Stephen Flynn

Wrong Side of the Tracks

2008-04-04T10:05:00.003-04:00

You can see in this map where Google stitches two different photos from different days, and/or, times of day into one big image. Everything to the left of the train tracks has a shadow to the left indicating that it was taking in the morning. And everything to the right of the tracks has a shadow to the right, which means that it was taken in the afternoon.

View Larger Map

Costa Rica - Day 2

2008-01-09T08:15:00.000-05:00

Not much to say about day 2, I guess it hasn't all sank in. It is amazing the similiarities of this country to ours, but we also have stark differences.

Differences

Sales Tax is in the price of the product. If the product costs 850 Colons, it rings up as 850 Colons.
Few, if any, guard rails and street signs.
Coffee, or Café, is fresh here, so it tastes much better.
Smaller portions of food.

Similarities

French Fries.
KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Subway, Quiznoes, and many, many more American franchises.
Bums, Slums, and thugs.
Car alarms are still annoying.

Costa Rica - Day 1

2008-01-07T21:13:00.000-05:00

Traveling to Costa Rica.

Observation #1 - I hate US Air. My trip started in Charlotte on US Air to Ft. Lauderdale. I thought that I had paid for my ticket, but I think the advertisers paid even more. First, there are several commercials on the TV that shows you the safety features of the plane. Then during the movie they show you commericial. Flip down your tray and there is a big ad plastered all over it. Then during the flight they paused the movie so the flight attendant could tell us about the latest credit card offer. On my second flight from Ft. Lauderdale to San Jose on American, I didn't see a single ad for anything.

Observation #2 - Driving in New York city is nothing compared to San Jose. That taxi driver was incredible, I don't know if his driving was good, or so bad that it seemed could. He was weaving, and bobbing, and weaving, and braking, and missing cars, trucks, motorcyles, and pedistrians by mere inches. It was like watching a car chase in a movie.

Observation #3 - Capitalism is awesome. In Costa Rica, they have only one government run phone company. That means no competition. So their rates are outragous. $1.03 per minute on the cell phone to back home, and $2 a minute on the hotel phone.

Observation $4 - I'm tired. So I think it's bed time.

For once, my wife was right! :)

2007-02-09T13:31:00.001-05:00

Shopping Cart Handles Have More Germs Than Public Restrooms

Grocery store shopping cart handles have more germs than public restrooms, making them one of the worst public places for germs, according to researchers.

My wife has always said this, and we always clean them before we put our son in one.

read more | digg story

Cheat Sheets

2007-02-08T08:59:00.000-05:00

I just found out about some cool cheat sheets that can save some time programming. Instead of waiting for your computer to load up the bloating help system, just pull these of the shelf on your desk.

Ajax Loader Icons

2007-01-23T14:40:00.000-05:00

Cool website that will generate custom "Spinners" and other wait feedback graphics.

http://www.ajaxload.info/

Useful Techie Info - whoami

2007-01-05T11:08:00.000-05:00

In a Terminal Services environment, you can use the "whoami" command from a command line to display all kinds a user related information. You can see what groups a user belongs to, their SID, and other information.

More info - Microsoft.com

Foreclosure Listings

2007-01-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

I've found 3 nice foreclosure listing sites. All of these are sites that are run by the attorneys that are representing the foreclosures, so they are free and legit.

Edit - 6 More

www.msplaw.com
Fanny Mae
Freddie Mac - Homesteps
www.homesales.gov
Reo.com - Nice website
BB & T
all-foreclosure.com - List of Bank Listings

Review - visionapp Remote Desktop

2006-12-13T14:21:00.000-05:00

visionapp

Found under the freeware products.

This software package will let you have multiple Remote Desktop sessions going at once. You can also make shortcuts in it to your favorite servers. Inside of this shortcut you put the ip address and login credentials. Then all you have to do is click on the shortcut, and your logged in.

Review - RemoteScan®

2006-12-13T14:17:00.000-05:00

http://www.remote-scan.com/

This is a great package for scanning via a Terminal Service session. It even works with Provision Networks software. Quick and easy setup. I can't say anything bad about it.

Freeware a Systems Administrator can't live without.

2006-01-27T15:26:00.000-05:00

WireShark - Packet Sniffer
HijackThis - For finding out what runs at startup and for removing spyware.
Firefox - Best browser to avoid spyware.
WSUS - Windows Server Update Services
Memtest86+ - Great system memory tester.
BartsPE - Preinstallation enviroment for fixing a computer that won't boot.

Great Free Training

2005-10-14T14:04:00.000-04:00

Check out this website for some great free training from MSDN regarding their ASP .Net 2.0 and the Visual Web Developer 2005

MSDN Training

He must think "I'm Cool"

2005-10-13T14:53:00.000-04:00

I'm all for people putting some nice "bling" on their car, but not a Mercury Marquis. I had to take a picture of this, it was just too funny. The guy had to know that I was laughing at him since the camera flashed on me a time or two.