Opti-Grab
It was a suicide mission. I knew that going in.
I volunteered.
That’s the way I like it. Long odds against … well, impossible odds.
I made my time (sic) and said my goodbyes. “Goodbye, iPod. Goodbye, iMac. Goodbye, iPad. Goodbye, Apple TV.” I’m only human so I brought the iPad with me. I knew we would make a fine Thelma & Louise moment together.
I was going to that McDonalidzed experience at the strip mall where they make eyeglasses. What the hell, you can only die once.
I made sure to bring my blue pen. We were decidedly heading out past the point of no return.
I squinted and turned to face my destiny. I took that warm feeling spreading through my pants as a sign I was doing the right thing.
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Embedded: Twitter puts outage
Hide and seek. Did I scare you?
Earlier this week, Twitter went down. It went down hard. It was scary. I know because I was there. I now officially have the PTSD. At last, I’m finally somebody.
The duration of the outage was about 45 minutes. That’s approximately twice the amount of time Apollo 13 spent out of radio contact when it was behind the moon. I just got a double dose of what it must have felt like to be in Mission Control. And I’m a non-smoker!
It was the longest outage since Twitter’s IPO and the second crash in the last nine days.
The outage was described in the strongest possible terms as the “longest outage since the IPO.” What those two things have to do with each other I have absolutely no idea.
Some in the media took the opportunity to write quippish jokes about the mayhem. (Hint: It was too soon.) Jokes, I must say, that practically wrote themselves.
- “Twitter Suffers Outage During Biz Stone’s Panel at SXSW” – I don’t know what a “Biz Stone” is but I bet it was pissed. Source: WSJ.
- “Twitter Outage Takes Site Down for 45 Minutes, Users Stranded” – I bet a lot of them were forced to hitchhike. Source: Newsmax.com.
- “Twitter goes down, chaos and productivity ensue” – What the fuck are you implying? Source: Washington Post.
- “‘We Experienced Unexpected Complications’: The Language Of Twitter Outages” – Hey, that’s the hip new lingo. Source: Lifehacker Australia.
- “Twitter Goes Down: Something is Technically Wrong” – You have a firm grasp of the obvious. Souce: The Next Web.
- “Twitter Briefly Goes Down, Silencing Millions Of Horrible, Unnecessary Twitter Jokes” – That hurts, that really hurts. Source: Huffington Post.
Again, as your intrepid embedded reporter, I was there on the front lines. What follows are my eyewitness firsthand accounts of the action as it unfolded.
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In like a Lion
Yeah, I did it. I upgraded to Mac OS X Lion. Here’s my mini review:
Installation was painless and quicker than I thought. I was expecting 12 hours for the download, but it took less than two. My internet connection must be faster than I thought. (I know a certain someone for who the download was more of a chore. Heh.) Then the computer had to crunch for about 30 minutes to perform the install. When I came back, it was at the login screen. OS update done.
So, what’s new? Here’s what I’ve noticed so far:
- The login screen has a new look. We all know that’s the most vital part of any operating system.
- When logging in the wallpaper now “zooms” to fill up the screen.
- The scroll function on my mouse is mysteriously reversed. Up is down and down is up. It’s okay, though. I like it that way.
- Three new icons appeared on my Dock bar at the bottom of the screen.
- My Sigma Chess 6.2.1 no longer functions. Apparently this was a “PowerPC application” and Lion does not support that. So tough luck for me. “Check and mate,” says Apple.
- My name now shows up on the bar in the top-right corner of the screen.
- After the upgrade, iTunes updated and told me it was new for Lion, but it looks exactly the same to me.
That’s it. Those are literally the only things I’ve noticed. System speed seems about the same as it was before. Overall, a very pleasant upgrade, but as I sit here and type into my little WordPress post box, literally almost nothing looks different than it was before.
It all feels very incremental. Something tells me that’s the future of upgrading.
Not so special dining
Looks a little plain without an UPGRADE!
We enjoy going out to eat. It’s one of the simple pleasures remaining in our life, one of the rare ways that we can still sometimes pamper ourselves. Even though we live in a culinary desert and the economy has forced us to tighten our belts, we still get out and support our favorite local spots as often as we can.
A couple of years ago a steakhouse opened here in town. (Mmm, meat memories!) What goes good with steak? Yep! A nice baked potato. This restaurant would serve the potato with butter. If you wanted anything else, like sour cream and chives, that was an “upgrade” and cost an additional $1.50. Needless to say we never went back. And last time I looked, the place was closed down. What a shocker.
Recently my wife and I have been noticing another trend. We call it the “not-so-special” special. It works like this. You enter the restaurant and see the little board labeled “Specials.” This board is usually one of the first things you see when you walk through the front door. Often times the special boards will be brightly lit with snazzy neon colors and happy little drawings.
The special will usually be written in hand. That imports a sense of urgency. Hey, this must have been written today. That is special!
So, what’s on the board today? For example, it might say something like this: “Spicy chicken with eggplant. $9.95.”
“Mmm. That sounds good,” you think to yourself. Then you get seated and handed a menu.
You know what happens next, right? Wait … for … it …
On the menu you find among the other items a little dish called “Spicy chicken with eggplant.” Okay. It’s a regular menu item in addition to being on “special.” No big dealio.
But we can’t help but be curious, right? So what is the “special” price? Let’s take a quick peek. Yeppers! $9.95. Read ’em and weap.
After a few “whiskey tango foxtrots” and “cluster of goats” muttered under my breath, the wheels in my head invariably start turning. “What exactly is so special here?”
Am I nuts or should the “special” be special in some way? Maybe it’s offered at a special price. Maybe it includes a special ingredient.
But the same thing at the same price? That’s a “special?” That’s not even trying. Sup with that? Check please!
Shouts from the Abyss 
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