Online Fame | A 'blog written by Chris Rhee

Part of the reason why I haven’t been posting much is because I’ve been working a lot and during my free time I’ve been looking at different project management solutions (And I definitely didn’t want to post about something that would significantly lower my chances of getting any lovin’ this month).

There is no perfect solution out there. There are pros and cons to everything and it makes decisions a lot harder. I wish I had the time to build everything that I wanted to use.

I’d really like to give Trac a try, but you have to install about five things before you can even install the actual Trac software. That shit is no fun. A lot of other project management software I’ve looked at is so complicated and overwhelming that the average person wouldn’t bother using it. Then I look at the more simple solutions and it’s just too simple to get a lot of good use out of it.

Also, it doesn’t help that so many of these project management solutions look hideous. I really need to commit to something soon, though. Trying to juggle multiple projects on a notepad isn’t much fun… but it sure is quick and cheap.

Update: There doesn’t seem to be perfect accounting software, either. But unlike project management solutions, even the accounting software that you pay good money for looks hideous.

I finally got my desktop computer and Apple PowerBook set up to use my new broadband connection (I’m switching from SBC DSL to Comcast Broadband). My download speed averages about four to five times faster than before so I’m happy. (Update: Actually, it’s about seven times faster, now that I actually bother to do the math)

It took a while to get everything working smoothly because with Comcast customer service it’s hit or miss. Half the time I talked to people who might as well be replaced by a well written manual. The other half, I got some helpful information from knowledgeable people…

My PowerBook connects wirelessly to the internet using my Airport Express. I’d like to use this wireless router with my desktop PC, also. I’m really hating the sight of all these wires. So many speaker cables, keyboard cables, mouse cables, etc. I’ve done a good job at making everything wireless with my PowerBook:

• Apple Bluetooth Keyboard
• MacAlly Bluetooth Mouse
• Airport Express with AirTunes (to play iTunes music wirelessly on my 5.1 stereo)

Now if there were only a way to wirelessly charge a laptop battery or power a computer (or anything, really– 90% of my wires are power cords). There must be someone out there who can find a way to wiressly provide electricity to consumer products…

A couple of days ago, I had to install a security update on my 1.33Ghz PowerBook and it required me to restart my laptop. I was curious as to how long I had gone without restarting, so I checked:

The-management:~ Chris$ uptime
0:39 up 39 days, 10:08, 2 users, load averages: 0.09 0.10 0.16

My 2.66Ghz PC usually start performing unbearably slow after four days (or even less, sometimes). Another point for the Mac.

A couple of days ago, my GMail account was given fifty invites to send out to people. If anyone is interested in trying out their email service, email me.

It’s definitely the best web-based email service I’ve ever used, if that entices you at all…

I’ve been running multiple websites for about six or seven years (You would think I’d be sick of it by now) and every new year, I have to change the footer of each website to correct the copyright year.

This wouldn’t be such a hassle if I only ran one website, but I’m responsible for updating the footer of many websites every year. And I’m lazy. So here’s my solution:

<?php
print date( "Y" );
?>

That basically spits out the year, according to your web server’s clock/calendar (which should be set to the right date and time, anyway). So the full code of my footer text for this website is:

Copyright © 2002 - <?php print date( "Y" ); ?> Chris Rhee, All rights reserved.

You can do this with other coding languages as well. I just happen to use PHP files for this website. There you go, website maintainers. Stay lazy.

Knowing is half the battle…

Unless you’re a hip hop fan (who follows underground music) who also happens to make websites, you won’t understand the pun of this headline. But there’s a mixtape that was pretty recently put out by the rapper, Copywrite, and it’s called Cruise Control Volume 1. Now you’re in the know.