Monday Jan 05, 2009 - 17:27

New Comcast Throttling System 100% Online

According to this article if there is "sustained use of 70%" of your bandwidth you get pushed to lower priority. Isn't that nice? You PAID for a certain rate, and if you use it they put you on a lower priority so your traffic takes longer. People often say "most users won't be affected" or "you'll NEVER use that much" - but these kinds of statements are almost always proven wrong in the computer industry. It is true if all you do is read jasonnixon.net and answer email then you will never hit the high water mark. But if you use Netflix streaming media service, or if there is more then one person in your house using a computer, or if you have an IP phone, or if you use Skype, or (heaven forbid) run a hobby website, or...you see where this is going. Now, officially, the only thing keeping me from leaving Comcast is the lack of FiOS in my area...but that will change.

Comcast, I hate you.

Sunday Jan 04, 2009 - 21:30

what the kids call "props" to my man Ken Pyle for answering the below question: folder options -> disable simple security. I know I should RTFM that kinda stuff, and I like to think I usually do, but shortcuts are easier.

Rock on Kenny!

Sunday Jan 04, 2009 - 17:27

is there a way to set permissions on an NTFS directory which is not a member of an AD domain? I'd like to configure permissions for a shared directory on my Windows XP Pro computer, but I don't know how (since it's not a member of a domain - and it WON'T be). I figure I could specify local user accounts to differentiate people, but the only option I see is whether or not I want to make the directory "private" (i.e. where only my account can access it) which doesn't fit the bill. What I want is to assign varying permissions to (local?) user accounts.

Is this possible with vanilla Windows XP Pro or do I need some kind of file sharing software? Hmmm...can somebody shortcut this for me por favor?

Wednesday Dec 31, 2008 - 10:36

Vacation is almost over. Until then, enjoy some comedy.

Friday Dec 26, 2008 - 19:36

I'm not dead, just busy. More to come (since it never really stops)...

Monday Dec 22, 2008 - 13:15

I'm in the home stretch towards a much needed vacation from my "job" and I have to say...I'm not sure if I'm going to make it through the remaining 13 hours...oh my

Friday Dec 19, 2008 - 16:00

AARRG!! Does ANYONE know of a public-accessible racquetball court in Burlington county NJ? I'm starting to think this is a pipe-dream.

Friday Dec 19, 2008 - 09:21

flowchart, again

I love it when this xkcd guy does flowcharts. They are hilarious.

Update: I guess the word "flowchart" should really be flow chart. Oh well...

Thursday Dec 18, 2008 - 17:24

Help me Tom Cruise!

Wednesday Dec 17, 2008 - 11:36

Tron

Apparently I need to give Tron another watch. It has been a while. Especially since there is talk of a sequel.

Tuesday Dec 16, 2008 - 15:39

the best line: "this is a bus, do you know how big a bus is?"

Monday Dec 15, 2008 - 12:27

a new WoW plan is beginning to form...

Friday Dec 12, 2008 - 13:12

It's not that it's not possible, I just don't do it very often. This is the kinda of stuff you will see more often in the upcoming re-vamp.

Thursday Dec 11, 2008 - 12:45

Vista Slogan

How's this? "All the longevity and usefulness of Windows Me but with twice the hardware requirements!"

Wednesday Dec 10, 2008 - 09:24

Greg Maddux announced his retirement

So, apparently he's pretty good at baseball. Check out his numbers. This guy made more then 153 million dollars in his career. That's pretty impressive. I'll probably make less than 100 million before I retire.

Tuesday Dec 09, 2008 - 13:54

4 things

1) Today I filled up my car for $18. I got 31 MPG on the last tank. This is one of the reasons I bought the Mazda 3, awesomeness.

2) You may remember me recently expressing disgust concerning the automaker bailouts. My gripe, in part, was that GM makes crappy cars and so I don't want to save them. I am somewhat comforted by hearing that even GM admits. Their cars a crappy. My favorite line (GM talking) "At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs become lackluster...". Talk about an understatement.

3) Am I the only one who's parents use instant messengers as if they were written letters and they don't expect an immediate (err...instant) response? I think it's funny.

4) Last night for dinner I had a box of Velveeta shells'n'cheese (4 life!) and nine of those tiny snickers. I think I may have stumbled onto the source of my un-shapeliness.

Monday Dec 08, 2008 - 09:09

My senior year of college was the 04-05 school year. Some time that year I took a survey about the school library and won a free iPod shuffle. This was the first generation shuffle with a capacity of 512 MB or about 120 songs. It's white and shaped like a pack of gum (that is, the classic 5-stick pack of gum, not these new fangled packages we're using nowadays). Anyway, that was a solid 4 years ago and I still use this thing almost every day. I autofill it from my music collection through iTunes then plug it into my car for a week or two before filling it again. The pseudo-random autofill performed by iTunes guarantees an eclectic and often unusual listening experience. The point here is that this cheap little mp3 player is four years old and doesn't seem to be slowing down one bit. I'm not even treating it very well. I leave it in the car at all times (except when syncing it). This means it gets litterally freezing cold in the winter and over a hundred degrees in the summer. I've had some quality products over the years, but I don't think anything tops 4 years of daily musicality (*shrug*) for free.

So here's to the next four years. May they be as random and autofilled as the last, but with even more gusto!

P.S. Hit the link to see a picture of apple's "Do not eat iPod Shuffle" note.

Friday Dec 05, 2008 - 14:06

Mega Man

I'm not saying it's new technology or anything (so don't put words in my mouth, fool), but I recently downloaded a Nintendo emulator and put it on my portable flash drive. It's pretty awesome. You don't even have to install it and it runs without a hitch. You can actually emulate anything pre-playstation. So I might do Sega Genesis next. Anywho, this is plain old NES. The good stuff. I downloaded a bunch of games alrady. They are much fun. Here's what I've got so far:

Castlevania 1
Castlevania 2
Castlevania 3
Donkey Kong 3
Excite Bike
F-117A Stealth Fightert
Mario Brothers
Megaman 1
Megaman 2
Megaman 3
Megaman 4
Megaman 5
Megaman 6
Ninja Gaiden 1
Ninja Gaiden 2
Ninja Gaiden 3
Paperboy 1
Paprboy 2
Rocketer
Super Mario Brothers 1
Super Mario Brothers 2
Super Mario Brothers 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4
Top Gun 1
Top Gun 2

This is a windows program, so the next big thing will be finding a Linux version. I think they make one, but I haven't looked into it yet. What a great little thing that would be for my new laptop.

Update: I've found the Linux version, I'm installing it now, and I'm happier than I probably should be about it!

Friday Dec 05, 2008 - 08:57

I've been busy lately and haven't had time for any meaningful commentary (is it ever, really?), so I'll just link you this picture of a lion riding a horse.

Tuesday Dec 02, 2008 - 10:15

how to use the internet

Monday Dec 01, 2008 - 20:27

ha ha ha ha. probably only funny if you understand calculus, or at least integration

Monday Dec 01, 2008 - 12:54

This may be the best illustration for why I am against these bailouts. Let me be clear (for those of you who aren't aware) the Onion is a fake news organization that prints headlines as if they were real. It's satire meant to prove a point. The joke here is that American Airlines is now charging fees to people who aren't passengers (such as the "$15 fee for every piece of luggage customers have inside their bedroom closet"). It's meant as comedy, but this is what these bailouts amount to in reality. Oh, you're making crappy cars and posting losses? Okay, we'll just charge the citizens fees for breathing and give you the money...

Monday Dec 01, 2008 - 10:18

I'm dealing with several small explosions. In the meantime enjoy some hilarity.

Tuesday Nov 25, 2008 - 09:51

Am I the only one who is disgusted at all this bailout nonsense? I simply do not believe that the government taking out loans, increasing the national debt, and handing the money over to these giant corporations is going to do anything but prop up a system that should, by the rules of the free market, be burning. Are we content to simply throw good money after bad? Why on earth would we do this? I'm no economist, but I know a good'ol boys club when I see one. Let's examine the issue with respect to the financial industry. The main problem in the financial industry was caused by risky lending on the part of the banks. The issue now, it seems, is that people are not able to make their mortgage payments and are being foreclosed on. This effects the bottom line of the banks themselves when it happens in large numbers. Now the banks go under and the whole system grinds to a stop. This is what I don't understand. Why bail out the banks directly? Why hand over huge amounts of money to people who have proven that they are willing to risk it and waste it. If you're going to hand out billions of dollars, why not give the money to the home owners? Then the mortgages would get paid, people wouldn't loose their homes, the banks would get the money the need to continue operation, and there is no risk the money is wasted. Of course, I'm against handing out all this money in the first place. The real answer here is 'don't take out a loan you can't pay back'. Predatory lending is a fabricated term. I say let'em burn.

These issues, of course, are not isolated to the financial industry by any means. Other idiots are making bad decisions and now asking me to bail them out as well. I know this folksy stuff isn't proper economic theory, but it's at least logical. The airline industry is ridiculous. We need fundamental change there, not a band-aide on an outdated system. The American auto industry is a joke. Let'em burn. It's their fault. They make bad cars, period. They just make crappy cars - and then they charge for them like their Honda's! Come on! I paid less than 15K for a brand new Mazda in 2006. I'm daily getting 31 MPG, I can carry 5 people, it's solidly built, and has a sporty look & feel. Compare that to a Chevy Malibu. Have you ever been in a Malibu? STOP MAKING THAT CAR!!

I'm going to stop this before it gets out of hand...

Monday Nov 24, 2008 - 13:42

fifty feet

I normally go to church on Sunday mornings but I woke up late and it didn't really work out. So my wife and I sat on the couch, cleaned up the house, and watched TV the entire day. We made sandwiches for lunch then a frozen pizza for dinner (I say "we", but really she made the food. Credit where it's due...). At about 7 PM I let my dog outside to go to the bathroom. At that moment I realized this was the first time I had seen the sky all day (except through the window). In fact, even when I was in the back yard with Charlie, the entire day I never moved outside about a 50 foot circle. From waking up in the morning to going to bed at night, I never moved more than 50 feet in a single direction. Nice.

On a side note, I'm dropping a special hello to Ryan Waits. Ryan is a reader who, as it turns out, submitted the "jasonnixon.net" t-shirt idea which I am sorta digging. I don't have any shirts to sell at the moment, but it's not a bad thought. Before t-shirts we may actually get vinyl stickers which are good for your laptop or the rear windshield of your car. It's like word-of-mouth, just less personal, and that's what we like to see. So thanks for checkin' in Ryan. Keep coming back. In the 3-to-4 month future there will be a major overhaul of this site that I think you'll like.

Thursday Nov 20, 2008 - 16:54

black friday and other junk

As many of you may know, I've been rolling the idea of a media center pc around for a while. In fact, you don't have to scroll down too far to see some recent posts about it. I just read about this one on gizmodo. I haven't checked it out yet, but it's got some of the things I am looking for: a living-room-friendly appearance (since my wife won't let me drop an old beige desktop next to the TV stand), a wireless keyboard + integrated track ball (for ease of use on couch), and decent software (pre-loaded support for many codecs, supports HD output via HDMI, etc). Including the keyboard it's only $299. That's pretty good. I'd almost pay that just for the hardware because I don't think I could build a PC in a slick media center style case for that little, especially considering the HDMI output. Maybe I should think about it more seriously. You know, Christmas is coming up....hmmmm.

I'm also excited about the upcoming Black Friday. I don't have any money to spend really, especially considering the above paragraph, but my wife and I would like a 19" LCD TV for our room. We already bought a mount and ran the cable. Now all I need is the TV.

By the way, does anyone know anything about water heaters? Mine is old and doing strange things. Some times the hot water will not last for an entire shower. Other times the water temperature will fluctuate wildly. I don't know anything about water heaters to speak of, but I'm under the impression that these are the kinds of things that work until they break. In other words, they don't usually have problems during their life, you just come home one day to a basement full of water. So I'm thoroughly confused. If you are water-heater-smart send me an email please.

Monday Nov 17, 2008 - 09:06

...and the circle is complete.

Friday Nov 14, 2008 - 10:30

Irish

I'm told by my grandfathers on both sides that I am "mostly Irish". One of them has done some serious genealogy work, so I'm inclined to believe. As a result, I've started calling my wife by her middle name (an Irish name, even though I think her roots are German...) and I've recently discovered Irish music. There is a long list of great songs, but I'm currently obsessing over this one and this one.

Should I buy an Irish flag?

Thursday Nov 13, 2008 - 17:24

ah ha ha ha ha ha ha

Wednesday Nov 12, 2008 - 09:42

Here are two news stories I became aware of this morning that are completely unrelated, except that they both strike me as funny.

Big purse saves college student from bullet

and

Gun sales surge after Obama's election

I guess I'm a little slow today. After typing this out I realized these are both gun related articles. LOL. Wow, I shouldn't be allowed to drive on days when I miss things like that!

Tuesday Nov 11, 2008 - 12:03

check this out. it isn't new technology, by any means, and it isn't useful to so called "technical" people, but for everyday users this might be very useful.

P.S. Secure file transfer will be a feature of the new jasonnixon.net (for registered members) so don't buy in if you know me...

Tuesday Nov 11, 2008 - 09:57

iPhones and idiots

It's amazing to me that I still hear people saying things like "the iPhone isn't as good as all the hype, it's just for fanboys" or "the iPhone isn't a business phone". I had someone tell me that "the iPhone doesn't do encryption". Ummm...no, you're wrong. Read here and here. Oh, and for encryption, I don't know of any other phone that ships with a VPN client pre-loaded (PPTP and L2TP). Plus it supports exchange email out of the box (along with a bunch of other types). Notice, I'm not talking about how slick the interface feels (subjective) or how easy it is to use (subjective). I'm talking about facts (objective).

to review: best selling phone in Q3 2008, half the failure rate of Blackberry, and encryption/email out of the box. This isn't fanboyism, it's reading.

Monday Nov 10, 2008 - 09:03

if I pass out, somebody wake me up...

Friday Nov 07, 2008 - 21:00

I heart yoohoo in a box!

Thursday Nov 06, 2008 - 09:33

I've been reading this online comic strip lately called Basic Instructions. It's pretty funny so I would suggest it. The website says "service unavailable" when you browse to it almost every time, but it comes up once you click the refresh button in your browser.

Wednesday Nov 05, 2008 - 15:06

gas is $2.13 at the station near my house...nice

Monday Nov 03, 2008 - 14:09

check it out, go to google and search for "secret santa rules"
one of my archive files is #7 on the results list! booyah!!

when searching "jasonnixon" this site is #1 and for "jason nixon" this site is about #12, but having secured a place in the hallowed halls of google for secret santa results is big. How big? Well, let's just say I've been approached by presidential candidates from both parties to request endorsements...

Friday Oct 31, 2008 - 10:03

Recap

So it's been a busy week. I'm about halfway caught up on my homework (which was massively oppressive - kinda still is). Our cousins Jim and Jenny had their baby the other day. Kate went back and forth several times on her "costume" for school today (she ended up with a simple Phillies t-shirt, apparently that's what the crowd decided). Oh yeah, I had tickets to a good play yesterday which I had to skip because of homework. Not fun. Oh well.

Update on my new laptop. I've got it running pretty well now. All in all it's looking pretty nice. I loaded it with...wait for it....Ubuntu. Was there ever any doubt? I've got almost all the bugs worked out (this hardware isn't natively supported by Ubuntu, so I had to "hack" it a little). That reminds me...I called tech support at one point to ask a question about upgrading the memory (it came with 1 GB, but I bought 2 GB for extra fun). Asus tech support actually said "you'll have to hack it"! Isn't that cool?! They know you're doing it anyway, so it's nice to see them officially acknowledge it. Anyway, I did and the 2 GB is working now (the original Linux install "Xandros" didn't recognize more than 1 GB, but Ubuntu recognizes everything). At this point I've got standard Ubuntu loaded w/ a specialized kernel from array.org which adds better hardware support. I also configured a bunch of extra visual effects (like wobbly windows and an applications dock on the desktop a-la-Mac-OSX).

Last mention: I'm doing a lot of thinking about the new version of this website and it's gonna come out pretty slick. Also, I think I'm going to host it at my house instead of at godaddy.com. This means that I'll have to leave my server on all the time (so YOU can get your fix, of course), but it will allow me to do a lot of custom programming in the back end which will make it all slicked out. You'll see. ETA = 2-4 months.

Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 - 21:33

Happy birthday Autumn Grace Waldin! Next year you'll be 1.

Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 - 12:12

also, the other day my mom bowled a 208. Personally, I believe bowling anything over a 75 isn't proper, but congrats anyway...

Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 - 12:00

is anyone out there on skype? I am now (using the name nixon0409) and i want to add some buddies. email me if you are...

Monday Oct 27, 2008 - 19:00

I passed a lady on the stairwell at BCC that smelled like my paternal grandmother. I haven't smelled that perfume since Alabama. I checked just to be sure. It was not my grandmother.

Friday Oct 24, 2008 - 09:36

so....apparently "don't mess with Texas" isn't just a slogan. Take it seriously. Exhibit A and exhibit B.

Thursday Oct 23, 2008 - 11:00

(10:44:20 AM) jason: i can't decide if politics are a completely useless endeavor or a mostly useless endeavor
(10:44:30 AM) dossy: it's like WWE wrestling
(10:44:39 AM) dossy: if you believe it's real, then you're pathetic
(10:44:43 AM) dossy: but, it's still good entertainment
(10:44:48 AM) jason: wow...that's really close!
(10:45:05 AM) dossy: i'm sure there's a bunch of fat guys in trailer homes going "OMG YES ELECTION IS REALS"
(10:45:34 AM) jason: this convo is going on my blog

Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 - 12:33

Student loans = giant crimp in my style

I got my new laptop! It's pretty cool, but I want to load Ubuntu on it to really get it going. More details later.

Monday Oct 20, 2008 - 14:15

I don't understand how people actually think that socialized medicine is going to work. Today I read this article on Yahoo! that "Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched". The problem, according to the article, is that kids whose parents had health coverage already were dropping their employer coverage and using the state one instead. This makes perfect sense to me. Why should they have to pay for health care twice? Of course, this overloaded the system and the whole thing went belly up. It seems to me that this will only work if the people who fund it never actually use it.

We do need to fix a lot about the health care system, but taking money from current tax payers and then expecting them not to use the system isn't the answer.

Friday Oct 17, 2008 - 16:51

I know it's old, but in my opinion this is the best video on YouTube.

Friday Oct 17, 2008 - 11:21

Whoa! It's Friday already and I haven't posted anything since Tuesday. I think time went by so fast because I was preparing for a Calculus test - I was pretty focused on it all week. It was yesterday and I think it went pretty well. Went well, I should say, except that 15% of the grade was this worksheet that we turned in a couple weeks ago. A worksheet which I definitely failed. So best case scenario my total "test 2" grade is a B-. This makes me a little sad since I worked so hard to learn everything. As a result I may end up having to take an optional comprehensive exam at the end of the semester to replace my lowest test grade. Bummer.

On the up side, I may be getting my hands on the Eee PC 1000 I've been eying for so long...only a few days now!

Tuesday Oct 14, 2008 - 10:12

26 minute snooze

Three things. (1) Today at 1pm Eastern will be another Apple product launch. I will be following the live feed, as normal, on live.gizmodo.com. (2) This morning I discovered what I am referring to as the "26 minute snooze". What an amazing find. (3) I can't remember what #3 was going to be. In lieu of the original #3 I'll just tell you that I am working on some upgrades to my blogging "software" and this website in general. My busy schedule doesn't leave much time for fun-in-the-sun website design (as you can see), so I don't know when this will take effect. Yesterday I went into work at 8am and left at 5pm. I started my night class an hour later and was released (15 minutes early) at 9:30 pm. I got home just in time to take an after-hours support call for work at 10:17 pm. When am I going to find time to study for my impending Calculus test?

Monday Oct 13, 2008 - 10:48

Another price drop! My goal laptop is now only $477! Check it out. Now if I only had $477...

Friday Oct 10, 2008 - 11:27

A while back I asked the question: Should I focus my Linux attention on Ubuntu or CentOS? There is a good case to be made for both sides. I believe I have answered this question and Ubuntu is the winner. I like that Ubuntu is based on Debian. I like Canonical's business model. Ubuntu is also the fastest growing distribution out there. CentOS/Red Hat may have more systems in production, but I read stories like this more and more all the time. Finally, and maybe most importantly, I like that Ubuntu just works. It recognizes my hardware without hassle. It finds the printer drivers I need by itself (even Windows doesn't do that for me). It works on laptops with WiFi. It just works.

Also, I have a bunch of Ubuntu stickers already and, as everyone already knows, I likes my stickers.

Thursday Oct 09, 2008 - 18:09

*fingers crossed*

I really hope this is affordable.

Thursday Oct 09, 2008 - 10:51

I used to joke a lot about being house poor, however, considering the recent surge in media coverage surrounding people who stupidly bought houses they could not afford I decided now would be a good time to lay low with that kind of talk. I don't want to get lumped into the category of super stars who buy a $400,000 house on 30k/year and trick themselves into thinking it's a good idea because they got an ARM. For the record, I can't buy the laptop I want because I'm busy paying bills. The important distinction here is that my bills are actually getting paid. The end result is that I don't have a lot of discretionary money to throw around, but I have really good credit.

It's gettin' hard out here for a reasonable-and-economically-stable-yet-technologically-ambitious-young-man

Tuesday Oct 07, 2008 - 14:33

I'm a big iPhone fan, but this is still pretty funny.

Monday Oct 06, 2008 - 16:30

Congratulations TiVo

+104 Million, I was pullin for you!

Monday Oct 06, 2008 - 08:42

Yesterday Kate, my mom, and I had a quick but interesting trip into Manhattan. While walking East on 40th we crossed some avenue (I think it was 5th) in the middle of a big parade. Everyone was wearing red and white and holding flags with wording in a different language. I think it may have been Polish. Anywho, we crossed the street right in between the parade members. For a moment, I like to think, I was in the show! On that same block we saw this guy living in a store front window for 30 days. Just before that we saw the cars for Audi's Mileage Marathon being filmed by dudes hanging out of the back of other Audi's as they rolled North up 6th or 7th.

All of this happened on our way to visit my goal laptop at J&R, again. Like I said, it was an interesting trip. At least we didn't get hit by this guy.

Wednesday Oct 01, 2008 - 15:57

Apple added this new Genius feature to iTunes with the latest release and I really like it. It makes suggestions for songs you might like to buy based on what you are currently listening to or something you've selected, but it also (and in my opinion more importantly) dynamically generates playlists in the same way. So, if I feel like listening to a punk rock mix I can simply highlight a blink182 song, click the genius button, and the list is created automatically. This has categorically eliminated the time I used to spend building different types of playlists (country, Christmas, etc). This feature also fits nicely with my iPod shuffle, which can only hold about 120 songs. I used to simply 'autofill' it from entire music catalog, but I constantly ended up wasting valuable space with Christmas songs and Katie's endless Shania Twain tracks. Now, I can generate custom playlists of my already owned music for any mood I'm in, slap it on my shuffle, and jump in the car. Awesome.

Tuesday Sep 30, 2008 - 13:06

Amazon.com is currently offering a free download of Joshua Radin's song "I'd Rather Be With You". Since Joshua Radin is awesome, I'd suggest you snag it while it's free.

Monday Sep 29, 2008 - 09:15

TiVo

I read a couple interesting things about upcoming TiVo stuff. It looks like TiVo is thinking about upgrading their interface. I don't mind the current interface, but it would help if they could speed it up a little. Sometimes when I make changes in the season pass manager I think it takes too long to apply. Maybe this will offer some improvement. After all, I have a series 2, so it's not that old (and it will be sticking around as long as possible since my lifetime subscription applies to the box itself, meaning TiVo will basically have to pry it from my cold dead fingers before I upgrade). To be fair though, I do want to upgrade my DVR at some point, I just don't see anything out there yet that has all the capabilities I want. I want the functionality of the TiVo interface + on demand movie rentals + media center features (such as access to my shared pictures and music). We may be getting closer now. Apparently TiVo got together with Nero to build an application version of their software which you can run on a PC and still get the same sweetness TiVo interface (including the remote!). Of course, this runs on a PC which could also run the Netfilx streaming movie software (or Amazon or anyone else) PLUS you could run IP TV such as Joomla, Hulu, and network websites AND you'd have access over the network to your photos and music. We're almost there! The only thing we need to make the dream a reality is HD content availability, which is the wrench in the gears here. When I can do all the above, plus have a built in Blue-ray player and stream HD content, then I will convert. Until then, TiVo series 2 hard core.

Thursday Sep 25, 2008 - 09:15

You can't make this stuff up.

Wednesday Sep 24, 2008 - 09:45

I can't decide if I love the boom cooler or hate it. On one hand it would be great for a BBQ, on the other hand...wait, there is no other hand...this thing is awesome!

Tuesday Sep 23, 2008 - 10:00

I've been a little out of commission lately. I'm trying to get over some kind of virus. It's all really exciting stuff. I'll let you know when I'm ready to stop whining about it.

Thursday Sep 18, 2008 - 11:57

Flowchart

I've seen some pretty funny flow charts recently, but this is my favorite.

Wednesday Sep 17, 2008 - 10:48

I'm watching the new show Fringe and it is great. I highly suggest it. Anyone else?

Monday Sep 15, 2008 - 08:51

wow

Sunday Sep 14, 2008 - 17:48

I just wrote, compiled, and ran my first C++ application. That's one small step for man and one small step for mankind.

Thursday Sep 11, 2008 - 15:03

new macbooks soon?

Tuesday Sep 09, 2008 - 17:57

I think this is a better link for reading about the black hole thing from the below post.

Tuesday Sep 09, 2008 - 17:48

so...this time tomorrow either everything will be the same and the world will be puttering along as it usually does, or we will all be dead and the the earth will be completely destroyed. I'm not sure if it was delayed, but I believe tomorrow is go day for turning on the Large Hadron Collider which is rumored to have something like a 1 in 50 million chance of creating a black whole and destroying the earth, the solar system, and pretty much all life as it's known in the universe. Sweet.

Tuesday Sep 09, 2008 - 12:36

Check out this article. Here is another good example of the changes in the wind - "King Of Cars" Closes Hummer Dealership, Will Start Selling Smart Cars. I'm interested to see what kind of car I will be buying in the future, even 2 years from now, so this is exciting to me (not that I'll be buying a Smart Car from a dealer in Vegas, just that things are beginning to shake up).

By the by, today is the Apple "Let's Rock" event. I'm all a twitter. It will begin shortly. Follow it here.

Monday Sep 08, 2008 - 16:27

tonight is the first night of my CSE course, i'm excited but also tired - it doesn't end until almost 10 pm - sheesh

Friday Sep 05, 2008 - 17:06

yesterday i ran a red light on E 42nd in Manhattan and a cop gave me the crazy eyes and yelled at me through my windshield, but gave me no ticket...i love NY

Friday Sep 05, 2008 - 12:54

Texas UPS Driver Goes 1 Million Miles, No Crashes I hope I have a moment like this in my career (of course I mean the recliner part, not the working a lot part).

Friday Sep 05, 2008 - 10:45

Calculus tonight from 5:30 to 9:15, whose with me?!...nobody?...meh...

Wednesday Sep 03, 2008 - 12:33

brian regan...

...is hilarious and is going to be performing in NYC on November 9th. Let me know if anyone is interested. BTW, the Red Bull Soapbox Race is this Saturday in Philly, looks like were on if any more people want to join.

Tuesday Sep 02, 2008 - 14:51

I've currently listed two items on eBay. See them here and here. I need to get some cash together for my new laptop, so somebody should buy them. Besides, these are crazy-good prices.

Tuesday Sep 02, 2008 - 10:30

Kate and I went into the city over the weekend so I could see the laptop I've been preoccupied with in person. I decided I like it and I want one. It would be perfect for going back to school and taking on trips. I'm a little bummed over the price though, $699. I'll probably have to wait about 4 months to come up with the money.

Friday Aug 29, 2008 - 08:33

>From Gizmodo - MythBusters Build a 1100-Barrel Paintball Gun to Paint the Mona Lisa, Instantly

Thursday Aug 28, 2008 - 12:09

I found a really good article on the laptop I'm interested in acquiring. It's pretty comprehensive and includes many pictures, which is good for the simpleton in me. Kate and I are heading up to Manhattan this weekend to visit one in person at J&R. We'll also eat and generally cause a ruckus while we're in the city. If I like what I see, and can figure some way to pay for it, I'll order it from my local computer shop, CPS Computers in Cinnaminson.

BTW, I received some concerned feedback from one loyal reader who shall remain nameless (I got you covered Sue...oh snap). Anywho, she expressed concern over my apparent lack of gumption and willingness to hold out and buy a Mac. I quelled her fears and will now do the same for you. Rest assured, oh apathetic readers, I ever endure toward the 24" iMac. It will happen.

Wednesday Aug 27, 2008 - 14:48

The Red Bull Soapbox Race in Philly is September 6th. It looks like fun. I'm thinking of going around noon (the race starts at 1). Whose on board? Send me an email.

Tuesday Aug 26, 2008 - 13:33

if peeing in your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis!

Monday Aug 25, 2008 - 15:06

I haven't seen one in person yet, but the Asus Eee PC 1000 looks very interesting to me. It has many of the features I'm looking for in a lappy: SSD drive, 6 cell battery, lightweight, Linux OS, etc. It's about $700, which isn't as bad as it sounds considering the SSD. I'm thinking I'm interested, but I want to see one in person. I've seen the smaller models and the keyboards are just too small (even for a guy with small hands). I'm hoping this one will be big enough. If so, it seems like it would be perfect for carrying to class and/or on trips, heck, you could even take it to work if you wanted. To get a better feel for the scale check out this video on Youtube. I'm sure I'll clue you in when I see one in person.

Of course, I don't have any money, but then again, that's never stopped me before...

Friday Aug 22, 2008 - 16:21

This website is sorta like my own little version of Twitter, isn't it?

Thursday Aug 21, 2008 - 10:33

I guess Jerry Seinfeld is going to be appearing in a new advertising campaign for Microsoft. The idea is to combat the hilarious "Get a Mac" adds. I guess Microsoft is trying to clean up it's image a little. Hopefully the commercials are funny. Of course, I don't think any number of funny commercials would convince me to buy a Windows computer over Apple. You may be thinking "but, hey, don't you use a Windows computer at home?". And the answer is yes - sort of. I use Linux at home and I have an old Windows computer that I'm limping along until I can afford a Mac (it's high time). For all it's slickness the Apple's one difficulty is still price. The model I've got my eye on is just under $1,900 - and that's WITH an educational discount. Sheesh.

Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 - 13:18

60% of the time, it works every time!

Monday Aug 18, 2008 - 18:00

Usually on Mondays I try to have something halfway interesting to say, but I'm sorry, I am just wiped out. Must be a case of the Mondays.

Hopefully everyone gets the Office Space reference. If not, I feel sorry for you.

Thursday Aug 14, 2008 - 09:18

A few days ago during the opening ceremony of the Olympics one of the computers supplying the projected graphics for the event (and running Microsoft Windows) freaked out and blue screened. Let me emphasize this...the system blue screened DURING THE OPENING CEREMONY! How great is that? Classic BSoD. Check out the article. The picture says it all.

Wednesday Aug 13, 2008 - 23:12

Did anyone else notice Gmail was down on Monday? I just read something on Digg about people not caring about email going down anymore (I guess Mobile Me was down at the same time). I think that is an over statement. I'm not big on Twitter or social networking, so an email outage is a problem for me. I would tend to think I'm in the mainstream on this and people who don't care about email because they use Twitter and/or Facebook are in the minority.

Monday Aug 11, 2008 - 17:12

You've heard me say it before and now I'll say it again. Mozy is just plain awesome. I recently called their office phone line and one of the options in their automated menu is "to hear the Mozy dragon roar press 6". How great is that? In my opinion you don't see enough dragons in phone systems these days. But don't take my word for it, try it yourself. (801) 756-2331

Friday Aug 08, 2008 - 19:09

The Dark Knight + IMAX = awesome.

Wednesday Aug 06, 2008 - 13:48

Stickin' it to the man

This is a funny story from Fox News and the AP. The title is "Ohio Woman Bills Government for Gas Wasted in Traffic Delay".

Tuesday Aug 05, 2008 - 19:12

Check out Evernote, especially if you have a smartphone or iPhone. This thing can even read your handwriting on a picture of a post-it. How cool is that?

Monday Aug 04, 2008 - 12:12

ha ha ha ha ha...check out these shirts! I want one!!

Monday Aug 04, 2008 - 12:03

Something goofy happened to the blog last week. I'm testing to see if this update posts correctly. All in all it is pretty stable, but every now and then something goes askew.

Friday Aug 01, 2008 - 19:00

Whoa! Check out how high this girl gets tossed into the air in what Gizmodo calls an "epic blob jump." No kidding.

Tuesday Jul 29, 2008 - 14:21

I'm at a point where I think it would be useful for me to learn the ins and outs of a particular distribution of Linux in detail. You may have heard me describe my taste in Linux as "CentOS for a server, Ubuntu for a desktop". So I can't decide which to focus on. CentOS is probably more commercially viable, but Ubuntu (Debian) is gaining ground quickly. What do you, oh tech readers, think? CentOS or Ubuntu?

By the by, if you follow the Ubuntu link check out the MID page (that's Mobile Internet Device). Looks like Ubuntu is gearing itself up for tablets!

Friday Jul 25, 2008 - 17:03

RoboCop

Apparently, there is going to be a new RoboCop movie. Color me excited.

Friday Jul 25, 2008 - 15:09

I have a stack of techie projects to get through, but I've been rolling around in the back of my head an idea that I'm calling "Charlie Cam". This way you could log on to this site and check out what my dog Charlie was up to during the day. Maybe something as flashy as a steaming web cam or maybe just periodically updating pics. It sounds interesting to me. Of course, due to a recent string of conduct violation Charlie has been relegated back to his crate when we're not at home, so the Charlie Cam may not be very exciting. Of course, considering how often he escapes, it might not be a bad watch. What do you think?

Wednesday Jul 23, 2008 - 09:42

Macbook Touch?

I just read this story on gizmodo about the possibility of Apple producing what is being called a Macbook Touch. This would be a cross between a full blown laptop and an iPhone to form the ultimate tablet. Sort of the same way five young pilots combine their giant robotic lions to create the ultimate evil-stopping machine, Voltron. I really wasn't excited about the possibility of a tablet until I was in a hospital recently and saw one the nurses using one from a company called Motion Computing. The nurse's tablet was running Vista, which rules it out for me, but the hardware was very intriguing nonetheless. This Macbook Touch, though, this could be cool. They say October. I can't wait to see.

Monday Jul 21, 2008 - 09:54

The IRS decided I owe them about $700 from two years ago. So I call them to find out why and after sitting on hold for over 10 minutes they begin to "experience brief technical difficulties" and hang up on me. Now I get to call back and start over. Nice.

Saturday Jul 19, 2008 - 15:30

OMG...I just downloaded the coolest app for my iPhone! It's a VNC client!!! I can control my desktop computer from my cell phone! I took a screenshot and added it to the photo album on the stuff page. Go check it out.

Thursday Jul 17, 2008 - 15:03

umm...yeah...this guy built a one man submarine for a little more than $4,000. I need to do this!

Wednesday Jul 16, 2008 - 11:57

Weak old men + heavy statue = funny

Tuesday Jul 15, 2008 - 21:33

I took a sick day from work today. It was probably a good idea since I feel so crappy. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Monday Jul 14, 2008 - 09:21

This is an article discussing exactly what I was saying on Friday. Apparently the government agrees with me. From the article:

"The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday he will recommend that the nation's largest cable company be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet." -- Associated Press, July 11 2008

Take that Comcast.

Friday Jul 11, 2008 - 17:03

The new iPhone software (2.0) comes out today. This new software includes an "application store" which lets you download all kinds of applications written by all kinds of people. So get ready for about 1,000 posts that read something like this "OMG...I just downloaded (insert app name) it is so awesome! It does (insert cool feature)!!" Let's get started, shall we?

OMG...I just found out that Pandora has released a *FREE* version of their software for the iPhone. Check out the demo. If you don't know what Pandora is then hit my "stuff" page for a link. It's an awesome and FREE music service that lets you create custom radio stations which play only music you like. And with their iPhone app you can now listen to those stations via your cell. Awesome!

Friday Jul 11, 2008 - 10:06

Comcast

Everyone here probably knows I don't like Comcast and Time Warner for many reasons. They have horrible service, their rates constantly increase (even month to month!) forcing you to call into the "service" center and...well you get the point. One big issue happening lately is Net Neutrality. As I understand it the big ISPs (Comcast, Time Warner, etc) would like to charge individual companies to maintain a web presence based on usage or application, basically creating a real estate market on the Internet through tiered service plans. I'm not talking about bandwidth. Of course you should pay more for more bandwidth. I'm talking about charging people added fees, insurmountable to the little guy, on top of bandwidth charges to give high paying businesses preference in routing, access, etc. That means big companies can afford to have traffic preferred to their site, but small companies and home users are out of luck. Do you want to start a business serving videos on the Internet? Too bad, because so does your ISP, so when they see video traffic coming from your server, they'll just block it so nobody can reach your website (unless, of course, you fork over hefty $).

I am completely against Comcast on this issue. The point of the Internet is that ANYONE can put their thoughts out there. If you have a good idea, if you're an artist, if your a small business, whatever....it doesn't matter. It's a level playing field. According to articles such as this Comcast wants nothing more then to end all that by forcing entities to pay THEM directly for preferred access to the Internet. So it's not enough that you're already paying for access, but now you have to also pay a tiered fee if you want to do business online or run a popular blog site (one day?). It's crazy.

Still I want to keep an open mind about this issue as much as possible. I'm willing to hear all sides. So if you have some contrasting information please share. You know my email address. Otherwise, I'm thinking I dislike Comcast more and more everyday. I just can't stand it when they decide that making themselves rich is more important than protecting the awesomeness of something like the Internet.

Thursday Jul 10, 2008 - 09:51

y'all know how I stack my bread and flip my chips

Wednesday Jul 09, 2008 - 16:54

ha ha ha ha....even intel won't run Vista! that's hilarious

Wednesday Jul 09, 2008 - 09:21

Two interesting things I learned this morning: (1) Packard Bell is still in business. Who knew? (2) Best Buy is now selling Ubuntu online and in the stores. Read about it here. This is awesome because I've been saying Ubuntu rocks for at least a year now. Of course, Dell is selling computers with Ubuntu already, so this is just one more plus.

BTW...thanks to Scott for the tip on #2.

Monday Jul 07, 2008 - 18:00

Running with the Bulls

Supposedly, my cousin Doug is running with the bulls in Spain today. I haven't heard anything yet. I checked some pictures online but didn't see him being smashed or otherwise. I'll let you know what happens and upload I photo if I get one. In the meantime, if you have any info I don't, pass it along so we can all enjoy.

Monday Jul 07, 2008 - 10:39

So I decided to clean my gutters during a rainstorm. It happened like this:

Kate and I got back from our 4th of July weekend at her parents' cabin and fell asleep on the couch. I usually need to recoup after a trip, even if it is a lazy trip. During our nap a pretty heavy rainstorm popped up and began saturating the neighborhood. I saw sheets of rain driving down the street and buckets pouring down my windows. My mind immediately went to the gutters, which I have neglected to clean for the last 10 months. This is especially bad considering the number of trees (both deciduous and coniferous) in our small yard. I could tell immediately the gutters were over-flowing. I checked the basement and found a small drip of water leaking through the floorboards, apparently through the exterior walls (NOTE: the basement itself was not leaking and to my knowledge has never leaked). I quickly dialed my uncle Deac who selflessly sprang into action, as is his custom, bringing over a ladder within minutes. Once he arrived I set about fixing the problem. An hour or so later the gutters were cleaned and working as designed. No more water in the basement.

For extra fun, I realized later that my house windows have 2 glass layers with a screen between them. The problem was not necessarily that the gutters were overflowing, it was that the exterior glass panes (which I previously did not know existed) were wide open and had been for 10 months. It turns out I could have just shut them. Problem solved. Oh well, the gutters are clean now.

The lesson: clean your gutters in the fall, not in the rain.

Friday Jul 04, 2008 - 19:06

Am I the only one that didn't know you could get TV channels via a DSL connection? I'm not talking about IP TV either. My in-laws have a DSL connection (which I tested at under 1 Mbps up and down) and over it they are getting 77 crystal clear TV channels. This is funny to me because I've never heard of that happening. Here we all sit, miles into the PA mountains, I am on the Internet, my father-in-law is watching TV, and my mother-in-law is on the phone. All unaffected and traveling down a 2 pair line. Wow! This must be old news, I guess, because I googled it and found old references to this technology as far back as 2000 (with most roll-out references dated 2004). Maybe it was highly anticipated technology that never really took off, but you can color me impressed. Go cat 3!

Thursday Jul 03, 2008 - 15:39

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system.

--Niccolo Machiavelli

(and this is what i do all day)

Wednesday Jul 02, 2008 - 21:18

I keep thinking of this thing I want to write about and a second later I have no idea what it is I was going to write. Crap.

Saturday Jun 28, 2008 - 16:15

I'm in the market for a 19" LCD TV but they all seem over-priced. They want between $280 and $400 everywhere I look, even online. Come on! I paid $600 for my 32" and that was almost a year ago! Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking $199 is a fair price. If you have a suggestion please let me know.

Friday Jun 27, 2008 - 23:57

Last Friday I worked from 9am until after midnight. Yesterday I worked from 9am until 10ish. Today (Friday again) I worked from 7:30am to midnight. Things are pretty blurry now. Driving home should be fun.

Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 - 15:51

Read this story. I love this one. This story is too crazy to be fake. It sounds exactly like something some small business management would do. For those of you pressed for time, here is the summary:

The small business in this story was forced to relocate their offices within the same building. New tenants moved into their old location and as a result their access to the apparently unmovable data center was restricted. The fun part is that rather than building a new data center in the new office, or using a co-location facility, these superstars decided it would be best to simply install a new door into the old data center through the handicap stall in the women's restroom! That's right, the only way to access the data center is to go into the women's restroom, go into a stall, and enter through the new door. Awesome! I'm sure all the women who need to use the bathroom are really excited about waiting 3 hours for the IT staff to finish working on the servers in the data room before they can go. More then that, I'm sure they love coming out of the bathroom to a handful of impatient IT guys about to enter the very stall from which they just came! Good times.

Tuesday Jun 24, 2008 - 16:24

it's not that I haven't had anything useful to say since last Friday, it's just that last Friday's post was realllllly cool...

btw, write in if you have any requests

Friday Jun 20, 2008 - 14:39

Apparently Lego employees sometimes hand out Lego-versions of themselves as business cards. How awesome is that? Check it out here and here.

Wednesday Jun 18, 2008 - 14:51

DiskAid

Cool! Here's some freeware that runs on OS X or Windows and lets you use your iPhone/iPod touch as an external hard drive. It looks like you don't even have to hack your iPhone. Just install the app on your computer, plug in your phone, and start copying files. Awesome.

Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 - 23:00

one more test, then i'm done

Tuesday Jun 17, 2008 - 22:33

I need to test some stuff, pardon the interruption. Of course, if everything goes well all you will see is this post.

Monday Jun 16, 2008 - 12:03

Using the link I found on this page of gizmodo.com I just subscribed to Wired magazine again. Check out what a deal this is:

The cover price is around $4 an issue, that's $48 a year
The standard subscription price is something like $1 an issue, that's $12 a year (a great deal in itself)
Using this promo code (FD-WIRED) it cost me only $0.25 an issue, that's $3 for the entire year! Thats two bits an issue!

I guess we'll see if it was a hoax, but it looks pretty legit. Awesome...hopefully

Tuesday Jun 10, 2008 - 22:42

Is it a leap year? Email me if you know the answer.

Monday Jun 09, 2008 - 22:45

The new iPhone is out now. I'm thinking about getting one for Kate. Hmmm...

Friday Jun 06, 2008 - 11:45

wow

As many of you know, I am a Christian and for many reasons (not the least of which is reason itself, the way I see it). Sometimes I hear of people who do off the wall things in the name of Christ and it makes me cringe. I feel a strong impulse to explain to non-Christians that these people don't represent me and don't speak for me. A good example of this would be most televangelists, just about anyone on TBN (gold chairs? really? the huge purple hair and layers of makeup weren't enough?), and now the people who run this website which offers to email your unsaved friends after the rapture. Wow.

The system "works" by requiring at least 3 of the 5 Christians who run the service to log in periodically. If 3 of the 5 do not log in for 6 consecutive days then the application assumes the rapture has occurred and sends your pre-written emails out to your list of people. It also includes online encrypted storage for things like power of attorneys. Wow is all I can say. The worst part is that this is offered in the context of a ministry:

" You've Been Left Behind gives you one last opportunity to reach your lost family and friends For Christ."

I guess the thought process is that 2 of the 5 people could be on vacation or secretly be unbelievers, thereby increasing the odds that the service will work as designed. In other words, if 2 of the staffers are closet satanists, and therefore left behind themselves, your next of kin will still get your tax records during Armageddon.

Ironically, this service would actually be better run by trustworthy atheists. All they would have to do is answer one question every day. Did a large percentage of the world population disappear today? If three answered yes, the emails go out. Plus, you'd be guaranteed they'd be around to troubleshoot email bounces. After all, that's what you're paying for, right?

Thursday Jun 05, 2008 - 12:51

I love it when I read a news story like this. It's just plain entertaining. It's nice to see criminals really putting thought into their schemes.

Wednesday Jun 04, 2008 - 09:21

Yes, the last post was a joke, a classic Rickroll. I think it's hilarious. If you don't know what a Rickroll is then do your homework, because if you did know you'd have been laughing so hard you'd have to change your underwear.

Oh yeah, and today I've been married for 3 years. Send me congratulatory gifts if you feel so inclined. I always accept cash.

Monday Jun 02, 2008 - 13:54

I found this video of the new corvette being track tested. It's pretty sweet.

Saturday May 31, 2008 - 15:45

Happy Birthday Katie!

Friday May 30, 2008 - 09:51

My secret plan is to buy a new laptop when I can get the screen size/form factor I want, a solid state drive, and LED backlighting...

Whoa! Here I am typing away and all of the sudden - pow - my left eye goes bonkers with pain. I mad dash to the bathroom to find an eyelash underneath my contact lense. What? How did that happen? Anyway, crisis averted...

So apparently companies are beginning to sell Macbooks (the right size/form factor, OS, style, etc) with solid state drives pre-installed and covered by warranty. Looks good. Now I just need the LED backlight (which I've heard rumors about already) and I think I'm ready to go!

Thursday May 29, 2008 - 19:33

Tonight is the LOST season finale. So don't bother me between 9 and 11 EST. Actually, don't bother me at all.

Sha sha sha shaaa

Thursday May 29, 2008 - 09:42

What's going on

1. My dog, Charlie, tore another big hole in our couch. Only this time it was in the material that covers the springs under the cushions. He has an amazing ability to destroy things in just such a way as they can be put back together so nobody will notice they are broken. This really isn't a good thing. I've followed through on my threat to have him "taken care of" (wink wink) and he's mostly recovered by now. His stitches will be removed shortly. What is it going to take to get him to end his violent campaign against the underside of my couch?

2. My good friend Olly is coming out to NJ soon! Yeay! It's been WAAY to long since I've seen him.

3. Ditto for Chris and Jessica. They're coming out here also. Good times.

4. I'm also excited that seafood is beginning to show up in my meal rotation again. There is nothing quite like seafood from a little place near the ocean. Well, there is Mexican food from a place where they don't speak English, but that is another story.

Thursday May 22, 2008 - 23:24

Comcast? Is that you?

The strangest thing just happened. I just called Comcast to ask a question. I had to be transferred between departments only once (as opposed to the normal six times) and the person who answered spoke English. Not only that, but I gave her my address, and it turns out she lives about three blocks from me. Weird! Apparently Comcast is trying to improve customer service. They're not there yet, by a long shot, but at least it's an effort.

Of course, I'll really get excited when they actually bill me the amount they said they would.

Thursday May 22, 2008 - 00:24

Okay, I think I got it now. NTP is working and the timestamp is in the format I want. I wonder how NTP knows what timezone I'm in??? Hmmm...I'll have to look that up.

Thu May 22 00:09:01 EDT 2008

I'm messing with the date stamp on my posts as well as ntp, so you may see some weird stuff. Hopefully it's all good though.

Wed May 21 09:33:01 EDT 2008

I think I need to check the time on my Linux server. It might be a little off.

Wed May 21 09:00:01 EDT 2008

Today I had trouble swallowing an Advil. It took me about 5 tries. I ended up imagining I was eating macaroni and cheese. Growing up I always had problems swallowing pills, but that hasn't effected me lately. What a flashback.

Mon May 19 15:39:01 EDT 2008

Mozy.com

I know I've mentioned it before, but if you haven't already you ought to check out Mozy. If you're reading this you probably own a computer. If you own a computer you probably have some kind of data (photos, music, papers, videos, code, etc). If you have data you need it backed up. If you don't do any backup and you loose all your data in a crash, it's your fault. Mozy is simple to use. The first backup can take a long time (after all, you're transferring large amounts of data over the Internet, encrypted of course) but after that it only backs up files you've made changes to (this is called "differential"), which is a small amount so it's very fast. Also, you can set it to run when your asleep, so you're not using your computer anyway. Here's the kicker. Mozy gives you 2 GB of data storage completely free. Check it out. No doubt this is to entice you to upgrade to a paid account (such as the $4.95/month plan for unlimited data), but that is by no means required.

Basically for $5 a month you can back up every single thing you can think of or for FREE you can back up 2 GB of the important stuff. For most people 2 GB will cover everything they have except their mp3 collection. Like I said, if your computer crashes and you loose all your data, it's your fault.

Thu May 15 16:03:01 EDT 2008

This is hilarious. It's an article talking about the software AOL just released for Mac. For you non-tech people out there, AOL is a joke. Since the death of dial-up they provide no actual service and only old people who don't know any better use their "service" (which boils down to over priced Internet access, a clunky interface, and usually a narrow pipe). In fact, in PC Magazine's Top 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time it was rated as #1. The worst tech ever. The best part is the list of "Things I'd do before installing AOL Desktop software onto my Mac:"

1. Eat a live cockroach.

2. Get a Darth Maul facial tattoo.

3. Start running.

4. Date any of the contestants from The Bachelor.

Hilarious.

Wed May 14 13:39:01 EDT 2008

Apparently this guy has accomplished my life's ambition. I knew I should've joined the Air Force...wait...I did. No matter, this guy is doin' it right.

Tue May 13 16:45:01 EDT 2008

I want to cut my grass this weekend, but I think it might rain...hmmm. Maybe I'll just slack off and buy an XBOX. I hate giving money to M$FT though.

Thu May 8 15:00:01 EDT 2008

Liberty vs CR-V

If you follow this blog at all you probably know that a couple of weeks ago a madman in a silver 'benz laid a slight beatdown on my wife's Honda. While it's been in the shop she's been driving a rental Jeep Liberty. The rental is covered by the other guy's insurance and I couldn't be happier about it. When I saw it in our driveway for the first time, and noticing the surprisingly similar paint color, I couldn't help but begin the obligatory comparison.

The CR-V has been around since 1996, while the Liberty entered the class in 2002, so I figured the Jeep must have some tricks up it's sleeve if it wanted to compete in the same space. As it turns out, it doesn't. Honda is kicking Jeep's butt so hard I'm surprised the Jeep people can even sit down. Here's the highlights:

Honda's engine is 1.3 liters smaller then the Jeep's so it has better gas mileage AND YET it manages to power the CR-V nicely. The Liberty, on the other hand, has a noticeable lack of giddyup. Also the Liberty's engine is for some reason extremely loud. In handling the Honda wins again. Tight steering makes the CR-V drive like a car, while the Liberty's semi-truck inspired steering makes U-turns impossible on neighborhood streets. On the bright side, though, it gives you a chance to practice your 3-point turns. The interior of the Liberty is also noticeably cramped compared to the Honda. Then there is longevity, one engine will run for 200k miles or more. The other will probably need a rebuild around 95k and give up the ghost completely at 115k. Which do you think is which? Also, despite being presumably brand new the gas shocks on the back window wouldn't hold the weight, so you can't load bulky objects into the back without someone holding up the glass. Nice quality there, Jeep people.

You know, I have friends that say "we only buy American cars." I think they take it as a matter of patriotism or something. I don't understand that at all. Hyundai and Mercedes have assembly plants in Alabama. So if you want to support the American worker shouldn't you buy a Hyundai or an M-class benz? I mean, if you buy a Chevy that is assembled in China how is that patriotic?

Anywho, to wrap it up I should mention that they're even in the same price range. So I don't want to hear anyone cry foul on that. One more fun fact. The Jeep in this test was brand new, either 07 or 08. The Honda is six years old with 100k miles. Even with that kind of advantage the Jeep Liberty still looks like an embarrassment when you compare it to the Honda CR-V.

Just my take...

Wed May 7 14:36:01 EDT 2008

NES redesign

If Nintendo actually produced this I would reserve my copy ahead of time and pick it up at midnight after standing in line.

Tue May 6 14:24:01 EDT 2008

My wife just called and said that when she came home from work today our dog, Charlie, was sitting on the love seat watching TV. This is funny, not simply because he was watching TV, but because when I left for work today I locked him in this crate in the basement. If you know Charlie at all you know he is a great escape artist and is often successful despite my best efforts. After I left the house this morning, he let himself out of his locked crate, made his way up the stairs, opened the basement door, turned on the TV, and settled down on the love seat (after a short chewing of the couch cushions, naturally).

So the gauntlet has been thrown down, and I will answer. I have scheduled him for the dreaded "snip snip" in less then two weeks. We'll see who has the last laugh!

(too far?)

Fri May 2 10:24:01 EDT 2008

CCSE

Does anyone have any CCSE study guides or materials I could use? I have to take that test pretty soon and I'm looking for info to help me write my own study guide. If so, you have my number.

Mon Apr 28 19:57:01 EDT 2008

Congratulations Keith, well, sort of

I'm wrapping up my recent contest (scroll down a bit if you're behind). Nobody won exactly. Of all the entries received, the closest to the correct answer was submitted by a friend of mine, and former coworker, Keith Dilbone. He said "Wasn't that from some comic book?"

Yes it was Keith! "Justice Like Lightning" was the motto of The Thunderbolts. A Marvel comic book series which debuted while I was in middle school to mild fanfare and resulting in a fair amount of distraction from Algebra I. My bad, Mrs. Carter.

So thanks for all the responses. And if you didn't win (and you didn't) just try harder next time.

Mon Apr 28 08:39:01 EDT 2008

lol...I know that Microsoft owns stock in Apple and I know that Steve Ballmer (Microsoft's CEO) doesn't care what hardware he's using as long as it runs Windows, but it's still fun to see pictures of Steve using a Mac for a presentation. It may not be an actual conflict of interest but the irony makes good comedy.

Thu Apr 24 17:45:01 EDT 2008

Kate got in a car wreck this week. Some "guy" in a silver Mercedes S 430 messed up her CR-V pretty good. She's okay, but the car needs a visit to the car-hospital. Pictures to come, maybe.

Thu Apr 24 15:48:01 EDT 2008

Why is it that people only think tech guys are busy if they're typing fast?

Sun Apr 20 22:36:01 EDT 2008

My brother got to meet Secretary Rice recently. I put a picture in the photo album on the stuff page. Scope it out.

Fri Apr 18 18:36:01 EDT 2008

Wow...check this out A Scientific Attempt To Create Most Annoying Song Ever. It's great.

Wed Apr 16 10:12:01 EDT 2008

I'll buy dinner for anyone who can tell me from where I would know this quote:

"Justice, like lightning, ever should appear to few men's ruin, but to all men's fear."

And don't say Milo Sweetman or Swetnam the Woman-Hater Arraigned by Women. Clearly neither of those are the right answer. If you think either one is, then you don't know me at all.

Mon Apr 14 22:21:01 EDT 2008

Quotes from the book I'm reading (very slowly), The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis.

"When we merely say that we are bad, the 'wrath' of God seems a barbarous doctrine; as soon as we perceive our badness, it appears inevitable, a mere corollary from God's goodness."

A few pages earlier...

"A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed. We lack the first condition for understanding what He is talking about."

Wed Apr 9 08:06:01 EDT 2008

One score and five years ago my foreparents brought forth, upon this continent, a new Jason, conceived in Arkansas, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Fri Apr 4 22:42:01 EDT 2008

I recently discovered I really like Stroke 9, but am I too late?

Thu Apr 3 09:21:01 EDT 2008

I just read this article that said Apple sold more music in January than anyone else. Wal-Mart was the previous champion and has been for a little while. Amazon.com is number three. It's nice to see digital stores holding two of the top three spots. Personally, I try to buy all my music from Amazon because they sell actual mp3s with no DRM. I like the feel of Apple's iTunes store, but I'll keep buying my music from Amazon as long as Apple keeps forcing me to download -> burn to disc -> upload in order to break DRM.

Mon Mar 31 22:21:01 EDT 2008

I'm thinking of doing some kind of weekly column that is based on a theme. You know, like every Tuesday I tell the best and the the worst thing that happened to me this week. Other possibilities would be the joke of the week, quote of the week (I always liked those), or a weekly news commentary. I wonder if the best thing would be something weekly every day (like Monday jokes, Tuesday quotes, etc) or to just do the weekly on Wednesday, and wing it the rest of the time. Hmmm...what do you suggest?

Thu Mar 27 20:39:01 EDT 2008

Don't ask

Okay...here's the deal. I'm way to busy to re-build my site now. Also, I was developing a decent following using this format. I'm just going to leave things be right now and figure out something else later. It's like I always say "what are you gonna do?"

Did I just quote myself?

Fri Feb 29 10:24:01 EST 2008

(see below) apparently you can't search by idea #, so the title to search by is "Better Unified System Management (like YaST)". Search for it and find it.

Fri Feb 29 09:51:01 EST 2008

Help!

I've submitted an idea to Ubuntu's brainstorm project. It's idea #1449. Click the link, create an account, and vote yes! It's a good idea, I promise.

Thu Feb 28 22:42:01 EST 2008

I had a meeting today at the headquarters of that "novelty" store in the mall called Spencer Gifts (for better or worse). The sign outside their building says "Intergalactic Headquarters, Spencer Gifts". I have, therefore, decided that my house will function from here on out as the intergalactic headquarters of the Nixon family. Oh yeah, and I'm going to start saying "aye" instead of yes.

Mon Feb 25 00:00:01 EST 2008

Video Podcasts

I'm still looking for some good video podcasts to watch. Right now I'm subscribed to a couple. One from Comedy Central which consists of a weekly episode of standup comedy lasting about 30 seconds. The second is a daily tech news feed called Loaded. It's owned by CNET TV and hosted by Natali Del Conte (formerly of TeXtra). It's pretty good, but I want more than just tech stuff. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, Charlie destroyed a couch cushion last Thursday. The living room was a synthetic massacre. What am I going to do with that dog?

Tue Feb 19 23:03:01 EST 2008

Free network rack anyone? I may have an extra. Let me know...

Sat Feb 16 12:27:01 EST 2008

A friend of mine just linked an article to me about an Ohio couple who got married in a White Castle (the fast food joint, not an actual castle). While this doesn't surprise me it does cause me to shake my head back and forth slowly with my eyes closed. Why do people act retarded?

Sun Feb 10 00:33:01 EST 2008

geek cred

The other night I had a lot going on. I was working in my home office trying to make some progress on one thing or another. Right in the middle of my night I looked up and mentally took stock of the situation. It was about eleven o'clock on a weeknight. I'd been at my desk for at least two hours. Katie and Charlie were asleep curled up on the floor to my right. A few things crossed my mind. Number 1, I am using no less than five computers simultaneously (not counting the TiVo in the living room). Number 2, we really need better seating in the SOHO. Number 3, I am way too interested in technology. Number 4, even a good description of the scene would not convey the situation accurately. So I snapped a photo with my trusty iPhone and posted it in the photo album on the stuff page (my apologies for hammy use of the word trusty). I would have included Kate in the shot, but a vigorous personal threat excluded that possibility.

Anywho, I'm not one of those people who like to have collections of stuff for no good reason. Neither am I one to brag needlessly about a complicated home network. Let's face it, that's not something to brag about. I just thought it was funny. Here I am working away when out of the blue I suddenly realize...Hey, I'm using five computers at the same time. Is this really necessary? And it kind of was. Announcing my realization to the world is not really worth anything but it certainly adds the my ever-growing and ever-useless pile of geek cred. So look out Brad Pitt there's a new sexiest man alive and he knows binary.

Tue Feb 5 16:39:01 EST 2008

I was just reading an article on wireless penetration testing (which, as a Security Engineer, is something I am called to do from time to time). The article was good, but the sign off was better:

Jon Espenschied has been at play in the security industry for enough years to become enthusiastic, blas=E9, cynical, jaded, content and enthusiastic again. He is currently a senior security consultant in Seattle, where his advice has been ignored by CEOs, auditors and sysadmins alike.

LOL! Rarely have words been spoken with more truth than that. Probably the one thing that happens in this industry that I just cannot understand is wh= y people will ask and even pay you for your trained advice and then turn around and do whatever they want anyway.

Sat Feb 2 08:33:01 EST 2008

Sewage in my face

So we're having a problem with our plumbing. The short story involves my neighbor and I carting about 75 gallons of sewage out of my basement in tubs in and buckets, a certain amount of spraying, my new-found pipe snaking skill, and a lot of crap. Pardon the pun. Anyway, it's not over yet. The real plumbers are coming out on Saturday morning. In the meantime we're staying at my in-law's house. I don't have much experience with plumbers, but I have a feeling I am about to be parted from more than one day's pay....hmmmm.

On a serious note, Saturday morning Kate's grandmother died. We had the funeral on Tuesday. Everyone is doing okay considering. It's just so strange. She really was a great lady.

Fri Feb 1 11:39:01 EST 2008

I can't get to my systems right now due to a plumbing issue. I'll fix'er up when everything is resolved.

Mon Jan 21 23:33:01 EST 2008

I've been having some trouble with Gmail lately. It's been delivering messages more than one time (actually, it's been over and over sometimes) and screwing up imap every now and then. Anyone else?

Sun Jan 20 16:33:01 EST 2008

feedback por favor

As you may know I am toying with the idea of building a database back end to this website. The idea being that when you logged on you would see, say, the last five posts only. Then, there would be links down the side representing categories which all past posts would fall into. In this way you would simply click "family" to read posts about family or "technology" to read rantings about that. Anywho, as I make these changes I'm wondering whether I should re-deploy this site as article driven or short quote driven. Short quotes would be daily updates on whatever was running across my mind. Article driven would mean that each post was longer than the short posts and usually topical. Of course there will be exceptions, but the guidelines are important. For example, an article driven site would have posts with names like "My trip to California" with sub-sections that said "day 1", "day 2", etc. A short quote site would say "so, I'm in California today...". See the difference? So let me know what you think. Provide some feedback por favor.

Of course there is always the possibility that the exceptions will happen so often that I will end up with an even mix of the two. Oh well, just let me know what y'all think.

Fri Jan 18 22:03:01 EST 2008

Me gusta Mexican food.

Fri Jan 18 00:03:02 EST 2008

I'm testing a new network gateway and I need to know if it will block the kind of network traffic I use to update this website. If you're reading this, then things are A OKAY. If you're not reading this then...that doesn't make sense. Nevermind.

Thu Jan 17 23:24:01 EST 2008

you might think I'm crazy

but I took a new job. I know, I know. I've had a lot of jobs for a kid my age, but this will be the last one for a long while if I have anything to say about it. It's basically the same thing I was already doing, network security, but it's a much better position. It looks like it'll be very challenging, but it's a challenge I want to take on. I kind of feel like it's the first job I've had that is what something I actually want to be doing in a place that fits my style. I'll keep you posted.

Mon Jan 14 16:45:01 EST 2008

It looks like I'll be on IM during the days again. So if you use AIM or Yahoo messenger let me know.

Tue Jan 8 15:51:01 EST 2008

a bit too comfortable

My dog, Charlie, will often sleep on the rug near my feet while I'm sitting at my desk and working on the computer. Anyone who has ever owned a dog can tell you that they dream while they sleep and sometimes will even wiggle their paws or even bark a little. It's pretty funny to see actually. Well, the other day my wife and I were sitting at the desk paying bills and Charlie started dreaming in his sleep again. We watched him a little because it's funny, but then I noticed something that was definitely NOT funny. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly, but the short story is that he peed on the rug. I don't know if he was dreaming of fire hydrants or what but he definitely wet the rug. I jumped up and yelled "Charlie!". He woke up calmly and looked back at me with utter confusion as if to say "what?". So that's the deal. The dog peed in his sleep at the exact moment I was watching. Never a dull moment.

Sun Jan 6 01:30:01 EST 2008

If I had ten votes for president in 2008 I would give them all to Ron Paul.

Fri Jan 4 10:18:01 EST 2008

uhh...the strangest thing happened the night before last. Well, not funny exactly, just strange and a little gross. I want to say this correctly so let me come back to it.

Wed Jan 2 11:45:01 EST 2008

I think I may be editing the links I have on the stuff page soon. I'm considering adding links to sites like gizmodo and woot. I'malso thinking of starting a "recommend free software" area. I think that could be useful to people that would normally ask me the question "what would be good for X".

Wed Jan 2 11:30:01 EST 2008

Back to work today. Things are spinning as usual. Hopefully by the end of the day or week I will feel better. We should have some interesting stuff comming up.

Mon Dec 31 14:57:01 EST 2007

I guess it's New Year's Eve now. Hmm. I need to go to sleep...

Mon Dec 31 06:39:01 EST 2007

It's pretty early and i can't sleep so I'm up playing Counter Strike. I'm sure I'll fall asleep when the sun comes up. That's usually how this works.

Thu Dec 27 21:30:01 EST 2007

lol...does anyone ever notice that sometimes I spell a bunch of words wrong and then later go back and correct them? This is because sometimes I forget to run the old spell checker. Silly me.

Thu Dec 27 18:51:01 EST 2007

Two thoughts:

1. I'm reading C.S. Lewis again. His writing is uniquely deep and at the same time understandable. I've never heard or read anyone who could communicate such complexity in such an effortless manner. As he parses through complicated issues I find myself understanding, which makes me feel smart. It's pretty funny. C.S. Lewis is so smart that he makes other people feel smart.
2. I'm not sure what Clive Staple would say about this thought. I'm not sure about the ethics here. Listen to this. In the last six months or so I've come into contact with a handful of people who can only be described by a particular word: tool. These guys are complete tools in the strict sense of the term. The ethical dilemma is in the fact that not calling someone a name is like Sunday school 101, but at the same time I'm not trying to be petty. The funny thing is that I'm excited that I actually recognized the quality they are exhibiting (I'm not usually good at describing people), but once I figured it out I realized I was right on the money. These guys are tools and there is just no way around it. So here's the question. If someone genuinely displays an unfavorable quality is it ethically wrong to point it out? Obviously the extremes here need to be ruled out. Malicious motives are malicious motives. But there are times when the truth needs to be told. What I'm talking about is that it doesn't seem right to IGNORE a bad quality in a person and pretend that an obvious situation doesn't exist just because you feel bound by morality. Christianity can not exist in a fantasy world and that is exactly what you create when you ignore reality. So what do you do?

Wed Dec 26 21:54:01 EST 2007

failure to yield

Today I got pulled over and was issued a highly-disputable traffic ticket. While merging onto the highway it seems I failed to yield, which in Maple Shade New Jersey apparently means coming to a complete stop. Awesome. Thanks guys. Fighting the ticket will actually cost more in fees and my time then just paying the $85 dollars. So thats out. I guess what I'm saying here is: you win this round New Jersey, but I'll be prepared next time...actually, no I won't, I'm not going to stop at a yield sign, morons.

Also, some guy came to my door wanting to rake leaves and asked if my parents were home. Nice.

Tue Dec 25 19:39:01 EST 2007

Sometimes I turn my server on, realize I have nothing to say, and then post a useless message just for the sake of posting. Merry Christmas.

Mon Dec 24 14:27:01 EST 2007

Merry Christmas Eve

Fri Dec 21 12:00:01 EST 2007

Update: $200 PC from Wal*Mart

The brand name is Everex and the model is gPC (model number TC2502). I only used the title "$200 PC from Wal*Mart" because I used that titlte before. Anyway, it's been a few weeks since they released it through Walmart. I've heard good and bad things. Here is a review that I think covers it pretty well. This guy seems fair and clear thinking. And yes, I still want one.

Also, I was going to say something else, but I can't remember what it was now. I'm sure I'll remember what it was as soon as I post this update. Oh well.

Wed Dec 19 21:57:01 EST 2007

I'm about to freeeaaak out.

Wed Dec 19 21:39:01 EST 2007

Tiger Team

As part of Court TV's re-branding for 2008 it looks like there is going to be a new show that follows the stories of real life info security people such as myself. I haven't found a lot of specific information out there, but I have seen this short rundown regurgitated on serveral sites. I'll give it a watch and let you know how close to "true" it appears. They say they are really going to follow ethical hackers. Unfortunately, they decided not to call me. Bad move Court TV, bad move.

Mon Dec 17 09:03:01 EST 2007

Happy Festivus!

Though Festivus is a well documented holiday, it has traditionally been largely overlooked by the general populace, being celebrated instead by small pockets of devoted Festivities. However, it appears there are some chinks in the armor, some cracks in the wall, if you will. Reference stories like this and this. People are beginning to see the light and as happiness overcomes me like a rising tide I can only think of one response:

It's a Festivus miracle!

Sat Dec 15 23:24:01 EST 2007

Has anyone ever heard of Until June?

Fri Dec 14 13:00:01 EST 2007

Last night my wife got a little goofy while putting her toothbrush back in the medicine cabinet. Chaos insued. Luckily I had my iPhone handy to document the resutls. Do yourself a favor and check out the photo "toothbrush" on the stuff page.

Wed Dec 12 20:09:01 EST 2007

Roll Tide

I've been following the OLPC project for a couple years now and I think it's pretty awesome (understatement). Well it turns out that Alabama, specifically my hometown of Birmingham, is the first place in America to get on board in the country! Heck yeah Alabama! Roll Tide! Check out the story.

Mon Dec 10 16:00:01 EST 2007

I'm beginning the site design process in my mind for the new php & sql powered version of jasonnixon.net. It should be pretty cool. You won't see any evidence of it for a while though.

Sat Dec 8 23:06:01 EST 2007

This weekend is wiring weekend!

Thu Dec 6 13:42:01 EST 2007

American Gladiators

After many years (and I'm talking literal years here) of wishing, hoping, and praying American Gladiators is on it's way back!!! Further, NBC is currently casting both gladiators and contenders. Hmmm....

Thu Dec 6 12:21:01 EST 2007

Life Goals

1 year goal: own a Macbook Pro

5 year goal: own a Segway x2

10 year goal: a picture with a President (unless it's Hillary) then a picture with an American Gladiator would be better

Wed Dec 5 22:12:01 EST 2007

oh yeah, I'm IMAPing on my iPhone now, I should have done this from the get go...

Wed Dec 5 22:03:01 EST 2007

I need a week off.

Wed Dec 5 21:45:01 EST 2007

Mozy

I've been using this service for a while now called mozy. I think everyone should use it. It gives you 2 gigabytes of online storage for free. FREE. All you do is download the software and choose which files you want to back up. That's it. For those of you who consider yourselfs less savy: 2 gigabytes is basically enough space to back up all your documents, pictures, and everything else with the exception of large file collections like music or video. They use decent encryption and the software is available for Windows or Mac. If you have Mozy and your computer crashes it's no big deal. Just get the computer fixed (don't call me) and then copy your data back down from mozy.com. If you don't have Mozy and your computer crashes your out of luck and it's your own dumb fault.
So free Mozy is cool. Also, they have a service for home users which costs only $5 a month and gives you unlimited space. UNLIMITED!! So I signed up and began backing up my file server. I have a broadband connection and the backup is going to take 3 weeks. Of course it's differential, so once the first backup runs every one after that will be lightning fast.
This gives me an idea...

Sun Dec 2 23:06:01 EST 2007

NYC!

Sat Dec 1 20:03:01 EST 2007

Tonight my wife and I put 1,300 lights on the tree in our front yard. I put a blurry picture of it on the stuff page. Scope it out.

Thu Nov 29 12:54:02 EST 2007

Like Always

Like always there are a lot of things to cover. All the things I listed yesterday and more. Of course, I have to remind myself this isn't a comprehensive review of my time. So let's hit the highlights:

First, as a direct result of your continued faithfulness our hit count has sustained the highest level ever over the past few weeks! Good times. Like always, I've been making minor changes in the site to improve the usefulness of it and it looks like it's paying off. There are, of course, more changes coming down the pike. The most significant of which will be a transition to a database-driven blog. That way blog entries will be stacked neatly into categories (like Charlie, Linux, Family, etc). This way when you stop by the site you can click on the category most interesting to you and see only those entries. At any rate, things will continue to get better.

Second, the door buster. Two of my awesome cousins (not to diminish my homeboy Ryan) spent the night at my house on Thanksgiving. We woke up at 3:30 (that's AM) on Friday and were pulling into the Best Buy parking lot by about 4:15. I'd never been a part of the Black Friday madness and I wanted to try it out. The store was opening at 5, so we figured 45 minutes early would be a decent amount of lead time. Needless to say, there were probably 1,000 people in line when we showed up. wow. So it was early and cold, but we pushed through and finally made it into the store around 5:20. Inside was chaotic. Blue painters tape on the ground marked winding lines in every department. Every aisle was filled to capacity. There was yelling from all directions. It was just crazy. Still, despite the challenges we made out like bandits. Jim picked up a Tom Tom One (that's a GPS navigation device) for $119!! Kate and I got a Philips 32" LCD HD TV for $599!! So I guess I'd summarize the experience with this statement: I'll see you again next year, Best Buy, I'll see you again.

Third, the new website I'm working on for hosting the details of my various tech projects is coming along. It still doesn't look like much, but there is a lot of documentation happening that will go live in the next few weeks. For this site the documentation is all that really matters anyway.

Fourth, the iPhone. As the iPhone continues to be the best gadget I've ever owned (yes, even above the TiVo!) I have discovered even more great things. I now have access to the command prompt, the file system, and more. I've installed the BSD subsystem and before long I may even install Apache. Yes Apache! Can you imagine? I'd be physically hosting a website ON MY CELL PHONE! There is only one word for this: Awesomenicity.

Fifth, I guess there shouldn't be a fifth. We will just cut it off for now. So, like always, more later.

did I say "like always" too much?

Wed Nov 28 16:36:01 EST 2007

There are all kinds of things to catch up on including my door buster experience, iPhone hacking, jetpipe updates, and a giant pile of leaves. Hopefully later tonight I'll have some time. BTW, does this kind of remind anyone of a poor man's twitter?

Tue Nov 27 18:51:01 EST 2007

busy busy busy

Fri Nov 23 19:57:01 EST 2007

Shortly you'll be hearing about my recent door buster experience at Best Buy. I say recent, but in actuality it was today. It just feels like a long time ago.

Thu Nov 22 13:51:01 EST 2007

I started to say something, but then couldn't remember what it was going to be...oh well.

Thu Nov 22 13:18:01 EST 2007

it's a little scary how much I love my iPhone

oh yeah...happy Thanksgiving

Wed Nov 21 23:33:01 EST 2007

the best thing about Thanksgiving is not going to work

Wed Nov 21 21:54:01 EST 2007

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

In 365 days Charlie Brown Nixon has collected the following list of nicks. I'm sure I missed a few:
Brown dog
The Brown Tornado
Freakin' Shark
The Brown One
Brown
Charles
Sir Charles
Mr. Brown

Also, I put a few pictures of him on the stuff page. He's wearing his green sweater. I'm not sure if he like's it or not.

Tue Nov 20 16:36:01 EST 2007

Can I ask for some participation here? I'd like to know how many of you out there use discount "memberships" from grocery stores. I'm talking about those little key chain bar codes that offer lower prices. My wife uses them, does anyone else?

just curious

Fri Nov 16 12:54:01 EST 2007

sick as a dog

I woke up this morning at 5:18 to the distinct smell of dog poop. I didn't have to get up until 6;30, so I went back to sleep hoping it would go away on it's own. It did not. I walked around the house at 6:35 and I was not disappointed. After winning the obligatory stare down with my wife I let Charlie outside and she set about cleaning up. Of course, I had to make certain concessions, but that is part of life. What an exciting morning!

But it wasn't over yet. When I got back into the house I was surprised at the lingering odor. Not convinced all the "matter" had been dealt with I decided to investigate further. Unfortunately my keen senses were again correct. Two more "instances" of "matter". These, however were...well we will skip the description. Again, my wife set about cleaning. I honestly offered to assist, but we both know that if I tried to help all I could really do is stand next to her and dry heave. So she handled it again. If you're keeping track that's three.

I should tell you that normally Charlie is very good about not using the bathroom in the house. Apparently he is sick. Sick as a dog, I guess. Anyway, I continued my getting ready and hopped in the shower. After a thorough cleaning I shut the water off. Hmmm...that familiar smell. I wandered around the first floor like Tucan Sam. Yet again, I was correct. That's four.

So that was my morning. I believe the take away here is this: thank heavens for hardwood floors. Oh yeah, my Tucan Sam reference is "just follow your nose". Hopefully you already knew that.

cheers?

Thu Nov 15 12:33:01 EST 2007

don't mind me

Sometimes you'll see an entry that doesn't appear to make any sense. A good example of this would be two entries prior (dated "Tue Nov 13 19:21:01 EST 2007"). In case you're wondering, the reason for this is usually because I have something I want to say, but can't. This is usually related to frustration and mostly connected to work. Make sense?

Also, I caught some constructive criticism recently for the lack of exciting content on my new website (that's you, Chris). The site has a specific purpose and I will put it together when I am good and ready. To be honest, it should be up at this point, but when have you known me to be on the ball about publishing web sites? Also, I'm really busy. Well...not really busy, I just say that when I forget to do something I'm supposed to do (case in point, my mom's copy of the wedding pictures, 2+ years late...don't give up mom). Anywho, the site will come up this month. I promise.

Finally, I just want to say for the record that I am currently loading a new linux machine at work to use as a brute force box. It's pretty cool to have a box dedicated to brute forcing. The name I picked for it...brutus.

awesome

Wed Nov 14 23:54:01 EST 2007

iPhones are amazingly awesome.

Tue Nov 13 19:21:01 EST 2007

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Mon Nov 12 09:54:01 EST 2007

I'm looking for some good video podcasts. Does anyone have any suggestions? I can usually find tech-related videocasts (vidcasts, vodcasts, whatever) but I'd like to get a hold of some non-tech stuff also. You know, like comedy, action, etc. Any ideas? If it's a good show then I will recommend it here on the blog.

Sat Nov 10 17:36:01 EST 2007

This is the first post from my iPhone. Also, we have new cell numbers. Email if you want them.

Thu Nov 8 16:09:01 EST 2007

LeBron Nixon

Charlie tore up my basketball shorts. You may be thinking "but Jackson, you don't play basketball, in fact, your very presence on a basketball court actually reduces the skill level of all those around." That is true. But basketball shorts are great for sleeping, running, or even racquetball. So I had a pair I used for that type of thing, but they're gone now. I'm supposed to play racquetball today and I noticed at the last minute that I didn't have any shorts. Long story short I had to buy the only pair that Wal-Mart sells this time of year and they are, in a word, enormous. They are "NBA" shorts according to the label. I don't really know what that means, but I do know that they hit me mid-shin when they're sitting on my waist. So now I have to roll them up and look like a girl, or wear them huge and look like Eminem. Either way I have to play in ridiculous, enormous pants. Nice.

Wed Nov 7 14:06:01 EST 2007

GOP

When elections come around I usually vote for a Republican. I don't vote for Republicans because I agree with every nuance of the GOP mantra, because I don't. Everybody knows there are limitless numbers of issues to talk about and you can't agree with a group on every single thing (unless you're a moron). Recently, I decided that instead of trying to find a candidate who represents me on all issues (since this will never happen, and it therefore mostly a waste of time) I should just pick a couple key issues that I think are most important. There are plenty of high profile issues to choose from, and they are all important, but I need to narrow it down. For me the thing I want to see the government do the most is stop wasting my money. It's ridiculous how much money the government wastes on bureaucracy and red tape. The Democrats want the government to control health care. What?! How stupid is that?! Health care does need reforming in this country, no doubt, but the government is not the one to do it. Ahhh...I digress. Anyway, I want lower taxes, smaller government, and more individual liberty. In short, the government has too much of our money and getting rid of the waste through real efficiency is the number one thing I want to change in my government. I don't think I can say it better than Uncle Jay. Watch his video. It's awesome.

Tue Nov 6 16:54:01 EST 2007

I know I already talked about the $200 PC from Wal-Mart, but I think it's important to highlight a particular quote from the Wired article (see below for the link) about the Wal-Mart customer base.

"It seems The gPC is built using tiny components, but put inside a full-size case because research indicates that Wal-Mart shoppers are so unsophisticated they equate physical size with capability."

LOL!!! How true!

Tue Nov 6 13:36:01 EST 2007

Is it Tuesday already? My apologies. Check back.

Thu Nov 1 13:09:01 EDT 2007

Wal-Mart's $200 computer

Dell has been selling computers running Ubuntu Linux (as opposed to Microsoft Windows) for a little while now. Which is generally good news, but the problem is the savings aren't that great. When I priced out a Dell with Ubuntu a few weeks back it was almost $400. Now Wal-Mart is selling Ubuntu-based computers for half that price! Awesome. Check it out.These are not high end gaming PCs, but they certainly have enough power to handle the average user. I always use my mom as the test. Could she do what she want's on this computer? Yes. She can do all the email, word processing, and card games she wants. The one exception may be iTunes. My mom uses iTunes for all of her music and that application alone has forced me to keep her on Windows (as she hasn't yet put up the money to get a Mac, the best computers for humans). So this is cool, and I may buy one, but my mom still won't.

Wed Oct 31 13:45:01 EDT 2007

Technically I launched jetpipe.net yesterday. Although it's not real exciting yet.

Tue Oct 30 18:39:01 EDT 2007

that didn't make any sense. It was supposed to say Tuesday is buy one Sunday get one free at baskin robins. some times I'm crazy like that, you never know when it's coming

Tue Oct 30 18:36:01 EDT 2007

Tuesday is buy one get Sunday get one free. I'm there.

Tue Oct 30 16:12:01 EDT 2007

LOL...apparently Philly is the ugliest city around. Check this out.

Tue Oct 30 13:30:01 EDT 2007

To save money I'm thinking of canceling my cell phone data plan. It will save $20 a month, but then I'll lose my ability to post from my cell. hmm...

Mon Oct 29 17:42:01 EDT 2007

it's taco night!!

Mon Oct 29 17:30:02 EDT 2007

Did anyone else see that huge font today? It was only up for a few hours, but dang. It was big!

Mon Oct 29 12:54:01 EDT 2007

Hacking

I've been studying Linux based hacking for a few days now. I'm supposed to have been doing this for three weeks, but things keep getting in the way. Anyway, I'm finally coming around to getting serious and this stuff is not easy. Right now I'm learning how to write scripts that manually poison the arp cash of specific computers on the local network thereby redirecting their traffic through your computer. At that point you can sniff all of their passwords or even filter their traffic to, say, redirect www.microsoft.com to www.linux.org. Anyway, the funny thing is that arp poisoning isn't even the hard part. The hard part is reverse engineering applications to find buffer overflows. Man! This is not easy. So it looks like I'm in for some serious study time.
Also, tonight I'm gonna try and get on CS with Chris. This will be about the first time we really get this new game thing going so hopefully it goes well.
Oh yeah, I'm probably going to be launching a web site to host files related to my various tech projects in the not so distant future. I'll let you know how that goes.

Fri Oct 26 17:09:02 EDT 2007

ToDo this weekend:
1.Congratulate John P.
2.Put up new cabinets in the kitchen
3.Shoot anything that moves on CS with Chris
4.Walk Charlie
5.Go to Home Depot (I don't know if we're gonna have time)

We've got a pretty nice little Saturday planned.

Tue Oct 23 20:36:01 EDT 2007

We got a package deal when we signed up for cable and Internet access. As it turns out, we actually have a land line at our house now and, ironically, we don't have a phone. It's ironic because people always have phones around, usually extras are stuffed in the back of closets and the corners of basements. So I must be the only person in America who pays for a phone line but doesn't actually own a phone. And really I'm not real keen on the idea of paying money for an old school phone the likes of which I know are floating around the closets of my friends and family. Which leads me to my question: Does anyone have a telephone I can use? It's not that I'm cheap, I'm just a little techno-pretentious.

Mon Oct 22 15:27:01 EDT 2007