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For those of you not familiar with my resume, let me sum it up for you: I’ve been designing, developing, deploying and supporting software for 13 years. I’ve seen my fair share of failures but on the flip side, I’ve also seen more than my fair share of successes. I’d say when it comes right down to it, developing great software isn’t really that difficult. Above all else it has been my experience that the primary requirement one must fulfill in order to develop great software is that you have to care. Now that may sound stupid. Hell it probably sounds pompous and arrogant depending upon your perspective. But over the course of my career I have worked with all kinds of people. A few of those people truly cared about what it is they were doing while most of them showed up for eight hours a day in order to collect their paycheck. ...

Subject: In regards to your “Computer Hacking” story To whom it does concern, To start I would like to say: I’ve been a fan of PBS for years and for the most part I appreciate the dedication and the impartiality of the PBS News Hour staff. In addition I make my living working in IT and have a sizable level of experience in regards to Computer Security. However on a less congratulatory note, I just finished watching your “Computer Hacking” discussion that was broadcast on the PBS Nightly News on 2011/06/01 @ 6 PM EST and I was appalled. I’ve seen very few pieces on the “Nightly News” that I would characterize as lacking and/or shoddy. However this discussion was appalling in the unchallenged slant that was presented. ...

So apparently there is an election where I live in Greer today. And I don’t care. However when the father of one of the candidates came stumping through my neighborhood this weekend and handed me a brochure advertising his daughter’s candidacy, I couldn’t help but be struck by the level of nonsense it contained. For instance his daughters political party membership, views on important topics and stances and on issues relevant to Greer as a community were not included in this pamphlet. However it did mention the church she was a member of, the fact that she was a small business owner along with where she went to high school. Apparently fixing that pothole that I hit every morning crossing Highway 29 via Arlington is not a platform issue. Which is a shame because without a commitment on that particular issue, I’ll be forced to ignore the election as a whole. ...

Wow. So today I finally signed up with DirectTV and their HD DVR service. Little did I know that my biggest source of drama here would be with TiVo. Back in Jan of 2009, I had canceled TiVo after my original 2 year commitment was up and tried out the Cable company’s DVR option. After about a month of suffering, we decided to move back to our low def TiVo (having already tried the TiVo HD and found that neither TiVo nor our cable company could/would get the CableCARD solution to work). Well apparently when I signed up for TiVo’s special reduced rate of $12.95, they nailed me with a yearly commitment. Or so they say. My original documentation and emails on the matter indicate no such commitment. I do keep all of these things on hand for future reference. ...

Well, the day has finally come. Or it came a few days ago. Well technically it came on July 13th, but wasn’t announced until this Wednesday July 22nd. Windows 7 is done! And not only that, but the untouched RTM build straight from Microsoft is floating around out there in the wild. I can’t wait to get my keys via my Action Pack subscription next month. Though until then I’ve installed it with no key. ...

Hmmmm… it’s been awhile hasn’t it? Well not only am I posting something to the site, I’ve also uploaded a slightly improved build of it along with adding a new default theme into the mix. I’ve been toying with the idea of a decent all black theme for awhile now and finally got around to throwing together something that works. Of course I’d be lying if I said that I came up with it all by myself. But hey, I never claimed to be a graphic artist, did I? Oh and the application has now been moved to the .NET 3.5 framework and consequently is being compiled/developed with Visual Studio 2008. ...

So this weekend brings news that our wonderful government is planning on bailing out yet another bank. Really? I guess the fact that this tactic failed the first half dozen times or so doesn’t mean it won’t work this time around, right? Oh but wait despite what it sounds like there are some fresh tactics, only it’s not what we need but rather what the people who stand to lose the most actually want: ...

Today the US Congress rejected the Financial Bailout Plan as put forward by the Bush Administration. While they are vowing to restructure the bill and get another vote going when they return from recess later in the week, I believe the idea has summarily died. The concept of bailing out the financial wizards who claimed that effectively turning debt into a form of currency via securities was risk-free is a disheartening concept to most. This is understandable. However others seem to believe that regardless of who directly benefits, this bailout was required in order to save our economy. ...

So ever since Tuesday, I’ve had some rough stomach problems. I’ll spare you the sloppy details, suffice to say that I’ve been spending most of this week at home trying to work my way through it all. Sometime in the last few days, I found a wonderful video series on YouTube called, “You Suck at PhotoShop”. This series of ten videos are essentially at their core, tutorials for how to use PhotoShop for advanced image manipulation. However this rich content is encased in the author’s hopefully fictional drama, his hatred for you and the rest of humanity in general and a biting rhetoric that surprises even assholes like myself. ...

So I was doing a bit of surfing from my new server (see my previous post) and I happened to check out South Park Studios for an list of current South Park episodes, and I got this tasteful tidbit for my trouble: Now that is some funny shit. It’s good to see that South Park Studios really is designed in the same spirit as the show it showcases. That gave me a good laugh for the day. I figure it will either piss you off or make you laugh and if it is the former, get over it already hippie.