CrazyMarty Blog

Our Sunday hike (Aug 13/2006)

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:40:07 -0600

We hiked up Cataract Creek (we meant to go up Zephyr Creek but we got confused) in Kananaskis Country today and it was spectacular.

We had some challenges and near drownings (exaggeration) trying to ford the Highwood River but once we got going it was beautiful. I think we ended up walking about 9km and I had to ford the river about seven times (carrying kids across) while Shareen forded a measly four (to find a lost camera on the other side).

After fording the river we had a bit of an ascent but after we cleared the first ridge the view was spectacular.

The weather was right around 21-24C but you can tell the seasons are changing as we kept getting chilled (could be the freezing mountain water soaking my underwear from the fording adventures however).

If you'd like to see the area map (courtesy of Google Maps) click here.

Cataract Creek is the blue meandering line to the right of highway 940, we followed it for about 4.5km up and then back down the same trail

Some fantastic sites and formations (for the geologists).

Overall another fantastic hike in Alberta :)

Java trie Data Structure

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 22:21:09 -0600

Introduction

A trie (pronounce "try") is a tree-based data structure in order to support
fast pattern matching. The "trie" comes from the word "retrieval".

This structure is particularly useful for any application requiring prefix
based (read "starts with") pattern matching.A good example is any kind of application where we let the user type and
quickly come up with a list of words starting with what the user typed in.

The classes included in the package are an adaptation of the trie Abstract
Data Type (ADT) to Java. The original work was done by Koders.

I adapted the Koders classes to eliminate fixed alphabets and add case
sensitivity to the searches (might be something I make optional at some point).

I'm including an IntelliJ IDEA project if you'd like to play with these classes
(run the TrieRunner.main method after you compile) but you should be able
to incorporate these with ease into your project by copying into your project
source and modifying package declarations accordingly.

Advantages

Numerous applications today depend on a database to perform their prefix based
pattern matching. This is probably adequate for finding valid data values for
a given entry field but this approach has limitations which are overcome by
the use of an in-memory trie data structure.

As an example imagine that we want to let the user enter a given value and then
not only return valid data values but in fact also return "matching" objects
such that these can be used right away by our application.

Using a database would give us the valid data values but each "matching" object
would then have to be found and then subsequently instantiated whereas all of
these objects could easily be cached in memory and immediately accessed using
our trie.

Usage

Step one is to instantiate and load our trie;

The trie can be instantiated simply by invoking the default constructor:

Trie main = new Trie();

To add entries to the trie simply use the insert method as follows:

main.insert(key, object);

where key is the String pattern you may wish to match against and object is
the data item to retrieve when a search is performed.

The key and object parameters could in fact be the same if you wanted to do
simple pattern matching.

Step two is to perform a search against our trie and use the resulting data:

Object result = null;

result = main.search(entry);

if (result == null) {

	// No match found

  System.out.println("Not found");

} else if (result instanceof Trie) {

	// Multiple matches, data will hold sorted list of matching objects

  System.out.println("Multiple matches:");

  Trie trie = (Trie) result;

  List data = trie.getSortedList();

} else {

	// Exact match result is our object from inser operation

  System.out.println("Found. Value is " + result);

}

Additionally we also have a delete operation if we need to remove a data entry
from the trie:

main.remove(entry);

Notes

This implementation isn't quite finished but should work adequately where
needed.

To do:

1) Make case sensitivity optional
2) Separate dump type functions into separate class to have clean trie class
3) Clean up the java interface and add javadocs everywhere.

Download code here.

If you have any questions or feedback feel free to drop me an email at
mpzarde[at]truecool.com.

A good reference to the trie and other data structures in Java can be found here:

Book Review: Shooter - The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 11:02:22 -0700

This book was a very good read but also an eye opener.I guess at my age I'm still naive enough to think that people have a certain inane empathy towards other human beings in this world.

This appears to be true when you see the world come together to try and help victims of the Tsunami in Asia, or of the hurricanes that devastated New Orleans.

But it chills my blood to read about the inhumanity that is purposely developed in other human beings for the purpose of taking the life of other human beings.

This book was very well written and gave me what I think is a unique insight into the mind of a killer.

Not a murderer but rather a man turned into a machine. Jack Coughlin freely admits that a certain mind set is required for his job and that it's a requirement of being a Marine.

I had never truly realized how much thought and in some cases pleasure the Marines take in destroying (read killing) their enemies. It left me with a sense of fear for a few weeks after having read this book.

Nevertheless this is a great read and you shouldn't ignore it just because the topic may be distasteful. Note that when I say distasteful this is no reflection of the authors or any of the people mentioned in the book just the actions that they document.

Save the PC

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 20:18:07 -0700

I just bought myself a new budget server and was having no end of grief trying to straighten out the integrated video on the el-cheapo-grande motherboard (Asus K8S-MX).

After hours of poking, prodding, loading and unloading and copious amounts of cussing I finally called upon a friend of mine who knows a lot more about computers that I ever will.

He gave me a few pointers and within fifteen minutes I had all my issues resolved.

If you're having PC trouble save yourself the time and aggravation and look Tom up at http://www.savethepc.com/.

This is a true story and not a cheap promotional effort.

I Won I Won!!!

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:38:14 -0700

Well I don't get to win that often but I finally did win something that doesn't depend on pure dumb luck (or at least I like to think so). WOXY.com (www.woxy.com) ran a "So you wanna be a DJ" contest and I submited a playlist.According to one of the DJs there were several hundred entries and they picked mine (I originaly thought it might have been three). This kind of affirmation feels great.

Here's a screenshot of the WOXY.com web site announcing my victory ;)

Book Review: The curious incident of the dog in the night time

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 19:27:11 -0600

This book was of special interest to me as our son is autistic. You'd thing that after three years of living with an autistic I'd know more but this book still managed to open my eyes.Very good read, very entertaining, not to mention enlightening.

Written from the first person perspective of a 15 year old boy this book is a light hearted mystery which keeps you going from page to page.

Inter spaced throughout are drawings and puzzles which draw you deeper in to the persona of the main character.

Highly recommended!!!

An old classic with a modern twist :)

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:21:00 -0600

Someone told the the old joke about the Queen wearing the Fox Hat, here's the video version.

Wear the Fox Hat(370KB/WMV)

Book Review: A War Against Truth

Tue, 31 May 2005 19:55:00 -0600

Not sure what to make of this book, it was an excellent read but it was as tragic as it was funny (funny isn't quite the right word but I only have a University education so don't expect too much).

At first I thought this was an account of the 2nd Gulf War written by an embedded journalist in Iraq. I quickly found out that this book was written by a Canadian working for Harpers on a budget.

This guy writes about what Iraq was like "on the ground". He talks about life in Iraq after the invasion from the perspective of someone who didn't have to filter his reports or get his information spoon fed by the American bureaucracy. It's a first hand account of the sights, sounds, smells and such of life on the street after the invasion.

As mentioned his accounts are both tragic and comical, the book is fascinating and once you get past the disturbing first paragraph you won't be able to put it down.

The book does appear somewhat slanted but very believable.

Don't read this book if you're in a down cycle (bummed out).

As usual buy this book by clicking on the link below to support this site, thanks.

Saturday - Disembarkation and final thoughts

Sat, 19 Mar 2005 07:33:00 -0700

We woke up around 7:00 today, wanted to make sure we were ready to get off the boat on time.

We had time to go and sneak breakfast on the Lido Deck (deck 9) before we finished packing and made our way out the door of our cabin for the last time.Carnival offers two services for disembarkation; one where you lug your suitcases out yourself (called self-assist or something) and another where they pick up your suitcases the night before. Since we had fairly big valises we decided to leave our suitcases outside our cabin the night before.

Now call me silly or naive, but that seemed somewhat questionable to me...what's to stop someone from tampering with suitcases while we slumber?

In any case, once the ship docks you spend the rest of the morning waiting for either your deck or luggage tag color to be called before you can disembark. Our color got called out about 10:30 and it took about another hour to get through customs.

My compliments to the US customs agents as they were courteous and professional on both our entries into the US.

By the time we got through customs our suitcases were waiting for us on the carousel.

Dad was late picking us up and between one thing and another we had a lovely one hour visit of the Carnival parking lot.

Final thoughts...

I would say that everyone should try a cruise at least once; we enjoyed the people we met and the variety of places we saw. The boat was gorgeous, the staff and crew were very friendly and attentive and lastly the food was excellent. The boat was beautiful and awe imposing. Our cabin was well appointed and just as described to us.

However everything was not perfect. Your cruise tickets and mandatory gratuity fee are only the beginning of your costs as far as the cruise is concerned. Carnival then proceeds to systematically "up-sell" absolutely everything else, and as far as I'm concerned this gets tiresome very quickly. I can understand charging for alcoholic drinks but to then also charge for pop and soft drinks and in-room water is plain cheap.

As a first time cruise guest we proceeded dutifully to all the recommended information sessions only to have to listen to at least 30 minutes of where I could spend my money that particular day before actually getting any germane information.

The embarkation and disembarkation process....ughhhhh don't get me started.

Having said all that I'd probably do it again and probably enjoy it more as I'd understand my way around the boat and the system better.

I rate the cruise 7 crazies out of a possible 10.

Friday - Day at Sea

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 07:28:00 -0700

Well the ship is steaming (or sailing for you neophyte sailors) back toward Port Canaveral today.

It's was quite refreshing to sleep in until eight today instead of getting up at 6:30 to make it out the door toward yet another excursion today.

We essentially putzed around today, read in our cabin, walked around the ship, and looked at "the last minute sales" available at the onboard shops.I tried my hand at a Blackjack tournament but in vain; I was up about 4000 (tournament money) when some lady got a natural blackjack when she bet the farm. It change my betting pattern and I finished the first round broke. Pfffftttttt.

That evening we had decided to try supper club dining experience instead of the regular restaurant. I always like to finish my holidays with a bang. For an extra $25 per person you get access to the "fancy schmanzy" restaurant on the ship. The food is one step up from the great stuff we'd been getting in the main restaurant and the service was superb. When the sommelier came to suggest a wine for us I whispered to my wife "for gods sake don't touch the wine bottle....they pour it for you".

Dinner was wonderful.

Feeling sated and somber we headed back to our cabin to pack our bags for the disembarkation next morning.

Thursday - Progresso, United States of Mexico

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 17:34:00 -0700

We got into Progresso at about 6:30 in the morning, we're getting accustomed to waking up at such a time and having continental breakfast delivered to our cabin. Continental breakfast in the cabin beats the crap out of the buffet stampede on deck 9 with the ravenous hordes of Americans (and a few Quebecers) gobbling down enough bacon to choke a horse.After breakfast we proceeded to the pier where we were hustled off to our tour in a hurry as we would be tight on time. The tour is approximately seven hours and the ship was docked for approximately seven hours, you do the math. Shareen and I decided to got to the famous Mayan ruins of Chichen-Itza, a bit of history and culture does the spirit good.

The ship docks at the end of a two mile pier (no shit), we embarked on buses right on the pier and took off at a break neck pace toward our destination which would be a two hour bus ride in each direction. Our guide was a crusty old Mexican gentleman who gave us a bit of history and background on the Yucatan peninsula as well as telling us that Mexico was in fact a federation of states just like the United States of America.....except they were the United States of Mexico which is in fact the official name of the country. After about forty five minutes of gabbing he let us nap for the rest of the journey.

Chichen-Itza is not a simple dig site or excavation, it is in fact an entire complex which from what I could tell must be a huge source of revenue for Mexico and the surrounding community, this place was packed with tourists, I was reminded of Disney World.

The temperature was very hot and very humid, Shareen and I must have sweated liters just standing around.

I have to say that our guide was excellent, assuming that he wasn't full of shit we got a very detailed lecture about the vegetation, climate, culture, and history of the area.

We eventually made it to the main complex which takes your breath when you first see it, remind me to show you the rest of my pictures when I get back.

We spent another hour with our guide who gave a detailed account of the state of the ruins and some of the theories as to what happened to the original inhabitants, we got to see the basketball court, the sacrificial well before he cut us loose to explore on our own.

To show off our Fear-Factor Shareen and I decided to climb up the famous pyramid, climbing it up is definitely easier than climbing it down; I would guess that it's about a 65-70 degree grade. We went up on our feet and came back down on either our bums or backward like dogs.

Our alloted hour came and went much too quickly, we were told that some tours come to Chichen-Itza for three days and they still don't get to see everything. Truth be told we hung around the pyramid admiring the sites and that's all we had time to see.

Afterwards we were hustled back to the tour bus which zoomed back to the ship.....I felt time dilating and myself getting younger as the driver ignored all speed limits and school zones.

We got back to the boat with minutes to spare; in vain as it turns out since the weather prevented us from leaving on time anyways. Turns out that the channel in Progresso is very narrow and the windy conditions would put the boat at risk of running aground.

We were so exhausted from the hiking and our Fear-Factor episode that the rest of the day is a blur. Needless to say that this was one of the highlights of our trip, I would recommend this to anyone going to the Yucatan.

Day at sea tomorrow...

Wednesday - Cozumel

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:29:00 -0700

Well like the rest of the cruise there was nothing wrong with today other than it failed to meet my expectations. Shareen and I booked a tour to Passion Island, we were sold on this tropical paradise where for one day we could be pampered and forget about all our cares. Passion Island is where the Corona commercials were made, crystal blue waters, ebony white sands and service via the snap of my fingers.In cruise ship talk a day is three hours and service did happen with the snap of my fingers as long as I went to get my drinks and was snapping at myself. In addition there were a number of Mexican vendors allowed on the Island who were strategically located around the Margarita bar such that you had to run the gauntlet every time you wanted a drink.

After the now usual chaos of disembarking the ship at the pier we had a 40 min bus ride followed by a 20 min ferry ride to the island itself.

Pleasure Island is gorgeous as advertised, was a little windy that day but I sat under a Palm Tree until lunch and admired the beach and my wife in a swim suit...vavavoom.

I'm also attaching a picture of me in my new tourist camouflage shirt....look closely I am in fact in the picture.

After exactly three hours on the Island we made the reverse trip back to the pier where Shareen promptly proceeded to spend all my "auto-fund" money on trinkets and liquor for family and friends. We bumped into another set of tourists on their way to Pleasure Island; I think they try to squeeze in two or three tours in a day.

We got back to the ship where I decided to pamper myself with a room service based Gin and Tonic, decided that if I wasn't getting pampered on the island I'd get pampered on the damn boat.

After a few hours in our cabin we had another disgustingly perfect dinner after which I proceeded to win a fortune of $60US at the on board casino.

The $60 made me feel better about my otherwise unremarkable excursion.

Progresso tomorrow...

Tuesday - Belize

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 17:27:00 -0700

The day started out chaotically, the announcements told us to meet in the ship theater at 8:00 to go on our excursion tour but we didn't get going until 9:00. That simple fact coupled with my (unjustified) apprehension about being in a developing country and my anxiety about going snorkeling for the first time in over 15 years put me in a bad mood.The temperature was fairly warm but the seas were rough from all the wind. Our ship did not get to dock in Belize City as Belize is home to the second largest natural coral reef in the world (after Australia) and the authorities are very strict about not letting big ships in close to shore. All tours going to shore had to use a tender and our own tour picked us up right at the boat.

Once we got going however my day got immediately better; we got to sit on the top level of a two decked powered catamaran and right after we left the cruise ship we were joined by a stunning Paris Hilton look allike who sat right oposite me; yes I'm a dirty old man but some days I really don't care.

The crew of our tour boat was a mixed bunch but we definitely got the feeling they knew what they were doing. It took them the duration of our 45 minute trip to handout snorkeling gear and make sure everyone knew what they were doing. As a side note they end all their sentences witn "mon" which sounds neat...."mon". Heh.

We first got to a spot which appears to be in the middle of the ocean, the only telling thing was that the waves were breaking in the apparant middle of nowhere. This was our first stop and we would snorkeling in the middle a reef bay. Shareen was apprehensive, but we got a strapping old if not young crew member to look after her which freed me up to go in on my own. The water was surprisingly warm once you got in and it took me a few minutes to get my snorkeling flippers back but once I got going I had a great time. We bought a $15 underwater camera the day before and I went berserk taking pictures of all kinds of small and large colorful fish which inhabit the reef....hoping to get those developed by the time we get back to Calgary.

After about an hour and a half at the reef we all got back to the boat and I was reunited with my bride (and Paris) who as it turns out had a great time (damn those strapping old black crew members).

We then proceeded to another spot in the middle of nowhere which was a sandbar, at low tide most people could stand and not have water over their heads but we got there at high tide and would have to snorkel again. This was "Sting Ray Central" according to our crew. We all dove in and it didn't take long for these creatures to appear. Since it was high tide we didn't get to feed them but they hung around long enough for everyone to get a good look, take pictures, and in some cases dive down and pet one (feels like petting a bowl of warm Jello).

After about another hour with the Stingrays we all got back aboard and the crew broke out the Rum Punch....yehaaaaaaaaaaaa, we even got to try some "Strong Rum" which makes fire come out of your nose when you drink a cap full.

We got back to the cruise ship sloshed as all hell.

Shareen and I spent the rest of the day passed out in our cabin until dinner which was boringly excellent.

Monday - Day at sea.

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 18:22:00 -0700

Seas are fairly choppy today and it's hard to believe that anything other than a category 5 hurricane would actually move the behemoth that we're inhabiting; and yet the bot rocks enough for most guests and your truly to occasionally stumble and appear drunk even if we're not.Shareen and I had an early wake up today and had our hair washed and cut.

After our day at the spa we proceeded to the jogging track where w walked 2km or 12 laps around the jogging track while ogling some American spring break bikinis.

Having full appetites following our hike, we proceeded to the Platinum restaurant which is on deck 4 at the very back of the boat and had lunch with some very nice red necks. Americans from Georgia and North Carolina and some of the nicest people I've met.

After breakfast we headed over for a talk on our next ports of call where Shareen and I decided our activities for the next (more on that later).

The afternoon was ours, we napped, read, and got ready for our first formal, naturally we were 30 minutes late and missed out on some critical booze and free munchies.

After the captains cocktail party we headed for the restaurant, this was Lobster night!!!

The lobster was not as sweet as the stuff we get from Halifax but yummy nonetheless.

After supper I decided to try a cigar at the Ivory lounge where they're supposed to play some Jazz. I wanted to see what the hubbub over cigars was all about. Needless to say I won't be smoking another one of those any time soon.

Smoked up, liquored out, and full of lobster we headed for our cabin and bed.

We did find some towel art in our cabin upon our return...I believe it's a monkey.

Sunday - Key West

Sun, 13 Mar 2005 18:14:00 -0700

Well it didn't take too long to figure out that Key West is the "happiest" place in America. Within two blocks of getting off the trolley which delivered us from the boat (security BS won't let us walk into town from the boat, we had to take a "happy" little train) we noticed posters with either naked men and/or wimin (mostly men) hugging or noticed a "clothing optional" bar.We got dropped off in Mallory Square which is pretty much the heart/core of Key West; Key West is pretty much like Banff except for the fact that they've maintained strict architectural controls. All the houses look like the're either turn of the century or sixty years old, the only modern building is the court house and the Sheriff's building. The vegetation is spectacular and controls the lay of the land and each house or lot.

The temperature was right around 21C with a little breeze and the sun was pounding pretty hard as we started walking down Duval Street.

Duval Street is lined with trendy shops on both sides; lots of bars (including the famous Margarita Ville and Sloppy Joes), jewelers, highly suggestive T-Shirt shops, artwork, and the same regular garbage you would see in Banf (minus the bears and/or elk). Same as in Banff everything is over-priced and the store attendants are pushy yet rude.

We walked most of the way down Duval (the island is only 2 miles wide) and then crossed Truman Avenue over to Whitehead Street. Whitehead is where Hemingway's house along with the famous lighthouse (I don't know what's famous about it). The entry fee into Hemingway's house was $11 so we decided to take a pass.

We kept on walking and decided to sample the local specialty (Key Lime Pie) at Kelly's (guess which Kelly, she's famous; HINT: Top Gun). On a side note, it sure wasn't obvious which places served Key Lime Pie, we actually had to look quite a bit.

Kelly's was a VERY pleasant break from the bustle of Duval St. We had pie and some cold drinks in a lovely court yard surrounded by beautiful Banyan trees and other plants.

As our last activity of the day we went to the Key West aquarium; I didn't get to pet the sharks, but everyone who did said it felt like sandpaper. We did see a tank full of piled sharks.

We made our way back to the ship on the trolley. Overall I'd have to say that as pretty as it was Key West can kiss my assets.

Dinner that evening was fabulous if not plain, nothing special other than the great service.

Embarkation day - Port Canaveral

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 23:00:00 -0700

Well we got up around 8 (EST from now on) as we're getting accustomed to and as usual when traveling is involved Shareen started packing in a panic (wasn't too bad but I enjoy making her sound crazy). The day was shaping up nice and sunny with the expected temperature in the mid 70s.Had breakfast with the kids with Natalie giving us the guilt trip for the first time. Don't think she was going to miss us too much (as she gets to go to Disney world during the week) but she did say we had to take her along on our next cruise. Jeremy was slightly upset the previous day but I think that's more from a change in scene, he was asking when we would we be going home and why mommy and daddy had to go on the boat since he likes us very much.

Snifff/Snork. Martin and Shareen were both suffering from separation anxiety at this point.

Embarkation

Dad drove us to the port and we left with plenty of spare time in case there were any problems. The boat is huge (962 feet long) and you can see it for a good ten minutes before you get there.

Carnival Glory

We abandoned our suitcases right in the parking lot and these were taken away by highly trained and experience Carnival luggage handlers....these guys can drop a suitcase from great heights like no one else....Marty had breathing problems for the rest of the day as he had (stupidly) left LOLO in one of his suitcases not wanting to carry LOLO around. Never again LOLO....never again.

The Carnival loading terminal is a set of buildings and a huge parking lot where guest who come with their own cars can leave their vehicles for the duration of the cruise. We had to go through security and passport checks along with three thousand other people at the end of which we got issued these little "Sign and Sail" cards which are a combination of cabin keys, ship id, and on board credit cards. Kind of a cool concept but I think it's just the cruises way to make it easier to spend money.

We eventually found our way to our cabin, Shareen and I are determined to take the stairs everywhere on the ship to help work off some of the famous Carnival food.

Our Cabin

We had to do lifeboat drills which consisted of us making our way to deck four, muster station H and stand around for forty minutes while the US Coast Guard evaluated the ships readiness. We were assured this was the last hoop to jump through before the boat got underway.

At pretty much 16:00 Zulu we left our birth and proceeded out of Port Canaveral and out to sea.

We hung around our cabin until about 6:00 at which point we proceeded to our designated restaurant (Gold Upper) and designated table (212). We met our table-mates which are a bunch of Americans from Georgia and North Carolinas. The menu consists of a choice of appetizer, salad, main course, and desert; food is free (part of your cruise), but anything other than water is charged back to your "Sign and Sail" card which ultimately ends up on your credit card anyways. Food was excellent and if you're a real glutton you can order more than one appetizer or main course or whatever.

Feeling stuffed yet bold we headed off the the Cinn-A-Bar lounge where they had a Margarita special (as a tribute to Margaritaville in Key West I presume) where we listened to a pretty talented Kiwi lounge performer and Martin and Shareen both inhaled four Margaritas each before heading back to our cabin where I promptly passed out.

So far we're having a good time, but we're trying hard to slow down and enjoy ourselves instead of stuffing in as many shipboard activities (and there are plenty) as we can in a day.

More to come.

Our trip to Florida - Day 1

Fri, 11 Mar 2005 07:43:00 -0700

I won't bore anyone with the details of our flight other than to say a direct flight from Calgary to Orlando beats stopping in that poophole of the universe known as
Toronto.

This is our first holiday in about 4 years so I'm trying to log it so I can remember what a vacation is in case I don't get a holiday for another 4 years.Mar 10th, well the rain stopped sometimes last night. I couldn't sleep and watched the sun rise this morning. Came up at exactly 6:20EST, it was weird, in Calgary the dawn/dusk takes forever, here it was "BOOM SUNS UP!!!"

I went back to bed for a few hours and was woken up later by workmen who are still doing repairs to the condo from the hurricanes. It drives dad around the bend, personally I think it's a small price to pay for living 100 feet from the beach

At some point in the morning the clouds cleared up and it was nice and sunny but still %$#$@%@#$$%@# cold. The kids didn't care they ran straight into the ocean. Jeremy had to be rescued at one point when he got knocked over by a wave, I had to run in and get wet....all I'm gonna
say about going in the ocean yesterday is refer to the episode of Seinfeld where George experienced "shrinkage"....took me about 20
minutes to find my equipment to go pee.

We all went to bed exhausted but happy.

Mar 11th, today was much warmer and we made a bee line to the beach right after breakfast.

Seagulls and pelicans were our neighbors for most of the day.

The sun was beating pretty hard and everyone got a bit of sunburn. The kids are sand babies and have to be washed (hosed down) every time we go to the beach.

I tried going in the water again and ran right out with another incident of shrinkage.

At exactly 4:42 we saw the launch of an the Atlas satellite which is the largest commercial satellite
ever launched (see picture).

Getting used to having light suppers with dad...fresh shrimp the size of my fist (fresh from the dock) and melon.

Off on our cruise tomorow....

Book Review: Imperial Hubris - Anonymous

Wed, 02 Mar 2005 19:22:16 -0700

I heard about this book one day while watching CNN just before the last US elections and the CNN coverage got me curious.So I eventually made it to the Public library computers and requested a hold on the book.

I got the book just about 6 weeks ago and that's how long it took me to read the 260 or so odd pages of that thing.

This is one of the driest things I've ever actually read. Normally I would have tossed the book back into the library return bin but despite its penmanship this thing actually offers some decent insight.

Not to go into details (the book does that in spades) but Imperial Hubris offers lots of information (some of which simply confirmed my suspicions) and analysis into the state of affairs of America's war on terrorism.

Whether you're a civil libertarian or a hawk you should read this thing as it has information for both of you.

Some interesting points:

1) America will lose in Afghanistan (all else being equal)
2) America will continue to bleed in Iraq
3) Osama Bin Laden is not in fact on the lunatic fringe of Islam

There are others things to learn, and I have my own opinions but you'll have to decide if the book is right or wrong on these.

Support this web site....blah blah blah and go buy the book at Amazon.

Mac Mini Relative Performance Benchmark

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 09:41:59 -0700

Not saying this is scientific in any way, but I wanted to know how Java on a Mac Mini would perform against Java on my Dell Laptop. I'm considering a Mac Mini as a desktop development box and wanted to know.I found a little benchmark on the web known as Caffeine Mark which runs on your station as an applet.

I went down to the local Mac Dealer MyMacDealer and they were kind enough to let me run the benchmark on a 1.42GHZ Mac Mini. The Mini scored a CaffeineMark of 10293.

In comparison my 2.4GHZ Dell Inspiron 5100 scored 15282.

As far as I know both machines were running JDK 1.4.2.x.

I'm still considering the Mini, but will have to adjust my performance expectations accordingly.

Wireless pain in the @$$

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 07:22:13 -0700

The Glory

So when I got my Dell laptop a year ago with a Dell TrueMobile 1300 card built in I was so excited it's not even funny (nothing funny came with "so excited"). With 802.11b and g standards supported I was expecting to connect at 54mbps without wires throughout the house.
I rushed out and bought a Netgear WG602 access point, for some insane reason the access point itself was more expensive than an equivalent router and to this day there is no good explanation.

I brought the access point home, hooked into my network and watched all the lights come up. I followed the instructions and pretty soon was all connected. One thing I noticed is that my PC detected several wireless networks throughout the neighborhood, I quickly proceeded to enable WEP encryption on my wireless network and you should do the same. The direction to do this vary from device to device, but generally entails generating or typing in a key in a management screen on your access point and using a matching key on your PC or laptop.

At first all was well, I could do everything I normally would but without wires....wohoo. Then over time my laptop would start dropping connections for no apparent reason and at other times would either not connect to the network or only manage a measly 1mbps connection. This of course is WITHOUT ANY CHANGES TO MY ENVIRONMENT.

At first I thought that either my Access Point or either my wireless adapter had gone south, but it turns out I'm not the only one.

The Pain

As it turns out other people have experienced similar issues.

The general feeling is that Windows itself is to blame, this Wired Article refers to a feature of Windows called Wireless Zero Configuration.

Luckily I found a solution in the DLink Support Forums that seems to provide a work around for dropped connections and other wireless difficulties.

The above does seem to help, but my opinion overall is that wireless just isn't worth the investment. You have to invest several hundreds of $$$ (Access Point and/or wireless router and possibly a wireless network card for your PC or laptop) not to mention your time and money to get it to work and in the end you are not guaranteed any results.

Conclusion

A customer of mine recently asked me how to setup a wireless network in his house, I advised him to hire a contractor and have the rooms in his house wired instead.

He is currently very happy with the stability of his network.

About CrazyMarty

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 09:41:57 -0700

I am married, with one , , and , and a bunch of cats.

I love photography, I used to own a Nikon F90 which was awesome, but was too bulky to carry around when going out with the kids. I now own an Nikon Coolpix 5200 which is way smaller and takes awesome pics.

And now for some shameless self-promotion...

If yer looking for a skilled IT professional with over 10 years experience who always takes his clients best interest before his own check out my resume either in Word format or PDF format (to download either of these documents to your workstation you may wish to right click the link(s) and select "Save Target As").

My personal data center consists of a RedHat V9 Linux Open Mosix cluster running on a Compaq Deskpro 700 with 512MB RAM and a 80GB hard disk and a Dell Optiplex with 512MB of Ram and a 40GB hard drive. The Cluster is running the Oracle OC4J J2EE Server on JDK 1.4.2, Oracle DBMS 9i, and all the other Linux goodies such as DNS, DHCP, and Samba for seamless file sharing with my Windows workstations.

I'm currently doing lots of Java J2EE work using, Intellij IDEA, JDeveloper, and lots of Open Source projects such as CVS, Ant, Mantis, JUnit, DBUnit, and the list goes on. Check out Sourceforge for lots of cool Open Source projects.

If you have any requirements for a "computer guy" that will make sure your requirements are met then I'm that guy.

Clementine Oranges, not just for breakfast anymore

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:49:54 -0700

Well I went to moms for lunch yesterday (after hauling two whining kids for two hours at the local ski slope) and after a feast of ham, salad, and eggs mayonaise my step dad brought out these little deep orange skinned mandarins. I asked my step dad what they were and he told me we were about to eat Clementine oranges.

At first I didn't think much of them as I expected them to be more seed than orange, but after swiping a few slices from my wife it turns out that these babies are very sweet, a little tart, and with practically no seeds (I opened about three and didn't find one seed).

Try them out, I'm sure you'll like them.

For more information:
Wiki Pedia Clementine page.

Man Show Boy goes to college

Thu, 13 Jan 2005 11:17:57 -0700

Who says a higher education is good for you?

In this episode our enterprising young lad goes to college....to try and score with the ladies.

Man Show Boy at college(1.5MB/WMV)

Man Show Boy at the Beach

Mon, 10 Jan 2005 12:31:30 -0700

The same young lad with an ear piece trying to score with the ladies on the beach.

Anyone ever seen the Man Show?

Man Show Boy at the beach (1.4MB/MPEG)

The Man Show boy sells beer

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 11:44:59 -0700

This is too stinking funny. A young lad with an ear piece selling beer on a street corner. Clip from a TV show.

Man Show Boy Selling Beer (1.9MB/MPEG)

HOWTO Change tables and index tablespaces in Oracle

Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:13:30 -0700

This is particularly handy if you want to have multiple schemas of a big application inside the same database (for testing i.e. one schema for development and another for testing) but you'd also like the tables and indexes to reside in their own tablespaces. This consists of two basic steps:

1) Run two generator scripts which will create the required scripts to actually move the tables and indexes; these scripts are:

Code:

set echo off
column order_col1 noprint
column order_col2 noprint

set heading off
set verify off
set feedback off
set echo off
spool c:\temp\movetab.sql

select 'alter table ' || segment_name || ' move tablespace TABLESPACENAME;'
from user_segments
where segment_type in ('TABLE');

spool off
set heading on
set verify on
set feedback on
set echo on

To create a table moving script (replace TABLESPACENAME with the tablespace you want and replace c:\temp with the folder into which you'd like to store the generated script.

Code:

set echo off
column order_col1 noprint
column order_col2 noprint

set heading off
set verify off
set feedback off
set echo off
spool c:\temp\moveindx.sql

select 'alter index ' || segment_name || ' rebuild tablespace INDEXTBSPACENAME;'
from user_segments
where segment_type in ('INDEX');

spool off
set heading on
set verify on
set feedback on
set echo on

To generate the script to move the indexes, again change the tablespace and folder names as required.

2) Run the generated scripts to do the actual moves....either load into your favourite SQL tool or in sqlplus this would be executed by running @c:\temp\movetabs and @c:\temp\moveindx repsectively.

Voila you're done, your tables and indexes now live in their own tablespaces.

HOWTO Install a GeoTrust SSL certificate on OC4J/Orion Server

Wed, 29 Dec 2004 08:08:35 -0700

An SSL certificate is required to secure/encrypt the communications between a client browser and an OC4J J2EE sesrver. The SSL certificate is used for encryption and identification of your web site.
Assumptions:

We have Sun Java JDK 1.3.1_06 properly setup on the server machine

OC4J is installed in the C:\Java\OC4J folder

Step 1 - Setup a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

A CSR is used to describe and identify both your server and your company. It will be sent to GeoTrust in a later step.

To start change to a directory where you will be storing your CSR and eventually your certificate.

I.E. cd C:\Java\OC4J\J2EE

Generate a private key with the following command:

keytool -genkey -alias oc4j -keyalg RSA -keystore keystore

You will be prompted for a password.

IMPORTANT The next field that you will be prompted for is "What is your first and last name?" At this prompt, you must specify the common name (FQDN) of your web site. I.E. www.yourdomain.com

You will then be prompted for your organizational unit, organization, etc.

Generate the CSR by typing the following command:

keytool -certreq -alias oc4j -keystore keystore -file www.yourdomain.com.csr

You will not be prompted for the common name, organization, etc. The keytool will use the values that you specify when generating the private key.

Step 2 - Obtain Certificate

Point your browser to: https://members.ev1.net/rsMembers/english/ssl/sslorder.asp and follow the steps required. You will need to upload (via cut and paste) the CSR you generated in Step 1 so have it handy.

The end result will be that you will end up with an email from GeoTrust with the certificate in it. Copy the certificate information to a file inside the same filder you were working on in Step 1

I.E. C:\Java\OC4J\J2EE

Step 3 - Import the required certificates:

Before you can import your certificate you will need to import the Equifax Root certificate into your keystore.

Download the Equifax Root Certificate from:

http://www.geotrust.com/resources/root_certificates/certificates/Equifax_Secure_Certificate_Authority.cer

Make sure to download this to C:\Java\OC4J\J2EE

Import the root certificate by typing in the following command:

keytool -import -alias geotrustca -keystore keystore -file Equifax_Secure_Certificate_Authority.cer

Once the root certificate is installed you can import the certificate you just generated in Step 2 by typing in the following command:

keytool -import -alias oc4j -keystore keystore -file www.yourdomain.com.crt

Step 4 - Configure and restart OC4J

Go to the config folder of your OC4J installation, in our case it would be in C:\Java\OC4J\J2EE\HOME\CONFIG and copy http-web-site.xml to secure-web-site.xml.

Edit secure-web-site.xml and change tag as follows:

Code:

The key elements are:

The secure="true" attribute.

The pointing to your keystore and including your keystore password from Step 1

tag for your application including the shared="true" attribute

Lastly go to edit the server.xml file in the same folder and change the reference from http-web-site.html to secure-web-site.html...this will allow only SSL connections to your server.

That's it...restart OC4J and you're ready to go.

Review - Opus One

Tue, 28 Dec 2004 14:25:55 -0700

I recently experienced the privilege of tasting a 1995 vintage Opus One wine and I must say "oh my". I have never been an oneophile (not sure I spelled that right) and always believed that a $12 bottle of wine was as good as $30 bottle of wine (or $150CD for Opus One). Boy was I wrong.The wine was served with roast lamb, polenta and steamed beans. The wine complemented the food so nicely that it could have been a dish or a meal all by itself. I felt dirty for putting salt or pepper on my meal.

The best compliment I can give this wine other than the usual crap of fruity, complex, good finish and so on is that it was like drinking velvet. I eagerly looked forward to my next sip and was loath to swallow
as the smoothness would have to leave my mouth.

This is not a wine that I or anyone without infinite amounts of money could buy every day, but for those once a year or a lifetime occasions I definitely advise people to splurge and try this gem with family and loved ones. I also advise people to drink this wine with a good meal
as I feel that both the meal and the wine are improved by each others
presence.

Opus One Resources:

Opus One - The official Opus One site, quite nice, has history, vintanges, and over view of the Opus One winery.

A review of all the vintages of Opus One from Wine Today.

I have not found any sites on the 'Net that I feel comfortable endorsing for online wine sales so to get a bottle I advise you to visit your local wine store and ask for it.

Stupid Puzzle

Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:46:47 -0700

This one's got me stumped...if you figure it out...post comments.

Ye old Arcade

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:28:59 -0700

Those of us on the early end of Gen-X still remember the excitement of such Arcade and early console classics such as Donkey Kong, Asteroids, and Galaxians to name a few. I remember when the first Space Invaders first appeared at the local K-Mart and I faithfully plopped in my allowance quarter by quarter until the next generation of Arcade machines like Asteroids arrived.Well if you have any feelings of nostalgia or any kind of desire to play these old Arcade classics rest assured that there are numerous WEB resources for you.

Believe it or not many of these games are still available for sale on popular sites such as eBay (do a search on 'Arcade' and see what turns up) and others for less than the price of a used PC. However for those of us with no room in our homes for the original Arcade machine there are also numerous Arcade emulators that will turn your brand spanking new PC into an Arcade machine. But there are caveats..namely the copyright of the original game ROM (the actual game program).

Although it is not illegal to own or run an Arcade game emulator it is illegal to posess the game ROM unless you have legal right to it. This is a gray area and nothing here should be considered other than hear say. If you are going to play any Arcade games on your PC make sure that you have legal rights to the game ROM. As mentioned above you can legally obtain the ROMS by either buying the machine or by contacting the legal copyright holders and acquiring a license.

Although there are numerous emulators for all kinds of old Arcade and console games, I have to say that the best known game emulator out there is MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) which supports approximately 1300 Arcade games. Best of all MAME is completely FREE!!! You can download MAME for free from the official MAME page

Another great Arcade emulator is Retrocade which although it doesn't support as many titles as MAME, is speedy and small to download.

If neither of these great programs satisfies your Arcade gaming needs there are many WEB sites devoted to Arcade gaming and emulation:

Arcade@Home - Cool site, lame Top 25 click through to get to ROM page.
Emulation.net - Crapload of emulators for the MAC/OS.
Emulation Excitement - Good list of emulators, annoying windows and crap popping up everwhere.
Plasticman's Emulation Zone - Great site!!!
Zophar's Domain - By far the best emulation site I've found, tons of emulations and ROMS available.

That's five, but trust me there are many others. So for now have fun and remember to keep it legal, many of the people and companies that pioneered these great games still get paid royalties for their efforts!!!

Funny Clips

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:41:38 -0700

I suppose different things amuse different people, but some of these videos are damn funny no matter who you are.

You will need a decent AVI or MPEG player to view these, CrazyMarty recommends Windows Media Player.

Disclaimer: If you're offended by these videos then don't watch them. If you're offended because your kids are watching them, then don't let them. I've got two and I don't.

Kid gets beaned by a basketball (2.68MB/AVI)

Head up elephant's butt (678K/MPEG)

Woman's eyes pop out (1.27MB/AVI)

Baby karate - German commercial (1.05MB/MPEG)

Bad child (746KB/MPEG)

A day at the beach (1.16MB/MPEG)

Big jump (1.32MB/MPEG)

Blind date - commercial (1.38MB/AVI)

Bull rider (gets stomped on) (863K/MPEG)

Dummy jumps of a roof (takes all kinds) (977K/MPEG)

Cat attack (853K/MPEG)

Clinton spoof (somewhat obscene but funny) (3.68MB/MPEG)

Dad gets a bat in the family jewels (1MB/MPEG)

Cat jumps into a wall (817K/MPEG)

Matrix spoof (it's a gas) (2.15MB/MPEG)

Pizza delivery (2.92MB/MPEG)

Soccer fight (1.79MB/MPEG)

Guitar lesson (720K/MPEG)

How not to tap a keg (843K/MPEG)

Foreign ice-cream - commercial (1.45MB/MPEG)

Elephants never forget - commercial (1.57MB/MPEG)

Always look both ways before crossing the street (596KB/MPEG)

Summer fun (1.11MB/MPEG)

Star Trek swearing (6.21MB/MPEG)

Bike fight (1.66MB/MPEG)

Donkey lust (don't ask) (2.55MB/MPEG)

Well deserved police brutality (2.25MB/AVI)

Granny strip - commercial (1.33MB/MPEG)

Hi Jack (2.84MB/MPEG)

Hockey bowling - commercial (1.32MB/MPEG)

Levi's commercial (4.35MV/MPEG)

Monkey scratch'n sniff (1.47MB/MPEG)

Sheep crash (oh the humanity) (674KB/MPEG)

Shopping in LA (1.76MB/MPEG)

Ski jump (851KB/MPEG)

Soccer fight (violent) (1.24MB/MPEG)

Toyota commercial (2.07MB/MPEG)

Cat Musical (2.8MB/WMV)

crazymarty.com Director's cut

Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:39:06 -0700

After much deliberation I've decided to redo this sorry site as a blog. I'm hoping this way I'll put stuff in more often and maintenance will be easier.

Sorry for the ususal "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" garbage, hoping to be done soon.