Wednesday, December 22

How can I trust Firefox?

I'm giving firefox a try again, now that its released. But I couldn't help notice the following blog on a "secure" firefox How can I trust Firefox?
and the followup I love Slashdot.
I didn't even think of these issues when installing firefox and the 10+ extensions, most of them were unsigned. Oops!

Sunday, December 19

Update with Roe and Gary

Some have asked, so here you go.... Garry held out too long for WLS and they decided to drop him. Roe has been on his own since Feb 94 and has held up well in the ratings and as a host over all. Other good news includes Christina Filiaggi
has been hired as a WLS employee. And Roe has a new sidekick/sportscaster Bruce Wolf from WFLD FOX32 has been adding his commentary to the show.

Friday, December 17

Halo 2 RSS Excel Workbook

Play halo 2 and do Statistical Analysis!
Halo 2 RSS Excel Workbook

View your halo XBox Live stats on
Bungie.Net It will even give you your kill shots in graphical format. Really cool!

Monday, December 6

Chicago Nerd Dinner - December 8th

For those in the Chicago area.
Chicago Nerd Dinner - December 8th
Get together talk tech.

Friday, December 3

XboxFriends.com -- Gratius Max

XboxFriends.com
Track your xbox friends, see when and what games they're playing.
Also integrates into MSN and can send you an email when someone is online.

Favorite Games

  • Halo 2
  • NFL 2K5
  • Project Gotham Racing 2


Wednesday, November 10

Dilbet does the theTruth.com


Cigarette companies make billions a year and millions die from smoking

Tuesday, October 26

Quiz - Could You Pass 8th-Grade Math?

Could You Pass 8th-Grade Math?

Undecided Voter Calculator

For those who are still having trouble deciding here's the Undecided Voter Calculator

Wednesday, October 20

The Political Star Wars Connection

The Political Star Wars Connection


Is John Kerry Darth Vadar ? or is John Edward Luke Skywalker ?
An how about GW as Han Solo ?

Wednesday, September 29

Operation Free Speech

George W. Bush's 50 greatest accomplishments
Its getting harder and harder to keep him in office.

Thursday, September 23

Yahoo! News - 'The Last Starfighter', the Musical, Beams Down Into World Premiere in NYC

OK Its official. I'm getting old. Movies from my childhood are being remade, Revenge of the Nerds, or being converted into Musicals.
Yahoo! News - 'The Last Starfighter', the Musical, Beams Down Into World Premiere in NYC

Wednesday, September 1

Wednesday, August 25

Farscape is Back

Apple's trailer website is now hosting the trailer for the upcoming FARSCAPE mini-series THE PEACEKEEPER WARS. Set directly after the final episode of the regular series, the four-hour mini wraps up all the dangling loose threads and also sets in motion a chain of events that will lead to open war between the human-looking Peacekeepers and the lizard-like Scarrans. The first part of the show will air October 17 on Sci Fi Channel.


Click here to witness the return of John Crichton.

Also check out http://ChicagoScapers.com

Tuesday, August 24

Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football season is upon us again. So far I’m in 4 leagues, like last year. Three on yahoo sports with computer draft, and one on http://www.fanball.com/ with a live draft.

I’m also running a pick-em league on yahoo. If you want in send me an email (in my profile), I’ll send you back an invite.

I’m still devising strategy. The live draft is a keeper league and I’m going to inherit someone else’s team.
I read an interesting article on fanball.com about doing a reverse draft. If your deep into the draft order all the good backs are going to be gone. So why not break with mantra and go WR or QB first. You could even pick up a good WR/QB combo. Dante and Randy were my sweet picks last year. I even had some luck with Kitna and Johnson.


Monday, August 23

Control Execution Lifecycle

Control Execution Lifecycle
Good cheat sheet on knowing how your asp.net page will execute

Friday, August 20

I've been Busy in August

Its been a busy month in August, so far.
I've bought and sold a house and preparing to move at the end of the month. I am so glad I don't move that often. My brother-in-law, Vinny, has sold his house. My sister, Sandy, has sold her house in Cincinnati.

I've started a new project working on ASP.Net in VB.Net. The downside is that its an out of town project. So I'm spending 4 days a week in Milawaukee, WI while Melissa preps for the move.

I'm also catching as much of the Olympics I can. Its tough to watch a delayed broadcast on NBC when you already know the results.

Tuesday, August 3

Whitbey Commands in Visual Studio 2003

Whitbey Commands in Visual Studio 2003
In case you can't install Visual Studio 2005, or if you've used it and have to swap back and forth
you can still get some of the functionality in Visual Studio 2003!

Happy Coding

Friday, July 30

Tuesday, July 27

Baghdad TV does Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Reality TV hits home in Baghdad csmonitor.com

I've never read the Christian Science Monitor, but thanks to the blogosphere I've found this.
Apparently Baghdad has its own version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Ty Pennington..
Looks like reality TV is taking over the world!

Tuesday, July 20

Let the games begin

Scotsman.com News - Features - Let the games begin: "Let the games begin ".
The olympics start August 11th.

Friday, July 16

A photography student gets detained

Brown Equals Terrorist
A photography student gets detained for taking pictures for his class. His story and how the police and homeland security overreacted and lied to him about his rights.

Thursday, July 15

97X is BACK!!!

97X.com
Internet feed it on the "air" as of July 12, 04.
Non corporate radio can survive!

I don't like Firefox, rant

I tried, I really did try to like Firefox.
I've used it for about 2 weeks and I just don't like it.


  • It doesn't seem any faster it doesn't draw any better.
  • I loose my cool toolbars from Google and Yahoo. Yes there is a Google toolbar for Mozilla, But I'm stuck stacking the toolbars, I can't have 2 toolbars side by side to save screen real estate. And its not complete. AutoFill doesn't work.
  • Doesn't like to page up/down. When I'm on a web page where I have to page down, I press the page down and NOTHING happens! I click onto the page, then things might work right. If I'm using the scrollbar then switch to using the keyboard, then the page starts back from the top.
  • How do I delete entries in the form autofill? It has some typos.
  • Tabbed browsing, its overratted. I was expecting any new windows to open as a tab rather than another window, or at least a switch to do it. Nope, right click, open in new Tab.
  • Plug-ins, overrated, the only good one I found was the cards and ViewInIE. And of course BlogThis! for Blogger.
    The Gmail to address is pretty good also, since mailto doesn't work with Gmail, Yet.
  • The download manager seems buggy. I click on something to download, it doesn't notify me when its done. The window pops up but its emtpy. found fix, its in the options, it defaults to remove them when done
  • Security: Security by ommission is not security. There aren't 10 Gazillion people using Firefox, yet. and the hackers haven't had time to find the bugs yet. Ohh Wait. They did find a security hole The Latest From Mozilla
  • I'm still using IE to view Blogs with NewsGator within Outlook

Wednesday, July 14

Beyond ‘Buffy’: State of sci-fi on TV

Beyond ‘Buffy’: State of sci-fi on TV Good review of Sci-Fi shows coming out this year. Leaves out the new Batlestar Galatica coming out in Jan.

Tuesday, July 13

Wednesday, July 7


Happy Forth of July Posted by Hello

Tuesday, July 6

.Net Remoting: the Quick and Dirty Guide

.Net Remoting: the Quick and Dirty Guide
Great step by step article on how to set up .Net remoting

Spider-Man 2 mistakes, bloopers and goofs - moviemistakes.com

Spider-Man 2 mistakes, bloopers and goofs - moviemistakes.com
Great Movie!! Everything they say about the movie is true.
I love how they set up future movies also.

Tuesday, June 29

Life of Brian

It's been an interesting week in the life of Brian. Melissa and I have officially started our adoption process of adopting a baby from Guatemala by submitting our application and meeting with a representative from European Adoption Consultants, Inc. within 2 weeks we should be having our first meeting for our home study. Hopefully we should have a new baby in the beginning of the year.

We also started looking for a new home. We’ve lived in Lombard since 98 and we’re starting to outgrow the home, especially when the baby comes. But housing is soooo expensive in the Chicago area. What we want and can afford compared to what my commute would be are major trade offs. Most of the projects I’ve worked on have been in the near north suburbs or downtown. But the houses Melissa and I like are farther south closer to I-355 and I-55. Some have been available farther.
But then again we might wait until next year.

And in the middle of all these life changing experiences, my last project ended and I’m on the bench. But it does give me time to finish MCSD.Net certification.

 

 

Sunday, June 27

Office Space Wars

Here is a parody of Office Space set in the Star Wars universe so you know, Darth Vader as Lumbergh and Jar-Jar as Milton.
HMM YA.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~tiantang/share/OfficeSpaceWars.wmv

Can you get me that TPS report ?

The Big Picture: CD installs virus/spyware

The Big Picture: CD installs virus/spyware
If you bought Velvet Revolver or Beastie Boys new CDs be carefull if you want to rip the songs for mp3s.

Tuesday, June 22

NPR : Blogging: A Web Diary Tour

NPR : Blogging: A Web Diary Tour
Interesting story about how blogs are being written. But i think it misses the mark with moblogs and RSS.

Monday, June 21

Gmail4Troops.com

If your lucky enough to get any GMail invites, donate them to people who really need them.


[woxy] 97X the future of rock and roll is comming Back!

Good News for anyone who like independent and internet radio! 97X found funding and is coming back to the "airwaves".
97X.com.

Friday, June 18

TIP: Sharing Message Box Text

TIP: Sharing Message Box Text
Cool UI tip. Use Control-C to copy a Message Box text instead of print screen.

Thursday, June 17

Favorite Computer Jokes...

Favorite Computer Jokes...: "Favorite Computer Jokes..."

Monday, June 14


Things you don't see everyday
 Posted by Hello


Things you don't see everyday Posted by Hello

Thursday, June 10

I'm not Crazy


See I'm not Crazy when I talk to Zoey 
Go ahead, talk to your dogs

Wednesday, June 9

Is TiVo Shooting itself in the foot ?

TiVo sets sights on Net content, cuts prices | CNET News.com
I've had TiVo throughout directTV since Sept 03.
I love it. The ability to record 2 shows is great especially since when Discovery/TLC shows are up against 2 network shows, It will record the cable shows when they repeat later that night.
But the biggest pain with DirectTivo is that it doesn't support any of Tivo's series 2 features like home networking, if you have 2 tivo's copy shows from one to another, or upgraded software.
Now TiVo just annouced they're adding more features to Home Media Option such as downloadable Music and Movies.
Earlier this week DirectTV annouced they sold their stake in TiVo and left their board. Is Murdock's DirectTV going to drop TiVo and come out with their own ? If they do it I hope it will be better than TiVo, and/or continue to support TiVo.

Tuesday, June 8

The Simpsons:Guide to Springfield USA

Guide to Springfield USA A highly detailed map of the Simpsons' hometown

Monday, June 7

Great President Reagan Quote...

“One measure of a leader's greatness is this: By the time he dies the dangers that summoned him to greatness have been so thoroughly defeated, in no small measure by what he did, it is difficult to recall the magnitude of those dangers, or of his achievements. So if you seek Ronald Reagan's monument, look around, and consider what you do not see.” - George Will

Building a picture frame -- The “junk”-top revival

Building a picture frame -- The “junk”-top revival.
Interesting article on building your own digital picture frame from an old laptop.
PII Laptops are good for something.

Friday, June 4

VisiCalc Turns 25

Slashdot | VisiCalc Turns 25, Creators Interviewed: "VisiCalc Turns 25".
I remember when my dad used this when I was 9 to do taxes.

Run it yourself!

Thursday, June 3

Tuesday, June 1

Roe Conn is Back!!

Roe is back but the deal isn't done. He intends to stay with WLS but contract still needs t's crossed and i's dotted.
Garry is another story. Roe wouldn't comment too much on his situation. 30 minutes later... :). To me it sounds like Garry choose to leave WLS and the team. Garry had a list of demands from WLS and apparently they didn't meet them.

Jim provided his usual humor.
Funny point of the contract is that WLS fought for the ownership of the Canarble Wagon.
Roe isn't activly looking for a co-host.
WLS Chat room

Thursday, May 27

What's behind Roe & Garry's hangup at WLS

What's behind Roe & Garry's hangup at WLS
More info on Whats going on with Roe and Garry

Wednesday, May 26

Roe and Gary on WLS

Roe Conn talked about the situation at WLS-AM and the Robert Feder article on the Sun-Times. A Deadline of Wed. June 2 has been set. A "final" offer from WLS was made, Garry Meier shot it down. Roe wanted to think about it and hasn't come to a final decision.
Roe stated that he wants to stay with Gary even at WLS but it seems WLS burned Gary too hard for him to want to return.

Sad part is if a contract doesn't get resolved and they go to another station, they have to wait until the fall to start at a new station.

[Now Playing: 890 WLS - NewsTalk 890 WLS - )]

[woxy] 97X the future of rock and roll is no longer

[woxy] 97X the future of rock and roll
One of my favorite radio stations, when I was growing up,went off the Air May 13th 2004. Its a sad day. 97X was one of the most popular independent radio stations. Whats ironic is they said it more expensive to run an internet radio station than a terrestrial because of the idiodic ruling from 2003 Copyrights office, effectivly putting internet radio out of buisness.

Tuesday, May 25

harrsk's XBox Mod Tutorial

harrsk's Xbox Mod Tutorial
Great step by step how to mod your Xbox to use Evolution X dashboard (EVOX) and increase your Xbox hard Drive

Monday, May 24

Visual Studio 2005 Team System

Microsoft has finally upgraded Visual Source Safe. Here are some of the new features:

  • FxCop is finally integrated into Visual Studio
  • Sampling and Instrumentation support for performance measurement
  • Code Analysis and Coverage tools
  • Unit and Load Testing Tools
  • Application, System, Deployment, and Class Modeling tools
  • Source Control tools that allow both parallel and serial development modes, deep branching and merging capabilities, and orders of magnitudes faster than Source Safe.
  • Work item tracking (Requirements, Bugs, Tasks, Risks, etc.)
  • Better support for agile software development methods

[Now Playing: 890 WLS - NewsTalk 890 WLS - )]

Wednesday, May 19

FileDisassembler for Reflector 4.0

Denis Bauer has created an output plug in for Reflector FileDisassembler for Reflector 4.0
. So now you can get all the .net source code and save it into a file. It also works great for C# to VB conversion or visa versa, you could even convert to Delphi.Net if your into it :~}.

Tuesday, May 18

 James Doohan, who played Scotty in the original Star Trek, will make what is being billed as his last convention appearance, Aug. 28-30, in Hollywood, Calif., the official Trek Web site reported.


[Sci Fi Wire]

[Now Playing: 890 WLS - NewsTalk 890 WLS - )]

Crystal Reports Rant

Sometimes I really despise Crystal Reports. I don’t know if it’s a right brain/left brain thing or the product just sucks.

For instance, when you create a report it gives every control a tool tip, to problem is it’s the Name of the control, so users see @Text1. You would think there would be a global flag or an easy way to turn these tool tips off. WRONG. You have to go into every control and give the tool tip a value, you would think a space would work, but no, you have to put something obvious like chr(9). WTF is chr(9) ?

 

 

Smarten Up Your DataSets with XML Schema

One of the reasons not to use datasets has been overcome!

DataSet Inheritance
Smarten Up Your DataSets with XML Schema

Thursday, May 13

Zoey on Dogster.com

There's a new site so people can brag about thier Dogs. Post Pics
Its a cute site. So if you have a dog, join up and post some pics

Zoey
Dogster.com

Modding The Xbox Into The Ultimate Multimedia Center

Tom's Hardware Guide Peripherals & Consumer Electronics: Modding The Xbox Into The Ultimate Multimedia Center - Xbox Multimedia Capabilities Untapped

Turn your XBOX into a media center playing Movies and mp3s of your own network.

Quote of the Day

 A pessimist was talking to an optimist and he said

“It can’t get worse than this.”

The optimist replied, “Oh yes it can!”

--Pres. J. Bartlett, West Wing “Gaza” (5/12/04)

"The West Wing" Unofficial Continuity Guide

Wednesday, May 12


Melissa and Zoey Posted by Hello


Pimp Daddy Posted by Hello

Zoey Pic


Zoey BeePosted by Hello

Monday, May 10

Free Gary Meier

Free Gary Meier from WLS-AM radio.
His contract has been up since Jan. and Roe Conn has been doing solo since.
Roe's contract is ending soon. I hope he stays on WLS or another radio station where I can hear them via the internet.

  • Roe and Gary Unoffical Site

  • Start of With a Joke

    There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.