/bill's House O Insomnia : Memes

The internet addiction test

William — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:48:31 GMT

I scored a pretty low 33. I'm surprised, i thought I'd have done worse. However, if they substituted "computer time" with "internet" I don't think I'd have faired quite as well.

Worst I.T. Excuses

William — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:44:00 GMT

It works on my machine
It doesn't matter because no one will ever do that
Users like it the way it is
I don't write any bugs
It'll be fixed in the next release
It'll be ready on Monday, we just need to build the setup package
The spam filter ate it
A little more RAM will fix your performance problem
You can't do that because it's a security risk
The database is slow because it's too normalized

I got these via email and it didn't include the source, so I'm not sure who to give credit to. #1 and #9 really made me laugh. If you have any others, I'd love to hear them.

I've been Tagged

William — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 04:40:00 GMT

Sahil me with this latest Meme about stuff I wouldn't want to live with out. I'll attempt to be as honest as I can:

My Windows Mobile 6.0 Phone. Since I got my first iMATE , I was hooked. Since then, I've had a JasJar, K-Jam, a VOQ, a Q and now the Dash. As limited as the internet connections can be at time, having access to the internet everywhere I go has become a necessity to me.
XM Radio. I've got all of my loved ones an XM Radio. In fact, I got my parents three of them and got Kim and Sarah two of them so they'll have them in their vehicle and the house as well. I have one in my car, one fully portable one, and one built in to the new reciever I just purchased. I don't watch TV at all as I undoubtedly have mentioned. But I do listen the radio tonight and I actually use it as a clock - If Hannity is on when I get in my car, I'm slacking at work and leaving too early. If Larry Elder is ending and Mark Levin is on/starting, I''ve put in a long day. If Mark is over and Rollye James is on, I need to make sure I've been to the gym or went jogging already - and be prepped to hit the shower and go to bed. I listen to Phil Hendrie and drive off. If George Noory comes on and I'm not asleep, tomorrow is going to suck. If I still hear George Noory then I can keep sleeping. As soon as Jim Quinn and Rose are on, her voice grates at me so bad I'll most likely get up. Normally, I can only take so much of them and get up to switch it - it's the same channel that Coast 2 Coast AM is on. If I hear Glenn Beck, I know I'm really late. Over time, it's become obsessive. I'm such an obsessive/compulsive that any interruption in service or these shows drives me INSANE.
Online Banking - Recently, I was working at an UberCool client who's primary product was Remote Capture Check software and ATM integration. I then realized that I can take advantage of Remote capture and skip trips to the bank altogether. It's caused a few problems when I've had checks that were fairly large and/or from out of the country, but it's an incredible service. Using USAA's stuff is just awesome overall. Now that I can deposit all of my contracting checks without going to the bank, paying my bills, seeing my bills, doing everything else financial - online, I go nuts without it,
Universal Remote Control - Even though I don't watch TV, I'm a huge Sterophile. In the past few months, I've went a little overboard and just wired my place up with speakers to cover every range and every zone in my place. When I moved in to my current place, i was really surprised/impressed to find that all of my track lighting had remote controls to adjust them. Having to get up on a ladder to adjust them would have really sucked since I don't own a ladder. Well, depending on where I'm at, I may want to turn up the volume, turn it down, or shift the focus of the speakers to drown out other noise. I have a universal remote control that probably has more power than the Commodore 64 i so loved as a kid. It does everything - and it learns new ranges, including the ones that control my track lighting. My reciever has an XM Radio built into it, and it's got a built in jack for iPods (although I have a Zune) and other peripherals which I frequently plug into it. So I can control all of it from just about everywhere in my house - life without it would just suck b/c getting volumes 'just right' is really a necessity, especially for those of us that sleep with the radio on
Remote Desktop - being able to do stuff on my computer when I'm away is something someone who travels as much as me simply can't live without. Being able to do work without having to leave sometimes means I don't have to travel as much. It's just awesome.
My Watch - I almost feel like little Butch in Pulp Fiction. I bought myself a watch about 5 years ago when I achieved a really major milestone professionally. When i was younger, I was given a different model for my college graduation. It was something I could never have afforded on my own so I didn't wear it much. I still don't know for sure who stole it, but all the evidence points to a drug crazed friend/roommate selling it. So it was gone. I told myself, whenever I finally make X, I'll buy one on my own. I really loved this watch and it's one of those that you only buy one of in your life. Well, so I thought. I wore it a lot and then one day in Atlanta, Kim and I were staying at the W for the weekend. When I came home, it was gone. I called the W but they assured me it wasn't in the room. I offered a reward but nothing. So I assumed that this one too had been stolen. No evidence at all and I know even making the insinuation could get an innocent person fired so I dropped it - really disappointed though. I couldn't possibly justify buying another one. So I told myself, when I hit Y in my job, I'll get myself one. Two months ago, I had offered to give a friend of mine some luggage I no longer used. Before i gave it to him, I wanted to make sure it was all cleaned out. As I reached my hand in it, I felt something hard with sharp edges. It was my watch! Losing the first one hurt really bad b/c it cost my uncle a fortune and I barely had it a year before it was gone. I hardly ever wore it for fear of getting robbed or losing it. And it disappeared, quite likely from a friend of mine no less. since I had no proof, I couldn't do much about it other than just deal with it. And since we were dumb and naive, we didn't have renter's insurance. Getting the second one meant that not only did I get a second chance, but it was also tied to achieving a really high goal I set for myself. When I lost it, it hurt really bad - not b/c of anything other than what it represented. When I found it years later, it was like manna from heaven. The fact I got a promotion about two months after I found it that put me right at the number I had set as the trigger for it to be 'ok' to get another one, well, it all worked out in the wash.
Zune - SoundDock/Headsets et al. I've recently started working out again and recently have gotten to where I can run 3 1/2 miles - slower than hell but I can do it. The Zune made that all possible. Sure, it's just a different iPOD, but still, it's not an iPOD so I don't have to feel bad about myself for owning one. And it helps me to catch up on old Phil Hendrie episodes and listen to the latest ultra coolens from Pimpin Ken
GPS - I've been through a few of these but my current JVC and I have become 1. I can't live without it and even if I could, I wouldn't want to.
WII - We got Sarah a WII for her Birthday. It was really hard to get and were it not for Chris Williams I don't think Sarah would have had one in time for her B-day. I'm not a gamer and she spends a lot of time playing her DS Lite - but it's a fun way for us to spend time and unwind when we've gotten all of our work done.
Powershell - I don't know when I quit being a command line junkie, but I know I've always had it in me. Well, with Powershell, I've went full steam ahead and now, Powershell pretty much owns me. And it's a great relationship.
Barnes & Noble - As those that know me know, I spend an unhealthy amont of time with books. I don't go a week without my "new book " ritual and I spend so much time during the week reading them that it's nuts. I eat at the same Thai restaurant at least 3 nights a week (I can't/don't cook unless I'm with Kim - and even then, she likes two Indian restaurants and P.F. Changes so we eat there regularly too). I've gotten to be very close with the owners and they make jokes about my 'addiction' and how they are getting worried that I have books growing out of the bottom of my arms. If you have to have an obsession, reading computer books is a good one to have. I do a small bit of reading political and economics books - and as you know, I'm now a devotee of His Majesty - Pimpin Ken. All of which of course comes compliments of B & N
Tablet PC and One Note. Well, I need to throw in InfoPath b/c for the past year, I've started doing everything in InfoPath too. Sahil is just wrong on this, Tablet's rule.

There might be a few others, but I can't think of them. I was tagged along with some pretty impressive folks - I was clearly a lightweight compared to that crowd - but i'm honored nonetheless.

The Little Brother I always wanted but never had, Doug Marsh, My Homie Chris Williams , The utterly captivating Ms Barbie Cummings, The Brilliant Brian Madsen , The Uber Speech Guru Himself , Ryan

My Programming Type

William — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:04:00 GMT

I just say The Programming Type meme linked from Shawn's Blog. My Type is DSLC. In reality, I'm not quite this black and white but the way the questions were layed out, there wasn't much middle ground. I'm a doer but I definitely appreciate and respect planning. I'm conservative but I think readable, understandable and consistent code is a must. I like lower level stuff but if I had a choice, I'd rather write in C# than C any day of the week (at least for most things. However, much of that is b/c of the development environments but that's another discussion). I'm also pretty fanatical about being an early adopter so while I have a firm appreciation for old school stuff, I definitely dig the bleeding edge. And although I tend to like working solo, one great way to learn is working with people better than you, or people that do things differently than what you're accustomed to. I like small teams more than anything, ones that are carefully chosen. Few things are better than getting to work with a few really smart, really cool people with the same goals as you. On the other hand, few things are more annoying than working with Know-it-all self proclaimed gurus or insecure people who get threatened by every idea they didn't come up with - those folks tend to usually also be very bad at admitting what their resistance is all about. .

Your programmer personality type is:

DLSC

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a Low level.
You're from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don't mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.

You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.

You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.

Visual DNA

William — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:19:00 GMT

I don't know why I fill out so many meme's, probably b/c I come across so many in some of my favorite blogs. (It's an old link so I must have missed it the first time around.) I guess this one was intriguing b/c it's quite accurate in many areas and just dead wrong in others. I despise crowds and crowded clubs for instance.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I finally came out on the right side of a meme

William — Sat, 05 May 2007 16:35:00 GMT

Chris lucked out and got to be Boba Fett was so freaking scared I was going to be Jar Jar or something awful like that. Instead, I hit a bullseye:

Better keep my day job

William — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 02:44:00 GMT

I got this from Brian's - it's been around a while but always interesting to re-check.

My blog is worth $10,161.72.
How much is your blog worth?

Looks like i better keep my day job...

The wrong side of a Meme

William — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:42:00 GMT

I remember a long time ago, I saw some very scarry looking dude with a "I'd rather see my sister in a whorehouse than my brother riding a riceburner" t-shirt. I don't have a sister and would prefer Japanese motorcycles if I rode bikes, so I can't really empathize. However I guess the point of dude's t-shirt was given two crappy choices, one is clearly better than the other From that perspective, I think I got the "brother riding a riceburner" option in that it could have been worse. But that doesn't mean this still doesn't suck:

Which Programming Language are You?

I guess I need to go find some friends that *know* Microsoft is evil and sucks but can't give a single reason why.

UPDATE: When I noticed this meme in my blogreader for the lower cased one , I immediately thought WTF? He's the last person i would have sent this thing too b/c I know it would trigger a humorous and snarkly comment about such things. he never disappoints

Tag, I'm it

William — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:14:00 GMT

It's about time. Ryan Olshan tagged me.

Here's 5 things you may not know about me.

1) Sahil originally tagged me but took his post down.

2) I was a Philosophy major in undergrad. I went to grad school and got my MBA with a concentration in Applied Statistics. Being an avid reader, I've read just about every major piece of work in philosophy that there is. I also have a fascination with economics and the work of Milton Freidman and Freidrich Hayek in particular. I've read everything from W. Edwards Deming that I could read too.

3) Before I got into programming, my main goal in life was to be Tax Accountant focusing on international tax law.

4) I didn't get into programming until relatively late compared to most people, I started when I was 27.

5) I have one of the worst cases of Obsessive Compulsive disorder of anyone I know. I roll paper balls constantly, have to have a diet coke at all times and many more. I absolutely can't sit still. In my home, I have to have the radio on at all times or I get really really anxious. If I have to sit anywhere (like a plane, restaurant etc) I start getting really anxious and nervous if I don't have something to read.

How screwed up are you?

William — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 01:58:00 GMT

I was listening to some old Phil Hendrie episodes and Vernon Dozier was on. This woman calls with a strong Southern Accent and as always, it reminds Vernon of 'mother'. He tells her "it's the kind of thing that makes you want to sit in a room with no furniture and cut the eyes out of pictures." (Strangely enough, I'm starting to truly understand where Vernon is coming from...) If you aren't hip to Phil Hendrie then you won't understand... So I came across the following meme and decided to post it. We've been getting killed with blog spam and the server's been having trouble, looks like I can post again though ;-)

You are 94% messed up.

You are excessively messed up. Presumably your mother dropped you on the head several times when you were younger which lead you to a life of erratic behavior. You are likely to go crazy at the drop of a hat. A Davey Crocket hat, that is.

'How messed up are you?' at QuizGalaxy.com

10 Ten Things that piss you off

William — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:55:00 GMT

A thread started over at Sweet Feathery Jesus about Top 10 things that piss you off .

Here's mine (other than the first one, there's no particular order).

1 - Public Service Announcements on XM Radio (In particular, the Hurricane survivial, everything by Earth Share, the Online Predator and anything sponsored by _____ and the Ad Council)
2- Cheesy Morning Shows (Where they sing songs and laugh in the background, laugh at all of their own jokes, steal Howard Stern's material ).
3- People that don't put buggies back at the grocery store
4- Not parking in between the lines (Especially jackasses that insist of backing their cars in the space but can't get it between the lines and end up dinging my car door)
5- Blinged up cars/ Lowrider pickup trucks/ Racing spoilers on cheesy crappy cars
6- People that talk the whole way through a movie
7- Overusing the "CC:", email sigs with that "this message is confidential crap" , setting Priority to High or Read Reciepts on every frigging email (And please don't try telling me how this is 'necessary'.
8- Traffic caused by Rubberneckers
9- Undisciplined kids and their annoying parents, especially in restaurants
10- Homeless people who hassle the crap out of you and particularly ones that say "God Bless you " piously if you don't give them money.

I pwn 8th Grade

William — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 19:33:00 GMT

Thanks to Scott for the Meme

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 6/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Meme: No 8th Grade Punk is going to show me up

William — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 02:58:00 GMT

For once, I didn't get a meme from Scott , I got this one from John Papa. And yes, 8th Graders got nothing on me.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

New Meme from Scottt

William — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 18:15:00 GMT

Your IQ Is 130

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average

Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius

Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius

Your General Knowledge is Genius

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Another Scott R Meme

William — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 02:06:00 GMT

Another Scot Meme

I am Pacman.

I am an aggressive sort of personality, out to get what I can, when I can. I prefer to avoid confrontation, but sometimes when it's called for, I can be a powerful character. I tend to be afflicted with munchies constantly. What Video Game Character Are You?

How much more lame could I get?

Travel Meme from Andy

William — Sun, 08 May 2005 15:05:00 GMT

Normally I get these from Scottbut this time it came from Andy

Your Travel Profile:

You Are Extremely Well Traveled in the Midwestern United States (100%)

You Are Extremely Well Traveled in the Southern United States (92%)

You Are Extremely Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (86%)

You Are Very Well Traveled in the Western United States (63%)

You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Latin America (40%)

You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Asia (21%)

You Are Mostly Untraveled in Southern Europe (13%)

You Are Mostly Untraveled in the United Kingdom (13%)

You Are Mostly Untraveled in Western Europe (7%)

You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Australia (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Canada (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Eastern Europe (0%)

You Are Untraveled in New Zealand (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Scandinavia (0%)

You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%)

How Well Traveled Are You?