Prehensile Brain

A Month Gone By

2008-02-26T20:45:00.005-06:00

It seems like I'm always playing catch up with my blog posts. Mainly because I don't post very often I guess. Ah well.

Stuff happened. I got a year older. Jim sent me an awesome Snake-Eyes action figure which I failed to download off the camera before I came to the coffee house. Thanks Jim! Margaret got me the awesome G.I. Joe figures at the top of the post for Christmas. They may never leave the plastic. For my birthday she got me Wil Wheaton's first two books. I really, really enjoyed The Happiest Days of Our Lives and Dancing Barefoot. I'm looking forward to reading Just a Geek now. Mike got us Rayman's Raving Rabbids 2 which was pretty damn awesome of him. I can't really compare it to the original. They're both fun and funny but in different ways.

Margaret and I got Hellgate:London and despite my reservations I've been sucked in. It's Diablo II in a ruined future London from a first or third person view. Do quests, collect loot, get skills, and leveling. All the Diablo basics are covered but I'm enjoying it none-the-less.

I upgraded my computer with another Gigabyte of RAM. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. now plays very smoothly but it's been so long since I played I'll have to start over. I'm tempted by Crysis but I don't hate my computer that much. Margaret inherited my left overs so we're both stocked up now. I'm thinking these computers may last another 9 to 12 months then I'm going to get the upgrade bug.

I'm on my last week as a 10 to 7 at work. Next week I'm on 8 to 5 and off phone duty. A little part of me is saddened by this and a large part of me is very happy. I can start doing stuff after work now!

I currently have a bottle of Boulevard Smokestack Series Sixth Glass beer in my fridge. I plan to drink it this weekend and see if it lives up to the hype. w00t, b33r!

Late To The Party

2007-12-31T18:36:00.000-06:00

Well, here it is. 2007 has less than 6 hours on the clock. Figured I should post before the year is up.

Let's see...had a LAN party. It was pretty awesome. Some of the new maps I picked out didn't work as I'd hoped but I think everyone had fun overall. A StarCraft party was discussed during the proceedings and that needs to be followed up on. I broke down and got the Sennheiser PC151s I talked about in my last post. I am SO glad I did. They sound great and are really comfortable. The mic has good pickup as well.

Spent a few days at the Spare farm in Kansas. We were there celebrating Grandma Spare's 80th birthday. The weather was horrible that weekend and Margaret had to drive us there in the snow. Despite the weather a ton of people showed up for the birthday party, which I think is a testament to how nice Grandma Spare is. Was completely disconnected that weekend and didn't mind it as much as I thought I would. Played a lot of cards with the Spares and visited.

Christmas was good fun. I thought I'd scored a Christmas coup when I got Margaret Absolute Sandman Vol. 1 and 2 and the PA Photoshop Hero shirt. She completely turned the tables on me by not only getting me Wil Wheaton's latest book but getting one of the 300 signed and numbered limited edition hardcovers. It's fucking awesome. The signature and number are real and it included a letter signed by Wil himself as well. The book is a great read but sadly far too short. I'm looking forward to getting Wil's first two books now. Margaret was pleased with my reaction as I think I said, "Oh my god...oh my god...oh my fucking god..." about 10 times after opening it.

Spent time with my dad's side on Christmas. Chaotic and loud but I had a surprisingly good time. Found out my youngest cousin is a total geek, which is pretty cool. We had Christmas with my mom's folks a few days later. Ate, played some games, watched my nephews a bit.

Had an absolute games bonanza the last few days. Steam is having a 10-50% off sale right now which is pretty awesome. Picked up the Orange Box and Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines on the cheap. Raised my Steam score many points by burning through HL2: Ep. 1 and 2 and Portal really quick. Ep2. and Portal are especially good. I've messed around with TF2 but haven't played online yet. I also picked up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at Half Price books for $12! That and Vampire are why I haven't played TF2 yet. Too many great games to get through! S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has been beating my machine mercilessly since I started it. I really need to get another gig of RAM but I keep hesitating to spend the cash. Sad, really, when I look at all the cash I just laid out for games.

I finished off Burning Chrome last night, which I think means I've read all of William Gibson's novels. I enjoyed all his books but I think I liked the Sprawl stories the most. I picked up Richard Matheson's I Am Legend today. I've heard it's a good book and I want to see how badly they screwed up the movie in case I see it. I may pickup more Matheson stuff if I like this one. I keep meaning to read more Heinlein but after reading Stranger in a Strange Land and For Us, The Living I think I'll do that in small doses.

Mike and I are going to a Rep concert Margaret designed tonight. I guess it's supposed to be good. I just hope it has some booze.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Updates, News, and Other Un-Natural Occurances

2007-11-24T22:31:00.000-06:00

First off thanks for all the great comments on my last post. I still haven't started the mod but all the component pieces are at my apartment now. The break-away cable that came with the Duke was defective. Oddly each of the pins showed continuity when tested but the Xbox doesn't detect the controller using that break-away. I got two more off of eBay, for the price of one new at GameStop or NewEgg, and they work fine. So now I have two (2) extra cables in case I screw up the mod first go.

I would have have gotten the soldering iron, solder, wick, and shrink tubing this weekend, but I fear the shoppers. I'm thinking about getting a selectable 15/30 Watt iron from Radio Shack. It's really cheap, less than $10.00, and it gives me a little flexibility. I know I should spring for a decent iron but in case I try this and never do it again I won't be too deep in the hole. I may be building this up too much in my head. There's a geek self image issue tied into all this and I don't generally like ruining perfectly good stuff for no reason.

I've also had time to think about it and modify my design idea a bit. I'll just use one USB female plug from a motherboard set I had laying around. I'll splice/solder that into the break-away cable creating a double ended plug on the controller side. This will retain the cable as a functioning Xbox connector and allows you to plug in USB devices. Probably not at the same time as a controller though. Additionally I think a USB A to A cable in the female port to a computer will allow a Xbox controller to connect to the computer without chopping up the controller cable.

Turkey day was good. Margaret and I went to V's with my family and my moms folks. Interesting brunch buffet. I had a plate with scrambled eggs, good bacon, turkey, stuffing, and potatoes at one point. Decent food, not mind blowing, but certainly edible. Afterwards took a nap at home then hung out with Margarets family. Played Kings in the Corners and Apples to Apples with them. Fun was had.

You may have noticed I updated the links a bit. I cleaned up some sites that weren't updating anymore, added some new ones (yes, you too Mac! Scot E too!), and added a politics menu. If you haven't checked out xkcd you really need too. It's just great. I also love Neil Gaiman's journal and Wil Wheaton dot Net. Admittedly I'm a Neil Gaiman nut so his blog fascinates me and he updates a lot. I hated Wesley on ST:TNG but Wil Wheaton is a pretty cool geek. I really need to get his books.

In other news I was browsing around NewEgg and listening to my new headset earlier when the band on the headset started digging into my skull. I really don't like this Logitech headset. I got them to replace the other Logitech headset I took to work. My first Logitech headset was great: decent sound, lightweight, good adjustable mic with a great inline volume control. I took them to work so I could use the mic to test an app and listen to music. (At a low volume and only while I'm working on something, I assure you.)

This new Logitech headset blows. They hurt my ears at first but the band has stretched some, however, there's no padding on the band and it digs into my skull after awhile. The sound is flat, at times muddy, and the bass is non-existent. The mic can't be adjusted for length and I had to turn on the +20db mic gain in Windows so it would pick up my voice without shouting. The inline volume control is horrible and there's no mic mute on it. I got them because them were the only decent looking name brand headset with 3.5mm jacks Best Buy carried. They cost me $30. On the way home after buying them Margaret and I stopped at MicroCenter at 92nd and Metcalf. MicroCenter had the same headset for $20. Sadly I'd already ripped apart the BestBuy package in the car to double check the set had 3.5mm jacks. (Hey, I bought a X-Fi for a reason, and that reason was not to get a crappy USB DAC headset.) I couldn't return the first set so I had just over-paid BB $10. Fuck BB. MicroCenter is closer, has a better selection, and better prices as far as I can tell.

Well I was browsing NewEgg today and what do I find? These for $13.49. With the headband on the headset digging into my skull I felt like a real idiot looking at that. To top that off I found these when I kept browsing. For the price I got this crappy headset I could have gotten much nice Sennheiser cans with a good mic. The PC151 reviews are generally pretty positive and I love the Sennheiser MX400s (avoid the MX450s) I got Margaret for her iPod. (I believe she said the MX400s emphasized how bad the encoding was on some of the MP3s in her collection.) I'm seriously considering just tossing the Logitechs in the closet and getting those PC151s on NewEgg. The lesson here? First, try before you buy, especially subjective stuff like sound equipment. Second, fight the "Got to get it now." urge and check NewEgg first. None of that stuff is so critical you have to run to the store RIGHT NOW. Ah well, live and learn.

Clear As Muddy's

2007-11-09T20:27:00.000-06:00

So another night alone, another night at Muddy's. And I post, and I post.

Let's see, what has been happening?

Well Tim Kring apologized for Volume 2 of Heroes. Read the story at EW.
He makes a lot of good points about the season. It's very refreshing to see a big time creator like Kring step back and give an honest critique of the show. IMNSHO I don't think the season is as bad as Kring makes it out to be. Yes, the Wonder Twins had too many pointless scenes (did Sylar really have to point out that he's evil?) and Hiro did spend maybe an episode too long in ancient Japan. I actually liked the slow pacing of the start of the season and gradual introductions of new characters. The characters seemed to have taken a moment to step back and breathe after the events of last season. Sadly the season may end early on Dec. 3 due to the WGA strike. After reading Kring's self critique I'm excited for Volume 3 so I won't be too disappointed. On a final note Kring really needs to get Wil Wheaton on the show. That would be geek awesome.

Had a rough week at work. Student laptops, and Vista, and updates, oh my! I'll just say this: If the next version of Windows adds as many layers of complexity and abstraction as Vista did it will be un-fucking-usable.

I've got a geek project for the first time in a long time that doesn't involve telling people what to buy. I'm actually kinda excited about it. First, I got an original "Duke" Xbox controller off of eBay, $10.10 shipped! Rock! It's huge and I fucking love it. (The Duke is the left controller in the picture, next to a smaller "S" type controller.) Next I got a USB extension cable from MonoPrice.com. Here's why MonoPrice rocks: BestBuy 6' USB extension cable = $30+tax. MonoPrice 6' USB cable = $5 shipped. Fuck yeah. I'm getting all my cables from there now.

So what shall I do with the USB extension cable and the "Duke"? Why I'm going to hack them the hell up, that's what. Interesting fact, the controller ports on the original Xbox are just USB ports with an extra wire and a custom port. Hence, all the Xbox peripherals are just USB devices. Hack an USB plug onto the controller and you can use it on a computer. Cool. Flip that around and put a female USB port onto a controller break away cable and now you can plug regular USB devices into the Xbox! Cool, eh wot? Interesting side note about the Xbox controllers: I found out the controller itself contains a USB hub the controller and memory card ports are attached too and the hub is what plugs into the Xbox. Evidentially you can use some USB hubs with the Xbox as well.

Using this technique you can plug a USB flash drive into the Xbox and use it as a memory card. I plan to see if you can transfer game saves to the Xbox 360 with this technique. Get the saves onto the flash drive, dump them onto a computer using FatXplorer, reformat the USB drive to work with the Xbox360, put the saves back on, and transfer them to the Xbox360 harddrive. I want to see if this works before I decide to get a Xbox360 so I can move all my old saves.

The biggest part of this mod, and I'm embarrassed to admit this on the Internet, won't be the wire matching, they're color coded. The biggest part will be my first time soldering. Sad, isn't it? Geek like me has never soldered anything before. I could just splice the wire but I've decided to do this the right way. Got a black USB cable, will get some black shrink tubing to match the Xbox cables, and use solder to do this mod up right. I plan to practice on scrap wire first. Margaret has a continuity tester so I can make sure I do it right too. If I can get my solder on successfully I've got some more mod ideas in mind. I'll be taking photos of everything I do and I plan to post the whole process on teh bloggin'. If I do it right I'll be able to use the Duke on the Xbox and a regular computer. w00t!

Final note, Mario Strikers Charged is awesome. All my friends with a Wii should get it so we can play over the Internet. The first cup in the single player game is damn easy to win (8 wins, 0 losses, 34 goals, 1 goal against) but on the second cup the learning curve becomes a 90 degree wall. Frustrating and fun at the same time. I swear like a soccer hooligan when the opposing team scores.

I Know Who Killed Sulu

2007-10-10T02:27:00.000-05:00

Errr...Mr. Nakamura. Seriously, it's so obvious I must be the last person to get it. The last five minutes of last week's show gave it away. This week's episode just drove it home. I'll post my hypothesis in the comments, so be warned THERE ARE POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS!

I do like how they've eliminated all the super powerful Heroes this season. Sylar, presumably from his wound, Peter through the tried and true comic cliche of amnesia, and Hiro by shoving him back 4 centuries.

Sickly Do Too

2007-09-29T21:24:00.000-05:00

While I don't mind missing work I do mind the headache, the clogged sinuses, the coughing, the sore throat, and the fever. (Actually, I did mind missing work since we were very shorthanded last week and we will be shorthanded for the foreseeable future but that's a different post.) I've been sick since Tuesday night and it's really starting to annoy me. I'm in such a foul mood even my DVD Scrubs marathon isn't cheering me up. (I am still pissed they killed off Ben in season three. Brenden Frasier was really, really good on that show.) Using the Internet from the couch is providing me some comfort. I'm hoping my head falls off soon.

I do so love my wife. Why? One good reason: every time she goes to an opening night she brings me back treats.

Blog Fog

2007-09-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

You know the more I work with Google and their APIs the more I hate them.

It seems like Google delights in taking something that works and then turning it upside down and inside out and then COMPLETELY NEGLECTING TO DOCUMENT IT PROPERLY! Case in point the Google maps API and openInfoWindowXslt. They took the v1 API with a working XSL transform function and replaced it with a broken undocumented function that still doesn't work. I ended up writing my own XSL transform function then using one from the AJAXSLT project to get my Google maps app to work properly in most browsers.

Case in point number two, the new Blogger Layout system. I understand why they made the changes they did. From a usability and technological standpoint I understand why they did what they did. Making the blogs completely dynamic DB backed pages makes sense. But holy fucking Vishnu couldn't you have come up with a simpler fucking template system? On top of that you don't even fucking document the new system completely or provide any good examples to reference? Their best advice: Tweak one of our pre-made layouts.

Thank you but no. Most of the templates I looked at did NOT look easily tweakable and I really prefer to start from scratch on these types of projects. Then I don't have to go hunting through someone else's CSS/XHTML trying to figure out why that one element is off by 5 pixels and won't wrap correctly.

I am very unhappy with Google's API documentation, at least as far as Blogger and Google Maps go. I hate playing "Guess the API" to get code to work properly. For example, I switched my test blog to the layout system to start porting my old template over. Right now I'm working off of some blog posts, some newsgroup posts, the code from the new layout and Blogger's woefully inadequate documentation trying to put this thing together. Right now I'm hung up trying to get the damn basic layout working in CSS. Apparently, from what I've read and referenced so far, it's supposed to go in a b:skin tag containing <[CDATA[ ]]> information. I've pretty much copied off the basic template I picked but it still isn't working. It should not be this difficult to find information about adding something as simple as CSS to a PAGE TEMPLATE. Really, this is just pissing me off. Blogger needs to document this shit already.

You Know You're An Addict When You Get Caffinated Alone

2007-09-08T20:12:00.000-05:00

So I find myself alone at Muddy's once again. I usually spend several evenings here when Margaret is in Work or Die mode.

The Weekend Thus Far:

So yesterday I come home in time to see Margaret off to work. I then pull out the Nintendo DS and play some Final Fantasy II before eating and then getting coffee. Well, next thing I know the living room is dark and it's 8:00 PM according to the VCR. I fell asleep for three friggin' hours. Last thing I remember doing was pluggin in the DS to recharge and sitting back down on the couch. I get up and start feeling slightly annoyed with myself. I had just wasted three precious weekend hours unintentionally napping!

I get up and wander around the apartment a bit before deciding to eat something. I then decide it will take too long to eat something and then walk to coffee before Margaret gets home. So I make a crappy frozen pizza and then screw around on the internet and watch TV. I'm feeling really annoyed with myself at this point. Margaret gets home later than I thought and I get more annoyed because I could have gone out after all. I'm mostly annoyed with myself but we have a fight over stupid shit anyway. It's a short fight at least and we made up before going to bed.

Margaret's mother's car is acting up and Margaret's dad took the van out of town. I get up at 7:30 AM to drive Margaret downtown. Let it be known that's the earliest I've gotten up on a Saturday in years. I end up getting my dad a birthday card, playing more Final Fantasy II, eating out for lunch, and driving all the way to A to Z Comics in Blue Springs to get some Magic card long boxes. I also pick up some 10th Edition booster packs while I'm at it. Can't complain since I got a Loxodon Warhammer, a Colossus of Sardia, and a Megrim. There's two more boosters waiting at home for Margaret to open.

I'm going to have to pick up Margaret from work later but right now I'm going to enjoy my cappuccino and screw around with Blogger or look at Magic deck ideas.

Tomorrow I get up early again to take Margaret to work, then it's off to a family gathering, and then I may play some Halo with Mike. If he's back. And not sunburned into immobility.

Weekend for One

2007-09-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm going to be abandoned by my wife and Mike this weekend. I'm not sure but I think that's a sign I need more friends. Margaret is doing her busy theatre thing the next few months so I won't be seeing her much. That's pretty much the reason I took a four day weekend last week. Mike is going to the lake with his family, so bully for him. He came back sunburned the last time he did that so maybe he'll remember the sun block this time.

I'm going to visit my family Sunday for my Grandmother's birthday. I'm also going to be making up for forgetting about my dad's birthday last weekend. Birthdays in our family usually aren't a big deal but I do try to call and say "Happy Birthday!". I forgot over the weird four day weekend I took and now I feel a bit guilty. I'm thinking I'll get my dad some goofy singing birthday card by way of saying I'm sorry. He likes goofy funny things like that.

I'm posting from Linux at the moment and going over my blog template again. I'm still not terribly pleased with the new template system but I'm going to at least try to think about updating my blog with all the alone time I'll have this weekend. Not a major shift probably. Just move my current design to the new system. I can actually take full advantage of the new tagging system that way. I've been tagging all my posts since the system was put in but I currently have no way to filter by tag in my template. What was it one of my old CIS teachers used to say? "Even if you built the best application in the world, if no one uses it, it's worthless." Yeah, kinda like my tags at the moment.

Somebody Found a Worm

2007-09-06T00:08:00.000-05:00

And now Apple is selling it.

Ipod Shuffle. *Yawn* New colors. A little bigger. Whoop-ti-friggin'-do.

Ipod Nano. It's true, fatty Nanos for everybody! Seriously. What in the world do you want with a Nano that can't fit in your pocket? (Nevermind everybody immediately puts a Nano in a cover that prevents you from putting it in your pocket.) The biggest selling point of the Nano was that it was tiny. "It's so cute!" was heard 'round teh Intarwebs when the Nano was released. Now it's just a small portable media player and an ugly square one at that. Form has always been a big selling point for Apple and the iPod, especially the Nanos. Take away the form and the Nano is just an expensive PMP. Besides, why in the world would I want to watch a movie on a 2 inch screen? I'm already going blind from staring at a computer screen all day. In addition, as many have pointed out already, the Nano doesn't really have the space to carry several movies and a bunch of music. It simply doesn't make a good movie device. This could end up biting Apple if it turns off a lot of consumers this holiday season. Or it might spur sales of the more expensive Ipods. We'll have to wait and see.

Ipod Classic. More space for the same money. Same ol', same ol'.

Ipod Touch. Interesting. It's an iPhone without the phone (or two year contract).

Pros I can see:
1. Really cool interface.
2. WiFi on the go.
3. WiFi music store.
4. Looks like an iPhone.

Minuses I can see:
1. Can't use the interface without looking at it.
2. Less space than a Classic for more money.
3. Might cause a person to, you know, go to Starbucks. Ugh.
4. Looks like an iPhone.

Yeah, that 4th one is contradictory. I can see good and bad things about making it look like an iPhone. Mostly because it might confuse people.

I also like they dropped the price on the iPhone but I don't like they dropped the cheaper model as well. If it was just, say, $150 dollars cheaper I would be VERY tempted to get one.

In non-Apple news I did see a commercial for Heroes on TV tonight. It's back on Sept. 24th and Peter WAS IN THE COMMERCIAL! I knew he survived the explosion! Waffles, woohoo!

Four Day Weekend

2007-09-04T23:35:00.001-05:00

I managed to catch an extra day off today, so yeah for a four day weekend.
In no particular order Margaret and I hung out with Mike, went to the coffee house, went out to eat, bought some new Magic cards (Tenth Ed. is looking particularly good), helped Jon and Jen move, bought a new Xbox game, and sustained Wii Sports injuries. Mostly we did a lot of sitting on our asses.

We did completely resort our Magic cards, which hasn't been done in probably over half a decade. We also took all our books off the shelf and resorted them. After combining our collections we have a lot of duplicate books which need to be cleared out. Managed to create enough space to fit all the books we've bought in the last year. Everything is now shelved rather than sitting in stacks on the front of the shelf.

Speaking of books I've dived back into Robert Jordan's epicly epic Wheel of Time series. I'm almost done with book one and still enjoying the story. Somewhere around book five the story starts getting tedious. Somewhere around book six Jordan goes crazy and introduces a new plot line every other chapter. I don't remember if I got through book ten but book eleven has been out for some time. Margaret reports there's still a mind bogglingly large number of dangling plot lines. I really don't see how Jordan plans to tie up everything by book twelve and that's just from my reading of the first ten! I'm hopeful that by the time book twelve is out in sometime in 2009 I'll have finished the other eleven. At that point I should be able to wrap up the twelfth book by 2012.

Work is going fine. It's looking better and better for me getting out of the hybrid position. Working the phones is fine but after more than a year of it I'm ready for a normal 8-5. The mildly random nature of getting stuck on Call Center duty can throw a monkey wrench in to my Desktop Support duties. I'll miss sleeping until 8 but it will be nice to get home at a more "normal" hour. I'm sure I won't actually take advantage of that but I'll keep saying to myself how wonderful it is to have options.

For anyone who likes/remembers the old C&C this link is for you. I'm downloading the ISOs as we speak. Very slowly. I'll forgive myself getting an EA game since a) this was made by Westwood before EA bought them and b) EA is actually incurring costs to give me the game.

For Truth, Justice...

2007-08-10T21:27:00.000-05:00

and the American way.

Sadly the American way in this case involves a long drawn out highly technical court case but a victory is a victory.

SCO has pretty much lost in the SCO v. Novell suit. WOOT, MOTHERFUCKING,WOOT!
This also means that SCO has also pretty much lost every other suit they've brought against other companies over Linux in the last few years. DOUBLE WOOT!

Ok, for the non-geeks out there wondering what the hell I'm talking about, here's my understanding of how things went down.

First, some UNIX history, so we get some background. (Here's a neat graphical diagram so you get a visual idea of what I'm talking about. Think of that as the UNIX family tree.) UNIX started out at AT&T Bell Labs (yes, the phone company). Written by a team including Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson (the same guys behind the C programming language) UNIX has become a juggernaut of an operating system that runs the biggest of big iron. Over nearly 4 decades UNIX has been the operating system that keeps big systems going. It has evolved of course and been updated and modified many times over. Therein lies the crux of the problem.

Early on when UNIX was being developed and distributed it was possible for a UNIX licensee (company that buys the OS) to get the source code (what humans create to make programs) for UNIX with the software. Essentially this made it possible for a company running UNIX to modify the OS to meet their own needs. This was not uncommon in software for the late 60's and 70's. In the mid-70's the University of California at Berkeley started running and modifying AT&T UNIX. The Berkeley modified version of UNIX became known as the Berkeley Software Distribution or BSD. Berkeley began sharing the modifications they made to the original AT&T code with other UNIX licensees. Eventually Berkeley decided to completely replace all the AT&T copyrighted code in UNIX with their own code and distribute the resulting operating system under their own BSD license. (Essentially for free to anyone who wanted it.) This finally led to a copyright dispute between Berkeley and the UNIX System Laboratories in 1992.

What the case basically boiled down to was USL claimed the BSD distribution violated Berkeley's right to use UNIX source code, the USL UNIX copyright, and divulged USL trade secrets contained in the UNIX source code. The case crawled on for two years before a settlement was reached between Berkeley and USL. The settlement was kept secret until 2004 when the Groklaw website obtained a copy of the settlement document and posted it online. Essentially the settlement said that Berkeley could distribute BSD as long as it contained no infringing USL code. In return USL agreed to release some of the UNIX code to the public domain. Everybody is happy.

Now the thing to keep in mind is that during this whole copyright trial mess Novell bought the UNIX System Laboratories from AT&T, including the copyrights for the UNIX name and the UNIX source code. So essentially when it was all said and done Novell owned UNIX.

The other thing to keep in mind is that many companies have bought licenses to the UNIX source code over the years, including the right to modify and sell their own versions of UNIX. This includes IBM, who in 1986 started selling their own version of UNIX called AIX.

Fast forward to 1995 and Novell sells the AT&T UNIX source code, UNIX licensor rights and the UnixWare software to the Santa Cruz Operation or SCO. Essentially SCO can sell licenses to use UNIX and distribute their own version of SCO UNIX and UnixWare. Now, here comes the tricky part: Novell did NOT sell the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights to SCO (this is what was resolved today in court). Essentially Novell still has a lot of power over what happens to UNIX and UnixWare. Got that?

Fast forward to 2001. SCO sells their UNIX assets to a company called Caldera. SCO then changes their name to Tarantella, Inc. Eventually Caldera changes their name to the SCO Group. Confused yet?

Now for a brief side tour into Linux. Linux first appeared in 1991 as the project of a student from Finland named Linus Torvalds. It has since exploded in popularity, especially in the server space, and drives a lot of systems. There are two important things to remember about Linux.

1. Linux IS NOT UNIX. Linux is not derived from UNIX source code. Linux was created from scratch thanks to the efforts of hundreds of developers all over the world contributing code for free. Linux strives to be UNIX-like and follows many of the design ideas and philosophies behind UNIX. It is very UNIX compatible and can run a vast majority of UNIX software. However, Linux isn't even a distant cousin to UNIX. (There might be some BSD code buried somewhere in Linux but you can pretty much do anything you damn well please with BSD code.)

2. Linux is Open Source. This means anyone can get the source code, modify it, distribute it (with certain requirements), submit patches and improvements to the source to the main development group, etc. Anyone can play with the inner workings of Linux freely and submit new code to the Linux kernel (the heart of an operating system).

Now we get to the meat of things.

In the late 90's and into the early 2000s IBM became a huge proponent of open source software in general and Linux in particular. IBM has poured millions of dollars into Linux development and makes a lot of money on Linux based products and services. The SCO Group on the other hand hasn't fared so well. Their UnixWare products haven't really gained a huge marketshare and a lot of UNIX installations in general are being displaced by cheaper Linux installations. (Remember, you have to pay to use UNIX and Linux is free.)

In March of 2003 SCO made a bold move: they sued IBM for 1 billion dollars. If one day, in March of 2003, you heard the flapping of thousands of dark wings and saw a black cloud leave New York to descend on Lindon, Utah there was a reason. The IBM lawyers aren't called the Nazgûl for nothing. SCO revised their suit several times (eventually asking for 5 billion dollars from IBM) but basically they claimed IBM violated a number of license agreements and violated SCO copyright by putting UNIX code (from AIX, remember?) into Linux.

This caused all kinds of uproar in the open source community as you can imagine. Linux developers wanted to know what the offending code was so it could replaced with different code. Activists claimed SCO was trying to gain control of Linux. Other people started to worry if other copyright infringing code was hiding somewhere in the Linux kernel. Basically there was a big mess with a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Disbelief) being slung on both sides.

To top that off SCO started selling licenses for the code in Linux they claimed was theirs. Essentially they wanted Linux users to dish up cash since they claimed Linux contained their code. This is going to come into play later since some companies like Microsoft and Sun paid a pretty penny for these licenses. SCO also sued other big companies that used Linux when they did not pay for an SCO license. Those cases are also tied to today's decision.

I'm not going into the details of SCO v. IBM as it's far, far too complicated and sites like Groklaw have already done a much, much, much better job covering the case. What's important to know is that a large portion of the case revolves around code SCO claims copyright over that IBM might have put in Linux.

In 2004 SCO sued Novell over the question of who owned the UNIX copyrights. The SCO Group alleged that Novell had sold the UNIX copyrights to the original SCO in 1995 and those rights had been transfered to the new SCO Group when they bought the old SCO's UNIX assets. Novell alleged that they had NOT sold the UNIX copyrights in the 1995 transaction. In fact, Novell waived SCO's copyright claims against IBM, since they asserted to be the rightful copyright holders.

Now, this part is very important: If SCO did indeed own the UNIX copyrights then their case against IBM could proceed. If it was found Novell held the UNIX copyrights SCO had to abide by Novell's wavier of the SCO copyright claims against IBM. Essentially if Novell owned the UNIX copyrights SCO's case against IBM (and several other companies) was gutted. On top of that problem, SCO hasn't been doing well financially lately. Their stock has been threatened with de-listing several times and their revenues from their UNIX products have been falling off.

Well, today was the big day. The judge in the SCO v. Novell case decided that Novell was indeed the owner of the UNIX copyrights. So now SCO is in a world of hurt. Not only has their legal case against IBM been nuked from orbit, but they may end up owing Novell most of the money they collected from their Linux license program. This will probably force SCO into bankruptcy and destroy the company. There's still some legal loose ends to tie up and possibly an appeal or two but I really hope this is beginning of the end.

You may be wondering how this affects you? Linux runs a lot, and I mean a lot, of websites. For example Google runs a good chunk of their sites on Linux. Imagine if your favorite website running on Linux, because it was free, suddenly had to start paying big licensing fees to some company. That'd probably be bad, mkay?

Personally, I'm glad SCO is more or less screwed. I like Linux. I like Open Source software. I'm sick of all the copyright and patent and trademark litigation flying around the tech industry these days. To me the American culture has become so litigious that people scream "I'LL SUE!" at the drop of a hat. Entire companies now exist just to buy up patents and copyrights then find other companies to sue over those same patents and copyrights. I it saddening that litigation is now a business plan. The only people who really win in that situation are lawyers.

I'm sure not one person read this whole post. That's ok, I just enjoyed writing it. I'm sure I've left out/screwed up some details or messed up some dates. I know I simplified a lot of stuff for the sake of readability. Hell, most of what I've read about the cases are articles that sum up the legalese in English. I just enjoy the history of computing and these cases are chock full of that. Operating systems from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's, how they evolved through the hands that owned them, who created what when, and how those creations have shaped the face of computing today. I'm a geek, what can I say?

Here's most of the webpages and articles I looked at while writing this post: Unix timeline,
Slashdot, 2003 invasion of Iraq, SCO v. IBM, SCO v. Novell, SCO-Linux controversy, USL v. BSDi, Groklaw, BSD, USL, AIX, UnixWare, Santa Cruz Operation, SCO Group, Linux, UC at Berkeley, Nazgûl (trivia related to IBM's lawyers)

Full Moon is Shining Down on Me

2007-07-30T22:56:00.000-05:00

Well, that was interesting.

As I walked home from the coffeehouse, where I made the last post, there were a bunch of cops and a helicopter out. Passing the Methodist church on Oak the helicopter spotlighted me for a few seconds. That was disorienting to say the least. A couple of patrol cars stopped and asked if I'd seen anyone while walking and warned me to call 911 if I saw anything suspicious. Apparently a couple of armed robbers were out. Ah, the joys of living in the big city. Don't tell my grandparents though, they'll freak the hell out.

I did notice it was a full moon tonight and that I was whistling "Stairway to Heaven" without thinking about it.
Odd.

I'm an Idiot (What Else is New?)

2007-07-30T21:33:00.000-05:00

Scott, let me start off with a public apology. I honestly just did not connect the BBQ date with your birthday. I am very sorry. (But what do you expect from a guy that doesn't even know his own parents birthday?) I hope you had a good time and have a belated happy birthday.

I got to take off last Friday for some (very generous) comp time from my boss. Didn't actually end up doing much. Hung out at home, got some chores done, helped Margaret frame some gel, and played with an iPhone at the Apple store. It's actually quite a bit smaller than I expected. The touch interface is really, really nice and the web browsing works quite well. I agree with other pundits who claim the keyboard is...interesting. Margaret had no problem typing with it but my bigger digits would need some time to adjust.

Margaret and I also got to eat at Le Fou Frog on Friday night. We had a dinner for two gift certificate that was a door prize from ages ago. We'd almost forgotten about it until Margaret dug it out of a pile. Since it expired in August we decided to put it to good use. The restaurant is way downtown on 5th street off of Grand. We had to drive around some to find a parking place but still made our reservations.
The restaurant itself is small with a patio. We ate inside at a small table for two. There's a bar and a happy hour evidently but we did not partake. Most folks seemed pretty relaxed and while no one was in a t-shirt and jeans we didn't need a coat and tie either.
I give all credit to Margaret for admitting to the waitress we'd never eaten at a French restaurant before. I was just going to pretend and hoped no one noticed. The waitress turned out to be really friendly and explained pretty much everything we could think to ask and then some.
We started out with salads, Margaret a warm goat cheese and greens salad with some type of sauce. It was quite good. I got a tomato and mozzarella salad. There were slices of tomato around the edge of the plate with fresh slices of mozzarella between. In the middle was a mixture of diced tomatoes and mozzarella bits with some type of, I'm not sure how to describe it, but sauce with sea salt. It was quite good except for the center which had a lot of sea salt in it.
Margaret got steak and fries with a brown sauce and peppercorns on top. Also very tasty, the fries especially. I got duck with a cherry sauce and risotto with boiled cherries on top. That was really, really good. The sauce was on the bottom of the plate and I ran the bites of duck around the sauce. It was a burst of cherry followed by the mellow duck flavor. The risotto with boiled cherries was also very tasty.
For dessert we shared an ice cream dish. It was composed of scoops of ice cream between some pastry with chocolate sauce and shaved almonds. Really good. We were stuffed by the end of the meal and Margaret's steak is going to make up her next three lunches. Sadly it's a bit pricey place and not somewhere we're likely to eat often without some type of subsidy. The food was great though and they did not skimp on the portions.

The rest of the weekend was pretty lackadaisical. Hung out with Mike on Saturday, did chores on Sunday. Played laundry tug of war with the neighbors. Call me a jerk if you want but if you leave the same load of laundry in the washing machine for 4 hours you've officially forfeited your laundry turn. And if you return home ofter 8 some odd hours and find your laundry in a basket and mine in a dryer, leave it there. You do NOT pull out the active load and replace it with your own. You want to do your laundry stay home and do it on your time, not mine. Still pissed about that.

And this week is shaping up to be really bad at work. Stuck on the phones today, stuck on the phones tomorrow. Just no clearing up tickets from last week's rush. Have a very time crunched project from my boss that I won't be able to begin until Wednesday and it's due by Friday afternoon. This is not going to be fun.

So...How're You?

2007-07-25T01:15:00.000-05:00

So, it's been 55 days since I posted anything. Right.

Let's see. There's been a wedding. A root canal and crown. A broken car. A LAN party (which, for some inexplicable reason, Scott responded to our invitation with an invitation to a bar-b-que at his house on the same day). A Potter movie came out. A Potter book came out.

I guess I'll start with the wedding. It was great. I had a really great time, and I loved seeing all my friends again. Very belated congrats to the happy couple.

Margaret got her root canal and crown, covered in detail on her blog.

The torsion bar on my front end broke off of not one A-arm but both. This caused me to be car-less for several days. Luckily Margaret's folks were out of town most of the time and graciously lent us the use of their cars. I did have to break a bolt off the bar and wire it to the A-arms before I could drive it to my dad's shop. Not a big a deal as it sounds but dirty, annoying, and time consuming all the same.

Had a LAN party and a right good time it was. It's been ages since I've played UT and the folks we got together were quite into it. Thanks to Mike, Sean, Alex, Jon, and Margaret for letting me get my frag on. (I won't mention the crushing pwnage I bestowed, out of modesty.)

Saw the Potter movie. I actually thought they did a pretty good job of boiling the book down into a two hour movie. I think they hit most of the highlights, if but briefly, and got the main story arc right. To be fair, I am a member of the crowd that thinks the Potter flicks should have LOTR style extended DVDs.

Read the Potter book. Let me start this by saying:

1. There are no spoilers here. I'm going to be purposely vague but I think we can all agree Rowling has not been pulling her punches the last few books.

2. I have a great and pathetic empathy for random objects and people who don't actually exist. I can get very emotional over movies and books and characters. Very unmanly.

The book is quite good. Rowling may not be the world's greatest writer but she is a wonderful storyteller. She packs a lot into this book and there's a great pacing to it. I don't know if she planned every little thing in the last 6 books that culminates in Hallows but even if she didn't she tied it all together very well. The ending was excellent, a balance of the fantastic with hard reality. The epilogue was closure. And frankly if a writer gets me to feel grieved over sad events and ecstatic over happy ones they've certainly done their job. I don't care if this is a kids book; good story is good story.

Anyway, Margaret and I have NetFlix now and we're doing out best to get our money out of it. If I can remember to login and post I'll talk about some of the movies we've seen.

Video Backup

2007-05-30T21:57:00.001-05:00

I've been attempting to play through my backlog of video games in the last week or so.
Let's review them by system:

Wii:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
-Great game, and almost finished. Just need to pick it up again.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
-May not finish the single player due to extreme annoyance factor.

Super Paper Mario
-I liked the GC PM better and Margaret has almost beat this. Still a lot of fun though.

GameCube (via the Wii):
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
-I know, I know. I saw FF in the title and it was only $5.

Lego Star Wars
-Just flat out fun. Played a lot with Margaret. Need to get the sequel.

Metroid Prime
-Quite good, but I just never picked it back up.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
-Fun game but I watched Margaret beat most of it.

Resident Evil Zero
-Was waiting for 4 when I got this. Bullet management, bah!

Super Mario Sunshine
-Got really close to the end and just put it down.

XBox:
Baldurs Gate Deadly Alliance
-Hack'n'slash. Repetitive but I'm almost done. I've kicked off the backlog with this.

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
-Picked it up for the multiplayer. I'll finish the single player eventually.

D&D Heroes
-Again, multiplayer. Also a repetitive hack'n'slash.

Panzer Dragoon Orta
-DAMN. This game is crazy hard. I'll have to dedicate a weekend to it or something.

TimeSplitters 2
-Again, multiplayer for a party. Stuck on the nuclear reactor level with the bombs. Annoying. That and I'm generally against FPS on the console.

DS:
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
-Stuck on a mission halfway through the game. Loved Military Maddness, the TurboGrafx 16 game this thing is descended from. Mike and I have been playing multiplayer lately.

Big Brain Academy
-Not so much beat as just play again.

Contact
-Odd little RPG that was cheap used. I like it but it hasn't got me addicted.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2:March of the Minis
-Got it for Margaret but it's quite a fun little puzzler.

Meteos
-Again, for Margaret. Addictive but only for short bursts.

Gameboy Advance (via the DS):
Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls
-Nothing beats the original. Just need to play it then pick up III, IV, V, and VI. Yes, I will buy my childhood over if the packaging is pretty.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
-Love this game. My main character is death personified. Got the storyline stuck somehow though.

PC:
None. Did get stuck on Oblivion again. With mods its quite a bit funner and harder. This also contributed to the backlog above.

I'm hoping to get through most of this by the time the summer is over. Sadly many of those games, like Zelda, I've gotten to almost the very end and then just dropped. Can't figure that out for the life of me.

In other news I've got the car all fixed up and ready to go to St. Louis. I'll get a new air filter the morning we leave and it'll be ship shape. Had to get a new catalytic converter put on Saturday at a local Midas then had to get a new tire at NTB. Cost a small fortune but the car is running much better and quieter.

Looking very much forward to seeing everyone in St. Louis this weekend!

Where's Our Fun?

2007-05-20T16:46:00.000-05:00

Well Mike and I went good ol' Worlds of Fun last night. Since we went after 4 pm we got in for half-price, which is still too damn much for WoF. The park wasn't really crowded and got less so as the evening wore on.

We hit the Patriot first, which was actually a lot of fun. There's a couple of inverted twists that are really fucking awesome. It's also the first suspended coaster I've ridden. I have to admit having absolutely nothing but air under your feet makes the ride a lot more interesting. Sadly, the shoulder harnesses and seat positioning make holding your arms out impossible. I attempted to compensate by waving my legs a bit.

Then we did the Detonator. Mike loves that ride and he's right about it: the waiting is the worst part. Right after the ride starts and your car goes up a couple of feet then just hangs there, waiting to blast off. It's worse when you're in the second car to go and have to listen to the people screaming in the other car. Damn fun though and you get a great view of the rest of the park.

After the Detonator we headed for the Mamba. Surprisingly the line was pretty short. Ok, here's what I have to say about the Mamba. Whoop-de-friggin'-doo. The first two drops are great and the rest of the ride is pretty damn boring. A couple of banked turns and some bunny hops. Wooo. They could have at least thrown in a loop or corkscrew or something.

After Mamba we hit the Spinning Dragons. It's not a really aggressive coaster but the spinning cars make it different. The cars are arranged with two pairs of seats facing into the car opposite each other. Mike took the position diagonal mine so we were at opposing corners of the car. This made for some pretty damn fast spinning. Mike said he'd never had one spin that fast before. I'm actually surprised I liked it as much as I did because spinning/going backwards doesn't work for my guts. It was for this reason we skipped the Boomerang. That one is certain to make me feel ill.

After Spinning Dragons we hit Patriot one more time since we were right there, then headed over to the Thunder Hawk. I remembered this ride because it was new the summer we went to WoF with Dr. Julie and spent all freakin' day at the place. As stated going backwards/spinning rides don't work for me, at least not towards the end of the trip. The seats are also really close together. I was jammed shoulder to shoulder with the guy to my left and Mike on the right. On top of that the restraints are motorized and lock into place at your crotch. There's a ridge in the seat between your legs where the restraints meet. Since you're upside down more than once on the ride and completely dependent on the restraints at those moments the ride was...uncomfortable...at times. Probably won't be doing that one again.

It was while standing in line at Spinning Dragons that I got really nostalgic over the park. Mike pointed out that the Orient Express station house was still standing and being used as a haunted house during Halloweekend. And contrary to popular belief the lot the Orient was on is still empty. I really, really missed the Orient right then.

The Orient was the first "big" coaster I ever rode and I always remember it as being fucking awesome. I'm wearing some rose-colored eyewere here but Mamba hasn't got anything on the Orient. I'll take interlocked double loops and a kamikaze kurve at 60 MPH over a 300 ft drop at 75 MPH any day of the week. I remember my uncle's company rented out the park one year and I got to go. There were pretty much no lines so my cousins and I rode the Orient over and over and over without waiting. That was incredible. And lets face it, for anyone who grew up around KC in the 80's when you thought WoF you thought Orient Express. They splashed the Orient logo all over the ads and commercials for the place. It was one of the signatures of the park.

I was looking at the WoF article on Wikipedia and came across this site: www.worldsoffun.org. After reading up on the Orient I'm saddened even more since it was an unique coaster. Only one other coaster has the loops and the curve the Orient had. It wasn't a cookie cutter coaster like the Boomerang is. Sadly the company that made the Orient went out of business and towards the end it was continually breaking down. Still, I'll always remember it fondly as my first real coaster.

Here's an interesting bit of trivia for you. The Zambezi Zinger was the first coaster I ever rode. (That's not the trivia.) I remember seeing the final tunnel on the track one year after the tore it out and feeling really sad. Well it turns out they didn't tear it down and sell it for scrap, like they did with the Orient. Another company bought it and it's now standing in Bogotá, Columbia. It's got a different name and paint job but it's the same coaster. It's kind of a head trip that the first coaster I rode is now standing several thousand miles away in another country. If it's still standing when I get rich I might even go ride it again.

It's That Time Again

2007-05-15T01:18:00.000-05:00

Well, Margaret and I have officially been married for more than a year.

Sorry if that fucks up your pool.

Here's to one more wonderful year!

My Intartubes Are Leaking

2007-05-10T22:10:00.000-05:00

My cable is out right now. I am posting from Muddys. My Intartubes are broken. I did play Wii Sports for the first time in forever since my internet was down. What did I learn? I've lost my Wii Tennis mojo.

So we saw Spider-Man 3. As you've no doubt heard/seen by now it is not the best movie of the 3. In fact I'd say it's the worst. By a long shot. Sam Raimi went crazy and took his movie with him. It really needed some Dune ideology. "It is perfect because I cut it here and it is done" type mentality. There were whole poltlines that could be cut from that movie, let alone scenes. They really could have done some great light/dark type stuff with Venom and Spidey, but alas they put in Sandman and retcon'ed him. I give it a meh.

Got to hang out with Jim which was pretty damn awesome. Mike has a secret plan to lure Amy to KU Med and bring Jim with her. I am not entirely against this plan.

My work week has sucked hard. Busy and not the good busy, sadly. Not the productive busy. The slogging through work type busy. I even came up with what I think is a very cool side project and haven't had much time to work on it.

I've noticed something about reading other people's blogs. Reading your co-workers can be funny. Reading your bosses can be weird.

Moist Misery

2007-05-04T00:34:00.000-05:00

It is disgusting. The weather. Just nasty. I feel clammy all day. We've completely shut all our windows but the moisture keeps seeping through the cracks. I may never be dry again.

Heroes was good. Very nice "What if..." story. I wonder if they stole the title from the Marvel What If... series or if it was an homage. Writers for that series were allowed to get weird with characters and stories from the Marvel universe. Like "What If...Wolverine killed all the other superheroes?" or "What If...Gwen Stacy had lived?" Anyway, good episode. Looking forward to the next few. Sylar is just a fucking good villain. Pete's got potential too.

Planning on seeing Spider-Man 3 late Saturday with the Lanes, Mike, and the wife. I don't know how good this looks. The last one was ok, not great. I think they've got too many villains this time around and the characters/plots won't be developed enough. Probably too many fight scenes. We'll see on Saturday.

Heroes, gah!

2007-04-24T13:31:00.000-05:00

Ok this is getting very, very shades of Watchmen. (Hell, even Wil Wheaton says this is a very Watchman storyline.) And next week we get to see the Heroes take on "Days of Future Past" from what I've read.

Not that I'm not enjoying the show quite a bit. I was hoping for more of a Sylar/Peter throwdown at the beginning. And why doesn't someone kill Sylar when they have him down? Seriously! I also liked the writers had the balls to kill Issac. I also really liked the Hiro/Hiro meeting at the end. When Hiro said the yarn was a time line I thought it looked like future Hiro had been bouncing around the possible time lines finding where the divergence events occur. Cool. Although it does appear to give the writers the out of bringing back dead characters thanks to a history changing Hiro.

Re: Comments

2007-04-22T18:04:00.000-05:00

1. Yes, I like the subway. It's fairly fast, it's fairly cheap, and it reminds me of theme park rides. It is also the great equalizer. That guy in the suit is stuck in the same place as the kid in the dirty jeans. And while it is not the most sanitary environment I made sure not to touch myself or my food after being on the subway. Especially if I used the handrails. Let's not forget who was sick for a week after we got back last time, hmmmm?

2. Jim, you and your snow can suck it.

3. Robyn, you're basing your comment on the assumption that Margaret and I discuss things. Our eight year history would provide plenty of evidence that is not the case.

4. Robyn, I would love to come out to Arizona and go to school. There's just two problems:

1. Margaret would never make enough to support me through school.
2. THE SKY FIRE BURNS! MUST HIDE! MUST HIDE!

Although if you live in state, a MLS from City University of New York is surprisingly cheap for a grad degree, looking at just fees and tuition.

There we go. Comments all caught up

Windy City Coffee

2007-04-22T17:42:00.000-05:00

No, I am not in Chicago. (Although that would be cool. Hi Heather!) I walked to 51st St. for dinner and some coffee and it is damned windy out. There's also a good chance it's going to start raining on the way home.

Last night was just a damn fine night to be out. Margaret, Mike, and I got dinner at the Aladdin Cafe on 39th St. Sadly, the outside tables were full up and we ended up inside. However, we didn't think the place even had an interior dining room so that was a nice surprise. The food was good. I think I like Jerusalem Cafe better but this was certainly tasty. We walked around 39th St. after dinner since we were all stuffed. It was just so damn nice out. I wanted to go get some coffee and sit outside. Margaret had to get up early today so we ended up coming home early and staying in. There's something nostalgic in a great summer evening. I think it reminds me of Puddle Jumpers in Odessa. Generally a really crappy street festival but I loved sitting outside in nice weather under the street lights eating carnival food. I like to recapture that feeling when I can.

I ended up working 4 hours last Saturday at the Sally Ride Science Festival. From what I gather it's a traveling interactive show type thing aimed at getting young girls interested in science. The organizer for UMKC needed some tech support on hand at the last minute and my director asked me to do it. Everyone kept acting like it was some huge inconvenience for me. Really it wasn't that big of a deal. It was only 4 hours and I live literally up the street from the campus. I got to hang out with Jenny, one of our IT liaisons, which was cool. Fixed a couple of minor problems for presenters, answered some questions. Ended up with some comp time which I thought was nice. I'm an exempt employee so I'm pretty sure they didn't have to give me squat. See, my bosses are cool like that. Ironically I didn't once see Sally Ride the whole day.

Next week is shaping up to be a busy one, at work at least. Two "unsupported" projects to nail down. Hopefully those go smoothly since unsupported software is a bit of a gray area in the department. We genuinely want to help users but when they run off and buy unsupported software without consulting us there's a limit to what we can or are willing to do.

I'm a bit disappointed with the art in the coffee house right now. Not because I don't like but because I do. Normally the art on the walls is decent. Local artists for the most part but nothing I'd usually get excited over and they always have the artist info somewhere. Now they've got some great photographs on the wall I'm at least considering asking the price on and there's no artist info in sight! Drats. Oh well. Probably too expensive anyway.

Making plans for the wedding in June and looking forward to seeing everyone in St. Louis. I tried to get a four day weekend so we could enjoy the whole event and sight see a bit but it was not to be. Got the Friday before off so the drive won't be at night. The Monday after had already been requested off by the co-worker I share the late shift with months ago. Sadly, since there's only the two of us on the late shift, we have to trade days off. She got it first, and a long time ago at that, so I can't really be upset over it. This does illustrate one of about a dozen reasons I'd like to get out of my hybrid position and into desktop support full time. Ah, well. Maybe they'll be able to hire someone next summer.

Damp and Gray (The Weather's Bad Too)

2007-04-11T15:06:00.000-05:00

Well I guess I'll have to pickup the blogging slack from Jim. Hence, I am blogging on my lunch hour. (I'm kidding. Really. Jim's a much better blogger than I am.)

I am very, very ready for this weather to be over. Damp, gray, and cold. I can only assume we're paying for the nice weather we had in December.

I kinda wish I was in New York right now. Yes, I know the weather there sucks too. Margaret and I have been in New York around this time the last two years and I miss it. The city gives me a fantastic rush while I'm there and we just had a ton of fun. I've been sorta looking at LIS grad programs in the area but there is no way in hell Margaret and I could afford to move there and study. Unless we both work 24 hours a day and, you know, live in the subway. While the subway is nice and all I prefer to shower without the company of strangers.

Still looking at the new Blogger stuff. I haven't really been motivated this last week so the page hasn't progressed much past the layout phase. I swear working towards Listener of the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion had nothing to do with it. Not a thing.

Bloggerific

2007-04-05T22:46:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm wading through all the changes Google/Blogger made to the Blogger template system. It's...interesting. Reminds me of what they did with the Maps API. Basically redo everything except make it more annoying and take out some good bits. (GXslt and openInfoWindowXslt I'm looking at you!) Basically they've boiled everything down to widgets so the entire page layout can be managed by drag and drop with the new template system. Hell they even put in simple looping and if/then statements. It's like a mini-scripting language in tag form.

I also have to decide if I want to make the template drag and drop friendly or just throw up some CSS/XHTML and be done with it. Meh. This template system is getting mildly obnoxious. The old one used custom tags, which you pretty much have to use with a dynamic content system, so I didn't mind so much. This is whole drag'n'drop widget thing is probably going to get on my nerves before it's all said and done though. It just seems like a less elegant solution code-wise.

I've got the basic layout and sizing done in simple CSS/XHTML. Now I just need to work on styling the fonts and images and whatnot. Margaret has agreed to help with the graphics side of things. Then I have to translate all of that into Blogger template-speak. Wheee!

In other news while I hate, hate, hated Wesley "Kid Genius" Crusher on ST:TNG, Wil Wheaton is kinda geek cool. You should check out his blog. (It's his temp blog since his site went database up last year.) This post in particular made me laugh. I've also added Neil Gaiman's blog to my daily reading. I knew Mr. Gaiman had a site for a long time I just never visited it. Which is weird because he's one of my top five favorite writers.

Gaiman recently posted a link to a video called "Tyger" on YouTube. That video is fucking cool. The puppet sells the whole thing. It could have been done entirely in CG but the mix of live action puppet/models and CG is awesome. Pity some big name directors can't figure out that whole balance thing.

MADNESS?

2007-04-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

Meesses!

2007-04-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

Well I think I've got a mouse.

First I tried out a Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. Three problems: First, thumb buttons were too high up from my natural resting place and too far forward. Made using them feel unnatural. Second, the wheel had no feedback. It was a completely smooth scroll, no slight click as you moved it. That's very important when using it to change weapons in first person shooters. Expecting the Flak Cannon and getting the Shield Gun can be a very bad thing. Third it was really hard to click the middle mouse button. I don't know if that was a side effect of the horizontal scrolling feature or what but I nearly broke my finger trying to use the button. So that went back to Office Depot the next day.

I'm currently entertaining a Logitech MX518 gaming mouse. The shape is good, my thumb rests naturally on the thumb buttons. The mouse wheel has good feedback when you roll it, but it's smooth. No texture on the wheel eventually leads to a slick wheel that's hard to roll. the middle mouse button is nice and easy to click. It also has a very nifty feature where you can switch between 400, 800, and 1600 dpi with two dedicated buttons. Essentially the higher the dpi the "twitchier" the mouse is. It moves farther, faster, more accurately the higher the dpi is. Switching between dpi settings can be really handy when zooming in and out in a game. Having a slightly higher dpi can make quick sniping easier. Right now I'm leaving it on 800dpi for day to day use.

To Build A Better Mouse

2007-03-31T00:31:00.000-05:00

My Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 has developed an ADHD problem. It will randomly double-click now when I click the left mouse button. Which really sucks in Firefox with Tab Mix Plus as double-clicking a tab closes it. So for the last day I've been doing the "click-close-middle click-restore closed tab" dance. At first I thought it might be a software problem but after forcing a re-detect of the hardware it kept doing it. Then I tried it on Margaret's computer and it did it there too. Pretty much confirms a hardware issue since her mouse is fine.

Can't say I'm disappointed. This mouse survived 4 or 5 years of very hard use. This makes the 4th mouse I've worn out since building my first computer in 1998. The other three mice I wore out where no name Chinese or Taiwanese cheapie jobs. The succumbed to QuakeWorld, TeamFortress, Unreal, and Unreal Tournament back in the day. Literally wore the wire off two of them. Broke a button on the third.

I've still got a couple of the original Intellimouse PS/2's from like 99 or 2000 laying around here that work damn near perfectly. Those things cost $50 when they came out and now you can buy a 3 pack on NewEgg for $20! I've seen them die but it was few and far between at my last job. If I hadn't gotten on the optical train I'd probably still be using one of them.

The good news is all MS mice are lifetime warrantied. That's been MS standard practice for a damn long time. Up until recently you just called them up, gave them a part number, and they sent you a new mouse free of charge. Now you have to scan and fax the bottom of the mouse so they can confirm your part number but that's not a big deal for a free mouse. Don't even have to send the old one back. I think I'll take advantage of that on Monday.

In the meantime I think I'll look at some new mice tomorrow. Maybe get one of the new Intellimouse Explorers with the tilt wheel. Dual thumb buttons are also an absolute must have. I use them all the time just day to day and in games. Might look at the "laser" optical gaming mice too, see how they feel. Feel is really important when picking a mouse. Has to be comfortable and move easily. Precession is also very important but optical technology has gotten very, very good.

So far I'm getting by on the cheap, simple Logitech wheel mouse I got for my laptop but that won't last long. I won't know how to play Oblivion without my thumb buttons!

Tramautic Toy Flashbacks Or Christmas '87 All Over Again

2007-03-28T00:40:00.000-05:00

So I got the most interesting package today in the mail. It appeared to be a standard USPO package turned inside out and heavily taped shut. Indeed it was. From none other than Mister Jimithy Lane Esq. And look at what was inside:

That's right, the finest Chinese knockoff Devastator you can buy! (I have to admit it's pretty damn close to the original AFAICT. Whoever made this is skirting the line of copyright infringement.)

Unless you've been following the comments over at The MINK you won't get the thought behind the gift. And I'll have you know these were the only actual Transformers I ever owned. My parents always got me those knock-off GoBots instead. I must admit I'm slightly afraid to open the packaging lest history repeat itself.

Thanks Jim, this rocks!

Edit: It bugs the hell out of me that centered pictures make a huge clickable DIV in Blogger. See if I can't fix that in CSS. For now, image goes to the left.

Playing Catch Up

2007-03-22T23:57:00.000-05:00

So I've got a hunk of metal and porcelain cemented into my mouth now. I was wrong about the procedure I was getting. I thought I needed a post and core crown, which is the one where they put a metal bar into your head. My tooth root was still good enough to just have the crown cemented into place. Feels good to have that temporary out of my mouth. I can chew without fear again. The crown itself feels a bit odd under the tongue. Very smooth and slick.

They also filled three cavities while I was there. You know this sucks. My first cavity turns into my first root canal which is now my first crown. Now I've got three more fillings. I guess your teeth just start to rot when you hit your mid-twenties no matter what you do.

They also had to give me three more Novocaine injections in the middle of drilling one tooth. The doctor kept saying if I felt anything to raise my hand. You can believe that hand went up when I realized I could feel the doctor drilling into my molar! I was numbed up till well past 1:00 PM on Monday so I ended up taking the whole day off. My jaw ached after the numbness wore off thanks to all the shots I had to get. It was nice to spend a day with Margaret though, sick wife or no.

In geeky news I successfully overclocked my computer this weekend. Managed to get the CPU up to 2500Mhz from 2200Mhz and the RAM from 400Mhz to 466Mhz. Only needed a minor voltage bump from 1.4V to 1.45V and the RAM went from 2.6V to 2.7V. Really I'm more surprised about the RAM than the CPU. It worked really well for several hours, taking Memtest86+ and Prime95 torture testing. Then I played over an hour of UT2k4, which is something I haven't done in months. It reacted well to that as well. Core temps only jumped about 7 degrees at idle and didn't appear to break 50 degrees under load. This is on the stock heatsink and fan combo mind you. A better heatsink would probably bring those temps right back down. I'm strongly considering dropping the cash on a Scythe Ninja SCNJ-1100P for the extra cooling goodness. Probably do some more research first. I finally decided to go back to stock speeds after Oblivion caused the computer to shutdown. I'm not surprised as Oblivion stresses the CPU quite a bit more than most games out at the moment. CPU probably overheated causing a spontaneous shutdown. All's good now though.

Follow up to Mike's computer: He got the latest BIOS update for his motherboard and upon rebooting the startup screens told him he had a 2.4Ghz machine! So essentially his motherboard overclocked his CPU for him. He said he didn't notice for a few days and the machine ran fine, even under Oblivion. After confirming the CPU speed using CPU-Z he's got a very nice overclocked box.

I'm really, really thinking about a blog redesign again. Something with rounded edges and drop shadows maybe. Generally I'm not a big fan of image heavy pages since I cut my HTML teeth back in the 56k days. Smallest page possible with the fewest number of element downloads was the name of the game. Old habits die hard I guess.

Of Overclocking and Fake Teeth

2007-03-03T11:55:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm older now. My birthday has passed and I've gained another solar revolution give or take a few days.

Let's see. Mike has been wanting a new computer for awhile so after hashing it out with me for a couple of weeks we settled on building one. Then hashed out what parts to get and after Mike's tax return came in we ordered. The parts arrived Thursday and at about 7:20PM on Thursday Mike showed up with Kin-Lin and computer bits. We threw everything together, tested it, put it in the case, installed Windows, and updated to the latest drivers by 10:45 PM. I believe Mike is happily playing Oblivion on it as I type.

Basically he got a 1.8GHz E4300 Core 2 Duo Allendale processor. More or less the same as the E6300 except it's missing the virtualization bits (woo) and it's running on an 800MHz front side bus instead of the E6300's 1000MHz front side bus. (The FSB is how the CPU talks to the rest of the computer.) That's actually a boon in this case. Once the computer has been declared stable after several days of use, Mike is thinking about overclocking it. Overlcocking, you say, what is this overclocking?

Overclocking is basically taking anything electronic and making it run faster than it's supposed too. That's right you can do that. Here's another geek secret. That $183 1.83GHz E6300 cost almost exactly the same for Intel to make as that $512 2.66GHz E6700. Hell, their cores may have come off the same silicon wafer. What, what, what, you say. It's true. Intel makes the cores for their different products pretty much the same way. They make them, test the cores after they come off the silicon and then bin them based on a coupe of factors:

1) How high did the core test? Due to very, very, very small differences two cores next to each other on the same wafer may top out at different speeds. One my hit 1.83GHz stably but not 2.2GHz. The one next to it may go all the way to 2.66GHz easily. So the parts have max speed ratings. (I'm grossly oversimplifying what actually happens to illustrate the point.)

2) What parts are they going to need to ship soon? So I've got a 1.83GHz core and a 2.66GHz core. We sell them at those speeds, right? Wrong. We look at near future demand and decided what we'll need. That 2.66GHz core can easily run at 1.83GHz and if you need more 1.83GHz parts you sell both cores at 1.83GHz. Weird, huh? That E6300 you bought may actually be an E6700 in disguise.

So I'm simplifying here but you get the point. Mike's E4300 may actually be possible of much greater speeds than it's been sold as. And this is true of AMD Athlons, Intel Pentiums, Intel Core 2, etc. It's a secret the overclocking community has taken advantage of for years. Not only can you save money by taking a few risks with your hardware it's also quite fun when you get everything working.

Some people go overboard and overclock everything in their system. Their CPU, their RAM, their video card. More power to them. They usually have a computer that sounds like a jet engine or uses liquid cooling. They also usually have a very, very fast computer. They are also taking some risks. Running anything outside it's ratings involves tweaking several things including the voltage running through it. This has consequences, like increased heat output and simply frying the component altogether. So it's a black art of sort, squeezing everything you can out of your system. The Core 2 line tends to overclock pretty well so Mike might have a real gem on his hands. Or he might nearly kill his motherboard like I did last week while trying to overclock my Athlon64 3700+. Pushed my RAM too hard, heh. I did get my 2.2GHz processor to boot Windows at 2.5GHz. Nice 300MHz increase for very little effort. My second computer for example was a 366MHz chip I ran at 550MHz for a long, long time. My parents even used that computer for awhile.

Anyway, that was Thursday. Friday I went in to have a crown put on a tooth. My very first cavity turned into my very first root canal in 2005. I've been putting off the crown ever since, which is stupid because if my tooth had cracked in the meantime it would have meant a lot of expensive, painful surgery. A year and half later I'm finally getting the crown done.

It wasn't awful but it wasn't fun either. They took a lot of teeth casts and most of them made me want to gag. This awful tasting plasticine type stuff. Even numbed to hell it was uncomfortable. So the doctor worked my tooth down to a bit of a nub above the gum line with a lot of drilling. Nothing like listening to your tooth being ground away. After that the dental technician made a temporary cap for the tooth and installed it. She did a really good job of that, you really can't tell it's fake and it even feels the same to my tongue. Guess the casts were worth it. And this is just the first visit. Next visit is in two weeks where they anchor a tiny metal bar into my skull and then build up the crown on that. Sounds like a hoot. Supposed to last 15 to 20 years though which is good. In the meantime I'm trying to avoid cracking or popping off the cap. So brushing and eating are going to be challenging. To top that off they found three very tiny cavities just beginning to form in my molars. I have very deep molars that are hard to brush clean and my doctor blamed that for the cavities. He said my teeth routine (brush twice a day, floss once a day, ACT and Listerine once a day.) was much much better than most of his patients. I'm still kind of pissed off though. Ah well, once this is done I shouldn't have to worry about it for awhile.

Sickly Do

2007-01-26T23:57:00.000-06:00

This has been, on the whole, not a good week.

I got sick late Friday, starting with a runny nose. Saturday I woke up with a fever and spent most of the day in bed. Which means I missed Robyn's last weekend in K.C. Sunday I still felt like shit and developed a great body wracking cough. Managed to make it out of bed though. Monday I made it to work but left after 40 minutes feeling like crap. I've been feeling better everyday since but Thursday my legs felt like I'd been running all day. To top that off Margaret left for a week in Kentucky Thursday. Today my arms felt like I'd been lifting heavy things all night. Like my muscles aren't getting enough oxygen. I think I have acute bronchitis thanks to my cold and I'm really hoping it all goes away by Monday.

Anyway, I did get to see Robyn and Mike on Wednesday so at least I got to say goodbye and good luck. Margaret won't be back until next Thursday. Just me and the cat. Might see The Good Shepard this weekend. Might go to Barnes and Noble. Can't tell yet. Congrats to Jim on the new blog.

Adult Snow Day

2007-01-12T21:03:00.000-06:00

This is one of the reasons I love working in higher education. Snow days still apply.
Got out at 1 pm due to inclement weather. Bonus: Still get paid for the whole day.
Granted universities don't take as many snow days as the old high school but any is nice.

I think I've talked Margaret into a TV Tuner card for a MythTV box. Now I just need to pick between the PVR-150 and PVR-500. Choices, choices...

1280x1024 is Not a New Years Resolution

2007-01-10T02:07:00.000-06:00

I make nerd jokes in my posts. Deal with it.

So it's 2007 . I already miss Christmas break. Not so much for the Christmas but for the break. I've been assigned a project at work that I am really, REALLY not looking forward too. Generally I enjoy a challenge at work but this could turn into a small catastrophe. I'm attempting to execute this project like you rip off a band-aid. Quick, clean, and with a clenched jaw.

I've made some resolutions for New Years. Not anything I care to articulate just stuff I'm trying to keep in the back of my head. Stuff to keep my mind awake. Lately being lazy has been far too encompassing. If I don't have to think, I don't. Hell, I even stopped playing a lot of video games in favor of watching TV just because watching TV requires just enough conscious thought to manipulate the remote.

Speaking of which I've been feeling kind of stupid lately. Recently I did a major overhaul to Margaret's and my own computer. Big overhaul. Didn't buy the latest and greatest but did plan for another 3 year overhaul cycle with minimal intermediate upgrades. Splurged on some very nice eVGA 7900GT KO video cards. Mostly because Oblivion has an absolute pig of a 3D engine that Gamebryo shows no interest in optimizing or patching. It looks pretty but it needs a lot of friggin' work. I'm kind of irritated that Bethesdasoft keeps using the damn thing after all the problems with Morrowind's Gamebryo engine that never got fixed. But I digress.

I feel stupid because I sit here with this sweet rig and do jack all but surf the web and check email with it. A pretty futile exercise since the only email I get is from my Grandparents when they have a problem. Hell, I don't even play games with it anymore. I really need to do SOMETHING with this box but I don't know what. It's wasteful. I should get off my ass and dig into the new Blogger template system to see what they've added or changed (or removed). If it's anything like the Google Maps API they probably cut out half the good bits from version 1 when they came up with version 2. (Oh GXslt object how I hate you and miss openInfoWindowXslt. Why, why, why can't Google document this shit with good examples? Why?)

I should also take my old computer, which is still a pretty good system, and make a project out of it. I'm trying to persuade Margaret to let me get a tuner card for it and make it a MythTV DVR box. If nothing else I should make it into a file server and put the DVD burner in it to good use with regular backups. Ah well.

In other news Apple announced their iPhone at MacWorld San Fransisco. It's like sex in phone form. It's also only offered on Cingular, which we use. It's also $599. Ouch. My current phone is ready for upgrade pricing but I'm not sure which phone I want. For the record, Cingular's selection of non-Smartphones kinda sucks. One more thing to ponder as tax season descends.

Update: I was just looking at some comments on an old post and bloody hell does my comment template ever suck. Looks damn awful, must have been ignoring until now. I really, really need to clean up this template and add some color.

Bunnies Like New Years

2006-12-31T19:16:00.000-06:00

Happy New Years Eve! I guess I should post before 2006 is over.

Well, I think it's been a pretty good year. Got a great new job, Margaret graduated grad school, got MARRIED, spent a week in New York City, some good friends got married, Joe got a good job, got to see Mandy and Ken and Cirque du Soliel.

I still can't believe I spent 8 hours all told standing in line for this Wii. (1.5 on Black Friday, 6.5 on the 16th- 17th) So far it's been pretty worth it. Lots of good fun with Margaret and Mike. Rayman rocks!

Work has been fine. Keep getting this really slow days followed by a few really busy days. Keeps it interesting at least and gives me time to work on side projects.

Right now I'm waiting for a bunch of friends to show up for our New Years party. Should be fun! :) (Scott and Tracy are sick though and that sucks.)

So any way, Happy New Year!

Just a Wii Bit More

2006-11-26T23:39:00.000-06:00

Well I got really close this weekend. Woke up at 5 am on Friday with a stuffed up nose. You know, that lovely "I can't breath and I'm gagging in my sleep" feeling? Yeah, that one. Well seeing as I was completely awake and GameStop was due to open at 7, I figured what the hell I would try my luck at getting a Wii.

I dressed and headed to the EB on the Plaza about 5:15. No one was standing outside the place when I walked up. It was weird being at the Plaza so early. Dead quiet except for the occasional delivery vehicle. I peered at the EB through glass doors and didn't see any activity inside either. I stood there for a couple of minutes then decided to check out the GameStop in Westport. I thought that if it was crowded I could always come back.

So I headed to Westport where a short line had started. There were five people when I walked up. Mostly parents getting a Wii for their kid. Nice folks. One of them said they'd heard the store had 10 Wii. Being 6th in line sounded pretty good at that point. Other folks showed up the closer it got to 7 pm. Some lady brought four kids with her. A lot of cars drove past slowly as people counted the line. I chatted about video games in general with a couple of guys behind me in line. Numbers 8 and 9 IIRC. The 9th guy had 3 other people, including his wife, running around the city trying to find a short line. I mentioned that the Plaza EB was deserted and he sent his wife over to check it out. We found out around 6:30 or so that the EB hadn't gotten a single Wii. Suddenly 6th in line didn't sound so great.

Along comes 7 and the store finally opens. We'd gotten restless watching some employees turning on the lights and getting the store setup. One guy tried to run to the front of the line from the opposite side as the doors opened. He looked surprised when me and several other people told him to get his ass to the end of the line. We all troop in with very little pushing. Things were actually pretty calm. The clerks went to the back room to get each individual Wii and we cheered and clapped when the first one was sold. We stepped forward. The second and third were sold. We stepped up again. The fourth was sold. The guy ahead of me reached the counter and asked for a Wii. "Sorry, we're all out."

Four Wiis. Four freakin' Wii. Things got a little ugly right there and some people started calling names. I just asked why he couldn't have told us at 6:30. Guy said it was the law or something. Not sure I buy that.

I left Westport and stopped for coffee at Muddy's on the way home. Talked with the daytime baristas whom I'd never met. Oliver, the owner, was there and I talked with him as well. It was kinda weird because I know most of the night baristas by name. We chatted about video games and one barista said her friend had gotten a Wii at launch. Ah well. I went home and played Warcraft III. I have no idea why.

Anyway that is my Black Friday Wii story. Had I not been choking in my sleep it wouldn't have happened. All in all it wasn't a bad experience. I got to talk with some other gamers and hang out a bit. The weather was actually pretty pleasant and it was fun to watch the sun come up. I don't think I'll ever wait in line to buy something again but I'm kinda glad I did it this time, even if I didn't get the Wii. At this point I may just wait until after Christmas to go after one.

Thanksgiving Wrap Up: The food was great. Margaret's pie was delicious. (I just finished it off today.) Got to play some cards with Grandma Spare.

Weekend Wrap Up: Hung out with Mike and Robyn a lot. Played video games. Margaret, Mike, and Robyn played three way Tetris with the DS. I think I'm going to have to get a DS for Margaret now. Saw the new Bond flick and enjoyed it. Eva Green is hot. Daniel Craig was a pretty cold and violent Bond but I guess this is the Bond: Year One story so that makes sense. All in all pretty good. One of those movies that had four places it could have ended though.

As a side note I've also switched to the new Blogger Beta system. Haven't messed with all the options yet but it looks neat so far. I'm not real enthused about this labels thing. I know Google (Blogger's owner) is real big on search but I would have preferred definable categories over free form text. Now I have to be sure each label is exactly right for them to be useful. Also need to update my template with the new tags. You know in some ways Blogger is very behind other blog systems like Wordpress. It is damned easy to use though. Also the Firefox 2.0 built-in spell checking rocks.

Catch Up

2006-10-18T00:21:00.000-05:00

So I haven't posted in awhile. Post worthy stuff has happened lately. I suppose. Just haven't posted. Part of that I think is my wife covers pretty much all the major stuff that goes on. And most folks that read this blog are involved in/heard about whatever I'm posting.

The job has been fine. I passed my probationary performance review and my boss seemed happy with my work. I got some nice comments from both my supervisors and that's always good to hear. What's kind of funny is that one of the sections on the review is for "Challenges". Basically I'm supposed to write about things that make my job "challenging". (Read: Bitch about stuff.) Honestly I have very little to complain about at my job, which I think is good. Most of the stuff that was a "challenge" at first has pretty much been sorted out by now. I did mention a couple of small things to show I'm paying attention. I'm sure as I take on more responsibility stuff will pop up for me to put under "Challenges" at my next review. (In February! Wheee!)

I redid some of the blog formatting again. I shrank the main post column to completely fit in a maximized browser at 800x600. The right side column has been widened in response. I hate web pages with skinny little columns of content that force you to scroll and scroll and scroll while reading. At lot of the templates on Blogger piss me off for just that reason. I’m hoping my current layout works well at 800x600+ in IE6 and Firefox. At the very least reading a post should only cause you scroll down not sideways. I also resized the drop down menus to better fit the links. I added a new category “Food” because I’ve got 3 food related blogs I check regularly. I also added a bunch of links and reorganized the other menus.

I’m starting to think it’s time for a complete redesign again. It’s kind of a pain because I have to work around the Blogger engine limitations. You can’t just pound away at some XHMTL and CSS offline because of the Blogger specific tags and layout. It’s also very difficult to add graphics without outside hosting or back dating a bunch of graphics posts. (That is a very ugly hack, IMNSHO.) The bar they add to the page top can also screw up the layout, which pisses me off to no end. Next time around I may try something with background graphics or drop shadows. Something swanky, with color. I’m messing with stuff in my super secret Blog O’Testing Goodness.

The Tech Tip of the Post has disappeared for a couple of posts now. I’m skipping it this post as well but I’ll make up for it with a mega big Tip next time. Maybe I’ll brow beat you all into doing backups or something.

Finally, you can add Arrested Development to the “Canceled Shows That Should Still Be Running” list. We picked up all three seasons at Costco for $36 dollars thanks to a $10 off each season special. That show is fucking brilliant and it shines even more when you watch it start to finish.

Post()

2006-10-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

{
/*TODO - Donald - This is just a stub post for place holding. You need to finish this with a real post.*/
return;
}

(If you knew how to program that would be funny.)

Why Does All the Good TV Get Cancelled?

2006-08-17T22:41:00.000-05:00

Well shit, I do remember my blogger password. Go me.

So Margaret and I just got done watching Wonderfalls. It's freaking great. If you haven't seen it, go to the nearest store with TV on DVD and get it. Now. I'll wait. Maybe. This is a great show. It's got a great story, great acting, great location, great music. It's one of those rare shows where everything just gels. Which probably explains why Fox canceled it. Fuckers.

I have on my DVD shelf right now Firefly, Dead Like Me (which managed to last two seasons), and I'm borrowing Wonderfalls from a friend although I'll probably buy it the next time I see it in the store. All three great shows that were axed for reasons I can't explain.

I've been trying to decide why these shows get canned and American Idol runs twice a week. The only conclusion I can come up with is that the shows are too good. What you say? Seriously. I don't think that the American audience has a real appreciation for good stories. We want something easy. Something we don't have to think about. Something that wraps up in an hour. Something were the only continuity between episodes is why haven't the cute male lead and the cute female lead gotten together yet? That's sad.

I want TV with multipart story arcs and no "To Be Continued". I want an ensemble cast with unique characters and good acting. I want plots that build up like a good story should and aren't just a rehash of every other sitcom/drama that's been done. I don't want everything to be OK at the end of the show. I don't want the guy to always get the girl (or vice versa). It's sad I know but it's an outgrowth of my reading habits as a kid.

I hate for a good book to end. Hate it. I know every story has an end and a good story will end with closure but leave you wanting more. Stuff like The Time Travelers Wife, The Lovely Bones, or Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I hate reading the last page. I hate leaving those characters and that world.

Good TV is a treat for me because the story DOESN'T end when the credits roll. It keeps going next week. Same thing goes for my comic book habit. I can look forward to the next issue when I get done with the one I have. It also kind of explains my early predilection towards fantasy series. More story to look forward too.

This does have it's downsides of course. The story and characters can play themselves out and diminish how good it was in the beginning. Witness the last few seasons of Buffy. (Yes, I am a Buffy fan. Good story is good story.) I hear that West Wing goes that way too which is disappointing because we're still on Season 5 DVDs.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman is probably the best example I can give of a story that ended at exactly the right moment. The build up over the entire series hits you like a bus at the climax because it fits so damn perfectly. It leaves that final choice hanging just long enough that you don't know what exactly is going to happen in the end. Perhaps the best part of Sandman is that Gaiman had the guts to end it at the height of it's popularity. He knew the story was over and didn't let it drag on it to crap just because he could. It's also cool DC let him. But I digress.

I just really hate it when a story doesn't get the time to tell itself. Every story has to end but at least give it a chance to reach the conclusion. Fucking Fox.

DS Lite: Touch It There

2006-08-01T22:32:00.000-05:00

I am weak. It is true. I got a DS Lite over the weekend.

I love this little white brick. The original DS (or the DS fat) vaguely caught my attention when it first came out. Seemed a bit bulky to carry around. I considered getting a used GameBoy Advanced at the time since it played all the GameBoy games down to the original but I didn't really see the need for a portable game system. That's when I found out Nintendo was re-releasing all the original Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy games on the GBA. Even the games that were only released in Japan first time around. Holy shit. My childhood had been shrink wrapped and put back on the store shelf. Where do I swipe?

Now, I already have an original, off-white brick GameBoy. I mean the original. I bought it when it came bundled with The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening. Damn fine game. I've got 7 other games, mostly puzzle variety. I don't have any GameBoy Color games. So when the DS Lite was announced I decided to get one of those since it would play DS and GBA games. I already have a GBO for nostalgia. The fact the DS Lite was smaller and had better screens that the DS fat didn't hurt either. So with one system I could play all the GBA re-releases and new DS games that caught my attention.

So Sunday after I returned my tux I wandered over to the EB in Independence Center and browsed. I cut my trip short because the store was filled with noisy kids and the clerks were asshats. Apparently the PSP (PlayStation Portable) is much, much cooler than the DS. Mind you it's $70 more and doesn't have a single game I'm interested in playing on it but, you know, it's PlayStation, so it's cooler. Yeah. Insulting something I'm thinking about purchasing does not help your bottom line.

Balked by crowds and sales drones I retreated to my car and headed across 39th St. to Barnes&Noble. I wanted to see if they had a copy of William Gibson's Burning Chrome. I had made a deal with myself before going into B&N. If they had Burning Chrome I'd wouldn't visit the GameStop down the street. No luck, they had all Gibson's other books just not the one I was looking for. Since I'm not one to welch on a bet I dutifully headed to the GameStop.

When I entered the store the counter jockeys were discussing the history of various Internet slang words such as "lollerskates". I decided they probably wouldn't try to out cool me with the PSP. I looked over their game selection and played around with the demo DS Lite on display. That was the fatal mistake. I got sucked into 10 minutes worth of Big Brain Academy. There was no hope after that. I became a mindless beast with but one instinct: buy the damn DS already.

I snagged a copy of New Super Mario Bros. and a fresh new DS. I stopped at the GameExchange on Noland on the way home because I had already planned too. Mike said their prices were better than EB/GameStop for used stuff. The prices were better but the GBA selection was a little thin. I picked up a copy of WarioWare Inc. which is a game of nothing but mini-games. I thought Margaret and I would both enjoy it. So far, I've been right.

I can't complain about the DS. The screens are very bright and easy to see. Haven't had to squint at it yet. The controls are responsive. Don't have an touchscreen centric games yet, so I can't comment on that aspect. The demos I've played using the touchscreen have been pretty spot on though. The battery life is OK. I think I can get 8 to 10 hours of play time out of a single charge and that's with both screens in use. I don't have to leave the screens on max brightness either because they're so damn sharp, which helps save battery.

New Super Mario Bros. is very fun in my opinion. Nintendo did this right. It's a basic 2D side scroller with a few twists that reminds one strongly of the NES originals. It's not complicated or flashy but it is damn fun. My only complaint is it could be longer.

WarioWare, Inc. is pretty fun but it's a GBA game so it doesn't take advantage of the second screen. This may actually be a good thing as it saves on battery life. The game itself is a collection of what can only be every mini-game idea Nintendo has never used. Each mini-game lasts 5 seconds or less and typically uses only one or two buttons. They're never complicated but you do have to react quickly to each game.

I can't wait to pickup Final Fantasy 1-6 and Tactics Advanced from the used bin.

Technical Tip of the Post: It's Dust Bunny Season
WARNING: Some PC makers don't want you mucking about in your case. Which is absolutely stupid because you can't upgrade a clean a box without opening it. Check to be sure you won't be violating your warranty by cracking apart that case. And remember do this stuff at your own risk.

Your computer is dirty. I'm sorry but that's the truth. Filthy little bugger. Really have you every opened a computer case, especially a computer that's been sitting on the floor for a few years? It's disgusting. Truly nasty. There is dust and hair and all kinds of crap accumulated in that case. Not only is it sickening to look at but it's also bad for your computer. Dust that accumulates in a computer can cause heat buildup which, over the long term, is bad for electronic parts.

So how do you clean out that dust bunny hutch? Easy, used compressed air. By blowing air through an open case you can dislodge all that dust and put it back where it belongs, on your furniture. Now, I do NOT recommend using a vacuum to clean a computer because it can suck up important things, like jumpers, or cause static buildup in the case which can fry electronics. Also don't use dust cloths or dust mops or just about any type of regular dust removal equipment. These devices will probably cause damage of some kind to the computer either physically or through static buildup. I also don't recommend blowing out the case by, er, blowing on it because you could: inhale the dust, put spit all over the inside of your computer, or pass out on top of the computer crushing it and causing you much pain.

Compressed air can be found at just about computer or office supply store. And you don't need to get the fancy stuff either your basic Office Depot can of compressed air should be fine. Be sure to read the instructions on the can too. Some can should (or should NOT) be shaken. Some cans have to be held a certain way so they don't discharge fluid. Some cans have to test sprayed to clear out fluid build up.

You could use a small compressed air tank or compressor to do this but you have to be very careful. Air tanks or compressors are much more powerful than a can of compressed air and could damage your computer.

First be sure to turn the power off and and unplug all cables from your computer before opening the case. You certainly don't want to do this with live power! You may also want to do this outside because, you know, you're blowing dust everywhere! Remove the case from the machine and be sure to keep track of what goes where with which screws. Following the directions on the air can blow out the case carefully. The can will probably get really cold as you do this and that's normal. Blow all the dust in one direction, I recommend towards the back of the case. You'll want to be sure any fans in the case get a thorough cleaning. While you're at it be sure your fans are spinning freely and not clogged with grime. If they don't spin freely or whine while they work they may need to be cleaned or replaced. The heatsink on the CPU is also an important area. That big hunk of metal fins is what keeps your CPU from burning up while work. Dust caught in the fins makes it harder to move heat away from the CPU.

Once your computer is dust free replace the case and hook it back up. Provided you hook everything back up right your computer will thank you for cleaning it. (Not really but what can you do?)

There a couple of simple things you can do to keep your computer from building up dust in it so quickly.
1. Keep the computer off the floor. Dust and debris collect on the floor and get sucked into the computer by the cooling fans. Keeping the computer 8in. or more off the floor should help with that.

2. Keep the area around the computer clean. The less dust around the computer the less to be sucked in. I don't recommend using any type of static based dust removal near computer equipment, however, because it might damage the equipment.

Keeping a computer clean helps to keep it cooler while working and that will help increase the longevity of your components. I usually crack my case open 3 or 4 times a year just to make sure it's clean and it's probably a good idea for you too.

Burning Off July

2006-07-31T22:04:00.000-05:00

Well I guess I couldn't let a whole month go by without a single post. Yes I'm still alive. You may have noticed I even changed the blog around a bit. It should fit quite nicely in a fully maximized browser at 1024x768. I also tried to work it so the main content column fits in a maximized 800x600 window. You'll lose the bar to the right unless you scroll but at least the posts are in the middle.

Attended Scott and Tracy's wedding on the 29th. It was a lovely affair and much fun was had by all. We started at noon-ish for pictures. Took quite a few at the church in Liberty and then took a limo to the J.C. Nichols fountain. The sun was ungodly hot and baked our feet in the vinyl shoes we were sporting. I thought I would have third degree burns on the tops of my toes.

We went back to the church for some more pictures and bit of time killing. The service went off without a hitch. The happy couple were wed to cheers. We retired to the reception in Claycomo and a good time was had by all.

The Intel Core 2 Duo came out and it's a solid winner in the reviewers book. The price isn't bad either for what you're buying. The problem is the motherboards and RAM for it are somewhat expensive. Does this mean I'm not upgrading this fall?

Nope.

AMD cut the prices on their existing processors by up to 40% in response to the Core 2 and it's Black Friday at the AMD CPU Barn. $105 for a 3700+ with a San Diego core and 1MB cache. Yes, please, I'll take two. (No, really, I'm upgrading Margaret's rig too.) The best part is that the socket 939 nForce 4 platform is mature and stable at this point. The quirks are well known even on specific board models. I'm looking at the Asus A8N-E right now. Couple that with a 7600GT and it's a nice bump for not much change. Now I just have to wait for prices to really bottom out on the 939 stuff.

Technical Tip of the Post:
The Defrag or what does it take to keep your harddisk tidy?
Your harddisk. The storage center of your computer. When you tell Word to save to My Documents it's all going to the harddisk. There's something you may not know about your harddisk though. It's messy. It just drops your data wherever it likes and leaves it there. Lazy little bugger. Fast on the write though and it doesn't have to read the harddisk from beginning to end to find what it's looking for. It does slow down the harddisk after awhile, though like a desk strewn with memos. This is were defrag comes in to tidy up. It goes through your harddisk, finds the bits of file tossed all over and puts them back together. Suddenly everything is a lot easier to find and a bit faster.

Open My Computer, right click on your harddisk and choose Properties. In the Properties window click the Tools tab. You'll see a button for defragmenting in the middle of the window. Click it and the defragmentor tool opens. In this tool highlight your harddisk, usually C:, by clicking on it. Now, click the Analyze button. First you'll see a bar fill up with red and blue color bands. The red represents fragmentation on your harddisk. Not pretty, huh? The Analyzer will tell you what percentage of your harddisk is fragmented and suggests whether you need to defrag or not. You probably do. After analyzing your harddisk and deciding to defrag click the "Defragment" button. The defragmentor gets to work putting files back together. Not only back together but also puts relevant files next to each other, like all the files in a program.

This part may take awhile, especially if you've never defragmented before. Leave running over night or while you're out during the day. Eventually you'll get a pop up report saying how much fragmentation is left. Ideally you want 0% fragmentation but that isn't always possible. If the "After Defrag" bar in the tool is still filled with red you might want to try defragging again.

You usually don't need to defrag too often. Once every other month or so should be fine. But if you notice your harddisk clicking a lot more than usual might not hurt to check it out again.

That Voodoo That You Do

2006-06-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

Warning: Extra long mega post ahead.

Last Saturday I spent two hours working a table with one of my supervisors at student orientation. Even though it was a Saturday I consider this a pretty fair trade for the time I got for my wedding activities. I actually had a good time answering questions and chatting with my supervisor. Basically we sit in the quad, pass out pamphlets, and answer questions from parents and students. One of the things I really liked about my last job was all the face time I got to spend with my users and this reminded me of that.

I did kind of tell a little...well, let's call it a half truth. I said I never talk about work on my blog but I realized later that I have done so. Now mind you I never, ever mention specifics like full names, nor do I discuss sensitive work information. That would be utterly moronic rather than, you know, just plain stupid. I try to use the absolute vaguest terms to convey what I'm trying to say about work and usually I'm just blowing off a little steam.

Awhile ago I got a very gratifying reaction from Robyn while trying to help her with a GMail issue. She looked at me and said "This is what you do!" I want to talk a little bit about what I do at my job. No reason, just 'cause.

Generally I'm your PC fix it guy. You call me with a problem, I figure out what's wrong, and try to fix it. A lot of the stuff I get, especially during the two hours a day I spend doing phone support, is routine. Desktop stuff like Outlook isn't working, a PC needs to be setup, stuff like that. Most of the phone work revolves around user accounts: lost passwords, locked accounts, and the like.

On occasion though I get a chance to really troubleshoot a problem and that's a lot of fun. I like it when someone brings an odd or new problem to the support guys. It's a chance to put on my detective hat and try to figure out what's wrong. Generally I evaluate what's going on, what the symptoms are, what's running, whether it's a random problem or it can be reproduced with specific steps, etc. Once I have a grasp on the situation I can start forming hypotheses and trying fixes. Some things can be fixed with general solutions. Office 2003 problems often go away with a Detect and Rebuild or a reinstall, for instance. Rebooting Windows was the silver bullet of fixes once upon a time but ever since Windows 2000 came out it's not quite the solution it used to be. Most users have already rebooted before they call us anyway. Crafty users. Some problems, like really insidious spyware, you have to dig in deep, do some Registry diving, screw around with system files, futz around with services. I also use resources like Google and the Microsoft Knowledge Base to find solutions. Chances are that someone else has had the problem you're looking at, posted about it somewhere, and got a fix. Sometimes a fix you find will also need to be tweaked a bit to apply to your exact issue, so having a good grasp of the problem and the technology behind it is a must. While I'd be perfectly happy to sit and mess with a problem until it's fixed, I'm also supposed to be getting people running again within a reasonable time frame. One of my co-workers is an advocate of just backing up data and reimaging the system for particularly weird problems but that is hard on the user IMHO. It's a hassle to setup a profile and I sympathize. I will reimage a system if I just can't get a good, timely solution to a problem but I hold it as a last resort.

One other thing I do as support, both in person and over the phone, is triage. The call center usually gets first crack at support problems so they make the initial decision about what group needs to see what issues. In some cases it's hard to determine exactly what the root cause of a problem is over the phone so techs are dispatched to investigate. Issues with classroom equipment or network related problems may need to be sent to other teams for the proper fix and a tech needs to see the problem to make the call. Slow network access, for instance, can be caused by a number of things: programs running on the PC *cough*spyware*cough*, cables that have come loose or gone bad (rolly chairs), or problems with the switch. A tech can rule out several things like physical connections or configuration problems. Once those are ruled out the issue can be passed on to the next group that most likely needs to see the problem.

The other big thing I do, and have done in the past, is solutions development. So far I've only been able to do one solution development project but I'm looking forward to my next one. Solutions development does not necessarily mean writing custom software, although that can be part of the solution. Basically this is project oriented work. Helping a department with a new system or IS process. For instance I got to setup and document a testing system for a department on campus. I had to coordinate with our server guys for space and access rights. I had to study the system, create a list of requirements for the project, and make sure those requirements were met. I had to coordinate the setup of the system with the department and inform the users about any quirks or specific issues they'd need to be aware. I had to create documentation for the system that was specific to our particular environment so the other techs will have a reference for future support. It's really quite exciting because you're setting up a system to help someone do their job, or provide a new service to customers. Solution creation was a huge part of my old job as well. Being the primary server guy pretty much assures you'll be setting up and tweaking systems. I love creating solutions. I'm not just fixing a problem I'm making something someone will find useful.

So anyway that's not all I do at work but it's a good broad overview. I really do like my job. It's a little slow right since it's summer but that's all right. I've got time to study the new Vista and Office 2007 betas that Microsoft released to the public. That's a good thing because people are going to be screaming bloody murder when they see the changes in Vista and Office 2007. You thought Luna on XP was bad, Vista is going to require quite a bit of adjustment from the users. Office 2007 with the new "Ribbon" interface is probably going to send some people into fits.

Tech Tip of the Post:
I've skipped this the last several posts because we were on our honeymoon. This tech tip I'm going to talk about Firefox extensions. First let's discuss the difference between extensions and plugins. Traditionally plugins allow a web browser to display new content. For example Macromedia makes a Flash plugin for both Firefox and IE that allow the browsers to show Flash applets. Firefox extensions, on the other hand, allow Firefox to do whole new things. They give the browser whole new functions!

Firefox extensions are found at https://addons.mozilla.org and there are a lot of them. Let's see what I've got in my Firefox extensions. Go to Tools -> Extensions in Firefox to see what is installed. You can also update your extensions from this dialog. I have the following extensions installed on my Firefox: Tab Mix Plus, adds a bunch of options to tabbed browsing, Leet Key, which does a lot of text transform stuff like l33tsp34king text automatically or ROT13 transforms, SecurePassword Generator, a decent tool for simple random passwords, Adblock and Adblock Filterset.G which I'll talk about in a second. This is just my Linux laptop, I've got these and several more installed on my main rig. There are dozens if not hundreds of extensions available that do a variety of things from adding weather reports to integrating blogging functions into Firefox.

The two extensions I'm going to focus on this post are Adblock and Adblock Filterset.G. Adblock (or Adblock Plus, a slightly newer version) is an absolute must for me these days. You might have guessed from the name but Adblock blocks website ads. Does a damn fine job of it too. Once installed you can right click any element on a web page, such as a banner ad, and put it into the Adblock filter. From now on when you browse the web Adblock checks every part of a webpage against the filter list and prevents blocked content from being displayed or even downloaded. Not only does this eliminate ads from webpages but speeds up web browsing a bit because you don't have to wait on ads to be downloaded from slow servers. The filters can be adjusted with wildcard characters so you don't just have to block one ad image at a time. For example instead of blocking just www.ads.com/ad1.jpg you can block all content from ads.com using *ads.com*. The "*" stands for anything. So anything that has "ads.com" in the URL gets blocked. Any banner that comes from ads.com gets blocked outright. That's a pretty broad example but you get the picture.

Now you're saying that's great but it's also tedious. You'd have to see at least one ad from each ad server before you can block them. And ad companies often have many servers. And some websites serve their own ads so you have to track down the part of the website with the ads and block them using a custom filter like *funnycomic.com/ads/* (which blocks any content in the /ads/ part of the funnycomic.com site) It'd just get tedious and I don't want to learn how wildcards work, etc, etc, etc. That's where Adblock Filterset.G comes in.

Adblock Filterset.G is an extension that automatically updates your Adblock filters for you. The Filterset.G team keeps a very extensive list of ad servers and ads on major websites. Once Filterset is installed and setup to update automatically you never notice it. The ads on most websites just disappear. No more punch the monkey. No more free iPods. No more huge blinking flash ads. It's browsing heaven. The Filterset isn't perfect, especially for obscure websites that serve up their own ads. But in the majority of cases it does an excellent job. It's been the exception rather than the rule for me to see annoying text link ads for quite some time now. I really, really hate those in article text link ads.

But Adblock (or Adblock Plus) and Filterset.G are just the tip of the iceberg. Check out https://addons.mozilla.org and see what's available. You can get GMail notifications, have an in browser weather report, or control Winamp from Firefox with extensions. And extensions are not just for Firefox. Other members of the Mozilla family like the full Mozilla Suite and Thunderbird email client also have many useful extensions. If you take the time to look you'll probably find an extension you can't believe you lived without.

NYC 2006 - Wrap Up - Home Again, Home Again

2006-06-05T22:07:00.000-05:00

Well here we are at last. I suppose I could have posted this Friday, but I wouldn't want to become too predictable. I'd post pictures but we didn't take a lot that last day in NY. We spent the morning shopping a bit and the afternoon packing for the trip home so we didn't take many pictures.

Our bus to the airport took forever which caused me to worry about being late to our flight. Turns out I needn't have worried because we could have been three hours late and still been on time. That's right we spent four hours on the tarmac at La Guardia waiting for a rain storm to pass over. Four hours. 4. In a plane. It sucked. They didn't even serve us dinner. By the time we got to O'Hare Margaret had to beg a muffin stand to sell us muffins after they were closed. Of course we got really lucky because our connecting flight was the plane we'd come in on so at least we made it to KC that night. I'm sorry, I meant at least we made it into MCI at 1:30 Friday morning. Bleh.

Anyway we had a great time in NYC. The Clambake went well, the sight seeing and general honeymoon went well. I've had my New York fix for awhile but I get the feeling we may go back next year too...

Friday evening we met up with Robyn and Mike for food from Chubby's and coffee at Muddy's. Margaret came up sick Saturday morning and we spent the rest of the weekend sitting around the apartment.

Today I was scheduled to work the phones all day which suited me because it's a dead part of the year. Except today was busy as hell. The phones didn't stop ringing at one point. It sucked. I guess now is when everyone checks their grades and forgets their password or enrolls and needs to make a password. Joy.

NYC 2006 - Day 6 - From the Top of the City to the Foot of the Stage

2006-05-31T23:46:00.000-05:00

Today was a pretty fucking cool day. For a variety of reasons. We got started late this morning and didn't make it out the door until a little before 11:00 A.M. Most places stop serving breakfast food around then so we had to make due with a toasted bagel apiece. Note that many places will serve you a bagel long after breakfast is over.

First stop of the day was 34th St. Herald Square by way of the downtown V train. We had a destination in mind that some may recognize by the address: 350 Fifth Ave. between 33rd and 34th streets. You know the one that had a big ape climb it in that one movie. The Empire State Building. That one. It was pretty friggin' cool. I didn't realize it but the base of the building takes up the entire damn block it sits on. It's that huge. We entered not at the main lobby but a side entrance and made our way around to the escalator for the observation deck. Security is understandably tight in the Empire State and there were personnel and guards everywhere. Let me give you a helpful hint for visiting the ESB: Do it in the middle of the week, like a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and do it around lunch time. The first time we where in New York the waits we saw over the weekends were upwards of three hours. We waited in line about 40 minutes to be taken to the observation deck. You do have to pay to go up there and you do have to pass airport style security. They also check your ticket twice. You'll wind through several lines to get to the first bank of elevators that whisk you up 80 stories in less than 2 minutes. Then you get in line for the elevators to the 86th floor where the observation deck is located. If you pay an extra $14 a person you can go all the way to the 102nd story and take pictures there. Margaret and I opted for the cheaper 86th floor. From the observation deck you get a 360 degree view of the city from what is once again the tallest building in Manhattan. It is truly an incredible sight to see most of midtown and lower Manhattan and a good chunk of New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Queens spread out before you. That picture above and to the left is of Bryant Park and you can just see the edge of the NYPL Humanities and Social Sciences Collection, what I've been incorrectly calling the Central Library. There is a suicide fence (that's actually what it's called) at the edge of the deck with pointed bars that curve over top of you as you walk next to the edge. Not impossible to scale I'd imagine but difficult to say the least. There's also warnings against throwing things over the edge or putting children on the edge of the deck. In the middle is the elevator bank and the usual tourist trap souvenir shops. Much of the styling we saw in the building retained that 1930s Art Deco look that I really love. I hate the way modern skyscrapers have taken on this uniform glass and chrome look. It's boring. Building built earlier in this century have a lot more style and class to them in my opinion. I didn't realize it but the Chrysler building was completed less than a year before the Empire State. That is another building I really enjoy seeing because of its style. New York is filled with buildings that have an incredible sense of charm about them and I'm glad it's that way. We could see a lot of those buildings from high atop the city. To the left is here is a picture of downtown Manhattan following 6th Ave. That street cutting diagonal across 6th Ave. is Broadway. Broadway figures prominently in to this story later on. After we took a lot of photos, some movies, and some panoramic shots from the observation deck we headed back down to the street level in search of refreshment. We saw Macy's but decided to skip it as we didn't need to do any real shopping. The Manhattan Mall is located near the Empire State so we wandered over there just to see what a mall in New York looks like. It looks like pretty much every mall in America except it had offices going up for many stories above the stores. We ate some crappy mall Mexican food and look around before heading back to the subway. The subway entrance was one level above the mall food court so it was convenient.

We took the BD uptown and got off at 42nd St. and 6th Ave. to actually go into the Humanities and Social Sciences building. Just for reference here's a picture of the Bryant Park building on 6th Ave., that same black and gold building we saw from the Empire State. This picture is of the north side that faces Bryant Park and the library. The library building itself was very cool. It's actually quite old and has a very nice style to it. Both the library building and Bryant Park are built on the site of an old reservoir that had to be drained and filled before construction could begin. Ironically that reservoir was a man made one that had been created out of a public green. The library is massive and contains mostly research volumes from what I understand. We only saw a little bit of the library as we were both tired and hungry from our earlier excursions. I'm willing to be there is the same amount of space open to the public at both the Met and the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. The Met looks a bit bigger from the outside but it only has two floors open to the public. The library seems a bit smaller but has more floors open. In any case it's a huge building. We visited the Rose Main Reading Room, the one people like to use in movies. I estimated that this room was about the size of the North Waiting Room at Union Station in Kansas City. It was huge. We learned that much of the collection is housed below the reading room and you have to request that it be brought up to the desk that splits the reading room into half through a neat tube system. Apparently very little of the collection leaves the library since it's mainly research materials. They have guards everywhere checking bags to make sure you're not taking anything out of the library.

After the library we walked back to the hotel on 45th St. between 6th and 5th Ave. for a cool off and a some rest. We hung out for a while then left to try our luck at the Avenue Q lottery one last time. We got there about 15 minutes before the 6:00 P.M. drawing and put in our slips. We waited on the sidewalk with the rest of the hopefuls and tried to decide what to do when we didn't win any tickets. So we wait and eventually the guy with the 5 gallon white plastic bucket comes out and has us form up around him for the drawing. We watched a repeat performance of the night before as other people won tickets and went into the lobby to claim their prize. I was getting ready to leave when the guy doing the drawing announced the last pair. Lo and behold he pulled Margaret's name out of the damn bucket. We had won 2 seats to see Avenue Q for a fifth of what the tickets would have cost at full price! I could not fucking believe it. Our last chance at tickets on our last night in the city and we fucking won. My wife has some fabulous luck. We went in and paid for our prizes, two house left front row seats for that night at 8:00 P.M. Holy shit.

We had already decided to eat after the lottery so we went ahead and walked to Ray's Pizza near 48th St. and 7th Ave. We'd eaten at Ray's Pizza the last time we were in town and enjoyed it. The slices are quite large and generous on the toppings. Afterwards we wandered around Times Square down 7th Ave. We stopped in at Jamba Juice and shared a strawberry smoothie type drink. Jamba Juice makes a good smoothie and they can put stuff like shots of "energy boost" into their drinks like flavor shots in espresso. They are a little pricey but not much more than a good mocha will cost you and much healthier. While wandering around we also found the Hershey Store on Times Square. It's a neat store with some nice items in it but most of it is pretty expensive. Some of the "limited edition" chocolates they had looked tempting but were over priced in my humble opinion. They did have a neat chocolate slide type machine. You buy a small metal bucket and put it under a spout on the machine. Then you turn some cranks really fast and bite sized candy comes sliding down some twisty ramps to fill up the bucket. We watched a kid do it once and it looked fun. Margaret found the popcorn store that sells the kettle corn she likes so much. I really don't understand how people eat that stuff. Butter is the only thing that belongs on popcorn besides salt. Oh well, to each their own. We also wandered around the theatres for other Broadway shows like Spamalot. You wouldn't believe the crowds for some of these shows. The crowd for Phantom of the Opera spilled out into the street and a crowd almost as big waited outside the show starring Julia Roberts. Finally 7:30 rolled around and we headed back to the Avenue Q theatre for the show.

I really can't describe how great this show is live. The soundtrack doesn't do it justice. The entire show was very well done. And of course the fact my knees were touching the stage didn't hurt either. Our seats were incredible. We were right next to the stage. The deck was about a foot below my eye level while sitting. Even Margaret had no problems seeing everything that close. We were a little far left but who really cares about that? The songs for this show are hilarious and to be that close to the action made them even better. One of the things I noticed was that while the people playing puppets echoed the actions and emotions of their puppets themselves all the actors playing human characters acted only to the puppet. I couldn't believe how good the puppets being performed by two people looked either. They obviously rehearse this show down to a very fine point. During one of the last numbers, when the actors go into the audience to ask for money (it's part of the show, trust me) I got to give money to the actress playing Gary Coleman and shake her hand. Awesome! Having seen the show already I wouldn't hesitate to pay full price for a couple of nice seats. It's that good a show. I mean how can you not like a show with full nude hardcore puppet sex? Of course it doesn't hurt we ended up paying less than half price for our seats even after we bought some show swag.

When we left the theatre there was a huge crowd next door trying to see Julia Roberts coming out of her play. The sidewalk was blocked off in two directions and there were police all over the place trying to keep the crowd moving past. We had to go into the street to get around all the people. While waiting for the light we took a couple of arms length shots of us in Times Square. I think the one on the left is looking north and the one on the right is looking south.

Now here we sit ready for bed and our last day in New York. We've got some shopping planned and maybe a quick stroll through Central Park. We check out of the hotel at 3 P.M. and our plane takes off from La Guardia around 6:00 P.M. Hopefully we won't be delayed like last time and make it back into KC by 11:30 P.M. or so. We're happy to be here and we've had a great time but we're both very tired. It will be good to get back home and see our friends again.

Stay tuned! The trip wraps up as we put in our last entry back home in Kansas City!

NYC 2006 - Day 5 - Irish Theatre

2006-05-30T23:35:00.000-05:00

Well Margaret and I did some wandering today but we didn't take many pictures this time. We started out the day by going to the cafe across the street from our hotel for breakfast. It was fine but I liked Big Apple Foods egg sandwhich better. After that we visited the Nintendo World store (again). This time we were able to browse around and play some games. The store was pretty empty so we had most of the games to ourselves. We got to try out one of the Donkey Kong Bongo games JungleBeat. This is going to sound really weird but you control the game through the use of the bongo drums and clapping. I know how it sounds but it works really well. The game was a ton of fun.

We also got to try out the Mario DDR game which is indeed silly, silly fun. I can see us having a great time with these games and some alcohol. They also had items of note from Nintendo's history like a pack of original Nintendo playing cards from the 1890's. Bet you didn't know Nintendo has been around for more than 100 years. We also got to see a collection of limited edition Game Boy Advances, the original Nintendo Advanced Video System prototype that was shown just once at the January 1985 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the famous Gulf War Gameboy. I remember reading about that Gameboy in Nintendo Power magazine. It was damaged in Desert Storm when a barracks was bombed. The owner wasn't hurt and amazed to see that his Gameboy still powered on and played games even though the casing was fried. It's there in the Nintendo World store playing Tetris like a champ. Amazing.

I'm cheating a little here. These pictures were actually taken the first evening of our trip when we initially found the store. I haven't posted them until now but they fit in pretty well.

Afterwards we took the NRQW line from 49th St. and 7th Ave. to Union Square. A couple of people had told me we should visit it because of the shops and restaurants. Unfortunetly it was just so hot out we visited a PetCo to look at the kittens and then went back up town to the Saigon Grill for lunch.

We took the NRQW from Union Square at 14th St. and Park Ave. to the Times Square station at 42nd and 7th Ave. where we switched over to the good old number 1 train and rode it up to 86th St. in the Upper West side. Saigon Grill is situated at the corner 90th St. and Amsterdam Ave. Margaret had been talking about it ever since she went there with Victor in November. I have to admit the food there was quite tasty and plentiful for the price. I let Margaret order for us and we started with an appitizer of spare ribs. They were damn fine ribs.

Margaret ordered me some pork chops that were extremely tender and delicious. I got the lunch version of the dish which included two pork chops, lightly pickled greens, and white rice. The dinner version comes with three pork chops and most certainly would have required a doggy bag. I also got a lemonade tea to drink which Margaret agreed was very good. It starts out like a lemonade but has a pleasent tea aftertaste. We also got complimentary hot tea with the meal which was good but didn't go with the hot weather.

Margaret ordered a skewered chicken dish that came toped with peanut bits and lightly pickled greens on a bed of plain noodles. The noodles were almost flavorless but Margaret really liked them for some reason. The chicken was OK but I enjoyed the pork chops more. We also had a pleasent talk with the woman at the table next to us about eating out in the Big Apple. She gave us some directions to a couple of restaurants a few blocks away and suggested some things we might have wanted to try. I want to say here that I have yet to talk to a rude or unpleasent New Yorker in my two trips up here. Naturally people like that exist everywhere but so far my exchanges with the natives have been very cordial. Even when we eat like savages.

After the Saigon Grill we walked down Amsterdam Ave. to a bread shop our dining conversationalist had suggested. We looked around but didn't get anything in the end. Afterwards we continued to meander back to the 123 line entrance at 86th St. just taking in the Upper West side. We stopped in at a stationary store and a neat bead shop to look around. The area we were in had a lot more variety to it than the Upper East side but it also seemed like a decent place to live, if not very upscale. I enjoyed it personally.

Eventually we made it back to the subway and took the 1 train to the 59th and Columbus Circle station where we switched to the trusty old BD line that took us back to 47th-50th Sts. at Rockefeller Center. We walked back to the hotel room to rinse off and rest for a bit. Refreshed we headed down 45th St. to the theatre Avenue Q was playing at. Let me explain something about Broadway shows. A handful of shows do what's called a lottery. Generally these shows start taking names 1.5 to 2 hours before the show. They'll take them for a short time like one half hour. After which names are randomly pulled from the hat for a predetermined number of "lottery seats". Often times these are actually quite good seats and they generally cost one half to a quarter of the usual price. A prize indeed for some shows. We put in our names for the Avenue Q lottery and then hung out until names were drawn. If you're not there, you don't get the seat. You also have to pay in cash at the ticket window immediately upon winning. We didn't win seats but we're going to try again tomorrow.

We did end up doing student rush tickets for the Lieutenant of Inishmore. They were cheap but in a good spot. We had a clear view of the stage even if we were back a bit. The ony things I can say about this show is that it is the most bloody, violent, silly, and funny show I have ever seen. Some of the show was down right gory but also strangely enough fucking funny. A dark comedy if I ever saw one. Needless to say we will never see this in Kansas City. Unless it's been dumbed down to a G rating.

On the way to find something to eat we stoppd at the three story Toys 'R' Us in Times Square. This place has everything a kid could whine to their parent about. It's got a real working ferris wheel in the center of the store and a gigantic Lego section with replicas of the Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building complete with King Kong all done in Lego. Pretty neat stuff.

After the Toys 'R' Us we stopped in at Connolly's Pub near Times Square. I had a Guinness and Margaret had a hard cider we'd never heard of before. We split some appetizers to snack on. It was the most expensive meal we've had in New York. Let that be a lesson. New York prices aren't really that bad as long as you stay away from the touristy stuff. I think the best part of the meal was the waitress. (No that is not an insult to Margaret.) She was a nice young lady who was actually from Ireland! I looove that accent. She was nice enought to chat with us a bit about her home and said we should definetely visit Ireland if we get a chance.

Now we are back at the hotel pondering what to do for tomorrow. If the weather's not that bad we might try Central Park, the Central Park Zoo, or the Empire State Building. We're certainly going to try the Avenue Q lottery againg. Ah well, we'll see.

Stay tuned! Just two more days of NYC left to go!

NYC 2006 - Day 4 - Gettin' Culturfied

2006-05-29T23:59:00.000-05:00

Margaret and I got up late this morning and felt the better for it. We sat around for a bit then headed out for breakfast and the uptown 6 train. I want to thank Big Apple Foods near the Rockefeller Center BDFV subway entrance for making a fine egg, bacon, and chala roll sandwhich. I have enjoyed them twice now.

We got off the 6 at Lexington Ave. and 77th St. From there we walked across and up Park and Madison Ave. to 86th St. where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is situated on the Central Park side of 5th Ave.

We took 149 pictures today so I'm not even going to attempt to show you even most of it. I will put up a few pictures we took of ourselves standing in front of various works of art. Below on the left is me standing infront of a sculpture called "Mourning Victory" by Daniel Chester French. This was a piece I particularly liked. In the middle is a work I call "The Happy Couple" by Anonymous. No, really, we didn't get the name of the friendly lady who took the picture for us. On the right is Margaret standing in front of a work by Auguste Rodin called "The Burghers of Calais".

We also got lunch in the Met Cafeteria. There's several places to eat in the Met but the Cafeteria is the most reasonably priced. The food was pretty good I thought but a bit expensive.

Ahhh...Tea.

Stupid tea's f*$#ing hard to open!

On of the things I discovered today was that I really like sculpture. I don't know why but I found it fascinating while we were in the Met. I particularly liked the Rodin's they had on display. Really neat stuff ranging from life size people to hands and torso studies. Rodin was apparently one of the first sculpturs to argue that a part of the body is just as worthy a subject for sculputre as a whole person or a bust. Margaret bought a lovely reproduction of a Tiffany glass window we plan to hang up in the apartment.

After the museum we walked back to the Lexington Station to take the 6 train back downtown. On the way Margaret snapped some photos of the buildings and apartments we ran across. The Upper East Side is a very picturesque place and it must be very nice to live there. Of course it's also probably really expensive. When we crossed the street from an upscale neighborhood back to a cheaper one the change was pretty easy to see.

We stopped at 59th St. to check out the new 5th Ave. Apple store. It's Ok. Imagine a very large Apple store situated one story below ground with a big glass box on top of the entrance. I guess the funny part is GMC used to display concept cars on that location. The times how they change.

We headed back to the hotel after that to take a rinse and decide what to do with the rest of the evening. I wanted to eat and Margaret thought we would have enough time to go back to Nintendo World at 48th St. and Rockefeller Plaza. We ate a little deli down the block from our hotel then went in search of Nintendo World. We found it but it was closed for Memorial Day. We decided to visit it Tuesday. On the way back to the hotel we visited a Barnes and Noble to pick up more reading material for the plane ride home.

Eventually we settled on seeing X-Men 3. The AMC Empire 25 on Times Square was showing it but it would be a half hour wait once we got there. That turned out to be a good thing because if we'd shown up closer to show time we'd have ended up in the front row. As far as the movie went Margaret and I both enjoyed it. I think the second one was just a bit better but 3 was still better than the first.

Now we sit ready for bed. It's quite late so I'm going to cheat a little and back date this post so it shows up on the right day.

Stay tuned tomorrow. We're still bloggin' it up in the NYC!

NYC 2006 - Day 3 - Part Deux

2006-05-28T23:15:00.000-05:00

First let me say this: Why the hell can't blogger, with its cutting edge AJAX interface for writing posts, put the damn pictures I insert at the cursor? It's an incredible pain in the ass to drag each photo from the top to where I actually want it. Oh well, I guess I really shouldn't complain about free photo storage. Perhaps I should put this up on Flickr? I really haven't been putting all my photos in these posts. For instance, I took 70 pictures on yesterday's trip around Downtown.
I didn't take as many photos today because I really wanted to rest my feet.

To pickup where the first post left off the lunch with the Clambake folks was good. Margaret and I sat with a bunch of other lighting designers. Pretty much everyone from the Clambake was sitting in one big room at a restuarant near Lincoln Square. Even though I can't follow some of it I enjoy listening to these artistic professionals discuss their craft. I've gotten this experience several times thanks to the late night trips to Chinatown for dinner with Victor. We've gotten to meet a lot of people who work on Broadway which is just incredible.

One designer in particular geeked out with me for a bit after lunch. Her sister had interned at Palo Alto Research in it's heyday. For geeks out there who get the reference that is just fucking cool. She also talked about how they had a very early color TV prototype in their house because her dad helped develop the color TV carrier signal. Wow. We also had a great conversation about Apple's recent successes and the big Intel switch. I really want to see the Apple store on 5th Ave now.

After lunch I went back to the hotel for a bit. Here's a useful bit of info: the B train doesn't run on weekends. I let a D train go by before realizing I'd need to take a D down to Rockefeller Center. Oops. I am proud to say I didn't need to read my map before I figured out the schedule change. Because it's on a big sign in front of the tracks if you look up. Heh.

I took a nap and a rinse off once I got back to the hotel becuase it is fucking humid here. It's not hot but carrying around my bag just makes me sweat through my shirt. Around 3:30 I headed back up town to help Margaret tear down her display. I was a little late because I keep forgetting there's construction on the uptown track after 7th Ave. on the orange line. Oh well. I didn't get a picture of Victor and Margaret in front of her display because he'd left town already. Apparently he's focusing lights in KC tomorrow morning. Poor Victor. I did get a bunch of shots of the display this morning to show people.

Anyway, after tear down Margaret and I went back to the hotel to rinse off again and rest. Eventually we got up off our asses and went out for dinner. One of the great things about Manhattan is you will never run out of places to eat. Diners, restaurants, and cafes are found on just about every street catering to a variety of tastes and budgets. I've seen ultra cheap Middle Eastern store front butted up next to an upscale French cafe. We setteled on a place we'd been last year that had good pizza. We're trying not to make repeat visits to places so we can sample the variety but we were really hungry. One thing I have to remember is that Margaret hasn't gotten to wander around yet. I've spent a day and a half doing it already so I just wanted to slip down the street for a quick bite but she wanted to explore. I can't really argue with that so I just grit my teeth and rub my feet later.

After dinner we wandered down to Grand Central Station at 42nd and Lexington Ave. On the way there I accidently slipped into yokel mode looking at the Chrysler Building. Margaret got evidence on film, er, flash card.

We got to Grand Central and wandered around for abit. What most people don't think about is that Grand Central isn't just a big station. It's what Union Station in KC wishes it could be. I'm pretty sure there's more stores in Grand Central than in Independence Center. Most of them are certainly more upscale. The Dining Concourse in Grand Central also has some pretty tasty looking restaurants in it too. Puts Union Station to shame really. Margaret got some shots of the front at Pershing Square before we went in.

Look kids! The Flash lives at Grand Central Station attended by naked people!

After we left Grand Central, on the wrong side I might add, we walked back to a Dunkin' Donuts we'd spotted earlier for dessert. They were closing up but we managed to score some donutty goodness. We ate it while walking towards Times Square. We skirted the edges for a while looking down the streets then walked through the edge. We decided to start heading back to the hotel and looked a bunch of theatres on the way back. We got to see the Avenue Q, Spamalot, Rent, Phantom of the Opera, and many other Broadway theatres. It was pretty cool. Margaret snapped some shots of Times Square and the Rent theatre.

And now we're in the hotel. Tired but happy. We got some good info on cheap tickets some shows and we're not sure when we want to go. Broadway shows don't run on Mondays. We're still not sure what we're going to do tomorrow but it is supposed to be cooler outside. That should make walking around a less sweat inducing experience.

Stay tuned! We're still bloggin live from New York City!

NYC 2006 - Day 3 - Sittin' Back

2006-05-28T22:46:00.000-05:00

Well here I sit in a squeaky metal chair at the Pope Auditorium lobby. I won't be posting this right away since I don't have access to free WiFi but I figured I'd get it all I did. I'm attempting to take it easy today for both body and laundry reasons.

I'm sore all over from my wandering yesterday. If there's one thing this trip has done it's reinforce how out of shape I am. It's sad really. I know I did quite a bit of walking yesterday but I don't think I should be so achy the next day. My shoes are not the best for walking around either. They're fine for work and some light travel but not for all day hiking in the concrete jungle.

I thought about going to the Apple store on 5th Ave. today and perhaps Nintendo World again but I really wasn't in the mood for another long subway ride followed by a long walk. So after Margaret and I got to Fordham Uni I decided to check out the Columbus Circle and Lincoln Square areas.

I walked around the southwestern edge of Central Park where it butts up against Columbus Circle. If you ever need to find a park in New York just follow a jogger. Eventually you'll reach greenery. I wandered into the Time-Warner building's shopping center and found the second actual grocery store I've seen in Manhattan. This has been a topic of discussion between Margaret and myself. Where do people who live in Manhattan get their grocerys? Since it's Memorial Day most of the stores were closed or didn't open until late. I did get some photos of statues at the Columbus Circle and the Park entrance.

Central Park was pretty cool the last time we visited. There's streets through it exclusively for horses, bicyclists, joggers, and roller bladers. I mean complete with crosswalks and stoplights. The wildlife there is pretty fearless too. I had a squirel come right up to me looking for food. He ran off before I could get a picture.

After the Park I wandered up and down 8th and Columbus Ave. between 57th and 63rd St. Saw Roosevelt Hospital and watched some med students move into an apartment building. I walked past Lincoln Center and got some photos. Lincoln Center is where the Clambake is usually held. I understand they lost the space this year and the Clambake almost didn't happen. Thankfully the Pope Auditorium is right down the street from Lincoln Center so it's not a huge change in travel plans. The Pope also seems a lot less cramped than the Center's AV Library.

Visited the Tower Records at Lincoln Sq. and picked up the new Shakira CD since it was on a decent sale. Sales tax here in NYC is insane. I paid $15 on a $13.22 CD! After that I wandered over to the Barnes and Noble in Lincoln Square for a sit down and some OJ.

Now I sit in Pope Auditorium listening to my new CD on my laptop waiting to go to lunch with the Clambake folk. After lunch there's only 2 hours of Clambake before tear down. I'll help Margaret stow her stuff in the UMKC van and after that I think it's naptime. We'll see.

NYC 2006 - Day 2 - Foot Traffic

2006-05-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

So today was the big first day of the Clambake. I'll let Margaret talk about that on her blog. Her advisor Victor said the day went well and I'll trust his experience in the matter.

So how did I spend my day completely alone in Manhattan? I'm so glad you asked.

After dropping off some breakfast for Margaret at the Clambake I decided to start at the bottom of the island and work my back towards the hotel. With that plan I hopped on the C train downtown and got underway. Switching from the C to the E train takes you directly to the World Trade Center Site station. The station is the last stop for the E line and for trains from New Jersey. Coming up out of the subway you're directly in the below ground observation deck. From the observation deck you can see the remains of the site and the on going construction.

On the street level you can get a bigger view down into the hole. There's fence everywhere though and there's security all over the place. There's very specific rules about you can do on the site and there were many cameras in evidence. I've been to the WTC twice now since it's been cleaned up. I get choked up looking at the site even though it doesn't really look different than many other construction sites in Manhattan. Of course I also get really pissed off thinking about what's happened in this country in the name of such tragedy.

Apparently I'm not alone in that opinion. This sign is in the window of a building facing the WTC site and easily visible from the street.

Here's a shot for Margaret's dad.

Check out the scaffolding on that building! It goes all the way from the street to the top! It's a 45 minute commute to work after you get to the job site! Seriously that is some pretty impressive construction.

Afterwards I walked around the Financial District in Downtown. Up and down Broadway and Wall St. mostly. I did managed to take some wildlife photographs:

And some pictures of places where people worship:

I did visit City Hall and the first capital of the U.S. but this post is pretty picture heavy already. Once I was done downtown I got on the 6 train at City Hall and took it all the way up to Grand Central Station on 42nd St. Once there I got out and walked all the way from Lexington Ave. to 1st Ave. to see the U.N. building. I was surprised to see that there weren't more flags flying out front. Just the lone U.N. flag in the center slowly flapping in the breeze. I walked from 42nd up to the 46th St. visitors entrance on 1st Ave. There were some interesting pieces of sculpture in the entrance and I got some good shots.

After that I walked back down to 42nd St. and found a cute little park up some stairs from the street. Tudor Park is nestled in between residential buildings off 1st Ave. next to 42nd St. You have to go up some stairs or a ramp to reach it. My feet were killing me by then so I stopped to review my pictures and drink some water. I was completely not expecting to find this park so it was a nice surprise. Really when I say park it's about the size of Ken and Diana's backyard. But in Manhattan I've seen smaller places of greenery that qualify for "park" status.

From Tudor hoofed it down 42nd from 1st Ave. all the way to the Avenue of the Americas or 6th Ave. Once there I stopped to see the New York Public Library's Central Manhattan branch. Last time we were in town the building was closed for renovations. This time you could walk up to the building and there were banners advertising events but the doors were not open. I hope it's open on the weekdays because I would really love to see the inside. Bryant Park is right behind the library below 42nd street which is were I made my first post of the day. It's a nice place and actually quite large. There's a couple of outdoor restaurants there that I might drag Margaret to if they're not really pricey.

After Bryant Park I walked back to the hotel intending to get the pictures off the camera and upload them. Instead I took a shower and fell asleep. It is so muggy here right now I'm sweating through my clothes. We may have to find a laundromat before we leave. I hope it cools off the rest of the week. Also, my feet are killing me. I lugged around my laptop and various other things in my trusty messenger bag all day which has led to sore feet, legs, shoulders, and back.

I was woken up twice from my nap. Once by housekeeping with towels and once by maintainence looking in on the A/C. Our room gets warm during the day if we don't keep the thermostat turned to 60 degrees. I managed to get up in time to get on the D train at Rockefeller Center and head up to 59th St. and Columbus Ave. The train was absolutely loaded with people going to the Yankees game. I talked with a lady who used to live in KC and is still a Royals fan. I also talked with a family from Connecticut who were in town for fleet week. Their daughter is in the Navy. The trains got delayed twice on the way to 50th St. but no one seemed to be particularly irritated by it.

I made it to the Pope Auditorium at 60th and Columbus Ave. in time for the Clambake reception. Ate some food, talked with Victor, and watched Margaret talk to people. Afterwards we were going to head to HSF in Chinatown with some theatre people but decided we didn't want to travel that far. Margaret and I said our goodbyes to Victor at Bar9 on 53rd St. and headed home. We walked the whole way back to the hotel from 53rd to 45th St. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal but we are both bone weary. We got food after dropping off our stuff and now here we are, blogging.

The schedule will be similar tomorrow except after the Clambake we're tearing down Margaret's display and packing it up. I think I may visit the Apple store on 5th Ave. and Nintendo World while the Clambake is going on. Or I may just hang out at Fordham University and read. Monday, it has been agreed will be a day of rest. We'll sit in Central Park, maybe visit the zoo, or see a movie. Something local we could only see in New York. Who knows?

Stay tuned tomorrow. We're still blogging live from New York City!

NYC 2006 - Day 2 - A Little Light Reading

2006-05-27T11:08:00.000-05:00

Today, for the first time ever, I'm sitting outside, in a park, using wireless. This is pretty fucking cool. I'm in Bryant Park right now, resting my feet after tramping around Downtown and Midtown. I've got pictures a plenty but I forgot the transfer cable and I don't think I'd upload them now anyway. This isn't going to be a really long post because as soon as I catch my breath I'm heading back to the hotel for a breather. I'm kinda of disappointed because the Central library behind me is closed right now. The MidTown Manhattan library down the block is open but the Central has a lot of neat architecture.

I also want to reiterate my love of the subway here. I really can't believe people have that much trouble navigating it. Just pay attention to the signs and what time it is and you're golden.

Well my lap is starting to sweat from my notebook so I'm going to sign off now. I hope Margaret is having a good time at the Clambake. I won't see her until 4 p.m. More to come!

NYC 2006 - Day 1 - Off To A Shaky Start

2006-05-26T17:59:00.000-05:00

I debated calling this a "Trog" as it will be a travel blog but decided that was too blogosphere for me. So here we are in New York City again. This time I have brought my trusty laptop, digital camera, and easy acces WiFi. I intend to post at least once a day with some pictures but we'll see how that turns out.

The trip could have had a better start. We got delayed while sitting on the runway at O'Hare in Chicago. There was bad weather in NYC over LGA and a ground stop had been issued just as we were taxing to the runway. This caused a very long delay and we got in to LGA two hours late. We did get to take a taxi from LGA to the Fordham University Pope Auditorium, which was cool. Our driver was very fast and very comptent. I bet NYC cab drivers would be pretty awesome on a crowded race track.

We made it to the Pope Auditorium at 60th and 9th Avenue (or Columbus Ave) around 2:00 p.m. EST to get setup for the Clambake. Margaret and I immediately set to working on her portfolio display and Victor showed up after a bit to help us. The display was actually a lot larger than anyone in our group had been expecting. We had been expecting a 4ft long table with 4 to 6 ft of wall space. Margaret ended up with a 6ft long table. Which actually worked out ok because some things she had planned to show in front of the table will now be up on the wall.

I use the term wall loosely as it was really two large bits of foam core taped together and hung from a pipe. Most of Margaret's stuff for the walls was prearranged on foam core so we just had to put them up with T pins. Observe: The T Pins of Doom! There are a lot of T pins sticking out behind Margaret's wall so I really hope someone doesn't walk into them. I think her portfolio turned out really good looking and she managed to put more stuff on the tables that would have ended up stowed beneath the table. I'll have to take some pictures of the completed display tomorrow for the full effect. I got to watch some other graduates put up their portfolios and saw some really neat work. This year's Clambake should be pretty good.

We are now situated in our hotel room off 6th Ave on 45th st. We can take the D or B subway to within a block of both the Pope Auditorium and our hotel which will help cut down the travel time considerably. It's not a huge room but it is cozy and clean. Our toliet didn't work at first but they got a guy up here in record time to fix it. I like the view outside because I get to see skyscrapers and a busy New York street. That cafe across the way looks interesting. We're supposed to go to Chinatown around 11:00 for dinner with theatre folks but we haven't had anything real to eat since 4:00 am this morning! Jason, one of the theatre folk at the Clambake, generously gave us half his sandwich when we made to the auditorium. A very tasty ham, brie, and honey mustard sub. Tasty! As hungry as we are though, first it's time for a little nap.I'll update soon, hopefully with pictures from Chinatown! I might even be using the WiFi at the New York Public Library. Stay tuned for the next post brought to you live from New York City!

Accessories Make the Event

2006-05-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

So I've never really been a big jewelry person. Just don't like too many things to keep track of on my person. I usually have enough trouble with my sunglasses and my cell phone. But right now I have on a ring that I will be paying extra attention too. Not because I particularly like the ring (which I do) but because of what it represents.

This weekend it represented a lot of friends and family gathered together in happiness. It represents good times with good people. It represents my friend Mike who stood as my best man. It represents my friend Kevin who stood with us. It represents Robyn, Margaret's Matron of Honor. It represents Denise who stood with us. It is for my family who is happy for us. It is for Margaret's family who welcome me with open arms. It is for promises made long before they were said in public. It is for union.

Mostly though I like this ring because it says to the world, finally and with long patience, I love Margaret and I am hers.

Somewhere around 5 pm on Sunday May 14th Margaret and I were officially wed. It wasn’t without its bumps but we managed to get most of it right and in the end it was ours. And it was made all the better by those who chose to share it with us.

Thank you all.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to sleep for a week.

The Eve Of An Event

2006-05-14T00:11:00.000-05:00

So here we are. T-minus 17 hours or so to the big event. So are there any revelations I should share with you? Any big wisdom that has descended from heaven that I should spread to my friends? Nope, sorry. 'fraid not.

I think the very best advice I can give someone right now is very simple.
No matter what is going on, no matter how things are turning out, the very best thing you can do is surround yourself with people you love and one way or another everything will be just fine.
That's it. That's all. Just be with those dearest to your heart.

I want to thank everyone who has been with us through the wedding. Everyone who has been kind to us. Everyone who has helped us. Everyone who just dropped an IM to ask how things were going. Thank you.

I want to thank Robyn and Mike especially. You guys are simply the best.
I want to thank Kevin and Denise for dragging their butts all the way from Colorado just to be with us. You guys were my inspiration to finally ask Margaret in the first place. I don't know if I ever told you that.
I want to thank Kristin for all the effort she put into have a great unisex bachelorette party.
I want to thank all my friends for showing up and I want to thank all the people who weren't there because I know you're happy for us anyway.

I love you guys.

Let's hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.
Night.

Matrimony's Three Day Cooling Off Period

2006-05-03T22:30:00.000-05:00

We're in the waiting period before we get a marriage license right now.

Margaret and I got up very early and showed up at the county courthouse downtown before the doors opened. I didn't know where the marriage license place was in the courthouse and didn't want to get stuck in a line behind people applying for Emu farming permits or something. Turns out there were two desks just for getting marriage licenses. Very convenient. We were the first ones there. A young lady who came in after us was just there to pickup the license. Took about 15 minutes all told. Showed some ID, answered a couple of questions, and the clerk filled out the forms for us. Ended up getting back home about the time I usually get up so I screwed around on the Internet before leaving for work.

I do not look forward to work tomorrow. I'm still going in at 10 but at 8:45 some trucks with 750 boxes worth of new Dell kit are going to show up at the office. We get to unload them. I'll miss the first hour or so but still, joy. Apparently there's going to be a lot of desktop replacement going on this summer. We might get some more spare kit at the office out the deal so I can't really complain. A lot of those machines are going to end up on the surplus auction block too so I might even get some decent machines cheap for various relatives. They won't be the greatest things in existance but they will be better than what my folks and my Dad's folks have.

I think I'm going to try and put in a little something technical with my blog posts from now on. I got a really nice compliment from Robyn over the weekend that spurred this idea. I was trying to figure out the most painless way to move her email from her old GMail account to her new one. I helped her setup forwarding on the old account so all new mail that arrived at her old account would arrive at her new account. Then I managed to find a couple of solutions to moving her old mail too. Robyn looked at me from the couch and said: "This is what you do!" Indeed, that is exactly what I do: find or make solutions to people's technology problems.
Thanks, Robyn. :)

Technical Tip of the Post:
Let's see. There's quite a bit I'd like to talk about but I think this time I'll start with something simple: Winkey shortcuts. Most people know what shortcut keys are and often have many memorzied for their favorite programs. For example Ctrl+S saves the open file in most Windows programs or Ctrl+P will open the print dialog in most programs. What I want to talk about is the Winkey shortcuts. The Winkey is the key with a Windows flag hiding between the Ctrl and Alt keys.

I detested the Winkey when it first appeared around the time Windows 95 came out. I constantly hit it by accident while playing games which dumped me to the Windows desktop and pissed me off all in one bold move. But oh how things change. I now use the Winkey on a daily basis to speed up common tasks. I write this with Windows XP in mind but most of these shortcuts have been around since Windows 95. For example:

Winkey+D will minimize all your open windows. Usually even ones you can't minimize with the mouse. Winkey+D again will reopen all those minimized windows just as they were before. Handy, huh? Winkey+M and Winkey+Shift+M will do the same thing respectively.
Winkey+E will open My Computer to your My Documents directory.
Winkey+F will open the find dialog.
Winkey+R will open the run dialog.
Winkey+Tab will run through all the programs on the taskbar.
Winkey+L will lock the screen on a computer. (Windows XP only. Handy if there's other people around you don't want messing with your stuff while you're gone.)

There's a few more Winkey shortcuts but those are the most useful to the everyday user. I use four of those on a regular basis everyday and I'm really thrown off when they're not available. They're quick and save time mousing through two or three menus. Nice when you want to keep your hands on the keyboard too. These are global shortcuts too, meaning they'll work no matter what program is currently open. As a bonus here's a couple of other "global" shortcut keys.

PrntScrn will take a snapshot of your screen and put it on the clipboard. You can then open up MS Paint (or Photoshop or any image editing program) and Paste the screenshot (Edit->Paste or Ctrl+V) into the image. Neat way of showing off all the icons on your desktop. :)

Alt+PrntScren works the same way but it only takes a snapshot of the currently active window. i.e. If Word is the program you're currently working in Alt+PrntScrn will only snapshot the Work window. You can then Paste that snapshot into an image editing program. This is really handy for making computer tutorials, like how to use a certain website. You have exact pictures of the steps you're writing about!

Alt+Tan allows you cycle through all the currently open windows. Handy when you've got a ton of windows open and need to find a specific one fast. Also handy when you lose a window behind another window.

Anyway, that's just starter stuff. I think next time I'll post a bit about safer browsing with Mozilla Firefox and customizing Firefox till you love it.

Well I Still Have a Job

2006-04-29T11:34:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Jim's post about his job I decided I should write about mine. I've only been working at it for five weeks and all. While not quite as interesting or creepy as Jim's stalker/therapy job I like it.

The first three weeks I spent watching other people do their jobs. My boss had setup a schedule so I got to job shadow most of the other people in the support department. IS at UMKC is a large affair and my support team isn't the only one on campus. What was amusing was the fact that I'd been living right next to the UMKC campus for three years but I knew so little about it. At any rate for the first three weeks I didn't do too terribly much by myself and mostly asked a bunch of stupid questions. After the initial three week training period I've been doing things by myself but I'm still asking a lot of stupid questions. I did get to meet Walt Bodine while shadowing in the KCUR studios and that was cool.

So my typical day is split into two parts. When I arrive at 10:00 a.m. I'm doing Desktop Support and that covers a whole f*ckin' lot. Essentially DS folks are the second tier troubleshooters after the Call Center. We handle the problems that can't be fixed easily over the phone or requires research to solve or requires someone to physically move something somewhere. So I look at the current trouble tickets in the queue find some to work on and start doing my thing. For example this week I've: recovered data from a dead harddrive and installed the replacement, created the initial setup and documentation for some new software, researched a problem with a statistics software package, installed a printer, fixed a Palm Pilot problem, and did a consultation for networking a desktop printer. Pretty varied stuff. Additionally there's two UMKC vehicles we use to get around campus and I get to park in the restricted campus vehicle spots now. Very cool. I actually get away from my desk quite a bit during the day.

Monday through Thursday at 5 p.m. and Fridays at 4 p.m. I switch jobs and become a Call Center tech. Yes, I'm one of the pleasent and helpful people you get when you call tech support. I actually rather like doing the call support side of things. Mostly I do account resets or help people setup their email but it's nice to walk someone through a solution and hear "Well it's, Oh! There it goes! It's working now." I still have much learn about the call center. Often call center work deals with knowing what to send where or who to ask questions about specific topics. My experience with computers fails here because that's all organization specific. I hate putting people on hold while I ask a question but I can't help them until I know the answer too. For example we've been getting some high school seniors trying to take a pre-enrollment entrance exam online. First couple of questions about that I had to ask the other techs who handle those exams and what to do about certain types of problems. Some problems we can handle for the user other problems get directed to a different group to be fixed. There's a lot of multitasking involved with the call center too because usually I'm listening to the user describe what's going on, entering their trouble ticket, looking up the account information, and bugging someone through IM with a question all at the same time in three or four different programs.
Hectic, yes?

Which leads me to my computer setup. They have thrown so much hardware at me. When I first arrived I had this little slimline SX280 from Dell, an LCD, a mouse, and a keyboard. That computer was two generations better than the one at my last job so I was pretty happy. Then my boss tells me that there's a NEW computer on order for me and it will be there by the end of the week. Sure enough I walk in one afternoon and there's a bunch of boxes from Dell filling up my cube. Rock! Since then I've also gotten an Intel MacMini, a new laptop, two USB flash drives, and some assorted bits of computer hardware. I've got three keyboards, three mice, and two LCDs on my desk, NOT counting the laptop. (My Mac and my secondary Dell share a monitor with input switching.) Why, you ask, do I need all this? Well the new Dell is my main desktop. I do all my day to day and call center work on it. The slimline computer that was there first is my testing box. I can do dry runs of software installations on it, futz around with tools, and blow it away any time I need to without losing important data. The Mac Mini (which is the cutest damn computer ever) is needed because I do have to support those and I don't have a whole lot of experience with OS X. The laptop, which arrived late last week, I already know will be useful because I've done some jobs where I thought, "Gee, I wish I had a laptop to check X." The two flash drives is just a circumstance thing. All the techs get one just because they're so damn useful. The other flash drive came from my first project which was to evaluate the new drive so the department head could decide whether or not buy a bunch of them. Sweet.

That brings me to the other great part about my job, my coworkers. Everyone I've worked with has been very cool with me so far. Understand this, and I'm not bragging, but at the JCKL I was almost always, without question, the most computer knowledgable person in the room. That's just the way it was. Now I am surrounded by people who are also very good with computers. It is so nice not to be the only computer guy in the room. I don't say geek because not everyone I work with is a geek. I am a geek. I play with computers all the time. Some of my coworkers know what they hell they're doing but don't spend 16 hours a day in front of a computer just to fuck around. There are some geeks or semi-geek folks where I work but most of them, I think, don't really geek all the way out. In any event it's great to be around people who know what I mean if I talk about "Booting up the Recovery Console and doing a fixmbr." All my coworkers have been very patient with me and have answered just about all of my stupid questions. They kid around with each other and help each other solve problems.

Anyway I do like my new job. I work 10-7 Monday through Thursday and 8-5 on Friday. The hours are weird but I'm only 7 minutes from work. I get to go home for lunch which messes with my head some. I've gone from a two and a half hour daily commute to a fourteen minute one and I'm still adjusting. I get to stay up late because I don't have to get up until 8:30 a.m. The desktop support side is a little slow since it's the end of the semester but so far the work is interseting. At night the call center slows down and I get to catch up on paper work or tool around with an idea.

In other news I can't believe we're two weeks away from the wedding. Wow. We need to finish booking the honeymoon too. I've got an interary laid out but haven't finalized it yet. My boss is being very generous with my time off. Technically I'm not supposed to take a lot of time off my fist six months but my boss already said it's cool. I'll be doing some make up stuff, like weekend student orientations, as a sort of trade off but that's only fair. So we'll be visiting NYC over the memorial day weekend. I managed to get roundtrip direct flights and a room in a three and a half star hotel in the city for a good price. This is going to be the best honeymoon evar.

I Am Jobified!

2006-03-17T15:54:00.000-06:00

I gots a job! Woohoo! It's even the job I really, really wanted!
It's been a weird week for me. I'll go into more detail later but the long and short of it is I had a job offer. A good job offer from a school I liked (no, not that one). But I was also up for a job at another school (yes, that one) that I wanted just a tiny bit more. I liked the hours, the pay, and the location just a bit better. The benefits are also better. 10a.m. to 7p.m. Mon-Fri. Which works out great because that's still before most theatre show times and I don't have to get up at 6 anymore.

So I guess I'll just go ahead and say it: I accepted a job with UMKC! w00t!
Now I do regret having to call the first school and turn them down after making them wait for so long, but I am very happy to get the job I was holding out for.

The earliest I can start is the 27th and that may even be pushed back a week. But I gots a job!

It's a Bit Different These Days

2006-03-07T00:27:00.000-06:00

So I had an interview today, with a local university (no, not that one). An interview that lasted about three hours and forty-five minutes. It was scheduled to only go three hours so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, I like the place. The people seem pleasent enough. The job seems interesting.

The kicker is while I was interviewing I got a phone call from another local university (yes, that one) about going in for an interview. That's the second time I've gotten a call about getting an interview while at an interview. That's just weird. Can't really complain though. What with needing a job and all.

Saw Nightwatch this weekend. An odd Russian supernatural flick. Most reviews have been using the words "vampire" and "zombies" to describe the movie which I think is inaccurate. There were no zombies that I could see and while the movie did have vampires they weren’t the point of the story. The movie focused mostly on the struggle between special humans call “Others” that worked either for the light or the dark. All the Others have special gifts they use in their struggle. It was interesting but a bit muddled towards the end. Apparently the only movie to gross more money than Nightwatch in Russia is the sequel. Based on the first movie I’d give the sequel a chance just to see how the story turns out.

I would like to say "Hi" to Sam, Chrissy, Nick, and Kelly. I saw the movie with them and I don't get to see them often so that's alway good fun.

Please Ignore the Brains on the Wall

2006-02-27T13:59:00.000-06:00

Well I did get another phone interview and indeed my head exploded.
That's not good when you don't have health insurance.

I've got a first phone interview with a local school (no not that one) tomorrow afternoon and then a second phone interview with the previously mentioned big corp on Wednesday afternoon. This is strange and scary and I'm never quite sure how I'm doing during an interview. I think I'd actually be more comfortable during a face to face interview. At least then I can see expressions and body language.

My interview with the library went fine I suppose. I don't think they'll be calling me for a job though. They seem to be looking for someone with a lot of supervisory and customer service experience. I have some experience but they're not my strong suits. Ah well.

The wedding plans proceed apace. Things are getting done but there's still quite a bit up in the air. Not the least of which is the caterer. Apparently we're going to go with the first one we spoke with after all. Food for a wedding is ridiculously expensive. The sums they're asking for a gallon of ice tea are just stupid.

On a side note the Resident Evil games have never been particularly easy though they can be annoyingly difficult. I'm torturing myself with the shooting range mini-game at the current time. I can't seem to break 3050 pts. :p I do have to admit it's a really good game. Tough but not too tough. Nice graphics, good sound effects, and good music.
The control scheme can be frustrating at times. There's no strafing or quick dodge moves. Very Wolfenstein 3-D-esque in that sense. Just turn, forward, backward, and a quick 180 spin. You can't move and shoot either. My current combat technique involves drawing out the enemies and then running to a corner to shoot at them when they follow me. Keeps the head eaters of my back.

And Sometimes the Sun Comes Out Too

2006-02-23T21:34:00.000-06:00

Well I think I had a pretty good day. I think.
I got a phone interview with a big company today.
Just completely out of the blue. I was called up and asked if I wanted to do a phone interview later today. Just like that. Apparently I missed an email somewhere along the way informing me I had been selected for a phone interview. Oh well. I think it went well. They asked for a Word copy of my resume. I'm still waiting to here back about the job in my last post. If I get interviewed for both positions my head might explode. And to top all THAT off I have an interview tomorrow at the KCPL for a part time job. When it rains and all that.

I'm watching the Olympics right now. I love how badly the U.S. hypes up their athletes to be the "OMG Greatest Thing Evar!!!". It can't add to the pressure at all. Not a bit.

I'm thinking about getting some Guinness Extra Stout for the weekend. I feel optimistic and have a need to celebrate. Heh, nobody's even offered me a job yet.

A Thin Thread

2006-02-22T00:18:00.000-06:00

I got an email today. It inspires some hope. I'm responding tomorrow with crossed fingers and all the luck I can muster.

Margaret and I picked out tuxedos today. I'll be wearing a swanky mandarin collar tuxedo jacket with a vest and tie and the rest of the guys will be wearing double breasted notched lapel jackets with a vest and tie. A full vest too, which is nice since I hate those "bib" vests other places rent out. Managed to get a good deal on them too since we placed a deposit at a wedding show with the rental company. Slowly but surely things are taking shape.

51 Days Later

2006-02-20T21:10:00.000-06:00

Well here I am. 51 days without work. OK, I am getting really discouraged at this point. No calls, no emails, nothing except from recruiters. Pushy recruiters too. One just sent me an email asking for my resume so they could pass it on. Didn't talk about the job, or the firm, or the benefits, or anything. Not confiedence inspiring.

I called to check on a job today and was informed that my resume was never recieved. I did get a fresh copy to them but I'm still worried that everything else I've emailed out hasn't been recieved either. Essentially I'd have been firing blanks on a job hunt. Joy.

Not that I've been getting tons of calls for interviews anyway. I don't know what HR people want to hear but apparently I'm not saying it.

I wonder though, the Nelson is looking for people who can scowl at visitors that get too close to the art. I could do that. When you've had to chase guys away from the library for looking at pr0n telling people not to touch the exhibit would be a snap.

Library school is sounding really, really good right now.

Margaret got me Resident Evil 4 for my birthday which was very nice of her. Ironic too becuase RE4 is whole reason I got a Gamecube in the first place. I've spent more time playing games with friends on it than anything else so I consider it a good investment. The controllers are also much, much better than I originally thought.

And I would like to say that I had a lovely time with Robyn and Mike on my birthday. I know I'm not the funnest person to be around right now but I still enjoy their company.

On the Eve of an Event

2006-02-16T20:50:00.000-06:00

So here I am, on the eve of my 26th birthday, sitting on the couch with a blanket watching a rerun of Grey's Anatomy. It's cold. Our living room gets chilly quite easily. Christina Ricci looks really young since she got skinny.

I suppose the 26th birthday shouldn't really be much of an event. I've been closer to 30 everyday I wake up. And technically I don't turn 26 until sometime around 8:00 a.m.

I guess I was never sure where my life is going. It's still a bit up in the air I suppose. The expectation is that one goes to college, graduates, and starts some type of career. Well, two down so far. Still working on that third. Yeah, the whole job search has me feeling down. I'm wierd like that. I don't mind doing nothing but doing nothing for this long sucks. I like to work. I like getting up and having somewhere to go and something to do. The money doesn't hurt either.

I've put in for some part time library work. If I get that I think I'm going to take it as a sign I should go to library school. Do something different with my life. Forget the IT grind.

There is an outside chance that Margaret will get a 9 month internship in NYC. That would be awesome. I think she could do it. I think she could be successful in NYC. The thing is, if she moves to NYC for 9 months, so am I. I'm not spending three quarters of a year away from Margaret. Not to mention the fact that it's, you know, in NYC. I am also to understand there is a good MLS program at a college in Queens too...

Where We Are Today

2006-02-08T22:20:00.000-06:00

I think I'm going to drop the posting style I was using. With a cute title, a follow up first line, and a tie up at the end. It's sad I was posting like that on purpose.

So where am I now? Well, I'm jobless. Still. There was some...drama...regarding that job on my part. Let's say the least said the better.

I have been out of work for 39 days now. This bothers me quite a bit. I didn't expect to find a job right away but I was hoping I would. I've applied to several places but have gotten zero responses. I'm entirely uncertain if I'm going about this job hunting thing in the right way. It's getting depressing.

Coupled with that problem is the other problem that I don't know if I even want to be in IT anymore. The field has tightened up and matured quite a bit since I entered college. The heady days of the .com are far behind us, the industry seems to be finally shaking off the bust cycle, and things are quite a bit different. Gone are the days where having a bit of computer knowledge and the eagerness to work will land you a job. Gone are the days of plentiful PC technician jobs. Gone are the days of web masters who barely knew HTML let alone XHTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP, ASP, CFM, SQL, and who knows what else.

It's a grown up field. It's aged. There are standards, best practices, and certifications for just about everything in the industry. Companies now know what they want and who they want to get it for them. It's cut throat. Programming is becoming a line assembly job. Support is being outsourced to other countries. As far as I can tell in house hands on technicians are growing few and far between. It's all business.

I hate business.
Which is weird because that's what I studied in college.
I hate huge multi-national conglomerate corporate interests that control quite a bit more of your life than you think.
It's cold.

I think I need to go back to school. Get a grad degree in something completely different. Not computers. I'm not kidding when I say I've been looking at Library Sciences. I've got a meeting with the head of the Plaza Library branch to discuss public libraries, the directions they're headed, and possible career options. Who knows?

Right now I need to get some income so I can keep the roof over our heads and some food on the table. Do I keep trying for that IT career? Build up that resume and shoot for administration? Or do I get some part time job(s)? Cover the bills and protect the savings? Apply to grad school and sink myself even deeper into debt than I am now?

I don't know. I really don't know and it's very depressing. I managed to save a good chunk of change in the last two years but it won't hold out forever. I've got to get something going or I'm going to be stuck for a long time.

Shall We Play A Game?

2006-01-25T20:53:00.000-06:00

Not Thermonuclear War mind you.
Never play Thermonuclear war with the computer on the other end of the phone.
It only leads to trouble.
And tic-tac-toe games. Nobody wants that.

We're playing the waiting game kids. How do you play the waiting game? Give me a second and I'll tell you.

Turns out my evaluation went fine. I scored in the 98th percentile. I guess that's good. One less thing on my mind.

My interview was interesting. I arrived at the building and couldn't get through the security doors in front. One of the people that worked there let me in to the lobby. Had no clue what to do after that because there was no one else there and my instructions just told me to show up. So I stood there and waited. Eventually another interviewee came in so there were two people standing around in the lobby. Finally a security guard came down and took our names. Nice fellow. He called up to somewhere and a lady with a security pass came down to take us up to the work area.

The work area was a large floor filled with half height cubicles and some office/conference rooms around the outside wall. The lighting was less than optimistic. The employee clothing was jeans casual. I shadowed a fellow for half an hour and got to watch the job in action. Didn't look too complex but I could see why there was a three week period of training. Quite a few proprietary systems and procedures to learn.

The actual Q&A part only took about 20 minutes. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. The interviewers were nice enough, two of the managers or team leaders or something. I never quite figured that bit out. They asked me fewer technical questions than I thought they would. I'm not sure if that's because they had a lot of interviews to do or if my tech prowess was completely readable in five questions. One of them chatted with me about the company on the way back to the lobby. Maybe that's a good thing?

It's going to take the full $X/hr my recruiter initially talked about to get me in there. The environment was a bit depressing, the work seems mildly repetitive, and it doesn't appear to afford advancement opportunities. Partly this is my fault because I didn't set my sights high enough while job searching. The whole thing does give me some hope that my experience and skills aren't completely worthless.

Since intercontinental ballistic missiles aren't involved in this game I'm going to let it play itself for the time being.

An Unexpected Turn of Events!

2006-01-23T11:58:00.001-06:00

Leads to a paycut! Maybe.

The recruiter I was working with said I would probably be offered a job with Company Y at X number of dollars per hour at our interview. Fine I said X is an acceptable amount.

So the recruiter calls me a bit later and says actually Company Y is only offering a position lower than the initial one at X-2.50 dollars per hour. But if I interview well I might be offered the initial X per hour. "OK," I think to myself, "this can be salvaged. It sucks and X-2.50 isn't really a living wage right now but it can be salvaged."

Well the recruiter sends me an online evaluation to take so I can see where I have to brush up on my skills. The evaluation basically asked me every single question about everything I haven't done with Windows. For example: printers. Why do all the practice exams I see online just dwell on printers? At my previous job the printers gave us very few problems. Forgot they were there sometimes minus the occasional toner cartridge replacement.

Apparently though working with printers is going to take up the vast majority of my time as an IT individual so I NEED to know every little thing to do with printers and Windows printing services. Off the top of my head. Hop hop. Snap snap.

Of course it also doesn't help that in the last year I haven't needed to do a lot of tech support for general Windows issues. After we standardized the desktop image at work our support issues went way, way down. Which was nice but now I'm all out of practice. Being a jack of all trades really sucks.

I simply can't impress with a depth of knowledge when I've been task hopping for the last 2 years from desktops, to web servers, to file servers, to application servers, to Linux boxes, etc., etc. Everything I learn for one task gets tossed to the back burner when the next task comes around because they're all pretty different. Mastery gained becomes forgotten knowledge.

In any event I think I pretty much bombed the evaluation and now the recruiter is thinking: "Hmmm... not as good as I thought. Shouldn't waste time trying to get him an $X/hr job. I've got other people to worry about placing. $X-2.50 is all he's really qualified for anyway. Next applicant."

Of course I wonder if my experience really is only worth $X-2.50. That's what really bugs me. I did the best work I could at my previous job and I think I made some positive changes. Pushed the momentum of the Systems department in a good direction. I was also grossly over-paid as I understand now. And I was probably pretty stupid for letting that job go even if I would only have been at it for another 6 months.

I interview tomorrow at 3:00 P.M. It's an hour long. Half hour shadowing someone while they work, half hour actually interviewing. Thirty minutes doesn't sound like enough time to impress someone with my wide array of skills and knowledge that couple with my ability to quickly learn new technology. No sir, it does not sound like enough time at all.

I guess in the 20/20 hindsight even the unexpected becomes obvious.

Shhhh, be veawy, veawy quiet...

2006-01-17T11:10:00.000-06:00

I'm job hunting.

So it's been awhile. I've been out of work for roughly three weeks now. It's been ok I suppose. Lots of free time. Submitted my resume to a number of places. I've gotten a few calls. That's good. Better than last time anyway.

Did an interview that went well. It seems like a good place to work and get my feet wet as it were. Decent pay and much, much closer to home. Both very nice things. Way better than a 112mi/day commute. I may interview for the position again at the end of the week. And if they like me I'll start training really quickly too. Seems like things are moving quickly now. I haven't even gotten my last paycheck from the library yet. Wow.

I've rediscovered the joys of Morrowind on the PC. Have a bunch of nice mods installed for it along with the Tribunal expansion. Used computer games at EB are a good thing. Cheap, cheap. My 25th level Freelancer Alydr has some sweet Daedric gear now and I am a one woman army. ;)

At least it's not unemployment season.

I'm Semi-Evil

2005-12-17T12:21:00.000-06:00

I'm quasi-evil.

How evil are you?

I'm the margarine of evil.
I'm the Diet Coke of evil, just one calorie, not evil enough.

Dinner News Flash

2005-12-15T23:56:00.000-06:00

Update: The waitress' tip was saved by extra bacon. Wait time still far too long for dining in at 10:00 P.M. on a Thursday.

I'm home and stuffed. I don't go in to work until 10:00A.M. tomorrow. And I'm ok with that.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled hijinks already in progress.

I Am Blogger

2005-12-15T21:58:00.000-06:00

Hear me whine.

No post long time. Work really sucks right now because I'm doing documentation I should have been doing for the last 2.25 years rather than leaving myself nice notes all over the servers. I worked for 12.25 hours today. I shit you not. It sucked.

I am currently blessing free public WiFi as I sit in the CountryKitchen in teh 'burg and wait for my Barn Buster to arrive. The coffee is making me hella jittery. I just typed hella. Damn.

It's 10:00 P.M. I'm starving and I really, really want to be home in bed right now.
Where is my food I ask you all. Where? I'm timing the waitress. The amount of time it takes to get my food is inversely proportional to the size of her tip.

My battery is just getting worse and worse. I need to suck it up and drop the $140 on a new one so I can sit around places like this and abuse free Internet access. Pull down some huge Linux ISOs or something. Just suck up the bandwidth.

Real quick then, congrats to Robyn and Mike for surviving another year.
Congrats to Joe for getting 11 days of leave over Christmas.

I need to get really, really pissed drunk over New Years. Who's with me?

Hear me whine, in numbers to big to ignore.

Time Is Pretty Damn Hard To Kill

2005-12-02T21:03:00.000-06:00

But a good mocha speeds up the process.

Well I find myself sitting in Muddy's without a mains hookup again.
(Strike that, the cute barista just gave me a hookup. Wow, that was naughtier than I intended. ;) )
Ah, well it fits the day I've been having.

My boss is very cool about not working my like a dog even though I'm an exempt employee. Exempt basically means I'm exempt from the overtime laws in Missouri and I can be worked more than 40 hours a week. Why would someone take exempt status? It's usually associated with professional jobs that come with good perks. In my case it just means I can leave a bit early or arrive a bit late as needed. I always work at least 40 hours. Fair days wage and all that. When I do work over 40 hours or stay late my boss lets me bank some of that for later.

I had an hour saved up I was going to spend today to leave early. So what happens? I forget my damn wallet right before I get to Lee's Summit. So I burn my extra hour going home and getting into work late. To top that all off Jenny and Tom were gone today leaving me alone until Brandon showed up at noon. Joy.

Traffic was a bitch today. I don't know what the hell was up with 50 highway tonight but it was crowded. Must be a shopping night or something. Not once but twice people tried to zip through stop signs crossing my path. It's like they wanted me to t-bone their car at 65 MPH. Stupid damn SUV drivers.

Right now I'm killing time until Margaret comes home. Her plane was delayed in Salt Lake City because of, I kid you not, a broken windshield wiper. WTF? Is this plane made from balsa wood and fabric? Do the pilots not have electronic assistance up the wazoo with triple redundant systems? Just rip that bastard off the window and take the hell off.
She won't be in until 22:30 when she was supposed to land at 08:30. (Yes, that's 24 hour time. It's harder to screw that up with computers.)

Let's see, what else is going on? Well come January 1st I'm unemployed. Contract is up and I said I don't want to re-negotiate. 2.25 years of 112Mi/day is quite enough thank you.
I'm a bit more hopeful about the job search this time around. I've got some solid experience under my belt now and I'm hoping that will be an assist to a help desk or deployment position. It's a step down from systems administration but I still have dues to pay before I can become a Jr. Admin somewhere new.

Well I've just about killed the long wait so now I'm going to go dispose of the evidence.

I HAVE THE POWER!

2005-11-25T21:33:00.000-06:00

Scored the little table next to the mains outlet at Muddys. :)

The barista tonight is none other than Oliver himself. I think he's the owner. I know he does a charity walk every year for kids with cancer. He makes a damn fine mocha anyway. I approve.

I meant to mention last post that there is a secured login page for Blogger in case you're interested. At least I think it's secured.

https://www.blogger.com/login.do

I'm not entirely certain that gets submitted over HTTPS/SSL but I use it anyway.
People don't realize that information you toss into a web page, including logins, can bounce anywhere through the 'net. A properly place intercept can just sit there an collect that information. Or a compromised router can be used to replicate network info and toss it to an arbitrary location. The 'net can be a very scary place when you start to look at its inner workings and how hackers can abuse/subvert that infrastructure.

I always make sure SSL/HTTPS is involved in important transactions I make over the web. SSL encrypts data between you and where you're sending it. SSL also makes it harder to collect that data or spoof a legit site to collect your data.

Remember to "Look for the lock" when posting imporant data.

Well that's enough lecturing on Internet safety.

This post brought to you BY THE POWER OF SSL!

Livin' On Borrowed Time

2005-11-25T20:54:00.000-06:00

My minutes are numbered.

I'm at the coffeshop all by my little lonesome without a mains hookup. And my battery is a second hand POS. I might, MIGHT get 30 minutes out of it these days. But that's to be expected when you buy a cheap second hand laptop off eBay. This configuration also precludes the use of my USB opti-mouse. The battery treadmill is set to "SPRINT" with that peripheral plugged in.

Thanksgiving was good. Just ate once this year instead of trying to three times.
Visited with my folks at my grandparents in Independence. Ate half a roast chicken. My grandfather, a full fledged butcher for 46 years, taught me how to properly carve up a whole chicken. When Margaret and I attempted the feat a couple of weeks ago there was a carving disaster involved.

Almost missed Margarets relations when I got home. They had arrived late to dinner so they were early in leaving for home. I genuinely like the Spare clan so it was a fun visit. This also helps when you're marrying into the family.

Wow. Marrying into a family. That thought still messes me up.

Well the blinking battery is telling me that my time here is almost up.
Post ends in 5...4...3...2...

Look I Posted Twice In One Month!

2005-11-20T11:50:00.000-06:00

No really! I did!

Well Margaret is in Tucson now. I'm alone for two weeks. Phooey.
At least next week is only a three day week at work. And Wednesday will be a pizza party so no one will actually be working. The day before any holiday break at work or school is a complete waste of time.

I'm debating getting Civilization 4. You see I've "Just one more turn"ed away many, many hours of my life over Civ1 and Civ2. Recently I've pissed off my fiancée by staying up way too late to consolidate my hold over a non-existant world "just one more turn"-style. Damn you Sid Meier.

Only 21 more work days left! WOOHOO!

11881 other people got this result!
This quiz has been taken 35510 times.
33% of people had this result.

You are 'Gregg shorthand'. Originally designed to enable people to write faster, it is also very useful for writing things which one does not want other people to read, inasmuch as almost no one knows shorthand any more.

You know how important it is to do things efficiently and on time. You also value your privacy, and (unlike some people) you do not pretend to be friends with just everyone; that would be ridiculous. When you do make friends, you take them seriously, and faithfully keep what they confide in you to yourself. Unfortunately, the work which you do (which is very important, of course) sometimes keeps you away from social activities, and you are often lonely. Your problem is that Gregg shorthand has been obsolete for a long time.
What obsolete skill are you? brought to you by Quizilla

33%? 1/3 of the test takers? Depending on the number of obsolete skills that's either small or large. Can't decide which.

I promise I'll do something else with the blog template shortly. Maybe even today.
We'll see. Perhaps I'll post three times in a month!

New Look!

2005-11-03T21:11:00.000-06:00

With the Same Great Geek Flavor!

Well here it is, the new template. I've only been working on it since September.
Actually I've put maybe 10 hours into this template. And it still isn't done.
Let's call this a release candidate. Out of beta but it needs some polish.

I'm already seeing that my Recent Posts and Archives in the right hand side needs some work. And let me know if the drop down menus work or not. If you're using IE5 the menu bar will look funny. But that begs the question, why are you using IE5?

Really this design will work best in IE6, Firefox 1.0+, Opera 7+, and probably Safari.

I also need color suggestions. White on black is ok, but I'm thinking something with orange, green, and blue.

And it's still the same great price: FREE!

The Wedding Is Done!

2005-10-14T17:18:00.000-05:00

Long Live the Wedding!

Well one down and one to go.
Robyn and Joe's wedding was fantabulous if I do say so myself. I think everyone had a right lovely time. Robyn was quite pretty and Joe didn't try to run away so I think things went right dandy. Honestly I'm both very happy and a little bit sad about the whole deal.

So now there's just Margaret's and myself to get hitched and we're all set. Yes, Margaret and I are engaged. Seven years later we are the ultimate anti-climax. I'm only posting this because I'm reasonably sure my relatives don't have this URL and we already told Kristin. Love you Kristin!
We've tentatively set the date for the middle of May, 2006 but we'll have to see how it goes.

My job proceeds apace. I'm going to be leaving in December once my contract is up. My boss will probably try to negotiate to keep me there but I have a plan. My plan involves asking for a promotion with six grand more a year and a four day work week. With this plan I win either way. Just think about it.

I'm attempting to finish up a new blog design for this place but I'm having trouble with the color scheme. Right now I'm working in black and white but I want to add some life to that idea. We shall see, we shall see.

What else, what else? I'm still trying to talk Margaret into moving to New York City, but shhhh! I don't want her to know she's being massaged.

And the wedding is never really done anyway.

Better Late...

2005-09-16T19:02:00.000-05:00

Actually never can be a really good idea in some cases of tardiness.

Take today for instance: I woke up at 6:45. For those of you keep score at home that is time I SHOULD be leaving for work. It's also the second day in a row I've pulled that stunt. This is not Jackie Chan material.

So what's been going on in my life? Hmmm...

Found out I don't owe my bank account to the dentist. Just a sizeable portion of it to be delivered in small unmarked bills to trash can on the corner of Wyandotte and W 15th.

Found out I do owe quite a bit to my insurance company. This is what I get for telling the truth. Note to self: Lying to giant corporations is OK in the future.

I was glued to the whole Katrina mess 24/7 for over a week. It's just unbelievable shit like that could happen in the U.S. I don't blame racism, I blame stupidity. And Duh-bya, but that's a given.

I had the revelation that I drive far too much for work. Oddly this revelation hit me at the gas station. To whit I have dusted off my resume and resumed job seeking. The S to M business market in KC seems to be picking up IT wise which is good for me.

If you need a: PC Tech, Help Desk Person, Jr. Admin, Evil-Genius-in-training, or an IT bitch PLEASE EMAIL ME.

Oh yeah...Congrats to Robyn and Joe!

Crazy damn kids these days, getting married left and right. :)

But hey, better sooner rather than later.

Exclamation:Meatbags!

2005-08-25T18:27:00.000-05:00

That is a hinge, Master!

Statement:Assassination protocols activated.

Let's Kick the Smilies Bar In the Teeth Kids!

2005-08-24T21:03:00.000-05:00

Everybody at home join in!

Ok, so my last post read like a 5th graders essay on the War of 1812. (I got an A incidentally.) Let’s try something a little more coherent this time, shall we?

Anti-Spyware: How to Get Rid Of Common Computer Pests With Free Tools

There are many, many tools in the war against spyware. There are also many techniques for using those tools. I’m just going to touch on the basics in this post. Feel free to email me for more advanced malware-bustin’ methods.

1. Get these:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ - Ad Aware Personal 1.06r
Download link is towards the bottom middle

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html - Spybot Search and Destroy 1.4
This bad boy is a bit more aggressive than Ad Aware so watch what it tells you.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/default.mspx - MicroSoft Anti-Spyware
Wha, wha, what? I hear you say. Despite the MS moniker this is actually a good bit of software.
The only problem is MS is now making overtures to buy spyware producer Clairia (Gator); Not A Good Thing™

2. Update the Anti-Spyware software!

EVERY TIME YOU USE IT !!!11!!oneoneoneeleventy-eleven
New spyware comes out all the time so the anti-spyware software has to be updated to work right.

3. Run AdAware, then SpyBot, then MS Antispyware.

Now you don’t have to run all three, but when I’m cleanin’ house it’s the best way to go. And do thorough scans instead of quick or smart scans. Spyware hides everywhere sometimes. Running just one of these guys on a regular basis will be a big help too.

4. DON’T USE INTERNET EXPLORER!
Let me make sure you understand what I’m saying.

DON’T USE INTERNET EXPLORER!

Got that? OK. IE is quick to load, I know, and very familiar since it comes with Windows. The problem is that it’s full of holes and is known infection vector for spyware and viruses. I highly, highly recommend using Mozilla Firefox. http://www.mozilla.org Once you get some nifty extensions and phat themes from http://addons.mozilla.org you will wonder why you ever stood to use IE. And that’s not even mentioning the tabbed browsing.

5. Don’t download every little thing you see on the web or get in your email.

This is just a good internet survival tip in general.
First off downloading things indiscriminately is a very good way to get a virus.
Secondly many of those neat little programs on the web come bundled with spyware or adware. You see the folks that make those neat little programs often don’t make a lot of money from their work. So when the spyware makers approach them and offer the game maker fat sacks of cash money to bundle the evil, evil ads what choice do the program makers have? So you see that neat similes bar you’ve got in IE is actually grinning in pure, pure evil.

6. Be suspicious when stuff starts appearing in your browser by itself.

I don’t know why this doesn’t piss people off more. It’s happened to me exactly once.
I opened IE and suddenly there’s a search browser I sure as hell didn’t install taking up my screen real estate. That shit eats me alive. Usually when weird buttons, new toolbars, or pop-ups appear when you’re not browsing it's a big red light that you’ve got spyware.

7. Keep your Anti-virus up to date!

I’ll throw this in just for good measure. It’s great that you’ve got Norton installed on your computer. It’s not so great that its trial period or subscription for updates ran out in 1999.

Anti-virus software that hasn’t been updated recently is pretty damn useless. It’s not enough to have AV software it needs to be updated on a regular basis (twice a month at least) so it can stop all the latest pest running amok on teh Intarweb. Heck, I know of at least two companies that offer anti-virus software completely free!
http://www.avast.com offers a free version of their AV software Awil Avast!. All you have to do is download it and send them an email for 14 months of updates. And when that 14 months is up you just email them again for 14 more. Not even the cheapskates have an excuse with this one!

So those are, in very brief form, some basic guidelines for avoiding and destroying spyware. This shit is all over the web and comes with even the most innocent looking downloads. Its sole purpose is to invade your privacy, send information about you to a big marketing firm, and annoy the hell out of you with ads and spam. Do you really want someone looking over your shoulder every time you turn on your computer?

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle!

(Please don’t sue me Hasbro. kthxbye)

But I Like The Smilies Bar in Internet Explorer!

2005-08-08T22:04:00.000-05:00

Too bad it's stealing your personal information then, huh Timmy?

I loathe spyware, malware, adware, and all their ilk. The makers of this type of software are right down there with ambulance chasers and mega-corp CEOs in my opinion.Whoever writes this crap probably doesn't admit it to other people for fear of being lynched.

My distate of these forms of evil is great enough that I take many steps to protect not only myself but my friends and family from these digital diseases. I don't care to think about the number of hours I've spent cleaning and disinfecting other people's computers. It's got to be going on a few hundred man hours now. Spyware and all it's good buddies now have a completely different dimension of pain.

This problem was inevitable because all software suffers from bugs. Bugs can lend themselves to security holes. Bugs in networked software lends themselves to having your system "pwn3d" by a "l33t h4x0r". Bugs in spyware = a really neat way to steal private information. Woohoo! Privacy invasion AND the option to have my computer cracked! Where do I sign up?

Ok, enough ranting. What's happening is that some variant(s) of CoolWebSearch, one of the oldest and nastiest pieces of spyware, is sending your personal info to a server on teh Intarweb. Not just the usual spyware stuff like surfing habits, but personal information. Passwords, accounts, addresses, and even KEYSTROKE logging. Keystroke logging, in brief, is a program that logs every pressed key. Imagine that kind information being tossed to some server on the Internet. Just to add insult to injury this exploit turns your computer into a spam sending zombie. The articles I read didn't make it absolutely clear if the spyware itself or some exploit in the spyware is allowing hackers to do this to your computer.

This article at Ars Technica provides a good summary of whats been happening.

So how can one defend ones self from the onslaught of this kind of crap?

We'll show Timmy how to kick spyware in the balls next post.

What Follows Is A Test

2005-08-05T22:47:00.000-05:00

In the event of an actual blog post stay tuned for further information.

This is so cool...;)

Getting Out Of That Trunk Was Easy...

2005-08-04T22:47:00.000-05:00

Compared to the 200 commando trained battle chimps that were waiting outside.

Ok, I lie like rug. I have no real excuse for not posting. I've been busier than usual but not that busy.

So in brief work's been hell lately. I've been working late to get this backup project up and off the ground. I've gotten to a point where I can pause for a bit so I'm cashing in some comp hours Friday and taking Margaret out to a nice restaurant. To be truthful working after hours is kind of nice because I don't have phones, emails, IMs, and drop ins bugging the hell out of me all day long. It's quiet and I can concentrate on getting some work done.

I'm pleased as I type this tonight for a couple of reasons. To whit I'm posting from Linux. Ubuntu to be exact. Not only am I posting from Linux but I'm posting from Linux on my very own laptop. I love this thing. It's a Dell Latitude C610 I got off eBay from Dell Financial Services. P3-M 1.0 GHz , 512MB PC133, 30GB 4200RPM HDD :p, CDRW/DVD. I got a surprise too, it came with an open miniPCI slot pre-wired for a wireless card. I thought the miniPCI slot would be full so I'd have to carry around a PCMCIA wireless card but I don't. So I'm now typing this from the living room in Linux on my Laptop with built in b/g WiFi! w00t! Came with a bag I wasn't expecting either. It was like a gorram pinata in that box! (The wireless does WPA2 to boot!)

I would like to end tonights post with a shout out to my friend Scott and his lovely fiance Tracy!
Congratulations you two crazy kids!

Note to self: Always carry nailclippers for trunk escape. Carry uzi for chimps.

I'm So Tired

2005-07-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

I’m so tired I won’t continue to rip off this Beatles lyric.

I am so freaking tired of my job.
It’s not like the work is physically taxing but the sheer act of getting to Warrensburg and back every freaking day wears me out. It’s sad when driving reduces me to a hollow-eyed sleep walker. I need a new job is my mantra. Now I just need the time and energy to find one.

Since Margaret already summed up our New York trip over at the multicolored mythical beast I guessed I’ll just give you my own personal highlights.

Highlights:
EVERYTHING! (Except Jersey.)

The first night that I walked down 42nd street and into Times Square was simple amazing. It was crowded, it was loud, it was bright, it was a little smelly, and I loved every fucking bit of it. There were hordes of people everywhere going up and down 7th Ave, crossing the street, buying shit from sidewalk vendors, passing in and out of stores. OH MY GOD THE HUMANITY. Let me make one thing clear: New York City is filled with people. The humanity of the place breaks around you as walk down the sidewalk. It sucks you into its heart. I hate crowds and I loved every single minute in Manhattan.

Subways rock. It’s like an unsupervised theme park ride. Come to think, it’s probably cheaper than a theme park ride too. Manhattan is not a place to own a car. Period. If I ever have to deal with Manhattan traffic Insanity will be riding shotgun. That said between subways, taxis, and just plain walking I really didn’t see a need for a car.

Margaret and I spent most of our time just tramping around the city. Didn’t really do any touristy stuff and it was still one of (if not THE) best vacations I’ve had.
Manhattan didn’t just sweep me off my feet, it carried me into the bedroom, had its way with me, and I asked for more.

Well, after a nap anyways.

What Do You Wanna Do With Your Life!?

2005-06-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

I WANNA SLACK!

No I don't really. I don't want to rock either.
It has been established that I do not rock out.
Repeat no rocking out here.
And for the record, I still hate 80's music.

It's painfully apparent that I have slacked off teh bloggin.
I will rectify that post haste-ish at some point soon.
Essentially I've had a lousy time at work lately, I'm dead tired, and I'm eating way too much fast food. I'm shooting to improve two out of three. We'll wait to see which two.

For those of you holding your breath waiting for my retelling of our New York trip please EXHALE! Then inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Repeat as needed.
I'll actually be getting to that next post.
Promise. Really. No, seriously.

It’s getting to the point where I need to make some serious changes in my lifestyle and I’m grappling with indecision. I need to exercise. I need to get a better job. I need to decide if I’m going to grad school. I need to get a new car. My total life makeover has hit critical mass and fission is beginning to occur. My problems are starting to shed smaller problems which impact other small problems at high rates of speed which in turn create even smaller and faster problems. My lifestyle is in meltdown and the NRC is going to be called in to investigate. Someone is getting the sack over this and other people will get tumors. Just you wait.

This doesn’t even take into account other recently completed decisions that are beginning to take on a life of their own.
Oh yes my friends, what do I want to do with my life?

There are Songs for New York City

2005-06-01T21:07:00.000-05:00

But I'll be damned if I'm going to quote one.
Frank Sinatra’s song is a cliché at this point and Anything Goes sucks.
Besides, this is my Manhattan ballad, baby.

So I got to go to New York City.

Places to go before I die:
1. New York City
2. London
3. Dublin

WOOHOO! That’s one off the list. I may yet die a less rage filled man.

Let me preface this little recounting with some background. New York City, or at the very least, the idea of New York City has always excited me. The neat shit always happened there, tons of TV shows/movies were set there, and it generally seemed to be the coolest fucking place on earth. So you might say I was a bit biased going into this vacation. I’m very happy to report the Big Apple did not disappoint.

First off Margaret and I were staying a Days Inn I had picked out in North Bergen, NJ. It wasn’t too far from Newark Airport and right next to the Lincoln Tunnel. Since our friend Jon had volunteered to drive us into the city it seemed like an ideal location. It was cheap and convenient. Damn Expedia’s user reviews. Damn them. They were…optimistic about the hotel. Let me really kick this off with a quick description of Jersey.

Jersey sucks.

Ok, I’ll admit that was a bit terse. New Jersey really sucks. At least the bit we visited. Our hotel was nice enough. Clean and the staff were helpful but damn if it wasn’t right next to the barrio. Not that it really matters but it didn’t help our impression of Jersey. Jersey smells. And you can’t make left turns. The people there drive like they’re on crack down roads that were designed by people on black tar heroin. Suffice it to say we did not sight-see in Jersey and spent as little time as possible in the hotel. There, we’re done with Jersey. Take a deep breath.

Next post and we're into the city.

And then there were none...

2005-05-25T23:47:00.000-05:00

No more new Star Wars movies anyway.
And if the last (first?) three are any indication that's a good thing.

I've seen Episode III.
Unimpressive.
Most unimpressive.
It was bad. Just flat out bad. Worst of all six films IMNSHO.
There were brief sparks of hope in the funeral pyre of a much loved story but in the end the ashes are all that remain. There is one thing this movie has proven.
George Lucas can no longer write or direct.
He has good ideas. That's were things should stop. Maybe trot him and ILM out to do some few and very specific spiffy special CGI effects for a flick then send him back to his ranch to count his money.

Anyway I saw the show last Saturday with friends, Chinese food was consumed, monkeys were killed (mostly by drowning) and a good time was had by all.

On the work front I am a slacker whore. I’m taking not just one but two, count ‘em two, days off this week for my visit to NYC. Of course I’m also being allowed to spend many dollars on a new backup system. Which I will then have to install/configure. And I’m setting up a new file server. And I’m redoing the proxy server at some point next week. And I’m going to be deploying several new desktops + images. And I’m re-evaluating the use of Windows XP on the network before the summer is over. So much to do in so little time. At least I won’t be distracted by any more silly movies this summer. (What do you mean Joss Whedon AND Neil Gaiman have movies coming out soon? Sonofa…)

I Am Not A Rocker

2005-05-19T23:22:00.000-05:00

I do not rock out.

It's construction season here in Missouri. The striped barrels are overpopulated this year and just lounge along the roads. It's a constant battle between the barrels and the cars over habitat area. Occasionally we'll see orange vested highway conservation agents in the field but they don't seem to be having much of an impact. Hopefully they'll finally start selling highway barrel hunting permits this year but it'll probably get held up in committee. Bloody politicians.

I am fully living the XP eXPerience on the ol' home box now. (Damn I'm clever. I'd be in marketing if I didn't hate marketers.) Most of the important stuff (games) is reinstalled and reconfigured. I did discover that my DooM3 discs are b0rked. Not that I'm all torn up over it as half way in the game gets very boring. I am cheesed off that I spent fifty bucks on the game the day it came out. Then I had to return the first set because it was improperly stamped and the discs were MISSING ALUMINUM BACKING UNDER THE LABEL! That was annoyingly odd. Now the discs are fucked again and they look fine. John Carmack can suck on Quake 4.

Work is a total bitch right now. I've got three projects green lighted at the moment because I.S. finally decided to stop sitting on the software licenses. June is going to be a very, very busy month. I may fall prey to stress induced rocking out. Damn.

I Love the Smell of Silicon in the Morning!

2005-05-16T22:16:00.000-05:00

It smells like...well a new Dell really.
I'm deploying desktops at work this week.
There's something relaxing about working up a fresh Ghost, SysPrep-ing it, the going through the motions of putting the freshly imaged computer on someone's desk. It's Zen.
Actually it's a bunch of lugging of kit back and forth but I like it all the same.

Following tonights top story I think I need to apologize to Joe and Robyn.
Joe called on Friday night needing a place to stay. To be honest I didn't want company last weekend but I can't say no to a friend in need. (Indeed.) Last weekend was busy, the work week was "meh" and a brain dead weekend sounded good. Joe will be shipping out at some point and it's important (I think) we help them get time together. So I didn't make a fuss when Robyn came up to spend time with the b/f. The group had a jolly good time, mind you, but I'd been looking forward to a do-nothing weekend. I have to admit I was a bit of a male genitalia on Sunday. One man can only take so much Super Monkey Ball. In the end let me publicly say "I'm sorry." to Joe and Robyn for being an equine patootie.

In other news Shaun of the Dead is a bloody brilliant rom-zom-com. It was terribly funny in the theatre and even better on DVD because one can backup to listen to the bits one misses while falling off one's seat laughing. I give it five severed limbs.

And tonight’s nightcap story: A Guinness Extra Stout!

We rollin' big time now sucka

2005-05-14T01:08:00.000-05:00

Check it, foo! PimpZilla is livin' large, yo!

I'm so damn white I'm transparent.

So today was interesting.
Woke up to a damn nasty headache and a rainstorm.
Decided between headache, rainstorm, and Friday the 13th calling in sick was a good idea. Evil nasty headache that went from my forehead to my neck. Sucked.
The headache didn't abate until after 2:00 P.M. with medicene. :(
However, the rest of the day went well.

Ended up going with Margaret to happy hour at O'Dowds on the Plaza around 4:30. Had a Guinness. Margaret got buzzed on a Strongbow Cider. Wandered around the Plaza for a bit to work off the beer. While wandering around Barnes and Nobel met a guy who wanted to learn how to program. Hopefully I gave him some good advice. He was already reading an O'Riley's book on C programming which I will take to be a good sign.

Played Monkey Target with Margaret later and then went to Muddy's for a coffee.
Somewhere during all that I managed to back up my harddrive and wipe it so I could install my fresh new copy of Windows XP w/ SP2. Still finishing that litte project.

Joe ended up getting stuck late playing army boy so now he's camped out on the couch.
Played Monkey Ball with him too. ;)
He won the last game and beat my high score for 10 round target. :p
I do not worry though becuase in the I shall spank him like a red-headed stepchild next time. Thas right foo, I be straight-trippin' punk.

Papa Bristow Has A Swanky Cane

2005-05-11T21:46:00.000-05:00

I bet it's also a sword.

I was going to post a rant about stupid people speeding in bad weather but I think we can all agree we're sick of that topic.

I've been really tired the last few days. But that's normal.
I haven't really slept well since I started commuting.
Monday I'm fine because I usually sleep until noon over the weekend. By Wednesday I start to crash around 16:00. Mini-naps at work are a constant threat. By Friday caffiene makes up a large portion of my consiousness. I'm sure this will lead to a nervous breakdown at some point.

I'm not sure if it's the amount or the quality of sleep that's the problem. Probably the combination of the two. I usually wake up dead tired which is possibly a sign of sleep apnea. I should check out nose strips. Comfort and fashion in one adhesive plastic package. I would rock the sleeping shows at Paris. If anyone was awake to watch.

I hardly ever remember what I dream about either. It's entirely possible I don't hit the deep REM I need to dream. When I do remember what I dream about it's weird shit like all dreams. Example: Running through a pitch black city holding a rusted iron rod that has the potential to be the most important thing in the world. That is some weird shit in my book.

Occasionally I'll have deja vu moments during the day when I distinctly know what will be happening in the next few moments. Then it does happen and I remember I had a dream about it happening. I used to have a lot of those dreams as a kid. Unfortunetly my subconsious has yet to hand up some winning Lotto numbers.
My brain is a tease of the worst kind.

Not-so-stealth edit: I need to have someone implant a good spell checker in my cerebral cortex. The one from Office 2003 would be spiffy, thanks.

Beer log supplemental

2005-05-10T22:46:00.000-05:00

I would like to thank Joe for leaving 5 fine bottles of Guinness Extra Stout in my fridge after the LAN party.
This is indeed some fine, fine brew.

Mr. Cellophane

2005-05-10T21:17:00.000-05:00

I swear to $DEITY I turn invisible when I get in my car.

For evidence I point to the number of people that feel it's OK to pull out into my lane on the highway at a crossroads. I take it for granted people can see my car coming down the flat level road. Apparently I take too much. Slamming on the brakes because some nut-job in a rusted out-jacked up-POS Chevy truck decides to turn into my lane at the last possible second before impact becomes a certainty is NOT fun kids. I re-learn this two or three times a week. I can back that up with seatbelt burn.

I curse with surprising frequency.
I've got stop that at work.
People are noticing.
I blame my mother.

There's a fellow at work that wants to digitize 89,500+ pages worth of old books that no one's checked out in decades. He thinks it would be great if we had PDFs that were indexed with full text search in a database. The man hours spent scanning alone would probably drive one or two student workers to commit unspeakable acts of horror on random library patrons. Proofing may well cause their souls to flee in terror and leave their bodies an empty screaming husk.

Seeing as how the only good way to store these scans would be raw TIFFs, and seeing as how I don't feel like setting up, let alone maintaining, the storage, the database, the application server, and the web front end to do this so three people a year can read "Social Behavior for Young Men in the Emerging Industrial Age " from 1800 on teh Intarweb, I just need to explain the utter lack of benefit to all that effort in words he can understand. There may be none.

I'm going to go pull the server rack onto myself at some point.
Two birds, one stone and all that.

Your daily drive time aneurysm.

2005-05-09T20:40:00.000-05:00

Do they have categories on this blog?
I need to see if they have categories.
They need categories.
'Cause buddy this rants for you. Ok, mini-rant.

Why the fuck do people lose, oh, 100 IQ points immediately upon getting behind a steering wheel? Seriously I do not understand some of the shit people do in their cars.
Speeding through crowded traffic on a highway that can become stop and go at any given moment during rush hour sounds pretty damn stupid to me. I watch these people as they attempt to eat, drink, talk on the phone, scream at their kids, and swerve from lane to lane just to save the extra 30 seconds doing the bloody speed limit would set them back. Frankly, the cost in blood pressure alone isn't worth the trouble.

I've categorized these bastards. I've read Latin, given them names in a dead language, and arranged them phylum, class, order. I'd dissect them but I'd have to catch them first. The mental exercise keeps me from driving off a bridge out of sheer boredom.

I did see something amusing today on the way to work.

As I approach a stop light I notice I'm being followed by a very low, very curvy white car. It materializes in my rearview as a late 70s/early 80s Corvette. Being driven by a man wearing sunglasses, a NASCAR cap, and a Van-Dyke minus the Goatee. That's right, a sideburn mustache. I couldn't see his neck so I'll leave speculation up to you.

He stops the car just short of crawling up my exhaust pipe. (Is that a Deliverance joke? I'm not sure.) Since I'm waiting on the light I observe my furry faced friend while he appears to be singing along to what was either 80's flavor heavy metal or a very funny bluegrass band.

That's when I notice what was hanging out his ear.

Starting just beneath the NASCAR cap is a wire. The dude in the white Corvette with a sideburn mustache and cigarettes rolled into a t-shirt sleeve is talking on a hands free. Coming from a tiny midwestern redneck town this cracked my shit up.

As he passed me going up the on-ramp I shot the Corvette a thumbs up.
10-4 good buddy.

IIIII wanna sleep all day and party ev-er-ee night!

2005-05-08T03:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, the lyric is wrong on purpose.
Party is over. It was fun.
Tired now.
Sleepy.

(Aldous Huxley be damned. Betimes when revisionist art is a must.
Like when you put a stupid title on a post at 3 in the morning.)

Sex on the Desktop

2005-05-07T13:08:00.000-05:00

It's LAN Party time bay-bee! w00t!
Indeed, I am in for a night of low ping gaming goodness with people I can actually reach out and smack upside the head.
I'm ecstatic!

And what better way to host a LAN party than with new toys?
I'm staring at my latest computer acquisition right now boys and girls: ViewSonic VP171B-2
Please note the "-2" part at the end.
The "-2" is what differentiates this sweet 8ms LCD from it's older 16ms sibling.

This purchase wasn't spurred by pure want on my part.
Need raised it's head to convince me to part with my hard won dollars.

My previous viewing box was a 19" Sony GDM-400PS Trinitron.
It was very pretty. And very big. And very, very heavy.
My desk actually tried to thank me when I removed the giganto-tube. I found this shy giant hiding in the Mac monitor section of eBay for a very modest amount. He would replace my dead 15" Trinitron I also found hiding in the Mac pages of eBay.

I like to think they may have been related.

Recently the 19" beast had developed a "flicker" problem. The screen would randomly pop out then in as if I had just turned it on rather than been playing UT2k4 for several hours. Apparently this is a sign a capacitor (and CRTs have VERY large capacitors) is arcing to ground. It's also the way my 15" went out.

I was saddened when I recognized the status of my screen had gone from "’S Ok" to "Doomed". So rather than sit around and wait out the inevitable I resolved to be proactive. I could have opened the CRT up, watched for the arc, and then put non-conductive spray paint on the grounding point. But that would take effort and a deathwish. Unless you have an EE degree or a wish to die I wouldn't recommend mucking about with a caseless CRT. The results could be shocking on a variety of physical and metaphysical levels.

Instead I decided a replacement was in order and it was time to go LCD. I needed something that looked good and gamed well. Not an easy order for LCDs. While the technology has progressed quite a bit it's not quite all the way "there" yet, whatever coordinates being "there" entails. 8ms screens were hitting the market and they actually had a somewhat reasonable price point to boot. After trekking through the hardware review jungle I emerged holding the slim beauty that now adorns my desk. It pleases me. Playing UT2k4, DooM3, and Half-Life2 is like watching the screen, the game, and my computer have a three-way on my desk. It's a live video game peep show in my own home.

It's not perfect and the color reproduction can't touch my old Trinitron with a pole a country mile long but it suits my needs. It's far easier on the eyes over an extended period of time and also points out how ridiculously huge my desk is by freeing acres of real estate. It will even roll over on command to make reading long documents easier. So far it hasn't piddled on the rug.

Well lookee here...

2005-05-06T19:37:00.000-05:00

"Lookee here ma! I got's me a blog. Howsa bout that?"

All midwestern yokel aside I have to admit I've been taken in by the recent explosion of the "blogosphere" (for some reason I HATE that word).
Nothing if not a sheep in a very large herd, right?

I now feel relieved in my own nerdly way: I am riding the fad wave.
Now that I think about it, it's odd that so many things that were only a few years ago the sole province of the geek domain are now considered mainstream.
For example, video games. Low fruit there. It's not uncommon to see two or more consoles in a home these days.
Not that geeks have risen to the cool rank in the social heirarchy mind you, but we've definitely stepped up to "useful". :)

Anyway pizza is now here (Minskey's Chicken and Potato. Yummy.) and I'll work on this blog later.