JohnA lifeBlog

So, thanks to more than a few scheduling errors, I have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow.

I own an alarm clock, which is set, but I don’t trust me. Enter WakerUpper.com…

These champions have taken Asterisk and a literally $11/mo Voice over IP account and created a brilliant, automated wake-up call service.

See, I LOVE these kind of innovations. They do things on the cheap, but use robust and sound open-source technologies.

I have to wake up at 5 am tomorrow, and WakerUpper will be there… calling me at 5am, 5:15, 5:30, 5:40, 5:45, and 5:50… If I don’t get up, it is definately not WakerUpper’s fault.

Thanks, WakerUpper, and thanks to you, Asterisk Open Source.

As many of you know, my family lives in New Orleans. They’ve evacauted, but their issues, plus some other family problems mean that I have to fly down to the coast emergency style.

I’ll be back in a week, if you need something before then, please e-mail me.

So, I joined eHarmony because my therapist seems to think it is the greatest thing since running water. At her advice, I answered all of my questions truthfully. And when they said to upload your picture, I dutifully followed their advice, and uploaded these pictures:

My First Pic

JohnA Pic #2

Can’t we be adults? Why isn’t there an option that says “You’re fugly.” Or perhaps “I’m so out of your league it isn’t funny”

So, if you choose to respond to this entry, please feel free to set your category to “Other”… everyone else does.

Sen. Obama just delivered the greatest political speech in a generation.

Watch it in High-Definition

I am still pissed about his FISA capitulation, but his speech this evening made me realize that he does want to involve EVERYONE in the election process. He’s not afraid of everyone having a voice and a vote.

We should at least trust his acceptance speech promises with the diligence that we accepted Bush 41’s promise of No New Taxes.

As I debated this with a good friend, I called him naive to believe that things would be different. And I agreed. I am naive. But to be honest, after 8 years of GWB, I am more confident in the people that Obama will surround himself with than the people that McCain will surround himself with.

Don’t forget… He gave his speech with a flag-lapel-pin… how on EARTH will that play in the heartland? I can’t wait to see how FOXNEWSDRUDGESCARBOROUGH will respond.

Finally, according to the campaign website, if you give the tooth fairy at least $15, you get a free LIMITED EDITION “Tooth Fairy / Biden” magnet. I gave $30. Maybe I’ll get two magnets!

I twittered about this briefly yesterday, but decided that it was too big a deal to simply pass up.

AT&T thanks the Blue Dog Democrats with a lavish party

This is simply disgusting. If you want to know why Congress has the lowest approval ratings in history, here is a great start.

Greenwald writes:

There was a wall of private security deployed around the building, and after asking where the press entrance was, we were told by the security officials, after they consulted with event organizers, that the press was barred from the event, and that only those with invitations could enter

This is why I hate politics, and this is why I agree with the single-digit approval ratings Congress receives.

Hola!

I updated my Delicious Library. Feel free to check it out, and if’n you’re local, ask to borrow something!

Via FiveThirtyEight

Personally, I think that is a terrific choice. Sen. Biden, while he’s made some poor decisions before, is consistent in his choices, familiar with foreign policy challenges, and the kind of straight shooter one can trust.

No, I still haven’t decided how I will vote this November, but I will give Obama props for making a great choice for his VP slot.

I won’t even speculate about how long this has been in development, but we’ve finally launched our new website powered by the very technologies we try to get our merchants to use.

The all new spiffy, crazy informative UltraCart corporate site

Using our own technologies*, we have “eaten our own dogfood.” This site demonstrates every single technology we try to persuade our merchants to employ.

Bottom line is this. We already are up to our necks in new business. Our hope is that this site will make that problem infinitely worse.

Oh, and wait until we turn on our integrated UltraROI support…

* - Most “corporate” websites are hosted on some lame shared hosting account that costs $5.95/mo. The new www.ultracart.com site is hosted on the main UltraCart server farm.

I just tried this on my personal GMail account, and lo and behold, I received similar results. Now if I could only get them printed on a T-Shirt…

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Yay Netflix

What bothers me most is that Netflix completely ignores the fact that I live about 50 miles from my “Local Netflix Hub”, yet my movies never show as received until 2 or 3 days pass.

Anyway, I can’t wait for my STUPENDOUS $2 REBATE!!! Woohoo! That’s like almost 2 things off the Taco Bell value menu!