The Life & Times of Pancho Vista

Making a DVD Cover for Centos 5.5

2010-12-07T11:42:00.001-05:00

I was looking for a large DVD case template and stumbled upon this blog post add-in.

iPhone Safari Page Size

2009-05-20T22:52:00.014-04:00

Tonight, I resurrected my old pocketX program. This was a mobile portal I created back in 2004 to access our operations software. My intention was to give our key personnel a smartphone, which they could use to access the portal via the cellular network. Well 5 years ago the speed was just not there. Because of this pocketX was not used as I had hoped. In fact I removed the code from our main portal a couple of years ago. Now that I have my hands on an iPhone with 3G speeds and a lovely touch screen display, it makes sense to dust pocketX off and see what we can do with it now.

After merging the code back, the only issue I found is the way the page fit the screen in the Safari browser. The text on the page (originally sized for a smartphone) was incredibly small and I had to magnify each page to make it legible.

The following two lines in the head corrected this.

BEFORE

AFTER

External SATA RAID Enclosure

2009-05-16T20:43:00.001-04:00

This looks hot! I'll be picking one of these up as soon it becomes available.

http://www.startech.com/item/S352U2RERC-3-5in-eSATA-Dual-SATA-Hot-Swap-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-with-Raid-Controller.aspx

The Rhino

2009-01-13T10:54:00.001-05:00

The Rhino

Sangoma A200D

2008-11-27T20:34:00.001-05:00

Large, detailed MapPoint prints.

2008-10-16T10:58:00.000-04:00

Large, detailed MapPoint prints.

Michael R. Mattys

MapPoint & Access Dev

www.mattysconsulting.com

Asiatic Lilies

2008-10-04T16:21:00.002-04:00

Today I dug up the lilies outside of the french doors. I saw an episode of Cultivating Life where they dug up the bulbs and split off the scales and bulblets. Then let them dry out overnight and bag them up for over wintering inside the house. I'll try this and plant them in the spring. There are like 100 of these little scales and bulblets off of 3-4 huge bulbs.

Agent Manager

2008-10-03T00:30:00.003-04:00

I've spent the past couple of weeks working on a new application for our portal. It is a "dispatch board" specifically designed for the appointment side of our business. It could also extend into appliance delivery segment.

Portal

2008-10-03T00:24:00.002-04:00

this is the portal logo.

the Bulbs

2008-09-30T19:14:00.002-04:00

I planted some bulbs in pots on the deck today.

the two black urns each have 6 daydream tulips, 6 Purissima tulips and 8 mixed crocus bulbs from wal-mart. Van Zyverden

the gray lattice pot has 6 Narcissus Pink Paradise and 8 mixed crocus bulbs from stop and shop. garden state bulb company.

the 4 copper pots each have 1 red asiatic hybrid from van bourgondien. no idea what flavor. benny's

How to determine if a session variable has a value.

2008-09-10T21:26:00.001-04:00

If IsDBNull(Session("Agent").ToString) Then
lblAgentNo.Text = "None Selected"
Else
lblAgentNo.Text = Session("Agent").ToString
End If

Useful Date & Time Formatting

2008-09-09T15:51:00.002-04:00

convert to military time - convert(varchar(5), getdate(), 108)

convert to date - convert(varchar(10), getdate(), 101)

2006 Toyota Tacoma - Bright Ass Red

2006-02-08T22:24:00.000-05:00

i recently acquired a 2006 Toyota Tacoma, or Taco for short. I wasn't crazy about the color at first but has begun to grow on me.

Things I'd like to add:
tonneou cover - lorado - http://www.agricover.com/index.php/products/category/C11/
road armor - bumper - http://www.roadarmor.com/ra3/toyota.html
procomp - traction bars - http://www.explorerprocomp.com/acc_tractionbars.php

Road Armor Bumpers

2005-10-17T22:43:00.000-04:00

Need I say more?

Matrix 501G2

http://www.roadarmor.com/ra3/jeep.html

This is the Jeep bumper to get

2005-08-13T22:28:00.000-04:00

http://www.advancedframeworks.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/30

Rubicon Update

2005-07-12T01:44:00.000-04:00

The Life & Times of Pancho Vista

I changed my mind about the jeep. Just isn't the right time. TOo much other stuff going on right now. Now that the bike is gone, it will be nice not to have to make a payment for a while. But that was a couple of days ago...Pam called the dealer today and the sales guy located another Sahara at another dealer. Everybody is doing the employee pricing gig now and they say there is no negotiating...I don't feel that good about it. There should be some room to negotiate. But it seems it's too late at this point. I've already tipped my hand. We're going by tomorrow to get a trade in value on the passat. That should be fun. I'll be lucky if they give me $5K for it even though it's worth much more. Will let you know the outcome as soon as I can.

My TiVo Died (or how I spent my extended weekend)

2005-07-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

The last couple of days TiVo started st-st-stuttering. While it was st-st-stuttering I could hear the harddrive clicking away...Obviously it is going bad and needs to be replaced. Sunday I sped off to compusa, while I was out getting baby food, and grabbed a Seagate 160gb barracuda. This is more than double what is currently in there. OEM it had the orig 30gb and I added a 40gb upgrade a couple of years ago, so total = 70gb.

In researching the upgrade process again.. I found a cool upgrade tool at weaknees.com. At least I thought it was cool until I started the upgrade.

This line is incorrect.

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc /dev/hdb) mfsrestore -s 127 -xzpi - /dev/hda

I believe the mfstools incorrectly report the size of the drive so there is an error related to not having enough space on the NEW harddrive. I solved it by removing the -s and -x in the mfsrestore command. SO the new command looks like this

mfsbackup -Tao - /dev/hdc /dev/hdb) mfsrestore -zpi - /dev/hda

It took around 8 hours to complete the backup. I had a 4th of July party to go to anyway...When I returned the restore was complete and I loaded the new drive into TiVo and promptly plugged it in and turned it on. Awesome! Right? Wrong!

After it booted up and i jumped around a couple of changes it suddenly froze on jay leno's head. It was very unflattering the way it made his face all jagged, but I don't like Jay anyway...Then I was presented with the GSOD (Green Screen of Death). Akin to the MS blue screen of death. It warned me that a serious error had occurred and to wait 3 hours while it tried to recover.

I switched over to regular tv while it chugged away. I checked on it 30- 45 minutes later, before I went to bed, and it was fine.

Go TiVo!!!

sweet ass jeep bumpers

2005-07-01T00:09:00.000-04:00

http://www.hansonenterprise.com

hanson enterprise rubicon with prerunner hoop
Originally uploaded by panchovista.

Unlimited Rubicon again...

2005-06-30T23:58:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm back. I have been looking at Jeeps again. This time maybe a Jeep Unlimited Rubicon Sahara Edition. It's pretty cool and there's one sitting on the lot. It's been there a while and the sales guy said he would cut a deal. He probably doesn't think I want as big a deal as I do...

Anyway the jeep is cool. light khaki paint with dark khaki top/fenders. It's got a military vibe, but it's a special edition that was released at the same time as the movie "Sahara". I'm sure it bombed...I didn't see it but I might have to now.

http://www.jeep.com/sahara/img/wallpaper/sahara01_1024.jpg

sahara01_1024
Originally uploaded by panchovista.

American Iron January 2005

2005-01-09T21:12:00.000-05:00

Links...

Mr. Lucky , especially the pimpin seat --- http://shop.jammerclub.com/catalog/detail.php?id=1830&from=30

Martin Bros. pipes - available at xoprodox.com

Detroit Brothers - www.detroitbros.com

Sweet Azz sportster pipes --- http://www.pipedreamz.biz/wetdreamz.html

The Fiend is sick!

The C Word

2005-01-07T13:13:00.000-05:00

That's right, it's time for a reality check. For a man there are three types of cancer that strike the most fear. Not in any particular order they are prostate, colon and testicular. They tend to amke most men squirm.

Last night my wife finds a lump on my right testicle, (don't ask!) It's about the size of a dime and attached to the rear of the testicle. Okay so now what? Well let's make an appointment and see the doctor in the morning.

20040104

2005-01-04T18:02:00.000-05:00

Today is rife with activity. In addition to the annual rate increases I need to orchestrate there are also the semi-monthly (not bi-weekly) fuel surcharges. And those silly sales numbers still need to be confirmed in one of the offices.

Geesh...it's getting worse now Inc. is pulling me into their web again. Our office in London is moving locations and they are having issues witht the vpn between sites. So what do they do? They call in the Professional, that's me, also known in some circles as Shooter. I finally got some time to look at it this afternoon and the firewall dumped out on me. The internet connection there is a dsl line with a dynamic ip. We need the dsl modem to negotiate the connection so we have given the WAN ip a private ip range on the LAN side of the modem. I hate doing it this way but if it works it works. Right now it is not working. They are 5 hours ahead of us on the other side of the pond and there is no one in the office to reset the firewall, so I am done. For now...

Got the fuel surcharges finished and I believe everyone that needs to be happy, is happy. I will focus on the rate increase tomorrow and will hopefully get it finished in the AM.

20040103

2005-01-03T16:50:00.000-05:00

First day of the new year. Vusy (very busy) day. Still trying to finalize some new sales numbers (from November) for a sales competition we are having. It's frelling ridiculous the crap I have to wade through to get the right number. Also have to get some rate increases in place and deal with adjusting the fuel surcharge in all locations...

Payroll today also, troubles with Kelly and Bryan. Same old stuff, over and over and over again...
People spell email addresses wrong and want to blame non-delivery on the servers...

For the love of coffee

2005-01-03T15:20:00.000-05:00

Some interesting, if not mindnumbing, facts and quotes about coffee.

http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/coffee.htm

Flores Man

2005-01-01T21:56:00.001-05:00

My boss can be a very funny guy. The accountants in my office are, shall we say, diminutive in stature. I don't think any of them are over 5'2". I'm of average height, 5'11", and I tower over them.

It looks like there was another species of man that coexisted with homo sapiens approximately 18K years ago. They were tiny dwarves, around 3 feet tall. The scientists that discovererd them have nicknamed them 'hobbits'.

So, my boss finds this article online about the Flores man and posts it in the break room and writes "Were they accountants?!?" across the top.

Flores Man

Happy New Year

2005-01-01T15:06:00.000-05:00

I am a very lucky man. I am blessed with a gorgeous wife who is smart, kind and caring. She has given me two beautiful daughters and she is always there for me. I am proud of her and I am proud to be her husband.

-luv

Is this it ? ! ?

2004-12-30T16:23:00.000-05:00

Today is my last day of work for the year. That's not entirely true...I will undoubtedly be working at home this weekend, but I will attempt to keep it to a minimum.

Scratched a couple of things off the list today.

1) Tony's login is back in place...no more localloser for him.

2) Got the new server in place last week. It seems to be behaving rather nicely now.

I'm toying with some cool active/passive SQL replication software now. It's called WanSyncHA by XoSoft. So far, so good.

Exciting stuff for sure!!!