Here it is, 2004 in a nutshell (ordered):

• Quit my job (because f*** them )
• Sold my house and moved (record sale in the neighborhood in a down market, 6 offers, closed in 21 days)
• Bought a new house in the country and moved again (bigger mortgage)
• Bought a truck (3 vehicles now)
• Bought a tractor (you know, for living in the country)
• Started a new job, as my own boss (the only way to go for those with authority problems)
• Lost my father (tough time, the only downer of the year)
• Didn’t get myself a wife (due to previous item)
• Thought about having kids (not quite yet)
• Saw the most interesting social phenomena (in a garage sale)
• Turned 30
• Got an iPod for Christmas

There were many other great times, and I can only think that 2005 will be just as good.
Things I want to get out of 2005 (not ordered):

• Get the product part of the company off the ground.
• Move to a cash-based economy (mortgage as the only debt)
• Get married (for real this time)
• Get to work in the shop more
• Finish the office project I started last year, and work in there
• Move to a higher level of broadband (I miss the T1 from SLC)
• Harley (V-Rod)
• Treo 650?
• Dual G5 and 30" screen (or at least another 20" for the PC)
• Home theater
• More writing in the blog
• More reading!
• Take more trips
• Actually learn to play the guitar this year
• Exercise more (everyone HAS to say this)

Am I missing anything?

Popularity: 20%

To set up a virtual user (email) in the domain that was created (needs to be done as root)

A couple of notes for variable names:
$DOMAIN = full domain name (dotnot.org)
$ALIAS = lop of the TLD (dotnot)
$USER = username of the person (scott)

Popularity: 10%

Please note that this blog is my second memory, and this is intended for long-term storage. To set up a new domain for virtual mail accounts (domain must be new to the box, and please note that all of these commands need to be run as root):

A couple of notes for variable names:
$DOMAIN = full domain name (dotnot.org)
$ALIAS = lop of the TLD (dotnot)

Popularity: 11%

I received an iPod Photo 60GB from my wonderful wife, and I have to say that I am impressed. Although I do not see myself EVER using the Photo functionality (I uploaded all my photos to try it out, and still don’t see the point, other than the obvious Grandma factor).

Based on a review from ipodlounge, I bought the Sony MDR-EX81SL earbuds from audiocubes. I was impressed that they shipped from Osaka, Japan to my door in 3 days, and it cost me almost nothing for shipping. Great experience, audiocubes is on the good list. Plugged the earbuds in, and my ears almost cried. The sound is beautiful compared to the now abyssmal earphones that ship with the iPod.

On another note, we tried out the Monster cable (1/8" to RCA) in the Honda, and the sound is great. Amanda also got an iPod for Christmas, and she loves it (using the lossless encoder) .

Popularity: 8%

Upgraded the server to Subversion 1.1.2 tonight.

It went down something like this:

Once the server has restarted, make sure that it is back up. The process was painless, and the server was back up and running in no time.

Now it is time to upgrade the client machines. TortoiseSVN 1.1.2 for Windows boxen, and fink update svn for Mac OS X, as well as not forgetting scplugin.

I also cannot stress enough the importance of reading “The Book“.

If only WordPress upgrades were this easy…

Popularity: 14%

Just my first impression on Gallery, the photo gallery software.

Powerful, relatively easy to set up (they expected me to have Unix knowledge). Lots and lots and lots of options about presentation, etc. I was able to set it up in about 10 minutes, and had the site I wanted in about 25 minutes. Overall, I had a positive experience, and I could recommend it to someone. It’s just not that super cool to say “It’s the best thing since sliced bread”, and I really didn’t try anything else. If you are looking for gallery software, the namesake is definetly one to check out.

Popularity: 8%

The fog rolls in,
slow and sure.

Hilltops watch it glide by,
until they become but a blur.

Peeking out from the mist,
I feel no leverage.
Lost in the moment,
and my caffienated beverage.

Scott Sanders
December 28, 2004

Popularity: 20%

I have been using Firefox for quite a while now, and I am just posting some notes about how/why I use it.

The whole security discussion is a red herring to me, since you have to consider that everything on the planet is NOT secure. But features like type-ahead find are really useful for productive web browsing (an oxymoron?).

As a web developer, extensions like the JavaScript Debugger, the Web Developer Toolbar, and ColorZilla, the built in color picker. I also use LiveHttpHeaders for debugging http communication between the client and server.

Today I just came across some tricks to make Firefox faster for broadband users. Done!

I actually changed Firefox to be the default browser on my Windows boxen, but still stick with Safari on the Mac as the default, even though Firefox is always open, as my primary development browser. This is mainly because Firefox insists on attaching Acrobat to downloaded .pdf files, instead of the more usable Preview, ala Safari.

I would say that Firefox is the best browser that I have used to date. Not really saying a lot though.

Popularity: 8%