Troutmaster

OYE 8.4.2 Is Out!

Yesterday we announced the release of IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition 8.4.2. Woohoo! I'm tired from all the work, but it is finally out the door so we can rest a little bit. Actually we are not resting because we have other things to work on, but I can't really say what those things are. So if you haven't tried OYE yet now is your chance to get a fresh (think hot, fresh, glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme) version. Here are a few news articles about our release:
CNN -> "IBM Announces Enhancements to Free Enterprise Search Software"
Computerworld -> "IBM, Yahoo update free enterprise search tool"
Washington Post -> "IBM updates free enterprise search tool"

Beard Papa & Pinkberry

Timber had to go into the office today to box up some of her stuff since she is moving to a different cube, and before we got to her work she brought me to Beard Papa's which is a place that makes cream puffs. That's apparently all they do. Today's flavors were vanilla, chocolate, and green tea (they originate in Japan). We got one of each and tried them. They are pretty light and I probably liked the vanilla cream puff the best. I'd say overall it is alright but a bit overpriced, and I wouldn't go out of my way to get them. She told me that another "trendy" place right now is Pinkberry. They make frozen yogurt and shaved ice. What a new invention! Anway, the Pinkberry website has some catchy music and shows the products, but I can't say I want to race out and get that stuff. Gotta love the trends in the food biz...

Energy Usage

After I started tracking our water usage I decided to start tracking our power usage over time. Our latest bill showed that we used 14 Therms (1 Therm = 1000 BTUs) and 373 kWh. I also found out that a typical customer in our area uses 540 kWh and 45 therms each month. So it is good to see that we are already significantly below the average, but my goal is to get our energy usage to go down over time. I am not going to go around telling other people to do the same and wag my finger at them with the same zeal as a bible thumper because while I think it would be nice if everyone reduced their energy usage I know that some people just can't. So I'll do what I can to help. I also live in a glass house, as the saying goes, because I think it is ironic that I'm trying to reduce our energy usage when we have a 50 inch TV. Oh well... :-)

Happy Beached Whale Day!

On Thanksgiving we ate at one of the two Thanksgiving buffets at the Silver Legacy in Reno. They took one of the large ballrooms and turned it into a buffet. The buffet included all the standard Thanksgiving fare including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc... They also had pasta, seafood, salad, prime rib, duck, lamb, and lots of desserts. We spent roughly 2 hours from start to finish, and after we were done it was "Beached Whale Day". So I would like to wish a belated "Happy Beached Whale Day" to everyone. After we took a break for a while Timber and I took a walk down to the Truckee river and the outdoor ice rink to try to work off some of the food. Dislaimer!!!! - The picture I've included of Timber on our walk around downtown Reno in no way implies that she is a beached whale.

Reno For Thanksgiving

We ended up going to Reno for Thanksgiving this year. Our drive through the Tahoe area was sad because there was absolutely no snow other than the man made snow at Boreal. We made a pit stop in Truckee to check out a condo/house that we saw online and were interested in. Luckily for us all 5 of the units for sale were open for us to check out. All 5 are essentially the same except some have larger windows next to the deck than others. They are all 3 bed, 2 bath places with a 2 car garage. They all have a washer and dryer in the unit and have absolutely no yard. Overall they all meet our basic requirements for a place in Tahoe, but we'll take our time and check more places out before getting more serious. When we got to Reno we stayed at the Eldorado hotel and casino with Timber's parents and nephew.

Time Machine

Time machine is pretty cool for backup software. If you are not familiar with it, you can find out more about it here. After I installed Leopard I went out and got a 750 Gb external drive from Costco so that Timber and I could use Time Machine to do regular backups on our machines. I haven't had to restore anything yet, but I can rest assured that everything is backed up incrementally and automatically as long as my dedicated external hard drive is connected.

Movie Reviews

Here are a few movies that I've watched lately and my reviews:

Into The Wild
I thought this movie was pretty well done overall. The story didn't deviate much from the book, and I actually got some insight into Christopher McCandless and his journey to find himself. I'm also a little more forgiving of how he went into the wilderness and died. I live in Fairbanks at the time, and when the news first came out we all figured that some naive hippy from the lower 48 came up to Alaska to try to "live off the land" and died due to stupidity and ineptitude. He really died from making cascading mistakes, but he certainly wasn't stupid or inept. I still think he could have been a little more resourceful, and it is pretty stupid to go out into the Alaskan wilderness by yourself. People from the lower 48 don't seem to grasp the concept of help not coming if you run into trouble. In addition to my social commentary I give this a 7/10.

Bee Movie
Overall this movie was funny, and one guy in the movie theater thought it was really funny and laughed really loud at all the jokes and situations. I had more fun laughing at his laughing than I did laughing at the movie itself. I think kids would probably like this movie, but it wont' win best movie of the year. I give it a 6/10.

28 Weeks Later
This movie is the sequel to 28 days later and it is a continuation of the zombie/infected people genre. This movie actually freaked me out. After I watched this movie and then took Wookie for a walk I half expected zombie like people to start running after me. Luckily no nightmares followed. I give it a 6/10. :-)