I know that the say after the new Rush CD was released you would expect to see something about it here… however, I FORGOT TO BUY IT! *sigh* So what am I listening to lately? Flickerstick. It seems that they were one of the bands involved in some VH1 contest – I have no idea. I heard about them from a friend of mine and they were well worth picking up. They are a cross of the Goo Goo Dolls, Ben Folds Five, and Eve 6 – since all of THEM are great bands, in my opinion, I find Flickerstick to be a great find… besides, as they’re new and there seems to be a shortage of new stuff these days. Anyway, go pick’m up – well worth the $14 (or MP3 surfing, not that I would condone such things!)
T-Mobile: Bad Coverage in CT
Well, it happens every now and again. You get “bad” customer support and you have to take matters into your own hands. My target today? VoiceStream. Now, before I get into this debacle, the people at VoiceStream have been great. It’s my frustration with their technical support information (or lack there of) that is the problem. The people have done everything that they have been allowed to do – their management gives them some “scripts” and “suggested actions” and that’s all they have to work with, so I don’t fault them.
Continue reading T-Mobile: Bad Coverage in CT
Find in Files Fix in XP
It took me some time to find the problem with the “Find in Files” option of the Windows Explorer that’s included with Windows XP. In Windows 2000, I was able to say find “Bubba” and it would go and search every file in the directory that I told it to. Since I work with text files that can be named .HTM, .HDM, .WML, or even .ASP, I was a perturbed to find that when I did a similar task in XP, it only look at .TXT files and sometimes .HTM files. Well, perturbed was an understatement, as I chased my tail for almost five hours looking for a particular Title tag in a WML file, but that’s another story.
Continue reading Find in Files Fix in XP
Costanza on Tipping
Maybe it’s just me, but have you ever had one of those “ideas” pop into your head that make you feel like you’re living in a Seinfeld episode? Or worse, you witness something that makes you so exasperated that when you finally start thinking clearly again, you realize that you could have been George in a Seinfeld episode? I have. I think of them as Costanza-isms.
Continue reading Costanza on Tipping
Coffee Bean on the Half Shell
I’m a coffee addict. I admit this freely. I am a Slave to the Bean. It’s not a pretty addiction, but there are far worse vices out there, legal and illegal, that I could be chained to. I know my limits – I have little willpower for such things, and I’m not a quitter, so I wouldn’t even play with the addictive drugs that are out there. So I’m a BeanHead. Having said this, it is very, very dangerous to fuck with my Bean. Plain and simple.
Continue reading Coffee Bean on the Half Shell
Network Monitor on XP
If you’ve already made the move from Windows 2000 Server to Windows XP Pro, you may have noticed a number of new applications to use on your desktop. Of the applications, that was noticeably missing (at least my skewed point of view) is Network Monitor (NetMon). — Since I still have Windows 2000 Server available to me, I got creative and ended up with a working version of Network Monitor running on Windows XP Pro.
Continue reading Network Monitor on XP
Suzyn Waldman
A couple of years MSG Networks made a “radical” decision and put their first woman play-by-play broadcaster on for Yankees baseball. The sporting world yawned as such a move, but the media at large went ga-ga over the fact that a woman was going to announcing games in a “Man’s World”. Me, I didn’t care really, provided the announcer in question was worthy of the Yankees – I come from the times of the Scooter, who would miss plays during the game because he was busy talking about his wife’s lasagna. It was entertaining, even though it might not have been the most “intensive” sporting broadcast – lets face it: baseball is great live but you usually need more than just stats when watching it on TV. So I was almost optimistic with a new broadcaster.
Continue reading Suzyn Waldman
J2ME in a Nutshell
Tis a rare thing, a technical Rant, for something that is such a popular topic, but what in the hell is wrong with J2ME? Java, version 2, Micro Edition, has become the little darling of the wireless industry. The press talks it up, middle managers are scrambling for news on it, and upper management has a hard on for it, yet it’s becoming the biggest pooch screw since Microsoft‘s Bob. Lets address them, one at a time shall we?
Continue reading J2ME in a Nutshell
Israeli Conflict
The last few days I’ve been watching the Israeli crisis with the rest of the world. First question I have is why is it a crisis? Who’s surprised, really? People have been fighting there for at least three millennia. Have we evolved so much that there wouldn’t be fighting there? Duh. Be that as it may, fine: call it a crisis. Want to know what’s causing this crisis? It’s easy enough, from my point of view – screw those people that have degrees and long winded speeches on CNN. This is simple.
Continue reading Israeli Conflict
Laura Joh Rowland
What am I reading today? Today we’ve got a murder mystery from Laura Joh Rowland. More than this one book, Rowland is responsible for writing the seven different books in this series of novels, starting with Shinju. The whole series centers around a scholar, turned police detective, in Japan during the 1600s.
Continue reading Laura Joh Rowland
Problems in the Media
I can bet you anything that this will be one of those reoccurring things throughout this web site – complaints about the Media. There’s a lot of gripes I’ve got with this nebulous group that has such a driving force in our society today… there’s never a shortage of complaints, with the largest one I have being Clinton’s election and then re-election, but today I’m going to point the finger at an even large target: the mass populous.
Continue reading Problems in the Media
“Let’s Go Yankees”
For those of you that haven’t met me, I’m a Yankees fan. I was born into the Pinstripes with a strong hatred (speaking in the form of sport rivalry, of course) for the Red Sox. I was there in the dark years of the 80’s. I would leave school for the summer, and the NYY would be in first by 4 games. I’d return in the fall and they would be in last by ten games. I’m not the type to jump on a bandwagon; win or lose, they’re my team. I’m also a hockey fan and while I do follow a team (Rangers, since ’89 so don’t start any of that “since 94” shit with me – the 1940 chant still rings in my ears) I’m a fan of the overall game. I have a jersey collection of about 15 different teams – college, Olympic, minor and pro – and I’ve been known to wear many of them on occasion. With baseball, I have a similar collection, but with the exception of one Bridgeport Bluefish jersey, all the jerseys are for only one team: the Yankees. I’ll wear no other.
Continue reading “Let’s Go Yankees”
Domain Name Finally Registered
You would think that when you register a domain name and they tell you it’s 24 hours, it would be 24 hours. Even 36 hours… even 48 hours would suck, yet be not TOO bad… how about seven days? That’s how long it took for VeriSign to get me this domain. For the last seven days, I’ve spent money waiting for VeriSign to get their plug outta their collective asses and get this domain “processed” whatever that means. I filled out the paperwork correctly; they fumbled. Not only did they fumble but they ran me around in a circle everytime I called – at least they answered the phones quick enough. Could have been nice to have gotten an answer that was useful – would have been a nice change of pace.
Continue reading Domain Name Finally Registered
The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World
Anyway, for my first “review” (if that’s what you call these things) is just as suited for the GeekStuffs page as it is a book write up. It’s for the programming industry, but it has made such an impact on me that I’m considering it Required Reading for anyone that even flirts around the field; it’s a good look into the mind of an engineer that is constantly trying to “fix” marketing and sales. The book, The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World, was written Christopher Duncan, is about 200 pages and offers some strong opinions and insights on the industry.
Continue reading The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World
RAVE: Ericsson’s t68
Tech review time, and it’s actually a Rave. I’m a phone-addict. I can admit this – it’s also part of what I do for a living, so it gets an addiction that gets feed well. Over the last year I’ve have a Nokia 8290, Motorola P280, Samsung Q-105 and a Ericsson t68. I’ve had many others – the beauty of having VoiceStream as a carrier is the GSM portability of the SIM chip. I take my lil’SIM chip, plop it into a new phone and my phone number (as well as contacts and other settings) go with me. I can even take the chip to Europe or Asia and use their phones because most of the world is GSM based – in the states we’re 1900 band, while the world 900/1800 so the phones aren’t always 100% capable of ocean jumping but the numbers are.
Continue reading RAVE: Ericsson’s t68