Icontacular

See that....on the right....those icons? Click on one....no wait, hover over it first, then click on it. Pretty cool, huh! It's a plugin called Topic Icon that allows you to associate an icon with each of the categories you have in your blog.I took it one step further by creating an index like on slashdot that displays the topics near the top of the screen. So now you instantly know what kind of content you'll be reading, be it humor, a rant, technology or something else of equal interest. Thanks to Dan Sandler for letting me use his awesome image for my tech icon

Sir Gary Coleman for Governor

So it was announced yesterday that the California's farcical Recall Election has gone from comical to just plain stupid, with the announcement that Gary Coleman is formally entering the race.For those of you not au fait with the situation, some bastard Republican Congressman decided it would be prudent to waste $35 million tax payers dollars and start a campaign to oust Governor Gray Davis. In all fairness, Davis has done a pretty substandard job in his recent term. After getting shafted by the energy companies, Davis has given us a sizeable deficit. So Darryl Issa thought it would be a hoot n' a holler to start a recall campaign. At first it didn't look like he was going to get the required number of signatures, but with enough photocopiers and old people writing their name over and over, anything is possible! So a recall was announced. That's when the "fun" started. Everyone and their grandma thought they would make a good candidate for Governor....even a colleague of mine. There was talk of Arnold Schwarzenegger being interested, something which he denied for months until yesterday. Clapped out Greek geriatric Arianna Huffington, a so-called Political commentator, has thrown her hat in. Huslter publisher Larry fucking Flynt even wants a crack at it! But wait wait, it gets better. The guy who initiated the recall in the first place, isn't even running anymore! How lame is that? You rat bastard. But then the coup de gras, the piece de resistance, Gary Coleman, yes "Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?" Gary Coleman, announced that, with the support of the shitty newspaper, the East Bay Express, he will be running for the position of Governor of the "great state of California." I thought Arnie was bad enough (will there be no end to all the lame "Arnie terminates Davis" puns?) but this is just getting lame. I can guarantee I know how this started too. Two interns we're sitting around at the East Bay Express and the following was uttered "You know what would be fucking funny...Gary Coleman as governor." And so it was. I'm embarassed to be Californian. Oh yeah, one more thing. There's a good chance that the winner of the election will have been voted into office by less than 10% of the population. Ah yes, good old proportional representation. If you have time on your hands, read Gary Coleman's manifesto, it's classic. Some noteable quotes: "City buses piss off Gary Coleman." "As a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild, Gary Coleman has seen how fucked-up the closed shop can be." "Why is our health care system in such a mess? It's all those rummies gettin' sauced and rackin' up a case of cirrhosis." "Gary wigged out and vowed to "find them and put my size four-and-a-halfs so deep into their colon!" "

Tech Support - Hunter/Ballon style

A colleague sent out this email to our dev team asking for advice:I am currently getting a java.lang.AbstractMethodError when trying to use scrollable ResultSets. Any information you can provide to resolve this would be appreciated. Noel and I, with our frighteningly superior intellects, felt obligated to help, so we replied- Me first: I'm pretty sure if he parses the geveltefish into the linear actuator, the compound herpes limitations will override any interference by the cranial inversion, right? then Noel chimes in: Maybe but you may have to watch the Vibal Translocitor..if that gets over 120 DEGREES, WHOA BOY!!! HA!!! LOL!!! That is humorous stuff there, you thinkin the linear actuator can be parsed!!! but I think he's wrong: Yeah but the Vaibhav Translocitor was phased out in release 2.1.s.a remember?! You can't use it anymore, you have to use Applied Funkadelic's Inbound Transmogrifier (John Denver edition) or else you'll never get past the rectal transgression phase! ...and I was right: Silly ME!!!! It must have been that Old Crow I drank at lunch!! MY bad!!! So our work here is done. Another tech problem solved.

Why the internet isn't cool anymore

So this image got me thinking (and discussing with Mike) about how the internet just isn't cool anymore. The days of "internetting" til 3am are long gone, at least for me anyway. I remember when I was in college, I would be up til the wee hours "exploring" the internet. There was so much to see and do and discover. There was always somewhere you hadn't been before, someone you hadn't talked to, some thought you hadn't considered before. But now there's nothing fun out there anymore, nothing out there that hasn't already been done.Mike summed it up nicely "I was thinking, "I"m bored and Mindy's at work, I'll browse the Internet for a while" And then I though, "Damn, I've already gone through my email, slashdot, cnn, and somethingpositive. What else.... ?" " That's very true. Everyone has a collection of sites they visit regularly and beyond that, it's the occasional chance discovery or referral that leads you to something new or exciting. I used to be able to stay up til all hours just clicking away. Now I just can't do that. For a number of reasons: - there's no reason to; it's rare I find something compelling enough to keep me awake that late - Deanne: AAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLEXXX! What are you doing down there?! Me: Fucking around on the internet Deanne: But it's 3am! Me: .....yup. That's a conversation that will never take place because a) i can't make it to 3am anymore, and b) i would get my ass kicked. - I'm usually exhausted by 10pm anyway. When Deanne was out of town for a few days, I tried staying up late to get some work done, and even with the aid of copious amounts of coffee, I barely made it past midnight. (I need to get some exercise.) I think, well for me anyway, working with the internet for a living (and not enjoying my job) has kind of diminished a little of the "mystique" of it all. I work online all day, and when I come home, I don't really want to spend the rest of the day clicking around in the vain hope I MIGHT find something interesting. Coupled with the fact I'm usually exhausted by 10pm and you have a very mundane internet experience. I think maybe because using the internet feels like work, I have no desire to use it outside of work. I remember when I was about 18, Mike and I stayed up for hours reading about hacking, phreaking, networking, the internet, etc. It was fascinating, utterly fascinating. Now, if I read an article on networking, I can feel my eyes glazing over. If it's a story about hacking, it usually contains misguided media hype about how he or she is a "terrorist" or some bastard kid (or both.) When I was younger, I used to be part of the internet "community" or AN internet "community" (not sure if it's "the" or "an".) I was a member of a part of society that was moderately early adopters of the "Interweb", back when it was "oooo internet ahhhhh websites." Now my mom is a computer junkie and, well, that's just not cool anymore. I think corporations play a big part in that. Everyone and their grandmother has an internet presence (that's a fancy way of saying website.) You have all these companies out there providing "eSolutions" and "CRM blah blah." Nobody cares anymore. When I lived in Hong Kong and England, I viewed the Silicon Valley with a sense of awe. It was the place where the magic happened. I watched documentaries on startups and VCs, read Wired magazine religiously, and hungered for my chance to be involved in this burgeoning revolution. Now when I read a Wired article on a new technology or website idea, all I can think is "That's a gay idea." BTW, the awesome image was done by a guy called Dan Sandler who submitted it for the slashdot t-shirt contest. There's talk that ThinkGeek might be printing it! I'll post when it becomes available

Ungrateful

So I left work at 10pm last night...second 12+ hour day in a row. We created nine new sites, translated in 8 different languages, in 3 hours. Of course by the time everyone had left for the night, the problems started appearing; the cracks in the proverbial framework. And who was left to fix them? YOURS TRULY! YAY!Of course, as it always is, other people cutting corners meant I had to clean up their shit at 9:30pm, resulting in the pulling of my hair out and the scratching of eyes at crappy code. But then you get the horrible feeling when you're looking at code and you go "What the hell was this idiot doing?!" and then you realize it's your own code. Clich

Marathon Weekend

MAN What a weekend.We've been planning to do something for my birthday (which was on Sunday) but I had no idea that it would be anything like this. On Thursday evening we (myself, Deanne, Mike and Mindy) all met at our place at about 7pm. I opened some presents before we left. Mike got me this awesome marble thing called Frigits; it's kinda like a vertical marble maze that goes on your fridge. Mindy got me the Trivial Pursuit; Know-it-all edition which rocked and this great book called "How to Rule the World." Deanne got me two awesome comedy CDs, Dane Cook and Steven Lynch. We listened to them on the drive down to Magic Mountatin - HYSTERICAL! They're two of my favorite comedians. She also gave me seasons one and two of Red Dwarf on DVD. GREAT show, reminds me of my youth. So I made out pretty well :) Anyway, we drove down to Magic Mountain in the Passat and got there a little after midnight. I was impressed with my car, it took just over HALF a tank of gas to get down there. Not bad. Anyway, we stayed at an average motel near the park and awoke early-ish the next morning to head to the park. I LOVE Magic Mountain. Well I love roller coasters and they have some of the best. The Goliath, Superman, ahhh it doesn't get much better than that. We stayed at the park for about six and a half hours, had our caricatures drawn and then piled in the car to head back north. We stopped at Harris Ranch on the way back for some steak and arrived home at about....umm....10? Something like that. On Saturday Mindy and Deanne went to Ikea (damn Ikea) and Mike and I hung out and played video games before heading back to Tracy to watch the Quakes WHOOP Dallas. Then the marathon day, Sunday. We started by meeting Mike and Mindy at their place and then heading off in the Subaru for Napa. We found the Wine Train station pretty easily and had a look around before heading onto the train. Great views, great food, great company. We left about four hours later, tired but happy. Mike drove home and we bid them farewell before heading to our next destination; Deanne's parents house. We arrived there at about 5pm and had a great dinner (no....more....food.) I got some great gifts including some wonderful and much needed clothes, and an awesome paper plane kit from Darlene and John. We had carrot cake (my favorite) for dessert. Unfortunately we had to leave early to head to our NEXT destination. By this time I was exhausted. We arrived at Ken's shop at about 8:15pm where Bob, Bali, Brian, Ken and Dan were waiting. Ken was kind enough to arrange a little soiree so we headed to Chevy's for dinner (or in my case, half a dessert.) Bob and Bali gave me a really nice bottle of Champagne. We left at about 11pm and I just crashed when we got home, I was exhausted. Thankfully, I took Monday off...a day to recover...or so I thought. Deanne and I had the pleasure of hauling a bunch of crap to the Tracy dump and after she went to work, I got to go to the DMV! YAY! I get there and the line is out the door but Deanne assured me it moved quickly. So I'm there about 15 mins when I see the sign that says "Cash or Check ONLY." I have neither. So I swear under my breath and go to an ATM machine. I return to the DMV and get back in line. TWO HOURS later, I get to the front of the line and renew the registration on the two cars. The lady tells me the total fee....I was one dollar short. ONE FUCKING DOLLAR! I was about to go postal (how ironic) when the lady was like "Don't worry about it, I'll register the car and then just drop off a check in the deposit box whenever you get a chance." I was stunned....a DMV employee being helpful? Was this bizarro world? No...it wasn't. Actually it was...cos later in the day I found out that my insurance agent not only lived five doors down from me but was Bob's cousin...how weird is that? Anyway, I had an AWESOME birthday and I want to thank Mike, Mindy, Ken, Bob, Bali, Brian, Dan, my in-laws, John and Darlene, and especially Deanne for making it so wonderful. Mike took some photos of the weekend which I blatantly stole (Thanks Mike!) You can see them here.

Complete Nonsense Network

I officially hate CNN. We were sitting in an Indian restaurant eating our chicken korma or whatever and there was a TV tuned to CNN. Along the bottom, the following headline scrolled by:Area man finds bones under tent. Arm bone has wristwatch on; might be human remains. I'll give you a second to let that one sink in..................yeah. Now I watch CNN Headline News first thing in the morning and last thing at night (Deanne says it's only because of Rudi Bakhtiar.) It's ok. Digestable information first thing in the morning or last night thing at night. But that was the dumbest thing I have ever heard. That's like saying "Water seen falling from sky; possibly rain." Their coverage of the recent Iraq war was bad enough but this...this put me over the edge. Never again will I purposely engage in the viewing of such puerile bullshit. Rant over.

Windows...DOWN!

Added another little mod to my car the other night. So the VW's have a nice feature (I'm sure you've seen it in the commercial) where you can unlock the car and hold the key down and it will lower all the windows (or vice versa if you're locking the car.) A pretty neat feature. But what happens if you want to use the remote to operate the windows?Cue the Alientech window controller. This little device, when carefully integrated into the stock electronics, lets you open and close the windows and sunroof via the keyless entry remote. So I can be walking away from the car with all the windows down and the sunroof open, click the remote and the windows will go up. It's the same if I'm walking towards the car and I click the remote, the windows will open to let that first waft of 1000 degree air escape. I can even program it to vent the windows when I lock the car. Very handy. It was pretty easy to install too. Just popped off the door panel, t-tapped the existing window controls and voila! Incidentally, when I was taking off the door panel, I found a diamond earring....which was nice.

First of Many

The first of what I think will be many minor tweaks and mods to the car. I added XM radio the other day. I originally had it in the CRV and I loved it so when we got the Passat that was the first thing I wanted to get done.Ken took care of the install and did a great job. The antenna is just behind the FM/AM antenna and the contoller sits at the top of the center console. Check out the picture below. The next thing I want to add to the car (though I don't think it will happen for a while) is this: It's a double din monitor with a fold down face that has a DVD slot behind it. Ingenious. I hate the flip out monitors, I think they look tacky. This has the look of a aircraft panel with all the buttons on the side (in fact, the manufacturer started out making TFT panels for aircraft.) It has a nav input which will be nice, once you've had a nav systems, it's hard to go back to getting hopelessly lost (go figure.) So anyway, that's a future project.

Fast and Furiouserestness

OK I officially love my car. I knew it was fast off the line because of the turbo charger, and I knew it handled well because of the ASR but yesterday I actually put it to the test.We were on our way to the video store and there were three people in the car including myself and the air conditioning was on. We stopped at a traffic light to turn left onto a main road that takes you into town. For some reason I had the urge to just....just floor it when the green light came on.........so I did. The car leapt forward and I yanked the wheel to the left and the car cornered like it was on rails. The ASR kicked in just as the wheels began to give of a satisfying squeal. David and Deanne were wedged against the side of the car and I...well I was just grinning. When we "levelled" off and I returned the car to appropriate speed I hear a disapproving "Alex!" from the back of the car and all I could say was "Hehe.....I didn't think it would do that....hehehe....especially with three people in the car and the air conditioning on...hehehe....that was cool." Man that was fun :)

To good NOT to post.

Blatantly ripped from BigSoccer.comReuters "In a blockbuster transfer, Real Madrid sign LA Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones from MLS for $200 in gift certificates to Golden Corral and four cases of Coors Light. Newly acquired Real midfielder and England skipper, David Beckham commented on the signing "It's going to be great to watch Cobi come out and buzz around like a chicken with his head cut off until Marquez or some other player gets so incensed that they chop him down. We'll be a man up in ever game with Barca by halftime." Cobi has been given the number "4" for his jersey which he said had some special meaning for him as it was his erect penis size. Sales of real merchandise bearing Cobi's name have been moving like mad in LA where 6 jerseys we purchased this morning, Doubling the number sold there last season. When reached for comment, MLS Commissioner Don Garber commented "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"."

Psyche!

HA! Fooled you! You thought I was going to get a Murano or a Z, or maybe, at a stretch, one of the other cars I listed like a BMW or something. Well I didn't. I am now the proud owner of a Volkswagen Passat Turbo. Funny Story; I was actually going to the local Toyota dealership to look at some completely different cars like the Highlander. Anyway, I was looking around, not too impressed with anything I saw and I was about to leave when I saw a white Passat parked near the entrance to the dealership. I walked up to it and had a look and I was impressed (I've always liked the Passat) but then I saw the price...and at that moment I didn't know wether I should call Deanne or lick the handle to the car. Turns out they had JUST received the car a few hours before I had come on in the lot and it wasn't even in their inventory yet. So I gave it a once over on the inside, decided that I loved this car and called Deanne and told her of my discovery. I would have bought it there and then but the dealership wanted their service guys to go over it to make sure everything was ship shape. So the next morning we got the call that the car was ready and I dragged Deanne out of the house and back down to the dealership. We then began the long and arduous process of getting the paperwork done. Halfway through the "negotiations" we realized that I had forgotten some necessary documents so I jumped in the car and ran home. Now I should note here that when I left, I was not impressed with the rate they were offering, and I thought I might have to unleash the fist of fury. So I went home, got the paperwork and during the time I was gone, Deanne had knocked the price, interest rate and payments down by a significant amount. It was impressive to witness :) From now on, she does all the family negotiating. But after what seemed like an eternity, we signed the final piece of paper acknowledging that the car was in fact a car and in the eyes of a law was construed a car under mandate 133.ba/41 section d. "What is a car?" So we finally got to drive the car home three hours later...and I love it :) It has a tiptronic transmission which means while I'm driving along in standard automatic, I can nudge the shifter over and then I'm in manual mode and I change gear by tapping the shifter up or down. You can't over or under-rev and it always puts you in the right gear when you shift over. It's alot of fun. Although I have to admit I did feel rather odd buying a German car on independence day.

Engine Fire! Abort, Retry or Fail?

Tell me this isn't a bad idea. If you look in the left hand side of the pic below you can see a 7" monitor that has been jerry (or jury, they're both correct) rigged into the flight deck of this pristine 777-300ER. The ER is the latest and greatest 777, having only completed testing in February. Now why in the hell would you uncermoniously strap two monitors into the flight deck, running Windows 2000, no less! I love how the cables are taped and zip tied into place.Now this is a Boeing prototype, not an aircraft owned by an airline so there must have been a good reason for it...but what? Monitoring aspects of the aircrafts performance can all be done much faster and more efficiently by the 777's EFIS computers. I was curious as hell so I did some rooting around and found this excerpt from a Boeing press release "(test pilots) Santoni and Cashman tested some of the airplane's systems and structures, as on-board equipment recorded and transmitted data to a flight-test team at Boeing Field. That data, and the crew's comments, will be analyzed in the near future." So maybe they were using the windows boxes to send data back to the ground. But Windows? The last picture shows the back of the 777 loaded with test equipment....look at it all! I really don't think they need a couple of Windows boxes to "get the job done." I'm still looking into it. Your thoughts? Click on pics to get larger version