Yeah, that time has finally come! Two years later I'm finally leaving! I'll cut right to it, I leave for the MTC on Nov 18th, 2009. I'll be in there for three weeks, then I'll head into the Salt Lake City South mission for the remaining 23 months and 1 week. I might be able to post more to my blog while I'm in the field via e-mail, but if not, there probably won't be any updates for the next two years.

I'm super excited! See you guys in two years!

Hello, dear faithful blog readers!


Yep, I'm in San Diego right now. Neal and I (one of my coworkers) are in San Diego for a training conference on internet marketing and real estate investing.


The seminars have been good but super intensive! That could just be mingled with my own tiredness from being on the go for the last few days.


So we flew out of Raleigh at 6am on Saturday morning. Which means I was up by 4:30am that same morning. that totals my sleep for Friday night/Saturday morning at around 3-4 hours. We arrived in San Diego exhausted but alert and jumped straight into seminars.


Anyway, we're staying in the hard rock hotel here in San Diego which is right on the edge of the Gaslamp district. The Gaslamp is the historic-scenic strip of sorts which is pretty fun to just browse. Last night while walking around, Neal and I saw this procession of about 20 early 90s cars with midget tires and 3 ft hydraulic jacks on the front and rear axles. They were 'pimped' out with neon lights and they bounced on their hydraulic jacks. It was one of those I'm not in NC moments. 


My second funny story just happened. They were serving refreshments, and I grabbed three bottles of this VOSS water, which looked really expensive. I was just trying to save on my own bottled water costs. I cracked the lid, took a sip, and almost gagged. It was sparkling water. Yes, that is correct. Somebody decided to take water, put carbon dioxide in it, and sell it for more than regular water. This stuff retails for between $2-$4 a bottle. I mean seriously, who the heck are these people? Who found out they could carbonate plain water and make that a product. I didn't have to pay for the water bottles I took—thank goodness. Now I've cracked the lids on all three, hoping my water will go flat so I can drink it. Well, seminars are resuming once more, so I better get back to it. Pictures to come soon from San Diego!

If you've read my blog, you know I love technology. I keep pretty up to date on the latest software, betas, and experimental stuff out there today. I used to be a regular computer prankster here in the office where I work.

Recently, Cory, my brother-in-law and one of my co-workers, jokingly accused me of changing his XP profile picture to a duck. This happened several times and Cory suspected both me and my brother Ethan. One night, when the whole family was together after supper we started talking about this mysteriously changing profile picture. Cory was convinced that me or Ethan was responsible for the change.

Soon, we started asking Kristen's kids. Elise, the oldest said she hadn't and Ian said the same. Then we got to Merry Grace, who is 3 years old said that she has changed her daddy's picture to a duck. We were all incredulous, I mean, she is THREE YEARS OLD. So to test this out I asked her sweetly:


Me: "Merry Grace, could you help me change my computer picture?"


MG: "Sure, Uncle Adam"

Still incredulous, I took her over to my computer while we all crowded around the screen. Merry Grace clicked the start button, clicks on my profile picture, scrolls down to her favorite (the duck), picks it, hits apply, exits the screen, clicks start again to show my new picture (now a duck) and says:


MG: "That's how you change it Uncle Adam. I like the duck, its my favorite."

We stared in disbelief. I know that kids are getting more and more technologically comfortable from a young age, but never in a million years would I have suspected that the culprit to Cory's changing profile picture prank was the work of a three year old little girl.

One other quick little computer story. The other day Elise, (8 years old), was in the kitchen.

"Mommy," she asked "can we use Google Chrome on Netflix?" At the time, Netflix didn't support Chrome, but it now does. Kristen told Elise no, and Elise said:

"That's lame. Google Chrome is my favorite browser. I hate using Internet Explorer because it is so slow, and Firefox takes forever to load up."

It was a moment of pride for me. My 8 year old niece is already using and prefers Google Chrome to the other browsers. Logan's computer app teacher didn't even know what he was talking about when he told her that he used Google Chrome. Kids these days...

Here I am again, two years later, preparing to serve a mission. In case you haven't heard the news already, I got word this past Sunday all my mission-related paperwork is in Salt Lake, so a decision should be on its way.

Although my story may not be unique, it certainly isn't typical either. A little under two years ago, I got my mission call to serve in the Salt Lake City South mission. I entered the MTC but returned home shortly thereafter. I'll admit that this experience brings with it some embarrassment and shame. I remember thinking at the time that two years was this incredible, impossible sacrifice. I was determined, or at least not very willing, to serve.

Then about a year ago, I remember driving home from work and feeling this intense, burning prompting that I needed to serve a mission. The feeling was very unexpected. But from then on out things began to change. With the help of family, priesthood leaders, and a supportive best friend, I progressed and prepared to serve. This time, real desire filled me. I wanted to serve a mission. 


I believe that ultimately, the direction we are moving in life is far more important than where we started or where we may end up. Moving forward is progress and anything else is distraction.

I'm grateful for the experiences that have helped to shape me into who I am today. I grateful too, for those that have supported and helped me get to this point—on the cusp of serving the Lord for two years. As my best friend and I frequently say, things will work out. If we are doing what's right, then things will work out.

I'm preparing now to make the same two year sacrifice I almost made two years ago. Although the sacrifice is the same, it doesn't seem impossible. In fact, the future has never looked so bright and felt so full of promise for the next two years and beyond.

Well, there is a new blog template. I figure it was about time for something new.

Over the weekend there was one little humorous incident. We have a small poodle mix, technically called a peekapoo. Probably the manliest breed name ever, right behind labradoodle and yorkiepoo. Yikes.

Anyway, his name is Chip and at nights he will tireless chase this little stuffed monkey toy he has. Dad came back from Georgia and we all wanted to watch a show together. Every 30 seconds, Chip would whine, wanting somebody to throw his chew toy so he could chase it and bring it back. Dad, who usually sits in the chair closest to Chip's loot stash area thing. Dad, growing tired of the game, would reach down and grab the monkey without looking, and toss it casually behind him.

Well, inevitably, Dad reached down for the toy, only to grab Chip by the throat and attempt to throw him down the hall! He didn't hurt him, but it was kinda funny because we all happened to be watching at the exact moment Dad reached down and grabbed Chip. After a few seconds Dad said "Whoops, I thought I had his monkey chew toy!"

All is well though. Plus, quick status update on my mission. Last I heard, my information should be in Salt Lake, so now its a waiting game to find out what Salt Lake reports back. Of course I'll post an update when I hear something more definitive. Good night!

Google Chrome is pretty awesome. Their theme support is already pretty ground breaking.

So go to the Google Chrome themes page and check out their themes. After you've tried a few, you will wonder why you would ever want to download themes with Firefox ever again.

As a sidenote, make sure you are running a dev or beta version of chrome. I use the dev version and its safe to use. I promise. But if all the warnings about stability scare you, no one will call you coward for sticking with the beta (or stable) versions.

Check out the themes and install a few. No browser restarts are required and all the themes have a professional quality to them. Enjoy!

Short post today, but Google is officially entering the arena as a major contender to Microsoft on all fronts.

Microsoft has been trying to steal Google's search dominance with bing, the latest iteration of search from Microsoft. Now Google has announced that they will be designing and releasing their own Operating System (OS). What is an OS? Well, Windows XP and Windows Vista are both OSes from Microsoft. Microsoft currently dominates about 85% of the OS market. The remaining 15% is divided between Apple and Linux.

So, just like Microsoft is in Google's arena with Bing and internet search, Google is now in Microsoft's Arena with its new OS.

You can read the full article on the Google Blog here.

I'm paraphrasing, but the goal of the new Google OS is to make the fastest OS possible, that starts instantly, and is designed to be used on the web/around the web. The post also mentions redesigning security so that with the Google OS, antivirus software will no longer be needed. This announcement might even ruffle Symantec's (Father of Norton Antivirus products) feathers!

Well, there is now a news ticker at the top of the page, courtesy of Google News. Obviously, since this is my blog, it features cool stuff from the Science and Technology corners of the world.

Also, an embedded Grooveshark playlist app is coming into existence, and will be placed on my sidebar, probably near the top. It will likely feature a rotating playlist of songs I enjoy listening to at the moment.

To get the Grooveshark embedded playlist add-on, you will need to create a Grooveshark account, then create a playlist of your favorite music (double check the songs, as occasionally you may find multiple versions of the same song), and then click on the "i" button next to your new playlist. From there you should see the "Embed Playlist" button. That will take you to an in depth embedded player creation, where you can customize the size, colors, and more of your special Grooveshark embedded player app. After all that is over with, you will get the code which you can then paste into your Blog's sidebar.

And if you want some cool background, then hopefully you can find something with a Google Search for Blogger templates

Just a quick post today. But Google Voice is officially entering beta. Which means if you signed up for GrandCentral back in the day, then you should keep your eyes peeled for an invite. And you can try signing up again on the Google Voice site.

For more information about what Google Voice is, how it works, etc, check out the official post on the Google Blog.

Today I'm gonna make a quick post full of fun things you can do with your Google Chrome browser.

If you are using FireFox or Internet Explorer, these experiments probably won't run right. Why you ask? Chrome has a special and powerful JavaScript engine that makes it able to do cool things like in the links below.

If you have the latest FireFox beta (3.5), then you may be able to run some of these experiments, but they probably still won't look exactly right. The Chrome Experiments page has more links, but here are a few of my favorites, plus descriptions.

Bomomo - This is a cool randomizing drawing program. You can make tons of cool shapes and patterns. Select randomizing tools from the bottom of the page and hold down the mouse to draw. Play with the line and polygon tools located along the bottom of the tool bar on this page.

Fireworks - Spells out a message, (customized by the box at the top of the screen). Shoots line fireworks all over the screen.

Solitaire - Takes a little bit to load, but it an extensive solitaire game that runs entirely on the web. (Better than XP's default solitaire, I think).

Google Sphere Image Search - An awesome way to use Google Image Search. It may take a sec to load, but once it does, the page will rotate around the image search box. Perform a search and watch the images fly into orbit around the box. Do another search and the old images fly away replaced with the new results, all in a perfect, mouse-controlled orbit, around the search box. Very cool!

Depth of Field - A fun little way to watch a very well done 3-d depth of field demonstration. Camera x-y axis controlled with the mouse.

The coolest part of these experiments is that they are done with JavaScript and not Flash or Silverlight. What does that mean?

Its like somebody who can build a really nice car (Ferrari) with two screwdrivers. If he can build a Ferrari with that little, then imagine what all he can do with power tools. That's why Chrome is so cool, because it can do all the neat stuff in the above experiments with two screwdrivers, where other browsers need power tools.

I like betas. Well, I like have cutting edge technology, and the latest features. That's why I use Gmail Labs, bleeding-edge Google Chrome (Dev Version), Google Labs, (including my personal favorites, Google Squared and Google Trends), and Google Search Experiments. In addition to all the Google betas, I have the Firefox beta, and the beta of anything else I can get my hands on.

But the point of this post is Skype. Most of my family/friends use Skype, and some portion of them read this blog. So if you haven't already, make sure you go download the Skype Beta. It's definitely worth it.

Just a couple of the cooler features include screen sharing (so no more demanding that you go to Tools -> options -> sound settings -> microphones and webcams -> advanced options -> manual configuration -> reset all). Plus its easier to share contacts, more stable (i.e. less crashes), and its just cool the LATEST VERSION.

If you didn't read any of the post, then use this link to download the Skype Beta. Talk to ya Sunday @ 7!

Well, Google's I/O conference is happening, so expect lots of big Google announcements over the next several days.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm all about browsers these days. Google has made available a set of JavaScript benchmarks that can be run on any browser to see how fast that browser is. Well, Firefox fanboys clamor around the newest beta release, claiming its the Ferrari of Internet Browsers, whereas Microsoft's PR people tout benchmarks are useless and IE8 is actually the fastest. Anyway, I ran these benchmarks on all of the above browsers 5 times each to see what kind of results I got. Click the link below to see the full spreadsheet with all the data. Or just enjoy the chart below. Higher numbers means faster performance.

The Google Docs Spreadsheet

My commentary is on an article published by the BBC over North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests. The article, if you haven't already read it, is located here.

"Her comments come a day after the UN unanimously condemned North Korea for conducting an underground nuclear test."

Well how a bout that? If the UN unanimously condemns N. Korea's actions, that should totally stop them from launching any more missiles or conducting any more nuclear tests.

"'North Korea needs to understand that its actions have consequences,' she said."

"Diplomats said they were seeking 'tough measures', including further sanctions."

So I gotta give props to Microsoft. I still think Google Chrome is a better browser than IE8, but not every company can be the best and everything.


So recently I got my Xbox 360 repaired. I did the request online and had to pay a fee since my Xbox 360 was out from under its Microsoft-extended 3 year warranty. I wrote a note along with the repair order expressing my displeasure in having to pay a repair fee. But I figured since I had done the order online, that there was little chance I'd get my money back.


Anyway, the Xbox got repaired in record time, and it came back with a one year warranty (instead of the typical 90 day warranty). I was checking my account and discovered that they had indeed refunded my money from the repair to me!


So in a situation where no one (besides myself of course) would ever know if no refund were issued, Microsoft took one for the team and repaired my out-of-warranty Xbox, gave me a long warranty, and refunded my money. (Plus a one month free trial of Xbox LIVE). Other issues aside, Microsoft's repair system is unmatched.

Have you ever had a window open as kind of a popup? And it really should have been a new tab? Well, in browsers like Firefox and IE, you don't have a choice but to use the annoying popup window as-is.

But in Chrome, when you get a popup that ought to be a new tab, you can set the situation right. Click on the Chrome icon in the top left corner of the new window and then select "Show as Tab." BOOM! You did it. Now you can drag the tab into your tab bar at the top, or leave it as a new window.

And in case you didn't know, any tab can be 'drug' into a new window, and windows can be drug, by their tab, into the tab bar. Enjoy!

Quick post today. So do you like Google's betas? I sure do. Well, if you want to use the Google Chrome beta, you have to download the Google Chrome Channel Changer. Basically, at anytime, you can use it to switch between the stable (for the end user who doesn't know what IE stands for), the beta (for users who like new software), and the dev (bleeding edge, when you HAVE TO HAVE the latest, even if its a little buggy) channels.

Download the channel changer here and start getting the latest from Google Chrome. Plus, the new Dev version (and possibly the beta version), have some cool new features, and slightly updated UI (User Interface)

********************************* (Updated 5/15/2009 @ 10:03am)
Using the above download link will download and .exe file. And yes, running that .exe is what you need to do in order to get/use the Chrome beta. You can save this .exe and switch between the stable Chrome, the beta of Chrome, and the dev version of Chrome. Cool, huh?
*********************************

Well, before I get started, I need to fill you in with a little bit of how the innards of IE8 and Google Chrome work.

Both use a multi-process structure. What does that mean? Each program on your computer (iTunes, Your browser, etc) use a process. A process is basically a house. Each house has its own lot, with a default amount of acreage, which you can add to if you want. And each house/process has a certain number of people living there. And the acreage is the memory that the program can use or has access to.
 So here is how firefox works:

Firefox runs in one process. So that is one house, with a default acreage (or memory). Every time you open a new tab, you still have just one house with one more resident. Maybe you add some land. Let's say you have 10 people living in that one house, or 10 tabs open in firefox. Sure you have more land, but eventually there is gonna be a conflict over who owns what and how much land each of them should have between them. This is known as a browser crash. And when all the tabs/residents are under one roof, when one blows up, it hurts everybody and crashes all your tabs. So running all the tabs in one process can be bad, especially if one of them crashes.

So Chrome and IE8 use a multi process approach. Each tab has its own house with its own land. So whenever a house/tab has a conflict, its pretty isolated and the other tabs are unaffected.

That is the theory. Chrome does this perfectly. My tabs rarely crash, but when they do, all my other tabs stay open and the browser putters along as if nothing happened. Well, IE8 needs to take a few lessons from Chrome.

A tab crashed in IE8, and I had three tabs total open. I tried to close the tab. No luck. I finished my business in the other tabs, and tried to close the browser. It 'hung' trying to close the problem tab. So then I go to the task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del), and find the iexplorer.exe process. There are a couple of them, because, as I said earlier, this is a multi-process browser, so each tab gets its own process. Well, I do what I always do when a problem has a major meltdown. I kill the process. Thankfully, IE8 is soooo advanced, it knows when a tab is having a problem, so it reopens the process. So basically, I'm in the task manager, just trying to close the processes faster than IE8 can reopen them. Finally I close both processes, and manage to close the process before IE8 can fully reopen them, and finally close out my browser.

Stupid IE8. Chrome has a built in task manager just for Chrome (Right click on your chrome window and select 'Task Manager'). It allows you to see which tabs are doing what, how much bandwidth and processing power they are using. If a tab becomes completely unresponsive, you can easily find which tab and close it. With IE8, you have to use the windows task manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) which offers ZERO assistance as to which process is related to which tab (each process and tab is named iexplorer.exe) Once again, I say BRILLIANT microsoft.

Sure IE8 is loads better than IE7 and lightyears beyond IE6. But in terms of speed and reliability, Chrome has got IE whooped! And a new study just came out that shows that 97% of Chrome users have the most recent (and most secure) version of Chrome, thanks to their super-silent update. Whereas Firefox is 84% and the other browsers are 15%-30% below firefox. So you tell me which browser is best.

And you don't understand. I DEPEND on my computer to deliver accurate time to me, within 20 seconds of UTC.

As the title says, my computer was loosing time, and would be off by as much as an hour or two. Completely unacceptable.

So what do I do? Let me tell you. A couple of registry edits, and task schedulers later, my computer should by syncing so often that it'll never lose a second again.

Normally, your windows PC (I'm assuming your running XP or later) syncs time with an internet server once a week. Apparently for me, this wasn't often enough. So first, how do we tell windows how frequently to schedule a time sync? The registry of course. If you don't know what the registry is and still want to make windows sync time more frequently, just follow these following steps exactly.
Registry Edit for increasing (or decreasing) the frequency with which windows syncs time:

• Click Start
• Click on "Run"
• type "regedit"  (without quotes) and hit enter
• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\TimeProviders\NtpClient
• Double click on "SpecialPollInterval" (if that doesn't exist, go to "Edit -> New -> DWORDS" and create a DWORD called SpecialPollInterval
• Click on the radio button "Decimal" and enter a value
• That is the frequency with which windows will sync time with an internet time server (in seconds). So if you enter a value of 1440 would be .4 hours and 14400 would be 4 hours. 

Word on the street is that the DOJ is increasingly anti-google. Here we appear to have the first official clash between the two.

You can read the full article here.

If you want my opinion on whether Google is actually guilty of anti-trust whateverness, my opinion is no. Microsoft, when it got hit with its anti trust lawsuit back in the 90s, was guilty. Why? They controlled the computer OS market, with 90% of machines running Windows. So they put software on their that users couldn't choose. So when you got a computer, you had to use Internet Explorer. Because that was all that was installed on the computer.

The inefficiency of IE6 and IE7 are direct results of the lack of competition back in the 90s for IE 5, IE 5.5 and IE6.

So why is Google not guilty? Because there is a huge difference between being forced to use IE, and choosing to use IE because its vastly superior to all competing products (its not, but for the sake of the analogy I said it).

Its the same with Google. Sure I could search with Yahoo. Or Ask.com. Or Microsoft's search (what is it, live something?). But each time I choose to use Google because its the superior search engine. Its faster, its more reliable. It delivers more accurate results, with the information I need usually in the top three results.

So thats why I think Google isn't guilty of anti-trust. Aside from that, Google has been very consistent in making sure that all their products are easy to start using and easy to leave. Gmail, for example, allows contacts to be exported/imported (a feature lacking in competitors like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail), e-mail forwarding, POP access, and other features which are lacking in the free versions of many of Gmail's competitors.

If only the new Obama-DOJ saw things my way.

Yeah its pretty friggin cool. Check out the first little bit of the video here.

Or just watch the embedded version beneath this post.


3D Computer Interface from Free Flow on Vimeo.

Ok, so that was an exaggeration. But seriously. If you have GrandCentral already, then log into you account and upgrade it to Google Voice.

The features are amazing. It may actually replace my cell phone!

Have you been wondering why, of all the Google products labeled "Labs" and "Beta," why Google Chrome doesn't have a beta? Well, they do. They use a channel changer to switch between three "branches" of Google Chrome's development.

Well, this post may be a little out of the ordinary, but I'm trying to figure out which antivirus/security suite is the absolute best.

I have used AVG free, AVG security whatever, and currently BitDefender. I've looked at some reviews online, and some of the top names appear to be Kapersky, Norton (Specifically 2009), BitDefender, and another one that I forgot.

So far, from my own personal experience, BitDefender appears to be superior to AVG. I really like the control that BitDefender gives me. I can even control which websites are allowed to write/read cookies, store scripts on my computer, etc. Plus their antivirus appears to be top-notch.

However, I have only tried these two antiviruses. What do you guys think is best? Any good reviews or tech tips from tech-y friends? Let me know in the comments.

For many years, iPod Touch owners have felt envious and jealous of iPhone owners. Why? Well, a lot of Apps, features, etc, only work on the iPod Touch. Plus the iPhone can make calls and text.

Well no longer. With a $25 add-on, I turned my iPod Touch into an iPhone (almost). I already have a skype account, with accompanying skype number and skype plan (8.95/3mo + $30/yr). Well, iTunes App store has a free skype app download. The $25 microphone (an iVoiceIII) allows me to use the skype app, and effectively turns my iPod Touch into a phone.

And let me say, the Skype app is top notch. An excellent interface, quick load times, and not buggy, like many apps are.

So with a little tech savyness, an iPod Touch, and the Skype app, you can use your iPod Touch like an iPhone. Even better, trip out your friends when you start making calls on your iPod Touch. The iVoiceIII (from Macally) is pictured below.

Quick post for today.

If you haven't been keeping up with the browser wars, now might be a good time to start paying attention. The biggest contenders right now are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome (and Opera, recently upstaged by Chrome).

****Browser War Recap*****

Internet Explorer was released on all Windows OS platforms, and was able to get their browser usage high enough (around 98%) to run Netscape into the ground. Netscape is no longer a supported browsing platform. Webpages were built just for IE6 and web development reached a standstill.

Then Firefox was introduced, and now commands 22% market share. Microsoft responded, by releasing IE7, nearly 5 years after releasing IE6. IE7 failed to deliver, and firefox continued to gain market share. Two years after the release of IE7, IE8 is now a final release. As a sidenote, Safari's popularity shows similarity to the increase in mac sales, as safari is the default browser for that OS.

So the big question is, what browser is best?

Well, if add-ons are your thing, then firefox is still the way to go. If prefer speed to all else, then Chrome is where its at. So where does IE8 fit into all this?

Personally, I use a mix of Chrome/Firefox. But after using IE8, I think IE8 may replace firefox on my personal PC. IE8 is significantly faster than previous Internet Explorers, and I feel sure it is faster than Firefox 3.0.7 (current FF version).

I rarely rave about Microsoft products, but IE8 is worth raving about. No matter which browser you use, the good news is that the increased competition from Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, has forced all web browsers to become better, faster, and less obtrusive on your system. So for end users everywhere, this is great news.

So yeah, I just wanted to post a quick picture of me at work. The coolest thing I've done lately is hook up an extra monitor to my laptop and use the Extended Desktop functionality.

Now, instead of having to constantly switch between windows, I can have two displays, cutting out a lot of needless window switching.

Right now I've got the MLS (Realtor's search engine thingy) and Raleigh Craigslist open on my computer.

If you have an extra monitor, hook it up to the VGA port on your laptop, then right click on the desktop and select "Graphic Options -> Output to ->Extended Desktop -> Notebook+Monitor"

This will create a second desktop which you can use just like your first. For me, I have to do alot of transferring data from .pdf files into online forms. It gets pretty tiring to constantly switch between windows. This solution has definitely streamlined the process. Yay!

So I'm back on the blogging scene. Be sure to stay tuned for around one post a week.