Vitriolic Humor

I got a Canon Rebel XTi (400D) several months back and I'm immensely enjoying expanding my knowledge and horizons. I moved to the XTi from my 3.3MP Sony Mavica MVC-CD300 workhorse point and shoot camera. Despite being quite comfortable with the Sony (and its limitations) I have frequently said that I felt like a complete beginner again when staring through the viewfinder of my Canon.

I was contemplating all the different settings on the XTi that can be chosen for each shot the other day and I decided to toss them in a table:

A little math reveals: 61,749,528,383,550,522,560,348,160,000 combinations! That's 61.8 octillion (a thousand quadrillion or a billion billion billion (those outside the US refer to this to a quadrilliard))! Another way to look at this is 6x10^27, estimates of the number of atoms in the observable universe range in the 10^77 to 10^79 range. Those are some big, big numbers! No wonder I feel like a beginner again. Not all the settings will make a viable or desirable image, but there is the big picture math on the issue.

A typical photographer (me) usually only changes a couple of these at a time and usually through a limited range of the settings for each option, so it's not as impossibly complex as it looks. As with all technology, I look forward to seeing where this technology goes in my lifetime. The Canon Rebel XSi is out next month with even more options...

Tags: photography options dslr canon aperture camera settings shutter exposure configuration

Posted by speedeep at 1:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My kids won't know what life was like without the Internet, before computers were in every home. They'll never know what a modem is or the wonderful (yet grating) sounds it would make when you dialed a BBS. They won't know the joy of getting online 1200bps (and all the free time you had when you waited for downloads to happen.) Even their perspective on the Internet will be different. They won't know about Mosaic browser or text-based (only) browsing with lynx. They'll never know Prodigy or Compuserve. AOL is just a website. They won't know that Yahoo was a directory of links, or that Altavista, Excite, HotBot, and WebCrawler were once prosperous search engines with a large market share. They won't know that there were many years of Internet without Google at all...

They won't know of life before the convenience of microwave ovens.

They will think (rightfully so) that everyone has a phone and they are almost exclusively cordless or completely wireless. They won't know that at one time all phones were wired into the wall, that long distance calls were expensive and infrequently used. They will never know what a party line or a rotary dial phone was. They won't realize that phones didn't used to have cameras, games, music, and full QWERTY keyboards on them.

They won't know that people used to shave with just one blade.

Lightweight 27-speed mountain bikes with disc brakes and super travel full-suspension will be mainstream and affordable. They won't know the relatively low tech, heavy, inefficient bikes we had to ride. They won't realize that mountain biking was started in the mid-1970s.

My kids will never know what a caboose is for. They will only see them in train museums (and so we take them.)

Film photography will be some long-forgotten technique that people used to use before digital photography. They won't know what camera film looks like. They'll never know the growing pains of digital photography from low resolution to slow, delay-prone cameras. Everything will be high resolution, automatic, and instantaneous. It seems normal to them that you can store thousands of photographs on a memory card smaller than your thumbnail. Digital photo frames will seem normal to them. Static real photo frames will seem pointless.

They'll never know what a reel-to-reel, an eight-track, a vinyl record, a Mini-disc, or a cassette tape is. Even CDs are going to the wayside as things gradually swing towards completely digital music delivery, played on the all-pervasive MP3 player. Walkman and Discman will be largely historical and unfamiliar to them. They won't ever know about VCRs and Laserdisc players. They'll have always known DVD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and DVR. They'll think televisions were always flat and thin. HDTV will be the norm for what they are used to viewing. Their music will be all-digital and all multi-channel.

My kids won't know what a floppy disc was (8", 5.25", or 3.5") Wow! They won't know DOS (and I'm doing all I can to make it so they won't have to use Windows.) They won't know about daisy wheel printers, slow and noisy dot-matrix printers or fan-fold paper.

My kids will probably never know much measured in terms of 'megabytes' and will likely be more familiar with the concept of 'terabytes' rather than with 'gigabytes'.

I'm excited about the rapidly changing world they've been born into, but I'm sad they won't know the world as I do. I'll try to teach them what I can and maybe if I'm lucky they'll help me see their world through their eyes someday.

Tags: thoughts progress existence reality generation perception technology new memories family

Posted by speedeep at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was preparing the annual family photo calendar when I bumped into a wall of stupidity that astonished me: The major photo and gift printing sites (Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak/Ofoto) have dumbed down their sites to such a low standard that you can't do simple things like put a square-cropped image on a photo calendar page without having their system mangle your image.

To the photo/gift printing sites: Not every photograph is 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratio rectangle.

I gathered together my 13 images (12 months + cover), adjusted and cropped them in Bibble Pro (an awesome photo workflow and RAW conversion software that runs on Linux, Mac and Windows,) went to upload them to Shutterfly (who I used last year to make the calendar and with whom I successfully used square-cropped images last year) and quickly found that a couple of my square-cropped images (aspect ratio 1:1) were having the top and bottoms automatically chopped off by their system in an effort to force my square image into the rectangle it wanted. I had some wide shots cropped at 16:10 aspect ratio and it did the same thing, chopping off significant portions of the left and right part of my image. Frustrated, I went to Snapfish (despite previous problems with getting photos delivered in a timely fashion during the holiday season.) and found a slightly different interface with the same behavior mangling my photographs. OK, they can't all be the same,right? I went to Ofoto (now Kodak) and had the exact same problem. At this point I had a couple hours into what I thought was going to be a half hour project and was thoroughly frustrated.

I searched Google and came up with a photo and gift printing site I hadn't heard of before. Quite frustrated at this point, I visited Vista Print and was pleasantly surprised. They have standard cropping behavior, but they also provide a simple "Scale to Fit" option that lets you keep the aspect ratio and expand the image to either fit the height or width without cropping your picture. How hard is that? A simple option in the user interface that let's more advanced users creatively build their calendars the ways they want to.

Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak/Ofoto, please add some sensible options to your cropping step. Something simple like a hidden "advanced options" dialog, a "no cropping" option, or a "scale to fit" option. This would meet all your users needs without confusing the brain-feeble amongst us.

Next year I probably won't bother with the "big guys". Vista Print meets my needs and the calendars I received from them (very timely delivery) looked great. All the above mentioned sites work fine with Firefox on Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) for the record. Some of the drag-to-web upload functionality (Shutterfly) appears to be Windows-only, but everything else functions fine.

Tags: creativity photo printing linux bibble pro calendar digital on-line bibble labs gift bibble user interface frustration

Posted by speedeep at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a simple trial of Animoto using a handful of pictures of Colin. Great result. Check out their service.

Posted by speedeep at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Melanie, Colin and I welcomed our 2nd son and 1st brother, Rian Scott Morrison into the world this Saturday evening November 10, 2007, at 8:08pm CST. Melanie labored for 11 hours, then pushed for 7 minutes and gave birth naturally (without an epidural!) Again she's my hero! Both baby and mother are doing fine! Rian weighed 8 lbs. 3oz and measured 20 inches long.

You can send Rian an e-mail: rian at transmit.net.
The proud new parents can be reached at proudparents at transmit.net

We'd also like to thank everyone at OB/GYN Associates of Montgomery, especially Doctors Dupre, and Desautels. Every single member of the staff at Baptist Medical Center East made our stay enjoyable and healthy.

Pictures in 3... 2... 1... Pictures.

Tags: birth alabama baby rian scott morrison morrison rian montgomery scott announce announcement

Posted by speedeep at 8:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo Gallery >> August 2007
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Posted by speedeep at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo Gallery >> Barber Vintage Motorsports Musuem
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Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum (and, in fact, the entire Barber Motorsports Park) is a jewel in the crown of Birmingham, Alabama. It should be on the top of any motorized sports enthusiast's to-do list when visiting Birmingham. They have an excellent collection of motorcycles from all eras and all manufacturers. There are approximately 500 730 motorcycles and a approximately 40 or 50 sports cars on display at any given point. They are beautifully restored and displayed open-air in the spacious 5-story facility. Northeast Birmingham, approximately 2 miles east of the junction of I-20 and I-459. Follow I-20 past I-459, take the first exit past the junction (Leeds), turn right and the facility is on your right about 1 mile down the road. Admission is $10 for adults, and well worth it.

I've gone to the museum the past two weekends and had a great time. The basement "paddock" area is usually closed to the public, but was open this past weekend, so I got to stroll and shoot some angles you can't normally get.

More photos from Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

A satellite shot of the facility from Google Maps

<pander>Now, if I can just get someone from Barber to take me behind-the-scenes, or to the warehouse my journey will be complete...</pander>

Tags: motorcycle - museum - motorsports - birmingham - alabama - automobile - car - sportscar - barber

Posted by speedeep at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photos: On an Angle

Photo Gallery >> On An Angle
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Posted by speedeep at 2:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo Gallery >> Lotus
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Tags: rose hill alabama pond restaurant bloom lotus lake pike road dawson's flower pikeroad

Posted by speedeep at 1:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo Gallery >> July 2007
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Posted by speedeep at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like fellow Montgomery blogger, Charles Presley (Eating Montgomery, insert witty title here), I was amazed (after it was pointed it out to me) that there is an arrow in the Federal Express (FedEx) logotype. It's been there for over 10 years now and despite seeing this logo thousands of times, I've never noticed it before.

The ugly secret however is that now that I know it's there, my mind purposefully analyzes the logo each time I see it to catch the arrow, burying the brand and meme of FedEx deep in my cranium. Now I'm passing the curse on to you:

Besides being a brilliant use of typography in design and a simple, effective logo it's got the additional hook of the arrow in the negative space between letters. The man who designed this was interviewed by The Sneeze. His name is Lindon Leader and his company is Leader Creative. There, now you know who to bug, don't call me if you can't get "the arrow" out of your head...

Tags: leader fedex logo design graphics typography federalexpress type arrow logotype

Posted by speedeep at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am currently using a Canon Rebel XTi Sony Mavica MVC-CD300 camera that records onto Compact Flash media. 8cm CD-RW discs. I'm primarily interested in filing, categorizing and annotating my image files. Post-processing (raw conversion, adjustments, etc.) is usually minimal unless I really messed up my settings or am working commercially.

1. Transfer the images, as taken, to fileserver in a working directory. This is done via USB-connected Compact Flash reader attached to my fileserver (I'm considering adding a built-in card reader if my motherboard provides USB connections internally, need to investigate.) The files are written to a dedicated RAID 1 share on my Fedora Core 6 (currently) Linux fileserver.
2. Set the Compact Flash card aside, just in case...
3. From Unix shell, check that the file ownership and permissions are set correctly on the copied files. File permissions are all changed to 0544 for my purposes, so the files are read-only, but my automated system can access the files.
4. If necessary, renumber (rename) files. Canon stores 10,000 photos per folder, then automatically increments to the next folder. I prefer to append the folder number to the image number to form individual file names like so:
   DCIM/CANON101/IMG_2345.JPG becomes IMG_1012345.JPG. The little shell script I use to rename my files looks like this:

   for i in `ls -1`
         do
         j=`echo $i |sed `s/IMG_/IMG_101/g'`
         mv $i $j
         chmod 0544 $j
      done
   

   I currently keep all my photos in one directory (may rethink this later) so it is important for me to keep filenames unique.
5. Record the filenames of the new files in the work directory, move them to the production directory.
6. Process the photos through raw conversion using Bibble Pro
7. Process the new files (recorded in the previous step) through the script that loads the image records, vital statistics and meta data (EXIF) into the database:
   • sample the image and record the average color in HEX
   • record default values (photographer, photographer e-mail, photographer URL, file directory, filename, url
   • extract EXIF data with jhead and load that data
   • create appropriate .html files which call scripts via SSI and verify new .html file permissions
   • categorize photos where I can by date/time and other extracted information
8. Create test lightbox view of thumbnails
9. Correct any images that need their orientation (rotation) adjusted. Usually this is a rotate operation -90 degrees to counteract the camera being used vertically instead of horizontally.Now done in Bibble Pro, so not an issue.
10. Rebuild thumbnail files for new images. Other than thumbnails, all images are resized on-demand, real-time, and fed as a BLOB from my server to your browser. Neat tricks with Perl, Imagemagick, and Apache.
11. Rebuild category files to account for new files assigned to categories.
12. Verify that everything works correctly and looks sane/sober/kosher.
Format Compact Flash media.

I'm in a constant development process with this project, right now. The to-do list is long. Here are some details of the current implementation.

All photos have appropriate copyright notation and all rights are reserved. All photos are available for licensing. All photos are available in their original, unmodified resolution and format. Please contact me for specific information about licensing.

Tags: photography images photograph process image database photographer workflow digital gallery

Posted by speedeep at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does anyone remember when Walmart trucks all had "Made in the U.S.A." proudly displayed on them? I'm hoping to catch a picture of an old, retired Walmart semi trailer somewhere. What a long way from that Walmart has come. Sam is probably spinning in his grave...

I'll keep this short:

You need to read this great article on Fast Company.com about how Walmart manipulates it's suppliers.

You need to watch the new anti-Walmart documentary Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price.

You'll probably want to keep an eye on these sites for more information on Walmart: WalmartWatch, Wake Up Walmart, Wikipedia on Walmart.

If you have any doubt, consider the effort Walmart has put into their PR site Walmart Facts. They consistently derail you from the issue at hand and present facts that support their opposite take of the criticism, hoping you'll stay off-track long enough to believe what they are telling you. For instance, they will quote reasonable (but low) numbers for their hourly rate paid to full-time Walmart workers, but do not tell you that Walmart considers "full-time" 28-29 hours a week. Here's a link to help you wade through some of the spin: How to interpret the PR spin.

Consider what you are doing as you shop this holiday season. Do you want to send your money to China by way of Bentonville, Arkansas, or would you rather support your local community by shopping local suppliers and retailers? Do you really believe that Walmart is offering you the lowest prices? Always?

Why do you still shop at Walmart?

Tags: cost politics walmart economics responsibility monopoly spin marketing retail culture

Posted by speedeep at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Montgomery, Alabama seems to be 10 years behind the rest of the country on restaurants and retailers (we just got our first Target, Best Buy, and PetSmart 2 years ago.) While good restaurants spring up periodically, they are usually shut down with a year or two, victims of the "it's too pricey" syndrome this city seems to have. A few manage to hang around (La Jolla, Dawsons, Casa Napoli, The Olive Room, Vintage Year, City Grill) but we consistently lose great restaurants for lack of business (Felix's, Copeland's, Serrano.) We like good food and will even occasionally drive to Birmingham, Atlanta, or (less frequently) Mobile or Pensacola to hit favorite restaurants of ours, but life is changing and I'd rather go around the corner than across state lines to find good food.

Without further ado, 23 22 Restaurants I'd Like To See Come To The Montgomery/Prattville, Alabama Area:

1. Copelands: After a failed attempt on south East Boulevard, perhaps they could be convinced to try again, perhaps on the east side this time. It appears that Copeland's has now pulled of Alabama altogether (Montgomery, Birmingham, and Mobile) leaving Pensacola as the nearest Copeland's. Oh yeah, and bring back the Pork LaBoucherie. A guy can wish, right?
2. P.F. Chang's: Excellent, affordable American-Chinese cuisine, nice decor. Good quality Chinese food.
3. Red Robin: This might actually happen as a new RR recently opened in Newnan, GA. Excellent hamburgers and sandwiches, endless fries. We're getting a Red Robin, opening sometime in January/February 2007 timeframe at Eastchase!
4. Bennigan's: Traditional American fare, sandwiches, soups with an Irish flavor. Good neighborhood bar and restaurant.
5. El Chico: American-Mex, but better than any of the flavor-deprived mexican being served in this town today, nearest ones are in Mobile and Nashville.
6. Other Raving Brands franchises: We already got multiple Moe's and a Doc Green's on the way. How about Mama Fu's Noodles, Planet Smoothie, and Shane's Rib Shack?
7. In-And-Out Burger: Excellent West Coast burger chain, always smiling, gracious staff and prompt service of great food. Imagine!
8. Old Chicago: Great pizza and well over 110 beer choices.
9. Baja Fresh: The franchise recently entered and exited the Atlanta market, so Montgomery luring this consistently flavorful and fresh Mex star is probably a long shot.
10. Mimi's Cafe: French-inspired american food.
11. Noodles & Co.: Various noodle dishes, from Mac and Cheese to Asian noodle dishes. Same idea as Mama Fu's, a noodle house.
12. Houlihan's: Several locations in Atlanta
13. Cozymel's Mexican Restaurant:: Great Chicken and Carnitas Fajitas. Steak Fajitas so-so. Nearest one might be Memphis
14. Bahama Breeze: Island food and drink. Long lines/wait, get there early. Birmingham or Atlanta
15. Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy: Great Mexican food, all around. Memphis/KC/OKC are the closest ones.
16. Houston's: Up-scale sit-down American dining in a beautiful decor. Several locations in Atlanta.
17. Uno Chicago Grill: Chicagoland dining with new creative twists. Formerly Pizzeria Uno.
18. On the Border: Good chain Mexican
19. Buca di Beppo: Southern Italian food served family-style in large, delicious portions. So clean they take you on a tour through the kitchen on your way to your seat.
20. Qdoba Mexican Grill: Similar to Moe's and Chipotle, San Francisco-style burritos with tons of flavor and spice.
21. First Watch: A small chain of health-conscious and delicious breakfast treats in a relaxing evironment
22. Marie Callendar's: Home-cooked comfort food and great pies.
23. Cheesecake Factory: Great cheesecake (50 different varieties and a highly diverse menu including Asian, Mexican, Italian, American, Cajun, and Spanish choices to meet everyone's needs. Their menu is a small book. The nearest ones are in Birmingham and Atlanta.

Yeah, they are mostly chains, get over it. These are the good chains. Ah, if any 3 of these came to town, I'd be much happier about the dining scene in Montgomery.

I figure we could afford to lose some T.G.I.Friday's, Ruby Tuesday, Chili's, Applebee's, and O'Charley's, we'd have room for some new, good restaurants.

Tags: elchico review copeland's redrobin comments bennigan's mexican future montgomery business restaurant food and drink service al casual chain society development economic on the border good growth quality old chicago p. f. chang's buca di beppo alabama suggestions dining blog weblog restaurants prattville food red robin ideas

Posted by speedeep at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am searching for more information on Mary M. Carmichael (1833-1848) who is interred in Pratt Cemetery in Prattville, Alabama. She posthumously made the local news headlines recently when her headstone was recently located by Tillie Jones being used as a ramp up the stairs at a private residence in Prattville. The last accounting for this headstone was in 1916 and no one realized it was gone until 1995. Her brother's headstone (Dougal Carmichael) remained in place in the cemetery.

This past Founder's Day, July 20th, 2006, the headstone was put back in the cemetery during the yearly graveside ceremonies. Of particular note, it is interesting that Mary and later her young brother Dougal Carmichael are both buried in Pratt Cemetery, which is a small cemetery located on a hill above downtown Prattville. Most of individuals interred in the cemetery were notable citizens of Prattville or business or family relations to the Pratt family. There doesn't seem to be much information on Mary M. Carmichael recorded publicly, so I thought I'd put this information and request online to see if it catches any family or genealogy researchers who might have more information. If anyone has any additional background or information I'd be happy to hear from you and record the information for history's ledger.

The headstone reads:

Two articles from the Prattville Progress:
Pre-ceremony
Post-ceremony

Tags: dougal research historical cemetery soundex headstone burial site montgomery burical mary m. carmichael south history alabama carmichael graveyard autauga carmichal al interment ancestry prattville genealogy society doogal mary carmichael c652 southern mary family

Posted by speedeep at 1:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Syd Barrett (founder of Pink Floyd) died peacefully on Friday, July 7 at his home in Cambridgeshire at the age 60. His creativity was reigned only by his madness. A great creative spirit has moved on. Shine on you crazy diamond...

Links:
Wikipedia article on Syd Barrett
BoingBoing nod to Syd
NME
CNN
ABC

Tags: sid uk syd barrett music rock rick wright architectural mp3 history syd cambridgeshire the floyd roger waters floyd psychedelica brit pink david gilmour nick mason entertainment abdabs dave gilmour england psychedelic founder british death art progressive barrett memorium richard wright pink floyd flying atmospheric

Posted by speedeep at 2:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Photo Gallery >> 2006 Mayfly hatching on the Mississippi River

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Tags: ephemeroptera photography la crosse iowa exopterygota lacrosse aquatic hatching wisconsin life-cycle bug river mayflies insect swarm picture lacross east dubuque mississippi mississippi river midwest underwater mayfly insects illinois dubuque pictures

Posted by speedeep at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Until today I've only been peripherally aware of how bad crime was here in Montgomery. I heard that the FBI announced that Montgomery was the highest-crime mid-sized city a year or two back, but I live in a gated community (no guarantee of safety) and work on federal installation, so I haven't had crime affect me directly. Anyone have the tally of where we fall on the FBI's list this year?

Last night a person who works where I do was robbed at gun point and pistol whipped upon arrival at the Marriott Courtyard on Carmichael and East Boulevard; yes, on the East side of town. The thief got away with only a watch, and the innocent citizen was lucky to get away with their life and some minor injuries. For the record the Marriott Courtyard has no security cameras.

This particular citizen happens to be traveling to Montgomery to do their job. Their employer pays for them to travel to Montgomery, do their job, eat, drink, lodge, and shop here (I doubt he'll be buying a replacement watch in this city.) Is this how we welcome businesspeople and the money and business they bring to our local economy? Is this what Montgomery has come to? Do the thieves think they can fleece businesspeople and they will keep coming to this town?

The Montgomery Advertiser posts Crime Statistics right on their web site at http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=crimereports. Until now I'd never took a moment to read the reports. If you haven't, take a couple minutes and absorb what you read. By my count, on June 22, 2006, in our fine city, there were:

13 Vehicle Burglaries
8 Burglaries
4 Vehicle Thefts
3 Thefts
1 Robbery
1 Domestic Violence Assault

The estimated value of goods stolen on this one day total $61,801 with an additional $2,700 worth of damage to personal property (vehicles, homes) in the commission of these crimes. These are just the reported ones, for one day. Assume those numbers are a representative sample and multiply out those numbers over the course of a week (~$451,507), a month (~$2,000,000), or a year (~$23,558,990) as it pleases you. Not a pretty picture. Is it any wonder people are fleeing East and North out of town?

What are you doing to protect yourself? What can citizens do to reduce crime in Montgomery? Shall we all obtain personal firearms and learn to use them properly as the Mayor has publically suggested? What responsibility should the police be takng to reduce the crime in Montgomery?

I won't be recommending hotels on Carmichael Road for out-of-town guests and co-workers any more. I wouldn't have them risk their lives. I'd start recommending the hotels around East Chase, but it is only a matter of time until the crime migrates there too.

Anyone have a recommendation for a gun shop?

Dismal in Montgomery,

--speedeep

Tags: vision pawn rights leadership law human law enforcement statistics responsibility police economy travel robbery business montgomery guns culture life government politics change al transformation freedom montgomery alabama people society security domestic terrorism theft family burglary crimes climate gun crime terrorism safety stupid watch personal scandal impression stolen education alabama work united states stealing criminal news

Posted by speedeep at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just received a notice of a Tivoli job opportunity (6 months, temp-to-hire, reasonable rate, possibly low for Rancho Cordova, California) from a random recruiter. At the bottom of the e-mail was:

    If you are not interested due to low rates and location constraints please ignore this mail.

Guess he got tired of negotiating. I suppose I'm going to believe he put his best offer forward right away. Kinda like those "No Dicker Sticker" car dealerships. Well, just like the car dealerships, I will ignore this e-mail (other than this blog post) and won't consider your offer or any possibility of working with you. It's not a recruiter's market just yet, don't get too far ahead of yourself...

To break through the fog for IT workers who don't know the details: Most recruiters get 10-20% of your annual salary as a fee for "finding" you. This is money on the table from the customer that you won't see because they spent it on the recruiter. Most contractors pay you 50% (or less!) of what they are actually billing the customer. Be aware, be knowledgeable. If you don't have strong negotiation skills (IT workers and recruiters), I strongly recommend Getting To Yes: Negotiating Without Giving In an excellent book on the art of negotiating, by Roger Fisher and William Ury.

If anyone is interested in pitching a mutually-agreeable job opportunity for a high-end Tivoli Architect, Unix Guru, and Security Specialist, please feel free to browse my resume and drop me a line.

Tags: market negotiation rational opportunity program employment email business income contract relocation IT systems administrator e-mail hiring monitoring skill clearance security technology computers solution design architecture programming knowledge is power interview contractor copywriting tivoli career work advertising exploitation interviewing salary job human-resources knowledgeispower recruiter scripting search economics economy jobs administrator human resources innovation consultant sa admin internet linux ibm tivoli hr cocky strategy research ibm money netcool spam trends jobsearch capitalism public negotiate resume script unix system administrator trade puzzle environment announcement

Posted by speedeep at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently signed up for Netflix and have been very pleased with the service so far. I figure as long as I force myself to sit down and watch the movies as I get them, this will work out quite nicely.

Before I signed up, I had several questions I didn't find answered on the Netflix website:

Note: These are not official answers from Netflix, just the answers I've received or observed while doing business with NetFlix.

1. How is billing handled?

   Billing is done via credit or debit card, once a month, on the same day each month. I wasn't able to determine if you can pick or schedule the billing date.

2. Is there a limit to the length of your movie queue?

   Yes, The limit is 500 total for each of your queues combined. I found out by hitting the limit, not by asking. This seems like a lot of movies, but toss in several multi-disc sets and you'll have it filled quite quickly. This is the only very annoying thing I've found about Netflix so far. I put every movie I ever wanted to see, but now I have to cut movies off the list to add more. Very inconvenient, Netflix. Why arbitrarily limit the list length? The longer my list, the longer I'm a subscriber...

3. Can I change my rental plan? Any limits?

   You can change your rental plan from the standard choices (1 out, unlimited; 2 out, unlimited; 2 out, limit 4 per month; 3 out, unlimited) anytime you like. It may not update or bill until the next billing period.
   Update 4/29/2006: NetFlix has now updated their offerings to include 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-at-a-time rentals, although they've priced these offerings at a premium. The best value (assuming NetFlix isn't throttling you DVD flow because you are an efficient consumer) is still the 3 per month, unlimited plan.

4. Can I change my address easily if I move or take an extended vacation?

   There appears to be no limit on changing your address. Netflix users have indicated that as long as the address change is made before the movie is shipped, it always goes to the correct address as specified in the Netflix "Your Account" settings.

5. Do the queues interact at all?

   Yes, if you add a movie that is on another queue, it will notify you and give you the option of adding it to your queue anyway or canceling your choice.

6. Can i choose the priorities of the various queues?

   If you have more than one queue, you control how many movies ship out of each queue. For instance, I have the 3-at-a-time plan, so I could have 3 queues (each shipping the top movie in each queue) or I could have 2 queues with one of them shipping two choices from the top of the list and the other shipping one choice from the top of the other list.

Early on, Netflix had serious problems with long waits on popular movies. Looking down my queue right now, there are only two movies that aren't available "Now" in my top 250 choices:

• [95] Rush: Music in Review 1974-1981: Disc 2 (Very Long Wait)
• [250] Essential Music Videos: Bang Your Head (Short Wait)

I've got a mix of new releases, old releases, popular movies, and obscure movies on my list, so based on my personal observations and experiences, Netflix has cleared these hurdles.

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Posted by speedeep at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've had my own domain since 1994 and always ran my own personal web and e-mail services on a personal server. Running a public server on the Internet requires some technical expertise and a whole lot of patience. You will be bombarded with spam, you will face script kiddies scanning your services trying to 'hack' your passwords, you will see the underbelly of the Internet that most ISPs effectively hide from their users. I particularly enjoyed running my own e-mail server and quickly implemented RBLs, spamassassin, pyzor and razor to keep the good mail flowing and the spam headed to /dev/null.

All has gone well for several years until my ISP decided suddenly to block incoming traffic on port 25 (SMTP) to my connection. Everything froze, all my personal e-mail was blocked from my server, all my friend's e-mail traffic to their domains I was hosting stopped. I don't run a high-volume e-mail server, but nonetheless the messages traversing it are very important to me. I never was given a good explanation for why my ISP suddenly decided to do this, but their fix was that I'd have to upgrade to a commercial account ($70+/month instead of ~$35/month) in order to run my e-mail server on my Internet connection. I capitulated to their extortion while looking for an alternative e-mail hosting solution. This is strictly personal e-mail, not commercial/business related in any way, so the $20/month to $50+/month solutions I was finding really didn't fit my needs. Recently, I caught wind of a hosted e-mail service that Google has been developing and would be beta testing. Bingo! Sign me up!

I've been beta testing Gmail for your domain (Google's hosted e-mail offering) for a little over a month now on my personal domain, and am very pleased to say it works great. It's based on their Gmail infrastructure and interface, so Gmail users have almost no learning curve. It offers the same great feature set (excellent spam blocking (it has caught 1,000 spams in the last two weeks, with no false positives), easy e-mail content searching, rich text composing, AJAX interface, the Web Clip bar (which can be disabled)) as Gmail with some capabilities to customize the GUI for your users (by inserting your logo instead of the Gmail logo.)

Setup was very easy, some changes are required to your DNS MX records (remember your password for your account with your registrar?) for your domain to point e-mail to Google's servers. Once this has been completed (and propagated) you can log into the management interface, setup e-mail accounts, e-mail lists (think aliases) and make some minor changes to the interface (choose a background color, include your logo.) Once you've created the accounts everything is ready to go, it works just like Gmail. If you have a larger domain, you can use the account import feature so you can batch create your user accounts by uploading a CSV spreadsheet of your usernames and passwords.

The Gmail model has been to offer free e-mail service by displaying relevant(?) ads on the right hand side of your screen according to the contents of the e-mail you are currently reading. They still do this, I still find it minimally intrusive personally. I'd like to know what kind of revenue Google gets for clicked-through Gmail ads in a year (click fraud notwithstanding.) When you open your Spam mailbox, the Web Clip bar displays Spam Recipie links. French Fry Spam Casserole, Spam Breakfast Burritos, Spicy Spam Kabobs, Spam Quiche. I don't touch the stuff, but I like it when a corporate giant like Google doesn't take themselves too seriously and can still have a little fun. When in the Trash, the Web Clip bar displays recycling tips...

Wish List for "Gmail for your domain":

• For the beta test, each mailbox is frozen at 2GB, that's a lot of space, but why not let the mailbox size grow like other gmail accounts? That is one of your strongest features.
• Allow for pattern definitions in e-mail addresses. (I prefer to use "speed-[sitename]@example.com" when registering an e-mail with a third-party website. Right now I'd have to define each and every e-mail address I create instead of saying deliver "speed-*@example.com" mail to my Inbox.) This is one of the benefits of having your own domain name. Google has mentioned they are looking at doing this.
• Allow for a "catch all" bucket for all those "other" e-mail addresses that I have used over the years. Mail coming to my domain, unless it is determined to be spam, should be delivered to me. As it stands now, if I don't specify an e-mail address in my Google configuration, mail sent to the unspecified address (@mydomain) bounces. "Gmail for your domain" now offers a "catch all" e-mail address for your domain, an excellent example of the responsiveness of Google to their users' needs. It can be configured under "Domain Settings" once logged in to your administrative account.
• Especially during the beta test: put a link to the support e-mail on every page! (I had to go back and re-read my beta testing agreement to figure out what address to post feedback to. Isn't this the point of beta testing?)
• Announce your pricing structure for the future. It's a wonderful offering at it's current free price level (while beta testing.) How much will you charge afterwards? Keep in mind some of us are hobbyists, not commercial entities with big budgets, please.
• Put back the "invite a friend" links on your hosted e-mail offering
• Settle the issue of whether or not you will give user account information out to third parties and on what terms.

Right now Google's offering is in beta testing. They do have an "I'm interested" link at the bottom of their Google Hosted E-mail FAQ page. I've had the pleasure of telling my ISP where to stick their pricing and I've dropped back down into the reasonable price bracket (as opposed to their $70+/month commercial-account-because-your-host-your-own-email pricing.)

Overall, the offering looks excellent to me. It's been easy to use, as reliable a Gmail, and Google has been responsive to improvement suggestions. There are still some privacy concerns as to how and who Google shares their users' information with. If you run your own domain and are looking for e-mail hosting specifically, check out Gmail for your domain. Consider setting it up as a subdomain if you just want to test the service, so you can just direct mail from users@subdomain.example.com to "Google for your domain" while testing. This may necessitate signing up for the service twice if you decide to use it for your entire domain later, but gives you flexibility.

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Posted by speedeep at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Melanie and I welcomed our son, Colin David Morrison into the world this Thursday afternoon, March 30, 2006, at 1:20pm CST. During a regular checkup the doctors noticed some abnormalities and admitted Melanie to the hospital with a diagnosis of HELLP Syndrome (a complication of pre-eclampsia, formerly known as toxemia.) The cure for this condition is to deliver the baby, so the decision was made to induce at 38.5 weeks GA. Melanie labored for 13 hours, then pushed for 20 minutes and gave birth naturally (without an epidural!) She's my new hero! Both baby and mother are doing fine! Colin weighs 6 lbs. 10oz and measures 19.5 inches long. Head 12.75 inches, chest 12.5 inches.

You can send Colin an e-mail: colin at transmit.net.
The proud new parents can be reached at proudparents at transmit.net

We'd also like to thank everyone at OB/GYN Associates of Montgomery, especially Doctors Dupre, Waller, and Miller. They helped guide us through a difficult situation to arrive safely on the other side. Every single member of the staff at Baptist Medical Center East made our stay enjoyable and healthy. We'd like to extend a special thanks to LDR Nurses Pat, Martha, and Linda for the great job they did. Trista Griggs and Cher Sealy did a great job teaching our birthing and breastfeeding classes respectively.

Last, and definitely not least, we'd like to thank our good friends, Star, Stella, and Anita for their presence and assistance through everything.

Colin's pictures (chronological)
Colin's pictures (newest first)
Colin's pictures (most popular)