Winding Down, Weekend Brain Dump

Randomness ensues.

I taught a 2 hour session at work on COM scripting.  Everything from COM itself, to the DLL-ProgID-GUID-HKCR relationships to standard OOP stuff (classes, templates, properties, methods, all of it), and into invocation and interface processing.  Small group, so that went very well, and we had breathing room to explore questions, yet without falling off the wagon along the way.  It was good.

After that I taught another session on using a web application that I developed for a different (still small) group, which went very well.  I love face-to-face discussion.  Web/remote is ok.  Phone is lame.  E-mail is lame-er.

In that second session, I gathered more input for bug fixes, enhancements and new features in one hour than I received in months via web, email or phone.  Big corporate development teams:  You don't know what you're missing.  Focus groups are not the answer.  Direct, immediate, personal contact is the best.  It's the only real way to get quality input and have a quality, high-value discussion as well.

I switched the blog over to use the newest Blogger features with dynamic views, the new rendering layout, and the new analytics tools, and I have to say I absolutely LOVE it.  You might not be as impressed with the new look as I am, but behind the scenes, the administrative changes are fantastic.  Too nice to ignore, so I followed my typical "beta-tester" mentality and dove in head-first.  I am aware that the sidebar doesn't play well in Internet Explorer 9, but that's because IE9 doesn't handle HTML5 and CSS3 consistently with Chrome or Firefox (or Opera, I'm told).  I use IE9 and Chrome 16 at work about 50/50, but at home it's Chrome 16 100%.  I only fire up Firefox 7 to test page rendering and that's about it.  DISCLAIMER:  I'm not saying one browser is "better" than any other.  Everyone is free to like what they like.

I'm still a bit fried from three-plus hours of talking and pointing without a break.  I got home and hadn't eaten in six hours (not good, and not usual for me), and immediately gave into a cold glass of beer.  That wasn't a good idea either, but it seemed like it at the time.  Heh heh.

Still listening to Adam Carolla's podcast show every day.  Today he again brought up how suck-ass most 80's songs were, and I have to say that I now listen to them with new ears and most of them do in fact suck holy shit.  Not so much from a musical aspect, but lyrically they are bankrupt.  Those folks were not writing shit down back then, they were winging it and most of it sounds like a recorder was left on during a Narcotics Anonymous session.

Randomness ensues.  Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Birthday Blog

For some reason, Blogger dumped some of my earliest posts prior to December 24, 2007.  That's the oldest date for which it retains a posting at this point.  I should probably read the EULA/terms to see if they have a cut-off date for older posts.  In any case, from my best recollection, I started this blog in November 2006 and maintained it through now with a few manically depressive drop-outs and whatnot.  \

Since early 2008 I've tried to maintain a regular presence, especially throughout the period of unemployment between March and June of 2008.  As much as I hated it, the blog was somewhat of a therapy instrument (I apologize for dumping so many of my stupid hair-brained rants on you all - er - all three of you, that is).  Somehow, I overlooked the November anniversary date, which would have been four years.  Since my birthday is next week, I figured I'd just lump it together and wish my blog a belated happy birthday.  I'll have to drink an extra beer or three this weekend. 

In fact, I may be providing some technical assistance to some friends who are producing a beer-tasting podcast show.  They were going full-bore for a while and hit a road bump and had to put everything on hold.  But now they're firing the engine back up and they asked me to help with some tidbits.  I hope to have some interesting news and links to share soon.  Til then: CHEERS!

What Was “New” for Me This Past Week

• Paint.NET 3.5 was finally released (download) – I really love it!
• Testing SkyDriveExplorer.  Some (very) minor quirks, but nice (http://www.skydriveexplorer.com/)
• Updated my AppleTV to 3.0.  Finally!
• Updated my Blackberry 8830 to firmware 4.5.  Finally!
• Adjusted my Twitter-Admin setup (control my home computers via Twitter from the Blackberry, and monitor events as well)
• Posted updates to ASP and VBScript syntax definitions for TextPad (download)
• Installed Tigo-Tago to manage IDv3 tags on my AVI library (download)
• Got the family (only) van repaired.  Power steering pump and hoses, and water pump both failed.  Runs great now.
• Caught up on podcasts: Adam Carolla Show, No Agenda, CarCast, and Tech5
• Rode the bike for only 5 miles though.  Sucky.

Abs Of Beer - Episode 4 - All About Guiness

E004 - Teaser for Which Guinness is My Guinness from AbsOfBeerTV on Vimeo.

Ze Frank on Executing Ideas vs Brain Crack

I sure miss Ze's episodes of "the Show".  I think I watched every single clip and enjoyed [almost] every minute of them.  Thanks to LifeHacker for the recent re-post to remind of Ze.

Diggnation Clip Show

Stick it in Your Ear

I am really getting into podcasts.  They've become one of the most efficient ways to keep up with things in all corners of the world.  Technology in particular, but so much more.  Some of my favorite shows I subscribe to in iTunes are:

No Agenda

The Daily Source Code

This Week in Tech

Mac Break Weekly

Engadget

Windows Weekly

Diggnation

Tech5

Cranky Geeks

These are just on my iPod.  On the AppleTV I subscribe to dozens more.  Mostly the HD shows, but there's tons to choose from.  NASA JPL, PBS, Discovery, Revision 3, and hundreds of independent shows.  Everything from learning guitar, to cooking to world history.

The lastest AppleTV firmware makes it nicer because it will finally play podcasts and movies intended for iPod viewing (240 x 320).  The original firmware would balk and say "incompatible format".  It only took them two years to update it, or something like that.  Anyhow, podcasts are fantastic.  And when you think about it, they lower the entry point to make it possible for almost anyone to produce their own shows.  Viewers can decide what they like instead of some faceless suit in a penthouse suite doing it for us.  We're still not a true Democracy, but every little bit helps get us a little closer.

Cranium Drainium

Listening to No Agenda, one of my favorite podcasts. Great show this week.

Listening to the Twilight soundtrack. It's very good.

I saw Quantum of Solace with my son today. It's good, but I have a few issues with it. For one: too much jerky, jumpy, action camera crap. Second: the motorcycle jump onto the boat was totally unnecessary and useless. The suspension of disbelief was suspended during that part.

Great interview with Ray Ozzie in one of the geek mags I get for free. I can't recall which one, because I ingest them quickly and toss them in the trash.  Great use of trees, especially for something covering technology.  Go figure.  And speaking of free IT mags, have you ever tried to cancel a subscription to one of those? You can't. I've tried to cancel three of them and they still send me the "Urgent! This could be your last issue, act now!" That was 14 issues ago. They're still canceling me. I suppose it's a slow process.

I had to attend a one day "training class" on Office 2007 a week ago. It was interesting. Mostly the view of the "city center" water fountain and fantastic layout of the park that surrounds it. It was tough to focus on the subject matter.

Looks like "comfort items" fared well in the markets recently. Beer, fast food, video games, movie rentals, pizza deliveries. Mental escapes are profitable.

Dell's new Studio Hybrid is pretty cool, and affordable. They're running a special with a Core 2 Duo CPU, 3 GB RAM, a 250 GB SATA drive, built-in wireless, and a 19-inch monitor for $799. Not bad.  I look at that and I can't see why in the world I would ever consider spending twice that much for an Apple product.  Nothing wrong with Apple products, but the cost is out of my realm of reality.

Obama isn't even president yet and he's got a podium with "Office of the President Elect".  Wow.  That's not even a real entity.  Totally made up.  Nobody cares.  I really hope he is successful.  I hope any president is successful.  Why would any American want their president, whoever it is, to fail?  I don't understand that mindset.  Even if you don't care for the candidate, the race is over, adjust.  I agree with South Park's take on it:  Obama and McCain are part of the same syndicate and are planning a heist.  The whole election was a ruse to distract everyone.  LOL.

Rumors are pegging oil heading for $30 a barrel.  Amazing.  I doubt that seriously. Before it gets to that point, OPEC will shut off the pipelines and do another embargo.  Why wouldn't they?

I'm going to bed.