It's all about the Linux... Just do me a favor and read this article - whether your into Linux or not it's a fantastic read and sure to maybe open an eye or two. Dapper Drake - it's ON The 6.06 release was pretty tight (which is why I text-only installed that i386 v), and updates have been pretty much skeletal from 13 to 34 per 24hr rotation.  I can't imagine the GUI mods as being anything but cosmetic from her to 6.1.  Woo Hoo!!  This release is awesome, and if you feel like getting your Linux on, I highly recommend you visit this site. Metromix event at the Apple Store Ok - so the Metromix event at the Apple Store didn't quite turn out to be the nerd olympics that I had hoped it would be.  :\  No worries, there was vodka and pizza, so I gave my gluten intolerances the night off and had a couple slices of some really good East-Coast style pie from Piece.  Hilight of the night - seeing the new MacBook... in BLACK, no less!  Made me remember how cool looking those Wall Street PowerBooks were, but of course as soon as Tonya saw them all she could say was "gee, looks just like my PowerBook that you KILLED by spilling a Corona on it" which brought on all kinds of glaring and nasty looks.  Bummer.  But no amount of glaring could dampen my spirits, here I was let loose in my own version of Disneyland, free to run and play with all those Macs in whatever way I wanted.  Let the games begin! If you haven't been to the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue, it's really breathtaking.  Of course, it's no Fenway and by no means The Garden - but hey, any port in a storm. There you are, you!  Notice the pizza grease all over the case, what a shame.  It wasn't me, I swear. The new keyboard is really great, the keys are very reactionary and they look a heck of a lot easier to clean than the previous models. Of course, the glowing Mac logo still looks amazing from the back of the screen.  Totally reminiscent of the old G3's, and overall the black model feels like it's covered in some sort of neoprene, so it won't be as slippery as the old white iBooks were. And the built in iSight camera is TINY!  Oh, one other thing - the new magnetic closure is really cool, that actually got a big reaction out of Tonya too.  Her monitor clip on her PowerBook has been acting up lately, so she was glad to see that problem being addressed - and I tried out the magnetic closure, it stayed shut really well and was not too difficult to open up.  Overall, a great improvement! Luckily, there was an Apple Tech there that I got to talk to for a bit about the new MacBook and MacBook Pro - he was very polite and responsive, until I told him that I was running Linux on an older iBook as a test, and I wanted to know about installing X11 to run OpenOffice on my PowerBook - that kinda threw him for a loop. Maybe I'll wait till hardcore nerd day to bring up those questions next time. oh, that new Mac smell! So Tonya and I went to that Metromix event at the Apple store the other night, I've got some nice pics of the new MacBooks and I'll post about those in just a bit.  Seeing all those Macs though, reminded me of something... Rememeber the last time you bought a new computer - specifically, a new Mac? Me personally, I end up buying a new Mac about every six months or so for the studio, and no matter what kind of Mac it is, it's always the same feeling that comes over me... I turn into a giddy kid on Christmas morning everytime. :) First of all, no matter how fast you tell them to ship it, it's never fast enough.  You end up checking your watch like fifteen times an hour, waiting for the UPS/FedEx/DHL delivery that just seems to never get there.  And no matter when your normal delivery time is, they always miss that one and get there about two hours later, it's always well after lunch but early enough in the day to still have time to open the box RIGHT WHEN IT ARRIVES!  Holy crap, the anticipation! The box finally arrives, and you're like a surgeon opening it - precisely slicing the tape as to not scratch the box or poke anything inside.  You open the box and there's this "new Mac" smell that just can't be described - but it falls somewhere between a promotional plastic cup you'd get at a street fair, and a clean baby.  And of course, all you see is blindingly white styrofoam (it amazes me that Macs are so  the choice of the "hippie" artistic types, those of us that want to save our Mother Earth - and they come packed in enough environmental poisons and virgin printed matter that there should be an iLandfill outside of Cupertino). Beneath the layer on layer of styrofoam and glossy cardboard there it is - encased in one final thin styro-envelope, sealed with a sticker that asks you if you are completely sure that you want this new Mac... like you wouldn't cut off a finger at that moment if it was requested by the styrofoam gods, you've gotten so worked up into your new-Mac frenzy. And there it is... your new Mac!  In our studio, we've actually had heated discussions about who it is exactly that gets to push the shiny new power button for the first time - and the giggles of glee that come with the resounding first "Hello" of the new OS on your shiny silver friend (or white, or various other high-gloss color back in the day of the iMac).  Oh, the joy! About a year ago, I bought a new HP laptop.  It's got a 15" high-definition widescreen & came equipped with a P4 processor, a gig of RAM, a DVD burner, built in Harmon Kardon speakers & even has a remote control hidden in the PCMCIA slot - pretty pimp for a laptop, to say the least.  And I got it for right at $1000.00, just a couple months after I had dropped over three grand on my newest fully loaded PowerBook (long story short - I need both a PC and a Mac for the type of work we do here at fathead, makes going thru airport security a real killjoy).  The day it came I wasn't even in the office, I had scheduled meetings and didn't get back to the studio till late in the day.  When I got in, I was greeted with a plain brown carton sitting on my desk - at first, I didn't even remember having ordered a computer.  I got settled in and went to open the box, and was met with more brown cardboard.  There might have been some "new computer" smell, but I don't recall exactly.  I released it from it's corrugated shackles, put it on my desk, and waited until it was time to go home - at which point I booted into DOS, formatted the drive, and installed a new copy of XP Pro.  Ho-hum. Yesterday on ZDNet I read about this guy, and out loud called him a dork... but deep down inside I giggled like a little kid, wishing I coulda been there. the perfect night out - damm skippy! Tonya and I got invited to an event this evening hosted by The Chicago Tribune, and for those of you out there who know Tonya and I you have to know that this event was tailor-made for us.  Can't wait!  I wanna see this, and this, and these, find out a little bit more about these, then talk to a tech about why this is not working correctly in our cross-platform studio environment, and then find out more about this for a client that wants to do podcasting, but of course then I'll dork out and tell them about how I blanket wifi and stream music all over my house using one of these and a bunch of these, and then finally when I see these or these i'll probably start to lick them. That's how most of my trips to an Apple store end - with me getting kicked out for licking a monitor.  Go figure. today's quiz:  Which fathead has... posted above their desk? Another reason to love ska music!   We went to Wild Oats in Evanston today, to get gluten/dairy/soy/wheat free stuff for Griffin - and I stumbled across one of the best beers I've ever had, Pinstripe Red Ale.  Holy crap - this beer is awesome! Of course, I realize that beer is basically "gluten in a bottle" and Griffin would be highly allergic to it if her was of drinking age (he's four).  Therefore, the only logical conclusion I can come to is that he is not my son.  :\  Guess it's time to kick the FedEx guy's ass. NHL withdrawls  OK seriously - im a HUGE fan of the winter olympics, so don't take this the wrong way.  But i'm going thru "hockey withdrawls" here.  Sutton, you gotta be with me on this one.  Makes you think about the issue before the NHL about them not supporting the olympics past the 2010 games in Toronto. goin' to Red Lobster...  Guess how old I am today? 100 x 100 at In-N-Out? ICK All I ever hear from peeps from the west coast is that In-N-Out is the place to go for a good burger.  Then I read about the "100 x 100" that someone had made there last Halloween.  After reading this, I'll stick with my favorite spot, Candlelite. Remember to empty your trash!  Had to do a little server maintenance earlier this week, and here is a screengrab from said maintenance session... hint, hint  My birthday is February 6th. Chicago is not Kansas, Dorothy...   Sign in window of a little market about six blocks from our studio - click to enlarge LiveChat with AOL Service So we do a lot of internal testing on our sites here, and one of the things we do when testing is send e-mails from our sites to the numerous service providers around the web. You know, the biggies - AOL, MSN, Hotmail, G-Mail, Yahoo, etc. This requires us to keep e-mail accounts with all these service providers, that we only use while testing - so we don't use them all the time, and sometimes, we forget how to log-in to these accounts. This is what happened to me this morning, I forgot the password for my AOL account. Had to go to their LiveChat Support Desk. Here's a transcript of what happened... System Welcome gtomlinson ... 9:55:05 AM System Connecting to server. Please wait... 9:55:05 AM System Connected to server. 9:57:41 AM System MHI Dheye has joined this session! 9:57:41 AM System Connected with MHI Dheye 9:57:46 AM System Hello, gtomlinson. Welcome to Live Billing Support. My name is Dheye. 9:57:48 AM System gtomlinson stated the question or problem as: I need to retrieve my password for address gtomlinson@aol.com to check my e-mail on the web. 9:58:51 AM MHI Dheye I understand you have a password concern. 9:59:27 AM You I don't have the AOL software installed on my computer, and i am not going to install it - i just want to check my e-mail thru the web interface, but have lost my password - how can i reset that? 9:59:54 AM MHI Dheye Thanks for clarifying that. 10:00:00 AM MHI Dheye I can help you with your password concern. 10:00:08 AM You can you e-mail instructions to my alternate e-mail address on how to reset my password, or how to retrieve that password? 10:01:35 AM MHI Dheye To reset the password, sign off AOL. Select the screen name for which you have forgotten the password. Click FORGOT PASSWORD? You'll be returned to the Sign On screen the first time. Click FORGOT PASSWORD? again, then follow the onscreen instructions. 10:02:36 AM You ok, ill do that from another computer real quick 10:03:02 AM MHI Dheye Great.:-) 10:03:10 AM MHI Dheye I hope your most recent question/issue has been resolved. Is there anything else that I can help you with? 10:03:57 AM You nope - does not work. it says that i have to install the AOL software, which i am not going to do. That AOL software is not getting near my computer, no way.  I'd rather open an .exe on an e-mail that came from an AOL account 10:05:12 AM MHI Dheye I am sorry for that, you cannot reset your AOL screen name without AOL account. 10:05:15 AM You message says "to reset your password, please start the AOL software v 9.0 or earlier, select your screenname on the sign in screen and click the "forgot password" link 10:05:34 AM You dude - i HAVE an aol account, it's obvious. How else would i have logged into this chat window? 10:06:09 AM You i do not want to reset my screen name, i want to retrieve a lost password, or to reset a lost password - BIG DIFFERENCE 10:06:40 AM MHI Dheye Do you want me to reset your screen name password? 10:07:26 AM You YES, that would be wonderful 10:07:38 AM MHI Dheye What screen name would you like to have the password reset on? 10:07:55 AM You gtomlinson 10:08:37 AM MHI Dheye In order to reset your password, and to protect your privacy and security, I need to verify your account information. Can you please provide me your full name and the possible answer to the ASQ of the Primary Master Screen Name? Here is the question: 10:08:45 AM MHI Dheye what is your mother's madien name? 10:10:11 AM You my full name is Gregg Tomlinson, and my mother's maiden name is XXXXXX 10:11:46 AM MHI Dheye I apologize; however, the answer to the Account Security Question you have given me does not match what we have on record. Could you have changed it recently? 10:13:13 AM You my mother's maiden name could not have been changed - that would not be possible without the invention of a time machine 10:13:33 AM You my mother's maiden name is XXXXXX 10:13:55 AM You I met her parents, im sure of it :) My Nana made really great biscotti. 10:14:30 AM MHI Dheye OK, since you are unable to verify your account using that method, let's try another means of verifying your account. 10:14:34 AM MHI Dheye In order to reset your password and to protect your privacy and security, I need to verify your account information. Can you please provide me your full name and the last four digits of the payment method you use to pay for your AOL® account? 10:15:09 AM You sure 10:15:56 AM You full name: Gregg Tomlinson. Payment method is a credit card ending in the numbers XXXX 10:19:13 AM MHI Dheye I apologize, however the last 4 numbers you have given me do not match what we have on file. Have you received new payment information since the creation of your AOL® account? If so, have you recently updated this information with us? 10:20:03 AM You hmm - i have two business accounts, possibly i put the AOL account on my other one. those last four digits are XXXX 10:20:30 AM MHI Dheye I apologize, but the last 4 digits you have given me do not match what we have on file. Did you happen to use another payment method (credit/debit card or checking/savings account) for this AOL® account? 10:22:39 AM MHI Dheye I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced concerning this matter. 10:23:17 AM MHI Dheye To have your password reset, you will need to call our Password/Screen Name Department at 1-888-265-8004 available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They will be happy to help you with this. 10:23:50 AM You okie dokie then, i'll get right on that. will they question the validity of my grandparents marriage too? 10:23:55 AM System I want to thank you for allowing me to assist you here in Live Help. If you need further assistance, we are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I hope I exceeded your expectations of our Customer Support. Thanks for being part of the AOL® community. 10:23:57 AM System To thank you today, you can claim a FREE $25 Wal-Mart® gift card for trying the Shopping Essentials program. 10:23:59 AM System https://chat.inq.com/frontline/clients/aol/vertrue/top.htm 10:24:08 AM You thanks for spamming me at the end of this message, nice touch.  can i put you on my buddy list? 10:24:28 AM System Please click the "Chat LIVE" button to be connected to an agent who will explain the details. Have a great day! 10:24:29 AM System MHI Dheye has left this session! 10:24:24 AM System The session has ended! multiple speakers thru iTunes!  DUDE! iTunes finally released a firmware update for the Airport Express that addresses the issue of streaming music to multiple sets of speakers - woo hoo!  For nerds like me, this is awesome - and for Tonya, it just gives her another reason to begin planning for Thanksgiving 2006.  Everyone, do your happy dance! LONG day...  Got up at 3:30am to go to the airport, for a redeye flight to DC this morning.  ETA back in Chicago late tonight.  Coffee is my friend today! i thought i was the bomb diggity, but apparently not.  So T got me a dremel for xmas, which is about the coolest thing invented since sliced beer, cause it allowed me to start hiding little portable USB drives in HotWheels.  And then Christopher sended me this.  :(  Makes my HotWheels USB drive look ghetto.  Got any ideas of what I should turn into a USB drive?  The wierdest one submitted will get made, credited to you, and given to you as a gift.  :)  Now BRING IT. <-- my HotWheels USB drive.  :\ whatever happened to... ...Rainbow Head?  Gotta love boingboing! Tuesdays are like Mondays - but with herpes. Yesterday - not such a good day... Sid needs to be to school earlier this semester, so we had to start waking up thirty minutes earlier than last semester.  We went to take Sidney to school in the morning, and the battery is dead in the car - had to borrow Kay's.   We get to the office, and the coffee maker is dead.  Then, the T1 went down for the remainder of the day. Funny thing is this - Tonya's horoscope for Tuesday said "you really should have stayed in bed today."  Smartass. Hot Wheels Calendar - woo hoo! By far, the coolest thing I got for Christmas this year was my 2006 HotWheels Calendar!