Happy New Years, everyone!

When you guys are out celebrating and welcoming the new year, please review this video for some insight on the inner workings of your stomach.  Think of this as a public service announcement.

Technorati Tags: videos,funny,alcohol,Jim Breuer

I pissed someone off somewhere...

I mean, I've had to.  Literally, it's been one thing after another.  Here's some of the things I've been dealing with during my last week of 2007.   And, this is only the stuff I'm willing to share.

The bad stuff...

Christmas Eve: My laptop blue screens and has an irrecoverable error.  So, I need to reformat then restore from a backup.  The real problem is that I need a backup that doesn't exist.

 

Last Friday: My garbage disposal has corroded through and has pretty much all but damaged the cabinet beneath the sink.  Cheers to disgusting sink water!

This Morning: The turtle tanks Fluval 305 filter has a bad O-ring and leaked close to 10 gallons of water on our newly installed wood floors, last night.  Double cheers to disgusting turtle water!

The good stuff...

Though I hadn't full copied over everything, most of the important stuff on my old laptop is now on a Latitude D820.

The garbage disposal has been replace with a newer, more powerful unit.

The turtles are fine and still hungry as ever. 

The floor?  Well, that's another story...  I'll deal with that later.

Moral of the story?

There isn't one.  If I had to think of one, it would be "Chin Up." 

Anyway, I plan on taking 2008 on just like 2007... just roll with the punches and take things one step at a time.

It's 4:50pm...

It's 4:50pm on the Friday before the weekend before New Year's Eve. 

And, Where am I?

I'm at work.

How much do I suck?

A whole freaking lot!

"metastasizing"

I've heard this word way too many times over the past couple of weeks and it's really disturbing.  Usually, it's in reference to something medical, obviously cancer related...  but, tonight while watching Larry King Live, the word "metastasizing" was used to describe the current situation with Pakistan in reference to terrorism, the taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Personally, with everything going on, I'm feeling overwhelmed and, now, I'm deeply saddened over the events that have and are happening in Pakistan.

 
(AFP Photo/Amir Qureshi, Copyright AFP/Corbis)

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated yesterday.

Not only was she the youngest and first woman to ever head the government of a Muslin-majority state, she was also a wife and mother to three children.  Her life was filled with many obstacles and challenges, but she stood by her convictions and lost her life doing what she believed in.  And, as with any loss of life, there is tragedy, but Bhutto's death has world wide repercussion. 

What's going to happen in the upcoming days, months, or years?  No one really knows.  Analysts are speculating, presidential candidates are still campaigning and people are questioning.

All I know is that while my kids are worried about having to eat their vegetables, I'll be worried about getting them better prepared for a scary and very uncertain world.

Technorati Tags: Benazir Bhutto,Pakistan

ACEROSE?!?

In the time it took my to post my last blog...  Miss Sherrie D has played another bingo.

sigh...  So, yes...  four bingos in five move.

BTW, for those of you not in the know, acerose is an adjective for needlelike, as in the leave of pine.

I'm sure I could say some naughty reference to some sexual euphemism, but my brain is pretty spent just trying to keep up w/ Sher in this game.

Technorati Tags: games,scrabble

How does one compete...

... when their significant other is a walking dictionary?

Here's the play by play.

Yes, that's three bingos in 4 moved... and, YES, I'm getting my A$$ kicks on Scrabulous. 

If you're a facebook user, check out the application and feel free to challenge me to a game.

http://apps.facebook.com/scrabulous/

Technorati Tags: games,scrabble

I like pictures... I take 'em, it's what I do.

I am by no means a photographer.  I don't lump myself in with the people that actually plan to and actually take beautiful pictures. 

I can't categorize myself as a photographer because I know that I just do a whole lot of pointing and shooting.  There's no consideration for lighting, definitely no thought in composition or all that other foo-foo.  I just point, click and hope to get a good picture.

With the point and click mentality, I do take a lot of photos.  And, if you know me, it's not all portraits, drunken escapades or landscapes...  I do have like to capture images that make me laugh or I find interesting.  Since it's all digital, I don't have the cost associated with printing or using "consumable" film.  So, I just snap away.  Sheesh...  Hard Drives are so cheap now a days. 

Now, with 2007 coming to an end, I have to archive my photos to my archive hard drives and cut a DVD, just in case.

Doing a quick inventory, I have photos dating back to 1999. 

Holy moly...

Looking back at over eight years of photos, has gotten me to think more about the things I've been able to do, the relationships I've built, those ones I haven't nurtured and all the people that touched my life.  Overall, I do feel lucky.  I may never win the lottery or become the multi-billionaire I long to be...  but, I do surround myself with good people and have lots of good times with them.

If you're interested in seeing some of the photos I've put together in the latter part of 2007.  Check out these links:

Flickr!

Picasa

Technorati Tags: Photography

Guys, need last minute gift ideas?

I know... it's old, but I still get a kick out of it.

Technorati Tags: videos,hulu

Hey, here's something you can do...

...click on a link to support the fight against Breast Cancer.

Every year over 40,000 women die from breast cancer... one in eight women either has or will develop breast cancer if their lifetime.

If detected early, survival rate is increased dramatically. So, the reason for this post is that I committed to telling at least 10 people, at least once a month. The goal is to continue doing this until I run The Columbus Race for the Cure in 2008.

So, Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing.
Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

If you're curious as to whether this is really spam or not... check out this site for more background information: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/mammogram.asp

Technorati Tags: Breast Cancer Awareness,Causes,Mammogram,Think Pink

hulu

I finally got my invite into the hulu beta site. 

And, I'm so happy I did.

What is hulu, you ask?  Hulu is a company/website, based out of Los Angeles.  They have partnered up with some big name networks to provide access to premium content "across all genres and formats - television shows, feature films, clips and more."  Their interface is slick and sharp and finding content is nice and easy.

Basically it's nirvana for the television/movie junkie. 

The big plus is that its content is not limited to current shows...  for example, I'm currently watching the first season of Roswell and have Doogie Howser and Airwolf (w/ Ernest Borgnine) next on my playlist.

Now, how can I talk Santa in getting me both a vacation to Belize and a new multi-screen display set-up for "work".

 

Technorati Tags: hulu,web 2.0,videos,media

a blast from the past...

So, I googled myself today and found a posting I did over eight years ago. Yes, I googled myself... just wanted to make sure you guys can't find my super secret double life site. Sorry, let me get back on track. So what did I find? Apparently, back in 1999, I was researching mysql performance and it's ability to handle large data sets... it's funny to see it now. Why? Around the time of the posting, almost all of my clients were using Microsoft SQL server or Oracle... mysql was still a big "I dunno". Today, the majority of database clients are on MySQL and only a handful are using Microsoft SQL Server and only one of our clients uses Oracle. We develop for smaller, price conscious clients, so it's to be expected. Here's the post? http://www.listsearch.com/MySQL/Message/index.lasso?169625 2 million rows? puh-lease... I just got done bulk inserting closer to 5 times that amount for one of our bigger clients. My how times have changed.

Purge...

I’ve found that the one most important step in my quest to simplify my life is to purge the unnecessary things that causes complication. Specifically, I’ve been addressing the clutter and disorganization, which is the cause of *my* complication.

From reading other entries on this particular “Thing to Do”, it’s looks like that’s the overall feeling everyone has, as well.. whether it be a physical thing that is being remove or an emotional one.

As an update, I’ve purge many “physical” things that have been cluttering my office and living space. I’m becoming less of a pack rat, only keeping those things that I cherish or have sentiment for. It’s been an ongoing process that has taken up a better part of past two week, however, I’m already seeing some immediate results.

Getting up in the morning seems less stressful, getting to bed a night is a lot more relaxing. And, things are getting done.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Purge, Prune, Purify.

See more progress on: Simplify.

An "I'm sorry letter" to my blog.

Dear Blog, I feel slightly insane. It's been very busy last week and it's only getting busier. Just so you know, everything I planned to get done last week has been pushed over to this week. Which really sucks for the both of us. But, don't worry, I still care about you. Please don't think my silence means I don't care. I just have slightly more important things in my life, such as putting food on the table, paying bills, and keeping the business moving along. Plus, you're not alone... even though I'm not around, Google Analytics and Feedburner are keeping tabs on you. And, I'm sure all your trusted subscribers won't drop you off their list. Don't worry, as incentive, I have a good christmas gift for you... time permitting, you might have your own domain and a new look! To add some value to this post... since I've been sapped of every ounce of creative thought I'm piggy backing off of iJustine's recent post about We Feel Fine by Jonathan Harris and providing links to both her blog and the project's site. I'm sure many of your readers will get a kick out of it. Yours, jcd

The Human Race, In General.

It's easy to get lost on the Internet.  Consider this scenario; You wake up your suspended computer to "quickly" check e-mail and all of a sudden it's a couple of hours later, and you find yourself viewing some YouTube video of some random person doing some random thing.  For me, many times I'm left in disbelief with my jaw dropped opened, wondering "What The Fuck?".

Other times, I'm just go into an Internet Trance.  Someone sends me some link which I review and then I continue from one related link to another, absorbing as much information that my eyes can see.  Albeit, useless information, but information nonetheless. 

This completely wasteful use of time is interrupted by a phone call, email notification or, more embarrassing, someone asking me what I'm doing.  To which, I promptly reply, "Nothing!".  Which is completely, but sadly, true.

I could lie to myself and say that really all I'm doing is studying human nature and it's raw, truthful and sometimes disappointing portraits that are painted on the electronic canvas called the Internet.  I say disappointing because many of the videos that I stumble upon are of people doing really stupid things.

What are there people doing?  Are they looking for attention? fame? eternal glory?  C'mon kids, let's not kid ourselves... *eternal* on the Internet is the better part of 5 minutes.  Either way...  if some superior alien race was to snap up a portion of YouTube's most popular videos I don't think it would make much of a testimonial.

Now, I know access to the Internet hasn't really changed how people are, what it simply has done has allowed ease to provide and get information, is this a good thing?

Here are some videos that make me worry about us...  and our future generations...

Kid versus Fire Ants

It's uncanny and disturbing the number of rooftop jumping videos.

 

Technorati Tags: videos,internet,observation

It's official. Google wants to play.

Google announce yesterday that they will participate in the FCC's auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz band.  This is 3 days before the FCC's deadline to file an application to participate in the auction.

See their press release here: Google Press Center: Press Release

What's that mean if they win the C Block?  Only Google, really knows...  either way, regardless who wins, we as consumers will be seeing a lot more flexibility with our wireless Internet service. 

The auction starts on January 24th...  and it'll be interesting to see the outcome.

Check out this blog on DailyWireless.org, which has some good hypothetical situations, concerning the whole thing.

Technorati Tags: google,fcc,700 MHz band

Exploding Dog

by far, this is the site that i could spend forever on.

http://www.explodingdog.com/

And, today, this is my favorite pictures...  hint hint.

http://www.explodingdog.com/title/areyougoingtoeatthat.html

Sam draws the pictures... I just admire them.

Technorati Tags: art,images,explodingdog

I love iJustine.

I stumbled upon iJustine back when the iPhone just came out and there was all that foo foo about AT&T sending out crazy phone bill statements in boxes.

Here's her video:

 

She's been around for a quite some time now life casting, blogging, being herself.  She's quirky, funny, charismatic and cute; Top this all off with smarts, she's entertaining to watch.  Even though she is a Mac lover and Steve Jobs stalker, she is someone I wouldn't mind meeting. 

So, my blog today is dedicated to Justine for making me laugh... yesterday's post "NOT SO YUMMY" hit the spot for the Friday morning blah.

If you haven't done so, check out her blog at here:

http://www.tastyblogsnack.com

Technorati Tags: iJustine,Justine Ezarik,recommended blog

Good things come in threes, right?

So, why not give you a third post today...  really nothing out of the ordinary, I'm testing out Windows Live Writer. 

Live Writer's Overview Page

I've been shying away from Microsoft if you couldn't tell.  I was worried that Live Writer would push Microsoft's Live Spaces on you, but it didn't.  I was worried that it was a large bulky app, but it doesn't seem to be.

It's actually pretty nice...  considering this is my test drive.

Remember kids, have fun!

Wow, a second post in one day?! My small number of readers are extremely lucky! This one, however, is a quickie. My old accountant sent me this link... it's of a couple's First Dance during their wedding reception. Seeing this made me smile and reminded me how people should take life seriously but not so much that they miss out on having fun. So, lesson for today... HAVE FUN. And, for those of you that have found a partner you can do that with, you're a lucky duck. I know I am.

The word of the month...

is SIMPLIFY. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I think it's something that really needs to be done. Everyday, I'm running around, doing this, doing that. And, frankly, I don't know how things get done. So, my goal is to have a December resolution to make my New Year's resolution a whole lot easier... and that is to simplify. To give you an idea: I'm thinking of shaving down my cable service to basic cable and getting rid of my land line phone. I don't think it's too extreme... is it?! Check out my 43things... simplify is now on top of the list.

When Push comes to... BEER!

When you play blackjack, with each hand one of three possibilities can occur: One, dealer wins. That is, you've either went bust or dealer has a hand closer to 21 than yours. Two, you win; Meaning, the dealer went bust or your hand is closer to 21. The last is what's called a PUSH. This happens when both the dealer and the player tie. If you're a blackjack player, it means you didn't lose. ;) Here's another example of a push...

but see... in this case both Shane and I win. I don't think either of us mind paying back a beer... so, really, this is just another reason to drink.

The only way this push could be any sweeter would be if our respective wives would be the ones getting the beer for us, while we watch Oklahoma pounce Missouri this Saturday.

b/c Kristin from Starbucks loves me...

I twittered earlier today that there's a new Starbucks right by my client's place... it's amazing how they pop-up just like that... almost like a cancerous tumor... hmmm?! In Manhattan alone, there are 171 Starbucks, actually, at least 171. There's no telling how many more popped up since the creation of this website.

http://www.171starbucks.com/

As much as I dislike large super corporate giants and what it does to smaller businesses, I still succumb to them. Whether it be their cheap prices (more Wal-Mart vs Starbucks) or friendly people (more Starbucks vs Wal-Mart) for some reason or another, I'm there being a consumer wasting my money on overpriced coffee or shoddy Chinese made poison flip-flops. So, I don't mind taking advantage when they have promos or giveaways. Long story short, I have a Starbucks Song of the Day that I haven't used nor intend to use. So, if you have iTunes and like Annie Lennox, here's a free song that you can download. Obviously, it's a one time use, so first come first serve... Annie Lennox's Dark Road: Redeem code: H4WWW3Y4YMAH How do you redeem it? 6 steps: Open iTunes, click on iTunes Store, click Redeem, enter code, download, enjoy.

Things that make you go... WTF?!?

I read, "Bike sex man place on probation." I said, "Huh?" HERE.

Poop...

http://www.litter-robot.com

Let's talk poop... no one likes poop... poop is yucky, stinky and dirty. If you have a cat, you know you have a daily routine of having to scoop up clumpy poop and pee. Check out this holiday gift for that cat owner in your life... the litter-robot. I looks like a little pod that rockets your special kitty straight to the moon. Only $299 (excluding tax and shipping). Check out this space aged demonstration. [ here ]

43 Things.

With any goal-oriented program lies, within its core, the presence of some sort of list. Whether it's a grocery list for this week's supplies or a list of short term goals to achieve a bigger objective. This list is generated by its user to act as a reminder of what needs to get done. With Thanksgiving come and gone, and Christmas being right around the corner it might be time to start thinking about 2008's New Years Resolutions. Again... a list. A list of things you would like to do during the upcoming year. Enter 43 Things. 43Things.com ask its users "What do you want to do with your life?" It's a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. The site allows you to put your laundry list of things that you need to (or want to) get done. It doesn't all need to be world altering or awe inspiring, but you have 43 spaces to put what you want. Why 43? The founders of 43 Things needed a name. So 43 was what was chosen: "We think 43 is the right number of things for a busy person to try and do. Why not more? It’s too much. Why not less? You can do less, but it is still called 43 Things." If you haven't had a chance, I suggest you visit the site for your own personal improvement. Come follow me on my self-improvement journey... Here's my profile: http://www.43things.com/person/KnightDiver, follow me, by subscribing.

Watch the GAP!

Mobile post sent by KnightDiver using Utterz.  Replies.

Happy Thanksgiving

My photos from the past couple of days are up. They are from the Parade and Thanksgiving Dinner. View 'em in my Picasa Web Albums... if you're interested:

NYC Thanksgiving

Here's a couple of pictures that make me chuckle... Can you see what's funny about this picture? Look closely, it's the beloved Walt Disney character and star of JoJo's Circus, Miss JoJo herself. Many of the adults around us got a kick out of it. Maybe JoJo is a turkey activist and is voicing her opinion of the needless slaughter of many turkeys during this time of year... Maybe she's tired of being held down by the man, representative of the many ropes that have her bound so close to the ground...

Maybe she's tired of being a Disney sell-out...

JoJo, if I could, I'd set you free.

Crazy, Part Deux - Life in NYC.

This evening, I sit in a nice little no bedroom seventh floor loft apartment on the upper west side. (yes, I did write "no" bedroom.) We've had a pretty long day. The majority of which was hours of driving followed by lots of walking to see the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. It's barely even 9pm and we're exhausted and worn out. Now, here we are sitting in our little bubble... a nice quiet little world. We haven't had dinner, nor do we have any alcohol to take the edge off, but according to my sister, there's nothing to fear. Apparently, you can have just about anything delivered here. You name it, it can be delivered... Pizza, definitely. Chinese food... easy. Movies, sure. Laundry, of course, they pick up too. Sushi?!? Yeah... The Vicster has several menus in her menu drawer. Crazy modern conveniences... it's hard to believe that there's a bustling city outside. You could easily get lost in your own world, especially if you have broadband. Almost like Thomas Anderson from The Matrix... or better yet... Angela Bennett from the The Net A cool thing that happened today is that we met Bloomberg... he did his obligatory fly by and waved and patted the kids on the head. Want to move to New York, check out this link on the going ons. The Official New York City Web site FYI, I was going to blog about the actual drive this morning... but, it was too exhausting in the first place, recapping would have put me over the edge.

Definition of Crazy

So, here's a descriptions of our Thanksgiving road trip, thus far, to NYC. On the first leg of our trip, we made 356 miles in 6 hours. This is not to bad considering the four stops for potty breaks, the one for food, and my mandatory stop for STARBUCKS. In general, traffic was working in our favor. The kids however had to be separated midway through the trip (i.e., two kids, two separate rows). Shortly before midnight we make it to a city named Carlisle at the junction of I-76 and I-81 in Pennsylvania . It's a pretty busy town since it's right off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and it's a major junction for New York "to and fro" traffic. During the day the roads are a madhouse. Again, another thing in our favor... getting in at midnight, much of the traffic had died down. All that was left were Greyhound buses and 18-wheelers. I'm not going to say getting here wasn't without any hiccups or frustration. I'm just going to say that the kids and I are glad to just finally be out of the car.... well, at least we thought we'd be. Our first stop in Carlisle is the Holiday Inn. We arrive with hopes for a warm bed, TV and WiFi. Unfortunately to my dismay I find out that regardless of what rewards / membership card I have the best rate I could get for a room is $69 before tax, WIFI extra and no breakfast. WTF?!?! Am I in the twilight zone? Luckily, Donna the receptionist was kind enough to call over to another hotel to see if we could get a better rate. Enter the Ramada Limited. $49.00/night with a "Donna Approved" breakfast suitable for the kids. SCORE! The Ramada was less than a block away, so no big deal. Check-in ran smoothly, they accepted my "Thank-You" rewards membership, my AmEx, took my signature and gave us a room key. The dreaded room key to room 324. Yes... third Floor room, in the heart of the complex. First floor rooms w/ outside access were sold out. The stairs are on either end of each wing. Path of least resistance? The elevator. So, here I am carting 3 bags with two kids in tow through the lobby, past the food area, to the elevator. SIGH... (For future note, there is something when it comes to kids, elevator and button pushing. Their is a science when appropriating the correct amount of button push per kid at what time. If someone figures it out, please let me know.) Yet, I digress. We get to room 324, slip in the key... what do we get? We get a red light. No sweet sound of the bolt sliding to the open position, no welcoming click, nothing... just a cold silent red LED blink of being denied. Insert card, again... red light... three or four more times, varying the speed at which the card swipes... red light, red light, red light. UGH... So, luggage and kids in tow... back to the elevator, back to the front desk... we get a new card. We do this exercise thee more times. Yes, you read right... three!!! At this point, I'm beginning to question my sanity. Vivian is beginning to think her dad's gone nuts. "Daddy, are you sure it's room 324?" As a last ditch effort, I give the key to both Vivian and Christian to try. The thought here is that they are more gentle, innocent... maybe the powers that be will grant them access to our room. NO LUCK. FUCK!! Crazy - doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. 5th time around, ROTC girl shows so mercy and escorts us up to the room with a Super Duper Master Key. (Why ROTC girl? Well, I didn't get her name, b/c at this point, I'm exhausted, discombobulated and in disbelief; however, for some reason or another, I did learn she has the same pink duffel as Vivian and she's in Army ROTC at the local college) Standing by room 324, what happens next? ROTC girl is denied. "Hmmm?! You're not insane," leaves her lips. "Let me get you in another room." At this point, I'm numb. Even if I wanted to argue, I resolved myself to the fact that I deserved this b/c I was being cheap. I should have just not accepted Donna's initial offer of $69/night + tax + $19.99 WiFi + $20 breakfast. My fault for being cost conscious. Sigh... so, here I am... 45 minutes after check in, we're now in room 327, dressed warmly in our PJs and enjoying some late night cartoon network and free WiFi. Yeah, at least the WiFi is free!

hoops and yoyo

I like silly and fun things... and hoops and yoyo, Hallmarks e-card animated characters, fall within that category. Check out what I found in my mail: Wishes from the kids and some loving from Sherrie: To see more of then, visit hallmark's site here: http://www.hoopsandyoyo.com.

I want to join the 16 mile high club.

Yeah, you read that right, I want to get busy 16 miles vertical from sea-level.

However, the kinda "busy" you're thinking about isn't the same type of busy necessary to join the Mile High Club. This sort of activity is more like signing your life away through a whole bunch of waivers, paying $12,000, and then getting the chance to fly in a Russian MiG-25 fighter jet up to the edge of the atmosphere, which is at 80,000ft. (Yup, you guessed it… 16 miles)

http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/22/cz_jc_0422feat.html

How awesome would that be? See more progress on: join the 16 mile high club

Steve Jobs is coming over for Thanksgiving...

Okay, well he's not... but, his spirit will be there. Every Thanksgiving the family gets dressed up for family pictures. We all stand together and take many pictures of the crew. And I'm talking about everyone... My mom and Dad, my two sisters, my two brothers and all our families. It makes for a pretty big crew. This year, we're dressing up in Jeans and black mock turtlenecks. Very similar to Mister iPhone himself. If you're curious as to what it takes to look likes Steve Jobs, check out this site: http://www.stevesoutfit.com/

Hey... while you're wasting time...

...click on a link to support the fight against Breast Cancer. Every year over 40,000 women die from breast cancer... one in eight women either has or will develop breast cancer if their lifetime. Think about that statistic... here's an example... Take 40 women that you know... Statistically, five(5) of 'em will be affected by breast cancer. Frankly, that's five too many. If detected early, survival rate is increased dramatically. So, the reason for this post is that I committed to telling at least 10 people, at least once a month. The goal is to continue doing this until I run The Columbus Race for the Cure in 2008. So, Please tell ten friends to tell ten today!

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

If you're curious as to whether this is really spam or not... check out this site for more background information: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/charity/mammogram.asp

MeToday - November 17th

Today....

Today I was going to blog about the potential demise of Microsoft and its eventual surrender to internet giant Google... but I won't. (Even though they have targeted RIM and the crackberry and have a good chance of getting more of the corporate mobile market share.) Today, I was going to blog about the four agreements and my opinion on them, but I got nailed by MySpace legal earlier this year (on my old blog) for copyright infringements.... so, I won't be doing that... Today, I was going blog more about the affects of coffee on a man who has had a little over three hours of sleep... but, it has been pretty much my life for that past three months, so I'm bored with the subject matter. Plus, you don't want to hear me bitch... Today, I'm blogging about the Entrepreneurial spirit and what Patrick Rice has developed for sun worshiping beach combers. Considering it's a typical fall day, here in Ohio... the thoughts of a warm sunny day at the beach should put a smile on everyone's face. Patrick Rice and his team has developed a sunblock product that also repels sharks... Read more about it here: http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-08-16/news/fin-be-gone Now, I'm a big watching of Shark Week and I don't believe sharks are out to get us but nonetheless, Mr Rice will be making some money protecting people from harmful UV rays and lemon sharks. Unfortunately ladies, it won't protect you against this:

If I had a portal gun...

... I'd drop a 18 Wheel Semi on the SCUBA van so I could get a new Nissan XTERRA. If there were a couple choice people near the vicinity that got crushed in the process, I wouldn't be heartbroken. Don't know what's a portal gun is? Obviously you're not a gamer... or, you haven't read my blog recently.

Ockham's Razor Revisited

You know, I tend to be an observer when it comes to *a lot* of things. Don't know why, I just do. I'm a people watcher by nature. The one think I've learned from all my people watching is that, if you're looking to avoid all the social chaos, rumor mills, the he said / she said day to day bullshit... You should do the following two things. 1, Read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. and 2, Check out this wikiHow article, How to be Honest. The practices are simple, straight Forward... and, obvious. But, let's not kid ourselves, they are usually overlooked.

This is super way cool...

I'm a big shutter bug... I love to take pictures... I've rolled over the counter on my Rebel XT twice in less than 2 years. (i.e., over 20,000 pictures) Not to mention how many pictures I've taken with my cell phone, Jeanne's camera, video cameras. and the four digital cameras I've had prior. Anyway, check out this new toy... It's a wireless SD card that auto-magically uploads your photos to whatever destination you configure it to when it's reaches a known wireless hotspot. How freaking cool is that? More info here at http://www.eye.fi/

Inspiration for an Android Application...

Here's some inspiration in case you're wanting to develop an Android based mobile application. It's an application/service/network available in the Japanese market designed to help Japan's economy by providing businesses a more dynamic labor pool. At the same time it keeps part-time workers abreast with available jobs in real time. Otetsudai Networks is utilizing mobile phones with GPS capabilites to address labor issues in Japan. The service allows employers and job hunters to have real time access to workers and jobs, respectively. Here's one way it would work. If a shop owner is looking for someone to help with a lunch hour rush, he could survey the network for employees within his general vicinity and offer 'em a job. Another example. A student has some free time between his classes and is in need of some cash. He can search for quick jobs that may be of interest to him... mowing a lawn, washing a car, etc. He can then answer that "WANT AD" for a job that fits his current mood. In case you're wondering, both employer and employees are rated e-bay style... So, after a while employers will be able to tell who the slackers are and workers can avoid the pushy boss. Obviously, in order for this to work you must be servicing a densely populated areas... but think about the other applications for the technology: Speed dating, Sporting or Entertainment events, etc... yowsers! Joi Ito told me about it, so you should learn more about it from him. Also, here's something from Thomas Crampton, who interviews Joi about the Twitter style service.

I Am Legend

Visit the Official I Am Legend Website Check out Warner Brother's latest trailer... it's awesome!

It's here, it's here!!!

"zzzz-puzits.. human! download the SDK, possibly win money"

Early version of Android's SDK is located here: http://code.google.com/android/download.html And, yes... there's an Eclipse plug-in.

Ockham's Razor

I love the phrase, it sounds so "evil", so "sinister". But, really, it isn't. It's simply the phrase to describe what we should all already know: "The simplest and most obvious answer is usually the correct one." I ran into a situation just recently when troubleshooting a client's network. All morning, this client was not able to get online. I was able to verify connectivity issues, so I took advantage and offloaded responsibility and ownership of the problem to their ISP. (In this case Time Warner) Time Warner confirmed the outage and resolved the situation. However, the client still had problems... Of course, I didn't know this until after the client endured 4 hours of frustrating troubleshooting with their network, etc. All said and done... I stopped by on my way to another location to have a look see. Needless to say, I left within 2 minutes... the cable from their firewall/router to their main hub was disconnected. A simple click of the network cable resolved the problem. Apparently, things were moved around and jostled while they were trying to figure out why the modem wasn't online. Moral of the story... alway take a step back and take a look at the big picture. Before you start mucking around with existing settings and parameters, ask yourself what has changed to cause this problem. In most cases it's something stupid, er... I mean simple. Here's a little tidbit. Ockham's Razor (sometimes spelled Occam's razor) is a principle credited to a 14th century friar named (you guessed it) Ockham... actually William of Ockham,

Countdown... 4 more days...

I'm so excited... I know you guys are too. So, what happens on November 12th, you ask? The preview version of Android's SDK will be released!! OMG, I can't hold in the excitement! What the hell am I talking about? (I'm sure Jeanne is thinking I'm such a freaking geek.) Well, three days ago the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) announced their goals to develop open standards for mobile devices. This is a big deal, since the OHA is a consortium made up of about 30 members. Keep in mind, these are big names members including Motorola, LG, and, most notably, Google. (i.e., the company behind the mythical GPhone) I believe that this push will change the mobile paradigm all together. More importantly, at the same time OHA was announcing their mission, the group also unveiled Android. Android is an open source mobile phone platform based on the Linux Operating System. Let me repeat that... it's an OPEN SOURCE mobile phone platform based on the Linux Operating system. When it’s released the platform will be available under the Apache License. Do you know what this means? Anyone can write an application to run on any Android based mobile device. If we start to consider coupling existing phone features (i.e., camera/photos, gps, sms, mms, wifi capabilities) into an open source platform along with Google’s number of other applications the possibilities are endless. For example, this website claims to have leaked photos of the first wireless app for the Android OS. It’s a tool called What’s Open. And as you can probably guess, it’s a little application that tells you where places are and their operation hours within your general vicinity. So, at 2:00am, you’ll never have a problem finding that 24 hour Donut Shop with free WiFi. Here’s some cool ideas for a magic phone: Will this be the beginning of the end for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile? Or how about the iPhone? Doubtful, but we could always hope.

For Crash....

If you've every had a cat for a pet, this one should hit home.

MeToday - Nov 6 @home

You know with all the hub bub of daily life — making ends meets, running back and forth, climbing the career ladder — it's easy to overlook those things that we take for granted. When we take things for granted, we start to neglect the simple beauty that surrounds us in everyday life... we begin to focus on the what bothers us or what can't be done and continue down a slippery slope of negativity. So, my metoday is this video... it's just a reminder as to how we should approach each and every day.

Cyberspace?

I was doing some late night work and had some tv show on filling the silence with background noise. Most of the time, I ignore the noise but I heard something that made me do the double take. "The laws of our analog universe is hard to enforce in digital cyberspace." What got me was not the message of the sentence, I completely agree with the statement, it the fact that the word "CYBERSPACE" was used. Cyberspace?!? They still use that word? I thought it was retired or something. I think I first read this word back in 1988 when I picked up William Gibson's book Neuromancer. That was 19 years ago... which was a pretty exciting time for a geek like me. This was the about the time I was upgrading my 286 PC to to an i386 PC. All my games were on 5.25" floppy disk. I remember having to flip the darn thing when continuing an install. Sigh... Technically, the sentence should be re-stated as "The rules of meatspace is hard to enforce in cyberspace". If you're a geek, you'll remember meatspace. Or, Metaverse. Another blast from the the past: Does anyone remember Leisure Suit Larry?

Calling all Buckeyes!

Go to www.coachoftheyear.com and vote Jim Tressel for Coach of the Year! Go Bucks!

Doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?

You know, I mentioned my unfortunate mishap with Herb, our XBOX 360, however what I neglected to say is that I did do some of research on the quick fixes to resurrect it back to life. Long story short… don’t do ‘em. I didn’t try ‘em… but anything involving baking your XBOX in its own heat or cracking it open with your own soldering gun, just didn’t sound appealing to me. Plus, who has the time or the patience. I certainly don’t. Actually, I lie. I did have some free time on Friday, and I ended up visiting a GameStop store. Why GameStop? No reason, I was actually headed to get a quick beer at the Buffalo Wild Wings next door. But, I started to think that I could pick up Herb’s replacement and deal with dead Herb at a later date. (My definition of “deal with” loosely translates into “quickly being forgotten on a shelf in the basement left to collect dust”.) It’s a good thing I stopped in. A Mr. John of GameStop kindly informed me that Microsoft has extended the XBOX 360’s warranty up to three years, specifically for the Ring of Death. Hoorah for Herb… he does get a second chance. Why didn’t I find this news release last week? I don’t know, I just play the games and watch the movies… the damn thing should take care of itself. I mean it is part of the hive. errr, I meant to say XBOX Live. So, I called 1-800-4-MY-XBOX and a nice Filipina named Mary assisted me through a pretty painless call. We talked a little bit, the weather in the Philippines was nice when she went in to work, but it was close to 4am PST (Philippine Standard Time or Pamantayang Oras ng Pilipinas) so it could have been bad for all she new. What happens next? Monday I should get a box that I put Herb into and he comes back 1 to 2 weeks later good as new. Now that’s easy. Wow Microsoft! I do admit I feel guilty being so hard on Bill and all. But he’s a trillionaire, he can take a little criticism every once in awhile. Anyway, I've over it. More importantly, I think for a treat… I’ll be getting this for Good as New Herb to munch on…

Portal, due out now, from the maker's of Half-Life.

Details about Valve's new one player game, Portal can be found here. And, remember kids, "If at first you don’t succeed, you fail."

A rerun post... my public service annoucement.

This is my little opportunity to provide a public service to some of my readers... the link below is a great handy-dandy little resource that can keep you in the know when it comes to setting up your next get together of after hour meetings.

And, as a shout out to Mr Austin, The Library is not listed within, but it should be noted that it's a great place to hang out during OSU Home Games... for $7/pitcher o' beer (ALL THE TIME), you can't go wrong.

Columbus Happy Hour Listing

Also, kids... remember to drink responsibly.

 

Sad... then Happy... but still Sad...

Today is a good Friday for the Jude-man. I've been working my ass off all this week, this has allowed for a little breathing room and relaxing today. Which I like... busting ass and cleaning up the plate earlier in the week really does makes for a laid back Friday, especially when there aren't any fires to put out before the weekend. (knock on wood) The unfortunate thing is that I'm still in the office, in case a phone call does come in requiring some sort of assistance from me. So, while writing queries, maintaining databases and insuring that end of week processes are humming away, I get to surf the net, visit my favorite blogs and just soak up information... just, generally, screw around. I'm sharing two videos I came across, today. The first one addresses the Dolphin Drive Hunting happening in Taiji Wakayama, Japan. And, yes... I'll admit it. How I got here was not so much because I care about the dolphins, don't get me wrong, I do... it was more because Hayden Panettiere was one of the activists out in the water trying to drive the dolphins away from the kill zone. Here's a link, if the flash widget get all wonky on you. I felt, I should share this... b/c the needless slaughter of any animal, big or small should be a world concern. It made me SAD. As for second video, I didn't want to leave my Friday's blog on a somber note. So here's William Sledd, doing a very funny parody of Miss Teen South Carolina's 15 minutes of fame. He's so funny. This made me Happy, but, I'm still sad... Enjoy.

I'm not a database snob...

... but, when it comes down to it, you can't shine poop.  And using Microsoft Access as a data source for a website is exactly that, albeit a weak attempt but still. I should say that Access has it uses and its place.  I've suggested it to many customers for simple desktop applications or network tool with a small number of clients.  And, it is possible to use Access for a website's data source...  but it should be for a personal website, specifically one that's not all too popular, either.  ;) Why don't I like Access?  I know many of you care... Without going into much detail here are my issues: Low number of Concurrent Users possible No Scalability No Database Management Tools No Good Backup Solution to preserve Database Integity No Stored Procedures or Triggers or Transactions So moral of this short story...  download SQL Server Express 2005 and run from there. The reason I write this is b/c we have a new client who's previous developer utilized an Access database for his enterprise solution... what's that mean to me...  more work. Bottom line...  I blame Bill..  that's strike three.  First Herb...  then MSIE Rendering Engine... and now this...  sigh...  Maybe I should just go with Leopard or Linux (DSL)... 

A Special Halloween MeToday

Technically, since it's early in the morning and I haven't slept yet, this is a MeToday for both Oct31 and Nov1. And, if you consider the fact that there's less of me, it's a special limited edition MeToday. Lucky You! Why am I still up you ask? I would say the real reason is because I'm hopped up on caffeine and sugar. But that's all just side effects. The true cause is that I had a couple things I needed to finish up. And, if you boil it down to the nitty gritty, I have to thank Microsoft (yeah, I mean you Bill) and Mozilla for not agreeing on a standard way to interpret and render XHTML and CSS. I mean, can't we just all get along?!?!? I was about to start a little tirade about Microsoft's proprietray blah blah blah... but I am tired. All I have to say is this... and it's directed towards Bill... STRIKE 2 BUDDY! The first strke being Herb of course. Who hasn't been touch since I blogged about it, earlier this week. So, enough of the delay... for your viewing enjoyment, look at what you get when you mix an overworked geek with caffeine, sugar and brain-numbing work. Enjoy!

An Autumn Get Together

So, we got together for a number of reasons and here are the results:

MeToday, Oct 30th @office

Bill Gates, you suck!

Okay, I think I'm just about done with Bill Gates and Microsoft. When I'm out in the field, I'm usually dealing with problems with a Microsoft product, whether it be some OS, a Server Application or even it's current flavor of word processor. Either way, I don't expect to run into problems after hours... and I try to make sure of this by rarely jumping on the computer at home... Except for one thing. I have an XBOX 360. (For those of you 360 lovers out there, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.) I love our XBOX 360. Let's call him, Herb. Herb has been our media hub for games, music, movies for the past 18 months. He was faithful, send great HD movie and quality sound and accepted anything we put into it... even the crap that sometimes made it into our NetFlix Queue. So, you don't know how dissappointed I was to find that Herb was NOT a lucky duck. I've read rumors about many of Herb's brother's and sister's kicking the bucket, and I thought he was one of the fortunate few to have survived... but, no... Herb is dead... and he told me this past Sunday afternoon, by showing off his ring of death.

So, though it sucks to be me... it sucks more to be Herb.

Sigh....