I dumped MySpace

For those of you who might be wondering where my MySpace profile went... it's gone. I am tired of getting spam of all kinds from MySpace: porn sites trying to friend me, bands looking for new fans, and even the occasional bad comic trying to get me to go see his show.

However, the final nail in the coffin was when someone hijacked the account of someone I know and started using it to send spam. I tried to tell her to change her password, but it apparently didn't work... I kept getting spam after spam from her MySpace account.

Yes, I have had some good experience with MySpace: a couple of friends I haven't talked to in a long time found me through there, but the down side is that with all the spam I get now, I would have missed their "hello" letters or friend invites anyway.

Maybe I'll re-connect. I don't know. But for now, no social networking sites for me.

On iTunes and DVR's...

I'm not sure, but I think this is a first: Snapstream Beyond TV has a DVD burining/iTunes plugin for their DVR software.

The cool thing about this? I can now dump my tv shows to DVD AND to my iPod. The cooler part is that the iTunes integration is totally hands-off, so I can just plug the iPod in to my comptuer, and while it charges at night, it grabs the latest shows off my DVR, saves them to my iTunes library, and dumps them to the iPod.

Oh, and with Beyond TV Link, I can use the tuners on my HTPC to record a show while I watch a different show on the main PC and my daughter watches something else on another computer. The cool thing about this is that instead of running coax to every room, I just run a home run to the room with the HTPC, and my tuners and my cable modem all plug in there. Much cleaner. True, it means I need a computer to watch TV anywhere but the living room, but it also means that I can take my video with me anywhere.

On restaurants and waiting tables...

What's the most important rule in business? If you lose your customers, you don't have a business.

So what's the most important rule in the restaurant business? If you ignore your customers, they won't come back. I was at the Boll Weevil today and got not quite the worst customer service I've ever had at a restaurant. Yes, the service was unexceptional even to the point that it wasn't the very worst.

What was so bad about it? Was the waitress rude? No. Was the place dirty or too loud? No. Was the food bad? No, actually it was very good. But the waitress never once came back to my table after giving me my food. She never filled my iced tea, never asked if I needed anything, never asked if I wanted dessert (which I very much did... until I'd sat there for so long that I was in danger of over-running my lunch hour) and never even brought my check. I had to go find her and get my check so I could go.

I watched her for 10 minutes while trying to get her attention. She took 3 tables' orders, bussed a table, brought drinks to the afore-mentioned tables, but never once even looked my way.

Those of you who own, run, or work at restaurants: the process is simple. Take the order, bring the food, and bring the check with the food. That way I can leave when I'm ready. Then at least come by the table and check in... if I'm reading, don't pester me, but at least see if I'm doing okay. Never, never make the customer feel ignored.

Is that really so hard?

AutoGroup Editor and Auto Conformer

Without going in to a lot of details, those programs didn't work for me, and the developer refused to provide any technical support.

So I wrote my own utility called Group Helper. This tool will speed the process of creating clothing and accessories for Poser compatible figures. If you use Poser or Daz|Studio and want to use another 3D program to create conforming clothing, go to the forum and grab your own copy.

I know the program isn't perfect, and some morphs don't come over. If someone wants to help develop this figure, you're welcome to help. I plan to donate this to the community as free (as in beer and speech) software.

My New Project....

I'm working on a new project for school. It's called Doodle. I hope to have a site for it up soon.

In the meantime, check out my first webcomic! (yay!) It's right here....

Tech Support

From iTunes to an MP3 player

I have a Creative Zen Portable Media Center.

I love it.

It plays movies, MP3's, WMA's, and has a 14 hour battery life (playing music) and a 7 hour battery life playing video.

However, I was having a hard time converting iTunes songs to run on the PMC.

Enter two tools: QTFairUse, and Winamp Pro. With QTFairUse, I can remove the protection on the iTunes files. Winamp Pro will play the songs after that (they have a m4a extension). Now I can right-click on a file in Winamp, select "Send To->Format Converter", and select Mp3 as the format. Winamp then happily loads the files on my PMC.

Yes, it's still some work, but with the advent of DRM free music on iTunes, it'll be even easier.

Speaking of TV

The new Doctor Who premiers a new episode this Friday, July 6. Kyle XY has been good so far this summer, and Eureka is back.

ABC Family is producing several original series this year. I have to say that I'm impressed with their lineup, but dismayed that "a new kind of family" means "shows that are NOT kid safe", such as Austin Powers.

I like that we do have some original programming over the summer; that goes a long way toward relieving my frustration at not having new BSG or Heroes episodes to watch.