alex's blog

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

field studies suggest there is a predefined relation here...

scales may vary, but the general relation holds true

your mailbox is unavailable.

2011-12-16T12:26:00.001-07:00

your mailbox is unavailable.

and nobody can help you.

redesigning customer service

2011-11-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Here's an idea: don't allow customer service reps to hang up - if they DO hang up, link the call to a survey to let me rate the rep or escalate to a manager etc.. a good rep will get kudos, a bad rep won't last long at the job!

I mean is this really that difficult to set up? am I the only one that ever put some thought to the customer service call workflow!? you're welcome, humanity. you're welcome.

Google, please stop..

2011-09-21T16:54:00.001-07:00

Today Google puts out a HUGE arrow that points to their awesomely failed Google+ efforts.. Talk about desperate means to make their social circle technology succeed; Let's put a HUGE ANIMATED ARROW TO POINT THEM WHERE TO CLICK! - brilliant idea, Google.

You might as well have finished the job and put the text you really meant to put up along with the arrow, ie:

My BitLocker Relationship

2011-08-08T09:22:00.004-07:00

BitLocker started as a wonderful hard drive encryption technology to keep my files safe and protected.. it was a good thing at first..

but soon I started getting random nagging messages and errors on my computer about BitLocker.. so I called the helpdesk. They adviced I decrypt the drive, apply an update, and re-encrypt the drive again.

Naively, I start decrypting the drive only to watch the system come to a complete meltdown at around 30% ... unresponsive, followed by the monitor shutting down, and eventually leaving the laptop fan at full blast blowing hot air.

4 hours go by without any indication that the system was doing anything productive.

expecting the worst, I reboot..

well.. that was expected. I just lost everything in the disk..
I opt to cut my losses and try to reformat the drive.

...ok, so the BIOS doesn't even recognize that there's even a disk in the machine! the drive pretty much imploded taking everything along with it..

The analogy here is that BitLocker made me feel used and scathed.. It started off wonderfully and full of hopes and promise. then came an increasing nagging that left me to find a solution. and.. this solution, analogous to a nasty divorce, left me with nothing.

BitLocker, you took everything from me. I hope you're satisfied.

what's that burning smell?

2011-07-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a better story to this one; I wasn't even intoxicated to justify it.. I tripped over the iron cord, and by the time I realized I knocked it over the carpet was nice and toasty. charred and melted real nice..

so what now? thankfully, my pack-rat instincts helped me on this one. I kept some leftover carpet in the attic from when I bought the house and figured I could fix it.. I cut up the burnt mark and replaced it with new carpet. sealed it with 'carpet tape' aka: duct tape, and good as new..

out with the old

in with the new

... the end result, while not 100% perfect is close enough and will blend in more with time.

the dollar refund...

2011-04-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Filing my taxes across different states I worked in and I owe everywhere..
except for Ohio. I am getting a dollar refund... SCORE!

Why can't my favorite color be red?

2010-10-28T10:43:00.002-07:00

I was filling out some security questions when suddenly..

I suppose they didn't think this one through..
or I'm the only one who likes red.

Chocolate Covered Rock (from a factory worker's boot)

2010-03-29T07:54:00.008-07:00

I recently bought some chocolate espresso beans from World Market. I never shop there, it was somewhat a coincidence that I happen to be there. With time to kill I decided to enter and shop.. While enjoying these fine confections I find that one espresso bean isn't quite crunchy as it is well, plain solid.. as the blog post title suggests, it was a ROCK.. a chocolate covered rock somehow got in there.

Shortly after this incident I had to know "how" this happened.. I played out a few scenarios in my head, and refined it down to the following illustrated and summarized steps that may have lead to the chocolate covered rock I found that fateful day.

Figure 1: Factory worker would start the day as usual.

Figure 2: The infamous pebble from the parking lot

manages to get stuck on the factory worker's boot.

Figure 3: Passing through a metal walkway
the factory worker's shoe releases the
pebble into a batch of espresso beans.

Figure 4: The beans (along with the pebble) are processed and
placed into the completed product bucket, where its clever disguise
can pass quality assurance and make its way into packaging.

So what are the odds that a random shopper goes to the store that ended up with the chocolate covered rock and actually purchases the package from the several hundred packages in the store?... I should feel lucky.

Conclusion: Don't buy chocolate covered anything from World Market (without expecting factory worker debris) There you have it. Another day, another mystery solved.

computer might shut down suddenly

2009-11-19T08:28:00.002-07:00

SWEET!!

How being the company 'go-to' guy works

2009-11-05T13:10:00.009-07:00

A comprehensive flow chart by yours truly, outlining the mechanics of being the company's indispensable resource for any and all issues.. enjoy.

a note on business cards

2009-09-19T15:00:00.005-07:00

I travel often for work.. and with travel comes business cards..

I don't know why it is that people I meet on a plane or at project sites feel obligated to give me their business cards with their fancy titles and decorative company names..

being a consultant I'll be the first to admit, that I do carry my own fancy business card when I go on different projects.. but I use it sparingly, as needed..

At any rate, I accumulate a lot of business cards from random people I likely have no desire to contact in the future..
so.. what to do with these cards?

I developed a nasty habit of keeping these business cards with me, and using them as my own identity when I meet others. or submitting them at those drawings they often have at restaurants.... makes traveling more interesting.

New iPhone Apps: Must Get

2009-08-30T10:54:00.004-07:00

Probably the best set of features iPhone apps I ever heard of... enjoy!

No, you should not be a writer.

2009-08-26T05:52:00.008-07:00

I receive the most 'interesting' emails sometimes.. I figured I'd share one of them here.

Sunday Breakfast Special Sauce

2009-08-09T13:34:00.005-07:00

Yeah never thought I'd post a recipe.. but today I ended up making a sauce to go along english muffins I made with eggs cheese and bacon..

1 Tablespoon whipped cream cheese
2 Tablespoons sour cream
1 Teaspoon mustard
1 1/2 Teaspoon ranch dressing
1 1/2 Teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 Teaspoons BBQ sauce
2 Teaspoons Louisiana Hot Sauce

I was just improvising so I'm surprised it came out as good as it did, so I figured I'd post my recipe for later.. if you try this let me know how it comes out.

How old people process emails...

2009-07-16T20:52:00.003-07:00

This post tries to explain how old people process emails received (definition of 'old' to be judged by reader).

I hope my diagram helps some of you understand why some of the world's oldest most unfunny clipart and animated gifs are still being transmitted to this day.

Bridezilla: incredible women on camera

2009-06-07T11:14:00.006-07:00

I watched this show for the first time, and what I saw was incredible.. my favorite quote from Brandi here is "can you bring me some chicken?" while getting a manicure...

Paper Towels - the latest craze

2009-05-22T16:43:00.003-07:00

Take that sham-pow guy! paper towels are awesome!

How to turn off the backup camera beep on a Prius.

2009-04-23T14:05:00.005-07:00

I looked this up a while ago and managed to disable the annoying beep that comes on when the rear-view camera is active and the prius is in reverse.. but recently my battery died and reset all my settings.. looking it up was a pain, so I wanted to post how to do it:

1. While stepping on the brake pedal, press the start button to turn the car on.
2. Press the trip/odometer button until "ODO" appears on the dashboard (if it's already in that mode when you start the car, press the button three times to cycle through the "Trip" modes until you're back to "ODO" mode).
3. Press the power button to turn the car off.
4. While stepping on the brake pedal, press the start button to restart the car.
5. Press and hold the trip/odometer button within five seconds of starting the car and keep pressing it for at least 15 seconds, and keep it pressed down.
6. While still holding the trip/odometer button from the step before, but after 15 seconds have elapsed, shift the car into reverse and quickly press the park button. Now release the button.
7. Note that the trip/odometer display will show "b on" instead of miles.
8. Press the trip/odometer button until the display shows "b off."
9. Press the Power button to turn the car off.
10. When you start the Prius back up, the reverse beep will be gone.
11. (Optional) Serve yourself a healthy pour of your favorite scotch whiskey, you've earned it.

... Now to take it a step further, try to get your camera to be visible at ANY time, not just when you're backing up! Linky: http://www.evnut.com/prius_mfd_video.htm

Diabetes: iPhone's not so cool gadgetry

2009-03-19T19:24:00.003-07:00

as big a nerd I am I had to see the press conference on the new iPhone 3.0 software features announced ... there are a lot of cool features - but one company really stood out:

LifeScan presented a piece on a diabetes application - and I just couldnt believe the horrible presenter they chose to give the talk and demo.. I'm not opposed to the idea (though I think there are more practical options) - I just couldn't believe the words I was hearing coming out of the presenter's mouth:

"... the meter can now transmit the reading to her cool iphone [...] her iphone is the envy of all her friends, and now she has her reading right on her iphone."

Awesome. ... did anybody review this material before she went up to speak?

Cheers to You!

2009-01-24T14:09:00.004-07:00

i am unstoppable! without me the puzzle is incomplete!

I thought this was fake when I first saw it.. it is not. there's some sample mp3's I coulndt resist putting on here. ridiculous!

and my favorite ... i feel awesome already.

spooky devil mail..

2009-01-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

I dont know.. this was a bit spooky.. my outlook client freezes - I restart it and notice the number of unread emails at 666.

ooOoooooh. - i know i know, i'm going to bed now.

if anyone needs me, I'll be in the Bone room.

2009-01-15T02:29:00.000-07:00

so I started on a new project this week.. as a consultant I typically work out of conference rooms, and one in particular stood out in the building I was in..

it's been a simple yet delightful pleasure (and still is) to say things like:

"hey [name] let's have a talk in the bone room"

"hey fellas, if anybody needs me, I'll be in the bone room, mkay?"

"Hey sorry I wont be able to make it, I gotta wrap up some business with [name of uncomfortable coworker] in the bone room"

Seriously? ...can MS Word be this retarded?

2008-12-28T14:36:00.014-07:00

I went on to format and print an online receipt out of my inbox and decided Word would be a good program to use for this.
I copy and paste my receipt into word and ... lo and behold I get smacked in the face with "retard grammar" ... apparently the world's most popular (and expensive) word editor thinks "your order" should be corrected to "you're order"

This is NOT a fake - try it at home!

um... I guess it's better than the "we is" correction I saw a couple years back.. anyway, to each they're own
(yes pun intended...)

SharePoint Designer WILL NOT DIE

2008-12-17T00:14:00.007-07:00

Unable to quit? We apologize for the inconvenience? Times like these frustrate me as much as they humor me. Midnight approaches and one of the tools that my job depends on messes up.. Apology not accepted..

1337 System

2008-12-03T17:33:00.004-07:00

1337 events make for a leet system...

the internet is magic, says hot chick

2008-11-20T09:36:00.011-07:00

Finally an infomercial that speaks to people like you and me, who don't want to bother with science and simply believe in magic!

I like the "it gets magically put on your website" part ... don't worry guys I got you all covered with the video below.

Unfortunately there's no magic or low cut shits on it..

Tetris explained.

2008-11-09T19:07:00.004-07:00

I saw this the other day and wanted to share - awesome!

worst flight ever..

2008-10-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

So I fly out to LA this morning ... the usual monday routine, except this time it was a propeller plane.. the little ones you walk up to from the ground..

We all board the plane, get stuck in the runway for some time and the pilot broadcasts there will be turbulence and that LAX has some heavy fog.. we take off on this little flying tin can... half way there the plane starts dropping and shaking quite a bit - and across the cabin you hear some crazy guy just PANICKING breathing hard and freaking out that he cant see out the window..

of course there's a crying baby to add to the mix - frankly I dont remember the last time I got on a plane without a crying baby. I can just hear the gate announcer say "we cannot begin boarding until the family with the most annoying crying baby checks into this flight" anyway - besides the point.

It was by far one of the worst flights I've been on, and I just wasted a good chunk of time complaining. go me.

damn you 401k

2008-10-15T09:58:00.008-07:00

...Well at least they "understand"

on Vegas ...

2008-08-25T02:53:00.002-07:00

Going to vegas on a whim: $300.

Missing your flight by a few seconds and having to watch the the aircraft depart full of happy passengers and an empty seat with your name on it: priceless.

talk about a crappy week..

2008-08-06T13:56:00.007-07:00

Monday I have a running toilet that keeps me up all night so they fix it and leave this unique note:

Tuesday I wake up to a flodded bathroom.. and today another note, with three people involved in fixing the toilet:

Scott from the first note, Jose Luis and someone named Maits got involved. Three people to fix my hotel toilet? There's gotta be a record broken with this one.

safety first...

2008-07-30T18:11:00.003-07:00

I'm locked out of the balcony for my own safety..

SharePoint Designer Poetry

2008-07-17T09:15:00.007-07:00

SharePoint Designer offers some very insightful messages from time to time. This was no exception - in fact it was quite poetic...

Object moved ... Object moved to here.

To where? to here.. so subtle. so gentle. so.. how to say- awesome. Thanks SharePoint.

The Best Installer EVER

2008-07-13T19:06:00.005-07:00

This is an actual installer screen for an old school borland c++ compiler... no really, this is what you see while the compiler installs on your computer...

Yes. This is exactly how a developer should install a compiler... why stick to a boring installer progress bar? a drive to destination is much more fun ... destination loserville up ahead at 100%..

Calculate Energy Costs!

2008-04-22T20:55:00.007-07:00

What better day than Earth Day for me to post this...

A free web hosting service I use emailed me pretty much saying "take your stuff down we're closing shop in June..." so I considered hosting my own server... which led me to wonder if that would make sense or not given the hosting options out there...

I wrote a simple excel spreadsheet to calculate this and then figured I may want to calculate more stuff.. what if I dont have the Excel file with me, bla bla... So I took it to the web.

Here it is: the Kill-A-Watt Calculation Page!

Working May Cause Cancer

2008-04-10T09:32:00.001-07:00

I saw this sign at the building entrance where I've been working for the past two months on a project..

what an awesome way to start your day - nothing says welcome to work quite like this cute message...

The Cheesiness of the World Reserve Monetary Exchange

2008-04-05T15:46:00.011-07:00

I got this big envelope in the mail today - it looked very important with all kinds of "deliver by this date" and "rushed priority service" bla bla... it was from the World Reserve Monetary Exchange (company)... for those not aware of this company, they basically try to sell you collector coins.. and they REALLY try.

It is because of their cheesy marketing that I'm taking time to post this long blog entry. They sent me pictures - there is nothing that says why they sent me these "pictures" but they did. Basically they're selling me a whole vault of coins for about a grand, and I believe the pictures were enclosed to emphasize how important these coins are and how fortunate I am for getting this offer.

Photo #1:
The vault is as important as it is fancy. There is a finger pointing to it for effect.

Photo #2:
These coins are so important that congressmen or whoever this guy is can bring them to out to his talks. There is a very interested photographer on the right.

Photo #3:
Even if you're an everyday country man you can own these coins. There is an old picture frame to appeal to veterans? an eagle statue shows how american this house is, and I dont know what the guy in the far left background is doing.

Photo #4:
Now if you want to gain your child's respect - nothing does so better than sitting with him and talking about coins. I dont know why this kid has his shirt unbuttoned.

Photo #5:
This one inspired me the most. It's an old woman filled with joy (hands clasped) as her incredibly desirable vault arrives. Neighborhood kids stop riding their bikes to see this. A mom stops pushing her baby stroller to witness this formidable delivery. I mean, you buy one of these and you're the talk of the town. Don't forget to put the american flag out either.

Photo #6:
Every successful businessman knows - these coins are priceless. This guy sports his diploma and executive office, and can't help but smile at his coin collection investment.

Photo #7:
Oh yes - this one fits my demographic. The american guy into sports who throws parties and has a few beers. Hot girls and your friends will be impressed with your coin collection. The guy in the back says thumbs up for a great party. Not sure how the office space ceilings got in this guys house. Not to mention they could have at least photoshopped the camera and studio setup from the pool table's reflective corner.

Photo #8:
I guess you can keep your vault in the closet if you're the more modest demographic or just plain boring.

Photo #9:
And I don't know where they were going with this last picture.. I'm done.

I think the worst part of all this is that there are people buying these coins in the hopes that they will live the scene in one of these pictures. That's marketing but this was so offbeat that I had to scan them to show how cheesy these are..

No.. I don't want to join!

2008-03-08T09:57:00.003-07:00

So this is another annoying Microsoft thing with Vista - They ask you if you want to share usage information with Microsoft on your computer usage and other stuff. But the OK button is disabled.. So in order to say No, I have to first say Yes and then say No to enable the OK button... then you hit OK and have to elevate the decision to the system administrator to allow and confirm that you really didn't want to join.

I had to decline this "great offer" once when installing Vista, and now again after installing Service Pack 1. Not only is it hard to say "No" but you have to say it multiple times - awesome...

Excel as a 3D Graphics Engine

2008-03-06T11:02:00.004-07:00

This was just too crazy to pass up.. this guy has way too much time on his hands... and I probably have way too much time on my hands to have tested his code ...which by the way is a lot slower to render on Office 2007..

Read the full article here.

Installing SP1..

2008-03-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

I decided to install SP1 today after a frustrating couple days dealing with Vista issues I'm told are resolved in the latest Service Pack.. The most frustrating of all being how slow "File Copy" operations are in Vista.. I was copying files both on my own computer hard drive and across the network - both ridiculously slow in Vista.

Later in the day I gave a demo presentation and ran into a few issues with Vista's "smart" projector output sensing.. which I read was worked on in SP1.

SP1 should be out on Windows Update later this month.. I was going to hold off and go that route.. but since I have it available I figured why not.. ideally SP1 will solve the problems I've been dealing with.. worst case scenario I'll install ubuntu until Vienna comes out.

Construction Begins..

2008-02-14T11:33:00.002-07:00

After shopping around for a console table to fit my turntables I realized I was on my own unless I wanted to spend upwards from $600.

My new goal: < $200

Europe is a country ... and they speak french there.

2007-12-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

This has to be fake... There's no way.

Top knotch service...

2007-12-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

There's a few credit cards I hardly ever use so I don't even carry them with me. I decided today to redeem any points and close them...

I call the service center and they ask me for the account number. The conversation went something like this -

alex: I don't have it with me ...
rep: let's see I can pull it up with your social, can I get your social security number?
alex: yeah, it's ###-##-####
rep: ok, I'll be right back..
(20 seconds later)
rep: alright mr talarico - can I get the last four of your social to verify your account?
alex: uh... ####
rep: thanks, how can I help you today?

... so, as you can see they have great security measures in place at compass bank as well.

awkward car back-up camera system

2007-12-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Imagine how flat out awkward and confusing it would be if you were backing up your car one morning when all of a sudden you see a young mother kissing her baby as illustrated above...
what were they thinking!? *

* My best guess is the graphic designer in charge of the box didn't bother reading and figured this was going to be a digital camera..

No Passengers Allowed in the Turbine. Thank you.

2007-11-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

Is this warning really necessary?

Windows at the Wynn

2007-11-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

Windows errors are following me around...

I walked up to an information booth at the Wynn. I touch the screen and get greeted by a script runtime error.

aptera to toyota: all your base are belong to us

2007-10-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

I recently read that aptera is taking preorders for their new electric cars... if you never heard of an aptera car it's cause there arent any yet :)

This car looks beyond futuristic, it looks plain odd. The company expects to have it out on the streets by the end of 2008.

They range in price from 26k to 30k.. that's about the price of a prius and this ride gets you up to 300 miles per gallon, or two hours on electric only models. wow.

I just wanted to get the word out since most people I know probably never heard of this upcoming car company..

while we're at it...

2007-09-21T00:41:00.000-07:00

I wonder what happened here..

1) I was running a lot of things at once
2) I opened internet explorer
3) I hit the maximize button
4) I stare at a black screen and this insanely over-sized window bar..

I haven't posted in a while so I figured I'd take a screenshot and take 5 minutes off to rant about some of the weird "added features" windows vista offers on slower machines..

error on error action

2007-08-24T01:34:00.000-07:00

This is awesome ... classic microsoft error handling,
courtesy of LiveMeeting reporting tools.

daunting realization

2007-08-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

... this morning I hear the sound of the office lady filling up her candy bowl with m&m's ... she has a big bag, in fact a whole drawer full of candy. But she selectively puts it out in small rations..

...and then it hit me: she is feeding her coworkers as you would pigeons in the park.

Nieve en Buenos Aires (Snow in Buenos Aires)

2007-07-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Cuando escuche las noticias no lo pude creer... asi amanecio Puerto Madero hoy 9 de Julio, justo el dia de la independencia nacional!

No nevaba en Buenos Aires desde el año 1918! ... Lastima que me lo fui a perder, pero al menos gracias al internet pude llegar a verlo de lejos.

the boarding pass experiment

2007-06-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Flying on southwest implies open seating.. to gain some control of the passengers, southwest assigns "groups" based on the time you checked in - Groups A, B, and C.

Typically I'm running late and always end up in Group C ... this translates to being stuck in the middle of two stank large individuals, not having overhead bins to put my luggage in, among other such unpleasant experiences...

So I thought I'd try something new.

The pictures illustrate my maneuver - just remember: lay low and time it right. When the ticket agent is looking down is a perfect chance to blend into Group C and start boarding.

Bon voyage!

Are you serious?...

2007-05-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

"An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface" ... wow.

I've worked a lot with MOSS (SharePoint 2007 Server) the past few months and... a routine task gave me this error. I had to screenshot it and post it. This one was just.. special. No doubt.

How secure is your Wells Fargo account?

2007-05-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

I accidentally typed my password wrong when trying to access my account on wellsfargo.com ...and still got through..

I logged out and typed my password incorrectly on purpose just to make sure, and it worked.. I was in...

Apparently I discovered that Wells Fargo ignores what you type on the password field after there is a match... So if my password was "secret" and I typed "secret4u" i still get authenticated and get access to my account!!! Try it out for yourselves and have a laugh.. Then get worried some... then call/email and complain.. then switch banks.

office violence clip

2007-05-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

guy on right supposedly throwing paperclips.. likely staged but pretty funny to see :)

yesterday was horrible.

2007-04-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

..so April 27th 2007 is going down as one of the worst days I've had in a while

Spent the whole day dealing with Microsoft SharePoint 2007 bugs - incredibly hideous bugs.
I brought food from home, and out of all Fridays, yesterday they cleaned out the fridge early. The food I got up early to prepare, along with the tupperware it was in - thrown out.
Long drive down to Tucson, dealing with traffic and construction detours on the freeway... icing on the cake.

Now, I just realized I posted nothing productive - just a whiny complaint - so i'll stop.
Anyway, on a positive note I can always email Richard Simmons* for help and guidance..

*User takes all risk and responsibility for opening the link. Link may contain one of the creepiest videos ever recorded. May cause irreversible brain damage.

Lobster game

2007-04-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

I story was told of a bar in scottsdale.. A bar that had a new take on the classic claw prize game. Delightfully disturbing. What would you do if you won this time?

Listen to my playlist

2007-04-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

I added a playlist to my site... it comes in handy for when I dont have any music around, you can get to it by clicking on the headphones icon on the top right from my homepage ... enjoy!

The wow starts ... when?

2007-02-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Just another gripe, after running on windows Vista for nearly four months now..

I keep running into the most annoying problems:

Driver support (especially printers)
Software support (especially useful programs you would like to run)
Intrusiveness and annoying presentation...

The UAC model where color coded messages pop up and warn you about what you just told windows you want to do makes it frustrating to install, uninstall, delete, move, copy, change a setting, use your computer period. A lot of major software publishers dont have much of an excuse. Everyone's had access to stable betas for about a year, and the final version was released in November.. Drivers and new software should be here by now you'd think...

The more I deal with this, the more I think Vista was named after an internal acronym for: Very Intrusive System That's Annoying.

I'm pretty tired of those wow commercials, so far the 'wow' has been about stuff not working or system crashes (drivers again).. maybe by mid 2007?

baja 'not so' fresh

2007-01-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

So there I was, holding this thing 'waiting' for my food... when i read it. The 'waiting device' says -

"No Microwaves, No Can Openers, No Freezers, No Lard..." all sounds good so far...
"No MSG..." sounds good, ok...
"No WAITING" pff! what?! and they wrote it all in caps - No WAITING?! what is it exactly that I'm doing holding this 'thing' then?

maybe WAITING is an acronym for something like:

No 'Walking After Items .. eh i'm done, it's not an acronym.. It is just stupid.

The heart of the question here is... was it coincidence that I got number 42?

my neighbor's Christmas gift..

2006-12-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

Well, my internet connection has been shut down recently. Seems like wep keys are being slowly but surely phased out.

On another note, I found out first hand what my neighbor got for Christmas: a new wireless router.. One with WPA+PSK authentication..

listening to music...

2006-12-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

public object Crystal() {
return "pun";
}

what a nerdy way to start the day...
I hope not many people get this joke.

Out here in Scottsdale...

2006-12-05T16:35:00.001-07:00

just a quote I heard – "…here in Scottsdale, our 90’s Mercedes are the equivalent of your Phoenix Hondas…"

– Very much verified

My two cents on Vista ...

2006-11-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with Vista the past few weeks since it was released to manufacturers... There are a lot of quirky things to it.

What I found to be the funniest yet, has been the way Microsoft dealt with some of their new folder arrangements. User profiles are no longer stored under "C:\Documents and Settings\" now they are under "C:\users" - so in a desperate attempt to work with poorly written older applications Microsoft places a hidden shortcut named "C:\Documents and Settings" that basically points to "C:\users" ...

There are quite a few of these hidden shortcuts all over the place which basically tell me that for a while there will be this 'patchy' arrangement where holes are covered up with shortcuts to the new os defined paths... Hopefully what I said made sense...

Usually if a driver installs services (like my lexmark printer for example) you have a pretty small chance it will work on vista.. There are also annoying things like hardware incompatibility issues that still occasionally cause blue screens for that classic Microsoft moment...

I found it most frustrating that installing Visual Studio 2005 does not work very well. You have to go out of your way and apply a work-around to get the desired compatibility.. All the compatibility issues are understandable, but still pretty frustrating until new software is released with vista in mind..

There are a lot of features really that I found pretty cool to have built in, but at the end of the day - you're paying for a more reliable and secure operating system with a rich UI..

I hate to say mac did just that a few years ago.. Maybe I haven't compared it well enough yet - but overall thats what I got out of it so far. For windows people its a great improvement. But mac users kinda had this already...

I dont think my soup's ready yet..

2006-11-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

Certification Passed

2006-10-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yay I passed that cert upon retake... So now I'm an MCP! (such an important title to hold)

no no, not as in Membrane Cofactor Protein.. I mean Microsoft Certified Professional. haha... ha.. ok.

Office 2007 rant

2006-10-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Office 2007 uses the finest quality text parsers.

This is just one of many screenshots that leave you wondering "huh?" - working with microsoft beta software can be quite charming...

you are not a winner

2006-10-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

this is probably my favorite comic strip out there (src: get fuzzy)

Corporate Laptop..

2006-10-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

I work off a laptop, Laptop #1. It was working great then suddenly, LCD burned out - no display just a white screen.. it was actually entertaining while it was going on (to see your screen slowly fade to white - kinda like it was passing out.. )

... So I send it to the corporate warranty & repair people ...

They take forever so I call and they tell me - "oh you didnt get it let me check -pause- theres been a mistake it should be there tomorrow!" um ok..

Laptop #2 arrives the next day.. I thought the problem was over, but this one, despite its working new LCD screen, had its keyboard not fully bolted down (ribbon popping out with keys pressing against the rubber mouse dot).. The dead pixels it came with werent that appealing either.. I imagine that when I called they went "oh *&@$! Its still here!" and put it together in a hurry to ship it out..

In short - The thing was unworkable - even disabling the mouse made some keys useless. They also left out the hard drive cover so I had to duct tape the thing in place. Awesome.

Laptop #3 arrives ... chocolate stains and over all wear and tear. (yes chocolate stains in case you had to read twice). I figure no big deal I'll clean it off but at least I'll have a good laptop now. Booting it up I see the computer has half the RAM I used to have and a slower CPU.. Hmmm...

Laptop #4 arrives ... this one is in perfect shape! hooray.. not so fast, I boot up only to see there are Three pretty good size impact spots on the LCD - pretty annoying depending on my screen content / background (when they are more visible)...

Laptop #5 arrives ... this one has more wear and tear but I figured well, at least I'll have a good LCD.. nah, The LCD frame had a crack on the plastic, yeah probably just cosmetic but ... looked pretty bad.

So there it is 5 laptops no dice - I kept the "impact spot" one - and I'm done with computer repair people..

Certification Failure

2006-10-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

I failed my certification exam today .. So I hung it on my fridge...

Friday the 13th...

2006-10-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today is quite a UNIQUE day... Friday October the 13th 2006

Lets play with the numbers:

2006 + 10 + 13 = 2029

2 + 0 + 2 + 9 = 13 !!!

It can be further broken down as follows:

There's more too but after going through making a diagram i figured.. i'm done...

2006-10-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

2006-10-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

Starting a blog, sometimes there are things worth sharing...

alex's blog

Happy New Year 2012

your mailbox is unavailable.

redesigning customer service

Google, please stop..

My BitLocker Relationship

what's that burning smell?

the dollar refund...

﻿Why can't my favorite color be red?

Chocolate Covered Rock (from a factory worker's boot)

computer might shut down suddenly

How being the company 'go-to' guy works

a note on business cards

New iPhone Apps: Must Get

No, you should not be a writer.

Sunday Breakfast Special Sauce

How old people process emails...

Bridezilla: incredible women on camera

Paper Towels - the latest craze

How to turn off the backup camera beep on a Prius.

Diabetes: iPhone's not so cool gadgetry

Cheers to You!

spooky devil mail..

if anyone needs me, I'll be in the Bone room.

Seriously? ...can MS Word be this retarded?

SharePoint Designer WILL NOT DIE

1337 System

the internet is magic, says hot chick

Tetris explained.

worst flight ever..

damn you 401k

on Vegas ...

talk about a crappy week..

safety first...

SharePoint Designer Poetry

The Best Installer EVER

Calculate Energy Costs!

Working May Cause Cancer

The Cheesiness of the World Reserve Monetary Exchange

No.. I don't want to join!

Excel as a 3D Graphics Engine

Installing SP1..

Construction Begins..

Europe is a country ... and they speak french there.

Top knotch service...

awkward car back-up camera system

No Passengers Allowed in the Turbine. Thank you.

Windows at the Wynn

aptera to toyota: all your base are belong to us

while we're at it...

error on error action

daunting realization

Nieve en Buenos Aires (Snow in Buenos Aires)

the boarding pass experiment

Are you serious?...

How secure is your Wells Fargo account?

office violence clip

yesterday was horrible.

Lobster game

Listen to my playlist

The wow starts ... when?

baja 'not so' fresh

my neighbor's Christmas gift..

listening to music...

Out here in Scottsdale...

My two cents on Vista ...

I dont think my soup's ready yet..

Certification Passed

Office 2007 rant

you are not a winner

Corporate Laptop..

Certification Failure

Friday the 13th...

Why can't my favorite color be red?