matt's weblog . . .

TiVo Series 2 Introduction Animation

2008-07-31T21:35:00.001-04:00

MVI_2615
Originally uploaded by mattvandyk

One of the toughest issues with switchng from TiVo to DirecTV's DVR (which, by the way, is a piece of garbage) was the loss of the introduction animation, which had brought hours and hours of entertainment to Jacob. So, we recorded it for posterity.

Move to Flickr

2008-07-16T09:01:00.003-04:00

IMG_2437
Originally uploaded by mattvandyk

The life of this blog has officially come to an end. Photos and Videos will still be maintained and updated at Flickr; click here to go there. Thank you.

--Matt

jacob042807-217

2008-07-14T10:49:00.001-04:00

jacob042807-217
Originally uploaded by mattvandyk

Tester

Home Theater Project

2007-09-23T17:21:00.000-04:00

Well, as many of you know, Steph and I undertook a home improvement project to install a home theater system in our family room. Despite the fact that neither one of us are particularly mechanically inclined, a lot of research, planning, and advice from friends (who are mechanically inclined and well-informed in this area), it turned out better than I could have imagined. Anyway, here are the pics:

Schematic:

Parts List:

Before Pictures:

Wiring Pictures:

After Pictures:

Before/After Pictures:

All pictures are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62937639@N00/sets/72157601847942095/

--Matt

John W. Millhouse . . . .

2007-06-19T16:15:00.000-04:00

My "friend" (and I use that term loosely) has asked me to post the following bit of fiction about our relationship and my progress adjusting to my new surroundings:

As most of you know, I have recently changed jobs. I am now with Miller, Canfield in Kalamazoo. This move has worked out very well for me, in large part due to my mentor at Miller, Canfield, John Millhouse. Mr. Millhouse is a source of much inspiration and guidance for me. I feel very fortunate for having him in my professional life. In addition to being a stellar attorney, Mr. Millhouse has taken me under his wing and has shown amazing patience in bringing me along as a lawyer. I am a better lawyer and person as a result of his tutelage. So as we head into this year's Independence Day Holiday, may I suggest that each of us take a moment to thank our respective mentors and shoot off a firework in their honor. Hope to see you all at BD in the near future. Have a safe and happy Holiday. Still having fun in Kalamazoo, Hollywood.

Foray into eBay . . .

2007-04-02T23:13:00.001-04:00

Well, I've made my first foray into the wide world of eBay Sellers! If you or anyone you know is looking for a great, fully-loaded Wi-Fi PDA with Bluetooth navigation, just check out this awesome Ipaq h4155.

What's new?

2007-02-22T12:27:00.000-05:00

Well, admittedly, I've been a little derelict in my duties when it comes to keeping this blog up to date, but that's largely because there's absolutely nothing going on in my life right now. I mean, aside from trivial things like my son's first birthday, my father-in-law's base jumping experience, and my decision to quit my job, uproot my family, and move to Kalamazoo to take a new one, there's just nothing going on!

Really, though, my apologies. 'Tis true; we are moving to Kalamazoo. I've left Rhoades McKee -- one of the finest law firms in West Michigan run by some of the finest people I know -- for the Kalamazoo Office of Miller Canfield -- also a fine, fine law firm run by some excellent folks. There were a number of different factors (both personal and professional) involved, but in the end, the opportunity was simply too good to pass up; I think it will prove to be a very good thing on all levels.

Unfortunately, this means that we are in the process of trying to sell our house in the middle of what can most generously be described as a "soft" residential market. We've listed it with a very good broker (Ken Grashuis), though, and I think it will all work out just fine. The flip side of that coin is that it's a great time to be a buyer in Kalamazoo, and thusfar we've rather enjoyed the "house shopping" process. All told, we've done a lot to get ourselves ready for the move and there's still more to do (I had forgotten what a pain in the behind that whole process can be). We'll keep you updated on the progress. In the meantime, if you know anyone looking for a nice house in Bailey's Grove, let them know that this one is available!

Well, that's the update for now. I'll be updating pictures and what not over the next couple of days. Enjoy!

Hilton Head Reunion . . .

2006-10-14T11:32:00.000-04:00

Well, as some of you know, we returned last week from a family vacation in Hilton Head, SC. It was an AWESOME time. There were a total of 19-1/2 of us (including 7-1/2 children 3 and under) , and it was great. The flu made the rounds, but it was courteous enough to do it by sub-family, so Steph and Jacob were pretty violently ill the last two days, with Jacob being sick on the plane ride home. I didn't get sick until we got home, but when I did, aaaagghhh, that was unpleasant. Anyway, despite the sicknesses, it was a very good time spent with some very good people.

My brother-in-law, Matt Reoch, is a professional photographer. I think I've posted about him before when he and his partner took the Super Bowl "bumps". But, anyway, he was the official photographer for the trip and set up a slideshow of some of the pictures here. Enjoy!

Web 2.0 . . . ?

2006-08-27T22:46:00.000-04:00

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not entirely sure what "they" mean by "Web 2.0", and to tell you the truth, the term is so loosely used that I'm not even sure that "they" know what it means anymore. But, I'm pretty sure that the fact that I can sit here on my couch and change the channel on my TiVo to enjoy slideshows of pictures posted by my friends and family (some 2500 miles away, some 200 miles away) in real time, instantly after they have posted them, is, at least, a manifestation of it.

Yes, the way it works technically is certainly "clunky" to say the least (friend's camera to friend's computer, friend's computer to friend's router, friend's router to Flickr, Flickr to FlickrCentral, FlickrCentral to TiVo Desktop Server, TiVo Desktop Server to Router, Router to TiVo, TiVo to TV), but the way it "works" from an user interface perspective is, basically, no more complicated than changing the channel on the TV.

No, I don't really know what "Web 2.0" is, but I do know that if this is part of it, I'm pretty excited for the rest of it.

P.S. Of course, if the navigation system on my cell phone which got me repeatedly lost this weekend (I was "leading" the caravan of people because, after all, who needs a paper map when your cell phone can tell you how to get there? -- 5 U-turns later, we turned it over to the paper map) is also "Web 2.0", it still needs some work.

Late to the game, but still unbelievable . . .

2006-08-22T14:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, this story is nearly 4 months old now. Yes, I am just now discovering this. Yes, I am pissed off at my alma matter. Here is the official account of how and why this year's edition of what has evidently come to be known as the "Calvin Spoof" -- i.e. the Bananer progeny -- was nixed by the Calvin administration (or, at least, the "Student Life Committee").

Although I strongly suspect that there were not wholesale expulsions as a result, the would-be spoofers have e-published their work (the Cliche) here. Over the top? Cross the line? In my estimation, probably. Should the Calvin administration have the right to just cancel the project because they don't like the content (the required editorial changes were such that cancelation was the net effect)? I'd say no. That said, I've never understood the funding mechanism for this. I always thought that these Calvin Spoofs were privately funded; or, at least, I always believed that they should be privately funded to avoid this very problem. If they aren't, and if Calvin has been footing the bill for the Calvin Spoofs (which is a funding situation just begging for this type of "incident"), Calvin should be able to weight the likely alumni reaction versus the likely student body reaction and do what it wants with its money. But, assuming a non-Calvin funding source, the administration's meddling is inexcusable. There are any number of ways Calvin could have distanced itself from the publication short of forbidding publication in the first instance, and as an institution constantly struggling to maintain a balance between academia, its religious tenets, and its relatively diverse alumni, Calvin is certainly no stranger to engaging in the politics of perception. This is just something I didn't think I'd ever see, and really, strangely, it's a little bit, well, embarassing.

I got burned. . .

2006-07-21T08:20:00.000-04:00

. . . literally and figuratively.

First, last night, after I returned from the GRBA golf outing, I decided to make myself a pizza. So, I put the pizza stone in the oven and proceeded to patiently pre-heat. Once it was ready, I donned oven mits, pulled out the pizza stone, put it on top of the stove, took off the oven mits, and threw on the frozen pizza. Then, the phone rang, and I picked it up and started a conversation with Steph (who was in K-zoo with Jacob visiting her parents). Evidently, I am incapable of multi-tasking because I then grabbed the pre-heated pizza stone to put my frozen pizza back in the oven. Then, I felt my flesh begin to sear like a steak, dropped said pizza stone, almost puked from the pain, and undoubtedly broke out into a string of expletives seasoned with a fair amount of screaming and groaning. I have second degree burns on the meaty part of both hands and fully across both thumbs and all my fingertips (except my pinkies, which I am using to type this blog post --I am 20 minutes into it at this point) -- all because pizza stones (which look no different blazing hot or ice cold) don't warn you when they're too hot to touch (yes, that's right, this is solely the fault of the pizza stone). Crap, this is not going to be good.

Second, Floyd Landis showed me (and the vast majority of the cycling and sports press) to be an over-reactive little girl by making up all but 30 seconds of the 8 MINUTES he lost Wednesday, in yesterday's stage (which was arguably the toughest stage of the Tour and which finished with the toughest climb in the Tour). With the final individual time trial on Saturday, and with Landis being one of the best time trialists in the race, he may well (and, indeed, probably will) win the Tour. Although most of Americans have unplugged themselves from bike racing in a post-Lance world, I agree with the Tour director that this was the single greatest individual performance/comeback in the modern era. I have eaten my crow, Floyd, nice work.

P.S. Total time to type two paragraphs with my decorative fingers: 38 minutes. D'oh.

THE bonk . . .

2006-07-19T22:20:00.000-04:00

It's called a lot of different things in a lot of different sports (mostly endurance sports) and it's cause could be any number of different issues, but call it what you will -- bonking, cracking, hitting the wall, crashing, blowing up, or just pooping out -- even casual cycling fans are being made aware today of how truely (almost, unbelievably) amazing are the feats of Lance Armstrong.

Today, just a little over 3 days from the finish line, 2 days from the Tour's last time trial (the discipline at which he is undoubtedly one of the best in the field), and a mere 15k from the end of the stage, Floyd Landis -- Lance Armstrong's one time, long-time teamate who left no bridge unburned when he left the USPS (to then become Discovery) team after the '04 Tour -- showed that he was not, his own belief notwithstanding, the next great American cyclist. He came to the 15k marker about 2 minutes up on his nearest "real" competition and finished the stage 8 minutes out (with 3 days left, he'd need a miracle to even make up 1/2 that).

This was Landis' one great shot at the win. All of the major names in the sport and the prohibitive favorites -- Ulrich, Basso, Vinokourov, etc. -- were tossed in doping allegations just days before the Tour started. Couple that with the fact that the typically solid Leipheimer had an inexplicably poor individual time trial in which he gave up 6 minutes and, wham-o, Landis is transformed from A favorite to THE favorite. This was HIS Tour to lose. Considering that he will have hip replacement surgery after the season and he's not exactly a spring chicken anymore, it was probably his last Tour to lose as well.

Was it the cycling gods getting him for the remarable display of hubris demonstrated by Landis' riding around on a yellow bike with yellow tires in a yellow helmet with gold glasses every time he donned the yellow jersey (Armstrong did something similar the last couple of Tours as well, but only on the ride into Paris, and even then only after already having 4 or 5 consecutive Tours to his name)? Who knows, but click here to see the interview (given just hours after the finish of the stage) by a man who had the Tour de France wrapped-up with a bow on it for him and just couldn't close the deal. Is this nonchalance for real or is this clinical-level denial?

long time, no post . . .

2006-07-19T08:02:00.000-04:00

Well, admittedly, it's been an inexcusably long time since I last posted. There's a lot going on that I'd love to tell you about, but time is an increasingly precious commodity these days. At any rate, at some point, I'll post again to update you on the Scotty/PETA "spat" and to fill you in on the details of the Final Four (both things I promised to do in earlier posts, and both things I have neglected to do as of yet), but for now, I wanted to provide a link to my somewhat limited readership to a CNet article discussing the Net Neutrality issue I tried to explain a couple of months ago. The article itself is interesting, but the real "action" is in Scott Cleland's responsive post and the comments thereto (particularly the back and forth between the article's author, Molly Wood, and Scott Cleland). Anyway, here's the link. I'd recommend reading the primer on the issue I posted here before jumping into the article as it will give you a good deal of background on what, exactly, it is that is being discussed. Again, as I've said before, this is a critically important issue to the future of information technologies and the internet in particular. Although Net Neutrality legislation is (0r, would be, rather) pre-emptive regulation (at this point), rather than reactionary, it is, in many, many ways the Trust Busting of the Information Age; and I, for one, despite my conservative capitalist tendencies, think it is an absolute necessity if we want to avoid the clear ills of a tiered internet. I do not have the fear expressed by Mr. Cleland that this regulation will stagnate competition and curtail the advancement of broadband technologies; in fact, I think that when this tiered internet scheme of broadband providers is buried by effective net neutrality regulation, increased technological advancement will be a necessary by-product compelled by competition (e.g. if broadband providers are prohibited from competing on the basis of their respective pricing models/tiers, they will only be able to win customers from competitors by becoming more efficient and providing a better product for the same price -- hence, market-driven advancement in broadband technologies), but get informed and make your own decision on the issue. I'd be interested to hear what you think.

As an aside, I have a golf outing coming up tomorrow. Our team is comprised of Eric Lanning, Matt Seyffert, and Kelly Clum-Matthysse. Wish us luck!

Will post again, soon...hopefully!

Measure Map, Google, and . . . the Final Four?

2006-04-06T20:15:00.000-04:00

Well, not surprisingly, it's been a while since I've posted, but a couple of interesting things have happened in the last couple of weeks that have driven me back . . . so, here I am.

First, I was perusing the blogs of a couple of old friends of mine (who happen to be brother and sister) and discovered that my buddy and former roomate Greg is has become a Google-ite. You see, Greg and his brother Jeff (about whom I've posted about in the past and who is one of the co-founders of Adaptive Path) had been working on a project called Measure Map, which appears to be a user-friendly, blog-specific, web-based analytics tool for "checking your blog stats". Measure Map was acquired by Google in mid-February and has brought Jeff (and Greg, I think) on board. Congrats go out to both of them! In a somewhat curious turn that leaves one to wonder exactly how much "tracking" Google does, on the very same day I discovered this good news, I received my invitation code to implement Google Analytics (formerly, Urchin; and presumably soon to have some of the easy interface of Measure Map). Thusfar, I'm quite pleased with Google Analytics, but to be honest, it's much more than I need and much more e-commerce oriented than I would like. What I want is to have access to what I can get from StatCounter but with an easier interface. I want to be able to track particular visits by specific visitors with the visitor's geolocation, referring link, IP Address, Navigation Path, and ISP/Network Location -- basically, everything I can get by drilling down through "Recent Visitor Activity" in StatCounter, but in a more user-friendly interface. I also want to be able to have rudimentary search engine and keyword analyses. I don't need "goals" or "market reports" or any of that other stuff offered by Google Analytics (which I'm sure is helpful to e-business sites, but don't really do anything for Joe I've-got-a-website-for-my-blog-and-for-my-kid's-pictures). I'm hoping that this is exactly what Measure Map will do and can't wait to use it.

Oh, and my lovely wife acquired tickets to the UCLA/Florida NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game for my brother and myself. We went, it was awesome (except for the result), but I'll have to wait for another day to post more about that and some pictures. Steph rules!

Anyway, congrats again to Jeff & Greg. That's pretty sweet.

It's a serious problem . . .

2006-03-14T15:33:00.000-05:00

The Net Neutrality/Tiered Interent problem is so serious, in fact, that, believe this or not, the below post is only number 49 when entering the following fairly specific search string into Google: "'Net Neutrality' 'tiered internet' vonage". Granted, my page rank is 4, but that tells you that A LOT of people are writing about this very issue.

Do a google search for "'corey haim' hobbit 'sean astin' 24" though and you can see that although a greater number of people are writing about the bizzare resemblance of Corey Haim to the actor who has recently played both a doddling hobbit and a whiz-bang CTU agent, I am evidently their champion.

P.S. My TiVo HDD took a crap late last week leaving my wife and I puzzled by the challenges of operating that big grey box in our living room without the little TiVo guy to help us. Thanks to the fine folks at Weaknees for restoring a sense of normalcy and order to our lives.

Net Neutrality, the Tiered Internet, and Vonage

2006-03-05T13:01:00.000-05:00

This is probably going to be a very dry post for most of my regular or semi-regular readership, but it is such an important topic that I feel compelled to at least explain the basic issue. Please note that this is by no means supposed to be a manifesto on the issue, and individuals with far more technological expertise and savvy (see, generally, slashdot.org) are weighing in all around the country. This is designed as an "everyday man's" introduction to the issue.

1. Your Broadband Connection

You, as a broadband internet user, pay your ISP (for convenience, let's universally assume your ISP is Comcast, both because I believe they're the nation's largest broadband ISP and because they happen to be my ISP) for a capped access (in Comcast's case, that's usually around 6Mbps download speed and 375Kbps upload speed - known as an asymmetrical connection; the reason for asymmetrical connections is that (a) it's more costly to Comcast to provide higher upload speeds than it is to provide higher download speeds, and (b) your average joe does not typically utilize the upload end of the connection nearly as heavily as the download end of the connection) directly to their network, and in turn, to the internet through their "pipes" (a colloquial term used for its ability to describe the way this all works).

2. How it Works

In order to understand this issue, you need to have a rudimentary understanding of how data is transmitted from a particular site "on the internet" over the Comcast pipes to your computer and vice-versa. This means "ports" and "packets". Computers connect to one another through "ports"; certain services and/or computers use the same port or range of ports for the same task (e.g. almost without exception, your computer connects to the internet through Port 8080). It is through these ports that data is transmitted to/from your computer, through the Comcast pipes, and to the internet; but data isn't just willy-nilly shoved off through ports; before it goes, it's broken up into little bits called "packets" and shoved off through the port, onto the Comcast network, then to "the internet" (lovingly referred to as the "internet cloud"), and ultimately to its intended destination; at their point of origination, the packets are told where to go, but not necessarily how to get there; if operating as intended, the packets then are supposed to go out and dynamically find the quickest and most efficient way of getting from Point A to Point B (bear in mind that this all happens in a matter of milliseconds); the way a packet chose to get from Point A to Point B is known as its "route" (one can tell how a packet got from Point A, navigated its way through the Comcast network and the internet cloud, and arrived at Point B by performing a simple diagnostic called a traceroute). Sometimes packets get "lost", but a certain attrition rate (usually not more than 5%) is expected and built into the system; this is known as packet loss; also, the amount of time a packet takes to get from Point A to Point B is known as latency.

So, for example, when you navigate to the Google webpage, you are essentially asking the Google server to send its webpage to you. The Google server complies with your request by breaking its webpage up into little packets and telling those packets to go to Your Computer, Port 8080; those little packets then dutifully depart at roughly the same time, dynamically determine the best way to get from Google to Your Computer, Port 8080, probably take mildly different routes through the internet cloud, get into the Comcast pipes, and are routed to Your Computer, Port 8080. Once they arrive at Your Computer, Port 8080, they are reconfigured so you are looking at the Google homepage. Simple, no? This all works together in a chaotic symphony that gives you the internet.

There are all sorts of terms and issues involved here, including the difference between UDP and TCP traffic, throughput, bandwidth, and -- most importantly -- QoS, which are critical to a complete understanding of the way in which this works and the ways in which it can be manipulated, but most of that is beyond the scope of this post, and this rudimentary explanation should be enough to get us started.

3. Net Neutrality & The Tiered Internet

This is where the technology meets policy. As of right now, Net Neutrality isn't an ideal, it's federally-mandated policy "enforced" by the FCC (there are limited exceptions to this, but we'll ignore those for simplicity's sake). The idea is simple. Because the Comcast pipes (which you pay to use as a broadband subscriber) sit between you and the internet cloud, Comcast has the ability (and in some cases, as will be seen below, the incentive) to "prefer" certain types of traffic over others and/or to "dis-prefer" certain other types of traffic. Comcast can do this by identifying certain types of packets and/or ports and manipulating the flow of those packets to/from those ports.

The "techniques" which would be employed to accomplish this include, among others, port blocking (blocking certain ports that are used exclusively by certain dis-preferred types of traffic or a certain dis-preferred service from using those ports on its pipes), packet shaping (preventing certain types of packets from finding the quickest and most efficient route between Point A and Point B by directing the route certain types of identified packets use over the Comcast pipes, resulting in increased packet loss and latency for the singled-out packet type), packet preference (overtly preferring certain types of packet traffic over others and vice-versa), etc.

Fortunately for us, Comcast is regulated by the FCC and is not supposed to be engaging in this type of behavior. Indeed, the FCC has come out and issued a policy statement clearly endorsing the Net Neutrality concept, the principles of which are as follows:

(1) consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice;
(2) consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement;
(3) consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network; and
(4) consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

Although a far cry from actual FCC rules, these principles clearly forbid the type of techniques described above for preferring certain types of traffic over others. The idea is that as a broadband internet subscriber, you've purchased the right to access the internet for whatever legal purposes and/or services you desire and Comcast cannot interfere with that right.

Comcast, however, has every incentive in the world to "undo" Net Neutrality in favor of what is sometimes called the Tiered Internet. The Tiered Internet is a world in which Comcast is able to employ the above techniques to prefer certain types of traffic over others. The incentive to do this is clear. Comcast can "sell" preferred service to both end-users and service providers and/or launch services which compete with existing internet services and dis-prefer their competitor's traffic because, after all, they own the pipes. Right now, today, as I write this, Comcast is lobbying in Washington for just that and, as will be seen in a minute, the ramifications could be significant. If they are successful, you can say goodbye to the internet as you know it. Comcast would, in effect, be in a position to control speech, access, and services on the internet. This, in my humble opinion, would render them the single most powerful corporate entity in America, far eclipsing the combined "power" of Microsoft, network television, and all other forms of media because as the public continues its shift from conventional access to information to internet-based access to information, Comcast will be endowed with the power to single-handedly regulate that access (upon which those other entities and the public) depend. The importance of this issue cannot be overstated.

5. Comcast vs. Vonage - A Case Study

Without getting too deep into the nuance of VoIP, suffice it to say that Vonage is a VoIP provider, which means, in essence, that they provide an alternative telephone service that shuttles voice traffic over the internet rather than plain old telephone lines. Vonage voice packets are readily identifiable by existing and currently-employed technologies used by Comcast. Moreover, Vonage uses known ports for deploying its service. These facts make Vonage particularly susceptible to the network interruption techniques which could be employed by Comcast to disrupt Vonage traffic. Further exacerbating Vonage's potential "exposure" here is the fact that unlike typical network traffic in which occasionally high packet loss and/or latency is not really a big deal because the packets will just get re-sent, voice communications happen in real time; consequently, lost packets and high latency (the consequences of the above-described network interruption techniques) have real time immediate impact on the quality of the Vonage service experienced by Vonage users.

To put it simply, Vonage must have Net Neutrality in order to function properly or, if Net Neutrality goes by the wayside, they must be willing to pay Comcast to prefer (or at least, not dis-prefer) their traffic (a cost which will, invariably, be passed to the consumer). Further complicating this matter is the fact that Comcast is in the process of rolling out its own VoIP service to compete with Vonage. The temptation to disrupt Vonage service (an ability that Comcast has at the flip of a switch despite FCC policy statements to the contrary) is enormous. Indeed, there is some indication that Comcast had succumbed to this temptation over the past couple of weeks in the upper Midwest.

6. Conclusion

The problem is simple, the policies involved and the solution are not. This debate is raging all over the internet and for good reason. The outcome here will determine the future of the internet. While new technologies and new implementations of old technologies are emerging all over the place to make the internet "better" and more user-friendly, while Google (for better or worse) continues in its techno-hegemony of the internet, and while "Web 2.0" (whatever that term ultimately comes to mean) becomes a greater and greater reality, it is important to be mindful of the fact that all of this is built on a backbone owned and operated by a small handful of for-profit entities who are, as they should be, looking to maximize their cash flow and find new ways of creating profit centers. If the techno-renaissance I think we are entering now is to thrive, however, the Comcasts of the world must be tightly regulated and Net Neutrality must be made not merely a policy statement, but the rule of law.

7. Epilogue (Sort of . . .)

Well, my Vonage service is still suffering from what I have characterized as the battle raging between Comcast and Vonage, so I'm not updating this to give you good news (indeed, it looks like it's time to file my complaint with the FCC as my complaint with the Michigan AG's office does not appear to have "taken hold"), but rather, to give you some handy links to other places on the web where this is being discussed. Here VoIP news talks about this issue in a mildly different context (with the Telephone/DSL provider substituted in for Comcast). Here Om Malik details the "battle raging in Washington". Here Common Cause explains the policy issue in somewhat more detail. Ahh, forget it, I was going to post a bunch of these, but instead, click here to get the Google results for "'Net Neturality 'Tiered Internet' Vonage" to read all of these yourself.

Un-freaking-believable . . .

2006-02-14T21:03:00.000-05:00

Only Microsoft would release a patch to fix a security vunerability IN THEIR OWN PRODUCT that doesn't install. That's right, you may have noticed that your Automatic Update (the fact that M$ even has to have an elaborate updating system in place to keep their products functional is ridiculous and, effectively, turns the computer-using public into beta testers) ran today and tried to install a bunch of stuff. What you may not have noticed is that one of the Critical Updates (KB913446) did not install correctly (noteably, it doesn't install right if you go to Windows Update at the Microsoft website either). The stupidity never stops over there. For much of the world the computer has replaced nearly every other electronics device in the house on the importance scale; we spend a lot of money carefully selecting the right products and rejecting the crummy ones . . . yet . . . there's still Microsoft. How do they keep getting away with this kind of Busch League BS?

Anyway, click here to go to the MS site that has the aforementioned critical update (KB913446) available for manual installation and plug yet another hole in the Microsoft Dam.

P.S. Let's see if this drives some more traffic to this site than that picture of the cow I posted some time back (incidentally, that picture alone generates about 100 hits/day).

Sitting in the Seat of Power . . .

2006-02-01T22:09:00.000-05:00

One might be inclined to ask oneself, "what's the coolest possible piece of baseball memorabilia?" If one were so inclined, one would almost certainly have to answer this:

What is this? This is a pair of beautiful baseline seats from Dodgers Stadium:

And this is what one would look like if one owned such a beautiful piece of memorabilia:

Oh man is this sweet. And I've got a matching set for the office (well, originally, they were for the living room, but apparently, I'm "married" which means I have to make "compromises"; note to the unmarried: a marriage "compromise" is the term the wife uses to make the husband feel better about having proven, yet again, to be the loser of the "discussion"). Nevertheless, two words: Awe-some!

Twenty-Four Guest "Star" . . .

2006-01-17T13:26:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a LONG time, please forgive me.

O.K., with that out of the way, on to more important matters. Dost my eyes deceive me or was that, um, I can hardly believe I'm saying this, was that Corey Haim as Lynn McGill on 24 last night?! See for yourself; this is a picture of Corey Haim, courtesy of IMDB:

And this is a picture of Lynn McGill from last night's episode:

What is this world coming to?!

[Pause as Matt reflects on what the world is coming to.]

Oh, crap, wait a minute, that's not Corey Haim, it's Sean Astin; I always get those guys confused. Anyway, the point still stands, I don't want any hobbits (or even former hobbits) on my adventure show. Aargh. I mean, how are we supposed to believe that a hobbit was able to review and digest an hour's worth of transcripts in 2-1/2 minutes, and then decode Jack's secret message in another 10 seconds? C'mon, no hobbit could pull that off.

Cute Santa

2005-12-25T01:41:00.000-05:00

Cutest. Santa. Ever.

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Merry Christmas . . .

2005-12-24T23:44:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is 15 minutes before Christmas. The stockings are stuffed; the gifts have been opened (in the Van Dyk family we open Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve so that the children sleep and allow Santa to do his work); and the annual Christmas Light Tour has been taken. Things are good. Life is good. I love being a father (even if it does mean that the house is always in a state of baby clutter and that no one -- not even persons without the requisite equipment to solve the problem -- is getting any sleep).

Anyway, he's a month old now and awake much more often. He seems to enjoy looking around, taking everything in, and "digesting" it (not sure how much digesting he's doing at this point, but he's doing a lot of "taking in"). His mother decided we should dress him up like Santa and snap a few pictures, so we did (in the nick of time, too, as he lost his lunch all over it about 10 minutes after pictures were finished). It just so happens that we had been prepping for this very photo shoot for months; the Santa get-up was the first thing his daddy bought for him while he was still in utero. Anyway, I think he makes a good Baby Santa, if I do say so myself. Click here to decide for yourself.

God bless you all and may you have a wonderful Christmas!

My son just smiled at

2005-12-13T23:56:00.000-05:00

My son just smiled at me when I kissed him goodnight. I think I could get used to this parenting thing.

i'm a daddy . . .

2005-11-26T16:07:00.000-05:00

We're all really quite tired right now, so I'm going to have to keep this brief (although, as tramatic an event as it was for me, my experience was like a day at the beach compared to Steph's). Jacob William Van Dyk was born on November 23, 2005 at 11:13 PM (47 minutes before Thanksgiving -- what a thing to be thankful for). He weighed 8 pounds, 15 ounces, and was 21-1/2" long when he was born. We all came home yesterday, and he promptly (as in, within 5 minutes of getting in the door) peed all over the floor -- takes after his daddy, that kid. Anyway, things are going pretty well, although I am now beginning to understand why people characterize new parents as members of "the sleepless zombie club". It's a good thing that both Nana and Oma are so supportive. Anyway, I'll keep you posted, but right now I think I'm going to take a nap. Click here for more information, some pictures, and some video.

hello again . . .

2005-11-15T08:27:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a long time since I posted last; for that, I apologize. I apologize to my teamates and fans who have supported me, blah, blah, blah. Enough T.O. for crying out loud. As an aside, the Eagles are in serious trouble. I've got $10.00 that says they don't make the playoffs. Anyway, life has been outrageously hectic lately, what with the impending birth of my first child (and the related prepatory activities), work ramping up at year's end, and trying to organize the associates for the associate skits (not to mention the editing time not yet spent) -- a wise man once said that trying to organize a group of lawyers is akin to herding cats -- I'd agree.

Anyway, what prompts this post is two things. First, the fact that I haven't posted in so long that I'm starting to feel guilty (I don't really have any regular readers, yet I'm feeling guilty; to whom? the blog itself? that's disturbing, no?). Second, my child stuck its tongue out at its mother and I on Friday, and that was pretty cool. Of course, as some of you know, our first glimpse of our child was under somewhat inauspicious circumstances (early in the pregnancy, after a long flight home from Florida, Steph emerged from the bathroom with signs of a potentially very serious problem; everything turned out alright, and on the upside, we got to see our peanut-shaped and quarter-sized child through the miracle of ultrasound, but it put the fear of God in us; we also got to see greater downtown Valparaiso, Indiana; nice place). We got to see the child again on Friday (two weeks before s/he is due). As most of you with greater pregnancy experience know, unless you have a high-risk pregnancy (and we don't), this is unusual. Steph has been having semi-weekly Non-Stress Tests (NST) in order to watch her for Preclampsia (sp?). The idea is to watch the baby's heart rate, I think. Generally speaking, the baby's heart rate will have a "baseline" and will rise rapidly when it moves around, but it's not supposed to have dramatic "dips". Well, on her Friday NST, there were some dips that concerned the doctor enough that he sent us to the hospital for a Bio-Physical Profile (BPP). More or less, this is a composite score of readings from a longer and more in-depth NST and a fairly extensive ultrasound. This is a fairly common test in high-risk preganancy situations (as some of you know), but since we had had a relatively uneventful ride since the Valparaiso incident, we were, to put it mildly, a bit concerned. The NST at the hospital evidently looked fine. The ultrasound end of it was also fine (except for a failure on the "fetal breathing movements" score; but the doctors don't seem overly worried about that, so after some initial panic, neither are we), but it took forever. To keep us entertained, the ultrasound tech got some "face shots" (no small feat considering how crammed in there that kid is) and we got to see our child's face (we have some pictures too, although Steph has them somewhere). That was pretty cool, but the neatest part was watching him/her open and close her mouth (like a fish) and stick out his/her tongue. Anyway, that was pretty cool for us. We're in "final countdown" mode as tomorrow marks One Week To Go, so I'll hopefully get a post or two in before I'm a daddy, but if not, we'll see you on the flipside.

P.S. I promise I will post the Scott/PETA drama as soon as I get pdf's of the missives that started it all. You won't want to miss it.

blog post of they year

2005-09-28T21:36:00.000-04:00

I usually try to refrain from giving other people too many props (after all, this is supposed to be about me, right?), but this is one of the funniest anecdotes in the blog-o-sphere, and I highly reccomend you give it a read: Spelled Melk. The best part is that this guy lives about 3o feet from my house. Oh good stuff...