Archive
Cup Is Ready for Use!
After a long and winding path from California to Kansas, the Cup that can hold any thing (of type T where T : IDrinkable) arrived. An action shot below—brewing a strong cup of Timothy’s Midnight Magic Extra Bold.
Yes, it’s very geeky, but it’s so cool.
Here’s how to get one:
1. Check out the original cup by odennison on Zazzle.com.
2. Customize! (I opted for a two-tone navy mug at 15oz).
3. Ship!
The cup is very sturdy, no defects, and they’re running a 10% off sale. I’m keeping that one at home, but have one on order to geek out here at the office too. 
Beats the plastic cups I have to use now.
Trail of the Drunken Package
While it’s yet to arrive, tracking my Cup<T> coffee mug has been… exciting.
A friend put it best via IM this morning:
Michael: HA HA that looks like the trail of a drunk snail
It’s out for delivery here in town at the moment, but it’s voyage from California has been quite exciting—it’s like the Travelocity gnome is with it and showing it the sights of America.
Yes, ladies and gentleman…
That’s from California to Georgia to Illinois to Texas to north Kansas and now back to Wichita.
The little 1.5lb package that could…
Who’s Who Not Knowing Who?
Years ago, back when I had a couple consulting businesses and such running, there was a bit of value in some of the “Who’s Who” books and such for social networking. A lot of the current networking appliances (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, user groups, etc) weren’t around and the “big books” were common—if you could weed out the scams.
I actually had an invite to the “2010 Edition of Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals Throughout the World” today… but they don’t know who I am… or simply fail at mail merge.
[…clip…]
Greetings [Firstname] [Lastname],
In recognizing your work in the field of [field], it is my honor and privilege to inform you of your selection as a representative in the 2010 Edition of Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals Throughout the World. Our membership committee has scoured professional journals, industry newsletters, and corporate resources to compile our summary of individuals who fit the bill: professionals who represent the best and brightest in their industries. You are one of those selected.
[…clip…]
So.. seriously, does anyone have those books sitting around anymore? If so, why? A book containing all of the executives and professions throughout the world would require more than my package-hiding UPS man to deliver.
I don’t even own a telephone book—letalone a reference book of complete strangers (though, that’s somewhat one in the same).
Hidden Package…
A bit off topic, but fun none-the-less.
Hidden Package Fail
Home yesterday and saw the UPS truck pull up, so I opened the garage door to go get the mail too and low and behold, the UPS man did his best to hide the packages on my front porch.
It’s worth pointing out that my front door is in a 15ish foot courtyard.. surrounded by a brick wall with only access from the walkway. Putting the boxes ANYWHERE except right infront of the door almost guarantees “hidden.” Apparently Greg Dean’s “Real Life Comic” really is “real life”. 
At least it’s better than the FedEx dude who puts the boxes… stacked up.. in front of the door or the DHL delivery person who has left packages OUTSIDE the courtyard (basically in my front yard).
The fun note is that it looks like it’s smiling with the Amazon box. A happy front porch (and even happier—the boxes were filled with coffee K-Cups).
MSDN in Thai
The MSDN Subscriber site is a bit hokey this morning. Even though en-us shows up as the language in the URL, nothing looks quite English.
Google Translate can’t seem to pick out the words, but says it’s Thai.
I think it’s just Monday—no matter what language you speak.
A lull…
As projects wind down, it’s been quite the administrative lull lately. Projects are done and rolling out the door; paperwork is ramped up and covering my desk. 
Hopefully, over the next few weeks, some new fun and excitement will jump in the door—including a new project involving mobile devices (yay!).
If not, maybe it’ll give me time to get back into experiment mode and kick around the new ASP.NET MVC Preview 4 and ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 Preview. I haven’t had nearly enough time to dink at home—all this newfound housework takes a LOT of time and energy. Heh.
Bought a Home! The Epic
Over the next few days, I’ll be moving into my first home. I’ve spent the past 6 months scowering the housing market and finally found one I really like. Unlike most the country, homes in the midwest are going UP in price, so finding what I wanted (in what I could afford) was quite tricky. I’ll post up some pics over the next few days. So, time is tight and I probably won’t be posting much for the next couple of weeks. See you soon! As I do have access to the internet, I’ll be updating this post with news about the new place and photos (if/when I find my camera in the box it’s in).
UPDATE: noon, 26 June – Sellers are unable to meet the requirements of a new roof (my insurance won’t cover the highly hail damaged roof) by the closing deadline–if I can’t insure it, I can’t close on it. No extensions apply–I fear that they’ll just keep dragging it out. I let the agent know that the deal’s off. We’ll work up the paperwork tomorrow when she’s in town. Grr, guess back to the drawing boards. Now to call EVERYONE back.
UPDATE: 11:30pm, 26 June – Sellers are now able to meet the requirements (*lots of shouting, angry feelings, angst*) and we’re going to closing tomorrow even though they said they can’t make it this afternoon. I swear I’ve never felt more out of control or mislead in my life. Come to find out that what is said means absolutely nothing and requires all parties to SIGN for it. So, apparently we’re closing tomorrow afternoon. Now to call EVERYONE back… AGAIN!
UPDATE: 12:00pm, 27 June – The insanity continues. The closing time is now iffy because the title agency can’t get everything together by the 2:00pm closing time. I’m frantically trying to get utilities back on since, due to the weekend and the Sunday possession date, I don’t want to walk into a hot, waterless house on Monday morning.
UPDATE: 9:45pm, 27 June – Well, everything is done and I have keys in my hand. With what seemed like a hundred signatues, countless stacks of papers and agreements, and some awkward moments with all the shuffle of the past few days—it’s finally over. We take possession midday Sunday. If nothing else, this has been a wild ride. Pictures and more coming soon.
UPDATE: 8:00am, 30 June – Well, a day of cleaning (and partial box moving yesterday) and things are taking shape. Here’s a few photos that I’ll add to as we clean the house. Click for full images.
Front entry with real hardwood floors.
Living room with passthrough to kitchen, dutch door, and fireplace.
Living room has old English framing and skylights.
Kitchen with eat-in dining area, bay window.
UPDATE: 11:15am, 3 July – Wow, what a rush of busy days. Everything is moved, appliances are in, and the important things are setup and working—the computer (and internet), the new HD TV and tuner, and the coffee pot.
Lost in translation…
Michael sent me this line of text in German yesterday…
Auslieferung oder Würfel!
Now, me knowing absolutely ZERO German (except swear words, of course), hit up Google Translate. Google returned:
Extradition or cubes!
Distribution or cube!
Are you obsessed with the Internet?
Note: The research is real, but this post is a mix of my opinions and a bit of jest. Take it as you will. Thanks to Michael for pointing this out to me this morning.
Apparently “internet addiction” is real (or real enough for doctors to charge you for a visit). While the c|Net article is a citation of a citation of an American Journal of Psychiatry article, you can find the original research article here (there’s a link to the full PDF available as well).
According to the journal extract, the characteristics of someone with internet addiction are:
Conceptually, the diagnosis is a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder that involves online and/or offline computer usage and consists of at least three subtypes: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations, and e-mail/text messaging. All of the variants share the following four components: 1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives, 2) withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible, 3) tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use, and 4) negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue.
Do you know someone who’s addicted? Honestly, this sounds like most everyone I work with and even my 74 year old father. While I see the “characteristics” in most everyone, I wonder what the qualifying limits are—how much is “excessive use”?
My job requires me to be online eight hours a day—is that excessive? Should I only work 1–2 hours a day to prevent this mental illness?
I used to spend hours and hours online researching for reports, projects, and such for college—is that excessive? During those times, I did tend to lose track of time, but was that a result of the internet or my depth into my topic of study? Honestly, if I was in a library with books, I’d probably lose track of time just as easily.
I do feel a bit lost without my cell phone or instant messaging. I’m not sure it’s “addictive,” but I’m used to JIT communication that postal mail seems pointless. For example, I did my taxes over the weekend—why would anyone EVER mail their taxes in anymore now that it can be done online or via a third-party product (TurboTax, etc) for free? They even offer auto-withdrawal (/sulk) or auto-deposit. That’s not addictive, that’s just productive!
Now, to the fourth point—negative repercussions. I believe that “lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue” are quite negative, but that the problem lies deeper than simply someone who doesn’t get out enough. So often I think we blame the technology or the tools rather than focusing on the individual and norms. To be totally honest, I’d easily classify as an “addict” under these stipulations—except the negative repercussions: I can’t think of an instance I’ve lied about my usage, I assume I do well at work (I’m still employed) and managed a 4.0 honors in my masters program, I’m rarely socially isolated, but do enjoy time away from humanity, and well, okay, fatigue has got me—there’s never enough hours in the day to sleep!
With most research, it is important to keep in mind that correlation does not imply causation and that an individual who surfs the web, uses email, upgrades their computer regularlly, gets pissed when the Internet service is offline (*cough*Cox Cable*cough*), and doesn’t get enough sleep may be an addict—or they could just be you.
So, are you an addict?
Pipe.Capacity == false || Pipe.ConnectionsTo(‘NetFlix’) > this
<rant>
A need came up today to test how Windows Server 2008 and some of our web apps handled. Republishing apps is pretty easy given their portability with the Deployment Packages, but simply getting the server going was a pain. Hardware shortage? Nah. Lack of a pipe—heck yeah.
I wonder if I can claim any sort of overtime for 352 hours…
We’ve been having huge internet bandwidth issues lately at work—our 100 MB pipe feels like the Pacific Ocean through a straw. I can usually deal with slow internet browsing (since most sites and services are blocked anyway), but when i need an ISO from Microsoft’s MSDN library, I usually need it right awayish. *sigh*
The fix?
Last time, the following resolved the problem: remoting into my home computer, starting the download, waiting 5 minutes while it downloaded at 2.8–3.2MB/sec, calling home and asking REALLY nicely for someone to put a DVD in the drive, setting it to burn, driving home (1+ hour), getting DVD, eating lunch, driving back (1+ hour).
Unfortunately, it’s a bit late in the day now—I’ll just do my testing tomorrow.
And that’s acceptable as a “way of doing business.” It could drive a person crazy. Honestly, while the field trip opportunity is nice, I’d rather things just worked here.
</rant>
