Oh... I was in Barnes and Nobles yesterday killing time with my buddy Jeff. I went to the science section trying to find the star chart that I wanted to get. Well they had a couple of books on building your own robot. I'm talking the Battlebots version. Now that could be an expensinve hobby. More books at Robot Books.com
Current Brainstorms
Thursday, February 28, 2002
Oh... I was in Barnes and Nobles yesterday killing time with my buddy Jeff. I went to the science section trying to find the star chart that I wanted to get. Well they had a couple of books on building your own robot. I'm talking the Battlebots version. Now that could be an expensinve hobby. More books at Robot Books.com
Oh... I was in Barnes and Nobles yesterday killing time with my buddy Jeff. I went to the science section trying to find the star chart that I wanted to get. Well they had a couple of books on building your own robot. I'm talking the Battlebots version. Now that could be an expensinve hobby. More books at Robot Books.com
10:23 AM Posted by Big Dave | 0 Thoughts
My bike made it about 2:30 yesterday. I managed to put it together for the most part... But I need to get an alan wrench set to adjust the bike seat. It also has clips for the pedals that require special shoes. I'll go pick some up this evening. Unfortunately the weather guys are predicting snow for this weekend. Crazy Texas weather.
And now, for something completely different...
Have you ever found a file with an extension that you weren't familiar with and you couldn't figure what kind it was? Well this site has a list of just about every file extension you can imagine. Possibly useful for the extreme geek.
10:14 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
And now, for something completely different...
Have you ever found a file with an extension that you weren't familiar with and you couldn't figure what kind it was? Well this site has a list of just about every file extension you can imagine. Possibly useful for the extreme geek.
10:14 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
I've been working on a calendar parser for the church. Here are some nice tools I found while trying to parse a standard CSV file into a mySQL database.
CSV Parser
Type 4 JDBC driver for mySQL
9:32 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I've been working on a calendar parser for the church. Here are some nice tools I found while trying to parse a standard CSV file into a mySQL database.
CSV Parser
Type 4 JDBC driver for mySQL
9:32 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Friday, February 22, 2002
You know. I would love to have my bike for the weekend, but since it appears it didn't get shipped today, I guess I have to wait. sigh....
I'm currently reading the autobiography of Lance Armstrong. He's the guy who won the Tour de France three times after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. I highly recommend it. I'm at page 71 and I only picked it up last night. I find myself identifying with him on several points... Except for that whole athletic vs. brainiac thing, I think we could be twins. :-)
4:39 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
You know. I would love to have my bike for the weekend, but since it appears it didn't get shipped today, I guess I have to wait. sigh....
I'm currently reading the autobiography of Lance Armstrong. He's the guy who won the Tour de France three times after being diagnosed with testicular cancer. I highly recommend it. I'm at page 71 and I only picked it up last night. I find myself identifying with him on several points... Except for that whole athletic vs. brainiac thing, I think we could be twins. :-)
4:39 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Ok... something freaky is going on. I start having a sudden absolute desire for a bike and then Geekman goes and starts talking about his first riding experience
P.S. I have acquired a bike through Ebay. Buyers remorse has already set in. Pictures to follow.
11:53 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Ok... something freaky is going on. I start having a sudden absolute desire for a bike and then Geekman goes and starts talking about his first riding experience
P.S. I have acquired a bike through Ebay. Buyers remorse has already set in. Pictures to follow.
11:53 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I want a mountain bike!!!!!!
I have to admit it. I've got the bug in a BAD way. I have wanted a bike for several years, but with the weather getting really nice and my desire to get outside increasing, this particular craving has been compounded. "Why mountain biking?," you might ask. You know I have no idea. It's not like I've had a lot of experience with mountain biking. In fact, I haven't ridden a bike in years, but the sport compliments my love of camping very well. Regardless of the reasons, I've got the bug. Being who I am, I've started doing some research into bikes so that I can get the best bike for my money. Since I've got this site, I thought I would share my findings.
Types of Mountain Bikes:
Mountain Bike classifications:
Moutain Bike Apr. 2002 Pg. 25
I got a couple of magazines and books during lunch today. Mountain Bike and Bicycling had some great articles and information about the sport.
I also swung by a bike shop on the way home. Eric helped me quite a bit. He also suggested I check out www.mtbr.com for reviews by riders.
The two bikes he suggested for my price range (< $600) were the Trech 4900 and the Specialized Hardrock Pro. (Both 2002 models)
8:17 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I have to admit it. I've got the bug in a BAD way. I have wanted a bike for several years, but with the weather getting really nice and my desire to get outside increasing, this particular craving has been compounded. "Why mountain biking?," you might ask. You know I have no idea. It's not like I've had a lot of experience with mountain biking. In fact, I haven't ridden a bike in years, but the sport compliments my love of camping very well. Regardless of the reasons, I've got the bug. Being who I am, I've started doing some research into bikes so that I can get the best bike for my money. Since I've got this site, I thought I would share my findings.
Types of Mountain Bikes:
- Hardtail Has a shock absorber on the front fork, but not on the rear. Makes for a rougher ride, but lighter
- Full Suspension Has shock absorbers on front and rear of bike. The smoother ride handles obstacles better.
Mountain Bike classifications:
- Cross-Country (XC): This is the biggest overall user group and it's made up of just about every type of rider.
- Downhill (DH): It's a race bike that's the precursor to freeride in terms of technology.
- Freeride (FR): Freeride means different things to different people. If you're doing 10-foot drops as warm-ups, you're going to want what's essentially a downhill bike with super-heavy-duty wheels and components.
Moutain Bike Apr. 2002 Pg. 25
I got a couple of magazines and books during lunch today. Mountain Bike and Bicycling had some great articles and information about the sport.
I also swung by a bike shop on the way home. Eric helped me quite a bit. He also suggested I check out www.mtbr.com for reviews by riders.
The two bikes he suggested for my price range (< $600) were the Trech 4900 and the Specialized Hardrock Pro. (Both 2002 models)
8:17 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Monday, February 18, 2002
I am ERNIE.
Everyone loves to hang out with me.
Which Sesame Street Character Are You?
8:48 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I am ERNIE.
Everyone loves to hang out with me.
Which Sesame Street Character Are You?
8:48 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Sunday, February 17, 2002
I had a great time on the retreat this weekend. Those guys really wore me out. One interesting thing this weekend. I was confused by a Youth as a Youth. Now I realize I'm young looking and have been confused by an adult upon occasion, but this was the first time a youth thought I was about his age. And he was 15. Must be my girlish figure (Don't laugh too hard). Or maybe my winning personality. A good time was had by all.
Note to self. I need to get a star chart.
11:05 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I had a great time on the retreat this weekend. Those guys really wore me out. One interesting thing this weekend. I was confused by a Youth as a Youth. Now I realize I'm young looking and have been confused by an adult upon occasion, but this was the first time a youth thought I was about his age. And he was 15. Must be my girlish figure (Don't laugh too hard). Or maybe my winning personality. A good time was had by all.
Note to self. I need to get a star chart.
11:05 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Friday, February 15, 2002
Oh.. and I'm now listed on DFWBlogs.com
4:53 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Oh.. and I'm now listed on DFWBlogs.com
4:53 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I had a fun forward today. It was a copy of an add dated 1989. While this may not be an increadibly log time period for many thing, the personal computer has made great leaps since then. Now my outdated PDA has more power than those old things.
Tandy Computer Specs from 1989.
One comment though... I didn't know Microsoft developed OS/2. I thought that OS/2 was a product from IBM. Well I guess we can all say that editing hasn't changed that much. :-)
4:43 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Tandy Computer Specs from 1989.
One comment though... I didn't know Microsoft developed OS/2. I thought that OS/2 was a product from IBM. Well I guess we can all say that editing hasn't changed that much. :-)
4:43 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Hey, This is the image I had yesterday that pulled a vanishing act. I had to go find it again. :-) Happy belated Valentines Day.
I'm off to play with the Youth this weekend.
4:18 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I'm off to play with the Youth this weekend.
4:18 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Thursday, February 14, 2002
Happy Valentines Day!!!
I had a great picture, but it seems to have disappeared. I'll give it to you all tommorrow.
Some of you may be aware of one of my Valentines traditions. We started at A&M to gather the single people together and watch horror movies on Valentines. Well it's more difficult to get a big group together, but I intend to watch something scary and kill the sappyness of this holiday.
2:27 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Happy Valentines Day!!!
I had a great picture, but it seems to have disappeared. I'll give it to you all tommorrow.
Some of you may be aware of one of my Valentines traditions. We started at A&M to gather the single people together and watch horror movies on Valentines. Well it's more difficult to get a big group together, but I intend to watch something scary and kill the sappyness of this holiday.
2:27 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Monday, February 11, 2002
Check out the AntiBloggies. Winners were announced today. The sites and categories are pretty funny. I and the prizes are usually VERY appropriate.
Also, I found a book that I want. The Geek Handbook (summary here) will teach you how to care and make the most use of your geek. Great for your geeky valentine.
5:41 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Check out the AntiBloggies. Winners were announced today. The sites and categories are pretty funny. I and the prizes are usually VERY appropriate.
Also, I found a book that I want. The Geek Handbook (summary here) will teach you how to care and make the most use of your geek. Great for your geeky valentine.
5:41 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Saturday, February 09, 2002
I have added an open forum to this web site. You are welcome to participate. It's being powered by phpBB which is an effective and very customizable tool.
Future plans include adding a mail list sign up, newsletter capabilities, and a series of tutorials for people who really don't know anything about computers. I'm talking about Cut and Paste and Alt+PrtScrn type operations. I still inted to have fun with this site, but there is no reason it can't serve a purpose while I'm learning about PHP and some of the other toys I have going on this site.
I am doing concurrent development between this site and FumcCoppell.com. Several of us are working diligently to bring our church into the 20th century. (Yes I know it's the 21st) I have some great plans for the site and this one is being used as a spring board so I can try some things out before I turn them loose on an unexpecting public.
1:34 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I have added an open forum to this web site. You are welcome to participate. It's being powered by phpBB which is an effective and very customizable tool.
Future plans include adding a mail list sign up, newsletter capabilities, and a series of tutorials for people who really don't know anything about computers. I'm talking about Cut and Paste and Alt+PrtScrn type operations. I still inted to have fun with this site, but there is no reason it can't serve a purpose while I'm learning about PHP and some of the other toys I have going on this site.
I am doing concurrent development between this site and FumcCoppell.com. Several of us are working diligently to bring our church into the 20th century. (Yes I know it's the 21st) I have some great plans for the site and this one is being used as a spring board so I can try some things out before I turn them loose on an unexpecting public.
1:34 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Friday, February 08, 2002
I don't know if you guys have been following the latest developments in the struggle between AOL vs. Trillian. Trillian is a nice little program that lets me run Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, and MSN all from one little console. It's freeware and has it's share of bugs, but the important thing is I can run it from work while they have been blocking the ports AIM tunnels through. If I could get AIM to work, this wouldn't be a big deal, but AOL is starting to tick me off.
So anyway... I decided last night was dinner and a movie night. I stopped by Blockbuster and picked up "Rock Star" and a sandwhich from the Subway's next door. They don't make sub's the way they used to... They don't cut the piece out of the top, they just cut it in half and put everything on there and fold it in half. Anyway, back on track. The movie was actually really good. And I enjoyed the soundtrack. It was more of a coming of age movie than I would ever have expected.
You all have a great weekend. Don't do anything I wouldn't do.
9:11 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I don't know if you guys have been following the latest developments in the struggle between AOL vs. Trillian. Trillian is a nice little program that lets me run Yahoo!, ICQ, AIM, and MSN all from one little console. It's freeware and has it's share of bugs, but the important thing is I can run it from work while they have been blocking the ports AIM tunnels through. If I could get AIM to work, this wouldn't be a big deal, but AOL is starting to tick me off.
So anyway... I decided last night was dinner and a movie night. I stopped by Blockbuster and picked up "Rock Star" and a sandwhich from the Subway's next door. They don't make sub's the way they used to... They don't cut the piece out of the top, they just cut it in half and put everything on there and fold it in half. Anyway, back on track. The movie was actually really good. And I enjoyed the soundtrack. It was more of a coming of age movie than I would ever have expected.
You all have a great weekend. Don't do anything I wouldn't do.
9:11 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
Well it's Wednesday. The snow and ice didn't quite live up to expectations so I am here, and working diligently. For those of you who are not, check out Tank Wars as a shockwave game.
Tonight is my night to teach Junior High Bible Study. We're going to be talking about parents. Specifically how parents are people too. I found a bunch of cool little devotionals in a book I picked up last weekend from Half Price Books.
One interesting item. This book was returned when I did a search for "Email from God" on Barnes and Nobles site. I wonder if my kids have read it. Hmmm....
12:39 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Well it's Wednesday. The snow and ice didn't quite live up to expectations so I am here, and working diligently. For those of you who are not, check out Tank Wars as a shockwave game.
Tonight is my night to teach Junior High Bible Study. We're going to be talking about parents. Specifically how parents are people too. I found a bunch of cool little devotionals in a book I picked up last weekend from Half Price Books.
One interesting item. This book was returned when I did a search for "Email from God" on Barnes and Nobles site. I wonder if my kids have read it. Hmmm....
12:39 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Tuesday, February 05, 2002
Ok, so driving home in the snow was less than fun. People in Texas don't know how to drive in anything other than sunny weather. They are expecting it to freeze tonight. If it's nasty enough I will be able to stay home tommorrow.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...
6:29 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Ok, so driving home in the snow was less than fun. People in Texas don't know how to drive in anything other than sunny weather. They are expecting it to freeze tonight. If it's nasty enough I will be able to stay home tommorrow.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...
6:29 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
It's snowing outside today. Texas weather is so wierd. They don't expect it to stick but it is amusing to watch these giant snow flakes fall. They melt as soon as they hit the ground.
Well on another note, I have the comments tags working to show if there is a comment or not. I really should be working, but this is more fun. :-)
My current project is to write an application that helps schedule lab time. The managers are going to have to check out certain racks down in the lab. We have a problem playing nicely together at the moment. It's time to go pound some code.
P.S. Java 1.4 is going to contain Regular Expressions. I'm excited about that. Especially since the next major program I need to write for my church is going to require parsing a text file into a format that can be uploaded into a mySQL database.
10:54 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Well on another note, I have the comments tags working to show if there is a comment or not. I really should be working, but this is more fun. :-)
My current project is to write an application that helps schedule lab time. The managers are going to have to check out certain racks down in the lab. We have a problem playing nicely together at the moment. It's time to go pound some code.
P.S. Java 1.4 is going to contain Regular Expressions. I'm excited about that. Especially since the next major program I need to write for my church is going to require parsing a text file into a format that can be uploaded into a mySQL database.
10:54 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Hey, I think I have the comments going. At least until someone breaks them. The count variables still don't work. They are dummy set at 0 for the time being. but I can only do some much in one night. Especially since I'm learning PHP along the way. I should have some nice little bits of code to release to the general public once I'm satisfied it all works the way it should. You all have a great day.
12:33 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
12:33 AM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Sunday, February 03, 2002
Geez, what a great game. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. The commercials were great of course. I think I have to give kudos to Budweiser for the best commercials. The one with the hawk was hallarious.
I'm working on this sight. I'm not sure I like the layout, so it may change a couple of times before I dial in. I also plan to add comments, a guest book, message board, and and other assorted toys.
10:40 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Geez, what a great game. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. The commercials were great of course. I think I have to give kudos to Budweiser for the best commercials. The one with the hawk was hallarious.
I'm working on this sight. I'm not sure I like the layout, so it may change a couple of times before I dial in. I also plan to add comments, a guest book, message board, and and other assorted toys.
10:40 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
Howdy!!! Welcome to my blog. It's still in the process of being created, please come back and visit often.
I hope to have everything working soon.
1:20 PM Posted by Big Dave
| 0 Thoughts
I hope to have everything working soon.
