Intenet Explorer vs. Homeland Security

Apparently The Department of Homeland Security thinks that Internet Explorer is a security risk.
Here is the whole story

Monday of a Tuesday

So after a very bad week last week, my Beautiful Wife did here best to make me feel better and to forget about it. We had a great weekend. Went for a lovely drive up the coast and spend time just holding each others hand. I felt rested and better about things in general. Then I made the mistake of coming into work. And things were just as bad as last week and getting worse by the minute. So here at work they have successfully transformed me from Sr. Web Developer to a Text Monkey

3 things I learned on my Ride today

So I went for a bike ride tonight. I made 7.6 miles. Which is showing improvement. It's funny the difference between starting over at 30 over ride everyday when you are in your late teens. 8 miles use to be my short rides and I use to pull bigger gears, and had a higher cadence. Well at least I am riding again. So I learned three things on my ride tonight.

• Someone is always mowing their lawn. So if you are an asthmatic allergic to grass, have your inhaler in your seat bag.
• Always carry a second water bottle with you.
• Fellow cyclist well always wave back, unless its a guy riding a Colnago C50, that he mortgaged his house to get and his wife is still mad at him.

Everybody's working for the weekend

Well, I haven't posted much lately. Work has kept me too busy. But I am happy to announce that for the most part the CMS is launched and in production. There are still some bugs to workout and that is expected. No project is ever perfect right out the gate, there are always some tweaks to be made. Now that it is live and people are required to use it, they are asking how to do their work. So we will do some more training. A little (very) frustrating but what can you do. Well now we have a three day weekend ahead of us and I can really use it. I am on the fringes of burnout, so I really need a good rest and to get way from the stresses of work. The other thing that I need to work on is saying "no". People have their job for a reason, it's so that they can do their work. Not for me to do their work. The problem is that is faster for me to do the task then to explain how they should do it.

Issue with Netscape

So we are a day from launching our CMS, and I think, hey I need to check it in Netscape 4.7. I hadn't yet, and thought it would be a good idea. What happens, the whole site in Netscape is all blown out. Now I had been checking it in Netscape 7.1 and Mozilla. So two days of searching day and night for the problem and 2 minutes to fix once it was found. My Beautiful Wife figured it out. It was an issue with the CSS. Basically a TAG element for TD had line-height:17px. Well IE and Netscape 7.1 ignored this and rendered the pages correctly. Now, would you like to be even more impressed? My Beautiful Wife didn't look at the code, she just looked at the Netscape 4.7 page blown up and said, have you checked the CSS. I thought I did, but it wasn't tell I was going over the html code line by line that I saw the CSS and switched from the new CSS to the old one. I switched it and the page work perfect!

Thank you Sweetness, You are my coding Hero!

Early Saturday morning ride.

Well, I got up this morning (despite not really wanting to) and got myself ready and went for a ride. I rode just about 7 miles today. The route had some small hills, but being as out of shape as I am they felt like the alps. I am sure to USPS team they would of felt like pedaling up the drive way. But I did make it, and only stop to rest at stop lights (which feel way to short). I did learn something very important this morning. I need to get up earlier! Why, because apparently by 6:50am Saturday mornings, people (lots of them) are already out mowing their yards. So trying to ride back into shape, and being a asthmatic, allergic to grass, this combination didn't quite work out well for me. I think that is why I kind of bonked at mile 5. But I wouldn't get off the bike, I know that if I did my asthma would get the best of me and I wouldn't finish the ride. And after the flat tire the weekend before last, I wanted to finish a ride.

Logo for the blog

The other day I was goofing around in Adobe Illustrator, so I thought that I would take ten minutes (8 minutes 27 seconds, but whos counting) and come up with a logo for Adventures in Real life. Of course I was stuck on a coding issue, so that was at the forefront of my thoughts when I started the design. The other influence was the cool little lego guy icon that Channel 9 is using. Let me know what you think.

Deadlines and Approvals

We just made our deadline. It took way to many nights working in to the wee hours of the morning. So tomorrow we will have a soft launch and next week we will have the full blown launch. It's been mentally and physically exhausting. So you would think that I would be proud, right? Not so much. I am glad it is over. It is one of those projects that change how things are done for the better. However those are the projects that take the most energy to get done. Not only do you have to get the work done, (Which was huge effort) but you also have to change the way that people think about how they do their job. That is really the difficult part. People think you are taking some freedom away from them. Which in part is true, but you are giving them time back. This project in essense took the technical part out of the equation, leaving just the creative part. So anyhow it is done. I am glad! Now I just want to get my my pajamas and watch some movies.

The other thing that happened today is we got approval on a project that we have been wanting to do for two years. After so much work just to get an approval, it feels like a victory. And in truth it is just the begining. Going to have to take a vacation soon.

The Browser Wars

Well it seems that the War of the Internet Browsers has started again. I know that some people would say that it never ended. While I admit that is true, the fighting wasn't as fast and furious as it is starting to get now. So what has changed to make this happen? A couple things, Mozilla/Netscape have had a couple of big leaps forward in their browser. Netscape 7.2/Mozilla Firefox 0.9 has been released and has been warmly received. It's a great browser, I love some of the features it has, such as tabbed windows. Which lets you have one window up with different web pages in each tab. This is such a desktop space saver that it has been adopted very quickly, by everyone but Microsoft. Of course those that Love Microsoft Internet Explorer, and want tabs can use MyIE2. It's a nice IE based browser that uses tabs. If your use to using keyboard shortcuts when you are browsing, you are going to have to relearn them for this browser.

So what is the fighting about? It's about standards of course. Mozilla has worked harded to be very standard compliant with the latest HTML, XHTML, CSS specifications from the W3C. And of course Microsoft's still in development version of IE has, supposedly taken some liberties with the specifications. This is a lot of talk on Channel 9 about this. Web Developers are asking the Microsoft team if they even care about them and their needs.

Walmart the Retail version of a Casino

Yesterday Morning I was up way to early. So I figured since I was up that I would go run some errands. One of them was to pick up a couple things at Wal-Mart. Like I said it was pretty early, in fact it was still dark outside. The Wal-Mart we go to is open 24 hrs. So when I walked it, you could smell the in store McDonalds getting ready for the breakfast crowd. You could see the stockers filling up the shelves and it hit me. Wal-Mart is the Retail version of a Casino. I looked around and didn't see any clocks on the walls. I walked a little farther into the store and noticed that from the lighting you couldn't tell if it was day or night. The more I thought about it, the more similarities I saw. It got me to thinking, now I know that casinos will play music that has subliminal messages in it that says "lose, lose, lose". I wonder if the music they play in Wal-Mart has subliminal messages saying "spend, spend, spend".

First Ride to the Park

Yesterday the Little Boy and I had our first bike ride to the park. We had a couple of things to do before we could ride. I needed a tube for my bike, and we both needed a helmet. So we headed off to Wally-World (walmart) and picked ourselves out a couple of nice helmets. When I was a kid, we never wore helmets. We just didn't even think of it. However in California there is a law that was passed a couple years ago that says, 'if your under 18 years of age, you are wearing a helmet'. Of course, I have to have one too, I need to be a good example to the Little Boy. So now with helmets in hand we head to the bike shop to get my tubes.

So we get to the bike shop, locate the tubes, now business is taken care, of and the Little Boy and I can peruse the shop. Instantly we are magnetically attracted to some very nice bikes in our sizes. The one the little boy likes is a very nice aluminum trike, and I pick a very nice aluminum bike. After ten minutes of looking and wanting, and the Little Boy trying to take a test ride on the one he had picked out we decided that it would be financially responsible of us to pay for our parts and go. On the way out we see the new Trek Medone, which is the bike Lance Armstrong will be riding in the Tour de France. So I am looking up at it in awe, and the Little Boy reaches out and spins the rear wheel (Gasp) and he says "Cool!". That rear wheel cost more then both of our bikes combined. It made me laugh, I would of never reached out and spin the wheel, I knew how much it cost. He doesn't know dollar signs. So one wheel is just as good as another. And he was right, it was cool! On the way to the front a salesman asked us if we needed any help. I said, "I need to get my stuff and go before I buy something big and my wife divorces me", to which he said, "hey, stay awhile". Anyhow we got our stuff and headed for home.

Once we are home we get to work on changing out my tube and getting our new helmets fitted and adjusted. Everything it working good, everyone is safe, so we are off. The goal is to make it to the park and back. The park is about five blocks from the house on very residental streets. So here is how it played out. My plan was to keep The Little Boy between me and the curb. I would act as the buffer between him and any traffic that we may happen upon. He would start to pedal, so I would get in the pedals (my bike has toe-clips, I am so glad I didn't go with clipless, it would of killed me on this ride), then he would pedal about 20 feet, and the stop and make the "errrt" stopping noise when he was stopping. We did this no less then 15 times. This is when we (me) came up with our riding matra, "Pedal, Pedal, Pedaallll". Now this isn't to be said loud in an unkind fashion. It must be chanted in a comical tone to receive the desired results. Which is the Little Boy pedaling further than 20 feet before stopping. So about 10 to 15 minutes after we started we got to the park. Granted when I walk to the park it takes 5 minutes, but it was a victory none the less.

Now that we made it to the park we would ride around a little. Our park has a very nice paved path that is just perfect for kids to ride their bikes around. We made about 4 loops. After each loop we would stop at a picnic table and have a drink from my water bottle. I showed the Little Boy how it works, and it just tickled him. I am going to have to get him one for his very own. (especially if Cheetos are involved in the snacking process). After our 4th victory lap around the park My Beautiful Wife pulls up and tells us about a yard sale just a couple of house down. So she parks in front of the house, and gets out, and Calls to the Little Boy, and I right there next to him chatting our matra got him to ride not stop to her. Which was almost 200 feet away from the park. Sure I only had to pedal four times, but it was four good ones and I was proud. We looked at the yard sale for a little bit, and then decided (it was lunch time, our tummies decided) it was time to go home and get something to eat.

The Little Boy was really pumped up for the ride home. He looked and me and said, "Let's ride fast". With the pace that we had going to the park, I took this to mean lets go 40 feet before we hit the brakes and make the "errrrt" sound. However to my surprise he pedaled a good two blocks before needing a little rest. Once rested he said, "Let's ride fast", to which I replied "I will ride as fast as you can go". And he would pedal (I would let off the brakes and coast) for a good little bit, and then need little rest. Lets face it, it is tough when you are little to pedal or walk any distance with out a little rest.  Anyhow we turned on to our street, and the Little Boy was just about done. With a lot of coaxing we got to the house. The poor Little guy didn't have the strength to pedal up the driveway. So I go off and helped push him up and in. He got off, sweating, and panting, ready for some rest. I got off, mentally more tired than any ride I had ever been on, but didn't even get winded. All and All one of the best rides I've ever been on.

Microsoft to Sell Anti-Virus Software

An article from Rueters is claiming that Microsoft will start developing their own AV (anti-virus) software. Microsoft is saying that their anti-virus program will be sold as a separate piece of software their operating systems. This is another step towards the "Trustworthy Computing" campaign that they started in 2002.

I have several thoughts about this subject. First virus creation is at an all time high, and they are spreading across the internet faster and faster everyday. It makes sense that the AV and Patch management become a more intergral part of the OS (Operating System). Not just Microsoft's Operating Systems, but all of them, Apple, Linux, freeBSD, all of them. Anti-virus will be just as important as disk management and memory management. I person doesn't have to know how a mouse or keyboard work to use them, the same thing goes with AV.

Lets just say hypothetically that Microsoft is successful in securing all of their Operating Systems and users. (I know this is really a stretch, but lets just go with it) The virus writers will turn their attention to the other Operating Systems. While the users of non-microsoft OSs are usually more technical, it is still a lot of work to keep a workstation, patched and the virus definitions up today. Truthfully, why should we have to spend time everyday updating our machines? It seems to me that technology is far enough along that all operating systems to a certain extent should be self-healing. Currently IBM server running AIX claim this, but isn't this need more on the desktop arena than in the server room?

Now lets go back to the 95% of the computer population that is running a Microsoft operating systems. Most of these people are office or home users. They use their machines for spreadsheets, documents and email. These are the people that are at a higher risk. These are the people that need to have a machine that updates itself, and auto-hides emails that could be viruses. Shouldn't these be the systems that are self-healing?

There is another barrier to AV protection that is usually over looked are inital and ongoing costs. When people buy a new computer, they usually get McAffe, or Norton loaded and ready to go with a 90 day subscription. Of course 90 days go by and the users forgets to purchase the subscription or can't afford it. So now there are machines that have AV software on them, but the definitions on them are so old that the software is close to useless. So why can't the subscriptions be either included in the cost of the new PC? Why can't their be a 10 dollar a year subscription for AV? I personally know of people that are using older machines, because they can't afford new once, and can't afford to spend 100 dollars a year on AV. However 10 dollars a year, is down right cheap. Everyone should be able to afford that. 10 dollars from 100 people, will always be more then 100 dollars from 2 people. So the software companies won't be losing money, and the comsumers are protected.

Stupid Google Tricks

If you go to google and type in ".NET" and click on the "I'm feeling lucky". So where do you think it would go? Microsoft site, some .NET developers blog? Nope none of those. It goes to the PHP.NET web site...Pretty funny huh?

Lost and Found

Did you ever find something you thought was lost and would never see again? That just happened to me this morning. I found something that made me very nostalgic. It isn't a toy from my childhood, or a picture. Its my work. Work that I thought I would never see again. My first pages as a "Webmaster" back when I started. My first site that I designed and impemented from start to finish. I found them. Where, where else on the web. The Wayback Machine of The Internet Archive. I have worked as a consultant doing sites for clients, in house html specialist, web developer, web master, and currently I am a Sr. Web Developer. So I have grown as the internet has grown. It's so nice to take a look back at my web developement baby pictures as it were.

2.6 Miles

So I made it 2.6 miles today before I got a flat. I was going for 3.8 miles. Which distance from my house to my Mom and Dad's but alas I didn't get there with out a ride. That is okay, I will make it next time and I was smart enough to take my cellphone with me this time. You know what gets me is I use to not even be warmed up till 4 miles into a ride. Today however I am a little sore just from the 2.6, well I will work back up to it. We were always better in our memories anyhow right?

Paceline

Paceline is the new fan site for Lance Armstrong and the USPS cycling team. If you don't know who Lance Armstrong is in, short he is an amazing cyclist, the best american cyclist in a decade. If that isn't enough he was diagnosed with cancer, beat it and has since won 5 tour de france titles. Lance has a new commercial with Nike that is just outstanding. Check it out.

Time to start Riding

This afternoon I got my bike back from the shop. It's a 1990 Centurion Le Mans. It's a very nice bike and I have had it since it was new. It's almost hard for me to believe that this bike is 14 years old. I've put a lot of miles on it, and it still rides great. I put it into the shop to get a tune-up and the bar tape put on it. I use to ride a lot. Everyday I use to get up and at least ride 8 miles or so, and then get ready for school or work. The last 5 or 6 years it has been in the garage. It has been patiently waiting till I have had time. Time to ride it, time to take care of it, time to just get on the road and pedal.

My goal is to start riding at least three times a week. Being in IT for 7 years now, I have the typical IT body type. I admit I need to lose a couple of pounds (my ego won't let me write down the real number but it is over 2). So apparently sitting in front of a computer all day and eating nachos and drinking vanilla coke one after another isn't as healthy for you as once thought.  Who knows, I may actually build up to riding to work one of these days.

Security Summit Resources

Michele Leroux Bustamante, who did an amazing job presenting all of the sessions at Tuesday's Developer Track of the Microsoft Security Summit, has just posted the Resources for the sessions. Check out her blog at dasblonde.net. She has some great insights into ASP.NET, Web Services and Security.

Guaranteed or Your Money Back

Matt Warren has a great post on what it takes to be a multi-post a day blogger. The fact that he had 6 posts on monday and three on tuesday points to the fact that he knows what he is talking about.

I've been Quoted!

I've been Quoted! The company that makes the rockin CMS we use asked me for a quote about their product. And guess what, They've used it. Check it out, its in the sidebar. The whole product quote I wrote is on the testimonials section.