I’m writing this in a coffee shop, and when I’m using a public wireless network, I like to secure my network traffic using a virtual private network (VPN) that I set up on my server at home. Without this, anyone else close by could spy on what I’m doing (including seeing passwords I’m sending to badly-secured web sites). Unfortunately, the connection appears to go bad after a short while, and it took me weeks to spend the minute it took to find a fix.
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I just got back from an OSAF Sprint Week in San Francisco — all the remote folks “come home” every so often to work together in the office, and we were celebrating the Preview release of Chandler.

I took my new camera along, and shot a few photos of my coworkers at lunch, and more just walking around the city — mostly during an evening walk with Ted Leung, who I’m learning a lot from. (Those are links to my new Flickr account – you can get to all my pictures using the new link over there in the sidebar.)

We recently replaced my old Mr. Coffee with a Saeco thermal coffee maker. A brief review:

• I can’t believe we waited so long to switch to a thermal-pot coffee maker. The coffee doesn’t taste cooked anymore, and is still almost hot enough to drink eight hours after brewing (and microwaves fine, too).
• I picked this model because it was less than $100 (after BB&B’s 20% postcard discount), holds 10 cups, has a timer, and I could fit my hand into the pot (with a sponge) for cleaning.
• I’d heard horror stories about overflowing problems with several thermal coffeemakers; yes, it’s happened to me once, so I’ve learned to be extra-careful about positioning the pot and making sure the lid’s snapped down.
• About that lid: It’s huge: the whole top (along with that Daliesque melty-looking silver flap) hinges up at the back. This means the whole coffeemaker has to be pulled out to the edge of the counter for filling, to clear the cabinet above.
• The water reservoir has a line marked on a tube inside to show the don’t-go-past-here level; no intermediate levels are marked.
• The thing beeps at the start and end of brewing, whether you pushed the button to start it or used the self-timer. I could do without the beep when I use the self-timer (I’m still asleep!) but there’s no way to shut it off.
• None of these complaints amount to much: it’s really great.

(Tip o’ the hat to Too Much Coffee Man.)