Category: Uncategorized

Maria and I got a Chihuahua puppy last week. Before you laugh or make “rat dog” comments, please let me explain..

We had been looking to get a dog for months. We did a lot of reading about different breeds, and we narrowed the field down to Miniature Schnauzers and West Highland White Terriers. We thought the size, allergy rating and trainability would make for a great dog.

The problem is, we live in Bend, Oregon. In the summer it gets very hot and dusty here. Over the last couple months we ran into a lot of Mini Schnauzer and Westie owners and their dogs, and to be honest, we didn’t think the dogs liked the heat all that much. They all looked dehydrated, tired and, here’s the kicker.. very, very dirty. Westies especially. We ran into a Westie on this one trail over here and the poor thing looked like a white mop dipped in grey paint. His fur was extremely matted and we bet that it was gonna take his owner several hours to clean him up. Exciting!

All throughout our dog hunt we kept running into Chihuahuas. They didn’t seem to mind the heat. They didn’t seem to mind the dust. On one hike up in the Three Sisters Wilderness we ran into a Chihuahua who had been up two mountains already that summer. Chihuahuas appeared to be right in their element out here.

So we got a Chihuahua. His name is Miguel, and this week he’s 8 weeks old.

Thoughts so far: He’s about what I expected. He has a lot of energy, he’s very affectionate and he can be yappy.

The energy level can be a bit frightening at times. The first time he spazzed out we didn’t know what to think–I had been reading the night before about dogs with epilepsy and I was wondering if that’s what it looked like. He ran out into the center of the room and started jumping and spinning, falling over, rolling around and then springing up and jumping around again wildly. I don’t think he had any idea what he was doing because he kept running into things. After our eyes settled back in thier sockets we thought to give him a toy and he instantly snapped back together and started playing tug-o-war. Maria and I thought, “oh God.. what have we just gotten ourselves into…” Things are better now, I think we’ve figured out the signals he gives when he wants to play so he hasn’t resorted to “seizure dog” behavior again (yet).

The yapping/barking I think we’re doing a good job curbing. So far I’ve only really heard him bark when he was scared or from separation anxiety. The separation anxiety we’re “curing” by simply ignoring him and not making a big deal when we leave the house. It’s been only one week and now when we leave the house he doesn’t make a sound. Barking when he’s scared has only happened a few times and in those situations we’re trying to get him used to whatever it was that frightened him. We also try to not use protective body language or voices that make him feel like he should be scared.

On the plus side, I’ve never known a dog to be as affectionate as he is. Most pups we met were easily distracted by other things going on in the house when we were petting them, but not Miguel. When it’s affection time, it’s affection time. It’s not hard to get him to be submissive either. Of course, keeping some crushed dog treats in your pocket doesn’t hurt. 🙂

Chi links:

rec.pets.dog Chihuahua FAQ
dogbreedinfo.com Chihuahua page

I just ported the GenieLab Widget to OS X Dashboard. Go check it out! blog.genielab.com.

We did our home mortgage through Wells Fargo a couple of weeks ago. When I got the first mortgage bill in the mail I noted a line on the back that read: “Make your payments easier! Sign up for online mortgage payments!” Like a typical child of the internet generation I thought this might be something worth looking in to.

I went to their website and started to sign up for the service. I gave them everything: my name, date of birth, ssn, mortgage number, the works. Then I was shown their “terms of service” page. Unlike most typical children of the internet generation I decided to actually read it. While reading it, one line in particular caught my attention: “By agreeing to the online terms of service you agree to forfeit regular postal mail billing. Reactivating regular postal mail billing may require additional fees.”

Umm, no thank you Wells Fargo. I like the paper mail billing. I wanted both electronic and paper, but I guess you’re not capable of that request. Oh well.

I clicked the little button that said I declined their terms of service. Another page popped up: “Are you sure?” Yes.

A day goes by and then I get this email from Wells Fargo:

From:   ofsrep.fmcmigw@...
Subject: Welcome to Wells Fargo Online Banking
Date: September 16, 2005 5:54:15 PM PDT

Dear ROBERT W ROSE:

Welcome to Online Banking, the convenient, secure way to manage
your finances.  As a Wells Fargo customer, you have free access to
Online Banking. 
...

What? Didn’t I decline this service? I respond:

From:   robert.w.rose@...
Subject: Re: Welcome to Wells Fargo Online Banking
Date: September 16, 2005 6:38:24 PM PDT
To:   ofsrep.fmcmigw@...

I didn't sign up for online banking, as I didn't agree with the terms
of your online banking system.  Why am I receiving this email?

-robert rose
...

It takes them about a week to get back to me:

Subject: Re : Your Wells Fargo Inquiry (#...)
From:   ofsrep.wfwgw@...
Date: September 22, 2005 2:39:36 PM PDT

Dear Robert Rose:

To cancel this service, we ask that you please give us a call at
1-800-956-4442 so that we can resolve this issue for you.  You
will not be required to enter a PIN using this option.  Our
Specialists are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. 

We apologize for any inconvenience that this matter has
caused you.

Sincerely,
Michael Farragut
Wells Fargo
Online Customer Service

Huh? I had to go back and read what I wrote previously to make sense of this. I wasn’t requesting the cancellation of anything, I was merely wondering why they sent me that “welcome” email.

From:   robert.w.rose@...
Subject: Re: Re : Your Wells Fargo Inquiry (...)
Date: September 24, 2005 1:39:21 PM PDT
To:   ofsrep.wfwgw@...

I said on your website that I DECLINED your terms of service.  Under
the terms of your very own agreement I am not registered for this
service.  Why do I need to call and cancel?

Sincerely,
Robert Rose

Their reply:

Subject: Re : Your Wells Fargo Inquiry (...)
From:   ofsrep.wfwgw@...
Date: September 26, 2005 11:54:08 AM PDT
To:   robert.w.rose@...

Dear Robert Rose:

To ensure the security of your account we cannot provide specific
information or make changes to your account without verifying
your identity.  If you do not have access to Wells Fargo Online and
need assistance with a request, please call us at 1-800-956-4442.
Bankers are available to assist you, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Sincerely,
Mike Scott
Wells Fargo
Online Customer Service

Thanks Mike, but it appears you didn’t even read the history of the email transaction. What changes do you think you’re going to make if I call up? What specific information do you think you’re going to give me? The statement “If you do not have access to Wells Fargo Online” just adds insult to injury here, as that is the very service I’m trying to escape.

You're too funny.  When you can't solve a problem, you hide
behind a security policy?

Again, please look up my records and observe that I did not
consent to your online usage agreement, and then resolve this
matter.  I don't see how this "change" would require you verifying
my identity.

I don’t feel like I should have to call them, but as a programmer, I wouldn’t be surprised if their online banking system simply didn’t support declining the terms of service. In other words, declining the terms of service interrupts the initialization of your profile–it doesn’t back out and delete it. There’s probably a flag somewhere in my profile there that says “Agreed_TOS: false”. Now the question is, does their code that determines whether or not I’m elligible for paper billing still observe that flag, or does merely having a profile in their online system remove you from paper billing? I guess I’ll find out next month.

As a child of the internet generation, I’m sick of incompetent websites.

Worth1000.com photoshop contest. Funniest one I’ve seen in a while…

GameDailyBiz has an article with Valve’s Gabe Newell where he complains:

There are incredibly few programmers who can safely write code in the PlayStation 3 environment. And I totally see why Sony wants people to write code that runs on seven SPEs and a central processing unit, because that code is never going to run well anywhere else.

Give me a friggin break. Every console made since the dawn of time was a proprietary, complex, hard to program system that programmers had a love/hate relationship with. PS3 is no different.

Some programmers just want the world handed to them on a silver spoon!

My heart goes out to everyone effected by Hurricane Katrina.

Like many people in the Gulf, I’m sickened, distressed and angered by our federal government’s poor response. FEMA especially has come under a lot of pressure, and rightly so. The director of FEMA said last night on national TV that they are unable to provide food and water to the refugees fleeing the Gulf and that they are relying on the Red Cross to provide these essential services.

For the evacuation of New Orleans, I think our military should be scrutinized. They are clearly too understaffed and underequipped to perform this task. We have the largest standing army in the world, the largest defense budget in the world–yet we can’t save our own people. People in New Orleans are dying from dehydration. Where are the choppers air-dropping crates of food and water? Where is the big invasion to rescue all these people? We have the resources–why aren’t they being allocated for this task? If we had the foresight to order an evacuation, why didn’t we have the foresight to station troops and supplies closer to the Gulf in preparation?

Here’s what I would have liked to have seen:

August 26th: Louisiana orders evacuation of low-lying areas next to the coast.
August 27th: DoD redeploys 30,000+ troops to stations around the Gulf.
–Hurricane–
August 30th: DoD launches unprecedented military raid on New Orleans and other areas in the Gulf to keep the peace and evacuate the people.
Sep 2nd: Everyone effected by the storm is sitting comfortably in a refugee camp hundreds of miles away. FEMA gives everyone money, people move on with their lives.

Would that have been so difficult? If we can launch a military assault with 100,000 troops on a country on the other side of the Earth I think we could have stationed ourselves to be ready to protect one of our own cities pretty quickly.

In a previous post I wrote about switching between header and impl files in .NET, and I referred you to a codeproject page with some VB script that does the switching. The code on codeproject assumes that the files reside in the same directory, which isn’t always the case. Here’s some slightly improved code.. It fits my needs anyways.. 🙂

Option Strict Off
Option Explicit Off

Imports EnvDTE
Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic

Public Module Switch

    Sub Switch()
        Dim a As String
        Dim b As String
        Dim Flag As Integer
        Flag = 0
        a = DTE.ActiveDocument.Name()
        tmp = InStr(a, ".cpp")
        If tmp Then
            b = Left(a, Len(a) - 3) + "h"
            Flag = 1
        Else

            tmp = InStr(a, ".hh")
            If tmp Then
                b = Left(a, Len(a) - 2) + "cc"
                Flag = 1
            Else

                tmp = InStr(a, ".cc")
                If tmp Then
                    b = Left(a, Len(a) - 2) + "hh"
                    Flag = 1
                Else
                    tmp = InStr(a, ".h")
                    If tmp Then
                        b = Left(a, Len(a) - 1) + "cpp"
                        Flag = 1
                    End If
                End If

            End If
        End If


        If Flag Then
            DTE.Solution.FindProjectItem(b).Open()
        End If
    End Sub
End Module

Link

I put together a simple javascript application that drills you on Japanese Hiragana. At the moment it only supports 15 characters, which is about all I can handle at the moment. 🙂

USA Today

Warning: ranting ahead

This is stupid. To allow the FCC to collect a bunch of money auctioning off the VHF/UHF airways the government has decided to obsolete NTSC televisions by 2009.

This especially hurts people like me…

I for one own an AWESOME NTSC Sony Trinitron Wega TV. I’ve looked around at getting a replacement.. YOU CAN’T. To get an equivalent HDTV version of my set I’d need to spend like $1300. I’m not ready to drop that much cash on something I consider to be a waste of time to watch.

I also don’t have cable or satellite. The only TV I watch is Fox and PBS. Fox has Seinfeld and Simpsons re-runs, and PBS once in a blue moon has a cool documentary on. If nothing’s on the airways and I absolutely MUST watch something I turn on a TV show I downloaded off the net. Or, I have friends that record stuff for me on their PVR and ship it to me. I hate watching ads. It’s a waste of time. I’d rather be playing video games or doing something interactive with my time.

So I’m very upset about this decision to obsolete my TV in 2009.

Sure, I’ll probably buy a HDTV set by then, but the primary reason for that will be for video games. Halo at 1280i would be pretty nice, and I imagine there will be other games that will look a lot better in high-def. But what about people that can’t afford to replace their old sets?

I’ve looked into buying an HDTV tuner for my current set (yes, there are tuners that will receive DTV and down-scale it to 480i), but they’re so freaking expensive it’s just not worth it (last I checked the cheapest boxes were $400). Plus they all require expensive antennas, which usually run another $100.

This is stupid. 2020, maybe 2015 I would understand, but I just can’t imagine junking this excellent TV of mine four years from today.

If the government gave me a free DTV to NTSC converter box that would be fine, or if the prices dropped below $50 that would also be fine. Wait.. if the government handed out these boxes that would be messed up. “Here you go… watch TV… turn on.. tune in..” you know the rest. LOL.. yeah, they all default to Fox News..

OK that was my most random blog post yet.. My apologies.

When my new Pentium-based Mac comes in the mail, I want only one thing for it:

The Intel C++ Compiler for MacOS X

No, that link doesn’t go to the product page yet, but I can dream.

Mmmmmmm… Intel’s compiler eats gcc for lunch on Intel CPUs.

So what does Robert need to compile that requires that extra burst of performance? Ummmm.. stuff. 🙂