Gmail and SMS
I recently picked up two Samsung SCH-u740’s (buy on get one free). One I use and one is for my daughter. I also added text messaging to my Verizon account. The text messaging was for my daughter, but it turned out to good for me as well. Now I can filter messages from my Gmail account and have them sent as a SMS message to my phone. Granted it’s a low tech mobile solution but I’m doing the typical life hacker thing and making the most of the tools I have at my disposal. First of all you have to have a Gmail account. Secondly you need a cell phone, preferably with unlimited text messaging, or you’ll risk paying through the nose for those extra text messages. Gmail has the option to filter messages. You can assign actions to those filtered messages like adding a label or forwarding the message to another email address. Yep, that’s our ticket right there. I filter messages based on client email domains. I then forward those emails to my Verizon account. Now here are a few things I had to dig up along the way.
Social Networking Map
Ok. If you’ve checked out my home page, you may have noticed the twitter stuff on the side. Yes I’m trying some more of this social networking. I’ve even strong armed some friends into joining me. What are friends for? So while doing some reading on social networking, I ran across this lovely tidbit.
I watched “an inconvenient truth” tonight
I watched an inconvenient truth tonight. I know, not exactly current events. Yet Al Gore’s message is not exactly current events. He’s been peddling his message for years now. So I watched the DVD and I learned a couple of things. I learned how voraciously past administrations have fought to down play global warming. I learned even more about how closely the oil companies are tied to the Bush dynasty. More so than I had even previously been aware of. I think that if Al Gore could have been presented himself in 2000 as he did in this movie, I might have considered him for president. I visited climatecrisis.net and saw a painful truth; people who are 100% on board with global warming don’t really have answers to the tough questions. I can change every light bulb in my house. I can set my thermostat +2 -2 and even buy an electronic thermostat. But each time I hit the highway for whatever reason I see the real problem. I make more greenhouse gases by driving than I do living in my house. Sure I can cut back on some trips, but I have to work to pay bills. The reality is that if I don’t make the greenhouse gases my family will be living in the street. Albeit making much less of a carbon footprint. I wish I knew the answers. I wish the rhetoric was easier to sift through. Gore thinks we are killing our planet. I wish I knew.
Mindstorm Robots
A gift from Lora. Add some open source software and some determination and you get hours and hours of geek fun. I just couldn’t have any fun with the RCX if I used the original operating system. Lucky for me the brickOS team make a wonder alternative OS that enables you to write your programs in C or C++. Make sure you follow the installation instructions for a good clean setup.
Programming is not about programming
I was reminded today of what should be ever obvious. You can not program the solution to any problem properly until you have fully bound the problem itself. With all the hullabaloo over this feature or that feature of a particular language, it’s easy to forget why your even programming in the first place. The obvious answer… to solve problems. While writing a script or an application you always create a form of mental inertia. The language you’re using tends to call out solutions to problems you’ve hardly begun to understand. This is a good thing, to a point. I think this inertia stems from the collective input of the creators of your language. The shape of the language drives you in certain directions. The same can be said about design patterns. You’re gaining production time by not reinventing the wheel every time you code. It is important to remember that this inertia, like the skier flying down hill, has to be controlled. But that was a lesson I learned on a different day. Today I had to solve a large problem twice because I let the language and patterns get out in front of me. Programming is not about programming. It is about problem solving. As obvious as this is, I really felt the need to remind myself.
I took the 2007 web design survey
Eric Meyer posted about the web design survey. I trotted on over there and took the survey. I’m looking forward to the results.
ANT and FTP
I’m using ANT to FTP files to my website. Before you can do this, you’ll need to download these…
eXist xml database
I’ve been using eXist for a little while now on a project that I’m doing for ATS. I have to say that I like it so far. It runs out of the box with no problems. I’ve installed it on a windows server running Tomcat. ANT has tasks specifically for eXist.
Words Cannot Harm
I originally posted this here in response to my good friend Bill Peterson’s comments. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to re-post it here.
AJC Co-opts Virginia Tech Professor’s Heroism
I was listening to the radio today, something I do less and less of, when I heard the sobering voice of the announcer speak about the heroic actions of Liviu Librescu. The announcer pointed out to me what most of the world already knows. Liviu was a Jewish holocaust survivor who gave his life for his students on Holocaust Memorial Day. Then came the tag line. This was a commercial for the American Jewish Committee. Why co-opt his heroism as your own AJC. Liviu didn’t save those kids because he was Jewish. He didn’t save those kids because he was a Holocaust survivor. He didn’t save those kids because he was a professor or because he was 75 years old. He saved those kids, and gave his life in doing so, because he was human. While Cho Seung-Hui showed us the darkest side of being human, Liviu showed us the brightest side. For me, Liviu is none of the things in his bio. For me, Liviu is the hope that we all should share for bright and peaceful future.