my personal blog

A New Site

2024-01-03T00:00:00Z

I’m working on a new site for kevan.emmott.com

Using 11ty (“Eleventy”)

Someone's Birthday is Tomorrow

2019-05-15T05:36:45Z

14. Fourteen!

Moving from Wordpress to Jekyll

2018-10-12T05:36:45Z

Yep, Finally.

Pumpkins found. Next up, lunch. @queen_anne_farm @mikes_crabhouse

2018-10-06T22:36:44Z

via Instagram

That time of year. #firescreen

2018-10-06T05:36:45Z

via Instagram

A lovely day for soccer. #winchester #endowedpublicschool

2018-09-23T19:36:41Z

via Instagram

An internal tech conference at Nationals Park? Sure, that’ll work! #capitalone #battingpractice

2018-09-20T15:36:40Z

via Instagram

Missing this pupper #Max #nationaldogday

2018-08-27T11:36:54Z

via Instagram

Having a pretty reLAXing bday. #LACMA #republiquela #manhattanbeach

2018-08-26T10:36:46Z

via Instagram

Morning hike to the Potomac now that Windy Run is open again.

2018-07-30T01:36:48Z

via Instagram

Harper about to tear the cover off a ball. #hrderby

2018-07-17T06:36:44Z

via Instagram

At the All Star Futures Game/Celebrity Softball Game. Something still ok with the world that Bill Nye got the most applause.

2018-07-16T04:36:52Z

via Instagram

Alléz les blues!

2018-07-15T21:36:55Z

via Instagram

nothing says the 4th like matching accent nails #fireworks💥 @nailz.abc123

2018-07-04T23:36:46Z

via Instagram

Nothing left after 18 XL crabs but these two 🦀 #omnomnom

2018-07-04T05:36:44Z

via Instagram

Finally seats @jeffastorey might deign to sit in... at least a few years ago before he upgraded.

2018-07-03T03:36:40Z

via Instagram

Rest assured the shell is not stowing away on our flight. She has been reunited with her conchclave.

2018-06-25T04:36:30Z

via Instagram

Relaxing 😎 in #anguilla - tacos and fish sandwich in Meads Bay @strawhataxa, afternoon poolside @thereefanguilla

2018-06-23T23:36:43Z

via Instagram

Riptide four ways @vancejoy @marqueetheatre @930club @thelincolndc @theanthemdc

2018-06-13T07:36:40Z

via Instagram

Oh hai Stanley Cup. You get to do some fun things. #ALLCAPS

2018-06-09T22:36:50Z

via Instagram

Bash. @panicatthedisco #wwdc2018

2018-06-09T22:36:43Z

via Instagram

Don’t expect many people to understand but this is my Coachella. #wwdc2018 #thetalkshow @gruber

2018-06-06T07:36:42Z

via Instagram

Thank you both #memorialday #nanaandgrandfather

2018-05-29T01:36:39Z

via Instagram

Can’t stop movin’ @nathanielrateliff #ineednevergetold

2018-05-17T06:36:40Z

via Instagram

@robertfinleymusic practicin’ what he’s preachin’ #getitwhileyoucan

2018-05-17T05:36:43Z

via Instagram

@haimtheband was having fun last night #sistersistersister #womenwhorock

2018-05-02T14:53:32Z

via Instagram

Hey #prettyshinypeople - we’re all right together. @george_ezra

2018-04-27T05:24:25Z

via Instagram

Something something network saturation #hideyourkidshideyourwifi #nowthatyoumentionitimhungrytoo

2018-04-18T02:00:19Z

via Instagram

When in Germantown.

2018-04-16T03:17:13Z

via Instagram

Cali porch views #77andsunny

2018-03-28T04:16:15Z

via Instagram

3rd summit in as many days #praisethesun

2018-03-27T01:34:41Z

via Instagram

Happy Place #summit

2018-03-24T23:04:40Z

via Instagram

Zoom. #acela #goodmorningtoyoutoowaze

2018-03-19T18:16:56Z

via Instagram

Most of their visuals felt like something I might have made for an Advertising Design project at Syracuse - “Design a CD Jewel Box”. This was a tamer one. #MGMT

2018-03-16T07:26:33Z

via Instagram

MGMT on soon #lightupthedarkness

2018-03-16T04:40:40Z

via Instagram

Asps. They’re deadly.

2018-02-11T07:51:34Z

via Instagram

FLY. EAGLES. FLY. 🦅🦅🦅 #flyeaglesfly

2018-02-05T09:11:25Z

via Instagram

Happy Birthday Erin! May you always have coffee and pastries this close at hand.

2018-02-04T01:17:14Z

via Instagram

Got an early dinner driving up the coast before the redeye. #latergram

2018-01-21T01:39:17Z

via Instagram

Details.

2018-01-20T04:41:52Z

via Instagram

“I got gas in the tank I got money in the bank I got news for you baby, you're looking at the man” #killers

2018-01-12T08:03:00Z

via Instagram

Happy New Year!

2018-01-01T21:52:23Z

Happy New Year! May 2018 bring some more sanity and control in your life. Embracing owning my own content again.

How the Cloud Enabled Capital One’s Innovative New Chatbot

2017-10-23T23:55:07Z

We've come a long way at Capital One since I started at Capital One Labs in 2012.

With Eno, users can get quick access to their account balances, recent transactions, and even make a Capital One credit card payment simply by texting in natural language.

Source: How the Cloud Enabled Capital One’s Innovative New Chatbot

Speedtest

2012-03-05T23:45:36Z

Posting my speedtest prior to an upgrade tomorrow.

Update:
Yep, better:

Update 2:
And again, a few months later:

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T22:51:11Z

Office Space

2011-12-06T21:59:47Z

Discussion of office space has come up recently.

Joel Spolsky back in 2008 wrote about Fog Creek’s new offices:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html

and has a Picasa album of the same:
https://picasaweb.google.com/spolsky/FogCreekSNewOffice#

Why We Don’t Need a Debt Ceiling

2011-07-26T20:24:30Z

The debt ceiling is just a strange concept.

If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, we’ll face an absurd scenario in which Congress will have ordered the President to execute two laws that are flatly at odds with each other. If he obeys the debt ceiling, he cannot spend the money that Congress has told him to spend, which is why most government functions will be shut down. Yet if he spends the money as Congress has authorized him to he’ll end up violating the debt ceiling.

via James Surowiecki: Why We Don’t Need a Debt Ceiling : The New Yorker.

Parents Who Blog

2010-11-23T21:27:56Z

I now have two parents who blog - and based on their posts of late, a lot more frequently than I do. My father just started a blog journaling a favorite topic (obsession?) of his: model railroading.

My Dad showing me about building things, to my high school starting of so called “perfect track work” on an early train layout with my friend Joe Braun, to my college summer employment at a precision machine shop...

via Frog Angle.

And my mother has been blogging about all kinds of personal topics for a while - this entry is on spinning wool.

I like spinning in the grease so I tried it with this but it was a disaster—I thought the grease would help hold the short staples as I spun but no... it didn’t. I must admit I haven’t spun much for a number of years and have begun again. I find it meditative—cheaper than therapy.

via gardens.

Schneier on Security: Post-Underwear-Bomber Airport Security

2010-11-16T05:59:10Z

Regarding the TSA nonsense, Bruce Schneier wrote in January:

Its magical thinking: If we defend against what the terrorists did last time, well somehow defend against what they do next time. Of course this doesnt work. We take away guns and bombs, so the terrorists use box cutters. We take away box cutters and corkscrews, and the terrorists hide explosives in their shoes. We screen shoes, they use liquids. We limit liquids, they sew PETN into their underwear. We implement full-body scanners, and theyre going to do something else. This is a stupid game; we should stop playing it.

via Schneier on Security: Post-Underwear-Bomber Airport Security. And even more importantly:

Finally, we need to be indomitable. The real security failure on Christmas Day was in our reaction. We're reacting out of fear, wasting money on the story rather than securing ourselves against the threat. Abdulmutallab succeeded in causing terror even though his attack failed.

HTML5 and CSS3

2010-07-22T17:27:38Z

I'm going to be personally taking both of these courses this summer.

HTML5 and CSS3 virtual classes – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report.

Performance and Scale in the Cloud

2010-07-21T16:38:03Z

Performance and Scale in the Cloud – A Joyent Webinar | brighttalk.com.

A free webinar on scalability, IAAS, PAAS, etc. by the CTO of a great company in this space. 2PM EST Today (July 21st)

Kill CTRL-M's From a Windows File

2010-07-08T19:19:28Z

Because so randomly do I need this, in vi, to delete all instances of a CTRL-M at the end of a line, do this command:

:%s/^M//g

to make the ^M, do a CTRL-V, CTRL-M.

Good times.

Some JSON References

2010-07-08T19:13:25Z

Ajaxian JSON Articles

How to use jQuery with a JSON Flickr feed to display photos | Richard Shepherd.

JSONduit - "JSonduit is a service that can turn practically anything on the web into a JSON feed that any website or mobile app can consume. A JSON conduit, if you will."

jQuery Online Conference, brought to you by Think Vitamin

2010-06-29T14:59:29Z

jQuery Online Conference, brought to you by Think Vitamin.

$150, online (starts at noon in DC), speakers include John Resig, the lead dev of jQuery.

Eclipse Helios, Git, STS

2010-06-24T20:41:41Z

The latest version of Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/helios/ was just released - maybe yesterday?

A bunch of new things in Helios: http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2010/06/23/top-10-eclipse-helios-features/

A big one is Git: http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2010/06/22/git-support-eclipse-helios-feature-2/

STS is looking to rev 2.3.3 to Helios soon: http://forum.springsource.org/showpost.php?p=305680&postcount=14

Hivelogic - Offices Are Becoming Antiques

2010-06-22T18:37:03Z

"Offices make less and less sense for smaller, agile businesses like the kind many of you work in. Every time I hear about a small company opening up an office with plans to have the employees spend most of their time there, I’m a bit dumbfounded."

via Hivelogic - Offices Are Becoming Antiques.

MS' Dirty Secret: SharePoint Sucks

2010-06-21T16:56:09Z

"Micro$oft's Dirty Secret: SharePoint Sucks"

via Beyond The Yellow Bubble.

Rather interesting point of view... not saying I disagree.

Seth's Blog: Goodbye to the office

2010-06-17T16:17:16Z

"If we were starting this whole office thing today, it's inconceivable we'd pay the rent/time/commuting cost to get what we get. I think in ten years the TV show 'the Office' will be seen as a quaint antique.When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like."

via Seth's Blog: Goodbye to the office.

FT.com / Technology - Google ditches Windows on security concerns

2010-06-01T03:14:44Z

"New hires are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system. 'Linux is open source and we feel good about it,' said one employee. 'Microsoft we don’t feel so good about.'"

via FT.com / Technology - Google ditches Windows on security concerns.

Perhaps we need this policy at ESDO...

Mock Data Randomizer « Club AJAX – Dallas Ft. Worth Area AJAX Users Group covering: AJAX, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Design

2010-05-27T14:18:59Z

Good testing utility script for building out random data.

"A common step in the development cycle is to substitute fake data until real data is created, generated, or the API is set up to retrieve it. Creating this fake data isn’t usually difficult, but it can be a tedious and repetitive task. Club AJAX has added a new library item to create mock data for use in application development. Using the Club AJAX Randomizer, you can easily generate random numbers, booleans, colors, dates, characters, words, sentences, titles, names, and even website names. Helper functions are also available to scramble or return random elements from your own data."

via Mock Data Randomizer « Club AJAX – Dallas Ft. Worth Area AJAX Users Group covering: AJAX, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Design.

HTML5 Watch

2010-05-27T01:33:28Z

"Collecting examples of creative, innovative, and unexpected use of emerging web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3."

Good resource.

via HTML5 Watch.

A List Apart: Articles: Responsive Web Design

2010-05-27T01:32:05Z

An excellent article on how to make some really dynamic websites that work well on everything from a widescreen monitor to a smartphone held vertically with just CSS and HTML. Read through the whole thing and look at the demos while resizing your browser - wow.

"Fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries are the three technical ingredients for responsive web design, but it also requires a different way of thinking. Rather than quarantining our content into disparate, device-specific experiences, we can use media queries to progressively enhance our work within different viewing contexts. That’s not to say there isn’t a business case for separate sites geared toward specific devices; for example, if the user goals for your mobile site are more limited in scope than its desktop equivalent, then serving different content to each might be the best approach."

via A List Apart: Articles: Responsive Web Design.

In the Woods – 7 Things I Wish I Had Known About jQuery

2010-05-24T18:49:50Z

In the Woods – 7 Things I Wish I Had Known About jQuery.

Some great tips about jQuery and efficient use of it.

Google I/O

2010-05-19T18:45:36Z

Lots of new stuff coming out at Google I/O, May 19th and 20th.

@googleio on Twitter.

Matt Cutts live waving the keynote.

Cloud Portability from Google and VMware.

Google Storage for Developers.

Google's summary of the first day.

Official Google Blog: The next generation of Google Docs

2010-04-13T01:25:11Z

Official Google Blog: The next generation of Google Docs.

They've made the editors for docs and spreadsheet even *more* powerful and added features like what people are used to in desktop editors - and they've added a whole new editor for drawings.

Distributed Version Control is here to stay, baby - Joel on Software

2010-03-18T14:31:24Z

If you are using Subversion, stop it. Just stop. Subversion = Leeches. Mercurial and Git = Antibiotics. We have better technology now.

via Distributed Version Control is here to stay, baby - Joel on Software.

also, check out his tutorial he created that gives you good insight into the mindset needed (and how to break out of your subversion-centric mindset): HgInit

HotGloo - The Online Wireframe App

2010-03-16T13:20:19Z

HotGloo - The Online Wireframe Application

smooth the planning process
get a clearer picture of site information
provide a precise framework for designers & coders
build up a more intense project relationship with clients
improve the communication process

via HotGloo - The Online Wireframe App.

How P2 Changed Automattic — Matt Mullenweg

2010-03-09T18:12:50Z

(P2 is the name of the theme that the Wordpress blog you are curently reading is running. The linked article below describes the effect P2 had on their company)

It completely transformed how Automattic works internally and I think is one of the most valuable things we’ve adopted in the past year. I’m on the road a lot, and sometimes my only connection is checking the mobile-optimized P2 on my iPhone.

I’m excited about P2 partly because blogs provide an incredibly robust infrastructure on which to build more advanced apps and this is a good example of that.

via How P2 Changed Automattic — Matt Mullenweg.

http://v.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.18

5 reasons why your company should be distributed « toni.org

2010-03-09T18:07:55Z

I know that the distributed model feels very strange to business people who are used to the traditional, centralized way of running a company. But I’m here to tell you that it works. It might even work a lot better than the traditional model for certain types of businesses. After all, distributed systems tend to work well in general (the internet itself being a prime example). If you try this model yourself, I think you will see clear benefits in employee happiness and hiring, and I recommend these core strategies that have worked for us: Have frequent company and team meetups to address the social challenges, use co-working and event spaces instead of traditional offices, and fully embrace new real-time, activity stream inspired communications tools like P2.

via 5 reasons why your company should be distributed « toni.org.

Seth's Blog: You rock

2010-03-09T16:36:15Z

...Five minutes a day you might defeat the lizard brain long enough to stand up and make a difference.

And five minutes of rocking would be enough, because it would be five minutes more than just about anyone else.

via Seth's Blog: You rock.

Introduction to Android development

2010-03-08T19:07:54Z

...Android runs atop a Linux kernel. Android applications are written in the Java programming language, and they run within a virtual machine (VM). It's important to note that the VM is not a JVM as you might expect, but is the Dalvik Virtual Machine, an open source technology. Each Android application runs within an instance of the Dalvik VM, which in turn resides within a Linux-kernel managed process...

via Introduction to Android development.

Good IBM document on Android development.

Outlook 2010 Features - Social Connector

2010-03-04T18:09:28Z

The all-new Outlook Social Connector connects you to the social and business networks you use, including Microsoft SharePoint, Windows Live, and other popular third-party sites, so you can get more information and stay in touch with the people in your network without leaving Outlook.

via Outlook 2010 Features - Social Connector.

For everyone who lives in their Outlook Inbox and would like to bring in social networking stuff. Looks like just LinkedIn for now, but FaceBook, etc. coming soon. Also looks like it can be installed in OL 2003 and 2007.

UrlRewriteFilter - Rewrite URLs in Java Web Application Servers

2010-03-03T04:45:42Z

UrlRewriteFilter - Rewrite URLs in Java Web Application Servers.

Useful for making Struts apps more RESTful.

Sharepoint Blogging is Painful

2010-03-02T18:53:46Z

Blogging with Sharepoint is painful. A couple of reasons:

1) SLOW. Part of this can be the server it is on, or the bandwidth and latency between here and there. But even on a fast server sitting next to you, the interface is a) coded inefficiently, and b) slow and awkward to use.

2) Not open. A web application falls several notches right off the bat if I can't use the browser of my choice as an equal citizen. In Sharepoint's case (at least, with this version), I can open a page and create a post in a browser such as Google Chrome, but I have no access to the WYSIWIG tools for working with the post that Internet Explorer gets. Adhering to open standards has accessibility benefits way beyond which browser you can use - searchability and usability jump way up.

related: See my post on IE6 and how it causes untold headaches in IT: http://voltage.bstonetech.com/blog/2010/01/its-time-to-stop-using-ie6-ed-bott’s-microsoft-report-zdnet-com/ (note: the linked article barely even touches on the coding nightmare having IE6 as a lowest common denominator brings about)

Collaborative Tools Throughout the Process

2010-03-02T17:17:31Z

Web applications built around the idea of helping a group, project, or company get work done and communicate in a more effective manner have been around for a number of years. These collaborative tools take many shapes, some built to add a layer of interaction to a common task that currently takes place, some bringing new ideas to bear on how to manage projects or treat interaction as a whole.

We are seeing a sea change in the both the pervasiveness of these applications and the breadth of applications and providers. This is resulting in broad, mainstream adoption, and out of necessity team members are clamoring for more use of these tools in day-to-day delivery of project items. This raises the issue of how best to integrate these types of tools into a process methodology.

In an upcoming series of posts, I will be taking a look at different tools that currently exist, various issues that are faced when embracing these new technologies, and how best to use them to extend and empower business processes.

RubyNation / April 9-10, 2010 / Reston, VA

2010-02-24T19:45:49Z

RubyNation / April 9-10, 2010 / Reston, VA.

Includes presentations such as Enabling the Enterprise and Rails: The Killer Java Web Stack

iPad

2010-01-28T16:27:37Z

So a lot of people who actually think about what they are writing (Gruber, Ihnatko, Heilemann, Croft, Fry) had similar things to say about the iPad:

FAST.

and

It's just the best piece of glass you can buy, with an awesome framework/UI/store behind it.

To me, there are obvious verticals (medical) that this will shine in, but the best is education. I seem to have an obsession with Neal Stephenson's ideas, but this seems to get quite close (perhaps minus some obvious nano-tech related features) to the Primer from his book, The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. The level of engagement educational material designed with this in mind could achieve is transformative.

Beyond the verticals, this is the computer that most people should own. It takes the iPhone UI, the first successful break from WIMP (Windows, Icon, Mouse, Pointer), and scales it up to something more general purpose.

It's not perfect. I agree with two of the issues Jeff Croft mentioned - front facing camera and multi-user. But both of these are hard solutions to tackle. How do you deal with varying angles when trying to use a webcam in your lap, holding it up to your face, or propping it up on a table? How do you deal with multiple identities: syncing, switching, data storage?

Will we get one? Yes.

It's time to stop using IE6 | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

2010-01-19T16:35:07Z

(emphasis mine)

"Any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice. Think that judgment is too harsh? Ask the security experts at Google, Adobe, and dozens of other large corporations that are cleaning up the mess from a wave of targeted attacks that allowed source code and confidential data to fall into the hands of well-organized intruders."

via It's time to stop using IE6 | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com.

iPhone Dev Center: Your First iPhone Application: Introduction

2010-01-18T23:10:33Z

This tutorial shows how to create a simple iPhone application. It is not intended to give complete coverage of all the features available, but rather to introduce some of the technologies and give you a grounding in the fundamentals of the development process.

via iPhone Dev Center: Your First iPhone Application: Introduction.

Windows Antivirus/Internet Security

2009-12-15T17:32:10Z

Norton used to do a good job but slow your system down a bunch. They worked on performance lately, however, it is kind of like a protection racket - you always have to be up to date and paying the policeman.

Two free ones that do a very good job that a lot of people recommend:

AVG Free

http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

ClamWin

http://www.clamwin.com/

Some people run them together, some just run one.

That said, I don't run security/anti-virus on any of the Windows machines at our house:

a) Erin's work laptop (and mine, if I bring it home) has something corporate on it, so that doesn't count

b) Nothing "mission critical" is on a Windows PC for us, so there's less risk

c) just having the computers behind the FIOS router, assuming you didn't go in and open it up wide (it comes fairly protected by default) gives you a lot of protection against external attacks

d) I don't use Internet Explorer unless I absolutely have to (for example, State Farm's website used to only work on IE) - Google Chrome or Firefox, kept up to date, provides a ton of security re: Internet attacks

e) I'm smart about the things I open (files sent from others via Email, weird websites, etc.)

A friend asked if I had any input on Windows Antivirus Software, or Internet Security in general. I fired off this email in response.

Norton used to do a good job but would slow your system down a bunch. They have worked on performance lately - however, the whole antivirus industry is kind of like a protection racket - you always have to be up to date and paying the policeman.

Two free ones that do a very good job that a lot of people recommend:

AVG Free: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

ClamWin: http://www.clamwin.com/

Some people run them together, some just run one.

That said, I don't run security/anti-virus on any of the Windows machines at our house (and I'm probably tempting the fates just by revealing this, but...):

Erin's work laptop (and mine, if I bring it home) has something corporate on it, so that doesn't count.
Nothing "mission critical" is on a Windows PC for us, so there's less risk - I also don't ever "browse" on a Windows machine at our house.
Just having the computers behind the FIOS router, assuming you didn't go in and open it up wide (it comes fairly protected by default) gives you a lot of protection against external attacks.
I don't use Internet Explorer unless I absolutely have to (for example, State Farm's website used to only work on IE) - Google Chrome or Firefox, kept up to date, provides a ton of security re: Internet attacks.
I'm smart about the things I open (files sent from others via Email, weird websites, etc.)

Google Accounts

2009-12-07T21:22:18Z

Dear Google,

Please allow me to merge my accounts. I seem to have 3, and together they make one giant clusterf***. I have my original gmail account. Then I got Google Apps For Your Domain, which has everything all laid out nicely connected to emmott.com. But then, since that doesn't seem to fly for many of your web apps, I have to have a new 3rd account, kevan.emmott, that is valid for those web apps but somehow disparate from my GAFYD account. Yet I use my GAFYD email address as the email for this third account - can you say big 'ole mess?

Yours, K

Blog Joyent | Joyent Raises Institutional Money: Why We Did It

2009-11-18T16:28:33Z

"While Joyent has been profitable for much of the company’s existence, we raised money because Joyent has a revenue model, and a product model and roadmap, that we believe can benefit from immensely increased scale. Joyent plans to take cloud computing to a place where our competitors, built on virtualization foundations such as VMWare ESX, Microsoft HyperV, XEN, KVM, won’t be able to go."

via Blog Joyent | Joyent Raises Institutional Money: Why We Did It.

Perfect Pitch (or, the DMCA sucks)

2009-11-04T17:40:11Z

A link to a website gets more search juice than the website itself. The website owner files a DMCA takedown, and the linking site gets removed from google results. Um, *wow* that's BS.

Adactio: Journal—Perfect Pitch.

Gov 2.0 Expo 2010, May 25 - 27, 2010, Washington, DC

2009-10-26T19:53:47Z

Gov 2.0 Expo 2010 - Co-produced by TechWeb & O'Reilly Conferences, May 25 - 27, 2010, Washington, DC .

Thoughts on the Whitehouse.gov switch to Drupal - O'Reilly Radar

2009-10-26T19:03:48Z

"Yesterday, the new media team at the White House announced via the Associated Press that whitehouse.gov is now running on Drupal, the open source content management system. That Drupal implementation is in turn running on a Red Hat Linux system with Apache, MySQL and the rest of the LAMP stack. Apache Solr is the new White House search engine.

This move is obviously a big win for open source. As John Scott of Open Source for America (a group advocating open source adoption by government, to which I am an advisor) noted in an email to me: 'This is great news not only for the use of open source software, but the validation of the open source development model. The White House's adoption of community-based software provides a great example for the rest of the government to follow.'"

via Thoughts on the Whitehouse.gov switch to Drupal - O'Reilly Radar.

Dive Into HTML5

2009-10-19T17:39:30Z

Dive Into HTML5 seeks to elaborate on a hand-picked Selection of features from the HTML5 specification and other fine Standards.

via Dive Into HTML5.

Closed Border, closed economy, closing opportunities | eaves.ca

2009-10-06T00:34:51Z

Closed Border, closed economy, closing opportunities | eaves.ca.

"Entitled - Chicago’s Loss: Is Passport Control to Blame? - the piece struck a chord with me since my last two efforts to cross into the United States from Canada have been dramatically unpleasant experiences."

What is the BPM domain up to?

2009-09-14T18:30:51Z

What is the BPM domain up to?

Microsoft Updates Bing with Visual Search Feature - PC World

2009-09-14T18:27:56Z

Microsoft Updates Bing with Visual Search Feature - PC World.

Visual Search adds value...

Spaces Harder to Use in Snow Leopard

2009-09-04T18:39:00Z

Spaces should work like it did in Leopard regarding trigger button operation.

Spaces in 10.5 worked like this:
Press one key or mouse button to trigger spaces to come up, see multiple screen view.
Move mouse to space you want selected.
Press the *same* trigger key/button, *or* press the left mouse button. Selected Space becomes the active one, zooms in to regular view.

Spaces in 10.6 works the same, except pressing the trigger button no longer works as a selection method - instead, it acts like a cancel and you go back to the space you were in before.The only way to move into the space your mouse is over is to press the select button (left mouse button). This means a button press is added to the process, and in addition, it is different than Expose (where "trigger-move-trigger again" still works).

"What's the point?" Been asking mysel...

2009-09-01T20:33:54Z

"What's the point?" Been asking myself that a lot lately. Getting good answers, not to worry, just finding myself not doing things in line with them.

Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule

2009-08-12T19:33:36Z

For someone on the maker's schedule, having a meeting is like throwing an exception. It doesn't merely cause you to switch from one task to another; it changes the mode in which you work.

via Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule .

Managing UI Complexity | Brandon Walkin

2009-08-11T23:16:18Z

Interface complexity is an issue every designer wrestles with when designing a reasonably sophisticated application. A complex interface can reduce user effectiveness, increase the learning curve of the application, and cause users to feel intimidated and overwhelmed.

via Managing UI Complexity | Brandon Walkin.

Joyent: Joyent Public Cloud

2009-08-11T19:21:56Z

Joyent: Joyent Public Cloud.

Joyent Accelerators are the fundamental building block of our cloud. Accelerators are virtualized servers deployed within an ecosystem of the highest grade networking and routing fabric available, hardware load balancing, persistent and fast storage, and a top notch systems development and operations team. Our Accelerator™ powered compute cloud provides a highly scalable on-demand infrastructure for running web sites, including rich web applications written in Ruby on Rails, PHP, Python and Java. Joyent’s cloud is open, scalable, and fast.

Too bad we're playing Euchre

2009-07-27T06:34:41Z

Too bad we're playing Euchre...

The Google Code Blog: Mercurial support for Project Hosting on Google Code

2009-07-23T19:23:14Z

The Google Code Blog: Mercurial support for Project Hosting on Google Code.

Mercurial is looking stronger and stronger for SCM...

Flipping URLs

2009-06-03T21:30:26Z

Ugh. OK, so the idea is, kevan.emmott.com is the blog, kevan.emmott.net has miscellaneous things...

Don't Make Assumptions in Your Installers

2009-04-14T20:54:54Z

TIBCO iProcess Engine makes an assumption when it installs. It assumes that the database owner name and the schema name for that user will match. With a standard mixed-mode SQL Server 2005 install this would be fine - throw Windows Integrated Authentication (WIA) in the mix and it gets complicated. SQL2k5 creates a dbo user, linked to a domain account, and a dbo schema. TIBCO assumes the schema name will match what it resolves the dbowner to (domain/user). It doesn't allow you to override this. It doesn't take what SQL2k5 says is the default schema for the user. It makes an assumption. Which then results in a error during installation or the creation of a schema that can break enterprise standards. And it's just ugly.

Don't make assumptions in your installers.

More Tweaks

2008-04-11T02:43:18Z

Some recent tweaks to the site. Still doing most things daily at my tumblog, and posting pics to flickr. Here's hoping things calm down enough to post more frequently here!

mini reviews

2007-02-23T01:06:44Z

So I've jotted down little mini one-line reviews of some movies we've seen. In the future, I'll just make those individual posts tagged "movie". For now, here's the ones I've done in the past:

I (heart) huckabees - quite odd, not sure where they thought they were going with this.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle - excellent, if absurd and stupid as this type of movie always is. A next gen Office Space + Dazed and Confused + Holy Grail/Quest movie.
Dodgeball - quite funny, a farce, great cameos (Chuck Norris, Lance Armstrong, etc.), quote- and meme-able (ESPN 8, "The Ocho"), good time
Garden State - great, fun, touching, quirky - gives Zach Braff a lot of credibility in Tinseltown

Ridiculous

2007-01-20T16:53:42Z

How ridiculously cute is this picture of Fletcher?

Treo 650 for sale

2007-01-09T18:21:21Z

Make me an offer.

(Steve Jobs strikes again.)

Updated Pics

2006-12-26T17:34:41Z

Trying out a new, simpler theme with Gallery, and uploaded pics from the Christmas activities we've done so far. I've got a bunch of albums to upload from the fall still, so look for them to appear at adventures soon as well.

Xmas is coming

2006-12-18T22:21:09Z

... the goose is getting fat! (or is that me on all this office snacks that keep appearing?)

Pervasive News

2006-12-12T14:53:12Z

Having the news channels on all day long at work is just weird. I'm sort of tuning them out, but I know way too much about useless things happening around the world. And I get to experience all those cultural memes like the HeadOn advertisements.

“the beginning of the end of America.”

2006-10-19T13:22:55Z

Keith Olbermann, being justifiably scathing: Crooks and Liars » Countdown Special Comment: Death of Habeas Corpus: “Your words are lies, Sir.”

Your words are lies, Sir.

They are lies, that imperil us all.

"One of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks," …you told us yesterday… "said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America."

That terrorist, sir, could only hope.

Not his actions, nor the actions of a ceaseless line of terrorists (real or imagined), could measure up to what you have wrought.

Habeas Corpus? Gone.

The Geneva Conventions? Optional.

The Moral Force we shined outwards to the world as an eternal beacon, and inwards at ourselves as an eternal protection? Snuffed out.

These things you have done, Mr. Bush… they would be "the beginning of the end of America."

Don’t be terrorized.

2006-08-14T17:56:53Z

The goal of a terrorist is to cause terror. Last week's arrests demonstrate how real security doesn't focus on possible terrorist tactics, but on the terrorists themselves.

...

And if you want to know what you can do to help? Don't be terrorized.

...

If we refuse to be terrorized, then they lose -- even if their attacks succeed.

From Schneier on Security: Last Week's Terrorism Arrests

You Work Where?

2006-08-11T13:49:31Z

So I switched projects at work - and I ended up working on an Air Force project at the Pentagon. Probably not what my parents expected, and I'm sure not what my high school teachers (at the Quaker K-12 school I attended) would have guessed. Lots of security clearance/classified stuff, pass swiping, a significant amount of money (like everyone in my entire area is sitting in an Aeron Chair), and boatloads of acronyms... technically, for example, I'm doing work for AF/CVAC, in the CRC, which is next to the CAT, all inside the RSAC. Anyways, I just read this NPR article: A (Nearly) All-Access Pentagon Pass, which captures some of the feel of the place, including Rumsfeld telling a "joke": "You know why a yuppie can't say the Pledge of Allegiance?" I won't spoil the punchline for ya.

Almost There

2006-06-19T18:50:03Z

Home theater: Samsung 61” DLP (720p)
Kitchen: Panasonic 26” LCD (1366×768)
Bedroom: Panasonic 32” LCD (1366×768)
My Office: 2x Dell 20” LCD (1680×1050)
Servers: LG 15” LCD (1024×768)
Erin’s Office: Dell 19” LCD (1280×1024)

and the culprit:

Guestroom: Samsung 19” CRT TV

See more progress on: eliminate crts from my life

Hemingway meme

2006-05-15T16:53:44Z

The whole "bottombar" thing is pretty nice. Plus the clean look. I'm digging Hemingway.

I Have a 2-Google-Click Commute

2006-03-29T16:10:58Z

My own meme:

Go to Google Maps. Punch in your home address - it should take you to a view of your house at a neighborhood view - I think two levels higher than the lowest ("Street Level"). Can you, on the same map, see your work location? If you can, congratulations!, If not, how many clicks on the zoom out button do you need so that you can?

I work with a 9-click commuter (Buffalo NY to DC).

Special bonus points if you can zoom in any clicks - extra special bonus points if you can flip to satellite view and zoom all the way in - you probably work out of your house.

Where this falls down - north/south commuters get a different result distance than east/west, if your browser window is set up at all normally. Also, you probably need to be at 1024x768 to make it comparable for everybody - no fair you people with 30-inch Cinema displays!

Ugh

2006-03-17T15:59:08Z

Both tired and disappointed, due to sleep deprivation and Syracuse losing. I feel like Gerry looks..

The Madness

2006-03-16T16:19:06Z

March Madness is upon us - Syracuse plays their opening round game tonight! I'm totally losing all brackets I'm submitting, because (as Dave Elmer - a guy I worked with at SRA - says) I'm such a homer. Doesn't matter - so I enjoy rooting for them, and actually, the only time I ever won anything like this was taking SU to win it all with Carmelo in '03.

Stuff of Late

2006-03-16T16:15:08Z

OK, so a bit too much time without updating.

Erin and Cooper had birthdays. Cooper is now 3 and had a big party at JW Tumbles which is like a kids gym. It was a hit, lots of his friends were there (pics are up on adventures) and everybody slept well that night.

Fletcher got tubes in his ears in late February, had some fluid draining out for a while, and then got rotavirus from school (non-stop spit-up and well, the other end). He seems better today - we think we're out of the woods, but quite the ordeal for the little guy.

Went ahead and got the new Intel based Mac Mini - pretty sweet. Quite fast, double the memory, seems to be working well. One of the issues is tracking down or verifying Intel or Universal versions of all the apps. They are coming out fast and furious, but not everything is all ship-shape yet. For instance, the exporter I used to send stuff from iPhoto to gallery seems hosed for now. ffmpegX is almost there, MacTheRipper is working on it, VLC seems good but still only by using a nightly build. Some stuff can use Rosetta, but a lot of things need to be recoded. Plus, you just want to use the full power of the new box.

The year in cities - short and sweet

2006-01-11T22:00:13Z

Following Kottke's post, here's a picture of 2005 in cities:

Washington DC *
Philadelphia PA *
Columbus OH *
Syracuse NY *
Duck NC
Charlottesville VA
Cerrillos NM (near Santa Fe)

One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. Short and sweet. *'s are basically family, and the rest were vacations.

Sweet, but not yet for me

2006-01-11T15:52:53Z

OK, so aside from all the software stuff announced in the Macworld Keynote (yeah, I'll probably get iLife and iWork '06), the big news was the anticipated Intel Macs. They sound awesome, just not what I need right now. The laptop (and who came up with "MacBook"? PowerBook was such a good brand - I hope it wasn't Intel insisting on some demarcation...) looks great, but not at $2K plus for us right now. I might have bit on a new iBook.

And again, sure, the iMac looks nice - but I'm happy with my Dell widescreen monitors. I basically have committed to the Mac mini path of upgrades. Well, I guess I could wait for 10.5 to come out (hopefully the mini will be revved by then) and get a new mini with 10.5 - the two birds/one stone approach. And what I was really hoping for, the whole Media Center-killer Mac mini PVR - no hints on that front.

OK, looking at things objectively, there are so many variables out there that would be an issue (cable vs. satellite, cable card 2.0, digital vs. analog, DRM and the studios, channel owners...), and Apple always tries to bring out a product without those questions. But with all the strides they were making lately on the video front - I guess I was just hoping they had made deals that could get it to happen. We'll see, I still think this year will have a lot of change on this front.

Anticipation

2006-01-09T14:59:18Z

Macworld starts today in SF, lots of things anticipated like Intel based Macs (perhaps starting with the consumer models - think iBook, Mac mini, iMac) as well as Media Center-type features...

Much excitement for the Mac faithful - my mouth is watering already.

Checking out the K2

2006-01-08T03:54:08Z

Upgraded to WP 2 - I'm figuring that I won't see too many issues since I was running a pretty basic install.

And I'm trying out K2 - nice job Michael and Chris. I know it's an included style, but damn if "vader" doesn't look cool.

spit, as a group

2005-11-19T15:14:01Z

"so, as a group, we spit on radrails"

-Dave Thomas, in the first Pragmatic Programmers Rails Studio in Reston

...later...

"now really, as a community, we are nice to python programmers..."

Rails Studio

2005-10-26T16:18:37Z

So I signed up for the first Rails Studio from the Pragmatic Programmers guys (plus the one day Ruby intro). Really looking forward to it - hopefully afterwards I can really step up my involvement with the RailFrog CMS project.

Front Row - a Windows Media Center Edition Killer?

2005-10-12T23:59:57Z

Front Row - anyone see this as the first shot across Windows Media Center Edition's bow? Make it extensible, add a TV capture section (to go along with TV show purchasing from iTunes)...

I just hope they let you add a Universal Dock and Front Row to any Mac.

Remember that extra header/slot on the Mac mini's internals? Make a mini with the Universal Dock built in and add a Plextor ConvertX USB2 PVR - a great set top box.

Over One Terabyte

2005-10-07T02:55:49Z

Holy, um, crap. Yeah, so I just got the backup drive set up, and decided to count through the storage at my house. Here's the breakdown (only drives over 10 GB counted)

Mac Desktop (80 GB Main and 160 GB iLife and Games) 240 GB
PC Desktop 30 GB
Mac Laptop 40 GB
PC HTPC 40 GB
FreeBSD Dev Server 30 GB
Mac File Server (40 GB Main/Website and 400 GB files and 320 GB Backup) 760 GB

(Oh, and 2 iPods - 20 and 40 GB)

Total: 1200 GB, or Over One Terabyte.

Final piece of the Backup Puzzle

2005-10-07T02:47:07Z

Just got the 320 GB WD drive in (the largest single drive I've owned), and hooked it up. Right now, here's what's being backed up to it:

Desktop home folder daily
Server home folder daily
Sites folder daily
iTunes and iPhoto libraries weekly
Quicken files weekly
Misc file server files monthly

Sick Cooper Activites

2005-09-21T20:33:19Z

Thomas was about all that made Cooper happy after getting his tonsils and adenoids out.

Erin's Nano

2005-09-21T20:30:10Z

So cool...

Sorry!

2005-09-15T05:19:51Z

Sorry about what is totally turning into just a linklist. The none of you that come here regularly must be wondering what's up.

On one front, Cooper got tonsillectomy and adenoid removal surgery today (yeah, way suxx0rzed for the little guy). Poor kid, we love him so much and it just tears at your heart to hear/see him feeling so bad. The ENT says it all went well and that the bleeding was really light - he is totally being a trooper. Grandma Hope came in today, though - that should help us in the caregiving world.

On another front, lets just say jobs in general suck. And in the specific, they suck hard. Perhaps something will change regarding this sometime soon, but who knows.

NOLA

2005-09-02T19:29:24Z

Yikes, yikes, yikes.

I've been reading Interdictor's accounts from a building in downtown New Orleans. vowe has a bunch of posts, so does "the bonsai" (they both link to the Mayor's uncensored remarks...), glennf is pretty pissed.

Tragic. What do these people tell their kids about what they've been through?

Back from NM

2005-08-30T06:01:59Z

Went to James and Elisa's wedding in New Mexico, near Santa Fe. Absolutely gorgeous, and ridiculously exhausting to do with the kids. Also went into Santa Fe, went to Taos, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, a Sonic (yummy burger and cherry lime-ade), and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque. Altitude sickness, allergies, hangovers, hella dry air, but pretty darn cool. Definitely don't wanna go back to work ~~tomorrow~~ today.

Birthday Lunch @ Olives

2005-08-23T16:10:00Z

Kevan's 31st birthday lunch at Olives in the District. Free vanilla bean souffle!

Zoo Fun

2005-08-09T12:27:59Z

Happy the hippo, cheetah cubs, a horse and more...

Media Section

2005-07-27T14:15:41Z

Added a new section/page: media. For now, I'm going to try and track the movies I've seen (with one-liner reviews) and the ones I want to see. Probably will put the Delicious Library stuff here, and might add similar stuff about books.

The War on Terror

2005-07-26T16:12:42Z

As viewed from the Bourne shell.

Hilarious! A snippet:

$ rm saddam
saddam: No such file or directory
$ find / -name saddam
/var/opt/dictators/spiderhole/saddam
$ wall NewsWorthy.txt
Broadcast Message from USA (pts/1) on Time.Magazine Sat Dec 13
We Got Him!
$ mv /var/opt/dictators/spiderhole/saddam /opt/jail
$ cd /opt/USA
$ cp -Rp Democracy /middle_east/Iraq
$ cd /middle_east/Iraq/Democracy
$ ./install
Install Error: Install failed. See install_log for details.
$ more install_log
Installed failed!
Prerequisite packages missing
Conflicting package Wahhabism found in /midde_east/Saudi_Arabia
Packages Church and State must be installed separately
File System /PeakOil nearing capacity
Please read the install guide to properly plan your installation.

Back to the Grind

2005-07-06T04:43:40Z

Back from vacation - the Blue Point turned out to be quite good, the vacation was very relaxing, and I've posted a whole slew of new pics in the usual spot. Make sure to see more than just the front page worth of albums.

Good Food Good Wine

2005-06-27T19:47:35Z

I hope their tagline holds up! We're trying to have a belated anniversary dinner at The Blue Point in Duck, NC at 6:30 tomorrow evening.

Might try the Red Sky Cafe another night...

What a Lovely Regime We Live In

2005-06-15T09:49:26Z

This guy created some collage/remix style art of Bush and guns, in response to a Secret Service visit to an art gallery with a similar exhibit. Let's just say he got a visit himself - can you say "chilling effect"?

Well, I was all set to put up some similar images, but I just couldn't stand looking at a picture of Bushie in the first place. Blech - made me wanna hurl.

Merry-go-round

2005-06-02T23:48:49Z

Cooper rode the Zebra the day before Fletcher was born. Happiness didn't last too long.

Rolling Thunder

2005-05-31T20:02:48Z

WAY too many motorcycles drive along 66 towards DC during Memorial Day weekend. Endless.

A Gamers’ Manifesto

2005-05-31T16:24:05Z

A Gamers' Manifesto - awesome treatise on the state of gaming...

Confusing, mapless floor plans. Did you remember when you were a kid and you got bored on weekends, how you would go to a large building, a hotel or a hospital, then wander around for several hours looking for a certain room? While zombies attacked you? Neither do we. That's because, much to the surprise of FPS game makers everywhere, wandering around lost in hallways isn't fun.

He’s here!

2005-05-17T05:15:54Z

2005.05.16 @ 17:04. 8lbs 5oz, 21". Name TBD.

More pics at the regular spot.

Update!

He has a name: Fletcher Calhoun Emmott.

Tick Tock!

2005-05-16T11:03:24Z

Erin gets ready for the birth of our second child.

New Patio and Wall

2005-05-11T18:50:36Z

Choice Masonry did the work - very nicely done.

Cooper and his cars

2005-05-11T17:39:07Z

Running them down the slide has lost some luster. Now the big thing is lining them up all over the new patio...

bash.org

2005-05-05T18:31:21Z

Briefly, bash.org is a site dedicated to posting various humorus snippets from IRC, IM, and probably in-game chats. Some are pointless, some are horribly degrading, and some are absolutely hilarious. Some of my favorites from the past few days:

Updated Pictures

2005-05-05T03:49:17Z

The usual spot. Here's a teaser:

[cars down slide]

More running

2005-04-23T02:37:39Z

Good grief. Took me long enough to go again. Slowed the pace a bit - same distance (a mile and a quarter maybe), eleven minutes "clock-to-clock" - i.e. I look right before I step out the door, run, have a cool down section, and walk inside and look again. Last time was 9 minutes I think, and I was HURTING. Not so bad now, but we'll se tomorrow. This time I just really need to get back out there sooner.

Pills

2005-04-14T05:19:46Z

Kind of distressing this evening. Looked down and realized I was taking a regular drugstore's worth of pills - two ibuprofen (which is less than I often take), one multivitamin (this new one has ginko and ginseng!), one claritin generic (antihistamine), and one sudafed twelve hour (decongestant). Fuckin' hate allergies.

Pain

2005-04-14T05:16:52Z

Started running on Sunday. Yesterday (Tuesday) I was still in pain, and today I got an allergy attack - should have run though. The main part being I need to establish a routine. I'd like to get to 3 times a week, and then start increasing length of time and/or distance...

More Home Network Overload

2005-04-14T05:13:28Z

OK, so the new plan:

Cardhu the Mac mini as the web server, maybe running off an external firewire drive (probably the 160 GB) for size plus longevity (?).

Oban the 1 Ghz Athlon with FreeBSD 5.X as fileserver with 2 200 GB drives in software RAID-0 (gvinum).

Springbank the old fileserver goes away/becomes new testbed.

Knockando the 867 Mhz PB 12" becomes dev/Mac testing/used more as a laptop.

New mac mini gets ordered when it would come with Tiger, used with the Dell FP2005W (need a name!).

Cosmo the Celeron 466 desktop becomes solely for Erin's work and a 2nd browser.

bus ride

2005-04-05T22:11:04Z

Finally, spring is here!

Changes

2005-03-30T17:54:41Z

Going to be trying some things with styles, etc... Things may be changing at any moment. For now I'm leaving it on this (Hiperminimalist) quite plain theme.

Update: This (Pool) might be a good one to keep for a bit.

Hope’s birthday

2005-03-23T21:43:31Z

Crazy cake effect!

Hip Cat

2005-03-14T19:08:38Z

Cooper chills out before a trip to Nana and Babo's.

Cooper’s Playset

2005-03-09T01:31:21Z

He LOVES this. So much fun. He had us bring chairs to the platform underneath and we sit under there and watch the world.

almost gone

2005-03-03T17:51:52Z

Last vestiges of the old dc convention center...

Tankless Water Heater

2005-02-27T04:53:11Z

This thing is awesome.

Yum

2005-02-20T00:41:41Z

Cooper thought his cupcakes were pretty tasty.

Happy Birthday Cooper

2005-02-19T23:59:40Z

Birthday cupcakes.

Whites

2005-02-19T16:30:13Z

Whites for Cooper's party.

Reds

2005-02-19T16:26:35Z

Reds for Cooper's party.

Worried Max

2005-02-19T06:33:02Z

I would be too if I knew Cooper's 2 year birthday party was coming up this weekend, and the family was going to descend upon our house and wreak havoc...

The In-au-gur… Daddy Getting Sworn In.

2005-01-20T20:24:16Z

In honor of the "events of the day", here are some of the choicer bits from the past week or so from Wonkette:

Wonkette - W's iPod Playlist
George Bush Believes in God, Film at Eleven
Wonkette Answers: Inaugural Ball Names
Welcome to the Greatest FCC in the World
Inaugural Speech and Parade Drinking Game

And the inauguration coverage itself:
Live-Blogging the Coronation

Wiki Spam

2005-01-18T21:59:35Z

Fucking A. WIKI SPAM???!! Spammers are the abhorrent scum of the earth. Some dickhead from a .ru domain puts all sorts of links in my personal wiki, in some cases even overwriting what was there. Luckily, (1) my wiki has a rollback function so I can go back to the previous version - though I need to see if I can kill it out of the rollback history... (2) the idiot made the change to the "home page" of the wiki, so I noticed it RIGHT away, and (3) my wiki has edit security (I'm sure not high strength, but whatever) so once I rolled back, I could at least lock down the whole thing so it shouldn't happen again.

Maybe I'll post the IP that made the changes...

Construction in DC

2005-01-13T19:34:48Z

I love the ever-present Komatsu Excavator. With all the building/demo around here, they're everywhere. Also Hitachis. We had one work next to us when we lived in Cambridge, too. That bucket is a lot bigger than you think.

afp:// vs. smb://

2005-01-08T00:11:16Z

I managed to get Appletalk (well, technically, Localtalk) working on my FreeBSD-based fileserver, but I still haven't managed to work out the permissions, on the Linux webserver (running clarkconnect). So I'm "regularly" mounting both afp shares (music and software archives - I keep the iPhoto pics on the local drive) and smb shares (the sites dir), and have noticed some things.

AFP is much more tolerant of interruptions or transitions in network service. Both when resuming from sleep and the switch from Airport to Ethernet (or vice versa), the afp shares stay alive. The smb share, however, never fails to, well, fail. And then, boom, up comes the "The server you were connected to is no longer available..." message. Much nicer.

Heirarchy the right way

2005-01-07T18:18:27Z

Great idea about the direction of the heirachy of the web in URLs. This would so totally work with the REST-ish nature of flickr, del.icio.us, etc... The idea is, why do sites go right to left (www.emmott.net) when the rest of the site then goes left to right (/2005/01/07/heirarchy-the-right-way)?

Russell Beattie Notebook - World Wide Directory

Great Hackers

2005-01-06T03:58:35Z

Great Hackers - Nice essay on programming and hackers, etc.

Disaster

2004-12-30T05:27:21Z

I'm still a little too in shock to really voice my thoughts on the earthquake/tsunami. You can donate here: Amazon Honor System.

Amazon, Apple, many sites have changed their home page to reflect/provide links to resources and donation areas...

Some crazy pictures: waveofdestruction.org
A lkot of info: Wikipedia entry

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T06:44:52Z

Presents are wrapped and under the tree, Erin and Cooper are sleeping, Santa seems to have come and taken a bite out of some cookies - boy it's nice to spend the holiday at our own house.

Everyone have a happy holiday and here's hoping 2005 brings joy to your life.

Looking for Cannonballs

2004-12-22T20:04:39Z

The System of the World (p. 159) strikes again:

"That is the problem, Dappa: each [letter] refers to a different [story]. It seems that if you put enough stories out before the public, many a reader will find one that speaks to him. But there is no telling which."

"What we've been doing, then, is a bit like firing grapeshot," Dappa mused. "Chances are that a ball will strike home—but there's no telling which—so, best fire a lot of 'em."

"And grapeshot is a useful tactic sometimes," Eliza said, "but it never sank a ship, did it?"

"No, my lady, grapeshot can never do that."

"I say we have now fired enough grapeshot. It has had all the effect it is ever going to have. What we need now, Dappa, is a cannonball."

(emphasis mine)

Person of the Year?

2004-12-21T16:01:57Z

Ruminate spies a common thread among the "Person(s) of the Year" - Time does have a nice track record.

“Yet people fall in love.”

2004-12-20T19:40:38Z

A quote a day (something about the doctor staying away...) This one also from The System of the World (pp. 153-154).

"You are saying," Dappa said, "that we make connections with other souls, despite the sameness—"

"There is no sameness. If you looked down upon the world from above, like an albatross, you might phant'sy there was some sameness among the people crowding the land below you. But we are not albatrosses, we see the world from ground level, from within our own bodies, through our own eyes, each with our own frame of reference, which changes as we move about, and as others move about with us. This sameness is a conceit of yours, an author's hobgoblin, something you fret about in your hammock late at night."

<ding> — got your telegram, Mr. Stephenson.

The Cubes™

2004-12-18T05:46:01Z

The Cubes™ - a must have for Christmas, don't you think?

More Baroque Cycle Goodness

2004-12-09T20:58:14Z

Neal Stephenson speaks my language. This one is from The System of the World (hardcover, p.16).

He guessed that people who had lived right and arranged things properly must have it all rigged so that all their quests ran in parallel, and reinforced and supported one another just so. They gained reputations as conjurors. Others found their errands running at cross purposes and were never able to do anything; they ended up seeming mad, or else perceived the futility of what they were doing and gave up, or turned to drink.

I bet the guys at 43folders would like that.

Woodlawn Manor

2004-12-07T19:03:56Z

For only $1.3 Mil, you too can own one of the houses of Woodlawn Manor. They tore down a house that sold for a million to put two of these on the lot. Richly appointed indeed.

It's taking place around the block on 16th Street - we can see some of the construction from our bedroom window. I'll try and post some shots when things get interesting.

Del.icio.us Interview

2004-12-06T04:39:44Z

A bunch of interesting stuff about del.icio.us, with a great quote about UI design: Rands In Repose: A Del.icio.us Interview

How do you approach user interface design?
Lots and lots of iterations until something feels right. Avoiding features until the interface for them is apparent. Seeing how users use the existing features to do things I didn't expect, and then making those things easier.

Freaky Body Behavior

2004-12-01T15:24:01Z

Try this one out (found here):

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.

Media Library

2004-12-01T03:20:40Z

I got Delicious Monster working, and the Delicious Exporter. If you wish, feel free to peruse the library.

The Urban Archipelago

2004-11-17T15:00:40Z

/aka/ The United Cities of America:

The Stranger Cover Page (11/11/04)
The Urban Archipelago, It's the Cities, Stupid. An article by the editors of The Stranger (11/11/04)

Winning, Maps, and More

2004-11-04T19:49:32Z

So it turns out that maybe Kerry won anyway...

Or perhaps no-one really won.

I'd really like to see a map done that way on a county scale.

Update: and of course someone had made one! Color gradation on a county scale.

Let's keep going: the 18-30 vote (scroll down below the "fold").

One More Update: OK, here's the best summary of all this: Election result maps (even wallpaper sized versions...)

The Canadian Way

2004-11-04T05:54:54Z

A collection of responses to the election, in the nice succinct manner that graphics can provide:

Early Tuesday versus Wednesday
Redistrict this
Jesusland - a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.
A good accent helps you blend in.
Mini Willinois

Um, Separation of Church and State?

2004-11-04T00:59:09Z

I posted this on Erik's site as a comment response to his question about the bans on gay marriage.

It's been already said, but I guess you are saying my marriage to my wife isn't valid because neither of us believe in God. How we feel about each other would hopefully change your mind in that regard. We weren't married by anyone religious, nor anyone licensed by the court for that matter. In fact, we were married in your new home state, (and my old one) Pennsylvania. We paid ten dollars more for the license, and had to have two witnesses sign instead of one officiant. It was colloquially called a "Quaker" license by the person at city hall.

You might look up some time what the Quakers think about marriage. To them, it isn't important to obtain God's approval of the marriage - instead, what matters is (in addition to how you feel about other, obviously) acceptance by friends and community.

Acceptance of my marriage by your church or faith means nothing to me, whereas acceptance of my marriage by my friends, family, and community does... and acceptance by the government, for the legal and economic reasons.

On the other hand, for a gay couple that did believe in God, it would be important to them for their Church to recognize it. And I have no problem with that Church deciding that their marriage would not be valid, although I'm sure the couple would be distraught.

But the government should not have anything to do with it. The benefits, protections, etc. that the government provides are intended for people who have declared that they wish to be bound by the responsibilites and commitments that come with it. It really should just be that simple.

North Virginia

2004-11-03T13:47:47Z

Halley says what I've been thinking the past four years: Halley's Comment: The Not So United States. While we're at it, lets split Virginia into North and South. Or maybe East/West? Let Richmond and the Tidewater come too?

All I know, is I'm embarassed and scared.

I Voted

2004-11-02T20:20:08Z

I voted. This morning. Took Erin and I almost two hours waiting in line - good thing we had pastries from Heidelberg. We did have Cooper with us though - he got a little crazy by the end.

Real Nice

2004-10-28T03:59:35Z

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Get Out. And you wonder why people think you're a fool (Quicktime).

GeorgeWBush.org letters

2004-10-26T02:40:36Z

GeorgeWBush.org is posting all the email they received to [something]@georgewbush.com: DEAD LETTER OFFICE

From: jschmidt@schmidtpa.com [mailto:jschmidt@schmidtpa.com]
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 10:30 AM
To: mmatalin@georgewbush.org
Subject: FW: Response to Kerry's Stem Cell Attack

something needs to be done about this (below). can't we say something intelligent?

If you couldn't for four years, why could you say something intelligent now?

Kerry’s the One

2004-10-26T01:57:08Z

Kerry’s the One - American Conservative Magazine comes out for Kerry.

George W. Bush has come to embody a politics that is antithetical to almost any kind of thoughtful conservatism.

I might even say antithetical to almost any kind of thought...

Random Image Header

2004-10-25T18:08:02Z

WordPress FAQ - Todo: "How do I rotate/cycle/randomize the image in the header of the weblog?"

Matt’s Asides

2004-10-25T15:58:10Z

Matt's Asides - consise description of how to make the asides (what I call tidbits) work

World of Ends

2004-10-22T19:54:13Z

World of Ends - defining this internet thing a little more aptly...

Open Letter to President

2004-10-18T19:38:54Z

Open Letter to President - It's the Economy, Stupid.

Two Summer Whites

2004-10-17T14:37:39Z

Found two corks I'd been meaning to write about. Both very nice, medium bodied whites, a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc. Both reasonably priced, too.

2002 Kennedy Point Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. From a vineyard on Waiheke Island.

2002 Kunde Estate Chardonnay - they even ship to VA!

Atheists Are People, Too

2004-10-14T19:18:24Z

Atheists Are People, Too - well said.

Nice Titles

2004-10-13T20:11:47Z

Nice titles on various links are due to this, mimicing here.

Try rolling over the link to Arlington on the right by the weather icon.

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

2004-10-13T17:45:55Z

Best. Game. Line. Ever.

Infocom Downloads
Zork I Walkthrough
Zork Maps

Running in Fear

2004-10-12T18:42:45Z

I'm sick of it. Evidently, all of us Americans should be quaking in our boots, trembling with anticipation, chomping at the bit to vote for these people.

I have three words for them: Please Leave Now.

Not this January when you get voted out. Now.

Who I Work For

2004-10-12T16:36:47Z

Well, I work for SRA. But I'm currently working for them on site at PBGC. The Post has a good article about the troubles they're facing.

But what am I doing? My title is System Architect, which doesn't mean much. Currently, we're implementing and extending/developing apps for a portal for their intranet, using Plumtree, and redoing their public internat site using a CMS, Percussion Rhythmyx.

Kubrick

2004-10-12T16:19:39Z

Just switched over base layout to Michael's Kubrick. I want to use this as the base for a cleaner, less frivolous design.

Many Questions We Need To Ask

2004-10-09T04:19:02Z

Design for Web 2.0 (kottke.org) - kottke, veen, and others asking themselves vital questions...

More gems from Quicksilver

2004-10-08T14:28:36Z

Another nice line from Neal Stephenson's book (emphasis mine):

"I am certain that in the fullness of time, the opinion I have just voiced will be wide spread among learned persons," Daniel said. "This may not however elevate your stature during the years you have remaining; for fame's a weed, but repute is a slow-growing oak, and all we can do during our lifetimes is hop around like squirrels and plant acorns."

del.icio.us down?

2004-10-08T13:57:07Z

As of right now, del.icio.us seems to be down... Whatever will we do?

Whew! Back up. Quite a scare.

Political Compass

2004-09-27T19:50:06Z

Political Compass
- take the test, map yourself (probably more interesting than a Briggs-Meyers). I'm a -3.5, -5.69.

Open Park

2004-09-27T17:17:14Z

Open Park - wifi internet access on the national Mall

Serious and Competent

2004-09-27T00:49:09Z

Truer words were never spoken - from Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver (p. 407):

"...It may seem hard for you to believe, but mark my word—whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window."

It might be his character Jack Shaftoe speaking, but that sure is telegraphed directly to the reader...

POSTAL LABELS AGAINS BUSH

2004-09-24T01:19:47Z

POSTAL LABELS AGAINST BUSH - such a beautiful hack... modified labels saying USPS doesn't recognize Bush's Presidency reinserted in the supplies for "general use".

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

2004-09-22T14:04:57Z

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Best High School Computer Room Time Waster Evar - and now in Flash

Site Changes

2004-09-21T05:22:58Z

Just quickly - the web and database now lives on cardhu, the FreeBSD box, along with qmail and Courier - no longer on oban, the Win2k box. As part of this whole hullaballoo, I moved to php5, and new versions of SquirrelMail and Gallery (drawn from ports - that and cvsup make FreeBSD ROCK.)

The net net for most people - both the regular gallery and the friends gallery are on new versions, with new "skins"...

I Found Some Of Your Life

2004-09-20T05:15:59Z

I Found Some Of Your Life - a memory card found in a taxi being posted daily to the world. [Update: since removed]

New Pictures

2004-09-17T18:31:00Z

Some new pictures are up, in the usual place (email me at gmail or elsewhere to get the location).

Included in this round are shots from the Orchard Family Reunion (which resulted in Cooper's first flight) through our recent trip to Hiltonhead.

Speaking of Gmail, I have a few invites left. If anybody wants one, post a link to my site on your own blog, and let me know about it...

Beautiful Aerial Shots

2004-09-17T18:02:20Z

Some incredibly gorgeous aerial photos.

George Orwell - Politics and the English Language

2004-09-16T16:31:45Z

From George Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Must strive to meet these rules:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

m0n0wall 1.1 released

2004-08-26T19:25:17Z

m0n0wall 1.1 was released very recently. From their site:

m0n0wall is a project aimed at creating a complete, embedded firewall software package...

Among the things I'm jazzed about:

magic shaper wizard for the traffic shaper
SVG-based traffic grapher

Get it now...

Rails

2004-08-19T15:16:37Z

Rails - Ruby on Rails: an amazing app framework built in Ruby. I followed the steps in the intro video - mindblowing.

What is RSS: A tutorial introduction to feeds and aggregators

2004-08-19T15:13:42Z

What is RSS: A tutorial introduction to feeds and aggregators - Beautiful... anybody needs a brief intro to RSS, go no further.

Winnebago Man

2004-08-13T14:48:23Z

Winnebago Man - this poor guy filming some Winnebago trade videos. That must have been a fun day...

RNC Craziness

2004-08-11T19:21:44Z

So with all this security buildup around NYC for the RNC, they are starting to do lots of searches, etc…

This guy got searched boarding a ferry and told that his BOOK (a role-playing - a la D&D - sourcebook) had to be confiscated.

We live in a f'ed up world.

Basecamp

2004-08-10T17:50:03Z

Basecamp - Project Management, Project Tracking Tool, Online, Web-based Hosted, Idea Management, Client Extranet, Project Site System, ASP (simple, elegant, powerful, fast, and usable)

WP-Wiki 1.0 released

2004-08-08T03:08:09Z

WP-Wiki 1.0 released - auto find WP entries with an existing camelcase link, and auto start a new post with a new one

GoboLinux

2004-08-08T03:06:34Z

GoboLinux - the alternative Linux distribution - totally different file heirarchy and programs as dirs.

Rox

2004-08-08T03:05:16Z

Rox - a file manager and filer - true drag and drop, no start menus or wizards...

When I Grow Up…

2004-08-05T17:35:46Z

I don't remember where I found this, but it does capture the feeling I always have looking at any survey with demographic information. Unless it's for a trade magazine, they never have what I really do.

growup
Originally uploaded by skvngrx.

Doom III

2004-08-05T03:52:54Z

Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade?

Crazy gaming madness. As Quake III was the core engine for many follow-on games, so should be Doom III. [H]ard|OCP has a hardware review about what supports what - low-end stuff does surprisingly well:

id Software's DOOM 3 is poised to be one of the most played titles in the history of 3D gaming. Anticipation has grown to monumental levels as hundreds of thousands of people worldwide wait to experience the phenomenon called DOOM 3. Along with the anticipation, many are experiencing apprehension over the level of gameplay they expect from their current hardware. Still others, using this occasion to mull over an upgrade, have been waiting to discover which of their many hardware choices will provide them with the best DOOM 3 experience.

Health Check

2004-08-04T16:05:35Z

Always a little funny when you get a glimpse at your vitals. My company employs several nurses as full-time staff, and regularly runs things like "Get-Fit" programs. So they came by the office to measure blood pressure, etc. for everybody who was taking part.

When they were done, they offered to measure the blood pressure of anyone else in the office who might want it - "Oh sure," we said. Not too bad - 110/65.

As I said to Bill, my standard routine is paying off. Hah. It would best be described as "everything in moderation".

The Apple Product Cycle

2004-07-28T20:08:17Z

The Apple Product Cycle - Beautiful and so true. You try following the crap that swirls around every Apple rumor.

Beliefs

2004-07-27T12:18:59Z

I don't really want to get into a big thing about this, just to post some links that capture in some way how I feel.

Secular Humanism

A Declaration

Thanks to Michael for linking to the first of those.

Binary Bonsai - Blog Archive - Stomped on Kubrick

2004-07-27T11:57:12Z

Binary Bonsai comments - Joen writes a great comment on Michael's site about what the default of Wordpress should be.

Todo: a running list

2004-07-25T12:01:53Z

Just for the blog and other emmott.net stuff.

- Add a webform contact page.
- Upgrade to WordPress 1.3 and related Kubrick (please Michael?!) theme...

humanclock.com

2004-07-24T17:36:54Z

humanclock.com - one more reason we have the internet .

Blog Work

2004-07-23T01:11:41Z

Michael is doing some ambitious work on his blog. He's looking at integrating his photos and his gallery (basically his portfolio). iPAP was brought up as an alternative for the photos - I second the recommendation. For a simple CMS, I might look at Mambo. It can handle quite a lot, but I think it can be set up pretty lightweight.

MY experience is certainly with the more "industrial" CMS apps (Interwoven, Vignette, Stellent, Percussion, among others) and similar third party software (Plumtree Portal, etc.), however, I'm always wishing we were dealing with a more flexible, nimble piece of software.

Girls Just Want to Have Trust Funds

2004-07-22T02:21:40Z

Girls Just Want to Have Trust Funds the wonkish one goes OFF on "the scene" on the hill.

Steaks: The Ribeye

2004-07-22T02:09:07Z

Erik asks about steak. This is an easy one. The Ribeye. Flavorful, marbled, a great cut. I like it done simply, I like it with strong sauces or marinades. It usually has enough character to stand on its own - even with something like a Blackened Cajun treatment, the meat itself comes from.

This leads into another question, and the answer is: Ray's the Steaks, in Arlington. My favorite steakhouse due to its simplicity and focus on the food. He uses a fairly lean Hereford, and butchers on site. Just excellent.

coolgadgets > treo 600 | The Perfect All-In-One Phone, PDA, MP3 Player, Portable Movie Player, Digtal Camera, Portable Game Player : Treo 600: How to leave your laptop behind

2004-07-21T19:50:18Z

coolgadgets > treo 600 | The Perfect All-In-One Phone, PDA, MP3 Player, Portable Movie Player, Digtal Camera, Portable Game Player : Treo 600: How to leave your laptop behind

Bottle Cap Tripod (my pepsi bottle has five feet so I suppose it’s a pentapod…)

2004-07-21T19:40:54Z

Bottle Cap Tripod homebrew camera stand

google_circa_1960.jpg (JPEG Image, 726×557 pixels)

2004-07-21T19:37:43Z

google_circa_1960.jpg (JPEG Image, 726x557 pixels) google - always the standard

J-Walk Blog

2004-07-21T19:25:25Z

J-Walk Blog Animated GIF masterpiece

Bottle Cap Tripod for Digital Camera from Japan

2004-07-20T19:17:38Z

Bottle Cap Tripod for Digital Camera from Japan In a pinch for a tripod? Steady that digi-cam with this.

Picasa: Automated Digital Photo Organizer software, instant photo albums, sharing & printing: Download

2004-07-20T14:08:24Z

Picasa: Automated Digital Photo Organizer software, instant photo albums, sharing & printing: Download Like iPhoto for the PC.

American Segue :: America at 10 MPH

2004-07-14T17:06:11Z

American Segue :: America at 10 MPH this should result in a very cool log of the experience.

redemption in a blog: RSS feed integration in Firefox

2004-07-14T16:51:22Z

redemption in a blog: RSS feed integration in Firefox. I already think Firefox is the way to go on Win32. This looks like it might be a great way to deal with the hyper-prolific sites, though...

What Should I Do If The Internet Goes Down?

2004-07-14T16:31:54Z

What Should I Do If The Internet Goes Down?
A mind-shattering question indeed.

flickr

2004-07-14T14:13:26Z

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

Everything I Learned at MIT

2004-07-13T15:46:08Z

Everything I Learned at MIT - a guy scanned all of his notes...

About Me

2004-07-08T04:13:10Z

(Note, this is a super old version of my about page...)

So who the heck am I...

The Skinny

I am currently a "Systems Architect" (an excellent could-be-anything title) working at SRA, a mid-size government contractor. I'm married to Erin, with a son, Cooper, and a dog, Max. We live in Arlington, VA, USA.

As of this writing, I'm 29 years old.

Colophon

This site is hosted by the excellent TextDrive. It utilizes a CMS called WordPress and a variety of plug-ins. There is a forum built with PunBB, a wiki living in PmWiki, and a photo section that I'm still evaluating tools for. I have used Gallery, which should have a version 2 soon, but I also like iPAP.

This is a personal site. Meaning everything here is my own and shouldn't be taken as the views of anyone else.

How to enter the iTunes contest for free

2004-07-08T04:04:33Z

The Other Way to enter in the iTunes contest.

Arlington County Map Viewer

2004-07-07T23:14:37Z

Arlington County Map Viewer amazing amount of data about Arlington

WordPress Wiki - Photo Matt/Well Designed

2004-07-07T19:34:48Z

WordPress Wiki - Photo Matt/Well Designed Matt's list of nice WP Blogs

Photo Matt - On Asides

2004-07-07T19:33:36Z

Photo Matt - On Asides Matt makes possible these Quicklinks...

The Three H’s

2004-07-07T18:17:30Z

The DC area is absolutely disgusting today. A trip outside for lunch to California Tortilla provided a perfect example of the three H's - Hazy, Hot, and Humid.

A good ole' meme entry - Movies!

2004-07-02T03:28:11Z

via liz:

Bold the ones you’ve seen, and add three to the end. (My thought is that this gets REALLY tough after a while to add things to.)

01. Trainspotting
02. Shrek
03. M
04. Dogma
05. Strictly Ballroom
06. The Princess Bride
07. Love Actually
08. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings
09. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
11. Reservoir Dogs
12. Desperado
13. Swordfish
14. Kill Bill Vol. 1
15. Donnie Darko
16. Spirited Away
17. Better Than Sex
18. Sleepy Hollow
19. Pirates of the Caribbean
20. The Eye
21. Requiem for a Dream
22. Dawn of the Dead The original.
23. The Pillow Book
24. The Italian Job
25. The Goonies
26. Baseketball
27. The Spice Girls Movie (Spice World)
28. Army of Darkness
29. The Color Purple
30. The Safety of Objects
31. Can’t Hardly Wait
32. Mystic Pizza
33. Finding Nemo
34. Monsters Inc.
35. Circle of Friends
36. Mary Poppins
37. The Bourne Identity (both!)
38. Forrest Gump
39. A Clockwork Orange
40. Kindergarten Cop
41. On The Line
42. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
43. Final Destination
44. Sorority Boys
45. Urban Legend
46. Cheaper by the Dozen The original.
47. Fierce Creatures
48. Dude, Where’s My Car
49. Ladyhawke
50. Ghostbusters
51. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
52. Back to the Future
53. An Affair To Remember
54. Somewhere In Time
55. North By Northwest
56. Moulin Rouge
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
58. The Wizard of Oz
59. Zoolander
60. A Walk to Remember
61. Chicago
62. Vanilla Sky
63. The Sweetest Thing
64. Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead
65. The Nightmare Before Christmas
66. Chasing Amy
67. Edward Scissorhands
68. Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert
69. Muriel’s Wedding
70. Croupier
71. Blade Runner
72. Cruel Intentions
73. Ocean’s Eleven
74. Magnolia
75. Fight Club
76. Beauty and The Beast
77. Much Ado About Nothing
78. Dirty Dancing
79. Gladiator
80. Ever After
81. Braveheart
82. What Lies Beneath
83. Regarding Henry
84. The Dark Crystal
85. Star Wars
86. The Birds
87. Beaches
88. Cujo
89. Maid In Manhattan
90. Labyrinth
91. Thoroughly Modern Millie
92. His Girl Friday
93. Chocolat
94. Independence Day
95. Singing in the Rain
96. Big Fish
97. The Thomas Crown Affair
98. The Matrix
99. Stargate
100. A Hard Day’s Night
101. About A Boy
102. Jurassic Park
103. Life of Brian
104. Dune
105. Help!
106. Grease
107. Newsies
108. Gone With The Wind
109. School of Rock
110. TOMMY
111. Yellow Submarine
112. From Hell
113. Benny & Joon
114. Amelie
115. Bridget Jones’ Diary
116. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
117. Heavenly Creatures
118. All About Eve
119. The Outsiders
120. Airplane!
121. The Sorcerer
122. The Crying Game
123. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
124. Slap Her, She’s French
125. Amadeus
126. Tommy Boy
127. Aladdin
128. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
129. Snatch
130. American History X
131. Jack and Sarah
132. Monkey Bone
133. Rocky Horror Picture Show
134. Kate and Leopold
135. Interview with the Vampire
136. Underworld
137. Truly, Madly, Deeply
138. Tank Girl
139. Boondock Saints
140. Blow Dry
141. Titanic
142. Good Morning Vietnam
143. Save the Last Dance
144. Lost in Translation
145. Willow
146. Legend
147. Van Helsing
148. Troy
149. Nine Girls and a Ghost
150. A Knight’s Tale
151. Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
152. Beetlejuice
153. E.T.
154. Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone
155. Spaceballs
156. Young Frankenstein
157. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
158. American President
159. Bad Boys
160. Pecker
161. Pink Floyd: The Wall
161. X-Men
162. Sidewalks of New York
163. The Children of Dune
164. Beyond Borders
165. Life Is Beautiful
166. Good Will Hunting
167. Run Lola Run
168. Blazing saddles
169. Caligula
170. The Transporter
171. Better Off Dead
172. The Abyss
173. Almost Famous
174. The Red Violin
175. Contact
176. Stand and Deliver
177. Clueless
178. William Shakespeare’s Romeo+Juliet
179. Dangerous Laisions
180. I Am Sam
181. The Usual Suspects
182. U-571
183. Capricorn One
184. The Little Shop of Horrors (the one with Jack Nicholson)
185. Die Hard
186. The Flamingo Kid
187. Night of the Comet
188. Point Break
189. Chatterbox
190. Secretary
191. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
192. American Beauty
193. Pulp Fiction
194. What About Bob
195. Roger and Me
196. Fahrenheit 9/11
197. Bowling for Columbine
198. The Professional (aka Leon)
199. The Fifth Element
200. La Femme Nikita
201. Heathers
202. Bull Durham
203. The Scorpion King
204. Life as a House
205. Planet of the Apes
206. Napolean Dynamite

Getting the hang of it

2004-06-23T01:49:30Z

So administering wordpress is no difficult task, but I'm glad I finally took the time to get moved to it (especially this new version). Next up is to change the css/layout, and maybe mess around with plugins such as Alex King's WP-Photo (when he converts it to 1.2).

(note: technically, I'm moving BACK to wordpress, since I used b2 "back-in-the-day" and set up some wp .72 era sites...)

2941

2004-06-22T02:36:04Z

2941 is a very cool new place in Falls Church, just inside the beltway - great atmosphere, great food, great service.

Wow.

2004-06-21T19:12:42Z

WordPress 1.2 rocks. That's pretty much all there is to say.