A Year in Reflection

I am reading all these posts on reflection on 2010 and accomplishments for this year.

Yes, I accomplished a lot for this year.  Lots and Lots of work stuff.  But I accomplished one thing that eclipses all else.

I have a beautiful family with an awesome wife and two beautiful kids.

Happy New Year everyone.  Well wishes for 2011.

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been particularly busy.

Been pretty busy lately with my two full-time day jobs at Sourcefire.  The good news is, if you are a Snort user, that I am working on a lot of things that will not only make our community better, but improve how Sourcefire interacts with that community and allow us to move forward in a more progressive manner.

Aside from Sourcefire/Snort stuff, the shop that is restoring my Mustang is almost done (should get it back this week, and when I do, I'll post pics), I'm working on the shops website too (as the old one needed some TLC).  I got with the owner and we decided to redo the whole thing, so I am doing that in my spare time as well.

Thank you Squarespace!

Also working on another website that I tighten up a bit (aside from tightening up Snort.org a bit as well) for another company (Car alarm company) that I do a bit of consulting/marketing for.  So, it feels like I am buried in html lately.

On top of all of that, my son is doing well, my daughter is awesome and my wife's Grandmother died this past week, so we are all dealing with that as well.

Busy Busy Busy.  Stay tuned.  I've got a few posts lined up for the pipeline for not only this blog but for another blog I am starting, so when that all comes together, stay tuned!

Why I haven't written

I haven't been writing recently.  Been kinda busy.

For those of you that haven't heard, my wife gave birth to our baby boy last Wednesday.

His name is Paul Esler.

Baby 2.0 picture

Enjoy.

Walking and Running Barefoot

Long ago, more than five years ago now, I was in the Army. I ran everyday, four and five miles, and I was a fast runner. My fastest two mile time being 10:26. Now, that speed isn't a land speed record or anything like that, but I say it to illustrate that I used to run a lot. Short and long distances, Honolulu Marathon of 2001 being the longest distance I ran. (26+ miles).

When I had my accident in the Military (an antenna fell on me), it hurt my back immensely and I thought I'd never have that kind of exercise (running) again. Hang up the shoes, I'm done running. It hurt to stand for 15 minutes, hurt to walk through the mall, how was I possibly going to get out on the road, or offroad and run again?

In 2008, after deciding that I was going to live on painkillers for the rest of my life, and I sure wasn't going to get metal rods placed in my back (the military's solution to my problem), I decided on a different kind of medicine. Chiropractic care.

Say what you want, but I swear to this day, it worked for me. I went to a Chiropractor for awhile, and he used a machine to adjust my back. Now, I am not sure how this machine is supposed to function, but I didn't really feel any relief in pain, I was still living day to day with the realization that I couldn't pick up my daughter and carry her around. That was rather disheartening. Eventually my Chiropractor said, "Let's do a manual adjustment". You know, lay you on the table and twist you like a pretzel until your joints pop, I guess, back into place.

Say what you will, but since the first day he did that, I haven't felt much pain anymore. Every once in awhile I'll that old familiar cramp in my lower back, at which point I'll go up, get adjusted, little massage, and I'm good to go. I probably go to Chiro about once every two months now.

Last year I decided to start running again. Bought me some new running shoes, ran 2 miles, was tired. You figure, I haven't ran, or walked a long distance in several years at this point. Next day I got up, and I was sore. Sore I haven't been in years. A different sore, a sore that you felt gratifying in being. Not sore because you were in pain, sore because you did some exercise. Those of you that are runners or lifters know what I am talking about. The next time I ran, I ran a little longer, and it felt good.

Recently, I've started reading a lot about the benefits of running barefoot, and I read several articles about special shoes that were designed to protect your feet against, things like, glass on the street and other items, but still mimic the barefoot running experience. One shoe I read about was the Vibram FiveFinger, and the other was the Nike Free.

I researched them immensely and decided to purchase the FiveFinger after a couple friends of mine recommended them to me. So, this past weekend I went to a store in Rehobeth Beach, DE and picked up a pair.

I wore them all of about ten steps, and my two year old saw them and exclaimed that she didn't like them. They were scary, she didn't like them, and to put them back in the box. Despite what my wife was saying about them (she really didn't care for them either), they scared my daughter. I can't have that, so I wound up returning them the next day, a bit let down.

Then I went and bought some Nike Free-s. Tell you what, I like the Vibrams better, for the short amount of time that I owned them, but I really like wearing the Nike Frees. Even for walking. It's nice being "barefoot" or even having that "barefoot" experience, all day.

So, as a rather recent edition to my wardrobe, I can't make a judgement call on them yet, but I will, and I'll follow up this post with an eval after I get more of a chance to run in them. But so far, so good.

Please leave comments below.

Walking and Running Barefoot

Long ago, more than five years ago now, I was in the Army. I ran everyday, four and five miles, and I was a fast runner. My fastest two mile time being 10:26. Now, that speed isn't a land speed record or anything like that, but I say it to illustrate that I used to run a lot. Short and long distances, Honolulu Marathon of 2001 being the longest distance I ran. (26+ miles).

When I had my accident in the Military (an antenna fell on me), it hurt my back immensely and I thought I'd never have that kind of exercise (running) again. Hang up the shoes, I'm done running. It hurt to stand for 15 minutes, hurt to walk through the mall, how was I possibly going to get out on the road, or offroad and run again?

In 2008, after deciding that I was going to live on painkillers for the rest of my life, and I sure wasn't going to get metal rods placed in my back (the military's solution to my problem), I decided on a different kind of medicine. Chiropractic care.

Say what you want, but I swear to this day, it worked for me. I went to a Chiropractor for awhile, and he used a machine to adjust my back. Now, I am not sure how this machine is supposed to function, but I didn't really feel any relief in pain, I was still living day to day with the realization that I couldn't pick up my daughter and carry her around. That was rather disheartening. Eventually my Chiropractor said, "Let's do a manual adjustment". You know, lay you on the table and twist you like a pretzel until your joints pop, I guess, back into place.

Say what you will, but since the first day he did that, I haven't felt much pain anymore. Every once in awhile I'll that old familiar cramp in my lower back, at which point I'll go up, get adjusted, little massage, and I'm good to go. I probably go to Chiro about once every two months now.

Last year I decided to start running again. Bought me some new running shoes, ran 2 miles, was tired. You figure, I haven't ran, or walked a long distance in several years at this point. Next day I got up, and I was sore. Sore I haven't been in years. A different sore, a sore that you felt gratifying in being. Not sore because you were in pain, sore because you did some exercise. Those of you that are runners or lifters know what I am talking about. The next time I ran, I ran a little longer, and it felt good.

Recently, I've started reading a lot about the benefits of running barefoot, and I read several articles about special shoes that were designed to protect your feet against, things like, glass on the street and other items, but still mimic the barefoot running experience. One shoe I read about was the Vibram FiveFinger, and the other was the Nike Free.

I researched them immensely and decided to purchase the FiveFinger after a couple friends of mine recommended them to me. So, this past weekend I went to a store in Rehobeth Beach, DE and picked up a pair.

I wore them all of about ten steps, and my two year old saw them and exclaimed that she didn't like them. They were scary, she didn't like them, and to put them back in the box. Despite what my wife was saying about them (she really didn't care for them either), they scared my daughter. I can't have that, so I wound up returning them the next day, a bit let down.

Then I went and bought some Nike Free-s. Tell you what, I like the Vibrams better, for the short amount of time that I owned them, but I really like wearing the Nike Frees. Even for walking. It's nice being "barefoot" or even having that "barefoot" experience, all day.

So, as a rather recent edition to my wardrobe, I can't make a judgement call on them yet, but I will, and I'll follow up this post with an eval after I get more of a chance to run in them. But so far, so good.

Please leave comments below.

What do the freshman know?

Every year, one of these comes out, where a list is posted somewhere on the internet of all the things that the freshman this year will not know, or do know, or will never know.  I always find this list very interesting, kinda puts things in perspective.

Granted I am not that old, but still, I have a kid, and I watch her grow up every day, and it's funny to realize that someday, there will be a generation of children that don't know what music stores are (like, going to the store to buy a CD), kids never knew what it was like to have to carry around a "walkman" (like a cassette, or a cd).  They will never know what the "command line" is.  Or having to switch disks to boot a computer and things like that.

Here is this year's list.

 Subscribe in a reader

What do the freshman know?

Every year, one of these comes out, where a list is posted somewhere on the internet of all the things that the freshman this year will not know, or do know, or will never know.  I always find this list very interesting, kinda puts things in perspective.

Granted I am not that old, but still, I have a kid, and I watch her grow up every day, and it's funny to realize that someday, there will be a generation of children that don't know what music stores are (like, going to the store to buy a CD), kids never knew what it was like to have to carry around a "walkman" (like a cassette, or a cd).  They will never know what the "command line" is.  Or having to switch disks to boot a computer and things like that.

Here is this year's list.

 Subscribe in a reader

A new podcast hits the airwaves

Last night Dr. Johannes and I sat down and recorded the first podcast of the Internet Storm Center.  Episode One.  The audio on my mic at the beginning is a bit low (I wasn't close enough to the mic), and Johannes's mic almost the whole way through was red peaking.  (I had him turned up too loud).  We recorded the whole thing over Skype, and I used Garargeband to master the sound.  It was pretty cool.  I am still learning how to use Garageband, so you might have to bear with me for a couple podcasts still, but I'm getting it.  In total there are about 8 tracks on the podcast, all requiring equalization and mastering, fading in and out, album art... etc.  So, it was kind of interesting.  

You can get the podcast through iTunes here.  (Hit subscribe, it'll download the newest one)  Or for you non-iTunes users, you can get it here.  Right now I only have it available in m4a (aac compression), but we should get the mp3 up very soon.  (I ran out of time last night, screaming baby and all)

On another note...

Paul of PaulDotCom and I were talking this morning about some potential podcast ideas, and we think we have come up with a good idea.  So those of you that are involved in podcasting about security, please start watching your inbox for emails from me/paul/johannes involved an idea we may have.  I know many of you read this blog either directly or through a syndicated feed, so, keep an eye out.

 Subscribe in a reader

A new podcast hits the airwaves

Last night Dr. Johannes and I sat down and recorded the first podcast of the Internet Storm Center.  Episode One.  The audio on my mic at the beginning is a bit low (I wasn't close enough to the mic), and Johannes's mic almost the whole way through was red peaking.  (I had him turned up too loud).  We recorded the whole thing over Skype, and I used Garargeband to master the sound.  It was pretty cool.  I am still learning how to use Garageband, so you might have to bear with me for a couple podcasts still, but I'm getting it.  In total there are about 8 tracks on the podcast, all requiring equalization and mastering, fading in and out, album art... etc.  So, it was kind of interesting.  

You can get the podcast through iTunes here.  (Hit subscribe, it'll download the newest one)  Or for you non-iTunes users, you can get it here.  Right now I only have it available in m4a (aac compression), but we should get the mp3 up very soon.  (I ran out of time last night, screaming baby and all)

On another note...

Paul of PaulDotCom and I were talking this morning about some potential podcast ideas, and we think we have come up with a good idea.  So those of you that are involved in podcasting about security, please start watching your inbox for emails from me/paul/johannes involved an idea we may have.  I know many of you read this blog either directly or through a syndicated feed, so, keep an eye out.

 Subscribe in a reader

Happy Birthday OSX!

Seven years old today.  Happy Birthday OSX.  March 24, 2001, Apple Releases OS X (10.0) Code-named Cheetah.  Remember those days?  I was to meet my wife (to be) a week later...  What is now the Apple Store in my local mall used to be a 5-7-9.  My primary operating system at the time was Redhat/XP.  A year later I bought a Mac.

Time flies.  Remember pre-OSX?   Now remember seven years ago... No iPod's?  No iPhones?  No Apple Stores?  

 Subscribe in a reader

Happy Birthday OSX!

Seven years old today.  Happy Birthday OSX.  March 24, 2001, Apple Releases OS X (10.0) Code-named Cheetah.  Remember those days?  I was to meet my wife (to be) a week later...  What is now the Apple Store in my local mall used to be a 5-7-9.  My primary operating system at the time was Redhat/XP.  A year later I bought a Mac.

Time flies.  Remember pre-OSX?   Now remember seven years ago... No iPod's?  No iPhones?  No Apple Stores?  

 Subscribe in a reader

I'm over it. (The flu that is)

Last week, I was in bed all week not eating, throwing up, drinking Gatorade, and running back and forth to the bathroom.  (So was my wife and daughter..  it was a sick household.)

But, everyone was asking how I am, so I just wanted to let you know that I am fine now (we all are, except for daughter, who has molars coming in now).  Thank you for your concern!

 Subscribe in a reader

I'm over it. (The flu that is)

Last week, I was in bed all week not eating, throwing up, drinking Gatorade, and running back and forth to the bathroom.  (So was my wife and daughter..  it was a sick household.)

But, everyone was asking how I am, so I just wanted to let you know that I am fine now (we all are, except for daughter, who has molars coming in now).  Thank you for your concern!

 Subscribe in a reader

Getting Things Done (GTD), Mutt, and Vim

I've Googled about 100 articles in the past couple days detailing how people best use Mutt to implement their theory of how GTD works for them. I found alot of good articles, but many implemented alot of scripts and extra headers, and tagging... yuck. Way too much!

The point of GTD is to make the world and your email in particular work for you, not you work for it. I don't want to manually have to edit a "X" header everytime I want to tag an email with "Defer" or "Reply". I want to just hit a one or two keystroke combination and be done with it.
The major point of GTD is to navigate through life easier, not have alot of things pending in your mind. Get it out of your mind and get it on paper, (or whatever) and be done with thinking about it. Just have it in a trusted bucket where you can store stuff.

So I have a different theory. First off let me preface this by saying that I do not keep my To-Do list and "Next Actions" list in Mutt. I use a VIM outline. This is an excellent way for me to keep up on how things are going with my actions simply by looking at them. I know what needs
to be done next, I know what things I am waiting on, all at a glance.  This is how I envisioned it.

My contexts are simple:

@home -- All the tasks that could be done at home, Cleaning the Garage, organizing the basement, getting the taxes together, being an awesome dad. You get the picture.

@work -- All the tasks that could be (should be, have to be) accomplished at work. Doing Timesheets, filing bug reports, answering email, talking with a coworker about a project.

@waiting -- Stuff I am waiting on someone else for. Do I need to ping them? No, but I reguarily review my @waiting list to make sure that people get back to me on items, and if they don't then I make a next action item to ping them back @work or @home.

@someday -- Someday/Maybe. All the things I'd like to accomplish someday. Clean out my Closet, Finish that Snort paper i've been working on.

@review -- Weekly/Daily tasks. This is usually the first thing I check. Things I need to do "today". If I need to do something on a particular day, I'll make an appt in iCal to do it. Nothing goes on the calendar unless it WILL get done that day. The Calendar is sacred territory. Then I make a reminder in iCal to alert me. Things I need to accomplish that are "next action items" in @home or @work, I'll simply say "check @work" in my @review list. Simple.

@phone -- Phone calls I need to make. These can be done anywhere.  Whenever I have a chance to do them, I'll make a couple phone calls.  Things rarely go in there because I basically loathe talking on the phone. I'd rather do everything through IRC, IM, or email. I keep records of stuff this way.

That's it. Under the contexts, if I have a particular project I'll indent it. For example.
@home
Clean Garage
-- Go to Lowe's
-- Buy Shelves
-- Assemble Shelves
-- Make time to clean Garage
-- Clean Garage

Simple enough. When I indent once, it's a project, any indents under the project are next action items. Now, next to the Next action items, I have lines. "--". Let me define my lines.

-- To do.
++ Cancelled.
\- Done
-> Deferred or assigned to someone else
?- Waiting on this.

That's it. No need to get tricky. Now I can easily glance at my list and tell what needs to be done, what has been done, and what I am waiting on.

KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid!

Now, for the other part. Email, mutt (or muttng -- which I use) and how I have it implemented.

Before I started the GTD philsophy, I used the folder method. You know the one.. "All email from Sourcefire goes in the Sourcefire folder." "All email from snort-users list goes in the snort-users list folder." What do you wind up with? A hundred folders! This isn't the most
efficient way to do anything. So I had to get away from that. I started thinking, what is the most efficient way of sorting email? I got a hold of a friend of mine Emory, and asked him what he did (he's a big GTD guy as well), and he gave me a couple thoughts. So I took his ideas, combined them with a couple of my ideas, and here we are.

I made 3 folders.
Archive -- Emails I have read.
Listservs -- Emails from Listservers, I don't read these as often and all the listserv traffic is put into this folder on the server.

Waiting -- Emails that I am waiting on someone else to get back to me about the contents on.

First thing I did was move all the email from all the lists under "listservs". Of course, I wound up with about 13,000 emails in here, but who cares? It's all in context and it will make more sense in a second.

Second thing I did was change all my procmail recipes (or rules) to instead of putting everything in subfolders of "lists", just dump it all in "listservs".
Third thing I did was get rid of all the auto-processing rules to sort emails by sender. I had rules in there, if they came from sourcefire.com to put into a folder called sourcefire. If it came from apple.com or mac.com, put it in apple. Too much. Put it all in the inbox. Pretty
simple so far.

The next thing I did, since I am going to have more email coming into my inbox now, is to have a way to easily process it. I wanted to be able to read an email, mark it, and know exactly where it is. "Hey that email from Billy-bob, is it in sourcefire? is it in snort-users? In defer? Where the hell did I put that". Spotlight on the mac makes this very nice, however, I am using mutt. So I needed a better way. Finally I came up with my answer. Macros. I wanted to be able to mash a key or two and have my email sort automatically after I get done reading it. So I made some muttng macros.
macro index,pager \e1 "<copy-message>=Archive\ny<delete-message>" "Save Message to Archive"
macro index,pager \e2 "<copy-message>=Listservs\ny<delete-message>" "Save Message to Listservs"
macro index,pager \e3 "<copy-message>=Waiting\ny<delete-message>" "Save Message to Waiting"


Now, when I mash "esc 1" the email is copied to Archive and marked for deletion in Inbox. No selecting the folder, no hitting "yes" no hitting enter. I just mash Esc-1. Done.

Same thing with 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. I don't have to change headers or anything. They are sorted by folder, and I don't have to worry about it. I use the sidebar patch (built into muttng) to see how many emails I have in each folder at a glance. If you use mutt and you don't use the
sidebar, I suggest a look. Very handy.

That's it. In my sidebar I have 6 folders. Now my workflow is simple.

Email comes in, do I need to respond, or assign it to someone else? Yes or No?   If yes, will the response take longer than two minutes. If Yes, file to Archive, if No, respond. If I do not need to respond file to Archive. If I need to assign it to someone else, forward it. If I need to
track it, the email goes to Archive and I create a todo in Omnifocus to track it until tracking is done, then it goes to Archive.

All listserv traffic goes to listservs. I check this a couple times a day just to skim through.

The spam folder is for spam (duh). And I get ALOT of spam. Fortunately for me, I have built some really bullet-proof spam rules in procmail and they do 95% of the sorting for me. However. Everyone once in awhile, a real email will get sent to spam (empty subjects, people who write in all caps, people who send me subjects with all Caps, or a whole bunch of "!!!!!").

I think this system will work for me. Let me know if any of it works out for you.

Subscribe in a reader

MacWorld, Sales Kickoff, and where I have been

This week I am in Annapolis with the entire of Sourcefire to hold our annual sales kickoff that we do once a year.  Good times had by all.  I get to hang with everyone, meet all the people that I haven't met yet, and generally have a good time.   We had a big meeting the other day when everyone was in the room together, and I looked around and said to myself...  "Who are all these people!?" So I can only feel how people like Caswell or Baker or Roesch feel.  

This is actually the first sales kickoff i've ever had the opportunity to attend.  The first opportunity was when Sourcefire was attempting to be purchased by CHKP.  Not everyone went to that kickoff.  In fact, I think I was working that week, I was in Florida or something.  Anyway...  The next kickoff, I wasn't able to be at either.  Reason being?  

My daughter is 1.  Happy Birthday pumpkin.

So, it's good to be with all my friends, put faces with names, and in reverse as well.  People come up to me all the time and say "Oh, you are Joel Esler?"  I don't know whether that's a good or a bad thing.  (Probably bad, famous or infamous.  Fine line.)

So, finally, this week was also MacWorld out in San Fran at the lovely Moscone Center.  Naturally, since most of the people I work with know that I am a big Mac aficionado, I am getting constant questions about "Did you see ____", "What do you think about ____", and "Are you going to buy _____".

So here's my take, a few current thoughts, a few future thoughts.

Steve Jobs said he had 4 things that he wanted to talk about, so we'll bring the 4 up and I'll talk about them in my own colorful way.

 1. Time Capsule -- A wireless (802.11n) access point with either a 500 GB or a 1 TB drive built into it.  This is a great idea.  I will probably be picking one of these up.  I really like the thought of being able to backup my laptop, desktop, and my wife's laptop to one Time Machine enabled drive.  Now, I can do that.  Future?  Apple will eliminate the separate Airport Extreme base station, Time Capsule will become standard, so they will have to rename it.  But they will build another feature into it first.  Not sure that that would be, I'll have to think about it.

2.   iPhone/iPod Touch updates -- The ability to rearrange your main screen icons, create new screens, create button launched web pages (web clips), triangulation with Google Maps, and multi-recipient SMS messaging.  I like this as well.  The ability rearrange my icons on the screen is nice.  All the apps I use highly are on my "home row" at the bottom.  Internet Apps on one screen, and the apps I don't use very much on another.   All of these are nice touches and I am glad that Apple did it.  Future?  They allowed us separate pages to get ready for the SDK.   People are going to have a ton of apps on these devices soon, so Apple needed a way to make room.

3.   iTunes movie rentals -- Logical.  The ability to rent movies from iTunes (instead of buying them), and further more, new AppleTV software so that you are able to rent movies directly from your couch.  Look ma!  I don't even have to get up to go to Blockbuster now!  Future?  This was a logical step, and I really hope it works out for Apple this time.  While the AppleTV in it's previous iteration was nice, even I don't have one.  But now, it's an enticing thought.  I don't know what the future holds for this, aside from the ability to purchase more and more movies.  Probably a 1080p refresh in a year or so.

4.   MacBook Air -- Ultrathin laptop.  Enough said.  You've heard about this by now, if you have seen any type of media in the past two days.  Now, this product makes for some really interesting futures discussion.  Future?  This is a test.  A test to see if Apple customers really will be able to handle life without a optical drive.  (And they will.)  Within a year, (probably next year's MacWorld)  Apple will do away with all optical drives on all their laptops, all the laptops will get thinner, and all of the laptops will get multitouch pads.  Now, as far as the touchpads are concerned, I am beginning to wonder, since we do some simple gesture based stuff in Leopard now (two finger scroll, etc) will you be able to do this kind of stuff on present MacBook's and MacBook Pro's?  Steve hinted at when it this technology was coming out, in February.  What else is shipping in Feb?  Time Capsule.  The iPhone SDK.  Since this is largely all controlled by software, in this case, Leopard.  Leopard 10.5.2 will be out in February, and it will be a huge update.  I could even see the ability to do multitouch gestures on our present laptops.  I don't think the laptops will get as thin as this one, however, after the axeing of the Optical drives on the laptops, there is nothing to hold them back from making it smaller.  So, that's my guess.

I think the stuff he introduced on Tuesday was useful and I like it.  What do you think?

MacWorld, Sales Kickoff, and where I have been

This week I am in Annapolis with the entire of Sourcefire to hold our annual sales kickoff that we do once a year.  Good times had by all.  I get to hang with everyone, meet all the people that I haven't met yet, and generally have a good time.   We had a big meeting the other day when everyone was in the room together, and I looked around and said to myself...  "Who are all these people!?" So I can only feel how people like Caswell or Baker or Roesch feel.  

This is actually the first sales kickoff i've ever had the opportunity to attend.  The first opportunity was when Sourcefire was attempting to be purchased by CHKP.  Not everyone went to that kickoff.  In fact, I think I was working that week, I was in Florida or something.  Anyway...  The next kickoff, I wasn't able to be at either.  Reason being?  

My daughter is 1.  Happy Birthday pumpkin.

So, it's good to be with all my friends, put faces with names, and in reverse as well.  People come up to me all the time and say "Oh, you are Joel Esler?"  I don't know whether that's a good or a bad thing.  (Probably bad, famous or infamous.  Fine line.)

So, finally, this week was also MacWorld out in San Fran at the lovely Moscone Center.  Naturally, since most of the people I work with know that I am a big Mac aficionado, I am getting constant questions about "Did you see ____", "What do you think about ____", and "Are you going to buy _____".

So here's my take, a few current thoughts, a few future thoughts.

Steve Jobs said he had 4 things that he wanted to talk about, so we'll bring the 4 up and I'll talk about them in my own colorful way.

 1. Time Capsule -- A wireless (802.11n) access point with either a 500 GB or a 1 TB drive built into it.  This is a great idea.  I will probably be picking one of these up.  I really like the thought of being able to backup my laptop, desktop, and my wife's laptop to one Time Machine enabled drive.  Now, I can do that.  Future?  Apple will eliminate the separate Airport Extreme base station, Time Capsule will become standard, so they will have to rename it.  But they will build another feature into it first.  Not sure that that would be, I'll have to think about it.

2.   iPhone/iPod Touch updates -- The ability to rearrange your main screen icons, create new screens, create button launched web pages (web clips), triangulation with Google Maps, and multi-recipient SMS messaging.  I like this as well.  The ability rearrange my icons on the screen is nice.  All the apps I use highly are on my "home row" at the bottom.  Internet Apps on one screen, and the apps I don't use very much on another.   All of these are nice touches and I am glad that Apple did it.  Future?  They allowed us separate pages to get ready for the SDK.   People are going to have a ton of apps on these devices soon, so Apple needed a way to make room.

3.   iTunes movie rentals -- Logical.  The ability to rent movies from iTunes (instead of buying them), and further more, new AppleTV software so that you are able to rent movies directly from your couch.  Look ma!  I don't even have to get up to go to Blockbuster now!  Future?  This was a logical step, and I really hope it works out for Apple this time.  While the AppleTV in it's previous iteration was nice, even I don't have one.  But now, it's an enticing thought.  I don't know what the future holds for this, aside from the ability to purchase more and more movies.  Probably a 1080p refresh in a year or so.

4.   MacBook Air -- Ultrathin laptop.  Enough said.  You've heard about this by now, if you have seen any type of media in the past two days.  Now, this product makes for some really interesting futures discussion.  Future?  This is a test.  A test to see if Apple customers really will be able to handle life without a optical drive.  (And they will.)  Within a year, (probably next year's MacWorld)  Apple will do away with all optical drives on all their laptops, all the laptops will get thinner, and all of the laptops will get multitouch pads.  Now, as far as the touchpads are concerned, I am beginning to wonder, since we do some simple gesture based stuff in Leopard now (two finger scroll, etc) will you be able to do this kind of stuff on present MacBook's and MacBook Pro's?  Steve hinted at when it this technology was coming out, in February.  What else is shipping in Feb?  Time Capsule.  The iPhone SDK.  Since this is largely all controlled by software, in this case, Leopard.  Leopard 10.5.2 will be out in February, and it will be a huge update.  I could even see the ability to do multitouch gestures on our present laptops.  I don't think the laptops will get as thin as this one, however, after the axeing of the Optical drives on the laptops, there is nothing to hold them back from making it smaller.  So, that's my guess.

I think the stuff he introduced on Tuesday was useful and I like it.  What do you think?

Merry Christmas

I have no entries for today.  Today is a day for spending time with family and friends.

Sorry to all those that are forced to work today.  Hopefully your companies make it up to you.  

It was my daughter's first Christmas, so she is really enjoying herself today.

Merry Christmas all!

Merry Christmas

I have no entries for today.  Today is a day for spending time with family and friends.

Sorry to all those that are forced to work today.  Hopefully your companies make it up to you.  

It was my daughter's first Christmas, so she is really enjoying herself today.

Merry Christmas all!

Daughter is fine

I have had a couple people ask me about the condition of my daughter, who had some minor surgery this week.

She is totally fine.  Little blood and pus still coming out of the ears, but it is MUCH less, and we are applying drops.

Thank you all for your concern!  I appreciate it.