Monthly Archives: August 2005

Current Events

Career Advancement

Apparently, I’ve been going about trying to get promotions at work the wrong way. I’ve been concentrating on doing my job, and being good at it…. according to this article.. I should be pretending work is a popularity contest.

Research at Columbia University shows that jobs, pay raises and promotions are more apt to be awarded based on a worker’s charisma than on academic background or professional qualifications.

So.. I need to be liked apparently… so, I’m screwed.. Since I’ve been told I’m kinda an Asshole at work…

Oh Well… Guess I’ll have to be a ‘nice’ asshole so I can get promoted

Site Stuff

New Best Friend

4 Comments

I’ve been using Dreamweaver when I’m working on the templates and site design stuff.. and then I saw this over at SixApart. I’ll quote the exciting part:

You can make use of the support for Movable Type template tags in Adobe GoLive CS2,

So, I have a new best friend now.. everyone, please meet Adobe GoLive CS2, GoLive, this is everyone..

I have a feeling, GoLive and I will be spending lots of hours together in the future..

I think I love Adobe….

Site Stuff

Movable Type 3.2 Beta

Looks like I could have taken a little bit longer with finishing up my MT 3.2 templates, according to this post, Six apart has decided to release a 4th beta, instead of going final candidate. The list of remaining bugs is much smaller.. and I think it will be a very stable release… also of note, Jay Allen revealed why the new default templates have so much HTML/CSS code in them, even though the actual MT tags have been simplified.:

But now, we’d like to let you in on the “secret”: We’ve unified the HTML structure used across all Six Apart products (Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal) to allow styles and designs to flow back and forth between our millions of customers.

This should make it easier for people to design new “themes” for MT, since so much information is now standard across the services. I’ll probably switch Janice’s Blog over to the new default template “Vicksburg” when I upgrade the site.. she’ll probably want the color scheme changed..but that’s easy..

Current Events, Politics

Energy Bill

2 Comments

So, in case you missed it. Today Bush signed the latest and greatest (and I use the term greatest very, very loosely) Energy bill into law.

One of the bigger items in this law, is that Daylight Savings Time is now, no longer when its been for like the last 20 years (assuming you don’t live in Arizona or Indiana where they either don’t observe it, or have some parts of the state observe it, while others don’t). This, according to mainstream media, is going to be the apocalypse for electronic devices, worse even then Y2K was supposed to be.

Continue reading Energy Bill →

Politics

Presidential Campaign

So.. we got to talking about politics at work (we were a little bored.. and we were making fun of the fact that Bush has taken over 300 days of vacation since he took office)

I decided that I could do a better job running the country then our current leadership (and pretty much everyone else in the last decade or so).. so, I’m officially declaring my candidacy for President of the United States for the 2008 election.

No, seriously.. I am.. I even picked a motto on the drive home from work!

“Vote for Me, I suck less then the other guys!”

Since I can’t afford a huge campaign, I’m relying on word of mouth.. so tell everyone you know to put me down as a write in candidate! (let’s all use Dan Tepper … so there is no confusion)

Current Events

Glad I’m not a locksmith

So, after reading this article, I’m sooooo glad that I’m not a locksmith:

From the article:

According to the Portsmouth Herald, police reported that the 39-year-old man was intoxicated when they arrived at the scene on July 30 at about 3:40 a.m. The man, who was not identified, told them that he had the padlock around his testicles for two weeks.

So.. how do you go two weeks with a padlock around your nuts? I mean.. really.. isn’t that something you would try and take care of as soon as you woke up, and realized your “friend” had padlocked you and took off?

Current Events

Headline Roundup

A quick glance at some of the stuff happening in the world today… or at least, at some of the stuff happening that I find interesting or entertaining.

Let’s start off with this report on lightbulbs that glow in the dark. This company has invented light bulbs that let you see in the dark! I know.. its amazing, I’m not sure how we lasted this long without lightbulbs that gave off light in the dark…

Seriously though..its actually a kinda neat idea.. the bulbs work as normal when turned on.. but when they get turned off, or the electricity goes out (which I guess is actually the same as them getting turned off) they continue to glow, and apparently with enough light to see by without waiting for your eyes to adjust for the first hour. The drawback? each bulb costs about 5 times what a normal bulb would cost… ouch.

Next we have a good wholesome library story.. it seems, that if you go to the library, you not only incur the risk of late charges (especially if you never take the book back), but now, apparently, its just plain dangerous to go. This is why I do all my reading online, or buy the book..its just not safe in the library.. between getting stabbed in the neck, and having to use a windoze based computer if you want internet access…its horrible!

And then we have this winner from the “And they let these people breathe” category. I’ll just quote the headline..it’ll give you a good idea:

Mother who gave pot to toddler sentenced

Yep.. you read that right… my favorite quote from the article?

A key prosecution witness was Brandi Nichols, an admitted drug user who turned Durham in after taking photographs of her holding a water pipe while her 18-month-old daughter put her mouth over the top.

So..let’s see…what lessons can we learn?

  • Mistake #1 – Smoking pot where your 18 month old toddler (otherwise known as a little mimic machine who will try and do EVERYTHING you do) can see you.
  • Mistake #2 – Letting said 18 month old have their turn with the bong.
  • Mistake #3 – Having another pot head take pictures of your 18 month old getting stoned.
  • Mistake #4 – Not keeping the pictures the pot head took!

And yet, after not testifying on her own behalf, not calling any witnesses to testify for the defense, and being found guilty… this brain dead idiot, is trying to get custody back from the state….Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have kids…

Site Stuff, Tech

Dreamhost Tech Support

I love these guys… seriously!

I do tech support for a living, so I know how big of a pain in the ass it can be to have to answer stupid questions…(especially ones where the answer is obvious.. at least..in hindsight)

Since I’d read the part in Hacking Movable Type about using the mysqldump command, and scheduling it through your server’s Cron command… I’d been trying (in between playing with MT 3.2 beta, and redoing all the templates – See the new title picture up top? That’s what happens when you delete the wrong files, and have no backup of some stuff!—anyway..back to the real story) to get it to work. I’d gotten the command to work, if I just entered it from my shell account on the server.. worked like a charm (after a few tries to get formatting correct).

The problem? everytime I added it to Cron.. it failed.. badly.. like a 2 year old taking a driving test kinda bad..

So, Like any good geek.. I do some Googling, and some flipping through of Dreamhost’s online support section… not finding anything that looks like it would help, I throw in the towel, and send them an email.

Response was quick.. 24 hours or less.. and then the work began, we spent several days emailing back and forth, and trying different things. Finally, today they fix my problem and email me to let me know about it. The solution that was obvious in hindsight? Turn the stupid command into a script, set the script executable, and have Cron run the script!

Works flawlessly… now.. if I can just remember to backup the rest of the site information….

Site Stuff, Tech

Movable Type 3.2 release date

2 Comments

According to this post, Six Apart will be releasing the last beta build Thursday, followed by the release of the ‘final’ version next week.

Really, all I have to say about this, is crap… I was hoping for a longer beta period.. not because the 3.2 Beta versions are buggy and unstable and in need of many fixes (After all, we’re not talking about a Microsoft product here, and they fixed the one bug I reported)….but because I’m nowhere near done with customizing the 3.2 templates to look like I want them to, and this means, that I have to hurry up and get them done.

You think if I asked nicely, they’d hold off on releasing 3.2 so I could procrastinate further?

Just Stuff

Thong Talk

2 Comments

Just thought I would share with y’all a conversation I had at work tonight..because I found it humorous…. this conversation was with…let’s call her Sarah (primarily, because, that’s her name.) (This is the actual IM conversation..with small edits to protect the guilty). The link in question, goes to an article discussing the drop in sales of Thongs to older British women.

Dan says:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050801/140/foly8.html

Sarah says:

I don’t think they are uncomfortable

Dan says:

I’m just amazed that they seem surprised that older women aren’t wearing them anymore.. I would think that there aren’t that many mid 30s-40 year old women that think they still have the figure for a thong

Sarah says:

true enough

Sarah says:

however it has more to do with not having unsightly pantie lines

Sarah says:

that is my theroy on it

Dan says:

you’re right about the panty line thing… Girls worry about the strangest things.. you don’t see guys going around wonder if their boxers are leaving visible underwear lines…

Sarah says:

it’s just a girl thing

Dan says:

kinda like that ‘does this make my butt look big’ thing?

Sarah says:

thats right

Sarah says:

you do know the correct answer to that question right?

Dan says:

“Of course not, you’ve got a great ass, honey”

Sarah says:

good boy

Dan says:

you know.. I can’t think of anything else to blog about tonight… I may use this

Sarah says:

you’ve been blogging like a mad man this week

Dan says:

I’ve been talkative… what can I say? Besides..its an excuse not to finish unpacking

As you can tell.. I had a incredibly productive day at work.