It's Been a Hot Minute

 Hey there, it's been a while since I've posted here.  (Honestly, I just forgot it even existed.) So here is a quick update on the happenings.

• I co-founded a transient art gallery that represented artists from all around the world so we could sell their art at conventions across the mid to eastern United States of America.
• Started doing some Field Technical support through WorkMarket and Field Nation.
  
• Stopped the art gallery just before the COVID pandemic and have we not yet considered resuming operations.
• Got hired as a full-time Field Service Technician through Essential Enterprise Solutions and have been servicing clients all across the northern Ohio region.

I've been tinkering with some development projects in my "downtime". Most of which are me seeing issues with the software my company uses and trying to correct them.

Mostly writing in Python, GO, and Svelte with the occasional C# module.

Most of what I'm willing and allowed to share is on my GitHub profile.

That's All I have for you at the moment.

Happy Coding!

The Education Paradigm

We are currently deep within the technological age of computers and information at our fingertips.  It happened so fast the average Joe today takes today's technology for granted.  Sadly though, our education system has faltered and failed to embrace the recent advancements.  Even failing to see what such a shift in available information means to the average student today.

"Google It!"

This is a common phrase today.  If we don't know something, we simple grab our smart phone, press a button, and speak, "Google, who is Paul Revere?".  We are quickly presented with an almost overwhelming amount of options about the subject.  So I ask..  why are the schools so focused on what to learn and not how to learn?  We need artists, individuals that can take different unrelated objects and create something new and that will benefit all of mankind!  We mathematicians with the intuition to see a solution before they have the proof.  This is what our education systems should focus on.  Not mundane memorization of facts that are readily available on every smartphone in the world.

Don't get me wrong, a general background is important to applying context to innovation, but those are stories to inspire not facts and dates.

I would vote for an education reform, but I fear the purpose of the current educational shortcomings is a system of control to ensure the people remain simple, unimaginative.  I refuse to be a sheep. Be gone with the mundane jobs, we have brains and we should use them.  

VBScript Shell

Ever wanted to have a VBScript command line shell? Nothing as fancy as a full windows shell. Just something you could execute from a third party scripting language that can read and write from the standard IO?

If so, give this a gander ^_^

VBSShell.CMD

VBSShell.VBS

Whats that HASH?

Want to update a MsiFileHash value? Use this simple VBScript to get the hash values for a file then you can update the table using a transform.

Dim FilePath, oDlg
If WScript.Arguments.Count = 1 Then
FilePath = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)
Else
With CreateObject("UserAccounts.CommonDialog")
.Filter = "All Files|*.*"
If .ShowOpen = 0 Then
Wscript.Quit -1
Else
FilePath = .FileName
End If
End With
End If

With CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer").FileHash(FilePath,0)
InputBox "File Hash for:" & vbCrLf & FilePath, "msiFileHash Value Generator", .StringData(1) & "," & .StringData(2) & "," & .StringData(3) & "," & .StringData(4)
End With
WScript.Quit 0

IsAdmin?

'## Example
If IsAdmin() Then
MsgBox "User is in the local Administrators Group"
End If

If Not IsAdmin() Then
MsgBox "User is NOT in the local Administrators Group"
End If


'## Helper Functions
Function IsAdmin()' As Boolean
Dim oG,oU
ExecuteGlobal "If IsEmpty(bIsAdmin) Then Dim bIsAdmin"
If IsEmpty(bIsAdmin) Then
bIsAdmin = False
Set oG = GetObject("WinNT://./Administrators")
For Each oU in oG.Members
If oU.Name = WshNetwork.UserName Then
bIsAdmin = true
End If
Next
End If
IsAdmin = bIsAdmin
End Function

Function WshNetwork()' As Wscript.Network
ExecuteGlobal "If IsEmpty(oWshNetwork) Then Dim oWshNetwork"
If Not IsObject(oWshNetwork) Then
Set oWshNetwork = CreateObject("Wscript.Network")
End If
Set WshNetwork = oWshNetwork
End Function

Why bother with the cloud?

My main computer at home is a quad core, water cooled beast.  This thing is able to run the latest computer games while hosting 3 virtual servers with out breaking a sweat.  So why am I so excited about a low powered netbook that is limited to accessing the cloud?   It's simple, it allows me to take my beast with me in a nice neat little package.

By writing cloud server applications I can permit my little netbook to remotely access everything my main system has to offer.  Soon these little miracle applications will be made available to the public.  You can already see the beginning of this with the OnLive and GaiKai gaming services.  If you have stable internet connection with basic broadband you can play the most demanding games on the lowliest of hardware. Soon we will be able to play on our own systems remotely thanks to GameString.

Businesses are already using this technology.  Automotive companies are installing blade workstations with powerful graphic processing to enable engineers to work smoothly in CATIA, a Computer Aided Drafting suite tailored for the industry, from a low powered business laptop.

the truly exciting thing is not that we can work in the cloud, it's that we can make our own private clouds!

Plea to Google:  I hate my job, get me away from the Microsoft centered world and take me into you loving and progressive embrace!  I want my head in the clouds!  I want to work with Chrome OS!

The Bit Myth

Lets do some math...

Announced in 2006, we can push 14 terabits a second through a fiber optic cable.  That is the equivalent of 50 billion people downloading at 60 megabits a second all at the same time! [http://bit.ly/fIY5Wn]

Announced in March this year, we can push 69 terabits a second through a fiber optic cable.  That is the equivalent of 250 billion people downloading at 59 megabits a second all at the same time! [http://bit.ly/gQtoOA]

Still think those bandwidth caps are for our benefit or just price gouging?