There’s a fairly large open area behind my house that’s part of the townhouse community. There’s always kids playing back there, and at least one dog. A few minutes ago, I took the dog outside for a short walk when I came across a large (5 or 6 square feet) area of broken glass in a walkway.

Why don’t people clean up after themselves? Do they think the glass is just going to disappear? Last time I checked, it’s not biodegradable.

After making sure the dog wasn’t in danger of slicing his feet open, I started cleaning it up. It took about 10 minutes, and I’m considering getting a tetnis shot for a nice goughe on my hand.

(Photo Source: Daniel Morris

I purchased a Toshiba laptop (thanks to some help from a friend) a few days ago because of multiple problems with my desktop computer. Overall I’m very happy with this purchase. You can see the laptop I purchased @ BestBuy.com

It’s still running Windows Vista at the moment, though kubuntu has been downloading for 3 days via torrent. I should be able to make the open source switch in a few days.

The laptop has 1GB DDR2 ram, a 120GB hard drive, Intel Pentium Dual Core, and “Dolby Sound Room”, which sounds great.

One quirk I’ve noticed is that the function key is a little delayed. Turning up the brightness on the screen is a little slow as a result, though that doesn’t matter too much. I haven’t experienced any other problems yet other than the Vista quirks.

I’ll post a comprehensive review in a few days time. I’m still playing with it at the moment, so I can’t give a good opinion yet.

Just a fun post today, I’m keeping pretty busy with my coding projects and house work.

I’d like to introduce someone to you. His name is “Air Guitar Guy” and he lives somewhere near me (federal blvd in Westminster Colorado). We see him almost every day walking down the road playing air guitar. Yeah, that’s right, every time we see him, he’s playing air guitar. He never is listening to music (I don’t think) either. He just likes to rock out, nothing wrong with that.

It also makes me ask this question. Please post your answer in the comments. If there’s nothing mentally wrong with this guy, and he just enjoys playing air guitar, would you be able to get past that and be friends? Would you be able to date him?

I’m assuming he does copious amounts of LSD, or at least used to.

From EnglishRussia.com:

Some days ago we had the St. Petersburg city shots made from a helicopter.
Today something similar. Moscow city from above, but its not real Moscow, but it’s copy, that is being stored in the Moscow city town-hall.
By the way, there was once ago a copy of Moscow city downtown featured on English Russia. It was more pleasantly crafted and even had illumination. You can see it here.

Find all the photos over at EnglishRussia.com

It turns out that I’ll be making the switch to linux sooner than I had expected. Here’s why:

I have no idea why it’s showing this, and it happens every time I turn on my computer. Thanks for all the advice and help choosing a distro. After reading several reviews, I’ve decided on the newest version of Ubuntu. I should have it installed in a few days (I would do it now, but I’m fairly busy).

If you need to get in contact with me during this time, my email account will still be checked hourly via my iPhone: Naresh@ragsites.com. You can also reach me on my cell phone: (303) 588-2376 (txt me too!)

About 2 years ago, I coded a PHP user system and released it as a tutorial on TechTuts.com. Hundreds of addons were coded for it, and it was adopted by over 500 websites. The user system was insecure, coded horribly, and had *many* flaws.

I’ve been asked many times if I have the code, and the answer is no. Even if I did have it, it will not be posted online again. It’s that insecure.

I will be coding a new user system and releasing it open source. It’ll be fully documented so other PHP coders can make addons, and will still have the simple and easy to use feel to it. It will be secure, modular, and will be released under a GNU license.

Here’s What I Need You To Do
Email me your suggestions. If you want a feature, let me know. My email address is naresh@ragsites.com. You can also call me at (303) 588-2376. I’ll be releasing a beta version of it before June, so make it fast!

Someone pointed out on IRCNode (#lobby) that I never posted about my trip to the mountains on April 20th. Here’s a full trip summary:

I can’t remember when we left that day - For some reason, my memory is a little bit hazy. We went to Safeway first and got some groceries. When we returned to the car, we realized that the keys were locked inside the car. (Photos: Trying to unlock the door, Another one, AAA Arrived)

When we got on the road, it was smooth sailing from then on out. The drive was very enjoyable. Here’s some photos of the drive: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

We pulled off the road to go hiking when we approached Black Hawk (a big gambling city in Colorado). We were going to go hiking on the mountain across from a small river. I threw my shoes over the river so my hands would be free just in case I fell. Shortly after, we decided to climb the mountain on the other side of the hill. I had to cross the river to get my shoes. (Photos: one, two) It was up to my waist in some places, and the rocks were slicker than I thought.

We finally got started hiking, and made it pretty high. Nobody fell too badly, but there were plenty of opportunities for disaster.

Here’s some photos of the view:

We arrived at the perfect place to sit and relax for a while exactly at 4:18. You can probably guess what happened then.

The climb down was pretty though. I’m surprised nobody fell! We had to slide/inch our way down a slim crevasse in the rock.

Here’s a few more random photos of the trip: Panning for gold, Climbing Down, the view again, a tunnel.

If you’ve logged into Facebook today, you’ve probably seen the new chat feature. I’m hooked.

I find it odd that they don’t have a desktop client though. MySpace teamed up with Skype for a chat service, and I see something similar happening with Facebook.

Google Talk is fairly popular among tech crowds, but has yet to be “mainstream” like AIM, MSN, etc. It’s based on Jabber, which makes it very flexible and powerful. I see Facebook adding a desktop client powered by Google within 4 months. There’s plenty of similarities already, and I think it would be a good match.

On second thought, Microsoft has had their hands in Facebook’s pockets for a while, so maybe it’ll be bundled with MSN. We’ll see what happens. That post is a little old, but M$ was one of the largest Series C investors.

(My predictions almost always turn out to be wrong)

Thanks to my friend over at www.vsingh.net for letting me post a screenshot of our chat

I woke up and saw this bench in a tree in my complex parking lot. I wonder if my roommates had anything to do with this… I wouldn’t be surprised.

After nine months with the chemical company, I quit! I’m free of my controlling, rude, and violent boss’s clutches. I’m picking up more shifts at Target, probably in Food Avenue making pizzas for the soccer moms who come in during the week, or the stoners who are skipping school. More power to them.

It’s going to take Target two weeks to get me some more hours, so I’ll be doing web development! Keep on the lookout for some new projects from me in the near future! They’re real exciting…Seriously. Would I lie to you?