Blog

I haven't written much lately because I have been so busy. I am graduating this May from college. Have a new job and will be moving to Phoenix, AZ. Its a different world for me out here. Big. Anyways, I need to leave, partly because of job growth and opportunity and partly because of a girl. She didn't have the same feelings I had have for her. (As you can see, I'm not over her yet.) Anyways, too much here reminds me of her. I need to meet someone. I'm hoping that there is more opportunity for that over in Phoenix. If only I could get over my own shyness. Confidence is sexy too (her words). Apparently I don't have enough, even though if I was given a chance to prove that I was...but I digress. I miss her, and I need to stop missing her. I'm lonely and I need to stop being lonely. I'm empty and I need to stop being empty. I need to meet someone.

People need to give Microsoft a little more credit. Does any other company face the burdens of their success like they do?

I have worked on a lot of software in the past 20+ years in the software business but I must say that nothing compares to working on Windows. My friends and associates outside windows often ask what I mean by that, and I have a hard time explaining. It isn't just that Windows is a huge software project with a jillion lines of code and dozens of languages. Windows has really gone beyond software - it is a kind of ecosystem with dozens of different interests, concerns, and agendas all interacting with one another.

Since that probably is a bit too abstract, I thought I would talk about one specific issue that we dealt with after the Beta went out the door. Hopefully you will find this an interesting glimpse into how a day in Windows is not like anything else out there.

Interesting read: The UI design minefield - er... flower field??

You absolutely must hear this, and you absolutely must use headphones.

Other examples.

Source: Music special: Five great auditory illusions

Following this ordeal with Gateway I sent my computer back again. Guess what they did this time. Not only did they not fix the problem, by reformatting it, the DVD drive now doesn't work. It worked fine when I sent it in. Essentially my computer came back in worse condition than it was sent. Sweet.

I have worked on the NMSU Phonebook. The Phonebook has three sections to it, and each section offers something that I have yet to see at any other university.

First is the person lookup page. Clicking on the A (which is all last names beginning with A) brings up a list of people. First, this offers the ability to use it as a directory, just like any phonebook. You can do searches as well. The information is presented in a pleasant manner with nice colors and in a zebra table so the names are easily distinguished from one another. But the one unique feature that I have not seen at other universities is the Rolodex. You can at a glance see the person's name, email address (if on campus, otherwise an email form), and their phone number. Now, with most traditional phonebooks you click on the person's name which takes you to a new page to learn more information about that person. That's so 1995. With the help of Rico we can accomplish this in a much nicer way without displaying a whole new page. Click on a person's name and it unfolds to show more information, including work and/or personal information. It looks like a business card. Now, how do we get this information into Outlook or other email program. The old way is typing in the details to save a new contact, the new way is by clicking on the icon to download the person's vCard. Now the information is automagically added to your email program.

The second section is the department lookup list. This is where we use AJAX. You can do a search for the departments in a traditional way, but doing an AJAX call is so much faster. It might be a little overkill, but the speed is just awesome. It also includes links to an Google Maps implementation of campus that I and my co-workers worked on (future post).

Finally, we have the hierarchy page. I have not even seen this page at any other university. I think it is totally cool. It is basically a hierarchy of departments. So you know who is on the food chain.

Of course all of these link together. Click on a person in the hierarchy and it takes you to the person lookup. Click on a department on the person lookup or department lookup page and it takes you to that department in the hierarchy. In my opinion, very cool.

Well, hot on the heals of getting screwed over by Creative, I now got screwed over by Gateway. You may remember that I had to send my laptop in for repair.

The reason I sent it in was because there was a gap between the plastic and the LCD screen that was shipped from the factory like that. Dust gets in there and behind the screen. The second and more important reason was because it would constantly crash and I would get strange graphic corruption on the screen.

Well, I finally received it yesterday and I am extremely disappointed in them. They didn't fix the screen and all they did was reformat the drive and put Windows XP Tablet Edition on it, like it came from the factory. The computer was labeled as Vista Compatible and I was reassured that Vista would work on it without problems. To make sure that it isn't software I reformatted the drive and installed Vista. While I was in the Vista set-up screen I noticed several pixels flickering on and off on the screen. It didn't do that the first time I installed Vista. After it was installed the Windows Sidebar started flickering and when I went to connect to my wireless network the entire screen went to a black and white pattern and the computer locked up. This was before I installed any software or anything, it was just a fresh install of Vista.

I'm sending it back, again, maybe this time they will fix it.

I wrote Creative regarding their horrible Vista support for my Creative Labs PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook card.

I purchased a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook card. I purchased it for a Windows Vista laptop. The information displayed on the creative website said this would be compatible with Vista. However, the support is terrible. The last driver released for this card was March 16, 2007. That is totally unacceptable. When will this card's drivers be updated to be more compatible with Vista. You are starting to lose a loyal Creative Customer.

The card causes blue screens. Also, in Vista's Control Panel, there is an option to hear the output out of all 5.1 speakers. I only hear output out of the front two. The drivers just do not play well with Vista.

Their response:

Dear Curtis

Thank you for contacting Creative email support. I appreciate the opportunity to help you.

Regarding your last email. We are not aware a new update for this product will be released. They only release if one is need. We have modems that have not been updated for several years. Until what is listed online it obsolete and I new one is needed there probably will not be anymore. Also remember that ANY Email Creative advisors are not forewarned or told about future releases. When they hit the Creative Web page they are ready.

I apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you.

Here is a link to the Creative savings center.

http://us.creative.com/shop/

Thank you for choosing Creative!

The bad grammer is theirs. Basically I was just told to buy a newer product. Goodbye creative. Anyone try Sondigo's Callisto Home Theatre Adapter?

I have to send my computer in to the manufacturer for repair. Bummer.

However, I bought myself a Smartphone. (Technically a Pocket PC, but I like the term Smartphone better.) I love this thing. It is an HTC Touch. I bought the CDMA Version since Sprint is my carrier.

I love this phone. I don't know how I ever got around without it. Email, IM, the Web, its all there. I have also been loading it down with games so I can entertain myself during boring times like in waiting areas or driving.

Next semester I have only one class to take and then I will graduate with my Computer Science degree. Yay! So hopefully it will be pretty chill.

This is all about Web 2.0.

I am posting two Christmas Light Displays this year, to go along with this previous posting.

I was denied yesterday. There I was walking down the hall in my office building. I paused in front of the Vending Machine. There was a Big Texas Cinnamon Roll. It was in such a precarious situation. I would of received two for the price of one. It was barely hanging on. They were calling to me, "Curtis...Curtis...eat us..."

I pulled out my wallet, one dollar. Nice. I stuck it in, it gave it back to me. Denied. I stuck it in again, it gave it back to me. Denied. Shoot. Reached for some pocket change, I had none. Denied. So I found someone to donate some change to the cause. I would get two, I can split it. Put the coin in, nothing. It didn't drop through all the way. Put another in, nothing. Darn. I put the final quarter in, maybe it will knock them loose, it didn't. It ate all the quarters. Denied. Thats when I noticed the return change button was stuck. Thats why my dollar was getting rejected. The quarters were long gone, but I still have my dollar. I put it in, it took it. Sweet. F-8. "Please make another selection." Denied again.

I had a dream last night.

I was at this lady's house along with my brother and some other people I don't know. We were going to see a very sick girl. I didn't know her. She had an extremely rare disease. I'm not sure of the symptoms but she was very sensitive to outside contaminants. So we decided to go in and see her.

We were given a mask and a thermometer by her mother. The thermometer was promptly stuck in my arm. What better way to get someone's temperature than stick it inside their flesh? If the temperature rose above a certain point, we were required to vacate her room immediately. We were put into some sort of people move. While we were preparing to enter her room, we were given an information sheet. Her mom stole it from another person who also had a rare disorder. I guess she thought it was applicable here as well. It said something like this:

Bart has a very rare condition. To look upon him is not for the faint of heart. To say that he is grotesque is an understatement. Please remember that he is under extreme pain and has been that way for most of his life. He is neither a person nor many persons. His body parts come from others. In essence, he is a living modern day Frankenstein. This keeps him alive. He is fragile. Do NOT touch him. Do NOT get within 5 meters of him. Do NOT talk loudly. Do NOT be alarmed if he screams, cries, and moves in a jerky fashion. Do NOT be alarmed by the room. It can be alarming to see the numerous medical devices surround him. It is a clean and sterile environment. It is big. It is sparsely populated. Do NOT get in the way of his doctors and nurses. Do NOT cough or sneeze within a 30-meter radius of him. Do love him.

The girl we were going to see does not have this same condition. We can see the room from a distance. There is a window. It's bright around her bed. All that can be seen is her bed and a few medical monitoring devices. She is sitting up in her bed. I can barely make it out though, it is too far away. I do know that the room is huge, about the size of a regular house.

We sit in some sort of golf cart like contraption. It takes us through several sealed doors until we finally meet her.

She is not Frankenstein. She does not look grotesque. In fact, she appears to be a normal girl. Well, the way a normal girl would look like being in a hospital all her life. She looked to be about in her late twenties. Her hair was frazzled. She was friendly. Didn't appear to be in pain. I didn't know what was wrong with her. All I knew is that she was trapped in this room. She could not leave. Not until they found a cure.

We were talking. What about is not important. She started to walk away and she collapsed onto the floor. Out of nowhere a half dozen nurses and doctors came to her. They lifted her into her bed and proceeded to work on her. When this happened we started traveling back to our starting point. We were never allowed to leave our vehicle. Apparently this sort of thing happened all the time to her.