Mike’s Thoughts

Ok, so I’m sure you know by now, that I thought, for some reason, it would be fun to host my own server, on my own laptop, in my house. This presented several problems:

• Low power from the laptop
• Limited manageability, especially while I’m away at RIT
• Unreliability the likes of which I have never seen

To remedy the situation, I switched my website hosting (the stuff I pay for) from Microsoft (why I ever did that in the first place, I don’t know), to Linux. This allowed me to transition everything over to a reliable host with more power than I had had before. This means that my blog should run quicker and smoother, and shouldn’t go down every other week! >:|

In short, I’m back! I’m going to continue to write as much as I can, about everything I can. As I mentioned on my blog’s home page, I have encorporated better PHP support, so if you would like to comment on my blog, please register by following the link on the right side of any page in my blog. It’s quick and painless, and you only have to do it once!

Everything is up and running, thought I am still transitioning over a couple of minor things that didn’t come over so nicely (blog tags, images, etc). But everything should be in working order in the next few days. To celebrate, I applied a new theme, which I have found to be my favorite so far, along with Wordpress 2.7 Beta 3. I will be posting about Wordpress 2.7 in the coming days as I have a chance to play with it, but first impressions are good. Very good!

Until then…

So, my PS3 of not even 1 year, pooped out on me last week. I thought it was just a fluke, but when I went to watch my brand-new BluRay movie, my horrors were confirmed. For some reason, the system froze mid way through playing a game, and ever since restarting it, the system will not recognize any disk whatsoever: not BluRay, not DVD, not CD. I had just installed the 2.43 firmware, so I am leaning toward pointing fingers at that….

Matters only got worse after calling Sony. First of all, you have to sit through AN AD on your phone for some stupid game. Then, when you finally navigate through 90 menus, the system reads you the same crap you can get online. Uh, thanks, but no thanks. Finally, you are prompted to press 0 to talk to a rep. The rep was clueless, and was baffled as to why my contact information would show up in there system! Hmmm… maybe because I registered the stupid thing half a year ago! The rep was all over the place, and told me that I needed to find my receipt, otherwise I would need to do an “out of warranty repair,” though he never said what that was. He gave me a reference number, and I proceeded to hang up, furious. I called home, and discovered that I had scanned the receipt…it’s like I knew something like this was gonna happen. I then called Sony back, and got the most insulting rep ever. After giving him my reference number, he asked why I was calling… um, read the damn info! The rep was extremely rude, and was obviously upset that I, the sucker who bought the piece of junk, had to call in. He then read off some crap about another form I had to fill out online. Fine, thanks for that.

So now I wait… supposedly they’re gonna send me a box or something. I am shocked at this situation, and believe me, if my system doesn’t come back in impeccible shape, I’m gonna do a lot more than rant on my blog! Sony, you’re on notice:

PS. If you want to make your own On Notice board, check out: http://www.shipbrook.com/onnotice/

So I recently discovered the wonder that is tinyurl. If you have never heard of this service, allow me to elaborate. Think back to a time when you wanted to send a friend a link to a webpage, but the URL looked something like this:

http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=~CMTYDataSvcParams^~arg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032340737%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f^~arg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f^~sParams^~%2fsParams^~%2fCMTYDataSvcParams^

Kinda mind boggling and a bit annoying, right? Enter tinyurl. Tinyurl is a service that allows you to create a ridiculously short URL that redirects to some ridiculously long URL, for free. The URL can be randomly generated, or you can attempt to make your own. What’s more, the URLs supposidly don’t expire, so when your friend decides to hide out in a cave for three years, you have the comfort of knowing that when they return to civilization, your tinyurl will be there, waiting for them!

I made a tinyurl for the link above, and it came out something like this:

http://tinyurl.com/3vkaen

Now sure, that looks a little conspicuous, but if you really want to be sure where it goes, just stick “preview.” before tinyurl, and it will take you to the tinyurl site, where you will see the entire link that it will redirect you to. (In this example, http://preview.tinyurl.com/3vkaen)

Sound good? Now go make your own at http://tinyurl.com!

So I officially received my new Nikon D40 digital SLR camera today. Here’s the thing…I bought my LG Dare with the thought that I would consolidate my devices by carring around a camera and a cell phone all in one. Let me tell you, despite being a 3.2 megapixel camera, it’s still a really bad camera on a camera phone, and it just wasn’t cutting it.

So, I took the plunge and bought Nikon’s entry level SLR. It’s only a 6 megapixel camera, but it’s miles beyond anything I have ever used. For more information on it, check out this site.

Right now, I’ve take about 115 really bad photos! I mean come on, for an entry level SLR, this thing has a ton of features, and I’m just beginning to wrap my head around them all. However, I was able to come up with a few that I thought were ok, given that it was my first time out.

I have created another page on my actual web site where I will post pictures that I find interesting. To check it out, simply go to gallery.mikebruckner.com, or click on the link at the top of my blog, or at the top of my main site.

So, after doing a ton of searching on the RIT site for instructions on how to use RIT’s LDAP address book on my local machine, I finally came up with the settings.

If you, like me, use Mozilla Thunderbird (grab a free copy from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/), then you will most likely want to be able to search the RIT directory for fellow students and professors.

To configure Thunderbird:

1. Click on the Address Book icon in Thunderbird
2. Click Tools -> Options
3. Click Composition -> Addressing, then click “Edit Directories”
4. Click the Add button
5. Enter the following information:
Name: RIT Directory
Hostname: ldap.rit.edu
Base DN: ou=people,dc=rit,dc=edu
Port Number: 389
Bind DN: uid=<your RIT username>,ou=people,dc=rit,dc=edu
Ensure the SSL checkbox is UNCHECKED
6. Click OK
7. Click the Directory Service checkbox, then click RIT Directory in the drop down box
8. Click OK.
9. Close Address Book, and restart Thunderbird
10. Click Write
11. Start entering a student’s name (like Michael). You should be prompted to enter a password. Enter your RIT account password, and if you choose to, select the remember my password option
12. You should now be able to use the auto complete feature to query the global address book
13. You can also search someone by clicking Contacts in the new message window, then selecting RIT Directory from the drop down window

Just thought I’d point something out…

It doesn’t matter if you have dirty cloths up to the ceiling of your dorm room, or if you have more empty pizza boxes than shirts.

No, if you’ve got the right stuff in your room, you’re set.

As a “hero” of the Colbert Nation, I give you a perfect example

So, I have officially completed my first month of service with Verizon. Let me tell you, I have never been so impressed over a phone, and believe me, I’ve had my share of phones. Having used Virgin Mobile for years (along with Boost Mobile, but don’t get me started with them…WORST CELL SERVICE EVER!!!), making the switch to Verizon was like going from having needles in your eyes to being pampered like a king.

The call quality with Verizon is second to none. With my previous Virgin Mobile phone, I could only get a pocket of service while at work, and of course, the pocket wasn’t at my desk! With Verizon, I can literally use my phone anywhere. The data is lightning fast, though I have opted to block the mobile web.

To check your usage, you can either register on the MyVerizon site, via the site on your phone, or by calling one of three numbers depending on the information you want. After calling one of the numbers, you receive a free text message with the information that was just read to you. The nice thing about the usage statistics, is that the data is updated within minutes of the completion of a call or text message.

Despite what I have heard about their customer service, I have had nothing but exceptional service. After looking at the “MyVerizon” site, I noticed data usage on my bill. Now, keep in mind, the charge was only nominal. I merely wanted to understand WHY I was charged. After sending an email over to Verizon, I received a response the next day. The rep sent me a copy of their data usage guidelines, and told me that even “accidentally” navigating to the mobile web home page, will yield a charge. So, I guess that that could be an inconvenience, but you do have the option to turn off, or add, remove or upgrade your plan and features at any time during the month via the MyVerizon site, all without extending your contract. The rep even went ahead and gave me a credit for the usage. Now that’s service!

Now, yes, I’ve only had the phone for a month, but as of now, I am absolutely loving this phone and the service. The coverage, combined with the ability to change my plan (or my features) in the middle of the month, is a deal that is all too sweet. My phone, by the way, is the new LG Dare. I plan on posting some info about it in the next week or so, but in the mean time, you can check it out here on Verizon’s site.

Check out this cool page that Google put together, which tracks the number of metals each country has won so far.

You can check it out here, of just look at it right here on my blog!

So, after searching for what seemed like weeks, I finally found Aimee Allen’s song, “I’d Start A Revolution if I Could Get Up In The Morning.” It was the song that was originally used in the Birds of Prey theme (see my previous post).

In short, I guess that the record company that was initially slated to release her album was bought out, and the project was dropped. However, Aimee has made the song available on her web site: http://www.aimeeallen.com/revolution.html

Take a listen and let me know what you think!

Update: I just found out that Birds of Prey is now available for download on iTunes as well. The advantage here is that you can download individual episodes, and the whole series is a few bucks cheaper than the DVD. However, the DVD set includes a few extras, including the unaired pilot, plus the entire Birds of Prey animated web series, so it might actually be worth buying the physical disks. If you still want to get it from iTunes, just follow the link on the bottom of this post.

---

After doing some casual browsing the other day on Amazon, I came across a list of DVDs that were due out in the next few days. In particular, the list named TV shows and DVDs that were “never before released.” One TV show set off a flag in my head…Birds of Prey. I knew that I had heard of that somewhere….

Oh yeah, now I remember…that awesome show about Batman’s alleged daughter. It had aired in 2002 on what was then the WB (now the CW). And what happened? Half way through the season when things were getting good, the WB axed the show. Despite a huge internet wide petition and a huge fanbase, the network put the kibosh on the show.

Seeing the DVD set for sale reminded me of how much I enjoyed the show, but it also got me thinking. It was again the CW that nixed another great show: Reba. So I ask: What compels a network to throw together an ending, which appears to have taken the weekend to make, for a show that clearly has potential? True, while some shows like Reba had a chance to grow on people, Birds of Prey was ripped out from under its fans…

For those of you who <shutter> don’t remember Birds of Prey, maybe this YouTube opening will jog your memory. After you have reminisced about how great the show really was, head on over to one of these sites to pick up a copy of the DVD set. Who knows…maybe the CW will see just how many fans would love to see the show return to TV!

Best Buy | Amazon | Target | WalMart | iTunes