Apparently I'm able to go almost 2 full months without doing dishes. Kinda gross.

Like everyone else in the geek world, I've decided to give Windows 7 a try. Well, I have my first impressions, right down to the "Oh God, I'm having to go back to Vista now!" emotions.

The install process was as smooth as glass. I had absolutely no complaints there. It did take a little longer than I had expected, but one can't complain.

The three reboots that were required after the installer seemed a bit much. I don't understand why all of the information couldn't have been collected after the first reboot, then just one more reboot into the new OS.

After I got to my desktop, I started by downloading Firefox 3, the ATI drivers for my video card (packed for Vista), and I grabbed Winzip and PuTTy from my other computer. I was pretty happy that the only driver I needed to find was one for the graphics so I could run in my preferred resolution: The sound and network were operational out of the box.

After I installed the ATI drivers, which was a horrible pain no thanks to Toshiba's packaging method, Windows needed to reboot. At this stage in the game, I don't understand why the OS needs to reboot because a new driver was installed. I have yet to come across a modern Linux distro that requires a reboot to reload a driver (or kernel module as the case may be). Anyhow, this is where the headache started (and didn't finish).

When Windows powered down, I decided to go ahead and remove my USB drive before the bootloader fired. After the bootloader kicked off though, it was straight to a blue screen. I didn't get a chance to see what the error was before it dumped the memory and powered down, but I was able to somewhat boot back up. The failure started after the GUI loaded.

Windows wanted to try to repair the OS right away, and only gave me the "Yes" and "Shutdown now" options. I decided to let it try to repair itself, but half an hour later it said it couldn't, and that my only option was to power down.

I tried to boot it up again after that, but got the same run-around, so I'm now reinstalling the factory software.

Conclusion: Windows 7 isn't ready, and it really hasn't solved anything.

The site is now running on the new framework, and you'll notice a little something below. Like I said before, this is something I'll be testing for a while, and it will have varying content. I plan on trying out some very broad categories, so you may see some kinda awkward stuff from time to time. For now though, this is it, folks!

I think I got all the bugs worked out with migrating to the new framework, but if you spot any problems please let me know.

kthxbai

So when I was chuckling at the lease violation my neighbors got the other day, I was thinking that it would come back around to get me. How right I was.

Today when I got home, a paper was on my door. It was a formal lease violation notice that said:

PLEASE REMOVE YOUR BIKE FROM THE BALCONY. THIS IS YOUR FIRST NOTICE. A SECOND WILL RESULT IN A $25 CHARGE TO YOUR ACCOUNT. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.

I completely forgot about the rules of balcony usage. Needless to say, there is now a bike in my bedroom, which will be in my dining room sometime later tonight or tomorrow. :P

Oh, also, I'm porting the site to my newer framework. The benefits of the new framework are many, but the two biggest ones a.) it uses less resources at runtime, and b.) it's much easier for me to maintain and enhance. As I may have mentioned before, I should be releasing the framework sometime in the nearish future. In the meantime, please watch your step. I may leave some Smarty code laying around, and it's a mess to trip over.

I am going to be running a bit of an experiment, starting sometime this week. The result of this will probably cause some more ads to show up on the site. I am going to try several different categories, just to test the waters. If you see these and have any feedback on them, please let me know.

Just for the sake of logging it, here's the first panic attack for 2009. Symptoms are all the same as the previously logged entries.

When I left Houston (I'm back, by the way), I dropped my car off at a long-term parking facility. The car sat there for about a week and a half, and everything was fine when I got back to it, sans one thing.

The car has had issues before with coolant being consumed somehow. I have never pin-pointed it, but I have had a suspicion that it was leaking from or near the water pump. My incident today confirms that it is the water pump.

I believe the shaft on said pump has a seal of some sort. When the car is running, this seal is exposed to hot coolant, which causes it to swell and create a better seal between the shaft and housing. When the car sits for a long period without being started, the seal dries up and shrinks, causing the car to lose the coolant.

Anyhow, what I walked up to was a wet spot under the front-right corner of my car. I assumed it had just rained or something, but in the back of my mind I knew it was coolant. The car started just fine, but there was an ugly light being displayed on the dash: The "low coolant" light. I had a little bit of pre-mixed anti-freeze in the trunk, so I just dumped it in. I hurried out of the parking facility, and stopped at the Shell station just down the street from the airport. After spending $15 on a jug of pre-mix, I was able to re-fill the reservoir on the car, and it was fine all the way back to the apartment.

I'll be checking things over in the morning before I head to work, but I suspect it will be just fine (for now). This is just one more reason I need a new car though. :)

The Wildbeest is back online. If you need your password reset, please let me know.

Growing up, I've been hit a few times with hayfever and other similar allergies. As I've grown older though, they've pretty well settled down. That is, until this year.

Sometime after Thanksgiving, the facilities crew at the office began decorating for Christmas. They set out several potted Poinsettias at various locations in the building, none of which were near my desk. When I noticed this, I said to my cube-mate Josh, "I'll be sick in a couple of weeks from these."

That couple of weeks have now elapsed, and I feel miserable. Just being in the same building as the horrid things, I started showing hayfever-like symptoms, starting with dry, red eyes. Now, my sinuses are in disarray, and I have had a <sarcasm>wonderful past couple of days</sarcasm> as a result.

Friday I went to work feeling okay, but a couple of hours into the morning and the sinus pressure started. After I went home that evening, I started feeling a little better. The next morning when I went in, I was feeling decent, but still had the sinus pressure. At the end of my 8 hour shift, I was ready to die from the discomfort. I ended up having to go back in for a couple of hours due to a technical emergency that only I could fix, and that ended up ruining me entirely.

I didn't get much sleep last night because of it: The sinus drainage into my throat has caused irritation therein, an it seems to have collected somewhere between my throat and my stomach, leaving what feels like an orange stuck in my esophagus. I woke up sometime around 8am this morning from a very light sleep, and my stomach started howling as if I were hungry. I knew I wasn't hungry, and that this churning was caused by the drainage.

I ended up going to the convenience store to get some soda and antihistamines. The latter seemed to have helped more than anything else, but I assumed the fizziness of the soda would help to break up the phlegm in my throat. I was wrong about the soda, so now I only have a bit of a caffeine high from it.

I have to go back to work tomorrow, then Tuesday I'll be flying back home for Christmas. I'm totally not looking forward to being cramped up in a pressurized aluminum capsule for 3 hours with this sinus crap.

It's been a while since I've talked about technical stuff and I need to rant, so here goes:

I got started in web development sometime around the middle of 2001... I think... Anyhow, it was a pretty garbled mess for me, as I picked up a couple of existing products and tried to make modifications to them to suit my needs. Frustrated, I ended up starting my own projects, and I have learned a lot even though not a single one is fully complete.

Along the way, I've played with all different technologies. I've used template engines, I've used frameworks, and I've even gotten my feet wet with some Ajax (without bleach :P). I've learned a lot from these, but there's one thing that holds true in all cases: Keep it simple, stupid.

Let's start from the top with template engines. It's kind of a good idea at first, because you may have your project broken out into groups of designers, developers, and managers. The designers may not know much about the core of your application -- the PHP that does all the heavy lifting -- but they may be quite skilled with XHTML and know how to do the needful. The problem with most template engines, though, is they introduce either a new markup language specific to the template system, or they use rather awkward methods using some sort of implementation of PHP.

For a long while I was a fan of Smarty. In fact, several of my sites still use Smarty. I thought it was a good idea because it helped me keep my presentation layer separate from my processing layer, and it allowed for me to make different themes for my sites. The downfall though was that I had to learn a new language that didn't really afford me the flexibility I needed, manipulating the data to suit the needs of the layout. Other developers pushed that I needed to not use a template engine and use straight PHP to build my layout. I didn't believe them, and when I first tried it after using Smarty, it was painful. But now that I've been working without any template engine for over a year, I can honestly say that PHP is beneficial from not only that standpoint, but also from a resource usage standpoint. No longer am I passing around arrays and classes up to 1MB in size. No, I'm now passing just the data I need, and using includes to load the different sections of my layout while maintaining my presentation layer separation.

The next problem is down to frameworks. Who in their right mind would consider building a simple list management system from a framework like symfony or Code Igniter? These frameworks are big, bulky, and are much too restrictive (unless you're new to the concept of project development entirely). It's possible to build a project from a very simplistic framework (which I'll be sharing my version of sometime in the next few months), and if you're diligent enough you can maintain a clean and organized project without sacrificing your power and ability as a developer. In short, frameworks like those mentioned are a horrible idea.

Ajax. Not the stuff I (don't) clean my kitchen sink with. No, the implementation of asynchronous JavaScript and XML. What's the problem with it? It's generally overdone (see Dojo Toolkit Demo: Contributor Listing), and pointless. Probably the only reasonable implementations I've seen so far are applications like Meebo and GMail. Generally speaking though, there's no point in using Ajax. It just over-complicates things and leaves you curled up in the corner of your office, sucking your thumb, and chanting obscenities against the technology of Ajax.

I guess in summary, I just want to say that I'm old-fashioned and I despise anyone who tries to get all fancy-schmancy with their code. You have a links database; you don't need a full MVC framework with an Ajax fisheye-flipper!

I was bored and started playing with a newish concept of a web layout. Go check it out at layouts.skudd.com.

Please let me know what you think.

Well, now it's going beyond the doorstep.

Since I moved in here, I would occasionally notice a beat up vehicle (Ford Escape I think -- it's too far gone to tell) downstairs. This vehicle never had a parking tag, and would always be parked under the covered parking (which is assigned). I thought it was rather bold of them, and was just waiting for the day that they parked in my spot.

I got home from work today around 4:00, as usual, and tried to park in my own space. The thing that made it difficult though was this pile of crap double-parked in my spot and the downstairs neighbor's spot. I knew I'd be leaving again in a bit to get groceries, so I didn't sweat it.

Before I left to get groceries, I decided I had better be prepared in case that car was still in my spot. So, I wrote a note that went something like this:

I would really appreciate it if you did not park in my spot, unless you happen to have a parking tag for it. Please don't park in my spot again, or I'll be calling the leasing office and you'll likely be towed. -- The tenant who has the right to be parking in this spot.

I took this note with me, folded in half, and walked down to my car. On the way, I noticed that the jalopy was still in my space, so I left the note under their windshield wiper. When I got back from getting groceries about an hour later, both that vehicle and the station wagon that belongs to the tenant next door were gone.

Since then, someone has come back and turned the loud music on again. It's Friday night and I'm cool with that, especially where I was watching a movie turned up a little loud. I'm just waiting for that music to continue past 10:00PM tonight though. I have to work at 7:00AM in the morning, and if I can't sleep because they've got this wild hair about it, I'm going to be a bit upset.

I'm also looking forward to tomorrow morning, when I find out my tires have been slashed, my windows busted out, or graffiti sprayed on my car. That's what insurance is for, but I will most certainly be filing a police report if that is the case... and I'll be late for work because of it.

It's happening again. This time I didn't even get to sleep before it hit. While I was working on getting dinner around I felt like one might possibly get me tonight, and I was right. :(

This one is very mild compared to the last, but the same symptoms exist: total adrenaline rush, trembling, rapid breathing, sweating like mad, upset stomach, extreme sense of fear (though not at all like the last 3 I've had this year), and a weird sense of detachment from reality.

It's possible that this one is tied to stress, as today was pretty hectic and I had to leave some things hanging at work. I didn't really feel stressed when I headed off to bed 30 minutes ago though.

As long as these things don't get dramatically more frequent or stronger, I'll be going to see some sort of doctor after the new year breaks.

Good lord, how far is this going to go?!

I was just sitting here watching a movie, and the group of brats that normally sits on the porch making noise late night weekends came storming up the stairs. One of them decided to jump down on his hands and knees in front of my window and plaster his face against said window, staring in at me. I yelled at him to go away, and he went and stood on the steps looking in for a bit.

I can appreciate the curiosity of kids, and the friendliness of Texas, but this is over the friggin' top!

This isn't the first time those kids have tried to cause a ruckus either. Last time they decided to annoy and startle me, they were messing with my bike (which is locked up on the porch, tied to the railing) and kept opening and closing my door.

At this point, I'm not quite sure how to handle it, aside from standing my ground. I'm tempted to take a trip down to the sports store and buy a baseball bat. I don't want to get violent with any of it, but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes.

I have a fair bit of expensive toys sitting here in my living room that would probably only entice them further to try to get in here. While I do have insurance and I am not too entirely attached to anything material I have (there are a couple of things with some sentimental value), I'm not about to have some falsely over-confident kid come in here to run off with my TV, XBox, or computers, especially not while I'm here.