207 posts
I've lost mine, and am trying to find it again. I loved when I was blogging regularly, and being an active part of a thriving community. Over the last few years, that has slipped away from me. I haven't made a blog post in ages, and don't feel like I'm much a part of any community at all.
So I've had a problem on a recent project ever since I started using Authorize.net's recurring billing system. While it works fantastically for the most part, I've had issues with canceling subscriptions during their nightly billing process. The issue at hand is that Authorize.net doesn't actually cancel a subscription if a transaction is declined. They leave the subscription active and will just continue to try again and again until the subscription actually ends.
Hurry up September...
This is an awesome bookmarklet that helps get all of the crap out my way when I'm trying to focus on an article. Enjoy :)
Nifty little Web Development Project Estimator.
Sorry for the noise. This is a test to see if the Twitter plugin will send the post title.
Nice synopsis by John Gruber regarding copying other designs/applications instead of blazing your own path.
People please... if you ever write this code:
After months of having serious issues with Keychain Access hanging my machine for 15 minutes at a time, I finally found the solution. The problem presents itself when you choose to allow a software program to access your keychain after you get the "Software on your computer has changed and wants to access your keychain" dialog. Clicking Allow results in a complete system hang that can only be remedied by a reboot.
Just testing to see if this shows up at Twitter.
Sometimes there's just no other way, and you should just Give Up and Use Tables
Oh yeah, we did!
I just thought you should know that...
That's right. A big fat yes to go with the big fat ring...
Just in case you need some assurance, has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?.
A ploy by Meetup to try and get me to go outside, Unplug your friends is a clever way to let the geek in your life know that they're getting pasty and pale... Get those geeks some Vitamin D!
My brother is a new mac user, and is starting to get into recording and audio engineer stuff I don't know anything about. I know he has lots of big files though, and needs to know how to back them up. So I was telling him about my current backup strategy, and figured I should write up a post about it for posterity's sake.
I was watching Law & Order last night and saw a commercial for Rock Band 2. It looks like the RB2 release date is September 14th. Just an hour earlier I'd gone to GameStop, traded in some old games, and reserved by bright and shiny new copy. Hopefully my new drum kit is here at the same time.
Today I gave my two week's notice at lynda.com. After 2 and a half years there it's time to move on. I've learned a lot about enterprise application development in my time at lynda.com. Working on CF clusters and SQL Server 2005 upgrades and cluster management. Through all the trials and tribulations (moving to Austin, starting a team, and disbanding a team), I grew a lot and have become a better developer for it.
Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that
It looks like my new addiction is getting closer to released. It looks like all of the pieces for the new Drum Rocker kit from Ion are available, which means an additional cymbal as well as a double bass pedal. Maybe with a double bass pedal I can make it through some of the tougher speed metal songs and won't be so exhausted at the end of Green Grass and High Tides :)
Can you help find this man...
My girlfriend's ex-husband's girlfriend had a brand spankin' new baby today at 6:31. Isabella Johanna Buraglia is 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long. I'll be booking our trip to The Springer Show soon :).
I have a problem, and it's ColdFusion... We're working on some complex object interaction, and moving data in and out of our objects. Part of the "moving in" part involves building out a structure of arguments based on query columns, and then passing them all in via the ArgumentCollection. Unfortunately, ColdFusion doesn't love us here at lynda.com... It's pitching a fit and saying that our IDs aren't of type numeric, when I know damn well that they are (grumble grumble)...
I'm having an absolute bear of a time getting Eclipse to play nicely with Subversion, Eclipse, and an Ant build file. One of the wonderful things about working with Dreamweaver is the great FTP integration. I can upload, download, all that wonderful stuff, with a single keyboard shortcut directly in the IDE. I'm not having any such luck with Eclipse.
Yes, I signed them as well :)
As part of my new job, I got myself a MacBook pro and have been running Bootcamp on it over the last few days. All in all the experience is good, but there are issues with Windows running on the MacBook that bother me (bad sound drivers, and the fact that the clock resets on each startup). However, before I installed BootCamp I spent quite a bit of time on the Mac and got over some of my "floating windows" phobias. To that end, I'm considering going all the way and switching to OSX. So to get to my point, is there anyone out there that's recently been through this that can give me some pointers on what I might miss?
The hardest thing about learning anything OO related is simply getting over the language barrier. Anytime you talk to an OO afficionado, you always end up hearing a term you don't understand. My biggest problem with learning Model-Glue, Reactor and ColdSpring, three things I really want to start using, is finding out what IOC, AOP, DAO, Beans, Transfer Objects, Gateway Objects, and all of the other terms mean, so that I can actually make it all the way through the documentation. Google searches are alright, but I've never had one spot I could go to find out what it all meant.
Stephanie Sullivan has a post on her blog at Community MX regarding the survival of Fireworks. It looks like the future may be bright. Cross your fingers :).
A slacker kind, that's what... Kim Cavanaugh posted about my book being listed on Amazon waaaay back in August, and I didn't even know... Thanks for the mention Kim, oh, and buy his book too ;)
Business Week has a great interview with one of the owners of 37Signals on their design philosophy and why it's a good idea to keep things simple.
Fotolia is a new stock image site that just launched, and it looks like it offers quite a large number of high quality stock images right out of the gate. The prices seem reasonable, and none of the images are "rights-managed" which means they're royalty free, and if you buy a web only license, you can use it on the web how you please (at least that's how I read it). Looks like I have a new place to go to next time I need to make myself look good :).
This problem has plagued me for ages. After setting up a new site on my server, I could never reliably connect to any of the sites with RDS. Only a very few of the first sites that were set up on the server. I've been back and forth with Dreamweaver engineers and no one could ever seem to solve the problem. I spent an hour going through Google this evening, and no one had a sure fire fix for this ridiculously unhelpful error message...
My little lady was on the tube the other day, and now I'm famous too.
Don't you wish you had a geek for a girlfriend? :)
Finally, I can get a good night's sleep :). Cartweaver 2 PHP, a PHP shopping cart solution for Dreamweaver, is now for sale. Get your PHP on, and buy one today!
Schlomy Gantz has put out a nifty tool for managing Windows services from the taskbar. You can set up multiple snapshots that can turn services on and off at a whim. I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my list of toys to play with this week :)
I love me some iTunes... I listen to it all day, and have a hard time getting any meaningful work done if I don't have some tuneage (just watch the Now Playing list to the left). But the media controls on my keyboard don't always control iTunes the way I want it to unless iTunes is in mini mode, which also means that I can't minimize it so it's not in my taskbar.
Just thought I'd show off, and let everyone know that I've cranked up the geek factor down here in SoCal...
If you're down in the LA/San Diego area, I'm going to be infiltrating the March Mingle on Monday. If you're a Cartweaver'er (or something) just look for me in my fancy Cartweaver shirt and say hello. There are going to be some good giveaways, and there should be a lot of geek-ness going on. You can find out some more details on what's being given away at Angela's blog.
I'm posting this as much for my benefit as anyone else's. Everytime I reinstall CF I forgot how to change this. I love using the dockable CF debugging on my sites. It allows me to have all of my debugging information in a handy little popup window for reference. It's better formatted than the classic version, and I can stick it on my second monitor for reference as I go. However, it steals focus every single time a page loads. So, to disable this, just follow these simple steps:
This is my first post to the blog using the Dvorak keyboard layout and so far it's pretty darn painful. My fingers are too familiar with their old home keys and they keep wanting to go back there. However I can already see the benefit of using this layout. I rarely have to take my fingers off of the home keys. So, now that I'm sweating from typing this short post, It's back to the typing tutor for me :).
I've been using Dell computers for ages, and have always been happy with the products and services they provide. I got a letter today that makes me even more confident in their ability to take care of their customers.
Well so far so good... I've been signed up for the Free Mini Mac site for a week, and so far no spam :). I signed up with a throwaway account just in case, but hopefully I stay spam free. Still don't have enough people to get me a free Mac though :).
Hi everyone. I just thought I should let you all know that I am indeed still alive. It's been a crazy couple of months. Here's a quick rundown of what's been going on in the life of Dan over the last few months:
I'm finally done... Cartweaver ASP is now for sale at the new and improved Cartweaver.com.
Oh how I love Beyond Compare
It's saved large patches of my hair
It checks my files and keeps me sane
Without it my job would be a pain
Yes, I know it's punny, but I couldn't help it!!! I spent all day Saturday at Amity Vineyards picking grapes. Yep... picking grapes. Amity Vineyards has a Harvest Party every year where poor suckers like us get to go see what it's like to work in a vineyard, and I'll tell you, it's damn hard work. I believe we picked a grand total of 10 tons of grapes off of 3 acres, which Myron Redford will use to make Pinot Noir and other tasty wines.
Macromedia today announced a Non-Commercial License option for Flex. This should make it easier for developers to start getting into Flex-based development, so we can all find out what it's really capable of :). You may just end up seeing a Flex-based UI for Dan's Shorts.... oooooooooohhhh... who knows :). They also have a nifty little page that will help everyone understand exactly what an NCL license is, so we can all figure out if we're eligible.
Macromedia has just announced Captivate, the replacement for RoboDemo, and what a replacement it is. I've been using Camtasia for some time for doing instructional movies, but will most likely be switching to Captivate once it actually goes on sale :). They've added support for simulations, in-line audio recording, live screen capture on click-and-drag actions (sorely missing in RoboDemo) as well as the ability to import all of my old Camtasia recordings and convert them to Captivate movies.
Had a good night tonight at the Rhythym Lab taking Bongo lessons. I learned a very hard lesson though. Keep that thumb away from the Bongo when you're not playing Martillo. Tain't fun I tell ya...
Just thought I would let everyone know that I am indeed still alive and kicking. I just spent 10 days down in sunny Southern California getting work done for Lynda.com and Cartweaver (shhh... ASP). As soon as I got back I had to move into a new apartment, so I'm just now getting to a point where I can *gasp* breathe.
I had an issue with FireFox opening twice anytime I clicked a link in Outlook (or any other office program for that matter). Turns out it was due on an incorrect registry setting when FireFox makes itself the default browser. The FireFox team has a registry fix for it.
Well today I gave my one week notice at the day job. Starting on the 1st of June, I'm a free man. I'll be working for them on a contractor basis, but I'll no longer be there 8 hours a day, free to concentrate on my own work.
This is exactly what I want to do to my Jeep (or whatever vehicle may soon replace it). I have the iTrip FM tuner which works alright, but there are odd interferences, and you have to ditch whatever On-the-go playlist you have going in order to switch FM channels on those long drives. Not to mention that you still have power cables somewhere as well as some type of holder taking up space. The ability to hook right into the deck via an RCA cable would give you the clearest sound you can get out of the iPod, which would be fanstastic. I've seen rumors of Alpine coming out with an iPod capable deck, but no telling how far out that is...
For the longest time I kind of looked down my nose at Netflix, didn't really know why, just seemed like a goofy idea to me. Well I finally decided I'd try out their 2 week trial membership, and I must say I'm duly impressed. Here's a quick timeline for you:
Thanks to Eric Meyer for a link to a LiveJounral entry by Brad Chin. I've never been good with words when it comes to my own personal life/emotion. I can explain the workings of a database, SQL or the latest ColdFusion widget in glowing terms, but ask how I'm feeling today or what I think about the effects of an event on my own life, and words leave me. Brad says very well how I like to live my life...
I have found the portal to Nirvana... and it's Engadget. A gadget lover's dream :)
If so, then Dan wants YOU! <finger stype="pointing: at you;" /> (figuratively speaking of course). I'm looking for a few good killer apps for the Mac, because hey, I paid for the thing, I might as well tweak it out.
And I like it. I bought one of these.....
It's amazing to me how people get here. Here's what people searching through Microsoft use to get to my site:
That's right, I'm back from sunny (actually a little drippy) Ojai, California, and the recording bits of the Intermediate Dreamweaver MX 2004 training movies from Lynda.com are done. Who knew that sitting in a booth all day could be so exhausting. Now granted, I was in a booth with Garo Green, so that might explain some of it <wink />.
My good friends Michael and Eric got married on Friday :-D
I'll most likely be buying one of these posters and you should, too. My gay and lesbian friends have just as much right to have their love legally recognized as do those of a strictly hetero persuasion. It amazes me that government can so blatantly saction such bigotry as trying to amend the constitution to outlaw same-sex marriages... just makes my blood boil.
By far the oddest link to my blog ever, http://www.kelleyfurniture.com/Office-Deskeg.html ... can't quite tell why they did :)
I love tiny buttons, I don't know why, but they just make me feel good. And to feed my sickness, I found Taylor McKnight's Steal These Buttons.
I'm generally an apolitical person, but the 2000 election was a bit of an eye opener for me. I found it amazing that just one man could tip the balance between Bush and Gore, and that was Nader... So to keep Bush out of office this next election, be sure to let Nader know he should throw his support behind someone who can win, instead of siphoning votes from them.
I am the most famousest Dan Short in the WHOLE WORLD BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
I always knew that our countries were close, but this is ridiculous.
I took the Dreamweaver MX 2004 certification this morning, and I'm now certified again. I only scored 88% this time, but then again I finished the 90 minute test in 20, had a client meeting I had to get to (I'm blaming poor scheduling on my part).
The mat previews at Lary McKee Studios are working, so check it out and buy something for cryin' out loud :).
I've been in Amarillo since Wednesday visiting family for Thanksgiving, and all both of the Starbucks in Amarillo don't have T-Mobile wireless access. Can ya believe it? The noive of some Starbucks. I must say that I was lucky the golf pro shop next door didn't know how to properly secure their wireless router. At least I got to check my email :)
Just wanted to point a link to a good friend of mine who's site I just completed. Lary McKee Studios is run by (you guessed it) Lary McKee. He's a wonderful realist painter, and I just can't say enough how happy I am to have been able to provide him with a great new venue for his artwork. We actually have the original for Victorian Lady hanging in our living room. Check him out, and buy a print if the mood strikes you ;). They're all hand matted and framed by the artist himself.
That's right, I'm gettin' older :). So I decided to pretend I wasn't, and I'm off for a sk8 party (cooler if you say sk8 dontcha know). My dad warned me to be careful since I'm a little top heavy (can ya believe that, the punk...).
It's 1am, and the DWfaq Store is now taking credit cards. Buh bye PayPal.
Using Mozilla Firebird you now edit CSS live on a page. Press Ctrl+8 after installing the extension and you get a wonderful little sidebar with the CSS ready to hand edit. Changes are made instantly in the browser so you can see exactly what's going on as you type... just too damn cool... [Get Firebird here]
That's right, you can now reach this wonderful blog (full of powerful insight on so very many meaningful and important things) by going to DansShorts.com. aaaaaahhh... my own vanity domain... almost as good as a vanity license plate.
Macromedia has released an FAQ on the effects of changes that Microsoft has said they will be required to make due to the Eolas patent suit against them.
If you're in the Portland area and need a new entertainment center, check out ours.
If you didn't already know, there's a new addition to our family, a new VW Bug. Not only is it fun to drive, but I bet you remember when you were a kid and played that wonderful travel game "Slug Bug".
I woke up Thursday morning and my Comcast cable was out (this is the first time in 3 years so I wasn't too upset), and it just got fixed yesterday afternoon. Was odd being without an internet connection for that long. Can you believe, I actually read a book? All 600 pages starting Friday night and ending Saturday afternoon (it was Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, very good).
All of a sudden, o-matics are showing up everywhere.... My theme at DWfaq has been Snazz-o-matic for ages, and my blog's admin is Blog-o-matic. But now Zeldman is linking to List-o-matics and Layout-o-matics... Now that it's cool to be o-matic, do I need to evolve, or run with it? Oh the questions... the questions...
Did I spell that right? Anyway... if you're going to MAX, and you get into town a little early there's gonna be a party goin' on... I'll be there, will you?
Read several good articles this morning, most of which were linked to from other blogs, so many thanks to the bloggers with more connections than I've got :)
Studio MX has been officially launched. Find out more at Macromedia.com. I'll be giving some of my own impressions over the next week or two, but right off the bat I'll tell you this version is worth buying if for no other reason than the improved CSS support... nuf said for now.
Can you believe the kinds of things my dad posts to the blog???
Went to see Fleetwood Mac in concert last night, and damn they was tasty... I never realized how good a guitar player Lindsey Buckingham really is, and Stevie's still got it man. But Mick Fleetwood really stole the show for me. I'm a huge percussion fan anyway, and damn that guy can play... My hands are a little sore today from slapping on chairs, legs, you name it. It was so loud it was like getting an aural massage.... so worth the money for the tickets. I'm still speechless honestly.
Ain't he cuuuuuuuuuuuuute...
That's right... Saturday I took a break, so sue me :). Kris and I had lunch at the Todai seafood buffet, and I had more sushi than I ever have before. I only have a pic of the first plate I ate ;). After that, we walked around the mall, where I found some headphones from Bang and Olufsen that I simply must have. They may look small, but they sound like a concert hall in your head, and you can't even tell you're wearing them. They're just plain tasty...
Yes, I am still alive, but I've become somewhat of a social butterfly it seems, plus publishers don't think authors have lives :) (can you say major deadline over 4th of July weekend? I can...)
I got a new CD from my dad yesterday, which he said he and mom are listening to a lot, and it's pretty good stuff. Bob Shneider's Lonelyland from Austin Texas. This is totally not what I expected from my dad... he must be getting hipper in his old age ;)
I got the pictures up from our vacation. Enjoy yourselves :)
I just realized I'm being aggregated by Fullasgoog, how cool be dat?
Well Angela has a ton of pics up from TODCON Vegas. I'm sorry I didn't get to make it this year, looks like a good time was had by all. I'm particulary sad that I didn't get to meet/chat with Eric Meyer. I heard his sessions were awesome, and that his dinner decorum was exceptional (I'm a bit skeptical on that last one). Angela tells me he's a lot like me, but skinnier, so he must be fun :).
Thursday: More wineries, and a really long drive up to Bear Valley. We got above 6000 feet and down to 79 degrees... niiiiiiiice. Was great just to drive with nowhere to go in the convertible... can you tell I love our rented convertible?
Yesterday Kris and I took the short drive to Murphys California. Murphys is even smaller than Angel's Camp, but there are several wineries based out of the area, with tasting rooms and galleries. We went to Ironstone Vineyards and I think we probably hit the best vineyard first. They have gorgeous grounds, a small museum/gift shop set up, and it was just overall picturesque. There were also free tastings :). I wasn't overly impressed with their red wines, but we bought two whites that Kris liked. After that we grabbed two sandwiches (we should have shared one, they were huge) and sat out on one of their decks and ate lunch. All in all very relaxing.
Kris and I are at Angel's Camp now. It was a decent drive, but we had to keep the top up on the car due to our already reddened necks and the high temperatures. It's supposed to be in the upper 90s all week, and us Portlanders just aren't used to it :).
Yesterday was a bit more relaxed than Saturday :), we started the day with some room service breakfast (mmm mmm good), and then got cleaned up and drove to Oakland to visit a dentist Kris used to work with. Erik and Monica live in a posh neighborhood way up in the Oakland Hills, and their house backs up to a national park. There was a gorgeous view (I have some pictures) and had a great time visiting with them for a few hours. We got all caught up, met their 20 month old son Luc, and Monica is bursting at the seams with a new one on the way (due in 6 weeks she said). Hopefully we can keep in touch with them better in the future.
Kris and I arrived in San Fran yesterday, and immediately started playing with the controls on our rented convertible (a Chrysler Sebring ;). Kris has determined that she does indeed need a convertible now. It's just too shnazzy. :)
I finally got to have a bit of a break Sunday night, and Kris and I went and saw Jason Mraz. As Kris so deftly put it, "Before we went to the concert I liked Jason Mraz, now I love him." We had an absolutely wonderful time. The show was at the Roseland Theater downtown, a really small venue, without a bad view in the house. The music was loud and fun, and Jason is a fantastic showman.
We went to Schneider's Iris Gardens on the May 10th, 2003, to celebrate Mother's Day with Kris' mom. We spent several hours there looking at all the wonderful flowers. Unfortunately, many of the irises weren't blooming yet, so I got lots of pansy and columbine photos :).
I know, I've been remiss in my posting recently. Been too busy with client and the oh-so interesting political intrigues of the Dreamweaver Newsgroup. So quite a bit has happened in the last week or three.
Yep, and even in a table-less layout with multiple flash elements from full navigation to a 300k movie. :-D
<drool>Tivo's Home Media Option is now available.</drool> MP3's on the Bose in the living room during parties... YAY!!!!
I don't see why people have a problem with me and my shorts... not like I'm all that bad lookin'. I've been told my shorts have driven women wild and men insane... <wistful />
I sure the heck hope this is true, and not some cruel joke :). The articles states:
Let's see, we've got horrible customer service and slow connections, so let's fire all of our tech support.
I'm afraid that things have come to a head between my dad and I. I must have pushed him too far on the sushi scenarios (you'll never get me to admit I don't like it Dad). I think he's finally snapped, and in an effort to get back at me, he sent this email this morning
Got to work on a couple of sites that aren't my usual fare. They're both rap fan sites, one for Puff Daddy (what a goofy name) and another for Eminem, who I actually have a lot of respect for as a lyricist. I wouldn't want him watching my kids (if I had any) but I think he's hilarious and has a wicked wit.
Hope Al Gore isn't running for President again, cause I don't think I could vote for someone who uses a mac.
Aaaahhh... 9mm pistol magazines next to bright blue Tiffany's boxes... that's my babe... a study in contrasts.
Even though I'm not in a single picture they still managed to harass me. Wassup wif dat?
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
There's a really odd phenomenon (PHENOMENON!!!) I've noticed with geeks. If there are more than 3 in a room time seems to expand and contract at odd intervals. I looked up last night and it was 2:30am, and I was still awake. What's up with that? So I slept in this morning and skipped they keynote session (it should have been a session in itself, and not a keynote). I'm sitting in Joe and Angela's Killer Tips session right now. Always learn something good from that book :)
Are you?
Disclaimer: The following comment is more a commentary on my lack of extensibility understanding and Joe's sheer wealth of knowledge, and not a comment on the quality of his presentation :).
Jeremy's keynote didn't really do a whole lot for me. He talked about Internet 1.0 (the internet of the 90s) and what he sees as Internet 2.0 (the typical Rich Internet experience as well as web services).
I just ripped about 60 CDs in the last few days in preparation for my trip (gotta have tunes... never know what mood my strike) and I'm now having problems organizing it all. Sure, I have folders by Artist/Album, but explorer doesn't use all the wonderful information stored in the IDV3 tags.
I'm getting ready to head out for TODCON tomorrow, so of course I have to bring some movies. I'm hoping there's someone there local to Toronto that can bring some heavy duty speakers for a movie screening. My little laptop certainly won't do the trick :). Here's what I have in the CD carrier right now...
Looks like my dad was right... sushi can't do anything but lead to pain and misery... the raw Tuna has turned my hair red... woe is me!!! What to do?!?!?!.
After more than 2 years with my old site design, I've finally updated Web Shorts with a new look. Hope ya like it :)
For those of you not my family, please skip this post.
Had some more Sushi tonight (that's twice in less than a week pops ;). I wonder if there are any decent Sushi places in Toronto. Anyone? Anyone? Sushi?
That's right, I shuffled things around some more. Why? Why not?! It's my blog after all ;)
I've come to the realization that the passport clerks must take the same photography class as the guys at the DMV.
Tickets for TODCON MX North... you got yours?
Why doesn't the cat understand... I'm the one with the opposable thumbs... I'm in charge here...
Just upgraded (yep, *up*graded) from DSL to Cable. Did a few speed tests this morning and I was getting around 400k downstream on my DSL. Plugged in the new cable and Bandwidthplace.com says I'm getting better than 2gb. Hot diggidy damn...
And it's only 1 o'clock... Is it Friday yet?
Liquor and X-Box make it that way...
If you look really close at the book cover of Dreamweaver MX: Advanced ASP Web Development you just might see my name ;).
Just spending the day today wrapping up loose ends and getting ready to head for Seattle. Gonna spend Monday night through Thursday up there with the in-laws, and will be meeting the sis-in-law's boyfriend, so it should be fun.
I was the top scorer on the MM certification for the week I took the exam ;). My name will be listed in the annals of history at the Certification Challenge Archives. once it moves off of the main page. We've all gotta have our moment in the sun, no matter how small right?
For the longest time I've been considering a dual monitor setup for my system at home. I currently have a 17" LCD, and I've been considering adding a second video card an a 15" LCD to compliment it. Well, I was looking for a 15" LCD at Dell this morning (I have a Dell Dimension, and my monitors must match dontcha know) when I ran across a sweet 18" dual monitor setup. It runs about 2 grand, but my mouse finger is twitching... I'll be reworking that budget for next year, and hopefully Dell will have a post-christmas sale :). I can dream right?
Hurry Friday... hurry. I'm ready for my field trip.
Now that I've passed my Certification I wonder if I get a secret decoder ring (95% btw).
Got the last chapter turned in today and whooped my brother-in-law at Halo and Dead or Alive :). Glad to have everything turned in, but I'm just waiting for the other ball to drop and a whole ton of stuff back to fix (hoping not :). The editors told me to enjoy my Thanksgiving while they slave away, so I'm gonna ;).
Kris and I decided to have our first Thanksgiving dinner at our place, and wouldncha know... something had to go wrong. We were halfway through cooking the turkey when the oven, you guessed it, quit working. Luckily we had already cooked the pie, but the turkey was only halfway done and we hadn't cooked the stuffing yet.
Got my final chapter turned in on Thursday (a day early even) and turned in my first review chapter today. Just gotta review three more (and hope they accept them) and I'm done and onto other projects.
Kris got me the extended DVD edition of Lord of the Rings, and that's some damn good stuff. They've gone back and added more than 30 minutes of new content to the movie. Now they didn't just drop the stuff in there, they actually went back and completely produced them. They rewrote the musical score for the film to tie them in, finished the visual and aural effects, the whole bit. The new scenes really add a lot of additional character development (who would have guessed Gimlee was really a softy ;).
Well JK's back home and up to his usual antics. He sounds fantastic and had me in stitches the entire time we were on the phone. He told the doctors "Ya can't kill a bad weed..." and he was apparently right.
I finally made it to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". That's some funny stuff :). And I thought Kris and I had a weird family :)
<music style="documentary" />Last night... Dan Short broke the misconceptions of family, friends and those who only partly knew him. That's right people... Dan ate <drum roll>sushi</drum roll>. Not only did he eat Sushi, reports are he liked it. Eating raw Tuna didn't seem to bother him much, although he did avoid the slimy sea urchin (that's just gross). A bit of Gyoza and some Teriyaki and hot sake finished the meal, and he was happy. Where will he go next... Hopefully his parents will continue to speak to him, even if they do use a mediator...
Why is this game so addictive? It's so deceptively simple, yet so very frustrating :). My high score is 2208, although I average about 900 now :)
One of my good buddies is sick... in a bad way. I found out yesterday that JK from Spider Food is in the ICU with major liver problems. Doesn't even really know where he is apparently. He liked to drink in his younger days (hell, he's under 40) and it's apparently caught up with him.
Kris and I had dinner with our 6 best friends at the Western Culinary Institute last night. That's some delicious stuff I tell you. And luckily, Thursday nights are buffet nights (I always find that funny. Gourmet food buffet style). And to add to that, every Halloween, the Thursday before, they have a Halloween theme buffet. Since Halloween was on a Thursday this time we got the full treatment. It also meant that it wasn't near as crowded.
I finally did it. Wrote my own useless binary converter. I had a few nudges from Kindler Chase and grabbed an idear or two out of his head, and came up with my own. Have fun :)
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
It's time for Dan's birthday, so let's make a mess!
What do you say we give him a nice CMS?
We'll fill it with snippets and columns that sort,
All for FAQ-Man (You know- Dan Short!)
--
Bill Horvath
*This poem is © Bill "The Pill" Horvath, and it's usage outside of this blog means you're in big trouble mister...
Who the heck invented those elliptical torture machines at the gym, huh? All I've gotta say is they should be put away...
I can't understand a word they're saying, but it still sounds damn good...
Disclaimer: I have nothing against the French in general, I *love* their fries.
I've informally confirmed a new book deal. I'll be co-author on a new book due out some time about some thing (NDA and all that). This time I'll have my name on the front cover. More details will be provided here once I'm able to release more information :-).
That's right, I'm almost the big 27. If you have an overwhelming need to buy me something, you can check out my Amazon.com WishList :).
Nothing like a good Army of Darkness movie to start the day :)
I made the style changer ASP driven, so no more funky flashing :~)
I'm back from Seattle, and this time the only thing I left was Kris :). She's leaving for the week to visit her sister in Iowa, so I have the place to myself for a week. Hopefully I won't trash it too much. I also finally got all of the pieces to finish our entertainment center, so I'll be posting pictures of that for the fam before too long.
There will be no harassing of Dan this weekend, as I'm about to leave for Seattle, where the weather is cold, and the dialups are slow :)
I refuse to do any more work today. I mean, what good is it really doing me? My wrists hurt and my brain is fuzzy (not enough caffeine I'm guessing) so I'm spending the rest of the afternoon doing.... something. I don't know what yet. After I do """something""", Kris and I are going to go see "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Hoping it's good and will give a me a laugh or two. Fair to middling review to be posted some time after I get back (maybe next week).
Just got back from a weekend in Eugene with Kris' mom. Ate way too much chicken and noodles and had a hard time staying awake on the drive home, but as you can see, I made it.
Never have apples on pizza... trust me on this one.
Unfortunately I've had to cancel my scheduled appearances at DEVCON due to some work conflicts. Hopefully I didn't put MM into too much of a bind and they'll see fit to have me for the next one :). Not sure who's going to be taking over my presentations (XHTML and XML) but I'll post here once I find out.
Let me explain my usual trip through a technical book.
I must say, that TODCON has got to be the best conference I've ever attended. And no, I'm not saying that because Ray told me to. The attitude is so completely different than any other group.
TODCON wore me out. I'll hopefully be in full swing again by Wednesday.
That's right folks, TODCON starts on Friday, which means that people will start showing up tomorrow, myself included. There are plans for everyone to get together and go out for dinner, although "everyone" could end up being a really large group, so not sure how this will shake out. I'm looking forward to the conference, hoping it will re-energize me. Been slacking lately, and largely unmotivated, so hopefully this will kick me into gear.
Never ever ever never never ever give your MSN address to a client. Never.
I just got the digital copy of the next MXInsite magazine. And yep, there's an article by me regarding MX Templates. This will be my first article in print, so I'm pretty excited :).
We had some friends over last night to watch the Iowa State/Florida State football game. Two of our best friends went to Iowa State before moving out here, so it was an exciting game. Iowa is ranked 52nd while Florida is 3rd. Iowa got within one touchdown (and 3 inches) before the game ended, after being down 30 points after the first half. Needless to say everyone was excited (and two were yelling and screaming :). Well I had three of the neighbors show up at our door as soon as the game ended (at 9) complaining about our noise. Geez, 9 o'clock, and they're complaining about noise? I hope I'm not that stuffy once I hit my fifties...
For those of you who may wish to harass me before we even hit the hotel for TODCON, here's my itinerary. I'll be renting a car at Midway, so I might be able to give one or two people a ride if you arrive around the same time I do (and don't have a 100 lb suitcase).
The FedEx man just dropped off a pretty Dell box. Inside it was a brand new shiny laptop. This thing is pretty sweet. The leather bag that came with it actually weighs more than the laptop itself. Plus, I've got a 6 hour battery to supplement the standard one that came with it. Looks like DVD movies on the plane for me :)
That's right. The office is done. Look at pictures, but don't drool on your monitor, it's mine ;-)
Last night I got one (small) section of the other three walls painted, the coffee table finished, the print server hooked up (no more HP visible :) and the bookcase put up. So all that's left is to paint the other three walls and figure out what I'm going to do about lighting. Ikea no longer sells wire lighting that will plug into an outlet, so I have one of two options:
I did it again... left my entire tool bag in Seattle. The bright side? :-) I got to buy brand new tools to put together our Ikea furniture. New Black and Decker Firestorm drill (to replace my dinky $5 B&D Versapak Refurb special) and lots of other little gadgets. I'd like to say I was a genius and left it there on purpose so I had an excuse to buy new tools, but I really am just forgetful.
I swear I don't know what's wrong with me. I can't seem to either a) go to Seattle or b) leave Seattle without forgetting at least one damn thing. It seems this time I forgot the shelves that we were supposed to return to Ikea. I have the cabinets, great, but no shevles. I think last time, when we left Seattle I left my X-Box and Kris' pajamas (remembered the X-Box before we hit the highway and went back, but still forgot the pajamas.
I'm a bit delirious from paint fumes, but the wall pattern is complete, and is lookin' damn fine if I do say so myself...
Now that the wall is finished, it's time to go to Seattle. Kris and I will be picking up all the remaining furniture for the office as well as the missing pieces for our entertainment center. We'll be back some time on Sunday, and then I get to put it all together (I LOVE putting together Ikea furniture).
I'm sore today... I spent all day yesterday painting pretty much (besides the 2 hours I spent at CIDA updating software). I got about 3/4 of the way done with the patter on the far wall of the office. I'll probably get it almost complete this evening. Because of the orange peel texture on our walls, each line has to be taped and painted at least twice. For those of you venturing into painting orange peel textured walls, here's the trick:
My new Dell (DUDE!) is in production. Hurry hurry hurry...
This post is for Danilo. His printer sometimes doesn't work on his cabled router.
Just got back from Office Depot with a longer CAT5 cable and a cord cover. The Desk is now complete...
Probably what I like least about VBScript is it's lack of built in functions for manipulating arrays. This means you've gotta write your own. In working on my new top secret project, I needed a way to remove an item from a 2 dimensional array without affecting the rest of the items in the array. And to that end, after 2 hours of searching on Google, I decided to write my own dang functions. You can find them in the test area of Web-Shorts.
I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this JavaScript stuff. Been putting together some js to filter shipping options based on the shipping destination. Pretty fun stuff. Does that make me officially a geek?
Kris and I have finally got brave, and we're going to do some redecorating. We've already repainted our living room, and we'll soon be repainting and rearranging our back bedroom to give me a dedicated office. I'm so stoked :).
I finally did some "spring cleaning" and cleaned up the test area on my website. I've tried to index most of it (and there is quite a bit I haven't got to yet), but you can find some code I'm working on, and some you can grab for yourself in my little playground.
Spent the weekend in Seattle, and boy am I glad to be back. Dealing with all things in-law is emotionally draining, considering the combativeness of the entire family. But another weekend is gone, and Kris' brother is now settled in a new apartment (his living room is larger than his entire old apartment. Feels good to know he's better off, and that he actually appreciates the help Kris and I give him.
Been playing with CafePress.com lately, and I've opened my own ego-stroking store where I'll be selling WebShorts merchandise, and other goofy HTML geek type stuff. Let me know if you like it :). You can even buy an actual pair of Dan's Shorts.
Well, I made it look better in Netscape 4.x, but not by much :). Mostly I just had to change div#layername to #layername in my style sheet. Netscape 4 wasn't liking the tag reference in there.
Danilo found a book just about me ;-).
lol... I saw my name on Amazon.com again today... I just can't get over that. I never knew I'd written a bunch of books on financing though :).
Kris and I signed papers yesterday to refinance our condo. WOOHOO!!! Shaved a full percentage point off, and got enough cash out to pay off all our credit cards (those evil bits of plastic...)
I was going through some old Alistapart articles and ran across one on switching style sheets with javascript, so I thought.. what the hell. Now you can switch between a Multicolored version or one in Shades of Gray.
Well, it's Wednesday, my "day off" when I'm supposed to be working at home, but the slackers at the day job are screwing things up again :), so I'll be there all morning. Then this afternoon I'll probably sign the papers to refinance our condo and get rid of the evil credit card beast (boy I can't wait). And then to celebrate, Kris and I are going to try and catch MIB II at the matinee. We can all use a little escapism.
Well, I went and got myself registered for DEVCON. Here's are all the sessions I'll be attending.
I thought the day would never come, but my blog (I'm going to maintain that's the case anyhow) has helped convert a longtime NN 4.x dweeb to NN 7 (he'll soon be moving to Moz if I have my way). You guessed it, Danilo ditched the 4.x beast and is browsing in style.
Macromedia's put up the new Team Macromedia pages, where we each get our own personal shrine ;-).
Since it's my blog, I figured I might as well put up some information about me. You can click the "there's more..." in the personal area on the left, or just go straight there.
oy... what the hell am I doing up this early in the morning... Isn't there some kind of law?
This is my first attempt at a blog. Do I have anything important to say? I don't really know. I'll try to throw some random daily thoughts in here, maybe one of my latest experiments on DWfaq.com, mayby some nifty VBScript I come up with or some links to sites I find during the day.
