Better Verizon Coverage

I went to check my BlackBerry last night for new messages, and couldn't help but notice a full signal meter. This was odd.

When we moved to Adel three years ago, we had great service in the then-out-of-area part of Verizon's network. We weren't charged for roaming or anything, and the signal was usable.

Some time last year, Verizon thought it would be a good idea to move in. They took Valdosta and put up towers in Adel and up to Tifton, covering a large area where they did not previously. I don't know how everything works, but their moving in and activating towers really changed things about service quality. For instance: I could not talk on the phone in my house. To send a text, I had to move toward an open door or window while holding up my phone until I got "Message Sent." I held conversations with people, but only in the driveway or the back yard.

So yeah, last night was odd - my personal phone also showed a very good signal level. I haven't confirmed any of this, but I believe it has to do with Verizon's acquisition of Alltel. We'll see if this lasts. And for their sake, Verizon better do something to keep service at this level - I was determined to switch at the end of this contract after five years with them.

But now I guess we'll stay. Seems a lot of nothing to blog about, but I'm pretty excited about my new ability to talk on the phone inside my house.

8 Mile

Well that sucked. Good movie, theatrics, whatever. I expected more at the end, like him getting a record deal or something.

At least I can say it sucked now having seen it. People who don't like movies they haven't seen tend to carry that mentality to other aspects of life. And that's why I try my best to watch every movie through to the end. I'm not a generalist.

May 12, 2009

It took the entire eight weeks of the 6-8 weeks for delivery to get it, and I'm still not sure it was worth all the time, tears, and money. It was just a few minutes ago that I decided to post it here to be archived.

The arrival of my undergraduate degree certificate was not a very special occasion. I thought I would cry when I finally reached that point in my life. After all, I did spend about eight years working on it. But no tears. Just back to work.

No raise, no added responsibility, no prestigious stance about me. No speeches. Just calls from Sallie Mae. No period of enlightenment or revelations. Just me. Same as I was out of high school, but with a whole lot more debt. And more kids.

I could be for and against higher education at this point, but either perspective is useless. The pursuit of education is at the personal level, and some people will sacrifice more than others to achieve their academic goals. Even after all of this, I still want to go to grad school. I might be borderline psychotic for that reason.

But Only So Much...

In these times of cost-cutting, I don't have a home phone. My company has no overhead or monthly bills beyond those services it provides to its customers. At home we don't really have or do anything extra. We live on one income and thrive on information from books and the Internet. No cable TV or satellite. I have a subscription to Xbox Live and Netflix - a combination unparalleled anywhere. I have considered cutting that, but tonight I am forever changed.

I'm sick today as I have been for the past two weeks with vertigo. I don't want to go anywhere and I slept all day. Beth is away with the kids at her parents' house, and I am left with nothing to do but put a Website proposal together (boring) and watch television. We don't get PBS because the DTV antenna I built doesn't face the right way. No public TV = no TV. I don't have the money to go to the video store, and that's usually not worth it anyway. Besides - I'm dizzy, remember?

Enter Netflix. Tie in Xbox Live. I picked at least 15 titles to watch this evening, to include movies I have only heard of and television series that I missed while in college. No, I don't think I'm going to cut that expense. I'm not out spending money when I'm on the couch. I just fell in love with technology all over again.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go get my money's worth while keeping my head as still as possible.

Needs Improvement

This was me near the finish line yesterday. I clearly need some training before the next one. Look at me - my stride is so short - stamina needs improvement. My cool Army PT shirt is getting soaked; I don't think it does what I was led to believe. Clothing needs improvement. I have two weeks until the Barnes Health Care 5K on the 18th, and I intend to finish a lot sooner. At least by a minute.

Off to RunnersWorld.com to get some training tips.

Post-Valdosta 5K - 34:18

The run was fun, as it should have been. Last night I decided that I wasn't going to go because I hadn't taken enough time to prepare. If you look back two posts, I ran 5K in 35:22 six days ago. Having not trained any since then, I still ran a faster time this morning: 34:18.

Now that I'm finished with college for a while, I actually have time to make this a hobby. I tried to do it in 2007, but as soon as I started back to school all the physical activity ceased. I don't have any more excuses to run more often. If I'm still going in to Federal service I had better get going.

Valdosta 5K

I haven't run any more but I guess I'll go anyway tomorrow. In all consideration, I don't need to be the fastest guy running (even though it would never happen anyway). I really just need to go and be there. As long as I have fun and get the t-shirt, all will be well. What else did I pay $20 for anyway? I will try to remember to report the results.

35:22

I wasn't dragging the dog on this one and I actually changed the units on the GPS to metric. 5K in 35:22, which isn't bad since I ran 31:24 in 2007 after running for two months. We'll see what it is tomorrow, if I even make it out. I didn't even run the whole way. I walked more than I wanted to.

44:20

This post is back-dated. I am trying to chronicle this week as I take seven days to train for a 5K on July 4. Tonight I was dragging the dog, so I don't think I'll do that again.

Redesign #13 or so...

As the world constantly changes, so does my mind. I wanted a simple layout for this blog, but still couldn't fit all the details in to this slight redesign. Still, it was a welcome change. Not much change, mind you, but settling on a largely black-and-white theme pleased me. Things might get simpler still. If you don't bother noting the post time here, I'll tell you anyway: I'm off to bed as I have nothing more to say at this hour.

Via @aplusk on Twitter

I found this pretty funny and no one follows @rtech on Twitter, so I post here:

are my subscribers bombarded with these messages?

this is to test SMS to my blog and make me look smart. My very own twitter!

Another Break

Wow. It's been a long time since April 14. It's June 6 already. Let me catch you up:

I graduated college on May 12. We had a little party on the 16th. As of today I have not received my diploma.

My son was born five days ago, on June 1st. I kept those in-the-know updated via Twitter from my iPod over WiFi at the hospital. Say what you want.

Braden Michael Rehberg was born at 07:53 EST on June 1, 2009. 8lb, 9oz and 21" long.

Having written that, I now realize that this blog is five years old. I know this because I started writing here way before my daughter was born. I announced her birth somewhere back there in the archives, too. Is this turning into a career?

In between graduating and Braden's arrival, my business blew up and I was busier than I had ever been. It's still going and I am glad I took this entire month off from work. Maybe I can catch up. I'm loving it so far.

As much as I hated doing all that schoolwork and having sworn it off, I caught myself at school with Beth today thumbing through the 2008-2009 Graduate catalog. They still don't have any interesting Masters programs. I have changed my direction a bit away from IT, but it's still a close relation: Project Management. The PM courses I had in my undergrad were interesting, and there's quite a bit of science to the art that is Project Management. A lot of projects today are technical ones anyway, so it won't hurt to have a background in computers and networks. Having decided that, I have not come to a conclusion as to whether a graduate degree would help me any more after I become a PMP.

More on that later. I hope to have some kind of theme to write about here, but my brain is certainly too full and prone to wander. Don't believe me? Check the archives.

Late-

Automated Web Albums

A friend showed me yesterday that Photoshop has the ability to create a photo album for the web. I decided to play with it this morning. I discovered that it does pretty much the same thing that Picasa does when you export to an HTML page, but with a few more options and the ability to create a Flash-based album too. I won't provide any instructions here (that would be for the other blog), but only links. The Flash site is so far the prettiest, but I don't think there are enough options. The HTML site from Photoshop is pretty good, but there could always be better templates. The Picasa web album leaves too much to be desired - UX being the biggest piece. Not very pretty or dynamic.

Anyway, it's time to do some real work.

It Was Over a Long Time Ago

I forgot to tell you that my Windows 7 Beta box crashed over a month ago. It wasn't Windows 7, though - the hard drive was one that I'd bought back in '01. Maybe before that. The old Seagate 40GB EIDE just couldn't hang any longer.

I have tried to restore the machine to a new drive via a backup from the Windows Home Server, but the backups weren't available for some reason. I have not had the time or inclination to try again, and I simply don't want a computer in my bedroom any longer. I enjoyed the time I spent with Windows 7, and it looks to be a good change for Microsoft.

In contrast, I thought of something the other day: I have been scouting computers for years, even though I have so many. Since I got this MacBook a year ago, I can't remember the last time I tried to plan out buying another computer. It just doesn't happen anymore. I believe that deep down inside, I am content with my current computer. The only things I research anymore are servers. I want to build a distributed system for cluster computing. I haven't shopped for a Windows Laptop (or any laptop, for that matter) for a long time, and I believe my next trip to get another computer will be a short one. The MacBook Pro will do.

SLAM Fun-Fly

If you've ever wanted to see someone knock a plastic bottle off of a traffic cone with the tail of a radio-controlled airplane, here's a video of it. Warning: >29MB. Please right-click and download as you'll likely encounter problems trying to stream it.

We had a great time at the first-ever SLAM Fun-Fly on April 4. Visit South Land Aero Modelers at slamrc.com.

Practitioner

That's my word. It's the only word I continually misspell (that I know of). I used to misspell ridiculous, but since Beth pointed that out sometime in 2006 I have corrected my memory. I just can't get practicioner in the noggin correctly formed.

Anyway, I had an exciting day on furlough in which I got dressed expecting to go round up new clients. I didn't talk to a single person for the same reason as last time: If I get new customers, how do I guarantee I can help them when they call? How do I know they won't dismiss me if I don't show up immediately?

That said, I can't really afford to put my reputation on the line. This day job really gets in the way, but I like the steady (yet reduced) income because I enjoy owning a home and having fewer risks of not making the payment on it. I will take customers as they come, so they understand that I am generally unavailable during the day and my specialization is after-hours response.

I should spend the next furlough re-writing the website to suit my style and communicate my intentions a little better.

My Switch to Digital TV

Instead of making a note about it, I'll just post the inspiring video so I can remember how this is done. Or I can just go here.

In Support of the Mobile SDK

There may be a few "iPhone Killers" coming out, but I believe that the only one with a shot at triggering the demise of Apple's cute little two-hundred-dollar-bill is the "Google Phone." I don't call it a Google Phone, but I'm trying to use it in a general sense. By "Google Phone" I mean any phone running the Android operating system. There are many touch-screen phones coming out, and they all look great, don't they? None will kill Apple's iPhone or the Android platform.

The Nokia 5800 is a fantastic device from what I have read. It has all the features the iPhone does, and Nokia is even launching an audio store. The Blackberry Storm is the world's first touchscreen from RIM, and it seems to be getting rave reviews for its functionality. You can watch videos, listen to music, check e-mail, update Facebook, and all those cool things you always wanted to do with what the mobile phone has become.

I have one reason that the iPhone and the Android platform will survive: the SDK. That Nokia 5800 is great, but what if there's just one more thing you want to do with it, and Nokia never provided that function? What if you decided your Blackberry Storm couldn't do enough?

As a (budding) developer, I feel that the openness of the platforms (the ability to create your own software for any purpose to make a device even more useful) is the driving force behind the iPhone, and what will eventually be Android's success (even moreso now that it's free to develop for Android and fantastically cheap to submit to the Android market).

Tell me: Could you do this with your 5800 or Storm? I didn't think so.