What a shitty week!  Not sure what's going on but is seems as though everything this week just sucks.  I don't usually let things get to me but this week just seems to be hitting me from every angle.

The Amish shootings really pissed me off.  Why do the cowards who commit these heinous acts always take the easy way out and kill themselves?  Catch one of these scum bags and I will dedicate my life to helping them understand the true meaning of pain and suffering.

Then there's the whole Foley thing.  Wrong is wrong but seriously, don't people think anymore?  If you know you're a closet homo who likes young boys, perhaps sponsoring a bill to help better track sex offenders isn't the best career choice.  "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

And now I just found out that Bill Douthett (aka: DigitalBill) has died.  DigitalBill was the man behind The Update Wizard which is one of the first Podcasts I listened to that made me realize that Podcasting had a future beyond random chatter by amateur teenagers.  He had a great personality and an ear for what people wanted.  I've listened to him a couple of times a week for the past year or so and I am going to miss him.

As for tech this week, in keeping with the theme of a crappy week Google released it's new CodeSearch tool which is a poor version of Krugle with less source than Koders.  Of course it's Google, the god of the good side of the Internet, so the general opinion is that it's the best thing since sliced bread. 

 

TTFN

Just a quick update on some things that I've mentioned on past posts:

Jonathan Coulton has wrapped up his "Thing-a-Week" project.  This guy has some serious talent and dedication (and probably a few screws loose).  Thanks for the ride!

Software Jedi Dana Hanna is more than half way through his "App-a-Day" project and still going strong.  He will be appearing on Hak.5 on episode 3 of season 2, due out this Thursday.  I am truly envious.  As expected some of the apps are less than killer, but every one of them is at least good and some even excellent!  Keep it up, you're doing great!

As for my proposed foray into the <name>-a-<time frame>, I haven't been able to figure out how to consistently scrape together the extra 10-20 hours a week that I'll need to take a reasonable shot at it.  My wife just started a new job which leaves me with no time while my kids are awake and my nights are already pretty full...  I will figure it out eventually... or maybe my wife will make millions and I can spend my days as boy toy! 

Or maybe I can use the time I spend day dreaming about being a millionaire boy toy to write code instead.

One last note.  I've used Windows Live Writer for the last couple of posts.  Not quite as convenient as Performancing but the spell checking feature alone is worth the price of admission.  All in all, pretty nice.

TTFN

Don't really have much to say tonight, but needed to give Windows Live Writer a chance.  Also want to try out the 1.9 release version of dasBlog.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to correct the "no pictures" problem, and do it with a bang!

First off, let's hook in a little something something from Google Video.

 

And just so our friends over at YouTube don't feel left out:

Oh yeah... That's cool.  Now that I'm on a roll, why stop there.  Time to  pimp this blog entry.  Her's a picture of my house.

I wasn't home when they took this picture.  I which I knew when they were going to take the pictures.  It would be kind of cool to find something that the satellites would pick up like some kind of cool reflective material or laser or something.  Then, try to use that to lay out a pattern that would only be visible once enough photos from satellites were stitched together. 

Well, that's enough playing around with blogs for tonight.  Still meaning to improve the theme (skin) for the blog. 

Finally, I've been thinking about "degrees of separation"  again.  I started thinking about this years ago when I worked on systems that were used by hundred or sometimes thousands of users.  Back then I thought "cool, all those people are exposed to code that I wrote."  Then I started working in the web arena and I thought about it again when I realized that 10+ million people were directly or indirectly exposed to code that I wrote.  I just had a release for my current contract and in this case I'm responsible for generating data that is put onto packages which will reach 1-2 million people every single day. 

None of those people will know me, and in fact none of them may even give a thought to the role I played, but it gives me some perverse sense of pleasure to think that, however small, I have had an impact on millions and millions of people.

TTFN

I was writing to my blog tonight when I clicked on something I shouldn't have and BAM, everything I had typed was gone.  I'm tired so I'm just going to hit the high notes before carting my sorry butt off to bed.

Ze Frank's "the show" Rules!

Ray Rules!   Goose Rules even more than Ray!

The French suck, but I'll let Ze slide for now.

Been all kinds of busy with work.

flOw could ruin my life!

Das Blog 1.9 was just released.

My blog has no pictures and that makes me sad.

<accidently delete all the text>

Well, that about sums it up.  Previous version looked a lot better.  Hell, probably could have won a Pulitzer.  Now it's now lost forever.

Think I might try out Microsoft's Live Writer

TTFN

Just received confirmation.  Seems that if you search for "Pittsburgh genius" on google and go to the 7th page, there I am!  Me!  A genius among geniuses... in Pittsburgh. 

Ok, so maybe it's not actually me that Google thinks is a genius.  Maybe it is the link to the (1 run only) video cast "Pittsburgh genius"  No matter, point is Google confirms my genius.  So sayeth the shepard, so sayeth the flock!  Now, if I can find a podcast titled "Places to send money" or at the very least "Hottest Hunks".

TTFN

I had a chance to interact with "real" people over the last few days.  Gotta tell you, they are strange! 

What I realized was nobody really cares about tech.  In fact it appears as though most people actually despise it.  They are willing to tolorate it because it helps them in their day to day lives but if given the chance I think most of them would be much happier without a computer.  Don't get me wrong, they love their Tivos, iPods, cell phones and HDTVs, but outside of the basic consumer goods, they don't have any idea of the real benefits of technology.

I also realized that everyone is out for themselves.  I know it may sound like I'm a some kinda of wide eyed youth but if you know me you know that nothing is further from the truth.  It's not that I didn't know that people were out for themselves I've seen plenty of proofs over my life, it's more like I didn't want to believe that people always put themselves first.  Perhaps that's why I was drawn to computers in the first place, and in turn, to the ideals held by most people in the "geek" community.

Let's face it, geeks care about others.  That's not to say that we are all completly selfless but for the most part we tend to at least consider the needs and wants of others.  The "real" people talked about their "real" jobs and it got me thinking.  Most of them had jobs that could be greatly improved with some decent software if only they knew what they needed.  A company isn't going to pay for most of the software that would really make a difference in their work... that's just silly.  Companies have to spend lost of money on large and practically useless ERP systems to feel like they're getting the most from computers.  Truth is most of the people who do the day to day work could benefit dramatically with a few very simple utility apps.

I then tried to think about things the way I saw the "real" people thinking about them.  My thoughts jumped from all of the quick little apps I could write that would make all of their jobs easier to the realization that I could, given the knowledge I have of computers and the speed which I'm able to "pick up" new ideas, do their jobs.  Not only could I do many of their jobs, I could do many of them better, faster and with less error because most of what people do is repititous BS. 

"Real" people say things like "My inbox was so full of requests, I couldn't keep up.  I spent all day sending people reports." 

Geeks say things like "People were sending me mail all day asking for reports so I wrote an auto-reply script to fulfill their requests." 

While I was considering what life might be like as a closing agent or transportation manager I thought about what would have happened if someone like Bill Gates had decided, instead of producing software, to start an accounting firm.  Linux / OSX / XP wars aside.  Imagine the advantage for a single accounting firm with the ability to really use computers during a time when everyone was using pen and paper.  I don't know where it would have led, but I could picture MS becoming the one and only accounting firm in the world.  I could also see them branching off into an untold number of industries and dominating them all.  For whatever reason BG decided to stick with simply developing software for others.  I know it wasn't completely allturistic but it also wasn't completely selfish. 

Presented with two options: Win/Win and Win/Loose, Bill choose Win/Win.  From what I've seen most people choose the first/easiest Win scenario.  Most people with "power" choose a Win/Loose or even a Loose/Loose as long as their loss isn't as bad.  I always try for the Win/Win and even the occasional Loose/Win if I think it's the "right" thing to do, but I wonder if I'm not just making things harder on myself for no good reason. 

I wonder what it would be like if I played by the same rules as everyone else? 

I wonder what would happen if the geek community decided to hold "tech" closer to it's chest like the Freemasons did? 

Alas, it will never happen.  We are, for better or worse, predestined to give what we can and take only what we need...  Damn!

TTFN

I just found out LonelyGirl15 is a fake and I'm devistated.  I just can't understand why someone would create a vlog about a naive 16 year old hottie who's into reading and likes geeks.... ahhhh.  I get it.

A lot of people had their suspicions long ago.  In fact, I would argue that anyone who, by the third episode, didn't at least consider that it's fake has their head burried in the sand.  Still, a lot of people are upset because they feel as though the've been duped.  Maybe, but we've all been asking for it. 

Actually knowing that LonleyGirl15 is fake is a bit of a buzzkill, and for it to become so obvious so quickly is even worse, but they (whoever they are) still managed to draw me in.  I'm still rooting for DanielBeast to win the girl and save her from the tyranny of her satanic parents.  But I'm a hopeless romantic.

Flag this vlog.  This may be one of those that people will point to 20 years from now and say "that set the stage for things to come."  In much the same way the Soap Opera revolutionized daytime television.  Imagine, instead of watching an hour long show with an array of characters, some that you care about and some that you don't, you get to pick and choose a few dozen shows with characters and stories that interest you.  Each one running a few "MTV Video" style minutes, being release every few days with a built in feedback loop with you and the rest of the audience.

Maybe there aren't as many young, smart, hot, innocent girls in the world as I thought there were just a week ago.  And maybe complex but clear sub plots don't appear in the wild as often as you would hope.  But even reality shows pick the cast to fit a certain mold and edit the hell out of the footage to make each person appear to take on a particular role and intricate alliances.

Ultimately LonelyGirl15 will loose a lot of their audience including myself but not because I feel cheated.  The opposite is true.  It feels like getting lost in a live performance.  I know it's not reality but I'm willing to accept it for the entertainment value.  But it doesn't last long.  My concern for this little satanist will soon fade and like a live performance, I'll eventually walk away with nothing but the memory. 

In the end, it's worth it.

TTFN

I don't have alot of contacts outside of my own little world, so sometimes I think that I may be way off base with some of my thinking.  This doesn't stop me mind you ;-}  But it is good to occassionally see that I may not be the lone voice.

One of the (many) projects I've been thinking about starting is the Johnathan Coulton inspired App a Week (JoCo what evil have you sewn!).  It seemed like a pretty ambitious goal to develop something useful every week, and I've been trying to set myself up for it (ideas, algorithms, concepts, snippets etc...)  Well, I'm a wimp.  Dana Hanna has taken it to a whole new level.  Kudos and good luck.  I'm not abandoning my personal App a Week (yet) but I will be interested to see how much hair Dana looses ;-} 

Episode 2x02 of Hak.5 had an interesting segment about a USB Password Recovery Tool.  The USB device is from U3 which provides pen drives that look like CD drives.  This tricks windows into executing the autorun.inf file.  While this isn't quite the final concept I had in mind, it is a piece of it.  The idea of being able to walk up to a machine, plug in a pen drive in order to purpose that machine is just cool.  In this case the drive pulls login information from the target machine as well as some other useful info.  It takes a few seconds, then you can use this information back at your own computer to "crack" the password etc...  Change the concept from passwords to emails / IM's / documents etc... and it could be even more interesting ;-}

It feels good to know that I'm not totally out in left field ;-}

TTFN