Comcast's Usage Meter. Perspective from a legal downloader.

Possibly in a former life I had used legitimate tools like bit torrent for purposes that content providers had not sanctioned but have long since ceased doing that. Comcast's commercials constantly taught their product's applicability for bandwidth intensive things such as photos, movies, and videos. I enjoy and exercise the ability to download multiple video podcasts, watch movies on demand through non-Comcast providers such as Amazon and Netflix, and use a third party VOIP service provider on a daily basis. In other words I use Comcast's product exactly as advertised and that is what has them concerned. It is also perfectly positioning Comcast for a class action anti-trust lawsuit. All of those competitor's on demand movies in HD sure do take a big chunk out of that monthly allowance. But hey those graphs sure are pretty to look at.

My darling daughter Helen and her tea...

    My daughter's K-6 Destination Imagination team in a first, won the state challenge and proceeds to the global finals.  

    Helen's team of fourth grader's won the Challenge E which focuses upon Structural Engineering, Materials Science, International Relations, Research, Innovation and Design Process, Mathematics, Theater Arts, Teamwork. While not a first for Cabot School, it is the first time ever that a team composed of elementary students have achieved this.  Their team composed a structure entirely out of newsprint and glue that held the record amount of 25 pounds.

    I hope to have photos of the event and more information soon.  The Vermont Destination Imagination website has some information as does the national website.  The global finals will be held in Knoxville Tennessee on May 26-29.  As I have more information I will post it here.

What to do with a 9 year old for the summer.

I'm having a hard time with Helen, or more accurately the situation. Helen is here 1/3 of the time and since her school friends are naturally back in Vermont she wants to spend all of her time with me and has trouble entertaining herself. Her numerous games, crafts, science activities, etc are out of favor and she doesn't want to do them by herself. When I try to ask her what she does with her friends she gives vague answers like playing, having fun. I know the phrase "I'm bored" seems to be in every young child's repertoire but, Oui Vey what is one to do. Camp is out of the picture for this year partly due to Helen's wishes and partly do to the budget of a dad in grad school.

If anyone has some ideas or experience with this type of thing please share.

Too Cute Guinea Pigs

YouTube - Her Code: Engendering Change in Silicon Valley

YouTube - Her Code: Engendering Change in Silicon Valley

John Hodgman at Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner

This is absolutely hilarious.

Breath Kevin Breath

So the enormity of it all hit me on the train to BWI with Helen this afternoon. Tomorrow I begin a new job as a Drupal CMS programmer at GMU AND, I am starting Discrete Math as the first of two summer classes. I know I'm up for the first but DM has kicked my ads once already. Wish me luck.

I wish I could spend the summer reading about economics, game theory, auction theory, and organizational management theory to name a few but I think my plate already floweth over.

Breath Kevin Breath.