December 2010
1 post
3 tags
Working from home
I’ve been working at home 3 days a week for about a month now and It’s going pretty good.
Pro:
My wife works at home, too, so I get to see her more
Quiet
I can listen to my music as loud as I want to (read: as loud as my wife will let me)
Much more productive, as there aren’t the interruptions at work
Facilities are closer (if you know what I mean!)
Con:
Lonely -...
August 2010
1 post
4 tags
Help files won't display their content
I had an issue where some .chm files that I downloaded would not work properly. I could see the structure in the folder view on the left, but the content pane had an error that said “This page cannot be displayed”
Curious (read “UGH!”), I did some poking (read “I Googled it”) and found an article on Neeraj Agrawal’s blog that explained several options...
July 2010
1 post
Launching an InfoPath form with parameters from a...
Well, I think the title of this post may be longer than the post itself!
Anyway, I was tearing my hair out over an issue I was having with parameters that was being used to launch an InfoPath form. The parameter was simple, of the form managerID=5 (or some other number.
No matter what I did, my code did not find the parameter. So, I did some Googlin’.
And here’s what I...
April 2010
5 posts
Mama's home
Today was all about getting ready for mama to come home. Jenn had been at AWP since Wednesday and both girl and I were anticpitating het return with barely concealed excitement.
Girl and I woke up and had breakfast. Got some light cleaning in and got her ready.
Took off for the airport with a quick stop at New Season’s for juice for girl and then to PDX.
Mama’s flight was early,...
2 tags
SecondLife avatar
Wish me luck. I’m thinking of creating my own avatar for second life (i.e., skins, clothes, shape…)
I might even finish it this decade.
p.s. If you’re in-world, contact me - Gideon Barrabus
LifeStreamBlog →
Interesting posts on lifestreaming
“In the event of DARPA challenge, this vehicle will be unmanned.”
– Seen on a bumper sticker.
2 tags
March 2010
2 posts
5 tags
An InfoPath best practice? Or just common sense?
For this post, I might even go with, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
Task: The Helpdesk needed a series of forms created that would allow managers and employees to make requests for things like new employee accounts, employee moves, teeminations, etc.
The approach: Since the New Employee Request incorporates most of the other requests, I decided that I would...
3 tags
One week at IBM
…and I’m still alive.
Actually, it wasn’t all that bad. I spent most of the week working on an InfoPath solution for the Helpdesk that I’m still not sure was done the best way. But it’s mostly done. The last bit is to do the routings. I will do that after the Helpdesk team reviews the form and comments on it.
Thursday was our big “Welcome to IBM”...
February 2010
1 post
“Broccolli”
– My daughter, when asked what her lollipop tasted like
June 2009
3 posts
A letter to my father
Dear dad,
I’m sorry that I haven’t spoken to you in so long, even sorrier that I haven’t come to visit. I’ve even been in El Paso more than a few times, and didn’t come to visit. I know, it’ll be 12 years, come the end of August, but the pain is still fresh and it’s been hard to work through.
Even so, I need to thank you for raising me to be the man I...
My bucket list, subject to (destined for?) change
Write, perform, and record my own album (doesn’t have to be under any label)
Own a house for my family Bought a house in October
Tour Europe on a EuroRail pass
Visit Iceland
Learn to program for the iPhone
Write, produce, and direct a movie
Write a book
Get my tattoo finished (long story) and get the other two tattoos that I want
Build a wearable computer
Get a Master’s...
Memorize me...
If
Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:...
May 2009
1 post
Self-healing hardware?
We had a thin client (Wyse 1200) that had very poor network connectivity. We could not get it to connect to the Citrix server to log in - we would only get a gray background screen.
Swapped network cables, no fix. Ditto for swapping the thin client with a spare. Had the infrastructure guy helping me, and he swung the TC to a different segment. No good there, either.
There was another TC...
April 2009
2 posts
Inbox zero...
Mission accomplished. On my birthday. Sweet! :)
Now… bedtime.
040509
It’s a beautiful day outside. Wow.
It’s grocery day, so we hit the Holy Trinity of shopping: Costco, Trader Joe’s, and New Season’s. We spent a fair bit of can (for us, anyway), but the cupboards were bare and we needed to stock up.
After shopping we took Maya to the park, which she loves.
Dinner, then a quick run for clothes.
Nice day…
March 2009
4 posts
I’ve decided to start dabbling in music again. Nothing serious, mind you, just… feeling the creative juices reawakening. It’s really nice.
Quote of the day
“When I count my blessings, I count you twice.” - Irish proverb
First post - obligatory who's who list
Me/Mike/The Daddy: IT specialist, geek, all-around nice guy.
Jenn/The Mama: writer, sweetie, funky chick (in a good way).
Maya/the baby: absolutely the sweetest.
Stay tuned for more…
