Matt's News / Blog

Blog Revival: Part 2 – noflashphotography.com

Matt — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 19:42:03 +0000

Along with updating wissman.org, I’m in the process of update noflashphotogray.com (my photography website). I finished upgrading Worpdress to the latest version. As I was going through the site I realized the photo gallery was broken. I think it’s been broken for a long time — since I last moved web hosts. I’d really like to get a new photo gallery online. One of the problems I had maintaining my site was it took too much effort, so I’m looking for low effort, yet customizable and flexible solution. I’m considering using flickr and integrating it into the site.

Blog Revival: Part 1

Matt — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:13:04 +0000

I’m going to try to revive my blog. I suppose there are many reasons why I stop blogging but I think I’ll give it another shot. In an effort to get my blog going again, I updated WordPress, updated all the WordPress plugins and re-enabled the Twitter post. We’ll see how this goes…

Shamrock Shuffle 2009

Matt — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:10:47 +0000

On Saturday, I really wasn’t looking forward to running the Shamrock Shuffle because of the snow in the forecast. Sunday morning it was snowing pretty hard. While driving into Chicago, we couldn’t see the buildings — good thing we know where things are! After freezing in the starting corrals for 15-20 minutes the race started.

The first mile was the most painful but it was better once I warmed up. Over all the course was wet and slushy since it was about 34 deg and snowing.

I was happy with my time – 47:38. I was also very wet and tired at the end — here are some photos.

Alisse was there, too. She stood on the sidelines in 6″ of standing freezing water. I don’t know if she’ll come again.

Twitter Updates for 2009-02-01

Matt — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Got my new running shoes yesterday. Time to break them in! #
Why does coffee taste so good after a good workout? #
Had a great time downtown bowling and hanging out for Scott Potter’s birthday. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-01-31

Matt — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:59:59 +0000

I really like Orb for streaming music from my home PC. http://www.orb.com. #
What kind of blog – micro-blog (ie Twitter) integration do you like? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-01-30

Matt — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 04:59:59 +0000

my legs are still sore from doing lunges on Tuesday — made it hard to run this morning. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-01-29

Matt — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:59:59 +0000

is happy that my work laptop now has 3 gigs of RAM. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-01-28

Matt — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:59:59 +0000

@alissewissman I’m jealous of chipotle for lunch… in reply to alissewissman #
Had Portillo’s for lunch . And it was free! #
Started reading “Refactoring to Patterns” looks really good! #

Enjoying Podcasts

Matt — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:53:19 +0000

I know podcasting has been around for a few years now, but I haven’t really listened to any. Now, with my recent goal of running a half marathon, combined with a new set of head phones (that stay on while running) given to me for Christmas and an armband acquired from a liquidating chain technology store I am able to listen to podcasts. Right now, my favorite is Wait Wait Don’t Tell me.

Does anyone have any suggested Podcasts?

Registered – Half Marathon

Matt — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:15:57 +0000

It’s official! I’m registered for the Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. It’s August 2nd, so I have about 8 months to train. I better stop hitting the snooze button :/

MSDN Dev Con

Matt — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:13:00 +0000

Today I went downtown Chicago for the MSDN Developers Conference. I had a good time and learned some things. I was a little disappointed with the keynote. It was mainly about Cloud Computing and Windows Azure. I guess my main concern would be trusting Microsoft with your App and Data. I suppose it would be good for some situations.

C# 4.0 has some interesting features. I’m not really that super excited about optional parameters and dynamic types. Dynamic typing in C# makes it feel like JavaScript… shudder…

Silverlight 3.0 looks very nice. There are some nice things like built in navigation, authentication and validation. All things very noticeably missing from 2.0.

Finally, I liked the F# presentation (except it was more about why instead of how). I think it definitely has it’s place and I’d like to learn more about it. If it’s anything like Haskell I’ll enjoy it.

Resolution Progress

Matt — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:33:46 +0000

So this week wasn’t that great for my new years resolutions, mainly resolution #5. Since I kept pressing the snooze alarm, I didn’t achieve resolution #1, which could impact resolution #2.

The new fitness center at our apartment complex opened up this week. Hopefully, this will help resolution #1. It should be noted that they said it would be open this summer (yes, that’s was 5-6 months ago…)

2009 New Year Resolutions

Matt — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:42:44 +0000

I don’t usually make resolutions, but here are a couple things I’d like to accomplish:

Workout more (4-5 times a week)
Run in a half marathon (the Chicago Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon)
Blog more often
Take more photos
Press the snooze button less

I think that’s it!

New Server

Matt — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:40:20 +0000

I’ve move servers and upgraded WordPress — all at once. I’m now using Ubiquity Hosts. I switched because I was getting tiered of maintaining a VPS. My new account had CPanel, which makes configuration very easy. I also have a reseller account, so I can create and sell my own hosting packages.

I also installed IntenseDebatefor commenting. Hopefully, people (you) like it… Any other useful plugins I should install?

Anyway, my site has now been moved.

Twitter

Matt — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:35:34 +0000

I joined Twitter today. My profile like is: https://twitter.com/mwissman