AlanBarber.Org
Twitter Updates
Rocking out in cubicle land... http://t.co/trOKKOy5
Thu May 17, 2012 12:34 PM
New project to play with for the day. Writing a VS2010 plugin that runs on every build... this should be fun!
Thu May 17, 2012 11:48 AM
Today is *facepalm* day... Dev DB was rolled back without telling any developers. ugg!
Thu May 17, 2012 9:13 AM
Started watching Breaking Bad the other day. Little slow at first but it gets really good. Bryan Cranston turns into one serious badass :)
Wed May 16, 2012 8:52 PM
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
MovableType 3.0 Beta
I got an email today welcoming me to the Moveable Type 3.0 Beta test. When I saw the signup form a few days ago I figured I'd apply just for the giggles.
I'm not really sure I want to upgrade this site to beta software. I just don't like the idea that I might wake up one morning and find everything is lost becuase of some bug. Plus ontop of that I've done a lot of work configuring and setting up background stuff for this site. From the front end it just looks like another MovableType weblog but on the backend I have a very complex configuration. Besides the major problem that mt-blacklist (a comment spam blocker) doesn't work with MT 3.0 I have a nightly backup script.
Every night I run a cron job that does several things:
1) closes all comments older than 14 days (execpt for those in the Tips and Tricks category)
2) Does a complete rebuild of the weblog (so the newly closed comment pages get updated)
3) targzips the entire archive directory
4) creates an export file of the blog (using the export blog trick found here: http://www.virtualvenus.org/archives/0309/create_an_export_blog.php )
5) targzips the export file
6) creates a dump of the mysql database
7) targzips the dump file
8) cleans up old files/etc
Then, I have my personal computer setup to auto-download the export and mysql dump files every morning. The backed-up archive directory gets downloaded every monday.
Most people would call this overkill to the extreme but for me I don't like to take chances. I've put in almost an entire year on this weblog so I'd hate to loose even a single days post.
So I think I'll hold off on upgrading this site for the time being. What I'll do is install MT 3.0 beta onto my freebsd test server and play around with it. I'll work on getting my nightly cycle to work with this new version. If I can get that working and after they release another beta or two and I'm sure it's safe then I'll upgrade this site.
There are suppose to be many new features that make MT 3.0 a lot better than 2.x that we all use now. I guess I'll just have to see.
I'm not really sure I want to upgrade this site to beta software. I just don't like the idea that I might wake up one morning and find everything is lost becuase of some bug. Plus ontop of that I've done a lot of work configuring and setting up background stuff for this site. From the front end it just looks like another MovableType weblog but on the backend I have a very complex configuration. Besides the major problem that mt-blacklist (a comment spam blocker) doesn't work with MT 3.0 I have a nightly backup script.
Every night I run a cron job that does several things:
1) closes all comments older than 14 days (execpt for those in the Tips and Tricks category)
2) Does a complete rebuild of the weblog (so the newly closed comment pages get updated)
3) targzips the entire archive directory
4) creates an export file of the blog (using the export blog trick found here: http://www.virtualvenus.org/archives/0309/create_an_export_blog.php )
5) targzips the export file
6) creates a dump of the mysql database
7) targzips the dump file
8) cleans up old files/etc
Then, I have my personal computer setup to auto-download the export and mysql dump files every morning. The backed-up archive directory gets downloaded every monday.
Most people would call this overkill to the extreme but for me I don't like to take chances. I've put in almost an entire year on this weblog so I'd hate to loose even a single days post.
So I think I'll hold off on upgrading this site for the time being. What I'll do is install MT 3.0 beta onto my freebsd test server and play around with it. I'll work on getting my nightly cycle to work with this new version. If I can get that working and after they release another beta or two and I'm sure it's safe then I'll upgrade this site.
There are suppose to be many new features that make MT 3.0 a lot better than 2.x that we all use now. I guess I'll just have to see.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Page 23
And now for something completely different.
1) Grab the nearest book.
2) Open the book to page 23.
3) Find the fifth sentence.
4) Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Ok normally I don't do these stupid trendy things but I'm so bored today when I saw this at another blog I decided I might as well do it. But don't expect me to do this all the time now!
By the way, that quote comes from Clifford Stoll's book "High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian."
It was published in 1999 and deals mostly with topics on computers in the classroom. He does ramble off on a few other subjects though. It's on my reading list and I suggest everyone go read it. Cliff isn't some anti-technology wack job. He's a pioneer in the field and just posses some questions worth thinking about.
1) Grab the nearest book.
2) Open the book to page 23.
3) Find the fifth sentence.
4) Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
quote:
Then there's the need for technical support--it's silly to expect English teachers to install and maintain the high school's file servers.
Ok normally I don't do these stupid trendy things but I'm so bored today when I saw this at another blog I decided I might as well do it. But don't expect me to do this all the time now!
By the way, that quote comes from Clifford Stoll's book "High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian."
It was published in 1999 and deals mostly with topics on computers in the classroom. He does ramble off on a few other subjects though. It's on my reading list and I suggest everyone go read it. Cliff isn't some anti-technology wack job. He's a pioneer in the field and just posses some questions worth thinking about.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Week 1 Day 1
Today officially is the beginning of my exercise routine. Yes I've been working out this last week but it was really just a testing/warm-up week. I wanted to get myself into the mental state to work out and also to test to see how well my fitness guide I made matched my ability. I've found I am able to adjust most of the guide as far as number of sets and reps as well as running times. So you can see my updated and now official fitness guide here:
http://www.alanbarber.org/gallery/files/fitness/fitness_guide.doc
So to start I did my bicep and tricep exercises. I did 1 set of 10 reps of bicep curls and 1 set of 10 reps of tricep dips. This is actually up from 1 set of 8 for each as I originally planned. That's not much of a difference but I realized it wouldn't kill me to do two more reps twice a week.
Just now I finished my running. I did a 10 minute walk to warm-up, 10 minute light jog for the main exercise and a 10 minute walk to cool down. This is up from 10 walk, 5 jog, 15 walk. After I was able to run for a full 20 minutes Thursday I knew I could up the jog time. However, I was very sore after that 20 minute jog so just adding 5 minutes seemed a good compromise. I also decided to keep an even 10 minute warm-up and 10 minute cool down were as originally as I upped the jogging time I shrunk the warm-up and cool down times. It just seems better to have a solid 20 minute walk to add to the total exercise time.
My weight right now is 181.5 pounds according to the scale. However, I am wearing my running clothes minus the shoes and socks so we'll just round it to an even 180 pounds and this will be the starting weight. I plan to loose two pounds a week for the next 8 weeks to get down to 165 pounds where I hope to stay at.
From now on I plan to post weekly updates every Sunday since doing daily updates is pretty much a waste.
http://www.alanbarber.org/gallery/files/fitness/fitness_guide.doc
So to start I did my bicep and tricep exercises. I did 1 set of 10 reps of bicep curls and 1 set of 10 reps of tricep dips. This is actually up from 1 set of 8 for each as I originally planned. That's not much of a difference but I realized it wouldn't kill me to do two more reps twice a week.
Just now I finished my running. I did a 10 minute walk to warm-up, 10 minute light jog for the main exercise and a 10 minute walk to cool down. This is up from 10 walk, 5 jog, 15 walk. After I was able to run for a full 20 minutes Thursday I knew I could up the jog time. However, I was very sore after that 20 minute jog so just adding 5 minutes seemed a good compromise. I also decided to keep an even 10 minute warm-up and 10 minute cool down were as originally as I upped the jogging time I shrunk the warm-up and cool down times. It just seems better to have a solid 20 minute walk to add to the total exercise time.
My weight right now is 181.5 pounds according to the scale. However, I am wearing my running clothes minus the shoes and socks so we'll just round it to an even 180 pounds and this will be the starting weight. I plan to loose two pounds a week for the next 8 weeks to get down to 165 pounds where I hope to stay at.
From now on I plan to post weekly updates every Sunday since doing daily updates is pretty much a waste.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Morning walk and worked on my pecs
Pinch me I must be dreaming!
Man, it's a beautiful day. I don't know if I can handle all this much warm sunny weather all the sudden. Going from months of cold, dreary weather to 75 and sunny is a real shock on the system. Isn't it funny! I would complain and complain about the horrible weather all winter and now that it's nice I'm complaining even more. I really need to learn to be more thankful.
Well today started out really well. I walked instead of running. My girlfriend and I walked a local trail in the morning. It was an old abandoned railroad. The park district converted I believe something like 13 miles of the railroad into a paved pathway. It's very well maintained and great to walk on. It's much better than walking around the block or using a treadmill because of the changing scenery. It starts out in the middle of town with all the homes and industry and go out into the country with open fields, woods, etc. Of course being early spring the trees are still just budding and not much wildlife is out and about yet. However, it's still great to use.
I'm not too sure how far we went but we walked for about an hour and a half so I figure we did something like 4 or 5 miles. We got finished just in time too. When we started there was nary a soul to be seen but as we were getting done lots of people on bikes started coming by. I definitely don't hurt as much as I did from running that's for sure, although my right knee is killing me. It's the family curse I guess since my father always complains about his right knee too.
Anyhoo, we went out to eat at Bob Evans. I had their sausage and cheese omelette, home fries, wheat toast and cranberry-grape juice. I was good though and just ate a little of my home fries since I'm trying to cut back on excess carbs. Plus I didn't eat the crust of my wheat toast just so it would be that much less carbs. But I have a fondness for bread that I'll never get rid off.
I took some Advil for the pain then took an hour nap when I got home then I did my exercises for my pecs. I did one set of ten reps of pushups and chest flys. I know it's not much but I'm just looking to tone not bulk up. Plus this is my first week so I'm just taking it ease my body into the idea of working out.
Now I just have to find something to do for rest of this great day that doesn't involve that dreaded word "work".
Man, it's a beautiful day. I don't know if I can handle all this much warm sunny weather all the sudden. Going from months of cold, dreary weather to 75 and sunny is a real shock on the system. Isn't it funny! I would complain and complain about the horrible weather all winter and now that it's nice I'm complaining even more. I really need to learn to be more thankful.
Well today started out really well. I walked instead of running. My girlfriend and I walked a local trail in the morning. It was an old abandoned railroad. The park district converted I believe something like 13 miles of the railroad into a paved pathway. It's very well maintained and great to walk on. It's much better than walking around the block or using a treadmill because of the changing scenery. It starts out in the middle of town with all the homes and industry and go out into the country with open fields, woods, etc. Of course being early spring the trees are still just budding and not much wildlife is out and about yet. However, it's still great to use.
I'm not too sure how far we went but we walked for about an hour and a half so I figure we did something like 4 or 5 miles. We got finished just in time too. When we started there was nary a soul to be seen but as we were getting done lots of people on bikes started coming by. I definitely don't hurt as much as I did from running that's for sure, although my right knee is killing me. It's the family curse I guess since my father always complains about his right knee too.
Anyhoo, we went out to eat at Bob Evans. I had their sausage and cheese omelette, home fries, wheat toast and cranberry-grape juice. I was good though and just ate a little of my home fries since I'm trying to cut back on excess carbs. Plus I didn't eat the crust of my wheat toast just so it would be that much less carbs. But I have a fondness for bread that I'll never get rid off.
I took some Advil for the pain then took an hour nap when I got home then I did my exercises for my pecs. I did one set of ten reps of pushups and chest flys. I know it's not much but I'm just looking to tone not bulk up. Plus this is my first week so I'm just taking it ease my body into the idea of working out.
Now I just have to find something to do for rest of this great day that doesn't involve that dreaded word "work".
Thursday, April 15, 2004
I’m in better shape than I though I was!
It has been an extraordinarily beautiful day today! I was so inspired I went running. This is the first time I've gone running since last summer mind you.
If you read my fitness guide you will see the first two weeks of running are suppose to be 10 minute walk, 5 minute run, and 15 minute walk. I have read the minimum time for aerobic exercise is 20 minutes. The plan being that I would build up the running section and shrink the second walk section. That was so I would have a nice gradual build up of my endurance. Well I was feeling very good after 5 minutes so I decided to just push myself to do 10 minutes of jogging. Suffice to say I made it to 10 minutes and though I was starting to tire I pushed myself harder and made a full 20 minute jog.
I'm surprised at how good I did! I didn't think I was anywhere near that level. I started running last year but would die at just 5 minutes and feel physically ill. However, looking back I was probably ten pounds heavier and still drinking a good 3 plus cans of pop a day. The lack of soda helped loss the weight but more importantly the huge doses of caffeine were removed. My heart is just in much better shape now from not being jolted with all the caffeine.
So long story short I'm going to adjust my running guide. I think pushing 20 minutes out the gate will still be too much for my poor old heart. I'll probably just add 5 minutes to the jog each week and 5 less of the second walk session.
I also did my triceps and biceps exercise today. There's nothing big to report there since they're just your basic lifting weights and doing dips.
Woo I feel good today!
If you read my fitness guide you will see the first two weeks of running are suppose to be 10 minute walk, 5 minute run, and 15 minute walk. I have read the minimum time for aerobic exercise is 20 minutes. The plan being that I would build up the running section and shrink the second walk section. That was so I would have a nice gradual build up of my endurance. Well I was feeling very good after 5 minutes so I decided to just push myself to do 10 minutes of jogging. Suffice to say I made it to 10 minutes and though I was starting to tire I pushed myself harder and made a full 20 minute jog.
I'm surprised at how good I did! I didn't think I was anywhere near that level. I started running last year but would die at just 5 minutes and feel physically ill. However, looking back I was probably ten pounds heavier and still drinking a good 3 plus cans of pop a day. The lack of soda helped loss the weight but more importantly the huge doses of caffeine were removed. My heart is just in much better shape now from not being jolted with all the caffeine.
So long story short I'm going to adjust my running guide. I think pushing 20 minutes out the gate will still be too much for my poor old heart. I'll probably just add 5 minutes to the jog each week and 5 less of the second walk session.
I also did my triceps and biceps exercise today. There's nothing big to report there since they're just your basic lifting weights and doing dips.
Woo I feel good today!
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
My fitness routine
Well I finished my fitness routine that I'm going to do. I've actually started part of it this week. I'm doing everything except the running because the weather has been completely trash the last few days. It's been extremely cold, very windy and raining. However, the plan goes into full swing this Sunday. I've devised a 8 week plan that spreads out all the exercises I want to do over 7 days. Everything is spread out so it gives plenty of time to rest body parts so I won't skip days due to feeling too sore, tired, etc.
The basic schedule looks like this:
Sunday
Biceps / Triceps (Bicep Curl, Tricep Dips)
Running
Monday
Abs (Crunch, Reverse Crunch, Oblique Twist)
Tuesday
Pecs (Pushups, Chest Flyes)
Running
Wednesday
Abs (Crunch, Reverse Crunch, Oblique Twist)
Thursday
Biceps / Triceps (Bicep Curl, Tricep Dips)
Running
Friday
Abs (Crunch, Reverse Crunch, Oblique Twist)
Saturday
Pecs (Pushups, Chest Flyes)
Running
If anyone is actually interested in the specifics as far as how the exercise work, number of reps and sets to do, etc you can view this word document that I created.
http://www.alanbarber.org/gallery/files/fitness/fitness_guide.doc
I printed it out and taped it to my closet door so I see it every day.
Along with that I made a little check sheet for me to mark of my work every day.
http://www.alanbarber.org/gallery/files/fitness/fitness_chart.doc
It's a nice little motivational tool. It reminds you not to skip days because otherwise those missing checkmarks seem to mock you.
So, just twenty minutes ago I did my exercise for my abs so I'm actually done for the day. I did one set of eight reps for each exercise. It may not sound like much but there are actually four different exercises in the workout. The Crunch works the upper abs, reverse crunch works the lower abs, and you do oblique twists for both the left and right side of the abs. These separate exercises actually target the abs much more than any old sit-up can do.
Tomorrow is supposed to warm up so I might try to start running as well as work my biceps and triceps. Here's hoping it does!
The basic schedule looks like this:
Sunday
Biceps / Triceps (Bicep Curl, Tricep Dips)
Running
Monday
Abs (Crunch, Reverse Crunch, Oblique Twist)
Tuesday
Pecs (Pushups, Chest Flyes)
Running
Wednesday
Abs (Crunch, Reverse Crunch, Oblique Twist)
Thursday
Biceps / Triceps (Bicep Curl, Tricep Dips)
Running
Friday
Abs (Crunch, Reverse Crunch, Oblique Twist)
Saturday
Pecs (Pushups, Chest Flyes)
Running
If anyone is actually interested in the specifics as far as how the exercise work, number of reps and sets to do, etc you can view this word document that I created.
http://www.alanbarber.org/gallery/files/fitness/fitness_guide.doc
I printed it out and taped it to my closet door so I see it every day.
Along with that I made a little check sheet for me to mark of my work every day.
http://www.alanbarber.org/gallery/files/fitness/fitness_chart.doc
It's a nice little motivational tool. It reminds you not to skip days because otherwise those missing checkmarks seem to mock you.
So, just twenty minutes ago I did my exercise for my abs so I'm actually done for the day. I did one set of eight reps for each exercise. It may not sound like much but there are actually four different exercises in the workout. The Crunch works the upper abs, reverse crunch works the lower abs, and you do oblique twists for both the left and right side of the abs. These separate exercises actually target the abs much more than any old sit-up can do.
Tomorrow is supposed to warm up so I might try to start running as well as work my biceps and triceps. Here's hoping it does!