Peter Dill of Seton Hall is my new favorite College Basketball Playa. (Sorry Sully) I am still a die hard Buckeye fan, so no hate mail or Facebook posting about this please.

Here’s the story…he’s logged a total of 8 minutes in two years. Not a Starter. Wasn’t recruited…and he’s a walk-on for Seton Hall. What he is all over supporting his team. I’m not the best at what I do, I’m not the smartest guy in the room and I really don’t know everything. I just get a serious kick out of someone taking circumstances and enjoying them. Making the best of what you’ve been given.

I don’t care that he doesn’t start, I don’t care that he isn’t a big name…and I don’t care that he didn’t come from my High School (I went to Northland High School 20 years before Jared Sullinger). Peter Dills is a lesson for everyone. It doesn’t matter how high you jump, how fast you run or if you have athletic skills. It’s all about attitude, enthusiasm and hard work. ESPN highlight, check!

 

Today’s posting is brought to you by SpaghettiOs.

I’ve been thinking about the Italian-American license plate for Colorado.  I wanted to a phonetic spelling for Italian on the plate as well : [ih-tal-yun].  Let’s say this again… [ih-tal-yun].  Not [eye-tal-yun]. Do you pronounce it [eye-tally]? No, you pronounce it [ih-tally], so why not pronounce it how it should sound? Seriously. Bad pronunciation can’t be a conspiracy, because Italians are responsible for improving lots of things, like pasta. OK, it did come from Asia, but the Italians figured out that if we added tomato sauce…it becomes much more tasty. Plus it is more fun to say “Uh Oh SpaghettiOs” as opposed to “Uh Oh Pasta.” Maybe it’s an educational thing, which means I have a lot of changes to make at my work. Regardless, in order to customize these plates I need to figure out how to limit the phonetic spelling to seven characters total. This is a challenge, but I think I can figure it out. Sicilian and Filichia has 8 characters…goombata, help a babbo out!

I’ve decided that I need to start blogging more. Why? I have lots to say about many things…lots of thoughts and ideas. I’m not anyone special or someone that people want to hear. I’m just a guy with a laptop and an overwhelming need to ramble on about stuff. I believe in facts, so my posts will most likely include references to where I find things. I don’t believe in Wikipedia as a valid source though. Anyone can edit it…Anyone can post whatever perspective on a topic they wish to share. If I’m going to be wrong, at least I will be wrong in my own “house.” I’m also planning on talking through ideas as well. I have lots of them, but also will try to make the topics accessible. If I talk about “using Agent-Based constraint logic programming to answer queries and provide business logic for multi-dimensional data;” or “using an natural language compiler to interpret, compile and execute programs against various domains,” don’t worry…sometimes that slice of pie isn’t for you. Sometimes I will talk about things that interesting, such as the concept of paranormal or supernatural things. It’s about keeping an open mind, not invoking pre-conceved notions. Be prepared…Be open minded and most important of all, think critically.

 

I have an iPad 2 I was given by my employer, Denver Public Schools. We are a school district, we don’t have money like corporations and such. I also am not a rich person. I’m comfortable, but not rich. Recently, the iPad2 was knocked off my desk and I got a nice ding. As time went on, the display gained new cracks (and yes, it’s under warranty.)

I decided to go to the Apple Store here in Denver to get it replaced. It’s under warranty, right? When I’ve had problems in the past with Windows equipment (HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, Gateway), they have worked to replace my technology. However, the Apple hardware is solely provided by Apple. No competition, no other hardware vendors. They told me (and I showed them my DPS Asset Tag as well as my DPS ID) that it would be a $299 replacement fee for the iPad, which they had me stand around and wait for 5 minutes. They didn’t even bother to look at the warranty and see if there MIGHT be something different for DPS.I didn’t get belligerent, I didn’t get rude or abusive. I just walked out of the store.

This was astounding to me. How can you call yourself the most advanced technology, when you can’t use Gorilla Glass or anything more resilient in your technology to help prevent accidents. I can drop a cell phone and it doesn’t put cracks in the screen. I also have alternatives to cell phones…other competitors, other vendors. They are willing to work with me to fix my problem. Apple wants me to pay for their defective technology (I legitimately dropped a first generation iPad on a TILE floor, and it got one ding in the finish.) because they believe themselves to be the 800 pound gorilla in the room. They may be the 800 pound Gorilla but I am the Bald Sicilian with the Big Mouth.

People ask why I don’t own a cell phone and wouldn’t buy an iPod when they came out. I had a feeling (justified, by this experience) that I wouldn’t be happy with the level of customer support and care I would get from the Apple folks. They would tell me I would have to do something I didn’t want to be happy. What’s the point of offering a warranty if you won’t or don’t stand behind your work? Why not make that clear in all of your marketing information? Why not think about the customer instead of the cash? Value comes from quality. Quality comes from caring about customers. Repeat customers are made through good customer service. Apple, not very good customer service.

 

I am a helper; I like to help. I’m one of those people that tend try to make everything run smoothly. A long time ago (15+ years) I heard the quote “It is better to serve than to be served…”, a sort of paraphrase from Matthew 20:28. I’m not going to turn this into a religious post, simply because there are lots of other people who are better qualified and more knowledgeable. What I want to talk about is those people who don’t get this concept, because it’s a good one.

Today we held our annual Holiday Chili Cook Off. I always make it a point to help setting up and cleaning up for things like this. It’s not a matter of being appreciated (which is always nice), it’s a matter of service. While I was setting up the drink area, a guy from one of the other areas walked up to me and said “you live for this, don’t you? I mean you’re always the one doing this <stuff>.” I looked him dead in the eye for one minute to gauge intent. That’s a rather confrontational statement from my standpoint because this person is notorious for his arrogance. I told him that “No I don’t. I do this because no one else will sign up to help. If anyone else signed up to help, then I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m doing the stuff no one else wants to do.”

Then I went back to what I was doing, but I kept thinking about this.  The very first thing that came to mind, honestly…a song by a Christian group Acapella named “everybody said but nobody did.” It opens as such:

Everybody said that anybody could do
The important things somebody should do
Everybody knows that anybody could do
All the good things that nobody did.
My point is I believe in doing things no one else wants to do, or are willing to do. If things don’t get done, people notice. If it gets done wrong, people notice. In example,  I and 3-4 other people carol in the lobby while people are eating. Yes we can harmonize and sound nice. This year, we didn’t hear from one of the guitar folks, so we elected to not do it. People asked me why we didn’t do it. e.g. People notice when things don’t get done.

It’s better to serve than to be served; it’s actually much more fulfilling. I get a kick out of watching things come together…and I really enjoy watching people having fun.

I’m going to need to set a bit of context for this post. I am from Columbus, Ohio. The distance between Cleveland and Cincinnati is 248 Miles, about 3.5 hours’ drive time. The Cuyahoga River runs down to Akron, OH and outlets into Lake Erie. The Distance between Cincinnati and Akron is about 232 Miles…about 3.3 Hours’ drive time. These are the facts, and they are not in dispute.

Today, the Cuyahoga Fire of 1969 came up in conversation. The person I was talking to told me it didn’t happen in Cleveland. It happened near to Cincinnati. This person had a “friend in Cleveland” who told them this. I pointed out I am from Columbus Ohio, and I think I might know a little bit about the geography of my home state. They told me I was wrong, that I should check into my facts. My jaw dropped.

Seriously, did this person believe I am stupid? Or even better, it’s a magic bullet theory like the JFK Assassination conspiracy nutjobs. Somehow, the Cuyahoga River magically moved over 200 miles south…with a flyover of Central Ohio. After 1969, the river moved back to near Akron and all traces of the flyover were eliminated. This plan involved the Men in Black, Aliens, NASA, Area 51, The Philadelphia Experiment, FEMA (although FEMA wasn’t formed until 1979…), Monty Python, TriLateral Commission, MK ULTRA , that “World’s Most Interesting Man” from the Dos Equis commercial and Super Double-Secret Top Secret Executive Orders.

Now that we have finally got past my token sarcasm, the reality is this. The Cuyahoga River is over 200 miles from Cincinnati at its lowest point. No matter what definition of closer, unless you are using a ridiculous scale (1″ = 1000 Miles), there is no possible way that the fire occurred “near Cincinnati.” Let’s just say this person has lost all credibility (which they didn’t have much of in the first place) with me, and most likely anyone who reads this.

Cleveland to Cincinnati http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9MzkuNTM2NzE0ODY5NzA5NjZ+LTgzLjc1MDQ5ODI1NzU3NzQyJmx2bD05JnN0eT1yJnJ0cD1wb3MuNDEuNTA0NDkyXy04MS42OTA1NzNfQ2xldmVsYW5kJTJDJTIwT0hfX19lX35wb3MuMzkuMTA2NDM2MDAwMDAwMDFfLTg0LjUwNDY5NDAwMDAwMDEzX0NpbmNpbm5hdGklMkMlMjBPSF9fX2VfJm1vZGU9RCZydG9wPTB+MH4wfg==

² Cuyahoga River Map http://csudigitalhumanities.org/exhibits/archive/fullsize/cuyahoga-river-map_528ae87ba8.jpg

³ Cincinnati to Akron http://www.bing.com/maps/#Y3A9NDEuMTQzMjU0Njk1NjI2NTh+LTgxLjUxMTE4Mzg1Njc5Nzg0Jmx2bD0xMiZzdHk9ciZydHA9cG9zLjM5LjEwNjQzNl8tODQuNTA0Njk0X0NpbmNpbm5hdGklMkMlMjBPSF9fX2VffnBvcy40MS4wODQxOTQwMDAwMDAwMl8tODEuNTE0MDU5MDAwMDAwMTNfQWtyb24lMkMlMjBPSF9fX2VfJm1vZGU9RCZydG9wPTB+MH4wfg==

⁴ The Ohio Historical Society: Cuyahoga River Fire http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1642

I know, the title is really confusing…but the idea is that we can integrate Dundas Web Components into a Sharepoint 2010 (Beta) instance without resorting to the Dundas Sharepoint Web Parts. I work for the Denver Public Schools. Our budget is rather tight, so it’s better to find a way to do something rather than finding a way to spend the money.

We own the Dundas bits (Charts, Grids and OLAP) and we really want to use them in a Sharepoint environment. The need was to find a way to pull the Dundas parts into the Sharepoint site (and eventually PerformancePoint) so that we could have Read the rest of this entry »

I recently answered a question on Stack Overflow. Someone came along and instead of answering the question, they proceeded to tell me why they thought my answer was wrong.

• First, what exactly did you accomplish in telling me I was wrong and not answering the person’s question?
• Second, what did you accomplish in showing arrogance in telling me why I was wrong without proof?

Ultimately, the person who answered didn’t accomplish anything with their answer. All they did was contribute to the further confusion and mess that finding answers to questions on the interwebs has become. I’ve noticed most of the Heavy Hitters in the Tech Industry don’t post answers to questions because of people who will proceed to tell them why they are wrong without proof as to their knowledge of how it works. It’s not teaching or mentoring if you don’t help the person who asked the question by ANSWERING THE QUESTION!
If you want to help, then help. If you want to arrogantly correct everyone without an shred of validation about your knowledge and skill, then go play on your MySpace page or FaceBook page with your friends who think you are “super awesome cool”. You will be one of those folks who ends up on YouTube looking like a total tool and idiot like that “Leave Brittany Alone” goof.

Recently, I was asked to create a way within the context of SQL Server Integration Services to upload a file to a secure FTP site. FTP in C# is easy with the System.Net namespace, but Windows doesn’t natively do SSH. So instead of trying to roll my own, I decided to call a COM based app named WinSCP. This meant interfacing with an application via the .Net framework. So here’s what I did.

I created variables at the package level to hold the information about the WinSCP portable executable: Read the rest of this entry »