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Changing Focus
A new version on the way
The last few years for the site have been great. Lots of great content and at least a little traffic. But I'm working towards something better, bigger, and more friendly, with distraction free writing. Not that it's to distracting now. I just know it can be better. So I'm rebuilding the site with a few key concepts in mind. 
Posted by Tim on Jan 30 2012 9:21PM
Comment Spam
An end to comments
Since late on 11-29 the site has been bombarded with comment spam. To quantify it, it's received 339 spam comments. Because of this I've taken drastic steps and completly removed the ability to comment from the site. Not all comments were able to make it through my basic spam filter, but about 24% of all the unsolicited comments were able to make it and had the potential to appear on the site.
Posted by Tim on Dec 3 2011 2:56PM
Halloween 2011!!!

Just a little fun from around town with the family!!
Posted by Tim on Oct 29 2011 10:29PM
Time well spent
Well some wasted time well spent anyways
Smashing Magazine put out a great list of classic time wasters from the DOS era. I was able to name off about half of them just from the screen shots provided. Take a look and waste some time yourself.
Posted by Tim on Oct 23 2010 6:42AM
Spencer-isms
A language all his own
Updated 9-12-10. After years of talking and speaking his very own kind of tongue, we've decided to catalog all the wonderful things Spencer says.
Posted by Tim on Sep 12 2010 3:49PM
It's the tools that help the most,
that are worth the money
I've been using [url=http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/]ReSharper[/url] since last September on the Image Store codebase and let me tell you, it's almost magic to work with. Writing code faster and cleaner is the name of the game.
Posted by Tim on Sep 3 2010 9:44PM
Casey talks (some more)!!!

Casey sits with me a says a few words.[facebook]412123223201[/facebook]
Posted by Tim on Jul 30 2010 10:33PM
Get your Google, and Pac-Man fix at once

With the pass of the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man Google changed their logo to a playable Pac-Man game. It even had a hidden easteregg that when you hit Insert Coin again, Ms Pac-Man will join in on the fun for two player action. But there is more!
Posted by Tim on May 24 2010 12:32PM
Newest fun filled feature(s)
A few quick updates
I've spent the last two weeks added a couple of new features. The largest new feature, CAPTCHA less comment submission!!! This reduces the barrier to entering a comment, and still allows for safe comment entry. But wait....how could no barrier allow for safe comments??? It all has to do with validating the comment of course!! Another biggie was paging on the tag pages. This is why it took two weeks! A little run down of other tweaks if you care to read on too.
Posted by Tim on May 3 2010 10:49AM
How the internet has changed our lives
And the world around us, for better and for worse
The internet has been life changing for myself and millions of other people. It's changed the way business is done, how we communicate on a second by second basis. The author of [url=http://timmeers.net/u/ktj7t]XKCD[/url] put it best [img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/seismic_waves.png[/img]. Granted I'm not a Twitter user because I really can't find a reason for it, and not really all that into Facebook despite being on it daily. But neither of those are my favorite things on the internet. The best thing about the internet in my humble opinion is the way we are able to have news delivered to us and the amount of interaction we can have with that news.
Posted by Tim on May 3 2010 10:19AM
Registering your phone (or email)
A quick walk through
With the new version released (5.0.1) I added the ability to MMS or email images into a special collection. Here I'll discuss how to go about registering your phone or email so you can do this. It's as easy as 1. 2. 3.
Posted by Tim on Feb 11 2010 7:19PM
Version 5.0.1 is out!
It's about time too!!! - Updated
This marks the first release of the new year, as well as the first major/full release since at least last June! The new version I'm sure has a few quirks, and a few bugs. But I've done my best to minimize them all through functional testing. In fact thats how I test everything, I'm not by any means a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development]TDD[/url] kinda guy.
Posted by Tim on Feb 6 2010 9:00AM
[Archived Mar 13, 2010] CASEY WALKS!!!

It's official Casey can walk![facebook]278280558201[/facebook]
Posted by Tim on Jan 31 2010 3:22PM
[Archived Feb 26, 2010] Design work is hard

I’m always thinking about new things to do to the web site. I’m also always thinking about my next project that’s sort of underway, but still a LONG way from a 0.0.1 (Beta 1) launch. So with all these thoughts I often get muddled down and can’t think one thing out all the way. So while I finish up designing the email processor and a few new features in the site, I’ve taken on yet another train of thought. Updating the sites design for a fresher, cleaner, and more minimalistic look. But one thing I’m really getting to is this point; good design is hard!
Posted by Tim on Jan 29 2010 11:31PM
[Archived Feb 05, 2010] Coming soon to a cell phone near you!!
MMS messaging your photos!
When I'm designing the site I can normally come up with some descent ideas on how to make things work, how to lay it out, features to add and things like that. But I also take design inspiration from other sources as well when it comes to usability. One place that is a constant source of ideas is Facebook! So I've decided to tackle a huge issue, getting my pictures from my phone, to a gallery on the site, without having to connect my phone to the computer; enter MMS messaging.
Posted by Tim on Jan 15 2010 2:52PM
[Archived Feb 05, 2010] We've moved?
In more ways than one!
For the last month the site has been down. Mainly because Charter is blocking the incoming web requests on port 80. So I've "moved" the site to a different domain and port to get it back on the internet. But with a small change. Because I never wat people to have to type in something other that [url=http://timmeers.net]http://timmeers.net[/url] I've purchased an item to do the redirecting for me. So now when you go to [url=http://timmeers.net]http://timmeers.net[/url], it will take you to [url=http://timmeers.com:89]http://timmeers.com:89[/url].
Posted by Tim on Dec 21 2009 9:26AM
[Archived Feb 15, 2010] One million page and image views
and still going!
Last Monday was a milestone for the site. It's marked the one millionth page and or image view for the site. The one millionth view actually went to [url=http://timmeers.net/Gallery/View/Image/313/5906]an image[/url]. Well really the small thumbnail of the image. But at least it was a good image eh!
Posted by Tim on Oct 16 2009 10:31PM
[Archived Feb 07, 2010] What Heather REALLY thinks of me

Something she made for me, something about smiles. I"m not to sure I get distracter by how good I look. Enjoy.
Posted by Tim on Sep 26 2009 6:37PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2009] Searching for the perfect gift?
I've got it right here
I've always been a bad gift giver. In fact so bad I mostly buy just socks and random items of food for most people. If it wern't for Heather I'd also forget most people birthdays and all holidays. So this year I've found the perfect gift for her.
Posted by Tim on Sep 4 2009 1:25PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2009] Tech Support Cheat Sheet
All you ever wanted to know to become the office expert
One of my favorite sites on the internet is [url=http://www.xkcd.com]xkcd[/url]. This comic is one of the main reasons I visit it. The site has a new one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Best of all they are all Creative Commons. So I'm able to post them here free of charge. Enjoy.
Posted by Tim on Aug 24 2009 8:13AM
[Archived Oct 27, 2009] Casey tries his hand at typing
More smashing then typing
I was buy nerding out and working on the website tonight when I was holding on to Casey when he decided to do some trying. Check it out.
Posted by Tim on Aug 17 2009 8:51PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2009] Whats your backup plan?
If you dont know, it's time to adopt one
The past nearly two years have been a a mental strain in my life. Why? Because I purchased a hard drive only to have it fail less than two months later. Well no biggie just RMA it and get a new one, right? The problem with that is the data that it held.
Posted by Tim on Aug 10 2009 9:50PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2009] Maybe I don’t want a $29 OS
Reasons for me NOT to buy a new Mac
In all my years of computing I've nearly always considered myself a Microsoft person. Well with the exception for a few years on the Commodore 64 and 6th grade where I was forced upon an Apple 2E. But by and large, I've always wanted Microsoft products. So it's no surprise my fervent attempt to always be in the know about the current OS, and I even try to stay up on other products, well when I have time. But with the ever growing costs of buying what ever the newest flagship OS from Microsoft I'm starting to wonder why I do it.
Posted by Tim on Aug 3 2009 5:05PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2009] How-To: Writing your first article
Its all in the details
Here I'll be discussing how to write your first article. I'll also be exploring the different option and what they do. This is a follow-up to the article; Your first collection.
Posted by Tim on Aug 1 2009 10:42PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2009] The last month for dyndns.org
Narrowing the list of entry points
I've been doing a lot of research and found that my page rank is not very good, thought getting better. So I'm working on fixing this with non-obvious changes. Like, initial page load times, what the actual "home" page is, limiting my entry points and adjusting what's "above the fold".
Posted by Tim on Jul 12 2009 10:41PM
[Archived Sep 15, 2009] More fun with fireworks
Fun on the 4th
We had a little fun with some larger fireworks today. Check it out.
Posted by Tim on Jul 5 2009 12:44AM
[Archived Sep 15, 2009] Fun with fireworks
Fun blowing things upo a few days before the 4th
Matt went shopping and wanted to share. Enjoy, I know I did. Oh and here's what we were using:
Posted by Tim on Jul 5 2009 12:44AM
[Archived Sep 15, 2009] Its Official
Spencer is finially a big boy!!
The last few months have been big steps for Spencer; becoming a big brother, getting his 6 year molars, and now finally this! He's finally lost his first tooth!!!!
Posted by Tim on Jul 3 2009 6:05PM
[Archived May 03, 2010] Benchmarking the proposed changes..
..better, worse, and the same all at once.
In my last post Changing the Tag Cloud I discussed a design decision between my current tag cloud and what data is populated and a new design based on tag usage. One item I didn't really discuss was how this would impact the site if no tags were used for an extended period of time. While this is a concern, I'm not to worried about it because I've made it configurable.
Posted by Tim on Jun 25 2009 11:26PM
[Archived May 03, 2010] Changing the tag cloud
Maximizing it's usage, by displaying less?
It dawned on me the other day that the tag cloud is in serious need of being updated. As more and more content is being added, more and more tags are being used, so the tag cloud is only displaying a small subset of the tags used on the site. So here's my plan to change it.
Posted by Tim on Jun 25 2009 4:13PM
[Archived Feb 07, 2010] Not to poke fun at Barack
But this is just funny
This video was featured on the MSN home page and fantastically funny. Again, not trying to poke fun, it's just funny.
Posted by Tim on Jun 24 2009 8:15AM
[Archived Sep 15, 2009] Facebook, yea I got that
Facebook video's just added
While pursuing around Facebook I found that your able to embed the video's on other sites. So, in the interest of updates and adding fun content easy, I added the ability to add them to your articles and collections!
Posted by Tim on Jun 13 2009 10:42PM
[Archived Sep 15, 2009] A little speed boost goes a long way.
How I'm chaning the way you see the site
The last week or two I've been working on a fork of the code for this site. It's devoted to just the image processing. Of course this fork goes hand in hand with the site as well. Here's what I've done.
Posted by Tim on Jun 11 2009 6:38PM
[Archived Sep 15, 2009] Love letters of stupidity
The proof that stupidity runs rampant in youth
Today I have the esteemed pleasure of dealing with the wonderful kids down the street. Not that I have anything against people or these kids, they are just annoying and mostly in the way. Previous encounters they seemed receptive, open for new ideas but not really willing to go that extra mile to make the street a better place here in good ol Eastwood. But this time took the cake, ate it, and then took what was left and smeared it all the way down the street....stupid children.
Posted by Tim on Jun 9 2009 7:20PM
[Archived Feb 07, 2010] I love The Onion
Obama Drastically Scales Back
Found this on The Onion, what a wonderful resource for fun content.
Posted by Tim on Jun 9 2009 9:11AM
[Archived Aug 02, 2009] How To: Your first Collection
A 'quick' overview of how to get started
Here I'll be discussing how to quickly get your first collection started and turn it into a gallery! I'll also be explaining what all the options are for a gallery. I'll also touch on what you should expect from a collection verse an article.
Posted by Tim on Jun 2 2009 10:49AM
[Archived Jul 05, 2009] Breaking news!
A la hoya man clings to life after being attacked by a pack of wild dogs
More updates! I've finally fixed the user profiles so they can be updated! Also added some SEO and quick quoting for comments.
Posted by Tim on May 26 2009 11:00AM
[Archived Oct 16, 2009] Things from around the site
The popular, the unpopular and the just plain funny!
One of the things I do on the site is see what pictures have been viewed the most, and what ones need more attention. I mainly do this to think of ways to adjust the site to make things more or less visible. Also I do this to see how much the site is being used. Of course some of this is visible from the image gallery as well.
Posted by Tim on May 23 2009 9:40AM
[Archived Jul 05, 2009] Grilled Chicken Quesadillas
So yummy they'll make your head explode
I've set out to make my own version of the Qdoba adobochicken. The main purpose, quesadilla's!!! I'm sure it would be good with steak too but might need some adjustments. The chicken ends up having a spicy citrus flavor and is melt in your mouth tender. So try them out today!
Posted by Tim on May 23 2009 9:24AM
[Archived Jul 05, 2009] Hubble anyone?
Amazing pictures from space
Just thought I'd share this link I found care of The Code Project: [url]http://gigapica.geenstijl.nl/2009/05/bye_bye_hubble.html[/url]
Posted by Tim on May 22 2009 9:02AM
[Archived Jul 05, 2009] Whats your Monster ID?

A feature I added a while back is Monster ID's. These little guys are pretty cool and the original author is pretty bad ass. Of course his site features a different collection of monsters, this set is still prety nice.
Posted by Tim on May 20 2009 2:11PM
[Archived Jun 10, 2009] Making use of SilverLight
From file uploads to slideshows
My last post I asked for reature requests. One of the things was for a multi file uploader. Yeah I've got that covered. A few revisions ago (back in December) I started working on implementing a Silverlight based file upload. Then in January I made it avalable to everyone along with a number of other fun new things.
Posted by Tim on May 14 2009 8:44AM
[Archived Dec 29, 2009] Feature requests
What would you like to see - Updated 7-16
Looking for a dancing Jesus (Brian), a slide show (me), multi file uploader (Rachel)? Well just make a comment here, one feature per comment but as many as you want, and I'll see what I can do. I'm wanting to enhance the site and give a few more features that are eaay to do, and easy to use.
Posted by Tim on May 13 2009 4:33PM
[Archived May 27, 2009] Making things even easier around the site
But there still not bugs...there unexplained features
With the amount of YouTube videos that get posted to the site, and the amount that will be posted in the future I figured I'd make things easier to post them. So last night I set off on that task and completed it. I also fixed a nagging bug feature with comments.
Posted by Tim on May 12 2009 8:49AM
[Archived May 16, 2009] It's a Now thing

I found this a long while back and keep seeing comerciarls about it..well sorta so I thought I'd share. Check it out [url]http://now.sprint.com/[/url]
Posted by Tim on May 5 2009 9:04PM
[Archived May 16, 2009] Gotta love Google
Or not...
I previously posted about how Google and Ask suck. But I decided to Google Heather this morning and I found a listing of births for Kalamazoo from March! So I guess I take back what I say about Google, they are not as bad as I thought. We already have this in news paper form but thought I'd keep it for posterity here too.
Posted by Tim on May 5 2009 8:37AM
[Archived May 16, 2009] Slow and steady
But still going...for the most part
I'm slowly working on the site. Though going slower than I want. But never the less still going. This morning I added a little update to the tag feature.
Posted by Tim on May 2 2009 10:06AM
[Archived May 16, 2009] A wonderful waste of time

I've posted a image or two from a pretty funny site lately and I wanted to share my "wonderful waste of time." So far I've read about 200 of them and nearly all of them funny. I've also seen them posted all over the internet. So go check out [url]http://www.xkcd.com/[/url] and waste some of your time today. After all what else do you have to do?
Posted by Tim on May 1 2009 9:29AM
[Archived May 16, 2009] It’s my own Hello World!
Except my wooden wheel is now painted red with flames!
What do I mean by my own Hello World? Well this site is it. A fairly recent post on StackOverflow asked the question "Why does every man and his dog want to code a blogging engine?"  Apparently it's a common topic of discussion; Haacked, NCB, SO, Dot net Slackers. For me it's a simple decision, nothing I found that was open source or fit my needs close enough to what I wanted at the time. Actually it's deeper than that. This app started as a simple file upload service for my own site, or rather Spencer's site but quickly became the application core of this site.
Posted by Tim on Apr 29 2009 10:59AM
[Archived May 03, 2010] Something I cooked up last night
It's a long time coming too
One thing that the sites been missing is the ability to see all the tags that have been used. What really prompted me to do it was that i've been writing a sample app on how to build a Tag Cloud that I hope to publish on CodeProject and this site and really start my entry into the developer world.
Posted by Tim on Apr 15 2009 8:34AM
[Archived May 16, 2009] Mythbusters: Rocket sled + 650mph + compact car = awesome
Freeking sweet
I found the link on CodeProject and wanted to share. It a clip of a rocket propelled sled being "launched" into a compact car at about 650 mile per hour. The original video was pulled down, but there are others up. This one is 30 seconds shorter than the first one but oh well. Enjoy.
Posted by Tim on Apr 14 2009 12:26PM
[Archived May 16, 2009] I knew it!
Beer, the cause of..and solution to all of lifes problems!
I like to surf the internet. More over, I like to surf the internet and find funny things. I also wander around the internet looking for my next ideas of either of the apps I'm writing. As well as learning new things and how to use sweet *new* things like jQuery. But when I'm at home I like to actually write these apps and perhaps drink a few beers while I'm at it. Well today I came across this comic that proves alcohol actually helps!!!
Posted by Tim on Apr 1 2009 10:14PM
[Archived Jun 01, 2009] Because there funny!
Vids from YouTube and The Onion - Earmuffs are required
I wanted to post this a few weeks ago when I found but but never got the chance. It's a about a new Sony device
Posted by Tim on Mar 29 2009 12:23PM
[Archived Apr 18, 2009] They can FLY!
Comparing Spencer and Casey
A week or so ago I took a picture of Casey while we were walking around the house. In the picture he 'struck a pose' and I said that he was flying. Both Heather and her dad said, 'your an idiot'. But I was going through the older shots of Spencer only to find a picture of him in the exact same pose!!!
Posted by Tim on Mar 28 2009 10:25PM
[Archived Mar 29, 2009] Bigger, more complex, and faster than ever
My network that is
Last week I finally purchased my new wireless access point, and boy is it nice. Oh course it was not without it's trials and tribulations. I selected the Linksys WAP200 for my device of choice for three reasons. One, I've used it on past jobs. Two, it's a business class device. And three, well it's pretty and has TONS of options. Of course a network would not be complete without a router or firewall. For this I selected the HotBrick LB2 Firewall.
Posted by Tim on Mar 25 2009 2:29PM
[Archived Mar 29, 2009] A name!

We finally figured out what the new babies name is going to be! We actually figured it out about 10:00 Sunday night. We'd been discussing it all day and trying out the three top names on him.
Posted by Tim on Mar 16 2009 11:28PM
[Archived Mar 29, 2009] All I can say is, wow
Traffic, traffic everywhere traffic
This week I've of course had a new baby. No we still do not have a name. But I've also posted around 100 new pictures, 5 new galleries, and a few new blog posts. But whats more amazing is the number of new visitors to the site this week.
Posted by Tim on Mar 14 2009 11:41PM
[Archived Mar 29, 2009] Kids say the darnedest things

Last night out of the blue Spencer decided he wanted to play with something. It's something that he's never used, and that he didn't even know we had. But he sure did know what they were called. Of course what fun would it be if he said it correctly.Also the new baby expresses his want for food.
Posted by Tim on Mar 14 2009 10:12PM
[Archived Mar 29, 2009] It's a boy!
An over view of the new baby
Today is the big day! I had meant to write something a few days prior, but I've been fairly busy with work, getting things ready for the baby, and still trying to pay attention to Spencer so he didn't feel left out as siblings often do. Or at least that's what I'm told. Being the youngest of two, I never had this problem. But lets get on with it.
Posted by Tim on Mar 9 2009 11:11PM
[Archived Feb 07, 2010] Spencers ABC's

Spencer's been learning sign language at daycare. So he wanted to share his ABC's with you.
Posted by Tim on Mar 8 2009 12:26PM
[Archived Mar 29, 2009] Service Interruptions
Stupid computers
Lately I've been having MAJOR issues with my router (Linksys WRV200). It's a fairly nice device. Lots of features and easy to configure. It even supports VLANs for a more complex environment. This device also has support for multiple VPN tunnels. I've not used them but would be a nice feature to play with. All of this and it's priced under $100. Not to bad.
Posted by Tim on Feb 22 2009 11:38AM
[Archived Feb 28, 2009] Proof positive
That every thing is better with BACON!
Everything is better with bacon, or deep fried. But here's definitive proof that this site is better with the king of all foods, BACON!
Posted by Tim on Feb 14 2009 4:42PM
[Archived Feb 28, 2009] Happy VD Everyone!

It's my favorite time of year again, that's right it's time for the big VD!
Posted by Tim on Feb 13 2009 9:27PM
[Archived Feb 28, 2009] A new domain for a new year

A long time ago, well not that long just back in 2001. I registerd the domain gettinlucky.dyndns.org and gettinlucky.us and have been using them all along for the site as well as a few other things in the begining. But starting August I now have a static IP or at least a more steady IP and am able to use gettinlucky.us easier.
Posted by Tim on Feb 8 2009 10:54AM
[Archived Feb 28, 2009] Cool new features!!
Read: bugs
So for all my work I put in trying to get the Silverlight uploader to work, it wont work. Worst part is, I'm not sure why.
Posted by Tim on Feb 8 2009 10:43AM
[Archived Feb 08, 2009] An itch to scratch
Sort of a metaphorical itch
For the past couple of years I’ve slowly been developing this site, or as a project/application name ‘The Image Store.’ It’s been fabulous to work on, allowing me to stretch my imagination and use the tools I have to build a great application. While it has its drawbacks, missing features, and a few bugs here and there it’s a pretty solid and easy to use app. It’s also a pretty quick, though of course limited to my bandwidth (6x1). Currently it has around 1400 images and files stored in 100 or so collections and articles, not to mention the 5500+ thumbnails of all the images. And it weighs in at over 2gb of data. It is essentially an open source program though I’ve not gotten around to compiling it all together so it can be used by some one other than me (lots of lose ends).
Posted by Tim on Feb 3 2009 9:59AM
[Archived Feb 08, 2009] Another round of updates
Because what else do I have to do in my spare time.....
This is a very nice round of updates. In this update I've added some much needed functionality as well was some new technology. Of course with this came some painstaking work on my part, but then again it's all painstaking.
Posted by Tim on Jan 17 2009 11:57PM
[Archived Jan 17, 2009] The Periodic Table of Awesoments
Waste of time, or bad ass
Thats right I said it, it's the Periodic Table of Awesoments! Worth a look and fairly funny. The comments are good as well.
Posted by Tim on Jan 16 2009 5:03PM
[Archived Jan 17, 2009] I'm all about the funny
Or at least thats what all the voices say
Sorry to bring it up again but my last post was to much fun to not look around on The Onion some more. So in my pursuing today I found The Onion Store. Sweet. This store like mare others offers t-shirts. One of my favorite place to look for funny stuff and funny t-shirts is despair.com, very funny stuff but kinda pricey. That's not to say that The Onion is any less, it's just different. And different is.... That's right different is good.Oh and some of this may be offensive, just FYI.
Posted by Tim on Jan 15 2009 7:35PM
[Archived Jan 17, 2009] MacBook Wheel
What all the cool kids use these days
I think this might be the tipping point for my to buy into Mac. After all who needs a keyboard.
Posted by Tim on Jan 14 2009 8:36AM
[Archived Jan 10, 2009] I'm always on the bottom?
Valid or Invalid
By title alone where was your mind thinking? Honestly! But really I found a logic test. Check it out for yourself. I scored a staggering 47%, hence I'm on the bottom (question 14).
Posted by Tim on Jan 7 2009 10:11AM
[Archived Jan 03, 2009] Egg roll dipping sauce
Mmmm egg rolls
Mmm my egg rolls are the best. But from what I hear this makes it even better. Here's what you'll need:
Posted by Tim on Jan 3 2009 10:24AM
[Archived Jan 04, 2009] Time to start working on your ‘computer hacking skills’
Or at least your typing
A blogger in a recent article on ZDNet raised a point about computer literacy in children and needing to start working on it early. In the post he describes his 6 year old son lacking very basic computer skills, like typing and navigational skills. Also he comments that his son did not know what a cursor was. Being in IT myself and having a fairly extensive background with computers, typing, and having a 5 year old I can safely say that computers, typing, and knowing what a cursor is are the least of children's worries.
Posted by Tim on Jan 2 2009 10:27AM
[Archived Jan 10, 2009] Quirky cell phone text's
Anomaly or is there a meaning
This evening I was trying to text a something about a beer to my brother. The text should have been as simple as: I had bells coffee bock and it was bad ass. The text turned into I had bells coffee coal and it was bad app.  So I go back to fix coal and hit next.
Posted by Tim on Dec 31 2008 6:29PM
[Archived Jan 10, 2009] Spam, spam wonderful spam.
But a bright side
Again with the spam. Soem spam bot managed to crack my little captcha control for the first time. Though with a bright side that it manged to stop 3 other comments before it got it right and posted this comment: [quote="wxgcqjmo"]cmmicmly http://feuazczt.com uusdbfuj ojgybtzh hauuosev zgrgnnut[/quote]
Posted by Tim on Dec 29 2008 9:13AM
[Archived Jan 10, 2009] Merry Christmas Everybody!
Here's your present Santa
Merry Christmas for Heather Spencer and myself. This year Spencer was able to write a letter to Santa. In case your not up on your 5 year old writing it says "Dear Santa Here are some cookies. Love Spencer"
Posted by Tim on Dec 24 2008 9:42PM
[Archived Dec 26, 2008] How long could you survive..
..chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor?
Give it a try, you know you want to.
Posted by Tim on Dec 22 2008 3:36PM
[Archived Jan 10, 2009] Why the internet sucks
Well not the whole internet
Today was a big day for me. Why was it a big day. Because it was the day my domain name expired :( Bummer deal. I received a text this morning saing my site was down. I had already known this because I was wanting to look at some pictures and could not. First instinct - router on the fritz again. I don't think it likes the cold to much. But I was at work and "there was nothing I could do about it" Or maybe there was.
Posted by Tim on Dec 17 2008 6:03PM
[Archived Jan 10, 2009] There comes a time...

There is a time in your life where you just have to sit back and say 'SURPRISE' to your friends. So SURPRISE!!! IT"S A BABY!
Posted by Tim on Dec 16 2008 8:13PM
[Archived May 03, 2010] Ch ch ch changes!!
A little over view
Last night I finally finished my latest update to the site. It's been a grueling month and a half of updates changes and bug fixes but it's "done". Of course I've already thought of another 5 or 6 things to add or change as well as an apparent bug with the Galleries by Member that I just cannot work out. [EDIT] FIXED! [EDIT] Here is an over view of some of the new features.
Posted by Tim on Dec 4 2008 11:36AM
[Archived Dec 31, 2008] Car seats expire?
Who knew...not me!!
Recently we've found the need to again look at car seats and at least I've found out something very interesting. Car seats actually expire 6 years after there manufacturing date. Don't believe that they expire, read up.
Posted by Tim on Nov 10 2008 9:29PM
[Archived Dec 26, 2008] It never ends!
Ugh...
A time line of my wonderful joy filled weekend full of fun half baked ideas from Microsoft in the form of updates. Score one for MS.
Posted by Tim on Oct 26 2008 6:53PM
[Archived Dec 26, 2008] Why I hate my bank!
A tale of ineptitude at Charter One Bank
Alright I'm not rich, I don't claim to be rich and most likely unless I have some crazy win-fall I'm never be rich. So that being said I need every dollar I earn to pay my bills and eat food. So why is it that my back finds the need to rob me of my 'hard' earned money. Two weeks ago I needed some cash to pay some one for a job on my car. Because it was on the side I needed actual cash and not plastic. So I take a measly $20 out of my account and go to pick up my axle shaft form the dude fixing it. He ended up not being able to take my money because he caused damage to the thing so I lucked out. On my way back to the house not ever 30 minutes after my withdraw I redeposit the $20 saving my account from a certain NSF fee because of having to do some unexpected repairs on my heep.
Posted by Tim on Oct 16 2008 12:21PM
[Archived Nov 10, 2008] What's new?
(Something_Changed = true)
Introducing picture comments!!! After much mental debate I've finally broke down and included picture comments. Of course with this I've also added the ability to turn them off at a moments notice. I still have more tweaking to do with them at this point but it will do for now. I also have at least one bug that needs to be corrected for the emails it creates but it can wait too.
Posted by Tim on Oct 3 2008 2:52PM
[Archived Sep 19, 2008] Pardon me, but would ya mind if fired me cannon through your porthole?
Thats right it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
I'm truly not sure where I saw this originally but just so you know today September 19th was International Talk Like a Pirate Day! To learn more check it out here: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
Posted by Tim on Sep 19 2008 8:52PM
[Archived Oct 13, 2008] Changes, changes, all the time changes.
So many changes you'd think this is all I did....Oh wait...
So I've made yet another release of this "wonderful" site. I've fixed a number of unexpected features (read: bugs). I've also added a few new features, and fixed one very large flaw that I'm glad was not exploited.
Posted by Tim on Sep 18 2008 3:37PM
[Archived Jul 09, 2009] Funny Jeep video
Ritch Shydner - Canyon Man
Found this while wasting time that I could have been spending haivng a beer, but funny and worth sharing.
Posted by Tim on Sep 17 2008 8:49PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2008] New Microsoft Ad's
Even more mind boggling than Seinfeld was
Microsoft has launched a new pro-Vista/Microsoft ad campaign. For those that "don't like Vista" or thinks that MS sucks, this ad is not for you because you've already made your mind up and there's no changing it. Oh and piss off. But back to the story. MS hired Jerry Seinfeld to be in the new ads.
Posted by Tim on Sep 7 2008 9:15PM
[Archived Oct 27, 2008] Deep Fried, Beer Battered Pickles!
Proof that everything is better deep fried
What could be better than pickles? Deep fried pickles!
Posted by Tim on Aug 31 2008 6:43PM
[Archived Oct 13, 2008] Newest round of updates
With more in the wings
I've just completed yet another round of updates. This time there more substantial and appear more to the visitor of the site rather than the member portion. But that's not to say I didn't ramp that up too!
Posted by Tim on Aug 25 2008 1:45PM
[Archived Oct 13, 2008] Vista Naysayers
Just go cry to some one who cares.
In response to the post 'Five features that must die in Windows 7'. It was illustrated that there are number of things in Windows that people don't like. To recap:1. Windows Genuine Advantage 2. The Registry 3. ActiveX Controls 4. User Account Control 5. Windows Meeting Center
Posted by Tim on Aug 23 2008 2:20PM
[Archived Oct 03, 2008] Stupid bots!
Why me I mean really?
I've recently added some additional "protection" to my site that I didn't think I'd need, spam control being one. I've come to the point that I've blocked acces to the following user agent:Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)While it's possible that some people may access the site having that user agent I think the limitation FAR out weighs the impact aginst users.
Posted by Tim on Aug 8 2008 9:49PM
[Archived Oct 03, 2008] Birthday weekend wheeling.
More getting stuck that wheeling
A series of clips from this weekends wheeling adventure. It even has very fun commentary on some of it (<--Sarcasm).
Posted by Tim on Aug 4 2008 9:26PM
[Archived Oct 03, 2008] Wait .... what?
Didn't know some one could be some dumb.
In looking around for reviews on the AT&T U-Verse service I just got on Friday I came upon a forum about security and what people are running. This was porsted by the name of 'tempnexus':"I tried the PlaceboAV and it crashed my system, BSOD all over the screen.Now I am going to have to redownload the internet, install antivirus in my modem and reinstall AOL on my motherboard."
Posted by Tim on Aug 4 2008 6:41AM
[Archived Oct 03, 2008] Screw Google and Ask
About my 'Ego' search
This past week I did an ego search on all the major search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and even the newly launched Cuil (pronounced 'Cool'). For those that might not know what an ego search is check out the urban dictionary.
Posted by Tim on Aug 1 2008 12:26AM
[Archived Oct 03, 2008] 34% Chance I'm Female
Here I always thought I was a guy, maybe I'm not
I get daily emails about random things all over the internet. This one stuck out to me and I thought I'd give it a try. Turns out that some one figured out how to figure out your gender based on your web browsing habbits. Check it out for yourself:http://www.mikeonads.com/2008/07/13/using-your-browser-url-history-estimate-gender/
Posted by Tim on Jul 29 2008 11:02PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Wheeling Kalamazoo
A fun location for a fun time
Yesterday in preperation for Spencers birthday party I wanted to go find a fun spot to wheel. Gives something fun to do that everyone can enjoy. The location, behind TGI Fridays on West Main. I'd been back there one other time but it was deeply rutted and I had to turn it around because it got to bad for my ride. This time I went a little farther and found a very fun trail. Full of mud but full of deep ruts too.
Posted by Tim on Jul 27 2008 2:23PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Killer baked hot wings
Well killer for me anyways
Today I decided to change up my hot wings recipe, for the better of course. I'll share what I did for the better of hot wings all over.Prep Time: 45 minCook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Posted by Tim on Jul 19 2008 11:14PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] The only thing I needed.
The other things were nice too.
This years fathers day was the best one so far for me. In that Spencer is now able to write so he was able to say who the card was to. I know it's a simple thing, but it just makes me so proud of my little man that he was able to write DAD on my card.
Posted by Tim on Jul 16 2008 7:13AM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] My frist SPAM!!
Also my first few SQL Injection attacks, even better!
In looking at my logs tonight, as well as looking at my site I noticed something fun. I received my first comment spam!! Woo Hoo!. So a big thanks to nikolas54@msn.comfrom IP address 80.17.207.50 and 212.116.219.108. Oh and just before he changed it, or the bot changed it to a proxy address it was 92.48.119.136. He posted the comment:"comment4, instructional fight videos,  8]]], girl privates,  469869, eyeglass world in columbus georgia,  augqt, map 20of 20mass.,  zsdvy,"To my vacation blog post. Along wiith this he also provided a link to his site, which I will not be sharing just to keep it out of prying eyes. Thou I will say it was a page full of "sexy time" links, good stuff too.
Posted by Tim on Jun 25 2008 8:45PM
[Archived Sep 02, 2010] Mackinaw 2008 - Our vacation
Updated 6-15
Last year we went on vacation in AZ. It was a blast, and we could not have asked for more. This year we went on a "mini holiday" for well the holiday. We initially were going to stay in a hotel right down town. But because Jeff and company were comming along too we opted for a cabin. So we books a cabin at The Beach House. It was actually fairly nice with a very nice view of the island, and the bridge.   
Posted by Tim on Jun 15 2008 9:22PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Shock Top - Belgian White
Deliciously citrus top, bland bottom
First off this is an overly mass produced beer from the makers of Bud - Anheuser-Busch. Yes that's right...I drank a macro brew. This beer pours a nice hazy orange yellow color with a pale white head.
Posted by Tim on Jun 10 2008 7:37PM
[Archived Feb 28, 2009] Trimming on the front end.

It’s always bothered me that in SQL I can use LEFT or RIGHT to get a specific number of characters for a string but there is nothing so simple in C#. So for a recent project at work and for a recent bug fix in this application I did a little research on it. This is what I’ve found:[code:c#]public static String Left(string strParam, int iLen){    if (iLen > 0)    return strParam.Substring(0, iLen);    else    return strParam;}[/code]
Posted by Tim on Jun 5 2008 11:22PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] And the lucky picture is.........

I've been keeping track of the number of pictures on the site very closely. As well as the performance of the site as the number increases. Well I've now exceeded 300 pictures. Lucky number 300 is this one posted by Rachel from a trip to the zoo.
Posted by Tim on Jun 1 2008 9:49AM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Stupid hillbilly tricks - Updated

Stupid damn hillbill down the street was at it again. Last time was a few weeks ago when he was in a stand off with the cops. And yes it's been confirmed by the news that it was at 1329 Craft again. THis time the drunkard hillbilly decided to set fire to his house. I was not able to get any pics of the fire because by the time we noticed what was going on there were a few cops and the volntier fire fighters where rolling in quickly.
Posted by Tim on Jun 1 2008 9:40AM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Custom tool box cubbie-hole add on

Last I posted was for a transfer case skid install. I also added about mounting my hitch. For a lack of time and tools I just took it to my local Uhaul and had them mount it. For $45 I was out the door with it "properly installed" even though I was told it was mounted to the frame. Something tells me that if you mounted a hitch to the frame it would rip out just from the weight alone. I'm thinking the greese monkey just used the factory intalled nut bar for the exaust hanger, but I digress as it's mounted and seems to be done correctly.
Posted by Tim on May 19 2008 9:30PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Transfer Case Skid Install

This is my first of many upgrades to my XJ. I started with a transfer case skid mainly because I was hard pressed to find any cheap mods. I searched around online for many different parts and many different skids. My other choice was going to be a gas tank skid bucause from the hills I've done so far this seems to be a pretty easily damaged part. Plus if you thrash your gastank how are you going to get home. Though from what I understand it you come down on a rock or a well placed mound of dirt your tcase is a gonner. Thou if your missing a link in your drive train, your dead in the watter.
Posted by Tim on May 18 2008 11:05PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Domestic dispute leads to standoff?

A domestic disturbance leading to mass involvement of the police here is East Wood (east side of Kzoo in Kzoo Twp)? Who would have ever thought that would happen ... well me for one. here is what the news has to say about it:
Posted by Tim on May 7 2008 9:14PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Scripts not working in Windows XP Pro SP2

I was recently confronted with a daunting problem. It was at first described to me as that “nothing will work in Internet Explorer.” Knowing the application the person uses has a LOT of JavaScript I checked to be sure it was working and it was enabled. After looking into the problem for about an hour I found that a number of other functions were not working either. Things like ‘Help and Support’ and enhanced view for services, there were also a couple of other items.
Posted by Tim on Apr 15 2008 8:07PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] New updates

Since the deployment of the new site I've added many new features, fixed many bugs, and came up with many many ideas many of which I have already added to the site. Of course like I've said before and will say over and over again the sites ability to grow and become more than what it is, is only stoped by my ability to write code. Hove ever some of the things I've wanted to do sice the original version of this application have been created and implemented with great success.
Posted by Tim on Apr 13 2008 10:52AM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] Uploading images to MySQL with C# and ASP.NET

I have looked high and low for good documentation on how to upload BLOB's to MySQL. More over how to do it in code behind with C# and zero stored procs. I would not normally do such a thing, but I was given a project at work to do just such a thing. So sseing as I'm doing it I might as well share the knowledge. I'll outline how to do this and you'll be able to download the code at the end of the article, including the db create script.
Posted by Tim on Mar 26 2008 2:29PM
[Archived Sep 17, 2008] New features!

Since the initial deployment of the site boack on 2-18-08 I have added multiple mew features. Some of them include additional support for Tags and and image gallery. I have also revamped the way some of the site get it's data. For example the copyright at the bottom is not configurable via the web.config file. With this also adds the ability to change what images are displayed on the main page under the "Recent Posts" section. I have also started using additional Ajax controls. On of which is a Modal Popup control that displays a users stats and membership info.
Posted by Tim on Mar 19 2008 9:59PM
[Archived Sep 15, 2009] My new diggs

As I said this site is created on a 4 tier architecture written in C# 2.0 with a SQL 2005 backend. Truly there are only two limitations to this application, my ability or rather inability to program and my imagination.
Posted by Tim on Feb 18 2008 8:18PM
  The Image Store v.5.0.3.20