Web Site Changes

It has become clear that this site does not have much of a following. As a part of this ego crushing revelation, I have learned several things. These lessons are extremely disjointed, so I am just going to ramble on a little here. If you don't like rambling, move on until the next post. If attempts at quick satire are what you came for, you may be disappointed. Come to think of it, I might not have many readers due to lack of self confidence. I guess that is easier to take than saying "your site sucks".

Nobody cares about the cool stuff over on the left. I put up some plugins that make the site unique and interesting. I mentioned the other day that I have "bourbon in the news" to my Wahoo friend.

My friend replies "you have bourbon in the news?"

I said "its been there a while, probably months".

"Really?"

I have removed a bunch of the content along the side. Maybe I will add a poll or something interactive, to actually make you move your head around when you read this site.

A bunch of you are running outdated computers and/or software. I can collect statistics on my visitors. All of you need to update just about everything on your computer. Operating system, Java, flash player, you name it and you need to update it. When your computers get taken over by some criminal organization, don't say I didn't warn you. The good news is I run one computer using Linux, so my computer is relatively secure. If you don't understand this paragraph, you are probably one of the ones who already has had a credit card stolen, or a pornographic movie ordered at your house. At least you can now tell your wife that excuse.

Very few of you click on the pictures. I like taking pictures. I put the pictures on flickr and write about the pictures here. You then ignore my pictures. Oh, my fragile ego.

You are totally ignoring any links I put in the articles. I have cool tracking software installed to show me how many clicks everything on the site has. That is how I figured out the lack of interest on the left hand side of the page. I can bring up a cool display that puts the number of clicks right over the web page. It keeps saying 0 0 0 0 no matter what I do. Oh well.

Obviously, I am going to make some changes here at Alphageek's Thoughts. While I could try a bunch of fancy ideas, I will probably just give you what you want: my endless ranting about whatever the heck it is I think about. I will have to admit I am a little suprised that is all anyone reads, but I guess I will take it.

I left bourbon in the news. You should at least know that I believe it to be the only bourbon news aggregator on the internet. I just thought it was really cool to be the first.

Gentleman Jack in the new bottle.

Gentleman Jack
Originally uploaded by AlphaHokie

Life can get confusing sometimes. Just when I was beginning to get a list of bourbon and whiskey to keep in the house, life threw me a curve. The fine makers of Gentleman Jack Tennessee Whiskey decided to change the bottle.

The original purpose of this site was rather simple. Take pictures of bourbon and write my impressions. Really, that is where the idea started. Anything beyond that has grown out of inspiration from the original idea.

Today's lesson is really simple. The bottle of Gentleman Jack has been redesigned. I like this design, but I was attached to the old bottle. The old bottle was one of the first premium spirits I can remember. Back in those days, Stolichnaya and Smirnoff were considered fancy vodkas. Today, those brands are very run of the mill. Gentleman Jack helped usher in a new era of pleasure, at least for the Alphageek and make many bourbons run of the mill. It also preceded many of the premium bourbons that we have on the market today.

I also am announcing that the web site design will be tweaked stating as of this post. Without getting into details (unless I get a bunch of feedback wanting to hear the details), none of you are using any of the links I add to articles or any of the applications on the left. I will go for a more simple, clean post from now on. Until next time, enjoy a Gentleman Jack today!

Technology and lemons

Ponderosa Lemon
Originally uploaded by AlphaHokie

Last Saturday, Mrs. Alphageek and I headed to Washington DC. We had business to attend to in the morning at the train station. We decided to take advantage of some great weather and take in some museums while we were in our nation's capitol.

During this trip, it became very apparent to me that many folks have trouble with technology. What alarms the Alphageek is how simple some of the technology is that folks cannot handle. My day started with technology observation and ended with a giant lemon.

We decided to travel to the newly renovated Smithsonian American History museum. It has some body's name on it now, but I don't remember the name, but in all likelihood the person is no longer with us. We immediately noticed that some people are now so technology challenged that they cannot operate the door. That's right, Mrs. Alphageek had to show the people in front of us how to open the door. Apparently, reaching out and pulling the door open did not come naturally to them.

Next, we decided we were thirsty and that we should purchase something to drink in the nearby snack bar. We walked in to a line that consisted of about fifteen people. It became evident that the technology of the line was too much for them. Fortunately, the Alphageek had a class in queueing theory and knew he could just pass them, take two bottles of water, hand $6 to the cashier, and sit down. I know what you are thinking, what is queueing theory? It is the theory of waiting in lines. Don't worry I took the class so that you don't have to. We looked around the museum for a while, but the museum was pretty busy. It turns out the museum has just recently reopened and the lines were awful. Queueing theory or not, we decided waiting to see Sylvester Stallone's shorts would wait for another time.

We headed to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It was pretty nice, but it was getting more and more crowded. We decided to move on.

Our next stop was the Spy Museum. This was an interesting museum. First, the lines are extremely long and the museum is very popular. They don't allow cameras, and I can see why. There are so many people in the place that trying to take pictures would certainly be a problem. The museum was a gadget guys dream and a good time was had by all.

We went back to the train station to pick up the car. The train station has a great innovation: prepaying for your parking before you get in the car. We went into the parking garage and were presented with many people waiting to use the parking machine. No problem, I tell Mrs. Alphageek, I observed another parking machine on the next floor on our way in. When we arrived on the next floor, there was a shorter line, so we waited, and waited, and waited. The folks in front of me were so slow, the machine timed out. They started over. They finally figured how to pay with a credit card, which is good because there was a big sign on the machine that said "credit purchases only". Their receipt came out. They decided to read their receipt. The Alphageek took classes (in queuing theory?) that were faster when they were. When the Alphageek asked if they were done, could they please move, they were not ammused. Apparently, the technology of the parking machine and receipt was a challenge for them.

We paid up in about 30 seconds, and got on the road. Traffic was horrible, so we decided to to stop for dinner at Wegmans. Wegmans is a giant grocery store with a huge amount of prepared food for sale. We decided to use google maps on the Alphageek's blackberry to find the store. Unfortunatly, google maps used user created content to provide the address. In this case, that proved to be bad because the person entered the wrong address. Think about that the next time you look up your medical condition on wikipedia. Not everyone posting to wikipedia is up to Alphageek standards.

We then decided it would be good to use the technology in the cell phone and call Wegmans for directions. The call worked well and we were quickly there. We had a great dinner and decided to walk around. We decided to purchase some beer. The beer was an assortment of many kinds, including wheat beer. The Alphageek likes lemon in wheat beer, so we went to the fruits to get a lemon.

The store had the biggest lemons I have ever seen. The picture here shows the lemon next to a twelve ounce bottle of beer. I promise the photo has not been doctored. After all, you count on the Alphageek for technology guidance. This is absolutely the biggest lemon I have ever seen. I took it home and tried it. I thought it tasted like a bitter orange. Mrs. Alphageek corrected me and said that it tasted like a sweet lemon. At least Mrs. Alphageek understands technology. After all, she showed the folks how to work the door at the museum. While the lemon might not be very advanced technologically, I am willing to bet the lemon is still too much for the folks at the museum.