Tap My Mind - Scott Isaacs : Fun

Weird Solitaire Hand

sisaacs — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:47:13 GMT

I was playing solitaire ("regular" single-deck solitaire) on my phone the other day and got dealt an unusual hand. All of a sudden I noticed a very weird combination of cards. Then another. Then another. Do you see it?

Click the picture to see a larger one.

Diabetes Research Fundraiser

sisaacs — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:06:16 GMT

At work, we are having a fundraiser for Diabetes Research Institute. To try to get more sponsors, one of my coworkers decided to turn himself into Mr. T, step by step. He's skinny. He's white. But so far he's raised $1400.

Read his story after you take a peek at this video of him getting the haircut. Share this link with your family and friends: MrTDiabetesChallenge.com.

Recent Trips

sisaacs — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:12:27 GMT

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.

The 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.

She 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.

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.

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.

This Looks, Ummm, Fun

sisaacs — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:03:38 GMT

Found on xkcd.com, Geohashing looks fun.

Now I just need to buy a GPS, keep up on the Dow, and right a program to do the hash, split, hex to decimal conversion, and destination calculation.

Vacation!

sisaacs — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:21:25 GMT

I'm very excited because in a couple days I will be going with my wife and daughter to Disneyland in California. We are meeting my parents there for Charlie's first Disney experience, and I can't wait to see how excited she will be. She's coming up on 21 months and really shows her excitement -- she dances, stomps her feet (like those Irish tap dancers) and waves her arms. It may sound cute, but it's even cuter to see.

Also, between now and then I have a few phone calls setup. I'm currently on the market for a new job, and so far things have gone well in my search since I started 6 days ago. If you are hiring in the Milwaukee area, feel free to contact me. My resume can be found at www.scottisaacs.com/resume. It is slightly out of date, but 99% complete. If time allows in the next couple days I'll make it 100%.

The Weekend Has Officially Started

sisaacs — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:39:11 GMT

I've recently found a new online comic strip: Garfield Minus Garfield.

(Source)

From the site:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

I think they're funny. If you don't then you're just wrong.

Happy Pi Day

sisaacs — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:24:17 GMT

Today, 3/14, is Pi Day. I hope you were enjoying mathematics at 1:59 in your local time zone.

But it's not all fun and games: Beware the Ides of March.

Does anyone else celebrate Square Root of 10 Day, or is it just me?

Exploits of a Mom

sisaacs — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:06:52 GMT

This comic reminds me of a friend who taught his grade school daughter to count in hexadecimal. At that moment, he was my hero.

Exploits of a Mom

The Best Spam Comment Yet (Matt Berther)

sisaacs — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:00:01 GMT

Saw this today in my feeds. Matt posts about one of the comments his blog has received. Here's a snip:

hello , my name is Richard and I know you get a lot of spammy comments ,I can help you with this problem . I know a lot of spammers and I will ask them not to post on your site. It will reduce the volume of spam by 30-50% .In return Id like to ask you to put a link to my site on the index page of your site...

That's a pretty clever business model. I should look into it...

Stupid Things I've Done

sisaacs — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:23:33 GMT

So I'm starting a new category/tag on this blog. Based on the title of this post you might have guessed that it's called "Stupid Things I've Done". I've done a number of Things (capitalized because in this case it is a proper noun) in my 32 years that were stupid, and looking back it's a miracle I didn't get hurt or worse. At the very least I've done a number of Things that I just can't believe I ever thought were good ideas, even if I wasn't in mortal danger.

Most of these Things are Things I've done with a good friend of mine, Jeff. Now Jeff and I are both people of what I would consider to be above-average intelligence. However, somehow, without any scientific explanation, we seem to come up with ideas that are stupid. To my credit, most of these ideas are his, but he's not here to defend himself, so I shouldn't really bring that up.

So in this new category, I plan to occasionally add little stories of Things that I've done that were stupid. Granted, I've done a lot of stupid things (not capitalized here because these things aren't stupid enough to be Things), but this will just be some of the stupidest Things. I imagine that most of these things will only be funny to me, but there may be some lessons that my dear readers can learn from my decision.

The First "Thing"

Like many of the Things that will fall into the Stupid Things I've Done category, this first story is about trying to do Something I don't know how to do. It's not that the Thing itself is impossible or stupid -- the problem is that I have no idea what I'm doing. In fact, the Thing is typically a very common thing, which can be easily done by those that are qualified and/or informed.

So the first Thing was actually something Jeff and I tried to do just last night: move his Hot Tub from his old house to his new one -- by ourselves. To give you an idea of our situation, I've illustrated the layout of things here.

Looking To The North

As you can see in this image (click for full size), the Hot Tub is gently nestled into the corner against the back of the house on the west, a fence on the north, and a Large Tree to the east. Not shown in this image, to the south, is a small sidewalk surrounded by more Large Trees, air conditioning condensers, some garbage cans, and a deck.

Note: His Hot Tub is not really blue. I just chose blue for this illustration since water is often indicated by a blue color. See this page for an example. Also, I don't remember what color the Hot Tub cover was so I decided that it should be orange.

Looking To The West

Now, this image (click for full size) shows what you would see if looking to the west. It's here to add a little more perspective and dimension of the Hot Tub, house, fence and Large Tree, as well as illustrate the contour of the yard to the north. This contour includes a slope, some shrubs, a steeper slope, and another fence before you finally reach more grass at the street level.

Some History

Apparently, two descendants of Paul Bunyan himself carried (literally carried) this Hot Tub into its current resting place. I haven't figured out how two people got this Hot Tub into place by themselves without the aide of a crane or chain saw, but that is what I've been told.

Flash Forward To Last Night

Flash forward to last night, and Jeff and I find ourselves discovering that our best option* for moving this Hot Tub is as follows.

Step 1: Take down the section of Fence to the north of the Hot Tub, and carefully lay it on the ground for use in Step 7.

Step 2: Pry the edge of the Hot Tub up with a crowbar, floor jack (as would be used to work on your car in your garage), and various scraps of lumber.

Step 3: Slide two long 2x4s all the way under the Hot Tub from the south to the north, such that they are protruding over the beginning of the Grassy Hill. These 2x4s are to be our "skis".

Step 4: Use various ropes and straps to affix the 2x4 skis to the Hot Tub.

Step 5: Using a hand truck and our brute strength, attempt to move the Hot Tub away from the House, giving us at least several inches of clearance.

Step 6: Tie more ropes/straps around the Hot Tub, connecting the other end of said ropes/straps to a Dodge Ram (not pictured) parked in the street below the Grassy Hill, Shrubs, Steeper Hill, and Another Fence.

Step 7: Using the Dodge Ram, pull the Hot Tub onto the fence taken down in Step 1. This fence is now our "sled".

Step 8: Carefully slide the Hot Tub on its skis on its sled over some other pieces of lumber carefully laid out over the Shrubs (flattening them) and the Steeper Hill between the Grassy Hill and Another Fence.

Step 9: Magic happens.

Step 10: Securely fasten Hot Tub to a trailer on the other side of Another Fence, connect said trailer to the Dodge Ram, and leave.

Conclusion

After completing steps 1 - 5 and part of 8 (Shrub flattening), after moving the Hot Tub a few feet, and after a few visions of falling into the valley that is the Steeper Hill between the Shrubs and Another fence just waiting for the Hot Tub to crash through Another Fence, crushing my ribs into my lungs and heart killing me nearly instantly although it feels like an eternity, but somewhere before Step 9, we decided this was a bad idea.

Jeff is probably making a call to Paul Bunyan's grandkids at this very moment.

* This really was the best option we could come up with for the two of us to move this thing by ourselves without the help of other strong people, cranes, or massive amounts of steroids.

Things On My Desk

sisaacs — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:28:41 GMT

I've been in a little bit of a blogging slump. Other than a link to a cartoon, I haven't posted anything in a month and half. As I mentioned previously, I've been spending a lot of brain power on work lately (hopefully that will be calming down in a month or two), and consequently haven't really sat down to write anything. I've opened WLW a dozen times to write something and started at a blank screen forever (or at least 15 seconds) before giving up and closing it.

Well, at the advice of another blogger, today I've decided to post a list. I actually wasn't going to post anything at all, but as I was looking around my desk I noticed that I had a few things on my desk that many other developers might not have. I thought about it for about 3 seconds and realized, "Dude!" -- remember, I'm originally from California -- "This would make a totally awesome list post!" Four more seconds later I decided that while the post might not be "totally awesome", it would be fun for me at the least.

So anyway, here goes.

The Standards

#1 -- Francisco. Francisco is my trusty Dell XPS M140 laptop that I got about 19 months ago -- that makes him middle-aged in computer years. A similarly equipped machine is now available from the same manufacturer for approximately 30% the cost I paid for Francisco, but our relationship is deeper than that. It's not all about money, you know. And although he's been feeling a little under the weather lately, and generally acting like someone suffering from some sort of bipolar disorder, we've been through a lot together, and have a strong bond. Really.

So anyway, you may be wondering, "Is Scott using his personal computer for work?" Yes, I am. Let me know if you're wondering anything else.

#2 -- The 20" Dell display. So I wanted to continue on for a moment with that thought you were having about me using my personal computer at work. I work at a startup company, and as you may be aware, it's not 1999 anymore and I'm not in the Bay Area. As a result of the way the time-space continuum works, we are not funded with millions of dollars to spend on things like launch parties, massages, swanky lunches and high-end computers. Well, at least not at the beginning.

I do have now (as of a month or two ago) a new Dell desktop somewhere in this office building. It's just waiting for me. Every now and then I go out to the warehouse to make sure it's still there, but I haven't been able to take the time to set it up with all of the software I need to be productive. So, in the meantime, I decided I might as well not let that 20" monitor go to waste, so I plugged it in to Francisco. So there you go.

#3 -- Photos of my kid. What proud father's desk would be complete without photos of his most prized possession. This is my daughter, Charlize. We call her Charlie (named after my grandpa) and she's the cutest baby ever. The way that you can tell is that everyone that does not have little kids says, "She is the cutest baby ever", and the people that do have kids say, "She is the cutest baby ever except for my kids."

The people in the second group are just liars. But I forgive them because I'm sure they wouldn't want it to get back to their kids that they thought my kid was cuter than theirs.

#4 -- A top secret drawing. I can't tell you what this is, or I'd have to... you know. Actually I almost forgot what it was myself. It's a good thing I didn't forget because it's very, very important.

As you might have guessed, I'm not a good note taker. The only things I write down are things I would probably remember anyway. That and a lot of doodles. I personally a fan of the spiral scribble and the sine wave. Yes, the sine wave. It's the only thing I remember from my 11 years (actually about 5 years with a lot of breaks in between) and untold thousands spent on my degree in Applied Mathematics. I used to wonder why they called it a B.S. degree.

#5 -- My new patented "Memory Replacement". This might not be a "Standard" yet, but trust me: it will catch on like wildfire and will be popping up on desks across the globe. To the uneducated and uninformed it looks like a simple pad of sticky notes and a pen. Not so! Recent research efforts have proven this handy little invention of mine to be an effective memory replacement for those of us who suffer from ultra-short-term memory loss (USTML). USTML can be caused by a variety of factors, including fatigue. Scientists don't yet have a cure for USTML, but the Memory Replacement can help alleviate the side effects. Be sure to consult your physician if side effects continue or if your Memory Replacement causes aches and cramping in your wrist.

Nonstandard

#6 -- A plastic fork. Not typically a "nonstandard" item, but I haven't eaten anything with a fork at my desk at all in recent memory. I think I can remember how it found its home on my desk, but it's just weird. I mean, think about it, who has a fork on their desk? Just sitting there?

I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep it. It's not like I have any emotional attachment to it or anything. I haven't given it a name or showed it to any of my friends (aside from this blog post, that is).

#7 -- A cool projectile toy. No, it's not a fork, people; it's a cool projectile toy. I can't read Chinese, but the package says it's called .

As you can see from the concave shape of this toy, a simple tap of the fingers on the elevated portion will cause this toy to fly into the air. With practice you can learn to launch this toy straight up and back down into place, or you can hit targets up to 3 meters away (I guess they use the metric system in Taiwan -- that's, like, 3 feet in American). The manufacturer recommends against trying to hit human targets, but, seriously, where's the fun in that?

#8 -- An empty Live Cam box. What do you think I'm using to take these pictures with? Telepathy? A 5+ megapixel camera? My cell phone? Yeah right! Those are for losers! I use this fine piece of hardware that is currently set to take high quality photos at 240x180. It is a very versatile camera and it can be used to take pictures of computers, forks, toys, other pictures and even people. Try doing that with telepathy!

You may have noticed there is also a high-end power strip in the frame with the Live Cam. My work gave me that as a gift. I use that power strip to not only supply power to Francisco and the 20" Dell monitor (see items 1 and 2 above), but also as a spacer between my desk and the wall.

I'm thinking of a ridiculously sigh-and-eye-roll-inducing play on words about table layout and spacer gifts (GIFs), but I'll keep it to myself.

#9 -- A QuickCam. What's this? Another camera? Yes, but this one is still in it's box. I'm sure there are many differences between this camera and the Live Cam. First, this one is called QuickCam instead of Live Cam. 2 - this one is still in the box. C) the QuickCam cost us about twice as much as the Live Cam and it is a round ball shape instead of a vertical-half-an-egg shape.

In reality, this one is there to make sure that the application I'm working on works just as well with this camera as it does with any other camera. So far so good as long as I remember to install the camera drivers.

#10 -- A cup of water and a cell phone in a cell phone recliner. I actually like to drink water a lot, and fortunately for me at work we have a reverse osmosis system hooked up to the fridge, so it's like unlimited, free, good water. Woo hoo!

Next, as you can see, my cell phone has a nice comfy little recliner to relax in while I work my fingers to the bone. Yeah, I want my phone to be comfortable and all, but I have to admit that sometimes I see its smug little look while it's sitting there in its fancy schmancy little phone recliner and I just can't take it anymore. Stupid arrogant phone.

I used to have the same problem with my iPod. Everyone knows that Apple products are cocky and arrogant to begin with, but give them a cushy soft papasan, and they take it to a whole new level. Let's just say I can't find that iPod papasan anymore.

#11 -- Some tape, lights, sensors and wire. Here is some work stuff:

Some lights taped to my desk so I can see when they turn on and off more easily
A couple of different sensors (one actually fell on the floor and didn't make it into this photo)
A roll of ultra-high quality, blue, single-sided adhesive paper.
Some mounting brackets for certain types of sensors.
A DVD a co-worker lent me to watch in my spare time.

#12 -- An RFID reader. More work stuff. This thing is an RFID reader. That means it reads RFID. But not just any RFID, it reads passive, UHF, Class 1 Gen 2, EPCGlobal compliant RFID tags. Yeah, but the impressive part is that yellow cord hanging out of the side of it. That thing is awesome. It makes it so much easier to switch between different types of sensors. Previously, testing new sensors meant unwiring the current one and rewiring the new one, trying to remember which wire goes where. Fortunately most sensors use the same color scheme for wire colors, however, it was still a pain. Now we only use sensors that support this quick connect cable and life is easier. It kind of makes me wonder why we didn't try this sooner.

Bonus

#13 -- My whiteboard. OK, yeah, this isn't really on my desk. In fact, it's behind me as I face my desk so it's on a completely different side of the room. I just decided to include it so that I could have a bonus section. I always wanted to have a reason to have a bonus section in a list.

Anyone care to take a guess at what is represented by the drawing on the board? Of course, I will be neither able to confirm nor to deny your guess as this is also top secret like the notepad above. You'll just have to think about it and wait until I'm a multi-gazillionaire before I can let the secret out.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. I blogged. It's a list.

Maybe we can make this into one of those crazy blog meme things. You know, kind of like chain-letters-for-blogs where people talk about things they're going to do in the next 6 months to become a better developer, or post the results of some survey that tells them some revelationary fact about themselves in terms of cartoon characters, and then other people do the same thing, and so on. What do you say? What things do you have on your desk?

Or you could just read this and forget about it. Your choice.

Disclaimer: I make words up. I constantly add new words to my spell checker because it doesn't like them. Words like revelationary. Sorry.

Still In Need of a Haircut

sisaacs — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:52:38 GMT

I spoke briefly about my haircut schedule here. I think I was already at week 7 or 8 then, so that would put me somewhere around week 12 or so now.

I tried to get it cut today, but the wait was longer than my schedule would allow. Oh well, maybe next week.

Definately Check This Out

sisaacs — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:11:14 GMT

http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/ (via Seth)

BTW, it was very painful for me to type "definately" in the title. I hope you can appreciate the humor.

Haircuts

sisaacs — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:56:28 GMT

Today, a co-worker mentioned that he was going to get a haircut tonight after work. I mentioned that I normally go about 2 months between cuts. Considering that I have short hair, he thought that was a long time so I explained my thought process.

Week 4 (since my last haircut): I start thinking, "It's about time to get a haircut."

Week 5: "Hmmm, it's about time to get a haircut."

Week 6-7: "I really need a haircut."

Week 8: I try to make an appointment, but can't get one thats convenient.

Week 9: I finally go out of my way and just get it taken care of.

Week 10: "My hair is too short."

Community Server 2007 and Windows Live Writer

sisaacs — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 02:35:38 GMT

So I just upgraded to Community Server 2007 today, and I've been using Windows Live Writer for my last couple posts. This is my first test of the two in combination.

One thing to note, in WLW I tried to update the style of my blog, but it failed for some reason. I may look into it later, but in all reality it's not that important for me to see my posts in the same exact layout as they will appear after publishing. Also, I still want to update the skin from the default one being used, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to that.

One gripe I having about using WLW is that adding categories (tags), while easy enough to do, is obscure enough to make it easy to forget. It's not really obscure, just not front and center. Oh, well. I imagine it will just take a little time to get used to it.

Update: For some reason, after I restarted WLW a few times, the "Update Weblog Style" function began working. Also, be sure to remember (like I didn't) that by default CS removes the www from your URL, and that was causing problems with WLW finding the MetaBlog API (since I had changed that on my previous CS install and hadn't changed it again on the new version).