I live and die by bluetooth headsets. Holding the phone up to my ear during a long conversation is as annoying as being covered in sugar water and buried in a Fire Ant hill. I'm just not very happy doing it.

I loved the Aliph Jawbone Headset. Apart from some issues with the charger, that was the most perfect headset ever invented. The Aliph Jawbone 2 was demonstrably worse in all ways, including call quality. I've been on the hunt for a new headset ever since.

Today I found the Plantronics Voyager Pro and am ordering it right now. Rather than bore you with the details of how the Plantronics Voyager Pro deals with a barrage of noise, a cacophony of wind and other call quality reducers, I'll leave it to you to watch this simple video demonstration of the Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth Headset.

Want one?

It seems Best Buy is the exclusive source right now. Amazon shows a month back order. I'm going to get mine from Best Buy today. If there is enough interest from the readers of this blog, I'll post periodic reviews of the Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth Headset. Whaddya say? Do you guys/girls care about what I think of this product?

I'm super stoked to announce I've been nominated as an Adobe Community Expert for ColdFusion. I really appreciate the recognition from the mother ship (Adobe) and will continue to contribute for the development of the community.

As you know, the Adobe Community Experts Program is a community based program made up of Adobe customers who share their product expertise with the world-wide Adobe community. The end goal is to help reward and enable those who share and contribute to the Adobe community at large.

The Adobe Community Expert group is chock full of excellent, talented folks. I'm humbled and pleased to be counted among them. I'd like to thank my mom and dad who helped me be the person I am today. I'd like to thank my 7th grade history teacher....

If you have not yet heard of FreeCycle, you might be missing out. FreeCycle is a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.

This worked out perfectly for me because I had some items that were too valuable to throw away, and too annoying to keep around. I spent a few minutes posting the requisite OFFER: emails and sent them to freecycle.

In a matter of hours, I was able to get rid of a Working Oven, Working dishwasher, Working Refrigerator, 2 Dell servers, 1 21" monitor, an old Laser Printer, a Keyboard and a Scanner. The folks who showed up were punctual, appreciative and very nice. Not only is my garage now perfectly in order, but some unwanted items have found a welcome new home.

I'd originally wanted to give the Appliances to a charity, but they wouldn't take them because the appliances were more than 10 years old. The FreeCycle people weren't so choosy, so we all win! FreeCycle FTW!!!

Woo Hoo!

The inaugural RIA Adventure cruise was a smashing success. It was fun hanging out with a lively entertaining crew and getting to know each other better, all while drinking in Perfect Weather, Frosty Beverages and Island Sun.

The next cruise could be in a lot of locations, Shannon and I are voting for Alaska. We've never been to Alaska and really think the scenery is something special. So if you would like to see Alaska and hang out with some fun people while doing it, vote for Alaska on the RIA Adventure Poll.

Alaska

We Sail In 1 Week!

I was greeted with this news when I woke up. Shannon and I are going on the inaugural RIA Adventure Caribbean Cruise and we are ready to go.

We've both been looking foward to white sandy beaches, water and sun for a while now and with only a week to go, are getting rather excited. We have a little pre-trip trip to the everglades to look forward to and expect to get a full dose of what Florida looked like many thousands of years ago, before the modern inventions of Steam Engine, Air Conditioning and Beach Front Condo.

I know a lot of other cruisers are getting into Miami and might be looking for something to do. We planned to go for a nice dinner on Sunday evening at an authentic Cuban restaurant. It looks like Aaron West is organizing so if you get into Miami in time for dinner on Sunday, head over to Aaron's Cruise Announcement and get on the list.

I've recently signed up to go on RIA Adventure. By now, everyone knows RIA Adventure is a fun filled cruise containing all of your favorite Adobe Geeks. I totally dig the networking at conferences so I'll really like hanging out with a bunch of fun people that know the difference between coldfusion and ColdFusion. Can Ya Dig?

I don't mind getting away to the tropics in February. In February, I'm usually ready for a little sun anyways. I also don't mind my girlfriend Shannon getting to know some of the people I'm prattling on about. She's heard enough stories, that's for sure.

Last I heard, this RIA Adventure cruise was filling up pretty fast. If you've been on the fence about participating, time to whip out the visa and book some February Fun in the Sun.

Last night we had dinner with some dear friends, Jessica, Kyle and their baby Hunter. (Remind me one day to tell you about the fun I had feeding lemons to Hunter).

We had dinner at Sitar Palace, an Indian restaurant in North Durham. Of course, all the items on their buffet were awesome, but the standout was a dish cryptically called Chicken 65. Move over Chicken Makhani, make room for my new favorite chicken dish, Chicken 65.

Shannon and I searched the Internet for a good recipe and found some rather interesting descriptions for this dish. Apparently, no one can be sure of the origin of the name.

Wikipedia on Chicken 65:

The number 65 is variously said to be the number of days taken to prepare the marinade or the year of the dish's creation. One account claims that the dish emerged as a simple meal solution for Indian soldiers in 1965. Others accounts claim that an "enterprising hotelier" targeted macho diners with a 65-chilli recipe and named the dish accordingly. It is generally acknowledged that no one knows which (if any) of these anecdotal theories are true.

Enter Vah Chef

Vah Chef is apparently an Indian Celebrity chef from Chennai who is absolutely hillarious. He is infectious with his energy and has a simple cooking style. Anyone who has ever tried to make Indian food knows it can be involved and require WAY more ingrediants than typical American food. Vah Chef has a very popular website with videos and recipes of popular dishes. If you like Indian foods and like to cook, Vah Chef is a must-see website.

Where's the video you promised us?

Vah Chef has a video on Chicken 65 where he demonstrates step by step how to make the delicious dish. While preparing, he enterains by going through the history and misconceptions of the dish as well.

Do you cook Indian food? Do you have good resources you'd like to share? What is your favorite dish?

I like doing Home Improvement projects in my spare time. I find the manual labor to be satisfying, especially during stressful coding stretches. I'm on a project that just launched a revamped eCommerce project and there was some stress, and of course, an accompanying Home Improvement project.

The area on the side of my house that holds my garbage cans and recycling bins is very shady, so shady that nothing grows over there. I kept it covered in mulch in the past, since that has a nicer look than just pure North Carolina clay, you know what I mean?

Last winter, I cooked up a plan to make a fieldstone pathway/patio for that side of the house and I just completed it.

Here is a before shot, taken after I dug out most of the pathway. :

Here is an after shot, taken after finished setting the fieldstones and completing the edging:

Like most Home Improvement projects I do, I got a nice excuse to buy some tools (Rubber Mallet, Mason's Chisel). I bet I could do the next similar project a faster and better but the important thing is the side yard area is much improved and I had a good time getting this project done.

Today is a special day for Mike Brunt as this marks the day he will be sworn in as an American Citizen. Becoming a citizen is a long involved process and getting to the finish line is an achievement and a great milestone in one's life.

So a raise of the glass to Mike Brunt, my newest fellow American!

If you open a window and listen carefully, you can hear the moaning and wailing of the iPhone crowd as their iPhones are malfunctioning today. (This post isn't about the pure and flawless Blackberry Pearl I carry around and I promise not to bring up the fact that I've never had an update to that phone that left me stuck in 'Emergency Call Mode Only'.)

This post is about a statement of affairs on what I term 'the iPhone Crowd'. You can identify the iPhone crowd by their closely cropped hair, (a la Steve Jobs), their black turtlenecks (a la Steve Jobs), their jean pants (yep, iSteve again) and their mindless raving about how Apple products "Just Work" ^TM.

The iPhone crowd is in an uproar because a software update (just made available) rendered the iPhone unusable (for a little while). In modern day society, we are quite used to ubiquitous reachability. Our social and professional lives kind of depend on it. I take the pain of being out of contact seriously. My point isn't that the iPhone not working isn't a big deal, but the fact that people are surprised. Maybe to an iKoolaide swigging SteveClone this is unexpected, after all, what part of "It Just Works ^TM" doesn't the iPhone team understand.

To many of us, this is simply another software release that has hiccups out of the gate. I've been a part of a number of software released in my time. Most, had great intentions, a nice start, a rushed end, and some issues on deal day. This has been true across the board. From projects of 2 developers working from a napkin-spec to a developmental army augmented with a cadre of PMP certified project managers furiously tracking deliverables, timeboxing effort and managing the Critical Path.

Software development is not easy. In fact, it is downright hard. I'd be willing to bet 99.99% of all software projects have problems when they go-live. Even the best tested applications find gaps in their testing. Spots where the ugly Real World messes up their nice clean model. It is just how it is.

So, since this software 'upgrade' is going just like all other software projects, you can bet these problems are actively being worked on right now by stressed out, hyper-caffeinated people who really want to fix this problem. My iPrediction is that in a day or two, definitely by Monday, the iPhone problems will be largely forgotten. The iPhone Crowd will be back to prancing around in their black turtlenecks, jeans and closely cropped hair and spouting off marketing babble like "It Just Works" all the while sophmorically pointing and laughing at those with other handset brands...

The problem I have with it all is it doesn't "Just Work ^TM". Actually, it often "Just Doesn't Work", (Remember the Leopard release?) but no iSteveClone worth his black turtleneck would dare utter such a thing.

Business as usual, right?