Eric Sink Wrote A Book

You can pre-order from Amazon. I just did.

Seriously, this guy rocks. I've had the opportunity to talk with him on a number of occassions and he's simply brilliant. If you'd like to learn from one of the best in the biz, buy this book!

Not convinced? Check out his old column on MSDN.

No, I'm no getting a kickback

2/24/2006 11:47:48 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

Maker Faire Is Coming

In case you haven't seen it, the first US Maker Faire will be held in San Mateo on April 22-23. It's really cheap ($12 for adults, kids under 12 free) to get in and there will be lots of cool stuff going on. A bunch of us from SharpLogic will be going down to show off some of our classics in the sprawling Microsoft pavilion (such as the LEGO stuff) as well as some cool new stuff never before seen. I took on one of the projects myself, which involved some of PhidgetsUSA's security floor mats (use your imagination). It's pretty badass, but you'll have to come to the show to see it.

2/24/2006 11:42:13 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

Speaking Of Passwords...

I really hate it when a site asks you to create a password, and then emails it to you in cleartext as part of the followup. To get around this, I end up using really obvious passwords when creating an account, and then immediately change the password to something strong as soon as it's activated. However, some sites really screw you by forcing you to create a string password, and then mailing it for the world to see. Even worse, I recently used a site that sends you your updated password in email whenever you change it.

2/22/2006 1:44:26 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [1]  

"Every Picture Of You Is When You Were Younger"

I came across this nugget when signing up for a Mappoint developer account (you need to change the initial password):

This reminds me of one of Mitch Hedberg's quotes. From his entry on wikiquote (you have to imagine him saying it):

One time a guy handed me a picture of himself, and he said, "Here's a picture of me when I was younger." Every picture of you is of when you were younger. "Here's a picture of me when I am older." "You son of a bitch, how'd you pull that off? Let me see that camera."

Ironically, Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" just came on as I've written this. Mitch, I really wish you still were.

2/22/2006 1:13:37 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

YARTLX360 (Yet Another Reason To Love XBOX 360)

I had to rebuild my Media Center 2005 box over the weekend, which was a relatively easy task. Unfortunately, when it came time to install the XBOX extender software on the machine, I realized I no longer had the product key from the original CD sleeve. Although I understand the desire to prevent piracy, I was a little annoyed that I was going to have to buy a new extender kit fot the XBOX just for the product key.

Luckily for me, I stumbled across a newsgroup post by Jason Tsang that directed me to the XBOX 360 extender software. It's a free download from Microsoft, doesn't require a product key, and seems to be completely compatible with the original XBOX extender. It has worked perfectly so far.

2/21/2006 2:41:09 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

Using iMate SP5 With VS05
It was a little tricky, but Rohan figured it out.
2/21/2006 2:17:55 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [1]  

NFL Adds Insult To Injury

Nobody can take the Super Bowl win away from the Steelers. The reality is that they did everything they could to win and were able to take and keep the lead. In the end, that's all you need to do. However, as a Seahawks fan, I can't help but feel cheated by some of the Super Bowl officiating. It was realy hard to watch call after call go against my team, but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the scoreboard. It didn't take long for me to come to terms with the fact that the officials are merely human and made some big mistakes that repeatedly impacted the momentum and morale of the game. With instant replay as readily available as it is, there seems to be almost no excuse as to why officials are able to make the mistakes they do, and yet not fix them on the spot. Once again, it's something we all have to accept.

However, when I see articles like this, it really burns me up. I understand the need for the league to position themselves as being infallable, but to say that they're "satisfied" with the performance of their "best" officials is just ridiculous. How many articles like this will it take for the NFL to admit that the number and magnitude of officiating mistakes was big enough to be dissatisfied? It's one thing to make a mistake when you're on a field in front of 60K+ people screaming their heads off with only seconds to make a decision. It's something completely different to pretend mistakes didn't happen (or that the mistakes weren't important enough) when you have the luxury of 24 hours to review a few minutes of game tape.

At the end of the day I'm just a fan. I'll keep paying for my season tickets, keep watching the away games, and keep buying the various trinkets of the industry that help keep it going. The game means a lot more to me than I do to it, and the NFL knows that.

2/7/2006 12:57:49 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [1]  

Rats! I Missed The Deadline For Today's Pop-up Potpourri

In case you haven't seen it yet, check out The Daily WTF. Today was another edition of Pop-up Potpourri, where a series of awful dialogs and pop-ups are displayed for the rest of use to learn from. My entry would have been this one, but it only happened a few minutes ago:

And to think, I was just telling the team we needed to %1!s! more during lunch.

2/3/2006 4:45:56 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

Futurama To Return (Sort Of)!

Apparently I’m pretty late on this one (I only found out watching Adult Swim tonight), but I’d still like to take some credit

2/1/2006 11:41:49 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [1]  

An Early Entry For "Dumbest Idea Of The Year"

I think this one really has staying power: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11012744/.

Seriously, folks. Whether or not you agree with this guy's politics, it's pretty clear that he's insane. Try not to be there when the KoolAid gets passed around.

1/24/2006 6:47:55 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

Being The 12th Man

I grew up in New York and lived in various parts of the state until a few years ago. I loved being a fan of NY teams since they were perennial contenders. Their owners had wads of cash and were willing to spend it to make a run every year. Being a fan of a winning team is one of the most exciting things I knew growing up and, honestly, I grew to take it for granted.

The first sport I followed closely was baseball. Born in Flushing, Queens, the Mets were the obvious choice. The first full season I watched was in 1986 when I was glued to our TV. The Mets went all the way that year and I felt like I was a part of it by watching every game I could (sometimes sneaking out of my room after bedtime to watch them on west coast trips).

As high school approached, I began to find baseball boring and made the move to hockey. We had moved to Putnam County (around an hour north of Manhattan) and had a solid 10-12 weeks of "frozen lake" weather to really get the most out of hockey. However, when it came to the NHL I had a tough decision to make.

That year, the Rangers were a huge disappointment and didn't make the playoffs. The Islanders, on the other hand, did make the playoffs and went pretty far. Buffalo had a team, but they were hundreds of miles away, and the team in Hartford was, well, in Hartford. However, Putnam was technically Ranger country (in my mind) so I made the hard decision and picked them. Sure enough, they went all the way that year, winning their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. I watched almost every regular season game. I bought the newspaper with Messier's "We Will Win Tonight" guarantee and watched the entire game on my feet in the living room. I watched Matteau eliminate the Devils in double overtime on a scrambled TV (I was at my grandparents' house and they only got the Ultra-Super-Basic cable package). I watched the Rangers almost squander a huge series lead to the Canucks, only to cap off the Finals at home. I really felt like I was a part of that championship.

Although NY football teams had some great success while I lived there, I never really got into the game. Even though I played in high school, it always seemed like an "old man" sport and there weren't enough games in the year to make it interesting. However, last year it occurred to me that I am effectively an "old man" now. With a wife and kid[s] (note the "forward compatibility"), I'm about three pairs of plaid pants away from a Golf Magazine subscription. Finally, I made the plunge and bought Seahawks season tickets.

It's been an amazing year as a Seahawks fan. Sure, I could go on and on about the great things that have happened. I could talk about the NFC championship we won yesterday. I could talk about the 10-0 home record. I could talk about watching the league MVP every week. I could talk about the amazing last minute win over the Cowboys. I could talk about the supernatural powers that protected our perfect season against three game winning field goals by the Giants. Instead, I'm going to talk about the same thing Paul Allen and the rest of his organization talk about—the 12th man.

This year I really felt like I was a part of the Seahawks championship. I felt like I deserve 1/68,000th of the credit that went into making Qwest Field the single hardest place for NFL teams to play this year. More than any other team I've been a fan of, the entire Seahawks organization makes me feel like they really care. Sure, we might be their main source of revenue, but their appreciation seems sincere. After all, they've even retired #12 in dedication to their 12th Man—the fan. If there's one thing I've learned about business, it's to make sure your customer feels like they're as important to you as possible.

For the record, this is also my first year following an NBA team closely (the Sonics). This should disprove any "closet fan" theories

PS: This guy can suck it for all I care. If I was as bad at my job as he is at his, there's no way I'd still have one. I am *praying* he picks the Steelers to win in the Super Bowl since that seems to be the only way to lock up a victory for us.

1/23/2006 1:19:39 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]