As a history major - I tend to look at everything and find trends, think about what historians will write about our time, and all kinds of fun things that drive Amy crazy. The other day while I was thinking about playing Super Mario 3 on my Wii, I thought about the definition of being social (”interactions between people”) and then thought that my son Evan’s generation will most likely view our generation as very unsocial. We wrote letters that took days to deliver, interacted with people very limitedly, played games by ourselves, and worked independently.

Our definition of communication has completely changed. When I thought about it, I went to college before cell phones were really popular. If you wanted to get in touch with someone it was by phone, email, or by the chance of meeting someone. No one had digital cameras so most of our college pictures are tucked away in a shoebox somewhere in one of our friend’s closets. We had the beginning of networked games, but our interaction there was limited to typing in “hi” or “Don’t go in the dungeon without me Ken!”.

Now - we have instant access to … [more]

We all need them. We all use them. We all realize the power - but with the exception of Ben - we all run into road blocks and frustration when we try and put something together. What are they? Regular Expressions. Take a look at the cool RegEx testing tool where you can easily test your regular expressions.

I love the day of big Apple keynotes given by Steve Jobs. While rummaging around for a disk utility last week - I found my copy of the Macworld 1999 keynote where the Blue and White G3s and multi-flavored iMacs were announced. I had a smile - I eventually owned both and thought they were the best thing ever! Anyway - my friend Ken asked me if I still got as excited as I used to - and the answer is definitely yes. I love everything about the keynotes…but I especially enjoy the post keynote reactions from the people I know. People get so excited - there is even a Keynote bingo!

My predictions:

I will keep my fingers crossed that the new announcement(s) will increase the value of the stock
Ken will be underwhelmed regardless of the announcements and let me know what the x should have had ;). (This would be true even if Apple released the coolest thing ever - he would find some “fault”.
Ben will be the most likely to compulsively buy the most expensive x. He will justify it somehow and I will be excited to hear about his experience … [more]

Well, after hearing my brother-in-law was a hardcore Battlefield 1942 player still, I decided to pick it up so he could experience my wrath. I also pulled in a few friends (Ken and Doug). I finally got it installed and even played a quick round this afternoon to get used to the controls. So - if you still play this old, but good game, I will be playing under the screen name of [beckett]. (Thomas Beckett)

Ken often asks me: “what is the first thing you would do if you won the lottery?”. The last time he asked I told him I would take a cab to a Land Rover dealer and buy myself a Range Rover. I would like to continue my response to add that I would then drive home and go to apple.com and buy three Xserves. Two for web servers (one main, one failover) and the other Xserve as a development server or backup server (or game server). I would drive my new Range Rover with the Xserves in the back to a data center and then strip off Mac OS X Server, put Mac OS X client on them, call all my friends and tell them I will host whatever they want for free, and then of course talk to my financial advisor. So my point to all of this? I hate 99% of web hosts out there. I have been through several. I am tired, so I will not go into detail, but ServInt sucks. Unreliable, unreliable, unreliable. They claim they “manage” VPS systems, … [more]

I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate Ken for passing the Zend Certification Exam this past weekend. I am very proud of him, and hope to pass the exam myself in the next few months. Kick ass Ken!
[tags]Ken, Zend Certification[/tags]

Just a quick post to thank Ken for helping me (via video conference and telephone). Ken, feel free to call on me for some CSS magic at any time When I am overwhelmed and need an entertainment break, I often search for people I know, today I came up with a picture and article about my very talented cousin ;).