I recently went through a job change and in the process my new employer set me up with a new laptop. The new laptop is loaded: Intel Core Duo, 2GB Ram, 120GB Hard drive, ATI 128MB Graphics, pretty much enough “umph” to run Vista, it is a Lenovo T60. I have noticed that Microsoft’s Vista actually runs really well, unless

…you try to run software that was written before Vista was in the Betas or CTP editions.

First Issue:
My laptop came with MS Office 2007 installed as a 60 day trial, well I wanted to install MS Office 2003, it all worked fine with the exception of Vista throwing a fit, when the driver versions for Outlook were older than what was pre-loaded. I think this was more of a Lenovo issue opposed to Vista, considering it was pre-loaded.

Second Issue:
Visual Studio 2003 will not work, and to get Visual Studio 2005 to work it takes nearly a 400mb download.

Third Issue:
MS SQL Server 2005 must have up Service Pack 2 installed. About another 400mb download.

Fourth Issue:
VMware Workstation takes about 20 min. to start up the first VM after a reboot. When I start the initial virtual machine, my computer starts processing the hard drive, and will continue to do this for the full 20 min. I have the virtual machines installed on an external drive; the drive that gets the workout is the laptop drive, not the USB drive.

Fifth Issue:
I am going to stop at 5 for now, but this is also one of the most ridiculous problems so far…trying to transfer files using file sharing on a local network (if the file is > 100 MB) then plan on waiting forever if one of the machines in the files hare is not a vista machine. Win2k3 Server along with XP Pro, transfers at a creeping slow transfer rate. You will see a dialog stating that “Vista is calculating transfer time”, and it continues to say this for hours, if you don’t cancel it. There is a knowledge base article on Microsoft’s Website, it is worth a read, because until I found this article I was going to wipe Vista off the laptop and re-install XP.

The good side of Vista so far, it doesn’t seem to crash J you just can’t install anything.

I recently stepped forward to start a sales project using BlackBerries. I have never really been a big fan of Java programming, but I must admit this thing has been quite addictive.

I get to play with the 7520 from Nextel, it is amazing what a jump in productivity you can have with this thing, the only dificult thing is putting it down. I find myself picking this thing up during dinner and nearly every time it starts buzzing with email.

I have found a few really neat applicatoins that are free, google maps, and Berry 411. They are pretty useful apps. These two apps are free but on the downside of things, it is very difficult to find usable free software for your BlackBerry. Most useful applications are just as pricey as some PC applications.

It seems like the Fall semester of 2006 at MU is consuming my life.  With work and school there never seems to be any time to do anything.  I like staying on the edge a bit, but here lately things have been really crazy. 

Last semester and over the summer I had pretty much the same workload at work, full time in IT seems to be a minimum of 60 hours, and I could still juggle classes and maintain a 3.81 GPA.  This semester on the other hand MU has really picked up the pace.  My classes assign so much homework there is hardly time for much of a life when I get home. 

I am not really a procrastinator, but last week I had a huge disaster at work that consumed nearly all of my time from Thursday 7:20AM through Sunday 10:00PM.  In that time span I had a test and an essay due in my Internet classes.  I didn’t get home until 8:00PM and I had till midnight to finish it.  It was crazy to study, more like cram for the test, crash the essay, which was finished and turned in at 11:59PM.  My grades were not perfect but it was better to attempt than not too.

To sum this up, it seems like everyone is so busy these days, and well obesity is supposed to be such a problem in the US, who has time to prepare a decent healthy meal?  I don’t have any kids just two dogs and I couldn’t imagine cooking for them after a long day.

Before obesity  became a problem in the US, our lifestyles used to be much different.  In the baby-booming days in the 50’s most mom’s didn’t work, they took care of all of the children, cooked, and cleaned all day.  So most of our parents, depending on our age, had real food, with most likely, less preservatives and growth hormones than we get now. 

To see how this obeisidy thing came about, you could look at how the American family has changed in the last half of the century.  In the “Communist Manifest” the one thing Marx and Ingles pegged correctly is that a capitalistic home, will be revolve around money.  After the 50’s and 60’s families needed more money to function, divorce was more common, and for one reason or another both parents had to work.  A family having both parents working full-time jobs will be pressed for time.  With both parents working, then along comes the microwave, ahh such simplicity. 

Enter the MicroWave into our lives, now parents had an easy way to prepare breakfast, lunch, or dinner for their kids.  The wonderful microwave meal so hot you can’t touch it on the outside and cold as ice in the center.  Microwave meals are usually not the healthiest of meals.  Moving along to fast-food.

Fast food is really unhealthy, well anyone who saw the documentary “Super Size Me” would know that.  I still find myself driving to a drive thru to get a greasy burger more times a week than I should.  Running short on time, it is convenient for me to grab something quick than not at all.  The last time I missed breakfast, lunch, and dinner I wrecked my vehicle into a parking meter.  So instead of getting dizzy now I will go and eat something.

Now back on track, think about how much easier it is for a parent to order a pizza for dinner, throw a 5 min. meal in the microwave, or stop at a fast-food drive thru.

Another way to determine why US citizens are getting so big would be to do a little study on fast food portion size over the past years.  Another way would be to compare the rise of fast food sales over the past years with respect to population increase.  So what is so hard for everyone to see how and why we have gotten so fat?  Maybe in college they should have a nutrition class.

According to 33 News abc survy IT experts are more likely to suffer from stress than any other professional , A staggering 97 percent of people working in IT claim to find their life at work stressful on a daily basis.The poll revealed that IT professionals say it is difficult to get the work done when managers are constantly on their backs.

read more | digg story

Today I received my very first parking ticket at Marshall University. Since ‘97 I had been able to dodge the evil meter maids. I parked in the meter lot across from Corbly Hall, for my 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM class, and to my surprise I see the dreaded parking attendant making her rounds. I was searching franticly for a quarter but had none. There was no escape this time, I was busted. The official time on my parking ticket for MU was 18:38, so this evil lady littered the entire lot with orange slips. I have parked in the meter lot for about a year after 4PM and never received a ticket.

I found today that the lots are supposed to be monitored from 7 AM to 7PM, which is just enough to catch the 6:30 - 9:00 students for their class, this time span is by far when the parking lots are in demand. I have never had a problem finding a parking place at 4PM.

I understand that the parking lots need to be monitored or we would never have a place to park but considering the cost of tuition, why don’t they give us a parking permit. Marshall’s parking lots are like cash crops, when you really think about it.

Parking Permit Prices:

• Evening Permit After 4PM (Non Garage)
  • Semester: $37.50
  • Full year: $75.00
• Student Surface Permit
  • Semester: $67.50
  • Full Year: $135.00
• 3rd Avenue Garage Permit
  • Semester: $ 117.50
  • Full Year: $235.00
• Parking Meters
  • $0.25 = 30 min.

Find the form here: MU Parking permit form

List of Violation Costs

Parking Violations Enforced 24 Hours

1. Fire Lane……………………………………………………$10
2. Handicapped Space……………………………………..$100
3. No Parking Zone…………………………………………..$10
4. Loading Zone……………………………………………….$10
5. Block Traffic, Roadway, Parked Veh…………………..$10
6. Double Parked………………………………………………$10
7. Parked Over Line…………………………………………..$10
8. Limited Time Zone…………………………………………$10
9. Barricaded Areas, Bldg, Entrances & Exits…………..$10

Parking Violations Enforced 7 AM - 7 PM

1. Expired time on meter …………………………………….$2
2. Lot parking without permit……………………………..$10
3. Simultaneous Parking of two vehicles
   issued under one fee ……………………………………….$10
4. Parking out of assigned area……………………………..$10
5. Expired Permit……………………………………………..$10
6. Improper Display of Permit………………………………$10

The previous violations and fees were taken from my Marshall University Parking Violation parking ticket.

I am giving a good guess here, but I would say that on an average day the MU meter maids probably give out approximately 1,000 tickets (this is very optimistic) every day.

800 meter tickets X $2 = $1600

200 tickets/day X $10 = 2,000

Total $$$ per day estimate would be $3,600.

So why does a parking pass cost so much?

I am sure other colleges do the same thing and there are some reasons why they have to do the things they do, but why gouge students, we already pay enough for tuition, over priced books, gas to get to class, and parking permits/parking tickets.

I once saw the perfect bumper sticker “Meter Maids Eat Their Own Young”.

I spent four hours of my day off watching “When the levees break…” it was one of those things you would rather not see but can’t pull yourself away from it. I never really watch the news or regular TV, I found out about the tsunami about 3 days after it had happened. Watching all 4 acts of this documentary was really difficult, director Spike Lee took a balanced approach to the film, and didn’t seem to run with taking film footage out of context like another documentary film maker with the initials MM.

To think that we lend so much aid to other countries, that we could not take care of our own people. The film does not hold back or censor, it shows how things were. Dead bodies floating in the water, people dropping dead on the street, dead lying on the street, dead animals, family members dying in the arms of other family, no food, no water for 5 days. How crazy does a person go after 5 days with no food or water in the blistering heat.

Can you imagine the smell in the Super Dome? The heat mixed with the river of sewer flowing through the dome, the dead bodies, no I don’t think there is a way to imagine this. Watching the film vs. living through through this are entirely different.

To live survive through this event would have to leave deep emotional scars. Most of the survivors interviewed stated that they needed some type of medicine to help them sleep. Think of the nightmares the children have. One young adult came back after his house was cleared and marked 0 bodies, he found his dead mother under a refrigerator.

This entire catastrophe was one bad blow after another, the residents of New Orleans were also rejected by their insurance companies.

I have some links I found on digg.com that are relevant to Katrina.

Engineers worry about New Orleans Levees 8/26/2006

NEW ORLEANS - The head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conceded Saturday that despite aggressive efforts to repair the levee system in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, it was unclear whether the it could hold up to a sizable hurricane this year.

Sisters blew whistle on Katrina claims
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 26, 1:56 PM ET

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Who are the moles? The question was like a parlor game for employees of State Farm Insurance Co. after Hurricane Katrina, one they nervously played during coffee breaks or in the parking lot after work.

Click the image below to see information about the documentary.

Using the glasses listed in the following article, a person with tunnel vision could possibly see more of the visual area they normally miss. The glasses work by projecting the image on the lens that only the wearer can see. It converts the visual layout into a cartoon like setting for the wearer.

The other alternative to these stylish glasses was a set of wires that were inserted in the brain and attached to the optical nerve. It allowed the wearer to see blurs of images and see movement. This is still quite amazing considering the wearer of the device was completely blind. It was much less stylish than the glasses pictures above.

Tunnel vision is not something you can tell someone has just by looking at them. If you observe them for a while you can probably tell that they have a vision problem or are inebriated. My dad has dealt with Retinitis Pigmentosa since he was a teenager. The eye disease causes the retina to deteriorate slowly over time, hence causing tunnel vision.

The pictures below, on the left you have normal vision and on the right you have a diminished view. The amount visible has become smaller and the color is disrupted. Victims of tunnel vision have no porifial vision, and have problems with daily tasks. Just think if that is all you can see and you are out walking, because you can’t see well enough to drive, and you step in a large pothole. What if you are in a shopping center and kids are running around all over the place? What about curbs, caution wet signs that are too low to the ground? I have seen my dad deal with all of these situations.

He does not use a cane, using one once after my mother and I had gotten on him for hurting himself out walking, he found a deep pot hole to trip in and roll his ankle, he had an incident with the cane. He was paying a visit to my high school guidance councilor and while walking down the hall one of the kids said “Hey!, why is that guy walking with a cane, he can see. He’s not blind”. Well contrary to belief he is blind, and very thankful for the little bit of sight he has.

If the only vision you had was the photo on the above left, would you spend time throwing a football with your child? or better yet a baseball? He did and never complained about it. He adapted well, I am guessing the slow deteriorate of his retinas attributes to better adaptation. His vision is still getting worse and will eventually phase out.

Below are the pictures of a normal retina and a retina with retinitus pigmentosa.

It would be great to see the glasses in the following link help my dad and others with tunnel vision.

Aid for tunnel vision?

I was watching channel 13 news and they had a section about peanut butter, and how it was banned from the elementary school. What spurred the media coverage was an issue where a little girl had a peanut butter sandwich and a banana for lunch. Apparently, she was told she could not have the peanut butter sandwich, since it was Pinch Elementary contraband. She was left only with the banana to eat for the day.

The arguments from the school were that they had sent a letter home with the student, maybe a 1st grader, to inform the parents of the ban of peanut butter, due to 5 students in the school having peanut allergies. The principle and the teachers played a well executed text-book CYA on this, they said that she chose not to eat her sandwich.

Now, why did I take the time to vent about this…education in WV is poor, there is usually no funding for students, or so the school board always says, and they always find some ridiculous thing to put all of their effort into. I am sure the students who have the allergy to PB know they have it, and that their teachers are informed. So why ban all of the other kids from having peanut butter?

Next, our brilliant educators will have drug dogs searching elementary school students for crack, meth, marijuana, and oh hell no…don’t even think about bringing peanut butter in this school.

There is always some little toy or some annoying gadget that is out every year that elementary, middle/junior, and high schools seem to find to annoy teachers or pose a threat. I remember in my junior high days, all jackets, backpacks, purses, and hooded sweatshirts were to be left in our lockers until we left for the day. I remember how on cold days we all froze. I guess the idea was that someone could pack a gun or store “contraband” in their hooded sweatshirt, jacket, purse, or backpack. Hmm I don’t think the hood of a sweat shirt is a good place to pack your heat or your chronic.

Another annoying gadget was the wrist-watch that worked as a universal TV remote. We had TV’s in all of our classrooms, and some students programmed their watches to work the TV’s. This was comical at first because the teachers didn’t know what was going on. Then the “watch-remote task force was formed” and then no more fun.

I miss those days, but back on track…Most of the new “rules & policies” for Kanawha County, WV came from an elected Board of Education, in like most governmental/state ran operation, rules and laws are passed without thought on how to implement them, or if they do have a plan of implementation, I think they forget to cover any variables.

If only they could bring paddling back, I think they would have a huge drop in behavioral problems and possibly have more time to teach or come up with more asinine rules to follow.

Last Fall, I visited a local Home Depot, I will admit it was a very windy day, when my incident occured. I had been in the Barboursville store for nearly an hour looking for the various things I needed, well when I go outside, a cart (standard plastic cart–they are used in grociery stores as well) was directly against my truck’s taillight.

My first reaction was “!@#$ what were they thinking”, then I remember the wind, it would have been a great day to fly a kite. Anyway, cart had actually broken my tallight. I was pissed, scratches are tolerable (and it is a truck) but I have to get this fixed to pass WV’s annual inspection.

I proceed to go back in the store to ask for a manager, I thought it may at least save me from buying a new taillight. I had to wait on the manager for about 20min. and I didn’t even get to speak to a manager, it was an assistant manager. He took my information, gave me a copy (pretty standard) back, so then I waited for their insurance company to call me.

I got the all about two days after the incident, which was a fairly good response time, and the lady asked how it had happed. “Did an employee ram the cart into your truck?” was one question, when I said, no the wind probably blew it, she said “Oh!, well that is “An Act Of God then”. Most likely it will be denied, but we can try.

My question is, if you are a Christian, in most denominatins anyway, don’t you believe that everything is “Ant cat of God”? You got a raise today…because God planned it, Your garage door falls on you vehicle…because God planned it. You drop your coffe in your lap while driving, spilll it and rear-end someone. An Insurance provider will most likely pay for the previou claim.

How far could they take the “Act of God” cop-out? Sorry the deer you hit is considered an Act of God. How is that much different than fixing a car that hs been hit by a deer. The way “I think” Home/Car Insurance should work…You pay for Insurance so when it breaks why ask the client so many questions?

Using some rough estimates:

• During my life I have payed out nearly $30,000 in car insurance (12 years)
• and roughly $2000 (in 3yrs)

I think I have “payed” enough to hopefully secure a new vehicle out of a total loss.

I like how home insurance policies are extremely conditional, “your house flooded, do you have flood insurance, no, well I am sorry”.

I need to tangent back on track here, the idea I wanted to get across is the fact that Insurance companies could start over using the excuse.

This is funny and extreme but it will make you think about how ridiculous this could be: A Family member dies and instead of giving you the life insurance, they tell you, “I am sory sir, family-member-x died as an “Act of God”.

Just something to think about.

I saw this video and she loses it. It is almost a year old but it is funny, all of the models are crying and they aren’t even being yelled at.

Not eating can cause mood swings

Here is a link to the movie: Tyra B