Tap My Mind

A Blog by Scott Isaacs

Year: 2008 Page 3 of 7

Beginner’s Luck

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On July 14, 2008

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Last night my in-laws came over to visit for a while and we decided to play Yahtzee.  Of course, Charlie was immediately interested in the dice and the cup, so we let her have a turn rolling.  In one turn (three rolls) she had rolled a Yahtzee (five 6s)!  On her next turn she rolled four 5s in a single roll!  She had a number of other high-point rolls throughout the night (in between playing with a jar of ink pens, some blocks and Little People), but I think the best part for her was when we would all cheer when she rolled something good.  And that seemed to happen a lot. 

Beginner’s luck?

Work Soundtrack

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On July 14, 2008

In Uncategorized

This happens to me on a regular basis — probably every other month or so.  I get tired of the music I have on my iPod.  So I’m looking for suggestions.  What music helps you get your job done?  Sometimes I need something nice and mellow to get myself into the right frame of mind, and sometimes I need something I can turn the volume up to drown out the background noise.  Sometimes vocals are good, sometimes they are distracting.  Unfortunately, streaming sites don’t work from the office, so things like Pandora are out.  Looking forward to your suggestions.

TimeSnapper

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On July 13, 2008

In Uncategorized

I’ve been using the free version of TimeSnapper off and on for some time now, but pretty regularly over the last few weeks since I started my new job.  I’m doing billable work again, and am notoriously bad at getting my time entered.  TimeSnapper helps by taking screenshots at some interval throughout the day and allowing me to play them back like a movie.

I’ve been thinking about getting the Pro version for a couple weeks because there are a few more features that could be helpful.  It’s an inexpensive program at about $40 (USD), but I just hadn’t pulled the trigger and bought it.  Then today on Twitter I saw that it was on sale.  It was actually on sale for $20.  Since I was on the fence at $40, I couldn’t pass it up at $20.

If you are like me and have a hard time keeping track of what you worked on, I highly recommend you check it out.  I still haven’t taken advantage of the Pro features, but even the free functionality is worth $20.

Blog Recategorization

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On July 12, 2008

In Uncategorized

As I mentioned earlier, I was bored tonight.  Rather than visiting MySpace I decided to do a little work on the categories I use in my blog.  I didn’t remove any categories, but I did add a few.  As of right now, all of my posts are tagged as either Personal, Professional or both.  I don’t have any hard fast rules for how I’m going to apply these, but here is the gist of it.  If it’s something my wife, parents, other family or non-techie friends may want to know, it’s Personal.  If it’s something I want to share with coworkers, colleagues, community, or pretty much anyone else, it’s Professional.

So, if by chance you prefer to subscribe to a filtered feed you can use one of the following RSS feeds:

Of course, you can still subscribe to the full feed.

So there you go.  A somewhat-almost-semi-productive use of the last 2 hours.

This Is The Life

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On July 12, 2008

In Uncategorized

I’m sitting in the living room listening to recorded music on our DVR because both tuners are recording right now, so I can’t watch live TV, and of course we have nothing recorded that I want to watch.  So I am playing the recorded chunk of the music station that we record so that we can play it when both tuners are busy and we want to play music as we get our daughter ready for bed.  Yeah, I know.  That’s a long description and it sounds weird, but that’s what I’m doing.

Oh yeah, I also have a petrified scared 15 pound dog in my lap, panting and shaking because someone set of a firecracker outside 45 minutes ago.  I gave her a tranquilizer (she has a prescription — seriously) but it hasn’t done anything.

I’ve read all the blogs I subscribe to.  I’ve checked my e-mail.  I’m caught up on Twitter.  I’ve even read tweets from friends of friends of friends.

I’m sitting here bored, listening to recorded "baby go to sleep" music, with a shaking dog in my lap.

Oh yeah, and it’s 9:45 on a Saturday night.

This is the life.

Maybe I should check out MySpace now.

Office Communicator Hotkey

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On July 11, 2008

In Uncategorized

Anyone know if there is a way to remove the Windows-Q hotkey from Office Communicator?  That is my hotkey of choice for one of my favorite utilities (SlickRun).  With Communicator "stealing" this hotkey, I’ve had to map SlickRun to Windows-W instead, which causes a lot of confusion for me.  I’ve tried to add "cmd" as a contact about a dozen times now…

Last Days All Around

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On June 27, 2008

In Uncategorized

Today was my last day as an employee at my current (umm, previous) job.  After 18 months full-time, plus a couple months of part-time consulting and advising, I’ve decided it’s time to move on.  I still believe the product has enormous potential, and I may be walking away from early retirement, but it’s time to move on.

Starting Monday, I will be a Technical Architect at Fullhouse Interactive in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.  I’m excited for a number of reasons.  I’ll be working downtown again, and, while the drive is long, I’ll be close to friends that I rarely get to see.  Even with the extra drive time, I will be able to spend more time with my family because of my average number of hours will decrease.  On top of that, I will also be working from home on a regular basis, which is a first for me.  I’ll get to learn some new things, and hopefully teach some things as well.  I’m also getting to get back into consumer facing web development, which I miss.

I’m really excited for this new job.  If you’re near downtown Milwaukee, let me know and we’ll setup a geek lunch sometime.

As I’m sure you have already read all over the web, today was also the last that Bill Gates will be working for Microsoft.  While I’m sure he will probably never read this, I wish him all the best in his retirement.  Now if only I could figure out how to retire as a billionaire so that I could spend all my time running my charitable foundation…

Recent Trips

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On June 27, 2008

In Uncategorized

Over the last six weeks or so I have made three trips to California.  I grew up in northern CA and most of my family still lives there wondering why I ever left to live in frozen "Wesconson".

The first of these trips was a whirlwind.  I flew in on a Thursday night and drove out on Friday afternoon with my new truck.  My parents were getting rid of their truck and I needed a new vehicle so it worked out nicely.  I had a nice quiet drive across the US from CA to WI, making Twitter updates along the way from my phone. 

Daddy and his PrincessThe second trip, Kelly and I took Charlie (our daughter) to meet Pops and Nana (my parents) at Disneyland in southern CA.  It was her first trip to Disney and she was so excited.

Charlie with Pops and NanaShe got to meet Minnie, Mickey, Tigger, Pooh, and many more.  I think Minnie was her favorite.  She also got a fancy Snow White dress from Pops and Nana to wear to the parade on Main Street.

We got to spend about 6 days with my parents and it was the first time they had seen Charlie since last December.  It was one of the most relaxing weeks I’ve had in a few years and I’m so glad we got to do it.

View of Half Dome from our camp site About a week and a half after we got back home, I made my third trip out to CA for a reunion trip, meeting up with some old school buddies at Yosemite National Park.  Eight of us met, and some of us hadn’t seen each other in almost 15 years.

Vernal Falls from the Mist Trail I would try to describe it, but I guess the trip wouldn’t really make sense to anyone that wasn’t there.  Lots of memories.  Lots of stories.  Lots of catching up.  Lots of laughing.

We golfed (I just drove the cart because I suck at golf), took a ride on lazy river rafts, hiked and hung out around the campfire.  I took a lot of pics and they are on Flickr.  (These are actually my first pics ever on Flickr, even though I’ve had an account for several years now.)  All in all, it was a blast and we are planning another trip for next year.

So there you have it — a short version of the ~13,000 miles I’ve logged in the last few weeks.  Each trip was a blast, but, for now, I’m glad to be home with Kelly and Charlie.  If the Disney trip could have lasted another 6 weeks, I would have been OK with that, but the two trips by myself were rough.

Community Coding Contest

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On June 26, 2008

In Uncategorized

This is pretty exciting.  Chris Pietschmann, an MVP, a friend of mine, a committee member of the WI .NET Users Group, developer of Virtual Earth controls, and an independent consultant I have worked with in the recent past, has three MSDN Premium Subscriptions to give away, and he is having a coding contest to determine the winners.  He is building a website for this contest at www.communitycodingcontest.org, but the site is not up yet.  In the meantime you can get some basic info from this post on his site.  The contest will run from July 1 through September 30, so that’s three whole months to get something built.

The most amazing part is the prizes.  From his blog post:

1st Place – 1 MSDN Premium Subscription with Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite

2nd Place – 1 MSDN Premium Subscription with Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite

3rd Place – 1 MSDN Premium Subscription with Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite

4th Place – Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 Professional

I am also looking for sponsors to donate additional prizes to give away.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’d be happy with 3rd place.  If you work for a company that would like to sponsor this contest, please contact Chris through his blog, or e-mail me and I will put you in touch with him.  If you’re a developer, get those gears turning.

I do have a question for Chris, though.  Chris, why not sneak one of these subscriptions to me and have a contest to give away the other two???

Updated Due Date: January 27, 2009

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On June 23, 2008

In Uncategorized

We went to the doctor the other day and found out from the ultrasound that our correct due date is January 27, 2009.  As of tomorrow (June 24) we will be 9 weeks along.

We’re very excited.  Unfortunately, Kelly gets very sick when she is pregnant and is on some nausea medicine that they apparently give to chemotherapy patients.

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