April 21, 2013 11:21 by ckincincy
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.
May 31, 2012 21:52 by ckincincy
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!
May 13, 2012 19:16 by ckincincy
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.
May 7, 2012 05:00 by ckincincy
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.
June 18, 2011 19:51 by ckincincy
My family moved into our house just over three years ago. It came with a swimming pool.
I happened to know the owner of the house prior to buying it and during a team party for our son’s baseball team he said something in passing that stuck out to me. He mentioned all the struggles he had with keeping the pool clean and that a friend of his had some saltwater system that seemed to work well.
I remembered that conversation but did not act on it.
Summer one with the pool was not to bad. The weather was fair and the pool survived.
Summer two was a bit more of a struggle as it rained a lot.
Summer three was the same.
The problem with tough summers is that chlorine cost add up quickly. So this year we decided we’d install a saltwater pool system.
Due to last year being so bad we had to completely drain our pool and start over. After draining the pool and getting it cleaned out we started the process of filling it back up with water. Being a fairly big pool it takes a few days. We hooked up all the filter equipment and put 4 gallons of chlorine in the pool and let it run.
During this time I went looking for a saltwater system on Amazon and found one at a good price and figured it was worth a shot. The Intex Krystal Clear Saltwater System was the winner.
Here we are 3 weeks later and my initial take is that this system is awesome and anybody who has a pool should convert. During my last three seasons I could only get a positive chlorine test about 2 hours after I put the chlorine in. Now I can get a constant reading… and I’m not adding an ounce.
The install of the system was easy. You literally put it in between the house that goes from your existing filter to the pool. After the water passes through the filter it hits this special system that generates the chlorine.
The setup of the pool was a little more complex. For the size of our pool the amount of salt to be added was not completely clear to me. So I started off with a light amount of 240lbs (FYI, it cost me $50 for 400lbs.. we used 99.8% pure salt meant for water softeners). After the salt had enough time to dissolve I took my water into Eastgate Pools and had it tested. It showed to be light on salt and needing stabilizer. We added 12 pounds of stabilizer and 80 more pounds of salt. Gave it a few days and took the water in to be tested again. This time it all tested OK. Not great but OK.
Our Chlorine tested at 1.1, it is supposed to be between 1.0 and 3.0. Our salt tested at 2600 parts per million. This is on the low end for our system and the documentation was pretty clear that a number this low would generate less than idea results. So we added 40 more pounds of salt. Now the pool is rocking.
After looking at the reviews on Amazon the one negative for this product is that its life expectancy can be short. I look at this two ways.
1. If it breaks within 2 years, it is under warranty.
2. If it breaks after 2 years, I’m still saving a bundle of money.
Take a look at the Intex website to learn more about how it works. I see NOTHING false about what they advertise.
March 12, 2011 22:46 by ckincincy
I have a habit of bookmarking pages as I feel that I need to go back and review the content.
So, I’m a bit too OCD to have that many random links in my book marks and I’ve had it happen more than once where stuff I bookmarked later disappeared from the web. Let me share them with you… and at the same time give ma point of reference!
PC Usability Hacks
Programming Tips
Fun Tips
Hacks
Tech Links
Political/Opinion
November 23, 2010 00:30 by ckincincy
So as I’ve blogged about previously I have a new Windows Phone. Though, I did trade in my model from the HTC Surround to the LG Quantum. I wanted the keyboard.
Today a feature that comes with every Windows Phone 7, saved my butt. It started out with leaving a practice for my son’s 4th grade basketball team that I coach. I put my phone and wallet in a bag that my assistant coach brought to return some items. I was thinking I’d keep the bag for a few days while I got the stuff home. So the assistant walked out and started unloading the bag in my trunk and we went our own ways.
Then I realized I didn’t have my phone. I started back tracking my steps and I was worried that I put my phone on the top of my car before I started driving. So I turned around and drove slowly, looking back the 2 blocks I drove. No luck.
Then I wondered if it was in my assistants bag and I rushed home because I know of the feature in the phone… I got home and logged into WindowsPhone.com and clicked the “Find my Phone” feature. Within 30 seconds a map was displayed showing the phone was in my assistants driveway!
I called him and told him what was up, and I went and got my phone… and my wallet 
. What was his reaction? “Man, you’re like somebody from the future.”
It saved my butt! Here is what it looks like showing the phone at my house:
September 7, 2010 23:39 by ckincincy
Alan Stevens posted that very question on Twitter today.
I may find myself out gunned on this one and start a bit of a flame war, but I’m going to tackle that very question.
Let me first lay it out there. Alan Stevens and I are two very different kinds of people. I’m a guy who just went to Quaker Steak and Lube and took out 22 defenseless chicken wings. Alan is a vegetarian. I’m about as right wing as a person can get. Alan, not so much. So we do look at life in a completely different kind of way.
I will start with my story, because my story is relevant to the discussion. I graduated high school January 17th, 1997. My son was born January 11th, 1997. Going to college really wasn’t an option for me. However I lucked out and found a factory job paying $10 an hour. When working the over time I was working and after a few dollars in raises I was able to pull in a decent amount of money for a high school graduate. Then the shift of manufacturing jobs out of the United States started taking full effect thanks to NAFTA, which by the way was signed by Bill Clinton though the Republican party was the driving force of this agreement initially. In 2000 I saw the writing on the wall and I left my first factory job, for my second (and last) factory job. This job focused on projection screen tv’s. With the advent of flat screen tv’s and outsourced labor to China, again the writing was on the wall and I took a very strategic move to a very small development shop owned by a friend. At that point I also enrolled into the University of Cincinnati. Here I was, a father to three children, a full time job, and going to school half to three quarter time. The BEST decision I’ve ever made. I’ve seen my salary almost triple since that moment. So the boat load of student loan debt I did rack up is earned back each and every year in extra income.
Could I have done it if I didn’t go to college? I really don’t think so. I think I’d be making good money right now, but not very good money. I even have a very distinct memory of a job interview that I had about 2 years into my college education. I interviewed with the project manager who loved me. Thought I was the perfect fit for the job. Then his boss, the vice president of the company saw my resume. Saw that I had no degree, 2 years of experience, but no degree. He immediately dismissed me as a candidate. That was the end of it.
Alan stated on his Twitter feed the following to a similar argument: “Don’t let HR drones define what’s possible for you. Look around. There are plenty of examples of success without a degree.”
I don’t disagree in principal on this issue. I just whole heartedly disagree with the realities of this issue. The fact is that there are many places that will not hire you if you don’t have that check box checked.
Now I don’t think Alan is against higher education, and to be fair he said that a few times in the Twitter talk. I just think the argument being made is flawed.
Do I think that most students going to college today are wasting their money? Yep. By far, most are. We send people to college to just say they went to college and they come out with a business degree. What in the world is a business degree? This reminds me of a good friend of mine who happens to have been the vice president of a very large company in the area. He shared with me the one thing that put him on the right course in life to make the significant salary he was making. His mom never spoke as if college was an option. It was going to happen. Then she made sure to tell her children that once they are done with college they better be something. Something well defined. A pharmacist, a lawyer, a doctor. Something that is clearly defined as a skill. This is now the same thing I am telling my children as they get closer and closer to college. Go to school to be something. Even if you go another route you can always fall back to that skill. You look over to our IT cousins in India. The children that are fortunate to go to school are raised to go to school for two things.
1. Be a doctor.
2. Be an engineer.
Also alluded to in the Twitter talk was the driving force behind the problem. Money. Colleges do not care about the well being of the student by and large. They care about keeping their numbers up and getting as much government and tuition funding as possible. This is where the break down of the family comes into play. I have four children. I’m not sure one is wired to go to college. He may turn out to be my smartest child, but I’m prepared to push him toward a career path that doesn’t require as much intellectual understanding, but more of a working with his hands and back. It is my responsibility as a parent to help my children make the right decision on where to go to pursue the right skill set.
Now the main reason I think college is worth it is clearly pointed out in the stats around college educated folks (taken from the BLS):
Look at those numbers, if that doesn’t tell a story then nothing does. Even with the flaws that I readily admit are in the college system, the employment rate and the income level of college educated folks is nowhere in comparison to those that aren’t.
August 7, 2010 19:46 by ckincincy
As some may be aware, my wife and I are foster parents. Have been for almost two years. In our time here we’ve seen something that we don’t like.
Children in the system move from house to house using trash bags.
At some level I do understand this in the beginning. Children are often snatched out of a tough situation with little notice. However, for the rest of the transitions this bothers me that everything is moved in trash bags.
We’ve seen it with 4 of the six children we’ve had in our care. So my wife got an idea and then got some suggestions and the end result of that was “Loving With Luggage”. This is an idea that is in its infancy and we have one consistent donation lined up with the Northern Kentucky Airport.
If you could like us on Facebook I would appreciate it. We’ll update further developments there.
February 9, 2010 01:36 by ckincincy
On another blog I wrote about a company I worked for many years ago going out of business. It was a manufacturing company. I wrote it about the time of all the bailouts and questioned the legitimacy of the thought that some companies were ‘too big to fail’. We live in a Capitalistic country, the very foundation of capitalism is creative destruction. The process of companies dying due to the creativity of other companies.
On the way into work today I heard about Hollywood Video closing 800 stores. Attributed to Netflix and Red Box. Anybody reading this blog knows what Netflix is. Red Box could be a bit more unknown. At many locations are DVD rental kiosk, these are Red Box. For $1 a day you can rent a DVD. You don’t have to go out of your way to shop their product, you can do it when you go to buy Milk. You usually don’t have to race the clock because they are located in 24 hour stores.
Blockbuster isn’t much better off. They are losing customers at a pace that they can’t reallocate their business model. Even if they did reallocate their business model, the new business model of Kiosk and mail order movies actually erodes their own customer base and they have to close stores and lay people off.
I haven’t use a movie rental place outside of Red Box and Neflix in years. My wife has hit the local movie rental, not to rent movies, but to buy used ones at a fraction of the price. I am an avid Netflix user. We have the two DVD plan, and I LOVE the streaming.
Creative destruction is the foundation of business in America. Nobody is too big to fail and nobody should be propped up by the government. Let capitalism work, the outcome is companies like Microsoft and Google. Netflix and Red Box. Even Walmart. I grew up when K-Mart was king, now they are nothing but an after-thought. I actually wonder what damage is being done to our future economy due to the government propping up failing companies. What innovation will never come to fruition because GM was too big to fail?