Author Archives: mstroud

You Just Never Know Who Knows You

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I had an interesting talk today with someone I’d never met, but had worked in the same industry with for the last 10 or so years. Without having talked to me before, and based solely on where I had been and what I had said in the public eye this person recommended me to others. I just sat there stunned.

It seems that whenever I need a reminder of the old rule “don’t burn your bridges” one comes along to remind me. This occasion offered just such a reminder and I’m greatful that, thus far, I haven’t managed to make all that many technology people mad at me over the years. Customers, well, they are a different story :P

Google Picasa Web Album

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I had a chance today to fiddle around with yet another Google beta product: Picasa Web Albums. It is the best demo yet of a blend of local (PC based) applications and web site integration with AJAX.

What this all means is that you can add photos from a web page, from an application, or from an email to your photo album any time you want. It’s pretty nifty. Take a look at the progress so far.

Better Web Site Days

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After some initial problems it seems that the web site is all fixed up and working again.  This is a nice change of pace from the previous few days where everything just wouldn’t seem to work properly at all.

Strangely, many of the problems were due to “unsupported directives” in an Apache htaccess file.  I’ve never seen anything like it, but it doesn’t matter now.  Things are working again and I’m glad to have it done.

New Server Move Not-So-Complete

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After having spent a few days on the new service, Bluehost.com, I can say that I’m having some problems that don’t allow me to say that all is well.

First off, all of my scripts that do site redirection are broken with an Server Error 500 page.  The reason, according to the logs, is that the headers (hidden stuff at the front of all good web pages) aren’t being sent.  But I’ve checked things out and they are being sent.  Wonderful, another set of problems to track down.

On top of that the host has been down twice in 2 weeks, not a good start.  This is why I am leaving my old web host, Infinology. I’m not buying into bargain basement fees here, so I have to wonder if this is what the web really is all about these days: advertise heavily, get the customer’s data and credit card, bill them, then hide away and let the service go to hell.  Sounds like some late 90′s business plans if you ask me.

Short Take: Driving on a Saturday

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It was warm out today so I decided to take the car out for an extended spin. Little did I know that I would get to experience all of the following:

  • - Massive amounts of traffic
  • - Crazed drivers who must race and pass me every 5 miles
  • - That “bad fish” smell that comes from certain areas near the ocean
  • - Many dead skunks on the road (and now on my tires)
  • - Large 4×4 trucks with muck falling off of them
  • - Roads closed due to mudslides
  • - A Saturn that nearly became part of the rear of my car

All that for a few pictures and some driving around town (and then some). Sometimes I wonder why I bother getting up in the morning.

The Day the PSP Fell Down

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It is with some sadness that I must write today that my PSP’s analog joystick has died. Quite simply, it separated itself from the main body of the device and ceased working. This was proceeded by the joystick becoming stuck, spinning my character in circles for the better part of a game, and the other players in the game using me as easy target practice.

Given that I work for the company that makes this device, it seems well and truly sad that such a spot of bad luck would befall my purchase. The PSP is only a few months old and already its headed to the RMA depot. I can only hope that the refurb unit they send me lasts longer than this one did, lest my thumbs again gain feeling and my days become longer with the extra time spent away from GTA.

Good Flights, Bad Disposal

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As the ski season has drawn to a close, I switch my attention to aircraft again. This past weekend saw both of the airplanes up and flying again after the winter weather kept them indoors. I was a little rusty, but quickly found my skills coming back after some circuits around the field. That is good news, to be sure, since it means no need to quickly replace another airplane (or all the parts that go with it) in the fleet.

On the down side, my under sink disposal unit decided to go belly up. For those who have not had to replace one of these devices let me just say that its a hard, ugly, and smelly job that you really should pay someone else to do if you can afford to. Me, I thought it would be cake, so I opted to do it myself.� Half a day after I started I finally had all the parts and tools needed, minus about $120 for the disposal unit. It works now but I certainly don’t want to have to replace something like that again any time soon.

A Friendly Reminder: Don't Valet Park

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I just had another of those experiences where I kick myself for knowing better, but then I go ahead and do something anyway. I convinced myself that it might be OK to allow someone to valet park the C6.

The guy who took the keys could barely speak English, and he couldn’t tell me how he was going to park the car (yes, the vette requires a special shutdown and park procedure) and he had to summon someone over who spoke a little English to notify me that yes, he had parked “one of these” before. I would later learn that he had not.

So, with that pain behind me I went in to eat, trying not to think of that fateful scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where the valet’s fly out the back of the garage at full speed.

When I exited to retrieve the car, a new set of valet’s were around, and sure enough, they had problems. First, they tried to bring the car around with another car parked directly in front of the C6. Once they woke up enough to realize that wouldn’t work (and moved the other car) one of them hopped in my car and proceeded to wave his hands around frantically, starring at the dash for what seemed like minutes, only to exit the car and say “I need some help.” Yes, the C6 managed to befuddle him to the point of not being able to find the start button.

In the end, I took my key back, hopped in the car, fired it up, and got out of there before someone else took a swipe at the vehicle roulette wheel. Lesson learned, again.

In Sickness, Not In Stealth

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Here I am, trying to recover from time off, spending just 4 days up in Tahoe and coming home feeling the most sickly I’ve felt in quite some time. Ear and head congestion, ringing in the ears, and a general feeling of unbalanceness (is that even a word?).

Serves me right for trying to take time off while at the same time dealing with the aftermath of work and the complete lack of outside-of-work issues. Save for the taxes. This time of year is oh-so-much fun thanks to taxes.