BigCat’s Blog of DOOM

• My wife is performing today three times during artfest at Source Ministries. Go see it if you can, cuz she is gonna be AWESOME! #
• Yesterday itunes on my home PC ate my music library on my phone. Work laptop fixed it. This morning, happened again. Stupid iTunes. #
• 94 eastbound is closed again between downtowns. That mean surface streets to the capital and I'm already running late. #
• Tweetdeck has now decided to lock up my phone to the point I have to hard reboot it. Awesome *sigh* just a few more days… #
• http://www.kukunu.com Seems pretty cool for planning a trip. Might use this more for my next one. #
• http://gizmodo.com/5595017/with-firefoxs-tab-candy-feature-well-finally-achieve-tab-nirvana This is totally awesome. TabCandy FTW! #
• My Nexus One shipped via USPS, which makes me sad. USPS is not a good service for packages at all. #
• To summarize: my Nexus One can't get here fast enough, & I've already installed doubletwist in prep for dumping iTunes permanently. #
• (2/2)
  Me: Great! I take back some of those bad things I said.
  iTunes: Mwaha, little do u know I actually deleted your entire music library! #
• (1/2)
  Me: hey iTunes, how about a quick sync?
  iTunes: sure! See, I'm already copying over the latest podcasts. #
• Dr. McNinja is my new online comic obsession. #
• Just scored a Nexus One on AT&T!!! And for not a horrible price either! eBay FTW! #
• I am now a registered android developer. Now if I just had my app finished… #
• Watched "Robot Love" episode of @TheLXD last night – LOVED IT! Really enjoying the show as a vehicle for awesome dancing. #
• I just earned the Wanderer Pin on @gowalla! http://gowal.la/r/UEMh #
• http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/products/new/beer-candy-bottle-opener this would make a good present for me. #
• I think I'm going to start saving money now, so I can buy an unlocked phone every year. Avoid this carrier lock-in mess. #
• Updated to the CVS head of the library for my android app in hopes it will fix an issue I'm seeing. Testing now. *crosses fingers* #

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• Contemplating just trying to ebay for an AT&T nexus one rather than waiting for AT&T to get their sh*t together w/ android phones. #
• Version control is about to seriously enlighten me as to the differences of two libraries. DVCS FTW! #
• The fact that AT&T doesn't allow hobby devs to download their apps to the phone for testing means I might make a switch to another network. #
• Yes, smartphones have weakspots Steve. But putting bags of meat and water in direct contact w/ the metal antenna makes your worse. #
• I love when Steve Jobs tells everyone that their problems are 'blown out of proportion' – reality distortion field FTW if ur a fanboy. #
• Wohoo! My bars are taller making me feel like I have better signal with less of them, which us good cuz I have 2 less all the time. #
• Can't figure this bug out, my connection seems to reset (waits the timeout to move on anyway) and I can't figure out why? Wireshark time. #
• As a die-hard mario kart fan, Mod Nation Racers looks pretty awesome. Kinda wish I had a PS3 to try it on. #
• Ever have an idea for an android app, but not know how to program? Check this out – http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/ #
• Squished quite a few bugs on my Android app this weekend. Might not be too long before I release this sucker. #

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• Man, now I really want football season to start early. This is the problem w/ watching Bears highlight reels in July instead of Sept. #
• OMG! Disc one was the all-time bears D team (ending w/ Butkis at mid linebacker). Disc 2 is devoted to the 85 bears D! So EXCITED! #
• Watching this Bears Defense video makes me really happy to have Urlacher back this season. Should be a lot more fun to watch. #
• I just watched the first 20 mins "Chicago Bears: Tradition of Defense" – Possibly the best football DVD I've ever seen. #
• Doh! Just found out that the concert was canceled. Sad now. #
• Just remembered I'm going to see Simon and Garfunkel on Monday. This made my morning better (also, it is doughnut day, that helped too). #
• Each day I feel like I'm on the cusp of enlightenment. Dangling my feet inches above that tantalizing pool of cool water. Never reaching it. #
• Ron Paul and Barney Frank, together at last – http://is.gd/dhTY0 #
• Slowly but surely functionality returns. I finally started to get my head around this new library and it rocks pretty hard. #
• Debugging, debugging, debugging. Lots of bugs, so many uncaught exceptions, and all to get back to where I was (w/ improvements of course). #
• Yep, failed spectacularly somewhere completely unexpected. Apparently you can't create a list adapter w/o giving it some data. #
• Was gonna mow the lawn (quick clean-up), but the iPhone sync took so long that when I went outside it had just started raining #
• Firing up my re-worked app w/ new library for first time (finally compile-able). Expecting massive crashes, but excited none-the-less. #
• There are countless things in iTunes which should be simple, such as syncing podcasts between 2 computers & iphones. DRM for makes it hard. #
• Why is it every single time I sync my iphone I have to re-tell it to NOT install a bunch of apps I already deleted 50 times. I HATE ITUNES! #
• Just messed around w/ the latest UI enhancements for mythtv. Very nice w/ metadata and cover art – very XBMC-like and nice! #
• Beer, steak, potatoes, and my baby home with me again. Is there a better way to cap off the 4th of July? #
• As is yearly tradition in this Catlin household – by way of the Martinez family – we are watching the musical 1776. #
• Independence FTW! Now if we could just find a suitably analogous form of government 4 every other nation suffering injustice & oppression… #

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• One of the serious upsides to digital media instead of physical discs is that there aren't 'scratches' to make my bluray player skip. #
• This library switch (core part of my app that does the heavy lifting) has been challenging and fun. But I think I'm getting the hang of it. #
• Starting to remember why I cast variables as private, protected or public. Ahh, sweet memories of CS classes. #
• I never thought that between me, Kara, and Bill the greyhound, that the greyhound would be the slowest at running a mile. #
• Anyone doing anything fun this weekend to celebrate the 4th? We're looking for some party to crash. #
• 3.3 miles tonight. The second mile seems to be super killer lately. See if we can improve that next week. #
• http://gizmodo.com/5577316/steve-jobs-to-angry-iphone-4-user-relax-its-just-a-phone Magical my ass – unless he is the wizard of assholery. #
• A request for android phone manufacturers – Some high-end phones where you can take out the SD card w/o removing the battery or cover. #
• http://is.gd/dbrA6 This is actually pretty cool IMO. #
• The more I read on it, the more I believe http is ill-equipped for powering the 'real-time-web,' it wasn't designed with that in mind. #
• Signed up for the Blue Ocean Summit at the Boston Vineyard – guess I'm making it to Boston in Aug come hell or highwater! #
• Goodbye cable TV, hello Hulu! http://www.hulu.com/plus/ #
• Ran 2.2 miles today, and cut a minute off of this route from last week. Cut 30secs off the first mile from my mile time on Saturday. #
• Dear Google-Santa, all I want for Christmas is a Nexus2 with a Tegra2 processor, Super AMOLED 960×640 RGB pixel screen, and front-camera. #
• Dear stupid random websites that I use twice a year,

  If you make me pick a username, let me log in w/ my email address too. #

• Got to use some of my Delta/NWA miles from work trips to cut the cost of Lauren's flight. But bummer, she leaves tomorrow #
• Might be able to piggy-back the boston conference off a work trip. That could be pretty sweet in terms of saving me $$$. #
• Well, that just sucks. Now I am looking for last-minute air-fare to So. Cal. for my wife. #
• Dear Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and LG – You aren't adding much value to android by skinning it anymore. Please stop trying. Love Ben. #

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• Ran 1 mile &, took 30 sec off my last weeks time, built & installed a pullup bar, did 40 pushups, & 1/2 a wall pushup. Feeling accomplished. #
• And, it is LGPL to boot, which means I could close-source my project if I wanted, not sure if my personal ethos will allow that though. #
• Just found a modbus library that looks superior to jamodbus for my purposes – may be re-working my android project for that. #
• http://is.gd/d3GaY Turns out it is a bad idea 2 put antennas near electrically conductive skin, & 2 make their cases out of glass. Who knew! #
• Got Eclipse 3.6 add-on installation fixed. So far, other than that, seems like a decent upgrade. Sure I'll discover more goodies as I go. #
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18637995 This was too crazy/funny/interesting to not post – sorry if it offends you. #
• 3.1 slow miles today. But at least it was nice to have a working runkeeper back to track exactly how slow. #
• So I can't get Eclipse Helios to install add-ons or updates… Freaking awesome #
• Installing the Android SDK on Eclipse 3.6 Helios. Let's see what a year of development gives me! #
• The Droid X looks pretty cool – might compel me towards Verizon and away from AT&T if they come out w/ a Verizon iPhone for my wife. #
• After reading some reviews on the iPhone 4, I still want an android phone – I just want it inside the iphone hardware. #
• I'm afraid my trusty old Athlon XP1800 desktop turned server might be on the way out – seems to be randomly crashing as the days heat up. #
• Google Voice is a great service that gives you free txts (forwarded to your email if you wish) & voicemail transcription. google.com/voice #
• Loving Samsungs new Super AMOLED technology – but hating the pentile pixels. Come one Taiwan/South Korea, real RGB 960×640 OLED pixels pls! #
• 2 slow miles this morning, want to die now. Maybe I'll eat some food and do pushups instead though. #
• Damn pipe wrenches are showing my galvanized pipe no love – in terms of building my pull-up bar anyway. #
• Dear Train companies, if you want me to use your service, you have to be cheaper than flying. Cuz you take longer. #
• http://is.gd/cXy5f Medicine should be treated more like engineering? I like this approach. #

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• I just realized that I'm the last member of the braincell who doesn't have a masters degree. This makes me feel even dumber than normal. #
• Glad to have a break from VLI for a couple weeks. Need to recharge the sleep deficit and get some more running in. #
• WordPress vs. Drupal = Mac vs. Linux… First thought in playing with the new tools. Sometimes a narrow focus is good IMO. #
• Wow! Not a single one of my plugins broke during the upgrade, and my theme seems completely intact – that is a first for a major upgrade. #
• I have to say, the menu generator is HOT! My current debate is when I release my android app, do I power the support site w/ WP or Drupal? #
• Hello wordpress 3.0 – nice to meet you. You look a little fancier than your older brother. Please don't break my website. #
• AT&T apparently doesn't allow 3rd party apps on android phones – yet another reason I'm open to switching after being a customer for 10 yrs. #
• http://is.gd/cSXA7 This has the potential to be my next phone. Could I get it w/ micro HDMI, a front facing camera & stock android 2.2 plz? #
• Yep, that test was painful. Hopefully I get most the written parts right, cuz I bombed the multiple-choice. #
• The VLI server is apparently in the process of having a mini melt-down. Multiple minutes between saves/submissions. #
• My brain wants to be doing anything besides studying right now. Focus stupid brain! FOCUS! Must. Finish. Tonight… #
• This is definitely going to be the more difficult of the two tests… *sigh* #
• iOS4 – Pretty much guranteed that it drains batteries on the 3G wicked fast. I've run out of charge by 5 today, doing normal stuff. #
• Google's Grandma-friendly explanation of Google TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS0la9SmqWA #
• I'm not sure about this iOS4 on the iphone 3G thing – I feel like I can watch my battery drain even w/o multi-tasking available. #
• Sometimes 'socialist' policies spur innovation too – http://gizmodo.com/5564559/wireless-oligopoly-is-smother-of-invention #
• Got my apps back, it took a little messing around – next step, get the movies back by sharing library between guest and host. #
• Could I just get iPhone4 hardware, only designed for running android software (maybe with a better front camera)? Is that too much to ask? #
• Sweet, rocked the iOS4 onto the iphone, now I just have to figure out why all my apps didn't come back. #
• Rocking Virtualbox OSX. For a while there I thought I had bricked my iPhone, but it seems to be updating to iOS4 now. *crosses fingers* #
• One VLI final done, and sleep slightly caught up on. Next stop, virtualizing OSX, followed by leadership project report. (and maybe work) #
• iTunes lack of the ability to watch a folder for changes still astounds me. Does any other popular media player lack this feature? #
• In other news, probably my all-time favorite *nix util: screen. Helps me keep an eye on the long-term bittorrent console apps. 2.5Gigs left. #
• While procrastinating on studying I just made a super-fun commit message for my hobby project – "Pretty much works." #
• Soccer ignorant #worldcup question: What the hell is that annoying bee buzzing sound in the background all the time? #

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• Ran a little faster today than last time, and a little farther too – that makes me happy. Think I have a good routine working here. #
• Thinking about trying a hackintosh inside virtualbox 2 quench my iOS4 thirst. Anyone have a OSX10.6 install/upgrade disc they could loan me? #
• Anyone want to install itunes 9.2 beta on their mac for me – I have an itch to try out iOS4 early. Mostly just feeling impatient #
• Anyone from the Boston area got the hook-ups for/knowledge of a cheap place to stay for the Blue Ocean Summit first week of Aug? #
• Used Requiem 1.9.4 to bust some movies out of iTunes 9.1. Super-nice for that sweet day when I switch to android. #
• http://is.gd/cKCF3 Been waiting for a Nvidia Tegra2-based android phone. Must resist urge to buy new phone sooner! #
• BEST. VLI. LECTURE. EVAR. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. Totally awesome this week, ask nice & maybe I'll let you listen to a copy of it. #
• Biggest surprise of WWDC keynote: No wifi sync/streaming for media. Wonder if something w/ Lala purchase get's its own press event later. #
• A positive one from me on the iPhone4: I'm excited to see the 960×640 screen resolution popularized. That is gonna be great for everyone. #
• Oh, sorry, 'facetime' is going to be an open standard – but I guess jingle, googles open standard for the same thing, wasn't good enough. #
• Steve acts like there isn't a giant skype/google video chat install base for video conferencing – like this is something new apple invented. #
• iBooks = yawn! It ain't new if the kindle and nook already do it – got the kindle app on my iphone, don't see how this is better. #
• Steve Jobs just told everyone covering the WWDC 2 put their laptops away cuz the wifi is interfering w/ their demos. Lame Apple, super lame. #
• iPhone 4 – backlit cmos sensor is sexy stuff – just started seeing those in point-and-shoot cameras. #
• iPhone 4 = Wii-mote? Nice battery life on this thing, otherwise I have yet to be impressed. #
• ESPN did a very interesting piece on Human Trafficking in South Africa, and how they are cracking down for the world cup. http://is.gd/cFY5Y #
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs = one of the funnier movies I've seen in a while. Surprise hit in the Catlin house for sure. #

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• The Fold was a great time – big thanks to everyone who participated! Next up – teaching prayer class, and mentoring. Busy weekend. #
• Just bought the Matisyahu album Light for $5 off of Amazon mp3 monthly deal – lots of great deals right now. http://tinyurl.com/34jfwhu #
• Just found out that version 3.83 of Panelbuilder32 has Vista/Windows7 support. This made my otherwise hectic day much better. #
• I think mobile bandwidth should cost about as much as hard drive space – that would be fair pricing. (right now that is 1$/15GB) #
• http://is.gd/czVON and http://is.gd/czW27 FINALLY! I've been complaining about this for YEARS! #
• I wasn't mad about the AT&T data thing until I thought more about the cost/byte and the tethering BS, contemplating a Tmobile/Sprint switch. #
• http://is.gd/czVey "AT&T is charging you an additional $20/month based purely on how you use your data. This is bullshit, plain and simple." #
• Dear AT&T, If you charge me per byte of data, you can't charge more for tethering. That is a feature of the phone, not the network. #
• I feel like a lot of times Sarah Palin just completely misses the point of certain larger issues. Like, say, green energy vs. oil. #
• http://teleluddite.blogspot.com/ My geek friend, who is a software developer, is getting his first-ever cell phone this Friday, the HTC EVO. #
• Cookout at my place for anyone who wants to come – 5pm grill starts, bring a side or drink to share. Kids and pets welcome. #
• If you haven't watched the Matrix in a long time, I suggest you give it a go again. A few years is like cleansing the pallet of the sequels. #

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• Got the Ultimate Matrix set on bluray for christmas – watching the first movie now for first time in 3 or 4 yrs – AWESOME on 1080p! #
• http://is.gd/cttOe vs. http://is.gd/ctugI – I think I came up with this idea before the writer from engadget – that makes me a supernerd! #
• The lack of a decent android phone on AT&T has me contemplating a carrier switch – suggestions? #
• Apparently I'm a "Monied Yuppie Hipster" Christian, cuz I like booze & shirts not made in sweatshops (not $300 ones tho) http://is.gd/cqtGW #
• New release of Google Chrome browser 2day. It is wicked-fast @ loading heavy webpages/webapps like wave or gmail. http://is.gd/cp2QK #
• Come home early to give the dog more water. Gonna have to leave her inside w/ the AC cuz it is crazy hot out. #
• Small group lesson prepped. Hope Jesus breaks through our opinions tonight, and that I don't screw anything up. #

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• The thing that I'm excited about for Google TV is the idea of a standardized TV operating system, next we'll need the same thing for cars. #
• All this talk about ejabberd's WaveOne wave server module has me interested in trying this thing out, wondering when we are going to see it? #
• http://is.gd/chVbD In case my Android/Google madness drowned it out, this other thing, is a MUCH bigger deal. #
• So I don't forget, and have to do it later, updating android SDK tools to latest API revision. #
• A person I didn't know personally, but that Lauren and I had prayed for, passed away today. Really sad about that. #
• Dish Network – nice, Sony and Logitech aren't bad either. Now I just need mythTV backend support for the DVR side of it. #
• HOLY CRAP! Auto-translation of closed captions! That is FREAKING AWESOME! #
• Android apps on the TV, that is pretty hot. So we have huge screens, and tiny screens – could we split the difference and have a tablet plz? #
• They need to let me do all this exact same stuff with my Car – my phone could be the brain for my car and that would make me pretty happy. #
• Voice search for TV program searching – that is actually pretty hot. #
• GoogleTV makes Boxee cry Cuz it is basically doing the EXACT SAME THING! #
• OTA music syncing – awwww SNAP Apple! Left too many obvious holes in your iTunes/iPhone/iPad ecosystem. #
• ANDROID 2.2 = ME WANT! Need good At&T hardware (comparable to iphone 4G or HTC EVO). Money burning hole in pocket. #
• Automatic app updating – are you watching this apple, this should have been in iPhone OS 2.0 or at least 3.0. #
• As usual I miss questions that I think I have no business missing on the VLI exam. Someone in Columbus should learn to write a decent tests. #
• For you new wave-ers that are starting to check it out today – http://www.youtube.com/googlewave and http://www.completewaveguide.com #
• Dear Google, #wave is still a horrible mobile experience – until that changes I can't replace email with it. #
• Enabling wave.bencatlin.com as I write this – and it appears federation is turned on – that means waving ppl outside of googlewave.com! #
• SAP + Wave = OMG my work could suck WAY less on a daily basis (I hate SAP if you were wondering) #
• WebM = VP8 for video and vorbis for audio http://www.webmproject.org – This means vorbis will gain more support in hardware devices! #
• if you have a gmail/google account, and haven't played with Wave yet, head over to wave.google.com and check it out. #
• Wave is all the way open now!!!!! wave.google.com – sign up now! #
• Google just open-sourced VP8 for video codecs – now all we need is device support for a truely open video web experience! #
• Really looking forward to the Wave and Android updates coming today and tomorrow at #io2010 Hoping for VOIP improvements in both. #
• Third nerdy thought: Should have put sudo in front of both of those commands. Sudo make me a sandwich http://xkcd.com/149/ #
• My nerdy first two thoughts 1) That's easy: rm -rf Jesus 2) Or better yet: find / | grep Jesus | rm -rf #
• Lauren: "Oh, 'leading people to Jesus', for a second I thought you said 'deleting people's Jesus.'" #
• I'm probably as excited for GoogleIO #io2010 as I am for most Apple events. Looking forward to android 2.2 and Wave updates. #

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• Good explanation of one of my favorite tech acronyms (XMPP) by the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10113975.stm #
• Contemplating switching from ejabberd to openfire just to try out @onesocialweb on my home XMPP server. #
• Freaking Hilarious! "Contemporvent" http://vimeo.com/11501569 #
• Anyone in the Chicago area who is a programmer looking for work. C#, Java, SQL type stuff. I have a friend looking for referrals. #
• Had a great party. Thanks to everyone who came to help me celebrate! #

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• Didn't make it into Iron Man yesterday because the 10:40, and 11:20 shows were sold out – crazy! #
• Thanks for all the kid B-day wishes everyone. It was a great day! Now I'm looking forward to spending time w/ friends this weekend. #
• On Jun 15th, 2016, Google obtained sentience and renamed itself skynet. The rest is, as James Cameron recorded it, history. #
• My birthday just went from Awesome! to Way Super AWESOMER with one phone call from a vendor. #
• http://is.gd/bUh9h White Flag Warriors at the Border: Recognizing Humanity on All Sides of the Immigration Debate – Johnny 5 of the Flobots. #
• Holy crap is the day getting away from me. Learning jquery and associated plugins is both more fun and time-consuming than anticipated. #

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• Digging new Ubuntu 10.04, especially the new version of Empathy and addition of Gwibber. Also loving the new default theme. #
• To whoever stole my sub sandwich, I love you because Jesus says to, but I'm pretty sure he said he is starting to hate you. #
• Someone stole my sandwich from the fridge at work. I was going to eat that for lunch tomorrow – NOT COOL PEOPLE! #
• FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Why does this embedded webserver keep returning this xml doc as a mime type of text/html – stupid PLC. #
• Gonna eat lunch, and then get jQuery to load XML files in IE for me, & maybe even apply XSLTs. All those acronyms are just for you Lony #
• There are no words for days like today, there is only scotch. #
• It is fun to log into the VLI website and see 'who's online' and notice that I casually know everyone it lists. #
• Ubuntu finally got released today after a last-minute re-spin for a critical bug fix. http://www.ubuntu.com (fixed URL from first tweet) #
• It isn't that Balum is a good guy, but I feel like he gets more shit than he earned. Especially in the later part of the new testament. #
• I'm not afraid to admit that when an Indigo Girls song comes on the radio, I get a little more excited than is male appropriate. #
• HP just bought Palm. That is kinda a big deal! Hope that pans out well for us seeing new webOS-based devices like the Pre and Pixi. #
• Bears finally got rid of Kevin Payne. I was constantly afraid that guy was gonna kill a teammate the way he tackled. Not gonna miss him. #
• Tomorrow is new Ubuntu day – ladies and gentlemen, start your torrent clients, and warm up your CD burners, cuz it is upgrade time. #
• Really unhappy with this Arizona immigration law, from both a libertarian and a Christian viewpoint. #
• PLC programming is so limited sometimes. It feels like trying to use a hammer to kill a fly. #

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