Holly, Tony and a surprise guest appearance by Gerald Hewes felt like a long delayed homecoming of sorts.
The food was (as always) awesome, the company similarly so, and to put icing on the cake we actually spoke with the man, the mystery, the impossible to get hold of, Eswar Priyadarshan who might actually have time for brunch on Saturday.
After dinner Ed, Holly, and I wandered back to the hotel and had a coffee and a scotch in the lounge, talking 'till just after midnight. I got to sleep a bit after 1, and was up at 6:30 this morning.
Continue reading "Boston"
Posted by dberger at 4:28 AM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2006
Fucking Baseball
Took me near an hour to get from my office to the ferry. All of a mile and a half.
Apparently today was the opening day for the Mariners - it was an afternoon game, and totally screwed up rush-hour traffic which, normally, you wouldn't really notice along my brief route.
This felt like the LA to (or from) anywhere crawl in So. Cal.
Blech.
Posted by dberger at 7:19 PM | Comments (0)
April 1, 2006
The Evolution of Useful Things
Just finished Henry Petroski's thoughtful refutation of "form follows function" in The Evolution of Useful Things (How everyday artifacts - from forks and pins to paper clips and zippers - came to be as they are).
Petroski's thesis is essentially that advances in design - for even the most seemingly mundane of items, is evolution spurred by (perceived) failure of the status quo. Further, he argues that if a multitude of designs exist for something as seemingly simple as a paper clip, the assertion that "form follows function" (which Petroski interprets strictly as saying that for a given function there is one "correct" solution) is clearly incorrect.
More interesting, though, than debating how many ways there are to skin a proverbial cat, the books examination of the evolution of items we interact with on a daily basis was thought provoking and enlightening to any who have interest in how the things around them came to be the way they are.
Posted by dberger at 12:06 PM | Comments (1)