Johnny Heavens

Well they say that if you put it down on paper then wishes can turn to goals. Assuming that this still works using the internet in place of paper and pen then that is what I am doing now. Making a goal of blogging down some of the details of a couple solutions I’m working on. In each case we need to deliver more reliability, more storage, and more performance.

I have a few projects that we are working on right now where some of the details may be of use to others out there. We primarily work with the SMB size business in and around Utah. As such I sometimes find myself searching for ways to put great companies in a position to leverage some great technology in a manner that allows for growth yet still manages current costs and performance. The old saying of bigger, faster, and stronger is always preceded with cheaply in the small business world. Further it is said that you can pick any two from the list of Good and/or Fast and/or Cheep. However, sometimes you can mix the three for a solution that works.

I’m hoping to get this out here by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

I will post my personal story later but for now know this. Cancer is bad! You can help so please do.

Links and ReTweets are of course encouraged!

The short version:
1. I am fund raising For the Huntsman Cancer Institute as a member of their Home Town Heroes cycling team. As part of that I will be riding in this Epic race. http://lotojaclassic.com
2. We all know people touched by cancer. The fight is real. How real?
For men we have slightly less then a 1 in 2 chance of getting cancer
For Women the odds are slightly less then 1 in 3 chance of getting cancer
3. You should donate any amount you can but, even $1 from everyone that might read this will help.

Please-You can donate here now:
https://www.huntsmancancerfoundation.org/NetCommunity/johnnyheavens
Examples of your dollars at work:
* $1,526 keeps the Utah Population Database running for one day so researchers can map possible genetic mutations
* $500 ensures that our Cancer Learning Center is available to patients and family in that hour of crisis
* $300 keeps a high risk cancer evaluation affordable for a family at risk and pays for the qualified genetics counselor to map their family history
* $100 purchases a tobacco prevention DVD to educate youth about the dangers of tobacco
* $50 runs a load of our glass wash service– an essential shared resource among all of our laboratories
* $10 sends four information packets to cancer patients
* $5 buys 20 petri dishes used in HCI Labs

There are so many around us that fight a battle with cancer. Some famous and some not so much but, the odds are this will fight will eventually include many many of us. I would like to ask for you help today by donating to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. Your donation goes directly to cancer research. Research that is shared with other like minded facilities around the world. While the Huntsman family underwrites the administrative costs of the foundation’s staff and the $235MM facility and hospital the fact is that one family can’t do it all. Please donate today!

A post on my longer and personal Why I am doing this…to come later:

About the Huntsman Hometown Heroes Team:
http://www.huntsmancancerfoundation.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=302&frsid=215
The Huntsman Hometown Heroes has endurance event teams for both cycling and running. As a team we get to ride or run (I will be riding) in some exciting events in an effort to bring awareness to the reality of cancer and to help raise funds for cancer research.

Please Donate online here:
https://www.huntsmancancerfoundation.org/NetCommunity/johnnyheavens
Help me reach my goal of $3000 and I will also personally donate the cost of my entrance fees for the race that would normally be paid for me as a member of Hometown Heroes (About $170 this year)

Below are some links to info you may find helpful.
Huntsman Cancer Foundation
http://www.huntsmancancerfoundation.org
FAQ – Huntsman Cancer Foundation
http://www.huntsmancancerfoundation.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=339

Ways to Donate
Online (Fast, Safe, and Secure)
https://www.huntsmancancerfoundation.org/NetCommunity/johnnyheavens
By Phone: Please call (801) 584-5816

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(801) 584-5816

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Call with FONcall™

(801) 584-5816

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Call with FONcall™

(801) 584-5816

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Call with FONcall™

(801) 584-5816

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Call with FONcall™

(801) 584-5816

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Call with FONcall™

(801) 584-5816

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Call with FONcall™

(801) 584-5816

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Please Mention the Hometown Heroes and indicate you’d like to make a donation by credit card over the phone.
In Person: Give a check to me in person when you see me. Please make check payable to “Huntsman Cancer Foundation”

By Mail: Please make check payable to “Huntsman Cancer Foundation” and mail to 500 Huntsman Way, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108. Include your full name and address so we can send the correct tax information.

Please link to and ReTweet this as you feel motivated. All help is appreciated and thank you all for your time!
~John

I’ve just installed a new wordpress plugin by Dan Zarrella called tweetbacks. The Tweetbacks plugin enables tweets linking to your blog posts to be seen as comments for the linked post. I have used the new

Nice work Dan. It’s still beta but let’s see how this works shall we?

Go Utah UTES!!!

So it seems not enough of us found the hidden easteregg like “Bells and Whistles” (I know no one that did) in Google’s iPhone app so they posted about it. I guess if I’d taken the trouble to build the fun in and no one found it after several months then I guess I post on it too.

unlocking the bells and whistles options is easy enough:

Open the  app on your iPhone and select the settings button. (Looks like a gear) Now scroll to the bottom where you see “About”. To get the new settings, continue to keep scrolling down until the Bells and Whistles button appears. That’s it. You’ll now have 4 new settings to play with. Theme, Sounds, Live Waveform, and Open Links in App. Theme lets you play with a color selector for a custom colored theme and Sounds adds Chicken or Monkey sounds. Live Waveform and Open Links in App I have not yet played with.

The most interesting thing on Google’s post is the hint at other features to be unlocked. Have you found any others?

Anyone found any of the other google’s iPhone app bells and whistles? Other then the ones that they posted? http://twurl.nl/lorqi0

Happy New Year GMT -7 everyone!

Well it seems the current update to java (6 update 10) does not work with Cisco ASDM. After the update trying to connect to a Cisco ASA will give the following error: “Unconnected sockets not implemented”. CLI still works of course but if you use ASDM don’t upgrade past JRE 6 update 7. You can get older java versions here.

My config: Vista Ult x64 – JRE 6 u10 – Cisco ASDM 6.1(5) (most current ASDM as of now)

What I had to do to access ASDM after the java 6 update 10 “upgrade”.

1) Remove ASDM* (ASDM installer seems to look for java so this must be done before removing java)

2) Remove Java 6 update 10

(I rebooted here)

3) Install Java 6 update 7* (I ended up running both the 32bit and x64 installs. I think because ASDM is 32bit and didn’t see the 64bit Java install?)

4) Re-Install ASDM

*Note: It may not be required that your remove ASDM on a 32bit system or if you install the 32bit java 6 update 7 as ASDM may just see the new (older) java install. When I installed the 64bit java this is what I had to do.

Best of Luck and I hope this helps someone out.

So I was on craigslist looking for something and came accross the games forum and saw a post where one person said they were bored and not impresed with WoW. The first reply is by someone named Edyenea who uses the work epic as part of the level 70 game play. It was that word that got me to reply…I just don’t see WoW as epic any more. Below I’ll quote first Edyenea and then my reply.

A lot of the game depends on finding the right race and class for your preferences, but the game truly opens up once you hit Lvl 70. Then you have raiding, major epic stuff, Arena battles and more.

Also, trade skills and trying to complete those new achievements add more spice to the game. Other fun stuff to do is world events like Winter Veil, Brewfest and more. The fact that you can only do them at certain time of the year makes them very cool.

I will say, more people who say they are bored are playing on the Alliance side. The Horde have a lot more flavor to everything.

Best advice I could give would be to figure out if it is the class or other factor that you are playing that is boring. You may prefer a different realm such as PvP or RPPvP. Give it a little more time and spend some time trying to get a character up to 70 that you enjoy.

Good Luck,
Edyenea

My reply:

I play wow. We have a great group that has played together for years and many still play wow. However there is nothing epic about wow anymore. Nothing outside the subscriber numbers anyhow. The game is totally nurfed and noobed up. Classes don’t have roles anymore because people have cried the game to into a level of mediocrity never before seen. WoW is the opposite of epic. A good PUG can complete the highest “end game” content and IMO that should never be possible. What’s epic about taking PvP out of the world and scheduling it in area teams? What’s epic about rampant PUGs? What’s epic about the biggest and best bad guys in the game only taking 25 or even 10 people to kill rather then 40 or more? What’s epic about there being no fight going on? What’s epic about dis-honour for killing someone standing next to a “faction/race” leader just because they give out a quest? If you wanted that quest you should have defended your city. What’s epic about a game with warcraft in the name and no warcraft in the game? What’s epic about server transfers for people that steal, cheat, or otherwise fail on one server and then move to another? Blizz was saying that by the time it came for aurthas to die it would take many large guilds working together to have a chance. Maybe even hundreds of players. That would have been epic.

Blizz/WoW did some very cool stuff and the expansion is new but it’s not different. It even starts out where the original game ended pre-bc. WoW is big but not epic. It could have been but isn’t and it’s easy to understand someone saying it’s boring.

Not singling out this other person but in general… is WoW still epic?

Well those of you looking forward to the next World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King may not need to look any farther then the local 7-Eleven. Here in Salt Lake I know of multiple people who have been able to score the expansion two days early. First off, since when does 7-Eleven even sell games? It’s new to me and it seems new to them as well. I doubt Blizzard will be too excited about it.

Why you ask? Well if nothing else it saves you the trouble of getting up at mid-night to be the first one online and leveling. If you find an extra let me know. Where did you score your expansion early?