krissyblog.com

No updates for a bit. Will resume sometime in March - lots coming up this spring and summer...

A slice of my desktop at present.   I have Weatherbug installed and, well, see temperature below:

Time for a game of "what's wrong with this photo caption?"

Riiight.

For those who want to read further, the article can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28617833/

That's right, 50lbs of ice melt! Big storm this evening...

Busy, busy, busy.   Lots of business travel coming up.   Will update as I can.

Back from all of my holiday travel.   Hoping to upload pictures, etc in the next few days.

Meanwhile, there is a storm on the horizon.  Time to pull out those shovels.

Snow!!

Jobs won't deliver the keynote at MacWorld in January.   In fact, Apple is pulling out of the show altogether after this year.

Shocking? Yes. Very.  I have a nagging feeling he may be in ill health and keeping a low profile.   I hope that is not the case.  

More from Time Magazine.

My Grandma is not doing well and although I know what is coming, I am very sad.  Here is a picture of my Grandma and Grandpa on their wedding day - Queens, NY 1946.

Brrrrr!! I cannot believe how freaking cold it is!!

Taking a brief break from the blog at the moment - things are crazy at work and the holidays are upon us. I'll try to post when I can but will pick up in full force in the new year.

The warm up turkey.  One of two.  The second will go on the BBQ tomorrow morning.

In Pennsylvania for the holidays - land o' Yuengling (one of my favorite beers).

Big scare with iPhone this evening.   I dropped the phone as I was getting out of the car with my hands full tonight.   I've dropped the phone before - not a big deal.    The thing has its share of scratches at this point.

I have it in a case, but it's a slip-on leather case and the point of impact as it hit the ground was right on the sleep button at the top of the phone.    Not only did it dent up the phone itself but did so to the metal casing, which then jammed the button down into the phone.

As a result, iPhone started to turn on and off because of the depressed sleep button.

In full panic I ran inside, backed up the phone to my Mac and began some really delicate surgery.   All I had was a pair of tweezers, a hair clip, a paper clip and sheer determination.   The lighting was rather questionable.

After Googling for how to take apart the iPhone I weighed my options (take it to the Apple store so they could sell me a new one, suck it up and get to AT&T tomorrow for an upgrade, try to disassemble and fix myself).

I decided to dive in.

Upon examining the phone, I decided the black plastic antenna case at the bottom was the place to start.   After removing the SIM card (I had no idea whether that was tethering front to back - and it's removable and delicate, so best to take it out first) I started around the edge of the casing.   After 10 minutes or so it popped off.   I continued the same procedure around the chrome rim of the phone, slowly prying the front from the back.  

20 minutes later there was a small pop (the phone was still turning on and off the entire time) and the two halves separated.   Joined only by a thin wire bundle, I was able to push the button back up so it was in its proper place.    After testing it by depressing several times, I put the casing back together and popped on the black antenna piece. 

The phone is dented near that button, so I wouldn't be surprised if it got stuck again at some point.   I'm on borrowed time with the phone as it is having been an early adopter (purchased in July of 2007).   

So I'll have to start researching my next move.   I like AT&T although most of my friends and family are on Verizon.   

Verizon now has the Blackberry Bold and Storm (their version of the iPhone) so I will have to read up on my choices.    After having an iPhone all this time, I do love it - but not so much that I will fly blind into the new 3G model. 

Given the holiday and my transit in the next day or two this is NOT the time for my phone to go!

So not on my diet but so good. Mac and cheese from Harry's. Baked right in the dish with crumbs on top. Mmm mmm.

Such a wintertime comfort food!

New themes from Google Gmail!   There are several.   This is the sidebar from my favorite.   It's called  "Pebbles".

It's a great idea to introduce a little something new - Gmail has been in "beta" since inception and things are a bit stale.   Their mobile platform is pretty good, but there is still no push email capability (e.g. to the iPhone) and the service is sometimes unavailable.  

OK, I am jumping on the PuppyCam band wagon - mostly because I had a streaming video of my own pets for many years (generally the birds - it's hard to keep a camera on Sprout and Rocco).

Based out of San Francisco this is a live video stream of 5 week old Shiba Inus:

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Wow.   Three dead in an office shooting just around the corner from where I used to work in Santa Clara, CA.   Reports say it happened in an office complex off Scott Blvd near Central Expressway.   That is within walking distance to my old stomping ground.

Very scary.   More from the Merc.

My company subsidizes the price of cafeteria items and it can be a pretty sweet thing sometimes!

My first childhood dog Arrow was born today back in 1976.   He was with us for 14 great years and I still miss the little guy.

Really?

BREAKING:  Maryland legalizes slot machines and early voting.   More at WTOP News.

There were three ballot questions for Massachusetts today.  Results:

• Question #1 (Income Tax Ban) - NO
• Question #2 (Decriminalize marijuana) - YES
• Question #3 (Ban Greyhound racing) - YES

I am utterly fascinated by the news coverage this evening.  CNN has already used some sort of hologram technology to image a reporter into the studio with Wolf and Anderson.

NBC, meanwhile, is making heavy use of their new virtual reality studios.    These are neat.   They look very large, but really aren't - and I assume there is little limit to how the graphics can be customized here.   Pretty fascinating stuff.    Chuck Todd and Ann Curry seem to be the subjects of choice for this new technology.  

Here's what it looks like without the graphics!   I assume the circle on the floor (which also shows, albeit covered with a graphic, in the actual shot) is to allow the talent to identify where they should be on the set.   We don't want Ann accidentally covered with exit polls!

Yep, I voted.   Time for a change.   A bit of a line, but nothing too crazy (there were plenty of lines in Boston proper).

The voting was decidedly low tech - a ballet, a booth and a Sharpie.    Connect the arrow to your choice.   I was #342 to vote for the day (at around 9am this morning).

Spending the evening with all night election coverage.   NBC and CNN are my two choices for news.   I prefer NBC simply because they have Brokaw and "Election Plaza".