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the singularity of being and nothingness
Heading Home
Aug 18th
Over the last several days, my family and I have been in Watertown, South Dakota visiting my grandparents. We’ve had a wonderful time, and are hitting the road today to make the trek back to Cincinnati.
Watertown is a pretty interesting place. Although it’s population is only 20,000 or so, there is a TON of stuff to do in the area. From the beautiful Terry Redlin art gallery, to several surrounding lakes, to a large and vibrant downtown, it’s like a mini-metropolis in the middle of mostly nowhere.
My family and I had a great time, and will definitely remember this trip for many years to come!
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Emails in Outlook 2010…Ugh.
Aug 14th
At work, we recently kicked off an effort to make sure that all of the emails coming from our applications are Outlook 2010 compliant…meaning that they render in a reasonably acceptable manner–at least as emails go. On the surface, this doesn’t appear to be that big of a deal. However, for us it is, because the prior version for which we tested emails was Outlook 2003.
So what’s the problem? Well, if you didn’t hear, Microsoft made the brilliant move of deciding to switch their email-rendering engine from IE (Outlook 2003 and before) to Word. In short, this means a massive decrease in support for HTML standards, CSS support, etc. In fact, the move is so counter-standards that an entire movement has been started to try to pressure Microsoft into fixing the problem…so far, nothing.
But arguments about the “smartness” of this change aside, the facts on the ground still require that my co-workers and I fix some emails. So far, my experience has been that in terms of layout, not a huge amount of revision has been necessary. What has caused issues, however, is the lack of CSS support. If you ever find yourself needing to get an email looking decent in Outlook More >
MOG for iPhone: Better, but Still Lacking
Aug 12th
MOG, one of the newer contenders to wade into the fray of online music streaming and downloading, followed up on the release of their iPhone app last month with an upgrade yesterday. Among other things, this upgrade corrected what I feel was a huge blunder in releasing without multi-tasking support for iOS4.
I downloaded the upgrade yesterday, and immediately began enjoying the benefits. But then I found the limitations.
The biggest lack still in the app, IMO, is that it is not fully integrated into player controls. If you’re running MOG with headphones in the office, you’ll need to be sure to pause the music before disconnecting your headphones. Unlike Pandora and the native iPod players that automatically pause the stream when headphones are disconnected, the MOG app apparently has no idea whether or not your headphones are being used. Unplug, and you’re bound to make nearby cube-dwellers angry, amused, or worse: they’ll launch into their own musical counter-offensive.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad for the upgrade to basic multi-tasking support. This upgrade prevented me from ditching MOG altogether and checking out greener pastures like Rdio. Hopefully upgrades for the other player deficiencies are in the works and will be released soon…otherwise, I’ll More >
WordPress: Add Featured Image to Old Category Posts
Aug 12th
My blog has been through the ringer.
First, it’s really the combination of 2 custom blogs that I had created and manually ported to WordPress.
Second, none of the posts in my old blogs were really “categorized”, so my posts came to WordPress meta-data-challenged.
Third, some of the ways that WordPress handles content is a bit weird.
Fourth, it takes FOREVER to go through and apply a featured image to EVERY SINGLE POST.
Let’s Back Up: The StoryEver since I ported my old blogs into this single platform, I’ve wanted to do a better job of categorizing my posts. Fortunately, WordPress makes this pretty easy with the “Quick Edit” options. Once I finally got all my posts properly categorized, I wanted to be able to associate an image with each category, to sort of spruce up the look of my posts and associate each category with a visual aspect.
While there are a bunch of plugins that allow for this sort of thing, I didn’t really want to mess with implementing some kind of code solution. After all, I don’t mind picking an image for each post…it was really just getting all the old posts associated with a particular “featured image” that was the issue.
The More > A New Blog About Yummy Stuff :)
Aug 11th
My sister-in-law has recently launched a new blog about food, which is awesome, because I just so happen to love to eat food.
The blog is called The Fresh Fridge, and covers lots of ground, from 20-minute meals, to appetizers, to wine reviews.
If you’re hungry, or have already eaten and are already looking for some inspiration for your next meal, check it out 🙂
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I’m Probably Getting Ready to Dump Firefox
Aug 10th
Anyone who knows me knows that I have long been a big supporter of Firefox. Back in the day, Firefox was the breath of fresh air in the otherwise olfactory-oppressing wasteland of an IE-dominated interwebs. Firefox was fast, innovative, and, best of all, let you add stuff on to it.
Add cool stuff. Like Pay-Pal plugins. Like RSS readers. Like Firebug.
It was the bees’ knees, and looked like it was going to gobble up all the stragglers that IE left in its “who cares about the experience” attitude toward the internet.
But then Chrome came along. It was sleek. It was fast. And best of all, it brought some fresher-than-Firefox ideas to browsing.
Better, fresher ideas. Like tabs-on-top. Like better architecture for faster…everything. Like not-having-to-upgrade-every-2.5-seconds.
So I’ve been using Chrome alot lately. Sure, it’s different. But what I’ve found is that it’s better. Sure, it doesn’t have Firebug (which is probably the only reason whatsoever that I continue to use Firefox). But every version gets better. And faster. And awesomer.
And Firefox? Perhaps its my groaning, Vista-laden PC, but Firefox hates everything. It’s slow, it freezes, it crashes…and very few of the plugins that I depend on for Firefox to be awesome can keep up with the More >
Two Swords and an Interpretive Dilemma
Aug 6th
Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered.
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors'[b]; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”
The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That is enough,” he replied.
(Luke 22:35-38)
If you’ve ever studied this passage from Luke 22, you’re sure to have come away with, at the very least, a modicum of uncertainty and perhaps a fair amount of confusion as well. While it’s quite simple in its construction, the ridiculously large number of interpretations that are assigned to it makes it a troubling passage from an exegetical perspective.
What makes this passage so difficult to interpret, however, is not the obscurity of its words, but rather the ends to which different interpreters press the passage. Principally, this passage is used by many to advocate something of a justification of Christian violence-through-self-defense, while others use the passage More >
ColdFusion Query Parameter Weirdness
Aug 3rd
You can file this one under either “huh, that’s kinda cool” or “that’s terrible…don’t ever do it!”…or maybe both.
As of ColdFusion 9, it’s now possible to execute queries in 100% cfscript. This is awesome for me ‘cuz I just happen to prefer to do as much in cfscript as possible.
Anyway, if you’ve worked with the cfscript version of cfquery, you’ll know that mimicking the behavior of cfqueryparam is pretty straightforward. Something like the following should do the trick:
// create new query services
qs = new query();
// set attributes of service
qs.addattributes(datasource="mydb",name="thequery");
// set sql
qs.setsql("select title from posts where isawesome = ?);
// set queryparam for dynamic query
qs.addparam(value="Awesome",cfsqltype="varchar");
...rest of processing...
Easy enough. I got to wondering if it would be possible to use a ternary operator as the “value” of the queryparam. Turns out, you can 🙂
// set queryparam for dynamic query using ternary operator
qs.addparam(value=form.isawesome==true ? 'Awesome' : '',cfsqltype="varchar");
Here, if a form variable (“isawesome”) is set to true, the value of the parameter will be “Awesome”; otherwise, it will be set to empty string.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. On a certain level, it’s cool that it works. However, it feels kind of hacky to More >
“Son of the Morning,” by Oh, Sleeper
Aug 3rd
This outstanding track by Oh, Sleeper can be found on the new Tooth and Nail Solid State Sampler (just click on “Free Sampler”).
To me, this is one of those tracks that epitomizes how lyrical meaning can be radically extended by the medium in which it is delivered. While I think the lyrics on their own merits are pretty profound, their execution against the shrill guitars and angst of the vocal performance infuse them with a level of intensity and meaning that could not be captured otherwise. This is definitely one of my new favorite songs.
SynopsisThis song is basically a conversation between Satan and the crucified Christ, or rather a monologue from two radically different perspectives.
Throughout the song, the devil exults in his apparent victory over the “weak forgiver,” the supposed savior who has been vanquished by the devil’s hand in the grave. Satan continues by mocking the dead Christ, intimating that he should have used his power to save himself, rather than “wasting power on grace.” And having triumphed over Christ in death, the devil promises that the same end which now enfolds the body of the redeemer will be that toward which he will lure all those Christ came to More >
Quick Update
Aug 2nd
I like the free, hosted wordpress.com site I have, but I need something a bit more customizable. Therefore, I’ll probably be pretty silent over the next couple of days while I upgrade my WordPress to a real install on my own hosting account. But don’t worry, I’ll be back 🙂
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