Thursday, July 03, 2008

Great Wolf Lodge – THE BOMB!!!


This last weekend, the family went up to Washington and stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound. This place is totally awesome! Water, Water, and even more Water! There are three areas for the different age groups.. However, that does not mean that the little ones can go down the big slides.. My girls loved the big slides, the big pool and the wave pool. But, they mostly played in the kiddy area, doing laps around the purple slide that stood only about 8 feet tall. They did that for hours… Which gave me time to try out a couple of the big people rides, like the one-man inter-tube and the Howlin’ Tornado. This is a four man inter-tube that kind of looks like a big funnel. You sit facing another person and you get pushed down a tube of darkness. There are only these little lights in the side of the tube that looks like you are warping into another dimension. You pop out and scream up the side of this funnel, then to the other side, then to the other side.. finally being spun and flushed out the bottom. I do have to say, that my first time on it was a bit scary and I was not sure what I got myself into. However, it was a lot of fun and want to do it again.

Here is a little trick I found. We arrive about 1pm but, check-in is not until 4pm. So, I was standing in line to for check-in and I was overhearing the staff saying to people, “Here are some passes, be back at 4.” Groovy, they asked me how many. I said 4 and off I went. They did not ask for my name or if I was checking in or anything… So, I would say that you should get their early, so you can play even longer.

The prices are similar to Disneyland, but well worth it. And with the price of fuel, it was far cheaper than trying to get to LA or even Florida.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Not happy with my FIOS!!!

As you may have read, I run both Comcast HSI and Verizon FIOS to the house. I mainly keep my wife's stuff on the Comcast line and run my "bad" systems and my game system on the FIOS. (Yes, I do download Porn from time to time...) That is why I want it seperated, I don't need my wife's system being infected with a virus from my system. I would never live that one down. But, as of late my connection speed has gone to total SHIT! I was playing online with a few buddys and I was lagging so bad, they were like... "DUDE!!! What the hell are you shooting at??!!! The guys are in this direction!!!" or the one I love... "Nice Shooting TEX! Their over this way!" So, I went out and did my speed test and everything came back fine... Just about 5meg down. That checks out.

And here is where my problem is... my Ping times suck! I did a ping test to Level3's DNS server (4.2.2.2) and received a response back between 32-48ms. Okay.. that seems a little high.. I take my laptop and plug into my Comcast Line and perform the same steps. Ping times came back between 18-22ms.
WTF!!!

So, I ran a cable down the hall, through the living room, into the kitchen where the Comcast router is sitting and plugged in my gamebox, so I can continue to play. (However, my wife did instruct me to run the cable properly, under the house, if I wish to continue to use this connection. Oh.. yeah.. and no porn!)

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Top 5 game sales per system worldwide, no surprise there!!!

Xbox 360
North America:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar),
2. Grand Theft Auto IV — Special Edition (Rockstar),
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare — Game of the Year Edition (Activision),
4. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft),
5. Rock Band Special Edition (MTV Games).

Japan:
1. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft),
2. The Idolm@ster: Live for You! (Namco),
3. Frontlines: Fuel of War (THQ Japan),
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision),
5. The Idolm@ster — Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Namco).

Europe:
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar),
2. Halo 3 (Microsoft),
3. Grand Theft Auto IV — Special Edition (Rockstar),
4. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft),
5. The Orange Box (EA Games).

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Something has to give!

Well.. Today is Saturday and we begin the weekend routine. The girls are on the floor doing their gymnastics and then later they have a play date with their Hula Group. “Yes, they do Hula, too.” Then we are all off to my parent’s house. Some of you know that my dad has terminal cancer. We found out about 8 months ago, when dad went it for a physical exam. At that point, it was a done deal; the cancer was in the bladder and had breached the lining. The doctors gave him about 12 to 18 months. Since then he has been admitted to the hospital twice for various reasons and has seen more doctors and nurses than the astronauts going to the moon. But, with all of this he still puts on a good show. He wants to go the coast, they go.. He wants to dinner, they go… It is all about what he wants to do. Last week, my sister, her husband, my youngest daughter, mom, dad, and I all went to the coast for the weekend. (for the second time in two months) My oldest and mommy stayed home since they had plans to keep. However, we all had fun going out to dinner at fancy places to eat (mom and dad only go to the best), walking on the beach and collecting shells, and spending time with dad. This was the only time that dad and I have spent some quality time alone together in many many years. He told me everything I wanted to know about what has been happening, the money situation, plans for mom, and anything else I wanted to ask about. Dad had the suggestion that we go and loose some money at the local casino. I am always game and happy to throw a few bucks on the table. Dad would not hear of it, he through a Franklin on the table and split the chips. We were doing okay, holding our own, until I was allowed to cut the cards. I have really bad karma when it comes to cards. I never win anything, even when I am playing with my friend Keith and his friends. Well, we could not win if we tried… But, it was all fun and games. Dad and I had a good time and the $100 bucks that was spent would not give him a second thought. We laughed and talked about it all night. This is how I will remember dad, teaching the kid how to play blackjack.

Work this past week was okay, not great. I had several long days, one starting at 4am and not ending until 8pm. But, that is the life of IT. I do have to say that I work with a great group of guys. They all step up, especially one who is a supervisor who stayed with me after 5pm when he was ready to go home. He was concerned that after being up for close to 13 hours that I would have to take a drive to one of our offices. Even after telling him to leave and spend time with his family and that I was fine, he would not leave. That is genuine friendship. We decided that it was time for me to go home and be under the supervision of my wife, so I drove home. (the car knows the way) The next day I did buy him a Starbucks to say thank you for being there. He has always been a good friend and we bounce ideas off of each other as sort of a reality check. Some work out and some do not.

And on to my final rant, the cost of stuff… Something has to give… The local news states that fuel prices will be increasing to $4.30 per gallon in the upcoming weeks. I was talking with my sister in Los Angeles and she said that they are already there. They are looking at over $5 dollars a gallon. Fuel is not the only increase that I have seen lately. The cost of everyday food and milk, not to mention the cost of eating out, has increased dramatically. I stopped by Freds to pick up a quart of milk and taco shells. I nearly had a heart-attack when the lady said $4.79 bucks. Excuse Me?!?! Two items costs me five bucks… Hold on a sec.. I don’t pay that much for fuel per gallon. Which should cost more? Cow Lactation or a dead dinosaur! Let me do the math, carry the 1, that should be gasoline. I mean come on… Something has to give… Then I hear on the TV that the President says that this is not an economic downturn. Here is a question for you, if it is not an economic downturn or a recession, then what would you call it? Here is the problem. When Economist is looking at the economy, they do not factor into their calculations the items, such as fuel and food that really have the greatest impact on people. Something has to give!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Top 5 game sales per system worldwide in week 16, 2008

Xbox 360
North America:
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision),
2. Blue Dragon (Microsoft),
3. Rock Band Special Edition (MTV Games),
4. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft),
5. Halo 3 (Microsoft).

Japan:
1. The Idolm@ster: Live for You! (Namco),
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision),
3. Armored Core: For Answer (From Software),
4. The Idolm@ster — Xbox 360 Platinum Collection (Namco),
5. Skate (EA Games).

Europe:
1. Halo 3 (Microsoft),
2. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Ubisoft),
3. Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft),
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision),
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision).

Do you agree? Vote!!!

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

The Next XBox....480...720... Whatever it takes!

A friend sent this to me and I just had to post about it!

Next Xbox 720 to launch in 2011-2012 according to Microsoft
While Sony already admitted to be thinking about the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo are no doubt developing a Wii 2… In an interview with the head of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business division, Peter Moore, EGM magazine asked him when their next video game console would come out, and also asked if they’d drop support for the Xbox 360 like they did with the original Xbox. He said that they were going to support it “as long as it sold.” Possibly because they saw the Xbox sell well into 2007 despite not producing the console after October 2005.
He said the production team from the Xbox 360 is working on the next Xbox 720 [our pet name], and their looking into what kind of CPUs will be available on the market in 2011-2012. That would put the Xbox 360 at a lifespan of 6 or 7 years, a far cry from the Xbox’s 4 years. After spending $1.26 billion in losses launching the Xbox 360, they’ll want to get the most out of the system by lengthening it’s lifespan. As the longer you get into the cycle, the more profit you can make due to stopping being a loss leader, analysts always remark.
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2007/03/13/next-xbox-720-to-launch-in-2011-2012-according-to-microsoft.htm

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Poll: Best XBox 360 Game

I have often wondered (and asked) - what is the best XBox 360 game out? I know many of you have been playing and have an opinion, so here is the question... What is your favorite XBox 360 game and why?

At the end of the April, I will post the results.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Politicans...

I heard on the radio just this morning that both Hillary and Obama is coming to Portland. "Great, call me thrilled... (he says sarcastically)" Here are a couple of people that would not did not give 2 cents about our 8 electoral votes six months ago. But, now.. Look out.. "We care about you and need your support..." I just can not believe that politicians act in such a vulturistic matter. Oh, wait.. Their Politicians.. I don't trust any of them, Democrat or Republican. They don't give two shits about us or what we need, just how they can gain power and $$$$. I am looking for a canidate that would stand up and say.. "Yes, I smoked pot in college." or the line from the movie The American President "We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them."

You know what bothers me the most.. Traffic they cause. When ever a politician is in town, they shut down freeways, roads, and complete areas to accommodate them. This really causes havoc and inconveniences the rest of us trying to go somewhere. Besides, isn't it enough that they interrupt my television shows for a "debate"? (did you notice that I put debate in quotes?)

Yes, it is all about me...

Monday, March 10, 2008

Game Review: BioShock


Review:
BioShock lets you do the impossible as you explore a mysterious underwater city. When your plane crashes, you discover Rapture - an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified "splicers" and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. As little girls loot the dead, and biologically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn. Now you're trapped, caught in the middle of a genetic war that will challenge both your capacity to survive and your moral allegiance to your own humanity. Make meaningful and mature decisions that culminate in the grand question - do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture to save yourself - or risk all to become their savior?

I started playing this awhile ago on a rental and really loved it. The graphics are fantastic, even better than Halo 3… Look at the water… The game engine was really well done and I did not find any faults in the game universe. I found myself really involved in the action and hacking stuff to make it work for me. I love hearing the diaries of people that died there and finding out little tidbits of information. (tee-hee) I just could not bring myself to kill the little girls. After I saved the first one, that was it for me – Save them ALL! I loved the good ending, it made me feel really good. However, I did go back and Harvest a few girls just to see the bad ending. The plot twist was a bit unexpected.. Would you kindly… The only negative that I can really complain about is searching around, picking up the item that I require, going back to “home location”, then having to go back to get another item where I just was… can’t I just get it when I was there the first time?

Final Thoughts:
Pros: Great Graphics, Great Game Play, Good story line.
Cons: No replay value. Having to repeat the same path to find additional required items.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

RIAA Looses again...

I saw this and I had to post it...

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A federal judge in Connecticut has rejected the RIAA's 'making available' theory, which is the basis of all of the RIAA's peer to peer file sharing cases. In Atlantic v. Brennan, in a 9-page opinion [PDF], Judge Janet Bond Arterton held that the RIAA needs to prove 'actual distribution of copies', and cannot rely — as it was permitted to do in Capitol v. Thomas — upon the mere fact that there are song files on the defendant's computer and that they were 'available'. This is the same issue that has been the subject of extensive briefing in two contested cases in New York, Elektra v. Barker and Warner v. Cassin. Judge Arterton also held that the defendant had other possible defenses, such as the unconstitutionality of the RIAA's damages theory and possible copyright misuse flowing from the record companies' anticompetitive behavior." http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/25/1952222&from=rss

Hurray for the little guy..

Monday, February 25, 2008

Game Reviews: C&C3 and GRAW2

Here is a review of a couple of new games that I have been playing…

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Product Description
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars takes you forward in the Command & Conquer universe, where a brief peace ends in a storm of war. The year is 2047 and a massive nuclear fireball explodes in the night sky, marking the dramatic beginning of the Third Tiberium War. With the corrupt substance Tiberium blanketing most of the Earth, the infamous Kane is back to lead his Brotherhood of Nod in a massive assault on the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and the few remaining livable Blue Zones left on the planet. Only you can stop him. Welcome back, Commander. Build flying battleships, wield the power of terrifying Ion Storms&combine units to form powerful never-before-seen super-units Multiple online game modes, all-new multiplayer maps and fully featured content editor -- go online to see how you stack up in RTS' ultimate forum (Amazon)


Command and Conquer 3 for the Xbox 360. Here is a series that I really loved on the PC. I either have owned or played most of the C&C Series and would like to say that it lived up to my expectations. At first, I was not sure of how the controls were going to play out, given that you use the 360’s controller. (I have only played C&C using a mouse) However, after playing the tutorial, it was relativity easy commanding my units or constructing buildings or units. The graphics were stunning, especially when I zoomed in on a helicopter or a set of units. The cinematic movies are great, which includes both Six and Boomer from Battlestar Galactica. It added so much to the game that I just loved watching the briefings more and more. Good Game and defantany worth a buy.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Product Description
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 builds on the events of the first hit game, for an all-new tactical combat experience. In the year 2014, rising conflict between Mexican loyalists and insurgent forces throws Mexico into full-scale civil war. Under the command of Captain Scott Mitchell, the Ghosts are called upon to face an imminent threat to the United States. The fate of two countries now lies in the hands of the Ghosts as they fend off an attack on U.S. soil. Equipped with the most cutting-edge weaponry and technology, the Ghosts must battle on both sides of the border. New battlegrounds (Amazon)

I picked up this one on sale and would like to say that it is worth the money that I paid for it… But,…. The game is okay. Good for a first person shooter, the graphics are just okay, and the AI is not so good. From talking with the EB sales guy, I had high expectations for the game, which it just did not live up to. The AI is just plain dumb and most of the missions are far too easy, even if you have it on a harder setting. The graphics are okay, not as good as Halo or even C&C. I do get to play with a mounted mini-gun and a sniper rifle, which has merit. I have not yet played the multiplayer aspect of it, but I would say that this game is a rental, unless you can pick it up for a bargin.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

A few years older.. I mean days...

Looking back at my previous entry, realizing that it was only a week ago, it sure feels like it was last month. I was talking with a colleague of mine and he was saying how the beginning of the year sure has sucked for him. I was saying it started in December for me and has not stopped as of yet. Well, that is not quite accurate. The whole go-go-go started around July of last year. It just has gotten severely worse over the past couple of months. Maybe it is the cold medicine talking or maybe it is just the fact that I am just tired all of the time, but I sooo want to stop this go-go-go all of the time. But, alas I have to work tomorrow and I am sure that there are 102 items on the "to-do" list that will have to be done by end of day.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Stop the Ride... I want to get OFF!

Currently, I am sitting here half watching the girls in their gymnastics class and the other half checking email and solving problems. Last night I came home about 6'ish, ate, washed the kids, tucked them into bed, cleaned the kitchen and went to bed. Seriously, I was in bed by 9:30. I am getting to work about 7am and not leaving until 5:45pm, every day. It is non-stop from the time I walk in the door until I shut the laptop down to call it a day. And I have to work this weekend... uhhhh...I have had to work two out of the last three weekends. This reminds me of the times at Cori where we were moving the facility from Beaverton to Hillsboro. That was really tough and long. Working long hours and moving at 110% all day used to not effect me as much back then... Of course, I was a bit younger.

The bad thing is that I have so much on my plate, I am starting to miss deadlines. This is really upsetting to me since I am the kind of person who is always early to an event. (Which really pisses my wife off - I like seeing the "20" at the movies"... twice) I am starting to loose track of projects, even though I use SharePoint to track things, and it just seems like there is a lot of hurry up and wait. One of the main reasons for my projects and tasks to be slipping.

Yesterday, I was in my GO-GO-GO mood and then someone pulled the plug on my work. This made we wonder around for a few minutes trying to find out where I need to be shifting my focus. "Hard Reset... Okay... Let's try something else.... Like trouble tickets, yeah..."

I just wish I was able to pass some of the daily crap that has to be done to someone else, so I would have time to focus on the more important tasks at hand.

All I need is some time, money, and effort.

Friday, February 01, 2008

How to Unblock Attachments in Microsoft Outlook 2007

Yesterday I was being very frustrated by Outlook blocking access to attachments. So, I thought that this would be a good post for the new month. How to unblock attachments in Outlook 2007!

Allowing executable extensions give you more freedom but less security (I've seen viruses pass AVs before). I would recommend allowing unsafe attachments just for a specific email, and undoing it after downloading the attachments. Of course make sure the email is from a trusted source and still treat it as if it's a virus by default (i.e. scan it, look for patterns in the email body, etc).

I'm sure you've seen before "Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments: xxx.exe". I found there's very little documentation out there on how to lower the security level or allow a file a know source sent you. You'll find below the registry hack to allow specific file types Outlook blocks by default. There's also a kb article about it and as the article mentions make sure you backup your registry before you start editing it.
Run -> regedit and go to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security
1. Backup your registry first. Right click and select Export.
2. Add a new String Value called: Level1Remove

Level1Remove
1. Edit it and save the value data to the extension you wish to allow (add a semi-colon delimiter for multiple extensions).
Ex: .bat or .bat;.exe;.scr

1. Restart outlook (no need to restart your computer) !
Here is the KB for some further reading. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829982

Enjoy your new freedom.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Sticking It to the RIAA

For the past week or so I have been really debating about purchasing a couple of MP3s from Amazon. BUT, I do not want in any way to support the RIAA. I don’t believe in what they are doing and feel that they have TOTALLY destroyed the record industry. Music is no longer something that someone can enjoy, it is something that has to be approved and licensed and blessed by the almighty RIAA. It almost feels like something you have to listen in private in the basement where no one knows what you are up to.. That is just wrong! So, as you can tell, I am a bit pissed off about the whole thing.

So, apparently I am not alone in my utter hatred and disgust for the RIAA. However, there is a website for artists that do not support the RIAA and lets you know which one is safe and which ones are not. http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp I was a bit disappointed that my dearest Siouxsie was in support by the RIAA. But, that is something that I will have to seek guidance on.

There is hope and I thank the artists for choosing not to support the RIAA. This is the only way for them to die a slow and painful death.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Game Review: Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey (Wii)


Synopsis
Meet and interact with the popular Disney Princesses while expanding your creativity and exploring important themes, such as courage, friendship, trust and discovery. Customize your own unique heroine character and enter a thrilling adventure through four fun-filled levels. Help these amazing princesses restore order in their enchanted kingdoms and overcome the forces of evil.You can makes friends and interact with Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White and Jasmine. Each Disney princess in the game has a different story and magical world that is waiting to be explored. As you create your own princess character, you'll be able to choose dresses, accessories, hair, skin tone, eye color and even her name. With beautiful levels to explore and exciting adventure elements, this is one game sure to please the princess in you. – Best Buy

This is my first entry for the New Year and look at what it is… a Child’s Game… Go figure.
Well, let’s get into it.

We rented Disney’s Princess Enchanted Journey on the Wii for the girls. You get to play as your own customized heroine, taking part in an adventure and helping the Disney Princesses to restore order in their kingdoms. There is Areil, Cinderella, Jasmine, Snow White, and even Belle at the very end. This game is more geared for girls of the pre-teen set, as you can clearly see. Since my girls are both under 5 and had a hard time with some of the puzzles. This is where daddy’s gaming skill came into play. But, I do have to say that once they figured out what each other’s strengths, one worked on moving the character and the other worked the magic. This game would be great for some father – daughter bonding time.

However, the game play is only worth one or two times through and therefore only should be a rental and not a buy. Sorry…

Saturday, December 29, 2007

F.U. to the RIAA!!!

UI saw this on Engadget and I just have to say... WTF???

"Sure, we've heard RIAA-admiring lawyers affirm that ripping your own CDs is in fact "stealing," but it seems the aforementioned entity is putting its money where its mouth is in a case against Jeffrey Howell. Reportedly, the Scottsdale, Arizona resident is being sued by the RIAA, and rather than Mr. Howell just writing a check and calling it a day, he's fighting back in court. Interestingly, it seems that the industry is maintaining that "it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into their computer." Ira Schwartz, the industry's lawyer in the case, is arguing that MP3 files created on his computer from legally purchased CDs are indeed "unauthorized copies," and while we've no idea what will become of all this, we suppose you should go on and wipe those personal copies before you too end up in handcuffs." -http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/29/riaa-suing-citizen-for-copying-legally-purchased-cds-to-pc/

So.. Let me get this straight. It is illegal if I wanted to copy a little Siouxie to my iPod from my CD collection. Wait a sec.. I purchased these CDs, before mp3s were popular or even an electronic format, so I can listen to the music whenever and wherever I want. This means that anyone that purchased MP3 players before the days of i-Tunes is in violation of this ridiculous law.

So, This is what I will be doing to protest.
I will not be purchasing any new albums.
No one will give me any new CDs as presents.
Everyone that I know and talk to should boycott buying any new albums or MP3s.

I think that we all should give the RIAA a BIG F.U.!!!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Goodbye 2007

Well, Another year is winding down and I am looking forward to seeing what 2008 brings. Don’t get me wrong. 2007 has not been all that bad. There has only been a few “issues” that we as a family have had to deal with.
1. Dad has cancer, but recovering nicely.
2. Dad also is having heart issues, but the doctors felt putting in a defibrillator/pacemaker was a good idea. – verdict is still out on this one.
3. My youngest had to go under the knife to remove an infection that was encapsulated.
4. A friend of mine, from a former company, had a heart-attack. I hear that he is doing okay, but since he does not return my message I don’t know for sure how he is doing… But, I did get a Christmas card from him and his family.
5. The cat decided that pulling out her stitches after her surgery was a good idea. This caused a secondary infection which caused her to stay in her kennel for a week and $300 dollars that I really did not need. But, she is doing fine now and is warming herself by the fire.
I think that is about it…

Work is going well, lots of projects and new technologies that I can put my hands in. New EVA 8100, HP 7000c Blades (dual “Quad”-cores), POE switches, and a ton of other things.

I still am working as the Infrastructure Department, since my supervisor left to take a job in Florida about 6 months ago. Good news is that we are trying to hire a person to give me some relief. It was sort of funny this morning, I was talking with my boss and saying that things are getting done, just slowly and that I am getting use to the work load. Just a little funny…

I have finally got to hook up the Wii. Let me tell you. It is very cool. I see what people say about the difference in playing the Wii verses everything else, you need to be standing with nothing around you. The games that I have are Wii Sports and Wii Play. We sports is lots of fun and even the kids and Liz enjoy playing Wii Bowling and Wii Golf. I can see what the Xbox means about doing exercise while playing is just wrong. After playing a full round of tennis, I realize that I am working up a sweat. The Wii is lots of fun for all.

We also had snow on Christmas. The girls really enjoyed themselves and loved watching the snow cover the trees outside. They both scored from Santa, ranging from a princess MP3 player to a digital camera to a Hello Kitty purse.

Hello 2008!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Game Review: The Orange Box


I am a big fan of the Half-life series by Valve Software. Here is a company that produces some really great games that have a lot of replay value. To this day, I still play Counter Strike and Day of Defeat for the PC. Games that are many many years past their prime. But, they are still good with a great following.

I was excited to play “The Orange Box” for the 360. Here is a single disk that contains 5 games - Half-Life2, HL2 Episode 1, HL2 Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. I did not get into Team Fortress or Portal, only had 5 days on the rental. Prior to renting this, I own and have finished both Half-Life 2 and HL2 Episode 1. I really wanted to play Episode 2 and it did not a disappoint.

It picked up right where Episode 1 left off, so I would suggest that you start from the beginning and work your way through from the beginning. The graphics lived up to the Half-Life 2 Source engine. The AI was fairly intelligent, even on normal. It certainly lived up to the HL2 name. I would highly recommend playing this game and this series. And this is a great way to do it. Valve provides you the entire series for one price. Take home message: Good Graphics – check out the water, Puzzles are similar to the rest of the series, and good replay value.

If you do not have Half-Life 2, this is a buy!

Friday, November 23, 2007

Tis The Season for Stupid People

Today is Black Friday and people are clamoring in the stores for all of their holiday shopping needs. Shops are crowded, people are rushing around, and just generally being stupid. This is why I generally work today. No one is around and I actually can get stuff done. However, I did have to drive by a Best Buy and noticed that there is a lot of people who forgot their manners this morning and how to be polite. Cutting in line, is something that really pisses me off. This is not China, lines ACTUALLY mean something here. For example, waiting for the person who is waiting for another person’s car to move out of a parking space. Honking and carrying on just makes you look stupid and impatient. Along those same lines, Driving… Don’t wait until the last possible second to change lanes. Or if you know that the lane ends, move over sooner. It really pisses me off when we are all moving along in traffic and some dipshit thinks that he is too Fucking self important to travel with us commoners. He has to Zoom in the ending lane and cut in front of another car. Causing us all to hit our breaks. (You’re lucky I don’t own a gun for doing shit like that) Another group of people who really piss me off - People bathing in perfume. They have no consideration for other people senses. One squirt goes a long way! You don’t have to use the entire bottle. We don’t care how much you paid for it. By the time you drench yourself in it, you smell like a strip club. (Yes, I have been to one or two in my day) And finally, this one goes out to the great unwashed… When you are in a public place make sure that you don’t smell. Do the rest of us a favor - Water! Use it! and… Deodorant, not optional.

Take home message.
1. If you want to get somewhere sooner, leave the house earlier.
2. Take a bath, we all don’t need to smell you!
3. Play well with others and be nice.
4. Think! Don't be Stupid!

Maybe I am being a little overly sensitive and am using the holidays as an excuse for people and their behavior. But, it does seem to get far worse around the holidays.

You know... This is all coming from a guy who has a mug that says "Warning... DOES NOT Play Well With Others!" It has to be really bad for me to Rant about it.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Bought a Wii....Weeeeeeee!

On Thursday, I joined the Wii Club. I was not intending to buy anything, honest!

Here's the story...

I was in CompUSA with a co-worker, he was getting a wireless router for home, and while we were standing around the checkout counter, I was joking with the sales rep about never having any Wiis. "Well, Sir, we actually have one..." So, out comes the Disney Visa - right after I called the wife.. (Hey, I know that I would be a dead duck if I came in without asking)

Here is how that converstation went -
Me: What would happen if I came home with a Wii in hand?
Wife: Did you pay for it?
Me: I can take it back.
Wife: Where are you at?
Me: CompUSA
Wife: Why
Me: co-worker needed something and we were at lunch.
Wife: Okay... But that is it..

So, I bought the Wii and Wii Play. But, here is the kicker...

I CAN'T OPEN IT UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas to me! (I mean the Kids!)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Elcomsoft turns your PC into a password cracker

I saw this and just had to post it...


"You know all that talk about GPUs being the new CPUs? Well it's not just a lot of hot, ventilated air. Thanks in large part to the launch of development kits like nVidia's CUDA, Russian outfit Elcomsoft has just filed for a US patent which leverages GPUs to crack passwords. Their approach harnesses the massively parallel processing capabilities of modern graphics cards to make minced-meat of corporate-strength password protection. An NTLM-hashed Microsoft Vista password, for example, can now be cracked in 3 to 5 days (instead of two months) using a simple, off-the-shelf, $150 graphics card -- less complicated passwords can take just minutes. Dial the GPU up to an $800 GeForce 8800 Ultra and Elcomsoft's approach will crack passwords at a rate some 25 times faster than existing CPU-only approaches. Yippee?"
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/24/elcomsoft-turns-your-pc-into-a-password-cracking-supercomputer/

Wholly cow. I really hope that the Government does not grant their patent. So much for those strong passwords...What's the point??!!??

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

10 Ways to Work More Securely

I was surfing last night and found this Microsoft article about Security in the work place. It is very simple and easy to do. He is the Top 10 List –
Best way to protect company data.
I feel like Letterman…

Number 10: Use the Junk E-mail Filter in Outlook 2003
Number 9: Encrypt e-mail messages when appropriate.
Number 8: Don't open questionable e-mails.
Number 7: Encrypt files containing confidential or business critical files.
Number 6: Use password protection on your screensaver.
Number 5: Lock your computer when you leave your desk. It is really easy (Windows+L)
Number 4: Use network file shares instead of local file shares.
Number 3: Don't enable the Save Password Option.
Number 2: Use strong passwords.

And the last and most Novel idea
Number 1: Work with your IT department.

But, it seems like people either don’t want to take the time or simply don’t care. Being a System Administrator, it is really hard to protect company assets without the assistance of the user population. (Without becoming an IT Nazi – and nobody wants that!!!)
http://www.microsoft.com/AtWork/getstarted/worksecure.mspx

Saturday, October 06, 2007

New Poll Released!

It is time for you to vote on "What do you use for gaming?" Are you a PC or Console Gamer? Perhaps you do both.. Here is your time to tell the rest of the world.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Finished Halo3

Well... On Thursday I finished Halo 3, after only about 6 hours of gameplay. As I stated earlier, I was on easy. Walking through the entire game, checking out stuff, new weapons, learning to fly, etc... Now for bumping it up a level. The ending was setup very well for being the ending of the saga. (I will not spoil it for anyone) This game put me much more involved than most other games, with the exception of Oblivion. I connected with the other NPCs (non-player characters) and felt that it was my duty to protect them at all costs. The AI on the harder level is actually significantly more difficult than the easy level. They will actually come after you, even when you are trying to recharge your shields. Funny story, I was hiding behind some boxes and several of those little guys (grunts) came charging after me with grenades. They got to where I was and the grenades went off, killing all of the them and me. Talk about overkill for a suicide bombing. One would have effectively taken me out.

Great game - well worth the money - and a MUST OWN!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

HALO 3 - ARRIVED!!!



I was asked.. "So, Steve, when did you get your copy of Halo 3?" Well, I had restrained myself to purchase it on Tuesday from Costco, instead of waiting in line at Midnight.. (really good deal - $49.99)

Currently, I am playing the campaign on easy. So, I am literally walking through the game. Just until I get a feel for the controls and how things work.

First Impressions

It looks like a Halo Game. Halo 3 looks like Halo and Halo 2, except bigger and better. The graphics are not as graphically stunningly-awesome like BioShock or Gears of War. I didn't go "holy crap, look at that water". However, it is totally smooth. The frame-rate is clearly the number one priority of their graphics engine. There's no tearing, no drops, no slowdown. It's just smooth and seamless.

The story picks up literally minutes after Halo 2 ends. This, of course, means that you should familiarize yourself with the storyline if you want the game to make sense. The dual wielding (two guns) option, combined with the addition of a pile of new weapons makes the mind work much more than with Halos 1 and 2. You're constantly asking in the back of your mind, "is this the right combo for what might be coming. Namely the FLOOD!" Also, you'll need to watch the reaction of the enemies, as they are funny. It's a really solid game.

Oh, one other thing you can do Single Player is you can play cooperatively single player online. If anyone sees me online in Xbox Live I'm "verylost" and I'm happy to play if the family is asleep.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Satellite Dishes attached to the roof.

As most of you are aware, I have been riding my bike to and from work. I find it a good way to get some fresh air and it is far cheaper on the wallet than driving. In fact, it takes me less time to ride the ye‘old bike than to drive the truck. But, that is a conversation for later.

So, there is not much to do while in my travels, so I look at the various houses that I pass and noticed a trend. Satellite Dishes mounted to the roof. Not in the side of the house or flashing (like mine when I had Satellite), but in (through) the shingles.

Does this seem like a good idea???

Shingles move, not much, but they still move. What happens when those holes become wider from wear and tear. Can we say ROT?

Get Cable! Then you will not need to even lose sleep about having a bunch of holes in your roof. OR if you do not want to get cable, it is not that much harder and looks even nicer if you mount the satellite dish into the flashing hanging down from the roof.

Monday, September 17, 2007

I Broke My Laptop...

It was a warm Friday afternoon around 3-ish and I was humoring the notion of dual booting my laptop with Vista. But, first, I have to partion my drive to make space... So, on a mission to find a disk partioning tool, such as Partion Magic. I ask my fellow colleagues for such a disk... And there is my first issue. "Hey Dude, do you have something I can partion my drive with?" Well here is a disk that may work, but I am not sure. TO his credit, he did have a disclaimer on the cd. I boot to CD and check out this version of Bart PE. Naaaa. Nothing that will solve my dilemma. So...

I Reboot...

Unable to load Operating System... Are you kidding???? I did not do anything!!! Reboot again... Nothing....

NNNNNNNnnnnnnOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You hear from the other side of the room.. "You have your data backed up to the network, right???" Uh.. Network??? Yeah.. no...

So, I am rebuilding my laptop with XP and Vista. Why? Why not..

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Directions on Exporting and Importing from Excel to Outlook

Importing an Excel List into Outlook Contacts

You only need to do this if you already have the email typed into an Excel Spreadsheet. If you have the addresses written down but haven't already typed them into something, go to my directions on how to add Contacts in Outlook and start there. If you have an Excel Spreadsheet set up, then read on.

  1. Right click on the Import Spreadsheet Template and choose Save Target As and save it somewhere on your hard drive.
  2. Open the spreadsheet that you have already created.
  3. Open the Import Spreadsheet Template that you just saved.
  4. Copy the column of names from your spreadsheet and paste them into the Import Spreadsheet Template. If you didn't separate the names in your spreadsheet into first and last columns, then just copy the one column and paste it into the LastName column.
  5. Copy the email addresses from your spreadsheet
  6. Paste them into the template in column BE (that's way over there!) If you have two email addresses for some students, the second address can be pasted into column BG on the template.
  7. Save the template spreadsheet.
  8. Then save it again following these directions.
    • File
    • Save as
    • Click on Save as Type and choose Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt0
    • Name it and save.
    • Say yes to the message that pops up asking you about format
    • Then close the spreadsheets. (It will ask you about saving again. You can say no.)
  9. Now you are ready to bring it into Outlook
  10. Open Outlook and click on Contacts. (You can set up a separate folder to keep the parent email from getting mixed in with the other.)
  11. Choose File
  12. Then Import and Export
  13. In the new window that opens, choose Import from another program or file
  14. Click Next
  15. Scroll all the way down to Tab Separated Values (Windows)
  16. Click Next
  17. Browse to find the .txt file where you saved it in step 8
  18. Click Next
  19. Select Contacts (or the folder in Contacts that you set up if you used a folder)
  20. Click Next
  21. Click the Map Custom Fields button
  22. When you see the new window scroll down to find EmailAddress under Value and scroll down the Field side to find E-mail and click on the + to expand
  23. If you don't see EmailAddress under Mapped from next to E-mail Address then drag it from the Value window to the Field window where it is in the window. Do this for E-mail, E-mail 2, and E-mail 3.
  24. Click OK
  25. Click Finish
  26. Now you should be able to go into your Contacts and find the new addresses.

Exporting a Contact List from Outlook

Once you have all the email addresses in your Contacts, you may want to share those with the other teachers on your team. Here is how you would do that.

  1. Open Outlook and go to Contacts
  2. Click File
  3. Select Import and Export
  4. Select Export to a file
  5. Click Next
  6. Scroll down to the bottom and choose Tab Separated Values (Windows)
  7. Click Next
  8. Select Contacts (or the contacts folder you want to export)
  9. Click Next
  10. Browse to find where you want to save the file and name it with a .txt extension
  11. Click Next
  12. Follow steps 21, 22, and 23 above.
  13. Click Finish
  14. Now you are ready to follow the Importing directions above on your team teacher's computer.



Monday, September 03, 2007

Putting a signature on your email

If you would like to add an autosignature to all of your email messages (like the one I have below) follow these simple steps:

· Open Outlook
· Choose Tools
· Then Options
· Select the Mail Format tab at the top of the window.
· Click the Signature Picker button at the bottom
· Choose New
· Next
· Type in the signature that you want to show up in your email
· Then Finish, OK and OK again.

You might want to send yourself an email as a practice run to see if it shows up and looks the way you want it to. You can always go back in and edit it.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Keyboard Shortcuts

This week's tip is for those of us who like shortcuts. Here is a list of Keyboard Shortcuts. These are things you can do by clicking the mouse a few times, or you can do them quickly with a couple of key strokes. Some of you may not find them useful, if not, keep on doing it the way you've been doing it! I've tried to put the ones I use most often at the top of the list.

Windows Program Key Combinations
CTRL+A: Select all the items in the current window
CTRL+C: Copy
CTRL+X: Cut
CTRL+V: Paste
CTRL+Z: Undo
CTRL+B: Bold
CTRL+U: Underline
CTRL+I: Italic
CTRL+SHIFT+>: Makes the font larger
CTRL+SHIFT+<: Makes the font smaller
CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
ALT+F4: Quit program
SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently

Dialog Box Keyboard Commands
TAB: Move to the next field in the dialog box
SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous field in the dialog box
SPACEBAR: If the current field is a button, this clicks the button. If the current field is a check box, this toggles the check box. If the current field is an option, this selects the option.
ENTER: Equivalent to clicking the selected button (the button with the outline)
ESC: Equivalent to clicking the Cancel button
ALT+underlined letter in dialog box item: Move to the corresponding item

To Copy a File
Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder.

To Create a Shortcut
Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder.

General Folder/Shortcut Control
SHIFT+click+Close button: For folders, close the current folder plus all parent folders

General Keyboard-Only Commands
F10: Activates menu bar options
SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object)
ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature
ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Computer Bios Script (bios.vbs)

Here is a quick little script that will display both the manufacturer and serial of your computer. You can easily add in a variable to create a list of ALL of the machines in your environment. Say... from AD.... :P

On Error Resume Next
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_BIOS",,48)
For Each objItem in colItems
Wscript.Echo "Manufacturer: " & objItem.Manufacturer
Wscript.Echo "SerialNumber: " & objItem.SerialNumber

Next

Auto Accept Agent for Exchange

Here is a neat thing that you can implement for your resource mailboxes. This service will create an Auto Accept Agent on your Exchange Server. This service can send an email to your end user as a confirmation of the acceptance or denial of the booking of the resource.

Once you setup the Auto Except Service on your Exchange Server, here is the script that you will need to use in order to register your resource.

cscript RegisterMailbox.vbs {/m:mailbox@domain.com | /f:file.txt} [/t:domain\AgentAccountName] [/u] [/DEBUG]

Where:
/m
The primary SMTP address of the mailbox that you want to register. Use this switch when registering or unregistering a single mailbox.
/f
The name of the text file that contains the primary SMTP addresses of the mailboxes that you want to register. Use this switch when registering or unregistering multiple mailboxes. You must create the text file before using this script. This switch cannot be used with the /m switch.

Note
If the text file is not located in the same folder as the RegisterMailbox.vbs script, you must provide the full path to the location of your text file.

/t
Specifies the account that will be granted full mailbox access. This is typically the domain account that the Auto Accept Agent is running as on the local server. The account must be provided as domain\accountname. If Auto Accept Agent is running as Local System, you do not need to specify this switch unless you want to grant permissions to a domain account that you can use to monitor the resource mailboxes, which is necessary for the MailboxStatus.vbs script described later in this chapter.
/u
Attempts to remove the mailbox binding. Additionally, this switch also attempts to remove full mailbox access for the Auto Accept Agent account specified in the /t switch.
/DEBUG
Outputs verbose debug information you can use to diagnose issues.

For example, if you were using a file named Mailboxes.txt to register multiple mailboxes, where the Agent's security context is example\AgentAccount, you might type the following at the command prompt:
C:\>cscript RegisterMailbox.vbs /f:Mailboxes.txt /t:example\AgentAccount

For more information see: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124104.aspx

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Cisco IOS Commands

Recently I have been working on some Cisco equipment. Here are some commands that I found to be really useful.


Find the MAC from an IP address
Show ip arp (ip address)

Find the port number associated with the MAC address:
Show mac-address-table address (MAC Address)

Adding a Virtual LAN (VLAN) or Changing the VLAN on a port:
Once you are in configuration mode and set your interface or range of interfaces – All you have to do is..
Switchport access vlan (number)

But, My most used command is:
Show interface status – This will give you a summary of all the ports, descriptions (if present), connected/notconnected, and speed…



I think that I will need to start studying for that CCNA…

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Files that are older than 45 days old.

Here is a script for all those file server administrators. This script will find all files that are "created" more than 45 days ago and then delete them. I generally export the results to a text file for review, but that is totally up to you.

'This script is to find and then delete any files that are older than 45 days old
'Version 1.0

Set fso = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If WScript.Arguments.Count = 0 then
RecurseDirectory "."
Else
RecurseDirectory WScript.Arguments.Item(0)
End If

Sub Recursedirectory(strDir)
Set refFolder = fso.GetFolder(strDir)


'Process files in directory
For Each refFile in refFolder.Files
if cDate(refFile.DateCreated) <= now()-45 then
refFile.Delete


end if
Next

Then Recurse down directory tree
For Each refSubFolder in refFolder.SubFolders
RecurseDirectory refSubFolder.Path
if refSubFolder.Files.Count = 0 then
refSubFolder.Delete
End If
Next
end sub


'cscript //nologo 45days.vbs >> 45day.csv

Thursday, July 26, 2007

It's A Sin!



Cruxshadows Remix

Monday, July 16, 2007

Words to live by...

Tao of S

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.
2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.
3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.
4. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
5. Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.
6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
7. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
9. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
11. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
12. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
13. Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.
14. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.
17. Duct tape is like 'The Force'. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
18. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.
19. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.
20. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
21. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
22. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night

Friday, July 06, 2007

Here comes the rain again - the cruxshadows

Just for you Trav...


Cruxshadows singing "Here comes the rain again" by the
Euthrymics





Enjoy!

Hemophage, Vampirism, Folklore

Vampires have always been a common theme in society. We see it in our movies, books, and even in games.

Movies:
We all should remember a movie with Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves called Bram Stroker’s Dracula. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/) I absolutely love this movie (and book). For those who have not seen it, I would highly recommend renting it or even buying it. You should be able to find it in the bargain bin, it is that old. But, very very good. Another movie that I saw that had its roots in Vampirism was called Ultraviolet (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/), with the yummy Milla Jovovich. Let’s just say that she was the only reason for me to continue watching this poorly directed waste of film.

Games:
Two games that I really enjoy playing is Bloodlines for the PC (obviously a Vampire game) and Oblivion for the X360. I have posted on Bloodlines before, so I will not go into it again. (http://steves-rant.blogspot.com/2006/03/vampire-bloodlines.html) In the game Oblivion, you can contract a disease called Hemophage. Basically, it turns you into a Vampire. Which I do have to say has some very cool benefits. Increase in strength, agility, and the ability to disappear (once per day), just to name a few. However, there is a couple of drawbacks. Sunlight is an issue, but there is a way around that. AND Every couple of days, you have to feed. This proves to be more difficult as time goes on. Oh.. And the Vampire Hunters kind of get in the way.

Music:
As you have previously read, I found a group that I really enjoy called Cruxshadows. Well, I found another group that is “almost” as good, Blutengel. As I was listening to several of their songs, I found a common theme – Vampirism. When I watched a couple of videos, it all make sense – look at the teeth… So, here is one of their songs… Not the best, but themed well.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

At least these people don't walk among us any more!!!

I received this from a co-worker this morning and had to post... I nearly fell out of my chair..as tears run down my face...




EIGHTH PLACE:

In Detroit , a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.



SEVENTH PLACE

49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who "totally zoned when he ran," accidentally jogged off a 100-foot high cliff on his daily run.



SIXTH PLACE :

Buxton , NC : A man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he had dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beach-goers said Daniel Jones,
21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from the wind, and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom Thursday afternoon when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach, on the outer banks, used their hands and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident of Woodbridge, VA, but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him while about 200 people looked on. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.



FIFTH Place :

Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, as he fell face-first through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth (to keep his hands free) rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.



FOURTH Place :

Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed in Selbyville , Del , as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger. As Ron White often says: " You can't fix stupid." These people prove it is a terminal condition. As always, competition this year has been keen.



THIRD PLACE :

The following mind-boggling attempt at a crime spree in Washington , DC appeared to be the robber's first (and last), due to his lack of a previous record of violence, and his terminally stupid choices:1. His target was H&J Leather &Firearms; A gun shop specializing in handguns.2. The shop was full of customers - firearms customers.3. To enter the shop, the robber had to step around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door.4. A uniformed officer was standing at the counter, having coffee before work.



Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up, and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, the police officer with a 9mm GLOCK 17, the clerk with a 50 DESERT EAGLE, assisted by several customers who also drew their guns, several of whom also drew and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt in the exchange of fire.



HONORABLE MENTION:

Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover township, NJ, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, when a quarter-stick of dynamite blew up in their car. While driving around at 2 AM, the bored couple lit the dynamite and tried to toss it out the window to see what would happen, but apparently failed to notice the window was closed.



RUNNER UP:

TACOMA , WA . Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 AM. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay near by. One end of the cable was secured around Bingham's leg and the other end was tied to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy salt water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. "All I can say" said Bingham, "is that God was watching out for me on that night. There's just no other explanation for it." Bingham' s foot was never located.



AND THE WINNER..

Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged- up pachyderm finally let it fly, and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop!



Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded on him. "The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him" said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that proves...



YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID...

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Cruxshadows

I was in the car with a friend going to lunch and heard this song on the player... Caught my interest, so I had to ask. "Dude, who are we listening to?" Cruxshadows was the reply...

Interesting... A blend of new wave, gothic and electronica. Check them out.. Here is their "Official Website" http://www.cruxshadows.com/frame.html

Or my favorite video... Winterborn - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVNjx4k8mWk

Monday, June 11, 2007

Managing Your Email

I was talking with a friend this weekend about email and how people use it. Yes, I was bitching… So, here are a few tips that he and I came up with for people to manage their email.

Touch Each Message Only Once
Begin by instantly turning every message into an action. Drag the message either to the To-Do Bar or to the Calendar to make it part of your work. Dragging messages to either place creates a new item containing the text of the e-mail.

Second, delete it! Remove processed items from your Inbox after they're in the To-Do Bar or the Calendar. The best choice is to delete items. If you can't give up your attachment to past messages, move them to an archive folder where they won't distract you.

Need More Than 2 Minutes? Drag The Message To The To-Do Bar
If you have a group or various groups of people who may need to see and act on messages, keep track of them using contact categories. When you need to delegate tasks, you can address a single e-mail to all of the contacts in a single category by dragging that category to the Inbox

Automate Repetitive Tasks
In striving to touch each message only once, you may become aware that you send the same message repeatedly to many different people. The Quick Parts feature can help in that quest. Just select the text you want to use as a Quick Part, click the Quick Parts button under the Insert tab and choose Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. To use a Quick Part, simply choose Quick Part and pick your message from the Gallery.

Don't Repeat Yourself; Address Everyone At Once
Organize your actions each day by dragging items from the To-Do Bar to the bottom of your daily calendar. This allows you to achieve balance between scheduled appointments and ongoing work. If you can do what a message requires in less than 2 minutes, just do it.

Try not to use BCC
If you are going to blind carbon copy someone, Don’t! After you send the original email to the person, use Forward to send the information to the other individual. This will also allow you to put in additional comments.

Do you really need to Reply to All
I don’t know how many times I have seen this. A message goes out to everyone one in the company or building about something important, like “your lights are on”. And someone hits the “reply to all”… Then the flood gates are open. So, ask yourself this question, Does all these people care about what I am about to send?

Friday, June 01, 2007

How would you like to see this…

I was looking at the headlines this morning and saw “80-core Processor”…???....??? After wiping the drool from my chin, I read further.

"Intel has built its 80-core processor as part of a research project, but don't expect it on your desktop any time soon. The company's CTO, Justin Rattner, held a demonstration of the chip for a group of reports last week. Intel will be presenting a paper on the project at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week. 'The chip is capable of producing 1 trillion floating-point operations per second, known as a teraflop. That's a level of performance that required 2,500 square feet of large computers a decade ago. Intel first disclosed it had built a prototype 80-core processor during last fall's Intel Developer Forum, when CEO Paul Otellini promised to deliver the chip within five years.'" -slashdot

Now, I just have to wait 5 years for it… That is okay though, it would probably take me 5 years of saving my pennies to afford this beefy of a machine.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Something that we all need for the office


I was looking at the headlines on my Google homepage and noticed this one.. “USB AirSoft turret mows down unsuspecting office mates” Well, I had to read that…

“Where else but the good ole US of A would we revel in crafting items that not only utilized that oh-so-lonely USB port on the rear of your leased laptop, but had the potential to "deliver welts" to unsuspecting co-workers? While the pre-packaged USB missile launchers are quite the novel desk adornment, this DIY job seriously brings the heat (and the pain). While the modder responsible here envisions a more robust, costly, and dangerous version in the future, his 1.0 edition features a $19 electronic AirSoft gun, the turret base from an aforementioned USB missile launcher, super glue, and the usual compliment of assembly tools. After disassembling the launcher and tapping into its base, a bit of fancy wire work is required to affix the more powerful AirSoft gun to the rotating turret. A few more screws and finagling, and you're all set to demolish the fun at your annual holiday bash, all for just around $70 and a few hours of your time. So if you couldn't handle boot camp, but still have a passion for mechanical sentries, be sure to hit the read link for the full skinny.” http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/11/usb-airsoft-turret-mows-down-unsuspecting-office-mates/


Another More Powerfull turret.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/16/airsoft-project-2-0-touts-four-times-the-firepower/



I have two computers to hook up that would me more than able to use this kind of firepower.


Do you want to steal my lunch?


Do you feel lucky?


Well, Do ya'...

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Annoucements

It looks like Halo 3 has a firm release date – September 25th. Could be a GOOD Birthday Present … Collectors Edition - Please!

Corillian is now CheckFree. I will have to see what happened to my stock.

Microsoft announced that Vista will be the last 32-bit operating system that Microsoft will be shipping. The end of an era…

Google searching just got that much better. Google has expanded its search capabilities to more than just WebPages. “The change means users will also get results from news sites, blogs, video services and other relevant places.”

Monday, May 14, 2007

How To: Find a Users Memberships

Ever get those questions from people - "What groups does Jane belong to?" or "We have a new person to our group. Can you set them up the same way as Jane?"

Well, here is a quick way to get a list of memberships for a specific user.

dsget user "CN=Smith\, Jane,OU=Users,OU=Domain,DC=Company,DC=com" -memberof >>c:\temp\users.txt

I am sure that you can do this for a lot of people, but I will let you figure that part out. :P

Friday, May 11, 2007

Game Review: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

A friend at work started talking to me about this game, so I had to try it out. So, I went on Ebay and managed to pick it up for $30 bucks. Even though it is an older game, it is still $60 dollars at Best Buy. So, I thought that thirty was a good deal.


Step into the most richly detailed and vibrant game world ever created. The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™ is the latest chapter in the epic and highly successful saga from Bethesda Softworks.
Oblivion is the sequel to the best-selling, award-winning role-playing game (RPG)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind®, named 2002 RPG and Game of the Year for Xbox®. Oblivion is another leap forward in role-playing with its combination of freeform gameplay and cutting-edge graphics. - XBox

I found it a little difficult to change my mind set from my days of D&D rules (yes, I played D&D) to the way Oblivion manages classes, races and experience. Well, there is no experience points, like you would remember from D&D. It is all done by skills and the use of those skills. For example, If you want to increase your strength, you can use hand-to-hand combat or another skill to increase this attribute. Plus, there are bonuses that you can acquire. If you use a minor skill, like hand-to-hand (for my character it is a minor skill) and increase that skill 10 times, you will get a +5 bonus to strength when you level up. Remember, the more strength you have, the more you can carry. Classes don’t really exist. You can favor one skill more than another, but you can be an Archer, Fighter, Mage, Thief, Assassin, Conjurer, illusionist, etc, as long as you increase those skills. There are several races that you can be, each with their own special abilities. There is also birth signs that may give you pluses in your abilities or even a special skill, like invisibility.

The only thing that I do not like about the game is that it scales based on your level. So, if you are 5th level all opponents that you come across are scaled down or up based on your character. I would like to see things a bit more static, like in D&D. There are just some places that you just do go to, otherwise you are going to be handed your head on a platter. This also means that as you get higher in level, a bandit may have leather armor (when you are at a low level) to a bandit with iron platemail and a bad-ass enchanted sword.

There is a main quest, that you can choose to do or not. There are also many many many side quests. The game is totally open ended and you can check anything out, especially in a marketplace store, just don’t get caught.

I am really enjoying the game……

…as an assassin

Monday, May 07, 2007

HIPAA / HIPAA Penalties

I was asked a couple of questions regarding my post Security - Making information secure. What is HIPAA? And Is a HIPAA violation that serious?

So, here is a good definition of what HIPA.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) website,
Title II of HIPAA, the Administrative Simplification (AS) provisions, requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers.
The provision also address the security and privacy of health data. The standards are meant to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's health care system by encouraging the widespread use of electronic data interchange in the US health care system. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIPAA)

violation penalties (HIPAA)
42 USC 1320d-6 (HIPAA Sec. 1177) contains the criminal penalties for violating the HIPAA privacy standards. It states:
"a. Offense.—
A person who is in violation of this part—
1. uses or causes to be used a unique health identifier;
2. obtains individually identifiable health information relating to an individual; or
3. discloses individually identifiable health information to another person,
shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
b. Penalties.—
A person described in subsection (a) shall—
1. be fined not more than $50,000, imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both;
2. if the offense is committed under false pretenses, be fined not more than $100,000, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both; and
3. if the offense is committed with intent to sell, transfer, or use individually identifiable health information for commercial advantage, personal gain, or malicious harm, be fined not more than $250,000, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both."

So… Do you think that they are serious??? By the way, that is per incident – 2.9 million incidents.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

By Request: alt codes

I recieve a blog request for alt codes. So, here you go...

For those who do not know what alt codes are, they are additional characters or symbols that you can utilize in passwords or keys. They also can be used if you are in an application like Word and need to insert a copyright or restricted symbol or if you need to use British Pounds, instead of Dollars. You use alt codes by holding down the Alt key and typing in a four digit combination. Below are a few that you can try:

Alt-0163 £
Alt-0169 ©
Alt-0165 ¥
Alt-0187 »
For a full list, I found this website that had a good character map. http://www.frontpagewizard.com/use_alt_keys.asp

Happy Alt Coding…

-Thanks for the request

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Security - Making information secure

Working in the Information Technology field, I believe that security should be a primary concern. Unfortunately, from previous experience, this is a secondary or byproduct for most of the management staff and bean-counters. (Security costs Money!) Here is a prime example of why security should be a concern for any company.

On April 10th, “A disk containing the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of 2.9 million Medicaid and children's health care recipients is missing, Georgia health officials said Tuesday. The state said the security breach was reported by Affiliated Computer Services, a private vendor. ACS did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The Georgia Department of Community Health said it was requiring the Dallas-based company to notify everyone affected and to offer free credit reports. The children's health care program involved in the data loss is called PeachCare. Officials said the information, also including addresses, went back four years and included some people who are no longer on the rolls. State officials said they had notified the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs and the state Attorney General.”
http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20070410/D8ODQBSG0.html

They better hope that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or Health Care Financial Administration (HCFA) does not show up on your doorstep because of a HIPAA violation OR ACS may cease to exist. These people will personally take your birthday away, financially bankrupt you, and then throw you into jail – just to add insult to injury.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Disneyland !!!

This past week Liz and I took the girls (and Nai Nai) to Disneyland. We stayed off-site at a Disney Good Neighbor hotel, the Carousel. It was nice, free breakfast, which the girls enjoyed. They had a pool on the roof, which the girls liked to use after a long day of play at the park. And it had the added bonus of being across the street from Disneyland, literally. It was very convenient to go back to the hotel during the day to drop off packages or if the girls needed a nap.

Disneyland was lots of fun! The first day we arrived, we spent most of the time in fantasyland. The Carousel was the first ride the girls wanted to start the adventure. Zuzu attached herself to daddy for most of the trip and her and I were a team. Mommy and Allie were another team, with Nai Nai going between the two of us. Most of the time, the girls were wanting to do the same thing, but there were times that we had to split. We hit Dumbo, Peter Pan, Cassie’s train ride, and the carousel (over and over). While we were there we all did most of kiddy rides in both parks. Once Allie discovered the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tommorowland, that was her favorite. While Zuzu’s was Monster’s Inc, which was in California Adventure. We tried to split the time evenly, but I think that we spent most of our time in Disneyland. But, Zuzu did get to ride her ride 5 or 6 times. (Always Watching...) The one ride that I did not think that the girls would like was Haunted Manson. Allie liked it, but does not want to go on it again. (It was pretend, Dad!) Zuzu did not like it at all, but held it together really well. I, personally, did not want her to go on it, but she was pitching a fit that her sister was going on it. So, we went… I told her “no cry” and she did not. They were all really good kids. They tried everything, even if they did not like it, they did not act out or cry.

If you ever go, with girls, you have to go to Ariel’s Grotto. This is a restaurant inside California Adventure where you get to have 1:1 time with all of the princesses. Not bad food. And the girls LOVED IT!!! We met my sister and her husband there, so we all got to hang out, eat, and enjoy the girls. I think that this was the highlight for Allie, she got to meet Ariel. It is all about that mermaid… They got to take pictures with most of the normal characters, sign autographs, give hugs..etc..

After the girls went to bed, Liz and I went out and played. We did Pirates (twice), which they changed – very cool, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, Big Thunder Railroad, and the Matterhorn. Space Mountain was closed when we wanted to go on it. But, I heard that they changed it also, so no great loss there. The Matterhorn was really bumpy and jerky for being on a metal track. Plus, I swear, they slowed it down. It really was not very fun at all. I love pirates and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Pirates was changed, but still a great ride and the changes were really well done. Jack Sparrow was his flamboyant self and looked really good. It still is very P.C. with the whole Bride Auction and the women chasing the pirates with rolling pins and stuff. Not as I remember it when I was younger.

Getting home was kind of a cluster. We spent about 3 hours on the ground in Orange County due to a problem with the airplane. Of course we were already boarded, cant discover these things at the gate, what are you thinking. So, we had to get on to another plane, by this time the girls were not happy. Allie did not go to sleep at all on the plane, she was too amped up. So, we did not get home until about midnight. (And no.. the girls did not sleep in – 6:30am)

All in all, good trip and we all had a good time.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Outlook 2007 patch addresses performance issues

Post from Greg Hughes Blog:
Microsoft on Friday released a patch for Outlook 2007 that addressed a number of performance issues (described in KB933493). Complaints of sluggishness have been circulating since before the product was formally released, typically where large OST (offline folders used for synchronization) and PST (personal folders typically used for archiving) files are involved.

From Computerworld:
The 8.3 MB update should accelerate the download of messages from the Exchange e-mail server and reduce temporary freezes resulting from deleting messages or copying them from one folder to another, according to Jessica Arnold, Outlook’s program manager.
The update should also let Outlook 2007 users switch between messages faster and enable faster program startup, she said.

I have installed it and I have not noticed anything, but I also run with a delay and caching enabled on my laptop...

AccountLockout.vbs

Const UF_LOCKOUT = &H0010

Dim DomainName
Dim UserName
Dim Answer

DomainName = InputBox("Enter the name of the Domain?")
UserName = InputBox("Enter the User Name?")

set objUser = GetObject("WinNT://" & DomainName & "/" & UserName & ",User")

===> cUserFlags = objUser.Get("UserFlags")


If(cUserFlags And UF_LOCKOUT) Then
WScript.Echo UserName & "'s account is locked!"
Answer = InputBox("Would you like to unlock this account? (Y/N)")
If Answer ="Y" Then

===> objUser.Put "UserFlags" , cUserFlags Xor UF_LOCKOUT

objUser.SetInfo
WScript.Echo UserName & "'s account is unlocked."
Else
WScript.Echo UserName & "'s account will remian locked."
End If
Else
WScript.Echo UserName & "'s account is ok!"
End If

Monday, April 02, 2007

Google internet service for FREE!!!

Well, it looks like Google is coming out with a high-speed internet service. And it is FREE!!! I may be changing from my Comcast / Verizon Fios Services to Google’s Fiber Service. I just have to convince the wife that it is a good idea.

“Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for?
Introducing Google TiSP (BETA), our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and we'll send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD.”
http://www.google.com/tisp/

- Happy April Fools