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August 31, 2005
Gas prices on the rise
I remember when I got my drivers license and gas was at roughly 80-90 cents per gallon. Each year since, it seems, as seen a dramatic increase in the price of gas since.
The past few years have seen the most dramatic increase, going from $1.25 to $2.60 per gallon. This morning, I read that due to the recent events in the Gulf Coast, we could be seeing gas at $4.00 per gallon in the very near future.
Click here to read what the experts have to say.
I REALLY wish that the US could go towards another and cheaper alternative fuel method. It's a shame that we, as a country, are so controlled by crude oil. It kinda reminds me of the dependancy of a drug addict. Americans just need to be sent to a rehabilitation center to get off the junk.
Want some good reading? Visit the Alternative Fuels Data Center Web site.
~out...
Posted by ed at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)
Google finally starts putting in real ads!
I found this to be interesting.
The other day I made a post about cell phone ring tones. Today, I visit my Web site and see the following ad on the site:
The ads seem to be working...
I know this isn't anything terribly special to anyone but myself, but until now I've only seen two kinds of ads on my Web site. The first kind have been these "Save the rain forest" kind of ads, which I don't mind ... but they're bland. The second has been for this photo place that I've never heard of. This is the first example of an ad on my Web site that actually matches the content of my site.
It's cool to me, anyhow...
~out...
Posted by ed at 10:41 AM | Comments (3)
August 26, 2005
Cell phone ringing fool
For a long time I've been wanting to create my own MP3 ring tones for my phone. There's alot of music that I have created on my computer that I've wanted to transfer, not to mention some free MP3's that I've downloaded from unknown artists from across the world.
The other day I had a thought ... what if you could upload a ringtone to a Web site and download it to your phone?
So, I decided to do an experiment. I created a few short MP3 files on my computer and uploaded them to my Web server here at edengelking.com. I loaded the Web browser on my cell phone, typed in the URL of the ringtone and low and behold it downloaded to my phone.
Now, some of the files worked and some of them didn't, and anyone who knows me knows that I won't stop until I have the answer. I checked some settings on the files that worked and discovered that the bitrate at which they played was 64k. No problem, as I was able to make my audio recorder set at default to 64k.
Next, I set the sample format to 32-bit float and the rate to 44100 Hz. Apparently, you can set the MP3 to be as low as 22050 Hz, but anything lower most cell phones will not be able to play. On my model, it comes back with an error saying "invalid file" or something to that effect.
Now, some of my files were already set at a specific format and rate, so I discovered that in order for me to set them properly, I had to copy the entire file and create a new file in Audacity (my default recorder for those who didn't already know), which had the proper settings set by default. In the new file, I pasted the copied content and exported it to an MP3. After checking the settings, everything looked correct.
At this point, I opened my FTP program and uploaded the MP3 files to my Web site. I made note of the file name and the location on the Web site, opened the cell's Web browser, pointed to the proper URL and boom... instant (not to mention free) ring tone.
Amazing what you can do when you get bored in the middle of the night.
~out...
Posted by ed at 09:19 AM | Comments (2)
August 24, 2005
Pat takes it back
He really didn't mean to say that he wanted America to "take out" anyone ... yeah right ... and the sky is green and world peace will happen at 9:43 tomorrow right after morning tea and biscuits.
My fellow Christians ... my brothers and sisters ... if you want to listen to a man who lives (or in this case lived) for God and Jesus Christ, here is a GREAT role model.
Posted by ed at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2005
Two rants in one day!
I really haven't been around much this year. As a matter of fact, 2005 has been a year where I've hardly seen anyone. None of my friends, barely seen my family (with the exception of the past month or so) and no real interaction with some of the volunteer work that I believe so much in.
Most of the problem is due to the amount of time that I've been putting into work. Getting a Internet service launched isn't exactly the easiest thing that I've ever done before ... definately been a challenge. But the biggest part of that challenge is behind me. Because of that, I've had more time recently to spend doing some of the things that I truely enjoy.
Most important, I've been spending time with my family over the weekends. Since Mike had his heart attack, there hasn't been a weekend that I've missed, with the exception of this past weekend due to illness. Over this time, I've seen more of my nephew than I have in a year, my neice knows who I am (I'm Uncle Egghead, btw ... Amanda is Aunt Banana), and I can honestly say that I've never spent more quality time with my parents in the past 5 years. Not to mention that I've also been spending alot of quality time with my brother, which I didn't realize that I missed so much until this past weekend when I couldn't go to see everyone.
Because of this, I'm thinking of moving back to Frankfort. If the cards fall right, I might be back there before I even know it. With the way I post on this blog, who knows, the next post could even be from Frankfort.
On other topics, I managed to revamp the PC Guru Web site ... a project I started on last November and have only now just completed. I feel bad that it's taken me so long to redo the site in the way that I wanted, but I never expected that work would take so much away from my free time. I'm going to try to never get *that* busy ever again.
Anyhow, go take a look at the updated Guru Web site and let me know what you think.
~out...
Posted by ed at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)
Radical Christian Cleric?
I've never been a fan of Pat Robertson. He makes Rush look like a left leaner, in my opinion. He's borderline nuts, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks so. The really scary part is that he reaches the homes of millions of Americans on a daily basis.
So when Patty-boy gets on his high horse, I get nervous. Apparently, Pat is saying that the US should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. This reminded me of things that I've heard about over seas ... where "Radical Muslim Clerics" would call for a jihad against the American infidels. If you switch roles here, doesn't it seem like the same thing? A highly influentual religeous leader demanding for his country and/or followers to kill someone?
Granted, I don't keep up much with world politics. Perhaps Chavez is a tyrant who really needs to be removed from power. Maybe someone is or already has cooked up a plot to assassinate this man. But when a reliegous leader starts making claims like this, it's just bad.
Shit like this frightens me to no end.
Posted by ed at 10:29 AM | Comments (2)
August 12, 2005
It's all coming together
Over the past month, I've been doing nothing but programming a new backend system to control the SkyWay USA satellite system. Prior to launching our new satellite service, the SkyWay employees, dealers, master agents, and even customers had access to an interface called SkyMan. This interface wasn't the greatest thing, but it did allow people to see usage and track some billing items.
I decided when I started on this new backend that I would keep the name SkyMan, as that was the name that everyone was familiar with. It all started out slowly at first, with me creating some extremely generic pages that brought back the data that the billing dept requested. And when I say generic ... I mean generic ... white pages with nothing but text that had been processed via PHP and SQL.
Today's version of SkyMan is quite different. It's probably the most complex system that I've ever built as a Web developer. It has the ability to add/remove/edit customers, export reports in Excel format, track customer usage with graphs and all kinds of nifty eye candy that should help everyone understand what's going on at either satellite system at any given point in time.
Here's a screenshot to show the system:
The SkyMan Backend ... edited to protect the innocent.
Eventually, I will be developing the dealer and customer interfaces as well. It's kind of slow-going at the moment as I'm literally building everything from scratch. However, once I have the main backend built, I should be able to port the necessary items to the customer and dealer interfaces with minimal issues.
Just gotta get the darn thing finished.
~out...
Posted by ed at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2005
I'm really bad about updating
I know ... I know ... it's been over a month easily since my last update. What can I say? I've been really really busy.
Now that's over with, I'll bring everyone up to speed as to what's been going on in the past few months:
1. Mike had a heart attack on the weekend of July 15th.
This really shook up my entire family. I got the news while I was at work on Friday and I don't think I've ever driven to Frankfort that fast in my entire life. I think we made it in roughly 20 minutes tops. When we got to Frankfort, we met up with Michael and made our way to the hospital in Lexington. When we got there, Mike was still being worked on and mom, Aunt Carolyn and Pete were in the lobby waiting.
After listening to kids screaming for about 30 minutes, Michael, Pete and I decided to go downstairs for a few minutes so that Pete could have a smoke. We just stood around for a while and talked before heading back up. During this time we were downstairs, they brought Mike back to recovery where Mom, Aunt Carolyn and Amanda went to see him. After they came through, Michael, Pete and I went in. Mom had sorta set us up for the worst possible scenario, but when we actually got to see him, he was looking really good.
They kept him in the hospital through Monday, and I decided to stay in Frankfort the weekend to stay with mom, as the whole situation really shook her up a bit. Hell, it shook all of us up ... I was just glad to be there with family. It made me realize that I really shouldn't be in Louisville, and that I should consider moving back to Frankfort to be near my family. I'm still working that one out.
2. SkyWay had it's hard launch of the new satellite Internet platform.
Mid-way through July, right before Mike had his heart attack actually, Dwayne and I made our way to Atlanta for an overnight stay. We took with us a Dell 1850 and 2850 server with us to finalize the launch of our second bird, Horizons 1. We now have two birds, including PAS-1R.
Since our return, I've been working on a interface that I call SkyManager 2 (or SkyMan 2 for short). SkyWay had another application that allowed them to monitor their satellite users on the old platform called SkyMan, so I just ran with the name. It's a PHP based platform with a MySQL backend. It gives all kinds of detailed information about customers, satellite usage, and such.
We're currently in the process of getting the remaining AMC-6 customers moved to the new platform and even slowly adding new customers. It's an exciting time for the company that continues to get better as everyone gets to know the platform and what to expect from it.
3. I've started my 6th month without a cigarette.
It doesn't really seem to be that long ago, but I've been smoke free for almost half a year now. I've put on weight as a result, so I'm working on modifying my snacking habits. I've been trying to munch on things like fruit and veggies ... and I've gone through a bag of carrots and several apples thus far.
4. I went to Steven and Rafiel's house-warming party.
Amanda and I were invited to a house-warming party that Steven and Raphiel threw. It was a fun event and a general good time once we got to know everyone. I'll put up pictures eventually.
Their place is huge. It has 3 stories and a basement. It's an older home that was renovated and put back on the market. Technically, they're the 3rd owners of the place, but only the 2nd to live there. After all, the people that renovated the place didn't live there. I think Steven said that they did the renovation in a few months and had it back on the market immediately afterwards.
Oh, and I love his new car. I'll post a pic of it one of these days too. I just got to get motivated to get the images off the camera.
Anyhow, that's all I got for the time being. This is where I'd normally promise to post more, but I know I'm not going to even though I want to do it, so I'm not going to make any promises at all. Maybe that'll motivate me.
~out...
Posted by ed at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)