http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark The Thoughts and Ramblings of Mark Lilback Fri, 14 Dec 2007 02:48:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'd been working on a similar draft for months, but I don't think I could have put it any better: Guest Blogger: Romney's Founders: "by Geoffrey R. Stone, professor of law at the University of ChicagoMitt Romney’s recent reflections on the role of religion in American politics implicitly called to mind ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2007/12/13/the-us-founding-fathers-did-not-intend-a-christian-nation/ There has been a lot of bitching about the iPhone lately: no SDK, bricking the phone with the 1.1.1 update, and the price drop to name a few. But in all of the instances I've read about, I'm 100% behind Apple. When someone purchased an iPhone, they knew what they ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2007/10/09/iwhiners/ Kayla wasn't just a pet to me. She was a comfort to me when everything else seemed wrong. She knew my feelings and emotions. If I was stressed, she was, too. If I was down, she would come sit by me and if I leaned close, she'd wash me, too. I ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2007/07/10/kayla/ Cell phones have been around for a long time now (I've had one for over ten years), and they've always had really nice features like a call log (incoming and outgoing), custom ring tones, etc. So why the hell haven't home phones added these features? I really get frustrated when I ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2007/05/01/phones/ [slug]grocery_shopping[/slug] I really can't comprehend how someone can accidentally get in the express checkout lane with a full basket of groceries. And I really can't understand why the store staff doesn't say something. When approaching the register, you have to look to see if the light is on. The light is ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2007/04/12/grocery_shopping/ [slug]health[/slug] Once again, I've been hit by health problems again. This time it was a abscess on my lower back right below the waist. It became incredibly painful, and boy did it hurt when the doctor lanced it. I stayed in the hospital for four days, and probably close to another ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2007/04/12/health/ I've been spending days on this. I kept getting messages that the socket to the app was being closed, and I couldn't find out why. [2007-02-08 14:13:40 PST] : Unable to set socket timeout:Socket is closed Turns out that by calling com.google.checkout.sample.protocol.CallBackParser.getInstance().parseToJAXB(new InputSource(aRequest.contentInputStream())) either jaxb, the xml parser, or the google code ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2007/02/08/integrating-google-checkout-with-webobjects/ I've been an avid game player my whole life. I helped started a gaming club in college, which I donated most of my games too. Since then, I've bought a lot of them. But as I've gotten older, I get to play them a lot less. The biggest reason is now ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2006/12/06/where-are-the-old-school-gamers/ [slug]sysadmin-nightmare-2[/slug]Well, we got a bit of a stay on having to move the servers, but I'm still working on it as fast as I can. I've got everything except perl modules installed on the new server. I've already moved: the rtlabs subversion repository, www.rtlabs.com, and all our WebObjects applications. Our ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2006/11/07/sysadmin-nightmare-2/ I just got back from early voting, and once again I'm disgusted by the ballot. Fortunately it was still optical scan, not one of the disastrous touch-screen system. But I really can't stand seeing the majority of the races only have one candidate listed and no spot for a write-in. ... http://blogs.rtlabs.com/mark/2006/11/03/voting-blues/