Lockdown

My job has some pretty strict security policies, and they have decided to really crack down on everyone, to make sure that we are in compliance. It should be a good thing, and it is important, but some things go a bit far. They are taking away Google Earth. We tend to use it a lot for seeing what kind of imagery is available, and for the nice 3D terrain. We have a couple of pro licenses, which we keep, but the free ones are out. ITunes is also out,as well as any other program not bought by corporate. They promised tighter internet filters, to make sure that no one can use the internet. Some people said that they would be looking for new jobs because the policies will be so strict.

People like to listen to music, and there are a lot of people that use free programs to get work done. It has always been possible in the past to install trial versions of software to see if it will do what we need. Now we need to have the IT group investigate it first, then install it if they see it as necessary. Many times we realize there is something to improve the process near the end, and we don't have time for this bureaucracy.

URS is still fairly young as a large company, and it has remained fairly agile, but with all the lock downs, they will become less able to deal with new technology in a timely manner, and this will make them less competitive in the long run. I suppose that it happens to most large companies, it seems almost inevitable.

Democrats win

It turns out that most of my votes don't seem to count for much. A lot of people have said that Democrats votes don't count in Utah, but it turns out that Utah doesn't count for much anyway. I've heard that the electoral college is a good institution, however I feel that it is an antiquated system that should be given over to popular vote. The popular vote is close, but the electoral college is very skewed toward Obama. That just doesn't seem right to me. Plus if the vote was simply a popular count, everyone's vote would count, no matter which state, or where they lived. This would make it more important that every state had good security and standards for taking and counting votes, but I'm sure that is something that we could put together.

While I am very worried about many of the promises Obama has made, I can't really complain until he actually gets into the office and starts changing things. He may end up not being as bad as he sounded at times. He did say that we wanted to improve situations in the country, and some of his ideas actually sounded worth while. I am against his ideas of socialism and redistributing the wealth. I believe that since the government is doing so much to help people, we don't get the chance to help each other as much. I believe that as a people, without government influence, we would take better care of people, and teach them to take care of themselves better, than the government does. Before we had all of these programs, people helped each other, and they needed to know their neighbors, and help them, so that when they needed help, it would be there. It was more important to keep good ties with Family for the same reasons. Now people have no need of each other, because they can just get hand outs from the government. And now it may only get worse. I just wish that I had the choice of who to help if I have the money, rather than being taxed, and being forced to help, while losing all of the blessings.

Google's Phone Foray

Since our two year bondage to T-Mobile is almost over, I've been looking around for a phone that would encourage me to sign up for another two years. I have seen the iPhone, and it is a wonderous little thing, it doesn't however come from T-Mobile, and I can't spend $600 for an unlocked one. I've seen the Blackberry... and it seems somewhat useful, but that screen is too small.
I finally found the most perfect phone ever, a few days ago, the Google G1! Only offered by T-Mobile, it has a touch screen, full Qwerty keyboard, and a track ball! Any way you slice it, it has the input that you want. Browse the web on a nice large screen, type on the keyboard, send email... and it is open source! Maybe I'll have to write some programs to put on the marketplace... that is if I can convince my wife that I really need this phone. I might even be able to make money with some cool little applications on the marketplace... the phone would pay for itself!

Brisinger

I just finished the newest Eragon related book, titled Brisinger. I had thought that this was going to be a trilogy, but it seems the story is not over yet! I am dissappointed by this. Normally, I like it when good books continue, however it took him two years to write this book, so that means that I have to suffer for probably another two years before I know how it all ends! It really is too bad that they made the movie so horribly different from the book, and totally ruined it. If the movie had done well, maybe I would have films on the next two books to look forward to.

They really are pretty good books, but there are a few parts that I would rather not have my boys read, because they got a bit too graphic with some parts, and it made me feel a bit ill to read it. No, they aren't anything about what you might be thinking, it is about self mutilation by crazy priests, or people trying to prove their strength. Luckily there wasn't too much of it, and hopefully there won't be any more. So, I am telling my boys the story for bedtime, in my own words, so that I can skip over the parts that they don't need to hear about.

Becca's birthday

Here she is, enjoying her birthday afternoon on the couch. Isn't she cute :) We celebrated yesterday by going to her favorite resaurant, and tonight I am making her dinner, so that she can relax a bit. We gave her cards an presents yesterday also, and ate Oreo blizzard ice cream cake for dessert, so hopefully her birthday weekend wasn't too terrible for her.

Computer Fun

I like to build computers, and Nathan acquired a nice piece that needs some upgrading. The case is great, and has 2 fans and a power supply that glow with blue LEDs. He was given this computer by his friend because it no longer worked. We were able to throw in a spare hard drive and a power supply and bring it to life. It is a Pentium 4, which is a little old, but it still has a decent graphics card. He plans on using spare cash to upgrade this as time goes on to his ultimate desktop machine, and this case can definitely handle it.

I like building computers, I was able to put together a fairly top of the line machine for a guy at work for about $800 for the parts. He tells me at least once a week how nice his machine is, faster than the work computers that cost the company $2,000 each. Building that new computer is definitely the cost effective way to go, but if you aren't going to do that, it seems like Gateway has the best price to value ratio, much better than the giants HP and Dell, who tend to charge twice what the parts cost, and they both outsource their tech support to India, while Gateway is all in the US.

Best Board Game Ever

It may be a little hard to see, but this game is Weapons and Warriors, a fun little game that my brother and I played, with the help of my kids. Basically you get to shoot little marbles to knock over little guys, and destroy their castle. But when the castle takes a hit, things really go flying. The boys loved it, and Micah played it all the next day. Nathan ended up winning 2 out of 3 with his lucky shots, but it was all fun, even when my own castle was exploding, it was still fun to watch. Who needs a new movie from Netflix over a 3 day weekend when you can play a game like this.