Plans For the Future

So I decided that if I'm going to blog, I should blog regularly. Starting today, I will be posting a new blog entry every Monday. And it won't just be a short "goddamnit I was up late last night" post; it'll be a full, interesting post. I'll still do the other variety as well.

Quantity Is Better Than Quality

So I opened my email today and had a new friend request on Facebook. It was from someone I knew in high school but was never really friends with. In fact, I probably only ever spoke to her twice. Now she sends me a friend request. Do I accept? She was an aquaintence at best, never a friend. It's not like we were mortal enemies or anything, we just weren't friends.

What does a friend request even mean? If I have 100 friends in my friends list, is that better than having 50? What if I have 20 people, but they're all my good friends who I spend time with and care about? Is that better?

I just don't like the "I'm going to friend request everyone I've ever know" policy for most people on MySpace/Facebook/LinkedIn/whatever. I used to deny those people, but then they'd just request again. So I'd ignore them, but then they'd message me. I decided it wasn't worth offending people because I didn't consider them a friend, so I just started accepting the requests.

But seriously people. If I haven't spoken with you in 10 years and you send me a friend request (and nothing more*), what are you trying to do: increment your friend count or actually catch up?

*I've had a few people send friend requests then send lengthy emails of the catching-up type. I'm down with that.

The Wishlist: Implementation

Once upon a time a few years ago I was thinking about an old movie I saw as a kid. I couldn't recall the name, but I did remember it was about personified home appliances (like toasters, electric blankets, and whatnot) and that it had a profound effect on me. After a brief interwebz search, I found it: The Brave Little Toaster.

I almost bought it on the spot at Amazon, but I realized it would be kind of a frivilous purchase. Plus, at the time I was not exactly flush with cash. I noticed a link on the Amazon product page that said "Add to wishlist." I sorta figured it was kinda like the same thing as a shopping list, so I added it, thinking it would be nice to have a place to list things I thought about buying but didn't. That way, if I randomly think about it again and see it's already on my wishlist, then I can see that I've thought about it before, and it becomes less of an impulse buy. So I kept adding things to the list like this.

Then, one fateful October, Annie asked me what I wanted for my birthday. In an uncommon moment of clarity, I thought Hey, I've already got a birthday list! I sent her a link to my wishlist. Her response: "Are you serious? You want all these things?" After I calmed her down, I outlined the prinicples of a wishlist:

• I don't expect to get everything on the list.
• I provide the list to help people know what to give me; someone can get me something from the list and know that I will like it.
• The list gives people an idea of the kind of stuff I like, so if they want to get me something off the list, they have an idea.
• Having a large list maintains the surprise for me. Even if I knew for certain that 10 people were getting me gifts from the list, if I have 100 items on my list I will still be surprised.

She seemed to lighten up after that, and even embraced the idea.

So I say to all of you out there: Make a wishlist, keep it current, and let people know about it!

Live from Minnesota

Minnesota is a nice state. The section I'm in (somewhere near Minnetonka) looks like the part of New Jersey I grew up in (I shit you not). I'm hear for one of my best friends' wedding. They're Jewish, so I got to partake in a Jewish wedding ceremony for the first time. It was pretty much the same as every non-Catholic wedding I've been to. I was the best man though, so damn I was scared about the rings and the speech. I tackled the rings by having the two of them in their cases with me at all times. And not just with me, but in my hands. It worked; I didn't lose the rings.

The speech was tough too. I have seen several best man speeches, and most were decent, but I wanted better. I decided my goal was to deliver the speech in under one minute. This took the pressure off of being too funny or insightful and allowed me to distil the essence of what I wanted to say into four three bullet points:

• Joke that speech should be short, so no revealing stories (I ended up forgetting this bit).
• Joke that when Joe told me about Liz, that I said she was out of his league.
• Nice thing about Liz.
• Nice thing about Joe.

By my reckoning (no one thought to time me), I came in around a minute and a half. And yet, I had them all in tears. It was awesome. The maid of honor went next and spoke for what seemed like 10 minutes, but it was a great speech too. Good stuff.

I'm packing up right now (actually I'm getting yelled at right now for blogging instead of packing) to head back home. Thank God we decided to take an extra day off.

The Wishlist: Background

A short history of gift-giving as it relates to me.

Back in like 5th grade, my parents apparently found it too difficult to determine what exactly I wanted for my birthday, so they asked me to make a list. I made a list no fewer than three pages long. So my parents asked me the next day to make another list because they "lost" the first one. They compared the two lists, found about three items overlapping, and got me those things. I was happy.

In middle school, I was really into Magic: The Gathering. My friends all knew this, and so they all gave me Magic cards. I got pretty much my only good cards from that birthday (and recently sold them too).

Freshman year of college, for the first birthday party among my group of friends, we got together, each chipping in $5, and got Anna what turned out to be a huge set of birthday gifts. We quickly realized we'd run out of money fast if we continued this lavish process, and thereafter no one got gifts.

A few years back, I invited friends out to a restaurant to celebrate my birthday. I did not expect any gifts, but a good friend got me a really thoughtful gift; a bottle of low-carb wine (I was on the South Beach diet at the time and doing very well). It made me realize that now that we all had jobs, we could afford to buy each other gifts.

Which brings me back to the beginning. How do I let my friends know what I want unless they ask me? I've already received my fair share of ties, digital tire pressure gauges, and gift cards.

The answer: the wishlist!

Pedestrian Traffic

We have laws and rules for automobile traffic. Lane markings, traffic lights, stop signs, all sorts of good stuff. But what about foot traffic? We have no rules. It's every man for himself. A jungle, if you will.

We seem to abide by some soft rules for walking. Generally we try to stay to the right in two-way travel. Often when merging we'll take turns entering. But some people just want to take advantage of the lawlessness of the pedestrian frontier. Here are a few habits that annoy me the most.

• Standing by the door that will open on the subway, planning to get out, the guy behind me says "excuse me" three or four times trying to get past me, not thinking that I might be getting off too. This often happens when approaching major hubs.
• Walking into a crosswalk without looking. What the hell is wrong with you? I couldn't care less about your life, but if the driver swerves and hits me, I'm gonna be so pissed.
• Walking to the front of a queue or merge and butting in. Hey buddy, you're not more important than the rest of us. I'd wager you're less important.
• Suddenly stopping in the middle of a walkway. Don't look angrily at me when I bump into you; it's your own damn fault.

Next time I'll look at some rules we can all abide by.

Firion casts Sleep Lv. 5

My sleep schedule the past three nights:

• Tuesday night: went to sleep around 10:30PM, getting 8:15 of sleep.
• Wednesday night: went to sleep around 10:45, getting 8:00 of sleep.
• Thursday night: went to sleep around 2:30AM, getting 4:15 of sleep.

Care to guess when I was most refreshed? If you guessed today (Friday), pat yourself on your back.

I prefer 6-7 hours of sleep for me, but 8 hours is not too much. So why did less sleep make me feel more rejuvenated?

I'll tell you why. I spent about 60 minutes studying fantasy sports, at least one hour playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (thanks Eric!), 30 minutes watching parts of South Park and Drawn Together, another 30 watching Cowboy Bebop, and maybe another 30 randomly browsing the web. Most importantly, I relaxed and allowed my conscious mind to take me to whatever pursuit I deemed interesting. It was better mental relaxation than sleep.

And it was awesome.

Terrible Start

Between my four fantasy football leagues, I have 2 wins through the first 2 weeks of the season. Good thing they're on the same team.

0-fer in my work league.

That one league I'm winning is the league I run.

New Furniture

I recently rented a Ryder truck (no friggin way I was going with UHaul) to pick up some furniture from Cape Cod. I was picking up a China cabinet and a dinner table, two pieces of a three-piece set my maternal grandparents bought for themselves as a wedding gift in 1945. We didn't want to take any chances with damage in a car, so I rented the hugest truck I could ever imagine and brought my trusty ropes. I brought Jay with me; mad props to him. We had some excitement (I forgot the keys), but we got the stuff.

I gotta tell you, this furniture seems like it was cut directly from a tree; it's amazing how strong the stuff is. Here are some pictures (I can't seem to find the pics of the China cabinet; I'll have to take some more):

More War?

I try to never talk politics ever, but this issue is just too big and scary.

Many political bloggers seem to think that the Bush administration is gearing up for war against Iran. Certainly Washington has issued many scathing press releases condemning Iran for helping the Iraqi insurgency, illegally making nuclear weapons, and other such things. But war? Invasion? Disregarding all the logistics of another war (it's not 1991 when we had a two-and-a-half-war military; we barely have a one-war military these days), why the hell would we attack Iran? The region is unstable enough. We can't secure Baghdad, let alone the rest of Iraq. What manner of arrogance would war against Iran would be.

Please, stay informed about this issue people. Who knows if it will happen, but an informed populace is certainly better than an ignorant one.

Halo 3, 546. Ed, 0

I bought a 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew's "Game Fuel" flavor, the bottle adorned with the Master Chief and Halo 3 stuff. As a Halo 3 fanboy I was contractually obligated to buy it. However, it tastes like a combination of bad bubble gum and Nerds candy. Despite it's foul taste, I'm amazed they got those flavors in there. Good work guys.

Fantasy Football

So this year I'm going to be in four fantasy football leagues. That's just ridiculous. But of course the hard part is actually coming up with four team names. I always start with my old standby, "Neosporin Squad", then I pick a new name based on either current events or players on my teams. I've stayed away from Michael Vick this year because it's too easy, so here's what I've got:

• Brady Quinn's a Dick (my league)
• You're The Man Now Dogs (work league)
• Body by Mangini (coworker's outside of work league, three-player keeper)(also this came from Kissing Suzy Kolbert)
• Pacman for Prez (friend's league)

I'm pretty unhappy about that last one; it may change after the draft.

Speaking of drafts, the first two leagues up there have drafted, and here are my teams:

Brady Quinn's a Dick (standard scoring, 12 teams):

1. Laurence Maroney (10th overall, RB, NE)
2. Steve Smith (15, WR, Car)
3. Deuce McAllister (34, RB, NO)
4. Carnell Williams (39, RB, TB)
5. Deion Branch (58, WR, Sea)
6. Matt Hasselbeck (63, QB, Sea)
7. Kellen Winslow (82, TE, Cle)
8. Devery Henderson (87, WR, NO)
9. Santonio Holmes (106, WR, Pit)
10. Alge Crumpler (111, TE, Atl)
11. Jason Campbell (130, QB, Was)
12. Brandon Marshall (135, WR, Den)
13. Jason Elam (154, K, Den)
14. Minnesota D (159, D, Min)
15. Reuben Droughns (178, RB, NYG)

Pretty happy with this team, though I may have taken Cadillac too early (backup RB before second QB?).

You're the Man Now Dogs (very odd scoring, 1 backup per position required, special teams separate, 12 teams)

1. Larry Johnson (11, RB, KC)
2. Donovan McNabb (14, QB, Phi)
3. Deuce McAllister (35, RB, NO)
4. Anquan Boldin (38, WR, Ari)
5. Plaxico Burress (59, WR, NYG)
6. a. Jay Cutler (62, QB, Den), pick traded for
   b. Cadillac Williams (69, RB, TB)
7. a. San Diego D (83, D, SD), pick traded for
   b. Santana Moss (76, WR, Was)
8. Chad Pennington (86, QB, NYJ)
9. Kellen Winslow (107, TE, Cle)
10. Olindo Mare (110, TE, NO)
11. Owen Daniels (131, TE, Hou)
12. Neil Rackers (135, K, Ari)
13. Jacksonville ST (155, ST, Jac)
14. St. Louis D (158, D, STL)
15. Houston ST (179, ST, Hou)
16. Indianapolis D (182, D, Ind)

That draft pick trade threw this league into a tailspin. The veterans in this league have been doing it since long before computers, and they had outlawed all sorts of behavior we take for granted, like trades, waiver wire acquisitions, and draft pick trading. Also their scoring is screwy; every player gets 6 points for a TD of the type they're supposed to get, but 12 for any other way (RB rushing TD = 6 pts, RB receiving TD = 12 pts). Also QBs are heavily weighted, and interceptions are ignored.

Why I Miss My Sidekick

I had a T-Mobile Sidekick II for about 18 months before I destroyed the LCD screen. Many things about it were really annoying, like its huge size and incessant alert windows not dismissable by the "end call" button. But it definitely aced one thing: sound management.

Most people have some idea of how they want their cell to make sounds, but these ideas vary. For example, I just had a conversation with a coworker that went like this:

Matt: I wish my phone had an option to silence all sounds.
Ed: Mine has that, but I wish it wouldn't silence alarms.
Matt: Then it wouldn't be all sounds.

Enter the Sidekick's sound profiles. The Sidekick has something like six default sound profiles: All off, buzz, low, medium, high, maximum. Ok, great, but what if I want incoming calls to ring but text messages to vibrate? You can go into the profiles and edit the volumes for all types of sounds. Want everything but new voicemail to make sounds? Go right ahead. The Sidekick also allows you to add or remove profiles and even to order them (since you usually select them with the volume buttons).

But wait, there's more! You can tell the Sidekick to automatically use certain profiles at certain times of day. The designers clearly had working people in mind when they added the options for "weekend only" rules. So after about 15 minutes of customization, I never had to worry about the Sidekick's sounds again!

As much as I love my new phone (Samsung t629, a sexy little number), I have toggle vibrate twice a day. Anything that I have to do repeatedly in software should be automated.

Free Traffic?

I submitted my post about FiOS and the XBox to Reddit after I posted it because I thought people might want to know, and who better than Reddit readers would know if it's relevant. Well, the submission maxed out at three points (one was me and two were Eric and John). But I got 41 page views that day, which is a lot for a blog that no one reads (you can see the consecutive zero-view days in the image below).

I know this is a known fact (duh, show your content to others and then others will see it), it seems kinda cool that I got 38 strangers for view my content just by asking them to.

Photos imminent!

We've been busy, so I haven't had a chance to take newer photos of the house yet. But when I do, you'll get to see the new bedroom! Woooo!

FiOS and XBox Wireless Adapter: Incompatable?

What the crap? I tried to connect my XBox 360 with wireless adapter to my new Verizon FiOS wireless router/FiOS modem, the ActionTec MI424-WR. The 360 sees the wireless network correctly, but when I try to connect, it fails (2nd step of the test, "Wireless Network: Not Connected"). I can connect to a neighbor's unsecured wireless, so I know the adapter works.

After trying a bunch of things, I call XBox tech support. The guy runs through his checklist, doing all the dumb things like restarting and reseting (I simulated those steps, as I had already done them). Then he asked me whether I had a Linksys or D-Link wireless router. Odd question, since there are more than two wireless router manufacturers out there. I told him it was an ActionTec, and he cut me off saying that was a modem and wireless router in one. This was odd, because while that was true, ActionTec sells regular wireless routers. I confirm that it's a Verizon-supplied wireless router and FiOS modem.

This is the interesting part. He pretty much instantly says I should call ActionTec to make sure I have the right settings. Now, I'm not an IT professional... wait, I am an IT professional! So I told him that I set up the wireless network myself and that it works with my computers. The tech is clearly concerned about something, but he asks me to run one more test before again declaring I should call ActionTec. This certainly seems weird, as I know the router is working fine.

So, being the nerd that I am, I searched the interweb for information. I came across this forum thread, with some interesting (but unconfirmed) information:

I have this same exact problem, and it is NOT a NAT problem and it CANNOT be fixed through port forwarding. I've done a bunch of searches in other forums and others are having the same issue. What I'm finding is that there used to be a d-link and an early model actiontec that DO work with the wireless adapter. However, newer customers (I got mine installed July 1, 2007), are getting the "rev. C" version of this router and it is incomptatible

Weird, huh. I will be writing ActionTec, Verizon, and Microsoft soon about this.

UPDATE: From ActionTec:

Ed,

DO NOT reply to this email. This is a send only account.

You wrote:Hello
ActionTec, I recently (first week of August 2007) had Verizon
FiOSinstalled in my house. The installer gave me a ActionTec MI424-WR
router.However, I cannot get my XBox 360 with Wireless Adapter to connect to
theActionTec's wireless network. The 360 can connect to other wirelessnetworks
without trouble. Can you help me? Thank you, -Ed

The reponse to this issue is below:

=================================================================

If your MI424 has Rev C after the model number we have seen an increase incalls
where XBOX wireless adapters will not connect.We cannot assist at this time, but
the issue is under review by Actiontec,VERIZON, and Microsoft. Once a resolution
is found it will posted on theVERIZON website.Until that time, you can connect
the XBOX with ethernet and play online,but we cannot get the wireless to
connect.

=================================================================

If this solution did not correct your issue please click this link: http://support.actiontec.com/email_support/support_form.php?callid=00878442

Thank you,
Actiontec Electronics

Well, there you have it. I got FiOS mostly for XBox Live, and now I have to use my extra wireless router to actually connect it. What a load of garbage.

UPDATE 2:
I connected my old D-Link router to the LAN side of the ActionTec to see if the 360 could connect to that and then to the interweb. It works, though I'm not sure how much latency I'm losing with that extra layer.

Also, I chatted with Verizon's live-chat service to ask them about it. The tech was unable to help, but he offered these two nuggets of information:

• Verizon only guarantees wireless devices 10 feet from the router can connect. Anything further than that is not guaranteed.
  
• Verizon does not support gaming network connections. If you want one to work, you're on your own.

Not terribly surprising, but interesting.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:
After cursing at NAT and firewalls and routers for a few hours yesterday, I finally realized that my nested routers didn't allow my XBox to connect to other users for any online gaming. I'm going to try finagling the DMZ and port forwarding settings, but for now I've just busted out the 50 ft. Ethernet cable. Oh well.

FINAL UPDATE HERE:
Go here for latest news.

Why the Rabid Anti-Firefox-ism?

The big news in the nerd world today is the site WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com (WFIB). If you haven't already, check out the site. The site says that site owners are blocking Firefox because of the popular extension AdBlockPlus, and since site owners cannot opt-out of having their ads blocked, they've blocked Firefox all together. Hilariously, one of the articles WFIB links to is a paper from a IT-law college class.

Well, that's all fine and dandy. You own your site, and you can do whatever. O'Reillynet.com has a good article detailing why WFIB makes no sense, but whatever. You could check out the article for more info. Or you could check out today's AlertBox article from Jakob Nielsen; he basically says that users ignore advertisements, a fact which makes WFIB even more silly.

But what really shocks me is the anti-Firefox-ism (AF) furvor out there. Just look at these sites (linked to from WFIB):

• PopularTechnology.net (in a post from 2005) blasts Firefox as a new religion.
• A Comcast user's site, Optimize Guides, details a list of Firefox myths.
• A Google search turns up similar viewpoints (though many are individual users posting on forums).

I've seen some Firefox nuts out there; as with pretty much any new technology, people get excited about it. Firefox isn't new, but it's still different enough for people to get excited about. After spending hours every time I was at my parents' house fixing their computer from all the spyware IE downloaded (even with the latest patches), I installed Opera for them to use. It was too different looking, and they rejected it. Then I installed Firefox, and they didn't even notice (I noticed all the time I got to spend with them instead of their computer). I recently recommended it to a developer coworker of mine who had disregarded it out of hand as useless.

So why the venom towards Firefox? Use it or don't use it. But if you use IE and get spyware, don't ask me for help.

Technology Update

The Verizon guy came and found the problem; the coaxial cables that go to the right side of my living room start out in the junction box on the left side. The Verizon FiOS signal can piggyback on a cable TV signal, but not a satelite signal (I'm led to believe this is because the satelite signal is scrambled so it actuall utilizes all 100Mbps of the coaxial cable's bandwidth). He had to run a third line from the basement into the living room. I tell him that I really REALLY do not want another hole in the floor. He looks at me as if I'm crazy and asks why I thought he'd put a hole in the floor. I tell him about the DirecTV guy and show him the hole, and he just shakes his head.

I'm paraphrasing; he said, "The guy told you it [putting the cable through the wall to the junction box] was impossible? Then he's full of shit [I had given him the green light to swear by swearing a lot by this point]. Anyone can do it."

So he proceeds to thread a cable through the wall and then "fish" for it. It took him like 2 minutes, half as long as drilling a hole in the floor. I'm going to be having a word with DirecTech, "my certified DirecTV installer." Excellent.

When Animals Attack! on Fox

Two animal and house related stories today, one more crazy than the other.

This weekend I walked out the side door and headed towards the car, but something on the front lawn caught my attention. I glanced over and saw at least ten live wild turkeys on the lawn! I just stopped and stared, but apparently this was enough to scare them. They all flew off, but one couldn't quite get enough altitude ("Pull up! Pull up!") and crashed right-on into the neighbor's house! The turkey managed to fly away without hitting the ground, which is quite an impressive feat. I'd never seen wild turkeys before!

The other story is less exciting. Before I went to bed last night, the carbon monoxide detector on the 2nd floor started chirping like it had a low battery. I was pissed because I had just replaced the battery. I stomped up there and examined the detector when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked into the guest bedroom and saw something large flying around in there. As best I could tell, it was a bat! We had left the window open in there, and though it had a screen on it, the screen was bent severely, and the bat must have flown in to eat some of the bugs that had followed the light. So what did I do? Well, bats are scary! So I just shut the door and decided to deal with the bat later. This morning I went in there armed with a tennis raquet and work gloves, but he had left.

Oh, and the septic guys finished their work by leveling out the lawn as best they could and topping it all with loam. Only loam doesn't include seed (something that my broker neglected to inform me of). So I have to hit Lowes and get some grassseed and a spreader in addition to all the other stuff we need.

House Update; or, Shenanigans with Technology

Busy week! On Tuesday, the Verizon FiOS tech came (6 hours late) to install fiber optic Internet access. My father-in-law-to-be, Dave, volunteered to stay and wait for him so I didn't have to miss work. Nice. When I get home, the Internet is on, and man is it fast (and very low latency)!

Annie doesn't work Wednesdays, so we had scheduled the guys from National Floors Direct to come then to install the hardwood floors upstairs and carpet on the stairs. (Side note about NFD: the sales guy was nice and knowledgeable. However, he significantly lowered his price twice when we said it was too much; 20% the first time, then 19% the second time for a total drop of almost 35%! Price discrimination indeed!) I returned home to awesome hardwood floors! I was and still am pretty excited about them.

Then things started to go downhill in one fell swoop. The DirecTV guy came on Friday (again with Dave waiting for him) and refused to install the second coaxial cable for the 2-tuner DVR, saying an electrician would have to do it. While this raised some red flags for me, I was at work and didn't want to deal with it, so I told Dave to just let him do it.

I get home and the TV is working great. So I fire up my laptop to blog about it... and I have no Internet access! Since the FiOS uses the coaxial cables already in the house, I figured out that the DirecTV tech must have disconnected one of the coax cables going to the router (this was mostly confirmed by a tech support call with Verizon). Also, we discovered that about half the channels on the DVR have significant interruptions/static.

DirecTV gets bonus points for the call I had with a tech named Jeremy. He had me do a few troubleshooting steps without effect, then went ahead and ordered me a new DVR box. He asked me to check the cables behind the box, and I explained to him that the tech hadn't installed the second line. Jeremy literally laughed, then said, "You ordered a 2-tuner DVR from us with full installation; why would you need an electrician to install it?" Jeremy set up a service call for the next day, Sunday, from 12-4. Wow! A service call on a Sunday; how cool is that?

So right now I'm waiting for them to show. Jeremy said he couldn't diagnose the FiOS problem (obviously), but that the tech coming out today will take a look. If they fix the bad signal and the FiOS, my faith will be restored.

Update: James, the DirecTV tech, just left. He was able to install the second line (though not without first telling me he wasn't allowed to, and then calling his dispatch to find out he was) and get rid of the fuzz. He did his best to help with the Verizon problem, but was unable to help. The cabling in this house seems very strange. I hope the Verizon guy on Monday can help.