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A co-worker sent the link for this farcical article earlier and I just read it.  I love it, and think others should see what babies have been doing to us all along.

Cracked.com: Six Shockingly Evil Things Babies Are Capable Of

FYI: My wife and I are expecting our first child ourselves.  The due date is sometime in mid-August (the 17th or 18th).  God help us.

Normally I’m not one for campaigns to end the “blank”-word, whatever that may be in the moment.  This one’s different to me though.  I have an uncle who is mentally-challenged and while I haven’t seen him since I was a little kid, I find that when people use the word “retard” in a derogatory sense (especially when talking about mentally-challenged people) makes me bristle.  Me and my wife were actually talking about this just the other day when we were watching the most recent episode of Burn Notice.

So after reading this article today about Sarah Palin, I decided to go to the website and pledge my support as well.  I’ve included a button below that will take you to the website.  It’s promoted by the Special Olympics association.

There have been tons of stories and news segments about Tiger’s affairs and trysts.  It seems that whenever this sort of thing happens, whether in sports or in politics, the question always arises: “Does it matter that he cheated?”

Normally I would say no, given that he’s an athlete and not a governor or legislator, but he was one of the most respected men in his field and was a role model to millions of children and adults in this country.  Unlike some sports, golf is centered around honor and honesty.  You’re expected to be truthful even when no one’s watching.  Watch “The Legend of Bagger Vance” some time if you don’t believe me (great movie by the way).

The fact that Tiger cheated on his wife with so many women shows a clear trust issue.  Will he have his country club membership revoked?  Unlikely.  Will he have his sponsorships revoked?  Possibly.

In a game where amateur golfers skirt the rules all the time, the professionals are where they’re at because they’ve worked at being the best physically, mentally, and honor-wise.  Tiger Woods was no exception and it’ll be interesting to see how this situation will pan out in relation to his golf career.  The part that makes this difficult to watch is that he and Elin have two kids in the mix.

In a little while I’m going to head with a few people from work to the Extreme Makeover build site here in Hattiesburg.  MegaGate Broadband (my employer) is one of the sponsors and we’re providing the WiFi internet for the site and will be providing the family with a free year of telephone and internet service.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to talk to Ty while at the site.  It was because of a radio interview that he did with Glenn Beck last year that I decided to finally get tested for ADD/ADHD.  If it hadn’t been for his amazing story of growing up undiagnosed with ADHD I probably never would’ve gotten tested and wouldn’t be where I’m at today.

Supposedly we’re not allowed to take pictures at the build site so I may not be able to post any pictures from my visit.  If for some reason I am able to take pictures though, I’ll post them here for all of you to see.

Update: I was thankfully able to take pictures at the site.  Here they are.

Just read an awesome article that Paul Thurrott at Windows Supersite just published over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  You can read the article here: Windows 7: Past, Present, and Future.

I agree with everything he has to say in the article.  Something I do know that Microsoft will have to account for in Windows 8 is the existence of Google Chrome OS, which I’ve written a little bit about myself: Google Chrome OS previewed to public.  The biggest functionality that consumers will demand of Windows 8 is the ability for it to boot fast.  They will also want to be able to run it off of a thumb drive or similar device instead of being bound to a hard drive.  And this needs to be implemented within the installer and not as a consumer level “fix”.

It’s possible to install from a thumb drive but users will want to be able to run their OS from a thumb drive as well.  This may very well require a move away from the Registry as Windows has used for years, just like they did with moving away from DOS to the NT platform.  In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they emulated or virtualized the Registry in much the same way they emulated DOS in XP, or virtualized Windows XP in Windows 7(i.e. XP Mode in Windows 7).

EDIT: 11/21/09 - Added CNN.com article link

I just got done reading an article over at Macrumors.com entitled “Google Previews Chrome OS, Scheduled For Release in Late 2010”.  The point that stuck out to me the most is that, while Google’s mum about who they’re partnering with on developing hardware to run and support Chrome OS, the devices (e.g. netbooks) will most likely not have any internal storage like a hard drive but will instead utilize flash-based memory and cloud storage.

Woefully, I never wrote an article on my thoughts about a year and a half ago where I was sharing with a then-coworker of mine that I felt that in 10 years we would move completely away from HDD-based internal storage to either a flash drive based solution or a cloud solution.  As I explained to him then, computer users are doing more and more with portable flash drives and cloud storage.  It’s only inevitable that computers and their operating systems move toward this end and Chrome OS appears to be embracing this move from the outset.  An article from Wired Magazine on CNN.com agrees with my assessment: Google OS: the end of the hard drive?

This shouldn’t surprise anyone given that Google is easily the largest consumer cloud computing and storage services provider in the world.  The kicker is that Chrome OS already boasts boot speeds of a blazing 7 seconds!  If this holds to the final release, or improves, we’re looking at a full-featured operating system that you can turn on at the same time as your TV and both would be ready to use from a cold start at the same time.  That’s unheard of!

Personally I doubt Chrome OS 1.0 will still boot at that speed on release day, but even if it were to slow down a few seconds it would still kick the tail of any other consumer operating system currently available (except maybe some super-slim -nix variants).  I probably won’t have the money to plunk down on the hardware when the OS first comes out, but I’ll probably become a late adopter after the first few kinks, of any major OS, are worked out.

PDF of the FCC Net Neutrality Ruling

I decided to read through the 107-page FCC Net Neutrality ruling when it came out on October 22, 2009, mainly because of the gloom and doom that Glenn Beck was espousing about it.  I listen to Glenn frequently, but I’ve become increasingly more questioning of some of the things he says.

After reading through most of the Net Neutrality ruling I can say for a fact that the document does nothing to explicitly limit freedom of speech.  In fact, from the outset, it appears to increase opportunities for expressing one’s freedom of speech.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I currently work as a customer support specialist for Megagate Broadband, a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC).  I read through the FCC document also out of professional curiosity of what it might mean for the industry in which I work.  There were a couple of areas that stood out to me when viewed from this perspective.

Section 92, Rule 3 states: “Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service may not prevent any of its users from connecting to and using on its network the user’s choice of lawful devices that do not harm the network.”  My concern here is that companies like Megagate that supply customers with a broadband modem that’s actually being leased to them (as a part of their normal monthly service), would be required to allow customers to not only hook up their own modems but be required to supply them their login info for that modem.  This could at worst present a security concern, or at best present a troubleshooting headache in the inevitable event that a customer accidentally changed their login settings and could no longer connect to the network.  In either case, the price of the service would undoubtedly increase to account for the increased workload in dealing with the new problems.

The other area that concerns me the most is Section 104, Rule 5: “Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner.”  Mainly I’m interested in seeing if this rule would be approved (currently it’s just a suggested one), and how it would be applied if approved.  My concern with it is how they would define “reasonable network management” and “nondiscriminatory manner”.  The concern I have is that ISPs would be obligated to allow competing services (such as VoIP or IPTV) to push enough traffic across the network that it would be to the detriment of other non-competing traffic (e.g. streaming music, cloud services, web hosting).

I, along with others, question whether the FCC even has the authority to traverse into the realm of regulating the Internet.

Even with this ruling from the FCC, the debate about Net Neutrality is far from over and I’ll be paying attention to the direction in which it heads.  The ramifications from a poorly implemented solution would be huge and quite damaging to the progress that the Internet and the World Wide Web have caused in our country for the past nearly twenty years.

I just found out today at work that six people were being let go, including two from the customer support department that I’m a part of.  Praise God, I still have my job though.

There’s something that today’s situation has shown me, that’s a valuable lesson for everyone: Be teachable.  I realize this sounds simple but it really gets down to a deep character issue.

I can’t speak to the character of any of the people who were let go, in fact I think they were all great people in their respective departments.  So this only comes from what I’ve seen as the reason I’m still around: being teachable.

Someone with a teachable attitude understands:

1. The world does not revolve around them.  They may be important, but they operate with an attitude that they are nothing without the people around them.
2. They always have more to learn.  Unless you teach Latin, there’s always something new to learn in your specific job or industry.
3. They are willing to learn.  Knowing there’s more you need to learn, and being willing to actually learn it are two different things.
4. They don’t say “It’s not my job to do….”  Teachable people are willing to adapt to the needs of the moment.  It’s easy to say it’s not your job to do something.  You show you’re worth that paycheck when you’re willing to expand your skill set and responsibilities.  You make yourself less expendable.

Let me know what you think.  I’m interested to hear your input on what makes someone teachable.  Heck, let me know if I’m completely wrong!

Original story at CNN.com: One million dollar Netflix prize to be awarded soon.

My wife and I use Netflix and really love the service.  My former roommate told me about this contest and seeing an article about the contest being over and a press conference being scheduled to announce not only the winner but the next contest is high on my radar.

I’ll be on the lookout for the announcement and post here about the new contest once they’ve released the information on it.  Here’s a link to the page announcing the winner and how their algorithm works: Netflix Winner Announced

I realize I haven’t posted anything on the site in quite a while and I apologize to everyone for that.  I’ll be honest: trouble finding a programming job in this market has gotten me down.

Today I went to Bob’s Books in Hattiesburg while Maggie, my fiancee, was buying moving stuff at Sam’s.  I talked to Mr. Bob about the whole situation and we prayed together about it.  He really provided the pick-me-up I needed.  I’m going to head over to the WIN Job Center on Monday and start seriously hunting for something, even if it’s below the pay I’m normally willing to take.  Pretty much do anything to get back in the game.

I’d appreciate everyone’s prayers as redouble my efforts to find myself a job.

Original article here at Hattiesburg-American.com.

My fiancee told me about this today.  A $6 million gift, with $5 million to be designated specifically for scholarships is amazing and very needed by The University of Southern Mississippi.  I hope that this gift will enable many students to attend USM that wouldn’t be able to attend college any other way.  Certainly in this economy education is critical for someone to improve their lot in life.  God bless whoever donated this money, individual or business.

If you’re interested in getting a website designed, created, and/or maintained for you feel free to email me at southernmissdude (at) yahoo.com or call me at 601-466-3179.

I also do desktop application programming, if you’re interested.

About half an hour ago I got canned from WHLT CBS 22. The reason is because the corporate internet division is centralizing/consolidating jobs and they are getting rid of a lot of field personnel such as myself. So, we’ll see where this takes me in light of my earlier post.

I came across this article on CNN.com this morning.  Talk about an uplifting story.

I haven’t read the book yet, but I have a feeling it’s pretty good.  I’m about to go order it on Amazon, in fact, as a result of reading the article.

I got a unique opportunity today to play host of sorts to a group of cub scouts from Petal, MS: Pack 3.  They got to learn about our sales process, how our news gets made, try to do some on-camera reporting, make their own commercial, and see how I update our station’s website.

They got their own page on the site, complete with an on-set picture and a news article written about them!