孔天明 - Tommie Carter

Learning PHP for web/mobile development

2011-07-04T11:22:00.001-04:00

Economy got you down? Why not improve your skills to better position yourself fro when an opportunity does come along, One method might be trying to learn an easy to use programming language like PHP!

PHP allows one to create dynamic actions on a webpage or within a mobile application (iPhone/iPad/Android). For example, using PHP one may send email or access a database and send results to a web page or mobile device.

AdobeTV hosts a good video describing use of PHP within their Dreamweaver product. Low on cash? Not to worry one can also use notepad or any number of free editors to create a PHP web page. Just google 'free PHP editor' (without the quotes), then download and install your editor to begin the creative process. For other great videos check out the Adobe TV website and create a free account to review all of their tutorials.

Using Find and Replace on MacOSX

2011-04-30T23:32:00.011-04:00

Terminal - Multiple Find / Replace

If you want to take a walk on the geek side, try popping open terminal from spotlight. I recently needed to parse a webarchive to find and replace absolute paths with relative paths. Ultimately the following worked:

find . -name "*.htm*" -exec sed -ie 's/href="\//href=".\//g' {} \;

Using terminal one can issue many Unix commands. One way to get help is to type the 'man' - short for manual and the name of the command:

So in the instance above, one might type:

man find (shows the manual page for find)

man sed (shows the manual page for stream editor)

iTunes Sync Fix (iTunes U)

2011-02-20T21:51:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

Just taking a moment to share what I've learned after a walk on the wild side with iTunes Sync. I was having a problem getting my iTunes U videos to sync with my iPad. After a comprehensive search of the web, all of the solutions that I found were commercial (i.e. someone pushing a product).

As a programmer, I found the thought of buying a solution wacky (imagine buying a product to manage another product that changes every year). Instead I kept reading and found that the iTunes Library is a plist file (this is a special kind of XML file used by Apple and installed on MacOS). I thought "aha" this must be the problem and so I found an application (from Apple) called plutil.

NOTE- One purpose of putil (usage: putil -s path\filename.xml) is to check whether the plist files are correctly formatted.

To my utter shock, the iTunes Library.xml file was perfectly fine (note to self, make sure to backup this file). Next I tried examining the related iTunes *.plist files and found that these were also correct. Hmm, then I remembered that iTunes also loads a second application when one logs into the system called iTunesHelper.

After researching a bit more I discovered the purpose of iTunesHelper is to assist in the communication between your device and iTunes (interesting). So being a programmer, I did the obvious thing. I closed iTunes, opened my Activity Monitor (on Windows this is the task manager), found iTunesHelper, and turned it off.

Next I restarted iTunes, verified that iTunesHelper was still off, plugged in my iPad, and crossed my fingers.

Voila!, sync back in action.

The lesson learned is that things designed to enable communication may also disable communication when not working properly.

Managing Sites on PB

2011-02-16T01:59:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

Found an interesting solution to a problem with the Personal Brain (PB) today. If you are not familiar with PB head over to the site and check it out. It's good for helping one to organize one's thoughts.

Problem

Many users want to save a websites onto the notes area of the application. Trying to save websites or HTML onto the Notes area has been a bit of a problem lately. Content within certain web pages can cause unexpected behaviors.

Solution

Rather than trying to store the actual website. Take a screenshot of the website and insert that picture into the Notes section (the picture will normally be a much smaller file). You will also have a safer experience without have various scripts running on the underlying webpages and it's a good way to see if you'd like to return to the website before the page starts loading in the background. You can then add the website's URL to the thought and visit the site when or if you desire.

Implementing the Solution

(Extended version for PB newbies)

You will need to save a picture of the website onto your desktop.

On a PC try the Alt + Print Screen button after opening your browser to the website you want to see in PB. To save the file, open MS Paint and past into the image, then save to Desktop (File, Save).

On a Mac, it's much easier. Press and hold the Cmd, Shift and 4 keys. Your mouse will turn into crosshairs and you can click onto a start and end point surrounding your open webpage. A shortcut image will be saved to the Desktop automatically.

Now that you have an image of the website We need to get it into the Notes screen. On both the PC or the Mac, just hold down Ctrl + Shift and drag the file into a blank area of the Brain.

You can now copy the image file by going to the Thought tab (if you don't see this then double click on the blue area of the brain). Once in the thought screen try right clicking the image and choose Copy.

Then go to the Insert menu on the Notes tab and choose Insert Image...

When the popup appears asking for the image, simply right click and paste your information into the Address field. The path to the image is entered. You can also put in an alias within the Alternative Text field.

Click OK and your image is now attached to a thought and in the Notes field. I suggest going to the URL of the website and copying/pasting that into the thought (right click on the thought and chose Paste Web Link).

This way you can view and (if desired) travel to the website you are tracking.

Hope that helps!

Oh, the extra points.

Well, you can synchronize your brain on the webbrain.com website (for a fee $$) and share your brain with the community at large. Sharing can be one way to access the brain on multiple computers at one time. The embedded image of the site will also display on the web brain.

To get you started, I've shared my demo brain and will be updating additional tips, so check out my brain regularly.

Quick inspection of all Exceptions

2011-02-14T17:24:00.000-05:00

To all my code pals,

This post serves to highlight a convenience method that is somewhat useful when one is attempting examine state of serveral different kinds of Exceptions. The ability to quickly capture and parse all types of Exceptions within a delegate can be quite useful.

I recalled that Objective-C has something called MemberOf (object) . This method allows one to determine whether a given object may be subclassed from a known class. In trying to find a corresponding method in C# I came accross the following paradigm:

typeof(Type).IsAssignableFrom (object.GetType())


if (inner != null)
{
    if (typeof(Exception).IsAssignableFrom(inner.GetType()))
    {
        Exception temp = (Exception)inner;
        Trace.WriteLine(temp.GetType().ToString());
        Trace.WriteLine(temp.Message);
        if (temp.InnerException != null)
            Trace.WriteLine(temp.InnerException.Message);
    }
}

Naturally we could refactor this into fewer lines but the example is just to illustrate the ability to determine base classes in short order. Hopefully this post will help someone avoid digging through the arcane documentation.

How to Access Multiple Config Files in .Net

2011-02-08T19:34:00.005-05:00

Problem

There is an interesting problem that appears when coding in .Net. I thought I'd post my solution to this issue and invite discussion. The problem occurs when one has a mature .Net application that uses multiple configuration files (storing settings)

One example might be when one creates a dynamic linked library (dll) and a windows or web application. Trying to reference the settings in specific configuration files has been a problem in the past. Using Visual Studio 2008, I was able to resolve this issue.

Solution

I've found what seems like a good solution to this issue. I am using VS 2008 C#. My solution involves the use of distinct namespaces between the exeutable and the dll.

So for example:
(Within Project Class Files)
namespace company.dllLibrary //used within my dll project.
namespace company.service //used within my exe project.

Settings.cs (dll project):
I've found that within the Settings.cs of the distinct projects I had to add the following statement for settings to be updated properly:
(within the setter for the specific property related to the setting)

name = value;
this.Save(); //added this to ensure setting is saved when I update the property

To read information directly from within my dll or exe project I simply leverage the appropriate namespace:
var x = company.dllLibrary.Properties.Settings.Default.SettingName;

company.dllLibrary.Properties.Settings.Default.SettingName = value;

When I want to save a value I can assign to it from within either my dll or exe project:
company.dllLibrary.Properties.Settings.Default.SettingName = value; //string, DateTime, etc

Caveats
It appears that one ought to finalize all settings within the Settings Pane because the IDE may overwrite setters/getters. I see no limit on the umber of workspaces one might leverage in this way.

Naturally if I want to reference files in alternate namespaces I could just:
company.service.Properties.Settings.Default.SettingName = value;

Impportant Note - I had to review the project properties to verify that my startup method and default namespace referenced the updated namespace. I also needed to review each of the associated xml for the app.config files to ensure that the proper namespaces were referenced in the config sections.

Hope this helps!

Dreaming in Code

2011-02-08T07:35:00.000-05:00

I recently tripped over a website called dream.in.code (link) , which brought back a series of fond memories. Of course most of these memories were of prior dreams about code. There is an interesting aspect of programmers and the human brain that allow solutions to metastasize throughout one's sub-conscious. If you've so inclined, it may be helpful to head over to Dream-in-code (.net) as they have a very unique perspective regarding code development.

A Moment of Reflection

2011-02-07T08:36:00.000-05:00

Who are You?

Ol' Jack Nicolson asked.
Upon reflection,
Stepping into a moment of silence,

I realized
This answer I did not know,
Of whom I must become,

Toward perfect nature,
Is all that I can ascribe to be,
Until the moment is gone.

Tommie Nathaniel Carter, Jr.

PersonalBrain and iPad/iPhone

2011-02-06T16:04:00.007-05:00

Hi all,

If you haven't seen the Personal Brain software (for Mac/PC/Linux/Web) then you may want to head over to www.thebrain.com to check out the software. Anyway this post is for those users of the Personal Brain who really want to transport and view their Brains on their iPad or iPhone. If you have been looking for a way to view your brain on your iPad/iPhone without having to be online then please continue reading.

Problem

The Personal Brain is a great visually-oriented mind mapping software that allows one to arrange thoughts as a set of interconnected notes. The Brain allows for distinctive relationships to be formed in ways that increase one's productivity. Unfortunately, as of this date, the Brain application will not run on one's iPad. Also, for those who may be offline, a need exists to see the Brain while not connected to a wifi/phone network.

Solution

One solution to this problem is to select the brain/thoughts one wants to make available offline, export this data to a folder, and copy the information into the iPad/iPhone so that one may view and navigate the particular set of thoughts. One will need to purchase an app called GoodReader (currently $2.99) in the Apple iPad apps store. Using the Good Reader product and the instructions below will allow one to host/view/search a Brain within an iPad/iPhone without being connected to the Internet (sorry not good for edits at this time).

Setting the Home Thought

To begin this process one must select the thoughts that are to be exported. I find that Outline mode is the most useful viewpoint for me. I switch to View\Outline. Next I highlight the thought which will be the base (top/home) node of my exported data. I set the highlighted node as the Home Thought in order to tell the Brain to use this node as my starting point.

Selecting additional Nodes

One must continue selecting nodes so that the Brain understands what you want to export. One can hold the Ctrl key (Cmd on the Mac) and click the circles under the Home Thought (if selecting the first level beneath that node). Continue holding the Ctrl key (Cmd on Mac) to add different thoughts to include in the selection list.

Tip - An interesting tip is that holding the Ctrl key (Cmd on Mac) and clicking a circle next to the thought that is filled-in (rather than a clear circle) will select all of the nodes one level below the existing thought. In this way one can quickly expand the selection set of data to be exported. See the PersonalBrain101 blog for more tips on multiple thought selection (http://personalbrain101.blogspot.com/2007/10/pb-tip-of-day.html)

Important Note - You must also include the Home Thought in the selection set that you've set previously otherwise the export won't work. Hold Ctrl (Cmd) key and select the Home Thought, which will then appear in the selection set.

Exporting

With the selection set finalized you can go to File \ Export and select Simple HTML. You will be prompted to save brain or thoughts to an output folder. You will need to remember this folder later. Change the name to something memorable (I tend to just use initials).

After clicking OK one will see the exported thoughts being generated and when complete can view the exported brains within subfolders of the output folder.

At this point one will have a fully functional website containing the exported thoughts.

One can navigate the thoughts and see associated notes related to the thoughts.

Good Reader

Before proceeding one will need to ensure that the Good Reader application is installed. When I wrote this post, the product cost $2.99 (USD). Once installed you can open the app and just hit the wifi icon (this will instantly make a folder available on your iPad onto which one may copy the files).

See Good Reader Wifi Setup Tips
(http://www.goodreader.net/gr-man-tr-wifi.html)

Copying Files over to the iPad/iPhone

One may use the instructions on the preceding screen to open a connection from one's PC to the iPad at this point. Once you follow the instructions about how to connect to the iPad from your PC/Mac then you will be able to drag and drop the exported Brain sub-folders onto the iPad/iPhone folder as indicated above. If all goes well then one should see a copy operation happening similar to the following:

See Good Reader Wifi File Transfer Tips (Mac)
(http://www.goodreader.net/gr-man-tr-wifi-mac.html)

Important Tip - If you do not have a wifi network or just want to connect to Good Reader from your PC/Mac with a USB cable then you can review the instructions at (http://www.goodreader.net/gr-man-tr-usb.html).

Summary

Using a solution of Good Reader on the iPad/iPhone is one method of viewing either an entire Brain or a subset of thoughts from the Personal Brain product. To successfully migrate the content requires one to select the required thoughts and export them to a set of files. Creating a connection to one's iPad/iPhone and the workstation (PC/Mac) can allow one to simply copy the exported files onto the iPad device take the Brain with you on your device. A simple HTML site is then accessible from within the Good Reader by browsing the folder structure and selecting the index.html file created.

Extra Points

If you're still with me then it means you just may be ready for extra points. One may also select export to Site Brain HTML. This will produce a brain-like interface that can be carried in one's iPad/iPhone.

Following through on the steps to connect one's iPad/iPhone using Good Reader and copying a Site Brain HTML then allows one to see the normal Personal SiteBrain interface within the iPad/iPhone (including search index if selected during export screen).

Important Tip - The notes section is visible by scrolling on the iPad after selecting a thought with notes. One may also use the Red arrow in the upper left hand corner to expand/contract the notes section. Scrolling within a note works using normal iPad/iPhone conventions.

That's it in a nutshell. How to get a PersonalBrain onto an iPad. Please keep in mind that SiteBrain versions require more resources than the Simple HTML export. I hope this provides an interesting start on merging (what I consider) the best mind mapping product with the best mobile devices (all subjective I know). Please drop me a comment on what works, doesn't work, and any new findings using these methods.

The early morning thought of the day

2010-01-06T08:57:00.002-05:00

Judith Jamison in a recent PBS interview shared her thoughts on success. "Pray, Prepare and Proceed." That's advice worth having in my opinion. We are forced to contemplate the universe, to navigate our world and finally to take personal action.

Blog Upkeep (Tip)

2010-01-04T12:49:00.001-05:00

A recent development in Blogger (Google's blogging service @blogger.com) has made managing blogs fairly easy.

The ability to send updates via email has been around for some time. One can update a blogger account by creating a custom email account in blogger under Settings/Email & Mobile/Email Posting Address.

To link a blog to twitter one may use a free service like twItterfeed.com. This service will forward posts to twitter, Facebook and others. One will need to add the blog address as myblog.com/rss.xml.

To maximize effectiveness when dealing with multiple blogs one might consider using an email distribution list.

Happy Posting.

Lost Treasure

2010-01-04T11:38:00.001-05:00

A number of professionals, business folk and general media outlets have focused on employee engagement. The idea of engagement is to empower employees so that they become fully involved with their work. The theory is that involved employees will find their work more meaningful and consequently will be happier and more productive.

One bit of advice for business managers and owners might be to leverage the benefits of employee engagement. I wondered this morning how much money and innovation might be accrued by following through on the ideas of employee engagement. I recalled as a younger man being employed by a business owner to simply examine technology and make recommendations on their usage in his business. That was the extent of my job and because of it I developed a intuitive sense about the possibility for employees to change the course of a business.

When setting new years resolutions I would recommend that one include promotion of employee engagement together with serious consideration for implementing active employee suggestions. Don't waste the competitive advantages that exist in your organization. Businesses may have technology and streamlined processes but one must remember that people are your foundation and hold a wealth of lost treasure.

Adobe Photoshop LightRoom 2

2009-10-18T22:48:00.001-04:00

I have recently joined the ranks of amateur digital SLR photographers and I was lucky to find Adobe's latest rendition of LightRoom (v2). The product allows one to engage in non-destructive edits to photos taken with a digital camera. This gives one the ability to quickly render a photo using a variety of processing techniques like changing the white balance, exposure, filters, etc of one's shots. The coolness comes in when one wants to snap back to the original photo if the adjustments don't work out. Doing so is as simple as a single click.

The program is best when used with Photoshop but it works quite well on its own. Photoshop integration allows one to send photos to and from Photoshop to be processed. To learn more about Lightroom one can check out this site (link). A free trial will help give you a good feel for how the program works and the Learning Center (link) will help you with mastering the product.

Caveats to blog management: What works well and what can be improved

2009-05-16T23:11:00.002-04:00

Hi all,

Just a quick follow up to my previous post on blog management. I note the following items regarding this new blog method:

Embedded pictures (those images attached, pasted or dragged into your e-mail) do not display in the blog properly
The subject becomes the topic header of the blog post
The text of the blog editor on blogger shows large typeface however the blog posts according to the style of the blog
This new technology makes it easy to multiply mistakes (one e-mail message can appear on multiple sites quickly)
Inconsistent formatting of text occurs around pictures
E-mail messages sent to the Blogger can be set for either draft mode or instant publishing

Well until next time, stay healthy.

Blog Management: How to do it.

2009-05-16T22:49:00.002-04:00

Hi all,

Well I’ve just discovered a new tool in my effort to stay current with my blogs. I am a user of the Google Blogspot web service (based at blogger.com). I recently opened my Dashboard to begin a new posting and noted that each site has an email icon next to a mobile phone icon.

It appears that one can now create a secret email address that will allow one to send an email which results in a blog posting. Tada! End of problems regarding how to find time to stay current with blogging. An interesting note is that one can probably send one email to multiple recipients (blog sites) and see multiple posts. Double Tada!!

Well light bulb just went off in my head. Everyone has time for an email. Everyone does. Since many folks no longer write letters this new technology allows folks to get a grip on their many blogs (sometimes simultaneously). Well this first post of the new blogging error is within the context of how to use the new technology.

HOW TO SET UP EMAIL BLOGGING

Login to blogger and view your dashboard
For each blog site click the email icon and add a secret word to create a unique email address
On your phone / email program – create a new contact (I use @blog-name for my contacts so they are easy to find)
For each contact set up the secret email address you created in step 2
Create a message and send it to the contacts you have configured

The dashboard area should appear like this...

Feedbacks, comments, critiques are all welcome. Be well and happy blogging. Tom C. 阿明

Back to the Mac!

2008-11-18T23:57:00.006-05:00

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeMoving on - Yes I am finally going to wean myself off of the Windows operating system. At home I have made the switch to the Mac mini. I am just so sick and tired of fixing and patching Windows problems (at home at least - I still make a good living off of fixing this at work).

I have found that with VMware Fusion and VMware Converter I was able to create a virtual machine of some old windows boxes and save them out to a shared drive. Next I was able to use Fusion to convert the Windows virtual machine so that I could view the windows machine on the Mac.

Finally I was able to take this a step further and use the feature called Unity. This feature allows one to access windows applications on the mac menu (sweet). Down with the PC crashes and the constant anti-virus struggle. No more nightly updates to my OS.

For under $1000 the mac mini came with 2 GB ram and 120GB HD. I have plenty of shared disk space and adding the free version of MacFuse to my system allowed me to mount all of the NTFS disks that I have (windows is dead).

So I am once again at my core a UNIX guru and to me the Mac OS X is a nice X windows system on top of a super stable Operating System. So off to the races I am to become reacquainted with shell scripts and other noxious geek fodder. Yoohoo were you at?

Anyway before I blast off -able finally to sleep knowing that my computer will be here in the morning. I want to mention the latest project on which I am working. There is an active project to get the Google Docs space mounted as a file space in Mac (I am aware of GDrive). This application has as its goal the ability for a user to access one's Google documents through a file system.

I have currently installed the beta code (site). To install on the Mac I downloaded the zip file and placed it on my desktop. Next I unzipped the file and put the folder into my downloads folder - from there I went to the script as the code has no automated installation for the mac os.

Executing the following command performs the install:

$ sudo ./install /Applications

One will be prompted for the system password of the super user (type it in and press Enter)

tada - the gdocsfs will appear in your Applications folder as gdocsfs.

First, in the Applications/gdocsfs/conf/ folder one can edit the gdocsfs.properties file with one's google username and password. (You can use the finder and TextEdit to save the username changes to the file).

Next one needs to attempt to mount the drive (and here is where I am having a problem)

$ sudo gdocsfsmount /Applications/gdocsfs /Volumes/Gdocs

Generates the following error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Bad version number in .class file
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:675)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:124)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:260)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:56)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:195)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:316)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:280)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:374)

So I broke out the Netbeans Java IDE because I like reading my errors without going blind on the terminal screen. I decided to create a new project and just go for a clean build of the environment. Well surprise, surprise I have a ton of stuff to work through (even though it might just boil down to a few errors). I thought I would share the fun part for the hackmeisters out there.

init:
deps-clean:
clean:
init:
deps-jar:
Created dir: /Users/mingsai/NetBeansProjects/gdocsfs/build/classes
Compiling 6 source files to /Users/mingsai/NetBeansProjects/gdocsfs/build/classes
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Document.java:23: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseFtypeConstants;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:28: package org.apache.commons.logging does not exist
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:30: package com.google.gdata.client.docs does not exist
import com.google.gdata.client.docs.DocsService;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:31: package com.google.gdata.client.http does not exist
import com.google.gdata.client.http.HttpAuthToken;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:44: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Log
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.DocumentHandler
private final Log log;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:46: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocsService
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.DocumentHandler
private final DocsService service;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:48: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocsService
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.DocumentHandler
public DocumentHandler(DocsService service, Document document, Log log) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:48: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Log
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.DocumentHandler
public DocumentHandler(DocsService service, Document document, Log log) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Folder.java:19: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseFtypeConstants;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:27: package org.apache.commons.logging does not exist
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:28: package org.apache.commons.logging does not exist
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:30: package com.google.gdata.client.docs does not exist
import com.google.gdata.client.docs.DocsService;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:31: package com.google.gdata.data.docs does not exist
import com.google.gdata.data.docs.DocumentListEntry;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:32: package com.google.gdata.data.docs does not exist
import com.google.gdata.data.docs.DocumentListFeed;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:33: package com.google.gdata.util does not exist
import com.google.gdata.util.ServiceException;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:35: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.Errno;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:36: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.Filesystem3;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:37: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseDirFiller;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:38: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseException;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:39: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseGetattrSetter;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:40: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseOpenSetter;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:41: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseSizeSetter;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:42: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseStatfsSetter;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:43: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.XattrLister;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:44: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.XattrSupport;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:53: cannot find symbol
symbol: class Filesystem3
public class GoogleDocsFS implements Filesystem3, XattrSupport, Serializable {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:53: cannot find symbol
symbol: class XattrSupport
public class GoogleDocsFS implements Filesystem3, XattrSupport, Serializable {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:63: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Log
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(GoogleDocsFS.class);
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:65: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocsService
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
private final DocsService service;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:69: cannot find symbol
symbol : class ServiceException
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
ServiceException {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:103: cannot find symbol
symbol : class FuseGetattrSetter
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
public int getattr(String path, FuseGetattrSetter getattrSetter) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:121: cannot find symbol
symbol : class FuseDirFiller
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
public int getdir(String path, FuseDirFiller filler) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:135: cannot find symbol
symbol : class FuseStatfsSetter
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
public int statfs(FuseStatfsSetter statfsSetter) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:141: cannot find symbol
symbol : class FuseOpenSetter
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
public int open(String path, int flags, FuseOpenSetter openSetter) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:233: cannot find symbol
symbol : class FuseException
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
ByteBuffer buf, long offset) throws FuseException {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:298: cannot find symbol
symbol : class FuseSizeSetter
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
public int getxattrsize(String path, String name, FuseSizeSetter sizeSetter) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:314: cannot find symbol
symbol : class XattrLister
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
public int listxattr(String path, XattrLister lister) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:24: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.Filesystem3;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:25: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.FuseMount;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:26: package fuse does not exist
import fuse.XattrSupport;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:52: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Filesystem3
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.Mounter
static Filesystem3 intercept(final GoogleDocsFS gDocsFS) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Document.java:89: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable FuseFtypeConstants
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.Document
return FuseFtypeConstants.TYPE_FILE;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:129: cannot find symbol
symbol : class HttpAuthToken
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.DocumentHandler
HttpAuthToken authToken = (HttpAuthToken) service.getAuthTokenFactory().getAuthToken();
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/DocumentHandler.java:129: cannot find symbol
symbol : class HttpAuthToken
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.DocumentHandler
HttpAuthToken authToken = (HttpAuthToken) service.getAuthTokenFactory().getAuthToken();
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Folder.java:56: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable FuseFtypeConstants
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.Folder
return FuseFtypeConstants.TYPE_DIR;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:63: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable LogFactory
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(GoogleDocsFS.class);
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:70: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocsService
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
service = new DocsService("gdocsfs");
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:74: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocumentListFeed
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
DocumentListFeed feed = service.getFeed(documentListFeedUrl,
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:75: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocumentListFeed
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
DocumentListFeed.class);
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:76: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocumentListEntry
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
List<DocumentListEntry> entries = feed.getEntries();
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:81: cannot find symbol
symbol : class DocumentListEntry
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
for (DocumentListEntry entry : entries) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:84: operator + cannot be applied to DocumentListEntry.getId.lastIndexOf,int
entry.getId().lastIndexOf('/') + 1);
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:107: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOENT;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:125: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOENT;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:145: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOENT;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:160: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EIO;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:163: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EBADF;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:171: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return (fh instanceof DocumentHandler) ? 0 : Errno.EBADF;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:181: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EBADF;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:226: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOENT;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:237: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS; // TODO just read-only
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:240: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EIO;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:243: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EBADF;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:247: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:251: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:255: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:259: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:263: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:267: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:275: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:286: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOENT;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:294: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOATTR;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:281: method does not override a method from its superclass
@Override
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:302: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOENT;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:310: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOATTR;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:297: method does not override a method from its superclass
@Override
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:318: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.ENOENT;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:313: method does not override a method from its superclass
@Override
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:327: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:325: method does not override a method from its superclass
@Override
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:332: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable Errno
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.GoogleDocsFS
return Errno.EROFS;
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/GoogleDocsFS.java:330: method does not override a method from its superclass
@Override
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:38: cannot find symbol
symbol : method isEmpty()
location: class java.lang.String
if (password == null || password.trim().isEmpty()) {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:39: cannot find symbol
symbol : method console()
location: class java.lang.System
char[] pass = System.console().readPassword("Google account password(%s): ", username);
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:46: cannot find symbol
symbol : variable FuseMount
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.Mounter
FuseMount.mount(fuseArgs, intercept(gdocsfs), gdocsfs.log);
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:54: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Filesystem3
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.Mounter
return dontTraceMethodsCalls ? gDocsFS : (Filesystem3) Proxy.newProxyInstance(
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:56: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Filesystem3
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.Mounter
new Class[] {Filesystem3.class, XattrSupport.class}, new InvocationHandler() {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:56: cannot find symbol
symbol : class XattrSupport
location: class com.google.gdocsfs.Mounter
new Class[] {Filesystem3.class, XattrSupport.class}, new InvocationHandler() {
/Users/mingsai/Downloads/gdocsfs-read-only/gdocsfs/src/main/java/com/google/gdocsfs/Mounter.java:57: method does not override a method from its superclass
@Override public Object invoke(Object proxy, Method method,
89 errors
BUILD FAILED (total time: 0 seconds)

So it begins.

Written in Firefox on my new mac mini
天明 << style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie">

New Ride

2008-11-14T17:13:00.005-05:00

Times are tough but I got my new ride just before the credit squeeze became active. The end result is a vehicle that works as hard as I do. I guess the motorcycle will have to be put aside for a while.

Its a gasaholic though. I may have to get a H3T and use this as a backup. The rigors of making tough choices during the down economy. Hehehe - this post is a bit of a joke though isn't it?

In other news one might ask what no spewing about the Obama election? Well to be fair I am tracking the action on the election and its aftermath at New Freedoms Journal. It's funny when I get working on one blog then the other blog suffers from blogger absenteeism. Naturally I am pleased by having someone with brains in office but a reckon it pays to be a gracious winner. Now we need to come together to help our country.

Be Kanye on the Subway?

2008-07-29T09:29:00.000-04:00

Image via WikipediaSaw this really weird poster with a be kanye west theme on the train and I followed up on the content. The bottom line is this crazy commercial that points to the absolut.com website. So I guess if you were not in the drinking mood then this commercial will make you want to get hammered. I am still wondering where the advertisers are going with this line of thought.

On the video - Or are we all watching because of the girl? Where is the message?

Wrinking forward!

2008-07-03T22:54:00.004-04:00

I found Frank Hilario quite by chance. I was reading my RSS feed from http://www.thinkingmanagers.com in an article related to Edward de Bono. I find that the slightest phrase variances tend to catch my eye. It was during such a moment that I noticed the term 'wrinker'. Described by Mr. Hilario as "one who writes and tinkers with words and ideas".

Well I find that I too consider myself a wrinker by this definition. One may find additional works of Mr. Hilario on his blog. I think it is worth a visit.

http://frankahilario.blogspot.com/

Robert Heller

2008-07-03T08:57:00.004-04:00

I've been reading a lot lately. This MBA thing is pretty challenging. OK- so I was reading a book from 2000 published by Dorling Kindersley www.dk.com from the business matersminds series. Charles Handy is the current subject of my focus. A number of Handy's works are reviewed in this text including Gods of Management. The basic premise in the GoM is that no one culture should dominate an organization.

Add SONY to my $66%3 list

2008-06-27T17:26:00.003-04:00

Here's how it went with SONY. Has no one ever instructed their support to satisfy the customer? What a great world it would be if we just did that. Satisfy the freakin customer!

user Tommie Carter has entered room

analyst Alec_ has entered room

Alec_>

Hi Tommie. Welcome to Sony Online Support. I’m Alec. Please allow me a moment to review your concern.

Tommie Carter>

ok

Alec_>

Thanks for waiting, Tommie. I'm sorry for the difficulties that you're experiencing as the power system is not woring. I’ll be happy to assist you with this.

Tommie Carter>

Ok , if I disconnect anything we will lose all power so i cannot get to the battery without the system going down. What would you like me to do at this time?

Alec_>

Okay, Tommie.

Tommie Carter>

yes

Tommie Carter>

/

Tommie Carter>

?

Alec_>

Please stay online while I check this information for you.

Tommie Carter>

ok

Alec_>

Thanks for waiting, Tommie.

Alec_>

Could you please confirm whether the Battery indicator light glowing in the Computer?

Tommie Carter>

Nothing at all. I see the steay green power light that comes on when one pushes the power button and the steady green next to "DC IN" on the docking stations

Alec_>

I suggest that you clean all the metal contacts of the Battery using a pencil eraser and then install it in the Computer. After check whether the issue resolved.

Tommie Carter>

I tried that before I called after doing some research online - I am a computer consultant. So far it hase not worked...

Alec_>

Did you reset the BIOS to its default settings?

Tommie Carter>

I will try that but my research indicates that this will not resolve the issue.I know its a step to follow so I can certainly waste as much of my valuable time as you would like. I paid for the extended warranty and would like the battery replaced. could you please give me a yes or no? (not trying to be offensive just succint)

Alec_>

I am really sorry for all the inconvenience.

Tommie Carter>

me too since i use this to do all of my work and schoolwork...

Alec_>

Could you please confirm whether you have purchased the Extended Warranty from Sony?

Tommie Carter>

yes the sony extended warranty

Alec_>

If you purchased your extended warranty through Sony, you may reach the Extended Warranty Service Division at 1 866 766 9259.

Tommie Carter>

i thought a battery recall was on and this is supposedly a prevalent issue. why do i now have to go to another department. i think you can understand that i just want the issue resolved. transferring customers is a pain to the customer

Alec_>

I am really sorry for all the inconvenience.

Tommie Carter>

so you are indicating that my only recourse is to go through the sony warranty? what do you tell customers who do not have a warranty?

Tommie Carter>

if i have to call them and they ask for my receipt i will be very frustrated. how much is the battery?

Alec_>

We can try the troubleshooting steps to confirm that the issue is not Battery related.

Tommie Carter>

well anything i try requires me to turn off the computer, correct? at which point i will not be able to get further guidance. is there a simpler way to just get the battery replaced. 99.99% of the online community is saying to replace the battery as the fix. why would my machine be any different than all those other folks? i would like a document with the troubleshooting steps so i can stop wasting my time.

Alec_>

Tommie, I will provide all the troubleshooting steps on this chat window to resolve the issue. Are you okay with that?

Tommie Carter>

ok lets try it

Alec_>

The next step is to reset the BIOS to its default value.

Alec_>

Are you using the same computer for this chat session?

Tommie Carter>

yes as mentioned previously i am on the box

Alec_>

I would like to forward a link to a page where you can view the steps to reset the BIOS to its default value.

Alec_>

When you receive the link please click on it to open the page and let me know if you are able to view it.

Alec_>

http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/documentLink.do?externalId=C94679

Tommie Carter>

i see it

Alec_>

Please reset the BIOS to its default value and check whether the issue is resolved.

Tommie Carter>

you recall that i mentioned this requires a restart?

Alec_>

If the issue still persists after resetting the BIOS to its default settings, please install the Battery Check Utility in the Computer and check whether the issue is resolved.

Alec_>

Shall I forward a link where you can download and install the Battery Check Utility in the Computer?

Tommie Carter>

the number you gave me to dial has a person speaking very low who is attempting to tell me to call a different number. I CANNOT HEAR THE NUMBER! Can you please get me some help

Tommie Carter>

1 866 766 9259 - Redirecting me but I cannot hear the guy...

Tommie Carter>

I AM NOW FRUSTRATED - thanks

Tommie Carter>

i would like the link and a valid number to call

Alec_>

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNUX280P&upd_id=2319&os_id=7

Tommie Carter>

i know its not your fault but this is silly and i have other things to do - can i get a working number? i can call and get support

Tommie Carter>

have you called 18667669259? because i think you will understand how upset folks feel after getting this reference

Tommie Carter>

it really is useless. try it, you will see...

Tommie Carter>

it really is useless. try it, you will see...

Tommie Carter>

anyway is there nothing else to try?

Tommie Carter>

i am installing the battery check

Alec_>

I'm sorry, if the issue persists after installing the Battery Check Utility, the issue should be with the Battery and needs replacement.

Tommie Carter>

yes - i knew that before i called. what i would like to understand is the process needed to get the battery replaced.

Alec_>

Yes, it is required to contact the extended warranty team to get the Battery replaced under the extended warranty.

Tommie Carter>

can you give me a better number? the one from before has a person directing me to a new number and he is mumbling in an unintelligible way. I turned the phone all the way up and he distinctly misses a few numbers - how about a link to the extended warranty website?

Alec_>

I'm sorry, there is no other telephone # and website for the extended warranty team.

Tommie Carter>

have you ever dialed the phone number? maybe you could hear the new number the person is referring and tell me. i cannot be the first person to mention this to you, right?

Tommie Carter>

fyi - 866 -618-5776 so your next customer won't suffer

Alec_>

Thank you for the information.

Alec_>

Tommie, since we are chat support team, we do not have the facility to dial the phone numbers.

Tommie Carter>

well i will go now. this has been a totally useless experience.
Alec_> I sincerely apologize for all the difficulties you are put through.
Tommie Carter> wish they gave you guys some leeway to just satisfy the customer...
Alec_> Thank you for contacting Sony online support today.

LV Artwork

2008-04-13T22:50:00.008-04:00

Recently I viewed some of the works of japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Mr. Murakami has several works showing at the Brooklyn Museum (link). I enjoy the pieces of artwork related to Louis Vuitton collection - well in fact Mr. Murakami has created much of LV's colorful collection (link).

An exhibit of Murakami's artwork (link) will be viewable at the Brooklyn Museum through July 13, 2008. Directions to the museum can be found here (link). The Murakami artwork is on the fourth and fifth floors.

Also on the first floor is an exhibit of Japanese prints from the 1770's - 1900. I was reminded of a book that I read by Jessica Amanda Salmonson - AJS (link) called Tomoe Gozen (more on Tomoe here ... link). Two other books by AJS regarding the Tomoe gozen character (link)

Roaring back into action...

2008-03-30T22:33:00.005-04:00

(once again it's on...)

Well I did quite a few activities today.

Visited the local Saturn dealer at http://www.saturnofhempstead.com (didn't buy but I am thinking about it) Paid additional visits to my local VolksWagon and Honda dealers (noticed that these are all owned by one company -Koepple -> seems like they cornered the market up and down Northern Blvd in LIC, NY)

Finally fleshed out my facebook profile at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=734876292 (Uploaded some pics, added some friends and really tried to breathe some life into the page)

Created a cause celeb (hopefully) on Facebook™ promoting my new blog called http://blessingsandhope.blogspot.com

While filling in the facebook profile I located some old pictures that gave me a big laugh... (Must remember to post more things to my picasaweb site)

Speaking of the picasweb site -I really am going to have to review how many sites I subscribe to... It's getting out of hand -my google reader is off the hook with over 10000 incoming items a week.

Yesterday I wrote a program for Outlook 2003 in VBA (the purpose of which is to group bloated email folders of over 5000 items into dated sub-folders)

Tomorrow's challenge will be to build an Outlook 2003 add-in with the VSTO 2005 tools (never done the add-in thing before so it should be fun in a masochistic way)

Back to the Blog

2008-03-15T07:48:00.004-04:00

Hi all/everyone,

Anyone?

I am back to writing my blogs after some time off to deal with increased pressures from all sides of life. I am continuing with my MBA and learning Mandarin this year. In addition to the countless projects which can be thrown my way at work -the three blogs that I maintain have been on the wayside for some time.

Well even if no one is listening I have made the commitment to come back to blogging. The ability to release one's stresses through blogging provides a benefit to me as well as information to others. That makes blogging a win-win situation according to the Nash Equilibrium (link) .

The move back to blogging goes counter to the current trend of folks leaving blogging (link). Then again I have always marched to the beat of my own drum. Given that expectation -please look for more blogging as I unload the internal stresses by way of the pen.

Study Pond - TimeZone Map for HK and NY

2008-01-12T10:23:00.000-05:00

The following is my schedule time to study Mandarin at the Study Pond (website). Please add my contact information found on the site to your IM service in order to contact me for practice sessions.

時間學國語:請加入我的聯絡資料. 週六和週日，是最適當的時候，談

NY HK
-----------
1am 14:00*
2am 15:00
3am 16:00
4am 17:00
5am 18:00*
6am 19:00*
7am 20:00*
8am 21:00
9am 22:00
10am 23:00
11am 24:00
12am 1:00
-----------
1pm 2:00
2pm 3:00
3pm 4:00
4pm 5:00
5pm 6:00*
6pm 7:00*
7pm 8:00
8pm 9:00
9pm 10:00
10pm 11:00
11pm 12:00
12pm 13:00

Cables Dirty Little Secret - Revealed!!

2008-01-10T20:59:00.000-05:00

Recently I noticed a huge drop in my cable download speeds. At work we started to do a simple test - Go to the start button, select run... and type cmd. This should open a good old fashioned DOS prompt.

From work we were pinging www.yahoo.com and at time seeing over 2000 milliseconds (ms) per ping. That's two seconds folks also known as a lifetime in computer land. So I got curious and ran this test from home and guess what?

Nope, it was much less than 2000 ms in fact it was returning pings below the 200 ms range. Not bad when compare to the work experience. Right?, well not exactly this is still pretty horrible for my Cable Service considering I have the top level service that one can get from Time Warner.

What should one see from this ping test? Anywhere from 20ms - 60ms would be acceptable. Now after these tests I decided that I wanted to discover who was eating up my bandwidth, the neighbors?!?

That's when I found this article on Cable's dirty little secret which points out that the explosion of new applications on the web including HDTV, Video on Demand, Online Gaming, Virtual Worlds and more are all eating up the bandwidth to my once super fast cable. During one recent download of a large file I noted that the download speed ranged from 900KB to 9KB.

It seems that the Cable industry is running out of bandwidth. This is a bad scene because I detest Verizon's customer service but I just might need to get Fios [A fiber to the premises (FTTP) telecommunications service offered by Verizon, the first major US carrier to offer broadband Internet access] service. Well its a seesaw battle between the cable and telephone companies and at the moment Cable is down - stay tuned for further details and keep your eye on your download speeds.

For more on why we can expect Cables speeds to continue to be unreliable check out link

Open letter to Verizon Wireless

2008-01-02T07:03:00.000-05:00

Regarding the lack of support for Chinese input and Chinese character display:

Since I have limited space I will be brief. I have just returned from a trip to China/Southeast Asia which has me doubting whether your company truly understands the business needs of Americans in a globally competitive environment. Please forward this email to a decision maker.

I own a "World Edition" Blackberry 8830 (purchased in NY, NY, USA). I cannot seem to get a reasonable answer to a simple request. I need to have Chinese input (one of the largest languages on the planet) for my world phone. Even more ridiculous is the lack of support for displaying Chinese characters on the US based devices.

To be competitive, Chinese language is a requirement. Business partners read and speak Chinese. Why is it taking so long for Verizon Wireless to get on board with the rest of the business world?

Please do not send me any standard responses about such support not being available as I already know that RIM will package whatever language features you (VZW) request. I would appreciate this request being forwarded as a notice to someone in charge that this shortsightedness is a BIG PROBLEM.

Please have someone fix this problem so that Americans can communicate with Chinese business partners in Chinese. This is a very important, face saving aspect and a sign of respect to the Chinese culture. Millions of Chinese Americans are also AVOIDING YOUR PRODUCT.

While I understand that no product is perfect, I find it hard to believe that your company is willing to ignore the 836 MILLION MANDARIN SPEAKING PEOPLE. Worst still is that using your product I cannot communicate in a way that engenders respect with my customers! Please fix this problem by immediately offering Chinese input and language support.

Someone at VZW should be fired for this foul up! Put your researchers to work on the fastest growing studied foreign language in America. Would you like to guess what it is?

Get the picture?

--------------------
For more information on the topic of Chinese input please check out this article at Blackberry Insights

UX280p Bluetooth Special

2008-01-01T20:14:00.000-05:00

Most owners of the Sony VAIO UX280p have discovered by now that the Toshiba Bluetooth stack that is installed by default does not work too well. Many devices if not most are incompatible with the default Toshiba drivers. After a lot of research into this problem I found a solution.

A word of caution; before you do anything read this entire post.

On to the tasks! ->
1. If you want to feel more comfortable create a system restore point before continuing

2. Uninstall the Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba in Add/Remove Programs

3. Download the Bluetooth Monitor Program at this link

4. Execute the downloaded file and do not change the default extraction folder (C:)

5. Locate and run the file BtMon2Inst.exe after the extraction is complete(if no changes were made then this will be located in the folder C:\Toshiba\BTmonitor)

NOTE: The windows bluetooth drivers are now installed but one needs to continue following the next steps in order to activate the Toshiba hardware with the Windows drivers.

6. The system may now spot the UGX hardware. If it does then in the New Device Wizard choose the option to install the driver yourself. Select the Bluetooth Radios option. If all is well your system will recognize the UGX device.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING

7. If the new hardware is not spotted or if the system does not want to install the Bluetooth Radios driver (*THIS IS THE MOST LIKELY SCENARIO*)-- You will need to open the Device Manager for your system

8. Locate the UGX device with the yellow exclamation point (it might also say USB) Right click on the icon and select properties, next go to the details tab and from the drop down list choose Hardware Ids (Keep the menu open because you will need to use the two lines of text in the next step)

9. Open the following file c:\WINDOWS\inf\bth.inf (short for Bluetooth INF)

10. Under the Device Section Start locate the section for Microsoft Wireless Transceivers:

eg. (mine looks like this)

[Microsoft.NT.5.1]
Microsoft Wireless Transceiver for Bluetooth= BthUsb, USB\Vid_045e&Pid_007e
Microsoft Wireless Transceiver for Bluetooth 2.0= BthUsb, USB\Vid_045e&Pid_009c

11. Add in a name of your choosing, an equal sign, the BthUsb, and the hardware string associated with the UGX device:

eg. My sections added look like this (your hardware will likely have different ids):
...
Microsoft Wireless Transceiver for Bluetooth 3= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044e&Pid_300c&Rev_1915
Microsoft Wireless Transceiver for Bluetooth 4= BthUsb, USB\Vid_044e&Pid_300c

12. Save the bth.inf file and close the properties window for the UGX hardware. Now rerun the device connectivity wizard (this time let Windows try to discover the driver on its own). You should now have windows Bluetooth drivers starting to get installed. If you get prompted with additional wizards continue to allow Windows to discover the drivers automatically. When finished all of your bluetooth should be working..

13. Go grab your Bluetooth hardware and try reinstalling them and re-pairing them with the UX280p

I hope this post helps some of the other VAIO owners out there. By the way I would suggest making a second system restore point. Also if you need to get your Toshiba drivers reinstalled you have the option of using a restore point from Windows or the restore utility that came with your VAIO.

When last we heard...

2007-11-24T09:25:00.000-05:00

21-November 2007

Our hero's Tom and Jane were on the road again... We were headed to a Ma-Sing-Thai tour. The tour booked from the states began like all trips; full of enthusiasm and lots of energy. We met up with our travel guide "Lok" at HKIA. A short flight of 3.5 hours or so put us right into the heart of Malaysia.

A big surprise awaited as we experienced what a "new" tour bus felt like - there's a first time for everything. We were introduced to some tips about the Malay culture. The fact is that Malaysia is a islamic governed country. First stop was a Malaysian cultural center not too far from a mosque. One of the things mentioned was that most Muslims do not like non-Muslims at their places of worship. While cautiously taking pictures near the mosque Jane and I were asked to take some pictures from a "tourist".

In and of itself not a big deal but the second sentence out of these folks mouths were about wanting to know the exchange rates between the US dollar and Malaysia. They also had a rough look about them (tatoo to the hand and definitely felt my street hairs amp up when getting too close to them). I have read up from lots of sources that this topic is pretty much taboo while travelling -- as most countries prohibit unofficial trading of money. The US state department warns of money changing scams.

Since we were with a tour I simply stated; " we are with a Hong Kong tour so we don't know anything about the US exchange rates " -- all of which was true. I noticed that this couple then proceeded to perch on the lookout for their next victims - as we headed back to the tour bus given that Lok had just appeared and said "Dap choh a busie" (get on the bus).

With our first mishap avoided, I jumped on the bus to our next destination.

TravelBlog: On the road again...

2007-11-15T14:39:00.000-05:00

Back on track again after a long layoff. We landed in HKG safe and soundly but are still waiting for our bodies to catch up with that airplane. Time adjustment is the worst part of globe-trotting. Well, maybe a close second to loud, boring obnoxious people who love to lean back and talk very loudly on a 16 hour flight as the bathroom flushes try to keep one awake. but this was most likely worth the anguish of that mental torture. (see video)

TravelBlog: Longwood Gardens

2007-09-02T11:43:00.000-04:00

We found the grounds surprisingly comfortable. The lawns and gardens are nicely kept. Upon entering one may pass the Asian influenced shaped garden. Containing nicely manicured designs of un-authentic like Japanese rock gardens (without the rocks or sand).

Inside the gardens is a large conservatory. This spaces houses a huge variety of flora.

Some that I saw include:

Ornamental Pepper
Persian Shield
Creeping Fig
Caladium
Crape-Myrtle
Longwood Hybrid Canna
Tropical Day-Flowering Waterlily
East Indian Lotus
Tropical Night-Flowering Waterlily
Santa Cruz Water Platter
Zonal Geranium
Sea Lavender
Blue African Lily
Coral Pea
(and many others)

The terrace restaurant which is remiscent of Terrace on the Park in Central Park provides "the best mushroom soup ever". Do not get the key lime pie.

TravelBlog: Amish Farm and House

2007-09-02T10:12:00.000-04:00

Located on 2395 Route 30 East, in Lancaster, Pa (next to the Target store) we found the Amish house. Inside Renate gave us a tour of the Amish house including the main room, the girls room and the boys room. The tour included a description of the Amish lifestyle, religion, education,and home-life.

(http://www.amishfarmandhouse.com)

Amish:
Are educated up to 8th grade
Use no electricity (no wires)
Shave mustaches because they remind them of military
Shave their beards until they are married
Are allowed to serve in the military in non-combatabt roles
Consider buttons as jewelry
Do not drive cars although a non-Amish may drive them as passengers
Do not fly planes at all
Live together in tight knit communities
Practice a strict form of the protestant religion
Smoke their own meat on the farm
Are buried in their wedding clothes
Are allowed to go to a trades school, apprentice with a master and then open their own business
Hold church in their own homes (they rotate site locations every week)
Follow the dictates of their local Bishop

TravelBlog: Lancaster, Pa

2007-09-02T08:43:00.000-04:00

We did a lay over in Lancaster, Pa. - at the Brunswick Hotel. Funny experience that happened at the hotel included static on every TV channel (since we got in at 10pm I guess the staff didn't bother to turn on the channels - we left at 8am the next day). The tub also had no stopper so I opted for the shower.

Later I discovered a high-speed wireless network (ssid - highspeed). Because I have a slingbox I was able to tap into my channels at home. Other movie sites were also available.

In the morning the continental breakfast was extremely bare. With over 60 people grabbing at food for ten I thought to myself "only the strong survive". We headed for a road trip and we eventually found a Dunkin Donuts shop just a block away (out of the rear of the hotel via the upper lobby) - I knew the hotel staff could not be eating the slop they were serving us.

Not surprisingly I saw a couple of the staff outside getting their coffee and donuts.

TravelBlog: Cocoa Bean Vats

2007-09-01T19:16:00.000-04:00

Where are all my cocoa beans?

Chocolate world provides a very informative tour of the typical chocolate factory. Its almost as interesting as 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'

Basically the vats store the beans until they are ready for use in the production of milk chocolate.

TravelBlog: Hershey Park & Chocalate World

2007-09-01T18:29:00.000-04:00

We stopped at Chocolate World on the way to Hershey Park proper. I tried the 3-in-1 mini desert and the Chocolate Lava Cake. This combination may have been a mistake as I immediately got sick and overdosed on too much chocolate. To be fair who knew they would pile the chocolate lava cake so high?

The monorail at this park shows a few interesting rides (which you can never find once you get back on the ground). Mainly though the rail is showing the factory and the massive parking lot outside of the park. Even for that it was a nice diversion.

Next began a grand walking tour. The thought of a roller coaster ride will a belly full of chocolate was making me sick just to think about it. Somehow after a view of many rides and a lot of walking someone in the group spotted a person eating a turkey leg. Thus began the journey of the turkey leg.

Well after a few miles of aimless wandering and without any clear signs at all we found Freeman's Texas Grill (under the red bridge, at the bottom of the hill, facing the roller coaster - the other one). The turkey leg was dry. The chicken leg I am told was good (I was still full from Chocolate World). I tried a bite of the ribs which was good.

Some things of note at Hershey that may serve the common good:

Beware Chocolate World - its too tempting

Never search for the Turkey Leg at Freeman's

Always use the lockers near the entrance

Watch the over eating

Prepare for long lines

If the soda machine eats your five dollars ask a local vendor for your money back until he gives it to you

Don't search for your bus after your visit, let them find you (its hopeless anyway)

TravelBlog: Roadside America

2007-09-01T12:04:00.000-04:00

A miniature village is fashioned at this interesting pitstop. Located between Allentown and Harrisburg on route 22 this huge indoor facility replicates a typical mining/farming town in early 1800's America.

It's ironic that electricity runs the entire setup since in the time period, the electric grid was non-existent.

One can push a button to operate a windmill, trains, trolleys, a hot air balloon, a blacksmith, elevators, cable cars and sadly cows to the slaughter house.

I noted that Indians were relegated to the corner sections of the space. In almost an unwanted but technically necessary display they were depicted. The tiny section on Indian home life was badly constructed using flat wooden cutouts. Indians in a warlike posture were very detailed in an adjoining corner (as they were fighting a losing battle with soldiers).

In no way were contributions by Asians or Africans acknowledged. I thought this funny because in large part the labor from these communities powered the mining and farning industries.

All-nighter

2007-08-29T19:27:00.001-04:00

All-nighter
Originally uploaded by Biologisvensk

Occasionally I burn the midnight oil. This week saw me working 24 hours at one point. This is not healthy as even an animal needs its rest. They say that between the hours of 10pm and 5am is the critical time period.

Your body supposedly performs most of its self healing and recovery during this time. Therefore get your rest as there is only one you. I will attempt to do the same.

"Motorcycle for sale" 1988

2007-08-21T21:34:00.001-04:00

"Motorcycle for sale" 1988
Originally uploaded by URBAN PHOTOS

This photograph reminded me of some kids on a pole near my house. When I looked no one was sitting on my bike beside the pole. But I had a funny feeling sometime later...

Code Reply

2007-08-15T23:27:00.000-04:00

Increased Geek Quotient
Originally uploaded by bpende

Sometimes you need to reply quickly to inbound email. Here is a VBA personalization Routine Email Reply

*** Code ***
Sub WillInvestigateReply()
Set myItem = GetCurrentItem()
Set myReply = myItem.Reply
Dim MessageText(0 To 3) As String

MessageText(0) = "Please be advised that I have received your email and will give it my attention. I will contact you if I have further questions or when the matter is complete." + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + "Thanks," + vbCrLf + "Yourname" + vbCrLf + "-----Original Message-----" + vbCrLf + "From: " + myItem.SenderName + vbCrLf + "To: " + myItem.ReceivedByName + vbCrLf + "Subject: " + myItem.Subject + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + myItem.Body
MessageText(1) = "Please note that I have received your email and will look into the matter as soon as possible. I will email you if I need additional information." + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + "Thanks," + vbCrLf + "Yourname" + vbCrLf + "-----Original Message-----" + vbCrLf + "From: " + myItem.SenderName + vbCrLf + "To: " + myItem.ReceivedByName + vbCrLf + "Subject: " + myItem.Subject + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + myItem.Body
MessageText(2) = "Please note that your email has been received. I will follow up with you if I have further questions or when the matter is complete." + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + "Thanks," + vbCrLf + "Yourname" + vbCrLf + "-----Original Message-----" + vbCrLf + "From: " + myItem.SenderName + vbCrLf + "To: " + myItem.ReceivedByName + vbCrLf + "Subject: " + myItem.Subject + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + myItem.Body
MessageText(3) = "I will look into the matter as time allows. If I have further questions I will contact you via email." + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + "Thanks," + vbCrLf + "Yourname" + vbCrLf + "-----Original Message-----" + vbCrLf + "From: " + myItem.SenderName + vbCrLf + "To: " + myItem.ReceivedByName + vbCrLf + "Subject: " + myItem.Subject + vbCrLf + vbCrLf + myItem.Body

Dim ReplyText As String
ReplyText = MessageText(RandomNumber(3))
myReply.Body = ReplyText
myReply.Display
End Sub

Function GetCurrentItem() As Object
Dim objApp As Outlook.Application
Set objApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
On Error Resume Next
Select Case TypeName(objApp.ActiveWindow)
Case "Explorer"
Set GetCurrentItem = objApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
Case "Inspector"
Set GetCurrentItem = objApp.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
Case Else
' anything else will result in an error, which is
' why we have the error handler above
End Select
End Function

Public Function RandomNumber(ByVal MaxValue As Long, Optional _
ByVal MinValue As Long = 0)

On Error Resume Next
Randomize Timer
RandomNumber = Int((MaxValue - MinValue + 1) * Rnd) + MinValue

End Function

The right questions are in short supply

2007-08-05T02:14:00.000-04:00

So few people it seems to me are asking themselves the right questions these days. I visited a popular website where asking questions has been made into a business. The upshot of my visit was that we really need to ask good questions in order to achieve right results.

Just a speculative thought on what our world would look like if we all asked the right questions.

Take care,
Tommie

So you wanna box!

2007-07-20T23:25:00.000-04:00

Well here it is, proof positive that my blog is all about everything in general and nothing in particular. If you are looking for new skills in the area of boxing and you cannot find a gym then good news. Someone has put out instructional videos on boxing. With a pair of gloves from Modells one can now practice like a professional.

Maybe you want to try boxing in order to keep your self in shape or as self defense. In any case be sure to check out the videos presented by Adolfo at 5min.com. These will provide a quick start to one's boxing education.

http://www.5min.com/adolfo

Rain Stomp

2007-07-18T07:26:00.000-04:00

Well Readers,

If there are any of you out there. I'm back from another long project. This most recent experience allowed me to further explore some of the inner workings of C#, SQL 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0. I am just full of acronyms today.

On the flip side it's raining and that's why I am dashing off this note. Actually it seems a bit strange - a huge lightning storm and rain so thick it looks like fog. The thunder when it rolls make it feel as if we are in the lower plains rather than New York City.

Rain, rain go away, come back on another day... Well it does not appear to be immediately working. It's looking more and more dreary and on top of this weather I still have to go to work. I will have to take bus/train today because no sensible person could ride a motorcycle in this muck.

Rye Playland

2007-05-12T22:07:00.000-04:00

Rye Playland opened today May 12, 2007.

http://www.ryeplayland.org/

It was hot weather today and seems like its time to take a day to visit the park.

Incognito

2007-05-05T03:59:00.001-04:00

Recently I was looking at a poem that I wrote and I realized that I wanted to transform the poetic structure. The words remain the same but its essence, I thought, could be changed through the disorganization of its words. So, here goes - (by the way this is an original poem that I wrote a while back, copy write information is available at poetry.com)

A True Life (to the Child within..)

Amongst the rancor and discordant harmonies that challenge our spirit even unto the Darkest Hour. A pure vision is borne of who we must become Twixt the abhorrent alleyways 'tis wound round our souls whilst in Brightest Light. Made Whole by those who dared make that visage become Stride Lords of light, blessed peasants of such an insidious plight oft referred by many a' names. I call them "the Golden People";of late, indurate survivors of hate For wherein lies the Courage to strive 'ganst infinite odds. Thus being greater than the sum of their individual parts And in the being, one may live a true life.

Tommie Nathaniel Carter

Now, I am not at all sure that I have removed enough structure to make that unrecognizable. Anyhow it was a first attempt and as I like to remember the famous quote by Thomas Edison "I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work." With that in mind, one down and 9,999 to go.

Ride

2007-04-29T09:49:00.001-04:00

Here's a picture of my latest ride. It's a dual sport bike that can travel street and dirt roads. It's a V-Strom DL1000. The ride is completely different than my cruiser (Volusia VL800).

Riding this motorcycle feels good.

Apparently I have a lot of work to do in order to improve the safety of this bike. My work list is already surging to include: louder pipes, a better air filter and power commander. This puppy needs a storage trunk, center stand, tank cover, gel seat, heated grips, swingarm spools (Delrina), tall windshield and of course a new helmet.

Are you Linked In?

2007-04-08T03:36:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

If you haven't yet had the opportunity to check out the linked in business networking site. Feel free to add me to your list of business network associates. Getting linked in means more opportunities for everyone.

My profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/950/b07

More Sites... more time

2007-03-16T07:19:00.000-04:00

My little blogging habit is starting to turn into a community. I may have given myself several new jobs by becoming a blogger but that's a risk I have to take. Lately, the task of a 9-5 job has slipped over into the 9-9 category. Well as you might imagine, I've been busy. But, never fear I will continue to take little breaks so that I can get my blog on.

New Freedom's

2007-03-02T14:34:00.000-05:00

After some reflection I have created a new website. The cause of this website is to produce meaningful content that speaks truth to power. The site is based on the original Afro-American newspaper called Freedom's Journal.

Created in 1827 the journal chronicles the abolitionist cause for freedom in America. Obviously, the New Freedom's Journal will have to exist in a larger world but I believe that it will still perform a much needed service - giving voice to a nation. The motto of the site continues the original journal's tradition and is "Righteousness Exalteth A Nation"

Feel free to visit the journal as we explore topics of interest to all... http://www.newfreedomsjournal.com

一

2007-02-27T01:52:00.000-05:00

Knowledge awakens the sheltered mind,
Understanding quickens the slumbering heart,
Stillness lightens the troubled spirit,
Grace embraces the enlightened soul.

孔天明

Below is a poem by D.H. Lawrence titled "Thoughts"

2007-02-26T23:22:00.000-05:00

Thought, I love thought.
But not the juggling and twisting of already existent ideas
I despise that self-important game.
Thought is the welling up of unknown life into consciousness,
Thought is the testing of statements on the touchstone of consciousness,
Thought is gazing onto the face of life, and reading what can be read,
Thought is pondering over experience, and coming to conclusion.
Thought is not a trick, or an exercise, or a set of dodges,
Thought is a man in his wholeness, wholly attending.

** end of poem

This poem reminds me of the quintessentially infinite dream called Life.

It also reminds me of "cogito ergo sum" (Descartes, 1637) also known as "I think therefore I am"

Descartes, Rene Discourse on Method (1637)

How to be an 'A+' Student

2007-02-25T00:23:00.000-05:00

Folks,

I continue to be amazed at how today's students can Ace their courses by using online resources to help them learn better and faster than the primitive methods taught in the 1960's - 1980's. With the impact of the Internet it is now very easy for your kid or any child to become an 'A' student. The availability of information on the network has allowed the best teaching methods and teachers to reach students directly in our homes.

I have been doing a lot of study and research into some of these resources lately. My effort is an ongoing pursuit of self improvement. I also like to hope that my daughter who reads my blog might find these techniques useful.

Many parents may be finding that helping and encouraging our kids is not always the easiest or most appreciated experience. One problem continues to be the communication gap between adults and teenagers. Another pressing issue is a simple lack of appropriate resources.

Where to find relevant material that can help our children conquer all levels of math, science and, literature?

This question becomes all the more important now that it is much easier for kids to find ridiculously inappropriate content online or to spend their time engaged in idle chatting. If you are looking to keep your kids occupied and focused on self-improvement then check out these resources:

Math tutorial - Imagine the best math teachers in the world displaying how to solve math problems along with a simulated environment and practice areas where one can test your new found skills:

(Check out the free trial K-12 & College Level Math)
http://www.aleks.com/ [low cost - includes videos and simulations]

(Free access to world class research databases)
http://www.queenslibrary.org/ [free - just need a library card]

(Open Source - General Education)
http://www.curriki.org/ [formerly GELC]

(Code Development - Programming)
http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/ [low cost - video instruction]

(Online Professional Training)
http://www.computer.org/ [moderate cost - extensive videos and e-books]

(Intensive Programming)
http://www.setfocus.com/ [high cost - Offers students use of a high speed interactive environment]

Lastly a word on making the case for education to your children. One document that outlines a useful strategy can be found at this site. The document is available under the Curriki license. (Seven Elements of Success.doc) [free - very creative]

Odds and Ends...

2007-02-17T23:39:00.000-05:00

Well its Chinese new year tomorrow so time for a little spring cleaning. I used the folks at Superior Tub recently to refinish my bathroom. The cost beats paying thousands of dollars to re-tile the room and tub. http://www.superiortubrefinish.com/homepage/?sel=TRUE

Whats new...

2007-02-03T09:35:00.000-05:00

I have been busily blogging zweble this week. Recording a series of dreams. Trudging through the daily labors of programming in the big city. What's new is that I started my Mandarin classes last Saturday, January 27, 2007.

So I am back in kindergarten again. I don't mind it that much since everyone has to begin somewhere. Why not start where you are and work forward? That's my theory anyhow.

For the geek in all of us : Interesting online courses and a variety of training videos/e-books are available at -

http://www.computer.org
http://www.learnvisualstudio.net

For the budding stars and starlets here is a site that may be interesting:

http://www.auditionsearch.com/acting.htm

While this list could go on and on I am going to make it stop here. Remember to keep a journal to record your insights and questions. There are never too many nor enough good ideas.

Moonscape Unveiled

2007-01-18T07:35:00.000-05:00

Normally I save my fantastic ideas for my ultra ego website (zweble) but today I decided to post my latest dream excursion here. I dreamt of a world where the moon is populated with huge cities and parks. There was huge construction going on. In my dream when I pointed a digital camera at the moon I could see that the image was instantly distorted. When I looked up I noticed a veil covering the moonscape and hiding the truth of its reality.

In wonderment I understood that no one would ever believe me. It seems that this masking of the truth is how we remained removed from the truth that was right in front of us. I knew also that I had better write this down before I forgot every word. The veil draws nearer.

Brain Teasers - Ever wonder why dreams appear to last only a moment and then we wake up? Is it because a veil of forgetfulness appears or due to the aspect of the dream being able to distort time? Under this condition does a dream suspend or supersede time if one considers time a conscious invention of man rather than a truth of our reality?

For more unusual ideas and short stories visit my ultra ego website. http://zweble.blogspot.com

Things to do

2007-01-17T23:08:00.000-05:00

I am a big fan of checking out all of the get rich (either slow or quick) methods. I examine how others take risks and assess what needs to be done in order to be ultra successful. One item that I have learned over and over again is to set goals and create lists for the things that one wants to do. A very useful technique is to prioritize the things that one does. Using the list below one can really begin to control one's time. Establishing control of one's time allows you to work towards your goals each day.

things i must to do regularly:
1. self tasks
2. work tasks

things i would like to get done:
1. family tasks
2. relationship tasks
3. school tasks

things i think would be fun to do:
1. friend tasks
2. home tasks

Have something to add to this list? Please post back a comment. I will normally use any good ideas.

Things to remember

2007-01-17T22:57:00.000-05:00

Quite a while ago I wrote this down following a guest's advice from the Charlie Rose show. I thought at the time it would be very helpful. Since I have started blogging I figured this might also be useful to visitors. If you find it so please comment. Unfortunately, I do not recall the guest's name from the show otherwise I would properly credit the content.

I had this listed in a file called "things to remember.txt"

(unknown guest of Charlie Rose show)

help others
drink deeply from books especially the good book
make friendship a fine art
make each day a mastership
build shelter against a rainy day
be true to oneself
pray for guidance and give thanks for the many blessings each day
control ones emotions decisions must be made without emotion clouding one's judgement

Technote: Google Strikes

2007-01-17T10:37:00.000-05:00

For those techies out there who may not be aware of this. Google has built and continues to build an extensive array of useful software. A lessor known fact may be that Google participates in many open source initiatives. The Google API for many of its products are wide open to developers at large. The use of such API's in custom applications can drive innovative programs to new heights. Depending on its popularity such custom applications may bring fame and fortune to the insightful developer.

Find more information at (site)

Relative calm

2007-01-15T18:50:00.000-05:00

My mom came for a visit. Well despite all common sense I decided that I was just not going to clean up. I mean showing up at 6:30 am is just inhumane and cruel on her part. I just can only take so much -

I grabbed Jane and by some consequence of girls having different genes than guys I was relieved of the responsibility for entertaining my early morning guest. I really don't know how or why these unexpected surprises fall, all too frequently, on me.

Now I was fully ready (in spirit) to entertain my mom; it's just that when the 6:45am discussion turned to religion and politics a sudden headache overcame me. Right about this time I realized that I was experiencing undue stress (in fact it was feeling more and more like a massive headache).

I took a nap -- because I couldn't take any more babbling... I hoped that they would come to some neutral cease-fire eventually. I hit the sheets after declaring religion off limits from now to eternity.

As my head touched the pillow I could hear them berating me... "why can't we talk about religion... he's so sensitive...". Well I can take the blame just quit the yammering. When I awoke I still had a pulsing headache.

Taking everyone to lunch seemed to fix the headache. Dropping my mom off later apparently restored my world to relative calm. A funny thought that when relatives are removed then calm remains.

The System

2007-01-12T16:43:00.000-05:00

Almost anyone can attest to the fact that -

A visit to the New York Department of Motor Vehicles can be an exercise in anger management. Normally I would be a bit upset but my New Year's resolution is to reduce my intake of stress (it is harmful to your body - link). Now I am not sure why sharing the misery of others is soothing to so many folks but I know that blogging this helps me vent to the world. Like the fictional "Howard Beale" - who encourages viewers to go to their windows and yell out at the top of their lungs...

"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

I love that line (and the movie is just as grand - link : audio)

Getting back to my own little corner of Dante's hell - link

Brain Teaser - Can a circular hell possess a corner?

Okay so I go to the local DMV to get a new motorcycle license plate (old one was stolen) - Here is what happened:

I wait more or less (im) patiently for 1.75 hours
I am told that although my insurance card is valid I need to get one that has a recent date on it (kicked off line)
I return with a new insurance card emailed from my carrier that has a future date on it (kicked off line)
I return with another new insurance card faxed to me and I am told that although the date is now entirely correct, the suffix is missing from my name (kicked off line)
I finally return again with another new insurance card which was faxed to me that includes my suffix but not my apartment number (plate is issued notwithstanding - I think I wore them down...with my "I will not be moved approach")

While this process has been going on I have been trying to control my emotions and not let this turn into a Howard Beale moment. The funny thing is the person who helped me seemed angry that I kept coming back?

It really is a sad state of affairs when the government employees just do not want to do their jobs (I am sure it is not everyone... so save the email).

I just decided that I would not let the System get me down today...

It is my birthday after all.

Hypothesis: ANN meets CI via TheBrain

2007-01-12T01:52:00.000-05:00

My latest madcap scheme to take over the world
Contemplating use of thebrain software to function as an artificial neural network (ANN) application for use in forecasting complex business models/events. Additionally how the use of such a tool can impact Competitive Intelligence (CI) gathering and analysis techniques.

Postulation - Such a tool might be useful.

Technote: WSS 3.0

2007-01-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

This post is for all the techies out there. Microsoft has made available Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0). The download links are located at this uri (Download|More Info)

Recommend you download and test at once. This version reportedly supports the use wikis and a work flow mechanism. Sound off if you find bugs!

Walden - a story of solitude

2006-12-30T00:41:00.000-05:00

A recurring theme in Paul Auster's New York Trilogy is his references to Henry David Thoreau (link) and to the solitary experience of the characters. This solitude that is the subject of so much contemplation can in fact be applied to most folks. As we are working away in our cubicles for eight hours day (at a minimum) are we missing out on the essence of our true life?

This is a central question when one considers the effect of solitude and as such it can teach us a valuable lesson. Family can at times be burdensome (especially during the holidays) but it is critical that we hold onto each other. It is way too easy for one to lose oneself --- for a reality check just ask your local bum if they would mind sharing their story with you.

Our fall from grace was no less swift than the response you will receive.

more on Walden

Go outside and do something you enjoy.

review: Sony UX280P

2006-12-29T23:41:00.000-05:00

Pros:
I guess you could say this is the world's current smallest laptop. Measuring 6" x 4" x 1.5" with a 4.5" screen the device fits nicely into my pocket. This laptop (handtop might be more accurate) comes with Windows XP 2002 SP2, 1 GB RAM, etcetera, etcetera... You can look up the tech specs for full details (link).

Now that we have a common reference to the item in question. I think this new tool is pretty hot. The big factors for me are the small footprint (I am darned tired of lugging my Thinkpad around) - this device weighs less than 2 pounds. The handtop lets you snap pixs (cellphone quality only though); and you can attach all types of tech goodies to this unit (but these goodies start to push the weight back up).

My goal is to keep my overall carrying weight down while effectively being able to replace my laptop. The screen resolution is 1024x600 (widescreen) which is not too bad. To the base unit I am adding:
Laser Projection Keyboard (still working on this install)
Bluetooth mini-mouse (a mouse is built in but I like the feel of this mouse)
USB flexible mini-keyboard (again I like the feel better for office work)

Cons:
I noticed some sluggishness while loading software (especially since they have a couple of special add-ins -- a la spyware -- inside of the Internet Explorer)
40 GB hard drive only -- ( are they kidding?)
1 GB Max RAM (see above comment)
2.5 - 4.5 battery life (same)
extended battery lasts only 9 hours max (nuts)

TODO List:
This list is for YOU since I have already fixed this...

Under Tools... Manage Add-ins for Internet Explorer remove the Sony specific add-ins.
Download Firefox, Netscape, Mozilla or Opera right away
Buy a USB/Bluetooth 200+GB hard drive for use with this device
Buy, download and use the VMWare workstation if you want to keep this system clean
Buy a wireless mini-keyboard/min-mouse (or combination) if you can find it.
Make sure you have a monitor at home/work that you can use for this device
Get a spare A/C adapter and battery

tlpm: intro

2006-12-29T23:13:00.000-05:00

Always in quest of new introspective techniques?

If you are like me then the answer to this question is 'yes'. I came up with a new approach recently (though new is relative as nothing is really new) - talk less - perceive more.

I intend to sprinkle a few brain teasers in this blog (because I like brain teasers) under the TLPM label (so keep a sharp eye when visiting).

1st up:

Chanting in the mornings clear the mind

To learn more see this valuable link

Reading is Fundamental

2006-12-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

RIF used to be a well known acronym during the late 70's and early 80's (I am really showing my age I guess). In any case I remember listening to those Reading is Fundamental commercials and recently I have started to think about the general malaise in our society regarding readership levels. While cable and net surfing are up! Book Reading appears to be in decline for the majority of consumers. The logic I guess is why pay for a book when tons of free online content is available (for free) and much of that content requires reading.

There is however something about a good book, in particular when a book takes us fully into the fantastic, insane and sometimes imaginary world of the author. Needless to say I was given a book for Christmas. Actually it was a three in one deal by Paul Auster entitled aptly enough "The New York Trilogy". This missive is a three part series of short stories that in my opinion weave together to make the point of a story within the story of the author within the author. The titles of the three stories are City of Glass, Ghosts and The Locked Room. I have rediscovered the fine art of reading (and it came about none too soon as public television is in the midst of its annual holiday re-runs of various new series).

I can't bring myself to watch cable. To my mind that would simply be too great a temptation. I no doubt would spend all of my time flipping through the 500 or so channels and end up watching PBS because nothing "good" is ever on... So I dodge the problem by not putting the cable plug into the TV. This reduces my channel surfing to about 15 (8 of which are Spanish language) and I end up watching PBS.

With television (and its mind numbing effects) as an alternative, I suppose it is a fortunate thing that I can lose myself in the webosphere that is the Internet. I find an interesting parallel within Mr. Auster's book that I have just read. The characters, much like many citizens of the web, are trying to lose themselves (to be other than whom they appear to be) as we seek unknown (unknowable?) truths about the nature of life, the universe and everything (another favorite book of mine by Douglas Adams -book link).

Did I forget to mention to read these books? They are a good read if your mind is not too dulled by the mediocrity of nightly news and barrages of the sensational nothingness that is in fact what we are cowed over with on the television. If you cannot break completely from the web then try getting a library card from your local library and accessing their online digital media (books, videos and audio books are free to download).

This revival of reading has certainly been an eye-opener for me.

Season's Greetings

2006-12-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

For everyone that follows this blog and all of your family, friends and associates...

Happy Holidays!

Many folks during this time will want to enjoy seasonal songs. Sometimes though; especially if you are old and grey like me, the lyrics may be forgotten. Lyrics from these site are bound to amaze everyone at your fantastic memory for the many classics:

X-mas Carols
Caroling Corner
Christmas Album Lyrics

My personal favorite are the lyrics to Ave Maria!

Tis the Season

2006-12-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year. Most folks think about family, visiting friends and exchanging gifts. Though the true meaning of Christmas can be found in the heart. Online expressions of Christmas are found everywhere - here are some:

Wikipedia
Northpole
HowStuffWorks
Santas

Technote: Viral attack? How to Fight back.

2006-12-20T07:20:00.000-05:00

A lot of folks have heard about Viruses, Trojans and Worms and many recognize these items as death dealing software which can kill your pc as quickly as 1-2-3. Few people realize that help is just as easy to locate. Symantec, a top notch anti-virus company, provides a free scanner to help you make sure that your pc is virus free. Symantec also provides a security check feature to ensure that your computer is not susceptible to a trojan or worm program. This free tool requires that one have the Internet Explorer web browser 5.0 or higher. The site location is http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/home.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym&plfid=23&pkj=UTRSIGAKIYLPMJSSNKR

Other bits of advice to keep yourself in the clear from viruses:

Just about every internet service provider offers anti-virus and firewall software included with the price of your service (contact your ISP for details on how to download)
Do not ignore strange behavior of your machine, if necessary yank the plug if you feel you are being hacked.
Engage a popup blocker on your browsers

Virus protection should be constructed in layers:

Make sure you have a modem (used to connect to your DSL, Cable or Dialup service)
Make sure you have a firewall that is also a router (separate from your modem)
Make sure you turn on the Windows (or Symantec) firewall for each PC that you own
Make sure that you update your antivirus software daily
Don't travel to dangerous/illicit websites (most of the trojans are at these locations)
Regularly scan your connection using the Symantec tools
Consider using a browser other than Internet Explorer for most tasks

Remember, as in life, nothing is free on the net (free sites many times have viruses lurking)

WebWatch: NASA

2006-12-19T09:11:00.000-05:00

Anyone notice that the Net is the greatest tool that humans have ever created?
(Shout out to Tim Berners-Lee - the inventor of the world wide web)

Well here is a new tip on "things in the web" -- NASA, the space agency, now allows everyone to see and hear live communications between it's astronauts and its Control Centers. A pretty interesting feed to watch especially when there are complex operations being performed. Spacewalks are the real kicker because you (the viewer) are allowed to see through the astronauts helmet-cam! Not only is it fun to open this window but its also educational.

Interested?

Here is the link (http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/live_tv.html)

More about NASA, including the TV schedule...see whats' on.

Where's the Pix?

2006-12-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

Site Hint:

Reading my blog one might wonder where's the pictures that are so common to many blogs. In my case these are off to the left - in my picasaweb.google < clickthelink > website < / clickthelink >. It may be a bit confusing for the uninitiated but these blogs are supposed to reflect real life and like many, mine is not uncomplicated.

So if you are interested; feel free to visit the site above which shows my African American, Spanish and Chinese families.

2006 Asia Tour Highlights

2006-12-13T17:35:00.000-05:00

A lot of folks have asked me to identify the highlights of my trip. I really prefer to do this because it serves as a record that I can look back on and it gives me something to remember the trip. So in order of destination here are some of the trip highlights (photos, videos).

Tokyo

The surprise on everyone's face that I was speaking Japanese while Jane was not (they refused to believe she wasn't Japanese - go figure!)
Ueno Zoo and the Giant Panda Ling-Ling
The Tokyo subway system
(so clean, so many different kinds of Japanese people)
The Royal Palace Gardens (Huge)

Hong Kong

Mongkok at night is eerily silent but some joints (downtown) are still rocking (just like New York)
Hong Kong food is world famous and if you go with a local resident you can find all the best places
The MTR (HK subway) is another clean, fast, way to get around
Disneyland is a must (go around 3pm to catch the parade on the main street)
Ocean Park is another must see in HK

Guangzhou

Things move fast here so you have to be on your toes
Holding hands with my 67 yr young "Chinese Mom" and chatting with her in Cantonese
Sitting in a tea shop and singing a popular Chinese song to several locals
(they were shocked to say the least)
Finding the best food is also something you need to do with the local residents
Wholesale markets (goods can move from factory to store to your hands)!
Everything is made or sold here
Yuexiu Park is a must if you need to get away from shopping

Hawaii (Waikiki)

Meeting Pearl Harbor survivors and visiting during the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack
Checking out the local Chinatown
Free Trolleys pickup on Olohama Street and other places
Renting a moped for eight hours so you can see the whole city fast (don't keep it overnight though)
The beach reminds me of an Elvis Presley movie
Catch up on your education and learn about the Hawaiian native culture (Polynesian Cultural Center)
Learn the true meaning of Aloha and Mahalo (Hawaiian Language)
Grab a taxi and talk to the driver to go anywhere (drivers are very helpful)

Travelblog: New York

2006-12-11T09:29:00.000-05:00

We're back...

I knew that as soon as I heard the horn honking and saw the not-nice person tailgating me. I did everything I could do to encourage him to move on including the wave by. Flagging him on past me and moving to the right did not deter this personage from his tailgating activity.

I pulled forwarded quickly between a tight gap in the traffic and zipped ahead putting four cars between me and this individual. Unfortunately he probably just tailgated the next person. That is how I knew that I was back in New York. Hawaii is starting to fade into memory as I have to move back into action once again.

Waikiki

2006-12-09T20:29:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Hawaii

We stayed at a Hotel in Waikiki. This little section of Hawaii created quite an impression on me. First thing to get used to is that everyone is so laid back. Even in a traffic jam no one bothers to honk horns or get mad. Everything is so casual...

Waikiki has plenty of restaurants, bars, clubs and tourist attractions. We found the local Chinatown (yum cha) - it was small but pretty deep (although nothing beats the NY Chinatown). The beach is rather tiny in comparison to much of the East Coast (US) but the palm trees make the Waikiki beach scene intense.

Local markets carry everything from Hawaiian shirts to groceries all the way to flip flops (shoe ware). As always it pays to shop around... I found differences of over $100 US between locations that are setup for tourists, those locations in meant for Japanese vs. American tourists, etc.

We visited a number of historical locations and got a pretty good education of the Hawaiian islands during our stay. The local culture is extremely friendly. Overall this city is a good combination of natural parks/venues with enough night life to keep everyone happy.

Honolulu

2006-12-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Waikiki

Where do you go after Disneyland?

Hawaii of course.

We blew into town on a 777 from China by way of a second stopover in Tokyo. In Narita Airport I found the one place in Terminal 2 where one can get a Cheese burger (without fries though). Actually there are two places but I cannot count McDonalds(tm) - first because it's really in a central building not directly connected to the Terminal and secondly; I don't think its really a hamburger.

The landing in Honolulu was great. Customs was a bear. Those guys are seriously interested in agriculture. Actually I recall that in China a person was pulled over as well because he did not declare that he was carrying an apple. Customs all over the world is on patrol for unlicensed fruits and vegetables. I am sure this has some purpose.

I will get back to all of that, just to keep this short -- we made it to Hawaii and on our second day (the first was spent on travel recovery) we are heading out for something fun...

Tom and Jane in Disneyland

2006-12-04T08:41:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: DHK

We made it back to Hong Kong from Guangzhou, China. Immigration between countries has always been tough but China seems to be getting a little better. I think it helps if you smile. A little known secret is that if you smile then almost inevitably it is rather impossible for the other person not to smile back. This is important to remember when you face a very stoic and serious Chinese immigration officer.

Bottom line, I made the trip from Guangzhou via the Kowloon-China Railroad line. The KCR line is one I would recommend for everyone. Current cost for the trip to Guangzhou is $190 RMB (about $29 US as of this writing). KCR has a ton of leg-room, some useful bathrooms and offers a tea service. Water is free, everything else is not (as of this writing).

The trip out of Guangzhou started with a very early morning ride. We thought the first train out was at 7:00am and tried to make that train. Unfortunately that 7am train was headed the wrong way (to parts north of Guangzhou rather than south to Hong Kong). We hung out for a while until the shops opened at 7:30am and had some traditional Chinese breakfast (for me this is usually Pedang Sow Yuk Juk).

We made it onto the train after filling out our departure card (collected in the immigration area - wish we had gotten this card on the way into the country instead). Next we eventually made it to the Hong Kong station (more immigration stuff/entry forms, etc).

Where do you go after you just get in from mainland China?

DisneyLand of course.

Hong Kong Disneyland (DHK) is small but effective. The main ride when we went was the Space Mountain ride. It's the only ride that we went on... Many other rides are kid sized and besides the Space Mountain ride made Jane sick. We arrived at DHK just in time for a super parade which I was able to capture on my Kodak (DX6490) -- video on Youtube (I,II,III).

Off-beat tip:
Laws of China

Guangzhou - take two

2006-11-30T03:22:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Guangzhou

Following our turbulent arrival and introduction to the tough Renmin Nan Lu marketplace. We decided to drop the intensity down a notch so I took myself to Frommers website to look for a calmer streets, shops and restaurants of Guangzhou. I also picked up a map to get my bearings and made sure to hail legal taxis rather than hired cars (taxis here start at $7 RMB/1$ US).

Guangzhou bai yun mou yik - Guangzhou Leather Trading Mall - Has everything you could want and includes wholesale and retailers. There is also a nice Shanghai Street shopping area - One McDonalds™ on each corner for a total of four within 2/3 mins walking distance! We visited a number of local restaurants and shops and found much better pricing than what is offered at the main shopping (tourist) areas. I would recommend jumping in a cab and hitting the streets to get to the local markets. Any place frequented by Westerners will have inflated pricing.

Taxi Note - Yellow cabs are ones that have Cantonese drivers, Green cabs have Mandarin speaking drivers from other provinces. The Cantonese drivers seem more friendly and knowledgeable about their city so they are the best bet for getting around. They are also generally pretty funny characters especially if you speak their language :-)

Quickstep...

2006-11-28T16:26:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Guangzhou

This city is bustling with a lot of hustling. Similar to many money prone cities where making a fast buck is the only goal. Almost like New York in a lot of ways (circa 1980'2). The buildings and infrastructure are all modern. Having zipped into Guangzhou by train one must immediately be on alert. The type of alert is that of any big city where you are likely to be taken advantage of as a rookie.

Anyone trying to get you to jump into a car should cause a red flag to pop-up. These guys will deliver you to your destination but negotiate the price before you get into the car. Think in terms of local currency (forget about converting).

Now that you have been warned, lets go back to the beginning. Take a train to Guangzhou from the Hong Hom railway station which is near Hong Kong. The train is great -- it provides a two hour ride to the city of Guangzhou inside of Guangdong. Along the way, the scenery is beautiful -- lots of nice, open spaces.

There are a many attractions in Guangzhou (much of which can be found by searching the trip advisor website. Guangzhou is situated between the border with Hong Kong and the factories in China that produce everything for the world (if you don't believe me check the labeling on anything you can imagine and see if it is not made in ...) Shopping is something that one must engage in if you are a tough negotiator and willing to walk away with nothing. Try negotiating using the price tag as an opening statement.

Given this post one can see that you have to be a quickstep in the Guangzhou environment. This is an area for the young and the quick witted. Be ware of getting hustled and keep your valuables close. This is nothing unusual but the busier the city the more these rules apply. A good reference to have before arriving at Guangzhou is a map.

Tomorrow I plan to visit some more historical places in Guangzhou.

Deep inside Hong Kong

2006-11-27T02:48:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Mongkok

To get a real sense of any country; I feel it is useful to get back to the typical neighborhood. Mongkok is one such place. I was able to get out today and get into the real Mongkok. My Hong Kong hotel is actually in MongKok but I really think the further away from the Hotel one gets the more *genuine* the local experience.

Why travel across the globe to eat Hotel food? I also noticed the prices near the Hotel are aways elevated (every country). It seems the rules are just like other tourist areas. Tourists pay more -- while local folks pay a lot less. This rule is true until you reach the extremely poor neighborhoods where the local people pay more (I am pretty sure this is because the local stores may feel they have the local populace economically hostage). So it's sort of like looking for a double play coverage in baseball. One needs to locate venues that are midway between tourist and poor local areas to find the best values.

Mongkok is such a place.

Today we visited some family living in Mongkok and the experience was very interesting. I noticed that we were in a section with a lot of automotive repair shops. Lots of motorcycles are ridden in China and so I stopped to chat with the local mechanic about bikes for a few minutes.

Part of the trip was on a local Chinese double-decker bus. This was my first ride on this kind of vehicle. It was nice -- I almost dozed off... We also had an interesting cab ride back from the area. The driver was giving us a bunch of advice on our next leg of our journey -- Guangzhou! More on Guangzhou later.

HK fly by night

2006-11-25T16:50:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Hong Kong

Just flew into Hong Kong on the United Airlines. It was a night flight and I have just woken up after checking into the Metropark Kowloon hotel. The hotel is pretty good for a three star venue and I am ready to get cracking on some Cantonese breakfast. I can't stand to eat any hotel food so I am off to the local joints.

The folks in HK are almost the exact opposite of those in Japan. So it should be an experience.

Where men are Men!

2006-11-24T13:23:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Japan

Tongue in cheek -- I just found out something interesting. Space is so limited that many smaller local joints use bar stools or offer standing room only. Another interesting thing is that some locations are apparently male only... Live and learn. Also noted that many of the stated rules are just that -- they are stated but can be simply ignored or broken.

Konichiwa, Tokyo!

2006-11-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

Travelblog: Japan

People are people wherever you go

I have been pretty well hooked since seeing Masi Oka shout out "Hello New York!" on the show Heroes™ (NBC, Mondays) with a desire to return the favor. Since I believe that one ought to show the same respect as others do, I am here in Tokyo (Tokio) to shout-out "Konitchiwa Tokio!". Well to be 100% honest I am also here for a vacation, the sushi, the experience and to see how things are done on this isle known as Japan.

First impressions - very clean city. Extremely. Although space is at a premium in this city I noted that in my standard size hotel room that I still have a very pleasant experience (the bathroom is tiny but tremendous). The views from the Crowne Plaza Metropolitan hotel in Tokyo remind me of Tsim Tsa Tsui in Kowloon, Hong Kong (more). As far as I can see -- this is another city that doesn't sleep.

I guess the first misconception that I have had to let go of is this thought that everyone in Japan dresses in a suit (even when not working). It's funny how the "image" of what it means to be Japanese seems so different from outside of the country. I also noticed this through many of my other travels. Each country has lots of sub-cultures which in total aggregate to represent the entire culture. In large parts I am noticing that huge bits of this aggregate do not make an impression beyond the borders.

I can tell you right away that the image of a suited Japanese society is not wholly correct. I have seen a ton of folks so far that could have been in any major metropolitan city around the world. One caveat to that is that currently it is Labor Day... (Naturally following this post I saw many Japanese wearing suits)...

One of the first things that I tend to do when visiting a new country is to check out their television.

Those who know me well will find that an amazing statement since I rarely watch the domestic version. I find a good dose of television in a foreign land will put me in the right frame of reference for language and cultural communications. I can also find out what era that I have arrived in by checking out the commercials at length.

Well its early morning (@4am) and I have just completed my cycle of sleep therapy. I guess I am off tomorrow to check out some of the finer points of interest in the city (japanese gardens, the subway, karaoke spots, eating places). No pictures yet since it was dark and cloudy when we landed at Narita Airport. I should be ready to get started with being a tourist in a few hours. I brought along some 2GB SD cards and the digital camera so I should get a lot of great shots (if the weather holds).

*** Sleep Therapy -- My practice to sleep on all plane rides at least 50% of the time. This helps me acclimate faster to the local time zone when landing.

Check for pictures from this trip: My Picasa Website
(should be posted by November 26, 2006 - posted)

Heroes - http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/interviews/

Did you know...

2006-11-19T22:26:00.000-05:00

Here is another environmental fact -- other than the news about all snow faring creatures being destroyed by "global warming".

There are very few panda bears left in the world. These creatures are currently in protective care at zoological facilities around the world. I plan to stop by Ueno, Japan next week so that I can see a living panda bear for myself.

Want to know more about panda bears?
Check out this link
Also very interesting

WebWatch: Net Radio

2006-11-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

Everyone out there probably recalls that I am a student of languages. In learning about new cultures (which is how I think about languages) I have found an interesting radio station in the New York City area. Namely 1480 AM -- There is a full-time Cantonese radio program on the air that is very enlightening and provides a lot of material for me to practice with.

It seems clear to me that removal of the societal cultural divide must happen if we are to prosper in the future. The world is changing... be flexible.

Learn more:

1540 AM (Live) Mandarin Programming

WGBB online station live (Chinese Language from 6am-6pm EST)

More online Chinese radio stations (link)

http://www.chineseradiony.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Radio_New_York

http://www.nyradioguide.com/freqlist.htm

WebWatch: Zweble - aNuKindofBlog

2006-11-19T15:40:00.001-05:00

I have been busy creating a second blog for my more zany thoughts which I felt out to be separated out from the content posted on this site. Please view my new blog at this location Zweble.blogspot.com

In addition to the new blog I have begun understanding some of the more advanced uses of blogging in general and have uncovered some tips on building a better blog.
Building a Better Blog

Another interesting source of information is available about how to make your blogs accessible to users who want to utilize an RSS feed
What is Atom/RSS?

WebWatch: Video Link to Youtube

2006-11-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

CantoneseTalentContestHiLights-Part2

If you have seen part one of this video series you know that this is a talent contest. Both performers have been narrowed down from a group that included folks all over the world. The eventual winner was only 12 years old and is at the end of the video. It is well worth the wait... check it out and leave me some feedback on what you think.

WebWatch: Video Link to Youtube

2006-11-18T20:06:00.000-05:00

CantoneseTalentContestHiLights-Part1

This is a pretty good video that I posted to YouTube. This is a talent contest that contains two excellent singers. The kid at the end is especially good (seems like he took some lessons) - Also check out part two of the series to see who won the contest.

In the news

2006-11-17T10:35:00.000-05:00

Notable stories:
Gone too far?

WebBreak: Photo Album

2006-11-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

Taking a break for a minute.

Want to see more...
Panda Album

Other Albums

Voting - NYS

2006-11-07T12:32:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder where to vote? If you are new to your neighborhood then check out the Election Board site in New York State at:

http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm

WebWatch: Googlishous

2006-10-14T10:35:00.000-04:00

Google started a new service to host pictures. I created a site and uploaded some family pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/tcarternyc

WebWatch: Reconnecting...

2006-09-11T01:24:00.000-04:00

Found my old frat online at http://theoriginalred.org/.

Guess if you search long enough online you will run into yourself time and again!

Just for fun try googling your own name - you may be surprised.

Technote: Debugging Visual Studio

2006-08-30T14:47:00.000-04:00

If anyone has been having problems attaching to a program and debugging that program then I would suggest checking out this article. http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/1277.aspx

What's new...

2006-08-21T23:34:00.002-04:00

Let's see, since I started this blog tonight I wanted to play a little catch-up. My Real Estate course phase 1 has been completed and my coach tells me that I am READY to start writing offers and look towards buying property. It's a big step so I have devised a strategy and decided to just do it.

On the work front my programming has improved by my realization that easy, simple code far outweighs clever, complex code. Simple code is right, complex code is hard and just wrong. I have decided to remove complexity from code where-ever it is found by:

Organizing regions in a hierarchal structure similar to:

Behaviors -- Properties
|
Forms--Controls
| |
Load--Application behaviors
| |
methods--helper functions

The goal would be to structure code that is logically organized to ensure that related functionality is physically connected. This would improve the understanding for author and reader programmers in the system overview.

I am working on a couple of programming philosophies as well; one of these is the need to use complex objects as little as possible. One should I believe dump complex objects in favor of lightweight objects as soon as possible. This dumbing-down produces simpler programming paradigms, easier to manage code and smaller, faster programs requiring less memory (reminds me of SmallTalk)

http://www.smalltalk.org/main/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk

Cantonese class has become more interesting and friends are speaking to me in 85% Chinese / 15% English for which I am very grateful.

On my motorcycle, Volusia 2004, I re-attached a horn (part of a pair) because it came off and I realized how an L-shaped bracket would allow me to set the thing up with chrome facing outward (can barely believe the shop put it on backwards).

More about the Volusia
======================
http://motorcycles.about.com/cs/makesandmodels1/p/04suzvl800zk4.htm

Here is a picture of an 2004 Volusia (mine also has a sissy bar in the back seat and crash-bars but is the same basic bike (although I now have three horns!)

NOTE: I plan on breaking my posts up in the future so that the content can be separated into topics that are of interest to particular viewers. Hopefully this format will make it easier to locate information.

HIV - Turning the corner?

2006-08-21T23:11:00.000-04:00

Great news!

I was shocked and delighted to see on the news reports of possible cellular treatments for HIV. Something that I found surprising were the similarities between my post on June 1, 2006 (of an email that I sent to a biologist at the NIH) and the current reports. I suppose a lot of folks out there have been thinking along the lines of cellular treatments of HIV using cells in conjunction with enzymes to delay or rejoin the virus to other cells while allowing T-cells an opportunity to grow in strength to a point where they can eradicate the virus.

(theirs)
http://newsbureau.upmc.com/Print/PrintTCellsFightHIV.htm
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/310/5750/1025
http://www.cirp.org/library/disease/HIV/lee-huang/
http://www.news.uiuc.edu/scitips/02/0515hiv.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=49544

(my post from 6/1/2006)

Caveat:

We are at the gates of Pandora's box. Once opened the genie cannot be put back in the jar - cellular manipulation meant to save ourselves may be the tool that opens the gate of our ultimate destruction. Care should be taken to ensure that we have a way forward and a way out in the event that such manipulations begin to degrade the natural progression of human development.

WebBreak: Poetry

2006-08-04T06:44:00.002-04:00

Few people know that I also write poetry. My poems can be found at Poetry.com.

Of the results listed my poems all include my middle name (another little known fact) 'Nathaniel'. The other 'Tommie Carter' poems are by other Tommie Carter's (not me)... Mine are authored by Tommie Nathaniel Carter. Oh well, by the way, here is one of the poems directly.

A True Life
(to the Child within..)

Amongst the rancor and discordant harmonies that challenge our spirit
even unto the Darkest Hour.
A pure vision is borne of who we must become

Twixt the abhorrent alleyways 'tis wound round our souls
whilst in Brightest Light.
Made Whole by those who dared make that visage become

Stride Lords of light, blessed peasants of such an insidious plight
oft referred by many a' names.
I call them "the Golden People";of late, indurate survivors of hate

For wherein lies the Courage to strive
'ganst infinite odds.
Thus being greater than the sum of their individual parts

And in the being, one may live a true life.

Tommie Nathaniel Carter

Copyright ©2006 Tommie Nathaniel Carter, Jr

NOTE: When one looks at things previously written the temptation is to rewrite, edit and make more compelling. I am going to avoid that but I note that 'ganst could very well fit in a reference to the angst of the poor. Some structural work can be done to make the poem more readable but I am going to leave it in that moment which I was feeling when I wrote it.

Please Stop Sending me these...

2006-08-01T17:22:00.000-04:00

Someone sent me this picture. Not sure if it was doctored or not but it gave me one heck of a belly laugh!

Just the idea of someone being unwilling or unable to remove the cover of the binoculars...

Guess no one wants to tell the CIC that his fly is down or "you might want to remove the lens".

What's new...

2006-08-01T17:15:00.001-04:00

Been doing a lot of programming lately... Busy as a bumble bee. Lots of coding in VB.NET and C#.NET. Also tried a new way of meeting with clients (www.gotomymeeting.com)!

In school I am learning even more about the Chinese language every Wednesday.

I have experienced joining the local Rotary Club (also on Wednesdays...)

Onward and upward.

Troubleshooting...

2006-08-01T17:13:00.000-04:00

If you cannot see the chinese characters in my blog notes below try adding the Chinese language options into the browser (via Tools...Options... General... Language) -- Using the shift key choose all of the Chinese options.

What's up with the Chinese Characters?

2006-06-01T16:48:00.000-04:00

Want to understand the chinese characters in my title?

Character - Cantonese, Mandarin, (Meaning)
============================

天 - tin1, tian1, (sky, heaven)
明 - ming4, ming2, (bright, clear)
孔 - hung2, kong3, (opening; hole; of Confucius)

Phonetically these characters correspond to my English names (Tommie Carter)

Want to learn about the Cantonese language (link)

HIV Approach

2006-06-01T12:06:00.000-04:00

After a recent Public Broadcast Service program on television (yes I still watch TV, although I have given up on Cable) I sent the following email to a biologist at the NIH. The program discussed the HIV situation and I applied some logic that I have used against computer viruses to this issue. I welcome all comments on the strategy presented. A solution to the HIV/AIDS pandemic must be found or it could wipe out whole nations.

email sent to chuang1@mail.nih.gov (found the biologist on one of the linked websites at the http://www.pbs.org/endingaids/links.html)

Hello,

I hope that you have a few moments to read through this correspondence. Your insight as a biologist would be very interesting for me to hear as far as how the biological considerations for this strategy impact its applicability.

Could this work?

I have been thinking about how best a viral defense strategy might be applied to biological infections like HIV. Is it not possible to camouflage original T-cells so that the virus thinks that it is already infected? In this case T-cells might be able to gather strength in high numbers to fight the onset of AIDS permanently while the HIV would not grow unchecked. The thought process behind this is to send out a signal to the HIV that a particular condition exists and therefore stop the absorption from occurring. Possible inhibitors might include enzyme cofactors that change the signature of T-cells just enough to stimulate a non-attractive effect to the virus.

In computer science I apply this principle to computer viruses. In essence I occasionally will get a virus that cannot be immediately removed. I will change the properties of the virus' delivery mechanism (it's executable) so that no one can activate or execute it. This does not attempt to adjust the operating mechanism in any way other than to indicate that the virus is operational but without the means to execute. Similarly, I might think that some agent introduced into the system might induce the virus to believe that it is operating at normal capacity (this might help prevent mutations).

Normal questions that come to my mind include:
What attracts the virus to the T cell?
What can be done to induce the gp120 and gp41 proteins to vacate the virus for fake T-cells (or structurally / genetically defective but attractive CD4-like cells)?
Can we generate a camouflaged (fake) T-helper lymphocytes that will break down without harming real T4 cells or the Immune System?
Is there any point from interphase to mitosis until cytokinesis that the viral progress can be vulnerable to enzymes or co-factors?
What are the best strategies to reduce the possibility of viral mutations?

NOTE:
The fooled cells would need to be easily destroyed by the system (or a counter agent) at a later time but must appear to be more attractive than the typical T-Cell to the virus. In general in computer science one way that I approach a virus is to stipulate the precedence of priority (1st - halt the spread, 2nd - obfuscate my approach from the virus, 3rd - suppress the executable properties of the virus, 4th - work on a way to remove the offending virus)

The purpose of this email is to pass along strategy and tactical methodologies from one area of science (computer viruses) to another (biological viral functions). I am of course not an expert in biology, and so I hope that the discourse has not been too naive. Please feel free to reply back with comments. I just feel that the public ought to take note of the greatest crisis in our age.

Want to learn more about how human viruses work?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/virus-human.htm (see the link)
http://health.howstuffworks.com/aids.htm (How AIDS works)
http://www.pbs.org/endingaids/ (PBS Stories on HIV/AIDS)