TinyUrl Oddities
Written on 20 December 2008 by JonOK, so I’m not the most normal person in the world, but today while surfing around I think I found some people who are weirder than I.
You see there’s this service called TinyURL.com that will take insanely long URL addresses and create shortcut URLs that are easily transmitted. They also allow you to ‘pick’ your tinyURL shortcut (as long as it’s available), which results in the oddities I’ve found below. Admittedly, some of the words I tried are a bit adolescent in their use - but what others have linked them to is interesting, funny, and bizarre. Note: I did not make any of these up (Although I do have http://tinyurl.com/getjon set up to go to my contact page (I saved a whole 5 letters!)
So here are the interesting TinyURL addresses I’ve found today, and what they link to:
- tinyurl.com/poop = MS Exchange Server Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge) (After using this tool, I will say it’s a bit archaic, but poop might be too strong a word to use for it.
- tinyurl.com/boobs = A page about Adolf Hitler
- tinyurl.com/dick = Dick Cheney’s White House Bio
- tinyurl.com/nose = drfist.com (A site no longer on the internet, so I don’t know if Dr. Fist was into punching noses or what)
- tinyurl.com/badass = A Sailor Moon Manga (Is this really Badass?)
- tinyurl.com/shit = Ratchet & Clank video game on Amazon (I guess I know what someone thought of this game…)
- tinyurl.com/pope = a VERY NSFW website with some quite explicit photos. I’m guessing His Holiness probably didn’t create this tiny URL entry.
- tinyurl.com/god = Compare Digital Cameras (Apparently photography is close to godliness)
- tinyurl.com/hat = Beethoven the movie on Amazon (Did Hats feature promanently in this flick?
So there you have it, many odd TinyUrls!
Demonic Arbitration Boards
Written on 24 October 2008 by JonTHIRTY-NINE QUESTIONS FOR CHARLIE DANIELS UPON HEARING “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” for the First Time in 25 Years.
One wonders about the origins of songs, the meaning of songs, the inspiration behind songs. But one rarely wonders about the literal meaning of a song. Here’s a list that should be humorous to anyone familiar with the song in question. And it raises some good points too, especially number 19.
Fall Semester Kicks Off
Written on 25 August 2008 by JonToday is the first day of the Fall Semester, and I’m typing this at the ungodly hour of 7 AM (7:37 to be precise). Leaving in 10 min. to head up to UT (Probably grabbing something for my lunch first) and then teaching this morning & afternoon. If you’re a student of mine who has decided to learn a bit more about me - Welcome to the wonderful JonWestfall.Com - now don’t spend too much time reading the odd bits of mind candy I have here! After all, you have studying to do 
Greg’s Last Day As A Cadet
Written on 31 May 2008 by Jon
The Plain, The Cadet Mess, and in the background, the Cadet Chapel
Today was officially Greg’s last day to be a cadet. At the parade this morning, Greg’s class (of 2008) was officially dismissed, and the Class of 2009 took over the Corps of Cadets. I don’t think Greg minded this in the least.
Dan, Greg, Karey, & Sue after the Parade. Check out the sweet hat.
After the parade we went down to the RV for a bit, then did a bit of gift shopping and met up with Bob, Maryann, Mandy, Bobby, and Lisa as they finally made it onto campus. Scott & Mark were strangely missing, and we later found them to have left Penn State at around 9 PM. As I type this, at 12:25 AM, they still have yet to arrive!
Hitler’s Gun & Goering’s Guest Book & Staff
On the way to get Ice, we stopped back at the Museum giftshop, and I had to go into the wars throughout history gallery and snap the above photo for my dad, who was very interested in what Hitler’s gun looked like. It was actually a gun given to Hitler by some Nazi schmuck, Hitler probably didn’t even like it that much.
Graduation Banquet
For dinner we went to the graduation banquet in the cadet mess, an absolutely massive room with six “spokes” which seated around 4000 this evening. Karey & I were technically “Mark” and “Scott” as we weren’t sure who was going to go – but since no one else was here, the four musketeers that have been at this all week went.
Last thing we did tonight was meet up with Greg at the First Class Club (a.k.a. the Firstie club). Dan & I went and got to see the place and have some beer with the cadets. Overall a great day, and there is more tomorrow. I have lots of pictures to put up (I just got Dan’s memory card on my computer), but they probably won’t make an appearance any time soon! See you all later!
Engineering & Server Installs
Written on 29 May 2008 by Jon
Greg, a Civil Engineering grad, stands next to his team’s bridge
Today was an interesting day. Karey & I sorta relaxed a bit and let Dan & Sue go to most of the events. A parade this morning (that I dropped them off at), and a cookout tonight (that I wanted to go to but couldn’t due to timing). We did go to the Engineering open house and see the bridge pictured above. Next to it is my brother-in-law, who I am sure is so thrilled that he’s been photographed to death this week (And has more to come).
Karey Snaps A Shot!
We sat in on the Engineering awards ceremony, and saw Greg get a lapel pin and sticker (for his hard hat) indicating his Graduation with Honors status. We then toured the building a bit, met some instructors, and headed back down to the camper. Speaking of the camper, remember those empty parking lot photos from earlier this week (They’re in my gallery), check this out:
One of many shots showing a crowded parking lot
The parking lot has grown in size quite a bit – car and RV wise! We have a prime spot by the water, however I believe others are getting envious! After this post I’ll be uploading some pics from today to the Gallery site, however since I spent most of the day at the RV (installing a server remotely tonight), I don’t have quite as many as in days past!
Hanging Around The Point, Seeing Some Guns
Written on 29 May 2008 by Jon
West Point Museum
Today we stayed mostly around the Point, visiting the West Point Museum (Which is right outside the main gate). The museum is really more history than just West Point, with features on large and small artillery, wars throughout history, American wars, and more. They have some other pretty neat finds, like Adolf Hitler’s personal gold-plated pistol, and a full-scale replica of “Fat Man”, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.
West Point Train Station
We walked back from the Museum through Highland and ate at a Chinese buffet (Good food, bad service). After getting back on base (Much easier when you have no trunk to open for Security, they scan your drivers’ license and you walk right through), we walked down to South Dock, because we were told you can get to North Dock (Where our RV is) from there. Well you can, but we couldn’t find the mystical staircase behind the soccer field, so we had to wait for Dan to pick us up! Along the way we saw some interesting sights at the water front, including the West Point train station – a very “Harry-potter-esque” building that fits with the gothic theme very well. The real rub is that there is a giant hill that you must walk up to get to the barracks – so new recruits at one time got to drag their stuff up a hill after a long train ride. Nice.
View of West Point campus from the Cadet Chapel entrance.
In the evening we went up to the Cadet Chapel and heard the combined cadet religious choirs sing. I never thought I’d hear a Jewish Cadet Choir sing my high-school class song (”Livin’ on a Prayer”), but I did this night. They sang a good mix of religious music and patriotic, and the pipe organ was pretty amazing to hear. Many sang along with “God Bless America” (And with “Livin’ on a Prayer”…). The real attraction was the building, however:
Cadet Chapel front.
The Cadet Chapel was built in 1910, and has a VERY gothic theme to it. It is home to the largest church organ in the world (mostly due to donors continued support for expansion). The inside is amazing to view, with 56 ft. tall ceilings.
Interior, it was dark outside so the lighting isn’t the best
The interior is fairly plain religiously (as the Chapel is home to Protestant services), however the massive ceiling and high arches do not disappoint. The 18,000 pipes in the organ also inspire enough religious zeal to make this a very impressive house of God!
Well, that’s all for today’s update. Today our agenda has us going to an Engineering open house and a crawfish boil! I also plan on starting a new gallery for West Point photos at my Gallery site.
New York City
Written on 28 May 2008 by Jon
Waiting for the Metro-North train from Garrison to NYC
On Tuesday we went up to NYC from West Point. Before we left I had to take care of some computer issues on a few servers several hundred miles away. So the day was interesting – see something historical, check Pocket PC to make sure nothing blew up, see something historical, etc.. Anyway, we took the Metro-North down to Grand Central Terminal, and then made our way down to Battery Park and onto the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Lady Liberty
We elected to stay on the boat and not file off at the Statue. Probably a good choice considering how long the tour at Ellis Island lasted. We took the audio tour, and by the time we were done looking all throughout rooms like this one:
Ellis Island Registration / Main Room
… it was around 5:30 and my phone was dying from the “Get signal/drop signal/get signal” dance and MSN Messenger running. We went to TGI Fridays for dinner (near the WTC site). We looked at the WTC site then road the express up to 42nd street to walk down to Grand Central. Along the way we saw a Sanrio Store! Karey had go into it – it had a giant Hello Kitty on top of it! I bought her something that resembled a small bag, with pockets. I don’t know exactly what it was as all the writing was in Japanese! Anyway, we were tired and made it back to West Point around 10, where we all collapsed fairly quickly. Today we’re heading to the West Point visitor center and museum, and generally relaxing before more festivities kick in later this week.
Security Tent
As one last note, to get to the ferry to the statue and Ellis, you must pass through airport-style security. Myself and my comrades made it through in under 1 minute (for all 4 of us, mind you), however the people in front of us apparently had more metal objects than most foundries or steel mills. They were leather-clad bikers who were very annoyed (and thus took longer) at the process. And I thought activities at West Point were primarily revolved around “waiting”. Of course when it comes to the military, the prolonged waits make sense: After all, why do you think Wars take so long!
Day 1 In West Point – Memorial Day!
Written on 26 May 2008 by Jon
The view from our campsite, looking at the Hudson river.
Today we hung around the West Point area, the base and also out into a few little towns to buy supplies for the week. We’re set up in a parking lot on the North Dock on West Point’s campus, with a very nice view of the Hudson river and some interesting and friendly “neighbors”.
Karey peeks out the RV door!
After we got back from getting supplies, we met up with Greg and heard how he was doing on his last week at the Point. We then went and watched their graduation formation exercises, and got to see Greg lead his company (Marching around the square, a la Monty Python?). Today was a beautiful day, around 85 degrees and sunny!
One large Armstrong gun! (150 lb, 8 inch) Seized from the Confederacy in 1865!
You can’t go anywhere on West Point without tripping over history. This gun is at Trophy Point, along with a bunch of other interesting artillery. We’re forming up plans for the rest of the week, so look for more posts!
Take The Internet With You When You Go!
Written on 24 May 2008 by JonAbout a year ago, I switched from Direcway Broadband Satellite internet to a Sprint EVDO Rev A card for my home internet service. The choice was easy – the Sprint card was cheaper and had better speeds overall than the satellite. For awhile, I put my broadband card into a spare computer and had it share the connection via Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in Windows XP. Then I found a router online (The WRT54G3G-ST) that would let me pop the card right into my router and avoid the ICS hassle. The best part about using a broadband card for your internet service is that when you leave, you can simply take the internet with you when you go. However unless you want to install the broadband card drivers on every laptop in the family, there is no easy way to share (Unless you think setting up an adhoc network in Vista and sharing the internet – reliably – is easy!). My Solution? A cheap and easy rig that will let you pack “The Internet” with you when you go!
Step 1 – Parts
You’ll probably want the following (At least my rig is set up like this). My rig allows for the internet to be powered through AC or DC, depending on if you’re in a car or hotel room. Here are the parts:
- Broadband card (Duh…)
- Broadband Router (The WRT45G3G-ST in my case)
- Short power strip (Optional, I suppose)
- Some sort of Power Inverter (DC to AC). Mine is 400W, however you may be able to get away with less!
- Box (Either an actual project box from somewhere like Radio Snack, or in my case, two Avon box lids)
Step 2 – Construction
You’ll probably want to plan out your rig before actually constructing it. I did mine visually, however for the sake of easy explaining, I’ll do up a small diagram (Click on it to see it a bit clearer!):
Next you’ll probably want to cut holes for vents, ports for cords, the hole for the antenna to stick out, and the power strip access. I used a simple swiss army knife as it cuts through cardboard quite nicely (What doesn’t…) and used masking tape to secure each item to the base of the box (I do want to disassemble this when I get home to put everything back where it normally goes). Feel free to improvise here – you may want to add more power ports, etc..
My design was specifically made to allow for AC or DC powering, and it works like this. When using AC, the power strip’s cord runs straight out the port to the right of it, and into a wall outlet. When on DC, it loops around the inverter (and plugs into the outlets at the bottom of the inverter. The Inverter’s cord then comes out the port to the right of the power strip, and into a car cigarette lighter. I’m planning on bringing an extension cord for the DC cord, as it is shorter than the power strip’s.
Step 3 – Complete & Accessorize
Here are some pictures of my completed rig. Note the snazzy title I gave mine (The Internet, complete edition, in color!). Accessorize to your heart’s content, just don’t block the vents!
(Edited to remove SSID – I’m paranoid…)
That’s all folks. Feel free to register and post your comments or suggestions!
Jon Westfall is a research psychologist and confirmed techno-geek. He’s a contributing editor for Pocket PC Thoughts, as well as a Microsoft MVP for Windows Mobile. This blog is where most of his longer articles reside, however jonwestfall.com also has other goodies and more than you want to know about him.
The Thinkers
Written on 16 April 2008 by Jon
At Dinner tonight we took the official “Thoughts” picture from this year’s MVP summit. So from left to right, Mike Temporale, Jason Dunn, Ed Hansberry, and yours truly. The day was interesting, and thankfully there was no tofu at dinner tonight…
