Monthly Archives: July 2007

now entering: “real life”

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Today was my first day at my new job. It went as smoothly as it can go for a programmer at a large company (i think?). Either way, i’m well on my way to being all set up and settling in. Everyone is super nice and/or cool, which is always a bonus. Also a bonus, the dress code is more of a suggestion then a rule, so I can be more comfortable and less done up, yay!

Also, tonight I went to see The Simpson’s Movie with Kim at South Side Works Theatre. It was way hilarious. I must say I am more than impressed with the work put into the film. It was a great adaptation from television, as well as a well rounded movie IMHO. Anyhow, if you haven’t yet seen it, you really should.

synergize

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So a friend of mine let me know about this sweet application: synergy. It’s supported on all the major platforms, works over the net (LAN would be suggested). If you set up ssh portforwarding you could make it secure, but i’m serving on a windows machine and i’m only using it locally. Anyhow, the app allows you to share your mouse and keyboard (and optionally clipboard depending) across any machine. it’s more or less a snap to setup, windows has a dialog based configurator. OSX and linux have a simple text config file (which is normal for those platforms).

I am somewhat curious as to why configurations must be mirrored across machines, maybe just to reduce the overhead of announcing it from the server. Perhaps i’ll look into it, or better yet, port the configurator to cocoa, wouldn’t that be nifty? The software is available as a binary for OSX, but i opted to install it via port (which has the latest version). If you have a few machines sitting at a desk and don’t want to use a full blown vnc system, this really simplifies usage.

some new bits

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So today I started work in earnest on my “nightlife” site for pittsburgh. You can see it slowly progress here. Ideally i’d like to list all of the bars actually still around Pittsburgh, with the normal info (location, hours, specials, pictures, etc.). As time progresses I hope to add more information and functionality (suggestions are welcome). Also, since I’ve been intrigued by Google Maps as well as their new Mapplets feature, that is a target for this site too.

Other sites like BarSmart and iLoveDrinks are ok as far as lists go. BarSmart is indeed trying to improve upon that by hosting mini-sites in an effort to keep strong ties and have correct information. I’m making my site less for commercial purposes and more for the ease of use I’d expect from a good information service.

relax

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The last week has been quite a crazy one. After moving in and doing some stuff related to getting the new place in order, there were plenty of fun activities to be done. I went out to several of the bars and clubs on the southside to check them out for the first time. Friday was my dad’s birthday, Saturday was mine, and we had a family get together today at my great aunt’s house.

Pretty much this week involved alcohol in some way or another. When I went to a bar, this connection is obvious. As far as my dad’s birthday, I attempted to have them try some new beers since they only like a few (and aren’t usually interested in trying new ones since they don’t drink all that often). My birthday was a day long adventure, ending with many friends hanging out at Mad Mex. I also found out earlier this week that I’m getting the opportunity to brew a kettle of ESB at The Brew Kettle in Ohio. I’ve been wanting to do this since I heard about it, so i’m pretty excited. I get to do the bottling in a few weeks, shortly before I start my new job.

This coming week will hopefully yield a better end-date for my project as I’ll be meeting with my advisor. Some of Kim’s friends are coming into town this week and staying with us for a bit, so there will be some fun getting to show them around Pittsburgh and what it has to offer. Who knows, maybe i’ll even get to find a few new places myself.