Category: Not doing things the easy way

Turning left, it’s not just for nascar anymore…

So I’m in the final evening of a two week vacation where I have been red necking it up the entire time.  I started with Deer hunting for 10 days in Kingman, came back to Phoenix, and then did 5 days at Phoenix International Raceway to watch cars turn left.

So what is the net result of this vacation?

1. When dad says get the gun don’t stop by the tire to rack up the shell in the rifle.

2. The Blackberry Pearl is a excellent email and text machine, and in a pinch it’s a decent mobile Internet reader (just don’t expect much)

3. I would really like to goto a Sprint Cup Race and have someone other then Jimmie Johnson I don’t know maybe someone like this guy hell even this guy I’m not picky just someone other then Jimmie Johnson.

4. When I spend a hour at Best Buy and a 2 hours at Fry’s Electronics because it’s a Wendsday and just because I can it’s a sign that I may need to unplug.

5.  Additonal sign I may need to unplug… I seriously thought about buying a second wireless router (Draft 802.11N/802.11G/802.11A) just so I could have Wireless A/N in my house for the Laptop and Xbox.

6. Spending the better part of Wednesday night and Thursday morning trying to justify to my self that the second wireless router was a good idea.

Yes folks somethings just don’t change.

And if only that deer had gone left…

Shoes and bad weather….

You know this whole thing about being one of three people who believe in the Cardinals every year is, when they are on a roll people truly think they are on a roll.  And when they flop two things happen;

1. People go “Oh hey there are those lovable losers the Cardinals”!

2. People like me who talk shit about the opponent of the week end up receiving it twice as worse on Monday.

Yes it’s going to be a long Monday and if San Diego loses tomorrow night against the NY Bretts I’m really not going to be happy.  I mean it’s one thing for the Cardinals to be 0-3 to start the season it’s almost unthinkable for the Chargers to be 0-3.  Though after last years rough start they did make it to the AFC championship game where they lost to the Patriots who lost to the Dolphins this week who lost the Cardinals last week… So in some cosmic sense that probably means something but I’ve not had nearly enough beer tonight to even begin thinking about what that might be.

That is a question for minds greater then my own.

Now on to things that I might actually be able to do something about.

Last year I traded in my rather shitty Cisco / Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD Cable box for the sublime bliss that is a TiVo HD.   And through the power of the Internet and upgrades to the operating system the TiVo has been coming out with new features.  The latest of which is the ability to watch youtube videos on my 52 inch HD tv.  You know because youtube videos need to be watched in 52 inches of HD.  Another feature is the hook into the Amazon video no demand service for downloading pay content of TV shows and Movies as well as free Promo content (think pilots and season premieres) right off the top these are two things that I couldn’t do with my former cable box nor could I transfer shows to my desktop computer and then to another device to watch later.

So why am I writing about this? Well the question hit me recently downloading TV shows is pretty common now with iTunes and Amazon video on demand.  Which if I like the show I have no problem paying for a copy that I can keep and watch when I want to how I want to (though we aren’t quite to that point yet we are finally making progress).  Now what we need is a TiVo hook into Hulu.com which has tv shows for free for you to watch on the internet.  And these are shows that are meant to be watched in 52 inches of HD glory.  I will admit there are a couple of shows that I want to check out (Fringe, Doll House, Sanctuary) but I don’t want to record them on my TiVo since I feel that commits me on some level to watching them and I have enough crap being recorded on there and I’m pushing up against the space limits as it is in my TiVo Box.  So I guess my next great hope for TiVo is to figure out a way to get Streaming programs with their associated commercials (like 5 minutes per 43 minutes of program) to stream to my TiVo… I don’t want to buy them but I do want to watch them.

So now to circle this back around… NBC has their web strategy all wrong… at least for as far as I can tell.

First during the Olympics they made you download Microsoft Silverlight to watch the competition online.  Which great and all, but I don’t have that crap loaded on my either my PC or MAC and I just want to watch Michael Phelps and the Redeem Team kick some ass.

Second I was watching tonight’s Sunday Night NFL game between the Packers and Cowboys on TV and decided to check out the webcast of it.  It was alright the raw feeds from the other cameras on the field are a nice touch to bad you have to sit through a commercial to get to it, sit through the commercials during the main game broadcast and if you get to click happy on the extra cameras guess what else you get?  Yep another commercial.  So really my only incentive to watch the webcast is to make sure I see every commercial possible.

Finally, in NBC’s infinite wisdom it has taken product placement to a whole new level and for as far as I can tell the only reason any of this is going on is because NBC has no clue.  Some examples of this are Eureka on Sci-Fi (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of NBC-Universal) whose whole third season is being sponsored by Degree Deodorant (to the point that a “experimental new formula” was a key component in solving the problem of the week in one episode (my two suns).

And then there’s “Knight Rider” I expect a certain amount of cheese, but this is bordering on the absurd.  First there is the obligatory Ford product placement in the new KITT (the Mustang VS the Old Trans AM)… but wait there’s more KITT has a new mode it’s called F-150 mode!  So not only is NBC killing a tv show that I remember fondly as a child, but they are also turning the car into a transformer.  The only way it could have been better is if another one of the new modes was “Expedition Mode with environmentally friendly and carbon neutral diesel hybrid engine” oh wait I may have given away a key plot point to a future episode.

No wonder the writers striked if I had to deal with this crap I would want more money too.

Also you may have noticed that I’ve taken the approach of calling several things out by explicit name this evening… Well this is my attempt at a Google Bomb.  Maybe just maybe if I put enough pop culture geek references then maybe someone other then my 3 loyal readers will read this.  Or NBC-Universal is going to be making a call to their sister company GE Nuclear Weapons and Microwaves and “take care of the trouble maker in Phoenix”

In the on going saga of….

My quest to post by email on the damn godaddy blog.

There is actually a forum thread out there about this little “problem” and I’m not the only having a issue with it.  So that’s good right?

Well it would be better if the fine folks at Godaddy didn’t offer WordPress as a installable application on their hosting sites.

Drum roll please…. even if I didn’t install this myself and used the GoDaddy install option “Post By Email” probally would not work.

Damit Jim… I’m a blogger not a doctor.

5 fucking bars….

Little known fact… I’m a cell phone whore…

I upgrade cell phones on the order of every 12 to 18 months. Sometimes way less (6 months for a LG slider several years ago) and very rarely ever more (There was a samsung flip phone that I had for damn near 20 months and I finally just got sick of) So yes I’m a bit of a cell phone whore. I’m almost to 8 months on the current phone (a Silver Blackberry 8130) which works really really really well. The calls are always clear, it’s easy to txt message on, and I always have coverage with my wireless provider (Verizon, it’s the network don’t you know).

2nd little known fact… I’m a Apple whore…

I’m like all things Apple, Steve Jobs could shit diaherra call it the iShit and I would probally still think about buying it. And if it the “iShit” came in colors I would probally buy one, but it would just be the plain brown one because I’m too cool for a colored “iShit”

So as you can imagine I’m in a bit of a quandry since my two whorish tendancies are about about to come together again at a new lower price, bigger capacity, 3G, and a two year contract.

Did I mention I’m no longer under contract to Verizon?

As you can guess it’s been a rough couple of days… Really the only thing keeping me from getting a iPhone is the AT&T network in Phoenix. Which depending on who you talk to is either really good or really shitty.

Other factors?

The cell repeaters at work don’t do AT&T, you know thats kind of important when you spend a portion of your day in a led lined room.

Not 32GB, I will be honest if they come out with a 32GB version I will probally not be able to stop myself… unless it’s $400 in which case I will go buy a new blackberry not under contract and call it good.

I don’t want to be under contract again… yes it’s a little more expensive for the phones. I do like having the option to leave at any time merely because I feel like it.

Everyone at work uses Verizon… this shouldn’t matter but it does I use just as many in calling minutes as I do anytime minutes. If I switched I would have to doubly my minutes at a minimum

And so the iShit whore stays put for the time being and hopes that the black berry touch screen thing turns out to be a good phone and email machine… because lets be honest the only thing I care about it phone call quality and txt messaging.

Prolonging the magic….

I work in I.T. which I’m pretty sure all 3 of you know. I’m sure all 3 of you have called me up at various intervals in the last 7 years and heard me utter the following phrase “I can’t come out I’m on call”.

Call at Scottsdale isn’t nearly as bad as it was in Kingman. The call volume is much lower and I get paid to be on call. Lower volumes and paid or not it’s still damn annoying to be on call. Mainly because it puts my social life on hold for a whole damn week.

I know what your thinking right now… Wait when did Tom get a life? It happened a long time ago but those are details that you don’t need to know.

Finally this week I threw caution to the wind while “On Call” and said fuck it, I’m going to continue my social life “On Call” or not. Now I’m not a dummy if your going to talk the talk you have to walk the walk, so to that end I took advantage of several “perks” of being on call for Scottsdale. Namely a laptop (which is actually my daily usage computer for work) and a celluar broadband card (you know those nifty data cards you people with when your in the park because the park doesn’t have free WiFi yet). Laptop and Broadband card aren’t the only things you need when your on call you also need your pager (yes pager because in my particular line of IT work cell phones are still new fangled technology not to be trusted), Cell Phone (of course your personal cell phone because other then the random grandparent who doesn’t have a cell phone these days), blue tooth head set (have to type when your on call), and since you have so much crap anyway why not throw in a backpack for good measure. Oh and don’t forget the Keyfob because it looks really bad if you can’t dial to fix a problem when your on call.

OK now that we have our “On Call” kit built lets go out to dinner on a Friday night at (rolls 100 sided dice for dinner location) Rula Bula! And for kicks lets round out our party with the usual D&D sterotypes (Ogre, 2x pixies,rouge on a motorcyle, and a Paladin). OK good so we have our party established (IT Geek, Ogre, 2x Pixies, rouge on a motorcycle, and a Paldin in a pear tree) off you go to dinner…… ***BUZZZ*** ***BUZZZ***

FUCK! the pager just went off…. and you are like a block from Rula Bula!.

Drop off your party and tell the rouge on the motorcyle that you have to work. The Ogre gets the laptop booted before he bails, thank you Mr. Ogre. Once again you are alone and call into the help desk to find out what the problem is, oh this is a two for one special and you are going to need to dial in. So you find a nice parking lot and log into your laptop and fire up the broad band card which con…. dammit it won’t connect.

Reboot the laptop, login, restart broadband card (throw the dice to see if it will connect this time….) and nope no connection. Repeat this act 4 more times in the next 10 minutes. While rebooting also throw a dice for how helpfull the report from the helpdesk is… not very.

So at this point it’s very apparent that your laptop isn’t going to work with the broadband card, start looking for a Starbucks. Hey look a Borders! They have WiFi and are always quiet on the inside. OH look all the inside tables are full, but there are a few out side that open it’s only 100 degrees and you won’t be dialed in for long. You sit down and start looking for WiFi score you found some! Your finally logged in to work have your bluetooth rockin this problem (throw dice for ambient noise…) This is when you notice the following things… The water fountain built in to the ground… the two guys who are far to faboulus to the left… and the two women who have hair cut to a #1 blade… both couples are not being quiet neither is the water fountain and (roll for help desk volume) the help desk is speaking in a very soft voice as well.

Damit…

Your quest for a quiet place begins again… after several minutes you find (roll for location…) the drive through of a Bank of America. So with laptop, bluetooth, and empty drive through you begin your quest to start fixing what ailes your caller. So starts your saga… (roll for time to fix problem…) 1 hour later in the same bank of america drive through you finally fix the problem (roll for problem fix…) by rebooting the whole damn server.

You close the laptop, and deposit all of the items into your back pack of IT trinkets and stash the bag in the truck. You find your way to Rula Bula! to rejoin your party. Upon rejoining your party you sit down (roll for action….) and drink the Ogre’s beer.

The Ogre is not pleased.

Hmmm the suck indeed.

45 minutes of dicking with the site and I can’t get the damn post by email to work.  I’ve spent more then a little bit of time on this problem to and I just can not get it licked.

I started out with a host gmail apps domain and that didn’t work (actually failed because there was no way to do a SSL connection between the site and google).  So not a huge deal I just load up godaddy email change the dns settings and let them perc for the next 12 hours.  So I’m using a godaddy hosting site with godaddy email and I’m in Arizona which is where godaddy is located and the shit still times out on me?

Oh this is good.

Frustration level is just a bit high.

Of course I’m also the same person that spent the better part of a year trying to get Samba to work in an active directory domain at home because I thought it would be “fun” for the record I did get samba to play nicely with windows once I got it out of my head that I needed to run a domain server at home.

There is another thing that is pissing me off… the damn window keeps reseting on itself when I stop for a second to think about what I’m going to bitch moan and groan about next.

damit it did it again!