Fort Hood, A Profile of One

I read this article by Steve Chapman, cautioning folks to not denounce the Muslim community because of extremists, and I think it bears repeating. 

America has over 900 hate-based organizations.  One of the major categories includes “Christian-based” hate groups that cause violence at abortion clinics, harass non-white ethnicities, and tell gays and lesbians, “God has a place for you in hell.”  Do we say,”Oh man – those Christians are crazy! Better condem the WHOLE lot of them!!”  No.  If I disagree, I don’t disagree with all of Christianity… I disagree with the organization and its members.

If it is not the act of an organization, then it could just be the person has broken  down.  This, IMHO, is what I think happened in Florida and at Fort Hood.  Don’t bother trying to blame the military, the Muslims, the employer, the high school these guys came from or whatever…  these people just went nuts, and need to be held accountable for their actions.

Every group, every race and every politcal party has individuals who go off the deep end. If there is an organization behind the activity, be my guest to condemn the organization; otherwise be prepared to accept the individual as repsonsible for their actions, and leave the blame where it belongs: on the person who made a poor choice!

Cloud-SaaS-ASP-ness

For those who want more than a blurred definition of “Cloud Computing,” might I suggest a healthy read: 8 myths of cloud computing, by Tarak Modi.  Tarak and I go way back. OK, no we don’t, but I did enjoy the article and for those of you who don’t have time for the whole thing… it’s kinda like this:

WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING? (the short version)
ASP and SaaS offer isolated solutions.  The cloud offers an interconnected pool of solutions.  Virtualization offers resources that are abstracted away from their physical hardware.  The cloud offers processing/storage capability across a massive pool of virtualized resources that can be dynamically scaled up and down as needed to match demand.

CAN THE CLOUD “FIX” MY IT PROBLEMS?
Cloud computing is powerful; however, buying a faster, “greener”, cooler car won’t improve your driving skills.  The Cloud is no more a one-size-fits all solution than anything else so don’t get all “snake oil” happy and dump your IT infrastructure so you can play in “the Clouds” like all the other IT boys and girls.

Paging DataTables? Think Twice.

 

This wasn’t my original opinion until I talked with a team member at work.  Funny how I don’t talk DataTables at the beach or while slogging beers at Medieval Times.  Anyway the problem, I thought, was…writing an efficient mechanism for paging through thousands of potential search results in this application I was working on.

Is paging what your users WANT?

But then, my teammate asks,”Have you ever LIKED paging through thousands of search results?” No. Can’t say that I have… In most cases where I have thousands of results, I would rather:

• Crawl under a rock and drink more beer
• Do a more detailed query to lesson the results
• Sort the results based on certain criteria

Prettymuch ANYTHING but be stuck wondering,”Maybe if I click forward to page 57 it will be closer to the data I am looking for.”  So, the cosmic point here is…if you find yourself investing effort figuring out how to present a large amount of data to your users…maybe the FIRST thing to do is step back and make sure that’s what your users WANT to see. 

Cosmic, huh? Yeah, sometimes that 5 watt bulb burns bright for me.

Thinking About Pre-Paid Legal Services?

The web is the weirdest thing on our planet… I got a message via my YouTube channel from someone who knows my buddy Scott, and he was asking about Pre-Paid Legal Services because he was thinking of joining.  I wrote him back and then thought, maybe this should go on the blog for others who might want an opinion:

Yes, I have been a PrePaid subscriber for years. Yes, they truly were an MLM, although these days you can go directly to PPL and join without going through an associate, I think.

Pros: Unlimited phone consultations with attornies who practice the law pertinent to your issue and are licensed in the area where you need them (for example, if I am in CO and doing a real estate transaction in AZ, PPL will put me in contact with a real estate attorney in AZ).

They will review up to a certain number of pages (5 or 10) of contract verbiage to advise you on it, and they will write certain types of letters on your behalf. These are “metered” per month depending on your plan.

There are other benefits and riders you can “bolt on” to the $26/mo base price. It is month-to-month, and you can scale up or down. At one time we had the “small business” rider, which helped with LLC/S-Corp type questions for our business.

Cons: There really is no con as long as customers understand that no attorney is going to take them on as a client without them shelling additional cash out of pocket! I have no idea if the rates are truly discounted compared to street rates, but my focus is to use PPL as information for “self-help” and as a way to avoid actual litigation.

Overall I am a happy customer, but even if you don’t like it, you will be out I think $10 to sign up and $26 for the first month – that’s a pretty cheap “pilot program” and I think you will find it is pretty legit.

Hope this info prooves useful. My rep/reseller is Diane Glass. I do not resell but if you don’t have anyone to “give credit to” and if they still need a “name” be my guest to use hers.

Purple & Green

Maybe there are some places where it is not easy to be green. Here doesn’t seem to be one.

Theodore Roosevelt Island

 

Path next to my infamous bus stop

  

Ugly Condos - Pretty Trees

 

 

Even the bus I rode was green (At least today)

Spring Bumper Pollination

 I thought I would take a few shots of Spring greenery from the bus stop because I thought the colors were fun, but as I was taken the second shot, I heard a series of sound effects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It went Honkkk! Shhhh! Crack! Shhhh! Crunch! Crackle! Pop! Pop!  That wasn’t breakfast cereal… it was 5 cars stacking up in the turn lane. 

 

 

 

There was so much traffic I couldn’t get a shot, but then I finally got one of the car most “impacted” by the event.  Just then my bus pulled up.

Funky Rosslyn Sculpture

Look, a double-helix

DDO Gumballs

Dungeons & Dragons Online has gumballs. Usually they hover like giant out-of-reach candies.  But, occassionally, if your Royal Guard Mask fails (or if you fall while fighting in the original dragon raid), you can catch one in your clutches!!

My little halfling was wired for months after this episode

Progress…

I just saw the best advertsiement in the May issue of “The Week” magazine.  It is entitled “Progress is Overrated” and it argues about how progress hasn’t done us any favors, so that’s why Post has kept the recipe for Shredded Wheat the same for 117 years. What sealed the deal was the tag line:
“We put the ‘no’ in innovation”

Simply Brilliant!

Ted
“I put the ‘ill’ in brilliant”

Ronald Jenkees, 2007 CD

Mr. Super Fun

I F***ING DID IT! I caved and bought Jenkees’ CD. It’s Matt’s fault for showing me the “56K RAP,” and then when I saw him plop the camera down and launch into some nice live electronica, it was game over.

I won’t lie… I am bummed that his YouTube electronica tracks aren’t on it.

My tastes come from a freak-blend of Trance, Grunge, and who knows what else, so for me the first track, “Derty,” is the war hammer. It crushed everything in its path – even tho I am not a “synth horn” person, the rest of the layers in that track are so wicked, I played it like 19 times in a row. Heck, I skipped logging into DDO to play it 19 times in a row while writing this!

The rest of the CD is cool – just not my style overall. He has a fabulous blend of musical elements, styles, sounds - he’s not scared to try anything and I wouldn’t be surprised if some other tracks grow on me.  The “Rocky Song Remixed” and “Canon in D Remix” definitely breathed a new spin into those melodies.

“Derty” and the infamous “56K RAP” are worth the $10, but you can buy them separate for a $1 each. I would pay another $10 just to have his YouTube jams in higher quality…not even studio grade, just not YouTube grade!