Outdoors

Flower on Deck

Pets

Patches Laying on Deck

Family Photos

Matt and Kids in Camo

Jocelyn

Swinging and Eating Tomatoes
Trying on Mom's Shoes
Looking off Deck with Chrissy
Laying in Tube with Animals
Eating Chocolate Pudding
Sitting on Big Stuffed Lamb
Coloring with All the Markers
Sitting under Crib

Things
New 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid
Nikon D40
Camera Bag Comparison (Kata DR-467, Crumpler 4 Million Dollor Home)

Outdoors
Crab Apple
Frohm Home with Red Maple
Tiffany with Praying Mantis
Sunset Rocks

Events
Brough Family Gathering
Carlisle Corvette Show
Grandparents' Day Lunch
South Newton/West End Fire Raffle

Baby #2
Tiffany at 37 Weeks

Pets
Patches Outside

Jocelyn
Vacuuming in Kitchen on Car
Playing with Patches and on Playground
Ladybug Outfit
Coloring with Mary Mettler
Dumping Water on Herself in Tub
Riding on 4 Wheeler and Helping Pappy Beecher
Racing a Car
Watering Plants, Playground, Bubbles, 4-Wheeler, and Picking Flower
Building Blocks with Pappy
Swinging and Eating Ice Cream
Dennis and Jocelyn Checking Out the Neighbors
Checking Out a Frog
Cat Shirt with Nuk
Pink Polka-dot Dress
Rocking Out with Matt
Eating with Matt at Little Table
4-Wheeler Ride with Matt
Bouncing on Exercise Ball 
Hiding Behind Playground

I've been thinking about updating my [online] identity for awhile now.  "silfreed", while unique, is difficult to spell/pronounce when talking to someone (let alone telling them my email address which includes it twice).  Ideally, I'd like to update my branding to include:

1. A good, short, understandable domain name (ones that make use of international TLDs as part of the domain are sometimes acceptible; ie, del.icio.us is bad since it's all-but unusable to give someone an email address)
2. Might translate to a good logo
3. Easy to integrate into a business card and design a good website theme around

Feel free to throw out your wacky ideas about how I could go about branding myself and what comes to mind when you think of "Doug Warner."

According to Wikipedia, I have cubital tunnel syndrome, although the orthopedist I saw this morning didn't describe it as such.

I've had a pain in my left elbow for quite some time now; probably over a year and a half (probably closer to 2 years) that although not severe, has become quite annoying to me.  I finally decided to see my family doctor about this about two weeks ago and they suggested I see an orthopedist about it and setup an appointment for me.  They said it would probably take some physical therapy or a cortisone shot - that didn't seem to bad to me.

My appointment this morning was pretty quick; I got an x-ray of my elbow and saw the doctor for probably less that five minutes.  He asked me if I had any numbness in my hand, and I realized that I did.  He immediately said we should setup an appointment for surgury to move the nerve. Woah!

Tiffany and I are expecting another baby sometime around the end of this month, so I elected to wait a bit to schedule the appointment to see how Tiff's recovery goes, but after reading some articles about this syndrome it doesn't seem like something I want to let go too long as it can lead to muscle wasting in the hand.  I'll probably set it up for November or December.

Your lesson for the day: don't let those minorly annoying but nagging pains go on for too long.  This probably could have been treated with ibruprofin, physical therapy, and/or cortisone shot if it was treated early, but the prolonged wear on the nerve pretty much makes surgury the only option for fixing this before it gets worse.

I'm thinking about ditching my Subaru WRX.  The main reason?  More space.  I love my WRX; it hasn't let me down (although there are those close to me that feel that my rate of 1 accident/yr since purchase is too high) but there just isn't enough space with our growing family.  A sub-compact care is very cramped with adults in the back seat; and having two car seats back there might be problematic.  The trunk space isn't very good, either.

So while searching for a larger car, I also wanted something more fuel-efficient.  I'm not sure if fuel-efficient is the same as energy-efficient, but that's the best I can do right now on mainstream technologies (no hydrogen-electirc-gas hybrids for now).  I know this means leaving my "high-horsepower low-curb-weight" (car insurance's words) vehicle behind, but I didn't want a little econobox, either.

So research into hybrids that are room lead me to three main choices: the Chevy Mailibu, the Toyota Prius, and the Toyota Camry (the Nissan Altima was eliminated due to not being available in PA).

The Mailibu was eliminated due to it's very weak hybrid system - it can't run off only its electric motors, so it's fuel savings is drastically reduced; to the point of pretty much being useless (especially given the cost difference over non-hybrids).

So that leaves the Toyota Prius and Camry.  While the Prius is definitenly the main contender here, I'm looking into the Camry mainly because it is slightly larger and has higher overall horsepower.  It should make for a more luxourious ride over the Prius as well.  It does have lower EPA MPG estimates (33/34 for the Camry vs ~44 for the Prius) but this is still a significant improvement over my ~25MPG in my WRX.  Since I don't have a commute any more Tiff might become the primary driver of the vehicle which will definitely help compared to her 20MPG Jeep Liberty.

Fitzgerald Toyota in Chambersburg has a fully-loaded Toyota Camry Hybrid coming into stock in about a week that I'm going to go test drive.  With all the options it comes very close to $32k, but I should be able to trade my WRX in for $12-14k and financing the rest at 0% APR shouldn't be a problem.

I'll be speaking at CPOSC this October in Harrisburg, PA.  I will being giving a talk about Mozdev's architecture and history; about how it has grown over time from an all-volunteer effort to my current employment with Mozdev and where Mozdev is going.  I plan to go over some of the architectural changes that have come about through its lifetime and how we've tackled certain challenges.

Registration at CPOSC is limited to 100 people and seats are going quickly.  The conference is being held Sunday, October 19th in Harrisburg, PA; if you're interested in coming I'd recommend signing up soon!

Wow; none of those things are in the correct order.

Going backwards (and the first event of this blog, considering when it started) is the replacement of my living room HTPC.  It's been acting funny for some time (ignoring a lot of IR input) and locked up mid-week last week.  I opened it up to find the north/south-bridge heatsink laying on the bottom of the case.  I fixed that, but I believe damage has already been done as the PS/2 ports no longer function and USB devices only work intermittently (my IR receiver is USB).  Last night I finally ordered a new Socket AM2 motherboard, Athlon X2 CPU, and RAM to replace the internals due to not being able to find a good deal on a socket 939 motherboard to reuse my existing CPU and RAM (look for craigslist items soon!).

The next most-recent thing was setting up a car lift at my father-in-law's place yesterday.  He purchased one at the Carlisle Corvette Show this weekend and I went along to watch the disassembly and help set everything back up.  The thing is pretty slick, and I already know I need to use it to look under my WRX for an hole in the exhaust.  That took the bulk of the afternoon to tear down, transport and assemble, but given it's job I think that's pretty good!

Friday a lot of my camera gear arrived, but I didn't get to play with it until Saturday since we were visiting my parents Friday evening after I helped Tiffany setup her classroom some.  The Nikon D40 is a great little camera that has some great potential.  Most people's reactions have been "too many buttons" while I find the available buttons great and in intuitive places that faciliates quick and easy changes when you need them.  The Canon SD870is showed up and Tiff thinks she'll enjoy using that much more than my S2 is, so hopefully there'll be more pictures with me in them soon!  I also picked up a Kata DR-467 backpack that ended up being a little larger in-person than I had anticipated, but is incredibly light and well-designed.  I'll try to post a better review once I've had a chance to use it in some more situations.  Right now I'm pretty much using my Crumpler 4 Million Dollar Home which is a great bag for an SLR + accessory (flash in my case).  The Canon S2 is should be up on craigslist soon, as well.

Last Thursday Brady and I went for a hike in what I call "North Mountain" (which is actually "Bower Mountain" of the Blue Mountain chain according to the DCNR maps of Tuscarora Forest) on Bower Mtn Road; it was a nice 7ish Mi hike that's relatively flat and has been done a number of times before (one of which is an infamous "pipeline" hike that last well into the night with no flashlights or other ambient light) but was exceptionally dusty this time due to recent roadwork.

I have a doctor's appointment today to renew my allergry meds and have the doctor look at my elbow.  I've had this pain in my left elbow for probably over 1 year and a half now; it seems like it's pressure related; possibly the nerve being pinched.  It's especially problematic when I lean on my elbow (which I do frequently when sitting at my desk) or when I do some prolonged activity like driving for a couple hours.  We'll see what they say.

Our 35/36 week prenatal checkup is this Friday as well as Jocelyn's 18 month well-baby checkup.  She's been relatively cold-free this summer since she hasn't been at day care, but that starts back up tomorrow with school starting.  I imagine she's due for some shots as well, so that might be a "fun" visit.

Tiff and I are looking forward to an evening out after our prenatal appointment on Friday.  We've tried to make sure we go on a "date" once a month since Jocelyn was born, but it typically ends up being 1 1/2 to 2 months.  While we can individually go do things (either with Jocelyn or by ourselves) fairly easily, it's much more difficult for both parents to get away to do things.  Who knows; maybe this is my chance to see The Dark Knight!

Ever since Sam posted his Nikon D50 on Craigslist I've had the bug to get into SLR photography.

I need to justify this somehow; I do it by claiming it's to photograph the new baby since the last photos were poorly lit. Other than indoor photography, I'm also into outdoor photography; so my subjects are typically landscapes or family. My Canon S2 IS is great, but I'd like something that is more sensitive to low-light conditions without flash, has support for indirect flash when needed, a stronger flash for outdoor portraits, and has a wider-angle lens. I'm not going to find that in P&S territory, so DSLR it is.

A lot of the reviews I've read say that the Nikon D40 is a great starter camera (despite others trying to convince me to start with the D70). I'd like something that has a good sensor and is lightweight and it seems to fit the bill well.

At the same time, I need to have something that's convenient to carry, so I plan on getting a Canon SD870IS. This will probably help Tiffany take some more photos too since she's a little intimidated by even my S2 IS; the buttons are laid out very well on this camera and the UI is very intuitive, so I hope it's intimidation factor is quite low.

Additional things I plan on getting to make it easier to get my camera around:

• Kata DR-467 backpack - for carrying my laptop, camera, and camcorder to family functions and my camera on hikes
• Nikon SB-400 Speedlight Flash for bouncing the flash indoors and stronger front-lighting outdoors

I still have my Crumpler 4 Million Dollar Home bag which will be nice for carrying just the SLR around.

I expect my Canon S2 IS to go up on Craigslist shortly after I place this order, get your reservations in now if interested.

Found here (who found it here who found it here).

Some more photos (end of OSCON, trip on the way through Vancouver to Whistler for moz08).

• Last day of OSCON
• Pre-moz08 stop in Seattle on the way to Vancouver
• Pre-moz08 trip to Vancouver; border crossing
• Pre-moz08 first night in Vancouver
• Pre-moz08 day in Vancouver
• Moz08 trip to Whistler from Vancouver

Thanks for having us at the Mozilla Summit (called moz08)!

Here's some pics of us here:

Jay saying thanks in MozCafe

Me saying thanks for the people manning the registration area and swag

More pictures from Moz08

Look! Only two months worth of photos this time; I'm getting better!

Here's some things, events and pictures of Jocelyn:

http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/things/New+Fridge+and+Playground/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/trips/Raystown+2008/Logan+and+Jocelyn+...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/trips/Raystown+2008/Tiffany+and+Jocely...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Dads+Birthday+2008/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/4th+of+July+2008/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/Ella+Jones+2nd+Birthday/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Baby2/Tiffany+at+30...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Jocelyn+on+...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Bubble+Bear...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/First+Facep...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Lounging+on...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Enjoying+Gr...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Caged/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Eating+pop-...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Computing+a...
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/life/Family-Photos/Jocelyn/Jocelyn+Swi...

Here's my OSCON trip so far:
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/OSCON+2008/Day+0+-+20080722/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/OSCON+2008/Day+1+-+20080723/
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/OSCON+2008/Day+2+-+20080724/

My second day at OSCON was also terrific. I continued to meet new people and got to spend more time talking with others. There were two sessions that I wanted to see, and they were:

• Integration Testing PHP Applications - this was a little more overview that I had hoped, but it did go over Selenium and when it's best to use that vs. your own HTML parser (which should hopefully be in PHPUnit 3.3).
• Top 10 Scalability Mistakes - After some of the "overview"-like talks I had been to, I was pleased to see this one get into a good bit of detail that allows you to plan for specific situations better by giving you some context. I recommend checking out the slides.

I spent most of the afternoon helping out at the Mozilla booth and helping break down the booth when the expo was over. In the evening there was the SourceForge Community Choice Awards at the Jupiter hotel and an after-party called BeerForge at the Bossanova. The Bossanova was a really nice venue (whereas the DJ wasn't amazing) and getting to hang out and talk to various people was great.

I looked through Stephen Lau's photos and selfishly picked out the ones that had myself in it (if only to prove that I'm here):

• Rob and Jay talking to people at the Mozilla booth
• Me talking w/ Max (from Bugzilla)
• Eric and Brian at the Mozdev BoF
• David at the Mozdev BoF

My own photos from the past couple days are uploading; hopefully I can update the post soon w/ the pictures.

Update 2008-07-26 00:15
Photos of my first three days at OSCON are up:
http://www.silfreed.net/gallery/v/events/OSCON+2008/

Big day at OSCON today. I got into town at 01:00 this morning and taking the cab to the hotel wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (but more expensive than I had planned).

I was able to get a hold of and meet Brian King and David Boswell later in the morning (at normal waking hours) and we met up with Eric Jung as well.

The day was a blur of meeting tons of people; some for the first time, some putting faces to names (or IRC nicks); I attended a number of sessions, also got hang out with a lot of great people from all walks of the Mozilla community.

The sessions I ended up going to were:

• The Internet is an Ogre: Finding Art in the Software Architecture - this one was pretty good overview of how the Internet is a hard thing to develop for but how a proper architecture can make your life easier
• PHP Taint Tool: It Ain't a Parser - I was interested in learning about the work done in static analysis for PHP, but it ended up being too technical for me and I tuned a lot out
• White beautiful code (in PHP) - I really enjoyed Laura's talk and her insights on what can be done to make your code, well, beautiful. I'm hoping to be able to discuss more with her next week at the Summit about some code-structure problems Mozdev has (such as how to architect a good test suite) as well as how Mozdev could integrate with AMO (and thanks for the encouragement on my blog last week!)
• Firefox Delivered: OSS Infrastructure for the Masses - Justin's talk on Mozilla's infrastructure was great and went over the steps Mozilla has taken to be able to scale to its needs. This was a nice overview of the problems Mozdev might face in the future as it continues to grow.
• Give Your Site a Boost with memcached - Ben Ramsey's talk on memcached was very helpful for me to solidify questions I had about how memcached can be best integrated into an application without writing a ton of code to handle the interactions between your db layer and caching layer; it was a big help to see some of that in practice

I also participated in the Mozdev-led BoF on Tools and Other Resources for Mozilla Extension Development. This turned out to be a great discussion on what tools are available for extension developers and what we can possibly do to improve things (such as better chrome debuggers, implementing dependency resolution in the update process, and having support for multiple update repositories).

The day ended at the Montage with MoCo and a couple other members of the community. A big thanks to MoCo for allowing us to tag along; it was great to be a part everything that's going on!

I was able to setup the MediaIndexer (working project name) website and repository tonight so Brady and I have a place to coordinate. Trac + Mercurial was really pretty easy to setup; and I've had the sources in Mercurial for a week or so already (made it nice for copying code around between my computers and tracking changes).

Our goals are pretty ambitious; develop a media indexer that can detect when files go bad and synchronize/backup those files between friends.

Already Brady has some scripts thrown together that accomplish a lot of identification of files which we can then use to create rsync commands to try to pull his damaged files back from my server.

Longer term we'd like to try to create an architecture where friends can have their files indexed locally but search other friends' files for better versions, versions with less errors, or recover their own files with problems if they were synced from the same source.