I am in London. And not in Auckland.  Also, I almost cried over some New Zealand butter they gave me...

I flew back to Minneapolis to bring Sarah to California to live with me. Coincidentally, umber°studios was due to have a show upon the day of my arrival -- and they had an open call for work. Sarah submitted work, Paul submitted work, Zach submitted work, and so on until the walls were bursting with fantastic art.

Here are my contributions:

Besos

Untitled

The 400 pixel width diminishes them somewhat, I suppose. There is still something to be said for the printed form, no matter how digital I have become.

After the show — or rather mid-show — we lit out for Buster’s and got lit.

I honestly never thought it would get to this point.  The night before I leave New Zealand after a...

New Zealand’s favourite song. And one of mine.

(Dave Dobbyn- Slice of Heaven)

The Lighthouse at Cape Reinga.

Monganui “World Famous” Fish & Chips shop….and a blissfully calm harbour.

90 Mile Beach :)

More sunrise.

Sunrise at Cape Reinga.

The sand dunes, Te Paki stream. Cool Tattoo eh?

My Political Views
I am a far-right social libertarian
Right: 9.53, Libertarian: 8.23

Political Spectrum Quiz

Well now I am done with my time at University of Auckland.  When I finished my last sentence of my...

I used it last night with my Ovation Breadwinner, which is outfitted with Seymour Duncan pickups. It goes well with my Danelectro Chicken Salad vibe pedal. Very large, 3D sound when I mix it with the modulated mode on the DL8. It also is nice with my custom OD pedal and the [...]

The July and August 2009 CINLUG meetings are being held on dates other than the standard first Wednesday of the month due to unavailability of the meeting room on the normal date.

The July 2009 meeting is being held on Tuesday, July 14 2009 and the August 2009 meeting is being held on Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Goat pack. No goat pack.: This perfectly illustrates why I will miss New Zealand so much when I...

Cadbury strikes again, this one is from last semester.  I can’t decide which one I like more. Or which one perplexes me more.

Leave it to New Zealand to have a crazy commerical like this.  I don’t think you are supposed to get it, but every time it comes on I can’t NOT watch it. Also I downloaded the song.

His skin: papery. He was immobile, paralyzed with venom, half curled so he could look nowhere but his own belly. He thanked whatever demon was responsible for deadening the wound from which the bees were crawling. They flew to unknown places and returned, their tiny feet scratching as they landed, then nothing but vague sensations of motion as they found the entrance to their hive.

The motion. The endless movement, the endless workings inside of him. He knew not what they built, but they seemed to be making ready.

The day stretched on endlessly, and he slept, awakening to stars above. He squinted and made out the silhouette of his car where he had gotten out to pee by the side of the road, not twenty feet away. The door was still open, but the battery had run out, leaving only darkness. His eyes closed. Morning arrived, bringing the sun and a distinct hum.

He felt his pinky curl, but it seemed beyond his control. The humming grew nearer and sharper. A fist made itself from his hand, then opened again. He coughed. Was he regaining his body?

A shadow fell across him. The hum became a drowning buzz. His legs shook and stiffened. He coughed and the phlegm ran down his cheek. It was sweet in taste. The shadow surrounded him in a blur of black and yellow. Their wings trumpeted. He could feel the sound in his sinuses. Suddenly, he rolled over onto his stomach. His lips pressed against gravel and his arms jerked wildly. His legs curled under him, then all at once he stood — no, he was made to stand — stood up, dragged up, hauled into motion from inside like a waxy marionette.

Bees swarmed him, crawling over his skin, into his nose, his mouth. He couldn’t scream, couldn’t move, couldn’t close his eyes. The swirl parted in front of him, and a gleaming insect the size of his fist appeared, flying slowly, inexorably towards him. It — she — was flanked by several thumb sized attendants, and they in turn were orbited by bees that in any other company would be considered horrifyingly enormous.

He knew at once that this was his queen.

He reached down and put fingers into the hole in his stomach. Pulling. Honey ran down his abdomen and stained his pants.

He was ready for his queen.

Okay, sleep tight!

Goooood song (Rock ‘n Roll- Eric Hutchinson)

Yesterday I got an email from the University of Auckland about the swine flu epidemic that is...

Delay arrived... well, without delay.

What If There’s Bears? - watch more funny videos

Jumping off of Coronet Peak in Queenstown :)

Our salute to Jet Star…I think they should pay for those beers. We were extremely distraught at having to stay in Queenstown for an extra day. Clearly.

I don’t know why but I really like this song. (It’s Just A Ride - Jem)

Gondola ride up to the luge/cafe.

Waiting to paraglide off into the mist (which later was the cause for our flight getting cancelled…but at the moment it was gorgeous).

View from the (second) backpackers.

View from the (first) backpackers.

At the luging place (getting ready for another run) with Lake Wakatipu behind us, and yes, I was told I was crazy for luging in short sleeves.  Oh well :).

The water droplets collected slowly at the top of the window; second by second, getting too heavy to...

A few weeks ago I answered a question from Zach J. of Minneapolis regarding sasquatch infestations. He sent me another letter thanking me and commenting that he was worried about sprinkling borax around his property as it might also dissuade beneficial manticores from visiting his property. That is an excellent line of inquiry -- but I had to bring in an expert to get answers. Immediately, I called my dear mother, a long time gardener and landscapist. "Hi JP," she said upon answering the phone. "I was just out in the garden feeding the amphivena." A pair of these two-headed serpent-birds have a nest in the corner of her garden. Apparently their excretions make for excellent manure -- unusual for carnivorous beasts. "Hey Mom," I replied. "Didn't we have manticores when we lived in Iowa?"

“Oh yeah, we had two or three of those buggers living up in the top of the maple at the house on 16th street. They loved to eat your marigolds… and the neighbor children.”

“They ate the neighbor children?” I asked, blown away.

“Well, not really — the kids didn’t live there — it was a day care,” she answered. “They weren’t the neighbor kids because they were just visiting.”

“What?”

“It’s like vampires, they can come into your place of work without invitation, but not your home.”

“Manticores are vampires?”

“No, Jesse, stop being difficult. You know what I mean.”

So, there you have it. Marigolds and children. I suggest a window box for the marigolds, and a bucket of “Fun Sized Snickers” on your front step to draw in children. In Minnesota, you will probably have to supplement fresh flowers with dried ones. You could also try the other favored foods of manticores, which include squash, goats, and cedar.

As a side note, there is a new sasquatch deterrent on the market made from Quorn. Look for “‘Squatchaway” in the pest control aisle of your local hardware store.

So we have finished our first few days here in Queenstown, but still no paragliding.  To me the...

If you are looking for a job like this or know someone who is, please click this link!

And see the recent article in the New York Times about us.

Are you passionate about social networks? Do you have a flair for innovation and solving challenging problems? Are you ready to go where no one has gone before? If the answer is yes, then you’ve come to the right place.

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The Role:
Our projects include working on social web applications, machine learning, matching engines, distributed computing, advanced information-retrieval algorithms, massive scalability and storage solutions, and large-scale applications that enrich the user experience.

You”ll use your passion, technical expertise and strong problem solving skills to develop the most engaging social applications that provide the best user experience, software infrastructure for our platform, enhance our existing core services, and implement key components of our product roadmap.

Experience in AJAX, HTML, CSS, JQuery, YUI, Open Source JavaScript libraries, and Java or Php is required. If you are a creative, enthusiastic, energetic, highly motivated and intelligent programmer who’s eager to work in a fast-paced, rapid cycle-time environment, we’d like to meet you!

Ideal experience includes:

- Developing social networking or web applications using AJAX, HTML, CSS, JQuery, YUI, Java/Php, REST
- Web 2.0 and cutting-edge front end technology expertise
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- Expertise in Object-Oriented design/programming and Design Patterns.
- Excellent communication and team skills.
- BS or MS in computer science.

About Us:

Jobvite’s corporate recruiting platform is revolutionizing the way companies identify, engage and hire talent. Jobvite is the only recruitment application built to involve all employees in the hiring process, leverage their social and professional networks, and manage all aspects of the hiring workflow in an easy to use platform that’s effortless to implement. Jobvite is a native SaaS application, built on Web 2.0 technologies.

We are a well-funded start-up with a unique product and a rapidly growing customer base. Our offices are located in downtown San Francisco, where we are building a team of the Bay Area’s best and brightest minds to deliver a compelling SaaS solution to an under-penetrated SME market.

Click here to apply.

Celebratory/apologetic champagne (were it not for the delay, this would have been at 10AM…apparently Jet Star opperates on the belief that it is 5’oclock somewhere).

Today I arrived in Queenstown with Liv to do some general sight seeing/exam studying/getting out of...

Auckland at its best.

When one person speaks about another there is a pretty good chance that they’re wrong, a much smaller chance that they’re malicious, a certainty that the report is biased, and a high probability that checking the facts for yourself will put you on their “nonfriends” list. I’ve got more stories about this than I care to share. [...]

Lenovo has turned 180° and brought ThinkVantage System Update (TVSU) back from the dead. In a blog post on "Inside the Box" called "ThinkVantage System Update Returns", Matt Kohut, Global Lenovo Strategist, announces that System Update has been revived.

He goes on to explain that customer reactions, both blog posts and forum postings, has had such a big impact that it has caused Lenovo to rethink their decision.

Following our announcement, however, we heard from many customers on our blogs and forums. We’ve heard clearly that our individual and business customers alike value TVSU highly. Therefore, we are adjusting course based on your feedback, and have released a new version of TVSU on May 31st. In addition, we have made some backend investments which should indeed improve system performance.

As I posted about this issue a little while back, outlining my reaction to the discontinuation, I'm very happy to see that this gets reversed. TVSU is a valuable tool, and hopefully will continue to be so in the future.

At least it does seem like the downloads go a lot quicker now than before, but I fear that might just be temporary until "everyone" starts using TVSU again. I hope the investments Lenovo has put into the backend of things work out, also in the long run.

Re-reading my previous critical post about this, I realize that I probably was a bit ambiguous with regards to how we use TVSU in my organization though. We only use TVSU on the computers that doesn't get their updates from our own local repository that gets it's updates through the ThinkVantage Update Retriever (TVUR), and this has worked as expected through the period when TVSU wasn't available.

.

Just because I think it’s funny.

I’m not sure why this appears here, but it’s either because it’s funny (in a “oh, that’s nuts” kind of way) or because it’s good (which it is, but it’s nutty). Either way, have fun with it.

Last night I drove up to The City to attend a small event put together by Scott Beale, lead tentacle of Laughing Squid. I finally got to put my calling/business cards to proper use. I snagged two hours of fantastic conversation and went home feeling elated.

I’d point out one bit of conversation as a highlight, but there were few lows in contrast. Instead, I will merely pluck, as if from a tree heavy laden with conversation fruit, a tidbit that has been rolling around in my head like a bb in a metal bowl since.

As a recent transplant in a city under near constant assault from gold-seekers, my origins were a natural topic of discussion. One gentleman, from Denmark, who hinted speaking at least three languages, commented that he had always assumed that name of it was not from the Sioux word Mnisota meaning “sky-tinted waters,” but rather the Swedish phrase minne söta, meaning “sweet memory.” His theory was that the Swedes had named the state themselves upon arrival. I said that I would ask my Norwegian friend when I got home, but the Dane looked at me funny.

Naturally, I toe the party line, but a part of me wants to believe the other: that homesick immigrants had put axe to tree and plow to field and come away sweaty and inspired. Memories sprang up in green rows, were tended, and harvested. Families sprouted, history, memory, children: sweet — sweeties, perhaps.

That’s what it is to me, perhaps, a land of sweet memories: family, friends, cold beers on patios in the height of summer — memories rosier with each day away.

It’s just a place, I want to say. California is just a place. Minnesota is just a place. I’m the same me everywhere, but the sun is closer here, and when I look back, the old home is sweeter.

Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures, is a bit unhappy because apparently the Internet has destroyed entertainment. I’m surprised. I thought we were having record-breaking box office nearly every month and that there were new movies being made, and hundreds of channels of cable, and whole new worlds of user content in the [...]

I want to take a nap in a place like this one day.

The Auckland Museum — AKA My Backyard

May feels a little bit like September. The leaves kind of change, not as vibrant as it is in New...

I only seem to visit the ocean at sunset.

Take a minute to watchvideo demonstration. It’s pretty cool. This is the future they used to tell us about, with the google phone and kindle and gps navigators and electric cars… it’s happening!

It’s ALMOST over.

I’m expecting another tax check, which means I have Gear Acquisition Syndrom (GAS), and I’m looking for a delay pedal. I love the way it fattens up my guitar sound, and those great little U2 and EdisonGlass kinds of fills and backgrounds are calling to me. I’ve been playing through Phil’s Ibanez digital [...]

Jobvite has been nominated for the TiE50 (an annual showcase of the hottest and most promising startup companies in the technology industry). How cool is that?

If you’d like to help us out, please visit the TiE website and vote for Jobvite in the Software category.

Jobvite was handpicked to be a TiE50 Finalist after a rigorous screening process of 1,200 nominees, led by the group’s expert panel of industry judges. The winners in five focus segments (Consumer Web, Internet Infrastructure, Cleantech, Wireless and Software) will be chosen by a combination of industry expert review and popular vote.

We’ve had some great press recently as game changers and a cool vendor. Go Jobvite!

A while ago, Lenovo pulled the plug on the old ThinkVantage System Update (TVSU) infrastructure and announed that they would return in the beginning of May with a new and improved system. While I am all for improvement and progress, I questioned why Lenovo had to completely remove the old (somewhat) working driver repository before the "new and improved" system was in place. I was willing to live with that, as long as we got a new and improved system in place. I was, in fact, looking forward to see what Lenovo was up to.

Today, I was pointed to this little gem on the Lenovo site

Lenovo is changing the way customers obtain updates for their PCs and Servers.

• For our PC customers, automatic updates via ThinkVantage System Update (TVSU) are being discontinued. Customers can continue to download updates by accessing the Lenovo support site at Lenovo Support & downloads. Lenovo is pursuing alternative solutions for system updates and future offerings will be communicated through the new Lenovo Message Center Plus.
  

I'm sorry Lenovo, but completely discontinuing TVSU is not "changing the way customers obtain updates", it's telling your users that you don't value their time. Sadly, this is not the first time I've had that experience with Lenovo. I know this is pretty harsh, but consider the following scenario:

• You run an IT-department when you standardize on Lenovo Thinkpads for your mobile workforce.
• As a consequence of your standardization efforts you set up several deployment methods for these Thinkpads
• Seeing that your preferred vendor provides you with tools like ThinkVantage® ImageUltra™ Builder, and ThinkVantage® System Update you decide to spend considerable time investigating and perfecting your deployment methods based on these vendor supplied tools that actually adds value to your hardware investments. It's kind of magic, but it works!
• Lenovo then pulls the rug from under your feet and you basically have to start over.

This is the scenario I'm currently facing. Newer Thinkpad models, like the t400 and t500, are (naturally) not supported by the aging ThinkVantage® ImageUltra™ Builder (The readme for the trial download was last updated in 2007). Since we use it for deploying our base business OS and a minimal set of drivers this was a problem for us. After investigating a bit, we decided to try and give Lenovo a call and see if someone could help us out getting it to work on newer models.

I still can't believe how incredibly difficult it as to get support for that particular piece of software. Calling Lenovo support was useless, they didn't even know what product we were talking about. To this date, we have been unable to contact anyone in Lenovo, or IBM for that matter, that can help us with technical issues with it. No one. None. Zero! We did manage to get the basic drivers working inside the deployment image we have after quite a bit of investigation and trial and error on our own, no thanks to Lenovo.

So, where does ThinkVantage® System Update enter the picture? Well, we followed best practices and setup a minimal image that basically only includes networking drivers for the Thinkpad models we have. Then, and here's the magic part, the image installed ThinkVantage® System Update that connected to a local copy of the TVSU that contained the drivers we need for the rest of the devices. In reality, it's brilliant. Or, I should say that it was brilliant.

Now that Lenovo has yanked the foundation for our ImageUltra based installation services away from us, and we don't get support for it in the first place, what are we supposed to do? Manually download drivers and place it in the repository and hope the old TVSU client will find them?

Lenovo, I'm sorry, but this was not what you were supposed to be doing when you were "improving" the service. I've been a strong advocate for TVSU for a few years, even used it as a selling point when our business invests in hardware. Your most recent move has left me stranded, and now I need to start over setting up a distribution mechanism all over again. I know there are good alternatives to ImageUltra and, trust me, I know it has weaknesses, but I was willing to live with them as long as TVSU did the grunt work with regards to drivers. Right now Windows Deployment Services springs to mind, but that still leaves the problem with driver installation and management. TVSU sorted out that bit for us, and I'm sure Lenovo has other customers with similar stories.

I would really like to see the reasoning behind this decision, it sure doesn't make sense to me. But then again, I'm just a lowly user that actually utilized the very system Lenovo made available to me. How incredibly stupid of me.

Update 03. June 2009: Lenovo reverses decision discontinue TVSU. Good one, Lenovo!

A fellow gathered four P-90-equipped guitars and plays them in series. I was surprised that I liked the cheaper ones better. I liked the SX best, followed by the Hamer, then the Xavier, and the expensive gold-top came in dead last. I guess I was expecting the richer swampier sound. I [...]

Topic: General Linux and Open Source Discussion.

Presenter: CINLUG

Location: Glendale Branch, IMCPL

Directions to the Glendale IMCPL Branch

CINLUG meetings are typically held on the first Wednesday of each month at 6:30pm. They are FREE and OPEN to the public. Annual membership dues are $30 and payment of dues is encouraged to help with funding events and expenses. Just show up and find out more to see if you want to become a member.

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The past few weeks of rounding up speakers and prepping my talk for the first Ignite Santa Fe are now a wonderful blur. My nerves and fear of public speaking were quickly washed away last night by an awesome gathering of people, ideas, and perspectives.

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What is Ignite? It's an event, a vibe, a brainstorm, and a heck of a lot of fun. Speakers are given 5 minutes and 20 slides to share an idea, experience, or passion. Yep, just 20 slides and they advance automatically every 15 seconds. The pace certainly keeps things interesting.

A great group of people from Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Albuquerque, and points between convened at the perfect venue, the Santa Fe Complex. At first I was struck at the diversity of topics but by the end of the night some common threads emerged. Focusing on what's important stuck with me, the simple display of crystals in a museum exhibit to the preservation of the core traditions of a Nepalese village.

I have a few new localized ideas to chew on too. The possibility of increased civic-awareness through live web streaming of local government proceedings and visualizing data local in more meaningful ways. I now know what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur, the steps to setup a non-profit organization, and the dimensions of sound. I got a glimpses back at 60s counterculuture and forward to the inter-reality my kids may likely know. We even had two last minute talks put together as everyone else was speaking. Everyone did a great job!

Thanks to Mick for grabbing the matches and Steve for providing the kindling. I had great time meeting and seeing everyone and can't wait until we do it again!

Some jerk tried to fake a trojan attack on my windows pc. There was a problem with that.... I don't use windows.

A Jaunty Jamboree!

In celebration of the release of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), the Indiana Ubuntu Local Community team will have a Jaunty Jamboree (Release Party) to celebrate. Just like last spring, we will celebrate the release of the newest Ubuntu version from Noon until 8:30 PM (the park closes at 8:30 so we unfortunately can't stay until 9:04 PM) at the Reddick Shelterhouse at Fort Harrison State Park in Indianapolis. We're holding our Jaunty Jamboree on Saturday, May 2, 2009.

Fort Harrison State Park is a day use park and we must exit the park prior to the gate's closing at 8:30 PM. The park entrance is located at Post Road and East 59th Street on Indianapolis' East side. There is a $5 entrance fee per car with Indiana license plates (your receipt gives you in and out privileges for the day).

Park Map and Brochure

Please RSVP by adding your name to the chart on the wiki so we know how much food is needed.

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This would be too much fun.

Why would they require a special downloader? Isn't the WWW rich enough? What of phone users and netbooks?