The way Wii are

I’ve had a storied career, well maybe not storied but an interesting one I should think. Well maybe not interesting but at least I ain’t pick’n cotton. Not there is anything wrong with picking cotton I’m just not doing it. Anyway…

Today was an awesome day at work. I had [...]

Other posts in Healthcare

TV Pack, Vista 64 Home Premium and ATI 650 Combo card (dell OEM)

This is a quick note for all those out there who are trying to get the latest TV Pack from Microsoft to work with their existing Vista 64 bit Home Premium setup.  I have a Dell XPS 420 with the ATI 650 Home Theater combo card.

This is what I did:

Obtain the TV pack (search the [...]

Other posts in Technology

TV ain’t what it used to be…

I was having a random conversation today where one conversationalist complained that TV today lacked the family wholesomeness of yore.  I thought about it for all of two seconds and quickly disagreed.  Lets take a closer look at some of those old shows.

First up the Partridge Family.   Now who wouldn’t admire the gumption of a [...]

Other posts in Philosophy

Vote Jason Teramoto!

UPDATE:  He lost, oh well.  Better luck next time.

If you live in the 18th assembly district for California then you need to vote for Jason Teramoto.
http://www.teramoto2008.com/intro.html
I was inspired to run by the leadership of our past community leaders.  Some were elected, most were just regular people like us, respected for their commitments to the community.  [...]

Other posts in Politics

The Positronic Brain

This is an idea of short story because I have been reading a lot of Asimov’s work.  I stopped writing after the first paragraph.  I found I did not have a unique story to tell that was not already written  by Asimov.  There was nothing in the story for me to explore emotionally or technologically.  [...]

Other posts in Fiction

10 Things you won’t here at a corporate meeting

Thank you, that indeed was a stupid question.
Thank you, your point has nothing to do with my next slide.
Hold that thought, I’m not going to ever address it.
There are no stupid questions; just stupid people like you.
Thank you for coming to this is input gathering meeting; now this is what we decided.
This is a safe [...]

Other posts in Work

TV Pack, Vista 64 Home Premium and ATI 650 Combo card (dell OEM)

This is a quick note for all those out there who are trying to get the latest TV Pack from Microsoft to work with their existing Vista 64 bit Home Premium setup.  I have a Dell XPS 420 with the ATI 650 Home Theater combo card.

This is what I did:

  1. Obtain the TV pack (search the net)
  2. Uninstall existing ATI drive (ATI unified AVI stream)
  3. Install TV Pack
  4. Start media center
  5. Setup TV signal
  6. Watch TV

Ok.  That is rather simple and doesn’t account for things I did wrong like:

  1. Didn’t uninstall the existing ATI driver.
  2. Use bad coax cable.  You must have a good cable run to pick the clearqam. I had what I thought was a good cable only to find out it the end connector was half way out.  Without a good cable the TV Signal will fail.
  3. Choose the right line up.  In my area I have three choices.
    • Comcast Digital Hayward   <– Worked for me
    • Comcast Hayward Rebuild  <– Didn’t try
    • Comcast Digital Hayward Rebuild  <– No channels found
  4. Didn’t reboot when attempting to try different line ups.  For some reason the ATI tuner gets all whacked out when you select a new line up.

After hours of effort and eventual success I ended up ditching line up for Comcast Digital Hayward because it had only the locals in clearqam (not even basic cable was clearQAM).  I ditched it because I live in a prime spot where I can receive more OTA channels than what Comcast deems are my ‘locals’.

Why even bother with the TV pack then?  Well the good news is the program guide data has been updated to include sub-channels.  This is great because if live in an area which has PBS they often have a sub-channel dedicated to programming for children.  My boys are addicted to Thomas and WordWorld.   Now I can record them easily.

So unless you have a cablecard or are with a cable company that actually sends lots of channels in clearqam or can receive more channels OTA than your cable company send over cable then don’t waste your time with the TV Pack.

Today is day two with…

Today is day two with Audrey Isabella were going to be bringing her home today. It appears that her birth weight was incorrect, it wasn’t 5.4 it was 6 something I guess the machine wasn’t working well, anyway I’m here with the boys were launching in the Kizer(?) cafeteria and when we go back upstairs and we can talk about me and hopefully we’ll all be home about 2:00 O’clock. Has been wonderful … listen

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10 Things you won’t here at a corporate meeting

  1. Thank you, that indeed was a stupid question.
  2. Thank you, your point has nothing to do with my next slide.
  3. Hold that thought, I’m not going to ever address it.
  4. There are no stupid questions; just stupid people like you.
  5. Thank you for coming to this is input gathering meeting; now this is what we decided.
  6. This is a safe environment; I’ve no fear that you will be fired for your comments.
  7. Hi my hierarchical status is above yours so I’ll discount everything you say.
  8. Shut up for gods sake! We can all read the presentation as well!
  9. To bad those aren’t real bullets ’cause I load my gun and shoot that idiot.
  10. Meeting ended early!

Ten things I can do now that I left E.A.

I’ve been out of Enterprise Architecture (E.A.) for nearly a year.   Here is a list of things I can do that I couldn’t do before:

  1. Think in practical terms with reality based designs.
  2. Interact directly with the care delivery team
  3. Install stuff without threat of IT police chasing me like the gestapo
  4. No longer have suffer from EA guilt
  5. Understnad, impliment and use virtualization and virtual worlds
  6. Code (well I could do that before but I went on a 10 year hiatus).
  7. Say, Yes.
  8. Delight my customers (why I have this particular saying at least I can do it).
  9. www.chennault.net->GoDaddy->EverryDNS->DyDns->DHCP (static domain with dynamic IP)
  10. Demonstrate the clinical applicaiton of the Wii!

New from Virtualization

Over the years I’ve managed my own home web server in various forms.  My first web server started on a RedHat distribution back in 2001 and then morphed to IIS running Sharpoint.  Now it is finally back to Ubuntu.  All of this running on old antiquated systems (even in 2001).   However the times are a changing and virtualization is the new buzzword so I decided to retire my old system and re-launch my blog on my Dell XPS 420 machine.  The machine runs Vista Home Premium (I’m addicted to MCE) with VirtualBox running Ubuntu Desktop with LAMP and Wordpress serving up my blog.

So far so good.  We will see how long it takes me to think this was a really bad idea.  However on the bright side when I turn off my old machine I should save on electricity and that is a good thing.

TV ain’t what it used to be…

I was having a random conversation today where one conversationalist complained that TV today lacked the family wholesomeness of yore.  I thought about it for all of two seconds and quickly disagreed.  Lets take a closer look at some of those old shows.

First up the Partridge Family.   Now who wouldn’t admire the gumption of a family band traveling across country in a bus?  Wait, kids not in school?  No father? Not so wholesome now eh?  In fact lasted I check when you put the words music, bus and band together you get drugs, sex and dysfunction.   -1 for Family programming.

Second on our hit parade is My Three Sons.   A story about a nice guy who raises three sons.   What’s not to like about a caring loving father who takes care of his family?  Wait a minute here, no mother.   Plus the dad seems to be awfully close to the live in uncle Charlie.   That ain’t wholesome according to folks who vote in Kansas.  Another ding for good ol’ fashion TV.

Third and final the perinial favorite Leave it to Beaver.   The title says it all.

Thank you, good night and tip your waitresses.

KP smells good but not for long

Thrice in the last two weeks I’ve recieved an email from a facility in northern Califironia asking employees and visitors to refrain from wearing fragrances, perfumes on campus.  Appernetly someone in the sprawling facility has severe alergies to perfumes.  I didn’t know such a thing could be but alas for some poor soul it does.  Now in a small office with say no windows and air condition I can see how this can be a real problem.  Hell I’ve been on elevators where the oder was well um oderifous beyond tolerance.

However the particular campus in question is a sprawling multi-story multi-building site.   It has room for a few thousands people so having an entire populace of a small town effectively stop bathing for the delicate sense-abilities of some beleaguered nostril is a bit draconian.   I certainly feel for the poor chap who can’t stand the smell of the latest wet dog odor Fantasy by Britney Spears of which some googly-eyed hip chip-pee decided to bathe in.  But honestly asking three thousand people to stop wearing perfume, cologne, deodorant and whatnot  to mask their natural smell is well Californian in the extreme.

The way Wii are

I’ve had a storied career, well maybe not storied but an interesting one I should think. Well maybe not interesting but at least I ain’t pick’n cotton. Not there is anything wrong with picking cotton I’m just not doing it. Anyway…

Today was an awesome day at work. I had the chance to do something that I’ve wanted to do for along time. I installed a Wii at work. Yes that is right a Wii. Now before you go all filled with blue-haired righteous old school indignation let me provide a few factoids about the Wii.

  1. Wii is in use by the VA for rehabilitation of injured veterans
  2. Wii is in use by nursing facilities to promote cognitive and physical exercise.
  3. Early research indicates surgeons who ‘practice’ on the Wii have a marked improvement in hand-eye coordination over those who have not.
  4. Wii is in use by physical therapist for rehabilitation.
  5. The Wii is fun!

Ok maybe point five is subjective but the rest are verifiable facts. The Wii has and is delivering real health-care value. I’m very excited to work for an innovative organization that is willing to stretch beyond the traditional bound and experiment with new forms of care delivery. I first saw the potential of merging the gaming experience with healthcare shortly after the origional Xbox launched. I made it a personal crusade over the last four years to promote the use of gaming technology in health-care for member and care provider use. Today was a small step of seeing that vision come to fruition. I eagerly await our next steps.

Don’t talk to Reporters?

Part of an annual compliance training:

“I got a call from a reporter at a local newspaper. She wants to know what I think about a recent event about your employer. Should I talk to her?”

Answer: *NO*

What?  As a journalist by training I find the above ‘compliance’ training statement very chilling.  It appears to have a chilling effect not only on journalism but citizen rights to freedom of speech.   If my workplace were to crash down during an earthquake and a reporter came up to me and asked me, “what happened?” I’m going to tell her.

Corporate communication control at its best.

GOTO Facebook

Favourite quote of the day,

“If your program needs goto (especially in C++) the design is screwed.”  –Erunno

Thanks Faceboo for  lowering my respect for your platform.   I’ll be the first to admit I am a bad programmer, so bad I had to become a enterprise architect to avoid programming.  Seriosly though, even I know that goto statements went out with Basic.  I think the last time I wrote a GOTO statement was on a ATARI 400.   Yeah, that was about 1982.

Oh well back to trying to compile Facebook open platform on Ubuntu 8.04

Offending code: fbml.cpp

1230 size_t length = js_len;
1231 jschar *chars = js_InflateString(cx, js, &length);
1232 if (!chars) goto exit;