Jun
5
2009
I have done nothing truly innovative in the first 155 days of 2009.
This is what I have come to recognize as the cause of my current state of discontent. I have been doing a lot of self-reflection lately, which of course only happens when I have too much time for self-reflection. My preference is to occupy myself with exciting (read: cutting edge, innovative) projects rather than silly introspection.
Now, it’s true that I have done several things this year with which I’m quite satisfied. I’ve started making some good friends here in LA as the two-year anniversary of my moving west has come and gone. We added the Atlanta Braves as yet another flagship Photocore client. I was involved in launching a free career assessment aimed at helping young people understand themselves and find their ideal job (more about that later). But none of these satisfy my basal thirst for innovation.
Continue reading
5 comments | tags: entrepreneurship, innovation, software | posted in feelings, software
Apr
4
2009
Between hosting a weekly movie night and my regular Netflix subscription, I have seen quite a few movies lately. So I thought I’d share some of the films that I particularly enjoyed.
Let the Right One In - not your average vampire movie, exceptionally good story, disturbing only in its honesty.
Choke - while the first 15 minutes remind me of Fight Club (same author), the sheer absurdity of the movie is engaging and ultimately enlightening.
City of Lost Children - french movie, very strange bordering on absurd, but with a captivating story – if you can follow it.
no comments | tags: movie, review | posted in asides, film
Dec
16
2008
We’re using the ASP.NET C# version of PDFLib at work to generate loads of reports and cool pdf files. Everything was peachy on our development systems until we deployed to staging servers, then all of the sudden we started getting the following exception on the site:
The specified module could not be found.
(Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
Not one of Microsoft’s more useful error messages, to be true and googling for that error returns so many diverse topics that they were completely useless.
So after a bit of troubleshooting, we came to the following solution tips. These should work for both C# and VB and any other .NET language. Tested on Windows 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Continue reading
3 comments | tags: .net, c#, pdf, tip | posted in software
Sep
8
2008
Need to find something on your way to somewhere? check out FindItOnMyWay.com. If you need a starbucks on the way home, or need a FedEx on the way to the office, it can help.
no comments | posted in asides, cool stuff, software
Jul
13
2008
edaah is a social dining recommendation tool. based on where you and your friends are eating, edaah will suggest a few places to try. if you spend more than five minutes thinking about where to eat today, edaah will come to the rescue. by keeping track of where you eat, we can make sure you don’t repeat too often and can help to find a place your group of friends can all enjoy for any occasion.
we just launched the beta site – check out my page and then sign up for yourself.
no comments | posted in asides, cool stuff, software
Feb
21
2008
Last week I just released with a couple friends the v1.0 of ChopShop Racing on Facebook. It’s better than all the other racing apps.
Why?
Because it has a visual race viewer – you watch cars progress throughout the race (no coin flips).
Because it is based on Physics – heavier, faster cars aren’t always great around the turns.
Because it has technical tracks – we build track data based on the severity of the turn, lengths of the segments, etc.
Because you can race people who aren’t your friends.
Because you don’t have to invite people to play the game!
I’ll let the rest of you fill in the blanks after you go play.
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7900548411
no comments | tags: chopshop, facebook, game | posted in asides, cool stuff, software
Jan
5
2008
Need a C# native client API for Sphinx Search to use in your C# or VB ASP.NET projects? So did I, so I wrote one.
Yesterday, I found Sphinx Search and decided to try implementing it in place of the (horrid) MySql Fulltext searching for my Photocore project. After downloading the binaries and indexing a couple million rows of metadata, I was amazed at how well it performs. It indexed all my data in less than a minute (compared to the 30 minutes required by MySql Fulltext) and I haven’t come up with a search that takes longer than 0.005 seconds. I was hooked immediately. So I needed a .NET API because I didn’t want to patch my database server to use the Sphinx plugin.
Source download after the jump.
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21 comments | tags: api, free, search, source, sphinx | posted in software
Feb
27
2007
good show tonight. Cradle of Filth had some weird stage setup though with palm trees and camo netting… but you still have to respect a black metal band who manages to incorporate an opera singer :-) and Nymphetamine always hits the spot. not sure what the keyboardist was doing but i’m pretty sure the keyboard music wasn’t quite synchronized with her fingers hitting the keys. hrm.
it’s unclear whether The 69 Eyes take themselves seriously… but it’s emo-metal from Helsinki… so it’s pretty much awesome either way. if you count HIM among your guilty pleasures, you’ll like The 69 Eyes too. if you need a quick primer, buy their best-of album titled Framed in Blood.
and finally our friends to the north have produced something definitely worth listening to in 3 Inches of Blood. if you’re not familiar with them, their Advance and Vanquish album covers the important metal topics (orcs, medieval war, naval power, and futuristic robots). their new songs sound cool, but they’re a bit more prog than previous albums i think. prog rock pretty much started in the great white north with rush, so why not have some prog metal from 3 Inches? one song actually reminded me of mastodon’s blood mountain album – if you discount the vocals. which isn’t a bad impression to make. i only wish they had gotten more songs in.. they were the opening act and only did 7. (and this was the band I most wanted to see)
next week – Killswitch Engage and Dragonforce!
no comments | tags: concert, metal, music, review | posted in music
Feb
24
2007
It’s an old post, but I just found it and I quite like it. Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder. I am definitely stricken. I enjoy the content fire hose.
no comments | tags: nerd | posted in asides
Feb
23
2007
ok, Top Gear is a sweet show. but this time they’ve outdone themselves. found that last night and wanted to toss it up on here before i forgot about it. they also did a shootout between a Lotus Exige and an Apache attack helicopter in one episode. i need to move to england…
no comments | tags: cars, top gear, video | posted in asides, cool stuff