Friday was my last day at Symantec.  Today I started as an Operations Service Center (OSC) Engineer at Salesforce.com!  Exciting stuff, and from the looks of things there are plenty of neat toys to play with.

Every time I try and run Ubuntu on one of my main machines, I’m stonewalled by some Windows-only requirement. LogMeIn is one of those requirements that I just can’t do without. I’m frequently in a situation when I can only access the web through the standard HTTP and HTTPS ports, so LogMeIn is the dead-simple solution.

Guacamole has just eliminated that need. This HTML5/JavaScript VNC viewer requires no software or plugin, and works with any HTML5 compatible browser.  Because you can run Guacamole an HTTPS server (Apache Tomcat), the entire session is encrypted and secured.  The setup is pretty easy, but if you don’t already have Tomcat set up with HTTPS, you’ll be spending most of your setup time configuring that.  Thanks, Guac!

I’ve finally worked up the courage to deactivate my Facebook and Twitter accounts. It’s been about 2-3 years since I shut my MySpace account down, but I kept Facebook for two reasons: (1) as a backup method to contact people and (2) spare myself the wrath of friends and family. I started using Twitter last year, in an attempt to figure out what the hype was about, but I couldn’t get into it. I guess I just don’t have the urge to constantly update my life onto the equivalent of the Facebook status bar. Twitter was no heartbreak, but Facebook took some courage. I downloaded all of my pictures and finally pulled the plug, however. I can’t remember the last time I actually needed it for something, so all it’s doing is being a liability. With Facebook’s recent changes to their privacy policy (in conjunction with their poor track record with privacy issues) my stagnant account is a security problem waiting to happen. Plus, you never think what would be on there that reflects poorly on you in the professional world, so I’d rather opt for the safe side and let companies assume I just have my privacy settings maxed out. Toodles!

I haven’t pirated a video game in 3 months.  That may seem like nothing to a console gamer or someone who hasn’t ever stolen a video game, but anyone who knows me will tell you that this is shocking news.  That’s right, folks, I have stopped pirating video games.  I didn’t decide one day to stop, but I just happened to notice the other day that it’d been a while, I didn’t plan on it any time in the future, so realized then and there that I’d stopped.  After thinking about it for a while, I’ve landed on the reason for this switch, and I think that it’s in the software development (or digital media as a whole, actually) community’s interest to understand how someone like me could be converted. Continue reading →

me: You know how you mentioned that song you liked, and when you looked up who the girl was, you found out it was a Guy?

Was it that “whattaya want from me?” Song?

Mike: I don’t.. think so..

I have the tune in my head

but I know none of the lyrics

which makes it hard to google

me: Haha

“Hey, Google, you know that song that goes ‘dun dun Dun dun-dun…?”

“Yes. Yes I do.”

Michael: wtb that

I’d been using a mediocre (read crappy) phone for long enough, and decided it was high time to get on the smart phone bandwagon.  I love Google’s Android OS, and being a Verizon Wireless customer, the Droid looked mighty appealing.  My New Every Two isn’t up until January, but I read a few posts on The Consumerist about Verizon customers having their New Every Twos bumped up for the Droid.  Apparently Verizon really wants to get these phones out there.  I decided to bank on this and also take the opportunity to play with the phone myself. Continue reading →