The million lights project is offering free compact fluorescent bulbs to the first million requests.
Year: 2008
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Want a little more information on our friend, “The German,” check out his Assignment Tracker profile www.prim
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Ear buds fast track to deafness
From the mouths of babes
Amy, teared up and unhappy with my insistence that she take a bath: "You’re mean!"
Dad: "Yes I am!"
From the mouths of babes
Tommy, almost 18: "Amy you can’t say that."
Amy, 6 years old: "Yes I can."
Tommy: "No you can’t."
Amy: "Yes I can!"
Tommy: "No you can’t! Quit it!"
Evan, 3 years old bouncing and chanting: "Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe."
Amy: "Evan, stop it!"
Evan, adds some sway to his shoulders and bobs his head: "Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe. Amy, bebe."
Amy, tearing up: "Make him stop! Evan’s calling me a baby!"
Oh how they slip down instead of rise up. Do the younger of the species always win?
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Heroes: For the first time ever, all-new Heroes webisodes! “Going Postal,” featuring new Heroes characters, d
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Tough Decade Ahead
I can feel that the next ten years are going to be harder than any of the previous ones. Where’s the line between realism and defeatist? One foot in front of the other. That’s a mighty tall mountain.
Starbucks is Starbucks unless its in a store
Twitter hurts the blog posting from time to time. Six days ago I spoke to an employee of Starbucks that seemed to be in the know regarding store closures. She informed me that no Knoxville Starbucks would be closing and that the closest closure was rumored to be Chattanooga. I Twittered the information instead of posting to Reality Me so the people following me on Twitter gained the knowledge but I did not create any record to be found by the search engines or referenced by papers and bloggers. I enjoy publishing information that others find useful. Carly Harrington tells us of closures much closer to Knoxville than Chattanooga.
I predicted that the Starbucks inside of Target at Turkey Creek would close since there is a Starbucks store in the same parking lot. I learned that none of the Starbucks inside of grocery stores or other stores will be closing. These Starbucks are owned by the store chain and not by Starbucks. The name only is licensed to the store. I wonder if the quality is different or if the store can water down or take shortcuts that an actual Starbucks cannot.
The Seattle Times has does an excellent job by providing a Google Map of rumored closings.
Mainstream Media – Like the Hindenburg, just slower.
What happened to journalist integrity?
Clip summary (because I’m sure Youtube will pull this): KTLA Reporter Eric Spillman insults iPhone customers standing in line while on live television. Spillman asks, "Have you ever seen a woman naked?" iPhone customer responds with "This is kinda jackass, no?" "You find this offensive." "Well yeah and its kinda dumb too." He tries to save face and the customer responds, "This is not smart. You call this journalism?"
Let Oak Ridge, er, Hollywood Clean Up the Mess!
Right now there is a huge ecological disaster happening in Tennessee. An 18 wheeler tanker has a spill of highly volatile material, titanium tetrachloride, and has caused an evacuation of everything within 10 miles of the accident as well as totally shutting down Interstate 40 near Crossville and having some people stuck in traffic 6-12 hours. This sounds similar to the train wreck that evacuated much of Farragut a couple of years ago.
So here is the scenario: Truck containing hazardous materials traveling on Interstate 40 has a problem and substance begins leaking. Nine people get sent to a hospital. Area is quarantined and evacuated for a radius of ten miles. A hazmat team is sent in, cannot contain the leak, and determines contents of truck to be producing heat (ie. explosion pending). To make matters worse, water mixed with this hazardous material produces hydrochloric acid. Winds are currently blowing strong. Storms are forecasted in less than twelve hours and the special cleanup team from New Jersey will take twelve or more hours to arrive. Sounds like an out of work script writer is trying to pitch Paramount.
My question: Why isn’t Oak Ridge responding to this? Certainly the labs are prepared for a worse ecological disaster than this. Between Becthel Jacobs, SAIC, Perma-Fix, and the dozens of other contractors that regularly do work at Y12 (in particular cleanup and handling of dangerous materials), you would think we could have a crew to Crossville in one hour instead of twelve. Are lives at stake for bureaucracy? Is this Katrina on a smaller scale?
How would Hollywood handle this? Simple! Tommy Lee Jones would come barking in to establish perimeters and control the choas while Will Smith beats some people into cooperating/doing actual cleanup and Chris Tucker smack talks the red tape out of the way. Of course we don’t get to learn the outcome because Hollywood is poised for a second strike (See Return of the Bad Television – Guild Strike Part Deux).
And would someone teach the AMPTP about permalinks?
Our final offer to SAG members includes more than $250 million in additional compensation, important new media rights and protection for pension and health benefits. The refusal of SAG’s Hollywood leadership to accept this offer is the latest in a series of actions by SAG leaders that, in our opinion, puts labor peace at risk. SAG’s Hollywood leaders have already pursued a time-consuming, divisive, costly, and unsuccessful anti-AFTRA campaign. Any further delay in reaching a reasonable and comprehensive agreement does a disservice to the thousands of working people of our industry who are already being seriously harmed by the ever worsening de facto strike. [Source, AMPTP, Breaking News, July 10, 2008, Statement of the AMPTP] (See also July 8, 2008, AFTRA Ratification Statement and June 30, 2008, Statement of the AMPTP)
Any increase for the benefits of health insurance, pension, or residual gains made by the WGA are also likely to be demanded by other entertainment industry labor unions when their contracts expire. This is a practice known as pattern bargaining — the first union to reach a contract with the AMPTP usually sets the template for the agreement with other unions. The contracts for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Directors Guild of America (DGA) expired on June 30, 2008. [Source, Wikipedia, Other 2008 industry-wide strike threats]
Do you store images in a database?
As I have built PHP and ColdFusion applications over the years, I have had to deal with image and file uploading from the application. Browsers were not designed for moving files from a client to a server; specifically, browsers were designed to receive files from a server to a client. To move files from a client to a server, an FTP program is used. (My favorite FTP client is WinSCP.) Now, a form can be written and used to upload a picture, movie, or other file from the client (you) to the server. You probably do this quite frequently with Flickr, Youtube and so forth. It is convenient from the enduser point of view because it removes the need to learn new software (the ftp client) and prevents having to get an administrator to create a username and password for each user on the server. Plus, by managing the files through the web application instead of the FTP program, you can programmatically control what is being allowed onto the server so that your user doesn’t maliciously upload an executable designed to damage the server rather than that family vacation photograph.
As a programmer, I have to make decisions about where to store these uploaded files. A common approach is to have a directory on the webserver which cannot be accessed by a browser (that is, the only way to get to the file is through the programming). The filename is then stored in the database. As an independent consultant, I work with different programmers/designers with varied skillsets and differing philosophies on coding. Some coders, like Eric Wise, actually prefer to store the files in the database itself. Eric claims:
…this is pretty sloppy and difficult to manage especially if for some reason you want to reorganize the data… [Source, Eric Wise, Images, Thumbnails, SQL Server, and ASP .NET – Level 200]
Eric describes a process of storing images in SQL Server 2005, automatically compressing the images, and generating thumbnails using ASP .NET. THis is interesting to me as I am wanting to learn C# to add to my skillsets.
I am concerned about database size and performance decreased caused by storing images/files in a database rather than storing the file in a directory and only storing the filename in the database. Jeffrey Palermo, a commenter on Eric Wise’s post, expresses the same concern:
Jeffrey Palermo said:
I’ve considered doing a photo album this way, but the main drawback is the size it makes the database. I have about 4GB of images. Do I really want that much in my database just for images. That also makes the bandwidth between web and db server highly used. Perhaps it’s no big deal, but to date I’ve kept my photos on the web server. Please post if you find no issues with the size of the data in the database when you have _lots_ of pictures there.
And Eric responds:
Eric Wise said:
Jeff,
With the compression tool I referenced, the original image shown was over 2MB, now it’s 165KB.
Having many large files would definately cause a performance issue, but with compression and the fact that it will probably be rare to have more than 2-3 pictures of an asset I’m not all that concerned about it.
What is your approach to storing images from a web application? See also.
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I’ve been picking through the trash at the Company. Like jigsaw puzzles? Check this out: www.9thwonders.com/scan.jpg
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Top 10 Ways to have a happy marriage
@RandomChick asks "what’s the key to a successful/happy marriage?"
- Never let your wives find out about each other.
- Having a twin brother, never telling anyone, one works/one is at home, and the two of you can never be seen together.
- Lots of money. Because money can buy you happiness! And it can buy you love. But if you want happiness in marriage, never use your money to buy love.
- Nannies, babysitters, Mary Poppins, Oh My!
- Two houses. She should be living in the one you aren’t remodeling.
- Date nights! Just because you are married doesn’t mean you should quit dating. Get a babysitter for the children and act like you did before you said, "I do!" And don’t talk about todo lists, appointments, or other issues on your date!
- Remember small things add up. Leave a note, scrub a back, do one of your spouses chores (that is unless she hates the way you fold clothes and in that case just stay away from the laundry!), or knock something off that honey do list you’ve been ignoring.
- Viagra + Zoloft + Depakote
- Read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
and practice it.
- Be married to my wife! (But be aware you’ll have to support me as well as the five children too)
You should be commenting on this right now!
Head over to Knox School Matters and comment on Become The Best In High School Education!
God Save the Queen!
As seen on Puerilis:
God Save the Queen!
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.
A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
(You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
- Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
- The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as “colour”, “favour”, “labour” and “neighbour.” Likewise, you will learn to spell “doughnut” without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise’. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up “vocabulary“).
- Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let M*crosoft know on your behalf. The M*crosoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter “u” and the elimination of -ize.
- July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
- You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.
- Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
- All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables.
- Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
- The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
- You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
- The co ld tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
- Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
- You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don’t try rugby – the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.
- Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyondyour borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
- You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
- An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
- Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
God Save the Queen!
I wonder if we could talk Christian Payne (@documentally) into recording a reading of this. I tried but it was God awful! Now, give me some Jeff Foxworthy transcripts and I’ll do just fine!
