It's getting better - Home Automation

I have this lamp that you have to lean over this table to turn it off and on. I was getting sick of it and it got worse when there were babby toys everywhere and you couldn't even stand close enough to reach. Isn't there a way I can just turn it off and on with my phone? I checked the internet and two days later I had a possible $20 solution in hand; Orbivo S20. You plug it into the wall and plug the thing you want to control into that. The set up did take a minute as one confirmation messages did not make sense but it wasn't too hard to figure out. There's just a big button on the app to turn it off and on. Beauty!

There are also options for timers and countdowns. So far I like it a lot. I am all about the home automation thing.

Fixed the Desktop PC

I've had my desktop PC for a while now. I bought it new from Dell a while back and it's served me well for a long time but it's been so crappy slow and buggy for so long I almost couldn't stand it anymore. My plan was for Ale to help me redo everything when she came up for #mayvacation but that didn't work out so I needed to think of a new plan. What is the best way for Marc to accomplish something? Set a goal! So that's what I did.

I started on Sunday. I hooked up my external drive and started backing up my music while I made a list of everything else that needed saved off. As long as I got all my files (pics, music, databases, etc) and the programs I use on an every day basis saved off I didn't care what happened to the garbage that filled up the rest.

It took me another 2 days to get everything saved off but on Wednesday I was ready. Now my plan was to reformat the whole drive and use the bios to put Windows back on when it was done. I wanted the whole thing wiped and clean but Ale's idea was to just add a partition and install Windows there. I wasn't so sure about that. Wouldn't the garbage still be on there? I don't know but I put in the disc and picked the Custom install option. This says it will totally disregard any files currently on the drive but the first time I tried to install Windows it died almost at the end and I had to shut the PC off to break it out of that. Restarting set it in a repeating loop so something went wrong. My worst nightmare! What if I couldn't fix it and my PC was junk? :(

I went back in the bios and booted straight from the disc. What was this option.... What drive do I want to install Windows on? Oh reformat? Yes please. BOOM!! Not even an hour later my PC was up and running a brand new copy of Windows 7 and I had an entirely clean hard drive to put everything back on. I had done it. I put it off for so long but all it took was for me to make it a goal, write it down and plan it out. I am super happy. I starting putting everything back together and crossed this task off my list. :D

Getting There - MoobeeDeeBee V1.0

I have christened the first version of the MovieDB last night. It's not to where I want it yet but it does work and is serviceable. I used it for the first time last night to enter the latest batch of movies and it worked fine.

I feel this was a very simple task for a first project collaborating between myself and Ale and I am happy with what we have produced so far even though it probably took way longer than it should have. It is still a bit rough to work over Skype with each other. I feel if we were in the same room we'd have made better progress but whatever. Something is better than nothing.

The task was to create a database so that as I acquire digital copies of movies I can log them in so I know what I have, when I got them, file size, etc, etc. I thought to put several other attributes in associated with each movie as well so I pull different reports on them. Say I want to know what horror movies I have or something along those lines. I have been using a regular Excel spreadsheet to keep track of this but it was getting too much and it was time to start a database.

So we hashed that out and started making tables and a form. Not too difficult. Ale thought typing in the information for each movie was stupid though when in the file properties that information already existed so she branched off trying to invent what we have come to call the Magical Button. Apparently you can use the internet to acquire movie information from a bunch of different websites (Amazon, Netflix, IMDB) and she found a site called TagChimp where you can register and get some information on APIs to do just that. She got it up fairly quickly but it's not working 100% yet. I figure this will be something we will work on for version 2.0 of this project. I didn't mind the typing but I can see where once finished this could be a powerful tool plus it would be valuable experience in coding and development so I am happy she was able to research that option.

There were a couple additional issues working with new version of Access I had on my PC but we hammered through those. I was happy to be using a current tool for once. We still use ancient versions of Access and Excel at my work.

After the main form was established I got a switchboard working and made a few reports and it seems like we were ready to go. It worked just fine as I entered data in last night. I didn't have any problems but I already see room for improvement. We still have to get the keyword system implemented. That is another big fix that will bring some benefits as any crazy word we feel like entering and tagging to a title will be able to be searched on. I think that is when it will really feel like we did soemthing awesome.

Again I am very happy with how this turned out. I think it did take way too long to come up with it but oh well. I'm glad Ale was there to talk to and assist me with this. She is wonderful and the only person I've found in my life that cares about my concerns and it makes her happy to help me. She is so smart and awesome. I can't wait to start another project. (We are thinking about making a Firefox extension that can add a movie to your Netflix queue from any web page anywhere) I just know that working together we will become smarter and better than we would separately.

Today was a Good Day

2010/07/19 didn't start that great. It certainly didn't get any better in the next few hours but I do consider it to be a good day. Let's see what happened.

First I woke up. I was still tired. I stayed up late all weekend and wasn't able to fall asleep early enough to get enough rest. Not good.
I got to work and the lady from the Westmoreland County Clerk of Courts called me back about a letter I got on Saturday. They say I owe them $575 for me being on probation for 23 months between 1996 and 1998. Apparently whether this is made up or not or a 12 year charge or not, I have to pay it even though this is the first I've ever heard of it.
I also looked up obtaining an immigrant visa for my fiancée. That costs $455 to submit a form. Yes you read that right.

You could definitely say my day didn't start off that great.

After I finished my work and went home though things really started to happen. I was waiting for this and I jumped right in. Since it was possible for me to sit and the computer and get stuff done without Isaac bothering me (he was at his mother's this week) that's exactly what I did. I was just in the zone when I got home and I feel I made the most of it. I did branch around and do a lot of smaller tasks not my 'main list of things' but the bottom line was that things got accomplished.

• I ended up making progress on one of my work related goals.
• I started a LinkedIn profile.
• I started cleaning up the mess that is the 'My Documents' folder on my desktop PC.
• I messed with my Delicious toolbar and made it way more useful and productive.
• I updated the progress on a bunch of my Goals.

It seems like I did so much more too but I guess most of those 5 items there are a lot more detailed than the one sentence description I gave there. My main point here was that doing all that made me very happy. It was a few weeks since the last time I had a day like that. If I could find a way to increase the number of those days I'm certain that things would really start happening for me. Alejandra was with me last time and I was sad that she wasn't this time but that's cool. She was at a belly dancing performance. I would like to see one of those live someday soon but it's okay because she will be with me later this week.
Right now when I don't have Isaac we take out 3 days to 'Be Productive' - 1) Work related goals, 2) learning Spanish and 3) learning development by hobbyist programming. I can't wait until all my hard work on these areas pay off. :D

I need a new phone

Well despite all the news going around right now about the iPhone 4's reception problems I went out to the AT&T store the other day (07/14) and ordered one. I had to. I had a bit of an accident with my almost 2 year old 3G.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Me and my friend, Lana, were standing outside of work that day and we were underneath the awning in front of the door. She was talking about doing pull ups on the beams holding up the awning. She is short and I didn't even think she could reach it but whatever. I didn't think it would hold up to anyone hanging on it but I wondered if I could reach it. I jumped and touched it no problem. Unfortunately for me my phone was in the breast pocket of my shirt and jumping like that caused it to fly out. It sort of hit my shoe and the hard cement at the same time and the glass shattered. I had a screen protector on so right now it still works. I think it's the only thing holding the glass together at this point. I am very bummed and kind of shocked that happened. I took such good care of it for this long.

WHAT DID YOU DO?

I went right to the AT&T store after I picked up Isaac and did a few errands after work. It was kind of busy but I got my turn eventually and the lady was very nice and helpful. I knew I bought the Applecare plan but she told me I was going to have to go thru Apple directly to make a claim on that and that would cost money and be a pain and yadda yadda yadda. That wasn't going to do me any good so I did not get it on the new phone. It would be $199 to get the same phone (which didn't make sense), $99 to upgrade to a 3GS and $199 to get a 16GB 4. I knew before I even got here what I was doing. I ordered a 4. It would take a week to get here and because UPS needs you to sign for it I had it shipped to the store directly for me to just pick up. I was trying to convince her that I couldn't use this broken phone for a week and asked her if they had any loaners. I guess they don't do that and I'll have to deal. :|

I don't know what to think about this issue with the dropped calls. It seems to me this issue is more media driven trying to put a dent in the iPhone party. I don't know anyone who is having this issue. I was kind of forced into getting this because of the accident. I hope it is not a tough fix and that it ships to the store repaired before I even pick it up. There is a press conference today in a few hours that Apple will announce what their plans are. I'll note what they say here and when I find out how that affects me.

UPDATE:
It actually took 2 weeks to get here and I had to deal with my crappy broken phone for that much longer. Now that it is here though it was awesome. It's like a brand new phone but one that I already know how to use. I do get a free case which I already downloaded the app to order it.