There are at least five different promos going on for various Mac shareware right now. If you're part of the Mac fold, I'd say you pretty much "gotta" check out the first two; the other three are cool, but less so.

This is part of what, in my opinion, sets the Mac experience apart from that of other platforms: there is a vibrant ecosystem of independent, small-scale development shops producing stunningly-good apps for free, or for low cost. (Although there's clearly lots of independent development going on for other platforms, there seems to be a much greater variability in the quality.) Promotion events like these give good advertising for those smaller development shops, and give Mac users the chance to try and use good software that they might never have even heard of before. I really think it's a win-win.

I've listed them below, ordered by descending perceived awesomeness.

1. MacHeist - In its second year, you act as a "spy" and solve mission-related puzzles about once a week. Free apps await after you complete each mission, as well as incremental discounts on a large bundle that will go on sale at the end. This is terrifically fun; I can't recommend it highly enough.

When I bought my car, one of the first things I did was buy a fancy new Alpine head unit to replace the factory stereo. This gave me the ability to add an XM tuner and an iPod adapter. I ran the iPod cable into the glove compartment, so I could just connect the iPod in there and close the glove box when I hopped in the car.

I've got a reasonably interesting setup of MisterHouse (a nifty Perl-based home automation program) running on a Linux machine upstairs, that does stuff like turn on lights automatically when it's getting dark or when I enter a room, turn lights off when there hasn't been any activity in a room after a predefined time, and so forth. Maybe I'll post more on that later.

So, I'm trying to register my blog with Technorati, and apparently to do so I have to create a special post with a special code to prove that I own this blog.

So, here's the post: Technorati Profile

I was also told that the code would entitle me to a FREE CHICKEN BISCUIT at Chick-fil-A. Sweet.

UPDATE: The lady at the counter just looked at me funny. What the heck, man?

I guess I pass this house every time I drive to visit my parents, but Anna called it to my attention specifically one of the last times we drove by.

One of my flickr photos was published in the Schmap!! travel guide, this time for Vancouver.

Specifically, this photo:

...was published here. Cool!

Dude, how cool is this? Two pictures I took in Portland were selected from my flickr site and published online as part of the Schmap travel guide for Portland.

The photos in question:

• The red neon sign for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
• The weather machine in Pioneer Courthouse Square

Granted, it's not huge news, but it's not bad for someone who barely knows what they're doing. (And it's even cooler since the trip was on the company dime so I could attend OOPSLA!)

I just had an especially painful experience with Dell Technical Support. The optical drive in my Inspiron 8600 went kaput, and I thought I'd take advantage of an extended warranty I bought along with the system back in 2003. I thought I'd try the technical support chat so I wouldn't have to listen to hold music.

My first chat experience was with ANIRBAN_149447. Here's how it went.

04:19:22PM Session Started with ANIRBAN_149447
04:19:28PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Support. My name is Anirban and rep ID is 149447. How may I assist you today?"
04:20:34PM Jason: "Hi there; the DVD+RW drive in my system is bad; it won't boot, so I ran the Dell diagnostics on it several times. Each time, it reported "Error Code 0F00:131D" and "Illegal request - possible use of incorrect media""
04:20:49PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Thank you for the information. I’ll be glad to assist you. Please give me 2 to 3 minutes to pull up your account information."
04:22:23PM ANIRBAN_149447: "In the meantime, may I also have your telephone number, along with the area code to update our records?"
04:22:50PM Jason: "Sure, I don't have a home phone number; the only thing I have is a cell phone. It's XXX-XXX-XXXX"
04:25:04PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Thank you for the information."
04:25:38PM ANIRBAN_149447: "My records show that the system you use an Inspiron 8600 with Windows XP Operating System installed on it. Is this the product you need assistance with?"
04:25:57PM Jason: "That's correct"
04:27:16PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay. Please do not worry; I will do my best to resolve this issue."
04:27:19PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Could you please elaborate the issue so that I can understand it correctly and give you the best resolution?"
04:28:24PM Jason: "I cannot boot off of the CD drive. I ran the Dell diagnostics several times, and it gives me an error on the IDE DVD+RW Confidence test every time; Error Code 0F00:131D, Illegal request - possible use of incorrect media"
04:29:59PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
04:30:03PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Since how long are you facing this issue?"
04:31:06PM Jason: "I've been trying off and on for about a week to boot off the CD drive, and it consistently fails, no matter what CD or DVD I use. I just ran the diagnostics today."
04:32:56PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Thank you for the information."
04:33:14PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason may I please know which CDs you tried to boot from?"
04:34:24PM Jason: "The last CD I tried to boot with was the Dell-branded Windows XP reinstall CD that came packaged with my system. I also tried a couple of Linux boot disks. All of them failed."
04:35:42PM ANIRBAN_149447: "okay. Jason please let me know if the drive can read the CDs."
04:37:45PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Please let me know, if you are receiving my messages?"
04:38:24PM Jason: "The last message I received asked what CDs I tried to boot from"
04:38:39PM Jason: "My response was: The last CD I tried to boot with was the Dell-branded Windows XP reinstall CD that came packaged with my system. I also tried a couple of Linux boot disks. All of them failed."
04:39:38PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason you said that the system cannot boot from the CDs, is the system able to read the content of the CDs?"
04:40:07PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Like if you put any music CD in, can the system play the music from the CD?"
04:42:11PM Jason: "I can't boot using the hard disk right now to test that, unfortunately; I was trying to boot off of the CDs so I could reinstall the operating system, so I could then boot off of the hard drive. The hard disk is fine, though"
04:44:11PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason I will provide you the steps to boot from the CDs."
04:44:20PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Are you using the same system to chat with us, with which you are facing the issue?"
04:45:03PM Jason: "No, I'm using a different system"
04:45:41PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Are you near the system?"
04:46:21PM Jason: "Yes"
04:47:20PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay. Then please restart the system, press F12 as you see the blue dell logo on the screen."
04:47:34PM ANIRBAN_149447: "This will give you option to set the boot sequence."
04:47:57PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Set the boot sequence as DVD drive as No. 1 and then restart the system."
04:48:17PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Please put the windows XP installation CD before restarting the system."
04:49:15PM Jason: "Right. I've done those things, and it starts to boot off of the CD, and then hangs"
04:50:02PM ANIRBAN_149447: "May I please know if the system can boot to Operating System?"
04:52:07PM Jason: "Let me try booting from a different hard drive into the operating system"
04:52:22PM Jason: "But, I cannot boot from the CD at all; that's the reason I'm writing you today"
04:52:57PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason is the system booting from the hard drive?"
04:54:12PM Jason: "Yes, it's booting from the hard drive now"
04:54:19PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
04:54:56PM ANIRBAN_149447: "After the system boots, please put any music or data cd in the drive and check if the system reads it."
04:55:42PM Jason: "OK, still booting up"
04:55:48PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
04:58:28PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Please let me know the result."
04:59:19PM Jason: "OK, I put the Dell-branded Windows reinstall CD in there, and it seems to be reading it OK from the OS"
05:00:06PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
05:00:55PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason as I understand the CD Drive is reading the CDs well. But it is not able to boot from it. Right?"
05:01:43PM Jason: "Right. It can't boot from any CD, and the Dell Diagnostic program returns an error in the drive's confidence test"
05:02:10PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
05:02:23PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason did you try to test the hard drive as well?"
05:02:42PM Jason: "Yes, and the hard drive passed just fine."
05:02:48PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
05:04:52PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason please do the following steps."
05:05:16PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click the Start button, and then click Run. The Run window appears. Type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK. The Registry Editor window appears."
05:05:25PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click the plus (+) next to the following entries: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services"
05:05:34PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click to open the registry key Cdrom. In the right pane, double-click the entry named Autorun. Change the Value data to 1 and then click OK."
05:05:48PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click the X in the upper-right corner to close the Registry Editor window. Click the Start button, click Shut Down, click Restart, and then click OK. After the computer restarts, the Autorun feature is enabled."
05:06:10PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Or else you can this:"
05:06:20PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop (or click the Start button and then click My Computer). The My Computer window appears."
05:06:29PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Right-click the CD or DVD drive and then left-click Properties. The CD Properties window appears."
05:06:43PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click the Autoplay tab. From the drop-down list, click to select the CD type you want (i.e. music CD, video CD, pictures CD, etc.). Click Prompt me each time to choose an action. Repeat steps 4-5 for any other CD type you prefer. Click OK when finished."
05:07:53PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Please let me know when you are done with the steps."
05:08:44PM Jason: "The registry key was already set as you describe, and the autoplay settings were correct."
05:08:52PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
05:09:16PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason now please insert a bootable CD in the CD drive. Restart the system. The Dell logo screen appears. Press the key to enter the System Setup."
05:09:17PM Jason: "I'm having trouble when I boot up the machine, before Windows even starts"
05:09:23PM Jason: "ok."
05:11:00PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Press the and the

key to navigate to the Boot Order screen. Press the key or the key to highlight CD-ROM Drive. Press the key or the key to move CD-ROM Drive to the top of the list"
05:11:20PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Press the key. Press the space bar to select Yes. Press the key to Save changes and exit now."
05:12:00PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Please then check if it boots from the CD."
05:13:12PM Jason: "Done, and it still hangs."
05:14:00PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
05:14:17PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason do you want to install Operating System all over?"
05:15:47PM Jason: "No. Since the Dell Diagnostic tool is reporting an error, I just want the DVD drive to be replaced."
05:16:10PM Jason: "I'm quite confident that the operating system is just fine."
05:16:27PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Jason please let me know if the drive has been replaced before."
05:16:52PM Jason: "No, the DVD is the original that came with the system"
05:18:40PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay. Jason please do the next steps. If this fails then I will replace the drive for you."
05:19:10PM Jason: "okay"
05:19:18PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Thank you for your co-operation."
05:20:04PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click the Start button, click Run. In the Open box, type Regedit, and then click OK. Click the plus sign (+) next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. NOTE: When you click the plus sign (+) next to a folder, it will expand displaying the folders it contains in the left-hand pane of the Registry Editor. When a folder is highlighted, its contents will be displayed in the Click the plus sign (+) next to SYSTEM"
05:20:16PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click the plus sign (+) next to CurrentControlSet. Click the plus sign (+) next to Control. Click the plus sign (+) next to Class. Click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. On the right side of the window, click UpperFilters."
05:20:32PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Click Edit on the menu bar. Click the plus sign (+) next to Class. Click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. On the right side of the window, click UpperFilters. Click Edit on the menu bar. Click Delete, and then click OK."
05:20:42PM ANIRBAN_149447: "On the right side of the window, click LowerFilters. Click Edit on the menu bar. Click Delete, and then click OK."
05:21:28PM ANIRBAN_149447: "After this please check if the issue is resolved."
05:23:16PM Jason: "OK, I edited the registry and I'm getting ready to reboot"
05:23:22PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Okay."
05:23:25PM ANIRBAN_149447: "Thank you."
05:23:34PM Session Ended

Another very long day, and not a lot of photos to show for it! OK, perhaps "not a lot" isn't the way most people would describe it, but there are definitely fewer than I have taken on most other longish days of the trip.

Photos: today only (sorry, no captions yet, it is late!), all days

We started the day at the other Disney water park, Typhoon Lagoon. We went around their lazy river, which went all around the circumference of the park just like the one at Blizzard Beach. I think this one might have been shorter, but I'm not sure. We then spent a fair amount of time in the wave pool, which was different from the Blizzardish wave pool we saw yesterday--whereas the one at Blizzard Beach produced medium-sized waves on a continuous basis, the one at Typhoon lagoon produced only about one wave every two minutes, and that wave was positively giant. It was fun, although we almost lost the little dry box I had around my neck which had, among other important things, our room keys in it. That would have been a bad thing. Fortunately some folks behind us found it and were nice enough to return it to us almost immediately. That's all we really did at Typhoon Lagoon; we were there for a couple of hours, then we made our way back to the hotel bus.

[More below]

We started the day by going to one of Disney World's two water parks, Blizzard Beach. Given my avoidance of things heights-related, we didn't really take advantage of the many water slides that were available there. We did go on "Teamboat Springs", which is a long, gradual slide in a raft that's big enough for about four people, and we spent about a half-hour in largish tubes on "Cross-Country Creek," a meandering river that goes all the way around the park. We didn't spend more than a few hours at the park because we didn't get there until about 11:30 or so, and we planned to leave around 3:30 due to dinner reservations. After doing the above (and spending some time in the wave pool--just like the beach, only better in my opinion), we figured we had done enough there (especially since we're planning to go to Typhoon Lagoon, the other Disney water park, tomorrow), so we left at about 2:30 to go on back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner reservations at 4:45. We left just in time, too: as we were walking out, an announcer came over the intercom and said that the National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for our area! It was raining quite hard by the time the bus got back to our hotel, but it never really got any more severe than that.

Photos: today only, all days

Oh, and I didn't take any photos (gasp!) at the water park, because I didn't even take my camera! We weren't planning to rent a locker, so I just took myself, my room key, some money, and a towel!

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