Got Wills

New Server Setup

First of all, this blog is now running on it’s own machine, powered by Debian 5.0 aka Lenny. The installation had a few problems, of course, which will be discussed in a later post.

Google Wave

Well, I finally got my invite to Wave, and I’m loving it, although, it would be a lot better if more people I know used it. I got my wife to use it (somewhat reluctantly) but almost nobody else I know has or even wants to wave.

I’ve got 6 invites left, so if anybody wants one, let me know in the comments before any of my facebook friends or coworkers do and they’re yours. Make sure you use your correct email address. Also, the invites don’t go out right away and I’ve heard that gmail accounts generally receive them faster than other email accounts.

I’m also working on a Google Wave client for Windows Mobile. It’s still very early in the development stages, more about this later.

Navajo County Web Site Redesign

Once again, the powers that be are asking for a Web site redesign. I like a lot of their ideas and am looking forward to it. I’ve started by making the width 960 pixels, but haven’t had time to do much else. We’re going to try moving the menu to the top of the page (above the header).

The county has signed up for a facebook and twitter account, so now I need to find a way to incorporate badges or something for those into the redesigned site. I’m also creating some javascript tools to make the text bigger or smaller, show a printable or emailable version of the page (it already prints without the background, header, or sidebar).

New Site for NAYFL

I’m creating a new site for the Northeastern Arizona Youth Football League (NAYFL). I’m building a database to store scores and schedules, which I’ll use to automatically update the standings on the site. I think I’ll be writing the site in PHP, I was thinking about going with Ruby on Rails, but I don’t think there’s enough database integration to the site to warrant that. I’ll post more details about the database setup later.

For those of you who, like myself, are just now boiling eggs for Easter, here’s what I use… There’s a trick I saw on Emeril Live a long time ago that has always given me done and easy to peel eggs that aren’t green in the middle.

The “Lucky 13″ Boiled Egg

1. Put the eggs in a pot of cool water over high heat. Bring them to a boil and let them boil for 2 minutes.
2. Take them off the heat and cover for 11 minutes.
3. Put them in an ice bath or some really cold water. (If you don’t use ice, you’ll need to change your water a few times while they cool.)

Voila, the perfect boiled egg using Emeril’s “Lucky 13″ method.

Well, it’s official… I guess. I’m listed in the class schedule for Fall 2007. I’m going to be teaching three labs. One of them is at the PDC in Holbrook on Tuesday nights, while the other two are at SCC in Snowflake on Monday and Wednesday nights.

I’ll also be teaching two NAVIT classes, but as those are only available to high school students in Snowflake, they’re not listed in the schedule. So, if anyone in the Holbrook / Snowflake area is interested in learning more about computers, go ahead and check my classes out. I don’t think the tuition is very high (can’t seem to find it on the Web site, seems like an obvious thing to put on there). Anyway, maybe I’ll see you in class next semester.

Well, I got the job teaching at NPC, which means I’m going to be a lot busier here in a month or so. It also means that our refrigerator won’t ever look as anorexic as it is looking right now. I’m going to continue working for the county. My duties there have not lessened at all, in fact… I’d say I have more to do there than ever. Now that I’ve successfully exported the parcel search to another county (Graham), I’m sure I’ll be helping more counties get it set up and working. I’m also charged with getting the “Pay your property taxes online” feature working by the end of the month. So, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

However, I’ve also got a new project with the same deadline as my online payment system, building the White Mountain Regional Development Corporation’s Web site into ours… I guess the WMRDC will cease to exist. I’m not real sure what’s going to happen to the member list. I guess it’ll all come out in the wash.

I guess all of this work isn’t so bad… even the deadline. I mean, I don’t even start at the college until after the deadlines, which is good. I think I may have to spend a few nights this month getting everything finished. At least the month will pass quickly (it always does when I have deadlines looming over my head).

There’s a lot more sites cropping up that help to make the world a more socially responsible place by shaming people and businesses who play dirty. TechCrunch has a recent article on a new service, dotherightthing.com. I agree with Michael when he says this site has a huge potential to become a site where the only people using it are smug, better than you, types that are more interested in making themselves look good by bringing others down than actually trying to hold companies responsible for their social regressions.

These startups aren’t the first to hold companies to a higher standard. Before dotherightthing.com, and other similar sites, there was epinions.com and the rating and opinion system of just about every other shopping site since around 2002 (give or take a couple years). While one or two bad opinions won’t deter me from my intended purchase, a 25% or higher rate of negatives will give me second thoughts about buying from the merchant. The main difference between the two is that the latter are primarily rating online retailers, whereas the former are trying to establish a rating system for online as well as traditional brick and mortar retailers. The other real difference is that the rash of new sites are not solely focused on buyers experiences, but also the social impact that the business is making.

The sole purpose of a business is not to make money. While making money is the primary purpose of most businesses, they also have a responsiblity to build the economy. In most cases, these two objectives go hand in hand, what’s good for one is good for the other. However, all of the thievery and dishonesty going on lately is bad for the economy (and the company), while it makes the few people who are in on it wealthy. This is a horrible direction for the upper management of these large corporations to be taking us. Now, don’t get me wrong, not all CEO’s are bad. It just seems to be the way of things, that all we hear about are the bad ones, at least they’re the ones that we remember.

There’s something to be said about living in a small town. Sure, the job market is non-existant and there is nothing to do unless you create it yourself. However, there are some benefits, as well. Sure, there’s the lower crime rate and fewer violent crimes, but I attribute that more to the town having a lower density of people than the overall population, but that’s just my theory, and that’s not what I wanted to write about today.

In fact, I wanted to write about a wonderful experience I had at one of the local Mexican restaurants called Romo’s, last night. My wife wanted a chicken taco dinner, so I called the order in for pickup. I know the owner, Phyllis, and she happened to be the one who took my order. She is a great person. She has successfully operated her business as long as I can remember, and I’ve lived here and Joseph City (a tiny town about 10 miles away) my whole life. Phyllis gave me part of my order for free and even gave me some of the salsa that she usually only serves in house. This was the first time I had tried the jalepeño salsa and it was wonderful, although I still prefer the original. In fact, the original is my favorite hot sauce.

I’ve always loved Romo’s and suspect that I always will. Hopefully, I’ll start getting more calls to fix computers and setup Web sites for people so that I can afford to eat there more. Thank you Phyllis, for being a great neighbor, a great business owner and a great person.

If anyone is interested in the jalepeño salsa, she only serves it in house on Fridays. If you ever pass through Holbrook and want to have the best Mexican food you will ever have, be sure to stop at Romo’s.