Pilot Mike’s Weblog

This weekend I was taking a look at the latest Logbook Pro Newsletter from NC Software, Inc. and it looks like the gang has a major overhaul in the works for its popular electronic logbook software — just not for another year. The newsletter states that the public beta is not targeted for release until late 2008.

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I had been reluctant for years, but my wife and I finally “had it” with paying Comcast for our cable TV bill. It was a huge hassle calling them up every 6 months and playing the “I don’t want to pay full price for your service so I’m going to threaten to disconnect so they give us another 6 months on a promo rate” game. Face it folks, cable is expensive. We can get in an extra XC flight in the DA40XL by ditching the cable service for one year!

My wife and I don’t really watch too much TV anyway but if I was going to ditch my cable, it was going to not be without a few caveats.

Read all about our new TV setup after the jump…
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Last weekend I finally upgraded my old BlackBerry 7100t to the new BlackBerry Curve (aka: 8320) on T-Mobile. It had been almost 3 years since I upgraded my cell phone (once I decide on something I typically stick with it for a while) and the 7100t performed pretty well, however, I was ready for an upgrade. I have been waiting for this device for almost 4 months and was very happy when T-Mobile decided to release it a few days earlier than expected. Although I was not the first one I know to procure the device, I’ve been pretty happy with the performance of my new BlackBerry.

Read all the details after the jump.
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Last week I was listening to episode 485 of Buzz Out Loud (BOL) and heard them discussing the recent Tivo earnings report and that Tivo was hinting at a possible price drop of the Series 3 (HD capable DVR that retails for about $800). After hearing that, I decided to check the Costco Web site and noticed that they added a new $200 rebate bringing the Costco price down to $399. This is an awesome deal for a HD capable Tivo! They are requiring a 1 year service contract, but I think I will be ditching my Comcast DVR very soon!

After discovering the price drop at Costco, I fired off an email to the BOL crew, and it turns out they picked it up on today’s episode (see show notes for episode 487). Molly, Tom and Veronica put on a great tech news podcast and I would encourage you to check it out. I listen to it everyday on my drive to work.

If you are interested in the audio of them discussing my email, my 30 seconds of “fame” starts at 24:17 into Episode 487. Or you can download the clip here. BOL Clip of Episode 487

Today on my drive home I was listing to the Shanin & Parks talk radio program on KMBZ. They were discussing a survey that came out about job satisfaction and several people called in discussing various aspects of their job satisfaction. It got me thinking if I could do anything at all what would it be? Don’t get me wrong, I love working as a Network Engineer and I feel I am pretty good at it, but I would probably do something in aviation like be a professional pilot (helicopter news gathering, helicopter police work, medical transport or maybe even a military pilot). I suddenly realize that I need to configure the new router interfaces for the new business partner coming online next week…