Everybody wants to go to heaven

As I sit here coding (or attempting too) and listening to Pandora Radio on my Jimmy Buffett channel, Kenny Chesney's song "Everybody wants to go to Heaven". Here is an excerpt of the chorus:

Everybody wants to go to heaven
But nobody wants to go now

It made me think of the holiday house and walk with my wife and mother this past Saturday. A young lady was passing out religious literature. Her "hook" was, "have you gotten one of these yet?" And as I took it, she says "It will tell you how to get into heaven someday".

Well, I threw it away... for the sole reason above. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but I don't want to go now - and I am not so sure I will know when I want to go.

Jeffrey

Intuition, Emotion, and Science

In a recent skype conversation with my friend Theresa, I made some connections about intuition and science.

It seems that intuition and emotion are not all that different to science. They are the same story told in a different voice.

To clarify, intuition is generally an extension of empathy. Empathy is the observation of emotion.
Science is the observation of natural world. Emotions are generally reactions to events of natural world.

For what it is worth.

Jeffrey

Halloween Party with some old Eightbar Buddies

I just got back from a Halloween party - a virtual one with some of my old Eightbar colleagues from IBM (incidently, many have moved on to form their own companies such as Feeding Edge by Ian Hughes / Epredator).

It was on Almaden Island in Secondlife hosted by IBM Virtual Universe Community (VUC). A special thanks to the current guild master of the VUC Mary / Sharon Schmertzin for hosting and DJing.

Believe it or not, it was great to reconnect with people I have not talked to in a while from across the globe. I think virtual worlds are the next logical step in Social Media, an extension if you will of Facebook or Twitter. If you have not tried out Secondlife, I highly recommend you do and give it a chance (it does have a learning curve and sometimes the technology can be some what flaky). Look for me, Jeffrey Fanwood is my avatar name in world.

Some pictures of the event:


Me before I put on my costume - kind of a MJ Thriller thing going here.


That is me in the purple leather pants rocking out to Thriller actually.


Buggy Rich and Subdigit playing the piano - I like that painting in the corner too.


Another spooktackular scene.

Well, that is about it folks. Tomorrow is the real Halloween party at Jessica and I's home, we are expecting a time so good it will be scary (yeah, that is a bad joke).

Jeffrey

Social Media is not Social Marketing

I was reading the discussions groups on LinkedIn recently and one caught my eye under the group "twitter innovators Innovation & Creativity Network of Tweeters".

It was 5 questions to ask your Social Media Consultant by Andrew Ballenthin
President of an Integrated Marketing Consultancy, Writer, Speaker, Community Marketing Blog Founder. I have reprinted the questions here:

5 Criteria For Qualifying Social Media Consultants

Social media has been around for over 10 years. The role of Social Media Consultant is a term that's much younger. How do know if someone is qualified in this field as a professional? Here's 5 questions to think about (for more details http://tinyurl.com/yfeqcam ).

1. How many years have you been practicing social media?
2. How many years have you practiced for clients/business?
3. What are your accomplishments with monetization, PR, database buiding?
4. What is your past business background?
5. How did you achieve your greatest accomplishmnet?

What experience and expertise do you look for with someone who offers social media services?

Well, I love social media. I have been playing with facebook, twitter, plurk, for over 3 years and blogs for at least 6 years. Web 2.0 is Web Deux or Web DO (as in Do something).

That said, I am skeptical. To build a viral buzz seems to be the goal of many social media consultants and it is akin to trying to capture lightening in a bottle. When done purposely, it almost always misses the mark.

How do you overcome insulting the intelligence of your user and make this a viable asset? Social media is not social marketing and I hope many the social media consults don't think the two are the same.

My suggestion is to tell the users they are being marketed too and act accordingly, while adding some value.

That is the real question, what is the value add a consultant of a social media campaign providing to the user? After all, it is all about the user.

Amphibian Guacamole

Ok, I was kidding. We are not having frog based Mexican foodstuffs. Actually this little critter has taken up home in my avocado tree.



He leaves from time to time, but always seems to come back to this same leaf.
I am not sure what it will do once the leaf falls off, hopefully for Jessica, he finds another he likes.



That said, he has kind of become her wild pet. She had a toad once before (and not me!) and this tree frog she finds fun. He is really docile, and even let me pet him.




Here he is, just hanging out (with his eyes sort of open).

Be well,

Jeffrey

System of the Down cover with Hot Electric Violin Ladies

These Hot Violin Chicks are rocking out with this System of the Down cover Toxicity using electric violins and drums. What would one expect from an Asian female violinist? Pun intended, you all know I am not sexist or racist, but we gotta know there are differences. Anyway, check out this video from Today's Big Thing website.



~Jeffrey

(Z)Xebras loose in Fort Myers

We went to the Edison last night for $1 hamburgers (actually they were OK for a buck, but you should really get the normal burger - much much better).

Well there was this strange car in the parking lot called a Xebra. Interesting enough, it was only 3 wheels (which might explain the motorcycle style license).





Of course the venue, it would have been better to get the car in the shot, but the angle was just not right.


If anyone that reads this blog knows the cars owner, it would be cool to get the full story behind it to publish here.

Jeffrey

Down Town Fort Myers

In the last couple of years, Fort Myers has tried (and in my book succeeded) in getting their downtown district (now known as the River District) revitalized. I think they have succeeded. These few shots were on the corner of Front and Hendry.



Cigar bar above.

One of the downtown Theatre's



These 2 are of the new Cafe Matisse (it used to be Liquid Cafe - the new incarnation is much more inducive to an identity than Liquid Cafe).


I will post more pictures of various downtown Fort Myers places as I take them. I only wish Cape Coral would get their act together for our downtown (but I will not hold my breath - our city council seems to be "stuck on stupid").

Italian Fest - Fort Myers

Being Sunday afternoon and wanting to get out of the house for a bit, my lovely bride and I decided to hit the Italian Festival on McGregor Blvd Today.

The band was actually not too bad, if a little loud.


Oh course my lovely smiling bride.


Tents and on lookers.


Folks watching the band, and in the background the great "corn hole" competition. When I first came to SWFL 6 years ago, everyone thought I was asking about some strange "sexual" game. In reality, it is a more like a bean bag toss, played similar to horse shoes (actually that is the nickname - safe drunkard horse shoes).



The reason I really come to Italian Festivals - sausage and peppers.


Where I went after the sausage and peppers (kidding of course).



All and all it was not a bad time, but we didn't stay too long. It was much too hot (even in October, it still gets a tad warm here mid-day).

But does he?

I was driving back from my parents house and I saw an older Ford Bronco - the kind with the back window that used to roll down. It was a bunch of teenagers with every window that could open, opened.

Well thinking back, I thought about my teenage years of driving around in cars without the luxury of air conditioning. I thought how hot and miserable I used to be in the summers in rural Ohio, with the vinyl seats sticking us and sweating rivers. The only air was at 60 MPH and above.

Then I thought, actually, those were the best of times, but I didn't know it. No mortgages, electric bills, watching your weight, knowing when to say when, and all those other adults things we spend so much of our day worrying about. Sigh..

Then at an intersection the truck turned and from my day dream I awoke to read a bumper sticker on the car in front of it:

"Have faith in God"

My first thought was, "But does God have faith in me?"

And my second thought was, "it doesn't matter, as long as I have faith in me..."

MAC attack - not what you think

This one got me the other day and no, not a Mac Apple Computer either! A MAC ethernet address.

I was setting up a new VMware Server 2 appliance for a development environment in use with the Symfony framework. The base OS was Ubuntu 9.04 Server.

Well I like to back a backup of the raw OS before I put anything out there since it took a bit to make the VMware appliance. It is simple - or so I thought, you just make a disk copy of your appliance folder.

Well, I did that, as well as manually edited the .vms file. Turns out, vmware assigned a mac address in the /etc/udev/rules.d/70-presistent-net.rules file to eth0 that had been already assigned to the appliance hosting machine.

Example:

# PCI device 0x1022:0x2000 (pcnet32)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:0c:29:bd:5f:db",
NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x1022:0x2000 (pcnet32)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:0c:29:bd:5f:e5",
NAME="eth1"

Basically to fix this, delete the etho entry and change the eth1 to eth0 and restart the appliance.

Wow, one of those obscure moments solved via google.

Be well,

Jeffrey

The shiny red laptop

It was awhile back I actually replaced the DVD in my new Dell laptop. I love the laptop. Specs are pretty darn good for a $600 laptop, the screen is large enough for my 1/2 blind eyes to see. Here are the specs for those interested:

Dell Studio 1737 Refurbished Notebook PC - Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 4GB DDR2, 320GB SATA HDD, DVDRW, 17" WXGA, Vista Home Premium, Red

However, it is a refurb, and sometimes things go awry. Well, my DVD drive stopped reading disks. Luckily I had tech support for a year and they sent me a replacement drive - catch was I had to install it.

I downloaded the instructions for repairing my laptop. It was, in a word, ridiculous. I had to remove everything to get to the DVD, including the screen. Then I lost a screw. I looked and looked and looked. I turns out it fell into a hinge of the screen back and I had to disassemble the screen. Geessh!

All and all, I got it back together, with all parts, screws, and wires going back into the machine. And can you believe it! It all worked, including the new DVD!

Some pictures of the event:














I still would recommend the machine even if fixing it is going to be a lesson in the efficiency of space. However, my coaches would be to get the extended tech support if you don't feel comfortable cracking the case on it (I was a little leery since it was a laptop). Also, this thing is a tank - 14 lbs. So if you want to be mobile, but less computing power, get a netbook. I do use mine for active software development, and I am considering upgrading to 8GB of ram.

As a side note, I will be returning to my minimum of once a week posting and will be covering my newer projects as well as my current freelance job hunting.

That said, be well,

Jeffrey

Amazon's Secondlife Job fair

Well, I am attending Amazon's Secondlife Job Fair.

All and all it is good to get to chat with some of the prospective people and get information about where jobs are ranging.

Most of the position are in Seattle, there is a small subsidiary in South FL and lots in NC.

I guess not so bad, my sister and brother-in-law are looking to move to Seattle, WA.

Here are some "photo's" of the event:

They are progressive not only in tech, but social issues at Amazon:


This was Suzie, she was a source of good information about job positions:


The main hall for recruitment:


Finally me submitting my resume (I did it to an event email as well):



Be well and wish me luck!

Jeffrey

How I feel when I set up Linux

This picture shows how I feel sometimes when setting my most recent environments for my various projects:



Gotta love it.

I am currently working with VMWare Server 2 on Windows to develop a Ubuntu JEOS -Just Enough Operation System LAMP stack appliance for Symfony connected to a Silverlight Control using JSON as the communication mechanism.

Wish me luck.

Jeffrey

Still Posting - quick update

June has been a busy month for Jeffrey. This being the first post and July is almost upon us. That said, I have completed my graduate certificate at Buffalo State (and was accepted into the Graduate program) in Creative Studies and Change Leadership.

Also, I have been in Cincinnati, Ohio. Buffalo, NY. Chatham, NY and then a long long trek back home via NYC, DC, Maryland, Delware, PA, GA, and across the state of FL (via I-95 and I am sure there are some other states in there).

I plan to never drive from that far north again in one day. Whew! Also, I learned I am impatient and to slow down after not 1, but 2 speeding tickets. Geesh!

More on what is to follow for my vision, missions, and strategic plan in another post.

Have a grand evening.

Jeffrey

Membership has its advantages

When I was working at big blue, I was told to join the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM.org). Well, since they were not paying for it, and it was $99 bucks, I was like nah. I wish I would have for just the publications. They are great.

Well, now I have been enrolled in school, the ACM student cost is $19 to $42 depending on your membership (I did the $42 so I get the electronic publications). Well by joining as a student I get access to Sun classes (which count for college credit in some cases - but not sure if I can get my masters program to accept them, but I will try) and to Microsoft software for free (full blown student version).

That said, see the below email:

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Association for Computing Machinery



***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

MSDNAA

ELMS for MSDNAA Software Center: This message has been generated automatically from your ELMS. Please do not reply to this message as you will not receive a response. Please click on the SUPPORT link in your MSDNAA Online Software System for support contact information on your campus.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Hello,

Welcome! Thank you for signing up as a participant in the Microsoft Developers Academic Alliance (MSDN AA); your eligibility is made possible through an ACM/MSDNAA partnership. ACM is licensed under the MSDNAA Program which enables ACM Student Members to access any of the nearly 100 software packages available under the Program. e-Academy Inc., a partner of Microsoft is providing ELMS (the e-Academy Licensed Management System) for MSDNAA to you.

Below is your ACM username and a password assigned to you by e-Academy (naturally, you may change your password). Simply log into the system and start browsing/ordering the software (at no-charge). You will be asked to create a Profile on the MSDN AA site during the order process.

Your username is:
Your password is:

http://msdn01.e-academy.com/ACM

e-Academy Inc., the operator of the ACM/MSDN AA Partnership website, is fully committed to the online privacy of all MSDN AA users. Reports on traffic patterns are sometimes created by MSDN AA to monitor the effectiveness of this service but these reports are stripped of any individual or personal identification. By accessing the software through this website, you will be asked to accept the usage guidelines.

If you have any technical difficulties please contact ACMs Program Administrator via email at msdnadmin@acm.org


We hope you find your MSDNAA experience a rewarding one!


Sincerely,
e-Academy for MSDN AA

I highly recommend if you are a student of technology or know one, tell them about the ACM. I am a fan and convert!

~Jeffrey

Google's O3D - Browser based 3d

I got a tweet yesterday about Google's O3D, their new in the browser 3d engine.

All I can say is OMG! Finally, something that is 3d, that is not overly complicated or is a crazy 800 pound gorilla of a client. Not that Unity3d has not been the browser based 3d client, which has been around for a while, but the thing with Google's O3D, is it is FREE.

The O3D is actually a Javascript API to the plugin, making the learning curve much less than other proprietary scripting languages. You can check out a video here




If you want to check out O3D download the plug-in here.
More in-depth can be found here (for developers too).

After you get the plug-in, check the visualization of google trends.

I will be doing a follow post on this code, so look for it.

Enjoy and be well,

Jeffrey

Another Magic Monday

Another Magic Monday (not manic!). Looking at my plate of "ToDo" items, it is easy to get over whelmed. Where does one start? Which is next in priority? How do I handle something extra thrown in for good measure at the last minute?

It is easy to just go into analysis paralysis when dealing with the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). That said, my friend Stavros gave me a way to overcome FUD.

Replace Fear with Focus
Replace Uncertainty with Collaboration
Replace Doubt with Doing

I think we all innately know the above, but sometimes it sits just beyond our vision to articulate. That articulation is the magical portion of an idea.

~Jeffrey

Perpetual Motion

After 36 years of perpetual motion,
He will smile and say,
Some of it is magic and some of it is tragic,
But I had good life all the way....

Edison Inventors Association - April Meeting

Great meeting this past Wednesday (I know, I am a little late on the posting, but hey, it is my blog so :P ). The meeting had a presentation by Bill McHenry on branding your invention. Also, I was able to meet Ronald Sargent - an inventor of many things that you see in everyday life.

Mill McHenry's presentation on Branding came out with two key points. Not only does one need to invent, one needs to be an entrepreneur. It was even mentioned by one of the members, that Thomas Edison was not only a great inventor, he was an even better entrepreneur, recognizing gaps in the market. To get in touch with Bill McHenry and his company Entrepreneur Sales and Marketing click the link.

Ronald Sargent has been inventing for a long time. He is the founder and owner of Ideation Institute. Some of his inventions include the Port-a-Potty, the jumping fountains at Disney's Epcot center and his newest is a mechanism that can turn any sealable plastic bag into a vacuum sealed bag (which he did with his father that is over 100 - fantastic in my book). He has also taken his method for creativity and created a seminar/training course. I plan to at least obtain a copy of his book for the seminar. Great stuff!

I have to say, the amount of inventor/entrepreneur's in the Southwest Florida area has surprised me. I am glad I stumbled upon the Edison Inventors Association. I will post about next month's meeting then.

~Jeffrey

Met the Moon today

Today, I had a fruitful day, did a bunch of errands, got my software working more so for the ASP.NET project, had several productive conversations with business partners on several websites, and then filed the taxes! W00t! Return coming to us (thankfully!).

As for the errands, one of them was getting some locks rekeyed for my new tenant. Well after the fiasco with the "big box stores" (em, Lowes or Home Depot), I went to an independent. Ace Hardware on Cape Coral Parkway in Cape Coral, FL.

Well, there were 2 guys behind the key counter. One was the locksmith/key salesmen (interesting job, would you have thought there was someone that just sold keys and rekeying kits?). I got his card.

The interesting guy that rekeyed my lock was named - get this - Moon! Like the celestial body orbiting the earth. Turns out his parents were surfer's from California. Very Nice guy.

Such was my day. More on this tomorrow. I think I will talk about some of my 3d ventures that are coming up this week.

Be Well,

~Jeffrey

The Monday after Easter - getting in the groove

I woke up early today as my wife kissed me good bye at 6:45AM. Stayed in bed for a bit longer reading Duma Key by Stephen King. Some good stuff, especially for someone that is infatuated with FL like I am. Did you know this? SK winters in Naples (or did at one time). He perceptions and observations of many things in the book are spot on.

What do I today I thought? Well, I got the mailbox up for the new tenant. They seem to be good people. Country folk, fair and hard working. I am still cautiously optimistic after the last bunch, but I have some faith.

I installed the tax software today (TaxCut) to get the taxes finished this evening. I should have it done tonight and submitted. Two days before they are due. Nothing like waiting to the last minute, but I love modern technology.

I will be working on some software using MS-SQL and ASP.NET and Visual Basic 2008. Wow, how that stuff changed since I used VB6.

However, tomorrow will be in part job hunt day. Looking to post my resume on all the job boards. I also plan to stock up on the freelance sites. I am looking forward to the skill tests to show me where I stand. So much to do on multiple fronts. I am still leaning toward my own business. Kinetic Thoughts Consulting again? Sounds good to me. The site needs updating.

I must get up and head out to the bank. I think I will ride my bike. So much for the blog entry. I still hurt in my neck sitting in this chair. I am looking forward to getting that fixed. A little scared too. Mixed emotional bag I guess.

I have rambled enough. Looking good out there in the SWFL sunshine. Getting my groove back.

~Jeffrey

Ping.FM and social media

I have recently been toying with Twitter and Plurk. I was at one time pushing my Tweets to Facebook and pushing my Plurk's to Twitter (and thus up the chain to Facebook).

It was messy and strange (since they all had different character limits, or would attach URL's). I had to find a new way.

My colleague turned me onto Ping.fm. From it I can push to Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, AIM, Yahoo 360, Friendster, Blogger, and many others. The Blogger push is part of the reason for this post. The two short posts were in fact ping.fm pushes. I have turned that off, because I want this blog's entries to have more substance than a micro-blog.

Check out some of the above and follow me! Enjoy the social media of web 2.0.

~Jeffrey

Working on some more ASP.NET stuff. MS-SQL has not been my friend.

Testing my first Ping.FM to all the social networks. Thanks Lee, Robi, and Charisse for the tip!

Comcast and Linksys Router BS

I awoke today to start working (well job hunting and side business). I depend on multiple devices going out on my Comcast cable address. Well, today it was not working. I tried the usual power cycle things. Called in, got a snotty girl that had me turn everything off (no real reason for this) and plug into my PC directly. After doing so, it worked on my PC. I was like Hmmm, guess I was wrong and I apologized.

I plugged into the router after hanging up. Nothing. Didn't work. I called back not satisfied. He walked me through a few things that didn't work. I said thank you and I would figure it out. Well first off, I changed out the cable, that was not it. I could connect to other machines on the network and the server. That was not it. So I plugged it into my machine directly again and restarted.

After getting a connection I did a search for Comcast and LinkSys. This link came up. Aparently Comcast found a way to thwart users that are not using Comcast router equipment. After following the instructions of cloning my MAC address, everything worked well. Here is the kicker, I asked repeatedily on the phone if anything had changed. "No sir, nothing here." I won't be too indignant, read the EULA and you will know why. Here are the instructions:

1. Plug your computer directly into the cable modem.
2. Use "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" from the windows command prompt to get a new IP address from the cable modem.
3. Unplug your computer from the cable modem.
4. Plug your computer into the router, leaving the router unplugged from the cable modem.
5. Use ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew to get an IP address from the router.
6. Enter the router's configuration with your web browser.
7. Tell the router to Clone your Mac Address. wait a few seconds.
8. Plug the router into the cable modem.
9. In the web interface, tell the router to ask for a new IP address from the cable modem. (This is the "DHCP Renew" Button) The cable modem should think that you are the PC that just spoke with it and will let your router work again. You might have to ask it to renew a couple times.

~Jeffrey

I just don't know

I have say, what LONG STRANGE TRIP it has been. Life's turns and twists are anything, if not different.

I look forward to a Brave New World (thank you UK and Mr. Aldus Huxley) and not his shining world actually. If you don't know what I mean, ask your local library for a copy of the tome to borrow.

Not to get into semantics, but I find my personal world is changing of late. Actually the opportunities that are presented to me are fantastic. The question one in my shoes must ponder is the sheer number of them to consider.

Never lacking a number of ideas, I find the two hardest conundrums being, which opportunities to undertake and the finding the acumen of HOW to FOLLOW through on those opportunities.

Advice? I will find out how. And I must do quickly, concisely, and diligentily.

Peace,

~Jeffrey

Edison Inventors Association

My bride and I went to the monthly meeting for the Edison Inventors Association. It is held at the famous (or is that infamous) inventor's winter home laboratory in Fort Myers.

There were 3 products that were showcased. Impressed as always, all three were in the patent pending stages.

Also, we got to hear the expertise of 4 patent experts. One was a former US patent clerk manager for the 15 years. The other three were patent attorneys. I learned about Provisional patents, and "TRADE SECRETS" (which lead me to the thought that I want a trade secret instead of patent if I can get it!).

All and all, it was a good meeting. I recommend it at least once to anyone local.

~Jeffrey

Dumbass, M.D.

My friend Chris D. shared this with a group of us and I thought I would re-post it here. We worked out several solutions, but one quickly rose to the top. Leave your solutions in the comments. I will reveal our solution next week.

~Jeffrey

Dumbass, M.D.

From http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/000339.html

You have Some Terminal Condition, which necessitates taking two pills a day: one Pill A and one Pill B. If you neglect to take either pill, you die; if you take more than one A or more than one B, you die. If you don't take them at exactly the same time, you die.

This morning you are going through your usual routine. You pick up your bottle of A Pills and gently tap one into your palm. Then you pick up your bottle of B Pills and tap it, but two pills accidentally fall into your hand. You now hold three pills (one A and two Bs), you don't know which are which, and they are completely indistinguishable from each other. The A Pills are the same color as the B Pills, they are the same shape, same size -- they are identical in every respect. Man, your doctor is a dumbass. But he's a rich dumbass, because he's charging you $10,000,000 a pill! So you dare not throw any away.

Thus, the puzzle: what can you do to ensure that you take only one A Pill and only one B Pill today, without wasting any pills (either today or in the future)?

Virtual World Post Number 1

As some of you know, I have been working with 3d virtual worlds in an attempt to find business value for the past few years. Starting in 2006 actually. I have been quite quiet about this on my blog and I don't really know why. I guess I just wanted to toot my own horn today. That said, I wanted to showcase some of the technologies from a couple different virtual world engines I have direct experience. So this is the first of many virtual world blog (I hope!) to come. I will talk today about the engines which we are using (includes Torque Game Engine, Secondlife, OpenSim, and Unity3d).

Torque Game Engine (TGE) from Garage Games - My team has extensively modified version 1.52. Now the fidelity of this engine is no where near the caliber of Unreal or Crytek, but it has 3 very distinct advantages. I recommend it to any indie developer, or student. The documentation however, has been a little lax, but is getting much much better. The ability to import models, a scripting language so you don't have to change the engine if you don't want too, and a large wiki of Q and A, this will get you going quickly.

1. It is CHEAP in comparision. Many indie developers use this engine due to the price point. Under $250 when we purchased it for indie developer and $750 for commercial users (commercial is considered anything over $100K a year in sales).
2. It comes with the source code for you to modify! Not many engines of this price (did I mention price?) come with the source code and allow for modifications at the base level. This is a boon if you need to add enterprise integration points like we did.
   
3. Runs on multiple platforms - this particular version runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac with almost zero rework (there are two caveats, you have to code in independent libraries, and you have to have the different platforms on which to compile).

The newer version is Torque Game Engine Advanced (TGEA). It seems they have dropped support for Linux (a major component in my company, more so than Mac), but added Windows, Mac, Wii, and Xbox360. At the time we evaluated the different engines, TGEA was available (and did get used for another project) but did not have a Linux or Mac component. I suspect it is shader support is what is keeping Linux out of the runnig (or it is lack of adoption - i.e. not enough green to put in the effort).

This is not to say there is not a downside to TGE. Sometimes the scripting makes you feel like you have entered the 7th ring of hell, but I find that with most modern computing languages. Anyway, if you questions about Torque, feel free to drop me a line (not that I am an expert, but I could point you in the right direction). Comments are most welcome (can I say PLEASE PLEASE?).


Have a great day!

Questionable Content Quote 2 - Apology Greeting Cards for Awkward situations

Sorry for being lax in posting, but I have been busy with work, school, and side projects (as well as the house, rental property, beer and soda making, well just life - so no excuses).

Anyway, as some of you know, I really enjoy the web comic Questionable Content

Today's comic is fantastic with apology greeting cards for awkward situations:

"Look, I didn't know she was your wife"
"I didn't mean to get that drunk"
"I misread the pregnancy test"
"Sorry about all the groping"
"Lets pretend last night didn't happen"
"Sorry I outed you to your family"
"Was that your dog? Oh"
"I didn't mean *your* retarded baby"
"I guess you're allergic to peanuts Huh?"

Be sure to check out the comic!

~Jeffrey

Keys inspired poem

The photo is from the Key West Diary and attributed to ConchScooter



The sunset glows as the water turns black.

Those dark waters cannot thwart my soul from turning back.

For the warmth, and bright sun will again come...

So I might feel the rhythm of the Keys beating like a drum.

My personal guide to an attitude shift

They say nothing in life is free except a little bad advice. That said, a friend of mine asked about my recent shift in thinking (I can tell you it is a direct influence from my recent schooling). That said, here are the highlights I gave to my buddy:

I suggest you get these books (get the audio books if you dislike to read and can listen in the car). Get them from the library so you don't have to spend as much money:

Preparatory Readings:

1. The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris
2. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (or as an alternative get the Working with Emotional Intelligence by the same author)
3. Getting things Done by David Allen
4. Why didn't I think of that by Roger Firestein
5. Tribes by Seth Godin
   

Consider these points

Be bigger than yourself. Start to look for something that is bigger than yourself. Have a purposeful life.

Use positive momentum. Start to use PPCo when someone approaches you with an idea (Praise first, Potential, Concerns, and then ways to overcome those concerns). There is nothing worse than using our training from System Analysis and going after the problems we see first to kill someone's innovative spirit. Try hard to get out of the corporate world mindset sometimes (or what I call the Midwest horse sense pattern of thought. It is good in context, but not always the best. Everything needs balance).

Be Self-Aware and don't let your perceptions rule you. Don't subscribe to the "dirty dozen" flawed ration thinking.
Flawed Rational Thinking (Dirty Dozen):*
1. Needing Approval – “Everyone I work with must approve of me at all times”
2. Making Mistakes - “I must prove that I am thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving at all times.”
3. Changing Others - “I have an obligation to change others who act unfairly or obnoxious.”
4. “Catastrophize” - “When I get very frustrated, treated unfairly, or rejected, I have to view things as awful, terrible, horrible,, and catastrophic.”
5. Others Cause Misery - “My emotional misery comes from external pressures that I have little ability to change.”
6. Worry, Fret, Fear - “If something seems dangerous or fearsome, I must preoccupy myself with it and make myself anxious abut it.”
7. Avoidance - “It’s easier to avoid facing difficulties and self-responsibilities than to do something about them.”
8. The Past - “My past remains all-important and, because something once strongly influenced my life, it has to keep determining my feelings and behavior today.”
9. Unrealistic Expectations - “People and things should turn out better than they do, and I must fix them.”
10. Competition - “My worth can be measured by competitive situations.”
11. Source of Problems - “The people and conditions in my life are the sources of my problems.”
12. Negativity - “Certain occurrences or events are negative by nature.”

Find your prefences. Use measurements like Foursight to help you do this, there are others such as KAI, KEYS, etc. (Remember! these are not TESTS only measures of preference, you can work in all the areas, you just like to work in certain ones more).

Know you are human, and will make mistakes. However, don't use it as an excuse to be not responsible socially, fiscally, and most of all spiritually with your family and friends. It is all about balance. Get some Zen my friend. Learn not to care what others think, be not afraid, be outgoing, but be reserved at the same time. Balance, balance, balance. Strive for excellence, not perfection.

Maybe learn to meditate. Your mind is like a puppy learning to go on paper. That puppy is going to try to go everywhere including on the paper. You must pick it up and put it back on the paper to train it to use that area. Your mind needs to be picked up and put back so you can learn to clear all thoughts and just "be". It is harder than it sounds, as you want to think about everything and anything. However, you can do it with minimal practice.


Good luck!

~Jeffrey

Do you twitter?

I have mentioned Twitter before, but I didn't really explain it. Think of mass SMS (simple message system), eg. cell phone texting, that meets social networking. You follow people's messages, and they follow yours (but you can be following people they don't follow, and vice versa).

Check it out at www.twitter.com. My username is jeffrey_abbott

Twitter also connects to a series of applications, including Facebook, Twitterific, Tweetdeck, etc. You can update from the website, an API, or mobile device (phone, blackberry, iPhone, etc.).

The thing about Twitter is it does connect people and it connects them with information. Many news stories I first become aware of them on Twitter from my colleagues overseas, or I become aware of information or things of interest I might not have seen otherwise.

One word of caution, Twitter can be addicting, so as with anything, have a sense of balance and control.

So check out the future of social networking on Twitter, and hopefully someone will figure out how to make money from such a service (right now it is free and ad free - THANKS FOR THAT!).


~Jeffrey

Lizard Under my Scale (or Kitty snack)

I found this little guy under my bathroom scale when I went to move it out from the wall. After catching him I noticed he was missing part of his tail. Obviously he was none too happy about being caught. I let him go and noticed cat throwup in the hallway. I can bet where the tail went (kitty snack!).

Great Rain Forest Anti-Deforestation Ad

A great rain forest Anti-Deforestation Ad (Click to Enlarge):



This ad comes from Oro Verde Corporate in Columbia. English version here. The company is dedicated to creating a green existence and sustainable resource use within the Columbian rain forest.

Best Warren Buffett quotes (to me at least!)

I found out of the 52 must read quotes from Warren Buffett, these resonate the most with me.

"I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over."

"If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent."

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently."

"It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction."

"Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars."

"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to work in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

Parallels to CPS

Thought for the evening... the parallels to GTD and CPS are very evident, as are social software business value edicts. Coincidence?

Welcome 2009

I realized I had not posted yet in 2009.

Some people would reflect on last year. I could, and I do, but I won't here. As the song goes,

"I cannot look backwards too long, there's too much to see waiting in front of me, I just know that I cannot go wrong."

So to all, 2009 will begin the saying, lets embrace the "change"!

To that end, wishing you all peace, prosperity, and happiness.


~Jeffrey