heatxsink.com

I've never really cared to know who visits my site. Hopefully that doesn't offend anyone (for those of you who have indicated that you've visited this site, thanks for visiting, and come back often!). But, I wanted to try out this Google Analytics thing that everyone has been buzzing about. So I installed it and have been looking at who's been hitting my site.

Everytime I apply to this place I get this standard template response.

This has to be THE best GDM Login screen I have ever seen. Thanks to Eric, I found it on gnome-looks.org.

This is hilarious.

Been reading Evan Williams blog, and he recently ordered a cool User Experience poster. I couldn't resist, so I got one too. I can't wait to hang this on a wall.

Smoking an acid cigar is like smokin on the ass-end of a Muppett.Drew Benz

So as some of you may or may not know I interviewed at a major social networking site today. I've never laughed so much in an interview. I'd have to say those 3.5 hours of my life that I spent there went by rather quickly.

Thanks to Chris, he found this on thinkgeek. Must have master yoda backpack, must resist need to buy it.

As if it couldn't get any worse. Tom Cruise is reportely leaving Paramount and signing with Yahoo! Great now I get to see all kinds of pictures of this duche bag all over Yahoo!Just stop being gay, and you're getting the whole "cool" Fonz thing wrong.This is The Fonz, and you're definitely not him.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.Steve Jobs

The more you can dream, the more you can do.Michael Korda

~*~Ringtones are <some bullshit here about your> personality.~*~

Sara Hauk

First, if you have the time to be able to get personlized ringtones for everyone in your phone book, you have too much time on your hands. Second, if you're paying at least $1 US for said ringtones, you're on crack, I have a hard enough time buying full length tracks on iTunes at $1 a pop! What the hell is happening in this world? SERIOUSLY!

We're not looking for class, we're looking for ass.Tom Lycus

Don't think, just do.

Smack your bitch up!

Revised

Do not lie to yourself.

Life is really simple as far as I'm concerned. There is no luck, you work hard and study things intently. If you do that for long and hard enough you're successful.Jason Calacanis (founder of Weblogs, Inc. (Engadget, etc), which he sold to AOL for ~$30 million).

I read this on WorkHappy.net.The top five mistakes entrepreneurs make when they marketby Seth Godin

1. Expecting gratitude in exchange for having done something that was hard. Yes, you built a company, you might even have bootstrapped it. Yes, you've got the machinery and the packaging and the retail space. Yes, you've navigated hiring people and yes, you finally shipped. I couldn't care less. I'm not going to buy your brownie/consulting/services just because you worked hard on it.
2. Spending money as a substitute for doing something great. Spending on marketing an average product isn't working anymore. You're far better off spending money on making your product better. A lot better.
3. Not realizing that it's your company, and your marketing better be as good as everything else. It doesn't matter if you don't like marketing or don't think you're good at it. Figure it out or go home. Sooner or later, you succeed because you were able to spread your ideas. So go to school and figure out how it works.
4. Listening to other people. If they're so smart, why aren't they running your company? Don't take a poll. Don't ask your mother-in-law, that's for sure. Cover your downsides, double your desire to take a risk and then just do it.
5. Failure to measure. All this is worthless if you don't test and measure relentlessly. Do what works. Kill what doesn't. Repeat.

Chris and I went to this place called "Alta Laguna Park," in Laguna Beach and hacked right inside the park.

When logging into Flickr to upload some photos from our night time hacking session, I was greeted with this.....

My hat is off to those Flickr developers they've somehow figured out how to make the web browser detect if I have j-gold! I'm even thinking about paying the $24.95 for the Flickr Pro account, because the service is THAT good. If the free service detects j-gold, I wonder what the Pro service will detect!

Do not excuse or take accountability for other people's actions.

My favorite part is...

But Lord knows that this world is cruel
And I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Learning loving somebody don't make them love you

Artists: Jack Johnson
Album: Inbetween Dreams
Title: Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

Now I was sitting waiting wishing
That you believed in superstitions
Then maybe you'd see the signs
But Lord knows that this world is cruel
And I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Learning loving somebody don't make them love you

Must I always be waiting waiting on you?
Must I always be playing playing your fool?

I sing ya songs I dance a dance
I gave ya friends all a chance
Putting up with them wasn't worth never having you
And maybe you been through this before
But its my first time
So please ignore
The next few lines cause they're directed at you

I cant always be waiting waiting on you
I cant always be playing playing your fool
I keep playing your part
But its not my scene
Wont this plot not twist?
I've had enough mystery.
Keep building me up, then shooting me down
Well im already down
Just wait a minute
Just sitting waiting
Just wait a minute
Just sitting waiting

Well if I was in your position
Id put down all my ammunition
I'd wondered why'd it taken me so long
But Lord knows that I'm not you
And If I was I wouldn't be so cruel
Cause waiting on love ain't so easy to do

Must I always be waiting waiting on you?
Must I always be playing playing your fool?
No I cant always be waiting waiting on you
I cant always be playing playing your fool, foool

I've never felt more alive, at any one moment in my life, than how I feel right now. Maybe it's age, maybe it's just the fact that there's a lot more data to look back on, and say, "Yes, I'm here cause this is my choice." There are many reasons for this, and unfortunately the web is a whole lot smaller than it used to be, and this blog isn't as anonymous as it used to be. It's extremely hard to stay what I like to call, "punk rock." I have really fallen off my wagon, I stopped blogging about the experiences and circumstances that I was going through. I'm sure some of you out there really enjoyed it. Some of you have even called me out on it (Thank You!). And for the lack of that type of content my deepest apologies. What has worried me the most is future employers reading about your experiences in life, and forming a very bad impression. But that's not "punk rock," is it? As we grow older we loose touch with who we used to be, and we compensate for our shortcommings, that combined with adult peer pressure we end up like lemmings. That's "selling out." I think for a period of time, I can honestly say, "I sold out." Hell, I even think it's border line "prostitution." It's pretty funny, I'll admit it. Self realization is a mother fucker. But here I am, something completely taken apart, and I'm trying to figure out where all the pieces went.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just get better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.Steve Jobs

It's a challenge to build an empire on a budget.Anonymous

Check out this video.

Thanks to Eric, he showed me this demo YouTube video of Xgl on a touchscreen.

No good deed goes unpunished.Clare Booth LuceUS diplomat, dramatist, journalist, & politician (1903 - 1987)

Ever since the introduction of Apple's Mighty Mouse, I often thought why didn't they do a bluetooth enabled Mighty Mouse? Well about two weeks ago Apple answered my question. Since the announcement, I've been very anxious to get one to see if it works in Linux with Bluez. Today I broke down and bought one. When first trying to pair my Mighty Mouse I got the following error:

I then remembered how Apple always ships their bluetooth perpherals with encryption enabled. Which most bluetooth human interface device manufactuers fail to ship with, probably due to the vast array of bluetooth stacks available for the Windows operating system (yet another reason why Windows XP is NOT a modern operating system), and adoption of the encryption feature. With Bluez bluetooth stack on Linux this isn't the case. I then confirmed my suspicion by invoking the following as root via a terminal:


After the confirmation of <encryption>, I then knew that my hcid.conf needed to be tweaked. I run Ubuntu Dapper, so the location of my hcid.conf is in /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf. Please adjust accordingly for your particular distribution of Linux.
I then uncommented the following line(s) in the device { ... } section of my hcid.conf:
Before:
# Authentication and Encryption (Security Mode 3)#auth enable;#encrypt enable;
After:
# Authentication and Encryption (Security Mode 3)auth enable;encrypt enable;
I then had to restart my bluetooth related daemons:


After that all I had to do try to pair my Mighty Mouse again:


I got a dialog box that asked for a pin number for pairing, I entered 0000.
After that I moved my Mighty Mouse and it JUST worked!!!!! I was at first VERY confused that the middle mouse button didn't work! But all I had to do was push the "round ball thing" down and click, and that's the middle mouse button!

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.Harold Whitman

Credit can fix money.Not having a product... well... you know.Christopher DeCaro

Those of you who know me, know I'm a major OSX fan. The one of the many things that I absolutely love about OSX is being able to set your background to change dynamically. I am throughly annoyed that this isn't available for Gnome. And so far no one has written anything that's done that. So strictly out of annoyance on my part, we present to you GShuffle.Christian and I quickly put together a small desktop rotator app in mono today. It reads your desktop background xml file and changes the gconf settings on a configurable timeout.To get the application do the following ...wget http://www.vwdude.com/files/gshuffle-0.1.tar.gztar xzf ghsuffle-0.1.tar.gzcd gshuffle-0.1./configure --prefix=/usr/localmakemake installgshuffleBy default, it shuffles on a 60 second interval. This can be overridden with argument 1.gshuffle 10This would shuffle on a 10 second interval.Enjoy.

This is absolutely amazing. I'm not much of a Flickr fan, but when I read this article on MSDN's website. I just had to try out the API to see if it worked with Mono and see how hard or easy it was to make a small app that pulled photo's from my Flickr account.

According to University of California Irvine's ICS department...

• Software engineering may be defined as...
  • the study of software process, development principles, techniques and notations
  • the production of quality software, that is delivered on time, within budget, and adequately meets its users' needs and expectations
  • the disciplined application of engineering, scientific and mathematical principles and methods in the economical production of quality software

• A Programmer writes a complete program.
  • a software engineer writes a software component that will be combined with components written by other software engineers to build a system
  • the component one writes may be modified by others
  • it may be used by others to build different versions of the system long after one has left the project
• Programming is primarily a personal activity
  • Software engineering is essentially a team activity
• Programming is just one aspect of software development
  • Large software systems must be developed similar to other engineering practices

I think my favorite part of all of this is the following...

Why is Software Development Hard?

• However, software development is "uniquely complex"
  • The field is young and there is little consensus and few standards
  • Software is irregular, intangible, invisible
  • Software is malleable -- we can modify the product itself
  • Software construction is human-intensive
  • Software application horizons expand with hardware capabilities
  • Software problems are unprecedentedly complex
  • Software solutions require unusual rigor
  • Software has discontinuous operational nature
  • No two parts or two systems are alike
  • Scaling up the system causes a nonlinear increase in complexity

Granted, everything is in a high state of evolution at this point in time, but I believe we're witnessing the results of systems being properly developed by "software engineers" which makes their product (software) highly extensible. Then people not involved with development of those systems (programmers) can come along and benefit from the architecture that's been put in place to manipulate anything for their customer's needs.

How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.Fred Brooks, software engineer and computer scientist

All my belongings are back in boxes.My long winter coats. Silk Indian scarves. Short summer skirts. Leather boots, salsa shoes and my favorite old cotton t-shirts. The odd jewelry collected from countries around the planet that wrapped a time, place or memory around my wrist, finger or neck. My bank statements. My checking books. Renewed credit cards with verification stickers still unpeeled and signature boxes unsigned (some tasks for which I'm happy to have never found the time). Spices, seeds, teas and other treats whose form of bulk are repacked for the next sedentary life period. Hair combs, colors, brushes and clips. Soaps, mascara, and lip gloss sticks. Back into clear plastic bags a fashion-influenced face is zipped.I am not yet catching a flight out of this country (still not for awhile). But today I move out of my den of seven months retreat (and only the distance of a couple miles) to sit a friend's house down the street. And as I strip. The closet. The desk. The bathroom. The kitchen. I come again to the conclusion that pilgrimage has less to do with physical measures of time and distance than it does with change, movement and rotation. And that the path has always had so much more to do with departure, than it ever did destination. The revelations, realizations and enlightenments I forsee I will find, hint at having much less to do with what I bring with me, than that which will be left in these boxes behind.

This excerpt came from solbeam's latest post. I couldn't put it any better.

Thanks for the quote, and I hope everything works out for you!

Because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...Jack Kerouac

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.G.B. Shaw

I don't plan on coming back anytime soon (no more than a tourist, of course). I'm on a mission. I've got to find what I love. Life is good. And There are currently no monkey's on my back.