Assuming it doesn't crash and burn because nobody gets it (and I barely get it), it's going to be a hell of a service once it matures. It has some real potential to be a serious productivity and collaboration aid (and/or a total time-sink like Facebook).

At the moment it's seriously lacking in a lot of areas.

It needs better contact management and categorization, and perhaps a method for blocking undesirable contacts. Right now things are manageable, but that will change over time.

It needs an update notification system. Scheduled email summaries, IM integration, something.

It needs output services. I built a trip using "trippy" (which is a pretty cool and useful extension, by the way) but I've got no way to output it (other than a screen print).

The car is fixed. It no longer makes hmmmmmm and thummm-thummm-thummm sounds.

I need to go out shopping for jeans. The jeans I have now are too big and too bulky to just belt comfortably.

I plugged a new power supply into the dead Dell. It's alive again, and is my new living room computer. It's got a few issues (Ubuntu linux doesn't really like the audio chipset, and the wireless keyboard is useless until it's booted into an operating system) but it's turning out to be a pretty good little media station (particularly since it's not powered up and overheating 7x24).

I am playing with free VOIP services. I've got a Gizmo5 (sipphone.com) account set up using Ekiga client (yes, I've tried Gizmo, Qutecom and linphone, this is the combo that works nicely with my hardware and Windows). I haven't set up Skype yet, but I may...

My spare work computer is going back to work, to do worky things. I've actually got need for it there again.

There's a part of me that wishes we could put WFC on the annual calendar. The people who attend are so much fun, and surprisingly (as this is a mostly professional conference) I didn't feel like a fish out of water.

It's hard to write a WFC report without sounding like I'm dropping a lot of names, but then again, it's WFC. Well, there's also "running hospitality" so dropping names is all I've got left.

Jetse de Vries is a total blast. Jim Minz and I got some time to sit down, drink chipotle vodka, and tell stories from back when we were both total nobodies. Drinking with Jeremy Lassen may be good for the soul, but it's not good for the liver. Jeff and Ann Vandermeer are a total runaway train, you never know where things are going to end up with them. Garth Nix is just incredibly nice and fun to talk with. Nora Jemisin... kind of like Minz, I knew her (online) before she was published and we had a nice time chatting about the old days. I don't think Tempest Bradford's brain ever stops running, or even slows down for that matter. Victoria Blake isn't nearly cynical enough to be in publishing, but it looks like she's going to succeed at it in the long term. Neil Clarke is just amazing. Liz Gorinsky is really cool.

The rest is a blur.

I don't think I've ever seen so little of a convention, particularly one we were there extra days for. Then again, we were running consuite.

Wednesday we moved in the stuff at our house. 4 car-loads, I believe.

Thursday we decorated and opened. Yvette and I did the "perishables" run. Costco came through with our business delivery, barely on-time. Spike and one of her friends did our first ice run. We provided support and space for the Vandermeers' most excellent party.

Friday we opened again. Well, Rich, Spike and Yvette opened (this was the pattern). There was a slight miscommunication on when lunch should come out and when breakfast should end, but that was solved for the next day. I did a giant Costco restock run; it's a miracle the car survived.

Saturday we opened again. I did the BevMo run for Amontillado, and Edgar's birthday cake was delivered.

Sunday we opened again. Coffee was a bit late because we ran out and had to get more at Safeway. We didn't close at 1:00, but started taking down and packing decorations. K picked up the Rug Doctor to do the carpets, and we did our second room. Around 5:00pm we brought out all the left-overs and dead dog party started.

Monday morning (after way too little sleep) we cleared out the suite and did the rest of the carpets. Moved out all of hospitality, only 2 car-loads going out.

Big thanks to:

• Cindy, for keeping track of our dollars; come Friday morning I knew I had to trust the receipts and not my personal spreadsheet
• Aaron, for getting the logistics runs that we really needed done done.
• Ann and Jeff Vandermeer and their crew (Victoria and Neil particularly), for keeping the ideas flowing and inspiring us to take the theme places we never expected
• Rich, for sound advice, even when in some cases we knew already because it helped us adjust our priorities, and for getting up every morning to open things
• LaMont, for always being there, and taking the job he was worried he wasn't experienced enough for
• Radar and Lisa H, for all the help moving in, and all the help keeping things going
• Spike, for repeatedly coming up with process improvements that made things run better (and for offering her help at the last minute when we hadn't even really thought of asking)
• Johno and Chriso, for getting the food processes organized enough we could just carry through on them
• España, for being her cheery self and pouring a lot of drinks
• Jo and Krys for always keeping up with the restock demands
• Henry and Letha for finding the time in their busy schedules and Letha's help with move-out
• Mark & Yvette for decor, haulage, and a lot of work
• Mo, for the most amazing Poe portrait and those wacky tikis (and a lot of work)

Seriously, we had the best crew and a great committee. I'm not sure I'm interested in working on another WFC (but ask again in a decade when someone out here feels like doing it again), but it was a great time working with everybody.

If you had $1k for birthday cakes and a week's lead time, where in San Jose (or the general area) would you go?

andy

It looks like the Dimension 5100c has finally crapped out. It's bad timing, but it could be worse.

Rather than buying another refurbished machine from the Dell factory outlet, I'm seriously considering a build-to-order box from Central Computers. Here's the specs I'm thinking about:

Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 2.8Ghz
ASUS P5QL Motherboard
4gb RAM


Sanity check?

We've had ups and downs with medium-format printing.

The Epson R2200 that we got used we were only able to get a few dozen prints out of before it clogged to the point of no return. We gave it to didjiman (who already owned another R2200), figuring that he might be able to get it to work.

I ordered a Canon i9900 to replace it. It has a user-replaceable print head, so clogging is a repairable issue (and can often be repaired by pulling the head and soaking it). It's been a real workhorse, but ink costs are a bit high. Costco is a help with that, but only to a degree.

Since I've started taking more photographs, I started looking into the printer a bit more thoroughly. I discovered that the colorfastness of the Canon inks isn't that great.

I finally decided to start looking for a bulk feed system and alternate inks. The only problem is that the i9900 has been out of production for a few years and everybody who used to sell conversion kits for them was out of stock. Well, almost everybody.

It turns out Absolute Inkjet (part of Ink2Image) was listing a bulk feed system for the i9900, and archival (by dye ink standards) ink. I ordered it.

I waited.

And waited.

About 6 weeks later I got an invoice and a tracking number. It came in a week or so after Labor Day.

It's actually a pretty sophisticated system, with really cool substitute cartridge for the default "sponge" style cartridges. There was only one problem: one cartridge had the retaining tab snapped off.

It took about a week to get through to ink2image (my first email was lost, but using the web contact form worked) and they sent me two spare cartridges. The cartridge swap was dirt-simple.

Because of the ink change, the whole printer needed to be flushed. One of the other things ink2image sells is "refillable" ink cartridge sets; one set and a bottle of head cleaner (that they charmingly refer to as "Dead Head Recovery Fluid") is a suggested purchase along with the bulk feed kit.

I'm glad I went with the bulk system rather than just using refillable cartridges. They're easy enough to fill, but a bit messy to reseal. Still, 8 cartridges filled with cleaner (and over 2/3 of my cleaner left) and the printer was flushed.

Priming the bulk system and installing it wasn't a piece of cake, but it wasn't too difficult. I only made a mess of the red ink, because it was more difficult to monitor while priming than the other cartridges.

The ink I went with is the Lyson Photonic ink for Canon printers.

If you consider doing this, it's very important that you know something: These inks do not match the colors of the OEM Canon inks. You can't run these inks unless you can print using custom ICC color profiles. If you do, everything is going to look washed out and brown.

ink2image provides sample ICC profiles for a few paper types, but for really good results you're going to need to use a print calibration system to match your screen output. On the cool side, Lyson claims that, properly calibrated, the Fotonic inks will produce a color range similar to that of traditional photo chemistry (much better than that of most ink-jet printers).

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday doing calibration runs, and I've learned a few things:

1. After adding ink to the external tanks, it's possible to end up with streaky output. I think this is a side-effect of letting the ink level run too low before refilling. Running a few prints solves this problem.
2. The wide-gamut inks look better on photo paper, even properly calibrated they lack brightness on plain paper.
3. A photo that looks good on the screen isn't necessarily going to look good in a print. The exposure has to be much better to produce a good print than it has to be to look OK on the screen. Rodeo prints are looking good, pics from Saturday night are blah.
4. Bulk ink is crazy-cheap, even the archival ink costs about 1/5 the cost of ink cartridges. The "AbsoluteMatch" ink for Canon costs less for a 4oz (120ml) bottle than a single cartridge of Canon ink (15ml) costs.

large acrylic quilter's work surface to fit a BERNINA sewing machine.

Anyone local to the Bay Area have a deli-style meat slicer we could borrow to use in the WFC consuite at the end of the month?

You going?

I officially christen the Roman Polanski apologist and derailment effort "RapeFail"

I cut 5" off the end of my belt. It's one of the styles where the holes go along the whole length, so it was pretty simple and didn't require extra work to punch new holes. Now I don't have to slide the buckle to the right and my cellphone holster way to the left to keep the tail from causing problems.

I tried on 34" waist jeans yesterday. They were snug, but they fit. I'm going to wash some of the 36" waist jeans I've got in hot water to see if they shrink down any to fit better. I would like to fit in 32" waist jeans again.

I tried on some old fitted shirts. They don't fit yet. They're closer, though, than they were.

I watched John McCain's town hall meeting while at the gym.

He kept on talking about "free market incentives" being the solution to our health care problems.

I am looking for answers on the following questions:

Is there a "free market incentive" in for-profit healthcare greater than the profit motive?

Is there a "free market incentive" for for-profit health insurance companies that is more attractive than rationing denying coverage to maximize profits?

Is there a "free market incentive" for hospitals and clinics to not increase rates for services to make up for losses on unpaid ER visits by uninsured people?

These are very narrow questions. Comments that stray beyond answers to these three questions will be frozen or deleted.

So what doesn't make the cut for "No Reservations?"

...or at least highlights and lowlights.

Wednesday: Flew non-stop from SFO to YUL. Departure was delayed by a FAA-enforced sleep-in for the crew. We were a bit late getting to the Delta, and eventually caught up with steverogerson's BritFan Pub Crawl. It was a blast. Highly recommended, Steve puts a lot of work into doing recon a few days before. We should have taken the Metro to get to the Latin Quarter, but we walked. Live and learn.

Thursday: We got registered. K installed his space suit in the costume exhibit. We looked at the dealers' room. It was tiny (not unusual for a Canadian Worldcon). We checked out the Fanzine lounge. It wasn't the best location or space (Noreascon 4 still had the best "in exhibit space" fanzine lounge).We met a bunch of folks (hi, fringefaan) and caught the Metro (having learned a lesson) to the Latin Quarter again for dinner at Restaurant Au Pied de Cochon. This place is what a Bistro is supposed to be, casual space, lots of people, fabulous food. The Foie Gras Cromesquis were to die for. We were there for hours (Worldcon sent the restaurant a lot of business on Thursday). When we got back to the hotel, the Reno in 2011 party had already closed, so we adjourned to the Fanzine Lounge After Dark and stayed until oh-godawful in the morning.

Friday: We slept. K did a panel. We ate. We went to parties. Once again, we ended up in the Fanzine Lounge After Dark, but didn't stay up quite as late. The hotel night manager and hotel security had a meltdown over parties and the elevators were overloaded, so we used the stairs to get around.

Saturday: K had 2 panels and masquerade stuff. I slept late. We ate. I went to the masquerade. It was pretty good, and there were a lot of new faces (not unusual for a Canadian Worldcon). K had a great time working with Julie Czerneda, she's a total sweetie. We went to parties. (Say it with me!) Once again, we ended up in the Fanzine Lounge After Dark and stayed up too late.

Sunday: K had a panel. I slept late. We ate. Reno was announced the winner of the 2011 Worldcon bid. Raleigh was announced the winner of the 2010 NASFiC bid. We went to the Hugos. We cheered when Cheryl won. We cheered when Scalzi won. We cheered when Weird Tales won. We cheered when Girl Genius won. We cheered when Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog won. It was a good awards ceremony, and a lot of fun. We went to parties. (Say it with me!) Once again, we ended up in the Fanzine Lounge After Dark and stayed up too late.

Monday: K had a panel. I slept late. We ate. We went to closing ceremonies. I wish we had the time and money to go to Australia next year, but it's not in the cards. For dead dog, we ended up in the Fanzine Lounge After Dark and stayed up too late.

Tuesday: We got up, got breakfast, packed, and went to the airport. Somehow we weren't affected by the crazy-ass weather going around the Northeast.

So, all in all?

There was a significant level of programming failure in scheduling, rescheduling and ensuring that panelist tech needs were fulfilled. The tabloid-sized pocket program (that was significantly wrong) didn't help. At least the infamous pink sheets were better than Anaheim's dumping program corrections on the newsletter where they would only fit at 4.5pt type.

There was a significant level of hotel failure on the part of the Delta regarding the party floors.

I've been reading complaints about hotel distances, and have to say, for the most part, they were within the realm of reasonable for a Worldcon. No, they weren't Anaheim (nobody is Anaheim). They were a bit longer than San Jose and Philly, probably equivalent to Boston and much shorter than Toronto, Denver or Glasgow.

Otherwise, the con was pretty damned good. Major events started nearly on time. They ran smoothly. Tech did the best job they were allowed to do (and for events they did very well). Info desk was staffed by cheerful and helpful people. Attendees had fun at the convention. I'm not going to saddle Anticipation with the review that Denver got. It wasn't a better con than it deserved to be, it was just a good con.

And, you know?

I had a great time.