layoffs are not morale boosting

Chain of events:

Yesterday: Heard that "something" was happening, but whatever it was, wasn't going to effect us.

9:00 AM: Get a notice that there is a mandatory meeting at 11:00. Never a good sign.

11:00 AM: Head to my desk. Am told "Meeting has been moved out till 11:30". Now people are talking. Rumor is there is a layoff. One of the people in our group (that I know but don't work with) might be the one.

Now people are getting nervous. "Hey... if someone comes looking for me, I'm in the bathroom.." Folks are worrying if they are the one to be cut, etc. I'm glad I'm past worrying about this kind of stuff, but it makes me feel for those that aren't.

Talkative

Hmm... I seem to be a in a talkative (in a blogging kind of way) mood today. Maybe lack of sleep.

I started work at 6:00 AM yesterday and got home at 10:30 PM. Ate lunch and dinner in the car as I was driving. Had to stay after practice last night and move two computers in the church office. Took about 45 minutes, which seems rather long, but I wanted to make sure all the connections (printer, network, etc.) were working.

Also had to print an email for Lana so I could figure out how to print the email msg, not the entire web page. Did I ever mention I hate Internet Explorder? Anyway, wasn't an IE thing, and AT&T mail (yet another foe), had the option so it wasn't too bad.

Well I guess I better stop talking and put the trash out before I miss the garbage man, and then head to work.

later...

Enough already

For some strange reason, every time I shave for the last week or so, I seem to nick my face... I've had enough and am ready for that to stop now.

Snow

Holy Smokes... it snowed!

Even though I get up pretty early in the morning, I usually don't look outside. Its usually dark when I get up, and my office blinds are always pulled. I just have this thing about working in my office with the shades open when the light is on. Always feel like the neighbors are watching or something (paranoid... I know). Anyway, I may hear the wind blowing, etc., but I really don't know what it is like outside. Just walked through the bedroom and glanced out the window and saw snow all over the rooftops! Took a closer look and it didn't stick to the street, etc. Thats cool.

Tif's here!

Tiffany got in last night. She got home right before me, but then I had to leave immediately for practice. But I saw her for a bit when I got home. She will be here for 2 or 3 weeks (depending on how long it takes her to miss Brian so much that she has to go home). Brian is doing long weekend flying, so won't be home anyway. We will be cooking, hanging out, etc. She will also be working in the office part time. "Jacque will be putting you to work!"

Tif drove out her old car, which we are buying for Jaime's.

J: I just moved MY car off the street and into the driveway... Did you hear what I said? MY CAR

What a cutie. Love my girls.

Some of Jaime's friends have licenses, but no car. She is the opposite. :-) But I'm thinking the fact that she has a car will help push her into getting her license.

Cassini Imaging Diary: Approach to Saturn

Cool space pictures as Cassini approaches Saturn.

I defend google/gmail

I sent the following to Froma Harrop, who I read in the Woodmen Edition(a local paper):

Ms Harrop,

I'm writting in regards to your article intitled "Invade my computer, kiss my $ goodbye." In general I thought the article was good and the points relevant. However, the fact that you jumped on the "google is outrageous (or insert some other adjective) for putting ads in gmail" bandwagon seemed ill-informed.

Have you ever tried gmail or know anyone who has? Have you actually seen what the interface looks like? I have. I'm a software architect that pretty much "lives on the web". I'm used to all the various forms of advertisements that are associated with "free" things on the web, such as mail, search-engines, free blogging sites, newspaper articles, etc. Of all the "free" sites that use advertisements to provide us the consumer with the free service, I have to say that gmail is the least obtrusive of all. Much less than say the color banner ad across the top of Creaters.com's site. :-)

Being interested in technology, what is happening on the web, etc.; I followed all the gmail controversy and eagerly awaiting my chance to try it out. I have to say that the ads where a bit of a disappointment. I think the technology to provide "relevant" ads in my email my be interesting. (Similar technology is used by Blogger to put ads on my blog-site, and once it was hooked with google I actually found some interesting things). However, after using it for a week I realized I hadn't noticed any relevant ads. I hadn't noticed any ads at all! I then went back to find them and realized they only show up on *some* pages. Gmail help explained that they only put ads on some pages, and I believe only the first time you view your mail. After that point I kept a close eye out for them, and once they appeared realized why I hadn't noticed them sooner. They are very un-obtrusive. They are in the right side-bar. Since I'm used to windows with various bars/panes (for navigation, etc.), I hadn't really noticed them. They aren't inserted into my mail, so as I read my mail they don't catch my eye. They aren't in a different color, flashing, blazed across the top or bottom of my message, etc. To me, working on the computer all the time, they are invisible.

I'm not sure of google's marketing strategy with this. Hard to imagine sponsers will pay very much money when the ads are invisible. But maybe if I'm looking for something relevant. And as you said, you will actually use sponser's products when they are not obnoxious about their ads.

In any case, google has done a very good job of making their ad placement as unobtrusive as possible, and I think it unfortunate that journalists, politicians, etc. are jumping on the "lets crucify" google/gmail for something that isn't true, and which most of these people have not experience themselves.

Thanks for reading this... and for putting up with any misspellings, bad grammer, etc., which I sure drives you nuts as a journalist. I also want to say in general I look forward to your columns and always read them.

James.

Just had to do it.

Hopefully its effect is not offset by the fact that in the closing sentence (when I'm apologizing for my writting), I accidently said "Which I sure" instead of "Which I'm sure". Sheesh.... Maybe she'll think I was trying to be funny. I just happened to notice it when I posted it here... I guess that is what I get for hitting send BEFORE posting it on my blog and rereading it.

How hosed is that

InfoWorld: Windows XP update delayed: April 28, 2004: By : PLATFORMS

Microsoft has warned developers that they should test their applications with SP2 because the company made something of a trade-off with the update, focusing on security improvements at the expense of backward-compatibility. If developers don't test, they might find their software will no longer work on updated Windows machines.

Translation: If you have a program that currently works and you upgrade to the SP2 security patch, your program may no longer work. From a Software Engineering point of view, that is really hosed. I partially understand why they are doing it. Backward compatibility can be a big pain and it takes more time to develope it. So, they are saying they are trading off a longer delay for not being backward compatible and getting the more secure software out sooner. But still... its just not a very good thing to do, imo.

gmail on eBay

Wow... gmail invitations are being auctioned on eBay. Who would have thought... and I got mine for free!

Ledger-Enquirer.com: Google Files IPO Plans

eBay stories - the latest "fad"?

Recently I've received a number of links to eBay items for sale. Not because the item was any big thing, but because the post (description, etc.) was so funny. Today I got one for a wedding dress. An interesting thing to note, besides the fact that the description was rather funny was:

• It cost $1200 and sold for $3850
• The guy that sold it is going to be on radio shows and on the Today show!

Who would have thought? And now I've got friends (who regularly sell stuff on eBay) thinking they should put some humor into their descriptions and see what kind of money they can make.

The CORBA Component Model: Part 2, Defining Components with the IDL 3.x Types
Geek alert: Article on CCM. One of the authors is Doug Schmidt - who is lead professor on the ACE project, which is one of the open source middleware tools we use.

Yes I do

Ev's latest post was titled "Blogger T-Shirts: The Blogging T-Shirt More Drummers Prefer" and pointed a picture of Chris drumming and wearing a Blogger T-Shirt... Hey, I'm a drummer...

My Blogger T-shirt and Google T-shirt are in the mail and on the way... Proving that Ev was right... It is the Blogging T-Shirt more drummers prefer!

Kangaroo gets bravery award

CNN.com - Lulu the roo hops to bravery award - Apr 28, 2004

Another day, another problem solved

We are porting to Linux and the code runs differently there than on the SUN. Been having problems lately with it blowing up. Struggled with the last one off and on for a few days. Got serious with it today. Figured out the issue, but was trying to debug it (much frusturation), when my boss said why not just fix it like . So I did, and now it appears to be working.

Woo hoo... one more bug down, who knows how many to go. That's the joy of development. You always think you are "this" close to having it all done.

Freedom vs. rules

OK... so I posted a few back about Paul's stance on freedom vs rules. I read this quote today from Thomas Jefferson... though I doubt it applied to religon, and was most likely talking about civil freedom... I still think it applies.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

The problem with quelching liberty is, where do you draw the line? Who defines what is right/wrong. Where freedom becomes "too much freedom", etc.

This is not a call for anarchy, its just a question. I think the answer lies with the Holy Spirit, who tells me what is right for me... and also tells me to not worry about judging what is right for someone else.

Does that mean there should be no rules? No. There are obviously things that are right and wrong. (murder, lying, gossip, etc.) And as leaders we lead some who need direction. For instance, as a parent, I can't tell my 18 month old "just listen to the Holy Spirit and do what you feel is right", as they wonder out into the street. But the closer we move to "adulthood" (whatever that means), the more we need to make our own decisions... with the guidence of the Holy Spirit and with the help of those who we feel are mature, can help direct us, etc. This is true for all our lives. No matter how old, we need guidence and help from those more mature. But I digress...

Anyway,, I agree... I'd rather deal with the problems that come up because of too much freedom, than deal with the yoke of slavery.

defective yeti - dog found

Ah yeah... this totally cracked me up. I know, I'm sick.

You know it

In a Q&A with Apple's shareholders on Thur, Steve Jobs said the following:

"Engineering -- if you're innovating and not just shipping the same product everyone else is -- isn't just a science, it's an art," said Jobs. "Sometimes art happens on a schedule and sometimes it doesn't. Part of what you pay us for is to optimize the decisions as best as we know how, when the world isn't perfect."

Not everyone understands that.

Freedom

Galatians 5:1 - 26 text in [brackets] and bold mine.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be bundended again by a yoke of slavery... if you let yourselves be circumcised [believe you have to follow part of the law], Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcided that he obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justifed by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ... The only thing that counts if faith expressing itself through love... You, my brothers , are called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a singel command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch our or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by [walk with] the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ... The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and evny; drunkenness, orgies , and the like. ... Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

NIV Commentary

Paul turned to more practical matters. Stressing freedom, not rules, left him open to criticism. Did his strong emphasis on freedom lead to loose morals? To answer this question, he ended Galatians, a letter devoted to Christian liberty, with a warning. "Why did Christ set us free?" Paul asks. To make possible a life of orgies, drunkenness, and witchcraft? Obviously no. Christ freed us from worrying about whether we are "doing enough" to please God and from uselessly following external forms. But we should use that freedom to serve one another in love and to live a Spirit-filled life

And though he thought he answered the question, the debate still rages on. What is freedom? Yes, it frees us from worrying about whether or not we are "doing enough". And why is that important? So we can get on with our life and serve one another. So we can stop spending our time concentrating on ourselves, and whether we are good or bad, right or wrong... and just live life and do what He wants us to do... which is love him and serve one another. Unfortunately, imo, many people focus on the first part of the phrase, rather than the second - "do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love." They get so caught up in defining "sinful nature" that they fall into disord, dissensions and factions, and forget about "serving one another in love". I suspect that is why we are not to judge one another, but leave it to God. Otherwise we spend our time concentrating on who is right and who is wrong, forgetting that none of us is right outside of Christ, and all of us are justified under Him. Can we ever stop looking at ourselves long enough to serve each other and win the lost?

Yes we can... and we will, its just some days it looks a little more bleak than others.

And on that rather dark note... Be encouraged. Be there for each other. Serve and love each other. As always, the things of God are a mystery to man. Unlike the world's system of things... the more you serve, the more you are served. The more you serve, the better you feel. Keep your eye on others and how you can help them, serve them, get them through the tough times... and don't worry about your own problems. Take care of others and God will take care of you.

Love ya!

Got 'em

I was over at Spanky & Jacque's helping with some tile work (well mostly standing around talking). Got home just a little before 12:00... My computer didn't shut down earlier. Got it up, got logged in and got tickets. Section 212. Wow... 2nd level, but straight out from the stage. Jaime and I had 114 for Kelly & Clay and they were pretty good. But there is this aggrevating "you have 1 minute to complete this... you have 15 seconds to complete this" and I couldn't remember my password, had to get mail for that... which means I had to log into work. Long story short, lost those tickets. Got new tickets to 122. Not straight back, but far enough back that we won't be right off to the side, and lower down... so that it good. Row 18, so close to the top.

Anyway... the main point is that I got tickets! I'm pscyhed.

Well... gotta grab some lunch and head back over to Spanky/Jacque's.

4 hours and counting

4 hours till tickets go on sale for VanHalen. Yeah... I can't wait.

Mozilla

Thinking about the web this morning, interfaces, computer science in general, and then reading the UserFriendly comic strip. Somewhat bizzare, in a way, that a comic strip would basically be pushing Mozilla. Well not that they'd be pushing a particular browser, but that they'd be discussing browsers at all. But to some extent this is the ongoing hacker battle against "Big Blue". Big Blue is IBM. But in the book Hackers it represented more than that. The faceless corporation. The idea of keeping information from the masses. Hands off computing. Microsoft has taken that roll today, with Linux being the hackers computer. So, UserFriendly is pushing Mozilla. The open source browser. The feature rich browser. If I could, I would only ever use Mozilla. Its a great browser. For a long time I only used IE for three things:

• There are some company web sites that I can only access with IE - and yes, that annoys the heck out of most developers.
• To get Microsoft updates to critical patches - enough said
• And to post to Blogger. For some time the IE interface to Blogger appeared to be better than the Mozilla interface.

Well lately I started using "blog this" much more, and it naturally comes up in Mozilla ('cuz that is where I'm at all the time). So now I'm using Mozilla for blogging, which has cut my use of IE down to only two needs, and those very infrequent. I'm happy about that.

I can't stand using IE now.

1. If I'm in there for long and do much, ads start popping up all over the place. Mozilla blocks those for me w/o any hassle.
2. I am so used to Tabbed Windows now, that I can't even use a browser w/o them. Such a nice feature.
3. Hey, its the principle of the thing.
4. Mozilla comes bundled with ChatZilla, and I use that all the time at work for IRC

And as UserFriendly is pointing out this week... there isn't much to complian about with Mozilla - as compared to IE.

In thinking about all that, I figured I'd post the thoughts here. I know many of you who read this probably just use whatever browser comes bundled with your machine (in other words - the evil InternetExplore). I'd seriously encourage you to go to Mozilla and download their browser. Its free. It is about 20M so takes a little while... but well worth it. Install it, and start playing around with it. Its worth it if you browse much at all.

Randompixel: Home

Having trouble getting behind the firewall at work this morning, so went surfing. Did some reading on massless.org, jumped around, finally made my way over to Kevin Fox's blog. Apparently someone who works (runs development?) at Google, or maybe Gmail. He pointed to Randompixel. Interesting idea... I've BlogRolled it, 'cuz I think I'll keep an eye on it.

What will people think of next?

Ananova - Restaurant fined over plan to serve food on half-naked women

gmail account

Well I had posted my gmail mail address as James-dot-Wagner-at-gmail-dot-com. I did that so some sniffer couldn't pick it up and spam me. But hey... google should be pretty good at filtering out spam... so I'll just post the acutal address. If you want to send me mail just send to James.Wagner@gmail.com

Yeah... I AM an active Blogger :-)

Ev posted that Gmail was looking for more users to try it, "If you're an active Blogger user (by some definition I'm not sure what is)". Well I'm not sure what the definition is either... but it turns out I am active:

SPECIAL NOTICE
As an active Blogger user, we would like to invite you to be one of the first to try out Google's new email service, Gmail.

Would you like to give it a whirl? YES / NO

I answered yes. :-) For the foreseeable future, I'll be actively scanning my gmail account and starting to use it as my main non-business address... James-dot-Wagner-at-gmail-dot-com.

YEAH... I'm psyched.

Khaaan

bmay said this is the best web site ever... Not sure about that, but its worth a look for StarTrek fans. :-)

dodgeball.com :: location-based social software for mobile devices

Wow. Sign up for dodgeball and then you can use your cell-phone to broadcast your location to friends, or friends-of-friends. Discussed as a way to let everyone know "Hey, I'm at ", but could be used for whatever. Just an interesting use of technology. Interesting that everyone is up-in-arms about privacy, and yet at the same time we have stuff like this.

"Hey... I'm at RedRobin" and everyone w/in 10 blocks knows and can come hang out with you if they want. Only available in a few cities.

Internet Week > Security > Office Workers Willing To Leak Passwords for Chocolate > April 19, 2004

Wow... so much for security.

Call Scams - avoiding the do-not-call-list.

snopes.com discusses a Call Scam in which marketers are getting around the do-not-call-list, by having you fill out a survey, etc. Once you are in a business relationship with them, they can call you.

Ford SportKa

A commercial out of the UK... Only if you're not a cat lover.

Yahoo! News - DVD War Looms As Advancements Draw Near

New "DVD" formats - would still read only formats, so you don't have to replace all your current DVDs.

USATODAY.com - WorldCom's black cloud about to lift

And a much longer one with discussion of the future, etc. As always, taken with a grain of salt.

UPI: WorldCom to become MCI this week

Short article discussing us coming out of backruptcy this week.

Ah Gold

Well I found out I can only have one BlogRoll w/o going to "BlogRoll Gold", i.e., paying $20 a year. Not all that much... but I'll probably just mess with it for free for some time and see how it is. Anyway, finished adding all my blog links into my BlogRoll. That is where I'll keep all my links to blogs from now on. The other links I'll just leave in my template.

And if you are using BlogRolling and want to add me to your links, you can do so by clicking on the Blogroll Me! link at the top of my BlogRolling list :-)

Enough for now, time to get ready for church...

More on BlogRolling

Actually... I think that all I have to do to have "divisions" is just have different blog rolls. Which is very nice from an orgnaizational point of view. And the fact that they'd all use the same CSS on a particular page, means they'll all be uniform. Since they are not tied to the blog itself, I can have the same set of links on multiple blogs, and shown in a different style (because each blog has its own CSS). Hmm... cool stuff.

I'd actually try it out, but I was going to go run some errands about AN HOUR ago... So I guess I should quit "playing" and head out. Later...

BlogRolling

I believe that MightyGirl mentioned BlogRolling some time ago, but I just never took the time to mess with it. Tina is off doing some church stuff this morning, and I was reading Vicky's blog and noticed she was using BlogRolling, so I decided to give it a shot. Initial setup was very quick, but then it took me a while to mess with the CSS stuff and get it how I wanted. Still not exactly right, but its a start.

Now I just need to figure out how to do different divisions (so I have daily links, family, etc.). Then I'll add all the links I currently have in my sidebar. For now it should be considered under construction. But aren't most non-professional sites constantly under construction? Anyway, once it is all set up, it should be way easier to add new links... or remove old ones, etc.

Thanks Vicky!

Computers, they are so picky.

Did Jaime's taxes late on the 15th. Yesterday I received mail containing the dreaded phrase, "Your federal return was rejected for the reason(s) cited in TaxCut.". Yeah... not something I wanted to see. In general, I hate paper. Sigh, looked like I would have to print the forms, sign them, mail them in, etc. However, I went into TaxCut, pulled up the status, and it told me the return was rejected because the birthday was wrong... WHAT?! (Much to Jaime's dismay, and in no way having anything to do with my love for her, for quite some time I was unsure about her birth DAY. What is the 21st or the 20th? Its one of my problems, given I make a mistake and make a wrong pick in a choice of two, I am forever thinking... wait... is this the right choice or the wrong one. However, I have recently firmly committed to my failing memory that it is the 20th. So I was a little dismayed to see that the govn't thought it WASN'T the 20th). Turns out that I had entered one of her SSN digits wrong... The IRS of course does not look her up by name, but by SSN. Everything is verified against that.

Fixed the digit and resubmitted... hopefully it will go through this time!

O'Reilly Network: The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus [Apr. 16, 2004]

A very interesting read if you are following the gmail controversy. Some cool discussions of features, etc. I think his statement, "Meanwhile, I am entranced with the benefits that gmail will hopefully provide!" pretty much sums up my feelings about it.

Finish writing several pages of documentation for some new functionality on the wiki. Seeing its Friday afternoon (always a quite/sleepy time), I head down to the "store" to get some Diet MtDew. (None of the vending machines sell diet in the bottle.) Head past the auditorium, hear voices, glance in the door and notice large fake sunflower plants and what appears to be a cross between a craft bizzare and a garage sale. Not sure what is up with that. Look over and see the "Ice Cream Shop". Apparently we aren't getting obese enough sitting at our desks for 50 hours a week and we need vast quantities of ice cream to help us along. Resist the dark side and continue on for my diet MtDew. Safely make it into the store and am waiting in line to pay for my soda when I noticed the large display of Krispy Kreme donuts. The dark side is strong today! But I use the force and make it out and back to my cube with just a diet soda. Safe again, at least for the next few hours. I return to more writting... hoping that the sleeplessness that is overtaking me doesn't weaken the force and pull me into the dark side. I can hear it calling from down the hall...

About Gmail

Cool. Google answers some of the concerns about gmail that have been making their way around the net, and which I have posted. I'm glad to see they have exaplined some stuff, as well as offered some screen shots. Hopefully this will help the rumors to die down.

Warning - virus with a subject of Yahoo

Got a virus notification today at work, figured I'd pass it along:

Be aware there is a worm/virus that is propagating itself, often with a subject title of Yahoo, originating from a trusted source. Don't open the attachment.

NEWS of the WEIRD

Used to get this all the time in email. Now it is on a web site and copyrighted, so you aren't supposed to send it around. Has weekly updates.

RYOBI ROUTER TABLE - WORTHLESS JUNK NR!

This ebay description totally cracked me up.

Overloading Comma Operator

Geek, C++ discussion:

Wow... learn something new every day. Kind of cool... but there are probably few situations where it could actually be used and not just make the code more confusing.

Calif. lawmaker moves to block Google's Gmail

"We think it's an absolute invasion of privacy. It's like having a massive billboard in the middle of your home," Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from Fremont, California, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

1. Maybe I just don't get it. I don't see how this is different from any free service that has ads, such as blogspot, other web-based email apps, etc., and
2. So if you don't like it... don't sign up for it. Its free and you aren't being forced to use it. Govn't stepping in to protect us from ourselves. Sigh

Actually, it could be the searching, more than the placement of ads, that they object to. If so, I understand that could be seen as an invasion of privacy, but is also how they are able to provide the functionality that they provide. (grouping like messages, etc.). It is also how blogspot puts "content based ads" on blog sites. I have no problem with that. Of course, that is why I'd have multiple email addresses. I could never do work stuff across gmail. But I'd know that up front and just wouldn't do it.

Apr 24th

VanHalen tickets go on sale for Denver on Apr 24th at 12:00PM, online. Hmm... wonder if they go on sale earlier somewhere else. Been a long time since I stood in line for tickets... but it might be worth driving up to the Pepsi Center if I could get good seats!

Oh... and as for Kelly and Clay, we were section 114, row 13, seats 10 and 11. Back of the stadium, first section off the floor. Pretty much dead center and on the asile. All in all, pretty good seats. Oh... and there keyboard player uses a Korg. (Jaime always checks to see what other keyboard players are using).

Catching up

I've been incredibly busy lately... at least for me. So much so that I've barely had time to do more than [Blog This] once in a while. I took the day off work yesterday, just so I could get some "other" work done. Spent the morning working on the deposit and the quarterly taxes for church, and then the afternoon completeing my own taxes. ( "Good News! The IRS has accepted your Federal Tax Return" - woo hoo!) Finished up around 4:30, got around, and then headed up to Denver to the Pepsi Center to see Kelly and Clay. So... a bit of catching up.

I'm still to busy to blog too much, and I'm actually falling behind in my blog reading. Several people I follow regularly have posts which I haven't gotten to. Drag. Hopefully I'll get caught up.

"The Curtain" (our church Easter production) went pretty well. The very end was supposed to be 8 bars of a song, we'd cut the end (no ringing chords, cymbols, etc.) and the lights would cut. At exactly 4 bars (with 4 to go), the power in the sancutary went out. Everyone thought the sound guys cut 4 bars too early. Weird. Anyway, besides that all went very well. We are all exhaused now and Tina spent Monday pretty much sleeping all morning and laying around all afternoon.

Kelly and Clay. Surprisingly good. I was really doing the "Dad thing" by going. Not on the top of my "acts to see live"... but I knew Jaime would be thrilled. She was. BTW: One of my definitions of being a Dad: Taking your teen-age daughter somewhere that totally thrills her. It really doesn't matter how much YOU are into it... just watching the look on your daughter's face is what it is all about. So anyway, it was a really good show. Very clean (no swearing, etc.) - which is always nice. Clay is a little too much straight pop for me... but he is very good at what he does, so that was cool. Besides, you've got a thousand "Clay-mates" screaming at him the entire time, so that is kind of fun. And Kelly was really good. I really like the blues/soul stuff she does. Plus she did some... I don't know... Bette Midler is the best I can explain it, stuff. Not very American Idol (which is good). All in all, a very cool show. Plus she had a T-Shirt on that said: "Kelly - Singer", which cracked me up. I should get one of those "James: Percussion Guy" :-)

Jaime drove home - from Castle Rock. Some good night-driving experience. Didn't do too much for the tightness in my shoulders, but besides wondering across the white line on a few curves, and almost pulling into the little truck next to us that "was in my blind spot", it all went good. She's learning and doing well.

Ah... a good exchange... We are about 5 blocks from home, heading to Denver.

M: I already filled up the tank with gas, so we don't have to stop.
J: Oh my gosh... I forgot the tickets!

That was good for several conversations on "Wow... what if I hadn't remembered till we got there", etc. :-)

Also listened to VanHalen all the way up and back. Preperation for the August concert... I have to remember to keep checking on when those go on sale.

There... pretty much caught up now.

Fraud Scam

Got the following email today:

Dear Citibank Member,

This email was sent by the Citibank server to verify your E-mail
address. You must complete this process by clicking on the link
below and entering in the small window your Citibank ATM/Debit
Card number and PIN that you use on ATM.

This is done for your protection - because some of our members
no longer have access to their email addresses and we must
verify it.

To verify your E-mail address and access your bank account,
click on the link below

Emphasis above mine.

NEVER enter this type of information on the web when requested by an email such as this. Once you enter it, the person has your ATM number and pin and can pretty much do whatever they want.

A day in the life

• 5:00 AM - up and start working
  
  • Manager sent mail asking if I knew about a bug. Yes, its listed in both Bugzilla and on the wiki. Search for both and send him references.
    
  • User asked if an enhancement was on the candidate list. Yes, was in Word. Migrate to the wiki and send him and the Business Analyst mail
    
  • Check for closed bugs on Bugzilla and make sure their writes up on the wiki are complete and release notes are written
    
  • Check recent changes on the wiki and make sure pages are compliant with current process, have all needed info, etc.
  
  
• 7:00 AM - go get ready for work
  
• 7:40 AM - make sure Jaime is up
  
• 7:42 AM - make sure Tina is up
  
• 7:45 AM - write this up
  
• 7:53 AM - done writting this up
  
• 8:00 AM - load Jaime's "keys" (keyboard) and head to Starbucks
  
• 8:10 AM - stop at Starbucks for morning caffine
  
• 8:30 AM - drop keys at church for tonight's practice
  
• 8:50 AM - drop Jaime at work (Memorial hospital)
  
• 9:05 AM - get to work
  
• 11:15 AM - head for massage - only time Tina (no - not that Tina) could work me in
  
• 11:45 AM - massage - see if Tina wants to listen to Raw by Tom and Jennifer
  
• 12:45 PM - done w/ massage - head back to work, stopping for food on the way
  
• 1:30 PM - back at work
  
• 2:00 PM - Mandatory staff meeting - could be good news or bad, never sure...
  
• 4:45 PM - have to leave work for practice - good thing got 2 hours in this morning
  
• 5:30 PM - stopped for food on the way (maybe Thai!) - arrive at early practice. Band is practicing to tigthen up before rest of drama team arrives at 7:00 to go through final practice before dress rehersal on Saturday
  
• 9:30 PM - head home
  
• 9:45 PM - get home, watch some TV to unwind
  
• 11:00 PM - Midnight - get to sleep
  
• 5:00 AM - get up and start another day
  

Not exactly your normal 9-5 working day... but works for me.

Van Halen announces tour dates, officially christens Hagar

Similar info, but also notes:

Van Halen has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, has logged a dozen multi-platinum albums, and holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for the most No. 1 rock tracks (11) at album radio, according to a press release.

RollingStone.com: News: Van Halen Roll With Sammy

The band will release a greatest hits album in June featuring the aptly titled new single "It's About Time,"

No kidding!

And they are playing the Pepsi Center are August 1! Tickets aren't on sale yet...

More on gmail

The Gmail Privacy Alert raises some issues about gmail. I'm not sure if they are valid or not, but probably worth reading the article. If I get some time to do that, I'll probably post some comments.

CNN.com - Brawl breaks out at anger management assembly

Two people were arrested and 11 students were suspended after a shoving match escalated into a melee during Thursday's assembly.

Failure to grasp the concept...

CNN.com - Mystery fires force village's evacuation - Apr 1, 2004

Spinnato, the mayor, sounds just as desperate.

"Someone wrote to us saying the solution was to sacrifice a black goat and collect its blood. At some point, that's going to start looking like a good idea."

Gee... maybe we'll have to stop by there next year. :-S

Starbucks Unveils Aggressive Growth Plan

Maybe Tif will finally get a Starbucks in Enid!

Chocolate junky

Overheard at work:

J: We could do a white cake.
S: What is that?
J: Its a white cake with white frosting.
S: Its not a chocolate cake?
J: No
S: No chocolate icing?!
J: No
S: No chocolate at all???!!!!
J: No
S: That isn't going to work

Ryanair.com: Kids fly free

Today only!

CNNmoney: Google + email = gmail

Gmail is Google's email web app. It isn't widely available yet... but you can sign up for info as it becomes available... I did.

In general I keep all my email on my laptop, pulled from my work server via POP3. But this might cause me to rethink that and start actually using a web app for my personal email. 1G of free stroage and an integrated google search engine... Pretty cool.