This is geek-dom. All geek-a-phobes, anti-geeks, geek-aholics, …. move along, there’s nothing to see here. Still with me ? Sorry to hear.

Today was a day of writing technical documentation. Not the most fun I get to have at my job but it needed to be done and everyone else took a giant step back when I wasn’t looking. Most of the text came along pretty well but then I hit the need for a UML Sequence Diagram. First, I should say that "U-M-L"  must be missing a letter because it clearly is a four letter word. Second, I didn’t know I needed a sequence diagram when I started out.

I needed to find a drawing tool that could create these obscure but very specific pictures. It had to be simple. Really simple. BRAIN DEAD SIMPLE! Did I mention it needed to be simple? I found the answer at websequencediagrams and it could hardly be simpler. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Let me tell you a story. It starts in a man cave, starkly lit by the light of a large window. In the distance you can hear a dog snoring … (wait, let’s try that again) … In a dark corner, you can hear the most horrific sound; so loud it would wake the dead ! … (there, that’s better) …

… for geeks only, the story continues in the sequence diagram included

A friend once said, “lock me in a room with a cricket and give me no way to kill it and I’ll give up all the secrets of the world.”. Well, he didn’t exactly say that but he did make it clear that the sound of an unrelenting cricket is a powerful torture device.

Now that the aircraft hangar is clean and empty and echoes madly, a single cricket is a very loud and annoying sound. Multiple crickets are multiply so!

a modern day Princess and the Pea

I’ve furnished the “not completely finished” second floor of the farmhouse with random left over furnishings. For the time being, that includes an inflatable bed.

The bed was my temporary sleeping surface during the transition to Virginia. It has also served as the guest bed in a pinch.

I had forgotten it was a double-deep mattress. So, when planning what would go up stairs, I *thought* I needed a platform to get the mattress off the floor. I had a half dozen rustic wine crates so I set them out and put a top across them.

When I rolled out the mattress, put the memory foam pad on top, added the goose down duvet, and then inflated the mattress …. well …

For me, a “mobile device” is much more than corporate email and a cell phone. I interact with social media sites, read news, manage multiple blogs, get weather, check the status of computer servers, watch wildlife (via remote IP cameras), read books, enjoy a game or two, take pictures, record data, go shopping, yada, yada, yada.

My Blackberry(s) served me well and I’ve had many over the past 10 years. It is a great corporate email solution. But I need so much more than corporate email and a phone call.

Along comes Lotus Traveler and overnight, iPhones and Android phones become great corporate email devices. Plus, these “mobile devices” are a lot more. They easily do all the social, business, and fun things I do.

So which to choose ? That was easy. iPhone. Why ? For the same reason companies everywhere establish “standards” – it cut’s down on support. I have an iPhone iPod Touch, my mother has an iPhone, my niece has an iPhone, many of my friends have iPhones. Having an iPhone means I can provide suggestions, recommend applications, and be the family “tech support”.

for anyone who thinks my shop is all about cabinets and stairs and practical stuff. I just saw this video and REALLY want to build one of these. I’m sure it will amuse me to no end and I’m going to ROFL when visitors try to "make it work" …

You can find the instructions and details of how it works here.