A good friend of mine interviewed with Google a while back, and I thought it would be cool to work there. Then, I read this article today. Now I really feel bad for him AND me, cause we should both work there. Many programmers I know would LOVE working there. The article starts off talking about Agile programming, but the middle of the article is about Google culture. I'm in love with Google now, and I'm considering doing everything I can to steer my career path so I can work there one fine day...
steve-yegge.blogspot.com: good-agile bad-agile
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
I've been using the "new hotmail" called Windows Live Mail (beta). My biggest complaint is the amount of space they use for advertizing at the top. But, I figured out a way to get around it.
First, you have to be using Firefox (or other configurable browsers). I have the Web Developer extension in Firefox, and in there, you can specify your own CSS style sheet. I just looked at the source code for the main page, found the CSS class name they were using for the advertisement and then added my own CSS like so:
.cAdBannerContainer
{
display: none;
}
Now, I get about 100 pixels more space on the screen. The only thing is I don't know how to make it so my CSS gets added to Firefox each time I open it. Right now, I have to reapply each time. If anyone knows how to make it apply to every page, please let me know.
First, you have to be using Firefox (or other configurable browsers). I have the Web Developer extension in Firefox, and in there, you can specify your own CSS style sheet. I just looked at the source code for the main page, found the CSS class name they were using for the advertisement and then added my own CSS like so:
.cAdBannerContainer
{
display: none;
}
Now, I get about 100 pixels more space on the screen. The only thing is I don't know how to make it so my CSS gets added to Firefox each time I open it. Right now, I have to reapply each time. If anyone knows how to make it apply to every page, please let me know.
Friday, September 01, 2006
My adventures in used phones...
Well, I learned a little bit last week. You see, my "old" Nokia phone was breaking. Two buttons stopped working... two of the most important buttons. First, the "go back" (in the menu) button stopped working, which makes it annoying to look up contacts or play games on your phone. Annoying because I had to use the "hang up" button to go back to the home screen each time. Also, some features while talking also become impossible.
The second button to break was the "hang up" button, which then meant I had to turn off my phone to end phone calls, stop games, or get back to the home screen. Needless to say, I needed a new phone.
Usually, I go to the Cingular store, get ask for the cheapest phone they have that I can upgrade to. They show me the expensive ones, and I say, what about that one that says it's free? They say, it doesn't have many features, and no one likes it, and I say I like it, and they forget about upselling me.
The "free" phone usually costs about $40 dollars because they "have to" charge you the taxes on the retail price, and they "have to" charge you a phone upgrade fee because it costs them $25 to open both phones and move a little chip from one phone to another. Tough job. It takes 5 minutes to do, and that works out to $300 an hour.
So I decided to try something new. I had heard about "unlocked" phones, which sounds really sexy, but usually, it just means that you can use the phone with more carriers, or you can use more features of the phone, like bluetooth.
I don't care about features really, and I was happy buying a cheap phone.
The first thing I learned is that if you don't care about fancy features, you can get a really cheap phone on eBay ($14 with shipping). The second thing I learned is that if you buy a phone that works with one provider (Cingular, Sprint, AT&T), it doesn't work with the others. The way I found that out is this: I bought a phone from a guy who marketed his phone as a AT&T, Cingular phone. I don't think he knew that AT&T and Cingular were not compatible. I certainly didn't know it.
So when I got the phone I was all excited and put my chip in. Turn on phone. Get message: "Phone Restricted". "Enter Restriction Code:" with a box for me to enter the code. I thought it wanted a password. I tried the basics... 1234, 4321, 1111. Clearly, I was not going to guess the number. Then I tried emailing the guy telling him my problem and asking for the password. No response.
Then I saw the line that said "carrier: AT&T, Cingular" and I guessed the problem. This phone will only work with AT&T! So I search on what code to enter. It turns out it's not a simple code. There is a phone ID marked on the inside of your phone that a technician can use to "unlock" the phone for all providers.
I ended up paying $5 to a group of guys that unlock phones by giving you the code via their website.
In the end, I paid $19 for a new, less-advanced phone. I will know what to do the next time I try this, but I'll never go to the Cingular store again, unless I "need" a phone with fancy features and they have a good price on it.
... as I side note, be careful if you sell old phones and PDAs. The "complete reset" function doesn't always delete your data. The phone I bought had not been reset at all, so I had a bunch of phone numbers of this guys friends and family. But I saw on ZDNet or CNet that sometimes people can use PCs to undelete information on a PDA. Very scary if you have important info on your phone.
Well, I learned a little bit last week. You see, my "old" Nokia phone was breaking. Two buttons stopped working... two of the most important buttons. First, the "go back" (in the menu) button stopped working, which makes it annoying to look up contacts or play games on your phone. Annoying because I had to use the "hang up" button to go back to the home screen each time. Also, some features while talking also become impossible.
The second button to break was the "hang up" button, which then meant I had to turn off my phone to end phone calls, stop games, or get back to the home screen. Needless to say, I needed a new phone.
Usually, I go to the Cingular store, get ask for the cheapest phone they have that I can upgrade to. They show me the expensive ones, and I say, what about that one that says it's free? They say, it doesn't have many features, and no one likes it, and I say I like it, and they forget about upselling me.
The "free" phone usually costs about $40 dollars because they "have to" charge you the taxes on the retail price, and they "have to" charge you a phone upgrade fee because it costs them $25 to open both phones and move a little chip from one phone to another. Tough job. It takes 5 minutes to do, and that works out to $300 an hour.
So I decided to try something new. I had heard about "unlocked" phones, which sounds really sexy, but usually, it just means that you can use the phone with more carriers, or you can use more features of the phone, like bluetooth.
I don't care about features really, and I was happy buying a cheap phone.
The first thing I learned is that if you don't care about fancy features, you can get a really cheap phone on eBay ($14 with shipping). The second thing I learned is that if you buy a phone that works with one provider (Cingular, Sprint, AT&T), it doesn't work with the others. The way I found that out is this: I bought a phone from a guy who marketed his phone as a AT&T, Cingular phone. I don't think he knew that AT&T and Cingular were not compatible. I certainly didn't know it.
So when I got the phone I was all excited and put my chip in. Turn on phone. Get message: "Phone Restricted". "Enter Restriction Code:" with a box for me to enter the code. I thought it wanted a password. I tried the basics... 1234, 4321, 1111. Clearly, I was not going to guess the number. Then I tried emailing the guy telling him my problem and asking for the password. No response.
Then I saw the line that said "carrier: AT&T, Cingular" and I guessed the problem. This phone will only work with AT&T! So I search on what code to enter. It turns out it's not a simple code. There is a phone ID marked on the inside of your phone that a technician can use to "unlock" the phone for all providers.
I ended up paying $5 to a group of guys that unlock phones by giving you the code via their website.
In the end, I paid $19 for a new, less-advanced phone. I will know what to do the next time I try this, but I'll never go to the Cingular store again, unless I "need" a phone with fancy features and they have a good price on it.
... as I side note, be careful if you sell old phones and PDAs. The "complete reset" function doesn't always delete your data. The phone I bought had not been reset at all, so I had a bunch of phone numbers of this guys friends and family. But I saw on ZDNet or CNet that sometimes people can use PCs to undelete information on a PDA. Very scary if you have important info on your phone.
Monday, July 10, 2006
one red paperclip blog
Can you believe this guy?? In one year he traded different items until he traded for a house! He started with a paperclip!!!
Can you believe this guy?? In one year he traded different items until he traded for a house! He started with a paperclip!!!
Friday, June 30, 2006
I read a blog about a cool new service called Fon. You use it for your Intenet connection. If you sign up, it's cheap, but you must offer up half of your Internet connection to let anyone connect to your router. Once you subscribe, you can travel and use others' routers to get your connection. Pretty good idea. You can even make money by selling bandwidth. They'll need a lot of subscribers to blanket enough area to make it really work though.
CNET review
Fon website
CNET review
Fon website
Friday, June 09, 2006
The other day I responed to a mass email saying that I thought electric cars are still not very green because our power plants are still not very green. I got a response from one of the recipients saying the following, which I found useful:
I think you are wrong to condem all plug in vehicles however. A typical battery electric car, whether fully electric or a plug in hybrid is very efficient. Our electric vehicles generally use about 0.3kWh for each mile travelled. From a cost perspective this means less than $.04 per mile in fuel cost, (about a quarter the cost of gasoline), create no local emissions when driving, and are refueled from the solar panels on the roof of our home.
Even when fueled from a coal power plant the emissions, from a plug-in car are far less than gasoline in almost every category. Check out the following presentation from Mark Kapner at Austin energy who has studied this at length.
http://airquality2005.tamu.edu/presentations/Plug%20In%20Hybrid.pdf
I beleive strongly that Plug-in vehicles are a very important part of our transportation future for both environmnental and economic concerns. You can find more information on the web-site for a group that I'm involoved with
www.pluginamerica.com
Please drop me an e-mail if you'd like more information or to discuss in more detail. mikewkane@yahoo.com
Ever wonder why we say "bye" as a farewell message to others? I did. What is a bye? You can have a good bye, but no one has heard of a bad bye. Well, here's the answer from an online dictionary:
ETYMOLOGY:
Alteration (influenced by good day) of God be with you
WORD HISTORY:
No doubt more than one reader has wondered exactly how goodbye is derived from the phrase "God be with you." To understand this, it is helpful to see earlier forms of the expression, such as God be wy you, god b'w'y, godbwye, god buy' ye, and good-b'wy. The first word of the expression is now good and not God, for good replaced God by analogy with such expressions as good day, perhaps after people no longer had a clear idea of the original sense of the expression. A letter of 1573 written by Gabriel Harvey contains the first recorded use of goodbye: "To requite your gallonde [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes," recalling another contraction that is still used.
Goodbye!
ETYMOLOGY:
Alteration (influenced by good day) of God be with you
WORD HISTORY:
No doubt more than one reader has wondered exactly how goodbye is derived from the phrase "God be with you." To understand this, it is helpful to see earlier forms of the expression, such as God be wy you, god b'w'y, godbwye, god buy' ye, and good-b'wy. The first word of the expression is now good and not God, for good replaced God by analogy with such expressions as good day, perhaps after people no longer had a clear idea of the original sense of the expression. A letter of 1573 written by Gabriel Harvey contains the first recorded use of goodbye: "To requite your gallonde [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes," recalling another contraction that is still used.
Goodbye!
Friday, May 26, 2006
Office 2007 is looking pretty cool. A lot of new features are being added. It's not a lame update that Office 2003 was. I know there are a lot of Microsoft haters out there, but you should check this out if only to know what other vendors and open source projects (like OpenOffice) should be adding to their products:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/ui/demo.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/ui/demo.mspx
Friday, May 19, 2006
So I was thinking about buying a hybrid. I love all the technology, but I still fear that because there are two engines to maintain, and batteries, that in the long run, it will cost much more than a "regular" car. I was thinking maybe I should get a great fuel economy car like the new Toyota, Yaris. It gets 39 vs the Prius which gets 51. I know both are actually lower most of the time.
But then I got to thinking about biodiesel. It seems like such a great technology, and it's very green. It's more expensive than gas, but not a lot more. If you created a hybrid diesel car, then you could use biodiesel and be the greenest guy around. Unless of course, you are taking public transportation instead.
So I searched Google, and thank goodness, someone is doing this. Unfortunately, it's mostly done on buses and mostly in Europe.
Diesel-electric hybrid cars now
This guy claims we could easily achieve 80 mpg, which I doubt. But even 60 would be amazing. And the best part is we wouldn't have to invent anything or create a whole new system to deliver energy that we would have to do with hydrogen fuel cells.
Another cool idea. Use HHO gas. It's like H2, but less volitile. Guess what the source of this fuel is. Drumroll please.... H2O. Yes, water. This guy created a car that is a water-gas hybrid. It gets around 100 miles using 4 ounces of water. I don't know how much gas was used. Crazy. Just know that it takes a lot of electricity to make water into HHO gas. In the end, this is not a cost efficient method at this time, but with green power plants (solar/wind/tide) and solar cars, it could become more viable.
Water Fuel - HHO Gas
Also: Water Fuel is used in Canada
I just hope in 20 years we are not allowing the oil/energy companies to convince us that we need to keep buying fuel from them. There's more than enough using biodiesel, maybe water and the sun. Speaking of the sun... how about a solar-enhanced Prius? This guy made a prototype that got 10% better fuel economy.
Solar-enhanced Prius
But then I got to thinking about biodiesel. It seems like such a great technology, and it's very green. It's more expensive than gas, but not a lot more. If you created a hybrid diesel car, then you could use biodiesel and be the greenest guy around. Unless of course, you are taking public transportation instead.
So I searched Google, and thank goodness, someone is doing this. Unfortunately, it's mostly done on buses and mostly in Europe.
Diesel-electric hybrid cars now
This guy claims we could easily achieve 80 mpg, which I doubt. But even 60 would be amazing. And the best part is we wouldn't have to invent anything or create a whole new system to deliver energy that we would have to do with hydrogen fuel cells.
Another cool idea. Use HHO gas. It's like H2, but less volitile. Guess what the source of this fuel is. Drumroll please.... H2O. Yes, water. This guy created a car that is a water-gas hybrid. It gets around 100 miles using 4 ounces of water. I don't know how much gas was used. Crazy. Just know that it takes a lot of electricity to make water into HHO gas. In the end, this is not a cost efficient method at this time, but with green power plants (solar/wind/tide) and solar cars, it could become more viable.
Water Fuel - HHO Gas
Also: Water Fuel is used in Canada
I just hope in 20 years we are not allowing the oil/energy companies to convince us that we need to keep buying fuel from them. There's more than enough using biodiesel, maybe water and the sun. Speaking of the sun... how about a solar-enhanced Prius? This guy made a prototype that got 10% better fuel economy.
Solar-enhanced Prius
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
So I took Ken's suggestion and looked up orthopedic on etymonline.com. It looks as though orthopedics started as the correction of bones in children. Maybe for things like scoliosis.
orthopedic
1840, from Fr. orthopédique, coined by Fr. physician Nicholas Andry (1658-1742), from Gk. orthos "straight, correct" + paideia "rearing of children," from pais (gen. paidos) "child.".
More sort-of-bad news. Christina went to the doctor on Tuesday last week, and he said that things don't look as good as he hoped they would after 5 weeks of having a cast on. There are three things he looks for:
Her next appointment is in a week. Hopefully, everything will have improved. Since she doesn't have a cast, I suppose her alignment could get worse (it was "perfect" last week). If things don't look good enough, she'll have to have surgery late next week. Let's all hope that doesn't happen.
- Alignment of the bones at the ankle
- Splintering has improved
- Bone density has increased
Her next appointment is in a week. Hopefully, everything will have improved. Since she doesn't have a cast, I suppose her alignment could get worse (it was "perfect" last week). If things don't look good enough, she'll have to have surgery late next week. Let's all hope that doesn't happen.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Went to the orthopedist for my wife again. Everything's looking good, so she should have the cast off for good in 4 weeks. I was thinking about the word orthopedic. It seems that it would have to do with feet because of the "ped" in it, but it doesn't. The definition is:
Ortho must mean bone or something in Latin. I wish I knew someone who took 4 years of Latin in High School who could help me out... :)
In other news, I got back to working on my online game, Yacht Race Online. I've got it working slightly better than it was before. I already found a big bug, but I'm pretty sure I know how to fix it.
I hadn't seen the code for a while, and it was pretty bad in parts. I was just learning .NET at that time, and wasn't sure how I wanted to write some of the objects, but I definitely would like to change some of it now. Maybe I'll get to change some more code soon.
The branch of medicine that deals with the prevention or correction of injuries or disorders of the skeletal system and associated muscles, joints, and ligaments.
Ortho must mean bone or something in Latin. I wish I knew someone who took 4 years of Latin in High School who could help me out... :)
In other news, I got back to working on my online game, Yacht Race Online. I've got it working slightly better than it was before. I already found a big bug, but I'm pretty sure I know how to fix it.
I hadn't seen the code for a while, and it was pretty bad in parts. I was just learning .NET at that time, and wasn't sure how I wanted to write some of the objects, but I definitely would like to change some of it now. Maybe I'll get to change some more code soon.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Here's a picture of my Dad signing Christina's bright pink cast. He is writing Tickle Tickle on the bottom.My parents, my sister and Flex came over for dinner a week ago to help out and to give us some news...
Brenda and Flex got engaged! He proposed to her on Thursday, February 9th, I think. It was after dinner.
My sister has a date in mind already: 7/7/07. Apparently it's a pretty hot date, because we called the Mission Inn in Riverside and they have a 6 person waiting list for an evening wedding on that date.Here's a photo of Brenda and Flex from that night.
Friday, February 17, 2006
I've got some bad news. It's actually kind of old bad news too. My wife broke her left ankle on Saturday, February 4th. It's been pretty bad. I mean from everyone whose broken an ankle, they say it's the worst. I might agree. I suppose breaking your back may be worse. And breaking your neck means wearing that goofy head gear. But at least you can walk. My wife's been hobbling around on crutches and doing simple things like going to the restroom can be a big ordeal. Taking care of our son is basically impossible for her, so we've been enlisting the help of family to help us out.My work is letting me work from home, but I think they are letting me do it mostly because I said that I thought I was going to have to go on medical leave for 6 weeks.
So the way it happened was this. We were at our nieces 2-years old birthday party, and the birthday girl was playing up high on some dirt behind a 4-foot retaining wall. My wife was afraid she'd fall, so she went to help. The niece jumped into her arms, but my wife wasn't quite ready for that. My wife was on a 5-inch planter bed wall, and when she stepped back and turned... snap crackle pop. A few people heard the break, but no one thought she had broke it.
My brother-in-law happens to be an x-ray technician, so we went to the hospital where he works. We took x-rays of both of her feet and found the fracture easily. Her other foot was injured as well, but not broken.
She will be on crutches for 6-8 weeks total. Right now has a pink cast for the first 4 weeks. Pink because of Valentine's Day... of course.
Wish her a speedy recovery!
Found a couple websites today that offer you a look at pictures of meals... one shows you airline meals, and the other homemade meals. They both offer more than you think they would:
http://www.airlinemeals.net
http://www.bluetablemeals.com
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