Author: JB

On Tuesday April 17th from 12pm until 8pm participating Ben& Jerry’s scoop shops around the world will be hosting Ben& Jerry’s Annual Free Cone Day. Is it a time for you to try a new flavor that you’ve been wondering about without commiting your hard earned dollars or is it a time for you to enjoy an old favorite and savor in the deliciousness that is free ice cream? The answer from us at Ben& Jerry’s is yes. Visit our scoop shop locator to find hours and directions to the closest Free Cone Day experience near you.

Sorry for the ad, but i thought that the free part might make up for it 🙂

It was nice to hear that Genesis was reuniting and going back out on tour. They will be in the Washington DC area in September.

Making things even better… RUSH has announced a new album with tour dates to follow. On the website you can stream their new single.

Happy Days…

My IT department sent out an email about DST this weekend. In there were instructions on how to verify that your PC has received the patches.

One of the statements in the email I found funny…

“If, for example, your meeting should occur at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, it will now show as 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. This would indicate your Outlook has been correctly patched. “

So this would lead me to believe that because we went to DST, then all my meetings get pushed by an hour.

HEH.

I don’t fully understand why we use DST to begin with. I understand the main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called “Summer Time” in many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Sounds good enough. I don’t see why I have to change my clock to make better use of my time. I understand the argument that we save on energy usage, but it still all seems silly to me.

We have a PC that we use just for the kids. They are able to play their games and access the internet from it. I use a wireless USB device about the size of a thumb drive to allow them access to the home network (internet). This way the wife and I can control when they access the internet by either letting them have the USB device to plug into thier machine. A little while ago, there was a error that corrupted the AV software and for some reason it no longer likes to recognize the Wireless USB device. I have tried a few different things to try to get it back on the NET, but have had no success.

The solution I am going with is to blow their box and reload the OS and such. Seems kind of extreme but without spending gobs of time on it I think it will be a easy enough solution. While doing my morning reading today i came across an interesting linux based OS. it is called EDUBUNTU. Not sure if anyone has heard of this or not. It seems pretty dynamic and customizable.

Does anyone have experience with this or one of it’s sister OS’s? I have to do some more reading, but I am curious how the kids WIN based games will cooperate with this OS.

After 3 years at my current company Technica Corp. I have decided that it is time for me to seek other adventures. I have received and accepted an offer at Deloitte & Touche. I will be working in the same Project management consulting role. I am looking forward to the new challenges and the change of scenery. It has been interesting how much I had to toil over the decision to leave. The people I work with are some of the best I have ever worked with. Unfortunately, Technica does not have a true blue PM practice which is why I decided to look elsewhere. I found looking for a new job while having a secure job still in place an interesting position to be in. Typically I am or about to be laid off which usually adds a great deal more stress to teh situation. I kind of prefer the non-stress method. It enabled me to be able to actually review offers and reject ones that I was not happy with.

The next couple weeks should prove to be interesting as I transition out of this job and into the other.

I am troubleshooting my kids Desktop PC. They have this irritating message popping up trying to DOS the PC stating that

SAService.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program.

This is generating itself once every 2 seconds (aprox.).

Anyone know anything that I can do to fix.

I am running McAfee, and it isn’t finding anything and the firewall is still intact…

HELP!!!

I have been getting adicted to podcasts since I have gotten my Ipod nano. Any reccomendations for podcasts that you all enjoy listening to?

Here is a video that my wife forwarded to me last nigt. It is taken from someone’s balcony during a recent ice storm in Portland.

Enjoy…

We bought a new dishwasher just before Christmas. Easy enough. I decided to sell the old dishwasher we replaced. I posted the ad online in Craigslist and through a local “penny saver” kind of paper. I posted the sale price at 125 figuing that i would be negotiated down.

I got a response from this guy named Steve. He said that he wanted to send me a check then coordinate a courier to pick it up. That sounded weird, but okay sure. He said that he needed my name and address to send me a payment. He took about a week and a half to get the payment to me. Friday I finally received the UPS envelope with his check.

The check is from a company called: New Orleans Leftover Data Centers, Inc. 2171 Pine Ave. New Orleans, LA 70130

The check amount is for $2500.00

His email to me was that he wants me to Western Union $2100 to an address in Clinton, MD. The difference in $ would mean that he is paying me a little more then $300.

Something sounds wrong about this. I have sent him emails stating that I am concerned about the amount of the check. I told him that i feel uncomfortable about this transaction.

Any advice?

My issues with this… – I have thought about him wanting to try and get me to deposit his check and send his money only to have his check get rejected. – Money Laundering?

I looked up the company on the check using google. The address for the company on the check is different then the one shown on the website.

What do you guys think i should do?

— A crazy story i read on Fox News…

FOXNews.com’s Michael De Dora, Jr. contributed to this report.

Mother Has 12-Year-Old Son Arrested for Opening Christmas Gift Early

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

A 12-year-old South Carolina boy got an unexpected stocking stuffer — a pair of handcuffs — after he snuck into his Christmas gifts a few weeks early.

After a mother discovered her son had unwrapped a Nintendo Game Boy Advance that was meant for him as a present from his grandmother, she called the Rock Hill Police and had the young man arrested for petty larceny, according to the police report filed this week.

“He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it,” the boy’s 63-year-old great-grandmother told the Rock Hill Herald.

• Click here to read the original story at Rock Hill Herald’s Web site.

• Click here to read the Rock Hill Police Department report.

The great-grandmother said in the filed complaint that she wrapped the gift and placed it under the tree at her house — then specifically told the boy not to open it.

But when she checked under the tree Sunday, she found the box unwrapped and opened. The great-grandmother relayed the news to the mother, who is 27-years-old.

When the boy claimed he didn’t know where the present was, the mother threatened to call the cops. On that threat, the boy went to his bedroom and grabbed the $85 Game Boy, according to the report.

But mom still called the police.

And the boy “showed no remorse” when the police came, mother said.

The boy was charged as a juvenile and released the same day, said police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop. He was never in jail.

“We wouldn’t hold a 12-year-old,” he told the Rock Hill Herald.

On Monday night, the mother said she didn’t know what else to do but call the police in hopes it would be a wake-up call for her son.

The mother told police that the boy has a history of bad behavior, including shoplifting from stores and stealing money from her. The mother said he even punched a police officer last month and was arrested for disorderly conduct for it.

“I’m trying to get him some kind of help,” she told the Rock Hill Herald.