Monthly Archives: March 2009

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One man’s voice – now on iPhone

March 31, 2009 2:49 pm / 6 Comments /

For a long time I have wanted to set my blog up in a way that allowed for an automatic transition when being viewed from an iPhone. I have always thought it was cool when a site knew that you were coming in from an iPhone and optimized the site for loading on that small resulotion. And it made sense to me that since I am a developer I should be probably develop something like that for my blog.

Well, since I am a developer, and the developer’s philosophy of “lazy developers are the best developers”, it was with insane gladness that I was pointed to the cool little WordPress plugin called wptouch. Now I don’t have to make this because it is already made. How awesome is that?

I really like this plugin. It has a very robust administrative panel so you can set things up pretty much however you want them to appear. The team that brought wptouch also included a photoshop template file for you to make your own iPhone style icons to add to the theme.

Now I just wish I had the 3G iPhone because my 2G loads slower than crap and makes for a very crappy user experience for me. Not that there are that many people reading my blog from an iPhone. But I do, and that means that I need to make sure I am happy. And right now the speed of my connection over EDGE just plain sucks, so I am not happy.

But I happy with the plugin because it loads a very clean, easy to use and very intuitive theme when you hit from a mobile device. So if you happen to have an iPhone/iPod touch, check out this blog with it and see for yourself how cool wptouch is.

Posted in: Cool Finds, This Blog / Tagged: , ,

Obama administration fires GM CEO Wagoner

March 30, 2009 1:48 pm / 2 Comments /

It might not look right or even sound right, the words “Obama administration fires GM CEO Rick Wagoner” but that is, in effect, what happened. And if you know anything about me you know that I have a resolved and absolute dissatisfaction with Barack Obama as a president.

So it goes without saying that I am shocked and upset by this move, announced over the weekend and discussed by Mr. Obama this morning at a press conference he held to bring forward news of the government’s plans and actions toward the failing American automotive industry. The first question I have to ask is how can a government flex that much muscle that it can ouster a corporate officer of one of the largest companies in American history, a company they have no stake in, in such a short period of time when it took a court order and a subpoena to get the names of the recipients of the bonuses awarded to AIG executives, a company that the government owns 80% of?

Let me be clear about one thing: I am not saying that CEO Rick Wagoner should not have been fired. To the contrary, given his performance and lack of strength exhibited over his tenure at the helm of GM it makes sense that the company should seek to replace him. But that is the company’s own prerogative, not that of the US government. Just because the government is lending GM (in total) about $20 billion does not mean that they can reach into the corporation and start shifting the organization around.

No, in fact I would have expected that in the case of banks and financial institutions that have been pissing away the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money that was used to nationalize those banks. The government took ownership of the bulk of the companies and should, in effect, have ownership rights to that company, including making organization decisions. Why we didn’t exercise those ownership rights still blows me away as I watch the financial sector continue to retain people that brought our country to its knees by paying them the same amounts of money, if not more, to do the same thing. Where are the bank CEOs’ heads? Where are the calls for resignations of Mr. Liddy from AIG? Where is the government muscle in that industry?

Instead GM, who does need the money – there is no doubt about that, is told their plan for looking forward and righting their ship was not sufficient in the eyes of the government and that, in order for them to be in a place where the government will trust them with more, must bounce their CEO. Chrysler was not given that same decision? Why not?

Now GM has another 60 days to revise their plan so that they can borrow more money from the government. And Chrysler has 30 days to get their merger/partnership deal with Fiat put together in a way that is adequate to the government so that the government can give them another $6 billion. Oh, and if the deal with Fiat falls through then Chrysler will receive no more money from the government. But that’s fine because Mr. Obama has a plan for that.

See, if it doesn’t work out for Chrysler then Mr. Obama has suggested that using American bankruptcy laws might be a potential solution for Chrysler as a means to release their liability for older, heavier debt that they can’t seem to get themselves out from under as a corporation. Um, Mr. President? If bankruptcy were an option for them why the hell didn’t we let them file two months ago instead of giving them money just so they could ask for more two months later?

It would seem the only smart company of the big 3 was Ford who elected not to take any government bailout funds. So while the government is firing CEOs and forcing partnerships Ford can sit back and look like the only stable company of the three. Way to go Ford. I have not really ever liked anything about you, but this little gesture of yours… top class.

Too bad the weakening auto industry will have a catastrophic domino effect on the entire economy if it does fail. Vendors and suppliers that supply GM and Chrysler more than likely supply other automotive manufacturers. And since the manufacturers have forced suppliers to scant profit margins, at best, if a supplier loses a contract like GM they could very well go out of business. Meaning Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and many other manufacturers not in the news for failure will be directly affected by GM and Chrysler’s inability to manage their business.

When will the auto industry learn from Toyota? When will they take what Toyota has done seriously and implement the principles of kaizen, hoshin kanri and 5S? That is perhaps for a different discussion.

For now I am still a little flabbergasted by the way our new presidential administration has failed to act like business owners for businesses we own while acting like a corporate boards toward companies we have no ownership interest in at all. If they fired Wagoner, they could have very easily fired all the idiots at all the banks that have brought our economy into the toilet and gotten rid of their bad business decisions before giving them billions of dollars to make more bad decisions with.

But that really isn’t Obama’s way now, is it?

Posted in: Observations, On Business, On Government, On Politics, Personal Messages, Rants / Tagged: , , ,

Online friends can be real cool

March 29, 2009 12:05 pm / 6 Comments /

I have a friend named Charles Thompson that I met through the PHP Developers Network forums. After some exchanges on the forums he and I struck up a more professional online buddyship, including friending each other on Facebook. We also chat. A lot.

So it goes without saying that Charles should be entitled to a little write up on my little corner of the intarwebs. Afterall, we have chatted about marriage, PHP, programming, c, c++, college, motorcycles… you name it. Chances are pretty good that whatever subject you can think of it has more than likely been brought up. We have sent each other comments on Facebook, have exchanged ideas on forums, have even reviewed each other’s designs and blogs trying to get opinions.

In short, Charles is an online friend that is real… cool. I have never met him, never spoken to him, never heard his voice. But we have communicated for quite some time now and have spent early mornings and late nights chatting about all sorts of stuff. He is a cool dude.

Of course I rarely make it a point to talk about anyone unless it is my wife, my kids or the president. Sometimes I talk about a group of people – like the police or congress or Christians or geeks – but it is the rare occasion in which I single one person out for discussion.

So why does he get his own write up on my blog when I have other, real life friends that have not gotten theirs? Well, the answer to that is simple.

He asked me. :)

Posted in: Social Networking, This Blog / Tagged: , ,

Robbie Madison is a mad man

March 28, 2009 9:23 am / 2 Comments /

Sometimes a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do. And sometimes a guy has to temper his ego, which can sometimes get bigger than what he can physically handle.

And sometimes he has to find that very thin middle ground… that place in between “I am so going to blow the lid off this thing” and “I wonder if I will still have a face when this is all over”. It is in that middle ground that magic happens. Where things like what Robbie Madison did on New Years in Las Vegas fall:

Hole. E. Canoli. That was sicker than a skydiving mule doing air ballet from a space shuttle.

Posted in: Cool Finds / Tagged:

Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes, the bug

March 27, 2009 5:40 pm / Leave a Comment /

The Miami Herald reported earlier this week that a man was shot to death while trying to rob a local Miami Burger King restaurant. The suspected robber entered the restaurant, tried to rob the store at gunpoint and was subsequently shot to death by another patron who was carrying his own weapon.

An afternoon shootout at a busy Burger King restaurant in Miami left a potential robber dead and the customer who shot him seriously wounded.

The bloody event unfolded about 4 p.m. Tuesday at the restaurant at Northeast 54th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. It was a time, employees said, when it is usually crowded with schoolchildren and people getting out of work early.

Did you know there are people that would have you believe that carrying a gun, even owning a gun, should be outlawed? Imagine if the citizen in this story didn’t own his weapon. How badly could this have turned out? Of course, it did turn out badly, but not for the law abiding citizens in the restaurant.

In fact, the day turned out to be a pretty bad day for the suspected robber. After all, he thought he was going to score some cash and walk out of that restaurant. Man, did his day turn out different than he expected or what?

Just goes to show you:

  • You should never rob a fast food joint
  • Criminals are stupider than crap
  • The 2nd amendment is still a good thing
Posted in: Funnies, Personal Messages / Tagged: , , ,

A Texas police officer and a power trip

March 26, 2009 3:37 pm / Leave a Comment /

The Dallas News reported today that the chief of the Dallas police department, David Kunkle, apologized for the mishandling of a traffic stop of NFL player Ryan Moats by three year veteran police officer Robert Powell.

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle stood in front of a dozen news cameras this afternoon at police headquarters to apologize for the behavior of an officer who stopped a family outside a hospital emergency room.

Kunkle said Officer Robert Powell has been placed on paid administrative leave in connection with an incident last week in which he stopped a family rushing to visit a dying mother, detaining them for 13 minutes to write a traffic ticket.

Things are bad enough for people nowadays as it is. Why in the world would a police officer hold someone for 13 minutes to write a citation for a red light violation when he was told that the family was at the hospital to see their dying relative? There was really no question about the validity of their claim. And if there was, the officer could have easily corroborated their story by walking up with them to verify it.

They were speeding. Yes. They ran a red light. Yes. They even refused to stop until they got to the hospital. Yes. But when they got there and were pulled over the officer treated them, a car full of people of varying ages who did not even give the appearance of being threatening, with contempt and rudeness. When they tried to explain their situation the officer would only tell them to “shut your mouth”.

As if to drive his point home, he not only berated them as he cited them and ignored their pleas for leniency and expediency, he also lectured them in the process. He held them even after the nurses came down and explained to him that Mr. Moats was needed to sign papers that allowed the doctors to try to resuscitate his dying mother-in-law (not sure that this is true on the part of the hospital, but it should have stood for something with the officer). And even after a nurse told officer Powell that Mr. Moats’ mother-in-law was “code blue” – hospital lingo for “dead or not responding” – he continued to complete the citation AND lecture Mr. Moats.

At the end of it all, Mr. Moats, who handled his half of the interaction with as much grace as can be expected from a man in the situation he was in, was not able to bid his mother-in-law farewell because he was busy being lectured by officer Powell. She died during the incident.

This upsets me on so many levels. No officer should ever be allowed to do this. I know that a peace officer needs to be afforded a certain amount of latitude in doing his/her job. That has to be expected. But given the nature of this incident – the location, the story, the people involved, the supplications made by the hospital staff and even the responsiveness of the supporting officer – I think officer Powell should lose his job. He was directly responsible for Mr. Moats not being able to be with his family when his mother-in-law died.

And for what? So officer Powell could lecture him on how to respond to a traffic stop? And to add insult to injury, as the incident was wrapping up, officer Powell told Mr. Moats that next time all he has to do is stop when flashed and tell the officer what is going on. Um… didn’t he do that here?

Officer Powell… you are the weakest link. Goodbye.

Posted in: My Thoughts, Personal Messages, Rants / Tagged: , ,

So many things to not like about Obama

March 25, 2009 7:20 am / Leave a Comment /

Last night President Obama gave another prime time press conference to fill in our great nation of what he is doing to make our economy better and what his plans are to right the ship. After listening to the entire speech and subsequent press questions, I was left with so many disappointments.

I know he is doing what he thinks is right for our country. I cannot say he is doing the best he can because I don’t think anyone has ever seen his best. But I can say that in his effort to make his administration transparent I am left with more questions than answers and a complete bewilderment as to when he is even going to answer a direct question with a direct answer.

The speech was pretty, much like all his other speech writers. His speech writers deserve at least a nice bottle of wine for their efforts. But his lack of experience and complete inability to boldly take a specific stance on a specific subject still shows how much growing as a leader he has left to do. When asked the question “Will you sign a budget if it does not contain a middle-class tax cut, does not contain cap and trade?” Mr. Obama returned with a very long response and never even really touched on the subject. When asked a second time he again did not answer with a yes or a no. He simply skirted the issue again.

When asked, multiple times, about his delay in responding to the AIG mess and why it seemed that governor Cuomo was handling the matter more than Obama, he finally retorted with “It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak, you know?”. I think we know, Mr. President. I think we know that you have access to more information than anyone in the world and that nothing in this country happens without you knowing about it first. That was the second weakest cop out of the night in my opinion.

The first weakest cop out, and the one thing about Mr. Obama that continually pisses me off, can be found in his response to the question about some congressional republicans calling his budget proposal “the most irresponsible budget in American history” and the asking of the question “Isn’t that kind of debt exactly what you were talking about when you said “passing on our problems to the next generation?”. The first thing he did was pass the buck back to the last administration. Again.

I am so sick and tired of his belly aching over the mess that was handed to him. He knew what he was getting himself into when he ran for president. He knew the situation we are in. We do not need our leader to keep looking back when asked about his budget plans. We need him to look us in the eye and tell us that though it looks bad now, because of the structure of his plan, it will end brighter than it starts out. He needs to show us that he has a plan, a clear plan, to dig us out of the hole that the Bush administration put us into. He needs to step up and take responsibility for what is to come instead of pawning off responsibility to those that are no longer in office.

I am still waiting for Mr. Obama to become the leader that so many people believed he was when he won the presidential race. So far I have only seen someone that knows how to politic, hire great speech writers and evade questions. I have still not seen his plan, though he claims to be the most transparent president in history. And I have yet to see the hope that he said he would bring as soon as he took office. So many promises not fulfilled.

It is my prayer that he succeeds in all that he does. So far all he has done is given a crap load of money to some corrupt banks, make abortion more accessible, prevent us from handling terrorists in ways that were working and conduct several very well worded press conferences. Though he has done one thing that he said he wouldn’t do that I think it a good idea.

As part of his campaign he said he would be bringing our troops home from the middle east within 18 months. To do that, he has sent almost 20,000 more troops to the area. Way to show you care about bringing our troops home Mr. President. Hopefully you will still make your target. God, I hope you do.

Until then, could you perhaps learn to answer a yes or no question with a yes or a no? And for the love of Mike, please stop reminding us that the mess is not your fault. Show us what you are going to do to get us out of it instead.

References:
The complete transcript of the questions asked Mr. Obama and his answers
Reactions to his press conference
How Politico.com saw it

Posted in: Observations, On Government, On Politics, Personal Messages, Rants / Tagged: , ,

Good questions that Obama will not be asked

March 24, 2009 12:13 pm / Leave a Comment /

NOTE: This post was in the hopper but unfinished prior to President Obama’s press conference on March 24, 2009. It is being posted late, but relatively unedited (save for minor fixes to grammar, spelling and structure). Just wanted anyone reading to know.

Tonight President Obama will be giving another prime time national press conference. I think this is his way of trying to keep the people of the United States up to speed on what is going on with his administration from his perspective as opposed to the perspective of the media. Regardless, I am definitely going to be watching/listening to his press conference with an ear for catching something new from him.

For some reason I cannot shake my utter contempt and dissatisfaction with Obama’s presiding over our country. I pretty much am opposed to every one of his ideas and decisions. That does not mean that I am a George W. Bush lover or a John McCain lover. It just means that I fail to see how Obama has come to embody the hope of a nation. I will say without batting an eye that I am not liberal in any capacity. I tend to lean toward a conservative way of thinking, mixed in with a little bit of libertarian and a little bit of independent. Perhaps that could explain why Obama has seemed to screw up at every turn in my opinion.

Still, the man is sitting on one of the worse messes of government this nation has ever seen. Make no mistake about that. His presidency will be marked by the way he gets us out of the current situation we are in if he ever manages to do that. I know many people believe that he is the end all, be all to everything political (and still I don’t know why anyone would believe that given his lack of political experience) but there has to come a point at which he shares with his people the plan behind the statements and decisions he has made.

I am sure that with the current state of our economy still relatively dicey and with the recent news of AIG and other financial institutions completely mishandling their federal bailout funds that President Obama will more than likely spend the better part of the night talking on that subject. But I hope he actually offers a clear plan of action this time. I hope he manages to inform us as to what he is thinking when he does what he does. And I hope that he manages to answer the questions asked of him succinctly, compassionately and non-politically, as a good leader would, not as some guy sitting in an office with good speech writers and good staffers would.

What brings this up is an article I read recently from Politico in which 10 questions are presented that could put the president in a place to have to sidestep an answer. Of course, he is practically an old pro at that now so I don’t see him choking too hard on whatever questions make it his way.

I do know that I am tired of hearing him pawn off the problems we are having to the previous administration. I would love for him to grow some balls one day soon and just step into the situation from the perspective of “I know we are in a tight spot and I am planning to get us out of it – it is my responsibility to do that as your president” instead of constantly refering to the mess we are in as the “problem I inherited when I took this job”. But outside of that I really hope he actually offers something to us, as a nation, that will lead us to believe that there is something in store that will help us, as a nation of American citizens, to get out of the hole we are in right now.

I hope he doesn’t politicize the issues too much, or try to turn issues into partisan skirmishes instead of a challenge that we can all work together to solve. And I hope he manages to speak some meaningful words in the midst of all the pretty words that he always uses. And for the love of all things furry, smiley and happy, I hope he doesn’t introduce another tax or another increase of tax on the wealthy or another way to try to steal more money from those who know how to earn it in order to “spread the wealth”.

I don’t think that is too much to ask of our leader.

Posted in: On Government, On Politics / Tagged: ,

Courting Twitter

March 23, 2009 6:11 am / Leave a Comment /

A few months ago I started following Ron Sylvester on Twitter because I thought what he was doing was incredibly interesting. What I found so interesting about what he does is that he actually live tweets from various trials and court hearings in Kansas. So even if you cannot be there you can still get almost up to the minute readings of the transcripts of the proceedings.

Up until a few days ago I thought nothing of it. That is until I ran across an article talking about potential legal implications of tweeting from within a court hearing:

The BBC reported that the verdicts in two US trials are being appealed against because of comments about them on social networking sites made by jurors. Jurors are forbidden to discuss anything relating to a case outside the courts, but experts believe that the emergence of new technologies is challenging the rules.

In the two cases, defence lawyers say that postings by jurors on sites such as Twitter and Facebook could be grounds for appeal. In one case in Philadelphia, juror Eric Wuest admitted posting comments about proceedings on Facebook, such as telling people to expect “a big announcement on Monday.” Wuest maintained that they were his private musings, and the judge resisted calls from the defence to remove him from the jury.

You know what? I have no response for this. Reading through a lot of what was stated in that article, it made sense that jurors tweeting about the case they are appraising seems almost not right to an extent. I also got to thinking about Ron Sylvester and the potential implications he could face if his tweets were ever to be called into question on the grounds that they could be steering someone toward an opinion. Of course I dismissed that thought rather quickly when I realized that court hearings are reported on very often and that people will make their own assumptions and develop their own opinions without the need for outside help.

But still, I can’t help but wonder if someone closely related to a case was somehow spilling information about the case, the trial or the deliberations if that couldn’t somehow become grounds for a mistrial or even a complete dismissal. I would hope that would never happen.

But with information being generated and disseminated faster and faster these days, perhaps there is no way to stop it from happening. Perhaps there is a chance that someday the rapid spread of information like this could somehow be used to help try cases or even conduct the hearings? Probably not likely to happen.

If for no other reason than because Twitter will likely crash under the use and call its star witness…

Twitter fail whale

Posted in: Geek Stuff, Social Networking / Tagged:

Lazy Sundays are the best

March 22, 2009 2:30 pm / Leave a Comment /

Sometimes you just need a day off of everything. Today was that day. I needed to relax. My entire family needed to relax. So we slept in, lounged around and spent the better part of the day just chillaxin’.

I don’t do this enough. In fact, I was well overdue. I am glad it came today and I am sure that I will try to facilitate this more often. Because seriously, when was the last time you had a day that involved nothing?

Posted in: Personal Messages / Tagged: ,