April 2008 Archives

As I have been wanting a new laptop, yesterday I sent a request for some more info about a MacBok Pro listed on the Spokane Craigslist. Here is the listing (until it gets taken down).

In response to my inquiry, I received the following email, complete with more pictures:

Hello,

The laptop is still available and I hope you are still interested. My name is Kyle Mosson and I am now in Manchester, U.K. This machine has been used for professional needs over the past 10 Months, it is in great condition and runs perfectly, and beyond evidence of normal use the laptop is in perfect shape. The warranty is good until June 2008 and it is fully transferable. One more thing, it works on US voltage so you do not need a converter. I have attached some pics with the laptop to this e-mail so you can see the condition of the laptop. Please get back to me and let me know if you like the laptop if you’re really interested in buying it.

Thanks, Kyle

I was a bit skeptical about doing business overseas, so I searched Google and came up with this blog post detailing the exact message I received. I guess it was too good to be true. I reported the scam to the abuse desk at craigslist. Craigslist is such a wonderful tool, I have bought several things locally on it, but I guess as it gets more popular there will be an increase in scams like this.

UPDATE (4/29/2008): The ad mentioned above has been taken down from the Spokane craigslist.

Notice my nifty table of my public Picasa albums over there on the left sidebar. Pretty cool huh? So do I have to publish in Movable Type every time I add a new Picasa album? No, that would be silly.

Instead, I’m using some clever DHTML javascript to build an N-column table and populate it dynamically with a JSON call out to the Picasa web API.

Read on for instructions and code on how I built mine.

Wow… Just, wow. I am dumbstruck with the coolness of the California Dairy Board and the Got Milk folks.

Drop whatever you are doing and check out the music and other things at www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com

Now I need to find a source for gold-flake Chuck Taylor high tops…

As you can see, the blog is back to a usable and pretty form. The new template engine in MT4 is very easy to use and the widgets and widget sets make customizations a snap. Notice the nifty Picasa gallery widget I built. It uses JSON to make an AJAX call to the Google API and then processes the results into a table which it renders in-line. I’ll try to write up how to do it later.

NOTICE: This weekend I’m going to do an upgrade to my blog.  It may be unavailable intermittently.

UPDATE: The upgrade to MT4 is done. Now I just need to re-prettify the templates. That should keep me off the streets for awhile… This weekend we are expecting snow, if you can believe it; so I’ll be cuddling up with a warm cuppa and my favorite web tools.

This evening my doctor saw fit to discharge me from the hospital. SO I AM HOME! It’s so nice to see the kitties and be able to sleep in my own bed tonight. It will probably be a few days until I feel I have the strength to go back to work, but I’m glad to be out. Thanks again for everyone’s thoughts and support.

Yesterday evening, we finally got to see my attending physician and learn the results of my latest CT scan.  My pancreas no longer appears to be inflamed and my C Reactive Protein blood test is down to 1.6 this morning.  Additionally my white blood cell count is within normal ranges again.  So last night they removed the feeding tube and I got to eat my first real meal in weeks.  I'm feeling good and it appears my tests bear that out, so hopefully I will be going home soon.

Thanks to everyone for the e-cards, blog comments, letters and other support.  When things get rough in the hospital, it's wonderful to be reminded of those who care.  Thanks and blessings to all!

Today, my lovely wife Jakki, smuggled my cat onto the hospital campus.  It started with Mom goading me into a walk as soon as she could.  She shepherded me to the elevators and then slapped my knitted hat on my head.  I thought something was up at this point.  Down we went to the lobby, which is where we generally go when I want to get some outside time.  It was sprinkling a bit, so I thought it was odd that mom would want me to be outside-- professional worrier that she is.   As soon as we got outside, she started leading me a different direction than we normally go, and when I lookup up Jakki was standing at the other side of the roundabout, holding Lucky.  We ducked into the empty Drs. Building lobby and had some scratch time.  Lucky was very good and didn't even seem to need his harness.  I could tell he was missing me.  Mom snapped some pictures which I have added to the Photo Album (the link under our pictures on the homepage).

Finally mom and I went back up to the room and Jakki took Lucky home.  Apparently he pooped in the carrier on the way to the parking garage so she had to hurriedly duck into a bathroom and clean that up; hoping not to get caught in the process.  I'm glad my wife is willing to take a few risks for my happiness now and again.  It's one of the (many) reasons I love her.

Just to let everyone know who doesn't already, on 3/31 I was admitted to the hospital again with more pancreas troubles.  Right now I'm getting all my food through a tube (which sucks the big one), but I'm off antibiotics and my white count is down to 12,000, which is better.  They are doing another batch of CT scans on Monday to determine the course forward.  Aside from the discomfort of the feeding tube and the general hospital rough treatment, I feel pretty good.  Hopefully I will get home before I run out of paid leave!  Mom has taken several pictures which I put up in a gallery in the usual place.  More news as events warrant.