This was one of my stupidly handy apps, and it’s now gone to version 4.0.
Month: April 2007
Apparently Nobody Is Sick In Bend…
…or obviously nobody’s using Who Is Sick, where just a single person in the 97701 zip code has a runny nose. Portland, on the other hand, looks more like a mess with 128 reported sicknesses throughout the metro area, all plopped onto a handy Google Map (and unfortunately, you can’t directly link to specific cities, so you’ll have to search by city when you get there).
But it wouldn’t matter if anybody used this in the grand scheme of things anyway, as folks will still send their sick kids to school, passing on illnesses to all the other kids, which in turn pass it on to the parents, who then pass it on to co-workers. But I’m not bitter. Really.
Amazing Yo-Yo Skills
This has to be one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in a while.
Web Application != Desktop Application
Just another thing to add to the pet-peeve list in my life as a tech-support guy: Folks who think that stuff they do within their Web browser is wholly my responsibility.
The reality is that more and more applications that used have a desktop program that interfaced with remote servers are now just strictly going Web based (mostly MSIE-only, but that’s another rant for another time). I work part-time for a real estate office in the area, and the good majority of what they do is Web-based: MLS, e-mail, Crest, various marketing Web site updates, contact management, etc… . Being all Web-based is nice as it makes it so I don’t have to support a bunch of desktop applications and just have to keep the browser functional. The problem is that people still think with a desktop application mindset, so when they get a server error or an ASP error of some sort (many of these apps are ASP or some ASP-variant like ASP.net), they freak out, and think that it’s my fault and that I can magically fix it. I’ll get panicky folks running into my office, saying they need me right away, and then I walk over, notice it’s in the browser, and tell them to a) try it again, and b) if it doesn’t work, call their support hotline. That’s why you pay these companies all that money so that you can call and yell at them, but I can’t fix a problem that I have absolutely no control over (especially on an application I’ve never used on a server I don’t have access to). Just read them the error on screen, and they’ll be able to help you far quicker than I ever could.
And as these applications become more and more like applications and less like Web pages, it’s going to be harder and harder for people to be able to tell the difference between a desktop and Web application (especially in web apps that hide the address bar). I just keep telling people: If you see the MSIE blue “e” icon in the upper corner of the Window, it’s probably not something I can help you with.
</rant>
Two More Arrested in Area Hit-And-Run-And-Burn-Up-The-Car
So a couple days ago a father-and-son were arrested with the son being charged for the brutal hit-and-run of Kimberly Ann Potter of Bend. Now two more were arrested in association with the mess:
Two Bend men, one returning from Klamath Falls, were arrested Thursday on arson charges, accused of helping to burn a car involved in a violent, deadly hit-and-run crash on Third Street earlier this week.
The arrests of Eric Allen Brown, 20, and Robert Jennings Battles, 19, on second-degree arson charges come more than two days after a car allegedly driven by Christopher Goodson, 22, of El Cajon, Calif., struck and killed Kimberly Ann Potter, 41, also of Bend, as she rode her bike up Third Street early Tuesday.
Brown is Goodson’s stepbrother and lives at the Full Moon Drive apartment in northeast Bend where Goodson was found hiding Tuesday night, said police Capt. Jim Porter.
According to the bio/obit of Kim linked above, she frequently went out for bike rides at night if she couldn’t sleep, and was probably just taking another one of those rides that night.
The comments on my last post about this have gotten interesting, with folks, for some odd reason, coming out in support of the alleged crooks (including an apparent comment from Christopher Goodson’s girlfriend). The problem is there are obviously some real jerks that are browsing this site and harassing people who are posting critical comments about these guys. I’ve gotten private emails from folks who have commented there who have said they have gotten threatening email from folks. Classy, guys, really classy. Those e-mails are getting forwarded to local police departments, and if anybody sends me an e-mail threat, I’ll be doing the same and helping the police find the people responsible. I did help the Bend Police arrest this morons, getting them IP addresses, videos, and helping out their IT department with conversion and such. I will have no problems with doing the same with anything that comes my way.
Feel free to comment on this story, on Kimberly, or anything, either below or over at Bend Forums.
But keep it civil and constructive, folks, because if law enforcement wants my help, they’re going to get it.
Advertising versus Reality
A fascinating little photo project that shows what a fast-food product looks like in ads, and then the actual product in real life.
How Is This Person Still Alive?
I would think if you blew a .47 blood-alcohol content on a breath test, you’d be dead. But this lady’s still alive, and may have set a new Washington State record. Congrats.
Virginia Tech Killer Sends Package To NBC
OK, I said already that I was done talking about this tragedy, but this is just too weird (and scary).
Sometime after he killed two people in a Virginia university dormitory but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building, Cho Seung-Hui mailed NBC News a large package including photographs and videos Monday morning, boasting, “When the time came, I did it. I had to.”
MSNBC’s site has excerpts from the videos on their site (the original package and videos have been handed over to Federal authorities). But just glancing at the pictures, videos, and writings included in that package just scares me even more.