Out of Focus

Testing the Flickr to Blogger Feature

2011-07-20T08:05:00.001-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I'd get started again and there is no better way then to use something easy. :)

I just stumbled onto a setting within Flickr that allows me to connect my Blogger account. Once connected, I can blog about a photo, or set of photos, by pressing a button within Flickr. I don't know what the blog post will look like or if it will include images, but I'll soon find out.

The 'Most Interesting' set of photos is an automatically generated set based on Flickr's secret formula for determining which of my photos are the most interesting. I think the formula includes things like titles, tags, views, favorites, and comments, but not sure what else.

Take a look.

Making Connections while Disconnected

2009-11-15T18:08:00.007-06:00

I can't help but feel a bit disconnected while traveling in Europe. While I can get Internet at the hotel, I don't dare activate Data Roaming on the iPhone which really restricts things. I've been used to sending/receiving text messages, using the Facebook app, creating Tweets with Twitterific, and surfing the web the moment an idea popped into my head.
One of those technologies I miss the most is Twitter. I'm still not a heavy tweeter and I haven't quite figured out what the right balance between substance and crap is but I'm really excited about Twitter's speed and reach. I'll explain what I mean with a story that happened to me this week. Before I left for this trip to Europe, I rented a couple of movies from iTunes to watch on the long flights over and back. One of those movies was a documentary called "Welcome to Macintosh." I watched most of it on my flight from Germany to Belgium and then finished the movie in my hotel room. I really enjoyed this documentary so at 4:32 in the afternoon, I used Twitter to recommend the book to all my Mac friends. At 7:32 that same evening, the director of the movie, Rob Baca, thanked me for the recommendation and wished me safe travels. I don't know of any other way outside Twitter that this would have happened so quickly.

Elf Yourself

2008-12-31T12:01:00.003-06:00

WebSphere Rocks!

2008-07-01T19:15:00.004-05:00

Taken at the Rational Software Developer Conference.

Stupid Collections: Conference Badges

2008-03-25T08:27:00.006-05:00

I'm not sure why I started saving my name badges from the developer conferences I've attended. Early on, I started pinning them onto a cork board in my office but the badges quickly took over the entire board so now they are destined for a drawer in my desk. It is overwhelming to look back at all the conferences... and all the travel associated with each. With the latest addition of the EclipseCon 2008 badge, I now have 60 conference badges from 1999 to date.

That's 9 JavaOne badges, 4 from EclipseCon and one EclipseWorld, 7 from the BEA dev2dev days and 2 from BEA World, 3 from the Sun TechDays, plus JavaPolis, Jazoon, IBM Rational Conference, Oracle OpenWorld, LinuxWorld, Zend PHP Conference, MySQL Conference.. and many, many more.

Everyone is a Java User!

2008-03-12T20:42:00.005-05:00

I was on my way out the door when my son asked where I was going. I told him I was going to my Java User Group meeting and he said, "Ooo, Can I go?". This was not the typical teenage reaction I would have expected and then he followed up with "I'm a Java User". He was waving his cell phone and has seen the Java logo pop up over and over again when playing some games on the phone. He has also played his fair share of Java applet based games. He thought I was going to a meeting where I would get to see all the cool new Java games before everyone else. I started wondering why there wasn't a group like that.... or maybe there is? :)

I'm sitting in my Java user group meeting right now, listening to Burr Sutter from JBoss who is talking about Open Source SOA and how it can help with application integration. He paints a rather compelling picture and is very entertaining and easy to listen to. Much of his talk centered around the JBoss ESB

He said he is sending the slides but I found them online here.

The Funniest Blog Cartoon Ever!

2008-02-28T22:27:00.006-06:00

I found this cartoon at http://www.gapingvoid.com and thought it was funny enough to blog about it.

JavaPolis in Antwerp Belgium

2007-12-15T20:43:00.005-06:00

I was able to attend the JavaPolis developer conference in Antwerp, Belgium this year and really enjoyed my trip. My flight started in the afternoon from the US and I landed the next morning in Belgium. I know there is a time difference of 6 or 7 hours but it is still a long flight. I landed in Brussels and took a train to Antwerp. I really enjoy how easy it is to travel by train in Europe. I got to Antwerp early in the morning but couldn't check into my hotel until 3pm, so I got back on the train for a bit of sightseeing. I was told that Amsterdam was only a couple of hours away by train and a single day round-trip ticket only cost around $50 so I had to go. It would force me to stay awake and I would get to check off another country, The Netherlands, from my travel list. :)

Getting to the conference was just as easy, since the train went right to the front door of the MetroPolis where the conference was being held. I was able to attend sessions the first day and the last day and spent the rest of my time working in the exhibit hall.

Even though I said I enjoy traveling by train in Europe, things weren't exactly perfect on this trip. On the day I was to leave Belgium I got involved in a train workers strike. I luckily got on the last train from Antwerp to Brussels at 5:50am, but the train didn't go all the way to the airport... only to South Brussels... A half hour cab right got me the rest of the way. I would not have made my flight if I did not catch that last train so I'm sure there were lots of stranded travelers that day.

I took a few pictures of my travels and the conference and they are available here

Why Everyone should have a Mac?: Photo Booth!

2007-09-16T08:55:00.001-05:00

There are many reasons why I like my Mac... but the one thing that everyone else seems to like no matter what the age or technical background is Photo Booth. This is a fun little program that was installed on the Mac when I got it and works with the built in camera so you can take pictures of yourself. The best part of this program are the effects that you can apply to the picture in real-time. There are different effects like Bulge, Dent, and Twirl that let you position your face into some very funny pictures, but my favorite effect is the mirror effect where you can do all kinds of cool stuff. You can put Photo Booth in front of someone and they will keep themselves busy for hours. I've uploaded an album of the funniest Photo Booth pictures here.

Jazoon Conference in Zurich Switzerland

2007-06-27T02:24:00.002-05:00

I'm at the Jazoon conference in Zurich, Switzerland. I've really been looking forward to this trip. The weather was nice when I got here on Sunday but it's been raining ever since. I did get a chance to take a tour of the city when I first arrived and I've got some pictures posted here... It was definately a good idea to take a guided tour as it forced me to stay awake and get used to the different time zone. Things in Zurich happen 7 hours ahead of what I'm used to back home in Kansas.

Except for the time differences, communicating back home was a breeze. Before I left, I set up a local telephone number through Yahoo phone. It was a snap, I get to call home from Europe for $.01 a minute, and my friends and family get a local number to call me on. You gotta love technology like that. I'll head for home this Friday and I hope I adjust to the time difference as easily as I did coming over.

JavaOne 2007 in SF

2007-05-12T16:38:00.001-05:00

Well, another JavaOne under my belt and it was extremely busy on the exhibit hall floor this year. Of course I had to get my picture taken with Duke.

I also got a chance to sit in on the Adobe sponsored meeting and saw Bruce Eckel, the writer of "Thinking in Java" which was one of the first books many of us started with when learning Java.

JavaOne photos

Check out my photos on Flickr!

2005-11-13T21:46:00.002-06:00

Hey, Check out my new photos on Flickr.

Emailing my BLOG box

2004-11-22T22:10:00.000-06:00

I can add content to my BLOG just by sending an email. Is that amazing technology, or what?

My First BLOG Post!

2004-11-22T20:25:00.000-06:00

I guess I'm a little nervous here... after all, I'm typing something into the Internet which means it is going to live forever.