Mindful Musings

Is it just me or are movie theatres turning on the volume recently? Jennifer and I, along with my parents and a bunch of other people went to see Shrek 2 last night. The theatre was relatively empty (which might have added to the loudness) but we sat down in about the center of the theatre. The first few ads were incredibly loud. I do not like loud noises and tend to get panic attacks. It almost felt like I was getting one (at Shrek, nonetheless!!) Once the movie started, either they reduced the volume or the movie itself was more condusive to softer noises, but I settled down for a little. It did, however, take away from my movie experience. I wonder if this is a problem that a lot of other people face? Am I just one in the crowd?

PS: Shrek 2 is a relatively fun movie. I think the addition of contemporary imagery reduced the appeal of the movie a little, but I give it an 8

My personal life is in such limbo that I am completely blogged out. I am waiting for things to happen, frisky while they do not and generally listless. I might be going through male PMS. (weird and annoying, I know)

But in the meantime, I have this really nice peice of hardware that I want to blog about. I purchased a Sound Blaster MP3+ which I think is very cool. I was getting sick of having to use my splitter when I wanted to listen to MP3s on my computer and the sound quality from my computer was less than perfect. This device is quite inexpensive ($40 at Best Buy) and produces very nice sound. There are a couple of 3D features along with sound tweaks which I really like. I love being able to tweak the equalizer according to “small room” or “auditorium”. That by itself is very nice. Plus, there is a volume control on the unit and it has digital inputs (fiber). This is a very nice addition overall. The only issue is that it has a USB connection. I own a nice USB hub and thus have lots of USB ports. Strong overall sound card.

I (we?) need some ideas for plugins and hacks for WordPress 1.2 There is already an excellent requests page on the wiki which lists some of these. If you have something specific in mind for WordPress (except for multiple blogs) please leave a comment and I will add it to the list on the wiki. I know a couple of people have been looking for “stuff to do” with WordPress and this will satisfy both parties.

Jennifer is scheduled to come back to Toledo today. It has been a long six days. I have spent most of it looking for a job. I am picking up Jennifer’s friends from Detroit airport early this morning and then dropping them off at Jennifer’s house. Cant wait to see her again!
I have been in a sort of funk lately. When I had first started searching for jobs, I had been warned of possible changes in mood and attitude with each rejection and flirtation with possibilities in my job search. That is oh so true. This is a subject that I believe I will have to explore further.
A small set of vacation plans for myself might be in order.

Josh Baltzell, a local Toledo Blogger had the wonderful idea of having a “Geek Meet-Up” for this area. I believe that this would be a great way to meet our fellow bloggers, know who we are, network amongst ourselves and get some momentum going for the bloggers in this area. If you are interested, please leave a comment or email me and I will put you on the list. A tentative date has not been set, but that should be easy enough to put together.

See y’all there!

I have upgraded this blog to WordPress 1.2. The theme of this blog is very similar to a Movable Type blog and is meant to be that way. I wanted to debunk the myth of WordPress design. This blog is an extremely customized version of the original WordPress codebase and contains a bunch of plugins. Mose of these are very simple to install, have been coded by me and will show up in the next WuhWuh. This is more of a launchpad for that process.
Some of the plugins in this version include:

• Wiki Plugin
• Asides
• Most popular Posts & Post counter
• Waypath
• wp-stats from Jesuit
• Comment Preview form
• Google Pagerank strippper
• Technorati Link Cosmos
• Threaded Comments
• Redone narchives.php
• Redone BreadCrumbs navigation

Over and above my plugins, I had a very inclusive WordPress install which already gave me the following new features:

• Sub-categories: Categories can be arranged hierarchically and infinitely deep. Multiple categories combined with sub-categories gives WordPress the most comprehensive taxonomy system of any blogging software available.

* OPML Export and Import: You can import and export OPML to systems like Bloglines or desktop aggregators like NetNewsWire and FeedDemon. * Automatic Thumbnail Creation System: WordPress has a refined upload feature that automatically creates thumbnails any size you want. * Encyrpted passwords and cookies: All passwords in the database and password cookies are encrypted, ensuring maximal security. * New plugin architecture: The new plugin architecture simplifies modifying or extending WordPress’ features. Plugins can now hook into nearly every action WordPress does. * Localization of WordPress and Unicode support: The efforts put into internationalizing WordPress have borne fruit, and now you can adapt WordPRess to work in your native language. Several translations are already available. * Advanced comment moderation: You can now fine-tune your moderation filters in a manner very similar to blacklists for other weblog tools. There is also mass-editing of comments, which makes it a snap to delete hundreds of comments with the click of a button, if necessary. * Post preview: Near-instant previews while writing or editing articles help you proofread and make improvements before finally presenting your work of art to the world. * RSS and LiveJournal Importers: The new RSS import script is the closest thing to an universal importer. It allows you to import entries from Radio weblogs even other blogging tools that we may not support specifically. The LiveJournal importer finally lets you have a full blooded self-hosted weblog without losing all your old LiveJournal posts. * Unlimited update services: Now you can define multiple weblog change monitoring services to be pinged when you post. * Directory flexbility: Now you can have all the WordPress files in one directory and the weblog in a higher level directory.

There is still a little more work to be done, but I am very pleased with the result. What do you think?

This is going to be another sappy post.

Jennifer left this morning for the Bermudas with her mother who is going on a business trip and is allowed to take one family member. She is going to be gone till Thursday. I can easily live without her for one or two days and it does not bother me at all. As a matter of fact, one of two days without her now and then is very welcomed. I get a lot done and it is refreshing.

Six days is wayyyy too long! I am going to miss her. Her craziness, her shopping, her cheery banter, her wonderful personality, her friendship, her care for me and most of all, her warm hugs. Think I might be in love?

Watching a fair amount of the Food Network while I am unemployed (and cooking all the time) has led me to ask a very intriguing question. Who are these travelling, roaming food critics? What did they do before they became food critics? What school did they go to? Did they do anything special to get these jobs, travelling to exotic destinations, eating gourmet treats?

Me wants those jobs!!

This has been a very weird week. My shoulder/neck still hurts like mad. The job market is still in major suckage. Jennifer is working three 12 hour shifts and is just a ball of tension and irritation. Im getting tired of doing nothing.

That said, it has been a really nice week. My parents are having a great time here with Jennifer and I. They love Daisy (Jennifer’s dog) and they just love to be with us. The food is good as well.

I have gotten some code done for the new WordPress 1.2 including a Google redirector, comment preview and a Waypath plugin. The next step is to revamp Pictorialis to 1.2 when it comes out along with the required plugins, including pictPress.

And thanks to all the people that wished me health. warm fuzzies

I seem to have hurt my neck and shoulders really bad and am out of commission for a few days. It hurts to do nothing, let alone type. So if you have sent me email in the last day or so or wanted me to code something for you, the answer will definitely be very delayed. However, I am accustomed to bearing pain and should be back in the running soon.

This must be old news for most Indians (from India that is) but Sonia Gandhi is set to be the new Prime Minister of India. Sonia Gandhi is the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, arguably the greatest leader India has had in the recent past. Rajiv’s mother was Indira Gandhi who was also a very repected prime minister of India. Her father was Jawaharlal Nehru. He was a freedom fighter (from the British) and was the first prime minister of free (and seperated) India. So the Gandhi family has a bit of a legacy in leading the country. However, that is not what is surprising or incredible.

Sonia Gandhi was born in Italy and only came to India in her late teens (I might be wrong about that age, but she met Rajiv in Cambridge, fell in love, married him, moved to India, and then became a citizen). That is what has been bothering me and encouraging me at the same time. India, consisting of a large number of uneducated and simple folk, have wholeheartedly accepted and voted to make this wonderful woman our leader. What an inclusive (there might be other emotions involved, but I tend to look past that) gesture!

The heart warming thing is that Italians actually celebrated this victory of an Indian political party and then celebrated Sonia Gandhi. There are a lot of hopes, dreams, expectations and political aspirations involved in this move, but the humanity of this event makes me proud to say that my roots are from that country!

I have refrained from making any suggestions so far, but I have to promote WordPress. If you are a Moveable Type user and are unhappy with the recent developments, please take a look at WordPress.

I will not tell you that you should do it because all the “cool bloggers” are doing it, but because the transition will be worth it. WordPress makes it very easy to import your old MT entries and the support forums and the IRC channels are hopping. In addition, the features list keeps growing, a new version 1.2 is around the corner and development is very, very active. There are some very good resources available on the web to make this transition.

More info about the move from Movable type to WordPress

Redirecting MT URIs

More ways to redirect MT URIs

Even more ways to redirect MT URIs

A comparison of MT and WordPress (older comparison, I should redo this)

More links as and when I find them. Let me know if I can help in any way.

I normally do not get bogged down by the “find out more about yourself” set of quizzes and webpages, but I was recently taken aback by some reviews and suggestions for an online dating site. I am talking about eHarmony.com.
I really did not want to sign up for a matchmaking site when I have such a wonderful girlfriend, but I wanted to find out the secret to their success. Once you sign up for their trail or whatever, they give you a very long set of questions to answer which are very well designed and really delve into your personality. Here is my suggestion.

If you are single, just jump in and do your thing. Once you do find someone (or you dont) let me know.

If you are already spoken for, sign up for the stupid account, finish your lengthy profile (take your time, it is long, very very detailed, and since you are not trying to impress anyone but yourself, be painfully honest) and then read through and record their observations of your esponses. Then ask your spouse/significant other to do the same. My conjecture is that you will find out things about each other that will help you tremendously in your relationship. Without being sappy, it will enrich your experience with your significant other.

The whole experience reminded me of reading “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”, only the whole book was about me this time, and my own needs, expectations and what I SHOULD be doing for other people. It was extremely instrospective.

New pictures posted in the gallery of Jennifer’s graduation and my recent trip to Wooster with Jennifer.
http://mindfulmusings.net/gallery/jengraduation

A very good friend of mine thought this was appropriate for our friendship and I really wanted to share this with everyone. It makes a lot of sense to me.
Are you tired of all those mushy friendship poems that always sound good but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that really speaks to true friendship!

1. When you are sad, I will get you drunk and will help you plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue, I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile, I will know you finally got laid and give you a high five.

4. When you are scared, I will rag you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried, I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to quit whining.

6. When you are confused, I will use small words and draw pictures to explain.

7. When you are sick, stay the hell away from me until you’re well again. I don’t want whatever you have.

8. When you fall, I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

This is my oath, I pledge ‘til the end. Why, you may ask? Because you’re my friend!

modified Send this link to ten of your closest friends and get depressed because you can only think of two, and one of them is not speaking to you right now anyway.

Remember: A friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body. Let me know if I ever need to bring a shovel.

Following in the footsteps of many other technical sites published by programmers, I want to go through, list and thank the developers of the tools that I use to blog and code. I use all of these tools at one time or the other and believe that they give me great power in what I do.

Text editor – TextPad:
I use TextPad exclusively. I have actually paid the shareware price for it because I believe that this product is a gem. It has plug-ins for almost every kind of code, jas keyword highlighting built into it and has never, ever caused my system to crash (knock on wood). It is free for use and has a very simple plug-in development structure. It is fast, has a very small footprint and DOES NOT put in hidden characters of death. I also use it for all of my windows based text editing in PERL, ASP, C/C++ etc. I love TextPad. Check it out sometime.

Browser – Mozilla FireFox Nightlies:
I do all of my regular browsing, testing and reading in FireFox. I had used the release version of FireFox before getting tired of some of the bugs and decided to turn to the nightlies. I have been pleasantly surprised with every download of a new nightly. These browsers are fast, is always in active development and are stable for the most part. The best feature of FireFox is the lack of browser highjacks by stupid ad sites. If you havent used FF yet, you are missing out on your Internet experience.

SSH - Putty:
Putty is a full featured SSH/telnet client that is extremely configurable and is very reliable. I have been using it for almost as long as I have been involved with UNIX based systems and would not consider using anything else. It is also completely free and you can setup profiles for various servers. Again, a tool I cannot imagine life without.

IRC - XChat:
I use XChat for my IRC conversations. Till recently, I was a little unsure about XChat and still see some problems with the DCC code, but I continue to use it.

Email – Outlook:
I use Outlook exclusively for all of my email stuff. I have used other clients in the past but Outlook far surpasses any other email client in my opinion. I have been hearing really good things about the new Mozilla client, but the myth lives up to its name. “If you are extremely happy with your existing program, you will not switch.” I use an external SPAM filter which I talk about later, but Outlook provides for easy reading, easy organization and has all the bells and whistles that I need. I especially love the reading pane and the ability to view all email as plain text. It wins in my book.

SPAM filter: SpamBayes
I have been writing Spam filters and researching filtering technology for a while and SpamBayes is one of the best. I use the Outlook plugin and after about a week of training (I have been using it for over 9 months), I have ZERO spam. It is powerful, written in python, and it works. Period. To top it off, it is free!!

Computer(s):
I have always built my own systems and continue to use them. I own 5 machines at this time. I have an Athlon 1.7 which is my desktop and main machine and runs Windows XP. My server runs RedHat 9 (soon to be migrated to Debian) and is an Athlon 1 GHz, I own a 400 MHz Blue and White G3 running OS 10.2, a Celeron laptop from Toshiba running XP and an Ultra 1 running Solaris 9. All of my machines are old and they serve me well. I would like to get a fast machine as a replacement for my desktop sometime in the next year, but unless something breaks, it might not happen.

Monitors:
I own three 21” Hitachi and Sun monitors which are all used and have either been free to me or have been bought used at some computer fair. I love them all and could not go back to a smaller monitor. I have a KVM switch for each of the monitors so I can put two computer per monitor (almost).

Camera(s):
I own three camera. The first is a simple digital Kodak DC300 which cost me fifty bucks at Wal Mart. It was nice for the time. The second is my venerable Nikon D70 which is probably the most expensive electronic equipment I own. I learn new things about photography and about that camera everyday. It is a gem! I also own a Minolta Maxum HTSI Plus which is a 35mm camera and is a workhorse. It is inexpensive and takes great pictures.

IDE:
I use VC++ 6.0 and .NET for all of my C++ and .NET development. Period.

I use various other little peices of software now and then. That list includes post-it notes lite, Photoshop, PaintShop Pro 8, file renamers, text searchers within files etc.

So here is my list. What is yours?