Other People
A keynote’s simple suggestion to do code reviews together got me to send my TargetDate app source to Ryan Grier and plan to integrate it with his MyCntdwn.
All posts tagged: general
Sometimes I tag very loosely or obscurely so the link might not be obvious.
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iPhone: Game On
A weekend at the Voices That Matter iPhone developers conference made my lifelong dream of writing games, begun on a TRS-80 and a C64, finally look achievable.
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Resolve
After a stressful year of what felt like going crazy, I recovered by checking my own thoughts against reality, and now old stressors look as harmless as Boggarts.
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Time Tracking
Tired of finishing days unsure what I’d done, I treated my missed project goals like any customer problem and set out to track exactly where my time goes.
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Goals not Rules
The best employees want to know what they’re trying to accomplish rather than what they’re supposed to do, so I argue you should give resourceful people goals instead of rules.
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MobileMe’s apprentice
After upgrading to iPhone 3.1 and Snow Leopard, my calendars multiplied and drained the battery; the cause was subscribed iCal calendars, and here’s the cleanup.
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Quitting Doctors
My children’s beloved pediatrician is closing her practice, and while I can’t blame ObamaCare for hers, I explain why more government in healthcare will push doctors out.
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flagging acknowledged as harmful
The White House asked citizens to report neighbors spreading fishy healthcare information, so I reported myself, and I explain why that matters and why healthcare is not a right.
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Environmental vulnerability
Keith Lockitch sidesteps the climate science debate to ask what makes us vulnerable to storms and disasters, and finds that capitalism’s wealth and energy are the answer.
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Overload and a Coke
My mental stack for sub-tasks is finite, and an overwhelming urge to do anything else turns out to be what happens when a simple task spawns too many hidden requirements.
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Upgrading software
My brother’s blog had a spam problem because someone exploited his ancient WordPress 1.5 and hid the filter, so upgrading fixed both and reminded me to patch old sites.
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Ruining the Meal of Productivity with Snacks
Small tasks keep winning my big block of time while the hard, interesting problems starve, because I dread being interrupted partway through them.
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Knowledge or Grades
Students and their parents chase grades and diplomas as magic stamps, getting cause and effect backwards, when the point of school is the knowledge the grade only measures.
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Destruction and Praise
Local newspapers praise the new administration’s stimulus and call for more oversight, when government meddling is what caused the mess, so I wrote two pieces to answer them.
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By The grace of Gaia
PepsiCo’s scramble to count its carbon emissions ahead of government mandates shows what I take to be environmentalism’s one mortal sin: producing life-sustaining food.
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Eating to sustain life
After reading Gary Taubes, I cut refined carbs and most vegetable oils, eat meat and vegetables, and lost six pounds in a few weeks without ever feeling hungry.
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Parenting and Thinking
Two ideas from positive discipline, assume positive intent and obedience is not a virtue, plus Jean Moroney’s Thinking on Paper, shape how I parent and plan.
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Network Neutrality
A comment I left on David Reed’s pro-neutrality blog, held for moderation, makes a neat object lesson: network operators own their networks just as bloggers own their comment sections.
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EPA preparing to control everything
The EPA’s own greenhouse gas rulemaking notice admits that regulating emissions would reach homes, schools, farms and the food supply, and I see an unprecedented expansion of its authority.
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Intellectual Activism and Cultural Change
After deciding to spread good ideas, I tried letters to the editor, online comments and pushing GTD at work, because bad ideas thrive in an intellectual vacuum.
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A heroic journey
Taking my three-year-old daughter to WALL-E for her first movie, I had to look past the trash-heap backstory I disliked to see the heroic story underneath.
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The reason for being
After a quiet spell, I give the site a purpose: writing in order to learn, starting with a study of Objectivism, and leaving something for my children.
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Engine
A Flickr photo I took of an engine in January 2008.
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Salt Pepper Or music
My Flickr photo from late December 2007 asking whether it is salt, pepper or music.
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Window Tarp?
My Flickr photo from November 2007 of a window covered with a tarp, with a question mark in the title.
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Trouble Maker
My Flickr photo from November 2007 of a small troublemaker.
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Seeing Trees
My Flickr photo of trees from October 2007.
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Crimson King?
My Flickr photo from September 2007, titled with a question about the Crimson King.
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Eagles
My Flickr photo from August 2007 of Eagles, the fourth in a series of posts with that title.
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Real McAllister Justis
My Flickr photo from August 2007 with the caption “Now they have the real scoop”, about a McAllister family justice.
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Computer Graveyard
My Flickr photo of a pile of dead computers, a graveyard of old machines, from August 2007.
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Breakfast
My Flickr photo of breakfast from June 2007.
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Tecmo
My Flickr photo from June 2007 of a game of Tecmo, the classic football video game.
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Casualties Of War
My Flickr photo from late June 2007 of the casualties left behind after a battle.
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Ocean
My Flickr photo of the ocean from a late June 2007 beach trip.
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Ready To Fish
My Flickr photo from June 2007 of someone geared up and ready to fish.
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Comparison
The second of two Flickr photos I posted side by side in June 2007 for comparison.
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Comparison
The first of two Flickr photos I posted in June 2007 for comparison.
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Family Room
My Flickr photo of the family room from June 2007.
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Cordail?
My Flickr photo from June 2007, with a title that asks how cordial to be, spelled with a question mark.
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Jury Duty Means Sitting Around
My Flickr photo from June 2007 of what jury duty mostly is: sitting around waiting.
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Competition
My Flickr photo of a competition from June 2007.
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Still Waiting
My Flickr photo from April 2007 of the long wait that’s still going on.
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Why Unpack
My Flickr photo from April 2007 asking why I should bother unpacking.
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Waiting
I posted a Flickr photo from April 2007 of someone waiting, without comment.
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Florida
My Flickr photo from a trip to Florida in April 2007.
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Two Of Many
My Flickr photo of two of many, captioned “Ready to go”, from April 2007.
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Morning
I posted a Flickr photo of a March 2007 morning, without comment.
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Screen
GNU screen is one of the best tools a sysadmin can have, and I’d start with its copy mode (C-a Esc, C-a >, C-a ]).
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You have new Picture Mail!
I posted a February 2007 Flickr photo, announced as new picture mail.
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Not Tackling Anyone Here Either
My February 2007 Flickr photo, captioned with a joke about not tackling anyone.
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Step Up
I posted a Flickr photo of a step in December 2006, without comment.
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Mandatory waiting period
For colleagues who fly off the handle with every new idea, I impose a mandatory waiting period before acting, and most requests die a natural death until a second request arrives.
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Always Available Society Problems
Taking phone calls in public bathrooms is where the always-available society goes too far, so I offer four resolutions for staying off the phone when nature calls.
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Making Noise: Dell Dimension E521 Linux USB problems
My Dell Dimension E521 has USB problems under Linux, so I’m calling on people to make noise with Dell and Canonical, and recommending you buy from System76 instead.
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Saving Money on textbooks
From experience, my college textbook savings tips run from asking professors which books are optional to borrowing from libraries and paying cheap late fees instead of buying.
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Harrisburg
A terse May 2006 verdict from Harrisburg: Philadelphia airport sucks.
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Packin
I posted a Flickr photo of packing in May 2006 as my trip got underway; the image no longer loads.
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Vittles
My Flickr photo of food on the road, posted in May 2006; the image no longer loads.
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Back
I posted a Flickr photo in May 2006 announcing my return to the blog; the image no longer loads.
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Enduring Freedom
I posted a Flickr photo in May 2006 under the title of the military operation; the image no longer loads.
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What I Do Not Miss
I posted a Flickr photo in May 2006 showing something I do not miss; the image no longer loads.
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Pin Ball Wizard
My Flickr photo from May 2006 of a pinball wizard in action; the image no longer loads.
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Helmet Area
My Flickr photo from May 2006 of a helmet area, apparently taken on a trip; the image no longer loads.
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Hop Hop Hop…
My Flickr photo from May 2006 with a hopping caption; the image no longer loads.
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Iowa
My Flickr photo from Iowa, posted in May 2006 during a trip; the image no longer loads.
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Wastin Time
A short May 2006 note from me idly waiting for the key master to show up.
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Allison Loves Cars
My Flickr snapshot of Allison and her love of cars, posted in April 2006; the photo no longer loads.
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Moo
My Flickr photo from April 2006 with a bovine caption; the image no longer loads.
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Time To Clean
My Flickr snapshot from April 2006, captioned as time to clean; the photo no longer loads.
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Blue Car Effect
I posted a Flickr photo in April 2006 illustrating the so-called blue car effect; the image no longer loads.
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Patience
Patience beats the business cliche of picking low-hanging fruit first: I’d rather decide what actually matters, because quick tasks aren’t better tasks and email checking can eat hours.
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Lobby
My Flickr snapshot of a lobby, posted in February 2006; the photo no longer loads.
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Wednesday Is hoagie Day
I posted a Flickr photo marking hoagie day, my Wednesday lunch ritual; the image no longer loads.
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Bad Security Is Easier
I posted a photo with the argument that bad security is easier than good, and left it without a caption.
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Next
A one-line follow-up where I promise more of the same, this time with page 4.
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Lee’s Is Jumpin
My Flickr snapshot from February 2006 of Lee’s, which looks to be jumping; the photo no longer loads.
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All Levels
I posted a photo titled All Levels in early February, with no caption.
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Jenkintown
A photo from Jenkintown, with a note that the place is open until 2 on Saturday.
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The Captain
A late-January photo of someone called the Captain, with no caption.
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More Drunker
A late-January photo titled for getting more drunk, with no caption.
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Happy Birthday
A late-January birthday photo, posted without a caption.
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Shiny New parts
A photo of shiny new parts, posted without a caption.
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dammit
A photo posted with nothing but a muttered title and no explanation.
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Online software purchases
After a spilled-water laptop disaster wiped out my downloaded MS Money, I found a Target bundle and rebate cheaper than going back to Microsoft, and drew three lessons about buying software.
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Guinness, For Strength
A photo of a Guinness, offered as a source of strength.
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Tasty
A photo of something tasty, posted without a caption.
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Even Saturday
A photo suggesting that even Saturday isn’t free from whatever the picture shows, with no caption.
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But Which Songs?
A photo posted with my plea for suggestions on which songs to pick.
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Snoopy
A photo of Snoopy, with a nod to the Red Baron.
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Gotta Get Me Some ‘lectric
A photo titled with a drawled wish for some electricity, posted without a caption.
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They Do Funny Stuff
A photo of people doing something funny, posted without a caption.
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Super Chimney
A photo of a very large chimney, posted without a caption.
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East Meets West?
A photo of an East-meets-West mashup, posted with a question mark and no caption.
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Yum Donuts
A photo of donuts, captioned only by how good they look.
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Sprint picture mail and the samsung a900
Sprint’s picture mail leaves messages stuck in the pending box on the Samsung A900, so I share a browser trick that gets them to send almost every time.
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Circle Of Life
A photo of food, with the loop explained: it gives me energy to work, so I can earn money, so I can buy more food.
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Selling Used Books with Amazon
Selling a $2.50 used book left me paying Amazon $2.60 in fees, so I decided half.com is the better place to sell and I won’t list anything under $3.
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People Promise
A photo of a sign making a people promise, with my hope that it includes milkshakes.
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Wildcard Weekend
A photo from NFL Wildcard Weekend, posted without a caption.
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Pretzel To the Stars
A photo of a pretzel with a grand title and no caption.
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Time For A Book To Do My Job Again
A photo of the book that stands in for my job when there is nothing else to do.
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F
A photo titled with a single letter F, posted without any explanation.
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No walking?
A photo of a no-walking sign, with a title asking whether that can really be right.
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Low % Of Oil Life
A photo of my car’s dashboard warning that the oil life is running low.
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In The Future There Will Be Infrastructure Improvement
A New Year’s Day photo of infrastructure in need of work, promising improvement in the future.
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Yum Pancakes
A New Year’s Eve photo of pancakes, captioned only by how good they were.
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Orange Rules
A photo I posted at the end of 2005 declaring that orange rules, with no further comment.
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Fiscal Recovery
A December 2005 photo titled for a bit of fiscal recovery, with no caption beyond the picture.
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Lunch
A photo of my lunch, the third entry in my ongoing bagelwich series.
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Feelin Lucky Punk
A snapshot of a lottery ticket display, posted with an offer of tickets to anyone who wants one.
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The Final Hour
With one hour left of the Dark Tower audiobook after six months, I’m both relieved and bereft, and I’ve become an audiobook fan who may drop Audible for library CDs.
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Super Hype bustification
Every silver-bullet technology arrives wrapped in hype, which is why I block ads, yet I still wonder how anyone finds out what’s actually out there.
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Résumé Mountain Reduction
Faced with a mountain of résumés, I cull any that never mention the key technology in the job posting, unless the cover letter tells a very good story.
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We The Media: Finished
Dan Gillmor’s We the Media was great through chapter 8 and sparked some business ideas for me, but the later chapters rehash what anyone who reads his blog already knows.
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Away Message Culture
I wrote a Python program using Twisted and the OSCAR protocol that logs into AIM, watches my brother’s away messages, and posts them to a blog within seconds.
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Put the Belt On!
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John Galt League update
It’s been two weeks since the last update. I’m happy to report that the Rearden Steelers are 2 - 0 in that time bringing me to 7 - 0. My wide receivers are carrying me having huge games, and typically I’ve been helped by my opponent not having a great week. This past week my opponent The Washington Oppresors scored 97, but I went off with 114. So it seems my team plays to the level of the competition. So a whirlwind tour of the rest of the league:
Culver City Conmen
Ran into the Buzzsaw of the Rearden Steelers in week 6 and despite the despair of having played me still managed to get 43 points out of Darren McFadden the next week and a win.
Sedalia Sea Monkeys
Diana has been on a tear! Two wins and I think most importantly defeated Paul’s Geekpress Generals handily this past weekend. I imagine that Chez Hsieh was a battleground and it’s probably better for Paul that he lost.
GeekPress Generals
Paul has somehow coaxed Greg Jennings into consistent play two weeks in a row, however he managed that he deserves to have won the championship. Also if I failed to mention it, he lost an epic matchup to Diana.
Dr. Ego Spengler
Mike’s team won in week 6, but more importantly he lost in week 7. Leaving literally nothing on the bench he was crushed by Amy’s Gentlemen, who was so confident in her ability to win she taunted her opponent by starting Arian Foster while on a bye and still scored 109 points!
Portland Agents Of Fortune
2 weeks, 2 wins, good team management nothing left on the bench and big scores. I’m hoping this trend doesn’t continue.
KC Money Barons
Got the big first win of the season. I think Corey has aspirations of going 7 - 6 the hard way. Considering I’ll probably lose my next 6 we can finish the season tied!
Washington Oppressors
Dwayne Bowe showed up!
Connecticut BNS Brawlers
Too many Cincinnati players to win, even if they keep scoring points. Marvin Lewis has suffered from this problem for years.
Fairport Diehards
Ugh, 79 points left on the bench this week, and a ton last week. Sometimes fantasy is just like that.
Philadelphia Freeloaders
The last two weeks they’ve let their opponents score too many points. Work on it!
Virginia Gentlemen
Amy can’t lose a game when she scores over 100 points. Unfortunately when she scores under 100 she tends to lose by 6 points or less.
Next week
I promise to write stuff going forward on some schedule. And I suspect it may be somewhat useless but I’ll enjoy it, and that’s what counts.
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John Galt League Week 5 re-cap
A timely and per my wife’s criticism a bit spiced up recap of the JGL action from week 5. Philadelphia Freeloaders (3-2) 86, Virginia Gentlemen (2-3) 85
In a matchup where Vince Young outscored Matt Schaub by 13 points and Mike Tolbert outscored Arian Foster by 5 points there is no other way for it to end except by being decided by 1 point. The worst part for Amy, manager of the Gentlemen, is that if she had not started a Defense she would have won the match. But I agree that the Rams looked to be a great start against the Lions.
Fairport Diehards (3-2) 85, Sedalia Seamonkeys (2-3) 78
And Diana’s Seamonkeys get exactly what they want out of Ray Rice, finally, but when your second leading scorer is your Kicker it’s hard to finish with the W. And running into an on-again Chris Johnson and hated (by me) Cowboy QB who was racking up points playing from behind meant that Tom Stone’s Diehards took the win. Both teams can look at the high bench production and play that age old Fantasy football game of second guessing yourself.
Connecticut BNS Brawlers (3-2) 77, GeekPress Generals (3-2) 58
The Brawlers victory gives me the opportunity to talk about my favorite subject and that is me winning fantasy football games. Because his victory and mine came in lockstep due to the huge day by Malcom Floyd which necessitated a huge day by my QB. Paul’s Generals who have been solid all season, had the typical fantasy week where almost nothing goes right which was capped by Aaron Rodgers going down with a concussion at the end of the game.
Dr. Ego Spengler (4-1) 69, Washington Oppressors (1-4) 53
The good Dr. Spengler led by Mike King has been the most consistent JGLer over the past two years. But this is ridiculous to get a victory where the top scorer is TE Marcedes Lewis with 17 is illegal, and I plan to use my commissioner powers to correct this miscarriage of Justice. However I will insist that John Britely’s Oppressors still retain their loss as well due to the fact that he snagged LeSean McCoy on waivers on Sunday morning when I am the one who’s supposed to have the best player on my favorite team. Unfortunately for the Oppressors in the best possible week to defeat the Ego got nothing from their team.
Portland Agents Of Fortune (2-3) 109, Culver City Conmen (2-3) 88
In true fantasy football fashion the Conmen have a solid week from many of their starters even with 4 players on BYE, but still manage to run into a team that had an even a better week. As Brian Reich’s Agents managed to put together huge numbers despite starting my least favorite Manning. Yes I must admit Cooper is my favorite Manning.
Rearden Steelers (5-0) 99, KC Money Barons (0-5) 74
I am considering changing both of my daughters names to Philip Rivers as his consistency this season is the main reason I am 5 - 0, also a timely Falcons pickup before last weeks games helped me quite a bit here. All I can say to Corey and his Money Barons is the winner of the league last year had a losing record, so anything can happen. Also to illustrate this I’m 1 - 4 in the fantasy league my brother runs.
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John Galt League Week 3 and 4 recaps
Now working to finally catch up on my fantasy recaps I got through weeks 3 and 4 and am making a personal vow to get week 5 in early this week. Week 3 recap
Virginia Gentlemen 116, Culver City Conmen 109
In week 3 the Conmen put up a solid 109 with good performances from most of their players. Only the Patriots D (1) and Matt Forte (3) underperforming. Unfortunately their opponent the Virginia Gentlemen had great performances particularly 31 from Adrian Peterson who ran all over the Lions. Here the Conmen were handed their first loss. This was the Gentlemen’s first win.
Fairport Diehards 106, Connecticut BNS Brawlers 73
A huge game by Anquan Boldin, and great performances by Romo and Chris Johnson vaulted the Diehards to a win over the Brawlers despite their Cedric Benson’s big week and Mike Wallace having a huge game down in Tampa. The Brawlers unfortunately left Peyton Hillis on the bench for his huge game not having to share any carries with Jerome Harrison and LeSean McCoy had his worst game of the season so far.
Sedalia Sea Monkeys 65, KC Money Barons 51
The Money Barons continue to have a hard time manufacturing points where Colston, Celek, DeAngelo Williams and Steve Smith (Carolina) are all not producing consistent with where they needed to be drafted. Drew Brees is the only bright spot this week as the Barons fall to 0 - 3. The Sea Monkeys get a huge game from Dustin Keller and manage to scrape together enough points to top the Barons bringing them to 1- 2.
GeekPress Generals 114, Portland Agents Of Fortune 66
The Generals put up big performances from Collie, Mendenhall, Rogers and the Steelers Defense to post huge numbers in week 3, which was more than enough to top the Agents of Fortune who aside from Michael Vick and Steven Jackson couldn’t get anyone else in double digits. The pair of Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitz who strike fear in the heart of fantasy opponents continue to frustrate.
Washington Oppressors 75, Philadelphia Freeloaders 59
The Oppressors had solid performances from Turner, Charles, Bowe and Cutler riding the Chiefs 3 - 0 record and overcoming a bad outing by their Bucs defense to their first win of the season. The Freeloaders who grabbed the Chiefs defense and were rewarded by a good game were hurt by their reliance on the Houston passing game and Schaub, Walter and Andre Johnson that didn’t post big numbers this week.
Rearden Steelers 105, Dr. Ego Spengler 92
In a high scoring matchup the Steelers got good performances from Rivers, Maclin, Bradshaw and their newly added Cardinals D, to offset strong performances from Peyton, LT and DeSean Jackson. Luckily the Chiefs were able to hold Frank Gore down to 14 points and help the Steelers to their 3 - 0 record and hand Dr. Spengler his only loss.
Additionally the Steelers are 3 - 0 against doctors this season.
Week 4 The First week of byes, which leads to all sorts of scarcity and fun in trying to decide who to start or pickup.
GeekPress Generals (3 - 1) 87, Culver City Conmen (2 - 2) 79
In week 4 the Conmen had a solid performance from their Defense but put up goose-eggs from the Moss tandem at WR as Washington had success running on my Eagles and had no reason to even look at Santana and Randy was on the outs in New England. Two zeros in a line up when playing a consistently solid GeekPress Generals usual spells disaster and this week it made the Conmen fall to 2 and 2.
Philadelphia Freeloaders (2 - 2) 66, Fairport Diehards (2- 2) 57
Oddly the second game of the week where a team posted nil from the wide receivers, but in this case they managed to win as the Freeloaders got solid performances from Mike Tolbert, Matt Schaub and Zack Miller. And the Diehards were only able to get double-digit points from Flacco and Ryan Matthews as Denver was able to hold Chris Johnson to only 4 points
Virginia Gentlemen (2 - 2) 106, Connecticut BNS Brawlers (2 - 2) 74
And you can tell it’s a bye week as yet another team manages to post a pair of zeroes, but even more impressively the Gentlemen still manage to put out 106 points as they are the top scorer this week. Helped by a combined 56 points from Antonio Gates and Arian Foster (who took 1 quarter off for missing a team meeting). The Brawlers who did have some solid performances from Carson Palmer and Peyton Hillis but also had the misfortune of running into the 2nd highest scoring team in the league.
Sedalia Sea Monkeys (2 - 2) 90, Washington Oppressors (1 - 3) 46
The Sea Monkeys continue to get good performances from Dustin Keller and finally their other players posted some solid numbers as well as they finally hit on a QB that was going to give solid numbers as Sanchez put up 14 and Reggie Wayne and Joseph Addai turned in good weeks. The Oppressors hurt by byes and missed updating their lineup and started the out Pierre Thomas and Shiancoe on a bye only managed 46 points and Jay Cutler was absolutely manhandled by the Giants posting a -3.
Dr. Ego Spengler (3 - 1) 76, KC Money Baroons (0 - 4) 70
Spengler riding a huge game by LT against the Bills was able to hang on for a 6 point victory over the Money Barons who were hurt by an oddly ineffective Drew Brees at home against the Panthers and Steve Smith who went out with an injury.
Rearden Steelers (4- 0) 92, Portland Agents Of Fortune (1 - 3) 63
MJD finally put up some big numbers to justify his pick at #3 overall, and got consistently good numbers from Philip Rivers and Roddy White putting together another solid game to go to 4 - 0. The Agents of Fortune got a huge game from Calvin Johnson but Vick going out with an injury held him to two points and Mike Sims-Walker continues to disappoint with a 0 point week.
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John Galt League Week 2 Recap
Due to working past 2 AM two times in the past week, really throwing off my sleeping schedule not to mention the impact such things have on my family life my recreation time was severely impacted. But I managed to stay focused and put out a recap before week 3 got underway (barely). Rearden Steelers 86 GeekPress Generals 84
In the closest game of the week the Steelers got strong performances from Philip Rivers and Roddy White for the second straight week and are concerned about MJD who managed only 2 points and 12 for the season. The Generals got solid performances from most players although the Rodgers to Jennings combo has yet to really pay off. This came down to the Sunday night matchup between New York and Indianapolis, where both Dallas Clark and Austin Collie scored TDs for the Generals but it wasn’t enough to overcome Ahmad Bradshaw’s points helped by a Brandon Jacobs benching for an awful run followed by a temper tantrum where his helmet ended up in the crowd.
Dr. Ego Spengler 90 Sedalia Sea Monkeys 64
While the Sea Monkeys got many solid performances, they had no outstanding performances and are having a real problem at Quarterback with Kolb injured and now benched in favor of Vick and Garrard having a very rough game at San Diego. The good Doctor Spengler got huge games from from Gore, Manning and DeSean Jackson which offset some lesser performances by the rest of his squad putting him over the top.
Portland AgentsOfFortune 98 Virginia Gentlemen 92
In a close matchup this week the Gentlemen had good numbers across the board hurt by poor QB play from the veteran Favre who is finally showing his age against an underrated Miami Defense. Unfortunately the Gentlemen this week’s third highest scorer had the misfortune to face the AgentsOfFortune who were this weeks second highest scorer. Helped by my favorite team, the Eagles, who are apparently unable to tackle anyone when Stewart Bradley is off the field which gave Jahvid Best a huge 40 point week. Also cashing in on that Eagles v. Lions game Calvin Johnson finally scored a TD that counted helping the Agents to a big win.
Philadelphia Freeloaders 106 KC Money Barons 42
The Freeloaders rode Houston’s massive game against the Redskin’s where Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson combined for 50 points. Also worthy of note is the Freeloaders had Kevin Walter on the Bench who also had a giant game and those three players combined would have been enough to beat 4 other starting lineups this week. The Money Barons had the game that nightmare game that every fantasy owner can count on, where nothing goes right. Totaling only 42 points for the week and going into Monday night (with 2 players left) had only 18 points. They did have a few solid performances and I expect they’ll turn it around going forward.
Culver City Conmen 68 Fairport Diehards 54
The Conmen improved to 2 - 0 on the season despite the tough game their patriots had in New York. Putting together a handful of good performances and Darren McFadden trying to answer critics with a big game was enough to top the Diehards who had a tough week with nobody in the starting lineup finding the end zone and Chris Johnson being held in check by the Pittsburgh defense.
Connecticut BNS Brawlers 83 Washington Oppressors 75
The Brawlers are another team that cashed in on the Eagles-Lions game where LeSean McCoy went off racking up 30 points and making up for a handful of low scoring Bengals in his lineup. The Oppressors fall to 0 - 2 despite some good performances from Jay Cutler, Dez Bryant and seeing Shiancoe and Pierre Thomas be real workhorses for their teams.
Transactions
The Steelers were frustrated by their 2 - 0 record on the waiver wire this week being unable to grab Tolbert or the Dolphins Defense due to the waiver priority enjoyed by other savvy owners who snagged these players. A few teams worked the waiver wire to bolster their teams, I think the top one being Tolbert who looked solid in Ryan Matthew’s absence and whoever owned Michael Turner last year will know the dreaded high-ankle sprain is not an exciting injury for a top RB on your team to have.
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John Galt League Week 1 Update
I am the commissioner of the John Galt League, a Fantasy Football league for Objectivists. It’s Diana Hsieh’s league and this is my second year as commissioner. While it was enjoyable last year I did little more than remind people of deadlines and schedule the draft. I decided to try and squeeze a little more value this year by writing up a review like this periodically thinking my increased involvement in the league would make it a bit more competitive and fun, hopefully for everyone. Week 1 Recap
My Steelers pulled out a 73 - 61 victory over Diana’s Sea Monkeys while I was sleeping but Phillip Rivers was going strong, overcoming a solid WR showing by the Sea Monkeys but zeroes from the injured Wells and Kolb who left early held them back in the lowest scoring match of the week.
The reigning champs the Geekpress Generals managed to be the only team that broke three digits even with posting a zero from Darren Sproles as they defeated the Virginia Gentlemen 110 - 79, an inconsistent performance from the Gentlemen’s starters and drawing a tough matchup put Arian Foster’s monster week to waste.
Peyton Maning was playing from behind all day and was forced to throw which helped push Dr. Egon Spengler ahead of the Philly Freeloaders 77 -73 who despite a great performance from Miles Austin but had too few players find the end zone in week 1.
The Fairport Diehards benefited from the Jets CB Daryl Revis, first in having his defense post big numbers but in forcing Flacco to look away from Mason and find Anquan Boldin for a high scoring week netting him 87, the Agents Of Fortune couldn’t keep up, as too many top guys didn’t deliver and they only managed 69 points.
The BNS Brawlers and Money Barrons fought the tightest contest of the week each getting some solid performances but a low scoring opening NFL game meant Brees couldn’t come up wtih the numbers to overcome Palmer’s garbage time stats playing from behind after getting blown out by New England, the Brawlers won 78 - 76.
Finally the Culver City Conmen had some huge plays out of Matt Forte, and lots of points from his beloved Patriots which gave him more than enough to overcome the Washington Oppressors, who suffered the biggest injury of the week losing Ryan Grant for the season. Despite some solid performances from Jay Cutler and Pierre Thomas the Conmen prevailed 93 - 72.
Week 2 News and Preview
Despite the fact that the commissioner forgot to send a waiver reminder a few teams put in claims, the Agents of Fortune snagged Vick for a favorable matchup and The Oppressors laid claim to Brandon Jackson the expected replacement for his lost Ryan Grant. Next week get your waiver claims in Wednesday night because early AM (ET) ESPN will process claim requests based on priority order.
Most of the match-ups (based on current lineups as of 10:30 PM on Friday) are fairly even based on the ESPN projections except for the BNS Brawlers and The Oppressors where the 0-1 Oppressors are currently favored by a whopping 59 points.
So everyone get your lineups in, check your injuries and enjoy week two of the John Galt League.
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The funny
A tweet or facebook status update was too short and unformatted to capture this and I had to write it immediately. Michelle was singing to the girls after the most packed day at Disney. (started at Animal Kingdom around 9:30 and finally got back to the Pop Century resort at 10:50 after seeing Fantasmic).
Ashley stops Michelle singing saying, “Wait! You forgot to put Minnie in my song.”
Michelle: “I put her in, I said Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Pluto”
Ashley: “Oh! I thought you meant Pluto the planet.”
Allison: (immediately and with obvious exasperation) Ash, Pluto’s not even a planet!"
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What’s True
Listening to Leonard Peikoff’s podcast #83 I really enjoyed the closing of his answer to someone who wrote to him, essentially, I agree with many of the principles of Objectivism but disagree with Ayn Rand on two ideas (I think it was architecture as art and something to do with her view on women), am I still an Objectivist? He said:
So I hope you don’t think of: this and this and this is required for [Objectivism] … I wouldn’t even think about what’s required for Objectivism.
Just think about “what’s true?” And then if Objectivists don’t believe it, it’s tough on them. You could say, Objectivism is good but it has this mistake.
You can’t think, with the idea that the answers are in the back of the book given by Ayn Rand.
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Strict Filtering
I like to think about things. I can spend hours trying to find the right way to solve any problem from serious to silly. This is one of the reasons I’ll let myself get caught up in an email black hole. As I was this morning. Responding to or dealing with the tasks inside each email like it’s the only thing in the world to work on is extremely silly as it takes the email and any embedded tasks completely out of context. So I am writing this to remind myself, that email isn’t my job, it’s a tool that is crucial in the small part of my job that has to do with communicating with others. And to turn Strict Filtering back on in front of the tasks I choose to work on. Also the strict separation between doing the tasks embedded in my inbox and the task that is processing my inbox.
It really shouldn’t take me more than 15 minutes to empty the email inbox. I should rifle through each message spending about 30 seconds to read, decide if it’s actionable, what I’m going to do about it and file the action reminder appropriately. If it’s an email that is longer than 30 seconds to ready, I can decide if I am ever going to read it and file the reminder to read it somewhere.
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Fantasizing
I’m in four fantasy football leagues this year. One is the real deal, the league I’ve been in with my wife for what seems like 3 or so years every year, but undoubtedly it’s been at least 7 years, the TMCFL run by my brother, on a site that is getting increasingly crappy since being acquired by an NBC Sports affiliate.
The other is the John Galt League, where I am the acting commisioner, brought together by the common fact that we all are fans of Diana Hsieh’s blog NoodleFood.
I also have played in Ryan Grier’s league for the past few years where I tend to be terrible.
And finally as always I picked up a Yahoo public league in order to practice drafting before the TMCFL, although given the awesomeness of the ESPN mock drafts I may stop that after this year.
I am currently fantasizing the fame, fortune and prestige of winning both the JGL and the TMCFL as I watched my Eagles whup an overmatched Panthers and noticed my top pick in both of those leagues, Adrian Peterson, racking up the points. I am now convinced that he will score at least 3 touchdowns every week and I will dominate all of the competition.
Stay tuned for too frequent updates of my fantasy prowess or complete silence if my team collapses into disarray.
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Finding Inspiration
Becoming depressed by the increased destruction of individual rights by the government is quite easy these days. The fact that the current administration is violating contract rights, firing the CEO of a corporation, and forcing banks to take bailout money among many other examples of statism are all very ominous indeed. To continue this trend, today, I received an email from Senator Casey singing his own praises for his role in the further meddling with the credit markets.
As is typical when I receive such self-glorying proclamations from my elected representatives I take a moment and compose a letter responding to them and encouraging them to uphold individual rights as an absolute as is the necessary and only purpose of a rational and moral government.
I began writing my response somewhat lethargically but when I organized my thoughts it brought to mind a particular passage from Atlas Shrugged which provided the fuel to complete task. I decided then to look it up and to share it here.
I could say to you that you do not serve the public good–that nobody’s good can be achieved at the price of human sacrifices–that when you violate the rights of one man, you have violated the rights of all, and a public of rightless creatures is doomed to destruction. I could say to you that you will and can achieve nothing but universal devastation–as any looter must, when he runs out of victims. I could say it, but I won’t. It is not your particular policy that I challenge, but your moral premise. If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and I were asked to immolate myself for the sake of creatures who wanted to survive at the price of my blood, if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own–I would refuse, I would reject it as the most contemptible evil, I would fight it with every power I possess, I would fight the whole of mankind, if one minute were all I could last before I were murdered, I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being’s right to exist. Let there be no misunderstanding about me. If it is now the belief of my fellow men, who call themselves the public, that their good requires victims, then I say: The public good be damned, I will have no part of it!
Hank is the man!
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Sanction of the Victim
It’s a shame that the great business producers continue to sanction completely irresponsible government. Read this in Warren Buffet’s annual report for Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. “Whatever the downsides may be, strong and immediate action by government was essential last year if the financial system was to avoid a total breakdown.”
Since we all know that sacrificing the strong to pay for the mistakes of the weak and then pretending there wasn’t an underlying problem always fixes everything.
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Ari Armstrong is planning a demonstration that it is possible to eat a healthy diet on a food stamp budget. Low-Carb Diet, Food Stamp Budget. He is doing this not only to show that increases in the food stamp program are unnecessary, but in full protest of the entire program. This not only protests the evil of redistribution of wealth, but will prove useful to those who think are honestly trying to eat a healthy diet on the smallest imaginable budget. I look forward to tracking his choices closely as I could use some inexpensive ideas.
As a side note tomorrow will be a full month since I committed to greatly reducing refined carbs in my diet and I have lost 11 lbs. This is with never finishing a mealy hungry and with my only extra exercise being a few lunch time walks, going to the gym one time and some snow shoveling.
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Feed Formerly Broken
Apparently my feed has been broken since Sometime in November. At that time I upgraded wordpress, and possibly related was the merging of FeedBurner and Google. Anyway It should be working now. So for the 3 or 4 people who follow the feed, you will be delighted to know that I have been making an effort to add content regularly. And strangely you have a little bit of catching up to do. Unless you follow my tweets, then you probably already read all the posts.
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Economics
I’ve received word of a promising new blog focused on economics from an Objectivist point of view called Simply Capitalism. It could prove a nice counterpoint of reason to the cacophony of shrill demands for increasing governmental control in our economic lives. Subscribe to their RSS feed and see for yourself.
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Small bit of SEC Insanity
Listening to a story about the SEC persecuting Apple because Steve Jobs is in poor health on the WSJ daily read, They compared it to a situation with HP where a director resigned. According to the article, “Under securities laws a company needs to disclose the reasons if a director leaves over a disagreement about company policy.” Is the persecution of a company about a sick CEO or for the specific reasons behind a high level persons resignation an example of the “atmosphere of deregulation and deference to industry” I’ve been hearing so much about?
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Columbus Day
A day late, but here is my thought on yesterday’s holiday. Ninety men in three small ships sailed west from Europe for over a month, when dawn came on October 12, 1492, the sun rose on a new world. Columbus, the motive power behind this expedition, was a man of independent mind that challenged the authority of the “experts” and of the whole world. He discovered America, bringing European civilization to our shores. A critical and historic event that sowed the seeds of what was to become the freest and most prosperous country ever, the United States of America.
When thinking of yesterday, I remember the greatness, the courage, the independent judgment of a man.
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Familiar sentiment
“The time is past when the notion of economic self-seeking and unrestricted use of profits made can be allowed to dominate…. The economic system must serve the nation.” This could have been written in any editorial recently, and certainly a similar sentiment was spouted on Capitol Hill in the past weeks. But it is a quote of the Nazi Minister of Economics in the book The Omnious Parallels.
With the economic controls and the sacrifice of individual rights to the nation, we are putting a motor on our drift from freedom to fascism.
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Success
If you want a thing bad enough To go out and fight for it, Work day and night for it, Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it If only desire of it Makes you quite mad enough Never to tire of it, Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it
If life seems all empty and useless without it And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,
If gladly you’ll sweat for it, Fret for it, Plan for it, Lose all your terror of God or man for it,
If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want. With all your capacity, Strength and sagacity, Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,
If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt, Nor sickness nor pain Of body or brain Can turn you away from the thing that you want,
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, You’ll get it!
BERTON BRALEY
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I wish someone told me that
I am trying to get a list of some of the things people wish they had learned earlier than they did. Like a life lesson, or something that life experience showed you that once you knew, you said, “Why don’t they teach this in school?” I would have acted differently had I understood this. It is anything from small things to large life changing things. I am trying to come up with things to make sure I expose my children to, so they have a chance to learn it early in life.
Obviously some things only come from experience and making enough of the same mistakes, but get the experience early enough it may click in faster.
An example of a broad topic here that I wish I had understood sooner, is money, investing and compound interest. How about you?
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How does it know?
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Researching vans
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fix the problem fix the problem fix the problem
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free lunch today?
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killing in the name of.
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making life better
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lunch
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guess I gotta provide my own
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Walkin tall
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Getting mah car
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call not so bad. have work to do, but another mildly satisfied customer
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dreading a call at 2
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fighting fires
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hobnobbing with bigwigs
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Expertise
“the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.” -Chaucer
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Young insight
When my brother was in 8th grade, he brought home his school literary magazine, that took submissions from many students across the whole school. There was one piece of writing in there that was so full of insight that to this day I still recall the wisdom, and let it help in guiding my actions.
I’m bigger. So you have to do what I say.
- P. Dimauro (2nd Grade)
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Getting Things Done
A vision without a task is but a dream.A task without a vision is drudgery. A vision and a task is the hope of the world.
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Sport is stranger than Fiction
Like Sports? Like Fiction? Go to my brother’s new site Sport is stranger than Fiction and read some of the stories. He got a bunch of his writer friends who happen to enjoy sports, probably too much. To help contribute. It is in the early days, but there are a few stories there. And humor is a primary focus. Enjoy.
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Bailing Water
Sometimes it’s frustrating to keep bailing water when you look around and some of your shipmates have put their buckets down and picked up drills.
- Living the analogy 24x7
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Asthma probably sucks
My current bout with some upper respiratory virus has helped me learn that asthma probably is really not good to have. For some reason my body responded to this infection by inflaming the airway and packing my lungs with mucus.
But I felt like I had an iron band around my chest for 2 days.
The good news is my doctor gave me some medicine that should help me avoid iron band syndrome until the virus is done with me.
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McAllister in 08
It’s a myth, not only am I not legally allowed to take office, yet, I just don’t have the time. So I just want to make it official. I am not running for the presidency.
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Genre Differences
“Science Fiction has rivets, fantasy has trees.” - Orson Scott Card Author of Ender’s Game which is just a great story, so pick it up, and read it.
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World Conquering
In order to take over the world any world, you have to spend a fair amount of time goal setting and thinking about the big game. And then planning for it. This comes at great conflict with the normal newspaper reading, TV watching and other mindless religions we make for ourselves that are so compelling.
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People who pay attention
Although apparently packed with losers Mensa does have one charming quality according to Scott Adam’s
Mensa meetings are the strangest experience. No one ever has to explain anything twice. That’s a bigger deal than you might think. Your typical day is full of moments where you ask for a cup of coffee and someone hands you a bag of nails. You don’t realize how much time you spend re-explaining things until you no longer need to. Mensa is very cool that way.
It would be great to have people pay attention to you the first time. I would say I spend a very large part of my day not only repeating myself, but reciting from memory the contents of emails I had sent, and recounting the detail in voicemail that I left for people.
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Trivia
In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
-Robert Heinlein
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Tunnelling SMB over SSH
Turns out to be super easy, there are long how to docs out there that deal with all the trivialities and different scenarios, but basically if you have ssh access to a server that is the SMB server you simply need to do this:
ssh -f -N -g -L 9000:localhost:139
and then you can simply mount it to a directory by doing:
sudo mount -t smbfs -o username=USERNAME,password=PASSWORD,ip=localhost,port=9000 //SERVERNAME/SHARE /mnt/remoteshare
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Riddle # 7
You saw me where I never was,
And where I could not be;
And yet within that very place.
My face you often see.
The answer to #6 that a few people got was “Tomorrow.” I considered that one a huge success because my wife didn’t get it in 2 seconds like all the others.
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Imprisonment
A euphemism for imprisonment I have heard is, “Making little piles out of big piles.” This is referring to times when prisoners were used to do menial jobs, and when those jobs weren’t available, or maybe there was some use in this, they would spend all day breaking big rocks onto small rocks.
A thought just flew into my head as I was organizing the numerous tasks I have to try and fit into my day, that management and specifically information work can be summed up by making little piles out of big piles.
There has to be a better way.
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Riddle # 6
What is it that no man ever yet did see,
Which never was, but always is to be ?
The answer to #5 was Fire.
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Riddle # 5
As long as I eat, I live,
But when I drink, I die.
The answer for 4 was “a glove” as a few people got.
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Riddle # 4
Four fingers and a thumb
Yet flesh and bone have I none.
I am glad to see that riddle # 3 had a few people missed it. Not that I take delight that someone got it wrong, rather that it wasn’t a very easy one. It is fraught with misdirection, the obvious guess is a promise or something along those lines, but oddly that is too deep of a thought the correct answer is “Silence.”
Of course my wife already knew that one again, but let’s see if she has an answer for this one.
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Domain woes
It seems you have to keep on top of your domain registrations if you don’t want them to expire. luckily no one was clamoring to get their hands on mcallister.ws. But fans of my brother’s website will be glad to know that mcallister.ws is now locked up until 2011. Hopefully I remember to renew it then too. Unfortunately I couldn’t snarf it with my preferred registrar, they were showing it as not available. I had to go back to register.com, luckily they upgraded their site and I don’t have to email support to get them to set the name servers to mine instead of theirs.
Anyway my wife should be able to check her email no problem after the DNS gods are satisfied with the propagation time. Thank’s Michelle for noticing the problem before someone snapped it up.
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Finally a New PC
Well I am getting tired of the ASPRE laptop (mycroft) that doesn’t boot and when it does capital ‘w’ can’t be typed with the right shift key and the machine I built about 6 years ago (sherlock) not booting right, and struggling with some other issues, and just having a computer that is no longer zippy enough for the bloated crap I want to run on it. So I finally broke down and ordered a Dell Dimension E521 (Dual Core AMD 64 X2 4200+ 1GB 533 MHz DDR2 160 GB SATA drive) Actually a really good deal I think, I did a whole bunch of research and I think I could have gotten a similar machine for slightly less but got scared off by comments at reseller ratings. Paid $639 no monitor, a low end video card Geforce 7300 LE (that blows my current one away) of course the Geforce 6150 that is integrated into the Mobo of this new CPU blows my current one away. I couldn’t find the right incantation to get into Dell’s site where I could just not get the PCIx card and deal with the integrated one, and also get XP Media Center version and get 2% off for ordering through a link on Temple’s site. My plan is to eventually save some bucks and buy a kickin video card and probably another disk to use the RAID capability. This new machine I will call Gilead. I even went to newegg and a few other sites to price out the components and I couldn’t beat the deal. It seems the world has moved on.
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Variations On a Theme
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” -Mark Twain
“Come from the shadow of yourself, if you dare.” -Stephen King
“You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.” -Unknown
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.” -Samuel Johnson
“Let thy words be few.” -Ecclesiastes 5:2
“You are not afraid of the great world, but of the small one inside yourself.” -Stephen King
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Masala Chai
We have one of those Keurig coffee makers at work, and while I despise coffee I love Tea, especially Earl Grey and Green Tea. I have managed to keep that stocked here pretty well through various cajoling and convincing one other co-worker to imbibe the Earl Grey.
With our latest order we just got a sample pack of Gloria Jean’s Chai, and it may turn into my new mini-obsession, has a nice Cinnamon taste, and was very refreshing. Actually when I first started drinking I was disappointed it smelled very much like Cinnamon, which is clearly the most superior of all spices, but the taste was pretty weak. I did a quick search and found here that “chai must have sweetness or the spices seem to lose their full robustness.” I added one packet of Splenda and found the spice emboldened and embiggened, much to my enjoyment.
I now have to hide the remaining 4 packs from the sample and then somehow get more in here.
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Spam Lottery
I won the Spam lottery! Some jerk on an Israeli ISP decided to use my email address as the sender on a bunch of junk he sent out last night.
So today I got to learn all about how well the Barracuda SPAM firewall works, how many bad addresses this dude had on his list, and finally how many people are on vacation, or neglected to turn off their on vacation auto-reply.
I think the solution to this is to train the Bayesian filter that is built into spam assassin a couple extra times today. Of course the only downside to that is I may never see a legitimately bounced email again.
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Serenity Prayer
“Control the things you can control, maggot. Let everything else take a flying fuck at you and if you must go down, go down with your guns blazing.”
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Pay your bills and Patience
Today I learned that sometimes if you wait long enough your problem goes away. Actually I always knew that, but this was in a positive way. I kept assuming something wasn’t working when in reality it was just taking longer to get an IP address than it should have. But what’s 7 minutes among friends.
I also learned that budgeting and paying your bills is a good thing. I wasn’t behind on anything, but boy did I owe a lot of money. Expensive wifely birthday presents, children being born, Fantasy leagues being financed and car inspections all conspired to beat me senseless financially.
Now I am going to take a shot at following the simple budgeting advice at Getting Finances Done.
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Broken Computer Season
Apparently it is broken computer season, I have had several family members dutifully report their computer problems to me over the past two weeks. Let’s hope we have reached the limit, I can’t take the excitement of many more of these.
Also maybe it’s a coincidence but 2 of them were my Mom and my brother and both of their issues are already fixed, the other two are Michelle’s Aunt and her Mom. And those issues are still broken. Actually her aunt had the misfortune of calling me on Fantasy draft weekend, and I just heard about my Mother-in-Law’s today.
Hopefully I can work on getting out of much more of this type of repair. Maybe if these folks got a look at my sad slow and non-booting computers at home they would be reluctant to call me at all.
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Paper Reduction
I often find myself overwhelmed with paper. I have a pretty good system to manage the stuff I know what to do with, but when I get a thing that I am not sure if I should keep, plus maybe things that have sentimental value, I feel strange tossing them, but I don’t know where to put them.
Any of the 3 people out there that read this know of a good value scanner that works well with Linux? I have a Visioneer 5300 USB that I have had for years. It does not work with Linux in the least, and I think getting it to work with WinXP is a chore so I am looking to upgrade, hopefully for free or possibly cheaper.
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Linux Desktop Reminders
Not that anyone reads this, and the few that do, (my family) will have no comment on this. But I figured I would throw it out there anyway.
How can I have good reminders time/date based reminders on the linux desktop. The calendar itself is not as important as the reminders, the ability to quickly and easily set and edit those reminders. Evolution would seem to be ideal except that it has a habit of locking up a few times a week and also has a habit of forgetting to remind me of stuff.
If there were a service in gnome that sat on the notification area, and let me use the google calendar with alerts, and also updated the gnome date time applet with some basic appointment details that would rule. But I find myself with half finished kludges and tools that want to do all the work themselves like Sunbird and a bunch of other stand alone apps.
Anyway I am seeking suggestions, does anyone who uses a linux desktop have a simple system for remembering to do things at specific times?
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For some time I have been extremely busy and my websites have been almost entirely ignored. (Whaaaa? Someone is actually reading this?! You really should clean up your feeds and delete the ones you don’t read!) Since I now have two children, a busy startup to engineer at, and other sundry work I will probably continue to ignore it. But I did actually get around to upgrading the site to wordpress 2.0.4, Installed a different wordpress to livejournal crossposter (maybe this one will crosspost entries I send from my camera phone) and checked in on my google adwords.
Seems ignorance somtimes pays off, at least a little. I am about $3 from getting a check from google, afterward I will probably pull the ads because it makes the site look cheesy.
Anyway the renewed interest is temporarily sparked by some ideas I had for some quick software projects I hope to churn out, which also probably won’t happen. But I like to think it will, and instead of actually working on the task I have in mind, I decided to upgrade my blog software. Figure that one out for me. Anyway, here is hoping that Google accidentally prints way too many zeros on my $100 check, and here is to going to get some sleep.
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Iowa bound
tomorrow a little before 5 AM I will be hitting the road to go to the IC and see what passes for fun there for a few action packed days while I help my brother pack all his posessions into a little steel box to be shipped to somewhere in Jersey, watch him officially get his Master of Fine Arts in Writing or English or something. Check out $3 car-bombs, and fly back to Philly while he drives so I can resume work on ye olde dungeon, also known as my new “study.” Look forward to a flury of pic postings here using flickr’s interface and my Samsung a900.
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Naming a Mule
Imagine if you will a middle aged man, mild mannered by day, but by weekend he is a drug mule, pulling up stakes from his family life and shooting down to that hot bed of drug activity, Virginia! Bringing back automobiles made entirely of cocaine. Described as quirky or old fashioned mostly, but he knows the score. The question is, what is the street name for this character?
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Pretty Pictures?
In case you are all wondering where all my strange and sometimes great pictures have gone. My phone locked up on me and I had to send it to samsung for repairs. So it should be somewhere between Texas and Pennsylvania right now, hopefully on it’s way here.
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Go Yellow
GM has been bombarding my television with ads saying that they are hard at work to save the world by ending our dependence on petroleum. While I must say that I respect work to provide a renewable energy source. I find the tone of the commercials funny. I mean sure it would be great to drive a car that can run on old corn cobs and left over beer, but unless GM is running around retrofitting the corn farms equipment to not use giant oil guzzling machines we surely aren’t ending any kind of petroleum dependence. I mean the exposure is great and GM should be applauded for using some of the hours and hours and hours of commercial time they buy each year to raise awareness of alternative fuel sources. But everyone should just think for a minute to know what they are buying into.
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crappy advantage to working from home
If you car won’t start and you need to get it towed somewhere, AAA doesn’t have a hard time hearing you tell them where you are, when you say. I’m home. Instead of at mile 237 on the turnpike. Another advantage is, it doesn’t matter much if the shop can’t look at it today, because, well you weren’t going anywhere tomorrow anyway.
Oh, and I hate my car currently.
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Buy my crap
I decided to start the arduous process of cleaning out my basement, so that means selling crap on ebay. So feel free to buy my Netra
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Gift Ideas
Magazine subscriptions sometimes make a good gift. Especially or people who take public transportation, or simply people who like reading magazines :) Well I learned from Ramit that ebay is a good place to get really inexpensive magazine subscriptions
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origin: Middle-of-nowhere
As noted yesterday I ordered my new RAM. And I have become accustomed to my Amazon orders getting here in one day, because I am a Prime member (so 2 day shipping is free), and all the things I order seem to come from a warehouse in Deleware, which tends to get it to Horsham in 1 day, and to me around 2 the next day. Well my RAM shipped from Sparks, NV and the map shows my concern. It doesn’t look from that view, like anything could get out of that town in less than 3 days.
Well I guess it will still probably make it here by the 30th, but damn, I would have preferred sooner.
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A worthwhile Sunday
So far so good today. I finally isolated the bad part on my laptop. (Allison spilled a large cup of water on it a couple months ago). I tried booting with a linux CD and noticed that the resulting kernel panic mentioned some errors relating to the VM system. So I decided to use memtest on the Knoppix disc. And stopped it at around 13,000 errors at just above 128 MB. So I pulled out the soDIMM in slot 2 and it booted. My new memory should be here Wednesday. :) It gives me an excuse to squeeze a little more life out of this laptop, by bumping the memory to 512, from 256. And I have two worthwhile 1PM NFL games to watch for the first time in a million years. Probably because the Jets play tonight, god I hate watching Jets games.
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The Darkness overwhelms
As the darkness washed over the land our hero glanced up from his domain and said, “Fer Chrissake, it’s only 4 of the clock!” Undaunted he mindfully focused his mind back to it’s purpose, but the darkness had crept in. That couldn’t be enough to stop him. Recessions and unjust wars could not stop him from plotting and creating and otherwise making a nuisance of himself to the tireless enemy, entropy. But he looked around again, “I can’t even see my notebook,” he said. So he pulled out his trump card, he rolled his chair back turned and flicked on the light. Blinking he returned to his plan, and found the shadows still growing in front of him, as his 75 watt battalion was overtaken and engulfed by the darkness. Shaking his head, he muttered, “… must hold on … call at 4:30 ….” Just then a yawn thundered out across the workspace, his hands rose on their own to try and force it back down his gullet, but they faltered, and began to rub his right eye. And time stretched out, with nothing to mark it by. His spirit oozed out onto the table and lay off to the side like an empty basketball, as his arms sprawled and his head slowly came to rest where once his hands had lain, nay, where they had danced and made the universe sing. He made his final statement until somehow maybe the darkness would pass, “asjl;j;l”
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Story Telling
I am catching up reading my Asimov’s subscription and just finished up August. I enjoyed the story telling in Paul Melko’s The Summer of the Seven. Thinking back there were no particularly amazing storylines or anything, it was just a well written story that kept me hooked. I did enjoy the world he set up there, and wouldn’t mind reading some more about it. It seems to be either part of a bigger work or just additional exploration of his current novel in progress, so I’ll be sure to check out *Singularity’s Ring* when I can get my hands on it.
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Black
> I see a red door and I want it painted black> No colors anymore I want them to turn black > I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes > I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
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Banned
It’s banned books week almost every book on there is worth reading, and worth sharing with your children, people are dumb. via barrelhouse
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Limerick Contest
Like **sports** and **rhyming**? Then write a limerick for my brother’s contest. I have yet to grace the pages with my entries, but I do plan to enter the contest. And if you don’t want to enter you can at least see the entries so far.
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Neighborly
Dear annoying loud neighbor who has decided to spend the last two days on your front step having loud conversations, What’s wrong with the inside of your house? (Except, of course, that you are usually in there.)
Sincerely, The committee for a you free neighborhood
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Audio Book Suggestions
Anyone have any suggestions of good audio books? I just finished the Dark Tower series, and I am not sure where to look next.
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triumphant return
I finally got around to un-abandoning my livejournal. I decided to grab the latest version of Live+Press and try it out. P.S. If the links in LJ are all busted it’s because I got used to writing with markdown turned on in wordpress. It may be yet another hurdle that needs to be overcome. Or I can go back to writing out HTML longhand like a caveman.
**Update**: Hacked up the live+press sync code to run it through markdown first. *crossing fingers*.
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Feedburner
I switched all my feeds over to feedburner. Two reasons, first it’s the best, easiset, way I know of to track readership of my feeds. Second maybe someday I can liter my feed with ads too ;-). But it is a little interesting to see statistics. And to realize no one is reading my Library Dweller blog. Okay it just started, but I think I know people who read. I also know people who buy crap at amazon, and for some reason aren’t using my referal links, shame on you!
**Update** oh and if you are already reading my site via a feed, then you don’t need to do anything. The magic of apache rewrite is taking care of it for you… well I guess for me, since you never asked for this. Just make me some free money dammit!
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Unexpected Bills
There is nothing that makes me feel worse than unexpected bills. And I am not talking about jerks named William, or the Buffalo variety. I got jackasses crawling out of the woodwork to charge me for crap that happened many months ago. The IRS is trying to wing me for a nice chunk of change they claim that I didn’t claim correctly. And now apparently Aetna wanted to pay half for home phototherapy to treat Allison’s jaundice. Seriously that had to be quite cheaper than her being at the hospital for 3 days to get the same treatment. Would they have half-assed me on that too? And since all of this happened in December, and Aetna decided not to pay in January, how come I don’t hear about it until September. Good Grief.
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Plastered
As in, a few hours I will be plastered. It’s been some time, but Since Mike is getting married and it is his batchelor party, I guess now is as good a time as any. And if I am plastered in a few, I think there is probably a more profound state of drunkeness that he will reach. I think just short of comatose is my goal. CAR BOMBS AWAY!
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Plums Deify
Just something that struck me as funny from King’s On Writing : A Memoir Of The Craft.
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and the gunslinger followed ..
Ryan asked “was it worth the trip?“Oh yes. At least for me it was.
It was a great epic tale, with a great ending. And I am talking about the real ending after King suggested you stop reading. I would have been disappointed if I had skipped that last part.
Actually there was one thing that did disappoint me, the author’s note was not included in the audio recording. I had noticed that there was one in the hardback version, which I picked up at B&N to look at the drawings yesterday. Now I have to read that note next time I am in a book store.
I enjoyed the story so much I almost bought The Road to the Dark Tower : Exploring Stephen King’s Magnum Opus while I was out yesterday, with my coupons and gift cards. I figured I could use a break from the tower for a while.
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Pushing the outer limits
I walk! And it is good for listening, relaxing and exercising. But I find I always have to push the limit on my range. Today I am going to walk to the Barnes & Noble in Willow Grove, which looks to be just over 2 miles one way. I’ll try and find a book for around $16 (this will make it virtually free, with coupons, discounts and store credit). I’ll get some food somewhere along the way, and walk back. Earlier this week it took me 22 minutes to walk to the mall, So I expect about 1 hour 15 minutes walking time.
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Buy my books
So I have been selling a bunch of my old books and some other stuff lately, all proceeds go to pay for me going to Mexico with my family next June to attend my Brother-in-law’s wedding. But I figure I have a few people who read my stuff this, so I might as well see if anyone is interested. If you want to buy it through ebay or amazon go right ahead, **but** if you want to just buy it from me directly I’m hapy to offer a discount. If you want to pay via PayPal, you can take 10% off the price listed, just make sure to tell me first, so I can de-list it from th other site. If you want to pay me directly, cash or whatever (as long as I know you), take a full 15% off, since I don’t have to pay the commission. And of course I’ll charge you exact cost for the shipping instead of the flat rate, or you can pick it up. If you want to buy my books check it out:
* half.com listings * amazon listings
Generally pretty slim pickings. But maybe there is something that tickles your fancy. Let me know.
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Free Bubble Wrap?
Anyone want to give me some free bubble wrap? I guess I can watch freecycle. But if any of my throngs of blog-reading admirers want to lay some free bubble wrap on me, I won’t be opposed. I noticed that the good people at half.com and amazon give you a fairly limited allowance for shipping expedited, especially if you want to hit the extra 45 cents for a tracking number. So they assume you are going to throw stuff in the flat rate priority mail envelope, which of course has no padding, and since I have no seller whuffie to speak of, I have to be the low cost seller or I get ignored, so no room to pad the shipping allowance there, and I don’t want to get lousy feedback because my books are getting dinged up in transit.
Oh and now the Mexico fund is off and running. I just hit a $21 sale, I have my $20 cash back from Discover that started it, and I got another $5.99 sale yesterday. It reminds me I have to race to get more of my text book like books up on half or amazon, so I can cash in on the back to school crowd.
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I woulda picked it up
If only they would have told me that the seller’s facility was in Horsham, I would have been glad to go pick it up. > Date Time Location Service Area Checkpoint Details
> Aug 29, 2005 09:57:27 PM HORSHAM PA US Arrival Scan
> Aug 29, 2005 09:01:37 PM HORSHAM PA US Arrival Scan
> Aug 29, 2005 09:00:37 PM HORSHAM PA US Shipment picked up from seller’s facility
> Aug 29, 2005 06:45:00 PM US Carrier notified to pick up packageSo was my valuable merchandise really just around the corner? Or does this mean that the UPS tracking system is FUBAR? Either way I ordered on Saturday, the 27th, and it wasn’t until shortly after my complaint email, about them not shipping yet, was responded to by Amazon that I got shipment notification. The good news is I got $5 for my annoyance. So it goes to prove “If things don’t go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true.” -President Clinton
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Image theifery
I noticed a whole bunch of referalls to my site from the Jet’s message board, I thought maybe someone had linked to the whole Ed Hochuli debacle, but I hunted it down and found out that no, someone was stealing my bandwidth to show a picture I have on my site of Chuck Bednarik. Well I don’t approve of that, so I used a friends instructions on how to let the people know what I think of them using mod_rewrite. Thanks Darxus. Now instead of concrete charlie that persons signature on the message board contains this.
plus the Jets suck. Seriously a first round pick for Doug Jolley, watching your preseason it doesn’t even look like he is starting.
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Madden and irresponsibility
I can pick up Madden at midnight tonight, naturally I will. And stay up until 3 or so playing, then I have a work call at 9 AM, that can’t be postponed because it is with some people in Germany. I am sure I won’t be terribly useful on this call. Unfortunately I have to do or manage all of the work that comes out of it. :)
I wonder if GTD has any magic bullets for this case.
Guess I’ll have to fire up some coke zeros. I can’t wait until caffeine is cheaper (i.e. it is winter and I can drink tea to get my fix)
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The Blog preferred by Ed Hochuli
My brother wrote an article for his website a few months back basically saying steroid use is not a huge problem in the NFL Why Steroids Are Not an Issue in the NFL (Unless You Count Ed Hochuli) As you can see he used the name of the very muscular Ed Hochuli as a joke in the title. Well someone claiming to be Ed Hochuli just struck back in the comments section. It certainly looks like a fake, but the email address used to post actually was Ed Hochuli’s (very easy to find) and the IP address the post came from seems to be from a cable modem subscriber in Phoenix which is where Super Ed’s law firm is located. So the simple fact of the matter is, Ed Hochuli, is reading my brother’s website. Or at least the titles of the articles.
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Working Exhausted
If only it were possible to somehow force yourself to do the exact opposite thing you are about to do, because you know full well the next thing you do will be absolutely wrong. This is how I feel right now because I am totally wiped out, and I have reached the point where I know I will make 3 mistakes for every one thing I do right. But because I am at that point there is no way for me to conciously avoid the mistake. I guess the only smart thing to do is go to just stop and go to sleep. But…I press on.
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McDougle Shot
Apparently Jerome McDougle has been shot.
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Tower
I have just finished listening to Song of Susannah by Stephen King, and I think the Dark Tower story is brilliant. It has also sold me on audio books, because although I am sure I could appreciate Midworld and the Ka-tet had I read it, this has been a great experience. I also seem to have gotten over my initial disapointment infused with anger when I popped the earphones in and started listening to Wolves of the Calla and heard George Guidall instead of Frank Muller. Man was I pissed. After I researched the circumstances and found that Frank was in a motorcycle accident and can barely speak that my anger was directed toward Stephen King for taking so damn long to finish writing. I eventually came to realize since Iam so late to this Dark Tower party that George Guidall had narrated the version of The Gunslinger that I had listened to as well, and he is good, very good. But I really got into the world when Frank was doing the narrating, and it was irritating the way Eddie Dean’s inflections had changed, but all that has receded, because as I said George Guidall does a fine job, although it took a book and a half for me to get over that.
I am very anxious to get my ipod wrapped around the final volume of this work. I never thought much of Stephen King, I mean I knew he was successful so I had respect for that, but I just went with my tendency to assume something that everybody likes is probably sub par. (e.g. reality television, or most of television in general) But anyway I am blown away by the Dark Tower, and I suspect I will read quite a bit more of Mister King’s work now.
So any way to King: Hile wordslinger! Thank ye Sai, big big.
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2006 Football Season
Well Tuesday mornings should be very productive for me in 2006 during football season. They just announced that the Monday Night Football crew will be Al Michaels and Joe Theisman. UGH! Theisman is the worst announcer ever. Anyway, like I said it’s a mixed blessing, I can go to sleep early on Monday, and when the Eagles play I can just listen to Merrill Reese.
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reigning in the reply
Merlin Mann a vocal proponent of David Allen’s Getting Things Done wrote some good advice on business email use: email howto a piece of it that is tailor made for me is:
Keep It Short
Finally, when you do respond to your mail, keep your answers as concise as possible. Donât sit on old mail because you dread crafting a long response. Just keep the ball in motion by clarifying, asking questions, offering help, or even saying âI donât know.â? You can always write more later.
Now to practice that.
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Parenting Affords staying up late
I have figured out why the people I know with young children don’t get up at 5 AM to go to the gym. Because they all stay up late, they stay up late because that hanging out time period that used to last from 6 PM until 9 or 10. Now doesn’t start until 9 or 9:30 when the critters are busy counting sugar plums. It turns out that short time period I used to take for granted for playing PS2, reading stuff, working on my aquaman suit or doing any other random thing is now 4 hours of live action romper room. I’m not complaining, but I certainly don’t feel like going to bed at 9:30 or 10 like I used to, I have much more important things to do, like type up swill to slop up on my blog. The question is when do I go to the gym? And the answer certainly has nothing to do with a home gym. That doesn’t work for me, it is too easy to cover with laundry. It probably has something to do with just getting up anyway. Or taking advantage of the fact that I am working from home and going to the gym at 6 or 7 instead of 5.
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Hip Hip Hooray!
Allison’s hip has been declared medically sound. Xrays today, and a little minor tech draw and protractor use has determined that a 20 degree something or other for her left hip is good enough and we don’t have to go back. We can also ignore the frequent clicks and pops that come from there. As if her pulling herself up on anything that is above her head and her crawling all around the place wasn’t clue enough that her legs are just fine. Her mobility has Michelle threatening to coat the entire living room in bubble wrap, and I have started looking or wholesale bubble wrap merchants because that would be awesome. And here’s a free business idea, create a something that looks like a shopvac that will let you coat things in nerf. Then I could rent that tool and shoot up all the hard corners and legs on things with 18 inches of nerf, then falling down would be even more fun time.
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whipped cream
working from home is really blowing up my whip cream budget. Every day I eat a jello pudding cup for lunch either fat free or sugar free. The tastes are good and they are 100 or 60 calories respectively. A while back I discoverd they are great with just a little bit of whipped cream on top. Now that I am home I can always have this little treat! The real point is I am less tempted to run out to fast food joint at home. So lunch can remain relatively inexpensive and healthy.
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Internet Spam Appliance
Here is a neat way to filter spam. Poor Man’s Spam Filtering Solution:
With this solution, gmail becomes my spam filtering software by moving spam to a special folder that doesn’t get retrieved via pop3 access.
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coke zero
A little while back I wrote about coke with splenda in summary I said it doesn’t suck. Well coke zero doesn’t suck even more. It goes a step further than splenda coke did in removing the bad aftertaste of diet coke, it actually has a good taste. It isn’t exactly the great sweet coke taste that helped me reach 300 lbs back in college, but it is good taste. Anyway I hope it doesn’t cause cancer or superflu or anything like that because I drink like 3 of them a day now, to keep my caffeine addiction honed to a fine edge.
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Happy 2nd Anniversary
Michelle, Happy Anniversary! I Love you!
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small people with big bombs suck
Well bad stuff happened in London. :( timeline
Thankfully the UN stepped in:
5:49 The United Nations Security Council passes a resolution condemning the London attacks and expressing “outrage and indignation at today’s appalling terrorist attacks against the people of the United Kingdom that cost human life and caused injuries and immense human suffering.”
Good thing that’s over with. Seriously though is there any point to a resolution saying that something obviously bad is bad? Also is there any point to this post? Finally shouldn’t something like this actually be on my brother’s away message site and not on mine?
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Wordpress plugin recomendations
Anyone have any recommendations for cool wordpress plugins? I am going to upgrade my site and may add a few bells and whistles. And I am going to upgrade my brother’s sites and defintely will add some bells and whistles based on some new “features” he wants to include in his rapidly expanding online identity.
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Replay reverse angle
Got the replay up and running, I simply downloaded rtvpatch, an image from replay images and shot over to microcenter to buy a disk got a deal on a Western Digital 160GB for $60 after manufacturer and store rebate ($120 without) and after screwing around with the master/slave/cable select settings got it to boot up and I am back in business with a good 70 hours or so of record time at medium quality. The only problem I currently live with is that the remote doesn’t control the television also. I guess I could invest in a good universal remote that will control the TV and the Replay. Anyone have any success with any really good universals or do they still all mostly suck? I know my experience was that they work, except for one or two annoyances that you live with but hate. Like if you hit the channel up button 5 consecutive times it puts the tv in its special channel scan mode that flips through the channels once every 3 seconds or so, at least that is what happens with my bedroom television that I never turn on.
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family vacation
My vacation was great, I was in Wildwood, NJ for a week where I did the standard vacation stuff, beach, pool, relaxing, reading, boardwalk and of course eating too much food. Then I drove to Maryland for a July 4th BBQ at my Uncle’s house. The drive to Maryland was pretty good except for spending over an hour on a 15 mile stretch of the NJ Turnpike and Deleware Memorial Bridge. I should have taken the ferry. And of course Jersey sucks. Somehow it took me around 6 or 7 hours to get from Wildwood, NJ to Severna Park, MD which is about 175 miles driving. So I feel like I spent too little time with my family, but it was good for them to see Allison and for Allison to be scared being passed around from unknown person to unknown person.
It was my first real chance to get away from work and everything since my honeymoon back in July of 2003, and now I am at least refreshed for work, and karate and all the things I like doing but were stagnating like everything does when you spend most of your time in a swamp, and a close second for most of your time driving to and from a swamp.
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replay relief
There is some relief in site, People have the replay images available, you can find them at replaytvupgrade so I just need to find a deal on a disk for $50 or so.
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click click click
Well it sounds like my ReplayTV has abrubtly died :-( There was a short period where it was acting strange, but that was only for a few days, I came home and found it rebooting and never quite finishing, a hard reboot fixed that.
But this morning it wouldn’t come on when I hit the power button. Undaunted I did another hard reboot. This time I was pierced to the bone with a rapid clicking sound from hell, I could feel it vibrate in the hollow of my temples and hammer against my soul.
Looks like Mikeyboy of replaytvparts is going to get a few of my bucks, unless there is somewhere out there I can get the ReplayTV software image to push onto a new disk that I buy, which I would do just to save some money. First thing to do when I get the replacement drive is to pull the OS image off of it in case a similar need arises in the future.
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Laziness is a virtue
Again and again I come to this conclusion. The lazy man is way more efficient, and works on interesting things rather than repetitive dumb things. For a very good discussion on this go to a library or a book store and grab a copy of Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein and find the story in there about “The Man who was too lazy to fail.” I’d tell you more about it, but I am feeling a bit put out by the effort.
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hot diggity
So I struck a sweet deal with my brother. Tom: if i make a million dollars, yuo get an 8 pack of hot dogs a month for 5 years. Me: deal.
Now he just needs to write, publish and sell that novel.
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be like a tennis shoe
overcome procrastination. Do something, do anything. What the hell?
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Rubber Bands
So where is the internet company that will produce those rubber bracelets in arbitrary colors with whatever you want printed on them? It might be time to start the get Kevin central AC cause. Show your support buy a “McAllister Nation” bracelet today!? From somewhere.
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Tick Tock
Vacation draws nigh. Just the little matter of work and then a wedding, and then some very crowded relaxation. I must distract myself from the fixated gaze of the clock, as it has a power to paralyze action and run nearly backward if given too much attention.
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Software Extensions
The ability to extend software is awesome. This is evident by all the great extensions to Firefox. But I was just sent one of the best extensions I have seen so far. Aardvark. It is great for removing crap from a page prior to printing or examining a page for web development work. Download and enjoy. If you don’t use Firefox as your browser, then what the heck are you waiting for? IE is trash.
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customer service don’ts
When you are a bank that bills yourself as “convenient” it is best if your customers aren’t telling stories like this: “but I told them they better do whatever they have to do to get me a card in the next 10 minutes or I’m leaving with my card & all my money…that was the only thing that got thier attention”
Anyway thanks Michelle for getting my replacement ATM card. :)
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the clock on the wall says ..
It’s bread o’clock somewhere.
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swamp troubles
aside from being attacked by a snake and a tick today, so far so good.
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Tom McAllister, Writer
My Brother had a story published in the online version of the literary journal Barrelhouse: Uneasy Rider He has some background of the story here.
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red eyes
Travelling sucks. I did have some good experiences though. Thanks to Paul Zastoupil, of Freeciv fame, for making me feel welcome and pointing me at Old City San Diego to get some food, see a touristy but nice part of San Diego, and get a gift for Allison. If you find yourself in San Diego thats a good place to stop to grab something to eat and see a bunch of cheesy tourist shops. It got me out of the vicious circle I had developed of going to the Jackington mall in La Jolla every day and marvelling at the knife shop and all the stores that wish they were The Gap. Paul also hooked me up with some sweet Schwag which will require me to finish up Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando and Jak2 before using. Thanks again!
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Sharpening Service
You will all be happy to know that the King of Knives does indeed offer sharpening service.
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Child’s laughter
Hearing your child’s laughter is. I was looking for some clever way to end the above phrase. But then I realized it doesn’t need any other description. It just is. And any other description detracts from it. It must be experienced to understand how it can make you overjoyed, strong and energized at the same time.
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Jetson’s had it wrong
by the way, I just read Eric Sink’s Entry on staying out of his way at the airport. And I couldn’t agree more. Although he did forget one critical thing. Those moving sidewals, like the Jetson’s had, are not a RIDE!. It even says above them, “Express walkway” and not express standway. Sure I understand certain people could use a break in the day to just cruise at 1.5 MPH as the facinating artwork and other dumb airport stuff goes by. But please pull your seven suitcases and your grandparents off to one side, so people can walk past.
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Giant Goldfish
Here is a list of things I saw or noticed during my trip so far:
- cat sized goldfish in the hotel lobby
- An outdoor mall, that has one indoor part for their food court, and also an ice hockey rink
- A crappy fitness center that is open from 6 AM PDT - Midnight PDT making it fairly useless for my morning workout just leave it open all night!
- Hitch, although I purposely didn’t watch it on the long flight. Instead I read about 300 or 400 pages
- The Knife King
- dippin dots
Now to go do some work. By the way travel sucks, luckily my return flight leaves San Diego around midnight eastern time and gets into PHL around 5 AM. Here’s hoping for a window seat in an exit row.
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San Diego
I wonder what interesting things are going on in San Diego for the few free hours I will have the next couple nights. Or where to find out.
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Geek Jug band
Mike’s thoughts on PhillyJUG meeting. And I generally agree, except for the religiously part. If Iget free books every time, I won’t miss a single one. Plus I got to hear about all the ways that Java 1.5 Annotation, and the work of Gavin King, Marc Fleury and the other JBoss guys make EJB 3.0 actually worthwhile. Shaun’s talk was pretty good. Rich Friedman who is in charge of trying to actually make money had a, slightly less interesting to many of the attendees, presentation also. The lack of interest was hurried along with some eye-chart slides. I was interested primarily in hearing about yet another way people are trying to make money in software since I like making money and software.
There is some promise to what he talked about, but he definitely has an uphill battle. His presentation would probably go off better at a more management centered group, like a Eastern Technology Council event. Assuming the slides that looked like nutrition labels and legal documents get changed around to be more friendly.
Anyway thanks to Dave Fecak from PhillyJUG and JBoss for this event.
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Juggled
Well I finally am going to go to one of these user group things. I am going to hit PhillyJUG (Java User Group) tonight and see what’s what. I think the presentation is on Hibernate, which is cool, because I just started looking at that a couple days ago with the well written O’Reilly Java Devleoper’s Notebook on the topic. I also get to go check out my old place of work, since Unisys in Tredyfferin is hosting the meeting. I wonder if any of the guys from my group, who didn’t quit and go to Lucent back in 1997, are still there? I wonder if my intern essay and picture still hangs on the wall? I wonder if “R. Butts” still works there? This and many other questions that won’t be answered are on my mind. The unfortunate question that will be answered is how long will it take me to drive from Princeton to Tredy?
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I heard that ..
Milt has the right idea maybe I’ll grab some McDonalds today! ;)
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Location, Location, Location
A critical aspect of where you put your business should be walking distance to a variety of food and other interesting areas, like parks, gyms, basketball courts, etc. There is nothing like a relaxing walk to somewhere to help clear your mind or help you work on something.
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Letting it flow
Blogcaster is ready for it’s initial release. It is very simple, has some warts which are annoying, but I can throw quick posts up with relative ease. Once I figure out the complicated SourceForge release process, I can have the linux version up there. And I probably will have to wait until I get home to get the Windows version up there. Unless I get motivated to mess around with the ant script some more today to build the windows version.
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summer’s off
Tom said this. All I can say to that is, amen. Now where do I find that job?
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java blogging client
This is posted with BlogEd, which seems to be pretty simple, but has fancy WYSIWYG stuff in it. Java web start looks pretty cool, at least it worked on my home machine without any fuss. Of course I do not know how to open the program again. Anyway here is wondering if the inline image stuff works:
Updated: to remove all kinds of crazy markup that BlogEd put into the entry. I ended up posting 3 entries and thought I lost one before I figured out how to use it. Plus swing is still icky. The inline picture worked which was really cool.
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tedium
Maybe it is time to win powerball so I can forego the tedius drive and doing stuff for a living.
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design
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
– R. Buckminster Fuller
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maiden voyage
Here is the first post created with the tool Mike and I built.
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NetBooks?
Simply Audiobooks looks interesting. They are applying the same model to books on CD that netflix applied to DVDs. Once my audible.com subscription is up I may have to try this, if I am not sick of listening to books by then, Even if I only need to have the books in my hands long enough to transfer them to my ipod. It’s too bad that piracy fears will never have a company that will do this unlimited type of service with electronic delivery.
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AOL News: Blog of the Week
My brother got blog of the week from AOL News: Blog Zone for his apology to Barry. The McAllister nation is on track.
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Bloglines Package Tracking
Cool, bloglines does package tracking now: Bloglines News. I guess this is cool if you use your notifier. Otherwise when I am expecting a package I reload the tracker page on the shippers site like 100 times an hour, but someone else may enjoy it.
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OUT FOR DELIVERY
The sweetest phrase you can see on the UPS tracking site, especially when you just ordered your iPod yesterday. It seems their supplier was in Harrisburg :-)
Mar 18, 2005 06:00:00 AM HORSHAM PA US OUT FOR DELIVERY Mar 18, 2005 12:46:00 AM HORSHAM PA US ARRIVAL SCAN Mar 17, 2005 10:50:00 PM HARRISBURG PA US DEPARTURE SCAN Mar 17, 2005 09:06:12 PM Jonestown PA USA SHIPPED Mar 17, 2005 08:48:42 PM HARRISBURG PA US ORIGIN SCAN
My FM transmitter won’t arrive for another couple days though, apparently that shipped from Kentucky. I’ll have to remember to bring my Awesome collapsible Koss PortaPro2 headphones home. (got them for $19 at Circuit City).
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ordered an iPod
Well I am joining the ranks of people who have a way too expensive toy. I had a good experience listening to an audio book during my commute, so I took some birthday money, money saved from cancelling my Investors Business Daily subscription and the offer from audible.com to get $100 toward an audio player for signing up for a 1 year subscription, and got the best deal I could find. I grabbed the iPod photo 40 GB which is discontinued, but is currently available through amazon for $360.00 which is of course only $11 more than the 30 GB iPod photo. And the 40 actually comes with a few more accessories (AV cables most notably). Sure it’s slightly bigger (0.12 inches thicker and 0.5 ounces heavier) but I think I can deal with that. You can make the purchase even more inexpensive for me, by buying one yoruself using my referral code: iPod photo 40. Now I won’t have to try and carry wallet photos around either. I also got the Monster Cable iCarPlay iPod Wireless FM Transmitter so I can listen in my car, which is the whole point.
Hopefully it will be arriving in time for me to spend a long weekend playing with it. Excitement abounds.
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CavTel outsources customer service to monkeys
They wish, it would greatly improve their service levels. There are plenty of monkeys out there that know more about how telephone service works than the people they have who eventually answer the phone. Sure their service is slightly less expensive, but I have had nothing but problems with them. Apparently they have no technicians and they must outsource their telephone support to the lowest bidder. I switched to CavTel in January. When they finally got the number switched over, my phone stopped ringing in my house. So after 6 days without a phone finally it miraculously started ringing here. Hurray! Too good to be true, because on Tuesday people calling my number were greeted with the wonderful message that “This number has been disconnected.” And I have no dial tone. SO, we try calling CavTel support. For three days. Still no service. They claim they never got the number back from Verizon, it’s verizon’s fault the did something at the CO.
I got news for you, I DON’T CARE whose fault it is! I just want to pick up my phone and be able to call people. And I somewhat want people to be able to call me. So if you are an upstart company in an industry dominated by monopolies, it may be worthwhile to spend just a little bit of time either training your customer service people about the telephone industry, or maybe hiring qualified people. I never talked to anyone at CavTel but the customer service people and the exuded incompetence, that is the way I feel about the company, and that will never change.
We canceled service, demanded a full refund and the cost to transfer back to Verizon. Of course now we cannot keep our number if we want service restored in any amount of time, because that takes 10 working days for verizon to do the paperwork to get the number back from Cavalier even though they claim they never got it from Verizon. So I will be getting a new phone number in a couple of days. If you need to call me try in a few days, or write me a letter or something.
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Don’t Mess with PHL
I just flew in from Houston, Texas and boy does flying in the winter in Philly suck. Here is a quick recap of the experience:
- Getting up at 3:30 AM for a 6 AM flight because of snow is not desirable.
- Sitting in the plane waiting to de-ice while the AC is turned off, also, subpar
- Houston claims to be the 4th largest city, however it seems to have claimed the distinction by expanding the borders to include the suburbs, where apparently everyone goes to by 7:30 PM. Because the city is deserted then. I could hear birds chirping, when they rig
- six packs come in buckets full of ice in Texas
- Charging food and transportation to the room is a great invention.
- Having a chick-fil-a in a public cafeteria in the basement of an office building is a good idea
- The banks that have ATMs in airports should go and move them to the other side of the TSA checkpoints. If you are short on cash and need to get a cab and you have left the “secure” area, there could be trouble. Incidently zone fares for cabs are good.
- I don’t understand the cow in the spacesuit that is in the George Bush airport.
- Searching around for wireless connectivity is silly when there is an ethernet jack in your room. (Note: Bring a network cable with you when you go anywhere)
- 70 degree weather in February is great, but I am sure glad I missed the 110+ degree weather that will be there in the summer
- Venison isn’t bad.
- Travelling into a snow storm in philly is much more time consuming than travelling out of one.
- Coming home is great
htfully should have been drown out by traffic sounds, or killed off by pigeons.
Well that’s it for now.
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Happy Valentine’s Day
Even though my father used to call today Saint Hallmark’s day, and at many levels I agree with him that it is purely a marketing ploy to sell junk. I think it’s as good an excuse as any to pledge my undying love to Michelle. Happy Valentine’s Day, Michelle, I Love YOU!
Yeah I know it’s sappy, so what?
Oh and Happy Valentine’s Day Allison, maybe your mom will read this to you, and maybe someday you’ll know what it means.
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Superbowl
Thank you Andy Reid and all of the players on the Eagles for allowing me to watch an Eagles game in February! We’re GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!
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Tradition
My father told me that on the night I was born he read Stranger in a Strange Land in its entirety. So no I don’t know if tonight is the night, but I also don’t think I can read as fast as my Dad, so I am trying to get a head start. Plus, its a thick book. Yes of course I have read it before, actually twice or three times, but it was good, and I figure I should work on continuing the tradition, or maybe I am the one starting it since I am doing it the second time, but either way I finished Metamorphisis yesterday, and I had just started Aristotle’s Ethics, but decided do everything I can to help get the kid born since the 5th is fast approaching, and Michelle really, really would like it to happen as soon as possible.
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Transformed into a horrible vermin
I have just begun reading Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis which I have a dead tree copy of (somewhere), because I read it in high school, but the palm version from Project Gutenberg is much more handy at this time. I remembered liking it before. What’s not to like about becoming a horrible vermin?
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Wiki Textbooks
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StrongBad DVD
Next week you can order the First 100 strongbad emails on DVD. Best news so far today. Thanks boingboing.
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Palm Reading
I have dug up the relic from my college days, the Palm III mainly because I felt like doing some reading of the public domain stuff on the awesome Project Gutenberg. The experience (which I tried before) has been great so far. I am using The Weasel Reader because of its use of the zlib compression algorithm, Trying to stretch those 2MB as far as they will go. It has been great. I am almost finished reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow and the experience has been great. First it’s a pretty good story, that is available under a creative commons license and I was able to read it very fast, because for some reason I was able to take my palm and read a few pages in lots of places that ordinarily would have warranted a raised eyebrow and some somewhat insulted/joking remarks about my being bored with their company if I was reading or even carrying a dead-tree book.
I’d recommend reading that book, or buying me a newer slightly smaller, with better resolution and more memory screen palm :), or checking out A Place So Foreign and Eight More also by Doctorow, which I bought and recently finished. Some good stuff in there. I think he released some of those short stories under a creative commons license as well, link.
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The Poor Voter on Election Day
John Greenleaf WhittierThe proudest now is but my peer,
The highest not more high;
Today, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.Today, alike the great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people’s hall,
The ballot-bow my throne!Who serves today upon the list
Beside the served shall stand;
Alike the brown and wrinkled fist,
The gloved and dainty hand!
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong today;
And sleekest broadcloth counts know more
The homespun frock of gray.Today let pomp and vain pretense
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man’s common sense
Against the pendant’s pride.
Today shall simple manhood try
The strengthen of gold and land;
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!While there’s grief to set redress,
Or balance to adjust,
Where weighs our living manhood less
Than Mammon’s vilest dust-
While there’s a right to need my vote,
A wrong to sweep away,
Up! clouted knee and ragged coat!
A man’s a man today! -
Happy Birthday Aunt Judy
Today is the birthday of my Mom’s sister, my Godmother, Aunt, Niko’s Mom and good friend. Have a very Happy Birthday, Aunt Judy!!
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Congratulations Al and Reagan
Al and Reagan tied the knot a couple weekends ago. The wedding and reception were a lot of fun and well done. Congratulations.
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netscape devedge dead?
Netscape’s DevEdge appears to be dead, which is unfortunate because it was my only saving grace when it came to screwign around with javascript. So I looked at the wayback machine and did some other googling to find the zip files for the Core JavaScript Reference and Core JavaScript Guide and stuck them on my server. So I would have somewhere to get to them in the future. Hopefully the Mozilla folks who maintain the web developer documentation will snag this stuff and put it up somewhere on their own server.
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Live Journal
I am trying out the LivePress plugin to keep my live journal account synced up with this one. Just because I know a few people that are all into live journal, and why not have a mirror of my site. So this should be the first entry on my live journal site.
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delicious links
I have added, to my blog, a list of interesting links that I come across that aren’t worth writing a whole entry about but I find interesting and worthy of sharing anyway. I had this on my old MT site, but I didn’t use it much because it was a hassle to update. I happened across del.icio.us, which bills itself as a social bookmarks manager. Their simple interface and bookmarklet has made it easy to add links and they have a simple API for extracting an HTML version of the last 10 links added, so I threw it up on the sidebar of my page. So make sure to check it out, from time to time. And if you are one of those people who use an aggregator to read my site, then simply point at your aggregator at the RSS feed to keep an eye on it.
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Crypt-O-Blog
I just found out that Schneier is changing the format of Crypt-O-gram, for the better in my opinion. He will now continuously post his articles in a blog format. Schneier on Security. I have always liked reading the crypto-gram emails monthly, but sometimes it was a bit much to chew on all at once, and delayed my getting any work done on the 15th of the month for an extra hour or so while I digested the articles. Anyway fire up Bloglines and throw in the RSS feed.
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If re-elected
What Bush will do if Re-elected:
Introduce the Protection of Adorable Children and Church-Going Families and Also Stick Michael Moore’s Bulbous Ass In Prison Act of 2005
Well that’s the only one of the things on that page I thought was funny, but there appear to be some other funny things on Shrove Tuesday (Observed). Like the New Air Safety Measures:
Proactive bullet to the knee of every 25th passenger
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Voting Registration Deadline
The deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania is October 4, 2004. So, Register to Vote.
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Invites
Hey, I have a few GMail invites for anyone that is interested. Just post a comment and I’ll send you one. Update: Well I sent one out, and I got a good suggestion in the comments, so I am just going to use: the isnoop.net GMail invite spooler for these and any future invites I get.
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Conventions and Real Information
Wow, the Bush Twins hit the stage at the RNC and were terrible. If they think it is a good idea to trot out the first twins to introduce their father, so he can introduce their mother, then maybe they should go out of their way to have them practice the speech ahead of time. Because the fact that they had never even read this tandem speech before, let alone practiced aloud, was evident by their lack of timing on many bad jokes and obvious general disinterest in the content. Anyway, these conventions are all pretty stupid, the only thing that passes for content is restating of what the polls tell them everyone thinks the problems are. By the way, anyone know where I can find the democratic 2004 platform? I found the republican’s after a little hunting, but can’t find anything other than the democrats 2000 platform. Come on guys, get your act together, there are only a couple months left. I should have no problem finding these things. Of course there was no shortage of worthless publicity shots and bashing the other party. Yeah I get it, you are both smarter than each other. Now where are your plans?
Update: found the democrats platform. Yeah, yeah, right under my nose.
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New Site, new software
I have begun the process of moving all of my stuff to a new web hosting provider. To ease the transition, I decided to also switch from MovableType to WordPress. Installing wordpress was easy, and importing my entries was easy. The hard part will be trying to make it so my old broken permalinks are still valid here, and I may simply have to give up on that. But hopefully the flexible format for the permalinks I have used here will allow me to make it last. Next I need to get my gallery and email moved.
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Yarrow
The RedHat Linux Project, now called the Fedora Project, has recently put out the first release of Fedora Core. I guess you might be tempted to call this RedHat 10, or 9.1 or something, but I like this movement in redhat opening up the development process in this project. It should get me my fancy newer software faster, and I am more likely to be able to find an RPM for something. I am going to be installing Yarrow (the new release name) tonight on my work laptop. So hopefully the 2GHz, 512 MB machine can handle all the fancy widgets and colors of Gnome 2.4.
Postcard
