SiliconBeat: My jet's pretty big, how big is yours?

This is a pretty funy set of comments on the rumor that Brin and Page have purchased a Boeing 767.

A house of cards... or boxes rather.

This is what happens when you stay inside too long and have access to tape.

FedexFurniture.Com

A first look at Apple's Intel Mac

So this will be very interesting to see the OS landscape changes when Apple machines can run Windows.

See Windows on a Mac

50 GFlops

So I've been MIA for a while, and don't have much time but this is really cool. Check it out.

Clearspeed PCI Card

Struts Error Messages

Ok. So after looking all over God's green earth to find documentation on how to print out an icon next to the field that fails validation, I've finally come up with something. This seems so common it should be flashing in red from the Struts home page. None the less, I will post my solution here so that others can avoid the anguish I went through trying to find this documented. I'm sure there are other ways, if so please share so we can all learn, but this is what I came up with. I added a new "td" to the table and gave it a width="17", and either print out the icon or a non-breaking space, this keeps the fields from moving around when errors are found.

I'll cut right to the chase assuming you have properly configured the struts validator and ApplicationResource.properties file and have the errors printing where ever you put your "html:errors" tag.

explanation: this tag is pretty straight forward. The property corresponds to the name of the property which you want to print out your error indicator. The content can be whatever you want to print out when that field fails validation. We choose to print out an icon.

<html:messages id="error" property="insertPropertyName"><img src="images/error.gif" alt="We've encountered an Error" align="middle" height="17" width="17"></html:messages>

Hopefully this will help many people out there who are having the same issue, and based on my Google searches, there were many looking for this and no one seemed to know how to do it.

Doctor's Office Etiquette

This is a great little story... enjoy.

An 86 year old man walked into a crowded doctor's office. As
he approached the desk, the receptionist said, "Yes sir, what
are you seeing the doctor for today?"

"There's something wrong with my dick," he replied.

The receptionist became irritated and said, "You shouldn't come into
a crowded office and say things like that."

"Why not? You asked me what was wrong and I told you," he said.

The receptionist replied, "You've obviously caused some
embarrassment in this room full of people. You should have said there is
something wrong with your ear or something and then discussed the
problem further with the doctor in private."

The man replied, "You shouldn't ask people things in a room
full of others, if the answer could embarrass anyone."

The man walked out, waited several minutes and then
reentered. The receptionist smiled smugly and asked, "Yes?"

"There's something wrong with my ear," he stated. The
receptionist nodded approvingly and smiled, knowing he had taken her
advice.

"And what is wrong with your ear, Sir?"

"I can't piss out of it," the man replied.

The doctor's office erupted in uncontrollable laughter.

Cold Fusion

This article does a great job of describing nuclear fusion and why it's cool. It seems some scientists in LA figured out how to make fusion happen at room temperature. Good read, check it out.

Cold Fusion Article

Cell Phone Plan Shopping Made Easy

If you are in the market for a new cell phone, carrier or plan check this site out, it will save you time and the headache.

Wirefly

Nano-Clusters

Now what would I do with 40TB of storage? I think I'd have to get pretty creative to justify that amount of space.

Nano Clusters Story

Skype - Free Internet Calling

Skype is a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone that allows you to make free calls to other skype users on your computer, and you can even call other phones from your computer (but it's not free). This is a cheap way to "chat" with people without having to type :)

Skype - Free Internet telephony that just works

AJAX GUI

Finally, someone gets it. JavaScript coding with reference to a standards based API.

AJAX GUI

Google: Information

Ever wonder where Google got its name? Or how they got their start? Here is a good article explaining this and some other interesting factoids about the most popular company on earth.

Google: Information From Answers.com

Wired 13.06: Time's Up, Einstein

A very interesting article on the existance of time. Marat, I'd love to see your comments on this.

Wired 13.06: Time's Up, Einstein

Hydrogen Fueled Cars

There is an article in the AP today about the support for hydrogen fuel from President Bush. At first glance this all seems well and good, however the pessimistic side of me says "Of course he wants us to use hydrogen fuel", he is a man that has made a TON of his money off from oil. Right now you're saying, "Chambers, the article says Bush WANTS hydrogen, not petroleum." I've posted an article from Popular Science that talks about the truths behind hydrogen as an alternative fuel source and why the math just doesn't add up.

The Real Story Behind Hydrogen Fuel

This article shows how using hydrogen as a fuel is going to create MORE pollution, not less. Hydrogen has to be extracted and that process is accomplished by; that's right, you guessed it; power plants that run on fossil fuels.

So now I ask, does Bush want us to use Hydrogen because it's better, cleaner or cheaper for consumers, or does he want us to use it because he knows we will actually spend more money on fossil fuels to extract the hydrogen and make him even more money in the process?

Pre order new Coldplay X&Y

For all of you Coldplay fan, this is your chance to get their new CD titled "X&Y" first for $11.99. If you have I-Tunes it will launch and take you to the music store to place your order.

Anti Spyware Software

By now many of you have heard of "spyware" and after a painfully slow experience getting IntelliJ to startup this morning, I realized it had been a while since I've run my anti spyware. And sure enough there it was lurking on my computer tracking my every move... not really grams. But anyway it's intrusive and annoying so I thought I'd share what I use so you don't have the same annoying slow computer I had. I use something called Ad-Aware from Lavasoft which you can down load here:

Ad-Aware Download

If you have any questions about spyware or why your computer may be running slow, leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer your question and perhaps others reading are having the same issues and it will help every one in the process! My good Mr. Deeds for the day if you will.

176 GB SCSI Flash Hard Drive

Now this is cool. Soon my laptop will be complete, as this is the last stop on the way to solid state computing. Hopefully 'normal' people can buy them soon.

M-Systems 176GB Flash Drive

Biodiesel.org - Biodiesel 101

This is a great site to get an understanding of biodiesel.

For those of you who don't know about biodiesel, it's an environmental friendly and renewable resource made from vegetable oil that puts American farmers in better business and offers an alternative to oil based diesel. This allows us to make our own fuel at home and not be so dependent on other countries for our energy (oil). It can be put into most current diesel engines (1991 and later) without any modification and is most commonly referred to by it's blend with petroleum. For example B100 is 100% pure biodiesel with no petroleum, B20 is 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum.

A few quick points:

• Diesel engines are up to 30% more efficient than gas
  
• Diesel engines last longer than gas
  
• Diesel engines are built with more robust components (Thicker block, cylinder heads, valves, connecting rods and pistons)
  
• Diesel fuel can be made here in the US creating more jobs for Americans and American farmers.
  

People have been talking about biodiesel for a while and some small plants are cropping up, and who knows, I may soon be in the biodiesel business!

I-Tunes Affiliate Program

LinkShare Referral Program

For all of you affiliate fans out there, you can join Linsynergy and get on several programs at once. It works like google adsense program, but a lot of different companies (like Apple) are using them. So if this is your gig, check em out.

MicroNet Technology - The Leader in Storage Technology

For all my Mac Mini fans out there, this is really cool. It has the same form factor as the Mac Mini, 400GB of storage that you can stack!

liveplasma music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

This site is pretty cool. Just put in the name of a band and it draws suggestions of other bands you may like.

Jen's New Puppy, Zoe!

Yes, she really is that small.

Health Care Reform

This is another reason my healthcare is so freakin expensive! Can someone please tell me when we are going to see real reform in the health care industry? Anybody, Anybody... Bueler?!


Health Care in Crisis

Real Estate Agent?

Ok, so I know I'm going to offend some of my friends when they read this but hear me out and tell me if this doesn't make sense.

The other day I had a friend who was in the market for a new home, tell me about this great place that he was thinking about buying. I asked the standard questions one asks when in that situation, what part of town is it in, how old is it, how big, etc. He went on to tell me the details of the home and then came the statement that has me confused and I keep hearing it more and more frequently. He said, "I found this great house on the internet, so I called my broker and went to look at it". My reaction to this is you dumb@#$; that's right I said it, @#$). If YOU found the house, and end up buying it, why are you going to hand your broker (who after all, didn't do their job) 3% commission of the sale for doing very little to nothing?

To put some substance around this example, say this home cost 300,000. At 3% he will end up paying his broker 9,000.00 on the deal, money he could have used for the down payment, upgrades, furniture, you name it, that money would have been his to spend.
On a similar rant, I'm not so sure an agent has my best interests in mind while selling my home. I recently read a study done on real estate agents and the % of asking price and time on the market for their clients homes vs. their own homes when they sold them. The study concluded on average the agents own home was on the market for 6 months longer and usually pulled in 5-10% more than their clients. Well hold on you say, how can this be. Take a step back from the problem for a second shall we? The agent only gets paid when you SELL your home, so when a decent offer comes along they are pushing you to take it, citing several economic reasons as to why you should settle and take THIS offer now. So by you not selling and holding out for the BEST offer, the agent waits for their paycheck and depending on their current financial situation you will probably see varying degrees of scare tactics pushing you to take the decent offer.

Back to my previous example where my friend "gave" his agent a check for 9,000 b/c he didn't want to invest a lot of his time or work into finding a house, he DID end up being the one to find the house, he DID do most of the work on his own (after all he was spending 300k, he'd be dumb not to do a little homework), and he DID fork over 9,000 for an agent who didn't provide much value, and most likely he could have done the entire transaction on his own or at a minimum a few hours of attorney fees looking over the contracts, which would have ended up being much less than 9k.

So where am I going with all of this you ask? I think we are on the verge of a major paradigm shift in the way real estate is bought and sold. For years it's been the agents who hold the "inside info" on buying and selling real estate. I know MANY people, who during the down turn couldn't find work, so they became real estate agents and brokers. The Internet is enabling the willing to seek out the information they need to do the transaction sans agent and I think we will see a consolidation in the market and a shift in the way agents and brokers market their value to their clients. I am starting to see less value in agents in general, given I can search the same data they can with even more proficiency, it's nothing a little time, work and Internet can't overcome. Then you can hire a lawyer, who CAN give legal advice and has the background to do so, for a few grand or less; which is much cheaper than 3% of 3-400k ($9,000 - $12,000).

I can hear you all now saying... "We'll that's what I'm PAYING them for, to invest the time and do the work", but have you stopped to think whether or not you're getting taken advantage of? You certainly wouldn't pay a car sales man a couple extra grand, just because he made copies of the contract, and carried them to his manger would you? After all you researched the cars, did you're homework on price and just walked in, test drove it and told him what you were willing to pay. All he did is act a a middle man who had no additional knowledge, negotiating power between you and the manger (after all, who's side do you think he's on when he goes to "negotiate" on your behalf)? He only gets paid when the car get sold (just like real estate agents) so they are going to do what it takes to make the sale and try to make you think you're getting a great deal. So back to my original question, "Why then would you pay a real estate agents 3% commission on a sale where you did most of the work?"

-- Just my 2 cents. :)

Marat's Birthday

So we just returned from dinner with friends to celebrate the 31st birthday of one of my best friends in Austin. He is Russian (I'm asking that you withhold judgment), and perhaps maybe the smartest person I know, however he's a little careless when it comes to throwing boat anchors. ;) I look forward to the next few months with him and his wife, but I know that if he has to leave and go back to Russia, that it will be good, we'll get to go visit him there and he will return someday to live in Chambersville.

It's about time

So I finally did it. I've quit messing around with my coding long enough to actually post something. I'm hoping to start putting more usefull posts up here for you all to use and hopefully some ammusing excerpts from my life from time to time. Until then... God bless.

- Jeff