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Family, Featured, Holidays

Everybody’s waitin’ for the man with the bag

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It’s that time of year, once again! Time to give thanks, to gather with friends and family, and time to celebrate the fresh start of a new year. I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a terrific 2020!

It seems like every Christmas season has one holiday song that gets played on repeat, for some odd reason. And I know everybody is talking about how this is the 25th anniversary of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You… But for me it has to be (Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With The Bag as sung by Kay Starr. This one just keeps following me around! I don’t get to choose the song…the song chooses me. 😀

Below, I’ve shared a few videos from our recent Florida theme park trips. First up, Universal’s Holiday Parade featuring Macy’s. Join Shrek, Fiona, Gru, the Minions, and many other Universal Studios characters as they celebrate the season.

Earlier that day we attended The Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular and got to hang with the citizens of Whoville.

And finally in the evening we enjoyed a holiday performance from Mannheim Steamroller.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Blog, Travel

Project Orange – The Florida Chronicles – Episode 1

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So I’ve finally gotten around to editing some videos from our adventures around central Florida. Episode One is from a day at Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure. You can check out episode one below. For anyone wondering about the name “Project Orange” — The name comes from the fact that we had been wanting to move to Florida for several years, and by the late-2000’s the concept got a formal name — “Project Orange.” So, now that the move has come to fruition, the name “Project Orange” lives on in the title of our Florida adventures…

Project Orange – The Florida Chronicles – Episode 1 – Universal Studios

Computing, Technology

Leo and Chris take a look into the future of photography

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Leo Laporte and Chris Marquardt discuss some new and interesting uses for technology that deal directly with digital image creation and manipulation. The websites mentioned, This x does not exist, and This person does not exist, provide a creepy insight as to exactly how computers can create realistic images and information using a “GAN” (Generative Adversarial Network). I’m quite interested in the painting application that Chris discusses. I would like to see that in action. The video below starts at 56m25s, at the beginning of their conversation.

Listen to a bit of the video and check out the links for more info.

Blog, Movies, Video Games

Hunting Easter Eggs

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I love Cadbury chocolate. I really do. I think I can probably blame this fact on having British relatives and having a deep English family connection. Cadbury Flakes? Yes, please! And of course, “no bunny” knows Easter like the Cadbury Bunny.

But I did not come to you tonight to talk about chocolate. I came to talk to you about Easter Eggs. Not even the Cadbury Crème ones… or even the ones you hide in early spring that occupy the kids for hours on end, and you end up finding in July after playing a long guessing game of “where’s that smell coming from?”

I’m thinking more of digital Easter Eggs. Hidden rooms, messages, inside jokes or simple artwork found in video games (especially early games) that were part of the inspiration of the movie “Ready Player One.”

So, the first example of a hidden “Easter Egg” comes right from the movie itself. One of the most prominent “eggs” in the movie involves this one from the Adventure game for the Atari 2600, released in 1979:

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Event, Technology

Search On…

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What a tumultuous year it’s been! Every year, Google summarizes the year in search, and this year they’ve settled on trying to find the answer to a simple, but important question: “How?”

How implies action. How implies change. “By what means can one reach an end?”

This year saw turmoil and disaster. But it also saw organization and relief. And as long as people continue asking “How?” there’s hope.

 

Computing, Internet, Technology

Ignite in the rear-view mirror

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One week after Microsoft Ignite 2017, and I think it’s a good time to take a look back. The keynote speech by Satya Nadella was inspiring. I have to admit, the discussion about quantum computing went over my head. The one question I have: If Windows 10 crashes on a quantum computer, does the universe come to an end?

I enjoyed connecting with and meeting several of the speakers and presenters. A few to point out: Brad Anderson, Corporate Vice President of the Enterprise Client & Mobility Team; Michael Niehaus, Microsoft DIrector of Product Marketing; Dona Sarkar, Head of the Windows Insider Program at Microsoft, along with the other #NinjaCats: Blair Glennon, Jason Howard, and Jen Gentleman, among others.

Listening to some of the Windows deployment speakers, such as Mike Nystrom and Johan Arwidmark was incredibly informative. These guys are well-known for their blogs relating to SCCM deployment and it was great to talk with them in person.

Also, this is cool:

Brad Anderson’s Lunch Break featured Brad riding a golf cart around the bus loop at the Orange County Convention Center. Participants could ask Brad anything… My question for Brad didn’t make it to the video, but my selfie did! The entire video can be seen here:

The most beneficial speakers and sessions I’ve linked to below:

All presentations and slide decks are available at the Microsoft Ignite website for viewing. Nerds of the world, tune in and see what you think!

Internet, Technology

Staying anonymous on the Internet

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Part One

So, thanks to our wonderful, outstanding, useful, totally not-bought-and-paid-for United States Congress® combined with our Reality-TV-star president, there is a very good possibility that your online activity soon can and will be collected and sold without your express permission.

Up until now, Internet Service Providers, who can track all of your online activity, had to get your express permission to collect and sell such information. (Of course, how many people read the entire Terms and Conditions before clicking “OK.” But it was at least nice of them to ask. So it’s likely that we’ve already voluntarily signed a lot of rights away in exchange for a service.)

But there are ways to obfuscate quite a bit of your online activity. In this video, former hacker and current author Kevin Mitnick explains some things you can do to protect yourself.

Now, some of these suggestions only help protect your information and not necessarily your browsing habits. If you visit bankofamerica.com, even with secure sockets layer enabled, your ISP will still know you’ve visited the site. They just can’t see what you’ve done there. Using TOR, as also suggested in the video, would help prevent that type of monitoring.

None of these suggestions is a guarantee of safety or anonymity. They just help.

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Music, Sports

QuickPost: Jack Fleming

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I was just discussing with Allison the legendary West Virginia University sports broadcaster Jack Fleming and recounting how he could set the scene of any Mountaineer football game. Home games were especially exciting, as his tone would rise and fall with that of the “Pride of West Virginia” performing their pre-game show behind him.

As an example, watch below as Jack sets the scene for a Halloween matchup with the Penn State Nittany Lions:

A true West Virginia treasure, the “Voice of the Mountaineers.”

Holidays

Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate

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‘Tis the season once again. Of course, it’s not just about the hot chocolate, but that’s a nice part of it. And this year, I’m proud to announce, I haven’t heard of a single person offended by the Official Starbucks Red Cups®! The Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate reminds me of 2010 when we headed south for Christmas. We went to Universal Studios a few days that week and had one of these drinks just about every morning at CityWalk.

Last year we spent Christmas in Florida once again, but this year we are staying home. I just uploaded a classic computing video where I entered a Santa Claus program on a Commodore 64 emulator. The program came from the December 1984 issue of Family Computing magazine.

The background music from this video comes from the old Jingle Disk produced by Thoughtware, Inc. back in 1985. I wonder if Marty McFly ran it on his computer?

Anyway, some more contemporary sounds of the season echoed from the halls of Jewel City Church last week with their annual Christmas production. Watch it here!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Humor, Television, Travel

David S. Pumpkins will make your Halloween.

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Any Questions?

This is my favorite skit in ages from SNL. I can’t even begin to describe why…. but I’ll try.

First of all, this skit just happened to be on SNL the same day that we took the NBC Studio Tour in New York City, where we got to see the legendary Studio 8H, the place Saturday Night Live has been produced for over 40 years. So, immediately +5 points, right?

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