Stories

I have been noticing more and more web services either going down or having severe latency because they are overloaded.

I just finished a big migration to Amazon Web Services for my company. I am using Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 mainly for everything. We ...

Google Gears or the Offline Settings is what had screwed up my Gmail (Google Apps) left hand menu bar. I just turned offline off for Gmail and my menu went back to normal.

I have been using my company outlook for the day because for some reason my left hand menu in Gmail (Apps for my Domain) takes up 3/4 of the screen? I can't figure out why, anyways it gives me a headache.

In the last year or so of my marriage I signed up for Trendswest vacation resort. We went to their resort in St George Utah and went Zion and Bryce canyon. It was nice. Then Trendswest got bought by Worldmark. I have never been good at taking vacations so I thought this would be a great way to force myself into taking vacations around some beautiful places. They give you a book with the 80 plus locations as well as the worldwid...

So Google has release offline access for Google Calendar to all users. Now I have offline access enabled for my key Google Apps. Google Mail (Gmail) Google Docs Google Calendars Google Reader This allows me to use all these applications while I am not connected to the Internet on the road or otherwise. It is pretty exciting because it makes my Google Office Suite much more like Microsoft Office. I think it is a...

I have always preferred developing web applications that are simple. So many times a project gets blown out in scope and gets way too complicated. I remember specifying a site one time that I gave a 40K bid for. Got the project....then 6 months later through scope creep it was done and the budget was 250K. Then 6 months after launch it was abandoned because it was to complex to use. So I am always advocating a simple tool or web ap...

We are using SQL Server 2008 as our primary database currently. We do a lot of replication and other SQL server advanced features. At first the management studio really frustrated me, its clunky and pop ups and warns you about everything. The more I use it, the more I get it though. I need to replicate sets of stored procedure and make a few changes and re-run to create a new set. The management script as -> Create To option is very nice.

I just answered a question on LinkedIn...shortly thereafter I received a connection request from the QA thread.

Don't get me wrong...I love Amazon Web Services and EC2, it has changed the way I do business. I rocks. So tonight I was doing some server maintenance and backing up many server instances as AMI. This gives me a image snapshot of that production server to use while scaling and / or restoring in the event of failure. Any other time the EC2 services are awesome but tonight my 2 complaints are evident: 1) Only 1 IP Address per instance. PLease give me multiple IP Addresse...

I remember back in 2001 right after my daughter was born I was building a house in Southern Oregon and decided to spend part of the summer traveling around Oregon. So I setup my laptop as a server so I could still work while I was travelling. Then I had a dial-up modem for my laptop. I would get 9-18k. After building the house in Southern Oregon and the crash was well under way I had to move back to Eugene and find a job. I was crashing in my VW bus around Eugene and tapping Internet ...

As part of my 3rd party service development plan for my company I make recommendations for external systems that my company should be using for its operations. We don't buy or develop everything internally. There are some amazing 3rd party applications. A couple notable ones are: Gmail / Google Apps for Your Domain Google Docs Google Calendar Email Center Pro (ECP) These are appl...

I just did my taxes and broke down my spending for last year. I was newly divorced last year so I didn't have any restraing on my social spending budget. I won't give numbers on what I spent, but I was blown away what I spent wining and dining business customers as well as exploring the singles dating and partying scene. Well now that I am living way out in the woods I am putting myself on a forced money saving program. I don't eat out...or go out drinking. Period. Well this p...

What is the deal with Gmail today? Both my free gmail and google apps for my domain are total resource hogs.

I am spending about 30 minutes each day extending my companies reach onto popular social networks LinkedIn and Facebook. I reallky find LinkedIn is much more organized for such business efforts. It is much easier to reach people through LinkedIn QA. It allows me to ask questions and answer questions on topics that are relevant to my industry and company. Facebook is great for interacting with friends, but LinkedIn is just better suited for business networking. I don't ...

So I am continuing cleaning up my world. I recently let probably 20-30 domains expire. In the past I have had a domain adiction....I just buy them thinking...someday I will do something with that. I know plenty of other geeks who do this. You just think....$10.00 for a domain...I can afford that! Then 50-100 domains later you start questioning. What is wrong with me. Then you check-in to Betty Ford Clinic.

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After I deal with all emails, fires, top requests, and spend a large amount of time on all my top projects I try to work on areas that are going to move my company forward. Creating a presence on the Internet is priority one. WebEvents Global is 10 years old, has a very mature software package, and handles some large events for prominent names such as SAP, Google, Schwab. However our web presence is non-existent. The event planning industry is a very incestual industry where most peop...

I was just playing with uploading pictures and making Obama posters out of them. Check it out: http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/new.html

I am getting to know the Google Gtalk API a little more and playing around with automating GTalk communication using bots and other web-based tools. I came across a nice XMPPHP class that works great....saves me a lot of work. Check it out: http://code.google.com/p/xmpphp/

I read the McKinsey Quarterly from time to time. It comes into my inbox and when I see a title I like I tend to download and read further. Looks like they are getting into employing various social media marketing techniques as well, here is an email I got in my inbox. Tune in to The McKinsey Quarterly

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Was just reading a great article on how to get retweeted on OPEN forum. Great advice on how to effectively use twitter and spreadh your message or knowledge.

There are many features that operating in the clouds using Amazon EC2 brings to the table.

I have moved out to the woods to live for a while. After living last summer in Bend, OR I have decided to live a little more remote.

I was reading a blog about a new service that will scan your business cards and import into a database for you. Here is their pitch: CloudContacts takes your business cards and puts them to work for you. Instead of storing your business cards in a pile on your desk or in one physical location, CloudContacts allows you to access your contacts at any time. You can import your business cards into many email applications and connect on most business social networks. Connect your contacts today w...

I have to admit things are getting tight. I have taken all my credit cards out of my wallet so I don't spend on them. I pretend they don't exist. I just had one credit card I noticed raised my interest from 7.99 to 29.7 because my payment posted on 11/12 instead of 11/11. I understand they have to make money....that they are making interest off of me, but that is ridiculous. I called them and told them how stupid this was, and I decided to do to other cards. ...