After poking at different ideas for this blog, it seems doomed regardless of what I do. I accept full blame for not having maintained it very well, nor sticking to a common theme. But let’s face it, the name “skatterbrainz” should be kind of obvious, right? Oh well. I may continue to post something once in a while, but without much feedback it’s hard to plot a course for future effort and my future time is becoming extremely compressed anyway. For those of you that have posted feedback over the past year or two: thank you very much. For those that sent e-mails, thank you as well. I just don’t have anything to share online it seems. I’m really not doing anything exciting that stokes the ideas to write about. I’m pretty much living a routine life at the moment. Work, eat, sleep, kids baseball and chores. In between is commuting (64 miles every day) and I’m getting burned out. If anything exciting happens, I’ll post about it. In the meantime: God speed, God bless and stay well. Cheers!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Friday, March 26, 2010
Creating Autodesk 2011 Deployments
Here’s a rather nice demonstration of how to create deployments for Autodesk 2011 products. It’s posted on the Autodesk YouTube channel site…
Autodesk RSS Feed Links Broken?
…and speaking of Autodesk Support articles: has anyone else noticed that when you subscribe to their Support Articles RSS feed, that NONE of the links they publish actually work?
AutoCAD DXF Specification Gyration
Autodesk recently released documentation for the DXF format specification, in HTML and CHM (HTML-HELP) formats. They also have a rather nice online repository as well.
Online: http://www.autodesk.com/techpubs/autocad/acad2000/dxf/index.htm
Win Help: http://www.autodesk.com/techpubs/autocad/dxf/dxf2000hlp.exe
HTML: http://www.autodesk.com/techpubs/autocad/dxf/dxf2000htm.zip
Source Support Article (TS63479): http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=2882295&linkID=9240617
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Health Care Reform and, whatever
Quick, without looking this up (i.e. cheating): what are H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872 in reference to? See how good your governmental knowledge is.
Give up?
Let me ask you this: Have you at any time in the past year spoken up, either in favor of, or opposed to, the proposed Health Care Reform efforts being battled over in the House and Senate?
Did you know what those two numbers in the first paragraph are about?
Have you read them?
Have you read EVERY SINGLE WORD in BOTH of them?
Do you make it a habit to form opinions of things you are not completely and directly informed about? Do you make it a habit of forming your opinions based on what you absorb from TV, radio, the Internet, your co-workers, friends, family, neighbors, teammates, and roadside signage?
When you say “I have an open mind” and “I listen to the other side”, do you REALLY do that? No, seriously. Do you shut up and actually listen to every word the “other side” says? Or do you listen to a few words and then start commenting over top of the rest of what they’re saying?
When someone disagrees with your views, do you internally shake your head in frustration over their inferior intellectual grasp of the situation? Do you feel superior?
When was the last time you spent a Saturday or Sunday morning watching an entire opposing political interview, without interruption or distraction?
When was the last time you had a friendly conversation with someone you know is diametrically opposed to your political views, without it devolving into anger or resentment? When was the last time you attempted to find a common ground?
I say this, because I have yet to meet ANYONE on this planet, even in my narrow travels, that truly exhibits what even they believe is having an “open mind”.
For example: I have yet to find anyone who has expressed either strong support for, or vehement rejection of, the Health Care Reform effort, who has actually read ANY PORTION of ANY of the bills being batted around. I certainly have not met anyone that has honestly claimed to have read all of them (yes, it’s not in one cohesive piece).
I have personally (and painfully) read all of one of them, which is H.R. 3590. When I first read it, it was around 1980 some-odd pages. As of March 2010, it stands at roughly 2409 pages. I have read portions of 4872 as well, which as of March 2010, it stands at around 153 pages.
Here they are. If you have a brain, and prefer to use it, you might consider reading these documents with your very own God-given eyeballs. Then again, maybe you prefer to be told what to think. I’d bet that if you were “for” this effort beforehand, you’ll be “against” at least part of it after reading ALL of it. And I’d bet if you were “against” it beforehand, you’d be “for” at least part of it, after reading ALL of it. It is a mixed bag after all.
If you choose not to read these documents, and still intend to speak out in favor or rejection of them, I will simply remind you to simply STFU. I get more intelligent information from a good bowel movement than from your speaking.
Conclusion
Because the first phase of this “bill” has passed, it now undergoes “reconciliation” to get it through the second approval phase. That’s where the GOP will force it to be watered down and diluted into a meaningless shell of its original goal. It will pass because the Dems will do anything to avoid it getting sent back to step 1, so they’ll cave into GOP pressures for revising it, and continue the “save face” appearance that it is unstoppable.
That’s about as much as I really care about this whole f-d up subject.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Working IT Moms
I am all in favor of women in the IT business. I'm all in favor of anyone in the IT business...SCHTASKS vs AT vs WMI - We All Lose
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Gimme One Good Reason…
I track all my online crap with Google Analytics and try to make sense of the traffic loads. I can’t. It’s impossible. The relationship between topics posted and traffic loads (regardless of type) is non-existent. I can’t even trace peak traffic against any one topic.
So, I have to ask you, a reader: What topics do you find interesting enough to get you to read my rubbish? Are you tripping over it from a random web search? Are you a regular visitor? Do you follow links from other web sites? Help me understand why you’re here and what you would like to see posted?
Each year I’m finding my spare time becomes less and less. My kids are getting older and I have more demands placed on my time at work, at home and on side projects. On top of this I’m getting older and don’t have the energy I used to have even a few years ago. I’ve pretty much bailed on Twitter because I just don’t have anything to contribute there anymore. I like things which are socially interactive, which Facebook is (for the most part), but not Twitter. I just didn’t get a significant interaction there. I don’t mean to slight anyone, the few that did interact with me there are fantastic people and I still follow their tweets, but I just don’t have any desire to tweet anymore.
I know I’ve said this about blogging before as well. But I’m getting more and more pragmatic about all of it as time moves on. I’m trying to rationalize why I continue to post to this blog, as well as the other blogs I deal with. I’m going to simplify my life this year, and my online presence is definitely going to be reduced as a result.
The amount and content of feedback I get from this post will directly decide the fate of this blog. The future of mediocrity is in your hands.
Brain Emptiness
Sing this to the tune of “O-lay, O-lay, O-lay….”
“Mer-lot, Merlot, Merlot, Mer-looooooooooott.” (repeat)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Stagnant Technologies We Love
With so much emphasis on how vast our technological prowess has encompassed the world in which we live, I thought might be a good time to keep us a bit grounded by reminded us of some of the really shittier things we just seem to ignore and live with…
Computer Keyboards – Sure, they’ve been morphed into ergonomic, multi-function button mega boards, but they still fill up with dust, crumbs, and hair. Why haven’t we found a way to make them ALL so they don’t need to be blown out with compressed air all the time?
Toasters – While the oven, stove-top, coffee maker, and even egg poachers have enjoyed a lot of attention, it still takes the same amount of time to toast a slice of bread as it did in 1950.
Desktop Computers – I have a Dell Inspiron Zino HD compact desktop, which I absolutely love. It reminds of an Apple Mac Mini combined with an AppleTV, only cheaper and prettier (and runs cool to the touch). But 99.9 percent of all desktop computers worldwide are the same old tired ATx style bulky cases with wasted parts and inefficient assembly processes. Why does a desktop computer need to be any larger than the base of a laptop? For 99.9 of average users that’s all they need (probably more than they need).
Deodorant/Antiperspirant – Aluminum Zirconium Hydroxide. Same stuff that’s been in use since the Cold War.
The Wax Toilet Bowl Ring – It was probably used as a teething ring by cavemen after they ate all the honey from a hive.
The Clothing Belt – Pin and Hole, Press Latch, Slip Latch or Velcro. Nothing really to brag about to our future offspring. Yay! We know how to keep pants up. Oh wait, I forgot, it’s not cool to keep your pants up anymore. Nevermind.
Car Driving – It still requires humans. Humans fuck up and crash more often every second of every day than all of the worst Windows 3.11 computers that have ever existed in the world combined. Wake me up when something really innovative happens. Something like not having to drive them. No steering wheels. No drunk drivers. No car chases.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Memories: 26 Years Ago Today
In March of 1984 I was playing drums in a band named “Tracer”. We played in and around the Hampton and Newport News areas of Virginia. Sometime during that same month, we had a house party which drew around fifty or sixty people. One guy who showed up was a well-known fixture in the area, who almost never wore a shirt, only worn-out jeans and white cowboy boots. They were snakeskin boots actually. We nicknamed him “Snakeboots”. Snakeboots was usually stoned or drunk or both. I don’t recall ever seeing him *not* intoxicated with something.
Snakeboots came, saw and conquered: a bottle of Tiquila. As he tried to leave the house, he staggered feabiliy to the backdoor which was through the small kitchen. He reached to hold onto cabinets, counters and walls because he was pretty drunk. But he slipped on a puddle of beer and landed his forehead on the corner of the countertop, right before the back door, with enough force to feel the impact through the floor with our feet, standing 12 feet away. He stood back up quickly, but with half-opened eyes, and turned to say “I’m alright, dudes”. We could easily see the white “V” indentation in his forehead where the blood had not yet rushed back into the area where it once filled. We didn’t see him again until the following morning. Some kids knocked at the front door and asked “is he ok?” and pointed to Snakeboots, passed out, face down in the middle of the front yard. He only had one boot on. The other boot was in the backyard.
It was a great party.
Changing Gears a Bit
I have worked with ASP and PHP web development for quite some time. It helped me support my family during the brief layoff I experienced in 2008, and has continued to help. I categorize web development into two general types: Intranet (internal facing), and Internet (external or public facing). I have always considered myself better equipped to work with Intranet projects than Internet projects, but I’ve always had more Internet projects on my plate for some reason. But some recent events have pushed me to reevaluate my stance on accepting new projects. I’m not going to delve into the events or the reasons, but in basic terms: I’m not taking on any more Internet projects except in an advisory role. There’s just not enough benefits left these days to outweigh the drawbacks. I don’t have inclination to spend time on digressing into the reasons, and I really am not obligated to either. So, that’s just what it is. Intranet projects are fine. Internet projects: no more.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Monopoly: A Definition
Merriam-Webter’s defines “Monopoly” as follows:
“exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action”
Here’s why Microsoft, Adobe and Google are NOT monopolies:
- None of these companies rose to their positions of prominence as a direct or indirect of “legal privilege”. Any laws they benefited from were applicable to all other companies of their industry .
- None of these companies exercised a “command of supply” in the sense that they control no entity or object which cannot be circumvented, or excluded.
- These companies did NOT control their rise to prominence as a result of “concerted action”. They rose due to customer support. Period.
Let’s face it: From PURELY FACTUAL STANDPOINT (rhetorical emotion aside) – Microsoft Windows has never been the only PC operating system. Office has never been the only Office Productivity Suite (spreadsheet, word processor, etc.) available on the market. In fact, there have many times been FREE alternatives.
At all times in the past 20 years, consumers, businesses and government entities have had the option of purchasing products by other vendors. Apple Mac, Linux, UNIX, among others. WordPerfect, OpenOffice, Star Office, etc.
Consumers, businesses and government entities CHOSE to buy these products. And as a result of some of them establishing standard processes, others followed suit to remain “compatible” and reduce operational costs due to inefficiences.
The spirit of the laws which seek to prevent or remedy monopolistic practices is based on preventing any one entity from “unfairly gaining a dominance of their market”. How is it unfair if they wound up in a dominant position as the result of consumers choosing them?
We put them where they are.
The term “monopoly” has been skewed into a completely incorrect definition in the minds of the media and the general public.
Let’s say that YOU decide to produce a software product and put it on the market. Let’s also say that consumers go crazy over it and decide to snap it up like drinking water in the desert. And let’s say over time none of your emerging competitors can manage to pull a significant share of your market away. Maybe they suck. Maybe they’re fighting internal corruption and ineptitude. Whatever. You end up being the dominant player in your market. Now you are labeled a monopoly and must be punished. This is how the law is interpreted today.
Did these companies abuse their ethical boundaries in the course of their growth? Sure. Did they play unfair at times? Yes. Were they punished for it? Most certainly. But were they EVER the ONLY option from which to choose? Never.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Accomplishments of the Week: March 12, 2010
- I wrote a few thousand lines of VBScript code
- I wrote a few hundred lines of ASP (ok, VBScript also)
- I wrote a few hundred lines of KiXtart code
- I added more functions to my Twitter API script library
- I treated half of my backyard deck before the rain arrived
- I continued reading “Bradbury Stories” (about 20 so far)
- I decided to work on updating “The Visual LISP Developer’s Bible” for AutoCAD 2010. The standing edition is for AutoCAD 2004. Been awhile. I also moved the web page to its own Google Sites home.
- I finished up three more pieces of artwork
- I’ve been exploring more of GrooveShark.com
- I, I , I I I I I I I I IIiiiiiiiii…. whatever
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Retarded Idiots in Charge
So, I'm sitting at yet another traffic light and notice the car in front me has a bumper sticker that says:
"Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less."
So, I have to ask the obvious dumbass question: What makes anyone think, for one second, that getting oil in our own backyard will translate into cheaper prices at the pump? What is that idiotic bullshit "logic" based on?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those environmentalist wackos. I’m not chaining myself to the pier to protest drilling off of our shores. Based on the trash I see flying from car windows every day I think most of you aren't either. This has nothing to do with fighting offshore drilling or any of that. It’s really about focusing on understanding the insanity behind making such an enormous leap of rationale.
Bored yet? Try this:
Drop some *OFFICIAL* statistical numbers into a spreadsheet and then make a chart to show the overlapping relationship between each of the series. Include the following series for 2007-2008:
- Unemployment rate
- DJI market numbers
- Housing starts and sales
- GDP vs CPI
- Average gasoline price
Go ahead, I'll wait... (finger's tapping... Hmmm mmmm mmmm...)
Ok, done? Good. Notice anything? Do you see any *consistent* relation between the economic data and the price of gas yet? Exactly my point. Consistency is my point. In fact, take a look at the peak profit points for Exxon-Mobil with respect to the concurrent economy. When we were suffering, the oil companies were posting record profits. And I mean "record".
That’s right. When you and I were shelling out $4.00+ for a gallon of gas at the pumps, Exxon-Mobil posted not just their largest profit ever, they posted the largest profit of ANY COMPANY IN AMERICAN HISTORY. This is all public information. Go find it yourself, like maybe here.
So, getting back to my original point: There is absolutley ZERO historical basis on which to draw a conclusion that oil companies will pass along big savings, hell: ANY savings, to consumers. They will almost certainly pocket the difference as profit and shareholder dividends.
What’ll happen is this:
Like OPEC did when the U.S. tried to jump-start oil production in the Gulf of Mexico: they dropped barrel prices drastically, making it impractical to continue pumping it from the gulf. Anyone who was around in the 1980’s remembers this. Shit, almost everyone in my region who hails from Texas either came here as a result of shutting down the oil rigs down in the Gulf or from being in the military. But in the early 1990’s it was mostly from a downed oil market. As soon as OPEC gets a whiff of U.S. domestic drilling, they’ll drop the price and we’ll run back to mama again. The only wildcard here is offset demand from China, maybe. We’ll see.
They may get to drill, and have a few accidents (oops!? sorry about that) and destroy our beaches, but who cares. We have that dream of cheap gas to keep us happy as we drive past roped-off beach areas and mansions owned by families of big oil companies. It’s what we want, right? I mean, after all, it’s not like oil facilities have ever had any accidents or harmed anything. That’s all fluff. Right?
So, let them drill and suck in some additional “domestic oil” to offset their coffers. But don’t expect to see American gas prices drop as a direct result.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Putting Technology to Everyday Use: Twitter
I’ve already discussed Twitter on this blog and on my other other blog (Scriptzilla), but I wanted to describe a process I’ve been using to keep control over my home network even while I’m out and about. The Twitter API provides a robust set of tools for reading, composing and managing tweets and direct messages (aka “DM’s”). The meat of this is in their API Documentation and can be leveraged with almost any existing scripting or programming language.
I posted a few examples for how to read and send Twitter DM’s for Windows computers using VBscript. You can just as easily do this with KiXtart or PowerShell (but not as directly), and tie your processes to events such as logons, startups or event-triggers or whatever. I use UberTwitter to manage my home network from afar by having it send me event DM’s and listening for my commands. You can use any mobile Twitter client or web/desktop Twitter client however, even the Twitter web site itself. How you get there is irrelevant. A mobile client on your smartphone is the ideal way though.
For example, I can tweet (DM) my server’s Twitter account to do a “hand-in-the-face” for one of my kids when they step out of line (skip chores, skip homework, act disrespectful, letter sent home from school, etc.). The workflow is something like the following…
The third block in this flowchart is actually multiple steps. They are described more thoroughly in my other blog posts. Basically that “block” involves a scheduled task that keeps a watch on the Twitter DM inbox, looks for specifically formatted messages, parses the message for specific phrases that indicate coded instructions (you make that up as you see fit), and executes a corresponding script action to do the work. Then the computer deletes the DM (so that it doesn’t keep reading it every scheduled cycle), and (optionally, but recommended) the computer sends a DM confirmation back to my other Twitter account, letting me know it got the instruction and processed it.
The key to this process is careful planning, setting up, testing, testing and more testing and then making sure everything is locked down securely. Make sure you set your computer’s Twitter account as private (locked) and it only follows your regular (human) Twitter account. You have to follow your computer’s Twitter account also (and have it accept the request), so you can exchange DM’s. If you use “tweets” instead of DM’s, you’ll be leaving yourself wide open to hacks and accidental catastrophes.
If you find this stuff interesting or useful, post a comment and share your thoughts.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Dell Zino HD: Day 2
I liked it on Day 1. I love it more on Day 2. The Apple TV is now permanently history. Relegated to a back shelf, under a suitable layer of dust. To shed some light on it’s net worth: I posted a “for sale” ad on Craig’s List for it at $100. Not a single offer came in. Major, no, wait: HUGE Apple failure. I’m sorry, but they don’t deserve a free pass over that piece of shit. And they referred to it recently as “a hobby”. Wonderful. If Ballmer said that the pro-Mac press would have shit their pants and treated it like Jesus himself walked out of Cupertino with golden iPad tablets in each arm.
Where was I? Oh yeah…
The Zino rocks. A great value. Runs like a rocket. Quiet. Unobtrusive. Easy. Like a computer should be.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
From the Old into the New
During the late 1980’s into the early 1990’s I was a very busy guy in world of art. Not that I was famous or even “professional” by any means. Just that I was “busy” and cranked out a lot of work. I had juices flowing then like a mo-fo. Then came kids, college and career focus. I put it on the back burner ever since. After a recent trip to a local museum with my son I got some of the juices flowing.
The downside was hours and hours with my eyeballs no more than 3 inches above the paper surface. My eyesight was pre-destined for bad times given the 20/400 nearsighted astigmatism my mother handed down to me. This only added more to the mix and I hit the spectacles before 15 years of age. I’ve worn glasses ever since.
I have volumes of work stuffed away in all sorts of places, as well as works I’ve given to family and friends over the years. I’d love to get some of them scanned and sent back to recall those I’ve forgotten. But I digress.
So anyhow, all of that work was 2D. I’ve had some ideas to move that into mediums with more “depth”, but I hate the term “3D” so I won’t use it. More of a layered approach than outright stand-out objects and shapes. Maybe a subtler approach. I got to playing with some out-takes from my old scrapbooks and layered them on top of some things I was messing around with and I think I’m on to something I really like. You might hate it, but that’s cool too. Art is about the subjective obviously.
The only name that came to mind about these three pieces is “3-steps”. From what to what, I haven’t got a clue. Just 3 steps. It’ll have to do. I’m pumped. I’m not really content with the results, in some respects, but it’s given me ideas to pursue that have me really excited.
I’ve begun setting up a workspace and got some materials gathered to start working again. I’m excited. Baseball season is fast approaching, so I’ll have to juggle my time a little more carefully to keep this going, but it’s worth it for me. If you’re hooked up on Facebook, I have more art posted in my Photo library as well. I’ll post more as I finish them up.
Virginia Beach Wishlist
Maybe someday if I win the lottery, I’ll be able to make these reality. For now though, it seems nobody is concerned with any of this stuff besides me:
- Make it easier to pay ALL of our municipal bills online, from one location.
- Clean up the mess they call a “web site”. Compared to other city web sites, like San Diego or New York our web site looks like it was designed by a committee.
- Fix the Rosemont / 264 interchange
- Build a *real* interconnected system of paths to make it possible to bike, walk or jog across the city without getting run over.
- Either establish dedicated bus lanes on all major roads, or put in a rail system. Or just don’t bother. Anything else is bullshit.
- Put some real effort into Mt. Trashmore Park, not just token effort.
- Build a Target or Walmart in place of the ghetto HQ lot near Town Center. How long is that crap going to sit their like a festering sore?
- Build a Great Wolf Lodge somewhere on the south-side, preferrably near the beach. Some sort of indoor water park for the crappy Winter season. Keep people coming to the beach even when the weather sucks.
- Do something interesting with Pembroke Mall. Rebuild it like Short Pump Mall or something not so boring and dead. Join it up with Town Center (hint: walk-over bridge). It’s right smack in the middle of the busiest area of the city. Make it a crown jewel of attraction. Mall of America style. or something. It feels like a trip into the 80’s right now.
- Remember what made this a great city to live in: Parks, Libraries, Recreation, Wildlife, Beaches. Keep that at the top of your agenda and focus everything around that.
Certification Regurgitation
This is the MS certification track I followed and completed…
MCSA (4 exams) – July 2008
- 70-270 - Windows XP
- 70-290 - Windows Server 2003 (manage & maintain)
- 70-620 - Windows Vista
- 70-291 - Windows Server 2003 (network infrastructure, dns, dhcp, rras)
MCITP – Server Administrator (3 exams) – October 2009
- 70-640 - Windows Server 2008 (configuring AD)
- 70-642 - Windows Server 2008 (network infrastructure)
- 70-646 - Pro: Admin Windows Server 2008
MCITP – Enterprise Administrator (2 exams) – February 2010
- 70-643 - Windows Server 2008 (app infra: wsus, iis, sharepoint, etc.)
- 70-647 - Pro: Enterprise Admin (review test)
Normally the EA set consists of 3 exams, but the third exam is a toss-up of 620 or 680. Since I had passed 620 already I didn’t need it.
For me, the toughest exams were 291 and 642. However, 647 was the trickiest. I failed it the first try by one question. However, I did try to make it through while going head-first into a bad stomach Flu, so I tried to hurry up half-way through. I passed it the second time about two weeks later, after studying every spare minute I had. The trickiest part of 647 is reading the questions. The wording throws you off.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Common Phrases to Watch Out For
“Takes *** to a whole new level”
Translation: Level Zero
“You can’t afford NOT to”
Translation: When you pay for this, you won’t be able to afford anything else.
“It sells itself”
Translation: Because the sales-guy is an idiot.
“It’s a no-brainer”
Translation: It was made by people without brains.
“Costs pennies on the dollar”
Translation: 99 to 100 cents per dollar
“Significant” or “Significantly”
Translation: Barely noticable, possibly measurable