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My Almost-daily Journal |
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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed  |
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Audio Blog I did it. I purchased a three month subscription (they don't tell you this when you signup) for $9.00. It's not breaking my bank. Plus, it's a business expense, so I get to right it off as an expense. I'll try it out for the next few months. Who knows... maybe it'll be fun when I'm on the road invoking my rights as a road vigilante. posted by Dino at 12:46 AM (permanent link) Packing for my two-day SARS trip Well, I'm done computing for a while... I spent most of my night closing up some loose ends for work. You believe that!? Let me repeat... I spent most of my evening updating documents for fricken work! This is the worst time for me to take a two-day trip to Toronto. Everybody wants something yesterday, and everything is going to hell in a handbasket. Overwhelmed? I can't believe that I actually have gut-ache over work! The two main programs that I'm on are totally high-risk: Dodge SRT-10 Spoiler and Mopar PT Cruiser Ground Effect Kit... SRT-10 Spoiler Roush is tier-2 to Decoma on this program, so one would figure that they have everything on the ball. The antithesis is true. The knuckleheads at DaimlerChrylser PVO have no idea what they want out of life. They want a five-foot long blow-molded spoiler that not only passes all FMVSS, but they want it for $1.00. Since we're tier-1 to DCX, we basically have to take the brunt of Roush's f-ups. The knuckheads also want the spoiler foam-filled, which is totally unproven, and a tack-off rib in the middle of the part which basically creates two cavities. Try filling that with foam. On top of that, throw that spoiler into a 220 F oven, and it comes out looking like a stuffed Christmas turkey. S2 Launch in Mexico is just around the corner, and DCX's Quality Engineer thinks she's going to save the world. If I could GIVE this program back to Roush, I'd pay $500,000. I can't. PT Cruiser Ground Effects Kit Oh boy... here's another goat rodeo. Bascially, Decoma is producing a complete kit for Mopar in about six months. If we pull this thing off, we end up total heros. We started out design back in September. It was done in October, and guess what? DaimlerChrysler Styling didn't like some of the feature lines so we basically had to redesign the whole class-A surface from scratch... and we did that in two weeks. We then created production tooling in record time, molded some parts, and realized some changes were needed. Of course, Mopar doesn't want to pay for any of these tooling changes, since they're no "design repsonsible", yet they like to change the design at their whim. We're now at the point of making changes that we think are necessary, and Mopar comes back asking us to change it yet again, all the while trying to get parts PPAP'ed and out to customers by June 1. My life is a living hell dealing with half-wits... I can't escape them... they're everywhere I turn. Decoma SVE... what the heck is that? What is Decoma SVE? SVE stands for Specialty Vehicle Engineering. Decoma SVE is actually the company that I work for now, which is a spin-off of Decoma. SVE is the leg that does low-volume production such as aftermarket accessory kits (e.g. Mopar Accessories) and special low-volume OEM jobs (e.g. Dodge SRT-10). In a nutshell, all it means is super high-risk programs that cut ALL corners of a properly designed and validated part. Many think this is the only division that is going to make money for Decoma in troubled times. High-level entities are watching us like hawks: 1) To steal and copy some of the unorthodox quick-to-market design and manufacturing models we're using, and 2) To be there and if we fail to say "I told ya so". It's a dog-eat-dog world where I work. ERP System Overview On top of my normal duties with the two goat rodeos above, I've also been slated "The Computer Guy" for our Specialty Vehicle Engineering (SVE) division. What exactly does this mean? Well, SVE's new assembly plant, SVEA, is a neophyte in the production world. Most of the people that work there now have very little idea on how OEM releases actually work. It's all basic EDI strings that get pumped out of mainframes from the OEMs. EDI is the mode of transport for all part releases, inventory control, forecasting, shipping, and even payment. In a nutshell, an OEM sends out releases to a plant, they're authorized to ship, and then they get paid. If you don't dot your i's or cross your t's (literally), then you don't get paid. Simple things like and incorrect shipping label could mean the difference between getting paid or getting broke. Ridiculous, really. Anyway, our SVEA division is having difficulties understanding how a good ERP System handles releases, namely EDI strings. So I go elected by our VP, to champion this ill fiasco. I've touched a little on ERP Sytems in the past... I've hated every second of it. I hate legacy databases. I hate legacy systems. I hate interfaces that are designed to "talk" to legacy systems. I hate EDI strings. I hate releases. I hate ASN's (Advance Shipping Notices), 836's, 844's and any all three-digit forms that are tied to ERP Systems. Why am I even bothering to overview something that I totally despise? I ask myself that same question too, every day I wake up. The VP thinks that I'm going to be some kind of savior. What they need to do is actually hire someone that's a guru with ERP systems, and actually enjoy toying with it. Oh well. Off to Toronto I go. Joy. posted by Dino at 12:34 AM (permanent link) Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Sleep I think that sleep is an utter waste of time... unless of course, there's a nice, warm, soft, cozy, warm body next to you. Tonight I'm solo, which is why I'm up so late. posted by Dino at 1:36 AM (permanent link) It's been a while since I've posted... I know. It's been a while. Whadya expect? This blog thing was fun and exciting for a few days. I'm ADD and Obsessive-Compulsive. I suffer from a limited attention span, coupled with an obsessive-compulsive personality. Yes, I was obsessed by Blog. And yes, my attention span lasted a week. Oh well. Filias Consulting I finally bit the bullet and opened up two new business accounts at Comerica. I figured it was time to keep the business monies seperate from the personal monies. In doing so, I also purchased (yes, gotta give back once in a while) Quicken 2003 Premier Home & Business. It's a pretty powerful program in which I'm only using 20% of its capability. After making the conversion from Quicken 2001, I realized I probably could have just kept my personal accounts. The IRS likes you to keep business and personal account seperate. However, one of Quicken's strengths is that it allows you to track income and expenses by category. After making the conversion, I found that it's more of a hassle than it's worth, trying to move assets and liabilities around between personal and business. It should be pretty straight-forward for 2003 - if I get audited I still will have a decent paper trail. I just can't wait until 2004 when all my business assets and liabilities will reside solely in my business accounts. I also added a new PayPal account (paypal@filias.com) to accept business payments, as well as to MAKE business payments. Pretty slick. Unfortunately, PayPal needs your SS# to fully activate the accounts. Since I already have a personal (premier) account tied with my SS#, it's impossible to tie in my business account. Sheesh! I guess it's time to get a new taxpayer ID for the business. Probably better in the long run. I just don't like to complicate things. I guess I should have just bit the bullet and started a sub-chapter S corporation or LLC. Sucks for me because I just do web development on the side. It's not my career. Dell Axim X5 My Dell Axim X5 fetish has pretty much wound down. I was really excited with it when I first got it, packed it with games and apps, and now I'm already growing bored with it. I use it daily to track my tasks, contacts and calendars, so it's used. I just don't use it with the fury that I did when I first got it. Peter did donate a Pharos Pocket PC Navigator to me. It's just a GPS made for the Axim. All I have to do is write a review for it. I guess I'm still reviewing it. I took several snapshots of the unit, as well as some screenshots of the Axim. The gallery can be found here . Pretty soon, I'm going to write up a review and send it to Peter's www.aximusers.com website. Again, obsessed for a few days, now I'm bored of it. SARS and Toronto Sucks to be me. I have to go to Toronto on a business trip... north Toronto. From what I'm hearing, northern Toronto is still pretty much a high risk for SARS. I'm not worried about dying... I could actually care less. Dying is supposed to be cool, right? Heaven awaits!? Ha! Anyway, I'm more concerned about my dad since he's immunosuppressed. The last thing I want to do is carry around a virus and have it enter into his system. He has no immune system, since he's had a heart transplant. I couldn't live with myself if he ended up dying because of me. I guess I'll just have to keep my distance for a while. Lawn & Garden I spent several hours today reseeding and fertilizing (I used Scotts fertilizer for Seeding, don't worry) my lawn, cleaning up the flowerbeds, and pruning some of my bushes and roses. I was probably out there from 5pm until 9pm... that's a great deal of hours for me wasting away in the garden. I'm not even satisfied with my work, nor am I close to being complete. I still need to take care of the rogue dandelions and cancerous clover (I wish I had a horse). Hopefully the overseeding will cover up some of the bare spots. As soon as the seeds germinate, I'm going to douse my lawn with some Grub-X to kill those pesky June Bug larvae that just love to munch on grass roots. To me, June Bugs are satan's armored helicopters... I hate those fuckers almost as much as I hate wasps... I despise those fuckers worse than any insect. The Ant Saga I think I've finally performed ant abortions in my house... one night I opened up the cupboard under my sink and discovered more carpenter ants than I ever wanted to see. They must have munched under the base wood under the sink because they were sandwiched between the top and bottom layer. I almost grabbed a gas can and burned my house down. Instead, I completely douse the fuck out of the sink with ant killer, then strategically placed some liquid ant bait on a piece of paper mixed with olive oil. Day 1, I found ten corpses on my kitchen floor. By Day 3 there were at least 20 corpses on the floor. I'm an ant-killing mother fucker and I'm taking names. Work It sucks. Games I wish. posted by Dino at 1:23 AM (permanent link) Thursday, April 10, 2003
The Dell Axim Fetish Like I said last night, ya gotta love those newsgroups, specifically alt.binaries.warez.pocketpc. I spent the last few hours downloading from that newsgroup like a mofo. I have more apps than I could possibly ever use on my Axim in a lifetime. Most of my time was spent loading some of them to the handheld, and the rest of the time was spent playing the awesome games. Newsgroups and the Exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights Incredible that newsgroups still exist today. It's one of those mediums that mostly power-users use. What's even more amazing is how these newsgroup servers still exist, and why the government hasn't shut them down. Who needs Napster, when you can pretty much get ANYTHING and EVERYTHING right from newsgroups. I still believe in "giving back", so if I like something, I'll usually buy it. The History of Newsgroups Newsgroups are one of the oldest uses of the Internet. Many years ago, when computers really started taking off, some Duke University graduate students realized they could dedicate computers to distribute "information" for all to enjoy. Thus, the birth of the bulletin board system (BBS). Many different BBS's were created at this time for many different platforms (IBM's, Commodore's, Atari's, etc.) People soon found that all they had to do was dial into an access number via their modem and log onto the BBS of their choice (usually a local number). Peter even ran a BBS. Ask him about William B. Hackenson. I got a ride to work by the Secret Service one fine summer morning. :) During this time, people not only wished to communicate with other local users, but also users from all over the world. Hence, the birth of BBS mail forums. Users would dial-in to their local BBS and post their messages to the appropriate group or person. At a certain time, the host BBS would dial into a hub computer elsewhere and upload it's message to be distributed to the appropriate locations. This is how users could talk with others from all over the world. It also tended to result in high phone bills for the host computer systems since they usually had to dial long distance to dump the messages to the hub computer. University subsidies, anyone? I even remember while at Michigan Tech in 1987, connecting to Gopher, and trying to use U. of M.'s dialout modems to post to BBS's at home. Newsgroups and Usenet Snatched from: http://www.stereophonicsweb.com/ams/newsgroups/index.htm In 1979, a couple of Duke University graduate students connected some computers together to exchange information with the UNIX community. At the same time, another graduate student at the University of North Carolina wrote the first version of the software used to distribute news. This network, called Usenet, grew into a voluntary, cooperative exchange of news feeds, eventually evolving into electronic discussion groups. While there are some places that charge a fee for the news feed, Usenet continues to reflect its origins as an academic project designed to distribute information freely to anyone who wants it. Usenet newsgroups are transmitted through through UUCP (a fee-based system) or NNTP, a more common and free method of transport. The news feed can be held on a system until a sister site calls up and gets it, or as is increasingly the case, direct connections remain open between sites at all times, sending news out to other nodes on the Net as soon as it is received. Each system administrator decides which newsgroups will be carried on the system. Since newsgroups take up valuable hard drive space and transmission bandwidth, administrators may choose not to carry some hierarchies at all. The Internet carries many kinds of resources, of which Usenet is only one. Usenet is also carried on networks that are not part of the Internet. posted by Dino at 1:12 AM (permanent link) Wednesday, April 09, 2003
The Good News Got my Dell Axim yesterday! What an awesome gadget! It uses Microsoft's Pocket PC OS, which integrates seamlessly with the big boy OS that 99% of us use on our main computers. I used a Palm OS handheld for about a year, and it was a little limiting. Plus, this Axim uses a 400 MHz Intel processor, which is as powerful as a main computer I used 1.5 years ago. Very sweet. Also, Excel and Word documents are easily created via the Axim, and transfer nicely into the larger full-blooded app. I'm looking forward to exploiting this little device to its fullest. Peter has a second GPS peripheral that he's going to let me try, and I'm looking forward to playing with that. The Bad News Stardate: 08.01.02 I started getting surprise visits of black carpenter ants in the summer last year. I have no idea where they came from. Perhaps they liked the low rent that I offer. Their visits were scarce... perhaps one a week. They were executed on site. Startdate 12.26.02 I bought a face cord of wood since I had exhausted my cache the prior winter. I mainly bought the wood for ambiance for my annual Christmas Party. Like a dumbass, I kept about ten logs next to the fireplace. I'm assuming that this is where the carpenter ant apartments were located. Stardate 02.02.03 The carpenter ant frequency has increased to about 4-10 per day. I have no idea where the fuck they're coming from. Each one gets executed: either with fire, decapitation with a knife, or chemical warfare. Ant traps are set all over the house. The ant traps dont' work on carpenter ants. They prefer to get their added dose of calories from either the garbage or foodstuff Josh leaves in the sink (he's the antithesis of a "tidy" human). At this point, I feel like burning down the house. Stardate 03.20.03 Chemical warfare... The house is doused with ant neurotoxins in every possible nook and cranny. Danielle and Josh protest and complain of jaundice, fever, tremors, and shakes. I don't budge. If I see an ant, it gets doused, along with its trajectory and place of origin. My kitchen floor now has a nice sheen, due to the constant application of pesticide. Stardate 03.26.03 The ants take notice of the kitchen eviction and now can be seen congergating more in the family room. I find several under the sofa armrest, and immediately begin freaking out. The armrests get doused. The couch gets moved and turned over on itself. A few more stragglers are found behind the couch. They are all executed and/or tortured. I also do an inspection under the sink, as well as behind the stove, dishwasher, and refrigerator. No dwellings found. No town meetings. Where the fuck do they live? Stardate 04.01.02 Weather is nice, so I go outdoors and prune some of my roses. I also clean up leaves around the house, and get the homestead ready for spring. I arm my sprayer with Diazanon (a garden pesticide that kills all biological dwellers) with a concentration that is three times the recommended dosage. The entire periphery of my home is sprayed. I spray so much, I fear that the groundwater is in dire straits of contamination. The entire periphery of the house is "muddy" with Diazanon. I also notice about 20 carpenter ants crawling around the periphery of the house. Their future is unknown, but I can tell you that they won't be doing to much "bang-bang-bang" anytime soon. Stardate 04.03.02 Carpenter ants have not shown up inside the homestead. I feel that the Diazanon perhaps did the trick. I'm finally feeling that these fuckers got the hint, and moved on with their lives. I finally feel some inner peace. Stardate 04.09.03 Damn them all to fucking "hell". I find a motherfucking carpenter ant taking a stroll in the bathroom sink! How the fuck do they make it into the bathroom!! Son of a bitch! This one doesn't get executed. This one gets tortured. I took a razor blade and cut off his fucking legs... all of them. I placed him in the middle of the kitchen floor. Hopefull the other ants will get the hint, since ants are pretty intelligent for their size. If I see another ant, I'm calling Orkin. I'm sure they'll want to tear up my kitchen, as there's probably a colony making a salad bar out of my 2X6's used for the flooring. I weep at the possibilities of destruction these cock-sucking, motherfucking carpenter ants can leave in their wake. posted by Dino at 9:55 AM (permanent link) Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Figured out the limitations to the Blog code. It is pretty limiting. Oh well. I'll just use this gay as hell template for now. posted by Dino at 2:20 AM (permanent link) Nightlife Part 2 Been having a little problem with the templates. Just checking to see what they look like with multi-day posts. posted by Dino at 1:34 AM (permanent link) Nightlife Like everything I touch, I just "gotta try" something new. Blogger is no exception. So, I installed Blogger, posted one entry, and now I just installed a different "template". This template is the good ol' dinofilias.com template. There were a great deal of templates available from Blogger, but why limit myself? I'm all about exploitation and customization, right? So here it is... Blogger-Dino Version 2.0. I don't know why I'm most productive after 11:00PM. Perhaps it's because this is the time that everybody sleeps, and I'm at pure peace with myself: no phone calls, nobody to interact with... just me and my exploitive brain. I'm not even sure this is going to work. I hope it does. This just opens up another avenue for me... another window into the makeup of Dino Filias. I know I'm getting philosophical, but in my mind, this is my attempt at immortality. Deep, huh? My picture and video archives are the only physical evidence of my existence. But what about my thoughts? Sure, there are some of my twisted thoughts on structured discussions via my bulletin board. But what about unstructured thought? This is it! I'm excited about the possibilities. I'm almost embarrassed to publically expose my thoughts... makes me feel a little nekked :) Oh well. I'll try it out for a while. My own little online journal. posted by Dino at 12:42 AM (permanent link) Monday, April 07, 2003
Intro: Just installed Blogger to my server. Figure I'd check this out and try blogging, in addition to my normal sarcastic evangelism on dinofilias.com. Why not? Everybody else is doing it! I also changed the blogger file from blogger.html to index.html. This will let people go right to dinofilias.com/blog. I also created a seperate blog account on the server. This will prevent anyone hacking into the blogger website from having access to my root files. OK. This is pretty cool. I don't see much difference to this than just posting to www.dinofilias.com in one of my forums. I guess there's nice things about Blogger Pro, though. They have a service that lets you call a specific number, and leave a message to your Blog! That message gets converted to an mp3 file, and it gets posted on your Blog. Now THAT is cool. I'd like to see something that lets you send photos via the phone. General News: So let's see what happened today... it was pretty non-eventful, if you consider 3"-6" of snow in April, a non-eventful day. I got to work at 7:30 AM. Around 8:30AM it looked like a total white-out squall. It was pretty impressive. I almost wished that it wouldn't stop snowing, at its peak intensity. I love the snow. Work News: Decoma, Mopar and Chrysler were slow today, since most everybody has probably at home. There was an ice storm during the weekend that crippled Oakland County. There are several friends that have not had power since Friday night. Some were told that they wouldn't get power restored until this following Friday. Sucks to live in that part of Michigan. Me... I'd eat that shit up... just looking for an excuse to buy a generator. It must be hard on families with children, though. Personal News: Danielle got her dream job within Valassis as a Targeting Analyst! She finally gets to use her BA in Marketing. She's been doing production stuff during her last few years there, which will probably end up making her more of an asset for her team. I'm very happy for her. Filias Consulting News: Dino Filias, DBA Filias Consulting I finally got my DBA as Filias Consulting. Peter registered that name at Macomb County, so I just registered it in Oakland County. I took the DBA paperwork and opened up a business checking account at Comerica. Supposedly, it's supposed to be free checks and no service charges for a year, but I got hit with $77 for checks and a $10 service charge. I can't wait to go in to have that reversed. www.TechTau.com I worked a little bit on TechTau.com during lunch, fixing some layout issues that I still have to iron out. That UBB has been totally customized (hacked), and there's still more to do. I also created a funny "techtau.com" magazine cover, depicting some of the ironies discussed at techtau.com during March. It's getting more and more members. I'm glad the Alumni are embracing it. www.MulligansGolfCenter.com Still haven't received my $800 from Mulligan's Golf Center. That SOB said he'd pay me a few weeks ago... check was in his hand, apparantly. I told him to just mail me the check. Haven't heard from him in weeks. www.FourSeasonsGolfCenter.com Royal Oak Golf Center, Oasis Golf Center, and Four Seasons Golf Center, have become prime customers. They pay on time. They don't complain if I'm ever late with my promises (which is hardly ever). And they're very open to new ideas. I ended up creating an email html template for them to use with Microsoft's bCentral service. Funny, though, Mike Ashley must be on vacation because he hasn't responded to my emails that the template is complete. www.glcement.org Worked on Great Lakes Cement Promotion Association website on Friday. All I had to do is just slice up the layout I created and upload the html. Took me a few hours. It's still not 100% pretty, but it's a start. That's all for now. I think that's plenty of writing for my first blog. More later... posted by Dino at 7:15 PM (permanent link) |
