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Catching up on the pile of magazines – business and technology – that are stacked up on my desk here. Saw an article that says StarBucks is considering letting suppliers make after-hours deliveries by using RFID to track who’s coming and going. (Starbucks’ RFID Plan, Informationweek, Dec 13, 2004). They must be pretty serious about it (or Laurie Sullivan was running low on material), because when I went to their website to try to find the link to the article, I found articles two weeks in a row saying basically the same thing (Starbucks Considers RFID for Deliveries, Informationweek, Dec 6, 2004).

This suggests a couple of ideas to me – one, that Starbucks set up a supply holding area for suppliers to drop things off. Assuming that supplier don’t generally actually put things away, they could drop them off and the RFID system would tag when they got there. It would have to be a climate-controlled system, so that the milk wouldn’t go bad overnight, but Peapod’s already solved that problem for local groceries. Two, that the RFID be mapped to a schedule so that a given tag couldn’t get in at just any ol’ time. If you’re not expecting a shipment at 2:00 am from SupplierA, then SupplierA’s ID shouldn’t let them into your building. That reduces the chance that a stolen RFID token lets Joe Schmoe burglar gain entrance to your facility: they have to at least have done the due diligence to figure out when shipments come in. And three, that the RFID entry system be matched with a camera system to snap pics of the guy coming in with that RFID tag. That way, the access log can be synchronized with the picture of the person who made the access.

Just wanted to jot down some ideas… Carry on with any ideas that I’m a geek. Or, worse, a failed geek.

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Did a half marathon in October, with the intent of training up for a full one in February. Welp, life intervened: classes took more of my time than I thought, my training partner had some minor surgery that took her out of the training plan, and then of course, the holidays will take as much time as you let them. So, I’m nowhere near on track for a marathon in February. But … I do have hopes to run a half marathon in March on the local trail, and then run the full marathon in early June as part of our family vacation.

So, I’m out running my long runs on the weekends, and as much during the week as I can fit in. Today’s outing was 5 miles, which seems both short and long to me… used to be, just making it 2 required great concentration and perserverance. But on the other hand, I know that I’ve run 10 on that same trail, so 5 just seems so short.

To make the half marathon in March, I need to add a mile a week to my long run, which doesn’t seem so bad. I do an out-and-back route on a flat trail (the half will also be on that same course; need to check how flat the full marathon will be), so to add a mile, I only need to make it one more half mile marker down the trail – doesn’t seem so bad. Half a mile at my basic pace is a little less than 5 minutes, and heck, I can hold on for 5 more minutes. That it’s actually closer to a 10 minute impact I manage to block. But hey, 10 minutes isn’t so bad, either.

I think there oughta be a running book out there titled something like ‘Just 10 more minutes…’ Catch all the nonathletes like me that need to figure out how to get to this big goal. If each week I can just run ten more minutes than I did the previous week, I can run a marathon! Bet that applies in lots more situations: if each week I just spent ten more minutes studying, or ten more minutes listening, or ten more minutes cleaning – think of what I could do!

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I done done it today. Picked up my Treo 600 too quickly, lost my grip, and dropped it. Now I see the blue screen of death, and it’s not even on a product running a Microsoft operating system. Luckily for me, my carrier (T-mobile) has a handset replacement program. They’re shipping me another handset, I’ll swao the card out of my existing one, and then send back the busted one. They’ll charge me to repair the screen (dropping things generally doesn’t count as part of the warranty), and we’ll all be happy. I should be able to sync the new device up with my old data and not lose any information or programs.

Odd to realize how dependent I am on this thing: I can’t dial out, ’cause I can’t see if I’m in phone mode. I can’t check my email on it, can’t look up contact information, can’t check the various reference URLs and login information I have stored for the various dev environments I work in, … Definitely feeling some pain here. Time to invest in a metal cushioned case for my geektoy.

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Looking back at my blog, it’s been over a month since I last blogged. This almost sounds like a confession to a priest, but I’m not Catholic. All I can say is, it’s been a hectic month. A visit to the extended family in PA, a visit from my bro-in-law too briefly back from Iraq, Christmas, project deadlines, schoolwork, and then the general business associated with being a parent of two toddlers. No promises for the new year, but there’ll probably be some more activity forthcoming. Maybe even a UI refresh. Content is king, but looks still count.

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I write too much in emails, I’ve found. Just chopped a probably 600 word email down to in the area of 100. Decided maybe the reason that some of my emails weren’t getting the reactions I wanted was because they were too long. Too long means either not read, or read and dismissed on a technicality buried in the email, or dismissed based on plans divulged that folks didn’t want to sign up to. Get ’em in with the light one to get ’em to the table, then get ’em with another light one to get them another step further.

Terse. Action-oriented. Against my natural email tendencies, but I like it. Draft the email in my usual style, then chop/cut/axe to get to the bare marrow. Save the expositions for here.

Email, haiku-style.

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Seems like, lately, an early night is one that has me in bed before 1:00 am. Looks like an early night tonight! Now just crossing my fingers that the kids don’t get up at 6 am again tomorrow. Had to tell Cora tonight that, just because I put her to bed with the statement “see you when the sun comes up” doesn’t mean I actually want to get to see the sun come up with her.