KDC-Info: Web & Personal Notes: Keith D Commiskey

Second Life; World of Warcraft

2008-05-30T10:50:00.002-05:00

I can't find it, but I watched part of a news segment last night on CNN that discussed the psychological impact (both negatively and positively) of virtual worlds on people. First discussing Doom, they moved into more current games such as Vice City, and then branched into a 10-15 minute spiel on how Second Life is wonderful for marketing and making money. How one lady went from $35,000/year in real life to $85/year online designing her own clothing line, and a guy was doing six figures/year in online consulting for advertising and marketing agencies. Then they moved into a 2-minute blurb on World of Warcraft and how this couple had met in WoW, and then got married. They then moved back to discuss the financial benefits of Second Life.

My wife asked, "So you meet people in that game you play?" (I've been playing WoW since January.) I hope she well understood when I mentioned how hilariously flipped the news segment was. Having played both, I found Second Life to be the social network where folks "venture out", all the while constantly being asked about your first life. World of Warcraft was a pleasant change from what was becoming a fairly seductive environment where every girl is a knockout and every guy is the basis for masculine pleasantries. No one asked about real life except perhaps the occasional "What part of the world are you in?" and perhaps a "How old are you?" (Keeping language in perspective should you be grouped with a 10-year old.) But near all of the game is about discussing your in-world characters and I haven't found there to be as much "socialism" as there was in Second Life. Well, then again, I did hear a story about a guy that was stabbed in the leg (in real life) during game play. People do vent and share some RL things, but again, nothing like what I saw in Second Life.

I wish I could find the article that portrayed these two online virtual worlds in the way it was. Granted, WoW isn't going to make you too much money in RL (not that it can't), but the world of Second Life isn't "as much" about marketing and making money as it has become about socializing and "venturing out". There's a reason every girl is a knockout and every guy is the basis for masculine pleasantries. And there's a reason World of Warcraft is one of the top online virtual games to date, and it doesn't have very much to do with finding your soul mate.

iGoogle Themes

2008-05-06T11:35:00.003-05:00

Do you Google? You need to be signed in to Google be able to see this...

http://www.google.com/ig?skin=http://kdcinfo.com/ig.xml

This is just something I threw together to test the iGoogle Themes development arena. Fairly simple really. Still considering whether it's worth it to go further on the layout: What is where and color scheme. I just did this up pretty quick to test the waters. I also didn’t go through all the attributes that can be set.

Short of getting a theme added to the iGoogle Theme Directory, which can take a little doing, there is an "iGoogle Theme Manager" gadget you can add to your page to add this or similar themes [semi]-permanently. When you add the gadget to an iGoogle page, allow it access*, and add the URL above to the list. I also did up a work-related test theme, but I'm not sure I can post that here publicly.

* Allowing the iGoogle Theme Manager gadget access: Aside from the general iGoogle cookies that are shared, I couldn’t find any security issues or risks. It does seem however that iGoogle developers have given it their blessing.

Note 1: The centered image in the footer appears to be "off" in IE. However, it looks good in FireFox. (At the time of this posting anyway.)

Note 2: I tried to see if Yahoo! had something similar I could toy with, but was unsuccessful in my search.

Multi-Page Notebook App

2008-05-01T13:56:00.002-05:00

The only open source equivalent I found for this program was discontinued back in 2004. Although the obsolete version of the app still runs on XP, I’m not sure about scalability for when we downgrade to Vista. Also, don’t believe either of these apps runs outside of Windows at all (short of wine, sorry *nix buffs, but then you probably have one built in  ).

What it is:

RightNote is a multi-page notebook that allows you to store and organize an unlimited number of notes in one file.

Each page contains a hierarchical tree which can contain virtually an unlimited number of notes.

Each page can be devoted to a different category, and typically you'll find you don't need more than one or two files to organize most things in your life!

Small-fee Commercial Notebook App: RightNote
http://www.bauerapps.com/RightNote.html

Discontinued Open Source Notebook App: KeyNote
http://sourceforge.net/projects/keynote/

I’ll be shelling out the $20 for this (or $30 if I don't make it in time for the special deal). I already shelled out $30 for an Explorer replacement (xplorer2: http://zabkat.com/ ) and I’ve been more than happy with that.

Gary Gygax, 'Father of D&D,' Dies at 69

2008-03-26T09:38:00.002-05:00

"He was like the cool uncle that every gamer had. He shaped an entire generation of gamers." - Mike Mearls, Lead developer of the upcoming 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 2.4.0
In Memoriam: Gary Gygax

* Blizzard Entertainment would like to dedicate this patch in memory of Gary Gygax. His work on D&D was an inspiration to us in many ways and helped spark our passion for creating games of our own.

Blizzard's latest patch (2.4.0) opened a new area (Sunwell Isle), as well as a new tournament area (Global Arena Tournament) for level 70s.

World of Warcraft

2008-02-26T12:02:00.010-06:00

The game is afoot! Care to join? Just let me know. I can provide you with a 10-day free pass to the greatest multi-player online game of this century to date. Okay, that's subjective, but you'll agree as soon as you create your character and learn the ways of their culture.

I have a family of characters, for which each one provides their own level of exciting adventure paths and abilities. You can click on their name to see more detailed stats about them.

You can also follow their progress in my newly created "Dragnist Family blog.

Dragnist Family - Antemortem
Doujhe	[doo-hey]	Alliance	Human	Paladin
Engineering / Mining		family favorite
Da'ajhn	[d'-on]	Alliance	Night Elf	Druid
Alchemy / Herbalism		youngest brother
Dehstni	[dest-knee]	Alliance	Draenai	Warrior
n/a		the only lady
Dejhde	[d'-shde]	Horde	Undead	Warlock
Alchemy / Herbalism		eldest brother; always up to no good
Duujhn	[doon]	Horde	Blood Elf	Hunter
n/a		Dejhde's follower

Cannot empty the clipboard.

2007-11-03T23:27:00.000-05:00

Cannot empty the clipboard.

Well, I finally found a solid solution for this error (so far as I know for now). I tested this near 50 times and about 5 different ways.

I've read LOTS of message posts on this, and not one has suggested this. Although one came close by suggesting to leave a copy of MS Word open (if the problem is happening in Excel). Unfortunately, this problem has been known to happen in Word also.

My solution? Ready for it? Here it is...

Open the clipboard, and leave it open (but minimized).

How to open the clipboard? There should be a file in your system32 folder named "clipbrd.exe". Double-click it. Or, you might be able to "Run" (Win-R, or Start->Run) the "clipbrd.exe" command (minus the quotes).

Please note that this solution is primarily for anyone with this issue that isn't running the Get Right Monitor, or you're not running remote desktop (rdclip) and/or terminal services.

DirecTV vs Dish Network

2007-09-21T23:36:00.000-05:00

In a follow-up to my AT&T DirecTV Home Entertainment blog post:

Although I would still love to have access to FIOS, we were recently forced to switch from AT&T HE over to Dish Network via Ygnition. Although skeptical of a company I've heard nothing about (which is why we didn't go with them when we first moved in), we had no choice. Living in an apartment has a lot of upsides (for us anyway), but this is one of the downsides.

However, surprisingly, I like them. The pricing is still ridiculous if you get a SetTop per TV (which we had to do with AT&T HE). With AT&T HE we had no choice but to get a SetTop per TV because you couldn't get local channels without it (at least not anything worthwhile, and we speak very little Spanish). But with Dish Network, we get every single channel we could want without a SetTop box. So, we only got one for the living room. Pricing is still high with only one box, but it's better than AT&T HE with 4.

Although changing channels is normal without the SetTop box, changing channels with one is a bit slow. But it's bearable with the speedier menu.

And what's best (aside from local channel availability), the menu system is what I was hoping for with DirecTV. It even looks like it was created in the 21st century! The box does too :)

All in all, I'm glad we were forced to switch, but we'll most likely still be considering moving in the next 6 months or so. I'm hoping we won't be restricted to a particular school district this time. But no matter where, if FIOS isn't available, we'll certainly be hoping Dish Network/Ygnition is.

Tribute to Reba on CMT

2007-09-16T23:53:00.000-05:00

Tribute to Reba on CMT - 09/16/2007
Such class. Such beauty. So much emotion! So inspirational!!!

Lorreta! Dolly!
Such class. Such beauty. So much emotion! So inspirational!!!

I love everything from folk to hip-hop, and am mostly an 80's person, yet country always grabs my heart and soul.

I see these artists, I see talent, professionalism, and such beauty...

LinksManager Raising Monthly Price

2007-09-14T15:14:00.001-05:00

Looks like LinksManager is raising their pricing, starting immediately, from $19.95 to $29.95. I could barely justify the $19.95 per month for a recip link checker. Was curious if anyone else felt $30/month is worth it? Or am I just being a little overly self-conscious with my monthly allotments and priorities?

read more | digg story

Change Your Passwords

2007-05-26T14:37:00.000-05:00

It is highly recommended to change your passwords so that they are at least 8 characters in length, provided you at least include a number or two, and one or two capital letters.

Some good password information pages are at:

Great strength checker
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Good advice, but don't use the checker (the one
above is better b/c you don't have to 'submit' it)
http://www.securitystats.com/tools/password.php

Consider changing your passwords today! Consider your e-mail, ftp, computer login, network login, router/access point (14 or 15 recommended), and any other passwords you might have.

And don't put them under your keyboard! :o

Technorati - A Great Blog Resource

2007-05-21T12:26:00.000-05:00

Technorati... is to me what it sounds like - a souped up, really nice looking blog directory and social networking tool. I get a little more formal feel from it than I do from BlogCatalog, which both have their own level of personalization and comfort. And that's why I'm proud to be a member of both.

They help keep the web current, focused, and interesting...

AT&T Home Entertainment - Customer Owned Equipment

2007-05-15T23:23:00.000-05:00

This message post isn't so much a complaint, although I do have those in this regard, as it is just something I learned that I thought to share, and who knows, perhaps I'm missing something.

We have DirecTV. Not by choice, but because the apartment complex we live in has a contract with them, so we basically don't have a choice. However, although we have DirecTV, for our area, DirecTV farms out our service to AT&T HE (AT&T Home Entertainment).

Aside from other major fiascoes with AT&T HE, their services, and their customer service (or lack thereof), we thought to avoid rental fees on our receivers by purchasing our own. In February, AT&T HE even recommended "Customer Owned Equipment" (first e-mail at bottom). However, apparently now, there's no longer such a thing as "Customer Owned Equipment".

Wow! I was and still am bewildered. But again, perhaps I'm missing something... I can't find any news articles on this anywhere. Am I missing something? Like maybe its a bigger deal to me than to anyone else? I just feel really, really locked in here. The only other service I know of we can get in this complex is another dish company. I tried both Verizon and Time Warner on a couple different occasions, and they simply cannot service our complex. What's worse is we can't move for another couple years due to varying factors.

Below is an e-mail thread between ourselves and AT&T HE discussing "Customer Owned Equipment".

Enjoy.

And, I'm still debating whether to post another e-mail thread (3 actually) that spanned a month when attempting to upgrade our DirecTV services. That one still floors me, and its been over 5 months since that fiasco. Perhaps I'll just summarize it and post the highlights :/

I've reversed the thread on this e-mail, so you can read from top down.

----- Original Message ----
From: ATTHEonline.com
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 2:51 PM
Subject: Reply from attheonline.com

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, we are unable to exchange boxes at this time. Our technicians are allocated boxes for installation directly from our warehouse and have no control over the make or model of the boxes that they receive.

There is another option – Customer Owned Equipment. You may purchase your own equipment and avoid the receiver rental fee. You are, however, still required to rent our access cards at a rate of $.99 ($.99 First card fee) per month for the first card, and $5.98 ($.99 Additional card fee, $4.99 Mirroring fee) per month for each additional card.

If you are considering purchasing your own DIRECTV receiver, please direct your browser to the following site for further information on customer owned equipment and AT&T Home Entertainment:

http://www.attheonline.com/atthe/main.nsf/apAMain?open&key=coe

*Please also note that, unless your customer owned receivers have the ability to accept a stacked signal, additional equipment may be required to activate the box.

Best regards,

AT&T Home Entertainment

----- Original Message ----
To: ATTHEonline.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 12:50:15 AM
Subject: Re: Reply from attheonline.com

Well, it would seem, I learned today, there's no longer such a thing as "Customer Owned Equipment".

I was told by a Best Buy IT representative that DirecTV no longer allows the direct purchase of DirecTV receivers.

Instead, I'd end up leasing it from Best Buy, whereas I'm already leasing boxes from DirecTV. What's the point in "Customer Owned Equipment" if we're not allowed to "Own" it?

Keith

----- Original Message ----
From: ATTHEonline.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 12:12:21 PM
Subject: Reply from attheonline.com

Thank you for your email.

We are sorry to hear that. You can try getting a used receiver, off the internet.

Regards,

AT&T Home Entertainment

----- Original Message ----
To: ATTHEonline.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 12:34:25 PM
Subject: Re: Reply from attheonline.com

I'm sorry too. For the lack of decent desktop boxes, non-DirecTV-compatible remotes, the insufferable interface, and the cost. And being our apartment complex is locked into a contract with DirecTV, this will become a primary factor when our lease comes ready to expire. But that's something I'll be bringing up with the apartment complex. Obviously, not your worry.

Thanks.

Keith D Commiskey

----- Original Message ----
From: ATTHEonline.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 01:17:17 PM
Subject: Reply from attheonline.com

Thank you for your email.

We do apologize, if you purchase any equipment please let us know we will be happy to activate it for you. We have recently purchased new DVR receivers which we rent out monthly at $5.99 with a installation cost of $41.99. If you would like to exchange any of your receivers for a DVR please call our call center at 1800-585-2278 press option 1 then 1 then 0 for a installation specialist.

Regards,

AT&T Home Entertainment

BlogCatalog: Become a Neighbor, Become a Friend

2007-05-14T10:15:00.000-05:00

Of all the blog directories that I've posted my blogs to, I've come across one that has taken blogging to an inspiring level. Blog Catalog has allowed individual bloggers to become part of a larger family, where you can join neighborhoods and become friends with folks around the world based on likes and similarities. A new definition of the word friend, where you don't even have to have ever spoken with your friend, yet you still share a kindred bond between blogs.

Come join the family, join a neighborhood, and become a friend :)

Inspiration for this blog post comes from Monawea, who is helping to let folks around the world know of this great blogging directory/community. Join the discussion!

To Blog:
Providing personal insight to the world.

Write it, and it will be read.

Keith D Commiskey
GiftsForYouBiz Profile

Featured Blogs:
Keith D Commiskey Et Al. - Personal Blog
and the Moral of the Story is... - Thoughtful Blog
Crystal Figurines, Crystal Gifts - The Collectible Crystal Blog - GiftsForYou.Biz Blog

Google launches iGoogle & Gadget maker

2007-05-02T11:38:00.001-05:00

Google Personalized Homepage will be rebranded as iGoogle and will let you build your own gadgets using wizards. The gadgets are very simple and are more like containers for things that matter to you: photos, videos, events.

read more | digg story

Care to earn some money?

2007-04-12T00:02:00.000-05:00

Care to earn some money?

YOU can earn up to $10 for submitting moral story clips.

Payment is $1 for each moral clip that is accepted and is payable only via PayPal. Acceptance is solely at the discretion of Keith D Commiskey. At this time, up to 30 clips will be accepted. Submit up to 10 clips at once, or submit one at a time.

See the bottom of the morals page for contact information. If accepted, a request for your PayPal e-mail address will be sent. You can also elect to have your contact information made available, or your moral clip will be submitted by "Anonymous".

Acceptance or non-acceptance will be made within 2 days. Payment will be made for each submittal as they are accepted or in agreement with submitter. Offer will end by May 31, 2007, but can be extended or cut short at any time.

winmail.dat Files

2007-03-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

Ever get an e-mail with a winmail.dat attachment? It's a good sized attachment, and you know what they sent you is in that file, but how do you get to it?

The easiest solution I've found is to forward the e-mail "as an attachment" to an e-mail account from which you can open it with Outlook. Then, when you open it with Outlook, you can then open the original e-mail which is now an attachment. That e-mail should now contain the [sub-]attachment you were looking for.

And, after all that, don't forget to run a virus scan on it.

The following site is what led me to think of this solution:
http://www.gpc.edu/~jbenson/resource/winmail.htm

MSDN Results: winmail.dat

Crystal Jewelry now available from GiftsForYou.Biz

2007-02-25T22:29:00.000-06:00

It is now official! I've gotten Crystal Jewelry up and available on my GiftsForYou.Biz site.

These are really high quality jewelry items! They are a welcome addition to the GiftsForYou.Biz gift product line.

Oh, and if you didn't know, the Optical Laser Crystals are available again as well! :)

It's Nice to Be Known (or at least quoted)

2007-02-20T10:02:00.000-06:00

Why do we do 3d digital illustration?

Quote from The Animation Den, Inc.:

3d illustration allows us to see a product before it is produced. It can be very high tech or fun. Companies are discovering that animation and 3D illustrations can enhance their marketing abilities. According to Keith D. Commiskey “Some markets are starting to employ this technology as others are still unaware of its benefits. Many companies will not see a purpose until it has been introduced in many of its competitors operations.”

Taken from my Animation Exposure - KDC-INFOrmational

So what do you call a quote from a quote?

My Latest Major Web Project - The World's Greatest - Hall o' Fame

2007-01-29T01:00:00.000-06:00

The World's Greatest - Hall o' Fame

Do you have a "favorite" in your life? Someone special you'd like to recognize? Someone that's always been there? Or maybe even just recently? Perhaps even just for today?

Let them know you care by putting them in:
The World's Greatest Hall o' Fame! (Free!)

Once you register, then login, proceed to the Devotion Page. Enter your devotion. When your devotion is complete, you can print your devotion. If you have a PDF created, you can print it, save it, and it stays available for 3 days. You can also go back and search for the information you used to create your devotion, as can your devotee! They can do that because you have placed them in The World's Greatest Hall o' Fame! And they'll stay in there for a long, long time.

And remember, it's FREE!

Newsgroup Posts

2007-01-07T14:49:00.000-06:00

Wow! It's amazing not only to see how much I've posted in newsgroups, but the number of e-mail addresses I've used over the years. My first post was on Apr 28 1997.

My current profile is:
google ...at... kdcinfo.com - 46 [and growing] - (2002-2007)

Other profiles were:
keith.commiskey ...at... fnc.fujitsu.com - 20 - (1999-2004)

kdcmc ...at... attbi.com - 12 - (2002)

ne2000 ...at... kdcinfo.com - 3 - (2001)

kdcmc ...at... my-deja.com - 2 - (2001)

kdcnews ...at... kdcinfo.com - 13 - (2000-2001)

kdc ...at... kdcinfo.com - 26 - (1997-1998)

kdcinfo ...at... best.com - 2 - (1997)

Created New Blog: "The Moral of the Story"

2006-12-20T02:18:00.000-06:00

"The Moral of the Story"

a.k.a. ...and the Moral of the Story is...

YOU input what YOU believe the moral of the story is. Share your creativity. Give your moral sense a workout, or revitalize it altogether!

Oh! And if you have any suggestions for a fragment, by all means, please let me know.

"The Moral of the Story"

Driving home: Brakes. Never made it.

2006-11-01T23:57:00.000-06:00

Driving home: Brakes. Never made it.
Originally uploaded by KDCinfo.

My first published 6-word story. Thanks and inspiration goes to:

Six Word Story

Installing PHP 5 with Apache 2.2 on Windows

2006-10-08T15:46:00.000-05:00

You'll see in a previous blog that I got Apache 2 running with TomCat. Yesterday, I decided to intergrate PHP. Unfortunatley, I ran into pretty much the same issue as I ran into with associating TomCat with Apache: A DLL issue, which provides the error "The requested operation has failed" when attempting to start the Apache server.

The trick to getting PHP working with Apache is that there are multiple DLL files provided with the 5.2 release of PHP.

php5apache.dll

php5apache2.dll

php5apache2_2.dll

The php5apache2_2.dll file is the DLL you want to use with Apache 2.2. Don't rename it, just point your httpd.conf file to it. You'll read in many places that these are the entries you need to add to your httpd.conf file:

Put this line where you see a bunch of other LoadModule lines (leave the php5_module named just like this, even if you don't install PHP to a C:/php5 folder. The DLL file looks for the name.)

LoadModule php5_module "C:/php/php5apache2_2.dll

Put this line in the block

ScriptAlias /php/ "C:/php/"

Put this line in the block

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .php3 .phps

Then add index.php to your list of index files (files the server looks for if you don't specify a file, such as if you just go to http://localhost/

DirectoryIndex index.html index.php

Side Note: I opted not to take the CGI approach due to the warnings I've read on the vulnerability this approach opens to hackers.

A great thread on this issue is located at:

Free Workshop: How to Install PHP 5, Apache 2, MySQL 4.1, SQLite, SQLite Manager and XSLT on Windows

My post to the thread was:
Keith D Commiskey - kdcinfo.com: My problem with loading the "php5apache2_2.dll" file (php5 and apache 2.2) was because I'd installed it in C:/php, I changed the php5_module line to php_module (doh!). The dll specifically references php5_module.

Another Lovely House

2006-09-28T23:31:00.000-05:00

Not ours. My folks! They've got a lovely little house in Northern California. Its in a retirement community, and is perfect for someone, or two someones who'd like to get away and not have to live around the hustle and bustle you find everywhere else in life nowadays.

The good news is, they're moving back down to be closer to my three other siblings. They've loved it there, but a couple hours south has turned out to be a better arrangement. And you kow in retirement, its nice to try out a few different places too.

The house is really, really nice (I've seen it a few times), and as far as California house prices go, it's very affordable.

If you know of anyone looking to move, especially into a nice quiet neighborhood, please forward them the link. I'll post back here again when the house is sold.

Sun City Roseville

House is Sold! We're Moved.

2006-08-31T13:09:00.000-05:00

Closing was two days ago. And our move wasn't far. Just a few blocks away. In moving into an apartment, we've aleviated the stress of foundation worries, a/c problems, and the host of other issues that go into keeping a house maintained. The next house we get we'll get when we can afford to hire professionals to take care of it. I do computers; I'm no good at fixing sprinkler systems (I learned this firsthand).

So, everything else aside, we have indeed moved. And although we're only about 3-4 blocks away, we're now in Dallas.

Keith

P.S. I just last night got our internet access setup at home (took 2-3 weeks for SBC/ATT/Yahoo to activate service). Also had to increase the security protocol on our wireless (living in an apartment, there are lots more potential hacks into your wireless network).