Andrew Ferguson dot NET

I have it on good authority with confirmation that a new Pastor for UPC has been nominated. Details will be released at noon Pacific time. More information should be available at that time on http://www.upcpastorsearch.com/ and/or http://www.upc.org

It has been almost two years since Earl announced that he would be leaving.

It’s taken about seven months to get here, but 7,920 minutes later, I’ve finished watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It’s kind of bitter sweet, really. DS9 was a great series. But I must press on.

Latest Details of The Star Trek Project:
Minutes Seen: 21370
Minutes Left: 11976
Episodes Seen: 466
Episodes Left: 271
% Complete: 64.09%
% Left: 35.91%

I’ll be starting Star Trek: Voyager, which I hope to finish sometime early next semester. Then it’s on to Star Trek: Enterprise which I hope to complete before I’m done with school. Finally, Star Trek comes out on May 8th, which is the day I graduate. Coincidence? I think not. I’m planning on going to the midnight showing of that to complete my Tour de Force.

Over the last few years, I’ve made a concerted effort, both on my blog and in meatspace, to become a better story teller. I’m still not a great story teller, but I do think I’m improving.

Robert Krulwich is the co-host of Radiolab on WNYC, which is “what you’d get if you put Freakonomics, Malcolm Gladwell, and This American Life in a blender.” [1] This past spring, Krulwich gave the commencement speech at CalTech. He called it “Tell Me a Story” and he makes a case for the importance of telling stories.

Every engineer, scientists, mathematician, or anyone else with a Bachelors (or Masters, or Doctorate) of Science degree should listen to his speech, which I’ve included below. However, I’d also encourage you listen to it even if you’re not in the above category.

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[1] http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/553-if-the-freakonomics-guys-and-malcolm-gladwell-hosted-this-american-life

Several months ago, I received a question about opening up an excel file:

why can’t i open this attachment?

is it an excel file? my mac doesn’t recognize it?

The attached file had a .xlsx extension and that was the giveaway.

When Microsoft introduced Office 2007 (and 2008 for the Mac), they revamped the formats for all of the Microsoft Office file types. To differentiate the new file types, they added an ‘x’ to the format. So anything that ends in ‘x’ (.docx, pptx, xlsx, etc) were created by the new version of Office.

Microsoft has released a knowledge base article about it: How to use earlier versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to open and save files from 2007 Office programs.

They have also released a compatibility fix, at least for Windows-based machines: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Update: You can also use this free online conversion utility: Zamzar

After talking with Adam and checking both the 2008/09 Undergraduate Bulletin and with the Registrar, it looks like I can take Introduction to Law and Legal Systems after all, or any other 200- or 300-level class.

Woot.

Today is the beginning of fall semester; my last fall semester. I’m aware that this is monumental moment, however I can’t quite bring myself to really believe that this is it: the beginning of the end of 17+ years worth of education¹.

And yet it is.

This past summer has been amazing in many ways. I had some amazing conversations with some amazing people, both in my personal life and at work. I still don’t have the future planned out, but that’s okay.

At the end of my high school graduation speech, I quoted a famous Churchill line, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” I think I was about four and a half years too soon on that remark.

This, my friends, really is it. I’m getting ready to write the last chapter in a book I like to call Andrew Ferguson: The First 23 Years.

Thus I think it’s fitting that while I work on closing this chapter and book in my life, I am able to announce the title of my next book - Andrew Ferguson: The Boeing Years.

As my third internship with them was coming to an end, Boeing elected to offer me a job for after graduation.

I accepted.

After some time off to catch a breather, I’ll be returning to my group sometime in the late summer of 2009.

So, stick around. This year is going to be crazy-awesome and as Frank Sinatra sang,
The best is yet to come, and, babe, won’t that be fine,
You think you’ve seen the sun, but you ain’t seen it shine

¹ I would actually argue that learning is a lifelong adventure. I hope to never stop being educated. So really, this is the end of my formal education - at least for the time being.

I had brunch today with Ben, Mike, and company. I happened to be talking with Mike about my classes for this semester (Mike is a fellow EE, although he graduated in May). I mentioned that I was taking Introduction to Law and Legal Systems, which is a 200-level class. Mike then pointed out that I need to be taking 300-level LAIS classes to fulfill my graduation requirements.

Well crap. I was kind of looking forward to that class.

With less then two days before the start of Fall semester, I got back on Trailhead and found a 300-level LAIS class to take: Modern European Literature
From lais.mines.edu:

This course will introduce students to some of the major figures and generative themes of post-Enlightenment European and British literature. Reading, discussion, and writing will focus on fiction, poetry, drama, and critical essays representing British, French, Germanic, Italian, Czech, and Russian cultural traditions. Engaging these texts will foster understanding of some of the pivotal philosophical, political, and aesthetic movements and debates that have shaped modern European society and culture. Thematic concerns will include the French Enlightenment and its legacies, imperialism within and beyond Europe, comparative totalitarianisms, the rise of psychoanalytic theory and existentialism, and modernist and postmodern perspectives on the arts.

Never a dull moment in my life.

Update: Looks like the rules have channged.

Some 409,075 words later, this is the 2,000th post. It took about six years to get here. I wonder what the next six years will look like?

Enjoy some of the goodness and get a random AFdN post.

Incidentally, I’ve also recently posted by 10,000th picture to Flickr:

Heading back to Colorado. As always, feel free to call me to discus what I’m seeing outside my window.