Dougal Campbell's geek ramblings - WordPress, web development, and world domination.

Ping-O-Matic Update

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 14, 2004

Over on the Ping-O-Matic blog pinger, I’ve added the A2B Location-Based Search Engine as a new service on the ping form. This will replace the old GeoURL service, which has been AWOL for quite some time now. I also did some other minor maintenance, mainly adding NewsGator to the manual ping form, and updating the sidebar links to reflect the most recent service changes.

Posted in Blogs, Tech | Tagged pingomatic, Web | 2 Responses

Firefox Turns 1

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 9, 2004

The official Firefox 1.0 version is out. The Mozilla site seems to be overwhelmed at the moment. But I downloaded via BitTorrent, and I’m doing my part to contribute to the network (at least for the US English Windows version). Firefox 1.0 torrent

Posted in News, Tech | Tagged Firefox, Web | 2 Responses

Supercooled Water

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 9, 2004

My wife and I will often stick bottles of water in the freezer for a little while, because, well, really cold water is refreshing. A few nights ago, I had done that, and I got to witness a neat phenomenon. When I first removed the bottle from the freezer, the water was still liquid and clear. But after I jostled it, the water almost instantly turned into a frozen slush.

This was a mild example of supercooling. The water was at the freezing point, but crystalization had not started yet. But when I disturbed the bottle, it set off a chain reaction, and the water froze before my eyes. Cool 🙂 (no pun intended)

Posted in Fun, Science | 7 Responses

Weight Goal

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 8, 2004

My weight on the scale this morning was 252 pounds, and my trend weight is less than half a pound higher than that. That puts me at right around 20 pounds lost since early September. I’ve had to add two notches to my belt, as well. If we hadn’t eaten out at restaurants so much this past weekend, I might have dipped down below 250. I expect to do that by next week, though.

Posted in Personal, Weight | 3 Responses

Decisions, decisions…

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 5, 2004

After much deliberation, I decided to decline that job offer from Emory University. The lure of a permanent job, with lower out-of-pocket tax and health insurance expenses was pretty strong. But their salary budget and our monthly bills budget just weren’t quite aligned at this time. The salary they were offering was in a sort of “grey zone” for our household budget. We probably could have gotten by, but only barely, and only with the help of extra part-time income that Susan and I would add to it with side projects and such. Basically, it would be a large reduction in gross income, and a smaller (but still significant) reduction in net income. So, in the end, I found that I had to turn down that particular job.

It was a bit of an odd experience, in a way. I’ve never really been in a position before that I could turn down what normally would be a good job at a modestly decent salary. I almost felt guilty for doing it. But who knows — maybe one day they’ll have another position suited for me, with a higher budget. Fortunately, I still have my current consulting contract, and another short-term consultation gig in the works.

Posted in JobHunt, Personal, Work | Leave a comment

A2B Location-Based Search

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 4, 2004

For those of us who have lamented the apparent demise of GeoURL, there is A2B, a new geolocation service. If you want to add a button which links to a search for the websites nearest your own, that information is hidden in the “User details” area, under the “Websites added” page. Yes, you have to register with the service to use some of the features.

They’ve also got some nifty tools for those of you who are GPS-enabled when you’re out and about. Like being able to find “what sites are near my current location”? And there are more features planned which sound like they’ll be quite useful. If you don’t already know your lat/long coordinates, they’ve got links to several mapping sites that can help you out. Get your geo on!

Posted in Blogs, Tech | Tagged Web | Leave a comment

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 4, 2004

No, I’m not talking about the weather, though it is a wet day here.

Instead, I’m referring to work opportunities. I find myself in the rare, enviable position of having several different full-time and contract job possibilities. I had given up on hearing back from Emory University, since it had been several weeks since my last communication with them. But last week, I received a phone call from them saying that they were ready to make an offer. I met with them earlier this week to negotiate salary. I’m still debating whether to accept the offer or not, since it’s lower than I had hoped for, and is in the borderline area for being able to pay all our monthly bills.

On top of that, I’ve had two fellow web developers — Brent Ashley and fellow WordPress developer Alex King — send some contract work references my way (thanks, guys!). Plus, I’m still working on my current contract job. That said, I’d better get back to working our our bills…

Posted in JobHunt, Personal, Work | Tagged WordPress | 2 Responses

Civic Duty

By Dougal Campbell | Published: November 3, 2004

Susan and I did our civic duty yesterday and voted. We had heard of long lines in many areas, with waits up to six hours. But at our polling location, we didn’t have any wait at all. We arrived around 4:00 p.m., parked in one of the handful of empty spaces, filled out our paperwork, showed our identification, and voted using the newfangled electronic voting machines (yes the controversial Diebold machines). It only took us a few minutes to choose our candidates, review the local referendums, review our choices, and commit our votes.

As I write this, the results still aren’t firm, and all eyes are on Ohio. I just hope that we don’t see the bitter feuding this time like we saw over Florida in the last presidential election.

What’s that? How did I vote? Unlike many of my web development compatriots, I lean toward the conservative, and I voted for Bush. Really, I’m more of a centrist, with conservative leanings (though there are a few issues where I lean more to the left). I don’t agree with everything that the Bush administration has done, but there are things about Kerry that I just don’t like.

And in the local political arena, I voted “yes” for Sunday alcohol sales in Cherokee County. That referendum passed handily. Yay!

Update: Kerry concedes defeat. Well, despite my reservations about Kerry, I have to commend him for not stirring the pot unnecessarily, and for his comments about wanting to do something to close the political rift that’s been dividing our country. Amen to that, brother.