Author Archives: jaypoc

Dumb things we do

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So I woke up at my normal time this morning. About 8:00 AM. I got ready, grabbed my camera and headed out. I work for a Radio Station on the weekends so today was going to be an easy day. The weather was miserable and we were promoting a pet store. The rain prevents some of the larget set-ups and I love animals, so pet store events are always a blast.

I pull up to work and walked in to see Jaime. I hadn’t seen her in a long time, so it was great to see her, though she’s usually only there during the week when the offices are open (She’s the receptionist.). It felt good, but something was wrong. I realized the lights were on. The lights are rarely on when I am there on the weekends. The morning DJ walked by saying hi to me. I asked Jaime what today was.

She said “Friday”.

Oops!

Don’t worry.  It ends well. I made it to my regular job on time (Thank god!). I wasn’t completely in “work attire” but since I had my station-branded collared shirt on, I was able to get away with it. I can’t believe I did this though!

Windows 7: Pin Folders to the Start Menu

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In the same way people spread the word if they find good mobile phone deals, I will be sharing customization tricks for Windows 7 to make it a more personal experience.

I’ve started playing with the Release Candidate of Windows 7 in anticipation of receiving my copy in October, so here’s a relatively simple registry hack to enable Windows 7 to pin Folders (and Libraries) to the start menu:

1. Open the Registry Editor (regedit) *NOTE* Don’t screw up your registry! Mistakes can make your PC inoperable!

2. Navigate to:  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Folder \ ShellEx \ ContextMenuHandlers

3. Right-click on ContextMenuHandlers and select NEW and then KEY

4. name the key, {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8}

That’s it! Now to pin a Folder to the start menu, hold down the SHIFT key while you right-click on the folder and you’ll see the option to Pin to Start Menu available. Note that this will not work for some special or system folders.

Facebook Discriminates Against Web-saavy Users

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Since it’s inception, I have had an account on Facebook. Over the years, it has grown to be one of the best social networking sites available. It’s users range from teens to adults, but a recent move by Facebook is going to upset a small portion of it’s users, the technically advanced users.

My email address is admin[at]jaypoc[dot]com, and has been for close to (if not more than) ten years. I have maintained this address as my personal email address and is the address that friends and colleagues know to contact me and/or search for me on social networking sites. A few weeks ago, I signed on to Facebook and saw a message stating “Our systems have detected that [email protected] is no longer a valid email. Facebook requires all users to maintain an active contact email.“.

It asked me to enter a new email address or re-confirm the same one, but would not allow me to reconfirm my valid email. I searched their help for a reason this was happening. It took a while to find it, but I located this absurd statement:

“Unfortunately we do not support email addresses with generic prefixes (e.g. info@, webmaster@ etc.). Since email addresses of this nature are typically used for organizations and businesses, we do not allow them to be used for personal Facebook accounts. You will need to use a personal email address that does not contain this type of prefix. There are no exceptions to this rule.”

Sure, Email addresses of that nature COULD be used for organizations and businesses, but only if the domain name is  owned by an organization or business. I own a PERSONAL WEB-SITE and have a PERSONAL domain name, so it’s only fitting that [email protected] is me. Facebook ignorantly refuses to accept that an individual could have their own domain name or web-site. Unfortunately, Creating a “valid” name according to Facebook’s statement would require me to reconfigure my mail server with additional aliases or email addresses. While a trivial task, none of my colleagues, friends, or family will know this new “facebook-compliant” address. How would they search for me? The simple answer is that they would not be able to. The basic functionality of Facebook, bringing people together, would be lost because of their closed-minded opinion that a domain name can not belong to an individual.

The fact remains that my email address is what it is. I will not change it for Facebook. If they want to kick me off of their system, then that’s what will happen. I will become a victim of discrimination not because of my religion or skin color, but because email address (while valid) doesn’t conform to their standards.

Keep your scion the road.

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It’s funny how things happen sometimes. This weekend, I took a trip with my Mother and Brother to the Acura dealership in Greenlawn. A few weeks ago I totaled my CompG Grand Prix after I fell asleep at the wheel, so I have been in the market for a new car. I wanted to take a look at the Acura TSX and they had a pretty nice one in stock, but upon arriving we found that they were closed on Sundays. Since Greenlawn is a bit out of the way for us, we pulled into the next dealership to see what they had.

Yesterday, we picked up my new 2005 Scion tC. It’s silver with Carbon Fiber accents and interior. It’s not the huge supercharged monster I was used to driving, but it has a peppy 4 cylinder engine with a manual transmission. I should add, My first manual transmission.

It’s been a real adventure learning to drive it. Don’t get me wrong. I have three people to thank for my ability and confidence: My father, who taught me initially; Dave, who let me try out his souped up Mustang; and Casey, for letting me watch her car for her when she was ill, and even allowed me to drive it around locally. If it weren’t for these three people, I would not have even considered this car. Ironically, I’m told that the tC has the same engine as Casey’s, which I had driven the most recent (with in the past 6 to 12 months).

As most people starting out, I have the most trouble getting into first. Normally, I’m alright, but if I’m even the slightest bit rushed (at a light with people behind me) I tend to either release the clutch too soon, or give it too much gas. It’s a lot of fun trying though. and aside from pissing off a few people at stop signs, I enjoy driving it!

Sprint PCS, Ugh

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If you haven’t read my previous post, Sprint PCS, For better or for worse!, you may want to review it again. I just received my fourth replacement phone. I was less than amused (though not shocked) to find the keypad defective on this one as well. This time some of the keys were hyper-sensitive and would double or tripple up when pressed. Others wouldn’t work at all unless I used additional pressure. I was given a new option this time which I’m skeptical about, but if the deal is honored, will be acceptable. Sprint offered to reimburse me the amount of the deductible.