James M. Burke

My dad is coming to visit for Thanksgiving…as a matter of fact, his plane lands in about 25 minutes.  I just now discovered a really cool web application…FlightView.  Continental Airlines uses it.  Basically, it will show you the location of the plane in pretty much real-time.  Continental’s site even shows the estimated arrival time, etc…all updated to the minute: Check Flight Status and Gate Information.  FlightView’s website shows everything from current elevation to ground speed to estimated time to arrival.  Check it out at flightview.com. 

I have just upgraded the blog to WordPress 2.0-beta 2.  I’m not quite sure if this is the full beta 2 release, or if it’s just a pre-release.  I grabbed it from svn this morning, and I will continue pulling nightly builds until the full WP 2.0 release.  It may end up being semi-nightly, but really this doesn’t affect you, my readers, at all.

I hate them. Why, you may ask? First, Microsoft. I’m sorry, but I still believe that Microsoft purposely limited quantities of Xbox 360’s available at launch. To tell everyone that there will be over a million at launch and then cut it back more than half! According to this article, Microsoft denies arranging shortages. Well, I understand that it helps promote the item if it’s a rare at launch, but for me as a consumer, it sucks. I guess it could’ve been worse, I could have preordered and been told I would have one on the first day and then get the call that the quantities were cut and I didn’t make the list.

Second, Retailers. So, for those of us who didn’t preorder, we were told that if you show up at midnight for the launch, you may have a chance. Well, that’s partially true. Apparently every retailer decided to take it upon themselves to randomly hand out letters/fliers guaranteeing you a box at midnight. How stupid. Why is that stupid? Because people will bounce from store to store grabbing letters/fliers to get multiple boxes. I watched this happen. I mean, they don’t even have to stay around at that point. They can leave and go to another store and do the same. I think that they should just let people camp out, or do whatever and at midnight/opening, let them get it. Maybe it creates chaos, but to hand out letters at random…..sucks. I went to the local Wal-Mart last night at like 5:00pm, and they said they already handed out the “seats.” What!?!? I don’t see anyone in line.

So, that was my personal rant. Did I get an Xbox 360? No. Am I bitter? Yes. Will I get over it? Of course. I do know why they do these kinds of things, but it sucks for those who didn’t get one. That’s why I should have pre-ordered earlier, huh?

UPDATE: So, I overexaggerated about Microsoft.  I’m sure they were trying to get as many out as possible…I forgot that IBM just recently released the Cell processors a few weeks back. I’m sure it’s difficult to throw 1 million of them in a box and have them on the shelves in a few weeks.  Now I’m seeing articles about crashes, so maybe it’s a good idea to wait anyway.