sandblade.net

A lot of people dismiss New Year’s celebrations. “It’s just another day,” they say, and that’s true. However life is just like good project management, it requires firm starts and deadlines. Otherwise you’ll never know when you’re finished or need to move on to the next phase in life. Reviewing is what keeps us from endlessly living in a rut. With that in mind, here are some notable things from this year that I experienced. (more…)

Some people may vote for their party. Others may vote their conscience, but those truly living the esoteric lifestyle vote their conscious.

This is sandblade’s first endorsement. I heartily endorse John Murphy for the 16th Congressional District. As an independent he has absolutely no chance. Plus being anti-corporation won’t help him either. Sure he’s crazy, but he’s my brand of crazy. Murphy’s stand on immigration, healthcare, our wars, and terrorism is spot on. Pitts is pretty much guaranteed re-election. I think his very secure seat has made him feel immune to any kind of dissent. The three times I’ve written his office I essentially got blown off, with no consideration at all. If Murphy got 5% of the vote, it would send a pretty loud message. If you’re in the 16th, you’re vote is already wasted, join sandblade.net and waste it in style.

…must come to an end, at least that’s how the saying goes. For five years Team CSC has gone from a second rate team to one of the most successful teams in the pro peloton. What has always made CSC so remarkable was not that they had a few super stars, but that every rider was really above average. As a team they were much more than the individual riders. So it seems unbelievable that after years of a very good winning formula, the team is starting to dissolve. (more…)

So I’ve been living with the Dell Mini 9 for about two weeks now, and I have to say I’m more than pleased with it. It’s actually turned into a really useful tool. I primarily use it for three things, web browsing, cli terminal, and remote desktop.

There are a lot of mini 9 reviews out there and I agree with most of them, so no need to repeat unboxing shots or gripes about the location of the ‘ key. What I will do is tell you how I use it in my everyday life (more…)

So if you’re like me you’re probably not sure if you should buy that macbook or if you should liquidate all your assets and buy some farmland and live off the grid. A friend of mine asked if I thought we were going to go into a depression or not. And I think I changed my answer a dozen times. I’ve always had an interest in macroeconomics ever since college, but I barely understood it then, and it’s even more complex now. As a complete amateur hack in econ, here are my thoughts about what’s going down (and it’s mostly down). Take it with a proverbial bag of rock salt. (more…)

I used to like Sigg products. I have their aluminum box which is a good lunch box, and I use a Sigg bottle for my white gas camp stove. However I can’t abide by the recent trend of everyone drinking out of these fancy pants Sigg bottles. Of course the BPA plastic bottle scare, and Sigg’s clever marketing department are the big reason behind this trend. It also doesn’t help that Sheryl Crow blames plastic bottles for her cancer. Of course this conclusion is entirely anecdotal, and French kissing Lance could have given her cancer too. Who knows. The thing I can’t stand is that no one bothers to question what the mystery lining in the Sigg bottles is made of. We’re just supposed to trust that it’s safe. Also they never quite explain how this mystery lining doesn’t peel when the bottle gets dented either, once again we’re to trust them. Here’s a short list of why I can’t stand Sigg bottles for drinking

• $22 and up…
• narrow mouth
• impossible to clean
• can’t squeeze it to get more water out faster
• can’t tell by looking at it how much water you have left (Scottie how do you make clear aluminum?)
• ridiculously high smugness to practical ratio
• They have a range called “lifestyle bottles” Lifestyle bottle? Ugh..

I never could get into the idea of the everlasting gobstopper, why would anyone want a jawbreaker that never melted, ugh. However what I would want is a never ending bag of sun chips. Picture a bag, where when you reached in there was always another delicious Sun Chip. How much would you pay for that bag (think about free sun chips for the rest of your life)? I’d pay $350 max.

• “Who’s your favorite Jonas brother?”
• “I still think Ron Paul has a chance”
• “So does anyone know what a collateralized debt obligation is?”
• “I think Highlander 2 was still the best one in the trilogy”
• “I’m having this problem with gentoo and I wondered if…”

I’ve been following the netbook revolution, and I’ve been very tempted to get one. The first EEE PC’s looked promising but useless. The dinky 7″ screen and micro keyboard seemed only useful for kids and perhaps hobbits with perfect eyesight. Plus, as useful as Linux is in the server closet, it’s useless on a notebook. I’ve been looking for a quick and easy way to RDP, ssh, and console into servers and routers. A netbook seems like a good way of doing this. I don’t need much, simply an OS, kbd, lcd, and ethernet. With that in mind the Dell mini-9 is looking really tempting. I’m not sure if 8.9″ screen is too small, but I think it could be useful for doing small quick tasks. I could also see it as being useful for travel as an uber PDA. So what do you think?