Honestly, I’ve found that I’m already forgetting more about the past than I care to admit. People, places, experiences and conversations seem to slip by more and more every year. At this point my brain is so filled with technical gobbledigook that it’s a wonder anything else sticks. So when I look at the tradition now it seems like an amazing way to capture just a small slice of each year. Everyone is so focused on the new year that no one seems to bother putting the entire last year in perspective, or comparing your experiences to those of previous years.

I strongly encourage you to try these questions out for yourself. Be honest, be thoughtful, and be clear in your responses. If you feel bold enough to post them in a comment or on your own blog, I encourage you to do so. Otherwise, please email me if you’d like to share your answers with someone else. Until then, I hope you enjoy a snapshot of my year.

The most beautiful place I saw this year :

I walked out on a dock on the end of Tilghman Island, in Black Walnut Cove, absolutely beautiful.

Black Walnut Cove Dock

Something I was glad I did but hope to never have to do again this year:

Sometime in November I started working at 9am on Thursday and worked until 5pm. Then I went home, talked to a friend, had dinner and started coding at 9pm. When I finished up around 5am, I decided that sleeping was a bad idea. I took the first bus in to work from 7am to 4pm before coming home and worked another hour or so. The final tally was around 25 hours without sleeping. I was surprised how easy it was to do, but it wrecked me. I’m proud and stupid, and I won’t do it again.

The person I most enjoyed meeting* :

I met a couple of COMPLETE nerds at a barcraft event. They made me feel like Mitt Romney, no joke. They were some of the nicest people I’ve met in DC and hope to see them again someday. I think I’ll try to do more of those kinds of mixers this year. The subject matter is lost on me, but it’s nice to create new nodes in “the network” (i.e. work people get boring too).

The day I would most like to repeat from this year* :

In early November, I took my first “complete day off” in about 15 months. It was just a Friday, but it was pure bliss for me. I finally separated myself from work to have some fun and enjoy the city. I think the fact that I “spent a day” on myself was the most magical part of it. I could have done the exact same thing on the next day…walked the same route, ate the same food and carried the same camera bag. But it wouldn’t have been as good or as sweet or as easy of a burden.

Someone I would like to get to know better in the new year* :

This is the year that a good friend’s little girl starts to really talk it up. I’m so excited to meet her in words, having visited her in the hospital for the first time two thanksgivings ago for the first time. They’re a good family with lots of love and lots of joy, and I’m ecstatic to learn more about how their daughter has learned from them.

The thing that I got better at during this year :

Making curry! Specifically, my chickpea and tomato-based curry. I’ve been trying for some time to eat less meat, and it worked better and better over time. In fact, I’ve got some chickpeas soaking as we speak. You’ve got to use the garam masala in great quantity!

The thing I would most like to accomplish in the new year:

I would like to build a project up in my spare time. It could be anything from a piece of inventive-but-useless software to an organization.

The thing I am proud to have accomplished this year is*:

I survived an earthquake and a hurricane! Contrary to popular belief, the earthquake on the east coast was quite “disturbing” (you’ll pardon my dry sense of humor). The fact that I came through a flooded apartment with my wits about me and without much outside support (save for the support of the carpeted floor of a generous friend). Of course, much credit goes to my wonderful friends who laid out a large net beneath me in case I did fall. Something from a past life, it seems, has continuously blessed me with some of the finest friends that money can’t buy.

Something new I would like to try in the new year is:

I always think extreme with this question. I think I’d like to ride in a hot air balloon. I saw Stephen Fry do it, maybe I’ll follow in his footsteps? Fall in nearby Appalachia looks to be gorgeous.

The Scripture verse/passage that meant the most to me this year was:

Proverbs 17:1 Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it,
Than a house full of feasting with strife.

A place I would like to visit in the new year is:

The northeast. I’ve been on the east coast and a mere train ride away from the greatest metropolis in the United States, and a few more hours from a place I’ve always idealized as perfection incarnate. I would love to travel the rails to Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Vermont and Maine. I have enough vacation to do it, the finances to support it, just no final motivator. Maybe I should start planning for after my “new job”.

My favorite outing/trip/visit was to:

I went to the Eastern Shore with a friend of mine. It was a great day of fun and driving. I’d gladly go again.

I most enjoyed watching the following change this year*:

I think that 2011 was a great year for normalization for me. I moved into my second place on the east coast, and shed a lot of garbage that I still had from college days. My hobbies started to drift from intense wastelands of too much sunlight to a mild biosphere of mixed interests. Photography came back, music became a quieter but more ubiquitous backdrop, and cooking is now a regular activity full of diversity and fun. I became the most socially active of any year in my life, I started attending a huge number of concerts and events relative to any previous year, and my sphere of friends swelled significantly. I began reading again after a far, far too long hiatus. I think it was 6 years since my last non-academic pleasure read, and this year I went through about 25-30 books. I don’t think “I changed”, but I think my circumstances allowed me to let natural urges find a home instead of forcing one objective or another. Definitely a good change.

One thing I wish I could change this new year:

This year I discussed the idea of volunteer work with a few friends. We talked about collaborating on a technical project for a non-profit, but have been unable to find the time to get the kick-off that we need. I hope that this year affords us the opportunity to follow through on a good idea in order to help a local group. I’m always looking for people to help me make that a reality.

A special prayer answered this year:

I was really seeking out some validation of the quality of work that I had been contributing on the job. At the end of the year I received my first performance review and it was better than I could have imagined. I’m very grateful to be in a job that I can do well with people that help me to do well.

My favorite special event this year:

I absolutely enjoyed the Cloud Cult concert at Black Cat in DC. I went with some of my favorite people in the world, the music was fantastic, and I got this great painting. How awesome is that?! I really couldn’t have asked for more.

My favorite holiday memory this year:

When I arrived in Phoenix my father met me at baggage claim, and I gave him a huge hug. My brother was waiting in the car, and when I loaded my bag up I gave him a hug so immense that I lifted him off the ground and made the fellow arrivals guffaw at our silly display. I hadn’t seen either of them in over 14 months. As we drove back to my parents house in Phoenix it took us 10 minutes to start each other laughing so hard that I was crying. That was my favorite holiday memory.

Someone I missed seeing this year:

I had a very good friend for many many years of my life. I was very sad when 2011 ended with nothing more than an awkward 2-minute conversation on the phone that contained all the warmth of a metal bench. I’ve tried to communicate several times, but I haven’t had any luck. I miss him very much, and it will be sad if 2012 ends the same way that 2011 has.

Someone I hope I can visit this new year*:

I would love to visit my friends in southern Wisconsin. It’s been over 3 years since I saw them, and I’ve yet to meet their young son.

The scariest thing that happened to me this year:

I received a phone call early in the morning from a friend of mine who was panicked. He had gotten caught in a bad situation (after a carefully orchestrated series of normal decisions), and was too wound up for me to be able to calm him down. I spent the next few hours trying to figure out how to help him. The situation was resolved by mid-morning without any problems at all; it couldn’t have been a better learning experience. But I remember waking up groggy and immediately hitting 160 BPM when I heard his voice.

My favorite possession of this year:

Just before Thanksgiving I picked up a new camera and have had no end of fun with it. I crossed the 10k photo mark on my Christmas vacation.

My most satisfying accomplishment this year*:

Granted, I think it’s the easiest instrument in the world, I’m very glad to have taught myself the penny whistle. I play frequently now and enjoy coming up with new tunes or finding old ones. I’m no master, but I can kick out campfire songs like nobody’s business.

Something new I learned realized about Faith :

I learned that I’m worried when people believe that conversion can happen, and indeed must happen to avoid despair, but don’t care about their fellow man enough to share this fact with all they meet, out of love and concern.  I learned that those who hate it so much that they lash out at their fellow man are not to be trusted, and those who love it so much that they forget about their fellow man frighten me more than anything.

I experienced personal joy when I remember:

I really experienced joy sitting on the national mall and watching people take pictures of each other in front of the capitol and the monument. It’s a beautiful place to go and sit and watch a carefree world spin around you. If you haven’t done it then come to DC and let me be your footman.

The hardest thing to let go of this year:

I’d like to preface this with my favorite quote from Neil Gaiman’s stories: “You get what everybody gets – you get a lifetime”

This year I lost a colleague at work. We weren’t best friends, he was many years my senior, but we talked. I advised him on some of his projects, and he provided me much more advice on my career and future. He was a kind man, and a good man. He treated me with respect and dignity just like anyone else in his life, and he died before his time. I know it’s not a good way to feel; I know it’s selfish. But I’ll still miss him.

I really felt at peace when I:

I spent one afternoon sitting on my parent’s patio with the Phoenix sun on my face and music in my ears…without a care in the world. I should like to say there are few times I have felt so truly at peace. Perhaps rivaled only by the times when the weather was just right and I’d open windows on both corners of the room and lay in bed with music on. It’s the simple pleasures in life like a warm sun or a cool breeze that really relax me.

The most embarassing moment of this year was when I*:

I hosted a party at my place last year just before I left for the new spot. Lamentably, I was not the most gracious host toward the end of the evening. Let us just say that there are very few times where the spirit of the evening overwhelms my senses, and in this case my best friends caught my fall rather graciously, if I don’t mind saying.

I am really looking forward to :

I’ve got an interesting opportunity to exchange with another company this year. If all goes well it will be one of the most challenging and informative experiences I’ve had yet.

Something I tried for the first time this year:

This year was the year I sold my vehicle (beloved Jack, a 1998 Honda Civic). Instead of replacing it, I opted for a car-free lifestyle (pun-intended). I have lived for 5 months without a vehicle and haven’t looked back.

I hope I get to do this again this year:

One of my favorite joys has been a very good relationship with my two dearest friends in the world. I hope that this year yields many opportunities to dine, talk, and experience the world together. They are a truly wonderful part of my life, and I’m so glad to have gotten to know them and to learn from them. That is my highest hope for the new year.

Something I have been working on but don’t expect to complete this year:

Personal health goals have been on my “in progress list” for a while. My occupation doesn’t exactly sponsor healthy living, so I’ve been trying to eat healthier and choosing hobbies that will get me more active on a regular basis (photography is a great example, I’ve hoofed around 50 miles this year to take pictures).

If I could name the year just passed, I would name it the “Year of the _____________”:

Big Waffle.

Just one more time I would like to:

Have lunch with Scott and Aaron and Andrew. Did it happen last year? It must have! Three work colleagues (one who has moved on) whose passion for their craft invigorates my soul.

In the new year, my wish for you:

My wish for you is that you live outside the spectrum of “alright” to “pretty good”. I’ve discovered that I have a passion for trying things that will definitely fall outside of that space, and I hope to continue to do that.  It’s better to experience “terrible” or “bad” a half dozen times if it means having 1 or 2 “fantastic”s or “earthshattering”s.

The last item that I forgot to mention is that the list can grow. Can you think of a question you’d like to add to this list? I can!

If I built a timeline for the year, it would contain these events:

February – A school friend joins me at work

March – Moved into new flat

April – Eric comes for a visit in the season of the Cherry Blossom

Mid April – The roommate comes to join me!

May – Cloud Cult + Painting  = Joy

August – Earthquake!

September – Refugee returns home

November – CAMERA  + Day Off  = Ecstasy

December – Family in Phoenix means Frolicking Fun in the Florescent faded fauna. Fail fickle, Fenrir!

EDIT – Update AUG 25 7:30 (Taken from conversation with GM)

EDIT – Update AUG 27 5:30 PM

EDIT – Update SEP 2 6:30 PM

(continuing conversation about intimate audiences in long-distance communications, don’t ask)

“It’s like a set of tin cups with strings, only on a significantly bigger scale…from-here-to-Utah big.”

“That’s an amazing metaphor you’ve got there.”

“Simile, actually, but I agree with the amazing part.”

“Maybe the simile is a metaphor.”

“For that sentence, I agree, but I will forever regret that you didn’t say ‘Maybe the simile is like a metaphor’.”

“Sometimes you make me very sad.”

I hope this brings you a little smile on the first Monday of the year.  Remember, don’t take yourself so d@#$ seriously.

How can something be “one million times smaller” than anything? Is small a measurement?  What is twice as small as I am? Or twelve times as small as a planet? Is it a redneck term for mass? Are they saying it is a percentage of another object? As far as I know, small is a descriptive and relational term that has zero scientific meaning.  Maybe I’ve gone crazy, but it just doesn’t make any sense.

At this time I would like to say that I’m 3.6 times smaller than Darth Vader, but I smell twice as nice.

As I sit in The Greene Turtle at BWI, I realize that the moderately sporty theme and full bar may give me an interesting possibility for introspection. So, with great resolve I start in on a fairly tasty, avocado burger and ponder the recent events of my life.

(Well, that was as far as I got before I was tempted with a piece of Macademia Nut Cheesecake, but that’s how writing works. At this point I’ve finished off my tasty meal and traveled a few hundred miles to find myself suspended in the air somewhere over Missouri.)

The most taxing part of my life, lately, has been the quest to get an internship for this summer. Being a grad student is apparently not difficult task enough to satisfy the gods, I also have to fill out loads of paperwork and fly to the east coast a few times.

I don’t like to complain too much, and the reality of the matter is that I’ve really benefited from the experience. Through interviewing with several different government agencies on more than one occasion I now feel a sense of immunity to the stinging barbs of the interviewing panel. It’s not that there are any shattered glass ceilings (for the 20-something, white male in America), but after your 20th interview in 6 months you start to place less and less stake in each one. I think half the battle is just realizing that you are wanted in this big ol’ world. Nearly everyone has the right to feel that way, but I think I didn’t let myself do it for a long time.

I’ve also become more comfortable in saying no to people. There are, literally, hundreds of places that are easily accessible to a person in computer science right now: everything from application development to taking a hammer to a hard drive. Personally, I’m just not the kind of guy that likes to track down criminals, plug small boxes into other boxes, or build robots. After everything I’ve been through I now can tell those employers that we just don’t have any chemistry and not fee. Once you realize that you’re wanted somewhere, it becomes a lot easier to do this. If I were to give any advice to a person nearing graduation at any level it would be to not accept offers just because you got them.

I’ve started to focus my knowledge of core computer organization and process flow into the field of information management and data visualization across systems. Most of my closer friends know what it’s like when I get a “topic-crush”, and right now its for data collection and aggregation. I’ll buy the drinks if you want to chat about this topic.[I'll probably leave your part of the tip for some older crushes like telecommuting, web development education, economics, or the possible existence of a Bizarro-Groucho Marx]

This new passion is partially enforced by my current research on network-based intrusion detection systems. Part of my groups task has been to create a testable out of band network for managing and sniffing traffic across large, distributed networks.

My biggest contribution thus far has been a redesign of the processing server and the way data is being handled in the short and long term. This sort of architecture really got me excited about my career because of the way I could see my knowledge and input change the process. I wasn’t always right in the choices I made, but the team was able to correct the misinterpretations or detect flaws in the design fairly quickly.

All-in-all, the solution we arrived at was fairly satisfactory, and I’m already seeing ways of improving our model. Additionally, I was also able to create a web-based GUI for accessing the new information and rendering a rather crude network visualization graph. It’s a non-trivial problem for two weeks time, especially since I still struggle with graph theory.

(This has been forgotten on my phone for over a month and a half, and now the author finds himself sitting on the couch. Feeling the red-afterglow of a Netflix-hosted episode of Outer Limits…I journey forth.)

This summer…well, I guess I don’t know what my goals are. I think I might stay cool on the personal technology side of life. I’m living with two good friends within minutes one of the most fascinating cities in the world. I think that the next 3 months will be devoted to seeing, smelling, and tasting as much of the East coast as possible. As friends may attest, I seem to have a lot more time for things “next month” than I do “this month”.

Social:

• Twitter I have joined the ranks of the unclean! Alright, that was cruel, but I -am- full of the shallow Twitter fuzzies, my friends. Please feel free to follow me (raymondberg), I promise to be 5% funny! It’s an interesting form of communication, and it’s actually a very productive means for casual communication. Some people may not agree, but most of you know my response to that is “they’re wrong”.
• Digsby Every 4 months or so I try a new desktop client for my communication needs. Every client I use must have 2 features: instant messaging and email notification. The last two I used, in order, were Pidgin(unreliable with google) and Google Talk. I then heard about this Twitter/Linked In/Mail Notifying IM client. It’s got more services than that and you can disable ones you don’t use. TRY IT.
• Skype I am currently without cell phone due to various personal problems. Fortunately, a $10 investment in Skype has allowed me to continue life uninterrupted. I predominently use it to talk to my parents back home, but it’s been fantastic. It’s a daily part of my life and I hope you all use it on some level.

Multimedia:

• TED This is probably the best part of my current online life. I didn’t know these talks even existed last year, and now I don’t miss any of them via TED’s YouTube channel. I’ve been energized to both continue research and volunteer time to helping others by watching these delightful talks. If you’re interested in new ideas and multiple disciplines then this is a MUST SEE series.
• Twit.tv My childhood (early teens) memories with Leo Laporte sharing ideas of technology far beyond my imagination was partially responsible for my foray and eventual passion for technology. Now he continues to work hard to educate and entertain the world, and I love him for it. His broadcast studio is amazing, and the shows are very valuable chunks of time. (see also Stickam)
• Netflix I’ve been subscribing to Netflix since December (not long) and I’ve enjoyed every single moment of it. To be honest I’ve had the same DVD for 2 months, lost in my apartment somewhere, but I only really use the online streaming. I might run out soon, so I hope Netflix hurries up their conversion of MORE MEDIA for their streamers (everyone should pray for Roku success). I’ll be excited if they start a streaming only account.
• Revision3 Now, I have to admit that I’ve just started looking at this, but I’ve been fairly excited by what I see. I don’t go for the less valuable stuff like Scam School, but I’m looking at even more resources for my nerdtainment and this looks like the spot.

Work:

• Java Multi-threading I’ve been digging into this pretty heavily in my NetSec project (ground up IDS). It’s remarkably easy to manage threads in Java, but I’m running those pesky race conditions.  I just crossed the 1500 line mark, and I’ve started locking up the threads pretty tightly. I’m loving it.
• SVN/Eclipse My development is now almost based in  Eclipse.  Since moving to the new office and stabilizing my schedule, I’ve been able to really settle in to a good routine (using PyDev, Metrics). I’m also working with my cohorts like a MADMAN with Subversion. It was originally just a productivity enhancement, it’s turned into an essential part of my life (using Subclipse, Tortoise SVN).
• Python is slowly becoming a cornerstone of my development lifestyle. I do enjoy it, but I’m not ready to pledge my soul to the Python leaders. I am prreeeetty excited to see if anything comes from the new research I just heard about today (Python sped up 3x)

Utilities:

• Prio Wonderfully neat tool that allows for 3 things in the windows task manager process manager tab:
  1. Sticky Priorities on tasks
  2. Color coded “Trusted” processes (for you paranoids)
  3. Hover-over details about processes (Including process paths!~!!)
• KatMouse Great tool that allows for “smarter” scroll wheel use. It removes the need to take focus of an object to scroll it. Basically, if you have a window in the foreground, you can then scroll a scrollable field in the background or a sub-window scroll field without clicking to get focus. Great!
• allSnap Make all Windows’s windows (hmmm) lock against each other. It’s not full docking, but it’s good enough. Those who know me know that I like to control the really small aspects of my life.[ I think it's because I'm a control freak, and the big things are registered as "In Progress" in my brain. You can't afford that luxury with small things like desktop layout.]

I originally started this post with the idea that I didn’t have much time to blog, so I’d just put something short out. After 880 words and an hour or so, I think I realize that I like the sound of my own fingers typing.

1. Start a conversation with a nearby ‘normal’ about something interesting that isn’t solved easily (This also works if you’re mid-lecture and you’re instructing on some problem)
2. Begin to say: “Well, that’s an interesting problem. It’s kind of like an episode of MythBuster’s where they <insert some myth here>.”
3. Start the timer.

In any case, shortly after you complete step 3 you should notice that someone has turned around and said the following words to you “I SAW THAT EPISODE!!! THEY …..”.

At this point, two things happen. First, you roll your eyes or breathe in loudly and try to continue your conversation with the normal. Second, if you’re lucky, you’ll notice immediate exponential growth and the expansion of the conversation into a third or fourth person who say “Hey, are you talking about MYTHBUSTERS?!? I saw that episode, they….”. If you are not lucky, the first nerd will sense a lack of social protection, realize there’s no outlet for the feelings and words he needs to express and it will instinctively latch onto your skull and scream into your eardrum about dummies and explosives.

(That’s why I always start each test with a zeroth step: 0. pray silently to the goddess of probability that every room’s nerd quantity is x where x > 2)

You see, this test operates on the well known fact that most nerds are annoying. Contrary to popular culture, however,  this is not a cute, fun, innocent annoying. This is the kind of annoying that causes eye bleeding and blackouts. I know because I get them on a daily basis. If you don’t understand this problem, I’ll let you review the thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical bills resulting from annoyance-related accidents.

For all you nerds out there:

Please stop freaking out about MythBusters. I say this for the sake of my health and your image in society. I don’t think anyone truly dislikes the show, but please stop making it something that you salivate over. It’s just television…just television. Normal people don’t even react like that to the birth of a child, and, to be perfectly honest, it’s kind of freaking the rest of us out.  Especially since it happens once a week.

The main driver for this was that I was no longer “supporting” a second person in my life. So at this point I could actually afford to perform a little “me spending”.  Nothing extravagant, just something to get me started and wouldn’t make me feel like a photography neophyte every time I took pictures in public. The Fujifilm S700 seemed pretty perfect for that. It was also right in my price range as a college student ( $$ < 200 ).

The camera actually wound up being fairly impressive, but a little outside my abilities at first. The round knob on the top was daunting enough with it’s 11 shooting modes. That number turned out to be 8 with the manual shooting modes out.  You can also forget about any configuration menus as those would be too far.

After a month or so of “point and shoot” stuff, I began eying up that manual mode.  I still didn’t have the knowledge, but I decided it was time to read up. I then found that there were 3 basic controls that would allow for varied shots, and I could mess with them from there.  Here’s a quick summary.

Shutter Speed – The amount of time the lens is exposed to the light. These are commonly notated as an amount of seconds ( e.g 1/120 sec[ave], 1/1000 sec[short], 4 sec[very long] ). Too little and the light will be too dim, to much and the motion will be blurred.

Aperture - The size of the window that exposes the world to your lens.  These are represented as F-stops (e.g F-3.5[large], F-13[small]).  If the size is too small, the picture will be too dark but if the size is too big then your field of focus is very small.

ISO - The sensitivity of the camera’s sensor to light.  These are usually factors of 100 (some exceptions) between 100 and the thousands (ISO 100 [normal], ISO 1600 [very sensitive]). Again, too little and you’ll not see anything, but too much means the image will be grainy.

As I said, these were unfamiliar to me so I experimented a bit. Since I normally shoot scenary I took a lesson from a quick tips guide for landscape shots. I started to shoot manually and shrink my aperture for distances. Sure enough, I could now pick up distant details that I was missing with my previous shots. I was also able to

My biggest issue now is the fact that my camera is designed to be a point and shoot camera. When I’m out shooting it takes time to switch between all three settings. ISO is the worst as it’s in a menu and requires about 4 button clicks to alter it and get back to the action. Adding in the fact that manual focus dissallows alteration of settings while you’re shooting you can see why I’m considering getting an SLR soon.

I do really enjoy my camera and I’ve taken about 6000 shots this year with it. The hardest part for me is getting through the editing and removal of these shots.  After any 20o+ photo shoot I find that it takes me about an hour to an hour and a half in Picasa3 to find redundancies, delete bad shots, GeoTag, and do some light (as in amount) editing. That’s not bad, but getting around to those 1000+ photos from my trip to Colorado is looking particularly daunting.

Hey, I have this thing you have to see! I’ll send ti via email, it’s 10MBs.
No wait, my email service can’t handle anything that size. It’ll have to go a different way.
Okay, I’ll send it over the IM client. Wait, it says you’re using a different client than me.
Yeah, I’m using Pidgin (read: stupid Pidgin, seeming all helpful)
Okay, log into Skype and I’ll send it as a file.
Okay. Wait why is it only going at 500 bytes a second?!?!? Are you running Windows 3.2? (read: or Linux, har har, but seriously why do Skype file transfers blow?)
Man, I’m going to have to upload it to my FTP server and send you a link. It’ll be faster. Click, click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click,click,clickity-clickity-click. Okay, here’s the link.
Man…..that sucked so bad.

I can imagine you, the reader, sitting in your seat and sobbing into a pillow at this point, “Yes, yes I was there….I had to send him a burnnn….a burrnnn…a burned cd!!!” Well, maybe it wasn’t that bad.

So in my own way I fixed it for myself. ShareItNow is a python script that you drag files onto and it will automatically upload said files to the FTP site of your choice and give you a URL to give to your friends and family. It’s simple, but it’s not bad. You do need Python, an FTP server, and a Webserver, but that’s what I have so too bad if you don’t.

Just edit the script to change the value of your server location, credentials, and a web folder the server points to and you will be golden. Once you drag a file or files onto the script it will ask you if each file is binary before uploading. Once it’s done with an upload it will print you a URL that you can use and go on to repeat the process for any additional files.

One last thing, to make Python scripts “Droppable” (meaning you can drag-and-drop a file onto a script to get some magical result) you need to enable a little switch in the registry. I added a .reg file to the project zip using the code in a tutorial on how to make droppable Pyscripts. The funny thing is that this guy wanted to do the same thing I did, but he didn’t share his code. Great minds think alike, I guess.

But I share my code  (Download ShareItNow)   ;D

ps. before I get spammed, this is just ‘A’ solution. I need to share files frequently for school or work, so this is a nice option. I’ll probably improve it later by adding a “Do you want to delete?” question after you’ve finished all the uploads to auto delete the uploaded files after the other person grabs them.  But for now, “be cool”.

I’m also expecting that you create an FTP account that you use just with this service. That’s the way it should be done! Remember to mind the keys.

Most people I know would same I’m a pretty nice guy. I can be trouble at times, but by-and-large I’m a nice dude. Especially when I comes to customer service representatives. Man, those people have it rough. I get really frustrated when I hear people ragging on offshore call reps or anybody else that deal with moronic customers who demand perfection. But there’s a point at which I stop being a nice guy.

There’s a point at which I snap, I lose control. Like a mother bear and her cubs, it’s not a good idea to come between me and that which I cherish beyond any mortal. It’s not a good idea to come between me and my….Internet. It is for this reason that I write. I won’t berate you with the details, I’ll just inform you that Cox Cable is one of (if not chief) the worst customer care groups I’ve dealt with in Oklahoma.

Okay, so I lied. Get ready for a detail hailstorm.

Sunday, I move my stuff over to my new apartment. It’s the Holiday weekend, I’m cool with the fact that no one is picking up any phone any time soon. Alright, so I plan. I go to bed at 8pm Sunday night in preparation for the attack. I’m not kidding, I mean serious business when I work with my Internet. When my Internet is in danger I will run 14 miles through sleet and snow, run barefoot across hot mall parking lots, and lift Volvo’s just for a minute or two of that high speed goodness. So I’m ready for this trivial task. When 7:30am rolls around I make the call. It goes something like this:

• Cox: Hello
• Ray: Hello! I need to switch my internet over from my previous apartment to my new one.
• Cox: Alright, I need your pin.
• Ray: What pin?
• Cox: The pin on your bill, for the account, I need it to authorize the movement of the account
• Ray: Uh, no bill. I just moved, everything is everywhere and simultaneously nowhere. Everywhere I turn is a vast space filled with trinkets, baubles, dioramas and food. Can I get the pin sent somewhere or give you some other information? I mean I know everything about me. My mothers maiden name, the credit card used to make payments, my social security number, my blood type, the number of cheeses in my refrigerator, my secret passcode-handshake-dance?
• Cox: No, just the pin. Just check the bill, it’s on the front of the bill.
• Ray: Ohhh, well I don’t have my bill available. Let’s just assume, for the sake of this completely ridiculous and hypothetical scenario, that I shredded my bill by accident. What do I do? Can you email me the pin on my Cox email account?
• Cox: No, I can’t give the pin out. I could call you on a Cox account phone, do you have one of those?
• Ray: No. IDEA! Can you call me on the phone number registered with my Cox account and give it to me over that number? Will that work?
• Cox: No, it has to be a Cox phone. Sorry, sir.
• Ray: That doesn’t make any sense, aren’t both numbers equally linked to the account?? You have my phone number that I own, or you have my phone number that you own. Either way, it’s my number and it’s worked so far in identifying me.  Isn’t that the point to keeping information on file? Is there any other reason that you would use my phone number…except to call me on it?
• Cox: Sorry, sir. I can’t do that.
• Ray: Okay, well we’re at an impasse, Ms. Cox. What shall we do?
• Cox: You can come down to the corporate office and request the move with two valid forms of I.D.
• Voiceover:At this moment I’m swimming in murky pools of non-logic, so I cling to the only reality within my field of perception. “YES!”, I shout emphatically, “YES! That I can do. You see, Ms. Cox, I have both a car and two forms of ID. This is entirely within my reaches. You’ve given me hope!”

Now, this hurts my chances of getting cable in the same day: my original hope. However, I think that even if I lost cable for one night, that would be alright. My only goal is to maximize my options. I continue and call 2 other customer reps for other companies, both of which reaffirm my faith in customer service and capitalism.

I proceed 6 miles to the Cox center and request my service get changed. That went something like this.

• Cox:Hello
• Ray: Hello! I need to switch my internet over from my previous apartment to my new one.
• Cox: Alright, what’s the old address?
• Raymond: %address_old%
• Cox: New Address?
• Raymond: %address_new%
• Cox: Okay, by the end of the day! Wait tomorrow….yeah, tomorrow…end of the day.
• Raymond: Darn, I was hoping for today. Wait, that’s it?
• Cox: That’s it!
• Raymond: Where does my PIN come into play?
• Cox: What pin?
• Raymond: Didn’t I need a PIN or 2 forms of ID? I didn’t need to drive 12 miles round trip? This is worse than what happened to Abraham, you know that! At least he got to keep his son. I still don’t have Internet.
• Cox: Eh, not so much.
• Raymond: ……….

At this point I show great restraint and honor. So I don’t. But when 3 o’clock rolls around I ask myself where the dude is.  I call, here’s the abbreviated version. “Should be working man! I’ll send to to tech support….Yeah, should be working. Nope, I’ll have to send a technician. Tomorrow? (me: ARRRRRGH) Oh wait! They haven’t come yet. Give them until seven!” How did you not know whether your own technician had done the job or not? Okay, so I’ll wait.

I notice the power gets shut off in the old apartment, so now running the wireless from there isn’t an option any more. I move the modem to my place and get no signal. I wait. I talk to Bryan. I wait. I consider talking to Bryan again, but stop myself.  Then I try again. By some sort of mysterious magic…the signal has changed…and yet this change comes without the ability to access the internet. What could have happened?

Apparently….apparently, the technician untrapped the line and let the connection through. HOWEVER. I guess it’s not policy to give a courtesy knock on the tenents door to let them know you set it up. So there was no point at which I could say..”It’s up? Wait, no it’s not. Could you look at this?” No. No point. So what did he do today? What did the guy do…today? He cost Cox money, and me time. And sanity….don’t forget…sanity.

So what’s the final damage? Thursday afternoon between 4 and 7 I will be getting the visit from a technician. Thursday. In my big book of Internet outages, I saw it written that a Monday-Tuesday was alright. Worst case stretches over Monday-Wednesday. But because of 3 poor phone support reps and a technician with somewhere better to be I am now out of cable for 4 days.

Do I realize that there are children starving around the world? Do I realize that I have enough food to last me for a month in case of emergency? SURE. But what I hate is that something tragic like me not having my Internet could have been avoided with some simple steps and better business planning. Plus, the money I would normally donate to starving children is now going to me finding otherways of getting my internet access and writing this blog post.