Never Underestimate Radical Vision

This one is for you bloggers out there. There is a really great, simple blog post creation WYSISYG editor available for blogging. It is called WB Editor. It is free, easy to use and really simple to setup. You can get it here:

http://www.cweblogs.com/wbeditor/

If you like the product you can even make a small donation to make sure it stays free. If you need any help setting it up leave me a comment and I will respond. It sure beats using the MoveableType editor.

As I sit here sipping on some very nice Earl Grey tea and reading over some of the blogs I enjoy, It hit me. Why had I not thought of it sooner? It seems with all of the people I know there is a notable person missing from the blog space. So I am calling you out, Mike Wilkerson!

The blog train is arunnin and you need to hop on board. With the likes of Scoble and Chris Sells really pushing the blog presence at Microsoft, you need to setup a blog. I know I would love to hear about life at home with two kids, life at Microsoft, your stance on issues, etc. I am sure the people that read my blog would agree. You would definitely be a more interesting read than myself So come on, what do ya say?

I am sure you are a very busy person but maybe you could do as part of your job. I know Scoble would push for it I would love to here about the testing adventures on the CLR.

Hey if anything try to make it on Channel9. They only had a couple of testing related videos and I would love to see your mug on Channel9

So there you go. Come on guys, leave some comments and support me on this issue!

later for now.

Ok, as most of you might know I am a little on the plump side. Ok, ok, I am on the larger side of the plump side. All right, I am freaking fat! Are you happy now? Back off! So I am getting a little more motivated about losing some weight. I try to exercise in the morning, I have cut out drinking pop at work (although I still indulge at home – which I will try to give up next), I don’t salt anything anymore and I eat more chicken than I ever had previously. Yet, I need to make more changes in the things that I eat and the quantity that I eat. The quantity I think I can manage with a little bit of determination, but the things are a little tougher. I would eat healthy, but most of the healthy food I have tried either sucks or is extremely bland. So here is what I am asking:

1. What are some of your tips for staying slim, trim and healthy?
2. What are some healthy items that I can eat that taste good (take in account that I am in the Midwest)?
3. What are some recipes that I could try?

I know Adam, Ryan, Andrew and David should have some input on this one. I am really counting on Adam for some recipes. My family has a history of heart disease and I need to be a lot more responsible of that fact. Also, I would like to be able to fit in a airplane seat comfortably again.

There is the challenge, help me out!

I am going to try to be more frequent with blog posts. Since I plan on being more motivated I have a couple of questions to ask:

1. Does anyone on my current notification list like to be removed?
2. Does anyone want to be on my notification list to get automatically emailed when I make a new post?

If either of these fit please leave a comment with your name, email address and which option you choose (note: of course if you use a RSS aggregator there is no need for either ).

I found out yesterday that I am going to be an uncle again!!! My little brother is going to join the ranks of fatherhood. I am very excited for them and at the same time it makes me feel a little old

So, congrats little bro, you will love fatherhood!

later

read the blog post and all the comments:

http://neopoleon.com/blog/posts/6368.aspx

It saddens me.

I just found out today that Adam Taylor now has a blog. He is a great friend and mentor I had growing up. He taught me to appreciate a lot of different things and I will have to blog about that sometime.

So go check it out here.

Also, of course, his RSS feed it here.

Being motivated by one of David’s lastest posts. I commented on how to make a good cup of coffee. Here is the comment that I posted for those who do not read David’s blog.

–START COMMENT–

Coffee is the nectar of the gods! I drink coffee because it is a very pleasant beverage. I am not affected by caffeine like most people. I can have a cup of coffee in the morning as a boost and drink a nice espresso at night for relaxation. I love coffee!

You definitely need to brew coffee yourself. Buy a bean grinder (or for the adventurous, buy a bur grinder to get even sized pieces). If you use a normal grinder make sure you shake it like a martini when grinding to get as even pieces as possible.

Here are some simple steps to follow to make your own coffee taste better than anything that Dunkin Donuts, etc. can put together:

1. Buy good beans from a reliable roaster. You can find many online like http://www.greatcoffee.com, http://www.gmcr.com, http://www.hawthornecoffee.com, etc. Most of these places use a medium to light roast. If you like it darker make sure you request it. I would recommend buying an East African coffee. These are very easy on the palette.
2. Use clean water. DO NOT USE TAP WATER. Get some good reversed osmosis produced water.
3. Grind the beans right before you brew them. Make sure to try to make them as evenly sliced as possible. The finer the grind, the stronger the coffee. To start you off use about 1 scoop of beans (2 tablespoons) per 12 ounces of water.
4. After the coffee is done brewing take it off the burner. This most critical! Leaving it on the burner will leave a terrible taste to the coffee. Use a nice thermal carafe to hold your freshly brewed coffee.
5. Finally, let is cool a bit. How can you taste anything if you scorch your taste buds? The coffee will not lose flavor if let set a little bit to cool.

These are a few simple steps to making a great cup of coffee at home and truly enjoying one of God’s little pleasures. For reviews of certain coffees by roasters go to http://www.coffeereview.com. That is all for now. Some day I will blog my entire coffee theory of a great cup.

–END COMMENT–

Here ya go Ryan.

There is a lot of information about what RSS is and if you want to search on Google you can find a more technical definition. If anyone wants to call me and get more of the scoop on what RSS is and why it is important then give me a call (I am a terribly slow typist).

RSS a dummy’s definition:

RSS allows a web site to publish information in a standard means that allows
a computer to easily consume it. A computer consumes a RSS feed via a RSS
reader that sits on your desktop. It functions much like Microsoft Outlook
or Microsoft Express for newsgroups. The RSS feed could have headlines to
stories that you click on to get more information.

With my RSS reader I am able to keep up with more than 100 web sites and
never leave the comfort of my desktop. I do not have to pop up the browser
and surf to the site just to see if new information has been published. I also
get regular updates through out the day when information is updated.

For example when there is a new post on the byscuit blog, I get notification
that a new story exists before David can get his email out. This so much better
than me surfing to his site every day just to see if he has updated his blog.
And he still gets the hit on his referrer logs when I use a RSS reader. It is
a more efficient way to gather information.

Another example is that I get the latest news from ESPN, Slashdot, etc. all day
long without any effort on my part.

There are also greater implications for the computer industry that RSS can
provide or pave the way for future technologies to build upon. I my opinion,
RSS is justifying the hype of Web Services in a real easy to use, today
technology.

It is real easy to use. Download RSS Bandit. Go to www.supercodepoet.com/blog.
Find the link that says Syndicate this Site and right-click and Copy Shortcut (for
IE users). Open RSS Bandit. Click File->New Feed. Paste the url in Url textbox.
Click Get Title from Feed and click OK. There you go. If you minimize RSS Bandit
it will put a little icon in your tray that will update anytime I update my blog.
You can go to any blog, web site, new site, sports page, etc. and look for a link
that says something like, Syndicate this Site, RSS feed, an orange graphic box that
has XML on it or something like that.

There you go my short sweet pitch. I would love for all web users to use RSS. It
will help make a more efficient web. If you need any help getting set up don’t
hesitate to give me a call.

later

ESPN now has RSS feeds!!!

Click here

Ed and I have now found a great RSS reader that is open source and FREE! It is called RSS Bandit and is written in C# for those looking for code to learn from for a real application. This application was originally written by the head of the SQL Server/XML team at Microsoft. Check it out