twothirds

What's Wrong with My Contractor?

2007-10-05T18:19:00.001-07:00

I have just started a redo of my bathroom. I am using a contractor that I have used for some random handy man work and a 1/2 bath redo. I am convinced there is something wrong with him. After all:

He shows up on time, if not early. If he says he will be there at 9AM, he generally shows up around 8:45.
He does not disappear for days at a time. When he starts a job, he sticks around until it is completed.
He knows how to "scope" a job. His final costs have never exceeded his estimates. He has also spotted potential issues before the job has started. For example, before he installed a pedestal sink, he noticed the plumbing would have to move over a few inches to properly center the sink with the light. Other contractors that bid on the job did not mention the detail.
He's clean. The job site is not a dump at the end of the day. I have done enough DIY jobs around the house to know how difficult this is.
He listens to classical music on the job. I thought classic rock was the stable of the construction trade

Damn. I'm lucky.

So far, everything has gone pretty smoothly. Today I got a call saying, "Two boxes of tile do not match." What!?! It appears the tile company gave me ~60 square feet of what I ordered and ~20 square feet of something else. Thankfully, I ordered "in stock" tile that was still in stock and replacements were available. Hopefully things remain uneventful.

Stupid Cool--DOS on a Mac in a JVM?!?

2007-03-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

I just played a game of Donkey Kong on my MacBook in a browser window that was emulating [Free] DOS through a JVM. Hu? Give it a try yourself.

I also enjoyed the FAQ section. There has been a myth for sometime now that Java is slow. Well, from the authors (Emphasis added by me.):

How fast is JPC?
...Moreover, we have seen that in some circumstances a HotSpot JVM can outperform gcc-compiled C, so we believe a lot more is possible.

Why Java?
Basically, Java turns out to be ideal for this kind of project: it's robust, it works across many platforms, it's built with security in mind and, with HotSpot, it can run about as efficiently as natively compiled code...

Take that C and C++!

The Rise and Fall of 3athlete

2007-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

In the early 2000's, I was a triathlete. I few in love with the sport right away. It allowed me to stay competitive after my swimming years and I wasn't half bad. Being a tech-geek, I registered a domain name and started a quasi-blog/slashclone related to triathlon. And in November of 2000, 3athlete was born.

As the injuries added up and I fell out of love with the sport in late November of 2002, I killed 3athlete with prejudice. I simply turned it off one day and walked away. It was no longer fun.

A few months later, as spring made an appearance, I wanted to keep track of triathlon news. Since very few sites had an RSS feed, I had to create my own. With some perl scripts to parse html, a mysql database to store all the strings, and a php front end, I accidentally launched the next version of 3athlete with a few hours of coding.

3athlete grew over the years into a 50k hit/hour site. Many of these hits were to my RSS feeds (every page on 3athlete had an RSS feed) or from spiders, but it was sill interesting scaling a large volume website. The 3athlete volume was laughable compared to my day job, but for "shared" hosting, performance was top notch.

All was rosy, but as web 2.0 blossomed, my interest in the project dwindled and more triathlon sites had native RSS feeds, 3athlete started to become irrelevant. While I had a core dedicated following, there was limited growth and I had no desire to integrate social features into 3athlete to improve its relevance. Due to these factors, 3athlete essentially turned into a link farm.

So, with little fanfare, I killed 3athlete yet again. It is possible I will launch something again in the future, but for now, I should really concentrate on the half-baked, yet useful, *.racechecklist sites.

about: Jed

2007-03-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when people talk shit on a blog yet you have know idea who the hell they are? Well, below is my subtle attempt to describe who I am and why I have an opinion or insight into something:

Note: This will be continuously updated--in theory.

Work:
I am currently an Engineering Lead and Release Manager at Sun Microsystems in the Content Management Engineering group. We build, support and maintain the code, applications and infrastructure that enable content authoring, management, distribution and delivery for Sun's high volume websites such as Sun.com and Java.com. Oh yeah, and we also make sure a consistent brand is maintained across multiple locales and venues utilizing content reuse and repurposing. In short, my friends and family have no idea what I do.

I even have an abandoned blog at Sun!

Previously, I worked at Interwoven Inc as a Senior Consultant for web content management doing some of the same things, but limited to just the CMS side of the house. Hmm, I wonder who one of my clients could have been.

Related tags: Content Management | Sun Microsystems

Glory Days
I am a former swimmer. Some might say a great swimmer. I would say I was good enough since it got me through college. After my "retirement" from swimming, I hit the triathlon circuit and quickly learned my soft tissue was not meant for running. The name "twothirds" comes from my typical effort during a triathlon. I would lead for the first two-thirds of the race and quickly falter during the run. Good times! (For the record, I did win one race.) As I have slipped further away from my glory days as a swimmer, I have become a glorified rec-cyclist that likes to bike commute to work as a way of staying sane.

Related tags: Cycling | Bike Commuting

Education
I hold a BS from Providence College in Computer Science and Management. I graduated Cum Laude and number one in my major. For the record, I was the only person in my major--I worked the liberal arts charter of my school and followed the "individualized" major option. I rock! For me, this was a cross country trip from California to Rhode Island. I strongly recommend this for anyone going to college. Run away from home and find out what life is like somewhere else out of your comfort zone. If not for my Providence experience, I would have no idea you drink from a bublah', griders are subs, and the mafia really does exist.

Home
I have lived in California, Rhode Island and Connecticut, but most of my time has been in Santa Clara, CA. I fled the state for College, yet ended all of two miles from my parents house. I have owned a house since 2000, and have been on a home improvement binge over the past year. Once something starts to look nice, all the old crap starts to look really bad. Recently I have:

installed new windows
replaced the blinds
installed composite wood *cough*, err, laminate floors
refreshed a bathroom
painted 1/2 the house
torn out shower doors

Well, while I may not have done some of these things first hand, I have paid for everything.

Food and Drink
At one point in my life I would have been content with a Natty Light and some Pasta Roni. Things have changed a bit and I know the difference between a Hanger and Skirt Steak, enjoy bloody ass expensive beer from Belgium and abhor cheap wine. I can also cook some mean protein dishes (steak, fish, etc), so I am highly critical of bad expensive cuisine. If I can cook it better, I overpaid.

Mac/Apple
I own a MacBook, but I am not an apple zealot. In fact, I spend most of my time trying to make my desktop look like a Solaris workstation. OS X is nicer than MS Windows--I'll give it that.

Status
Sorry ladies, I am single but have a girlfriend.

Corporate Jed -- CMS Talk

2007-03-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, it sounded like a great idea to present a topic at a Content Management Conference. With deadlines looming and no visits from a muse, I am nearing the panic phase. It just might be time to crack open that bottle of Absinthe I smuggled back from Europe.

I have been asked to promote my talk, so here goes nothing...The LISA Forum USA, from April 10-12 in San Francisco, is designed to deliver a 360-degree view of what it takes to integrate globalization into your organization’s business processes – the specific...

Eh--screw the generic blurb--not really my style. Please check the box if this applies to you:

If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, you might want to attend my talk at the LISA Forum USA in San Fran. As a bonus, you might find out who sucks as DST.

More Search Term Fun

2007-03-22T11:12:00.000-07:00

Rama turned me onto 103bees for search term tracking. The site is a bit annoying with its 24-hour session timeout, but it does a better job of tracking search terms than most log analyzers. My recent searches include:

Some of the more interesting terms:

living with a pot smoker
what cream for sore ass?
how to phone tap

And some of the more common terms:

matrix screensaver mac
alton brown smoker
flower pot smoker
litespeed teramo

For the record, I do not live with a pot smoker, my ass generally does not need cream, and I am not a phreaker.

B Street & Vine Review

2007-03-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

The food menu looks interesting, the Jazz band is a nice touch, and I like the concept of a wine bar in San Mateo, but B Street and Vine misses the mark. During a recent visit I only came for the wine, but I left unsatisfied. I am tempted to go back and try the food, but if I want a good glass of wine, I'll stick with one of the local restaurants. A few comments on the downers...

Stemware
The stemware is really bad. My red wine glass would have been better served as a water glass due to the thickness of the crystal. Also, it appears they only had one generic red and one white wine glass. They really need to match the glass to the varietal in addition to slimming the crystal.

Wine Menu
The wine menu was disappointing. At a wine bar, I want to experiment with great wine that is either hard to find or cost prohibitive at the bottle price. While I assume they have some hidden gems, nothing really jumped out at me, or maybe the menu just lacked inspiration. One critical faux paux was their Zinfandel selection, or lack there of. Considering this is one of the more popular grapes, if not "the grape" of California, you would expect a broad selection. Their selections--Ravenswood (yack!).

Temperature
My [red] wine was about 75 degrees. It should be served in the 60 degree range. It was hot that day, but that problem is easily solved with a wine cooler. No sense in drinking good wine if the subtle notes cannot make an appearance.

In short, there are not that many flaws, but the few flaws really are deal breakers if you are seeking a high quality wine experience. On the other hand, if you hate Merlot just because of the movie Sideways, B Street & Vine might be the place for you.

PS: Check out Pride Mountain Merlot if you think they all suck. You will change your opinion.

Showering Alone--Shower Dooor Removal

2007-03-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have not showered alone for quite some time.

Noooo--stop thinking kinky.

For as long as I can remember, my shower doors have been a borderline biohazard with god-knows-what growing in and around them. Whoever installed them really sucks at caulk!

Since this past weekend was clean up week, I decided to rip 'em out and see what happens. After all, what's the worst that can happen? If things go horribly wrong, I can fix the problem with money and get a new bathroom.

First, a picture of the before

In addition to the gnarley shower doors, the caulking around the tile was also in piss-poor shape. The previous owners probably caulked over mildew which promptly spawned more mildew. I should really create a list of all the dumb shit they did to my house, but I digress...

The door removal was not too bad. For the most part, it was as simple as:

Removing the doors from the frame
Removing all support screws. (None of them were rusted--Yeah!)
Breaking the caulk seal with a putty knife and hammer
Removal of frame
Eight-hours of scraping caulk from the tile and tub with a putty knife and blade!
Twenty minutes with a sander
A complete re-caulk around the tub

Yeah, the caulk removal got old real fast. About 2/3 of the way through the job, I whipped out the orbital sander and risked scratching the tub. Surprisingly, the sander shaved everything off without issue.

While most of the job was smooth sailing, there were some blemishes hidden under the shower door frame. Some of the porcelain(?) exterior of the tub shell was chipped and the bare steel(?) was exposed. Since this bathroom should be redone in the next year or two, I decided not to worry about it too much and epoxied any trouble spots. While it looks like someone stuck a wad of gum to the tub, it is 1000% better than taking a shower with a colony of microorganisms.

The door frame screw holes are also a bit of an eye-sore--those got the epoxy treatment as well. But again, I rather deal with visual issues than mold and mildew.

Wealth == Quality of Garbage?

2007-03-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

Is wealth a measure of one's garbage? If so, South Park Ln is doing pretty good for itself. I would have snapped more pictures, but quite frankly, I was a bit scared by all the scavengers. I do not think they are the type of people who like their picture taken. (Click pic to see full res version with some scavengers in the background.)

Some of the gems seen this weekend include:

Hot tub
Piano
Uprooted plant with soil still intact. (Promptly scavenged by mid-day)
Jet Ski
Scavenge of my old biohazard shower door frame within 10 minutes (scrap-metal is big buck$)

Going mobile...

2007-03-09T23:08:00.000-08:00

Sweet. I am mobile

It's Throw Shit on the Street Weekend!!

2007-03-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

Santa Clara has an annual clean up program. During this clean up, you can throw just about anything (especially the kitchen sink) in front of your house and they'll pick it up on Monday. It is both frightening and fascinating to see what crap your neighbors throw away. This is also a weekend you don't want your kids playing on the streets. There are more than a few unpolished rummagers lurking.

I'll try and snap pics of the more intersting treasures.

Dear Phone Company

2007-03-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

Dear ~~PacBell~~ ~~SBC~~ ATT,

If you are going to request I fill out a trouble report on the web, please let me know your service is down before I enter all my data.

PS: Why does my phone break once/year? Is POTS really this difficult? Time for VOIP?

Bike to Home Season 2007--Haiku Style

2007-03-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

An update to this post....

Since I have a history of stupid human tricks, I let pride give it to me up the ass and road home. I have summarized the experience with a haiku:

Cycling home today
Pain throughout the arms and legs
And my ass hurts too

I thought the stats this morning were pitiful. Well...

16.99 Miles
1:03:05 ride time (Uff)
15.86 MPH (Uff++)

Bike To Work Season 2007

2007-03-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

Bike to work season has officially kicked off today. With the warm spring-time weather and sunset bordering 6PM, there is no better time than the present to kick start a greener and healthier lifestyle. I have not been on a bike since November, so the riding was a bit slow and painful. The real question is will I bike home? Common sense says take the train; my pride tells me to ride home.

Today's pitiful stats:

16.96 Miles
59:45 ride time
16.97 MPH Avg
26.3 MPH Max Speed
Total Odometer at 2019 miles (Just how far will I go this year?)

Cytosludge

2007-03-05T16:13:00.000-08:00

What happens to Cytomax after ~3 months of fermentation in a water bottle? You get Cytosludge!

Yeah--really bad picture. I thought it was just residual water in the bottle and imagine my shock when the green sldge came oozing out. Thankfully, the cell phone cam caught some of its essence.

MacBook Finally Healthy?

2007-03-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

The MacBook is finally healthy for the first time since mid-summer. The top-cover was replaced the other day and my mouse button gives the proper feedback. I am still mulling over the extended warranty plan which is ~$250. Incidentally, the mouse click repair would have set me back about that same amount of money if I was not under warranty still.

Yet Another Webhost

2007-03-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

I have switched to yet another webhost. I was previously using a VDS solution from godaddy, but since I killed off 3athlete, I no longer require a dedicated host. (3athlete was kicked off more than a few shared webhosts.) I was happy with the VDS plan from godaddy, but...

I hate playing sysadmin and have no time to keep track of security updates
Managing mailservers is a pain, so I had a separate provider just to handle mail
Since I am no longer serving 50,000+ hits/hour, $30/month is way to much to pay

So far I have been happy with dreamhost. In addition to all the standard bells and whistles such as multi-domain hosting, ssh access, DNS management, etc, they also throw in some very nice to have goodies such as SVN hosting and webdav access. I just hope they do not pull a neureal on me.

sucks at DST

2007-02-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

Since I more or less work in IT, I get to deal with crap like the y2k change and most recently the day light savings time (DST) change. While this has been known for some time and most software vendors have released DST-specific patches months ago, one of my vendors of overpriced content management software has yet to release a patch. What makes matters worse is that their pending patch is not only a DST-specific patch, but a complete application service pack with tens if not hundreds of other unrelated fixes. So let me get this straight, I am supposed to:

install this SP in a dev environment
verify the DST patch works
verify all of the other bug "fixes" work (they have a very bad track record)
deploy this to a test environment for blessing by QA
deploy this to production during an out of cycle release

Oh, and all of this needs to be completed in less than two weeks?!?! No thanks!

After reading between the lines and talking with a few internal folks, the DST fix in the service pack is a simple JVM upgrade. So, I could put my system at risk and install the SP in a two-week turnaround, or I could simply run a JVM update tool from Sun. Yeah, I choose this option.

At the end of the day I will be DST compliant, but I am not feeling warm and fuzzy about our software vendor.

Belgium Beer

2007-02-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

My preferred beers tend to change over time. I used to be fan of the maltier brown ales from England, but these days I am more of a golden ale whore. Unfortunately, the beers from Belgium are on the top of my list these days which do quite the number on the wallet and can be difficult to track down. While it is cheaper than an expensive wine obsession, one 750ml beer costs a few more clams than a sixer of New Castle or Speckled Hen. Some selections from the top of my list include

Duvel
Ommegang Hennepin (also owned by Duvel but made in the USA)
La Chouffe Golden Ale

While not a "golden ale" per se, these often come home with me from the store:

Chimay Grand Reserve (Blue)
Hoegaarden Witbier
Scaldis (a good "after dinner beer" which will put you on your ass.)
Wittekerke White (it comes in a can!)

While on the topic of Belgium beers, nothing is worse than a restaurant that does not know how to serve it. If you are going to take the time to procure, sell and serve a Belgium beer in a restaurant, please treat it like a fine wine and:

1. Obtain the proper stemwear

If you are serving a Duvel in a pint glass, I just might send it back. Just like a fine wine, the aroma and taste of a Belgium beer is enhanced by the proper serving glass. Ideally the beer will be served in the vessel created by the brewery, (example), but a properly matched generic such as a "trappist", "tulip", or "tumbler" glass is just as acceptable.

2. Serve at the correct temperature

Belgium beer tastes good! The flavor does not have to be dulled by serving it at 33 degrees Fahrenheit. The subtleness of the beer will only make an appearance when served at the proper temperature. This is often in the 50 degree Fahrenheit range.

3. Learn how to pour it

Different beers will have different recommendations for pouring it. For some beers, a little head goes a long way to develop the flavors, aroma and cut down on the carbonation. Duvel even has a "how to" on their website. Watch it. Learn it. Live it.

I am Iron Man!!!

2007-02-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the Interweb, I now know the following about me. I am,
o ...an ISTJ (and painfully punctual)
o ...a Social Liberal and Economic Moderate
o ...IRON MAN!!!

And no--I will not be putting my "purity test" results up here :)

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man		55%
Superman		50%
The Flash		45%
Supergirl		45%
Robin		42%
Spider-Man		40%
Green Lantern		40%
Batman		35%
Wonder Woman		30%
Catwoman		30%
Hulk		30%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Apple LemonBook or Lemon MacBook?

2007-02-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

I am fed up with my macbook. While I have been in love with the little guy when in working order, I have spent way too much time on the phone and traveling to visit my local Genius. I'm still not sure why I broke my never-buy-one-dot-oh-products rule.

The latest in the LemonBook saga includes

Defective battery
Limp Mouse button

This brings the complete list to four warranty items over the past ~7 months with the inclusive list being

Stained case (cover replaced)
Random shutdowns (internals replaced)
Limp mouse button (pending part replacement)
Defective battery (battery replaced)

While I am not much for extended warranties, I might make an exception and spring for the extended care. The biggest issue with all these repairs is "downgrade" process before requesting repair work. Each repair quest requires me to swap out my RAM and HDD upgrade. Quite the pain in the ass.

My Bathroom No Longer Smells of 1970

2007-01-31T09:34:00.000-08:00

Gravity not only inspired a new light, but an entire bathroom refresh.
Updates include:
o Ceramic tile floor
o Centering the plumbing with the light (Why was this not done by the original builder??)
o Kohler pedestal sink
o Delta faucet
o Niagara "flapperless" toilet (One of the few non-special order toilets that support a 10" rough-in)
o Updated brushed nickel hardware
o Benjamin Moore Spanish Red paint (expen$ive!!)

All work was completed in four days by a trusted contractor, Geteng Liu. Up next? Kitchen, carpets or the other bathroom.

Butler Config File for Improved OS X Shortcut Keys

2007-01-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

A bit late, but as a follow up to this post, my "butler" config file can be grabbed here. With this config, I can:
o Use my "windows/*nix" shortcut keys for firefox such as "cntr t" and "cntrl r" (new tab/reload)
o Use "cntrl c/v/z/y/x/a" for copy/paste/undo/redo/cut/select all
o Retain a "break" in terminal for "cntrl c"
o Use "shift cntrl c/v" in terminal for copy/paste (ala gnome-terminal)

Thinking about this from a different mindset, the following might work out well for me and require less remaps:
o Swap the cntrl/cmd key
o Use the butler to remap "cmd" to "cntrl" for a few specific items such as sending a "break" in a terminal

iTerm != iCrash?

2007-01-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

When I first got my mac, I tried to use iTerm for my terminal needs since it supported desirable features such as:
* Copy on Select
* Middle click paste
* Configurable copy characters
* Tabs
* etc

Whenever I copy/pasted a large buffer, the bloody program would crash. So far, after 1/2 day of usage, the thing has stayed stable. While "gterm" on a mac works, the X11/OS X integration does lack a bit. iTerm might be a keeper!

Update 2/28/2006: iTerm did crash on me the other day. But I guess 1/month is acceptable.

Commending the Boise State University Broncos Football Team for Winning....

2007-01-17T15:57:00.000-08:00

Are you shitting me? Our elected officials actually vote on crap like this?

Vote description: Commending the Boise State University Broncos Football Team for Winning the 2007 Fiesta Bowl and Completing An Undefeated Season.

At least dems and repubs could agree on one thing:
Result: Passed, 415-0, with 2 voting Present and 18 not voting.