My Desktop

<< Any Mac hating people should probably skip this posting. >>



Since a few people have asked, here is a list of goodies that I run on my Mac OS X desktop:

• Meteo: The weather outside is important. Keep it nearby -- perferably at eye level. Meteo gives me current temperature and a weather icon in my menu bar, as well as a cool radar image in the menu drop down. Very cool, very free.
• gCount and yMail: Two totally different implementations of the same thing. They check your Google Mail or Y! Mail account for you and turn their icon red when there is new email. Both are free.
• iChat : An Apple supplied no-brainer. It hooks me into the AIM chat network. I'd like to use Y! more often but their Mac software isn't great and everyone I know has a AIM/iChat login. It's also getting some groovy new features in Tiger.
• Sidenote: I like to have sticky note type documents all over my large monitor, but I want them to recede from view when I don't need them (kinda like expose). Sidenote does just that - It sticks to the side of your screen and hides when you aren't using it. Again, free.
• QuickSilver: I takes some time to grok QuickSilver. As the instructions say, "At first glance, Quicksilver is a launcher." And that's all I thought it was at first. But theres more. More than just allowing me to type the first two letters of an application to launch it (I don't like using the mouse), it also allows you to take advantage of small applescripts and such to automate several actions. You can also lookup web pages and contacts. Play specific playlists in iTunes. Email files to people. It even has a dock-like shelf to keep commonly used actions. Very clever. Very free.

I am hopeful that the new version of Mac OS X (i.e. Tiger) will allow me to replace many of these doo-dads with Dashboard widgets. We'll have to see.

Google Maps And Satellite Pictures

After reading some online announcements that Google has integrated their Keyhole acquisition with Google Maps, I decided to check it out. I did the normal things:

• Looked up my old house in Pacifica
• Peered down at my office in the Bay Area
• Viewed Folsom Prison which I drive by but can never see

But it really wasn't until I saw the Wired magazine article entitled "Surprises Lurk in Satellite Snaps", that I realized how much of a change this is really going to be. Google maps is now the second thing I do after I search for something:

• Going to play golf ? Let's see the course (My local Bass Lake Golf Course)
• Looking at a house. Let's see the neighborhood (A kinda neat house by ours)

Hmmm . . . the possibilities are endless. What's Kelly's address again ?

Landscaping

After an abnormally long, wet and cold winter, it appears that the rains have subsided until sometime this fall.



As you can see from the picture, this has left me with a veritable jungle that threatens to engulf my two labradors (Zeke is actually standing up in his picture). so I have finally gotten a landscaper, who isn't going to cost as much as the concrete guy, to start clearing the top forty so that we can put down some grass. This should thrill both my neighbors and my yellow lab, who needs a flatter course to chase tennis balls. If, and when, I actually get the guy to come out here and start, I will document the work in photos.

Prairie City OHV

I've decided that my knee is finally back in working order (after four years of healing from a basketball injury) and I want to race my mountain bike this year. Well, maybe not race my mountain bike (I'd like a shiny new one). Anyhoo, there are a lot of mountain bike races in my area but one in particular has caught my attention.

The Prairie City Race Series is held weekly on the Prairie City OHV just a few miles from house. The PC OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) is one of the largest motor bike / ATV parks in the west. Usually restricted to just motor vehicles, on Wednesdays they open up their MotoCross track for the bike races. These are short course races (5 - 15 miles), mostly sprinting enduro style.

I went over to the OHV to scout it out today. It was very cool -- I even was entertaining notions of starting some motocross (They just open a HUGE Kawasaki dirt bike store in Folsom). I was, that is, until the ambulance arrived to cart someone off to the hospital.

I think I'll stick to the pedal powered biking. Races start in mid April. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Enemy of the State

The weather went from the best of times to the worst of times. Or something like that. We have had four days of thunderstorms and heavy rain (Tahoe is snowed in again) that finally broke for a few hours today. After playing a bit of golf, I took Louie up to Folsom Lake to check out the new Homeland Defense reinforcements.

For those of you not in the area, Folsom Lake sits about 45 miles west and 500 feet above California's state capital, Sacramento, and the rest of the California valley. It's a huge lake (18,000 acres) that was formed by the Folsom Dam (which is next to Folsom Prison). Across the dam, runs Folsom Dam Road, which connects Folsom/EDH (where I live) and the Orangevale/Granite Bay (where Kelly lives).

After 9/11, Folsom Dam Road was closed due to security concerns (Blow up the dam by driving explosive ladden truck across it and flood Sacramento and the California valley). Also considered was the southern side, which is within view of my house. As there is no road here (just a bike path), they decided to put these super high-tech, retractable barriers at either end. I am still not sure what the solar collector is for, but I bet it is super secret.

While I think this is pretty cool (although I am leery of riding my bike over them), Louie is a little wigged out by them.

Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery

One of the reasons that I really like California is that all of the history here is recent. Most of the state was settled in the 1850s (making these our grandparents' parents) so a lot of it still exists. And since California is also a mostly desert and high plains state, there are a lot of huge scale public works projects (read: boon-doggles) that stagger the imagination.

For example, Kelly and I have drinks over at a bar that is one block away from the western most Pony Express station. I am also near Folsom Dam and Folsom Prison.

Some of the history is even closer. My picture today shows the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery. When the federal govt decided to dam the American River (around 1954) to provide water for Sacramento and San Francisco, they had to flood under several towns. One of these towns was Mormon Island (probably founded by Mormons who didn't stop in Utah). Before they did, they moved the local cemetery out of the flood zone.

This has been relocated south of the lake, just beyond the Llama pasture that I post a lot of picture from. I went down there on Saturday to look around. Very interesting: Most of the people weren't Mormon but Jewish and there were some new burials (probably wives and husbands).

If you look closely through the cemetery gateway, you can see a large house of the hill in the distance. That house is across the street from me.

Rattler

As most of you already know (since I called you up to laugh at your cold weather), it has been in the mid 80s most of the weekend here in NorCal. So besides my usual golf endeavors, I've been taking my bike out for a few rides.

This pictures shows some of the downsides of my rides. As EDH is in the Sierra foothills and pretty arid, we get your normal desert critters. This rattlesnake was blocking my favorite bike trail, so I stopped to shoo him off. He was polite at first, slithering rapidly across the trail until I bent down to get a closer picture (The thing that every park ranger tells you to do when you see a dangerous reptile). He stopped dead on the trail when I took this picture, then raised his head up and started shaking his rattle. I took this as the warning it was and backed off.

This reminds me to update Louie and Zeke's rattlesnake bite booster shots this week.

Hole 9

It's been a while since I blogged (I should just start my posts with this always), but I was in San Francisco for a conference last weekend. The conference wasn't bad, but it is exhausting acting as host (my practice has about 400 people). Of course, the weather sucked -- at least I got to practice at the double decker golf range.

I have also finally fixed my golf shoe problem by buying a new pair -- Callaway Tour Saddles. They're a lot better than the Nikes I had. They have larger spike for better lateral stability and are a lot more comfortable.

To test them out, I shot 9 holes this afternoon at Bass Lake. I shot alright, considering I haven't played in almost two weeks, but it wasn't pretty.

Broekn Things

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things are boring here in soggy Northern California since the Superbowl. February is the worst month here, since it is the height of our rainy season.

Adding to my general malaise is the fact that a lot of the things I own appear to be breaking. In the past three weeks, I have broken my Linux server (just put back together today), flatted my bike again (see innumerable other stories) and my golf shoes. Of all of these, really only the golf shoes aren't my fault -- they just gave out on me after six months of wear. You can see in the photo that the sole is just coming straight off of them. I have tried to tell Shelley and Kelly that this is due to the astounding torque that I apply to my driver game, but I don't think they are buying it.

Superbowl

Kelly and I decided to go out to watch the Superbowl at our favorite pub. Of course, this was just a "cover story", as our real reason for going was the 42" LCD TV raffle. Sadly, neither Kelly nor I brought home the TV.

The game wasn't bad considering I didn't like either team.