Life of a Web Programmer

Just got out of auditions!

zachary.spencer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:09:06 +0000

Oh wow, the most exciting thing I’ve done in so long! I loved it!

I hope I get to play the Wizard. Most people are way more experienced than I am, but not many people auditioned for the Wizard :-D.

Yay! New piano!

zachary.spencer — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:53:23 +0000

So I recorded my first bit of music on the piano, and it is now available for your listening pleasure: Experiments in Am.

Glaring Flaw in President Elect Barack Obama’s Plan for American Service.

zachary.spencer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:11:39 +0000

OK, so maybe he does...

If you’re about to become the one of the most powerful men in the world, you probably should not commit the faux pas of publishing your website with your plans without content…

Let this be a lesson to you! Don’t make an under construction page! Only release pages when the pages are ready to be released!

An Excellent Website for Those of Us Who Wish to Lose Weight (And Get Buff)

zachary.spencer — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:25:13 +0000

Traineo.com offers a really powerful method of tracking your progress as well as networking with like minded individuals. I really like how easy they make it to log workouts, as well as how you can log anything you want. The social aspect is pretty nice too, though I’ll confess I haven’t really networked with anyone on it yet. Maybe Facebook integration should be on their list?

If you want, checkout my profile. Maybe even do something crazy and be a motivator for me.

Free Mapping/Tracking software for the Sprint Mogul and Windows Mobile 6

zachary.spencer — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:30:32 +0000

Earlier today I discovered I had a quandry. I want to be able to track my runs to see how far I go, where I go, how long it takes me, what kind of altitude changes I experience, current speed, airspeed of coconut laden swallows, and that kind of thing.

Because I don’t have a Google Android phone I have to make due with my Sprint Mogul. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad phone. It’s just not an awesome phone either.

After a little bit of poking around I found a free piece of GPS mapping software called GPSVP. I downloaded and installed it, and could not get a GPS signal. Durr.

Here is the solution.

Run GPSVP
Tap “Menu”
Tap “Setup->Settings”
Change the “Port” to COM4
Change the Port Speed to 4800

It now connects to the GPS satallites just fine.

To use the software, just start it up and go about your business. After you are done with your run, it generates a “track” file. Then simply upload that using GPS Visualizers Google Earth or Google Maps converter.

Tada! You now have a cool record of your run! Including distance, altitude, etc.

I really suck at this entire “Being a nice person” thing…

zachary.spencer — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:26:48 +0000

Some of my friends and I went to BiggBy’s yesterday night, and I tagged along. One of my other friends is a barista there. Fast forward to today, when I took my colleague, compatriot and minion Davin to BiggBy. Since they had just opened they have these awesome buy one get one free coupons, which I didn’t happen to have on me. I asked the nice barista if I could have one. She did a (highly exaggerated) eye roll, sighed, and said “I guess so” and smiled at me. I laughed and said “Well, you’re much nicer than the barista last night.” She handed my my receipt which I promptly began signing and she said “Oh yea?” Me, lost in my own little receipt signing world didn’t even look up and (thinking that my friend was the barista yesterday) responded “No.”

All of a sudden it hit me what I had just said. I looked up, horror stricken and started apologizing profusely. “Oh my gosh, I did not mean to say that, I don’t know why I said that, I am so sorry, that was incredibly cruel, I cannot believe I said that!” Meanwhile, Davin is standing there just cracking up.

This is why I am single.

Worst Way To Find The Leak in Your Sewage Pipe…

zachary.spencer — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:33:59 +0000

Step 1) Wake up

Step 2) Walk two steps

Step 3) Get dripped on

Not the best way to start the day.

I am such a political satirist.

zachary.spencer — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:20:45 +0000

I call this “Palin Rap.”

Breakin’ down with mah sista palin,
ain’t no chance this election be failin!
do you dig mah glasses?
When I wear them all mah homeboys make passes.

Break it, break it down.

people say I’m an alaskan wigga.
and I must say this dress looks killa.
I can’t wait to run this nation,
It’ll go down as the sexiest administration

Break it, break it down.

Watch out obama,
you know I make you call for yo-momma.
that’s right I totally went there,
whatcha gonna do? say it ain’t fair?

Break it, break it down.

I Really Miss Focus Follows Mouse on Mac OS X :(

zachary.spencer — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:10:04 +0000

I know, this seems rather silly and inane, but I seriously miss how in Ubuntu I could have the window focus follow mouse, whereas in OS X I cannot do that. I can make the window come to the front, but if I just want the focus to follow where the mouse is I cannot get that to happen :(.

Very depressing. I did, however, find a really good blog post about this issue by a guy who works for google.

Much Thanks to Tom Wright, who updated my original thesaurus command with a preview pane!

zachary.spencer — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:52:12 +0000

Woohoo! Open Source at work! much thanks to Tom Wright, who sent me an email with an update to the Thesaurus Ubiquity Command. Not sure how to do multiple contributors, or I’d add him.