Mr. T, William Shatner, Verne Troyer (coming soon), It's World of Warcraft!!

First the South Park tie in, now popular celebs stumping for the game. They've got some sharp marketing people over there at Blizzard. I love the Mr. T Spot. Gonna get me some Night Elf Mohawk.... Fool!!




Not to be outdone, one of my heros, old Mr. overacting himself, you know what to do dog!



They've also got Jean-Claude Van Damme in a French commercial



And for the Spanish speaking set there's Willy Toledo



And because Mr. T is the man *smirk* Here's a word from Snickers

Ubuntu Installation Tips

We'll I've been using Ubuntu for almost a year now. I've been through 4 new installs and 5 upgrades, and I must say I'm still impressed. In going through a few installs I found a couple of gotchas that I wanted to pass along in the hopes that it might save someone some time. The Ubuntu community has been very good to me, so as they say, it's time to put back into the pot.

Sound
-------
Under Linux there are older programs that use oss or other methods that take over the sound card so that only one application can play sound at a time. I use artsd, but there is also aoss and other solutions. There's another article here on this blog that goes into more detail of how to implement artsd, but know that if you only get audio from one program at a time, it's probably because it is using oss or trying to talk directly to the sound card. If you are using wine to run Windows programs you can also run wine under aoss or arts so that it will play nice with other audio apps.

Flash, Windows and Other non-free stuff
-----------------------------------------
The easiest way I've found is to use the Synaptics package manger and install "Automatix". This nifty little program will go out and grab all the non-free stuff you need to play DVD's and other proprietary media on your machine. You can still get the pieces manually by adding the proper repositories and installing the right pieces, but Automatix makes this part a no-brainer.

Video and Network Cards
--------------------------
If you have an ATI or NVIDIA card or certain Network cards you'll probably want to install the non-free drivers for these. Automatix may take care of getting these installed, but if it doesn't, then you'll need to install the restricted drivers package (you can use Synaptics and do a search for restricted). Be sure that you have the "Proprietary drivers for devices (restricted)" checked in Synaptics->Repositories->Ubuntu Software Tab. You want to make sure you check "linux-restricted-modules-xxx" where xxx is the release/architecture of the kernel you are using.

64 Bit Installs
---------------
I did one of these installations and although I was very stoked to be running 64 bit, there was a bit of backbending I had to do to get 32 bit compiled apps to work as not everything is available yet in 64 bit. That being said, most of the important things are available in 64 bit, and you can always compile from source, the things that aren't but if you're lazy like me, 32 bit Ubuntu still kicks arse on anything else on the block.

Games
--------
I managed to get Warcraft, Eve-Online (albiet w/ only oss audio), and Steam w/ Team Fortress 2 working on Gutsy. Games that are written natively for Windoze will always run better there because tools like wine need to create a virtual machine to run the Windoze software. It's nice to be able to say you run games in Linux, but if you want peak performance, you've unfortunately got to run these in Windoze. That being said, if you've got enough horsepower, there's nothing like sticking it to the man in Redmond and running MS Free.

The Nitty Gritty and Support
------------------------------
If you have a problem and have to get into the guts, remember google is your friend, just put Ubuntu as your first keyword and you won't often fail to find an answer. If that doesn't work, posting on the Ubuntu forums has always worked well for me.

Upgrading from earlier releases
--------------------------------
I upgraded and now my video or network doesn't work. It's probably because you need to re-install the restricted modules for the new release. Upgrades will disable restricted modules and 3rd party software so after an upgrade be sure to re-install these restricted pieces (I've been bitten by this one more than once). Also re-installing other applications after an upgrade, or if parts of the install fail, re-installing via apt-get or Synaptics can often set you right.

That's about it for now. Remeber - In a world without fences, who needs Gates?

Paros Proxy - Web Debugging/Testing at it's finest.

I just got this one up and running under Ubuntu Gutsy. This is a very nice Web Development Tool as well as a nice debugging tool for seeing exactly what is going on in an HTTP connection. I think it's really intended as a security auditing tool, but I think people in Web Development are missing the boat if they don't take a look at this tool to test development modifications to existing live sites.

The big thing I like about it is the ability to modify HTML on the fly as it goes from the Web Server to the browser. This is a must have for anyone that needs to get down the the nitty gritty level of debugging sites at the HTTP protocol level as well as picking through generated HTML and Javascript code.

I write different Javascript for Websites. With this tool I can intercept the code in any site, then modify the code before my browser sees it. By doing this I can easily test pieces of Javascript in a live site to see if they work before giving them to the customer.

This is written in Java so you should be able to run it on pretty much anything. Since I run it on Ubuntu I've included a couple of notes about running it there.

This one will require sun Java 6. as the gcj Java that comes with Ubuntu won't work with Paros (at least with the 3.2.13 release I worked with).

If you are on Gutsy you can use apt-get or synaptic package manager to install java-6-sun.

Then in the startserver.sh script uncomment the line that sets
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun

And change the line to run /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/bin/java instead of just java (which will run /usr/bin/java which by default will be gcj)

If you don't make these changes you'll get a java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException for SunX509. I've sent the small change needed in the Javascript to eliminate this particular error so we'll hope to see it as a fix in a future release, in the meantime though, It seems to work very well on Ubuntu with the Sun Java 6. It's a must have for anyone in Web Development. There is an equivalent product called "Fiddler" for Windoze, but it only runs in Windoze, so there you have it. Bop on over to the Paros Website grab a copy give and give it a go.

ATI, Ubuntu Gutsy , Compiz, BigDesktop - Beautiful :)

Even in 2D mode without Compiz, Ubuntu Linux with Big Desktop is the shiznit. Turn on Compiz and it's a desktop experience that makes is a pleasure to sit at the computer.

So far I've gotten the following goodness working on Ubuntu:
World of Warcraft
Team Fortress 2 (w/ voice coms)
Eve Online (Although I'm still trying to figure out how to get the sound to share)

The key things to watch out for when configuring games is that wine and some of the older Linux audio applications will us oss and/or talk to the sound card directly and not be nice and share.

I couple of options exist to share the sound hardware.

aoss, esd and arts. For me arts has worked the best, I haven't tried esd and I got static with aoss.

To start arts, first start the server by doing the following:

$ artsd -d &

The -d tells it to go full duplex so you can use voice comm applications.

Then do:

$ artsdsp TeamSpeak

or

$ artsdsp wine WoW.exe

Other than that, but "ubuntu" before your searches and there are lots of awesome folks in the Ubuntu community that have been there and documented what they have done to get it to all work.

I have been having a few issues with the ATI card and BigDesktop w/ 3D Acceleration, but on the whole I've been very happy with my new install. You can get the nitty gritty of it on the Ubuntu forums at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3882866#post3882866

Enjoy and have a nice big cup of Ubuntu!!

World of Warcraft on Ubuntu Gutsy w/ Teamspeak (and Music)

So I've gone upgrade crazy. I've got the Latest Ubuntu Gutsy Gabon (7.10) installed. And I got all my doo-dads working as well.

First off, I found the most useful walk-throughs on answers by prefacing my searches with "Ubuntu"

For example "ubuntu warcraft install howto" on google did wonders. Lots of good advice, etc.

In a nutshell the procedure is

1. Install wine on Ubuntu
2. Get the WOW download or copy the contents of all 4 install CD's into a single directory.
3. enter "wine Installer.exe"

There are many other details depending on your video card, etc. but probably the most useful notes are as follows:

1. Wine will try to "own" the audio device. So only one program at a time when running under wine will have audio. The solution to this is to use either aoss or arts on Ubuntu.

With aoss you do something like:

aoss wine wow.exe
aoss TeamSpeak # the linux binary

I found aoss to be not so good and had static when using TeamSpeak.

I personally use arts. You start up artsd first (the daemon) as follows:

artsd -d

The -d puts it in full duplex mode so you can use your mic.

Then start your applications like aoss, i.e.

artsdsp wine wow.exe
artsdsp TeamSpeak
artsdsp rythmbox

Anything that uses audio in wine or any linux programs that use oss audio need to use either aoss or arts if you want to run more than one program with audio output at a time.

Enjoy...

Seamless Mouse and Keyboard Switching on Windows and Linux

This is by far one of the handiest utilities I've seen for a computer in many years.

It's called Synergy. And what it does is this: Let's say you have two computers a laptop and a deskop. Your laptop is on the left desktop on the right. When you start up Synergy you can move your mouse to the left side of your desktop screen and it shows up on the right side of the laptop screen. You can also use your keyboard input and you can do this with several computers. What it means is you can use one keyboard an mouse to seamlessly control several computers.

It works on both Linux and Windows and is interoperable so you could have 2 windows, 2 linux or a windows and a linux or any combination of up to 5 computers (center, top, bottom, left and right). It's very easy to set up, I've been using it frequently for the last couple of days and it seems to work beautifully.

You can get this baby at http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

Bye bye desk full of keyboards and mice, Yeah!!!

Legal MP3 Downloads, Somebody finally got it

In case you haven't heard. Amazon has MP3 downloads. DRM free, no download client required, just purchase the music and download it with your browser. It's not about paying for the music really. You can try the file sharing networks, but it can be hard to find the song you want and quality tends to vary, not to mention, if you get popped by the Metalicops. It could get ugly. If I figure my time is worth $60 an hour it only has to save me a minute of time to be worth the download charge. I really think Amazon has got it right, large selection, and I'm not locked to a single computer or device, I get decent quality MP3's fast download.
It will be interesting to see if the service flies with the recording companies. There is a note on the site about this being Beta. I wonder if there's some kind of digital signature in the MP3's so they can see how many of their purchased files wind up on P2P networks. In the mean time, I'm downloading like a madman and filling out my library. Enjoy.

Vista Again? Not so In Business

I haven't been doing a lot of travelling over the past couple of months, but that's fine with me. It's not so much fun to go places these days, with security, surly airline staff and the like. I read a story recently about a guy who was threatened with arrest when he tried to get some love for the laptop that he says airport security broke.

So I was reading about Vista again *smirk*. Their new service pack one that's supposed to have some performance improvements, really doesn't. It's really kind of funny. I do quite a bit of work with large companies, and not a single one has Vista installed. Most of them run XP on the desktop and Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 in the server room. It's not just because there are hardware costs associated, i.e. need more hardware, it's because of the risk of upgrading. These IT departments have been burned before by compatibility issues and server downtime, they're going on the "If it's not broke don't fix it" methodology, which, in my opinion, is not a bad one.

It's sad to see but in the Windows shops, the IT staff is constantly in an uproar about something. This failing, that breaking, etc. I've seen places where system failure were so frequent, they set up rooms of people that just watch the systems waiting for them to fail. When I go into a *nix shop. (That's Unix/Linux for the uninitiated). Although there are system failure, user support, etc. There isn't the, "Oh my god we've got a huge problem", feeling in the air. The engineers are engaged in creating and designing instead of plugging holes.

As a consultant I have a love hate relationship with Windows. It always takes me longer to do things with Windows than with any other OS I have worked with. It's good when you are charging by the hour, but bad whenever you are trying to get something done for yourself.
Things like copying files from one machine to another, or just downloading something from the Internet almost always takes me longer on a Windows machine. Most people see Windows on a desktop and it doesn't to all that bad of a job there, if you aren't too concerned about security. I see Windows on huge pieces of hardware dealing with large amounts of data. It's always fun to try to copy a large file across the network, after it prepares to copy for 20 or 30 minutes, it will start to copy, get part of the way through and die a horrible death. To be fair, this type of a scenario is usually caused by some 3rd party piece of resident anti-virus software, that corporation are forced to install if they want any semblance of security on their Windows servers.
I'll get off of my soap box again, but I will refer you to an article written by Juergen Haas which goes into some of the more technical details of making the choice between Windows vs. Unix.

Team Fortress 2, Good FPS Fun

In my off time, I enjoy playing a game or two. Single players are OK, but when it comes to pure gaming satisfaction, multi-player games are the stuff. When you play against a computer there is always some pattern, that when figured out, enables easy wins. When playing against a human opponent, you never know what they'll do. It makes for a richer gaming experience, In my opinion, and there is a small visceral satisfaction in knowing there's someone on the other end of that missile you just fired going, "Dammit, he just shot me!".

I've been a big fan of the EA Battlefield series for some time and have been liking Battlefield 2142, but just found a new FPS (First Person Shooter) that has great gameplay, an abundance of servers and terrific player vs. player action. It's one of the only video games that plays just like it's trailers. With alot of games you watch the trailers get excited about it, then the game itself comes nowhere close to the hype of the trailer. With Team Fortress 2, the games plays like the trailer. You don't just blow people up, you blow the hell out of them. When using a flamethrower you don't just set people on fire, you burn them down!

I'm including a couple screenshots from some recent gameplay and be sure to check out the site at The Orange Box Site

These are shots of a couple of guys that got their just rewards after filling me full of lead. The game gives you the opportunity to take a screen shot of the avatar of the person that just killed you. Here are a couple

Windoze Vista? Are you nuts?

Do you like to have to upgrade your hardware, add memory, etc? Do you like to have the applications and drivers that you have used for years no longer work? If you're a sucker for punishment, then I guess Vista is the Operating System for you. I have heard many war stories of this no longer works, or my machine runs like a dog now after people I know have installed Vista.

As this person says in this video, Vista is not a new and improved OS, it's just a different OS. There is nothing I have seen to date that makes me want to again pony up to the Microsoft Tax to upgrade my machines. If you want my advice, stick with XP until you are dragged kicking and screaming to Vista. It's been the same story from DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 3.11 to Windows 95 to Windows 98 to Windows XP to Vista, every subsequent release adds more un-needed features, more bloat and always requires more hardware horsepower to run. Add that some of the applications you currently run will no longer fully work and I have to ask, "What are you people thinking?"

Airline Passenger Bill of Rights .. Take out passenger and you got it right.

It's sad that it's come to this. Most of the airlines are so lacking in customer service it's amazing they are still in business. Oh yeah I almost forgot, they provide bad customer service, people stop flying them, then they ask the government (meaning us taxpayers) to bail them out.

I was in Phoenix recently and I saw a lady go up to the ticket counter and the agent said "Hello How are you today?" The lady responded "Not to well, I haven't been treated very nicely by your fellow employess". Now the woman was not belligerent, she was not agro in any way. Rather her tone was very conciliatory and rather downtrodden. The agent however that it was necessary, in front of me, to take the lady aside, and start wagging his finger in her face and tell her that "If she didn't shape up her attitude that she wasn't going to get on the plane"

I see things like this happen alot. Airline employees seem to have free reign to treat the customers any way they like and any time anyone complains or has an issue with the service passengers are threatened with not being able to get to their destinations. These days I just suck it up, try to keep my head down and not be noticed. I don't want to miss a business engagement because some Airline ticket agent is having a bad day, or they don't like the look of me or my attitude.

Anyway the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights had all the bite removed from it and is now a watered down version of the original that removes any real protection to us consumers, gives the Airlines lots of leeway, and really doesn't address the problems experienced by travelers. I'm sure the Airlines are breathing a sigh of relief, us passengers are left wondering why our elected representatives don't really represent us at all.

New I-Phone? I think not.

I've been a big Treo fan for years. I've still got my Treo 700p (The P is for the Palm Version). I've really loved this phone and Palm-OS has been good to me over the years.

Unfortunately all that has changed. You can no longer get support from Palm on their Palm phones. You have to go to the cell phone provider to get support on your Palm-OS. Problem is support for the phone consists of, "Well send you a replacement unit" Anyway I digress.

Needless to say, I am now searching for a new platform. I've been eying the I-Phone, but from what I've read, it's very sexy, but get under the hood and it blows up. Recent reports of installing software to allow use of the phone with other service providers causing the phones not to work and the support of only one phone service provider are leaving me cold on this one.

I'm actually quite interested in the new Linux phone initially there will be only one manufacturer, but I'm all about Open environments. I'm kind of concerned about the lack of applications for the phone, but with the Open Development environment, if I like I can port my favorite Linux applications right on to my phone. Try that I-Phone users!!

I've always been a big fan of Apple because they are not Microsoft and they don't seem to be quite as involved in predatory business practices as MS appears to be in, they always seem to be more expensive and sometimes have a more closed environment than MS though. Also their move to BSD Based Unix on their OS X, was brilliant IMO.

The high initial price of the I-Phone and the closed environment of the operating system are motivating me to look for something better. The new Linux phone won't be out until later this fall, and I'll probably wait a bit after that before I check one out to make sure it's had some air time and major problems fixed. Guess I'll stick with my teh suck 700p for a little while longer.

Overweight Passenger Forced to Buy Second Ticket

Well it's about frickin' time I say.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to sit next to an overweight passenger that overflowed into my seat.

I paid for my space, If I don't fit in it, then I need to buy more space. Simple as that. If I do fit in my space, it's not fair that I should have to share that space with someone who comes over into my seat.

Anyway, good on ya Southwest (Although I think you're recent dress code issues were taking it a bit too far).

Southwest Makes Big Guy (430 lbs. worth) buy a second ticket.

Fix Disconnect Problems on Battlefield 2142

For those of you that don't know, Battlefield 2142 is one of my Favorite FPS (First Person Shooter) games. It's a multi-player futuristic shoot-em-up that is the third generation of the original Battlefield 1942. If you like FPS games at all, this is one of the top of the line games.
Although the game has worked flawlessly for me, a couple of different people have reported problems with being randomly disconnected from games both with and without messages from Punkbuster.

These things have worked for some people and if you are having problems with disconnects when you play BF2142 try these links first.

For Punkbuster Kicks

For Disconnects

If that doesn't work you can try to uninstall Windows update KB917422 by going to Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, checking the show updates box, and removing KB917422. Do so at your own risk.

See you on the Battlefield

Get rid of the annoying beeping when playing games on Windows XP

My machine recently started beeping when pressing multiple keys on the keyboard.

As I understand it, the Windows keyboard buffer is filling up and it's giving me a system beep sound. My games function properly, I just get this annoying beep when I try to hold a key or a key combination found.

I saw some solutions like trying to increase the buffer size in the registry, but the one I opted for was to go to Control Panel->System->Hardware->Device Manager

Then select View->Show Hidden Devices

Then in non-plug and play devices, right click on beep and then disable.

After you re-boot, the beep is gone!!

Some Old Classic Links

I was recently reminded of a couple of fun links from a few years back.

Check out Larry's Face

Poor Larry....

And of course

Fear The Mullet

And Remember

Anything is possible at Zombo Com

Will Internet Radio, as we know it, die on the vine?

At least in America that may be the case. A recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board may mean the end of listener supported radio stations like SOMA, Chronix, and Radio Paradise.

Internet based radio stations will now have to pay an additional fee, per listener, on top of the fees they already must pay to royalties performing rights organizations like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC.

Having been in the radio business myself I know that even with advertisers and commercials, most radio stations run on a razor thing budget. A large cut of their revenue goes to pay the royalties. For listener supported radio, that margin is even thinner, with no commercial sponsors to help pay the royalty fees.

The music industry keeps trying to force the old model into the new technology and it's a square peg in a round hole. Certainly there needs to be protection for the artists who's work we enjoy, so that they are properly compensated, but it needs to be balanced in a way that we can actually hear this good music. If it's left up to the current delivery machine of FM radio stations, I fear we will be resigned to listening to the same tired music over and over and over.

If you want your voice to be heard, you can sign the on-line petition, or use THIS LINK to call, write or e-mail (Calling is best) your representative in the US.

You can also read a bit more about the subject in this Wired Article

Do your part to save Internet Radio.

Napster Bad... Beer Goood!!

This one has been around for awhile, but I thought I'd post it here. Remember the old Napster, before they got bought out?

This is a little piece on the RIAA's effort to shut them down.

Champ Chaos Video from Yesteryear

Rex is Da Man - Nice 3d Animation

I had seen this one awhile back, and was watching videos with my daughter, on the net, last night, and it reminded me of this video.

Nice work guys.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/33563/rex/?filters=5

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

I was making the previous post and looking at the picture in the About me section and thought I should make clear my stand on the Star Trek vs. Star Wars.

First I love the Star Wars franchise, great effects, one of the best space movies ever IMO, good on ya, George Lucas. But to be honest, Star Wars is mere eye candy compared to Star Trek. I'm not talking about the new Star Trek, with prissy, Jean Luc, or the manly Captain Janeway, I'm talking about the F* the prime directive, give me some Romulan Ale, and bring on the green girls Captain Kirk.

The special effects are cheesy by todays standards, the costumes are a laugh, but the main point was the story. It was about the interaction of the characters and the choices they made. It was about alot of things, but it was a story of what happens to a group of people who got on a big ship to go out into the universe to "check it out".

I think the newer Star Treks are somewhat formula-ized versions of other television dramas, but the original, that was breaking new television ground, it was innovative and fresh.

So just to be clear, my vote, Star Trek, Original FTW.

You know what to do dog!

-GT

Buying a new computer? Buy Local, F* The Internet

When buying a personal computer the advice I always give people is as follows: "Call around to local computer stores, when you find one that treats you like a customer, buy it there"

I say this for two reasons:

1. They treat you like a customer, meaning they answer your questions and don't make you feel stupid, and if there's a problem, they'll make it right.

2. They are local, so if there's a problem you can put your computer in your car and drive it over to the place you bought it, and ask them to fix it, or for your money back.

I'll also from now on, add this bit of advice; Do a "Sucks Search". Go to Google and type in for example "ibuypower sucks". If there are alot of hits to your search of people that took the time to write about their poor experience, then you probably shouldn't do business with that company.

A case in point. I bought 2 computers for my childen (1 each) for Christmas. The machine I bought for my son worked fine. The machine for my daughter however has not worked since we purchased it for more than a couple of days.

When we got it and plugged in, it ran fine for a couple of days, then the hard drive started to fail. They sent me a new hard drive, I installed it, and it ran fine for another couple of days, then the machine stopped booting. It would start to turn on and the fans would start up, but then the machine would just turn itself off. The company sent me a new power supply, and I installed that, but it did not fix the problem.

I then sent the whole machine back to them for repair. They replaced the motherboard (or so they said) and sent it back to me. It ran fine for two days then started doing the won't boot thing. They received the computer back over 2 weeks ago, and I talked to them yesterday and I was told by someone that they hadn't started work on the machine yet, but they were waiting on a part to come in and should have it in the next couple of days.

At this point I've had enough, 3 months and I haven't had a machine that I paid for work for more than a week straight. So I ask for my money back. First I am told that I am past the 30 day Warranty period and they won't give me my money back. Then after arguing on the phone with a "Manager" for half an hour, he finally agreed to give me my money back, but less a 20% re-stocking fee.

Even thought the machine has not been working for any given 30 day period, and even though they have had the machine for more time in the last 3 months than I have, they refuse to honor their warranty stating that's it's been longer than 30 days since they shipped it.

Now had I done a sucks search on ibuypower before I started this whole nightmare, my daughter would probably have a working computer and I wouldn't be out several hundred dollars or hard earned money, because of a 20% re-stocking fee on something the company never actually delivered.

To make a long story short, when buying a new computer, heed the following advice:

1. Don't under any circumstances buy from ibuypower.com :p
2. Don't buy it on the Internet and have it shipped, if there's a problem, you'll have to ship it back, you could buy on-site repair service, but if they can't fix the problem, you can't take it back to where you bought it and talk to the person you bought it from face to face.
3. Use a local computer dealer for the same reason above. Talk to the person who will put together your machine and if he/she treats you like a customer and answers your questions, even if it costs more up front, you will save money in the long run in time and sanity.
4. When you buy a computer from a local store, make sure they service it on-site, and don't have to ship it back to the manufacturer for repair. This is basically the same as buying it from the Internet with a middle man involved. It gives the seller an excuse to say, "We're not responsible, you'll have to take it up with the manufacturer".
5. Look at the Warranty that comes with the machine. Does the warranty start on date of delivery or date of purchase? If something goes wrong will they use new or "refurbished" parts to fix your machine? Will they give you your money back if you are not satisfied, if so, for how long?
6.Do a "sucks search" on google before you buy. That one would have saved me alot of money and hassle.

I'm sure there is more to add, but that's the basics. Follow this advice, as I should have, and you'll be a happy computer owner.

-GT

Microsoft, Deceptive? Say it aint so! *smirk*

I just read this article titled:

Microsoft Sued Over Deceptive 'Vista-Capable' Sticker

Microsoft, Deceptive? Go figure. When are you people going to wake up.

So here is this company. They screw you around for years, forcing you to spend lot's of time and money to upgrade, patch for virus', recover from system crashes, the list goes on, but instead of looking at an alternative, like a Mac, or Linux, you still give the company your money, you still use their product because you are too F*ing lazy to seek an alternative, then you sue them for doing what they have a long history of doing. Not to mention the fact that they have some of the deepest corporate pockets in the world and an army of lawyers that take on countries on a regular basis.

I just installed a new Server. It does e-mail via the postfix server and courier IMAP, it serves up the family website, and the website for my consulting engagements. It also server as the print and file server for the other computers in the house. It does all of this with a decrepit 350mhz, pentium 2, 256mb of RAM and a 4gb hard disk. If you want the new Vista in the recommended configuration, you'll need 100 times the processing power, 8 times the RAM and twice the hard drive space. This, my friends, is the beauty of Linux. All the taste of Windows, but half the bloat.

Micro$oft vs. Anything Else

You know, I have nothing personal against Bill. As a matter of fact I kind of admire his geek made good story. The software made by his company however is another story.

As a consultant I guess I should like Micro$oft, because any given IT task I have to do, usually takes twice as long (and usually the purchase of additional expensive software) to accomplish as it does under any other operating system. Pick one, Solaris, Mac OS, Any Linux Flavor, HP-UX, AIX, Dec-Ultrix, QNX, to name a few.

What the advent of Windows in the Server world has done is to breed a generation of MCSE's that can regurgitate the requisite points and clicks need to configure a Windows operating system, but they do not understand the underlying concepts of what their network and hardware is trying to do so they build bloated applications and flooded networks. To be fair there are MCSE's out there that know their stuff, but the majority I've run into know about Windows, but ask them an architecture question and they'll start pulling answers out of their arse.

Let's talk about Vista for a moment. They did this to us with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP and up the line. Each successive operating system has been more bloated than the next. Each upgrade causing the customer to have to buy bigger faster hardware just to equal the performance of their old operating system/hardware combination. In addition to that, the new operating system is 64 bit, but most of the applications and drivers are still 32 bit. Which means you'll have to run those suckers under a 32 bit emulator which will give you yet another performance hit. I just don't get it. Let's see, I'm going to cause myself days of un-told pain and suffering so I can upgrade to something that runs slower and is less stable than what I currently have? Ya right..

The architecture, hmmm... Well I can sum that up with two words, "Protected Memory". All of the other operating systems I mentioned above, Unix and Unix work alikes have something called protected memory. The operating system itself, i.e. the video drivers, disk drivers, passwords, logins, etc are all stored in what's called protected memory. Your applications, like your spreadsheets, web browsers and e-mail programs all run in what's called "User Memory". This is also sometimes referred to as kernel space and user space. The concept here is that while your applications run merrily away, they can only access the core of your system or "Protected Memory" through very well defined API's (Application Programming Interfaces).

In the Windows world everything runs in the same space. In other words, once you're in you're in. This is what makes Windows more prone to virus' than other operating systems that utilize the concept of "Protected Memory". On Windows, Any program you install can access parts of the operating system that it's usually not a good idea for programs to access. Things you run on your user desktop can re-install drivers, write directly to the hard disk and update your system registry where all your important system configuration information is stored. Once you're in to a Windows system it's a fairly simple matter to infect it with something nasty.

In the "Protected Memory" world, once someone gets in, they are in to that application, i.e. a mail server or a web server. The difference here is that just because they have broken in to one application still doesn't mean they can get at your system. Once someone is in to your system they then have to try to break in to protected memory which in a lot of cases just can't be done. "Protected Memory" not only helps protect machines from getting completely compromised by hackers, it also keeps poorly written applications from crashing or locking up your machine.

Let's talk about that time thing. I said up above that it takes twice as long to get things done, and here's why. First, point and click, point and click. A half hour later you've navigated to the places you needed to go to updated your configurations the way you wanted them. In a *nix system there are certainly graphical config programs if pointing and clicking is your thing, but on the back end instead of a cryptic "Registry" where everything is stored in multiple levels in text and hex, there's a directory, with text files (usually /etc) where all your application configuratino is stored. There's usually only one or two files per application and everything is in there, usually with comments telling you what each configuration parameter is for. It makes configuration of systems and applications, nice, simple and less prone to failure.

I've always found, in the IT business, that it is always best to have options. If you have a hammer in your tool box, you can only drive nails. If you have a hammer and a screwdriver in your tool box you can drive screws and nails. The point being is the more tools you have the more problems you can solve. Next time you are out looking for a new server or a new set of desktops think about a Unix or Linux solution. If you have the basic needs of most business', i.e. E-mail, Web, Database, Word Processing, Graphics, then a good Unix or Linux distro may be the ticket. It will cost you less up front, has commercially available support, won't get virus' and will keep people from installing alot of extra chat programs and the like on your nice new desktops or servers.

My current favorites are Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server, although I've only had the server running about a week, setup was text based, which is OK, but it took a bit, being new to the system, to get it how I wanted it configured. It was, however, very easy to get a postfix mail server with spam assassin and a Courier IMAP with SSL running. I've still got to get my Apache and mySQL set up the way I want them. I'll let you know more about how I like it after I've had it running for a bit.

For Video games, well it's just Windows. The same thing that makes Windows suck at being a desktop, is what makes it great for playing a video game. In an operating system there is something called a scheduler that divides up the single or multiple CPU's to work on any given process at any given time. In Windows the scheduler tends to like to dedicate all of your CPU power to just one process at a time for long periods of time. This is why sometimes when you run Windows and start a big print job, all the other applications either lock up or run very slowly. In *nix, the schedulers tend to divide the CPU time up a bit more evenly (although you can adjust certain process to hog all the CPU if you like, it's generally called a "nice" value). In Windows, if you start a heavy duty game, it will dedicate all of your CPU power to a single game process (although multiple CPU's and multiple core CPU's tend to be a bit under-utilized in Windows as compared to most *nix systems).

I could go on about this for days, and I think I will, but for now, I've got to get back to the consulting biz..

Safe Travels,
GT

Why is Corporate America So F*'d Up?

I've been working this job now for a year and it never ceases to amaze me that the Dilbert Principle plays itself out on such a regular and predictable basis. It's a sea of cubicles and pointy haired bosses and even less capable "engineers" that really haven't got a clue. I hear things like "We don't use open source, it could have security holes". "You want that one small change made? Sorry, won't happen until next year". "That didn't get done? Oh well you must have forgotten the cover sheet on your TPS report"

What I do in effect is go to a customer site. They ask me what time it is. I ask them for their watch. I look at their watch and tell them what time it is. I then put the watch in my pocket, get on a plane and go home.

The people that really have their act together are the small shops that don't have alot of people. They know how to operate their watches, and what they need is some fine tuning on setting timezones, how to properly wind it, etc. They seem to get the fact that throwing money away on bad projects and not correcting mistakes before the resources are spent is a bad thing.

Big corporations on the other hand cannot tell whether it's 3 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon. They need lots of help just to find out if it's day or night. As a cost savings measure windows are know only available for the Janitorial staff and upper level executives. As an example, I was working at a multi-national fortune 500 company recently and they wrote a bunch of lengthly documents about the requirements for the project. The only problem is that the requirements would not meet the needs of project.

The totally insane part of it is that even after I told them this and documented it, they still proceeded ahead with the original requirements because "That was what we spec'd, that is what we are going to do". "We had knife fights for 3 months to get this document together, we're not changing it now".

It doesn't matter that the project will not give the end users what they want, it doesn't matter that they are throwing wads of cash at a project that won't give them dollar one of return on investment, what matters is they have agreement on some marching orders, and by god, and damned the torpedoes, full speed ahead. They're so far down the river (or up the creek) that there is no turning back. But at the end of the day, they spent a bunch of the companies money, didn't get anything back, but they are still employed because they did exactly what they were told, by the letter.

I wrote something up that called out the error of their ways, but then had someone looking over my should that made me take out any references to lack of accuracy, or will not work. It was a classic exercise in futility, the only thing that was left was a document that said everything was great, make it so number one.

This is not something that is unique either. I see this corporate disease almost everywhere I go. It's the old, "None of us is as dumb as all of us" adage.

There is an epidemic of mediocrity where the barely qualified make million dollar decisions and those who are qualified have left and gotten consulting jobs, or are in Vermont somewhere painting canoes.

I don't have a solution... Yet.. Maybe there isn't one. All I can do is search for the answer and hope that one day a solution will present itself. If I find it, I'll post the solution I found, here on my blog, from my new 100 foot fully crewed yacht.

Meanwhile though, I'm maintaining the status quo in corporate America and sending them the bill. In other words, if your not part of the solution, there's money to be made by prolonging the problem.

-GT

Hot dog for breakfast? Go to jail.

Another one that makes you go WTF? What is this person tryng to communicate? I asked the person inside he truck and he said it was on there when he bought it, it looked kind of wierd so he kept on there.

Google Earth, what cool things have you been wasting time on?

I'm headed of to Jersey City. Before I went, I found a close hotel, got directions and checked out the neighborhood on Google Earth.

Here's a pic of where I'll be working/crashing for a couple of days, with the 3D buildings options turned on.






You just can't beat it. Just about the coolest thing I've seen on the Internet since the browser.

Download Google Earth, you won't be sorry you did. Google is even as cool enough to have a Windoze, a Mac and a Linux version.

Go Google!

New Airport Security Express Lane

Too bad nobody was using it. They only have these in a few airports and it costs $99 a year to join up. This one was in San Jose. The person at the checkpoint said thay are "Negotiating with other airports". I'm taking the wait and see approach. Once I see them in more airports, then I might plunk down the up front cash.

Free Custom Treo 700p Ringtones

So I've had this phone for almost a year now and I finally got tired of reaching for my phone every time somebody else who has the same phone gets a call while they are standing in my proximity. So I finally broke down and tried to get my own custom ringtones on the Treo 700p. I specifically wanted the Timmy! ringtone from Comedy Central after seeing it during the Daily Show (John Stewart Rocks!).

When I went to mobile.comedycentral.com, the first thing it tried to do was play a bunch of flash, on a mobile phone? Come Comedy Central... I guess the jokes on me eh?

I finally break out my laptop to bring up the mobile.comedycentral.com site, after finding that it didn't work on my mobile phone. I had the option to listen in a flash file, or to buy the ringtone.

Ummm.... Riiiiiiigggghhht.... So I do a bit more looking, and I can get MP3 ringtones on my phone, but I have to buy a 25$ program to be able to use these files as ringtones.

Bzzzznnnnntttt..... On to more fruitful pursuits. After much googling about I found that the following works for putting custom ringtones on your phone.

1. Take a PCM wave file or files, of 195k in size or less and e-mail it to yourself.

2. Then using your mail program download the attachment and when the attachment shows up in the bottom of your message, tap and hold the icon on the right of the filename. When the menu comes up tap "select viewer", then pick "voice memo"
3. After you have selected the viewer all you should have to do is click on each wav file, then click "View"
4. Answer yes to transfer it to Voice Memo, then when Voice Memo appears, press the menu button and select "Copy to Ringtone"

Your Wave file should now be available as a Ringtone along with the stock Treo Ringtones.

This will allow you to create your own ringtones from sound files and play them on your phone.

As a note:
You'll have to convert your wav file to a lower bitrate, mono, lower sample rate, etc to get a good length tone. The Treo also chops off WAV ringtones at the 195k mark. Also as a last bit of advice. Don't make the sound file longer than 20 seconds, as it will cause problems with going over to voicemail.

Enjoy.

GT

Pilot Conversations

I found this funny little bit, in the forums of the guild that I play World of Warcraft with.

We're all a bunch of old farts that still lay video games. I digress though. In my travels I've met quite a few pilots, and while I can't say for sure whether this is completely true or not, I can just see these guys saying things like this.

Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!"
Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"

Tower: "TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 degrees."
TWA 2341: "Center, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"
Tower: "Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"

From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff line: "I'm f...ing bored!"
Ground Traffic Control: "Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"
Unknown aircraft: "I said I was f...ing bored, not f...ing stupid!"

O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."
United 329: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this... I've got the little Fokker in sight."

A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked, "What was your last known position?"
Student: "When I was number one for takeoff."

A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down.
San Jose Tower Noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadeloupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."

A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich , overheard the following:
Lufthansa (in German): "Ground, what is our start clearance time?"
Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."
Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany . Why must I speak English?"
Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war!"


Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency 124.7"
Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure. By the way, after we lifted off we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway."
Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702, contact Departure on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from Eastern 702?"
Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger; and yes, we copied Eastern... we've already notified our caterers."

One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said,

"What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?"
The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough parts for another one."

The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign: Speedbird 206.

Speedbird 206: " Frankfurt , Speedbird 206! Clear of active runway."
Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."
The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): "Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, -- And I didn't land."

While taxiing at London's Gatwick Airport , the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727.
An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air 2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!"
Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"
"Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded.
Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking:
"Wasn't I married to you once?"

Anna Nicole Smith.... Why?

I was having breakfast this morning and reading the newspaper, and it occurred to me that in the newspaper I was reading didn't have a single story about the war in the front sections of the paper. There were only 3 stories semi-related to the ware in the "World" section of the paper.

There was a story about Anna Nicole there in the front section though.

When I got back home tonight, I found this link on fark.com and I have to agree with the submitter.

Pay attention people! There are things going on in the world that need your attention, and Anna Nicole Smith is not one of them.

'Nuff Said

The Story of Naked Guy on Spinning Bull

After some poking around I finally found out what exactly the statue is trying to communicate. Apparently the statue was commissioned by one of the founders of the company. The bull represents one of their competitors and the naked guy is them leaping over the competition. Go figure.... Guess that's art.

Naked Guy On Spinning Bull?

Some things just make you say OMGWTF. Both the bull and the guy on his back are anatomically correct and what this sculpture is supposed to signify is somewhat beyond me. I found this outside of a high tech company I'm working at this week. There was no placard on it so no name or sculptor.

Tunes in your mobile

I have one of those new phones that stores my mp3's. The only problem is that I have yet to find a decent device that will play my music on the car stereo. Leave it to those forward thinking engineers at Chrysler to put an auxiliary jack right in the front panel of the in dash stereo. Next time you rent a car, ask for the Chrysler. You can plug your mp3 player in and cruise down the road in tuneful bliss.

Southwest Airlines, good rates, feel like cattle

Ah yes, this trip to San Diego reminded me of the Joy of traveling on Southwest Air.

I'm not sure what the reasoning behind this is, but there's no assigned seating.

They way it works is there is an A, B or C printed on your ticket. Then you queue up in your respective line, then they open each gate in alphabetical order, A first, then B, then C.

Then the way it works ism, you kill each other for the best seats. If you're in the C group, you can just suck it up in the middle seat. It really makes you feel like cattle and the vibe when you look at another passenger is more of a "You better not get my aisle seat, you bastard" kind of of a feeling rather than a "Hey fellow road warrior, sup?" state of mind.

I guess the theory is, that it loads and un-loads planes faster, but I just don't see it. Maybe they save 3 or 4 minutes.

Being 6 feet 3 inches tall, I always reserve an aisle seat, on other more civilized airlines, where they allow you to reserve a seat.

The only problem is, Sometimes Southwest has ridiculously low fares, or they have a direct flight to where I need to go when nobody else does. So sometimes you just gotta roll the dice and hope you get the seat you want.

So I'm back from San Diego, off the flying cattle car, and not really ready, but have to anyway, it's back to work. I'll be schlepping around the Pit (Silicon Valley) for the next couple of weeks, and there's a trip to Cleveland, Ohio in there somewhere too. I'm going to go slide on some snow tomorrow in the Sierra's and be back on the road Monday.

Uneventful Travels,
GT

Shout out to Ubuntu

I had to send the good word out to the groovy people at Ubuntu - Linux for Humans.

I've seen quite a few Linux flavors over the years, but this was easiest installing yet.

It did a better job of automagically recognizing things like my sound and wireless cards than Windoze did.

I got my first cup of Ubuntu when I lost a hard drive on my laptop. I was still able to work on my machine while I waited for my new hard disk by booting Ubuntu off of a CD and writing files to my USB drive.

When I got my new hard drive, I made my machine dual boot and put both Ubuntu and Windoze (Some software I have to use for work, but not much, still only runs under Windoze. I know it's totally barbaric, but hey it's a living).

Overall the whole package has a nice finished feel to it. It has lots of great things already pre-installed, like Open Office, The GIMP, and there's even a Windoze Remote Desktop Client!

I dual boot installed my 14 year old daughters machine too with the 64 bit version of Ubuntu and She's loving it. She's in to video and music editing and the package management software makes installing new software a no brainer.

To make a long story short, if you've been thinking about tyring out a new Linux distro, Ubuntu is easy to install, easy to use, and the price is right. It basically the Shiznit!

Smoker's Pole

Are people who use these 'Pole Smokers'?

Travel Advice for the Un-initiated

I will pass along a few tips I have picked up in my years as a traveler, in the hopes that it will maybe make your life easier. To be honest it's not really out of any altruistic motivation that I impart these pearls of wisdom. It's really in the hope that I won't be stuck behind your sorry, clueless ass because you are fiddle farting around and didn't pay attention. Selfishness aside, lets move on to the reason for this post.

Before You Arrive
---------------------

1. I use Kayak, it has all of the major carriers (except Southwest :( ). You can easily pick the time you want to leave and arrive, put in multiple stops, etc. My boss turned me on to it and it's really the best way I've found on the next to find the right flights and times. NOTE: If the link from Kayak does not go directly to the airlines but instead to Orbitz or Cheap Tickets, get the flight information and book it directly with the airline. If you don't book directly with the airline it gives the airlines one more excuse not to reimburse/compensate you if there's a problem with your flight. The same goes with hotels and rental cars, go straight to the source.

2. Check in on the airline Web Site - Some airlines allow you to check in and print your boarding pass at home. If you can't do that, use the self service terminals near the airline check-in counters. This will save you time. NOTE: Make sure to read all of the fine print. You may not be able to use Web Site check in, if you have checked luggage.

3. Travel Light - Use the roll away luggage that will fit in the overhead bins, don't check luggage and it will cut 30-60 minutes off of your travel time easily. NOTE: Be prepared to "Gate Check" your luggage on smaller planes. Ask at the ticket counter before you get board. Otherwise you'll hold everyone on the plane up after you figure out you can't fit your bag in the plane and have to get back to the front of the plane to give it to the flight attendant to check.

4. Print out or Write down your flight information and have it handy. Get your ID out and have it ready as you will probably need to show it more than once. If you are leaving the country make sure you have your passport.

5. Take a bath. Nobody wants to sit next to your stinky ass all the way from California to New York. And while your at it, that breath mint I'm offering you, it's not because I'm being all nice and sharing, it's because the malodorous stench emanating from your festering gob is about ready to make the hair on my head leave their follicles and migrate to a more hospitable environment.

6. Measure your ass. If you can't fit the bar down that separates one seat from another, you need to purchase enough seat to hold your ass. No offense to fat people, but DAMN! Get your ass outta my seat.

At the Airport
-----------------
1. Paste on a smile and suck it up. Probably the number one rule. I've seen this a hundred times at least. Traveler talks to airline personnel, traveler is justifiably angry and vents anger at airline personnel, airline personnel politely tells traveler that there is nothing they can do to help and they're terribly sorry, as the airline personnel think to themselves "I've got your customer service hangin'". If you paste on the smile, suck it up, and ask them, please if they could assist you with your problem, chances are they'll still think to themselves "I've got it hangin' right here buddy", but at least there is the oft chance that they will actually assist you with your problem and do what they can to help. If you go in with an attitude you reduce your chances of getting help to somewhere around zero. Just remember, when using air travel, not only does shit happen, shit happens ALOT.

2. Have your ID and your boarding pass in your hand and ready when you get to the first checkpoint. Fumbling through your bag or pockets to find your ID or boarding pass is bad form.

3. No you can't take liquids through the checkpoint. No that water bottle can't go. You can technically take bottles of 3 ounces or less in a 1 quart plastic bag. You have to take the plastic bag out all by itself when you get to the x-ray machine, and at some airports you have to present it to a preliminary inspector. I avoid all the hassle and leave the liquids at home. You can take stick deodorant and all your other toiletries, except for: shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and shaving cream. Those things you do not bring, you can get at the hotel on the other end. Make sure you call ahead and that your hotel has what you need before you arrive (most decent ones do).

4. As you approach the X-ray untie your shoes and take your laptops out of the bags. The shoes must go through the X-ray machine and the laptops have to go through all by themselves. Check your pockets for metal, belt buckles, money clips, etc. Having to go through the checkpoint multiple times because you forgot metal on your person increases your chump status in the eyes of your fellow travelers.

5. No you cannot take those lighters through. Check your pockets man!! Toss them before you get to the x-ray machine.

Getting On The Plane
-------------------------

You'd think this would be simple but so many people mess this one up.

1. Yo! Get out of the frickin' aisle! If you are near the front of the plane and there are people that need to get by, step out of the aisle and wait to "F" with putting your stuff in the overhead rack when there is nobody waiting to get by you.

2. Hey that's my stuff in there. When you do put your things in the overhead rack. Be considerate of other peoples stuff. GENTLY, move it aside, but don't smash it to get your stuff in.

3. Get to your seat, sit down and keep your hands and arms inside until the vehicle comes to a complete stop. Don't get up, wander around, talk to your buddy in the seat 5 rows back, or go to the bathroom. Sit down and buckle up.

Getting off the plane
------------------------
For some people this is even harder than getting on, but with practice, it's a skill that can be easily mastered.

1. Yo! Get out of the frickin' aisle! - If you have stuff in the overhead bin and you can get it out quickly, then do so. Otherwise, wait for the people that can operate an overhead luggage bin to pass until you can figure out the operational details of the in-flight luggage storage unit.

2. Yo! Get out the frickin' aisle! - When you get off of the plane, don't stand around in front of the gate exit looking for where to go next. Move along citizen, get out of the way and off to the side before stopping to make sure your head and other body parts are still attached.

I'm Traveling to Sunny (we hope) San Diego next week for a family vaction. I'll post some pictures of our wandering and the interesting folks we meet along the way. Until then these words of wisdom - taken from a poster

It Could Be that the Purpose of Your Life Is Only to Serve as a Warning to Others.

Travel Tip #101 - Get a room that is empty

On a recent trip to Texas, I got in rather late, or really early, however you want to look at it. I do the credit card/ID dance with the front desk person and stumble blearily to my room.

I take the room key from my pocket and slide it in the door, hear the click of the latch, open the door and see a guy standing there in is BVD's, who says "Hey I'm in here".

Being now fully awake, I make my way back to the front desk and ask the person there if "I can please have a room that does not already have someone in it".

I suppose that if it were a couple of Swedish bikini models in the room I might have thought "Man this new hotel points program is great".

But as it was, I should have asked for my room, without guest. So remember road warriors, your travel tip for the day is, when you check in, make sure you ask for the un-occupied room option. Unless of course you'd like to redeem some of your points..

Driving in Texas

Dallas freeway at rush hour. Poor guy, shouldn't have had that second breakfast burrito.

Welcome To My Blog

When I found out that my neighbors cat had a blog, I figured, it was high time to start a blog of my own.

I travel around the US quite a bit in my traveling type job, and I have my handy Treo 700p, so I figured I'd post some pictures from around the country of people and places and share them with the blogsphere.

I've been around in the computer business for 20+ years, Play WoW, Snow-Ski, Disc Golf, and enjoy spending time with my wife and two kids.

I'll probably be bashing the l-user's quite a bit in this blog, and I also enjoy watching the completely insane things people do. Along those lines, you've got to check out fark.com
most likely one of my favorite all time sites.

I'll start out with a couple of technology links that the geeks in the crowd will enjoy.

The Tao of Programming - If you are in the technology business - know it, live it
Simon - BOFH - "What was your user name again?"
Tech Support Nietzsche Style - "Our product is obviously too complex for you"

And leave you with this thought.

There are those that manage what they don't understand, and those that understand what they don't manage, then there are those that just don't manage to understand.

LA Library - Librarian Action Figure with Real Shushing Action!

Librarian Action Figure - With Real Shushing Action!

I found this one while checking out the gift shop at the LA public library. I would think if it was an LA librarian action figure she would also need the Kung-Fu grip.