Life

29th July
2011
written by Fred

If you want to see the details of my road trip go visit http://fredstriptoca.fredsmithjr.com :) my new home looks interesting.

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5th January
2011
written by Fred

Many tend to use their choice of font and textual arrangement on a whim rather than following good design practices, or functional goals1. A prime example of this is those who use the automaticA justify alignment on small blocks of text, such as the center of the paragraph in the image.

justified text

IT LOOKS LIKE THIS

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30th November
2010
written by Fred
Hi All,
Yesterday Comcast has begun attempts to implement a non neutral internet. We cannot stand for this.  Below is what I have signed on to a petition to the FCC. Please consider clicking the link at the bottom of this post and also signing the petition. We must save the internet we all love, and prevent greed from destroying it.
Allowing actions like this to take place could be the beginning of a very slippery slope. I am not a Netflix user but I disagree on the ability to have a communications provider, such as Comcast, charge both ways for the same service. Comcast customers pay a premium for the access to the internet under the assumption that There is only one internet. Actions such as this are the first steps in creating a tiered internet.
Allowing Comcast to impose a fee to service providers on top of what service providers would be the equivalent had the land line phone companies decided that they would charge all businesses extra to receive phone calls from customers. An example of this using the land line analogy would be: ” A customer of the local General store has a question for the store manager about one of the products the store sells. He calls the store’s phone number only to be disconnected with the phone on the other end never ringing. The phone call did not connect because the store owner had not paid an extra fee to talk to customers on top of the store’s existing phone line connection for general use.
If this action is allowed, a precedent will be set that may cause prolonged damage to the open communication pathway that is the internet. A world where communication companies are allowed to charge both their customers and any organization their customer’s interact with.
Worst case scenario only involving charging extra fee’s to businesses: New technologies may not be able to be developed by starting businesses with great ideas due to the increased overhead of paying potential fee’s.
My Background:
I am not a Comcast customer, nor a Netflix customer. I am a software developer by trade.

If you prefer to not sign the petition I urge you to call, tweet(@FCC), or write the FCC.

Thank you for reading and good luck,
Fred Smith Jr.

Link to petition: http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign/petition_netflix/?source=fredsmithjr
Link to reddit thread:  http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/edq8x/breaking_the_new_york_times_just_reported_that/

15th October
2010
written by Fred

And this is where we stop pulling punches. I am just under halfway to my goal. Our Team is doing awesomely, but why only do awesome when we can DO BETTER!
Therefore I am willing to offer a few incentives.
I will randomly pick 2 donors to the charity to receive 1 of 2 codes for xbox live each

To read the rest of the update proceed to: http://thespartanssanctum.com/2010/10/15/86/

To Donate: https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/m.aspx?i=199635BA6FB+052F1

:)

Currently: $381/$1170  Let us fix that :p

~Fred

26th September
2010
written by FredSmithJr

Hi All,
This year I have signed up to participate in a charity known as Extra Life. Extra Life is a charity for Children’s hospitals around the country. In this charity the participants marathon any type of game for 24 hrs and donors are encouraged to donate $1 per hour. A few friends and myself will be marathon my favorite game series, Halo. I would greatly appreciate any donations to help reach my lofty goal of $1,170.00. If you would like to see a themed post for the whole team please read the post written at The Spartan’s Sanctum

Donate Here :)
Thanks for your time,

Fred

16th July
2010
written by FredSmithJr

It’s been a “fun” couple weeks. (Vote on a choice at the bottom:P)
Rasputin has finally past his limit. The Jeep’s alternator may be on its way out and that is only one of the current issues (Transmission, suspension, and a few other issues.) This happened on Friday.

The events on Sunday go as follows. Hanging with a friend of mine at his family’s cabin on a lake. Then the lake said something about my mother and I decided to fight it(or maybe I went tubing fell off and landed ear first on the water), sadly I lost and walked away with a ruptured tympanic membrane (ear drum). That was one interesting weekend :P . Needless to say not much productivity has been happening since.

This is your ear on lake impact.

I was planning on getting a new (to me) Jeep in September, but seeing as I am in need of one much sooner I have been perusing the want ads.

2 questions
A.Wrangler or B. Cherokee?
C.Manual or D.Automatic?

I’m thinking A,C :)
~FredSmithJr

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12th April
2010
written by FredSmithJr

Found Monitor arms on craigslist for a great deal:). My Goal to have as many monitors as possible is nearly complete :) . Currently 2 monitors per system (L to R, Deja, Mack, DeepWinter)

~Fred

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10th December
2009
written by FredSmithJr

One project I worked on recently required the use of MSSQL and Linq for a C# project. During the development of this project I found that I would need to make one of two things: several SProcs to call from tables that were using the same schema just in different ways, or  create one SProc that can take a parameter, and this parameter would determine the table being invoked.
I, hate uselessly duplicating code if it can be avoided so I went the dynamic route.
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10th September
2009
written by FredSmithJr

In the past month I have graduated, and officially done with my undergraduate education. After graduation I had a few weeks off (ending on friday) before I needed to start working. I start working next monday, but I must say these past couple weeks are exactly what my brain needed. I finally started designing and programming again, and it felt as good as it did the first time I got into it. WOOHOO Nothing is better than a bit of rejuvenation.

In Other news. ProjectsRD is underway, we began designing our first object design document for one of our projects. Things seem to be going quite smoothly. I am excited to see the fruits of our labors.

Time to get ready to enter the 40 hour work week club. I wonder how flexible the schedule is?

29th June
2009
written by FredSmithJr
Billy Mays the Great American Pitchman

Billy Mays the Great American Pitchman

My site’s background will be Blue for at the minimum the next week.

The world has lost someone great who could make you excited to watch hair grow or a caterpillar turn into a butterfly in real time. He was always happy and from all account of people who have met him a genuinely good guy.
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