How GitHub Shows My Second Child Arrived

I happened to notice this funny visual representation of the 2015 birth of my son on my GitHub profile. When anyone asks me questions about having kids, I'll have to show them this.

I'm pasting in a screenshot of my profile page below. The heat map is pretty clear about my son arriving in September. There's one outlier green square after his arrival--which I assume was me just committing every change I had made before his birth.

Messing With a Thief When My Blog Content was Stolen

While I was working on my last book, How to Do Everything: SharePoint 2013, the main McGraw-Hill editor on the project sent me a nicely worded email that basically asked if I was plagiarizing content for the book.

I was shocked to say the least, but when I read through the rest of the email, my shock quickly turned to burning rage. The reason I was being asked this question was because some moron was copying other people’s blog posts to his blog and passing them off as his own. I had used some of my own content in the draft of the book and the editor wasn’t sure who wrote it.

I sent the scoundrel an email giving him 48 hours to remove the post before I took any action. Of course, he probably didn’t realize that I could actually do anything if he chose to ignore me. I also contacted some other people to let them know that their content was being stolen by the same guy.

The funny part was that the thief was so lazy that he didn’t even bother copying the images, he just copied the source and therefore I had control over the images on his blog. A friend of mine had encountered the same thing and decided to mess with the culprit, so I figured I’d do the same. The first day after the warning, I gave him a chance to take down the post with no really embarrassing images on his blog. Remember that these are screenshots of his blog. I could do whatever I wanted with the images since they were on my server.

 
day 1 – tame and to the point

On day 2, I asked my friend for permission to use the image he posted when his content was stolen.

 
day 2 – you should have listened on day 1

After that, I went for a random theme.

 
day 3 – now his blog was actually worth reading

 
day 4 and 5 – just some random stuff

Eventually, he took down the post, but he never apologized or replied to my message, but there’s a lesson for lazy thieves.

Berliners love bears

While I was in Berlin for the Microsoft TechEd Europe conference, I had to take time out to collect further evidence to support my ongoing thesis that Berliners love bears.






- the last one on the left is a marzipan bear and the one above it is a giant panda bear

Slovakian sponge toffee

I'm in Bratislava watching a piece of German speaking sponge toffee.

He’s on the KIKA TV channel and he’s trapped in the KIKA lounge. Apparently, he’s not too happy about it.



OK, he's actually a loaf of bread named Bernd and the show is called Bernd das Brot. The show seems to play after the station has gone off the air--way better than a test pattern.

Dalhouise Auto Polo

Dal published this parody in their April fools student paper.


- click for full-size version

ElfYourself.com is back

for all you Elf Yourself fans, the site is back up. you can makes stills or animations with any faces you choose to upload.

my mom decided to elf our cats...

uniquely Canadian stocking stuffer

if someone can find a more Canadian stocking stuffer, I'd like to see it. the only issue I have with this advertising is that they show a losing cup in their demo.



the Lee Valley Rimroller™

"This product makes it easy to check for prize statements hidden under the rims of paper coffee cups in various contests... Push, pull and you’re done...

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, 'Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.'...

When we were first shown the Rimroller many months ago, we recognized immediately that this was an elegant, well-designed, and well-manufactured product at a very reasonable price. It was one of those products that just delighted people when they used it...

Invented and manufactured in Ottawa, Canada, it makes a great stocking stuffer."


- DOH!

Halo 2 bloodless?

I recieved an interesting question via e-mail that I thought I'd share. it demonstrates just how much modding can aid this world of ours.

"I am writing to you because I need help changing the color of the blood in Halo 2. Our Church just invested $50,000 in videogame equipment to allow teenagers a place they can hang out and be in a safe environment. We are OK with the war shooter games but the blood upsets some people. I want to know if there is a way to hack the game to stop the blood or change the color. If so would you please tell me or direct me in the right direction."

this was my response...

unless you're talking about PC's, you're probably going to run into some trouble getting approval for modding. although it is possible to buy pre-modded Xboxs with third-party warrantees, modding Xboxs means voiding the Microsoft warranty. if you have PCs then you won't have to worry about any hardware modding and Halo 2 mods are supported.

once you have modded systems, changing the blood to another colour (or even transparent) would be an option.

for questions about modding an Xbox, go to http://www.xbox-scene.com
for questions about modding Halo, the place to go is http://www.halomods.com

revenge of the kittens

here's a little bit of the damage that my kittens have inflicted lately. one of them isn't put off at all by the "bitter apple" sort of sprays that are meant to protect cords.

the funniest one was the power cord for the vonage modem. she chewed through that and when I replaced it, she chewed through the phone cord -- effectively killing the phone twice in one week.

Frogger HD update

thank goodness! I discovered yesterday that there has been an update to the Xbox 360's version of Frogger.

when I first tried the game, it was virutally unplayable because the screen was squished on a high definition TV.

now I can happily enjoy the acrade classic -- and I'll even pay the two or three bucks for the full version.



- classic Frogger

best name for a grappling video

"The Turtle and Octopus Guard" by Eduardo Telles



from the product description: "His Turtle guard fight game enables him to sweep, reverse and even submit from the turtle, once considered to be a defensive position only."

microsoft bob lives

thanks to the miracle of Virtual PC, I am able to run the Microsoft Bob operating system. here are some screenshots (click images for full-size versions).

this UI was meant to revolutionize the OS business, but it fell flat on its cute puppy face. you may notice though, that the dog survived. you can find him in Windows XP.


- the Microsoft Bob OS sign in screen

the idea for Microsoft Bob was that you click on the picture that represents that task that you want to do. want to call someone? click on the phone.


- the main room in the OS

there is even a Microsoft Bob box in the company museum. within Microsoft culture, the project has become the archetype of failure.


- how deep was this mouse hole?

my kittens hate nazis

lucky guy that I am, santa brought me a copy of call of duty 3 this Christmas. here's my sob story for the day.

being a fan of the xbox 360 achievements, I've been working through some of them. today I was trying for the close combatant award which requires that you finish a mission without firing a shot - only melee attacks and grenades are allowed. I was on the last checkpoint and about to launch into the final assault when one of my cats nuzzled up to the controller and managed to press the trigger. my rifle fired and that was it for my hard work; I had to start again from the beginning. :(

I guess she was just too eager to get into the fight.

truly canadian road sign

this sign is in fredericton, new brunswick. it must be the most canadian sign on the planet.



- no left turn to tims

schools ban tag

this topic is way off my regular routine, but it's just so ridiculous that I can't resist. some schools in the US are banning tag and other "contact sports" during recess. although this story makes me shake my head, I've seen this sort of logic applied to university students - more about that in a second.

first of all, calling tag a "contact sport" is enough to show the lack of logic in these bans. the people responsible say that they have made these decisions in the name of safety. I used to work with young children, and I used to lifeguard. no matter what you do, kids will still fall down and get bumps and bruises. the plain truth is that kids get hurt - they get hurt a lot. BTW - when I was growing up, I saw far more injuries in gym class than I saw during recess.

personally, I agree with the idea that kids need to learn how to play safely together. as Manhattanville College education professor, Rhonda Clements said, through play "They learn to change and to problem-solve." as for the argument that unsupervised kids can't be trusted to resist the temptation to resort to full contact, I have two points to make:

1. my understanding is that all schools have some sort of supervision during recess. so it's not true to say that the children aren't supervised at all. if there are schools out there that have no supervision during recess, then that should be addressed. kids need to be protected from the outside world far more than they need to be protected from one another.

2. if this is really a move to curtail bullying, then it should be dealt with properly. don't punish all of the kids because of the bullies.

now onto the university example. while working at a residence advisor, I was unfortunate enough to be working when the administration decided to enforce a ridiculous student party policy. at the residence in question, party organizers were already obliged to fill out paperwork and ask for permission before they could host a party - after the rule change, things crossed the line of reason. one of the new rules was that no more than 25 people could attend a party at any time. that's 25 people out of a house of about 200 and a residence of over 1100.

the new rules had one effect, the parties moved off residence grounds. and maybe that was the point all along. if the party isn't at the residence, then the administration isn't responsible for what happens there.

in other words, let the kids play somewhere else.

AR book screenshot

I thought I'd share this figure from the augmented reality (AR) book that I'm working on for the pragmatic bookshelf. it's in a section about setting up a webcam for AR - the little critter is a dilute calico field mouse... er, I mean kitten.




update: sadly, this image was cut :(

the zen of robotron

many gamers have enjoyed the classic arcade staple Robotron 2084. now that robotron is available for the xbox 360, a whole new generation is being introduced to the manic game.

robotron is action packed and often frustrating. in fact, there will be times when the game seems unfair. here are some simple truisms that can help save your sanity during games of robotron.





- live and let live?


10. accept that your eyes will lie
the robotron engine allows more than one enemy object to occupy the same space. this means that just because you destroyed the robotron in front of you, you may not be safe when you run forward.

9. accept what you are given
don't expect to get a certain score for each wave. the hulks will destroy many of the people before you can rescue them.

8. it's not over until it's over
even if you destroy all of the robotrons, you may still be killed. there will be times when you are killed at the same time as you destroy the last enemy on the wave. when you spawn, the level will be complete, but you will have lost a life.

7. have faith in your dodging skills
you cannot predict the path of projectiles. for example, the projectiles fired by the enforcers will curve towards you. you can only do your best.

6. the game will not give you time
the grunts will accelerate over time, so there will be occasions when you are going for that one last human and a grunt will accelerate into you.

5. you will not always get better
you must accept that your score will not improve in a linear, or predictable manner. success in robotron is based on the ability to collect people and some levels offer more people than others. this means that you have to except to have good games and bad - based on how successful you are during the waves with more people.

4. accept your fate
there will be lives where you really don't have a chance. a quark or spheroid may kill you before you have time to move out of the centre of the wave.

3. robotron does not respect your plans
you may think that if you clear all enemies other than one grunt, you will have an easy time rescuing all of the remaining people. this will work most of the time. however, there will also be times when that last grunt walks into an electrode - thereby committing suicide and finishing the wave before you have rescued the people.

2. there may not be a way out
on waves such as wave 10, you will be rushed. you may not have an escape route.

1. love your addiction
you will play again.

my iPod thinks it's japanese

so a few days ago, I blogged about apple refusing to pay out on my iPod claim.

today my iPod mysteriously decided that it's Japanese. all of the menus are in Japanese characters.



coincidence?
:P

BTW - this problem occurs frequently enough that apple provides instructions for setting the iPod language that don't require that the user can read the menu items.

this blog ain't spam

my blog has been incorrectly tagged as a 'spam blog.' I received this nice message...

"Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive."

according to blogger, spam blogs have "a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site." I believe that this is why I've been tagged. in an effort to make my blog more accessible, you may have noticed that I added a "Posts By Categories" section on the right. unfortunately, blogger doesn't offer a metatag based taxonomy system, so I had to do this by hand. I'm betting that these posts - which include many links to blogspot - caused the false positive. I would think that blogger.com would be aware that bloggers link to their own posts.

update: it took their human checkers less than 24 hours to reverse this error. I wonder how many people have to check these things?

favourite english errors

just for kicks, I thought I'd create a list of my favourite grammatical and vocabulary blunders. it will be my own mini Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

BTW - I don't consider myself a grammar expert, this page is as much for me as anyone. if you find a mistake on my blog, please let me know. note that I use Canadian spelling, I don't obey the rules of capitalization and I avoid the oxford comma.

literally
my top misused word is literally. I heard a famous musician say "I was literally dying on the stage." it is a contradiction to use the word literally when referencing a metaphor.

penultimate
penultimate is not synonymous with ultimate - it means second to last. however, I've heard it used many times when the speaker meant to say ultimate.

fewer vs. less
I just saw a TV ad for a technical college. according to the woman in the ad, she now "works less hours." the scriptwriter should have used fewer instead of "less." according to SparkNotes.com, "If you can’t count it, use less. If you can count it, use fewer."

who vs. whom
I'm not sure that I've got this one down yet. :) according to SparkNotes.com, "Who is a subject pronoun; it is used as the subject of a verb. Whom is an object pronoun; it is never used as the subject of a verb."

basically
it took a non-native English speaker to point this one out to me. the word basically is often used to begin a sentence (or paragraph) that is actually a detailed explanation. the word loses all purpose unless there is something basic that follows.

awhile vs. a while
'awhile' is an adverb, 'a while' is a determiner plus a noun. from www.bartleby.com:

"Lie down awhile, and get some sleep illustrates the adverb, which is spelled as one word. Take a while to get oriented and Lie down for a while, and get some sleep illustrate the determiner a plus the noun it modifies. For many uses, only writing it will distinguish which syntactic structure you use."

example of misuse from www.forbes.com: "It may be that the Petronas Towers keeps the crown for quite awhile."