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Sunday, October 10, 1999
It's a rainy Sunday here in Winston-Salem. In fact, the band of slow drizzling showers is so large that it has also caused a delay in the activities at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte. The good this is that NASCAR will hang out until the last possible minute to try to run the race today and Lowes Motor Speedway has lights, so they can start the race after dark if necessary. From a report on TV, NASCAR is hoping this front will move due north versus west to east. If the storm move easterly, then they've in trouble. If a northern route is taken, then they should be able to get the race going by late afternoon. It'll probably take them the better part of two hours to get the track dry after it stops raining, so you'd better plan on racing into the night from Charlotte at the best. If not, it's my best they'll probably start about 10 in the morning.
Katie and Suzy were supposed to participate in the Crop Walk today as well, but with the weather being as it is, they have decided to bag their participation. The Crop Walk charity got their pledge money and they got their T-Shirt, so I guess everyone is a winner.
Our yard was aerated and overseed about a week ago, so this rain should help get the little seeds going. The downside is the year looks more like a hayfield...it needed mowing when the plugging and seeding was done, but I wanted to try to wait at least a week so the seed would have some chance. Didn't want to blow them all away.
DO YOU KNOW what the first packaged detergent was? Dreft was introduced by Proctor and Gamble on this date back in 1933. I wasn't even a gleam in parents' eye back then. My dad was 11 and mother was 12 and they didn't even know each other.
I WILL BE INVOLVED in a different kind of Winston Cup promotion next week. We are going to Blockbuster Pavilion in Charlotte, putting up a big screen and showing the Winston 500 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race. After the race there will be a concert featuring the Georgia Satellites, Molly Hatchet and Steppenwolf. The event is going to open to those 21 years of age or older and there will be no admission. In addition to the big screen and concert several Winston Cup show cars and other interactive exhibits will be there to entertain the fans. Who knows, if this event is successful we may do more in 2000.
Does this remind you of an airline experience of today?
Taxiing down the tarmac, the jetliner abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After an hour long wait, itfinally took off. A concerned passenger asked the flightattendant, "What was the problem?""The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in theengine," he explained. "It took us awhile to find a new pilot."
Monday, October 11, 1999
The words that us computer geeks have been worrying about have finally been uttered. Memory is in short supply and is has started being allocated to PC manufacturers. This means the prices are going to be heading back north. I will admit I was one of the spoiled ones, enjoying these reasonable prices. I can remember back when I was running NetWare and upgraded a machine to 16 megs of ram, which set me back nearly $500. I was doing this so I could install a 1 gig hard drive. I was elated at the time because I had bought a 1 gig drive for 50c per megabyte. Seems like the dark ages now that we have 15 and 20 gig drives going for less than I paid for that 1 gigge. And it hasn't been that long ago. Maybe some of these one and four meg SIMMs I have laying around might be worth a little more on the recycle market now. This ought to really throw a kink in the Christmas buying season.
MICROSOFT'S ROADSHOW CONTINUES. The Microsoft Extreme Event on November 6 will only be available in Raleigh, NC. Bill's Boys are taking over the United Artists Mission Valley Cinema on this date to wow us with the bells and whistles of some of their new consumer products, including Picture It, Home Publishing Suite 2000, Works Suite 2000, Encarta Reference Suite 2000, Encarta Africana, Expedia Streets and Trips 2000, Money 2000 Deluxe and their new IntelliMouse. In addition to having an opportunity to witness Microsoft's PR machine in action, you'll get a free t-shirt, popcorn and soda for attending this event. I'm sure you will have the opportunity to buy something as well. Nothin's for free.
MICROSOFT IS ALSO working hard to calm the nerves of computer users worrying about Y2K. They've put out a mass mailing this week combating what they claim to be a hoax mailing that says their operating systems will fail at the stroke of midnight on the dawning of the new millenium.
MS IS ALSO REACHING out to its consumers in an attempt to get us to be more than beta testers. Microsoft calls this program its Nationwide Usability Research program and promises that you can influence on how its products of the future are designed. I suppose it's their attempt to develop a pool of focus group attendees who may actually know where to turn a computer on.
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