Friday, April 20, 2007
Upgraded Gallery to 2.2.1
I upgrade my picture gallery from Gallery 2.0 to 2.2.1 the day before yesterday. You can see the new stuff they added with this version. I haven't had a chance to play with anything yet though.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Mi CumpleaƱos
I'm a quarter of a century old today! In recognition of my birthday, here's a funny Kevin related cartoon:
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Upgraded minime to Windows Vista
minime is the name of my laptop (see previous post). I have recently upgraded it from Windows
XP to Windows Vista. At the time I got it, Windows Vista had not yet been released. However, part of the deal was that I would get a free upgrade (not including shipping) when Dell released their OEM version of Windows Vista.
To start things off, I made a complete backup of my laptop with a trial version of Norton Ghost. This was merely a precaution in case I wanted to go back to Windows XP. I saved the backup to an old 60GB external USB drive I bought in college. It took about 4 hours to make the complete backup.
After the backup, I ran a special CD from Dell that prepared the computer for the upgrade. It had to uninstall some of the programs that were known to be an issue with the upgrade. These apps would later be reinstalled by this process after the upgrade. Finally, the last thing left to do was to run the Windows Vista CD. This took at least 3 hours. I was pretty surprised on how long it took.
There were a few problems and tweaks I ran into after installing Vista:
XP to Windows Vista. At the time I got it, Windows Vista had not yet been released. However, part of the deal was that I would get a free upgrade (not including shipping) when Dell released their OEM version of Windows Vista.To start things off, I made a complete backup of my laptop with a trial version of Norton Ghost. This was merely a precaution in case I wanted to go back to Windows XP. I saved the backup to an old 60GB external USB drive I bought in college. It took about 4 hours to make the complete backup.
After the backup, I ran a special CD from Dell that prepared the computer for the upgrade. It had to uninstall some of the programs that were known to be an issue with the upgrade. These apps would later be reinstalled by this process after the upgrade. Finally, the last thing left to do was to run the Windows Vista CD. This took at least 3 hours. I was pretty surprised on how long it took.
There were a few problems and tweaks I ran into after installing Vista:
- Had to uninstall and reinstall the network printer I share between my laptop and PC.
- Had to change the compatibility mode for some apps to Windows XP in order for them to run.
- Had to apply a special patch for Sonic Solutions DLA for it to run under Vista. This is the DVD software.
- Had to reinstall the touchpad software for the scroll to work.Had to reinstall Google Desktop for it to work.
I haven't had time to fully explore all the new stuff, but here's what I've liked so far:
- The side bar. Right now, I have Weatherbug, a meter that shows the usage of each core of the CPU and memory, stocks, network strength, a calculator, and a calendar in my side bar.
- The Flip 3D feature. This is a really cool way to switch between open programs. More about Flip 3D.
- The windows are semi-translucent.
- The desktop icons changed based on their contents (recycle bin, folders, etc.).
- Hovering your mouse over items in the task bar shows a preview of what it actually looks like.
- The task manager is much better and more granular. For instance, it shows the file image on the file system where the process was spawned from.
Another new thing is the Windows Experience Index. This is basically an analysis of your hardware and how well it conforms to the Vista operating system. This also allows software vendors to require a certain number in order to run their software. The score ranges from 1.0 to 5.9. Your score is equal to the lowest subscore. Mine is 3.6:
Friday, March 09, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Recent Reads
Amongst readings of dry textbooks, I finally finished the 5th Harry Potter book: Order of the Phoenix. The book was 900 freakin pages and took me forever to finally finish. It was good though and I actually finished this one before the movie was released. The previous trend was that I would finish the book after the movie was released and Megan would be waiting for me to finish the book so that we could go see the movie. In my defense, I was already 2 movies behind when I first started reading the books.The previous four books I read where also Harry Potter, so I've decided to take a break from HP before reading the 6th (and eventually the 7th when it's released). I received three new books for Christmas:
I decided to go with Next because I have read almost every Michael Crichton book but it had been awhile since I had read any of his (the last was Prey). I also thought it would be a nice change from reading 5 Harry Potter's in a row.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Sibling's Day
Last Saturday (2/24/07) was Sibling's Day for Megan's sorority. Ryan came up earlier in the week and was staying at Clint's. Saturday morning, Megan and Ryan came to my apartment and we headed off to Power Play. Megan looked up the directions on MapQuest and it showed Power Play being in Independence, MO about 30 miles away (map). So, we headed off and about 30 or 40 minutes later, we were at our exit, but with no Power Play insight. Megan called her friends to find out exactly where it was, and they were saying they were at 62nd and Pflumm off of Shawnee Mission Parkway. What???? This is nowhere near where we are (Independence, MO), and I actually live pretty close to 62nd and Pflumm. So, we make a complete U-turn and had Megan (other Megan) look up directions on the Internet to the correct location. Finally, 1.5 hours later, we ended up at the correct location (map). Here are the correct directions. Megan felt real bad about it, but don't worry Megan cause we had a good road trip :)
We immediately hit up the buffet because we were starving by then. Here's a pic just after we ate (don't we look plump and full?):
We immediately hit up the buffet because we were starving by then. Here's a pic just after we ate (don't we look plump and full?):
I'd also like to add that it was pretty amazing we actually got Ryan to pose for a picture.
Then, we got down on some gaming. We mostly hit up the basketball and air hockey games:
Of course, Megan being blonde and in a Sorority, ended up losing the card they gave each of us that had points for playing the games. Sorry Megan, I couldn't resist. Finally, I'd like to end this with some picks of Ryan and I doing some serious cap poppin:
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Missouri Visit
Megan, Morgan, and I went to Missouri last weekend where there family lives and a lot of them still reside. I've been so busy with work and school (test) that haven't had a chance to write about it until now.
The plan was for Morgan to come up to Overland Park and drive out their Friday (2/16/07). The drive takes about 4 hours from OP. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad and the blowing snow was really bad for road visibility. We stayed the night and headed out in the morning after the snowing had quit.
Besides being scared half to death with Megan driving on the slippery roads, we made it safely to their grandmother Judy's (where we usually stay) a little after noon. She lives in Middletown, MO (map). We just kind of hung out and Megan, Morgan, Judy and I played poker later that evening. Morgan won with me in second place :(
Sunday (2/18/07), I got to go ice fishing with Megan's dad. This was the highlight for me and I got all bundled up for it:
Here's another pic of me. Megan's dad has a buddy where we've gone fishing before that has a good sized pond. We went out there and used an auger to reopen some holes that had already been used several days before. I ended up catching about 8 crappie and 7 bluegill. Marty (Megan's dad) caught at least this many if not more. The ice was about 8 inches thick and apparently they quit ice fishing when it gets to about 4 inches. It's a good thing we went last weekend because it warmed up a lot and I think that was the last opportunity to go this year.
We also went to a hospital in Quincy (map) on Sunday to see Megan and Morgan's grandfather. We then played poker again that night and this time I won and Morgan came in second :)
We headed back to OP on Monday. The drive was much smoother because the roads were clear so I didn't have to worry about being on edge the whole time (at least as much as the drive there).
The plan was for Morgan to come up to Overland Park and drive out their Friday (2/16/07). The drive takes about 4 hours from OP. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad and the blowing snow was really bad for road visibility. We stayed the night and headed out in the morning after the snowing had quit.
Besides being scared half to death with Megan driving on the slippery roads, we made it safely to their grandmother Judy's (where we usually stay) a little after noon. She lives in Middletown, MO (map). We just kind of hung out and Megan, Morgan, Judy and I played poker later that evening. Morgan won with me in second place :(
Sunday (2/18/07), I got to go ice fishing with Megan's dad. This was the highlight for me and I got all bundled up for it:
Here's another pic of me. Megan's dad has a buddy where we've gone fishing before that has a good sized pond. We went out there and used an auger to reopen some holes that had already been used several days before. I ended up catching about 8 crappie and 7 bluegill. Marty (Megan's dad) caught at least this many if not more. The ice was about 8 inches thick and apparently they quit ice fishing when it gets to about 4 inches. It's a good thing we went last weekend because it warmed up a lot and I think that was the last opportunity to go this year.
We also went to a hospital in Quincy (map) on Sunday to see Megan and Morgan's grandfather. We then played poker again that night and this time I won and Morgan came in second :)
We headed back to OP on Monday. The drive was much smoother because the roads were clear so I didn't have to worry about being on edge the whole time (at least as much as the drive there).
Saturday, February 17, 2007
The "Other" Side
On Thursday (2/15/07), the manager (actually, my old manager) in the KS office I work with and I went to the Engineering and Computer Science Career Fair at KU in Lawrence. They had the career fair in the Kansas Union (map) and it was just like I remembered it.
Although it was only about 2 and a half years since I graduated from KU, it seemed like it had just been yesterday that I had attended the career fair looking for a job myself. Which, by the way, I never got a job this way :(
It was a relief to know that the students I talked to were just as nervous as I was when I was in their position. After they realized that I was not much older than them and I was actually still in school, most of them loosened up around me.
The fair started at 12:30 (with an awesome buffet lunch before at 11:30), but by 3:00 we had only gotten about 3 resumes. We were worried that it was going to be a bust, but the last 2 hours until 5:00 were much better and we ended up with about 20 resumes. I even talked to a couple of graduate students that we might consider for the team I'm on: SAM (Strategic Account Management).
I definitely don't miss the days of looking for a job and the notorious catch 22: employers are looking for applicants with experience but the applicant needs the job in order to get the experience they're looking for.
Although it was only about 2 and a half years since I graduated from KU, it seemed like it had just been yesterday that I had attended the career fair looking for a job myself. Which, by the way, I never got a job this way :(
It was a relief to know that the students I talked to were just as nervous as I was when I was in their position. After they realized that I was not much older than them and I was actually still in school, most of them loosened up around me.
The fair started at 12:30 (with an awesome buffet lunch before at 11:30), but by 3:00 we had only gotten about 3 resumes. We were worried that it was going to be a bust, but the last 2 hours until 5:00 were much better and we ended up with about 20 resumes. I even talked to a couple of graduate students that we might consider for the team I'm on: SAM (Strategic Account Management).
I definitely don't miss the days of looking for a job and the notorious catch 22: employers are looking for applicants with experience but the applicant needs the job in order to get the experience they're looking for.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Early Valentine's
Megan and I both have class this Valentine's Day on Wednesday so we decided to celebrate on Saturday (2/10/07). My managers had given me a $100 gift certificate to Morton's, The Steakhouse to show their appreciation, so we decided to go there for dinner. I made reservations a week ahead of time and we went to the KC location (map).
This had to have been the fanciest place I have ever eaten at. Megan and I were the youngest people there by 20 years! There was an old lady there that was wearing this over-the-top furry hat that reminded of something you would see at a party in The Great Gatsby.
One unique dining feature at Morton's is the visual presentation of the food. They bring out several different cuts of meat including a live, yes - live lobster and describes each piece of meat and complimentary sauces, sides, etc.
The food was incredible. We started out with one of their cheaper bottles of Riesling ($38). We had the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake ($12) as an appetizer:
Note that the appetizer version of the crab cake had only one of these while we were expecting at least a few :) Megan then had a Caesar Salad ($8.50) while I had the Center Cut Iceberg Salad ($9.50). Finally, for the entree, we both ordered a steak (imagine that). Megan got the Single Cut Filet Mignon with Sauce Bearnaise ($36) medium done:
While I got the Porterhouse Steak ($44) done medium-well:
We both shared mashed potatoes ($7) with the steaks because the waiter informed us that this was enough for two people to share. We were ridiculously full and both of us ended up bringing home a bit of our steak.
After tip, the final tab was $200 - by far the most I have ever racked up for two people. Even-though I had a $100 gift certificate, it was still $100 out of pocket. All-in-all, it was a unique experience and Megan and I both agreed that their steaks were the best we have ever had.
This had to have been the fanciest place I have ever eaten at. Megan and I were the youngest people there by 20 years! There was an old lady there that was wearing this over-the-top furry hat that reminded of something you would see at a party in The Great Gatsby.
One unique dining feature at Morton's is the visual presentation of the food. They bring out several different cuts of meat including a live, yes - live lobster and describes each piece of meat and complimentary sauces, sides, etc.
The food was incredible. We started out with one of their cheaper bottles of Riesling ($38). We had the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake ($12) as an appetizer:
Note that the appetizer version of the crab cake had only one of these while we were expecting at least a few :) Megan then had a Caesar Salad ($8.50) while I had the Center Cut Iceberg Salad ($9.50). Finally, for the entree, we both ordered a steak (imagine that). Megan got the Single Cut Filet Mignon with Sauce Bearnaise ($36) medium done:
While I got the Porterhouse Steak ($44) done medium-well:
We both shared mashed potatoes ($7) with the steaks because the waiter informed us that this was enough for two people to share. We were ridiculously full and both of us ended up bringing home a bit of our steak.
After tip, the final tab was $200 - by far the most I have ever racked up for two people. Even-though I had a $100 gift certificate, it was still $100 out of pocket. All-in-all, it was a unique experience and Megan and I both agreed that their steaks were the best we have ever had.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Boston Touch and Go
I just got into Boston about an hour ago. I'm staying at the the Hyatt Harborside. It's super nice. I have a king size bed, couch, desk, and a huge bathroom. I'm here because my managers and I are meeting for a few hours with one of our biggest customers. I'll be back tomorrow tonight. A quick trip, eh?
Since it's so freakin cold out, I decided to stay in and eat at the hotel's Harborside Grill and Patio. I figured since they had an executive chef, it couldn't be that bad. I indulged in Boston's favorites: the clam chowder and Samuel Adams Boston Lager. I was definitely not disappointed. For my entree, I had the surf and turf which consisted of a fillet and lobster tail with some yellow potato concoction. It was amazing!
Well, I'm gonna do a little work and then I'm off to the hotel lounge for some more Samuel Adams to watch the basketball games.
UPDATE (2/25/07): Added pics from my trip
Since it's so freakin cold out, I decided to stay in and eat at the hotel's Harborside Grill and Patio. I figured since they had an executive chef, it couldn't be that bad. I indulged in Boston's favorites: the clam chowder and Samuel Adams Boston Lager. I was definitely not disappointed. For my entree, I had the surf and turf which consisted of a fillet and lobster tail with some yellow potato concoction. It was amazing!
Well, I'm gonna do a little work and then I'm off to the hotel lounge for some more Samuel Adams to watch the basketball games.
UPDATE (2/25/07): Added pics from my trip
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Migratory Weekend
Both Megan and Clint moved this weekend.
Megan moved just down the street from me (map) to Highland Ridge Apartments (map). You can throw a rock at Tanner's from her apartment...bonus! We pretty much got all of her crap moved between Friday (1/5/07) and Saturday (1/6/07). Her parents came up on Saturday with the big stuff and we went and got her new bed from Nebraska Furniture Mart (map). Amy, Megan's good friend, is going to school up here for 6 months so she is moving up here too and staying at Megan's place this week in the mean time.
Clint moved up to Lawrence on Friday. Him and another guy got a real nice town home at 6th and Wakarusa (map). I went down on Saturday night to check it out. He was managing the On The Border on the West side in Wichita (map) but is now going to be managing the On The Border in Lawrence (map). It will be nice to have Clint closer and a place to crash in Lawrence with free OTB food :)
BTW, the Jayhawks better beat OSU tonight. Sweet picture from last year when we beat them:
Megan moved just down the street from me (map) to Highland Ridge Apartments (map). You can throw a rock at Tanner's from her apartment...bonus! We pretty much got all of her crap moved between Friday (1/5/07) and Saturday (1/6/07). Her parents came up on Saturday with the big stuff and we went and got her new bed from Nebraska Furniture Mart (map). Amy, Megan's good friend, is going to school up here for 6 months so she is moving up here too and staying at Megan's place this week in the mean time.
Clint moved up to Lawrence on Friday. Him and another guy got a real nice town home at 6th and Wakarusa (map). I went down on Saturday night to check it out. He was managing the On The Border on the West side in Wichita (map) but is now going to be managing the On The Border in Lawrence (map). It will be nice to have Clint closer and a place to crash in Lawrence with free OTB food :)
BTW, the Jayhawks better beat OSU tonight. Sweet picture from last year when we beat them:
Monday, January 01, 2007
Welcome 2007!
I put up pictures from Christmas and New Years in my gallery today. This one is great of Ember and my sister:
Here's Marsh and I with our cigars on New Years:
Here's Marsh and I with our cigars on New Years:
My New Years weekend kind of sucked because I had to work a lot of the weekend. There has been an urgent issue the past week and I've been working on it non-stop. I was up till 3:30AM on Friday night working on it, then all day Saturday, and a good amount on Sunday. I got away Sunday night and Marsh, Tina, Megan, and I all went downtown to Romer's apartment where we met up with everyone. We ended up going to O'dowd's (map) for our New Years evening celebration. We all had a really good time and Marsh, Tina, Megan, and I ended up taking a taxi home.
I think I have two New Years resolutions this year. One is to try to get a steady schedule of going to the gym. I've had too many obstacles this year including throwing my back out and requiring physical therapy for a month, school, and randomly getting sick. The other and more important resolution is to spend more time with my sister since she is only 30 minutes away now in Lawrence. I've also got a place to stay in Lawrence now because Clint is moving there this weekend.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
Online Christmas Entertainment
I put together a list of entertaining Christmas links I've ran into in the last week or two. A lot of them seem to be games.
- http://www.offthewrist.com/?id=santa - Fat Santa! Use the space bar to open his mouth and feed Santa. Make sure not to feed him any brussel sprouts. After a couple tries, I got Santa up to 296 lbs.
- http://www.elfyourself.com/ - Put a picture of your head on an elf and watch it dance. Check out my head on a dancing elf: http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=8f3537883f34ec29ef24ad9G20061210.
- http://pimpmynutcracker.com/ - Bling out a nutcracker with your favorite hair, body parts, and accessories. Here's mine (I like the "Nut Life" tattoo):
- http://www.noradsanta.org/ - Track Santa on NORAD on Christmas Eve.
- http://holiday.enlighten.com/ - For those of you have that have been invited to a Christmas party this year that you really don't want to go to, I present the "Holiday Party Excuse Generator". Provide all the information about the party, host, etc. and out pops an excuse. Here's one I generated
- http://www.addictinggames.com/sobersanta.html - Sober Santa! The name is very misleading. The goal is to actually move drunk Santa around on a slippery roof and get him more drinks. I managed to get 907 points before Santa's drunk cigarette smokin ass fell of the roof :)
- http://www.addictinggames.com/sobersanta2.html - If Sober Santa wasn't enough for you, try Sober Santa 2. The graphics are better and this time you are trying to keep drunk Santa off the train set tracks so he doesn't get shocked all while trying to get him drinks at the same time.
- http://www.reindeertipping.com/ - This is especially appropriate for us in the midwest: Reindeer Tipping! Try to tip. Watch out for flying Christmas puddings and shovel carrying Santa. My high score was only 678 points :(
- http://www.ornamentsthemovie.com/ - Pretty cool computer animated Christmas short movie. I suggest dowloading the large version with the best resolution.
- http://www.thecompassgroup.biz/merryxmas.swf - Animated Santa Claus and the chorus lip-sync to Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters' "White Christmas" recorded in 1953.
- http://www.gamenet.com/elfattack/ - This game is awesome. Use just the right power and aim to chuck snowballs at elfs. Make sure to pick up the packages from the sleigh that will give you bonus points, freeze the elves, multi-snowballs, speedy Santa, etc. My high score was 22,634.
- http://www.jibjab.com/originals/originals/jibjab/movieid/67 - Santa Clause is broke, presented by JibJab.
- http://www.jibjab.com/originals/originals/jibjab/movieid/27 - Farting Elves: 12 Days of Christmas, presented by JibJab.
- Finally, I present to you President Bush's rendition of Deck the Halls:
Friday, December 15, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
New KU Motorcycle Club Web Design is Up
I finally got the new design done and live for the KU Motorcycle Club at http://groups.ku.edu/~motoclub. Changes:
- Fixed F.A.Q. to look good through Firefox.
- New image on entry page.
- Condensed a few of the pages into one page.
- Updated the left-side navigation bar (new image, pages, font, size, etc.).
- Added images to the different news sites on the front page.
- New Club Officers page that shows images for each officer.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Movies, Holiday Shopping, Snake Feeding, and Chili Cooking
Friday, Megan ended up crashing around 9:30Pm :( So, I ended up watching two movies: Waist Deep and Road House 2. I wasn't expecting much from Waist Deep, so it was actually better than I thought it would be. Road House 2 was so bad that it was actually enjoyable to watch. They made a lot of references to the original Road House like "I thought you'd be taller" and "Your dad was wrong, pain does hurt". Corny as hell, but entertaining.
Saturday, Megan and I took 3 of my Blockbuster online rentals to the actual Blockbuster (map) store to exchange them for new movies. Blockbuster has this new Total Access thing were you can exchange the movies that you get in the mail for movies in the store. It's pretty sweet, but I've been overloaded with movies because of it. I think I'm going to downgrade my account to 2 movies at a time instead of 3 movies at a time. Anyways, we ended up getting Monster House, Superman Returns, and Feast. The only one we've watched so far is Monster House. It was pretty good. The computer animation, especially with the grass and house, was really impressive. The Feast is a horror movie Megan heard about from some guy in the elevator at work. It's supposed to be pretty gorey -> looks like it's about cannibalism or something.
Watched KU play another mediocre game of basketball against Toledo at Kemper Arena (map). At least we won I guess.
Hung out at Marsh's during the evening with some Blue Moon. We ended up going to a friend of Grant's, Libby, wine party for a few hours. They had awesome cheese dip. 'Nuff said.
Today, I ran all over the place, while not watching the Chiefs lose, and got most of my Christmas shopping done. Yay! I think my timing was perfect, because of the game I didn't have much problems making my purchases. Don't get me wrong, there were still a ton of people out though.
I picked up one live rat and one frozen rat for Biscuit (my snake) today. I think these were the biggest I have ever fed him. His head looked so expanded when he was swallowing it:
Saturday, Megan and I took 3 of my Blockbuster online rentals to the actual Blockbuster (map) store to exchange them for new movies. Blockbuster has this new Total Access thing were you can exchange the movies that you get in the mail for movies in the store. It's pretty sweet, but I've been overloaded with movies because of it. I think I'm going to downgrade my account to 2 movies at a time instead of 3 movies at a time. Anyways, we ended up getting Monster House, Superman Returns, and Feast. The only one we've watched so far is Monster House. It was pretty good. The computer animation, especially with the grass and house, was really impressive. The Feast is a horror movie Megan heard about from some guy in the elevator at work. It's supposed to be pretty gorey -> looks like it's about cannibalism or something.
Watched KU play another mediocre game of basketball against Toledo at Kemper Arena (map). At least we won I guess.
Hung out at Marsh's during the evening with some Blue Moon. We ended up going to a friend of Grant's, Libby, wine party for a few hours. They had awesome cheese dip. 'Nuff said.
Today, I ran all over the place, while not watching the Chiefs lose, and got most of my Christmas shopping done. Yay! I think my timing was perfect, because of the game I didn't have much problems making my purchases. Don't get me wrong, there were still a ton of people out though.
I picked up one live rat and one frozen rat for Biscuit (my snake) today. I think these were the biggest I have ever fed him. His head looked so expanded when he was swallowing it:
Feeders are expensive up here in KC. I must remember to get a bunch in Derby when I go home for Christmas. There less than $2 there but there like $5 up here.
Megan and I prepared some Deer chili to cook in the crock pot all day tomorrow. I have no idea why we made so much: more than 3 pounds of ground venison, onions, 4 cans of beans, 3 cans of tomatoes, and one can of tomatoes juice, and chili seasoning. We've had this venison for a while from Megan's dad and really needed to use it. We still have more than 3 pounds even after making this. It better be good because there's definitely going to be a lot of it.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Semester is Finally Over!
Just finished my class, EECS 767: Information Retrieval , for the semester last night. My partner and I presented our final project last night worth 35% of our grade. We were tasked to implement one of the tracks from the annual TREC (Text REtrieval Conference). We chose to focus on a component of the Genomics Track 2005. Some stuff related to our project:
- Report describing our implementation, results, etc.
- Javadocs for our system
- Source code for our system
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