Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
rain, rain rain, and blogging
so the forecast calls for more rain. I've decided to build something from scratch and follow a php tutorial for building a blog (http://php-programming.suite101.com/article.cfm/build_a_blog_or_cms_with_php).
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Maserati at work
pleasure. How much does this car cost?
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Social Network Invitations
So I'm on the bandwagon and am a social media/network junkie. There was a really cool site that I used to use to exchanging invitations with other users, but I can't remember it right now. I've been using another one that's been pretty good and I've gotten quick responses from: Invites.mashable.com
Anyways, I'm checking out SocialThing, Fire Eagle, ....waitaminute...i think i'm following like 10 new ones and i can barely remember them all. Ah, overwhelming.
Anyways, I'm checking out SocialThing, Fire Eagle, ....waitaminute...i think i'm following like 10 new ones and i can barely remember them all. Ah, overwhelming.
Great Date
I had a great date with the girlfriend yesterday evening. I hadn't been to The Cheesecake Factory in a long while. We got these avocado egg roll things for an appetizer. I wasn't sure about them, but they were actually really, really good. I could have sworn that there was potato in them or something.
We caught "Wanted" after dinner and it was really good - non-stop action. And the special effects were pretty impressive.
We caught "Wanted" after dinner and it was really good - non-stop action. And the special effects were pretty impressive.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
too open...?
I have to admit, I don't post as much as I used to because I'm always concerned with who is actually reading my posts. On the flip side, I don't necessarily want to lock out everyone out of my blog for the slight chance that it might actually be useful for someone, or for networking purposes. I suppose what I need to keep in mind is that I should not confuse a blog for a journal - definitely keep those two separate! ...speaking of which, time to go #2.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
100 Miles Finally Completed!
oh lord it was tough in the beginning but i've done it - 100 miles! Take that 95 degree Iowa weather!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
DBA slot - woohoo!
I finally have landed a database analyst slot - sweet! New job, new company, completely new environment - there is tons to learn. i'm definitely not used to having a cubicle office. It's so incredibly quiet here. I can actually hear mouse clicks all around me. all i can say is thank goodness for ipods.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Pownce
Pownce
I have 6 invites for Kevin Rose`s new project, Pownce. Sign-up is by invitation only right now. Shoot me an email if you'd like one.
From Pownce.com...
"What is Pownce?
Pownce is a way to send messages, files, links, and events to your friends. You'll create a network of the people you know and then you can share stuff with all of them, just a few of them, or even just one other person really fast."
I have 6 invites for Kevin Rose`s new project, Pownce. Sign-up is by invitation only right now. Shoot me an email if you'd like one.
From Pownce.com...
"What is Pownce?
Pownce is a way to send messages, files, links, and events to your friends. You'll create a network of the people you know and then you can share stuff with all of them, just a few of them, or even just one other person really fast."
Monday, July 2, 2007
Speaking UNIX, Part 11: Ramble around the UNIX file system
Speaking UNIX, Part 11: Ramble around the UNIX file system
I found this off the LifeHacker.org site - pretty neat walk-through the UNIX file system and the thought behind some of the directory labels. This is a good read for anyone one not wanting to get lost in the UNIX file system.
LINK IS HERE
I found this off the LifeHacker.org site - pretty neat walk-through the UNIX file system and the thought behind some of the directory labels. This is a good read for anyone one not wanting to get lost in the UNIX file system.
LINK IS HERE
Friday, June 22, 2007
Dead Chicken Hat
This must be a new trend - I picked up my cup of beer for fear that the chicken on this lady's head would try to knock it over. Apparently, it was dead because it posed no harm and made no attempt at my beer. But seriously...i mean, wow...how do you even ask for a setup like this? No, i'm serious - i'm curious to know what this is called. Do you just say, "hi stylist, please give me a 'half & half'"? "cookies & cream"? "Hook me up with a dead chicken hat"? I dunno.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Litsum: The Most Free Literature Summaries, Study Guides and Book Summaries
From the site...
"If you are looking for free book summaries or book notes, Litsum has more free literature summaries than any other site. Our literature study guides include full chapter summaries and analysis, topics for discussion, quotes, style, themes and character analysis. Litsum is not only the largest free literature summary website online, but we strive to be the best."
Cool - Cliff Notes!!!
Litsum: The Most Free Literature Summaries, Study Guides and Book Summaries
Friday, June 15, 2007
Mailbox Map - USPS mailbox locator that uses an interactive map
Mailbox Map - USPS mailbox locator that uses an interactive map
Very cool - locate the ...um...location of any(?) mailbox in the U.S. Perfect for when you need to send a package and don't want to search around for a mailbox. Or perfect for learning where your closest mailboxes are located to you. Or for just whatever reason.
Very cool - locate the ...um...location of any(?) mailbox in the U.S. Perfect for when you need to send a package and don't want to search around for a mailbox. Or perfect for learning where your closest mailboxes are located to you. Or for just whatever reason.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
Women's Health Magazine: My Custom Workout (aka: fun with MSPAINT)
Kelly sent me a link of a custom workout creation web app on the Women's Health magazine website. Thanks to MSPAINT, this is my custom workout. F*cking sweet. It's definitely a bit of a "how's-your-father" if you know what I mean. I'll be sweatin' like igotakilaho in no time.
Here's the link to the original web app
Body Hacks: How to get that pill down - Lifehacker
Body Hacks: How to get that pill down - Lifehacker
brilliant - i'll try this the next time i swallow a pill.
Body Hacks: How to get that pill down pills
A pharmacist at the Tricks of the Trade weblog has a tip on how to get down hard-to-swallow capsules:
Place the capsule in your mouth, take a drink of water, and tilt your head forward instead of backward. The capsule should float, and will be at the back of your throat, read to swallow.
Pharmacist [Tricks of the Trade]
brilliant - i'll try this the next time i swallow a pill.
Body Hacks: How to get that pill down pills
A pharmacist at the Tricks of the Trade weblog has a tip on how to get down hard-to-swallow capsules:
Place the capsule in your mouth, take a drink of water, and tilt your head forward instead of backward. The capsule should float, and will be at the back of your throat, read to swallow.
Pharmacist [Tricks of the Trade]
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Following the Money Trail Online - Pogue’s Posts - Technology - New York Times Blog
Following the Money Trail Online - Pogue’s Posts - Technology - New York Times Blog
The New York Times has a great article (and links!) on how the $$$ influences lawmakers into passing bills. It also provides two great sites MapLight.org and OpenSecrets.org to help track these "contributions" *cough*bribes*cough*.
"May 24, 2007, 2:58 pm
Following the Money Trail Online
The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that you have one.
That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway, to avoid becoming depressed by Maplight.org.
It’s a new Web site with a very simple mission: to correlate lawmakers’ voting records with the money they’ve accepted from special-interest groups.
All of this is public information. All of it has been available for decades. Other sites, including OpenSecrets.org, expose who’s giving how much to whom. But nobody has ever revealed the relationship between money given and votes cast to quite such a startling effect.
If you click the “Video Tour” button on the home page, you’ll see a six-minute video that illustrates the point. You find out that on H.R.5684, the U. S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement, special interests in favor of this bill (including pharmaceutical companies and aircraft makers) gave each senator an average of $244,000. Lobbyists opposed to the bill (such as anti-poverty groups and consumer groups) coughed up only $38,000 per senator.
Surprise! The bill passed.
If you click “Timeline of Contributions,” you find out that — surprise again! — contributions to the lawmakers surged during the six weeks leading up to the vote. On this same page, you can click the name of a particular member of Congress to see how much money that person collected.
Another mind-blowing example: from the home page, click “California.” Click “Legislators,” then click “Fabian Nunez.” The resulting page shows you how much this guy has collected from each special-interest group — $2.2 million so far — and there, in black-and-white type, how often he voted their way.
Construction unions: 94 percent of the time. Casinos: 95 percent of the time. Law firms: 78 percent of the time. Seems as though if you’re an industry lobbyist, giving this fellow money is a pretty good investment.
A little time spent clicking through to these California lawmakers’ pages reveals a similar pattern in most of them.
(A few, on the other hand, appear to be deliciously contrary. Jim Brulte has accepted over $67,000 from the tobacco industry, but hasn’t voted in their favor a single time. Is that even ethical — I mean, by the standards of this whole sleazy business?)
For some reason, Maplight.org doesn’t reveal these “percent of the time” figures for United States Congress, only for California. You can easily see how much money each member has taken, but the column that correlates those figures with their voting record is missing.
Now, not all bills exhibit the same money-to-outcome relationships. And it’s not news that our lawmakers’ campaigns accept money from special interests. What this site does, however, is to expose, often embarrassingly, how that money buys votes.
I probably sound absurdly naïve here. But truth is, I can’t quite figure out why these contributions are even legal. Let the various factions explain their points till they’re blue in the face, sure — but to cut checks for millions of dollars?
Maplight.org isn’t always easy to figure out, and not all of its data is complete. In fact, it’s not even evident from the list of bills which ones have already been voted on — a distinct disappointment, since the juicy patterns don’t emerge until the vote is complete.
On the other hand, it’s painstakingly non-partisan. And it uses very good data; for example, the information on contributions comes from the Center for Responsive Politics (the nonprofit, nonpartisan research group behind OpenSecrets.org), and each special industry’s interests (for or against each bill) are taken exclusively from public declarations of support or opposition (Web sites, news articles, Congressional hearings and so on).
Spend a few minutes poking around. Check out a couple of the people you voted for. Have a look at how often their votes align with the interests of the lobbyists who helped to get them elected.
And be glad Maplight.org makes it so easy to spot those correlations.
[UPDATE: This very timely Times article hints that this new transparency might be gaining momentum:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/washington/25lobby.ht ml?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
–Pogue]"
The New York Times has a great article (and links!) on how the $$$ influences lawmakers into passing bills. It also provides two great sites MapLight.org and OpenSecrets.org to help track these "contributions" *cough*bribes*cough*.
"May 24, 2007, 2:58 pm
Following the Money Trail Online
The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that you have one.
That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway, to avoid becoming depressed by Maplight.org.
It’s a new Web site with a very simple mission: to correlate lawmakers’ voting records with the money they’ve accepted from special-interest groups.
All of this is public information. All of it has been available for decades. Other sites, including OpenSecrets.org, expose who’s giving how much to whom. But nobody has ever revealed the relationship between money given and votes cast to quite such a startling effect.
If you click the “Video Tour” button on the home page, you’ll see a six-minute video that illustrates the point. You find out that on H.R.5684, the U. S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement, special interests in favor of this bill (including pharmaceutical companies and aircraft makers) gave each senator an average of $244,000. Lobbyists opposed to the bill (such as anti-poverty groups and consumer groups) coughed up only $38,000 per senator.
Surprise! The bill passed.
If you click “Timeline of Contributions,” you find out that — surprise again! — contributions to the lawmakers surged during the six weeks leading up to the vote. On this same page, you can click the name of a particular member of Congress to see how much money that person collected.
Another mind-blowing example: from the home page, click “California.” Click “Legislators,” then click “Fabian Nunez.” The resulting page shows you how much this guy has collected from each special-interest group — $2.2 million so far — and there, in black-and-white type, how often he voted their way.
Construction unions: 94 percent of the time. Casinos: 95 percent of the time. Law firms: 78 percent of the time. Seems as though if you’re an industry lobbyist, giving this fellow money is a pretty good investment.
A little time spent clicking through to these California lawmakers’ pages reveals a similar pattern in most of them.
(A few, on the other hand, appear to be deliciously contrary. Jim Brulte has accepted over $67,000 from the tobacco industry, but hasn’t voted in their favor a single time. Is that even ethical — I mean, by the standards of this whole sleazy business?)
For some reason, Maplight.org doesn’t reveal these “percent of the time” figures for United States Congress, only for California. You can easily see how much money each member has taken, but the column that correlates those figures with their voting record is missing.
Now, not all bills exhibit the same money-to-outcome relationships. And it’s not news that our lawmakers’ campaigns accept money from special interests. What this site does, however, is to expose, often embarrassingly, how that money buys votes.
I probably sound absurdly naïve here. But truth is, I can’t quite figure out why these contributions are even legal. Let the various factions explain their points till they’re blue in the face, sure — but to cut checks for millions of dollars?
Maplight.org isn’t always easy to figure out, and not all of its data is complete. In fact, it’s not even evident from the list of bills which ones have already been voted on — a distinct disappointment, since the juicy patterns don’t emerge until the vote is complete.
On the other hand, it’s painstakingly non-partisan. And it uses very good data; for example, the information on contributions comes from the Center for Responsive Politics (the nonprofit, nonpartisan research group behind OpenSecrets.org), and each special industry’s interests (for or against each bill) are taken exclusively from public declarations of support or opposition (Web sites, news articles, Congressional hearings and so on).
Spend a few minutes poking around. Check out a couple of the people you voted for. Have a look at how often their votes align with the interests of the lobbyists who helped to get them elected.
And be glad Maplight.org makes it so easy to spot those correlations.
[UPDATE: This very timely Times article hints that this new transparency might be gaining momentum:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/25/washington/25lobby.ht ml?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
–Pogue]"
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Daily Web Travels: aka "My RSS Fetish"
ok, so i have this thing where i'm constantly information hungry - techie stuff, crafty stuff, security stuff, programming stuff, design stuff, book whore (half price books, i love you), blah blah blah, the list goes on. and to make matters worse, my attention span is that of a goldfish...no i'm serious.
[side note about the short attention span thing: hasn't anyone noticed that almost all television programming is made that way? Don't believe me, watch MTV for a little bit. No camera shot gets more than 3-4 seconds on air time - and usually it's less than a second - creepy. we're being hand-fed AADD on a plate. moving on...]
OK, so how do i further worsen my need for information? RSS - Really Simply Syndicate (some people will call it something else - Rich Site Summary - stupid - HA!). Ok, so having said that, here are some of the RSS feeds i subscribe to and monitor on a sometimes minute-by-minute basis:
Jezebel:
I just found this one a few days ago. I think it just launched, too. It's a celeb blog run by 3 New York journalist with a twist - no "air-brushing" any information. I suppose Bust would be a good place to read up on stuff too, but I'm trying this one out for now.
Tutorial Blog:
Just as the title states - a web programming and design tutorial blog. I don't have a use for any of the Photoshop ones since i refuse to ever pay that much for an image editor. I'm sure there's more to it but....\\\///\\\///hatever!
Mashable!:
get all your news on what's going on in the world of social networking sites.
LifeHacker:
i love it - i love it - i love it! Not just for technology, but for life. Great site for getting technology to work for you and not the other way around.
Spoofee:
I purchased two 4 gig SD memory cards through Spoofee for $60 bux!
Digg.com:
...who doesn't subscribe to this?
Flickr:
...because I like looking at pictures. I'm all Pro now!
Google News reader:
all the news from the major sources all in one page...the page is so well laid out it makes me wanna cry (an AADD's dream come true!)
and an honorable mention to:
Woot: get over stock stuff for a crazy good price...limited quantity so they don't release the info until they have it...nerve racking. i avoid it like i do the auction site eBay ("...what?! I just clicked 'bid' and someone has already out-bid me?!?!? WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!").
From these sites I pretty much head everywhere else. It is still possible to concentrate on other things of course. However, I usually need to make a conscious effort to focus about 5 whole minutes in a task to get into it (about 15-20 for programming). It sux, but this way i keep things "well-rounded" and can take in lots of information while still being productive.
Ok...i think i feel better. back to work! :-)
[side note about the short attention span thing: hasn't anyone noticed that almost all television programming is made that way? Don't believe me, watch MTV for a little bit. No camera shot gets more than 3-4 seconds on air time - and usually it's less than a second - creepy. we're being hand-fed AADD on a plate. moving on...]
OK, so how do i further worsen my need for information? RSS - Really Simply Syndicate (some people will call it something else - Rich Site Summary - stupid - HA!). Ok, so having said that, here are some of the RSS feeds i subscribe to and monitor on a sometimes minute-by-minute basis:
Jezebel:
I just found this one a few days ago. I think it just launched, too. It's a celeb blog run by 3 New York journalist with a twist - no "air-brushing" any information. I suppose Bust would be a good place to read up on stuff too, but I'm trying this one out for now.
Tutorial Blog:
Just as the title states - a web programming and design tutorial blog. I don't have a use for any of the Photoshop ones since i refuse to ever pay that much for an image editor. I'm sure there's more to it but....\\\///\\\///hatever!
Mashable!:
get all your news on what's going on in the world of social networking sites.
LifeHacker:
i love it - i love it - i love it! Not just for technology, but for life. Great site for getting technology to work for you and not the other way around.
Spoofee:
I purchased two 4 gig SD memory cards through Spoofee for $60 bux!
Digg.com:
...who doesn't subscribe to this?
Flickr:
...because I like looking at pictures. I'm all Pro now!
Google News reader:
all the news from the major sources all in one page...the page is so well laid out it makes me wanna cry (an AADD's dream come true!)
and an honorable mention to:
Woot: get over stock stuff for a crazy good price...limited quantity so they don't release the info until they have it...nerve racking. i avoid it like i do the auction site eBay ("...what?! I just clicked 'bid' and someone has already out-bid me?!?!? WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!").
From these sites I pretty much head everywhere else. It is still possible to concentrate on other things of course. However, I usually need to make a conscious effort to focus about 5 whole minutes in a task to get into it (about 15-20 for programming). It sux, but this way i keep things "well-rounded" and can take in lots of information while still being productive.
Ok...i think i feel better. back to work! :-)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
MochiKit
"MochiKit is a highly documented and well tested, suite of JavaScript libraries that will help you get shit done, fast. We took all the good ideas we could find from our Python, Objective-C, etc. experience and adapted it to the crazy world of JavaScript."
Grab MochiKit here.
Wubi
WUBI: Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other application.
I've tried the Ubuntu LiveCD, but never Wubi...i wonder how this would work with SafeBoot? ;-)
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
AnalogX
The dude that runs this site is super talented. I haven't seen him release anything new for a couple of years, but the small utilities he has available (FOR FREE) are VERY, VERY HANDY! I remember using his Proxy program to setup a Windows 95 box as a proxy server to share a dial up connection with a Windows NT 4.0 box. ...I know what you're thinking, "why not have the NT box be the proxy?". I used AOL back then to connect (then changed to the then-free NetZero later on) to the Internet. AOL's software didn't function on my NT box. ...ok, whatever. I used a 4 port hub back then too, so laugh.
Here's the link to the NETWORKING software. Be sure to check out Shredder software under System too!
Life Hack - Preserve Your Credit Card Signatures
I picked this one up from a customer service person at Office Max. Signatures become faded or scratched away from constant swiping of credit / debit cards. Re-sign them and then put a piece of Scotch tape (a.k.a. cellophone or clear tape) over the signature. Make sure to avoid getting tape on the magnetic strip or else you might mess with the card readers reading your card (did that last part make sense?).
That's it - all done. All my cards are setup this way and I haven't had any trouble.
That's it - all done. All my cards are setup this way and I haven't had any trouble.
Kelly Puts Up the Congrats Flag!
I gave Kelly some OJT on using a drill and had her put up the new flag pole. My existing flag holder was too small for the "modern" flag poles so we had to drill up a new one.
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