Archives For Article

Shuffling things around…

May 14, 2013 — Leave a comment

I am still trying to figure things out regarding websites. I have not been happy with my ideas of where things go. I think I am much better off now than I was before. So here is how I currently see things falling and why.

I started off with just 404TechSupport. It worked well as I was very tech focused in my writings. Next, I spun off TechNoose. Its purpose was to be the repository for all of the tech news related things I was previously posting to 404TS. Instead, I wanted to focus on the niche and use a different theme that supported more frequent postings. I thought TechNoose was a very successful design. I liked the theme, I liked my arrangement, and the logo I created. It all worked very well. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to update it. Taking classes, working full-time, keeping up with 404TS, and personal life all became higher priorities. Thus, I decided to sell off TechNoose. The sale went well enough and it is off my plate.

At some point within the life of TechNoose, I also launched CriticIL. The plan was for it to be a site where I could review restaurants and other events in the area, or Illinois, hence the name. That kind of flopped. I liked the theme but it wasn’t something I was passionate about and just having another website to manage did not sound fun.

Since then, I have spun up Assume Awesome. This site has kind of the same purpose as TechNoose. Instead of posting a bunch of things here to Jason Off The Clock, they will get posted over to Assume Awesome. Its growth is slow but it spikes every once in a while.

So, the overall plan is to post more meaningful, personal things to JasonOTC. Reviews and such from CriticIL will land here as well. Entertaining, awesome things on the web will be on Assume Awesome and 404 Tech Support will continue to post technology-related articles while picking up some of the more ‘news’ posts that would have gone to TechNoose.

JasonOTC – Personal posts, rants, reviews, and whatever.

404 Tech Support – Computer support articles

Assume Awesome – Cool videos, products, pictures, and other things found on the web. Weekly Wikipedia has also moved here.

As you can tell from my post history, since moving things from here to Assume Awesome, I haven’t had a whole lot of things to post. Perhaps that will change but if not, it will be here when I need it.

In Article
permalink

Movies of 2013 I’m looking forward to

March 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

Some movies in the rest of 2013 that I’m looking forward to. If it didn’t make the list, it doesn’t seem worth my time or I missed it.

Date it’s released in theaters – Title – DVD or theater-worthy - Description

3/22 - Olympus has Fallen - Theater? - It looks like a classic action film. Die Hard done right.

olympus has fallen Movies of 2013 Im looking forward to

3/28 – G.I. Joe: Retaliation – DVD - It’s a sequel to The Rise of Cobra, which was so-so and this looks like more action.

4/5 – The Company You Keep – DVD - A thriller around a Weather Underground activist whose identity has been found out.

4/12 – 42 – DVD - The story of Jackie Robinson. Looks good but I’ll probably wait until it’s on DVD.

4/19 – Oblivion – DVD - Tom Cruise in one of the few “Alien war ravaged the Earth”-themed movies this year.

4/26 – Pain & Gain – DVD - Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson in this Michael Bay directed film about bodybuilders in an extortion ring.

5/3 – Iron Man 3 – Theater – The third in the awesome series and Avengers. He gets Extremis and fights Mandarin.

5/17 – Star Trek Into Darkness – Theater – The first of the Star Trek movies by JJ Abrams blew me away.

5/24 – The Hangover Part III – DVD – The first two were hilarious, pop culture hits. I can’t miss the last one.

5/31 – Now You See Me – DVD – FBI versus bank robbing illusionists. Count me in!

5/31  - The Purge – DVD – Sounds interesting enough. A family must protect themselves during a 12-hour government-sanctioned free-for-all thanks to prison overcrowding.

6/7 – After Earth – DVD – Will Smith and son on Earth 1000 years after everybody else left. Seems like sink or swim potential.

6/14 – Man of Steel – Theater – The next Superman movie with Zack Snyder as director. This could be what launches a Justice League movie series for DC.

6/21 – Monsters University – Theater – A prequel to Pixar’s Monsters Inc. that shows where it all began. Pixar is going the extra mile to make it belieavable…

6/21 – World War Z – Theater – Brad Pitt as UN employee trying to stop the Zombie pandemic.

6/28 – The Heat – DVD – Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy play FBI agent and Boston cop that are partnered up.

6/28 – White House Down – DVD – Channing Tatum in the same premise as Olympus Has Fallen.

7/3 – The Lone Ranger – DVD – The classic Lone Ranger comes back from Disney.

7/3 – Despicable Me 2 – DVD – The sequel to the previous Dreamworks Animation.

7/12 – Pacific Rim – DVD – Giant mechs face off against aliens.

7/12 – Grown Ups 2 – DVD – The sequel to Adam Sandler and other comedians reunion film.

7/19 – R.I.P.D. – DVD – Ryan Reynolds didn’t do so swell as space police Green Lantern. We’ll see if he’s better as an undead cop.

7/26 – The Wolverine – Theater? – The spin-off from the X-men just keeps going. First Class recovered from Last Stand’s flop. Will The Wolverine redeem Origins?

8/2 – 300: Rise of an Empire – DVD – A prequel to 300 which was action-packed and cinematically pleasing.

8/9 – Elysium – DVD – Matt Damon in another ruined-Earth film.

8/9 – Planes – DVD – Pixars sequel to Cars and Cars 2 takes to the skies. Cars 2 was a bit dull but perhaps Planes will be a step in the right direction.

8/16 – Kick-Ass 2 – DVD – Kick-Ass came in to bring superheroes to normal people. Will the sequel improve its legacy or ruin it? Jim Carrey’s role says improve.

9/27 – The Tomb – DVD – Sylvester Stallone in a Prison Break-themed movie.

10/4 – Gravity – DVD – Astronauts attempt to return to Earth after debris hits the shuttle.

11/1 – Ender’s Game – DVD – Based on Orson Scott Card’s novel, a gifted child is prepared for future invasion after, you guessed it, horrific alien war.

11/8 – About Time – DVD – Time Traveler’s Wife meets Groundhogs day, maybe?

11/8 – Thor: The Dark World – Theater – Thor was my least favorite of the movies leading to Avengers (not counting Ed Norton’s Hulk) but it’s still an ok ride.

11/22 – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Theater – I read the first book and liked the first movie. Will I read the second book in time?

12/13 – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – DVD – I read the book but didn’t see An Unexpected Journey and didn’t hear that much good about it.

12/25 – Jack Ryan – DVD – Another Tom Clancy novel turned into a movie. I’ve liked some so we’ll see how this turns out.

12/25 – 47 Ronin – DVD – A band of samurai set out to avenge their master in the 18th century with Keanu Reeves.

12/25 – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – DVD – I liked the story when I read it in high school English class. We can see how it translates to film.

Unknown – Jobs – The story of Steve Jobs with Ashton Kutcher was delayed from April 19th for more time to advertise the film.

In Article, Pop Culture
permalink

Board and card games for two

January 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

Entertaining yourself isn’t too difficult. There are plenty of games out there that work for 3 or more players. It’s that magical number two that seems to be the most difficult. Boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, roommates, or other combos frequently pair us up with one other person and unfortunately, there are not many games designed for two. Here’s a list of some of those that work for two players:

Lost Cities – Plan your expeditions and make progress in this strategic card game. If only it was easier to calculate the score at the end, it would be excellent but a little math never hurt anybody.
For 2 players

lost cities 400x200 Board and card games for two

Bohnanza – Plant, trade, and sell your bean crops, competing with the other players for the most gold.
For 2-7 players

bohnanza 150x150 Board and card games for two

Continue Reading…

In Article
permalink

25th anniversary of Max Headroom broadcast interruption

November 22, 2012 — Leave a comment

The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion was a television signal hijacking in Chicago, Illinois, on the evening of November 22, 1987. It is an example of a broadcast signal intrusion. The intruder was successful in interrupting WGN’s 9 o’clock news broadcast and WTTV (Channel 11 – PBS) within three hours. Neither the hijacker nor the accomplices have ever been found or identified.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the interruption featuring a person in a Max Headroom mask.

For more details on the hijacking, read the related Wikipedia article.

Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion 25th anniversary of Max Headroom broadcast interruption

In Article
permalink

On Best Practices

November 11, 2012 — Leave a comment

Four levels of best practices are recognized:

  1. A good idea that is not yet proven but makes intuitive sense.
  2. A good practice, an implemented technique, a methodology, a procedure, or a process that has improved business results.
  3. A local best practice, a best approach for all or a large part of the organization based on analysis of hard data. In other words, the scope within the organization of the best practice is identified: Can it be used in a singled department or geographical region, or can it be used across the organization or anywhere in between?
  4. An industry best practice, similar to the third level but using hard data from industry.

From Carla O’dell’s If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice.

knew what we know On Best Practices

In Article
permalink

Cracking the code in today’s Foxtrot

August 26, 2012 — 8 Comments

I’m a big fan of Bill Amend’s Foxtrot. Not only do Jason Fox and I share a first name and a lot of other traits but I can play along with the jokes and I love solving the puzzles or binary codes that have appeared in the comic strip over the year. Today’s strip (8-26-2012) features Paige and her friend discussing boys in their yearbook. Something about the names mentioned sounded familiar. Here’s the strip, see if you notice the same thing.

foxtrot yearbook Cracking the code in todays Foxtrot

Today’s comic has been posted here from http://www.foxtrot.com/2012/08/08262012/ in accordance with the re-use info for general web use.

The male names mentioned are all of webcomic artists.

Frame 1
Richie Munroe = Randall Munroe of XKCD
Randy Kurtz = Scott Kurtz of PvPOnline
Scotty Stevens = Rich Stevens of Diesel Sweeties

Frame 2
Chris Stroub = Kris Straub of Checkerboard Nightmare and Starslip

Frame 3
Mike Holkins = Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade
Mateo Inman = Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal
Brad Kellett = Dave Kellett of Sheldon and Drive and Brad Guigar of Evil Inc. who co-authored a book on How to Make Webcomics with Kellett, Kurtz, and Straub
Ron Josenberg = Jonathan Rosenberg of Goats

Frame 1 scrambles similar first names around with the last names whereas the other frames rely more on combinations or alterations to the names.

Any other thoughts?

In Article
permalink