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Monday July 03rd, 2006 |
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Writing time.
Fuck apple. I got the blinky lights on my ipod shuffle last night. So I had to reinstall the gayness that is itunes so that I could reformat it and repopulate it. Seriously get out of my face Apple. I actually wanted a Mac a couple months ago. Your idiotic "ZOMG WINDOWS IS 4 LOSERS" commercials started to push me away. But Itunes is such garbage. I am a proud supporter of everybody jumping ship to Ubuntu. Ubuntu is an awesome os. And it's cheaper (as in free) and non-proprietery (as in open-source). Sell your stock. The ship isn't sinking. The hipsters will stay with the mac. But the hackers are going to run.
I’m working on making the perfect scrambled egg. You have to do it just right. The heat has to be perfect. The time before the flip has to be perfect to get that perfect cooked taste. Too long and it’s dry crap. Too short and you get an uneven cook. My life. Coming in book form soon.
Islands – Return to Sea – A- - A sweet pop-rock-rap-something album. This album sounds different than anything else, but it also feels damn familiar. A bit of the shins. A bit of weezer. And a bit of sugar sweet pop.
Editors – The Backroom – A- - Editors is another british band. These guys are compared to Interpol and Joy Division, and rightfully so. I think they sound a lot like Joy Division, more so than Interpol does. And it's good. There are a couple chorus' that are composed of the same couple words repeated over and over again, which makes this an awesome shouting album. Get All Sparks (ALL SPARKS WILL BURN OUT [REPEAT]), Bullets (YOU DON'T NEED THIS DISEASE [REPEAT]) and Fingers in the Factories (KEEP WITH ME [REPEAT])
Jackass 2 is going to be awesome
Clerks 2 is going to be awesome
And I'm spent. Happy 4th. Fireworks are illegal here! Later!
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Saturday July 1st, 2006 |
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National Water & Power, you guys are the suckiest. Not only did you charge me a late fee a couple months ago, but the adhesive you put on your envelopes is horrible. This stuff doesn't work! I have to waste tape on your stupid envelopes to get them sealed. I hate you bastards.
and the ds lite is awesome. later
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Sunday June 18th, 2006 |
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damn it. damn you walmart!
After failing miserably to get a ds lite last sunday on launch day, I attempted to get one again today. online at walmart.com.
So I visited the site last night. And this was in stock. So I thought, hey wonderful, I can buy that with my $200 worth of VISA gift cards. But not now, because there might be a chance that tomorrow morning toys r us will have a sale on Mario + DS Lite.
Yeah, so that didn't happen. No sales. everything is still exactly the same.
So I jump on to walmart.com and add the ds lite + brain age + new super mario combo to my cart. total price, $186.94. sweet.
But there's a problem. I can't use these 3 gift credit cards to make 1 purchase online. So I came up with a solution. (DO YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE YET?)
I bought 3 WALMART gift cards in 3 seperate purchases at a value of $186.94. You can use multiple gift cards to make a single purchase. Brilliant solution! except with the slight chance that while I'm waiting for my gift cards to come over email, the ds lite bundle will sell out.
GUESS WHAT.
NO REALLY GUESS WHAT HAPPENNED.
the ds lite + brain age combo sold out. And now I have $186.94 worth of WALMART gift card money. and 13.06 on my VISA gift card. YES.
SERIOUSLY GOD. WTF.
I even called up walmart customer service and they couldn't help me. they wouldn't replace the game with an alternative (the lady was nice enough to ask her manager, but she refused. damnit).
SERIOUSLY GOD, WTF?
So now I have no options but to just buy a regular ds lite (which they have in stock. brain age isn't!) + new super mario for the exact same price. unless they sell out. again. then I'll just have to kill myself.
unless somebody wants to buy some walmart gift card money! $186.94 worth for the low low price of $186.00!!!!! buy it now!
peace out. walmart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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6PM Update --- back in stock! just bought it! oh fuck yes! except it actually cost $186.96! haha. bastards screwed me out of 2 cents! ds lite expected ship date 6/22 to 6/30. helll yessssssssssssssssssssssssss
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Saturday May 20th, 2006 |
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wtf! late fee?
My water/trash fee was due 5/8. I sent the check on 5/5. And now I get a late fee.
this is not cool. It's not my fault that I live in California and the billing office is in ST LOUIS MISSOURI. bastards.
Death Cab For Cutie - Plans - B - If you're into whiny emo soft rock, this is the album for you!
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers - B+ - This album has the distinct Jack White sound of a rock/country hybrid. Intimate Secretary has some of the greatest Dr Seuss rhymes I've heard in a while. It appeals to my feeble little brain.
I've got a rabbit, it likes to hop
I've got a girl and she likes to shop
The other foot looks like it won't drop
I had an uncle and he got shot
brilliant.
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere - B - Gospel/Rap/R&B fun. Listen to this one when you need some inspiration.
Out like the guys in Prison Break.
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Saturday April 15th, 2006 |
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I'm a monster
There's nothing I like better than solid code. Good code. Well written, well thought out code.
There's nothing I hate more than crappy code. Bad Code. Badly written, horribly thought out code.
If you're going to work with somebody like me, you have to produce good code. Or I'll get frustrated easily. And then, soon enough, I'll lash out. If you suck, please please stay away from me. I don't want you or your code around me. I don't want to correct it. I don't want to teach you how to program. You should know it. It should be embedded in you.
I believe I'm a monster. In the last 3 years, I can't think of a single time that I've worked with another web developer and thought, "Hey, you're pretty good at this." Is it just by chance that everybody sucks? Or am I looking for perfection where none exists?
I'm thinking back to a client that I had in Sacramento. I installed FCKeditor on the administration page and told her to give it a try. It would be better then her just copying and pasting from microsoft word into a text box. So she tried it. And started complaining. And complaining. So I said that I'd remove it and that she could continue to do it the old way instead. Of course she didn't want that and said she'd tried to figure it out.
I don't like that (obviously). It doesn't take a genius (or maybe it does) to figure things out. Just take a moment, and look how stupid you are!
I told you I was hardcore. Out for april! First Post from Fremont bitches!
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Thursday March 2nd, 2006 |
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So how has your 2006 been?
If you haven't heard already, I'm joining a start up company. I was approached (headhunted?) at the end of January about a position to help develop the web interface for a product. Around the beginning of February, the COO of the startup actually came to Sacramento to talk to me. We sat around and talked for about an hour about AJAX and web site simplicity, and was practically offered the job right then. I politely said I'd have to think about it.
And I did think about it. The following Friday I took a day off work to meet the rest of the startup in San Francisco. The CEO sold me on the product, and his vision. I got an offer sheet that night.
I had already been thinking about it. I had a number in my head that it would take for me to move to the bay. And the number they approached me with was relatively close.
That Sunday, I accepted the offer. On Monday, I gave my 2 weeks at my job. It was unexpected to everyone but it was a deed that needed to be done. I declined a counter offer and my journey began.
Looking for an apartment sucks. There's not much more to say. Every complex that I thought was great, was full. I actually looked at a room in a townhouse for rent, that was compelling online, and absolutly disgusting in person. I fully considered moving to Union City, instead of Fremont (future home of the Start Up), but at the last minute I called a complex in Fremont that amazingly had an opening for a relatively great price. Deal signed. For about as much as a mortgage in Sacramento, I had an apartment in Fremont. Yikes.
But the leaving to a start up wasn't 100% about the money. If it was, I probably could've stayed in Sacramento. It's about starting new, doing something cool, and focusing on a great product. My biggest qualm about my previous job has always been the support of old sites written in archaic languages. I should get a bunch of hate mail for this, but .NET is archaic. ASP is archaic. and Microsoft Access is horrible. Getting away from those languages and not having to answer the phone and deal with customers directly is a plus.
I've always enjoyed Sacramento. It's my home, and will always be. But I'll be going away for a while. Maybe for a long time, maybe for a short period. Maybe forever.
2007, here I come.
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Tuesday February 12th, 2006 |
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The last few weeks have been, to say the least, interesting
see you later.
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Wednesday January 25, 2006 |
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8 year of this crap!
Apparently, last year I went through a phase of marking multiple news articles 2004, and dubbed 2005 as year 6, when it really was year 7. This year I'll lay off the crack pipe.
For the records, this is the beginning of year 8.
2005 was a weird year for me technology wise. Let's see.
- First full year (Jan - Dec) working at the same job.
- Got a new computer (Dell, slickdeals)
- Wrote (and got paid!) to create an online multiplayer game in Java in a week(GameGardens, threerings)
- Created (
and abandoned) my php web framework.
- Got an xbox 360 (every10minutes, Sierra Mist)
- Got an Ipod Shuffle (netbank, fatwallet)
- Lost my Flash Drive. wtf! (me, pocket)
How monumental! And now the kings are losing again. Coincidence? Yes! Have got Ron ARTEST! YESSSSS. RON "CIRCUIT CITY" ARTEST!
I also purchased my first video game in a very long time. Who got my cash? Microsoft - Bungie - Halo 2. I've been thinking about my purchases, and technically speaking, I still haven't bought a game for my xbox 360 since this is a xbox game. Whatever!
Sites That I'm reading right now. (in the order that I can remember them)
2nd tier
This should be an interesting list. When I look back at some of the old links on this page, 1/2 of them are dead and I can vaguely remember only a percentage of those sites. I can't imagine that in 3-5 years I'll still be reading these sites on this list today, but it will probably happen. And yes, my taste in sites is weird. Don't hate!
Side Note : these are the sites that I continually hammer for info. 1st tier more so than 2nd tier. This does not include friends site and porn sites. haha.
I'm also considering starting a new web site. yes. yes i am. #2939393 that I will abandon. We shall see.
In python you can do this : " if 3 < x < 7:" As opposed to chaining a "if (3 < x a && x < 7) {". Now that is forward progress.
on to 2006. This year will be great. Because I say so. Out!
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Friday December 16th, 2005 |
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XBOX 360 : B+ : A Worthy Second effort. The lack of strong launch titles is worrysome, but in the long run, nobody will care.
I really like :
The controller. It really is a nicely engineered piece of machinery. I don't know what department made it, but microsoft can make some really nice hardware when it needs to. Their ergo keyboard has been a mainstay in my life for the last 1.5 years. Their ergo mouse is brilliant. This joystick is bad ass. Giving the wired version XP compatibility is brilliant. If sitting in front of your PC with a joystick with a gigo X in the middle doesn't make you want a XBOX 360, you're probably going to lean favorably towards the XBOX 722.
The smoothness of the dashboard:
They could easily have thrown 9 billion functions on to one page and called it a day, but microsoft really pulled out all stops to make it easy to use. left and right turn pages. up and down select stuff. simple and awesome.
The shape:
ALl that bullshit "inhale" stuff was irritating. All of the IT'S HUGE comments are unwarranted. I'd accept IT'S HEAVY, but huge it isn't. Still, it's pretty. The harddrive gives it a cool augmented shape look. Without it, it looks plain. With it, it screams "This is the spoiler on my rice rocket bitch"
XBOX Live :
Demos! Free! To download! No cost! To download! Free!
I don't like :
XBOX Live :
Download and wait? wtf mate!
horrible organization. You can do it better, now hurry up.
Sounds:
The xbox is a loud beast when the drive is spinning.
Would I buy one? Not Now. Unless you really really like Perfect Dark Zero. I'd wait until at least next CES or E3 to see what's in the making before I'd invest.
Kameo : C- : BLAH. HEY GUYS LETS ROLL AROUND IN A BALL, YAY.
OK. NOW LET'S MAKE YOU HAVE TO USE L AND R TO DO ANYTHING. YAY.
OK. NOW LET'S MAKE MOST OF YOUR MORPHS RETARDED AND POINTLESS. YAY.
OK. NOW LET'S MAKE BOSS BATTLES AWKWARD. YAY.
Kameo, in theory, is an awesome game. Zelda but bigger? Sounds great! Execution was garbage. The story is garbage. I could care less about what was happenning. The controls are good, until you're rolling around in a ball. And that dance that the last boss does while he's talking to you? wtf Rare, couldn't you spend another hour or two and animate him? Who the hell talks like that?
Need for Speed Most Wanted : B : Vroom Vroom. Josie Moran is hot. She told me to wear my seatbelt. I shall.
THere's only been 1 thing that is really really gay. When you're being chased by the police, you can activate places on the map that trigger events to get the cops off your tail. The first couple times, this was awesome. The cops would leave and I would laugh at them while they're being squashed by a gigantic donut(what?). But now it's crap.
Eventually you'll get too many cops on your ass, and the distraction will only take out 1 or 2. When you activate the trigger, the game goes to a in game cutscene where you watch the doughnut fall down. While the donut is falling, your car is still accelerating! Then the cutscene ends, and your car ends up stuck on a fucking wall! And then the cops busted me and I cried. Then I paid the cops $2000 because I broke a gigantic donut. no fair! There was a gigantic sign on it! Entrapment!
Hexic HD : C : The problem : No fear of death. You hardly ever feel threatened. More bombs would help.
Out!
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Saturday November 26th, 2005 |
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 hello xboxen!
I'm now the proud owner of an xbox 360, courtesy of Mountain Dew & Microsoft's Every10Minutes.com promotion.
I won on 10/18 at 5:20AM. I put 1 raffle ticket in that slot, with ~2000 other entries already in, and somehow I ended up winning. I had 4 total tickets (off 1 bought sierra mist), and that was my 3rd one to enter.
They don't tell you that you won until aproximately 3 days after your drawing, but they do post the City & State of that time slots winner on the Winner Board. So On 10/18, I rolled in to work and decided to check the winners board. With a 1 in 2000+ chance, I didn't expect to win. And then I saw my fine californian city sitting on the winner board.
I didn't get my hopes up for long. This is not exactly a small town. So I waited. And read all about the xbox, while holding on to my secret.
Until 10/20. I got the email I was looking for.
There was a small hint that I had won in the 10/21 update. But you have to me to understand that clue.
There will be a full review of the XBOX 360, Hexic HD, and Kameo (pronounced Cameo. not kuh-may-o.) soon. Well, partial review. I can't exactly test the multiplayer part. haha.
On to December my friends!
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Saturday November 19th, 2005 |
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Today hasn't been as exciting as I had hoped, but it's still been pretty significant. I will have an update with more details later.
Maybe I'll go in details about the email I sent yesterday too. Yeah, Maybe.
Thanks! what.jpg!
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Sunday November 6th, 2005 |
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25!
When the Killers sing "All These Things" live, they bring a black choir on the stage to sing the middle part. Last night on Austin City Limits, they brang a local choir on stage to sing it. I'd be willing to bet the choir had never heard of The Killers or that song before, but nonetheless, they went up there and rocked. Entirely in rhythm and having a great time singing to a rock song. Awesome.
They need to come on stage to sing when Franz Ferdinand plays Michael. Because that would be cool.
Oh, and this week marks my return to Microsoft Access. Hello dear friend! Oh how I missed your syntax, and wonderfully slow forms!
In other news, I have no idea where I'm going. (nice fragment!) I feel like the hardest part of life is choosing something when you have multiple options. When there's a clearcut favorite, it's easy. When everything has thousands of pros and cons it's hard. On friday, I wrote a short(long) email to a client about what the advantages and disadvantages of plan XXXXX and XXXX2. Even though I clearly preferred XXXXX, I still gave her the choice. I like to give other people choices. I don't like being given choices. Hypocritical to the fullest, that is the equation that makes me me.
So after writing that paragraph, I did a little google searching and found a nice article. I guess I'm a Maximizer.
[Maximizers] live with constant regret and disappointment; they missed out on many great chances because they were waiting for a better one, which never came.
so owned!
And when they do make a choice, they still keep looking, inwardly beating themselves up over their choice whenever they find one that might have been better.
Maximizers are never satisfied because no matter what they choose, they can find a reason why their choice was wrong and they’ve somehow failed.
Owned again!
And that my friends, is robert. There are some tips and thoughts here on the subject. Anderson Cooper interviews Barry Schwartz, the author of The paradox of choice. Another interview with Barry with some more ideas. a MP3 of Barry speaking at Pop!Tech2004
This is something I'm going to have work on. And some how, this all leads back to web development. Yes, really. There is a connection.
37 signals says less is more in web dev. David H H(creator of rails) actually linked to an interview with Barry Schwartz. I didn't want to segway that to Code (Because it's boring to talk code), but the weird connection was unexpected. Small world eh?
I bid adieu. Good Day.
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Friday October 21st, 2005 |
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Comics
Bone: Senor Datafox has blessed me with a stackload of Bone comics. I've always wondered what all the fuss was about. Bone is good.
House of M (1 to 7): what? The fact that I have no idea what was going on before House of M makes it even more confusing.
TV
Rank em.
- Desperate Housewives : not that great. But I watch. Kill me.
- The Apprentice : Going boys vs girls has made the season at least partially watchable. Unfortunately, the girls team absolutely sucks and it's been a boring blow out so far.
- Kitchen Confidential : This comedy has some of lowest ratings of any tv show, but it's actually funny.
- Amazing Race : Decent this season, but it's not that compelling.
- Arrested Development : This comedy has some of lowest ratings of any tv show, but it's actually funny.
- America's Next Top Model : OH NO YOU DIDN'T!
- Smallville : Being up against Lost last year really killed it. This year it's only competition (since survivor is at 7) is Chris Rock, but only for 1/2 an hour. It's been interesting so far only watching the last 1/2 hour.
- Everybody Hates Chris : This is funny.
- The Office : This is funny.
- My Name is Earl : This is funny.
- Survivor : olo @ stephanie and bobby jon coming back. weirdos.
- Prison Break : The greatest show of the new season isn't getting as much hype as it should. Teabag is the breakout star of the new season. A Neo-Nazi KKK white leader in jail, who f's other prisoners! That is awesome.
- Lost : All you morons who hated the season finale because of the lack of answers are idiots. Leaving the hatch an unaswered question led to one of the greatest season premiere openings in history. Lost is excellent.
Music
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm : C+
Joy Division - Substance : C+
Games
Ultimate Spiderman : C : Too Short. too much mucking around doing "races". Web Swinging is awkward because of the camera angles.
Prince of Persia The Warrior Within : C+ : It's fun running around and solving the puzzles, but beating the bosses and the minions is such a pain in the ass. dodge, dodge, block, attack attack attack. same crap over and over, and they just get more and more difficult.
XBOX 360 : what? Franz Ferdinand : Do You Want To (3:07 - 3:30)
Code
I've finally got around to playing around with ruby on rails. I'm sort of impressed, but not totally. I'm still too raw in ruby syntax and understanding the rails way to do anything but throw new errors every 5 minutes. But, I'm working on it. The beginning stuff is all pretty ho-hum since I can do this in any framework, but I can imagine once I get to using SwitchTower and the UnitTesting, I'll be in hype mode.
My personal framework is in awesome mode. I haven't touched it in a week, but since the last time I wrote, I've got a lot done in it. It auto-scripts just about everything now. You get an administrator umbrella, a mashed together
admin menu, lists/forms for every table in the database and Ajax autocomplete for every field. Here's the magic command line that does it.
C:\tools\superframework>C:\PHP5\PHP.exe gogogo.php
gogogo.php reads a config.php that looks like this.
<?php
$create_at_dir = "C:\\webroot\\fakesite\\";
$site_url = "http://server/fakesite/";
$conn ="mssql://user:pass@server/database";
$ini_name = "database.ini";
$generate_table = "*";
//these are smarty templates
$generate_template_list = 0;
$generate_template_form = 0;
//these are php files.
$generate_ajax_autocomplete = 0;
$generate_form = 0;
$generate_list = 0;
$generate_links = 1;
// headers_admin is copied by gen headers.
//this will insert an admin user
$generate_admin_umbrella =0;
$generate_admin_umbrella_use_table = "Users";
$generate_config = 0;
$generate_dataobjects = 1;
$generate_headers =0;
$generate_maintemplate = 0;
$generate_basictemplate = 0;
$generate_logintemplate = 0;
$generate_styles = 0;
$generate_javascript = 0;
$generate_images = 0;
$generate_pear = 0;
?>
what?
You set the variables that it needs to know at the top (database, location, web url), then set the options below it.
Depending on if each variable is marked 0 or 1, that thing will be generated (or regenerated) when you run it. Yes, I use Smarty Templates to generate Smarty Templates. haha.
I still have to setup the dblinks.ini for auto joins, but that will come in about 3 months. I'm back having the time of my life using ASP.NET!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!! KILL ME!!!!!!
And in 3 months, this will probably start showing signs of progress, which I think will spell doom for all other PHP frameworks.
To the batmobile! Later!
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