TFANDANGO

2011 NCAAFB Rankings - Week 1

2011-09-07T09:04:00.002-05:00

As usual, the first week looks pretty strange to the computer, there's not much to compare, and the data that is there is usually skewed because many teams blow out cupcakes at the beginning of the season, while others (LSU and Oregon this week) have tough games. The results will even out as more data is available. #1 Rutgers index = 1.0 #2 Ohio State index = 1.0 #3 Florida State index =

Mozy, I am angry with you...

2011-02-01T16:26:00.002-06:00

I've been using Mozy for backup services for a while now. I've been pretty happy with them, however, I just received an email which says they are jacking prices up, in my case to about 14 bucks a month (from $5.00). That's not okay. This will be my last month with Mozy, anyone know any good alternatives?

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 14

2010-12-06T14:50:00.002-06:00

Conference championships are over and all that's left if BCS bowls (and a million other bowls including the new Pinstripe Bowl in the new Yankees stadium because we didn't have enough bowls already). Results look pretty much how you think they should look, the one glaring thing to note here is the slight, ever so slight, edge that TCU has over Oregon which would put them in my national

BabyJogger FIT Review

2010-12-01T15:47:00.003-06:00

Here's my quick and dirty review of the BabyJogger FIT running stroller.I received the stroller packed tight in a box from my local running store, OK Runner. I was surprised at the size of the box, expecting something much larger. So was the guy working at the store who joked about how long it was going to take me to set it up.AssemblyWhen I got home, I opened the box and there were 4 parts

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 13

2010-11-29T11:47:00.002-06:00

The final regular game of the season is in the books! Next week we have conference championships and then we're on to bowl season. A lot of big things happened this weekend! Boise lost to Nevada, who moved up to #8 in these rankings, a little high IMHO. LSU and Alabama are on the way down losing to their SEC rivals. And of course, OU beat OSU in on hell of a bedlam game.The big difference

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 12

2010-11-22T09:04:00.002-06:00

Not much changed this week, a lot of the top teams were off this past weekend. Next weekend will be interesting.1) Auburn (SEC) [135.03079079301574] 2) Texas Christian (MWC) [133.026315393414] 3) Oregon (Pac 10) [131.12493991828887] 4) Boise State (WAC) [129.77027516817444] 5) Stanford (Pac 10) [127.7452062490938] 6) Ohio State (Big Ten) [127.08886562998404] 7) Northern Illinois (MAC) [

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 11

2010-11-15T15:29:00.002-06:00

No lengthy commentary here today, too busy... Except look at that, TCU jumped Oregon based on Oregon's almost loss this week. Rankings:1) Auburn (SEC) [134.9799886539783] 2) Texas Christian (MWC) [132.87424047288818] 3) Oregon (Pac 10) [131.1285284350353] 4) Boise State (WAC) [128.73004283489098] 5) Stanford (Pac 10) [126.33843429776972] 6) Ohio State (Big Ten) [125.62753499641063] 7) Louisiana

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 10

2010-11-08T08:07:00.004-06:00

Looks like an interesting week in college football. Les Miles managed to luck out (I'm guessing, didn't watch) a win against Alabama, and Texas A&M managed to beat OU. I did watch that game, unfortunately. So we have some interesting results this week, Auburn takes the #1 spot and surprise, surprise, TCU in the #2 spot after a dominating performance against Utah. Realistically, I think TCU is

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 9

2010-11-01T08:21:00.002-05:00

Auburn remains in the #1 spot this week. Missouri and Michigan State drop out of the top 5 and Utah, Oregon, and Boise State move up to take their places. I'm pretty happy with these results, everything feel like it's in the right place. And my percentage correct ratio is up to 58%. 1) Auburn (SEC) [135.26614114114113] 2) Texas Christian (MWC) [133.04251044680166] 3) Utah (MWC) [

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 8

2010-10-25T10:37:00.001-05:00

Week 8 is out. And it was a tough one for the Big 12 south. Missouri made a big move on OU this weekend and was rewarded with the #2 spot, and just like the BCS, Auburn takes #1. 1) Auburn (SEC) [135.59600862998923] 2) Missouri (Big 12) [133.89971850691515] 3) Michigan State (Big Ten) [133.8020011034717] 4) Texas Christian (MWC) [133.06733679204496] 5) Utah (MWC) [130.9481257610565] 6) Oregon

BCS, OU vs. Boise State

2010-10-22T15:10:00.003-05:00

There's a lot of talk recently concerning OU's leap to the #1 BCS ranking even though they are ranked #3 in the AP poll (3 first place votes), with Boise State and Oregon ahead of them. On one hand, I think this makes sense. OU has had a difficult schedule this year and it's only getting tougher. Boise State's schedule is not as difficult and since margin of victory is disregarded, there's no

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 7

2010-10-18T09:24:00.002-05:00

Well, well, well... BCS is out and look who's on top. OU takes the #1 spot officially because they have a strong schedule. My ranker thinks they belong at #5, which still seems about right to me. LSU is this weeks #1, which makes sense because my computer doesn't realize how damn lucky they get every single week. I like Auburn at #2 but I'd like to see Oregon a little higher up. Missouri

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 6

2010-10-11T09:10:00.002-05:00

The results are starting to look a little more legit. I like Ohio State, Auburn, Oklahoma and Oregon in the top 10. LSU must get a modifier for getting damn lucky every single game. Missouri is about to get Oklahoma at home, that should be a better game than we could have imagined. Still not sure what Nevada is doing there. Correct ratio is at 63.33333333333333%.1) Ohio State (Big Ten) [

Babyjogger FIT

2010-10-06T14:14:00.004-05:00

Just got a call from the local running store letting me know that the Babyjogger FIT jogging stroller I ordered [seen below] is in. A wise runner once told me it's easier to get out of the house to go running if you "take some meat with you". Innuendo aside, I'll try taking along some meat next time and maybe I can get out of the house before 9:00pm. Look for a review in the next couple of

Embassy Suites, Livestrong 5K

2010-10-06T11:49:00.005-05:00

Broke through the 25 minute mark in my last 5K, ran it in 23:37. I didn't think that would be possible this summer, since my prior best time was in the 26 minute ballpark. Yet fate intervened, or maybe caffeine failed to intervene, and I did something that dramatically increased my time. I forgot the GPS.I love my Garmin 305. And I love having all the numbers to crunch from all my runs (

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 5

2010-10-05T08:45:00.004-05:00

Week 5 is in the books. I'm not too thrilled about the top 10 teams this week. LSU needs a negative modifier just for having Les Miles as a coach, that guy is insane. Auburn and Nevada don't belong in there, and I'm not too sure about Arizona either. I'm just glad this thing isn't drinking the Boise State koolaid! Fixed a bug in the prediction code, I'm up to 60.8%. 1) Ohio State (Big Ten) [

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 4

2010-09-27T10:03:00.001-05:00

1) Stanford (Pac 10) [139.69940476190476] 2) Alabama (SEC) [136.70024613220815] 3) Arizona (Pac 10) [136.54411764705884] 4) Nevada (WAC) [136.43910256410257] 5) Auburn (SEC) [135.83015267175574] 6) Louisiana State (SEC) [135.41588050314465] 7) Florida (SEC) [135.2335816777042] 8) Missouri (Big 12) [133.633600860086] 9) Michigan (Big Ten) [133.4176829268293] 10) Southern California (Pac 10) [

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 3

2010-09-21T09:44:00.001-05:00

Percentage of games called correctly is slowly climbing. Percentage Correct = 28.07017543859649%This weeks rankings.1) Stanford (Pac 10) [137.67152103559872] 2) Arizona (Pac 10) [137.45] 3) Alabama (SEC) [137.44257877280265] 4) Texas Christian (MWC) [135.425] 5) Boston College (ACC) [135.0] 6) Auburn (SEC) [134.91666666666666] 7) Louisiana State (SEC) [133.7781007751938] 8) Florida (SEC) [

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 2

2010-09-13T09:47:00.001-05:00

1) California (Pac 10) [144.85576923076923] 2) Iowa (Big Ten) [140.125] 3) Boston College (ACC) [137.5] 4) Baylor (Big 12) [136.93627450980392] 5) Michigan (Big Ten) [135.1860632183908] 6) North Carolina State (ACC) [134.91666666666666] 7) Oregon (Pac 10) [132.66666666666666] 8) Michigan State (Big Ten) [132.453431372549] 9) Texas A&M (Big 12) [132.08333333333334] 10) Texas (Big 12) [

2010 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 1

2010-09-09T08:51:00.004-05:00

Not much data to work with here, but here's what the computer came up with after the first week of college football!1) Arizona (Pac 10) [121.26829268292683] 2) Syracuse (Big East) [120.44827586206897] 3) Colorado (Big 12) [120.125] 4) Oregon (Pac 10) [115.0] 5) Texas (Big 12) [114.5] 6) Wisconsin (Big Ten) [114.3170731707317] 7) Alabama (SEC) [114.0625] 8) Missouri (Big 12) [113.52173913043478] 9

Disturbing time at the Running store

2010-03-02T23:16:00.011-06:00

My last post was brief, but all about running in Vibram Five Fingers. While I'm up to 7 -8 miles in them, I'm logging 18-20 on the weekends as I get ready to run the OKC Memorial Marathon at the end of April. So as I transition to VFFs, I still wear shoes for longer runs.I am currently wearing a pair of Asics 2140s which I got at my local running store. The guy there took a look at my old

Vibram Five Fingers

2010-03-01T15:30:00.002-06:00

I've been running in these babies for a while now. I'm up to roughly 7 or 8 miles in them, on pavement, and I can say that I do not miss the technology I usually wear on my feet when running! It's amazing how different you run, instinctually, when not wearing shoes!

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 13

2009-12-07T10:58:00.002-06:00

Well the end of NCAA football is upon us. Looks like my rankings have favored non-BCS teams, slightly edging out the more illustrious top 5 teams by having to schedule more difficult opening games. This is especially the case with Texas this year with meaningless wins agains Louisiana-Monroe and UTEP. 1) Texas Christian (MWC)[137.71637426900583] 2) Boise State (WAC)[137.21280441400305] 3)

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 12

2009-12-01T16:22:00.001-06:00

Hah, non-BSC teams take the top 2 spots.1) Texas Christian (MWC)[137.77020202020202] 2) Boise State (WAC)[137.15828940763052] 3) Alabama (SEC)[134.6073275480106] 4) Texas (Big 12)[132.55959302325581] 5) Florida (SEC)[131.09756059047515] 6) Cincinnati (Big East)[130.5656875472342] 7) Iowa (Big Ten)[120.53081893524372] 8) Oregon (Pac 10)[118.4125882108759] 9) Pittsburgh (Big East)[

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 11

2009-11-19T16:38:00.001-06:00

No Big surprises here...1) Texas Christian (MWC)[138.38630089717049] 2) Boise State (WAC)[137.27021144278606] 3) Alabama (SEC)[135.09501399169045] 4) Texas (Big 12)[133.63589743589742] 5) Cincinnati (Big East)[132.0877404619443] 6) Florida (SEC)[126.8297951655941] 7) Pittsburgh (Big East)[126.7178454548343] 8) Georgia Tech (ACC)[120.37467061923583] 9) Iowa (Big Ten)[118.93870964028247] 10) Oregon

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 10

2009-11-11T23:33:00.002-06:00

Well, it happened... Iowa finally lost. And collectively we all lost the chance to see one heck of a BCS disaster this year. However, the rankings this week are pretty interesting. Both non BCS teams, TCU and Boise St. are in the #1 and #2 positions. Iowa, having just lost, is somehow still ahead of Florida, who hasn't. I may be weighting quality wins a little high. Anyway, here are the

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 9

2009-11-02T13:23:00.006-06:00

Here's the week 9 rankings. These are fairly close to BCS, especially in that they all seem to like Iowa. Though I suppose most of the computers haven't seen the dramatic week after week of comeback victories against unsurmountable odds. Or perhaps they want to see Iowa do the same in the Championship game against a bigger team like Texas or Florida?We're gearing up for another BCS quagmire

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 8

2009-11-02T13:23:00.003-06:00

Sorry I missed the post last week, here were the numbers. week 9 in moments...1) Iowa (Big Ten)[139.4935400516796] 2) Texas Christian (MWC)[138.04228121927235] 3) Boise State (WAC)[137.73426870748298] 4) Alabama (SEC)[134.42980369641296] 5) Cincinnati (Big East)[133.6743827160494] 6) Texas (Big 12)[131.0457626413839] 7) Florida (SEC)[127.07269279393174] 8) Oregon (Pac 10)[125.83629877943959] 9)

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 7

2009-10-19T14:09:00.002-05:00

Well, a disappointing Saturday in my house. OU dropping to Texas and loosing Bradford, again, ouch! This is just one of those years were not too much seems to work out, but that's okay, there's still plenty of good football to watch. Here's this weeks list. Iowa still on top, but teams like Boise and TCU are sneaking up on them. The real BCS has Florida, Alabama, and Texas as 1, 2, and 3,

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 6

2009-10-12T15:47:00.002-05:00

Week 6 is in the books and it looks like Iowa is still #1, taking out Michigan this week. Boise State, Alabama, and TCU are neck and neck in the second, third, and forth spots. 1) Iowa (Big Ten)[139.18369829683698] 2) Boise State (WAC)[134.43684731985306] 3) Alabama (SEC)[134.25994139300593] 4) Texas Christian (MWC)[134.18870396054862] 5) Cincinnati (Big East)[132.09397546897546] 6) Texas (Big

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 5

2009-10-08T11:41:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the late post for Week 5. Iowa still on top, followed by TCU sneaking up to #2 with a pretty decent schedule backing them up. LSU and the Mad Hatter planted at #3 but getting ready to go up against a possibly Tebow-less #9 Florida team this weekend. Number #4 is Boise State, the school with the nicest fans I've ever met (Fiesta bowl vs OU, ugh!). Alabama and Texas and Florida are

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 4

2009-09-29T12:40:00.002-05:00

New rankings are up. Fixed a bug this time which caused wins against previously ranked opponents not count as much as they should have. As a result, Iowa bounced to the top after beating Penn State, while Texas and Florida left the top 5 since they have only played chumps so far this year. I like Houston's spot, after beating the tar out of Oklahoma State and dismantling Texas Tech this

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 3

2009-09-21T13:54:00.003-05:00

Ahh, the results are starting to make a little sense now. Alabama has moved up to 1st place with Penn State and Texas both in the top 5. So we are starting to mirror the real poll results a little bit at least. And a big blowout win against an explosive Tulsa offense has vaulted Oklahoma up the ranks to #31. Yay!1) Alabama (SEC)[129.26837270341207] 2) Kansas (Big 12)[128.49358974358975] 3)

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 2

2009-09-15T09:36:00.003-05:00

2 weeks worth of data make a big difference, the results are starting to look a little better as there is a tiny bit of data to calculate how good your opponent was. Still pretty sketchy though, as you can see there s a 5 way tie for 4th place. I hate to see my own code ranking Texas as #2 though, we may have to make a special case for Texas:if (team == texas) rank = 0;OU didn't get much cred

2009 NCAA Football Rankings, Week 1

2009-09-10T15:22:00.004-05:00

Week one of NCAA football is over. It was disappointing for me, Oklahoma falling to BYU, Sam Bradford got hurt, the nation's best tight end is out for the year... While all of this was going on, other Big 12 teams were decimating their opponents. Hopefully OU can plug the holes and get back on track this week against Idaho State.I fired up my old NCAA ranking code on this weeks data, not much

OKC Memorial Half Marathon Experience

2009-04-28T10:04:00.003-05:00

First the numbers:Finish Time: 2:33:27 (GUN), 2:28:09 (NET)Average Mile: 11:18Average Speed: 5.3 MphPlace for entire field: 3241th place! (right in the middle)Place for age: 285th place (71% of age group finished before me)Place for gender: 1553rd place (78% of men finished before me)Comments on these numbers:The places are all gun time, I'm not sure what they would be considering the NET time (

Troy A Daley tracking update from finish

2009-04-26T09:03:00.001-05:00

Troy A Daley - finish at 2:28:08

Troy A Daley tracking update from 10k

2009-04-26T07:42:00.001-05:00

Troy A Daley - 10k at 1:06:33; expect finish at 8:55 AM

athlete tracking confirmation code

2009-04-25T17:45:00.002-05:00

I enabled athlete tracking for the OKC Memorial Run and sent the email to the blog. Every time I pass a checkpoint, the email ought to show up here as a blog post! Yay technology, we'll see if it works.Oh, and apparently I have one loyal reader! Yay again for RSS feeds!

OKC Memorial Marathon

2009-04-24T14:36:00.002-05:00

It's been FOREVER since I've posted anything to this stupid blog. I've been way too busy to spend time writing things here that (if google analytics is correct), two strangers a month read. But here I go again...I'll be running the OKC Memorial Half-Marathon. There's a whole marathon, but I'm only running half. It's still 13.1 miles, which is a lot of miles when you put them all together.

Ruby v Joel

2006-09-01T10:41:00.000-05:00

well said.

2006-08-24T09:55:00.000-05:00

This is a test blog from www.writely.com. It's nice, for basic general documents, maybe for blogging too. But there are just too many missing features to make this a permanent solution to Word or OpenOffice. For example, there are no headers or footers, and most importantly, no way to manage styles. I've become a style maniac lately and I'm not sure if I can use this without styles. But,

Vacation

2006-07-19T15:48:00.000-05:00

I'll be out for 2 weeks. Posting will be done remotely from the Blackberry, but only if I have something really great to say.

Is It Okay To Write a Harry Potter Alike?

2006-07-17T13:31:00.000-05:00

I was shopping at Borders the other day, picking up the new Olivia book for the kids. The kids section is special part of the store with little spacemen painted on the walls and dragons looming overhead. There is, of course, a Harry Potter section, containing not only the paperbacks, not only the hardbacks, not only the paperback 6 book set or the hardback 6 book set*, but a whole array of

This is a test

2006-07-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

Published from email. Yay.

Holy Cow... Use the scales for crying out loud!

2006-07-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

Amazingly, I went to a pizza shop last night. The same chain (though not the same store) that used to count me as a valued employee. The pizza was smothered with cheese! Way, way too much cheese. One piece filled me up and left me feeling totally cheesed out. I sweated cheese the next morning at the gym.Ironically, the whole time I spent chewing, I was thinking, "Use the scales!"

Wordpress... RIP

2006-07-14T15:16:00.000-05:00

My host at http://troy.morpheus.net migrated to a new server. I can't complain, but something funky happened with the apache setup and I can't get to my "Wordpress Dashboard". That's cool, I was tired of tinkering with it anyway, so this is a good excuse to put the thing to rest.I'll go back to using blogger full time (what, like 10 minutes a month?). There's something that bothers me about

Use The Scales!

2006-07-06T22:37:00.000-05:00

Trying to squeeze every penny of profit out of a pizza is a tough job. It requires the use of a rather complicated equation where the variables are...size of pizzaladles of sauceounces of cheesenumber of pepperonietcThe end goal, obviously, is to spend less on ingredients (and wages) than you sell the pizza for. So the optimal solution is to make a pizza as fast as humanly possible using the

Harry Potter

2006-07-03T10:52:00.000-05:00

I refused to read Harry Potter books for quite some time, not because the content conflicts with my religious beliefs, or because it was childish, but because I was afraid it would influence me in the writing of my own book for the same target age group.So I've finished my book and started listening to Harry Potter audiobooks on the iPod. Can I just say, I'm totally hooked. I can't wait for the

So I met this girl

2006-06-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

So I met my wife at the pizza shop. Well, only she wasn't my wife when I met her. Maybe this should start: So I met this girl at the pizza shop. She worked there too.The pizza shop did not approve of employee's dating one another, a time honored and long violated policy that seems to be shared by most companies and violated by most employees. These are the kind of companies that generally

RSS and IE

2005-06-27T08:33:00.000-05:00

Whoohoo! Looks like Internet Explorer is getting RSS support and Tabs! The funny thing about this is that MS sent some guy to Gnomedex to announce it.Congratulations, 2 features we've had for years.

Unit Testing Database Code

2005-04-28T15:38:00.000-05:00

Unit testing has become second hand to many developers lately. I strive to keep my jUnit coverage as high as possible, and my unit tests as relevant as possible. But over the years, I've consistently run into one nagging problem. How do you unit test code that interacts with a database?The answer, on the surface, is a simple one: write a unit test that calls a method and check its result. But,

Bobby Shaftoe

2005-04-18T15:26:00.000-05:00

Admirers of Cryptonomicon, and maybe The Baroque Cycle (here, here, and here) may be interested in this rhyme I stubmled upon in one of my daughter's nursery rhyme books this weekend... Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea, Silver buckles at his knee; He'll come back and marry me, Bonny Bobby Shaftoe. Bobby Shaftoe's bright and fair, Combing down his yellow hair, He's my ain for ever mair, Bonny

Grokster

2005-03-29T15:30:00.000-06:00

A very good recounting of the Grokster Supreme Court hearings today.

It's all about characters, not plot

2005-03-25T15:30:00.000-06:00

It seems strange, but I'm convinced that one could write an award winning book, devoid of any real plot. Say about a guy who's sole mission in life is to sharpen every pencil he comes in contact with. That's not much of a plot, but I've realized that a good story isn't usually about plot, but instead about characters. If the pencil guy was the most interesting character ever written, then plot is

Mini Mac

2005-03-24T13:27:00.000-06:00

Help a guy out.

Words in 3 Paragraphs.

2005-03-22T09:44:00.000-06:00

Now that the book is finished, I feel both a sense of accomplishment, and a sense that a whole lot of subsequent book-related work needs to be done. Being unpublished, as I am, I must now write a short synopsis of the book which I will send to publishers asking if they'd like to read it or not. This synopsis must be less than a page, grab the reader's attention, and give away all the surprises

Million Dollar Crybaby [SPOILERS]

2005-03-01T09:38:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of this so called "controversy" about the movie Million Dollar Baby. There's too many people claiming that this movie is just a very, very expensive commercial for stem cell research by Hollywood liberals. It's just a big political statement.I wonder, what statement is the Governator trying to make when he blows both good guys and bad guys away in

Scanner Darkly

2005-02-25T08:38:00.000-06:00

If you haven't read a Phillip K Dick novel, do yourself a favor and pick one up at the library. This guy's stories are the basis for countless movies. The next one in line looks to be Scanner Darkly [QuickTime trailer]. It looks pretty darn cool, check out the cool motion capture to animation technique.UPDATE: Thanks to the guys at Boing Boing for posting this by Rustmonkey, earlier concept for

OSX v Windows

2005-02-17T11:21:00.000-06:00

I just read this article. The author wonders why people put up with the viruses and worms that attack Windows installations when one could just buy a Mac and engage in worry free computing for the rest of their lives. I agree that preventing attacks on a Microsoft's operating system does add considerable complexity for novice users, and at best minor annoyance for power users. I also agree that

APL... Speeeeeeeelit!

2005-02-13T18:40:00.000-06:00

Bought APL at 27 bucks, It's almost 80 now and they announced a split for Feb 18th! Sweet!

Coroline

2005-02-08T09:24:00.000-06:00

I recently finished a book called Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. It waited patiently for me to finish my obligation to Neal Stephenson and his speed bump sized books. It waited patiently for me to work my way though another Michael Crichton book that seemed like something I'd read at least tem times before. It even waited patiently while Lemony Snicket made me wollow in the grief of the Baudelaire

My new best friend, Wood Putty

2005-02-03T16:09:00.000-06:00

I am now convinced that anything woodworking-wise can be fixed with a healthy gob of wood putty. I attached the bookshelf base two nights ago. I did a pretty good job of measuring so the bookcase fit snugly into the base. There was a rather noticable gap however between the base and the bottom of the bookshelf in the center, as if the base bowed out a bit in the middle. My solution to this

Ouch, no iPod for me!

2005-02-03T11:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I tried to get my free ipod via freeipods.com and I got my account placed on hold. I referred some family members in my own house and that's against the rules. Now I'm waiting for them to consider my excuse and do nothing about it. In the mean time, I'm determined to get something from these guys: http://www.FreeiPodShuffle.com/?r=13994920

I need a razor and a goatee!

2005-01-28T10:16:00.000-06:00

Listening to (and glancing at) Neal Stephenson's very interesting talk at the National Book Festival here. Thinking about shaving my head and growing a cool Stephenson goatee.

Sundance Films

2005-01-28T08:18:00.000-06:00

Check out this link. Some good, some bad. Fairly painless registration required.

Pottery Barn Nightmare

2005-01-27T10:32:00.000-06:00

The Pottery Barn magazine shows up in our mailbox every month. Every month my wife opens it up to the page with a bookshelf that looks like a dollhouse. It's $400.00 dollars and both of us know that's a ridiculous amount to pay for, as I call it, "Boards nailed together and painted." So after months of me saying, "I could build that for a lot less!" without having the slightest bit of experience

11 Trillion?

2005-01-21T16:54:00.000-06:00

Where does President Bush get his 11 Trillion dollar Social Security shortfall estimate from? Are we young workers going to get shafted when it comes to Social Security unless changes are made? Well, let's look at the real numbers, see this article (complete with references, imagine that?) It's not as bad as you are being led to believe.

Chasing Nuts

2005-01-19T13:25:00.000-06:00

My daughter often remembers things people say to her and uses those things later in conversation. Occasionally, similar words intervene... The other day, she said, "Am I chasing you nuts Daddy?" with hilarious (albeit embarrassing) consequences.

The Bob Vila DIY Programming Method

2005-01-19T09:20:00.000-06:00

In my experience, there are two kinds of developers: Those who do everything themselves, and those who don't. There's a certain logic (no pun intended) in writing all the code by oneself. You understand EVERYTHING, to the very core of what it is that you are writing. A Programmer does not have to learn any pesky APIs or figure out how to integrate an existing project into theirs. And I

Done?

2005-01-18T09:21:00.000-06:00

The book is done. This is a big milestone for me, the culmination of something that I said I could do, I started doing it, and I actually did it. It's been fun, rough, disheartening, and enlightening, an amalgamation of emotions. Will it be published? Probably not. Will anyone read it? Well, I've read it, does that count? Is it really finished? Not if anyone likes it enough to tell me what's

MacWorld... More than just Jobs?

2005-01-18T09:16:00.000-06:00

I've never been to a MacWorld and I don't own a Mac (I aspire to someday), but I'm always glued to my monitor on MacWorld Day. Here's a good look at what else was on show there besides the Steve Jobs Keynote, see Alan Graham's blog.

Want A Screw?

2004-12-07T23:36:00.000-06:00

I remember the first day of junior high school. For me, it started off with a bang! It was a very nervous time for a kid like me, the merging of the three elementary schools in our district meant that there was an ever greater number of cool kids to contend with. The night before I promised myself that I'd be more outgoing in junior high than I had been in elementary school. I was going to be

Draft #2... Read and Red.

2004-12-07T20:57:00.000-06:00