Cozmo's Dev Blog - Life

How to create insane customer loyalty

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:58:00-0700

I have been a beer aficionado, home brewer, etc for many years. My favorite beer in the whole wide world is Baltika No. 9. It is a very rich, robust, complex and decidedly strong European Lager. I like beer you have to chew before swallowing ;o). It is imported from Russia and the local shop that I get it from has had a difficult time getting a hold of it over the last year or so. So when ever I stop by, I always ask "Did my Baltika No. 9 come in yet?". So I stopped in yesterday and this is what I saw. I have been self employed for 13 years and the very existence of my pay check has often depended on my customers being happy... So this really struck me. With a very small, but genuine, personalized, and most importantly, public gesture they have pretty much insured that I will be a customer for life. G- OUT

This is something I would do...

Sun, 03 May 2009 03:55:00-0700

And the same thing would happen to me. I have often said that I would write a script to wash my car if I could. It all starts out innocent enough until I have to explain it to the authorities. At times my life seems to be an exercise in taunting that Murphy's law fellow.

This blog is Rick Roll Enabled.

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:11:00-0700

Someone actually tested my super advanced Ultramega OK anti "wow gold" spammer technology... so I rolled out a BadMotorBeta. Go ahead... try it. Add a comment and type in "wow gold" in the comment form and see what happens. I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU. Yeah. I thought so.... ya wuss. For the record: BadMotorBeta - copyright © 2009

CF_RickRoll for comment spam (coming soon)

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:50:00-0700

My blog (and other CF blogs ) are getting hit with comment spam for some bizarro WOW (World of Warcraft) gold scam going to: wow gold one dot com I have no idea what it is about but as a former sys admin I have a borderline psychotic "I WILL FARKING CUT YOU" type hatred for spammers.. As soon as I get out of the weeds at work I am going to write something to mess with these douche bags. Seeing that comments on BlogCFC have a captcha they are probably using a cheap labor source like Amazon's Mechanical Turk service or smart bots. Either way... Infinite loops for bots or a Rick Roll or Goatse for the humans. This will be fun.

My Grandfathers diary as a P.O.W. in North Africa during WWII

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:05:00-0700

My Grandfather went to work in Africa (from Italy) in order to support his family during the Great Depression. We found his journal after he died. He never spoke a word of it to any of us. After many years it was translated from the original Italian dialect at great expense thanks to my cousin Angelo. We see these sorts of stories, ones of great suffering, were hundreds or thousands of men die at the hands of their captors on the History Channel and think nothing of it. This is the amazing story of a man who went though a living hell, a story of deep love and incredible sacrifice made by a man (my Grampa), in order to simply feed and support his family. During these hard times it reminds me of how much we take for granted and have to be grateful for. "A summary of ten years of my military life in Eastern Africa, Ethiopia"
By Domenico Franco

You would think it was the forth of July

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 03:31:00-0700

Fire works going off, horns hoking and people cheering in the night. I think something important happened.

Vote

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:43:00-0700

That is all.

And I thought I had problems

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:31:00-0700

I got a new phone... Actually I got a new pocket computer (with Windows CE) that came with a built in phone. The thing has more horse power than my workstation back in 2000. So my first thought is, being the geek that I am: What can I get this thing to do? What should I try first? Hmmmmm... Wouldn't it be cool if I could get it to serve up web pages. HEY!!! It *is* connected to the internet. Huh? I wonder if I get it to run Apache? Then the rational part of my brain kicked in: WHOA!!! STOP right there.. I have so much OTHER stuff I need to learn. My to do list could keep me occupied for the next ten years... easy. Then I saw this article in my in my inbox and it made me feel better: Installing Linux on the PlayStation 3. Seriously... is there some sort of 12 step program for this sorta stuff? I am going to end up like this some day (again). The confessions would be funny:

"Hi, my name is Gerald."
"Hi Gerald."
"I tried to turn my phone into a web server...."

Election Graffiti art

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:47:00-0700

I saw this near my house the other day. I had to stop and take some pictures. http://www.myinternetisbroken.com/slideshow.cfm/Merica After years of voter apathy it is moving to see my fellow Americans so impassioned over this historic election. "A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election." - Bill Vaughan It makes me proud that this is no longer the case.

Mail Goggles - Beer Goggles for email.

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:55:00-0700

I have a 2 beer limit for sending email. This will help help enforce that limit. From the Google Blog: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-stop-sending-mail-you-later.html "When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind? By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings." Some times Google is too cool for words.

Money well spent?

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:55:00-0700

If you spend money for the sole reason of impressing someone (other that a potential mate) you are an idiot. You are putting other peoples needs and opinions above your own. IF their opinion matters more than your own.. you are making yourself their bitch.

I am so happy

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:28:00-0700

God has taught me that difficulties can be overcome by following my passion (and getting off my ass and doing something about it). I would tell you more but I would have to kill you. ;)

Bruce Lee, Java, Learning disabilities, attitude, sheer will and achieving "The Impossible"

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:27:00-0700

I have gotten off my ass and mustered the courage to tackle Java full on. All I can say is Wow. I wrote my first Java app and it wasn't all that bad. I thought it would be a lot harder that it is. A little background on why this is significant: I am dyslexic and have written language and math learning disabilities (shhhhhush!!). There are over 3 std. deviations between my verbal intelligence scores and my spelling/grammar scores (i.e. syntax). Literally, I am simultaneously smarter and dumber than 99% of the population. Even with ColdFusion I had an extremely hard time with the syntax (now that is really bad). I BLED to earn my chops in the beginning. I pushed myself harder then than I had had at any time prior to that (and I push hard as a matter of habit). When I first started coding it was not the concepts that got, me it was the syntax. I used to literally SHAKE with frustration trying to get the right syntax to do what I wanted. I will not even get into what it was like generating JS on the fly with PHP. Let's just say I almost lost my mind and there are some people that are lucky to be alive ;) . So yeah, according to me, God, math, and science, this is a major accomplishment. Much like my childhood hero, Bruce Lee, I have identified and overcome my limitations and weaknesses with attitude, training, discipline and sheer will. I have done what I previously thought to be impossible and became a professional computer programmer. When I first tried programming Basic on our Atari 800 some 20 odd years ago I shook with frustration and I thought I would never, ever be a programmer. I mean NEVER, EVER. I owe a lot of it to ColdFusion. If ColdFusion did not exist when I first started I may have never became a programmer or at least the programmer I am today. I am a natural btw. When I got over the syntax hump I took to it like a fish to water. I LOVE what I do for a living. That is rare and a blessing. But yeah. Java ROCKS!!!! More on this later

I never knew that... Very odd

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:19:00-0700

Someone I respect, I mean really, really respect, told me that they were intimidated by me. Huh, Me? No. Wait. What? WTF? I was flabbergasted. I never knew (or even suspected) I had that sort of sway over people. I just thought I was being me. Happy go lucky, "DUDE! OMFG this freaking ROCKS", "let's go kick some muthafukin ass" me. Very interesting. Kinda explains a lot....

Attitude is everything.

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:29:00-0700

I was in a situation where I told two people that I had done something related to a technology. i.e. I made this technology do such and such. It was a nifty little trick, but nothing more than a little JavaScript 101. One person said: "Cool, show me how you did that." The other person said: "*This* I have to see". Say what? Attitude is everything.