Xagronaut

A recent Google search for a company in my area yielded some surprising results. I saw a former coworker’s employer on and decided to check out the company. Well, it turned out to be an information technology consulting company. The first few hits were all from third-party job posting sites. Note: all of the postings were for mainframe positions–Yuck!

Anyway, I kept looking for the company’s home page to show up. It didn’t–well, not at first. It wasn’t until page 2 of the Google results. Here’s the kicker: the first page to show up for the company in my Google search was not the home page–it was the company’s online exit survey!

The first presentation I receive from the company is an automated

exit survey! How much turnover do they really have that they would need an online exit survey? At least they’re somewhat organized about how they process exiting employees.

This is my first post using WordPress.  I’m debating about using it as the default system for my home website: .  In fact if you are reading this now, you are probably looking at outpost516.com.

Anyway, I plan on converting all of my Xagronaut blog entries () to either WordPress or Drupal.

: “Inventive web developers are taking Google’s online map service to a new level, layering in house sales and apartment rentals, real-time traffic stats and Flickr photo tags.” []

Here’s an example of stupidity in usability. On the pickup window of a
local Burger King drive-thru, there is a small sticker that reads,

Please present coupons before ordering.

First of all, shouldn’t the notice be posted at the point of ordering,
rather than at the point of pickup?

Second, shouldn’t the print be much larger?

On top of all that, the sticker is on the outside of the pickup window
which folds out when opened, so the reader can no longer see it.

Of course, when I mentioned all of this (as nicely as I could) to the
person at the window, all she could do was blush, smile, and shrug just as
all helpless, unempowered peons do. The old “Don’t look at me–I just
work here” line applies to this situation.

I’m sure she thought I was either a nut, a jerk, or both.

Ain’t life grand?

I’ve been experimenting with a mix of tools for personal organization:

• MediaWiki
  

  (http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net/)

• SquirrelMail
  (http://www.squirrelmail.org/)
• WebCalendar
  (http://www.ma.utexas.edu/webcalendar/)
• Radio Userland
  

  (http://radio.userland.com/)

• NewsGator
  (http://www.newsgator.com/)
• Outlook 2002
• FranklinCovey PlanPlus for Microsoft Outlook
  (http://www.franklincovey.com/)

• TreePad

  (http://www.treepad.com/)

• An iPAQ PocketPC (PocketPC 2002)
• A FranklinCovey planner binder with paper forms.

I’m slowly finding a rhythm. I recently found an easy way to update my
Outlook calendar from Web Calendar. When in Web Calendar, I create a new
appointment and include my own caledar as an “invitee,” and it allows me
to “Mail all invitees” (myself). I select the “vCal” option to attach a
vCalendar file.

I’ve set up a special email address for this calendar, which is the
default recipient for the mail message. Then, when Outlook downloads my
mail, a rule sorts messages from the special email address to an
“Appointments” folder. All that’s left to do is open each message and its
accompanying attachment. Then I save the appointment, and voila! The
appointment from my Web Calendar is saved to Outlook and synchronized to
my PocketPC.

Very cool.

I’ve been having trouble walking for nearly two weeks. The thought
occurred to me while walking through the mall today: escalators don’t
have a “passing lane.” I guess those busy shoppers tromping up and down
the escalators will just have to wait behind the guy doing the speed
limit.

GeoNiche is a GPS enabled PalmOS program for geocaching, hiking, fishing, bicycling, and other outdoor activities. In addition to a whole host of standard features, GeoNiche includes many features not found in other GPS applications.

Summary: Web Parts provide you with the infrastructure for creating customizable Web applications. When you build a Web site with Web Parts, the Web site can be easily customized by either the administrator of the Web site or the individual users of the Web site.

In the 2004 presidential campaign’s latest detour into relative trivia, there’s been a small uproar over whether President Bush was wearing some kind of audio receiver during one or more of the debates with John Kerry. The implication was that the president might have been getting unfair coaching.

Bush and his people deny they broke the rules prohibiting such devices or other aids. I don’t see any big reason to doubt them even if the bulge in the back of Bush’s suit was remarkably rectangular.

I would argue that in this case the rules need updating. Voters would have been better off if the candidates had all kinds of technology at their disposal, so they could double-check their own facts and precisely rebut opponents’ misstatements.

Slashdot: Whopping-Big Data Theft At U.C.
Berkeley

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid/10/20/1329217

aceta writes “An intruder penetrated a research computer at
U.C. Berkeley in August and had access to names, social security numbers
and other data for 1.4 million Californians participating in a state
social program. CNET calls it the worst intrusion U.C. Berkeley has
experienced. SecurityFocus additional details: the hacker used a known
vulnerability, and state officials have yanked the university’s research
access to the data because of the breach. The victims were all receiving
or providing at-home care under a state program to help the elderly and
disabled. The FBI is investigating.”

I just upgraded my Linux server’s webmail system to SquirrelMail 1.4.3a.
(http://www.squirrelmail.org/) with surprising ease, all over a VNC
session from my Windows box. Apparently, the new version, as is common
with many release-early-release-often open source projects, fixed a
critical memory leak and some security problems.

It was surprising because starting a tech project late in the evening
after work rarely ends up well for me. Fatigue usually prevents me from
having a smooth time of it.

The bonus was that I was able to read a couple of Techblogs from Blogs4God
(http://www.blogs4god.com/). I’m currently working on a post for Dean.
(He just doesn’t know it yet.)

Still to do: