to all those readers out there, i’d just like to wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year! also please check out my brother andrew’s blog, crossing out of the blue (linked on the right side). i gave him this cross-promotional post as a christmas gift, he really needs the hits. have a great new year!
as we approach the end of the fiscal year, it’s time for the upgrades at work… fresh cut new box of 100% recycled pencils, new workstations, and dual monitors all around – a great productivity booster. but for those who aren’t lucky enough to have hardware support for multiple monitors, or more likely those readers who wish to share a mouse and keyboard between multiple computers running different operating systems, there is a pretty slick option available – it’s software, and it’s open source (free).
synergy is a utility for windows, mac os x, and *nix environments that allows you to harness an array of monitors to provide seamless transitions between desktops of different machines. as an example, i set up an imac to the right of my monitor, installed the application on both computers, and told the server (running on the computer attached to the keyboard and mouse) the network name or ip of the other machines. i set up the virtual arrangement of my screens and that’s it. it even copies over your clipboard text when you move between the computers.
i’m totally stoked on this because as an avid mac and linux user, i am able to leverage the strengths of the various operating systems concurrently within the same work session, without losing a beat. i use terminal to ssh into my headless linux box, and adium (good stuff) instead of yahoo im on my pc, and with the recent development of my ipod not working, i can tap into the music library i have on itunes. anyone else in a similar situation should really look into it.
on tuesday night i launched a new web site for a us ski team member, and a friend of mine, kevin francis. now you can keep up with kevin as he travels around the world for nor-am’s, europa cup, and world cup ski races on www.kevinfrancisracing.com. this is one of the first sites that i have used pure css for the layout, and i have to say that it makes things a whole lot simpler. it is also the first site i have made using some transparent styles, so i’m interested to see what browsers support it.
well, i finally managed to get all of my world cup pictures online. check out the second half of my trip, including the sights and artwork in hamburg, great shots of prague at night, and views of the berlin wall, before taking in the fan mile in berlin for the final two games of the cup. the photo map for europe is starting to get a bit crowded, so i’m thinking my next trip better be to a different continent… perhaps asia or south america. but i’m fresh out of vacation days so don’t expect to see anything for a while. enjoy!
after a full 24 hours of travelling followed by another 20 of work, i find myself back in the states, head still spinning from a crazy football road trip and the subsequent return to normalcy. all said and done, we drove our opel corsa over 5000 km (~3200 miles), covering the majority of germany in 3 weeks, not to mention forays into the netherlands, belgium, and the czech republic. of the twelve host cities, the only one that we didn’t visit was stuttgart. from munich in the south to hamburg in the north, germany opened its arms to us and millions of other football pilgrims, and put on what has to be one of the most successful world cups in history. i will begin posting my pictures starting tonight, and the majority should be online through this weekend, so you all can share in the sights, places, and people of world cup 2006 germany.
hello all from krefeld, germany where we have been spending the first 2 rest days of the tournament, less than 5 hours before the germany v. argentina game (quarterfinal). the first few days of the trip were crazy, driving across much of the southern half of germany for football matches in various cities. the first game we went to was in the brand-new allianz arena in munich, where cote d’ivoire scored 3 straight goals in pouring rain to come back from a 2 goal defecit against serbia and montenegro, including a penalty kick blasted in the back of the net to the sound of thunder booming in the lightning-covered sky above. we were about 10 seats from the serbian fans and it was intense, especially when they jumped out to an early lead and lit flares in the stands.
the next day we went on to nuremburg for the usa v. ghana game – i’m sure you all know of the 2-1 outcome in ghana’s favor. it was amazing to see the us team play in the frankenstadion, and had the penalty kick not been called, we may have been active in dortmund versus brazil (likely not much longer than that). after the game, we took it to fan fest and dominated some other fans at a game of futsal played in a small cage. that night we spent in a very sketch campsite or “fan camp,” which, contrary to what a kid from eugene that we met said, was not tight.
another day, another football match. this time we drove west to kaiserslautern, which was a small town with the huge presence of fritz-walter stadion overlooking the city. the match featured spain versus saudi arabia, and was a hard-fought 1-0 result. the comraderie between the fans was impressive, and the atmosphere of the spain supporters was very positive. the saudi royal family and some saudi celebrities were also balling out in a caravan of S500′s after the game.
after 3 days of covering nearly a thousand kilometers (in our surprisingly roomy 4-door opel corsa), we pushed on to maastricht, a city positioned strategically between germany, france, belgium, and holland so that it’s a great meeting place for western europe, and has become our favorite place to kick back and relax between games. we were in holland for the disappointing dutch loss to portugal, and then drove back to dortmund to catch the brazil v. ghana game, and see what the brazil fans were like… too bad we didn’t get to play any futsal here.
that brings us to the present, awaiting another round of quarterfinal matches, beginning today. we will be travelling to hamburg tomorrow to check out the stadiums and fan-fest up there, as well as just taking in the sights of germany’s largest port city. from there we will hopefully drive through leipzig to view the zentralstadion, on our way to prague for a few nights, before returning to berlin for the finals, where likely more than half a million fans will watch the game in a closed 1-mile stretch of june 17th straße. i will have many great photos when i return to the states that will eventually make their way onto the site & photo map. until then, i bid you farewell
after 3 days of great soccer, let’s take a look back at some of this weekend’s world cup action.
host nation germany started off group A play with a solid 4-2 win over the ticos of costa rica, even without the services of captain michael ballack. ecuador was the story of the second fixture, with a resounding 2-0 win over disappointing poland. look for defensive titan espinoza, and striker delgado to lead the rest of the tricolor past the group play stage.
group B featured defensive matchups between england and paraguay, and trinidad & tobago and sweeden, the only goal in either game coming on an early paraguay own goal from a spectacularly played beckham set piece. sweden showed star power but were unable to put anything past last-minute replacement goalkeeper shaka hislop, who put in a man-of-the match performance among many notable opportunities by ibrahimovic among others. the england/sweden game in koln should decide the winner in this group.
group C appears to be living up to its name as the group of death, with solid performances across the board. argentina looked to be quite stacked in the midfield in their 2-1 win, and had a great performance by abbondanzieri in goal to deny the ivory coast the chance to grab a point. didier drogba proved he can perform on the world stage, but he needs more support if his team plans to advance past the group play. the netherlands looked very sharp against a tough defensive team in serbia & montenegro who gave up as many goals in this game (1) as they did in the entire qualification stage. marco van basten’s holland squad looked like they could not only win this group, but make a play at the whole thing.
finally, in group D, mexico showed why el tri is ranked so high in the fifa world rankings, with a resounding, albeit late 3-1 win over a competitive iran side, sparked by creative play by substitute zinha. portugal came out of the gate firing, but cooled quickly after pauleta opened his world cup account in the 4th minute. mexico looks to be the early favorite in this group, but portugal should look much more impressive with deco in the lineup alongside a brilliant luis figo, and a better performance from young star ronaldo.
if the first eight games are to be any guide, it looks like we are in for a competitive cup with a surprisingly level playing field. the new seamless ball appears to favor more goals, with an average of 2.25 goals scored per game to this point. tomorrow’s 9 am (pdt) game will be the united states’ first of the cup, facing a czech side with a nebulous injured list. i fully expect you all to be missing work/school/religious services/personal obligations to watch the game. LETS GO USA!!!!!!!
i had to make a post because the countdown on the site is under 24 hours, although it is based on the viewer’s time zone as opposed to one standard clock, so the first game is actually on in under 15 hours. billions of football fans worldwide have been waiting for this for 4 years. 9 am (pdt) tomorrow is the kick off game featuring germany v. costa rica, followed by poland v. ecuador. look to favorites brazil but keep an eye on a few others: france, trying to shed the image of 2002′s cup when they failed to advance through the group stage; the netherlands, who have a cast of great players and will be well supported in their neighboring country, although they drew tough fixtures against giants argentina, rising african power cote d’ivoire, and defensive stalwarts serbia & montenegro; definitely watch the us team in group E, as i believe the qualifiers from that group will have played some great football and carry that momentum into the elimination stages (and quite possibly into a match versus brazil in the round of 16); and finally, you must like the chances of host nation germany. to players and fans worldwide i toast to a great world cup. in the next month i will be keeping you posted on the action from germany and hopefully sharing about some of my travels. lets go usa!
i’d like to take this time to formally introduce a new feature to the site, the photo map. using the google maps 2 api, i created an overlay of all the locations where my photos were taken. now you can use the world map to browse by location, and when you select a location, it will show you the photos in that category with a cool zoomed in contextual satellite background image. now you can check out my alaska pictures with an icy breeze blowing through your browser window, or flip through my france pictures while sitting on the riviera coastline. take it for a spin!
recently at work i was given the task of integrating our shopping cart with paypal’s payment api so that customers could pay with their paypal accounts, as well as by bank transfer or credit card (although the latter seems rather pointless since we already have a verisign implementation). having already completed integration of verisign and hsbc credit card payment modules, i was prepared for a testing environment that was shaky at best. what i found was entirely to the contrary… paypal developer central. once you create your developer central account, you have access to the paypal sandbox server, which is essentially a robust, testing mirror of the actual paypal site. i was able to create a handful of various paypal accounts: business, personal, merchant, etc… and i was able to fill them up with fake money, credit cards and bank info. that way when i do my testing, i can test the real paypal payment flow, with all this fake data. it is even smart enough to save all the email messages that would be sent out in a “real” implementation into your developer account email center box. i must say, this is pretty slick. and all that you need to do to go live is change the host that you are posting your data to, and voila, perfect paypal payment paradise! after the other integrations i’ve done, this one was a piece of cake because the test mode actually tests the real stuff! you’d think the other big players would take a hint from paypal on this one… direct payments are where you make money, but how can you know your payment interaction is tight unless you fully test the program flow before you start taking live data?
