SuperWonderBang

Let the users create Citysearch

I noticed that this article on CNN had a really unfortunate ad next to it. The bad part here is that the ad by itself is pretty bad. Paired with this article, it just makes you a little nauseous.

Here’s a shot of the full ad:

Technorati Tags: cnn, oops, bad ads

I’m certain that something or someone is testing me. The last two days have had me face two very similar moral quandaries.

Yesterday, at the grocery store, the automatic self scanner machine gave me back the wrong change. It owed me $4, but instead gave me 3 ones and a 10. So, instead of $4, I had $13. I paused for a minute wondering what I was going to do. Should I give it back? Has anyone seen me? A very typical question to be asked of me. I turned to the cashier there and told her that I had been given the wrong change. She was amazed that someone would fess up to it. I traded her the ten for a one and went on my way.

Tonight, the same thing happened at the Hardees’s. Thickburgers are awesome by the way. The guy gave me too much change and I let him know.

I understand this is not earth-shattering, but it’s happened twice in less than 24 hours. That seems a little much considering it hasn’t happened in many months.

I think I passed, but I guess I won’t ever know. Maybe one of those folks I was honest with will be inspired to be the same way, on and on. Maybe they’ll call me a sucker and kick a puppy.

This is a rough draft of an idea I have had for a while. The Gomez/Gatti fight tonight finally inspired me to get it down. It needs work, but I thought I would share it. I might try to work something up to be a short story with a similar idea.

Gloves Off
July 2007

Jab. Jab. Right cross.
Gomez swings and punishes Gatti
For the glory. Ultra slow-motion
Captures brutality in crystal clarity.
A century ago, it was only blurs in an ashcan.

I’ve called my father and given him the heads-up.
I see him in that underwater squiggle
Making feints and small swings. His own
Miniature fight taking place in the
Livingroom of a house, close with the
Summer heat.

We both watch the weight of history fill
Gomez’s gloves. The mass of each blow
Shriveling the warrior, Gatti. It is a
Shared moment of violence
Crossing hundreds of miles in the time
Between the bell and the blood.

I used to hate boxing. I laughed at my
Father’s intense and rapt attention to
Foreman and Tyson crawling out of
Poverty through the ring. An alpha and omega
Of success.

Now. I am the one who makes sure to be
Around the TV. Now. I am the one who
Pesters him with the Question of the
Best “pound-for-pound.” We have found a
Commonality, or I have found it.
Moments conceived in sweat and exhaustion
Become family memories.

Could be that I am older, aware of the
Brutality of the world. Maybe now I know
How hard it has been for him. Maybe you
Have to take a punch to understand.

The bell rings and the round ends. The judges
Make their decision. My father and I stand
Together in awe as the decision comes
Down.

Technorati Tags: poetry, boxing, family

Last night, I went over to my buddy Justin’s house and we played through most of the Wii Sports games. Even my wife got into it, though she’s usually not much for video games. It probably didn’t hurt that she was striking me out right and left in Baseball and beat Justin in golf. We had a good time around the machine. It certainly made for conversation and excitement. I guess the commercials are pretty straight on.

With Guitar Hero, the Wii, and all this stuff On Demand, I seldom make time to write. I shared a story recently with a friend of mine. His response was extremely positive. That, in addition to some interesting new ideas, has really gotten my writing jones kicking up. I just need to make the time.

Speaking of time, several folks at work are instituting the GTD way of doing things. I normally poo-poo these organizational “religions,” but folks are having success with this. It might the thing that helps me set aside time to write. My goal is to have something published in the next year. Obviously, doing that with a novel is a huge challenge, but a short story is not completely out of the realm of possibility. I have one right now that I think is publish-worthy and another that needs a rewrite to get there. A few more complete stories and the odds are good that some literary journal might publish one.

Technorati Tags: writing, guitar hero, wii, gtd, time, publishing

Dave gave me an update about some things going on behind the scenes at BarCamp Nashville. It’s very exciting.

There’s lots of interest from people in interesting places in the technology nebula. He’s working on some great guest speakers and some really cool sponsors. In addition, Dean is making sure we have some rocking live music to entertain us.

Our next meetup looks to have about double the people involved and that’s just folks wanting to help organize the thing. That bodes well for actual attendance. I hope you’ll consider joining us. I’ll try to keep this blog up to date with the latest news, unless Dave tries to suppress my fourth estate freedoms

Technorati Tags: barcamp, barcamp nashville, nashville

I received my invite this morning and got all signed up on Pownce. I haven’t done anything with it yet, so my profile is pretty bare.

We’ll see if I stick to this more than I did Twitter.

Technorati Tags: pownce, twitter

I was sick on the 4th of July. No great big deal as I’m not a huge celebrator of holidays, but I was sick the next day, too, which meant I had to work from home. It seems like things are more hectic when I work from home, than if I am at the office. That’s odd to me.

To make me feel a little better, my wife bought me Guitar Hero II for our Xbox 360. I ended up playing until my hands were cramping. I’ve done the same thing tonight and writing this post is much more difficult than it should be. To that end, I’ve been reading up on the possibilities for secure RSS feeds.

We are looking at using RSS feeds at work, not just for basic public information, but for account-specific work as well. It seems that the jury is still out on RSS in the enterprise. Much of it is focused on letting employees access enterprise data. There is little information out there regarding a user of a service authenticating and receiving data in a feed based on who he or she is while also encrypting that data via SSL/TSL.

Most solutions munge some combination of HTTP basic authentication or LDAP or propriety authentication with the industry standard SSL over HTTP. This doesn’t do much if the feed also needs to indicate to the system what data it should return. So, that’s like three levels of interaction.

In addition, we are wanting some of the feed data to be available when the application is not. Things like maintenance feeds or outage updates. These feeds are more “public” in nature but need not rely on our app or database to be accessible to function correctly.

I’ve looked at some offerings from Worklight, Newsgator, Attensa, and KnowNow. I don’t have a good feel yet for which of the products can actually do what I need. In the end, I suspect I will be rolling my own because of some thorny business needs for which these products don’t seem to have built-in answers.

Technorati Tags: rss, enterprise rss, worklight, newsgator, attensa, knownow, secure rss, guitar hero, xbox 360

Write AIR easily with Aptana

With Bush’s recent commutation of the jail part of Scooter Libby’s sentence, one would hope Americans would once and for all see that this power-mad bully has finally destroyed any sense of legitimacy he may have had left.

Bush’s behavior is that of the sycophant who finally is able to grasp the reins of power. At that point, this putrid person gives all his cronies free passes for whatever transgressions they may have committed during that climb to the top. Additionally, it must be clear to nearly any thinking American that Libby was simply thrown under the bus by the Bush administration with the firm knowledge that Bush is above the law and would be able to pardon him of any punishment he might receive.

Sure, there is no pardon yet, but the only punishments  Libby will receive are that of a $250,000 fine and some probation time. One can only guess where that $250,000 is going to come from. I would to see the paper trail on the funds behind that check. Let’s not forget that Libby has gotten rich as the benefactor of Bush’s inner sanctum. So, he gives a little back. Who’s counting?

This is just one more example of George Bush and his administration making themselves above the law. Add to this Dick Cheney’s asinine assertion that the Vice President is not part of the Executive Branch while out of the other side of his mouth, he claims executive privilege over any documents that might give us a glimpse of the criminal activities being perpetrated in the White House.

We can’t wait until 2008. We must impeach Bush now!