Voice blogging!

You can use Audio Blogging to post to your blog from any telephone! Neat!

Major ATOM API update

I've added editing and deleting capabilities to my ATOM API C# class.

26' SeaRay twin-engine boat for sale!

Our boat, which is on sale for only $20,000 or best offer. Send me mail if you're interested in it!

New feed

If you've bothered to subscribe to my blog's "syndication" (if you know what this means, then you know ... otherwise, you can stop reading), then please change the subscription to use my new FeedBurner feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DavesStuff ... thanks!

Laurel quits!

Laurel is leaving Microsoft. It seems like only 4.5 years ago when we were on vacation in New York and we got an overnight package at our hotel room -- her job offer from MS. She carried that package around New York all day and must have read the offer letter 100 times.

Well, so much for that. June 15 will be her last day at MSFT. She decided to take a little break and then perhaps become a personal trainer. There is even talk of running a marathon!

Oh Captain, my Captain

We're selling our boat.

You got me this time, Will

Looks like we aren't going to finish the New York Times xword this week. Even with Laurel's help, we're still several answers away from completion, and none of the clues are even things we could guess. The answers are published in less than an hour. Will Shortz, I'll be back next week to do battle again ...

Slight ATOM API update

I noticed that I hardcoded in my own User Agent string rather than using the Generator that was passed into the API. Oops, not a big deal, but might help Blogger.com keep better stats. Update here.

The calm after the storm

So a tornado did hit Broken Arrow, but east of my parent's house (and the storm is headed east), so basically they got lucky and it skipped over them. They are poking their heads out of the shelter to make sure.

Storm is over Broken Arrow ...

Doesn't seem to be a tornado right now, but the storm has hit Broken Arrow. Sirens going off ... even my father is in the closet now!

Storm shelter

DAVE'S STUFF EXCLUSIVE: This is the view into the storm shelter, basically a large closet under the stairs in my parent's house.

Twister

I created a sloppily drawn map of the approximate path of the tornado, from Sapulpa, OK, in the west to Broken Arrow in the east.

Tornado chaser ...

Listening to the Tulsa radio station KRMG on the net, while also IM'ing with my Dad. They just mentioned the school that I went to as being in the path of the tornado (apparently they have a "30 minute future" view of the tornado path and can pinpoint down to about a 10-block area). 60 minutes to Broken Arrow.

Tornado update!

My Dad says he has a picture of my Mum in the "storm closet" ... can't wait till he posts it.

Tornado

I come from Oklahoma, where tornados strike every year. I'm listening right now on the internet to a weather emergency going on, a tornado very close to Broken Arrow, OK (near Tulsa), where my parents live. Everyone says, "They have a basement, don't they?" But basements are pretty rare in Oklahoma, actually. Instead, they have a closet under the stairs, where my Mum sets up a storm shelter. I know this tornado was more serious than most, because my Dad is actually willing to leave his computer!

Upgrades!

I've upgraded my support for the blogger.com version of the ATOM API in C#. This version adds a way (although somewhat blogger.com-specific) to get the user's homepage link. I also updated my quick-n-simple PostBlog tool to use it.

More book blather

I finally took a closer look at a book Amazon has been trying to push on me for weeks -- Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Turns out, it is by David Sedaris, and therefore a must-buy item. Comes out on June 1, so I'll probably just go pick it up in a "real" store ... aw, c'mon, Amazon, don't be sad, you get most of my money anyway.

Books in the queue

Speaking of the new Wallace book, I might as well list the books I have in my queue to read, in no particular order:

• Oblivion -- David Foster Wallace
• After the Plague -- TC Boyle
• The Time of Our Singing -- Richard Powers

I rarely start a book and don't finish it, but I think that's what will happen with Dark Protocols by Richard Weber. This book is so poorly written ... I can barely stand it. For some reason, I'm avoiding reading The DaVinci Code until it comes out in paperback, so I picked up Dark Protocols instead, as it is supposed to be just as good. If that's true, I won't bother with DaVinci, even when it IS in paperback!

FYI, I get most of my books at Amazon.com, just through browsing around and seeing what I may like. If you want to buy me something, you can always check out my wish list.

Oblivion

That's the name of the new book by David Foster Wallace, my favorite author (well, maybe not ... does the fact that he wrote my favorite book (Infinite Jest) make him my favorite author, logically?) ... just got it today. I'm a bit disappointed that it isn't a full novel, but rather another collection of short stories. Sit down and write a real book, Dave!

The proof of the M3 Power Razor puddin'

The results of my head-shaving with the M3. I hope Gillette appreciates all this free advertising.

It's or its? Yes, I do know the difference

I'm a former copy editor (very former, as you can tell from my poor grammar, spelling, and general lack of interest in the English language). I even consider myself a "reformed" copy editor, insofar as I try not to correct people when they speak or write (mostly because I'd spend all day doing it, otherwise ... and also, I'm not immune to the same mistakes myself). Still, sometimes I appreciate being bashed for a stupid mistake. Like using "it's" when I should use "its." Easily avoidable, yet I did it myself just last night. I even caught the mistake but didn't correct it, figuring nobody would notice. Somebody did (Laurel). So I fixed it. Blah.

Gillette M3 Power Razor -- head-shaving review!

At last, the long-awaited and much searched-for-on-Google M3 Power Razor head-shaving review! Here it is: Wow. Buy this razor if you're a bald guy like me. Don't know what else to say about it.

ATOM in C#

Unfortunately, at least at blogger.com, the ATOM API won't work over SOAP (does this make any sense to you? If so, read on ... if not, stop now!) ... if you wanted to call the ATOM posting APIs from C#, you can do it pretty easily with this little class I whipped up to help. Have fun!

Dodgeball

I read on some other blog that the "Dodgeball" service is now available in Seattle. So I signed up and tried it out. So far, not much luck, because it seems my phone isn't compatible with the service. I'll see what I can do ...

New posting tool ...

Not of much interest to anyone but me, maybe, but this is my blog, so there. Blogger.com finally posted enough information about their somewhat wacky implementation of what is called the "ATOM API" to make it useable. What does that mean to you, dear reader? I can now add titles to my posts!

Still have 4 weeks to go, but I just hit (actually, slightly beat) my goal for the 20/20 program's first phase!

If you're a beekeeper, or just a general bee enthusiast (or just a person who likes "fat old guy hobbies"), you need to check out this site: Live In-Hive Infrared Camera

I'm having fun with this. Apparently I'm the NUMBER 1 hit on Google for "costco seattle windshield repair" ... people pay to be the number 1 hit ... maybe I should start a service, since I seem to be doing this randomly.

I know that 12 visits in 12 hours isn't that many ... but half of them have come from people doing Google searches on about the razor. Interesting ... welcome, battery-in-razor-philes, I guess.

My blog entry about the M3 Power Razor (by Gillette, don't you know) has made it to the FIRST search page of Google when you ask for "M3 Power Razor" ...

How do I know this? Because I just added a traffic counter (for free from SiteMeter.com) and it tells you how the person got to your page ... my first non-me visitor tonight was from Google, using that search!

Wow, another special blogging moment ... I got my first comment from someone I don't know ... so that must mean that people are actually reading this? OH MY GOD -- didn't mean for that to happen. If you're reading this, I'm sorry -- please go spend your time more wisely.

One thing you realize after watching yourself on a web camera that only updates every few seconds (rather than seeing full motion) is that you (meaning me) have a really stupid expression on your face most of the time.

Noticed that my "skinny pants" were too big today, so I bought some a size smaller to see how they'd fit. They are just the on edge of being too big! I've lost six inches on my waist in 11 weeks. The 20/20 program does work, and I've got about 16 weeks to go! (Although I do hope that they "give" me grains this week).

By the way, the M3 Power Razor wasn't supposed to be available until tomorrow -- I actually had it on my calendar to go buy. But Costco accidentally put it on the shelf a day early!

MORE POWER. Just got the new Gillette M3 Power razor. It's a razor with a triple-A battery in it ... ready to try it out!

Whoo hoo! Just did the NYT xword without mistakes for the second week in a row. More than 20 minutes, though ... took about an hour.

Brunch, 20/20 Style

Laurel is making brunch:

Frittata w/eggbeaters, spinach, etc

Yogurt parfait

Veggie sausage

Coffee

Fruit

Quesedillas

Dan and Tilly shall join us.

OK, I've gone over the edge now. A third camera is online -- this one on my home desktop computer. You just can't get enough of me, can you? (Talking to myself, of course).

Apparently, during the 3.5 hour review with billg, the team that was going to show my app to him "ran out of time" and didn't get to anything on the Smartphone -- which is what my app runs on. Next time!

Another wacky new camera feature: Multiple choices! I didn't want to have to keep switching between my camera in my office at work and the camera on my laptop (which may be at home or at work). So now I'll just keep them both running, and you can choose between the two. I might add further enhancements like defaullting to the office camera only during work hours, or maybe a way for me to easily tell the site which camera I'm most likely to be seen on, and have it default to that.

I've been "spamming" my Mum with email because I set her up to be notified whenever I update this blog. Hopefully, this will stop now, but I don't know.

Finally got un-lazy enough to learn a little new C# and add the time and date to the bottom of the webcam pic as it updates. C# rocks!

Eating that Dixies BBQ was definitely NOT on my diet. Lots of sugar in the sauce, lots of white bread. However, after two weeks of losing no weight at all, I lost 2.5 pounds this morning. So, maybe I should go on an all-Dixies-diet! ;-)

Well, the live webcam didn't work,so we're back to the other way ... it's "almost live" ...

I'm experimenting with a LIVE webcam (thanks to Eian "Korn" Counts for suggesting it). However, this will only work if I'm not at work, and you GOT to see me at my desk at work, right? As if anyone is looking at this.

And we actually say "oof" like we were socked in the stomach, instead of O-O-F, just to make it even more silly. Of course, a lot of us still say "S-Plus me" when we mean "send me a schedule request," even though the program Schedule+ hasn't existed for years.

By the way, "OOF" (see below) is Microsoft-speak for "Out of office" ... Yes, we know it doesn't make sense, and yes, everyone says it.

Garrett (mentioned in another blog post) has already made it to No. 8 in his top 100 songs in his Song of the Day contest (and yes, it is a contest -- you win by submitting songs that he chooses as new songs in his top 100. You LOSE by having to listen to all 100 songs). I already won a buffalo nickel (street value: 4 cents) for submitting a list of songs that I thought was very creative, all formed around the theme of "A Girl's Life" (Garrett was about to become a father and I guessed wrong ... it was a boy. Probably a good thing, because my song-based-view of a girl's life wasn't that flattering).

At any rate, only one of my picks (actually Laurel's) made it into the top 100, Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel. Until today -- I shouldn't give this away, but I'm at least one of the people who submitted TATU's "All the Things She Said." Enjoy the video.

I just got back from meeting "The Man" with my group from work. Who is the man? No -- the question is "What is The Man?"

There is a restaurant called Dixies BBQ (and Porter's Automotive Repair) in Bellevue that serves good BBQ, although my Tennessee friends disagree.

At any rate, a lot of people think The Man is the man who owns it, Gene Porter.

But no ... The Man is the hot sauce that Gene comes around and almost forces you to try, but only a TINY little bit.

Of course, I had to egg him on, and ended up with more than a tiny bit.

Let's just say I can still feel the burning, about 30 minutes later.

I hestitate to say this, because I know my Mum reads this blog, but it's true so I will: Gene says some things while he's serving you that you never want to hear from another man, such as: "Touch The Man" or "Put The Man on your tongue, baby!"

Just saw the most amazing site ... fundrace.org ... it lets you search on your address and see how much your neighbors have donated to the various candidates. My neighborhood is highly Democratic. Bill Gates gave George Bush $2000, according to the site.

My webcam picture will now automatically update ... assuming a camera is turned on. So if it isn't changing, then that just means my laptop is turned off.

Hey, they FINALLY fixed comments!

New feature: Webcam!!! Look to the side, under my profile. Not sure how often it'll update, but there you go.

Too much traffic today to give us time to get to the motorcycle shop ... I'm starting to miss it! On the way to work, I lost my cardkey to get in the door. I turned around to look for it, and saw someone pick it up and take it into another building. I followed him in, but he didn't leave it with the receptionist. So I went back to my building, checked in, looked at my email, and saw that he had stopped by his office first, emailed me, and THEN took it down to the receptionist in his building. So I walked back ... at any rate, I have it safe and sound now.

Had to take my motorcycle in for repair because the brakes sounded horrible (at least they did two weeks ago when I made the appointment. Now they sound OK). Turns out: "That's how they sound when they are new." Only $38 to find that out!

A rare treat

Laurel and I are actually driving home together AND she's driving! [Sent from Magneto PocketPC 14122]

David Cross, one of the few comedians brave enough to include me and Laurel in his HBO special (or was it Showtime? Whatever), has a new CD out.

I hope that it is funny, even though the title says that it isn't ... but I think that may be a JOKE!

As the "kids" "say," "props" to "my" brother, Mike, for letting me know!

Looks like comments still aren't fixed ...

Comments?

Blogger guys say they fixed comments. Did they? [Sent from Magneto PocketPC 14122]

Just sitting at Jiffy Lube waiting for my oil change ... and filters ... and differential flush ... and windshield repair ... and tire rotation. This should only take about 4 hours and cost no more than $5000. ;-)

I finished the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle today (well, actually last night on the net) without mistakes and very quickly ... although I didn't think to record the exact time, so I don't know if I beat the "Bill Clinton Challenge."

According to puzzle creator Merle Reagle: Clinton is an ace crossword solver who can polish off the New York Times Sunday puzzle in about 20 minutes - in ink, with no mistakes. So I try to finish it in less than 20 minutes without mistakes, on the computer. I think I've done it about three times in the past two years of doing the NYT Sunday puzzle every week; it's more common that it takes several hours and plenty of help from Laurel.

Even more challenging, NYT crossword editor Will Shortz says Clinton solved a puzzle in less than seven minutes while talking on the phone, but that was a "specially constructed" one that I'm thinking was maybe on the level of what you see in the TV guide.

If you're interested in solving the NYT Sunday puzzle, I suggest starting with a Monday NYT, then working your way up to Thursday (they get harder throughout the week). Friday and Saturday are impossible. But Sunday is about "Thursday"-level, just larger.

I have another blog ... although this one is updated automatically by my "Dave Trackbots" ... whenever someone locates me over the web, it logs to this site.

Comment on my photos! (This is a generic post against which you can comment on the pix from my Moblog).

My Dad is a race car driver. Go, Ford Focus, go!

Edited the photos piece to be its own box ... not sure I like it that way, either. Maybe I should just go back to the way I had it ;-)

Just experimenting with some new formatting. Put the moblog photos at the top, and included more of them, so they will "rotate out" more slowly. Not sure I like having them in the header like that, or if they should be in their own box, but I'm too tired to muck around with the HTML/CSS code at this point.

Posting from PocketPC

We ate at Todai tonight. [Sent from Magneto PocketPC 14122]

Jerry says this is the dog that could "get" any girl in the universe. It's cute, but not "Drew Barrymore" cute.

The landscaper called to check on the status of our plumbing. I told him that it was taken care of, and he asked how much it cost. I told him and he got mad, saying, "I'd have done it for $100!" No ... you would have done it for FREE, Mr. Le!!! I told him, "Sorry, I wanted it done today ... and right."

Does Bill Gates see my stuff? The answer is YES. He's already seen one demo I created about location in Instant Messenger. On Monday, he is going to see the Seattle Traffic application I wrote for the MS Smartphone. Will I get to be there? No, only in spirit.

Bobby the Whistlin' Plumber (so-called not just because he was a plumber who whistled, but also because his Christian name was Robert deVistlenplummer) was able to take the hopeless jumble of pipes that Mr. Le left behind and turn it into elegant simplicity. As always, better design yields fewer points of failure, in plumbing or in programming.

Plumber arrived -- Bobby the Whistlin' Plumber (not his official name). Gave us $25 off for "the coupon we have, right?" ... turns out that the pipes were glued together, which, as hard to believe as this may be, is not up to code. So ... rip it all out and start over. I think Mr. Le will be giving us some free lawn mowings for a while.

Up before 7 a.m. to go workout. Fun! And ... the pipes are still dripping. Just a drip and not a flood this time, but still. Time to call a real plumber and not a landscaper.

I don't really like basketball, but the last 0.4 seconds of the Spurs-Lakers game was intense. (What is it about blogging that turns you into Larry King writing for USA Today?)

Finally, water! I just got a demo of the new sprinkler system, too. Just amazing ... the little heads are hidden until the water comes on (controlled by a timer in the garage) ... then they just pop up and start sprayin' ... it's like having my own golf course!

Another update -- another 30 minutes to wait. Man, it's gettin' smelly in this house.

Hmmm, did he say 30 minutes till water? Is it an hour later? Do we have water yet? One thing's for sure -- the rather sizeable check he was wanting today isn't going to hit his hands until I've showered.

Did some "debugging by changing only one thing until some combination works" (also known as trial-and-error or safecracking) and figured out why my mobile blog photos weren't showing up on sites other than the one that finally worked. The new PocketPC messaging application (which I have a hand in) sends it messages in UTF-8 format, which many sites choke on. They expect US-ANSI. Ah, the joys of encoding.

We may not have any water, but we have plenty of booze!!! So drink up!

We've been promised -- 30 minutes to shower time. In the meantime, he's pruning our trees and re-sodding the easement area.

Mr. Le -- amazing landscaper. Not-so-great plumber. He's still working on the fix.

Supersized fun! Burgerman.

Not to be too obvious about it, but having your water turned off means ... you get one toilet flush before it's game over. And no showers at all. Fortunately, we have a big case of bottled waters ... now we just await the fix.

New mobile picture blog

I finally found a mobile picture host that will work with the pictures that are created from the new PocketPC phone. So here it is (linked below updated, too): Dave's Pix.

So much for the "amazing" Mr. Le. The job was *almost* done without any complaints. Then I get home and find my garage flooded. Looks like what he thought was a "small leak" in the new sprinkler setup turned out to be a gusher after he left. At least now I know how to shut off the water main -- and we'll be showering at the gym tomorrow!

There's this guy at work ... Garrett. He's my "peer," or so the org chart would say. At any rate, Garrett has this big thing he does every year where he ranks his favorite 100 songs and sends them out day after day to a GIANT mailing list (he'd be a great blogger). Everyone on the list then gets to "vote" if they like the song. So ... I always considered my vote to be priviledged information that I knew Garrett would see but expected he would never divulge. I found out today that was NOT the case -- he blabs anybody's vote to anyone who will listen. Garrett is a gossip and a rumor-monger. Don't believe any of the comments he is sure to leave on this post.

I have a new "moblog" (that means "Mobile Blog" but really it focuses on pictures you take with your mobile phone).

The first picture of the landscaping is now ready. Warning, kind of a large image. More to come!

Today's amazing Mr. Le the Landscaper update: The entire retaining wall is in; the sprinkler system is almost done (just missing the timer to turn it all on) and the soon-to-be-lawn area is completely cleaned. Tomorrow, the finishing touches on the sprinklers and the arrival of new sod!

WOW.

New Greek God -- Eianisapus. He's the god of cryptic source code and Indian food indigestion.

My dentist gave me free movie tickets because they made me wait 20 minutes for my appointment. That was nice, but kind of a curse -- what movie is worth seeing these days? Olsen Twins, here I come!

If there is an edge, Phillip may have gone over it: Shower Cam ... sadly, I have the same radio in my shower.

Our yard is looking great -- and there isn't even any grass on it yet! The new retaining wall is mostly up, and it makes the lawn area look huge. The sprinkler system is going in. Things are really moving along! I'll post pictures the next time I'm home during daylight.

But obviously it isn't fixed yet ... I guess "immediately" doesn't mean "right this second": We found a bug in how comments are published via the Blogger API and are fixing it immediately.

Yippee!!! Thanks to me, Blogger is fixing their comments bug ...

New feature: Comments!

Blogger.com has added a new feature: Comments! You can leave your comments on any post that has the feature turned on. Unfortunately, most of my posts won't have this turned on until Blogger fixes some of their back-end stuff, but ones like this (entered directly via Blogger itself) should work fine.

I have enabled a test page for the SPOT Sender service. This means you can try it out without having to write your own .NET app first.

If you tried using the Spot Sender service recently and it didn't work, try it again. Looks like the MSN service is now expecting the SYN command whereas it didn't before ... made some adjustments and it is working like a champ again.

Of course, we did go out to eat.

We're going to see "Supersize Me" with friends Dan and Tilly. The plan is to go out to eat afterward -- will we still want to?

Another cross-blog

Phillip Torrone, gadget geek and husband-of-someone-who-is-friends-with-my-wife-but-is-my-friend-and-co-worker-too, has mentioned me in his vastly more popular blog.

Happy Mother's Day, mum! And tomorrow, happy anniversary, mum and dad!

See the list of celebrities that I've met.

We just took a look at what the landscaper had done so far. I'll post pictures when it is more cleaned up, but for only a couple of hours of work so far, the transformation is pretty impressive. We now have some steps running down from our porch to the yard, and most of the yard is free of weeds. At this rate, it should be fully cleaned and ready for resodding very soon!

Our software circles the earth -- a lot: iPaqs in Space! ... The iPAQs will be used as mobile productivity tools to record daily crew procedures, write personal memos and check e-mail and calendars. ...

Mr. Le of Sunrise Landscaping actually started tonight ... unknown to us, until we got curious enough to wonder what all the noise outside was, and discovered it was someone working in our yard.

My brother has a webpage.

I've found the robotic vacuum cleaner that may actually be worth buying: The Dyson DC06

Laurel has two blogs!!! Hello Honda and Hello Knitty.

My simple app to post blog entries to Blogger compatible sites (like BlogSpot) is available here.

Time to start vacuuming. Ugh.

My first mention in another blog ... Beth.

I've got a new little app that I think I'll call the "Post-It" app that lets me easily add stuff to the blog. Fun. C# is great.

I switched from the Yahoo toolbar to the Google toolbar. Why? I don't really like Google better than Yahoo (which is still my home page), but they offer the chance to easily add your computer to the protein folding program to find new drugs. Worthwhile and it doesn't cost a thing (except looking at that Google logo).

We hired a landscaper! Mr. Le will start on Saturday. Phew, that takes care of the yard. At least I got something done this week. The (checkwriting) pen is mightier than the lawnmower!

Laurels says: Gotta have these. http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/adidas-1-selfadapting-shoes-015943.php

SPOT Service

 

I just whipped up a little web service for sending messages to a SPOT watch.

 

The service is at:

 

http://dstewart.kicks-ass.net/spotserver/spotserver.asmx

 

The only function is SendToSPOT

 

It takes 4 params:

 

IM_logon: The IM logon that will send the message.  You might want to create a new Passport logon just for this; otherwise, you’ll get kicked off another logged on client.

 

IM_password: Password for that account

 

Rec_username: IM username of the SPOT user to receive the message

 

Message: Message to send (100 char limit)

 

It returns “true” (success) or “false” (something went wrong).

 

This is running on my home server, so be gentle.  May be up and down and fairly unreliable – in other words, don’t write any apps with it that you plan to ship.. 

 

This is just something I’m playing with while I’m on vacation, so this isn’t Microsoft sponsored or endorsed in any way.

 

I have a new domain name … http://dstewart.kicks-ass.net … it’s the same server as http://zuzu.dynip.com …

 

You can find out where I am at http://dstewart.kicks-ass.net/finddave

 

You can also find me by adding the “bot” where_is_dave_o@hotmail.com to your buddy list and asking it “where” when it is signed in.

Did you know that you could ride a motorcycle from Seattle to Stonehenge?  You can … but if you go, watch out for DaveZilla (don’t be scared – you may recall from “This is Spinal Tap” that Stonehenge is only 18 inches tall, so DaveZilla is not that big).

 

 

More pix from the trip: http://www.winisp.net/dstewartms/Stonehenge/index.htm

 

Only one day into my week off, and already such adventure.  What’s next, you ask?  Exciting hint: It rhymes with “cleaning the house.’

Welcome to my blog! That's about as exciting as it gets right now.