Running in the Sand - UPDATED

So, I had a friend who has been tracking my progress through the Dune saga ask me, how many pages are there in the whole thing.

So I took some time at lunch to go find articles on the books and short-stories online and totaled what I found.

It turns out that it is essentially 8,500 pages.  And that's so far as Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are still writing interim books.

What I have left are 5 1/2 books and three short-stories.  And at this point, I am almost at exactly 67% completion.
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So I doudble-checked my numbers on my spreadsheet, and I found a typo.

I'm at over 70%.

Why Johnny Can’t Reader

I don’t know how many of my readers use Google Reader, but any that do I’m sure have by now seen the popup message telling us that it will be discontinued.  I asked a good friend who works at Google (he’s on the Chrome OS team, so he’s not always a good source of information for things aside of the browser itself) why they had discontinued Google Reader.  He said that use was on decline and that many people use Twitter, and he uses Google+.

Well, I don’t use Twitter that much.  I find it’s like being in a room surrounded by a bunch of people with no personal filters talking all the time.  I can’t track the conversations.

Then there’s Google+.  It’s just not the good stream of information that I want.  I like being able to pick through the section of material that I read.  Google+ is, once again, a stream of consciousness.

So, I began looking for an alternative.  Yes I've got a little over three months, but I want to have something I’m happy with when the transition deadline hits.

I read an article on Lifehacker and then an article on Gizmodo.  So after reading those, I have decided to throw my first lot to The Old Reader.  It has the ability to link with my Google account to sign in, and then I tried to import my data from Google Reader.  Yesterday, they were swamped with import requests, and had to disable the feature.  This morning, there was an option to upload an XML file from my Google files.
If you’re in need of transferring your data, give this a shot:

First do the suggested XML download from Google Reader.  This will come in a ZIP file that you'll need to extract to a folder.

Then go to Old Reader and using the import page, upload the XML file.

Right now, I got this message, "Thank you for uploading your OPML file. We will soon start importing your subscriptions, which might take up to several hours depending on the amount of feeds you have.

There are 22218 users in the import queue ahead of you."

Why it says OPML, I don't know, but the XML file is what I used for the import.

I say good luck to you.  While I’ve writing this, my number has dropped to 22217.

Pea Soup

I got up this morning, and things looked foggy.  And then as I got ready, it just got thicker.

When it was thick enough that the lights of the office building two lots over were just a glowing blur, I decided it would be better to drive to work rather than bike to BART.

And then of course once I got to through the tunnel, it's all clear with the sun lighting up the sky behind Mt. Diablo.

I'll just have to exercise this afternoon.

"... Everything else is therefore your own problem."

So today for my third week back in the office, I rode my bike.

Man, it's dark.  Although, I will say that riding in the dark at Santa Cruz got me all kitted out for a ride through Oakland and Walnut Creek.

Riding on BART did make me think of working in San Francisco   I'm thinking of asking for a transfer to our newly opened office there.  I just prefer going that direction.  And then I wouldn't have such a long commute.  Apparently our office is in a building that you don't even have to go outside to get to from the BART station.

I think it sounds great.  Plus it can't hurt to ask.