Archive for the ‘Misc’ Category
I need to get me one of these!!
Just thinking safe and all..
And for those that have no idea what this is all about, its the first weapon you get in the video game Half-Life, yeah, like only the most popular first person shooter of all time.
US Plans permanent moon base
Posted by: jeffro in Misc, Technology on December 5th, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6208456.stm
There are a wide variety of opinions on this one. I am of the camp that says, “Its about time we went back to the moon! And why not create a permanent presence there too?” I have had debates with a few other people on why we shouldn’t be spending money on the space program, when there are programs out there like education or preservation that we could be throwing the money at. Well, unfortunately there are problems out there, but there will ALWAYS be problems out there. In all reality, it won’t matter how much money we dump into it, there will still ALWAYS be problems out there.
I say go for it, maybe they can get some of their funding from the bloated defense budget. And while we are on the subject, why are these people even bothering to whine about NASA’s budget, when the defense budget is roughly 28 times larger? ($401.7 billion compared to $14 billion) For every dollar the government spends on NASA it spends: $21 on defense and $30 on Social Security for example. This list, (from: http://www.richardb.us/nasa.html) really put NASA’s budget into perspective for me:
- Microsoft’s corporate revenues in 1998 were roughly the same as NASA’s budget that year.
- NASA’s budget is roughly the same size as the budgets of each of the following states: Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and Tennessee.
- The federal government spends over 30 times as much money on Social Security as it does on NASA.
- Americans spent over 19 times as much at restaurants in 1997 as the federal government spent on NASA that year.
- NASA’s budget represents approximately 0.2% of U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
While the source is not authoritative, it uses budget numbers publicly available. If NASA can go to the moon on its budget, then I say again, why not?
Tabled..
Alright so after messing with the layout I finally admitted defeat and used a table to appease Internet Explorer. For the life of me I couldn’t get the site to layout correctly in IE! So I removed the offending DIV and replaced it with a TABLE. Now all is well, the content wraps and world is at peace with the site. Yeeeahh, anyway, I am just kinda bummed I couldn’t get it to work out only using styles. I guess thats just IE6 for you.
Another day, more drama
So I am not in NYC anymore. The project I was working on went to heck. The weight of not having any design specs finally crushed the project. In a way I am happy as I knew the project was dying a slow death. I could see it easier since I was in its guts every day. There were no plans on what the app should do and what it would do when it was complete. So there was no real end it sight. They just kept demanding features and then complained when they weren’t done immediately.
Fortunately my boss saw all this going on and pulled the plug. He told me to pack up all the source code, leave them with the version on their servers and report to NJ the next day.
Lesson learned? Take the extra time at the beginning of the project ande create tons of documentation. Outline the specs, features, and what the app will do when its done. Explicitly define that any features or requests outside the scope of the document will directly impact the deadline. The problem is pinning a client down to a feature set, alot of the times, they have no idea what they want…
Shoutbox
As you can probably see, I added a shoutbox to the right column. It uses AJAX, so I couldn’t help but include it. I am sold on AJAX, even tho it causes some browsers to puke. Ah well, give it a try!
Gallery live
I finished the gallery section. There really isn’t anything there right now, just some of the images that I have used throughout the site. I will add some stuff eventually tho. For now, check it out. Dont’ expect much for the time being.
Archives
I got the archives section done. Its not much to write home about, but with the amount of time I have had lately, its quite an accomplishment. Another week in NYC gone, I am really starting to get tired of getting up early and getting home late. I wouldn’t mind working from NJ for a while, but I think I am in the city until the end of the year.
Intel and DRM
So it looks like Intel and Microsoft are in bed together over DRM. Looks like Linux is out of luck and it my next computer will be powered by an AMD.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24638
Sharepoint domain change
For those of you that use Microsoft Sharepoint Portal server. Here is a quick piece of advice if you need to change the domain the server is on. Follow this map:
1. Back up all your content databases
2. Completely uninstall Sharepoint Portal Server from the server
3. Change the domain
4. Re-install Sharepoint Portal Server
5. Import your content databases
Trust me, if you just move the servers domain with out doing this. You will probably end up having to completely reinstall the OS. Since when I tried you couldn’t repair or uninstall Sharepoint because it complained about everything. Take a little time and do it right, and learn from my mistake.
Layout issues in IE
Checking out the site in everyones favorite browser, Internet Explorer, it seems that the layout of my site is borked. I will check into what is causing the problem soon. Until then, if you are visiting the site in IE, you might consider trying Firefox, a far superior browser.
