Ed Bilodeau

This weblog had moved: http://www.coolweblog.com/bilodeau/

# Notice (Oct 19/05): So ends my stay here on Blogger. This morning Google implemented an anti-spam 'feature' that forces me to answer a challenge phrase when I want to post to my own blog. No notice of the change, nothing. Worse is that it doesn't even work! I type the phrase, submit, "An error occured", post deleted. Damn you, Google. Chances are I will revive my blog somewhere else, sometime soon. I'll post the new coordinates here as soon as they become available. (BTW, I'm unable to post anything to my RSS stream, so I'd appreciate it if readers could spread the word and ask people to take a look at this notice)

Update (Oct 19/05, ~noon): After a frustrating few hours (and not just trying out alternatives to Blogger), I've decided that this is a good time to take a break from all this. A day? A week? Who knows. But I need to step away from it before I pass a heavy magnet over the whole mess.

Update 2: According to this post, the reason I'm seeing the CAPTCHA (challenge phrase) is that Blogger has classified my blog as spam. Thanks. User for five years and now I'm spam. I searched the Blogger site, but there is no mention of how to get the spam flag turned off. There is also no way of contacting anyone at Blogger. Wow. Spam they say I am, so spam I must be. Maybe it is time to take a break.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

# Update : Good morning, from a very cold morning here in Montreal (-24/-37)!

Things have continued to be busy since getting back from vacation. My new organizational tools (i.e. 43 folders) are working quite nicely, although I still have to work on being realistic about how much I can hope to get done in a day. I still end up stuffing way too much stuff into the 'tomorrow' folder.

I've also acquired some new gear for the office: a new keyboard and mouse. I was getting a bit tired of having to type on the laptop keyboard all the time, esp since the docking station lifts it a few cm off he table, making it slightly uncomfortable. With a normal keyboard, I can also move my monitor a bit closer to me (the laptop screen used to force me to keep it just a bit farther then I would like). I'm still getting used to the full-sized keyboard, though: everything is just slightly in the wrong place!

I also managed to find a place that sells Moleskine notebooks here in Montreal (Update: see this followup post for location info...), so I bought one. That story another time. The quality of the notebook is quite good, so much so that I'm reluctant to mess it up with my writing. Or maybe it is more that I haven't had much time to work on my PhD much (for which the Moleskine will be dedicated)? We'll see.

Finally, I am in the process of securing finding for a new digital camera. I have my eye on the HP Photosmart R607. High points are the size and rechargable battery. I don't care much about megapixels, and would probably settle for less if it would mean a cheaper camera. I'm open to alternatives if anyone has any to share.

Ed Bilodeau

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

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