tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70890867863618110762023-11-16T07:53:57.810-08:00Will Gillen - Out of My MindWill Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-51370836116253506882008-11-15T09:47:00.000-08:002008-11-15T09:51:54.466-08:00How Projects Really Work<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio7ns_HgzRy5O3ecPZmDu4OHseNZ3te22nqDW8A18s8hcFymalN_L3X3B2vrnFtxnOkP2dI8eS1Ky0DDJn_EZDSNhJbNlUx5bwMdSBRh97qKs7LqV8e5k9l_oDmKv7uhddzMh7E3h8Vio/s1600-h/how-projects-really-work.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 260px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio7ns_HgzRy5O3ecPZmDu4OHseNZ3te22nqDW8A18s8hcFymalN_L3X3B2vrnFtxnOkP2dI8eS1Ky0DDJn_EZDSNhJbNlUx5bwMdSBRh97qKs7LqV8e5k9l_oDmKv7uhddzMh7E3h8Vio/s400/how-projects-really-work.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268943096019298738" /></a><br />This cartoon explains it all when dealing with project management. You can create your own at <a href="http://www.projectcartoon.com" target="_blank">www.projectcartoon.com</a> as well. I agree with everything except "How the programmer wrote it". :)Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-7871251195102561912008-10-30T18:14:00.000-07:002008-11-06T14:05:21.785-08:00Web Development Pie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFDxg6G1JWulzIIOA-2jvPs31tiG-FzJhJDzpCcRaHn6UXpP6JZOEV3VIz8WoX72gZpZXc-83ynFPTD9fPoFW1bT7cKPAR5YZVCz8UP_xxMsiUtpSNPAdc4nn_N3gwRrk3t1a_joOqnk/s1600-h/web-design-time.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzFDxg6G1JWulzIIOA-2jvPs31tiG-FzJhJDzpCcRaHn6UXpP6JZOEV3VIz8WoX72gZpZXc-83ynFPTD9fPoFW1bT7cKPAR5YZVCz8UP_xxMsiUtpSNPAdc4nn_N3gwRrk3t1a_joOqnk/s320/web-design-time.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263120430582543906" /></a><br /><br />I spotted this pie chart in an Ajax presentation on Ajaxian.com, and it is so true for us web developers.Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-902910424704157632008-10-24T08:31:00.000-07:002015-08-04T11:30:46.353-07:00Lunch Anyone?So, today a colleague of mine got a Spam email about a "new controversial restaurant" coming to town. Well, it sparked my curiosity, so I asked him to forward the email to me. Here is the spam message... Oh, by the way, it is a real place.. I checked it out, and next time I'm in Arizona, I think I'm going to stop by there. It's kinda like Hooter's meets the Hospital? ;)<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"I've heard that this was a hoax, but it's got to be real because no one's deranged enough to make this up. It's called the Heart Attack Grill! "Patients" who finish a Triple Bypass Burger are pushed in wheelchairs to their cars by Naughty Nurse waitresses. Their slogan is "Taste Worth Dying For". They serve a Quadruple Bypass Burger with 8,000 calories!"</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.heartattackgrill.com/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px;" src="http://strengthlab.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/aaburger.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-42581941321019461422008-09-25T11:07:00.000-07:002015-08-04T11:32:26.917-07:00End of the World!<embed src="http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash10/misc/end(www.albinoblacksheep.com).swf" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="300"></embed><br /><br/><br />With all the turmoil going on recently in the US financial markets, it started making me think about the end of the world again... No, not literally, but about a Flash video I remember from my childhood (well, at least from a few years ago). This is an "oldie but a goodie".Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-51589826008444216762008-09-11T13:43:00.000-07:002008-09-11T13:46:03.793-07:00Stranger LoopsI know a few weeks ago, I posted an article called "Strange Loops", but a friend of mine recently sent me a link to a Flickr photo that just really said alot about loops. The photo is titled "Spaghetti Code":<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2257/1544234007_dd7686d788.jpg?v=0"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2257/1544234007_dd7686d788.jpg?v=0" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Nice.Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-81426575764090933112008-09-04T19:20:00.001-07:002008-09-04T19:24:12.276-07:00Polishing the ChromeYep, Google released an IE killer today: <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">Google Chrome Web Browser</a>. According to many tech blogs I've been reading and some of the early stats coming in, it looks like more IE7/IE8 users are making the switch from IE to Google Chrome.<br /><br />So, I've downloaded it, and had a few guinea pigs download it too. So far, so VERY GOOD. The browser is far faster than either Firefox or IE when starting up or loading a web page. There are some other pretty cool features too like being able to drag tabs from one window to another; creating "applications" from web pages, and much more.<br /><br />Now, in the past (10 years) I have remained very faithful to Internet Explorer. Yes, I tried Firefox for a while when it came out, and I regularly open my pages in Firefox when I'm doing web development. But, I can clearly say that I have found a new default web browser: Google Chrome.<br /><br />If you don't believe me, download it and try it out for yourself....Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-8065657058966808112008-08-13T16:25:00.000-07:002008-08-13T16:49:46.594-07:00Google (temporarily) shutdown my KTUL Weather GadgetAbout a year and a half ago I created a Google Gadget that basically runs a slideshow of the KTUL weather images such as doppler radar, forecast, temps, etc. Well, I had sent a link to a few friends of mine, and published it in the Google Gadget directory (<a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=willgillen.googlepages.com/ktul-doppler8000.xml">http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=willgillen.googlepages.com/ktul-doppler8000.xml</a>) This is one of those gadgets that you can pretty much add to any Google based service (such as the Google IG homepage, GoogleApps, Blogger, etc.) But, I hadn't expected many people to use it...<br /><br />Well, today I noticed that it was showing an error on my Google IG homepage. So, I decided to investigate. Well, the reason it had an error was because Google had replaced my gadget with a warning that said something to the effect of "This page has exceeded its bandwidth [sic]" Well, I looked up the limited stats on the Gadget in the directory, and as it turns out, there are now about 1,200 users of the weather gadget! Wow. <br /><br />So, I'm putting some Google Analytics on it for a while to see if that is true. If so, I may just turn over the gadget source to KTUL and have them host it so it can actually stay running. I can't afford to actually buy web-space for this, but I want to keep it running. If that turns out to be the case it'll probably come up with a message in the near future that says something like: "This gadget has moved to KTUL.com Please go there to install the latest version."Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-20367885934760860932008-08-12T08:42:00.000-07:002008-08-12T08:58:15.751-07:00VMWare - Stopped workingHow nice. We have just started using VMWare Enterprise edition on an IBM BladeCenter, and today, August 12, 2008, all of our virtual machines stopped powering on. We just got a message:<br />"A general system error occurred: Internal error".<br /><br />Well, as it turns out, VMWare apparently created some sort of licensing bug for version 3.0 Update 2. According to the website, any VMWare ESX server running version 3.0 Update 2 will not be able to power on due to this license problem. Here is the statement on the VMWare homepage (http://www.vmware.com/support):<br />"An issue has been uncovered with ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2 that causes the product license to expire on August 12. VMware will reissue the binaries in the next 36 hours (by August 13, PST). Until the issue is resolved, we advise against upgrading to ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2."<br /><br />I guess we will have to wait until August 13th to turn on any of our newly created virtual machines....Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7089086786361811076.post-69769333126629978612008-08-10T17:33:00.001-07:002008-08-10T18:13:49.741-07:00Strange LoopsI recently picked back up the book "Godel, Escher, Bach" which is a look into how math, imagery, and music are all intertwined with each other in very strange ways. On the outset of this book, the author introduces the concept of "strange loops". It is most easily characterized by the very familiar works of M.C. Escher who elaborately depicts impossible loops such as the neverending waterfall, the neverending stairs, or the hands which draw each other.<br /><br />But, this concept got me to thinking about an "audio illusion" that I once stumbled across called "Shepard's ascending tones". This recording is an audio representation of Shepard's paradox. Basically, the track has the auditory illusion of constantly rising tones. But, in reality, the tones are just repeating the same stair-stepped routine over and over again. Here is a visual representation of the paradox:<br /><a style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5639/2020/400/audio.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjILdx-MBZ5jC7-cnXz1_F1KmlROkkhCK9RAABIYa9lxskB6c04e8pUN34oD2aSIHc-l4NKGZ_L6CWf9D0UWDMfuVpxeeeWfHiMVO73N2o9d1Q9SfWJxOSqzC1c1CjLvq9kYK3IBUSQP2g/s1600-h/shepards-paradox.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233052304847089426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjILdx-MBZ5jC7-cnXz1_F1KmlROkkhCK9RAABIYa9lxskB6c04e8pUN34oD2aSIHc-l4NKGZ_L6CWf9D0UWDMfuVpxeeeWfHiMVO73N2o9d1Q9SfWJxOSqzC1c1CjLvq9kYK3IBUSQP2g/s320/shepards-paradox.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The audio representation of Shepard's paradox is available <a href="http://web.willgillen.com/endless.mp3">HERE</a> for your enjoyment (and possibly your insanity). You can hear the "strange loop" (it's best to loop it when playing to get the full effect). The book is difficult to read sometimes for a "non-mathematician", but it is a very intriguing look into number theory, language theory, artificial intelligence, the turing machine, and much more fascinating nerd stuff.<br /><br />Here's a link to the book on Amazon:<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465026567/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/dp/0465026567/</a>Will Gillenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05765913550097698525noreply@blogger.com0