Just a tip for people traveling this week: get there early! I got there when I normally would (45-60 minutes before) and didn’t make it, thanks mostly to standing in the wrong line twice. Airports are in need of a usability designer far more than any software I’ve used in the past year. I generally fly a few times a month, so I’m not exactly a novice, but this is the first time I’ve been in the middle of the Thanksgiving rush.

Two things I’m going to blog publicly to get myself to finish them faster: First off, I really need to finish up the Automattic site so you guys can see some of the cool stuff we’re doing there. Second, I’ve been playing with some cool gadgets lately and developing some pretty strong opinions about them which I’d like to start posting and sharing.

I only made it to the IP4IT conference on Tuesday and flew back that night but it was actually quite well-done so next time I’m going to try and make more of it. My panel in particular was great fun, with Jimmy Wales (who blogged it! I can die happy now.), Peter Saint-Andre, and Christopher Dean. The conversation at lunch was just as interesting, straying toward identity systems and dealing with web spam. The Wikipedia has fairly sophisticated ways to deal with spam, it sounded like there could be some interesting ways to work with Akismet as well. On the trade show floor I met some guys from Coyote Point Systems, which has a terrible website but their products sound very interesting and are a third to a quarter the price of similar offerings from F5 or Alteon. Anyone have experience with them?

Silly idea of the day — I want a script that listens on a secret email address and executes commands I send it via email, and then emails me back the results. Email is the universal API.

“Free Two-Day shipping should be applied automatically to all qualifying items as a benefit of your Amazon Prime subscription. We’ve investigated your order and found that it qualified for free shipping, and you should not have been charged. Please accept our apologies for this inconvenience. We have requested a refund to your credit card to reimburse you for the shipping fees you were erroneously charged. This refund should go through within the next 2 to 3 business days and will appear as a credit on your next credit card billing statement.” Another reason to love Amazon.

Writing this from the beautiful town of Round Rock Top, TX. There is nothing quite like the open roads of Texas to clear your mind.

I’ve been mostly happy with my Shure E3C headphones, but I only got them because I had some E2Cs which the cable went bad on. Now, right before I get on a plane and need them most, one of the heads just broke off the E3C and I highly doubt I’m going to ever buy a Shure product again, and I’m no longer recommending them to friends. Fool me twice…

I just realized that I use a paper shredder not because I’m particularly concerned with the sensitivity of anything I deal with, but rather because it makes going through mail so much more fun and satisfying.

Jeff Nolan goes off about his washing machine. (Also, datacenter moves are rough, we’re doing one this weekend. I also moved photomatt.net a few days ago.)

I’m reminded of Mark Pilgrim’s post on keys as I take one off my keyring for the last time and simplify life just a little bit. Current count? Four: home, mailbox, car door, car ignition.

I’m going to be a bit slow or absent on blogging and email for a few days because I’ve injured my left hand and my thumb is in a splint which makes it pretty tough to type. (One-handed mostly.) There is a ton I want to write about, but the doctor said pushing it too hard might aggrevate the injury, so it’ll mostly have to wait. To keep things interesting around here I’ll send a WP.com invite to whoever comes up with the best story about how I did it.

South is a community sponsored journey to the South pole by foot, a feat that has not been attempted since 1912. You can donate and “own a mile” of the trip. Far better use of the money than that silly million-dollar home page thing.