Living on planet Earth

Herro

Jeremy Brayton — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 22:12:00 GMT

It's been over a year since I last posted and I return with a whiney post regarding work issues. The main reason I stopped blogging regularly was I typically talk to the majority of my readers on a regular basis, and I felt like just about every other post I was complaining about something. Complaints are fine but when you're reminded of nothing but crap you're dealing with, it doesn't exactly make the experience "fun".

What exactly has happened in a year? Obviously I've been playing a lot of the Xbox 360 and I've recently 99% completed building a desktop that will be primarily used for work and XNA purposes. Work has had very little variation. I still mainly do SalesLogix customization and support, with a sprinkle of Everything Else(tm). Sadly, the recent DST update and a couple of other incidents have left me complacent. My knowledge of SalesLogix was gained primarily through trial, error, and a heaping portion of luck (i.e. no formal training). Anyone with the misfortune of using SalesLogix in a small business shares a portion of what I go through and I've got to a point where it just doesn't seem worth it any more. Am I slipping? Is my job faltering in any way? No, but it's definitely a steep uphill battle and I'm growing tired of climbing.

My extra-curricular activities involving XNA and personal projects should provide me with less whiney behavior. I intend on posting more when I have the Internet at home (long story) and my desktop is officially complete. I also intend on actually doing something with my long defunct project ideas considering they’re still in the back of my mind from time to time.

Eventually I’ll try to procure a personal site to move my blog. I have nothing but great things to say about geekswithblogs.net but having never ran a site of my own, I feel like it’s overdue. I want more than just a blog can give me anyway and my ideas really can’t be contained here too well.

[Update: Fixed font issue with last paragraph]

Uhm... yeah, Hi

Jeremy Brayton — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 16:41:00 GMT

I've been super busy lately, namely out of the routine of blogging which is both good and bad. Our SalesLogix upgrade to 6.2 has kept me pretty busy.

I started blogging to keep my ideas in one place but I find that I often do not go back unless there's something I need. Posting solidifies my ideas in my head and in most cases will commit those things to memory with little effort. I'm the type of person that doesn't always have to write something down but when I want to remember it, if I speak it, write it, or somehow externalize my internal thoughts they're committed to memory more freely. I would think this is a basic thing for all humans but I have no research to back up the importance.

My blog has been neglected for the most part because I give a lot to work and my social life with very little else to give. I know it's not fair and I'm starting to come back around to this routine. This blog has never strayed away from something I really want and enjoy doing, which is the way it should be. I will admit sometimes it can bring unwanted annoyance but for the most part that's rare. That's a surcharge I should expect when dealing with other people and it's becoming less of a problem as the days go by.

I have been commenting a lot on the blogs I read and the discussion groups I'm a part of so my internet presence hasn't diminished, I just haven't been making my mark here where I should. Hopefully with a little more effort that'll change.

Code Camp: Atlanta

Jeremy Brayton — Sat, 14 May 2005 04:10:00 GMT

http://www.atlantacodecamp.com

Tomorrow, bright and early. I get a chance to hang with my homie Bill, who also happens to be presenting on something I know nothing about: the Compact Framework. Maybe after his presentation I can understand his posts about SqlCE and start to develop an appreciation for those devices I loathe (PDAs and Cell Phones). I suppose it's not so much the device, as it is the OS that I've been in contact with (Palm, ugh!). Cell phones are a whole other subject, worthy of therapy sessions and separate ranting blog posts but I think I'll spare you the drama for now.

Others I know of, but don't know personally are Paul Wilson and Wallace McClure. They'll both be presenting on Database topics which is an area I'm highly interested in, given my CRM background. Even though the Compact Framework interests me about as much as my next bowel movement, I know Bill will make the topic enjoyable.

A quick run down of the sessions I plan on attending:

Paul Wilson - OR
Todd Fine - Avalon and XAML
Brian Walters - Multithreaded apps in C#
Bill Ryan - CF
Wallace McClure - ADO.NET and SQL 2005

I'll most likely post some notes or thoughts I took from each session since I'm sure it'll have me thinking about something.

I have a more recent picture in my gallery here. I have a better picture but I'm too lazy to put it up at the moment. I figured that's enough to tell me from a crowd of 200 or so people, so if I bump into you, “Hi” in advance. If you're not going, you probably have more important things to do or something so I'll let you get back to it.

The Beef with Microsoft over House Bill 1515

Jeremy Brayton — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 20:09:00 GMT

I'll come out and say I read Scoble. I don't have to admire the man to gain a little bit of insight from what he talks about (though I do respect and admire him to a healthy degree). When I first heard of the story, it was from Robert's blog post here. Robert's post is concise and informative. It's small but it gets to the point quickly yet with a certain calmness to it. Robert links to a blog post here which seems to be the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It's seething with hatred...

Blog Cleanup

Jeremy Brayton — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 18:10:00 GMT

I just removed a good bit of extrenuous comments. I hate censorship but I felt it had to be done. A good deal were spam comments, some made recently and some were pretty old. Some comments involved people being vulgar towards others and some were just a-holes that didn't need space on my personal site. I left comments that were critical of me personally because I can handle a direct attack, but attacking others on my blog won't be tolerated. I'm way too busy to handle playground bullies so I just won't deal with it any longer.

Someone recently emailed me a request to delete comments. To answer their email, no I don't generally delete comments just because someone tells me to. The only reason I did so in this case is because they were being an a-hole and disrespecting others. I have no way to verify stories when people I don't know email me about other people I don't know. Generally I won't respond to these types of requests unless I personally feel it's warranted. Sorry but I want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt regardless of how others feel about them.

I generally won't delete any posts though I've been contemplating deleting one. It involves giving out invites to a certain web-based email service that have long since expired. People can't seem to understand the post or what I've said in comments before posting. They keep requesting invites regardless of the fact that I still to this day have no more to give. I'm actually lying. I have 50 but I'm no longer giving them away to random people using a blog post. I'll try to think of something a little more clever that doesn't require constant pruning of comments because people can't follow simple instructions. Only after geekswithblogs.net switches to Community Server::Blogs will I start to think about doing another post. I'll have a little more control over how comments are handled and it won't be such a mess.

Welcome to the land of the living

Jeremy Brayton — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 22:48:00 GMT

I'm not dead yet, just too busy for my perfectionist blogging. You know the type. You write a post but it doesn't quite have all of your thoughts presented in a suitable format. You spell check it and then leave it alone until that one day you can come back, make up a new post and publish it correctly with your brain actually functioning somewhat normally.

If you haven't guessed by now, I switch a lot between first and second person. Second person basically means that I include both you and I when I say things like “Well you do this, then you do that.” I had a problem in most of my English papers because I would always switch when I really should stick to either 1st or 3rd person. Now that the English lesson is out of the way, I can get to what I'm trying to say here.

I have quite a bit of stuff to write, some technical, some not. I want to get to more technical pieces involving some of my own programming projects, some SalesLogix customizations, and a couple of other IT related stuff. I'll be embarking on a limited user series to showcase some of my hiccups and stumbling blocks to running Windows in a secure fashion. Most of it will be highlighting offenders who make it extremely difficult as well as some bandaids to patch the grievance. Since most of my evenings involve a video game of some sort, I thought it best to possibly give reviews or certain things I like about the games I'm currently playing. There's a reason I own an Xbox, GameCube, and PS2 but I haven't quite figured out why yet. My girlfriend would say it's to avoid saving money to move out of the house and start a family but I disagree.

I won't take so long to post the actual items any more, so initial releases may seem discombobulated. I'll update them accordingly if I realize I'm not quite making sense. This won't be pretty but it's how blogging should be, not calculated and precise. I am a perfectionist, but there comes a time when you just have to throw it down to get things done in a reasonable time frame.

The great Debate: Evolution vs. Anything else (Part 2)

Jeremy Brayton — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 19:08:00 GMT

The verdict: http://www.georgiascience.org/news-georgia.htm

I (somewhat) recently wrote a post siting that they were going to court over disclaimer stickers in biology textbooks that stated that:

“This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”

The website noted above gives the Atlanta Journal's write-up in which it gives a little more insight to the decision. I wanted to post some of the information from the judge as well as give my interpretation of it. It won't change anything but maybe it'll help me understand what exactly happened.

Cooper said it is his belief that such an observer "would interpret the sticker to convey a message of endorsement of religion. That is, the sticker sends a message to those who oppose evolution for religious reasons that they are favored members of the political community, while the sticker sends a message to those who believe in evolution that they are political outsiders."
This is particularly true, Cooper added, when it involves "impressionable public school students who are likely to view the message on the sticker as a union of church and state."

Apparently the view held by almost everyone is that if you don't believe in evolution, you believe in something else. That something else has to be Christianity according to everyone who's commented and even this judge. Truth of the matter is it's not. Just because you don't believe in something doesn't mean that you “align with the other side“. There aren't 2 sides to this debate, there's multiple sides.

Cooper noted that "there is no evidence" in the case that the school board included in the disclaimer that "evolution is a theory, not a fact" to promote or advance religion. "Still, the informed, reasonable observer would perceive the school board to be aligning itself with proponents of religious theories of origin," Cooper said.

There's no evidence claiming that it is fact which is what the sticker also mentioned. A theory simply is a “very good guess“ in layman's terms (though I know people would love picking me apart for that analysis) but not stating that evolution is a “very good guess“ seems wrong in my book. Then again I'm not a judge nor do I run the school board. I guess that's good news for a lot of people (myself included).

But Cooper took pains to say his opinion only resolves "a legal dispute." It does not, he wrote, resolve whether science and religion are mutually exclusive and he "takes no position on the origin of the species." Cooper also said that the decision is not about whether public school teachers can teach intelligent design and does not resolve the "ongoing debate regarding whether evolution is a fact or theory or whether evolution should be taught as fact or theory."

I just wanted to state that as the obvious reason which makes some sense though I don't understand how church and state has anything to do with this. This is not about creationism or something else it's about evolution, pure and simple.

The plaintiffs' attorney, Michael Manely, during the trial hit hard on the fact that a scientific theory is not the same as "theory" applied in everyday life. He called on several scientists to testify to that effect, including biologist and textbook author Kenneth Miller.
Miller, of Brown University in Rhode Island, explained, "In science, you don't use the word 'theory' about a stupid hunch. Theories explain facts. They tie it together."

Scientific theory is different than what most people perceive as the word theory and I will agree there. Theories give a “very good guess” about “proposed” facts or the better term would be evidence. In many cases the facts are only made so because they align with a particular theory. Theories are a road map for evidence to be included as fact but any two scientists can look at the same evidence and draw completely different conclusions. So the evolution theory gives a very good guess to the origins of the evidence of life. It claims this evidence as fact, which aligns itself with the theory. Without the theory to support it, those “facts” would only be evidence and it would leave the reader/scientist the task of putting the pieces together. That's a much better approach than saying “My way is right!” wouldn't you agree?

Students are no longer allowed to opt out of classroom discussion involving evolution, and the theory must be taught as directed by law.
The school system's previous policy urged evolution not be taught because it could be "inconsistent with family teachings." The Cobb school district as recently as 10 years ago cut out from science textbooks pages that involved evolution, according to court testimony. School officials also testified they had not received an increased number of complaints since the disclaimers were placed in the textbooks.

That brings this whole debate into a whole new light. The reason the stickers were put on the textbooks is so that everyone would be required to learn evolution. Now students must participate in classroom discussions and learn the theory. No longer will “inconsistent with family teachings” get you out of class or allow you to opt out of discussion.

Now that I learned of this it makes sense for the stickers to be in there and stay. Otherwise why shouldn't they go back to the old way of doing things? The sticker seemed to be a lovely ploy to keep Cobb moving towards the “evolution or nothing” bandwagon and now that the ball is rolling it looks like it won't stop until it's over. I guess that's good news for some.

I forgot to think about the most important aspect of all of this: children. Children know how to logically collect the dots and if something doesn't align with what they feel, they'll challenge it. Seems a lot of people want to tell our children how to learn but I'm a firm believer that children will learn for themselves far more than if we forced them. I guess only time will tell if I'm on the right path or if public school systems will get better as time progresses. I won't hold my breath for either though.

Update: Fixed lame font problems (I'm anal) and I actually added an excerpt. (Woo the first couple of paragraphs)

Gmail Invites: No mas

Jeremy Brayton — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 21:52:00 GMT

I tried saying this on the other post but apparently people don't understand English that well so I'll try to say it in as many languages as I can:

No.

There. That was easy. There are none left. No mas. Nein. They're all gone. I'm only given 6 at a time and I've given all 6 away. Maybe someday soon they will give me 6 more to give away but it will be another contest with more rules that some people will follow and others will seemingly ignore.

So let me put this to rest: I will never give out a gmail invite just because unless I know you or someone I know vouches for you. It will always be in contest form with rules and regulations that will need to be followed or you get nothing (I'm very lenient though).

Now let's talk about the other thing the post stirred up: Internet crack. It refers to crack cocaine which is a highly addictive substance that is abused in America. Gmail follows this as a seemingly highly addictive “substance” but that is the only similarity. I will not crack your website, your girlfriend's email address, or anything else that is derived from the word “crack” that is illegal (smoking crack rock included). If you really want to know how to do that stuff you can find better resources than someone's blog. I'm sorry that a blog can show up higher in a google search than say an underground website but that's not my fault.

So please, before you comment about wanting a gmail invite, read the entire post and understand that I DON'T HAVE ANYMORE. I will post again with another contest whenever that happens but until then please leave me alone about it. I'm sorry you missed out on the opportunity but those are the breaks, kid.

P.S. - One of the reasons I'm posting this is because I've had more hits on posts with Gmail in the title than ALL of my other posts combined. I'm not trying to fish for readers I just hope I fish for the earlier people that commented but never got a reply. You should hopefully understand now why I didn't bother.

The great Debate: Evolution vs. Anything else

Jeremy Brayton — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 20:20:00 GMT

Up until the Scopes trial of the 1920's, Evolution was never fully taught in public schools. Public schools evolved from the original public education system in America: The church. The government decided one day that they thought they could do a better job, so our public education system was born.

Since the Scopes trial evolution has gone from being a theory to being preached as fact by every textbook that I've read in public school. This disturbed me because not much of science can be proven and this is one theory that has not been proven unequivocally. I came to the conclusion that evolution is just a theory on my own before I embraced the church or Christ because none of the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fit, though the textbook seemed to think they did.

Fast forward 8 years after I graduate and Cobb County (the county I live but never went to school in) decided to put a disclaimer sticker on their evolution textbook that reads as follows:

“This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”

The full report on the incident can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6433295/

This sticker is the perfect disclaimer that is the only one I know of that accurately describes EXACTLY what evolution is. It's a theory and never has been proven as fact, ever, period. It may in the future but as of December 13th, 2004 it's still a theory.

So what do the opponents of this sticker say?

The lawsuit argues that the disclaimer restricts the teaching of evolution, promotes the teaching of creationism and discriminates against particular religions.

The disclaimer mentions NOTHING of religion, separation of church and state, God, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohamed, Hari Krishna, Ra, or any other Deity, prophet, or religious mention whatsoever. Yet what's the first thing people think when someone simply states that evolution is a theory and not fact? That apparently only bible-thumping Christians and their creationism theory (fact) must be butting in on their territory. Puh-lease. Evolution is a theory and is taught in every textbook on the subject as fact. I see that as a problem with evolution, not a problem with religion.

I'm a Christian and I believe in creationism but I won't claim that it's fact simply because there is no proof that is 100%. The same is true for evolution yet many people seem to believe it is fact without that 100% stamp. I'm sorry but I'm taught to believe in an “all or nothing” approach. I either believe the entirety of the bible, or none of it. I either believe in the entirety of creationism, or none of it. I either believe in the entirety of evolution, or none of it. The entirety of evolution is not fact and I think it deserves the sticker so that parents and students can come to their own conclusions on the subject.

As Christians we're taught not to force our beliefs on others. I'm sorry to say a lot of us (myself included) have done so or are doing so as we speak and for that I can only offer my apologies. It's never the right thing to do, Christian or not. By that same token I will not blindly accept someone forcing their beliefs on me without the burden of proof. For me personally evolution does not have the proof required for me to believe in it as fact. You may be convinced but I'm not and it would take a miracle in the form of an “in-between” species to convert me. An in-between is a species that has both characteristics of the older species as well as what the species eventually evolves into. I've yet to see such a thing and I don't believe they exist but I want to be proven wrong.

The problem here is lack of choice. The only theory taught in science classes about the origin of life is evolution. I think that you should be taught all theories and at the end of the day it's up to you to decide which one you like or believe as more factual. Simply being told that evolution is fact isn't enough for me and shouldn't be enough for any of you either. I just hope my children are a little more fortunate with their turn in the public educational system than I was. I wasn't given a choice but I hope they are because letting them choose their life is much better than me choosing it for them, no matter how much I think I'm right.

Gmail Invites: Get your internet crack right here

Jeremy Brayton — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 22:39:00 GMT

Update (11/22/2004): There are no more invites to give out. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to find the information and enter correctly. If you missed your chance, I should get another batch of 6 invites sometime soon and will be doing something like this yet again since it seemed to work (albeit very, very slowly debunking my internet crack theory somewhat, but who cares).

I've had these for a while and I thought I'd use a very simple contest for people to get their hands on it. If you have an account already, please don't try doing this. I won't send an invite to any gmail.com users, so you'll need a different email address to sort of “prove” you're genuine. Anyone in their right mind can get around this though, but I'm going by the code of honor here.

Note: Whoever I send invites to ends up in my contact list. When you're added to gmail whatever you sign up as gets added to my contact list as well. It'll be a little late for me to be angry at that point, but I will make a mental note of it. I'll also use this list for future contests but by then you'll have your own invites which you should use.

To put a long story short: let everyone get their turn. A lot of people I know haven't even heard of Gmail and I'd like them to get the chance to use it.

Here's the rules, etc:

Name the exact name of every RobOS article posted on this blog. Hint: there are a total of 6
Send me an email using the Contact form of my blog with the exact article names. This can be found by going to my blog address in a web browser and clicking the Contact link at the top left of the page.
Use a valid email address because the invite will go to the address you give me.

I will be sending out a test message to the lucky winners to validate the email address. I will then wait a little bit to verify the correctness and send out the invites once I'm sure the addresses are in order. You can reply to my test message if you want the invite quicker.

I only have 6 invites total, so the first 6 who are verified will get the invites. If by chance one person puts in their address wrong, or it doesn't work then I'll move to the next person until all invites are filled. Make sure everything is in order before submitting the email because you probably won't get a second chance. Any rude comments, spam, or weird emails will most likely result in an addition to my hotmail block list, effectively eliminating all chances for future contests or invites from me. You have been warned.

Note: My email will be from a hotmail.com domain so it may show up as spam. Check your spam filters to make sure my email can get through.

Note, Note: I know this seems weird but I am not doing anything funny with this. I just wanted a way to semi make sure that those who haven't had a gmail account get their chance. I realize this is not the most perfect method, but it's all I could come up with within a 5 minute span. If you can think of a better method, please leave a comment. I want to make sure all gmail virgins get a chance at testing the service out.

I will update this post when all invites have been given away, so make sure to verify before sending your email. If this post has not been updated then the contest still stands. All judgments are final, blah blah insert legal-mumbo-jumbo hocus-pocus-type-stuff here.