OCDProgrammer.com

I have just implemented Stripe.com as the credit card processor for ScanHelp.com.

I’d love it if you’d go donate $5 to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Butler county and, at the same time, test out my stripe.com implementation.

Go donate $5.

** Why Big Brothers and Big Sisters?  I was a “little brother” back in my pre-teens, just seemed like a cause anybody could throw $5 at.

Many years ago I had an iPhone 3G.  One of the few things I liked about iOS was visual voicemail.  A few days ago I thought I’d see what was out there and found a nice solution.

Step 1
Check your voicemail, write down any information you don’t want to lose.  You will lose your existing voicemail messages.

Step 2
Go to YouMail.com and create an account.  It will send you a text message with a 4 digit code, write this down.  This is your new voicemail pin.

Step 3
Follow their directions to change your voicemail provider from your cell phone company to YouMail.com.  For Verizon you dial *713478966996.

Step 4
Login to YouMail.com and change your pin number. (My Account –> My Information –> Account Security –> Change Your Pin). I recommend a long pin number.  You’ll rarely need this.. but be sure to save this code somewhere.  I use a password manager for mine.

Step 5
Change the website to require your pin (My Account –> My Phones)

Step 6
Go to Settings –> Swipe over to “Applications” –> Select Phone –> Change the voicemail number to 347-896-6000 (this makes the voicemail icon on your phone call that number instead of the default carrier based one).

Step 7
Call the voicemail and set your greeting preferences.  YouMail.com has some options there, learn the system and put it how you prefer. 

Step 8
Install MagikMail.  There are two versions, a free ad supported version and a $2 ad free version. 

I shared some Tweets with the developer and asked if they preferred purchasing the product, so they get $2 right now… or use the ad free version so they get money over time.  They said buying the app is preferred.

Open the application and enter your phone number and your long pin. 

You’ll want to pin this app to the start screen so you have easy access to your voicemail.

You are good to go!

Earlier this week Microsoft decided to promote a “DroidRage” hash tag for people to complain about their Droid.

Earlier this week I got a Windows Phone 8.  Never before have I seen such a huge step backwards.

In Windows Phone 7 I had software I hated in Zune, but it at least did the minimum.  Made it possible to manage playlist, made it possible to subscribe to podcast not in the Market Place, and gave you control over what syncs to your phone without having to do it manually.  If I rated songs as a broken heart, my Zune software would not sync it with my phone. 

What do I get with Windows Phone 8?  I was expecting the Windows 8 desktop OS to work great with my Windows Phone 8, boy was I wrong.

There is a Market Place application which is worthless and there is a “Preview” application that just gives me nothing more than what I see when I navigate to the phone via the Windows explorer.

Now to be honest, that was enough to frustrate me greatly.. but I just keep noticing things I don’t have on my phone.

In WP7 I had an FM radio, great when I wanted to just listen to the radio and not use my precious data.  Or if I was at a gym and wanted to listen to one of their TV’s synced to an FM station.  Guess what is missing from my phone, even though the hardware apparently supports a FM Radio.

Today I was going to my son’s basketball game.  I decided to open up the map software to use the built in turn by turn directions.  Only to find out that to use this I have to use the VZ Navigator, which is a monthly bill add on from Verizon.

If Windows Phone had even 20% of the market saturation of the iPhone there would have been whole teams fired for what they have done to this phone. 

The updates to this phone in the future better fix this, or I’ll not be buying another Windows Phone again and when a company starts losing fan boys like me it does not bode will for a usable product.  I couldn’t, in good conscience recommend Windows Phone 8 to anybody today.

I’m a conservative.  I don’t hide that at all.  I’ve given my support of Mitt Romney a lot of thought.

He was not my favorite Republican candidate this year.  In fact I’d say he was pretty far down on my personal list.  He has been a politician with very liberal views.  However I think a lot of that was more to get elected in Massachusetts than him having a real belief in those views.  Call that slimy all you want, I’d not argue against that charge.  I would say that it is no different than what Obama has done in his political career.  When it makes a good political gain to hold an extreme left view, he will hold it.  When it makes good for him to have a centrist view, he will hold it. 

Why I like Romney is very simple.  We, as a nation, are broke.  I think Romney’s business experience is exactly what we need.  I think he will make decisions based on what is best for the national economy, even fighting China.  Though the immediate reaction to that from the left is that while he was at Bain he shipped jobs overseas.  Okay… that was him doing his job.  He had to save companies and that meant finding cheaper labor for these companies.  As president his job will be to create American jobs and that means equaling the parameters along the fight.  Something I don’t hide is that the job I do, puts people out of work.  The job Romney did, put people out of work.  In most cases we put people out of work to save a company money.  When I create a website that immediately takes 10% of a companies business online, less call center reps are needed.  When I write a process to automate the shipping and sorting of a product, less workers are needed to complete that process. It is what technology has done.  To fault Romney for that is, in my opinion, a poor argument.   This is “creative destruction” and the US economy is built on it.

What I’ve said to friends and family over the past few months is that I believe Romney reminds me a lot of what I hear about Reagan.  Reagan was before my time, I was 10 when he finished being our president.  All that I know about him is from documentaries.

What I know about him is that he had a tendency to be liberal in nature.  Democrats claim that he wouldn’t make it in todays Republican party and I tend to believe that.  Reagan, over the course of his presidency became a very conservative man and I believe the same will happen with Romney.  What I think the mix will do is what happened with Reagan.  He ran away with the election in 1984.

But the first step is November 2012, can’t have a run away election in 2016 without a win in 2012.  Time will tell.

The title of this entry is a play off of a scene from Superman.

Lex Luthor is talking about his evil plan and is talking about the value of land.  There is a set amount of land and those that don’t have it will “pay through the nose for it.”

With domains it is a similar situation.  There are a set amount of usable .com domain names.  While the top level domain market has expanded greatly over the years, the fact is that .com is still king. 

I have amassed a decent collection of domains over the years.  Some better than others, but still a good list of domains.  So I get the occasional email, would you sell it to me?

Got one of those today and that is my motivation for this blog post.

Will I sell my domain to you?  If you are willing to make a life changing financial offer, yes.  Life changing, like enough to pay off my house or some large debt.  So make me an offer, I don’t have “a number” that I am looking for. Worst I can say is no.

If that isn’t you, then the answer is likely no.  My thought is that while you may pay $500 today, in 20 years some crazy startup may pay $200,000.  That is worth the $10 a year to me, because I do find uses for my domains over time.  I only have a few that are just sitting there.

Now for your enjoyment, the clip I was talking about:

Effective June 1st I am an Independent Software Vendor.

The journey to this started in 2000.  I was a hard working factory man who was presented with an opportunity to work for a friend at Jetsoft Development.  This friend had a suite of software products that he sold as well as a few large contracts with large scanner manufactures.  He needed somebody that wanted to learn, but wasn’t afraid to do the basics for  a while. 

I worked at Jetsoft for six years, going from that entry level role to a full fledged software developer.  Now the owner of Jetsoft was, and is, a personal friend. So we stayed in contact and talked about business at times.  He hasn’t done a lot with his retail products in recent years and was considering what to do with them. 

The market for his products is shrinking, but the question is if it is dead.  Today I start that journey to find out!  I am now co-owner of ScanHelp.com.  My co-owner is Rob Lindley, a long time friend who I also got hired at Jetsoft. 

We have a lot of work cut out for us, but we are MUCH better developers than we were several years back when we coded much of the features in the products we have bought.

The website needs a MAJOR refresh and the products need some life put in them.  I won’t get rich off this adventure, but in many ways it is not about the money.  I have a chance to take the last 12 years of learning and put it into the products that shaped me as a developer.  It is a lot like going back home. 

If you find yourself in the need to scan a lot of documents or pictures, reach out to us at ScanHelp.com and see if one of our products can help you out!

Last year I blogged about a purchase I made for my pool. I was overall pretty positive about the Intex Salt-Water system that I had installed.  After that summer of use, my opinion never changed.  The system worked like a champ and let us have a great summer of use during one of the rainiest seasons in local history.

I was looking forward to this year as I would have an “opening of the pool” to go through.

Here is where the pool started on April 15th:

Yep, that is pure green and nasty.

I initially messed up and put WAY too much salt in the pool, but once I got that figured out the pool started to clean up over time. 

Here we are one month later:

That is ready to be swam in!  The best part is the amount of chemicals I put in this pool.  Zero. Zilch. Nada.

I’m 100% sold on the Intex Salt-Water system.  Would recommend it without hesitation.

Today marks a new day in my career. 

I’m not a wordy individual and don’t want to make this some big dramatic post.  Today I start with Fusion Alliance a consulting firm with locations in Indianapolis and Blue Ash. 

This is a major change in my career in that I am now a consultant. 

I’m looking forward to the new adventure that awaits.

Many times I post things on this blog that are for my benefit, more than yours .  But if you’re here, then it must be benefiting you.

I always need to know what values are in each Request.Url.* property. 

Start URL:
http://localhost:52186/RequestURLValues.aspx?myvalueishere=true

Request.Url.AbsolutePath: /RequestURLValues.aspx
Request.Url.AbsoluteUri: http://localhost:52186/RequestURLValues.aspx?myvalueishere=true
Request.Url.Authority: localhost:52186
Request.Url.DnsSafeHost: localhost
Request.Url.Host: localhost
Request.Url.HostNameType: Dns
Request.Url.LocalPath: /RequestURLValues.aspx
Request.Url.OriginalString: http://localhost:52186/RequestURLValues.aspx?myvalueishere=true
Request.Url.PathAndQuery: /RequestURLValues.aspx?myvalueishere=true
Request.Url.Port: 52186
Request.Url.Query: ?myvalueishere=true
Request.Url.Scheme: http
Request.Url.UserInfo:

Inspired by @sadukie I am going to list out my applications on my Window’s phone.

I’ve had a Windows phone for over a year now, I’ve actually had 3 different models.  I first had the HTC Surround, while it was a good phone I just didn’t see the need for the speaker setup.  Then I went to the LG Quantum because it has a physical keyboard.  Now, after my move to Verizon I am on the HTC Trophy. 

I’ve owned an iPhone for 2 years, and when the commercial says “there is an app for that”… they aren’t kidding.  The application list for the iPhone is impressive.  Unfortunately the same could not be said for the Windows Phone 7.  It had an OK list of applications, but not one that would blow you away.

However, the applications available have seemed to hit a level to where it does everything I need a phone to do.

I love the way the phone works.  It just seems to flow so much better than the iPhone.  I grew to hate my iPhone by time I got rid of it.  I’ve had the Windows Phone for over a  year and have no real complaints about the operating system.

Enough of the chatter.  Below is my list of applications.

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Utilities
Adobe Reader – Pretty much a must own if you want to view PDF’s.

WinMilk – A nice little to-do list for the phone.  Though the upgrades to OneNote in Mango somewhat make this a little less needed.  I do prefer the UI on WinMilk though.

BandWidth – Allows you to see how fast your internet connection is. 

QR Code Reader – Ever see those crazy blocks with all the lines in them?  Yep, this decodes them!

Flashlight-X – Ad supported flashlight application.  Uses the camera’s flash for a true flashlight experience.

CardStar – One of my favorite apps.  Allows you to get rid of all those pesky reward and membership cards.

ConnectivityShortcuts – One of the new things available with Mango.  Allows you to create a shortcut directly to a few settings.  Great if you find yourself turning them off or on

Remote Desktop – So I’ve yet to try this, just downloaded tonight… but if it does what it says, it is pretty much the only one available.

SkyDrive – Gives you some access to your SkyDrive.  Not a bad application to have, even if much of the functionality of this application is already built into the phone.

VNC Connect – Standard VNC application.

Games
Shuffle Party – A fun game to waste some time.  You can bowl, play the classic game, or an obstacle course.

Xbox Companion – This integrates with your XBox and allows you to control the main screen a bit.  While a cool thing to try out once, not something I found incredibly useful. Especially since I have the Kinect.

Backgammon Pro – An ad supported version of Backgammon.  Fun game to learn!

Flush – I was a little hesitant to put this on the list as I found it an OK game, but some of the levels just don’t seem possible!

Physi Bricks – A fun game that takes gravity and certain dynamics of the different types of balls you have to throw at the bricks.

Blocked In Free – The “classic” boxed in game.  Just a fun way to waste some time.

Minesweeper – The classic Minesweeper game with a few twist.  Loved earning achievements.

Media/News
Amazon Kindle – Just your basic Kindle application.

ESPN ScoreCenter – An application to allow you to monitor scores and sports news.  The navigation can be a little bit hard to grasp, but it does the job.

iHeartRadio – Access to all of the Clear Channel radio stations. 

INRIX Traffic – This is a really well thought out application.  It combines user reported crashes with crashes reported through official means.  Has helped me avoid problems several times.

Last.fm – Your typical Last.fm application.  If you use Last.fm, this is what you want.

Spotify – Spotify is the new kid on the block in the USA.  It is a nice application to interface with their service.

The Weather Channel – Out of all the weather applications, this is the one I liked the best.

Retail
Amazon Mobile – A nice way to interact with Amazon.  Allows on the fly price comparison along with a lot more.

eBay – This application was one of the most surprising for me.  Just an all around good application to work with eBay on your mobile phone.

Pizza Hut – This one is relatively new.  I used the iPhone version several times and the Windows version appears to be a good port.

Personal
Bible – LifeChurch.tv kind of owns this market and its no difference on the Windows Phone.  Top of the line application.

Google Integration
Flux – I’ve tried a lot of Google Reader applications.  This one has been the best by a lot.

GoVoice – The best Google Voice application around.  It went through a moment where I thought it was going to be abandoned by the developer, but he has started to work on it again recently.  It just works!

Social Media
MoTweets Pro – I’ve been giving this a shot.  It is a paid application, but overall I like it.  It is really for heavy Twitter users as it allows for support of multiple accounts.  It also seems to have Facebook integration.

Twitter – The official Twitter application. More than sufficient!

Developer Unlocked
I recently “developer unlocked” my phone using ChevronWP7.  Unfortunately the “jailbreak” story in Windows Phone is still very new and not well developed.  Once this is a bit more mainstream the ‘black market’ applications available will rock.  Since I am unlocked I am able to “side load” some applications onto my phone.

Screen Capturer – One of the things I really missed from the iPhone was the ability to take a screen grab.  This fills that gap.

Built In
The podcast setup is really nice.  I have subscribed to many technical and personal podcast and they just show up on the phone when new episodes show up. 

Missing
Chipotle – Enough said!

Facebook – There is actually a Facebook application, but it is buggy when you scroll down.  When I moved to Verizon and my new phone I didn’t bother to install the app.  I just went to the mobile version as my primary method.  There is, however, extensive integration with Facebook on the main operating system.