While doing some clean up on the site, I ran across a post I wrote almost a year and a half ago and never published publicly. I can’t believe how much has changed since then In the spirit of memories preserved, I’ll leave in the comments from HT and myself.

Written 12/29/2008

Within the next couple days, we’ll all be celebrating the new year and thinking back on the old one. Parties will be held, resolutions will be made, and invariably, resolutions will be broken. It’s a bit cliché now to even bring that up :\

I have to confess that no one will be as happy as me to see 2008 pass on by. Granted, there were some ups, but downs abounded… In January, one of my friends was killed, in February, my grandpa passed away, in March and April, my two best friends moved away, and so continued the rest of the year… My dog even died, for crying out loud. I became bitter, antagonistic, and hard-hearted. It was a year of disappointment, but through it all there was some joy.

Through one of the guys at work, I happened upon a website of web/flash developers and programmers… a very tight-knit, not-well-known community. Most of the people are of young adult age and several of them were going through similar situations and able to lend encouraging words and support, as well as offer advice with JQuery, SA questions and whatever other technical issues I ran into.

I also had some friends that were a bit closer, one specifically who, even though she didn’t always understand everything that was going on, was a regular source of support.

It took a while for me to realize something… even though I had lost people, either to the great end we all must meet, or the inevitable result of growing up and finding opportunities elsewhere, I can’t lose focus on the people that are still around.. who care and try to help, even when I don’t notice. It’s easy to get carried away with the bad that has happened and not see the good that is all still around.

So here’s to a great new year *raises Sobe Fuel*. May we all find joy in it and may we have the friends there to help us when we find otherwise.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock and dodging health insurance companies about getting a plan, you’ve probably heard of the passing of “Obamacare”, the gajillion dollar healthcare plan that increases federal funding to hospitals and doctors for abortions, c0ntrols what vital services people can and can’t have under the public option, and does everything in its power to increase actual insurance company premiums (gee golly, I thought it was supposed to do the opposite). In addition, it makes it downright illegal to *not* have insurance and you can be fined and prosecuted if you don’t.

I’ve railed against this many times on Facebook, so it might be getting old, but the fact is: this is an issue worth fighting for- and the Senate and House Republicans feel the same.

All night long last night, the republicans used every tool in their toolbox to stop and reverse the legislation voted on and approved by 50.3% of the house on Sunday. Eventually, two items were found to be in violation of Senate procedure. Republicans have launched a massive attempt to not only shut down, but amend the bill if the former doesn’t work. They’ve proposed 29 amendments that really don’t have much hope of succeeding, but each takes a really good shot at the legislation and would “unbalance” the legislation. Like it was balanced to begin with…

Now, most of this info is just regurgitated from the cnn.com website, but they had some … interesting …  quotes from Dem legislators. FTA:

“It’s unconscionable,” said [Sen. Carl] Levin, who as chair of the Armed Services Committee was supposed to conduct a hearing with a top U.S. military commander in Korea who had flown in for the hearing. “Our national security cannot be held hostage to disagreements over a health care policy.”

What about meeting with him on your own time? You know… maybe earn that pay raise you suddenly feel yourself deserving.

[Sen Claire] McCaskill had planned an oversight hearing on problems with contracts to train local police departments in Afghanistan. She said the Senate rule that allows the minority party to block committee action was “really dumb” and should be dropped.

“Disagree with us, debate us, vote no,” she said. “But to use a rule to stop us from working — that dog just doesn’t hunt from where I come from. That doesn’t even makes sense. That’s why people in American think we are clueless here.”

The only thing “dumb” about this is your apparent lack of vocabulary, odd idioms, and a disregard for the “rule”s which were put in place for situations exactly like this. If we must suffer under this law, lets make sure it conforms to the rules as all laws should (disregarding the fact that it doesn’t conform to the law, the Constitution).

Carl Levin continues, “It seems to me this is an example of how the obstructionism around here has gotten mindless.” Oh, yes, good sir. This is mindless. Please keep in mind that merely 39% of Americans polled were in favor of Obamacare and 59% opposed in a CNN poll this week (also setting aside the issue of representatives actually representing their constituents instead of the party line seems to be quite a thing of the past). The only mindless people are the 5% polled who have no opinion and the Dems who stop at nothing to make sure this succeeds: letters and phone campaigns, overwhelmingly negative polls, a clear breach of Constitutionality, etc.

With the recent surge in HSA-backed high deductible health care plans, health insurance can be affordable for just about everyone. That, my friends, is real reform- not adding a tax-payer backed insurance company into the mix that seeks to own everyone’s health.

This is a dangerous time, my friends. Know how your representatives voted and remember that in November.

Dude.

… Its a fact I’ve come to realize in the past week.

The only thing I ever throw out are wrappers, packing peanuts, and old homework.

I have a hard time letting go of things that meant something to me a long time ago… Letters from penpals when I was 11, notes from sermons at Lamoka when I was 15, Youth Seminar booklets and pens from when I was 17, funeral notices from when I was 21.

I still have my first official business cards- even though it took me 8 months of working at the place before I got my own. I’ve kept them even after two redesigns since then.

I have about $30 million in loose change in my room.. no lie. When I get a chance and count all the change, I’m sure I’ll have enough to pay off my mortgage.

*shudders* Mortgage. That single word is probably the most concise way to explain that you’re an adult.

I’m planning on boxing up my bowling trophies tomorrow- along with my model cars I spent countless hours painstakingly painting and assembling. Models which, in my mom’s merciless acts of cleaning while I was gone each summer, ended up on a shelf that even I can’t reach- and so they each have a dusty sheen.

I have a calendar still on the wall that my sister gave me for Christmas 2007. I made it to April 2008 and then forgot to flip the pages. Being unmotivated in such things as I am, it hangs right above where I spend my waking hours in my room- above the monitor. Worst of all, it features a horridly blue Mustang. The car itself is nauseating enough, why paint it that color?

Also littering my walls I have magazine cutouts of cars, posters of gaming greats (G-Man of HL2 fame, anyone?), the broken picture my camper bought for his mom (only broken through his carelessness, yet redeemed via my wallet for the purchase of a new one), guitars, turkey calls, dog tags, various years-worth of boogers that accumulated in oft-forgotten, rarely seen places (give me a break, I’m a boy), Eagle Scout neckerchiefs, Order of the Arrow sashes…

I have the foam nunchucks that each of the Zomgee Three won years ago at my birthday party celebration somewhere along the line. I have the silliest clothes that come no where close to fitting me, but I can’t bear to part with: the tie dye Chevy Truck shirt my brother gave me (Listen Kevin… I know its Chevy, but tie dye? really?), the Lord of the Rings Marathon that Kari (I think.. I forgot to what degree of perfection the colored glue and markers were applied) made me, the Jungle Book t-shirt I got when I was on the stage crew for yet another Terry Fyke performance (boldly emblazoned with the gawkiest cliche I could think of: The few, the proud, the stage crew), the silk Chinese shirt I won on eBay for a penny (and was shipped express from Hong Kong), and, most meaningful, one of the fleeces I always remember my grandpa wearing before he died.

To be honest, I’m not sure how my life so far has fit into one bedroom. My mom might argue that it hasn’t, as my things routinely spill out into the hall when the floorspace has been dedicated to dirty laundry, but I contend that the end of the hall is legitimately mine. I don’t know how my life will fit into this new house. Yes, there’s a billion times more space, but somehow, all this stuff seems..

irrelevant.

Pardon if I’ve waxed poetic and taken vain drama to a new level, but sometimes, when the reality of something in your life hits, you can’t do anything but write. I hate how it seems so many great things in my life have come and gone, but that’s the nature of living. I finally don’t spend my entire summer thinking about camp and wondering how the staff is doing– if campers’ faces get a bit cloudy when they ask if Tom, Pete, or myself are working “this” year only to find we’re not even in the same state anymore. Its startlingly odd knowing that many of those same campers-turned-workers will be experiencing that for the first time this summer too.

High school has come and gone.. Boy Scouts is but a memory. GCC is barely a blip in my memory, save the 6 months I spent every day trying to impress one girl. RIT seemed to drag on forever, yet I can barely recall the sight of brick building after brick building after brick building. When they found out Tom and I had gone to the same school for a spell, someone asked if we had any classes together. Rather hurriedly, I said “no”, only to realize a few awkward seconds later that we did… and it was the only class that I’ve ever gotten a C in. Well, that (being Politics in Fiction) and Discrete Math III with Yaxmi Gupta (anyone want to venture a guess why I didn’t do well in that one?).

Once again, my apologies if I’ve gone so dark that you’re beginning to feel depressed, but the sharp contrast here is this:

In two weeks, I’ll be living on my own for the first time in.. forever (minus the 2.5 month stints at camp), I’ll be married in 2 months, I’ll be enjoying Hawaii in 2.1 months , and, in 40 years, I’ll be yelling at the bratty neighbor kids to get off my lawn.

Sure, the things I’ve collected over the years may seem irrelevant now, but they’ve defined who I am. This process doesn’t stop here though, life is about adding to those memories.. loving.. being loved.. ministering.. praising God for His rich blessings– you know, those clothes that don’t fit but yet you can’t part with them.. those dusty dream cars in miniature scale.. and those letters reminding you of how you’ve touched others’ lives.

No, this isn’t another rant about how the media and advertisers are leaving out Christmas from their respective vernacular (heavily, and quite offensively handled by last night’s episode of Community)- its that time of year where I point you back to:

How not to end up in a ditch

As a bonus tip, avoid the ever-relevant “You have received a Hallmark e-Card from ‘A Friend’”, which invariably contains a link to an executable file which promptly installs itself and compromises your computer, AKA Bad news.

Merry Christmas and happy driving!

Its strange seeing a good number of people reacting negatively to the NYS Senate’s decision against legalizing gay marriage, but not many people at all reacting favorably, especially considering the ratio was greater than 3:2. Its also surprising given the definite left-leaning tendencies of the state. So what gives? O…ut of touch senators or vastly vocal minority?

Today is Oct. 22nd, marking the official release to the public of Windows 7. I’ve posted before the cheapest ways to obtain it (also, there is a 3-license Family Pack available on Newegg for $149.99)

Today marks a very historic day.. the first highly-lauded Windows release since 2001!

There has, however, been a bit of a snafu. Those of you who purchased and downloaded the copy of 7 from windows741.com may run into a problem about folder permissions upon running the installer. Gathered from here, follow these steps:

1. From within XP/Vista 32-bit, I downloaded the 64-bit version of Win7 Professional upgrade.
2. Used the installer to extract the files, but received above mentioned error.
3. Checked the file size of the folder “extendedSetup” and noticed that it was 3.01 GB.
4. Moved extendedSetup folder to root (C:\)
5. Downloaded this file and placed it into C:\WINDOWS\System32: http://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen…-l-oscdimg.zip
6. Bought up command prompt and typed the following: oscdimg -bC:\expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com -h -u2 -m -lWIN_EN_DVD C:\expandedSetup\ C:\7.iso
7. Burned ISO with ImgBurn (freeware)
8. Booted, installed, and activated

I’m trying that as we speak, so I’ll keep you posted as to if it works. Happy Windows 7 day!

EDIT: Command line syntax error.. -1 should have been -l. Its fixed above now

Ok, so Windows 7 is on the way and if you use a computer at all and are running XP or Vista, you’ll want to upgrade. Not only are the problems from Vista fixed, Windows 7 will run faster on the same hardware than Windows XP! If none of this is making sense, just take my word for it.

Too expensive?- you might wonder…

No.

If you’re a student, head over to http://win741.com/ where you can purchase Windows 7 Home Premium (what I recommend for most people) for $29.99!

If you aren’t a student, you can find copies for sale at Newegg

Home Premium: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754 $99.99

Professional: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116758 $114.99 after code WIN7PRO20

Ultimate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116762 $144.99 after code WIN7ULT30

Act fast though, the codes expire on 10/3

Over the past couple months, my refurbed iPod Touch 2G has been blacking out for hours or days at a time. In the middle of playback, it will randomly stop and not budge until I power cycle it. The battery can last 2 hours of mowing, or it could be dead in 20 minutes of sitting idly in my pocket. I finally decided to contact Apple about it and get it replaced.

My call to Apple Care occurred a few weeks ago. I spoke to a nice lady from a call center in the Philippines and, when I explained the problems to her, marked my iPod record as needing replacement. It went fairly easily enough- my device was still under warranty and was persuasive enough to earn the right to a new one.

I finally had the time and energy to visit the closest Apple Store, located in Victor… waaaay across town. I arrived on the spot and as I walked in, noticed the fairly subtle eight-foot-tall Apple logo on the archway. Upon entering, I also thought to myself how it wasn’t at all how I expected. I thought it would be a white-washed-with-aluminum-accents, sterile workplace. Instead, it was full of colors straight out of Will Smith’s 1993 wardrobe and light maple trim.

Next, I noticed the not-at-all preppy workers there: not the fit, smiling, obnoxiously overbearing people you see in commercials. My dreams of it being the opposite of Bust Buy were shattered, as I was accosted by three females and one very effeminate male, all wanting to know if I was plopping down $2k for a system [ xD ] or if I had an appointment.

Ah yes.. the appointment. Something the girl from across the world said to make sure I made.

I said “no” very casually and continued when I saw their confused glances… “I have a broken iPod, there’s an order for it to be replaced, and so I’m here to have it replaced.” They asked again if I had an appointment. I assured them that no, I didn’t.

I was quickly herded over to a corner where a freckled girl peered over her glasses and said in a low voice, “Listen bub.. I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here or if you’re here to cause trouble..” Apparently I transmit the aura (odor maybe?) of a PC user.

I kid about the last part, but after spending another five minutes explaining my case to a cranially-vacant audience, I was taken to a massive iMac where my information was entered and told I would be put on standby.

Finally, a “Genius” approached and asked my name. I was ushered to a stool, told to sit down, and had my iPod quickly and painlessly replaced. He knew of a condition that the 2G iPods had where the battery life was sucked quickly and random periods of non-operability were experienced- more than likely a short internally.

It may not sound like it, but I had a fairly open mind when going into the store. My optimism was dashed by overzealous salespeople, but then quickly resurrected by the ostentatiously-named Genius who assisted me. I realized from overhearing other Geniuses’ conversations that they were, in fact, pretty bright people and knew a lot of technical and practical things regarding Apple products. I don’t know if they had the required 140+ IQ, so the term might be misleading.

I did notice a distinct difference between the Geniuses and Geek Squad or other PC-equivalents.. The Geniuses are not only servicing a product (and one that your average 14-year-old next door can’t open up and fix), but they are promoting a brand. Apparently their actions and attitude are monitored closely and directed at doubling as advertisement for Apple. Perhaps when Microsoft starts opening MS stores nationwide soon, the same level of legitimacy and credibility will return to the PC repair market.

Until then, buy from Newegg and find a friend to fix your PC problems for you if you can’t do it yourself. If you have a Mac or other Apple device, take it to the store.

But don’t forget: Make an appointment.

Behold, another Zimbra-related post!

I recently ran across an article on how to configure Pidgin with Zimbra IM (5.x+) here, but since I run Digsby for IM, the settings and input boxes didn’t quite match up.

After talking to various people and troubleshooting problems of my own, I finally got it to work. Contacts and groups are also synchronized between Zimbra and Digsby, so if you move a screenname on one, it will show up on the other.

Settings:

• Go to the preferences window where you add a new account
• Click Add IM account and add a new Jabber account
• Jabber ID: your Zimbra email (including the @domain.com)
• Password: duh
• Check auto login
• Expand the Advanced section
• Host: your mail server (mail1.domain.com)
• Port: Change to 5223
• Resource: Leave “Digsby”
• Priority: Leave at 5
• Data Proxy: Leave blank unless you need to change it
• Check “Force SSL”
• Keep “Ignore SSL Warnings” unchecked
• Check “Allow Plaintext Login”

Once you save the account settings, connect to the server, and, barring any firewall issues, you should be all set!

I’ve been looking throughout the Internet today looking for ways to get mailto: links to work with Firefox and Zimbra. Since I didn’t want to touch the registry and most of the people here use Macs anyway, I had to make a Greasemonkey script to do the job. Sure, there are already scripts to do this, but they point to the standard interface. I wanted the advanced interface.

First, take this code, put it in a text editor, and change “mail.server.com” to your zimbra server (2 instances).


// ==UserScript==
// @name Mailto Compose In Zimbra
// @namespace http://www.dawnbreaker.com
// @description Rewrites "mailto:" links to Zimbra compose links
// @include *
// @exclude https://mail.server.com
// ==/UserScript==
(function() {
var processMailtoLinks = function() {
var xpath = "//a[starts-with(@href,'mailto:')]";
var res = document.evaluate(xpath, document, null,
XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);
var linkIndex, mailtoLink;
for (linkIndex = 0; linkIndex < res.snapshotLength; linkIndex++) {
mailtoLink = res.snapshotItem(linkIndex);
//alert(mailtoLink.href);
var m = mailtoLink.href;
var matches = m.match(/^mailto:([^\?]+)(\?([^?]*))?/);
var emailTo, params, emailCC, emailSubject, emailBody;
emailTo = matches[1];
//alert("Found to=" + emailTo);
params = matches[3];
if (params) {
var splitQS = params.split('&');
var paramIndex, param;
for (paramIndex = 0; paramIndex < splitQS.length; paramIndex++) {
param = splitQS[paramIndex];
nameValue = param.match(/([^=]+)=(.*)/);
if (nameValue && nameValue.length == 3) {
// depending on name, store value in a pre-defined location
switch(nameValue[1]) {
case "to":
emailTo = emailTo + "%2C%20" + nameValue[2];
break;
case "cc":
emailCC = nameValue[2];
//alert("Found CC=" + emailCC);
break;
case "subject":
emailSubject = nameValue[2];
//alert("Found subject=" + emailSubject);
break;
case "body":
emailBody = nameValue[2];
//alert("Found body=" + emailBody);
break;
}
}
}
}
mailtoLink.href = "https://mail.server.com/zimbra?app=mail&view=compose" +
(emailTo ? ("&to=" + emailTo) : "") +
(emailCC ? ("&cc=" + emailCC) : "") +
(emailSubject ? ("&subject=" + emailSubject) : "") +
(emailBody ? ("&body=" + emailBody) : "");
// mailtoLink.onclick = function() { location.href = newUrl; return false; };
}
}
window.addEventListener("load", processMailtoLinks, false);
})();

Then paste the code into the generator here: http://arantius.com/misc/greasemonkey/script-compiler

Leave the GUID as it is, change the max version to 3.5.* and then add anything else you might want.

Compile the script and then install the .xpi file into firefox.

Enjoy the pictures of the day below: fireworks, Corbett’s Glen Park in Rochester NY, and some crazy Never Ending Story clouds.