Wednesday, January 02, 2008

There's this German website called "Publicons.de" that allows you to build a little image-based signature thingie like the one below.

POWERED BY PUBLICONS.DE

Unfortunately the entire site is in German and I don't understand German. But this little weird, cool thing gives me a tremendous idea!

posted on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 7:45:42 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]
That's been my life with Helm for more than the past two years. I don't have a hosting business, but I bought Helm so that I could give my users a nice control panel for managing their own sites on my server - I usually grant friends and family a free website on my server.

Helm has never worked for me. I don't use it much, but every time I try, it has an error I have to ask Helm support for help with.

This time, I wanted to set up a new website for my daughter. While in there, I saw several accounts which are no longer valid. Most of the account holders have lost interest in having their own website and simply let the domain expire. When I tried to delete them, I get errors. I cannot delete domains, databases, users, nothing.

So, I decided to just uninstall Helm. I give up. It is pure trash and I am tired tired tired of figting with it. I want it to no longer sully the bits on my server. Money spent on tech support and an unlimited domain license, simply wasted.

When I tried to run the uninstaller I got an access violation that attempted to spawn the Visual Studio instance installed with SQLServer. So now I can't even uninstall it without contacting technical support.

I have never been so unsatisfied with a software product I have ever purchased. and I have purchased some crappy software. Helm takes the cake. I have been setting up my own domains, databases, email addresses and websites all by hand for years and I will continue to do so. Terribly disappointed am I.

By the way, here is the error that the uninstaller throws...
"A buffer overrun has occurred in HelmInstaller.exe which has corrupted the program's internal state. Press Break to debug the program or Continue to terminate the program."
Don't buy Helm! Buy something else! Anything else! HELM IS TRASH! By the way, my Helm unlimited domain license is for sale... cheap. Send me an email or post a comment if you are interested in it (You shouldn't be).

posted on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 5:05:48 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]

What exactly is an "illegal number"?

I just wanted to weigh in on the whole "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" controversy to say that

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 

is a hexadecimal number that is equal to 

13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,640.

That is ...

Thirteen undecillion, Two hundred and fifty six decillion, two hundred and seventy eight nonillion, eight hundred and eighty seven octillion, nine hundred and eighty nine septillion, four hundred and fifty seven sextillion, six hundred and fifty one quintillion, eighteen quadrillion, eight hundred and sixty five trillion, nine hundred and one billion, four hundred and one million, seven hundred and four thousand, six hundred and forty.

and that's a lot. If it were in dollars, it'd be more than I have. 

More Information on 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 

 

posted on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 1:26:41 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Saturday, December 01, 2007
Spambots are the scum of the earth. Actually spambot authors are the scum of the earth and their bots are just the little minions of the scum. Scum Minions. Fortunately it's easy to jack the spambots with Javascript. Simply add the following javascript function to the head of your webpage...
posted on Saturday, December 01, 2007 2:22:35 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [3]
 Thursday, November 29, 2007
Update: 2/25/2008
I just installed Nero 8 Ultra Edition and it totally hosed all of my file associations again, so I had to refer back to this post of mine in order to fix it. Why do these software companies release such installers? Shame on you Nero!

Unfortunately this didn't fix the issue. I had to call the Nero tech support hotline and they were no help. Eventually I just uninstalled the Nero media player and other non-CD/DVD burning related cruft that comes with Nero 8 Ultra, and after rebooting, my file associations were repaired. This is a really big deal Nero engineers! You need to FIX THIS! It's not cool to break people's computers whenever they install your software. While I don't recommend Roxio, this is a big drawback of paying Nero $100. maybe someone out there can recommend me something other than Nero or Roxio.
I recently installed Winamp, because I like the little program and enjoy using their Shoutcast streaming services. Unfortunately Winamp hosed my file associations such that I could no longer launch streaming radio files (*.asx) from IE. Whenever I'd click one, it'd ask me if I wanted to save the file... "Do you want to save this file?" I understand that some people get... "Save Target As" Here's how to fix it...
posted on Thursday, November 29, 2007 5:12:45 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Monday, October 29, 2007

Daylight Saving Time ends in the US on November 4, at 2:00 AM in your respective time-zone. Fire departments across the country recommend that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors at this time, because it provides a convenient, twice-yearly reminder to do that, and because properly operating smoke detectors save lives.

Some people refer to the summer time shift as "Daylight Saving(s) Time", which is incorrect. The word "Saving" is used an adjective. It describes what we are doing with "time"; namely that we are saving it. In other words, Daylight Saving Time is the kind of time that saves daylight.

Not that it actually "saves" daylight; rather it moves a little daylight from morning to evening, but nobody is proposing we call it a more appropriate name, like "Daylight Moving Time", or "Daylight Shifting Time" or "More Daylight Up In The Evening Time".

Nevertheless, many people feel that it sounds better to call it "Daylight Savings Time" so they arrogantly and purposefully call it that without regard to whether it is correct. Other people do it out of ignorance, the same way I hear people say "eckspecially", or "assumably". Arrrgh!

But I digress.

posted on Monday, October 29, 2007 4:44:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Thursday, October 25, 2007
I have a firepit in my backyard. I am sitting at the table on my back porch, waiting for Xavier Pacheco to arrive, so we can do a little work for a client together. We are working together on a contract for Oliver Wight. I am sitting by the fire, smoking a cigar, and posting to my blog on my new iPhone, while waiting for Xavier to arrive. By the way, I love my new iPhone. Get one!
posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 1:36:31 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Update 1/30/2008
I recently found these posts... Apparently Microsoft is taking notice of how bad Windows Mobile sucks and is doing something about it. Obviously it is in response to Apple whipping their butts with the iPhone. Too bad Microsoft can't be more proactive in this arena.
I have been using a Palm Treo 750 phone, based on Windows Mobile and I have to say... not one good thing about it. Nothing chaps my hide more than having my OS crash before I get a call. The phone rings but none of the buttons react to answer it. Not just that, the entire OS on the phone is pure junk. I just bought an iPhone and am so blown away by the design and total integration of the OS, that I have to rethink all of my technology decisions.
posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 1:53:27 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Monday, October 15, 2007
This morning I woke up my monitors and noticed that there was a skype message on my screen from a user named "Security Center". It was a Virus Propagation attempt. It read...
posted on Monday, October 15, 2007 2:33:10 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]
 Thursday, October 11, 2007

Yeah Baby!

posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:10:32 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]