To Whom It May Concern...

So, yesterday, Wednesday, I embarked on my first out of state business trip for CAI. We were headed to DC. We got here at 8AM, got our rental car and were on the road by 9AM. I was driving. We got to DC and into a parking garage around 11:30 AM. Not too bad time-wise. We grabbed some lunch, a great deli on the corner of 3 St NW and E St NW, called Jacks. Took our lunch to the Judiciary building's cafeteria and ate. About 12:40 PM we headed up to the confrence/training room we were going to train in so we could be ready for the 1PM training. At 1:30, nobody was there. By about 3 PM we had found out nobody was going to be there, so we headed to the hotel and planned to be back the next morning. Just as we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, we get a call. The attendees are at a Confrence out of state (New Orleans) all week. So, instead of training in DC this morning, I'm here back at the office.

I've posted pictures, hosted my own site, and done quite a bit on the internet. But I've never posted to YouTube.com, at least not till today. Chloe Videos I never had anything worth posting before.

Don't know if that's the word, but as of yesterday, this blog has been here for 4 YEARS!!! Wow!

I just received a free book, 'Small Business Specialist Primer', by SMB Nation Press. It's quite a large book, I wondered 'Why get such a big book for free?' Here's a few things I note: No page numbers. You got the 12-2, 10-9, 8-2 thing going on. In the section, About the Authors, one author, a lady, has this line in her bio: Since she moved to Florida, she hasn't been to the beach. I love the beach. I don't want to do anything that would prevent me from enjoying the beach from time-to-time. Does that mean that if I read this book, I won't get to the beach? Perhaps my view will change as I read it.

Time is money. Time is of the essence. No time to kill. Every second wasted is bad. That's the long and short of it. So, let me fill you in on how even a big(ger) development company can lost this valuable resource. Hyper IT guys who think they know it all If you can rush, and never miss a step, then rush. If you're gonna rush and miss key things, don't rush. Our IT department has a procedure in place for rolling out new laptops. Backup the old one, and (within a day or two) give you the new one with all the software the developer has been using and will need. No settings are copied, but the software is supposed to be up and running. Here's how my laptop upgrade went: Backup my laptop - IT guy asks me when I'm working till. I tell him 5PM. I'll be by at 4:30 to backup your laptop. My thoughts are, he's gonna back it up and give it to me by 5? That's pretty good. So, 4:20 he comes and takes my laptop. At 4:50 PM I ask him how long it'll be. "I ho...

This is a simple little tool, but it shows me what I want to know. http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/

Here they are! As a note, we will continue to add pictures to this link, so if you'ld like, bookmark it. :)

A while back I mentioned the trip my wife and I took to Wyoming. One of the most stunning differences between Wyoming, and here on the east coast, was the sky. Not the fact that you could see so much of it. Not the fact that you could see why the Milky Way is considered milky. It was simply the clearness of the air. Landing in Philadelphia, we descended into a brown haze. I guess living on the east coast, and in NY city, I never really noticed how prevalent it was. But you literally felt like you were slowly dipping into cloudy lake water. 'Well, this is Philly', I thought. But lately, as I drive into Harrisburg, I'm noticing the brown cloud that hangs over the city. And not just the city... but out into they nearby suburban developments, where kids play in their tiny backyards, and drink from the garden hoses fed by the river. Don't get me wrong. I'm no tree hugger. I've wasted my share of resources. I put my recycling out. I try to re-use what I can. (I'm ...

I live in an area where a zip code could be 30-45 minutes across. And I work in a different zip code than where I live. So let me lay out my problem. Let's say I live in the western side of 'Town A'. Further west, we have 'Town B' where I work in the Eastern half. If I do a search on my insurance company's site for doctors in the zip code of Town A, they may send me to a doctor in the eastern side of the town (remember, in this example, I live in the western side of the town.) So, I drive 30-45 minutes WEST in the morning, to go to work. Then I have a doctors appointment, and have to drive maybe 1.5 hours (passing my house) to go to the doctor. That's just silly. So, let's say I punch in the zip code for 'Town B', where I work, and they send me to the Western side of town. Here I'm working in the eastern side, so again it's all the way accross town. A 1.5 hour round trip. Could I put in 2 addresses, and let our slaves of a computer figure...

This is interesting to those groups who try to cover as many languages as possible. Languages Racing to Extinction in 5 Global "Hotspots"

I may have said it before, but I'll say it again. There is something so satisfying about this site: http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/shred.htm - Watch it Shred And this one: http://www.willitblend.com/ - Will it Blend

Yes, we're getting a new member of our family. No, not a people. Check out our new puppy , coming home October 19th. Oh yea... She's a Shih Tzu.

You may have notices, that the 'Sites I Visit' section to the left has changed. This parallels changes I have made on my site . I have added parts to my site's database, for Jokes , which I mentioned earlier. But now I also have a page of Quotes . The main page of my site has had it's links cleaned up. All three of these sections are not only database driven, but they also have a 'Newest!' section. This allows for you to quickly see what I've added recently. Eventually, I'd like to do an RSS feed for Jokes and Quotes... but this is a start to simplify maintenance of my site.

Never had a problem myself, but thought I'd pass this on: Crocs, kids and escalators a bad combination? My advice? Always pay attention to your children. Who wouldn't be careful with a two year old on an escalator anyway!!!

Ads!!! They're everywhere. Some of them aren't even that nice. Here's a way to get rid of ads... it's not everything, but it helps. http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/ Basically, it gives you a list of ad servers. You copy and paste the list into your hosts file, and whenever a page tells you to look at an ad from one of those servers, your browser looks for it on your own hard drive. But since it's not there, nothing comes up where the ad would be. It's a little tricky, but if you have a geek handy, ask 'em to do it. (Note: I've found a few ads that still come up. I look at the source, and add their server to the list, and viola, it's gone.)

Most Science Studies Appear to Be Tainted By Sloppy Analysis "We all make mistakes and, if you believe medical scholar John Ioannidis, scientists make more than their fair share. By his calculations, most published research findings are wrong."

The Bank of America's ATM heist , or, Why we pay fees to get take money out.

Historic Pretzels-For-Little Debbie Swap Sparks Heavy Lunchtime Trading

In seattle washington it is illegal to carry a CONCEALED weapon over 8ft in length.

The RC5-72 challenge was discontinued in May. Therefore, there will be no reward for processing keys... I'll leave the link to my stats up there for now. In the mean time, I will look into other distributed computing systems. In fact, right now I'm trying Boinc.