My [Cynical] World View . . .

Can't Malware Hold Me Down

2010-01-22T22:12:00.001-05:00

So I guess the title really doesn't work like Puffy originally intended, but hey, I'm not a suave music mogul billionaire.

Last week I had the privilege of being graced by the presence of a little malicious piece of code that took my home computer captive. This little guy seemed silly to me at first but like a devil in disguise, I had him all wrong.

When I went to do a Google search and clicked on a link, sometimes it took me to a random site that wasn't the intended target. While this was annoying, really annoying even, it was hardly cause for too much concern. I simply thought that I had probably inadvertently downloaded this malware, through one way or another, and like others I've experienced before it, it wouldn't be too hard to be rid of it. Well, I guess I have been malware/virus free for so long, that I have not been completely up-to-speed about how vicious they have become; because this little puppy went right for the jugular. That little bastard!

The sites I was being redirected to weren't anything questionable, so I thought that the creator was just trying to get some web traffic to some target sites to increase web ranking. While intrusive, this was not really anything to be all up in arms about. I'll just find the cookie, executable, or what have you and remove it. No sweat! So I boot up the malware removers that I have grown to trust; Spybot to scan for known threats, HackThis to look at my currently running processes, and Windows Malware Remover just for good measure (even though it's not all that great in my opinion). To my surprise, they all came back clean.

So I went back online, and after a few hours of looking (after all the web site redirection from the malware) I found others have experienced something like this before as well, and that they found a rootkit installed. I was shocked! A Rootkit! Really! That's pretty hard core for a pesky little web traffic redirector. So, I downloaded a rootkit search utility, and booted back in safe mode to give it a run and do a little snooping under the hood. When I scanned I caught some stuff that didn't belong there, but nothing really pointing to the cause of my troubles. I did however find an installed driver that I didn't recognize and promptly removed it. But, before I realized what happened it was all over. It's like I set off the trip-line and turned the harmless bunny into Donnie's alter ego.

This little bugger then proceeded to turn my PC upside down. It removed the keyboard driver to make it tough to navigate around, and deactivated my Windows installation so I could not get web updates, even if there was something out there offered by Microsoft to fix my issue (which I still think there isn't). After a number of other attempts to unload my burden, I resorted to the last straw before a reinstall (*shudder*) and tried to do a System Restore to a previous state. Oh wait, those are all corrupted from the virus. I was again, shocked!

After that I remember that I bought a HP Mediasmart Server running Windows Home Server last year. A nice little feature that Windows Home Server offers is fully configurable home computer network backup and recovery. We aren't talking about a folder or two of files here, we are talking the whole shebang. Programs, pictures, movies, music, documents, and even Windows itself ... backed up every night ready to take on my computer catastrophe. So with a quick sifting through my CDs to find the startup disc, and a few menus later, I have a computer that is being completely reinitialized over my home network without me lifting a finger (other than to write this blog). After all I have done with that machine in the last year, from streaming multimedia wherever I want it, to remotely controlling tasks at home, to sharing data on the internet with others, after getting me through this mess, that machine is probably the best piece of computer equipment I have ever bought, hands down! You might think it's overkill to have a server in your house (my wife sure thinks so at least), but that thing is a workhorse with the voice of a slick operator.

So now I have a fully restored machine just the way I left it last week without too much trouble. So long days of reinstalling and getting frustrated. I should paint an S on the side of my WHS box after this one.

-Conte

Horrifying!

2010-01-12T17:01:00.000-05:00

Saw this on a blog comment today and I had to break my blogging silence to share. Man, someone's big brother has some issues!

-Conte

Blogs ... The New Age Office Copier Spam

2009-08-03T14:14:00.000-04:00

So I was Googling something today and while looking for information I happened upon a few personal blogs much like this one; one's with no real objective, just thrown out in the wind for all to see and criticize. I had a little time to kill so I read a few posts from a smattering of blogs, and now I came to my own blog to reflect. Oh how it comes full circle.

I have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of personal blogs are the tech age version of the office copier spam. If you are unfamiliar with said spam, it's the stuff people in an office tend to frequently print out and leave behind for others to read and absorb. This can range from a news article, to a story/poem, to one of the dreaded 'FWD: FWD: FWD: ... FWD: READ THIS OR YOU MIGHT DIE ... AND SEND THIS TO 10 OTHER PEOPLE' emails. The placement can also be randomized ... common places are bulletin boards, exterior cubical walls, lunch tables, water coolers, and bathroom stalls. If you need a visual, watch the scene in Fight Club where Ed Norton's boss tells him to 'clean himself up.'

I personally try to avoid these print outs at all costs because there's usually a personal agenda behind all of it and I really can't be bothered. Though, sometimes I make a game out of it by reading it specifically to stereotype the person that left it there (don't judge me!). Some of my all time favorites are:

FWD: Mary/Angel Sightings!!! [accompanied by over-sized pixelated pictures from around the world of various common things that don't have anything to do with Mary (the mother of Jesus Christ) or Angels]
The inspirational "short" story on life fulfilling activities [you can take your pick, I've seen many variants]
The print out from the local/national paper on legislation concerning 'fill in the blank' [drugs, gay marriage, etc ... this is always great stereotyping material here]

Though the 'old timers' tend to continue this trend of office garbage, the new age kids are taking it to the interwebs on their blogs! But the content is nearly the same ... some sappy story, or emotion provoking song lyrics, or 'OMG wiz-bang WTF' ... it's all there. I just find it funny that the generational difference in media distribution mechanism does not have much impact on the media being distributed. What do you guys think?

-Conte

I'm Back...ish

2009-07-29T16:29:00.000-04:00

So as some of you have noticed (like 2 of you, but whatever), I have not posted in a long time. While I like having an open forum of a few, there are times when I am too busy/am too tired/don't care enough/have nothing to say and blogging definitely takes a back seat. Most often it's the whole sitting down to write something the whole way though. It takes dedication and about a good hour to write some of this stuff, and usually a video game, TV show, quality personal time, or work wins out. Well, I hope to change that by writing fewer, shorter blogs. So you can get your fix of my geek wit without the months in between. But be forewarned, the content is probably going to take a sharp decline here. I'm shooting for quantity, not quality since the opposite, that I much prefer, caused the epic lag of postings.

Anyway, without further ado, the story that brought me back to my blog.

So at work this week I was given the task of analyzing some data to help solve a problem. I mean, I am an engineer ... that's what we do! So, this data just so happens to come from a conglomerate of places around the world, each doing their thing in their own way, without much concern for the other. Again, not much surprise here. So I get to work taking the prisms and pyramids and cramming them into the round holes. One of the oddballs is a legendary file format from before I was born ... so it's freakin' old! You'd think this is good ... well documented, well understood by the masses, well supported by industry ... ya, you'd think wrong. So, I went about porting it to the new hotness ... I scripted up a nice little file manipulator that takes my mess and packs it with 10 atm of pressure into a bunch of little peas that the simulator like to chomp on. This was great! So easy (took about 2 hours) and now I can save myself a lot of frustration and potential error doing it by hand. So I fire it off, and a few seconds later I have a nice organized space for me to start doing the real work. So I pop open a new window to start looking at some characteristics only to see the data didn't look right at all! Perplexed, I spent another 'block' of time (I'd rather not say how much ;) ) figuring out what exactly went wrong. In the end, it turns out the tool that was the back-end of my script was interpreting the file differently than if you ran the tool from the main program itself. Was this documented ... NO! All the documents say is the usage. It doesn't explain format or expectations, or anything ... it might as well say 'insert quarter for bullet to the brain'! Thanks ... loved the experience. So in the end ... I had to do the exact thing I was looking to avoid.

In hindsight I'm glad I caught it so I didn't look like a horses ass presenting something that's not even plausible, but man did it burn my blood. So this is the one case where working smart instead of being a stupid drone screwed me in the end. Moral or the story: next time, use a bigger hammer!

-Conte

Woot-Off Suckage

2009-05-15T01:21:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to let my readers know how unhappy I am with that current status of the 'Woot-Off'. Now I'm sure all my geeky readers know what Woot is but for you cooler people out there that stumble this meaningless blog, Woot is a site were they sell one (1) item per day till it's sold out. The item is usually some tech electronic gizmo or some geeky dohicky, but sometimes it's actually something useful ... like a coffee pot .... mmmm .... coffee. Anyway, they do a nice little story to andvertise the product that is usually amuzing if nothing else, post a nice big picture, and sell like mad. They keep statistics on who bought what, and from where and all sorts of other stuff they probably sell for a profit to some other capatilistic company for demographic information as well as host a forum where people can piss and complain about the crap that's being sold and how they can find it cheaper at some other obscure internet site.

While that's all good and fine, Woot comes to the pinnacle of existence when there is a 'Woot-Off'. These are usually magic occasions that stem straight from the right half of Roald Dahl's brain. On these days, Woot goes into hyperdrive selling everything off the warehouse shelves one right after the other till it's all gone. Often on these days I am completely taken over by my curiosity and find myself hitting F5 on the web page insesantly to see whats next on the block; I actually use Woot BOC (a Woot Watcher derivative) but that doesn't make for a good story. It's amazing how much work doesn't get done on days like this just because there's something that I could possibly want a click away. Sad ... yes.

Anyway, to the point. Lately, the items and deals on Woot-Off days have been really weak! Right now its a 7-Piece Shun Stainless Steel Kitchen Knife Block for $250. Nice knives yes ... but is that price supposed to make me impulse buy them ... not me! And other stuff I saw today like a no-name LED flashlight, or typhoon RC toys, or Bacon Salt ... yes I'm serious ... they sold bacon salt. Who's buying this stuff! I'm very upset with their clearance sale and while I can't bring myself to boycott it because I'm still intrigued by my curiousity regardless, I think my account won't be seeing any action anytime soon.

-Conte

NPN is for Engineering ... Get It Straight

2009-04-29T10:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, so this morning I found a this electrical engineering related blog post cache is another blog site. After clicking the Google Cache link, and preceding to comment on the post, I realized that the blog was an eMarketing blog, and the post was subsequently removed. The blogs was named The NPN, which besides being a horrible name for a blog, I had no idea what NPN has to do with marketing. Apparently googling "NPN Marketing" reveals a number of cryptic sites about the "New Plan Network" and how you can harness it. I have a few comments about this:

It seems like a pyramid scheme with terms like 'unlimited profit potential' and 'have others work for you'.
If I had to deal with mindless BS stuff like this at work everyday, I think there would be a higher probability of suicide by the time I retired.
I think the acronyms should be reserved for worthy terms; and this isn't one.
I hereby announce to the world, that 'NPN' is now only to be used when referencing the typical NMOS (N-channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor) doping of a field effect transistor (FET)

Moving on, since I am unable to answer the question there I thought I would share my response on my blog. Really, I just didn't want to feel like I wasted my time, but I guess it applies enough to me and my life to make it applicable to my blog. So without further ado, the question by the poster who did not take the time to make sure the inquiry matched the blog content:

Why do I see more NMOS and NPN transistors as an undergrad than PMOS and PNP?

Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

In my undergrad EE courses we spend way more time on NMOS and NPN circuits than PMOS and PNP. Is there a reason for this? Are n-type transistors more popular in actual design or are my professors just partial to them?

5 Comments

to_700million_idiots says:
April 18, 2009 at 2:20 pm
it's not easy to fabricate the PNP it used to be termed a lateral pnp transistor and has very poor charactersitics you find complimentary transistors but for things like Voltage regulators the lateral PNP just is not up to it …so negative regulators have limitations Research the term "lateral pnp"
ancient_nerd says:
April 18, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Negative voltages get confusing.
kerry k says:
April 18, 2009 at 2:20 pm
"N" type devices use a positive power rail, with a negative ground. This is common design architecture that is in current use. A PNP type device would require a negative power rail, and a positive ground, which is outside of common use. No, your instructors are not necessarily partial to "N' type devices.
ptolemy862000 says:
April 18, 2009 at 2:20 pm
It is just to give an easier explanation of the circuit analysis of different transistors. It only differs with the analysis because of the different path of the current.
JesterEE says:
April 29, 2009 at 9:45 am
All the above answers are valid, but in practice you should expect to see both in active use. Just bear in mind, the use of active (and passive) devices are all design and fabrication process dependent.

For undergrad work, the texts tend to use NPN as a learning vehicle. IMHO, this is probably because as ancient_nerd said, negative voltages can be confusing and counter-intuitive. Also, there is not enough time to go over every little thing in an undergrad EE track. The courses you take in undergrad should just supply you with the understanding to interpret new device level interactions when you encounter them.

For a clearer understanding of design application of different devices advanced graduate level courses (VLSI, RFCMOS, BiCMOS, Active Microwave Design (GaAs, InP, InGaP, GaN), Mixed signal design, etc.) and/or on-the-job training are often necessary. Each of these technologies will offer their own way of answering a design problem, and will lead to different circuit topographies.

-Conte

POSTage Attained

2009-04-01T15:44:00.003-04:00

Following up on my blog POSTage Required, last week I got an email from the ASUS RMA department for my most recent case. Apparently, this time they actually tried to fix the motherboard I sent in ... and whatever I did to it, it couldn't be fixed. Uh, I mean a virus ... ya, a MOS corrupting, black with yellow polka-dotted internet virus did it. As I was unsure that the motherboard was really the culprit, this was actually good news. This means that I'll get another board in return that should get my computer to run again. Then the monkey wrench came. They emailed me to ask me if I would be willing to accept a different model in return; a P5K Premium Wifi instead of my P5N-32 Premium Wifi. Since I didn't know the difference, I thought I'd look it up and see what they were offering.

After checking out the spec, and a few reviews (especially Toms Hardware ... they always show the goods), the boards seemed extremely similar. Though, I still had a few concerns:

The most important one is the P5K supports CrossFire instead of SLI. For you non-computer geeks, these terms represent rivaling advanced video interface technologies backed by 2 different companies that take advantage of 2 video cards for graphics processing on a single computer, instead of using just one card like the 'sheep'. So, if you have an ATI processor based card you want a CrossFire enabled motherboard, while if you have an Nvidia processor based card, you want an SLI enabled board. However, if you are not in the upper 2% of hardcore PC videogame-heads that have money to burn on two video cards (cutting edge cards usually cost over $250-$300 each) you really don't need to be bothered. This may come as a surprise to some of my readers, but I never fit this category, and it's not because I don't have the disposable income. Sadly, there are plenty of people in this world that are way geekier than I am ... hard to believe, I know, but I assure you this is the case. Click here if you want to see a whole lot of them fight about unimportant non-sense in tech slang, though I wouldn't waste my time.
Moving on, the only other thing that concerned me was completely cosmetic ... the back plate that covers up the empty space between the rear I/O connections. It's pretty laughable that this would be a big deal to me, but I have had a computer before that I lost the back plate to and every time I had to move it I was always worried that something would get in there and screw up everything. Though this $5 item has no real importance to the functionality of the computer, when it's not there you always wish it was. And, tracking one down after the fact is a feet and a half ... and I'd rather not be bothered.

Other than those, the proposed motherboard was actually slightly better than the one I currently own.

It was made a half a generation later so they made the P5K compatible with slightly faster RAM than the P5N.
According to some reviews, the copper heat piping was routed so it does a better job at dispersing heat from the active components.
The layout of some of the internal I/O was reconfigured and is now easier to get to.

But overall, nothing really to get excited about; pretty much the same as I have been using. Since I will probably not be upgrading it again, I was pretty indifferent to the changes, so I sent a reply authorizing the model switch yet explained that I wanted an I/O back plate for the new model as it's different than the one I own. The next day I was emailed back saying this was not a problem and would receive the back plate with, or soon after I got the RMA back. Sweet!

So Monday morning at the crack of dawn *cough* 8AM *cough* I get the delivery of the motherboard. I open the box only to find that they didn't send me a refurbed P5K ... they sent me a new one! While this isn't a huge win, it's kinda nice that ASUS cared enough about me as a customer to do the right thing and do better than sending me something they had 'laying around'. I think that is why I keep buying my computer motherboards from them even though I am plagued with motherboard issues. At least I know that the company will do everything they can to keep my happy with my purchase when inevitably it goes belly-up. And I have to say, it works.

-Conte

My Quest for Simplicity

2009-03-25T16:05:00.003-04:00

Fun fact about me. Often times, to try and find a superior yet simple and elegant solution to a problem, I spend more time searching than doing. The end result is usually that the time I spent searching is less than or equal to the time I could have spent doing and subsequently finishing the original task.

While I do believe that to solve a problem correctly is to grok the problem in its entirety, sometimes the over thinking gets a little ridiculous. Even worse, this time, it's about a subject that is a complete PITA to me ... computer programming.

So, now you all get the background story (lucky you!) ... I'll try to keep it as non-geek and easy-to-read for the layman as possible. I have a task to compile a model of an active device using an industry standard mechanism. So what do you think about when I say the word model ... a train circling around a Christmas tree, a 1968 Ford Mustang die cast, a World War II fighter plane made of balsa, or Heidi Klum? Personally I think about Heidi ... um, I mean my wife ... but that's sadly not what a device model is. To think about it simply, a device model allows someone to know how the device is going to work without actually having the physical device. It's like watching an video of someone skydiving, even if you haven't been skydiving before, after watching the video, you probably know about what to expect ... except for the crapping your pants feeling right before you jump out of the plane.

One question that might come to your mind is how you make the model represent the device accurately? Well, to answer that, you can do a few things:

You can get a PhD in modeling and device physics from a few of the heavy hitters
Read decade's worth of books and white papers covering the caveats to the boarder topic
Lick your right thumb, close your left eye, point your right hand at the screen in a 'thumbs-up' motion, scrunch your lips, and wiggle your thumb from side-to-side ever so slightly while saying "That's about right..."

In all seriousness, leave this one to the pros. But I will tell you that you need to understand how the device works before making something else work 'just like it'. This means, testing, data analysis, data management ... and lots of it!

What compounds my specific problem is one that plagues pretty much everyone that has to do this type of task from time-to-time ... data formatting. It seems that I have been fire fighting these types of problems ever since I started my career in engineering. While other engineers would manually edit all the data to fit the mold, I am a 'cursed' engineer that also can program ... meaning, I find that 'manual solution' very stupid! Besides, with over 1000 lines per data set, I don't want to modify them all by hand ... that would be stupid, boring, and take forever! Really, I did a rough estimate and it would take me about a 40 hour week to do just what I have right now let alone what I obtain next week, the week after, etc.

Off to the reference books I go. Since I am most comfortable programming Perl, I head to the Camel and CPAN for some inspiration, but recently I have been let down by my go-to-language. While I find Perl very easy to write, I find it less easy to read, harder to pick-up again after a few days, and nearly impossible to create a robust system I would want to maintain and let others use. In a nutshell, it's good for smallish-medium sized sloppy hacks that you write and forget all in the same day. While this can encapsulate 70% of most scripting work, the other 30% requires something a bit more fancy ... something that doesn't look like a steeping pile of dog crap next time you crack open the hood. I have been steadily boning-up on Python to fit that niche for me and I'm hoping to bring that into prime-time for this project. Python is actually part of the same milieu of programming languages as Perl. They are both dynamic scripting languages with a strongly typed syntax (although this has been debated into exhaustion all over the internets); they just go about it with a different philosophy. From a pseudo-outsider, that philosophy makes all the difference between maintainable projects and hacked-garbage that people forget about. While I'm not knocking Perl for its merits like the TMTOWTDI approach (There's More Than One Way To Do It), superior quick searching a replacing via regular expressions, and the HUGE extensible code archive in the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), it's just not suitable for large scale work unless you're a Perl Monk that lives and breathes the stuff everyday of your existence. I'm hoping that the object oriented orthogonal language structure, and Pythonist way of programming brings a level of organization that would otherwise be analogues to Wild Thing.

So, without a Python Zen Master in my midst, I ride alone. Armed with Learning Python, Programming Python, Komodo, and RegexBuddy ... I will spend far too much of my free time doing something for work ;(.

-Conte

POSTage Required

2009-03-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

The computer problems continue ...

Randomly, on Sunday after working on some stuff on my computer it decided to hang. Weird, but not unheard of. So I cycle the power and low and behold ... Nothing.

Fans work, drives spin, CPU/RAM gets warm, no 'release of magic' smell, but also no POST. I've had my share of computer problems lately, but the hardware issues are always the worst. So, I have to go through the arduous task of troubleshooting the crap out of my rig until I find the culprit. In the past, I have just blamed it on the motherboard and call it a day, but I really don't want to have to go through the RMA cycle yet again if I don't have to. The board is probably only worth about $50 now, and I'll easily pay $20 just to send it out and get a refurb that may or may not work on the first go around (my longest streak of non-functional refurbs obtained from RMA is 3). So, this time I'm ganna take it slow and check out what I have to check out.

The biggest issue is that I can't really afford to buy new components for a few weeks. So regardless, I'm SOL. Maybe I'll pick up a good book to fill the void ... but I'm 99% sure I won't stoop that low.

-Conte

Piece and Quiet

2009-02-27T11:24:00.003-05:00

Sometimes ... this is all I want since people 4 cubicals away can't STFU.
Anyone have a sub-$350 solution?
-Conte

5 GOLDEN RINGS, 4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Computer Reinstalls, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree ...

2009-02-24T13:59:00.002-05:00

Wait that's not how it goes ... Lame title, I know. I must be a Monday.

I hate dealing with computer problems ... especially ones that after hours of toiling, requires a complete upheaval in the end. I am of the belief that computers should just work. While I know this ideology is really an inconceivable thought, I like to wave my conductors baton from time-to-time and picture the technical world "a better place." The reality is we scorched the sun, are forced to live underground and the machines are running rampant on the surface of the earth feeding off the weak. Well, I guess it's not quiet that bad, but in my technical experiences, Murphy eventually gets you every frackin' time!

Over the past few months I realized that I was spending a lot of my time in front of my desktop when I really wanted to be sitting comfortably on the couch spending quality time with my wife instead of being a hermit in the back room. After all, I gave up the MMORPG, I should have a little flexibility now. The problem is I think I dig myself into holes with projects, but that's another story. While I still want to work on these computer related projects, I'd rather them seem somewhat enjoyable rather than work after my already long workday in front of yet another computer. So, I decided that my 5 year old 12" laptop needed a spa treatment. I had installed a bloated version of Windows XP in October that pretty much made it unusable with the resources it demanded. This particular reinstallation task required backing up some of the information I had on the laptop from last year, obtaining a fresh slipstream installation CD of Windows XP SP3, getting drivers lined up for the post install on a USB flash drive, and installing a shortened list of required programs for use on the tasks I have in mind. While this doesn't seem so bad, Murphy decided to kick me between the legs and throw me some unexpected curveballs. They weren't as bad as they could have been, but the task I thought would take ~3 hours actually took ~8 hours. 5 Windows registry hacks and a virus later, I was finished. Not the greatest use of a Sunday afternoon, but at least it was done.

Next on the list was the desktop. I had installed Windows Vista x64 a year or so ago on my computer from a slipstream installation only to find out about two months later that the person that put together the slipstream used some pre-release software in the build. In Windows XP this isn't a problem because you are able to reinstall most/all pieces of the software over the existing one in some fashion, and everything usually works fine. Yet for some reason that my 'user level' brain doesn't understand, the software engineers of Windows Vista decided to screw over early adopters and revoke critical component reinstallation. After reading forum threads upon forum threads of people in the same boat, the only solution was to reinstall from scratch. At that time, the proposed solution was not in the cards for me because of the original issue of hating to deal with computer problems and I was not about to revert all the stuff I did for the past few months especially after I just did it! So, I decided the computer was usable enough and I went with it. However, after a year, it has become apparent to me that it's probably time to do the 'yearly Windows reinstall.' Every computer power-user knows that after about a year, operating systems (especially Windows because of the registry) really needs to start from a clean slate to remove the dingle berries left behind by the day-to-day use of the computer. No way around it, you just have to accept it. Plus, my original assessment of my previous installation was probably not completely true. The computer, while pretty powerful, ran like a dog. An ugly fat dog with short legs, big ears, and a squashed in face.

Still, I did not want to take this task on quite yet. I had some ongoing projects nearing completion that I wanted to finish up so I did not have to do the whole back-up in progress thing. That can also potentially cause many headaches I'd rather not deal with. But, Murphy again had his way with me and forced my hand. While the computer was on over the weekend, my apartment lost power corrupting a few system files with the abrupt jolt. Again, not usually an issue as there are some recovery mechanisms available to get you back up and running if you know where to look. So after trying what I knew, and some of what I didn't, I was met with many error messages pretty much laughing in my face ... the original installation ball-of-yarn was preventing any sort of recovery effort. So, in a word ... screwed! What's worse is that the only version of Windows Vista I had a CD of was the one I installed the year before. That wasn't happening again! The other CD I had was on a hard drive as I had forgotten to burn it when I downloaded it. Again, screwed! After much frustration of trying to install Windows XP to get to the hard drive, booting various diagnostic utilities, and at least a hundred 'Blue Screens of Death' (BSOD) I got a fresh version Vista installed back on the machine. This one only took 6 hours. Again, great use of a Sunday afternoon ;(.

Now I still have a list of tasks to complete to really get the computer back up to speed. I need to backup files and retrieve settings from the old install, find up-to-date x64 drivers for my hardware (which is always harder than it should be), download and install a gamut of software that I use, and update all the Microsoft software components from the install. I expect another 4-8 hours of dealing with this power surge till I'm 'back online.' This is just another example of how things that are not at all important seem to dictate my life. I just hope that the installs from 2009 do better than the previous years.

What a pain in the ass!

-Conte

PS - For those technical readers out there ... this is what saved my ass!

Getting Over Myself

2009-02-11T22:42:00.004-05:00

For the past few years I have been holding onto a belief that is now apparent to me and is pretty far from the truth. Sadly, I got an epiphany that although I am a young adult, I am still an adult. It's not the fact in and of itself that bothers me ... but more the bracketing and segregation that goes along with it. I can no longer check the 18-24 box in the survey ... nope, it's now 25-34 ... it might as well be 25-dead.

It's not that I'm unhappy with my age (actually really just the opposite), just the stigma. Up until recently, I had a well defined idea in my head that people that are older than I are "adults" and others that are younger are "kids", which fit me right in the middle as a "young adult." This was until half my family started using Facebook. At first I had the knee-jerk reaction of not 'friending' or accepting any of those "adults" as the social-networking thing is surely something for my age group. Plus, I loathe 'Facebook stalkers' and I refused to have "adults" (like my mother) peer on my page taking my latest blog out of context or to see the outtakes of my non-existent shenanigans. Really, my life is kinda boring, but that's another topic ...

But then I started looking at my 15 year old cousin's page and it hit me like a ton of bricks ... I'm that guy. I'm the guy that can't fully relate to a teenagers perspective and/or interests and is puzzled by some of the aspects that make up part of the challenges of today ... I'm all of the sudden the old fart in the room! Gosh ... how did getting 'out of touch' happen so fast! I blame it on my cubical!

So now I'm faced with an issue ... do I face my new age checkbox head-on or should I cling like hell to the old one? I mean, I know the socially acceptable answer ... but damn, do I have to! It's not like I have special feelings for high school/college or have commitment issues, it's just the classification as a Mr. instead of [INSERT MODERN SLANG SLANG TERM FOR PEER]. And if I'm not peers with the youth, that makes me peers with the adults ... and no offense to my cool older relatives/friends, I'm just not ready for that quite yet.

Where's the happy medium? If you ask me it got squashed by student loan debt.

-Conte

Zotero … Research Made Easy

2009-01-16T15:35:00.002-05:00

Quick little plug today for my newest discovery … Zotero! Actually, not so new, but awesomely awesome.

About a month ago I was doing some research at work for some advanced processing techniques for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. My task was to get up to speed in the tech and then give a presentation to a group of coworkers on the process characterization so that they can gain some insight. Well, after doing my research I came to find that most of the research had not made it to paperback yet and predominantly resides in research oriented journals and periodicals. So, while compiling my data, I found it really hard to remember what I found where and how I can get back to the source document being that it wasn’t in a stack of papers on my desk; at least, physically. Enter the hero of the day … Zorro … errr … Zotero.

This little application was very well thought out by the creators and it shows. First, it’s not even a stand alone application … it’s a plug-in for Firefox! Meaning, it works wherever Firefox does … which is pretty much everywhere. Next, it does all the work for you. Getting information about your source is all done without having to manually enter a thing. All you have to do is create a library database and start clicking for the references to be auto-populated. Why is this such a big deal? Remember back in school when you looked up your references in the library card index, copying the reference information so you can find your book in the library? Well, I guess that depends how old you are … but I remember pain … and I’d rather not return there. In Zotero, to get back your reference info, all you have to do is navigate some pull downs in your browser, make some clicks and poof … your back where you found the information you were after. No scrap papers, or reference printouts … just a pull-down menu, or better yet a built-in search for when your database gets unwieldy. Also, with a little extra effort, your references can be custom tagged much like a picture on Flickr or a MP3 on iTunes so you can create 2nd order filing structures. And probably the best part for when you actually have to make the report … references, citations and bibliographies are no match for the Z-man; he’s on top of it all before you even tell him you want it. With plug-ins pre-developed for Microsoft Word and Open Office, your Zotero reference database can easily work with you while you write your documents to fill all your citation needs. This lets you concentrate on the important part of the job instead of having to drudge through the muck of proper documentation.

Outside of my research, I have found it really useful for keeping track of the ‘white papers’ I download from engineering journals and ebooks that I have in PDF and CHM form. With Zotero I can link the reference information with a path to get to it so I don’t have to remember how to navigate the web portal or the files on my local computer. All it takes is a Firefox window and a quick search.

So check out the Zotero site and see what they have there. There are some instructions to get you started with little effort, tutorials, FAQs, forums, and even a page of plug-ins for the plug-in to further its capabilities. Unless you’re an unorganized slob … then just move along …

-Conte

The Need To Succeed

2009-01-08T02:33:00.002-05:00

Well, another night of insomnia, and my pastime of choice for this evening was Facebook. There are a million and one other things I could have done with my waking hours, but for some reason, the book had my name tonight. Though it's very rare that I spend a lot of time 'stalking the book', when it happens it's weird what I'm drawn to. It's not really looking at pictures, or bio's of the people I have met during my time in college, but more the people that I knew from back in high school; even though I'm only 'Friends' with a handful of them. Nevertheless, I will click through the pictures and info's of the few that I have and then proceed on to my high school graduating class, and browse the names and profile pictures to see what nuggets of interest I can glean off the 1" x 1" pictures (which isn't much, but just enough to make me do it). After I was done going through all 40+ pages of my senior class I started thinking why I do what I do and came to a somewhat troubling epiphany.

First, a look back on my high school years to those that didn't know me back then ... which is pretty much everybody. Let me explain. I can say without one shred of reluctance that high school was easily the worse time of my life. Although I'm sure I'm not alone on that one, in the moment I always felt like the only one going through what I was going through. Not that I had it bad at all in comparison to some scenarios that my mind is currently cooking up, but it wasn't everything MTV and Dawson's Creek fed us either. I seem to remember wearing many hats to meet my needs. In the end, there were only a select few people that actually knew me for me. Not the me that would run trails during Track practice, or the me that would attend the weekly church youth group, or the me that got high in the back of my friend's car ... the real me.

This is what I can remember I can say for sure contributed to my feelings of the time period:

I had noticeably bad acne because of my skin type during my freshman and sophomore years. I would take 2-3 showers a day, eat low fat foods to avoid oils, use special skin care products ... all to no avail. After that, I went to a dermatologist that prescribed me Accutane to clear up the acne. While it worked well, I come to find out years later the unknown side effects were depression and potentially suicidal tendencies. Awesome! While I can honestly say suicide never remotely crossed my mind ... I could always tell something was just 'off'.

I always felt like the 'dumb kid'. Since my high school was large, there were many options for classes to fulfill requirements depending on your aptitude. Since I was 'smart', I was in the honors track which means there were only about 40 kids that made up all my advanced classes. So, while schedules fluctuated with the normal level classes where honors or advanced placement (AP) classes weren't offered, pretty much the same group of people were in 3-4 of my classes every day. It just so happens, that at the time, compared to them I thought I was a doofus. I would constantly struggle with material that seemed to come naturally to the rest and would always score lower than the mean on tests. I would have to work at least twice as hard as the rest of the herd just to keep my head above water, and from time-to-time, in some not so inconspicuous interactions, I was reminded of it by my peers.

I was jack of all trades and master of nothing. During high school usually people tend to find a niche that suits them. Whether it be sports, clubs, activities, friends, or whatever, people find a comfort zone that works for them. I never felt like I found that happy place. I tried to find it for myself, both in and out of school in many different social settings, but I never seemed to find a group I wanted to be a part of that was accepting new members. I tried not to let it get me down, and I think it even positively impacted my personality, but for a while it gnawed away at me and wasn't very comforting knowing that I didn't have a social 'home'.

Outside school ... life wasn't always peachy keen. Sometimes life happens to you despite your efforts to avoid certain situations or circumstances. I'll leave it at that.

So back to the epiphany. I'm actually kind of embarrassed to say it, but I think the reason I look back on all my past 'relationships' is to see if I stack-up to those that seemed to be 'better' during that time. So much has happened since then ... I got 2 college degrees, I've made many great friends (real friends), I've been self sufficient on my own, I've married my teen love, etc., etc.. Over the past 6 years, as a result of my high school experiences, I've tried so hard to play my cards right, to finally 'get ahead', that something inside me is still that 16 year old that got the 60% on the exam when everyone else was boasting their 105%'s. Is it still like that today even after all that hard work? Is it frivolous for me to even try and 'compete'? Who's 'ahead' now? I'm not sure if that's healthy ... looking at life like a test grade ... maybe I should ask my wife the caring social worker.

So, my results from the stalking. From what I can tell by the blurbs people voluntarily place on their contact card, and the tiny images associated with their names, I think I'm doing pretty well. Not the 105% ... but definitely getting an A this time instead of a D. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my life as it is right now. I guess that's all that really matters.

Don't think less of me ... or do. Whatever!
-Conte

Nerd Rap ...

2008-11-28T12:06:00.003-05:00

So I was browsing my feed reader today (my internet lifeline) while bumming it at my in-laws and happened upon this vid via Gizmodo. I was saddened by the nerdiness ... and moreover, how on some level I related to the content (or at least understood all the references) ... but it did bring me back to some 'ole skool' rap I actually used to enjoy while in High School. These main stream rappers today have nothing on Biggie Smalls, Sean 'Puffy' Combs, 2Pac, Dr. Dre, and a few others I doubt my readers would recognize. Although a total geekfeast, I did spot some elements to classic hip-hop that got me a little excited. So here you go ... straight from the crapped spaces and cubes of the world ... the Sniper Twins!

-Conte

Enter Watchman

2008-10-30T12:32:00.010-04:00

Not many of my friends know this ... but I am a 'Watchman'. I really like wearing a snazzy watch. Not because it says something about my taste, or style (I mean you just need to talk to my wife to know that I have good taste :) ), but because I think of it as a functional item that can still be a personalized expression of someone's personality. Not to cast stereotypes, but there's a reason why airmen wear Breitling's, swimmers wear a Freestyle's, outdoors-men wear Swiss Army's, and computer 'geeks' wear LED digital bit counters. It serves its purpose for the intended audience, but still lets the wearer express themselves.

For me, as I'm an engineer that sits in a cube 40 out of 45 (or 50) hours a week, my watch demands are pretty slim. I need something that's comfortable for typing on a computer and functional only under the most unadventurous situations (/sigh). Also unlike some people that see the need to have many, many, many (many, many, many) different options in their 'collections', I prefer to have only a couple options that I like and use regularly.

I have my day-to-day watch which is a discontinued Fossil Arkitekt [img]. Get it ... see it's edgy because they use k's instead of ch's/c's ... who is Fossil's marketing team, they need a bonus for that one. I like this watch because it's subtle, but eye catching at the same time ... and I really like simple blue watch faces, and thin hands. Really this is my perfect watch my subdued professional personality (yes, it exists).

Then, my Movado Faceto [img] watch I received from my parents when graduating high school (it's a Conte family tradition). This watch has very simple design ... which is now its signature. It sports a metal band, small profile, light weight, very plain face, thin hands, and only one mark at the top of the dial denoting the '12' in either gold, steel, or diamond. They make monotone and two-tone pieces which until a few years ago were also very unique. When I opened up this present I was simply blown away! I mean I pretty much knew I was going to get a watch, but I was thinking like a Citizen or a Seiko (who actually do make very good looking, classic styled models). I think I secretly wanted a Movado, and my mom, who pays attention to all the details, and should really have made a profession of reading in between the lines, knew exactly what I wanted for my milestone gift. Because of these reasons, I keep this watch only for the most special of occasions. Weddings, holidays, graduations, bar mitzvahs, etc. ... always taken from it's case and returned in the condition it left in with the mechanism stopped, ready for the next occasion.

As with everything else, I am very particular about my watches. All it takes is one thing 'out of place' and I totally disregard the item from ever being a part of my collection. This is good for me because very rarely do I see a watch and go into have-to-have-it mode. This is a lot nicer on my wallet too :). Yet when I do see a watch that I like, I can't get it out of my head. It hangs there taunting me until I either give in, or find something else to haunt my day dreams. Yesterday, Woot.com had an Invicta watch up for sale. This brand is not very well known but they do make a few nice pieces that could enter my regular watch rotation. Yet, the one they had up was not exactly what I had in mind color-wise, but the style was all there. So, I Google the watch only to find a winner ... and boy am I upset I hit that 'send' button. The Invicta Speedway Two-Tone Steel Black faced 9224 [img] ... oh mamma ... sexy! Even for a chronograph which is usually totally not my thing. From what I can tell from the pictures online, this looks great, but I have a feeling it's a little chunky in the trunky. And that's not a big turn on. But with a price tag of only about $100, that's not bad. A similarly styled watch from a prominent brand with a lower profile would probably be around 10 times as much.

So, with life in the balance, I am trying my hardest to refrain from buying that watch. I mean there are other items I have had my eye on for a while (Popcorn Hour, HTPC, a life, etc.) as well as Christmas and a $1000+ heating oil bill, this is most assuredly lowest on the totem pole. But I think it will be making cameos in my dreams for at least the next few weeks.

-Conte

I'm a Baaaaaaaaaaad Blogger!

2008-10-13T10:48:00.007-04:00

Guess who’s still alive! Apparently blogging has not hit the Top 5 on my ‘things to do when bored’ list in quiet some time. Maybe it was that I’m so unbelievably busy or a lack of inspiration … or maybe I just like TV and beer too much. Who knows …

I think the truest reason I have been MIA is because I actively maintain two blogs. No I’m not cheating on the rest of you, I promise. I keep this blog for dumb thoughts, geeky outbursts, and the occasional rant. The other blog I run is completely serious (aka. Boring), and centered around my daily projects at work. It is not hosted anywhere on the internet (for security reasons) and really just provides me a space to log all the pertinent actions of my job so I have a reference when I need to go back in time so to speak. So after regurgitating my actions on a computer at the end of every day, I have little initiative to sit at a computer and do it again. Maybe Twitter is more up my bloggering ally, but I already have my Google Reader shares and a Facebook that I am at least marginally active on. I don’t need another computer community to be part of or I might as well be all 1’s and 0’s instead of flesh and bone.

So, it just so happens I found some inspiration today. Sadly, it is more of the same that we have all been hearing about for the past 3 months. That is, the draining economy. Honestly, I get a kick out of it. That’s not to say that I’m not marginally scared of the outcome, but I’m definitely enjoying the ride! Everyday I hear people bitch and complain about their falling 401K, or how their house has been on the market for 1+ years without stirring interest, or how they will be liquidating all their investments and putting it “in the mattress” (Yes, someone actually said this to me). I laugh inside … so loud I think they will be able to hear me! Yes the economy is hurting … No, you can’t do a damn thing about it … just deal!

The funniest part to me is the overwhelming shock that people have. Like it wasn’t going to happen. The writing has been on the wall since the early 90’s … it was inevitable! I’m actually surprised it took this long. With the election coming up I don’t want to get all finger pointy and all, especially because I think people should educate themselves and not depend on biased sources (including me), but how else could the scenario end. The US government pushes private parties in the 90’s to help out lower to middle income family’s better their standard of life, the federal taxes are cut, and there is no recuperation without some black magic accounting that would have sent people to the guillotine in less civilized societies. I urge you to research this course of events for yourself as I don’t want to spoil the details for you … but a little Easter Egg hint; it is all wrapped in brilliant blue ribbon with thin red streamers.

I could go on-and-on about the dumb things I hear from individuals or on TV, or my take on the measures being taken to correct the problem, but since I have already hit my blogging quota for the month (I’ll try and do another soon, promise), I’ll leave you with this. This is the National Dept ticker. It’s not 100% accurate to the minute, but, it’s pretty damn close. Puts things it perspective doesn’t it?

Ticker supported by http://brillig.com/debt_clock/

-Conte

I love this game

2008-08-20T12:32:00.003-04:00

Fear the Meat! Team Fortress 2

Flickr = Happiness

2008-08-16T02:42:00.006-04:00

The insomnia is driving me to write another post. So while I'm on a roll, here it goes.

Many (who am I kidding ... all) of you probably don't remember a post I made on this blog last year about organizing the mass of multimedia information I house on my computer. The music that rings in my ears by way of iTunes or my Ipod and the pictures that create my memories and wallpapers were at one point in disarray. I imagine that many of you have similar situations on your own computer systems, but the difference between you and me is that you probably don't care. A missed MP3 tag here, no album art there ... a generically named and categorized photo ... who cares ... right! Well, me I guess. Yes, I know how anal that is, but it does bother me. So last year I set out to do the dirty work, and I'm sorry to report that I have not nearly met my goal. I got the music situation pretty much under control last summer so that I have something to listen to while I work, but the new music I have downloaded since and all my pictures still await some love. I'll get on that ... I promise myself.

Toward that goal, I recently made myself buy a premium Flickr account in hopes that my sometimes stingy ways would convince me to do so work to not make the purchase a waste. While I have done a few things here and there with it, I am really kinda wasting the space. But honestly, the price for their service is a steal! For $25/year you get a digital warehouse for all you photos and a place for others to view them easily and happily. Now I know that other web services and social networking services offer this for free, but what separates Flickr from the crowd is very simple:

A killer user interface and tight integration to a multitude of other online applications.

No page reloading, no clunky editing features, no BS. This is a AJAX Web 2.0 at it's best baby, and it can only get better!
Need to edit your photo online? No Problem! Just integrate your Flickr account with Picnik and your all set to take out that red eye or adjust the color levels on the fly!
Want to blog about a photo? No Problem! Just tie your Flickr account with your blog and your all set!
Want to get some digital prints? No Problem! Just clicky the handy little Prints button and QOOP will give you a nice interface to order to your hearts content!

Unlimited hosting and bandwidth!

No need to worry about hitting your upload limit or concern yourself about how many people will look/download your pictures. Flickr's not keeping tabs!

Sharing on the big stage.

Everyone knows about Flickr. There's probably no other photo service that gets higher hit ratings or has a greater following. If you want your stuff seen, this is where you want it.

A full backup of your entire digital library

If you take the time to properly tag and organize your pictures before uploading them (as I am), you will have a duplicate archive of all your stuff online that you can retrieve in case of a computer catastrophe.

Full Size Uploads and DOWNLOADS!

This is huge. Huger that huge! Enormous, gigantic, unfathomable! Flickr will let the users of it's service download the original file size that the content owner uploaded! Yes all XY.Z Megapixels. Why are you downloading silly 5" X 5" pictures from your friends Facebook when the camera took it in 50" X 50"? If you ever print that baby out for yourself, even small, you'll definitely be disappointed as the resolution is ganna be garbage. Granted, you can only download full size files if you are a paid member, but it's pretty worth it, especially not to have 2nd rate pictures in your library. It's like having a polaroid of a van Gogh instead of The Starry Night on display in your living room.

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with my decision to place my photo's in a Flickr Photostream. Well, I will be when the task is done. But really there is a feature that Facebook incorporates that Flickr does not that I think is an oversight. 'Tagging' other people on a photo with a pertinent link is soarly missing from their impeccable user interface experiance. You can 'Add A Note' and put a box around the region your noting, but that's hardly the same thing. Luckily, other 's have also felt my pain and have gone through some measures of improving the system on their own.

If your a Firefox user (and why the hell shouldn't you be) you have a plethora of addons that can adorn your installation to make your online life better. While I have a few that I have adopted (maybe I'll share in a future post), one that was missing was Greasemonkey. This addon allows you to add specifically tailored Java scripts to your online user experiance (Wiki). By adding web site specific scripts, a range of new functionality can be opened up to meet your demand. And whats better, if your not a Java programmer, there are many sites that offer scripts for download created by other users. With this small addon, a very large toolset is now at your fingertips.

Getting back to the Flickr thing, Jacob Dehart apparently made a Greasemonkey script (along with many others ... see his site) to fit the 'tagging' need in Flickr. The way it works is that you add a note to the picture just like any other note, but this script will allow you to link to a contact you have on Flickr. So, for example, tonight I uploaded the picture I gave to Matt for being in my wedding of him rocking out on stage. Since he's a friend of mine on Flickr, I was able to 'tag' him in the photo with a link to his Flickr. Just like Facebook, except Flickr. Apparently behind the scenes, Flickr has some machine tagging capabilities that the script ties into ... but the beauty of it, all you have to do it is: be a stupid user, point, and click.

I encourage you all to look at my Flickr and see what I am fussing about. As I said, right now, until I get a bit of this project done, it's pretty minimal, but I do have a load on pictures of my wife from the past few (5ish) years. If you choose to get a Flickr while your there, add me so we can be pals ... and so I can tag your mug in some shots.

-Conte

Helms Taking Down the Stage

2008-08-16T02:41:00.000-04:00

Helms Taking Down the Stage, originally uploaded by mconte529.

Say It Ain't So!

2008-08-16T02:32:00.003-04:00

I couldn't decide on a post title , so I kinda just made one up off the top of my mind at 2:30AM. So there's no life altering emergency here, I just couldn't come up with anything better.

For the past few months I have known that my blog layout was borked, I was just too lazy to fix it. But today was my blogs lucky day. I was sick of it breaking after the first 3 days of every month. What was really happening is I was hogging someone else's bandwidth until he/she/it was not able to share any longer. I was assisting possibly thousands of others in exceeding the monthly limit set by the host. As far as I am concerned, the person/inatimate object was stupid for distributing the "blogger theme" with the links to the server space that was being utilized for their own blogs, but that's another story. So, I spent the better part of an hour at work today procrastinating, so I figured I should knock it out since it was bothering me at the time.

I even was able to fix the neato mini-date calendars that were always supposed to appear with the post! Anyway ... if you see any glitches let me know so I can put them off to another rainy day.

-Conte

Fighting Honolulu Time

2008-08-06T02:57:00.002-04:00

I found out the hard way that jet lag actually can make insomnia so much worse than it usually is. It is 3AM right now, and I'm still not in bed. For those of you that know me, this seems pretty normal, but what makes this so worse, is that I'm not even remotely tired. It has been this way for the last 3 nights as I have been stagnant in my adjustment back to Eastern Standard Time. I think 6 hour lag of Honolulu Time suits me much better! Maybe I should just drop everything and go back ... uh, Jen could come too ... I guess ... I mean, she is my wife now and all!

Still a little weird to say ... I'm not ganna lie.

During these evenings of discontent, it has crossed my mind a few times just how I want to let everyone know about my wedding and my honeymoon in the wonderful land that is Hawaii! I really think I could write a small book on just the last 2 1/2 weeks, which makes me not even want to attempt it. I mean, I'm supposed to be getting back into the swing of things here and I'm really ganna take extra time out to blog about my adventures in Newlywedland ... ah, I'm just not sure. And I know the only person that really cares is Kara, and she already got the scoop from Jen, so do I really need to go into detail here? And before you gentlemen get all excited, there obviously will be some details left to the imagination ... although, I really don't want you guys to think about me like that ... it's creepy.

Well how about this ... before I start spewing my prose out onto the interwebs, I want my 'readers' to let me know who wants to hear about it. Cause if it's just 2 of you, I'll tell you over a beer or something ... unless your now a vegan (you know who you are) ... in that case I'll have a beer and a T-bone, you drink a soy protein shake.

So leave it in the comments ... yes, that means you actually have to leave a comment ON MY BLOG (http://mconte.blogspot.com) and tell me to shoot myself in the foot once a night till my thoughts are transcribed. I would also do a video commentary with my snazy new-to-me camera if you guys so decide ... but remember, on the blog the gloves come off. My snide comments might not translate as well in spoken langauge, but I'll be happy to give it my best shot.

Leave it!
-Conte

Corporate Internet

2008-08-05T12:17:00.003-04:00

While I have so much to recall from my wedding and vacation, I would just like to plug a little post that caught my immediate attention upon my return to work.

My company, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to block about 5 of my top web sites to visit on my work breaks. Among them are the Onion (a dry comedy site that spoofs news stories, and brings humor to real "news"), Google Notebook (a completely online notepad that links to your Google account ... was very handy for jotting quick notes without the need to have a bag full of sticky notes accompany me home everyday ... I'm real pissed about this one!), and Google Docs (an online word processor and spreadsheet linked to your Google account). When I try and access these sites I get a restriction notice and a bullshit explanation on why it was 'blocked'. Whats next ... Wikipedia, Blogger, Facebook, Dilbert ... GOOGLE!

See now, I can understand Facebook, or Myspace (which is actually blocked), but web applications and comics/blogs, WTF! I can't see how spending all my time reading the ticker on ESPN or CNN (which aren't blocked), is any different than writing myself a note or reading a daily comic? Are they really concerned about what I do during my lunch break or the 5 minutes I spend every 4 hours to 'get away' from the mundane? I mean, I spent more time writing this blog entry for Pete's sake.

I may just look into routing my surfing traffic through a proxy server so they don't stifle my 'me time'.

Ok, I'm done.

-Conte

Still Alive

2008-06-26T23:08:00.002-04:00

So not all of you will get this ... but just like any inside joke, that's kinda the point ;).

Enjoy friends!

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate
my satisfaction.
Aperture Science
We do what we must
because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there's no sense crying
over every mistake.
You just keep on trying
till you run out of cake.
And the Science gets done.
And you make a neat gun.
For the people who are
still alive.

I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart.
And killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you!
Now these points of data
make a beautiful line.
And we're out of beta.
We're releasing on time.
So I'm GLaD. I got burned.
Think of all the things we learned
for the people who are
still alive.

Go ahead and leave me.
I think I prefer to stay inside.
maybe you'll find someone else
to help you.
maybe Black Mesa...
THAT WAS A JOKE, HA HA, FAT CHANCE.
Anyway this cake is great.
It's so delicious and moist
look at me still talking when theres science to do
when i look out there
it makes me glad I'm not you
i've experiments to run
there is research to be done
on the people who are
still alive.

and believe me I am still alive
I'm doing science and I'm still alive
I feel fantastic and I'm still alive
while your dying ill be still alive
and when your dead i will be still alive
still alive
still alive

Video - Office War

2008-06-20T12:46:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted in some time ... given. The reason is probably a conglomerate of a lot of things, but you can just call me a bad person ... I won't mind.

I did see this today and I really wanted to share. I would die for this to happen in my office, instead of just the 2-man battles me and Jen hold at home. I should get some video of my nerf wars adventures ... maybe sometime soon....ish (aka. probably not ganna happen, cause I'll never remember, and I don't want to embarass Jen).

Thanks to Gizmodo for sharing!

-Conte