http://www.slurredspeech.com Politics, software, and life through one man's beer goggles. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:27:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Man do I love Google's sense of humor... Google Custom Time The Beta User Testimonials crack me up ... "I just got two tickets to Radiohead by being the 'first' to respond to a co-worker's 'first-come, first-serve' email. Someone else had already won them, but I told everyone to check their inboxes again. ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2008/03/31/april-fools/ The Price of Atheism The Root of All Evil http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/07/24/interesting-atheism-videos/ http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/06/01/baby-maker/ The MN Daily's spoof on google.  Pretty funny stuff. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/05/07/gdaily/ http://www.freethinkers.co.za/documents/politics/katrina%20and%20race.jpg?racism http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/04/25/katrina-racisim/ With the big push to emphasize the "sanctity of life" my question is can a person lose their sanctity of life?  Does a criminal forfeit his right to a sacred life, or is the sanctity of life ever present and ongoing, something given to us from God?  If all life ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/04/24/losing-the-sanctity-of-life/ http://xruby.com/default.aspx A Ruby to Java compiler. It magically turns ruby source files into java class files. Interesting, interesting, interesting. I wonder if the JRuby guys have played with this at all and what they think of it? The better question is ... why the hell haven't I ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/04/18/xruby-ruby-to-java-class-compiler/ http://www.youtube.com/v/NBZQfAYfH7s http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/04/17/family-guy-vs-god/ Deployed new features on Nearbie.com like history item commenting, history browsing (earlier and later for each item that makes up the history) and slowly adding more cities of the world (all Canada is imported -- I think UK is next). Enjoy! http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/04/16/nearbie-updates/ I was just listening to NPR and the whole Kyle Sampson testimony. I was just wondering how old this dude was and haven't really found the answer -- 34? Anyway -- I did come across a firm and bio page to send him an email... Feel free to ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/03/29/kyle-sampson/ If 2006 was the year of the mashup, 2007 will be the year of the MegaMashup.  Sites will spring up mashing up feeds from 5-20 other sites.   You will see  mashups incorporating everything from last.fm,  amazon, yahoo, google, bn.com,  twitter, flickr, del.icio.us, myspace, digg and many more. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/02/28/2007-the-year-of-the-megamashup/ Quick little blurb about nearbie.com on ehub.  Over the next few weeks we will be focusing our efforts on marketing and brand building.  And as always any thoughts about how to make Nearbie better or great marketing ideas -- shoot me an email at feedback at nearbie.com. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/02/28/nearbiecom-getting-some-press-on-ehub/ "Refresh Release" Deployed Check it out and as always -- feedback is welcome and much appreciated at feedback at nearbie.com. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/02/22/nearbiecom-refresh-release-deployed/ The idea of a quick customizable survey is something I have wanted to build for some time -- and of course -- that is as far as I got. Bruno on the other hand seems to be working with 36 hour days or something and cranked it out in ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/02/22/snapballotcom-bruno-bornsztein-kicks-ass/ This little girl has trouble pronouncing "sparkling wiggles" but what comes out sounds very racist. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/02/19/kids-say-the-darndest-things/ Now It's Personal: Al Qaeda Calls Bush an Alcoholic Liar -- well it's true isn't it? Bush Quit Drinking 'On His Own' Bush Lies http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/02/12/oh-no-he-didnt-zawahiri-calls-bush-an-alcoholic-liar-and-gambler/ Ehren Watada begins his court martial trial for failing to deploy with his unit. The government has also tacked on other charges including conduct unbecoming an officer and contempt toward officials (the President). Another example of the heavy handed tactics by the administrations -- Either your with us ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/02/05/is-the-fact-that-the-iraq-is-an-illegal-war-a-valid-defense-for-a-conscientious-objector/ All that I can say is it is super SICK. Talk about web development on steroids. http://www.getfirebug.com http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/01/25/firebug-extension-upgrade/ If you don't already know the Ruby Users of Minnesota (RUM) is the premier Ruby user group in the Minneapolis, Twin Cities (Mpls and St. Paul) area.  You could call it the Ruby Users of Minneapolis or Ruby Users of St. Paul.  But no matter what the name is, it ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/01/20/rum-ruby-users-of-minnesota-minneapolis-st-paul-and-surrounding-areas-rubymn/ In life, mistakes are made all the time that are easily fixed by first admitting the fault and then taking the right course to correct the problem.  A broken war is not one of those mistakes you can fix by simply admitting that "mistakes were made". Sometimes things ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/01/10/some-mistakes-cant-be-fixed-war-is-one-of-them/ Box in a box for you -- So funny -- Think SNL -- D*** in a Box. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/01/08/box-in-a-box-for-you/ In no particular order Attend my Brazilian Jui-Jitsu class at the Warrior's Cove least 2 times a week with goal of obtaining second first degree gold belt by end of the year Get Carson into swimming lessons in the spring Do everything I can to help make Nearbie a success Give Grails a chance ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/01/05/my-new-years-resolutions/ Here are the steps I took to get Rails running on a fresh MacBook Pro. Start by following http://blog.nanorails.com/articles/2006/10/17/installing-rails-on-mac-os-x-tiger-10-4-8 The big things to keep an eye out for Don't forget to update the Darwin ports sudo port -d selfupdate very very important Don't forget the +server portion of the mysql5 install I typically use ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2007/01/03/mac-osx-fresh-rails-install/ Ben and Bruno built a popurls.com type service that is based on cities. http://www.acu.mn http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/12/08/acumn/ Well, I have been a bit remiss in keeping everyone updated on what I have been up to lately. Earlier this year I started a fairly large Rails project, Yfly.com, a social networking site for teens and celebrities. We did an initial deploy on August 15th and weekly/biweekly updates thereafter. ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/12/05/rails-social-networking-history-connects-everything-and-other-things-i-have-been-working-on-lately/ Democrats win the house and probably the senate... Rummy was thrown under the bus ... and I just got done eating a very tasty steak from Mancini's. Today was one big middle finger from moderate middle America to the neocon Bush, evangelical White House. The only thing that will keep ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/11/08/a-beautiful-day/ Bush Flip-Flops on Stay the Course. With the upcoming election and probable loss of the House (and possibly the Senate) they are doing everything they can to set the stage for the looming congressional inquiries and oversight proceedings. Let's not forget the rhetoric, it wasn't that long ago May 6, ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/10/22/bush-flip-flops-on-stay-the-course/ We recently released a bunch of updates to Yfly.com (personal videos/music and ability to use limitied markup) just in time for the Nick Lachey concert at the Target Center. Star Tribune did a small story mentioning the event and YFly. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/10/04/more-yfly-press/ Zillowblog.com has some interesting maps aggregating census data. Here are the top and bottom 5 richest and poorest cities. Top 5 Douglas, CO - $130,146 Loudon, VA - $127,118 Fairfax, VA - $121,044 Hunterdon, NJ - $119,787 Los Alamos, NM - $117,563 Bottom 5 Kalawao, HI - $8,852 Buffalo, SD - $17,609 Wilcox, AL - $20,885 Holmes, MS - $21,275 McDowell, ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/09/15/census-data-with-maps/ How can any intelligent person with a conscience shop at Walmart? I feel dirty just thinking about it... "Behind this manufactured cheerfulness, however, is the fact that the average employee makes only $15,000 a year for full-time work. Most are denied even this poverty income, for they’re held to part-time ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/09/08/evil-walmart-facts-and-quotes/ Just wanted to announce the new addition to the family (and the reason I have been away so long), Carson Alexander Helbling. Stay tuned.... Much more to follow. http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/08/01/carson-alexander-helbling/ Jesus healed a few sick people... Big deal. Warren Buffett's 30 billion dollar donation will be literally helping millions upon millions of sick people across the world. I suggest we make June 26th Buffett Day. He is far more deserving of a holiday named after him than ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/06/27/make-june-26th-buffett-day/ The Bible is Bullshit What it is like to work at Google http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/06/20/links-of-the-day/ Last night I was at the Twins game and got to watch two crazy fans run across the field. One decides to round the bases and slide head first into home. Just then the bat boy steps up and takes him out. Talk about embarrassing. Crazy Fan Video http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/06/15/crazy-fans/ This new Dictionary Tooltip Extension beats the crappy old "Dictionary Search Extension" since it displays the results on the same page in a sweet little web 2.0ey "tooltip". FEBE: Firefox Extension Backup Extension finally solves the problem of trying to synchronize firefox extensions accross multiple machines. It allows you ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/06/15/sweet-new-firefox-extensions/ I guess Bush won't be getting the Nobel Peace Prize any time soon. (source guardian.co.uk) http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/06/14/iraq-war-seen-as-biggest-threat-to-peace/ And plenty more available on YouTube.com http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/06/02/mactards-macsaber-fighting/ Google notebook just released today -- useful for saving small clips of text... And notice ... they stole the black triangles from WidgetWeb. http://www.google.com/notebook/ http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/05/16/google-notebook/ Ben has some cool photos from inside the new library on flickr. Check em out. I get a strange jail or prison feeling. It is very Alcatrazy... The New Minneapolis Public Library Alcatraz http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/05/03/inside-the-new-minneapolis-public-library/ Block level view on Amazon maps is pretty cool http://maps.a9.com/ http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/05/03/block-level-view-nyc/ I started using Tool Man about a year ago to help with javascript drag and drop sorting of lists. Lately however, I have been using crap.taculo.us and have come to like many of its features especially the "$" referencing of dom elements. Unfortunately they can't coexist. They ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/04/24/the-battle-of-the-list-sorting-javascript-packages/ Summer of Code is a program designed to introduce students to open source software development. Google provides stipends to about 400 students to work with a mentor on an open source project over the summer. This is just another example of why google is google... supporting the open source ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/04/24/google-summer-of-code/ Seriously... WTF. Devotees nailed to cross in Philippines - Boston.com http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/04/17/nailed-to-a-tree/ Artie is a service that utilizes Amazon.com's public database of images to retrieve any missing cover art for your iTune's library. Just upload your easy-to-find iTunes Music Library.xml file, wait a second while it analyzes everything, and drag the artwork straight into your running iTunes program. The correct art is ... http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/04/06/mp3-art-finder/ http://www.slurredspeech.com/2006/04/05/word-of-the-day-cum/