So if I only post interesting things I’ve done or discovered and I only posted eight posts this year it must have been an uninteresting year… right?  That, dear random reader, is a logical fallacy (perhaps Confusing Cause and Effect but I’m not sure). It has been a very interesting year for me. Most of the “interesting” (I’m using interesting loosely here) have been personal not fit for print on my technical blog. I’ve also done some interesting things online but never had the time to post about them. I enjoyed helping a friend create a site to share his photos (www.pattamanuch.com) using modx. I hacked together a few ubiquity commands that I hope to share here soon.  I updated Xinha Here a couple of times mostly just to keep up with the latest Firefox version.  I’ve started and subsequently dropped a few new projects (see Implementation vs. ideas).

So what is a loyal hypercubed blog reader supposed to do?   Well, one thing you can do is check out or subscribe to my delicious links tag.  Anytime I see something interesting that I think others would enjoy I delicious it with the tag links.  The top 10 links appear on the right hand side of my blog.  I’ve yet to find an easy way to compile these into a regular blog post but I may eventually.  What else?  Well I broke down and created a twitter account.  Not much to see there yet but perhaps if I have some followers I’ll be inclined to post some quick tips now and then.

In any event, I can’t promise that 2009 will be any better but rest assured I’ll be doing interesting stuff regardless of weather I blog about it or not.

Have a Happy New Year!

Hypercubed paid $239.40 in hosting fees to DreamHost, Inc.  These hosting fees were paid in 2007 for services to be rendered through 2009.  Hypercubed paid an additional $39.80 in domain name registration fees.  In total Hypercubed’s expenses in 2007 were $279.20.

So all told my little hobby here has cost me $11.35 in 2007.  Not bad considering how expensive alternative hobbies can be ($2500 for a camera, my god!).  I could probably squeeze a little more out of this by strategic placement of ads and posting more often but, like I’ve said before, this is a hobby not a living.

I’ve been doing some thinking on why I have released so few projects over the eight years I’ve been online (hypercubed.net was purchased December 1999) compared to the number of applications that I build.  In addition why have none of them reached a quality level necessary for earning some real income.  I think it can all be summarized in the following completely made up graph. 

As you can see three things are conspiring against me.  First is the complexity factor.  As the feature set grows the time needed to add each feature grows even faster.  Each new feature takes longer and longer to implement.  Second, I usually work on the interesting part of the project first, everything else is bells, whistles, and polish.  Sometimes just implementing the interesting part is enough to release a Version 0.1 (basic usability) but more often then not the interesting part is over well before a publicly shareable release is ready.  The third thing conspiring against me is my available time.  Developing application and running my website is a hobby.  I do have a day job and a very demanding one if you ask me.  With such limited time available I can’t get much beyond the interesting parts of the project without feeling the pull to other more interesting projects.  Sometimes I come back to old projects but often I don’t.  I seam to always be in the vicious cycle of starting interesting projects, running out of steam, then starting the next.  Someday this needs to stop.

There are several solution to this dilemma; none of them very easy.  I could quit my day job and work on development full time (Hypercubed, Inc. anyone).  Isn’t it everyone’s dream to turn their hobby into their work?  But I don’t think I would be able to make enough to support my family anytime soon.  The second is to get a partner.  Unfortunately most people I know are not interested in the geeky stuff I work on.  I could lower my standards and release every project regardless of the state.  If the project generates interest then that would be a driver for me to add more time.  The problem with this is that most people on the web are leaches (myself included) thousands of people may download a piece of software but only a handful will comment on it and their comments are not usually helpfully (where is the anykey?).  Last is to make a the project to open source.  I’ve been considering this for a long time but just not sure how to do that.  It seams to me that the same curve may apply to managing the open source project.  I say it almost every day at work… I’m not a manager… and I don’t want to be.

This reminds me of the time I noticed a woman at the service center of a major retail computer store picking up a repaired PC.  I noticed her because it was the same PC that I owned in the late 90’s (HP 85 something).  Standing in ear shot I could hear that she had extra memory installed in the machine.  If I recall correctly that machine needed PC100 memory and must be installed in matching pairs.  Let’s say she put in two 256 MB chips.  These cost at least $40 each for each 256 MB chip.  The service charge for that place is $100 minimum.   So this poor woman paid at $180+ to maintain a 10 year old machine.  You can buy a new computers for $200 – $300.  What a rip-off! 

Remember: friends don’t let friends use retail PC repair shops.

But nothing beats the comment from A. L. Hay (I don’t know if that is his real name).  Apparently Mr. Hay thinks that because I posted an entry on the McDonalds Monopoly game that I must in fact represent McDonalds.

To Whom it may concern:   I have E-Mailed you several times on the monopoly game but for some reason I get no reply. I’m concerned about the Boardwalk Parks Place game pieces, And whom has come forward to claim the prize you see I A.L. Hay in Artesia New Mexico seem to have remembered Pulling the Boardwalk GGame Piece along with another certain piece of property I’ll choose not to reveal right now. I inquired with one of your service employes about the odds on the specific Boardwalk game piece and the odds for that specific piece, No positive information was revealed to me at the time She informed me she really didn’t know. I was also instructed to the game board brocure on the counter I kept to read latter and proceded to put the two pieses in my wallet for safe keeping. It was also the start of the game. And I intended on collecting the other pieces to see for myself the odds on the specific pieces.  Time went on days gone by. I recieved a Parks Place piece My last winning piece. As I went into my wallet to retrieve the other piece It now was another Parks Place piece not the Boardwalk piece I remembered? Im almost sure I didn’t Illusion the pieces prior to this event because I told several people that I had gotten the Boardwalk piece and how I thought It was tha harder of the two pieces to get. Now I dont know exactly how the piece was taken from me or who exactly is involved… This is a true story that Im telling you and truly based off of FACTS and not a dream or illusion. Need to Know what happened… I won fair and square. truly thats plain and simple. In Need Of Resolution PLEASE. truly Yours, A.L. Hay P.S. Feel free to E-Mail me at   [redacted]

See he knows he didn’t illusion it because he told prople about it.  I couldn’t help but respond to this one.

Mr. Hay,

Thank you for contacting me regarding your issue with the my Monopoly Best Chance Game.  I regret that I have been unable to reply to you via e-mails regarding this issue.  You see after the ramped fraud seen in this game during the years 1995 – 2001 extra security measures were needed to ensure that the winning game pieces were never again misappropriated.  These security measures includes a sophisticated quantum cytographic transmission protocol that ensures that the secret details will never be reveled to anyone.  These security measures are so strong, in fact, that not even the intended recipient of the e-mail can read it.  Therefore the location of the winning game pieces is never reveled to anyone.

In regards to your issue.  It may be possible that you did pull the coveted Boardwalk piece as you recall.  However, it appears that the e-ink on which this game piece was printed may have malfunctioned.  This issue has occurred in the past.  Unfortunately, it is our policy that we are not responsible for malfunctions of our game pieces.

If you wish to have your issue investigated further you will need to complete, in triplicate, an advanced special service online form (ASS-O form).  The ASS-O form currently resides on our 233 yottaflop Gibson processing cluster (see image) running a beta version of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.  Normally I could give you access to our system as long as you prove you are a US citizen, (be aware that a drivers license is only proof of citizenship if you are currently a citizen).  However, because of singularity concerns the system is currently behind our Tele Fonix firewall.  You will need to complete the form by phone by contacting one of my service employees at (310) 807-5778.  If you receive a voice mail service please leave all pertinent details.  Your name, home address, location were you received the proposed winning piece, your mothers maiden name, social security number, bank account number, and ATM pin are all required.  Be aware that any calls you make to will be recoded for entertainment purposes only.

Mr. Hypercubed
Monopoly Best Chance Game Senior Coordinator

Why?  I really don’t know.  Like I said I don’t get it.  Even though I like the idea of always being connected to the net (I want Google and wikipedia directly pumped into my head) I don’t get the need to post every mundane activity.  BTW, I ate at Jack-in-the-box tonight, wow, do you care?

Stepping back a minute, how can I judge any of these sites without trying them?  Maybe if I try it out I’ll discover it is the best thing since ASCII art.  OK, I doubt it but I’ll give one a try… only… which one?  For me the choice was obviously Pownce.

Pownce is the latest, but probably not the last, micro-blogging platform to pop up in the web 2.0 “new world order”.    Pownce improved on the model by adding file, event, and link sharing.   Pownce is also recommended for use in a ”work setting”.  While my blog is not really work (it is hard work, but I don’t make money) I think Pownce is the site for me.  Plus, I’m a big Kevin Rose (a founder of Pownce and Digg) fan so there you go.

So if you want to see my Pownce micro-blog look here: Hypercubed Pownce.  I also have a few invites.  If you would like to join Pownce leave a comment below.  Be sure to leave a valid e-mail in the e-mail field.  Don’t put your e-mail address in the comment if you want to avoid spam.

1. Place all the headers you want to use in a single directory on your sever. This is the only step that needs to be done through FTP. The rest can be done using the WP theme editor.
2. Install and activate the Random File WordPress plug-in.
3. In the WP theme editor edit the Stylesheet file. Remove the header image link from your CSS file if it is there. This step is necessary because you cannot call PHP functions inside a CSS file. Depending on what theme you are using the header section will look something like shown below. If you don’t find it in the CSS it may be that it is already in the header.

   #header {
     background: #73a0c5 url('images/kubrickheader.jpg') no-repeat bottom center;
   }

4. Open your Header in your theme editor and find find the style section. Either add or edit the header image css as shown below where [PATH TO IMAGES DIRECTORY] is the directory we setup in step 1.

   #header {
     background: url(";") no-repeat bottom center;
   }