June 2002 Archives

I just found some old computer pics and specs. Checkout The Computer Closet. Here's a link to my first computer, an Apple ][+.

I went my cousin Cara's wedding last night. It was great. Meg felt it was done with a lot of class. Good food, beautiful flowers, etc. Oh, and Michele got faced, suprise!

I also decided last night that I don't have time to be angry with my mom. I'd much rather spend my time thinking about my family (and my weblog, a little). :)

Microsoft accidentally sent the virulent Nimda worm to South Korean developers when it distributed Korean-language versions of Visual Studio .Net that carried the virus, the company acknowledged Friday.

File formats and more: www.wotsit.org!

I was looking for a bulk Word to HTML filter when I came across this page from the W3C.

IMHO, Sammy Hagar is a fag. Of course you can't drive 55. No one can drive 55 when they have a guy in their ass! The era of Van Hagar was an embarrasement for all of rock&roll. I do have to admit I saw them live (as Van Hagar), but hey, I didn't have to like it!

Come on Dave, come back!

Sun updated their Java site. Very purple!

Here is a great utility. It's called SLUGS (Simple Little Utility for Generating Schemes). It's "simple colour picker which can provide suggestions for colours which look nice together."

I found a really good c# examples site: Mike Woodring's .NET Sample Page

So, I attended PCExpo today. It was OK. Nothing to spectacular. I did get a chance to see a Lian-Li PC60 enclosure up close and personal. Very nice, Steve L. Sussman was right. Oh, also, I saw an LCD monitor from Eizo (the old Nanao), the L465. This baby was sweet. The ViewSonic VG171 was nice too.

Nate and Andy, the guy from Eizo told me to go Matrox G550 for dual head. He did also mention Appian for dual head and quad head cards.

Oh, and sorry, I forgot to take my camera.

I'm on a hunt for a cool Outlook style button bar for my new .NET app. DevPower has one, but it has a weird bug. When I add items to a group, it clears the definition of the groups from the code. The groups show up in the code when I add them, but as soon as I add an item to a group, poof goes the code. Oh well, the next ver. is coming out soon.

Well, I installed the memory in my machine. It seems faster. I haven't opened a lot of apps yet to see if and when it will slow down. Myabe I'll open one the many Java IDE's I've d/l'ed. They are all memory hogs. :)

www.mypornname.com -- ever wonder what your name would be if you were a porn star?

Now this is some fun stuff. Google has a repository for all of their holiday logos. Here

Ever wonder what foo has to do with anything? Checkout RFC3092 - Etymology of "Foo"

Man, just when you think you see the light... I told my boss on Friday that I'm busier now that the product is in production then when we were trying to get it there. Oh well. I'm looking at a laundry list of things to do, but when I'm finished, I get to start working on our Imaging Server. This is going to sweet. I just hope I make it there before the next millennium.

Checkout MEETUP. Kinda cool.

Celebrity Sighting: Tyson Beckford -- Super Model

Allow me to let you in on a little secret; he lives across the street. I speak to and/or see him every day. He's actually a really nice guy. I didn't know what to expect when he first moved in, being a celebrity and all. But tonight we had a little incident, his dog, Blood, an American Pit Bull Terrier, barked enough that it woke J.

We had such a great day with J. We started a new ritual. Napping when she wants, not when we want. The funniest this was when she fell asleep eating a wagon wheel. I equated this the to falling asleep at the wheel. We went out for breakfast, and had lunch at home. We also logged some pool time later in the afternoon. We all came back from the pool and crashed. I think J, Meg, and I all slept for at least an hour and a half to two hours. The pool has the ability to suck all life from you.

Tommorow is back to the office. Wednesday should be fun. I'll be attending PCExpo. I think I'll make the final decision in regards to the components I put in my new machine. I'll bring back pictures. :)

Damn. I feel naughty that I haven't blogged in two days. Work has been super busy. If this gives you any indication, last Friday I asked a friend if the follow day was Saturday. I had no idea!

My folks bought J a Kettler Air Happy Tricycle for her birthday (it's in less than a month). Damn, this thing is built like our Mercedes. Granted they're both German (even tough our car was assembled by Mercedes-Benz U.S. in Alabama). Anyway, this thing is awesome. We also installed the safety strap and push bar so we can use it before she can actually ride it.

I even amazed myself at the amount of time I spent last night trying to decide which DRAM manufacturer to buy, and then where to buy it. I settled with Kingston and I bought it from www.newegg.com. $45 for 256MB PC100 (ok, stop laughing).

Also, case you ever wanted to read about Namespaces in XML, have at it: Namespaces in XML

Well, I made to the company party tonight just in time to have a beer and run out the door. I wanted to get home before J went to sleep. I made it with about 10 minutes to spare!

Ya know what I really hate? People (other parents) keep telling me that I'll hate the next stage, what ever it may be, that J is about to enter. For example, I was told that I would hate it when she crawls. Ya know what? I fuckin' love it! The funniest thing is when we put her down in floor in morning and she scampers off to the kitchen. If J makes it there before we have a chance to pickup the cat's food, she puts it into hyper-drive. This kid's never going to walk if she keeps crawling like this.

It gets funnier. When Meg or myself makes it into the kitchen after her, she jumps back from bowl. She knows it's a "no", but hey, she's only 11 mos., so she's going to push the envelope. I can't wait for walking!

I am working on a pretty big project here at the office. I'm creating a static HTML demo version of our application. This is not the easiest task I've been given since I started with Banklink. There is so much server side dynamic processing, that is some instances, a single ASP page has resulted in the creating of 4 HTML pages. To make the process of capturing the pages as smooth as possible, I'm using client side JavaScript to handle browser redirection. Let me give you an example.

Image we have a page, foo.asp that could be rendered four different ways. The determining factor as to how the page in rendered is based on a querystring value, 'type'. The first obstacle I had to overcome was how to direct the browser to the correct version of foo.asp. So, I changed the calling page link from foo.asp to foo.htm, but kept the querystring values. Then I created a new HTML page called foo.htm. This page is responsible for redirecting the browser to the proper HTML page. Next, I saved each version of foo.asp as foo.ver1.htm, etc.

Inside foo.htm I us a helper function to parse the querystring client side. The querystring is a property of the window.location object, window.location.search ( ask my buddy Mark Andreason why it's 'search' and not 'querystring', asshole! ). So, this is what's in foo.htm

<script language="javascript">
 var type = QueryString("type");

 switch (type)

 {

  case "A":

   url += '.ver1.htm';

   break;

  case "P":

   url += '.ver2.htm';

   break;

  case "I":

   url += '.ver3.htm';

   break;

  case "X":

   url += '.ver4.htm';

   break;

 }

 window.navigate( '/html/' + url );

</script>

and this allows for pseudo-redirection so the demo user has the impression that they're looking at dynamic content.

Of course, this project was due the day before it was assigned, so I'm a wee bit busy today. Gotta go! :)

Damn, it actually pays to read the volumes of mailing list mail I get. MS has released a tech preview of the ASP.NET Web Matrix. This is soooo cool. Any ASP.NET developer must check this out. Cheers!

I'm turning all of my friends onto blogging. In the cult they come!

Ya know, the only what the US would meet the UK in the World Cup would be in the final match. Hmmm.... Ok, I'll stop dreaming.

I had to stop using the applet for reloading the view from my window. The bandwidth was starting mount. So just refresh your browser.

I mentioned the other day that I started to use Spam Assassin and now I'm not getting any email! So I posted to that effect to the Spam Assassin mailing list. So this is a cartoon that someone came up with. Check it out.

So, I though it'd be cool to ping weblogs.com every time I rant. Let's see how well this goes. Oh, BTW, in my commentary following Saturday's Mets v. Yankees games, I guess there wasn't a tommorow. Oh well.

I just asked my boss for a Herman Miller Aeron chair. Do you think that's too presumptions of me? I have one on my desk at home. Meg bought it for me for our anniversary two yrs ago. I recommend one to everyone.

I recently found these images. I think they pretty much sum up my attitude torward the Machintosh:

I can't beleive that the homeless in NYC are still using the "I'm a homeless Vietnam Vet" excuse. Didn't that shit go out in the 80's? I guess with the return of 80's fashion, comes the "Homeless Vietnam Vet" BS too.

Today was Father's Day. We had a great morning. We checked out Kitchenette's new uptown location on Amsterdam btw 123 st. and 124 st. It was as yummy as downtown. That was the morning. The afternoon was not as pleasureable.

I don't if you know this, but last Wednesday, Meg asked my mom if I was a good napper, in which she replied that I wasn't good at anything. Meg responded by telling my mother that I'm a good husband and father, and mom said she was surprised. Fuck her. Anyhow, now I had to spend the afternoon with her at my sister's house. Beleive me when I tell you that if I didn't have an ulcer when I got there, I sure do now.

It's real simple, she'll never ever be allowed to be alone, even for 5 minutes with J. She is notorious for showing her disrespect for me, and ya know what? That shit comes around. I can't run the risk that what mom feels is ok to share with Meg, she won't share it w/ J. I'm usually an even tempered individual, but God help me if she says something to J.

Other than that, J was super cute today (when is she not?). And that's all I need. Sue took some pictures, so as soon as they come back, I'll post some.

---

On a computer note. I setup Spam Assassin. I already have Postfix+Procmail+Cyrus-IMAP working well. If you want to set it up, checkout How to set up IMAP on the cheap. This is a great article. Follow all 5 articles in the series and you'll be good to go.

I run Debian, so to add Spam Assassin, all I had to do was

apt-get install spamassassin

and then add this to the /etc/procmailrc file

:0 fw
| spamc -f -u $USER

:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
| $SPAMIT

This goes right before


###########################################################
### Deliver it to the user inbox
###########################################################

:0 w
{
EXITCODE=$?
HOST
}

Remember, I'm using the code samples from the Linux World article. I'm just finishing up getting the MySQL based userconf files working. I'll let you know how that goes. :)

We went up to Meg's folk's house in CT Friday night. We were true to our heritage and started our journey at sun down. We figured that if we got in the car when it was time for J to go to sleep, she'd fall asleep on the way, and then all we'd have to do is drop her in the crib when we got there.

Most of the plan worked, up until Meg put her into the crib. There was a bit of crying (well, a lot more than a bit :) ), but she eventually when down. The best part of the following day is that I was able to get up at 8 and then go back to sleep for family nap time at 9:30, and then sleep past Meg, Meg's mom, and J leaving. I got out of bed at 1:00pm. I haven't done that since college. I kept lying in bed think I had something to do.

While out, Meg picked me up an "Italian Stallion". The Italian Stallion is a most excellent Italian sub from The Bridgewater Country Store. So I gobbled down my sandwich watching the Mets v. Yankees Game. Shawn Estes lame attempt of beaning the Rocket was truley pathetic. Unfortunately the Bronx Bombers fell eight to nothing. Hey, there's always tommorow.

We followed the same theory for baby transport for the ride home. This time it worked like a charm. My guess is that it she was in her own crib this time and not grandma's. :)

Boy does my ass hurt! I just got my bonus and the man took so much $%^&*( taxes that I think I'll be sore for a week!

Today is June 14th. Right now four years ago I was getting ready for what was to be one of the best things I have ever done in my entire life. In case you don't already know, it's my anniversary. What's funny is the weather today (which is cold and rainy) was the same as my wedding day. Fortunately, the sky let up just in time for the ceremony.

We were married at my in-law's home in CT. It was quite a scene. We had a big tent, lots of people, and great food. We had such a great time. I'm amazed at how something that took that long to plan could be over so soon. My best man, Jodi, gave me some advice prior to the wedding. He told me to make sure that I remembered everything. Remembering big events is no problem for me, it's remembering to call the sewage authority so they don't put our house on the block.

When it came time for me to make a toast, I recalled the conversation that Meg and I had in the car on the way up the day before. It was pouring out, and I don't mean cats and dogs, it was more like pigs and cows! Meg, who tended to worry a lot at the time, was certain that the weather would be the same for our wedding day. This is what I said:

Well, I can tell you that when I said this in front of everyone, I got in trouble. A number of the guests came up to me afterwards and told me that their wives told told them that they never say things like that. My mother's comment was "I must get my DNA checked" because she couldn't believe I was her son.

We left for our honeymoon the Wednesday following the wedding. It was spent in Firenze (Florence) and Capri, Italy. I have to say that this has to be one of the nicest places I have ever been. The food is amazing, and the people convey a genuine appreciation for your business (no like the French). I recommend Italy to everyone.

The next big event in our lives is coming up in a few weeks. Our daughter, Jordyn (or "J" for short) will be a year old. I'll be sure to share photos from the blast we're throwing.

Nate lent me a keyboard, and I think there's jizz on it.

Why do I have a dog that won't eat, and two cats that eat hard salami?

The work day is done. Off to home. :)

Sedrik: Whatever happened to sex drugs and rock n roll? Now we just have aids crack and techno.

now i'm dicussing blogging w/ Peter. say hi to peter!

Sedrik: see people are compelled to donate to the salvation army. you walk by and you see other people doing it and everyone looks at you as you walk by with the bell ringing in your face.

over the internet, it's all anonymous. people dont' feel the pressure to show they are "good natured" and want to help out ppl
DaveBBitton: because no one's looking

Here's a view from my office window:

it refreshed every 5 minutes.

Keyboard - $20
Mouse - $30
A copy of Visual Studio.NET - $1000
Knowing that you'll never be a developer - priceless.

angrycoder.com. ok, this site was featured on the last page of MSDN Magazine. I'm wondering how the editors missed the Bitch Session.

I'm wondering when Ev will fix the template bug in the Blogger API

this is some funny shit... http://www.geekissues.org/quotes/?random1

This is kinda cool. I've been listening to cableradio.co.uk for the last day or so. Anyhow, they were talking about the housing market in the UK, anf the DJ solicited emails from the US in regards to our housing market. So I sent an email, and I got my name and email mentioned on the air! Cool, huh?

It's the moring if the 13th and another day is apon us.

So, if you know anything about me, I'm now on my 4th blogging app in 2 hours. Anyway, now it's w.bloggar. Looks like this'll do the trick. Also, it's in VB, so I can feel the authors pain ;) .

So, I just start to use blogBuddy, so here's the shout-out, blogBuddy.

ESPN.com - Page2 - Don't let the door hit your
big butt on the way out

I just read this in regards to Shaq. Being a Jersey Boy, I feel for our brothers in the Meadowlands.

My sister asked me what a blog was. So, I typed 'blog" into the handy Google Toolbar (as I always do), and blamo! I guess I have a blog site now. It's funny how these things go. One second your minding your own business surfing the net, and the next, your surfing the net (hmm).

I do have a frustrating situation though. The space bar on my keyboard is broken. So the action is all messed up. Oh well, the results of a free market economy will be in my bank acct. in a wk and a-new-system-a-buying I will go. AMD 2100+/1GB DDR/120GB HD/DualHead LCD. Should be sweet. I'll let ya know how it goes.

:)