I spent the day doing a million different programming tasks at work then during my break I did some design. They bought me the new Illustrator, Photoshop and Flash so it seems like there may be some designing afterall.

My discuss program looks a lot better with a skin on it. There are already two themes. This is the brown one. I have been looking for something to do in brown and purple and this is it, I guess.





I promise I will release it for beta testing soon. First I need to put the finishing touches on it. Basically it is like a group email/document editor - chat program where you can upload attachments for everyone to look and keep track of changes. When the dicussion is compelete. E.g. the document has been fully edited and agreed upon, is it exported and removed from the system.

The system is not a repository for the info but more like a tool to create a document for a group of people without having to rely on lots of emails. Plus instad of having to send all the attachments all over the place, the people come to them,

Yesterday I day I had to move some data to a computer that was not networked to the web. It had been a long time since I had experienced that. Usually I just use my phone to reach out the the web when the computer can't do it by itself, so basically I have been like a walking network access point for years now. I didn't have my phone with me and so I tried to use an ipod shuffle to move the data and for some reason the computer would not accept it as drive. It just never popped up. We actually tried two different ones.



I could have burned a CD but we are talking about 1K of data. It was so tiny I could have just printed it out and typed it back in. It was about 1 page of text. Then one of my coworkers suggested a floppy. I had totally forgotten that they existed - have you young peeps even ever seen one? I remember punching holes in the big ones. Well not the really big ones but the 5 and 1/4 ones.

Anyways it worked and was really fast considering it was a 1k transfer. I think it was really 4k in the end because eof the file structure. Long live the floppy, lol.



On another note, have you noticed more places are moving toward the automated cashier. I hate that. Who wants that. Obviously not the consumer and obviously not the people who want jobs. I think there is no reason I should have to check myself out when I am buying their product. Have Americans because so "Automated" they can't even handle a simple sales transaction with a human. Home depot has them now.

Remember a while back I was ranting [inlink]paul,4123[/inlink] about some local design company that I thought did the most horrible web designs . Well I ended up having a meeting with Mr. Flynn himself today and he really does have no sense of web style. Seems like a nice guy but just look at this



It has enough faded white to make me feel like I am in heaven or that I left my computer out in the sun too long. Yuck and the drop shadow is out of control. If I had him as a student I would have given this design an F- .

I wish they would have let me just design and program The Ride For Roswell Site instead of just "draping" his tacky photshop skins over my quality content adminsitration/editing system. The Ride For Roswell Site suggests nothing about a bicycle race accept the new "Intro To Digital Media Art/Look Mommy I Can use Photoshop To Make A Collage" splash graphic.

At one point he actually suggested that I stick a big bright yellow star across the "splash page." He had printed out a photoshop doc to show me what a big yellow star looks like. It was horrific.

During the whole thing I never let on that I was a designer. I just pretended to be a clueless programmer with no opinion because I knew that if we discussed it I was going to start laughing. This is the only reason I want to finish my thesis. So when this issue comes up I can say that I am a "Master of Fine Arts."

On another note yet still, the new chat was a huge sucess. Yeah for SQLite. I am going to convert much of my life to it. The new discuss application is based on it. You can play with it soon.

Google has an extraordinary amount of information about its users. It logs all the searches made on it and stores this information indefinitely. Because every computer has a unique IP (internet protocol) address, every visit to every website can be traced back to the computer making it - a fact which is well known in geek circles but remarkably under-publicised outside them. (Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist, was given 10 years in jail last April for "leaking state secrets" after Yahoo! in Hong Kong handed over information linking his IP address and his e-mail to the Chinese authorities.) Users of Google's Gmail service, who are already having their e-mails scanned to place targeted ads, have given the company their identity, a full record of all their searches and copies of all their e-mails, stored indefinitely. Users of Google's Toolbar are inadvertently giving the company a list of not just all their searches but also of every single website they visit. And, as the lawsuit makes clear, all this information is potentially vulnerable to subpoena.
Quoted from: Big Google is watching you - Sunday Times - Times Online

I have said this for so long.

Basically, I am saying that belief in God is not totally harmless for everyone or the advancement of science unless believers do nothing to act on their beliefs when they conflict with science.

Religion is not a hindrance to advancing as a people scientifically, intellectually, or otherwise. To state otherwise is patently false and ignores the totality of human existence. [inlink]jason,298[/inlink] --jason

Jason, don't know about patently false, that sounds like a bit of an exaggeration in country where we have been fighting to teach evolution [inlink]paul,3438[/inlink] in school for a century and where people are dying of all sort of diseases that can be cured or alleviated by advancements associated with stem cell research.

I think you could say, "Believing in religion, without acting upon it, is not a hindrance to advancing as a people scientifically, intellectually, or otherwise. " But who believs in religion without acting upon it. And if they do, do they really believe?

I would like to use this example speech at whitehouse.gov by the President George Bush in regard to Stem Cell research as an example of when religious influence hinders science.

I've asked those questions and others of scientists, scholars, bioethicists, religious leaders, doctors, researchers, members of Congress, my Cabinet, and my friends. I have read heartfelt letters from many Americans. I have given this issue a great deal of thought, prayer and considerable reflection. And I have found widespread disagreement . . . Thank you for listening. Good night, and God bless America. --GW Bush

I don't want the social and legal policy I am subjected to based on my ultimate executive's prayer power in any way.

Surely, we can develop other methods of getting stem cells in the future so that we can avoid having to use embryonic ones. But the embryonic stem cell method exists here now and many people could be helped by the research that will be dead by the time we catch up with other methods. Furthermore, I am terrified of other countries having access to this technology before we do. Especially China.

Saying "I believeeeee in God" has never hindered me in any way, and it never will. -jason

That is fine for you because you are the one believing but what about the people whose lives affected by the social and legal policy agenda set forth by the believers. Belief in God is not safe in a free society where the people with the belief are also able to make social and legal policy based on those beliefs, for people that do not believe in the same God or do not believe in God at all. And if the people making policy that believ in God do not let God's desires influence them, then do they really believ in God?

There isn't anyone alive who can say with any matter of truth or authority God is real or not.[inlink]jason,298[/inlink] --jason

I think this is precisely why many people are uncomfortable submitted to the desires of God's moral and ethic code.

So I have this lingering love for (WIKIPEDIA - Happy Hardcore) Happy Hardcore music. You can hear it here It is the music I program to most. Well tonight n Rochester there is a happy hardcore night at a bar there and it is 21+. Most often these events are fully of youngins but the fact that it's 21+ makes me want to go and dance it up. Plus it's somehow related to the murder mystery game clue.

Too bad none of my friends like to dance anymore. Well (e:lilho) does but she is in NYC.





--update - This was the worst event I ever attended. It was at a bar the size of merlins with a 4 x4 dancefloor that had also had the turntables on it. However, they did give out free shots for Oprahs birthday.

I was thinking about (e:decoyisryan)'s journal [inlink]decoyisryan,1[/inlink] where he mentioned that he went to school for Public Communication but doesn't have a lot of experience. It kind of sounds like my brother (e:mike) who is also working retail in his post degree period. In order to take the next step you really need to just go ahead and do it.

For a long time I was addicted to school. I think it was because I was convinced that working was not interesting, judging by the ridiculous jobs I had in the past. I went so far as thinking that I wanted to be a professor.

Eventually, I decided that if I couldn't have the job doing what I liked, that I would just pretend I did and dedicate my life to a project I could prove myself with. What a good idea that was. At some point it developed in this site. So ya, it and other related projects took up a lot of my personal time but honestly, it was worth every minute as I advanced my skillset a 1000% more than I ever did in school. Then I found the job I have now which made it all worth it.

I would say, take on a couple resume builders in whatever it is you like to do. If you get good at what you do, you eventually will start to be knownfor it and make a place for yourself.

Speaking of which, (e:decoyisryan), if you ever want to do some Public Communication stuff for this site I would be happy to get some help. What kid of stuff do you do?

So today, I did so many things at work. I got much further on my discussion application, I receieved and installed Visual Studio.NET and built a Pocket PC Phone app(lame one), rebuilt a flash movie for the Roswell Site, and built the splash page for the new wirless network coming to Roswell in conjunction with Verizon. I really do love SQLite. I think I am swearing off MSSQL for now. Although, its not very hard to switch back and forth.

Here is the verizon splash screen after I redeigned it a little bit.


Here it was originally.


For dinner we tried to go to Jimmy Macs. Although, not even though not one table was filled they told us it would take 15 minutes. As we were not in the mood to wait, even for the yummy bacon Cheese Burger [inlink]paul,3944[/inlink], we went to Saharagrill. I am a big fan of fatoosh. I guess (e:terry) and (e:lilho) do to , judging by the size of their trough sized fatoosh bowl.

I went to target to buy some gym clothes for going to the gym with (e:terry). We are going to join the BAC I think. At least that is the tentative plan.

I wish they had these jackets during my Raver days. I think (e:hodownand) I would have probably killed for them. Remember you mint green full body adidas work out suit (e:hodown).









I am not going to be as skinny anymore. In fact I went up a pant size and now I am going to start going to the gym. This is where I am at now.



I wish I could just get it implanted in my eye.



Here is the same pic with the flash on and moving the camera really fast.

I got some pics from my walk home with some additional funny ones from training. I was the first one at training this morning. I got to use a fire extinguisher. That part was fun. The fireman that taught about it was one like kind you would find in a fireman porn, not that I have ever seen a fireman porn. I am just guessing.

So check out these questions. We were supposed to listen to the entire presentation before filling them out. But they were so obvious. What made it even more ridiculous is that we were allowed to share answers. I guess with a test that easy it doesn't matter. Surprising, I did catch someone eyeing my test out the corner of ther reye like they thought they were cheating.





I learned that Roswell employs 2500 people and is the "best place to work in western, New York." It was founded by Dr. Roswell Park in 1898. I also had time to get a Torrent client for my phone and download some music.

I like walking home down Allen and then down Franklin to Linwood. It takes about 15 minutes.







I want to buy this house so bad. I just wish they would put it up for sale. I would buy it in a second.





What was this place on Franklin right after Allen heading toward north? It is on the right side. It used to have an awning, as though it was a bar or something.



Careful Crossing

The new server seems much faster. After like an entire week of staying up every night and dealing with tons of compiling and backing up and copying, the server is transfered. Still the DNS for elmwoodstrip.org/com is not updated on the dns using adelphia but it seems to have caught up everywhere else and mobl.us works for now.

Thank you artvoice for hosting us locally. Bye bye server in Vancouver.

[size=m]RAM BAMM THANK YOU MAM[/size]
I would really like to buy more RAM for the server. Unfortunately, the server only takes the expensive RDRAM kind and I need a 1GB chip Well best would be 2 1GB chips as the motherboard has four slots which are currently filled with 2 512MB chips and 2 blanks.

You can see the 1GB chips go for about $500 each. The ideal setup would be but thats like $995 (big $5 savings for buying a pair) and I just threw in for a new video card, new hard drives, a new network card, and bunch of other stuff like a DVD burner. Not to mention I bought the motherboard, the old RAMM, the dual 2.6ghz xeons and put like 10 million hours of labor in.

So maybe someone could donate again sometime. Its would be helping to support your own online ocmmunity. It has been about 6 months since anyone has. I can name the RAM chip after you, lol. I just figure since it is a community maybe someone else can contribute. Maybe I will start some sort of RAM chip drive.

I have to be up in 6 hours for a new employee orientation at work. I already missed two of them, so this time I have to be serious about it. I am sure, as all these types of meetigns are, that it is something that should have been reduced to a pamphlet. At least the cut it form a whole day to a half day. The good part is I am getting paid to be there. So I guess who cares if it is boring.

I wish I had something more interesting to write about. I had the busiest day researching windows security stuff for work. I know that sounds like an oxymoron. Anyhow, then I came home and spent the night finishing setting up the new server and my email, setting up DNS, converting databases and learning sqlite. SQLite is amazing. I am porting all of my non-major apps over to it for portability sake.

Olive oil is skyrocketing. It went from like $7-$10 a year ago to ~$25 a gallon now. What is up with that? Maybe we need to start a war with Italy and Spain?



It has been disturbingly warm in Buffalo as Europe freezes over. At least there was some snow today. Maybe 1/2 inch.



I have been eating really good at work but I am upset that I am using so much Styrofoam. Do you think they would serve me in my own reusable Tupperware?


Calamaris are perhaps the tastiest food in the world to me. The ones at Kostas are by far the best as I have said before.


The Soulvlaki at Kostas is also very good but it has entirely too much feta if that is possible. I still think my favorite is the Ambrosia Chicken Salad at Ambrosia. (e:mike) agrees. I refuse to eat at panos since that waiter shit on himself and continued to server food according to (e:flacidness).



Salads at work are tasty too but they come in Styrofoam, which makes them trashy.


I was so sleepy from staying up all night to fix the server that I took a pic of the sink last night by mistake. I thought why not post it to remember what the sink looks like in the middle of the night.

Thanks fo rhaving us over last night (e:jessika). I wish I could have talked to you more but I got wrapped up in a conversation with (e:ejtower). Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone.

Today I spent the day at my mothers with (e:mike), (e:terry) and (e:matthew). (e:mike) bought me a basket full of candy, goldschlager and gift certificates for Globe Market and Sahara Grill.



My mother made some seriously tasty moroccan treats. We ate moroccan lamb stew with potatoes and carrots, lemon couscous, salad, and some chicpea onion salad that was exceptionally tasty.



Here I am officially tuirning 29.


My parents got me some nice new clothes.

I also got to go to borders and buy a lot of books. I got an entrie book dedicated to DNS. Soon I will be the master of my domain, lol.



I still haven't gotten the GPS to work with my phone but I did get a book on developing apps for windows mobile so maybe I can just make the app myself when I have some time and after Visual Studio 2005 ships to my office.