Thanks to Patrick for setting me up with an invite to a Google GMail account. I have been playing with it and the way it lays out your mail and stores it is pretty cool. Replies to e-mails with the same subject are stored as a conversation between you and the sender, which is pretty neat.

I’ll continue to play with it and see how bad the ads are that are going to be targeted at the content of the the e-mails.

My GMail address is ssegraves [at] gmail dot com, so feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

Thanks again to Patrick.

There’s a lengthy discussion going on at Sitepoint Forums about Wal-Mart selling websites. Some folks are very worried about this but not me. If people are looking for a quick way to get a canned design up, then let them go to Wal-Mart. When they realize that there is so much more they can do with their site they will contact people in the design/programming business.

I don’t really think this idea will take off with people anyway. When businesses think websites and internet they do not think Wal-Mart. In the past Wal-Mart has been able to dominate markets by basically forcing their suppliers to drop prices. They promise to buy more (and they do) to make up for the cost difference and this has led to companies becoming dependent on the business that Wal-Mart provides. So much so that a lot of the suppliers have moved their operations to Arkansas. I really do not think that is what Sam Walton had in mind when he started his chain.

I came across this iTunes plugin that allows you to display the currently playing song. It does this by uploading an XML to the web server and you can then use PHP to parse that file and output its contents.

Now for the plugin to be fully functional a donation of $10 is required. I don’t mind donating $10 for a nifty piece of software that I do not want to program myself (mostly because the iTunes SDK is in C). So, I may just grab this plugin and start using it because it makes sense. Everytime I am doing something on the computer I am usually listening to music.

We were talking about Nascar at work on Friday and we pretty much all agreed that we did not understand the lure of the racing. I mean, yeah, it is interesting to see the end of a race or a wreck but to watch a whole race is just unbearable. The interesting thing is that Nascar is the fastest growing sport in the country.

I was flipping channels tonight and came up on the Busch series Federated Auto Parts 300, this race was rain delayed and was restarted about an hour before this post. The race will probably run till 2am CST. What really amazed me was the fact that the stands were still filled with people. It did not look like anyone left. What is the draw in this sport?

Anyone who knows the history of Nascar knows that its origins lies in bootlegging. The bootleggers would put hot-rod parts into their cars to outrun police who were trying to stop them from selling illegal homeade alcohol. Wow, what an inspiration for a sport, drinking and running from the law…

It was one of those days when you actually get a lot done but you don’t feel like anything was actually accomplished. My main project at work has been drawn out even longer because of customer prompted changes. No, they were not mistakes on our part, the customer just changed his mind (and probably will continue to change his mind) so I get more work. I am just wanting the piece of software to be complete and move on and maybe come back to it later.

There comes a point when you are working on something and you just become burnt out on it and need to start on something fresh. Well, Monday I get to start my project planning on the programming side of First Bank & Trust. Don’t worry, the site is getting a complete overhaul from our design guys while I get to program the whole dynamic side of the site. It will be a refreshing change from what I am working on now which has to be kept under wraps because of the nature of its use.

So, basically I just need a change of pace. I think everyone needs one some time or ‘nother. Maybe a road trip or something… I may head to Amarillo or Roswell just to get out of town for a weekend. Don’t know exatly what I’ll do when I get there but something different would be nice.

So my middle brother put himself on Hot or Not which for some reason is just hilarious to me. Anyway, you can see the goober here….

Most of the South Plains area and parts of New Mexico have been issued a fire warning for the rest of this week and part of next week. The dewpoints around here are supposed to drop down into the teens and single digits, meaning there won’t be any moisture in the air whatsoever.

The temperature today was around 96 but there was a strong wind which made it even worse, it felt like an oven…

With so many kids back in Lubbock for summer school my internet has gone back down the tubes. The company that supports the network for the apartment complex is Wild-Packets and let me just reiterate how horrible they are at customer service and just service in general.

My internet goes down for about 5 minutes at a time and then it works for two, then back down. If I am lucky I can check my e-mail and respond in that short amount of time. If the managers at the apartment complex actually cared about their paying customers they would resolve this issue as fast as possible, but no, they could care less.

Next semester, no matter where I am living I am going with Cox. Cable TV and cable internet all rolled into one package sounds like the best idea. DSL is not really an option out here because of the distance limitations and cable seems to get pretty nice speeds out here. We’ll see how it all works out.

So I have discovered the need (it’s really a want) for an XBox. I just need something to do in those moments when there is nothing else to do. I would settle for an XBox with one controller because other people can bring their own…

Now for a small rant… Why is it when people see a “Road Closed Ahead” sign they just ignore it? Do they think that when they get to where the road is closed it is magically going to open for them? I saw people read multiple signs a mile from a road closure and they still speed up to get somewhere they can’t go. It boggles the mind. This makes me believe that Houston does not have the worst drivers because the city rounded them all up and dropped them off here!

So I have been informed (again) that I need to get the archiving feature up and working so that people can look at things that have been posted in the past. The only problem is, most of the entries that were made on the old server were damaged in the move on to this server. That is about 1/3 of the entries made and I am looking for a way to fix the problem.

An explanation as to why the blog archives are not up yet is because I have been so busy at work lately that I do not even feel like coming home and getting anywhere near the computer, let alone do any programming. Now, here in a few days things should start to slow down at work and I may be able to get the feature working, but no guarantees.

On the new design front I have still been trying to come up with a layout that I like and is easy to follow. I really like Patrick’s because of the simplicity of it. I also am a big fan of What Do I Know but it is almost too simplistic. Another two of my favorites are Simplebits and Andy Budd both of which will probably influence my design a little more than they should.