2004

There were 19 posts published in 2004 (this is page 1 of 1).

First Dollar at new Dunkin Donuts

Well, I went into the Mobile gas station near Getronics, knowing that there was a new Dunkin Donuts that opened up in there. I went in, ordered a medium hazelnut. They didnt have hazelnut, only French Vanilla. Oh wait, they have hazelnut after all. Wow were they unorganized. "We dont have any cream yet, so your going to have to use the cream from the gas station coffee." Ok I thought, really really unorganized. I give them my Dunkin Donuts gift card that I received for xmas. Opps, thats not working either, they can only take cash. Grrr I thought to myself. Oh well. I luckily had a few bucks on me. I give him $2. The manager asks me to sign and date the dollar bill. I was like, huh!? "This is the first dollar we have ever made here. I want you to sign and date it becuase we're going to laminate it and hang it up." At first I thought he was joking, but he wasnt. So I signed and dated the bill. With a smile he thanked me and I left.

First time that's ever happen to me. Guess everyone that goes there is gonna see my name on the bill from now on, lol.

ShoutCast Ripper – Coding Time Update

I cant believe I didnt look for this earlier. I knew there had to be somthing out there that allowed you to record ShoutCast streams and store them as MP3 files. Theres SO much good music out there on the internet radios, and it would just be awesome to turn all those songs I hear playing into MP3s for later listening. Introducing (to this site anyway) Streamripper, an open source project. It captures songs from any ShoutCast stream and automaticly detects when a new song starts playing and creates a new MP3 file for that song. It automaticly names the song and creates and ID3 file for it! Awesome!!

My favorite internet radio station is Detroit Industrial Underground. They always seem to be playing songs that I've never heard but I think kick ass.

Another thing I wanted to mention, was that I'll be doing a LOT more coding around mid-December or Janurary. Right now I'm trying to finish up my basement so I have an office area to move all my computer stuff into and I'm also building a 12x16' shed in my back yard. Oh, I need to fix up two apartments and rent out three. So as you can see, I'm gonna be pretty busy for the next two months or so. Once everything settles, I plan to finally have enough time to complete this site and several other programming projects that have been on the back burner for some time now.

Crazy Flu

Damn, just when I thought my flu was gone, BOOM. Last night I went to sleep late, kinda had a stomach ache becuase I ate a bowl of noodles and a Starbucks before that. Before that I had a sandwitch and even earlier than that I ate at and Indian restraunt with my dad.

Anyway, I woke up around 5 AM (2 hours of sleep) feeling like my stomach was going to explode. For the first time in 10 years, I puked like crazy. Must have been about a gallon of liquid! I felt a little better after that, but obviously I suddenly felt thirsty and I wanted to clear out that taste in my mouth. So I drank a cup of water and went back to sleep.

6AM: I wake up again, feeling worse than the last time I woke up. Now I'm tired as hell, and my stomach feels like crap. I get up, puke again and have a little more water. By now I have a raging headache from all the puking. 9AM, wake up and do the same stuff over again. I must have puked 2 gallons by this time. Feeling super dehydrated, I have a big glass of water.

11:45 AM: I wake up, stir around in bed unable to sleep from the head ache and the nasty feeling in my stomach like everything wants out NOW. I finally get up, puke AGAIN. This time it was ALL the water I drank! It was almost clear! Grrrrrr. So now I feel MUCH better, I didnt drink ANY water, even though I'm dying of thirst.

Damn, this flu just goes on and on! First it was the coughing, head aches, sore throat; then it disappeared for a week and out of no where this pops up. SIGH. For the next year, I'm gonna try to drink NOTHING but water and tea. I'm gonna eat lots of veggies and other natural stuff. No more complex man made foods.

GMail Review

I was lucky enough to obtain a GMail account to beta test, and damn, I love it!

Ever since I started using Google, Ive always loved how clean and simple it was. The idea of Google Text ADs is awesome too. I never mind browsing a site that has Google text ADs. They dont slow down the speed of the page when its loading, and they dont distract your attention away from the content of the page.

Oh, back to GMail; its awesome! As soon as GMail goes public, I highly recommend you get an account! Thats my mini-review of GMail. =)

Switching Hosts – DSL Back up

Becuase Linuxwebhost has recently had the worst uptime I can think of, Ive finally decided, after 4 years of hosting with them, to switch to another webhost. After a little research, I decided on Host Gator (hostgator.com). They have a nicer reseller package than Linuxwebhost had. Anyway, Ive switched this front page of my site to the design I was working on. For the time being, the rest of the site will be inaccessible.

In other, happier news, I finally got my DSL back. Damn does it feel gooood!

Surfin on Dial-Up

Today is the three year anniversary of 9/11/01. Just wanted to mention that first off.

When the new tenant moved in downstairs, they wanted to have the phone line in their name. I said OK, called the DSL company, asked if my DSL would be effected by them switching the phone into their name. They said NO. Then, as soon as the phone line was switched into their name, BOOM, no internet. My whole DSL ACCOUNT was canceled! So now I had to have a new phone line installed for myself, then reorder the DSL from Speakeasy. Oh well. Now that my phone line is installed and I'm just waiting for the DSL order to finish, I was able to connect my laptop to Speakeasy's dail-up connection and then share the dialup connection on my network to my other comptuters. It's actually not that bad using dialup. I mean sure, webpages take a retarted 30 seconds to load, but I can wait 30 seconds to save $65 a month on DSL!

I dont just use my DSL for browsing websites, otherwise I wouldnt be paying $65 for it. I use it to host websites as well, so I can justify the $65! In other news, I've been doing a LOT of work on my house. I expanded the driveway so I could fit two cars in there. I'm also digging out the basement of my house so I can build a 4th living area for myself to use. : ) I also traded my Jeep Cherokee for a Chevy Pickup Truck. It's more practical, and can be used to plow in the winter (extra income). And last but not least, I'm in the process of purchasing another investment property.

How will 2004 be viewed in the year 2104?

I've been thinking about the larger picture, and how we're living in what will be called the "birth of the computer age". Think about it. 50 years ago we didnt have color TV's, CDROMs, Cell Phones, Personal Computers, Laptops, Sattalite Radio, Wireless Networking, Digital Cameras, and Hand Held Video cameras. And imagine that I hold a PDA the size of my wallet with more processing power than the fastest computer available 10 years ago. I can carry with me a memory stick the thickness of a quater that holds more disk space than the largest hard drive publicly available 10 years ago (and it was about the size of shoebox). Computers in cars, wireless networks used in foodstores to code the prices onto products, not to mention the wireless video phones they're already using oversea's in China and Japan (FCC wont allow US companies to use the higher radio frequencies becuase they're needed for "military use, to protect our country").

Anyways, I donno why I started babbling about all this. Just something I've been thinking about lately. About how kids my age, 100 or 150 years from now, will look back at the year 2004 and what they'll read about it in their history books; I mean online history courses, lol.

ekarma.net down, no ETR

Well, my XBox crashed and this time I dont think I'll be able to fix it anytime soon. Seems to be a problem with the mobo : ( So for now, ekarma.net and cdraam.com are down. There is no Estimated Time of Repair becuase I dont have the time to fix it right now, but I'll find a way to get to it.

In other news, I went to the HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) Conference in New York City. It was awesome, and I cant wait until I attend another one like it! I really want to go to Def Con 12!!!

screen utility

Holy crap! I just learned how to use, probably the coolest Unix/Linux console utility that exists!!! At first, I thought naim, a console program that allows you to chat on AIM/ICQ/IRC from the console, was kick ass. And then I learned how to use screen! What it basicly lets me do, is attach and detach console sessions from the terminal. What that means, is I can start naim using screen, then go to work, log into my linux computer using SSH, then REATTACH the screen session to the session I just logged in with! That way I can check my messages, reply to messages, anything I want, then just disconnect from my computer and the naim will still be happily running!

Busy busy busy

For those that still check my site for updates (and I'm happy you do) 🙂 I just wanted to let you know I'm still alive. Just been so busy with work lately. All my tasks are backing up and I've got to get everything streamlined!! Work on my new site has temporarly been put on hold, but if you want a peek, check the new design here: https://raamdev.com/wordpress/test.php

You might say it looks plain and you like the current design better. Well what I'm going for is a site that looks good on ALL browsers, from Apple computers, to Linux, to Windows. The major differnece with my new site will be the new content. I'll have a whole article system that allows me to add articles about stuff I do, or projects I complete, etc. I'll have a whole section dedicated to a biography of myself and events in my life. There will be a whole section on my bodybuilding and workout routines. So hang in there and hopefully you'll see all that stuff this summer (did you realize its summer already!!!??)

Avant Browser Review

Well I decided to give Avant Browser a review on Download.com. I use Avant browser on all my Windows PCs and I wish there was a way to use it on Linux. Anyway, I'm not sure if my review will be approved and posted, (probably not becuase it's so long, lol) but here it is anyway:

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Avant browser is a must have for any Microsoft Windows user. In my opinion, Avant browser should be included with Windows!! There are so many excellent features to Avant browser I wouldn’t even be able to list them all here.

All of the toolbars can be customized. You can choose which buttons to show, where to show them, and even change the position of the toolbar. You can even customize the menu bar! The default layout for the toolbar's, when you first download and install Avant, is not pretty at all, so I would highly recommend spending some time making it just the way you like it.

Here is my setup: I have all my Tabs at the bottom, and just one single row at the top that contains the following buttons: Back, Forward, Stop, Refresh, and then the address bar, then the search bar (Google), then most used menu items: File, Favorites, and Tools. Lastly, there is the Close button that closes the current page. All those on just one single line at the top!

Avant browser's Popup Blocker is very effective. When it accidentally blocks a popup window that I want to pop up, I simply turn off the feature with 2 clicks of the mouse.

I have been using Avant browser for the past 8 months and I love it. I've installed it on all the computers in my workplace, and several of my friend’s computers. Once they understand the concept of tabs, everything else is the same as using IE to them.

Avant browser can be configured to remain open when you close the main window. An Avant icon appears in your system tray. Once you click a link somewhere (in an instant message for example) Avant browser will open the link in a new tab without having to load a whole new instance of the web browser. This feature also keeps your task bar clean. I tend to have several websites open at any given time, so this is a must for me.

I have tried several other browsers that support tabbed browsing, but you just cannot beat the compatibility with IE that most sites have. Avant browser simply uses the existing Internet Explorer that comes with Windows, but it decorates and manages IE’s windows so they are more useful.

If you haven’t tried Avant browser yet, download it now! After spending some time configuring it just the way you like, you can copy your settings from one computer to another by copying the abrowser.ini file.

I would rate Avant browser 10 out of 10 points, and I plan to donate some money just because I love using it so much.

Configuring Apache – raamdev.com backend

I've been learning some wicked cool things with Apache. You can host multiple domains on a single computer that has a single IP address by using Virtual Hosts. From the user's end, its just another domain. This is how web hosts are allowed to setup 50 domains on one computer. Of course, they have all kinds of automated scripts that allow them to create a whole domain configuration in seconds. Anyways, I just finished configuring my XBox so that it runs ekarma.net AND cdraam.com. (cdraam.com?? I decided to make that domain, becuase its easier for people to remember, lol.) Anyways all cdraam.com does is redirect to raamdev.com, but its just awesome that I now know how to setup an almost unlimited amount of domains on my one XBox 🙂 Eventually, I want to start hosting raamdev.com on it as well.

I've been putting a lot of thinking into how the hell I'm going to design the backend to my raamdev.com site. I want it to be something that can easily be built upon and something that will be able to handle huge amounts of data. I'm still working on it, but check back for any possible updates. I've already redesigned the layout of the pages with pure CSS and XHTML, but I'm not going to apply the new layouts until I have the new backend working.

Lastly, I had a thought while I was in the car yesterday. I realized that so many people use computers, and people that use them often, have thousands and thousands of files they collect over time. Personal files. Pictures, letters, emails, etc etc. How is someone to manage such a large amount of files over the period of their lifetime? What happens to all those files when a person dies? An idea I had, is that there should be a filesystem, or at least a program, that automaticly creates a new directory for each year and then throughout that year all the files you save and work on will be stored in that year's folder. At the end of the year, the folder will be archived, and a new one will be created. Inside each year's directory, would be a Pictures dir, Documents, Email, etc etc. I've got to put some more thought into it, but I think its a really interesting idea. 🙂

Summer is finally here!

Yea I know, I haven't updated this site in, well, forever (actually, 6 months). I guess I've been a little on the busy side (as always?) and updating this site is no where near a priority. Oh well.

I just checked Paul Bear's blog, milkhazard.com and read a comment that I had written several months ago. "The life of a blog lies in it's ability to change". I realized that the life of my own blog was no better than his, lol. So that's why the update.

Let me see if I can recall what's happen since my last post. My Linux server Jabba shutdown after a lightning strike, it was up for 200+ days. I went on vacation to Florida with Kea for 2 weeks in March(?), went camping last week, discovered Ubuntu Linux and switched to using that as my primary desktop. I've been working out a LOT since my last post. Decided that this year I will finally do what I've always said I would: be in the best shape of my life! (e.g, have ripped abs, lol). Here are two pictures I took back in April, Image 1, and Image 2.

Speaking of working out, since my last post I've done a bit of work on a fitness management site that I'm working on, known as Fitness Management Online, or FMO. I'd give you the URL to check it out, but I want to finish the registration process a bit more before I make it public. I've also got to finish this site!

ekarma.net down

ARGH! Damnit. I woke up and didnt hear the normal buzz of computers that I normally wake up to. I found out the whole circut that all my computers are on blew out. After restarting it, the computers came back on. All except my XBox of course. Blah. It turns on, but I cant see crap on the screen. SoOooo.. until I figure something out, ekarma.net and all the hawaii trip pictures wont be available. I guess I should forget about moving raamdev.com to the xbox until I have a more reliable method of hosting it!

Update:
Well, ekarma.net is back up. It was stupid human (me) error. The adapter that I use to connect the XBox to my monitor has so many modes and buttons, I just wasnt choosing the right combination of them. Oh well. Maybe its ok to move raamdev.com to it. : )

Changed for Life

Here is the result of more than two years of eating properly, working out regularly, keeping away from chips, soda, fried foods, fast-food, candy, and keeping a very very regular and consistent workout schedule.

I could have accomplished this a lot faster, but there were months when I didn't watch my diet the way I should have, or when I had an operation for a hernia and was unable to workout for 3 months.

Anyhow, I'm almost to my goal, but not quite yet. : ) By this summer, I'll have reached my goal and post the results again. However, until then watch for an article on this site about how I transformed my body. I'll try to have it up here before the end of this month.


Awesome Wallpaper – Mars once had Water!

Check out this kick ass wallpaper. Actual pictures of the surface of mars just take my breath away. It's like your instantly transported to the surface of another planet. This is a picture from the Opportunity Rover.

Since we're on the topic of Mars, there was a news release today that stated scientist found strong evidence that Mars was once flooded with water. Imagine that. Another planet in our solar system, flooded with water.

A New Job – The Butterfly Effect Review

Sorry for the slow updates. I've been pretty busy lately. I left Getronics to work full-time at WFCorp for various reasons. Two of them being the fact that I get to spend more time with my GF (she works there part-time) and also that I'm not doing the same thing over and over. I'm responsible for several differnet things and my work varies. After working at Getronics for the past year answering a phone, I now have a better appreciation for varied work. Even if I dont enjoy it, at least its something differnet everyday!

Dont shit your pants just yet, but I'm going to be changing something on this site once again. Nothing major though. For all the styling I want to use CSS. Currently, I'm working on the backend to the site; which is powered by PHP and a MySQL database. I'll explain the entire site and how it works when I finish with it, so please sit tight.

I have a bet with my brother Ravi to see who can reach 12% BF. Well, I need to reach 12% and he needs to reach 15%. And that must be done by March 9th. Last I checked on the scale at my parents house, with the athlete mode on, I was 14.5%, which kicks ass. Realistly, I think I'm closer to 16%, but oh well.

Lastly, I thought I'd add in a few comments on the last movie I saw: The Butterfly Effect. It received bad reviews, but then again, every movie that is hard for people to follow along with receives bad reviews! I thought it was awesome. It never really explains WHY the guy has the ability to move through time, but it doesnt need to. He has a special ability, thats all you need to know! I think it shows that things are the way they are for a reason, and whatever you try to do to change it, you'll still end up in an unfavorable situation. I thought the ending was ironic. I'd give it a 7 out of 10.