Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Converting to the Dead

Great... Just great. I need to begin using AAC instead of MP3 for this project I guess, per https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/16/mp3_dies_nobody_noticed/

Editor's Note: My friend Matthew passed along this link: https://marco.org/2017/05/15/mp3-isnt-dead

Heed

From this article - http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/jack-russell-alcohol-and-drugs-are-the-worst-things-in-the-world/ - comes thoughts about drugs & booze:

Russell, who in 2010 suffered a perforated bowel — six months after shattering his pelvis in a live performance fall — largely blamed these injuries on his alcohol and painkiller addictions as well as the prednisone drug he was prescribed.

"Alcohol and drugs are the worst things in the world," Jack told "The Five Count". Anybody out there that's got a problem with alcohol, or alcohol and drugs, get some help. You may not be as lucky as me."

Russell continued: "The last time I drank was almost two years ago. I came out of a five-day coma. And I'm in this hospital room. There's all these people in my room — a guy from Chicago that I know, my wife, my band, my doctor. I go, 'Where am I?' And he goes, 'Well, you're in the hospital.' I go, 'I know I'm in the hospital. What am I here for?' My wife goes, 'Jack, I couldn't wake you up. You came home at night. You were out with Don Dokken' — of all people — and I came back home and she got me on the bed and she couldn't wake me up the next morning. So she drove me to the emergency room and I was in a coma with my liver almost shut down. So [the doctor] told me, 'Look, I'll tell you like this. The way you drink, which your wife tells me how you drink, and I don't think you're gonna change if you do…' I said, 'No, I wouldn't.' And he goes, 'Well, if you do that one more time, you're gonna be dead. I'm not saying you might, could, should, would — you're going to die.' So I said, 'Well, that's pretty much it then. It's like somebody putting six bullets in a gun and saying, 'Let's play Russian Roulette.'"

Jack added: "But the message I was trying to impart is just if you do have an issue and you're listening to this interview, please get help, 'cause it's not worth it, and your life can be so much better."

Great advice.

Stan Lee, John Cusack to appear at Des Moines comic convention

The Des Moines comic book and gaming scene will come to life this weekend with two big names coming to town. Wizard World Comic Con Des Moines announced that comic book icon Stan Lee and actor John Cusack will be appearing at the convention this weekend, reports the Register. Mr. Lee, who created legendary comics like "Spider-Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "X-Men" and "The Fantastic Four," will be signing autographs and posing for photos both Friday and Saturday and will host a Q&A Saturday. Mr. Cusack, star of movies like "Say Anything" and "High Fidelity," will sign autographs and pose for photos from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m Saturday. Katie Manchester, comics manager at Mayhem Comics, Cards and Games in Clive, said that comic store managers are expecting Mr. Lee will draw so many comic fans to the area that they are adjusting their "convention game plan."

Deadly Alive

5/10/17 M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, MD

Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Fuel
The Unforgiven
Now That We're Dead
Moth Into Flame
Wherever I May Roam
Halo On Fire
Kirk And Rob Doodle
Hit The Lights
Sad But True
One
Master Of Puppets
Fade to Black
Seek and Destroy
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman

Total Running Time: 2:18:35

Show Notes:

This was the 14th time that Metallica performed in Maryland.
Metallica first played in Baltimore on August 9, 1983 at the Seagull Inn during the Kill 'Em All for One tour with Raven.
The band last played Baltimore on July 4, 2000 during the first Summer Sanitarium tour with Korn, Kid Rock, System of a Down & Powerman 5000.
This was the first show of the WorldWired North American Tour.
This was the first time that "Now That We're Dead" and "Halo On Fire" were performed in the United States.
This was the first time in 25 years that "The Unforgiven" was played in Maryland.
This was the first time in 34 years that "Hit the Lights" was performed in Maryland. It was last played here in 1983 during a show at Coast to Coast.
Metallica performed 18 songs off of seven albums: Kill 'Em All (2), Ride the Lightning (2), Master of Puppets (2), ...And Justice for All (1), Metallica (5), Reload (1), Hardwired...To Self-Destruct (5)

Gasp! No Creeping Death on the setlist!

No & Yes

So, no, I'm not moving to Chicago or Troy or New York and yes, I'm happy where I work. I just enjoy seeing jobs that look interesting.

Wordpress Developer
Chicago, IL, USA
Troy, MI, USA
New York, NY, USA
Job Summary:

The role:

You will be developing website and providing maintenance services for our clients (venues and promoters). You’ll work with our clients to define their website requirements and then off you go to develop and maintain those sites. You’ll receive client requests on events and changes to update on their sites.

What the job is:

Building client websites using Wordpress

Providing on-going support and maintenance on the client site

Making updates and changes as needed

What we look for in our Engineers

Ownership. You feel ownership over everything you ship. You'd never call code "released" until you’re confident it’s correct.

Passion. You pride yourself on efficient monitoring, strong documentation, and proper test coverage. You are excited to work in a modern tech stack, and you have demonstrable experience with diverse pool of technologies.

A team player. You believe that you can achieve more on a team—that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You rely on others' candid feedback for continuous improvement.

Ability to make an impact. You will work on a site that is being seen by 95+ million fans number of fans. You seek new methods and tools to make great websites faster and better, both on the front-end and back-end.

Interest in continuous Learning. Exposure to latest & great technologies; onsite tech talks and trainings; attending tech conferences.

Collaboration. Partner with a diverse group of professionals with different skills & disciplines across the organization to achieve a common goal

Write great code. You care about writing good code, design, performance and an outstanding user experience.

What a qualified candidate should possess:

3+ years of relevant website development experience with Wordpress

Bachelor’s degree preferred or equivalent working experience

Expert with Wordpress CMS

Proficient in PHP 5 and object-oriented design

Familiar with databases and SQL syntax, such as MySQL

Knowledge of HTML and CSS

Strong knowledge of UI/UX design and best practices

Familiar with JavaScript and AJAX

Basic knowledge of GNU/Linux and a web server (Apache or Nginx)

Ability to interact with clients directly

Also, did you notice the inconsistency at the end of the "What we look for in our Engineers" heading?

Point Away! Point Away!

At Quintrex, there were some customers who were multiple versions 'behind' the current version. There was never a clear-cut explanation for 'why' that was except... the customer didn't upgrade as the CDs (yes - we shipped 3 physical CDs: 1 for the PC applications, 1 for the Supplemental PC applications, & one for the iSeries (AS/400) software) were shipped to them. That situation came to mind when I read this article - Microsoft Blames NSA for ‘WannaCry’ Cyber Extortion - Software maker sent patch 2 months ago for flaw used in large-scale ransomware - which states that the NSA had the patch 2 months ago for the 'WannaCry' cyber extortion, but it was never applied.

Hmmm.

Monday, May 15, 2017

Interview with Het

Album His Listens To

Out of Date Documentation

Quick! A Tip!

Pinning a File to the Taskbar

Wishing Luck

When I read an article about Iowa women's soccer, it's routine and typical that I also think about the former Iowa women's soccer coach, who also was my neighbor, Ron Rainey - and to also reflect upon the past, which seems to be the theme for the weekend that just completed. First, yesterday in his homily, Father Stephen Page talked about looking in the rear-view mirror as you drive forward, which he told us we should not do in the parking lot. Second, I watched the Season 8 finale of Shark Tank last night. A woman had a product that was for brides to be able to go to the bathroom by themselves. There was a netting that they rolled their dress into so there would no longer be a need for a bridesmaid to help the bride. When the woman with the product told her story, she talked about how she had the idea in 2002 but then let it 'sit' for 13 years. When the Sharks asked her why, she said that she had learned she needed to surround herself with positive people and that it had been a hard lesson. Lori, one of the Sharks, talked about putting the past behind you. Third, I reread some earlier journal entries in my summary volume of the 10 Year Project and reflected upon where I was and where I am. Certainly, it's always easy to wax poetic about the past - hell, read pretty much any post on this blog and there's an undercurrent of wanting to relive the past in areas about college, work, and yes, even family. Given time to do what I want, I often find myself reflecting on my past.

Today, though, on a beautiful Monday AM, at work, I am able to eat donuts from the Hy-Vee gas station and I am able to drink a Mountain Dew Pitch Black. My life moves forward every day and while I sincerely might wish Margaret & Ron still lived next door to me, the reality is some wishes don't come true because they are beyond my control. The other aspect of all of this is that I like Molly & Ezra, who moved into Margaret & Ron's house. Their kids, Mac & Violet, are going to be fun to watch as they grow up. I think about that when I think about Alex graduating from high school in 12 days and then, later in August, both Megan & Alex will be moving up north, to Cedar Falls, for the next UNI school year. The next 93 days are sure to feel like they are passing by very quickly even though science says there are the same amount of hours in the next 93 as there have been as long as I've been alive.

Friday, May 12, 2017

28 Days from THIS Day

WWE Stuff

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2709129-roman-reigns-vs-the-miz-rumored-feud-would-ignite-stale-wwe-raw
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2708932-john-cenas-best-potential-feuds-upon-return-to-wwe-smackdown-live
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2708968-making-the-case-for-finn-balor-to-challenge-wwe-universal-champ-brock-lesnar

Release the Clutch

https://youtu.be/d4WlqxPzQ28
https://youtu.be/d7Dq4PRqtKo
https://youtu.be/qWXzLZSNkDI
https://youtu.be/dhiBcVILo5o
https://youtu.be/zPjkQKfmVI8
https://youtu.be/s4ABpbxIPFI
https://youtu.be/vPN1EY4MIK8
https://youtu.be/6Sj76eCy6ag
https://youtu.be/4hvW001Jf9s
https://youtu.be/1tIzP3Te05E
https://youtu.be/QDgsIZ0x5lY
Full album query: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=clutch+full+album

Ignore the Urge to Switch to Another Tune into Billy Joel

"I'm a broken hearted heart breaker" - I like that lyric!

Billy Joel's Favorite Songs

Scenes from an Iltalian Restaurant
She's Right on Time
You May Be Right
And So It Goes
Vienna

Whew!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/children-injured-bus-crashes-near-st-louis-135145958.html

Please Be NBA

Peterson: It's all about defense — and mom — for Peter Jok

Holding

Editor's Note: Also relevant:

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Firing up the Lars Lashings with the bold-italic last sentence in the article

From this article - Lars Ulrich: Who I Would Choose to Replace Me in Metallica While we're at it - who do you think would be the best choice? - comes a very broad invitation for the Internet trolls who bash Lars Ulrich's drumming to creep out of the corners of the Internet and into the broad daylight:

Mr. Lars Ulrich was asked by 98 Rock to single out the drummer he would choose to replace him in Metallica if he had to, to which he replied (via Blabbermouth):
"If I could pick it, if I could hear somebody drum behind Hetfield's riffs, I'd take [classic AC/DC drummer] Phil Rudd.
"He's been probably my main, biggest source of inspiration when we did the turnaway from the super-progressive stuff, the crazy stuff after 'Justice,' when we got into the 'Black Album' and the 'Load' stuff, when it got a little more about the bounce and the riffs and the feel and the groove and all that.
"Phil Rudd, he's the top of that pyramid. Hearing Phil Rudd play behind James, that'd be pretty cool."
While we're at it - who do you think would be a good replacement for Lars?

Personally, I would choose Chris Adler - Lamb of God - as Ulrich's replacement. I think he is really a phenomenal drummer, he's grounded in reality and seems like a fantastic all-around person. I realize arguments could be made for the following drummers:

Charlie Benante - Anthrax
Dave Lombardo - Suicidal Tendencies (and others)
Mike Portnoy - Dream Theater (and others)
Gene Hoglan - Testament (and others)

My hope is that there is not a day when Ulrich has to be replaced.

Equality or Insanity -- You Decide

The Left Implodes: Male Periods, Menstrual Equity, and Tax Dollars for Tampons includes a link to Entitled Feminists Now Pushing For 'Menstrual Equity' which, in turn, includes a link to Periods, Policy and Politics: Menstrual Equity Is the New Thing...

Wow.

When Code Works Perfectly

I really am impressed with the author of this macro I found here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/possible-to-export-word-track-changes-information/e0dee9dc-aedb-41d3-92bf-8dc609cc75af - for not being bashful about their opinion of their work:

...so works perfectly...

Excuse my sarcasm, but code that "works perfectly" is like the Loch Ness Monster. You've heard it exists, some people claim to have seen it, but the majority of people in the world dismiss it as fantasy. Nonetheless, here is the code for my future reference:

Sub ExtractTrackChanges()
'
' ExtractTrackChanges Macro
'
'=========================
'Macro created 2007 by Lene Fredborg, DocTools - www.thedoctools.com
'THIS MACRO IS COPYRIGHT. YOU ARE WELCOME TO USE THE MACRO BUT YOU MUST KEEP THE LINE ABOVE.
'YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO PUBLISH THE MACRO AS YOUR OWN, IN WHOLE OR IN PART.
'=========================
'The macro creates a new document
'and extracts insertions and deletions
'marked as tracked changes from the active document
'NOTE: Other types of changes are skipped
'(e.g. formatting changes or inserted/deleted footnotes and endnotes)
'Only insertions and deletions in the main body of the document will be extracted
'The document will also include metadata
'Inserted text will be applied black font color
'Deleted text will be applied red font color

'Minor adjustments are made to the styles used
'You may need to change the style settings and table layout to fit your needs
'=========================

Dim oDoc As Document
Dim oNewDoc As Document
Dim oTable As Table
Dim oRow As Row
Dim oCol As Column
Dim oRange As Range
Dim oRevision As Revision
Dim strText As String
Dim n As Long
Dim i As Long
Dim Title As String

Title = "Extract Tracked Changes to New Document"
n = 0 'use to count extracted changes

Set oDoc = ActiveDocument

If oDoc.Revisions.Count = 0 Then
MsgBox "The active document contains no tracked changes.", vbOKOnly, Title
GoTo ExitHere
Else
'Stop if user does not click Yes
If MsgBox("Do you want to extract tracked changes to a new document?" & vbCr & vbCr & _
"NOTE: Only insertions and deletions will be included. " & _
"All other types of changes will be skipped.", _
vbYesNo + vbQuestion, Title) <> vbYes Then
GoTo ExitHere
End If
End If

Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'Create a new document for the tracked changes, base on Normal.dot
Set oNewDoc = Documents.Add
'Set to landscape
oNewDoc.PageSetup.Orientation = wdOrientLandscape
With oNewDoc
'Make sure any content is deleted
.Content = ""
'Set appropriate margins
With .PageSetup
.LeftMargin = CentimetersToPoints(2)
.RightMargin = CentimetersToPoints(2)
.TopMargin = CentimetersToPoints(2.5)
End With
'Insert a 7-column table for the tracked changes and metadata
Set oTable = .Tables.Add _
(Range:=Selection.Range, _
numrows:=1, _
NumColumns:=7)
End With

'Insert info in header - change date format as you wish
oNewDoc.Sections(1).Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range.Text = _
"Tracked changes extracted from: " & oDoc.FullName & vbCr & _
"Created by: " & Application.UserName & vbCr & _
"Creation date: " & Format(Date, "MMMM d, yyyy")

'Adjust the Normal style and Header style
With oNewDoc.Styles(wdStyleNormal)
With .Font
.Name = "Arial"
.Size = 9
.Bold = False
End With
With .ParagraphFormat
.LeftIndent = 0
.SpaceAfter = 3
End With
End With

With oNewDoc.Styles(wdStyleHeader)
.Font.Size = 8
.ParagraphFormat.SpaceAfter = 0
End With

'Format the table appropriately
With oTable
.Range.Style = wdStyleNormal
.AllowAutoFit = False
.PreferredWidthType = wdPreferredWidthPercent
.PreferredWidth = 100
For Each oCol In .Columns
oCol.PreferredWidthType = wdPreferredWidthPercent
Next oCol
.Columns(1).PreferredWidth = 5 'Page
.Columns(2).PreferredWidth = 5 'Line
.Columns(3).PreferredWidth = 10 'Type of change
.Columns(4).PreferredWidth = 35 'Inserted/deleted text
.Columns(5).PreferredWidth = 15 'Author
.Columns(6).PreferredWidth = 10 'Revision date
.Columns(7).PreferredWidth = 10 'Revision date
End With

'Insert table headings
With oTable.Rows(1)
.Cells(1).Range.Text = "Page"
.Cells(2).Range.Text = "Line"
.Cells(3).Range.Text = "Type"
.Cells(4).Range.Text = "What has been inserted or deleted"
.Cells(5).Range.Text = "Author"
.Cells(6).Range.Text = "Date"
.Cells(7).Range.Text = "Time"
End With

'Get info from each tracked change (insertion/deletion) from oDoc and insert in table
For Each oRevision In oDoc.Revisions
Select Case oRevision.Type
'Only include insertions and deletions
Case wdRevisionInsert, wdRevisionDelete
'In case of footnote/endnote references (appear as Chr(2)),
'insert "[footnote reference]"/"[endnote reference]"
With oRevision
'Get the changed text
strText = .Range.Text

Set oRange = .Range
Do While InStr(1, oRange.Text, Chr(2)) > 0
'Find each Chr(2) in strText and replace by appropriate text
i = InStr(1, strText, Chr(2))

If oRange.Footnotes.Count = 1 Then
strText = Replace(Expression:=strText, _
Find:=Chr(2), Replace:="[footnote reference]", _
Start:=1, Count:=1)
'To keep track of replace, adjust oRange to start after i
oRange.Start = oRange.Start + i

ElseIf oRange.Endnotes.Count = 1 Then
strText = Replace(Expression:=strText, _
Find:=Chr(2), Replace:="[endnote reference]", _
Start:=1, Count:=1)
'To keep track of replace, adjust oRange to start after i
oRange.Start = oRange.Start + i
End If
Loop
End With
'Add 1 to counter
n = n + 1
'Add row to table
Set oRow = oTable.Rows.Add

'Insert data in cells in oRow
With oRow
'Page number
.Cells(1).Range.Text = _
oRevision.Range.Information(wdActiveEndPageNumber)

'Line number - start of revision
.Cells(2).Range.Text = _
oRevision.Range.Information(wdFirstCharacterLineNumber)

'Type of revision
If oRevision.Type = wdRevisionInsert Then
.Cells(3).Range.Text = "Inserted"
'Apply automatic color (black on white)
oRow.Range.Font.Color = wdColorAutomatic
Else
.Cells(3).Range.Text = "Deleted"
'Apply red color
oRow.Range.Font.Color = wdColorRed
End If

'The inserted/deleted text
.Cells(4).Range.Text = strText

'The author
.Cells(5).Range.Text = oRevision.Author

'The revision date
.Cells(6).Range.Text = Format(oRevision.Date, "dd-mm-yyyy")

'The revision date
.Cells(7).Range.Text = Format(oRevision.Date, "HH:MM")
End With
End Select
Next oRevision

'If no insertions/deletions were found, show message and close oNewDoc
If n = 0 Then
MsgBox "No insertions or deletions were found.", vbOKOnly, Title
oNewDoc.Close savechanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
GoTo ExitHere
End If

'Apply bold formatting and heading format to row 1
With oTable.Rows(1)
.Range.Font.Bold = True
.HeadingFormat = True
End With

Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.ScreenRefresh

oNewDoc.Activate
MsgBox n & " tracked changed have been extracted. " & _
"Finished creating document.", vbOKOnly, Title

ExitHere:
Set oDoc = Nothing
Set oNewDoc = Nothing
Set oTable = Nothing
Set oRow = Nothing
Set oRange = Nothing

End Sub

Big Empty

This company is in New York, NY, but it serves as a reminder that when I was looking for a job after being laid off @ Pearson, I would see pages like this:

Makes me very happy to be working where I am!

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The Undeath of My Expertise

Read this article - http://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2017/05/book-of-the-month.html - about a book I have not read called "The Death of Expertise." It's where I snagged this awesome cartoon:

The way this relates to my work is that I am constantly faced with the choice to be 1) ignorant or 2) knowledgeable. My career as a technical writer has been about learning a new content area and immersing myself within its terminology and methodologies, regardless of the industry I have worked in: life insurance, MSDSs, telecommunication, medical devices, education, and disaster recovery. All of those industries require me, as a technical writer, to understand more than what is told to me by someone else. I am really only doing my job properly if I can pick and choose the details that are necessary to my target audience.

I learned this at my first job. My manager wrote on my performance evaluation that I needed to learn the concepts of life insurance so that I could produce usable documentation. She cited the fact that when I wrote music reviews, I had a mastery of the content (music) and I could pick and choose which details are relevant. I have taken that statement and can apply it to my belief that I have a 'mastery' about Metallica. I live, breathe, sleep Metallica and will see them in concert in 30 days!!!! When I wrote my reviews of their albums for dailyvault.com, I could pick and choose which aspects of what I wanted to write were important and relevant. I could cite the band's previous albums and highlight where patterns in the new album tunes were similar to previously released tunes.

That knowledge didn't happen overnight. It wasn't necessarily hard work, but it was an effort to listen to the albums, more than once, and internalize what I heard. Now, to some degree, that has made it so that I can't listen to a Metallica song without analyzing it. One quick example is that on "Hardwired," I hear references to other tunes, like "Enter Sandman" and "My Apocalypse." I think about those other tunes when I listen to the album.

Thus, my goal is to learn more about the subject matter than what my audience knows so that I can include only the most important details within the final product. With my current disaster recovery documentation, I have the added bonus of connecting the work individual teams into a steady of stream of a linear process - even though there are parallel activities throughout the disaster recovery process. I often talk to Team A and discuss their process for recovering systems and then talk to Team B and discuss their process for recovering systems. It's like the summary of the book where Team A knows that Team B does something, but they don't know what it is; the inverse is true also. A member of Team B admitted that she knows Team A does something, but she doesn't know exactly what it is - only that Team A must be done with their process prior to she being able to do her work.

My work is important and I am glad I woke up this AM in order to do that work.