A few years back, we bought up a bunch of “.mn” domain names at work. That extension is the country code for Mongolia, but it also works well for Minnesota-based sites.

I have several domains in production now (golfing.mn, hockey.mn, run.mn, proam.mn), but we have a bunch that we don’t plan to use:

• bride.mn
• cabins.mn
• concerts.mn
• deals.mn
• homefinder.mn
• seats.mn
• sexy.mn
• theater.mn
• zoo.mn

If you would like to take ownership of any of these domains, drop me a line at dk@studio-4.com and we can chat. I hate domain squatters, so all we are looking for is to recoup some of our costs (.mn domains are more expensive–starting at $49.95USD per year).

August means the end of summer, the Minnesota State Fair and the beginning of the school year. It’s that last one that means my workdays will be getting longer soon. Here’s a short list of things going on:

• Rebuild and upgrade the networking infrastructure in the server room and big advisory space at HSRA Minnesota (pictured above)
• Execute a new Apple lease for Minnesota and take delivery of a boatload of new equipment that needs to be configured and deployed (50+ workstations and 25+ laptops)
• Install upgraded studio and pre-production equipment in Minnesota
• Reposition security cameras and upgrade and enhance digital recording systems
• Upgrade Minnesota server operating system and re-configure
• Re-image older workstations in Minnesota
• Deploy site licenses for Final Cut Pro, Logic Studio and Aperture
• Upgrade and deploy enhanced graphics lab in Minnesota
• Plan for tech contingencies at HSRA Los Angeles and a possible late August visit

On top of all that, I’m still dealing with DNS and firewall issues in Seattle, an overall cleanup of the four Seattle servers, test installs of Elgg, Moodle, Buddypress and Drupal and a re-design of the HSRA New York website. Oh, and I’m trying to learn Ruby on Rails and subversion on the side. Fun, fun.

I just realized this year’s WWDC was my tenth. I started going in 1998 when it was still held in San Jose and only missed one year (2002 - dark days in my airline career). The company names on my badges have changed quite a bit, even though I’ve really only worked two places my entire life.

I thought of asking “When was my first WWDC, where was it held and what company did I represent?” at Stump the Experts this year, but I wasn’t sure of the company until I dug through my junk drawer today. My how time flies…

Another WWDC is history. This is always a highlight of the year for me: a great city and loads of professional development. My head is full of new ideas and things I want to work on this summer:

• Ruby on Rails
• Leopard Server upgrades in MN and LA
• Remote system administration, imaging and automation ideas
• Javascript and Ajax
• iPhone web development
• Cocoa and Xcode
• Graphic design and Illustrator

Yesterday was the beer bash in Yerba Buena Gardens and the surprise musical guest was Barenaked Ladies. I’m not a big fan of them, but they were funny, clued in to the audience and entertaining to watch. Plus they’re Canadian, which is always good in my book.

I’ve never seen so many nerds packed into one place. They did the same regional food stations as last year and the caterer was mostly able to keep pace with the hungry crowd. I had some Italian, Chinese and “All-American” finger foods, all of which were pretty good.

For lunch yesterday, I went to Lark Creek Steak in the Westfield Centre. This is one of the restaurants associated with Bradley Ogden, whose namesake restaurant in Las Vegas is one of my favorites in the whole world. I had the steakburger with sharp cheddar, fries and a shake. It was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had–so good.

Hanging around downtown until my Sun Country red eye later tonight. There are lots of people still at the convention center, even though the sessions are over (labs go until 6:30). I’m currently using the high-speed wireless to watch the live Tiger/Phil stream from the U.S. Open. Kung-Fu Panda is showing across the street, so I might go and catch me some animated JB too…

This conference always seems to go by so quickly. Check out my Twitter feed for all the sessions I’ve been attending. Very interesting stuff here this year. I wish I had more time to learn iPhone programming–there is a lot of money to made there. The shirts this year at the fake Company Store were awesome, so I picked up a couple.

In the food arena, I had lunch yesterday at an Irish pub called The Chieftain located right around the corner from Moscone. Had fish and chips that had a strong ale flavor - yum. Dinner was at Lori’s Diner, where I had a real cherry Coke with an open faced hot turkey sandwich. Food is definitely part of the reason I love San Francisco.

I ran five miles this morning before the sessions started, running from the hotel to Fisherman’s Wharf and back. They now have an In-N-Out Burger at the Wharf, along with all the other wonderful places. I really need to bring the kids here soon.

More good sessions today, with Dr. Paranoid from Pixar presenting again at lunch. I finished several lingering work projects yesterday during breaks and after dinner, so I might be able to go to the Design Awards and Stump the Experts tonight. Nerd fun.

What a week. After the Tapemark, I headed home, mowed the front lawn, grabbed a quick dinner, then drove to the airport to catch a flight to San Francisco for WWDC week.

The flight on Sun Country had some nice surprises. The flight was pretty crowded (130 people), but my row had about four inches of additional leg room–just as good as sitting in an exit row. Arrived right on time and the notoriously slow SFO luggage system had my bag out on the carousel right away.

A quick ride in a Toyota hybrid cab brought me to a new hotel–the Orchard Gardens Hotel on Bush Street. It’s a green hotel and the room is really nice: flat-screen HD TV, in-room wireless, Thymes toiletries and a really comfortable bed.

Today’s keynote at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference was OK, but a little thin on substance. The new price point is nice, and I like the 3G and the GPS, but none of it is available yet and I was hoping for “one more thing.” There was some new stuff in the later sessions, but that is under NDA.

Walked down to Belden Place to have dinner tonight at Sam’s Grill and Seafood Restaurant. I ordered Alaskan Halibut and was a little disappointed. The cheese cake I had for desert was a little better, but I really hate places that charge $3 for a 10-ounce mini bottle of Coke with no refills. Always fun to sit outside in San Francisco, though.

Thanks to the kind people at LubeTech and this grant, I was able to load up the MINI with five brand new twenty-inch iMacs today, purchased from Mike Meirovitz at the Mall of America Apple Store.

I went directly to the store so I could get them prepped for online science testing tomorrow (before they get loaded up for the Sweat Equity Enterprises program).

Always fun to have new toys…