Eric Swanson Unscripted

 

At least now, when there's a website problem, it's my fault and I can fix it.  When there's a missing feature, I can add it.  When I have some crazy programming idea, I can do it.

I'm alive and I'm busy... work, work, work.  family, family, family.  house projects, house projects, house projects.  sing, sing, sing.  friends.  work, work, work.

 

 

 

 

So, I joined a host, creating a new and, as of yet, undiscovered "strand" with all sorts of wonderful "meals" in it.  Hopefully one or more spiders will come along, gobble up my meals, and possibly link the "strand" into its own "web".  If not, I will have to attempt to personally feed each spider my meals and hope they then link my strand.  Once linked, I plan to create even better meals for the spider and hope that I can convince the spider that my linked strand should be moved to a more prominent spot in their own web, so that outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy my spectacular strand!  I also hope that other "chefs" like myself will find my strand interesting and create meals that incorporate my delicious recipes, linking their strands to mine without the spider's involvement!  Or, if the spider finds a recipe someone has created using my original recipies, the spider will remember my savory meal and give me the credit I deserve.  Then, when an outdoor enthusiast is searching for the best meal in every spider's web, they will see that I am the best spider meal chef they've been looking for!

 

Since I'm heavily involved with internet technologies all of the time, I often get frustrated with tiny things ordinary people using the internet would never think about...

 

The problem on my mind is that someone coined "web" as the catchphrase for the internet.  That's fine, but that's where it should have ended!  Although I think "web" is a TERRIBLE name for it...  Automated programs that make requests to web pages and "read" the content for bits and pieces of interesting info were then called "spiders".  This is my main issue...  The concept of a spider "crawling" the web is kinda fun and all, but it has nothing to do with the technology.

 

FYI: If you didn't already know, you can currently specify ANY directory / catalog / folder in your MSN Space URL after the name of your MSN Space...

 

For example,  http://spaces.msn.com/members/eswanson/MyHomePageAlwaysShowsUp/

 

 

 

A: MSN Spaces uses the technology provided in ASP.NET to "map" all of the information that follows the "/members/" web directory to an MSN Space.  In other words, the programmers have written a little bit of code that says:

I've been programming in seclusion for a couple of days and I was wondering if real people still existed outside...  So, I went to the all-knowing Zork and asked:


> Do real people still exist outside?
Invalid Input

> real people
I don't understand that.

> neither do I
I don't understand that.

> man
I can't see one here

> hey! That wasn't nice!
I don't understand that.

> woman
I don't understand that.

> lol
I don't understand that.

> look
You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.



"Many ideas are like dogs in the pound...  they're gonna die unless you adopt one." --Eric S. 1978-

 

... morbid, but true.

That's right 2 posts in one! Exciting stuff...

Post #1: Old People Suck
I am in the community choir here (laugh all you want) and the membership is comprised largely of older (laugh some more) and very experience singers. (ha! who's laughing now?!) Well, I ran into the "historian" on the board of directors today, who is an "elderly" woman. The conversation quickly turned to "I have to go work a 2nd shift... eck!" and "I'm enjoying my retirement." She's a very pleasant lady, but the whip cream on the conversation was when I mentioned not wanting to get to retirement too quickly (i.e. not growing old too fast), and she quipped, "Yeah, because I'll have spent it all." (referring to Social Security funding)

Damn you old people! I realize it's not your individual fault that Social Security worked out the way it did. But, we can't blame the government, because we vote on everything (or, rather you VOTED on everything that now affects me). So, yes I blame all you old people for indirectly setting yourselves up to live off of my paychecks, requiring all my peers and I to glare at the government with shaking fists of fury. Next time you see them, be sure to tip grandma's or grandpa's wheelchair on its edge for at least a couple of seconds and feel free to yell a profanity or two. Then, quickly apologize for your actions and respect your elders! Keep in mind that you might end up supporting your parents when they get too old as well. (Uncle Sam got us going both ways!!!)

Post #2: I forgot and don't really care...

I read an article in Time magazine a few months back about the living conditions for the poorer regions of Bangladesh... Mothers are worried about their children drowning, because they have to live near and sometimes in the water's tides. Some cannot sleep at night, because they are left standing in a few feet of water. The wealthy often enjoy their waterfront mansions by choice. Can you imagine being forced to live even closer to that waterfront in a shack where tides often rise inside your house?!

100 Years to an Ice-Free Arctic?
The article in Time was actually pointing out areas that would be adversly affected by global warming. My mind revisited the topic due to an article posted today by C|Net's News.com (great domain name C|Net!!!) titled "Arctic could see ice-free summers in 100 years". Now, before everyone freaks out, always remember that scientists use expiriments to determine outcomes. They then plot their results and attempt to identify patterns and trends in the data worth investigating further. After much analysis, they attempt to come up with a likely forecast for the future. If I were to investigate how influential sex was in advertising, the results would speak for themselves. But, throw in ALL of the factors of earth's climate and add in ALL of the factors humans have introduced to the climate, not including what humans might bring to the climate tomorrow or next week, and then try to make educated assumptions about the climate throughout history and add them into the mix, you get a delicious soup recipe for making predictions about future climatic change!

How likely is it?
Using the history of Earth and the relatively recent development of human "dominance" can give us a TON of incredibly interesting scenarios for the future. But, it tells us very little about the realities of tomorrow. Tomorrow will "probably" be like today. I don't wish to downplay anything that we know impacts our opportunities for today and the future. I certainly respect the work of these scientists and their constant desire to explain our universe. I even respect their results that explain ice-free summers in the arctic.  But, I don't and will not assume that it will happen.  It's a guess and science has been wrong many, many times.  Did I mention many?

My Conclusion
After absorbing all of this information, I am drenched in oil! Our use of oil, dependency on oil, and overall consumption of oil needs to change drastically. Regardless of climatic change! The issue regarding oil is known around the world, so I'll simply repeat myself... Our use of oil, dependency on oil, and overall consumption of oil needs to change drastically.

Personal and Shared Security
My mom sent out an e-mail today about a "new" credit card scam (none of this stuff is new). Someone contacts you with an elaborate story and your personal information to back-up their story and then they strategically ask you for targeted information they don't have yet. Could be your address, credit card number, etc. But, that's all "generally public" information anyways. It's not hard to get. What should raise red flags is questions about personal passwords.

The PIN on the back of your credit card is a password that you are in possession of the card. The ATM PIN you use at the bank is a password. Whether spoken, typed, gestured, or obtained through bioelectronics, a password is a password and you should guard it as such.

There are levels of trust for information; both personal information and shared information. In one example, your name could be a password. In another, when your child is left at home alone. You might agree with your spouse to hide adult headaches from your children. You might have a password with your employer.

Always ask yourself, "What could possibly happen if I share this information?" Then, assess the risks you are willing to take, including any resulting consequences.

So, are you a trained monkey?
Companies will take what they can get, because, by definition, they exist to make a profit (see the laws of publically traded companies on the stock market). If you are a United States citizen, you can rest assured that companies love to use your Social Security Number as a personal identifier and that they limit its use internally to "protect you". Yeah right... What happens when someone calls you up with incredibly personal information and asks you for something on the same "level of trust", or perhaps 1 level deeper? Can you be certain they are who they say they are? What about someone at your house?

Companies train you to be a monkey!
It's routine for a company to ask you questions about personal information over the phone to verify your identity. But, are you holding them accountable to the level of information they have access to? Are you, in turn, qualifying their identity?

After upgrading my AOL Instant Messaging program (AIM), I am fed up! EVERY TIME I install an AOL program (Netscape, AIM, etc.), they SPAM my computer with random shortcuts to their internet services. This is considered activities of Spyware according to the definition. So, I'm going on a rampage this week by submitting AOL to all of the popular Anti-Spyware programs (Spybot, Ad-Aware, Microsoft, etc.). They had better quit putting shortcuts in my internet browser, on my desktop, in my favorites, and in my closet or else! Who's with me?!

Okay... I listened to my song today after recording it yesterday and I hated it.  So, I removed it.  Ah well... I need a music mixer or something to play with.  Thanks for the referral Abbie!

 

Anyone good with mixing background music?  Maybe we can get some beats behind my voice...  Sorry, it's a 2.8Mb WAV file and I don't have the software to condense it for you all.  I also apologize if you think it totally sucks.  Hopefully, you just laugh... maybe even tap a finger or foot.

Ever hit the wrong computer button, mouse button, software icon, menu item and had to wait for the software to do its thing before moving on?  Kinda like a web page that takes forever to finish loading?  What if you clicked the link on accident and it took forever?  Well, usually you can tell web pages to just stop what they're doing and they do.  Programs are different...  You usually can't just stop them.  (for good reasons some of the time)

I just hit the quick tray icon for "MS Visual Studio 2003"... gawd...  That monster software program takes forever to finish loading...  I wrote to them a long time ago, "MODULARIZE!"  Actually, the letter was quite a bit more professional, but it leads you to wonder, why don't software developers make traditional software products more modular?  Kinda like MSN Spaces or any good website these days.  Unfortunately, people on my side of the fence are still realizing the benefits of a web-like interface in many aspects of traditional software.  There are benefits to both sides, let's all find a happy middle-ground.

Yes...  I know you hate these colors, but I hope it conveys the hideous nature of how "traditional" software and just plain bad software works

 

FYI: I think Visual Studio is a wonderful product!  Great idea...  awesome programmers... bad user experience. 

I thought that I would point out that if you are having trouble staying under the maximum 512-character limit imposed on the new "HTML Module" in MSN Spaces, try removing all quotes from HTML "attributes" and remove the "www." in front of web addresses and possibly trailing "/" at the end. So, my normal link might look like:
<a href="http://www.andnbsp.com/"> AndNBSP.com</a>
But, I could shorten it to:
<a href=http://andnbsp.com> AndNBSP.com</a>

Alright you MSN Spaces Update List Lovers

You can find the NEW and not improved updated MSN Spaces list at: AndNBSP.com. I purchased the domain so that I could eliminate the connection between "Eric Swanson" and the tool (no more eric-swanson.com in your statistics!!!). Plus, it was a really geeky, cool name and I had to grab it. For those less geeky than I, the HTML entity   represents a non-breaking space on an HTML page. And, since us common folk pronounce "&" in English as "and" rather than the proper "ampersand" ('cause it's ugly and long)... well, you get the idea.

For those of you who were waiting... sorry, for the delay, but I had / have some huge work responsibilities as well as a volunteer, website re-write for a community choir I am in.  It's a REALLY basic start, but I'm attempting to clean it up.  I'm no graphic design artist.

Raven is hounding me for answers on how to generate traffic to her website. Use Google AdWords. You will also want to contact websites with similiar content and see how you might get a link on their website, possibly trading links (if necessary). Spread the word. Only advertise if you really think you want / need to pay for some play. Now... I shall proceed to babble endlessly...

So you want to be popular?

Well, if you were already popular, you wouldn't be asking this question and the people who consider you popular now are not enough to satisfy your overwhelming need to quench this thirst that is parching your personality.

In all reality, if you are not popular doing what you are doing and you have tried everything and you have been patient to no avail... If you think that you will die before anyone realizes the "truth" of your injustice... That people may not ever recognize your contributions to this world and that your identity on Earth may be forgotten. Then... you just don't realize how popular you are! Everyone's like that! Well, almost everyone. At some point in all of our lives, we tend to sit back and our brain kicks into overdrive with the question, "Who cares? No... really.... WHO? WHO CARES?!". We start freaking out or whatever and we usually realize "nobody". That's not true of course. The answer is ALWAYS "somebody".

Looking back, painters, musicians, artists... let's just sum them all up into "The Artists". An incredibly large population of artists are never popular for what they wish to express through their work, but yet, the erosion of time often widdles these works into priceless gems that either touch a new generation in a new way or simply remind us of expression's purity through personality. Okay... now I'm talking like those people in "modern art" galleries around the world that try to find some fantastic explanation for why an artist decided to splatter 3 colors of paint on the wall and glue a tree branch in the middle.

So, the point I'm making is that you will be forgotten and that's okay. This need to be popular is not a need at all, unless its root is to be loved and touches on your personal insecurities. Then, you need to do some deeper soul searching and shouldn't be wasting your time reading mindless blogs.

But, I want to be Internet Popular!

You know... the kind that gets hits from all over the world! Well, then, I might suggest that you first make certain that the world wants what you have, even if it's like a grain of sand under God's feet. At least make them feel impacted as they pass by. Where do you find people that will find you interesting? Do the legwork! Write, call, talk, communicate your message... Find others to do it for you! But, stay involved in the communication process and keep up-to-date on how it's going. Plan ahead, review what's behind. If, after all your hard work has passed by and so have you, your ideas lay lifeless beside you. So long as these ideas have a hint of the principles of humanity. Someone... somewhere... thinks you or maybe just your idea is the most popular thing of all.

I have been working on a personal, big idea that is not software-related, but rather finance related since January of this year. Progress has been slow, but my goals are still ahead of me regardless. But then...

BAM!
Another idea that is software related hits me at lunch today and it's huge! The future is bright and I could get in on the action, but it would require a hefty business plan and some real financial fund raising finesse. Damn my head! It is always thinking. I have enough on my plate and now I feel obligated to see this new idea through. Of course, I'm sitting here trying to concentrate on important work for my employer and my brain is spinning off into this idea every few minutes. I'll schedule some time this weekend I think to mull it over...

In other news, I have purchased the domain AndNBSP.com, that will be host to my MSN Spaces tools and possibly other software I write. The name is a little HTML developer-joke for the entity  , which represents a non-breaking space in HTML.

 

The popularity of my custom MSN Spaces Updates list has definately made a dent in my statistics, but the bump that worries me the most is my SQL disk space usage. The amount of space I use is averaged across each day in the month, so I'm not all that worried yet. However, as the chart shows below, I have come just below my maximum of 350Mb. If the monthly average goes over 350Mb, I get charged $5 for every 50Mb over that amount each month!  So, I have removed all of the historical data from other tools I've written and made a significant reduction in total space used today.  I have also compacted / shrank the database.  But, the size will continue to escalate, likely well above my 350Mb max.  I placed Google Ads on the page that will help offset any costs incurred by the additional space, but it won't be enough and won't allow me to build any new things in my database.

Any ideas? 

Why do they keep pooping and piddling?! 

We trained our dogs to do their business outside. We even trained them to tell us when they need to go outside, since they cannot open people doors. They're both adults now. So, what's the problem?! It's almost a guarantee that once every 2-3 days, I'll find a moist little suprise lying around the house or a large puddle of yellow. Anyone else have this problem? Any training ideas?

If you find yourself having to change your name, e-mail, and / or url everytime you make a comment in MSN Spaces, then you have come to the right place. Visit this link, follow the steps and voila!

Update 2005-08-12: Also made the tool bring the cursor focus to the comment box after automatically populating the fields, so you can simply click the button and start typing your comment.

MSN Spaces has answered our prayers for a custom HTML module my friends! But, there's a catch! Only 512 maximum characters in length allowed! Find out how...

They also added modules for adding a video or sound file / music to your space as well as the ability to tweak the interface colors. However, I am a little disappointed.  They didn't do a single thing on my petition!!!  I was also hoping to specify a background image, but that's not possible.

All things considered, they are making progress and I'm all good with this progress!!! Thanks spaces team!

Here are a couple of questions I ask myself constantly...

Q: How can you be a "Sr. Software Engineer" when your personal website looks so aweful and incompatible in almost every non-IE browser?

A: 'Cause I don't care. I do this crap all day, you think I want to test my own website? I'll test it when it affects large populations of people, like my updates list, but all-in-all, I really don't want to take the time. I'd rather make a quick post here in MSN Spaces, have it automatically appear on my personal website within the hour and then go about my life. Maybe I'll stop by randomly throughout the day and take 5 minutes to make another post. But, I'm definately not going to spend an hour trying to make my website pretty for every browser quirk. Besides, my personal website is just a constantly evolving mess of tests and fun. I'll re-write it in a month or two I'm sure...

Q: I noticed you have Google's ads on your updates list. I thought you were doing this as a voluntary service to us "spacers"! What's up with that?!

A: I'm sorry... did you visit the page and it asked you for money? I added that this last weekend to see what happens. Here's a guarantee for you: I will spend more time on that tool than will ever be compensated by any amount of advertising. Besides, I almost used my initial earnings to buy Mike a free MeeGo for all of his hard work here at spaces, but it doesn't allow you to gift the lil' critters.