Take my survey!

I think that bloggers need a simple surveying tool to just have fun, non-scientific reader polls. It looks like everything out there either requires a lot of setup or is expensive, or both. So I'm making my own. It is very early in development, but I'll put it out there so you can give is a whirl. Expect more!

Blog the vote!

Guest blogger!

For one week only, I've invited Eian Counts to be allowed to make direct blog entries.

Eian, also known as "Korn," is a member of the Messaging team here at Microsoft, but he works for the other lead on the team. He has promised to "expose [Dave's] dark side, as soon as I figure out what that is."

Pen hat FEVER!

The trend is sweeping the nation!

Pen hat madness

I know I'm on to something, fashion-wise, because wearing a pen on your hat makes you look like a fool in addition to being kind of uncomfortable (especially if the pen is dangling in front of your eye). So in other words, just like high fashion!

It's cool to be "hip" like the "kids"

Since I'm never cool enough to be on the leading, middle, or even trailing edge of a trend (I'm more like the person still wearing a Member's Only jacket) ... I've decided to START my own fashion trend, which is wearing a pen on your hat. Be cool like me!

MRS DAVID V STEWART

Yes, that's how a spammer today addressed me ... "Dear MRS DAVID V STEWART" ... not only am I not a "Mrs." (I prefer "Ms.") but my middle initial is E not V ...

My other life

If you stumbled upon this blog while looking for stuff about Windows Mobile devices, check out the blog I help provide content on for Microsoft: Windows Mobile on MSDN.

Advertising works

Total ad revenue when I had ads on the blog: $4.42 ... it might be more profitable to devote my energies to having a garage sale.

Big blog changes!

By popular request, I have removed the ads and put back the office webcam. I also removed the "speaking weather" as it wasn't working (the software I use to update my weather station has a problem in that its text-to-speech settings don't persist properly, and I never remember to turn it on manually).

Digital Photo Workflow

I'm working on some software that will make remembering which settings you took when you snapped a digital photo much easier. It creates a copy of your picture with a semi-transparent overlay of camera data: Take a look.

Chili cookoff controversy

We attended what is now known as the First Annual Vargas Chili Cookoff today. It was great fun, with great food. Pictures here. The controversy: Garrett's chili was chosen as the best, even though it was a watery mess and not at all challenging to the sophisticated chili-tasting palette (OK, and it was also quite tasty ... still, we suspect bribery at the highest levels of the chili judging echelon).

Best travel site EVER

Try this! www.mobissimo.com ... read about it in Time magazine, just leafing through at the gym, and I'm glad I did ... I think it just saved me about 300 bucks on our upcoming trip to New Zealand!!!

Windows Laurel

The offical logo of Windows Laurel. And by popular request: Non-Windows Laurel.

Webcam woes

I had to take the webcam off the page ... my hosting service seems to be having a technical problem and is asking folks to logon to view the picture. That's not right! I don't have time to diagnose it now, unfortunately.

It sucked

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2 hours of boring, poorly edited footage. It is now 2:45 a.m. and I have a 9 a.m. meeting that is scheduled to last 3 hours ... I'll be peppy for that one!

Hunka hunka burnin' politics

We're going to see FatGuy 9/11, or whatever that movie is called, tonight at 11:59 ... first Seattle showing! I think it is an interesting topic, but Michael Moore is so good at making disappointing movies from interesting topics.

I'm a BLOG STAR

The head of our Microsoft Windows Mobile blogging effort offered T-shirts that said "I'm a BLOG STAR" on them for getting active in the Mobile blog community, so I did with this post. I've already changed into the shirt, which I'll post a picture of soon. It's my first time at Microsoft asking for XL instead of XXL on a free shirt -- quite a milestone!

Depth of Field

I've been playing around with "depth of field" on my new camera. This is a lot easier to experiment with on a digital SLR than with a film SLR, for someone like me who isn't very experienced and has tried both. The instant feedback is very helpful.

• Foreground
• Mid-ground
• Background

Good picture of Laurel, in high-resolution glory

One of the pictures I took of Laurel today came out pretty well (actually, a lot of them did, but this was the best) ... check it out here (warning: 3008 by 2000 pixels! ... but only about 588K ... the original "camera raw" image was > 5 megs, so this jpeg version might have some compression artifacts).

Water Taxi

We took a trip on the Elliott Bay Water Taxi ($2 or free with Microsoft's Flexpass!) ... it takes you from West Seattle to downtown Seattle and back. Here are the pictures to prove it.

In Beunos Aires, we dance the tango

We went down to Argentina tonight. You know, just a short hop on my private jet. Anyway, we went to this little steak place where they did the tango while you ate. See this page for photos.

New Camera!

I just got the Nikon D70, one of the hottest Digital SLRs on the market right now (had to go to two places in Seattle to find one in stock). I'll post some images once I take some worth posting (and hopefully that justify the cost of the camera ...)

Garrett -- a class act

Despite his incredibly bad taste in music, Garrett makes it almost worthwhile to sit through 100 of the worst songs you ever heard. Today he presented me with my "prize" for submitting the top song of the 100 ("All the Things She Said" by TATU at No. 8) ... a 1902 Morgan Silver Dollar. But it wasn't just a coin ... it is encased in a cool display case complete with hologram! I didn't even know they had holograms in 1902!

Every night is the weekend for Laurel!

We're out having (decaf) coffee -- on a Thursday night! Wow, we're out having a swingin' time at the Zoka coffee shop in Greenlake ... I'm living the dream of sitting in a coffee shop, sipping a latte, and trying to get wireless to work. Why do people put up with this stuff?

Dave's rules on breaking rules

Here is how I define the progression through just about any field of endeavor:

1. Novice: Doesn't know the rules
2. Amateur: Knows the rules but has trouble following them all
3. Pro: Knows the rules, can even start to bend them a bit when necessary
4. Genius: Knows the rules, breaks them, creates new rules, the cycle begins again
5. Jerk: Former genius who is just tiresome about it now

So why all that? Well, let's take the field of writing ... the rules being grammar, spelling, narrative structure, etc. David Foster Wallace was a genius with Infinite Jest ... but with Oblivion? Maybe starting to border on jerk?

I mean, come on ... even the most basic typewriter can create a paragraph indent ... it's called the TAB key, man, learn to love it!

Geez, I get it, you are a complex writer challenging the reader ... move on. Over-long paragraphs and sentences are so 60s.

Live in Seattle? Have a SPOT Watch? Want traffic?

If all three of the above are true, let me know and I'll get you the goods.

The Family Jewels

Laurel got a special little present for her last day at Microsoft (which is tomorrow). She said if she knew jewerly was invovled, she'd have quit months ago! (Good thing she didn't -- her last two months paid for it ... oh, the irony!) It's the tennis braclet, by the way -- the ring was a "special little present" in Hawaii for Christmas!

One other xword tip

I would never use this, but it could be helpful for a beginner. ;-)

My New York Times (or any, really) crossword puzzle solving tips

First of all, let's define what a real crossword puzzle is.

• Each space for a letter must appear in one across answer and one down answer
• No answer shall be fewer than three letters long

Most of your better crosswords in major daily newspapers follow these rules. Any puzzle that does not should be avoided!

OK, so the first thing most people do is go through all the across answers, then all the down answers. That's fine, but the problem is that you usually end up filling in so few answers with this technique that most people give up. I think its value is mostly to get you familiar with the questions and start letting them stew around in your brain for a while.

The real way to solve a puzzle is to work from the corners, switching back and forth between across and down, working on small blocks.

Don't be afraid to try answers, but do not get so in love with an answer that you won't change it -- if an answer in the other direction makes more sense but won't fit because of letters in your answer, then your answer is wrong.

Also, look for "the key" to the puzzle. Most modern crosswords, and especially the New York Times, will have special theme answers that are typically the longest ones and all related. If you can figure out the theme, you can start really filling in some squares.

Some random tips: Watch out for clues with question marks in them -- that usually means the answer is a pun. On the New York Times, definitely be on the lookout for answers that seems very obviously correct but just won't fit the space: For example, "Old phone company," three letters, first two are MA ... the answer should be MABELL ("Ma Bell" the old AT&T), but how to make it fit? Well, what if you used MA and a little drawing of a bell in that spot? When this happens, you can be sure that it is also the puzzle theme and will appear in a lot of answers. I find this the most challenging and annoying of puzzle tricks.

This Sunday's exciting NYT X-Word update

Well, we got really close this Sunday. With a lot of help from Laurel, we were only 1 letter off. Pretty darned close (it was a football reference that neither of us knew).

The Great Canadian Novel

I may never write the Great American Novel, but how about (aboot?) the Canadian one? I thought I had a catchy title ready to go: Canada from Eh? to Zed but it turns out someone already thought of that! Hosers!!!

Six Feet Underwhemling?

I liked the season 4 debut of Six Feet Under, but it was a bit disappointing after waiting so long for it. Hopefully, it will pick up as the season moves on. I like Peter Krause, but his over-the-top emoting made me wish for the days of "Sports Night" where every line was dead-pan and repeated three times. And toward the end of the show, I was wondering how many more scenes would go by before his face was magically healed -- I'm pretty sure it will be totally fine by the next show.

I won those razor blades!

Wow ... 100 razor blades for my M3 Power Razor. I can't wait to get them (well, actually, I guess I can, as I have a few weeks' worth of blades already). Got them for about $1.30 / blade, which is better than the best price I was able to find on the web ($2.48 / blade). Anyone know of any other cheap sources? Although -- I won't be needing blades for quite some time (and by the time I do, Gillette will have a new "must have" razor out, I'm sure).

Got a massage today

Ahhh.

Listening to "Not Your Stepping Stone" by Sid Vicious from the album Never Mind The Reunion Here's Sid Vicious

iTunes plays nice

Apple actually did something a little neat (and tricky) ... when you have a special plugin for Windows Media Player, it will allow you to add "now listening" information to blog posts. Apple seems to have added that to iTunes, as well. Neat!

Listening to "I Got A Girl" by Tripping Daisy from the album I Am An Elastic Firecracker

Watching the watchers

If you want to see who is looking at your blog, check out bStats (from Blogger.com -- it says you need to have a BlogSpot pro account, but you really don't; thankfully, since they no longer sell them) or SiteMeter (which is what I use to display the counter on this page). For subscriber information, check out FeedBurner (tracks hits to your Atom or RSS feed).

Listen to the weather

Another neat feature of Weather Display software ... it will generate MP3s of the computer's voice reading the weather.

Weather geek!

I've added a link to my weather station data. You can see the current high/low temp at my house on this page, or click on the graphic for more detailed information. Right now, my wind speed indicator is broken (need to climb on the roof one of these days and figure out why).

I'm using a LaCrosse WS2310 data collector, Weather Display software, and the Weather Underground website.

It isn't as complicated as all that -- takes only a few minutes to set up.

100 M3 Power Razor Blades

I'm bidding on a package of 100 blades for the Gillette M3 Power Razor ... you can't have too many!

My list of "Things You Supposedly Need in Times of War" (derived from George Orwell and not necessarily in this order):

• Razor blades
• Coffee
• Cigarettes
• Nylons

World Naked Bike Ride

The World Naked Bike Ride (warning: link not "work appropriate") is today in Seattle. Laurel thinks we should go (to ride in it), and I think we should go (to watch), but it is a bit chilly and gray outside right now.

We have our own offices at Microsoft

But the doors typically don't have locks. Nice sign, guys! That'll teach me to leave the camera on ...

Gotta get my money, gotta get paid

I was told today that for all my help on Blogger's development list, "Google should be paying you for this" ... and then I thought about it -- I always wonder why so many people would be willing to do software for free when it makes so much more sense to get paid for it. Examining my own motivations, I guess it was just "for fun" ... that's a bit sick. I definitely wouldn't do it for free (or for fun) if I didn't already have a job!

OK, you can have your photos again ...

They're back!

Some pix

But in other news, the office webcam is back online! Hello, world!

No pix

Looks like the site that hosts my PocketPC pictures is having issues, so I've removed it from this site so that it will load properly. I'll put it back when I can be sure of its reliability again (are you listening, snapnpost.com?)

Laurel's haircut

Laurel has a mod-rific new do.

This Sunday's New York Times Crossword update

This time, it was about 30 minutes and I only had one letter wrong. Close!

A tough call

Talking a lot about language today ... something related came up at work today. My team has to be extremely concerned about the amount of space we take up on a mobile device, as every byte counts (then again, you might as well use all that you have, or ROM space would be wasted). So, we're constantly trying to juggle things around to find the best fit.

In our latest effort to squeeze the jigsaw puzzle together, we realized that we were very close, but the last thing taking up too much space was a font file.

After pondering this for a while, I came up with a brilliant fix: Remove letters from the font until it fit! The problem: Which letters to remove? Obviously, we had to start with "wide" letters like capital W.

[By the way, the problem is real but the solution is a joke ... I hope.]

53 cents in my pocket -- cha-ching!

Click-throughs on the Google ads to the side of my blog page have so far earned me 53 cents. (Minus taxes, of course). Can't wait to go out and get me some bling-bling! Seriously, folks, start clicking those ads. You want a storm shelter or a razor, don't you?

And but so

Proof that the rules need changin' -- David Foster Wallace's compound conjunctions, most famously "and but so" (basically meaning what you usually really mean when you say "anyway" at the start of a sentence). We should just replace Elements of Style with Infinite Jest. No one reads either of them, and Infinite Jest makes way more sense, grammatically.

Anti-copy-editors

I found an interesting, and quite correct, rant against copy editors (I used to be one). I once did a similar rebuttal of Strunk and White's grammar standard Elements of Style, showing that every single "rule" in the book was incorrect. The funny thing is that although I do know the author of this piece is correct, I do still sometimes fall into the trap of thinking the things he complains about are "right" ... in the end, though, consistency in usage and clarity of communications are all that matter and are what copy editors should really get paid to enforce -- and the good ones do just that. Problem is, the good ones aren't paid enough to stick around.

Blog-mania

For the longest time, I thought this "blog" thing was pretty dumb. Why would anyone want to do this? What's so special about it? Isn't it "just a webpage"? I didn't realize how addictive it was, as one of my friends put it, to have your "every random brain fart broadcast to the world" ... anyway, I now have four blogs:

• This one.
• My "Find Dave" logs
• A test site for my Atom API work.
• A discussion site for the Atom API stuff.

My glorious voice

Why social networking?

Orkut, Friendster, Dodgeball ... what's the point of these social networks? They are only "cool" when you're the first one there, and only useful when everyone is there. But once everyone is there, it is obviously not cool. Ah, vicious. Still, given that failure is thus ensured, I know I want to be the first one there.

Other failures I predicted: Spreadsheets (massive miss), every web company (pretty close), Tivo (doh!), all of mankind (jury's still out).

Listening to "Would?" by Alice in Chains from the album Unplugged

Worst ... movie ... ever

The Day After Tomorrow ... just don't see it. The silly weather reports on this blog are more interesting.

It actually is funny

The new David Cross CD, It's Not Funny, actually is funny. Very funny.

Listening to "Certain Leaders in Government Look or Act Like Certain Pop Culture Refe" by David Cross from the album It's Not Funny

What I'm listening to (do you care?)

I've added a new feature to my blog posting tool, thanks to the folks in the Windows Media divison who created a fun little "blogging" plug-in for Windows Media Player, which you can download here along with some other neat stuff. By the way, this shows what I was listening to at the time I posted, not in "real" time, whatever that is.

Listening to "Back in the U.S.S.R." by The Beatles from the album The Beatles [White Album] Disc 1

Show them the money!

I've added context-sensitive ads from Google AdSense to the side of the blog -- scroll down and look right. Hopefully, soon they will be scanning the contents of this blog and giving you deals on Gillette M3 Power Razors and CDs from Tatu. Maybe even storm shelters, who knows?

I "won" Song of the Day!

The Song of the Day contest has reached song number 1 ("Something Wrong" by the Hissyfits -- I think something's wrong with Garrett's musical tastes, but that's beside the point). Because the song is a repeat on the list, and because no repeat can be submitted, my song ("All the Things She Said" by Tatu), which came in at number 8, is considered the winner. Add that to the many, many reasons to be thankful for Russian teenagers pretending to be lesbians to sell crappy dance music! I get a Morgan silver dollar valued at $40!

My Dad says that so-called legitimate news sources are reporting 138 mph winds!

Mmmm ... muffins. This was our team breakfast this morning (and into the afternoon). I can't have any because of my diet! They sure smell good, though.

Gustnado update: The Tulsa news stations say it is only 70 mph, not 100 as my Dad reported to me. 100 sounds so much better. But I guess 70 is still pretty damaging -- windows blown out at a local hospital and a roof blown off the airport!

More about my statement that folks in Tulsa don't have storm shelters or basements as many people who have never been there assume. Take a look at this poll from Tulsa's Channel 8 (ABC). 70,788 votes, and 81% of responders have NO SHELTER AT ALL!

The "gustnadoes" in Tulsa (is my Dad just making that word up?) has blown cars off the road, turned downtown into a "war zone" and has trapped folks in the elevators of the Williams Center, one of the tallest buildings in the midwest (and where I used to ice skate and almost ended up working -- thankfully got a job offer from Microsoft instead!)

Gustnadoes: Winds to 100 MPH ... yes, that's the weather report in Tulsa right now ... along with GREEN skies!!!

Pulled the boat out of the water (see this neat cameraphone pic of it) to get it serviced for the eventual new owner. This may have been my last trip as Captain Dave!