Josiah International

I wish I was this cool!

2006-01-10T16:47:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm just too much of a geek, but I find this (direct link to a video) unbelievably impressive.

Yes folks, that's a scanner... as in the device that sits on your desk and magically helps you get your pictures and documents into the computer.

Major props to the guy who figured this out, or at least documented it.

Ok, this is kind of broken

2006-01-09T16:39:00.000-05:00

I noticed a really strange idiosyncrasy/broken system today.

I'm running Windows XP Professional, I'll use some screenshots to demonstrate what I'm talking about:

Let's say I'm connected to a network, in this example it's my home network, and I want to disconnect from it. I highlight it in the list of available networks and click 'Disconnect' in the lower right hand corner of the window. I get the following dialog box: (click to view full and escape the horrors of compression)

So I click 'Yes' - makes sense so far, Windows disconnects from the network and all is well.

However, if I get into the advanced properties dialog for this connection and then select the appropriate network and click "Properties" and then finally move over to the "Connection" tab, I see the following: (again, click to view full)

Ok, somebody explain this to me... according to my earlier choice I'm not going to automatically connect to this network anymore, and in fact it DOESN'T automatically connect to this network. So why in the WORLD is this checkbox checked?

Am I just stupid and misunderstanding this? (Not beyond belief) If anyone has a sane explanation for this - please, comment, I'm listening. :-)

Maybe it's just life with Microsoft products, eh?

This space intentionally left blank

2006-01-06T16:23:00.000-05:00

Well, maybe it was, I've resurrected this site, at least for now.
Maybe this is just a one-night stand with my blog, (uh, right) and I won't be back tomorrow, or ever, but I guess we will all have to wait until tomorrow, etc. to find out.

Ok, so I guess I'll try to run down a long-overdue update of goings-on.

When last we left our hero he was in his second semester at the local community college - taking 15 course hours, working through 11th grade material and working a 15-20 hour a week job. We find him now taking 7 course hours at that same college, continuing to work through 11th grade and blissfully rid of that job. This is his story.

Ok, I'll try to stop being so weird now, but it's probably not gonna happen.

I stopped writing on this blog simply because I was so incredibly busy. I've even started a few posts in the past months and been pulled away to work on something and left them incomplete. Perhaps that shows I can't finish a task, I'd say it just shows that blabbing in a public place is not high on my priority list. (... and Robert Scoble goes into shock. ;-) )

So, as far as school went this past semester I made it through all of my classes without major event, still carrying a spotless 4.0GPA, yay! Let's see how that holds up when I'm actually taking hard courses.

This past semester I was in ENG-111 and CIS-115 on campus - NET-110, CIS-130 and CIS-152 online.
ENG-111, a composition course, writing various papers, great fun. The teacher and the group of students in that class was really great, there was about a half-dozen homeschool students, so that always ups the quality of a class. *ahem*
CIS-115, Intro to Programming and Logic, once again a whole lot of fun, but this time due mainly to the instructor, I've had several courses with her and I make a nuisance of myself by hanging around her office a lot, she's sharp, really a pleasant surprise when I consider where I'm going to school.
NET-110, not too bad of a course, about networking, but taught incompetently. The course material was a Network+ training book, which I read and it was excellent, unfortunately the actual course didn't come close to the quality of the text. It was basically an English class, but with technology-related subjects. ("Write a brief paper on what WEP and WPA are and how to use them." I think I actually used the book IN the course once, it was all stuff I already knew. Heh.)
CIS-130, Survey of Operating Systems. Several flavors of Windows, OS X, Novell, Linux, not very challenging, but still a pretty good course, the instructor was nice and very accommodating when I accidentally missed a deadline due to sickness.
CIS-152, Database Concepts and Applications. A pretty good class, I actually struggled somewhat with this, I had trouble with a few of the concepts near the end of the course and at that time the instructor was busy with some other things they needed to be doing and was pretty much unavailable to help me. I thankfully still managed to pull out with an 'A' though.

My job, this changed a lot this semester. I got the new job late in the summer semester, working for a guy fixing Windows computers, it was OK, but as I said many times to friends "It's not bad, but I definitely won't be turning a screwdriver for the rest of my life."
Things went well there at first, I worked on computers, the boss managed and brought in customers, wizz-bang it all works out. But then in early September we started to work on the website for the business... hoooo boy. I built the whole ecommerce site to his specs in a few weeks and put it in front of him. He instantly became the "Customer from Hell"(TM), he wanted this different, that different some random thing that customers will never see different because he doesn't like the color, etc, etc, etc. This happened over and over again, I would build exactly what he requested and he would change his mind or add a feature that was "required." I don't mind big projects, I don't mind long projects, but I can't abide projects that will still be in the build stage when I'm dead. So that ridiculous mess hanging over my head started to really make life there miserable. In early November the boss finally came through on some things he'd been promising me since I had started working for him, which was nice. However things continued to go downhill, I was being asked to interface with customers more and more, and our clientele was... frustrating. I don't mind dealing with a competent customer who wants me to create with code what they can conceive in their mind, it's really a joy. When you're trying to troubleshoot problems on a Windows box over the phone with someone who can't use proper English (or even enough poor English that you can at least guess what they're getting at) and doesn't even know how to unplug their computer, well - it will drive you to the edge. My blood pressure has probably been permanently knocked up several points just working at that place.
In the middle of December I informed him that I wouldn't be back to work for him as of Janury 1, 2006. He begged and pleaded and tried to appease with various offerings of greater pay and the like.
But that wasn't the issue, the issue was two-headed - something he can't change and something else he can't change quickly.
He cannot change who he is, not in the foundational areas of his actions, methods and thought processes. And, in conjunction with that, he could not change the direction of his business and the clientele he was attracting and serving.
Both of those drove me almost mad working for him. This town lacks a really good computer repair company, and he's in no shape to take that place.
Even as I was walking out the door for the last time he was trying to negotiate my return at some time, asking me to give him a call if I had free time. This I agreed to, I have no problem with that, but then he asks me to promise that if I have free time I will call him and offer my time to him.. what in the world?? So yes, on my way out the door for the last time he gave me an outstanding example of why I'm glad I no longer work there.

So I'm now in the midst of the first time in almost 3 years (I reached the legal age to work in this state a little less than 3 years ago.) that I haven't actively been working a job with some firm of one type or another. Interestingly enough, I have yet to apply for any job. I seriously average approximately 1 job offer every 6 months. Not bad for a kid, if I do say so myself.
In a few weeks, once I get a gauge of how much work this semester is actually going to require of me I will probably contact one of the firms I left a while back - I'm reasonably certain they'd like to have me back to work there, and I enjoyed the job. :-) (I suppose this begs the question of why I left that office: I left for another job with higher pay and a closer location to where I'm living, going across town everyday was getting old.)

Break! My holiday break this year was pretty good, had a good time seeing family, etc. I also spent a lot of time studying random things I'd like to know but don't always have time to learn. Many colleges are now putting webcasts of various courses online, over the break I went through an entire course on XML and the first 1/4 of CS61A (A good course, I didn't abandon it, I'm still working through it. :-) ), both from UC Berkeley.

Today break ended, I had my first day of class, this semester I'm taking:
CIS-151 - Java Programming, doesn't start until Monday, I talked to the instructor today, he said it is absolutely *swamped* - heh, bet it'll be less than a dozen people at midterm.
ENG-114 - Professional Writing and Reporting, started today, seems to be a decent course, it's in one of the new buildings on campus, nice classroom.
ACA-111 - College Student Success, gag me.

I'm taking a relatively small course load this semester because I had a lot of trouble last semester keeping up in my homeschool work with so much going on outside my house, so I'm throttling back to try to get a lot of home stuff done that needs to be done.

This thing is really getting far too long, so I guess I'll wrap it up now. Dunno if I'll be back soon, guess you'll have to come back and see. ;-)

This just in... yesterday anyways...

2005-10-03T14:52:00.000-04:00

Confirmed: There IS such a thing as "too much studying"

I confirmed this one independently yesterday. (With a little help from my dad.)

After we got home from church yesterday afternoon I went straight to work studying for various things, college classes, high school work, etc. I worked on all of this pretty much nonstop until the middle of yesterday evening.

At which point I got out from underneath my laptop and books, and out of my chair.

I proceeded to wander around the house making "engine noises" (You know, like I was a race car or something.)
(Stop laughing, it's not that funny.)

My dad is standing in the kitchen getting something out of the fridge (Or putting something in, I don't remember exactly.) and he just kinda looks at me like I'm crazy.
I just gave up one of those "Yepp, I AM crazy" grins and explained "I think I spent too much time studying today."
"Yeah, I think so." He agrees, and shakes his head.

My brain had pretty much ceased functioning after the programming/English essays/Algebra 2/Chemistry combination I'd endured that afternoon.

Beware the dangers of studying too much!

Latest news from my world

2005-09-30T15:45:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm running the Build 5219 bits of Windows Vista (Codenamed Longhorn), good stuff, a lot of really nice eye-candy that's been brought in over the older Beta 1 code branch. I think MS has the potential to do good things with this OS. But it's still a race against time, and Microsoft has a tendency to lose those.

Also of interest: I'm involved in starting up a videogame development club at the community college I'm attending, I'll post more information on that as it becomes available. If this continues, we will eventually have a website, so hopefully I'll be able to pass that information along somewhere down the road.
All work with this club is purely preliminary at this point, we're getting a members list together. Then we're going to figure out the best time for us all to get together. Once that has been decided we'll be meeting and ~~arguing over~~ intelligently discussing stuff like which engine we will use, what kind of game we're going to actually make, etc.
If it works out the way we envision it (haha) it will actually be a pretty cool deal. :-)

RAM Upgrade! Party!

2005-09-25T16:39:00.000-04:00

As the title implies, I upgraded the RAM in my computer today... w00t w00t!

I bumped my Sony Vaio laptop up to 768MB over the 512MB I was running on. There's a noticeable speed increase, not huge, but definitely noticeable.

--

In response to Tom Major's comment on my last post:

I agree that Vista is going to be pretty incredible, and it is definitely going to be groundbreaking in some areas, but I look at it this way:
Look at how much faster the development cycle for OS X has been, they have been able to implement features in half the time that MS was promising to deliver them. (The "instant" desktop search is my favorite example of this, but there are others.) Heck, Google beat Microsoft on that one.
Microsoft has just gotten too big. What makes them so powerful is going to be their undoing, they have the strength to crush all the competition, but by the time they've brought that strength to bear the enemy has moved.
Right now I feel that (minus the massive user base, of course) Mac OS X is pretty much on a level playing field with what Windows Vista will be when it's actually released. That means that Apple still has a year and some change to to keep innovating, to keep advancing, Mac OS X 10.5 (Or maybe even 10.6, depending on how this goes.) will probably be out around the same time as Vista. That's two major versions from now. That's huge.

I think MS has the potentional to kill all the competition, but at their current rate it feels like they're going to show up after the battle has already been decided.

Another thing about Longhorn/Vista:
I know it's currently just in Beta stages, but right now the install process seems hopelessly broken... it's unbelievable the hoops I have to go through at times to get an install up and running.
I'm about to try to install the x64 edition again, because I really want to be able to run it.

Granted, Office 12/Office Vista looks like it's going to be simply stunning, let's just hope they don't kill productivity with impressive graphics.

I guess I'll work on that install now!

I switched mail clients... (Plus a whole lot of other stuff)

2005-09-17T13:08:00.000-04:00

OK, I’ve dumped Outlook. Yes, it’s a nice platform, but I’ve decided I don’t really like it. I’ve switched over to the open source (and, of course, free) companion email client to Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird!

I like Thunderbird because it is open source and free, and not only does that mean a good deal for me (can’t beat free ;-) ), but I like what I feel open source/free software does for the software market. Open source software encourages anyone and everyone to “jump in,” to add their voice (or their code, really) to any project, and I like that. If I decide I don’t like a feature Thunderbird, if it’s within my technical skill set to do so I can change or remove that feature in my copy of the program.

As an added bonus: Thunderbird is just plain fast. Yes, any of you Outlook junkies will say “but Outlook has so many more features, and this and that and the other thing” yeah, those are great, and I’ll admit that Outlook certainly has its place. But that place is not as my email client, at least not right now.

I’ve used Thunderbird in the past, but I drifted away from it when Mac OS X Tiger came out, because Mail.app was so well integrated into the OS and supported the new Spotlight feature so well, I instantly gravitated towards it. ( (Up until a few days ago I was using my Powerbook exclusively for email, for security reasons.)

This mention of Mail.app reminds me: Once again, Microsoft is ripping somebody off. I saw a video over on Channel 9 of an interview with the Outlook Express team. (They’re now re-formed as the “Windows Mail” team.) Ok, “Windows Mail” that alone is half rip-off, I mean, yeah, what else are you going to call it? But it still sounds all too familiar.
Also of interest is how much they’re trumpeting their new integrated search feature, it’s the same thing that Mac OS X Tiger already has… so when this comes out in late 2006 it will almost be a two-year old “innovation” and MSFT still thinks they’re being brilliant and original. It’s kind of pathetic, really.

I think Windows Vista (as this new OS is to be called) is really going to be the tipping point for Microsoft. If they can’t get their act together and put out a really good product, they’re going to have some serious customer defections. Especially if one considers the anticipated price tags on their various editions, I mean, from $99 (for what can barely pass as a completed OS.) to $999 (For everything, even the kitchen sink! <g>) (I think those were the numbers? I’d have to look it up…) to get a copy of a really useful OS you’re probably going to have to drop between 2-400 dollars, or you could just get Mac OS X for $130.

Wow, this has really turned into something of a ramble/rant, sorry about that. I guess I’ll go do something besides sit in front of a computer for a while. :-P

I (sorta) love technology

2005-09-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

We pulled into the driveway at home just now and my computer automatically connected to our network and I was online. I (sorta) love technology. :-)
So I sat in the car and finished the email I was typing then sent it, and now I’m writing this brief blog post, again, technology is awesome. :-)

I’ve been working on an eCommerce site for my office this week, it’s going very well, and I’m enjoying doing “something else” for a change. (Writing a website as opposed to turning a screwdriver, repairing PCs.)

On another note, I’ve somehow lost my Blogger for Word plugin…. It’s showing up as installed, but it’s nowhere to be found in Word. A mystery, but what involving Microsoft isn’t? Ha.

EDIT: Apparently it's something to do with Outlook that is breaking the toolbar. ~~I'm going to contact Blogger/Google about this...~~ /EDIT
EDIT2: It's a known issue with the toolbar... rawr. When you use Word as the email editor for Outlook (Which I do.) it disables toolbars. This is why I (sorta) love technology. :-) /EDIT2

Google Blog Search

2005-09-14T15:56:00.000-04:00

I signed in to briefly mention the new Google Blog Search and found that it had already invaded (in a good way, if that makes sense.) the Blogger back-end, very nice integration, Google! (Google owns the Blogger service, FYI)

Back from the library...

2005-09-10T16:48:00.000-04:00

OK, I’m back from my library excursion. I picked up several books.

The afore-mentioned title: The Cuckoo’s Egg as well as Takedown and Masters of Deception, I was hoping that my library had some of Mitnick’s own work, but if any of you know anything about the library around here, you probably predicted my lack of luck with that goal!

I’ve read The Cuckoo’s Egg and Takedown before, Masters of Deception is new to me, and hopefully it’s good.
I’d like to find some newer “geek” titles, I know they’re out there, I just need to go look them up… plus pay for them, no thanks to our crummy library. (They have NO selection of any worth, and are extremely slow at pulling in new titles, if you want a book, you have to buy it for yourself and your own home library!)

OK, what I’ve been doing for my own furtherance lately:

I’ve been working on coding problems. These can be found in many places online and provide excellent practice in writing code and thinking in a programming language.

Most recently I wrote a C++ application to decipher a folded cipher, a solution to the problem presented here.

That was fun, it took me about two hours, and I learned stuff! :-)

--

EDITED: for clarity on the library bit

Nothing to do?

2005-09-10T15:37:00.000-04:00

I actually have no assignments to work on right now.I'm taking 15 course hours at college and 11th grade. I have no assignments that require my immediate attention. This is unreal.

For those of you who noted poor grammar, etc. in the last post (speech-recognition): I know about it, I just left it up there as a testament to how good the application may or may not be, how far it has to come, etc.

I’m typing this, not speaking it, if that proves anything, speech recognition can be handy… but I type faster than I talk. Plus I talk fast anyways, and so that tends to trip speech-recognition systems up. (Sometimes even the most complex ones around, humans!)

So yeah, I prefer typing over speaking. I like speech for interface manipulation when it is advantageous to have a hands-free environment.

For instance if you could have a Bluetooth headset associated with your computer, wear the headset over your ear and from up to 30 feet away you could be issuing commands to the computer. (“iTunes volume up”, “go to the next track”, etc.)

Good stuff.

By the way, I’m writing this post in Word, and it will then be posted up to my blog using the Blogger for Word toolbar, it allows me to write my post in Word and then upload it directly to my blog, no intermediary copy/paste necessary, etc.

For those of you interested in such things, there’s a video up on Channel 9 with the developers of this add-in.

Back to education: (Sorry about the random jumping around here…)

These are the courses I’ve taken and I am taking at the local community college:

(Summer ’05, my first semester)
CIS-110 – Intro to Computer
CSC-139 – Visual BASIC Programming
CIS-172 – Intro to the Internet

(Fall ’05, current semester)
CIS-152 – Database Concepts and Applications
NET-110 – Data Communications/Networking
CIS-130 – Survey of Operating Systems
CIS-115 – Intro to Programming and Logic (Really basic C++ stuff, I’m currently attempting to challenge out of it.)
ENG-111 – Expository Writing (My only general college course, anyone care to guess my major? ;-) )

I’ve got A’s in all of them… but that’s not saying much, they’re all really basic.

I’m skipping out of here for a bit, going to the library, might as well do something besides sit at the keyboard all day.

I think I’ll pick up a copy of Clifford Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg while I’m there.

speech-recognition is an interesting application

2005-08-21T14:20:00.000-04:00

So I am writing this entry using Dragon NaturallySpeaking, it is a pretty good program, it naturally has its quirks, but like it.
For those of you who don't know what speech-recognition is, I'm currently talking into a microphone connected to my computer. Everything you're reading is not being typed by hand, but is being spoken by my voice and interpreted into the computer by this software.

So yeah, it's pretty handy.

At any rate, I have some other things to get to, so I will be back later.

Meet the new kid...

2005-08-14T20:46:00.000-04:00

My new computer. Plus junk on my desk.

You can't really tell in this picture, but there are neons in the case, one(blue) vertically along the back of the computer, and one(red) running horizontally along the top.

--

A (rather blurry) look inside the new case, you can see the lit fans pretty well in this one. :-)

Specs on the machine:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ overclocked to 2.03GHZ
1GB Corsair RAM
Dual 120GB hard drives (one came in the computer, I added a second.)
Radeon 9600 with 128MB of DDR on-board
8x DVD+/-RW (Dual Layer)
52x CD-ROM

I guess those are the basics, if you have other questions, ask the.
Also: I'll sell it to you if you make a decent offer, so feel free to do so.

I'm still alive!

2005-08-06T21:03:00.000-04:00

… or something like that.

Wow! It’s been a long time since I updated here. I AM alive.. I’ve just been very busy with a lot of stuff for the last month.

Since I last updated I have been doing a lot of work at my new job plus finishing up the summer semester at the community college, yeah, I’ve been busy.

When not working or studying, I can generally be found somewhere around town with some friends and a Frisbee. Try it, guaranteed fun time had by all. :-)

—

I’ve tried to take some pictures of the (damaged) Powerbook, but because of the shiny/reflective titanium surface, lighting that doesn’t go totally whack when you take a picture is hard to get. I will keep trying, but my first attempts haven’t gone so well.

—

Mrs A: Read your comment on my mom’s site, I’ll email you directly as soon as I’ve completed this. :-)

—

Ok, to segue back into school-related stuff. (Non-geeks can tune out now, if you wish.) I’ve had to/had the opportunity to (depends on how you look at it, I suppose.) write some (I think) pretty cool code recently.

I took a class this summer on Visual Basic .NET, there were 8 assignments total for the semester, plus mid-term and final. The first 6 assignments were pretty simple, just read the corresponding chapter(s) in the book and do some basic coding, not mindless, still mentally stimulating, but not too challenging. Well, the last two assignments changed that, completely. He introduced code requirements that were totally outside anything in the course material thus far, I was left floundering trying to guess how to perform some necessary functions to complete the code.

Thankfully, he(my instructor) called a meeting on campus and explained some concepts needed for the two assignments, this helped a lot, and I coded up both of them in an afternoon.

I think I’m going to insert some screenshots of the programs and explain what they do, I don’t know how interesting this will be to any of you, but here goes:

The first, DollarAmount, takes a word that the user inputs and calculates the dollar amount of that word, the dollar amount is calculated by taking A=1, B=2, C=3… Z=26 and adding the value of the letters together.

(Pardon the poor screenshot quality, silly JPEGs.)

Private Sub btnCalc_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnCalc.Click
' setup the necessary variables...
Dim strWord As String = txtWord.Text ' send the value of our TextBox to a string
Dim intCounter As Integer = 1 ' initiate a counter for our loop count
Dim intValue As Integer ' initiate a variable to hold the 'value' of the user's word
' the real 'meat' of the code, does the actual work...
For intCounter = 1 To Len(strWord) ' loop for each letter in the word..
intValue += Asc(UCase(Mid(strWord, intCounter, 1))) - 64 ' add up intValue
Next ' loop...
lblAmount.Text = intValue ' set the text of our output label to the value of the word
End Sub ' btCalc_Click

(Pardon the poor indentation, the code I turned in was correct, this blog-post editor isn’t very good.)

(Anyone here know why when that loop repeats, it automatically increments intCounter +1? I can’t figure out why VB .NET does… *shrug* Microsoft is weird.)

The concept behind this application seemed impossible, at first. Well, not impossible, but like I would have to write dozens or hundreds of lines of code, with many, many nested If statements. Not fun. However, a nifty trick about ASCII text was brought to my attention. That ‘nifty trick’ is this… a capital ‘a’ is given the value 65 on the ASCII table, capital ‘b’ is 66, and so forth, on to capital ‘z’ is 90, so, what happens if you subtract 64 everytime? A=1, B=2… Z=26. :-D

So, in one line of code, I could write a function that would get the ASCII value of the uppercase version of the given letter, subtract 64, and *bing* I was in business.

Sorry if I didn’t make all of this very clear, I’m just randomly spouting what’s on my mind. (Yeah, bad idea, I know, sorry!)

—

The second application: FileIO – works with input and output to/from files.

I’m not going to post up the code for this one, but I will include some screenshots and explain how it functions. This assignment built on the DollarAmount application with some added functionality and a different focus, as you shall see.

Load up the application and click ‘Click Me’, (I write for function, not aesthetics, sorry.) this File Open dialog presents itself:

(Click for larger view.)

Click on ‘Open’ and the application parses the file and throws back all kinds of entertaining output:

On the right side we have a box that lists all “Dollar Words” the value of these words has been determined to be ‘one dollar’ (By using the formula demonstrated in the code in DollarAmount)

This application also ouputs how many words it read, how many ‘dollar words’ were found, the average value of all the words, the longest word found (Yes, it’s running OUT of that textbox..), the value of said longest word, and the text and value of the shortest word found. (This last function is obviously kind of broken, because any single letter is going to be a very short word. This is not a bug however, the code is working as designed, if someone passed a file without short words, it would still list the shortest word amongst them.)

At any rate, I got an ‘A’ in the class. :-)

—

Ok, I think that may be about it for this (long overdue) update. Have a good night all.

Oops

2005-07-12T09:08:00.000-04:00

When I got to work this morning I started pulling my Powerbook G4 out of its sleeve... and it slipped out of my hand and fell on a stack of motherboards. (Don't laugh, I work at a computer repair shop, heh.)
It wasn't a long fall, at all. So internally all is well.
Unfortunately, the metal and silicon of a motherboard does not-so-pretty things to the outside of an Aluminum computer. The back of the display now has some nice lil gouges on it. Meh.
This is only the second time in my life that I've dropped a computer. Wow.
I'll be getting some pictures of the damage when I get home.

2005-07-10T18:42:00.000-04:00

Apologies to all that it has been so long since I posted here. (Or should I be apologizing for tormenting you with more senseless content?) Life started happening on me. Heh.

Stuff started piling up, new job keeping me busy, midterm projects and papers and just a bunch of random stuff happening.

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. A lot.

Start by updating on the computer situation(s).

I’ve installed my mom’s hard drive, all seems to be running as expected now. Hopefully that will keep it in working order for a while to come. There are some programs left to be installed, (School curriculum, etc.) but that should all be taken care of in short order.

…

Now… for the PNY debacle. More headaches there. I don’t even want the replacement card anymore, my brother went and bought himself a new one. Now I’m just going to get a hold of a ‘service’ representative and not let go until they agree to some sort of restitution for the chunk of my life they’ve stolen.

That’s the theory anyways.

Three days after my last post a guy from PNY called me back, in typical form, I wasn’t home. I called him back about an hour later and got their answering system. Left him my name and number and synopsis of who I was, etc. Have yet to hear back from him. This is ridiculous.

…

I spent most of Thursday hunched over either computer or radio devouring every tidbit I could about the bombings in the London underground. Very unfortunate happening. :-(

For news coverage of this (and any other item), I’d recommend you check out WikiNews. Awesome site, I love community efforts, I’m part of this one, I’ve created a few articles and edited a few more, and I’ll try to continue to be active.

…

For some more geeky news:

Microsoft has reportedly been distributing invitations to check out Longhorn Beta 1 to their best beta testers. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one. Let’s hope it’s as good as it’s hyped up as being.

…

I have to get out of her for a while, later.

2005-07-05T16:34:00.000-04:00

My mom’s hard drive came in today, and I installed it. Still running the recovery. Let’s hope this fixes everything.

—

Got an email from PNY today:

Please give me a call at <phone number> to resolve this issue

Regards
Rafael
PNY Technologies

Tried to call him, got an answering service. Hopefully they’ll call me back.

2005-07-04T16:49:00.000-04:00

Happy July 4th! I’ll be going out to the fireworks this evening, those of you who know where I live, and where that will be, feel free to show up and look out for me!

—

I'm going to give PNY until Wednesday to either call me back or respond to my email, and then I will be contacting them again.

More updates on that as needed.

—

Google Earth is amazing, and slightly disturbing. Check it out.

—

I’ll edit this if I think of something more post-worthy.

Hello? Anybody home?

2005-07-02T09:48:00.000-04:00

I just shot this email to PNY technical support:

[The box here said something like “Describe the problem”]

Problem? The problem is your 'customer service'. I need an RMA completed on a 128MB SD Flash Memory Card, and I can't get it.

This started last week, I called and was left on hold for 45 minutes, I was finally sent to a voice mail line, when a technician called back, I was out of the house, he left a message, I called him back, left him a message, and never heard from him again.

I decided to try again.

I spent 35 minutes on hold yesterday, waiting to get through, someone finally picks up, he puts me back on hold for 15 more minutes, when he answers again he goes through and gets all my information and then tells me he's going to "send this RMA request through, and then call [me] back in 20 minutes."
He read back my telephone number to me, so I know you have it on file correctly.
I waited by the phone for 8 hours, and never heard back from him.

To top it all off, you've made this email form very difficult to find, I actually had to use Google to find this, your own site was no help.

This is one of the worst 'customer service' experiences I've ever been submitted to.

I'm still waiting for my RMA number so I can have this replaced.

I'm afraid you've lost at least one customer, and probably more than that, I've been blogging this:
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]

I'll be blogging this until it is resolved.

Regards,
[My name, phone number and email address, which I summarily edited for privacy reasons]

It's all a waiting game..

2005-07-02T09:22:00.000-04:00

I think the theory behind’s PNY’s ‘customer service’ goes something like this:

“We will offer a lifetime warranty on every product we sell, then we will make it so hard to make a claim on this warranty that 99% of our customers will just give up and go buy a replacement.”

PNY isn’t the only company doing this… but they’re the one I’m struggling with at the moment.

PNY: I will get my replacement product, and you will be providing it, and it will be provided at no cost to me. (And, yes, that includes shipping, I’m not going to pay shipping on a ‘free’ replacement product, that’s ridiculous.) That’s what ‘lifetime warranty’ means, and if you’re not willing to comply to that standard, then don’t say that you are. At this point I’m going to hound you with phone calls and emails, get my replacement and then never buy another PNY product.

Up until this point I have been pretty satisfied with your products, they really are pretty decent, but if you’re going to give me such a hard time just to get a replacement for an SD Flash Memory card, well, that’s fine, you obviously don’t need my business.

I hope you’re satisfied, you’ve lost a customer.

Quick update...

2005-07-01T15:20:00.000-04:00

In this post I talked about my mom’s computer crashing…

This is the second time this has happened in the last month, and I’ve had Sony dispatch a new hard drive, hopefully that will fix the problem, more updates as that progresses.

…

I still have not heard back from PNY (See previous post.) It’s been an hour and a half, and counting.

—

I started to blog extensively about Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor leaving the bench, but I backspaced it. If you’re interested though, check out the online coverage.

—

Another thing I really like about BlogJet: it’s actually much faster as far as publishing/editing goes then the Blogger.com backend that they provide to their users. This really makes me giddy with happiness, that was the only thing I disliked about Blogger.com… the slow interface. So… w00t w00t for BlogJet!

Still no call from PNY, not that I’m expecting one anymore.

…

OK, so now I’m closing on 2 hours since I was promised a call back within twenty minutes. I’m really vexed with PNY, really, really vexed.

This takes the cake..

2005-07-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

The big ol’ “Worst Customer Service Experience” cake that is…

At this point I’ve been on hold with PNY Technology for over half an hour, and still haven’t spoken with a “Customer Service Representative”. This canned voice comes on the line every five minutes suggesting I “Press 0 to leave a message.” I refuse to. I absolutely refuse to let their system shunt me away from actually getting some service.

…

Someone just picked up, he’s “finishing up with someone else, and [he]’ll be right with [me].” ‘Bout time. 35 minutes on hold, and right back there again. What a saga. All I have to say is that when I do talk to him, he better remedy this situation* quickly.

…

Ok, just spoke with the representative, he’s issuing an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorisation) on the card, and he’s supposed to call me back in less than 20 minutes.

…

In other news, I’m now using the excellent BlogJet blog publishing tool, it works with many different blogging services (Check their site for a complete list.) and is a nice lil WYSIWYG text editor + publishing/editing tool. Excellent application, major props to the developer.

…

Sorry about all the spacing out, I’ve written some of this off-line and some online.. Microsoft Windows memory ‘management’ is the devil, I’m sorry to be so blunt about it, but it just is. I got so frustrated with my Windows XP laptop just now that I shut it down, closed the top and switched over to my Powerbook. I figured I’d better get away from it before I tried to re-program it with a very large axe. Which reminds me, on my way to work today I ended up behind a light-blue Mitsubishi Eclipse with a “DNTPANIC” custom license plate and a “If you don’t like blogging, try crying yourself to sleep” bumper sticker (Which I can’t find anywhere online, for some reason). Obvious geek, I wonder who it was.

…

It’s been over an hour now since I was promised a call back in twenty minutes, I’m so annoyed at PNY right now. Anyone reading this: I’d advise not buying any more PNY products. If they can’t even provide the most base level of customer support, then they don’t deserve your business.

—

*My brother’s 128MB SD card has died, it’s stuck in “Read-only” mode, rendering it practically useless.

2005-06-30T21:47:00.000-04:00

That's pretty spiffy. Both the animation and the product!

As a reminder to do your backups...

2005-06-30T17:30:00.000-04:00

... my mom just lost everything on her computer.

I tried booting from Knoppix and checked out the hard drive... nothing, nadda, zip. Man...

Re-installing from the recovery disks now. This is not good, not good at all. I'll be spending this evening re-loading applications n such.

And I'll be backing up once a week from now on. Meh.

2005-06-28T09:58:00.000-04:00

This was me yesterday:

Technically I still have geometry to work on, but that was assigned late and hence I have a month left still working on that. *sigh*

But the main portion of the work is done, all the papers are written and submitted, and I can sit back and semi-relax. w00t!

Random note: the factory-state restore process on HP computers is really well implemented, just press F10 during boot up (before it hands off to the operating system, but you knew that ;-) ) click a few self explanatory dialog boxes, and it does a non-destructive OS restore, meaning that everything is back like it was brand new... AND all your programs, files, desktop icons, favorites, etc are still there! It's really nice. Yeah. Otherwise, HP, ick! But nice to know when it invariably breaks it will be easy to fix. ;-)

2005-06-24T17:27:00.000-04:00

This is a paper I wrote recently for one of my computer classes. Thought I'd post it up here, because what I wrote holds true throughout the digital world, not just in this case study.

The strengths and weaknesses of four major web browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer: Its main strength is nearly universal page support. There are so many users on IE out there that most web developers are still writing for that browser.
Its main weakness is that, because of that large market share, the majority of malware exploits are targeted at the Internet Explorer browser. These days, opening IE is like opening the door for viruses, trojans and various other malware to walk right in.
Also, Internet Explorer platform support is basically limited to the Microsoft Windows operating system at this time. There was support for Apple’s Mac OS and MacOS X in the past, but development in that area has stagnated. Though not surprising, this browser is completely closed source, no access to the code for outside developers.

Mozilla Firefox: Firefox has many great features; added security is this browser’s primary advantage over the Internet Explorer series. It also sports tabbed browsing, something else lacking in IE, a very handy feature allowing a user to view multiple pages in the same window. Possibly the biggest jump Firefox has on any of these other browsers is the fact that the software is open source, allowing anyone to view and edit the code behind the application. Firefox is also available on almost any platform, all versions of Microsoft Windows, Apple’s Mac OS X, and all flavors of *NIX.
One of Firefox’s weaknesses is that a majority of developers have not checked or built their sites for Firefox compliance. While not necessarily a problem, this can sometimes result in pages looking jumbled at best and simply indecipherable at worst.

Netscape Navigator: As of the latest major release, 8.0, Netscape has gained a significant advantage over the rest of the browsers available: it now supports both the IE/Spyglass and Gecko (Firefox, etc.) rendering engines. Typically one will default to the Gecko engine, as it generally renders pages at a significantly better speed than IE. However, if a user has a problem rendering a page in Gecko, he can switch to the IE engine with two clicks of the mouse. Also, as in Firefox Netscape includes support for tabbed browsing.
One of the weaknesses of Netscape is that, unfortunately, the browser is now owned by AOL. There are reports of various types of spyware being bundled with this browser. Also the problem of the browser being closed source, and hence not available for inspection by the community.

Opera Web Browser: Opera brings to the table excellent accessibility, great keyboard shortcut configuration, very high security, high W3C standards compliance, and a pretty quick rendering engine (‘Presto’). They are also in continual development of a pretty impressive mobile version of their browser (For PDAs, smart phones, etc.) All-in-all, this is a very sound browser package, with a surprisingly low market share, considering its features and cross-platform availability.
Unfortunately, Opera buries all this in a pay-or-be-nagged package. You can buy the full version, or be stuck with a rather annoying banner ad permanently in the browser window. Again, like Netscape, this software suffers from being closed source.

With its excellent security features, cross-platform support, high usability and excellent price point (Free!). I would have to recommend Mozilla’s Firefox web browser for this environment. The basic operation of the browser is highly intuitive and quickly picked up. As a result of the exploitation of browser flaws, it is probable that the cost of IS/IT will actually go down after the adoption Firefox (Assuming the current primary browser is Internet Explorer).
With the adoption of the Firefox web browser you will see greater productivity thanks in part to many factors, including, but not limited to the following: the Gecko rendering engine is consistently faster than the IE rendering agent, dropping the amount of time you spend waiting for that page to load; your staff and student will spend less time worrying about/cleaning up after malware infections. The Firefox browser is immune to many, many of the exploits plaguing Internet Explorer these days.

I would reject the other browsers for various reasons, primarily: they are all closed source, that means you have no idea what that company is running on your computer, any one of these could be reporting all your data back to the developer. (Not saying it’s happening, just saying it’s plausible.)

Opera would be an excellent choice; unfortunately I find that ad in the free version to be too much of a nag to deal with on my day-to-day browsing habits. I also assume your group would not like to purchase a license for every user on campus.

Internet Explorer is completely out of the question, it’s a security problem sitting on every Windows machine waiting to go off. Security issues, coupled with complete lack of cross-platform support put this browser out of play.

Netscape seems to be a very sound browser, the dual rendering engines in the latest version are a brilliant innovation. I cannot, however, recommend this browser. Mainly for complete lack of cross-platform support, you can’t have all of your faculty and staff trained on a Windows-only browser, what happens when you bring in an Apple box, or some *NIX machines?

Firefox solidly out-performs all competition in this assessment; it is fast, secure and easy to use. Add support for a wide range of operating systems and you have the ideal candidate. That ideal candidate, in this case, is Mozilla Firefox.

List of Features for Improved Browser:

If a firm were to try to develop such a package, I would recommend building on the existing Firefox code. Additions include, but are not limited to:

-- Attempt to add an IE-type rendering agent, for help with buggy pages. I am not sure of the feasibility of this, due to the closed-source nature of that rendering engine. It would, however, be a nice addition.

-- Added web-standards compliance

-- Add more media support, certain media files do not play at all, or only display correctly when they feel like it.

-- Flash support in the Mac OS X version of Firefox could use improvement.

-- Add an HTML editor to the software package. (Such as is included in the Mozilla Suite)

The primary issue with adding these features, however, is that they quite often result in code bloat. You have to trade off build size for features, it’s inevitable.
I think most of these features are feasible, and would not take TOO much effort to put together.

2005-06-24T12:57:00.000-04:00

~~Temporary new look while I iron out some page formatting issues with the other one. Pardon the goofy links on the right, etc.~~

By apparently popular demand, I'm keeping this look, at least for now. I've imported all my links on the right side and added my comment code.

I can think of nothing else to say, and I have a lot of papers to write. I'll get back to you all later.

Interesting stuff...

2005-06-22T19:15:00.000-04:00

EDIT: What in the world is up with this? Seems to be a whole lot of extra space here for some reason.

I sold my car today.
If you see a guy around here in an 89 Ford Taurus GL, just point, laugh and yell "SUCKER!" at him.
I told him about the AC compressor going out, he seemed to not care. I guess he'll care when he's cruising down the highway and the belt blows out and renders the car useless.
His funeral. Heh.

In other news, I got a phone call just now offering me a job with a computer repair company here in town. I'm going in to meet with him tomorrow, and I'll know for sure if I have the position. Won't be mountains of money, but I get the impression it will be more than I'm getting now. Always good. ;-)

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US spy plane crashes in SW Asia

2005-06-22T09:31:00.000-04:00

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US spy plane crashes in SW Asia

The BBC is reporting that a US U2 spyplane has crashed in "Southwest Asia" - a well-known military euphemism for the Middle East.
At this time the pilot has been confirmed dead, but the location of the crash has not been revealed due to "host nation sensitivities."

I'm looking everywhere for more on this, let you know what I can find out.

UPDATE: Apparently this plane was flying "in support of Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan. So where was the crash? India? Pakistan? I'm betting Iran.

UPDATE2: Nothing much new to report in the last few hours, the US military has not released any more details on the pilot's name(pending next-of-kin notification) or the location of the crash(host nation sensitivity). The only thing I have to add is that the plane was apparently en route back to it's base, the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.

Deer Park Alpha 1

2005-06-20T12:21:00.000-04:00

I'm running the Alpha version of what will become Firefox 1.1, currently codenamed "Deer Park" (Here at Josiah International we ask the nagging questions, such as: will Firefox 1.2 be codenamed 'Aquafina'? Inquiring minds want to know!)
It seems to work pretty well, fixes a few sites, breaks a few more. Has some very interesting new features, check out the list here.

I also like what they've done with the preferences window, seems a little more user friendly. (After all, that's what it's all about these days, right?)

It's currently only available through Mozilla's FTP server. If you don't what that is or how to get to it, you shouldn't be running this build. It's developers only at this point.

I'll post more as I know more.

To market, to market...

2005-06-18T22:28:00.000-04:00

... to post an over-due update.

It has become a habit of mine to only post an update when I have update-worthy material. (Update-worthy in my eyes, no comments from the gallery on this one!)
Considering that my life in the last week or so has basically consisted of schoolwork, computer fixing, schoolwork, fixing more computers and doing more schoolwork. The finer points of my English papers would probably bore the majority of you to tears, and discussion of corrupted hard drives would probably lend you no great humor either... So, I have abstained from posting.

I received some(read: much) negative feedback on my previous post. Words to the effect of "Macs suck", etc.
I'm sorry, I just absolutely will not stand for such things to be said about such an incredible combination of hardware and software engineering. I have said before, and I still maintain, my Powerbook G4(Aluminum, Firewire 800, 1.25GHZ PowerPC, 1GB of RAM) is one of the nicest computers I've ever used.
However, for those of you who still persist in your savage thinking, please read the following articles:

Return of the Mac

"All the best hackers* I know are gradually switching to Macs. My friend Robert said his whole research group at MIT recently bought themselves Powerbooks. These guys are not the graphic designers and grandmas who were buying Macs at Apple's low point in the mid 1990s. They're about as hardcore OS hackers* as you can get.

The reason, of course, is OS X. Powerbooks are beautifully designed and run FreeBSD. What more do you need to know?"

Lessons from the Future -- What Are the Alpha Geeks Telling us Right Now?

This article covers more of the finer points of the justifications in the hacker* community for this switch.

--
* Please note that for the purposes of this post, we have considered the following information:

The media likes to use the word "hacker" to describe someone who illegally breaks into computers, security systems, phone company databases, and child-proof containers, when they should, by definition, be using the term "cracker" which is someone who uses their skills with computers for illegal and immoral purposes.

Now, with the constant use of the term "hacker" by the media and those not directly involved with computers, it has become the term in standard use by popular culture to describe geeks who are very naughty with computers. Some people are very annoyed and displeased by this.

In plain English: "hacker" doesn't mean illegal, it means more like guru. A software hacker, in my book, is someone who can sit down at a keyboard and throw together fixes for whatever problem they face, on the fly.

2005-06-16T12:10:00.000-04:00

"Never ask what sort of computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him?" -- Tom Clancy

Haha.

Like a bunch of untrained monkeys...

2005-06-15T18:14:00.000-04:00

EDIT: I realized a few minutes ago that this was not exactly one of my most coherent posts... so, for clarity's sake:
The problem I was having is that my DVD-RW drive was not being recognized as DVD-RW, only CD-RW.(Oh, and try to guess what OS this was.. I guarantee you I would not have had this problem in *NIX!)
I had tried the obvious things, update firmware, uninstall/reinstall the drive, and none of it helped... so I hopped online with one of their 'support' staff. As you will see below.

At any rate, I DID get it working, but no thanks to Sony. After I gave up on them, I went ahead and reinstalled the drive again, and it has been returned to full working order. /EDIT

I'm currently in a "live chat" session with Sony support. 'Live chat' in quotes because I'm beginning to doubt there is a live person on the other end.

Oh.. now he's saying something, wonder what nuggets of brilliance will spew forth.

Oh, this happens alot, he's suggested something I've already done.

Strange.. it won't let me copy and paste text from the chat window. I was going to put it here for your enjoyment. :-P

I'll edit if and when they get this fixed.

OK, I fixed the problem, but not with Sony's help.
I had to uninstall and re-install the drive in Windows, again, and now it seems to work fine.

I went ahead and typed up my chat with this guy... wow. Enjoy. (I put my comments in, squished between sets of '--')

Problem: DVD+/-RW drive; not being recognized as DVD+/-RW, only CD-RW

(( Analyst Chad_ is here to assist you.)) -- Chad? Ok. Analyst? You shall soon see, this guy isn't fit to analyize his own bellybutton. --
-- Cue the automated response... --
Chad_> Welcome to Sony online Support. I will be glad to assist you.
Chad_> Hi Josiah. -- And probably an automated greeting --
Josiah G> Hello Chad -- See, I START nice --
-- Three minutes passes --
Josiah G> are you going to offer to help me? -- The patience is worn on from the outset... --
Chad_> Sure, I will assist you. -- Oh, well it would have been nice of you to offer, you ARE there as a service representative. --
Chad_> What is the Operating System installed in the computer? -- Starting here I suspected he was not a native English speaker, something that confirms itsef later --
Josiah G> Windows XP Home
-- Another few minutes of nothing passes --
Josiah G> basically i just need you to point me to the appropriate drivers, I checked esupport.sony.com without any luck
Josiah G> this is the Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108 drive...
Josiah G> it worked before to burn DVDs, then I had to run the system recovery disks, since then it has only been recognized as a CD-RW
-- Once again, a nice long gap --
Chad_> Are you able to read CDs?
Josiah G> yes, I can read and write CDs, and I can read DVDs, I cannot burn DVDs
-- ANOTHER long pause --
Josiah G> any ideas?
-- You guessed it, a tea break, or something of the sort --
Chad_> Josiah, there is an update posted on our Support Site for this device, I suggest that you download and install this update in the computer and check if it works. -- And I suggest that you go and boil yourself in oil, money says neither of us gets what we want. --
Chad_> I will forward a link for your reference.
Josiah G> I already tried the firmware update -- I'm ahead of you bud, as usual --
Josiah G> guess again
Chad_> Could you please tell me the software that you are using to burn the DVD?
Josiah G> I was trying to use Sonic Record Now, but third party software is irrelevant, the drive is not being recognized as a DVD-RW by the OS
Chad_> Just to confirm, did you install the firmware in the computer?
Josiah G> yes, ran the update off your website, it says it was already as 1.10 -- I think I answered this already.... --
Chad_> I will forward a link where you can view the required information on this issue. -- Yeah right it will --
Chad_> http://iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponse.asp?id=382453
Chad_> Please click on the link. -- How do I know your stupid company won't give me a virus anyways. *Eyeroll* --
Chad_ Are you able to view the page? -- Howsabout.. no? --
Josiah G> the chat interface does not allow me to manipulate the text in the textbox, I cannot click on that link, nor can I copy and paste it -- Stupid web interface --
Josiah G> I can manually type it into my web browser, if that would bring you some evil twisted pleasure.
-- Does just that --
-- A few seconds pass, I read the page... --
Josiah G> ok, I've already tried all of the steps on that page, any more suggestions?
Josiah G> well.. minus having it serviced, obviously
Chad_> Josiah, since you have followed all the recommended steps mentioned on the page and still the issue persists, I suggest that you contact our Sony Service Center for urther assistance.
Chad_> I will forward a link from where you can locate the Sony Service Center. -- If there was ever any doubt he was a non-English natve, these two sentences sealed them away... how awkward! --
Chad_> http://www.sel.sony.com/service/plsql/rma.inquiry
Chad_> Please click on the link.
Chad_> Are you able to view the page?
Josiah G> yes, thank you, I'll look into this -- Which isn't what I wanted to say.. that was more like "No thanks, ya moron, I can't have this machine sent to Sony, it's critical to my network infrastucture." But whatever. --
Chad_> You are welcome.
Chad_> Please contact them for further assistance.

What else did I expect. Heh.

The dark alliance forms!

2005-06-14T16:54:00.000-04:00

Beware the coming evil empire!

First, Apple announces a deal with Intel to have Intel manufacture their processors.

Next, Apple and Nokia announce a partnership to create a new mini-browser for mobile devices.

And now, Intel and Nokia announce an agreement to collaborate to create the first mobile WiMax devices.

Intel chipsets, in Nokia's namebrand hardware, running Apple software. Can they hurt Microsoft? If so, all I can say is: more power to you all!

And it falls apart...

2005-06-13T11:44:00.000-04:00

The world comes tumbling down around
Pieces of your life, hitting the ground
Losing your flesh, pound by pound
You're not going to make it another round

Random things are good things...

2005-06-12T21:02:00.000-04:00

Nothing like an impromptu game of Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of people you don't know.
For those of you who don't know (yes, all three of you) Ultimate = basically Frisbee football.. divide up into teams, set endzones... one side throws off, wherever it lands/is caught by the other time, the game starts... the idea is to reach the opposite endzone. You achieve this goal by tossing/throwing/hurling with all your might the Frisbee back and forth between your team-mates, when you catch the Frisbee, you stand still, and throw it to another team-mate, and in so doing, hopefully, move down the field.
Defense, basically, tries to knock down the Frisbee, if the Frisbee hits the ground, it changes sides. And the other team takes off in the other direction, it's fast paced.... and loads of fun. Give it a shot sometime. ;-)

Well... this is just peachy...

2005-06-11T22:13:00.000-04:00

Leslie informs me that my site was blocked on Hallie's computer.

Boo hoo. That makes me very sad. I haven't seen Hallie in a long time. I hope she comes this summer, that'd be awesome!

So... what is this blogging thing anyways?

2005-06-09T18:12:00.000-04:00

In recent assignments for my college classes I've had to discuss blogging with my classmates. Apparently the knowledge of blogging is not as widespread as I had previously thought. So, to try to answer some of the most basic questions:

What is a blog?
I like to use Robert Scoble's definition of a blog: "To me it is just a Web page in reverse chronological order. If you try to get into it more than that, you get into arguments." - Taken from Scoble's keynote address at the Blog Business Summit, January 24th, 2005.

So, who can write a blog?
The answer is anyone and everyone.. this is proven by simply looking around the blogosphere, literally everyone and his grandmother has a blog. It's unbelievable.

What goes into a blog?
You can put anything you want on a blog, it's completely up to you, the blogger. There are blogs about gadgets, blogs about hacks, blogs about technology news, even a blog about the lives of three greyhound dogs. You get the idea, use your imagination, look around.

Sounds great! Where can I get MY little corner on the internet?
Free Blogging services abound on the internet these days. I have to add my obligatory recommendation to Blogger.com, because it IS my current host. If you have friends who blog, don't do what I did and go off on some random un-related service. Try to get a blog on the same service as them, it makes it much more easy for you to interact with them. If you're curious about what's out there, Google is your friend.

Ok, I just got home from work and threw this together.. leave me comments pointing out all the questions I forgot to answer, and all the grammar and punctuation issues.

The best of:

2005-06-08T21:56:00.000-04:00

This is my second 'Best of' post, scroll down for the first, posted just a little while ago. There's no REAL reason for re-posting this one.. I just like it.. I was going through some mental turmoil on whether or not to even continue blogging, etc.
Good stuff, if I do say so myself.

Originally posted: December 23rd, 2004.

I Demand Change... of myself!

I've been thinking pretty hard about something, namely: this blog seems to be more and more of a link-blog type site than an actual blog.

I really need to list more of my own content.. I think the main reasons I don't do this are:
A) My dad has some serious limits on what I can and can't say about myself. (I can't tell you my name, how old I am, what city I live in, etc.)[NB- I'm not complaining, I'm in no mood to be tracked down by someone off the internet. (Don't laugh, it happens.)]
B) I feel stupid talking about myself all the time, it really gets old.
C) I might talk about my job more, but me talking about all the different issues with a 12" iBook that is being used day-in and day-out by middle or high schooler, would probably bore most of you to near .
So, I'm at an interesting crossroads, I really enjoy blogging, and excepting that they shut down the internet, I have no plans of giving it up.

(That just gave me some really wierd question/mental image that I feel like putting out there... what's the stone-age equivalent of an RSS or Atom feed?)
Which leads me to another question, am I the only one who thinks that Atom feeds work better with the integrated aggregator in Thunderbird than RSS 1.0 or 2.0 feeds do?? I dunno, it just seems like Atom feeds always work on the first shot, where I can have all kinds of interesting issues with an RSS feed. Maybe I'm hallucinating, I'll try to remember to note it any time I have an issue with a feed from now on.

Wow, without even thinking about it, I've managed to fulfill my goal, to wit: blog more, without relying excessively on external content. I kind of just have to shut off my brain and let my fingers do the work.
I need to have posts like this, mainly to reinforce the title of my blog. A couple of three sentence posts a day are hardly "Ramblings".

Pizza's ready, so I'm out for now. Maybe I'll check back in. I think I'm going to try some Mountain Dew Haiku at dinner.

The best of:

2005-06-08T21:45:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd go back to some of my old blogs and re-post some of my more important posts.. so.. without further ado:

Originally posted Sunday, October 3rd, 2004.

What I did this weekend, or: How to void your warranty.

OK, Sunday my brother managed to pour a cup of coffee on his laptop. (While it was running no less!) So, "Captain Disassemble" to the rescue, sort of. I charge in the room when he starts yelling "CRAP CRAP CRAP" and dive for the power button, good news, I kill it before it kills itself. More good news, he was smart enough to immediately turn the thing upside down when he got coffee on it, way to only semi-panic! After cleaning what we could get at with the computer in one piece, I realize I'm going to have to take out the keyboard, remove all the keys, clean it, and then put it back in the machine. Fun

I get the keyboard off, and lo and behold, a puddle of coffee on every surface underneath it, oh boy, not good. We started taking apart the computer, trying to get everything clear of the sticky sweet battery acid my bro likes to consume by the gallon. Needless to say, we kept busy with the paper towels for a while, getting everything dry and un-sticky. It turns out that Dell designed this computer with the idea that if you spilled liquid on it, you would have to take apart EVERY thing to get it dry... argh. So, I COMPLETELY took the computer down, we were down to a MOBO (Mother board for the uninitiated) with just a heatsink, fan, processor, and I think the video card was still on there. Anyway, clean it up, dry it off, put it back together, boot it up.

Keyboard doesn't work, sorta, it works in that you can hit keys, and it does stuff, it doesn't work in that I am 99% sure that what that keyboard currently does was not what Dell had in mind when they built the computer. (I can only say this with such certainty because I have seen the computer working before.. otherwise I probably wouldn't give Dell such good odds.) Also, at this stage, the touchpad likes to think that the right mouse button is constantly being depressed.

Because of the state the keyboard was in, I couldn't even get to a boot menu for diagnostics, so, homemade diagnostics to the rescue. I get out my other brother's 1100 and put his keyboard in the thirsty one, (Amid his loud protests I might add. "OK OK, if I mess it up, I'll buy you a new one, jeez") abracadabra, wave the magic wand, and wow! it works!

(Oh, FYI, these keyboards appear to be hot-swappable, who'd a thunk it?)

So, his keyboard assembly is shot. (It's still up in the air on whether it was the liquid, or if we damaged the cable disassembling the computer...)

So, I know it is a faulty keyboard, I play around with the computer a while, and have fun with a touchpad that thinks it is always right-clicking. Though this problem eventually seems to go away, I think it probably was sticking, or was too wet, or both.

Anyway, enough of this, I call Dell tech support to report a malfunctioning keyboard. "OK, now, take out the battery..." "No, I've already done that, I just need you to ship me a replacement keyboard assembly." (For those who don't know, the tech was trying to get me to do a power drain, to reset the thing, that seems to be their panacea, but knowing that, I tried before calling.)

So, the tech gives me a case ID, and has me sent to returns/repairs, the guy gets all set to ship me a new keyboard assembly, and then asks if I have any more issues with the computer, "Well, the touchpad buttons are a little strange sometimes." "Hmm... I better have you ship that back to us, so we can do a full diagnostics and repair." Cool! Please do! I can't believe they didn't ask me if I had spilled something on it... it would seem to me that would be the first thing they would suspect, especially when both the keyboard and touchpad are shot.

Now, about that incredibly obvious coffee smell... so I take down the computer again.. cleaning everything very thoroughly. (A little bit of water only.. wonderful difference though!)

This is when I find he only thing I didn't get to last time... the touchpad assembly, oops. That thing was built to hold liquids, I am now convinced, I pulled that thing open and about a half a cup of coffee came out on the table, wow.

So, clean the whole thing very thoroughly, and get it back together, all but the keyboard assembly, I take off every single key, and clean the whole thing about three times, then reassemble it.

Finally, the computer is back in one semi coffee scented piece.

Dell instructed me to send back the computer sans hard drive, optical drive, battery and charging unit, all of that goes in a box, and a gutted Inspiron 1100 sits on my brother's desk waiting for the DHL truck tomorrow.

This is going to really mess up his school schedule... oh well, lesson learned about coffee and computer I suppose.

As I alluded (is that the right word here?) to in my title, this almost definitely voided my warranty, I haven't read the Dell warranty recently, nor did I say anything to the tech about my extensive take down of the computer. But I am almost certain Dell would not be happy with what I did. Oh well, get over it guys.

I wish I had taken shots of the take down in progress, but I only got pics of it after we had finished, anyway, here it is spread around on our dining room table.
(Click the pictures for larger images.)

1- Keyboard assembly.

2- Metal piece, was under keyboard, over the fan/heatsink assembly.

3- Hard Drive

4- Memory chips

5- Optical Drive

6- Wireless PCMCIA card. (Don't ask me why this is in the pic...)

7- Main body that was left in one piece, see close up for description of components.

8- Battery.

9- Covers from underside of computer, left is modem compartment, right is memory.

10- LCD + top of rest of case, I wish I had taken a picture with this assembly open, this is the LCD closed on the top half of the rest of the case that is not on no. 7, including the touchpad.

Note that in this pic you can also see some of our candlesticks, our drinks, and some of my tools, and some parts to a board game my brother was simultaneously playing with.

Also note that the plastic container near the center of the pic is where we kept screws and the like we had removed, the pieces of paper are to remind us were stuff came from!

Closeup of main assembly:

1- Speakers, not sure why I labeled these...

2- Optical drive bay.

3- Hard drive bay, note that under this is the PCMCIA slot

4- Video card, I took this metal piece off, but it went back on before the photos apparently.

5- Heatsink/fan assembly

6- Battery bay.

There are other things I could've labeled here, the various ports on the sides and back, apologies if I didn't label something you were wondering about!

Looks like the internet is back up here...

2005-06-08T08:40:00.000-04:00

Thankfully service seems to be back up to par.

Lots of school stuff to do, be back later.

When in doubt, re-invent the wheel...

2005-06-07T20:47:00.000-04:00

Ok.. so there is this "Programming Challenge" assignment at the end of each chapter in the Visual Basic .NET book I'm currently studying.
At the end of this chapter they ask you to create a program that grabs a 5 digit number from a Textbox and drop each digit in a different Label, like so:

So, they recommended I use a Mod function and all this goofy math to do this... well, this seemed like an awful lot of brain work, so I came up with a better idea:

' Send txtInput.Text to a variable...
Dim strInput As String 'Create the neccessary variable..
strInput = txtInput.Text ' Sends text from txtInput to the variable..

' Send the characters in the string to their respective labels..
lblDigit1.Text = Mid(strInput, 1, 1) ' Sends first digit to lblDigit1
lblDigit2.Text = Mid(strInput, 2, 2) ' Sends second digit to lblDigit2
lblDigit3.Text = Mid(strInput, 3, 3) ' Sends third digit to lblDigit3
lblDigit4.Text = Mid(strInput, 4, 4) ' Sends fourth digit to lblDigit4
lblDigit5.Text = Mid(strInput, 5, 5) ' Sends fifth digit to lblDigit5

I just used a Mid to grab the digit by it's place in the string. WAY easier, way faster and much more clean looking, as far as code goes.

And best of all: "I can do it better, so there!"

Well, I just had to call Sprint, serious internet issues, they're having backbone issues in our provider area, and it's bad. Slower than dial-up. Grr.

Line continuation characters? To use or not to use... that is the question

2005-06-07T19:01:00.000-04:00

In my book for the Visual Basic class I'm in right now it tells me that I need to use a line continuation character (_) in the middle of each line... to keep my lines of code shorter.

So, for instance(and this won't work TOO well... since this will line wrap... but...)

Private Sub txtCartons_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles txtCartons.TextChanged

Becomes:

Private Sub txtCartons_TextChanged(ByVal sender As _
System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles txtCartons.TextChanged

If you were looking at this in Visual Studio .NET 2003 the first line would run right along in its merry way.. off the right hand side of the screen.
The book argues that you should put the under-score(s) in there to increase readability... I can understand that with some really long handwritten code, but when it comes to some dinky lil event handler code, I don't even need to review/edit it anyways...
My main argument against doing this: I'm too lazy.
Going back through all my code and adding the underscore(s) in the right places is kind of a pain.

Well, gotta run... we're powering down the network, lightning storm here. I'll be back later.

Well... it's official...

2005-06-06T14:21:00.000-04:00

Apple is switching to Intel processors.

I haven't checked yet, but I'm betting hell is pretty cold right now.

The world has been turned upside down.

Wow. I mean... wow.

This also puts me in a very interesting place... I've sworn never to buy another Intel chip, in guise as an Apple product or not.

Apple, I don't mind saying this: I think this is the worst decision you have EVER made. I'm sorry Steve, but this is just idiotic, I mean plain old idiotic.
Do you not realize that the x86 platform is one of the hottest running out there? And the amount of power it sucks... wow.

How are you going to maintain the blazing speeds we've seen on your current Powerbooks, etc. AND the small form factor?
My Powerbook G4, 1.25GHZ PowerPC is just as fast or FASTER than my Vaio 3.0GHZ Pentium 4, but it's half the size. Do you know why it's half the size? Because you have to put a turbojet inside a P4 machine to keep it cool.
Ignorant fools.

Again, this is the probably the worst thing you guys have ever done, I'm astounded, I really am.
Steve Jobs, I have a bad feeling you're going to live to regret this.

EDIT: Before I get too much verbal laceration from somebody.. I've just noted that according to at least one source Intel chips run cooler than PPC chips... eh? I'll have to look this up... I'll get back to you all

EDIT: OK, so now I have Apple talking out of both sides of its mouth... here: http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/ We have Apple touting it's G5 processors, quote: "The PowerPC G5 out-shoots the Pentium 4 in a battery of tests. But it’s in the rough-and-tumble of real-world performance that the G5 really shines — shredding the PC’s reputation in the process."
Might wanna revise that soon, Steve... dissing your new product with an existing product? Tsk tsk.

Their favorite talking point is that "Intel runs way cooler"... I don't know where they got that... every Intel I've ever used ran hotter than any other chip I've used.. PPCs, AMDs... they're just better.
WHY??? WHY??? I'm sure Advanced Micro Devices would have dealt with Apple, why did you do this Jobs, WHY?
I think you've lost a customer, congratulations.

EDIT: Now.. for answers a couple of the nagging questions...
Q: Will I be able to install Mac OS X on my garden-variety Dell, HP, etc?
A: No, according to everything I've seen so far it will only run on specially modified Pentium chips. I took this cue from the fact that the Intel development kit($999) ships with OS X 10.4.1 AND a Pentium 4 3.6GHZ CPU.. why ship a non-required CPU? There's something special about it.

Q: Ok... so... now that we have Intels in Apple boxes, will I be able to install Windows on my Apple computer(s)?
A: This will more than likely NOT be supported out of the box, though obviously there's going to be a pretty serious effort to get both this and the above item(OS X on any P4) working.

Qs/As taken from stuff I've seen while browsing around like crazy this afternoon... hopefully this info is pretty decent guesswork. :-) I'll edit with any updates.

Updates all 'round, on the house...

2005-06-05T20:26:00.000-04:00

OK, got my hard drive backed up. Good.

The USB thumb drive seems to have survived the wash with no ill effects, data and everything still intact. Good. Props to PNY, the manufacturer.

The Fedora Core 3 box is giving me some issues.. though it's not FC3's fault, it's the stupid proprietary video card that Compaq put in this tower. Grr. I shall prevail! *Gets out mallet*
No, seriously, probably just need to tweak my xorg.conf and I'll be set.

Just another day...

2005-06-05T13:43:00.000-04:00

Here I sit installing Fedora Core 3 on one of my computers. (The Windows XP Pro desktop, second to the left in this picture, for those who care.)
I decided to go ahead and rid the world of one Windows machine. Heh.

EDIT: Right after I clicked "Publish Post" there my mom brought me my USB thumb drive... fresh from the washing machine/dryer. HAHAHA. I guess we'll get to see how well this little guy holds up. There was no critical data on it, so I'm indifferent I guess.
I'm off to backup my hard drive! Whooo!

2005-06-04T22:56:00.000-04:00

Me popping the top on one of my precious Mountain Dews... and the strap to my cousin's purse, lol.
My fingers look deformed.

2005-06-04T14:08:00.000-04:00

(Click for bigger pic) Just shot this pic of my desk... pardon the mess... but those are all my computers at the moment... right to left: Sony Vaio laptop, Apple Powerbook G4, Windows XP Professional Edition desktop, Windows Server 2003 Desktop.

2005-06-04T12:25:00.000-04:00

Don't mess with this bad boy...

2005-06-04T12:13:00.000-04:00

This is today's random picture... not sure exactly who took it, but props go to Jonathan's camera...

2005-06-02T22:12:00.000-04:00

...and one more just for good measure, from the last flood, water was actually running over this bridge... niiiccceee

2005-06-02T22:10:00.000-04:00

Well I'm headed off to bed, but I thought I'd leave you with this random picture from a year ago when this was my computer. :-P

Real high on the useful-meter here...

2005-06-02T17:51:00.000-04:00

Well, I can think of absolutely nothing relevant, or even something irrelevant, to post... so... for your viewing pleasure:

I love my guitars, I'll bet you do too!

Buncha copy-cats...

2005-05-31T18:48:00.000-04:00

That would be Microsoft/Intel/Et. al.
Intel recently commissioned PC manufacturer AOpen to produce a Windows based clone of the apparently successful Mac Mini (I mean come on, what other measure of success IS there then being imitated by some lower level corporation?)

So here it is, the imposter:

And the beautifully manufactured original:

Just goes to show, there's nothing new under the sun, especially if Microsoft is involved.

But I still love the MSDNAA.

--
Story found via Slashdot.

Hrm...

2005-05-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

Whoa! How did this happen? Sttrraanggeee... but not in a bad way. =)

La de da...

2005-05-30T07:33:00.000-04:00

So I've been sitting here for the last 10 or 15 minutes trying to decide what to post on, without, it must be said, much success. (As you shall soon see!)

The only thing really on my mind right now: I'm making a computer service call this morning, woot! ($) Haha.
I'm just hoping for my client's sake that it is only a software error. Sounds all-together-too-much like a failing hard drive.
Only hands-on attempts at reviving the system will reveal the true root of the problem. (Or let's hope so anyway.)

Yeah, I think that's about it. Oh, one more thing:

Jonathan,(And your better be reading this, because I linked to your site on my sidebar. ;-) ) are we going to try to go see RoTS on Tuesday? Lemme know.

How surreal...

2005-05-29T18:05:00.000-04:00

It's almost like you're not dealing with the same company!

I just ordered 800 dollars worth of software through Microsoft.

I payed $30.

I love the MSDNAA.

How surreal.

EDIT: For those of you interested in such things, the software I ordered was Windows XP Professional Edition and Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional

In the same program I'm going to be getting copies of Windows 2000 Professional and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition for FREE.

EDIT2: Just went on Amazon, here's the price list for the above software:

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition - List: $3,999.99 Amazon: $2,495.00
Windows XP Professional Edition - List: $199.99 Amazon: $184.99
Windows 2000 Professional Edition - List: $319.00 Amazon: $179.99
Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Edition - List: $799.99 Amazon: $694.99

So, bottom line: it's a little bit over $5,300 worth of software for 30 dollars. Wow.

Wow...

2005-05-28T21:19:00.000-04:00

Two months and it feels like the blink of an eye... and yet also an eternity.

Time is relative.

That in consideration, I'd say I've had a relatively good time. =)

2005-05-28T09:52:00.000-04:00

Just finished up my algebra for this year, that leaves Geometry and Language Arts and I'll be done with 10th grade! WOOO!

The air conditioning in my car is psychotic...

2005-05-27T16:59:00.000-04:00

OK, so it's May in North Carolina, and it's kinda hot out. (85F here, at this moment) And, any of you that know me: I HATE having the windows down when I'm driving... so the windows up, AC blasting.. nice and cool... not. The AC blows hotter then the outside air! What gives? So I just let it go... figuring "Probably just takes a while to cool down and blow cool air." That it does... a period of time more or less exactly equal to the amount of time it takes me to get home from work. As soon, and I mean the exact moment, that I pulled up at my house *bing* cold air. Haha, nice.
At least it's not broken.

Random fact about me for the day...

2005-05-26T20:31:00.000-04:00

I'm am unbelievably scared of losing my sight. I don't know why... I just have been for the longest time... I don't like other people messing with my eyes, etc. When I was younger I had to be held down by half a dozen nurses so they could put in eyedrops at the optometrist's office, no real reason for it, I just didn't want them to touch my eyes. Now I'm a little more controlled in such situations, but for instance: I don't mind knives, I really think they're pretty cool... but get a blade anywhere near where it could damage my precious ocular abilities... I'll probably curl up in a fetal position with my hand over my eyes. I don't know why this scares me so, it just always has. *Shudders*

So ok, yeah, that was really random.

2005-05-26T16:36:00.000-04:00

Factor quadratic equations or read Slashdot, you make the call.

I am SUCH a geek....

2005-05-26T14:52:00.000-04:00

This is what I look like while on vacation at the beach:
(Pardon the cruddy quality, it's a JPEG that has been resized/cropped/resized again[not by me], stupid compression)

Salt air breeze... 70something and sunny... nice deck with a view of the water... and, oh yeah, a wireless internet connection!

Wheeee!

2005-05-26T09:14:00.000-04:00

Either you're all crazy, or I am?

2005-05-25T19:50:00.000-04:00

All the computers in this place are nuts. Period. I can't remember the last time they were all working 100%, at the same time. One of them is always in some state of disrepair, though I suppose that IS the consummate existence of a SysAdmin, yes?

I'm mulling some slight modifications to the appearance of this site, any ideas?

--

http://www.bugbash.net/

Read it, it's funny.

--

OK, I don't know how legal this is, in fact its possibly, even probably, a violation of my Blogger.com terms-of-service, but I found a way to remove the Blogger.com navbar from across the top of this site, YES! That thing was driving me nuts, it was making my whole site look... off.

--

I just won't stop editing this thing... heh.

Blogger.com users are a fruity bunch. Some are large, some are small, some are pulpy, some need to be peeled back, some you can bite right through.

Reminds me of that Hitchhiker's Guide' quote:
"Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast."

--

http://ned.ucam.org/%7Esdh31/misc/destroy.html

Any guesses?

2005-05-25T15:44:00.000-04:00

Does anybody know what this is? Any ideas? I know what it is, just curious on your guesses.

And then there are some things...

2005-05-25T11:12:00.000-04:00

I can't parallel park to save my life. *sigh*

School stuff man... I'm in it up to my neck... but its fun stuff. :-)

Is this contagious?

2005-05-23T21:52:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I found a major virus infection on one of my computers.

Further investigation has revealed infection on about half the nodes on my network, plus my backup drive.

Figures, totally figures. I guess I was about due for one of these though, oh well.

Well... we're home.

2005-05-22T20:40:00.000-04:00

We're home. Yepp. That's about it for now.

Well, I'm working on finishing up my school stuff for this year, so I'll be back later.

Update: Ok, I'm finished with History, Science and Bible for this year, that leaves Algebra, Geometry and Language Arts(major ugh).
Be back later!

Random picture...

2005-05-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

My brother took this earlier... he was on the deck and I was standing on the ground below him... pardon his shoe, goof.

Joy...

2005-05-20T15:20:00.000-04:00

First day here and I'm already sun burned... hoooo boy.

Now its raining out. Hrm. I'm cool with that.

Later.

Moved my blog...

2005-05-20T10:00:00.000-04:00

I moved this over to the Blogspot servers... though I'm not enthused about being a .blogspot.com or having that search bar along the top of this page forced upon me, the popup ads and 15 second holdover banners before you could get to my .tk were just plain evil.

Ah well, you can't win em all.

This would be really cool...

2005-05-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

...if I could pull it off.
I'm looking into something called audioblogging, its pretty self-explanatory: You record yourself, upload it to your blog and any visitor can listen in.

Sweet.
I have to look at hosting options plus how to relay the content, I'm sure I'll be getting back to this subject soon.

We're here...

2005-05-20T07:18:00.000-04:00

Well, we rolled into Wilmington around 10 o'clock last night.

I would have posted then but I had a few setbacks trying to get my wireless internet up. Heh.

I guess there's really not that much to say. :-P I'll maybe post some pics here later... we'll see.

You're not the boss of me!

2005-05-19T09:28:00.000-04:00

Who says I can't share a copy of an MP3 with my friends? HUH? Well? Besides... you gonna stop me? RIGHT! Take it up with MSN, their messenger lets you share files... or howsabout email? You can certainly send files over email. To stop file sharing you have to stop the internet, file sharing will never be stopped.
[/rant]

They might be giants..

2005-05-19T09:25:00.000-04:00

..and we might be leaving for Wilmington this evening, but we still don't know.

Ha! Insane craziness!

Perplexing really...

2005-05-18T22:03:00.000-04:00

What is it about this blogging that so enraptures me? Draws me in... causes me to post? Sometimes I don't post because I hate talking about my personal life online, but really I have this burning desire to post SOMETHING!

I obviously have Obsessive Compulsive Posting Disorder, if you go by how much I've posted here today. :-P

Feeling deprived...

2005-05-18T19:23:00.000-04:00

You don't realize how much you appreciate something until it's gone.

Even just temporarily.

Crud.

Yet another reason to hate Coke!

2005-05-18T12:39:00.000-04:00

I found one more reason to hate that despicable drink.. not that I needed one.

OK, so I left PCC(Pitt Community College, for the uninitiated) with a Coke in the drink holder, as I pulled out of the drive the Coke turned itself over and sent me diving for it, very interesting when you're driving...

I swerved off the road and barely missed a pole and a ditch. DOY!

Not the Coke's fault really, but I wanted something to blame it on.

Turmoil..

2005-05-18T08:53:00.000-04:00

I hate it when stuff like this happens.
Ah well.

Today should be a pretty busy one..

2005-05-18T08:35:00.000-04:00

I have to go by the campus bookstore to get books for my classes this summer, plus I'm going to wander about campus and talk to my instructors.
Then this afternoon I'm going to go in to work, and we might be leaving to go out of town tomorrow night, so I'll need to double check some stuff this evening before-hand if we're going to do that.

Eep.

Why do I do this stuff? WHY?

2005-05-18T08:21:00.000-04:00

Well I've set up this blog through quite an interesting cobbling together of different services, to wit:
I have Blogger running the backend, modifying this page and all that good stuff, but I'm hosting the content itself on Websamba
BUT I'm redirecting to that WebSamba page through Dot.tk

Craziness.

Testing... 1...2...3

2005-05-18T07:56:00.000-04:00

Can you hear me now?