Please keep Chris, who is only 25 years old, his wife Ryann, and their son Landon in your prayers.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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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!

What Is Burger King Thinking?

Nothing says hilarity like a cartoon onion about to have a body cavity search. Wait, I never thought I’d write a sentence containing “cartoon onion” and “body cavity search”

We live in difficult times, people

Texas Hold 'Em Stats

I wish I were that good of a Hold ‘Em player, but the truth is that the iPod app’s AI has some serious issues that are too easy to capitalize on. Here are a few of the ones that bother me most.

• Too much pre-flop activity. The AI players bet far too much and far too often pre-flop. This means that if I’m holding pocket aces, I can pretty much slow raise the pot to several thousand dollars before the flop.
• Pushing all in too frequently. Actually, this is a problem in real life tournaments also… but the AI pushing all in pre-flop with 9-10 off suit? Give me a break.
• Poor heads-up performance. The AI is too liberal in their heads up bets. It’s easy to slow play the AI heads up because they push in several thousand dollar pre-flop bets.

Aside from those AI issues, I also hate the way it deals with multi-table tournaments… it is basically “Win a 10 person tournament, then go to another 10 person tournament” instead of the constantly balancing tables in a real tournament.

There are other issues as well, but it’s still a nice, uh, “restroom break” game.

This is the kind of thing that just tickles my inner Illustrator n00b. I love design, but suck at it, so hey, I can at least be a poseur, right?

• I am simply AMAZED at how the producers have chosen to use people instead of technology in so many places. Where I expect to see a nice servo, I instead see a smiling Chinese citizen.
• What technology are they using to project on the canopy at the top of the stadium? It is too precise to be DLP, but too bright to be anything else.
• Ugh, time for the part of the “ceremony” that is awful… how long until they light the flame?
• Even the immovable Bob Costas is confused by the the athletic parade. I don’t feel so stupid now not knowing how many character strokes “United States brought to you by McDonalds and Starbucks” requires
• Why is Bush 43 still “arguing” with Putin? Isn’t that what the Kremlin is for?

Sorry friends, I need to hit the sack. Enjoy 2 more hours of, um, walking. Yeah.

• I wish I could be a cameraman covering this event… how awesome was the petticoat shot just when Bob Costas talked about costumes!
• A 500 foot LED display… how many pixels, and how much $$$ is that?
• Every single woman performing is simply stunning. I guess when you have over 500 million available, you can be choosy.
• It’s interesting, watching NBC’s bumpers with the “classic” Olympic theme song seem dated compared to the actual event.
• Thanks for the IMs. In regards to my previous post about ATSC, I meant that I need to get my ATSC tuner working in my big Vista MCE server so I can record all of the prime-time HD coverage on NBC.
• OMG, look at the LED costumes… it reminds me of the Main Street Electrical Parade.
• Hmm. I wonder how the lights are controlled… per person, or as part of a larger procedure?
• It looks like from a closeup shot that each performer has some kind of control module attached just above the waist.

• $300 million, and it shows. This is crazy over-the-top.
• How precise was the color guard in the flag ceremony?
• Watching this in 1080i is definitely worth it. I need to get my ATSC tuner working ASAP.
• How much money did that unrolling scroll prop cost?
• A 230′ x 70′ LED display? That is nuts. The shot from the blimp shows that it really is LED technology.
• This really is the best High-Def presentation I have seen since Planet Earth on Blu-Ray, and this gives that a run for the money.
• I could have sworn the chinese printing block presentation was done with mechanics. Wow.
• NBC should have made better use of the Dolby Digital 5.1 provided by High-Def.
• Only China could have ever spent this much money on such an elaborate production.

Stay tuned…

To be honest, I’m not surprised. I have an insanely large next-gen disc collection, and the pain and hassle of trying to watch a DRM encumbered disc is not worth the extra lines exhibited.

As you can see from my Delicious Library, I continue to buy large numbers of next-gen media. But the truth is that if I hadn’t bought and installed AnyDVD HD on my main home theater PC, it would be a complete puzzle of technologies and rights restrictions before I had even a single hope of playing a movie on my big screen.

Bottom line is that before Joe Sixpack will embrace Blu-Ray, it has to become transparent. No region coding. No mandatory online digital restriction management. Mr. Sixpack wants to put a disc in the drive, and watch a movie in 15 seconds.

Oh, wait. Blu-Ray has every single one of those restrictions. It takes at least 90 seconds for a factory fresh Blu-Ray disc to play. There is no way Blu-Ray can compete with upconverted DVD when they take over 90 seconds to display a single trailer you cannot skip.

Even with AnyDVD HD, it takes at least a minute for me to watch a movie. Will the studios ever learn?

I really like this one, but I suck at all visual design. If you hate it, please let me know!

JohnA The Blogger®

P.S. - In celebration of this historic event, I even updated my About Me page. Go me!

If you have one you want to sell, please let me know!