Um, yea, so, I did it. I washed my ipod shuffle. And the headphones. The headphones still work great. Sadly, I’m not having much luck with the ipod. It’s just so damn small that it fits in your pocket without you even knowing. And it was a Christmas present from my mom no less. Sorry, mom.

Honestly, I think it would still work, if it had not been switched on at the time. I found two cases of people’s ipods who survived and did not survive the washer. Of course, the survivor put it threw the dryer too, maybe I should throw it in real quick.

At least they dropped the price to $49 ($39 refurbished) I’ll probably try getting it to work again … maybe if I charge it … every day … until I get a new one. How am I supposed to run now? I feel like I lost a part of me … the part with the cool/fancy ipod shuffle. Now, I only find comfort in the cold embrace of ellipsis … I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight.

Update: A Halloween miracle! It’s alive, ALIVE!

Most of the time, my degree in computer science only gets used as resume stuffing, but occasionally, all that nonsense creeps into the most mundane of my activities. Recently, I’ve found that my workout process follows the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). In fact, I think just about anyone could benefit from a little SDLC in their workouts.

What the heck is the Software Development Life Cycle?

In computer science, peeps like to over-analyze everything. So, CIS gurus don’t just go out and build software. They follow a six step process to “develop” software. Sounds fancy. It is. In fact, depending on the text book you’re using, the SDLC will be a waterfall, a cycle, or some kind of swirly graph that is impossible to replicate on a test. Generally, it’ll consist of 6 steps, something like this:

• Requirements
• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Testing
• Maintenance

Note: Please don’t critique my CIS skills/knowledge, I took a softcore focus track and don’t care

Requirements

In CIS, the first step is always to determine what the problem is. As they say, you can’t solve the problem until you really understand it. Our first inclination might be that we know what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to get in shape dammit. On closer inspection, that proves to be too vague. Do you want to lose weight? Why? Because your current weight is a health risk? Because you want to be more attractive? Different goals require different approaches. You can simply diet to lose weight, but if you want six-pack abs, you’ll have to do exercise as well. If you want to run a marathon, you’re likely to do very different exercises than you would to get that six-pack.

Analysis

Now that you’ve found out that you want to lose weight, get a six-pack, and run a marathon, it’s time to be honest. First, what’s it going to take to get there? In other words, why don’t you have a six pack now? This is where you have to be painfully honest with yourself … so honest, in fact, that those CIS peeps include Feasibility in this step. If you want a six-pack, you’re going to have come to terms that you might not ever have one. You should consult a doctor if you have any health issues. You might also want to try running a 10k or 5k before working up to that marathon. If you can’t be real with yourself, you’re not ever going to see real results.

Design

We tossed out unrealistic expectations. We have clear, attainable goals. Now, we need to figure out how to get there.

For the most part, fitness involves two processes: Building strength and muscle, and burning fat and calories. Most exercises will do both to some degree but will do one task way better than the other. For instance, lifting weights builds muscle mass. It also burns fat/calories, but it’s always going to be a crappy way to burn fat/calories compared with running. And any other activity is going to suck at building muscle compared with weight lifting. More than likely, to reach any goal you set, you’ll have to develop a schedule that involves both. There’s tons of resources out there on different exercises. I like this muscle map to pick weight lifting exercises for specific muscle groups (Male/Female, click on the muscle for a list of different exercises), and I’ve had a lot of success with these running schedules: 5k/10K, Half Marathon, and how to use them properly.

Implementation

Umm…Did you think you weren’t going to have to exercise? Enough talk, this is where you do it.

Testing

It’s time to take stock and see if you’re reaching the goals you defined. If not, try changing whatever isn’t working for you. Don’t like the days you’re running? Switch them. Running too much? Too little? This step is the reason this process works. Instead of giving up, you find the problems with your approach and fix them. Need motivation? Look in the mirror. Getting bored? Buy an ipod shuffle.

Maintenance

Now, here’s the real secret. It’s a cycle! So, you get here, and you go right back to the beginning. I like to do it at different intervals. After each workout, I record what I did (I use excel for weight lifting and mapmyrun.com for running.) Once I improve a certain amount, I increase the difficulty. At the end of a week, I try to take a picture of myself to have a record of progress. And at the end of a month, I plan ahead for next month. I weigh myself daily with a fancy scale that measures weight, % body fat and % water (which I also record in a my excel file.)

Using the SDLC, I’ve been pretty happy with my results, and that’s why I’m keeping at it. Of course, just about every exercise I do has changed as my goals have changed. My college professors should be proud.

Anyone who spends anytime on the web or around computers will inevitably have to make and remember passwords. I worked as a contractor to the Corp of Engineers for a while and found my password remembering skills quickly put to the test; we had lots of password with very strict acceptable password rules. In response, I developed a wonderful password method that has worked well for quite some time. People will see passwords I devise and gawk, but they’re actually easily remembered.

What Makes A Password Secure

In order to devise secure passwords, it helps to know what makes passwords secure. A secure password needs to be at least 8 characters long. (Many experts now say 10 to 12 characters.) It also needs to contain a variety of characters: upper and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters. And finally (the sticking point for most,) it shouldn’t contain more than two instances in a row of the same type of characters. (I.e. no more than two letters or numbers in a row.)

If you follow those rules, you will end up with a very confusing, hard to remember jumble of characters like Mp45Pw$%. It’s also hard to break, but to be honest, any password is breakable. It just takes time. So, theoretically, you should change your password every 3-6 months. (The amount of time it would take someone to brute force through your password; the longer the password, the longer you can wait before changing it.)

Note: I don’t worry about changing my passwords that often … Let’s face it, no one’s going to take 6 months to break into my running log at mapmyrun.com.

How to Make and Remember Your Password

For the purpose of this demonstration, I’ll use the seemingly random example I mentioned above: Mp45Pw$%. While that may look impossible to devise or remember, it only took me a few seconds.

First, I divide my 8 character password into 4 two digit chucks. I use the same basic password for all applications while changing just one of these two digit chunks.

First Password Chunk: The Seed

In the above password example, my first chunk is Mp. I always use an uppercase, lowercase first chunk. It’s something personal that I can remember. In this case, I used the phrase “My password” to come up with Mp.

Second Chunk: Numbers

The second chunk needs to be a different type of character. I switch to numbers and try to choose two numbers that are positioned next to each other on the keyboard. In this case, 45.

Third Chunk: The Key

This is the chunk that I change each time to make it application specific. In this case, I want to remember “password” and use the letters Pw. I try to use letters derived from the specific application. For instance, if I were making a password for my website (nicholasroussos.com,) I might use Nr or maybe I just think of it as “My website” and use Mw. Remember, for most applications, this will be the only part that changes … and thus the only part you have to remember.

Fourth Chunk: Special Characters

Finally, we need to throw in some special characters. I use the same method as I use for numbers. I take two special characters that sit next to each other on the keyboard. In fact, in this example, they are the same keys as the numbers I used (just hold shift.)

Added Security

Sometimes, you might want an additional layer of security. In those cases, I recommend these alternatives:

• Change the order above. For your secret diary, instead of the normal Mp45Sd$%, you might want to use Sd45Mp$%.
• Change up the numbers and/or special characters. Using the same secret diary example, you might want to try Mp23Sd@#.
• Change your first “seed” chunk to a super secret seed. Say for instance Ss45Sd$%.
• Add another chunk like Mp45Sd$%23.

Most of the time, you will only have to remember the two letters of the third chunk. It really is that easy. In fact, I’d wager that after reading this article, you’ll be able to remember Mp45Pw$% tomorrow morning, the week after that, and the week after that. (Just remember My password Mp, 45, Password Pw, 45 with shift $%)

Have fun devising and remembering passwords.

I wrote a co-worker a round-up of some great Google/SEO articles that I’ve seen lately and thought it was worth sharing with the rest of the world. There’s just been a bunch of good articles lately on SEO and how Google works.

• Google describing How Google Works

  Google doesn’t like to share the inner working of Google very often. And when they do, it’s usually a very bird’s eye view. But when they do speak up, it’s well worth listening.

  Favorite Quote: “We make about ten ranking changes every week …”

  People always ask me, “How exactly will this piece of information effect ranking?” Of course, I usually answer, “I’m not completely sure.” One of the reasons why it’s so hard to nail down exactly how things are ranked is because it’s constantly changing! On top of that, it actually is extremely complex. I doubt there’s any one person who can actually answer all the questions about Google–including anyone at Google.

• What happens when you search Google

  This is article does a great job of expressing the complexity of Google in layman terms. It basically follows the path that your search takes as it goes through Google and back to you with results.

  Favorite Quote: “The query is then executed, simultaneously hitting 300 to 400 back-end machines representing Google’s verticals, advertising and spell check among others.”

  Told you it was complicated.

• The Truth About SEO

  … is that it’s a slow, deliberate process that you perform over time. I’d compare it to losing weight. When you see that magazine headline that says “Lose 17 pounds in a week,” guess how reliable that is.

  This article has a great graph illustrating his search engine growth, slowly and steadily over time. Pretty much the only way to do it. I also like how the author dilutes it all down to 2 simple rules.

When Lifehacker posted that you could jailbreak with the click of a link, I couldn’t resist. I stared at the article all day, I looked for others’ opinions, and I quaked in fear of the dire warning. Ultimately, I gave into my deep love of free stuff and clicked the link.

Just a Link? Is it that Easy?

Yes, omg, it is that easy. I clicked a link waited a little bit and then had to restart my iphone (maybe I can’t really remember because it was so easy) — presto an Installer icon appeared. The whole process made me nervous, but it was well put together, and each step told you what was going on (installing, cleaning registry, etc) and usually had a progress bar. I performed the task over WiFi and read comments of others having trouble on Edge. I imagine it’s because Edge is so slow, and they weren’t patient enough (or maybe they lost their cell signal).

Easy Enough, But What’s After Installing?

Once I had Installer.app up (I did have to update the installer itself), I grew frustrated because I didn’t see any of the apps that I read about. I soon found out that you have to install the Community Sources before they will appear. I also ran into the problem that the apps would run and immediately crash. It turns out that I needed the BDS backend (I read that it needed to be installed before the Community Sources, so I unistalled it and reinstalled in that order.)

So, Are You in iPhone Bliss?

Installer is pretty impressive. It lists apps, lets you install them with one click, and you can update them or unistall them just as easily. The apps are conveniently organized in categories and there’s a decent amount of them. Unfortunately, they aren’t that useful. I installed a whole bunch of them, but ultimately there were only a handful worth me keeping installed: flashlight, blackjack, and to-do list. I really have no need to run apache on my cell phone, I’m fine with Apple’s icon themes, don’t care to load custom ringtones, and have no desire to change the AT&T icon. I did like the idea of the dictionary, but the app was horrible to use.

Way Too Beta

My basic impression was that all the apps were pretty beta. Who could blame them they were after all homegrown, but I was disappointed that Blackjack didn’t keep a high score for me without even mentioning the fact that it crashed every other time I used it. The To-Do app was a noble effort but pretty close to horrible when compared with anything that Apple makes. And Flashlight … well, you just don’t use it that much.

It Gets Worse

I could live with buggy betas, but all of this stuff actually makes the rest of the iPhone run much worse. Other Apple apps, would crash, I noticed some buggy behavior in camera (once when I flipped it sideways the picture was cut in half), sometimes the phone would crash after pushing the On button (it would come on then go black, and I’d have to press it again) and the whole thing seemed to hang and run sluggishly.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I read that restoring the phone would take it back to normal, but I had no idea what to expect with restoring. The phone was running so buggy that I was willing to loose all my contacts, calendar, etc to go back to normal. It turns out that restoring rocks. It took a few moments, and it warned me that all data would be lost. However, once it was restored, iTunes informed me that it had a backup of my phone and asked if I wanted to restore to the backup. I did, and I didn’t loose any data. My pictures were there, my preferences, and all my contacts.

The Scoop on Jailbreak

I strongly commend the iPhone hacking community. The things they are doing are really awesome, and they did an incredible, amazing feat with the hyperlink install. The whole process was painless and being able to restore back to normal rocked. But … let’s be honest, there aren’t that many useful applications, the games aren’t much better than what you’ll find you can play on the web through Safari, and there are a TON of bugs. Jailbreaking isn’t ready for prime-time, and if you’re thinking about it you probably should stay away. After all, the people who should be doing this stuff, already are. I just can’t wait for the official Apple SDK, and Apple get me blackjack and a To-Do list please.

Bionic Woman was my first big disappointment of this fall season. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have high expectations. I just couldn’t see how the show could get screwed up. It’s a simple premise, a woman with super powers doing awesome stuff. In a world of Heroes, Alias, and the like, it should be TV equivalent of a box cake: easy to bake but delicious none the less. Yet, through a series of bad decisions resulting with the show being taken way too seriously, they manage to screw up a good premise so bad that it’s not really watchable.

Super Strength Sucks

Early on, when the heroine has her bionic powers thrust on her without her consent, it’s pretty obvious what the writers are setting up, a bad rationale for heroine angst. If you told me that loosing my arm meant I could get a super bionic one, I’d be hard pressed not to grab the electric chainsaw sitting in the garage. If I awoke from a car crash to have super strength, I would be ready to take up extreme sports and be thankful that I’m not a triple amputee. The writers of this show decided to skip the exuberance of a new found super power and instead focus on moral lessons like how unfair it is to have all that thrust upon you. The result is no less boring than the college course on bioethicity in the opening scene of the show.

Emotional Detachment

If the moral lessons on body modifications weren’t bad enough, the acting and writing manage to be so bad that they suck all emotional attachment from the characters. For instance when the boyfriend/secret-genius-doctor is shot, our super-angst super-heroine forgoes helping him to run off and fight the rogue bionic woman that shot him.That’s only slightly unfair considering that when she lost both legs in a car crash, he jeopardized his top secret program to replace them.

The unfairness really begins when after the fight, she neglects to ask after his condition as the paramedics (who got there without any help from her) drive away. Not even a simple, “Will he make it?” The emotional detachment must have worked, because I found myself not caring at all whether he survived to the next episode. Or if anyone else did for that matter.

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t given this website much TLC. Most of you probably didn’t though because I doubt anyone would visit in its current state of disrepair. There’s only two ways to change things: lots of time and effort or a quick and dirty redesign. Guess which option I chose?

Redesign finished, and to celebrate, I’m going to review the very site I just finished working on (that’s this site.)

Big Text, Little Design

Finally, a website that places content first and design second. Look at those big titles, that easily readable body text, and don’t even get me started on that tiny page header. A design like this is exactly what I’ve been telling everyone to go with … only to be ignored and shot down … over and over again. Looks like, I am my own best client. I didn’t have a single argument with myself when I designed this website. Now, that’s effective communication

Favorites

My favorite new feature would have to be my favorites — uh oh, that might be redundant. Anyway, I added a category called favorites where I can put my favorite posts (I’m not sure how I figure that out.) And because I love those posts so much, the two most recent show up at the top of the home page.

Remainders

I also added a remainder category. I used to love posting tiny little links, but I would hate how they would take up so much room with a title and all that. Now, if I place these posts in the remainder category, they get condensed. I didn’t come up with the idea though, I just borrowed it.

Reviews

I love writing reviews, not so much because I think anyone cares what I have to say. No, I like writing reviews because I like to figure out what I think about something — anything. That’s why I love reviewing simple ever day items like water. So, to help inspire my passion for reviews, I created a Review category.

Verdict: Bleak

While I’m pretty happy with the redesign, the future of this website rests upon the ability to get great content (instead of the stale crap on it now), and that relies on me. I can feel that pressure already. Maybe I should sell the site (I’d probably trade it for an iPhone.)

My wife asked me tonight, “Does spam ever really work?” I was prepared to launch into a speech detailing that, “although it’s a statistically small amount, large numbers of spam are made to compensate,” when it hit me.

The problem with spam is that the less effective we make it, the more spammers have to send out.

Huh? Well, if spammers have a success rate of 2% and they send out 100 million emails with each successful email making $1, then they make $2,000,000. Now, let’s say someone comes along with a spam filter that lowers their success rate to 1% … suddenly 100 million emails only makes them half what it used to, and they have to send out an extra 100 million emails. And no matter how hard we try, they’re never going to have a 0% success rate.

The Solution?
Simple. Convince everyone you know to fall for the spammers scheme. The more people who fall for it, the higher their success rate goes. The higher the success rate … the less spam they have to send out.

You may wonder if they won’t simply send more spam out to make even more money. I’m willing to bet they won’t. The one thing you can trust about a spammer is that they want easy money. So, if you make their job easier, they aren’t going to work harder.

Want to prevent spam? Maybe you should consider buying some weight-loss pills. I’m sure you’ve already received an offer.

For some reason, the last sip from a glass or cup is always my favorite. It reminds me of old black and white movies where the struggling P.I. gulps down one last sip of whiskey and quickly gets down to business. In fact, movies often depict strong characters slowly sifting through their thoughts as they stare down a cold glass of liquor.

That last sip, which is really a resolute gulp, is always followed by slamming down the glass. Many times, the bottle will be left close at hand so that last sip can be experienced again and again. In fact, I like the last sip so much that I try to fill my cup one sip at a time. That way, every time I drink I get the satisfaction experienced by slamming down a glass after a last good sip.

Next time you pause to satisfy your thirst, keep the bottle at hand, and pour yourself one sip at a time.

Update: Megan left a helpful comment on creating a custom CSV that works even better than my approach.

My mother made the big switch today. She left AOL and jumped onto DSL. As I was setting up her connection, she asked me to move her address book from her AOL account to her new Gmail email address. It turns out, there’s no way to do it, well, until I made a way.

The Gmail Help page says:

AOL doesn’t have the functionality to export your address book, so you’ll have to create a custom CSV file if you use this service.

That’s no help, what about just exporting the AOL address book period. Well, I found some iffy solutions that require downloading a 3rd party software, but that seemed too difficult. So, I came up with an easier method.

1. In AOL, make a new Group that contains all the emails you want to export.
2. Send an email to that group; Carbon Copy (CC) your new Gmail address. I included a quick blurb that the email address would be changing, etc.
3. Leave AOL, and open up Gmail. You should see the email you just sent in your inbox.
4. Reply All on that email. I mentioned something like, “Hi, just wanted to send you all another email from my new account.”
5. You’re done. Gmail automatically puts everyone who you email in your contacts. You just emailed everyone on your list.

Now, this method is only going to get the emails out. I’m not sure if AOL stores phone numbers, etc. My mother’s account also didn’t get the names associated with the emails. This may have been how she had set it up.

Metacritic has posted a list of their 100 worst rated movies. via Kottke.org

#21: Zombie! vs. Mardi Gras
I haven’t seen it yet, but I can tell you now that the pretentious critics just weren’t able to enjoy the subtle genius of putting a zombie in the middle Mardi Gras.

This brings back dreams of making my own zombie masterpiece, Zombies from the Deep. A tradional zombie movie that begins with scuba divers finding zombies deep underwater. Once awakened, it doesn’t take long to develop into a horrific scene of beachgoers fleeing in mass with Zombies from the Deep close behind. I can picture one memorable scene when the setting sun bathes the deserted beach in ghastly red light as the zombies fight over the remains of bikini-ed beachgoers who didn’t get away. Of course, this would be just the beginning of mankind’s battle for survival against Zombies from the Deep.

I just read this today in the TV-TV forum.

This is a crock. Fox bought a pilot for a TV show about a grown up Doogie Howser. It received luke warm response from a young screening audience who had never seen the original series. So, Fox decided to make changes that their surveys requested. Mainly, an edgier, more in-your-face main character (think CSI Miami’s David Caruso). The end result is Fox’s new show House MD. They originally tried pushing for the title “Howser MD”, but Micheal Verns, president of the Official Doogie Howser MD Fan Club and member since 1989, launched a succesful internet campaign to stop them. Fox caved and changed the name to House MD. No need to describe the end result.

What? I saw a sample of the original script. It looked promising. Apparently, Doogie’s childhood friend Vinnie struck it rich during the Dot Com boom only to loose it all. He’s now living over Doogie’s garage unable to get another job. Doogie is married and has two kids but fails to connect with them. He insists that when he was their age he was doing much better things with his time.