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April 2007
October 2006
September 2006
July 2006
January 2006
May 2005
February 2005
March 2002
February 2002
Josh Has something to say
SHall Turns 30!
Woah, Slashdot down, Slashdot down!
Fireworks
Fame Dancer
Father
New Project
Winblows 98
Vacuum
Tom's World
Last night (Wednesday April 30, 2008), our small family of 4 headed out to have a quick dinner and then over to Baskin Robbins for $0.31 ice cream. As per usual, we couldn't decide where to eat, and then I remembered reading an article about Iowa Castle in the Des Moines Register. It was close, so we ventured over.
Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by a big sign on the window that read "10% OFF Dine in Only". I thought, "Sweet, a discount just for eating here!" We ordered our meals (Crissy - #2 $4.99, Tom - #9 $5.99, Josh - Kids Nuggets $2.99 w/milk). We were charged $15.86, I thought nothing of it, sat down and proceeded to eat our meals. While sitting there eating, I thought to myself, gosh, for 10% off, it seems that we might have over paid a little bit. My math said $4.99 + $5.99 + 2.99+6% tax = $14.81 right? No one was at the counter (actually there was practically no one in the restaurant at all) so I thought I'd ask what the deal was. The guy explained to me that you only get 10% off if you have some special "VIP" card which he offered to me for future visits, and since I we ordered milk with the kids meal instead of pop it was an extra $0.99 charge. At that point, I accepted the answered and sat down to finish my meal. When Crissy finished her meal, she looked down at the placemat and read that on Wednesdays, for each combo meal purchased, receive $0.50 off a kids meal. At that point, I noticed that there was another window display on the other side of the building that said, "Kid's Nite each Wednesday". I decided at that point that I had given the establishment an opportunity to right any wrongs on pricing so I wasn't about to re-approach the cashier about the kids night deal. Instead I thought I'd post it here and say to the world, "HEY IOWA CASTLE, I FEEL CHEATED!" It's entirely possible that I was charged appropriately. It's possible that a little carton of milk was $1.49 OVER the cost of a pop. It's also possible that straight up, milk is $0.99 and they owe me a kids size pop because I apparently purchased both.
In summary, we went to Iowa Castle last night for dinner, paid $15.86 and I feel that we should have paid somewhere between $12.85 and $15.33.
Best Case: Kids Nite, 10% off, and no extra charge for milk on a kids meal (like the rest of the world)
($2.99 + $4.99 + $5.99 - $0.50) * 0.9 * 1.06 = $12.85
Allow only 1 discount (with and without extra milk charge):
($2.99 + $4.99 + $5.99 - $0.50) * 1.06 = $14.28
($2.99 + $4.99 + $5.99 - $0.50 + $0.99) * 1.06 = $15.33
($2.99 + $4.99 + $5.99) * 0.9 * 1.06 = $13.33
($2.99 + $4.99 + $5.99 + $0.99) * 0.9 * 1.06 = $14.27
There may be more combinations, but those are the scenarios I came up with. I know I'm being silly, but I am a bit ticked off at being misled (either intentionally or not) as to "deals" at this restaurant.
I'll end on a positive note. The food was great, and I may even decide to eat there again.
On an even better note, Baskin Robbins was awesome. Josh, Crissy and I had ice cream cones and the total bill was $0.99!
Tonight, I broke into a cold sweat. I went to read an article through slashdot about the first programming language I learned in college (Scheme) when suddenly, the unthinkable happened! SLASHDOT WAS BROKEN!
Chris P. tried it too and reported the same thing. Luckily, as of a few minutes ago, The Slash followed by the Dot worked once again.
Download iPod format
Also in mp4
A couple days ago, my dad passed away. We're going to miss him, but he's in heaven now!
The last month of his life have been chronicled by my sister Jennifer. His obituary was published in the Muscatine Journal.
I hope that my son Joshua will love me as much as I love my dad.
Hello! Long time no see ;) It's only been about 3 years since I last posted here. I post here in my free time, so you might be able to figure out why I haven't posted in sooooo long! I wanted to share my new project with you. Well, Joshua isn't really a project. He's amazing!
I couldn't resist the impulse buy!
Crissy pointed this one out to me in the store. For the potential defamation lawsuit itself, it was a must buy! I'm sure it will be a collector's item.
The only question now: Should I open the package and play the games or leave it in the shrink wrap???
Tonight we bought a vacuum from a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman! It was his 3rd sale ever! The sales-manager ("the guy on the phone") thought that it was his first. We got a really good deal. I'm such a softie for door-to-door people. We bought a TriStar EXL. I won't say how much it cost, but trust me I checked on Ebay and we stole this one.
Andy just uploaded a whole bunch more pictures of Neil Andrew Pohl!
I took the liberty of making a thumbnail page.
I just downloaded 2 new books from Audible.com.
The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the New Economy by Pekka Himanen, Linus Torvalds, and more
When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! by Yogi Berra and Dave Kaplan
I'll let you know how well I like them! I'm sure that they will be most positive books!
I'm an uncle again! YEAH!!!
Neil joined us last night at 6:34 p.m. with a little help from the doctors. He weighs 8lbs 0oz and is 21.25" long.Here are a few pictures from last night. In some (actually most) of the pictures you will see a funny looking plastic dome over his head. He was having some problems breathing to start out but he is doing fine now. Mom (Cassie) is doing great in fact right now she is on here way to the nursery to feed him for the first time.
Here is a little article from the 3/4/2002 edition of the Des Moines Register. Steve Woo is a great wordsmith. He can even make me look good!
Thanks Steve!
Click on my picture to read the article (246kb)
Today, Steve Woo came over to the house after church. Actually he followed us home :) ... sort-of (He got a little lost). Anyways ... this afternoon, we played on his old computer that he converted into a linux machine. It was an old Pentiumtm 200. Did I mention how OLD it was? We booted it up and noted its utter slowness. I was origionally *just* going to show him what PHP was all about, but since it was so slow, we decided to tackle that first. He and another firend installed the latest version of Mandrake on it. Mandrake is really just another flavor of Linux. There was a LOT of extra programs that were running that really didn't need to and his webserver was a little flaky because PHP wasn't setup quite right. Anyone who knows my taste in Linux knows that I think Slackware is the best Linux *flavor* because it isn't as bloated out of the box. Being the glutton for punishment that I am, we decided to reinstall the machine with the latest version of Slackware, which I happened to have on CD. Well ... 3 hours later and repartitioning his harddrive for the 5th time, Slackware was up and running happily. Did I mention how OLD his machine was? I've never had so much trouble installing Linux onto a computer (and I have done it a LOT). His BIOS was out of date and not too happy to have a harddrive that was 6GB (way bigger than what was available at the time when the computer was new). Persistence was the key to making it work. And yes, Les Brown, I won!
David Deans seven principles from Now is Your Time to Win:
- Accept your situation.
- Be willing to fail.
- Make daily preparations.
- Be a professional.
- Live in the present.
- Do your best.
- Let God help you.
"I will persist until I succeed."
-Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World
Tonight, I've added a Forum section to the site. I hope that you can find / post lots of positive things.
I can't tell you what I'm doing with it, but here is my new toy. :)
Did I mention that I had to help a customer hack into their firewall because they couldn't remember their password? Oh, I guess I didnt. Well, yesterday, I got a phone call from one of my customers (whom shall remain nameless) telling me that their ISP came over and changed the way their DSL connection works and needs to change the network configuration on their firewall. The IT manager at their location didn't know anything about managing their firewall that's why they called me! Unfortunately, neither of us knew the password to the box (they chose the password originally and I don't make a point of remembering customer's passwords unless they ask me to do so). It was 12:30PM, I had an interview with a reporter at 2:30 and they were 45 minutes away. Even if it only took me 10 minutes to fix the problem, I didn't feel comfortable with getting back so close to the interview. The only solution, lead a semi non-technical person with no Linux/Unix experience through the process of breaking into their box and resetting the root password. I won't go into the gory details, but we did it (it's actually quite easy since we had physical access to the box). What a positive moment!
As the 2002 2002 2002 time comes closer I wonder what I really want to do with my blog. It's kinda a cute little toy that makes me happy :) I'm actually a very positive person in general. I can't help it, I just am! Somewhere along in my life I made the decicion to be happy. Not very much rattles my cage. I think its the positive phrases. The positive phrases you ask?? Oh yes! I say positive things to myself all day long. Maybe I should dedicate my blog to positive phrases!
At 2:30AM I get an email ... it's from SnapNames.Com regarding my backorder on MugClub.Com (which technicall expired back in November but hasn't been released into the wild yet). The record has changed!
Old Values:
Domain not found locally, but Registry points back to local DB. /*CHANGED*/
Local whois DB must be out of date. /*CHANGED*/
Whois Server Version 1.3 /*CHANGED*/
Domain names in the .com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered /*CHANGED*/
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net /*CHANGED*/
for detailed information. /*CHANGED*/
Domain Name: MUGCLUB.COM /*CHANGED*/
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC. /*CHANGED*/
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com /*CHANGED*/
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com /*CHANGED*/
Name Server: NS1.NAMESDIRECT.COM /*CHANGED*/
Name Server: NS2.NAMESDIRECT.COM /*CHANGED*/
The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .ORG, .EDU domains and /*CHANGED*/
Registrars. /*CHANGED*/
New Values:
The Data in the VeriSign Registrar WHOIS database is provided by VeriSign for /*CHANGED*/
information purposes only, and to assist persons in obtaining information about /*CHANGED*/
or related to a domain name registration record. VeriSign does not guarantee /*CHANGED*/
its accuracy. Additionally, the data may not reflect updates to billing contact /*CHANGED*/
information. By submitting a WHOIS query, you agree to use this Data only /*CHANGED*/
for lawful purposes and that under no circumstances will you use this Data to: /*CHANGED*/
(1) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, /*CHANGED*/
commercial advertising or solicitations via e-mail, telephone, or facsimile; or /*CHANGED*/
(2) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that apply to VeriSign /*CHANGED*/
(or its computer systems). The compilation, repackaging, dissemination or /*CHANGED*/
other use of this Data is expressly prohibited without the prior written /*CHANGED*/
consent of VeriSign. VeriSign reserves the right to terminate your access to /*CHANGED*/
the VeriSign Registrar WHOIS database in its sole discretion, including /*CHANGED*/
without limitation, for excessive querying of the WHOIS database or for failure /*CHANGED*/
to otherwise abide by this policy. VeriSign reserves the right to modify these /*CHANGED*/
terms at any time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by this policy. /*CHANGED*/
Domain not found locally, but Registry points back to local DB. /*CHANGED*/
Local whois DB must be out of date. /*CHANGED*/
Whois Server Version 1.3 /*CHANGED*/
Domain names in the .com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered /*CHANGED*/
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net /*CHANGED*/
for detailed information. /*CHANGED*/
Domain Name: MUGCLUB.COM /*CHANGED*/
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC. /*CHANGED*/
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com /*CHANGED*/
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com /*CHANGED*/
Name Server: NS1.NAMESDIRECT.COM /*CHANGED*/
Name Server: NS2.NAMESDIRECT.COM /*CHANGED*/
The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .ORG, .EDU domains and /*CHANGED*/
Registrars. /*CHANGED*/
I guess that's one way to find out about new WHOIS database policies :)
Crissy and I have been cleaning the house feverishly tonight because a reporter and photographer from the Des Moines Register are coming tomorrow afternoon. Steven Woo wants to do an interview about myself and TCP Consulting.
Tonight has been a big night! At 7:00PM I attended a City of Clive Board of Adjustment meeting for a zoning variance. TCP Consulting (my company) and I-Rule.Net are getting into the broadband wireless internet service and we needed the variance to put the 60 foot tall wireless tower right next to the building. Good news, the passed our proposal!
Welcome to My blog! There are many others like it, but this one is mine.