www.LenGoldenstein.com

Haven’t blogged in a while but certainly been keeping myself busy.  I’m finally a dad to Isabella Maria Goldenstein – born March 28 20:10 weighing 8lbs 1oz and 20 3/4″.  Wow!

First the good news:
I started a new job as a UNIX System Administrator at one of the largest financial companies in Canada on Monday.  It’s a big change and it was hard to leave my previous position.  However, I feel this is a good move for my career and exposes me to a lot of enterprise systems that I would not be able to experience otherwise.

The first day was pretty hard – talk about information overload!  However, day two was much better.  It will take a while to settle in and be comfortable in the environment but I’m looking forward to it and I’m ready for the challenges along the way.

The bad news:
My little beagle, Roman, chased a squirrel a little too hard and Roman ended up blowing out his knee.  Unfortunately the only treatment is surgery to repair the damaged ligaments.  Roman went for his surgery yesterday and came home today.  It will take a few weeks before Roman is back to his normal doggy-self and about three months until he is fully recovered.  I look forward to walks in the park with Roman again.  Don’t worry, he hasn’t been wearing the satellite cone very much.

• Reading a free press article about boring text messages. Oh the irony. #
• Who makes an awesome roast leg of lamb. @lengoldenstein does! http://twitpic.com/ykq6v #
• Monday is full of surprises. http://twitpic.com/yonh3 #
• the host/guest/networking mapping feature in vCenter 4 is freakin` awesome! #
• RT: @uwinnipegDCE_IT: University of #Winnipeg Course: Windows Server Administration Level 1 http://tinyurl.com/yzo6wva #
• @ademko cruz—> ! #
• @dasme yikes, there really is an app for everything. in reply to dasme #
• argh, retweet fail #
• RT @Winnipeg_TECH Server Administrator- 1 year term – Palliser Furniture: Location: Winnipeg, MB, CANADA http://bit.ly/7SrkwL #jobs #
• RT @gregandmarlo: TOMORROW: Lovey's BBQ donates 15% of sales 4 the entire day to Haiti relief. Come in/make this an amazing day! #
• i freakin` love vCenter 4. #
• @MarioMarathon step one, don't mistype your own name in tweets in reply to MarioMarathon #
• @MarioMarathon hah well, real request – play through New Super Mario Wii with 4 players at all times. Not very easy… in reply to MarioMarathon #
• RT @gregandmarlo TODAY: Lovey's BBQ donates 15% of sales to Haiti relief. We're serving lunch! 208 Marion St. 233-RIBS #WINNIPEG #
• Lovey's BBQ is pretty awesome! #
• Re: Lovey's RT: @seanwalberg: @lengoldenstein I had it for the first time a week or two ago, I'm hooked! #
• RT @Winnipeg_TECH Server Administrator- 1 year term – Palliser Furniture: Location: Winnipeg, MB, CANADA http://bit.ly/7SrkwL #jobs #
• Final Fantasy I & II for iPhone – now that's awesome! http://tinyurl.com/ykaq6cj #
• Plus, with the release of GTA: Chinatown Wars – iPhone has become a bigger player in portable gaming http://tinyurl.com/yd34ozf #
• @Curteye2 is it your birthday today? Happy Birthday! I'd get you an iPhone but you have one already! in reply to Curteye2 #
• @lengoldenstein instead of an iphone, you can keep all my chips from the last poker game… must have been birthday luck! in reply to lengoldenstein #
• @Curteye2 instead of an iphone, you can keep all my chips from the last poker game… must have been birthday luck! #
• Wonder how busy Kelsey's is tonight as they give away free wings – pics anyone? #
• @ChrisDca can't wait to see the app. submissions & rejections have been fairly fast lately (<24 hours) in my limited experience. in reply to ChrisDca #
• ESXi patches MUCH faster when putting the host into maintenance mode manually before starting the patching. #

Wordpress is once again up to date.  Nice to keep things current.  Of course, I should make a post to test that everything works as expected.  I’m also treated myself to a late Christmas present and bought a Logitech G110 keyboard.  It’s a great keyboard and I love the features but I just can’t seem to get the proper feel for it!  It’s actually a bit frustrating going from a 12 year old keyboard (yeah, old, huh) to something new and not being able to hit the keys with proper accuracy.  Practice, practice, practice said the Zen-master to his student.

Aside from the keyboard, I’ve been playing with some twitter integration on the blog – since I seem to update twitter more often lately in short rapid bursts.  The only problem is it won’t be much of a blog if the only content is a history of twitter posts.  I do try though!  I need some interesting content to post…

iPhone development is going fairly well.  I did try to submit an application to the Apple App Store but unfortunately it was rejected due to possibly copyright/intellectual property infringement on Fox’s defunct TV series Arrested Development.  The app featured one image and two sound bites from the show and yet somehow this could infringe – what ever happened to fair use?  Well, the app was a bit of a novelty and didn’t serve a real function.  However, it has been a good experience in learning iPhone development and finding some common problems and solutions.  I’m continuing to work on a more functional and useful app that I hope can be submitted and approved shortly.

Hope everyone has a great 2010!

• Slow morning for Twitter so here's a picture of a hawk eating a small bird outside my window http://twitpic.com/xja6s #
• not quite 8pm and i'm pretty zonked. you know you are old when…. #
• yay, app is "in review" again. let's hope the apple reviewer likes arrested development. #
• eagerly awaiting the results of app #1 submission #2… #
• F, rejected again. #
• damn, all the extra macs at work are non-intel. #
• RT: @uwinnipegDCE_IT: UWinnipeg Press Release: University of Winnipeg DCE Hides Easter Egg Game For Students http://ow.ly/VimQ #
• I still have the high score #
• seems like every bad driver in winnipeg woke up and hit the road at the same time this morning. #
• VMware standalone converter for coverting a physical Linux system to a VM works very well! #
• @uwinnipegDCE_IT we discuss the topic of customizing error (and other) http status codes with ErrorDocument in Apache Intro! in reply to uwinnipegDCE_IT #
• @uwinnipegDCE_IT let's hope people play DCE-IT man and Reg4 the courses! Can the students top the instructor's high score…? in reply to uwinnipegDCE_IT #
• @sourstud iPhone dev is fun. App store approval process, however, is not. in reply to sourstud #
• UIViewControllers make little puppies cry. #
• RT: @EAmobile: With the release of the Weezer pack for ROCK BAND we're giving away 4 ROCK BAND T-Shirts. RT this to be entered to win one! #
• @sourstud be proud of the mac. It's a very sophisticated UNIX workstation. in reply to sourstud #
• @nfortlage Call of Duty is great but have you played Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 yet? in reply to nfortlage #
• a perspective on how old and obsolete Internet Explorer 6 really is http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2010/01/12/older_than/ #
• UWinnipeg hides arcade game on website | Academica Group Inc: Marketing Insight for Higher Education http://tinyurl.com/ydbynqb #
• RT: @uwinnipegDCE_IT: University of #Winnipeg Course: Web Development Level 5: PHP Advanced http://tinyurl.com/yklsr9g #
• Annyong app in review for nearly 24 hours – maybe a good sign? hoping 3rd time is the charm. #
• no Annyong in the app store any time soon. Fox objects to apps that "infringe on its rights". #
• any recommendations for APC UPS repairs in Winnipeg? #
• Winnipeg Code Camp site is live! Check out the speakers, sessions, and register for the event! http://www.winnipegcodecamp.com (via @darcy_lussier) #
• just about time for poker night. tonight is going be "off the hook". #
• Back home a little after 5:30. Poker night is the best and even turned a massive $15 profit! #
• woken up by door to door morons #
• @wpcanada hah i'm just amazed that this happens the one time i go to bed at 6am in reply to wpcanada #
• +4c today. wow! #
• great day to go take the boys to the doggy park. #
• Great afternoon at the dog park. http://twitpic.com/ydc5z #
• 4 hours sleep starting to catch up with me – and was invited to see sherlock holmes tonight too, d'amn! #

I hope everyone had a good Halloween.  This year, the dark side of the force was strong in the pumpkin.

Testing a post with the iPhone wordpress app

I finally bought Guitar Hero World Tour for Wii yesterday.  Since it’s still a bit hard to find in stores and I’m cheap, I went the second-hand route and found a for-sale ad on the local Kijiji for $95 and the seller was only minutes away from my office.  Thinking it was a good opportunity, I picked it up but unfortunately when something seems too be good to true, it usually is.

After specifically asking the seller about the condition and any problems with the instruments, I was told everything worked fine and was hardly used.  Getting home and testing everything out, sure enough, one of the cymbol pads on the drum was completely dead.  Although not something I typically do, I asked the seller if I could return the defective kit and was not surprised to get no for answer and an “explanation” of how the cymbol should be easy to fix considering I “saved $100″ (A brand new kit costs $140 in stores).

This deal smells more like a well planned rip-off.  Looks like it will be up to me to fix it and the first step will be some Google searching.

I found some information that a common problem with the drum and cymbol pads where the wires inside become loose with wear.  I took the cymbol apart and the wires appeared to be fairly well connected but I re-soldered them just to be sure.  Unfortunately that didn’t fix the problem.

Fortunately, I came across this tip on instructables.com where the small printed circuit board may be defective and they show a method to bypass the PCB and connect the pad wires directly to the output jack.

With some fresh wire and some careful soldering (only burnt myself a little), I reconnected the cymbal pad to the kit and it worked!  Not only did it work but it worked perfectly!

I’ve had very positive experiences with the local buy&sell websites overall.  I’ve bought and sold computer hardware and even got a dog through the online classifieds.  It’s a bit unfortunate that I got bit by a dishonest seller but it’s something that that will happen to most people eventually.  There were some warning signs about the seller that I now recognize after the fact but in the midst of the excitement of getting a new toy and given the positive past experiences, I made a poor decision.

Fortunately with some searching and soldering, everything worked out fine in the end.