In application that I develop for has been nominated for Finalist in Prestigious Software & Information Industry Association Awards and selected as a finalist in the 25th annual Software & Information Industry Association CODiE Awards.

So my hosting company couldn't recover the data they lost. How or why they didn't have a backup beats me. I'm thinking of switching hosting companies (yeah I said it Chris :p ) and get myself a dedicated server all for me.

Over the last few months I had a lot of code snippets and stuff I wanted to remember but the sorrow of losing it all has passed and now that I can't remember what I lost I can move on and post again.

Hosting service lost a drive and data.  All my post since may to end of July are gone.

They are working on recovering the data. Until I hear from them, I'll forego posting anymore, I feel I've lost a part of my soul :p

Well I've sent away for my U.S. Passport so that I can take a trip somewhere. Not sure where I'd go yet, but open to suggestions! Wold rather go where there is someone I somewhat know or met online, rather then go somewhere where I know no one.

So I’m a daily reader of Slashdot and TechDirt, and all the time I read how the RIAA is suing everyone and YouTube is taking down fair use videos and the world is falling apart with Copyright. To make matters worse Obama is hiring RIAA lawyers at the DOJ, ugh.

So none of this really effected me before. I read it and I agreed about the ridiculousness of it and complained in my head and moved on, hoping one day I’d see that article that says things are turning around. Until about 5 minutes ago. I made a FAIR USE video, a fake movie trailer, starring my friend, my car and my special effects. My friend is doing the voice over and I have a music track playing in the background, which I’ve looped in the beginning. I’ve had this video on YouTube for about 3 years now.

So I was showing someone my video, it’s over on the right there “Revenge Trailer” and first video below, and I’m thinking where did the audio go? Very weird, so I go to the YouTube site for the same video, and low and behold  see a NOTICE message under my clip, “This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled.” WHAT!!??

The movie is crap now without the audio because the voice over is gone, the sound effects are gone. How embarrassing. Try watching your favorite show with no audio. It makes for a poor experience. I guess they thought this was better then taking it down.  Is there anyway to fight this or am I sol?

Here you can view the YouTube neutered version
[youtube:nrmKYUBEDt4]

Luckily I don’t think of YouTube as my storage server, so I have the original I made. I’m going to post it up on SoapsBox so hopefully they are smarter then YouTube. This recent one should have the audio.

If all else fails you can download the original from this 11mb zip file.

Tell me, is this not fair use? And if so, what can I do about it?

So I was looking on craiglist.com looking at possible side jobs for .Net and such. Then got to wondering, how does someone know that I can actually do what they are asking versus someone who's just starting out and just trying to get the work for the money and doesn't really know what they are doing?

Then I got to thinking of all the sites I've worked on and all the internal web applications I've done, back since 1998? But even before then when the "Internet" was all new and everyone made neon color sites in 1994 give or take a year, I was making html static sites...

So note to whoever reads this. I AM NOT A FRONT-END DESIGNER. I am a back-end .net developer. I can make the page work and do what it does, and well.  I can not make the page look pretty and pleasing to the eye.  I can get close to what I think it pretty neat with some new cool Ajax controls, but always best to have someone else, who's sole purpose in life is to make things look good touch the pages I create.

So here we go...  SOME OF the sites I've worked on.  Now these sites, most of them were designed by someone else, I just made them work.

Edit: This page is not in any specific order, I add stuff as I remember.

Web TimeKeeper Add-On for Track-It!® Help Desk Management System (2001-2002): When I was at Masonite, we used were using a piece of software called Track-It. At the time it was owned by, and originally coded by, Blue Ocean.  Which later was bought out by Intuit and then re-purchased by Numara Software company.  Well back when Blue Ocean owned it, I had developed an add-on to the Track-It web application version of their helpdesk software that allowed manager to track their employees through the day.  This add-in worked so well that I was able to package it and sell it to a few clients of Blue Oceans. They sold it through be me because they had some clients that wanted this feature but it wasn't included in the product itself.  This product was developed using Classic ASP to provide up-to-the-minute tracking.  I had sold it under the name Digital Goblin, a site a friend and I made for doing side jobs.  Was a really cool app.  Then Track-It upgrade a version and went .NET they were supposed to release an API that never came and so the project faded away.

Internal Verizon Web Application OSI Server Support (2005): Worked on an internal application for Verizon that helps manage their servers. Large back-end MSSQL database.  Did a lot of screen scrapping from other internal web app's to consolidate server information.  Lot of cool tools here, links that connect to remote desktops and give you server stats.  Owners of servers and information relating to every server they are in charge of.  Pretty large application, it was started before me, and when I was contracted there for 6 months I slowly add new features and functionality.

HostedForYou.Com (2006 - 2008):  Created/Architected site in Classic ASP, integrated into a SQL 2005 backend database and Helm Control Panel for Hosting. Site uses pre-made HTML Design Layout. [Screen Shot Available]

HostedForYouDev (2007 - Present) - (In Progress):  Full ASP.NET 2.0 site with VB.NET code behind.  Using .NET features such as Menu Navigation, User Controls, AJAX, Themes.  Class Library developed for site functions.  SQL 2005 backend database and integrating into Helm Control Panel for Hosting. Site uses pre-made HTML Design Layout.

MastroInvestments.Com (2004 - 2007): Created / Architected full site win Classic ASP and Flash with a SQL 2005 database. Site uses pre-made HTML Design Layout.

CCTampa.Org  (2007 - 2008):  Full ASP.NET 2.0 with VB.NET code behind, utilizing all .NET features such as Menu, Master Pages, Themes, AJAX, Google Maps, SiteMap, User/Role Management and Security. SQL 2005 Back-end database. Design Layout created by Web Designer.

AAASouth.Com (2005 - 2008):  Sure a lot going with this site. Site is originally Classic ASP with a IBM DB2 back-end database. Supporting this site was part of the job, while slowly converting parts of the site over to .NET 2.0, utilizing AJAX, Controltool kit, custom developer classes/modules. Using .NET features such as Menu Navigation, Site Map, Localization for support of Spanish down the road. User Controls, Themes, custom Member Provider for Login and every other .NET feature I could use. Slowly over time the site should become more and more .NET.  Created even a session transfer sub-application to handle Session transfers from Classic to .NET and back.

Internal .NET 2.0 Web Application for AAA Auto Club South.Com (2007 - 2008):  This is an all .NET application migrated from 1.1 to 2.0. I handle back-end objects/classes and tie them into front-end pages. It's a three n-tier system, tying into a db2 database. No cool features used here, just straight VB.NET and some creative front-end validation and scripting.

ASP Classic PayPal Payment Control for RubyLuster.Com (2005): Developed in Classic ASP a server side script to handle communication to and from PayPal and manipulating an Access database to track paid/unpaid/expired member subscriptions.

.NET Gallery Control for RubyLuster.Com (2005):  Developed an ASP.NET 2.0 tool to handle creation of Photo Galleries. Utilizing custom GridViews and DetailView controls using a custom DataObjectSource control. Created back-end class libraries. Used AJAX.

Camp-Adventure.Com (2004):  Created/Architected/Designed Simple Classic ASP site no back-end or dynamic data.

KLMPetroleum.Com (2007): Created/Architected Flash Site Only using pre-made Flash Design template. Tying contact pages to ASP Classic Forms sent via email.

GulfCoastTriathlon.Com (1998-2001): Created/Architected/Designed site in Classic ASP. Installed ASP based Forum system, dynamic participant searches and online application. Site was taken over and ported over to PHP.  Site design/content still my original work.

Flash Intro Video for GCT (1998): Developed Intro Flash movie back in Flash 2.0 or 3.0 for GulfCoastTriathlon.Com

Internal ASP Classic site for Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center division of the U.S. Navy. (1998-2000): Re-wrote the NDSTC's internal application from an Access Database passed from person to person to a web-based application using Classic ASP with SQL 7.0 back-end.

Internal ASP Classic for Masonite.Com - Developed internal Classic ASP web application to handle Masonite's customer service department. (Used to be named Premdor) Tied into MSSQL Server 2000. Application became a Customer Service Warranty Issues/Tracking System.

Handled Back-End Contact Form Control for Coupaws.Com (2007):  Tied Contact Us page to a Classic ASP back-end email script.

Assisted on Backend or Frontend Script Changes On:

AffinityFinancialPartners.Com
FlavorsOfRome.Com
HonestWarning.Com
Coupaws.com
MeryManEnviornmental.Com

 So there you have SOME of the websites and projects I've done.  I really can't keep track of it all.

I came across an article just the other day where this guy Daniel writes about how to recognize a good programmer. In this article he lists some bullet points on how to tell....

 Positive indicators:

• Passionate about technology
• Programs as a hobby
• Will talk your ear off on a technical subject if encouraged
• Significant (and often numerous) personal side-projects over the years
• Learns new technologies on his/her own
• Opinionated about which technologies are better for various usages
• Very uncomfortable about the idea of working with a technology he doesn’t believe to be “right”
• Clearly smart, can have great conversations on a variety of topics
• Started programming long before university/work
• Has some hidden “icebergs”, large personal projects under the CV radar
• Knowledge of a large variety of unrelated technologies (may not be on CV)

Negative indicators:

• Programming is a day job
• Don’t really want to “talk shop”, even when encouraged to
• Learns new technologies in company-sponsored courses
• Happy to work with whatever technology you’ve picked, “all technologies are good”
• Doesn’t seem too smart
• Started programming at university
• All programming experience is on the CV
• Focused mainly on one or two technology stacks (e.g. everything to do with developing a java application), with no experience outside of it

... so naturally I started to see which ones apply to me.  What in this list would define where I stand? As I started to look at the list it made sense and actually I could see it applied to someone one else I know who always wants to be a better programmer but lacks some of the bullets from the first part.

As I read the bullets, everyone one of the positive bullets matched with me, only one of the negatives I felt matched as well.  The last one about technology stacks.  At first I thought that contradicted learning new technologies from the first one but it doesn't.  Example, I learned AJAX, I'm learning Silverlight, those are new technologies. I am stacking the technology because I'm using everything with VB.NET.  That's what I feel I stack.  I can read C# but slower to code in it then VB and ususaly when I want to get something done I default to VB.NET because I already know it's full sytax.

Anyway, it was an interesting read.

Well it's my birthday weekend and I thought about going out to party, but then I came down with a cold and now I don't feel like doing anything.  Would be nice if I had some local friends that could plan a party for myself.  However, they are all up in New Jersey or down in Miami. 

 Happy Birthday to me!

An update to my Pookie post.

Found! Yes he's been found.

I made 7 large signs with Pookie's picture, 3' x 5' and strategicaly placed them in the area.  A lady called me around 10pm and told me she had seen him in her area. This prompted me to go out and look.  I saw spotted him!! When I pulled the car over he had ran so fast into who knows where, and was lost again. This gave me hope because I knew he was ok and still kicking.  I searched for an hour or so after that with no luck and went home.

2 hours later I was about to go to bed and just had the urge to go look one more time for the night, I felt he was trying to get somewhere, maybe come home.  I drove around and around with no luck for abot 45 minutes.  Finally headed home I saw a cat on the side of the road, I got out of my car and called to him, he didn't come but he had stopped running and hid in the bushes.  Once I got close enough and kept talking he finally came out and came towards me.

So there we go, cat found at last!  I should just delete all thse mushy posts now :) Not like me,

Not sure anyone actually reads this but I guess it will be here more as a historical event of records or some type of online public diary.

On the evening of Monday, December 3rd, my first and favorite pet, Pookie, ventured off out of the screen patio through a hole made by a racoon. Which I had covered up but it seems he found a way around it.  I don't know when he left as I didn't discover he was missing until Tuesday morning.

He's an indoor only cat, but he's gotten away before. In the past though he's always come back with-in 24 hours.

It's Saturday, December 8th and no sign of Pookie anywhere. It's been 5 days. I've walked around the conservation behind my house, I've put up signs at the stop signs in my area and the developments near by.  I've put signs by houses I think he might have gone by. Nothing :(

Never thought losing him could bother me so much but when I look back on my life, I've never had a major tragedy that affected me directly.  This was my first pet and will be my first loss of someone or something close to me. So it does sadden me.

Anyway, I still have slight hope that he comes back. I'm afraid someone took him in and now he can't get back to me.  I've made large posters today at kinkos, and going to put them out after I get my oil changed in my car.

Update to this Post here