Yesterday I had dinner with one of my mates from University: Lukasz. He's a very bright guy that's one heck of a programmer and we had a long chat about what each of us was working on and life in general since the disconnect (thanks to Facebook for the reconnect...damn you Facebooook!). Anyhow, Lukasz co-founded a company by the name of ContingencyWorks.
CW claims to make backing up workstations incredibly easy. I was skeptical of the claim and the business (I'll be honest here) as I thought to myself: "Well, I rsync up data on my servers all the time, what's the big deal"? I'll clarify that my servers are running some flavour of Linux and so backups are slightly easier there. Is Windows backup such a big deal? After a bit of research it turns out that it is. Windows backup has no clean or simple solution. One of the biggest concerns I have with doing backups is not using up an enourmous amount of space with the actual backup but also having incremental backups. There simply aren't any good solutions out there because of the complexity.
Turns out that it's quite complex but CW has a solution. As the demo progressed I could see more and more uses. In addition to that the user side UI is quite simple to use and a user in a corporate environment doesn't have to worry about anything once an admin has setup their machine for backup. The backup servers (EpochBox) are also incredibly easy to setup and that's what CW is really aiming for: easy of use.
I was duly impressed as there are many usage scenearios for the backup servers and given how valuable data is these days in the corporate environment I think it's definitely something that can work out well for the founders of CW.
More details as I learn about them and am allowed to reveal them. If you're a business owner/IT manager interested in a demo or a personal introduction please let me know and I'll set it up.
Louis CK is on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and he's absolutely awesome to watch as always. He told a story about how terrible it is to have kids (with his usual sarcasm) and how great it is at the same time. His act is one of those where it's so funny you have to force yourself not to laugh until the very end as if you started laughing you wouldn't stop for hours. As always I warn you that Louis CK is not for kids or the faint hearted, his humour is creative and extreme. Most big name comics these days have had Louis CK somewhere in their career paths as a friend or colleague. You best get out there and watch him.
Perhaps one of the biggest issues I'll have to deal with when I move is the lower temperature of my room. Presently I have several machines (servers and desktop) running 24/7 and it gets might hot in here (hovering around 31 last night...ambient air temperature) since we tend not to run the AC. I believe I'll be fine with no AC in the new place but will likely still set it to keep the temperature somewhat controlled. So to those of you around me that find it "hot" at night...you have no idea.
It has arrived! Jon sent me this totally awesome illustration and it looks amazing. It's getting framed and put up in my new place. My mom is also putting up some of her prints so it'll look totally smashing!
The new Hallmark cards with sound ad is quite well done...reminds me of the time I tried to do the dance back when I worked with Ed and Becky at LT3 (at DE).
Easily one of the best TV shows of all time..."CHiPs"!!! It came out on DVD on Tuesday and this time I wasn't prevented from acquiring it. It's interesting how all these major shows were considered mature back then but can be watched by kids these days...like the "A-Team".
Galen (from "Dump", the team I played with on the weekend) put together the following Bud Light spot for the Superbowl that was rejected by the network (for inappropriate language)...I only wish that I was this creative:
So...just got back from the first night of Gender Blender and it was pretty crazy. It is one of the most insane parties + Ultimate ever. The first night (Friday night) usually has presentations which each team puts on...little party stations at the campsite of each team. Since I don't drink a few of my friends and I did the circuits with me playing the games and them drinking the winnings. Just a ton of fun overall and lots of hard Ultimate coming up.
Well, that project took a little bit of time but it's been deployed. Onwards now...more frameworks and implementations. I had a few others ideas over the week and I'm glad I have repositories that I can throw them into. Lots of feasible ideas, may meet with somebody briefly during the day today for one of them.
Ultimate tournament for the rest of the weekend...out.
I used to play it a while ago and I'm toying with playing WoW on a casual basis. I think I'll have to recruit a few others to play as well though...I'm looking at you Akshay and Greg. I have many other friends that already play it but they're a bit more hardcore and they're way too advanced for us to join their party. Just on the side...something to go with the FPSs, RTSs, and RPGs...as well as all the old school games.
Well, busy weekend...just finished the May Day tournament but more importantly it's been 30 years since Star Wars (Episode 4) was released. Such fond memories of the ensuing years. I'm not old enough to have been at the theatre the first time around but it's comforting to know that Star Wars is still so popular so many years down the road. Anyhow, Ain't It Cool News posted the following clip and I know ya'll are just achin' to see it.
Akshay recently posted that he saw my game...does he? Does he know what I have in store for him? Does he know what little jab I have for him that I'll let him get several cheapshots in for? I say jab but when it hits him he'll be sent reeling.
