Ponderings Of An Itinerate Programmer

Cloud Computing Is A Trap

2008-10-01T08:46:00.001-04:00

Richard Stallman says that cloud computing is a trap and a hyped fad. It is only there to make you pay more over time and trap you in a proprietary format. In other news, the Internet is a fad that should be fading sometime soon.

Still Out Of Power

2008-09-19T14:35:00.002-04:00

I've been out of power since Sunday at 4:30PM. I thought I would be going crazy by now but strangely I am enjoying being disconnected from all the technology I have in my life. Don't get me wrong, I will be happy to have television again. It just just isn't as critical as I thought it would be. Instead of zoning in front of the TV, I have begun reading in earnest again. I've read 3 books this week:

The Man With The Golden Torc
Street Of Shadows (Star Wars Coruscant Nights Book 2)
Against the Tide Of Years

It's amazing how much reading you can get done when you don't have the television distracting you.

How Invulnerable Can We Be From Terrorism ... Not Very

2008-08-15T13:29:00.003-04:00

From Bruce Schneir's CRYPT-GRAM Newsletter and John Mueller:

In an excellent paper by Ohio State political science professor John Mueller, "The Quixotic Quest for Invulnerability: Assessing the Costs, Benefits, and Probabilities of Protecting the Homeland," there are some common sense premises and policy implications.

The premises:
"1. The number of potential terrorist targets is essentially infinite.
"2. The probability that any individual target will be attacked is essentially zero.
"3. If one potential target happens to enjoy a degree of protection, the agile terrorist usually can readily move on to another one.
"4. Most targets are 'vulnerable' in that it is not very difficult to damage them, but invulnerable in that they can be rebuilt in fairly short order and at tolerable expense.
"5. It is essentially impossible to make a very wide variety of potential terrorist targets invulnerable except by completely closing them down."

The policy implications:
"1. Any protective policy should be compared to a "null case": do nothing, and use the money saved to rebuild and to compensate any victims.
"2. Abandon any effort to imagine a terrorist target list.
"3. Consider negative effects of protection measures: not only direct cost, but inconvenience, enhancement of fear, negative economic impacts, reduction of liberties.
"4. Consider the opportunity costs, the tradeoffs, of protection measures."

The whole paper is worth reading.
http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller/ISA2008.pdf

Getting Back Into "Art" Again

2008-07-21T01:08:00.002-04:00

I had some free time this last weekend and whipped this up. Maybe it will go good on a t-shirt ... maybe not ;-).

Constitution ... We Hardly Know You Any More

2008-07-10T08:21:00.002-04:00

This country took one more step towards a Constitutionless future today. The Senate joined the House in passing the FISA Amendments Act. This basically lets the telecom industry off the hook for wiretapping American citizens unconstitutionally. It's official, the government no longer needs a warrant to spy on your private communications as long as you are talking to a foreign national.

If we add the Patriot Act and various other things into the mix, the last 8 years have been some of the worst in American history for the rights of Americans. I am ashamed that I voted twice for a President that has so little regard for the principles upon which America was founded.

911 was a great tragedy for this country. It is only compounded by the fact that because 2,974 people died, we are willing to hamstring the rights of 304,095,000 people in the country. It is further compounded by the fact that these terrorists have successfully changed they way we treat our own citizens. They have radically affected our foreign policy. They have inspired us to commit acts which only bring more people to their cause. In effect ... they have won by killing .000977% of our populatation. Am I the only one who finds that repugnant?

Baggage Mishandling

2008-07-09T15:23:00.003-04:00

Hey wait. If the airlines are going to be charging me $15 for each checked bag, shouldn't they be doing a better job. 1/138 of all bags get lost forever. This statistic does not include luggage that gets to you late. If the airlines want to charge you money for something they used to give you for free, shouldn't they at least have to provide value? Just a thought.

Real Grief In A Virtual World

2008-07-09T11:25:00.003-04:00

I just found out a long time SecondLife friend (Vx Shaw) passed away last month. I had not been in SL since last year. I had gotten really burnt out after 2.5 years of playing and needed a break. Weeks turned into months. I kept meaning to go back and check in but my home computer died and I just got it fixed. Now I'll never have a chance to talk to Vx (aka Bazoo Benton) again.

The things I remember best about V is her upbeat attitude and the endless support that she provided her friends. She let me camp my store out on Abydos for a year for free. She also always supported my many and sometimes wacky endeavors in-game. She will truly be missed.

Telecom Companies Need To Buy A Clue

2008-07-08T12:23:00.002-04:00

I was just reading on law.com that telecoms are suing municipalities for rolling out free wifi to their constituents. These same telecoms often cannot be bothered to roll out any internet whatsoever to these municipalities. This is what happens when you base your business plans on artificial scarcity. You end up having to sue your own customers (i.e. the music and movie industries). Once your services are ubiquitous commodities you have to either find another business or employ economies of scale to make more money. Suing your customers is not a viable alternative ... ever. If you do so, do not be surprised when your customers walk all over you on their way towards a better alternative.

SXE Phil Is Awesome

2008-07-07T13:02:00.001-04:00

Can I just say the SXE Phil is one of the smartest and funniest guys I've ever had the pleasure to see on YouTube? Well, if you won't allow it I'm going to say it anyway ;-)

Some People Have Too Much Time On Their Hands

2008-06-25T15:34:00.001-04:00

I just got told by our service manager that someone had connected this blog with some software I wrote for my company. They told him I did not represent BLM well on this blog and I had an awfully high opinion of myself. Maybe there is a reason for not representing BLM well ... hmmmm. Oh yeah, this is not a BLM blog. It is my personal blog. I have removed references to the software I created for BLM. Hopefully, that will prevent this from happening in the future.

Senator Christopher Dodd's Housing Bill And You

2008-06-20T09:27:00.003-04:00

Well, the federal government is at it again. Slipped into a new housing bill is a data collection policy requiring payment systems to track and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the government. Yes, this is the same government that managed to lose 800,000 social security numbers by leaving a backup tape in an employees car. It's the same government that lost millions of veteran's social security numbers when a Veteran Affairs employee took the data home without authorization. Do we really trust them with our credit card and payment information? Why is this slipped innocuously into a Housing Bill? Are they ashamed to foist this turd in its own bill?

Where's My Fiber?

2008-06-18T08:14:00.003-04:00

In a time when our Internet Service Providers are planning on foisting "pay as you go" plans upon the American consumer, it might be useful to look back 12 years to 1996. In 1996, America's Congress was ready to pass the Telecommunications Reform Act. The telephone companies "promised" to run fiber to 86 million American homes by 2008. They also promised that this fiber would enable us to cruise the Internet at 45 Mbps. In exchange for this promised, the telcos received $200 billion in tax breaks and beneficial legislation. That is about $2000 per American home in benefits we never received.
If you or I had scammed every household in the United States to the tune of $2000 we would be sitting in prison. Of course, you and I don't have millions of dollars to pay the American government hush money.
Telcos ... I'm still waiting for my fiber. Next week would be fine with me.

Chosing Between Crap And Poo

2008-06-17T15:29:00.002-04:00

Ahhhh, politics is in the air again campers. Aren't we all just so excited? I don't know about you but I am sick of all the political parties and candidates. It just seems like every elections we get the choice between crap and poo. They both stink and taste bad going down. Just once, I would love to have a candidate that was not:

In bed with special interests
Lying to me
Pre-compromised
Looking for as much power as they can grab

Oh well, I guess I won't hold my breath. I don't want to turn blue and pass out.

RIAA Bullies At It Again

2008-06-13T08:07:00.002-04:00

Just read about the RIAA doubling settling costs for people that try to quash their automated "piracy" pre-litigation letters. You know, the ones that try to link IP addresses to people (sometimes with horrifyingly unreliable results).
In other news, school yard bullies are doubling the amount of lunch money they take from their victims if they try to fight back.

Bruce Lee's Top 7 Fundamentals For Getting Your Life In Shape

2008-06-12T15:53:00.006-04:00

Just read some crap at a site called the positivity blog. It is the authors re-interpretation of 7 rules Bruce Lee had to make his life better. They are:

What are you really thinking about today?
Simplify.
Learn about yourself in interactions.
Do not divide.
Avoid a dependency on validation from others.
Be proactive.
Be you.

Not bad rules necessarily (if a little general). The only problem is that you have to wade through so many pages of flipping Google ads to get to the rules. I did not even realize the site had completely loaded because no content besides ads was coming up. My only other gripe is that the author forgot to include Bruce Lee's 8th rule:

Don't do too much cocaine. It's a real killer.

I know. I'm utterly tasteless.

Twitter Is Like A Big Whale ... Suspended By Birds

2008-06-11T14:31:00.002-04:00

This just seems Sooooooo appropriate. Look everyone. It is the Twitter Whale suspended in the air by some really small birds. Maybe that's why Twitter is so unreliable?

A Little Something New

2007-08-25T01:54:00.001-04:00

Just a little something I've been working on. This is a larger version (than the preview) of a t-shirt I created for threadless.com. I hope you enjoy.

I Have Problems. I Can't Tell You The Details But Could You Fix Them?

2007-08-23T10:06:00.001-04:00

We have a sales director where I work that insists on sending an email to the company president about how much GroupWise (an email system) sucks. He usually waits until something goes wrong (yesterday I didn't get 20 messages), polls his people for their problems (without any detail) and then sends our president an email. He makes no effort to tell the IT department any details about the problems. His emails contain such helpful statements as (not exact quotes ... just examples):

"This thing simply isn't working."
"GroupWise sucks."
"Why can't you get this thing working."
"I didn't get 20 messages that I was supposed to get yesterday."
"If we were running Microsoft Exchange Server it would work."
"It's working great now but yesterday it wasn't working right."

An average user might find the above statements helpful. Let me tell you why they aren't:

There are no details. If you can take the time to copy the company president you think you could say what messages you didn't get giving details such as email address, time it should have been received.
Saying something sucks is not constructive. There is usually a reason why a business has chosen a particular product to use (cost, ease of use, fit with business objectives). Until you know the reason why a product has been chosen just saying it sucks is not what I would call "constructive criticism".
The comments lack evidence. Simply saying that another product would work better without evidence is like saying a certain make of car is better without looking at crash, safety and maintenance statistics.
You went above my head without giving me a chance to fix your problem. This sets the tone of the conversation. I'm already on the defensive and I probably am not feeling like having a constructive dialog with you.
Saying things like, "Why can't you get something working?" immediately puts someone on the defensive. They are no longer in the mood to talk with you ... much less solve your problems.
If you tell me that it's working great today but you didn't contact me when there were problems will NOT help me solve your problems. When you have issues ... COMMUNICATE. I probably could help you at that point. Now it is too late.

The upshot of this is there are two types of conversations we can have ... constructive and nonconstructive. By communicating with your IT professional in the manner you are setting yourself up to not be helped. There are limits to what someone will do for an individual that treats them in this manner. It may not be right but let's face it, you will go the extra mile for a person that treats you with respect and professional courtesy. For everyone else ... you're just going to do the bare minimum required to keep your job. Having any other kind of expectation is as silly as expecting someone to solve your problems without any supportive details.

Every Dog Gets It's Day

2007-08-15T00:44:00.000-04:00

Another new shirt design. This one has a happy ending ... for everyone but the dog.

A Little Lighter

2007-08-10T01:07:00.000-04:00

People at Threadless say that my t-shirt might be a little too dark. I have created a lighter version just for them. I hope they like it.

Smart People Don't Follow Advice

2007-08-07T09:39:00.000-04:00

I was talking to my president today and something unremarkable happened. He once again did not follow my advice.

Just to preface, my president is an incredibly smart and accomplished man. I have nothing but respect for him and like him in general. He does however get trapped by the Labrea Tar Pit I see smart people fall into all the time. He doesn't follow advice by a topical expert and yet still expects good results to follow.

Every 3 months he comes to me and asks why his mail is running so slow. I go up to his desk and run his email. I see anywhere between 6000 - 10000 messages in his inbox. I always tell him that he needs to move all but 500 - 1000 of these messages into folders. I further tell him that having that vast quantity of messages is slowing down everything he is trying to do with email. His mail client takes forever to come up. Why? The thousands of messages in his inbox.

His reply is always the same, "It didn't used to do that." He doesn't bother trying to take my advice. He just falls back upon his intelligence which tells him that computers are automata and should always work the same way. Never mind that he's installed 10 programs this month and that we've upgraded his computer 5 times since the moment when, "It didn't used to do that."

Personally, if I hired someone for their expertise I would hope that I would at least try to follow their advice. I hope I would but I probably wouldn't.

New Threadless TShirt

2007-08-05T16:03:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm at it again. I'm trying to get a design accepted for Threadless T-Shirts. I hope that the design is original enough to get passed through. I guess time will tell.

A Little Something I've Been Working On

2007-07-19T23:36:00.001-04:00

Well, I've been at it again and I think I might be getting a bit better. Hopefully, I can turn this hobby into some real money at istockphoto. If not, there is always the enjoyment of creation.

Net Neutrality

2007-07-09T14:55:00.000-04:00

Imagine this...
You are driving down the road and come to a toll plaza. It's the only way to get to your destination so you pay the $1.50 and move down the road. Then you get to the end of the toll road and pay another $1.50. Leaving the toll road you reach your destination, a grocery store, you proceed to buy food. You get up to the cash register and pay your bill. When you get your receipt you see a extra charge for $1.50 on it. You go to the service desk and ask why the extra charge was tacked onto your bill and they say it is to pay for you coming to their store on the toll road. They nicely explain that they are just passing on to you the charge the toll company passes on to them. You exclaim that you already paid those tolls and they say that's just the way it is.
That in a nutshell is what giving up net neutrality is going to do to this country. By enabling the toll road companies (i.e. Verizon, AT&T, etc.) the ability to charge companies for their traffic across their small section of the Internet you are going to hobble everyone. The U.S. (you know, the inventor of the Internet) is not the number one country when it comes to average connection speeds and is the most expensive one in which to have a high speed Internet connection. Do we really want to hobble this countries Internet connectivity anymore by giving in to these highway robbers? I think not.

The Garden

2007-07-07T19:51:00.000-04:00

Just a little Inkscape vector drawing I worked on this weekend. After I get better, I plan on perhaps submitting some of these to istockphoto. We'll see.

Butterflies And Apple Pie

2007-07-01T14:48:00.000-04:00

And now for something completely different....

I've been looking at starting to sell my stuff to istockphoto and saw that their vector illustrations were very beautiful and daunting. The first problem is that I don't have Adobe Illustrator. I have Inkscape and the Gimp however. I thought I would tackle creating an image like the ones I saw being downloaded (some over 2000+ times on istockphoto). This is the result of that work. It is completely different from what I usually do (A heck of a lot more cheerful).

I first got a Gimp script from Gimp-Talk.com called Brush-Batch and a program called ABRViewer. Brush Batch takes any image and converts it into a Gimp Brush. Then I got some paint splatter brushes (Photoshop brushes converted by ABRViewer) and went crazy to get the background patterns for the butterfly and actual backgrounds. I got a vase off the internet and digitized it and colored it. Then I converted some bubbles from particleillusion and created some brushes from it, imported them into Gimp brushes, created some images that I then digitized and brought into Inkscape for matting. Then I used a program called PlantStudio2 (now free) to create the stems.

If only I had Illustrator (way too expensive) I would try to get this kind of work submitted to istockphoto. I'm just way to cheap ;-)

Music Is My Weapon

2007-06-21T00:56:00.000-04:00

Way back in the day I remember a time when I used to use my choices in music as a way to shield myself from the world. That is no longer the case ... but it was the inspiration for this new work I did.
I was able to take a bunch of images from Poser and else where, vectorize them in Inkscape and then import them into Blender 3D for positioning. It's an interesting technique that seems to hold promise.

Well Deserved Rest

2007-06-17T01:56:00.001-04:00

Ever stop at the end of a day's hard endeavours and say, "Wow. I should have had a V8" ;-). I got Bryce 6.1 today (they were having a special where you could get it for $19.99). I had to play around with it and see what I could do. 10 hours and an optikVerve Labs filter in the Gimp later and this is the result.

For Dad

2007-06-12T22:49:00.000-04:00

My Dad and I were talking this weekend about how we felt like people treated us like village idiots sometimes. I thought it was funny and made a T-Shirt design using that as a theme. An outward visualization of inner feelings if you will ;-)

ARGHHH!!!!

2007-05-22T23:05:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to get a texture object to emit a SUBTLE glow in blender. I've used particles and got this far:

Then I used post processing filters to get this:

I don't seem to be getting much further than this however. ARGGHHHHHH! ;-) Time to go to bed and see what another day brings.

For My Amusement

2007-05-16T02:14:00.000-04:00

Just a little something for my amusement. It looked cool so I reproduced it. I might throw it on a T-shirt and buy one for myself.

Surprise

2007-04-29T18:44:00.000-04:00

I've been working on some materials for zombie skin for a small comic strip I've been looking at doing. This is my first attempt at creating "realistic" skin for those darn zombies. I think I'll entitle this piece "Surprise" ;-).

Maybe I should have called this blog "Pondering Of An Itinerate Graphics Hobbyist" instead. Lately it seems to be more about that subject than programming. I love programming but art presents a whole new set of challenges that I don't already know the answers to. It seems like when I get a programming job I already have it solved before I finish. I know exactly how I'm going to approach the problem and the only thing left is to code. With art it seems like I always begin a project going "How the heck am I going to do that."

It definitely makes it challenging. I'm sure that I will find some programming challenges in the near future that make me feel that way.

I leave you with the "before" picture that I think is perhaps a little more interesting.

2007-04-26T07:15:00.000-04:00

This is just a drawing I worked on for the past few days. Oooohhhhh, looks evil.

A New T-Shirt To Show How I Feel About VW

2007-04-23T22:34:00.000-04:00

I just added this to my Cafepress store at http://www.cafepress.com/touchofgeek. It pretty much sums up my feelings about my VW Beetle.

My VW Beetle Woes

2007-04-22T20:28:00.000-04:00

I have a 2002 VW Beetle with 61000 miles. I took it into the shop 3000 miles ago saying there was transmission trouble. "Oh no sir. There is no trouble at all", was all I got in reply (the warranty ends at 60000 miles). Now I take it in and suddenly, "Yeah. The transmission needs to be replaced.". It's going to cost me $3800!!! My Ford Taurus is a piece of crap but at least I was able to buy a new transmission for it, installed, for $1900. I tried bringing up the fact that I took this POS to them 3K miles ago and they found nothing and that I'm only a few thousand over the warranty but got zero response. All I have to say is that I will never again own a Volkswagen and now I'm making it my mission to tell everyone I know, hit every automotive bulletin board, write letters to corporate and say what a piece of crap VW products are.
Not only has the transmission gone out but I have had it in the shop for the air conditioner twice, Anti-lock braking system, things popping off of the console that are not wear parts and turn signals that go out on a whim. If you want my advice do not get a Beetle. I am seeing all kinds of problems like this online. Please, if you value your wallet do not inflict yourself with this curse of a car.
I plan on getting the word out to everyone I can possibly reach (as an IT guy that means quite a few people) and tell them every aspect of my horrible experience with VW. The only thing that could mollify me at this point is if VW refunded me the cost of the transmission. They seem to forget that if we as customers tell ONE person not to buy a car from VW they are out more money than the transmission costs. I plan on reaching thousands through every means at my disposal.

Real Men

2007-04-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

It's been a while. I just had to write this when an obvious thought came to me. I was seeing all kinds of men doing things that frankly shocked me. No one cares about my feelings on this (I realize) but I started formulating some of the things I have learned about being a man from people like my father. Sometimes I forget that everyone does not have a role model like I had. Thinking upon some of the things I've seen lately I realize just how lucky I was.
With no further ado, here is a list of items/rules that should define our lives as men (in no specific order):

1. Real men do housework
2. Real men don't leave their families
3. Real men have one wife and try to love them as they love themselves
4. Real men don't bully those weaker than them or let people stronger than them dictate their morals
5. Real men stand up for what they believe in
6. Real men cry
7. Real men take responsibility for their actions
8. Real men work for a living unless they cannot physically do so
9. Real men let those closest to them know they love them
10. Real men try not to look or touch
11. Real men pay their debts
12. Real men suck it up in the face of adversity (but have been known to complain on occasion)
13. Real men put their family ahead of themselves
14. Real men share their emotions with their spouse
15. Real men fail, then they they pick themselves up and try again.

That's all I have to say about that and yes, I'm still trying to live up to this list. Life is like that. If you stop trying to be better then you better be six feet under.

Sometimes You Just Have To Step Back And Wonder If It's Worth It

2007-01-19T22:39:00.000-05:00

I just put this shirt up on my Cafepress store:

http://www.cafepress.com/touchofgeek

It just seems like sometimes you can't beat them. People are making bad decisions around you and you know it will mean bad things if you just give in. However, sometimes people need just enough rope to hang themselves. That's when your complicity is a must so the scene plays out to its bitter end. ;-)

This shirt represents a place I've found myself lately. A place where speaking your mind makes you fear for your future. You really want to say something real to the people around you. You really want to say something to turn the tide. Then you do and get smacked. It's times like those that make you wonder if saving people from their own bad ideas is a good one.

Employment Cost Benefit Analysis

2007-01-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

I think a picture is worth a thousand words.

Bargaining For Salaries: An Interesting Article

2007-01-11T10:25:00.000-05:00

I just read and interesting article at:

http://www.spuriouspundit.com/archives/2004/12/bargaining.html

The interesting this is that this describes my work life for the last 11 years with my company. I care too much about the job, people, products, etc. to walk away from it. This puts me in the untenable position of accepting crappy raises and declining benefits (although some have been generous (like when I was going to leave for more money three years in)).

This has definitely lead to some resentment. Resentment I either should deal with or get out. I'll probably just deal with it (thus fitting the paridigm of the article).

Pure

2007-01-07T20:50:00.000-05:00

My wife was watching crap television tonight and I felt like designing something a little more artistic than usual. This was what came to mind. I was thinking back upon my childhood and thinking about how innocent (comparitively) I was then. I wanted to create a piece that represented that childhood innocence in the context of a non-innocent world. This is what came out.

2007-01-07T15:36:00.000-05:00

I've opened up a new Cafe Press store at:

http://www.cafepress.com/touchofgeek

One of the things I'm kind of proud of on the site is the new Cynical Motivator T-Shirts I've been creating. I hate those motivational posters that people hang on their walls in offices. They always seemed so ... hmmm ... trite to me. In protest I've created some cynical versions of these posters and put them on T-Shirts. I've been having a lot of fun creating them. It's been nice getting back to working in 3D again.

Contest Entry For Crestock Photshop Contest

2006-12-16T01:29:00.000-05:00

I just entered my entry for the Crestock Photoshop contest. I heard about it on Digg and thought it would be a blast. The idea is that every week 5 images are picked for the contestants to work with. You must work one or all of them into an entry for the contest. It is judged on technical, creative as well as visual merits.

Even though it is a Photoshop contest, I don't have the money for that application. I use it at work VERY occasionally. Instead of using Photoshop I used GIMP to composite material from ParticleIllusion, Blender and Poser. I also used the Gimp to take a provided stock photo of a daylight desert scene and turn it into a night desert scene. I hope you enjoy. I only wish I had a chance in to win the contest. The Mac looks mighty tasty.

Treating Your Customers Like Criminals Is The American Way?

2006-11-30T09:14:00.000-05:00

Imagine the following scenario with me:

You walk into your local Best Buy store and every time your hand strays near a product a man pops out from behind the end of the aisle and shouts "Please don't steal that sir!". Fighting your embarrassment you decide you need some blank CDs and DVDs. You pick them up and begin making your way to the front of the store.
Walking up to the register you put products down in front of the cashier. She rings up your goods and the blank media costs $5 more than the sticker price. You inquire from the her, "Why is this $5 more than sticker?"
"Sir, it's the new media tax." She looks at you like you're an ignorant savage. Where have you been? Under a rock perhaps.
You decide to push your luck. Ignoring her look of superiority you say, "What is the media tax?"
"Sir, the record and movie industry lobbied and got congress to pass a tax on all blank media. It's to offset the fact that everyone is using the CDs and DVDs to store pirated media." She looks smugly at you and waits for you to pay.
"But I don't pirate music or movies." You protest but it does you no good. After all, it's the law.

Does any of this sound familiar? It should. Everywhere we go these days we are being treated as if we are criminals. Our media is locked behind restrictive DRM (Digital Rights Management), broadcast flags are telling our DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) what we can and cannot record and depending on where you live you have to pay "taxes" to the entertainment industry on blank media.
On top of this, new legislation is being introduced on a seemingly monthly basis that will restrict our fair use rights. The same companies that used a rich cultural heritage (Snow White, Cinderella, etc.) to create new works of art are now giving absolutely nothing back to the public. It is one of the largest money grabs of the century and sheep that we are, we do nothing to stop them.
In a private "for instance" I submit a story of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album. I bought it on tape. I bought it on CD. I bought a gold master CD. Then I purchased it on Itunes. How many times do I have to buy the same thing? To the entertainment industry the answer is simple. You have to buy it every time you want to play it on a new device.
In a recent public "for instance", Universal Music's Doug Morris stated (about IPods), "These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it. So it's time to get paid for it." Is this guy kidding me? Does he really believe that all the digital media players are being used to pirate his product? I'll tell you what I think. I think this is another money grab from a greedy industry.
Not that I have strong opinion on the subject or anything.

Rome's 9-11

2006-10-02T11:19:00.000-04:00

Thought provoking New York Time article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/30/opinion/30harris.html?ex=1317268800&en=c6ea4450122c3e93&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

-Mike

2006-09-23T02:24:00.001-04:00

Early Month Missive

2006-08-08T09:45:00.000-04:00

What the heck have I been doing for the last few weeks? Good question. I wish I knew ;-). Seriously though, I have been working on a new product for Second Life.
I was watching a Google Video of the founder of Second Life. One of the things he demonstrated was a product call Starax's Wand. This thing was incredible and sold for around 30000 L$ (around $100 real dollars). Everyone I knew was complaining about how they could not afford one of these wonderful wands for themselves.
I made the mistake of telling one of my in-game friends that I was thinking about writing something similiar. They immediately gave me 10000 L$ (Around $33 real dollars) and said that they would take two of them. This started me on a quest to come up with a list of features and then start creating them. That was 17 days and 34 effects ago. I hope to come up with 6 - 16 more of these and release my "Power Staff" for around 2000 L$ (around $6.50). It won't be Starax but it will be good and cheap (by comparison).
Other than that, I found a way to play Ultima Online for free. Go to http://http://www.runuo.com/ for details. That has been fun and FREE!!! Here's hoping you have a/several good week/weeks until I write again.

Last Day Of Torture

2006-07-21T01:41:00.000-04:00

My partner in slime (Phil Henderson) is FINALLY ;-) getting back from England on Monday. He has been out all week and it has been terrifying. My boss is also out which makes things interesting to say the least. I can't wait to have the foxes back in the hen house. Things are so much smoother when our workmates our there.

On another topic, I've been thinking pretty seriously about open-sourcing Guinterface (sans GWAVA (Non-Disclosure stuff)). I'm trying to work up some gumption and get everything cleaned up so the humans can maintain it. I'm not sure if it is worth the effort as Mike Bell (Guinevere, GWAVA fame) is integrating a web based engine for the new version of Guinevere. Still, it may be nice for people to have and the last support contract runs out in January of next year I believe.

I'm still working on my book (barely) and hope to get it out soon. I'm doing more 3D work (for fun and non-profit) and scripting more in Second Life. Having one job is nice but I'm still finding ways to kill my relaxation. I guess I just can't stop being productive. I'm just not used to having free time. Oh well, ciao for now.

Eternal Supplicants And Sentinels

2006-07-18T00:22:00.000-04:00

Just a little image I've been working on. The new Blender is definitely the bomb! The 2.42 release adds so much that I would not even know where to begin. Needless to say this jewel of a program is the best thing since sliced bread for those without a $2000 budget. Well anyway, enjoy! ;-)
-Mike

Talking Bout Our Education

2006-07-14T08:23:00.000-04:00

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
—Samuel Clemens, 1900

There is a lot of talk and lip service these days about education. These avenues of discourse range from "No Child Left Behind" to the debate over whether we should be teaching Spanish in our schools. My thought is that it's is all a load of bull. Most of these debates are about politicians using our children's futures for a brief influx of political currency. In my humble opinion there are a few pressing problems with education today (take these with a grain of salt):

Parents checked out of their children's day to day lives a long time ago.
The system is based on a 100+ year old system designed to create clones suited to factory work.
Rich neighborhoods beget rich property taxes beget rich school systems
Poor neighborhoods beget no property taxes beget bad school systems

Some of you are gasping in indignation at the first point. "We have not abandoned our children!" is your refrain. I hope those gasping are the ones that this point does not apply to.
When I was a child I truly won the family lottery. My parents were (and still are) married and in a stable relationship, my mother was able to stay at home and they took the time to sit with me every night and help me with my homework. As I said, I was extremely lucky because at the time many of my friends had single parents or were children of divorce. These children's mothers had to work and by the time they got home they were too exhausted to be truly interested.
I'm actually not blaming their parents, it's just a reality of working overtime or two jobs in some cases. When life is a matter of day to day survival, your children's education will suffer. Our children are becoming an unfortunate side effect of the break up of the nuclear family. Some of you are probably scoffing at me. You're saying to yourself, "I don't need no man/woman to help me raise my children." I only have one thing to say to you, unless you're that special .0001% of people with unlimited energy, you're wrong.
There is a reason why the nuclear family worked for so long, it is necessary. It takes two people, to raise children with the attention that they deserve (especially if you are both working). One person simply does not have the energy.
My second point was that the current system was instituted to give people the skills they needed to work in a factory. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with working in a factory. I come from a blue collar background and I'm proud of it. Increasingly factory jobs are become non-existent in America and Europe. We simply can't afford to pay the salaries and benefits for something we can get cheaper overseas. This leaves us stuck with an education system that was designed to make us capable of excelling in an environment that no longer exists.
Our education today should be tooled to making us knowledge workers, engineers and scientists. Instead it is tooled to stamp out cookie cutter people who cannot see the point of original thinking. If you doubt my point just look at "No Child Left Behind". What is its main premise? I'll whisper it in your ear "standardized testing". Now their is some original thinking for you.
The other two main problems are the ones we have had since the beginning of time, the disparity between the haves and have nots. Rich people's property taxes afford their children a quality (by the standards of our educational system) education. Poor people don't pay any or very little property taxes. This means their children have fewer opportunities.
Well, there is my opinion (whether you like it, want it or care). No amount of standardized testing will fix what ails us. In order to reverse this trend we will have to renew our commitment to each other (husbands, wives, etc.), retooling a broken system and spreading the money around. Unfortunately, that will not happen because we are all to human.

New Issue Of Punk IT: Vacation Emancipation

2006-07-08T15:03:00.000-04:00

Here is a new version of Punk IT for you.

End Of June Check In

2006-06-28T16:06:00.000-04:00

Howdy one and all. Things are going OK (if slowly). I'm just relaxing and saving up some energy to (maybe) finish my book. I think I am going to have to write at least another 40 - 50 pages (I got some new ideas during my hiatus). More details to follow.

Political Hucksterism

2006-06-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

This little piece reflects a rather cynical view of Washington politics as they seem to exist today. It seems like everywhere you turn politicians are increasingly turning away from their responsibility to the public and selling out to lobbyists and special interests.
The symptoms of this malaise vary. Repressive copyright measures like the DMCA are being used increasingly to criminalize millions of American citizens. The Patriot Act is being used to (unconstitutionally) to imprison and spy on American citizens without warning or legal recourse. The NSA is spying on the American public (not for the first time). Congress fails to vote for Net Neutrality. Congress tries to close the analog loophole for copying (for personal use) copyrighted material. Millions of tax dollars are given to the phone companies as incentives to run fiber optic networks to American homes and no protest is made when they fail to live up to their responsibilities. Mickey Mouse is about to fall out of copyright and become public domain only to have copyright law extended so the Walt Disney company can continue to rake in millions of dollars a year at the expense of the American public (this is the same company that used public domain to make billions with Snow White, Cinderella, etc.). I could fill 50 blog entries with examples.
The fact is, politicians think they can get away with these abuses of their positions and power. I love America. I think we have one of the best countries in the world. It is a land of opportunity that people still flock to in droves. I love my country and that is exactly why I want it to continue being great. I want our leaders to be accountable. I want to wake up and find an America where more than 50% of the population votes for a president. I want us, as a people, to make this happen. The question is, will we?

Should Have Taken The Blue Pill

2006-06-12T00:17:00.000-04:00

Sometimes in life we find that we should have taken the path more travelled. The lady in my latest composition has just discovered this deadly fact at her own expense (or perhaps she escapes to learn from her mistake, I'll let you decide).

New Issue Of Punk IT: Account Misrepresentative

2006-06-06T16:59:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since the last Punk IT was put out. My wife has had a quiet day today (she just had extensive ankle surgery). She feels better and that freed me to come out with a new issue. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get to edit my book again.
You can never tell how it's going to be from one day to the next. Saturday, upbeat. Sunday throw up all day. Monday, blah. Tuesday, woopee. I hope she feels well. I hate to see her feel like this. Anyway. Enjoy the comic.

Evil Genius Logo

2006-05-21T16:13:00.000-04:00

I recently needed a logo for a "mad scientist" in Second Life to kick off a new line of products. This is what I came up with on short notice. Wow, I wish I had that kind of hair ;-).

2006-05-20T14:18:00.001-04:00

May Mid Month Fill In

2006-05-12T13:12:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a weird month. My wife is going in for surgery in the early June and it is going to be quite a strain on our finances (I'll probably have to come up with up to a month's worth of her salary). Needless to say, I have not finished writing the book. In fact I have done nothing with it lately. I'm just not feeling very creative I guess (more overwhelmed and worried than creative).

To compound these problems, a check I was expecting from a customer in early April was unable to be cashed (due to them issuing it from a Canadian bank and my bank being American). A replacement check is on its way but not issued as of yet. On top of that, some work I was supposed to be doing for another client keeps getting postponed. The guy is just too busy to send me an NDA and discuss the project. I'm not sure what that means but I'm sure it will shake out one way or another.

This month is a solid reminder that we are not really in control of our lives. The only thing we can control is our reaction to external stimuli. My response ... pulling out all my hair (look at my profile picture to see what I mean) ;-).

Things Are So Much Harder In Real Life

2006-04-19T16:03:00.000-04:00

Well, I finished the first draft of my novel only to come to a shocking conclusion ;-). I need at least two more revisions of what is there and I need to pad (uhhh, I mean add) at least thirty more pages. I've always heard a myth that writing was "easy work". Think again. It is one of the single most frustrating things I have ever attempted.
Oh well, I have to get my nose back to the grindstone. Ciao.

First Draft Of Lambda Initiative Finished

2006-04-17T12:14:00.000-04:00

I finished the impossible over the Easter holiday weekend. I actually finished the first edit of LAMBDA Initiative (my first novel). I never thought I would see the day when I finished a novel that I started. It must be my 35th birthday and the resulting pondering of what I had done with my life ;-). It was finally enough to get me motivated.

Mid Month Fill In

2006-04-11T13:24:00.000-04:00

I just thought I would post a mid-month infoshare so to speak. I just finished editing the first draft of my new novel (the Lambda Initiative). I have all the changes on a paper copy (yeah, I know, how analog). I am currently working to put them into Word. It will probably take a few weeks at the slow pace I am setting. Then I plan to have take one more pass through and hand it off to another (insane) individual for a final proofread/idea session. Hopefully, by this time next month it will be ready for the final hand off to the publisher.
I don't expect much from it, it is a first novel after all. Why make it? I'd always wanted to. It was my gift to myself on my 35th birthday.
Other than that, not much is going on here. A little bit of Guinterface support, some Guinevere spam engine support and hopefully some contract work for a customer.
If I don't see you for another few weeks then ciao baby ;-)

Bored To Tears

2006-04-04T11:10:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a bit since my last post and I only have one thing to say, "I'm Bored!" The last four years of my life have been filled with one project after another. Guinterface kept me so busy that I don't think I had many quiet moments of self-contemplation. Now I am faced with a future with nothing but quiet contemplation.
I have been trying to stay busy, Punk IT comics and my new book have taken up quite a bit of time. After the book is finished (it's in final edit right now), I'm really going to have to find a new and challenging programming project to work on. I know that the project won't come from my day job ;-).
There has not been a request at work that has truly challenged me in three years. It is a really weird feeling when your boss asks you for something that he truly believes is complex and you deliver it the next day. It's as if while he spells out his request I already know how I'm going to do it. Between this and all of the things I have scripted I just don't know what could turn up the heat at the office.
I only have one piece of advice for all you lazy programmers out there (I mean lazy in a good way. As in why do something repetitively that a computer can do for you?). Don't script away all of your daily tasks or you will face termination or worse yet, boredom.

Where The Heck Is Lambert?

2006-03-22T00:26:00.000-05:00

If some of you are wondering where the heck I have been for the last few weeks, look no further than this post. I have been working on my first novel called the The Lambda Initiative. I have the first draft complete and I started editing it tonight. Can I just say that editing is for the birds?
I tried to get my wonderful wife to do it but she refused and it is just as well. I am making so many marks on the page that it is a sea of green ink. I know. It should be red but all I had was a green marker. Here is the front and back cover design (preliminary).
If any of you are hurt that I did not tell you, please don't be. I simply did not want to jinx myself ;-).

Issue 4 Of Punk IT

2006-03-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

A new issue of Punk IT, Send In The Clowns, is at dollarprograms.com. Enjoy!

End Of An Era

2006-03-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official. We have officially closed down Guinterface Software. The website now points off to my dollarprograms.com website. We are no longer selling anything Guinterface. I'm not quite sure if we'll do anything with TaskTastic. 130+ downloads from downloads.com and still no sales. I'm pretty sure it is a complete and utter loser as well ;-). That's OK. It's been fun, I've learned alot, pressed the edges of my abilities back 100s of miles so to speak.

The really nice thing about all of this is that my evening free time has expanded considerably. I actually have a life again (thank goodness). It would be nice to have the money back but that was declining anyway. Time to get used to a lower standard of living ;-).

I have to admit, it kind of makes me sad. There was a lot of work that went into the building of Guinterface Software. Hopefully, I can apply what I learned to lead some venture to success in the future.

Issue 3 Of Punk IT

2006-02-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

Another week ... another issue of PunkIT. Woot! I actually may be doing the web comic thing for real. I never thought I would get to issue 3. I thought it would be a one time thing but I'm finding I really enjoy it. Good thing, because I'm definitely not doing it for the money ;-).

Punk IT Issue 2

2006-02-20T13:50:00.000-05:00

I created a second "issue" of Punk IT. I hope you like it. You can find all the issues at http://www.dollarprograms.com.

Punk IT The Comic

2006-02-15T14:26:00.000-05:00

I created the first in a series of comics called "Punk IT". You can find a pdf of issue 1 at:

http://www.dollarprograms.com/PunkIT/PunkITIssue1.pdf

I used a mixture of Blender, Poser and the Gimp to create this. I'm hoping to have issue 2 out by next week. We'll see.

Angry Guy Fun

2006-02-09T10:57:00.000-05:00

I was messing around with Blender, Gimp and Poser last night and came up with the above picture. I'm kind of thinking about creating a short comic strip with the guy. He looks so imposing ;-).

DollarPrograms.com And More Fun

2006-02-07T16:32:00.000-05:00

As some of my readers know Guinterface (a business I developed with Phil Henderson) has been foundering for about the last year. We've gone to support only for the most part (with the exception of TaskTastic). Even the support dollars are drying up at this point. When the going gets tough, the tough switch strategies.

I am often working on little projects that just don't seem to fit the mold of full featured commercial programs. I've needed a venue for these "mini-inventions" for a long time. It is with that in mind that I announce the creation of dollarprograms.com. At DollarPrograms we are going to be selling small applications I have created for $1 - $10 (for the most part). It is going to be a simple (Paypal only site).

My future strategy with this site remains to be seen but probably will include "publishing" other peoples $1 programs for a fee of some sort. We'll see how it goes.

Even Cowgirls Should Get The Geek Blues

2006-01-31T12:27:00.000-05:00

In this post I'm going to discuss something that most of you true male geeks know ... we are great catches. I know this sounds a bit self-serving but I am prepared to back it up with a little conjecture (facts being scarce).

When I was in junior high school/early high school, I was lucky to get a girl to talk to me, much less date me. I dreamed of the day when I could get my first kiss. I thought it would have to be the best day of my life. When I started dating I was just darn happy that a women would agree to be around me that often. This brings me to my most important point, true geeks are grateful when members of the opposite sex show interest. I think this makes us more thoughtful and hard working boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives.

See, I'm going to let you in on a secret well known amongst my friends and colleagues, my wife is too good for me. She is prettier, smarter and more vivacious than I could possibly deserve. I know this and that is why I won't stray and I will try hard to make our relationship wonderful. It all comes down to appreciating what, in your heart of hearts, you feel you don't deserve. If we all had that attitude perhaps the 60% divorce rate in this country would not be so high. Then again, I'm probably crazy.

The Star Runner - Chapter 4 Section 3

2006-01-18T12:03:00.000-05:00

The next section of my story can be found at the following link. I know it's been a while. Sorry:

http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=badxrfdgbtphb

The More You Tighten Your Grip

2006-01-16T12:53:00.000-05:00

"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." These words were spoken in the 70s in a little movie called Star Wars. They also happen to remind me of the situation the consumer finds themselves in with regards to the RIAA and MPAA. These "evil empires" are dinosaurs of a previous age in which the power rested in the arms of the distributors. With the evolution of the Internet where the contents of a CD can be transfered for a few pennies and a movie can be tranferred for just a few more pennies their power is ever more threatened.

I think we can all agree that when a entity begins suing its customers, they are suing themselves out of existence. Like a T-Rex in its death throes the recording and motion picture industries will kill some of its customers. This will not save them from death. Like the dinosaurs, the story is one of adapt or die. Sometimes adaptations have been forced down these industries throats and when this happens they inevitably make more money. Like a big dumb animal though they fail to apply the lessons of the past to save their future.

RIAA/MPAA we hardly knew you. Rest in peace.

Spreadsheet::WriteExcel

2006-01-09T11:18:00.000-05:00

I often find myself needing to compile reports for management in Excel. In cases where there is a lot of data massaging I have found it easiest to to massage with Perl and export to a text file. I then take the text file into Excel using a standard text file import. This is clunky for reports that you do over and over again. It would be great to automate this process. Now you can with the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel module. Using this module you can write Perl data directly to files readable to Excel including formatting and formulas. Woohoo!

Hospitals Are So 1500s

2005-12-29T12:37:00.000-05:00

I had a fun Christmas! Oh boy I did. My wife was hospitalized this last weekend during Christmas and it was a blast. I have never seen a more convoluted, slow, shift the responsibility on the next shift bunch of crap in my life.

Health care is the only business I know where customer service is uneccesary. Why? The answer is simple. No matter how bad their service, a hospital is not going to lose any business. In fact as long as they do not kill you they are almost guaranteed you will come back. This is especially true in areas with very few hospitals.

If you wonder why your medical bills are so high look no further than your local hospital's emergency rooms. You wait 3 hours to get a room (if you're lucky). Then 2 hours later a man comes in for some blood work. If you are unlucky enough to go towards the end of a shift the current shift is looking for a way to shift your case to the next shift. In other words be prepared to have to wait until 4 in the morning to get admitted to the actual hospital from the emergency room if you come in past 8 in the evening be prepared to wait as people shuffle you from person to person like some strange inefficient ballet.

Then, when you do get your room be prepared to be interrupted every hour on the hour as your vitals get checked, blood drawn, etc. Then be prepared to wait for the next afternoon for a Doctor to actually dain to come and release you from the hospital. All in all hospitals are prime example of human stupidity, laziness and inefficiency. Then we wonder why a basic hospital visit costs $1000 a day. I don't have to wonder anymore.

If I ran my businesses like hospitals are run I would not have a business.

Merry Xmas

2005-12-20T11:46:00.000-05:00

Merry Chrismas to all. I will be taking a break from writing from now until next Wednesday in observance and celebration of the season. I hope you all have a wonder Christamas holiday.

Inconvenient Temp Files

2005-12-19T12:52:00.000-05:00

Recently I had a temp directory that shut down a server by filling up the C drive. The culprit was a nightly job that unzipped temp files into the temp directory (Go Figure ;-)). The solution was simple. Create a Perl job to kill those files nightly before that other job runs. The code follows:

# This program get's rid of all the files matching regex $regex (ckz_* in our case)
# temp files for user ARGV[0]

use File::Path;
my $user = $ARGV[0];
my $regex = $ARGV[1];
my $temp_dir = "C:\\Documents and Settings\\$user\\Local Settings\\Temp";
if (-d $temp_dir) {

      opendir(DE,$temp_dir);
     my @all_files = readdir(DE);
     foreach $file (@all_files) {
             # Make sure file is not a directory
             $entry = "$temp_dir\\$file";
             if (-d $entry) {
                     if ($entry =~m/$regex/i) {
                             print "DELETING ENTRY: $entry\n";
                             rmtree($entry);
                     }
             }
     }
     closedir(DE);

}

else {

print "Directory $temp_dir Does Not Exist!";
}

This code removes any temp files matching $regex in the user $user temp files. These two variables are passed in on the command line ($ARGV[0],$ARGV[1]).

Funny Clause

2005-12-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

http://members.cox.net.nyud.net:8090/jmccorm/santa.html

Enough said.

The Travails Of Using SMS Messaging To Communicate Server Downs

2005-12-16T09:15:00.000-05:00

Recently, my company email servers have been flaky. It has been decided that we needed a way to communicate server downs to the IT staff so we can take corrective actions. The easiest way I could come up with was SMS messaging to our company cell phones. The only problem is that my company is cheap and SMS services that you can call programmatically cost money.

Perl came to the rescue yet again. I remembered that the T-Mobile website (our cell service provider) had a web page you could use to communicate with T-Mobile cellphones. You only needed an existing account setup on their site (with your mobile number and a password).

Armed with this knowledge I started using Samie and Win32::GuiTest to automate Internet Explorer to do the whole process automagically. Samie is a great package but it does have some issues. Some of the procedure calls do not work as expected. I've posted a modified version that works with my code at:

http://www.streamload.com/lamberms/Sam.pm

Anyway, here is the code solution to do SMS messaging. It comes in two parts, tmobile_sms.pl and kill_ie.pl. You call tmobile_sms.pl with five arguments, your T-Mobile cell phone number, account password, T-Mobile phone number to sms, from information and the message. It then automates IE to go to the T-Mobile web page, log in and send the message. When it is done doing this kill_ie.pl kills the popup the T-Mobile web site pops up (Samie does not do this well) and closes IE. Here is the tmobile_sms.pl code:

use Win32::OLE;
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;
use Win32::SAM;
$| = 1;
my $URL = "https://my.t-mobile.com/Communication/";
my $IEDocument;
my $seconds;
my $account_mobile_num = @ARGV[0];
my $account_mobile_pass = @ARGV[1];
my $mobilenum_to_page = @ARGV[2];
my $from_text = @ARGV[3];
my $msg_text = @ARGV[4];

if (@ARGV[0] eq "" || @ARGV[1] eq "" || @ARGV[2] eq "" || @ARGV[3] eq "" || @ARGV[4] eq "") {

       print "Invalid Command Used.  Command Should Be Formatted Like:\n";
     print "tmobile_sms.exe your_cell_phone_num your_cell_phone_pass cell_phone_to_sms from_text msg_text\n";
     exit;

}

StartIE();
$seconds = Navigate($URL);
print "First Page took $seconds seconds to load\n";
SetEditBox("txtMSISDN",$account_mobile_num);
SetEditBox("txtPassword",$account_mobile_pass);
ClickImage("https://my.t-mobile.com/images/mytmobile/ph/buttons/leftp.gif",0,1);
print "Second Page Loaded In $seconds.\n";
while (not VerifyTextPresent("SELECT A PHONE")) {

       print "Select A Phone Text Is Not Present\n";
     sleep(1);

}
$seconds = Navigate($URL,0,1);
print "Third Page Took $seconds seconds\n";
while (not VerifyTextPresent("Characters left")) {

       print "Characters left Text Is Not Present\n";
     sleep(1);

}
SetEditBox("txtNum","$mobilenum_to_page");
SetEditBox("txtFrom","$from_text");
SetEditBox("txtMessage","$msg_text");
$seconds = ClickImage("https://my.t-mobile.com/images/mytmobile/ph/buttons/left.gif",0,1);
if (-e ".\\kill_ie.exe") {
exec(".\\kill_ie.exe");
}

if (-e ".\\kill_ie.pl") {
exec(".\\kill_ie.pl");
}
exit;

And here is the kill_ie.pl code:

use Win32::GuiTest;

$| = 1;
my @windows = ();
my $time_counter = 0;
while ($#windows == -1 && $time_counter < 121) {

     @windows = Win32::GuiTest::FindWindowLike( undef, "^Microsoft Internet Explorer", "","",5 );
   $time_counter++;
   print "Looking For Popup Window\n";
   Win32::Sleep(1000);

}

if ($time_counter == 120) {

     print "FAILURE Finding Microsoft Internet Explorer Window!!!!\n";
   exit;

}

else {

if ( !bring_window_to_front( $windows[0] ) ) {

print "* Could not bring to front $window[0]\n";
}

     my @enterbutton = Win32::GuiTest::FindWindowLike( undef, "OK", "Button" );
   if ($#enterbutton > -1) {
           #Click OK Button
           Win32::GuiTest::SendKeys("~",1);
           Win32::GuiTest::SendKeys("%({F4})");
           print "Clicking OK Button\n";
           exit;
   }
   else {
           print "Could Not Click Enter Button\n";
           exit;
   }

}

exit;

sub bring_window_to_front {


my $window  = shift;
my $success = 1;
if ( Win32::GuiTest::SetActiveWindow($window) ) {
    print "* Successfully set the window id: $window active\n";
}
else {
    print "* Could not set the window id: $window active\n";
    $success = 0;
}
if ( Win32::GuiTest::SetForegroundWindow($window) ) {
    print "* Window id: $window brought to foreground\n";
}
else {
    print "* Window id: $window could not be brought to foreground\n";
    $success = 0;
}
return $success;

}

Mono Is A Game

2005-12-15T09:49:00.000-05:00

After my last blog entry on Mono the development environment I thought it would be appropriate to talk about my new game obsession, Mono. In this game you go around shooting simple spheres and collecting powerups that increase the power level of your shots. All of this is happening to a simple techno score and it just ROCKS! It is like asteroids with a twist and I cannot get enough of it. I think you might like it as well.

Orange Is Not Just A Fruit Anymore

2005-12-14T10:31:00.000-05:00

For a long time now I have been fascinated by the use people make of such open source tools as Blender, Povray, Audacity, etc. Put together, these excellent 3d rendering and sound packages make it possible for the end user to produce Pixar quality short films. As proof, I offer up Project Orange. This is a project to use Blender and other open source tools to produce a short film. The blogs on this site give quite a bit of insight as to what it takes to produce creative works with free tools. It makes for interesting reading.

Mono Is Cool In Concept

2005-12-13T09:46:00.000-05:00

I've been working a bit with Gentoo Linux lately and I was curious about cross platform development between WinBlows and Linux (Yeah, I know, gross!). The one project I came up with that seemed plausible was Mono. Mono is a cross-platform development environment that uses basically replaces .Net. It has the C# language (the flagship of .NET development) and it seems relatively complete. The only problem I see so far is a problem that affects many open and closed source projects ... the documentation sucks. I am looking to compile a set of C# code into a dll and it is next to impossible to figure out how. I'm probably missing something. I'll report what I find out in the next few days on the blog.

I've Been Dug

2005-12-12T14:39:00.000-05:00

Looks like I have been dug 10 times at digg.com. Check it out at:

http://digg.com/programming/Resize_And_Markup_PDFs_For_Free

Welcome diggers ;-)!

Resize And Markup A PDF For Free (Well If You Have The .Net Dev Environment Anyway)

2005-12-09T11:28:00.000-05:00

Well, yesterday I promised you code to resize or markup pdf documents. I've been frustrated for years because every library I ever used made the pdf look horrible when I did a resize. Then ITextSharp entered my life and everything changed. After a bit of work I was able to come up with the code that allows me to resize a pdf to A,B,C,D,E,A3 or A4. I can also markup the pdf. This code will create a command line program for you that will do the same.

To get this working:

Create a new Console Application VB .NET project
Set a reference to the ITextSharp dll (found from the ITextSharp link above)
Set the startup object as the Main subroutine in the code
Build the project

After building the project you will get a command line program. The arguments to this program will be:

Source PDF file
Destination PDF File
Operation - Resize or Markup
The size for the destination PDF (A,B,C,D,E,A3 or A4) or the markup text

Since the commercial alternatives to this free software cost "real" money, I would not mind a small donation (if you feel really generous). To do this use the following link (defaults to $10):

Stay Tuned

2005-12-08T12:30:00.000-05:00

I'm working on some code feverishly for resizing and "watermarking" PDF files. This has been the bane of my existence at work. Getting it correct programmatically is a pain. This has made it necessary for me to purchase utilities for doing this in the past. I wish to save you this expense if I can. So anyway, stay tuned in the next day or two for some VB .NET code for resizing PDFs followed by code for marking up PDFs.

Playing With PDFs Programmatically

2005-12-07T10:14:00.000-05:00

Let's face it, PDFs have become the defacto standard for sharing documents with your employees and customers. The problem comes in when you want to automatically generate things like invoices, quotations, etc. programmatically. I am constantly playing with PDFs at my day job as all of our drawings are converted to that format. It is not unusual for me to want to do things like watermark and resize these documents. When I want to do these kinds of things I turn to a few different libraries depending on what environment I am currently in. Here are a list of the libraries I am currently using:

1. Perl - PDF::API2
2. Java - Itext
3. .NET - ITextSharp

With these libraries on your side PDF manipulation ceases to be a chore and becomes fun (OK, well tolerable then).

Christmas Times A Coming

2005-12-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

Oh, Christmas, where have you gone? Do you remember when Christmas did not mean doing a mad dash for cash until December 25th? Do you remember when it really was the thought that counted? Do you remember when you did not have to spend $1200 at Christmas just to "satisfy" everyone? Do you remember when just being together was Christmas enough.

I wish instead of remembering this I was experiencing it now.

My Head's In The Clouds

2005-12-02T13:32:00.000-05:00

I am not usually a fan of games that don't involve First Person Shooter characteristics. That may explain why I came to Cloud with low expectations. I thought I would find boredom, instead I found a non-linear, entertaining and engaging game. Give it a check out.

Just Curious

2005-12-01T12:17:00.000-05:00

Hey there everyone. I was just wondering if anyone was reading my ramblings. If you are could you post a comment and let me know you are out there ;-)?

Spyhunter Rides Again

2005-12-01T12:10:00.000-05:00

Remember the SpyHunter arcade game? I do. I remember how it bankrupted my tight budget as I tried to stay one step ahead of the enemy vehicles and ended up feeding quarter after quarter into the darn machine.

Thankfully, with the Internet, I have an alternative to bankruptcy and it's called Highway Pursuit. This freeware game is basically SpyHunter for a Windows machines and has the advantages of being free and a lot prettier than the original. Check it out for some good ol' fashioned fun.

Who Still Runs DOS ... I do, I do!

2005-11-30T14:02:00.000-05:00

It is an unfortunate fact of my life that I still have to use DOS applications ... frequently. I recently was called in to look at replacing an old drawing log system still in use at my company. The goal was to replace its functionality and put it in our company portal. There was only one problem with this ... how to get the data out of the system? The old Drawing Log System was written in Turbo Pascal 6.0. That's right folks, Turbo Pascal ;-). All of the data files were in a binary format and we did not have the source code. Bummer. To make matters worse it did not run reliably on anything besides an older system (original Pentium class or older).

This is where DOSBox comes in. DOSBox emulates DOS (machine and all). It runs not only on Windows but also on Linux. You can even emulate older PCs by setting up how many operations per second it emulates. After I fired up the program in DOSBox it worked reliably and I was able to save the Drawing Log files to text files (after some wrangling). If you are having problems running DOS games or applications, DOSBox is for you.

EverNote - A Review

2005-11-29T08:57:00.000-05:00

I've seens a lot of organizer programs come and go over the years. I've used a lot of them and the ultimate test in how useful they are is how long I can stand to use them. If they are a toy then typically they last about a week. If they are marginally useful they might last a few. If they are very useful they might hang around as long as EverNote.

EverNote is not everything to every person but it sure has taking notes, tasklists, etc. down cold. I have set up many to do lists, etc. in the program and I just keep coming back for more. With search, categorization, image pasting and many more features than I have the time to name EverNote is worth your time to check out.

Grease Lightning

2005-11-28T08:57:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of one for time wasting games. I play maybe 5-10 hours a week (and have to squeeze that in around a lot of other things). However, recently I have started playing a game called Lightning Break. Lightning break is a game of skill with pool balls. The object is to put balls into the pockets in a specific order (depends on the round). It sounds simple but aren't all the really fun things in life. I truly suggest this game as a lunch time time waster.

Unless I Get A Wild Hair

2005-11-23T09:04:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,
Unless something dramatic comes to me, I'm starting off my Thanksgiving Holiday and will not be writing until next Monday (Nov. 28, 2005). I wish all the Americans out there a very Happy Thanksgiving. To all the rest of you, Happy Days ;-).
-Mike

Oldie But A Goodie

2005-11-22T10:39:00.000-05:00

Back in the bad old days of video games all we had was text adventures. Yes, I know, text adventures are crap. Sometimes I get nostalgic however and what could be better than sharing a crappy text adventure with a bunch of people online. That's where MUDs come in. MUD stands for Multi-User Dungeon. It is a text adventure that basically a group of people share online. Over the years these adventures have grown very elaborate.

Out of all the MUDs I've seen Age of War is probably one of the most elaborate (and most fun). The area you can explore is huge, there are arenas where players can meet in armed combat and the people are really friendly. If you want to explore what adventure gaming was like in the age of CGA graphics give Age of War a shot. I think you'll find you can have a good, immersive time without the frills.

Bored Again

2005-11-21T11:08:00.000-05:00

It never fails to happen. You take your wife out shopping and of course you are sitting out in the store on a chair meant for miserable saps like you. You wait and you wait, bored out of your skull. The boredom is punctuated by your significant other coming out and asking how they look in these clothes or those clothes.

You can either accept this fate or read a good book and wait patiently for them to come out while being entertained. I have a BlackBerry and it has opened up the wonderfull world of ebooks to me. Ebooks are expensive you say. If you are willing to read older books it's not expensive at all. Point your browser to this link and never be bored in the store again.

The Svelte Sounds Of The Past

2005-11-19T11:24:00.000-05:00

I consider myself to be a aficionado of the history of the early to mid 20th century. Perhaps a dabbler would be a better word. One of the key components of a culture is the music that it chooses to listen to. That's why I was incredibly excited to find the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s sound recordings were made on cylinders of wax that were played back on phonographs. Obviously not many people have access to a phonograph machine. Even if you did have a machine it would be tantamount to historical suicide to listen to one of these cylinders today. Like a record player, every time you listen to a cylinder you degrade its quality just a little bit.

The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization project has made 5000+ of these cylinders available to the public in the form of mp3 and unedited .wav files. Go out and see what your grandparents and great grandparents were listening too. I am as we speak.

Lost Disks No More

2005-11-18T09:50:00.000-05:00

Here at the office we have a constant problem, people "borrowing" install CDs and never returning them. I got so sick of this phenomena that I started making ISOs of CDs and placed them on a linux box running Samba. CD ISO images can be "mounted" as file systems in Linux using loop devices. For a full explanation of this process click on this link. Combining this capability with Samba (basically creating a Microsoft Windows network share) you should be able to tell people to install from your CD server instead of handing out the disks.

For those pesky people that want a CD you should be able to just tell them to burn the ISOs from the CD server to a CD with Nero or Easy CD Creator. If a installation program absolutely requires that the disk be in a "CD Drive" use a tool like Daemon-Tools (see picture below). This basically mounts a ISO image on your Windows machine and emulates a CD drive. With these tips you should be set to stop losing those precious install CDs. Viva la installacion!

VMWare Rides Again

2005-11-16T11:27:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I wrote in my blog about using the VMWare Player application with a VMXWizard to basically get a "free" VMWare Workstation software application on your machine. I ran into one snag however. The VMWare Player does not come with VMWare Tools for Windows and Linux. The VMWare Tools enable you to install SVGA drivers on a VMWare image. Without it you are stuck in 16 bit color ... YUCK!. After a little digging I found some downloads for you on the VMWare site. These links are:

Linux VMWare Tools: http://www.vmware.com/support/esx/doc/install_guest_esx.html
Windows VMWare Tools: http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=920

These pages come with full instructions but basically with the windows download you get a .iso image that you can mount by editing the .vmx file that configures your VMWare "machine". For example in my .vmx file this looks like:

ide1:0.filename="C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\VMWare Tools Install\windows.iso"
ide1:0.deviceType="cdrom-image"

After that you can run the setup off of your "CDROM" drive (the mounted image). That finalizes your ability to fully run VMWare on your system for free. Here is a picture of a loaded Windows 2000 server install running in VMWare:

VMWare Player And Free Virtual Machines

2005-11-15T12:30:00.000-05:00

I love scratch space. Machines that I don't care about destroying are frankly a very wonderful thing for a programmer. Machines that always have a standard configuration are an elixir to a beleaguered soul.

When I heard that VMWare was releasing a free VMWare Player I rejoiced. Finally, virtual machine software that is free. The only problem was that the player could not create its own VMWare "machines". Luckily with software like the VMXWizard that is not a problem. You can use the VMXWizard to create your VMWare machines and then launch them from the player. Yippee! Time to start playing.

Dystopia Half-Life Mode

2005-11-14T10:59:00.000-05:00

I have a new addiction and it's not pretty. I just spent a large chunk of my weekend playing Dystopia, the Half-Life 2 mod.

Dystopia combines a first person shooter with a second element, cyberspace. In this game you can play a decker which means you can "jack in" at specific places on the map and accomplish goals for your team (open door, take over security turrets, etc.). The thing that makes it interesting is that when you are decking you are completely vulnerable in the "real world". This means that to be truly effective as a team you have to have people protecting you.

I strongly suggest you check out this mod. You will have a blast.