Home on Brian P. Hogan

Just Write

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:01:33 -0500

LLMs are trained on work that humans created. But now we’re telling humans to change how they write because “you sound like an LLM.” When you see “It’s not x, it’s y”. Or em-dashes, or other common constructs in AI writing, those are there because millions of documents by millions of people contain those things. I’ve worked with a lot of people who produced articles or books without having any writing background.

Enabling Docs to Drive Growth

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 10:22:42 -0500

Documentation drives growth, if you enable it.

Working with Claude Code

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 11:43:09 -0500

Some things I learned while using Claude Code to build projects and tools.

Storytelling in Marketing

Sat, 31 May 2025 13:39:44 -0500

I keep seeing the narrative that “marketing is about storytelling.” It’s important to remember that the story isn’t about you, your product, or your features. Your customers are the heroes of those stories. Their victories are your victory. And you want the prospects to be the hero that saves the day with your product. They’re the heroes of your next story. What superpowers will you give them? What will they be able to do that they couldn’t before?

Return to Structured Content

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 01:15:53 -0500

My biggest frustration with modern docs is that much of the industry standardized on Markdown. And Markdown isn’t semantic. A keyword, a term, a “first use” item all don’t exist. You mix presentation with meaning rather than separating. XML for docs wasn’t fun but it was structured. You could denote terms. You could have actual admonitions. And so the solution seems to be hacks that turn Markdown k to structured docs, embedded HTML spans with classes, and….

Job Hunting in the AI Age

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:16:04 -0500

Networking and referrals land you jobs because AI is screening you out of the application pile.

Résumé

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 21:29:11 +0000

Summary Technical content expert and educator driving developer education strategy, execution, and growth. Professional Experience Head of Documentation - January 2025 - Present Tailscale Director of Developer Education - March 2022 - December 2024 Temporal Technologies (Remote) Pioneered Temporal’s Education function, crafting a comprehensive, hands-on competency-based curriculum for developer skill advancement in Temporal products, resulting in a consistent increase in new named users monthly. Owned the strategy, information architecture, production, growth, and maintenance of documentation for Temporal’s products and SDKs, collaborating with engineers and product managers as content creators.

New Book

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 01:24:40 -0500

I started writing a new book. It’ll be short. But it’ll be hands-on. I’m writing it because this is the third time I’m implementing the topic, and I’m tired of writing the same explanations. I want a book to point at. I’m no stranger to this. There are docs for lots of things, but reference docs only tell a part of the story. People need a golden path. And I’m good at providing that.

Moving on From Temporal

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:03:45 -0600

December 18th, 2024 was my last day at Temporal Technologies.

You Own It

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 15:07:56 -0600

I keep seeing how “LLMs are great teaching tools! I asked it to explain X to me and it did!” Don’t be fooled! Ask it to explain a technical topic you deeply understand and you’ll start to see where it makes things up. It is a predictive text engine. Sure, you can do all sorts of prompt hacking to get better results. But at the end of the day, if you don’t know the topic really well you will never know if it made up the facts it gave you.

Make Bootable USB installers for macOS

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 08:34:05 -0600

Make bootable macOS installers for various macOS versions and troubleshoot common errors.

Reading List

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 22:29:11 +0000

This is a list of books on career development, content creation, and education that have shaped my personal philosophy and practices. I often share or recommend these books to others. The list of books I recommend changes often as I discover new books and shift my perspective. Building and Growing Your Career Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know The world is changing and you are exposed to new things daily.

Solving Problems with Code

Sat, 25 May 2024 15:01:10 -0500

Software development doesn’t have to be your career. Use it to solve pain points in your life, like the one I had today.

Load External JavaScript Dynamically

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 08:34:05 -0600

Load JavaScript libraries dynamically on your page with appropriate event handling.

Wrapping Up the Year

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 13:12:28 -0600

I started out the year thinking it would be “business as usual.” Boy was I wrong.

About Me

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 12:54:11 +0000

I am a technical content expert, people manager, web developer, author, teacher, book editor, and musician. I develop people, content, and code. I love technology and I love to help people be successful. I currently lead documentation at Tailscale where I help developers and network specialists understand, adopt, and scale secure private networks. From 2022 to 2024, I served as Director of Developer Education at Temporal Technologies where I was responsible for creating resources to help developers build resilient and reliable apps.

Remote Job sites

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 20:03:50 -0500

This is a list of sites for finding remote work. If you’re on Twitter you can also follow this list I made. We Work Remotely Remote OK Jobspresso Flexjobs Remote.co Justremote.co Dailyremote Angel.co jsremotely Remote Leaf Remoteleads.io Hired.com Remoters.net Whoishiring.io RemoteML.com SimplyHired Freshersworld Onlyremotejobs.com Peoplefirstjobs.com Nodesk Jobmote DistantJob 4dayweek.io Remote Tech Jobs

One Year at Temporal

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 15:01:10 -0500

I’ve been at Temporal for a full year. So, how’d it go?

Make Copyable Command Blocks in Hugo

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 17:34:05 -0600

Add command blocks to your site that show a prompt and let your visitors copy the command to the clipboard.

Capturing Ableton Live Audio to OBS with Loopback on macOS

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 12:55:28 -0600

Capture audio from Ableton Live quickly using Loopback.

Open Links in Specific Chrome Profiles on macOS

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 20:50:22 -0600

Open links in Chrome using a specific profile. Great for use when testing apps or creating shortcuts.

Learning Styles are a Myth

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:32:10 -0600

You may have heard of learning styles. But it turns out there’s no evidence to support them.

Vim Terminal mode

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 09:55:28 -0600

Vim’s Terminal mode lets you run a terminal within Vim and capture its output quickly.

Getting Page Titles for URLs with Ruby

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 12:55:28 -0600

Turn a list of URLs into a list of titles with a quick Ruby script that uses threads.

Moving On from DigitalOcean

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 08:55:28 -0600

A look back on my time at DigitalOcean as I close the books on nearly six years at this great company.

My 2022 RPM Challenge results

Sun, 27 Feb 2022 12:55:28 -0600

This February, I did the RPM Challenge, a global event where musicians have the month of Febrary to record and release music. Like last year, I was able to choose to do a single song, an EP of 5 songs, or a full-length album. My goal was to do the 5-song EP, but February turned out to be a lot busier than I’d expected.

Deploy Lounge Performance

Sun, 19 Dec 2021 13:18:34 -0600

I performed my own music on DigitalOcean’s live stream as part of the Deploy conference.

International Books

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:55:28 -0600

A look at the changes that happen when my books are translated into other languages.

Getting Good

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 08:55:28 -0600

So you want to get good at something in a creative field like music, writing, or even coding? Folks might tell you that you need thousands of hours of study. But that’s not necessarily true. The key to getting good at something is to do it over and over while incorporating feedback along the way. Think of the one thing you’re amazing at. How long did it take you to get to your level of skill?

2021 RPM Challenge Completed

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 12:55:28 -0600

Every February, I participate in the RPM Challenge, a global event where musicians have the month of Febrary to write, record, and release music. This year you could choose to do a single, an EP, or a full album. I’ve completed a five song EP called “Spark”, and you can listen to it on Soundcloud. I’ve been participating in this challenge since 2011. You can find my other entries on the music page.

PragProg 2020 Book Sale

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 13:51:34 -0500

This week Pragprog.com is having their 40% off ebook sale. Use code turkeysale2020 to get your discount at checkout. This post will be all about some books you should buy for yourself or that nerd in your life. First, let’s get the shameless plugs out of the way. This year I wrote a book on making static web sites with Hugo which gets rave reviews. Build Websites With Hugo. I have a great book on using command line tools on mac, Linux, and WSL called Small, Sharp Software Tools.

Creating Unlisted Content in Hugo

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 13:51:34 -0500

In this tutorial you’ll create unlisted pages in a Hugo site.

Four Years at DigitalOcean

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 14:26:35 -0500

Today marks my four year anniversary at DigitalOcean, working on the Community tutorials and the Write for DOnations program. It’s been a ridiculous four years. I started out in 2016 as a technical editor, working with external authors to create tutorials that walk readers through installing software. It was the perfect opportunity to blend my teaching experience, systems experience, and editorial experience. I would work with the author on the topic and outline, review drafts, and ensure that the article worked as written by testing out every step.

Red Zone and Hack to the 80s Released

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:12:15 -0500

My EPs “Red Zone” and “Hack to the 80s” are available on Spotify, Apple, and Google Music.

Creating a Magic 8 Ball Game with HTML, Canvas, and JavaScript

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:38:59 -0600

In this tutorial you’ll implement a Magic 8 Ball game using HTML, JavaScript, and the Canvas API.

Parallel Processing in Elixir

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:01:19 -0500

A quick look at how I sped up an Elixir program.

Creating a Layout with CSS Grid

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 09:38:59 -0600

CSS Grid lets you create web page layouts without resorting to external CSS frameworks. In this tutorial you’ll build a layout with CSS Grid and explore how the specification works.

Creating a Navigation Bar with Flexbox

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 08:07:04 -0600

Use Flexbox to build a navigation bar with elements evenly-spaced on large screens, and vertically stacked on small screens, all with minimal HTML and CSS.

New Book - Build Websites with Hugo

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 10:30:29 -0600

My new book “Build Websites with Hugo” is available today in electronic format.

Publications

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 16:13:01 +0000

I am an active author and technical editor. I've written 10 full-length technical books, edited others, and written several smaller technical articles.

Improving Tutorials with "The Code Sandwich"

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 10:38:19 -0600

Provide context and improve understanding of complex topics with a repeatable formula for explaining code.

Music

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 17:42:25 +0000

My musical creations, available on SoundCloud and through online stores.

Make Your Writing More Approachable for Learners

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 10:38:19 -0600

Some words you think might motivate learners have the opposite effect.

Implementing "Who's in Space" with Vue

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 06:42:19 -0600

Solving the “Who’s In Space” exercise from Exercises for Programmers in Vue.

Opening Multiple Files in Vim

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 12:13:45 -0600

Open files in different buffers.

New song - PH Balance

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 12:36:00 -0600

I’ve been working on a new tune for a few months, and today I finally had the time to finish it off. It’s got a nice mix of crunchy guitar and classic 303 sounds mixed in with more heavy drums and synths. Happy with how this turned out. Give a listen!

Live Recording

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:38:58 -0600

I’ve been working on a new tune. I decided to capture myself doing some improv with pieces of the tune.

Oldschool

Sun, 01 Dec 2019 15:31:05 -0600

When I was in college, I spent hundreds of hours using ReBirth, a music-making app that emulated two Roland 303 bassline synths, an 808 drum machine, and a 909 drum machine. Rebirth also had a number of effects and filters included. Unfortunately, support for ReBirth died many years ago. It doesn’t even run on macOS. If you were lucky enough to buy an iPad version a few years ago, you can still use that, but it’s no longer supported since Roland threatened to sue them so they took it off the store.

Books

Sun, 01 Dec 2019 17:42:25 +0000

My recent books, available in print, PDF, ePub, and Kindle format.

Moving the Blog

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 12:59:01 -0600

About seven months ago, I began moving this site from a WordPress setup to a static site using Hugo, which I’m writing a book on right now. There’s still a ton of work to do, but it was bugging me that I didn’t have my own place to write. I’d been delaying writing a ton of content because my site wasn’t “ready”. But “ready” is a relative term anyway, so I pulled the trigger and made the swap.

My new EP - Hack to the 80s

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 19:37:20 -0600

In celebration of Hacktoberfest, which has a pretty great 80s theme, I composed a 5 song EP of synthwave tunes. I limited myself to virtual recreations of classic synths like the Roland 707 drum machine, the Yamaha DX-7 synth, and the Roland Jupiter-8. Give it a listen!

If Scratch Isn’t the Answer, I Think I Know What Is

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 22:01:55 +0000

(Originally posted over at Medium)

In this post, the author, Dominic Pace, argues that we should teach “actual programming” instead of Scratch. I encourage you to read that first because it makes some great points. It’s written by a high school senior who’s hit upon something important: “Learn to code” tools like Scratch and Alice really are somewhat disconnected from software development. They do help with problem-solving, and they do help students work with the very basics of software development, but they create an unrealistic expectation of how we really build software.

One Year at DigitalOcean

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 16:40:26 +0000

Today marks one year with DigitalOcean, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m so unbelievably lucky to get to do what I do there. I work on the DigitalOcean Tutorials collection, where I help community authors get their articles published. It’s the perfect job for me, as I get to draw from my software development and system administration backgrounds, as well as my writing, editing, and teaching experiences. Writing software is fun, but DigitalOcean gives me the opportunity to help others get better at what they do.

Settling In at the New Gig

Sat, 13 Aug 2016 04:28:17 +0000

I’m nearly two months into my new job. For those of you that haven’t heard, I am a Technical Editor at DigitalOcean, a fantastic startup based in New York City. I work with a great team of people, and I help open-source enthusiasts share their knowledge through written tutorials. I’m responsible for taking their submitted tutorials and testing them out, looking for inaccuracies, security problems, or other issues a reader might encounter.

Moving On…

Mon, 23 May 2016 17:26:08 +0000

I’ve had an amazing time teaching aspiring software developers. Over the course of the last four years I’ve had the privilege of teaching over 400 students how to use Linux, how to build their first web sites, and how to write their first software applications. I’ve met some truly incredible people and forged some great relationships which I hope continue on for many years. But today I turned in my letter of resignation and am looking forward to what lies ahead.

Portfolio

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 11:48:32 +0000

Software projects Publications Presentations and Appearances

Software Projects

Tue, 19 Apr 2016 11:48:32 +0000

I’ve been writing code and building apps for over 20 years. This portfolio showcases some of the products and web sites I’ve built, as well as projects I’ve released under open source licenses.

The Hogan Formula For Software Estimation

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 23:20:57 +0000

Measuring how long a software project will take is a futile endeavor. Unfortunately, people who hire software developers have a habit of asking for the impossible. Like when they want you to build a Facebook clone in two weeks for $200. So to appease my clients and managers over the years, I developed a formula to somewhat accurately address the “how long will it take” question. And despite it being a bit tounge-in-cheek, it’s startlingly accurate when you sit down and think about it.

Being A Good Critical Friend

Sun, 25 Jan 2015 20:58:59 +0000

I’ve been around software development a long time, and a reoccurring theme is to see this kind of feedback from peers:

MonthOfMusic Retrospective

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 17:58:40 +0000

In August, I embarked on a huge task: I set out to record and release one song a day for an entire month. And I actually did it. The entire playlist is up online.

MonthOfMusic Day 31

Sun, 31 Aug 2014 20:28:44 +0000

This is it.. the last #MonthOfMusic song. (To listen to the whole month, check out http://bphogan.com/tag/monthofmusic) For the finale, I chose to finally record a song I wrote a long time ago for my wife, Carissa. Here it is. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening.

MonthOfMusic Day 30

Sun, 31 Aug 2014 04:34:08 +0000

Just a little piano piece I wrote a long time ago. I figured it was time to record it.

MonthOfMusic Day 29

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 07:32:35 +0000

I really haven’t done any hard rock, and seeing as how I grew up listening to straight-ahead rock of the 80s, I figured I’d better sneak one into the MonthOfMusic. Gotta pay tribute to some of my influences. So here’s number 29.

MonthOfMusic Day 28

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 01:14:30 +0000

For day 28, I went back to the guitar and just kinda jammed. I felt like doing some tunes like I did in college, and I am pretty happy with what I ended up with.

MonthOfMusic Day 27

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 00:21:50 +0000

We’re in the home stretch here. I did another electronic rock tune. This song’s melody was originally written after I finished the RPM Challenge in 2011. I pulled out the original track today and scrapped a lot of what was there and finished it up. I think it could use a little more work on the mix, and it ends a little too abruptly, but again, I’m limiting the amount of time I spend per day on these tunes.

MonthOfMusic Day 26

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 22:32:37 +0000

Still going strong. Although now that school has started it’s been a little tougher to wedge in the time to get this done. Another EDM track, this time a bit short and faster.

MonthOfMusic Day 25

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 03:17:21 +0000

For today, I did a little more electronic music, using a little 303 melody I wrote last year. It was part of something else that never sounded right, so I used it here instead.

MonthOfMusic Day 24

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 03:46:54 +0000

And here’s song 24. Getting closer to the end! This is a tune I wrote several years ago, and because today was so busy I didn’t have much time to write anything new, so instead I just recorded this piece on the piano. Enjoy.

MonthOfMusic Day 23

Sat, 23 Aug 2014 07:49:18 +0000

While working on the mix of Song 22, which took far longer than it should, I came up with a different melody and 45 minutes later, I had this. I’m ridiculously happy with this one. This one will eventually end up on Stutter It just goes to show that by doing this every day, I’m ready when the muse shows up.

MonthOfMusic Day 22

Sat, 23 Aug 2014 04:50:06 +0000

Today was rough. I have had this guitar riff running through my head for a week, and I finally sat down to record it. I did it in the key of G, and I’m just awful at that scale. It was an excuse to make me practice, and man, was it rough. I did about 30 takes of this one. This is the one song this month that took the longest for me to record, and it’s a few minutes to midnight so I’m shipping what I have.

MonthOfMusic Day 21

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 02:39:46 +0000

Here’s song 21, and it might be a little all over the place, but I really liked the melody. I’ll probably rework this in the future, but for this challenge, it’s good enough for me. One of the biggest problems I’ve had before doing this is a lack of confidence in releasing things, and by releasing things that aren’t as perfect as I’d like, I’m working to get over that.

MonthOfMusic Day 20

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 04:24:30 +0000

Here’s song 20, done in just a few minutes. It was an extremely long day today, but I still managed to fit this in and I’m happy with the results. Enjoy!

MonthOfMusic Day 19

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 04:46:46 +0000

Here’s today’s song. Another electronic one, based on a melody I did during the RPM challenge this year.

MonthOfMusic Day 18

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 03:26:32 +0000

Day 18’s tune is actually the song I wrote and recorded on day 16, but it got bumped two days because I had other ideas I wanted to do. It’s electro-pop, almost in the style of Pet Shop Boys or Erasure. I can’t sing like Neil Tennant though so there’s no vocals. (Ok, there were but I chickened out and cut them out before uploading.) Anyway, here ya go!

MonthOfMusic Day 17

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 03:29:06 +0000

Today’s song is another solo piano piece, recorded in a single take. Sometimes this happens; I’ll just get an idea for a song and go bang it out, and then completely forget it because I never recorded it. This time I got it, and I’ll probably do something more substantial with this piece in the future. But for now, enjoy!

MonthOfMusic Day 16

Sat, 16 Aug 2014 06:04:59 +0000

For song 16, I banged out a heavier rock tune than I’ve done in the past. This riff is something I’ve had laying around for a while. It took way too long to do the solos for this one and what I ended up with is the best I could do given my (artificially-imposed) time constraints.

MonthOfMusic Day 15

Sat, 16 Aug 2014 00:33:19 +0000

It’s day 15! I’m at the halfway point now, and despite being on the road for a conference and having many other interruptions, I’ve managed to make it this far. Song 15 is a little drum and bass things I cooked up. Enjoy!

MonthOfMusic Day 14

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 04:29:53 +0000

For Day 14, I took a track I was working on for a bit for the RPM Challenge and did some more work on it. It’s electronic and was originally composed when I was doing 26 Days. Give it a listen! And if you missed any others, listen to those too!

MonthOfMusic Day 13

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 04:02:30 +0000

Another song recorded on-the-go at ThatConference. A short electronic piece again.

MonthOfMusic Day 12

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 13:29:23 +0000

The MonthOfMusic continues, from ThatConference. Missed the other songs? Listen here. Do you like NES-style 8 bit music? If not, what’s wrong with you?

MonthOfMusic Day 11

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 12:30:11 +0000

Here’s today’s tune. It’s another short piano piece. I’ll be switching gears for tomorrow’s tune, but enjoy this and pass it on!

MonthOfMusic day 10

Sun, 10 Aug 2014 17:21:58 +0000

Today’s piece is another piano tune. Oh, and did you miss yesterday’s tune? Listen to that one here.

MonthOfMusic Day 9

Sun, 10 Aug 2014 04:00:32 +0000

Day nine was spent at a wedding and running some other errands, and in the middle of all of that I found some time to upload a song. I recorded this early in the morrning. A nice simple piano tune.

MonthOfMusic Day 8

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 17:48:11 +0000

I had a really hard time coming up with anything I could be proud of today. Lots of other things on my mind. But then I came up with a little melody and ran with it. This is one of the reasons I’m doing this challenge; sometimes we have to be creative even when our minds our fighting us. We need to overcome and do our best. We’re back to electronic today.

MonthOfMusic Day 7

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 07:06:28 +0000

For day 7, I did another guitar-rock tune. I took an old riff I wrote in college and laid down a full 4 minute demo of the song. It feels really good to get this one out of my head. Enjoy. And spread the word please!

MonthOfMusic Day 6

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 15:08:45 +0000

Day six is some 90’s-influenced “modern rock.” Think Gin Blossoms or stuff like that.

MonthOfMusic Day 5

Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:20:16 +0000

Here’s song #5. A little more aggressive techno than I usually do. Inspired by some 90s techno.

MonthOfMusic Day 4

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 18:46:14 +0000

It’s Monday, day 4 of my Month Of Music. if you missed any of the weekend’s songs, give those a listen too. Day 3 Day 2 For Day 4, I’m releasing a track that will end up making the cut for Stutter. I haven’t been able to make much time to finish that project and I’m hoping that some of the tracks that I do for this month will be a good “fit” for that project too.

MonthOfMusic Day 3

Sun, 03 Aug 2014 15:08:22 +0000

For day three I busted out my electric guitar and figured out how to get the clean sound into the computer for recording. I used the USB cable that came with the Rocksmith game and it turned out to work very well. I brought it in clean and used lots of effects processing to get the sound I wanted, and I think this worked pretty well. On the downside, I’m really rusty at playing solos, and even rustier with a slide, so it took several takes to get the guitar solos down.

MonthOfMusic Day 2

Sat, 02 Aug 2014 06:54:03 +0000

On Day Two I decided to go back to what I know best – a little bit of electronic music. I had this damn melody going through my head most of the evening for some reason, so I scrapped my original plan and worked this one up. It ended up being longer than I expected, but I’m not spending too much time cleaning things up for this experiment. Thoughts welcome!

MonthOfMusic Day 1

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 08:18:03 +0000

For the month of August, I’m recording and releasing a song each day. Read more here. This one was easy. It was bouncing around in my head all day so as soon as it hit midnight I started recording. It’s a short piece with strings.

A Month Of Music

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 03:55:20 +0000

I’ve been challenged by a friend to record and release something every day for a month. I’ve chosen August to do this and I’m going to see how far I can get. I plan to use anything at my disposal, including my phone if I have to. I’m going to use this as a chance to experiment with different styles, too, so if you’ve heard any of my electronic music, prepare to be a little surprised.

In Teaching, Context Is Key!

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 01:46:37 +0000

When you were three years old, you asked “why” an awful lot. If you have kids you’re probably sick and tired of hearing that question. But it is a fundamental question; it’s how we learn. We have a need to understand. Some things are learned over time, like “We need to eat so we don’t die.” But some things are not easily understood. Like Pointers in C. Recently I came across an exercise that was designed to help the student understand the use of pointers in C.

How To Derail Your Readers And Students

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:17:50 +0000

There’s no shortage of software developers who are eager to share their passion with others through writing and teaching. It’s an amazing time, and it’s great to have all these resources out there for us to all get better at what we do. If you’re a software developer who wants to teach others how to do things, listen up, because there’s a chance you’re derailing your students and undermining their confidence before they even get started.

Things every web developer should know

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:44:28 +0000

I believe that web developer should have a command of a few simple things in order to tackle the random craziness that web development entails. This isn’t, by any means, a comprehensive list. It is opinionated, but also based on things I see other people I respect demonstrate in their daily work. JavaScript It’s everywhere and you can’t avoid it. You also can’t afford to continue the copy-and-paste approaches of the last 15 years.

Unfinished

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:05:28 +0000

Being pulled in a lot of directions at once means you don’t get to finish some things. I didn’t get my RPM Challenge stuff done, although I did produce one track. You can listen to “The Letdown” here. I’m actually pretty happy with this song. I did a lot of it on the iPhone while waiting for meetings, waiting for things to build, or as a distraction for those times when my brain was starting to get fried.

RPMChallenge 2013

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:10:03 +0000

I’m working a lot these days. I’m editing a couple of really cool books, I’m working very hard on getting one of my best-selling books updated with fresh content, and on top of that I’m teaching full-time. That doesn’t leave me much time to work on music. So against my better judgement, I’m doing the 2013 RPM Challenge, where you have just 28 days to write and record an album of music.

“Why I Love Programming – Stories From Developers”

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 14:14:25 +0000

I’m teaching an introduction to programming course and I asked my friends and fellow developers to send me short 30-second clips of why they love what they do. Then I edited them all together. Here’s the video! Why I Love Programming – Stories From Developers from Brian Hogan on Vimeo.

Another Change of Direction

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:52:51 +0000

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had this passion for showing people how to do things. When I was in fourth grade, my dad, a teacher for the blind and visually-impaired, taught me how to program on an old Apple IIe computer. Once I got the hang of it, I started teaching my friends how to do write little programs of their own in our short-lived computer club after school.

tmux – Productive Mouse-Free Development

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 05:43:53 +0000

Back in February, I released my latest book, tmux: Productive Mouse-Free Development with help from the wonderful folks at the Pragmatic Bookshelf. If you don’t know what tmux is all about, watch this video:

Web Development Recipes now in Print

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:17:58 +0000

I’m proud to announce that my latest book, Web Development Recipes{.popup}, is available in print directly from the publisher. Modern web development takes more than just HTML and CSS with a little JavaScript mixed in. Clients want more responsive sites with faster interfaces that work on multiple devices, and you need the latest tools and techniques to make that happen. This book gives you more than 40 concise, tried-and-true solutions to todays web development problems, and introduces new workflows that will expand your skillset.

My Writing Workflow

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:53:13 +0000

Today marks the start of PragProWriMo, where the fine folks over at the Pragmatic Bookshelf{.popup} are encouraging aspiring writers to write a technical book over the course of the month. Over at the forums{.popup}, I shared my writing workflow, which I’m reposting here. My process may not be a good fit for everyone, but it’s served me quite well. I usually map out my idea using either OmniOutliner{.popup} or the free online CheckVist{.

My Favorite PragProg Books

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:41:41 +0000

For those that don’t know, I am a Development Editor for PragProg and have written a couple of books, but I’ve kept this list pretty objective. These are the books I think every developer should own. Land The Tech Job You Love This is honestly one of my favorite books, and I’ve bought many copies of this for people I know looking for jobs. If you’re a college student or just starting out in your career, this is a great guide for getting a great job instead of just a job.

Writing

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:06:04 +0000

For those that don’t know, I’m back to writing again. This time, I’m working with four others, and we’re almost done. Look for an announcement shortly. Very exciting times.

Crossing the Finish Line

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:20:10 +0000

Well, here we are with just two days to go before the end of the 2011 RPM Challenge and I’m basically done. It’s been a really difficult month for me with the stuff going on in Wisconsin, and honestly this contest was a great way to escape. When I couldn’t sleep, I worked on music. When I was frustrated with a governor who’s so hell-bent on the bottom line that he’ll take away heath insurance from limited term employees, I’d work on music.

Have some drum loops

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:29:10 +0000

I’m participating in the RPM Challenge{.popup} in February. I’ll be working hard to complete an album’s worth of material in just 28 days. I haven’t had much time over the last few years to work on my music, so this is my chance to “put up or shut up.” in regards to my music. I don’t have to write the material during the contest, but I am not allowed to record anything.

Blog TLC

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 21:37:21 +0000

It occurred to me that since I tend to do a lot of stuff on Twitter (and occasionally on Facebook), I don’t use this blog for much. So here’s a quick recap of the last few months. I’ve spent the fall continuing to work at the University on some relatively unimpressive stuff while my student interns get to have all the fun. I also wrapped up the HTML5 and CSS3 book which is now shipping to homes, offices, and bookstores worldwide.

Slight Change of Course

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:38:03 +0000

This week I start my new part-time job as a Development Editor at the Pragmatic Bookshelf{.popup}, the publisher I’ve worked with on my last two books. They’re wonderful people, and I’m honored to have the chance to work with them to help authors bring their books to completion. For those unfamiliar, a Development Editor works with an author to help guide the book’s progress. It’s part content editor, and part project manager.

HTML5 and CSS3 in Beta

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:30:46 +0000

My current book HTML5 and CSS3: Develop With Tomorrow’s Standards Today{.popup} is now available as a “beta book” download from the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Beta books are a great way to read a book before it’s finished and participate in shaping the book before it reaches production. Buyers get to read the book early, participate in forums and submit errata, and in exchange they get updates about every two weeks and a final copy of the book once it’s done.

How To Dress For The Job Interview

Tue, 18 May 2010 21:07:17 +0000

Some students and friends of mine have been out looking for jobs lately, and as developers, it’s not always clear what you should wear. Dress too nicely and you’ll look like you won’t fit in. Dress too casually and you run the risk of insulting people or appearing that you don’t care enough to dress up for a job interview. Obviously the first thing you could do is just ask someone who currently works there what you should wear for an interview.

Talks and Appearances

Tue, 18 May 2010 16:13:01 +0000

I’ve given the following presentations. Contact me to come speak at your conference, user group, or to appear on your podcast to talk about software development, content creation, or topics about a career in the tech industry.

A good read.

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:15:30 +0000

Reading my book, just received from the printers. I just received my copies of my book today, and that brings this chapter of my life to a close. Three years of work, two rewrites, a lot of frustration, and close to 3000 copies sold so far. I’m pretty proud of this book, and while there are a ton of things I’d do differently, I am glad I don’t have to do a third rewrite.

Playing Some Music

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:46:27 +0000

I got a new toy for my birthday this year, and have been spending a little time getting to know how it works. Shuffling on the Kaossilator from Brian Hogan on Vimeo. The Korg Kaossilator is a really simple device with only a few buttons and a touchpad. It’s a blast to play with and easy enough that anyone can make some cool stuff with it. This was actually me testing out some video equipment in preparation for a podcast i am planning to do, but my external camera won’t stay on unless I am actually recording something – using it as a firewire camera doesn’t work for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Lisa’s Walking!

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:07:26 +0000

Well, almost. But today she decided to start really putting effort into it. She stood up and took quite a few steps. In this video, she’s falling a bit, but she still keeps making a huge effort and finally gets it at the end. Lisa walking from Brian Hogan on Vimeo.

Book progress

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:33:57 +0000

I’m on schedule to have my book indexed and ready for one final beta before printing. I’m extremely excited to be almost done. I have some cleanup to do this weekend though. My editor wants me to be a little more assertive. I have no problem with asserting my opinions, but I thought that maybe my readers might. Turns out that’s just want my editor wants me to do, so I’m going through and making things just a little more… well, let’s just say forceful.

Chad Fowler is my hero.

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:51:06 +0000

I miss being in shape. I used to work out every day. I’d practice karate, go running with Ana, and do some occasional weight training. It was part of the routine and I felt great. But then Ana started school, my consulting practice picked up, and of course we were blessed with Lisa. I found I had less and less time to get any workout time in. When I went to RailsConf in May, I was immediately shocked by the way Chad Fowler, one of the conference organizers looked.

Buying a television? Don’t buy one from Sears

Thu, 14 May 2009 02:27:42 +0000

My two-year-old DLP television died around April 18th. It’s getting close to a month now and after several phone calls and one failed attempt at at-home service, I am still unable to watch my television. I paid for a service plan which is supposed to cover this kind of stuff, but nowhere was I told that it would be fixed whenever they feel like getting around to me. I spent a long time on the phone with various agents.

Las Vegas is a hellhole

Tue, 12 May 2009 05:39:21 +0000

First off, apologies to my cousin Kevin and his lovely wife. I’m sure there are lots of things to like about Las Vegas, but I just didn’t enjoy myself in the City of Really Expensive Everything. I went to Vegas for a conference, and luckily enough for me the conference kept me quite busy and mostly away from all of the wonderful distractions the strip has to offer the person who has too much money and time on his or her hands.

Woah!

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:55:27 +0000

This site’s theme (and some of its content) hasn’t really changed since 2005, and with everything else going on right now I figured it was high-time I change that. I started by ripping off the theme I did for the Web Design For Developers web site. It’s a nice clean template that I hope will be easier for everyone to read. I’ll be making modifications to this over the next few days, but I have to get some of the other pages up too.

Where I’ve been…

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:59:13 +0000

For those of you who watch this blog and wonder what I’m up to, I am a lot more active on Twitter than I am here. Follow me! The last few months have been interesting to say the least. I’ve recently did some work for Inacom Information Systems, where I helped bring a derailed project back on track. It was great to get to work with my friend Jon, who was swamped and overwhelmed by the workload.

Almost a year!

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:42:10 +0000

Lisa turns one year old this Saturday. I can’t believe how fast the first year went. Looking back, we had a pretty lousy year. Six eye surgeries, nine casts, and three pairs of shoes. Not to mention countless bottles and diapers. Lisa’s also a biter, so that can be kinda painful. It took nearly six months before Lisa would really let me spend alone time with her, and even today she’d rather be with Carissa if she’s within earshot.

“Web Design for Developers” now available in Beta

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:28:41 +0000

My book Web Design for Developers is now available in Beta form. You’ll learn how to design a web site from start to finish, and you’ll use many of the techniques and thought processes you’ve come to rely on as an application developer. You’ll learn some color theory, some typography basics, some XHTML and CSS, and how to incorporate Photoshop and Illustrator into a work flow that works for you, not against you.

Use Firefox

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:45:04 +0000

Yahoo thinks you should. Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Lisa’s next surgery

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:28:51 +0000

Lisa has surgery on Thursday morning. This is going to be the sixth one and I’m getting really tired of this. It’s expensive and nerve-racking, and I really hate putting her through it each time. Ana’s gone this week again, and I miss her. Things are moving so fast and yet I feel like we’re going nowhere.

Long days and short nights

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:27:05 +0000

I’ve been busy. Many of my side projects have come to an end and I’m not actively looking for more at this moment so I can get the graphics book finished. It’s holding up my life a bit and I want it done. The problem is that you can’t force writing, no matter how much you really want to. I launched http://www.snippetstash.com/ a few weeks ago. It’s just a simple site that lets programmers store bits of code they tend to use over and over again.

4 months already

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:26:56 +0000

So Lisa’s more than four months old already. I can’t believe how much time flies. In the last four months, quite a few things have happened around here. First, Ana just finished up Second Grade. She’s planning to spend her summer doing lots of reading and learning, and hopefully she’ll get some video game time in with me. I’m pretty proud of her–she really pulled it together this year. Next, I just gave a presentation at RailsConf 2008 in front of 208 people.

Carissa has a blog now

Wed, 14 May 2008 03:23:03 +0000

Carissa’s getting in on the internets action. Go check it out here.

Done with casting?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:09:14 +0000

I can’t believe it’s been over 8 weeks already! We just finished removing Lisa’s final leg casts in preparation for her new set of shoes. We’re excited, but she didn’t like the cast removal this time It seemed to be quite painful for her which was hard on us. She’s also finally done with eye surgeries. For those that don’t know, she had to have two additional surgeries (making four total – two on each eye) because some scar tissue was in the way of the pupil so her eyes couldn’t dilate.

One Month

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:34:01 +0000

It’s been a month now since Lisa was born and we’re still balancing everything. The house needs a good cleaning and I’m getting ready to return to work in the middle of the week. Lisa’s already on her fourth set of casts (two more to go) and we’re ordering the shoes with the bar this week when we go in, so we can be sure it will get here in time.

Lisa’s done with cataract surgery!

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:54:24 +0000

Last week, on the 13th, Lisa had her first eye surgery and it went very well. She’s had a shield on her eye at night for the last week just so she doesn’t accidentally put her hand in her eye. Today she had her second surgery and it went just as well. We’re so glad that’s over. We have to come back to Marshfield soon to get her fitted for contacts sometime in the next few weeks.

Going to RailsConf 2008

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:41:54 +0000

I’ll be heading to Portland again this year to go to Railsconf 2008. I’ll be giving a talk there again this year too called “Design For Developers” where I’ll teach developers how to design a pretty-looking web page. Should be a blast.

Update on Lisa

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:40:32 +0000

I’ve been putting off writing an update about Lisa’s eyes and legs for some time so I could deal with everything personally. Now that things are finally settling down a bit I’m going to get back to regular updates to the blog. Lisa has been doing well with her clubfoot treatments. She’s on her third set of casts and things are looking very good. When we were in the hospital, the doctor who takes care of the casts made a big deal about us making sure we never miss an appointment.

Lisa has cataracts.

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:30:01 +0000

It’s been confirmed that Lisa has cataracts in both eyes. We have an appointment set up for Wednesday in Marshfield to have the pediatric optometrist take a look so we can come up with a plan of attack. I’m not ashamed to tell you that this was extremely difficult for me to deal with. Even though I knew it would happen, I still hoped that she would be able to dodge this one.

Finally, the photos you’ve all been asking about!

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:00:53 +0000

More photos available for viewing and downloading at Flickr.

Staying another day

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:25:12 +0000

The pediatrician and the nurses want to keep Lisa for one more day. There’s problems with the feedings, similar to what happened with Ana so we’re just gonna get her going with formula. To make things more interesting, we’re still waiting to hear about the eyes. The pediatrician (nice guy by the way) didn’t get a good look at her eyes, so he wants to get an opinion from an eye doctor.

One problem down, one to go.

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:07:28 +0000

The pediatrist was just here and explained Lisa’s condition. It’s found in 1 out of every 1000 babies and it’s pretty treatable through a serious of castings and bracings. Lisa will have six different casts which will be used to reshape the legs. The last cast will stay on for three weeks. After that, there will be 14 to 18 months of shoes with the bar between them, 23 hours a day.

One nervous dad

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:10:19 +0000

Lisa’s here, and she’s really a cutie, but I’m still extremely nervous. I’ve always been quite the pessimist though. We still haven’t gotten a good look at her eyes and that makes me extremely anxious. I really want to know that she’s okay, or that we can get the ball rolling on whatever needs to happen. Lisa was a bit scrunched in the room, so her feet ended up turned in.

Welcome, Lisa Lin Hogan!

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:11:13 +0000

Welcome, Lisa Lin Hogan. 20.1 inches, 7 lbs 14 oz, born at 9:52 PM on January 24th, 2008

Live updates on the new baby

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:36:41 +0000

You can follow mom and baby’s progress at Twitter. I’ll post a full recap of today’s events later this evening when I know more.

Tough crittic.

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:27:59 +0000

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Counting down the days

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:31:50 +0000

It’s only six days until Carissa’s due date. It’s been interesting around here; we’re all kinda just playing the waiting game. We haven’t made any real plans to do anything just in case, and we’ve been so tired lately. Carissa got some good sleep last night finally, and I fell asleep on the couch watching TV. I’ve almost got everything ready for a leave of absence from work. I’m going to continue working on the books though.

Play Rock Band Drums on PC

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:26:50 +0000

Really cool and fun… First, download the 360 drivers for Windows. Install it and accept all the defaults. Next, grab this nice driver for the drum kit. Save it to your hard drive, plug in your drum kit, and tell it where the drum kit driver is. Finally go and get the drum machine. It’s awesome.

Stupid XBOX connections

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:14:24 +0000

Chris and I have been trying to connect to eachother over XBOX Live for a little over a week without success. Tonight we finally got it worked out. He did a firmware update to his router which solved the problem on his end. I, on the other hand, had to hack some things up a bit. My setup is a bit different. I have a media PC in the living room that has a wireless connection to the network.

Thank you

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:08:10 +0000

I just wanted to say thank you to our friends and family for the extremely generous gifts. Carissa really enjoyed seeing everyone at the shower. My only regret is that I missed out on seeing some people. I got back to the house right after they left for dinner. The guys had a good time though. Thanks for coming!

Getting down to the wire

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:02:27 +0000

It’s getting closer to baby time. Carissa’s ready, that’s for sure. If anyone cares, I’ve set up a feed over at Twitter. Latest updates appear here on the blog in the sidebar, but you could always sign up for an account and follow me. I’m not getting much sleep lately, because Carissa’s not getting much sleep. She’s looking forward to having the baby just so she can get some sleep. Even if it’s only two hours at a time, it’s still something.

Loose ends

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 05:15:16 +0000

This week is about tying up a bunch of loose ends. I’ve got a lot of projects I started that I want to get finished. One of those projects is the graphics book which is shaping up pretty well. I have a new editor who is a really good motivator and a very good eye. We don’t always agree and I have to fight back a lot, but the experience is good for me.

My life is not that interesting

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:55:40 +0000

The average blog has about one reader, and it’s usually either the blog’s owner or Google. It turns out that this blog actually had quite a few readers. I say had because most people probably stopped reading this blog once they discovered how infrequently I write. It’s not that I forget to do it… I just haven’t felt like I had anything worthwhile to say. I’m going to try to do more frequent updates (the blogger’s promise) and see if I can get more people to read the blog so I don’t have to write so many emails.

Crazy month

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:40:11 +0000

This has been a really crazy month. I’ve been working really hard on a lot of projects, including the books and some web sites. It’s really hard to say no beecause there are so many interesting things I want to do and learn. Out of all the stuff I do, I’d have to say I still really enjoy working with the students at UW-Eau Claire. They’re really bright guys who always make me proud.

Looks like it’s going to be a girl

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:27:21 +0000

Sorry, Dad!

Join us at Irvine Park tonight

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:08:45 +0000

Show your support for fighting cancer research and come to the Light The Night walk tonight. If you can’t make it, please consider making a donation to my team. Every little bit helps.

Light The Night walk

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:38:02 +0000

We’re walking again in memory of my mom. Please consider giving a donation, or even better, join our team and walk with us. http://www.active.com/donate/ltnBrookf3/2037_bphogan

Bah! Thwarted!

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:43:26 +0000

The baby did not cooperate with us today, so we don’t know what it will be yet. Sorry to dash your hopes.

The Downstairs Bathroom Remodel – Part three

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:27:52 +0000

Today was a packed day. Things went really fast. Jason started out with the mud and drywall, and put the toilet in. Then we went off to pick up the vanity from Menards, after a brief detour to get new paint, since I goofed and didn’t have enough to finish the room. The vanity’s upper unit didn’t come with enough pieces or instructions for assembly. Jason didn’t feel comfortable with the way the guys at the store said it went together, so he attached all of the components of the vanity together.

The Downstairs Bathroom Remodel – Part two

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:10:00 +0000

Day two started out late, as Jason ended up with some phone calls to deal with. When he got in, he hit the ground running, getting the subfloor mudded up so the screws wouldn’t show through the linoleum flooring. The floor went in without a problem. The rest of the day was spent doing the plumbing for the sink and the tub. Pipes had to be moved around a bit to accomodate the new vanity.

The Downstairs Bathroom Remodel – Part one

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:43:32 +0000

Jason started remodeling the bathroom today. This is a project I’ve wanted to get done for a long time, but we didn’t have the money or the time. Here’s our current bathroom for those of you that haven’t seen it. We got off to a late start but made really good progress with the demolition. There was quite a bit of stuff to tear out, and he was constantly amazed at how bad things were, especially under the floor.

Apparently, I’m Bart.

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:10:50 +0000

I’m Bart, who are you? by NoHomers.net

My accent

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:34:51 +0000

**What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)** Northern You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for. <a href=http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=9827> **Click Here to Take This Quiz** Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Funny job application (if you’re a a programmer)

Thu, 31 May 2007 13:48:22 +0000

I got a kick out of this job application. I may have to steal that idea when I do my hiring next time. We need more innovative and fun employers out there. I love hiring students because they are so energetic and t hey aren’t jaded by the “real world” yet. They haven’t spent a year doing nothing but reading documentation about web services, or using a dead-end programming language with libraries that are no longer maintained.

My first book

Wed, 30 May 2007 19:11:28 +0000

If you’re looking to get started with Ruby on Rails and you’re a Windows user, this book will walk you through setting up some of the tools you’ll need, as well as show you how connect to Microsoft SQL Server and set up Capistrano. Of course, this is targeted at people who are new to Ruby on Rails and come from the Windows platform. Curt Hibbs wrote the first chapter, where he showcases how to use RadRails and InstantRails to create a quick and easy setup.

+1

Wed, 30 May 2007 19:09:02 +0000

For those that have not yet heard the news, I am going to be a father (again). We’re all very excited but it will be a long way off… not ’till next February. I’m sure Corey and Titus will appreciate that.

Common English mistakes

Wed, 16 May 2007 16:27:57 +0000

We have such a complex, crazy language that it’s hard to keep everything straight. Take a look at this list for some of the more common mistakes. If these are all “common”, then I guess we have a lot of bad writers out there.

Going to Portland

Tue, 15 May 2007 19:16:22 +0000

I’m headed to Portland with Chris, Mike, Josh, and Carissa. We’re going to RailsConf2007 to learn some neat stuff from some awesome programmers. I’ll also be presenting on Sunday, and I’m just a tad bit nervous. Wish me luck.

Congratulations to Jacob Seilheimer

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 05:48:58 +0000

Jacob completed the Boston Marathon. That guy’s just amazing. Read more.

Pyramids versus trapezoids

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:56:15 +0000

It seems a certain multilevel marketing company has managed to infiltrate the small town where I grew up. I’ve received solicitations from a few of my high-school classmates to join up. I guess it would be nice to have them call me and want to know what’s new, or tell me about what’s going on in their lives, or say “Hey, why don’t we meet for coffee or a drink and catch up?

Remodeling the upstairs bathroom

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 13:22:34 +0000

We’ve had issues with the bathrooms in our house since we moved in. The previous owners did a lot of strange things that we are still undoing. The upstairs bathroom had some sort of water problem before we moved in, and the toilet was replaced. Unfortunately they put the toilet on top of the water-damaged floor which, over time, caused the flooring to sink a bit, breaking the seal on the toilet tank.

Switched

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 02:50:58 +0000

For those that don’t know, I am now using a Mac most of the time. It feels really weird but it is by far the best experience I have ever had with a computer That’s a pretty strong thing for me to say, especially from someone who pays the bills using Microsoft technology. The thing is that I can run Windows on my Mac so I can have the best of both worlds.

Erich starts today!

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 12:15:30 +0000

I am really excited to be working with Erich again. We hired him at UW-Eau Claire to work on our content management project. It’s going to be great having him around again.

Richard Jeni : 1962-2007

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:47:58 +0000

Richard Jeni, one of my favorite comedians, died this weekend from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. One of his best routines is Jaws 4. Really funny stuff. I also recommend the Political Parties routine. Great stuff.

Rails on Windows update

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:38:03 +0000

Just a quick note to let you know that I have been working on my book for O’Reilly lately and we are making really good progress. I’ve learned a lot about the publishing process in the last few months. One thing I’ve learned is that if you’re trying to write a book with a day job and a family, you’d better learn to stay up late or start getting up earlier.

Save your eyes!

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:04:53 +0000

Some interesting tips to save your eyes. Some are obvious, like make sure your CRT monitor isn’t set to the wrong refresh rate (flicker effect) to less obvious ones like placing the screen an arm’s length away from you and looking at the screen at a downward angle. More at http://www.ipnlighting.com/blog/2007/02/22-ways-to-reduce-eye-strain-at-your.asp

My back hurts

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:37:01 +0000

I managed to pull some muscles in my back Monday morning on my way to work. I wasn’t doing anything different, but they just decided to clench up and cause a dazzling array of pain. I ended up getting some muscle relaxers that help quite a bit, but I am still pretty uncomfortable if i sit down for any period of time. If you’re wondering, yes I am still insanely busy but I am hoping to get rid of a few projects soon.

Present from Microsoft

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:34:57 +0000

I just got a nice present from Microsoft for helping them along with a project. I can’t really say what it’s about because they want me to keep it somewhat quiet. They sent me a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Professional, which means I can go and install Ruby In Steel now. Who knows, maybe I’ll find another use for VS too.

O’Reilly Book – progress

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:32:11 +0000

Just sent another draft of my “Rails for Windows” book to my editor. This is what he had to say after reading 2/3 of it. The writing is really good. I think you’re saying what needs to be said, and I’m certainly looking forward to expanding this into a book once we get the short cut done. That feels pretty good.Now if I could just make progress on my other book, I’d be all set.

Best commercial ever

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 06:22:24 +0000

Best commercial ever.

Really busy lately

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:40:19 +0000

I figured I should take a few minutes today to do some updates to the blog since I’ve been getting lots of emails and phone calls asking what I’ve been doing. First off, I’m working on a huge project outside of work. It’s been a lot of fun and we are making good progress. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done but we have a long long way to go.

One year

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:53:17 +0000

It’s been one year since Mom passed away. It was a rough day and I still can’t sleep. I can’t believe all of the things that happened last year. A lot of good things happened to me last year but I’d really rather have her back instead. If you’re reading this, give your family a call and tell them you love them. They’re the most important thing you have, because no matter how much you’ve screwed up, they still love you.

2007 Daylight Savings Time rules

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:01:03 +0000

The United States has planned a change to its DST observance beginning in 2007. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates that DST will start on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. In 2007, the start and stop dates will be March 11 and November 4, respectively.

Merry Christmas to all

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 14:55:25 +0000

Best wishes to you and your families. may you have a wonderful holiday and a blessed New Year! This really is the best time of the year!

Judge: Make bills recognizable to blind

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:04:42 +0000

The government discriminates against blind people by printing money that all looks and feels the same, a federal judge said Tuesday in a ruling that could change the face of American currency. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart. He said he wouldn’t tell officials how to fix the problem, but he ordered them to begin working on it.

Halloween

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 21:59:47 +0000

Ana had a good candy run. It was very very cold but she had a really good time. She looked very cute.

HighEdWebDev – Home

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 05:15:29 +0000

We made it home. I’m going to crash for a few days.

HighEdWebDev – Still Hate Planes

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 01:28:21 +0000

We just landed in St. Paul about thirty minutes ago. The flight from Detroit was the longest flight I’ve ever been on. We spent at least twenty minutes in the plane before takeoff and it was getting quite warm. The flight itself was quite uneventful. I can’t say the same for the landing. We landed hard and then the pilot slammed on the brakes. Everyone lurched forward in their seats and you could hear the bags in the overhead compartment shift toward the front of the plane.

HighEdWebDev – Going Home

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:25:57 +0000

Well, I’m sitting in the Rochester museum uploading pictures to Flickr and waiting for my plane. Security was no problem this time and the TSA screeners were really friendly and helpful. Everything went smoothly and it took literally 2 minutes for me to get cleared through. Maybe things aren’t so bad after all.

HighEdWebDev – Best of Track!

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:00:57 +0000

Our Ruby on Rails presentation won best of track! We present twice more in a few minutes, and then we’re going home!

HighEdWebDev – Museum Excursion

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:00:11 +0000

The planetarium and science museum trip was awesome. After the day’s events were done, we were picked up by school buses and taken to the museum. Each floor of the three-story museum featured tables with food and an open bar, and we had the whole museum to ourselves. There were some incredible exhibits and I did take pictures but I’m still uploading them to Flickr. I also have a pretty cool video clip of the dinosaur robots.

HighEdWebDev – Day Two (continued)

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 19:47:04 +0000

This conference is awesome. The presentations on Fair Use and application security were well worth my time. Dale Grady, presenter for the application security presentation, has developed a great code scanner that can pinpoint possible vulnerabilities in code so that it won’t be deployed. I’m really interested in developing something like this for UW-Eau Claire so if anyone wants to collaborate with me, I’d love the help. We’re getting ready to head out to the science museum and planetarium, I’ll take lots of pictures although I don’t know how well that would work out.

HighEdWebDev – Day Two

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 14:43:01 +0000

I’m writing this on my WordPress blog while sitting in a great presentation about WordPress. I started out the morning watching a really well-done presentation on optimizing pages for search engines. The presenter made some excellent points and I’ll be changing how I do some of my optimization from now on. This presentation is great. It has confirmed the things I already knew and has taught me some things as well, such as the search engine on this site is only good for searching posts and not pages.

HighEdWebDev – Day One

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:11:38 +0000

The first day was great. Some of the big things of the day were Shooting and producing videos using Vegas Video and Flash Our Ruby on Rails presenation Giving effective presentations A great presentation on the FieldSet Really good presentation about Apache configuration. After the conference, several of us traveled to Dinosaur BBQ and had a ton of food. We had to wait about 90 minutes for a table but in the end it was well worth the wait.

HighEdWebDev – Our presentation

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:05:29 +0000

Our presentation went very well. We had a packed room of over 50 people. I’ve been getting lots of interesting questions and i’ve been doing my best to answer as many as possible. I’m not sure how much I’ll get to write during the conference but I’ll try to keep up because there are lots of neat things going on.

HighEdWebDev – Fieldset

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 08:30:10 +0000

Just saw a great presentation about using Fieldsets to semantically mark up web forms. The examples I saw were so much nicer than table-based or list-based forms. I’d recommend looking into this further. I know I will.

Awful flying experience

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 04:11:40 +0000

I hate flying. The trip started off with a long wait at the Chippewa Valley Regional Airport where I checked my luggage and waited for security. Our plane came in and I immediately noticed that it was one of those propeller-driven planes from the 60s which had been demoted to a shuttle. That didn’t give me a good feeling. I felt even worse at security. I removed my shoes, laptop, cell phone, and PDA, only to have the metal clip from my leather PDA case set off the metal detector.

HighEdWebDev – Preparation

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 12:47:17 +0000

Lillian and I are presenting at HighEdWebDev this year about Ruby on Rails and how developers can use it to be more productive. I’m hoping for a good turnout so I can generate more interest. It’s neat to see how far the community has come in the last year. There are well over 200 unofficial plugins for the framework that people can use. There are tons of new books coming out, and I am seeing developers do some really amazing <a target="_blank href=“http://www.

Book progress

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 12:39:46 +0000

I’ve been busy working on the book. I’ve got about four chapters done and the rest all mapped out. It’s a really interesting process that will take longer than I had expected. Pragmatic Bookshelf has a really neat production system; I get to see how my book will look as I write it. The most difficult part of this whole process is just finding the time to write. I’m hoping to make some progress over the next two weeks.

IT Jobs

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:37:30 +0000

Getting a job in the IT field can be really difficult unless you know people or know how to market yourself. It’s not enough just to know your stuff. The people who get the jobs are the ones who either know someone who can get them a gig or are really good at promoting themselves. You might think that promoting yourself means being a big egomaniac and bullshitting people into hiring you.

Festival in the Pines

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 06:29:07 +0000

We went to the Festival in the Pines on Sunday with Dad. There were over 250 craft booths there with people selling all sorts of things from music CDs to jewelery to wooden furnture. I saw quite a bit of things that I would have loved to buy but I had no way to get them home safely. It was hard to do that festival without Mom though. For years, even when I was very little, we’d all go together and look at the exhibits, enjoy the food, and roast in the unbearable hot temperatures.

Book

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 06:23:50 +0000

I signed the contract for my new book. It’ll be around 250 pages and I hope to have it done by January. The book will show programmers how to make things look pretty. I’m hoping to make it as easy to follow as possible for people who don’t have a formal design background so this process will be pretty interesting. I’ve got a pretty large outline done and I’ve started working on the excercises for the tutorial sections of the book.

Rails problems

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 16:27:31 +0000

I spend a lot of time working with the Ruby programming language and the Rails framework. There was a huge security vulnerability announced today and we were all told to apply the patch. Unfortunately we weren’t told exactly why, or what the vulnerability is. Many of us have looked at the source code and figured it out. Looks like the storm is over. The core team has patched the holes and most people are safe.

Josh and Kristi’s Wedding – The first sign of trouble

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 13:14:51 +0000

The plan was that Erich, Josh, and Carissa were going to all get up early and go decorate the reception hall at the golf course while I stayed back with the kids. Everything was going according to plan until Erich’s car got a flat tire. This just keeps getting better. Did I mention the part about the ring? He left her ring in his car at the hotel, so that’s one more stop that needs to be made.

Josh and Kristi’s Wedding – The first sign of trouble

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 13:12:02 +0000

Josh’s car broke down right before the rehearsal so he hasn’t gotten his tux yet. Mine fit but his dad’s pants needed alteration. Erich picked his up but he may need some modifications to his jacket. We didn’t get the rehearsal started until about a half-hour later and we were an hour late for the reservation at the restaurant. At least they didn’t give away our tables!

Josh and Kristi’s Wedding – Golf Outing

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 13:09:00 +0000

Josh organized a golf outing yesterday for anyone who was interested. We went to Wild Ridge and had a decent time despite some rather rude behavior by a certain member of the staff. I didn’t golf but I did zoom around all day in the cart. That was kinda fun, and it gave Josh a chance to relax a bit. Pictures are in the gallery.

Father’s Day

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 02:08:54 +0000

Carissa and I went up to visit Dad yesterday. He’s doing a lot better these days. I spent a bit of time there helping him hook up some AV components so he could watch DVDs without having to jump through a lot of hoops. We then installed some more memory into his computer. Then we did some sorting of Mom’s things. That was pretty hard on everyone. We did find some cool things though, such as my baby book and my mom’s kaleidoscope.

Rails Day

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 05:57:11 +0000

We made it through the contest! Mike, Adam, and I submitted our final change to our program after running into some nasty last minute problems. There’s always so much to fix. I’m truly amazed at what this programming framework can do. We accomplished more in 24 hours than many people hope to accomplish in a month’s time. The three of us hammered out a fairly nice event and expense tracker. Adam and Mike would like to see it go somewhere.

Rails Day update

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 21:32:13 +0000

We’re still going… although we’re getting slower. We’ve hit a lot of snags today because we want to implement a cool feature in our program that we really struggled with. Mike just managed to figure it out though so we’re going to hook it up.

Rails Day update

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 16:47:06 +0000

We’re kickin’ along with only about 2 hours of sleep. We just hit a snag when our power went out for some reason. Probably too much computer stuff going on in one room. We’re making some good progress after getting caught up earlier this morning.

Rails Day

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 07:17:28 +0000

We’re into our third hour of Rails Day. So far we’ve hit a few snags and had to write some things over, but we’re making decent progress. It’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of excitement going on in the community right now. Everyone seems to be having a great time. We also settled on a name…. ActionTracker. Check our status out at http://spectate.railsday2006.com/changesets/teams/26/

I am contributing to a book!

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:38:41 +0000

I’ve been asked by the talented Ezra Zygmuntowicz to write a chapter for his upcoming book for Pragmatic Programmers. The book is all about deploying Rails applications on Windows servers. It’s going to be pretty boring unless youre a system administrator or a software programmer, so most of you who read this won’t care. It’s still pretty neat to be able to contribute. I have submitted my outline and am going to take a day off of work tomorrow to do some writing.

Congratulations to Aimee

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:33:06 +0000

Aimee had her baby this morning. The baby is healthy and well and weighs 6lbs 1 oz. Thanks to Anita for the update! The little one doesn’t have a name yet but when she gets one, I’ll update the post. Congratulations Aimee Sue! Your journey is just beginning! Update: The baby’s name is Zoe Jean!

Rails Day 2006

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:27:59 +0000

Adam, Mike and I are participating in Rails Day 2006, a 24 hour coding marathon where the object is to develop an application in a single day, from start to finish. There are lots of great prizes to win and lots to learn. All of the submitted code will be opened to the public so even if you don’t participate there’s still something to gain. Our team name is “Those Guys that Write Code“.

Memorial Day

Tue, 30 May 2006 14:09:26 +0000

What a great day. It was a lot of fun to spend the day with friends and family. We did some grilling and I played crouquet with Ana (she did really well!) The weather was really nice but as soon as we all sat down to eat, everyone started to get pretty warm. People slowly moved into the house to cool off. It was nice to see everyone. I did miss Mom a lot though.

Difficult month

Thu, 25 May 2006 17:39:34 +0000

May is a difficult month. Mothers’ day and Mom’s birthday are both this month. I felt pretty crappy all day on Mothers’ day. Carissa’s birthday was the 16th and we had a small cookout to celebrate. Mom’s birthday came and went; it was easier than I thought. I think that Christmas will be harder.

More fame

Thu, 11 May 2006 15:42:02 +0000

I just made the Ruby on Rails weblog’s main page. Here’s a permalink to the posting.

Punks stealin’ my stuff

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 14:08:29 +0000

We woke up this morning to find out that somebody (I’m thinking at least two people) broke into our car last night and stole our stereo. I’ll say that again. Our $150 stereo was stolen from our locked car in front of our house last night. Thankfully they didn’t do too much damage to the car. They did bend up the passenger-side door a bit. The lesson learned though is that possessions are fleeting and it really doesn’t matter what you have, it’s who you have.

Extended holiday weekend

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 02:18:14 +0000

I’m going to take some time off from work (both University and otherwise) and relax for the next few days. I plan to do as little work as possible and instead spend my time playing video games, doing some music stuff, playing with Ana, and just wasting time. I haven’t done that in a while. I’ve managed to make it through to the end of Lent with only two accidental incidents with chocolate!

Battlefield Band

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 12:48:15 +0000

Dad and I went out to the Battlefield Band concert last night. He’d been wanting to see them for quite a while and I figured I would go. It was a chance for us to get some quality time in, and I figured that I would enjoy the show even though I’d never heard of them. I was right. It was a great show. They were very tight and extremely talented.

Home again

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:43:00 +0000

Training was rough. I sat through three days of pretty intense stuff and I’ll be lucky if I can even remember a quarter of it. We did learn some really interesting things and I hope that there’s a way for us to use some of that at work. One thing I know for sure…. I am so glad to be home. Staying by myself in a hotel room away from my family is not something I enjoyed at all.

Training again

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 02:02:42 +0000

I’m back in Madison again. This hotel sucks. It has nice rooms and its very well-kept, but it doesn’t have anything nearby. No close restaurants, no stores, nothing. When you don’t have a car, it’s a bit rough. Im here for Oracle security training. I am excited to learn something new but I would much rather be home with my family. At least I can get some quiet time to get some projects done.

Buzzwords – Defining “Enterprise Applications”

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:15:56 +0000

Vital enterprise applications are for proactive organizations leveraging collective synergy to think outside the box and formulate their key objectives into a win-win game plan with a quality-driven approach that focuses on empowering key players to drive-up their core competencies and increase expectations with an all-around initiative to drive up the bottom-line.

Dad’s adventure

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:14:48 +0000

I talked with Dad a few days ago. He sure had an interesting few days. As he was driving north on the highway towards home, his van was rear-ended. Dad was going the speed limit, and so the guy that hit him must have been going considerably faster than that. That’s pretty scary. Dad said he probably would have lost control of the vehicle if he had been driving the Saturn instead of the van.

I don’t like to relax

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 04:40:29 +0000

I’ve always known this, but it’s really been noticeable lately. I can’t really sit down on the couch and zone out anymore. My brain keeps moving so fast, thinking of the projects I’m working on or music I want to play. I can’t sit still. Perhaps I’m addicted to work? I’ve got three projects going on right now, and that doesn’t include my day job. That, and I think I’ve decided to write a book.

Pay Attention!

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:53:07 +0000

Adult ADD Strengths » Top 10 Advantages of ADD in a High Tech Career I found this today and it made me laugh. I notice nine of these ten items in my work.

My favorite commercials from the Super Bowl

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:46:02 +0000

Mastercard: MacGyver Diet Pepsi – Jackie Chan Bud Light: Cleaning the Gutters Sieraa Mist – Airport

Mickey Burner – Crazy Drum Skills

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 22:45:47 +0000

Mickey20Burmer20-20200420-20I26E20Snare20Solo20-20Google20Video

Getting Started Again

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 18:37:39 +0000

The memorial service was held on Monday in New Auburn, and it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever faced. It was so hard seeing all those people coming in to give their condolences. Thank you to everyone who paid their respects. For those that didn’t, we understand. We held up pretty well and it was all over before we knew it. Dad and I were both emotionally and physically drained by the end of the day.

Linora Hogan (1952-2006)

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 06:08:38 +0000

The first day of the rest of my life

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 23:40:26 +0000

I didn’t get to sleep until four this morning, and that’s just guessing. They came and took Mom away and then we just all sat around talking for quite some time before the tiredness took over. It took me quite a while to fall asleep and I didn’t wake up until Ana came downstairs at about 8:00 this morning. Ana took the news well, having been previously prepared for this by me, my dad, and my aunt.

Peace

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 06:55:26 +0000

My mom passed away this morning at around 12:30 am after a long battle with cancer. The last few days have been very hard on her and she has finally found peace. She waited for me. We were here for the last few days and she actually seemed to get better. Carissa was getting sick with a cold and I made the decision to take my family home. We got a call at 11:00 pm saying that it was time so we packed everyone up and went back to New Auburn.

A day maybe?

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 22:39:14 +0000

The lady from the hospice came today and told us that there’s only about a day left. Dad and I are to the point where we think we’re ready. Mom was so happy to see Ana today, but Ana is having a hard time dealing with this; she’s afraid to go and see her. Stay tuned.

Leave

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 23:41:56 +0000

I’m taking a few days off of work to go up to New Auburn to see my parents. I think it’s important to be with my dad at this time and I need to be with my mom. Thanks to everyone for their support and concern. I am truly blessed to know all of you.

From Patrick

Mon, 02 Jan 2006 18:45:29 +0000

Linora is nearing the end of her time with us. The hospice nurse visited her today and thinks that Linora will be with us for a couple of days to maybe a week. We had a wonderful holiday season. Linora’s mom and Earl, along with Brian , Carissa, and Ana spent Christmas day with us. Mary Kay, Ben, and Sharon joined Brian and his family and Mom and Earl on New Years day.

Linora Update

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 03:12:44 +0000

Dad called tonight to say that anyone who wants to see Linora should do it as soon as possible. We did the stupidest thing we could do by rushing out head-on into a snowstorm to get up to my parents’ place. Mom’s on oxygen and Carla says she’s weeker than she’s ever been. The hospice people were here today saying that we are nearing the end. It is only a matter of time before she will not be able to physically swallow her medication anymore.

Two to four weeks

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 03:08:13 +0000

Dad was told today that we probably only have a few weeks left.

Christmas

Tue, 27 Dec 2005 03:02:53 +0000

Santa came to see Ana this year and brought some neat toys. After we did some Christmas stuff at home, we went up to see my parents. Christmas has always been my mom’s favorite holiday. I think she was saving up for this. She was really tired and we had to break out a wheelchair so she could save some energy. She needed help moving about the house and I had to help her take her pills.

Mom made the paper.

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 07:12:50 +0000

In case nobody wants to give out their info to the Leader Telegram, I’m posting this here. I’m sure this violates some sort of copyright or something, but I don’t care. It’s about my mom, and I didn’t get a paper copy of this so I want this here for my own personal benefit anyway. One more Christmas As the holidays near, terminally ill patients and their families pray for some extra time together Jennifer Schmidt

Dreamhost FastCGI

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 02:21:12 +0000

Dreamhost servers were killing off my new application and so I did some digging and found this great hack by a nice fellow named Gary on the Dreamhost forums. Modify ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-0.14.3/lib/fcgi_handler.rb or ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.0/lib/fcgi_handler.rb: def exit_now_handler(signal) dispatcher_log :info, "asked to terminate immediately" ## force to restart dispatcher_log :info, "but we will restart" restart_handler(signal) #exit end

Memorial service

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 02:16:52 +0000

Alan’s memorial service was today. It was a very nice service, highlighting some great moments from his life. After the service, we had lunch and I talked with Titus and George for a while about old times. It was a strange feeling. Titus looked like he was doing his best to put on a good face for everyone, but I still wish I could do more.

Christmas party

Sun, 11 Dec 2005 16:35:27 +0000

The party was a mild success. We made way too much food this time around though. We were expecting a bigger turnout than we had, but we learned a lesson: Next time I think we’re just going to plan a bit smaller. Chris and Katie came with the cute little Ava. It was nice to be able to catch up in person instead of over the phone. After the party, we cleaned up a bit, watched some shows, played some games, and played with the baby a bit.

Sad day

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 16:37:05 +0000

I just heard this morning from my parents that Alan Seilheimer passed away this week in Marshfield. He was undergoing a treatment for cancer. Alan is the father of Titus, my good friend of more than 20 years. He’s like family to me and I’m truly saddened by this. Right now I don’t even know what to do, though I want to do something. Titus is right. Cancer sucks.

Interesting issue at my school

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 23:29:22 +0000

JS Online: Bible study policy raises ire Every Tuesday last school year, Lance Steiger took a Bible to the basement of his dormitory at UW-Eau Claire and led a small group of friends in a discussion about a particular chapter or verse. Steiger, a resident assistant and a junior at the time, said he was never told he could not lead a Bible study in the dorm where he worked helping students adjust to college classes and campus life.

Some me time

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 17:37:19 +0000

Listening to: “You Love To Sing” by Copeland Today is just for me to spend some time by myself. Ana and Carissa are gone for the day and nobody else is around. I’m just spending the day listening to music and doing small projects around the house. I had a really great weekend. Some friends were over on Friday night and we played some video games, drank some booze and ate some really good pizza.

That awful feeling again

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 06:53:22 +0000

This is from an email from my dad. I’ll just let you read it. Hi, Everyone, As most of you know, approximately 4 years ago, Linora was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Treatments have consisted of chemotherapy, radiation, and a stem-cell transplant. Because none of these treatments produced a remission, her last option was a bone marrow transplant. However, in order for the transplant to succeed, the lymphoma had to be brought under control with high-dose chemotherapy.

Update

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 19:48:10 +0000

I don’t have much news to report, other than Mom went back to the hospital again and now the doctor wants to have a “family meeting”. If it’s like the last family meeting then it’s not a good thing.

This is the coolest illusion

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 05:05:19 +0000

Check this out! It’s one of those neat optical illusion thingies you usually get in the email. This one actually worked for me. Damn cool illusion

I need to learn more scales

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 22:55:22 +0000

I can’t improvise on the guitar like I can on the piano. I can play chords and I can play along with others, but I often have to capo in order to keep up. I don’t play it as often as I should. I have a great guitar that I bought from a good friend of mine and I love to play it. I just need more time.

Long week

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 22:40:20 +0000

Listening to: “Conclusion” by Keih Jarrett So I’m winding down a long week by relaxing to some cool music via Pandora. If you’ve not had a chance to play around with it yet, you should give it a try. You enter an artist or song that you like and it creates a personalized radio station for you. You get to rate the songs and it will tailor the station to your tastes.

Awful Feeling (Feeling Awful)

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 01:53:23 +0000

I don’t want to start preparing. I don’t want to think about what’s happening but it’s getting closer and it’s eating away at me. I don’t sleep well anymore and I’m constantly dealing with an upset stomach. I called her tonight and she sounded so tired and so out of it. She didn’t even recognize me right away. We didn’t talk long because she needed her rest because the nurses keep waking her up.

Looking forward

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:23:17 +0000

This weekend should be a lot of fun. Some good friends are coming in from out of town and we’re all looking forward to sharing some memories, laughs, and some fine whiskey. (or soda). I’m excited.

Closer

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:41:49 +0000

The bathroom’s almost done. It’s been painted and there just needs to be one last thing done; putting some sort of cover to fill the gap where the tub meets the floor.

Happy Birthday to Me

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 01:26:55 +0000

I had a pretty good day today. I woke up early to get Ana ready for school. Her school had a special “Walk To School” day where all of the kids walked with their families or other grown-ups. The UWEC Football t eam was there to help out as well which was really cool to see. After we dropped her off at the school, we went home for a bit and then headed out to run a few errands.

Taming the Bathroom From Hell

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 01:38:14 +0000

Today was the day that Mark and Dave were going to help me start work on the bathroom. Mark was unable to make it, but Dave was able to get most of the work done by himself I made sure to be around to answer questions and make some decisions, but I did learn a lot. Thankfully, I was able to work from home today so I didn’t have to take the day off.

Harmony 659 – The Best Universal Remote

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 17:39:00 +0000

My wife bought me the Harmony 659 universal remote as an early birthday present. I’d been looking at one for about 6 months after my last universal remote failed miserably to control my devices. My take on it? Absolutely fabulous, once you get it configured. You have to know the model numbers for all of your devices. That was the first tricky part. The next problem I had was that I have a PC connected to my TV to play music, videos, and games.

Fun day

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:02:08 +0000

Mark at Rock ‘n’ Roll To Go held his End of Summer Bash today. It was a great outdoor get-together. Many of the cool inflatable attractions were out for the kids. Ana had a great time on the Titanic slide and the Ironman obstacle course. It was a great chance for Mark to thank the Eau Claire area, but it was also a chance for him to show off a bit.

Ana’s First Day

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 04:06:02 +0000

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately and I've been meaning to write this post. Ana had her first day of school on September 1st, 2005. As you can see from the photo, she was really excited to go. She's been doing the school thing for a full week now and she still likes it. She enjoys her teacher and seems to be making some new friends. Kids grow up quick.

Where Am I?

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 04:17:49 +0000

I’ve been spending time in the Rails community helping out fellow developers with their problems. I’ve spent a few hours a night in #rubyonrails on IRC.FREENET.ORG. It feels really good to help others figure out their problems. On a related note, I have an article up on the Rails Wiki that shows how to set up a development environment using Eclipse. You can find that here.

She’s Growing Up

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 03:49:55 +0000

We took Ana to her new school tonight. We got to eat in the lunchroom and have some less-than-good pizza on those great partitioned lunch trays. We got a chance to see the classrooms that the kids will use and Ana had a nice time with the other kids. She’s really excited to go to school and she wanted to go back tomorrow. Wonder how long that will take to change!

What’s going on?

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 21:59:24 +0000

I’ve moved the site to a new host with loads of bandwidth and space. I am going to keep this as my personal blog but I plan to start publishing more things on the site so please bear with me.

Broken Record

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 18:02:28 +0000

Mom called. She’s back in the hospital again, this time for red blood cells and magnesium. I’m not handling this well.

What A Blast

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 18:01:02 +0000

I had a great weekend. We headed down on Thursday night and stayed in Janesville. The next morning, we drove to Neal’s parents’ house where we lounged around for most of the day. Carissa had to go and have her nails done for the wedding and we had to go and make sure the tuxes fit. Friday night was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner at a really nice Itallian place.

Hospital again

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:37:32 +0000

Mom’s back in the hospital again. She’s been there since Monday I guess. I wish she would have called sooner. I have to go out of town for the wedding this weeekend.

Nice visit

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 17:35:03 +0000

I visited my aunt and uncle (Anne and Bob) this weekend and I had a wonderful time. It was good to catch up with them. Carissa and I had a party to go to that weekend and we decided to leave a day earlier and visit with them since they were on the way. I’m very glad we did. The barbecue at Neal and Sara’s place was a lot of fun.

Unix Tools

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:19:04 +0000

I was working on my PE disk tonight and I came across these tools that I totally forgot about. UnixTools is a collection of command-line tools that are ports of the most common and useful “Unix Tools” a typical Unix / Linux admin would run across. So now you can use “grep” in Windows, and you can stop confusing “dir” with “ls”! Download the files here (~2.7 MB)… the file is a self-extracting archive that will prompt you for an install path.

Rails

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:14:03 +0000

I’ve been spending a lot of time with Ruby on Rails and I love it. I love it so much that I hate ASP and PHP more than anything. Rails takes all of the crap about programming that I hate and gets rid of all of it. It lets me avoid doing all of the database-to-form mapping and validation stuff that I hate and instead lets me focus on the presentation and design of the site.

From Mom

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 05:07:29 +0000

Mom says: I’m going for the bone marrow transplant after all. I keep hearing all these success stories and I figure I’m too young to give up. I just have to recover my normal blood counts and that won’t happen ’til at least August. In the meanwhile, I get platelet transfusions and shots that produce white blood and red blood cells I completely support her decision, but I am really worried.

History of the Laugh Track

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:19:09 +0000

Much of the “canned laughter” used on the soundtracks of sitcoms is said to have come from tapes that were originally recorded during broadcasts of “The Red Skelton Show” in the late 1950s and early ’60s. It is eerie to realize that when we encounter a laugh track (or “sweetening”) in a recent show, some of the people we hear laughing may have been dead for decades. Yet their guffaws go on forever.

Learn Physics With Mario

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:17:06 +0000

This awesome flash animation is a fun and very well done way to learn about some physics concepts like frequencies and amplitudes. Check out the movie here.

Fun Movie Stuff

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:53:01 +0000

Dr. Doom reviews “Fantastic Four” movie. The Sith Explained

Mmmmmm… recirculated air

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:47:36 +0000

The AC is in, and the house is much more comfortable. I slept great last night, so great that I didn’t even want to wake up. I had to take the morning off because the electricians had some more work to do and I wanted to be there when the big stuff was going on. I left them to their work about 11:30 or so, and I guess we’ll see how much of my house is left when I get hom.

Raiden

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 14:26:01 +0000

Raiden was one of my favorite platform space shooter games when I was a kid. Now, some enterprising Flash developors have made a wonderfully accurate (and great-looking) remake that you can play online. Play RaidenX

No AC yet

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 14:23:14 +0000

I was all ready to have my AC installed today, but because of the storm, XCEL Energy (the local energy concern) decided to cancel my service and inspection. The electricians need to have the power company come out and shut things off for them so they can work, and all of the crews are out of town working to restore power to other people’s homes. But screw them… I’m hot!

Burning The Candle

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 22:49:02 +0000

It’s late and I should be sleeping. It’s cooler in the house than it’s been the last few days, but I am still sweating a bit. I’m tired because I’ve been working on very little sleep; the weather has been making it difficult to get comfortable. I’m trying to finish up the rnr site this week and I’m working on a very frustrating project at the office as well. I’m looking forward to Thursday, when I will just be able to sit back and relax while the contractors install my new electrical and central air systems.

Using YUM to Update KDE on White Box Enterprise Linux 4

Mon, 27 Jun 2005 15:10:41 +0000

You must be Root to do this. You must also not be running KDE when you do this. At the graphical log-in screen, press CTRL+ALT+F1 to get to a prompt. Install YUM. If you don’t have this installed, place the 4th CD in the drive. Look for the file ‘yum-2.2.0-0.fc3.rpm’ and copy it to your home folder. Once copied, install it using the standard rmp -ivh ~/yum-2.2.0-0.fc3.rpm Add the repository to your /etc/yum.

Transitioning

Sun, 26 Jun 2005 06:59:04 +0000

This site is going to take a while to get under control. I have a lot of pages to convert. One nice thing is that my site finally has a search, so I plan to start posting a lot more useful information on here now that I can actually find it. I’m glad I made it to the new blog without losing any posts because I have a lot of interesting things in there.

Supreme gives companies the right to bulldoze homeowners’ houses for minimalls and the like

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 14:47:34 +0000

Boing Boing: Supreme gives companies the right to bulldoze homeowners’ houses for minimalls and the like Where do I start? Eau Claire has a few run-down areas that I’m sure the city would like to just plow over. Wal-Mart is probably really upset that they missed this opportunity to build a “Super Center” near Germania and Birch Street. I should be quiet… we don’t want to give anybody any ideas.

House updates

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 04:34:44 +0000

We’re going to get our electrical upgrade taken care of on Thursday of next week. The air conditioning will go in on the same day. It could take more than one day but I’m really excited to get this done. Tomorrow will be another hot day, with a high of 95 or so. That’s going to be rough, although the house hasn’t been terribly warm yet.

Uncle Dan

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 03:40:27 +0000

My uncle died this weekend. My mom’s brother, and the one who taught me a lot of neat things when I was very young. My mom was at school and my dad worked, so he lived with us and took care of me during the day when I came home from school. We would always look at the stars together, and I remember one time when he woke me up at 3:00 in the morning to go watch a meteor shower.

Back Again

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 20:45:21 +0000

After almost two months, I am blogging again. This hiatus was imposed by Blogger, who have been unable to get my blog publishing again. I found a workaround and have migrated everything to WordPress. However, this means that some things on this site are not going to work quite right. I have to convert all the pages from ASP to PHP. I might lose the GPA calculator because nobody uses it anymore.

100 Times Better

Sun, 01 May 2005 13:49:00 +0000

Wow! Now that the bathroom has been patched, repainted, and decorated, it looks so much better than it did before. I spent about 10 hours in there yesterday patching, priming, painting, and fixing things. I managed to stabilize the showerhad a bit with a shim. I then shot some caulk into the hole to keep it from moving.

All moved in

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 06:16:00 +0000

We just finished the move. We’re in the process of setting all of our stuff up, and I’m in a lot of pain. My students helped me paint my house last weekend and in order to prepare for that, I had to do a lot of hands-on renovation like pulling up carpet strips and other assorted crap. I ended up with a lot of cuts on my hands and they really hurt.

See you soon

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 04:27:00 +0000

Going offline for a few days. Lots of moving to do!

Painting's Done

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 01:33:00 +0000

Painting’s done. Thanks to Dan, Travis, Erich, Josh, Kristi, Matthew, and Titus who came by on Sunday to help out. It was good to see Titus. I felt bad that we couldn’t go out and do something, but at least I got to see him. We all had pizza and beer to celebrate all of the hard work and we enjoyed the evening. I still have more painting to do, but I am so burned out right now that I don’t even want to think about that.

Dead tired

Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:29:00 +0000

I just spent the last two days working on this house and I hate it. I’m frustrated that I didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d wanted to. We did get the carpet strips removed, but I found that I have a couple of broken stairs, some slivered wood, and a bathroom that is worse than I feared. Upon removing some loose paint around the tub, I managed to pull off the top layer of the drywall underneath the showerhead.

Dirty Walls

Tue, 19 Apr 2005 13:37:00 +0000

Josh, Eric and I finished washing the walls in the living room and dining room tonight instead of practicing Karate. The walls were so filthy that we went through about 30 gallons of ammonia water for just two rooms. The color of the walls has changed quite a bit, and I think we may have actually taken some of the paint off of the walls too. That’s alright though because we will be painting it this weekend.

Floors from hell

Mon, 18 Apr 2005 14:17:00 +0000

Carissa, Ana, and I spent the weekend over at the new house doing some work. We pulled up the carpet that was in the living room, dining room, and hallways. There was so much dust underneath the carpet that I couldn’t breathe. The smoke smell was awful and when we took the carpet outside to get it out of the house, I nearly threw up from choking. THere was almost an inch of dust on the floor where the carpet had been, but after we cleaned up the dust, the floor looked pretty decent.

Closing Time

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 19:12:00 +0000

We closed on the house today. It really wasn’t a very big deal. We signed a lot of papers and read a lot of legal forms, at which time we were handed the keys. Dad and I spent some time this morning coming up with a game plan of how to handle some of the repairs that need to be done. But now I have to spend some time doing some work.

It’s On

Tue, 29 Mar 2005 02:05:00 +0000

We are officially buying a house. Unless something horribly wrong is found during the inspection, we’re all ready to go. The offer was accepted today, and it’s been faxed to our loan officer. After I was told that it was accepted, I told Ana and she was just thrilled, but then she said “Daddy, I’m going to miss this place.” That’s when it sunk in; the fact that this place that I live in now, the place I’ve called home for almost three years, will no longer be my home anymore.

Update on the House

Sun, 27 Mar 2005 01:54:00 +0000

Brian from Scheppke Real Estate called today. He’s taking care of our purchase while John is on vacation. He said that the reason the house is so cheap is because they’re settling an estate. That’s great news for us because the people who have to accept the offer have to come in from out of town to look at it. Hopefully they’ll just want to get it over with and we can get moving.

Celebration

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 16:41:00 +0000

We spent about two hours going over paperwork and signing forms. We made our offer and John had already talked to the seller’s agent about the offer. John seems very confident that they will accept the offer. If they do accept, we will move in around April 20th, which will give us a week to paint and move. We grabbed some pizza and watched The Holy Grail with Erich and Josh.

“So I hear you want to buy a house!”

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 19:16:00 +0000

John (our broker) called. We’re going to buy a house! We discussed how much to offer and I decided to take 2% off of the asking price. I think that should be more than fair. John seems to think that this is a great house as well, and he thought it was clear and away the best house we looked at. We have a meeting at 4:30 today to sign an offer.

“Go Buy a House!”

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 18:06:00 +0000

The loan officer just called and said that we should make our offer! I’m really excited now.

Waiting

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:50:00 +0000

I just talked to the loan officer at the bank. He’s going to do the paperwork for us to get preapproved. We had already applied and were approved for a loan two years ago, so he just pulled that application and had me give him some updated information.

This Sucks!

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 04:04:00 +0000

I can’t believe how long this homebuyer course is. It’s taking forever and we have to do these stupid quizzes after each section. Soon I will be done, and I will be one step closer.

Buy It

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 03:47:00 +0000

My dad’s first comment to me and Carissa was that we should buy that house. They went through the house today with the camera and my parents were both really excited! I’m inclined to agree. My dad sees a lot of things we could do to improve it but he seems to think that the house is in great condition and it’s really a steal. We’re still wondering why the house’s price is so low, but we really can’t pass this up.

CT Scan

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 02:33:00 +0000

I had a CT scan today so they could look at my sinues. The headaches are still here and they really bother me. I’m a little worried that they are going to find something serious though. I’m probably just worrying over nothing.

Finished Looking

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 00:33:00 +0000

Most of the houses we saw were just awful. We were starting to feel like we weren’t going to find anything good in our price range. The house I was exited about just isn’t big enough. It’s very nice and really well designed, but it’s pretty small. We did find one place, though. It has five bedrooms and a huge basement. It doesn’t have air conditioning, so I’m very apprehensive about that.

Looking at Houses

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 19:45:00 +0000

We’re going to look at some houses today. We’ve rounded up seven houses and we’ll be spending the afternoon with our current landlord who we have hired as our broker. I’m really excited to look at one house in particular, although it looks like it may already have an offer so it may be off the market. It has a really niced finished basement with a family room. I would love a finished basement.

Waiting

Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:05:00 +0000

I’m sitting here in the classroom having just finished up the lab for the day, and I am completely in awe of the fact that I haven’t received any work-related emails today. This means that either nothing happened, or nobody is telling me about it. Either way, that’s fine with me, as I am going to be grabbing some beers with two of my good friends in a few hours.

Cheeseburgers at Night

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 22:31:00 +0000

Cheeseburgers at Night Originally uploaded by bphogan. During our Oracle training, we discovered how great this place was and our instructor wanted to go there for lunch. We told him that it was only open at night, but he insisted that it was open. Upon arriving, he saw that the lights were on so he did a victory dance only to immediately discover that the doors were locked. I took this photo that evening as a gag.

Firefox Tricks

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:18:00 +0000

These tips were found over at the Firefox Support Forums site. The ones listed here are the ones I use all the time and so I thought I would share. If you’re not using Firefox yet, you should. CTRL+T (Control + T) opens a new blank tab. Instead of clicking the Back or Forward buttons, hold down the Shift key and turn the scroll wheel to back or forward. You can also use

New iPod software

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 20:13:00 +0000

There's a new version of the iPod software available for download today. It adds some new features to all of the iPod models, including my old G2 model. On the G3 and above, it adds a new “Import Photos” option that is supposed to be used with a new camera accessory that will be coming out in the next few months. This could be a great thing for photographers. I've always wanted the ability to store photos on my iPod.

Sick and Tired

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:01:01 +0000

Lately, I’ve been busy doing things other than playing online, such as taking care of a sick Ana and getting some rest myself, as I seem to have caught a bit of what she had. This Sunday, I leave once more for some Oracle training. This is the last time I have to go, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m going to miss my family but I love to learn.

Settling In

Mon, 24 Jan 2005 03:37:28 +0000

I just finished getting settled into my hotel room and I went for a walk around the outside mall which is located right outside the back door of the hotel . The hotel is really nice. I have three wireless Internet access in my room so I can sit on The chair or on the bed and do my e-mail or write an entry in my blog. Have a look at my pictures that I posted on the site.

Server service

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 21:23:46 +0000

The Windows Server service allows a computer to share printers and files with other computers. It’s a resource hog that you may want to shut down and disable if you don’t plan to share files or printers with others. However, you may want to enable this service temporarily to share some files. Here’s a quick script I wrote to let you do just that. @echo off sc.exe config lanmanserver start= auto sc.

Heading Out

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 20:35:18 +0000

Here I am, writing an entry in the blog when I should be finishing up all of the things that I have to do before I go away for one full week of Oracle training. This is week one of three, and this one should be relatively easy since I already know my way around SQL pretty well. I’m still interested in this class because half of the material will be completely new to me.

Political Science Lesson – Fascist Regimes

Thu, 13 Jan 2005 02:29:29 +0000

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism (“Fascism Anyone?,” Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine’s policy. The 14 characteristics are: Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Happy Birthday Ana!

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:20:03 +0000

Today is Ana’s 5th Birthday. She was born on January 4th, 2000, so it’s always easy to remember how old she is!

Happy New Year

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 06:10:17 +0000

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I know I did. I took two weeks off of work and have been having a great time with my wife. Ana’s been gone these last two weeks and I really missed her, but she’ll be home tomorrow and then I can give her the presents I got her for Christmas. She’s going to get some more presents on Tuesday when she turns five.

Speed Up Firefox

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 04:34:55 +0000

Open Firefox. Type “about:config” in the adress bar (no quotation marks). Find these options, double click each one and change to below values:. . network.http.max-connections: 48. network.http.max-connections-per-server: 24. network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy: 12. network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server: 6. network.http.pipelining: true. network.http.pipelining.maxrequests: 32. network.http.proxy.pipelining: true. . Close Firefox and enjoy the faster browsing.

Mom

Thu, 16 Dec 2004 02:12:50 +0000

I got a call from Mom tonight. She had to get new platelets today but her white blood cell count doubled. She told me that if everything goes well, they may let her come home on Monday! Since she received her new stem cells, they consider her to be “born again” so that means that she is a whopping eight days old today. We had a good talk tonight and she sounds like she’s doing better.

Headaches

Fri, 19 Nov 2004 01:44:46 +0000

I’m not doing so well. It seems that every day-some home from work, I have a killer headache and a desire to just fall asleep. I’m starting to think there is something wrong with me. Maybe there’s too much Stress in my life, or maybe I’m just getting Sick. I just wish it would be over.It’s getting nard to get work done. The tablet does make it easier though; I can stretch out on the couch and get some work done.

Tablet PC Experience

Fri, 05 Nov 2004 04:37:31 +0000

I’m writing this post from my Tablet PC that the University bought me. It was sitting on my desk when I came into work this morning and I immediately started fiddling around with it. It is definitely going to take some getting used to but I’m very happy with how easy it is to use. It does a decent job with the handwriting recognition, and it also has voice recognition which will be very useful for me.

Games

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 23:21:46 +0000

Nucleus Kung Fu Motherload

Congratulations Anita and Jeremy

Sun, 17 Oct 2004 06:34:52 +0000

Anita and Jeremy were married today at Dover Lutheran Church outside of New Auburn. It was a very nice ceremony. I had a great view from where I sat, playing the music. Anita had asked me a few months ago if I would play, and I said yes, not really realizing how much work it would be. I’m glad I did it though. Everything went well, and it was the least I could do.

27

Tue, 05 Oct 2004 16:00:57 +0000

I turned 27 today. It was a very low-key birthday. I went to work and solved some big problems that have been bugging me for the last few days. We all did lunch at Mogie’s to celebrate. Every time I go there, I’m reminded that I need to go there more often. When I came home from work, I spent time with Ana and then watched the VP debate with my dad who stopped over to visit.

Original Star Wars Trilogy

Mon, 13 Sep 2004 06:43:50 +0000

Sign the petition at originaltrilogy.com. Maybe Lucas will then release the original non-Special Edition ones.

Old School

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 05:12:56 +0000

Here’s some useful M.A.M.E. links. M.A.M.E is an arcade emulator capable of playing images from arcade machines. The legality of all of this is pretty sketchy, but I’m not posting anything that you can’t find with a simple Google search anyway. Besides, I’m not posting any links to any games. Mame Website ArcadeControls Software Forum Bios files for Mame

Catching Up

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 05:05:12 +0000

It’s been a little while since I’ve written, and there’s been a lot going on. Mom’s doing some more aggressive therapy now. She spent the last four days in the hospital for some in-patient chemotherapy. She’s home now, but she will be going back to the hospital in a few weeks for more chemo, and then to Marshfield for a bone-marrow transplant. The hope is that after the transplant, she’ll go into remission.

Play Hockey. Now.

Thu, 19 Aug 2004 02:49:43 +0000

Table Hockey game… so fun. So addictive.

Dead Laptop

Mon, 16 Aug 2004 02:50:15 +0000

So here I am, watching a flick, when my laptop freezes up. I figured that it was no big deal. My laptop has a tendancy to freeze up every so often, so I’ve gotten used to it. However, this time, no matter how long I held the power button down, I couldn’t make it shut off. So I unplugged the laptop and ejected the battery, as the instruction manual says to do in such a situation.

A Good Long Week

Fri, 06 Aug 2004 21:27:28 +0000

The reason for the lack of updates on my blog is quite simple-vacation! I took my week summer vacation to spend some time with my wife. We celebrated our second anniversary this last Tuesday by going to the restaurant we met at. I also spent the week recovering from a neck and shoulder injury which occurred last weekend after karate. I was finished with the workout and was turning around to grab something and all of a sudden, I couldn’t move.

You Can’t Beat This Joke

Sun, 25 Jul 2004 19:08:36 +0000

Passengers on a small commuter plane are waiting for the flight to leave. The entrance opens, and two men walk up the aisle, dressed in pilots’ uniforms–both are wearing dark glasses, one is using a seeing-eye dog, and the other is tapping his way up the aisle with a cane. Nervous laughter spreads through the cabin; but the men enter the cockpit, the door closes, and the engines start up.

Awesome Castlevania Flash Game

Thu, 22 Jul 2004 12:36:21 +0000

This was posted on Fark, but I am putting it up on here anyway. This is the best Flash game I’ve seen ever. Play the game

All Moved In

Tue, 20 Jul 2004 19:24:25 +0000

This place is pretty cool. It’s funny how we all sit around now and try to remember where things like walls and doors used to be. Everything has changed. The students have a respectable area to work, I have my own office with more storage cabinets than I can fill, and the move couldn’t have been smoother. If I can get the digital camera’s batteries charged before everyone leaves today, I’ll get some pictures.

Moving Home

Mon, 19 Jul 2004 17:54:54 +0000

We are getting ready to move back to the old building. We’ve been up in the Library for over six months, and during that time, our old area has been completely rebuilt. When I go down there, I am just in awe of what they have done. I will have my own office, all to myself. I won’t have to share with students or other coworkers. I’ve been waiting quite a long time for this and am more eager than ever to get out of this place we’re currently in.

R.I.P. Revelstoke?

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:42:25 +0000

Rumor has it that my favorite whiskey, The Revelstoke, is being discontinued. There’s no mention of it on the Phillips website, but I left them a message to see if I can get some confirmation. A few of us are planning to organize some sort of grass-roots campaign to bring it back. Apparently in 2001-2002, it outsold Crowne Royale, the top-selling whiskey, 6000 cases to 2900 cases. So people were drinking it….

WINK

Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:03:55 +0000

WINK is the coolest program. It’s a free web-based tutorial creation program like Camtasia, but I found it to be a lot easier to use. Creating tutorials is a breeze. There’s no audio support yet, but you could add that in yourself using Flash. Backing up a DVD with DVD Shrink Encoding a video to XviD with Vidomi I’m working on some more… stay tuned.

I am so playing this when I get home!

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 17:51:52 +0000

Check out Zelda Classic, a faithful re-creation of the original NES classic, with support for your own quests.

Velvet Revolver and Copy Protected CDs

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 00:16:21 +0000

I dig the new Velvet Revolver cd. The music rocks, the singing is great, and it’s just a good return to grungy rock ‘n’ roll. I recommend this highly. Many who read this site know that I have an iPod and I like to listen to my music wherever I go. However, the Velvet Revolver CD is protected by a digital rights management program that prevents me, a legitimate owner of the disc, from ripping a copy to take with me on my iPod.

Human Virus Scanner

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 13:53:12 +0000

Human Virus Scanner from TotL.net. This is great.

Extending Dreamweaver

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 21:00:34 +0000

I found a good basic tutorial on how to write extensions for DreamWeaver. All it takes is some simple JavaScript and HTML. Read more on Making A Simple, Useful Extension at Dreamweaver FAQ.com ALA has a good post today on how to make liquid CSS layouts. Anyone who’s just learning CSS should give this a read.

What a week…

Thu, 10 Jun 2004 19:52:05 +0000

First Reagan, now Ray Charles. local6.com – Entertainment – Music Legend Ray Charles Dies

Useful Web Tools

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 17:54:47 +0000

Universal Accessibility In Practice CSS Filters Client Quotes!!!

Web Standards Presentation

Fri, 28 May 2004 19:52:19 +0000

I gave my presentation on web standards today. I covered XHTML and CSS and how they can be used to create websites that separate design from presentation. We spent about 90 minutes going over the concepts and some demonstrations. Download the PowerPoint slides

Again and Again

Wed, 26 May 2004 17:33:19 +0000

Mom’s back in the hospital again because she’s in pain. Today will be her first treatment with the higher dosage of the medicine, and I understand they are going to suppliment the antibodies with some other drugs. Mom still seems optimistic though. In case you didn’t know, her lymphoma has been upgraded to “large cell lymphoma”, a more agressive type. She was given the option of chemotherapy or a bone-marrow transplant, but either of those choices would be an option if the lymphoma returned after treatment.

Supreme Court Rules on ADA case

Mon, 17 May 2004 19:52:11 +0000

In a major victory for disabled Americans, the Supreme Court Monday ruled they deserve equal access and accommodation at government buildings, such as courthouses and schools, in all states. Read the opinion of the court or read the summary at CNN..

The Big Shindigg

Mon, 17 May 2004 03:57:44 +0000

We had the big May Birthday Party this weekend. This year, Carissa and I threw a surprise party for my mom and dad. My aunt Annie and my uncle Bob came up from Illinois, and they brought my grandma with them. It was great to see them all and my dad was quite surprised as well. My other grandma came also, as well as my aunt Mary Kay and my uncle Ben, with whom we always share special occasions.

The XP FIrewall

Fri, 07 May 2004 13:42:19 +0000

ZDNet is running a story that predicts the death of third-party firewalls now that the XP Firewall will be turned on by default in the next service pack for Windows XP. This is simply not true. The Microsoft firewall can be disabled with three lines of VBScript code. This has been tested by sysadmins on Service Pack 2 betas in order to allow remote administration of machines. I’d bet that non-MS firewalls can’t be disabled this easily.

AVSERVE2 – New Worm found

Thu, 06 May 2004 18:22:50 +0000

I’m finding a nasty little memory hogging trojan / worm thingy related to the Sasser worm on a few of the machines in my office. See this page for some info on how to get rid of it. Check your task manager. If you see AVSERVER2.EXE running, you should nuke it. If you can’t get rid of it manually, you can use PSKILL from SysInternals to forcefully kill the process.

Free VB.NET

Thu, 06 May 2004 06:25:44 +0000

Watch some movies and rate them and get a free copy of VB.NET Standard here. You don’t have to watch the movies.. just rate them! Update: I never got mine. What a rip!

More Space

Tue, 04 May 2004 12:38:37 +0000

I picked up a 160gb hard drive last night for . My server is running out of space and I couldn’t wait any more. It was the best deal I could find in town, and after some recent hard drive freakouts, my server needed a new drive. I spent last night moving files to it and it looks like everything is working. It wasn’t what I had in mind for last night, but it’s still something I am glad I got out of the way.

Mom’s Doing Well

Mon, 03 May 2004 04:28:03 +0000

We went up to see my parents tonight and we cooked hot dogs and bratwurst on the grill. It was pretty cold but the food cooked up pretty fast. I worry about Mom because she tries to do too much too soon, and I just want her to be more careful. I’ve only got one set of parents, and I’d like them to be around for awhile yet. I’m pretty excited about Neal and Sara’s wedding.

Twenty Favorite Songs

Mon, 03 May 2004 04:21:41 +0000

“Everything Happens To Me” (Chet Baker) One of the coolest tunes ever. Chet sings so soft and mellow, and his delivery of this great song is just perfect. It’s the song for anyone who just feels like nothing ever goes right for them, especially love. “I” (dada) This song has incredible harmonies and neat guitar overlays. dada is probably my favorite rock band, and this would be my favorite song.

Congratulations Neal and Sara!!!!

Sun, 02 May 2004 03:19:41 +0000

Neal and Sara got engaged tonight. We’re all excited about their upcoming wedding.

What a week

Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:47:06 +0000

There’s so much going on right now. I started working on a new program that will let administrators know when servers are unavailable. I plan to get it working and start selling it. The problem is that I don’t have a lot of time to spend on it because I have some web stuff going on as well. The new designs I’m working on are almost done, and I’ve set a goal for myself this weekend.

Not Done Yet

Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:10:30 +0000

Mom’s out of surgery. They found quite a bit of lymphoma in both ovaries, and some on her colon. They removed all the lymphoma they could find, but they also found an unknown mass in the uterous. It could be a fibroid tumor, or it could be much much worse. I don’t want to think about that, so I won’t. The surgeon said they would know more within two weeks, so we are all back to the waiting game.

Fun Stuff

Fri, 23 Apr 2004 02:37:05 +0000

Polar Rescue $1 Blockbuster Movie Rental Coupon Kill Bill I will not be responsible if anything bad happens if you click this.

Tomorrow

Fri, 23 Apr 2004 02:09:47 +0000

Mom will have her surgury tomorrow (Friday) and they plan to do a biopsy during the operation. I visited Mom in the hospital this afternoon and she was doing well, but she said that she was in a bit of pain. I want to be there tomorrow but I don’t know if I should skip work just to sit in a waiting room for three hours. I am nervous that if somethign doesn’t go right, I won’t be there, but then what could I do anyway?

Hospital

Thu, 22 Apr 2004 05:19:13 +0000

Mom’s back in the hospital again, and just like always I haven’t quite figured out how to deal with it. I kept myself busy tonight with work projects, and I have a splitting headache, but I don’t think I want to sleep. I’ll probably sit in bed for a few hours before I get some sleep. Since she’s going to have her surgury sooner than she’d hoped, she’ll probably miss the walk on the 6th, which means a lot to her.

The Storm 2

Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:32:04 +0000

Wow. All I can say is that I don’t remember a day where the wind kept going like that. According to some reports, we had some wind gusts over 50 miles per hour around here yesterday. A couple of trees near me were taken down, and I don’t mean little trees. I mean big trees. Ana’s sandbox is flooded because I had to bring the lid in the house. It blew away a few times yesterday, along with the neighbor’s trash can.

What a storm

Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:33:28 +0000

We were without power for several hours last night, but it was odd because our area really didn’t get much. I looked outside last night and I could see the sky filled with lightening flashes, but none of them were anywhere near where we lived. We did get some rain though. That should help with the dust and ashes that has become my back yard.

Dan Brunson Saved Me $400!

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 04:11:52 +0000

Thanks, Dan…. for showing me Inno Setup, a free software installer creation tool. It’s so easy to use and it has all the features of the install package I was planning to purchase this week. Combine that with ISTool, a nicer front-end for the compiler, and it’s easy to create any Windows install package you want.

Light The Night

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 20:21:20 +0000

I’m not getting as many people interested in the Light The Night walk. My mom really wants a lot of people to come out this year. It’s only a small walk and the proceeds from the pledges you bring in go to fight lymphoma. Let me know if you’re interested and you have May 6th available. I know Chris is going to do it, but I haven’t heard back from many others.

I wish I had time

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 20:15:56 +0000

Things are getting a little busy. I just received an inquiry from someone who wants to purchase a program that I wrote It will be interesting to see if he’s interested in buying more than one license since he sent his request from his work address. I wasn’t ready to take orders on my web site yet because I just hadn’t had time to get all of the things in place.

Microsoft Security Bulletins

Tue, 13 Apr 2004 20:09:19 +0000

MS04-011 Remote Code Execution MS04-012 Cumulative Update for Microsoft RPC/DCOM MS04-013 Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express (837009) MS04-014 Vulnerability in the Microsoft Jet Database Engine Could Allow Code Execution (837001)

Designs

Thu, 08 Apr 2004 19:21:18 +0000

I’ve been spending my time working on some new designs for this site in order to help me better understand how CSS works. That means I’ve been tidying up my code some and making slight modifications to various parts of the site. I have discovered that I have more information on this site than I thought I did, and I don’t have enough links to get people to it all!

Winamp 5.03 Media Library Fix

Thu, 08 Apr 2004 18:55:34 +0000

If you’re having problems in 5.02 or 5.03 with Winamp freezing up when you play a song from the Media Library view, it’s due to the file “gen_hotkeys.dll” in the Winamp\Plugins folder. Rename this to “gen_hotkeys.dll.old” or replace with the one from version 5.01 and everything should work again.

Running

Tue, 30 Mar 2004 03:05:08 +0000

Ana and I went running tonight. She did really well. In fact, she went longer than I thought she would. We ended up doing two laps around our route. By the end, she was pretty tired, but she still sprinted the last few yards home. I just did some tinkering with this site, separating out the various sections so that I can edit them without too much trouble. I noticed that I’ve been changing things around a little more than I thought I would.

So Much To Say

Mon, 29 Mar 2004 04:50:08 +0000

Wow. What a day. I spent the weekend working on various projects, so today was a nice break. Ana came home around 1:30 and we sat down to watch some Simpsons and she showed me all the neat little toys she got for an early Easter from her grandma. Then I showed her ArtRage, a really cool free drawing program. She really got a kick out of that. After that, she played her favorite computer game, and then we went outside so she could ride her bike around.

Random Bouts of Frustration

Thu, 25 Mar 2004 03:29:38 +0000

Work is frustrating. I’m not sure what the future will bring, but it’s not looking too great right now. I may have to put other plans in motion. If you have a 64-bit processor, Microsoft is letting you try Windows XP 64-bit Edtion for free. This is the coolest Winamp Plugin Ever! It lets you export your media library so you can use it in ITunes, and it lets you import ITunes XML files.

I Should Be Sleeping

Thu, 18 Mar 2004 06:11:21 +0000

But how can I? I’ve been playing with this new toy all night. I got my Edirol PCR A30 MIDI controller today and I’ve been playing with it for most of the night. I ran into some issues with it when I first started using it. It has a built-in sound processor that works over USB. It kept disconnecting itself whenever I tried to play a sound file or do anything really intense with it.

Kata

Tue, 16 Mar 2004 04:19:48 +0000

I spent the evening working on some web pages and doing some kata. I love kata. It’s a great way to relax, build balance, expand the mind, and build up strength. I can really get a lot out of the movements if I do them precisely. The most amazing thing about kata, in my mind, is the way that a person can be completely drained of all energy by performing a simple kata, but also feel so peaceful and relaxed at the same time.

Whoo Hoo!

Mon, 15 Mar 2004 04:49:21 +0000

Computer stuff is hard. Carissa’s laptop is still sticky from the soda my mom accidentally spilled. We soaked all the keys and put everything back together, but they still stick After three tries, it won’t work right. But now I feel dumb. I should have gone to the Internet earlier. Then I would have found this great article that explains how to take an HP n5xxxx series laptop apart, I also would have found this great subsite of HP that lets you buy any part you need for your HP computer.

Music Stuff

Tue, 09 Mar 2004 12:46:33 +0000

I spent the evening working on some music and I thought it would be cool to post some of the drum loops I’ve been working on tonight. Drum tracks are the most fun for me to create, and I’ve never even played the drums. Each file is in mp3 format and is ready to be looped in any standard music program. If I get demand I’ll convert them to REX files.

Tired

Tue, 02 Mar 2004 01:51:12 +0000

No Simpsons this week. That’s already a bad sign. I spent all day trying to get a server to work and I’m drained. It’s not like my job is extremely taxing… I mean, I sit in front of a computer all day. That’s still more work done than some people I know, but for some reason, tonight I find myself extremely tired. I usually enjoy challenges, although lately I think I must be getting burned out.

Odd Way to Start The Week

Tue, 17 Feb 2004 01:59:21 +0000

I woke up last night to Ana coughing really loudly. She was having a really rough time so I got her out of bed and gave her some medicine to see if that would help. I think it did because she was able to get some sleep until morning. She seemed pretty lively today but she does still have a stuffy nose. Carissa, meanwhile, pulled a muscle in her back sometime yesterday / last night.

Job Stuff

Mon, 09 Feb 2004 23:00:25 +0000

Internship Mania is coming to our university, and I thought I’d take a second and post my bookmarks for various job-hunting links. Resume Length – One Page or Two? How to Decide on Resume Length 10 Tips to Bulletproof Your Resume Who Needs a Cover Letter? Sample Cover Letters Damn Good Resume Tips 15 Myths and Misconceptions About Job-Hunting The 5 Laws of Successful Career Search Job Hunting Strategies for New Grads Dynamic Cover Letters for New Grads Job Hunting Advice to the Brand New Graduate TIPS ON RESUME WRITING, INTERVIEW SKILLS,

Programming Brought To You By The Letters….

Mon, 09 Feb 2004 04:04:02 +0000

VB is a strange language. Lots of stuff doesn’t work the way it should. I’m frustrated and tired, and I have to work tomorrow. It’s time to write, but I don’t have much to say. Basically I spent all weekend working on a program I started three years ago. Carissa reminded me about it and I really would like to finish it up. I played Ghost Recon for a bit today.

Slow connection

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 02:21:42 +0000

My cable modem crapped out today and locked me to a low speed. I called the Charter technicians who said I should just get a new modem. I could buy my own and they would knock off my bill each month. I’m down with that! Carissa picked up a new modem after work tonight and I got it running. The tech was right; the speed came right back to where it should be.

Weavin’ Me Some Web

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 03:09:15 +0000

The weekend was spent doing web work, which was how I spent a good portion of my week. One of the sites I maintain had a bunch of new material to put up, so I had to scan photos, retouch stuff, change text, and publish. My new grade submission application went live this week, but lots of other stuff went wrong, so work has been taking up most of my time.

Getting Ready for Moving Day

Mon, 12 Jan 2004 04:11:37 +0000

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to be getting things ready to move out of our offices. The demolition of our area will begin next week, so we’re all getting ready to move our things out of the area. I’ll bring my camera and get some pictures of the process. It’s going to be weird not working in that area anymore. I’ve been down there since 1997 when I worked there as a student.

Back To Work

Tue, 06 Jan 2004 04:22:33 +0000

After two weeks off, work was really hard. I spent a good portion of the day working on some database-related problems. It’s amazing the kinds of things that can break. Sometimes I wonder if I am in fact in the right field. I really have a hard time motivating myself to actually write programs, and the constant distractions at work don’t help matters much. I should just get a non-computer-related job… like CEO.

Happy New Year!

Thu, 01 Jan 2004 06:40:53 +0000

Time to get your goals for the new year all figured out. I know I’ve got a few things I’d like to accomplish this year. Only time will tell if I can meet them. I need to get some sleep so I can get up early in the morning. I’m going to see my friend Titus and his family today. He’s been in Canada and I haven’t seen him since his wedding.

Merry Christmas

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 04:59:23 +0000

Before I forget…. Merry Christmas to everyone.

Free toy from Microsoft

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 03:51:12 +0000

Microsoft has released a free toy that allows a user to use an ISO CD image as a “virtual” CD drive. This is great for developers who create their own ISOs for testing, and also great for MSDN subscribers who can use this tool to install new Microsoft products without having to burn the disk image to a physical CD. Download the tool here.

This fog is so thick I can hardly see my own cataracts

Wed, 26 Nov 2003 03:46:50 +0000

I got a call from my eye doctor today… they have ordered my glasses and my contact lenses. I should have them in about two weeks. I’m looking forward to that, since I can barely see out of the contact lenses I am wearing now. Even typing on the computer is a real pain. My lenses get full of those deposits that the contact solution is supposed to get rid of.

One Year of Blogging!

Mon, 24 Nov 2003 01:44:30 +0000

It’s been one year since I started this blog. I’m happy to say it has gone reasonably well. I don’t have a lot of people logging in to check out what I’ve written, but there’s enough people reading this to make it worth doing. Plus, as I’ve said, it’s quite therapeutic to do this. Simpsons was pretty funny tonight. I thought Tony Blair’s lines were the best in the show tonight.

The Matrix Revolutions

Mon, 17 Nov 2003 01:30:04 +0000

It’s hard to say what I thought about that movie…. when it finished, I looked at my wife and yelled “What the hell was that??” I felt a bit cheated and I really had no desire to ever set foot in a movie theatre again. The movie wasn’t bad by any means. In fact, it was rather good, exciting, and well planned out in my opinion.. …all but the last fifteen minutes.

Busy

Fri, 14 Nov 2003 20:58:33 +0000

This has been one busy week. I’m working on a script for Neal’s band so they can have a cool message board on their home page and it’s not going as well as I had hoped. That, and I am trying to get my new design for this site completed by the 19th. I’ve got the photo gallery all done, I just need to add the theme to it so it looks better!

Long Week… thank God for Simpsons

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 02:23:21 +0000

Wow… what a week. There was so much going on and so little hours to do it in. Work has much going on, including several database projects that seem to involve me in one way or another. I’m also stuck on a web template and I am finding out that there are some bugs in the new Fireworks version. That, and Ana is home and I want to spend time with her.

It Begins Again

Mon, 03 Nov 2003 03:07:13 +0000

That’s right… Season 15 of The Simpsons started tonight. I usually don’t like the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes too much, but this one was pretty good. Good writing, lots of good jokes, and of course the over-the-top violence often found in the Simpsons Halloween shows made this a very good time.

Holy Crap! Photoshop CS Rules!

Sun, 02 Nov 2003 03:19:16 +0000

The new Photoshop CS (8.0) has some cool new features. Here is an exaple of how easy it is to completely fix the lighting in a photograph. There’s a new tool called the “Equalizer” that, with one mouse click, gives you results like this. There’s a whole bunch of new features in there too, but most importantly, there’s an annoying Product Activation feature that is sure to tick off the legitimate paying customer and only stop the hackers for about two seconds, considering that volume customers will not have to activate… just home users.

Frustration

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 00:40:06 +0000

Sometimes things are out of your control. That’s just the way life is. No matter what you do, there are certain things that you ultimately have no control over. Lately I’ve been feeling pretty crappy because of the situation with my mom, and it’s really getting to me. I miss my parents. I miss the way they used to be when I lived at home. I remember them being very happy, lively people. After my dad lost his job, things changed. Then Mom got sick and things got worse. I get a strange feeling when I’m around them lately, like there’s something that they don’t want to tell me, or maybe it’s something I don’t want to ask. Whatever it is, it’s making me wish more and more for the good old days when I was miserable in school but I always had them to come home to.

The Sequel

Sat, 18 Oct 2003 05:51:02 +0000

Max Payne 2 freakin’ rocks! I can’t believe it. Right from the very beginning we have a great plotline going, and the same little things that made the original game fun are still there. It’s even more like a movie than ever, and the music is haunting. It ties in closely with the first game and even brings you back to a few locations. I’ve only had time to play for a little bit, but it’s worth it.

Rough Guides Music Quiz

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 15:54:40 +0000

Test your knowledge of music with this Music Game. Thanks to Chris for this one!

Get it Right

Tue, 07 Oct 2003 01:18:37 +0000

I cruised the net today for about an hour looking for the actual quote that Arnold Schwarzenegger made in a 1975 issue of “Pumping Iron” in which he says he admred Hitler. I had heard that he was misquoted. I did find the actual quote buried in an article on NewsMax and another site (because NewsMax isn’t always accurate) and here’s what it says:

Happy BIrthday To Me

Mon, 06 Oct 2003 03:34:42 +0000

Thanks to everyone that came out to celebrate my 26th birthday with me. I hope everyone had a good time. If you missed it, we had burgers, salads, and other assorted goodies.. and I even had the Packer game on so nobody had to miss it. The weekend was a lot of fun. My friend Mark came up on Friday night and we went out to get some dinner. We spent Saturday goofing around the house

Arguments

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 20:53:45 +0000

I found this interesting discussion about the various types of arguments that are used.

Charter Speed

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 19:44:03 +0000

Charter gave me 2 Mbit download speed until March for no particular reason. It’s pretty sweet and it doesn’t cost me anything. I did a speed test and it came out pretty close. What to do?!

Still not doing so hot

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 04:24:18 +0000

I spent most of the weekend sleeping and it seems I’ve actually gotten worse. This isn’t allergies anymore… this is a full-blown cold with fever and all kinds of other good stuff. Fun stuff: Fun little kite game Your past life

Sad Day

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 20:20:58 +0000

Writer George Plimpton dead at 76 Singer Robert Palmer dead at 54

Sick

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:59:18 +0000

I’m getting tired of this. I’ve been having problems with my sinuses for almost four weeks because of the ragweed. Now I think I’m getting a cold on top of it, because I’m much more tired now and I had a slight fever last night. Work is hell when you constantly have to blow your nose or get out for a walk. I swear it’s something at work, as others are having difficulties as well.

Cast Your Vote for the Quarter

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 18:09:24 +0000

Go to this page to vote on the design for the new Wisconsin quarter.

Java Jive

Thu, 25 Sep 2003 22:15:25 +0000

I finally got down to it and started working with Java. I’ve already got a pretty good handle on it. I’m rewriting a code repository that I did in ASP last year and so far I have all of the data retreival working. Sweet. Now I just have to work on inserting and updating new code.

Maker of File-Sharing Software Files Copyright Lawsuit Against Music, Movie Companie

Thu, 25 Sep 2003 13:36:15 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Makers of the most popular online file-sharing network are suing entertainment companies for copyright infringement, alleging the companies used unauthorized versions of its software to snoop on users in their efforts to battle piracy. Read the article

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Sat, 20 Sep 2003 02:09:35 +0000

Arrr Matey! Avast, ye swabs! T’is a day for talking like a pirate. If’n yer not a strong man, then ye best be stayin’ on land, fer there be no room on the high seas fer the likes o’ yeh!

Fun Game

Thu, 18 Sep 2003 05:44:54 +0000

This game, Radical Aces, is one of the coolest things I’ve seen done on the
web. It’s really small and loads of fun. You’re a fighter pilot protecting
Earth… blah blah blah…. but hey, it’s really neat and well-done. I wish
I could program stuff like this.

RIAA sued for amnesty offer

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 02:17:26 +0000

A day after the Recording Industry Association of America filed a slew of lawsuits against alleged illegal song swappers, it became the target of legal action over its own “amnesty” program.

You are so lazy

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 02:08:54 +0000

You want these free Cliff’s Notes. You know you do. Slacker.

Judge Throws Out Obesity Suit Against McDonalds

Thu, 04 Sep 2003 23:05:47 +0000

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday threw out a refiled lawsuit
against McDonald’s Corp . blaming the fast food restaurant chain for obesity
and health problems in children.

Interesting Thoughts

Thu, 04 Sep 2003 03:07:45 +0000

If you say something is indescribable, isn’t that describing it? If you shine a light into a mirror, do you get twice as much light? How come it was called the Cosby Show when Billy Cosby’s character was named Heathcliff Huxtible? If a truck is loaded with Helium, would it weigh less than when it was empty? Wouldn’t it get better fuel mileage? Why is it when we talk to God we are praying, but when God talks to us we are put into the loony bin?

What OS are you?

Wed, 03 Sep 2003 00:07:23 +0000

I found this cool quiz on BBSpot today that quizzes your personality. Only hardcore computer nerds will find this funny, but hey, give it a try.

Family day

Mon, 01 Sep 2003 06:28:51 +0000

My mom and dad were over yesterday and we hung around my house watching Simpsons until Carissa came home from work. Then we all sat down and had a good spaghetti dinner and some sweet Oreo-cookie pie my mom made. We had gone out shopping earlier and I picked up some “ice java” syrup that you can use to make iced coffees. Just add milk and ice, man. This stuff rocks! I should probably get to sleep so I don’t waste my whole day off tomorrow.

Wow, visitors!

Sat, 30 Aug 2003 23:10:02 +0000

I’m at my parents’ house tonight fixing their broken computer. It took less than 5 minutes to fix the thing. I spent a long time making a recovery cd that I can use to raise dead machines.

Coolest thing I've seen in awhile

Fri, 29 Aug 2003 15:56:41 +0000

Check out this sweet 360-degree Breakout game! It’s awesome! Minutes of excitement and thrills await you

Games

Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:16:13 +0000

Since I haven’t posted in a long time, here’s some games I found to make up for it. Have fun! Law and Order – Based on the TV show Space Invaders Lego Orient Expedition

Slacking??? Hardly

Wed, 20 Aug 2003 23:26:04 +0000

If you’re a regular reader of my site then you’ve noticed my hiatus. Honestly, I haven’t had too much to write about. I am finishing up my album, and I am pretty happy with the results. I’m learning how to do mastering, so that’s a load of fun. It’s also time-consuming too because you have to listen to the song over and over again to get the sound you want.

Free antivirus software

Thu, 14 Aug 2003 13:47:03 +0000

Computer Associates is giving away their really good antivirus software..They say it’s for Windows Server 2003, but it works on Windows 98, XP, and Windows 2000! The page says the giveaway is over, but it still seems to work. Just fill out a simple survey and get lifetime protection from viruses! Go to the Download page

Rubik's Cube

Mon, 11 Aug 2003 03:57:55 +0000

This Java Rubik’s Cube has some really nice graphics.

S.W.A.T

Sun, 10 Aug 2003 03:36:53 +0000

We went to see it today.

Game time

Sun, 10 Aug 2003 03:33:48 +0000

Climb the ladder in Workplace. This is really fun. Kill those annoying Jawas in Jawa Shoot. You are the meanest, fiercest shar in Shark Rampage. Men want to be you, women think they can tame you.

Web Programming at its Finest

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 14:12:43 +0000

I was using the new online bill paying service of my credit union yesterday for the first time. After entering all of the required information about one of my payees and submitting it to the bank, I was greeted with this message box.

Interesting Links

Mon, 04 Aug 2003 01:52:06 +0000

The iTrip is banned in England RIAA Radar – See if the album you want to buy is affiliated with the RIAA. Microsoft’s web site kicked offline today.

Colleen's Wedding

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 18:51:35 +0000

Here are the pictures, as promised, from my cousin’s wedding. I don’t have any pictures from the reception because they simply didn’t turn out. These pictures are from immediately after the wedding.

Mmmm... web dev

Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:49:12 +0000

I’m sitting in the conference room right now waiting for a presentation to begin… I’m really excited because it’s all about designing web pages using only CSS and no tables. I want to do that with this server. It’s just starting… so I will write more later

Going out of town

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 03:37:47 +0000

I’m heading out of town to go to Chicago for my cousin’s wedding. It should be a good time. I’m hoping to hook up with Neal and Sara sometime over the weekend, if only for a few hours. In the meantime, check out these useless activities. Kill some Mosquitos: the Wisconsin state passtime The easiest fighting game ever. Space bar to punch, arrows to move. You need a really fast computer to play this online NES emulator.

Word Origins

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 18:43:20 +0000

(Source: WinBeta

In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted
or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a
desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms.
Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted,
but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are “limbs” therefore
painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression “Okay, but
it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.”

Small Town Folk

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 14:21:01 +0000

Those of us who grew up in a small town will laugh when we read this. Those
of you who didn’t will be in disbelief… but trust me… every one of these
are true. Thanks to Anita for this one… sometimes it is nice to be reminded
of where we grow up…. not always… but sometimes.

Soon

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 02:20:42 +0000

Another Week Begins…. but soon…. vacation!

You're All Going to Jail: House proposal targets file swappers

Fri, 18 Jul 2003 18:04:40 +0000

Peer-to-peer users who swap copyrighted files could be in danger of becoming federal felons, under a new proposal backed by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Order of Phoenixes

Wed, 16 Jul 2003 14:11:07 +0000

Finished Harry Potter: Order Of The Phoenix It only took me a few days to read it, but it was really good. Unfortunately, I can’t write too much more about it because everything I write would ruin the story. So just go read it yourself. You’ll love it.

Progress

Wed, 16 Jul 2003 14:08:45 +0000

We are making progress. Some of the programs I’m working on are done and I’m finishing up my user documentation. I’ll be so much more relieved when I can write some of this off. As of yesterday, I’m boycotting Rosebud, a chain of resturaunts in Chicagoland (No link). They fired a friend of mine in a rather crappy way, after she had put in quite a lot of effort there for almost three years.

Damnit

Tue, 15 Jul 2003 04:15:48 +0000

Another week of work starts off with a bang. I had the most frustrating day at work today. Several of the projects I have been working on stopped working properly and the development server seems to be developing some sort of cancer or something. I’m encountering more problems than I ever thought possible. To top that off, I’ve been having difficulties with my contact lenses which is obscurring my vision and causing me to make some really embarassing mistakes with my code.

Flash stuff

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 00:00:24 +0000

Pacman I shouldn’t laugh at this, but it’s too funny. Lots of violence. Connect 4

Whole Lotta Nothing

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 23:47:13 +0000

I’ve been spending some time on the karate pages on this site and I’m working on some animatons and videos for demonstrating the various techniques. Other than that, there’s not too much going down. Wedding Pictures In case anyone’s wondering, there’s some communication problems with our photographer. I won’t put his name and address on here – yet… but he had better play nice. I paid $1000 for my pictures and I don’t have them yet.

Weekend at Bambi’s

Sun, 06 Jul 2003 20:47:12 +0000

We bought a patio set last night and so I decided to sit outside this morning with my lunch and paper and enjoy the nice morning. Not more than
one minute after I had settled into my Best Buy flyer, I heard a rustling in the bushes on the hill across from my house. I looked up and saw two fawns running around in the bushes looking for food. One of them came down about 15 feet away from me. I raced inside and grabbed my camcorder. I got a few minutes of footage of the fawns and their mother getting their grub on.

Soul Singer Barry White Dies at 58

Sat, 05 Jul 2003 19:22:47 +0000

(AP) – With his unique baritone ? a mix of velvet and gravel ? R&B great Barry White was the voice of America’s bedroom, his throbbing compositions conspiring with purring vocals to seduce fans for over three decades. White, who had kidney failure from years of high blood pressure, died Friday at age 58. He had been undergoing dialysis and had been hospitalized since a September stroke.

Happy Independece Day

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 02:57:24 +0000

I’m heading out to see the fireworks… hoping to have some videos to post when I get back. It’s going to be cool! Mom and Dad were over today and we grilled bratwurst outside. It was a pretty cold morning until around noon when it really heated up. For awhile, we thought it would rain, but it turned out to be a really warm day. I spent some time with my dad after Mom went to work.

Link O'Rama

Thu, 03 Jul 2003 18:37:04 +0000

Link ‘o' Rama Best Error Page Ever Definitive DVD Burning (Thanks. Chris Distant Jupiter-like planet discovered

Cool Flash Game

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 19:20:38 +0000

Check out this fun HomeRun Rally game I found on the net. It’s pretty simple, but I think it’s a neat use of Flash. The graphics are pretty decent too.

Good weekend

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 06:40:19 +0000

I’ve been getting back into karate again, more seriously this time. I have no choice.. I have two students now who are very interested in learning whatever I can teach them. I enjoy it because it makes me work harder; I get a chance to really analyze how different moves work. It’s a great workout and it’s really an awesome way to build up endurance and stay in shape. Linkie Linkie Katharine Hepbun passes away at 96 Man Sells Fake Bronze, Gets Paid in Counterfeit Xbox hackers attempt to blackmail Microsoft

Damn!

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 06:12:17 +0000

Well, as you can see, everything’s working again. I installed a new FTP server in the hopes that it would solve my problems, and it certainly did. However, if you can’t get access to the server anymore, you’d better let me know.

Argh!

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 03:01:38 +0000

I’ve been trying for a week to publish to my blog with no success. Blogger changed how they publish my entries and I had to learn some stuff about FTP to get it working. They also changed interfaces on me again, and I don’t like this new one.

Back online

Fri, 27 Jun 2003 04:06:34 +0000

Blogger took longer than I’d hoped to migrate my blog, but it appears that
everything is up and working again. I like the new interface they provide.

Learn how to Make Money on the Web!

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 18:18:58 +0000

I love spam. I love it so much that I get to spend half of my day weeding through it to find my real messages. The best ones are the “Nigerian Money Hiding” scams out there. I found this great satire page on this subject. What a riot!

Daily Updates Resume!

Thu, 19 Jun 2003 02:14:15 +0000

Well, my life is somewhat back in order, and I feel like I can finally put
some more time into this website. Summer makes me lazy, at least in terms of
spending time on the computer. I’ve been outside a lot more, spending time
with family and friends, shooting baskets, doing the karate thing, bike riding,
etc.

Running on E

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 04:54:00 +0000

I can’t even begin to describe things right now… I’m so tired. I’ve been working on the MP3 project every night, and I’ve been addicted to Enter The Matrix, so I have been getting less sleep than I should. Carissa is dealing with a sinus infection or something like that so she’s not sleeping well. Being a light sleeper is rough because every sound in the house wakes me up.

20 years later...

Mon, 09 Jun 2003 13:58:24 +0000

They’re back: ‘V’ to invade NBC again

Laurie's grad party

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 20:17:18 +0000

Sorry this is so late, but I got really sidetracked this week with some other stuff, like house-cleaning, computer stuff, etc. On Sunday, I went to my cousin’s graduation party. It was a really great time. My grandmother was there, and my aunt Annie was there too. I don’t get to see her much, so when I do, it’s always a good time. Like the rest of my relatives, she lives in the Chicagoland area.

Big news day

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 17:30:18 +0000

There is so much stuff going down in the news today that affects a lot of things I do or am a part of. Verison gives up names of four file swappers Oracle makes $5.1 billion bid for PeopleSoft Wal-Mart to hide magazine covers

Music is cool

Tue, 03 Jun 2003 14:43:20 +0000

Erich found this cool Starship Dimensions website that lets you see how different spaceships and other things compare

Good Stuff

Mon, 02 Jun 2003 17:03:18 +0000

Check out this dictionary of Teen Lingo. It’s pretty good

Congratulations Titus and Amy!

Sun, 01 Jun 2003 05:11:20 +0000

My good friend Titus was marriend yesterday, and the reception was really nice. I saw some friends from high-school and had a very good time. It was a pretty long drive to get there, but it was still fun. Titus was decked out in a tux for a little while, but soon changed into the trademark Hawaiian shirt and shorts. It was good to see him again He and I have been good friends since first grade, and it just seems

Landlords and Friends

Tue, 27 May 2003 23:49:44 +0000

Josh is staying with us this week; he can’t move in to his new place until June 1. The landlord is not bending very much on this and it’s making everything very inconvenient. The worst part about it is that he won’t be able to move in until 5:00 PM on Sunday! I’d be really upset about that.

Busy week

Fri, 23 May 2003 13:17:01 +0000

I’ve been so busy this week writing music and working on different projects that I haven’t had much time to write. I’ve got a new song almost ready and I’m getting some of the mistakes cleaned up. I recorded vocals this time… it was my first attempt at it, and I kinda think it sounds good.

So Late… Need Sleep

Mon, 19 May 2003 06:38:10 +0000

Busy weekend. We had a nice birthday bash for Carissa and my parents.
There was lots of food and I think everyone had a good time. The weather
was great all weekend.

Happy Birthday Carissa

Fri, 16 May 2003 15:16:24 +0000

Happy Birthday Carissa

Moon Eclipses

Fri, 16 May 2003 05:08:11 +0000

Watch a Video of Lunar Eclipes that Carissa and I recorded tonight.

Interesting stuff

Thu, 15 May 2003 04:11:19 +0000

Check out this Movie Plot generator. It’s pretty sweet. This color test will screw with your mind. Create a kaleidoscope on this really sweet Flash page. Celebrities are to be put behind bars in a new reality game show – where contestants are locked up in a real prison.

Financial Stuff

Wed, 14 May 2003 01:26:03 +0000

Check out this loan payment calculator! It’s pretty sweet. You can use it to forcast your credit card payments, mortgage payments, and other financial things you forgot how to do on your calculator.

Congratulations Neal! Congratulations Corey and Sherri!

Tue, 13 May 2003 05:42:25 +0000

Neal got a job! Way to go! Now you can start making that mad loot! Corey and Sherri got engaged two weeks ago. It’s about friggin’ time!

A long week

Sat, 10 May 2003 05:08:40 +0000

I’ve been so busy I haven’t had any time to write at all. I’ve been working
on this program for work, and I’ve been spending my spare time watching Ana
or working on the solution to a problem we have at work. I am very close to
the solution and hopefully everything will work out.

Ahhh the world of computers

Mon, 05 May 2003 04:53:45 +0000

It is truly amazing to me how people can find ways to make money. Microsoft’s
new server apparently isn’t
compatible with most of their software products,
so consumers will need to upgrade.

Life in general

Thu, 01 May 2003 05:50:42 +0000

Things are going well… we’re in the early stages of buying a house, and by early stages I mean that we are looking around and trying to figure out how much it’s going to cost. We’re going to try to get pre-approved for a loan from our bank so we can get a better idea of how much we can spend. I’ve been spending my time working on video projects and organizing my files.

Ahhh what a weekend

Mon, 28 Apr 2003 02:19:27 +0000

I had a great weekend. Friday night we grilled out with some people from work.

Charter sucks!

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:20:00 +0000

Charter closed all standard ports for ftp, mail, and web now, as well as ports for TCP file sharing. That means that my mail servers are down. I got around the FTP and Web thing though, so that’s nice.

Another Week

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 01:51:50 +0000

Going on vacation is bad, primarily because coming back from vacation and staring at a huge to-do list is an awful feeling. All I wanted to do today was go outside and goof off. Unfortunately, a lot of things happened while I was gone and I got to clean some of them up. It’s interesting to see how things fall apart when I’m gone. Some things that people were having trouble with “miraculously” fixed themselves now that I’m back.

dada show

Mon, 21 Apr 2003 03:08:58 +0000

the playlist

Blues Jam

Fri, 18 Apr 2003 23:49:14 +0000

Thursday night was just awesome. I was at Harlem Ave. Lounge with Neal and it was the open jam night. As we walked in, we noticed that they had keyboards there this time, so I didn’t have to play the guitar. We signed up and ended up being the first ones on.

Where’s My Simpsons?

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 01:53:29 +0000

Well it’s one day late, but it’s finally here. After getting my domain stuff straightened out, I sat down to watch The Simpsons. It was a pretty funny one, with a few jokes that were just mean (but funny nonetheless.) Enjoy these fabulous web links too. Sony adds DVD +/- RW drives to PlayStation 2 in Japan! (Lots of ads, scroll a bit) Four students arrested in New Orleans school shooting Human genome project finally completed

Being outside is awesome

Mon, 14 Apr 2003 23:08:15 +0000

Here I am, outside, nerding it up on my blog while my daughter plays in the
sand. It’s just so cool how technology works!. The weather out today is just
awesome. It’s in the high 80s but it’s really not too bad because of this great
breeze. I have a patio on the north side of my house , so we can sit in the
shade and relax. We bought a sandbox for Ana and she is just loving it. We’ve
been outside for about an hour now and she hasn’t even gotten the slightest
bit bored yet. I like this idea because I can sit out here and spend time with
her and also get some work done. sl

Back online

Mon, 14 Apr 2003 19:59:37 +0000

After nearly a week offline, my site is back. There were some serious problems with the DNS Management host I use. It took 5 days for my DNS changes to take effect, and during that time my site was largely unavailable. That put my email down too so I may have missed some stuff. I’m looking at buying some space and hosting the web front-end on another server so that DNS management is easier.

Shocked and Awed

Thu, 10 Apr 2003 22:50:36 +0000

Sony patents “Shock and Awe” Sometimes I hate work. I enjoy working there, but I hate the fact that I have so much to do that I can’t ever get ahead. I have a lot of projects to do and a lot of things I want to learn. Today, I got some more information from Mike Morrison regarding the .Net framework and Visual Studio. I’m really excited about that, and I am also interested in working on a versioning system for source code and project files.

No rest

Mon, 07 Apr 2003 21:31:18 +0000

The class went great, but man I am going to have to kick it into gear to get a few things done by Wednesday. I have to work on a portal mockup using Sharepoint, and I have to come up with some standards for our new custom error pages project I started. We need to work all of the dull details out, like our generic responses, what kind of data we want to record, and who to notify.

Teaching is fun

Mon, 07 Apr 2003 21:28:58 +0000

Today is a teaching day. I’m spending most of my day prepping for a class. I will be teaching “Web Design Considerations for Disabled Users” and “Advanced Web Authoring with Dreamweaver” to a large group of trainers here at the university. We want to get everyone in line with our web philosophy so that teachers, staff, and students are all teaching and learning the same concepts. So today I am revising my slides and looking for some new relevant information about the subjects.

Run… Run Far Away

Mon, 07 Apr 2003 03:58:11 +0000

It appears that the RIAA wasn’t bluffing. They’re suing some college students for sharing copyrighted material over their campus networks. More lawsuits are expected if companies don’t heed their warnings.

Wow it's late!

Thu, 03 Apr 2003 07:08:24 +0000

I just finished up a nice long night of coding. I’m working on a new version of my web server management tool. When it’s done, users will be able to handle a lot of the awful administrative tasks from one simple interface. Some features include

dada in MN

Mon, 31 Mar 2003 12:55:23 +0000

dada is playing in Minneapolis at First Ave on May 30th. Unfortunately for me, I can’t go because I have to be at a wedding that weekend. Damn. I wanted to see them twice.

A Family Again

Mon, 31 Mar 2003 01:46:58 +0000

My daughter is home again, and she’s driving me nuts… but that’s
good because in a strange way, you get to the point where you miss
that. We played together today and watched the new Simpsons episode
that was on tonight. Then, as I was reading her bedtime story, she
passed out. It’s never been easier than that to get her to bed!

Snow

Fri, 28 Mar 2003 12:39:23 +0000

It’s snowing here. My high school closed today…. why can’t they have closed this much when I was in school? It could be that since we hanven’t had much snow in the last few years, everyone up there forgot how to handle it. Today should prove interesting. I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon at my wife’s prodding. I made the mistake of telling her I haven’t been in for a physical in quite some time, so she’s making me go.

Old Friends

Tue, 25 Mar 2003 01:18:53 +0000

I went out to Sam’s Club tonight to get some food and some other stuff. I ran into an old buddy of mine from college while I was walking into the store. I haven’t seen him in over a year, and I found out that he is still going to Eau Claire. He’s graduating next year. It was good to see him.

Some people are obsessive… and then there's this guy

Fri, 21 Mar 2003 16:17:30 +0000

This has to be one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long time. Man changes name to Optimus Prime. Now I liked the Transformers when I was a kid. I had a lot of the toys and spent a long time playing with them. I’ll admit I own the first two seasons on DVD and I also own the movie. But I don’t play with the toys anymore, and I certainly wouldn’t think about changing my name!

Cisco buys Linksys

Fri, 21 Mar 2003 03:36:00 +0000

CISCO buys Linksys

We're at War

Thu, 20 Mar 2003 01:48:29 +0000

The US just launched some sort of pre-dawn strike in Iraq…. more to follow.

Still feeling Crappy

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 23:14:24 +0000

At least the Strong Bad email today led to a Trogdor Video Game! That’s been amusing me for the last ten minutes. I’m eating dinner right now and getting ready to watch the president’s speech on tv tonight, and then it’s off to bed. I am still really tired and I have no sick time left so I have to drag it into work tomorrow.

Fever And Other Yucky Things

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 03:40:35 +0000

I’m really sick right now. I don’t think I’ll be going in to work
tomorrow if I still feel the way I do. I’ve had a really high fever
and I’ll probably go to the doctor in the morning to see if anything
can be done… I’ve been sick since Friday morning.

The Video Machine

Fri, 14 Mar 2003 03:43:11 +0000

Thanks to Erich, who was nice enough to loan me his firewire cable, I was able to capture some digital video into my new machine. It works great. It took only 18 minutes to export an AVI of my wedding, complete with transitions, and only 53 minutes to convert the video to a DVD, including write time! I’m quite impressed and very excited about the possibilites for the future.

Email In The Workplace

Tue, 11 Mar 2003 21:20:38 +0000

I read an article today about the “tyranny” of email. It made me think about how much e-mail has really impacted the way people communicate. I remember when our mail servers crashed in 1999 and people were absolutely frantic because they couldn’t communicate. I remember telling my boss “You do have a telephone” but the truth is that nobody is ever at their desks these days. The people I need to contact are often only available via laptops or cell phones, and so email is a way of life. The programmers that I work with are only a few doors away from my office, and yet I have caught myself composing an email to schedule a meeting or distribute information. Most of the time, I stop myself and slap my face a few times before walking down the hall to the person’s office and meeting face-to-face. Computer people are too impersonal as it is… why make it worse? Furthermore, I fear that we may be making otherwise outgoing people more intraverted.

It's Here!

Tue, 11 Mar 2003 19:22:51 +0000

My computer was delivered this morning!!!!

Customer Service is dead

Tue, 11 Mar 2003 01:31:57 +0000

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. I am very unhappy with the way companies treat people who use their goods and services. Let’s look at Airborne Express, the company that is supposed to ship my computer. After receiving notice that they attempted to deliver my computer today, I called my wife to find out what heppened. She told me that she had been home all day and didn’t hear anyone knock or ring the doorbell. I immediately called the customer service number and talked with a very helpful lady who told me that she would notify the delivery person to attempt a second delivery today. I thanked her and hung up.

Another Weekend Over

Mon, 10 Mar 2003 12:41:59 +0000

I spent the entire weekend playing with my daughter. We did everything
from reading books and watching movies to playing in the snow. She even
helped me put a new power supply in my computer. She’s such a nerd!

Charter's Cable Box

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 04:13:31 +0000

In case anyone cares, the Motorola DCT2000 cable box that Charter provides for digital cable is actually a Jerrold / General Instruments box, as Motorola accquired those companies. So, if your home theatre / universal remote doesn’t have an entry for Motorola cable boxes, you can try a Jerrold or General Instruments code. It worked great for me… thanks to this news post

Good news

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 04:44:22 +0000

My computer shipped out today. I had some rather angry words with some Dell customer service people last night and I finally found a really helpful guy who expedited my order. It shipped this morning thankfully, so that whole mess is over. I have my DVD drive working and I recorded my first disc. I am very much amazed at the quality of the video that Chris shot at my wedding.

Windows 2003 Server Pricing

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 06:03:04 +0000

Microsoft released the pricing for their Windows 2003 server thingy that
comes out on April 24th. They’ve got four versions coming out, and it
appears to be identical to the pricing for Windows 2000. That’s
not too bad, but I feel sorry for anyone who just migrated from Windows
NT to Windows 2000. Right now, statistics show that 70% of Microsoft’s
server customers are using Windows NT 4.0. I think this cartoon illustrates
why people don’t jump on Microsoft’s latest and greatest.

dada in Chicago!!!

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 02:10:52 +0000

dada is kicking off a 45 city tour this spring and summer. They’re doing a two-week run through the Midwest, and they may actually get to Minnesota and Wisconsin! However, I’ll probably hit up Chicago for this show… not sure yet.

Finished another project!

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 04:56:30 +0000

I am putting a website live right now… I’m waiting for the files to upload to the host. I just finished a site for a client and it feels good. I think the design is a bit dated, but it still looks good and the client is very happy. It’s true what they say…. web design isn’t about what makes you happy… it’s about what makes the client happy. I suppose that my designs have a “pattern” to them… but it sells web sites. I make money with my pattern… and I manage to get repeat business… so I can’t complain too much about the staleness.

Simpsons email

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 03:31:06 +0000

This is awesome… send mail to “chunkylover53@aol.com” and actually get mail from “Homer”? Read the article here.

Simpsons-O-Rama

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 03:17:45 +0000

Tonight was one of those nights when you see a show you like and
you immediately think “What the hell did I just watch?”
Those are the words I said to my wife after the credits ran on tonight’s
show.

A Sad Day

Thu, 27 Feb 2003 13:59:15 +0000

By now, most people worldwide are aware that Mr. Rogers has passed away from stomach cancer. It makes me feel kinda old. I don’t even know why I started watching him, but I know I enjoyed it for some reason. It was a good show that will probably live on forever in reruns. There’s not too many shows like it now, and I wonder if there ever will be. Kids don’t seem to want to sit still for that.

Interesting Week

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 20:50:24 +0000

This has definitely been an interesting week. I’ve been working for several days with a portal system, for both work and my own personal use. I’ve been experimenting with a program called ASP-Nuke which is a free GPL project that has some interesting features, including a very nice skinnable interface. It’s got some issues though, and that’s where most of my time has been going. I’ve rewritten a lot of the code for the database access routines, but I hope to have it completed very soon.

Budget transcript

Wed, 19 Feb 2003 18:47:25 +0000

Budget transcript

The Budget Sucks

Wed, 19 Feb 2003 02:37:06 +0000

I watched the Governer’s address tonight… it talks of sweeping job cuts and spending cuts. I agree with most of it, but I may lose part of (or all of) my job in the process. That really hurts because I just got this job and I really like it. Here’s the budget recommendation for the UW-System.in PDF format.

Links

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 03:00:30 +0000

Big list of Homestar Runner related interviews Johnny Cash covers Nine Inch Nails!!

Mixed Feelings

Sun, 16 Feb 2003 03:21:48 +0000

My replacement Palm m515 is okay, but not as great as all of the reviews I’ve seen. I like the fact that I can turn the backlight off and still see the color screen in the daylight, but I don’t like the fact that the colors are not as bright as the IIIc that I had. This one is considerably faster, but the screen seems more faded than my old one.

Trading In

Sat, 15 Feb 2003 06:28:25 +0000

I’m packing up my Palm IIIc that I’ve had for two years. I love it… it’s been a great tool for me and I will miss it. But it’s dying… it won’t charge up anymore and so it’s time to take it in and use my service plan that I bought for it. Hopefully the one I get to replace it with will be cool… I’m looking at the m515… it’s the same value as my IIIc and it looks like it’s awesome.

Favorite Simpsons Quotes

Fri, 14 Feb 2003 01:48:53 +0000

In honor of the 300th episode of The Simpsons on Sunday I present to you my top ten favorite quotes and episodes.

Interesting

Tue, 11 Feb 2003 03:59:44 +0000

Life is interesting. Work is shaping up to be pretty cool. I have a new project to work on and a new methodology to approach. I’m going to be writing ASP pages that will connect to our mainframe terminal screen programs and allow web users to query data from our mainframe. It’s going to be a lot of fun to create new interfaces for these applications, and I’m very excited to get to do some designing again.

Lazy weekend

Mon, 10 Feb 2003 12:49:16 +0000

What a weekend. I spent the whole weekend with my wife and daughter. My wife got sick on Saturday so she came home from work. We all sat around all day and watched TV. I took my daughter out in the snow and we had a snow fight. She wanted to stay out longer, but she was complaining that her face hurt so we went in. Sure enough, she was all red-in-the-face from the wind, even though she was bundled up prety good.

Hot Snot!

Wed, 05 Feb 2003 04:53:23 +0000

Today was an interesting day. We had a consultant come in and go over this technology that allows us to use ASP to connect to our Unisys mainframe via COM objects. Blah blah blah. It’s neat to me because we don’t have to rewrite all of the mainframe programs. I still have to say that the best part of my job is being able to go in and make a difference.

dada press release from their management!!!

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 13:22:09 +0000

Former MCA recording artist, DADA– is Back!!! All original members, Joie Calio, Michael Gurley and Phil Leavitt have rejoined forces and are currently gearing up for a 45-city US tour. An independently released “LIVE” CD will taken from this tour and be released in Fall 2003. Tour dates and cities are being added regularly. You can go to www.pollstar.com for tour itinerary.

Lazy Weekend

Mon, 03 Feb 2003 02:33:19 +0000

Well I spent most of the weekend doing nothing except laying on the couch. I put in a long night on Friday and spent most of Saturday watching MSNBC. It snowed here finally. I shovelled the driveway for the first time all “winter”. It was actually nice to be outside in the snow… everything looks so peaceful out here where I live… I’ve never seen it here with snow. I think I’ll take Ana outside tomorrow and build snowmen.

Columbia Shuttle

Sat, 01 Feb 2003 15:27:30 +0000

Unreal. Columbia shuttle breaks up over Texas

Launched

Sat, 01 Feb 2003 08:18:18 +0000

Damn it’s late. I did it though…. I made the deadline. My consulting site is finished! It’s live, and it looks like everything worked. I’m pretty happy with it, but it was a lot of work. Now I need to start looking for more contracts, because the current projects I have are all wrapping up. Life at work is interesting…. apparently there is a trojan horse associated with the SQL Slammer worm.

What a week

Thu, 30 Jan 2003 21:38:21 +0000

Ahh what a week. I’ve been busy with other projects, and I got to see my friend Neal last night. He drove up from Chicago and hung out with us. It was nice to catch up.

Busy Weekend

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 03:55:03 +0000

Well it’s been a busy weekend.

There was a massive attack on the internet today affecting MS-SQL servers. It took out Bank of America, as well as tens of thousands of SQL servers nationwide. It also took out our servers at work, so I spent a good part of today working on making sure our stuff is back up and running by tomorrow morning. I’ll have to go in early to make sure everything is ok.

Mixed Bag

Wed, 22 Jan 2003 23:23:37 +0000

Today was a mixed bag. My mom has decided on a plan of attack to treat her lymphoma. We’re looking at 8 to 10 years life expectancy, but it varies. Mom is going to try a new method involving antibodies, which has about a 50 percent success rate. It will allow her to maintain a decent quality of life and hopefully improve the situation. We’re all hoping.

Adobe Spying?

Tue, 21 Jan 2003 04:11:03 +0000

Adobe decided it would be “cool” to connect their programs to the internet when I’m using them. So I did some digging… and here’s how to stop that from happening.

Treble

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 01:38:52 +0000

Today, we got a cat. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of a three-month-old kitten with claws running around my house, but as soon as I came home and saw the kitten playing with my daughter, that was it. And it was all over when the kitten curled up into a ball on my shoulder and fell asleep when I was watching TV. What can I do?

Interesting Day at Work

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 01:18:42 +0000

Well it’s Wednesday and there were a lot of interesting things that happened at work today. We’re dropping out of some projects that I enjoy working on, but it will free us up to pursue other areas, such as application development. It should be fun. Right now though, I am concerned with getting more students going on web scripts and applications as well as web design. We need more people with experience, and we just don’t have it. It’s going to be an uphill climb too, with a hiring freeze and budget cuts.

Full Plate

Mon, 13 Jan 2003 13:15:27 +0000

Another work week begins, and I have a lot on my plate. I have a lot of projects I have to sort through and decide which ones are most important. The ones that don’t make the cut will most likely get dropped. There’s just too much to do and not enough time to do it.

Interesting week

Thu, 09 Jan 2003 21:22:44 +0000

What an interesting week. I haven’t been writing much because I’ve been working hard at my “new” job and spending time with my daughter at night. She’s been really difficult for Carissa, but she’s just been behaving great for me.

notable web links

Mon, 06 Jan 2003 12:02:50 +0000

billion verdict top award in ‘02 Restaurants, food firms: Lawsuits wrongly blame their food Louisiana. Prosecutors Rebuked for ‘Noose’ Ties Was the news story about the five Arab “terrorists” that entered the country completely made-up??

I got the job!

Mon, 06 Jan 2003 02:39:20 +0000

They told me at 4:30 on Friday. I start tomorrow which is already shaping up to be a really really busy day.

Y2k3

Fri, 03 Jan 2003 20:04:34 +0000

It’s a new year, and a lot of things are going on right now. I just completed a video project for a company here in town and am planning to purchase a DVD writer with the money from the project…. because it would have made the outcome so much easier to achieve.

Busy

Tue, 31 Dec 2002 04:51:28 +0000

I’s been a few days since I’ve updated… things have been really busy around here. I was at my parents’ house for part of the weekend visiting with some friends from high-school, and then I was working on some projects. I have my portfolio cd almost finished, and I’ve been messing around with my digital camera.

Christmas

Thu, 26 Dec 2002 18:47:24 +0000

Christmas was fun. My parents and grandparents came into town and we made dinner for them. There was lots to eat and there were lots of presents to open up. I finally got a tripod for my digital video camera so I can start doing some different types of projects

Short Week

Mon, 23 Dec 2002 16:36:43 +0000

Another week begins, but it’s a short one. I’m working on Christmas Eve, but I get extra pay so that makes it worth it. I’ll be doing the same thing next week too, so that will be nice. I like short weeks!

Slow

Fri, 20 Dec 2002 21:24:31 +0000

What a slow day. I’ve spent more time reasearching than anything else today, and I’m really tired of reading a computer screen. I’m still steamed that I don’t get vacation days at this job, but at least I get time and-a-half for working Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. That will help

Links

Fri, 20 Dec 2002 16:11:03 +0000

Time to post some links. Nothing really new to talk about yet…. but I am sure I will think of something later.

NamesDirect

Fri, 20 Dec 2002 03:36:07 +0000

I just can’t friggin’ believe this! NamesDirect exposes users and credit card info BPHOGAN.COM is registered through these guys… they have a great service… but I don’t think I will renew my domains with them anymore.

Numb?

Fri, 20 Dec 2002 01:03:22 +0000

I don’t feel much like anything right now. My mom went to the doctor today… they said that chemo is not an option because it has not been shown to do anything to help this type of lymphoma. The only other alternative is antibodies which have been somewhat successful.

ElcomSoft found not Guilty!!!!!!!!

Wed, 18 Dec 2002 00:04:02 +0000

A San Jose, California jury on Tuesday cleared software firm ElcomSoft of charges it violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) with its program that cracks the copyright protections in Adobe Systems eBooks.

Almost Done Shopping

Mon, 16 Dec 2002 04:42:22 +0000

Almost all of my Christmas shopping is done! My mom, dad, wife, and I went out today and hit the mall, and I feel as though I bought everything in sight!. I got some pretty good stuff for my dad, which is cool because he is the hardest person I know to shop for.

Spam

Wed, 11 Dec 2002 13:43:45 +0000

I get so much spam now it’s really getting hard to keep up with my job. I get lots of requests for help, and it’s taking more and more time each morning to separate the legitimate messages from the junk mail.

WindowsXP.NU

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 03:48:28 +0000

Ohhhh MAN am I upset tonight. I just read this post on WinBeta.org about one of my favorite web sites, WindowsXP.NU and I am just steamed. Sure, the guy puts up some links to MS beta software sometimes, but he also explains how to make your own slipstreamed boot disks as well as a host of other useful Windows-related stuff. Microsoft is flexing its muscles again.

Parenting

Mon, 09 Dec 2002 02:39:09 +0000

What a weekend. I love my daughter…. but wow… what a handful. My wife had to work nights this weekend, so I watched the little one all day and all night. After this, work will seem like a vacation!

Contribute

Fri, 06 Dec 2002 01:45:24 +0000

Well, we played with Macromedia Contribute 1.0 today… and I can’t say it’s useful. It is supposed to be a content management solution, but it has no server components at all… which means others who are not using Contribute can still edit files you may be working on. It has a lot of shortcomings. For an NT shop, it’s useless because you still have to set up user permissions to the NT share you want to edit. It could be handy for FTP-based web hosts though. It’s really too bad because we did like the interface and the ease of editing.

File Browser

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 06:48:01 +0000

I’m working on a new program that is just going to be the coolest! It lets you read in a folder on your hard drive, and then attach a description for each file in that folder. You can then save this file / description pair as an XML file or an HTML file. I needed to write something like this so I could get some file downloads organized for this site.

Post-Thanksgiving Post

Fri, 29 Nov 2002 23:23:38 +0000

Thanksgiving was fun. I saw my family and my mom looks good. She’s feeling better but we are all worried about the coming months. She will begin her radiation soon, perhaps after the holidays.

Thanksgiving

Wed, 27 Nov 2002 16:17:10 +0000

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and I’m all caught up at work! It feels nice! I plan to take the day after Thanksgiving off from work and relax. I get these massive headaches from being here… a lot of the employees here have health problems ranging from headaches to severe asthma attacks. Nothing has been found, and there really is no space for us to be moved.

Today’s News

Tue, 26 Nov 2002 13:51:47 +0000

Interesting stuff in the news today. I’m especially interested in the McDonald’s story. Imagine a world where you never need to have cash… it’s getting closer…

Sweet

Sun, 24 Nov 2002 21:56:10 +0000

Sweet… I just went to Best Buy with my wife and we bought the Transformers – Season 2 dvd set. This is gonna be sweet. I’ll post a review when I get the chance. Gotta run out to get some new Christmas tree lights.. the ones we have are broken.

Sundays

Sun, 24 Nov 2002 17:20:34 +0000

I’m not a big fan of Sundays. I tend to spend most of the day thinking about having to go to work the next day. It’s not that I don’t like my job… I just don’t like getting up early and sitting in the same place all day. In any event, I’m glad I slowed down this weekend. I didn’t learn any new technologies, or work on any contract work. I just sat around and watched The Simpsons

Working

Sat, 23 Nov 2002 07:01:11 +0000

I spent most of last night working on various projects, including cleaning my house. I set up the server to play music through our wireless connection so I could hear the tunes all over the house without having to blast the stereo. I wish music was as good as it was when I was in high-school. There’s so much crap on the radio today.

Everything In Place

Fri, 22 Nov 2002 23:33:46 +0000

Everything is in place. I am getting used to this blog thing. I’m going to use this site as a place to post information about my interests and hobbies. However, it will also be a resource to inform people about what I believe to be important issues happening in our country. That said, please take a look at today’s important links.