"new server falls in my lap" written by Paul on estrip.org

05/01/06 02:54 - 73ºF - ID#32588

new server falls in my lap

Work was giving away an old server. It isn't the latest, greatest but it does have a solid steel, nearly bullet proof case and a raid setup with 4 drives at 10k speed.

I am going to set it up as the estrip backup server. In case anything happens, this backup can be set to go until the other one is fixed. Plus it gives me a test server to play with, and true data redundancy at an offsite storage facilty should anything ever happen to artvoice's basement. e.g. a flood or something.

Permalink: new_server_falls_in_my_lap.html
Words: 97
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

05/01/06 01:58 - 57ºF - ID#32587

The Linwood Tour

The houses are really fancy, the people are reallly pretentious. I don't have any pics accept for this one of us on the street. The atmosphere felt non-condusive to taking photos.

There was a firmware for my phone that came out and it was reported to fix the video cam problem, maybe tehre will be more video on my journal. The problem is that updating it wipe dout all of my programs. This made me spend the entire night updating my phone which required that I reboot it a millions times. It was so frustrating bt everything is back to normal and google maps work better than ever. I just watched like four episodes of start trek while it "updated." Unfortunately, becase the ocmputer was tied up with the update, I didn't get to finish the new site updates I had planned for today. Soon yo will each get yor own custom theme so yo can pick ot yor own colors sing a fancy schamcy color slider thing I built.

On a totally separate note does anyone know what this building on North Johnson Park (MAP TO: 20%20N%20JOHNSON%20PARK) used to be. It is in total disrepair now but looks like it was something fancy.

Permalink: The_Linwood_Tour.html
Words: 214
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: lyrics

04/29/06 10:32 - 60ºF - ID#32586

Oh say can you see

in reference to (e:libertad,21) I wrote this poem in reference to the national anthem thing.

Those of you that speak javascript might find it funny.

<html>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage = function(name){
    var t=this;

    t.name= name;
    t.languageSpoken = 'english';
    t.alive=1;
    t.health=100;
    t.englishCompetency=0;
    t.illegalStatus=1;
    t.toHTML();
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.see = function(condition){

    this.lyricsSung = condition;

    this.report(this.name+' sang '+this.lyricsSung);
    switch(condition){
        case "by the dawn's early light":
            this.becomesAmerican();
        break;

        case "a la luz de la aurora":
            this.removeFromCountry();
        break;
    }
    this.updateStats();
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.becomesAmerican = function(){
    this.usCitizenship=true;
    this.chanceForLivingWage = true;
    this.illegalStatus=0;
    window.document.body.style.backgroundColor ='blue';
    alert('congratulations '+this.name+' you sang in english you can be american')
}

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.removeFromCountry = function(){

    this.report("pablo was send back to mexico");
    this.tryAndReturnByCrossingTheBorderForALivingWage();
    if(this.health > 0){
        this.tryAndLearnEnglishWorking70HoursInAFieldPickingStrawberries();
        if(this.englishCompetency < 80){
            this.usCitizenship=false;
            this.chanceAtLivingWage = false;
        } else {
            this.see("by the dawn's early light");

        }
    } else {

        window.document.body.style.backgroundColor ='red';
        alert(this.name+' died at a cattle ranch getting shot by neonazis. Game over');
        this.health=0;
    }
    this.updateStats();
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.tryAndLearnEnglishWorking70HoursInAFieldPickingStrawberries = function(){

    var english_learned = Math.floor(Math.random()*20);
    this.report(this.name+' learned '+english_learned+'% more english working 70 hours a week picking strawberries in a field');
    return this.englishCompetency += english_learned;
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.tryAndReturnByCrossingTheBorderForALivingWage = function(){
    health_lost = Math.floor(Math.random()*20);
    this.report(this.name+ 'lost '+health_lost+'% health on the journey');
    this.health -=health_lost;
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.toHTML = function(){
    var t=this;
    t.story = document.createElement('div');
    btn = document.createElement('button');
    btn.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Try and sing in english'));

    dat = document.createElement('div');
    statsLyrics =document.createElement('p');
    statsLyrics.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Lyrics Sung: '));
    t.statsLyricsSung = document.createElement('span');
    t.statsLyricsSung.appendChild(document.createTextNode(''));
    statsLyrics.appendChild(this.statsLyricsSung);

    statsEnglishCompetency =document.createElement('p');
    statsEnglishCompetency.appendChild(document.createTextNode('English Competetcy: '));
    t.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent = document.createElement('span');
    t.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent.appendChild(document.createTextNode(''));
    statsEnglishCompetency.appendChild(this.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent);

    statsHealth =document.createElement('p');
    statsHealth.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Heath: '));
    t.statsHealthPercent = document.createElement('span');
    t.statsHealthPercent.appendChild(document.createTextNode(''));
    statsHealth.appendChild(this.statsHealthPercent);

    dat.appendChild(statsLyrics);
    dat.appendChild(statsEnglishCompetency);
    dat.appendChild(statsHealth);

    window.document.body.appendChild(btn);
    window.document.body.appendChild(dat);
    window.document.body.appendChild(t.story);

    btn.onclick = function(){
        t.story.innerHTML ='';
        t.see("a la luz de la aurora");
    }
}

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.updateStats = function(){

    this.statsLyricsSung.firstChild.data = this.lyricsSung;
    this.statsHealthPercent.firstChild.data = this.health;
    this.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent.firstChild.data = this.englishCompetency;
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.report = function(info){
    this.story.innerHTML += '<br />'+info;
}
pablo = new illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage('pablo');
</script>
</body>
</html>

Permalink: Oh_say_can_you_see.html
Words: 460
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

04/29/06 06:50 - 64ºF - ID#32585

Hiking in the City

Geocaching. I still haven't gone but I want to and I own three different kinds of gps units. Just type your zipcode ito geocaching.com

to see all the caches around you

We, (e:matthew) , (e:terry) and I, were gonna go hiking at zoar valley today but it didn't happen because of a million reasons, one of which is that I did not want to bring the tortoise in and (e:mattew) was working till 2PM. So we ended up going down to the Erie Canal.

The boyscouts were having some sort of jamboree at the battleships. You can find them at the corner of Maine and Maine.
What is up with that?

They are rebuilding the canal, well at least it looks like they are rebuilding the canal.

(e:matthew) decided to take part of the canal home with him.

Buffalo has so many grain mills. These ones are between waterfront, the new casino/projects and the first ward.

We ended up at Times beach - now an wildlife preserve. It seems liek a cool place to watch birds but seems way to nasty and industrial to play at too much.

It all seems to toxic like everywhere i spent my childhood. Here is some info about it

The algae is so long it looks like a furry shag rug.

We tried to walk along the breakwall to get to the old lighthouse but its blocked by an army base.

I got this stress releiving squeezy toy from Roswell Park but the tortoise started to eat it. (e:matthew) took it out of his area and then the squirrels decided to eat it. What the hell is up with it, is it that yummy? I have to admit I kinda wanted to chew on it to.

Permalink: Hiking_in_the_City.html
Words: 358
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: pets

04/29/06 02:39 - 59ºF - ID#32584

Basra the Freedom Tortoise

I let Basra run free this afternoon. He ate lots of hay and dandelions and violets. Everytime I pick him up he freaks out because he just doesn't want to go inside. I feel bad for him. I wonder if he can possibly understand that it is ever is "not nice out" because we only take him outside durign the warm months. I wonder if he thinks that it is always nice out but we just keep him imprisoned most of the time in his very own bedroom.

At least I will able to pick him up when he is 150 lbs, although not if he is kicking, as he likes to do when you try and take him inside. In case you are wondering what his name is about, we got him on the day they bombed basra to "free it."

Permalink: Basra_the_Freedom_Tortoise.html
Words: 143
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: work

04/28/06 09:59 - 47ºF - ID#32583

Life coaches and a tower

I started to work on my thesis for ten minutes when I dicovered I am not meant for editing and re-editing words in human language. To me right now, human language is such a totally inefficient to express what my project was about. I have already written about 300,000 lines of code and 2034 journals encompassing 326,085 words. When is enough, enough?

Anhow, so on to the interesting stuff, life coaches. I don't want one but the TV show I was watching in the background involved 3 straight men going to a life coach (the actress who also plays Dr. Quinn) to learn how to get women to love them. What is this life coach business all about? Is it even real. So i typed it into google, just google it (GOOGLE - life coach). It seems like it is all the rage and maybe it will give someone here a career option they hadn't though of. Is it just a fnacy name for a therapist or is it just something for rich people with too much time.

If I ever get a life coach, please just kill me. Please.

On a side note:

After months of disputes over the future of ground zero, state and city officials finally brought in the heavy equipment and began construction on Thursday on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower that will rise at the World Trade Centre site.

Just thinking about that building makes me shudder. There is no way I wouldn ever go in it. In fact I would rather use the microwave when slightly open. Why build something that is screaming target so much.

Permalink: Life_coaches_and_a_tower.html
Words: 272
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: dreams

04/27/06 01:49 - 46ºF - ID#32582

Codeless Dream

I had the craziest dreams last night. For one I didn't fall asleep in the throws of programming. Instead I watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman TIll I fell asleep.

My dream started out hiking but at some point I was with (e:liz) and realized we were in the midst of some sort of fantasy like war zone. (e:terry) was playing warcraft next to me when I fell asleep, so that might explain it. So in the dream there were these rolling hills of grass and people of the opposite hill were thowing very gold guilded balls of gun powder which rolled toward us and then exploded. We had to run and jump over them like in some sort of video game. Untill we realized their entire army was on some sort of giant red blanket.

Once we realized, we decided to light it on fire and they all started to blow up. We ran over the hill and down to a creek. When we got there we realized there was no way back accept through some crazy maze like environment that requires an extreme amount of balancing and puzzle solving. Their were lots of characters to ask questions to, but most of them were trying to trick us and their were corrupt police we had to avoid.

At some point we moved across a plank over a pit and on the other end was my nonna's living room. Inside was (e:zobar) and (e:dragonlady7) and they were smoking what looked like a big bag of marajuana but smelled more like pine.

I asked them what they were smoking and (e:Dragonlady7) said "don't be silly, it's not marajuana, it is pine but we sprinkle a little ecstacy on it to give it a kick", as she curshed up a little red pill and liberally sprinkled it into the pipe.

After smoking with them, I just don't remember anything else accept that at the end of the maze we ended up in New Orleans were I was presented with the dilema of having to wash some giant plastic tub like thing, although, I full well knew they were rationing water and I shouldn't be doing it.

Normally, I dream about code. I seriously wake up in order to take notes sometimes because I have the best coding ideas in my dream so this dream was truly out of the ordinary.

Permalink: Codeless_Dream.html
Words: 403
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: programming

04/25/06 07:45 - 44ºF - ID#32581

Where do the days go?

I have developed an insane amount of new code for really cool DHTML/AJAX interface kind of stuff but it seems I never have time to implement any of it. Today I had a biweekly meeting with my boss about what i was working on and I decided to print out some of the stuff from this week. There were like 30 pages of javascript of every flavor.

It was so weird to see so much work printed out on paper. It really quanitifies programming while destroying the enviroment at the same time.

Lots of fun with math this time. Math is definately not my strong point but I am getting a lot better at it each day. When that's done I am going to learn italian and then finish editing my thesis.

On another note, I am glad to see someone is graduating (e:holly,139)

I really wish it was me. I guess I will try for the summer. This is getting so fucking ridiculous because (e:strip) was my final project and I would say it has "done enough" for about a year or two. Now I just need to say something about it.

I made so many form widget, but this one is my favorite followed by the adjuster widget which iterates through arrays.

The cancer viewer using some serious flash AS to manipulate image vectors and change brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, blur as well as zoom - all of then which communicate with the client via javascript sliders that auto save their positions between use.

An rss reader that uses surebert and poser

to bring rss feeds live to the web page on timed animation sequence.

A javascript based motion capture object that can record and playback animations that can be saved for late ruse on a web site or to push drawings back and forth between user in realtime using surebert

Permalink: Where_do_the_days_go_.html
Words: 331
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: housing

04/25/06 12:48 - 38ºF - ID#32580

$7000 freakin dollars of paint

My dad just called after meeting with the painter for an estimate on painting the house that (e:matthew), (e:terry) and I own and rent. Looks like it is going to cost $7000 to paint the rental property. You can see a picture of it here (e:paul,3373) I think instead I will just spend the next few weekends paiting it myself accept for the high peak. I figure buying even expensive ladders and tools will be worth it because we will need them for our own house at some point anyways. My father is calling aroudn today to see if we can get a better quote. I think that quote is outrageous seeing as the whole first floor is brick.

(e:terry) hates paint and (e:matthew) doesn't want to do any work on it which leaves me kin dof alone although i bet hey will change their mind when they see it cost $7000. I rememeber my grandmother telling this story about how on the other side of the house, where there is no porch, that my grandfather painted the peak by having my grandmother sit on a plank out the window while he walked out on it. He was much more of a daredevil than me. Three stories up on a small plank over a concrete slab backyard sounds like an easy way to die.

Permalink: _7000_freakin_dollars_of_paint.html
Words: 227
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

04/25/06 12:09 - 44ºF - ID#32579

Jimmy Macs and Panos

I wen tto Jimmy Mac's the other day for a hamburger. There hamburgers have always been huge but this one was insane. There hamburgers are so freakin' tasty, I wonder why there is almost never anyone in the restaurant.

Pano's has lots of rules now. I had their chicken soulvlaki. Whiel I thought the meat was good I would never eat it again as the salad was a disgusting blend of white and brown yucky iceberg lettuce. I didn't think anywhere served that kind of junk lettuce anymore.

jenks writes at 08:56:52 04/25/06 - Comment #7008: yeah like peter said- I just always forget jimmy macs is there. But every time I HAVE eaten there, it was awesome.

metalpeter writes at 07:32:26 04/25/06 - Comment #6999: That Burger looks awesome. I'm guessing one reason it isn't that packed is because people like myself forget it is there. I never knew they served food before the outdoor patio it looks like a bar and with those dark windows you can never tell if it is open or not.

Panos: I think those rules are for the late night crowd who come in after drinking and continue the party there by putting tables togather and getting 7 differant bills and then leaving a tiny tip or no tip at all, that is my guess at least. I love iceberg lettuce its crisp and crunchs and to me tastes much better but that is just me.

dragonfire1024 writes at 09:08:33 04/25/06 - Comment #6977: LoL. You went in last night when I was working...you probably saw me. Those rules are just overnight rules. Some are stupid. As for the lettuce, I will have to talk to somebody about that,.. We are very much known for our Slouvaki so I am sure Pano would like to hear who is screwing up. If ypyou did see me, I was wearing the black hat turned backwards :)

mrdt writes at 01:21:51 04/25/06 - Comment #6970: That is a fine lookin burger
And to answer your question... Do you remember yesterday when I was talking about the people that I have worked who don't have a clue why their restaurants are successful. well, this is one of those people. while extremely intelligent, actually received his undergrad from wharton's business school in economics, he lacks the fundamental knowledge to make customers happy and other resources that makes businesses successful such as a good internal/external marketing plan. Not to mention he pisses people off all the time by charging people $20 a head for a reservation over five not cancelled within 48 hours or the times he has called people at midnight, drunk, to find out why they blew off their reservation. He's just not customer orientated.
Hey, Mothers is successful so Jimmy Macs should be successful. Right??? Wrong. They are two totally different animals and what the guy doesn't understand is that the paradigm is at Jimmy Macs is completely different. The viral or buzz marketing that he relies on at Mothers doesn't work for Jimmy Macs, even with all the smoking controversy. It didn't help either that when they reopened they were under staffed with unknowledgable but extremely hot employees. It was mayhem and chaos, I don't think they will recover for a while. I offered my help and in response was asked, "why would I need your help?" I guess he'll know the answer to that when I get the call for my pricy consultation services.
Long story short, if you piss off the people who are paying your bills you won't be around for too long. What goes up must come down.

Permalink: Jimmy_Macs_and_Panos.html
Words: 94
Location: Buffalo, NY