Webcams of CERN

I love me some webcams!

Politics

/rant on

I hate politics. And I especially hate the landscape of the current campaigns. There is no discussion among the candidates about real issues that affect my daily life, rather they snipe at each other or tell each other to stop sniping. Enough!

I want to know:

• Who is going to raise my taxes less? I think both of them will end up taxing me more, but I want to know who is going to affect my wallet less.
• Who is going to at least make an attempt at controlling illegal immigration? It’s out of control and there needs to be some type of planning that deals fairly with everyone involved, but ignoring the problem is not a solution.

That’s it. Those are the issues I’m concerned about, and there’s probably been some answers on those topics from the candidates, but I would have to go searching through all the mountains of crap that they, and their legions of followers, are spewing.

Another thing: I don’t understand why people are so polarized behind either candidate. Neither one of them seems to be a very good choice. I’m frustrated that election after election, we’re given mediocre options for president when I know that this country is full of bright, talented and dedicated individuals. The party system is broken that allows our current options to rise to the top because they’ve made whatever promises to big wigs in either party. That system will never allow anyone to become a candidate that has a shred of integrity.

/rant off

Reaching Geek Limits

Today has just been a fantastic day for all things geek. We’ve got coding, smashing particles and a trip down gaming memory lane.

First off, I've been coding away at some logging bugs that my current project has experienced. The great thing about java is you’re really not constricted by much as there’s certain to be a library written by someone more competent than myself that I can exploit at will. Of course, the bad thing about java is that you’re really not constricted and can get yourself into the deep end of the pool, just a few minutes after eating, wearing a lead jacket and forgetting how to swim. So, let’s just say that I made some educated guesses which weren’t very educated, and now I’m backing my way out of them, slowly, so no one gets hurt.

It seems to me that there really hasn’t been a great scientific pursuit on a large scale since the space race ended. That seems to have changed today; The Frogs have been busy smashing particles together and assuring everyone that we won’t go the way of Arthur Dent.

I have to imagine that if my house was near this thing, I’d be pretty jumpy today. There’s a very good article over at How Stuff Works that describes things in more detail and actually answers the “why in the hell should we do this?” type questions.

And most importantly, I learned of a fantastic site that sells PDF versions of all the old Dungeons & Dragons manuals. It doesn’t get any better than this!

Refreshing an imported table in Microsoft Access

Another fun problem I ran into recently and couldn't find an answer to using Google: You have a table that you've imported, and you want to refresh the contents of that table. The main problem is that if you simply delete the table and then re-import, you will lose all of the information about that table in your queries. If it's a complex query, then that could be problematic. Here's the solution.

1. Import the table with the new data into your Access database.

2. Once you've imported the table, rename the table to the same name of the table that you want to replace.

3. Access will now prompt you whether you want to replace the existing table. Answer yes, and voila, table refreshed!

Yes, it's a simple solution but it wasn't very obvious, at least for me.

Formatting a Date in Microsoft Access

More for my future reference, than your edification:

For some unknown reason, I had a reasonably difficult time formatting a date within Microsoft Access. The format of the date was to be in YYYY-MM-DD format, and while searching for assistance, I stumbled upon this solution:

Format([DATE], 'yyyy-mm-dd')

This worked when querying against a table, but if you wanted to use this in a query of a query, then I started receiving this message:

Syntax error (comma) in query expression

In typical Microsoft fashion, this really meant nothing to me. After hacking around, I finally found that I had to write the formula like this to work:

Format([TABLENAME.DATE], 'yyyy-mm-dd')

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

We're hitched!

I’ve been really busy with work and getting to and from work, so just a quick post to announce that Petrea and I married on March 26 in Negril, Jamaica. It was a wonderful trip and I’m the luckiest man alive!

Back to work…

My Life by Location

I enjoy visiting the Google Sightseeing site every once in awhile. Generally, I end up looking at all sorts of things other than the original topic. This spurred an idea; catalog how my life has played out by location.


I created a Google map of my own and placed pointers around the country to various places I have lived, worked, or had something to point out. There really isn’t a point to this other than to see what it looked like when it was done and to satisfy my geekiness quota for the day.

I’m not sure how I feel other than to say maybe it’s time to slow down a bit. To be fair, I’ve been a consultant/contractor for ten years now, so I do tend to not work in one place too long (with a notable exception). I clearly need some help in the “how about you move someplace and stay put for awhile” category.

Twitter

I'm playing with Twitter again (see the twitter updates in the column to the right on my blog). I'm not sure why, other than they have a handy little gadget that plugs into the Google desktop (which I recently started using again). If you're asking "what the hell is Twitter?", then you're probably as old as I am (or older) and you can read this to learn more.

Interesting Reading

• A real person, a real death
• In perhaps the greatest scientific discovery of all time, the nitrates in bacon have been found to minimize the damage caused by heart attacks. Bonus: they don't cause cancer either
• World Sunlight Map
• Alcohol Consumption per Capita

Interesting Reading

• Top 15 Celebrity Transformations
• Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in Halo 3
• 11 Phenomenal Images of Earth
• Earth Clock

Interesting Reading

• Why We Should All Become Muslims
• Why It Was a Good Idea to Attack Iraq
• ROYGBIV-ness
• Top 10 Most Expensive Libations
  

Welcome to Christmas!

I love it when I'm right. Or in this case, I'm pretty much smug knowing that I was right and miserable that I know I'm going to be tortured with non-stop Christmas advertising for 55 days.

I submit to you the proof: Star 102 FM in Kansas City. Now an all Christmas all the time format! You can even stream it now! Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Conspiracy

Happy Halloween! Enjoy it while you can, because it's already gone. And it won't be back either.

My fiancée and I have been commiserating on the sad state of Halloween at our places of work. She, an elementary school teacher, has been told to not to wear any Halloween related clothing or costumes and to prepare a lesson plan to celebrate "Multicultural Day." I don't know about you, but I just can't contain my excitement at the thought of celebrating "Multicultural Day." As my she points out, "Why celebrate our own traditions when we can celebrate everyone else's?"

As a corporate drone, I used to enjoy the annual costume contest sponsored by the company, whereas this year it is noticeably absent. There is a total of one person in costume within eyesight, and he went through the painstaking process of putting on a funny hat. He's a rebel.

I'm pretty sure there is an insidious plan afoot. Did you notice the Christmas lights going up prior to Thanksgiving last year? The marketing people for Christmas have clearly decided that now that they've blown past Thanksgiving, it's time to attack the next holiday in line: Halloween. In just a few short years, July 4th red, white and blue will be replaced with green and red, with flaming Christmas trees being launched skyward. You read it here first.

I used to think the neighbors were Whiskey Tango for leaving their lights up all year; now I know that they were just ahead of their time.

Wish You Were Here

Taste

I had the good fortune to attend the Taste event at Disney's California Adventure on Saturday evening. The event was billed as a food and wine tasting evening, hosted in Studio 17 where the former Who Wants to be a Millionaire--Play It attraction was housed. The only requirements to attend was a Disneyland Annual Pass and a tribute to be paid to The Mouse.

I really didn't know what to expect going in to this event. Would Disney be ultra careful about how much wine they would serve? Would they have oversold the event so there would be shortage of food? Or long waits?

The short answers: more wine than you know what to do with; it was crowded, but not overly; there were short waits toward the beginning of the evening and no wait thirty minutes after we arrived; I never saw any table running low of any dish.

The most important part: Vin! We were given our own wine glasses upon entry, that we later were allowed to keep as a souvenir (and they even gave us a little bag to carry our wine glasses in so we didn't have to look like complete lushes roaming the theme park afterwards). There were nine wineries represented, each pouring three different wines. For the math challenged, that's 27 different wines that you could choose from, and trust me, I did my best to do just that. The wineries were:

Miner Family Vineyards (the rose was very good)
Silverado Vineyards
Baileyana Winery
Flora Springs Winery
Levendi Estates Winery
Buena Vista Winery (very good Chardonnay)
Mirassou Winery (great dessert wine made from Chardonnay)
XYZin
Rosenthal Malibu Estate
Karl Strauss Brewing Co. (for the non-wino's)

There were two surprises for the evening: Music and Chefs.

The musical offering was fantastic. My expectation, and I think even Disney's expectation up until the last minute was to park a live jazz band in the corner of a room. Instead, we were treated to an energetic performance from Barrage. The band is essentially several violin players backed up by a bassist, guitarist and drummer.

I don't know how else to describe them other than to say, go look at their website and watch some of the material they have to offer. What captivated us the most is the personality that each of the performers brought to the stage. There wasn't a lot of singing involved in each song. You might think that a performance group like this might not be all that interesting to see in person, but that's where this group excels.

The second surprise was the Chefs. The shock came as I went to retrieve the first dish of the evening, Portobello Mushroom Cappuccino Bisque from the Napa Rose. There were a few people in front of me to get their dish, and as I waited, I watched the chef behind the table preparing each cup that the dish was to be served in. When I reached the front of the line, the chef behind the table picked up a cup, and handed it to a chef in front of the table who put the finishing touches on the dish and handed it to me. It wasn't until then that I actually looked down and saw his name embroidered on his white jacket: Executive Chef Andrew Sutton.

One thing about me, I could really care less about celebrity. But I think I felt almost instantly what other people feel about meeting one of their favorite celebrities. Struggling for words, I think I got out "I love your restaurant and I've converted as many people that I can that there is fantastic food and wine at Disneyland daily!" He probably hears these types of things over and over, but his appreciation of my compliment seemed truly genuine. When I grow up, I want to be just like him. ;)

I scurried away with my treat with the new found knowledge, that holy crap: all the Chefs are here! All of them! Wow!

It was great interacting with all of the Chefs, or as many as I could before I just was too full and couldn't eat another bite. I even had to forgo dessert (which I am told was a *big* mistake) because I just had to try every dish, and didn't actually make it to every one of them. Here was the menu, and a brief comment if I tried it:

The Vineyard Room--Braised Pork Belly (like buttah)
Blue Bayou--Blackened Atlantic Salmon
House of Blues--Delta Red Beans and Rice
Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen--Louisiana Shrimp Remoulade (this was delicious, with just the right amount of spice)
Yamabuki--Sushi Trio
Club 33--Duck Confit Profiterole (my favorite dish of the evening)
Naples Ristorante--Panzanella Salad (yummmm, fresh motzerella)
Napa Rose--Portobello Mushroom Cappuccino Bisque (I really enjoyed this very creative dish)
Café Orleans--Cajun Spiced Shrimp (another tasty shrimp dish, with just the right amount of spice)
Chef Jamie Gwen--Meatball Slider on Mini-Brioche (this was good, if a bit dry, the meat was delicious. Chef Jamie is the on air radio host on various AM stations on the weekend)
Catal--Grilled Chorizo Skewers with Saffron Rouille (very light, but tons of flavor, just a bit of Chorizo so it didn't overpower)
Hook's Pointe--Inland Salad

This clearly will be one of the highlights of my year. The company was wonderful, the conversation sparkling, the wine abundant, the food delicious; who could possibly ask for more?

Californians

This is why I hate Californians (full disclosure: I'm a life long Californian). I'm at the gym this morning and as I'm preparing to brush my teeth and shave, the gentleman next to me, whom I've never met or said word one too, says, "I can tell you're not from California."

Long dramatic pause. Okay, I'll bite. I say, "Why is that?"

"You're letting the water run, so you probably don't know about how we used to ration water and fuel."

My response, "I can tell you're not a Marine."

"Why is that?"

"Because I'll be ready to go to work in about five minutes, while you're still primping yourself here at the sink saving water."

I turned and walked off, took my two minute shower, got dressed and went to work. He's probably still over there taking a shower as I write this.

Hey, in all fairness, he does have a point, but the problem is this: most Californians will give you their point unsolicited and that's why people hate us. I hate us too.

Passcodes

I was reading an article yesterday about how people, who are oblivious to security, have placed their private corporate information onto Google Calendar. Google Calendar is secure, if you want it to be, but these folks have decided to make a variety of things public, that shouldn't be.

Here's an example. I typed "passcode" in the search box, and clicked Search Public Events. I was then given a list of hundreds of various conference calls and the passcodes to enter those calls.

I realize that Google Calendar may be a new tool, but why do people constantly surprise me with their level of stupidity? Are we really making better idiots these days?

Sharing Newsfeed

Over the on the right side of the page is a new element for my blog. Basically, as I read news items in my nifty Google newsreader, I can tag those that I find interesting and they'll appear right here in that little window. Spiffy.

Happy to Help

It seems the folks over at ComputerWorld have compiled a list of the Top 21 Biggest Technology Flops. Among those that received the honor of being on this list is "Push Technology," most notably by PointCast.

Remember PointCast? I certainly do. Sometime in 1997, I decided to leave another technology company in Sunnyvale after focusing largely on expanding my management skills. I decided it was time to get back to basics. This meant focusing on my programming skills again and working as a contractor (which I have done ever since).

Somehow, I ended up working at PointCast. If you have a vague memory of the PointCast client, then you know that on every "page" of the application was a small window that would play advertising. I was in charge of a Lotus Notes based application that would track the sales of these advertisements and then generate a text file. This text file was distributed to all of the PointCast clients and told the application when to play which advertisement.

At first, working for PointCast was a delight. Typical Silicon Valley Boom company: company picnics each month (I remember one where we had one of these in the parking lot), wear jeans to work, an amazing lobby with glass from ceiling to floor that showcased this absolutely state-of-the art server farm) and get this, beer on Friday afternoons. Oh yeah, my code looked really good those afternoons and then I had to correct it all come Monday morning.

After a few months, cracks began to show. The biggest red flag was that the CEO just up and mysteriously left about one week after giving a big rah-rah presentation to all of the company about how bright and cheery the future was at PointCast. And then the thrashing began. Since my application tracked all of the sales, it became very apparent that sales people were doing anything to make sales which included selling things that we had no way of actually deploying. So, I spent my remaining months at PointCast changing how sales were represented in the database. This literally was almost a complete redesign every two weeks.

It was no longer fun. In fact, the business analyst I worked closely with termed the work "Project Esperance." He had a map of the world on his cubicle wall, and we determined that Esperance, Australia was the city that was directly on the opposite side of the World from Sunnyvale, California. This is where we often wanted to be.

Some personal issues forced me to move to Southern California, which in hindsight ended up being terrific timing as I just missed the complete implosion of the Silicon Valley. I worked remotely for PointCast for a few months, and then I was told that I wouldn't be needed anymore. At some point over those few months, I did make a trip back to the offices in Sunnyvale and they were nearly empty.

And that's how I helped PointCast make the Top 21 Biggest Technology Flops list.