Matt's Blogathon

AllChurches.com 2.0 Released

2011-03-07T21:57:00.003-06:00

AllChurches.com has finally release the latest and greatest version of the largest directory of Churches online. This new version makes it faster and easier to update your Churches information. It also comes equipped with twitter and facebook integration which will help explode your Churches growth. Please take a moment to check out this great new version of the largest Church directory online and update your Churches information today! All can be done free! Enjoy!

WebSite: AllChurches.com
Twitter Account: @allchurches
Facebook App: apps.facebook.com/allchurches

Join Gifts to Grow now and get 100 Free Points.

2011-02-14T22:41:00.002-06:00

"This program is great. We already buy Pampers wipes and Pampers diapers and then they reward us on top of that. If you join http://amazon.com/mom you can also get an additional 30% off diapers and wipes with subscribe and save."

From knowing exactly when they want teddy to comforting them at 3am, the list of love is endless. Gifts to Grow gives parents the rewards they deserve, simply by buying Pampers diapers and wipes. Join now and get 100 Free Points.

View >>

What is up with these no sender no subject emails in iPhone mail app?

2010-06-24T16:41:00.001-05:00

Any ideas why I get these? They mess up my unread count too... I think it's a bug in iOS4.

Found some issues with iOS4 so far... other than that, GREAT!

2010-06-22T08:51:00.006-05:00

Apple's iOS4 upgrade went pretty smooth... I did have to upgrade iTunes first, which made it take slightly longer, but other than that...not too bad. Here are a few bugs I've noticed so far...

1. NEW - NO SIGNAL with my 3GS iphone on iOS4 at and around my house... AT&T claims it's because I upgraded to iOS4... at work though I get full 3G signal with no issues.... seems more like an AT&T problem than an iOS4 problem. :(

2. Update: This is now working... must of been some strange scenario... ~~Videos can no longer be trimmed / clipped with a 3GS iPhone. Is this their way of trying to force you to get an iPhone 4 with iMovie?~~ UPDATE 2: Actually, there is a minimum size you can trim the video to when it is in landscape mode... if I rotate to portrait mode, I can trim further... not a huge fan of that, but at least there's a work around.

3. The camera roll is not getting updated after taking pictures / videos with camera unless entering from within the camera itself.

4. Some websites that request to use my location immediately cause safari t crash. (mainly m.stlouisgasprices.com at the moment) Update: This seems to be sporadic, but still happens quite often.

Let me know if you've found any additional issues and I will update my post

UPDATE: First Crash in a long while just happened while using iOS4...was listening to Pandora in the background flipping between apps... went into the Mail app and was reading my email.. then tried to open up the next email and everything froze. Had to hold down the power button and the home button to restart.

upgraded my iPhone OS to 3.1.3 with no issues

2010-02-03T09:46:00.003-06:00

All looks good to me. It took about 15 minutes to do connected to iTunes on my home PC this morning. First downloads the update and then installs it on the iPhone. I wasn't having any troubles with 3.1.2 myself, but I always like to have the latest and greatest version. Post comments below if you've found any new hidden features of 3.1.3 OS for the iPhone. Thanks! Screen shot of the listed fixes shown below:

New domain and updated to be mobile friendly

2010-01-28T23:54:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone... I recently bought a new domain for my CraigsList Search Helper website. You can find it at http://clshelper.com/ and be sure to try it on your mobile browsers. Let me know if you have any issues. Here's a screen shot of it on the iPhone. Enjoy!!

New Domino's Pizza is better in my opinion...

2010-01-08T13:36:00.003-06:00

It's been awhile since I posted something here. Since I do have some domino's pizza posts already, I figured I'd post my response to their new ingredients. You've seen the commercials right? They have changed the sauce, the cheese and even the bread.

Last night we ordered 2 medium 2 topping pizzas and an order of 10 chicken kickers with Ranch... each item was $5.99 for a total of $19.39 (pick up, not delivery). For the pizzas we did one with peperoni and pineapple... the second was bacon and mushrooms.

I was pleasantly surprised at the new style of domino's pizzas. I was already a fan of the old way, but the new ingredients made the pizza even better in my opinion. My favorite part is what they did with the crust... they seem to add extra butter around the crust and add some garlic bread type seasoning so it makes it like you are eating excellent garlic bread for the crust. Delicious!

Anyhow, I give it 9 stars out of 10... I even enjoyed it cold today for left overs.

H1N1 does have Thimerosal ( a Mercury based preservative) in it...confirmed by the CDC

2009-10-21T10:21:00.005-05:00

Oh man this makes me irritated... The below is quoted from the CDC questions and answers page about the H1N1 vaccine...

Does the 2009 H1N1 flu shot have mercury in it?

There is no evidence that thimerosal (a mercury preservative in vaccine that comes in multi-dose vials) is harmful to a pregnant woman or a fetus.

The part in parenthesis answers the question... YES, Thimerosal is in the vaccine, and it is a MERCURY based preservative.

However, because some women are concerned about thimerosal during pregnancy, vaccine companies are making preservative-free seasonal flu vaccine and 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine in single dose syringes for pregnant women and small children. CDC advises pregnant women to get flu shots either with or without thimerosal.

Full Q&A page from CDC

Google Wave Invite Contest

2009-10-14T20:10:00.001-05:00

Google Wave Invite Contest

Ok, I need to nominate some google wave invites. I figured I'd have some fun with it by having a contest to see who can create the wackiest MyEyes picture and post it to twitpic with my twitter username @mattssmith in the message. For now I'm only going to give out one invite / nomination to the winner of the contest, but if there are enough awesome pictures submitted, I will consider a second and third place prize of invites / nominations. So get creative!

Rules:

1. Post a Wacky twitpic picture via MyEyes iPhone application with my twitter name in the message.

2. No inappropriate material. (basically, if not safe for work, you are auto-disqualified)

3. Must have at least one Eye from the MyEyes iPhone application.

4. Contest will end on Friday October 16th 2009 at Midnight, and winner will be announce on my blog Saturday October 17th 2009. (at which point the winner will need to have a way to get me their email address for the invite.)

P.S. You can post as many Wacky pictures as you like, but be careful, only the latest / most recent post will be used in the contest.

Sneaky Domino's...

2009-07-07T13:42:00.003-05:00

Just noticed that they conveniently show 2 or more toppings on their advertisement for 1-Topping pizzas... kind of sneaky if you ask me. That peperoni and pineapple pizza really made me hungry, but then I realized I couldn't order that with the 2XTUESDAY deal, since it's more than 1 topping. Thanks anyways Domino's.

just found these promo codes for pampers points at STLMommy.com

2009-06-22T15:45:00.004-05:00

They all worked as of 5 minutes before this post... got me 9 total extra points for free. Thanks http://stlmommy.com/ (Check back to her site for potentially more codes as time progresses)

WEAPPRECIATEU09 - 3.00

STARTEARNINGNOW - 1.00
WELCOMEBONUS089 - 1.00
OHAMANDAAWGTG08 - 1.00
THRIFTYMOMMYGTG - 1.00
HAPPYMOTHERSDAY - 1.00
HAPPYFATHERSDAY - 1.00

new iPhone for existing AT&T customers will cost $400 more than new customers

2009-06-10T12:32:00.002-05:00

So, from this link:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=MTE2OTU


Price	$99² 8GB	$199² 16GB $299² 32GB

Price

$99² 8GB

$199² 16GB

$299² 32GB

The fine print says:

(2) Requires new two-year AT&T wireless service contract, sold separately to qualified customers; credit check required; must be 18 or older. For non-qualified customers, including existing AT&T customers who want to upgrade from another phone or replace an iPhone 3G, the price with a new two-year agreement is $499 (8GB), $599 (16GB), or $699 (32GB).

Dominos Pizza online ordering impressed me today.

2009-05-30T18:08:00.003-05:00

I've tried the whole online ordering of pizza before with different sites and not been that impressed...
My past experiences with this type of service has been sites that lack all the different options, and even seem to end up charging more than if I had bought it over the phone. Unbelievable right. Anyhow, I was looking up Dominos Pizza phone number online today and up popped a $5 off 1 large pizza if ordered online (I was going to go for the 3 mediums for $5.55 each and have left overs...) I decided to try the online order to see what the price would be... turned out to be $5.99 for 1 large. So that sounded great, and it would keep us from over eating. Then I found out you can earn points per $.01 spent ordering pizzas online at Dominos.. added bonus. And to top it all off they have this cool Pizza tracker which is accurate to 60 seconds.. even put the name of the person and time they put my pizza into the oven... pretty cool! Long story short, I recommend trying to order your next Dominos pizza online. I think you'll enjoy it!

Has your Gmail chat been blocked at work or school?

2009-01-26T09:09:00.004-06:00

Does your Gmail chat sometimes have trouble connecting to the server? Do you get an error message stating:

"We're experiencing technical difficulties that may prevent your chats from being sent."

I have a relatively simple solution for you to try first. It has worked for me and many others... I'm sure there is a way for your IT department to block it this way as well, but if you switch from using 'http' to using 'https' you might have better luck.

So try this link for your Gmail and see if you get better results.
https://www.gmail.com/

FYI - 'http' passes everything you do in plain text for anyone to intercept and read. 'https' encrypts all your data and passes encrypted for only the recipient who has the proper key to decrypt the data can read it... so it's probably better to do your email in https anyhow. So you kill two birds with one stone... more likely that your Gmail chat will work, plus all your emails and chats are encrypted and safe. Enjoy!

Fight Against the FOCA

2009-01-22T12:01:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure I've blogged about this topic yet, but it is a hot one.

Here is my opinion on the topic:

An abortion of any kind is an act of murder... the killing of an innocent life. A direct violation of the sixth commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill". This includes rape and incest victims who become pregnant. I know that this last statement about rape and incest victims may seem harsh or cruel, but the innocent human growing inside the mother does not deserve to be punished because of someone else's wrong doings (in my opinion).

Even if you do not agree totally with my opinion and are for hospitals such as faith based one to have the right not to perform abortions you must act now to fight against the FOCA to make sure this does not pass. It is a porely named act in my opinion as it basically is not giving any choices to the humans growing inside the mothers... and forcing faith based hospitals to all support abortions.

I hope that you will join with me in signing this petition to fight against the FOCA.

http://www.fightfoca.com/

In the link above you will find the petition to sign to indicate you are against the FOCA. Thanks for your time.

Daily Tech Article - Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979

2009-01-05T11:00:00.004-06:00

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=13834

Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979 - This is talking about floating Sea Ice, but still seems like another sign that we are actually cooling... not warming. Just some food for thought. Enjoy!

First year for Christmas lights on our house...

2008-12-06T22:16:00.008-06:00

Wow, putting lights up on a house takes more time that I hand planned for... and the strange thing about that is it actually was easier to do than I thought it would be... due to these handy dandy plastic hooks.

Well, I'm almost done with the lights... I still need to finish the left border of the house and I think I'm going to put some lights on the bushes in front as well. I took some pictures tonight to show my progress... I also have quite a few bulbs that are already burnt out.

I also must thank Micah and Nathan for helping with the lights... couldn't of done it without them. Micah's long arms and precise rooftop work helped with the top left lights on the house when looking from the street. Thanks!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Rudy Giuliani robo-call that says Obama opposes mandatory prison sentences for sex offenders and murderers...

2008-10-23T12:50:00.002-05:00

I got the above robo call from Rudy Giuliani last night. Talks about Obama and how he opposes mandatory prison sentences for sex offenders and murderers. Listen to the call for yourself above. Enjoy.

Who or what caused this financial crisis? You'll never guess...

2008-09-30T00:06:00.006-05:00

This video amazed me. I have not checked all the facts yet, but it seems to be something everyone should watch, and I think he's right that it might change your vote and your future. Check it out... google the facts... let others know about this. You can't believe everything you read and watch on the internet, but this feels ligit. McCain / Palin has my vote more now than ever. We will make the USA a better place and not let these people get away with this crap. If this video does only ONE thing... and if you do nothing else... make sure you get out and VOTE!

PS: This video moves fast, so you probably want to have the pause button ready to read it all...

Sarah Palin Full Interview with Charles Gibson on ABC News

2008-09-17T10:46:00.003-05:00

Sarah Palin rocked this interview as best she could in my opinion. Charles Gibson did not fully understand the Bush Doctrine when he asked that question, and that is where the confusion came in. The McCain / Palin ticket has my vote and I look forward to not having my taxes nearly doubled by Obama. Rock the vote republicans!

How to download and watch your favorite TV shows and Movies

2008-08-21T20:31:00.005-05:00

I have created one of my favorite websites to date called http://tvharddrive.com/ I feel this site has a lot of potential to not only provide top quality streaming video, but also provide offline downloadable content. It is still in its beta phase and is growing in popularity. Users favorites include Family Guy, Futurama, The Simpsons, The Riches, and The Office. The cool thing is it not only has full length TV episodes, it also has full length movies! Along with these great features are the wonderful short clips of TV shows and movies that I enjoy watching when I'm short on time or do not feel like watching the whole show. I just can't get enough of my new website, and I hope you feel the same way. Enjoy!

Slow Motion Lightning Video is Amazing!

2008-08-08T10:24:00.002-05:00

This is the most amazing slow motion video I have seen in a long time. I am very impressed with what this camera can do and how amazing lightning looks under slow motion. I look forward to more lightning slow motion videos in the future. Enjoy!

Is just over 100% profit for the iPhone too excessive?

2008-07-03T11:47:00.005-05:00

Wow, I was just reading an article and realized that a certain company might be a bit greedy...

"Analysts reckon Apple is pocketing as much as $352 per iPhone sold, based on estimates carriers pay about $525 per phone, which Apple is thought to spend about $173 to make, according to iSuppli, which tracks manufacturing costs.That means Apple could make between $12.3 billion to $15.8 billion in gross profit on the iPhone over the next two and a half years."
-Article Link

The article also states that analysts estimate between 35 and 45 million iPhones will be sold before 2010. At $352 profit per iPhone, that comes to between $12,320,000,000.00 and $15,840,000,000.00 in pure profits for Apple. Can we blame them for charging this much? Will the high price keep people from buying it? Probably not... It is one heck of a cool phone.

So lets just say they were to lower the price to benefit both AT&T and the end user by $100... so the total cost to AT&T would be $425 and the profit per iPhone for Apple would be $252 which is only a 45.66% profit. Not the great over 100% profit they were getting before, but still pretty good. With the estimated number of iPhone sales mentioned above their total iPhone profit would fall between $8,820,000,000.00 and $11,340,000,000.00... how can you complain with $8.8 Billion profit?

It sure would be nice to be able to get a G3 iPhone for only $99! And to think the profit Apple would still make at that price.

Cardinals / Royals Game

2008-06-19T09:19:00.005-05:00

Thanks to some free tickets I was able to attend the Cardinals / Royals game last night in Saint Louis. I couldn't believe the play in the bottom of the 4th... the Royals had 2 outs, the Cardinals had a man on 1st and a man on 3rd... LaRue singled to second and all the Royals had to do was step on second... but Grudzielanek fumbled around with the ball, got to second late and then wasn't able to throw to first in time letting the run score from 3rd... in my opinion that should of been marked as an error on the score board, but it wasn't. I was happy to see the Royals redeemed themselves in the 8th inning with 2 solo home runs and came out with the win 3-2. That puts them up 2-0 for the series... get your brooms out Royals fans, we might have a sweep coming!

On a side note...

We were sitting in the outfield bleachers section and before it got dark towards the beginning part of the game we saw an extremely strange bird like creature fly across the sky. It looked like a kite at first, but it was clearly a bird and flew above the outside of the stadium on the 3rd base side from home plate all the way past the stadium and kept on going. I took a triple take on it... it was so odd looking and I noticed lots of people around us saw the same thing and were as confused as I was about it. I'm wondering if anyone got a picture or video of this strange long tailed bird that appeared to have a streamer on the back up while it was flying by the stadium? The closest looking bird I could find on Google is a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (picture show at right). But the tail seems to spread much further apart in the picture at the right than what we saw, plus the tail seemed longer on this bird we saw last night. If you have seen this before or know what it could be, please let me know. Thanks!

UDPATE: The Royals Swept the Cardinals in Saint Louis! LETS GO ROYALS! This extends their streak to a 5 game winning streak (matches their longest of the season). One week from today (Friday, June 27th), the Cardinals are coming to Kansas City... lets make sure we sweep them again, this time at home!

My frustrating experience with this roofing company...

2008-06-16T09:24:00.013-05:00

Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. is not my favorite company. We purchased a home in Saint Peters, MO in October of 2007, and the roof had been completely replaced by Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. in 2005. There is a 5 year warranty on the roof which they have acknowledged.

We first noticed a leak in our garage around late December of 2007 / Early January of 2008. We contacted Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. and they sent a representative out (Michael Hatfield) to take a look at what was wrong so they knew who to send out. Everything seemed like it was moving in the right direction.

The day the roofing guy was supposed to come out he was a bit late, but Michael Hatfield had called to inform us he would be late and even came over with some supplies to re-tape and paint the dry wall in the ceiling that got wet from the leak. When the roofer (Brian) finally showed up in an unmarked mini-van he seemed a bit tipsy. It concerned me that his first suggestion was to extend the down spout from the top roof down to the front porch... I understood this would put less water where the apparent leak was, but he seemed to realize there would still be a leak in the roof. So his next suggestion was to caulk the heck out of the area (which I later found out from professional roofers you never want to fix a leak with caulk).

Needless to say, the leak was not fixed. We called them back and eventually got the same roofer to come out again (even though I requested a different roofer)... this time he said he noticed some areas that looked suspect that he didn't notice the first time and was going to caulk some more. (BTW - this roofer left his own business card which says "BMR Contracting - roofing specialist" on it... so I would recommend not using them either!)

Well, this second layer of caulking again did not fix the leak. So we called them up again, and this time Michael Hatfield was in agreement that the roof needed to be pulled up and a new ice and water shield needed to be laid down and the shingles replaced.

Well, they did not show up on the scheduled date to repair the roof. I attempted to call them for about a month... their phone number, (636) 397-7797 always goes directly to voice mail... I've
never had anyone directly answer that number which is frustrating in and of itself. For about a month and a half of me leaving messages I never heard back from them. I finally gave up when their message inbox was full. I filled a BBB complaint near the end of March (yes I had extreme patients to wait that long).

About 2 weeks after filling the complaint I received a phone call from Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC... but this time it was from someone different... a guy named Josh. Josh had no records of the previous visits or conclusions that Michale and Brian had come up with. We were basically starting over from scratch with Josh. Josh told us he was working at a Bar and so he wouldn't be able to fit in much time for roof repair, but that he could come out and take a look at it. Josh came by at a time different than he said he was going to, (a time when we weren't at home) and he left a business card in the door which said this on the back...

"Stopped by fixed your Leak if you have any further Problems please feel free to contact me at 636-397-7797."

Well, I called him up and he said he caulked the roof again... oh, and he used different color caulk so I could see where he had done the caulking. (so yes, now there are three layers of caulk on the roof) and yes the leak is still there, in the same spot, leaking just as much as it did from the begging. All I want is my leak fixed... and I wanted it fixed for free since it was under warranty, but it is appearing like that is not going to happen.

Well, Josh had a different idea after I called and left a message saying the roof was still leaking... he thought it was the siding. Well, I played along... for all I knew it could of been the siding. Josh had a Siding guy come look at... again at a different time than we had scheduled so I was not able to be there when he came. Josh was honest and let us know the siding guy said there was not a problem with the siding. Josh had now come to the same conclusion that Brian and Michael had come to. We needed new ice and water shielding installed.

After Josh had told me this, I then played the game of not being able to get any responses to my messages left on the Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. voice mail. I finally got a response to one of my messages, but this time it was from someone else completely different. They knew nothing of Michael or Josh's finding with my roof and wanted to start from scratch. I said he really didn't need to look at it as we've had two different roofers come to the same conclusion, but he insisted on starting from scratch. Well, I never saw him come out and never heard from him or any other roofer. What happened? Well, I'm not sure...

The other day, sometime late in May, we received a call from Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC., but just a courtesy call from a non roofer telling us they have had some communication problems. Well, that wasn't really news to us, but we just wanted to know when our roof would be fixed. He said he could not tell us that as he is just calling to tell us they have communication problems.

I left about 3 or 4 more messages trying to get a hold of them with no luck. Again about a week ago in early June we received a call from them saying we got your messages. That was it...that they got our messages. They would not talk to us about our roof or what they were going to do to fix it. I don't understand what is going on. We asked for Russ Kasper's direct phone number, and the guy said, "I'm sorry, I can't give you that number. I was just hired to call people to tell them we got their messages."

Here is the link to my BBB complaint. As of today the complaint is still open, but it doesn't appear to be visible on the main website. The status appears like BBB is having trouble getting a hold of Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC. I'm not sure how long BBB will play this phone tag game with Russ Kasper Roof Replacement LLC., but I want to get my roof fixed ASAP.

BBB CASE#: 1345815
http://70.135.31.30/complaint/view/1345815/c/haghsk?bbbid=0734#

There website is located here: http://www.russkasperroofing.com/ Please don't visit it unless you are making sure they are not the roof company for you. I have also attached the business cards I have accumulated through the process so far. I will update this post once I know more. Thanks for your time, and I hope this saves at least one person from using the wrong roofing company. Thanks! -Matt

UPDATE 06/30/2008:
Just wanted to add that the BBB has closed my ticket due to "NO RESPONSE". This is somewhat frustrating, but it appears BBB has given a new rating of 'Unsatisfactory' to Kasper Russ Roof Replacement company. I also noticed there are some additional complaints besides mine since last I looked at the BBB. Kasper Russ Roof Replacement BBB page is located here: http://stlouis.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=142&bbb=0734&firm=310013407.

UPDATE 07/15/2008:
Well, I guess Russ Kasper Roofing got what they wanted... I broke down and went to a more reputable roofing company and had them fix the leak using my own $300... even though it should of been covered by the warranty. So far it hasn't rained since they fixed it, but based on what they told me it will be fixed and they have promised to come out and repair it if for some reason it was not fixed. I highly recommend this new roofing company which is GCC Roofing and they can be reached at 636-262-0349. They are very professional and easy to work with. My neighbors recommended them to me based on the great work they did on their roof.

UPDATE 08/19/2008:
I thought this story was over, but I got a message about a week ago from someone from Russ Kasper Roofing... I was skeptical, but decided to call them back and see what they had to say. To my surprise, the guy picked up my call immediately (it didn't go straight to voice mail!). This new employee told me he was hired basically to resolve all outstanding BBB issues and mine was one of them and he wanted to see where we stood. I told him the condensed version of the above story and that we ended up fixing the roof with a different company for $300.00. He then asked if we would like to be reimbursed for that, to which I of course said yes as our roof was under warranty. He then proceeded to offer to reimburse us for the drywall ceiling repair in our garage. I was somewhat in shock and disbelief after all that I've been through. He did indeed show up the very next day with $300.00 in cash. Persistence pays off and Russ Kasper Roofing eventually did the right thing, but I can't say I would use them again for my roof.

FINAL UPDATE:
The same employee came out to our house and reimbursed me for the drywall fixes which ended up costing $100. I am impressed with the responsiveness of the new employee and the way Russ Kasper Roofing ended up handling this situation. I just wish it hadn't taken this long and this much effort.

iPhone 3G sounds pretty good to me...

2008-06-09T22:16:00.005-05:00

First impression of the Apple Keynote today... a little dry... but then I remembered it was the WWDC... the Developers conference... so all the software demo's made more sense. I'm a developer myself, so I enjoyed to see what could be done with the API and SDK, but at the same time I was mostly just waiting to hear the news about the new specs. One application that did catch my eye was the MLB.com application... that was pretty awesome! And it was truly a live demo because the Royals were playing the Yankees... I checked it out. I wonder what kind of fee MLB.com will charge for such an application? Or do you think there will be ads?

These are my favorite features, past and present included:

3G Network
WiFi
Built in GPS
Widescreen iPod
Rich HTML Browser
Visual Voicemail
Digital Camera
Photo application
$199 Price

As long as I can work this new low price into my budget and figure out how it will affect my current family plan with Verizon... I think I'm gonna go for the iPhone. I have one month to figure out my budget so that it will fit in with the iPhone price and monthly plan. Wish me luck!

China Earthquake

2008-05-14T11:06:00.003-05:00

Since the earthquake that happened not to far from my home I have been tracking data from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ pretty regularly. The data on the 7.9 quake and all the aftershocks is unbelievable. I'm not sure if it is normal to have this many aftershocks or not, but it seems like a lot in my book.

As of this post, there have been a total of 47 earthquakes around the area. That count includes the initial 7.9 quake and the near after 6.0 quake (15 minutes after).

List of quakes in the area of the initial 7.9 quake is found here (note that as time goes by the quakes will fall off this list as they only keep about a weeks worth of historical data on this page).

In about 2.5 days there have been 47 quakes in this area averaging 5.12 in strength! All have been 4.4 or higher. So basically there has been a significant quake every ~1.2 hours since the initial 7.9 and 6.0 quakes. I can't imagine what it would be like to be trapped in ruble and having to endure after shocks every hour or so. There are many brave people risking their lives to save others. I hope the shaking calms soon for them.

My Craigslist Search Helper

2008-04-24T22:25:00.005-05:00

I have always enjoyed the simpleness of using craigslist.org to buy and sell items in a local venue. There were just a couple things that bothered me and I have attempted to build upon them with the use of Yahoo! Pipes and JSON. I'm a software engineer by trade, so I was interested in playing around with Yahoo! Pipes and the JSON technology... and some friends of mine had suggested that craigslist.org needed better search results... something more like Google and it needed to include the images when available. Using the craigslist.org RSS feeds and some regular expressions, I was able to produce some search results that have the date, title, description, and images when available. So feel free and try it out. Let me know what you think of it and what improvements you would like to see. It is still a work in progress, so be looking for enhancements!

CraigsList Search Helper

UPDATED 06/18/08: I have added some beta sorting options that allow you to sort the results by price from high to low or low to high. These only work for results that include the price in the title text. Those without the price get sorted as if they have the lowest price. I have also added a lot more cities and states to my site. I hope you enjoy the changes. Thanks.

Earthquake in the Midwest (131 miles east of St. Louis)

2008-04-18T07:54:00.008-05:00

A magnitude-5.2 earthquake, centered 131 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri, shook southern Illinois at 4:36 a.m. (5:36 a.m. ET) Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. People as far north as southern Michigan and as far west as Des Moines, Iowa, reported feeling the quake.

My wife and I woke up early this morning to hear and feel our house shaking. The TV on the dresser was shaking... I could not believe it... at first we thought it was our dogs wagging their tails ( two 95lb labs ), but I read the news this morning and it was a 5.2 earthquake in Southern Illinois! I would estimate that the house shook for approximately 5-15 seconds. Scary to think what would happen in a larger Earthquake.

FEMA: What to do during an Earthquake...

**UPDATE**
I just felt another Earthquake from work... I wasn't sure at first...thought maybe the A/C turned on or someone walked by... but sure enough... it was a 4.6 in about the same spot the 5.2 was earlier...

Earthquakes near that area

First Royals Home Opener with Crown Vision produces victory!

2008-04-09T13:00:00.002-05:00

The Royals were able to come out with a win on opening day at Kaufman Stadium against the struggling New York Yankees. Here is a photo I found someone had posted on missourinet.com showing the Crown Vision in full action! It looks amazing! The article on missourinet.com also mentioned that we need not worry about the signature crown on top of the board, as they saw it in pieces ready to be put on top of the board in good time. I hope the Royals can keep their undefeated streak at home alive at least for the next 2 games and complete the sweep of the New York Yankees. Go Royals!

Dominos 555 Deal verses 777 deal (Part 2 of 2)

2008-04-08T10:05:00.005-05:00

Size of the 14 inch pizza (large) = pi * (7^2) = 153.93804 square inches
Size of the 12 inch pizza (medium) = pi * (6^2) = 113.097336 square inches.

153.93804 - 113.097336 = 40.840704 square inches less per pizza 555 deal compared to the 777 deal.

40.840704 * 3 = 122.522112 square inches total missing in the 555 deal verses the 777 deal.

If you take the amount missing from the 555 deal and divide by the total square inches in the 777 deal you get the following...
122.522112/461.81412 = 0.265306119
0.265306119 * 100% = 26.53% less pizza in the 555 deal verses the 777 deal.

$7 * 3 = $21
$5 * 3 = $15

It is $6 cheaper to get the 555 deal... so lets find out what percentage cheaper that is...
6/21 = 0.285714286
0.285714286 * 100% = 28.57%

So, the conclusion is the 555 deal cost 28.57% less than the 777 deal, but you only lose 26.53% of the pizza... therefore making the 555 deal a better deal, but not by much.

Just to hit it home... here is the price per square inch for each deal indicating the 555 deal gets you the most pizza for your money. Enjoy!
555 deal - $15 / 339.2920 sq. in. = 0.0442 ~ 4.4 cents per square inch
777 deal - $21 / 461.814 sq. in. = 0.0454 ~ 4.5 cents per square inch
444 deal - $12 / 235.6194 sq. in. = 0.0509 ~ 5.1 cents per square inch

**UPDATE**
I've been told that they actually charge $5.55 per pizza for the 555 and $7.77 for the 777... that would change the math a bit... see the following...

555 deal - $16.65 / 339.2920 sq. in. = 0.0442 ~ 4.907 cents per square inch
777 deal - $23.31 / 461.814 sq. in. = 0.0454 ~ 5.047 cents per square inch
444 deal - $12 / 235.6194 sq. in. = 0.0509 ~ 5.1 cents per square inch

It still leaves the 555 deal as the best option, with the 777 in second place, but the margins are not as big. Thanks!

(See Part 1 of 2 for more information)
Note: Delivery charge, Tip, and/or taxes have not been taken into account

Dominos 444 Deal verses 555 deal (Part 1 of 2)

2008-04-07T09:22:00.004-05:00

The claim is that the new Domino's Pizza deal of 444 is a 'Recession-Buster' deal... lets find out...

The area of a pizza is calculated by 3.14 (pi) * radius squared...

Size of the 10 inch pizza = pi * (5^2) = 78.5398163 square inches

Size of the 12 inch pizza (medium) = pi * (6^2) = 113.097336 square inches.

So there are 34.5575197 square inches less per pizza in the 444 deal.
34.5575197 * 3 = 103.672559 square inches total missing in the 444 deal verses the 555 deal.

If you take the amount missing from the 444 deal and divide by the total square inches in the 555 deal you get the following...
103.672559 / 339.292008 = 0.305555559
0.305555559 * 100% = 30.555555559% less pizza in the 444 deal verses the 555 deal.

$5 * 3 = $15 for the 555 deal.
$4 * 3 = $12 for the 444 deal.

It is $3 cheaper to get the 444 deal... so lets find out what percentage cheaper that is...
3 / 15 = .2
.2 * 100% = It costs 20% less to get the 444 deal...

IT'S A SCAM! You pay 20% less for 30% less pizza! It's a better deal to do the 555 deal! They also have a 777 deal... I have not done the math on that one yet, but be looking for a later post to find out if it's a better deal than the 555 deal.

(See Part 2 of 2 for more information about the 777 deal and overall price per square inch)
Note: Delivery charge, Tip, and/or taxes have not been taken into account

Connection has timed out when trying to hit Google...

2008-04-07T06:28:00.005-05:00

Over the past couple weeks I have been getting this error message saying, "The connection has timed out" when trying to reach google related websites such as http://google.com/ and http://gmail.com/ ... I even got it the first time I tried to login to blogger to write this post. It has really been frustrating and I'm beginning to wonder if it is a problem with my ISP (Charter Communications) or if Google is truly having problems? In any case, I have been forced to use Yahoo! when I am unable to access Google. This is disappointing and I hope that my issues will be resolved soon. If anyone has any suggestions on ways I can remedy this problem, please let me know. Thanks!

The Kansas City Royals Sweep The Detroit Tigers!

2008-04-03T14:28:00.007-05:00

What an awesome way to start the season. 3-0, 1st in their division, undefeated and a sweep of the team picked to win the world series this year! All this, done while on the road. Greinke pitched a great final game of the series and came out with the win. I look forward to seeing more games won by Greinke this year.

LETS GO ROYALS! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking'

2008-03-31T10:00:00.002-05:00

Brain expert warns of huge rise in tumors and calls on industry to take immediate steps to reduce radiation...

My TV Converter Box Coupons arrived in the mail today!

2008-03-28T18:00:00.004-05:00

Well, I had a nice surprise in my mail box today when I picked up the mail. My two TV Converter Box coupons had arrived. I have a picture of them attached to this post. They can only be used at certain stores, but the list seems to cover a wide variety. I hope that the $40 comes pretty close to covering the cost of the Converter Box... or else I'm not sure I'm going to use them. Anyhow...was wondering if anyone else had gotten theirs? If so, which Converter Box did you buy with them if any?

Apply for yours now if you haven't already here: https://www.dtv2009.gov/ApplyCoupon.aspx

Crown Vision Panels are in place!

2008-03-05T11:48:00.003-06:00

Not much to say here but WOW! MLB's largest High Definition LCD video board! I will definitely have to make a trip to KC for a Royals game if not just to view this amazing HD screen in person. Go Royals!

Super Tuesday Morning...

2008-02-05T06:14:00.000-06:00

Well, today is the big Super Tuesday. Voters in 24 states are going to at the very least narrow down the playing field for the 2008 presidential election. I was reading a CNN article about Super Tuesday which stated an interesting fact about the state of Missouri.

"Missouri is one of the nation's most reliable bellwethers in presidential politics. For the last century --1904 to 2004 -- it has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election but one: going for Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower in 1956."

I hope for record voter turnouts across the nation today. Please do your research and don't let the media polls or peer pressure sway your vote. Stick to your gut and vote for the person that you would honestly like to see as our next president. This is our chance to express our inalienable rights as citizens of the United States of America. Let your voice be heard and get out and vote!

How to get AdBrite to work on your Office Live Basics website

2008-01-18T06:33:00.000-06:00

Well, this turned out to be easier than I originally thought it would be.

Create a separate blank .html file in notepad named adbrite.html
Paste your AdBrite code into the adbrite.html file and save it
Upload your adbrite.html file to your Document Gallery in your office live basics account
Add a HTML module to your office live basics page where you want the AdBrite ad to be placed
Put an < iframe > inside the HTML module like this (note that size of iframe will differ depending on what size ad you are placing, and be sure to replace 'your_domain_name_here' with your actual domain name... in my case it was 'tubeforme.com')
< iframe src="http://your_domain_name_here/Documents/adbrite.html" height="100" width="800" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" > </iframe>

And there you have it. You can now put AdBrite ads on your office live basics pages. This same method works for many other things you might want to embed into your site. Using the same method above I was able to get my statcounter code to work for office live basics. It will also work for google adsense ads. I hope this helped.

A St. Louis rarity in this day and age...

2007-12-03T09:22:00.001-06:00

We went out to eat last night around 6:15pm... we decided to grab a St. Louis rarity in this day and age... the newly opened Wendys in St. Peters, MO... It has been non-stop packed traffic to this restaurant... every time we drive by the drive through line is out into the the street and all the spots in the parking lot are full. You look into the windows and you can see almost every table is full of people and a long line to wait in to order. People are drinking their vanilla and chocolate Frosties and enjoying their 99 cent Jr. bacon cheese burgers with 99 cent small fries.

The three of us got 7 items and 2 waters for at total of $7.13! Gotta love Wendys!
2 Jr. Bacon Cheese Burgers,
1 Spicy Chicken sandwich,
1 Yogurt Cup (with granola)
1 cup of mandarin oranges,
1 small fries
1 baked potato
2 waters

Camera phone pictures from the zoo.

2007-08-07T08:00:00.001-05:00

My first experience at the zoo with my daughter. We got to see the feeding of the sea lions... that is always a fun event. You have to love the free Saint Louis zoo!

2007-06-21T08:06:00.000-05:00

I was able to go to the Royals / Cardinals game Tuesday night in St. Louis... unfortunately, the Royals didn't have as much luck as they did Monday night and the Cardinals won 5-1. The game the next night was even crazier... the Royals were winning until St. Louis tied it in the 9th and then St. Louis ended up winning it in the 14th inning. Almost Royals!

2007-05-02T06:32:00.000-05:00

Wow, I just heard about the 13th ever in baseball history unassisted triple play performed by Colorado rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. I did a search on youtube and could only find one video of an unassisted triple play. Sure doesn't happen often.

2007-04-25T19:47:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been awhile since I posted again... I have started a weekend job of maintaining a website... yikes! Hopefully it wont take up all my weekend time. Anyhow, the site is http://pixelspotlight.com/. It took me a long while to come up with a domain name that I liked and hadn't already been taken... so lets hope this site takes off. :)

Linking my network of PB Wiki's together...

2007-04-07T10:29:00.000-05:00

I have created a logo for this network of PB Wiki's... I am hoping this grand network of PB Wiki's will help increase the traffic to all the PB Wiki's I work on. Visit the network here: Matt's Wiki Network!

Icy fountain left on all year round.

2007-01-19T08:34:00.000-06:00

This is quite an amazing view every year when it gets below freezing... the water keeps going and these layers of ice form around it. It almost looks like someone soaped the fountain until you realize that it is ice pilled up around the shooting water.

Sammy and Lady video

2007-01-14T23:47:00.000-06:00

This is a video of my two dogs one night after they ran around outside a bunch. Don't they look exhausted? So lovable when they are exhausted and wanting to just do nothing but lay around. I wish they could always be that relaxed.

Pancakes for Dinner night!

2007-01-09T23:28:00.000-06:00

Tonight was pancakes for dinner night! I took some lovely shots with my camera phone of me making the pancakes. I recommend you check how much batter you have left before you decide to declare it "pancakes for dinner night". See the size of those pancakes...(kinda small) we were only able to make 4 that size, and 1 tiny one... Bummer eh, but they still were delicious! Be sure to join us next time when we have a brand new box of pancake batter.

Gooooo Chiefs!

2007-01-05T23:26:00.000-06:00

Ok, so they got pretty lucky to even get into the playoffs... but the Chiefs made it! They haven't had much luck against the Colts in previous outings, but I think they might have a chance tomorrow. I look for the Chiefs to take the early lead... then the Colts will rally back and gain a one touchdown lead. The chiefs will score the final touchdown and win the game by going for two. GO CHIEFS!

Snowy Travel to Fort Dodge Iowa

2007-01-02T00:29:00.001-06:00

First off, note that the image I have here is not from our trip, but an example snowy road. Sunday morning we left Saint Louis, MO around 10:30 AM where it was a nice 50 degrees out. When we hit Waterloo, IA we stopped at the Flying J gas station because we had heard it has the cheapest gas around (which appeared to be true). Anyhow, while we were there we heard about a snow storm on west 20 (towards Fort Dodge). It was around 47 degrees out still in Waterloo. We kept driving down 20 and around mile marker 175 we saw our first snow flake. Then just before crossing I-35 it started accumulating on the roads. At the first Fort Dodge exit there was ice and snow on the roads and we didn't feel safe going over 40 miles per hour. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it to the hotel or not. Finally we got to 169 and headed down to our hotel, the Budget Host Inn around 6:30PM. A very scary and eventful day/night of driving (saw two cars that spun off the road on highway 20).

WooT, how great it is.

2006-12-21T23:06:00.000-06:00

WooT. I highly recommend this website. They normally sell one product a day. They definately cater to the impulse buyer. Once they run out of a product you have to wait until the next day to purchase. Every once in awhile they do have a thing called a "WooT Off" where they bring up the next product immediately after the previous product is sold out. These days are wonderful... as long as you have the time to periodically check what the next woot item is. :)

Exercise

2006-12-20T22:33:00.000-06:00

So a couple co-workers have got me started on walking the stairs... Here is a shot of the mountain I climb four times a day from the top. Can you tell how many floors it is by the picture? It's not that much, but it gets the blood flowing and since I mostly sit at a computer all day it is a nice change of pace. My legs could use some exercise every now and again.

My Three Favorite Motorola Cell Phones.

2006-12-03T23:25:00.000-06:00

My current cell phone is the Motorola Q. After that comes the Motorola MING... I can't wait for this to be released in the US. Then comes the KRZR which is the sibling of the RAZR. Simply the best cell phone I've ever seen.
For more information on how to get your free cell phone visit http://freecellphone.pbwiki.com.

Energy Drink and Fruit Drink makes life better. :)

2006-09-08T22:55:00.000-05:00

So, I got introduced to this new Energy Drink called ACT. Man, it is amazing stuff. I guess now that I'm a dad and getting to feel like the age of 30 is right around the corner it helps to know I have ACT on my side. :) Anyhow, I love it! You feel it almost instantly and it lasts for hours! Visit EnergyDrink.pbwiki.com for more information on this wonderful feel good drink. Also they sell a fruit drink and weight loss supplement. Check them out and start feeling good about yourself.

Attempt at a Mentos Fountain

2006-09-02T22:47:00.000-05:00


Fun with Mentos and Diet Soda... A Labor Day Weekend Experiment.

Emma rolled over for the first time!

2006-07-13T18:28:00.000-05:00

I am so proud of her. Keep up the good work!

AllChurches

2006-06-29T22:55:00.000-05:00

My Brother-in-law has created this awesome website. You can search for churches near you, view information about those churches, and even maintain your own churches site within AllChruches.com

Emma's Tummy Time!

2006-06-29T22:51:00.000-05:00

Look at Emma go! At 2 months she's lifting her head and trying to move. I'm soooo proud of her! Amazing stuff Emma!

I'm a father!!!

2006-04-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

Well, it is official now... I'm a dad! How cool is that?

Emma Violet Smith was born April 12th, 2006 at 9:05 AM.

I'm so excited and nervous all at the same time. This is a great moment in my life and I want to share it with everyone.

Hail Storm 4-15-2006

2006-04-15T18:03:00.001-05:00

Some pieces of hail that I quickly picked up before they melted out in our back yard. They are sitting in our kitchen sink when I took this picture. This storm happened on April 15, 2006. Two large hail storms in one year... amazing stuff!

Hail Storm

2006-03-12T23:17:00.001-06:00

This was the largest hail storm I've ever seen at my house. I tried to get some good pictures that showed the size...

Wiki's and why they are important

2006-02-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

Wiki - what a weird word... ok, not really... but to those who haven't heard of it before, it does sound odd at first.

a Wiki is a powerful tool. You can share knowledge that can be edited by others. It's a living document that can track history and changes. The people a pbwiki have provided a great service to us all...

PBWiki is where you can get a free wiki page to share with anyone and everyone (or nobody if you want to keep it private and password protected). Check them out at http://PBwiki.com/! I highly recommend them!

matthewandsarah.pbwiki.com

First post of 2006

2006-01-22T18:58:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's a new year! Too bad I don't use this blog thing very often. We finally created a logo for our http://sinkthecoin.pbwiki.com/ website!!! And with this we created a sink the coin logo store! It's hip, it's cool... it's crazy cool.
Everyone should go purchase some cool looking clothes at http://www.cafepress.com/sinkthecoin.

Discovery Launch Delayed

2005-07-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

Boooo Hoooo... well, guess there is more waiting in store before NASA returns to flight. Better safe than sorry. :) I look forward to the next launch.

Out of shape

2005-07-09T18:50:00.000-05:00

How did it happen so fast... it seems like yesterday I was in good shape, and now today... not so much.

Just got back from my first bike ride in about year. I need to do that more often.

As soon as we can get my wife a bike, I think we'll start riding more often.

Till next blog...

PB Wiki site

2005-07-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

Hello, it's been awhile since I posted anything here...

Here is Sarah and Matthew's pbwiki site: http://matthewandsarah.pbwiki.com/

Here is the famous Sink The Coin wiki: http://sinkthecoin.pbwiki.com/

Now, I know you want your own wiki to be proud of, so go ahead an get your FREE wiki here: pbwiki.com

First Blog Post

2005-01-26T22:10:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure exactly how this goes...but here it is. I don't have much to say at this time, so I'll leave this as is until next time.