Shabbir's Diary

Google search v2

By Shabbir | August 31, 2005

Last week while I was in San Francisco I picked up the new Google Search desktop tool. I had the first one but found it occasionally frustrating, and I didn’t enjoy having it index my hard drive, which seemed to take forever.

My first full day back

By Shabbir | August 30, 2005

So it’s my first full day back from "paternity leave". I’ve been calling it "maternity leave", only to have Sarah correct my gender choice for the phrase. I only beg to differ because "paternity leave" sounds like someone forced me to take responsibility for a child I was denying was actually mine. But here, in front of all of you, I admit it. Sarah is my baby momma.

NYT Magazine: How to judge a judge

By Shabbir | August 29, 2005

On Sunday, I started out my day in the Mission in CA and said to Sarah and a friend, "The NYT Magazine is the only thing worth reading in the Sunday paper!"

Ok, so I’m full of crap.

Cell Phone Finder

By Shabbir | August 26, 2005

A while ago I was asked by my friend Jennifer to help her find a Bluetooth phone to use with her carrier. It wasn’t impossible to do, but the information was spread out in different places. Knowing what phones I had available was only part of the puzzle, I then had to figure out such obscure things, such as, "Had Jennifer’s carrier crippled her Bluetooth stack?" Using a combination of CNet and the carrier’s website, I dug up her answers.

Poker raid in Texas

By Shabbir | August 25, 2005

This Poker Raid story mentions profits of five to ten thousand dollars per night. It’s almost certainly a lie. Here’s how you can tell.

Are we running out of oil?

By Shabbir | August 23, 2005

You know how oil is made, right? Old dinosaurs and plants decay for thousands of years and turn into that golden sludge we have become so addicted to. So then you know that "Are we running out of oil?" isn’t really the question. Since the planet is finite, there isn’t an infinite supply.

The question is posed by the NYT Magazine this past Sunday was "When will we run out of oil?" (Link: The Breaking Point – New York Times). The answer may be "soon".

Tearfully but Forcefully, Israel Removes Gaza Settlers – New York Times

By Shabbir | August 18, 2005

Holocaust historians often complain that as World War 2 fades from history, every new generation is less and less familiar with the atrocities of the Nazis. This is a valid concern, every new generation will find that the horrors of the Holocaust carry less weight because they are more distant in history.

San Francisco

By Shabbir | August 16, 2005

You know, on Animal Farm the pigs finally got their comeuppance. I try to remember that when I see someone try and park in a space too small for them here on the streets of the Mission in San Francisco, and block us in our driveway.

Cookin’ for chemotherapy

By Shabbir | August 13, 2005

You haven’t heard from me in a while. I’m finishing my paternity
leave on a three week cross country tour visiting the relatives who are
too sick to travel. I spent the first
week in my home town, St. Louis, because my mom has cancer. The whole
family has circled the wagons, as you might expect, and so I’m home
doing my part. Of course our family is highly competitive, and so
regardless of how sick anyone is, there’s a game ready to be
contested. Tonight it was Spinners, a version of dominoes with wild
cards.

Testing BlogJet

By Shabbir | August 8, 2005

I have installed an interesting application – BlogJet . It’s a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com
“Computers are useless. They…