Drawing the Mona Lisa with a Genetic Algorithm

I know I haven't posted much lately, but this is something that just really caught my attention.

A guy wanted to play around with genetic algorithms so he set out to try and recreate an approximation of the Mona Lisa using only 50 polygons, and he did a fantastic job!

If you are unfamiliar with genetic algorithms either you can read up on them here, you can read my description at the end, or you can simply not care and just check out the cool pictures!

You can read about it, as well as see an image from a select set of iterations, here.

The term Genetic Algorithm basically just describes a programming technique in which the developer takes an initial population or data set as the starting DNA pool, then essentially just allows the population to reproduce. This is done by various methods to include "cross over" and "mutation". In cross over, part of the DNA from one member in the data set or population, is combined with part of the DNA from another member, just as in human reproduction. The result is two new members of the next generation, each comprised of parts of their parents. Mutation generally occurs after cross over and is similar to a human birth defect in that the offspring's DNA is not merely comprised of its parents. This resulting mutation may or may not be beneficial to the survival. Once the new generation is formed, each member of the population is run through a fitness function. This takes those members that most closely approximate the desired end result and allows them to breed. This process continues until either you reach a maximum number of generations, or you have achieved your goal.

Boredom

What is the point of taking a new software engineer position if you don't get to do anything fun?!? I recently took a new job, with a large aerospace/defense company in St Louis, (vague enough?) and unfortunately I have been stuck doing nothing for the last 3 weeks. Granted I have been told what the plan is to have me do, and it sounds great, but until I get started I will be stuck complaining and sitting here surfing the web!

Yes I admitt it, I am a drop out!

Ok, so the end of last year my wife was being very ambitious and decided to join this blog365 thing. Well I thought heck how hard could that be, and joined as well. Yeah so if you look at the date on the post before this one you will see that my last post was about a month and a half ago. I am a drop out.

Since that last post, the person that slept through our important meeting was fired. I attended Oracle BPEL training in Atlanta. Great training by the way, I would highly recommend Oracle hands on training!

Now we are looking for another BPEL person to both help me and teach me, so that I might be able to pick up future maintenance for our customer.

Umm that is really about it. I have basically not felt like touching the computer all that much when I get home, so I don't think I will be doing the every day thing anymore, but maybe I can try to post a couple times a week!

If anyone does actually read this, let me know what you would like me to write about!!

I have many random thoughts in my head at any given time, and most of them never amount to anything more than a slight shimmer before I get busy and forget about them. So if anyone, other than my wife, wants to provide suggestions I would be happy to post up!

Just for reference, items I tend to talk about a lot are vehicles, mainly Fords, specifically Broncos and Mustangs, the Chicago Bears, just about anything computer and of course software development related.

Some people bother me!

So my project manager comes in this morning and asks me if I was aware of what was going on in the meeting. I said well yes, it was a little hard to ignore. He then tells me that the person that is in charge of our contract noticed. This is bad. He apparently wasn't very happy. On top of that, the new person repeatedly denied that he was asleep. Hmm yeah, I don't think there is any way around it.

What not to do in a business meeting

DO NOT FALL ASLEEP IN A BUSINESS MEETING!!! My team had a new person start today, that was the good thing, the bad, well the first sentence says it all. He got on site around 9am and we went to talk to the developer that has been doing their BPEL. That was a good meeting, I got some good info and my first view of the web application I will be modifying in this next part, and our new guy had several good questions. We left there and I went back to work, while the new person sat at an empty computer on the other side of a partition from me and was supposed to be looking at documentation. It wasn't maybe 15 minutes later I think I hear snoring. Yes snoring. I blow it off, no big deal for me. I am sure he is bored, and he did just move down the day before so maybe he didn't sleep. Our project manager goes over to talk to him and I hear him say his name twice. Then a couple of hours later, the project manager and I had to demo our changes to the business people. The new person decides to tag along to see what it is we have been doing.

The meeting is going ok, first the computer in the conference room will not come on, then it comes on but the projector will not. Crap, so we move to a new conference room. I get signed in to the computer, open a web browser, and, yeah I can't remember the web address of the development server, so I try a few before I figure it out. So I am starting the demo now probably 20 minutes late. Within around 20 minutes I am trying to answer questions when I hear a, quite loud, snore and snort coming from the new guy to my right. Yeah, once was bad enough, but there were several more that I would have to talk over through the course of my meeting, which ran a tortured hour and 20 minutes.

Word to the wise, falling asleep in a meeting with your project manager is bad enough, but don't ever do it in a meeting with a client!

Oh and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Short weeks rock!

I am so thankful for short work weeks! Of course I don't get tomorrow off, St. Patrick's Day, but I do get Good Friday off!!!

Deep thoughts from a software engineer

Come on, you don't really think engineers have any deep thoughts do you? Granted software engineers are a little better than most, of course I am biased!

Umm yeah, I really wish today was nicer, along the lines of last weekend... I am soo sick and tired of the dreary weather...

Finally Friday!

Oh gosh I am sooooo glad it is finally Friday!!! Today was another slow day. I spent the first part of the day preparing a demo script for my meeting Monday, and the rest of the day was spent playing with SOA suite again! Ugh.

Slow days suck!

I absolutely hate slow days! I sat at my computer today trying to get Oracle SOA Suite setup on my computer and not having a very good time of it. So of course I sat there checking google most of the day!

Who knew the unknown was so easy!

Well after all my work documenting yesterday how to tackle this one task, my project manager said to go for it. What do you know, it took less than two hours to implement! Makes a person feel great to knock another item off the todo list! Now to keep my team mates motivated and moving forward on their items! Only two left in this phase of development, and we hope to have one done by the end of the day Friday, and the other done by the end of the following Friday!

Now to tackle the unknown.....

On our project work list we have this one task, that is about as clear as mud. So I decided I will at least look into it. It looks like the web service I was working on a few days ago has a few parts to it that all run as seperate threads. For anyone that doesn't know and wants to, a thread is kind of like multi tasking. For those that use windows, you can think of this like the running processes in task manager. While a process and a thread are not the same, they are close enough for this discussion. Ok, so this task involves on thread that looks at the database every 15 minutes and decides if it needs to send out some emails. The problem is that under heavy load this thread can generate an error. When this happens it sits in this error state for the next 15 minutes. The IT department uses a program called Nagios to check that everything is ok. Right now if this thread does die it reports an error in Nagios and the IT department is notified, even though it was just an issue with increased load. My plan on to setup a loop. We would try to run the thread, if it failed we will wait 30 seconds, then try again. We would repeat this until either 3 minutes has passed, or the thread runs with no errors. If 3 minutes passes and the thread still doesn't run successfully then we go into an error state and let Nagios report the error to IT. I am not sure if my project manager wants me to work on it or not, but I emailed him what I have found out and what I planned and I will let him decide!

Ummmmmmmmmmm

Yeah that is how I feel. I got like four hours of sleep Saturday night, two one hour naps Sunday afternoon, and like 8 hours of sleep last night. Why do I feel like my brain is on vacation?

What on earth did I do wrong???

So I went to bed around 10pm or so, and I have been up for an hour now!?! What did I do to deserve this?

Happy Birthday Sis!

Yeah, so unfortunately my older sister and I are not all that close. I don't know what it is about her, but we just don't, and never did, click. She was nice enough to get a hold of me on my birthday, ok so she had to call several times the day before, of, and after to get me to answer, but I did and she wished me a happy birthday. Because of this I thought it only nice to do the same. Since today is her birthday I gave her a call. At least I planned to. I woke up and my phone was dead, dammit! I plug it in and we go shopping. Come late afternoon my mom starts sending me messages via instant messenger asking why I hadn't called her. Dammit again, I forgot. So I grabbed my phone and called her. Her first question, did mom get a hold of you to remind you? Umm, no why was she going to? Yeah I tend to tell little white lies some times. After a great deal of time on the phone I wish her a happy birthday and hang up, have I mentioned I hate talking on the phone? There, conscience cleared, I am a good brother again, for now!

Finally Friday!

I think I need to make "Finally Friday!" a weekly thing what about you? Nah, probably not. If I did I would end up forgetting to post anything through the week, so I would have a blog full of Finally Friday posts! Yes dear, I know I already forget to post! So sue me! No, not really....

Oh, and I finally got that damn web service to debug and what do you know my modifications work just like they are supposed to!

Debugging web services sucks!

I know I have expressed that I really don't like JAVA, well this is a little of the same, and a little different. Right now I am trying to modify a JAVA web service. The modification is easy, it is just the fact that it doesn't want to pay any attention to my break points. GRRR!!!

I greatly dislike no-shows.

So once again I get to the work site and our contact person is not there. No big deal really, but I would not have driven down there had I known he wasn't going to be there. I see no point in making an hour drive to work along side someone just to find out they won't be there! Monday at least he sent the message out in plenty of time, so had I checked my email before I left at 7:15am I would have known he wouldn't be there and I could have gone to the office. Tuesday I though hey maybe I will check email before I leave, so I checked it around 7:10am, no email. Great! I load up and drive down there. I get my computer fired up a little after 8 and of course there is the message from him at like 7:45am. This morning I also thought maybe I would check email before I left. Again there was nothing, but I wasn't sure if that meant anything. I drive on down there, get my computer up and running, check my email...... Nothing! Great! About 15 minutes later there it is, out again. I can't really complain much, after all his daughter does have the flu, but I wish I knew ahead of time he wasn't going to be there so I could avoid burning a tank of gas in the truck! Here is to hoping tomorrow is better!

Update from yesterday.

Well, the engineer with the other project did not talk to the project manager, and did not let me know what was going on. I knew I would not see this person today, so I emailed the project manager and asked him if he was contacted, and if I should work on this persons task to help speed it along. He let me know that no he was not contacted, and that he really wanted this other person to work on the task. I really would like to work on this task. I looked it over, made a lot of notes, and I think I have it basically figured out and outlined for this person. It just needs done! Let me do the damn thing and get it over with..

Take one for the team...

The project I am on for work has three engineers working on it, myself and two others. We have a project manager, but he is busy with other projects, and wouldn't have much to add to the development on this one anyway. He has very little experience with Java web applications, which is what this one is. Anyway, I was pulled off of one Java web application, to work on this one, so when it came down to getting up to speed I have had it easy. Because of this I have been the technical lead on the project, taking over management of the development team, and pushing to get tasks completed, while the project manager can deal with schedule issues, and interfacing with our customers. One of our engineers is trying to finish up another project though, and is running into problems switching between projects. I suggested consulting with the project manager and letting him know that I could handle one of the remaining issues. We have five weeks left, and only two items to complete, so it shouldn't be a problem. I guess only time will tell!!

Glorious Sunshine!!!!!

Wow, it actually 50F today!!! I was outside trying to chip away at the 8inches or so of ice still at the end of our drive way, wearing a t-shirt and all sweaty!! I am sooooo ready for spring! I can't wait for those warm spring days when we can cruise around in the bronco with the top down!! Sigh, much colder temps and even more snow on the way.....

What a day!

Well I will tell anyone reading that I had a great birthday! My wife took me to Lone Star Steak House for dinner, ok so I took her ;-), I had steak and lobster, she had chicken as usual. My food was great, but my loving wife mentioned to the waitress that it was my birthday... Yeah, I bet you can guess what happened right after dinner... Yeah, she asked me what I wanted for dessert. I selected the apple cobbler, and here she came, with about 8 other servers.. Yeah to sing to me...

It's my party...

Final BPEL training day!

Wow, so the training was as close to a waste of time as I really think you can get! I should say the training itself wasn't THAT bad, but the format was not the best. It was of course online training, so I sat there listening to a teleconference while watching the instructor flip through a power point presentation... Anyway, around noon I kept dozing off!!! Anyway, I got the basics of BPEL, and I think I would modify an existing process without any issue, so I guess thats what counts!

BPEL Training day 3

Well today was the final day of the fundamentals portion of my training. It was basically just covering the basic operation of a bpel process. The training itself wasn't too bad, but I think I got just as much out of the tutorial built into the free software we were using! I hope tomorrow proves to be a little bit more fruitful!!

BPEL training day two

Well as I expected day two went a lot better. First though I finished up another task on our project! We now have only two left, one fairly easy one, and one fairly complex one. Now, back to BPEL. I actually learned a lot today. About setting up a sequence in BPEL, directing the flow of execution. I went through the labs and then started on the tutorial again. I decided to try the tutorial without help and had no problems.

Oh, on a side note, I have a meeting tomorrow to talk to my engineering manager about trying to start some project management. Oh yeah, and I really need to get to work on my microsoft certification.

BPEL training day one

So this week I am in BPEL training. Business Process Execution Language. Anyway, the entire first day of the class, which is web based instructor led training, was spent learning their own tool for BPEL. I did go through the labs for the training and then went through the tutorial for the tool. All in all it is going well, I hope tomorrow is better!

Absolutely worst day ever yesterday!

Ok, so to start this off I woke up more tired then when I went to bed, day sucks already. So we were supposed to meet some friends, ok a co worker and his fiance, for bowling! I love bowling even though I suck! We get to the bowling alley at about 2:45 and asked for a lane. Come back around 6 was the reply. Dammit. Ok, there is another across town lets try there! We drive past there to the ATM for some cash, and about a block from the second alley we get a call. It's bowl for kids sake at this alley, no luck. So we decide to try again tomorrow, no big deal. Since we were out and about, we decide to go ahead and run to a car show in a near by town! We get there, no problems, walk up to this little building about the size of a small high school gym, and as I pull the door open my wife says, "umm it's $9 per person!" Yikes, would look dumb if we turned back now, and we had driven all that way. I pay the $18 bucks and we go on inside. There were a few cool cars, but too many people, and too few cars for $18. We left after maybe 30 minutes, and looking at all the cars. On the way back I say hey lets run down by the river and see if there are any bald eagles out! We get to the river and decide to drive back to the nature area. Just down the road a little bit we come across a couple dogs in the road. Of course they decide it best to chase us. Lovely. We turn down the road to the nature area and there one is! A Bald Eagle in a tree just about 80 yards off the road. We look at it a while then drive on down the road. Of course its hunting season and the nature area is closed. Dammit. We head back down the road and reach the stop sign. My wife says hey lets continue on this way so we don't have to meet those dogs again. No problem. We continue on down the road and come to a highway. I turn onto the highway and cross back over the river, and at this point I really am not exactly sure where we are, but I figure it I just stay on this road I will figure it out. About a mile down the road and around 5pm or so I shout out there is an owl on that telephone pole! My wife says "No way, turn around!" I turn around, and decide I will pull over to look at it, and thats when it happened........ The shoulder gave way under the passenger side of the truck and we sunk about 2 and a half feet into the snow..... Dammit we are stuck. I try to rock the truck back and forth a little and it just slides deeper into the snow. I immediately ask my wife for our insurance information and call the roadside assistance number. I talk to this lady for about 15 minutes trying to explain where we are. Finally she says ok I will contact a two truck and send them your way! Thanks!!!! After about an hour I call back select the option for check the status of my ticket. After sitting on hold for half an hour I hang up and call back, this time I select the option for I need help! I tell the person as soon as they pick up that I have already called and just need to talk to someone. She asks for my phone number and give it to her. She says oh I see here she couldn't find anyone and tried to call you back but she had written the number down wrong. Then they tell me she when home without asking anyone to follow up on my issue. Are you freaking kidding me!!!!! This lady tells me that she will start calling around to find me some help and if I don't hear from the automated system telling me when to expect help in the next 20 minutes then I should call back. She even gives me her direct extension. I wait about 25 minutes and call back. I just select the option for I need help, and I tell the person that this other person was helping me. I give him her extension and he tries her, tells me she is on the phone, then asks me to hold while he tried to get a hold of her. He comes back and says "Ok she is on the phone with a towing company arranging payment, you should hear from the automated system shortly." Now around 8pm, the temperature is down to about 15F and the truck is starting to get a little low on gas, I get a call that it will be two hours before help can get there. Cue the angry side of Matthew. I explain to them that I have been waiting since 5:30pm and it is now just after 8pm, and that I am extremely unhappy about the first person I spoke to whom went home without ensuring I got help! He lets me vent to a manager who assures me they will handle the situation with the first lady I spoke to, and that if the bill for getting us out of the ditch is more than my policy covers he will take care of it. I feel a little better now, it's almost over! Around 9:15 or so I get a call from the towing company saying ok I have my driver on the way where are you? I explain where I went and where I have been told I am. She proceeds to tell me that the insurance company gave them the wrong location and that they would have to contact the driver. I am told they would be there shortly, no problem. At a little after 10pm I get another call. It is the towing company telling me they have canceled the work request. They said the driver couldn't make it due to the road being too bad. Umm what?!? Now I shall introduce you to VERY PISSED OFF MATTHEW!!! I yell a lot. I really really yell a lot. What in the hell am I supposed to do now?!?! I hang up and get a call from my insurance company. Again they tell me the tow company canceled because they said they can't make it. I explain in a very loud angry voice how the road is perfectly F*#@$%G CLEAR!!! I ask him what I am supposed to do?? He tells me he can contact the police and have them come get us then try to get the truck tomorrow. Ok, I have a very large, very capable four wheel drive 1977 Bronco sitting in my garage, if I could only get home I would pull the damn truck out myself. The police finally arrive and the officer walks up and the first thing out of his mouth....... "Sir have you been drinking tonight?" Umm are you freaking kidding me?!? I simply reply "Umm no, Sir I have been sitting here in the freaking snow since about 5pm." At least he gets a chuckle out of it. I tell him that we were supposed to be getting a tow truck from town. You aren't going to believe what he says next. Ready?!? He says "I passed their driver on my way out here, she didn't even try making it." Yeah, once again, let me introduce you to VERY ANGRY MATTHEW. The cool thing was that the officer even got pissed. He says you just hang on a minute, and he grabs his phone and says I will get you a tow. He comes back and suggests we shut the truck off to conserve gas and climb in his cruiser to stay warm. It is after all now about 8F and I don't have a coat since it was around 30F when we left the house. He gets a call a few minutes later and is told they are sending a tow truck out of a town about 40 miles away! Umm what? Again he is pissed and calls another person. This guy he talks to says I am about 35 minutes away but headed that direction. Officer Vern tells him to bring a little gas, then tells his dispatcher to cancel the first truck. We then of course ask Officer Vern if there is anyway he could take us to a rest room since it was around 2pm the last time we had used one, and it was now after 11pm. He says sure there is a bar just up the road. We get back and in no time the guy shows up in a four wheel drive chevy truck with a ZZ502 big block engine. Ok I am a truck nut so that means something to me! Anyway, he hooks onto the back of my truck and I put it in reverse and floor it, and he tugs on it. I think he maybe pulled me back about a foot or so. He tries again and gets no where. He decides to get more length on the tow strap because one of his tires is on ice. Pretty soon he tells me to hit it and again I floor it, he hits it hard and pulls me several feet back. He pulls up and again tells me to go and hits it hard one last time and I come flying up onto the road!!!!! Finally we are free!!!!!!! I jump out and thank him profusely!!! Officer Vern tells him that I don't have much cash and he says "no problem, I don't have any paper work with me, so give me your address and I will just mail it to you." Sweet!! I then ask Officer Vern if I can follow him on into town since I have no idea where we are. He agrees and off we go. We drive right back up the damn road the tow truck driver decided she couldn't make it down, yeah it was perfectly clear, and we were only about 5 miles outside of town. Anyway, Officer Vern stops at an intersection and jumps out of his car, tells me to take a left here and follow it on home! I thank him several times and shake his hand. We head off down the road thanking god that we are ok and finally just about home. I don't remember what time exactly we got home, but I can tell you the last time I looked at the clock it was 1:30am and 7:30 when I got up came way, way to soon....

Another finally Friday

Cool it's Friday!! I have BPEL training next Monday through Thursday, so I don't have to drive at least!! Oh and we are supposed to go bowling this weekend, fun!

Who needs a nap?!?

Boy I tell ya, I got up this morning after a few hours of sleep feeling like I need a few more. Is it nap time yet?

Too much worry over a web page.

Ok I really think there is a point where the committee needs to just shut the hell up and let progress be made. Sorry but you know it had to be said. I sat through a meeting yesterday that had absolutely no point. We met for about an hour and 20 minutes to discuss the look and feel of our new company intranet site. Oh and when we left the meeting we hadn't finalized really anything, just decided that we would meet next week to discuss it more... GRR...

Meetings

So I made it to work on site at 8am, and started working. I had planned to work through lunch since I had to leave at 2 anyway. Well, one of the team members had to run an errand around 10 and comes back with lunch. Damn, I didn't want to leave the one person that was new to the area to eat by them self, so I went ahead and went to lunch. I didn't really get anything done after lunch and before I left, but at least I was fed! Oh and I found out that when it isn't rush hour I can make it home in about 35 minutes!

We are getting there!

Well my team, not really mine, but the one I am on, is really starting to get there on our project! We will probably start to split up the remaining tasks and start trying to power through them! Wish us luck!

I really hate mondays

Man I hate Mondays, they are starting to get to me. I really wish I could just sleep through Mondays. Of course then Tuesdays would be the new Mondays, so I guess it would snow ball from there, but at least I wouldn't have to go to work at 6:30 am on a Monday anymore!

Traveling for work.

I have been traveling for work and I must say it isn't all that much fun. It isn't much of a drive at about 35 miles each way, but with winter it has been taking about an hour. That on top of the fact that I am driving an F150 that gets maybe 15mpg, and has seats that are very hard and uncomfortable, make both my back and my wallet hurt! Hopefully I can stay in town more as time passes and we get more comfortable with the software we have been contracted to modify!

High school

Someone recently left a comment asking if I graduated from a certain high school, well the answer is no. I graduated from high school in 1998 from Jacksonville High School in Jacksonville, Illinois. I graduated a semester early and went straight into the US Navy. I have never been the type to keep in touch with anybody, and now 10 years after I graduated I feel a little empty. I realize that I have no idea what happened to any of my friends from high school. I shoot a message to one friend every once in a while that was in my graduating class, he now lives in Los Angles, CA. I also keep in fairly close contact with another friend, he moved to the town I lived in when we were in middle school. We were the best of friends until I moved away at the end of our freshman year in high school. We kept in touch a little, each went to visit the other every once in a while, but two years later he moved away to Colorado. To this day we do still see each other at least once a year, and we email or instant message each other. I feel a little empty though since I would say I only actually have him and my wife that I would call friends. I have a lot of family, but I don't keep in touch with them, and I have a lot of ex coworkers that I email every once in a while, but I would not call them friends so much. Now my wife and I are in a town where we don't really know anyone and we both find it very difficult to make new friends.

What a week

I have been working at a customers site all week and let me tell you, it's rough. I have to drive 45 minutes to an hour to get down there and another 45 minutes to an hour to get home. With the price of gas it's killing me! My personal vehicle is a 1977 Ford Bronco with 35 inch tires, not the best commuter car with MAYBE 12 MPG if I am lucky. I have been using my wifes vehicle, a 2004 F150 4x4 all week and while it is better on gas with 15-17mpg, it is still getting expensive already. I put $65 in gas in the truck which lasted four days! I do kinda miss my ugly 1999 Mercury Sable which got about 30mpg on the highway! If only I could find a vehicle I liked that also got good fuel mileage! I did have a 1998 Mustang GT that I spent a great deal of time and money modifying and while it would stick right with corvettes in a drag race and win most of the time, I could still squeeze 28-32 mpg out of it on the highway if I kept the cruise control set! If only I could find something like that again!!!!

Why I like software engineering.....

I have thought a lot about exactly why I like my job, and the reality is that there is not just one reason. I like my job because I have fun with what I am doing, I get to learn new things, and while the pay could be better, it's not too bad. While I don't know everyone I work with, the few I do know I enjoy talking to. It is very nice to work with other people that have a clue what I talk about a lot of the time. I just thought I would share!!! Hope everyone enjoys Valentines Day!!!

Finally a nice day

Today was a pretty good day, the weather was cooperating, while it was -9F when I left the house it did get up to about 14F today!! There was no snow, and no wind.

On top of that we finally got our PCs setup on location today and started to go through the application we will be enhancing. All in all it ended up being a pretty good day!

Ahh SNOW!!!

Dammit, more snow on the drive to and from work today, so once again I had a drive over an hour. Oh but I did see a Bald Eagle circling over the river looking for breakfast on my way in this morning!!

Dreaming of spring....

I love the snow, I do, but I think I am ready for spring and the warm weather that comes with it! I am dreaming of taking the top off of my Bronco and cruising around in the warm air..... Unfortunately I was smacked in the face with reality today by the hour and fifteen minute drive to work this morning in the blowing snow!!!

Damn it's cold!

I don't even think it made it up to zero today!!! With 30MPH winds the windchill was in the -30F range.. Yeah, it's damn cold!

Sucky Saturday

I woke up this morning, walked downstairs, and promptly went back upstairs and tucked my head under my pillows. I felt like crap from the moment I woke up and it hasn't changed. I hope tomorrow is better, although it is supposed to be a high temp of 2F tomorrow..... I think I am ready for spring. I want to take the top back off of my Bronco and cruise in the sun shine!!!

Finally Friday

Can't believe its Friday!!! I realized it wasn't going to be such a great day when I get to work and find I left the cup of coffee I prepared sitting on my counter, I failed to pack myself a lunch, and I didn't grab a snack. Sigh, I think I will just go home at lunch time!

Long Day.....

This is the day that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends....

Man this day has been dragging for me. I have no idea why though. I think as a side effect of the day dragging on and on I have gotten next to nothing accomplished! I guess the up side is that I have will leave in about two hours, but it seams like lunch time was an entire day ago!

Boy did it snow!

Wow they called it fairly close this time! They were calling for like 12-18 inches of snow by the time it stopped today, and last I heard we hit 12 inches!! This is what I saw when I left work yesterday..

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

So they are calling for over a foot of snow tonight!!! I hope they are right. I can't remember the last time we got much snow, so in my opinion we are due! Also will be fun to play in with my Bronco!!

Is it Friday yet?

Wow it's only Monday and I am ready for the weekend. Is that bad? Hope not!!! This could be a long week!

Great Day for a Bronco Ride

So we took the bronco for a great long ride today! I was pretty happy about it. The only issue was of course the stupid stiff suspension, but that's ok for now. This is the longest I have had it running and driving since I swapped the GT40 engine stuff, replaced the radiator, swapped in the electric fan. I think we had it running for maybe 30 minutes to an hour and it never complained once!

Damn Groundhog

That damn little ground hog saw his shadow, so 6 more weeks of winter it is. Someone should have put that furry little thing on a spit!!!! Slow roasted ground hog!!!!

It's February!!!!!!

Hey today is the first day of February!!! My birthday is coming up, everyone get ready!!!

New project for work!

So I was asked if I was interested in a new project at work. Yeah, I couldn't say yes fast enough! Not that I don't like the project I am on, I just want something new. Seven months on the same project 100% of the time gets a little old after all!

Um what snow?

So the snow we were supposed to get was a no show, gee who would have guessed the weather people were wrong?!?

More snow!!

Sounds like a broken record, but whatever. We are under a blizzard warning for today!!! Heavy snow and high winds lead to white out conditions!! Um it was 50 yesterday, and by tonight it is supposed to be -10F. Now why can't it snow AND be 50F outside?!?

More Bronco Progress

So I finally got the new rear bumper installed on my bronco!! I thought it was taking forever, but thats because it was. The only real problem was first off trying to find the bolts around here, not a lot of places that carry big nuts and bolts. The biggest problem however was that I was trying to drill 1/2inch holes through the bumper. The bumper is composed of 2x4 .12inch wall rectangular tubing which slides into the frame rails, then a 2x6 .12inch wall rectangular tube on top. I had to drill through top and bottom of both to run an 8 inch bolt all the way through the existing frame holes. I could not find any grade 8, or even grade 5 hardware, so i had to use grade 2. I will reinforce the ends of the frame rails and then run a grade 8 bolt through the side for security. So here are a few pictures of it installed!!

Clear skies ahead

Today was such a nice day, I think I am ready for spring again!! Now don't get me wrong, I still love the snow and am happy about the snow we are supposed to get later this week, but I can do without the temps below zero and windchills of like negative 30!!!

I love weekends.

So it's not so much the weekends I love, but the fact that I don't have to work today!!! Unfortunately shopping is in order. Man I hate that, but hey it is time out of the house with my wife!!!

Another day, another day

Today was just another day. Yeah, and tomorrow will be also.

Umm BRRRRR!

No big deal, we have already had the pleasure of -10 to -15F temps this winter, but I get to work and look down and the outside temperature as reported by the truck is -22F. That is a bit much. While listening to the radio they were stating that the temp was -19F with a windchill of -38F. Ok yeah thats freaking nuts, but the weird part is that just four days from now on Monday it is supposed to be in the 40s!!!!!

UPDATE: They just stated on the radio that they were trying to find someplace colder than us, and failing. They checked a couple cities in Alaska, coldest reported was -15F, they checked Frost Bite Falls Minnesota which is tied with us at -19F.

I think its time to start a fire in the corner of my cubicle to keep me warm!

Keep the snow lose the cold!

I do love the snow, but this weather with the temp floating around zero is a little much. Supposed to drop to -15F over night tonight and its 7F right now. I just think that is a little excessive, don't you?

Even more snow!

Cool, I went outside this morning to find about 5 inches of snow in the driveway, but the street was plowed for once. We didn't end up with drifts in our driveway, but our neighbors had a drift about 4 feet tall! Again, I need to work on my Bronco. Must run to Home Depot to look for 7 inch long half inch grade eight bolts to bolt my new bumper on! Oh, yeah, and lug nuts to bolt the spare tire onto the carrier!

More snow!!

Oh how exciting, more snow on the way! I just love it. What I don't love is the freaking (negative zero degree - according to my wife), temperatures! We already have about 1.5 inches of snow, and they are calling for about 3.5 more! Would be fun to play in if I didn't have to work! Must get the Bronco back on the road by this weekend. Supposed to be around 30 degrees, much better Bronco weather.

No Pack No???

I am so upset that the Packers lost to the Giants that I need something deep fried and smothered in chocolate.

Go Pack Go!

Can't wait for some Sunday Football!!! Go Packers!!!

Website

So I doubt this will help, but I want to get it out there. A friend is having a little competition with another friend about whom can built the largest population in their little online city. All you have to do is click the links to contribute to the population, no signing up for anything and it doesn't screw with your computer at all. You can visit once per day if you want, and each time you visit another inhabitant is added to the city.

The first link http://ford-bronco.myminicity.com/ will take you to the page and add an inhabitant, the second link http://ford-bronco.myminicity.com/ind will add additional industry to the town to create more jobs.

Please click em both to help him out!

Finally Friday!

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday! Although work did pass very quickly today, so nothing to complain about. Tomorrow should pass quickly as well, I will be working 630am to about 11 when we have a company meeting to discuss how and what the company did last year, and what the plan is for this year. That is supposed to take until 4pm, but they don't expect it to take that long.

Microsoft pretty much sucks.

So maybe not ALL Microsoft products suck, ok so honestly I think they do ALL suck, but hey at least they are everywhere!

I try to do some work from home every once in a while, handle some email, or the like. Last night however, I wanted to check my email. I connect to our VPN, which is a Microsoft product(client and server), then I open up Outlook, yep another Microsoft product, and wait. After about five minutes it times out, dammit won't connect. So I disconnect from the VPN, I open up the company portal page, yet another Microsoft product, use the on demand feature to allow me network access, then Outlook will connect. Great I have email now! I see that a guy on my project wants me to update the software on one of our servers. No big deal, I open up my database administration software, thankfully not Microsoft software, but no dice, can't connect to server. I then try to connect to a remote session on the server(since the server is running Microsoft Server 2003 and I am running Microsoft Windows XP), dammit foiled again. Finally I gave up. I just wasted over half an hour trying to connect to the damn server.

I ended up being to connect from the office this morning and had everything updated in less than ten minutes. Damn crappy Microsoft products. Long live Linux!

Just another Tuesday

So yeah this is just another Tuesday, but hey at least it was like "negative zero outside" as my wife has said before. ;-) Yeah it's cold, very cold. And they are calling for snow, wow, snow, it's been so long since it did that I forget what it looks like. Lots and lots of sarcasm there!

Yes, another Monday!

I hate Mondays. I really, really hate them. Not just dislike, I hate them. I always wake up Monday morning longing for the weekend, more time to relax, and more time to spend with my wife. This Monday is no different. It's back to work, loads of fun and all that jazz. We are supposed to release our web application to the public today, but umm, I don't think that will happen since our first customer, whom is supposed to be testing this for us in a real-world type of situation, won't be able to get to it until the end of January. Oh well, more time to clean things up and enhance what is there!

Jeepin

Ok, so I am really not a fan of Jeeps. I guess the jeeps of the 70s and early 80s that had the AMC 304 where pretty fun, but most jeeps just don't have the power I like. I am a Ford man, I drive a 1977 Ford Bronco with a fuel injected 351W. I didn't have the bronco with me over the weekend and I wanted to play, so I got some fuel and got my father-in-laws CJ5 running. It is around a 1966, with a Buick 255 CID V6 and a 3 speed transmission and is a blast to drive. The biggest problem with this Jeep is the clutch is sooo tough. My father-in-law and I spoke briefly about swapping the manual clutch for a hydraulic one. No idea if we will actually do this, but it would be a fun project!

Damn truck!

So I had planned on getting my 52 Ford truck started and drive it a little this weekend, but no luck. The darn thing will kind of start and run for a little bit, sort of. Everyone got that? What I think is going on is the that from sitting the carburetor is getting a little gunky. Thats a technical term in case you weren't aware. Anyway, I need to completely clean the carburetor, fuel tank, and lines, but no time, sigh. I also need to get the brakes working at some point, but thats another story. I tried and tried to get the thing started. I put some fuel in the carburetor, cranked it over and it started! Then promptly ran out of fuel. Dammit! I did this enough to drain the newly charged battery, so its back on the charger for another round!

more about trucks

So I pretend to be a software engineer at work, but when not at work I pretend to be a gear head. I love cars and trucks, or simply anything with an engine. Today after visiting the orthodontist I thought to myself, "self," because that's what I call myself, "self, why dont we get the 52 Ford started so it can run a little bit. " I don't think it has been started in around 4 or 6 months. Anyway, I go out there and... nothing. Damn the battery is just about dead, not enough to crank it up. So I grab a booster pak, damn its dead too. Well lets just make sure there is fuel in the carburetor. I look in the top and nothing... I check the fuel line and its dry as well. So, I grab an air tank, and unhook the other end of the line and force air through the fuel pump, into the carb. Hey fuel comes squirting out everywhere. I then decide to make sure the line isn't blocked between the pump and the tank. So I force air into the line the other way and I hear it bubbling in the tank. I hook everything up and remove the battery so I can charge it. So now I am waiting for the damn battery to charge so I can get the thing running. It would have been easy if it where closer to a power outlet, then I could have at least ran an extension cord over, but nooooo, I had to remove the battery. Anyway thats what I hope to do the rest of the day, doesn't that sound like fun?!?

What a week

Boy this has been a long week. I finished up work today at 330Pm with 45 hours since monday. I rush home and my loving while already has the truck loaded. We are back out the door 15 minutes after I get there. So at 4pm we are headed to her parents house for the weekend and for my orthodontist appt. Just got my braces off about 4 months ago see :-D don't my teeth look pretty! I did not post a picture just being silly. Anyway, we rush back and stop along the way for dinner with some friends of mine, always nice to get together with them. Anyway, then we get to her parents house and I have to put in another hour of work cleaning things up so they can be tested on Friday. Shesh this has been a long week. I hope next week is back to normal!

who needs sleep

So yeah, who needs sleep? Really, you don't get anything done while sleeping anyway. I say this just because I am and have been tired for several months now. My job my not be physically tough, but it is very mentally draining. The 12 days I had off over Christmas and new years day were great, but right after new years I covered 40 hours in three days. This week, I am 34.5 hours after three days. Next week at least I hope to go back to a normal 40 - 45 hours week. We are supposed to release our web application to the public here on Monday, so I should have time to work on version two of the application and not have to kill myself to get it done. Anyway, thats all I have for right now. Oh, a note to anyone listening. If you take a nap at your computer be sure to either push the keyboard out of the way, or mute the sound! Would hate to fall asleep on the keyboard and have the dumb windows "DING" to keep sounding and drawing attention to you!

Reporters suck

I have issues with reporters. They always act surprised that anything happens, even with they had been talking about it all night. Ok, now lets complain about oil companies and gas prices. I need to fill up my poor little bronco and will spend like $60 bucks, on top of the $63 bucks i spent on filling my wifes truck this week. I really think I should start investing in energy funds, because as much as I like to complain about gas prices, I love my four wheel drive vehicles with their gas hungry V8s!

One more week

So I am supposed to wrap up version one of my project at the end of this week. Well Monday morning actually, but close enough. We have been testing and fixing bugs for the last month and a half, and it is really close. We are down to a few last minute things that will make life easier for setting up our first customer, a customized sign up page. This will allow them to send the link to their people, then those people can sign up if they want. The other is the marketing page. Not so much marketing, as simply the home page. There is basically no information available on the existing site, so we had a marketing person put some information together, and I need to compile all that information into a catchy start page. Lucky me.

I am still having issues with my other project however. Anyone ever use htmlhelp with MFC and Visual C++ 6.0? We changed over from winhelp, to htmlhelp and now, once the help window is launched the program won't exit. Dammit! Any suggestions?

Games

I enjoy playing a few types of computer games. Anything with racing, cars, trucks, bikes, just about anything. With that in mind I got the new Monster Jam game from Activision. I was excited as I have gotten emails about it from Monsterjamonline for the last few months. I check the specs of the game, requires a 2GHz processor - check, 5Gb of hard disk space - check, sound card - check, DVD Rom - check, then I just notice 256Mb of memory and I thought I read for the video card - check. I get it home, install it, and fire it up, and it won't run. Great. I have a 256mb Nvidia GeForce 5500 video card, not a bad card at all, not a real good card but even farther from being a bad one! I re-read the requirements and it says it needs 256mb of system memory, and requires either an Nvidia GeForce 6200, or Radion 8200 or something like that. Ok so I check on the GeForce 6200, and it has 256mb of memory also. I look for them on pricewatch.com and find one for 20 bucks! Then I see that it is PCI express. Dammit! My freaking Dell only has PCI slots, no AGP and no PCI express. So I find another GeForce 6200, see that it is standard PCI, but dammit again its $60 bucks! So I say hmm wonder if it will run on my work laptop? So I install it, and you know what, it runs. Grr, but hey at least I can play the damn game!

Phones

I love playing with gadgets. I got a new cell phone a few months ago, and Cingular SYNC, and while I think its a pretty good phone, I really wish there were several things changed about it. A few items bother me like activating the external display, being unable to remove preloaded graphics and sounds, you HAVE to use media net to download games and other apps. There are many other things, but these are a few. I messed around this evening with it a little, looking up service codes to get into the firmware and "play". Anyway, more google searching is in order to see if any of these issues can be resolved.

Insanity

Ok, I forgot to mention this to my wife yesterday with all the excitement over the caucus last night.

I was sitting at work yesterday, I got there at 6:30 am and there was one other person in the building. About 7am one of the contractors that works across from me, I would place the mans age around 60. He starts talking to me and mentions that it was his wifes birthday. He then proceeds to tell me that he has to leave at noon to go get his wifes new earrings. Ok, braces yourselves. He tells me that he decided to upgrade his wifes old earrings, which are a few years old he says, from one carat per ear to TWO carats per ear, yes you read that correct, TWO CARATS PER EAR. I am about to fall out of my chair and then he says they have to go straight from the jewelery store to the insurance agent because they are costing him $58,000... YES that is a comma, that is fifty eight thousand dollars (in my best wheel of fortune announcer voice). Ok, maybe its just because I am young(er) and have grown up struggling just to pay bills and put food on the table, but that is insanity to me. To top it off however, he then says yeah last year I got her a $6,000, again six thousand dollar, Rolex for her birthday. Um yeah, I am now trying to decide if I want to be really good friends with this guy, or to hate him for having what I don't. Hmm, ok hate him it is! In a nice friendly way of course!!!

What does a software engineer actually do?

Ok, my job title, is Software Engineer, what I went to school for was Software Engineering. I consider most of the work I have done over the last 6 years to be that of a software developer, I wrote a lot of small programs, several windows scripts, access databases, visual basic apps with crystal reports, many php and perl web apps. Now I am supposed to be an engineer. As an engineer we are supposed to build robust and reliable software. This requires more than just sitting down and writing code. You have to sit down, plan what you need and how you will accomplish it. I normally draw out class diagrams showing what classes I will need, then how they interface with each other. I did say normally. I hate it that after all that school work, I get a job where I am supposed to be a software engineer, and I am not given an opportunity to actually engineer anything. Instead, in order to make deadline I have to basically throw code into files and hack it together. Our deadline is little over a week away though, so I hope that with the next version I can sit down with the other engineer on the project and actually engineer the project.

Yet another reason I hate Vista!

Ok, so in making changes to an application for one of our customers, we have to update the program to run under Vista. A few of the problems we have come across are with reconfiguring the network adapter, calling help, catching the CDROM eject event notification. The first one wasn't too bad, we were able to change some code over to use newer APIs and make it work. The second problem is related to the fact that Vista no longer has the file winhlp321.exe installed. First off, the winhlp file is needed to view your typical document based help file. Microsoft is trying to force people into using a newer format of help file, xml, html, something like that. Anyway, I went through and converted our help file over to a compiled html format, a .chm file. I tried to then use the windows API call htmlhelp and of course it doesn't work, go figure. I passed that off to someone else. I am now working to figure out why our program doesn't properly detect that the CDROM drive has been ejected. This feature works on XP and 2000, but not on Vista.

Ok enough rambling. I'm tired of Vista though, really!

Ready for the new year?

It doesn't feel like it should be the new year, feels like I just took my new job yesterday. That was seven months ago though. So what do I have to show for the last seven months of hard work? Hmm, I will have to think on that, but for now I can just say that I am looking forward to whatever the new year may bring.

Hope everyone has a great new year!