October 31, 2011

Winner of the 2011 Halloween Light Show

I Work at Apple Halloween Costume

I Work at Google Halloween Costume

Fly Fishing in Estes Park, Colorado

"Hey, I took this guy from Texas fishing this week on the Big Thompson outside of Estes Park. It was his first ever fly-fishing venture. A crowd gathered on the highway to take pictures, including a Denver Post guy. One of the pics is on the front page of the Denver post." - Quote from original sender. (Unknown person) 


 Whoaa!!....How cool is that, go fly-fishing and catch a bull Elk. I would be interested in knowing what kind of lure he used. :)


Response to Microsoft's Vision of the Future


You look like someone barfed spaghetti on you. LOL

And I watched that MS video you posted. Absolutely ridiculous futurism fantasy. The only thing I found reasonably probable was the flat white display the guy was using at his desk. But this transparent little credit card sized phone that can generate holograms and apparently has no battery? Come on, even Star Trek never went this far into the absurd. Earth: Final Conflict did with their rollup phones, but those at least are potentially on the horizon. J I also like how the voice recognition doesn't misunderstand a thing. We both know real-world voice recognition leaves much to be desired. And of course, OS stability and self-healing is still not quite where it needs to be either.

But what REALLY made me laugh was the refrigerator that tracks how much of what you have and orders it for you. That little slice of pie in the sky has been the funniest bit of vaporware floating about the internet since some fool stuck a TV screen into a fridge door. LOL I mean seriously, are we that lazy we need the fridge to make out our grocery list? And will it talk to the cabinet doors and medicine chest so they can take stock of how much Clorox, floor wax, and Advil we've got on hand?

And of course there's no mention of security or privacy because in the idyllic world, no one can hack your phone, tabletop, or refrigerator. And that info about where you're going won't be left anywhere after you exit the cab. ;-) Trust us!

But hey, I'm still waiting for the 42" concave wrap-around monitor MS Research promised would be on the market in 2003. J Guess that was a non-starter too. Oh well, where would Silicon Valley be without grand dreamers like these guys casting wide nets into the "what if"? I guess I shouldn't scoff too much, they finally came out with a phone OS that works. Sadly it took Google to do it. :D

jsherry


October 30, 2011

A Visit to Seattle for the Microsoft PAC Meeting


A Visit to Seattle for the Microsoft PAC Meeting

Shortarmguy's Diary Update for October 30, 2011


On Monday, I hopped on a jet plane to fly over to Seattle, Washington to visit our good friends at Microsoft.  Since it's hard to represent going to another city on my blog, I usually like to take a picture from the plane while flying over the city.  When I saw the big Seattle Space Needle, I thought that would make for a great shot!  It took me a minute to get my camera from my backpack, power it on, and snap the photo.  By the time I did I could barely see the tower any more, but luckily I still got the shot.  Amazing, isn't it?

I woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning and headed over to Building 122.  Unfortunately I'm under NDA with Microsoft regarding what was discussed so I can't really say much about it, but I did post a little bit here: Microsoft's Vision of the Future.  Don't miss watching the video, because it's really cool stuff!

Outside of the meetings, I had a great time hanging out with fellow PAC Members Missy, Dan, and Cami.  They sure are fun people!   We ate Oysters together on not one, but two separate occasions.  That just makes for a good bonding experience.


Returning home, I was excited to see where the boy's robot was at in it's progress.  Since I missed one of the meetings while I was away, I hadn't seen that they'd built their "Dumper" already and were just ready to start testing it.  Since this was such a momentous occasion, I just had to record it.  Here was the result:


Prior Lake Middle School Robotics Team # 4 Dumper Test Video


Over the weekend, we had a bit of a scare when we went over to Grandma Linda's.  We realized that it appears she's shrinking!  She used to be much larger than both Avery and Luke and suddenly Avery is taller than she is and Luke is not that far behind.  We're concerned for her and have started advising her to do stretching exercises and to eat "Long Food" like spaghetti and celery stalks to help prevent her condition from worsening.  Hopefully, it will help.

The water continues to get colder, but Sunny insists we're not going to have winter this year.  He stubbornly claims that he gets to swim all year round this time and there's no way the lake will freeze.  I guess we'll just have to see if he's right.

The boys have decided to skip Halloween and instead will be attending a wedding this year.  We were a little surprised at their choice, but the couple seem to be nice people so we can't blame them for it.


The Crazy Nasty Honey Badger (Naughty Language Warning!)

Bing Search: Constipation

Will Smith is in the 1 Percent

Picture of the new Minnesota Vikings Dome


It appears the Vikings and the state finally came to agreement on a new stadium and I must say it is quite impressive!!






Poorly Placed Price Stickers

Kitchen Kitsch