Whoa. Just got my hands on Forza Motorsport for the Xbox. Man… an amazing driving simulator. I haven’t spent a lot of time with Gran Turismo 4 (I don’t have a PS2) but Forza seems to be a notch up. The sound is absolutely incredible – thru my home theater it sounds like you’re really at the track.

If you have the wherewithal, I highly recommend picking up a copy. I’d write more, but I’m going to go back to the game now.

/me hums that “changes” song…

Lots of changes in my life lately; so blogging’s been a low priority. Let’s go in chronological order:

1. Quit my job with Sun Microsystems after almost five years of service. Sun was still a decent place to work, and I really liked the team I was on. Those fellas seriously kicked ass - they were among the best and brightest people I’ve ever worked with. However, after lots of reflection and looking around, I realized that my career choices at Sun were severely limiited. It’s really hard to move laterally and climb any kind of a ladder in a company that is shrinking. So, that brings me to Item #2…
2. Got a killer new job at an online advertising firm (NO, it’s NOT SPAM! Banner ad vending and stuff like that - the pay-per-click business.) An old buddy of mine got hold of me and asked if I’d like a “Director of Enterprise Systems” position. Just out of the blue like that. I couldn’t say no. So now I’m responsible for around 200 Linux and Solaris boxes. :) I’ve got room to maneuver in a company that’s actually profitable. What a concept! I haven’t been this pumped up in a long time.
3. Lost my 15” Powerbook as that belonged to Sun. Not a huge deal; the new joint gave me a 12” Powerbook (867 Rev A w/ Superdrive) and a T42 Thinkpad with a 1.7Ghz P-M. Both are nice machines - right now I’m using the Powerbook for more personal stuff and the T42 is running Linux as my desktop and portable workstation for the office. Linux works well in this environment; as I’ve got to manage a lot of servers and I need tools like “GQ” for LDAP management.
4. The new gig also gave me a Blackberry. This is a mixed blessing. The g33k in me digs it - I was even IRCing from it the other night. However, the family man in me hates it; as it’s a really sophisticated electronic leash. But this may pass once the team gets built up and the load can be distributed amongst a few people… which brings me to the next point:
5. I get to hire people! Minions, yeah! :) This is good - I’ve been needing a challenge outside of tech-related stuff; and I’ll be able to use all that management stuff I studied in college. However, don’t think that I won’t be down in the trenches hacking away and racking servers - I won’t let myself become a deskbound manager, and I believe that a good manager won’t make his guys do anything he wouldn’t do. Besides, this place isn’t big enough - there’s a TON of work that needs to be done.
6. All in all; I’m really excited. Too bad I won’t be actually going to work today…. the company’s paying for us to have a day out at Bay Meadows (the horse race track). Awwww…… ;) :D :D
   

Didn’t want to forget to say:
HAPPY BIRFDAY JORGE!

Must have been cool to have Whorey release on the day HOR-HAY celebrates the day he came kicking and screaming into this world.

Have a good one, Captain GNOME.

Looks like you’re officially evil. I can’t wait for your red cylon eye to start sweeping back and forth. ;)

New blog entry. Yay.

XBOX
Got a modded Xbox. Man, is that thing fun… not only can I watch all the MPEG-4 videos I have (Battlestar Galactica, anyone?) but I can also play kick butt games like Burnout 3 and BloodRayne 2. How cool is that? This’ll make archiving stuff off the TiVo better too - I can use my TurboNET card to suck the TiVo stream off and re-encode it to MPEG-4 and stick it on my server, and use the Xbox to play it back. Sweet.

Car update.
The dealer has ordered a shortblock for my car, as they still can’t diagnose the noise it’s making. To my knowledge, they have not yet checked the driveplate/clutch assembly like I requested. Oh well, new engine for me, I guess - there’s no way I’m taking the old one now, as they’ve removed the rod caps, piston/rod assemblies, and torn the head apart. *sigh* I miss my car.

Public Speaking
I just got back from a work convention, where I spoke on SSL and Certificates. That was actually more fun than I expected. I need to do more of that.

Head, anyone?
Ken says he’s finallly gotten round to getting the hackergotchi heads on Planet all working. Let’s see if my magnificence shows through. :)