Things are hardly normal around here, I am living in a strangers house, I am using a network connection I don't own... things are off.

I just installed Songbird 0.7.0 (I think) and I am quite impressed, although really I guess it should be the codec I am impressed with, either way, very easy install (unzip) and the interface is great! I wonder if it works with Zune... maybe I should write the add-on. Maybe.

So now that things are back to normal I shall be getting underway (again) on the community rebuild. I am really excited, have been looking over code, and thinking about a lot of things since we have made the choice to do this.

I am going to write up an overview of the site, and the code chunks we will be using, I am not sure when, cause right now I am in the process of getting things to where others can contribute to the codebase to make things really get going.

These are exciting times and I don't think there is a blogger/developer/designer among us that isn't excited about what we are attempting to do here. If there is, feel free to leave now :D Just kidding, you are welcome to nay say if you feel you must, but be forewarned I won't be paying attention.

Move is done.

Back at work.

Tired as hell.

Oh... and I only have one monitor now.

I came into work and fired up my machine... and my left monitor (primary) didn't turn on. I checked the cables and plugs... nothing. My monitor is dead dead. That sucks.

So now I am back to a single monitor... working in a 17 inch hell.

Attended the WordPress scalability and performance class yesterday, was pretty simple, things I plan to add to the new code soon :D

Now... Google App Engine 101 :D

I started this project back on the 15th-ish... and I am still going at it.

I have about two more truck loads to go, and thiings are just crawling about.

I have some helpers today, which will be nice, cause then I will be able to make it to the concert tonight. :)

What concert? Red and Shinedown... if you aren't familiar with them you should be, they are some good rock. The best part of this concert? It's free!!!!

If all else goes well, then I also get to attend the Open Source Conference starting tomorrow :D YAY!!!

Back to work.

So here it is Friday afternoon, I am slugging at work. I need a pick me up but I really don't want to go find one. Would rather go home today.

I have a ton of moving to do this weekend. Half of which is cleaning and putting things in storage.

I hate moving.

All in all though things have been going smoothly, I just need to find boxes for the purpose of the breakables. The rest, as far as I am concerned can be put in my handy dandy moving bags (trash bags) :D

I understand how spam is supposed to work... what I don't get is spam with no link, no sale, no useful content. Doesn't make sense to me.

I know that they can track me with special img scripts that tell them wether or not I can 1) see the image, 2) get the spam. But most of these don't even have that.

If there is a spammer out there that wants to explain to me how you plan to make money with spam with no links or sale... let me know.

So far so good.

We have internet, cable and a place to sleep (when we choose to).

We got all the big stuff (save a computer desk or two) moved this weekend, and we are quite comfortable in our new digs. We still have to move the rest of our clothes to either storage or the new house, and all the knick knacks.

It is silly when you think about it... we could completely move on from our life at this point, just leave the stuff behind, and in most cases we will never miss it again. However, that isn't how it is going to happen no matter how strongly I suggest it :D

I can already tell this is going to be a very long feeling short stay. We hope to be out again in the spring, but that is all decided by how the bill paying goes etc.

I have to pay off all the normal bills, and stop the old services this weekend, and then I should be free to start paying down some of our debt. Life will get exponentially easier from there on.

I really look forward to this time of financial well being. I haven't been free of useless debt in years (10+ now). If all goes to plan, with the exception of my house, and probably a new car along the way, I will be debt free by 2011. 3 years... that is a long time, but when you figure I will only be 30 then, it looks good. I know people in their 50/60s with debt like mine, that they just never took care of, it sickens me to think I may end up like that, and that motivates me even more.

Well three more hours here at work and then I am heading to the apartment to move things some more.

So I have mentioned I am moving to my mother-in-law's. This weekend is the time.

Basically we are going from a ~1200sqft apartment, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen and living room to a basement with two bedrooms, a flight of stairs for the potty, and a second flight of stairs to the shower.

The next 6-12 months ought to be interesting.

We are going to start moving this weekend (Friday night), when I will take everything (hopefully) that we are keeping with us to the new house and get it all setup.

Then I will spend the rest of the month finding, packing, and moving boxes to the storage unit.

I figure it will take the rest of the month, as my month technically is stopping on the 27th :D (concert and conference, more on those later).

So I will be in radio silence (or not) for the next few days.

Well starting this week I am moving in with my mother-in-law... If all goes smoothly by Saturday night I will be sleeping in her basement, all cozy and snug with my internets on the lappy... wish me luck.

I recently had the opportunity to review Building Websites
with Joomla! 1.5, from Packt Publishing.



What a great book for beginners of the web world. Building Websites
with Joomla! 1.5 really is quite helpful in setting up and maintaining
a website built on the popular framework.

The book has very well documented, with images, the Joomla!
experience. Each chapter covers new topics to help you setup, edit,
and maintain your site, and the content on the site.

The later chapters are helpful, and will whet your appetite for more
if you are a programmer.

Beginners will be quite satisfied with this book, as it details in
very easy to follow steps exactly how to get your site up, and
working, and how to easily maintain and edit the site.

For more details on what is in the book, hit up PacktPub.com.

Watch for future reviews!

Let me start by saying, I have no idea what I am doing.

I have never raised a child, and I have only been married to Liz for 4 months.

When I come home and I am told "she is driving me nuts" and the child won't stop yapping "I'm hungry" and I can see my wife getting more and more frustrated while she is cooking dinner, it is my first instinct to send the child to a new task. Play with toys in room.

Apparently... that is the wrong thing to do. Why? Because the child cries, and when the child cries... I get yelled at.

Damned if you don't... well it doesn't seem to matter at this point because I am already in trouble for the child carrying on, but had I not done anything I would have caught just as much shit.

Note to self: Don't try to save wife from child.

I have secured a spot on Google Code for our community code. Now I just have to get the first version uploaded, then people will be able to apply to the project and make submissions.

I am also learning the ins and outs of SVN, I have always used CVS... so this is not exactly a known path, but that is what books are for :D

More later.

Please don't get me wrong, I know that I have debt, and I know I have to pay it back, but while I was on the phone with a collection agency today I also had on NPR and they were discussing the big debts the government had erased with other countries. Basically we had given them billions of dollars in support, or relief, or whatever.

That got me to thinking, why is it my government will make a billion dollar debt with some random country, but they will make threats to it's own citizens for a measly couple thousand dollars. Money used to improve the citizen's life, education.

Is that the great plan of the USA? Make their citizens pay for everyone else's screw ups and problems, but punish them when they make the same (or similar) mistakes in life? It seems to me it is.

What the...

Yepper I am back... again.

Here is the scoop on me the last few months to a year.

I got divorced, and re-married. I have a lovely almost-adopted 3yr old. I have been working for a large staffing company programming, all day every day. I have been dealing with my own server, and bandwidth issues for my semi-pro blogs (both down right now, no bueno) oh ... and I have been watching EFx2.

To Keith if you are listening: Come back and let us know what your state of affairs is, if nothing else let us take over the site :D

WelshPixie has a great thread going about what the future and present states of EFx2 are, and we need to contribute to this thread to determine the future of the site, and the community.

Here is the link: http://welshpixie.efx2blogs.com/4067...+EFX2.html

I will be popping into my blog from time to time, until we figure out what is going on, then I will probably just use a forum of some sort until we have a working community through which to communicate properly.

I have missed you my friends (this is the first time I have been able to login in months)!!

Let's get the ball rolling.

Sweet! I finally got my domain name I have been wanting for literally years! http://www.utahcon.com

Soon I will have my new gaming blog there. I am excited.

If you are looking at registering a new domain, and you don't want to pay heavily for it, check out this article at TechCrunch http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/10...ain-names/

It looks like Network Solutions is being a little bastardly in their domain selling issues. Just a heads up.

On my professional blog I get paid for some of the posts I make, well when you have a server fail and you haven't backed up all your blog posts you start to get emails like this one:

Dear Adam Barrett, This is a notification to let you know that your post, Time to Holiday!, has been rejected for the following reason(s): ------------------------------ Thanks for your interest in PayPerPost, but we are unable to approve your post at this time. Please make sure that the link provided for your post is correct. Right now, when we try to access it, we are receiving an error message. Thanks, Jenn ------------------------------ Because of this infraction, you will not be paid. If you wish to contest this, please contact our support team at please contact us by logging in to http://payperpost.com and clicking Contact Support at the bottom of the page. Thank you, The PayPerPost Team http://payperpost.com http://blog.payperpost.com If you have any questions or comments regarding this message, please send us a note by clicking on 'Contact Support' at the bottom of any page within your PPP account. Thank you!! 150 N. Orange Ave. Suite 304 Orlando, FL 32801

Sad :(

I guessed it!

Following WB's shocking announcement, Microsoft said it still fully backs Toshiba's HDDVD format but could consider supporting Sony's Bluray Disc should consumers want it.

More at Team Xbox

It is amazing how feelings like these can make you just wish they would never end.

I spend so much time thinking about what makes me happy and it is being with her. Spending time talking to her. Sharing things with her. Being part of her life.

Although it is complicated, I think we make it easy. Maybe too easy.

This is for her.

Ok folks. Tis the season for rumors for CES which starts Monday in Las Vegas.

The week before CES is always full of rumors about things that may or may not happen, and today I would like to address Game|Life and their take on what Bill Gates will be saying. I pulled all these quotes from this article.

The Seattle Times is guessing that the big reveal will be that Microsoft's partnership with Toshiba to create a 360 with an integrated HD-DVD drive. The thinking is the move could help the 360 find greater acceptance in Japan.

First I really hope this is wrong because I would like to see Microsoft move in a completely different direction. One I think would make the unit more sellable both stateside and overseas. I think they should announce that they will have a Blu-Ray addon for the Xbox360. If you ignore the fact that Microsoft is very heavily related to the HD-DVD side of things, this would make the Xbox360 better than the PS3 in that it can play both types of discs and still do all the cool things it does.

Others think that Gates might be announcing an alliance between Microsoft and Netflix. Netflix recently announced a partnership with LG to produce a set-top box that will allow subscribers to receive rented movies via the Internet. Netflix already allows customers to stream movies to their computers, but this would let them do it on their TVs.

This is just stupid because Microsoft doesn't do business this way. They never have and probably never will. What would be more likely is to see Microsoft offer a subscription service via Xbox Live Video Marketplace, similar to what is available with Zune.

Personally I would like to see Zune and Xbox Live Marketplace more mixed, and integrated with one another so that a user can download music to their Windows Home Server, via the Xbox360, Zune software, or other Windows app, and it is then propagated to all of their DRM enabled devices (Zune, Xbox360, HDTV).

If you are reading Bill, that last paragraph would make your Xbox360 and Zune platform rival Apple in ways you could never imagine.

I am outta here!

So... I had a server crash about a week ago. I was devestated as I hadn't backed up my pay-blog. As a result I am getting about 3 emails a day now reminding me how frigging stupid I was to not back up my posts that I would of course now be getting paid for, had I backed up my stuff like a sane person.

Furthermore, one of my clients had a new table they hadn't backed up, and it was lost. So I have them all up in my butt about that... happy holidays.

Good news, it is resolution time again, and I am resolving to pay off debt. I know that sounds like something that is easy enough to do, and it is, but I just don't do it. I get cash and I spend it on me.

Too long have I lived with the mentality of, me first, bills second, debt third.

Now it is more like, living (rent, food, gas), bills (internets, cell), debt (loans, and more loans) and then me.

I realize this will suck balls for a while, but I am ok with that really.

I figure a year of sucking it up and paying off debt will increase my bottom line in future years, get me in good standing with my government for when the martians attack, I won't be drafted. Furthermore I feel it will make me feel better about myself as I won't be getting phone call after phone call, and letter after letter from people for whom I owe money.

On that note, debtors and creditors as well as debt collection specialists, if you contact me I will exercise my full options with requirement that you prove my so-called debt and make sure there is proof I owe you money.

Months ago I sent in a request from Verizon to pay up over $1600, and I required proof of the debt (as is allowable by law) and I have yet to hear back from them. ;)

So I am rounding up my credit reports (again), tagging out who I am working with and who I am not, and making the moves to get this one done.

Wish me luck dear friends.

-- Utahcon (Future Millionaire)