http://benjolo.com/blog the blog of Ben Margolin, at one time aka BSide Wed, 28 May 2008 06:20:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Wow, everyone wants to get gas at Costco these days, since it's so much cheaper (today it was "only" $3.99 for 87 octane.) I tried to go to the Sunnyvale one as I needed to make a stop on the way home over there, and the line to get into ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/05/27/costco-gas-for-dummies/ Normally, I like my Comcast service. I really do. I mean, it's ridiculously expensive, yes... and I have the "triple play" (voice, cable tv, internet) so I theoretically "save" money. But usually, it's pretty good. At least it has been fairly reliable compared to my past experience (many years ago, ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/05/27/comcast-35-hour-data-utage-last-night/ Went to Maker Faire last weekend -- had been wanting to go each of the last years and never quite managed to do it. Finally did, and wasn't disappointed. It's fairly expensive ($25/person), but well, then again I haven't been to a State Fair lately, and in some ways it's ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/05/06/maker-faire-steampunks-and-battlebots-and-lost-iphones-oh-my/ I ordered a new server from theplanet.com (whom I really like, so don't take this as a dis -- I've been a customer for over 5 years, and plan to continue with them). So the new server is supposed to have 2 hard drives. Turns out the provisioned it with ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/03/07/how-theplanetcom-adds-a-new-hard-drive-to-a-server/ I've been staying out of the HD-DVD / Blu-ray format war for a long time, but Val sucked me in to it. You see, she got me the BBC 'Planet Earth' DVD set for X-mas... only it was the HD-DVD set. One of the reasons I hadn't bought it previously, ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/02/10/youre-welcome-i-personally-ended-the-hd-dvd-blu-ray-format-war-but-it-doesnt-matter/ The neighbors behind us removed this huge tree in front of their house the other day. It was pretty sad, actually, it was a pretty tree (from my vantage point, anyhow). I suspect they're selling the place and it didn't give the best 'curb appeal', especially since it's some kind ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/02/10/tree-removal-behind-my-house/ Lenny Kravitz just released a new album, 'Love Revolution', and it's a typical Lenny album: not groundbreaking, but eminently listenable. His is probably the only music that would be classified as straight "rock" that I listen to these days, and this album doesn't disappoint, although telling it apart from his ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/02/10/new-lenny-kravitz-album-b-target-digital-extras-f/ 52.8 MPG. Yep, I am enjoying this so far! (Update: so it's more like 42 MPG after 400 miles of driving... but still about 3X what I was getting in the M3!) http://benjolo.com/blog/2008/01/14/enjoying-the-prius-so-far/ I upgraded to Leopard at home, which is awesome, because it's a really great OS. Well, so was Tiger, and to be honest there aren't a lot of really significant improvements, but lots of little ones that are nice. Definitely the new Finder is a lot more useful (I've stopped ... http://benjolo.com/blog/2007/12/23/adobe-licensing-and-upgrade-paths-still-suck/ This was in the display of holiday cards you could order from Costco, at my local one in South San Francisco: Pretty funny. Most Jews aren't that big into Kwanzaa, but hey, who am I to judge?! http://benjolo.com/blog/2007/12/09/costco-is-the-one-stop-kwanzaa-outlet-for-jews/