Posted May 28th, 2008 @ 08:14am by Erik J. Barzeski
From Adriaan in the ecto support forums:
The official announcement will be made soon (once we've moved and set up the infrastructure), but yes, I've sold ecto to illumineX for a variety of reasons I will explain in a blog post accompanying the official announcement. It's a move that's definitely for the best. I'm also still involved with ecto on a consultation basis.
More later with the official announcement.
illumineX was once Gary Longsine and Don Yacktman. I believe right now it's just Gary Longsine (and associates). I'm not entirely sure what happened, but Don Yacktman was largely responsible for the FSS products at illumineX, that he left or was removed from illumineX several months after acquiring Freshly Squeezed Software, and that ecto likely will not suffer the same fate as FSS.
As an ecto user, I hope Adriaan is making the right decision, and I believe he is. To fans of Freshly Squeezed Software who have written to me and asked for details, I can't provide them, but I think things with ecto should work out okay in the end.
NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 335); »
Posted in Software Development | 17 Comments »
Posted May 27th, 2008 @ 08:12am by Erik J. Barzeski
As of today, I've been married for three years. Here's to three more! 😉
Posted in Personal | 3 Comments »
Posted May 26th, 2008 @ 08:15am by Erik J. Barzeski
Not much to say today, so instead I'll remind you to check out the Photo Battle Blog every day.
Also, I'll soon have the opportunity to give the 300/2.8L a workout.
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
Posted May 25th, 2008 @ 03:14pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Oh come on. How about we just make home run fences that aren't so ambiguous? Either a ball leaves the field of play or it doesn't Eliminate these stupid lines painted on things. Eliminate the "shelves" that some home run fences have. Move the fans back a few feet so they can't interfere.
Instant replay in baseball? Fuggit.
Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »
Posted May 24th, 2008 @ 04:28pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I'm not sure what they call DVRs for radio, but why is it that we're just now getting them in cars, and even then, only the high-end cars?
A lot of times lately I've heard the end of a commercial talking about a special offer, the dates of some event, a funny quote - something I wanted to hear again. I start reaching for the rewind button only to remember "D'oh! It's radio!"
We've had DVRs for something like five years now in our homes - why's it taken so long to come to car stereos? Why's it so pricy? C'mon, so you have 512 MB of memory. That'd record almost an hour of AM or FM audio, right? CD quality audio is about 10 MB/minute, so heck, 512 MB might record several hours. 512 MB of flash memory costs, oh, roughly $8 right now.
Posted in Technology | No Comments »
Posted May 23rd, 2008 @ 09:00am by Erik J. Barzeski
I've been saying for quite awhile now that if we took the money we spend on the war in Iraq in one week, and divided it up among 5-10 schools, companies, and others capable of doing research, we'd all be driving around in gasoline-free cars within five to eight years.
Ethanol, from what I understand, is a bust. Corn doesn't give us a lot of energy and using corn for fuel raises the costs of basic products like milk, beef, and everything that uses corn syrup, etc.
What about nuclear powered cars? The amount of radioactive materials that'd be necessary to power a car would be incredibly small, and thus, the amount of lead surrounding the little plutonium pill would not be larger than a modern engine ((I'm guessing, but I've talked with a few scientists in the field and they feel the same way.)). Cars would "always be on" and could even keep their temperatures controlled when parked. Engine noise wouldn't be a concern, and the amount of waste generated would be small - probably a few grams over a ten-year car life cycle.
I'm sure I haven't gotten everything right with what I've said above, but I think I'm pretty close. Why don't we have a plan for nuclear powered cars?
Posted in Technology | 11 Comments »
Posted May 22nd, 2008 @ 02:08am by Erik J. Barzeski
It strikes me as funny the number of people who, upon reaching me at a wrong number, react "poorly." Most of the "poor" reactions are a simple "click" as they hang up. How about saying "Oh, sorry. Goodbye." Some will ask if this is 555-1234 (which is fine), and then argue with me that it must not be because they're certain they dialed correctly (that part's not fine). I'm not rude to these people - I simply say "I think you've got the wrong number." I let them ask a question or say goodbye, answer it, and conclude with a "goodbye" on my end.
When I call a wrong number, and am told so, I say "I'm sorry, I was trying to reach Sears" if it's a business (this happened the other day - yp.yahoo.com has an outdated phone number). The person gave me the new number. If it's a person I'm trying to reach ((I can't remember the last time I mis-dialed a friend's number.)), I'll simply say "I'm sorry, have a good day."
It's particularly aggravating when wrong-number-dialers are rude at 2am. Note the time of this post. 😛
Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »
Posted May 21st, 2008 @ 11:43pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I have three computers right now: a Mac Pro, a MacBook Pro, and a 12" PowerBook.
For some reason, I've noticed that the MacBook Pro is not syncing properly with .Mac. My keychains aren't right. Bookmarks don't synchronize themselves properly. I delete a bookmark on the MacBook Pro and it isn't deleted on the Mac Pro. Or vice versa.
Both computers (all three) show up in the .Mac pref pane's list of registered computers. I've "reset the sync data" by over-writing the data on the MacBook Pro from the data on .Mac. It doesn't seem to matter.
Can I reset some cache somewhere or something? Has anyone else seen this kind of problem? What's going on?
P.S. My iDisk seems to synchronize just fine.
Posted in Apple | 6 Comments »
Posted May 20th, 2008 @ 11:08am by Erik J. Barzeski
Carey and I just watched "My Kid Could Paint That" and I've got to admit I'm pretty skeptical. Even "Ocean," the painting Marla Olmstead is seen painting end to end in a DVD, looks little like most of her other paintings. Who knows?
It's an interesting movie, and I think others should watch it. If you've seen it, what do you think?
Posted in Recreation | No Comments »
Posted May 19th, 2008 @ 06:34pm by Erik J. Barzeski
The back yard is already beginning to feel a lot more spacious. Today, topsoil was put down. Tomorrow, the topsoil will be spread, some holes will be filled in, and the seeds, fertilizer, and mulch will be put down. Then, some day later this week, our bushes will be put in along the edge of the property.
So much more room. I think I might look into getting a hitting net so I can practice my golf swing at home. Hmmmmm…
Pictures to come at some point in the future.
Posted in Home Ownership | No Comments »
Posted May 18th, 2008 @ 11:48am by Erik J. Barzeski
We just purchased a little keyboard, and after "oohing" and "ahhhing" at the number of songs that are included, the various instruments, etc. I checked what I'd long ago heard was an important thing in choosing an electronic keyboard for learning: "velocity."
It's my understanding that "velocity" is a measure of how hard you hit the key. Tap it softly and the sound is quite different than if you strike the key violently. The same song can sound very different played with different key-striking velocities.
This keyboard doesn't support that. Not that we're getting ahead of ourselves or something - this is just a "see if someone is at all interested" type of thing - but how important is it that an electronic keyboard have the ability to play different "velocities?"
Posted in Miscellaneous | 7 Comments »
Posted May 17th, 2008 @ 11:48pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Whispering Woods, one of the two courses to which I belong, placed third earlier today in the EDGA's Interclub tournament. My score acted as a tie-breaker to edge out Kahkwa, as we both had 399 totals.
I played like crap and really need to put my swing on video to eliminate the one or two lingering flaws. I suppose I should have, after ingraining my swing last year, kept it up over the winter. I've learned my lesson.
Posted in Recreation | No Comments »
Posted May 16th, 2008 @ 11:50am by Erik J. Barzeski
Versus is owned by Comcast. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia and owns the Flyers.
Now it all makes a lot more sense.
Update: Worth a read.
Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »
Posted May 15th, 2008 @ 11:58pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Judi has more of the details, but suffice to say that a project I've been working on for about 15 months is finally just about wrapped up.
Yippee!
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »
Posted May 14th, 2008 @ 04:40pm by Erik J. Barzeski
As I mentioned before, Carey and I have recently decided to turn one wall of a downstairs playroom into a craft room/mini-office. We spent the better part of Mother's Day weekend (and the days before it) working on such a project, and, as promised, here are the before and after photos.
NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 653); »
Posted in Home Ownership | 4 Comments »