She’s out of my league

The good news: I’ll be watching a concert with a sweet, charming, really pretty gal. She has body issues, but believe me, she is WAY out of my league.

The bad news: It’s not a date. In fact, she went out of her way to emphasize this fact.

Rats.

Things I wish for

I wish that I were taller, leaner, more muscular, and better looking. Oh, and that my looks fit the ethnic preferences of most women.

I wish that I could sing, that I had an outstanding sense of rhythm, and that I could dance better.

I wish that I could live in a house that didn’t require as much energy to heat or cool, and that I didn’t have so much lawn space to mow.

I wish that I didn’t have to deal with so many low-leverage tasks.

I wish that I could marry someone who looked like Courteney Cox did in Cocoon: The Return.

I wish that I didn’t have to perform maintenance on my car.

I wish that my feet didn’t hurt.

When new computers fail

Here’s another quote from the article that I cited earlier.

The world is starting to notice that computers are cranky, complicated and decidedly user-unfriendly. In fact, so many people complain about these piles of silicon, wire, metal and glass that computer vendors are now ranked No. 7 on the Better Business Bureau’s nationwide complaint list, just behind used-car dealerships and home remodeling contractors. Even brand-new computers fail at an alarming rate. More than half of the respondents to a recent ComputerWorld magazine survey found serious flaws with their new machines, right out of the box.

Once, years ago, I was using this tiny little handheld computer. Not a Palm Pilot or PocketPC, mind you. Rather, it was basically a compact controller. At one point, the device would no longer communicate with my host computer, and I felt confident that it was a malfunction. I was also fairly certain (though not 100% certain) that I had not done anything to damage the thing. (It’s difficult to damage a serial port simply by wiring it incorrectly.)

However, one other fella said, “I dont think so. It’s a new computer, after all. Back when I did tech support for another company, we’d routinely get parts shipped back to us that had no malfunctions whatsoever. That happened about 90% of the time.” (I’m obviously paraphrasing here, as I don’t remember the details of what he said. That was the gist of it.)

Now, he could have been right. As I said, I can’t rule out the possibility that I somehow messed the thing up. However, even if 90% of all customer-reported malfunctions are bogus, this does not logically mean that a brand new computer cannot fail. In fact, as the article I cited says, they do fail at an alarming rate.

Common wisdom says that if a computer fails, it will probably do so within the first few weeks of purchase. That’s precisely why manufacturers typically provide one-year warranties.

Some managers might not be so understanding. After all, if a new computer breaks down, surely that means you’ve mishandled it, right? And given the stress that managers are often under, I can understand why they might feel that way. However, the reality is that new electronic devices — especially things as complex as computers — routinely do break down early on, even when the user is not at fault. It could indeed be user error, but it could also quite likely be a genuine hardware problem. Such problems are common indeed.

I hate bloatware

I hate bloatware. I hate software that is so hopelessly bloated with features of questionable value that it no longer performs in a quick, timely manner. (Yeah, Windows Vista. I’m looking at you!)

This article offered some useful insights into this issue. To wit:

The brutal realities of the software marketplace are probably more responsible for our frustration than the industry’s growing pains. Unlike cars and other consumer products, software doesn’t wear out. Sell people a functional word processing package today, and they can use it for the rest of their lives. So, to continue making money, software vendors are caught in a never-ending quest to add features and functions they hope will entice consumers to buy upgrades.

As a result, today’s fully loaded applications are more complicated, require more electronic memory and are more likely to crash than their forebears. For example, the first version of Microsoft Word, released in 1984, used a mere 27,000 lines of code. Today’s version has 100 times as many lines and three times as many commands. Included are capabilities that not long ago could have passed for distinct applications in their own right: a drawing program, a desktop publishing program and a web page authoring program.

To some extent, I’m sympathetic. Nevertheless, it’s a huge annoyance.

The article goes on to say,

Philippe Kahn, a software executive who helped developed the Micral, one of the first personal computers in the 1970s, calls it “bloatware.” Fierce competition accelerates this virtual obesity. When one vendor adds 10 more features, its competitors are forced to follow suit or lose market share.

Consumer experts insist buyers want bigger, better hardware and software. Just like fast cars and designer clothes, the latest computer gadget makes buyers feel powerful and cool, says Terry Winograd, a Stanford computer science professor who heads the program in human-computer interaction. “Most of it has to do with self-image and status.”

When it comes to software, less is definitely not more, as Microsoft found out when it tried to sell a version of the spreadsheet program Excel with shorter, simpler menus. Nobody wanted to buy it, says Ken Dye, who manages the company’s desktop products test labs. “People want the features because they say to themselves, ‘One day I may use them.’ Just like they prefer to buy a whole shed full of tools rather than the one wrench they need today.”

The pressure to rush sexy new products to market is so great, in fact, that quality assurance often falls by the wayside, according to a survey of product managers in 11 software companies that was released last year by the Stanford Computer Industry Project.

A majority of the companies surveyed allowed engineers to add and remove features right up to the product release date–even if that meant that the manuals were no longer accurate. Squeezed by their own marketing departments, product managers poured out their frustration over slipshod quality control in post-survey interviews. “It almost brought some of them to tears,” recalls Barr, who managed the study.

Yep, based on my experience with previous companies, I can really believe that quality control falls by the wayside. The article also raised a good point about how documentation invariably suffers. (This article here discusses that matter as well.)

Wow. How do people like this function in the real world?

Got some messages from some person strange woman on an internet site… one who immediately spouted off with all sorts of incoherent criticisms over some issue. Let’s just say that this person appears to have some real reading comprehension problems. I don’t say that lightly; indeed, I almost never say such things about people. In this case though, I think it’s clearly true.

And she’s a very unpleasant person as well.

Steak N Shake cutie

There’s a cute blonde gal in the latest Steak N Shake commercial. She’s not an outstanding beauty, at least not as far as I can tell. (Her hair is made up to fit under her server’s hat, which makes it hard to evaluate her true looks.) However, she’s got really expressive eyes, and she seems very sweet.

Ex-She Spies

I see that Natasha Henstridge is now hosting some hokey urban legend show on the Discovery Channel. The show itself isn’t horrible; however, it’s filled with all sorts of padding. They basically took a 30-minute concept and dragged it out to fill a full hour.

Personally, I would have rather seen her former co-star, Kristen Miller, in this role. Dang, Kristen was one of the most amazingly cute women on TV.

Cardio work DVDs

I’ve been discovering the joys of various cardio workout DVDs. Some of them are lame, but some are actually pretty darned good. I really liked Gilad’s bootcamp DVD, for example, and Fat Burning Workout for Dummies was also remarkably good.

The Dancing with the Stars exercise DVD was very lame, though.

I plan to watch the following DVDs as well.

1. Fat-Burning Kickboxing Workout for Dummies
2. Dance Workout for Dummies
3. Bootcamp. Maximum calorie burn. (from The Firm)

pusillanimous

I learned a new word today: pusillanimous.

It means “lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid.”

Trying to get in better shape

I’ve been eating lean, watching my portion sizes, and doing a lot of cardio work. I’ve also been lifting weights, paying special attention to my deltoids, forearms, and glutes.

Why?

It’s a question of physical appearance. I’m a fairly short fella. I’m also Asian, and women don’t tend to find Asian features attractive in a man. I earn a good living, but I’m not rich, and I don’t have the kind of cockiness that some women find attractive… nor could I ever see myself acting that way.

I also tend to strike out a lot. A lot.

So I’m trying to get leaner and sculpt my body more. Franlkly, there’s not a whole lot more that I can do at this point.