BVanScoter's Blog

Cliffhanger

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:59:55 PDT

Title: Cliffhanger

I'm on the edge
Barely hanging on
And you're just not
Satisfied with this!

I'll lose it...
It's all your fault!

You did all of this,
You put me here.
You pushed me to the edge!

Now I'm Holding on
Swaying on the edge
I've only got one hand
Can I maintain this?

Or lose it?...
It's all your fault!

You did all of this,
You put me here.
You pushed me to the edge,
And sent me over the edge!

But you're not satisfied
You want me gone
Stepping on my hands
Trying to make me fall...

I lose it...
It's all your fault!

You did all of this,
You put me here.
You pushed me to the edge,
And sent me over the edge!
Stepping on my fingers...

Do you ever learn?
This won't improve it
You don't like it when
I go off the edge...

And lose it...
It's all your fault!

You did all of this,
You put me here.
You pushed me to the edge
And sent me over the edge
Stepping on my fingers
Whenever I hold on!

Story-line conceived & written:
7/26/2009
Section two modified slightly,
refrain added after first
three sections, & titled on:
7/27/2009

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is 100% Original Material by Benjamin VanScoter, and is therefore:

© Coyright Benjamin VanScoter 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Use Without Prior Written And Signed Consent Is Against International And Domestic Laws.

So don't even try to use any part of this work!

If you want to refer to this work link to it using the Permalink (found below).

(This writing may or may not be based on anything factual or that has happened in Ben's life... and may be entirely fictional.)

Strung Out

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:39:50 PDT

Title: Strung Out

It's the violence
Of your silence
That's taking seed
Inside of me

And when it's born
It's like a thorn
That's cutting deep
From your mystique
By day and night
It's pulling tight
And strangles me
In the breeze

I'm letting go
Like all your clothes
Out on the line
Just like your crime
Left high and dry
With all your lies

Story-line conceived & written:
6/6/2009
Section gaps & title created:
7/27/2009

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is 100% Original Material by Benjamin VanScoter, and is therefore:

© Coyright Benjamin VanScoter 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Use Without Prior Written And Signed Consent Is Against International And Domestic Laws.

So don't even try to use any part of this work!

If you want to refer to this work link to it using the Permalink (found below).

(This writing may or may not be based on anything factual or that has happened in Ben's life... and may be entirely fictional.)

Final Release

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:03:51 PDT

Title: Final Release

I was just a child,
The pain was so real
Deep inside me
It rose up within
And as it grew
This anger found no release
Until I met you!

I'm burning inside out
I don't just melt
I'm like a jar of glycerine
The glass cracks
And shaders
Becoming the shrapnel
In your skin.

Sinking deeper,
Cutting further.
I'm the disease within
There's no escape -
It's time to amputate!
It's come to this,
The final release!

But Then you find
It was never me -
It was always you -
This is your heart,
Your own desires,
Set free in me,
Now nothing's left!

"Story-line" conceived & first
two sections written:
5/23/2008
Section two slightly modified:
2/15/2009
Last two sections were
written & edited:
2/17/2009
Title assigned:
7/27/2009

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is 100% Original Material by Benjamin VanScoter, and is therefore:

© Coyright Benjamin VanScoter 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Use Without Prior Written And Signed Consent Is Against International And Domestic Laws.

So don't even try to use any part of this work!

If you want to refer to this work link to it using the Permalink (found below).

(This writing may or may not be based on anything factual or that has happened in Ben's life... and may be entirely fictional.)

Thursday's Resuscitation To Common Existence

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:04:44 PDT

So as I was perusing my Facebook profile and going through all the bands that I'm fans of and checking up what's new with them... I came across something that was very exciting!

Some really great, long-awaited, news about Thursday's next release!

In exactly a week from when I am making this post, on February 17, 2009 Thursday is releasing their next CD... Common Existance... and as I have said before in a back-and-forth rebuttal with Keith and my own opinions I still remain very optimistic about this next CD release.

However, I am all the more eager for this upcoming CD release of Thursday's new CD Common Existence, because of the tracks that they have available for your listening pleasure on their MySpace page.

Before listening to these tracks, all I had heard of the stuff that they were going to be releasing was played in the background of interviews and touring promo vids... and to be honest, it made me lose a little hope in the direction that Thursday was going.

However, after listening to the released versions (on MySpace), all my hope and anticipation has been restored!

I can't wait for:

Common Existence

According to the discography the tracks that are currently available for listening to on MySpace are tracks #1 Resuscitation Of A Dead Man and #4 Friends In The Armed Forces... apparently Resuscitation Of A Dead Man is their digital single.

I discovered that Amazon MP3 had the song Resuscitation Of A Dead Man available for download free... I'm not sure if it's just a promo offer or anything... but you might be able to get it too!

Get Resuscitation Of A Dead Man FREE:

Resuscitation Of A Dead Man

I thought that was pretty awesome... to find a Thursday's single available for free...

In footage from Kill The House Lights Geoff said how cool he thought it was that back when they were just getting started people at the concerts knew their songs and liked the band... not because they bought their CD(s)... but because they downloaded their music from file-sharing networks.

And even though A City By The Light Divided seemed to turn off a lot of fans from Thursday I think that Common Existance might have the potential to bring many back!

I think I mentioned this before but will again here... that I initially wasn't too keen on A City By The Light Divided, but the more I listen to it the more I like it and see how it really pulls together much of their previous work.

So as it seems still -- at least so far to me, my previous prediction of Thursday not being dead (yet) still stands!

New Hidden Mars Edit feature

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:57:06 PST

MarsEdit

I know it's been a while since I've last posted anything on this blog, but I've got something really cool to share...

I'm usually not one that gets too involved with too much software by submitting bug reports and being whiney and cry about features that I think are missing or to diss software outright without giving it a chance (sorry Microsoft you've had your chances and missed them all! -- Not a big fan)

But I digress...

As you might already have noticed I'm a fairly large fan of MarsEdit, the amazing Mac blog publishing application... and I made a feature request of a sort on the MarsEdit forum.

The request was due to having a certain setting in Blogger that I had that wasn't really average, and was messing up how Blogger and MarsEdit interacted causing the format of my posts to get a little messed up.

Specifically my problem was:

... the line break tags disappear and are substituted with a hard return when the posts are imported into MarsEdit.

I have Blogger's "Convert line breaks" setting (in Settings > Formatting) set as "No" to take advantage of more advanced layout options that can be achieved through MarsEdit.

I can't remember what release I noticed they started to disappear, but I've been secretly hoping somehow it'd get fixed...

And maybe now that I've mentioned this hopefully it will be sooner!

[The developer] probably automatically assume[s] that Blogger blogs won't have that option on, and to keep Blogger from adding line break tags after every line - even if there is already a line break tag at the end of the line... which was a Blogger integration bug that was in one of the earlier releases of MarsEdit as I recall.

And having to redo the formatting every time I wanted to update a post or view and copy a section from one post to another was a little annoying... so I provided my point-of-view to the developer of MarsEdit, Daniel Jalkut through the MarsEdit Forum.

I wasn't necessarily expecting a whole lot, just hoping that he might do something to fix it or show me some other way to work with the little inconvenience I was having regarding MarsEdit... It was really no biggie!

He did get back to me on the forum rather quickly with a response and saw that there was something he could do to the app that might help out.

After hearing very little in the meantime, even after a software update that happened a long time ago, I was curious if Daniel already implemented the change or was considering it for a future release.

And as it turns out...

Yes, it's true you can make a difference in the programs you love!

Daniel had implemented a hidden feature in MarsEdit for the ultimate compatibility with Blogger blogs that have the "Convert line breaks" setting set to "No"!

Here's all you have to do:

Quit MarsEdit if it's open.
Open Terminal.app on your mac (Application/Utilities/Terminal.app)
Copy the following:
defaults write com.red-sweater.marsedit DisableBloggerMarkupMassage -bool YES
Paste that line (one single non-carriage-return line) into the Terminal window
Then hit the return key
Open MarsEdit
Then for each of your Blogger blogs that you have do the following:
1. Select the blog so that it's highlighted in blue in the list on the left blog list
2. If the blog's Preview Text Filter setting (accessed through the toolbar's "Show Settings" button and in the "Composing" tab for the blog's settings) isn't set to "None", change it to "None"
  [click OK after checking &/or changing]
3. Then when the blog is still selected / highlighted on the left, click on the "Refresh" button in the toolbar (the circular blue arrow)
See the changes

Now your Blogger blogs - when they're reloaded - will have the <br /> tags intact when opening the Post for Editing, and will also render previews correctly when you select a post.

NOTE: This setting affects all Blogger blogs in MarsEdit, it isn't a blog-specific setting but is universal in that regard... So make sure you have all your Blogger blogs in MarsEdit to have the "Convert line breaks" setting set to "No" when you use this special hidden feature!

It would be cool if someone else can benefit from this new feature too... hey, I know:

Why not let me know if you like this feature or use it by leaving a comment below?!

Also, give tons of thanks to Daniel Jalkut the MarsEdit developer for implementing this new hidden feature!

Underoath's Set List (Oct. 28)

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:04:25 PDT

For those of you wondering about what Underoath played for the concert in Rochester, I'll include it here!

(This is to the best of mostly Keith's recollection and I think it's fairly accurate!)

Breathing In A New Mentality [Lost In The Sound Of Separation | CD/DVD]
In Regards To Myself [Define The Great Line]
Young and Aspiring [They're Only Chasing Safety]
It's Dangerous Business walking out your front door [They're Only Chasing Safety]
Emergency Broadcast The End Is Near [Lost In The Sound Of Separation | CD/DVD]
I Don't Feel Very Receptive Today [They're Only Chasing Safety]
Your Ever So Inviting [Define The Great Line]
The Only Survivor Was Miraculously Unharmed [Lost In The Sound Of Separation | CD/DVD]
A Boy Brushed Red Living in Black and White [They're Only Chasing Safety]
Desolate Earth The End Is Here [Lost In The Sound Of Separation | CD/DVD]
Returning Empty Handed [Define The Great Line]
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures [Lost In The Sound Of Separation | CD/DVD]

Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear [Lost In The Sound Of Separation | CD/DVD]
Writing on the Walls [Define The Great Line]

This is quite an awesome set that Underoath played!

What totally makes it killer was that they played In Regards To Myself and Desolate Earth :: The End Is Near!

I wasn't sure if they would play Desolate Earth :: The End Is Near, but they did and it was amazing!

Underoath Concert At Rochester's Water St. Music Hall

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:04:15 PDT

Underoath

This last Tuesday Keith and I both went to another Underoath concert... It had been about a year since we went to the last Underoath concert in Buffalo. And much like that last Underoath concert that we both considered an insane concert, this concert was likewise totally CRAZY!!!

It was nice that this concert was a whole lot closer to home, and didn't have spend all that time traveling and worry about getting tired.

The Water Street Music Hall was totally packed out - though it's probably more on the smaller size of venues.

It was a really cold wait to get inside, that when inside the heat generated by so many people in such a small space was better than being in the cold...

And it sure didn't take too long until I was sweating enough that all my clothes - even the hoodie I was wearing - were soaked all the way through.

Keith and I were able to squeeze our way to the very front by the time Underoath was playing the first few songs!

The openers for Underoath were person L, The Devil Wears Prada, and Saosin - in that order.

I thought that this was a really good line-up of bands and was a really fun and highly entertaining concert!

person L was pretty decent for a first opener.

The Devil Wears Prada was naturally quite a bit better and more entertaining.

Saosin was pretty awesome! I hadn't heard much, if any, of Saosin's stuff before and could probably get into them! They have a good style.

And finally, of course, Underoath totally killed!

Maybe, it's because their latest CD was amazing and couldn't be any more perfect, or they seemed entirely more cheery and with their game as it seemed to me...

But this is definitely a tour that you don't want to miss Underoath on!

I thought it was really awesome that when a girl who was crowd-surfing made her way to the front - without security noticing to catch her - that Tim McTague (Underoath's lead guitarist), noticed her, stopped playing, jumped down from the stage and caught her!

How cool is that!

Sure security made it there to help just as Tim caught the girl, but that was .... well ... AMAZING he did that!

It was such a great and exciting time, that I nearly passed out twice - probably from dehydration.

The first time was right before Underoath started playing right at the end of Saosin's set... I had to get out of the crowd up in the front and get some water and a breather at the bar.

In fact as I was pushing my way out of the crowd my vision was all fuzzy and stuff, and when I was at the bar I had to forcibly keep myself from throwing-up a few times!

The second time I almost passed out, was at the end of Underoath's set, after the "one more song" chant...

Where in fact Underoath played two songs because it had been so long since they were last around.

Keith had to get security's attention to pull me up and out from behind the crowd-control-barrier right when Underoath was playing their very last song.

I wasn't feeling as terrible as I did the first time, but I didn't want to push myself into something that could've been terrible!

Despite all the drama that I encountered it definitely was well worth it all to see Underoath and these bands play!!

So go and see Underoath when they're near you next time and drink plenty of water before the concert - you'll need it!!

Check Out Underoath's Set List Here!

This Man Is A Financial GOD!

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:24:54 PDT

Warren Buffett is one of the greatest financial minds around to this day.

His financial intellect has been the pedestal for many years on which the US's economy has stood upon and managed to weather and successfully pull through many financial struggles.

This interview alone reveals in part, and thoroughly, just exactly the depth and breadth his understanding of business, investment, and the economy truly is...

And just how much anyone who really wants to truly be financially smart, really doesn't compare.

Throughout this interview one cannot help but to simply be amazed at Buffett's business-investment knowledge...

In everything from marketing concepts to making the sales to managing the people and finances of a company.

As well as anything from really understanding the financial position of a company at the present to seeing how that and various key factors translate into the growth or demise of the same company.

The interview below is a must-watch for anyone that wants to learn how to make money, and do so in any way that is profitable.

I have recently been through my share of economics, accounting, and business finance classes through my career as a college student and can fairly say that I have an above average understanding of finances...

But as a business-person and future investor (however, currently with minimal investments) I can still say that I sincerely have a far ways to go before I can compare to a fraction of a degree to what Buffett knows about business, investment and the economy (and/or economic factors).

I have been a student of Buffet and would strongly recommend anyone who wants to be financially successful to study everything that Warren Buffet says and does.

All it takes is less than an hour to watch the interview below (and much less time than that) to see quite simply what makes Warren Buffet a financial god! More specifically, the grand extent to which his financial wisdom is so comprehensive, and why he is one of the most important financial people to study!

More Bill O'Reilly Goodness! (Or Lack Of)

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:19:58 PDT

After my previous post on Bill O'Reilly Mixing It Up, Marc Andreessen - who I heard about this from - had discovered some more great videos.

I have to include this particular parody, because it's just so darned funny! Funnier than the video of Bill O'Reilly Mixing It Up....

(Same Disclaimers as before...)

NOTE: I'm not a big Bill O'Reilly Fan (or at all), and don't really watch whatever he's on... but these are funny - right, I said that already - so here they are:

CAUTION: These videos include some mature language... several "f-bombs" so be forewarned! (Partly what makes it so funny!)

And here's an extra special treat...

An amazing news-item-story by Stephen Colbert, of the Colbert Report - great stuff!

This is worthwhile for some great background on the actual Bill O'Reilly clip and offers yet another great parody of the 'Bill O'Reilly incident':

Just some relief to the mundane!

My MySpace Profile Is Open

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:56:31 PDT

I finally made my MySpace profile public. If you want you can check it out at www.myspace.com/bvanscoter...

I think I out-did myself with the cool theme that I applied to it... I created the images and decided to go with a Bleach theme for it (at least for now).

I'm a little into that show!

I really like how this video puts together a bunch of scenes from Bleach to some killer music:

Bleach - Ichigo's Resolve

As well, I thought this video was quite sweetly put together... because it goes so well with the story-line of the series:

Bleach - Red September

After having my profile closed to public viewing so I could get it all themed properly with CSS and what-not... I finally made my profile public.

Which means you can view my profile without any limitations right now!

And while you're at it go ahead and add me as a friend!

Bill O'Reilly Mixes It Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:58:44 PDT

I just had to (re)post this... it is SO funny! (Thanks to Marc Andreessen's post "Bill O'Reilly, the remix")

NOTE: I'm not a big Bill O'Reilly Fan (or at all), and don't really watch whatever he's on... but this is funny - right, I said that already - so here it is:

CAUTION: This video includes some mature language... several "f-bombs" so be forewarned! (Partly what makes it so funny!)

[Link: Bill O'Reilly Mixes It Up]

That was fun wasn't it!

Here's the original video on Marc Andreessen's blog that the remix was made of Bill O'Reilly tweaking out

The Easy Way To Install X11 On Max OS X Tiger

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:45:58 PDT

A few days ago I asked my dad to look into compiling and figuring out how to work with something that uses FUSE, MacPorts, and I guess requires X11 app for what he's doing (he told me he needed it for the task - and I believe him because I don't know).

By the way I'm talking about the X11 app, not the X11 Software Development Kit or SDK.

Well, when my dad upgraded to Mac OS X Tiger he didn't do the custom install to install the X11 app... Apple didn't automatically include it in the regular or basic install.

So yesterday my dad spent several hours re-installing the entire Tiger operating system again just so that he can get the X11 app on his computer...

Well, as it turns out when I upgraded the MacMini's hard drive and installed Tiger again I didn't do a custom install to get the X11 app on my computer.

Now here's the difference in approach to how I went about installing X11...

Instead of straight-away thinking that I had to re-install Mac OS X Tiger all over again using a custom install and checking off the X11 install, I first did a Google search to see if I can just install X11 on its own.

Good thing I did too... because you can install X11 on Tiger if you forgot before! I really didn't want to spend another good part of a day to install Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger again!!

All you have to do is insert the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger install DVD and use the "Optional Installs.mpkg" to install the X11 app by itself...

You have to go through the standard SLA's and destination drive stuff... then you can check off the various optional installs that you want to make... and in that list you can check off X11 and continue with the install to get the X11 app on your computer!

The Virtual Store Concept And Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:38:02 PDT

On April 21st, 2008 The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reported that Apple filed a virtual stores patent in which customers might be able to see where other shoppers are in the store and possibly interact with each other.

TUAW makes an intriguing point that "this system would also allow for storewide announcements of special events or sales going down."

MacNN where Apple's virtual store patent was first revealed tells of some of the creepy almost stalker-like features in Apple's patent (under the headline "Caution: A Work In Progress").... which would probably be or quickly become annoying!

Now as TUAW mentioned "I doubt the old methods of clicking and browsing by yourself are going away anytime soon."

The reason the standard web interface of today won't disappear anytime soon boils down to why people are shopping online and what their purpose is.

More frequently than not people who are "shopping" online are just looking for more information... whether it be more information about a particular product or any number of things...

But it all comes down to the basic marketing concept that people are looking for a solution for a problem they have... even if it is just a problem only that they perceive! (But that's a post for another day)

In such a case where people are looking for the solution to their problem or want more information about a particular product then the idea for such an interactive virtual store may be an attractive option...

And may also be perceived as a good option for people who are really interested in making a purchase but are a little unsure... and need that little extra social proof or assistance.

However, in the case that I'm sure we all frequently come across is quite simply the fact that we want what we want and we want it now!!

Many times we've already done our research about the thing we're going to get and the only thing standing between us and having it is the distance between our chair and the place where the thing we want is...

And we don't want to bother with anyone else - they'll just slow us down - so if we can log online, put the thing we want in our shopping cart, pull out our credit card and have it show up at our door we couldn't be more satisfied!

Why try and put any extra steps or roadblocks in our way to get what we want. Plus, why would you want to add a whole new level of complexity to everything that we didn't ask for or ever wanted....

Which is why the standard web interface of today won't... and shouldn't disappear!

It will be a nice feature separate of the standard web-based shopping interface for those who would like it, but give us all the option to do things as we would normally do as fast as possible...

Because if you start adding those extra features into the load-time of the website, it has the potential to make it a much more agonizing experience to get through all the steps for getting what we want!

The New Virtual World

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:35:12 PDT

On April 4th, 2008 Marketing Vox reported on Nickelodeon's virtual world development... particularly about various extensions to couple their current virtual worlds and a new virtual world concept developed by Nick - Monkey World.

According to the article Monkey World will contain social networking features but will be more of a massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) than a traditional virtual world.

This idea at least to me seems to be a better approach than what most people think of as a virtual world... since most of the virtual worlds I've tried out seem to be lacking in the area of organizing and collecting/storing your in-world social data.

Also, having something to accomplish in the virtual world much like a MMOG operates would reduce the standard boringness of going to a virtual world and just explore... it gives you something to do if you aren't feeling quite social at the time or are new - it gives you something that you can connect with other users about!

Having something to connect with other users in a virtual world is important because knowing what to say to someone else to connect with them in a standard virtual world can be challenging...

But once you add in the dynamic of all having a common goal or at least something to work for like in a MMOG you instantly have something in common that you can begin a conversation or even a friendship with!

I think that the two unique dynamics of Nick's new Monkey World with integrated social networking and an MMOG-like concept can become a model for all virtual worlds.

PHP File Upload Problem Solved!

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:04:17 PDT

I finally managed to solve the PHP File Upload Stalemate!

Thanks, in part, to this forum thread... and a bunch of tinkering around in my php.ini file...

I realized that the directives that I modified from:

memory_limit = 8M
post_max_size = 8M
upload_max_filesize = 2M

And changed to:

memory_limit = 8000M
post_max_size = 7000M
upload_max_filesize = 6000M

Was causing me to get the following in my HTTPD/error_log:

[error] PHP Warning: POST Content-Length of 363120480 bytes exceeds the limit of -1249902592 bytes in Unknown on line 0

More specifically it appears that it was the fact that there was just too much of a differential in the post_max_size and the upload_max_filesize that was causing the error...

Which was why PHP would overflow to the negative value... and is considered a feature - though not too many people (probably including myself) would really consider such as a feature!!

I was able to fix the error by modifying my edits of the directives to:

memory_limit = 8000M
post_max_size = 6000M
upload_max_filesize = 6000M

And now it works like a charm!...

So far at least with the large 346.3 M file I tested it with. Hopefully it will still work with larger files!

Now it's pretty much off to the races to finish testing the rest of my project.

One set-back down and very likely several more to go!

Missions Conference 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:08:02 PDT

I just finished putting together a page for my church's website for it's upcoming Missions Conference this weekend.

The Missions Conference is a two day event this upcoming weekend on Saturday April 26th and Sunday April 27th...

I know, it might be a little short-notice for a lot of people.... and that's because I hadn't thought about putting a page up on the website for it, until I was asked about the possibility of doing that for the church this last Sunday by one of the elders.

Part of the reason I wasn't inclined to make too many modifications to the church's website was when my computer's hard disk blew up I didn't back up a lot of my application support files, which is where the iWeb files for the church's site were...

And if I were to make any changes I would have to go back into iWeb and re-input all the pages from scratch, or hand code any edits or additions... which isn't a really simple task with the way iWeb creates its pages.

But all in all I spent a few hours tinkering around with creating and writing up the Missions Conference 2008 page and putting links in several of the other pages on my church's website.

Since I practically lost the working iWeb file for the Church's website, I will then begin to recode the site to create a template for it with php to make it a whole lot easier to manage and work with! -- Which was what I was hoping to eventually do anyways!

PHP File Upload Stalemate!

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:06:17 PDT

In one of the projects that I have been working on that I've been most hopeful about keeps leading me to one error after another in a stalemate!

This project involves file uploads to a server.

I am doing this with an Apache Server (on Mac OSX) and PHP 5.

I've successfully - or so I think - reconfigured the php.ini file to allow for the capability to upload larger files.

Which is almost identical to this php.ini example, except for the following directives:

memory_limit = 8M
post_max_size = 8M
upload_max_filesize = 2M

Which I've changed to:

memory_limit = 8000M
post_max_size = 7000M
upload_max_filesize = 6000M

And now when I try to upload a large file, which is a .dv video file (one of the larger files I first came across on my computer)... I get the following in my HTTPD/error_log:

[error] PHP Warning: POST Content-Length of 363120480 bytes exceeds the limit of -1249902592 bytes in Unknown on line 0

Now 363120480 bytes is about 346.3 M and is the approximate size of the file I'm trying to upload.

But 1249902592 bytes is 1192 M, and that doesn't match any of the limits I've set in my php.ini file!

Plus 346.3 M < 1192 M!!!

I don't know what's up with the 1249902592 byte-value being negated in the warning - it doesn't make any sense... or is it just a dash in front of the byte-value?

Also, the first time I tried to upload the .dv file the server timed out or something... and got the "this server dropped connection" (or similar) message in Safari.

But that only appeared the first time I tried to upload the file and didn't appear any time after... Which is Totally Bizzare!

I've tried looking in the httpd.conf file for any possible settings that might be hanging things up and countlessly poured over all the directives in the php.ini file... but to no resolve!

Even changing the PHP directive max_execution_time = 30 (because it would normally take about 30 seconds for the upload to fail) to max_execution_time = 300 does nothing... It will still fail after about 30 seconds.

This Pathetic City

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:11:35 PDT

Title: This Pathetic City

When the sky is dark
And everyone's home from work
We will be all that's left
In this vacant city.

On a corner of Lake Ave
Another victim is stabbed.
No one hears him scream
In this empty city
As his voice echoes back.

We've got to get out,
Out of this pathetic city!

Staring down an empty avenue...
All you see is a newspaper in the wind,
And flickering street lights...
You can stand in this intersection,
Looking down the road
And watch as each traffic lights
Change from green to red.

How much has it torn ya,
Past the point of pity,
When I want to be in California
And you in New York City,
To escape our miserable lives.

But we can't find a way out,
Out of this pathetic city!

But when they've all gone to bed
We'll paint this city red;
And we'll never come back.
As they question our head
When their river runs black.

We didn't destroy this city;
It was the politics,
And corporate pricks!

Though they try to lay blame
It is always the same:
The citizens get screwed
Because it's just their game,
And there's nothing you can do!

We've got to find a way out,
Out of this pathetic city!

And how about the weather
Never getting any better...
Winter is the new institution.
Until snow is all you'll ever know!
It slows you down and drives you mad
Freezing you down to the bone -
Hardening the heart you thought you once had!

Like we need another reason
to hate this city and find a way out,
Out of this pathetic city

Story-line conceived & first
four sections written:
3/21/2008
Section five & seven written:
3/23/2008
Section eight written &
section eleven started:
4/1/2008
Section eleven finished, &
section six, nine, ten &
twelve written, as well
as edits & title given:
4/4/2008

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is 100% Original Material by Benjamin VanScoter, and is therefore:

© Coyright Benjamin VanScoter 2008. All Rights Reserved.
Use Without Prior Written And Signed Consent Is Against International And Domestic Laws.

So don't even try to use any part of this work!

If you want to refer to this work link to it using the Permalink (found below).

(This writing may or may not be based on anything factual or that has happened in Ben's life... and may be entirely fictional.)

New-Age Tech Management Vs. Old World Industrial Management

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:53:42 PDT

I was going to actually post this last weekend, but I got sick and didn't quite finish the post... so here's the post mostly as it was, but with a little editing (I'll just leave this post short as it is).

In The April, 2008 issue of Wired Magazine, there was a great write-up in there titled How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong.

This is mostly an article about the way Apple does business differently than what many of the "New" tech companies believes a company should be managed and operate.

Especially referring to Google's "Don't Be Evil" moto, and the open-source movement's ideologies.

As a side-note... there was also an article (or series of articles) on 9 trends of business that was pretty interesting. I found one of the particular trends rather interesting:

Rise Of The Instapreneur, where all anyone really needs anymore is a great idea or plans / blueprints and someone else will do all the work when / if you make a sale or need merchandise.

(You should be able to find the links to the other 8 trends in the article - which are also fascinating stories)

Brace Yourselves!

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:01:59 PDT

Just to give everyone a forewarning and to fend off any of the coming onslaught Keith Karr might have in mind... (that he keeps promising to deliver but hasn't shown anything for yet!)

I'm going to address some of the issues he thinks he might have with my post that I bashed him on his comment about Thursday's most recent DVD/CD release, Kill The House Lights.

Keith really thinks he has a few bones to pick with me in the graveyard that I buried him in! (As well as some other things.)

For some reason Keith is convinced that the first few songs may not be brand-spanking new demos from Thursday but is rather older stuff that Thursday had done... even despite this:

Kill The House Lights

Do you see the line in that promo ad that says "3 brand new songs"?

Yes a lot of the stuff on the CD was older stuff that they threw on there that they thought some of their more devoted fans would be interested in... But The First 3 Songs Are BRAND-SPANKING NEW!

Ok, now that I've got that covered... it's time to blow up at least one of his missiles before he can even launch an attack...

I actually bought my copy of Kill The House Lights from Best Buy, which had 3 Bonus Exclusive Tracks on it...

Cross Out The Eyes (Live At The Grove)
Steps Acending (Live At The Grove)
How Long Is The Night? (Live At The Grove)

When I initially got the CD and told Keith about it I said something like "the extra bonus songs aren't all that great"...

And Keith went off on me for saying that after I wrote up my very positive and optimistic review of Kill The House Lights... and then bashing him on his comment.... calling me stuff similar to a hypocrite and stuff, and unworthy of saying any of the things I did about him.

Well, let's dispose this myth and put it all out in the light!

It is probably still true that I don't think too highly of those extra bonus songs now any much more... and that is for one simple fact...

And that is because Geoff barely sings half of his lines... and I would rather listen to Geoff singing than relying on the crowd to sing the lines in what I'm listening too!

I really like the uniqueness of Geoff's voice and his style of singing, and that can't be matched or beaten by anyone else!

So when it comes down to it I would rather just listen to studio versions than those extra demos... and even more I would rather be at a Thursday concert than listen to any recording!!!

Also another thing I would like to point out that Keith recently told me regarding A City By The Light Divided is that it is wearing on him.

Yes, the more he listens to A City By The Light Divided the more he is liking the album!

And I think that is true anyway, though there were some more songs on there that appealed to me more than him... but it is an album that you have to listen to a little before you can enjoy the subtleness of it.

Though it still isn't by any means one of the stronger albums Thursday did.

One final thing...

A ways back Keith made a comment to me about "A Sketch For Time's Arrow" on the CD in Kill The House Lights. He said it was much an incomplete song and unwanted material like "This Song Is Brought To You By A Falling Bomb" on the album War All The Time... Which I have to flat-out disagree!

Though "This Song Is Brought To You By A Falling Bomb" isn't one of Thursday's strongest songs instrumentally... I think it has some of the most vivid imagery in it that makes it entirely a totally sweet song by itself!

I personally think the first few lines are the most striking:

Do you hear the jet plane yawning miles across the sky,
Hear the garbage truck back down the boulevard
Setting off the car alarms as it passes by?

Now, can't you just see and hear it? The lyrics just come to life in your mind!

... At least they do in mine, and I think that makes it a totally sweet song!

Which makes "This Song Is Brought To You By A Falling Bomb" on the album War All The Time, nowhere near comparable to "A Sketch For Time's Arrow" on the CD in Kill The House Lights, which I agree isn't anywhere near a decent or completed song in and of itself!

So now you are more prepared for Keith's supposed rebuttal to the attack I made on his comment, in which he promises to bash me quite a bit... but for which we have seen absolutely nothing from yet!!

Do your best Keith!

Why I've Not Posted In A While...

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:35:51 PDT

Some of you may have noticed I haven't posted in a while... and wondered quietly to yourself "Why?"

(Ok, maybe not, but I'll tell you anyway...)

And that is for the plain reason that I royally messed up my computer and nearly lost everything on it!

Here's the story:

As I mentioned earlier after I came back from my relatively recent trip to California I had to use Disk Utility on my MacMini's Hard Disk, due to it getting corrupted somehow.

When I used Disk Utility to repair my HD, it created a folder at the root level of my startup disk called "lost+found" (or something like that)... which I didn't notice until about a couple weeks ago.

From that folder I was able to get back a little of the music I lost the first time (see this post for more).

In that folder were a bunch of other folders with with a bunch of numbers for their names and in the folders were a bunch of resources with a bunch of numbers in their names... which I had no idea where they were from.

Well, after pulling the music I found from the folders I proceeded to delete the /lost+found folder.

When emptying the trash, in order to delete the folder it asked me to enter my password... Which should probably have been a sign that something in there shouldn't be deleted.

But not thinking, I went ahead and entered my password and deleted the folder anyway.

Then the next time I shutdown my computer (which I hardly ever do) and tried to start it again I was greeted with a black screen that said:

disk0s2: 3x0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED). disk0s2: 3x0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED). disk0s2: 3x0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED). Mar 13 12:16:10 Launchd: can't exec /bin/sh for single users Input/Output error

And it would keep showing that error line after line over and over again.

So apparently I messed with something that shouldn't have been messed with.

I tried whatever I could to try to fix it, but that day we didn't have Internet access... so I couldn't look anything up online!

The first thing I did was to copy all my important files and documents over to an external hard disk. Which I had to do booting from my OSX Install Disk and using terminal.

I started copying everything over one file and folder at a time using the commands $ cp /file/to/copy /place/to/copy/to and $ mkdir /location/to/create/directory...

Remember I didn't have Internet access so I didn't have internet access and was not all that brushed up on *nix commands to know about the recursive copy command flag ($ cp -R /entire/folder/to/copy /location/to/copy/to) until I asked my dad if there was an easier way to copy files through the terminal.

After doing that I figured that maybe if I just upgraded from tiger to leopard I might be able to save just about everything. But after I tried to do that I the computer wouldn't recognize the disk as a mountable volume.

Knowing that I'd have to erase that disk anyway to get it back, I just decided to install the new bigger hard disk I had just bought after I got back from California.

I chose to install the new hard disk on the same day when Time Warner Cable was checking out our cable internet connections in our house.

So I popped open my MacMini and installed the new hard disk I had... a huge 250 GB disk to replace the 100 GB disk I originally got with it.

I needed this new disk so that I could install both Leopard and Tiger on two separate partitions, with all my music and other stuff on the 100 GB disk I couldn't do it with sufficient space for each boot partition.

And it wasn't until just the end of last week that I was able to install everything back on Tiger for production once again!

How To Handle A Faulty HD & The Loss Of Your Music With Your iPod

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:36:15 PDT

Ok, that might be a bit of a long name, but it's important... if you don't want to loose as much time and music as I have when you run into a similar situation!

I'm not sure how but in the last couple weeks, after taking my Mac Mini computer with me on a trip to California, I've lost a fair amount of data on my hard drive.

I'm aware that my Hard Drive was corrupted before my trip so it might not be entirely on how my baggage was handled to and from California.

But in California when I would select some of the songs that went missing in my iTunes playlist or library, I would always encounter the annoying spinning beachball pointer, or the swirling torrent of colors...

While in California I didn't want to hassle with trying to fix it because there was enough things there I was busy doing... or should have been doing.

I had all my music synced on my iPod, so all I had to do was somehow find a way to get the music from my iPod back into my iTunes directory somehow.

So when I got back from California, being fed-up with the tracks that were no longer on my HD and subsequently causing my iPod to take forever to sync and making it impossible to browse my iTunes music directory, I downloaded and installed Super Remove Dead Tracks from Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes.

That was the absolutely wrong script to use at the time, because it didn't do anything for the core problem of my corrupt Hard Drive and erased the mp3 files from my iPod the next time it was synced.

Though I'm glad that it was only 55 tracks of not-so important stuff (though I will try to get it back again somehow anyways).

If you don't really care about the music that you've lost then it might be just fine to use that script.

Since I knew that I was going to try to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard... or actually install them both on the same HD... I knew I was going to have to repair the HD.

So I popped in the Tiger install disks that came with my Mac Mini, and used the Disk Repair Utility to repair my corrupted Hard Disk.

As one should expect several files, mostly my music though, went missing in the process; but after repairing the HD I was able to browse the iTunes directory and click on dead tracks in my iTunes library without getting the beachball cursor or the swirling torrent of colors cursor!

That solved that problem....

But as a result more music went missing. This time it was 100 tracks with a lot of good stuff, so I really want to get it back in the easiest way possible.

I first downloaded and installed iLinkPod to see what I could get from the music files on my iPod.

Realizing how much time it would take to manually identify each individual or even a group of files to pick out the ones that went missing I soon went looking for another alternative.

Then I eventually found and tried out Ollie's iPod Extractor - but I had no luck with it... I kept getting an AppleScript error indicating to big of a parameter string or something.

Here's How To Get Your Music Off Your iPod And Into iTunes Again...

I kept searching until I found the Show iPod Song Files script on Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes site.

NOTE: to use this script you must have the "Manually manage music (and videos)" checkbox on your iPod's setting checked.

Install it in your iTunes Scripts folder.

Select a song (or songs) in your iPod's library or one of it's playlists and then click on the scripts icon in the menubar (left of the "Help" menubar item) and choose the Show iPod Song Files option.

This will then open up a window in the finder with the music file highlighted.

As long as you have the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" checkbox selected in your iTunes Preferences' "Advanced" settings all you have to do is double-click or open the highlighted file and it will add it to your iTunes Library and folder in the right spot!

Sure that might be a little more work than what Ollie's iPod Extractor is supposed to do but if you don't have too much music missing (or have the time) and Ollie's iPod Extractor doesn't work for you, then you can use the Show iPod Song Files script from Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes site.

Which is exactly what I will be using to recover my files!

Recently I just heard about PodWorks, but I don't think it checks to see if any of the mp3 files (listed in the iTunes Library file) are missing from your iTunes folder to copy them over.... it looks like it just will transfer the mp3 files that aren't listed in the iTunes Library file.

New Blog Design

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:36:30 PDT

Today I finally was able to work through and put together phase two of my site design, and that was of redesigning this blog's site template.

I made the site template of this blog much like the template of my website at www.benjaminvanscoter.com, by taking the template and style that I was using and modifying it to fit within the template I have on my site.

Sure, it might not be perfect or all that glamorous... (as I think of that terrible PCD or whoever sings it song)... but it looks good and will do the job for the time being.

Now I can work on posting about a lot of the stuff that I've been holding off on!

My New Website

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:36:42 PDT

Yesterday I finally finished up the the last few pieces of my new website at http://www.benjaminvanscoter.com/.

This isn't the very first upload of my site, and in fact was a complete overhaul of what I put there originally. (I didn't post about my original upload because I didn't come around to it, but if you might have seen the link on the sidebar of this blog when I first loaded my original content.)

If you never saw my original site, then you won't notice how different and totally sweet the new design and flow is of my newly updated website.

I made several changes to the template structure, and colors... perhaps most noticeable right away would be the new header image and background to the menu bar on the top.

Also I made some file-structure changes so that it isn't so flat and complicated to edit.

As starters I changed the Home page to be more of an overview of my skills and qualifications where you can then check out what you are most interested in.

You might particularly notice that the About page isn't just one page loaded with tons of information but is more of a landing-page where you can pick and choose to check out whatever your interested in.

Also, I changed the Portfolio and Services pages to be more expandable and more like landing-pages as well.

I've also added a bunch more content from my experiences with Underachieving and learning from the Rich Dad Series as well as my education

My Resume though remains almost entirely the same, but with the addition of file icons at the bottom.

Now my website will be more suitable as a means for me to let people know what I'm doing or involved in and am interested in as well as for others to learn about me and what I can do.

I even have a Resources section where I keep a list of some of the resources I use and others could benefit from.

Of course I have bigger plans for this site... like implementing easy page bookmarking links and a whole bunch more information, resources and perhaps some more services... but what is currently there now will suffice for the time being.

So go ahead and check out my website!

Invisible Person

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin VanScoter) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:36:53 PDT

Title: Invisible Person

You are the invisible person,
Seen only in my dreams.
Through this device you were conceived.

This communication is our secret.
Wasting the nights away;
No one needs to know about it.

Constantly caught up in drama.
Wanting so much more from life:
To be noticed and admired.

It's in the jungle of tranquility,
Between reality and desire,
You find your escape.

But in the fight to live,
wu tiger fades away:
You are the invisible person.

Story-line conceived 1/5/2008
First two verses & first two
lines of third verse written:
1/6/2007
Last line of third verse & last
two verses written:
1/26/2007

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This is 100% Original Material by Benjamin VanScoter, and is therefore:

So don't even try to use any part of this work!

If you want to refer to this work link to it using the Permalink (found below).

(This writing may or may not be based on anything factual or that has happened in Ben's life... and may be entirely fictional.)