Jul
19
11 Tips For Selling Your Used Stuff on Ebay
It seems that at some point, everyone has contemplated at least once trying to sell some of their unused but still valuable items on eBay. Some people never seem to get around to doing it. Some people are eBay professionals. Everyone also has their own different motivations. Some do it for the money, others do it to eliminate clutter. For me? I personally found it as a great outlet to fight that innate hoarder inside. Whatever your motivations may be, here are 11 tips which hopefully can be of use to you.
May
21
Access Control Blues
Perspective matters. Particularly when you're not terribly sure which way you are heading.
Around this time last year, I had been in up to my neck dealing with a messy repair job at work. Every day my team and I had to work with issues revolving The Tickler, The Reacharound, and The Dumptruck. No, this isn’t some unsavory gay porno I’m talking about… these are real project names we have given to various software components of a fairly complex job. Specifically, these are the functional pieces of a physical access control system that we use at work which needed some significant tuning.
May
4
The Point-and-Shoot Challenge
Artistically... this is nothing special. But technically, it is not the sort of low-light image quality you normally expect from a point-and-shoot digital camera...
I’m out to prove something to myself… that even with an old point and shoot digital camera it is possible to take great pictures which rival those taken with higher end gear. Why the hell am I doing this? Motivation by seeing someone else’s sub-par work. Also, it doesn’t hurt when someone says that a piece of equipment is outdated junk.
Jun
29
The Cost of Incompetent Programmers
This topic comes up for me not necessarily as a rant, but as I was going through some old notes before tossing them away, and this issue came up. How much damage can an organization do to themselves by hiring discount, unqualified programming resources?
The answer: A hell of a lot.
If you own a small software development shop, do yourself a huge favor and keep reading.
Jun
4
Interesting Places: Sarawak Chamber
The Sarawak Chamber is the largest known underground chamber of its kind in the world. It is part of the ‘Good Luck Cave’ system which is located in Gunung Mulu National Park, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.
The chamber is not yet fully explored, and roughly measures about 700m (2,300 feet) long, 400m (1,300 feet) wide and at least 70m (230 feet) high. To get a sense of how much space this is, imagine the amount of land you would need to park ten Boeing 747-400 aircraft in line. That’s a lot of space! The irregular shape of Sarawak Chamber would probably fit at least 30 more inside if the ground was flat, and the entrance was big enough… well, it’s safe to say that I would have to be making a good number of assumptions indeed. In any event- It’s BIG.
May
31
Gary Hobostein
Gary Hobostein, my new comic strip
Shameless plug alert!
This is something I’ve started as a bit of an odd side project.
It’s a rather mature and cheeky webcomic about a strange character named Gary Hobostein.
Those of you who know of my odd sense of humor may find these strips entertaining- or absolutely horrifying. It’s your call 🙂
I haven’t been posting much on here this month because of a trip to Paris, and a generally busy working schedule. Sorry about that. I did take a lot of pictures while traveling though.
May
1
Table BitValue – NoYes, DisabledEnabled, FalseTrue
Warning- this may not be really all that funny unless you are a database administrator or a geek with the right knowledge. This rather silly product I am working with stores its data in the backend via a Microsoft SQL Server database. There’s nothing wrong with that… but on further examination of the schema I found a pretty ridiculous jewel of a table setup. Click on the picture to see the bloody details.
For those not technically inclined- this is precisely NOT how you would utilize a relational database server. It’s poor design, and rather an extreme and laughable example.
Apr
16
Octomom and the Rise of the Idiocracy
Octomom. Patron saint of the Clown Car. Image by davidvogler@flickr
I’m beginning to wonder if something really unavoidably bad has happened to the core of American society. I used to think that the rise of religious zealotry was one of the biggest issues we face internally as a nation and as a (relatively) educated people, but now I realize that is only the tip of the tidal wave.
Apr
13
Stuck iPhone Home Button?
Does this really need a freaking sign? Picture is non related to the iPhone.
Is your 1st edition or 3G iPhone home button stuck?
Does it take multiple presses to get back to the home screen?
Does it sometimes not respond at all to the touch, even though the clicker mechanism seems to be intact and not making any grinding noises?
Is your phone no longer under warranty so you fear those sales reps er… Genius Bar technicians are going to try to gouge you on repair costs?
Is your phone not going to be serviceable because it’s been jailbroken?
Well, I’m not saying I have all the answers, but consider this before you take matters into your own hands and begin dissecting your iPhone looking for a way to replace the switch.
Apr
1
Interesting Places: Alang, India
Some workers at Alang, by carrieteicher@flickr
Alang is where ships of all sizes and nationalities go to die.
Located on the western coast of India, the great differences in shoreline between low and high tides allow ships to easily beach themselves where they are then disassembled on the spot. Dozens of ships are broken up here every year, and tens of thousands of workers flock here to earn a living in what could best be described as a free-for-all involving hand labor, blowtorches, and hammers.