Temporary Blog Switch

While I am here at MAX, I will be blogging here http://cambriadudes.blogspot.com/ - fun filled days mean I am pretty focused on the conference, so I probably won't post here at Dixbert.com again this week. Come check out whats going on in Anaheim, besides the A's being knocked out by the Sox.

Next Audio Book

I finished the Tim Russert audio book, by the way. Started on this one. I would recommend it as well. Chris Reeve reads it himself - so the message is even more powerful.



Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life

First Production Web Service

Sometimes a web application developer learns a new skill, but can't find a decent application to use it in. I learned about publishing web services some time ago, but never had an outlet to use the technique.
Today I am launching my first production web service. If you go to my company's site at www.cambriaUSA.com, you can enter your zip code from the consumer web page and get a list of retail outlets that carry Cambria Surfaces. You can only do this from our site though. Now with the web service I created, anybody can do it from any site, provided they know how. (They would find out how from me of course.)

Example: This link takes you to an example, it is on one of our web servers, but a completely different web server than the one that our main web site is on. The few lines of code on this page could be copied to almost any site, and the result would be the same. The table that you see is just a dump of the data, there is no formatting or HTML - displaying the data is up to the consumer of the service.

I think its cool, other developers will think it is cool. You might not. Thought I'd share it anyway. Its one of those things that makes my job fun. :)

Is this Thursday?

On the way to work this morning, my car started sounding like a hundred Harley's in need of a tune-up. I pulled over, called my wife and cursed a blue-streak because she lets me, hung up and drove the loud-ass car home. I took her van to work and actually had a really productive day. When I got home, I popped the hood and noticed the spark plug wire hanging around in the unproductive disconnected position. Peeking into the space it should have occupied, I noticed a distinctive lack of a spark plug. Nice. I took the van to the auto parts store and bought another one. Caleb my 4 year old was with me. After discussing the days events, like how his cousin bby was over, and so was our friend's son Miles, and Miles slept in the bean bag all day, he asked out of the blue, "What do elephants eat?" I told him peanuts. Its all I could think of right away. Then my brain kicked into gear, so I finished with, "and pizza and corn-dogs, same stuff you like."
Sitting at dinner the phone rang. It was my hunting buddy Joel. We were hunting this weekend. He said "Where are you?" I said I was at home. He asked me if I remebered the last thing I told him when I left his house on Sunday night. I did. Don't forget the Happy Hour on Thursday. Is this Thursday? Yeah, it is.

Tim Russert's Book

I am on disc 8 of 9 of the Audiobook Big Russ and Me: Father and Son, lessons on Life, by Tim Russert. Although the book is more about little Russ, with only a smattering of Big Russ's influence thoughout the book, it is entertaining and informative. Russert gives an interesting glimpse at growing up in Buffalo, the Irish/Catholic world of education, his Jesuit college years and how he got where he is. The chapters about his years spent working for Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan are so detailed and moving, it almost seems like to book could have been named "My real father and my intellectual father" - a phrase Russert used in the text.

Who's a blogger?

Here's an update. Not me. I'm trying. Life is DANGEROUS.

I can't keep up with myself, and its wearing me down. Feel free to quote me on that.

Stop Hillary

Get - r - done. Or in this case, don't.

From the web site:

"It is very likely that Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to run for President of the United States. We at the StopHillaryPAC.com are not going to let it happen! We are determined to launch a national direct mail campaign to every Republican, conservative and independent voter to educate him or her on Hillary's real record in public life."