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December 28, 2005
Greetings to all Engelking visitors
I was fortunate today to receive a surprise post in the comments section from a fellow named Doug who lives in Illinois who also carries the Engelking name. Since there arent't too many of us Engelking's around, it's nice when we can run into one another now and then.
Back about 10 years ago, I did a search on the Internet to see how many Engelking's that I could find with e-mail addresses. I came across about 4 or 5 names and decided to send a big "hey, nice to see other Engelking's" kind of e-mail. I received one response from the people that I messaged, and even that person only e-mailed back something like twice.
I've often wondered if I have extended family here in the US besides my immediate family. I'm sure that the Engelking name isn't just by chance, after all ... I'm sure there are similar roots in the Engelking family tree at one point or another. I know that it's probably unlikely that there is anyone that holds anything closer than a 4th generation cousin or something, but the thought of knowing other Engelking families is just a cool idea.
Maybe I need to start a yearly get together called Engelking-dom. :)
~out...
Posted by ed at 12:02 AM | Comments (2)
December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday
Amanda and I would like to send a warm greetings to all of our friends and family and wish them all a very merry Christmas.
And although there's speculation as to the exact date ... happy birthday, Jesus!
Posted by ed at 08:26 PM | Comments (4)
December 24, 2005
Christmas with my family
It's Christmas Eve, and Amanda and I hosted my family's annual get-together this year. We've spent alot of time preparing for this event, as it was the first time that we've ever held my family Christmas celebration. Usually my family gets together either at my brother's or at my parent's house. This year, they gave us the honor of hosting it.
Amanda spent the entire morning cooking like a mad woman. I have to hand it to her, everything came out very good. The ham that I purchased yesterday turned out to be an excellent buy, as it was delicious and it fed more than 8 people. In addition to the ham, we also had green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, rolls, home made mac & cheese, mashed taters, stuffing, corn, sweet potato casserole and a whole lot more. We definately had enough to feed a small army, me thinks.
So, after the meal was over, we commenced to the exchange of presents. I received the following items:
- A Binary Clock - Michael and family
- A USB Gamepad - Mom and Pop
- A bottle of Asti - Mom and Pop
- A business card organizer - Michael and family
- Money - Mom and Pop
Over all, it was a great event and fun was had by all ... or at least I hope it was anyhow. I spent the time when everone else was opening their presents taking pictures, so I have them up for everyone to see. Since I was doing the vast majority of the picture taking, I even took my own pictures. Enjoy. :)
Ed's Family Christmas 2005 - A Photo Collection
Merry Christmas to one and all!
~out...
Posted by ed at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2005
I wish people had better things to do
Apparently sometime in the past 24 hours, The PC Guru Web site was "hacked" by some fucked up moron who's idea of a good time is to mess with a Web site that's only goal is to help other people. Now, when I say "hacked", I don't mean that someone figured out a password or broke into the UCANweb servers. No, they took advantage of a known flaw in our current CMS, PHPNuke, and put up a fake front page.
Oh man, that makes them so cool ... whatever.
This is something that can be done by anyone who can do a simple search of the Web. It's not like it took this person alot of time and effort to find a buffer overflow or some other kind of vulnerability. The most likely option is that he or she found a script on the Web that showed him or her how to mess up the front page step by step. Those of us who know better call these kinds of people "script kiddies". They think that just because they can make use of an exploit that someone else found and change a homepage to have their "name" on it makes them l33t and cool.
This just goes to show two things that I really believe to be true:
1. Some people are fucking morons who shouldn't be allowed to use a computer in the first place.
2. Some people need some kind of way to get a release that makes them feel bigger than what they really are in life. It's kinda like those guys who get big homes and cars because they need to make up for a lack of endowment in other areas.
If you really think about it, the site was most likely defaced by a 14 year old who's mad at his or her mom and dad because they aren't getting that Xbox 360 for Christmas. As a result, they take out their frustration by causing others grief. I can almost picture this kid sitting at the family computer, with a pimple covered face and a head too big for his or her body, laughing silently to his or herself for their l33t/\/355.
Posted by ed at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2005
My arm is sore
I went out to Dave's mothers home today to fire off a couple rounds of .22 and 9mm guns. Dave and I had been planning on doing this for about a week, and I was really looking forward to it. In all, it was Dave, Zack and myself out in the back shooting off rounds at a target. But that isn't what made me sore.
Dave brought a 12-gauge shotgun.
I've never really been a big fan of shotguns. I've always liked rifles, specifically Winchester rifles. Hand guns have always held my interest as well, but not shotguns. They just have way too much kick for my liking.
But, being that we're there to shoot guns, it seemed to me that it would be stupid not to shoot the shotgun once or twice. Now, granted that this isn't the latest and greatest model of gun in the world. As a matter of fact, it's pretty worn and has definately seen a few years and a few shells. It doesn't have anything built into it to help lessen the affect of recoil that you get when shooting a 12-gauge ... it all goes straight into your arm/shoulder.
That's why my arm is sore. As I'm sitting here typing this, I can feel the muscles in my arm tighten as I reach for specific keys. I guess it's because I don't shoot shotguns and as a result I'm not used to the feeling that comes after you shoot one. Now, the 9mm guns also packed a wallup, but nothing like firing off a shotgun.
I think I'll just stick to my facination of rifles and hand guns.
~out...
Posted by ed at 08:17 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2005
I wish I had more time ...
... for one of my once favorite games, Magic the Gathering. Although I can't possibly afford to keep up with the series, I have my older collection and Kyle has his (although it's been in my closet for well over 2 years). I think that it'd be fun to pull out the cards and play, but there's no one that I can play with.
Maybe I need to show Dave and Zack how to play.
~out...
Posted by ed at 09:06 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2005
Off the cuff and all that stuff
Dave asked me this weekend about my Website and how I prepare the posts. I explained that the vast majority of the content that I write isn't pre-planned or prepared in any way. For the most part, it's a brain dump of what I'm thinking about at the time ... such as the post you're currently reading.
For example, I recently posted about my favorite applications that I use for either work or at home. This post was created because I was in process of organizing my hard drive and was putting my collection of applications in a folder and thought to myself "I should list these". While I was thinking about it, I opened up a Web browser and wrote a quick bit about it. It took about 10-15 minutes of my time and I went back to organizing my computer.
Every once in a while, I'll think out the content that I post, but it's not very often that I do so. I have a couple of examples on the site, but I won't specify which those are for personal reasons. There's definately been times that I've had to really bite my tongue or be politically correct in order to keep what I say from affecting other people that I know. But, these times have been few and far between ... so what you mostly get is what I'm really thinking at the time.
~out...
Posted by ed at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2005
Creating a custom CMS, part 2
I've got a very basic but working demo using FCKeditor working on my server. Click here to see it in action. It's completely dynamic and is database driven.
I'm still flushing out my database, as I want to make sure that it all works the way that I want. The example in the link above just links to a test database that I'll throw away when the process is totally completed. Once that is done, I'll begin work on the session authenticaion and then finish up by incorporating the final design.
I wish I could do this kind of stuff full time, as I love working with databases and scripting.
~out...
Posted by ed at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2005
Creating a custom CMS
I've been working on a secret project for the past few months that I've told no one about, with the possible exception being Kyle. I've been looking and looking for a replacement CMS for the PC Guru Web site, but have hit a wall. The sites either don't do what I want or they lack the security I desire.
Rather than learning a new CMS and trying to write custom code for it, I began thinking about my development of the Skyman system for Skyway and how simple the process really was. All I need is a database, a Web server and a way to deliver it dynamically.
Well, I installed several CMS systems and started looking at how they create and populate their databases. There's really nothing to them, for the most part. Quite frankly, most of the platforms freely available on the net have more junk that I'd never care to use.
So what would a CMS database need? For base functionality, the following tables would be required:
The author table would have the username and password of persons who would be authorized to post data. The content table would hold, you guessed it ... content. The category table would be used to assign content to specific areas for content tracking purposes. The RSS table would be used to pull data from RSS sources every few hours to populate on the site. Doing it this way enables your pages to load significantly faster than hot linking an RSS feed to the site.
Sure, there's alot more to it than what I've described above, but that's the base layout. From this point, it's a matter of figuring out what fields are available in each table and how those fields interact between tables. From that point, it's all taken care of in PHP, which I can code with my eyes closed.
I've been working on a new design for the Guru site as well. Keep in mind that this is in NO way completed. I'm fooling around with ideas, trying to see what works best for my concept. The layout for the new site is a rather big change from the sites I've put together in the past. Past CMS systems have had user registration and other crap that didn't really mean anything other than the ability to post in the forums. Well, I decided that if we wanted to post in the forum, why not just use a forum to do the posting in?
So, the front page of the site will be the custom CMS site that I've put together. The backend of that system will be something simple that can allow administrators to post content with minimal hassle. It will also most likely incorporate FCKeditor because that thing is just bad-ass. The user interactivity will be handled by a third-party application like phpBB, although I haven't decided as of yet if that is the direction that I want to go. But, I already have something in place if that is the way I want to go.
BTW ... on a personal note ... if you use PHPnuke and the integrated phpBB, it's a bitch to get it moved back over to a regular phpBB site.
So, anyhow ... that's my plans for the PC Gurus at the moment. Now, if I can only get some free time to work on it some more ...
~out...
Posted by ed at 08:15 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2005
From search to found
I've been keeping an eye on an application that Nat Friedman has been developing for Linux that he calls "Dashboard". The concept is simple, yet extremely effective. The program keeps an eye on what it is that you're doing and brings up relevant information from your computer: e-mail, web sites, Word/Excel documents, messenger clients ... etc. The idea of dashboard, and programs like it, is that you shouldn't have to search for content on your computer. Instead, the content is displayed for you in real time while your typing it or surfing something about it.
Enter a similar application for Windows called Watson (a take off the Mac search tool Sherlock perhaps?). The concept is pretty much the same as Nat's Dashboard, except this is for Windows operating systems and it isn't exactly freeware. There's a ad-driven version and a professional version to get rid of them thar ads.
I love this concept of computing, and the thought of computers going towards real time content searching is a great idea that I wish Microsoft could incorporate freely into Windows today. Oh, wait ... they're *working* on something similar? If this is something that was supposed to be in Vista, it might just be yet another piece of "vaporware" that's been promised and may not even see the light of day.
Bleh ... I guess we can all dream, can't we?
~out...
Posted by ed at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)
I don't do this very often
I realized today that I haven't had a decent picture taken of myself in almost a year. The last photo that I bothered publishing was on New Years Eve, almost a year ago now. Here's that picture:
This was taken on New Years Eve 2004.
So, I'm sitting here going through some things when I think to myself that I should probably post an updated picture one of these days. But, since I'm a procrastinator, I know that if I don't do something now, it'll probably never get done. Hence why I haven't had a recent picture posted in almost a years time.
Anyhow, I took a picture this evening. It's nothing special, but it's what I'm looking like as of right now. The hair is short, the chin is round and I have yet to change into my comfort clothes.
Here I am, in all of my glory ... or lack of.
So there you have it, and updated picture of Ed. I really want to put up more pictures of my family and myself, including Amanda. I'm hoping to start that this year starting around Christmas and work from there. I don't want to look back when I get older and wish I had something to show my kids what I looked like when I was younger.
~out...
Posted by ed at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2005
Getting older changes you
In some ways since I was a teen, I really haven't changed all that much. I still love computers, I love comics, I play video games and things of that nature. In other ways, I've been finding myself becoming more and more open minded and even a bit conservative. An example of this is regarding guns. When I was younger, I didn't like the idea of being around guns. I was of the impression that guns are bad things that do nothing but hurt people.
I've grown up and since know better.
I realized while I was on my trip to Arizona that I really left Amanda in a bad spot while I was gone. She was alone in Louisville without any way to protect herself should someone try to break into the apartment. I thought long and hard about the reality of this situation and the more I thought about it, I became more and more frightened.
I sat down with Amanda a few weeks after I arrived home from my trip and told her that I was interested in buying a gun. She, being the redneck chick that she is, immediately agreed. She then started talking about getting our permit to conceal so that we could carry our guns on us, which really didn't bother me one bit. I've known people who've had permits to carry before, and I've always felt safe being around them. After all, in order to get a permit, you have to take classes and prove that you know your stuff before you can even get one.
So, with all of this stuff in mind, I've been doing some research on what kind of gun that I was interested in. I've known for a long time that I've wanted to get something that I could take to the shooting range and use for target practice, but after talking with many people about it, I discovered that guns like this aren't any good for home protection. I needed something with a higher caliber, like a 9mm or a 12-gauge. I have absolutely no interest in a shotgun, but the 9mm I didn't mind.
So, on Saturday I went to a gun shop with my neighbor, John. We looked around for a while at the rifles, but I eventually found myself looking at the pistols in the cases that went around the parameter of the store. I found a Walther P22 and P99 that I liked a lot, mostly for the look of the model. I found a great gun for Amanda as well, a Beretta 3032 Tomcat.
So, that evening we went over to Dave's place and I was telling him about my finds for the day while the girls were out shopping. He said that he wanted me to see something and went into his storage closet and began to dig. He came back with a gun case and said "I'm looking to sell this if you're interested". It was a Stainless Steel Ruger P89, as seen in the picture below:
Stainless steel goodness known as Ruger.
I messed around with the gun for a while, taking the time to learn the mechanics of it and such. I was very impressed ... the gun was an older model, but because of Dave's careful nature, it looked brand new. He even said that it had most likely only have gone through 3-5 clips tops.
When the girls got back, I had Dave pull the gun back out so that Amanda could see. She liked it immediately. While we were at it, I had Dave pull out the rest of his collection so that Amanda could see them all. She was really impressed with the collection, as was I. I asked Amanda what she thought about buying the gun, and she was all for it.
So, it looks like I might be the owner of a Ruger here in the very near future. :)
~out...
Posted by ed at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2005
Smoke Free
I've been working at a tobacco company over the past week. My goal has been to put together a customized Windows Sharepoint Services Web site. During my time at this facility, I've noted how much the tobacco and cigarette smoke has bothered me.
As most of the people who read this blog on a regular basis are already aware, I used to be a smoker. It was a bad habit that I picked up earlier in life, thanks mostly to peer pressure, and had been a regular smoker for almost a decade. I gave it up roughly a year ago, and other than one night where I was drunk, I've stayed on the wagon. The next day, I really regretted doing it ... was coughing and wheezing and had a terrible taste in my mouth that no amount of mouthwash could get rid of.
When I quit, I did so cold turkey. I decided one day that when I finished the last cigarette, that was it. No more. I knew that in order for me to be successful that Amanda would have to quit as well. We talked about it and she did too ... the next day. We bought a thing of generic nicotine gum, and never looked back. Well, at least I haven't, with the exception of that one drunken night I mentioned before.
The urge to smoke is still there from time to time. It's a powerful feeling that can almost overwhelm a person. But, what I've discovered is that the feeling, even though it can be so strong, will pass within a matter of a few minutes. These days, the urge only comes once in a blue moon and when it does, I can pretty much ignore it and it'll pass without much fanfare.
Now, this is the part where the tobacco company comes into play. We had a meeting in a conference room where people were smoking. When the door opened, I could smell the smoke, and believe me, it was strong. As I stayed in the room, I could feel a bit of nausea beginning to come over me. Thankfully, we were able to get out of the room within a reasonable time and the feeling passed.
Afterwards, I asked the other two individuals whom I was with if they felt the same way. They responded in similar fashion ... it was very strong and it made them a little sick.
I've often heard that the affect of cigarette smoke is worse for those who were once smokers rather than those who've never taken a puff in their life. I've lived around cigarette smoke all my life. My mom smokes, my dad smokes, my biological father smokes, my aunts smoke, my cousins smoke, my grandfather smoked (he died of lung cancer back in '87) ... and the list goes on and on. Even after being around all of these people, and not smoking mind you, I've never felt the kind of sick feeling that I felt when I left that conference room the other day.
People also smoke throughout the building. I've noticed myself hacking and coughing from time to time, like there was something caught in my throat while working. What's interesting is that I'm not the only one doing it either ... I've sat and watched others whom I know are non-smokers doing the exact same thing. What's worse is that I walk out of the building reeking of cigarettes.
After going through what I've gone through in the past week, I've realized two things:
1. Even though I've thought that I was over cigarettes, now that I've been in an environment that has me surrounded by them I know now more than ever that there's no way that I could go back to them. Even if I had the desire to do so I wouldn't do it. It would just make me too ill.
2. I've really put people I know and care about through some nasty stuff in the past due to my cigarette smoking. I hope that they feel better being around me more now as a result of my giving up the habit.
~out...
Posted by ed at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
More from Picasa
Because of my new found fondness for Picasa and it's ability to create photo Web pages, I've spent my afternoon at home re-organizing all of my pictures on the computer so that I can create more Web pages and upload them to my site. Here's what I've accomplished thus far:
Amanda's Pictures
These are pictures of Amanda that have been taken over the past few years. She swears that she doesn't cheese for a camera, but these pictures really prove that she does.
Arizona Trip
These are the rest of the picures that I promised from an eariler post of my trip to Arizona.
Our Cats
Here are pictures of Mozes and Baby, our two extremely spoiled cats. Mozes is the black boy, and baby is the gray girl.
PSU Cable Mod
A few years back, I made a mod to the cables of my PSU to help clean up the wiring mess that was my old desktop. I took pictures of the process to show others what I did.
Steven's House
When Steven bought his house a few months back, Amanda and I were invited to come and partake in the house-warming celebration. These are pictures from that night and the next day.
Transformer Decal Mod
On the same case that I did the PSU mod on, I cut out a whole on the side and installed a plexi-glass window. To really geek it out, I had some Autobot and Decepticon decals created to make it unique. Yeah, that's right ... I'm a Transformers fan. Not to the extent that I've seen some people go, but I know my Transformers regardless.
WHAS Server and Networking
I was really proud of all the work I did at WHAS, so I took pictures of my work. You can tell the stuff that I did, because it's clean and organized. I also took pictures of network installation attempts by previous admins to show the differences. Additionally, I have pictures of the server room that I assembled ... which I doubt I'll ever have a chance to do again.
Xbox on Linux
I was bored one day and hooked up my Xbox to my TV card on the computer and played games all day. These screenshots are a result of that day ... mostly for the irony of me playing a Microsoft game console through Linux.
~out...
Posted by ed at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2005
Engelking photos of old ...
I'm playing around with a program called Picasa ... Google makes it. I've been wanting a way to upload pictures in an easy to view and friendly format. If I had a Mac, it would be rather easy with iPhoto. But, since I'm Mac-less at the moment, I had to find an alternative method.
Enter Picasa.
Picasa has a way to export images collected on your machine to a template-based Web page. I've created one today and uploaded it. It took no more than 30 seconds of my time to do so. So, behold my first uploaded picture gallery:
The Engelking Family - An Older Perspective
Most of these photos I aquired from mom's old family albums. They were taken prior to and then up to about 2 years of my birth back in 1978. My goal now is to create a way to provide more information about each picture that is being displayed.
This is my favorite image out of them all. If I remember correctly, this is mom, dad and Bill at Kings Island back in the day.
Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy.
~out...
Posted by ed at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)
These are a few of my favorite things
I have a whole list of applications that I use to help me when I'm working on the site or at home. I've never really thought to share these with anyone before, mostly because I've done most of the work on my own and never needed to share them with anyone. But, as I've been working with Solarity, I've found that it can be really helpful to other IT people when you show them the tools you're using to make your life easier.
So, here is my top 10 tools/applications/utilities that I use on a regular basis:
1. ProduKey
This is one of my current favorites. If you've lost a license key for Microsoft products, just run this simple app and you'll have them again. It's also handy for use across networks, as it has a command line interface that's great for scripting purposes. With the right batch file, you could feasably collect all license keys across an entire network within seconds.
URL: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
2. Steel Inventory
I was turned on to this app by one of my co-workers, and I've been using it since. It's an open source asset tracking system for computer hardware and software. The concept is simple: you intall this program on a machine with proper network administrative rights, and it will query a range of IP addresses or a subnet using RCP to provide information about all the machines on your network (that are turned on, of course). I used to use a similar product called Network Inventory Navigator by Alloy Software, but the upside of Steel Inventory is that it's 100% free and doesn't require any per seat licensing.
URL: http://www.steelsonic.com/steelinventory.htm
3. WinSCP
I do alot of file transfer between servers using FTP ... but I've never really been a fan of the FTP protocol for its lack of security when it comes to the transmission of data. SFTP is the way to go, in my opinion. So, I found this nifty little app called WinSCP. What's nice is that you don't have to risk installing a FTP server on your system. Instead, all you need installed is SSH and you're ready to go.
URL: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php
4. Putty
I've been using Putty for so long, I really can't remember when I first started using it. It's been my defacto SSH client to access the UCANweb servers for years. Granted, it doesn't have all of the nifty bells and whistles that some of the bigger and expensive SSH clients have, but it's small, fast and gets the job done.
URL: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
5. RDC Clients
I only use RDC to connect to Windows machines when I want to work remotely. Windows XP comes with an RDC client by default, but what are you to do when you need to RDC using a Windows 2000 or Windows 98/Me box ... or for that matter, a Mac box? No worries, as Microsoft distributes an RDC client for these operating systems as well.
Win URL: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx
Mac URL: Click here (it's too long to post)
Linux URL: http://www.rdesktop.org/
Note: The RDesktop client isn't supported by Microsoft.
6. VNC
Another remote access tool that I've used in the past is VNC. Originally developed by AT&T Laboratories in Cambridge, it has been released via GPL to the world. As a result, there are a ton of variations of the client. The most popular to me is the RealVNC client, which by chance is also the one that I use.
URL: http://www.realvnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi
Note: Most Linux distributions ship with a version of VNC these days.
7. Audacity
A fantastic audio recording application released under the GPL. I've been using Audacity since it's first initial release, and have been a big fan of it since. It's very powerful and best of all, it's free. I know alot of people that have started using Audacity to record their podcasts these days. While I plan on using it for the same purpose, I've been using Audacity to record and convert audio to MP3 and make music mixes.
URL: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
8. DVD Shrink
When I need to make a backup of the DVD's that I've created, I use this application. It has all kinds of features that I won't go into here, but it works really well. I highly recommend using it in conjunction with the Nero Burning ROM.
URL: http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html
Note: The binary isn't listed on the Web site due to US regulations. Just do a Google search for DVD Shrink and you can generally find it with minimal issue.
9. VMware Player
This little app is one that I came across recently. It's a way to run VMware virtual machines without the need to purchase VMware Workstation. The downside to this application is that you need to have an existing VMware file, but that's not so much a problem either. There have been several Linux distributions that have developed their own VMware file for download to use with the VMware Player.
URL: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
Browser Appliance URL: http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/browserapp.html
Note: This "browser appliance" is actually Ubuntu Linux with a minor VMware makeover. It's fully functional to use, including the Synaptic application manager. The root password is "vmware" without the quotes.
Novell URL: http://www.novell.com/linux/vmware/
Note: You can download Novell Linux Desktop 9 and Linux Enterprise Server as a VMware file for free, but it does require registration on the Novell Web site.
10. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Either you know someone who has lost their user or administrator password, or you've done this yourself ... it's not the best feeling when you can't get into your Windows box because of a lost password. I've used this utility to reset passwords for a while now, and it does a great job. The only downside is that it is command line only, which may frighten some people away. But when your only other option is to reformat your machine, I'm sure you'll try anything once. :)
URL: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Note: The irony is that this bootable CD uses a custom Linux distribution to hack a Windows registry to reset a password. I just love it.
And there you have it ... my top 10 tools/applications/utilities that I use on a regular basis. I hope that this information can help out someone who's in similar situations that I've been in in the past.
~out...
Update: I know that this is a list of my 10 favorite items ... but there is one that I MUST add:
11. ClamAV for Windows
Most people aren't aware of Clam Antivirus. And even those who may be aware of it think that it is only for use with Linux machines. Well, I'm here to tell you that there *is* a GUI Windows client called ClamWin, and it's a great utility. Since it's open source, it can be used for personal or professional workstations. Heck, you can even install it on servers if you want to do so, which all other "free" clients won't allow. I used to use AVG, but I was irritated by the licensing scheme for the free version ... not to mention that downloading it required going through the maze that is the AVG Website. ClamWin is free as in beer and works great. I have it running on all my machines.
URL: http://www.clamwin.com
Posted by ed at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2005
Button Maker
I was wanting some buttons to add to my Web site for Firefox and Thunderbird. I found what I was looking for at the Mozilla.com Web site earlier today. After putting them in place (look at the very bottom of the homepage), I wanted more.
Nay, I needed more. More buttons.
So I did some searching and came across a great Web site. It's called the Button Maker and it was written by a guy named Adam Kalsey. It's a very basic web app ... you plug in the information and it'll make a customized Web button just for you. Lookie and what I made today:
Pretty buttons ... yessss, must have the buttons!!
Yes, I'm a dork and I really have nothing better to do in my free time other than look for silly buttons for my Web site. I guess it's better than doing drugs or staying drunk all the time. :)
~out...
Posted by ed at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2005
My own personal office space
Well, I've never posted a pic of the area where I spend the most time, outside of the bedroom. Hey now, it's where I sleep for 8 hours a night ... keep your mind out of the gutter, people. I got bored tonight and started taking pictures throughout the office. I got two good ones that I don't mind to post, so here they are:
Here's my desk. Click on the pic for a larger image.
So, here's my desk. I have a dual-monitor setup with a 19" LCD for my main monitor and a 15" LCD for the secondary. I do all of my computing work from here when I'm at home, so it stays pretty cluttered ... but in a clean way at least. This is where you can find my geek books (programming, web development and Windows server mostly), part of my hat collection, my old WHAS Derby badges, Crusade badges, Playstation games (I run an emulator to save space) and a load of paperwork.
Here's our Christmas Tree. Yeah, it's Christmas ... get over it.
Amanda finished putting up the Christmas tree, as opposed to holiday spruce or whatever people are trying to mold the holiday into these days, yesterday. We really haven't bothered putting up the tree every year, as we generally haven't had the time or the energy to pull out the boxes and put the thing together. This year, however, I'm wanting to do the family Christmas thing (with either my family, Amanda's family, or both) here at our place. We always go to other people's homes, so this year we both feel like it should be our turn to host and have our family come to our home. They hardly ever do, so this is a good excuse to get them here. :)
BTW ... I know people are going to ask what the circle things are that's hanging on the wall. If you're a true geek, you already know without asking. But for those that are just unaware and/or have no clue, those are three hard drive platters from an old IBM hard drive that used to store on-air graphics for WHAS. I keep these mounted on my wall for a couple of reasons:
1. I like to think that some important images from history are/were stored on these things.
2. These platters also remind me that technology is ever evolving ... especially when I look at the hard drives available today.
3. They's shiny and purdy to look at.
Anyhow, that's all I got for today.
~out...
Posted by ed at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2005
Ain't she purdy?
Amanda, cheesin' it up for the camera as always!
I had forgotten that I had taken this picture back in May. It's a great picture of my honey. There's another that we have that's on my desk in a frame, but I'm not sure where that file is located.
When I went down to Arizona, I knew that I was going to miss Amanda terribly. After all, we haven't gone more than a few days apart since day one. So, she tells me after I've left the house that she's packed me a surprise in the suitcase. When I got to my hotel in Phoenix, there it was: my honey in her little gold frame.
When I left that hotel that day, I forgot to get the picture off of the end table next to the bed. I called the hotel later that day frantic, asking for someone in housekeeping. Unfortunately, it was a Friday night and the head of housekeeping was gone for the weekend. I was thinking that I would never get the picture back at that point, but left a message saying that I had forgotten the picture and not to throw it away.
I received a call on Monday from the head of housekeeping. They had found the picture and had delivered it to the front desk with my name on it. All I had to do was stop by and pick it up. At this point, I had been without Amanda for almost a week, and without her picture for almost 3 full days. I was thrilled with the news and after my day was over, I made my way to the hotel to get her picture. After I retreaved it from the front desk, I sat in the rental car and stared at it for a good 5 minutes, then made my way back to my other hotel room.
~out..
Posted by ed at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2005
Imagine
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
Posted by ed at 10:02 PM | Comments (1)
Weekends go way too fast
It seems like Friday was just here.
Friday, I was in Lexington. I was working with Bud and meeting with some clients. The day passed quickly and Friday night seemed to pass even more quickly. I had a little bit of time to do some Web work and I spent time with Amanda. I did manage to surprise Amanda with some flowers and a card ... and all in the same day.
Saturday, I spent half the day sleeping and spent the evening visiting with some friends and watching movies: Bewitched and Sahara. Bewitched was dissapointing, at best. Sahara was a bit surprising, as it kept me interested but it was full of silly plot holes. Before either of us knew it, it was past midnight and Amanda and I were heading back to the ol' homestead.
Today, I slept in a bit and did some work on the beta of the PC Guru Web site. I watched Star Wars III with Amanda while having dinner. Before I knew it, it's after 9PM and I'm sitting on the couch with Amanda watching television. Before I know it, it's going to be Monday morning and the routine known as work begins again.
Between trying to rest up and trying to do some personal stuff, there just really isn't enough time. I really wish that the weekends were three days instead of two.
~out...
Posted by ed at 09:03 PM | Comments (1)
Jobs by Ed
I was thinking today what kind of jobs that I've had over the years. I guess you can say that I've had a wide array of different positions ... doing many different things to make a living. When I was younger, I never imaginged that I would've done some of the things that I've done to make ends meet. Here's a list of what I can remember:
Dishwasher
We all gotta start somewhere. If I remember correctly, I landed a job as a dishwasher at Tumbleweed after I arrived back from my summer stay with my sister in MN.
McDonalds
I worked at Mickey D's sometime while I was still in high school. I remember driving to work, so I had to be at or older than 16, but younger than 17.
Cable 10 (Frankfort Plant Board)
I started off here thanks to my co-op from FCHS. I stayed through the summer and a couple of months after the summer. I guess that would've put me here between the ages of 17-18.
MSN/Microsoft
I worked as a contractor for a few of the forums @ MSN. I was even interviewed for some of the higher positions at Microsoft at one point, coming VERY close to landing a job as a manager one of the major communities at the time. I think my age did me in on this one though. I worked here from the age of 17-19 before I finally moved on.
Waiter
I went back to Tumbleweed to work as a waiter when I was 19. Stayed there a while too, but don't recall how long to be exact.
Potbelly Deli Cafe
I co-managed the deli on Sundays. The rest of the time I spent in the back doing food prep and working on the computer. The "Later Than Usual" deal was pretty fun from time to time, however.
Bartender/Manager
When I had the opportunity to bartend at Tumbleweed, I jumped at the chance. I would've had to been at least 20 years old to get behind the bar, although I'm almost sure I was closer to 21. How I managed to become the bar manager at such an early age is beyond me.
UCANweb.com/Chat-World.com
I started my Web development stuff sometime in 1997, which would've made me roughly 19 at the time. UCANweb.com came from Chat-world.com about 2 years later in 1999, which would've put me at about 21 years of age. UCANweb.com is still going strong after all these years, and I'm still President and co-founder. :D
Capital Cleaners
My aunt was the manager of the store on Shelbyville Rd and I needed supplimental income, as UCANweb.com wasn't exactly paying the bills at this point in time. You learn alot about people by the clothes they bring you. I can honestly say that I've never really come across anything too nasty while working at Capital Cleaners.
TechRepublic
I started off writing for TechRepublic as a side gig to get some extra income. They liked my work and brought me in for an interview. They liked me and decided to create a position for me. I wrote for TR for almost a year and a half before I burned out. Writing anywhere between 5-10 articles a week @ 1000-1500 words per article can drain anyone quickly.
WHAS-TV
I started @ WHAS as an assistant. After a month into the gig, I was told that my manager was let go and that I was in charge until they found a replacment. I was told that I could apply for the job, but the odds of me filling the role were slim to none. That didn't bother me at all, so I applied anyway ... mostly because of a pep talk by Doug Proffitt. I showed my bosses what I was capable of and they hired me as the IT Manager after about 3 months time.
SkyWay USA
I worked for SkyWay as the IT Manager, but you could really call the position more of a CTO. I designed and launched a satellite ISP from the ground-up using Linux, MySQL, Apache w/PHP and a few proprietary Linux-based applications. I also designed the interface for the satellite modem as well, in addition to creating a PHP-based satellite configuration and monitoring backend.
The Solarity Group
These days, I work as an IT Consultant. My official title is Chief Technology Consultant, I think. The Solarity Group is made up of a collection of IT people that specialize in very specific areas, allowing us to feed off one another to learn more about IT and provide the best possible solution to customers. It's almost what I was planning to do myself in about 2 years, but I figured ... "Hey, why not get an early start?"
...
Well, that's about it I guess. I wonder what I'll be able to say about this list in about a year or two from now...
~out...
Posted by ed at 03:01 AM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2005
I'm not Canadian, so I find this funny.
Did you know what Spock is on the older Canadian $5 bill? Don't believe me? Click here to take a look. These won't be around forever though, as the Canadian money people are changing the look of the $5 dollar bill, in addition to the rest of their currency.
~out..
Posted by ed at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)
In process of moving.
I found this interesting:
Total file size for EEDC? 51.4MB
I honestly thought that I had more data on my Web server. It's only 51.4MB at the moment. I was expecting something waaaay over 1GB. Granted, this doesn't count my e-mail, which I'm now beginning to wonder how large that file would be.
~out...
Update: If you can read this, you're on the new server.
Posted by ed at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2005
Sharepoint or bust
Because of my working with Solarity, I have had a lot of opportunities as of late to work with Sharepoint. Because of my background with Web development, I have a natural instinct to want to learn how it all works and to create templates for Solarity's Web site in addition to templates for Solarity customers.
But, it's not as easy as all that.
The one problem that I have with Microsoft software, regardless of how good it works and/or performs, is the integration requirements with Microsoft software. ONLY Micrsosoft software.
Now, I'm a Macromedia person. I've been using Macromedia applications like Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks for about as long as I've been doing Web development. Heck, I've even been using Flash since it was known as Futuresplash. This was before the company that developed it, Futurewave, was purchased by Macromedia back around 1996. Needless to say, I'm very comfortable developing Web sites using Macromedia software.
Dreamweaver 8: The tool of champions.
If I try to open a Sharepoint site using Dreamweaver, I get nothing but code. I don't get the nice and pretty WYSIWYG interface that I'm used to working with. Now, don't get me wrong. I can create Web sites in code with absolutely no problem ... but that isn't my beef here. My problem is application compatability. Now, if I use Microsoft's Frontpage 2003 to open a Sharepoint site, not only will it load, but you'll see the entire site layed out in a nice and pretty manner. You have the option to use either code or a WYSIWYG interface.
How incredibly frustrating for me.
Now, this means that in order for me to develop a template, it's going to cause me several steps. I'm going to have to develop the site in Dreamweaver as a stand-alone site, as all of my Macromedia tools integrate with one another so well and it's what I'm comfortable with. Afterwards, I am required to use Frontpage to put it all together on the Sharepoint site itself.
The people who've worked with me in the past know one big thing about me and Frontpage: we're not friends. And for good reason too:
1. I hate the way that Frontpage alters code without asking me.
2. I hate the way that Frontpage enters tons of crap that I don't want.
3. I hate the way that Frontpage implements CSS and dynamic HTML content.
So, yeah ... there you have it. Frontpage sucks. Well, to me, anyhow. Some people may disagree, but these are very important reasons for me. I really hate it when an application changes all of the hard work that I've done. To me, it seems presumptuous on Microsoft's part that they know how to write your code better than you do.
Bleh. And people wonder why I don't particularly like using Microsoft software at home.
~out..
Posted by ed at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2005
Save The Date
I received in the mail the other day a post card from the FCHS Class of 1996 Reunion Committee. It says:
Class of 1996
Ten Year Reunion
to update your personal information and find out more!
So, I had actually updated my profile on the reunion Web site last week prior to receiving this notice. I decided, on a whim, to see if anyone else had also received the post card and in turn updated their profile.
There are currently 17 classmates who have updated their profile. As of last week, including my profile, there were 12. I'm curious how many there will be after this weekend, when people have more time on their hands to update a profile.
One thing that I'm trying to understand though ... some people actually put their home address and phone number on their profile. I'm curious why they did this. It's one thing to get a Web site or e-mail address out to old friends, but do you really want people you may or may not know, especially after 10 years, either calling you or worse yet ... showing up at your home unannounced?
On another note, however, by chance I did happen to find two personal blogs of some former classmates this week. One of them was stumbled across purely by accident, which lead to the other. Just for the heck of it, I decided to e-mail one of them just to say hi and to wish them well. Makes me wonder how many other people out there have personal blogs as well.
~out...
Posted by ed at 08:55 PM | Comments (1)
Firefox 1.5 released yesterday
I was sick through most of Wednesday, so I missed the fact that the Mozilla Foundation released version 1.5 of the Firefox Web browser. Here's a blurb regarding new features in this release:
- Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
- Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
- Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
- Improvements to popup blocking.
- Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
- Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
- Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
- Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
- Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
- Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
- New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
- Many security enhancements.
Yup, downloaded and installed as of this morning. :)
Personally, I'm really looking forward to the full release of MSIE 7.0 so that I can see these two browsers go head to head. I'm still pretty open minded about Web browsers, but I currently refuse to use MSIE 6.x or under because of the major problems that it has with system security and stability.
Posted by ed at 01:48 AM | Comments (0)
For your reading pleasure
My Website is being moved to a new server soon, so I decided that it was time to merge all of my old posts into this current blog. If you haven't been keeping up, here's the scoop:
My original blog was a much older version of Moveable Type. It had all kinds of bugs and such, not to mention all kinds of vulnerabilities, but I was happy with it and no one was messing with me. One day, I noticed that I started to get all kinds of comment spam, which I wasn't happy with.
I did some reasearch and discovered that I would need to upgrade to a new version of Moveable Type to get rid of the spam. So I did. The problem was that the old database wasn't compatable with the new database. So I created a new database and started anew with my blog. I knew that one day I'd get off my lazy ass and pull over the old content, but up until now I've never really had a reason to do so.
Now, since my Website is in process of transitioning from server A to server B, I felt that it was time to incorporate the old blog content to make the transition as easy as possible.
So, that's the backstory on it all. Now everyone can read all of my blog from the very first entry until the last one, which at this point is this entry.
Enjoy!
~out...
Posted by ed at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)