Ayn, drop by for coffee anytime!

I took the Politopia Quiz and it generated the above map showing that I'm pretty close in philosophy to Ayn Rand. Duh.

My first iPhone app: Beacon

It's actually my third, but it is the first one I've finished ;-)

Beacon is an app that does one thing; puts your location on the web for others to view it. That's it. No muss, no fuss, no setup, and no buttons, even! You just start it, wait for the phone to get a location fix, and go do other stuff with your phone.

The neat thing about it isn't really the app that runs on the phone, but the "beacon" file that it creates for the web. It is in KML format, which means that sites like Virtual Earth (or even that other google maps thing) can read, for example, this link will show my very latest beacon on VE.

So you can click that link anytime to find out when the last time I updated my beacon was, and where I was when I did it. It isn't quite so good as constant tracking, but we're getting there.

My favorite commercial ever

You really can get anything on them internets, even this classic Target ad featuring the drummers of Cheap Trick and the Donnas.

Live and learn ...

The pen I bought at the Portland Pen Show was a total ripoff -- although I was happy with it until I found that out.

The guy had it tagged $50 and like a complete nimrod, I just handed him the cash and didn't barter, which I realized two seconds later I should have done (and which everyone else was doing).

Turns out, I still would have felt like a fool, unless I talked him down to $13, which is the price of the same pen, completely new, on eBay (and although this pen I bought was "never used" it shows some discoloration, most likely from being outside of its box).

Oh well, at least the ink I bought was a good deal, and I just had to buy something to justify the trip.

Still, this is all child's play compared with the $1000+ Dostoyevsky pen (or rather, full set, although I've seen that for sale exactly nowhere) and $400 pencil I want.

Pen show

Pen show
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

I really did go to the Portland Pen Show.

I left Seattle at 9 a.m. and got to Portland at noon ... which I thought was plenty of time before the 1 p.m. seminar on "Journaling" that I wanted to go to. Unfortunately, it was shifted to 11 a.m., so I missed it. Oh well.

What you see pictured is the (single) room where all the "action" was happening, with about 20 vendors showing off their various pens. I ended up buying a Harley Davidson fountain pen for $50 and a $6 box of ink refills for it.

Then I left and went to both Powell's Books and Powell's Technical Books, buying nothing, to my friend Traci and Clinton's house (they weren't home) and finally to Rose's Deli on 23rd for a great rueben sammich.

Then back home, which took an extra hour because of bad traffic in Olympia.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, best overheard quote of the day, at Powell's Books: "Don't you think it smells like BO in here?" Yes, yes, it does.

PENI5

I found out really late (but fortunately not TOO late) about the Portland Pen Show. I considered heading down to Portland tonight and getting a room at the convention hotel, but they are fully booked, so tomorrow I'll just head down I-5 on my motorcycle to check it out, hence the title -- what did you think it meant?

Certifiable!

That's right, I can puts apps on the iPhone now!

New iPhone -- or close enough for me!

I just got the new iPhone 2.0 firmware. Within minutes of the flawless update, I was able to enter my Microsoft information and within seconds was sending and receiving my work email on the iPhone -- finally, after a year, I'm able to do the one thing that I missed from Windows Mobile! The new iTunes app store is pretty incredible, too -- I predicted spending a lot of money on apps, but so far all I have are the free iTunes remote, the free eBay app, and the $10 Super Monkey Ball game.

Laurel and I have just been sitting here in wonder at all the little new things we're discovering on the phone as we go ... I'm thinking that the 3G phone can wait, now, but eventually I'll want the faster speed, better GPS, and extra storage. But certainly don't need that right away!

You miserable hippies

You miserable hippies
Originally uploaded by Seattle Dave.

Here's what so dumb about "green" (my least favorite color) -- we get new coffee cups at Microsoft and they are so ineffective at blocking heat that you have to use a sleeve, wasting even more resources -- wake up, recycling is bull****. Not only that, but our new spoons will melt if used to eat soup (or stir coffee). Wow.