Totally True

Hey Girl

I love you Anya Sage.

Who knew editing MSIs could be so much fun!

One of the joys of my job is getting crazy funky software to work.  Recently to get some software to work, I needed to modify the MSI package so when it was pushed out to the domain, it would apply all the required settings.

This has given me the pleasure of using the free MSI editor from Microsoft, aptly named ORCA.  It really does feel like I'm attempting to interface with a killer whale...and the Program Icon reflects that as well!!

Strangely, I kind of enjoy it...it feels like I'm editing a file in Windows 3.11.

Holy Retirement!

I'm a bit of a Vikings Football fan...and I was not that pleased with the prospect of bringing Favre this season.  I was mostly concerned with his age, and after watching the way he played with the Jets last year, I was preparing myself for a pretty bad football season (my other Team is the Bills...Let's not go there..)

But I got to admit, ever since he arrived in Training camp, he has been a class act.  No temper tantrums that I have noticed, and he has been playing like a real assassin!  He does have a good O-Line protecting him though...

Pump Man Found!

Well, the Well pump man was found!  He came in, and about 30 minutes later, water was flowing again!

Looking back on it, I feel bad for our Landlord.  Each time I called her (four times total) for status updates/whatnot, it sounded like she was on the verge of breaking down, or had just completed a breakdown.

...Then again, I was without running water...a basic necessity of life.  If I had reacted as I did (not letting up until I had an answer that was workable) over...I dunno...a dent in the fridge or a loose door frame I would think I was overreacting.

I think Over think things too much and I should get back to talking about gadgets...

Our current apartment...

Is in an old house...and it appears to be falling apart.

The Well pump just went out....this was after the basement flooded because the drain in the basement was plugged....so now we have no water and the landlord is getting a hold of the "pump guy real quick."

I'd like to have faith in my landlords...but considering every project they have done to the place hasn't been finished...I'm worried that i won't have water anytime soon.

unfortunately, I haven't documented my on again off again love affair with our place...so I'll have to leave it at:

I don't have water right now....

I blame...stress?

So I almost bought a DROID today...

I came to my senses before placing the OVER $500 order...

I then thought buying a Storm2 was a stellar idea...

Thankfully I came to my senses again before placing the ALMSOT $500 order...

I think work and Baby Peterson 1.0's imminent arrival are to blame...

But still...I haven't compulsorily bought anything that expensive since...1997!

I think it is time to unplug for the night....Before I buy something really cool and REALLY expensive.

3g VZW femtocell?

This could be interesting...

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/samsungs-ubicell-cdma-base-station-going-3g-in-2010/

The one thing that really irks me about my current is that it doesn't have 3g...but since CDMA doesn't use EVDO for voice I wasn't too concerned...until I got my Storm...and I would LOVE To have this since I don't have wi-fi.  Then I can be lazy on the couch and still check a quick site or two!

Converted!

I am known at work as the gadget guy.  I'm the one that everyone turns to when they want to know what's new in the smartphone world.

Recetly one of the guys was looking to replace his palm TX and Verizon Dumb Feature phone.  I talked with him and he narrowed it down to the Storm2 and the Droid...

I pushed him towards the DROID...and now I feel bad.  Although, it really came down to The droid will talk to the exchange service directly, while the Storm will require either hooking up to the BES or using NotifyLink: the two supported options in our workplace.  I think he'll like the physical keyboard...I hope :)

App development….

I think I want to get into app development for smartphones…but I am not sure where to begin.

 

And by begin, I mean which platform?  I have a blackBerry, but I am very curious about android…

I think I’ll start with BlackBerry and go from there..I mean I can test apps on my BB for now.

Played with the DROID

So I got a chance to get down to the local Verizon store to play with the Motorola DROID.  First impressions follow!

Skunks

In the morning I like to go running.  It is good exercise and I’d otherwise just sit around waiting to go to work drinking coffee…at least I can justify it after my run.

With the approaching season of Winter, it makes running very interesting. The air gets colder, it takes longer for it to be lighter, and Animals start acting crazy.

Baby Gadgets?

Many you probably know, but I am expecting my first child in just under a month!  I thought I would put out a question to everyone:  What are some good/useful baby tech gadgets?  I know it is a bit soon to get little bean her first Smartphone (needs to be at least 6 months old I think :) ), but are there any worthwhile baby gadgets?

Anyone have a suggestion to help keep family that is far away updated on baby's status?  I plan to publish updates to this blog an also update my flickr stream, but I just want to make sure that I'm taking myself out of the lack of baby updates equation.

Holiday Brew!

So I like to brew beer.  I'm not quite to the total grain "I make my own Extract" type of brewing but I hope to get to that point when I have the space.  My latest Brew was a holiday themed brew that had potential for disater.  Did it?  Read on to find out if it is all Silver Bells and Dumplings or if I ended up with Coal Beer

Same phone, yet different abilities?

I'm going to rant a bit about phones in the US vs. Their world counter parts.  You have been warned.

What I want in a phone

It's getting down to the holiday shopping season again.  This means that the Cell phone carriers are putting out their holiday deals and newest devices.  While I think the smart phone industry has come a long way in the past three or four years, I always feel like I'm see-sawing between what parts of my phone are great, and what parts aren't

This post will serve a reminder to me about the type of Phones I have had and what I did not like about them, and what I wished as different.  Hopefully I'll remember this and not get blinded by all the shiny things.

Because I have to...

This is a pretty good review, and hits a lot of the points I was curious about...mostly the keyboard.

Maybe the DROID isn't the phone for me...but it is closer...DROID 2 for me?

Engadget takes on the DROID

Storm 9530 with OS 5.0.0.328…my take

I’ve posted recently about how the Motorola DROID might cause me to break up with my BlackBerry Storm 9530. I wrote that BEFORE I first installed leaked 5.0.0.323 and then installed the Official Verizon 5.0.0.328. To sum up, I re-like my Storm…mostly.

Storm Trouble brewing....

I think this phone could cause me to break up with my BlackBerry...

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/10/19/motorola-droid-hands-on/

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700" caption="I think this is MY JesusPhone...."][/caption]

Windows Live Writer?

I think I just found a new tool for blogging!  Windows Live Writer!

 

I first found Wordpress For BlackBerry, which I do like.  My main problem is, that I don’t want to write a long post on my phone.  And then I get into this loop of “Should I post a quick blog, or Tweet about it?”  This usually ends up with me not doing anything…and then being kinda bummed that I’m not getting into writing more, and then I get down on myself for being down.  This goes on like this for a few hours, when my Wife snaps me out of it..or I find something shiny.

 

But now I’ve found Windows Live Writer.  A free tool that lets me compose a Blog post with all the shiny WYSIWYG-ness I have come to love.  The interface is a lot like any word processing program.  You have a toolbar along the top to change font size, bold, underline, center, and to add bullets. 

To the right, I have links to the blogs I have setup (so far just mine), Recently posted items, Drafts, and Several Insert plug-ins.  There is a “Add a plug-in” feature, which connects to the Windows Live Gallery, where you can find more plug-ins, such as add a Polaroid Picture, Flickr picture search, and so on.  The one that jumped out at me is the Twitter notify, which will tweet out your new blog post to all your followers.  I haven’t played with that yet, but I’m guessing it is pretty straight forward.  Plus, I’m not sure I’m ready to start broadcasting my blog posts yet…I’m pretty sure this is still and ALPHA blog.

Along the bottom of the Screen, you have your publishing options.  You can add tags, Preview the post with your current theme, and set a publish date.  I really enjoy the preview, as it can help me get a feel if my post is too long, or needs to be formatted differently.

All in all, the free Windows Live Writer is a great tool for beginning bloggers.  I can begin a post,  start the general outline while I still have it fresh in my head.  I can then add any media/content and preview it before I even open a web browser.  I’m sure as I use it more I’ll find things to gripe about, but for now, I’d give it two thumbs up.

To get HP Protect Tools to Work on Windows 7 on an HP EliteBook 2730p

Grab this Version of Protect Tools Security Manager. Should be version 4.10.9.13.  The one that is listed for the 2730p is version 4.00.11.152 and WILL NOT WORK.

 

Grab The BIOS Configuration for HP Protect Tools.

 

(Note, You don’t really need the BIOS part unless you’re like me and forgot your BIOS Admin Password…I’m awesome like that)

 

And then you should be good to use Protect Tools in Windows 7! 

Thanks to Markus Lentinen for pointing me to the Correct Protect Tools Version.

HP Protect Tools NOT windows 7 ready

I recently installed Windows 7 onto my Elitebook 2730p and stupidly installed the HP Protect Tools on it. I used the vista installer and figured it would be just fine...I was wrong.

It installed, but didn't really work. the Protect Tool Shield showed up, but any time I double clicked the taskbar icon, it just popped up a window and sat there. I thought I would uninstall it...but it just hung there.

I did a little searching around for how to remove it. I even tried safe mode on Win 7...no dice.

I finally just gave up and reinstalled the system. I didn't get too far in, so I figured it wasn't much of a waste.

This will teach me to wait for HP to release Windows 7 compatible Protect Tools

oh storm...

There are times that I love my blackberry storm. I love having push email...I love it. Access to my personal/work calendar is great. Phone call quality is great.

There are also tines that the thing is about two seconds away from being thrown against the wall. Th landscape keyboard is awesome. Portrait is a bit funky at times. (this could also be an issue with my thumbs being too big...but I digress.). I dent have many apps on the thing but it is almost out of space...why can't I save/run apps from my sd card?! Don't get started on the browser...that will be a post all by itself coming soon.

Speaking of apps...where are they? Blackberry world app does not have the breadth when compared to windows mobile or apple...I feel like I need to spend more time searching the web than my winmo/apple counterparts.

Time to learn how to make bb apps.
***UPDATE***
I should point out I wrote that post on my BB Storm While On the bus home...I have an odd relationship with my phones.

Motorola Sholes / Droid live photos : Boy Genius Report

Motorola Sholes / Droid live photos : Boy Genius Report.

I really want an android phone.  Don't get me wrong: I like my blackberry storm...I'm just realizing the limitations.

Which will be a new post!  I'll write it up...soon :)

Playing around

I've been playing around with themes/plugins

The site might be a bit crazy. My Hope is to start Blogging again. But, we'll see...

Updating again

Just updated Blog software AGAIN.

Will this never end?

Baby!

BABY!

Baby Names

Baby Girl Names

Parenting

Freaking house hunting

Trying to find a house is turning out to be a second job.

It all started out happy and care-free: we were dreaming up our perfect house.  A house with enough room for us, the baby and the animals.  Plus, there would be a good size of land (~5 acres) that we could have to plant, have bees, do what we pleased.  It would not in the middle of town, so we wouldn't have neighbors right on top of us.  It was great dream...

Too bad it seems it is only that; a dream.  After going over all of our information We began the search for a home.  Turns out we can't get what we want for what we are willing (and able) to pay.  So we have scaled back our dreams.  Maybe 2 acres would be enough to get done what we want.  That helped bring the price down, but it is sitll on the verge of being too expensive...

We are going to look at one house that is close...if we only had a few more months, than we could probably raise some more capital.  Getting an extra 10-12k would probably put a few more things in our price range.

Also, it seems to be lately that things are about 10% more than i want to spend...

tired

Balloon rally was fun. Tiring but fun. Hope to post the pictures soon. Oscar did very well even with all the people and noise. I was very impressed! Camping this year just might turn out alright...

Lies

Apparently rain IS NOT scheduled today...but was this morning...now to wait for the bus.

staff meetings

Staff meetings make me feel awkward...

not sure how useful this will be...

While this is cool...I am not sure how often I will use this...but still...whheee!

test

Beer Attempt #3

So since our first attempt at beer was a success, I attempted another Beer for This Chirstmas: A holiday porter.  Not super great, but not bad.  Here's a hint: be skimpy with cloves in beer...a little goes a long way.

But that was attempt #2...this post is about 3#!  In an effort to attempt a different brew every time Robyn and I decided to try making a barley wine.  We have both had a very decent barley wine-style ale, and thought "what the heck?"

We had help from our friends Dan and Candace...and I think it'll be alright...
I can say that now after the three days of looking like rust....

Broken Pictures....

So in the hurry of updating the site, I accidently blew away the uploads folder...and made all the pictures not work...

Whoops!

Updated!

I finally updated the site!  Whee!  New Dashboard is nice.