Joel Thoms's WebLog

My Extremely Thorough Evaluation of FlashFXP

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:25:34 GMT

Well, I think I have finally finished my extremely thorough and complete evaluation of FlashFXP and have decided to purchase the product.

Thanks for the great tool FlashFXP!

Simultaneously reading StandardOutput and StandardError from System.Diagnostics.Process

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:03:45 GMT

There are many code samples that show you how to read from either StandardOutput or StandardError. I've also run across a few more complicated code examples that spawn new processes to handle the reading of StandardOutput and StandardError.

Reading from StandardOut (or StandardError) is simple, all you need to do is set a property and create a simple loop...

proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;

while (!proc.StandardOutput.EndOfStream) {
  string line = proc.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
  Console.WriteLine(">{0}", line);
}

Reading both is not much more complex. You just have to test EndOfStream on both streams.

System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.EnableRaisingEvents = false;
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
proc.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
proc.StartInfo.FileName = Environment.CurrentDirectory + @"\" + zipCmd;
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("-rSv \"{0}\" .", zipFile);
proc.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = directory;
proc.Start();

while (!proc.StandardOutput.EndOfStream || !proc.StandardError.EndOfStream) {
  string line;

  if (!proc.StandardOutput.EndOfStream
    && (line = proc.StandardOutput.ReadLine()) != null) {
    Console.WriteLine(">>{0}", line);
  }
  if (!proc.StandardError.EndOfStream
    && (line = proc.StandardError.ReadLine()) != null) {
    Console.WriteLine("!!{0}", line);
  }
}

OptOutPreScreen.com

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:41:07 GMT

Today in my mailbox I received one of those generic "YOU ARE PRE-APPROVED" notices. I get a TON of these every day. I'm currently holding in my hand 3 just from CapitalOne (F CapitalOne btw).

Well, I actually read one of these instead of feeding it directly into the shredder and I come across this interesting paragraph...

You can choose to stop receiving "prescreened" offers of credit from this and other companies by calling toll-free (888-567-8688). See PRESCREEN & OPT-OUT NOTICE included for more information about prescreened offers.

I find the notice...

PRESCREEN & OPT-OUT NOTICE: If you do not want to receive prescreened offers of credit from this or any other companies, call the consumer reporting agencies toll free, 1-888-5OPT-OUT (or 1-888-567-8688); or write to one or more such consumer reporting agencies at: TransUnion Opt Out Request, PO Box 505, Woodlyn, PA 19094-0505; Equifax Options, P.O. Box 740123, Atlanta, GA 30374-0123; Experian Marketing, P.O. Box 919, Allen, TX 75013; or visit the following website at www.optoutprescreen.com.

So after doing a little digging around, I find this website seems to be legit.

Now I wait and see...

Default button behavior in ASP.net 2.0

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:39:44 GMT

Simple default button
Setting a global default button for the page is very simple, all you have to do is add this code to your page... (You can get this working in ASP.net 1.x by changing 'ClientScript' to 'Page')

ClientScript.RegisterHiddenField("__EVENTTARGET", myButton.ClientID);

Though, this method will not work if you want multiple default buttons, as the single button event will always be fired. Another caveat of this method is your JavaScript code (onclick, validators, etc) will not be fired and the form will post back to the server.

Multiple default buttons
It's not too much more difficult to implement multiple default buttons (see figure on the left) using client-side JavaScript. I accomplish this by capturing the carriage return keypress and simulating a button click. Here's the code...

textBox.Attributes.Add("onKeyPress", "if((event.keyCode||event.which)==13){document.getElementById('" + button.ClientID + "').click();return false;}");

I've tested this code in both IE and Firefox and it seems to behave ok. I don't really care about the other browsers, but if you do, then you'll have to test.

You might also want to read my previous blog on Firefox's auto-complete JavaScript bug.

Firefox auto-complete javascript bug

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:19:43 GMT

So, after about an hour of trying to debug my JavaScript, I put the code down and decided to ask google. It turns out, the error message below, could be a bug in Firefox's auto-complete feature.

Error: [Exception... "'Permission denied to get property XULElement.selectedIndex' when calling method: [nsIAutoCompletePopup::selectedIndex]" nsresult: "0x8057001e (NS_ERROR_XPC_JS_THREW_STRING)" location: "JS frame :: :: onkeydown :: line 0" data: no]

I wasn't doing anything complex; all I did was add the OnKeyPress handler to a text box.

I believe the error is harmless, my code seemed to execute just fine even with the error. But if you find it annoying like I do, you can disable auto-complete by adding autocomplete="off" into your input field.

After doing a little investigating, it appears the error will occur when you change focus in the OnKeyPress or OnKeyDown events. I'm not sure of what other events are affected.

Creating a dashed-line border for your controls

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 12:36:06 GMT

All System.Windows.Forms controls have a BorderStyle property. The choices of which are limited to: None, FixedSingle and Fixed3D.

Creating a "dashed-line border" requires some customization you'll have to add yourself.

I've created the following graphics that will create two different dashed border effects.
border-a.gif (easiest to get working)
border-b.gif (must be modified if height or width is divisible by 4)

Note: border-a.gif works with any height and width. border-b.gif is a little trickier to get working (but I think it looks nicer). The height and width of the container cannot be divisible by 4 or you will get an invisible border on that side. If you cannot adjust the height or width of the container, then you must modify the image.

Setting up the new BorderStyle is easist for the PictureBox control. After setting the Image for the PictureBox, set margins = "1, 1, 1, 1" and set the BackgroundImage to be one of the border gif's.

Other containers like Panels are easy to setup as well. First, set the BackgroundImage of the Panel to be your background graphic of choice. Next, you will need to embed a 2nd Panel overlaying the Panel with the BackgroundImage. This Panel should be at position 1,1 (inside the first Panel) and have a width of Panel1.Width - 2 and a height of Panel2.Height - 2.

That's all you really have to do to create the dashed-line BorderStyle effect for WinForms.

Get the calling method name by looking in the StackTrace (C#)

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:48:45 GMT

I needed a way to return the name of the calling method. I learned this can be done quite easily with the StackTrace object.

This is how you get the current method name, or the calling method name...

System.Diagnostics.StackTrace stack = new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace();
string currentMethod = stack.GetFrame(0).GetMethod().Name;
string callingMethod = stack.GetFrame(1).GetMethod().Name;

I've also wrapped this functionality into an easily callable method.

/// <summary>Gets the calling method.</summary>
/// <remarks>There may be a performance impact with using this method.</remarks>
internal static System.Reflection.MethodBase GetCallingMethod() {
    System.Diagnostics.StackTrace s = new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace();
    return (s.FrameCount > 1) ? s.GetFrame(2).GetMethod() : null;
}

Using JavaScript to force browsers to obey the CSS max-height Property

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:27:19 GMT

The CSS max-height Property has been ignored by browsers for many years. Fortunately there is a way to hack this W3C "standard" into submission using JavaScript.

Add this JavaScript method to the top of your page...

<script>
    function ConstrainHeight(e, height) {
        if (height == null) {
            height = (e.style.getPropertyValue == null)
                ? e.style["max-height"]
                : e.style.getPropertyValue("max-height");
            if (height != null && height.substring(height.length - 2) == "px")
                height = height.substring(0, height.length - 2);
        }
        if (height != null && e.scrollHeight > height) e.style.height = height + "px";
    }
</script>

In addition to adding the 'max-height' property in the style, you'll also have to add 'overflow:auto'.

<div id="myDiv" style="overflow:auto;max-height:50px;">
...
</div>

Last, all you've got to do is call the JavaScript...

<script>ConstrainHeight(document.getElementById('myDiv'));</script>

... and the max-height property is now obeyed!

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 04:17:21 GMT

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure., November 13, 1787, letter to William Stephens Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.

I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple. Were we directed from Washington when to sow, when to reap, we should soon want bread.

I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -- in "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting from On Crimes and Punishment, by criminologist Cesare Beccaria, 1764

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

Those who don't read the newspapers are better off than those who do insofar as those who know nothing are better off than those whose heads are filled with half-truths and lies.

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus, building a wall of separation between Church and State., 1802, quoted in Andrew A. Lipscomb's Writings 16:281

When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated., 1821

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion. Enlighten the people generally and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.

The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.

Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny., Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778).

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have .... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be... if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.

On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed., letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823, The Complete Jefferson, p322.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law', because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction.

The law of self-preservation is higher than written law.

The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric. They are construing our constitution from a co-ordination of a general and special government to a general and supreme one alone.

One single object...[will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others., Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1785).

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. ...the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights., in a letter to Francis W. Gilmor, July 7, 1786

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

The policy of the American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.

To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.'

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys., 1821

If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our liberties and gave us independence.

The moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing.

Akismet .Net 2.0 API moved to CodePlex.com

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 08:57:09 GMT

I've moved my Akismet .Net 2.0 API library to CodePlex.com. I've used gotdotnet.com in the past, and it was just a horrible site with way too many issues. Hopefully CodePlex has learned something from their mistakes.

http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=AkismetApi

RxFind, A Command Line, Regular Expression, Search and Replace Tool

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:08:33 GMT

Overview

Written in C# 2.0, RxFind is a command line tool allowing you to search (and replace) the content of files using Regular Expressions. A must have for every administrator.

In my 13 meg test file, I was able to search and replace (and create a .bak file) in less than 1 second.

Warning

This tool loads the file into memory before performing searches. It is untested on large files. You might not be able to use this tool with extremely large files.

Features

Command Line Interface - Perfect for all your scripting and administration needs.
Regular Expressions - That's right -- Regular Expressions. The most powerful way to search.
Search Multiple Files - Can even traverse subdirectories.
RxFind code\*.cs /s /p:"Joel Thoms"
will search for the text "Joel Thoms" in all .cs files in the code directory.
Regex Replace - Regular Expression replace gives you access to the match patern data.
RxFind test.txt /p:"Full Name: (?.*?) (?.*)" /r:"${last}, ${first}"
will transform this text (from test.txt)...
Full Name: Joel Thoms
into this...
Full Name: Thoms, Joel
.Bak Files - Can create a .bak file of the original (just incase you mess something up)

Screenshot

Download

Why I don't like my Sidekick 3 -- The bad Sidekick 3 review.

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:27:39 GMT

There are plenty of Sidekick 3 reviews out there that praise this phone... this review does not.

I have previously owned the black and white Sidekick, the Sidekick color as well as the Sidekick 2. I liked all these phones, which is why it was natural for me to "upgrade" to the Sidekick 3. This is the first upgrade that has made me feel as if I had downgraded.

There are many things that I do like more about the Sidekick 3 (like the new interface / layout, blue tooth, etc), but again, you can read about these on any other Sidekick 3 review.

the cons (my dislikes)

1.3 megapixel camera

terrible

MP3 Player

you cannot use an MP3 as your ringtone

Sidekick catalog

will not

Alarm Clock

Bluetooth

Email

should have been fixed

MMS

LAME!!!

White list / Black list

Buttons

much

I've been hesitant to buy a Bluetooth headset, because I keep contemplating going back to my Sidekick 2. I guess this is what I get for being an early adopter... and to be honest, if I hadn't previously owned Sidekick's I wouldn't have been as let down.

The Sidekick 3 is a minor upgrade from the previous version. The hardware has been improved, but it seems like they didn't touch the software at all. This has been a very disappointing upgrade.

Big O Tires vs. Japanese Business Man

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 07:54:11 GMT

So I'm sitting in Big O Tires, playing with my DS Lite while I wait for them to do what they do, when this small stereotypical Japanese business man with glasses walks in.

A lot of people had been walking in and out all morning, so I wasn't really paying that much attention... until I heard the Big O rep exclaim, "There's no way I can honor a lifetime warranty that you bought for forty two dollars over 20 years ago."

Apparently this man had bought a lifetime alignment warranty for his car 20 years ago and was getting upset that they weren't going to honor it.

The Big O guy says "You have to understand where I'm coming from, Big O is a franchise, these are privately owned. This store has changed ownership many times over twenty years. We do not sell lifetime warranties any more."

After a little back and forth argument, the Japanese business man is starting to get a little upset and says, "Well, who is accountable to the consumer? I bought this warranty. It says 'lifetime'. I've never used it and now that I want to, you won't honor it? I want to speak to your manager."

To which the Big O guy responds back with "Hello Sir, I'm the manager. How can I help you?"

It was at this point that my internal laughter ceased to be internal. I probably wasn't helping the situation out, but I was definitely enjoying the show. The louder I laughed, the more I tried to concentrate on my DS. I tried to tone the laughter down to simply a shit eating grin.

At the end of their conversation they both came to a compromise. Big O would perform an alignment for free. Though, because they no longer offer 'lifetime' warranties for alignment, this was a one time deal.

After the Japanese business man left, the manager looks at me and asks if he was 'fair'. We had a small discussion and laughed about it a bit.

My car was finally done and during checkout, the manager gave me a 25% discount on the price he quoted me... his reason being, 'he made a friend'.

It's been a very entertaining morning...

Andrew learns an important lesson in hot-linking...

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:05:17 GMT

Found at: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=84891767

Andrew: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=67550914

Akismet .Net 2.0 API (anti-comment-spam)

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 06:56:49 GMT

It looks like spammers are set on ruining the entire internet. Not only do I get 1000's of unwanted emails every day, but now spammers are starting to pollute blog comments.

Fortunately the guys over at Akismet have developed an anti-comment-spam web API. There are multiple libraries developed for Akismet, though none for .Net.

Since I am going to be implementing this on Joel.net, I figured I would just wrap it all up into an easy to use library for me and you too!

Download source project

Unfortunately Akismet is only installed on my new comment system, so this blog will get a little polluted until I can replace it :/

It's been so long since I've gotten a ticket...

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 04:25:52 GMT

...Until today.

Normally I can talk my way out of any ticket, but not today. I think I gave the cop too many reasons to give me a ticket. It's hard when your list of violations is this high...

These were the cops complaints... My registration was expired. The name on my registration wasn't mine. Address on my license was not current. My windows were tinted. No front plate. Expired insurance card. Uggg.

Well, ok most of these are my fault. I had to pay my DMV registration through my bank (why, I dunno?). Well, that was MONTHS ago and I haven't received my registration back. So, it expired and still shows the previous douche's name.

My insurance IS valid, just the card is expired. I offered to let him use my cell phone and call my insurance company to verify, he declined. Ok, so I can take care of this one tonight at least.

I took care of my "address" at the DMV (also months ago), they made me pay $25 and I even took a new picture. Where is my new license with updated info? WHO THE FUCK KNOWS?!

He can go fuck himself over the no front plate and tinted windows. I'll "fix" these and have CHP sign them off. Then, right back to the way they're supposed to be.

Well, he only wrote me up for expired registration, tint and plate. Easy to fix, still a pain in my arse (and wallet).

Update: Apr 26, 2006
I went to AAA Automobile Club to check out my registration problem. Apparently I have paid for everything and my car should be registered. Though there's a hold on my account due to a change I made on the vehicle's registration. Apparently Sacramento is reviewing god knows what. He says there was new activity on my account (though he didn't know what) and said they'd probably send a letter and to call them. Until then I was given temporary registration.

Preventing hot-linking in asp.net 2.0

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 06:45:04 GMT

I've had a few problems with people hot-linking to images on my websites, causing me excessive bandwidth usage. MySpace is filled with hot-linkers and has been causing me most of the problems.

I've been forced to come up with a solution to prevent image hot-linking.

My solution checks the HTTP_REFERER, if there is no referrer or the referrer comes from a trusted site, then the image is displayed normally. If hot-linking has been detected, I either send them an image of my choice (can be your logo, site banner or an anti-hot-linking image), or you can simply ignore the request.

To implement this solution, your site will (1) need to be running asp.net 2.0 and (2) have a wildcard mapping pointing to the Asp.net ISAPI 2.0 framework dll (ask your web host, they can usually install this for you).

Next, add this method to your global.asax file. (This method can be modified to be restricted to certain directories.)

private bool IgnoreRequest(string path, string http_referer) {
    if (http_referer == null) return false;
    
    string[] allowDomains = new string[] {
        "http://mydeathspace.com",
        "http://www.mydeathspace.com"
    };
    string[] blocks = new string[] { ".gif", ".jpg" };
    StringComparison ignoreCase =
        StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase;

    // Allow requests from 'allowDomains'
    foreach (string domain in allowDomains) {
        if (http_referer.StartsWith(domain, ignoreCase)) {
            return false;
        }
    }

    // Check extensions
    foreach (string ext in blocks) {
        if (path.EndsWith(ext, ignoreCase)) return true;
    }

    return false;
}

Next you access this method inside the Application_BeginRequest event like this...

if (IgnoreRequest(Request.Url.LocalPath,
    Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_REFERER"])) {

    throw new Exception("NO HOT-LINKING!");
}

HOWTO: Download and play (or convert) YouTube.com videos.

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 01:31:14 GMT

I use xbox media center to play videos I download, allowing me to watch them on my tv. I have a problem with most video sites (Google video and YouTube.com); they convert all the videos from their native format to flv format.

I guess a lot of other people have been having problems with this. After doing some searching again I found out mplayer now supports flv! I also found a lot of neat tools and articles out there...

So, after learning there are all these tools out there I decided to create a little bookmarklet to download these videos from YouTube.com.

Directions:

Click and hold on the link below, drag the link on the name to your "Links" toolbar in IE or right click on them and select "Add to Favorites...".
Now after watching the YouTube.com video you want to download. Just click on the bookmarklet you just added.
You'll be prompted to "save as". Create any name you want just be sure to make the file extension .flv.
Watch using your favorite flv player.

Bookmarklet: YouTube.com (Video Download)

Fun 'n games: Grow RPG

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 06:48:24 GMT

Bored at work? I found this cute little web game through a friend. I found it to be very creative and worth spending a little time to check out.

AJAX-enable your existing Asp.net application in under 30 seconds.

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 07:22:05 GMT

Lately I've been playing with this neat little AJAX library for Asp.net - Anthem.net. I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to AJAX-enable my existing Asp.net applications using Anthem.net. Anthem.net requries absolutely zero JavaScript knowledge.

Anthem.net works in both 1.1 and 2.0, giving you a hands off aproach to AJAX. It mimics the functionality of standard server side Asp.net. Anthem.net does allow you full access and control via JavaScript if you need.

Ok, well talk is cheap, so let me show you just how easy it is...

Asp.net Example Code

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" %>

<script runat="server">
    protected void SubmitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        lblFullName.Text = (FullName.Text != "") ? FullName.Text : "n/a";
        lblEmailAddress.Text = (EmailAddress.Text != "") ? EmailAddress.Text : "n/a";
        lblMessage.Text = (Message.Text != "") ? Message.Text : "n/a";

        pnlDone.Visible = true;
    }
</script>

<form id="form1" runat="server">

    Full Name: <asp:textbox runat="server" id="FullName" /><br />
    Email Address: <asp:textbox runat="server" id="EmailAddress" /><br />
    Message: <asp:textbox runat="server" id="Message" /><br />
    <asp:button runat="server" id="SubmitButton" text="submit" onclick="SubmitButton_Click" /><br />
  
  <br /><br />
  
  <asp:Panel id="pnlDone" runat="server" visible="false" cssclass="out">
    <h3>Thank You!</h3>
    Full Name: <asp:label runat="server" id="lblFullName" font-bold="true" /><br />
    Email Address: <asp:label runat="server" id="lblEmailAddress" font-bold="true" /><br />
    Message: <asp:label runat="server" id="lblMessage" font-bold="true" /><br />
  </asp:Panel>

</form>

Anthem.net Example Code

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="anthem" Namespace="Anthem" Assembly="Anthem" %>

<script runat="server">
    protected void SubmitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        lblFullName.Text = (FullName.Text != "") ? FullName.Text : "n/a";
        lblEmailAddress.Text = (EmailAddress.Text != "") ? EmailAddress.Text : "n/a";
        lblMessage.Text = (Message.Text != "") ? Message.Text : "n/a";

        pnlDone.Visible = true;
        pnlDone.UpdateAfterCallBack = true;
    }
</script>

<form id="form1" runat="server">

  Full Name: <asp:textbox runat="server" id="FullName" /><br />
  Email Address: <asp:textbox runat="server" id="EmailAddress" /><br />
  Message: <asp:textbox runat="server" id="Message" /><br />
  <anthem:button runat="server" id="SubmitButton" text="submit" onclick="SubmitButton_Click" /><br />  </div>
  
  <br /><br />
  
  <anthem:Panel id="pnlDone" runat="server" visible="false" cssclass="out">
    <h3>Thank You!</h3>
    Full Name: <asp:label runat="server" id="lblFullName" font-bold="true" /><br />
    Email Address: <asp:label runat="server" id="lblEmailAddress" font-bold="true" /><br />
    Message: <asp:label runat="server" id="lblMessage" font-bold="true" /><br />
  </anthem:Panel>

</form>

Can you spot the difference? All I had to do was register the anthem assembly at the top of the page, change the button and panel to anthem button and panels and add one piece of code "pnlDone.UpdateAfterCallBack = true;" to tell the client to update this panel.

Anthem.net allows you to do other neat stuff, there's little documentation so you have to dig through their examples. Here's a neat little example of how easy it is to push a simple alert box to the client.

Anthem.Manager.AddScriptForClientSideEval("alert('done.')");

Joel Thoms -- World Famous!

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:34:14 GMT

That's right, I'm world famous! People have been putting this picture of me up all over their websites.

Ok, not really... in reality, I have hidden my picture on their sites and they have absolutely no clue. I can't really say how I did it because then they might figure it out and remove it, and what would be the fun in that?

People change their sites all the time so they might have removed me. Click around! My picture is usually in the "movies" section below the "friday" movie poster.

I have been seen on the sites below...

myspace.com users

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nexopia.com users

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partypeeps2000.com users

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http://www.speechtones.com

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 11:23:02 GMT

Carlos just launched http://www.speechtones.com/. It's a cool service that lets you create custom voice tones for your phone. Unfortunately, this doesn't work with sidekick 2.

If you don't have a sidekick 2, you should check it out. You can also win a new razr phone.

Another Toy: 1995 Honda CBR900RR

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 05:17:16 GMT

So who wants to get their motorcycle license with me?

Repost: Sorting Methods in ASP.NET Web Service Test Page

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 02:10:49 GMT

This is one of the more difficult things to find in Google, so I'm reposting this on my blog so I can find it easier.

I got tired of trying to locate a specific method on my web service test page, so I did a google search and as usual found the same question, but no complete answer. Jan Tielen pointed me to DefaultWsdlHelpGenerator.aspx, which is the file that is used for testing, but after that I was on my own.

Long story short, here's how to solve the problem:
Open the DefaultWsdlHelpGenerator.aspx file - on my computer it is at C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\CONFIG\DefaultWsdlHelpGenerator.aspx - in your favorite editor. You may want to create a backup first.
Locate the Page_Load event handler. If this file hasn't been edited before (and you're running .NET 1.1) this should start on line 1243
Scroll down to line 1285, which should look like this:
Hashtable methodsTable = new Hashtable();
Comment out this line and replace it with the following:
SortedList methodsTable = new SortedList();
Save and refresh your web service test page.
Now why doesn't it come like this in the first place?

Original Article: http://blahblahg.blogspot.com/2004/08/sorting-methods-in-aspnet-web-service.html

New Toy: 2002 BMW M3

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 07:00:00 GMT

Ok, well a 2002 isn't exactly new... but hey, it's new to me. I've wanted an M3 for quite some time now, but they've been a little too pricey. Fortunately the older M3's have dropped enough in price to make them affordable.

I did check out the 2005's and found there is almost no difference between the 2002's and the 2005's. The 2005's have a really cool competition package (for an additional 4k), but they'll both do a 4.7 0-60 and 13.4 in the quarter. (though after driving the firebird I would like it to be a little faster).

What does this mean? It means the firebird gets turned into a drift car.

.net Database Utility Library

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:09:21 GMT

Accessing your database can be a very repetitive task. This Database Utility class can help reduce a lot of the repetitious code.

I have been using this Database Utility library for some time now. I use it in every project that accesses a Sql database. I was finally able to spend some time to properly package and document it for your use.

DatabaseUtility Library v1.1.0

Loan Price vs. Cost

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 12:22:35 GMT

Lately, I've been thinking about buying a new car, which probably means I'd get an auto loan. Since I started thinking about this, I have been trying to calculate exactly what the loan would cost me. Then I started to realize the "price" of the loan is drastically different than the "cost" of the loan.

I currently use EmigrantDirect.com as my savings account (4.00%). If I got a loan, I would have to withdraw from savings; the money I would spend towards the loan payments would no longer be going into my savings account, therefore no longer earning interest.

I began to wonder if the loss of interest be significant. That is why I created a "Price vs. Cost" Calculator. This calculator will show you exactly what your loss will be if you chose to make payments towards a car instead of putting that money into your savings account.

Example: A loan of $30,000.00 (5 years @ 5.95) will end up costing you a total of $38,228.63.

Another thing I learned from this tool, is increasing your downpayment to decrease your monthly payment will only very slightly decrease your total cost.

Go to "Price vs. Cost" Calculator...

Cost me a little over $52 to fill up today.

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 05:12:35 GMT

Today it cost me a little over $52 to put 16.2 gallons into Pepe, my little mule.

With these gas prices, you'd think people would start carpooling or drive less -- doesn't look that way. No one seems to care enough to reduce their driving or gas consumption (myself included).

I wonder how high gas prices have to go before people turn in their SUV's and change their driving habits.

Translation: Get the F*** off my road!

My car has about 350hp and is rated 17/28 mpg (though I get about 22 the way I drive). It's a little over 5 years old now, and I'm surprised to find there has been almost no advancement in improving gas mileage (dodge charger is a good example of this).

Is it crazy we're now paying over three dollars a gallon? Or is it crazy we used fill up for less than twenty bucks?

Template Engine and Shaolin Soccer

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:36:24 GMT

Hey Joel, I used your template code in a project (with permission) and since this was on your wish list and it is a truly excellent movie, have fun. thanks, Ravi

Yes, this is a great movie!

Thanks a bunch Ravi! (good timing too -- came on my birthday!)

KNAC and Heavy Metal

Sat, 30 Jul 2005 01:49:00 GMT

My cousin Matt calls me and tells me he is in town touring with his metal band. Unfortunately I had to work, so I did miss their show, but I was able to hang out with them afterwards.

It was really nice seeing my cousin. He's lived in Colorado for the past 15 years I think this is only the 2nd time I've seen him since he moved. When he lived down here we both used to hang out all the time; we were both metal heads.

Seeing them last night made me wonder what made me stop listening to metal. Then I realized it was when KNAC went off the air. It also didn't take too long for MTV to cut Head Bangers Ball.

If KNAC didn't die and MTV didn't cut Head Bangers Ball, what kind of music would I be listening to today?

KNAC did come back on the internet, but far too late.

Also, I JUST FOUND OUT there will be no more Pantera because one of their members was SHOT DEAD ON STAGE. This happened only a few months ago, but I never heard about it.

Gone to Hawaii. See you guys later.

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 06:20:21 GMT

Well, Tomorrow I'm off to Hawaii.

Of course I'm going with Jamie -- one of her good friends from highschool is getting married.

Gonna be gone for 10 days. Should be a nice getaway.

My car turned 100,000 today.

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 05:08:42 GMT

Well, on my way home from work, my car turned the big 100k!

I'll probably be driving this a little longer, as there are no cars worth buying in 2006... I'm not holding my breath for 2007 either.

There really is No Free Lunch.

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 10:43:10 GMT

There's a site I found, LiveScience.com, which has a bunch of great articles worth reading. One of the interesting articles I ran into talks about the negative impact windmills have on the planet -- Yah, windmills.

I previously thought something like a windmill would have zero impact on the environment. Though I guess everything has an impact and it becomes more noticeable when done on a large scale. The impact is less than burning fossil fuels, but it is negative none the less.

Reading this reminded me of an article Sean found about generating energy from cold sea water. The article talks about all the positive possibilities of using cold sea water at very little cost; things like air conditioning, energy, crop watering, faster crop growth and fresh drinking water.

Though, like the Windmills, this is not a zero impact design. If this were to be done in a larger scale it would cause a warming of the oceans and cause a dryer local climate when "sweating" is used to produce fresh water.

It makes me think there is no single design that is capable of supplying enough energy for us humans, there are far too many of us. We will probably need multiple types of systems to keep the specific negative impacts of each design lower.

It's a good thing the population is only going to increase by 40% by 2050. *insert sarcasm here*

Opera says Firefox usage numbers are inflated.

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 09:59:40 GMT

I caught an interesting article on ZDNet; Opera is saying Firefox market share numbers are inflated because of their Google pre-caching, which comes enabled by default.

The pre-caching, when you search google, downloads the first few results before you click on them. This helps speed up the page load time, if you click on a link that has already been pre-cached.

It's a great for faster browsing, though some do not like this feature as it may set off firewall alarms without your knowledge of any wrong doing. It's also possible to visit illegal sites accidentally this way. You'll also use more bandwidth and receive cookies for sites you have not visited.

The Firefox browser market has been increasing lately, though how much of this is increase is due to pre-caching?

note: browser market statistics come from ZDNet and OneStat.com.

Complacent With Mediocrity

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 10:25:49 GMT

On a large project I am currently working on, I have been having difficulties trying to convince "the powers that be" to spend more time and resources on creating a better and more usable UI (this would include better graphics, navigation, copy and the overall general functionality).

Though our application has very rich and working functionality (this alone puts us ahead of our competitors), I believe our interface is still lacking. Because the interface is the sole thing the customer sees, it becomes a direct reflection of our software as a whole as well as a reflection of our company as a whole. Because we are a cutting edge technology company, I believe this holds even more true for us.

I recently signed up with Emigrant Direct, who has got to have the number one worst website (after signup) I have ever seen. I hesitated for a few weeks before transferring them any money and I contemplated going with ING instead, even though Emigrant Direct offers a much better return. This hesitation came solely from my impressions of their UI. After I spent a little more time researching Emigrant Direct, I decided to take the leap and transfer my money (though I did not transfer as much money as I had originally intended to).

Every time I bring up the subject, I am hammered with reasons why we should not "waste our time" on these improvements. The typical responses I receive are "I think our application is good", "Our application is better than our competitors", and "No one has complained about our application, so it must be good".

It seems like this time I am the odd man out, the majority of the company feels our application is good. Though I will agree with them that our application is "good", I believe it should be great!

It is true that no one has complained about our application, but not receiving complaints is not a gauge of how good our application is. People will only complain when the application is less than "usable".

I have created a little graph that ranges from Crap to Kick-Ass. Right in the center is "Usable"; "Usable" is neither good nor bad. Anything in between "Usable" and Kick-Ass will not generate any complaints, which is why we have not received any complaints about our application. Though as you can see, we have not just a little, but a lot of room for improvement.

One of my biggest problems is our customers; constantly send us praise telling us how much better our application is in comparison to our competitors. Unfortunately the company sees this as a big indicator of how good our application is. Though as you can see from the graph I created, yes we are better than our competitors, but we are still far from Kick-Ass.

For me this seems to be a very common problem. I have run into this problem on many different projects in many different companies. It seems like everyone is complacent with mediocrity.

DynoJet Dyno Runs

Tue, 31 May 2005 06:54:25 GMT

It looks like I finally fixed my air/fuel ratio problem. I am no longer running too lean. Now if I could only fix my wheel hop problem...

note: these numbers are rated at the wheels and not at the motor.

update: I forgot to mention... I found a place that will weigh your car for $3.00. My car weighs 3490 lbs (1/4 tank of gas) -- That's about 100-200 lbs lighter than I expected.

update #2: For those of you not familiar with rear wheel horsepower, the new 400hp C6 Corvette has about 330-340 rear wheel horsepower.

Horsepower vs Weight vs Cost.

Sat, 14 May 2005 05:50:39 GMT

The other day my friend Sean and I had a discussion about the horsepower to weight ratio of a vehicle. This conversation started when comparing the Lotus Elise (has low horsepower, but is as light as a feather) to the Honda s2000 (has higher horse power, but also has more weight).

This conversation got me to thinking about how to calculate what the best horsepower to weight ratio for the price of the vehicle would be. I call the result Acceleration Cost.
Formula: Acceleration Cost = cost / (hp / weight)

Best Performance: Chevrolet Corvette z06
Best Acceleration Cost: Nissan 350z
Joel's Pick: Pontiac GTO

One thing to keep in mind about the price of the vehicle -- The vehicle price is Base MSRP with no options. Some cars will require a big bump in price from adding options, others will require almost no price change.

*sorted by hp / weight ratio

Vehicle	Weight	HP	Base MSRP	hp / weight	Acceleration Cost
Corvette C6 z06	3130	505	$65,500	1:06.26	$405,970
Corvette C6	3180	400	$44,500	1:07.95	$353,775
GTO	3725	400	$33,000	1:09.31	$307,312
My Car (99 T/A moded)	3575	365	n/a	1:9.78	n/a
BMW M3 Coupe	3415	333	$47,000	1:10.25	$481,996
Lotus Elise	1975	190	$42,000	1:10.39	$437,500
Subaru Impreza WRX sti	3298	300	$32,000	1:10.99	$351,786
Nissan 350z	3200	287	$26,700	1:11.15	$293,522
Audi s4	3900	340	$47,000	1:11.47	$539,117
BMW 545i	3800	325	$55,800	1:11.69	$652,430
Honda s2000	2835	240	$33,000	1:11.81	$389,812
Lancer Evo VIII	3263	276	$35,500	1:11.82	$419,697
Mustang Coupe GT	3560	300	$25,600	1:11.86	$303,786
Infinity G35	3500	280	$32,500	1:12.50	$406,250
Mazda rx8	3053	238	$27,400	1:12.82	$351,479
Acura RSX-S	2750	210	$23,670	1:13.09	$309,964
Pontiac Solstice	2860	177	$20,000	1:16.15	$323,163

*sorted by acceleration cost.

Vehicle	Weight	HP	Base MSRP	hp / weight	Acceleration Cost
Nissan 350z	3200	287	$26,700	1:11.15	$293,522
Mustang Coupe GT	3560	300	$25,600	1:11.86	$303,786
GTO	3725	400	$33,000	1:09.31	$307,312
Acura RSX-S	2750	210	$23,670	1:13.09	$309,964
Pontiac Solstice	2860	177	$20,000	1:16.15	$323,163
Corvette C6	3180	400	$44,500	1:07.95	$353,775
Mazda rx8	3053	238	$27,400	1:12.82	$351,479
Subaru Impreza WRX sti	3298	300	$32,000	1:10.99	$351,786
Honda s2000	2835	240	$33,000	1:11.81	$389,812
Corvette C6 z06	3130	505	$65,500	1:06.26	$405,970
Infinity G35	3500	280	$32,500	1:12.50	$406,250
Lancer Evo VIII	3263	276	$35,500	1:11.82	$419,697
Lotus Elise	1975	190	$42,000	1:10.39	$437,500
BMW M3 Coupe	3415	333	$47,000	1:10.25	$481,996
Audi s4	3900	340	$47,000	1:11.47	$539,117
BMW 545i	3800	325	$55,800	1:11.69	$652,430

Welcome to Dell Chat. May I punch your balls?

Fri, 06 May 2005 08:36:50 GMT

Talking with Dell Support has got to be one of the most mind numbing excercises I have ever gone through. I have only gone through dell support twice. Both times I got that sick feeling in my stomach, like I've just been punched in my balls. I believe their strategy is to send you into loops and to bore you until you just give up or kill yourself. I am now 5% dumber for having talked with them...

The following is 43 minutes of my life that I can never get back...

Welcome to Dell Chat. Please wait for an available agent. You will be notified when your chat is accepted by an agent.
{Joel Thoms 2:05:06 AM} Unable to scan over network with windows xp (and firewall disabled)
{Joel Thoms 2:05:37 AM} Unable to scan over network with windows xp (and firewall disabled)
The session has been accepted.

{Sashi 2:06:22 AM} Thank you for contacting Dell Consumer Technical Chat Support for Desktop, Printers and Electronics & Accessories. My name is Shashi. Please give me a minute to review your question and in the mean time can you please verify the system shipping address and the telephone number.
{Joel Thoms 2:06:51 AM} shipping address is ****. phone number is ****
{Sashi 2:07:26 AM} Thank you for the information.
{Sashi 2:08:02 AM} since when are you facing the problem with.
{Joel Thoms 2:08:42 AM} Installed printer this week. I am able to scan from computer connected to printer. But unable to scan over network. I can printer over network, but not scan.
{Joel Thoms 2:09:07 AM} I found one article on support.dell.com, but it talks about windows firewall. I have disabled it on the server and client. I am still unable to scan.
{Sashi 2:10:12 AM} Is there any hardware or software changes done in the printer recently?
{Joel Thoms 2:10:34 AM} no changes. the printer is new
{Joel Thoms 2:10:48 AM} when i open the All-In-One Center on client machine and click "Preview Now". i get "Scan Was Not Successful"
{Joel Thoms 2:11:09 AM} but it does work when I try it on the server. Just the clients are not working.
{Sashi 2:11:37 AM} Please let me know the exact error you are getting.
{Joel Thoms 2:12:27 AM} it's a popup box. it says "Scan Was Not Successful" and says try these solutions... "make sure the all-in-one is powered on" "disconnect and reconnect the usb cable" "disconnect and reconnect the all-in-ones power cable" "restart your computer"
{Joel Thoms 2:12:47 AM} i have tried them all. and it still will only work from server, but not client.
{Sashi 2:12:59 AM} okay.
{Sashi 2:13:08 AM} Please allow me couple of minutes to retrieve some necessary information in order to assist you better
{Joel Thoms 2:13:19 AM} ok
{Sashi 2:17:19 AM} Thank you for being online. Please let me know if you have uninstalled windows xp service pack2 firewall.
{Joel Thoms 2:17:57 AM} yes. firewall is disabled on both server and client machine. I also rebooted after I disabled firewall.
{Sashi 2:20:48 AM} If i am correct the printer is not able to download the fax application.
{Sashi 2:21:38 AM} Please correct me if i am wrong.
{Joel Thoms 2:22:13 AM} I think it should. The instruction manual has a section called "Scanning to Your Computer Over a Network."
{Joel Thoms 2:22:33 AM} but this section does not help. and the Troubleshooting section also does not help.
{Sashi 2:23:17 AM} Please Check to see if any system is wirelessly connected to the access point.

Check to see if any system will associate to the base station, access point, or residential gateway in use.
{Joel Thoms 2:24:11 AM} No wireless. Printer is connected to server via USB. Server is connected to router via LAN. Client is also connected to router via LAN.
{Joel Thoms 2:24:21 AM} Printing works, but scanning does not.
{Sashi 2:25:23 AM} Please let me know if you have installed the norton security cenre in the system.
{Joel Thoms 2:26:03 AM} No anti-virus is installed
{Sashi 2:27:01 AM} Are you using the built in windows firewalls.
{Joel Thoms 2:27:56 AM} windows firewalls are disabled on both server and client.
{Sashi 2:30:16 AM} Please allow me a minute to research on this issue.
{Joel Thoms 2:30:20 AM} ok
{Sashi 2:34:21 AM} Thank you for being online.
{Sashi 2:35:08 AM} I would suggest you to install the default windows firewall to resolve the issue.
{Joel Thoms 2:35:42 AM} install on both client and server?
{Sashi 2:35:50 AM} Yes.
{Sashi 2:36:30 AM} I am very sorry for that You need to install it on the client side.
{Joel Thoms 2:36:59 AM} ok. i enabled windows firewall on both client and server. same problem.
{Joel Thoms 2:37:26 AM} Ok, I installed windows firewall on both client and server. same problem.
The visitor has ended the chat session.

{Sashi 2:38:16 AM} Please let me know if you are using the print server.
{Sashi 2:38:52 AM} Please let me know if you are receiving my message?
{Joel Thoms 2:38:58 AM} Unable to scan over network with windows xp (and firewall disabled)
{Joel Thoms 2:39:17 AM} ok. i am back.
{Sashi 2:39:23 AM} Please let me know if you are using the bprint server.
{Joel Thoms 2:39:31 AM} chat was acting weird.
{Sashi 2:39:31 AM} *print
{Joel Thoms 2:39:53 AM} yes. print server is windows xp with printer connected via USB cable.
{Sashi 2:40:49 AM} The faxing feature of this printer is not compatible with print server.
{Sashi 2:41:36 AM} *scanning.
{Joel Thoms 2:42:00 AM} do i need to buy something for scanning to work over the network?
{Sashi 2:43:00 AM} No .
{Sashi 2:43:55 AM} You need to use the printer in a normal way.
{Joel Thoms 2:44:52 AM} ok thank you.
{Sashi 2:44:52 AM} I would advice you to install the firewall as the system may get effected with virus.
{Sashi 2:45:09 AM} Have I been able to answer the query to your satisfaction?
{Joel Thoms 2:45:26 AM} I will continue to play with it. Maybe I can figure it out.
{Sashi 2:45:45 AM} Is there any other technical issue I may assist you with?
{Joel Thoms 2:45:55 AM} no. thank you for your time.
{Sashi 2:46:25 AM} Please stay online with me while I give you the case number. This case number will have all the steps, which we have done today. So that whenever you need to contact us again for the same issue, you just need to mention the case number to the next technician and do not have to repeat all trouble shooting steps undertaken.
{Joel Thoms 2:46:39 AM} ok
{Sashi 2:47:16 AM} The case number is 100689137.
{Joel Thoms 2:47:40 AM} thank you
{Sashi 2:47:48 AM} Thank you for visiting Dell Technical Support online chat and allowing me the opportunity to assist you. Please feel free to visit us again at http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/en/chat?c=us&cs=19&l=e
{Joel Thoms 2:48:13 AM} thank you. goodbye
{Sashi 2:48:30 AM} same to you.

I was going to ask what "You need to use the printer in a normal way." means, but I was afraid my brain was going to fucking explode.

I guess my setup might be kinda abnormal -- I do have the Dell AIO 962 (printer) connected via USB to my Dell PowerEdge 400sc which is connected via rj45 to my Dell TrueMobile 3200 router. I can see where my Dell Inspiron 9300, which is also connected via rj45 to my Dell TrueMobile 3200 might have some FUCKING PROBLEMS?! AAAARRRrrrrrggggggggggggggg...

$750 discount = new laptop.

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 10:21:53 GMT

Well, I missed the original $750 discount (off laptops $1499 and up), but today Dell released another one -- $750 discount (off laptops $2000 and up).

Thank you Dell!

It's 6:20am and my alarm clock isn't working...

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 11:42:38 GMT

My alarm clock has been taunting me for years -- occasionally the alarm will not go off. This had been happening so infrequently, at first, I thought it might be me that was going insane.

I started to perform thorough inspections of the clock after each "incident". I made sure I didn't mix up my am's and pm's. I double checked to see if the right alarm was set. I also looked at all the LEDs to make sure the proper ones were lit up.

Well, this time it was critical that I woke at 6:00am. There was a major Dell coupon, $750 discount on laptops, and it was limited to the first 10k uses. I set the alarm for 5:45am... When I finally wake and look at the clock I see it's 6:20am, 35 minutes past the alarm (yes, I missed the dell deal). I decide it's now time to "fix" the alarm clock once and for all.

I guess this will be the last time the alarm doesn't work. Problem solved. Going back to sleep.

This isn't the first alarm clock that has had this problem -- they have also been fixed.

WasArrested.com mentioned on GoDaddy.com's new radio show.

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 01:05:17 GMT

GoDaddy.com has a new internet radio show (they also offer podcast downloads). I got an anonymous email yesterday from someone saying they found WasArrested.com from their podcast.

The mention is small and was on the April 6th show at aproximately 58:45, near the very end of the show.

Maybe someday I'll do something more with the site.

Holy Bank Fees!

Sun, 10 Apr 2005 01:41:38 GMT

So I'm going through all my 2003 bank statements and credit card statements. From wellsfargo, I had charges totaling $218.15 (this number includes late fees, account maint. costs and also includes the $1.50 non-wells atms charge me).

I was thinking about that wasted $200 I could have had, if I had just used wellsfargo atms and never overdrafted my account -- until I totalled up my credit card fees...

Late Payments + Interest = $3247.84. What a waste of fucking dough.

Credit Card Over-Payment Experiment

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 09:03:54 GMT

After paying off a credit card, they usually stop sending you those little monthly statements. I think they do this to save money or something, but it makes me forget all about the card. I usually leave em tucked in a drawer and if I don't get my monthly statement, the only time I'm reminded I have the card is when it expires and they send a new one in the mail.

Since my credit card company decided to waste my time and send me a bill for exactly one dollar (if I didn't pay I'm sure they'd give me a huge penalty), I decided I would experiment and pay them $1.01 -- over-paying my bill by exactly one cent, just to see what would happen. Would they send me a check for a penny? Would they keep sending me my statements?

So far I've been receiving my monthly statements with a balance of exactly -$0.01... up until this month when I found a strange transaction on my statement, "BALANCE REMOVED DUE TO 3 MOS INACTIVITY".

Experiment Conclusion: Those fuckers stole my goddamn penny!!!

Thanks Cox!

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 09:01:56 GMT

I came home tonight and pluged in my laptop - no internet. I silently cursed at cox while I load up my router status page. Cox has assigned me an internal ip and no dns information -- this is usually a sign that cox is doing maintanence, which has been the norm for them around this time (midnight).

After I reboot my cable modem and renew the dhcp on my router (first thing tech support makes you do) I get a real IP and dns info. YES! So I attempt to pull up a webpage and I get a nice message telling me to contact customer service - grrr.

The first thought that ran through my head was my two friends, eMule and Azureus . Maybe they were naughty while I was away? Azureus has been downloading random tv shows not specified in my regex -- piece of shit application.

I phoned customer service and was actually relieved to find out my internet was disabled due to lack of payment -- oopsie. On the downside, the tech-monkey also tells me, "You must call back tomorrow. You cannot pay over the phone, the billing department has gone home."

Now... #1. Why didn't the "call customer service" page provide me with a link to pay my bill online? #2. Why is there no option for me to pay over the phone?!

In spite of cox, I was able to get my internet back tonight. I hopped onto my neighbors network (thanks gyz1010!), went to cox.com and paid online -- internet was restored instantly.

Thanks Cox!

Created new template for Joel.Net

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:08:30 GMT

I seem to get tired of the templates I create for my site very quickly. The last template I got tired of pretty quick.

My templates seem to get more simple each time I redesign. Less graphics, simple colors. I think I like this one. It's not perfect, but I think I only need some minor tweaks to get it to where I'll like it.

If you have any suggestions or input, I'd like to hear it...

GAlert, the GMail Notifier

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 06:21:28 GMT

GAlert - GMail Notifier.

GAlert monitors your GMail account and notifies you of new incoming emails. Of course Google also has their GMail Notifier, but theirs isn't skinable like this one...

Men more likely to be geniuses.

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 04:44:11 GMT

Men are more likely to be geniuses. Though, men are also more likely to be retards.

link

Is tap water safer than bottled water?

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:39:18 GMT

I just finished watching a video from PBS.org about the bottled water industry and misconceptions about our tap water.

Here are some facts from the website/video...

47% of bottled water drinkers admit to having a "concern over tap water quality".
Out of 100 bottled waters tested 1/3 failed to meet tap waters cleanliness standards.
Americans spend $7.7 billion dollars a year on bottled water.
We shell out $11,000 a minute for bottled water.
Bottled water costs ~1,000x more than tap water.
Bottled water costs 3x more than gasoline.
NYC tap water is some of the safest water in the world, it has also finalized in national taste tests.
A small fraction of the money we spend on bottled water would be enough to fix out entire nations water supply.

So why do we drink bottled water over tap? Simple answer: because that is what is marketed to us.

At my last place I would refill my water bottles with tap (charcoal filtered). Since I moved - no more charcoal filter, no more refills. At first try, I wasn't too fond of the taste of my tap water - I thought it tasted a lot like arrowhead water (yuck). But after dropping a few cubes in my glass, I find the water is much more tasty cold. I will try to drink more tap water.

When I do buy bottled water, I always try to buy Dasani - I believe it's the best tasting water out there (they add minerals to improve the taste).

Edit: Found quite a funny story about a subversive man called Jon Cotner who refuses to buy bottled water and continues to refil the same bottle over and over. He gives a few stories about the many pressures from society to stop drinking tap and buy bottled water.

UPDATE: If you are using reusable water bottles, be sure to wash them or risk the dangers of bacteria. And for the love of god, DO NOT BUY Nalgene water bottles.

Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 12:49:36 GMT

I added another movie to the top of my favorites list, IKIRU. I watched this last night and immediately fell in love with it.

Ikiru is another Akira Kurosawa film, though unlike the other Akira Kurosawa films I've seen, this one has no Samurai in it. Ikiru is an OLD black and white from 1952, but even today it's still such an incredible movie.

Ikiru is movie about an old man (Watanabe) who lives his entire life doing nothing, not "living life", just passing time. After a visit to the doctor he learns that he is dying from stomach cancer and only has 6 months left to live. It's at that moment Watanabe truly starts to live. He then spends his remaining days trying to find happiness and live life.

This is such a great film, I had to own it, so I hopped onto Amazon.com and bought it immediately. I think I'll wait for my DVD to arrive before watching the commentary.

One thing I've learned from watching this film is that I really haven't watched enough Akira Kurosawa films. It's a shame nobody (in America) knows his name. He is truly one of the greatest film makers of all time.

I found the secret ingredient in Febreze!

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 05:31:53 GMT

So I was reading the ingredients of one of my new favorite products, Febreze -- I was curious and wanted to know what their odor eliminator was.

Here are the ingredients right off the can...
INGREDIENTS: Odor eliminator, water, fragrance, non-flammable natural propellant, quality control ingredients.

Ahhhh Ha! It must be the Odor Eliminator. I'm so glad they listed the ingredients! I think the only real ingredient on the can is water. I bet they had at least 2 meetings about other (even more vague) names for water they could put on the can instead.

I should write them and suggest they add "Love" as an ingredient.

Soda drinkers are retards...

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:33:08 GMT

Is this what retard soda drinkers believe?

Myth: Tapping on a soda can will reduce foaming.

I do like the Hypothesis from her page...
"Tapping the soda can does nothing. If a shaken soda can does not foam over, it is because enough time has passed for the soda inside to settle itself -- this has nothing to do with whether or not some loser tapped on the can."

Holy Time Cube Crap!

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:05:15 GMT

Holy crap, who seriously took the time to add this to Wikipedia?

And who took the time to quote Gene Ray on Wikiquote?

This guy writes Gene Ray a long ass letter telling him his website is a pile of shit. Gene Ray replies to his email with one line "My Time is too important to waste with such a stupid ass. - GR". Now that's a quality response.

I kind of like This guys version of the "Time Cube" because he included a "Wake up and pee" time.

Ran, Ran, Ran!

Wed, 02 Mar 2005 10:11:39 GMT

So for the past 3 nights I've watched Ran (Masterworks Edition). Ok, it's not as crazy as it sounds. The first night I saw Ran for the 2nd time. The other two nights I was watching the commentaries.

Ran is Akira Kurosawa's version of Shakespeare's King Lear. Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest directors of all time and Ran is one of his best works.

The film was released in 1985 and I've seen the non-MasterWorks version. The MasterWorks version is beautiful, you would think it was filmed yesterday with the latest technologies. The clarity and color was greatly improved. In the special features on the DVD, they show some before and afters of the film processing - it's freaking magic. Watching with the added clarity, color and sound - I was definitely more involved in the film this time around.

The audio commentaries are done by Stephen Prince and Peter Grilli. The Stephen Prince commentary was great. He gave a ton of insight into Akira Kurosawa, the film, actors, added a lot more explanation, meaning and depth to the film. He had a lot to say and ended up talking non-stop through the whole movie.

I would recommend skipping the commentary by Peter Grilli. Peter mostly talks about behind the scenes action a lot of talk about editing and doesn't provide as much insight as Stephen Prince.

This item has been on my Wish List for a while now. I would have bought it if I didn't just watch it 3x in a row. I probably wont view this movie again until I show it to someone. I definitely plan to own this one.

I would recommend checking this flick out - Blockbuster should have it or you can always Netflix it.

You can also buy this for me off my wish list and I'll be your best friend ;)

HOWTO: Prevent VisualStudio.net from modifying your code.

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 03:43:49 GMT

VisualStudio.net (VS.NET) likes to mess with your code. And about 100% of people who use it hate this feature. It attempts to make everything pretty, but in the end it just jumbles everything up (most-likely in the way you don't want it).

Below are some simple ways to prevent VS.NET from scrambling your code...

Turn off auto-formatting...

Go to Tools >> Options.
Navigate to Text Editor >> HTML/XML >> Format.
Uncheck Everything under "Apply Automatic Formatting" and "Automatic Formatting Options".

Start in HTML mode...

Go to Tools >> Options.
Navigate to HTML Designer >> General.
Change all views to "HTML View".

note: Because VS.NET 2002/2003 is the devil (VS.NET 2005 will obey properly - thank god) it will STILL reformat your code if you switch between "Design" and "HTML" mode.

Fucking laptop

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 02:19:10 GMT

My piece of crap laptop is giving me the shits. Today for no reason, my laptop touch pad seems to have generated a dead spot. Fortunately it's only right in the fucking middle of the pad.

At first I thought maybe windows was freaking out, so I rebooted about 10 times -- Still no workie.

Then, for no apparent reason (about 20 min after reboot) it decided to start working again. I'll take this as a sign.

Guess I'll be ordering a new toy tonight.

Glue removed from Thai monk's eye

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 01:40:11 GMT

An elderly Thai monk who mistook a tube of superglue for eye drops can see again after doctors unglued one eye.

Phra Kru Prapatworakhun, 81, had been unable to see for nearly a week after applying the superglue, which he found in his temple's medicine cabinet.

Doctors used acetone solvent to remove the glue from one eye and said it was unharmed, the Nation newspaper reports.

An operation on the second eye, which is still tightly sealed, is scheduled for Thursday.

Phra Kru Prapatworakhun, the abbot of a temple in Muang Angthong district, north of Bangkok, said he had a severe itch in his eyes on 17 February.

"I squeezed several drops on the floor and saw a clear liquid, so I put four drops into each eye. In about a minute, my eyes felt cold and then sealed closed," the monk told the Nation.

Another monk suggested he use thinners to get rid of the glue. But that only caused a searing pain, he said.

link

4 story Super Mario mural made with post-it notes.

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 01:33:25 GMT

This has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen in a while...

Total Number of Post-its®
~3800
Total People
12
Total Time
1.5 hours

link

Warning: Do not install Trillian 3.

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 10:40:36 GMT

Ok, I've been testing out Trillian 3... and after evaluating the product for a little over a month, I've come to the conclusion that it sucks.

Trillian 3 uses about 25M of memory (compared to v2, which uses a little over 6M). Trillian 3 is also very CPU intensive, I've popped open my task manager a few times to see Trillian 3 sucking up about 70%+ of my processor. I never saw this with 2.

So far (after browsing the forums) I have found only one reason to upgrade to Trillian 3. There's a bug in Trillian 2 with MSN - occasionally MSN messages you send will not be received, and you will not be notified. This bug was fixed in 3, but not in 2.

I'd still rather use Trillian 2.

Did you miss this weeks raunchies moment on TV?

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 05:28:40 GMT

Did you miss this weeks raunchiest moment on TV? Don't worry because now The Parents Television Council (the ones who battle television indecency) have started an archive of "The Worst TV Clip of the Week".

Their strategy to reduce indecency is to catalog TV's raunchiest moments and archive them on their website for everyone to see. Ingenious!

I'll be checking back weekly!

Glasses

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 07:51:02 GMT

Ok, so recently I made an appointment with the optometrist. I've been having issues with slight vision blurring at night. Turns out I'm a little nearsighted and need GLASSES.

After trying on every pair of glasses in the store, I found two that I liked (And yes, Jamie helped pick them out). Couldn't really decide which ones I liked better, so I got both of them.

I never thought my eyes were bad, but when I put my glasses on everything becomes much more clear. I had thought my TV was a little blurry... maybe it was a little too big (72"), maybe it was because it was an older projector (Epson 710c). Apparently it was just my damn eyes. On the bright side, wearing my glasses is like an upgrade to my TV. It's like a difference of Component compared to S-Video. The projector looks damn nice now.

No Glasses

Glasses Style - A

Glasses Style - B

Click thumbnails for larger image. Leave a comment and let me know which ones you like best and what you like or don't like about them.

Ex-coworker marries Russian-mail-order-bride.

Sat, 12 Feb 2005 02:41:14 GMT

So I get an IM from an old co-worker telling me Aaron got married to a Russian-mail-order-bride and sends me a link to his testimonial.

I've heard a few people joking about ordering a mail-order-bride, I've even seen them do it on Bam's show, but I've never known anyone to really be serious about it.

Well, from what it looks like my ex-coworker was. strange... (of course he also owns a tractor he someday aspires to fix up.)

Where do you register for your mail-order-bride and yourself? Amazon.com!

Netflix vs. Blockbuster

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 07:13:41 GMT

Netflix: $17.99/m - 3 rentals
Blockbuster: $14.99/m - 3 rentals (+2 in-store rentals a month)

So I signed up for blockbuster.com's 1 month free trial (use code: ff456). I'm going to compare blockbuster's service to netflix's. $14.99 is definately a much better price... plus you get 2 in-store rentals a month. I hear Walmart has an online rental service too, but I refuse to patronize Walmart.

Jessica Alba, where are you?

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 07:17:06 GMT

Dammit - why did they ever cancel Dark Angel? And why isn't Jessica Alba in more movies and TV shows?

And yes, I saw Honey.

8.5 hours of moving.

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 11:23:51 GMT

I spent 16 hours the day before packing and still didn't finish. I was able to get 2 hours of sleep before the movers showed up. It took 2 movers and me 8 and a half hours to move all the shit.

I came to realize one thing - I have a lot of crap!

I gave the movers a lot of the crap. I gave away 1 ikea table, it was actually a decent table (for ikea) - new it was around $200. I also gave away a 13" TV, some wood drawers that you set your bed on and 3 wheel/pedal sets for driving games.

I also gave my mom one 15" crt, one 19" crt a printer and my old water bed I no longer use.

After I unpack, it's going to be time to sell a lot more crap on ebay.

During the move I had left my wallet out on the counter. I had thought of a funny joke to play on the movers (by funny, I mean cruel) - and no I didn't do it. At the end of the move I would tell them that someone had taken the money I was going to use for a tip and tell them that they hadn't stolen from me, but their partner. It would have been funny for 2 reasons: I would not have to tip them and they both would have thought the other one took the money.

Yes, sometimes even I wonder what's wrong with my brains. hehe

What do you get when you mix alcohol, tomato sauce, fish sauce and vinegar?

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 02:26:55 GMT

I'm not sure either, but I do know the smell is beyond horrible!

Moving sucks. So I've decided the food isn't coming with me. I've done my best to eat everything in the fridge, it's almost empty. Still a few things I need to throw out. This means everything goes down the drain.

I felt like an alcoholic pouring a dozen bottles of booze down the drain. Two of them were still sealed. It was a shame, had to pop them open just to pour them out.

I've poured so much crap down the drain, I hope it doesn't throw up.

How do you go to work when your car looks like this?

Fri, 28 Jan 2005 10:16:42 GMT

link

A warning about MSXML2.XMLHTTP and caching...

Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:05:31 GMT

I ran into a little problem with the MSXML2.XMLHTTP object today. It appears to be caching the request, even when there is a new version available on the server. I couldn't find any options to turn the caching off.

After swapping all MSXML2.XMLHTTP references to MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP, things started working like normal.

I've ran into too many problems with MSXML2.XMLHTTP object. This one was most-likey due to WinINet's Caching. WinINet is a horrible control. I don't know why it's still being used...

So... how many billiseconds are in a second?

Tue, 25 Jan 2005 02:51:55 GMT

I was playing around with the SqlDateTime object when IntelliSense popped up this dialog...

I paused for a second before I figured out what a billisecond was. Nice typo.

WTF is wrong with forum users?

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 01:42:27 GMT

Since I started using the Internet, I have been able answer almost all questions myself. The Internet has been a great resource for me. Though, now I have become troubled. When I cannot find my answers, I usually post my question in a related forum. After receiving what I can only describe as many "borderline incompetent" replies to the majority of my questions, I began to ask myself, "WHY!?"

How many times have you seen someone ask a legitimate question to receive a reply of "I don't know". Some forums have more flames than actual posts. Are people too concerned with answering as many questions as possible simply to get their ranking up? Are they not actually reading the whole post before they reply?

The last ignorant reply I received infuriated me, so I re-posted my question on Google Answers, but you already know what happened...

After a little self reflection trying to figure out if the problem was me or my questions, I came to a catch-22 realization. If I make my questions too simple, I will receive a simple-minded reply. If I elaborate too much, my question will go unread.

After a review of my unsatisfied questions I have filed them into these categories: didn't read question, asked why, answered it myself, unanswered, gave me an answer I previously said I didn't want.

Here are some of my previously asked questions: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.

note: Jamie recently pointed me to a new promising forum, moderated with an iron fist -- The Latest Memo.

TV on demand. I want it now!

Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:21:32 GMT

Today I was browsing around Shotime's Website and saw they have something called Shotime On Demand. Seems like a great idea. They give you the ability to watch any of their available shows whenever you want.

Unfortunately it's only available for cable (I have satelite) and not available in my area. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to wait.

Luck

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 12:43:49 GMT

"Most people have little idea how much they secretly bank on luck -- hard luck to justify past failures, good luck to bring future successes. How many people drift through life simply waiting for the breaks, for that moment when a lucky lottery number brings riches and dizzying spell of fame. If you approach life this way, says Hinduism, you misjudge your position pathetically. Breaks have nothing to do with protracted levels of happiness, nor do they happen by chance. We live in a world in which there is no chance or accident. Those words are simply covers for ignorance." - The World's Religions

Goodbye Google Desktop. Goodbye Lookout. Hello Yahoo! Desktop.

Sat, 15 Jan 2005 02:31:31 GMT

I finally uninstalled Google Desktop and Lookout.

I've had them both installed for some time now. And I wasn't really using either that much. I never used Google Desktop. It didn't index any files I wanted to search. The only use I found for Google Desktop was indexing my emails, but I used Lookout for that.

The interface to lookout was a little clumsy, it wasn't horrible, but it could have been better.

Since I found Yahoo! Desktop Search, I no longer have a need for Google Desktop or Lookout. I was surprised to find Yahoo! Desktop Search is re-branded X1.

For those of you that don't know X1, it's a great search tool with incredibly fast searches. Unfortunately X1 is not free, though Yahoo! Desktop Search will do all I need.

Down with the penny!

Thu, 06 Jan 2005 01:33:09 GMT

Ok, so I've hated the penny for some time now. Here's a list of reasons why I hate the penny...

The penny is worthless. You can't find anything under a quarter in price anymore.
You can't even use the penny in many places (eg. vending machines, toll booths, etc.).
Pennies slow down transactions (people must wait while they count their pennies)
The penny is just more filthy change in your pocket.
The penny (even more so than other change) makes your hands smell like filthy ass change.

So today I begin my protest against the penny. I drove through Del Taco, my meal totals $4.21, and I cant figure out what is worse: A. I must carry pennies at all times just in case the transaction requires a penny, or B. I give them a nickel and receive in return 4 filthy ass pennies in return. So I made a decision to no longer acknowledge pennies when requested.

I hand the man $4.20 and await his response. He will either ask if I have a penny, use a penny from somewhere else or deny my payment. Well, actually... he ended up not giving 2 craps about the penny, didn't ask for one, didn't look at me, just took my money and gave me my food.

I am phasing out the penny in my life.

p.s. I'm not the only one who hates pennies. Dumping the penny has been in and out of the news many times.

Economy survey phone call

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:39:05 GMT

So I got a call today asking if I had time to do a phone survey about the state of the economy. Of course I had time!

Unfortunately they were not interested in my opinion because I do not have over $500k in stocks, investments or cash.

I guess I'll have to wait until next year ;) hehe

note: if you don't know why I was so eager to share my opinion on the economy, read my previous blog post.

US has a 90% Chance of Economic Doom.

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 06:40:43 GMT

There have been a lot of economic forecasts floating around the news lately; very few of them seem to have a positive outlook on the future. Morgan Stanley's (investment banking giant) chief economist, Stephen Roach is giving us a 10% chance of getting through this OK, citing our record US trade deficit being the cause.

From 1992 and 1997, the US trade deficit almost tripled. In 2002 the US trade deficit hit a record $418 billion; only to be outdone in 2003 when we hit another record deficit of $489.4 billion. Thats a 17.1% increase in just one year.

Stephen Roach argues the dollar will continue to fall as a result of the U.S trade deficit, thus creating inflation. To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve will be forced to raise interest rates, higher and sooner than we or they would like. We've already seen the Feds increase rates 4 times this year.

Unfortunately the boost to the dollar from the Fed is only a short term boost.

In-debt Americans will be hurt most by this. Since the majority of us are in debt, the effect will not only be nation-wide, but global, effecting the non-in-debt as well. The effects of this are already hurting other nations.

Americans are going deeper and deeper into debt, as a result bankruptcy is on the rise. Bankruptcy law currently protects your pensions, 401(k)s, social security and a few others. Because of this increase in bankruptcy, the Supreme Court is now deciding if they can seize these assets and how much of it to seize.

"A long time ago, we were a nation of cash-rich, house-poor people. Then, we became house rich and cash poor. Today, we're a nation that's credit dependent and cash broke."

Mortgage rates are now on the rise. Mortgage owners with variable interest rates will be affected greatly. Unfortunately close to half of all new mortgages have a variable interest rate. This will cause a greater increase of foreclosures.

Foreclosures have already been on the rise for some time now. In some Counties there has been a 100%+ increase in foreclosures in 2003, when compared to 2002. Foreclosures increases have also been predicted for California and Nevada through 2005.

Lexis McGee, foreclosures.com, said her company has always seen a correlation between rising interest rates and rising levels of foreclosure activity.

As interest rates rise, the prices of housing will fall, causing almost half of home owners (variable rates) payments to increase at the same time they'll find themselves owing more than their house is worth.

Foreclosure News: foreclosures.com

Housing hit an all time high in June for most communities. Though housing has started a decline or what is being called a "cooling" or "cool-down". This can already be seen in California and Boston as well as other areas. Meanwhile Scott Van Voorhis is predicting a Crash in the Condo market.

Condo prices over the past year rose more than 14 percent - more than 10 percent faster than single -family home prices.

"That's a sign that we ought to start looking very closely at this housing market," said Harvard University housing expert Nicholas Retsinas. "That may be a sign that the slowing may be sooner than we think."

Also related, share value of the largest US homebuilders has declined.

The greenback's decline is largely the result of massive twin deficits - both in the federal budget, and in the current account which measures the difference between the flow of money in and out of the US.

Global worries about the size of the US trade gap cause the US dollar to hit a record low against the euro. It doesn't help that our Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan announced the gap was unsustainable. It probably also doesn't help that the Chinese central banker has made comments stating China would be reducing dollar assets in its reserves. Though he later retracted his comment, he will probably still reduce the dollar asset. European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet reiterated concerns that the sliding dollar was "unwelcome" for the European economy.

Even though the US dollar has "bounced back" from the record low, many still have a negative outlook towards the future of the dollar and expect it to fall farther. [1] [2]

Effects from the drop in the US dollar can already be seen in a drop in the DOW. Though S&P Drops may be mostly due to Wal-Mart (thanks Wal-Mart).

With a national debt of $7.5+ trillion dollars, $25,535.54 of debt for each American citizen, (and growing fast) and our record breaking trade deficit, it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So what is "our great leader", President Bush, doing about this? He sends in a $2.4 trillion dollar budget and HE RAISES OUR NATIONAL DEBT LIMIT. Apparently our problem is not that we owe too much, our problem is OUR LIMITS ARE NOT HIGH ENOUGH. I wonder why we have a national debt limit, if we're able to breach the limit without any problems. I guess it's more of a suggestion than a "limit".

Our budget is still bloated and contains many "pet projects" that total more than $15.8 billion. They found $250,000 for the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, $1 million for the B.B. King Museum in Indianola, Miss., and $75,000 for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wis.

Bush is also asking congress for an additional $87 billion dollars to "continue the fight on terrorism in Iraq". So far, it is estimated this "war on terrorism" will end up costing the US $191 billion dollars. This site has a javascript counter of how much the war is currently costing us. You can also find out how much it is costing your State, or even County. Check out this link, they provide a cute visualization of $191 billion dollars.

As if we have any problems getting into debt ourselves, the laziness of the Bush administration has also allowed a violation the laws of The World Trade Organization, costing us an initial $150 million. [2] This is like a $150 million dollar parking ticket, Bush being our driver, unfortunately we will all have to pay for it.

It seems that Bush wants to spend more money than he is allowed, so where will he find all the money for this? Easy! Bush will just borrow from social security! He doesn't have to run for re-election, so what does he care.

Maybe we would have been better off with John Kerry. It's a shame and very apparent that our voting system does not work.

Great Links about our National Debt: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock

"In plain English, deficits have to be financed by borrowing and large scale debt, with the risk of large-scale default and large-scale disruption and pain."

I'm still having troubles finding economic reports stating "everything is OK". Even reports like this, which suggest growth is strong, leave suggestion that it will not last.

Don't skip by that "large-scale default" too quickly. By default, he means failure to pay or bankrupcy. And large-scale could potentially include the US banks or the US itself. He's saying, if trends continue, the US may have to declare bankrupcy. This most-likely will not happen, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't happen.

My suggestions: Read all the links in this article. Do your own research. Sell your house or refinance with a fixed rate. Pay off all debt. Start saving for our future recession.

Constricting your anus will "Good-bye" depression?

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 08:10:08 GMT

I saw this on Target's website.

If you can't read it, it says "How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective way?"

Scroll down and read the comments, they're great.

Click on the image to go directly to the Target URL.

You can also read comments on this book at amazon.com.

Guess what you're getting for XMas??

Humans and Monkeys

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:10:56 GMT

So I'm watching the Discovery Science Channel right now and a great show called Weird Nature is on. They're showing these Verbit Monkeys on an Island in Saint Kitts in the Caribbean. These monkeys acquired a taste for alcohol by eating fermented sugar cane left in the field. Our taste for alcohol began when we searched the forest for ripe fermenting fruit.

These monkeys have now learned to snatch drinks up from local bars on the beach. They even snatch the drinks right next to people laying out on the beach.

Some of the monkeys favor soft drinks over alcohol. The percentage of monkeys and humans that avoid alcohol is the same. Most of the monkeys (like humans) drink in moderation. Also like humans (the same percentage) 12% of the monkeys drink regularly and 5% drink to the last drop.

"This similarity between us suggests that a taste for alcohol is determined principally by our genes." - Discovery Channel

I mostly find this interesting because I believe humans are in less control of their actions and thought then they believe. A lot more of who we are, what we say and what we do is reactionary, preprogrammed by our genes and environment, than we'd like to believe.

My unhappy Sears experience.

Sun, 21 Nov 2004 03:44:09 GMT

It felt strange walking through Sears today, and no, not because of the Sears-KMart merge. Because I was one of about 3 total people in Sears that was not Mexican.

I was not happy with my overall Sears experience. There were new glass walls around the electronics section. I'm guessing they have had a problem with shoplifting since there was only one entrance. That single entrance also had an anti-theft system you had to walk through. It felt like the devil-company Walmart, cheap.

After telling me they do not carry air conditioning filters, one of the very few non-Mexican people, helped me check out. He was what appeared to be a 65 year old white male. I always wonder about older people working crap jobs. Does this man not have a single skill that can help land him a better job than a Sears salesman? I can only hope he's just trying to get some extra holiday cash and working there after work - most-likely not.

Sell your soul for $750,000 a month

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:14:20 GMT

Spamming is the most despicable job on the planet. If you are a spammer, you are less than shit.

I'm glad to see a high profile spammer being taken down. It looks like he's facing nine years in a federal-pound-me-in-the-ass-prison. Does it make me a bad person if I hope he's beaten up?

One thing I can't believe is that he made up to 750k/month. Holy crap that is a lot of money. Would you be a spammer for 750k/month? I think most of us would say yes. See you in hell.

Source

Thanks for the free shit Marlboro!

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 07:02:09 GMT

First a little back-story... I was in Vegas with a few friends when we were approached by a Marlboro employee. We were offered free Zippo lighters, which we took. In exchange they took our personal information off of our license. (Side note: It is a copper Zippo... I fucking hate copper. The goddamn thing smells like a penny... grrrrr)

Of course, a few weeks later I started getting crap in the mail from Marlboro. They send me something at least every other week. I've been getting this crap for over a year now. I recently started opening and checking out what the hell they are sending me. In the packages I've gotten cookbooks, which actually contain some pretty good recipes, Tickets for races (I checked the race tracks website and the tickets were selling for $75 each), and a bunch of other crap.

But just recently I got a master card debit card with $10 on it. I'm starting to wonder what was in the packages that I didn't open.

I'm not a smoker and never have been.

Marlboro, fuck you (<--this applies to smokers too), but thanks for the free shit!

India may power Google's instant messenger

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 10:34:33 GMT

It looks like Google is now working on an instant messenger. Sounds interesting. Unfortunately I currently run 4 chat protocols, I hope this wont add a 5th.

On the brighter side... the Indian company, Geodesic, already has an IM product, Mundu. Mundu supports Mundu, AIM, ICQ, MSN & Yahoo. Mundu is also cross platform and runs on some mobile devices. I wonder how it compares to Trillian.

Source: moneycentral.com

http://www.humandescent.com/

Tue, 26 Oct 2004 01:19:08 GMT

http://www.humandescent.com/ A picture's worth a thousand words. I can't even describe the weird photos on that site. gotta check it out.

Evolution (Devolution) of communication

Tue, 26 Oct 2004 12:48:36 GMT

in person, standard mail, telephone, email, instant messaging, sms (text messaging), weblog. each step, less interaction and more impersonal. What great technology will come next?

Plato

Mon, 25 Oct 2004 12:54:37 GMT

"Poverty consists, not in the decrease of one's possessions, but in the increase of one's greed." -- Plato

Wish I had a carpool partner

Thu, 07 Oct 2004 10:32:48 GMT

Sometimes I wish I had a carpool partner. Then I wouldn't feel so guilty when I drive to work in the carpool lane.

Going big!

Thu, 07 Oct 2004 03:30:20 GMT

At work, I was headed to our one-at-a-time restoom arriving at the same time as a co-worker. He simply looked at me and asked "Big or small?", to which I replied "Big." He then curteously told me "I need to go big too, you can go first."

The next time I'm at the drive through for Wendy's and I'm prompted with "Would you like to go big?", I'll think of my co-worker.

GMail Atom feed

Mon, 04 Oct 2004 10:53:28 GMT

Well, I logged into GMail and noticed an 'Atom' button on the left side navigation. I was very excited to find out they have an Atom feed.

Though, it looks like not everyone has this Atom feed. Maybe they haven't done a full release yet?

Login to gmail and go to the following URL to see if you have access to the feed.

https://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom

Haha. this is really funny. The feed cannot be used in any news reader. It is password protected, but after you enter in your user/pass, you are not logged into google or sent the atom xml data. You are redirected to googles main page to login. -- oops google.

Just got my T-Mobile Sidekick II

Sat, 02 Oct 2004 01:46:22 GMT

I just got my T-Mobile Sidekick II. I was starting to hate my Color Sidekick, glad I have the new one :)

More About It

Jesus wants you to save, Refinance now the Christian way

Wed, 22 Sep 2004 11:06:07 GMT

I keep getting these goddamn emails over and over asking me to refinance my house. These kind of spams are pretty common, but what makes this one different is they're saying JESUS wants me to refinance! WTF?!

And yes, the subject of the email was "Jesus wants you to save, Refinance now the Christian way".

Their site is ChristianMortgageUSA.com "Your Lending Advisor With Biblical Values".

I wish they had enough Christian values to STOP FUCKING SPAMMING ME!

If jesus had an email address this company would have been turned into a pilar of salt.

I can only pray they go to hell.

No more car payments!

Fri, 17 Sep 2004 01:23:57 GMT

Thank god. My car is finally paid off. I couldn't take it anymore. I got a late notice from GMAC and sent them 3 months worth of payments. I am free!!! from my car payment at least... now just gotta take care of the rest of the debt.

Gas station fires are caused by women, not cellphones

Sat, 11 Sep 2004 12:05:28 GMT

78% of gas station fires are caused by women. Apparently most gas station fires are caused by static electricity. Women are 6 times more likely to get back into the car after starting the pumping of gas. The entering and exiting the vehicle causes a buildup of static electricity. When they finally go to remove the pump from the gas tank the static electricity discharge from their hands to the pump handle causes the gas to ignite.

source

110 miles to and from work

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 12:21:58 GMT

I got gas right before I left for work and set my trip meter. When I got home it was at 110 - kill me.

Was it hot today?

Tue, 07 Sep 2004 11:01:28 GMT

I saw on the news it got into the tripple digits. I was inside all day with the air conditioning on -- suckers.

Fun with Google

Thu, 02 Sep 2004 09:31:58 GMT

Every now and then it's fun to play with google. You search for weird things to see what google thinks of your search.

Well I google'd fo shizzle my nizzle using google images. Of course snoop dog is the #1 image, but collen powell is #2.

fo shizzel my nizzle.

Go Formula Drift!

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 02:04:47 GMT

Just got back from the Formula Drift. Was a really good event, I had a lot of fun. The crowd was a lot quieter than the previous events though.

The forumad.com site is a little confusing though. I was upset when they eliminated sam. In my opinion, Sam was the best driver there; he was also driving the best car, a dodge viper. Anyway... under latest news it says "Congrats to Sam Hubinette for winning the first ever FD championship!".

Did he win? Are we talking about the same event I was at?

I think maybe he didn't win the event I was at, but won the FormulaD from points.

...I'm now on a quest to turn my car into a drift car.

$600 for two tires

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 01:45:50 GMT

Well, I finally went back to get my tires. I'm now $600 poorer. Slowly all my tires seem to have needed replacing. These were the last 2 tires. I now have a completely new set of tires on my car. Those last two tires lasted about 50-60k miles. It's incredible since those tires are only rated for around 15-20k miles. They were all replaced because of road hazards or uneven wear from the car. The last tire still had enough tread on it to be legal. These are damn good tires. Too bad they're so expensive.

Longest tire change ever!

Wed, 18 Aug 2004 01:47:01 GMT

Ok, so I take my car today down to America's Tire Co. One of my tires failed and needed to be replaced. When I called and was told they had my tire in stock. There were 3 cars in front of me, so I took off to get some food. When I got back, I saw my car was still there, so I sat and waited. After 2 hours had passed and my car still wasn't done, I went to find out what was going on. Aparently the computer lsited my tire as being in stock, but they couldnt find it.

They gave me a spare tire to ride around on until they could order a new tire for me. By the time I got out of there, 3 hours have passed. Jesus kill me!

Time to close my E*TRADE account

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 11:42:31 GMT

Let me preface this by saying I haven't logged into my E*TRADE account in about 4 years. I put some money in and ignored it...

Because I haven't logged into E*TRADE in so long, I had to guess my user id / pass. I tried to use their 'lost password' page, but that requires me to know my user id. When I went to the 'lost user id' page, it asks for my account number. If you don't know your account number, you get sent back to the 'lost user id' page. Long story short, I kept typing in user id's and passwords until it let me in.

After I log in, I find that in my portfolio I have a (-200.00) cash balance. I think to myself that this is a little strange and after an email to them, I find out E*TRADE now charges a $25 quarterly account maintenance fee, that’s $100 / year.

I guess this is a new thing, to me at least; I haven't logged on in a long, long time.

My account isn't making me any money. The funds I have are just sitting there, which I was fine with before, but now they are quickly dwindling because of this $100/y account fee. Time to close account!

So I issue a 'sell' on Friday and have to wait until Monday for the sell order to go through. After it does, I found out I have to wait 10 days before I can access this money. It's available right away to stuff into another stock, but I have to wait 10 days to withdraw my funds.

A check is currently being sent to me. Once the check is cached, my account will be canceled.

This has been a long and tedious process..

LA drivers are assholes

Mon, 02 Aug 2004 07:57:44 GMT

Ya, so LA drivers are all assholes.

I have this special driving move I use when I want to change lanes and the person in the next lane speeds up to prevent me from changing lanes.

I speed up so I'm side by side with the car in front of the A-hole that won’t let me over. I slowly decelerate until my front tire is next to the cars rear tire. I start to creep into the lane until my front bumper clears the other cars rear bumper. Finally, I slow my deceleration and stay about a foot behind the car while I keep moving all the way into the lane.

This technique always works because you will be closer to the car in front. The driver can either hit you or back away. It's a real A-hole move to do, and they'll get pissed off, but I take pleasure in pissing them off if they're going to be jerks about letting me change lanes.

Well, anyway, I was driving up in LA, trying to merge over to the left lane. All the cars were trying to merge over to the right to get off at LAX. Some jerk-off sped up to block me. I mean WTF... he's trying to get over to the right... I’m trying to get 2 lanes past him to the left, but he still felt the need to try to block me. So I did my A-hole lane change move and I guess he got really pissed off because instead of backing off like every other car does he moves over more to the left and speeds up. We are now driving side by side, both of us within the boundaries of the single lane. What a shit bag.

I slowed, let him take the front position and moved in behind him, merged one more to the left and increased my speed by about 30 mph and took off.

I hope it was worth it A-hole.

Coercion - why we listen to what "they" say

Wed, 28 Jul 2004 01:13:55 GMT

I picked up a new book, Coercion. So far it's a pretty good book. It talks about the ways the media, sales, and retail personel manipulate us without us being the wiser.

In the section I just finished reading, a retired auto salesman is describing to the author a popular way to break through the buyers defenses and make them more responsive to coercion.

As Miller explained, "Somewhere during that demo drive, while you're making your trial close -- not asking for the sale yet -- you ask him, in these exact words, 'Is this the type of vehicle you would like to own?' It happens. And anyone will tell you this, the vacuum cleaner salesman, the carpet salesman - the customer has a split second of insanity. The mind goes blank, the body paralyzes, the eyes get glassy, dilated. And you'd be surprised how many people have an accident at just that moment! Ask any car dealer. We always joke about it."
How could a single question provoke such an extreme response? Partly because it relies on disassociation. The customer is already in a vehicle, being asked to imagine himself owning the same type of vehicle. It's the same as if I asked you if this is the kind of book you can imagine yourself reading. Your current situation is reframed in fantasy. It creates a momentary confusion, or disassociation, from the activity you're involved in. That's why so many drivers crash. They are no longer just driving the car but imagining themselves driving the car. It is a momtary loss of awareness, during which the customer's defense mechanisms and rational processes are disabled.

So far I think the book is great and would recomment it to everyone. I'll let you know more as I read on.