This is not a man with a blog.

Dear ATA Customer Support

By Shabbir | March 25, 2005 |

[Sent via ATA Customer Relations website] Dear ATA, On March 24th I flew from Chicago Midway to Washington Reagan on flight #4292.  This normally 90 minute flight left Chicago at 8:10pm (Washington time) and I finally entered a taxi at Reagan when I landed at 1:30am. When our flight bound for Reagan was diverted by…

It’s the accidental discoveries that are sweetest.

By Shabbir | March 23, 2005 | Comments Off on It’s the accidental discoveries that are sweetest.

Last night at the weekly Mindshare home poker tournament I finally got a chance to put some walk behind all my talk of being a badass poker player when I took first place in our twelve person tournament. I’d like to say it was all skill, and to some extent it was, but I got…

Movin’ on up

By Shabbir | March 22, 2005 | Comments Off on Movin’ on up

So I took my friend’s and my poker buddy’s advice and moved from the $5 to the $10 single table tournaments on Party Poker.  My poker coach said, "This will be easy!  You won’t see a difference until you hit the $50 entry tournaments." My poker buddy (who is a million times better than me)…

And so it goes…

By Shabbir | March 17, 2005 | Comments Off on And so it goes…

I took the plunge yesterday and moved Sarah’s and my blogs over to the TypePad service.  Frankly, I was just tired of doing the maintenance on the MovableType system myself, and concluded it was sucking my "joy of life".  So while we were traveling back from the South by Southwest festival, I bought a day…

Raking pots among the sunburned

By Shabbir | March 2, 2005 | Comments Off on Raking pots among the sunburned

I had to attend a business meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, so I went 48 hours early so I could play some cards. I actually got to play about twenty hours worth at several different casinos on the area. Here’s my quick tutorial on low limit poker in Florida, a review of where to go and what you’ll want to do when you get there.

In case you’re wondering how I measure my poker rooms, here’s a sense of what I’d like to see in a Florida poker room:

  • In-table card shufflers to maximize your hands-per-hour
  • A ban on smoking at the poker table to maximize my lifespan
  • Good dealers and wait staff
  • Free drinks
  • A steady flow of people who don’t mind losing at poker because they’re enjoying themselves

Profit margin on the iPod Shuffle is huge baby, HUGE!

By Shabbir | February 25, 2005 | Comments Off on Profit margin on the iPod Shuffle is huge baby, HUGE!

My friend and writing touchstone (and reporter extraordinaire) Aaron Pressman caught this tidbit for me on the iPod Shuffle: Analysts at IDC recently found that Apple makes a healthy 35 percent to 40 percent profit on each iPod shuffle sold, and will make even more from expected drops in flash memory pricing. “The iPod shuffle’s…

How to refill a Chef’n pepper grinder

By Shabbir | February 14, 2005 |

Our friend Eric blew through town and thankfully stayed at our house.  Eric’s arrival is always a good excuse to cook, and Sarah shamed me by making a delicious duck breast with a broccoli and cauliflower bacon stuffing while Eric and I dug into a couple bottles of wine.  “No, none for you girl, you’re pregnant.”  (We’re having a baby boy, if you hadn’t yet heard.)

Cream of garlic soup

By Shabbir | February 9, 2005 | Comments Off on Cream of garlic soup

Many years ago I visited Bayona, the high end restaurant run by legendary New Orleans chef Susan Spicer. The first course was a soup I’ve never had at any other restaurant, and I suspect most chefs don’t have the balls to serve: Cream of Garlic soup.

Netflix account queues

By Shabbir | February 3, 2005 | Comments Off on Netflix account queues

[This article was featured at a new website for tech tips called Lifehacks. -Shabbir]

Netflix, Inc.

Netflix has implemented a new feature called "Queues". It lets you take your existing Netflix account and divide it up into sub-accounts for different family members. I believe this feature falls into what Clayton Christensen, guru of all things related to product innovation, would call a feature that overserves the market. In other words, a feature that customers don't need, and won't make a product decision on.

However that doesn't mean it's not a great feature. Nor does it mean that you, as a wise and technology-savvy consumer ahead of the pack, won't find it amazingly cool.

January 2005 poker results

By Shabbir | February 1, 2005 | Comments Off on January 2005 poker results

As the new year begins, I’m continuing my project of tracking my poker results that I started in 2004. I’m taking my poker hobby seriously, and am taking many measures to improve my play. More about the hands I’ve seen this month, and my various changes in record-keeping below.