An important announcement

As I have said before, 2005 was a big year for me. I started the year ‘single’. I finished it with a wife, 2 kids and a mini-van! I suppose it is technically possible to have 2 kids in 1 calendar year, but with max being born in October, the timing would have had to have been perfect!

Sarah had Derek when I met her. The little guy told me one day “Daddy, Daddy, You’re my Daddy!”. He picked me! I can’t say I minded. He is a wonderful little boy. Super smart, never stops thinking. A true sweetheart. From day 1, the goal was always to build a family. It was important to Sarah and I that we be a family. Legally as well as emotionally. It took some work, a lot of bullshit and jumping through hoops, but ultimately I was able to legally adopt Derek. This was done some time ago. Thanks to living in Colorado, with Derek born in Maryland, courts being slow and all that jazz, it took some time to get this, but there you have it! We *FINALLY* have a legal birth certificate. We no longer need a bunch of paperwork and other stuff! It’s a great feeling. Knowing that chapter of our life is over!

3580 and counting…

At the beginning of September, I made a decision that I was not going to delete a single spam message for 1 month. I didn’t leave them all in my inbox, rather I let them get auto sorted, and if I foung them, I sorted them into my spam folder. Now, 29 days later, there are 3580 spam messages in there. I have only seen about 5-10 come through my inbox.

Now, I have in the past recommended a special email account for email lists, signing up for things, all that. Keeping your email very private so spammers don’t get it. Mine… well, it’s been on websites for 10 years, I am deep in the spammers grips. Nothing is going to keep them from sending it, but I don’t get it! You may ask how? I have tried just about everything. From Spamassassin, Challenge/Response systems, secret codes… I just get spammed, a lot! (almost 6 messages an hour on average!).

I set up my email through google hosting. It’s a free service that lets google manage your email and spam. You get TEXT based ads on the screen, but I find it well worth it. The downfall of the system is some people don’t like the gmail interface. I have embraced it. Simple, fast, clean… and 2 gig of email storage is more than enough for me! $9.00 domain registration, free hosting, no spam…. priceless!

Back in the saddle again

So it’s that toys-r-us time of year! Well, actually there are no toys involved, just me and the General Lee. I left work and rolled around for a while. Average speed was low, ride was slow, but it was exactly what I needed.

Ultimately, I think standing up was the worst part. When i was rolling down the gravel road I thought to myself “If I have to do some crazy bike stuff, this could be bad”. Then I thought “If I have to do some crazy bike stuff and can’t do the crazy bike stuff, I might crash and if I do that it will suck more than falling off a jet-ski”. All in all, I just relaxed and rode along for a while. It was peaceful and relaxing, like a cool autumn breeze!

I ran into an ex-coworker from Free Flite. He has moved on and is now working in a motorcycle shop. He is moving to NC soon, so it was cool to run into him. I rode a bit with him… This area I was riding in will be great for winter fixie riding and stuff. The cool thing is I can leave RIGHT from work! It’s a little noisy at first, being right next to 285, but it quiets down nicely!

Closure on my poorly routing GPS – it’s NOT the GPS!

So all of these photos are click-able… I encourage you to click on these as they will show you what has caused me “grief”. This first photo is a photo of the intersection directly off Google Maps. You can see, it’s a big, wide open intersection. I wish there were cars in it… but the no such luck. The next three photos… Well, I can’t truly believe!

I spent some time playing with the GPS software. It did the same thing! I was shocked, angered! How could the screw up so bad! In an effort to get ready to attack Garmin support tomorrow, I went to google maps and did a little routing. WHAT??!? It did the same thing! Let’s try MapQuest! SAME THING! Oh sheesh… this is crazy! Yahoo Maps … guess what? SAME THING! You have GOT to be kidding me… Nope!

Here is the evidence!

I’d love to tell you this makes sense. It doesn’t, but at least EVERY map site I tried is right!

I suppose, to make this REMOTELY productive…. I will rank the mapping sites on ease of use:

1. Google Maps
2. Yahoo Maps (Though it might be as easy, I am just used to google)
3. MapSource (Garmin Map Software – $120 … the others are free but don’t talk to my GPS)
4. MapQuest (The original is falling behind the others!)

The view from the office

0924070737.jpg,
originally uploaded by veloscott44.

So I came up the stairs at work this morning and it looked like a building was on fire! It was crazy. Took me a minute to sort all of this out. Ultimately, it wasn’t on fire… rather just a reflection. I am honestly surprised I was able to get a shot even that good considering the humidity in the ATL this morning is similar to the inside of an aquarium.

Oh… and the road down there, that is I-285 … aka “The Perimeter”. Now, this afternoon, it will look more like a parking lot!

Taking me for a loop?

So I really don’t know what to say here. I FINALLY got my new GPS. I love it. I use it a lot for random stuff, basically to help me know what time I will arrive someplace. Even if I know how to get there, I might use it… so I know when/where I will go.

Well, I was going to the Velodrome the other day. I know the way, but had the new GPS running. Going down a road I don’t turn on, it beeps and tells me I am going to turn, I look at it and it has me going around in a circle to go straight? I shot this quick photo for evidence, I think it is drunk or something?

In other odd news, I saw Bourne Ultimatum today! EXCELLENT MOVIE! Before the movie, I go to the bathroom and am using a urinal. I hear a some movement behind me in a stall. All of the sudden a guy says “Sure is lonely in here”. I didn’t say anything, nor did I wash my hands on the way out. It was time to go. Sorry for any issue there, but that was not cool! What is going on in this world? Men’s rooms are now pick up joints for freaks and Senators?

New geek toy … rss2email

So I downloaded some slick code today! It’s written in Python, I don’t know python, but … that’s okay! I just installed it and it works. What this does is takes the rss feed from my blog (or any rss/atom feed) and “watches it”. When it sees a new post, it emails whoever I told it to email.

Some of the geekier people might say, but you are already syndicated? (RSS stands for really simple syndication). Yes, but not everybody understands that. Not everybody has an RSS reader set up, so this help my family know when I blasted my latest ramblings to my blog.

Now, the sad thing is that… well, I had a tech geek oops tonight and probably delivered 200 emails to family members. Thankfully, not 200 to EACH! It was a slip, I apologized, hopefully they will still let me eat with them at the finer dining establishments!

Max ‘Armstrong’ Patton

We had just gotten home from the grocery store. I was putting away groceries and Derek was brining them in. I turn around and what do I see? Max, carrying a 12 pack of soda around! He picked it up a few times, we had some photographic issues but ultimately, the little man put up the big weight! Well, big weight if you haven’t hit your second birthday yet!

Mac vs PC

Many of you won’t know this about me. I have basically given up on the PC world. Well, that’s kind of stretching it. I own 2 XP systems, my wife has 1 as well, but at the same time, the computers we use the most are both Mac laptops! What brought on this change? Mac improving!

For years, I thought Apple computers were “bubble-gummy”. Great toys, they make great pictures and videos, but come on… you cant control them, you have limited options, only one mouse button… well those days are long gone. With the introduction of Mac OS X, the guys at Apple took a break from updating Mac OS and started over from scratch. They kept the user interface similar to the old world, but the backend is a Unix system. To keep this simple, Unix is a powerful operating system that has been known for years to be good for servers and computer geeks. Now, throw on a very user friendly front end and you have a SUPER powerful computer that’s very easy to use!

Now, here’s the kicker that got me to cross the line… for a long time Mac used a “PowerPC” chip made my Motorola. I don’t know why, but they decided “Let’s use Intel processors in our computers” and that’s what they did. I don’t know the details, but the new Intel based Mac’s offer one feature that the older ones don’t. They run Microsoft operating systems! That’s right, I am typing this blog entry in Windows XP on my MacBook Pro. Now, if you are a geek and you are reading this you will be saying “Old news”… well, yeah, but my blog is not really targeted at geeks, so go read someplace else! So, what does that mean…. a new Mac can do EVERYTHING a PC can do *AND* everything a Mac could/can do! The best of both worlds? I think so!

The final thing that put me over the edge… “computer design”. Simply put, I have owned/used laptops and computers made by HP, IBM, Dell, Compaq, Gateway, Toshiba and others. Simply put, Apple based hardware is the best made. The price tag is high, but the integration, design and appearance of hardware is incredible. The way the power cord wraps up, the way the magnetic power connector attaches to the laptop, the way the computer closes. It’s all designed well, looks good and works great!

So… there you have it! If you ask me what kind of computer you should buy, I will simply tell you…. “A mac”.

Got it!

You heard it here first! I got my GPS! That’s right, it’s in my hand, I own it, it’s mine. Of course I don’t have all the parts I need to make it work the way I want it to, but I am closer and now I can play with my software and upload everything! That will be cool!

Thankfully, playing with new gadgets makes me forget stuff like I just went through. I am going to write a letter to FedEx. I will likely post it here.

In case you were wondering, I got the Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx. My father uses one, I set one up for my father in law. It’s small, light, portable, fast… it rocks!