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Having fun with Jott

Jott is one of my favorite web services. I use speed dial on my phone to call Jott, I speak the name of the person I want to send a note to (usually ‘myself’), I record my message spelling out difficult words "My name is McCaughan M-c-c-a-u-g-h-a-n", then I speak the date and time for when I want a text transcription of my words sent to my email and phone as sms. Jott’s magic is not in its speech to text software but in its human backup. Computers do the bulk of the work but humans (India I think) listen to difficult messages and provide a fairly accurate transcription although sometimes there are errors. My first reminder today:

Get a plunger.

Okay. I am pretty sure I never said to get a plunger. I can go to the Jott website and listen to my original message to figure out what I really meant. I also like to have fun with the messages sometimes:

Get a plant light, save the plants. Save the plants, save the world.

You can also use Jott to post to Twitter, Remember the Milk, and 40 some odd other services.

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Today’s Technical Challenge

About every 5th character I type, regardless of application (be it Twhirl, Firefox, MS Word, CFStudio..) the window I’m in loses focus. This means I have to click back into the window that I’m trying to type. Terribly annoying but I can deal with it because I have to be on my code today instead of on troubleshooting. I’ll run some antispyware checkers in the background while I work. This is terribly frustrating.

Update: This computer has an ethernet card and a wireless networking card. I’m using the ethernet so the wireless is unnecessary but the wireless connection manager kept polling for available networks and that was stealing the focus from the other applications. Disabling the wireless networking connection did the trick.

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Straight No Chaser – 12 Days

This is awesome! n.b. At the time of post this, the video had 9,299,104 views. That’s like 3% of everyone in the United States. Scroll down. This first video YouTube removed. The 2nd video is the new one (not as good as the first) and the 3rd video is the one you are here to watch.

Thank you LissaKay for Tweeting it!


Update: I’m so sick of Youtube and its pulling of content. The video above was the original video and had over 10 million views. It’s description had a link to the story of Straight No Chaser and how the video above (no removed due to some claim of copyright b.s.) was put up by Straight No Chaser and quickly rushed to over a million views which spurred a record label to have them do a reunion album which is apparently a fantastic piece. You can purchase it through a link in the description on the above video..oh, no you can’t because that video has been pulled due to a copyright claim by a 3rd party. I was going to buy the CD buy now I doubt I will make the effort to find the website..how’s that for smart marketing Mr. 3rd Party Copyright Gonna Cut The Golden Goose Off At the Neck? Below is the 2008 remake of the performance that made these guys famous; that is until Youtube pulls it. It’s okay but the original had more energy to the show.

p.s. Youtube sucks.

Update: AOL Video still has the original:

Watch more MySpace videos on AOL Video

Update: The name of their new album is Holiday Spirits which can be purchased online at this website.

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Day for Productivity

I had one of those necessary days to be able to be stronger and more able in my work. Today I found my desk! Got my workstation fully functioning again, sent off invoices, and did some coding (much more to come in the next several hours). It feels good to have my familiar tools back in my hands but this absence from my personal machine has only strengthened my resolve to make my work environment totally machine independent. All of my tools will soon be either cloud based or on a usb portable hard drive. There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to plug into any machine and be working in a comfortable set of tools within 15 minutes.

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From the mouths of babes

Evan, 3.5 years old, standing in footie jammies but with only the arms in, every piece of skin except arms and backside are exposed, he looks down at himself: "Look, I gots stamps on me."
Dad, observes a green Santa clause the size of a dime stamped on knees, thighs, ankles, stomach and chest: "Stamps go on paper."
Evan, holding arms akimbo but with index finger pointing rather than hands on hips: "No. Stamps go on me. Like this!"

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Today’s Technical Challenge

This one is aside from the normal programming endeavors. Tommy’s laptop, Vista installed, is refusing to logoff the current user. It has been saying "Logging Off.." for hours. Various forums have suggestions about an IE update to fix the problem, driver updates, unsigned drivers, blah blah blah. None of that matters if you cannot get the machine to some kind of command prompt or other useable interface. I’m going to try pulling the battery out and removing all power.

Update: Removing the battery and power cable, then waiting a few minutes before reconnecting power fixed the problem.

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I have transitioned back to the dungeon!

Man it’s cold down here! I am in the process of returning Tommy’s laptop which has allowed me to work upstairs. That has been a pleasure. I like being able to interact with the children and being near Cathy, except that she doesn’t like my breathing. I also like the temperature. But my computer is working downstairs again (minus sound..driver issue) and it is time for me to become a hermit once again. Now, if only I could find my desk under this pile of receipts and mess that somehow accumulate down here when I was upstairs…

Update: Desk is clean! Computer is working! I feel renewed!

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Bulging eyes, puffed cheeks, head thrown back…3..2.1

A sight no parent wants to see is your child poised to regurgitate the evening meal. The only thing worse is realizing that this is round two and round one is on the bed, the child, the floor, and the fringe blanket. Vomit has magical powers of stupidity. For one, the smell makes you instantly want to join in the fun. "Oh look! Your spaghetti looks like stringy glue! Let’s see if mine’s the same…blarp" Secondly, as your child’s gag reflex audibly kicks in, you run to comfort her without a trashcan, a towel or any thought of what to do with the vile muck that is working its way up the child’s throat, so placing one hand on the child’s back, you stupidly cup your other hand just under her mouth as if you could miraculously keep round two from somehow not adding to round one. Blarp! Then you lie, "It’s going be okay."

That was last night. Let’s hope this is an isolated event and doesn’t rip through the family.

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Afternoon Chaos

I spent most of the morning bringing my dead machine back to life. As it shifted priorities to downloading drivers and installing updates, I switched priorities back to programming (after taking a break for a mild panic attack). Programming went swimmingly well despite some persnickety layout issues. As the afternoon progressed, Cathy began preparing for her meeting. She’s meeting with, coincidentally, my major client (unrelated to my work), and the local paper. Before she leaves, Granddaddy comes over to help with the transportation. He arrives early to have a heart to heart with Tommy about his college education which turned out to be a fantastic discussion but one that Tommy did not necessarily enjoy. I kept programming but against my best efforts had to throw in some of my own commentary. Cathy rushed out to get Amy from Girl Scouts. Bill (Granddaddy) rushed out to get Sarah and friend from school to take them to flag practice at Hardin Valley High School. After they left, a friend of Tommy’s came by unexpectedly. Then Noah arrived home. Then Tommy emerged from the basement where he was hibernating. Then Cathy returned with Amy who I helped into the house. Then Tommy and friend decided they wanted to play board games in the mess downstairs which prompted a little cleaning that Tommy and I quickly tackled. The dogs go crazy so I run upstairs to find out Granddaddy has returned with the girls because Sarah forgot something. They leave again. Amy and Evan fight. Noah wants to go to a friend’s house. Tommy and I finish preparing the downstairs so they can play Axis and Allies without Evan destroying the game. The dogs want out. Evan wants a video on the television. And finally I return to trying to get a deliverable out by 5pm (in 15 minutes).

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Back in business! sorta

My new motherboard is working and after a telephone call to Microsoft, Windows is activated and appears to be functioning. I have to confirm that Windows thinks it is the E drive and not the C drive (a peculiarity about my configuration) and may have a few more drivers to install but I am very close to being able to return to my frigid dungeon of programming. That process absorbed much of my morning and sent me into a mild panic attack as I have accomplished little programming today. I’ve calmed, returned to working on the laptop, and plan to knock out a couple of milestones before trying to transition downstairs.

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Today’s Technical Challenge – New MB for Existing XP

My motherboard died on my computer with all the software required for my consulting efforts. Why did it die? Because the capacitors on the motherboard were manufactured with an incomplete and flawed electrolyte formula that was acquired through some bad industrial espionage. I have since been given a new (old, I mean newly manufactured but we are talking Socket 462) motherboard. After installing it last night, Windows gets to mup.drv in the bootup process and restarts the machine. So today’s challenge (and one necessary to access my invoicing software) is to get Windows repaired so that it, and all the installed software on that hard drive, work with this new motherboard. Of course, I do this in conjunction with pumping out code. Days like this make me wish I had an IT department. I miss Nate.

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Error messages you don’t want to see

When booting your computer for the first time after installing a new motherboard, one should not expect to see 1) CMOS battery low nor 2) CMOS memory wrong size

Update: The CMOS simply needed to be reset. The battery was fine. The computer boots without problem now but Windows gets to mup.drv and the computer restarts without ever reaching the Windows splash screen.