My Life and Code

Back before Christmas, I placed two orders with the official Star Wars Shop for some gifts, but only received the first order. Wondering whatever happened to the second one, I looked through my e-mails and found the following order confirmation (I've removed my name and address information): Dear (My Name), Thank you for your order from www.starwarsshop.com. This is your electronic receipt which you should save for future reference. Please make a note of your order number(s) located right before each address to which you have shipped. If you ordered a digital asset (e.g. a Hyperspace membership) please use the Digital Access Code under the item description of Hyperspace listed below. If you find any errors in what you ordered or in your billing or shipping address, please visit your order history at: shop.starwars.com/myaccount/order.xml?order_id=(My Order Number) We will send you a separate e-mail notification when your order(s) ships, complete with the tracking number for your pa...

I recently purchased a new car, the first I've had in 14 years. My previous car had reached the end, and I had no choice but to buy a new one. While I didn't get anything too fancy -- I didn't get a luxury car, or a sports car, or anything like that -- the new car does have Microsoft Sync, which allows you to do a bunch of neat stuff like sync up your cell phone via Bluetooth so you can dial and talk hands free, and do other things via voice commands. The voice command stuff usually works pretty good, but not always, and yesterday, I ran into a definite glitch: it wasn't recognizing any voice commands. At first, I was trying to use some of the stuff that I hadn't used before, but every time I issued a command, the Sync would sound the tone that means "I didn't understand that." Ironically, when it would offer suggestions on what I should say, I found it offering up the very same command I was trying to give it. I decided to give up on trying the new s...

Here's an interview with writer Harlan Ellison. It's actually the 3rd part of a longer interview, but it's this last part of the whole interview that I really liked. I can't say that I've read much of his work -- in fact, I've only read one of his books, and am still in the process of reading it. He's got a reputation for being arrogant, abrasive, and angry -- yet I find a lot of wisdom in what he says, and in some strange way, comfort. I do take objection with one thing he says in this interview, that being that people who do computer work aren't working real jobs or "honest work". He mentions people sitting on their fat asses typing into computers. With all due respect Harlan, there is some similarity between what you do and what I do: you sit and type at a typewriter to tell stories to people, whereas I sit and type at a computer telling it instructions. The end audience is different, but the experience of sitting there in isolation typing ...

Okay, so this is a little late, but still funny. The 1982 Tron Holiday Special from Rip Taylor