"Murphy was an optimist!"
OOOooh NO! April 14, 2009 1:14 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Software, Technology2commentsStarting on or about the third week of April, users still running IE6 or IE7 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 will get will get a notification through Automatic Update about IE8. This rollout will start with a narrow audience and expand over time to the entire user base. On Windows XP and Server 2003, the update will be High-Priority. On Windows Vista and Server 2008 it will be Important. [Source, IEBlog, Prepare for Automatic Update distribution of IE8]
Thank you! April 14, 2009 7:26 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Programming, TechnologyI banged my head against a wall last night until it bled. I woke at 3:30am this morning to pound on the wall some more. I consulted peers on IRC. I Googled. I Blingo‘d. Finally I began to type my situation here.
On one of my projects, I am using a modal dialog to present forms to the user. These forms submit the user input to the server via ajax and depending upon the return from the server either present an error message or perform and action then close. The staple of a good programmer is code reuse. In my case, I have written a module to pop up the dialog box and, based upon a variable passed into the module, populate the dialog box with the correct form.
I proceeded to type an abbreviated, generic version of the code segment that was giving me grief. And as I neared the end, I saw my typo! Problem resolved. Life can move on. Now that’s a good use of a blog!
add a commentMoment of Old April 14, 2009 7:15 am
Posted by utterz in : Daily Life, PodcastingMobile post sent by djuggler using Utterli. Replies. mp3
2nd Place: “Women Were Designed For Homemaking” April 13, 2009 9:03 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Religion / Spirituality, Science, Touchy SubjectsMaybe the Creationists are onto something!
Jonathan Goode (grade 7) applied findings from many fields of science to support his conclusion that God designed women for homemaking: physics shows that women have a lower center of gravity than men, making them more suited to carrying groceries and laundry baskets; biology shows that women were designed to carry un-born babies in their wombs and to feed born babies milk, making them the natural choice for child rearing; social sciences show that the wages for women workers are lower than for normal workers, meaning that they are unable to work as well and thus earn equal pay; and exegetics shows that God created Eve as a companion for Adam, not as a co-worker. [Source, OBJECTIVE: Ministries, Fellowship Baptist Creation Science Fair 2001 Article by Dr. Richard Paley & FBCSF Staff]
Other winners:
- Elementary School Level
- 1st Place: "My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)"
- 2nd Place: "Pine Cones Are Complicated"
- Middle School Level
- 1st Place: "Life Doesn’t Come From Non-Life"
- 2nd Place: "Women Were Designed For Homemaking"
- High School Level
- 1st Place: "Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria"
- 2nd Place: "Maximal Packing Of Rodentia Kinds: A Feasibility Study"
The Creation Science Fair honorable mentions are equally as great with my favorite being a tie between "Pokemon Prove Evolutionism Is False" and "Thermodynamics Of Hell Fire."
9commentsSystem Update April 13, 2009 8:52 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeComments should be working again. I was overrun with automated spammers on Saturday.
add a commentDoug’s Mantras April 10, 2009 12:23 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Doug's Mantras, PhilosophyTo be bored is a choice.
1 comment so farLucky snake! April 10, 2009 8:53 am
Posted by utterz in : Daily Life, Sex, Touchy SubjectsAlternative Title: Is that a tentacle growing out of my wife’s chest?!
Incase you’ve forgotten the baseball metaphors for sex they are explained at student.com and teenwire.com.
Thank you xkcd! 
Networking Madness April 10, 2009 8:39 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Network, TechnologyLast night our wireless networking seemed to quit working. The wired network seemed fine. So I attempted to log into my favorite router, my D-Link DIR-615, only to find it would not accept my administrator password. A wave of panic washed over me. Didn’t I change that password so Cathy could block the children’s Internet access when they needed a little guidance? If I did, I certainly don’t recall telling her how to access the router’s management software. I searched for a way to hack my own equipment hoping there was a reset option that would reset the password without losing the logs, security settings, etc. I efforts turned up nothing. All I could do was hold down that reset switch to return the router to factory defaults. On the positive side, it kept the firmware updates in place. I’ve dorked with the router settings enough that this exercise was probably necessary anyway. So how did it happen? The only thing I can figure is that when I tripped breakers for the water heater repair this past weekend the router probably got borked.
add a commentKnoxify’s Friday Five April 9, 2009 4:20 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Activism, Cool Sites, Of Interest, Touchy SubjectsKnoxify is an excellent example of hyperlocal group blogging. The site has a beautiful design with a pleasant balance of photos and words with easy navigation to relevant information. The topic matter is Knoxville, TN and the articles always well written. To make Knoxify even better, they’ve introduced First Friday Five to feature the wonderful non-profits in Knoxville and encourage the Knoxify readers to donate $5 to the organization.
For their first First Friday Five, Knoxify choose one of my favorite non-profits, FISH Hospitality Pantries. FISH provides food and basic staples to any person or family in Knoxville who needs it with no questions asked. People of all economic backgrounds can find themselves in tight economic positions and FISH exists to make sure that no one goes hungry. Well chosen Knoxify!
Chattanooga also has First Friday Five.
add a commentI don’t understand tea bagging. April 9, 2009 1:47 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Activism, Politics, Regional Politics (SE), Sex, Touchy Subjects, United StatesApparently on April 15 from 3pm-6pm, Republicans and Conservatives alike (perhaps Democrats and other parties) will be meeting at the World’s Fair Park for some tea bagging. As much as I enjoy a good protest, this just doesn’t sound like my kind of thing:
Teabagging is … an erotic activity used within the context of BDSM and male dominance, with a dominant man teabagging his submissive partner, either a woman or a man, as one variation of facesitting and/or as a means of inflicting erotic humiliation. [Source, Wikipedia, Teabagging]
Just sounds like someone’s going to get themselves arrested.
See also: Teabagging Congress.
Update 12April2009: Seen on The Huffington Post- “Tea Bagging” Rallies Ruthlessly Mocked On Maddow Show
Update: From Paul Krugman:
2commentsthe G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now. That didn’t stop Republicans from taking control of both Congress and the White House. [Source, The New York Times, Tea Parties Forever ]
Let’s talk about breasts April 8, 2009 10:09 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Of Being DadI have 5 finicky eaters and 3 pounds of thawed chicken breasts. I could go with my old fallback Cheat’s Coronation Chicken but really that doesn’t thrill 3 of the 7 of our clan. I’ve marinated bite sized pieces in olive oil and seasonings then cooked it over oil in a skillet and mixed it with flavored rice for a chicken and rice dish that goes over okay. Simply slathering it in BBQ sauce and grilling it with sides of vegetables gets eaten but seems boring to me. Maybe I need to shred it and make BBQ chicken sandwiches. What’s your favorite child friendly chicken dish?
5commentsFrom today’s Breaking News April 7, 2009 3:54 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of InterestI follow Breaking News on Twitter:
AP: A Cal. chopper pilot, who let a porn actress perform oral sex on him while flying, says he learned his lesson and wants his license back [Source, Twitter, @breakingnews]
I want to know how he got busted! um, I mean caught. Like, was there a 9-1-1 call? "Hello? 9-1-1? I have a hobby of watching helicopters with my telescope and I think you need to call this one into the FAA." or perhaps this was one of those bizarre Google Map/Google Earth things, "Now go to this longitude and latitude. See the helicopter? Right. Zoom in. That’s right! You’re seeing what you think you’re seeing. Now how is he supposed to safely land that thing with the inside of the windscreen like that?!"
add a commentKnox County Schools – Your lack of creativity astounds me April 7, 2009 3:45 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Noah, Of Being DadYesterday my middle schooler came home with a permission slip for a school field trip to Dollywood with a catch: The price is $43 and only the first 75 students to return a check and signed permission slip get to go. That’s not right! Additionally, the field trip will not allow the students on the water rides because Knox County Schools got all trippy after the death of a student at the waterfall 6 years ago. Yes that was a tragedy but we should have learned from the failings of supervision at that trip and continued water related activities but instead Knox County Schools decided bubble wrapping the children will protect them. Guess what? That won’t protect them either. I suppose Knox County Schools is assuming that of the 2.5 million visitors to Dollywood, our trip will be the one where highly inspected, super safety protected, engineered to simulate danger in the most cautionary way, equipment will fail at the same time all the trained and licensed lifeguards happen to be taking smoke breaks. It could happen! Denying water rides at a theme park? That’s not right! Can we make it better? What about not allowing digital cameras? Yes! Let’s prevent our children from the memorializing their time with their friends by not allowing them to take pictures. Granted, the school is afraid of being responsible for loss, theft or damage to a digital camera. Well guess what Sherlock! If I send a digital camera to school with my child and he loses it, that’s between him and me. I have an old digital camera sitting on my desk wasting away. If it got lost I’m out nothing. Of course, you want me to go buy an antique point and shoot disposable camera that is limited to 24 shots and cost an arm and a leg to print some thumbs over lenses. Brilliant! No wonder our children lag behind. Banning cameras? That’s not right! Eventually we will ban, regulated, lock up, and overprotect ourselves to being scared to death. What will you deny then? Don’t be scared or we’ll suspend you! Well guess what? That’s not right!
Oh, and today, my son brought home a permission slip for the band field trip. Guess where they’re going? Dollywood! (different day) That’s not right! For all the wonderful things we have in East TN, can our schools find nothing fun and mind expanding for our children? Oh, no, of course not; Knox County Schools is too worried about my digital camera. That’s not right!
6commentsLinks of Interest April 7, 2009 1:12 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : AJAX, JavaScript, jQuery, JSON, PHP, Programming, TechnologyThe stuff that I’ve been working with today:
- jQuery Plugin: Validation See also: demos
- metadata plugin
- form plugin for AJAX submit
- Mastering Ajax, Part 10: Using JSON for data transfer
Vans that listen April 7, 2009 7:35 am
Posted by utterz in : Daily Life, Podcasting
Mobile post sent by djuggler using Utterli. Replies.
