Who cares?

50 by 50

2009-11-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

Pondering goals... Flying (take off and land) in all 50 states by the time I am 50. I could bump off a bunch in one day in the north east.

Why I Fly (Chapter 13)

2009-08-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished a week of vacation with my family. We had a camping trip cut short by bees, followed by a leaky kitchen faucet that I had to replace, and then a bicycle ride on the burke-gillman trail that involved more sibling bickering than riding. So for my last day of vacation, I wanted to take myself out for an airplane ride.When I awoke this morning the view from my window was of fog.

Big Changes

2009-06-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Isaac was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes on Sunday, or what is called type one. For several days, he had been using the bathroom frequently was always thirsty, had lost about seven or eight pounds, and was having occasional headaches. Other than that, he didn't show any visible signs of slowing down or being "ill."We called the Dr, Sunday morning, and after a short conversation she sent us to

Why I Fly (Chapter 12)

2008-08-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

The man who taught me to fly, Lewis, has remained a good friend of mine since we met in 1995. On Saturday he got married. Sandra and I have grown fond of him and are very happy for him. At the wedding his brother, Walt, described him as "having the capacity to be really excited about anything." As a result, hanging out with Lewis is always a hoot. But it also made for Lewis often chasing in a new

And Speaking of voting...

2008-08-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

I am proud to say have contributed to the a new national voting project, Vote 18. I created the inital website, and then worked with to get the new .php one up and running. Stop by and check it out.Vote 18 has recently kicked off it's national tour and they are already getting some great media coverage. Kudos to Walt, Marco, and their team!

My vote so far in America's Got Talent

2008-06-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

Why I Fly (Chapter 11)

2008-05-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

As my one regular reader knows, I got my Multi-Engine license a couple of years back. However, I am yet to fly the twin-engine plane alone. I recently logged enough time to satisfy the insurance company, but then realized that I did not have a recent Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) nor had I flown on instruments in a while, which the insurance company also requires to get signed off in the

Ego Surfing

2008-05-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

I got a notice in the mail today that a patent I submitted in 2002 was accepted. Here is the list of things I consider cool achivement. Inventor, U.S. Patent Application No. 10/179,858 : System and method for smart drag-and-drop functionality.Joint Inventor, U.S. Patent Application No. 11/012,767 : Systems and Methods for Dynamic Application Patching.Contributor to ECMA-357 ECMAScript for XML (

Improving the news, and entrapment.

2008-01-01T16:52:00.000-08:00

As of today, there is a new law in Washington State, described as the Driving While Texting (DWT) law. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for this law. Not long ago I was held up in a 90 minute traffic jam as a result of an accident on the express way caused by a guy composing an email on his blackberry.The news reports all describe it as the Driving While Texting law. In fact nearly all the major

Good Political Ad

2007-12-19T20:17:00.000-08:00

My friend Dave has been posting plenty of positive press on on his favorite candidate. So following his lead I'm making some political comentary of my own. I am not endosing the candidate here, but I am endorsing having fun with a process that has become painful. This ad is just good clean fun.

Kids play at piano recital

2007-12-16T08:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was piano recital day. I forgot the real video camera, so I used my digital camera to record video, it is a Canon SD500 I got a couple years ago, it is not real clear, but still you get the idea. Click the play ">" buttons on the lower left of the image to see and hear them play. Isaac, 11, first set Isaac, 11, second set Brittany, 14, first set Brittany, 14, second set

Thank you Sir! May I have another?

2007-10-27T23:30:00.000-07:00

Imagine your doctor writes you a prescription, you bring it to the pharmacist and he has the medicine. But your insurance company wants your doctor to get the medication pre-approved before they will cover it, and that pre-approval is being held up in paperwork somewhere. You’ve used the medication in the past, so you know it will help. In fact you know that without this medication, you will have

Verizon Swing and a Miss

2007-10-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

FIOS has hit my 'hood. 49.95 for lightining fast, 39.95 for merely blazing. But wait, there is more. I can get it as a "package" with home phone, internet, and cell service. But the pricing confuses me, and I contact customer support. Below is my conversation, with spelling corrections. Your chat ID number is 10150791940.Welcome to Verizon Live Chat. You have selected to chat about:TN:

The six Fs (don't get your hopes up)

2007-08-19T23:34:00.001-07:00

My friend Adam observed there are six words that begin with F that motivate people in their jobs. I'll list them in alphabetical order Family / Friends - a job that provides an opportunity for you to spend time with your family. Imagine limited work hours, extra vacation, or even telecommuting.Fame - success at your tasks will make you famous. Think of Mark Andreeson, Jim Barksdale, Adam Bosworth

The problem with learning from experience is the test comes before the lesson.

2007-07-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

Insurance companies rule the aviation industry. As an example, in the 12 years I've had a pilot’s license, I've not had an accident resulting in any damage -- knock on wood. Admittedly I've had one declared emergency, and one near miss (and why is it a near miss? I was nearly hit!). I have accumulated an instrument rating, a complex endorsement, a high performance endorsement, spin training,

Just the facts, ma'am

2007-05-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

I am a local general aviation pilot, who occasionally generates airplane noise around Harvey Field. I have yet to grasp the difficult reasons for modifying the current runway alignment, but the latest set of misrepresentations, half-truths, and deception that passes for facts in has inspired me to write.It is true the population of the area has swelled; however the FAA no longer considers it “

Getting Parameters to .ascx files

2007-02-25T23:20:00.000-08:00

In .net, the preferred way of performing server side includes is to use the web control, or .ascx file. As I noted earlier .aspx files must have the html and body tags in them. but .ascx files do not. These are simply easy to use html blocks that can be plugged in to an .aspx file.They also allow you to write code behind the html blocks, like the .aspx file does. However, passing parameters to

Servlets in .net?

2007-02-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

Today I am writing a website using .net 2.0, and one of the pages needs to return a .pdf rather than HTML. So the return back needs to not output the normal html headers and content. But in ASPX, every webpage must contain at least this:But once that is emitted into the stream, I am not outputting a .pdf any more. So I needed to subvert the streaming of that content.Here's

RAVE: I love bluetooth.

2007-01-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Long ago I gave up my regular flip phone in favor of a smart phone. Even as a nerd, I wanted to carry around the fewest gadgets possible. At first I had a TREO 600, a great phone to be sure, but it has some drawbacks.What I really want is a phone with a built in PDA. What is available is a PDA with a built in phone. My idea of a phone is a flip phone. Something like a old Star Trek communicator -

Nothing new to write about.

2007-01-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

so I'll make it a night at the movies instead.

The magic of Python

2006-12-09T16:58:00.000-08:00

One of my customers sells novelty toys. Cool gizmos to play with. They advertise on infomercials which are done by as third party. Buyers call the third party to place orders, and the orders are later sent to my customer in a comma separated values (csv) file. These orders then need to be loaded into their accounting system and sent to the credit card processing gateway; however, the csv file

Is the internet censored?

2006-10-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today one of my friends sent me a link to a video that poured weak fuel on the 9/11 conspiracy theory. I won't post a link to it here. I don't want to add to the link count and drive up the videos ranking. I was offended by the intellectual insults that flowed during the opening moments I could tolerate sitting through. Thin and contortionistic logic -- stuff that my 12 year old son would have

Aviation sectionals update

2006-09-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Just an update on my earlier post. Boeing is closing down connixion. I talked to a representitive about it, and they plan to just unplug it. No selling off assets, Just unplugging. So much potential -- soon to be gone.

Why I Fly (chapter 10)

2006-09-25T23:24:00.000-07:00

All my stories start with a lead-in something like “A long time ago in a galx…” No wait, that’s a different story. More like this: Earlier this summer we went to Oregon to visit my sister in Lincoln City. On the way down we stopped at the Tacoma Museum of Glass, Fort Vancouver, Pearson Air Park and Museum, and Evergreen Aviation Museum. And yes, I see the trend developing here. We had a nice