Daily Dilbert RSS Feed

As a fellow Geek, I'm sure you know that you can subscribe to the Daily Dilbert via e-mail, right? And let's face it, we all need a daily dose of humor to put up with all the PEBCAK.

But, did you know you can get the daily Dilbert comic strip via an (unofficial) RSS feed too? No spam filters, just the daily cartoon straight to you.

Keep in mind, this feed is different than The Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams – which is on Official blog and pretty hilarious too if you like smart alec humor.

(BTW – I've got a Daily Dilbert SharePoint webpart too if anyone is interested. It's great for getting network users to start using http://companyweb) .

Beating Louisville Rush Hour

Everybody hates traffic, myself included.

To combat the traffic I subscribe to XM Radio, which certainly helps with the stress (free 3-day trial) and I use the Louisville traffic webcams on http://www.trimarc.org.

Like the cams in many other cities, the Louisville traffic cams are a really handy way to check traffic conditions before you get out on the highway. I even made a couple of SharePoint webparts using the camera images from the Trimarc website. Now I just load the http://companyweb homepage, hit F5 to refresh the pictures, and I'm out the door.

But invariably I'll be in a hurry, forget to check the traffic cam, and drive right into gridlock. And this usually happens when I'm already running late (or have to go to the bathroom – Murphy's Law).

Since the Trimarc website isn't well-suited for the small screen, I sometimes call back to the office and ask someone to jump on http://companyweb/ to tell me what the traffic looks like up ahead. Unless, of course, everyone has aleady left for the day (Murphy's Law again).

Well, recently one of my geek wishes came true.

Trimarc has added a special sub-site for mobile devices: http://www.trimarc.org/mobile/index.html

So if you live in the Louisville Metro, even if you don’t have a Pocket PC or Smart Phone, you can still surf the site in a normal web browser to check road conditions before rush hour. Or use your mobile device while stuck in traffic to see which lane you should be in. It's very quick, and easy as pie.

Now if you get stuck in traffic, you have no one to blame but yourself.

P.S. If you’d like one of the SharePoint web parts for the traffic cams, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send you the .DWP file. Even if you're new to SharePoint, it's pretty easy to roll your own web parts once you've seen how to do it.

And Now For Something Completely Different

From the 'meaningless tripe' folder…

Today I was looking for a fun rainy-day project. Nothing too terribly challenging – just something clever, inexpensive, and geeky. (Yes Lee, I do have too much time on my hands).

Submitted for your approval: http://www.instructables.com/

The premise behind the website is that website subscribers (free) upload projects with step-by-step instructions with photos and feedback from viewers. "What kind of projects" you ask?

• LED Throwies (as seen on 17 Feb 06 Rocketboom show*)
• Marshmallow gun (made out of PVC)
• Giant Steel Skeleton Hand / Coat Rack (neat welding project)
• LED Bike Wheel Images (too much soldering)
• The Apple iWipe (toilet paper dispenser from Mac SE)
• Unemployment Burger (looks tasty enough)
• PVC Bike Rack (under $10)

My choice?

• CD Cases made with old 5-1/4" flooppy disks (easy)

I noticed that the CDs tend to slip out if you cut the top off the floppy, so after the first couple of floppies, I started cutting the side opposite the notched cutout instead. Works like a champ. Holds DVDs too, so win-win.

If you've got a cool project that you'd like to share with the world, now you've got a place to upload it. And now I've wasted that two minutes of your life I warned you about. 😉

* The cool theme music from that episode of Rocketboom is by Tuhin Mehta – MP3 download or listen on Odeo.com. You can also check out other 'Gizmodo Hard Drive Dying Dance Tracks' on Odeo.com.

Running With Scissors

I wanted to share the low-down on some recent betas, from my point of view.

I've been playing with MSN 8 Beta for about 2 weeks now, thanks to Vlad.

Likes:

• Share folders – cool
• Offline messages – cooler
• Music Man – Totally awesome time waster! Loads of fun! Chris and I are having a blast!

Dislikes:

• Facelift – but I'm getting used to it
• Search button at the bottom of the main window (who searches in IM???)
• STILL no spell check (Trillian can do it, why can't MS?)

I was going to blog about IE7 Beta 2, but Music Man is still too fun. Lets just say that I love everything about IE7 except the RSS (lame compared to FireFox w/ Sage RSS plugin) and the disappearing text in text boxes. But it's beta, so I'll be nice.

Come To The Dark Side… We Have Cookies

Well, it took some doing, but Eriq Neale finally convinced me that Macs are not completely evil (pronounced "Eeeee-ville"). Vlad & Chris already got me using Firefox (though I turned them on to Rocket Boom, so we're even). And oddly enough, looking at a penguin is starting to make my eye twitch. Is nothing sacred??

So I decided it was time to stop player-hatin' on Macs and stop being a Windows bigot. Time to crawl out of the relative safety of the Microsoft foxhole (snort) and take my Geekness to the next level.

Scanning my IM list, I pinged Deborah, a dual Mac/PC user friend of mine so I could pick her brain. She gave me a crash course in Mac. She kindly corrected me that the "fruity" ones, as I called them, were the G3 models, the ones with the "handles" were the tower models, and the "60's robot-looking" ones were the G4's. (Side note: I have a new-found understanding and empathy for folks who don't know the right names for PC hardware). Anyway, in no time Deborah helped me get my Mac learn-on. Thanks D!!

Armed with my copy of the SBS Unleashed book so I can add this machine to my network, the FAQ on SmallBizServer.net so Eriq won't ban me from his buddy list for pestering him, and some hard-earned PayPal dollars, I confidently marched over to eBay to snag myself a Mac. And boy, the killing fields were ripe for hunting!

25 minutes and 5 e-mails later, I found my prey: A cutesy curvy plastic Mac with OS X, quietly minding it's own business in San Diego. I looked closer, comparing it against several other Macs in my browser tabs, just to be sure. DVD? check! NIC? check. RAM? check. HD? check. Keyboard, mouse, cables, shipping, feedback, PayPal? check-check. This was it.

Slowly I reached for the "Buy-It-Now" button, took a deep breath, and BLAM! I got it!! (Actually, there was a 'confirmation' button in there too, but I took it out of the story for dramatic effect).

Now, this wasn't some fire-breathing intergalactic planetary Mac I bagged – quite the opposite in fact. Because the way I figure, it's better to take the 'golf' approach. For those of you with one eyebrow cocked, let me explain. See, unless you're Rodney Dangerfield, you don't go out and buy top-of-the-line golf equipment before stepping on the green for the first time. You rent clubs.

Of course you feel like a dork playing 18 holes with 'Rental' stenciled on your bag. Your Nike and Callaway friends laugh in your face when the strap breaks and your clubs go rolling down the hill. Then, once you've found that you love (and simultaneously hate) the game more than life itself, you sell your firstborn child for the Great Big Bertha II X-16 clubs. Likewise, if I turn out to be a justified Mac hater, fortunately this model has a molded build-in handle to make for a spiffy boat anchor.

So, I shot Sal in San Diego an e-mail thanking him for the lovely auction, and asking him to gently lower my "fruity" little Blue G3 in a comfy padded box, kiss it gently on the monitor, wrap it up tight, and send it to Louisville. Nothing left to do now but clean off a spot on the desk, plug an extra CAT5 into the switch, wait by the mailbox, grow a pony tail and drive a VW Beetle (just kidding about the last two).

My Mac friends are busy dislocating their shoulders patting themselves on the back for bringing me over to the 'Dark Side'. They even nicknamed me already: "macdaddy". In all honesty, "Mac Donald's" is more definitely more appropriate, but I finally joined a gym, so who's laughing now?

Stay tuned. The saga continues…