As a former judoka who has not practiced Judo for ten years, I still have a love of the sport.  I was very disappointed to find out that NBC has chosen not to give Judo any airtime this year.  However, I have found the complete schedule of online Judo coverage.

Interestingly, NBC is using Silverlight for their online Olympics coverage.  Could this be the tipping point for Silverlight adoption?

It's a true story.  Slightly embellished by the editors, but the important facts are intact.

Update:  It made the front page of Fark.com!

My wife and I decided to trade in our 2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac.

We loved our old 2005 Sport Trac.  We got it new for a song because it was a 4.0 liter V6 with no options to speak of, and we added a bunch of aftermarket accessories, including step bars, a bed cover, cruise control, remote keyless entry, and an MP3 player.  We used it to pull our camper (a 19' Jayco Jay Flight travel trailer) to many a campground.  I loved this truck, and trading it in was hard.

My wife had been wanting something with a little more room (thinking about growing the family a little more) so we were looking at trading in our 2006 Hyundai Sonata on a minivan of some kind.  The problem is, we owe way more on my car than it's worth.  We'd take a bath if we traded it in.  And then, while we were browsing the local Ford lot, inspiration struck.  They had a beautiful 2007 Ford Explorer Ironman XLT with only 17,000 miles on it, having been a Ford company car for the first year of its life.  It had third row seating, in-dash navigation, DVD entertainment center, and a bunch of other options the other truck didn't have.  For me, the selling point was the 4.6 liter V8 and class III/IV towing package.  That will make life a lot easier with the camper.  And since the trade-in value on the Sport Trac was more than we owed, it made sense to make that our trade-in.

So here's the new truck...

One of the benefits of the towing package is that it's supposedly pre-wired for a brake controller, which is a must when you're pulling a heavy trailer like our camper.  So one of the first things I looked for was the plug for hooking up my brake controller.  I stuck my head under the dash and looked and looked, but couldn't find it.  Some Internet forums suggested I look behind the glove compartment, and it wasn't there either.  So I finally ended up taking it to the dealer's service center, and, after having to look it up, they showed me how to find it.  So in the hope that this will help somebody Googling for it, allow me to illustrate...

Find the seam in the dash panels just to the left of the e-brake...

And then reach up directly behind that seam.  You're looking for a small gray plug clipped to the metal frame behind the dash.  Here's the view from under/behind the dash (between the e-brake and brake)...

So there you have it!  Hope you find it easier than I did!

I won't bother espousing the benefits of Twitter;  Scott Hanselman already has, and he did it far more eloquently than I would have. 

Let it suffice to say that, after some prodding from Alan Stevens, I got on Twitter, and I'm having a ball with it.  You can follow me via the "My Twitter Updates" column on the right, or, better yet, get on Twitter yourself and join the community!

My three year old (and oldest) son, Connor, had a very rough time as an infant and toddler when we tried to transition him to his own crib.  It terrified him, and my wife and I didn't see a need to traumatize the poor kid, so we let him sleep with us in our bed.  We always figured it'd be easier to transition him to his own bed later with a carrot-and-stick approach, e.g. "Now Connor, if you want to borrow the car this weekend, you need to sleep in your own bed."  :)  Seriously though, our approach to parenting has largely been one of watching our kids for signals that they're ready to try new things and encouraging that development as it happens.

Sure enough, a few weeks ago Connor flat-out asked us for his own bed.  We were floored.  We moved his toddler bed from his room into the nursery (which is right across the hall from our room) and got a new toddler bed for our younger son, Cade.  We set up both beds next to each other.  We also installed a wall-mounted TV.  I realize that may be controversial, as a lot of people have a problem with exposing kids to TV at a young age.  Nevertheless, watching a Disney movie or some Blues Clues on DVD has been something he can focus on to relax in bed and dose off, and we still read to our kids frequently.  Their TV doesn't have a satellite receiver and we only use it for watching their favorite DVDs.  (Side note:  Eventually, I plan on getting a digital media player for their room so we don't need to mess with DVDs anymore.  We've already eliminated DVDs in the den and living room.)

Tonight, as I was tucking him into his bed, he asked me to read him a story.  On his mom's suggestion, he selected The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  After I finished reading it to him, he asked me to read him another book.  I asked him what he wanted, and he replied, "Star Wars."  I grabbed the Golden Books rendition of the Battle of Hoth and started reading it to him as he pointed out characters like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

After I read to him the story of Luke Skywalker almost being eaten by a wampa, and Darth Vader and his army of snowtroopers storming Echo Base, I asked him if he was ready for me to put on a movie for him.  "Watch a movie!" he exclaimed in the affirmative.  "What movie?" I asked, expecting Cars or Toy Story. 

"Star Wars!" came the reply.  I asked if "Return of the Jedi Star Wars" was a good choice.  "Watch Jedi Star Wars," he replied.  So I put on Return of the Jedi, kissed him goodnight, and closed the door.

I've never been so proud.  :)

My mom emailed me complaining about getting the following error when logging into her Google Calendar:

Oops.  Another calendar has been created for cams.mom@moms-isp.net (not her real address).
Each calendar needs its own email address so friends can send you invitations.

My mom couldn't figure out what this error meant or why she was getting it.  She'd been using Google Calendar for over a year, using the Google account she created with her ISP-provided email address as a login.  And she even contacted her ISP (Wild Blue satellite Internet) at one point, who had no idea what she was talking about.

So I took a look, and I pretty quickly managed to figure out what the problem was.

Her ISP decided to provide Google Apps for Domains for their customers.  They just created user accounts in Google Apps for all of their customersone weekend.  As a result, there were two Google accounts with cams.mom@moms-isp.net as their login - One that was a standard, run-of-the-mill Google account with access to Calendar, Docs, etc., and one that was the domain-specific login to Google Apps.

So the only way she could resolve this was change to a different email address as her login for her standard Google account.  Not a huge deal, since she has a couple different email accounts, but definitely an inconvenience. 

Still, I have two issues with this:

1. Was this scenario not anticipated by Google?  Why not work around it?  Why not merge her old, "standard" calendar into her new, domain-specific calendar?  For what it's worth, that's why I haven't migrated from my Google account to Google Apps for Domains.  I'd love to have my own camthegeek.com Google Apps, but it'd be an all-out migration for my Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar.  Why can't they just tie my Gmail and camthegeek.com addresses together as some sort of alias, so if I'm logged in to Google Calendar as me@gmail, I'm also logged in as me@camthegeek?  That way my friends wouldn't have to change their Google Talk settings to keep in touch with me, and I wouldn't have to migrate my Gmail and Calendar.
   
   
2. What the hell is wrong with Wild Blue that they couldn't train their tech support to anticipate this and properly guide their customers through it?  I understand the allure of Google Apps.  If I were an ISP, I'd put my customers on it.  It's a major value-add.  But in their pre-migration activities, did they really not anticipate that, out of their thousands of customers, one of them might possibly have endeavored to create a Google account with their wildblue.net email address?  Give me a break.

I've got a grab-bag of information to talk about, but none of the topics is enough to justify a full post.  So I'll just rapid-fire these tidbits of news in a single post...

• I've had my mid-year review at Corillian.  It was a positive experience, and I'm feeling much more comfortable in my role with the company.  Between this review and a fruitful meeting with a client, I'm really excited about the opportunities I have to accomplish some really cool things.  And telecommuting is getting easier, too.  I daresay I'm more productive than I've ever been.
  
  
• I picked up a Garmin nüvi 200 GPS.  For an entry-level GPS geared toward car navigation, I couldn't be happier with it.  My only complaint is it seems to make some weird route suggestions occasionally.  For example, I'll be driving to San Antonio later this spring.  Google Maps says the quickest route is I-35 all the way from KC to San Antonio, which seems pretty reasonable to me.  The nüvi disagrees, and has me taking a route that, while technically shorter in distance, is also an hour longer in terms of time according to Google Maps.  Meh, it'd still get me there eventually.  That's the most important part, I think.  I drove to Omaha, NE for business last week, and it performed beautifully in getting me to the hotel, around town, and then back home.
  
  
• I'm an ergonomics nut.  I love ergonomic keyboards and mice.  My current keyboard is the Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000, which I think is the best MS Natural Keyboard since the original (which I still have in my closet).  I was using a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000, which was mostly comfortable but was causing some  minor discomfort in my first and middle knuckles and my wrist.  When I was in Omaha last week, a colleague introduced me to the Microsoft Wireless Laser Natural Mouse 6000.  I ordered one for myself immediately.  While not as alien as a vertical mouse, your hand is elevated and rotated in a position that, while extremely natural and comfortable, is a little weird at first.  Give it a day and you'll never turn back.  I cannot recommend this mouse enough.
  
  
• If you have multiple IM clients running, you owe it to yourself to try a unified client.  I use Pidgin (nee Gaim) to log onto my Windows Live and Google Talk accounts, as well as CheckFree's internal Sametime server.  Very handy.
  
  
• My brother-in-law (and close friend), Bruce (aka Unknown Echo), started Basic Military Training for the US Air Force a couple weeks ago.  He's a remarkable young man, and we're all very proud of him.
  
  
• I wish my old friends at Commerce would quit blowing off my lunch invitations.  I'm looking at you, Joel.

I don't have a traditional landline.  I have Vonage.  Originally, switching to Vonage was something I did to save a few bucks, as the monthly cost of Vonage, which includes unlimited calling anywhere in the US, was still less than just local service from the phone company.  Over the past year, they've added services that make them even more of a value.  Most of these are "beta" features, ala Google, but they're still cool as hell.

Vonage Contacts:  More than a simple online phonebook, this is a full fledged six-way conference call system with a slick AJAX interface.  Very useful for the telecommuter.

Vonage Me:  A "click to call" feature that allows your contacts to initiate a toll-free call with you without dialing direct.  I've added the URL to my email signature.

Vonage Fax:  An outgoing fax service.  I've really, really needed this service for a long time.  I've tried a few pay services on the web, but this one is included with the cost of my Vonage subscription.

Vonage Talk:  A softphone interface for your primary Vonage line, combined with an IM client.  For some reason, I couldn't get this one to work.  It kept erroneously telling me my password was wrong.

I've loved Vonage for as long as I've been with them, and their willingness to explore new features like this makes me love them even more.  It's too bad they've been having financial problems.  They deserve a far better fate than to be sued into oblivion by the traditional telecom industry.

I took this picture at the intersection of MO-169 and 188th St. in Smithville, Missouri, not too far from my house.  Somebody lost control in an ice storm and took out the stop sign.  The county (or would this be city or state?) replaced the sign quickly.

Perhaps a little too quickly.