I just brought in some strawberry cupcakes.  They look awesome, and I hear they taste amazing too!  About to eat mine…  Props to Little Cake Bakery on Roswell Rd!

I’m not sure when the problem started, but occasionally I’ll type an address into the location bar in Firefox (I’m running Firefox 3.0.1 on a Macbook Pro with OS X 10.5.4) and when I hit the Return/Enter key nothing happens. I can type and hit enter anywhere else in the browser, including the search box and any page I may have open.

It turns out this is a known bug, but has not yet been resolved.  One solution I found was to disable the Smart Location Bar, which seems to do the trick, but you’re stuck typing out entire URLs if you do that since it completely disables auto-complete.

The solution I have settled for is opening a new window when the bug strikes.  The Return/Enter key works properly in the location bar of the new window.  This is much better than restarting the browser or disabling the Smart Location Bar, in my opinion.

In trying the disable fix, I played around with different settings for the Smart Location Bar and found that reducing the number of results returned from 12 makes getting to URLs a bit snappier.  I found that 4 works well for me, but you might want to play around with other settings (or not), depending on how crazy you are about shaving a few milliseconds off the time it takes you to get to Fail Blog and Lolcats.

I have an irrational hatred of advertisements.  I rarely watch a show without letting my DVR build up a fast forward cushion and you could count the number of online ads I have clicked on 2 or 3 fingers.  When a telemarketer calls my home I leave the phone on the table without hanging up in the hope that I waste as much of their time as they did mine.

There are a ton of ads online that are just honestly, truly terrible.  I don’t understand why these things were made and I would be rather surprised if you told me they were earning clicks.  Cnn.com seems to be a pretty regular offender, as many of these are pulled from there.  Most of the ads themselves seem to be similar - potentially created by the same disaster of an ad agency.  I thought I would display a small sampling of these ads to show how awful they are in general.

This was definitely a ramble, but these bad online ads really bother me. We’ve barely moved on past the monkey shooting flash game ads.  As a point of comparison, check out what Apple did when they purchased ad space. I think I might have even clicked the header.

During the week of the 4th of July, Chris decided that it was a wonderful idea to have movie night as a company. Emails were sent, posters were put in place for this classical movie weeks ahead (at my cubicle that is). The movie choice was obvious since I have not seen this movie and my new title in the company closely resembles the movie name.

Speaking of my nickname, it is a rather amusing story how about I got it to begin with.  It was during one of our weekly Friday meeting.  During these meetings, we talk about all sorts of things that are company related or personal. I vaguely remember Chris mentioning Top Gun and then Jeremy said Top Guan. I would love to tell a better story, but my memories fail me. Yep, that somehow gave me a new nickname.  Thanks Jeremy! It was like we were all drunk or something. It is not like we were under the influence of any alcohol. Chris bought me a poster soon after of this legendary movie that I have never seen. It is such a cool poster I must say. I can vaguely recognize Tom Cruise since he looks like he is 15 in that poster.

Anyways, I believe that’s enough background. On July 2th 2008, I finally met Top Gun! At 5pm, we cleared our development area and it was movie time with pizza included (Yum).Using a file cabinet to put our projector, we were able to shine the light into one of the white walls. Took me a few tries to align the projector correctly while inducing nausea to those looking at the wall as I shake the screen violently. Every time I accidently shake it, I heard violent scream of pain. Soon after, the movie started and people gathered up.  I can tell that Chris really loves this movie.

It sure was a life changing experience.  My life has clearly been impacted by Top Gun.  You think I am joking? Well, I will leave you with a short list of how it has changed my life. Serious…

1.  I do not feel left out when people use their favorite Top Gun phrases. Now I should be able to visualize cheesy scene that goes with the phrases.

2.  I can now say “OMG, you haven’t watched Top Gun?  Even I have watched it!!

3.  I have dropped my coding music playlist to 4 songs, playing them repeatedly just like the movie does with its music.

4.  Volleyball will never be the same for me.

5.  I carry a microphone around just in case I need to sing to a girl I meet.  Hopefully everyone else will sing along with me.

We have quite a collection of energy drinks here at the office…

Although there are definitely a few great energy drinks out there, the best is clearly “Liquid Vi“. You might wonder why we don’t have a bottle of “Liquid Emacs“. That’s because Liquid Emacs is an inferior energy drink that simply can’t compare to Liquid Vi. Liquid Vi is small and fast. Displacing a mere 150 mL, Liquid Vi doesn’t need 16 ounces to get the job done like some *other* energy drinks out there, and it doesn’t take FOR-FREAKING-EVER to start working either.

To the creators of Liquid Vi - I don’t know if you are looking for a slogan or anything, but this one’s free if you want to use it:

“:%s/tired/wired/g with Liquid Vi!”

Cheers,
Sean

I am a fanboy.  No shame.  But, I haven’t always been.  I do software development and music production/engineering, and was not exposed to Macs until I entered the recording studio realm, apart from the occasional run-in with an iMac at the library.  Since Apple hardware is the industry standard in recording studios, I had to learn…and learn very quickly.  Which, it turns out, wasn’t a problem.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I purchased an Apple product - an iPod.  I’d had an iRiver MP3 CD player that finally quit on me, and I decided to jump on the bandwagon by getting one of the short-lived iPod Photos.  Ever heard of one of those?  I liked the interface and the design so much that I decided to look into getting a Powerbook.  Then a Macbook Pro.  And finally, an iPhone.

My iPhone drank gatorade at the WeTheCitizens Dodgeball Outing, and the top half of the screen hasn’t worked since.  I’ve managed to do without, but it’s quite a pain.  So, you ask, will I be getting a 3G iPhone?  Yep.

Apple products are not necessarily the best.  Claims of Macs being more stable than Windows machines just haven’t proven true in my experience.  But the R&D put into their products’ design and interfaces makes them worth the extra money in my opinion.

So, my defense comes down to this:  Apple products are awesome, in my opinion.  If you get excited when you pick up a Dell Latitude, then you shouldn’t waste the extra dough on a Macbook Pro.

Earlier this week I was tailed by the Spanish mafia, arrested and searched by the Portuguese military, and dove 100 ft off a cliff to escape a rebel militia group.  But that’s not my topic for today - instead I’m going to talk about my recent trip to the Republic of Turkey.

A friend of mine, Matthew Benton, is currently studying abroad in Turkey at Boğaziçi University, which is one of the most prominent educational institutions in Turkey (that’s Bosphorus University for you English speakers)  We traveled from Istanbul along the western coast down to the beautiful lagoon/beach town of Ölüdeniz.  Along the way I learned useful words like Bira (beer), Kebap (kabob), Ayran (a salty, warm yogurt drink..mmm…), Çöp şiş (fatty, lamb shish kabob) and lokum (Turkish Delight).  I also got lied to by a vengeful bazaar merchant and walked 16km through the Turkish countryside after missing one turn.

For those of you who aren’t good at geography, Turkey is located on the Anatolian peninsula.  Oh - that didn’t help?  OK, well it’s sandwiched in between Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.  The Bosphorus River runs right through Istanbul (not Constantinople!) and connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.  On any given day there were five thousand billion ships waiting to go through the Bosphorus and transport goods to Russia and other Black Sea ports.  It basically looked like an armada floating in the river about to attack!

I’ve known that Turkey sat at the crossing point between Europe and Asia, but I didn’t realize how diverse and incredible the history of the region was until I visited.  The Anatolian peninsula that Turkey now occupies has been home to civilizations dating back to several thousand years BC, and its occupants include the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires.  It is now home to countless ruins, artifacts, and locations that have played a key role in the history of civilization and the development of Western and Middle Eastern cultures.

My trip began in Istanbul.  Istanbul is a city of contrasts; there is a unique mix of European and Middle Eastern cultures, and a sometimes odd mix of modern secularism with Islamic traditionalism.  You can travel to the Taksim district and see a modern, nightlife crowd bustling through the longest stretch of bars and clubs you’ve ever seen, and then walk a block away and find groups of women in burkas and headscarves.  It is intriguing to walk down cafe-lined streets that would feel at home in any European city and then hear Muslim chants floating through the air from mosque loudspeakers spread throughout the city.  Sitting on my friend’s balcony at night, looking out over Istanbul, and listening to the exotic chants was certainly a unique experience!

Istanbul is home to quite a few amazing sights, including Topkapi Palace (home to the Ottoman Sultans for hundreds of years), Ayasofya (largest Cathedral in the world for 1000 years, turned to mosque then museum, and the epitome of Byzantine architecture), and the Blue Mosque (a massive mosque built in the early 1600’s).  These sites are all amazing, but I also enjoyed just wandering around, exploring the various neighborhoods on the European and Asian sides of the city, and admiring the beauty of Istanbul while riding a ferry down the Bosphorus.

We totaled somewhere north of 50 hours of airplane/bus travel during the trip, including an overnight flight and a couple of overnight bus trips.  On our first overnight bus trip, I woke up to the sounds of creaking as the bus swayed back and forth.  My friend had neglected to tell me that the buses have to take a ferry across the Sea of Marmara.  Waking up in a bus rocking back and forth on a ferry at night, cruising through a sea with no land in sight was definitely an unexpected and surreal experience.  The ferry also lacked “pedastal” toilets and only had the squat variety…and I accidentally walked into the women’s restroom on the ferry - but that’s another story…

Ephesus is some of the best preserved Roman ruins in the Eastern Mediterranean. The area had been inhabited as far back as 6000 BC and was the capital of Asia Minor in the Roman Empire.  It was also one of the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelations and the church that Ephesians is named after.  Unfortunately, while walking from Selçuk to Ephesus, we missed the turn and ended up going about 5km out of the way.  Luckily we found a random cafe and got some Kofta (Turkish meatballs).  Total walking that day was around 16km - needless to say we were exhausted.

Next stop was Kuşadası, which is a cruise ship port town.  The beaches there were decent, but the castle and scenery were awesome.  The hotel we stayed at had a sign in the corner with Jennifer Lopez’s name;  Supposedly they used it to pick her up from the airport.  Apparently J Lo has a thing for hotels with small rooms and no AC.

At this point we had to choose between the historical value of Gallipoli (WWII battle site) and Troy vs. the natural beauty of Ölüdeniz.  We eventually chose Ölüdeniz, which is an incredibly scenic area where huge rocky mountains soar down into the water, with the town itself nestled in between.  The coast was a pebble beach that curves around to a lagoon.  Be careful though - they charge you to walk down to the lagoon.  My friend and I would take an (American) football down to the beach and throw it around.  The Turkish people were quite intrigued and would always ask to see it or hold it when we’d walk through town.  At one point, we demonstrated how you can kick a football by punting the ball right into one man’s perfume stand!  As penance, we stood there for 10 minutes or so listening to his spiel about why we needed to buy a load of cheap cologne from him (we didn’t buy any).

Ölüdeniz also happens to be the top Paragliding spot in the world.  The high mountains, unique wind currents, and gorgeous scenery make for a perfect setting to jump off the top of a 4,700 ft tall mountain.  It was an incredible experience that lasted 30-45 minutes floating from the top of the mountain down to land on the beach!  Too bad my camera battery died about 5 minutes into the glide…  Ölüdeniz is also near the Lycian Way, which is one of the top 10 most beautiful walks in the world!  We hiked part of it, went off the beaten path, and found an incredible mountain ledge that overlooked the whole valley.  The view was so amazing that we ended up spending the rest of our time there before heading back for another overnight bus.

Despite this rather lengthy post, it’s tough to cover all of the cool things there are to experience in Turkey - from haggling over goods in the massive Grand Bazaar, walking through the neighborhoods of Istanbul, seeing some of the most beautiful locations on earth, or exploring ancient ruins in a land that has been the crossroads of culture and nations since the beginning of recorded history.  Turkey is a place that not too many Americans visit, but it’s certainly worth a trip if you have the opportunity!

My first day with WeTheCitizens was last Monday. Taking every precaution to avoid being late, I awoke early at 5:30 a.m to three separate alarm clocks. As an Atlantan, you grow to expect delays in getting to work: late MARTA trains, traffic jams, or construction work.

Luck seemed to be with me though and I made it from my home in Midtown to WTC, located centrally in Buckhead, with time to spare. This gave me a little time to solve the problem of where to stow my bicycle. Fortunately, as I wheeled my bicycle into the building, I met Sean, a co-worker of mine who also rides a bicycle to work. He lead me to a room where he keeps his own bike during work hours and I parked my ride. Sean was also kind enough to let me into the office. Having left home so early, I also happened to be the first arrival that day.

MD, my boss, came shortly after and showed me to my work station, a new 23” aluminum case iMac. I hit the ground running: my first task was to familiarize myself with the Google Blueprint and use the framework to reconstruct a page from Wildfire, one of our flagship products.

By lunchtime, I had made good progress and was ready to eat. MD was kind enough to plan a welcome lunch for me and by process of voting, we decided to eat at Mellow Mushroom. The food was tasty and I had a chance to meet the rest of the WTC team. Several of us are Georgia Tech grads and we all share an interest in social mobilization so immediately I felt a part of the company culture.

Later that afternoon, we had a meeting where I learned a lot about our product, some of the features under construction, and the processes we use in development. I was excited to find myself in such a fast-paced work environment where real progress occurs daily. Everyone here possesses a genuine enthusiasm for their work that is highly contagious. It was immediately clear to me that we are creating something special. Our meeting ran a bit late and I eventually began my way home around 6:30 p.m..

Since then, the tempo has continued at a rapid pace without skipping a beat. In the upcoming weeks, we will be meeting with a lot of potential clients and making significant improvements to Wildfire. WTC is a thrilling work environment and I am eager to see how our company and our product evolve over the next few months.

If you haven’t heard of this new adventure race series you’re not alone. The City Chase series is in its first year in the US. The Canadian-based race started the US series in Philadelphia and then recently held its second race in Atlanta.

I signed up for the event, along with a teammate (you were required to participate in teams of 2), a few months ago.  With only the website as a reference we had no clue what we were getting into.

The morning started out rather amusing. Crunch Group Fitness instructors led the crowd in an 80s inspired dancer-size warm up. Following the warm-up the race administrators walked us through the rules…most of which were common sense…two stood out. The first was that no matter where you were in the race — be back by 4pm. All tasks close at that time. The second was that the only methods of transportation allowed were public and walking/running.   Any Atlanta resident knows our public transportation system is lacking at best. About the only thing it does efficiently is get you to the airport. That said they instructed the group to answer a series of questions / complete minor tasks to obtain the integral “clue” sheet.

The clue sheet described a series of tasks that we were to complete. There were buckets you had to complete and those you could choose from. The first thing to do was deciphering the task and location described in each clue (fairly easy). With location and task noted for each we plotted our race out. Our race would take us from the Downtown -> to the MLK / Old Fourth Ward District -> Midtown  -> Atlantic Station -> Buckhead.

We made our way to Marta and got their just in time to catch the train to the MLK area. Once there we (along with a few other teams) convinced a smaller Marta Bus to take us part of the way to our first task.

The first task was to have my teammate stay at the MLK Center texting me questions while I ran around the MLK Historic District using the various markets/pieces of history to get the answers and then text back. That task wasn’t too hard so we completed it and moved onto another task which was within a mile of the first. We completed that task even quicker and then left with the intention of moving onto midtown. I knew the train ran at half hour increments on the weekends so that with a 2 mile hike back to the station in mind we decided we would start walking towards midtown *thinking* we would catch a bus along the way (we were on one of the main intown roads - Boulevard). Roughly 45-50 minutes later — we make it to midtown w/o seeing a bus (go Marta!).  The race had a variety of tasks layed out across midtown ranging from carrying an eight person raft around a section of the park - to taking a short KAPLAN to test - to participating in fireman drills. All were fun — we completed each in order and moved on to a series of tasks that included ordering Art by date at the High Museum, making puppets at the Center for Puppetry Arts and finally selling T-shirts and a few other random assignments at Atlantic Station.

At face value this should take too long but by the time we left Atlantic Station we were exhausted and hungry. It was 3:30 and both my teammate and I had had one energy bar  (advice — stop for lunch or take lots of food with you). At this point in the day we had completed 9 of 10 tasks. Our last task of the day was in Buckhead — which by train and including walk time would have easily taken us another 1.5 hours. Knowing that we wouldn’t get to the task before the race cut off time we headed back. As we got back we realized we likely apart of the majority of racers who did not finish.

While it may not have been the ideal City Chase with the lack of transportation it was a great time.

On April 19^th, WTC’s squad of average joe’s cast its lot in Chick-fil-a’s annual Duck ‘N Dodge tournament. Armed with two practices and custom-branded tees, Team WeTheRainmakers (still searching for a better name) entered the competition as the true underdog story. Prospects rose with a game one victory but championship hopes waned quickly. Lacking the leadership of CEO Caleb Clark, who was otherwise “engaged” for the weekend, WTC dropped its next 7 games…emerging with a 1 – 7 record and collective tendonitis of the shoulder.

Hiring requirements for future personnel now include experience in Spring, Hibernate, & Jsecurity frameworks, as well as minor league pitching experience. We will return with vengeance next year!!