Took the plunge last night and upgraded this site to Moveable Type 3.01D. The process was simple. However, I did have to upload some files several times to get everything to work. It was worth the effort. The new features are great.

I have been getting a lot of span under version 2.6; so have instituted the system registration process. To comment, one now needs to register. Have also added all the spammers to the block list. Hope this cuts down on the spam. Don’t know why anyone would span a blog. They offer nothing but annoyance.

Completed a fun piece of code at work yesterday. It provides offices across the country with the ability to search for suppliers within a specified mile radius. The resultant list leads to product/contract/pricing details. Using these suppliers saves big bucks for the company. The code uses Zip code latitude and longitude to calculate mileage. The project is written is ASP.NET C#. Have been seriously considering moving www.my-list.com to this architecture. Currently my-list it all in perl-cgi. The biggest hurdle is that I also host this blog on my-list. Does MT support the windows platform???

Found a great site, mamamusings.net while looking for advise on installing TOMCAT on OS X 10.3. Besides great advise, there was a link to “20 Questions to a Bette Personality.” This peaked my interest. So after answering the 20 questions, to my surprise … I’m a mob boss type.
Here is the actual report….

“Wackiness: 0/100
Rationality: 56/100
Constructiveness: 40/100
Leadership: 64/100

You are an SRDL–Sober Rational Destructive Leader. This makes you a mob boss. You are the ultimate alpha person and even your friends give you your space. You can’t stand whiners, weaklings, schlemiels or schlemozzles. You don’t make many jokes, but when you do, others laugh out loud. They must.

People often turn to you for advice, and wisely. You are calm in a crisis, cautious in a tempest, and attuned to even the finest details. Yours is the profile of a smart head for business and a dangerous enemy.

You have a natural knack for fashion and occupy a suit like a matinee idol. Your charisma is striking and without artifice. You are generous, thoughtful, and appreciate life’s finer things.

Please don’t kick my …. “

Could it be true?

Have used earthlink.net for several years. In all that time I never experienced a problem. Last year I traveled to Florida to visit Mom. For this trip I signed up with earthlink for a dialup connection. It worked great. When I returned home I called earthlink and cancelled the service. Last month I noticed a charge on my credit card for earthlink. I called and discovered that they had been charging me for service, which I cancelled last August. The service rep seemed very helpful. Gave me a issue number in case of further problem and advised that my card would be credit for all of the charges since last August. This month I noticed there was another charge from earthlink. I called again and was advised that the refund had not been process. They gave me a second issue number and advised that my card would be credited for the new charge and the previous promised refund would be processed for approval. To prevent further charges they stated that I had to talk with some one else to cancel the account. The transfer resulted in a connection to a closed office. What a great way to spend an evening, talking with an offshore service rep that does not have a clue… I now need to call earthlink again and try to resolve this issue. Will also call my credit card company and file a fraud charge against earthlink. What I have discovered is that earthlink is a black hole. Once you get in you can’t get out. My best advice is NEVER EVER USE EARTHLINK.

Where does the time go? Seems like we blinked and our vacation is over. We spent our remaining days visiting with Mom, playing cards(I won twice…), walking, and just generally relaxing. Managed to get some quality Cocoa coding done. Did achieve my goal of writing code to access a web service from Cocoa. Now need to refine this process to duplicate the functionality of www.my-list.com.

Returned to work Thursday, June 10, 2004. Not much happened in my absence. No big problems with any of my customers. Towards the end of the day I started feeling pretty rough. When I got home Sandy took my temperature and it was 103.5 F. Nothing hurts, and I feel fine except for being cold. Guess I will have to take a sick day tomorrow and visit our Doctor. I hate going to the Doctors…

Spent another quite day at Mom’s. Once again I did some Cocoa programming while Sandy and Jayson slept in. Mom had a great Breakfast, and the three of them played some cards…Our big event today was going to see Shrek 2. Great movie. Jayson and I thought it was just as good as the first. Afterwards we went out to find a hot spot. Have had no Internet connection since leaving home. Had a local address for a spot that I found on the Internet. However, when we got to the place we found that it was a home in a gated community…NO HOTSPOT. Using KisMAC we then did some WAR driving. I have only done this once before, but was again surprised on the number wireless connections even in the small town of Winter Haven FL. Ended up in a parking lot just outside of a medical building with a very fast internet connection. Posted a blog, and retrieved email. No issues from work. Will be nice when we can all connect with wireless from everywhere. Then it was back to Mom’s for dinner, and some card playing. Sandy won again….

Spent the day at Mom’s. Jayson and Sandy slept in late. I spent the morning doing some Cocoa programming. Love the language and platform. It would be nice to have a job using this platform. Jayson, Mom, and Sandy played cards. Old Maid, and Go Fish.
When Jayson was three, he wanted to play cards with the adults. I told him he had to be five years old before he could play cards. He never forgot, and now that he is five he reminds me that he is now old enough to play. Actually he is a good card player. Caught on to the rules fast and won a good share of the games. The Ladies were surprised that a five year old was beating them. Mom fixed a great dinner…watched some TV, played some cards, which Sandy won again…then bed. Tough day!

It’s off to Epcot today. We arrived at 9:15 AM and parked in the last section of the first parking lot, just a short walk from the entrance. The weather was beautiful. The humidity was much lower today. The forecast is for rain in the afternoon. Our first stop was at “Mission to Mars”. It is a simulated trip to Mars that begins with a blastoff in a rocket from earth, a slingshot maneuver around the moon and finally a tricky landing on Mars. It is my favorite ride. Jayson loved it. He was the captain and was required to perform several activities throughout the flight. Jayson performed each flawlessly. Thus we had a very successful mission. From there Jayson played a video game, crawled through some jungle style mazes, and composed a picture of himself as a monkey and emailed it to his Mom & Dad.

Our next stop was Test Track where we stood in line for 35 minutes with out moving. Jayson convinced us to get a fast track ticket and move on to Innovation. There we rode the ride and saw the presentation of Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Jayson and Sandy were scared by the three-d snake and mice which ran through the audience. You could feel their tales as they passed. Next we visited the Land and rode the Living Land, On this ride we saw baby alligators, hydroponics gardens and a fish farm, From there we detoured through the Cold Spot, an igloo like building, sponsored by Coke. Here we enjoyed various drinks from around the world. Jayson enjoyed trying each drinks. We visited this place three times during the day. Next we used our fast-track ticket at Test Track. This is a ride in a mock NASCAR vehicle on a test track that simulates the g-forces a driver encounters. Great ride. Jayson was thrilled.

We pretty much did everything at Epcot…even watched the fireworks at the end of the day. Jayson was so tired that he took a short nap in Germany. However he did wake to see all the fireworks.

Time does fly when you are having fun. Our flight to Tampa was very pleasant. The plain left on time and we arrived about 15 min early. From Tampa we drove about 80 mi. to Mom’s house. Stopped and picked up a bouquet of roses for her. Arrived at Mom’s about 6 pm. Spent some time catching each other up with the latest family news…then got to bed about 11 pm Florida time or 8 pm our time.

Tuesday was a big day. It was Jayson’s first trip to Disney We got up early and arrived at Epcot at 9 am. After two monorail trips we arrived at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. We purchased parkhopper tickets with the intention of returning to Epcot for the evening fireworks. But Jayson never made it past 6 pm when we took a break; he just fell a sleep on his Grandma’s lap. He jut could not wake up after that. He did have an exciting day. We road Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, The Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. We watched Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration, the Galaxy Palace Theater and Country Bear Jamboree shows, and visited with Diana the littlest mermaid. Enjoyed Mickey Mouse ice creams, hotdogs, and french-fries. The weather her in Florida was 92 F and very humid. We were dripping wet all day… drank gallons of water and soda. All in all it was a wonderful trip. Jayson chose the Buzz Light Year space ranger pistol for his gift and a Goofy hat.

Today Jayson and Sandy slept late. I did some recreational Cocoa coding. Later we went Wall Mart and picked up a small TV with a built in DVD player. It will serve to entertain Jayson when we are not at Disney’s. We then visited the local mall so Sandy could get her shopping in. They have a full size carrousel in the food court. Jayson rode it several time the last of which was with Sandy. He managed to get her to sit in one of those seats that spin as the carousel rotates. Sandy got a little motion sickness. That night we played cards. Jayson, since he is now 5 years old, was able to play also. He lost interest and watched some TV before retiring early…. Tomorrow is another day at Disney.