Today I dug up an old tool I wrote way back in 2007. It’s called Tray System Monitor, and it’s designed to be a very small system monitor for Windows. It runs in the tray, and shows two graphs, side by side:

Out of the box, the graphs can show:

• Battery remaining
• CPU usage
• Disk usage
• Network downstream
• Network upstream
• Network up & downstream
• Volume
• Wireless strength

I wrote Tray System Monitor back when I was using Windows full time. It was one of my first C# apps. The code is reflective of its author: a semi-experienced C++ developer that had only around a year of experience in C#.

That being said, I dusted it off today, as I wanted to run it on the Windows computer I’m using full time at a client’s office. It took a little bit of build settings tweaking to get the old girl to run, but no code changes, which I was happy about.

I’ve placed the code on Github, should you want to check it out and/or tweak it for yourself.

I should also note that it is very easy to add your own monitors to the app, without changing any of my code. In your own DLL, include a class that implements the IStatusProvider interface, and place it in the same folder as the Tray System Monitor executable. It should auto-discover your provider the next time the app is restarted, and it will be treated just like any of the other available providers.

Though it’s not my career, I take podcasting seriously. As with anything one takes seriously, one quickly develops goals to aspire to. For me, one of my goals was appearing on The Incomparable.

A pop culture podcast, but more than that, hosted by Jason Snell and Friends, The Incomparable has always felt like the “big leagues” to me.

I’ve finally made it to the big leagues.

In this episode, we discuss one of my favorite films of all time: The Hunt for Red October (Amazon, iTunes).

(You may remember that movie from this post from early this year, or perhaps this one.)

I could quote most of this movie from memory. I love it, and watch it constantly. When I was a kid, I wore out a section of our VHS copy because I watched Hunt so darn often.

This was, without hyperbole, a big moment for me. It was like, well, sailing into history.

Despite the endless public discussion of baby-making, relatively little is said about fertility problems, even common ones. The erasure of these issues from the public consciousness, combined with the “don’t leave it too late” narrative, directs a heavy and unnecessary sense of blame towards those who struggle to conceive.

[…]

When a close friend of mine was referred to a fertility clinic by her [General Practitioner] at the age of 28, she said it felt like a punch in the stomach. Despite every logical argument to the contrary, she struggled with feelings of embarrassment, failure, guilt and shame. What would have made it much easier, she told me, was feeling that this was normal, common even.

In a departure from my usual nerdery, I was lucky enough to get interviewed by the Disney World fansite Rope Drop [dot] net. I was asked several questions about Disney World by John Kivus, one half of the husband and wife team that run the site.

On my interview, I discuss planning for Disney World trips, changes to Disney World over the years, and what attractions I really love there. Though I’m no expert, I could go on about Disney World for hours.

Even if Disney World isn’t your thing, there’s also some cute pictures of Erin and Declan that I don’t think I’ve shared publicly yet. 😊

Today I joined Dan Lizette on his show The Podcast Digest. On this episode, we discussed my origin story, what it’s like to work with podcasting powerhouses, dealing with the crummy side of the internet, the Relay FM back story, and some tech discussion at the end.

Today I had the tremendous pleasure of appearing on my dear friend Myke Hurley’s wonderful podcast series, Inquisitive. On this episode, we discussed my favorite album, Mutemath’s “Armistice Live” (Spotify, iTunes Video, iTunes Audio, Amazon, Rdio).

When Myke first started this favorite albums series with our mutual friend Faith Korpi, I was immediately hooked. I love music; as with so many others, it has been an important part of my life since I can remember. Listening to people discuss their favorite albums is always fascinating, and fun. Myke’s masterful editing just makes it that much more fun to listen to.

When I listened to Faith’s episode, I immediately wondered what I would choose as my favorite album. The one I chose for Inquisitive was Armistice Live, for a couple reasons. Mutemath is presently my favorite band, and has been for a few years now. Armistice Live, mostly a live performance of their then-new album “Armistice”, is my favorite of all their albums.

Mutemath is without question one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen. Their energy is phenomenal, and riveting. Armistice Live does a great job of capturing that.

Naturally, I have quite a lot more to say; please have a listen.

Before I landed on Armistice Live, I had spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to answer such a simple question — what is my favorite album? I ran through tons of different choices, narrowing it down to just a few. Though I stick by my choice, there are a few others I nearly chose. In case you’re in need of some new music to try, I thought I’d call them out here.

In college, my good friend Brian introduced me to an absolutely phenomenal debut album by an artist that seemed to come out of nowhere. Rob Dougan’s “Furious Angels” (Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Rdio) is best known for some of the tracks that were used on the soundtrack for The Matrix. Nevertheless, it’s a stunningly beautiful and powerful album; one that still gets regular plays to this day.

Anytime I listen to “Furious Angels”, I’m immediately brought back to college. That brings with it all the good and bad times that defined my college experience. Furthermore, I feel like “Furious Angels” was the gateway drug into my love of trip-hop and downtempo music.

When I was in high school, my parents bought a Nissan 300ZX from one of my dad’s coworkers. We knew that it only had a cassette player in it, and when we bought it, we brought one of the only cassettes we had in the house to listen to on the way home. That cassette was an album that I can’t find for purchase anymore. The album is “Seal: The Acoustic Session”, which is six tracks, all acoustic. There’s a video available as well, which we had on VHS and eventually captured digitally. As with so many things, that video is available on YouTube.

This album has, just like “Furious Angels”, remained in constant rotation since that day we picked up the Z in 1996 or so. It’s scary to realize that was very nearly twenty years ago.

“The Acoustic Session” is also unique in that I always tend to play it on rainy days. The day we picked up the Z was a very very wet day in New York and Connecticut, and I had only six songs to listen to on the hour drive home. I will forever associate rain with this album, and vice versa.

As a child, I tended to gravitate toward the music my parents liked. We heard a stunning array of wildly unrelated artists, but there were a few mainstays. Elton John was one of them. Though “Live in Australia” will always have a special place in my heart (one of the tracks was our wedding song, among other reasons), I very nearly chose a different album altogether.

Elton’s “17-11-70” (Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Rdio), or 11-17-70 for us silly Americans, is an absolutely stunning live performance by just three people. The performance of Sixty Years On, particularly that of drummer Nigel Olsson, is breathtaking.

Finally, it would be peculiar if I didn’t mention at least one Dave Matthews Band album. For at least 10 years, beginning early in high school, DMB was my favorite band. Though I rarely listen to them anymore, I always enjoy it when I do. Of all of their studio albums, my favorite is “Before These Crowded Streets” (Spotify, iTunes, Amazon). It was to me, and many other DMB fans, their pinnacle.

Luckily, I’ve already spoken about this album at length. Earlier this year, I joined Antony Johnston on Unjustly Maligned #18 to discuss this very album.

Superlatives are in many ways a silly endeavor. A waste of time. Yet, they force reflection and introspection in a way that many other excercises do not.

Coming up with this list, and eventually selecting “Armistice Live”, was a ton of fun, before I even got in front of a microphone. Check out Inquisitive if you’d like to hear more, and hear how I landed on “Armistice Live” over these other stellar albums.

Last year, Erin and I interviewed for and received our membership in the United States Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry program. By being members of Global Entry, with that comes automatic enrollment in the Transportation Safety Administration’s Pre-Check program. This year, we did the same for Declan.

In doing research about Global Entry, I didn’t come across any particularly great summaries of what it is nor the application process. Hopefully, this post will fill that gap.

TSA Pre-Check has the following perks:

• Dedicated and/or shorter security lines
• When going through TSA Pre-Check lines, you don’t have to remove
  • Belts
  • Shoes
  • Jackets
  • Laptop
  • Toiletries

In addition to the above, Global Entry has the following perks:

• Segregated and shorter Customs lines
• Entry interrogation by way of automated ATM-like machines

TSA Pre-Check costs $85. For a mere $15 more, you can apply to be a member of Global Entry. To my eyes, I don’t understand why one wouldn’t forego TSA Pre-Check and just go straight to Global Entry. Furthermore, American Express cardholders can get the fee reimbursed. (In our case, we paid for it, since we are not American Express cardholders.)

Once you’re a member of Global Entry or Pre-Check, you get a “Known Traveler Number”, which you enter during the reservation process as you’re booking air travel. Upon checking into your flight, you will usually see a TSA Pre-Check icon on your boarding pass. This means you can go to the special speedy security line. If you don’t get the TSA Pre-Check icon, you have to go through the normal line.

In the case of Global Entry, upon returning to the United States from abroad, you walk up to the special kiosks, make their customs declaration, scan your passport and fingerprints, and get a receipt. That receipt is given to the CBP officers before exiting into the United States.

Application Process

In order to apply for Global Entry, it’s a multi-step process:

1. Fill out an application online, which includes such things as where you’ve lived and countries you’ve traveled to for the last 5 years, your work history, etc. At this point you pay your non-refundable $100 application fee.
2. Wait for your application to be reviewed. The review took less than a week.
3. If you pass the review process, you schedule an in-person interview. These interviews are typically at a large regional airport. For us, the nearest airport was Dulles, which is a little over 2 hours away. In our case, we had to schedule a few weeks in advance to get a time slot that worked for us.
4. Go to an in-person interview.
5. Wait for your interview results to come in. For us, we interviewed mid-afternoon and had our results a few hours later.
6. Receive your Global Entry card in the mail.

Excepting the interview itself, the entire application process is managed through the government’s Global Online Enrollment System, or, GOES. This website is exactly as bad as you’d predict a government website to be. Nevertheless, it does the job… when the site isn’t down.

It’s also in GOES that you can go back and modify your information, such as updating your address, or your passport number. It’s important to remember that when you renew your passport, your new passport does not share the same passport number, and you need to notify the government of your new passport number. This is also true for your mailing address, driver’s license, etc.

The Interview

As mentioned above, interviews tend to be at large regional airports. For us, that meant the two hour trip to Dulles. Depending on the time of year, interview times may be available nearly immediately, and sometimes they may not be available for months. Erin and I interviewed in July 2014, and the schedule was largely booked for about a month. Declan interviewed (more on that later) in August of 2015, and there were plenty of spots open almost immediately.

In Dulles, the enrollment center was in the main terminal, in a hallway at the very end of baggage claim. When Erin and I went to do our interviews, there was a very passive-aggressive sign on the closed door that said, in so many words, “take a seat and someone will come get you when it’s your turn; DO NOT KNOCK”.

I found it extremely unnerving to just go sit in some hallway (on provided chairs) and hope for the best, but that’s what we did. To their credit, a CBP officer came out at exactly our appointment time, and called our names. We then followed him into the enrollment center office, where we were told to watch a short video about how Global Entry works. When Declan interviewed, the door was open, sign gone. We entered the office immediately and waited in there, watching the same video.

For Erin and me, we interviewed individually but simultaneously. Though I don’t recall the questions that were asked, they were all very basic. Things like where I’ve traveled, where I’m planning to travel, and my residential and criminal history. They also verified the documentation provided, which was things like your current passport, driver’s license, and proof of residency. The CBP agent that interviewed Erin was considerably more punchy, and gave her a harder time, but nothing too egregious. During the interview they take your fingerprints, digitally, and take a picture of you.

For Declan, we were told during our interviews that he would also have to come interview. We found this a bit surprising, given he would quite literally have nothing to say, but we were assured it was the way things had to be. When we did come for his interview, only one parent was allowed back, though both had to be present.

During Declan’s interview, the CBP agent verified his passport and birth certificate, and took his picture. Declan’s fingerprints were not taken, since they will likely change so much so quickly. This means that, should we enter the country with him, the automated machine will reject him due to lack of fingerprints, and will be deferred to talk to an agent. I’ve read that when this happens, you will often be directed to the crew member line, and not the main line that everyone else is waiting in.

All three of us passed our interviews the first time, and were notified by way of GOES within a few hours.

It’s also worth noting that while Declan does need to enroll in Global Entry himself in order for us to go through the segregated Customs line, he can ride with us on TSA Pre until he’s 12. For example, from Virgin America’s site:

Plus, passengers 12 years of age and younger are allowed through TSA Pre✓™ lanes with eligible guests

If you have a child that is traveling with you only domestically, you may find that getting them Global Entry is not worth your time nor money.

Using TSA Pre

I’ve only flown a couple times with TSA Pre-Check, but it’s wonderful. Someone described it to me once as going back to the way things were before 9/11. I think that’s a pretty great description. The lines are almost always shorter, and you don’t feel like you’re belching half your clothes nor the contents of your carry on onto the X-ray scanner.

We also got TSA Pre when traveling domestically with Declan. We specified him as a lap infant and he was allowed to go through TSA Pre without question.

Using Global Entry

Though I haven’t had the opportunity to use Global Entry yet, my understanding is that it makes things quite a lot easier when entering the US. (Global Entry does nothing for you when leaving the US, though TSA Pre-Check does.) The advantages start on the plane, where you don’t have to fill out that paper customs form shortly before landing — that is taken care of at the Global Entry kiosk.

Once you land, you walk up to a Global Entry kiosk. There, you scan your passport, your fingerprints, and you have your picture taken. You make your declarations on that kiosk. It will print a slip of paper instructing you to either hand it to an officer on the way out, or to wait to talk to an officer before leaving.

Should you need to talk to either a customs or passport control officer, you will nearly always find a shorter line. That line will either be exclusive to Global Entry, or shared with the aircraft crews. If there is no segregated line, you’ll often get to jump the main line.

The friend who convinced me to get Global Entry in the first place has told stories of getting from the jetway to the outside air in Dulles in less than 10 minutes. Even as an American citizen, that’s unheard of without Global Entry.

Side Perks

Despite what’s hinted at above, Global Entry does actually permit some affordances when entering some other countries. This is either by way of a sort of reciprocity with Global Entry, such as Australia’s SmartGate. CBP will also inform you when you’re potentially eligible for an optional enrollment, such as the new UK’s Registered Traveller program.

To me, it’s worth giving up $100 and my fingerprints for far easier travel. Having had the taste of the good life, I plan to continue staying enrolled in Global Entry in perpetuity. Memberships only last for 5 years, so expect a follow-up post about the renewal process in 2019.

In his Siracusian-length iOS 9 review, Federico Viticci shares a neat tip:

The other addition to Reminders in iOS 9 is the ability to create reminders for when you’re getting in or out of your car. These reminders use a Bluetooth connection in your car to determine when your device has entered or left the vehicle, which can be useful to remember to do something before driving or immediately after stopping.

I use reminders often to remind me to do things when I get home, or when I get to work. Now I can use reminders when I get in or get out of my car. You can set these reminders using Siri, or by specifying your car as a location:

I tried this with my 2011 BMW, which has no aftermarket modifications to the stereo, and it worked no problem. Very cool.

In combination, my experience and the image above seem to answer Federico’s follow-on question:

To this day, Apple hasn’t clarified whether car reminders in iOS 9 require CarPlay or can work with generic car Bluetooth and third-party accessories.

Sure does work with non-CarPlay cars. Moreover, if you happen to have your phone paired to more than one car, the verbiage on the image above seems to indicate that these reminders will fire when getting into or out of any car your phone knows about.

I’ve told this story before, but only on that show no one listened to.

It’s the fall of 1998. I was nearly 17 years old, and have recently achieved freedom — I’d had my driver’s license for about two weeks. I was out hanging at a friend’s house into the early evening.

My parents’ house had a very steep driveway leading up to a flat section where the house was. At the bottom of the drive was something that… didn’t belong. It was a Ferrari. Even at night, I could tell it was Ferrari red, of course.

I drove up the drive, and it immediately occurred to me why there was a quarter million dollar car at the bottom of the driveway. The Galantes must be here.

I grew up all over the US, but my family spent 20 years in New Fairfield, Connecticut. A very small town around an hour from Manhattan on a good day, it was a nice place to grow up. I moved there when I was in eighth grade. My youngest brother, eight years my junior, spent his entire childhood there. Just a year ago my parents retired, left New Fairfield, and settled outside Charlottesville, Virginia.

My parents had a group of friends of various backgrounds. Many of whom they met through my mom’s participation in the Community Service Club. One of those was Mrs. Galante. Her husband, Jimmy, was somewhat of a local celebrity. Though there were many wealthy families in New Fairfield, the Galantes were unequivocally one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest.

Mr. Galante owned several local garbage companies, including the local company Automated Waste Disposal. Everyone raised an eyebrow at a man with a clearly Italian-sounding surname owning a garbage company so near to New York, but no one ever said anything.

Furthermore, Mr. Galante donated oodles of money to the community, including single-handedly bankrolling a complete rebuild of my high school’s football field, track, and a nearby playground.

To me, he was just a family friend, who tended to get along well with the kids. He was Mr. Galante.

I pulled up our driveway, and got out of my 1994 Saturn SL2. (I loved that car, up until the time a wheel fell off while I was driving it.) Getting out, and walking in the house, I knew I had to go poke my head in where my parents and their friends were.

Walking in, after saying hi to everyone, I immediately looked at Mr. Galante.

“Nice car.”

“Thanks! Want to go for a ride?”

“😳 … Um, sure!”

My parents lived a couple of streets away from a road that was around 1.5 miles (2.5 km) long and nearly straight as an arrow. We took off down the road, with Mr. Galante driving reasonably conservatively. At the end of that road, we hit a T. We could make a long loop back to Mom and Dad’s, but we didn’t.

Briefly heartbroken to know that my ride was ending after only a couple more minutes, I bit my tongue and just reminded myself I was riding in a Ferrari. These sorts of things don’t exactly happen every day.

Mr. Galante completed his U-turn, but then he stopped dead. The road had barely any shoulder, so we were blocking travel in one direction. Luckily, New Fairfield is a small town, and we were only stopped for a moment. Not knowing what was going on, I was very confused. This confusion escalated when Mr. Galante got out of the car, calling something over his shoulder as he did so.

I had to mentally rewind what he said two or three times before I put it together.

“Your turn.”

The next thing I knew, I was buckled in, behind the wheel of a Ferrari. I place my feet on the pedals, and immediately realize all three of them were on top of each other.

I immediately gave thanks for not only learning to drive on that Saturn — itself a 5-speed — but for taking my driving test on it. If I can handle that, I can handle this, right? This… Ferrari?

Despite the pedals that were seemingly on top of each other, I was able to take off, and to do so without stalling. So far so good. I didn’t beat on the car any, since it wasn’t mine, I barely knew how to drive in the first place, and it was worth as much as a house.

After a minute or so, which felt like one glorious hour, Mr. Galante very calmly looked over at me and asked me,

“How fast do you think we’re going?”

The road had a 45 MPH (70 KPH) speed limit. I felt like I was crawling; I really didn’t want to mess up this Ferrari. I looked down to the speedomoeter, so I could answer Mr. Galante’s question. I stumbled for a second, because there, in the center of the speedometer, was a prancing horse. Awesome.

Finally getting control of myself again, I concentrated on finding the answer to his question. I figured I was going around 35 or 40. Though not an experienced driver, it doesn’t take long to get a rough feel for how fast you’re going. As it turns out, I was doing about 80. Oops.

I adjusted my speed, and continued the drive home. We got to the bottom of the driveway, I turned off the car, and I thanked Mr. Galante for letting me drive his Ferrari.

Looking at it objectively, it was probably the most boring drive I’d ever made in my short time as a licensed driver. Reflecting on it, it was one of the most exciting.

To this day, I can’t recollect what Ferrari it was, and I’m ashamed for it. I think it was a F355. I’m still not sure. It doesn’t matter. I know it was a Ferrari.

You can hear me tell this story in my own voice by listening to Neutral #8. The relevant portion starts at 25:07.

Fast forward a few years, and Mr. Galante ended up making national news. He had gotten it in his head to create a minor league hockey team in Danbury, the “big” city next door to New Fairfield. This team, the Danbury Trashers, seemed unremarkable at first. They made national news, however, because of their President and General Manager: Mr. Galante’s son, a high school senior.

Fast forward a few more years, and Mr. Galante had a couple run-ins with the law. He was eventually sent to jail for it, after an investigation that involved the FBI. He went to jail for the same reasons that we all raised eyebrows to many years before.

But to me, he’ll always be the family friend who let a 16 year old drive his Ferrari.

I bring all this up because I recently stumbled upon this video^[1] (some not safe for work language) from Sports Illustrated, chronicling the Trashers. It’s only 15 minutes, and I’m biased, but I found it to be absolutely fascinating. The Trashers formed once I was away at school, so I didn’t see any of this first hand. But I certainly did live it through my parents and younger brothers.

It’s truly wild to me that the same man, a family friend, who let me drive his Ferrari, is the same man a Sports Illustrated video is about. Small world.

A quick public service announcement.

Every year, around Halloween, Hershey’s does a special run of their Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. This run is special because you can buy a batch that are sent directly from the factory to your doorstep. Quite obviously, these Reese’s are considerably more fresh than what you would buy in a store. To ensure ultimate freshness, you can even spring for the Coolship option:

We carefully pack your order into an insulated container with a reusable non-toxic liquid ice pack, which maintains optimal temperature during transit. Orders sent via COOLSHIP are shipped Monday through Wednesday, via 2nd Day Delivery, ensuring uninterrupted transport.

Though Reese’s cups are not my favorite candy (that would probably be Kit Kat or a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk bar), I do quite like them. Even as a non-connoisseur, I can assure you that the fresh from the factory Reese’s taste noticeably better. The chocolate is obviously fresher, the peanut butter better. No chocolate is wasted when you peel them away from the wrapper. Wonderful.

So, if you have a Reese’s fan in your life, act now and preorder.