Yesterday marked a very historic moment for me personally. Yesterday at approximately 1:30pm Pacific time, OMGN was relaunched. The new launch is known as OMGN4.

This has been a long time coming. OMGN’s eventual relaunch is the reason that I haven’t been posting on my blog much or doing much else in my spare time, especially since school let out for the summer. But fear not! OMGN has relaunched! The announcement of the relaunch is on the site.

Really, I’m just posting to finally say something here on my blog about all of this. This is big for me. This is the first full-on redesign of OMGN since I launched it back in 2002. It’s been almost 8 years and now the site will finally be running a worthy code and database structure. The design is simpler and less crowded than it’s been for years, and I’ll be exerting more control over the content to ensure higher quality standards are met. OMGN has sucked up a lot of my time lately, and now it can take a little less. But I’m not going to just rest on my laurels, no. I’ll still be working on it and making it better than before.

As  a matter of fact, I’m going to run off and play some Final Fantasy 13 because I’m planning on reviewing it for OMGN. Interestingly enough, I’ve already achieved quite a lot of what I wanted to do over this summertime: relaunch OMGN, finish some books I’ve ordered, play some games, do some side work. Ahh, summer.

Ok, so I’m not an expert on Net Neutrality nor do I ascribe to know every little detail of the potential for the FCC to reclassify parts of the communication structure so they can begin regulating the Internet. But here’s the situation where it stands right now.

Where We Are Now

Right now, the Obama administration has suggested for the FCC to reclassify some communications so that it can begin regulating the Internet within the United States. Currently there is no regulating body for the Internet in the USA, so basically anybody can do anything on it, period. The Obama administration sees this as a potential threat to the openness of the Internet because without regulation, Internet service providers (ISPs) can do whatever they please with that access. Allowing the FCC to regulate the Internet allows it to tell ISPs what they can and cannot do, where right now ISPs have pretty much a free reign. Without regulation, ISPs cannot be forced to abide by Net Neutrality.

The status quo of ISPs is that nobody really does this kind of thing en-masse. There were a few instances recently where some ISPs tried blocking torrent access, which in some lights is understandable. Torrents are massively peer-based downloads that allow you to get parts of a file from all over. A lot of torrent activity is illegal, but at the same time there are plenty of legal uses for torrents, so blocking them outright also blocks legitimate use. While none are really using these tactics, some have suggested they might to increase their bottom lines.

Ok, What’s Net Neutrality?

I’m glad you asked. Net Neutrality is the idea that ISPs have to be neutral about the content flowing through their networks. Net Neutrality (NN from hereon out) means that an ISP cannot look into the content any of its subscribers is accessing for any reason other than legal issues. There are a lot of proponents of NN and from what I’ve seen and understand, not a whole lot of consumers that don’t want it.

Without NN, ISPs can basically do whatever they want in regards to the content flowing through their networks. There are plenty of worst-case scenarios out there when it comes to this subject, so we’ll stay away from those as they’re unlikely. After all, even if ISPs start going against NN and use content requests to make decisions, consumers won’t stick with an ISP when they have a choice for another if their current ISP starts getting too draconian.

One great example I found online mimics the tiered strategy that television service providers use to make tiers of different channels, like so:

From charlesgarwood.com

In this example, you would have to pay your ISP $10 more per month to be able to access music-related websites and services, such as iTunes. Yes, in this example, not only would you be paying anywhere from 69 to 129 cents per song, you’d also be paying $10 per month to your ISP for the right to access iTunes’ Internet services at all.

Another example of what an ISP could do is dropping the transfer rate of traffic. So instead of blocking access entirely, an ISP could just put certain traffic at a lower priority in terms of speed. If this were the case, then you could have reduced service to iTunes unless you pay $10 more per month.

Now let’s apply a different tactic to blocking or slowing service. Instead of charging the consumer extra to access those websites, an ISP could instead charge the website operator some fee to keep their website on a normal service level. So unless Apple pays your ISP in some fee structure, the ISP could simply block or slow traffic to iTunes because Apple wouldn’t pay the ransom, err extortion, err fee.

These are just some examples of what ISPs could do if they were not bound to NN. I’m sure creative executives could come up with all sorts of ideas to extract more money from consumers and website operators alike.

So What’s The Government Planning?

The Obama administration wants the FCC to reclassify parts of communication so it can regulate the Internet. Without a regulator, ISPs can do whatever they like including making decisions based on the content running through their networks. However if the FCC were regulating Internet usage then ISPs would be bound to whatever decisions the FCC makes. The idea behind this, as far as the Obama administration goes, is that the FCC will enforce NN  thus ISPs won’t be able to use any tactics like I’ve described before.

But Regulation Is Bad!

A lot argue that government regulation is bad. Sometimes it is, sometimes the government can overreach and over-regulate things. However in this case, the lack of regulation means ISPs can gouge consumers and limit access in whatever ways they deem fit. This is an instance, in my opinion, where adding a regulatory body does more good than harm. Sure, we want the government in as little as possible, but regulations also make sure companies aren’t engaging in activity that is contrary to the public interest, such as limiting website access.

One could argue that this would be opening the door to a “government takeover” of the Internet. This is far from the truth. Regulation is not the same thing as a government takeover. We already have government regulation for automobiles because without it, there’d be no safety standards. This is much the same thing. The public’s interest in unfettered access to the Internet is at stake here. A government takeover means the government would run the Internet, and that’s not the case. The government would just start telling ISPs what they can and cannot do.

Sure, someday the government could abuse this regulatory oversight to start doing some things ISPs might have done. They might mandate some sort of limit on torrents or make sure all content gets filtered by the government. That’s what China does, pretty much, and I don’t ever see that happening because US citizens would riot if it did. Hell, I think some citizens might riot against an ISP if one truly broke against NN.

Companies Can Do Whatever They Want!! It’s Their Network!

Well right now, yes. But what I’m paying for is access to the Internet. Not for my ISP (which happens to be CenturyLink) to tell me “Hey Robert, you can’t access CNN.com until you pay us $5 more per month!” If consumers went into purchasing Internet access from an ISP with the intent to buy unfettered access, such is the case now, then that access should remain unfettered.

Sure, most companies can do whatever they want — within the limits of their regulations, of course. Saying that a company should be able to operate its business however it wants is a weak argument, in my opinion, because look at the BP disaster. Hell, they were regulated and it still happened. It’s obviously a case where the public interest is better served in actual regulation, rather than allowing BP to do whatever the hell it wanted, thus ending up in this massive oil leak. Companies should be able to operate as they see fit, but within acceptable boundaries.

They Don’t Need Regulation

Quite the contrary, I believe ISPs need regulation. Especially to keep them from breaking against NN. The whole idea of the Internet is this open massive platform allowing people to push out whatever they like for anybody to access. The Internet is like a massive Democracy in some respects. People “vote” for what they want by visiting those sites. But if ISPs start limiting access in some arbitrary manner, then that freedom is lost and those “votes” can’t be cast. Imagine if ISPs restricted access to Twitter in its early days. It probably wouldn’t have taken off. Say what you will about the time-sink that Twitter and Facebook are, but if your access to them was restricted or you were charged more to access them, those two would also be ones to suffer. So while you’re arguing an ISP should be able to conduct its affairs however it sees fit, realize that the consumer and Twitter/Facebook are also “harmed” in this instance.

Specific Arguments

No Regulation = Free Speech

Someone mentioned that keeping the government from regulating the Internet is the safest way to maintain free speech… I disagree. Without NN, ISPs can block or slow access to all sorts of content, which is against free speech, or at least free access to it. If ISPs are allowed to pick and choose the content they deliver, then they’re restricting free speech, which is unconstitutional. Thus, you might even say that the government has a responsibility to ensure unfettered access to the Internet.

Companies Already Charge For Faster Speeds

Well yes, they do. But they charge for faster speeds for the entire Internet, not just some sites selectively. What you’re paying for there is just a fatter pipe with more bandwidth to be able to download things faster. So let’s extend this argument out and say, “What if an ISP simply slows speeds to CNN.com, but doesn’t block it, and charges for faster access?” This is still an instance where the content is dictating the service and the ISP exercising authority over the stream of packs you’ve requested.

The Internet Is A Priveledge

Again, I disagree, to some extent. If you can afford to pay for the Internet you should get it all. More and more of our daily lives are online and more and more depends on the Internet. Imagine the world without the Internet today. No online bill pay, no Netflix streaming… No eCommerce. Sometimes you actually need access to the Internet to get some things done. The US would grind to a crawl without the Internet in this day and age.

Status Quo Is Just Fine

Given that ISPs are currently not engaging in anti-NN behavior, for the most part, then the status quo is fine. But the status quo assumes they won’t reverse and start going against NN. And the status quo means they still can should they choose to. We should definitely not allow them that opportunity to limit users’ free choice of what they want to access online.

The Free Market Works

Did the Wall Street and mortgage meltdowns not convince you? A lack of regulation there is definitely a big contributor to why that happened. The free market does not always work, regulation is still required to ensure the proper operation of a market. This is more of an idealogical issue anyway, so I know I won’t really convince anybody on this one.

Also, one note on free markets. If a market was 100% free then monopolies and collusions could exist, which means if the ISP market was a 100% free market, they could all collude to block FoxNews.com unless you paid $50 per month to gain access. And legally you could do nothing about it. Personally, I don’t like Fox News, but it’s still wrong dammit.

A Christian ISP Would Want To Block Porn!

This was an interesting one and caused me to ponder for awhile. Currently there exists no Christian ISPs in the US. The function of an ISP is to offer access to the Internet. A Christian ISP would want to block anything they deem non-Christian… But I’m going to point to what the Internet currently is and should be. A massively open and 100% accessible platform of websites and services. And I’m obviously of the opinion that access to it should always be fully open. Thus, if there were a Christian ISP, then I would disagree that it should be blocking content because I fully believe in NN.

On another note, I’m a practicing Catholic and if I were subscribing to a Christian ISP, I would not want them blocking any content. Client programs can be installed on the user’s end to block access. So if a user doesn’t want to allow access to things inside their home they can, but the ISP doesn’t get to do that across the board for people that don’t want it done.

I mean, think about it. Every Christian is different. Let’s imagine MyChristianISP.com (trademark pending, haha) is my provider. I want to look at Site A (not a porn site), but Site A offends about 55% of all MyChristianISP.com subscribers, so it gets blocked. Do you see the problem here? 45% of my fellow peers that are fine with accessing that site can’t. That kind of control belongs with the users.

Government Shouldn’t Run Companies For Themselves

Fully no. A government should not be 100% in full telling a company how it can run itself. But we already have government regulations in place to prevent illegal monopolies or from firms using their market power to gouge consumers. There are limits to what is acceptable for a company to do.

Companies are like people. They are entities in the eyes of the government. If you were to say that the government shouldn’t run people’s lives, then you’re basically saying the government need not exist and anarchy can rule the land. It’s preposterous. Companies, just like people, should not be allowed to do whatever the hell they want, because it may not always be in the public’s best interest. This argument allows a company to price discriminate based on age or religion. It allows a company free reign over whatever it wants to do.

Obviously there needs to be a line drawn somewhere, and I’m all for a line being drawn that includes NN as the rule of the land.

Personal Notes

Personally, I believe the Internet to be this big open playground where people can put up and access whatever they like. Any content restrictions should be on a user-by-user basis, thus limitations should exist in home networks and home machines, not at the ISP level. It is not CenturyLink’s place to tell me what I can or cannot access. I am paying them for access to the entire Internet and that is how it should remain. Just because television and radio have different access levels doesn’t mean they should be extended to the Internet.

If you’re reading this post and you don’t know me very well, you may not have picked up on the fact that I run websites. Now you understand another reason I am so adamantly in favor of NN. Without NN, there is the possibility that I could face fees with any number of ISPs to keep OMGN from being added to a “slow websites” list. And if there are 100 ISPs in the country all asking for a $5 fee per month so they won’t slow access to my website, suddenly I have to pay $500 per month to keep it online.

Fuck that. America is all about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and making it for themselves. I cannot do that with my websites if I’m subject to countless fees because there is no NN. It’s completely against the American dream, folks, to start allowing ISPs to restrict access to the Internet in whatever ways they see fit.

I understand the potential for a slippery slope in regards to allowing the US Government to regulate Internet access. At some point in the future it could suddenly reverse course and start censoring things. But the US Government has a pretty damn short history of censorship. There’s a much lower likelihood of that happening than for ISPs to start restricting access to content, because they’ve talked about it. In this case, I’ll take the evil of the US Government over the evil that is John Doe ISP Corporation. ISPs have an incentive to censor Internet access, the US Government – not quite as much.

The whole thing here is that Internet access via an ISP should be 100% free and clear. That’s what consumers are paying for and that’s what they should get. It’s not a case where the ISP should be able to determine what their networks deliver. They’re in the wrong business if that’s the case. An ISP is supposed to allow access and not dictate what people can get, because if an ISP is the only Internet provider in town, then you may get no other choice but to use them and only them. The ISP should not care what you’re accessing, only that you’re paying for that access.

Final Note

I feel very strongly about this issue because I am an IT professional, a user of the Internet and a website operator. Thus I hope you understand why I feel the way I do, even if many of you are afraid of what more US Government regulation may do here. I’m more afraid of what ISPs may do, thus my stance on the subject. I’m sure the fact that this post clocks in at over 2,800 words also illustrates how passionate I am about the subject.

[Update]

Read Marek’s comment on this post, he makes a very valid comment. He cites that if an ISP started restricting access to a particular website and required users to pay for that website, then the ISP would reap all of the profits of that pricing structure whereas the website owner would not only get none of the profits, but would also suffer degraded traffic to their website because not everybody would pay for the access. This is in stark contrast to how television service providers work, where they pay subscriber-based royalties back to the operators of the channels that are in said tiers, such as premier sports channels you have to pay extra for. That was a point I was originally starting to think about when I started writing this post but promptly forgot about and never expanded upon, but Marek poses a very, very good point.

Yesterday morning was definitely an interesting morning. But before I’m able to explain it, I have to give you some background information on my Linux machine at home, which is my development machine.

Last fall I started hearing CPU fan noise from the machine. Fan noise generally indicates that a bearing is wearing out, something of that nature. It concerned me, so I popped the side of the case off and looked at it. The fan was still running, so that was good, and if I pressed on certain parts of it I could generate the noise. Thus, to eliminate the noise and head off any potential overheating issues, I decided to get a replacement fan.

Only I never really did. I knew I needed one, so I just popped one on my Amazon wish list, which ended up being used as my Christmas list for all of my friends and family. And someone got the CPU fan off of it for me. Haha.

I never ended up putting the fan on, because at some point the noise stopped. And since the machine never overheated and shut off, I figured the issue had worked itself out somehow. It’s rare, but it can happen, so I never investigated further.

There’s background on the CPU fan. Now for the background on how the machine was operating…

My standard development machine is my Linux box, so I have all sorts of tools on it that I use. It’s actually very similar to my setup at work. I run three different Java applications (IDE, SQL client and SVN client) as well as Firefox for web browsing and a bunch of Bash terminals. And this all runs on KDE4.

I feel like KDE4 is a bit more of a memory and resource hog than KDE3, but that’s ok. So when I upgraded to KDE4, I attributed my decreased performance to the upgrade. But there would be times when my machine would get really sluggish and sometimes programs would simply get killed at the operating system level. I thought this was due to a memory issue, since Firefox can be a really damn big resource hog too.

I’d been having trouble with recompilations too. Again, I attributed this to memory allocation issues, and I’ve considered increasing the memory on that machine (I probably will be now, I just have to find out what’s already in there so I order the same stick). So some of my recompilations have caused KDE4 to come down entirely, so I’d started doing recompiles in a TTY without KDE4 running.

So a week ago I started a recompilation of Firefox to its newest version because I thought there may be a chance it would have better memory usage. I left the machine alone to recompile while I did other things. I did this from within a terminal in KDE4 because I turned off most of the other applications running.

So now onto yesterday morning… Working remotely from home.

The machine was at the KDE4 login screen. So I knew the compilation brought down KDE4. I didn’t think much of it, because if the compilation fails then the existing application you’re recompiling will still work. So I logged into the box and started all of my applications up. Yet Firefox… bombed. It would begin startup then just stop and never get anywhere… Hurray.

So I started a recompilation of Firefox from within KDE4 because I was signed on to the company Jabber server. I could still get some things done without Firefox, such as moving batch files from server to server and running other things on our batch process server. And then it happened.

The machine turned off. I was like.. WTF!

At this point, I switched to working from my Windows laptop, where my productivity is greatly reduced. I figured I’d try to recompile Firefox one more time in a TTY while I did work on my laptop. Low and behold… Powered off again.

It was at this point that I knew the CPU fan was toast. I temporarily took some time out to pull the box from my desk, pop off the side and pull the old CPU fan out. Holy crap was the heatsink mega hot, so I knew the fan wasn’t working correctly. Popped the new one in and started it up.

Everything booted up correctly, however I still stopped KDE4 and recompiled Firefox from a TTY. And this time it went much, much faster than it had been in the past. And it went all the way through finish.

So I started up KDE4 and all of my applications, and things seemed to be running faster and more efficiently. Firefox started up just fine, so I moved all of my work back to my Linux machine and worked from it for the rest of the day. No issues from thereon out.

Actually, I didn’t detect any of that common sluggishness that I had been before. So I wonder if my performance issues were related to high heat on the CPU… I don’t necessarily think so, but I guess it’s possible.

So I didn’t end up getting to work 100% from my Linux machine yesterday until 9am, which is 2 hours after I start work. However, I did get plenty of work and standard early-morning monitoring done during that 2-hour period, so I feel like I really only lost about 15-20 minutes or so of working time.

Had the machine powered down during Firefox recompilation after I had replaced the CPU fan, I would have cut my losses and actually headed in to work from the office. Thankfully, my Linux machine’s issues appear to be fixed.

Now all I have to do is send my Windows laptop in to HP to have a fan replaced as well. I can’t replace it myself and it causes overheating and noise issues too. Dammit!

I understand there are plenty of voices out there with varying opinions on Apple’s new iPad, announced yesterday. For some inexplicable reason I want to voice my opinions too! Hey, I’m a nerd, I’m allowed to voice my opinion on matters such as these because I’m somewhat knowledgeable. That, and I’m a consumer of technology so my opinion does indeed matter.

Interface & Input

My first thought on the iPad is: looks neat. Really, it does. I think this style of computing could be the future. Now I know what you’re saying. You’re saying it’s been tried before, most notably by Microsoft, and it never took off. Well, a couple things regarding this point:

1. Digital MP3 players didn’t take off until Apple released one with a good interface.
2. Smartphones didn’t really take off until Apple released one with a good interface.

See the theme? Good interfaces. And this is yet again the difference that Apple has created with the iPad when compared to all other tablet-style computers that have come out before. If there’s one thing Apple is really good at, it’s interfaces. Sure, their interfaces might not hold up under the test of time when newer ideas and technology comes out, but when Apple does release new interfaces for products, usually it’s either groundbreaking in some manner.

And that’s where the iPad shines whereas previous Windows-based tablets never took off. They designed the interactions of the software around the input style of multitouch with contextual keyboards. The Windows-based tablets were just touch capabilities tacked on to the existing Windows platform, which didn’t work because the existing Windows platform was designed for a keyboard and mouse. The iPad’s interface is totally redesigned from normal computing. That, and it’s based off of the iPhone’s advances, which uses the same touch interface so they had a base of success to start with here.

Revolutionary? I think this is the start of a new wave of computing. Interacting more intuitively with technology is the way to go. I can just imagine humankind eventually getting to the style of computing seen in Minority Report and other movies that show more physically-based interactions with technology than using peripherals. I like the idea of using an iPad in the manner shown, as well as the keyboard attachment because it will likely be necessary at times.

E-Books

So let’s move on to the whole e-books concept. I got Laura a Kindle for Christmas because I knew she’d like it and she loves to read. I won’t get into the many reasons I got her the Kindle beyond that. I knew at the time of the rampant rumors surrounding Apple’s mythical tablet device and decided that I didn’t think the Kindle would be killed. So will it?

No, I don’t think so. First of all, the iPad will use DRM-enabled books like the Kindle does. Secondly, the Kindle is function-specific. Sure, the iPhone is multifunction as well and that’s one of the successful pieces of it. I’m sure it will be the same way with the iPad. But the Kindle is also much cheaper and will likely get cheaper still with the iPad announcement.

One other thing that the Kindle has going for it: the e-ink display. I know some people don’t like the refresh of an e-ink display, but e-ink requires no backlight. As a result, it is much better on the eyes. Additionally, the Kindle’s battery life is phenomenal compared to the iPad, again in part because of the lack of a backlight. And if the books are all available on the Kindle as well, it will always have a market.

I think the only way the Kindle dies out entirely is if books aren’t available on it but are for the iPad. I’m pretty sure that’s the only way that will happen. People want these devices for their content, so where the content is the device sales will go. I, for one, hope that books keep coming out on the Kindle so Laura can keep getting them. Even if they’re available on both systems, because the Kindle is smaller and easier on the eyes. Laura can carry it in her purse, but couldn’t with the iPad.

One more thing about e-books. There’s talk of textbooks appearing in the iBookstore for the iPad. If that’s the case and my textbooks starting this fall are actually available for the device, that may prompt be to buy it, so long as I can do book-like things with them, like bookmarks, highlighting, notes, etc. My textbooks for this spring semester weren’t available on the Kindle, but an older edition of one of them was, for $110 less. That’s why I want textbooks on a digital reader. Cheaper and much more portable.

Judging by what I saw of the book-related functionality, that seems almost like an add-on, “Oh, let’s try and take this market over too!” thing. The book-related functionality was definitely not the focus. I don’t necessarily think it was an afterthought, but Apple doesn’t seem intent on taking it over in quite the same way they’ve taken music over. But ultimately, who knows. Maybe they want to pwn Amazon after all.

Wifi & 3G

I find the whole $130 more to get 3G abilities a bit much. If I were to get one, I’m not sure I’d opt for the 3G capabilities. Not when I have an iPhone too, anyway. I can just tether it. But the pricing on the 3G monthly rates is good, especially with the lack of a contract.

Name

Yeah, the name sucks. They need a new one but it won’t happen. Oh well. I think even iAwesomeness would have been better…

Price

I touched on the 3G price hike a bit, but at $499 for the base model, that’s phenomenal given what you actually get for the iPad. And the iWork apps for $10 each is an excellent value as well. I’d probably opt for the mid- to high-range storage capacities myself, si”d spend anywhere from $600-$700 on an iPad. I guess I’d consider the 3G connectivity a little bit, but I just don’t see the pressing need for it… Although now just thinking about it, enabling tethering on the iPhone is expensive with AT&T, so maybe I’d pony up the $130.

Final Thoughts

Yeah, I like it. Enough that I’d consider getting an iPad over a MacBook Pro, which is what I want my next technology purchase to be so I have a more portable laptop than my current behemoth. I don’t really need an MBP, so an iPad might fit the bill for the kinds of things I’d want to use it for. Like I said, if this fall rolls around and my textbooks are available on the iPad, and significantly cheaper to purchase for it than in print… Likely I would become a new iPad owner.

I’ve been in a bloggy mood lately, so here we go with another round of updates in my mundane life. Maybe I’ll post something other than “here’s what happened!” soon, but who knows. Occasionally I like to have posts like my PHP Soap Timeout post, so maybe I’ll come up with something awesome like that soon. But for now, all you get is life updates.

Arizona

I didn’t mention this before here on my blog, although I did mention it on Twitter and Facebook, but I decided to head down to Arizona for my grandparents’ Christmas Eve party. My grandfather had some health issues this year and I didn’t want to miss a guaranteed time when I’d be able to see him around Christmas. I don’t know how much time he has left with us, be it a few months or fifteen more years (I hope it’s even longer than this!).

In any case, Laura was unable to accompany me on the trip. I took off a half-day on Christmas Eve to make the drive down after I got off of work on the 23rd. My work only had a half-day scheduled for the 24th, so I only had to take off 4 hours. My Dad met me here at work when I got off at 4 and we set off for the Phoenix/Mesa area, replete with gifts and items we’d need to survive the harsh Arizona desert… Rather, clothes and toiletries.

We decided to pit-stop in Boulder City to say hello to Laura. She wasn’t expecting us to drop by before we got out of town, but BC is literally on the route to Phoenix from Vegas, and the diversion from the US-93 to her office isn’t very far. She was happy to see us and we chatted for a bit before finally heading out.

The drive was mostly uneventful. We got held up at the dam for awhile because there were quite a few people driving out south on US-93 and there are security checks at the dam. It took us about 20-25 minutes to get through the checkpoint, then we were off to the races. We didn’t end up behind very many slow people.

There was a point in Wickenburg where US-93 ends and that section was totally rebuilt and included two traffic circles. My Dad was leading the way and hadn’t encountered the rebuild before, so there was a little stopped-in-the-circle action before he figured out what direction was what. Apparently, he also needed to fill up in Wickenburg and he’s got a Chevron card, so he was originally going to stop and get gas there. Unfortunately, his regular Chevron had become a Shell station, so he ended up skipping it. Once we were on the AZ-74, he called me up to use my GPS or iPhone to find the nearest Chevron. We ended up hitting up a Chevron at our connection point from the AZ-74 to the I-17.

The rest of the drive was all highways inside the metro area basically until we got to my grandparents’ place. Once we got there, we unloaded a few things, talked with my grandma for a bit, then headed to bed.

Note: I just noticed I’m already over 500 words. I have three topics to cover and I’m only about 1/4 through the first topic… Are you ready for a much longer read?? I sure am!

The next day was obviously eventful as it was Christmas Eve! The day of the party, the day I’d finally get to see a lot of my Dad’s side of the family that I never get to see. The morning started off slow, with my Dad, my grandma, my cousin Cody and myself all talking about stuff and whatnot. Cody’s still pretty young so I guess he didn’t talk much, rather than act like a kid, but hey. I ended up playing a game of Stratego with him, and he’s pretty good. I haven’t really ever played before and he had some good tactics.

My cousin Dani showed up a bit after noon. She’s turning 18 on New Year’s Eve this year, and holy crap she got tall. Not quite as tall as me, but taller than Laura. We didn’t have a whole lot going on at the time because my Dad was puttering around on his laptop and my grandma was cooking up food for the party that evening. She suggested for Dani and I to go catch a movie, so we did. Ended up seeing The Blind Side. Good flick, I particularly enjoyed it.

Even though I had my iPhone and the GPS in the Prius, I decided to just follow Dani to her place so I could see her parents earlier than they would have made it to the party. Mark & Ricki, I hadn’t seen them in quite some time either, so it was really nice to see them. Mark’s lost quite a bit of weight, I’ve never seen him as light as he is now. I’m not sure how much, but I’m fairly certain it’s around 50 pounds.

Oh, did I forget to mention my grandma also lost over 50 pounds? She’s looking much better too. What is it with all of the weight loss in my family? Apparently my Dad is the only one gaining weight, haha. Love ya Dad.

So I helped them load up gifts and whatnot and we drove on back to my grandparents’ place. My grandfather was finally home from work when we got back, so I caught up with him for awhile. It was really good to, since he was the primary reason I decided to take this trip in the first place and miss Christmas Eve with Laura and potentially screw up time with her on Christmas.

My uncle Brad was also finally there, so we got to trade shots and banter around a bit. It was fun, he always is. He’s one of the four of us look-alikes: My grandfather, my Dad, Brad and me. I dare say I’m the best looking of the group!

The look-alikes! From left: Me, my grandfather, my Dad, Brad. Lower-right, my cousin Cody managed to get part of himself in the photo.

From there the party really started. My cousin Matthew and his wife Danielle showed up, and even he’s lost weight! 60 pounds! He officially weighs less than me, the first time in our lives that had ever happened. Unbelievable. He really looks different, being that light. He’s thinking of entering the police force in Phoenix or, if that doesn’t work out, he’ll see if the military will give him a job. I’d rather him be in the police force myself.

I apologize to the rest of the party attendants, but my short-term memory can be bad and in this case, I can’t remember who all else was there! I suck, I know. Oh, my great-grandma Sigourney was there as well. She’s still going strong, I can’t believe it. She’s in her 80s.

The white elephant gift exchange went well, I ended up walking away with three items. I originally nabbed this storage net you can mount to a wall. At one point during the exchange I mentioned that Laura would like this nice carafe that was out there. My aunt Ricki is the one who originally bought it, and she nabbed it at the end with the expressed purpose of getting it for me. She’s awesome. My grandma also had an ice cream bowl & toppings set she opened that never got stolen, and she let me have it because she knew Laura and I would like it and she wouldn’t use it. Interesting stuff. A few other small gifts were passed out and the party ended.

One thing I did discover during the party — my cousin Dani is a nut. She fits in with this family well. Dani and I have been messaging back and forth in Facebook for awhile now and I never realized just how much like the rest of us crazy people in my family she’s like.

Actually, she was my first recruit into getting my family to call me Robert, and she never slipped up once while I was down there. When I was younger, I went by Bob (and even further back, Bobby) and I’ve long been trying to get my family to make the switch and call me by what I want to be called, Robert (even Rob works, although I never introduce myself as Rob… still get called Rob more than Robert…). My aunt Ricki made an effort, so that was cool. My Dad was also making an effort.

Interestingly, my grandma had always wanted my older sister Katie and me to call her Gran. I had no idea until she mentioned it to me during the trip. Thus, I am now calling her Gran.

I got up at 3:30am Vegas time on Christmas and left at about 4:20am Vegas time. Arizona doesn’t participate in daylight savings time, so they share the Pacific time zone during the summer, and during the winger they share the Mountain time zone. So they were ahead at this point. I filled up my car to the brim with more gas before getting out of town, and I was off!

The drive up was again, relatively uneventful, but as I got closer and closer to Vegas I felt the pressure of making sure I got into town in time to shave, change and get to mass in a presentable manner. I was unkempt and didn’t have a change of good clothes with me, so I was trying to avoid driving straight to mass. So I sped, as we did speed going down to Arizona.

At one point, the US-93 was switching between a single road with a dividing line between north and south lanes and having a median between the two. During one stretch of the median, suddenly there was a car coming head-on at me! Thankfully, I was still barely inside a two-lane stretch so there was room around him, but if I had been about ten seconds further ahead, we would have met in a very narrow one-lane spot… Doofus. Needs to learn how to drive.

Getting through the dam at this point was a breeze. I ended up getting home at 9am with basically 30 minutes to shave & change and get out the door. I went a little longer than I wanted, leaving the house at 9:40, but I still got to mass with about 10 minutes to spare. Thus, Christmas had truly begun for me!

Ah, but wait! A note on miles-per-gallon for the trip for the Prius before I start section 2 for Christmas. Going down to Arizona I got about 48 MPG. Pretty good for highway driving in a Prius, it made me happy! But that should have been an omen. It turns out most of the driving down to Arizona is literally down. Downhill, that is. Driving back to Vegas is pretty much all uphill. I effectively got 36 MPG going back to Vegas, which is abysmal for a Prius. I actually had to fill the tank in Kingman to make it all the way back. It sucked.

Christmas

Note: over 1,800 words so far! Wow… Long.

Mass was good. It was a nice Christmas Mass. I got to sit next to Ron & Priscilla, Laura’s stepdad and mom. Laura sang cantor at Mass as she always does and had an excellent solo near the end. It actually elicited applause from the congregation, which isn’t really supposed to happen. Haha.

Laura and I headed back home after Mass to collect the gifts we needed to track back on over to the Waltons’ place and to change into non-Mass clothes. So we did all that and headed back out.

Opening gifts was fun. Laura got to open her new Amazon Kindle from me, which I wrapped in triplicate — I wrapped the Kindle and its cover, put it in a box, heavily taped that box and wrapped it, then put that box in another, heavily taped and wrapped again. It was pretty funny, if I do say so myself.

I had a pretty good haul myself. Got this new component shelf I was wanting for the bedroom so we could put an “entertainment center” in there with the TV I scored from work for $50. Laura got me this awesome new Harmony remote to replace the one downstairs and move the existing one to the bedroom. I need to customize the new one with a background image and a new font theme. Hells to the yeah! Other goodies came my way, such as a Bionicle Lego set, Left 4 Dead 2, The Hangover and more. I also got this nice cube of photos from Katie and my other Parkers up in upstate New York, which was totally awesome. I love hand-made gifts.

We transitioned to dinner, which was excellent as always. Unfortunately, the Waltons don’t get the NFL Network, so I kept up with the Titans-Chargers game online via the NFL’s website. Unfortunately for the Titans and their playoff hopes, it wasn’t a very merry Christmas and they got handled, so no playoffs this year. Maybe next year, we’ll see.

Speaking of Christmas sports, the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels had a basketball game against USC. Unfortunately for them as well, they lost, bringing their non-conference record to 12-2. That’s a pretty good record and I think they’ll make some noise in the Mountain West Conference this season. I think, unless they totally implode, they’ll make the NCAA tournament this year, making it three times in four years. Getting back to where the program needs to be!

After dinner we just sat and talked and watched TV. Ron and Laura read books from their Kindles and Julia worked on her Christmas gift to her boyfriend Alex. Laura and I got sleepy, so we headed home to get some sleep.

Cleaning

We didn’t end up going to bed right away. Our house was an absolute disaster at this point. Neither of us had any time to keep things clean and neat while we were both getting Christmas gifts ready for people and I was prepping to head out to Arizona, so the place was very messy. I ended up doing a little tidying up and organizing and breaking down boxes while Laura read a bit more on her Kindle. Then we headed to bed.

The 26th wasn’t a day for straight cleaning. I still did a bit here and there throughout the day, but we had a lot going on that didn’t involve cleaning. Laura had breakfast with her friend David, we both had lunch with some of my old friends from high school and we had dinner with her parents at White Chocolate Grill. Tasty goodness, I had this great penne alfredo. Afterwards, we came home and I hooked up our new bedroom “entertainment center.” It contains the TV I bought from work, as well as a Blu-Ray player and DirecTV HD receiver I got from Best Buy (using gift cards from both the Tuckers and Waltons) while Laura was having breakfast with David. To mount the component shelf on the wall, I used this new DeWalt 14.4V drill I got with a Lowe’s gift card my Dad got for me. The drill was very nice, but some of the studs in my house are so difficult to screw into that I actually have to use slightly shorter screws…

I got all that setup and reconfigured our old Harmony remote from downstairs for the new system upstairs, and voila! I’m particularly happy about the Blu-Ray player, as it can connect to Netflix, Pandora and YouTube. So we can now also watch Netflix streaming in the bedroom off of the Blu-Ray player, while downstairs we do that using the Xbox 360. We can’t use Pandora downstairs, so that’s a plus. Although I’m sure I could find a way to stream Pandora downstairs if I wanted to, maybe via a laptop or something. Maybe I will…

Thus, the 27th! Cleaning day! Collected all of our trash, including the now-empty boxes from our new components and gifts. Broke down the rest of our Amazon boxes and stored those and the packing materials away. Cleaned off the living room and dining room tables, put all of our new gifts away, stored our wrapping materials (well, what’s left of them). Cleaned some straggler dishes, put the previously-clean ones sitting int he dishwasher away. Tidied up the bedroom slightly, but there are still some straggler clothes in there. Did cable management on the new “entertainment center” in the bedroom. Took the closet door off (we’re replacing it with a curtain, it got in the way of some racks of clothes and was more of a bother than anything useful). Cleaned up and organized both the library and loft. The library had my bin of cables and technology parts strewn about because I needed to find cables for the components in the bedroom, so that was a chore. Vacuumed downstairs and upstairs, dealt with piles of mail, dealt with piles of stuff to shred.

We still haven’t gotten the empty boxes and non-food trash bags out of the house. Our trash days are Tuesday and Friday and our trash bins were already 100% full, so there’s nowhere outside to put the new trash. We’re taking it to the curb tonight, thankfully.

Hmm… Anything else? Might be, but trust me, that list I just gave you took quite a long time to do. We ended up having people over in the evening, so we were happy we got all of that squared away. We still need to do hard floor cleaning and some dusting and have a new, smaller stack of things to shred, but other than that I think our house actually looks good again.

Anything else you want to know about my four-day weekend? Oh, I’m pending some more CD/DVD/BD jewel cases because we’re really low and I’ve got paintable cable covers for the bedroom coming soon so that’ll look better. Phew. And I need to cut down our coaxial satellite cable, because it’s too long and it’ll look bad because I can’t figure out how to make it look goo otherwise.

Hmm… I do still have a Home Depot card to use…

Over 3,000 words! WTF!

Unfortunately, OMGN has languished over the last couple years. Really, it’s been in the doldrums since the summer of 2005 when we hit up E3.  That was a fun time, let me tell ya.

I’ve been working on a new database structure and recoding for OMGN over the last 4 months. I still have a long ways to go, but I’m hoping that OMGN4, which is what I’m calling the new system, will work very well. The new codebase is much better and more modern, the database design is also much better and streamlined. And the new design in the works is shaping up nicely so far.

I’m really at a crossroads for what to do with the existing content on the site. I keep flipping back and forth on whether or not I want to retain existing content when migrating to the new site. And if I do retain existing content, what to retain.

See, I’m transitioning OMGN to a more fully-fledged video game information website. No more exclusive focus on small-market games, more professional writing and content management systems, better design, etc. A lot of the stuff in OMGN that exists now is either outdated, not even real video game content or just plain bad. The URLs are all going to change and I’m stripping the new site of a lot of functionality that existed before.

I’m just not sure where to go. There’s some content on the site that I kinda want to retain, such as some of the newer reviews of games, like Shadow Complex. But there’s just so much junk in the old data and issues with old URLs to new URLs and functionality lost, I think the new site might just be brand-new and clean. I’m just not sure what I want to do yet.

Please, this time I want your feedback and ideas.

So I’ve got an interesting technical post for you today. I know I don’t normally post technical things here on my blog, but I felt this was such an interesting exercise in triumphing over a big issue here at work that I wanted to post about it.

We call several third-party vendors for web-based services in my department. We’re really keen on keeping transaction times low, so we have a set timeout for each vendor to ensure we don’t wait too long. Most of our vendor calls are Curl calls, but we have a couple that use Soap.

Curl has built-in functionality to enable a timeout. PHP’s internal Soap library does not. Thus, PHP’s documentation says to enable the following to set a limit on Soap calls:

ini_set("default_socket_timeout", 5); // 5 seconds

This is all fine and dandy. Or, at least, I thought it was. When we first had an outage with one Soap-based vendor, this timeout mechanism worked correctly. However the second time, it did not. We still waited up to 60 seconds for the call despite our code having not changed. Highly distressing is the word.

I researched this issue at great length, and used one of our own Soap services to test out a theory. I put this into the code:

ob_implicit_flush();
echo " ";
sleep(15);

The ob_implicit_flush() function call forces PHP to send any output as it immediately becomes available. Normally, PHP sends it all at the close of the script, or if you use other output buffering functions. Here, I’m forcing some content to be passed back to the caller then sleeping beyond the wait time of 5 seconds.

The results? It waited. So the socket timeout feature in PHP only applies until you receive content. If you receive any content within the socket timeout interval, it will keep the socket open and continue to wait. The timeout actually serves from the opening of the connection to the reception of content, not the entire length of time the socket will remain open.

Thus, I had to find a new route to keeping our Soap calls short. My next attempt was limiting the script execution time via either of these two functions:

set_time_limit(5); // 5 seconds
ini_set("max_execution_time", 5); // 5 seconds

Unfortunately, this didn’t help. First of all, both of these two functions have the exact same effect and use the same underlying PHP functionality. Secondly, they only set limits for internal PHP execution. Any time you have an external data source or blocking system call, this is not calculated in the execution time (at least on Linux; on Windows everything is considered). So any database calls, Soap calls, system calls… These are untimed.

At this point I was at my wits end. I could not figure out a way to limit Soap calls save for building a barebones script to make the Soap call and calling that script with a Curl call.

I ventured into the Soap documentation on the PHP website to see if there was a way I could use the SoapClient class to build the Soap request XML and to parse a Soap response XML into an object, thus allowing me to transport the XML in whatever way I chose. No dice. However, I did discover something interesting while looking at the documentation.

PHP allows you to extend the SoapClient class, I knew that. What I did not know is that you could override certain functions, one of them being __doRequest(). By overriding this function, you can make the request to the remote server however you like.

So I tested this out. And holy crap, it worked. The input to the function is the actual Soap XML, not a Soap object, and the function simply returns the Soap response XML, not an object. It is also passed a few other things, such as the location of the Soap web service. We’re in business.

I built a class extending SoapClient and enabled timeout functionality. When a timeout is used, it actually uses Curl for the call and sets the timeout there. When no timeout is required, it uses the default mechanism to send the request. See part of my class below. It may not be totally robust, but hey, I just needed a timeout. And I couldn’t give you the entire class functionality either. I gotta save something for myself.

class SoapClientTimeout extends SoapClient
{
	private $timeout;
 
	public function __setTimeout($timeout)
	{
		if (!is_int($timeout) && !is_null($timeout))
		{
			throw new Exception("Invalid timeout value");
		}
 
		$this->timeout = $timeout;
	}
 
	public function __doRequest($request, $location, $action, $version, $one_way = FALSE)
	{
		if (!$this->timeout)
		{
			// Call via parent because we require no timeout
			$response = parent::__doRequest($request, $location, $action, $version, $one_way);
		}
		else
		{
			// Call via Curl and use the timeout
			$curl = curl_init($location);
 
			curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, FALSE);
			curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
			curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, TRUE);
			curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $request);
			curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HEADER, FALSE);
			curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("Content-Type: text/xml"));
			curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $this->timeout);
 
			$response = curl_exec($curl);
 
			if (curl_errno($curl))
			{
				throw new Exception(curl_error($curl));
			}
 
			curl_close($curl);
		}
 
		// Return?
		if (!$one_way)
		{
			return ($response);
		}
	}
}

I began my technological career with a job in technical support. I used to work for CSN (called CCSN back then, for Community College of Southern Nevada). I was a lab assistant, where I helped college students with their computer issues. Scanning a picture, email not loading, basically anything that a paying college student needed help with on the computers.

This is a similar start in tech support for just about any techie. Almost all of us have a job doing tech support at some point, and it’s usually one of the first jobs that a techie will have, since it’s an entry-level-type position.

I moved on from that job after about 2 1/2 years to start my first programming job. So I’d progressed in my career to doing what I really wanted to do, and I didn’t have to do tech support anymore. This made me very happy, as tech support isn’t something very many people enjoy. In fact, a lot of techies hate it. I’m now in my second programming job and have been programming for over 5 years professionally now, 9 years personally. I’m also pursuing my MBA.

So why do people still consider me their tech support? Most of the people these days that consider me their personal tech support never knew me in my lab assistant capacity, although Robert Silas (a friend of mine) first met me when I started as a lab assistant, and I still help him with computer things from time to time. I did earlier this week, actually. But he’s an exception because I’ve known him so long and have been helping him for years.

But seeing as most people that ask me for tech support these days never knew me back then, it stands to reason that they assume I’m good at tech support because I’m into computers and am a programmer. Fine, in my case, that’s a valid assumption. But it doesn’t always hold true. I’ve known plenty of computer-savvy people that weren’t good with the people side of tech support. And there are some programmers that really just aren’t very good at general tech support.

So this is starting to irritate me. I apologize if you feel that you, the reader, are the reason I’m posting this particular post on my blog, but this feeling has just been accumulating within me. I really don’t like the fact that friends and family will often just assume that if they have a computer issue, they can call me up whenever to ask me to look at the issue or run things by me in a call. Often, this advice I give is free, and sometimes the actual work on a computer I’ll do is free.

But do you really think that a professional programmer and MBA student wants to do tech support all of the time? I get paid well as a programmer and tech support does not pay nearly as well, especially since people come to me because they don’t want to go pay the outrageous fees that Geek Squad charges, which means they’re expecting me to cut them a deal. My time is worth money, and doing tech support is underpaying me for my time.

Really, what bothers me is people asking if I’m busy on any given night because they need tech support help. I had that asked of me today, actually. And yes, I am really damn busy today. Today is a mega-busy day for me. I have a doctor’s appointment, work, an MBA career services appointment, Julia’s birthday dinner and, depending on how long dinner goes, indoor soccer (unlikely, unfortunately). So yes, I’m busy tonight and cannot be at your beck and call to fix your computer issue, the third one you’ve had this year.

I’m not trying to come across as a jackass here, but I just want people to understand that techies get irritated at being asked for tech support all the time, especially if that’s not their professional field (like me), and especially if they’re busy. I’m curious to see what happens when I’m a technological manager someday (yes, I’m assuming it will happen, but hey, I will get my MBA!).

That’s like asking some manager at a GM plant to come over and work on your car. Seriously folks, that’s what that would be like.

In any case, I’m not averse to helping friends and family with tech support issues, especially not averse to helping family. Just don’t assume that I have all this free time lying around to help you get that virus off your computer, and don’t assume that I have to help you out of the goodness of my heart and get paid very little. It’s not fair to me.

[Update 1]

After a comment from Andrew, I need to amend this article. Well, really, just make sure to read the comments!

[Update 2]

Some people are confused as to what I’m talking about in this post. Don’t be alarmed! If you’re a totally cool person that appreciates any help I give you and tries to pay me back in some or other (even if it’s just, say, lunch), then I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about people that take advantage of the fact that they know me and that I know technology, yet never really offer me anything in return, despite repeatedly asking for help.

Really, I’m just irritated at people that use and abuse my kindness. Most people don’t.

So this is a dual blog post apparently… I thought about splitting it into two, but neither subject is really long enough to devote its own blog post to, unless they’re short posts.

Basically, today had a 45-minute window of blog posty goodness. I called up my Mom to talk to her while I finished up some things here at home and while I drove to church afterwards. A short time after I left my house, I asked her what she was doing at that moment, and she said she was playing World of Warcraft… Yes, seriously. My Mom was playing World of Warcraft. She’s been playing MMOs for a few years now. She started with a couple Disney MMOs, Toontown and Pirates, I believe. Her guild leader in Pirates apparently suggested repeatedly for her to give WoW a try, so she acquiesced and got an account.

Now she’s hooked on WoW. And it floors me. My Mom, playing World of Warcraft? How the hell did this happen? The most popular MMO and she’s playing it. Not only that, I’m not playing it! The reason I try not to play MMOs is because I know I’d get addicted. I have in the past. I played Earth and Beyond for quite some time after its release and I played it just about every moment I didn’t have something very important to do. There’s just too much time required to play MMOs. But here my Mom is, playing a game not even I play.

It’s just a little strange to me… I’m supposed to be the gamer, you know?

In any case, a few minutes before I hung up to head into church, I got a call from a 1-800 number and ignored it. I didn’t recognize the number and I was talking to my Mom for the remaining moment I had before walking in to church (which is nearly midway through service at this moment). Laura called me right as I hung up the phone with my Mom and told me that ADT called her about our alarm going off. Well, I knew who the 1-800 number was now.

I started driving back home and gave ADT a call. Our motion sensor had tripped and they’d already alerted the local police about 10 minutes before I got a real person on the phone there. I let them know I was on my way home and they took down my vehicle information so that the cops would know I was the homeowner.

So I got home before the police arrived and tentatively entered my home… Nothing out of place. No sign of entry, nothing moved, the dog happy as a clam to see me, the cat upstairs. Nada. The motion sensor is downstairs overlooking the dining and living rooms… How on earth it could have gotten tripped without any other zones going off is beyond me. The cat only weighs 10 pounds at the most, and the motion detector requires 50 pounds to set it off. So I have no clue what the hell happened.

I called ADT back and let them know it was a false alarm… And decided to write this blog post in the meantime. I think that the police still have to show up because the call was made, but I’m not sure. We’ll see later today if they show up.

This is pretty cool. My boss had some of his art featured in a highly tech-heavy publication from IEEE called Computer Graphics.