Katrina

Jenn got the call today that her dad was being activated by the national guard in response to the hurricane damage in New Orleans. I've been reading, watching, and listening about the devastation in the area. What I find most appalling is how rapidly the civil situation turned into anarchy. Looting is a sad but expected result, but shooting at rescue personnel and causing general mayhem? I had higher expectations of the people of our country than that. What are these shooters thinking? Of course, there are lots of things I don't understand about this situation. Why stay after the order to evacuate? Why build a city under sea-level? Why make a bad situation worse by harassing the rescue workers and terrorizing other victims? I just don't understand it.

I'm also really disappointed with the media, oil, and insurance industries. The media has already started the witch-hunt to blame someone. It's completely ridiculous. A study was done several years ago that stated that a category 5 hurricane would completely destroy New Orleans. It was a known risk. Yet nearly every newscaster has asked the same ridiculous question: "Why weren't you prepared?" In a catastrophe like this, the loss of life is unavoidable. It's wrong to try and lay blame on any person or organization.

The insurance and oil industries didn't waste any time in using the hurricane to boost profits. Gas around us ranges from $3.19-$3.50 a gallon. Insurance companies are talking about how rates are going to rise.

While I'm ranting, let me make one final observation. What nations are rushing to OUR aid now? Whenever tragedy strikes in the world, we Americans are expected to come running to the rescue. When we need help, who answers the call. If any foreign aide is headed our way, I haven't heard about it yet. I suppose the rest of the world thinks we either don't need or don't deserve their help.

Sorry for the rant, but the whole situation just puts me in a foul mood.

PDA Post

This post is coming straight to you from my new toy, a Dell Axim x50v PDA! This thing is so cool! I reiceived my replacement last week and I have been loving it ever since. It can do jwst about anything a geek like me might want. It has built in wireless so I can browse the web from any hotspot. It has 2 kinds of memory card readers for lots of storage. It plays movies, music, games, and more. The handwriting recognition is incredible: it can recognize my chicken scratch. Jenn can attest to the fact that it has been constantly by my side since arriving. I keep finding interesting uses for it too. Aside from this post, I also take all of my notes on it, track my gas mileage, browse, check e-mail, and jot down appointments. It's really handy! Hopefully my zeal for this new toy persists and I get lots of good use out of this incredible machine.

Dell Axim x50v.... DOA

Oh Dell, why do you torment me so. A couple of weeks ago we ordered a new laptop to replace the one I had for school, and a PDA for myself. After checking out some review sites and waffling as to whether I would really use it, I decided to get the Dell Axim x50v. Dell was having a sale where the units were marked down 35%, and so I jumped on it. The x50v has quite a few features that appeal to me. It has a gorgeous VGA (640x480) screen. It has Wi-Fi (802.11), Infrared, and Blue Tooth built in. It has a fast processor, Compact Flash and SD I/O slots, and lots of other goodies. I wanted one to track my appointments, todo list, and for browsing the web from the couch. Jenn and I were both like little kids waiting for our packages to arrive. For Jenn's laptop, we chose the Inspiron 6000 with a Pentium M 1.6GHz chip, built-in Wi-Fi, and widescreen display. It's amazing how much laptop prices have come down: it was just a hair over $900.	That doesn't look right...
This isn't giving me a warm fuzzy feeling	I got the call from Jenn that the UPS driver had dropped off our toys. When I got home we got them out of the box and started charging them. I powered up the Axim and went through the setup steps, then shut it down to charge while I went out to mow. After dinner and giving Corbin a bath and putting him to bed, I retired to the basement to play with the new toys. The laptop was a breeze, it worked great straight out of the box. I had it updated and installed all of the programs Jenn uses (Picasa, Gaim, w.Bloggar) in just a couple of minutes.
The Axim was a completely different story. I clicked on the PDA and I saw a message which said that a memory error had been detected. I clicked the button to get rid of the error, and then nothing. Just a black screen. Hmm.... I'm new at the PDA game, so let me try a couple things. I plugged in the charger / dock and put the PDA in. I hit power. I see the same message. After clicking the button though, I see the Dell background. Success right? Wrong! That's where it stayed. No friendly start button, no prompts, no response, even to the power button. After actually reading the manual, I click the reset button in the back. It blinks off, then straight back to the Dell screen. Grrrr.... So then I checkout the forums on AximSite, a community run forum for Axim users. By holding down the power and reset buttons, I can force a "hard" reset. Unfortunately, even after the hard reset, I get the blue Dell button staring back at me. Reading further on AximSite, I find that there is a strange three button combo that will throw you into the Dell Hardware Diagnostics Utility. I ran through the utility, and it passed every test perfectly. One test was to record my voice and play it back, which was pretty cool. After finishing the test, I'm back to the Dell blue screen (of death?). I'm pretty sure that the hardware must be okay, and that the ROM / firmware is somehow biffed. At wit's end, I got on the Dell on-line customer support chat site and spoke with "Joshua". He ran me through the same tests I had already tried, and then came to the conclusion that I needed a new unit :-( The chat thing definitely worked better than the phone, as the problem was "resolved" in less than thirty minutes. Checking my order status now, the replacement has shipped and should be here sometime tomorrow or the next day. As a feeble last attempt, I let the battery charge overnight, but in the morning I was still stuck at the Dell screen. I was majorly disappointed that my cool gadget didn't even work out of the box. Hopefully I have better luck with this replacement.	Dell Blue Screen (of Death!)

State Fair

It's state fair time. I'm reminded about once an hour by the train whistle blowing. The train tracks outside our office are only used one time of year, and that is for the state fair. Normally, the tracks are bare excepting for now when they fire up the old engine and ferry folks back and forth to the fairgrounds. It's kind of neat hearing that whistle blow...

Froogle Wish List

I know, I'm probably years behind on learning about this one, but I just noticed the WishList feature over at Google's Froogle site. You can browse around on Froogle and add things to your shopping list. Then you can mark some of those items as being on your wish list. Items on your wish list can be viewed by others, which makes it sort of like a gift registry. I had an idea for a service that would work something like this, and intended to charge the stores that were available to shop from a small fee for anything purchased from a wish list. Google just beat me to the punch. Anyway, if you are feeling generous, here is a brief wishlist I put together.

The Miserable Meteorologist

I missed my calling as a weatherman. Every time the weather is about to change, whether it be from sunny to rainy, muggy to dry, or whatever the barometer chooses to do, I know well in advance. How? My sinuses start giving me fits. Today is one of those days. Anyone who has ever been around me knows that the day of a good rain, I'm a mess. And no, I don't have allergies. Trust me on this one. I've had that torture session otherwise known as a prick test performed three times, and each time I had no reaction to any of the allergens. Do we really need sinuses? I mean, really, what purpose do they serve (aside from making me miserable)?

Taken

Click here for a sweet little animated short.

Movie Review: War of the Worlds

Tonight Corbin spent the night with Oma & Opa, so Jenn and I had a date night. It was quite the date night we had hoped for because we couldn't get reservations at Mitchel's for dinner, and the movie started at either 7:30 or 10:30, so our options were reduced. We went straight for the 7:30 showing and made popcorn and frozen coke our dinner.

Before I get into the movie, what is going on at the theaters these days? $9.00 for tickets?!?! Fortunately for us, we had a free pass we received as a Christmas gift, and it proved to be a good investment as tickets were $8.25 at the time it was purchased. Then inside we had a 10 minute wait to get our large popcorn and large frozen coke ($10.50). The popcorn was stale and full of those tiny pulverized pieces from the bottom of the popper. When we find our seats, we greated with a rolling set of commercials for coke, diet coke, television shows, and reminders to turn off our cell phones. When the lights dim we get our standard 15 minute roll of previews. Normally I don't mind these, as they are usually previews for movies coming out next year, but in this case they were for movies currently in theaters (Stealth, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Are we entertainment consumers such mindless sheep that we don't notice what a bad deal we're getting at the theaters? For the same $30 the two of us spent, we could have rented several movies at $4 each (or bought one for around $20), popped up a couple of bags of $0.50 popcorn, and enjoyed the movie in front of our state of the art widescreen television and dolby digital 5.1 surround sound system. And at home, we have the freedom to pause, rewind, take a bathroom break, or anything else we want.

But I digress. We caught a showing of War of the Worlds after discussing what we should see. Evidently, Hollywood is running short on writers because there seem to be a lot of remakes, sequels, and adaptations in the theaters now. Several folks had told us they liked War of the Worlds, so we settled on that one. Neither of us was all that impressed. The movie had excellent effects, and the mood of the film was tense throughout. Unfortunately, the atmosphere was all it really had going for it. I already knew the story, so I went in knowing the plot line and the ending, but I still hoped that this would be an interesting retelling. I didn't get what I was hoping for. The plot of the movie is outlined in the 5 minutes of intro and outro speech by Morgan Freeman (who never appears in the film). The rest is a cookie cutter sci-fi / action film that really could have been used in any movie. It was almost like Spielberg and company were doing a technical demonstration, and not really making a movie. The ending of the film is what really clinched it as a disappointment. It's almost like they said, okay, we've made our demo, let's wrap this up and go home.

Needless to say, we aren't recommending this to anyone.

Taking Notes

When I was in high school and college, I was a judicious note taker. I made a sort of an art out of it. I had multi-colored pens, and each color had a particular meaning to me. I would jot down just about everything the instructor would mention, as well as any notes on the board or important tips from slides. The result was spiral bound goodness, brimming with colorful pages of knowledge.

Now that I've been in "the real world" for a while, I've noticed that my note taking is not just less colorful, but almost useless. In most meetings I attend, I rarely jot anything down. I have the pad and paper there mostly to show respect to whomever called the meeting (rather than offend them by being honest and showing that I have no intention of taking notes). It isn't that the discussion isn't always noteworthy, it's just that there are so few new thoughts that come up in a meeting that I can remember them without notes. The notes I do take are mostly for show, again, just to humor the speaker. In nearly all cases I end up with a couple of scraps of paper that I'll NEVER reference again.

And here is where the real trouble comes... I'm a pack rat. I HATE to throw things away. And to throw away notes, well, let's not even discuss it. After all, if it was worth jotting down (referring back to school days), then it MUST be important. Unfortunately, now I have these worthless notes littering my desk that I don't want to throw away. In my mind I'm thinking, "Well what if so-and-so asks if I recall a previous discussion". That never happens.

The only notes that I really do care to take and keep are the ones with contact information, calendar appointments, and task lists. These usually end up scattered across a variety of the bad notes, and are in no way organized. If I'm sitting at my desk, I'm pretty good about entering them into Outlook, but otherwise they end up scattered across lots of scraps of paper. I'm considering getting a PDA to better organize these, but I'm afraid that I'll just be pissing away $400 on a toy I use for three weeks, and then forget.

Has anyone else noticed this futility in note taking in the real world? Do you actually use the notes you take now? If you have a PDA, is it useful?

Restaurant Recommendations

I've found myself in the position of recommending lunch and dinner spots, and thought I would pass them along here.

Lunch

If you are looking for a quick lunch, but something more than McDonald's, I would recommend any of these:

QDoba

QDoba is great mexican restaurant, and their burritos are unbelievable. They pack so much into the things that the poor tortilla shell can hardly hold it all. It is setup much like a Subway, in that you choose what you want on your burrito, taco salad, or other entree and they make it right in front of you. I usually go for the veggie burrito (yeah, yeah, occassionally this meat-a-tarian eats some veggies), and their nachos are really good as well.

Roly Poly

This is a place that I've only starting visiting recently, but I'm a big fan. They have your standard hot and cold sandwich fair, but rather than serving it as a sandwich, it is rolled in a pita type bread wrap. Their wraps are great, and I'm a big fan of the chicken caesar.

McAllister's Deli

This is a hot spot in Fishers, and VERY busy during the lunch hour. They do a brisk service though, and you should be able to get your lunch fairly quickly. The outdoor patio is nice on hot days. The deli sandwiches are good, as well as the soups and potatos. I usually go for some type of corned beef meal (Reuben or New Yorker) and a cup of potato soup. The drinks they serve come in enormous cups that won't fit in any cup holder. The sweet tea is very good.

Jimmy John's

Another sub shop, but for some reason this one stands above the cold meat sub crowd. I don't know what it is: the bread, the sauce, the meat.... their sandwiches just taste better than Subway's. I'm partial to the Billy Club on french bread (hold the tomatos).

Dinner

Depending on whether you are looking for a very nice, but pricey meal, or just something quick, you can probably find something you will like in this list (I certainly did).

El Camino Real

This is your typical strip mall Mexican restaurant, but the food is very tasty. The service is very, very fast, and the atmosphere is very laid back. The prices are great for a family too. We can usually get in and out for less than $20. I'm pretty predictable here, as I almost always order the special dinner #4.

Nancy's Pizza

If you live in or around Fishers, you have to try a Nancy's Pizza at least once in your life. These are monster sized Chicago style pizzas. The closest thing to compare to them is Uno's, but these are even bigger (and arguably better). The pizzas have a very deep dish crust, almost two inches deep if you are lucky. This is truly a pie pizza, filled with sauce, toppings, and cheese. To call them toppings is kind of a misnomer, as they usually end up pretty well buried in the heaping layer of cheese. This certainly isn't the pizza for the lactose intolerant. One to two pizzas is more than a meal for most, so be cautious when you order. It may seem like you need more, but you will definitely have leftovers.

The Rathskellar

If you are looking for a little bit more upscale meal, the Rathskellar is a very nice German restaurant. We've been there a couple of times, and it has always been fun. The food is great, with the variety of schnitzel's coming on plates bigger than your head. After dinner, there is a beer garden outside that hosts local bands. It is great for an evening out.

Maggiano's

If you are looking to feed a large group, Maggiano's is the place to go. Maggiano's is a family style Italian restaurant in front of the Keystone at the Crossing Mall. If you order family style, you get all you an eat of two salad choices, two appetizers, two anti-pastas, two entrees, and two desserts. The amount of food on the table is awesome, not to mention how great everything tastes! It is usually a good idea to call ahead and make reservations, especially for a large party.

The Cheesecake Factory

I always debate recommending this one. The food is spectacular, but the big drawback is the wait. The Cheesecake Factory is in the Keystone mall, and regardless of when you go in you are usually in store for at least a one hour wait to get a table. It was so painful that Jenn and I stopped going, and we LOVE The Cheesecake Factory. If you are on the fence, a good compromise is to hop in the dessert line and get an order of cheesecake to go. They have a wide selection of cheesecakes (go figure) as well as other desserts, and they are ALL very good. If you have the extra time, the food is wonderful, and I absolutely love the spicy cashew chicken.

So if you are in the Indy / Fishes area, and need some good eats, go ahead and try some of these.

FINDSTR

I learned how to program in a UNIX environment. In a UNIX environment, almost everything is done from the command line (or can be). Sure, there was a GUI that you could click around on, but if you really wanted to get something done, your just wrote a script for it and fired it off on the command line. One of the tools that was really useful was the "grep" command. This command would take a search string as an argument, and then search through all of the files in the directories you specified for that string. It was very useful when debugging code, because you could quickly determine all of the code files that touched a particular class or header file.

Sadly, grep was missing from my list of command line utilities when I moved over to developing on a Windows platform. In fact, the command line was pretty well shunned. Instead, Visual development was the word of the day. I still missed my friendly grep command though. Sometime last fall, I discovered the FINDSTR command in windows. On the command line, the FINDSTR command works much like grep in that it will search for a given string in the subdirectories you specify. It's much handier (to me anyway) than the graphical search tool because I don't have to worry that it isn't skipping files it doesn't recognize as text files. If you want to use it, here is the info:

Searches for strings in files.

FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
        [/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
        strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]

  /B         Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
  /E         Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
  /L         Uses search strings literally.
  /R         Uses search strings as regular expressions.
  /S         Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
             subdirectories.
  /I         Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
  /X         Prints lines that match exactly.
  /V         Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
  /N         Prints the line number before each line that matches.
  /M         Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
  /O         Prints character offset before each matching line.
  /P         Skip files with non-printable characters.
  /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
  /A:attr    Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
  /F:file    Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
  /C:string  Uses specified string as a literal search string.
  /G:file    Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
  /D:dir     Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
  strings    Text to be searched for.
  [drive:][path]filename
             Specifies a file or files to search.

Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with /C.  For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or
"there" in file x.y.  'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
"hello there" in file x.y.

Regular expression quick reference:
  .        Wildcard: any character
  *        Repeat: zero or more occurances of previous character or class
  ^        Line position: beginning of line
  $        Line position: end of line
  [class]  Character class: any one character in set
  [^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
  [x-y]    Range: any characters within the specified range
  \x       Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
  \  xyz\>    Word position: end of word

For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.

A Warning to Meth Dealers and Makers

To all meth dealers and makers out this, consider this your fair warning. You are now on my shitlist. Why? Because you have created yet another irritation when I go shopping for groceries. Today I needed to make a quick trip to the grocery store. I needed some basic stuff: bread, milk, and some sinus medication because my head is giving me fits. Milk and bread, no problem. Sinus medication? You'd think I was asking for black market arms. I was in the pharmacy section when I see the big sign: All products containing pseudophedrine are now behind the service counter. You know, the place they keep the cigarettes and the rest of the weapons of mass destruction. So I head over to the counter and sure enough, behind lock and key the attendant has a stash of allergy meds. They aren't on display mind you, so you have to carefully describe what you are looking for, and after two or three guesses, you actually get the product. But wait, you can't just walk off yet. Next, you need to present your driver's license, which is dutifully logged in a "He might be a meth dealer so note this down" log book. The time, date, type of med, number of grams of pseudophedrine, and your driver's license ID are all logged. Finally you have to sign your name that, yes, you were in fact snot nosed and feeling drippy that day.

So thanks a lot assholes. I have no problem with your ignorant urge to kill yourself either through the production or use of said illicit material. But when you start messing with my trip to get groceries, I get pissed.

Hot Topic: Hot Coffee

As an avid gamer, there has been hot topic in the news that I've been paying attention to lately. Grand Theft Auto is a series of games by Rockstar Games that has the player ravaging a town as a gangster, stealing cars, murdering, robbing, and creating general mayhem. The game has always been one of the first weapons politicians use in argueing for enforced rating systems and censoring of content. I've been playing it GTA III lately, and it is pretty violent. At the same time, it is incredibly fun to just terrorize throughout the town. It's all pretend, and it's great stress relief.

At the same time, there is an age where stuff like this just isn't appropriate. I'm not going to draw the line in the sand and say when you are can handle it, but suffice to say that there is a level of maturity necessary to understand that what you do in the game is absolutely not acceptable in real life. I can see how someone who was fairly impressionable could play the game and get the impression that it is cool to act like the main character in the game. And for that reason, I can understand a call to rate games according to content. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is an industry created panel to do just that. But their ratings don't really have much teeth, much like the movie rating system. Sure, they have a children's rating, everyone rating, 10+, teen, mature, and adults only, but the application of those ratings is fairly subjective, and hardly anyone takes notice.

The reason that this game is in the news is that, when the latest GTA game was released, it was given a Mature rating for graphic violence, sexual references, and adult situations. A mature rating means that the game should only be played by those 17 and over. In reality, I've never met a game store clerk who ever enforced that. Be that as it may, a intrepid game "modder" (someone who adds or modifies the content of a game), found that he could apply a particular patch to Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas and unlock a new set of missions. These missions, called the "Hot Coffee" missions, require the player to visit several girls around town and engage in a sex mini-game. Rocking the joystick in rhythm earns points until the character finishes, and he earns some cash. Well, this is enough to put the game into the Adults Only category, and it has touched off a firestorm of political rhetoric of the game ratings system.

I've seen a video fo the offending content from the game. Let's put this into perspective. First, the content is not at accessible without some effort on the part of the player. They must download a patch from the internet and install it if they run the PC version of the game. If they have a console version (Playstation 2 or XBox), they must then transfer it using a special piece of equipment. Then, once the patch is loaded, the player visits a house and starts the mini-game. If you've never seen this game, the character models aren't ultra-realistic. They are essentially boxes with wallpaper to make them look like people. In the mini-game, the female character is nude, and the male character remains fully clothed. The male character is not anatomically correct, so it is sort of like watching a tame episode of Sex and the City. The characters do their thing, and a minute later, you are back out the door, looking for your next mission. This type of activity has been in the series before, too. For instance, in the copy of GTA 3 I'm playing now, you can pick up a hooker and drive off to a secluded area. The car starts rocking, and your health starts going up while your cash funds get depleted. That made it by the ESRB with a Mature rating.

So what now? Should players and parents send back their copies for a sanitized version? Honestly, if you were letting your kid play before, and this is the straw that broke the camel's back, you seriously need to reevaluate the situation. Still, I see the point that some are making: the game was given an inappropriate rating because the producers effectively hid content from the ratings panel. It is an easy enough thing to do as a programmer. Rather than rip out all of the bad code, just comment out the ability to get to it.

This leads into other questions though. Should game ratings be enforced by retailers? What are the appropriate ratings and guidelines? Should game makers be help accountable for content created (or made available) by modders? I think this will be a tricky question for me in the coming years as Corbin grows up and wants to play games like this. Should I let him? When is he old / mature enough? Can I give him a go / no go decision based on a game rating alone? In our situation, I'll probably know as much about video games as Corbin, but what about other folks who don't share my penchant for games? And this brings on another level of questions too. Should games be rated under the same or different guidelines from movies? What about television? I know there are nights when you turn into the 6 o'clock news and see some pretty violent stuff. And daytime television content can be a lot worse than R rated films. Then again, I think an R rated film like Schindler's list is important for Corbin to watch.

Well, I've ranted on long enough (and managed to avoid taking a side, or even make a point for that matter). Have you even heard of this issue? What are your thoughts?

Almost.... There.....

I'm so close to having my MBA complete that I can taste it! I spent a goodly portion of today working through the marketing strategy and financial plan sections of my applied management project paper. I've taken ample breaks in between fits at the keyboard. I'm so close to being done. I sent this draft to the professor for review, and if everything is okay I just need to tack on an executive summary and I'm all set to graduate. I'll be so glad when this is finished. I've learned a lot through this MBA program, but I am soooo ready not to have to worry about homework on the weekend anymore. Two more weeks, just two more weeks.

Pace of Technology

I was browsing the web today when I saw something that made me stop in wonder at the marvelous pace of modern technology. I was checking my Google GMail account when I noticed the usage information at the bottom of the screen. It said that I was currently using 120MB (5%) of my 2393MB of storage. That's right, over 2 GIGABYTEs of storage. And it's just for e-mail!! The computer I took to college had 1 GB of storage. The old Mac IIsi has a paltry 60MB of storage, and that runs the entire computer as well as all of the applications on it. It truly is amazing how much our computer technology changes every year.

Quality Control at the Kleenex Factory

I have a bit of a bone to pick with the folks over at the Kleenex factory. It seems their quality control group hasn't been keeping up to standards. More and more often (nearly on every box now) I come across a section of tissues that have been inserted upside down in the box. Why is this a problem? When the tissues are inserted upside down, they don't continuously feed. Not only that, but there isn't an edge to grab when you dive in the box to get one. Normally, something like this wouldn't really bother me. After all, you just have to reach in and grab the next tissue. Sometimes this happens anyway when the "cocked and loaded" tissue falls back into the box. However, when you are feeling that sneeze coming on, and you realize that the next tissue isn't chambered and ready to go, you can be in quite a pickle. You can either let your hand be the snot recepticle, and cleanup once you manage to get the next tissue out of the box, or you can try to beat the box and spray everything on your desk when the box wins.

So Kleenex people (and Puffs, Scotts, and all other facial tissue manufacturers) heed this call to increase your package quality! It's a minor irritant that can be quite frustrating to us allergy afflicted, sinus suffering, nose drippers

Game of the Moment: Grand Theft Auto III

Getting a video game console towards the end of it's lifetime is great because it means you can go back and play all of the great games for the system for cheap. There are a lot of great games out there for the XBox, and many of them are bargain priced around $20 since they have been released for over a year. Last week, I picked up the GTA Double Pack for the XBox. It contains both Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto : Vice City. I haven't cracked the seal on Vice City yet, but I can say that I'm fully addicted to GTA III. I'm a sucker for adventure games that allow you to wander aimlessly and make up your own quests, and that also provide structured missions and give you collectible goals. I LOVE that kind of game. That's why I'm such a big fan of the Zelda and Metroid series of games. GTA fits that mold perfectly.

The first time I played any Grand Theft Auto game was my junior year of college. A buddy fo mine let me borrow a copy of his version of the original Grand Theft Auto. It wasn't the stunning 3D game on the XBox. Instead, it had top down, sprite based graphics that would scale over your position based on you speed. It was a really fun game, and it had the same theme. You steal cars and do odd jobs for the various gangs around town in an effort to build up a stockpile of cash. Then there was an add-on that moved the playing field to London. I never played GTA 2, so i can't tell you much about that one.

GTA III rocks! I've been really depriving myself of sleep so I can stay up and complete one more mission. And it is so much fun to just grab a fast car and tear around town like a maniac. If you have an XBox, PS2, or a PC, and you like playing adventure games, I would definitely recommend picking up GTA III. If you have an XBox, get the double-pack. Otherwise you can probably find it for your system in a bargain bin for less than $20.

How to Use a Managed (.NET) Control in an Unmanaged Container

It seems that in the first beta of the Visual Studio .NET tools, you were able to create a user control (like a button or a form), and the mark it for COM compatibility to use it like an ActiveX control in your legacy Visual Studio 6 projects. Unfortunately, Microsoft decided to yank that feature prior to the official 1.0 release of the .NET SDK. It has yet to reappear.

Fortunately, some clever folks have figured out how to work-around this and get it to work. The first clue I came across was a Microsoft hosted page that suggested building an interop ActiveX control in VC7, and then using the interop ActiveX control from within the VC6 project. I went along this idea for a while, but was eventually advised against it by some of the other developers here as they had seen issues in mixing VC6 and VC7 libraries.

Then I hit the jackpot. I found two websites that, when combined, got me exactly what I wanted. Those websites were:



http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2003/01/20/winformshosting.html

http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/exposingdotnetcontrols.asp



I had to add two functions to my control class. One function to add some extra Registry information to mark the component as an ActiveX control, and the other to remove those entries when the component is unregistered. I also had to mark the class with a ClassInterface and a GUID. Below is the class declaration info:

 [Guid("0B98FF25-E354-4e9b-AD66-4351D1F3D95B")]
 [ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)]
 public class MyActiveXControl : System.Windows.Forms.Button

Then I used the following two functions for my extra registry settings.

  #region COM Interop / ActiveX Functions

  [ComRegisterFunction()]
  public static void RegisterClass ( string key )
  { 
   // Strip off HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ from the passed key as I don't need it
   StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder ( key ) ;
   sb.Replace(@"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\","") ;

   // Open the CLSID\{guid} key for write access
   RegistryKey k = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(sb.ToString(),true);

   // And create the 'Control' key - this allows it to show up in 
   // the ActiveX control container 
   RegistryKey ctrl = k.CreateSubKey ( "Control" ) ; 
   ctrl.Close ( ) ;

   // Next create the CodeBase entry - needed if not string named and GACced.
   RegistryKey inprocServer32 = k.OpenSubKey ( "InprocServer32" , true ) ; 
   inprocServer32.SetValue ( "CodeBase" , Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase ) ; 
   inprocServer32.Close ( ) ;

   // Create a miscellaneous status key to prevent flickering
   RegistryKey miscStatus = k.CreateSubKey("MiscStatus");
   miscStatus.SetValue("", "131457");
   
   // Reference the type library
   RegistryKey typeLib = k.CreateSubKey("TypeLib");
   Guid libid = Marshal.GetTypeLibGuidForAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());
   typeLib.SetValue("", libid.ToString("B"));

   // Assign the version of the control
   RegistryKey versionKey = k.CreateSubKey("Version");
   Version ver = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Version;
   string version = string.Format("{0}.{1}", ver.Major, ver.Minor);

   if( version == "0.0" ) 
   {
    version = "1.0";
   }
   versionKey.SetValue("", version);

   // Finally close the main key
   k.Close ( ) ;
  }

  [ComUnregisterFunction()]
  public static void UnregisterClass ( string key )
  {
   StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder ( key ) ;
   sb.Replace(@"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\","") ;

   // Open HKCR\CLSID\{guid} for write access
   RegistryKey k = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(sb.ToString(),true);

   // Delete the 'Control' key, but don't throw an exception if it does not exist
   k.DeleteSubKey ( "Control" , false ) ;

   // Next open up InprocServer32
   RegistryKey inprocServer32 = k.OpenSubKey ( "InprocServer32" , true ) ;

   // And delete the CodeBase key, again not throwing if missing 
   k.DeleteSubKey ( "CodeBase" , false ) ;

   // Finally close the main key 
   k.Close ( ) ;
  }

  #endregion

With that code inserted, I then compiled the .NET code. To prove that the object will work, go to the Tools menu and choose ActiveX Test Control Container. Here you can add a sample instance of your control to prove to yourself it is working. The next step is to actually embed the control in you Visual Studio 6.0 project. Open up your dialog editor in VC++ and right-click the dialog. Choose "Insert ActiveX Control" and pick your control out of the list. Next, right-click the form and choose "Class Wizard...". Go to the Member variables tab and double click the ResourceID for your control to add a member variable in your code to access the functionality of the object. This last step is only necessary if you need to call methods or set properties on your user control.

I'm not guaranteeing that this code will work for you, but it has been working quite well for me. Sometimes when I open the dialog editor, I get an error message that says that the ActiveX control could not be instantiated, but it always compiles and works at runtime. Your mileage may vary.

A Couple of Movie Reviews

Last night Jenn and I settled in for our Sunday Night Comfort Food and Movie time. That is to say, we had vanilla malts from Ritter's, popcorn, and pizza rolls for dinner in front of the TV. The movie for the night was "National Treasure". This was a really fun film to watch. It reminded me a lot of an Indiana Jones film, only centered on US History rather than religious artifacts. It was also nice to see Nicolas Cage break his string of bad movies. Jenn is an enormous Cage fan, and she has been rightfully disappointed with his films over the last couple of years.

The movie plot centers around a great treasure hidden by the Knights Templar to prevent it from falling into the control of any single person. The Free Masons took responsibility for protecting the treasure and keeping it secret. The treasure came to the US with the founding fathers, who were also Free Masons. The last of the Free Masons passed the secret onto the patriarch of the Gates family, and ever since the family has felt compelled to find the treasure. Cage plays the youngest of the Gates line, and is quickly double-crossed by his partner after finding the first in a series of clues that takes the setting to many important sites in American history such as the Liberty Bell, the olde north church, and The Declaration of Independence.

Jenn and I both really liked this one. It was just the reat mix of action, intrigue, and mystery to keep us interested.

After Jenn went to sleep, I watched Alien vs. Predator. Ï'm a fan of the Alien series of movies, and I was interested in seeing this one as soon as I saw the previews. The first alien movie was awesome, and I remember watching it with my dad. It scared the crap out of me, but it was a great movie. The second alien film was just as good, if not better. The third alien movie was a little flat for me. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it wasn't taking the story anywhere either. And the fourth alien film? Well, let's just try to forget that one, I think it's for the best. Still, even after the extraordinary stink-fest of Alien 4, I had hope for AVP.

AVP is set in 2004, when a satellite for the Weyland company picks up a strong thermal change in Antarctica. The satellite takes images of a heat signature that outlines walls that appear to be a temple. Charles Bishop Weyland, the founder of the company, seeks out a team to help him explore the site and make his last great claim in history. The temple appears to be hundreds of feet under ice, but when they arrive they find that a tunnel has already been burrowed to the site. What follows is a three-way clash between the humans who are trying to understand the significance of the site, the aliens who are struggling to escape, and the predators who are on the hunt.

I was very happy with this film. As a fan of the alien series, this movie really helped to expand on the world of the aliens. I've never seen the Predator movies through in a single sitting, but I may have to now. And, as with all Alien films, the ending leaves open the possiblity of a sequel. Heres hoping!

Wiring up User Interface Events in C#

One of the things I really l like about C# is the way events work. I was already accustomed to creating event listeners and adding them to the event source in Java, so it was a no brainer to switch to C#. One thing that was a little confusing at first, though, was how to easily wire up my events for user interface components. In VB6 and VB.NET it was simple enough to just select the event from the drop down list at the top of the code window. Unfortunately, the drop down windows in the C# code window down show events, only the methods already implemented. Fortunately, it is just a matter of looking in a different place. If you are looking at your C# code page, hit Shift-F7 to flip back to designer mode. Select the component you want to wire up an event for. Now look at the properties window (if you don't have it up, go to the View menu and select it). Notice the little lightning bolt icon in the toolbar? Click this and you will get to the list of public events exposed by the control. If you double click an event, the IDE will automatically insert the code skeleton and wire up the event. If you already have an event handler written, just click the arrow to get a dropdown list of all of the functions that can listen to the event.

Property list for a Windows Form (events button circled)

Event list for a Windows Form

Database Connection String Wizard

Here's a simple trick for generating connection strings to your database. On your windows desktop, create a file with the *.udl extension. You'll notice that the icon for the file changes. Now double-click on the file to open it. This will launch the wizard for creating your connection string. Be careful, the wizard starts on page two. Backup to the first page and pick your target database protocol. Then step through the wizard to complete building your connection string. When you are finished, right click the file and open it with a text editor. You'll see that it contains your connection string!

Roly Poly

I made my first trip to Roly Poly today, and I must say that it was a good rolled sandwich. I had eaten some of their items before, but only as part of a company function where we had ordered a platter. I had the chicken caesar, and it was great! Good thing I ordered the full rather than the half though. Sometimes I get tired of eating typical fast food (Wendy's, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Arby's, KFC). It's nice to find something a little bit different. I think Roly Poly make it into my "something different" rotation.

Outsourcing

Is outsourcing really as bad as everyone makes it seem? On any given day, you can pull up the Slashdot website and find at least one story proclaiming that the number of jobs available for highly technical people are dwindling away. I'm not so sure that this is as big a problem as what popular media makes it out to be. What I believe is happening is that large businesses that aren't focused on technology are finding the right people to do the work, while companies that are focused on technology are demanding more from the people they do hire. Businesses that aren't focused on technology, such as the hotel industry, groceries, and services companies, don't need a lot of programmers and developers. What they do need are technicians, they need what are essentially the plumbers of the information age. Just as most companies don't hire pipe designers and fluid engineers when they have plumbing installed in their building, there isn't a need to hire software architects and developers when installing information systems. Instead, what these companies need are possibly a couple of maintenance and management staff on board to be sure that the current system runs well, and that the business is prepared for future developments. This roughly equates to the position of operations and facility manager, and a couple of on-site janitors.

Occassionally at my last job I would go on-site for a particular manufacturing customer and find that they had a huge software development office. The manufacturer wouldn't have anything to do with technology, yet they would employee more engineers to work on their internal information systems than the design of their product. It just didn't make any business sense. So I'm not altogether shocked when I hear about well educated, software engineers losing their jobs to outsourced developers. After all, the company has just realized that all they needed were technicians, and an occassional on-call specialist.

What I've seen from companies that are in the technology industry is that it is incredibly difficult to find good people. The folks flooding out of the non-technical industry and desperately looking for work had spent the better part of their career getting comfortable. Their technical knowledge is out of date, or so specialized in one particular vein that they don't offer much value to a company looking for a well-rounded developer. At my last job, I sat in on several interviews and spoke with our HR manager, and it was always difficult to find good people. Their were plenty of people out their looking for another cushy job that wouldn't demand much of them, but very few folks that had a well-rounded background in software development.

All of what I have seen first-hand has left me with somewhat of an unsympathetic attitude towards folks who have been hit by the latest wave of outsourcing. I'm sure that some truly good folks have lost their jobs, but I can't imagine that it will be difficult for them to find new work. I believe the vast majority are people who looked to cash in on the glut of venture capital dumped on the early dot-com market, and now businesses are learning to weed out those looking for a free ride from those looking to provide real value through their technical skill and ability to solve difficult problems.

Sirius2IM

I've been working on a little side project at home in the evenings. I love my Sirius satelite radio. I'm waiting to move into my new cube at work before I setup the antenna again, so I'm missing it terribly right now. While I was using it, I found a neat site - http://www.itsonsirius.com/ - which displays the current title and artist for every stream (they call them streams rather than stations since you aren't actually tuning to a different frequency). That got me to thinking about the latest version of MSN Messenger (version 7 or higher) which can display your Now Playing information from Windows Media Player. I thought, now why should WMP users have all the fun. So I wrote up a quick app that will read the info from ItsOnSirius. You select the stream you are listening to, and it sends that information to MSN 7 as your Now Playing information. I don't know that many Sirius listeners, but if you use a Sirius radio and MSN 7, you can find the tool here - http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/sirius2im

Book Review - The Dancing Wu Li Masters

This weekend, during the rides back and forth to Chicago (I'll explain later) I had the opportunity to finish a fantastic book. The Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics by Gary Zukav is a fascinating book that explores the revolution that has been taking place in physics since Einstein's theory of relativity and the birth of quantum physics. The book is made even better in that, rather than dive into the mathematical background behind the concepts of subatomic particles, quantum mechanics, relativity, and other theories, Zukav relates at almost a layman's level. Certainly a basic understanding of mechanics and would help, but really the less you know about physics, the better. This is due to the nature of what modern physics has discovered: the world doesn't work like we perceive it to work. So the fewer preconceived notions you have, the better.

About a third of the way through reading this book, I was sure that all physicist must be on some serious mind altering drugs. Concepts like Schroedinger's cat, multiple worlds, and relativity are just so different from the way we think about our world, that it is very difficult to wrap your mind around the concepts immediately. I think that is the gift that the great physicists of our time have. They have the ability to give up everything they have learned through experiencing the world, and accept new ways of thinking about how the world works.

If you are at all interested in what modern physics is saying about how our world works, if you just want an opportunity to marvel at the wacked out things these folks are thinking, I highly encourage you to pick up this book. I came away from it with a real sense of awe and wonder about how our world works.

Mice and Keyboards

As a programmer, I'm very particular about the tools I use. In college I got used to writing code using Vi, an antiquated command line only text editing program. To this day I still use Vi to occassionally edit text files or code. Sure, I use a slightly updated version with nice syntax highlighting and windows support, but it is still the same Vi where you could do all of your editing through a strange concoction of keystrokes and key combination. Using Vi, you never had to touch the mouse, which was good in its time since mice might not have been invented yet.

Just as I'm picky about the software tools I use, I'm very picky about the hardware that I use. Particularly keyboards and mice. I've become a very proficient touch typist. I'm frustrated each time I need to change keyboards, because invariably the keyboard maker has done something to "improve" their keyboard which throws off my ability to find the right keys. This comes up because when I arrived for my first day of work, I was greeted by a very, very poor keyboard. The keys didn't have the right clicky-ness feel, they stuck, the layout was all wrong.... I didn't like it and it had to go. When I went searching for a replacement, I realized just how much the tools of the trade have changed. Follow with me as we travel down my keyboard and mouse hall of memories.

The MacIntosh IIsi Keyboard and Mouse

The first keyboard and mouse and I used extensively were on the Mac IIsi we had growin up. Learning to type on this board was a "hunt and peck" affair. I didn't take a typing course until my senior year of high school, but I was quite good at using the "One-Finger-Wonder" technique to stab out what I needed. Mac's were unique, even at that time. One trait that endures even to this day is the one button mouse. Simple, yet utterly effective. Another neat feature of the Mac keyboard was the cabling. I plugged the cord into both sides of the keyboard to show that it had two ports. One port would plug into the back of the PC, and the other was used for the mouse. That's why the cable for the mouse is so short, it only had to run a couple of inches to the keyboard. Brilliant! As wth all keyboards of this time, it weighed about as much as it cost. The Mac keyboard is a good 10 pounds, if not more. All of the keys have a nice weight to them, and make an enticing clicking sound when you press them. Another unique Mac feature is the power button in the upper right hand corner.

Gateway AnyKey Keyboard and Mouse

Upon graduating high school and moving on to college, it was time to get a new PC of my own. I opted for a state of the art Gateway P100 with an Intel Pentium 100MHz processor, 16MB of RAM, and a full 1GB of hard drive space. It came with the Gateway AnyKey keyboard, and a standard two button mouse. The mouse is only interesting in that it had a half-hearted nod to ergonomics. The curved shaped was great.... if you were right handed. Lefties would be totally miffed by this mouse, but I didn't have to worry about that. This keyboard was awesome, and I used it for the longest that I ever used a single keyboard. It had an eight-way arrow pad, which was great for video games. I can't remember what the middle key does between all of the arrows, but I'm sure it had some use. It had not 12 but 24 Function keys (F1-F24). This was a boon when I needed to telnet into the school's UNIX machines and execute some odd-ball command. What really set this keyboard apart, though, was the fact that it was completely prorammable. The keyboard encoder could be reprogrammed on the fly to change any key to function in some other way. Software was available to backup and restore these configurations. Like I said before, I am a Vi user. The school labs all had Sun machines, and Sun machines have a different keyboard layout (sorry for the lack of a photo, but I never OWNED a Sun keyboard). On Sun keyboards, the Control key and CapsLock keys are switched. The Escape key and the tilde/squiggle (`/~) key are switched. And Sun keyboards had a variety of other special "function" keys (Stop and Halt come to mind). When I would back from my labs and go to work on my homework, I could download a new keyboard configuration and use my keyboard just like the Sun ones at the lab. Great! When I was done, I just switched it back to the original layout and I was on my way. I LOVED this keyboard. Unfortunately, it has seen too many years of use, and the keys started to fail. Something messed up the G and H keys, and when keys stop working, it's time for a new keyboard.

Ergonomic Keyboard and Optical Mouse

About the time the AnyKey died, the price of optical mice and ergonomic keyboards was falling. Optical mice had the benefit of not using a mouse ball to track movement, but instead detect motion through a tiny light sensor on the bottom of the mouse. It would detect the movement of the pattern under the mouse and move the cursor accordingly. Sun mice worked like this for years, but required a special mouse pad. The new series of mice would work on almost any surface, and you would never worry about cleaning the lint out of your mouse balls again (shiver). Another neat feature was the scroll wheel. This had been around for a while in non-optical mice, but this was the first mouse I had with a scroll wheel. The scroll wheels were a tremendously good idea. They allowed you to quickly scroll up and down a window, such as a web page or word document. No more hunting for the scroll bars. The wheel could also be depressed for a third mouse button. I never really used this feature until later software (Firefox's tabbed browsing) took good advantage of it.

The ergonomic keyboards were a pretty radical change as well. Mind you, I had spent the better part of the last ten years mastering a particular keyboard layout. I was more than a little wary of these strange beasts with their split layout and curved surface. I decided to take the plunge though, and after an adjustment period, found that the layout truly was much more natural. Regular keyboards cause your hands and wrists to be at too much of an strange angle. Your fingers are oriented straigh up and down while your wrists are bent to accomodate the width of your shoulders. This isn't such a problem for occassional PC users, but for someone who spends 8 or more hours a day typing, it can get to be quie a nuissance. I never realized how much so until I went from the ergo keyboard back to a laptop keyboard for work. They really are more comfortable, and only take a week or so of use to get really accustomed to. Still, I lost a lot with this keyboard. I was down 12 function keys, my 8 way arrow pad was down to a four-way cross, and my Insert-Home-Page Up / Delete-End-Page Down keys had been turned on their side.

Dual Optical Logitech Mouse

I liked my optical mouse, but I wanted more out of it. Enter the Logitech dual optical mouse. It was another right-handers only mouse, and the design really fit my hand well. It featured two motion tracking sensors on the bottom, which eliminated a lot of the jitter you get out of the single optical variety. It also had a handy extra button on the side. This button was configurable, but I liked the default, which was as a back button in your browser. The scroll wheel is still present. I absolutely love this mouse, and use it to this day.

Microsoft Comfort Wireless Desktop

Which brings us to my shopping trip today. I was really disappointed when I walked down the aisle at Fry's. All I really wanted was another ergonomic keyboard, and possibly a dual-optical mouse like I had at a cheap price. No chance. The hot feature now is wireless. At my desk, I really don't mind having wires, but there were very few choices for corded keyboards and mice. In addition, finding an ergonomic keyboard with a half-way sane key layout was a real chore. There are so many additional "feature" keys like homepage, e-mail, volume controls, finger-print readers, and so on that I was really put off. Frustrated with Fry's, I went to the local Target. There I found a reduced set of the same things, albeit at much lower prices. I decided I'd give the Microsoft Comfort Wireless Desktop set a try. It was an ergonomic keyboard with a mostly okay layout. Notice that my once mighty 8-way arrow layout is now down to an almost forgotten upside down T tucked at the bottom of the keyboard. My delete key up and swallowed (or did it delete it) the insert key. I'm not entirely upset about that as I found the insert key completely useless. Thankfully, I haven't lost any more function keys (although I do need F-Lock on to get to them), and I still have a full number pad. However, I am now completely surrounded by "helper" stuff around the keyboard. The left side has a zoom slider.... not sure I'll ever get into the routine of using that. It also has hot buttons for e-mail, web browsing, instant messenger, calendar, and my documents folder. Across the top are volume and playback controls, as well as a customizable set of keys. My function keys are now overloaded to offer common editing functions with the F-Lock is turned off. The built-in wrist pad is actually pretty comfortable. After using the keyboard this evening, and to write this post, I have to admit that I'm actually pretty hapy with it. Compared to the old mac keyboard, it is incredibly light, and the lack of cables dangling around does clean up some of the clutter in the room.

The mouse has it's ups and downs. I still prefer my logitech dual-optical mouse over this one, and when the wireless stuff goes to work on Monday, it will make a triumphant return to the mousepad. The wireless optical mouse is no longer bigoted to handed-ness (lefties welcome, Mr. Ned Flanders), but the design doesn't fit my hand quite as well as the logitech does. My back button is gone completely. There was a more expensive version of this setup which included a mouse with both a back, forward, and a couple of other extra buttons on it, but it wasn't worth doubling the price. The one new feature is that the scroll wheel now tips left and right to scroll horizontally. I'm not often faced with horizontal scrolling, so I'm not sure how useful this will be. It can't hurt anything though. One minor nuissance is that the wheel button itself is much more difficult to click. When doing so, it is very easy to lean and end up scrolling rather than clicking.

So there you have it. That is my history with keyboards and mice. I have pictures because I still have all of these old monsters laying around the house. The wireless stuff will travel with me to work on Monday, and I'll be back to hacking bliss!

The Rumors of my Death have been Greatly Exaggerated

Sorry for the long snap before posts. Over the holiday weekend, I caught some type of nasty sinus infection. Corbin had it first in the form of an ear infection. Jenn got him to the doctor and within a couple of days on meds he was back in good shape. I wasn't so lucky. I picked it up on Saturday. It got worse through Sunday. Monday I went golfing with my family, and added a sunburn to my misery. Tuesday we went to the zoo, which was a blast, but didn't help my cold or my sunburn. So my first day of work at Integral was a real struggle on Wednesday. Fortunately, I'm now starting to feel like I'm coming out of it. I'm not 100% back to good health, but at least I can breath through my nose again. I'll get some updates on here about the stuff I didn't have the energy to write about last week.

Oil Change

I'm getting better at changing the oil on the cars. I changed out both the Alero and the Bravada today. It would have gone a lot smoother if I had done a little pre-planning, but I got both cars done. Sure, I could have taken them to an oil change place and had them both done in under an hour for $40, but why choose the path of least resistance? I was all set to get to work around 1pm when I realized that I didn't have oil filters. So I made a quick run to Pep Boys to get the filters. I also decided to pick up air filters for both cars, as both had been running for about 18,000 miles without a change. Two air filters, two oil filters, and a 3-pack of air fresheners and I was on my way home, $45 poorer.

When I got home, all the kids in the neighborhood volunteered to help me out. Corbin wanted to know why his daddy was crawling under the car. With all that help, I was successful in both removing the oil plug without dropping it, and removing the oil filter without dropping that either. Here is where the pre-planning flaw comes in again though. The Bravada took 8 quarts of oil to fill up. That was all I had leftover from my last effort. That meant another trip to Pep Boys so for 5 quarts of oil for the Alero. As I was getting into my car, I noticed that the back tires were looking really low. I got out the air gauge and saw that the rear driver's side tire was down to just 5psi. I detoured over to Tire Barn, and they said that the bead between the tire and the rim had corroded and was leaking air. They fixed it and filled up the tire, free of charge. I love that place! I bought a set of tires from them a while back, and they've really taken care of me.

Back home with five quarts and another bottle of windshield wiper fluid and I took care of the Alero. Here again, I'm bitten by the pre-planning thing. After changing out all of the oil, I had a bunch of spent oil and no place to put it. I had stored 12 quarts of spent oil from the last set of changes in barrel through the winter, intending to put it in milk jugs for return to a oil change shop for recycling. We had put away some milk jugs, but those were no where to be found. The barrel doesn't have a lid, so taking that wasn't an option. I decided to pour the spent oil back into the original containers. Using those and an empty windshield wiper fluid bottle, I managed to get it all stored. Success!

Another task I took on was to router the cabling for the Sirius receiver through the car. I pulled up the plastic runners by the passenger door and hid the antenna cable through there. I also discovered an extra lighter plug on the passenger side, and used that to keep the Sirius power cord from dangling down the center console. There are still some things I would like to fix, but this was a good day. I just need to get the hazard light button re-mounted (it fell back into the dash) and replace the low water coolant level detector (regardless of how much coolant is in the tank, the idiot light always blinks) and the car will be back to mint condition.

New King of the Castle

For the past couple of years, I have held the title of "King of the Castle" at Flexware. I earned the title by eating a record number of White Castle burgers, also known as Slyders, in a single sitting. In a one hour period, I ate 17 sandwiches. It was a mixed lot of chicken, chicken with cheese, fish, hamburgers, and cheeseburgers, but 17 was the record. This beat the previous record held by my coworker Josh, who had choked down 15 of the little steamy burgers in his last record attempt. The record stood at 17, hovering out there for anyone to try for it.

Now that I am about to leave Flexware, I was afraid that the title might be permanently retired. I wasn't about to let that happen. So today I went to the castle to feed the crave. I picked up three crave cases, one plain, one with cheese, and one with cheese but no pickles. A crave case holds 30 Slyders, so I was packing 90 sandwiches when I strolled back into the office. I was sort of debating whether to get two or three cases, and it was a good choice to go for the three.

Everyone was sitting anxiously at the lunch table as I returned. Eyes lit up as the boxes of Slyders entered the room. I distributed the cases, and we began to dive in. I tried to act as a pace setter, and quickly downed my first five burgers. Josh laughed with a bit mirth, and continued his onslaught. Others at the table (Hack, Kevin, Jeff, Dwayne) made respectible efforts, but fell short of the goal. Others tentatively tried a couple of Slyders, some for the first time. They were with us in spirit at least. In the end, I decided to make a strategic stop at burger 11, recalling the incredible amount of pain I endured during my record night.

Josh, cheered on by the growing crowd, continued to pound down one White Castle after another. Asked if he was getting full he replied, "I'm not full, but I'm getting really tired of eating." The warrior pressed on, and at the end of the hour time slot had completed a new record of 20 White Castle burgers. Josh has my respect, and the new title of King of the Castle.

I Hate the Weed Eater

Sorry, this is a gripe post. I hate using the weed eater (aka string trimmer, edger, angry hornet....). I try to put it off as long as I can, which usually means I run it about once a month. When I do, it is always a pain. First, it takes a special fuel-oil mix that I can never remember the ratio for. So I usually make up a gallon and it will last all year. Of course, by the end of the year the fuel and oil are becoming sort of a slurry goo, which I know isn't good for the motor. Next, our trimmer is not the easiest thing to start. I'm starting to get down the order of incantantations and black magic spells necessary to start it. Usually, it involves some language not befitting young ears, and severe abuse of my arm and shoulder as I pull on the starter line. Everyone once in a while the starter line hitches on something and I feel like I just about ripped my arm off. And you can't just start it. Here are the steps as I've figured them out so far:

1. Insert ear plugs, and apply PPE (personal protective equipment)
   
2. Top off fuel
   
3. Prime fuel line with 3 to 5 pumps on the primer
   
4. Turn the choke completely off
   
5. Pull starter cord several times
   
6. Curse
   
7. Continue pulling starter cord until motor turns over a couple of times
   
8. Switch choke to middle position
   
9. Continue pulling starter cord
   
10. Curse louder, forgetting ear plugs are in and that everyone in the neighborhood can hear you
    
11. Continue pulling until motor starts
    
12. Flip choke to full-open position and hope it doesn't die and flood the motor
    

Approximately 70% of the time, this method works. The other 30%, the motor floods and I have to start all over. Grrr....

Of course, now you've just gotten started with the trimmer. Now begins the process of traversing the yard looking for stuff to clip. Usually the light post, mailbox, trees, house perimeter, and fence are on the list. The fence is the worst part. If I get too close, I tear up the fence. Not close enough, and it looks like I didn't trim. All the while the trimmer is spraying very small, very hard bits of tundra in every direction. Inevitably, either the spool of string runs out or gets jammed, which requires shutting down the trimmer, fixing the problems, and repeating steps 1 through 11 above.

Once I've finished with the trimmer, I have a fine coating of grass from head to toe. My hands are always completely shot at this point due to all of the vibration from the trimmer. The reason that this comes up today is that I ran the trimmer yesterday, and after two full showers I'm still finding clippings. My eyes are the worst part. I wear my glasses while I trim, but it doesn't keep everything from getting in. I found a nearly inch long blade of grass in my eye one time. Fortunately, no damage done.

Anyway, I think that helped to vent my frustration with the trimmer.

High Score

I'm pretty proud of this high score. I was given many gifts throughout life: great family, a good set of brains, a healthy body.... but rhythm was never one of those gifts. Donkey Konga is a game all about rhythm, and this is my high score playing on the medium difficulty level on a very hard song (7 out of 8 bananas on the difficulty scale). I love electronic music, and I'm a big Crystal Method fan, so maybe I had a little bit of an advantage on this one.

Donkey Konga is fun in so many ways, it is really hard to explain. First, it is fun to try and get the beats down, because when I started I felt like I was just smacking at the bongos. Jenn and I had a good time laughing at ourselves and how bad we were to start. It is also fun to challenge yourself on some of the songs, just to see if you can keep up. Another way it is fun is when you get into the groove of one of the songs and you don't really have to concentrate on hitting the right note... it just sort of happens. Ahhhh... the zen of Donkey Konga.....

Okay, it's 2am and I've been playing for over 4 hours.... time to get some shut eye.

Game Finished - Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is the game that came with my second set of bongos for the GameCube. It is a fairly simple game where you tap the left drum to run left, tap the right drum to run right, tap both drums to jump, and clap to perform an action. The game is fast paced, but even though there is a lot going on on-screen, there isn't much to the game. All you have to do is beat the heck out of the drums and clap like a mad-man and you'll get through just fine. Each level is made up of three scenes: two platform action scenes and a final boss fight. This was the game that was on display at Fry's that enticed us to get the drums in the first place. The game is so easy to pickup and play that anyone could have a good time beating on the drum. It's great stress relief too!

I played for a couple of hours tonight and managed to beat the game. Once you figure out the basics, it isn't too difficult to play through. Even though it was easy to beat, it was a lot of fun. Anyone out there who has a GameCube would probably enjoy this game.

Oh, and the picture is of my score after beating the final boss

Job Change

Friday I made a major change. I submitted my two-week notice at Flexware. Flexware has been a great employer for me for nearly five years, but the time has come to move on. I am headed down the road a ways to Integral Technologies. I have high hopes that this is going to be an excellent career move for me. Integral was recently acquired through its parent company by Schneider Electric. Schneider is looking to use Integral as a way to grow revenue quickly, and is infusing the business with an incredible amount of money. Integral plans to grow through both new product offerings and acquisitions of other businesses. I'm hoping that I can get to know integral and within a couple of years put my MBA learning to good use in assisting with those acquisitions and new product developments.

I'm making this move with a bit of a heavy heart. Flexware was a great employer, and I made some incredible bonds with the folks there. It was a really difficult decision to make. I was comfortable at Flexware. I probably could have continued to work there for the rest of my life, collecting a check every other week and putting in my hours. There is something inside me that demands that I go after that carrot though. So a couple of months ago I started looking at the jobs that were out there. I made it to the final interview stage for the Director of IT position at SaveItNow!, but was turned down in the end for lack of executive management experience. I received an offer from a contract operation here in Fishers, but contracting is not at all what I'm looking for, so I turned that down. I also reached the final interview stage with Radian Research in Lafayette. I was well on my way to receiving an offer letter from them, but Jenn and I decided that we really like it here in Fishers, and we wanted to stay. In addition to that, it didn't seem that they could offer me any more than Flexware already did, other than a title upgrade to Senior PC Software Architect. So I turned that opportunity down.

I was really excited when I learned about the opportunity with Integral though. The company deals with subjects that I find very interesting: security, access control, automation, video storage and playback. That the company was local and going through a big growth spurt was just icing on the cake. I had a phone interview on Thursday, face-to-face interviews the next Tuesday, and an offer letter on Thursday. I feel really fortunate that I was able to find everything I was looking for right here in Fishers.

So to my Flexware friends - I'm going to miss you all a lot. I'm still in the area though, and I'll be sure to stop in from time to time to say hi. I wish you all the very best, and I know that you will be very successful in the future. You have too many good people not to be.

Game of the Moment : Donkey Konga 2

There is a new addiction in our house, and it is Donkey Konga 2. For our anniversary, Jenn gave me a "coupon" for anything I wanted at Fry's (within reason), and she said I couldn't justify it. That meant it had to be something totally for fun. We went in a couple of weeks ago to browse around, and we walked by the DanceDanceRevolution (DDR) kiosk. DDR is a rhythm game where you try to dance to the beat, and the game cues you to what you should do. There is mat on the floor with spaces to jump on, like in twister, and you get high scores based on how in rhythm you are, and if you hit the right spot. I had always wanted to try one of these, and thought it would make a great exercise program. Anything that mixes video games with exercise is going to be a surefire hit with me.

I sucked at it! Of course, it was my first time, but I was really bad. It didn't help that one of my coworkers happened by with his camera phone at the same time. I got a little gunshy at that point. Fortunately, right next door to the DDR setup was a Donkey Kong Jungle Beat game setup. This is a GameCube game where you play a set of bongos and Donkey Kong does things on the screen. Corbin took to it right away, and Jenn and I both thought it was pretty neat. It was also much less than a DDR setup, as I already have the Nintendo, and the Bongos run $50 with a game, or $30 without. To get setup to play DDR I would need to buy an XBOX or a Playstation 2, dancepads, and a game. That was going to run a minimum of $300. I knew I had a major paper coming up, though, and decided not to get anything to make sure I could study.

My willpower ran out on Friday. Jenn called me at work and said she was hungry for Chinese. She also dropped the hint that Fry's was on the way. That was all it took for me. I dropped in the Fry's, picked up two sets of bongos with the Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and Donka Konga 2 games. It is a BLAST! Jenn and I played Donkey Konga 2 for a little over an hour tonight. It is so much fun. We can play with or against each other. The point is to hit the bongos in rhythm with the music. The screen cues where you should hit the right bongo, left bongo, both, or clap. There are easy songs, with a slow tempo and few notes, and tough songs with a fast tempo and lots of notes. It is soooo much fun. The only downside is that our hands were getting pretty sore from beating on the drums.

There is another Donkey Konga game with other songs if we get through this one. Nintendo also has a Donkey Konga 3 in the works. And who knows, if Jenn and I really enjoy these rhythm games, maybe at some point we'll splurge and get the DDR setup. It was so much fun to sit in the basement and play video games with Jenn. I'm glad we've found a game that we can both enjoy together!

PostSecret

Have you ever had a secret that you couldn't confide in anyone, but wished you were brave enough to tell the world? PostSecret is a very cool blog for just that. It is full of postcards that people have written their secret on, and mailed in. Some are hopeful, some are funny, some are sad. It is kind of fun to read through them and see which you identify with.

Church and State

This is so sad that I don't even know where to begin. If you click on the story, you can watch a news video about a church that excommunicated all members that were known to have voted for Kerry in the last election. During the last election, several folks made a point that, if you support your church (Christians), then you MUST support George Bush. I took serious issue with that. After all, Jesus even said "give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's". Most of the time that phrase is used in reference to taxes, but I think it is equally applicable to seperation of Church and State. I believe that one of the reasons the American Way works so well is that we have a healthy seperation of religion and politics. The pioneers who first settled this land were racing to escape persecution for practicing their system of beliefs. How sad is it that we've now come all the way back to where we started. Whether you are Democrat, Republican, Green Party, Libertarian, or whatever... I don't care! You are welcome at my church anytime. I'm okay with disagreeing on politics, and I don't feel that anyone's political standings should remove you from God's sight. It infuriates me that our politics and religion are getting so twisted up as to create this kind of lunacy. This is the kind of thinking that has led to the situation in the Middle East: theocratic systems where the political leaders whip their party into a frenzy and declare religious war on anyone who would oppose them. All of this, what I would call blasphemy, so that the leaders can keep their position of power. How very, truly sad that we seem to be nearing a precipice, where our politics and religion become so indiscernibly intertwined.

My hope is that this stops, and stops soon. We need to be able to not just tolerate those with a different opinion from our own, but celebrate our differences. There is so much to learn, so much opportunity to grow when we have a diverse environment with a variety of beliefs, backgrounds, cultures, and ideas. I'm not interested in a gray race, nor a monoculture of religion. I want variety.

Video Capture

I'm in the process of converting a bunch of our old VHS home movies to DVD. To capture video, I currently have the VCR output routed to the input jack on our Sony Handycam. The HandyCam is then connected via USB to a USB Hub, which is then connected to the PC. I'm using Nero Vision Express to capture the video from the HandyCam, and the HandyCam is doing the analog to digital conversion on the signal. The result has been less than I had hoped. The capture video is very grainy and choppy. I'm not sure if this is due to the capabilities of the HandyCam, speed issues with USB (I think I'm using USB 1.0), or of the software on my PC. In addition, the audio is out of sync with the video. What is really frustrating is that I can't do high speed dubbing, so it is only after waiting for the video to finish (anywhere from 1 to 2 hours) that I find out just how bad the capture was. I thought maybe the choppyness and syncing issues might be due to playing the video on my PC, but after burning to DVD, the issue remains.

My PC is a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 with 512 MB of DDR 266 memory. The hard drive has over 20GB free, and spins at 7200RPM. I don't run any other applications while capturing video, and the performance monitors show that, while the system is under a load, it isn't exceeding the limits of the PC. I'm fairly certain that my PC has the horsepower to do what I want, so I'm looking more at my method for capturing video. I watch the output from the VCR on a second monitor to verify that the VCR has quality output, and the image is bright and crisp, so I know the VCR is working well. The screen on the HandyCam also shows a nice, bright image with good quality resolution. But when I get to the PC, the image is dark, grainy, choppy, and the audio is often out of sync. I'm fairly certain that I either need to upgrade to a firewire connection to the HandyCam, or I need to invest in a dedicated video capture card and go straight from the VCR to the PC.

Anyone out there in webland have experience with doing this? Any tips on what a good next step might be, or good equipment for video capture?

Huzzah - WebCam is Back

Many, many thanks to Absenth who was gracious enough to offer me some account space to host my webcam. I've been really impressed lately with the connective power of blogs and websites in general. I never really thought anyone but family would be reading this blog, or the one that we do for the family. Now I've seen a offer to host the webcam image, and an offer for a free meal... AWESOME! In addition to that, two people have come in to play volleyball at FUMC over the past couple of months, and learned of our play through the yahoo group that I put together. Thanks to everyone who reads these, and thanks for all of the responses and help! I know it isn't always riveting reading, but I'll try to keep it at least mildly interesting.

Best Round Ever

Sunday morning I got a call from my dad wondering if I would be able to get out and play some golf. My attitude about playing golf this year has done a 180 degree turn from last year: I'm ready to play! We teed off at Wildcat Creek, and the weather was unbelievable. The wind was constantly blowing at what felt like 35 miles per hour, and the sun rarely peeked out to warm us up. Our group was bundled up in several layers of clothes, and we still felt the bite of the chill. We got a brief repreive from the wind once we got into the wooded areas, but it never truly let up throughout the round.

Regardless of the weather, something was working for me out there. I shot a 97 for the round, the best round I've ever had! I can't remember ever breaking 100 before (unless you count Britton Golf Course, which isn't really a full length course). For the front nine I shot a 47, and a 50 on the back nine. Wildcat Creek is no easy course, either, so this came as a big shock to me after my first round of the season came in at 116.

I guess now the bar is set a little higher. I suppose the only thing to do is get out there and practice more!