Today, I crossed the 1,000,000 life-time miles threshold with American Airlines.

That means I've flown over 1,000,000 miles with American since I joined the "AAdvantage" program in 1995. It's a momentus day. Perhaps an infamous day, if you are not a fan or American Airlines. Personally, I like them. The planes are quiet. They do an excellent job of keeping children out of First & Business Class. The flight attendants are excellent bar tenders. They leave mostly on time. They arrive mostly on time. Their lounges are comfy. And their baggage claim staff at Charles DeGaulle Airport are the best.

For what it's worth, I figure that I passed 1,000,000 miles flown about 5 years ago. If I add up all my mileage as part of all the frequent flyer programs I'm enrolled in, I figure the 1,000,000 life-time miles mark was achieved in 2002 after my first trip to Tokyo. That includes 200,000 miles on United, 175,000 miles on Continental, 100,000 miles on the Trump/US-Air/Delta Shuttle... and a few other stragglers like British Airways, Northwest, and Jet Blue.

I'd like to thank America Online, Victoria's Secret, and MTV Networks for paying for most of those tickets.

Tags: American Airlines

The Ferrari is a very simple drink to make, and the ingredients, as you might have guessed, are thoroughly Italian. Just don't tell Kimi or the Scuderia will be in serious trouble...



Here's what you'll need:

• Dry vermouth (try Martini Extra Dry, whose maker happens to sponsor the Scuderia)
• Amaretto (we'd recommend Disaronno)
• A twist of lemon
• Ice
• An "old-fashioned" glass (also known as a "tumbler")

Pour two ounces of dry vermouth and one ounce of amaretto into the tumbler over ice, stir well, twist the lemon peel over the glass and drop it in. Enjoy. Repeat. Just don't enjoy before actually driving a Ferrari, or any other car for that matter.

Tips: For a sweeter mix, use more amaretto; for a drier taste, more vermouth. Alternative recipes call for adding Angostura Bitters as well.

Tags: Ferrari

I cannot imagine how he got out of that... I'm assuming he didn't.

Tags: Pain

Youch.

Tags: AT&T, Geekery

After getting my MacBook Pro back from the genius techs (but not so genius retailers) at Tekserve, I was greeted with a stunning failure of Adobe's ability write code: Adobe Creative Suite 3 cannot be installed, run or otherwise used on systems formatted with Journaled, Case Sensitive partitions. Of course, I figure this out AFTER I install EVERYTHING back on my system... so I was looking at wiping the drive, reformatting the boot partition, and then rebuilding the system. Again.

Enter iPartition.

I first ran in to iPartition when I cracked open my Apple TV to drop a larger drive in to it. It's probably the best partition management tool on any OS ever. Full GUI. Complete technical details. And tons of features... I thought that it might be able to help me out of this jam, and I was right.

I fired it up, inspected my boot partition, saw a check box for "Case Sensitive" on my partition details screen. Of course, since I booted the machine with this partition, I could not make changes. I rebooted in to target disk mode, connected to the iMac in the other room, opened iPartition... BLAM!

All is well with the world... and I've gotten my Creative Suite installed.

Oh, and memo to Adobe, you should think about putting a compatibility warning on your retail box.

Tags: iPartition, Adobe, Creative Suite, CS3, HFS+, Coriolis Systems

Dear Tekserve,

Thanks for fixing my computer this morning. Granted, all I needed was an installation of Mac OSX on my Intel Core 2 Duo powered MacBook Pro, but seriously... Thanks. Apple wanted me to wait for replacement OS discs to be sent to me. Could you imagine? Waiting? The nerve of them!

While I was in your shop for over 2 hours, I noticed something. Something that I think you might not realize, so I'll point it out here.

I wanted to purchase the following things:

• 8GB "Firefly" Jump Drive
• Pack of 16 DVD+R DL Blank Discs
• Shure headphones
• iPod Video case

But your store... it doesn't work like other stores. For each of those items, I would have needed a separate ticket of a different color. Noone would talk to me without a ticket... so I spent my time in your shop waiting. And not spending money.

So sad...

Tags: Macintosh

Sadly, one of the last great institutions of Italian-American culture in Washington DC is closing.


It'll all be worth it when that new office building opens!

Tags: Calamari, Washington, DC, AV Ristorante

"I swear by Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath.

To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.

Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."


I'm not sure if the photo is real, but personally, I would let that guy die.

Tags: Racism

A good deal at only $19.99!

Got my number for La Carrera. What do you think?

Tags: Cars, Porsche, La Carrera Panamericana

Who says animals are dumb? This little guy is using a leaf as an umbrella:



And these two are re-enacting their favourite Mortal Kombat moves:

Here's a lovely widget of Entertainment News Headlines from Entertainment Asylum, circa 1999:



Now-a-days, it's called a "decentralized widget strategy". Back then, we called it "Being Useful"

Tags: Geekery

After a very rough week, Keri decided to go get a pedicure. As she was getting... serviced... in walks Katee "Starbuck" Sackhoff. She sat across the room from her and she snapped this pic.


I swear that's Starbuck... and memo to Apple: More megapixels in the iPhone camera, please.

Tags: Starbuck, BSG, Battlestar Galactica, iPhone, Katee Sackhoff

...is why the Town of Hempstead was responsible for picking up Levittown Trash?


Update: Thanks, Tim, for explaining that Levittown is a hamlet within the town of Hempstead. Now, if he can only explain why Levittown Town Hall is in Hicksville, which is in the town of Oyster Bay.

Heh. I love this.

Tags: Cars

It's July 4th weekend. My fridge was stuffed with appetizers and salads and meat for the grill so I was only able to fit a 12-pack of beer. Normally, this would have been enough so I didn't worry about it. After a couple hours, the beer was gone.

I did have some more beer in the garage but the 90° Los Angeles heat had rendered it useless for at least an hour. Now what?

• Take 6 hot beers and place them in a pot.
• Add enough ice cubes to completely cover the beers
• Fill the pot with water
• Next, and this is the trick, tossed in about 2 cups of table salt
• Stir it up to be sure the salt dissolved
• Place the concoction in the freezer… Wait 3 minutes

Bam. Ice cold beer!

Tags: Parties

Congrats, Kimi. That's 2 in a row.

Tags: Ferrari, Formula1

I hate going to the movies. I mean, I really hate it. It's not that movies are bad, or tickets over priced or the $11-dollar bottle of water... It's the people. The kid in front of me was playing his PSP the whole time. At least 4 cell phones rang. 1 rang twice. Then there's the interruptions as people talk to each other. To the screen. Try to find their friends after they get up to use the rest room. Oh, and the sticky floor. And the occasional Milk Dud or M&M that rolls down the floor behind you... So gross.

In short, Transformers was a great film. Go see it.

Tags: Transformers, Movies

After all the sensationalism, hype, media coverage, mayhem, indepth analysis, jokes, taunting, pandaemonium, chaos, drama, legal wrangling, and what have you... I still have an unanswered question:

Where have all the good ballads gone?

Tags: Paris Hilton

Jessica Hagy is a genius.


She's cute, too.

Thankfully, we did not find anything like this when we were cleaning up the yard this evening...

Tags: Spiders

I wonder if this is what happened to my old white cat, Spot.


That bald Eagle is pretty cool, but the real question is: Does he have an iPhone?

Tags: Animals

Snapped a few more photos with my iPhone this weekend. The camera's actually quite impressive. You know, for an iPod. I mean cell phone. I mean iPhone...

Another meeting in my kitchen.


Fleeing from the beach traffic...


Leaving Edward's Airforce Base

Tags: Apple, Next New Networks, Cell Phones, iPhone

I'm hearing all sorts of rumours about AT&T causing iPhone woes. This does not really surprise me. All mobile companies are evil and generally hate their customers. But AT&T... they take the hate to full-on-rage. And, as the saying goes: AT&T's not unhappy until you're unhappy.

While the Apple part of the iPhone experience has been widely reported as typical Apple goodness, The AT&T experience has been widely reported as typical AT&T bullshit. Uninformed store clerks. Uninformed telephone support staff. Forced bundling at retail (ie: You MUST buy accessories or you cannot buy an iPhone). Price gouging of wireless plans. You get the idea.

Then there's the heinous delay in activation and porting of numbers. Again, the rumours are swirling. AT&T systems were down for 12 hours on Saturday. AT&T porting center office was closed on Saturday and Sunday. Other carriers are "slow to release" old numbers, etc. I'm not sure why anyone expected it to go smooth. Afterall, why would a telegraph company be able to deal with this kind of high technology? (That second 'T' in AT&T stands for Telegraph)

Both Engadget and Gizmodo have articles on the activation woes. And apparently, less than half of readers polled by Engadget have had a pleasant, Apple-like experience with their service and activation:

Don't worry, friends. If you're still having activation problems, I've got some hints and tips for you. Get your order number from iTunes and let your fingers do the walking:

• First of all, the iPhone activation hotline is +1 (877) 800 3701. Don't call that number. You're likely to be on hold for a VERY long time before anyone ever answers. And they won't tell you anything except to "Keep waiting."
• 
  
• To check the status of the transfer of a phone number using the automated system, call +1 (888) 898 7685 punch in the number you're waiting on. It'll tell you in almost plain English where your number is in the transfer process.
• 
  
• AT&T's got a semi-secret 1-Ring-to-Answer customer service number. That number is +1 (877) 419 4500. They're very friendly. But not hugely informative.
• 
  
• The mother-lode is the Synchronos Center. These are the people that know what's going on. Has your old carrier released the number? Has the activation hit the network? Has there been some snafu along the way? They know it all. +1 (877) 800 3701. Then hit option 3.

Trust me. That synchronos center is THE BOMB. Like, seriously. My source tells me he waited on hold for 30 minutes. Got someone on the phone. Told her he was waiting over 36 hours for some activations... BAM! Done.

Tags: Apple, Next New Networks, Cell Phones, AT&T, iPhone Activation, iPhone