shower doors

Who knew that hunting for a shower door would be such a pain? If I knew that my contractor wasn't planning on making it part of the deal, I would have ordered one a long time ago. Now our new bathroom is entirely finished, except we can't use our shower for lack of a door. Went to Home Depot tonight and was confused and unimpressed by the selection that they had. My parameters are simple: it has to fit, and be clear, and preferably be frameless. I didn't expect to need to special order one. So far this seems to be my best option, the closest dealer is a short scooter ride from here.

funny?

When I was younger, I remember people saying that if you play with yourself, you will go blind. Then today, I read this...

illicit photo from within Westminster Cathedral 

Social Security

Here's a good article about the use of Social Security numbers as a defacto national numeric identifier. The author makes a good point about how if young people just starting in the workforce now are going to be paying into Social Security but likely won't see any return on that investment, why not let them opt-out of Social Security altogether? No Social Security would mean no SSN, meaning (potentially) lower risk of identity theft. Social Security is screwed up. The AARP needs to quit whining about never changing it, because it should never have become the entitlement system it is now.

Blogging about sensitive topics

Since I don't think anyone reads my blog (except perhaps my co-collaborator), what would the harm be in posting something sensitive about work, perhaps about business dealings?

I suppose the site could find its way into a Google spider, and then someone googling for their name might be surprised to hear me bellyache about business topics.

So, at least for the time being, you'll have to hear my bellyache in person.

The demo failed.

Of course it did. Demos always fail. That is the nature of demos. I've never been more confident going into a demo that everything was going to go fine, only to have the whole thing blow up in my face when my wireless router stopped being recognized by my laptop.

Anyway, the bottom line on giving demos using the desktop as well as Virtual PC machines: install the Microsoft loopback adapter. Give it a static IP address, and give your VPCs static IPs in the same subnet. Then you don't even need to fool Windows that there is a network connection. Otherwise "media sense" will keep you from being able to communicate with the VPCs, as happened in my demo. Don't let bad demos happen to you!

Edited the next day... Perhaps I was too hard on myself when I say the demo failed. It didn't fail, but it didn't work the way it was supposed to either. I was able to get across the point of the demo. However by having a glitch in the middle, I'm sure I didn't win over any customers.

Almost missed today's blogging...

With 19 minutes to spare, I'm in to provide today's note. What ever gets accomplished with a 6 hour conference call? Mostly there are people arguing about problems that don't exist. The best is when people disagree vociferously with each other when actually they are in complete agreement and just aren't agreeing on semantics. It is just unreasonable to expect that kind of thing to hold my attention for 6 hours, especially if I'm not intimately involved in whatever the discussion was. At least I had time to get my demo working for tomorrow's presentation.

Top 100 Movies

A certain formerly well-respected magazine, in what has become a common desperate ploy for magazines, has posted a top 100 movies of all time list. This list will surely lead to only debate and discussion, and have people talking about what the magazine said and how they were right/wrong. This is all of course just to get you to mention the name of the magazine and be interested enough to go buy a copy. Why can't magazines do research and report on actual interesting stories, instead of making up crap to get the magazine name mentioned on the news?

Choir Concert / Dad's Birthday

Today was my Dad's birthday. He's 61. I saw him briefly tonight at the choir concert at my church. We didn't talk much. I was in a rush, but then after the concert I couldn't find him.

The choir concert was under-attended. We had 77 people in attendance. Not bad, but considering the official membership of the church is around 2300, it was pretty low. We really need the help of a publicist for a lot of things at church.

Painting

The painters spent all day here today to paint our bedroom (a very large master bedroom), new bathroom, and new closet. They arrived at 8 and didn't leave till after 6. They did a great job, and if anyone is looking for a recommendation for a painter I will give one without reservation! I'll post pictures as soon as I take some.

Unexplained Mysteries in Episode III

Last time I posted the top three things I didn't like about Episode III. Today I'm going to post my top three unexplained mysteries from the movie. Remember, I liked it! However, the more I think about it, the more I think that Episode I was a complete waste, and the good parts of II and III should have been spread out over three movies. Anyway, for the spoilers, read on:

• General Grievous: Who/what is he, where did he come from, and why is he so important? At the end of Episode II, Count Dooku was the leader of the separatists. At the beginning of Episode III, Count Dooku AND Grievous are the leaders. Definitely a character that could have had better development.


• Padme's deathbed: Padme, who "lacked the will to live", was able to (in a clear voice and with bright eyes) look at the children and name them. Then, she died. What caused her death, other than the force-choke that Anakin gave her quite earlier. Was it just a broken heart? Please.


• Leia's recollections: In Return of the Jedi, Luke asks Leia if she has memories of her biological mother and what those memories were. Leia remembers her mother was beautiful but very sad. Did she get these memories in the first moments after birth?

I realize that some of the information I'm missing (esp. about Grievous) might be explained in the "Clone Wars" cartoons or the Labyrinth of Evil book (or even the Episode III novelization), but I haven't seen/read them yet.

Episode III

Well, the good news I have to report is that Episode III is a good movie. By far the strongest of the prequels, it is loaded with action pretty much from start to finish. I enjoyed the show (and the theater!) and will probably see it again soon.

Unlike with Episode II (which I liked, but many of my friends hated) I watched this movie with a much more critical eye. I liked the movie, but here are my top 3 pet peeves about Episode III. Oh and note that spoilers are ahead...

• Luke and Leia are named by Padme when they are born. Aside from the fact that Padme was supposed to be near death at this point, but somehow had the capability to say their names, this removes much if the intrigue and interest surrounding Luke and Leia and their relationship which we learn about in Episode V. If you've watched Episode III, then Episodes IV and V hold no surprises for you about the nature of the relationship between Luke and Leia


• There is a brief battle scene on Kashyyyk. While it could have been larger and better (the Star Wars Battlefront game had better battles on Kashyyyk) the scene was weakened by not showing the enslavement of the Wookiees, as well as showing (and naming) Chewbacca. It was completely unnecessary to tie Chewbacca into Episode III.


• I was never convinced by the turn of Anakin to support Palpatine. Anakin realizes Palpatine is the Sith Lord, and rather than killing him, he decides to tell the Jedi council. Rather than let Mace Windu finish him off, he saves him. Perhaps it was just the bad acting.

Anyway, this post is way too long. Just wanted to share.

T-6.5 hours

I'm going to see episode III tonight at the midnight showing at the Cinema De Lux. I've never been to that theater before. I'm hoping that it really is a nice theater (reviews I've heard are positive) because the tickets weren't cheap ($10.50/per) and I've invited 10 other people to come with me! Oh well.

I hope the movie doesn't suck. I am pretty sure I won't think the movie sucks. The question is, whether or not the other party poopers around me will think it sucks, and whether they will think I'm dumb if I like it. I don't care. I like popcorn movies. I'm not so spiritually invested into Star Wars that if this movie doesn't live up to my expectations it will cause me great heartache. I got over that after Episode I.

Interviews

I conducted my first interview for our open position today. It is so hard to decide if you should hire someone. This person to me seemed smart enough and talented enough to do the work. There is so much more that you need to take into account though. He isn't a U.S. citizen. Used to be a problem, but I'm not sure it is with current customers. He's got his own ideas about what he likes to do, which is great if you can convince him the work you need done is stuff he likes to do, but what if you can't? How do you spend a bunch of time/money educating someone in the work you do and the customer's environment if you're not positive they'll stick around for the long haul? Then again, what could make me positive that anyone would? Argh.

Cupcake anyone?

This is a test of posting a picture using the Google/Picasa free service called Hello.

The Darth Side

I've been reading this blog over the last couple weeks, and I have to say the guy writing it is doing a darn good job. It's funny to see things from another perspective!

Overriding Mozilla port blocking

Some Mozilla Help - this page has information on how to override security features to allow a custom port. Fixes the "Access to the port number given has been disabled for security reasons" error.

OK so I'm back 9 months later with instructions for the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox. Go to the address about:config which will let you edit the configuration preferences. Add a new string value called network.security.ports.banned.override. The value should be a comma delimited string of the ports to allow. Navigate away from that page and your settings will be saved!

Comments Enabled

Yay, I have changed the template and enabled comments. Now if you have something to say about my blog, say it in the comments below. If you have secretly found me lurking on the web, and you've been patiently waiting for me to post for months and months, direct your complaints to the comments section below.

Rededicating myself to the blog...

Beware: I'm getting inspired by reading other people's blogs, and I plan to start using mine more frequently.

Perhaps my first topic should be why people write to the blog as if it has an audience, even if you know full well it does not...