Apocalypse Not: So just Suck it up People

This month's Wired magazine has a wonderful article on the coming Apocalypse or lack of one. The story debunks many of the Apocalypse myths and memes of the last 50 years. From oil shortages and running out of energy to the horrors of overpopulation. There must be a dozen examples of "experts" who's prediction of our demise has already come and gone.



Of course the author does miss the most likely end of the world... the Zombie Apocalypse. Which we all know from video games and TV shows, is inevitable. But I guess I will cut him slack on that one. :)



So I guess we will be around for a while, better suck it up and soldier on.

Valve Running a Business like a Market

At the end of last week, I saw this longish story on the Valve blog discussing how valve manages their company like a market. To sum up, Valve the company has no management structure. Employees are given a desk with wheels and are told to go find projects they are interested in and start pitching in. Projects and teams are self organizing. Employees are free to work on whatever they want. Sounds cool. However, I have my doubts. Could you apply the same principles to Tech Support? Janitorial services? I wonder.... What do you think?

Aurora Shootings

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the shootings in Aurora last night. It is always very sobering when something like this happens 20 miles from your house.

The TV Business is about to Collapse

I found this post from Henry Blodget at Business Insider earlier this week. I just didn't have time to post until today.



The story is a really interesting read. It points out some key issues with the TV industry today including:

• No one watches TV live any more.


• No one watches ads any more.


• We can watch movies on our laptops and tablets.


• The majority of money we spend on cable is wasted.

That last point is a really important one. Right now you can't buy your content ala carte. In my case, the only reason I keep cable is to watch English soccer, the NBA, and some other sports. If I could get this content in another way, I would drop my cable tomorrow. I know a lot of people that have already cut the cord or feel the same way.



Another point, TV as an experience is just getting worse. There are sooooo many commercials now it is hard to enjoy anything. You know how you used to be able to flip between to channels? When a commercial was running on one, you could watch the other? Now it seems like all the networks are synced up! When you do that, everyone is running a commercial at the same time. So surfing your TV for new content becomes less and less useful. Because of this, I would much rather look for new content on Netflix where I can just search for it and play it.



Also have you noticed how bad most ads have become? We have gone from "I wish I was an Oscar Mayer weiner" to erectile dysfunction and a myriad of other ailments. Only the ads created for the Superbowl are any good. Most of the year, we end up looking at 95% total crap when it comes to ads.



So at this point, I have to agree with Mr Blodget. Things don't look good for the TV biz.

Finally Saw "The Social Network"

Well I finally saw "The Social Network" movie about the founding of Facebook. First let me say, the only Hollywood cliche missing from the movie was a chase scene. Geez, since when was Silicon Valley so cool! Fancy night clubs, Victoria Secrets models everywhere. A far cry from getting a beer at the Tied House.lol.



The movie seems to be taken mostly from the vantage point of co-founder Eduardo Saverin. According to the movie, he was screwed out of his 30% stake in the company just because Mark Zuckerberg could. But according to this story, there is another side to things.Apparently Eduardo stayed to finish school and this really hampered Facebook's ability to obtain funding and move forward. In addition, he put free advertising on Facebook for a job site he created on his own.In this context, Zuck's decision makes a lot more sense. Someone with a 30% share of the company really needs to be all in.



On the whole a good, but not a great movie. I think startups are fun places to work. Just not fun in the rock star sense like the movie portrays. Friday keggers are much more likely than, club night with the Victoria's Secret girls.

Prisoners Forced to Play World of Warcraft

Think you have it bad at your job? Or maybe you think your parents are too tough on you? Think again.



Check out this story from China. After doing hard labor all day, prisoners at a labor camp were forced to play World of Warcraft to make virtual Gold. The prisoners were assigned quotas and if they failed to meet them, they were beaten. Kinda takes all the fun out of the game! And you thought your last pick up group was bad! Anyway, not sure I will ever report a Gold farmer again after reading these stories.



Chinese Prisoners Forced to Farm Gold in Online Games

Chinese Prisoners Allegedly Forced to Play 'World of Warcraft' | PCWorld

Posts from 5/12 Deleted

My post from yesterday was deleted by Google while they were doing some system maintenance. So I have reposted it. If for some reason, the post for 5/12 re-appears and I have 2 dup posts on the iPad 2, that is why.

How to Contact AT&T Customer Service

This might seem a bit silly. But I tried to find a customer support phone number on the AT&T Site. In the end, I had to Google it.



Here is the page:

AT&T Wireless Customer Support Page



And the number:

Customer Service 1-800-331-0500



Update: On another humorous note, my first attempt to look up the number was on my iPhone. I discovered AT&T does not yet have a mobile version of their site. Of course neither does Apple. lol.

How To Pages Updated

Over this weekend, I updated all of my how to pages on http://blueskyworkshop.com. The main change is new and improved PHP templates. The changes were necessary to update all my Google search boxes to a new format. I also discovered I had left out the Google Analytics telemetry out of my Java Pages. All that is fixed now.



The topics are linked on the right side of the page and also here.

CSS - iPhone/iPad Web Development - Java - JavaScript - OS X - PHP - Tools - Web - XSLT

Simple guide to speaking foreign languages | zen habits

Want to learn a foreign language here's how: Simple guide to speaking foreign languages | zen habits.



Now the only questions is, how do I get myself sent to Prague for 3 months. :)

Coyote's are Howling Tonight

I have my window open because it was about 65 degrees here in Denver today. I can hear the Coyotes howl from the nearby open space. They have been howling for about half an hour. Very unusual, but very cool.



So if you live in Broomfield, Colorado, open your window.

The Force

The Force. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0&NR=1

Updating How To Pages

While creating the immutability content I realized that my How To templates were a little out of date. So I will be updating all the how to content to new templates over the coming days. Right now, only the Java How To topics have been updated. If you see anything out of whack please let me know. Just comment on this post. Thanks. Mike W.

Contact Me

If you need to contact me for any reason, just add a comment to this post. Please include contact information if you need me to get back to you. I will not post any personal information to this thread.

Favorite Windows Software

I have finished my Windows 7 Favorite software post. Now with with icons!!! :) See previous post.

Farewell Netscape Campus

Looks like the old Netscape campus is getting turned over to another company (Symantec). I am sure things haven't been like the were for some time. But as a Netscape Alumni, it still makes me sad.

Blog Template Updated

The template is updated I think. I'm not sure I like the logo. Otherwise, the new Picture Window template is installed. Let me know if you run into in problems with it.

Updating Blog Template

I'm updating my blogger template today. I have run into some issues lately because I think I have overcustomized. So if you see any oddities in the next couple of hours. That's why. :)



Update 8/24/11: This entry is getting a lot of hits lately. But there really isn't information about what I think people are looking for so here is a link to what I think people want:

Blogger Template Designer Now Available

World Cup Page with All the Info

I found it, I found it! A web page with all the world cup info in one place. You can see everything at a glance.  ESPNSoccernet Bracket

Check Your Qwest DSL Download Speed on a Regular Basis

Well I just found out my DSL modem was running at 1.5 Mbps when I have been paying for 5 Mbps. Finally, got hold of tech support and they had me reset my modem and voila, back to 5 mbps. Apparently, Qwest modems can "randomly" do this and it is up to me to check my connection speed on a regular basis to make sure my modem hasn't reset its speed!



Is this any way to treat your customer who is paying hundreds of dollars a year for your service? Plus the first tech support person I got hung up on me (no profanity from me or anything, 2nd tech support person was very nice). So I'm a little angry about the whole thing. This doesn't sound like a "random" thing to me. Sounds more like a good way to throttle your customers without their knowledge. How much have I overpaid for my service over the last couple of years?



Anyway, I found this simple bandwidth test that seems to be easy to use and pretty accurate: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/



If you are a Qwest DSL customer, run the test and make sure you are getting your money's worth.