technical insanity at its best
I seemed to have contracted a cold somewhere along the way this week and am not very happy about it. Between the runny nose and the conference at work all week I have been very busy. I feel like I am really out of touch because I have been on a computer like 3 hours total all week so be prepared for the posting as I get back up to speed.
I’ve been playing around with some Wiki software for an upcoming project. Wiki’s have always kind of amazed me just by the nature of the system. That is the edit-by-all concept. It always amazes me that a project like Wikipedia has been so successful.
I would like to find a dotnet version of software although it looks as though most are written in PHP. Does anyone have any recommendations on a Wiki platform that has worked well for you?
Sorry about the lack of updates over the last couple of days. I was out and about all weekend DJ’ing and buying new speakers. Then when I returned to work yesterday I got a phone call in the afternoon offering me a job I had applied for over a month ago. I was pretty stoked as I didn’t have much faith in getting it after that much time had gone by. So my full-time programming days are coming to a close. I still think I will do a lot of website stuff on the side for my company but at work my new focus will be IT and network security. Same employer just a different department. I’m looking forward to the change of pace and think it will offer a lot of new experiences.
This weekend we had a great time out in Driscoll. Friday night I ended up blowing a sub woofer in one of my speaker cabinets. So Saturday I played with my new Peavey SP2 speakers. Saturday, there were fewer people due to the weather forecasts but it still turned out to be a great weekend.
Opera released a version of their browser that is compatible with the blackberry. They offer an Over the Air (OTA) download so you can try it out without the need to connect to your computer for installation. Install Link Here I have installed and it works OK. Seems to render pages better than the built in browser although they do not make full use of the scroll wheel and rather navigation is done like a phone would (use your top left and right keys to access the menus) Another thing I noticed is that the built in automatically adds periods instead of spaces when typing a URL while Opera mini does not. All in all, I give it 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because it is free.
I will be out in Driscoll Friday and Saturday night to DJ at Uncle Jesse’s Bar. Should be a great time both nights. I think the younger crowd will be out Friday night and there are quite a few Bismarck locals coming on Saturday night. Last time I was out there we packed in about 250-300 people in that little bar and we hope to do the same this weekend! See you out there!
It looks like Dave Winer is having some contract complications. This happens a lot in our type of business. My comment is that if Dave has $10k to throw around for weekend projects, I will be glad to work every weekend of the year! Good luck Dave on getting everything resolved.
Technorati Tags: Dave winer, Scripting news, Website, Contract
Congrats to Jesse. I found out last night he bought a new house in Mandan. Too bad that moves him farther away now. I guess we won’t see him at the local hangout as much.
Kristy is also thinking about getting a laptop for surfing the web and using photoshop. Anyone know of any deals out there?
Technorati Tags: Laptop, Deals
Today was my birthday. Pretty regular day... I don’t feel any older but my age is steadily creeping upwards whether I like it or not...
Is it true? Can it be true? Our good friend Kristy is taking a walk on the wild side! In her latest blog post she compares country music to "listening to short stories all day long" and she is starting to enjoy the Country music genre. That kind of reminds me of that old joke "what do you get if you play a country song backwards?"
Though motorists older than 70 drive far less frequently than other age groups, they already account for an outsize proportion of fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The death rate per mile traveled for drivers over 85 is four times that of the 30-59 age group. The only group more dangerous than senior citizens is teen-agers. Senior drivers have special trouble judging speed and distances, which causes an inordinate number of rear-end and left-hand-turn accidents. 
Frank Watson was poking fun at my earlier comparison of myself to the "stoner guy" in the movie 40 Year Old Virgin. Actually I never made this comparison myself, but rather it was pointed out to me by others that had watched the movie before I had a chance to.
Writely was acquired by Google this week. I have used Writely over the last few months and think it is a great application. Definitely the best one out there in its category. This doesn’t come as a big surprise to me that Google snatched them up. In fact it fits in really nicely with their game plan. I suspect that we will see an OS rather soon, prolly in the next 12 to 18 months, from Google that will be web based and will tie all their current offerings together into one big productivity suite.
It looks like Origami is out of the bag. They are passing it now as an "Ultra-Mobile PC". Looks pretty neat but I’m not sure it will be the hit Microsoft is hoping for. I for one was unimpressed with the pre-release hype of a $500 price point and now they say it may be closer to $1000.
The Web 2.0 craze is really getting nuts. I mean how many calendar and social bookmarking apps do we need? I, for one, would like to see innovation in new areas other than the 3 or 4 that have worked so far. We don’t need to redesign the wheel every 3 months. Del.icio.us has the bookmark tool. Digg is the news tool of choice. Get over it. The latest round of wanna be’s don’t really stack up and its very hard to steal established user base.This is a test post from my blackberry. I think I got everything set up to post from my blackberry so be prepared for posts on the go in the future!
For some reason I have been thinking about retirement an awful lot lately. I have discovered some startling facts along the way. Most of them are good as long as I start investing now. If I put 6% of my earnings towards my 401k and add the employer 50% match I will die at age 90 with over 12 million dollars in my nest egg (at 12% interest, which isn’t too hard if invested properly). This is after retiring at age 65 and drawing $60k a year during retirement!
Well actually a thumb. Drive that is. Microsoft is giving away a free thumb drive to individuals that fill out a few questions. The drive is filled with 
I have been using a service called GotVoice for some time now and forgot to blog about it. That’s how great this system works. I have integrated it into my life now for about a month and it has gone without fail the entire time. The best news about this service is that it is free.
Apple released iTunes 6.0.4 today which is supposed to address stability issues with FrontRow. Maybe my 2nd generation iPod will mysteriously sync again...
I finally sat down and watched the 40 Year Old Virgin over the weekend and it is definitely a must see. 5 out of 5 stars. Oh, and to all the people that think I look like the stoner in the movie, get a life. It’s not that close. OK maybe a little. 
Yes, Tandra did get a Hummer H3 on Saturday. We bought it from Gateway Chevrolet in Fargo. These vehicles really are "like nothing else". I would never have believed the driving experience would be like it is. I’m just glad Tandra has let me drive it a few times and promised that I can take it to work one day!
Looks like 
Bruce Crower, the guy that brought us Crower cams, has found a way to make a 
That’s what one spoof site is saying. 