PicturesIt officially above 40 degrees in Michigan! If I don’t get outside soon, I may pop.
- Duane
Leinninger.com
February 19th, 2004:
New site at work. Getting warmer outside.
At 3am this morning, we began our rollout of the new site based on PHP. We’re still using servlets and XSLT for most of the applications (forms, validation), but everything else is php. First off, it’s nearly 20 times faster and 1/100th the load on the server (no exaggeration). Second off, the php part of the deployment now takes roughly 5 minutes, including transfer time to the servers in another state. (Java/XSLT deployments averaged 1.5 to 3 hours.) The only issues we have had are with network settings and XSLT/Java uptime/speed. PHP is officially rock solid in an enterprise environment. Oh… I almost forgot to mention that we haven’t even turned on ZPS yet. I’m just glad that Gina hasn’t gotten sick of my ~12-16 hour/day (+ weekends) work schedule in the past 6 weeks.
It officially above 40 degrees in Michigan! If I don’t get outside soon, I may pop.
It officially above 40 degrees in Michigan! If I don’t get outside soon, I may pop.
February 9th, 2004:
Chance to catch my breath.
Our big project at work is finally starting to come together. Although I did work a bit over the weekend, it wasn’t the usual 8-10 hours per day. A perk of the “accelerated” schedule is that I got some new, faster hardware. Me likey g5!
Hopefully the weather will break soon. This about the time every year that I start to get cabin fever. I have a pile of relatively small projects I’d like to complete around the house and in the garage.
Hopefully the weather will break soon. This about the time every year that I start to get cabin fever. I have a pile of relatively small projects I’d like to complete around the house and in the garage.
- Duane
February 3rd, 2004:
Busy as hell.
Work has been beyond insane. I estimated that our new site would be done by the end of February. Apparently, the only part that “another department” heard was February… so that’s when they set our deadline… February 4th. Due to delays in that “other department”, we got details and specs 6 weeks late. Yet, they tried to keep us to that deadline. As that day approached, the “other department” continued to add and make changes to their spec. On top opf that, some of the execs wanted to change a few things. So, we’ve been able to push the deadline back two weeks. Great. All in all, we would have the site “done” on the 4th, but not tested. Not a good thing to throw into production. Total development time: 3 weeks, 4 people. Complete financial website.
Gina and I took a break last Friday and Saturday adn attended the Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, MI. Good times. The roads were bad… we ended up in 2 7-foot snow drifts. No damage… just some digging. The action in the race was just as good, even without the factory sponsored rally teams. [Pictures Part 1] [Pictures Part 2]
Gina and I took a break last Friday and Saturday adn attended the Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, MI. Good times. The roads were bad… we ended up in 2 7-foot snow drifts. No damage… just some digging. The action in the race was just as good, even without the factory sponsored rally teams. [Pictures Part 1] [Pictures Part 2]
- Duane
January 12th, 2004:
Busy, busy, busy.
We’ve been searching for a new drummer. Eric was given a contract job in Ohio for 3 months up to several years. We talke d to him about it and he’s fine with us looking for a replacement. If we’re unable to find one suitable before he gets back, he’s back in the band.
In addition to playing band secretary, we’ve been doing a lot around the house. We more or less live in our basement. Since we spend so much time down there, we finally replaced the existing carpet, as well as carpeted the bare concrete areas. It’s quite a nice home theater now.
Both of our workloads have been incredibly heavy recently. Holidays, home projects, and work all add up to a lot of stuff to get done. I did, however, find a couple of hours to update the gallery code on this site, as well as play a little more NFS: Underground… even though there’s snow on the ground, I can pretend I’m doing car stuff.
In addition to playing band secretary, we’ve been doing a lot around the house. We more or less live in our basement. Since we spend so much time down there, we finally replaced the existing carpet, as well as carpeted the bare concrete areas. It’s quite a nice home theater now.
Both of our workloads have been incredibly heavy recently. Holidays, home projects, and work all add up to a lot of stuff to get done. I did, however, find a couple of hours to update the gallery code on this site, as well as play a little more NFS: Underground… even though there’s snow on the ground, I can pretend I’m doing car stuff.
- Duane
January 5th, 2004:
New Years. New Basement. New Video Accelerator.
Gina and I rang in the New Year with the inaugural “Redford Dinner Club” meeting at Brad’s place. Fun, fun. However, I was feeling a little under the weather from the start, so we called it a night relatively early.
We made up for that early night with an early morning start on our basement-remodeling project. With some slightly used commercial carpet, a lot of cutting and trimming, a good bit of taping, and lot of patience, we have a more presentable entertainment area. It took 2 solid days of work, but the end result is worth it. I also finished of the last remaining detail from last year’s project, the kitchen. A few edge tiles were missing near our counter. I admit, I’ve been putting this off for a while. I really wasn’t looking forward to trimming tiles individually with a dremel. All said and done, it wasn’t too hard… just a little time consuming.
The onboard GeForce4 MX in my gaming PC was sadly underpowered. I thought I would get by with the limited amount of gaming I do. But, since there’s a LAN party approaching and Gina and I tried to play Uru with little success, I’ve upgraded to an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro accelerator. Very nice. The one game I’ve been obsessed with recently is Need For Speed: Underground. Entire features appeared after installing the new card. Detailed 3D people swarm around your car when you win, lights and scenery blur when you hit the NO2, and generic Import models start each race. I am most assuredly ready to get my game on at the LAN party next week. (3DMark03 Results Here)
We made up for that early night with an early morning start on our basement-remodeling project. With some slightly used commercial carpet, a lot of cutting and trimming, a good bit of taping, and lot of patience, we have a more presentable entertainment area. It took 2 solid days of work, but the end result is worth it. I also finished of the last remaining detail from last year’s project, the kitchen. A few edge tiles were missing near our counter. I admit, I’ve been putting this off for a while. I really wasn’t looking forward to trimming tiles individually with a dremel. All said and done, it wasn’t too hard… just a little time consuming.
The onboard GeForce4 MX in my gaming PC was sadly underpowered. I thought I would get by with the limited amount of gaming I do. But, since there’s a LAN party approaching and Gina and I tried to play Uru with little success, I’ve upgraded to an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro accelerator. Very nice. The one game I’ve been obsessed with recently is Need For Speed: Underground. Entire features appeared after installing the new card. Detailed 3D people swarm around your car when you win, lights and scenery blur when you hit the NO2, and generic Import models start each race. I am most assuredly ready to get my game on at the LAN party next week. (3DMark03 Results Here)
- Duane
