Goals for 2008

Ah, 2008. It seems like just yesterday that we all were wondering how we'd pronounce our years as the millennium changed. Would we say "twenty-oh-one" or "two thousand-one" or even "twenty-aught-one"? That all shook itself out, and soon we have another chance to change our minds: "twenty-ten" or "two thousand-ten"?

Whatever.. but January First means New Year's resolutions. I don't need to lose any weight, I quit smoking thirteen years ago, I already go to the gym regularly, so I'm in little danger of promising myself anything I won't want to be reminded of later. So instead I'll just set some goals and wishes..

Mac OS X

I'd like to get my wife on a Mac. There may be a faint glimmer of hope there: her hard drive has had some sector problems and could be on its way out. She's less resistant to the idea than she has been in the past: she notices that I don't sit down at my machine and fuss and fume about how slow it is as she does at hers. She even asked how difficult it would be for her to switch.. that's quite a change from her previous attitude. But spending money for no good reason is not part of her psyche, so if her Windows PC survives the year, she'll stick with that.

Linux

I really need to update our Linux server. The hardware is fine - after all, this doesn't get pushed very hard by a network that is usually just two people, but the Linux on it is getting pretty old.. it's time to start fresh. Aside from the minor but still annoying issues of backing everything up and then making it all work again in a more modern OS, there's the really tough question: which Linux? For the light duty asked of this, anything would do, and of course Xen will let me run any and all, but somebody has to be the Main OS. It shouldn't be a difficult decision - because it hardly matters - but I do have to choose SOMETHING. And having to choose coupled with a half day of actually doing it lets me easily keep pushing this off..

Drives

There's never enough disk space, is there? Or if there happens to be "enough" right now, it's not in the right place.. If I'm going to upgrade that Linux box, I need some more drive space in it.. well, that's not really true, there's plenty of free space now, but if I add all the virtual machines I'd like to have and keep their CD/DVD images around, I will need more. Is the box big enough to hold more or will I have to replace a drive outright? I don't know, having not peeked inside in years. Hmm.. I bet it's pretty dusty in there.. better put that on Saturday's Cleaning List.

Then on the Mac side, I really need to add a Firewire drive so that I can have something bootable should my MacBook's drive fail. That's a real priority: I can't make much money with a dead computer.

Remote Access

With the price of gas so high, I hate to travel. Fortunately, high speed Internet is more and more ubiquitous, so I can do more and more client work sitting right here. But I do have pockets of resistance: customers who stubbornly resist not seeing my smiling face on their doorstep. I have to bring them into the reality of the twenty-first century. Physical visits are often completely unnecessary, and they need to understand that.

Power wasting

There are too many darn things plugged in all the time sucking juice. In terms of money, it's small potatoes: our electric bills are small. But it annoys and offends me on a moral level - there's no NEED for all these things. But setting up an infrastructure to deal with it is more complicated.

For example, the server really doesn't need to be on every day. Plenty of days we don't need it at all except for backup. Booting it up just for that just isn't going to fly, so the better solution is to do daily backups either over the Internet or to a cheap, easily turned off local USB drive, and throw big chunks on the server once a week.

Then there's the stuff like the router, the paper shredder, the usb hub, the cell phone chargers.. all plugged in. The obvious way to deal with that is to get everything on one switch. I had that in my old office before we moved: when I shut off the lights as I left, everything non-essential lost power with them. I need to do something similar here.

Thermostat

We have a programmable thermostat, and I haven't programmed the darn thing. We keep our heat very low: 64 and lower during the day and 59 when we go to bed. But we have to do that manually because I haven't done the programming. It's not that it's hard: it's just poorly implemented and time consuming and unforgiving of mistakes. I've started the task several times and given up in frustration.. what I probably should do is look on-line to see if there's something better I can buy.. I would not be surprised if there's a bluetooth enabled thermostat (ayup, just checked Google: bluetooth, wired, X10). That's a definite 2008 goal.

Website

I'm not planning any big changes here, just going to plod along as usual. I do have some goals in mind: I'd like to increase the RSS subscriptions and of course I always want to increase traffic and ad revenue in general. I'd also like to be able to return to compensating other authors who post here: I was doing that, but it wasn't working out economically (I was paying far more than what the articles brought in).

There was also the problem of HOW people can post. I did have a fairly open system in place, but the spammers were driving me crazy, so I took it down. Spammers still annoy us on the comment side, but it is a little easier to control that. Still, I'd like to return to some sort of an open post system if I can. I don't have a solution in mind yet, but it is something I want to think about in 2008.

Personal

I do a pretty good job of keeping in good physical shape, and I probably do more than most in trying to keep my mind sharp by learning new things, but I never feel like it's enough. In my ideal fantasy world, I'd walk ten miles every day, read three new books, and always be learning a new language.. oh, and earning a six figure income in the other two hours left in the day, of course..

But without getting ridiculous, there are things I could do better. For example, this week I have to start pulling together tax related stuff. Every year that frustrates and annoys me because I could have kept weekly records and have been ready with all this in a snap. There's no excuse: I have the technology available and the skill to write any helper software I need, so 2008 is going to be the year when I really get conscientious about that.

Yeah, right: we'll see how long THAT lasts.

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Tue Jan 1 15:41:00 2008:   Tony


I just programmed the thermostat. It was easier than taking the ten mile walk..



Fri Jan 4 20:08:16 2008:   TonyLawrence


I bought a UPS today.. just a cheap APC 750 from Staples. Later on I'll get something better, but this is certainly better than having nothing!

While there, I spotted this http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=75004 Notebook Cooler.. overpriced, but it really does change the bottom of my MacBook from uncomfortably hot to slightly warm.. I can't help but think that's better..



A review Link: http://www.pcabusers.com/reviews/antec/notebookcooler/p3.htm

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