Brettman's Ramblings

A geek is never finished

Sat, 03 May 2008 20:38:27 GMT

A lot of things have been going on with my website. Thanks to spammers I introduced some enhancements to my contact page to include a 'captcha' image to help slow down those spammers and limit my website comments to real people wishing to send me a comment or just contact me in general. But I didn't stop there. Oh no, I couldn't just be satisfied with making an update to the contact page. I then got the urge to create an RSS feed for the site to let folks keep tabs on the latest changes without having to remember to visit the What's New page all the time. Just another little piece to say 'I did it' I guess.

Of course I don't just sit and dream of what to do next on the site (okay, sometimes I do). I have also been in the planning stages of the trip to Washington DC for the Rolling Thunder event this month, also known as The Run for the Wall. It'll be almost a 1,000 mi round trip ride but it's one of the most moving and memorable events I've ever attended. I'm really looking forward to a safe trip and hoping Mother Nature will also cooperate with us and grace us with a bit of sunshine to make it even more enjoyable.

Then there's Laconia in June. This year we'll be staying at a Bed & Breakfast rather than camping which should prove to be an even more relaxing trip. Of course there will still be the annual pig roast and raffle with my fellow VROCers which really makes for a great time. Plans are still coming together but should be wrapped up soon and have us ready to roll.

The scooter's coming home!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:40:22 GMT

That's right! Spring is here to stay and the streets are looking much clearer. Thursday night I'll get together with my friend and take the scooter out of hibernation and bring her home. It's been a long winter for sure but it's time to get ready for all the good weather has to offer. Of course I'll still need to find time to get her washed and throw on a good coat of wax to get all ready for Rolling Thunder in DC in May. Plans are quite naturally gearing up for the annual trip to Laconia in June as well.

Remember..... Check Twice - Save A Life!

With the nicer weather rolling in don't forget to share the road and keep an eye out for those jogging, riding bicycles, motorcycles, etc.

A looong time coming

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:06:33 GMT

I know, it's been an eternity since I posted anything on here. I've been around but pretty busy and blogging just didn't seem to take any priority.

Most recently I've been working very hard at organizing my group at work and that of course has taken up a lot of my time. When I'm not at work I have been working at getting my friends website together which is starting to come along quite nicely. Despite a few minor trip-ups it has really begun to take shape and I'm now striving to re-write the site using XHTML and extensive use of CSS to drive the layout. This is of course being done offline right now until I get some bugs worked out. Then I'll actually re-write all the pages and get it posted.

Tonight was a pretty technologically frustrating night for sure. My car has a great hands free bluetooth option which always worked flawlessly..... until tonight! Seemed that it kept dropping connection with my phone even in mid-call and then would sometimes reconnect. Being that I commute almost all highway this was not good. I don't like to have my phone in my hand preventing me from concentrating on my driving! So, I cut the calls short and just planned to sort the problem out at home.

I spent a good deal of time getting frustrated when nothing I tried seemed to be successful. Then it occurred to me that I had done an "over-the-air" update to my phone last night. So with nothing else to lose I tried doing this again. My thought was that perhaps something had gone wrong and messed up the bluetooth in the phone. It was a long shot but I had already tried everything else. Sure enough, after the update was through I managed to make a 15+ minute call sitting in the parking lot without the bluetooth disconnecting. I think it's all resolved but only time will tell as they say.