Work Time

ha ha ladies, check out my wall of soda pop! Not to mention my action figures in the middle (underneath the wiring, which is code-compliant by the way). 

Kids are so perceptive

Even the children could not be fooled by newspaper. Honestly, is there no regulation? What ever happened to being held responsible for what you printed?

Technorati TagsHumor

Maybe I Shouldn't Bash The Beetle

I may want to rethink my stance on the VW Beetle being a stupid car. Yeah, it's ugly, but I guess you can add some big aftermarket parts and make it really fast.

For instance, this guy put a jet engine in his beetle. Holy Crap Batman!

Aftermarket · VW · Beetle

There is no way...

There is no way that this can be for real. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is LASIK@Home. Feel free to browse the site, and make sure to check out the "Four Easy Steps" tab.

Don't Blink!

Lasik Eye · Humor · DIY (Do It Yourself)

Technorati Claim

Ignore this, it's just to claim this feed. :)

Technorati Profile

Windows Live Messenger Beta Invites

Alright people. I have a lot of Windows Live Messenger invites (yeah, i've been lazy lately), so just post your email address as a comment and I will send you an invite. You can put your email address in the following form to avoid spam:

email [at] domain.com

Windows · Live · Messenger · Messaging · IM · Beta Invites

Vista For My Birthday

Well, it looks like I'm going to be purchasing myself a brand new copy of Windows Vista with my birthday money this year (and maybe some new hardware to go with Vista). I'm sure it won't keep me up for hours like Half-Life 2, but I bet I'll be happy with it.

Anyway, I kid you not, Mary J. Foley from Microsoft Watch is saying

"from the 'Official Microsoft Connections' event blog we now have an official month: It's November, folks."

As of right now, Vista looks fairly feature rich, so I'm definately excited for it's release. I would say that Microsoft is going to be hammering out as many bugs as they can for the next 4 months or so, then release to manufacturing.

With this announcement, I presume that several other beta's will reaching their release stages, such as IE7, as they are being listed as "features" for Vista. Microsoft has a lot of work to get done in the next few months...


Microsoft · Windows · Vista

Windows Live Messenger Preview

MSN Messenger is ranked as the number one messenging program by PC World, and by many more of the instant messaging community. When a new version is brewing, there is always a bit of excitement around it. Windows Live Messenger, sporting a new name, is no diffferent, especially when looking at the other "Live" products that are in development.

The inital release of Windows Live Messenger (WLM) was mid-December, and is still the latest release of WLM. The current version heavily resembles the current version of MSN (though a bit more rough around the edges). There are, however, a few distinct differences.

The most easily seen difference is in the main messenger window. The area which holds your current display name and personal message has the ability to change colors. You can select any color you wish, but there is a bit of a filter over the top of the color that distorts it, so it takes a little bit of playing around with to get the exact color you want.

Contact Management

The contact menus also show change. It is a bit cleaner, in my opinion, and it's easier to see your contacts information. When highlighting contacts, you are given several options for that contact, such as sending an email, sending a mobile message, viewing the contacts profile, and more.

Additional contact features include the ability to edit the contacts information. You can now add general information, personal info, work info, and notes for that contact (all of which is available to a search feature).

The search feature is my favorite feature in the new windows live messenger. The search results update immediately, and search all fields associated with contacts (such as notes, first name, etc). This will be great for people who have very large contact lists and would rather just sort by online and offline rather than using many groups.

Messages

Nothing really special changed with the messaging window or how you chat with people. The one addition that was long overdue is the option for offline messages. With offline messages, you can open a chat session with a contact, and type a message that will be delivered to the recipient the next time they log in. This feature is backwards compatable with all versions of messenger, but only WLM has the ability to send these messages.

A new feature is also the addition of "Sharing Folders." Sharing folders are folders for contacts that allow you to add files, which are stored on Microsoft's servers, that are available to contacts. It's sort of a shotgun file sharing approach. The files that you choose to share, at any time, are available whenever to both clients.

With sharing files there is always the chance of people getting infected with a messenger worm, and sharing files is a great way to spread the worm. To combat this, there is now an option to use the Microsoft Virus Scanner (msvs.exe) that will automatically scan files that are shared or received via standard file sharing through messenger. It is the same virus scanner that is used on the new Windows Live Safety Center.

Phone Calls

Another way to chat with people is through the improved VoIP features in WLM. Now, thanks to MCI, you can use WLM to call anyone; phone or computer, you can call them. PC-to-PC phone calls are the same with all other versions of messenger, but the ability to to call contacts phones is new. You must pre-pay for the minutes to be able to call (like with Yahoo!), but you can make the calls for as low as 2.3 cents per minute.

Conclusion

Overall, for the first release of the beta, Windows Live Messenger shows a lot of promise. WLM is keeping pace with Google's and Yahoo's messenging program. It has retained all features that you love about the current version of MSN Messenger, but with a few more enhancements. Only time will tell of all the new features.

Check out some screenshots on my Flickr account.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft · Messaging · windows live messenger ·

A Long Goodbye

It starts with a letter, but lasts forever
I can’t help myself, that’s just the way that I am
I used to feel different, but time has changed all that
I don’t know why I was fooled by your words, your touch

Now it seems clear; there is no more there
The feelings that remain are bruised and beaten
It’s obvious you don’t care, and don’t want to fight
I’ll save you the trouble, and take myself from you

You don’t have a clue, or even a care
You probably don’t know what it’s like, to not have anyone there
You don’t ever call, except by obligation
If you do you quit, for another form of pleasure

I am not blind; I am not deaf; I am not dumb
Your simple tricks don’t fool me
Twice is the count I have played your little game
Thrice is not an option, for me to be a player

I guess that is everything, I was already packed
I’ll send myself away, to find another life
I apologize for my actions, the time that I had to take
To say my long goodbye.

Technorati: Poetry

New Years Ingenuity

Ah, the fruits of a bored mind. Welcome to another idea that, initially, was just a joke but soon turned into reality. What could make a night of fireworks better, even when you have artillery shells, roman candles, bottle rockets, a 250-shot saturn missile battery, and a roll of 2000 firecrackers? That's simple: make your own launch system.

The launch system comprised two basic parts: the tubes and the fuses. We needed a way to make sure that we were able to launch a lot of shells, and at about the same time (roughly).

TUBES
The tubes were all (roughly) 13-inches long with holes drilled about 5-inches from the bottom of the tube. We ran the fuses out of the holes and then put the shell into the tube.

To make sure that the shell fired right, we also put some, well, cardboard I guess (it was left over backing from my new entertainement center, not sure what that is), and then secured with a couple layers of duct tape.

The tubes that we had made were then placed around one of the tubes that came with the artillery shells and secured with duct tape. When everything was said and done, tubes looked like like this.




FUSES
The problem was merely how to get all of the shells to go off at the exact same time (or at least close). We couldn't sit there and light all the fuses and have some shells firing off while we were lighting them.

The solution that we came up with is simple. Put gas in a container and put the fuses in the container. When we would light the gas, it would continue to burn all of the fuses until all of the rockets fired.

Simple enough really, and it worked quite well. We ran all of the fuses out the sides of the tubes and then bound all of the fuses together with duct tape (for organizational and control purposes only).



We finished everything at about 12:05am New Years Day. We then took everything outside for the big launch (and hopefully it went right). We stacked some bricks up around the sides of the launchers so that they wouldn't fall over and start firing shells at my house.

At about 12:15am we light the gas and it was go time. I was the lucky one, and my friend was the lucky one to film. The film is available online (right-click, then select save-as; 22MB) for your viewing pleasure. There is also a smaller version of the movie if you want to stream the clip. There are some more photo's on my Flickr account as well.

We would especially like to thank the drunk guy speeding down my street for driving by right as the last shell went off (and then yelling at us for it). Now that I review the video, you are obviously right... we surely must have hit your car.

New Years 2006 · Fireworks · Amusement

Selfish Revenge

Just another mistake, another bump in the road
One from which I can never recover
This one is it, the end of the road
Interesting enough that all the roads to here were empty

I never wanted it to turn out this way
Hoped for something better, something to bring happiness
The only thing I feel now is muted regret
How could I have missed the signs, they were screaming stop

How would it feel?
To have everything you’ve ever done turned back
Everything wrong re-lived out from the other perspective
How would it feel?

I’m sorry I left you alone
I didn’t know how to feel; how to act; how to love
It’s too late now, you’re too far away
I know how you felt

Dark. Lonely. Ashamed.
I wish I was more than I am now
I would plan my escape, get out right now
That can’t happen though, I’m in to deep

I’ll put on a happy face
Pass through day to day; blend in; fade away
It’s inevitable, but maybe I can make it happen sooner
Move on rather than regress

You made me say this wouldn’t happen, but my heart knew better
I tried as best I could, but the pressure was too great
I don’t know what else to do; I’m at my rope’s end
I guess this is how things will stay

You say things aren’t this way, but you act like they are
I must do what I need to do, maybe you will understand
Most likely not though, you haven’t before
I wish you the best, have fun with the rest

Technorati Tags: Poetry

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Montana! Well, Christmas was pretty good. I felt a bit out of place most of the time, and am really tired, but it's been a pretty good Christmas. The only thing that is not so fun about it is how far away from my home I am. Not too easy to go "when the going gets tough," so to speak.

I would hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas (not just happy holidays). This is brief, but at least I had a bit of time to write a little message.

Technorati Tags: Christmas · Family · Holidays

Off To Montana

Well, I'm about to finish up my laundry, and then can finish packing. After that in a few hours I'll be off to Montana to spend Christmas with Tiffany's family (and Parker of course). I must admit, I'm a little nervous, and I think it will be a little awkward. I think everything will be fine, but still a bit awkward (probably my fault, but unavoidable nonetheless).

We'll see for sure how it is. So far Christmas has been great. I was able to rise above the gloomy debt of Christmas shopping with presents from family with the presents from my family and from work. I just hope that I was able to get everyone taken care of the way that I wanted them to be.

Well, there's not much more to say other than that, so farewell for now. If I survive Montana, I will surely make contact again.

Travel · Christmas · Family

MySpace - The next kind of advertising?

Christmas sure is a busy time of the year! Well, at least if you procrastinate like I do and wait 'til the last week to shop. I've been up until about 1:30am for the last 2 nights wrapping presents that I had just spent about... oh... 4 hours shopping for.

Last night, in particular, was an interesting wrap-a-thon. Whilst toiling away at the menial task (though incredibly hard) of wrapping, I began to watch a show called Nip/Tuck, which airs on the FX channel.

I don't really watch the show, in fact, I had only seen it once before with my friend Tiffany, but there was nothing else on, and it was some big episode because The Carver's identity was about to be revealed. When presented with my other options, I chose to watch the show.

I wasn't paying much attention to it, but I knew what was happening because there had been a lot of commercials talking about it, as well as I saw an ad for it on the MySpace Home Page. That caught my attention a bit as it was not revolving ads, it was the featured profile. Now, this wasn't a shocker, because I had noticed it before, but it was there nonetheless.

Now it seems that the featured profile is always an advertisement for a company, which brings me to this question: are companies paying for this? I would think so, since the Nip/Tuck ad said "check out Nip/Tuck tonight on FX at 12pm", was on the front page the whole night, and was the only featured profile. Additionally, on the show itself, it showed the URL to The Carver's MySpace page a few times.

It seems that the social engine MySpace is now merely new(er) web advertising platform. When you go to the company's "group", you can join, create bulletins, add comments, etc. What is the intrigue with such a venue? Why would you want to be "friends" with some company like Wendy's.

I don't think that companies will make money off of anything on their group's page. All the advertising, I would think, would go to MySpace; I would even think it would cost to be on the front page as a featured profile.

The only thing that I can think of, at this moment, as to why companies would do things like this is that the companies then have a way to get information from customers. I would think that this method of advertising lets the company see how many people are interested (bored?) in their product at a certain point on the internet. They can also get feedback on their products, as illustrated by Wendy's Square Burger profile.

It will be interesting to see what happens with MySpace as more and more companies turn to this type of advertising, or maybe they really just want to be your friends (and some do, I know of couple of local companies that have profiles on MySpace, but I don't think they do so for advertising). I really think that MySpace has gone a bit overboard with the advertising on their site.

MySpace · Advertising · Social · Networking

Just Another Poem

A pain so great, relief unknown
Of only one I know, has ever felt this way
But be of good cheer; put on a happy face
For if others only knew, they would also feel this way
This cannot be so, not on a day like today.

But how could it be? I've never shown a sign
Things will never work out how I want them to be
I should accept how things are; I wouldn't want to be greedy
But I know how things will go; will only bring misery
But this is what I deserve; It should only happen to me

With this, I feel the pain
I even told you so one day
Your words brought reassurance; the pauses, more despair
But maybe, if said honestly, I should only feel more fear
Maybe, after it all, I'll know just how you care

I want to know, tell me how you feel
It's held deep down inside; merely let it free
The ties of fear, need only be cut
And once they are, you will feel no regret
But whatever you say, I'm sure I won't get

The clock ticks on, the feelings grow strong
Forget, it's your trade; Regret, your call sign
It's a vicious cycle, composed only of choice
I crumble as I feel the memories fade; strength becomes weak
Love. . . becomes hate

At last, a whisper, my one dying breath
Ironic to think, you were always willingly deaf
You say you are there, but only for yourself
Curiosity is selfish, but great for relief
I don't know what to think, I just wish you were here

With this it all ends, I must feel regret
But this is my end, my time to give up
I've give it my all, but it's not enough
Put on a happy face, if only for a while
The face will hide the pain, denial is just as great

Poetry

So little time!

Wow! Christmas is in a week! I guess it's time for me to begin my Christmas shopping. I would like to make a special thanks to the wonderful people at FedEx, who, with their 2nd day and next day air, make such procrastination successful.

Time does seem to be moving fast though. It's hard to believe that christmas is almost here, and then a short time after that school will be starting up again. Such a vicious cycle that school is...

Whilst browsing the Science/Technology section of Google News, I happened to run across an interesting article about Polar Bears drowning because of the melting ice shelves. Worth the read, so if you are interested I would check it out.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1938132,00.html

Christmas · Ice Shelves · School

Old Old Video

Well, I thought that people would like to see this video that my friend and I did a few years ago when we were in 10th grade. He (the salesman in video) was taking multimedia and they had a project to make a commercial, so of course he created the idea of ManlyWare.

Basically it evolved into non-manly items being used to hurt someone (more correctly, me). Well, I hope you all enjoy. And please, don't judge the movie based on the acting alone.

You can view the movie here. You will need a program that can play Windows Media Video to view the movie.

Technorati Tags - Funny · Videos

Why are there Race Riots in Sydney?

Well, it has been quite a long time since I have made a post, mainly due to school work. Blasted generals take so much time, yet I still find them pointless. Oh well, that is done. Hopefully I will get near a 4.0; 3.5 easily.

The great part about school being over is that I now have time to follow current happenings. However, I may just want to continue with stupid generals when faced with the overwhelming stupidity of the human race. Honestly, what is going on in Sydney, Australia?

Well, I guess that intro was a bit harsh. I cannot condemn the entire human race based on the actions of a small group. After all, I must say that I am a member of the human race. However, the actions happening in Sydney are intolerable.

"About 5,000 white men, many of them drunk, targeted people believed to be of Arab or Middle Eastern descent on Cronulla Beach on Sunday after rumors spread that Lebanese youths assaults two lifeguards earlier this month." So, rumors have it that Lebanese youth assaulted two lifeguars, so 5,000 drunk people start randomly attacking people that they believe to be Arab or Middle Eastern!?

I guess that no matter what advancements take place, there will always be those in the society that are intolerant of particular groups. The problem is that there is no solution. I mean, we could kill all those who are intolerant of others, but that would make us intolerant of those people, perpetuating the problem. It will be interesting, however, to see how the problem is handled down in Sydney, as well as the reaction around the world.

Well, until next time, I guess this rant is finished. Hopefully soon I will be able to browse Google News again without becoming infuriated.

Technorati Tags - >Rascism · >Sydney · >Riots · Current Events

ASP.NET 2.0 Released!

The final version of ASP.NET 2.0 has been released to MSDN Subscribers and it is also available for public download at Microsoft's Download Center.

Currently the redistributable and SDK for .NET are available.

If you are new to ASP.NET then you can get all the latest details about version 2.0 at http://beta.asp.net/.

Technorati Tags: ASP.NET · IIS · Microsoft · Web Design

eBay to aquire Skype

eBay, the worlds online marketplace, has its sights on the internets main VoIP provider, Skype. In an announcement on September 12th, 2005, eBay stated that they "intend to make voice communications a part of the eBay marketplace – a huge step forward in making transactions faster and easier, as well as bringing even more interactivity and humanity to the eBay Community."

This comes only 12 days after eBay completed the aquisition of Shopping.com.

Technorati Tags: ebay Skype VoIP