To answer the inevitable questions:

- Yes, I am okay. Thank you for asking. The morning after, I have a sore finger and that’s really it. I’ve been worse off after the gym.
- The other guy was fine too, aside from his lapse in judgment.
- What happened is sharable, if you text or send me a private message somewhere. I’m not posting ANYTHING about it (faultless though I may be) until i get my check.
- The insurance payment will pretty much pay of the car, so win.

So. Aside from missing my old car (and I really do; it might have been annoying sometimes, but it was my very first “all mine” car ever) and having the minor stress of having to find a new car hanging over my head, I am fine. There’s the difficulty of locating a new car though. So… if you can help me out, I will buy you a drink or maybe offer something from my arsenal of skills. Let me know.

I am looking for:

- 2003 to 2010 model; obviously I will go older for more features.
- Less than 15K. I have more, but why spend it if I don’t need to?
- Automatic transmission. I can’t drive a stick (that’s what SHE said.)
- Leather inside. I just don’t like cloth. I can DO cloth if everything else is sex and magic though.
- Decent gas mileage. No Hummers or tanks, please.
- I am looking for a smaller car. I want maneuverability.
- 4C or 6C… you hit 8C and gas efficiency sucks.
- 2 door preferred. I don’t need a 4 door.
- An aux port would be delicious.
- I dug my last autodim mirror. I’d love to have a new one.
- Nice stock sound; I’m deaf, so it needs to be loud and uh, not crappy.
- Colors I like are black, dark blue.

- I totally dig the Mini. I mean, dude.

If you can score me a Mini convertible with all of my features for less than 15K, you are awesome.

To be clear, I’ve been using both Gowalla and Foursquare simultaneously for the past 6 weeks.

First some quick reasons why I prefer Gowalla over Foursquare, then the bigger reasons at the end:

• Foursquare – turn on the app, you check in, close the app, that’s about it. Gowalla – I have a reason to linger around in the app and the website a little bit longer, it’s a little more involved (if you chose to be more involved; more on that later)
• I prefer how Gowalla posts to Twitter over Foursquare basically for the simplicity of the post by Gowalla. The Foursquare post, if you’re not wordy, tries to add the address, which I find unnecessary (plus, most addresses are missing and/or wrong; more on that later)
• I prefer how Gowalla posts to Facebook over Foursquare. The icon Foursquare associates with its FB posts is a boring map location icon of the check-in that’s unusable in its small form. The icon Gowalla associates with its FB post is the category icon of the check-in location (which taps into people’s simple minds and sparks interest, IMO; more on that later)
• Gowalla now has the ability to post pictures of each spot which are available to other users to view when they check-in.

Now the four big reasons I prefer Gowalla over Foursquare:

• Foursquare locations, even in our small user base in HRVA, are all messed up: misspellings, wrongly titled spots, capitalization mistakes, FAKE locations, DUPLICATE locations, etc. etc. With its growing popularity, our area will get more people using it that don’t care and will continue to uncaringly create spots and, therefore, clutter up the area. This becomes a problem, IMO, for future users when they see that lots of spots are messed up and place blame on the service in general. You can fix problems by using the Get Satisfaction Feedback tab on the website and someone will, in time, fix the problem. Gowalla has a similar system in place regarding using Get Satisfaction Feedback, but the people on there are MUCH more responsive (problems fixed within an hour, sometimes minutes), and the reason is their promotion of Gowalla Street Team Elites. These are users in each area that can go in and edit ANY spot as if they were the creator of the spot. I AM A GOWALLA STREET TEAM ELITE FOR OUR AREA, which means HRVA is pretty gosh darn clean. Spots are correctly titled, duplicates (that I can find) have been correctly merged, spot locations have been correctly nudged to their locations on Googlemaps… I’ve created a clean, professional looking environment for new users to enjoy and trust will continue to look this way as opposed to the mire that is Foursquare at this moment.
• Gowalla has a Trip functionality. They have Gowalla-sanctioned Trips (mostly in major cities) that if you check-in to all the spots as designated, you get a special pin indicating you’ve completed the trip. The awesome thing is they have friend-created Trips as well. If you look at my Gowalla account – http://gowalla.com/users/johncachero – you’ll see that I’ve been documenting the locations of the Mermaids on Parade Statues all around Downtown Norfolk (legitimately, mind you as there is a Sculpture category). Once I document a significant amount of them, I’m going to make a “Mermaids on Parade Trip” that my friends can try to complete. Very cool, IMO.
• Gowalla’s category passport stamps separates them from Foursquare. First the art, IMO, is simple but stylish (this goes for the items system as well; more on that later). I’m a visual nerd and I like their style. When you’re looking for locations when you’re trying to check-in, the icons are an extra visual clue that you’re checking into the right place (I’m aware Foursquare has this now), plus it just makes that interface pleasant, happy even. Although it’s not prevalent in this area, there are special passport stamps for prominent locations in popular cities, and I can’t wait for the next time I travel to try to collect these location specific stamps. (Here’s where I think Gowalla gets it right. We were trained early on that stickers are a good thing. In school, if we do well, we get a sticker. I honestly think that that simple conditioning is subconsciously still in our heads even as adults. This plays into my last reason…)
• Gowalla’s items system separates them from Foursquare. Again, the art is fantastic on these items, IMO. Also, receiving new items taps into my sticker theory in the last paragraph. But here’s the part that Gowalla doesn’t clearly explain… ITEMS HAVE A HISTORY IF YOU CLICK ON THEM. This is really cool. It shows who originally received the item, where they dropped it off, who the next person picked it up and where they dropped it off, and so on and so on. For example, just the other week I had picked up an item with a long history: It was picked up by User A in Norfolk and dropped off at Machismo, then it was picked up by User B at Machismo and eventually dropped off at AMC 18 Lynnhaven, then User C picked it up and dropped it off at Chick-fil-A in Chesapeake, then I picked that item up, checked out its history, got stoked about how long it was and dropped it back off in Norfolk at Cogan’s (a very popular spot on Gowalla) with the hope that someone else will pick it up and continue its journey. I personally think that’s cool. Items also have rarity (all items have a number keeping track of how many of that item has been given out, but some have that number plus a “of XX,XXX” indicating a limited run… these are the only items I will store away permanently in My Collection). Gowalla is also partnering with businesses to create and distribute specific items only available at certain events at certain times. Anyway, I THINK ITEMS ARE COOL, and it’s what keeps me coming back to Gowalla and keeps me lingering around the app and website every now and again. (Speaking of the website, you can see the item history of any spot so you can keep track of what’s been dropped and picked up.)

Ultimately, with those systems in place, Gowalla can be more than a simple turn app on, check-in, forget about it experience. It is what you make of it, and I love how I’m using it.

Quickly, the bad:

• Not as popular as Foursquare. No other friends on the system, no point using the system is a common thought. This is a big problem, but with your help, we can change this.
• No mayor system. The mayor system on Foursquare is cool, but since HRVA businesses aren’t paying attention to it, it’s not as interactive as it is in major cities. (I’ve heard examples of pizza joints in San Francisco giving a weekly free pizza slice and beer to the current mayor of their establishment. THAT’S cool!)
• The puke green and orange color palette was admittedly ugly, but they’ve toned that back on both their apps and the website.

That’s about it. Feel free to give me your feedback and to ask any questions.

Are you a die hard Foursquare fan? Have you used both and found Gowalla Gowanting? Offer a counter and I’ll give you a soapbox to shout it from! – Chad

I have:

- Network Security Bible (Wiley)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Admin’s Pocket Consultant
- Exam Prep: MCSA/MCSE 70-290
- MCSA/MCSE WIndows Server 2003 Training Kit
- Sybex CompTIA Security+ Second Edition
- Exam Cram Security+ (SY0-101)

What can I do? A lot! I don’t do circuit level repair (I am clumsy with the soldering iron) but I can fix just about any software or hardware problem your home PC happens to have. I can also fix and secure your network, advise you on upgrades, and generally give you the sort of service that your local retail fix-it place can only dream of offering.

The best part? You don’t necessarily have to pay cash!

If you have something interesting to trade (from technology to yummy food to a trade in services) I’m possibly game. If you want to buy me something off of my ThinkGeek Wishlist!

Hit me up if you need something done.

I’ve been working on my MCITP for Server 2008, and I thought until yesterday that I was just about ready to take the first of three tests. I’d taken the Server 2008 Administration Course at TCC, studied the official academic course book until I could honestly claim to know 95% of the material by heart, and took all of the practice tests contained on the included CD. Things were looking good!

Of course, I’m no novice to the certification test arena. More to the point, I know the format of Microsoft’s tests rather well. The tests in the academic book were structured as simple fact recitations, aka:

What over the counter medicine helps you get your Zz’s?

A. Ham Biscuit
B. Viagra
C. Chloroform
D. Nyquil
E. Dayquil

…whereas Microsoft’s questions are more like word problems.

John Smith has been working as a brick mason for 12 years at the Bigass Brick Barn. He is working at a building site when he begins to develop sniffling, sneezing, and coughing. He is sent home by his supervisor, who advises him to rest himself overnight so that he can return to work as soon as possible.

What steps should John Smith take to suppress his symptoms and meet the requirements of his supervisor with the minimum expense and investment of time? (Choose Two)

A. Go to the hospital to be treated.
B. Take a dose of Nyquil
C. Take a does of Dayquil
D. Go to bed.
E. Stay awake until symptoms are clear.

Knowing this, I sought out a practice test from MeasureUp. When I did not only did not know the answers, but I did not know what the questions was referring to, I suspected that the $120 “Academic Course” was a pile of shit. Not one to jump to immediate conclusions, though, I went out and bought the self-paced MS Press course, which had the information that was missing from the other book.

Nice.

A quick minute or five later, and I’d pushed the test back a week and set a pretty rigorous schedule of two chapters a day (600+ pages total) in the self-paced course so I can hopefully be prepared to take the test NEXT Friday. I can always re-re- schedule, but I’d honestly like to move on to the next cert test. :-/

But more importantly, my new file server is arriving in bits and pieces. Now that I have a positive source of income, I’ve decided to suck up the cost of it and ditch the patchwork faux server I am currently using. It isn’t exactly a powerhouse, but it isn’t too shabby either. I’m running a newish motherboard and a 2.5ghz dual core, DDR3 RAM, and a whopping 3TB of hard drive space. My intent is to install Server 2008 with Tversity for media sharing, a local domain, and a centralized antivirus solution. I’ll also likely install Hamachi for my own remote access purposes.

Fun stuff!

On the education side, I’ll be pursuing MCITP as planned, but I’ll also be knocking out Security+ before summer.

So… my thoughts on Home Server. The good? It works as advertised, and seems to run faster and more efficiently than, say, running windows 7 and setting up a half-assed server. The bad?

Aah, the bad. For some reason, Windows Home Server did not recognize my dynamic drives as being “real.” Being new to the WHS interface, I assumed that adding a drive to the data tab was simply adding it as a listed drive. Alas, this was not the case… and as the drive was not formatted as a basic drive, it just went ahead and formatted the drive without asking.

Have you ever recovered data from a spanned drive? No? I don’t recommend it. Not. Fun.

That was the only major fuckup in the whole process, but there are a few nitpicks I have.

One: I cannot disable the PC backups manually per machine. Not that I will want to when I get our real WHS, but space is at a premium right now. I may be missing the option, though.

Two: Setting up shares is very dumb-proof, but I would prefer to be able to set manual mapping without having to do some Admin Panel tweaking. Along the same lines, I’d like the WHS client console to support mapped drives. My network relies heavily on mapped drives on the client side (it makes managing data deliciously simple.) I can has mapped drives?

Three: WHS does not show the drive space on the data drives properly. This is really, truly a nitpick… but how hard would it be to reflect the correct drive space?

The add-ins installation and documentation could use some work too… and despite promises, I have yet to get my 120 day trial key.

Other than that, I think it’ll be a go. Why not just install Server 2008? Media streaming and the automatic back ups.

I finally received my HDX laptop today, after literal weeks of waiting, customs delays, and annoyances all around. I could not be more pleased with my purchase; the laptop is even better than I thought it would be and runs Windows 7 flawlessly. I’m currently running through the ever-fun process of getting all of my apps up to speed again, which (despite a network hitch) has gone pretty smooth for what it is.

Complaints? None. None at all. I’m not looking forward to setting up iTunes (I’d dump it if anything else synced my iPhone properly) but other than that I’m just about set. Setting up iTunes is bound to be a crap sandwich. Ah well.

As for the name, my new devices have been decidedly Norse. Munnin, my iPhone, is now complemented by Huginn, the HDX. As they are my connection with the sum total of human knowledge, I felt it appropriate to name them after what were essentially Odin’s search engines.

As for Tyche? Predictably, she threw a fit this morning and burned out her power supply. Perhaps it was chance… or perhaps she was sentient and didn’t like that I was dumping her for a hot new dish. We’ve made up, though… she’s serving as a temporary media server before heading into a gracious retirement to the spares closet.

And that, folks, was pretty much my day. Squee-worthy new gear, followed by a whole lot of setting up said gear.

“My brand new Mac only supports these 5 video cards. Isn’t Apple great? They restrict what I can use so I don’t have to think! Oh, and they wisely made my 2.5 year old Mac obsolete so I knew it was time to upgrade.”

–

“PCs come with tons of software I don’t need…. M$ is trying to shove this mail thing down my throat. What if I want to use an alternative program, you fascists!”

“Macs come with tons of software I don’t need… but what if I want to use it someday? Apple is just looking out for me! Why would I want to use an alternative program, you fascist?”

–

“Why can’t my PC make french fries?! Windows sucks!”

“Having a proprietary output for my external video is a FEATURE.”

–

“What? Microsoft can’t mount .DMG files natively? LOL, Microsoft is lame!”

“Macs can’t write to NTFS; I blame Microsoft. Or George Bush. George Bush’s Microsoft machine!”

–

“The programs available to do this task on a PC don’t match my preferred methods. Microsoft sucks!”

“The programs available to do this task on a Mac don’t match my preferred methods. I blame myself for sucking.”

–

“UAC is the devil! Stupid program popping up to protect me against being dumb. I hate you, M$!”

“Requiring the admin password to do anything major is orgasmic! Thank you, Apple, for protecting me against being dumb!”

–

And so on. I’m half-joking… but only half.

HP HDX16t Premium Series customizable Notebook PC

• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit) <– Which will be removed so I can install Windows 7 Ultimate.

• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P7450 (2.13GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)

• 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) from 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)

• 320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection <– I was going to do the 500GB, but most files will be on the network, stored on a Synology box.

• 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

•  16.0″ diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)

• Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer <– Not something I need, but the upgrade was free!

• Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Fluid) <– Nothing a bit of duct tape can’t solve.

• Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth

• Backlit Keyboard <– Win.

• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery