thoughts to blog

Maria,

p.s. btw, your hair looked gorgeous yesterday

hehehe

I just wanted to put up a quick post to explain my absence.

• If you haven’t seen me online


• If you’ve missed my wonderful blogging


• If you had no clue at all…

Greg and I have moved.

Here’s a look at the fat ass of the 26’ U-Haul truck we rented…

We won’t have internet in the new place until Monday, so just be patient…

(yes, I am quoting the Santana / Project G&B song)

Today on the 9, it seemed to be kind of grainy and pixelated over in Yahoo land…

The #2 spot definitely landed a good laugh. Go here and click on the Moo & Oink “Im a Stunna”

Oh well… I still got a good snapshot of the lovely Maria.

(Look at the grainy quality compared to my other pictures in yesterdays post, using the same settings)

And Raymond pointed out that she is a mere 8 days younger than I am.

Maybe my chances are even better that we’ll get married and have lots of kids…

I am not a stalker. I am not a stalker

In case you haven’t seen this yet… Maria Sansone is a host of a new video blog for Yahoo called The 9 (which oddly started on the 10th).

It’s pretty interesting… it’s kind of like VH1’s Web Junk 20 but EVERYDAY! Plus the host is WAYYYY more hot than that other dude.

Here’s a look at last week’s outfits… mmm

This week has brought us a few…

So I was watching today’s episode, when I skipped ahead to #5 and the video froze at this funny moment… the best part is is that it’s completely repeatable…

For such a hot chick, this face is hilarious.

Maria / Yahoo… I swear I’m not a stalker

Raymond and I were discussing a new idea today. It’s more than likely not new, as I have heard the general concept before… but implementation details came to my head that were too hard to pass up…

Human powered search engines.

Let’s face it, we’re the most intelligent things on this entire planet. Sure computers can search things super fast… but humans have that magic touch of reason that allows us to think like other humans and give more contextual, detailed information. Combine that with the power of computers and already existing search engines… and you got yourself a prize winning hog. From personal experience… people ask me questions all the time on MSN and what do I do? I intelligently manipulate google, check a few sites and give them the best one that I find quickly. Never fails!

Here’s the concept: Build a small application, that’s distributed and peer-to-peer, that sits on peoples desktops. Put this aside as I want to explain the rest of the process…

So Average Joe is sitting at his computer or even driving down the road… and he says to himself, “What would be the best book out there on how to become more womanly?” He does a quick search on google.com and like most people… he has no clue how to properly use google.com or the rest of the internet to find fast and accurate information.

Enter in micro payments… The concept is simple, make small payments for bits of content / merchandise / booty.

Mix this in with the application that I specified above. Create a website that allows people to sign up for accounts to get questions answered… and for people to answer the questions. Charge a small micropayment when a question gets answered. Take a very small percentage of the money for the company and pay the rest to the person who answers the question.

The application comes into play in how it distributes the questions and how people answer them.

• Make it a simple distributed application with popup alerts or queued alerts and a simple interface to quickly and efficiently interface with the customer.


• Make it optional.


• Make the payments enough to where a person could make a few extra bucks when they need it… and if they don’t know or don’t want to answer the question… who cares.


• Allow the question answerers to select categories of questions that they want to recieve and have a filter / monitoring system in place to ensure that people are getting the right answers.


• Maybe using a voting system and a customer feedback system.


• Absolutley essential abliity to ask/answer questions on the desktop, web, mobile, email, and SMS. But make it transparent.

This idea is perfect for everyone… College students can make a few extra bucks for beer. Lonely people can become wanted and needed. People find their information faster and more relevantly.

The price breakdown… Right now, one of the biggest competitors, Google Answers, is sitting on a >=$2.50 per question bite. If you get enough people doing this, distribute it far enough, and don’t have a super greedy business plan… you could probably get this down a bit and hit the market where people DON’T want to pay $2.50 for their frustrations. Take 50% for the company, 35% to the answerer, and 15% to charity. Obivously you have to find a point where you don’t have too many people answering but enough to keep the flow steady… response times down… and the costs of servers, bandwidth, development, etc. is low… Obviously a good choice would be Ruby on Rails server side with a Windows Smart Client on the client.

There it is… in all it’s glory. A pre-made business for anyone to take on.

It’s name: Good Call (www.goodcall.info is available)

I can’t believe I’m writing up a business plan online for anyone to steal and make a lot of money off of it. On good faith, I highly recommend that you don’t implement this yourself without asking me and Raymond for permission, making us board members, and giving us some sort of profit sharing plan (stock options work). Ohh.. and you HAVE to use the name we gave it. Ohh.. and since we’re developers, we’ll architect and build it for you.

(p.s. the (TM) in the title only ensures that I recognize that someone probably has a trademark out there for that phrase)

Just wanted to drop a quick note about stem cell research…

President Bush is expected to veto the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act which calls for more federal funding towards “controversial” stem cell research.

So what does our “I speak for the country” President have in store? A veto. Yup… even though the bill is expected to pass with flying colors through Congress, our President… who happens to think that God talks to him (and ironically enough, probably mispronounces nuclear as well)… will grind this to a halt, for the religious right.

What can you do to help? Tell your goverment!

The Defcon Campaign to Defend the Consitution is a group that defends the consitution against crazy people (read: the Religious Right). Sign up for an account and they will prepopulate messages that you can send to the senators and even the President! I got an automated response from him today when I gave him a piece of my mind!

Do you really want people who believe in mystical powers and large boats with tons of animals on it running our country? Didn’t think so…

Last night I finished reading jPod by Douglas Coupland (Amazon Link)… a hilarious take on the life of software developers inside of a corporate machine.

A story about Generation Xbox

A super fast read… with lots of humor. I actually found myself laughing outloud quite a few times during the novel. The book’s main character, Ethan, tells his crazy story (day to day) bringing in his impressionable, yet ferocious mother… his sissy, actor of a father… his whacky coworkers featuring a company slut and some characters that could be from Jackass, and a whole other hodge podge of people.

One of the main reasons I like this book is that its modeled after a real world company. Rumor has it that it’s EA. This book gave me a bunch of ideas on how to make life at work more fun… and also helped me lean away from my “use-to-be” ultimate dream of wanting to be a game developer.

Hilarious, a must-read.

For the lack of quality posting lately… I’ve decided to spill all the beans about my rollercoaster of a weekend instead of just a highlight reel that I normally post… It all started on Thursday evening after work…

The uphill climb

So our kickball championship tournament started on Thursday with our first game at 6:15pm. Ted H. and Phyliss decided to roll out to cheer Vish and me on. The first game was easy… we breezed through and probably put too much into the first game. We were excited to be seeded first and wanted to get pumped up. I made some sweet catches out in left field and was feeling really good…

Then came the second game.

The team was defensively tough… a lot tougher than what we were. They bunted the entire time and got a run in early. We held them through till the last inning at 1-0 (their lead). Then came the cliche baseball event. Bottom of the last inning. We were down 1-0. Two outs. The tieing run was on third and the winning run was on second. Who’s turn was it to bat? Mine. He pitched me two strikes and three balls (of course, I did say it was cliche)… and he softly rolled a perfect pitch down the middle. I had a clear gap between first and second into shallow right that would have put the two runs in easily… I stepped forward, threw my leg… and it popped up into shallow left, right into the hands of the left fielder. I was out… I fell to the ground, our fairy tale season was over..

So we went and drank and celebrated our loss…

Another fun part of the rollercoaster

Tom (a fellow kickballer) brought his roomie to the bar, who in turn, brought in some girls from the east coast… one of them being from Boston. Naturally, my charm kicked in and I spent most of the night conversing and having a good time with the ladies…So thanks goes out to Mary Jo, Dianne, and Molly for the good company.

Such good company, that… being the good Minnesotan that I am, I offered to hang out with Molly on Friday at the Mall of America. Since I had the day off and Mary Jo and Dianne were both working… I figured a girl from Boston might need some company. The night ended.. I got some numbers, had some beers… time to drive home.

This gets really personal right here. I know that what I’m about to write might lead some people to change opinions, judge me, or whatever but I don’t really care.

So on the way home, I had some fun and flipped off some guys in a car next to me that I knew. Apparently during that process the light had turned green and I hadn’t moved. Next thing you know, a cop pulls me over for “obstructing traffic”. Since I had been at the bar the cop insisted that I go through the field sobriety test. It was my first one ever and let me be the first to tell those who have never gone through it… it’s scary. I was shaking. I had to speak the alphabet from D to W. It was pouring rain so he didn’t make me walk or touch my nose… so he made me blow into the breathalizer. The legal limit here in Minnesota is 0.08. From the time of 8pm till 2am, I had 3 beers and 4 whiskey and cokes. I blew a .073, barely under. Should I have been driving? Most would say no… I would agree, but I was barely buzzing and I’m really not one to take risks about drinking and driving. Let’s just say that the even shaped the rest of my partying for the weekend.

Friday afternoon couldn’t come soon enough
It was awesome getting to know Molly. She’s a very attractive Chinese/Cambodien girl from Boston who’s getting her Masters in Software Engineering (wait, WHAT?) and loves Star Wars… Ok so I admit, I developed a small crush on her It was quite the treat having lunch, watching her shop, and getting to know her… hell, we spent 7 hours at the mall.

Friday night fun

Hit up Uptown again with Rachael, went to the usual bars. Had a good time. Did some dancing at Bar Abeline, whooped Rachael’s ass in pool and darts. I threw really well. Only had 2 drinks the whole night (read above). Good to go.

Saturday

Loungin… waited for the kickball party (started at 7pm). Read some news, got some Chipotle (my favorite), and wrote some code… wish the code had been for Project RIDE-ME but it was for my own internal project.

It was finally time to shower and get all GQ’ed up for the ladies. Headed downtown a little early so that I could stop by the new Hooter’s downtown. It was pretty decent, typical Hoooters. Cheap food (read: quality wise) that’s over priced. Hit up The Lodge for some really good music, free drinks (thanks to the Kickball league), and of course… super hot ladies. Molly was there… of course she was impressed by my dancing skills. They always are. :) But I have to give props to Katie, Kandace, Allison, Amy, Mary Jo, and a slew of other girls for looking HOT HOT HOT. I had to leave, it was getting very steamy in there…

A day of rest.

Sunday has been easy… some TV, code, reading, and just plain relaxing.

Next weekend should be fun as my two siblings and their significant others are coming up to play. This will mark the FIRST time in 2 years that family has come to visit. I mean, I consider Mick, Keya, Tim, Dawn, Kim, and of course Jackie to be family… but my immediate family. They should have a good time!

phew my wrists hurt! How were all of your weekends?

This may seem a little… shall we say shallow but I found it to be quite hilarious.

It’s a new take on CAPTCHA (proving your human on websites)… for comments, posts, and other types of account signup so that bots can’t spam or do things you don’t want them doing…

Hot Captcha (SFW)

There’s some humor for you today…

(hat tip: Mork)

So my heart dropped when I saw this picture come across Best Week Ever:

At least my attempt didn’t include Viagra, Mr. Limbaugh.

Finally! An answer to the burning question:

When will Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting come to Xbox Live Arcade?

The answer:

Summer of Arcade

Essentially they will release a new Live Arcade game every week on Wednesday… First up? Frogger

Here’s the schedule:

July 12 – Frogger

July 19 – Cloning Clyde

July 26 – Galaga

August 2 – Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting

August 9 – Pac-Man

YESSSSSSS

[Update 1] So I played Frogger… it’s very frustrating but fun! Not bad for 400 points… (roughly $5 USD)

I’m a huge fan of Bloglines…

I just now noticed that they have two relatively new features!

Bloglines Publisher Tools

Allows you to claim a blog and have more control over what Bloglines does with it. (ex. moving a feed and your readers!)

Bloglines Ping API

You can now ping Bloglines to say “Hey, I’ve got a new post!”

Sweet!

In case you haven’t heard, seen, or read… I got a new Motorola Q.

Everything is awesome with it so far.

Here’s my conundrum:

1. Phone has Bluetooth


2. I bought a Kensington USB 2.0 BT Dongle


3. I installed the latest drivers.


4. I installed Microsoft’s ActiveSync


5. I set everything up to sync over the bluetooth, paired the devices.


6. I tested a simple OBEX… worked perfectly.


7. But can I sync via Bluetooth? NOOOOOOPPPPE

What’s my real problem? Who do I call for support?

Microsoft? They produced ActiveSync, which works fine on my USB cable… just not my BT.

Motorola? The Q seems to pair and do normal BT services fine?

Kensington? The USB BT dongle works fine for OBEX and other profiles, just not ActiveSync?

Verizon? They gave me the phone…

Seems to me like I’m going to get caught up in a wild goose chase of support calls if I go after this. I might just have to try to exchange it or eat the $30 I paid for it.

:: shrugs ::

Update 1

Looks like Kensington was the first to respond.

Dear Jacob:
Thank you for contacting Kensington Technical Support.
I regret for the inconvenience caused to you.
I understand your concern. In this regard, I request you to contact the Microsoft 
technical support who would guide you 
further for the Active synch as we are not aware of third party devices.
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.
Regards,
Kensington Technical Support

Update 2

And second, with a good response… Verizon! The new contender came in with a response…

"We are eager to assist you with resolving your inability to ActiveSync via Bluetooth with your Motorola Q."

Update 3

Third… Motorola came back with… the standard level 1 support. Please make sure your device is on, your bluetooth is on, and the devices are paired. Then use ActiveSync to Connect to Bluetooth. Well no shit, that’s already what I’m trying to do. Bump up to level 2!

I’m sure you’ve all played Sudoku before… it’s addicting. Can’t escape it.

Whether you play it on your DS, your PC, or my new personal favorite… your smartphone.

So I tried searching for some great software to allow me to take advantage of the smartphone platform.

Enter Smoresoft Sudoku.

It has a snazzy interface (even goes full screen!). Easy number input, support for themes, and puzzle packs!

For all you Q users out there… make sure to hit the Number Input button twice to put it into ALT mode.

p.s. I’m pissed, I bought a Kensignton Bluetooth adapter for my phone, can’t get it to work, found ONE post out there saying it won’t work… Now what?

I know this has been floating in the blogosphere for months, but everytime I hear this song in iTunes, I smile.

Jonathan Coulton - Code Monkey

My favorite verse is the first one:

Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting
With boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very dilligent
But his output stink
His code not “functional” or “elegant”
What do Code Monkey think?
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself
Code Monkey not say it out loud
Code Monkey not crazy, just proud

Go buy the song!

Yeah I know… you’re jealous of my 5 day weekend. It happens :) And yes, I admit… it’s 12:30 PM and I’m buzzing.

Here’s a recap of what happened.

Friday

• Saw On Madeline’s Heels at the Garage


• Tom Johnson came up to visit…


• Hit up 8 bars with Tom and Ted H., mission accomplished to get Tom drunk.

Saturday

• Bought a Motorola Q… huge update from a 4 year old Nokia 3650


• Spent the day chilling


• Had some excellent sea food at Stella’s


• Finished the night with a small house party, props to BigMac

Sunday

• Hit up the MoA


• Rested


• Played some Halo 2 with Leonard. LEONARD!

Monday

• Slept in.


• Went down to the Taste of MN to see Soul Asylum


• Came back to good old Chanhassen and saw an awesome band and got some good cheap beer! Toasted. It’s always a blast during the Chanhassen 4th of July party!

Tuesday

• Got some good food, drank some beer.


• 2:30 PM… nice little parade, with some beer.


• Relax the rest of the day! Fireworks at night.

Excellent time… need some more sleep. Catch up with you guys later.

Sometimes you have to go back to your roots…

For those of us who remember whoisjake.com/blog… I give you JaG (with her permission of course)