Escaped Thoughts

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so here's the whirlwind update:

• My thesis is printed, turned in, printed again, bound, distributed to my committee, etc. I'm completely done with my Master's thesis (although I'll be doing a little bit more research, which will be nice without all the pressure).
• I finally went to Kentucky last weekend (notable exports: Laura, Bourbon). It was great to re-meet a lot of Laura's extended family without the distraction of it being our wedding. Plus, I got to meet some new people and make some new 3- and 4-year-old friends. The hills and the springtime were a welcome change from the flatness and barren trees we left behind in Ohio, and since spring arrived in Cleveland during our absence the return to Ohio wasn't as harsh as it could have been.
• I'm an actual Camino developer now, doing my part to make the world of OS X browsing a better place. I've wanted to get involved with free software for a while, so I finally decided to stop wondering how to go about it and just do it. It's very rewarding, working on software that I know a lot of people actually use, working with other developers, and learning Cocoa in a piecemeal fashion. You can expect to look forward to more entries about Camino than you'll probably feel like reading... maybe I'll get around to setting up categories here, now that I have actually categories of things to write about.
• I'd like to say "I'd forgotten how much I hate job hunting", but I haven't. It's about like I remember. Here's hoping it won't take too long to land a dream job (ok, a reasonable job) once I start applying myself to it.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: my iPod is still awesome :) Especially for long drives.

Category: Life

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So now that I have this iPod, I'm confronted with the challenge of organizing 1,000 or so songs in such a way that I can easily listen to whatever I want. I've never really given it much thought, since I didn't listen to much music on my computer, but suddenly I find my tiny set of playlists inadequate. It's funny how even with all these tags, it's still tricky to come up with a good organizational system. Maybe it's because my musical tastes are strange, and vary quite a bit with my mood and the alignments of the planets. How do I make playlists when I don't know what I want to listen to?

Basically, I need a musical TiVo that will learn what I like and make playlists on the fly.

Category: Geek

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Today is 04/04/04. I just thought that was cool.

Now back to your regularly scheduled weblog.

Category: Random

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Today Laura bought me 15GB iPod as a master's graduation present. It is, without a doubt, insanely great.

I was originally thinking of a Palm instead, but after my last Palm fiasco I did some research. It turns out that in the last two years they have apparently chosen not to address their issues of horrible quality control and horrible customer service/support. So basically, getting a Palm at this juncture looks about the same as betting several hundred dollars on a coin toss, which wasn't really what I was looking for.

Thus, the iPod. Most of what I want out of a PDA is the ability to check phone numbers and my calendar when I'm not at my computer, and the iPod gives me that, but from a company known for its quality and service in a good way. Plus, it's an MP3 player (which will be great in general and invaluable for our upcoming cross-country road trip), a 15GB firewire hard drive (in case I want to back up almost everything on my computer easily), and potentially a voice recorder (which is both really cool and solves a lot of the 'lack of input' issues). It also has the advantage of a clear, beautiful screen and a sexy case. On top of which it's tiny; I just can't get over the fact that it's this small, and it's not even the mini! Heck, even the box is awesome.

Oh, and did I mention the software integration? No? That must be because it was so easy, unobtrusive, and fast that it synchronized all my music, contacts and calendar practically without me noticing.

In conclusion, it's basically the coolest thing ever. Go buy one, right now.

Seriously.

Category: Geek

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