If you’re looking for something to do in September you should take the weekend to check out Comic-Con.

Comic-Con will be at the Baltimore Convention Center on September 27th and 28th. It’s will be featuring some serious guests such as Jim Lee and Brian Bendis along with some of the craziest guests you’ve ever seen.

Tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster, or you can visit the site at http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/

Hope to see you there!

Technorati Tags: comic-con, internet, ticketmaster, tickets, comic, fun

This is pretty cool. I am excited that I can now use my iPhone as a way to keep folks updated… starting with myself.

More to come.

I’m sure that by the time you finish reading this (granted: you DO finish) you’ll be asking me how I considered this to be a starting point for my blog. Please believe me when I say that I don’t. It’s been harsh these past few months, but if you read between the lines of this post you will understand. It takes a little time.

So one thing I’ve noticed at my place of employment is how many times the words “reboot”, “restart,” and “reset” are used. I can understand this when it comes to PC’s, phone, and even the occasional printer or two. However, conversations like these tend to show up:

Me: So what happened?
Them: It seems the IVM service was not running. It just froze up completely.
Me: What did you end up doing?
Them: Restarting it. Didn’t work too well. It cause whatever task that was running to completely fail. We may have to soft-watch. (Note: Soft-watch is our term for “possible visit, typically an overnight stay”)
Me: Any idea what caused it to fail?
Them: Not really, but I think… insert inept mumbling from here, until… so they just unplugged it and plugged it back in.
Me: Right…

So after all that, a “simple reset” took care of the task? Give me a break! Really, if resetting the whole universe were the solution to everything, don’t you think people would have tried it by now? Now I know I have my fair share of restarts, but it’s typically after a user wanted something updated, installed, whatever. Where did the days of uptime go? It’s like the number of hours spent performing updates and the such has dramatically increased for absolutely no reason. Even our servers, which are heavily relied on during the hours of 7am to 6pm, can sometimes be restarted in the middle of the day.

I’m putting some of the blame on the heavy reliance of Windows. Out of all the servers we have (both physical and virtual for a total of 32), only 6 utilize something other than Windows. Eh, go figure.

More to come as I “reboot” myself this weekend…

Have you downloaded Firefox 3 yet?

I have, and so far I am enjoying it. Soon enough it may be “goodbye Internet Explorer!”

Just in case you weren’t in the loop, today is the official Firefox 3 Download Day.

Today, Mozilla, the creators of the well-known and loved browser Firefox are scheduled to debut the latest release of the project. Firefox version 3 is set to include over 15,000 new features and improvements compared to version 2. Firefox is currently the #2 most used browser in the desktop market, with number 1 being Internet Explorer. Todays goal is not only to break the record of the most downloads in a 24-hour period but to also spread the use of the widely popular browser to more desktops than ever before with an attempt to surpass that of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Hey, anything’s possible…

I installed the last public beta only days ago… I can’t believe I waited so long! Even if they don’t manage to surpass the Guiness World Record I can guarantee that this version of Firefox will make a huge impact on the web browsing experience for everyone.

If you’d like to support the cause, check out the page over at SpreadFirefox

“Oh no, not another game from these guys at iminlikewithyou!”

“STFU!”

Gemmers is another divine intervention straight from the minds of iminlikewithyou, featuring… uh… gems!

The object is to match 3 or more of the same colored gems.  Clicking on that match removes them.  Of course, between the speed of the rising lines of gems, and the fury of weapons you can use at your disposal it could put games like Tetris Attack to rest.

(Put my game back, fool!)

Unfortunately, Gemmers is still in beta so don’t go crying to mommy when the game crashes right when you were about to win.

Oh yeah, like all others… there’s stats!  See you there.

What, you were expecting something about ponies or baseball?  Sorry, not here.

It’s all about Draw My Thing!

Draw My Thing is just what you think it is, sans perverseness…

… well, maybe a little.

Either way you’re bound to get a laugh.  I became addicted instantly.  So do yourself a favor:  Head on over to iminlikewithyou and go play, draw things!

Also when you get bored, they now have a blog and a store.  It bad though, because they only sell shirts for anorexic people. *sadface*

I can haz stats?  Okay…

With nothing else but… a YouTube video!

Let’s give it a shot!

(11:54) EDIT:  Looks like we’re good to go!

11:56 EDIT: Now to try with Viddler!

Hawt!

This is the first post… on WordPress 2.5.1.

I’d like to thank you, WordPress, for giving me the opportunity to really find out how much of a newbie I am at blogging and backend management. 

I have to say that what I thought to be a “simple, 5-minute install” was not-so-simple.  Basically, I stopped everything around 8:25 this evening to perform the update…

… it’s now 11:21pm.

Not only did I corrupt the existing entries on my blog, but I seemed to take all my tables and backend work with it.

*sigh*

Oh well, I guess I’ll take it as a lesson learned: Never, ever upgrade your WordPress… drunk.

Now, I’m going to install all my plugins, and then make a fresh backup.

Go me!

Move over Twitter and Pownce, Brightkite is now on the scene.

Brightkite is the latest in social networking websites which have sprouted all over the Internet. This one offers a bit of a twist. Not only can you post messages and pictures via SMS, e-mail, or even its own web interface, but it also allows broadcasting your exact location to those around you. This could include friends, or the entire Brightkite universe.

With location-based networking, this allows for easier access to others who live, work, or play around the area. With the help of its “check-in” feature, you can be notified when someone is around however you would like via e-mail, or SMS. With this comes a few safety features. The privacy option allows you to limit to how much of your location is posted to certain people. You can decide to broadcast your exact address to the universe (although we’d never recommend it), versus broadcasting to your friends only. For those of us who have locations we visit often, there’s the “placemark” setting which you can use in place of retyping the same location over and over again. This is especially useful when checking in via SMS.

In terms of sending pictures, currently e-mail is the only option available. You are given a unique e-mail address, bound to your account, which allows for pictures to be posted on the timeline. Just like when sending SMS it correlates with the last place you checked in, and you can even attach a short note or caption via the subject line.

Brightkite also includes integration with Twitter. Currently, it’s the only option to search for those on your follow list to see if they too are on Brightkite. Also, each time you check in to a new location, Brightkite sends a message using your Twitter account announcing that location. Of course, this is all optional, but worth it if you’d like to keep those following you in the know.

Currently Brightkite is in beta, but invites have been passed around all over the community. Upcoming features in Brightkite include extended access in Twitter, as well as a Brightkite iPhone application.  In addition there’s the ability to enter your e-mail address on the site itself and pray for an invite. Most people have been successful with receiving one, but there’s always an odd man out.

You can check out Brightkite over at www.brightkite.com.  They also have a blog located at http://blog.brightkite.com

See you there.