Computerjargon.com

The Past

As I’ve been running through all my old posts from 2000 tagging I realized that I used to post about 2 things:

1. Lots and lots of nerd talk about computerjargon.com

2. Lots of lyrics

My attention for blogging has shortened over the years. I still do enjoy keeping friends and family in tune with my life. But I’ve come to realize that not even I care to remember in 4 years what I ate for lunch today (BTW – It was animal crackers and Diet Coke).

The Present

I recently started a new job. I left the company I’d been with for the last 5 years or so. Over the 5 years I saw many changes. The changes over the last year, though, were the final straw. It’s bitter sweet for me. I would have loved to have felt there was a place for me in the future, but realistically the company wanted nothing to do with IT.

So I’ve started a new job. The new place has gone through the same type of transformations that my old company has gone through, which came as a surprise to me.  I didn’t expect to see the same type of issues here as I did there. Luckily, though, my new job is much more technology focused. I’m excited to dig my teeth into something good.

If you’re reading this post on the website then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Inspired by the word “free” and “web designs” I decided to redo Computerjargon.com’s layout. I ran across the Open Source Web Design site which contains thouasands of free to take website templates. This wonderful one is provided by Andreas Viklund. I give him mad props for doin’ the world good with a little open source lovin’.

Although I’ve been a web app developer for many, many years I am very horrible at the design aspect. I can make a web app work great, just don’t ask me to design one.

Most of the basic site functionality has been moved over. For those dying to comment, comments should be working. I’ll be cleaning up a few little nuances along the way. Hope you enjoy.

After a 2 year hiatus, comments are once again back online. There is one caveat though. The comments are moderated. So feel free to curse me out.

So, lets recap the score. Chad may have beaten me back online , I’ve got an RSS Feed and moderated comments. Best get crackin’ Chad. I’ve got somethin’ cookin’ in the crockpot.

The following post will be filled with geek-speak and a little bit of mumbo-jumbo. Proceed at your own risk.

I’m making my inaugural post using the new .Net application I’ve been writing for the past, oh, 2 years. Part of the reason I’ve kept CJ in PHP was 2-fold: I have some great software that I like to use in PHP (the gallery and RSS feed stuff) and secondly, there was no .Net support on Linux. You can trust the MS OS for playing video games, but not for hosting web sites in my book. So I put off a revamp for quite some time. I believe the last time I updated the CJ code was sometime in 2000.

Well, Linux got Mono a few months ago which is a Linux implementation of the .Net language. I’ve been messing around with it and it seems stable enough to serve a web site from. I guess we’ll find out.

A one thing to note: Commenting is disabled until I want you jokers to post crap to my site. And this time, you’ll have to fill in a name or you can’t post. The username Ass-Clown is already reserved for a friend. You’ll have to come up with something better than that.

I’m a wordy MF today. Just thought I would also note that it was 1 year on Tuesday that Broken Industries/Computer Jargon came online in it’s current form. Wahoo! Cheers! Someone pass the Ibuprofen.

*ahem* User account creation fixed. Thank you to the anonymous poster. Please let me know if any other errors pop up. Also, I managed to delete 7 accounts. Sorry. The 4 important ones are still there (Dino, Em, Jason, Rico). Why are these important? These are the 4 accounts with journal entries.

Rico and I stumbled upon a cool technology on Monday. The ability to read ID3 tags from mp3s. Yes, it’s geeky, but if an mp3 is ripped appropriately the ID3 tags can be quite helpful. We figured it out in ASP and PHP because I refuse to use a Microsoft product in my free time (unless it’s to play games. )


3 days to go. Then a nice 4 day vacation. Although Christmas is never a true holiday because every day is spent running around from house to house. Sitting around, bullshitting with everyone. I’m already booked Friday through Monday.

I have done it! I have conquered the Minnesota Winter! This morning was supposed to be a record low of 14 degrees below zero. Yours truly walked to work this morning. And quite honestly, I’ve been colder. Unlike the days of middle school when I would refuse to wear a hat to the bus stop in fear of getting teased, I was quite bundled up. I even dared to put on the tights..er…”thermal underwear” that my parents bought me for walking to class in the college years. I also had to break out the flannel-lined worker pants. NONETHELESS, I still have my nose and I made it! Take that Winter! Screw you. I want the nice 40 degree winters back.

There’s a new suggested Napster download. It may be hard to find on Napster. If you can’t find it I can hook you up. For the most part response to my music suggestions has been overwhelming positive. But I highly doubt everyone will like this week’s selection. Good luck on your quest.

I have a question. Do you, as a user, think it would be cooler if the user journals were accessible through the url more easily? Like: http://www.computerjargon.com/DinoCrisisManangement/ . Or doesn’t it matter?

This new functionality spawned from the idea that my brother wanted somewhere he could go to create a list of DVDs he owns. Back in the day there used to be tons of services that would have gladdy done this for you free of charge. Sounds like they got a nasty dose of reality because they are now charging for the service.

So I went ahead and made a List Pod Creator. What is a List Pod you ask? Well, the boxes on the right-hand side of the screen are called Pods. A List Pod Creator is a tool which allows you to create a Pod which contains a list. A list can consist of anything from your shopping list to your holiday wish list (That’s what I’m going to use it for). The List Pod Creator should show up on the Admin menu after you log into your account.

Once you have created a List Pod go to Update Options to turn on your newly created Pod.

If you don’t have an account already try logging in on the right-hand side and follow the directions.

For the most part, Courtney and I are two peas in a pod. But, boy, does she hate my webcams. Maybe hate is the wrong word. I think her feelings are more along the lines of a deep loathe. Nonetheless she does get caught on them every once in awhile.


Here’s one of those times. There’s no nudity, you pervs. But this picture makes me smile every time I look at it.