N4IXT's QTH

Popcorn IS a Vegetable!!!

2007-09-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

OK, I've been having this friendly debate with long-suffering-wife over the last few days. I say popcorn is a vegetable! Think about it kids:

Popcorn is just corn that someone dried out and shoved in a package.
Nuke that dried out corn, and it explodes into popcorn.
Corn is sold on the veggie isle.
(At least that's what I'm told, I'm not quite sure where the veggie isle is. I may have seen it once though, as I recall it had a lot of cans down it. No, wait, I think that was the beer isle. Mmm, beer. I like beer. Goes well with popcorn. And peanuts. And Pizza. Hmm, I wonder if we have any? Oh, wait, better finish this first, I'm digesting. I mean digressing. Well, both actually. But anyway...)

Therefore: If popcorn comes from corn, and corn comes from the veggie isle, popcorn must be a vegetable!

That, my friends is what they call "infallible logic". I know, I know, you're weeping with joy over the beauty of it. Even Stephen Hawking is in awe over my brilliant reasoning abilities.

Long-suffering-wife, however, well let's just say she needs a little more convincing. (She thinks Hawking's 11 dimensional theory was a bit nutters, says there's gotta be more than that.)

SO, I need your help in convincing long-sufferning-wife. Perhaps the outcry of popular opinion will sway her more readily than the logical arguments of a geniuses such as myself or Stephen Hawking). If you agree with me, post your comment below! Vote yes to make popcorn the next thing in trendy veggies.

Read a Book Day

2007-09-06T04:53:00.000-07:00

Today is national Read A Book Day. Cool idea for a day, I think we need to encourage reading as much as we can.

Aside from the half dozen technical books I'm reading for work, for pleasure I'm reading "The Photographer's Eye" by Michael Freeman. Great book, he talks about things like composition and design, how your eye is drawn through the photo. How to use color and contrast to enhance your pictures. Most books tell you either how to use your camera or how to fix your photos once they're taken. Michael Freeman tells you how to take the photo right the first time.

So, what are you reading?

Squirrel Stew Anyone?

2007-08-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recall, some time back I found a dead possum floating in our hot tub. Well, it's happened again. Today, my wife found a dead squirrel floating in our kids swimming pool.

Courageous individual that she was, she used a shovel to fish the deceased out and give it an improper burial. In order to repay her fearless but stomach turning act I took her out to dinner.

It makes me wonder though, what it is about my property that compels small rodents to commit suicide in our watery pools?

Still, you have to admit "Dead Possums in the Hot Tub" makes a great name for a band. "Dead Squirrels in the Swimming Pool" is good but not near as catchy.

Tighty Whities

2007-08-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Today is National Underwear Day. I'm not quite sure who thinks of these things, or why we need a day to celebrate our underwear. I also find it a bit suspicious that we celebrate underwear the day after national happiness day.

So I wonder, just what is one supposed to do in order to celebrate? Wear it? I pretty much do that every day, so nothing special there.

Not wear any? Hmm, OK if you're a hot babe like Angelina Jolie or my wife, but there are others I'd just as soon keep as much clothing on as I can (think people named Rosie).

Wear some kind of fancy thing, like a thong? Man, I can't imagine how that'd be. Every time I reached across the table for another nacho chip I'd give myself a wedgie.

Are you supposed to do something special for your underwear, like get a cardboard box to keep it in, or perhaps wash it more than once every month or two?

Well, no matter how you choose to do it, I wish you and your under garments the warmest wishes of the season, and many happy returns.

Don't Worry Be Happy

2007-08-08T04:35:00.000-07:00

According to the Secret Society of Happy People, today August 8th is National Happiness Happens Day. According to them you should spread happiness and joy where ever you go. Oh, and wear Silver, according to them silver is the color of happiness as happy people can find the silver lining in things.

So go out, smile at everyone you meet, spread a little happiness. Assuming of course you can do so without getting slapped with a harassment lawsuit or drug off to the funny farm.

In closing, let me spread a little happiness with a joke.

A cheeseburger walks into a bar. The bartender yells "Hey! We don't serve food here."

Fish Pirate

2007-07-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

Rory Blyth, programmer, Dot Net Rocks co-host, and Microsoft Channel 9 star has turned to the dark side. He's now a FISH PIRATE!

Egad. next thing you know he'll be running Linux.

Proper Estate Planning

2007-07-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

A young single man got the bad news that his very rich father had less than two weeks to live. An only child, and his mother having passed away some time ago, he was due to inherit the entire fortune.

Deciding he didn't want to be alone, and that he could now afford a bride, he began to visit single bars. Finally he founds the most incredibly beautiful woman. He tells her of the vast fortune he is about to inherit, and asks her to marry him.

He takes the young lady home to meet his dying father, and just three days later she walks down the aisle and becomes his new stepmother.

A proud day...

2007-07-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

My wife wasn't feeling well today, so I decided to take the kids and get out of the house and give her some peace and quiet. Just before lunch, the kids and I set out to do some wholesome activities.

First we we went to go eat, eating's pretty wholesome. We went to one of my favorite places Richards BBQ ( http://www.richardsbbqandgrill.com/ ), home of the world's best Mushroom-Swiss Burger. Some fries and onion rings and I was in business. Note I said wholesome, not necessarily healthy. But hey my birthday's next week.

I say that not as an excuse, just a reminder. Rush out now to get gifts. Gift certificates to Richards are a good choice, or a Nikon 70-300mm zoom lens would be nifty too. But I digress.

After lunch we swung by the library, another bastion of wholesomeness. Well, except for the section on human sexuality. You ever see what they have in there? Weird stuff dude. Our trip got cut short by the librarian. She said all the giggling was bothering the other patrons. My kids kept telling me to hush, but I couldn't help it!

Our next stop was the toy store. Let me assure you reader, there is NOTHING wholesome about a toy store on a Saturday afternoon! Kids running wild, sales associates were plying us with sale papers. After one such experience in the past I went home and watched "Halloween". Laughed all the way through, thought it was comedy. Dracula? Frankenstein? Amateurs compared to the sugared up, hyped up hooligans running amok in the isles.

After escaping, I mean leaving from the toy store, we made a quick stop at our local big box discount mart to grab some milk. Milk, nice and wholesome. Big box discount mart? Well if you listen to my mother-in-law, they're out to take over the world.

On the way home Anna, the youngest was looking at her new doll (you don't honestly think we escaped the toy store empty handed, do you?) and said "Hey there's a black stripe on her butt. Oh wait, it's just her underwear."

"I thought she'd already poo'd her pants." I told her.

Anna quickly replied "How rude! I mean... How rude!" Her mother would be proud.

The funniest part of the day however was during the trip in. We were in my wife's mini-van, and Raven picked up the sun shade and was looking at the Disney characters. All of a sudden I hear a girlish grunt from the back seat. I then hear Raven blurt out...

"Alright Mickey! Back off pretty boy, or I'll eat your ashes for breakfast!" Her mother would be horrified.

Sniffle. I was so proud.

I'm a Weirdo

2007-07-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

My wife wrote a post the other day about missing me while I was busy doing geeky things. I'm sure some will think it sappy, but I appreciate it as I missed her too. I guess to some it sounds odd, but I actually LIKE hanging out with my bride. After 10+ years she's still a lot of fun to be around. So, I guess I am a weirdo. But I'm a happy weirdo.

Down the Drain

2007-07-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

News agencies are flush with excitement over the announcement: There's a city in China opening a public bathroom with 1,000 toilet stalls. Here's three such stories:

CBS: http://shrinkster.com/qto
Denver Post: http://shrinkster.com/qtp
North GA News: http://shrinkster.com/qtq

1,000 toilets. Sounds like a huge load of crap to me.

Leftovers

2007-07-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

There's something about leftover spaghetti. After it has a day to sit in the fridge the spices seem to blend so nicely, it's almost better than when it was first cooked.

Yum.

Go for it...

2007-07-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

This morning in the kitchen the Mrs. (http://southerntinkerbelle.com) was getting a bit sassy. I told my oldest daughter, Raven to come in that she needed to tell her dear mom she needed to take it easy.

Instead Ravy walks around behind her, pats her on the back and says "Go for it Big Mama!"

Haven't laughed so hard in quite a while.

Nothing

2007-07-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

I know how little Georgie feels, some days I like to blog about nothing too.

http://beingfive.blogspot.com/2007/07/nothing.html

Mr. Wizard

2007-06-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

TV's Mr. Wizard, a.k.a. Don Herbert passed away June 12th, 2007 at the tender young age of 89. For decades Mr. Wizard made science interesting and fun. I got into Mr. Wizard in the 80's when he was on Nickelodeon. And yes even though the show was aimed at kids, I was already in my 20's. That shows you how good he was, he made a show for kids interesting to young adult geeks.

One of his big themes was making science accessible to everyone, showing how anyone could do science at home. I guess in some way he was a real for runner of the Web 2.0 movement, showing how anyone can do fun science with what they have on hand and not having to rely on some big company. Naturally Mr. Wizard's on the web, you can view his official site and read more at http://www.mrwizardstudios.com/.

My condolences to the Herbert family, the science world is a little dimmer now without Mr. Wizard.

What's your slogan?

2007-06-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

My sister has started a rather interesting thread on her blog, http://www.digitaldivas.net/2007/06/11/ask-any-mermaid-you-happen-to-see/#comment-684 , take a look and see how many you can recall.

In other link love, my lovely wife got her own domain, go see her at http://southerntinkerbelle.com .

Slacker

2007-05-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit it, I've been neglecting my poor N4IXT blog, working on my professional posts over at http://arcanecode.com.

My cute wife however has started blogging again, after finally recovering her password. I don't have such a handy excuse, I've just been a slacker.

I Smell Smoke!

2007-02-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

There's an old Bill Cosby comedy routine where he talks about going to the dentist. "I smell smoke!" at one point he tells his doctor. I always thought that was just humor. Until today.

I had a root canal today. I had a crown and the tooth underneath had abscessed, and yes I probably should have had it taken care of a while ago but you know the classic "I was busy..." excuse comes into play.

Anyway, at one point he's drilling trying to get the old crown off, and I swear I smelled smoke two or three times! It was quite a bizarre experience. To add to the strangeness, my dentist told me to take ibuprofen every four hours for the next couple of days. Since we didn't have any I stopped in at the grocery store, grabbed a bottle of the generic stuff. I was getting hungry so I popped into the sandwich shop next door to grab a sub. Walking in who is there but my torturer, oops I mean dentist!

And yes, it does hurt. (In all fairness to my dentist he was very good, I had no pain during the procedure. I had let it get inflamed and now it's throbbing. Again.) I had quite a headache and came home early, laid down and slept for quite a few hours. My darling wife fed me some dinner, I just did a little work and now, well I think I'm going back to bed as the throbbing returns.

And yes, it still hurts.

Keeping Harmony In The Family

2007-02-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna buy a crate of these things and pass them out just before Thanksgiving Dinner.

http://www.flat-d.com/ininpi1.html

39 Steps To Wisdom

2007-01-31T05:24:00.000-08:00

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

2. Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often.

3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and the narrowness of the waist change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.

25. It ain't the jeans that make your butt look fat.

26. If you had to identify, in 1 word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, & never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."

27. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

28. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

29. You should not confuse your career with your life.

30. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

31. Never lick a steak knife.

32. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

33. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.

34. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

35. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

36. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

37. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

38. Your friends love you anyway.

39. Thought for the day: Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Meatloaf Mamma

2007-01-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

Being a ham I have regular ham club meetings where we have our regular eyeball QSOs (conversations) about what's going on in the amateur radio community. After the regular meeting we have our post meeting meeting, usually at some restaurant where we eat and shoot the breeze. My guy night out.

Well for reasons that aren't relevant I had to leave after the regular meeting (happens to us working stiffs sometimes) and missed the post meeting meeting. As a courtesy I let my wife know I'd be home early as I had to jump on the PC and take care of stuff.

Well that lovely woman felt so bad that I had to miss out on my guy time, that even though it wasn't her fault when I got home she'd made my favorite meal, her world famous meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I dunno what I did to deserve such a great babe, but I sure love my meatloaf mamma!

Working Alone

2007-01-15T16:11:00.000-08:00

Today is Martin Luther King's Birthday, a holiday for both the Government and where I work. Unfortunately my work load was such that I had to come in today. Here I am, all by my little lonesome, waiting on Visual Studio Service Pack 1 to install.

I must say though, it's been rather nice. I've been the only one here. Almost no e-mails, no phone calls at all, no coworkers, the coffee pot all to myself. Peace and Quiet to get things done. Hmm, I wonder if I could get away with sending a company e-mail declaring the entire week a holiday?

The day hath arrived

2006-12-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

Well, it's late Christmas day. The toys are all open and more importantly assembled. Kids are frolicking, my wife is taking advantage of decent internet connectivity, dead animals are roasting in the oven to delicious yumminess. We're having mashed potatoes just like mom used to make. I think this is because mom made them, but I can't be sure.

Various vegetable casseroles are cooking, a nice squash casserole and everyone's favorite, green bean casserole with the little dried onion thingies on top.

My wife got me a possum for Christmas. Not a real one, I've had enough of those, but a stuffed one. I've decided to name him Floyd the Ferocious. Nice possum sounding name. I found a possum floating in my hot tub last year, just before Thanksgiving. Yeah, I know, you're thinking "hey, possum stew, when do we eat". Well this guy had been floating for a few days and had turned the water a murky brown and stank. I fished what was left of him out (where's Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame when you really need him?). Chunks of said possum had already begun to fall off, so I only had enough time to drain the tub before we left town.

We happened to be in a Cracker Barrel at some point this year when we saw the possum and I made a crack about it resembling the one in the hot tub, so my wife decided to get it to commemorate the occasion. How sweet!

Now let's eat...

Man Cooking

2006-12-23T20:39:00.000-08:00

Every so often I like to cook. Nothing fancy, my wife will be the first to tell you me in a kitchen is like Paris Hilton at a Mensa convention. Just don't seem to fit in.

Still, I can handle simple things. By that I mean don't ask me to try and cook several dishes at once. One pot is about all I can handle. Chili, for example, I make a decent pot of chili. Or "Whatcha got stew", whereby I find some sort of meat, like a nice turkey sausage, and throw it in a frying pan along with whatever vegetables I can find.

I've also discovered my utensils of choice are wooden. I don't know why, but wooden utensils just seem more... manly somehow. They have a nice heft to them, unlike the dainty plastic. Metal would be OK, if it weren't for the fact that they scratch up my wife's pans then I have to blame the scratches on the dog. Of course she never believes me and starts beating me with the pans anyway. Hmm, I wonder if we actually had a dog maybe she might start believing me. Might have to try that sometime. But I digress...

Yes, for now I think wood utensils are nicest for cooking. Don't have to worry about melting them (like I did with her spatula) or breaking them in the dishwasher (like I did with the ladel).

Sometimes some of the best dishes don't even take more than a simple knife to make. Take my famous nutty dogs for example. Get a hotdog bun, spread out a layer of peanut butter. Now sprinkle on some chopped onions. Now go nuke a hot dog in the microwave for a minute or three, once cooked plunk in the bun. Yum! A tasty treat that'll stick to the roof of your mouth.

Happy Anniversary

2006-12-22T21:53:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to take a second to wish my wonderful wife a happy 10th anniversary. For a decade now my long suffering bride has had to put up with the likes of me. For that she deserves a gold medal, but all I can do is offer my undying love.

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

That special gift for the special someone in your life

2006-12-14T20:07:00.000-08:00

Do you have the person on your list you hate to buy gifts for. You know, that person who seems to have everything? Or maybe it's a person who you want to send "that special message to". Well have I got the gift for you.

http://shrinkster.com/km1

Yes, you can now buy a one of a kind, hand crafted (well, I think they used their hands anyway, might have been some other body part) item for that persnickity person on your gift list. Avoid the Christmas rush, buy now.

Celebrity Deaths

2006-12-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

Found an odd site for tracking celebrity deaths: http://www.celebritydeathbeeper.com/. Let's you see who croaked! Important if you're a celebrity obsessed person who likes to send flowers.

Election Results

2006-11-08T04:44:00.000-08:00

I braved the pouring rain, crazy drivers and highway 280 in order to cast my vote first thing in the morning yesterday. I wasn't particularly enthused about any of the candidates, sadly I think I joined the legions of folks who were more voting against people than actually for someone.

By the time last night rolled around I had suffered through weeks of political ads, campaign speeches and news pundits giving me their opinions. So while millions sat in front of the TV, tuned to the news channels eagerly watching the election results, I happily tuned in to an evening of my favorite show Dirty Jobs.

In case you've been under a rock or don't have a decent TV provider, Dirty Jobs (http://www.discovery.com/dirtyjobs) is a show where the host Mike Rowe goes out and attempts to learn how to do a dirty job. He's inspected sewers, processed pig slop, picked up garbage, cleaned out sewer drains and septic tanks, fought fires, saved seals, mined coal, demolished buildings, moved buildings, sexed both chickens and alligators (although not at the same time), dug for guiducks, and more.

After all the politics I was feeling dirty, and needed something that would make me feel clean, and Dirty Jobs was just the thing. Besides I had this strange thought that if I sat and watched all the election results it actually wouldn't make a difference to the outcome, and by golly I was right.

Best of all I knew I wouldn't have to deal with any politicians. Politics is a job so dirty even Mike Rowe wouldn't touch it.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2006-11-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

Oy vey, it's already started. Here it is, the day after Halloween, and I've already seen ads for Christmas. And not one but two in the span of an hour. Egad. To make it even worse my lovely wife, while we were driving to take the kids trick or treating was singing Christmas Carols! I feel like Charlie Brown. Christmas has just gotten too commercial.

Speaking of Halloween, took the kids trick or treating. Here's a shot of their costumes, both hand made by my talented bride.

I also took a pretty cool picture of our pumpkins.

Let me beat the rush, and be the first to wish you Happy New Year!

I Hate Petty Crooks

2006-10-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

In some cases, these petty crooks are even worse than a someone who commits grand larceny. While police extend quite a bit of effort to go after the big guys, all to often (and this is no reflection on the police, most are personally interested in doing a good job) they are so overloaded they don't have time for "petty crime" so more often than not it goes unpunished.

Take this case: A fellow geek has a really cool license plate. WEB GEEK. (Pretty cool if I do say so.) Anyway, she comes out of work to discover someone has stolen it! All because the crook thought it would look nicer on his wall than on her car. Now the poor victim has to take time off of work to try and get a replacement, IF she can get one.

So if you are in California, or maybe cruising e-bay, and see a California issued license plate with WEB GEEK on it, go over to Dori's blog (http://www.backupbrain.com/2006_10_15_archive.html#a004964) and tell her where you found it.

She says all she wants is her plate back. Personally I'd like to see her get her plate back AND to have to have the perpetrator slapped so hard fecal matter explodes from his buttocks, painting the sidewalk such a deep brown it's stained for years.

Holiday Gift Ideas

2006-10-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

In case someone in my family, or a complete stranger with a severe generosity complex, reads this and is looking for a gift for me, I want one of these:

A Gift For Me

I'm not sure why, just looks like quite the thing to liven up a party.

Where oh where, are you tonight...

2006-09-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

In case you may be wondering why I've been a bit scant lately... I decided to split my blog. Kind of like a stock split only I'm still poor. Anyway, this blog will remain for my personal stuff, rants, etc.

My "professional" stuff will be at:
http://arcanecode.wordpress.com

Keep coming here for family updates and my observations on life. Speaking of observations, Tinkie has gotten a spurt of activity and is suddenly updating her blog regularly, go check it out, leave her a comment or two.

Who stole my planet???

2006-08-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Scientists today got together and proclaimed that Pluto was no longer a planet. School textbooks are rapidly being updated to change the description of Pluto from "our solar system's 9th planet" to "yet another useless hunk of space crap floating around the sun and generally making a nusance of itself".

Meanwhile speculation rages on about the existance of another planet beyond Pluto's orbit, formerly known as Planet X. It was called Planet X because it would have been the 10th planet and X, as we all know, is the Roman numeral for 10. I suspect they will continue to call it planet X, since planet IX just doesn't have the same catchy ring in Madison Ave. marketing circles.

The existance of Planet X (IX?) has been put forth as a way to explain the erratic orbit of Neptune, which wanders through the solar system on a long eliptical orbit, even going beyond Pluto for part of it's run. The gravity that little Pluto exerts is not enough to explain the wild orbit of Neptune, hence the speculation of another full fledged planet.

Frankly I think Neptune is just a slush who can't hold his cheap booze and goes wandering about the galaxy like a drunken sailor on his first night of shore leave. And no matter what that rip off artist Stephen Hawking will claim, that's my theory and I thought of it first!

The Perfect Baked Potato

2006-08-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

It is rare one encounters perfection at lunch. Today my family and I ate lunch at our favorite eatery, Richard's BBQ and Grill. I had my second favorite dish, hamburger steak smothered in mushrooms and onion gravy, cole slaw, and a baked potato.

But, it wasn't just a baked pototato. No, this was a perfect baked potato. The insides were fluffy and soft, with just the right amount of butter. The outside had been coated with a tasty butter salt, and was the perfect texture. Not too hard, not to soft. Every savory bite melted in my mouth.

You're probably thinking I'm leading some where. Perhaps make some grand comparison of the baked potato with the nature of man or something. I'm not.

It was just a darn good potato.

73

Corporate Blogging

2006-08-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've seen for myself how powerful the blogosphere can be when it comes to disseminating news. Robert Scobel's departure from Microsoft spread like wildfire in the blog world. Corporate blogging can be just as powerful.

Speaking of Scoble, I found a story on his site about a company that is doing corporate blogging the correct way. DreamHost is web hosting firm who apparently has been experiencing some power issues, as well as a few networking issues. In their blog, they are very open about the issues they are having, what they are doing to fix them, and accepting the blame when they are at fault.

What really struck me though was the comments. Well over 200 last time I checked, and the majority all seemed to be in support of the company, and largely due to the fact that DreamHost was so open and honest about the problems. Further, customers seemed to feel like DreamHost had learned from it's (and others) mistakes, and was taking efforts to correct them.

Imagine the brand loyalty that would be created if more companies had corporate blogs that were open, honest, and forthright about their products and services. All because of a blog.

73

Happy Endings

2006-08-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

I love a story with a happy ending. Especially when it involves an axe murderer and a rash.

http://neopoleon.com/blog/posts/23893.aspx

73

Happy Birthday

2006-07-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a bit since my last post. Late June / Early July has been a very busy month. I did three sessions at a code camp for the Birmingham Software Developers Association. Then next weekend I acted as Field Day Chairman for the combined Shelby County and Birmingham Radio Clubs Field Day.

My next two were busy with travel to see relatives. We had a good time, a bunch of us went to Six Flags. I also got to spend a little time at Kennesaw Mountain, a Civil War park. Picked up an interesting biography on General George Thomas, a Virginian who stayed loyal to the Union. (My wife keeps referring to him as "that turncoat"). Fighting primarily in the Tennessee theater, he became known as the "Rock of Chickamauga".

Among all the other fun I also managed to earn my CTM (Competent ToastMaster) award. I have a lot of fun doing public speaking, and earning a CTM has been something I always said "one of these days". Well, like my ham radio license that's another "one of these days" items I can check off. I'm still looking forward to going up the ranks, there are multiple levels you can achive within the Toastmasters organization. It's nice to have personal challenges.

I turned 41 today. Can't tell much difference, except now the doc wants to be REEEEAL good friends with me once a year (can you say "bend over and cough"?). I always have thought the concept of birthdays was rather odd. Why should I get a gift just because I was born? I certainly had nothing to do with it. I've always thought it would make more sense to give my parents, or at least my mother the gift for birthing me, then putting up with me while I was a pain in the butt all those years.

So here's to you mom, thanks and happy birthday!

WinFX to become .Net 3.0

2006-06-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

In a move destined to rival that of the decision to release Microsoft Bob, MS Marketing has decided to rebrand WinFX as .Net 3.0. Yes, the components Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), along with the newly named Windows CardSpace (WCS, formerly known as InfoCard) have all been lumped into the .Net Framework.

To help with the confusion, the Common Language Runtime (CLR) will continue to be 2.0, although it will be included in the framework, as will VB.Net 2.0 and C# 2.0. This brings all sorts of questions about version numbering when the 3.0 versions of CLR/C#/VB are ready to ship, questions which Microsoft is not yet ready to answer.

Don't get me wrong, I love the new toys being shipped in the Framework Formerly Known as FX. I really do. But I just don't think they need to be included in the CORE Framework. Now if I need to create a widely distributed .Net app that simply does not require the new FX features, my users are still going to incur a huge download. Even with broadband 22 meg (todays current framework distribution) is a hefty hunk to download.

I would have greatly preferred MS to have stuck with their original plan and created a .Net Framework Extensions library we could choose to use or not, and kept it all seperate. Frankly it would have made even better sense to have broken the Framework Formerly Known as FX into it's component libraries and let us install or not. I can sort of buy WPF needing to be everywhere, but how many average users are going to need WF or WCF installed on their boxes?

But then again, I could be wrong. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Oh, and remember Shakespear's line about shooting all the lawyers? Let's put the marketing folks in line next.

Armegeddon! Armegeddon!

2006-06-08T04:09:00.000-07:00

Did anyone happen to notice the world didn't end on 6-6-06? I didn't notice it myself until last night. Not that I expected much, after all 6-6-06 only happens every hundred years or so.

Family Time

The same day the world was supposed to end, my youngest graduated from Kindergarten. Of course I'm the proud papa, both my kids are geniuses. I had snagged a spot on the second row so I could get good shots, and while we were waiting on things to kick off I notice a guy with his kid, and he had the little bluetooth earpiece in his ear. For some reason it bothered me.

Now, I don't know the guy. Maybe he was a doctor or something and needs to be on call at a moments notice. But an awful lot of folks have this exaggerated need for connectivity. Cellphones, blackberries, and other tools keep us on a short leash. But I have to wonder how many folks really need that level of connectivity? How many times have you been talking with someone when their "device" goes off and they effectively put you on hold until they chat with whomever. In effect they are saying that the unknown person at the other end of this gizmo is more important than you, the person standing right there.

I reached down, turned off my cellphone, and left it off the rest of the night. Try it sometime.

Blogcast?

2006-06-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Over on today's blog posting at Rory Blyth's, he mentions that Carl Franklin wants to do a new short podcast, based on Rory's blogs. Each one would be around 10 minutes or so, and have Rory reading a recent blog plus maybe a few of the wittier comments.

I really like the idea of a Blogcast. Remember you heard that trendy new term here first! Unless of course you just came from reading my comment on Rory's site, in which case you heard it there first, but either way remember it was I who coined the term. I figure I won't be doing much else notable in life so I might as well grab credit for something, even if it's as lame as coining a hot new word.

Anyway, the idea of a short blogcast appeals to me. Often I only have a brief amount of time, and a minishow like this would be perfect. Taking a morning shower would be made more productive when adding some interesting dialog to ponder.

So follow the link to Rory's and encourage him to do the blogcast. It could be the first of a whole new wave, and you can help start it! Sort of like a Tsunami only without all the salt water.

73

Blogging Babe

2006-05-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well well well, my dear wifey finally did it. Went out and got her own blog. Yes dear friends, now our arguments are not limited to our home, driveway, and the wal-mart parking lot. Now we can carry our complaints to the world wide web!

Seriously, her first posting was very entertaining, you should pop over and tell The Southern Tinker Bell what you tink. I mean think.

Just call me 8 toes...

Had the toenail on my left toe ripped off Friday. Of course it was under controlled conditions and the doc had numbed me all up, so it didn't hurt until later. She (the doc) did my big toe on right foot about 6 weeks ago, so I'm down to 8 toenails now. At least they won't grow in crooked anymore and slice into my feet. Shouldn't grow back at all, based on the amount of acid gunk they dumped down it.

Of course the toe ain't half as bad as the anti-infection meds. Oh sure the toe bleeds everywhere and throbs and looks nasty. But the dad-gum meds give me constant nausea and headaches. Sort of like being sea-sick with out having to pay lots of money to a cruise line. Ugh.

New user group...

I joined yet another user group tonight. This one is rather interesting, their focus is not so much on coding, i.e. how to's but on methodologies. If you are in the area check out the Magic City Technology Council.

Civil War Reenactment

As my darling spouse mentioned in her blog, we went to a Civil War reenactment over the weekend. Because of my toe we stayed a short time. Showed up just before the battle, got good seats and kicked back for a while and enjoyed then headed home. This was one of the better shots I got during the height of the battle.

Required Reading

2006-05-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

I found a real gem on the web:

Code Smells on Coding Horror

I highly suggest every coder read through the list to look for scent of code in need of refactoring. I've made it mandatory reading for my team.

73

The Great Pony Rescue

2006-05-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Every so often my wife and I each take a kid and have "date night" with them. Gives them time apart, and one on one time with a parent. This time my oldest was with my wife, and wanted to stay home and scrapbook.

My youngest however decided she wanted to find a new "My Little Pony" for her collection. Off we went on the adventure. We finally wound up at the toy store, and she found two she really wanted. Since they were only five bucks each I said what the heck and got 'em both, thereby avoiding 20 minutes of "I can't decide".

We "rescued" the ponies from the toy store, and of course they were hungry. Everyone knows a pony's favorite food is "red dot pizza" (pepperoni). So we head to the pizza place where the new ponies got well fed.

Afterward my five year old decided one of the ponies was still a little nervous, but an ice cream cone would make the pony feel better. Hey, I'd hate to leave a pony feeling all stressed out, so over to the DQ we went for some chocolate dipped cones.

We sat out front and ate cones, and pontificated about the evenings adventures. (Nothing quite like a pontificating five year old for entertainment). We decided to call our adventure "The Great Pony Rescue". And so we did.

73

15 Minutes of Fame??

2006-05-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

I just heard the old phrase "15 minutes of fame" on TV. Of course they were talking about that idiotic idol show, but it still got me wondering...

I wonder if the proliferation of blogs today is simply to feed the ego of ourselves, a way of feeding our need for "fame".

To late at night (or too early in the morning) for such deep thoughts... Drop a comment and let me know what you think, I'll respond when I'm more awake.

73

Code Camp Part 2

2006-05-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

Our code camp last weekend was a great success, at least as far as I'm concerned. Part 2 will be held Friday evening June 16 and Saturday June 17. I volunteered to teach three of the chapters, doing master / detail pages in ASP.Net, Object Binding, and Web Services. As they say, ya'll come! The event is sponsored by the BSDA.

Found a cool item (literally) at the last code camp. One of the other attendees had one of these: http://shrinkster.com/f4x It's a Targus Notebook Platform. It's sold with the idea that it cools the laptop, but to me the nice feature is that it elevates the back of your laptop up an inch or so (it's adjustable to your liking).

I'm amazed at how much easier it is to type with just that little bit of elevation. Plus the base swivels, and it will indeed keep your pricy laptop cooler. If you have an ultrawide laptop like I do, it comes with an add on bar to help stabalize the width, and it works. Very stable. Well worth the few bucks.

73

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the mothers in my life.

First off is my grandmother Pearl, N4SGJ. Without her, Dad wouldn't be around, and it's pretty much his fault I turned out to be a nerd. Little did he know the corruption he would cause when he brought home that TRS-80 oh those many years ago. And she's a ham too, so she's indirectly responsible for two addictions in my life. Hmm, maybe she's a dealer?

Next is my own mother Peggy, who nutured me and took care of me and even wiped my butt from a tender young age. I just wish she'd stop. Mom: I've figured out how the whole TP thing works, OK?

Then there is the other Peggy, my mother in law. Without her I wouldn't have the hot babe who I tricked into marrying me. Thanks for being a cheapskate and leaving the porch light off so we could go parking behind the house.

And speaking of the hot babe, thanks to my long suffering wife Ammie. She takes care of our little darlings with tender loving care, and way more patience than I could ever muster. Thanks sweet-ums!

Happy Mother's Day!

73 & 88

New Look

2006-05-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

I decided that while the basic black was quite stylish, it was a pain to read. I picked this color scheme and hacked it a bit to make what you see now. I still need to fiddle with it some, but the black text on white is a LOT easier to read.

Oh well, it could have been worse, at least I didn't do the whole thing in Pepto Pink!

Code Camp

2006-05-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

I just completed my first mini code camp. Lots of fun. Small group, about 8 to 10 of us, but I learned a whole lot. This session concentrated on ASP.NET 2.0, covered a lot of the basics. We covered the first half of the book Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming with C# 2005. Pretty good book, I have never looked at the Murach's series much before, but it has lots of "oh by the way, here's a critical little piece of knowledge you must get xyz to work" types of things.

At the next session in June we'll do the second half of the book. I volunteered to teach several of the chapters at the next session, I love to teach and give speeches and what not so I'm looking forward to it.

Speaking of speeches, one more and I'll have finished my basic Toastmasters certification. Apparently public speaking seems to be one of the biggest fears that people have. Never quite understood that as I love hamming it up in front of others.

My point of this entire post is: get involved. Go join a local user group. Join a local toastmasters club. Just do something to get involved with your local professional community. You'll learn a lot, make new friends, and have a lot of fun in the process!

By the way, thanks to Microsoft for the pizza and donuts they sent us today! Easier to learn on a full tummy! And thanks to the BSDA for putting this on, and letting a couple of newcomers (my friend Bin came along to the camp with me) join 'em at the last minute.

73

Programmer Font

2006-05-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

I'm literally sitting here in a ASP.NET 2.0 code camp, and when I mentioned the Consolas font everyone wanted a link. Soooooo.....

http://shrinkster.com/f0s

This is a link to the Cosolas font pack at the Microsoft website. This is the new programmers font for Vista, but we can start using it now. Be warned! You must have "ClearType" enabled on your system in order for it to look good, otherwise it looks like two week old leftover chicken fried rice.

To set or ClearType, right click on the desktop and pick properties.
Now click the Appearance tab.
Click the Effects button.
In the dialog, make sure "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen faults" is checked on.
In the drop down underneath it, make sure ClearType is picked.
Click OK a few times until you are back to the desktop.

Even if you don't go get the Consolas font it's worth turning on ClearType for better system fonts.

I've heard Cosoloas doesn't always look good when using it under Remote Desktop, although I haven't tried it yet.

A special thanks to Marcos over on the DevExpress newsgroups for finding this and posting it!

73

Interfacing at User Groups

2006-05-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

I attended a rather good user group meeting this week. The Birmingham .Net User Group had Doug Turnure of Microsoft come give a speech on Interfaces in .Net. What a great speech! I'm really sold on the use of interfaces in my apps and just how powerful they are in reguards to extensibility.

I also have to give Doug a big "Atta Boy" award for making it to the meeting that night. This poor guy had to fight Atlanta Airport traffic, then I-20 construction delays, then a blinding rainstorm just to make it to our meeting. Took him six hours to make the two and a half hour trip! Atta Boy Doug!!

I'm also excited because another group I joined recently, the Birmingham Software Developers Association is putting on an ASP.NET 2.0 mini-code camp tonight and all day Saturday. It'll be nice to flex my muscles in the ASP arena, I've done reading and other classes, but most of my coding to date has been WinForms. I'm dying to get to work on some ASP 2.0 stuff.

73

Good Food, Good Friends

2006-05-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

I'm at a company sponsored retreat right now at Mt Cheaha. It's the highest point in the state of Alabama. Our IT group rented the entire lodge. It's not huge, 12 bedrooms, but there's only 12 of us so it works out. And with my laptop, dial in connection and a 25 foot phone cord I can still get my daily internet fix.

For dinner we have two chefs in the group who did an expert job out on the bbq grill behind the lodge. Chicken, steaks, and deer sausage filled us up nicely along with some potatoes, corn on the cob and onions all boiled together along with a little crab boil.

For you folks north of the Mason-Dixon line, crab boil is this little bag of seasoning that you toss into boiling water, along with whatever you are cooking. Yes, as you might expect from the name it was designed for crab, but works great with just veggies, or shrimp, or what have you.

We had a really good time cooking. In addition to our two master chefs, another fellow and myself served as assistants. I have problems cooking toast, but am an expert taste tester, and am decent at fetching things from the kitchen. The four of us had such a good time, we're talking about entering some of the BBQ contests they have around here.

While we were busy by the grill the rest of the team was busy inside, getting tables ready, setting silverware (OK plastic wear, but it was at least colored silver), and preparing drinks. A real team effort that resulted in lots of laughter and good times over the food.

The finale was the peach cobbler. One of our chefs has a cast iron dutch oven. Apparently this thing will sit down in the fire, and the lid is designed so you can pile more coals on top. He mixed up a cobbler right there at the grill and baked it in the fire and man alive that was some good eatin'!

Hmm, everyone else is in bed, and as I recall there was a little bit of that cobbler left over. Me thinks it's time for a midnight cobbler raid!

73

Toys For Coding Boys

2006-04-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Seems like every developer with a blog inevitably posts his list of favorite coding toys. So I figure, who am I to buck the trend? Without further delay, here's my list of favorites...

Programming Toys

Code Rush - Without a doubt, this is THE coding tool you need if you are a Visual Studio developer. I will NEVER code without it again. It combines nifty code templates with refactoring tools and visual coding aids. Plus the support for this thing is unparalleled. The site hosts short, 5 to 15 minute training videos that will get you started. The newsgroups are regularly browsed by the guys who write and use it.

Visual Studio 2005 - Yeah, I know, all you Microsoft bashers out there are ready to start picking at MS. I've been using their development tools since Basic Compiler 1.0 (yeah I'm an old fart). I even recall VB for MSDOS! So VS2005 is really a great development environment. I don't know of any tool that is as complete as this one. You can knock MS all you want, but their tools have kept me employed since the 80's.

DPack - From USysWare is a nifty but overlooked little set of free utilities for VS 2003/5. The "surround with" feature is especially useful.

General Use Toys

UltraEdit - No one should be without this powerful text editor. This is the best tool I have ever downloaded, period. It's a text editor, so what makes it better than notepad? Oh how do I count the ways.

It has a Column mode, for cutting and pasting columns of text. It has View As templates for Syntax Highlighting. Included are C#, VB (6 and .Net), Java, XML, HTML and more. You can also download additional templates for Perl, PHP, and more. Can't find one? You can make your own too!

Big Files? Oh yeah. Using it's built in FTP capabilities I downloaded a 1.2 GIG log file from the server. Took a while to download, but once to my laptop it flew through it with no problems. Has a built in macro language, search and replace (can use regular expressions!). So go look at it already, you won't be disappointed. This is the one tool I use every day without fail.

PS Hot Launch - This handy little tool will let you create a custom menu for your system. Then you can tie it to a set of custom defined hot keys to bring up the menu, or items in the menu. For example, I use Win+Alt+Z to pop up the menu. In the menu I created shortcuts for each of my hard disks. Now I can get to them either through Win+Alt+Z and picking the drive in the menu, or hitting Win+Ctrl+C for drive C, etc. It's free, and quite handy if you are a keyboard junkie.

SlickRun - Cool little utility, puts a command line anywhere you want on the desktop. Single line, you can key in any command you want. Additionally, you can define shortcuts of your own. vs, for example now brings up visual studio for me. And it's free!

FreeRamXP Pro - Handy little memory monitor and compactor. Sits in the system tray and gives constant updates to the amount of free ram. At predetermined times, it will compact memory, free up much needed space. Very handy. It also has a nifty menu option to Force Shutdown or Force Restart, when you have a pesky app that is refusing to let you reboot using normal methods.

RenameMaster - Extremely handy no install program that will let you bulk rename files. It has all sorts of fancy ways you can rename, including adding numbers to the beginning of files. I find that very handy before creating MP3 CDs so I can get the play order like I want.

Brainy Blogs

Intellectual Hedonism - Carl Franklin goes way back, in many ways our paths paralelled. We've worked with many of the same tools (anyone remember Ethan Winer's Crescent Software?). Only Carl is a lot smarter than I, as he know owns several companies and I'm an anonymous blogger. Buy hey, no jealousy here!

Computer Zen - Scott Hanselman's Log, I just recently discovered this, but good info here. He also does a podcast called Hansel Minutes which is worth a listen.

Rory Blyth - Rory's an insomniac with a twisted sense of humor. My kind of guy! (Now where'd I put my Jolt cola?)

Richard Campbell - The Toy Boy has some fascinating reading on his sight. His water cooled systems sound interesting. How does he get all those neat toys?

Mark Miller - OK, imagine Robin Williams, Einstein, and a space alien got together and had a baby. OK, don't imagine so hard, or you'll give yourself a brain zit. But if they did, it'd be Mark Miller. The dude is a genius with the computer, I first saw him in a presentation at VS Live in Orlando last year. He's largely responsible for my favorite tool, Code Rush. They say genius borders on insanity, and Miller continually wavers back and forth across the line. I've decided he's now my diety of choice. I figure why wait, avoid the rush and start a cult now.

Well there you go...

My short list of favorites. These are the tools I use on a regular basis. A few I haven't seen in other blogs, so hopefully you found something new here that will help you in your daily existance.

The Family That Blogs Together...

2006-04-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

I knew she couldn't resist long. My kid sister finally got around to creating her own blog. You can check her out at http://www.digitaldivas.net. I warn you, if you're in to pepto pink you'll like this, other wise...

Her husband's got a long running blog called Geek Ramblings, you ought to check it out. He's big in the WordPress community.

You call this work?
My morning got sucked up with e-mails. Amazing how much work it takes just to get some work done. I did get to spend the afternoon coding, which was nice. I telecommuted, so my afternoon was spent on the back porch working on my laptop. Nothing like some fresh air, sunny skies and good music to induce some productive work.

Strange item of the week...
I found the funniest thing over the weekend. While at Mt Cheaha, I found a unique item: "Wrist Bands - 3 Pack".

Think about it a minute.

Go ahead, I'll wait.

Get it now? I mean really, what am I going to do with 3 bands and 2 wrists? Make friends with someone named Lefty? In the spirit of MacGyverism, turn one into a sling shot?

All keyed up...
I found the keyboard of my dreams. Well, almost my dreams, if it was wireless it'd be perfection. But still, it comes real close. Check out http://shrinkster.com/eda. Cool isn't it? I want one soooo bad. When I'm coding it drives me nuts to continually shift from keyboard to mouse and back. I think one may have to come live with me real soon.

73 de N4IXT

Mountains, Bug Juice, and Interfaces

2006-04-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Been a busy weekend. Got the Queue stuff knocked out on a big app I'm working on. Nice to finally get some coding time to make some real progress.

Took wife and kids to Mt Cheaha today. For those unfamiliar with it, Mt Cheaha is the highest point in Alabama. Some awesome views, everything was pretty and green. In the next few weeks my company is having a big meeting there at the park lodge, and we got a chance to check it out. Very nice park ranger showed us inside and out, told us some of the lodge's history. Cheaha is well worth the trip, and if you go definately check out the resturaunt, every table has a spectacular view.

OK, about the bug juice. We've had non stop rain for the last few days. Very heavy downpours each afternoon, violent thunderstorms, flooding, hail, you know typical spring time weather. Whenever there's a huge increase in moisture we wind up seeing a bug or two sneaking it's way in to avoid the rain. Happens.

So this morning I saw a small bug, and lept into action getting out the brand new gallon of bug death juice, and squirting a little down here in my office. The squirter gizmo is on a small hose which goes down into the gallon container.

Well, I was in a bit of a hurry, so after giving a few squirts dropped the sprayer and jug on the floor of my home office and off to the mountain we went. I know most of you are now smart enough to see this coming, but clearly I was having a "dumba than Mark Miller moment" (see mondays.pwop.com if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Yes, I got home to discover the contents of the jug had slowly leaked out of the container. My office floor is now saturated with bug juice. Smells a little but not too bad. The carpet is the cheap indoor / outdoor stuff, so it'll dry. And on the bright side, it killed the bug, I found it lying dead in my office doorway trying to escape. Heh heh heh.

OK, interfaces. As I mentioned I've been reading Juval Lowy's book "Programming .Net Components". In it, he advocates always having your components expose only interfaces, and programming against the interfaces. Haven't tried it yet, but it seems like a lot of extra effort, especially on limited scope type items. Going to have to really think about this some more to convince me it's the right way to go.

Hey, Braves just won, sweet. Pulled behind from being down 0-1 against the Nationals to win 3-1.

No Rest For The Wicked...

2006-04-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

What a busy couple of weeks it's been. Egad. Was out of town all last week at meetings for work. Nice to break the routine, but all week was a bit long.

Week before we got hit by lightening. Fried our TIVO, two network hubs and all of the NICs that were hooked to 'em.

On the bright side, we finally got our van back from the repair shop. Someone hit us last year, and scheduling issues kept getting in the way of getting it fixed. Looks nice without the dents and scratches.

I also took advantage of the road trip to swing by a decent book store, picked up a couple of new books on C# 2005. Currently reading Juval Lowey's "Programming .Net Components". Well written, definately not a beginners book. It's looking like there's a shift beyond OOP to Components in the .Net world. Of course I'm only on chapter 2, will update as I go through it.

Weird link of the week: http://savetoby.com/. This guy is threatening to eat his pet rabbit if the general public doesn't buy 100,000 copies of his book. Previously he was threatening rabbit stew unless people donated 50k. He'd actually collected 28,000 before pay pal shut him down.

I say, set the table and bring on the rabbit stew!

Welcome to Vicodin Land

2006-04-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Something like 20 years ago I dropped a book case on my right foot, big toe. Ever since then it has vexed me by growing in, dying, getting grody, falling off, then repeating. So the podiatrist says "it's gotta go". Couldn't agree more, so Friday she finally cut it off, removed the nail bed and dumped acid down there.

Anyone remember the bit Bill Engvall did on "Vicodin Land"? Well baby I'm there! And it's a fun place to visit. Well, sort of. Mostly it just makes me sleepy, and it really makes it hard to put two thoughts together in row. Haven't taken one today as I need to think. Toe hurts, but I think I'd rather put up with the flames shooting off of it than being next in line for space cadet school.

Shave your back you hairy monster...

2006-03-20T20:07:00.000-08:00

Yes friends, how many times have you heard this? Well now your problem is solved. Check out this little toy from Razorba:

http://www.razorba.com/default.asp

Yes, you too can have a fresh smooth back without causing your significant other to blow chucks from looking at you.

And hey, now that you are all smooth it's time for a party! And no party would be complete without a voodoo doll toothpick holder! Check this little party item from perpetual kid:
http://www.perpetualkid.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1328

Also check out the magnets from www.unitednuclear.com. I wanna buy something from them just so I can have a credit card receipt from 'em.

Power went out at the house this evening due to some wicked storms. Fortunately I have a bank of batteries out in my garage that would make the energizer bunny jealous. Hook up my 12 volt power converter and I can run my laptop all night, into tomorrow and probably next week. My power came back on about an hour ago and I still haven't bothered to switch back over.

I've been sitting here working and listening to a Monday's episode, which frankly is far better entertainment than most of the CRAP on tv lately. I've got like six hundred freakin' channels on my satellite, and almost nothing worth my time. I think there's about 3 or 4 shows I really like to watch anymore.

Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs tie for favorite. Survivorman runs a close second, but only because I've seen and recorded all the episodes so far, so now it's all reruns. Whose Line reruns on occasion, when I'm in the mood for mindless humor and my wife's not around.

OOOOOh I'm gonna get it for that! My backspace key doesn't seem to work either. It's just that my wife is so freakin' perfect! Drives me insane, lately she seems to have it all together. She's lost 49 pounds so far on her diet, has tons of energy and I can't keep up with her. So when she does something funny, I have to share....

Chinese at Gettysburg? Yes, my long suffering wife was helping me out. In addition to the few shows I mentioned, the only other thing I try to catch is the occasional show about the Civil War on the history channel. Unfortunately I have been rather swamped and haven't been cleaning off the TIVO like I should, so she's been helping me out by saving the episodes off to DVD. Anyway, there was an episode called "The Irish at Gettysburg".

Well, for whatever reason when my wife was recording it she gave the title as "The Chinese at Gettysburg". She claims it was a mental abberation brought on by the children. Can't wait to watch the episode, and see Robert E Lee do some Kung Fu Fighting.

Holy Crap! I've been sitting here rambling on when I should be getting ready for bed. Got an early morning meeting. Sheesh people, have you no shame? Let a poor programmer get some rest will ya!

73!

What a week...

2006-03-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

This has been one heck of a week. Lot's of stuff, so I'll break it into sections...

Some great training...
Spent 3 days this week in Wintellect training on the new features of ASP.NET 2.0. Pretty slick stuff. Jeff Prosise was our instructor, he did an awesome job. I highly recommend the company if you are thinking about having on site training at your place.

Anyway the new features were really cool. I especially like Master Pages. It's going to make putting together a site so much easier. Jeff also showed us how to make menus maintain state between postbacks. I have an itch to wrap it up into an inherited control. Speaking of new things...

ATLAS...
...is Microsoft's new answer to AJAX. Jeff spent some time showing us the new features and some code samples. I also did some digging the night before and saw some really cool demo's online. It's really going to make it easier to do Smart Client looking apps in the browser.

Spheres...
Speaking of Atlas, I found a new Desktop interface for XP called SphereXP. Makes for a very different way to use your PC. Go check it out. And it's written in .Net!

A Tragic Death...
My beloved iPaq 3900 died after four years. I loved it, used the heck out of it. So, as much as I didn't want to spend any more money, I found a good deal on a new iPaq 2495. Smaller but still has both a SD and Compact Flash slots inside, which means I can use the ones I had with my old iPaq. And, I scored a spare battery and charger on clearance at Staples for 9 bucks! I figured it must have been karma or something.

Coding fun...
I did finally get to do a little real coding this week. Used generics for the first time, sweet. It's just a type safe List to handle my record classes in my parent collection class, but still cool. Also worked a little more with the Infragistics stuff, figured out how to use a drop down combo with multi colums. Minor victory but fun.

Doodles...
My kids have been going nuts for these doodle bears. Stuffed teddy bears that you can draw on, wash, and then draw again. They each got one for Christmas last year. Well now they have all sorts of models, including one you can draw on with glow in the dark marker. We can't go to the store without them going "doodle bear doodle bear doodle bear".

What the don't know (I hope my oldest doesn't read this, she's gotten pretty good on the web. She's a freakin' genius, but I'm careful not to tell her this too often otherwise she'll get a big head) is that we have a couple of these bear things hidden in the trunk of my Subaru that I drive to work.

Speaking of the drive...
Since I got the new iPaq I have been download podcasts from DotNetRocks and Mondays and listening on the drive to / from work. Drive is a bit of a misnomer, I spend about half the time driving, the other half the time waiting on the traffic on Hwy 280, burning way over priced gas. What's the deal on the friggin' gas! Spring break is next week, and in one week's time gas jumped from 2.09 to 2.44. Crap! I didn't even get a kiss afterward.

I've found the only way to releive the stress over the gas prices is to distract myself with the afore mentioned shows. I've decided that one of the Monday cohosts, Mark Miller, is not only a coding genius but a comic genius. Listen to "The Grapefruit Show" for his rant right in the middle of his naked old man sighting. (Note that Monday's is a bit raw, make sure the kiddies are out of earshot. If any politically sensitive easily offended types are around, tell them some trees are getting mugged out in the parking lot so they'll be gone too.)

Is anybody out there...
If anyone is actually reading these humble ranting post a comment will ya! I'm not doing all this just for my ego gratification. Well, actually yes I am. But leave a comment anyway, before I'm forced to do something drastic like post another entry.

73!

When it rains it pours...

2006-03-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

Geez, the fun never ends with computers. My Sony Vaio has been having some hard drive problems, so I've been in the process of backing it up so I could reformat. In the process we decided my wife really needs a laptop to use in her home school endeavors. For the prices of an average laptop though, we decided to put a few extra bucks with it and get me a new killer machine, and let her keep the Vaio. It also solved several other headaches.

I wound up with a HP DV8135. Sweet little machine, has Windows Media Center on it, has two remote controls! A 17 inch widescreen, full size keyboard (including numberpad), 64 bit processor, gig of ram, and two 100 gig hard disks.

I got my Visual Studio 2005 loaded on it that I got as part of my VSLive package from Orlando last fall, and the new Oracle XE. Sweet, I loaded up some data and began development of a new WinForms project to produce interactive Gantt charts for work order scheduling. I was in Atlanta for a two day staff meeting and got to work on it all the way home, battery held out for the entire drive and still had 20% left.

Oh, speaking of the multimedia feature, I used the remote to lie in bed in the motel last night and watch a couple of Mythbusters episodes I had recorded onto DVD.

I've also been running around upgrading my Satellite equipment. I live out in the middle of nowhere, it's nice and quiet, but no Cable or DSL. So I have to use a satellite (Direcway) to do my internet. I upgraded my equipment, and actually have my VPN working now over the dish, which will make it much easier to work from home. On the down side it's pricy, and Direcway has no newsgroups. :-( But it's a heck of a lot better than dial up. Ugh.

Anyway, looks like this weekend will be spent reformatting the Vaio and working on my project. Next week I have three days of Wintellect training on ASP.Net. I hear it's good training, will let you know. Down side is in order to keep my project schedule going, I have to work extra. Ahh the perils of programmers.

Will the fun never end?

73

Cool! My own Blog!

2006-03-01T20:22:00.000-08:00

Hey, cool, my own blog! Always wanted one. Not quite sure why, just seems like fun.

In case you are not a family member, N4IXT is my amateur radio callsign. Yup, I'm a ham, talk to folks around the world on my radio. QTH is hamspeak for home, by the way. I am a member of both the Shelby County Amateur Radio Club and the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club, as well as the national organization the ARRL.

I'm 40, have been married since 96 to the most wonderful woman in the world, my beautiful wife Ammie. She has blessed me with two darling daughters, Raven and Anna. I'm a lucky dude to have such great gals in my life. I would definately put my wife in the "long suffering" category, putting up with all my radios and gadgets, plus stacks of computer books and magazines.

I work as a software developer / project manager for the power company, writing applications for the fleet of nuclear power plants. Most of my work is in C#, both WinForms and ASP.Net. My current programming hero is Mark Miller of DevExpress. They have an awesome tool called CodeRush that I just love.

I'm currently listening to Mark being interviewed by Carl Franklin on the dotnetrocks internet radio show. I got the Mark episodes to start with, but am really enjoying them and will definatly be going back to get the rest of the episodes. They have also started a 'tv' version. I've seen the episode where Mark uses the free DXCore that CodeRush is based on to create an addin for Visual Studio. Can't wait to get in and dig.

OK, enough for now, just thought I'd post something about myself to get started. I'll work on some links, pics, etc over the next few days.

73! (Ham for Have a Great Day)

Robert / N4IXT