A waste of bits and bandwidth

It was far too quiet in the West End today. Thankfully someone had the foresight to send a pair of these to hover overhead all afternoon…

Lately, when I have returned to my plush, well-lit apartment I’ve noticed a faint yet distinct smell of an electrical fire. Hence the title of my last post. Yes, I’m clever and subtle at the same time.

On Sunday evening I was puttering around when I walk past my beloved PowerBook. There’s a dialog on the screen saying that Firefox had crashed. “Hmmm, that’s odd…” I dismiss it and go about my business. Later, I’m chatting with Biff when iCal crashes, followed shortly by Activity Monitor. “Dude, I need to reboot… brb…”

Well that was it; she wouldn’t shut down so I powered it off. I restarted and got to the Apple logo when my hard drive started to make noises. Bad, metallic noises. After a brief yet intense attack of hysteria, I slapped myself and got down to troubleshooting.

I got a utility disk with my AppleCare (so glad I bought that…) so I put it in and booted off the CD. All the disk tests made my hard drive sound like a washing machine full of bowling balls. At this point I knew it was all over.

I called Apple in the morning and they told me I could take it to Macstation for repairs. I was all excited figuring I could probably pick it up on my way home from work. “We’ll call you in a week…”

So here I sit, on the edge of my bed hacking this out. I miss my mac…

I have, at last count, 4 posts in various stages of completion. I think this might be the start of my personal blogging death spiral.

You know, this water situation is really starting to suck. The water that I boiled last Thursday had so much silt in it that it left mud in the sink when I poured it out. Actual mud. I was drinking that water all day at work the day before…

Since then, I’ve given up boiling water and started buying it. Me. The guy who looks down on people who buy water. Anyway, despite the pain of finding water, carrying it home and spending all that cash, I guess it’s all a bit of an eye opener. I used to keep water just for situations such as this. Then I moved… In any event, I’m sure this all comes off as pretty lame to people in other parts of the world. “You poor, fat westerner; better go buy a new TV to make yourself feel better”

It’s been snowing all weekend and I guess I should comment on it. Not like it doesn’t snow here every year but for some reason everyone acts like this is ‘crazy’… Granted, it’s unusual that it happened this early of course but come on. Not much to report downtown as far as I can tell but the ‘burbs are getting hammered. Serves them right…

Naturally, a snowfall warning means nothing to all the people who get in their SUV’s and head out for a day of shopping. Heaven forbid you forgo a day of shopping… Hence there are tons of accidents involving people who have little to no idea of how to drive on a sunny July afternoon, let alone now.

Hmmm… what’s it been, 2 years since I owned a car? Best thing I ever did. Odd that water is more than gas though…

CNN delivered this to my Inbox today: [tag]Britney Spears[/tag] files for [tag]divorce[/tag] from her husband [tag]Kevin Federline[/tag], citing irreconcilable differences

GIVE. ME. A. BREAK. Is this news? Apparently it is in the United States… Reason 7,234 that I hate celebrity. *delete* *unsubscribe*

In other news, Danno has been asking me to plug his bro’s site. One plug; sealed and delivered. Rob, you will now be exposed to the vast Sevenapril audience, consisting mainly of my mother, so I hope you are on a good server and can handle the load. If I my be so bold… Young man, might I suggest that you steer clear of ‘Juice’ and people of his ilk… You’ll thank me later.

So what else is going on? Hmmm…. Yeah.

The wife and I have been discussing nuptials; nothing much to report there. Not that we haven’t come to any conclusions, I just view it as kinda personal. This is why I enjoyed discussing the topic with all of my future in-laws as MiHwa furiously translated the conversation…

My [tag]Ubuntu[/tag] PC is working well though I still don’t have [tag]MythTV[/tag] working. MythTV is a supported package but there are bugs everywhere according to their bug tracker. I’m toying with the idea of throwing KnoppMyth on until it’s fixed but what are the chances that I’ll actually go back? I do miss my PVR… Check out Bug 1 in the Ubuntu bug tracker. Sweet…

Is it really required in this age of [tag]Web 2.0[/tag] that we share every facet of our online lives? Is the web a better place because everything is now [tag]social[/tag]? There are certainly advantages, but are you really all that interested in my calendar? “Well, he’s not very good at remembering when Lost is on…” “His girlfriend just had a birthday.” *yawn* Does it matter? Are our lives any better for it? An online calendar is a great tool but does it need to be shared?

Frankly, I’m really tired of Web 2.0 and social [tag]networking[/tag]. Don’t get me wrong, I love [tag]del.icio.us[/tag], [tag]30Boxes[/tag], [tag]Flickr[/tag] and even [tag]Digg[/tag] though the latter has been overrun by idiots so I don’t logon any more.

I think the problem boils down to the fact that no one has a decent idea. Social *buzzword* is the only thing that’s popular now, so there are hundred flavours of calendars, bookmarking sites, video services etc. Why does everyone rework what has already been done? You don’t have any better ideas? I know I don’t have any ideas but then I’m not working on a Web 2.0, social calendar, online wiki/dating bookmarking site with all sorts of fun [tag]AJAX[/tag] crapola, rounded corners and pastel colours…

Am I just being cynical or are there no good ideas left? Prediction: Web 2.0 will implode in the new year. If it lasts that long…