Broox News http://derek.broox.com Derek's Life Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:19:41 -0600 http://www.broox.com en IE6, The End is Near Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:26:25 -0600 broox news 1 comment
Tags: Tech, Web]]>
Check out this wonderful email that I (and probably a lot of us) got.

Important Notice: Google Apps browser support

Dear Google Apps admin,​

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
The Google Apps team

Sweet mother of awesome. Despite Microsoft claiming they're going to support IE6 til like 2014, big sites revolting can only speed along that process. I'm hoping that it will be phased out by the time the POS is a decade old... like XP. As of now, it looks like less than 5% of my site's visitors use IE6 (and only 30% use IE), which is much better than I expected.

Phasing out IE6 and harnessing HTML5. Let's see what happens fo Flash after this... The internet is growing up.

I haven't been this excited about a browser going away since AOL pulled the plug on Netscape back in 03.

Tags: Tech, Web]]> I am awesome at sleeping Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:01:02 -0600 broox news 6 comments
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So in my sleep, I got my phone out, somehow unlocked it with my magical Android unlock pattern, and was looking at maps. The only thing I really remember is that the brightness of my phone woke Kari up, she wondered wtf was going on, and I couldn't explain it to her. I could not for the life of me figure out the words for google maps, gps, navigation, directions, etc... The only thing I could come up with was "the nightstand alarm map thing."

I got pissed about my lack of sleep communication skills... but apparently there was more to the story. Here's an email from Kari this morning:

so last nite i wake up to you getting all excited, rubbing all over me, trying to make out and laughing hysterically...

me: "wtf derek? what are you doing?"
you: "oh boy!" rubbing your hands together, and clapping

then i thought you went back to sleep, but a couple minutes later you were laughing, looking at your phone...

me: "derek, what are you doing? go to sleep babe. you are dreaming."
you: "well! where is the map?"
me: i am getting hysterical now... "what map? what are you looking for derek?"
you: "well you said you had the map to the nite stand!"
me: "what?! you are dreaming... there is no map for the nite stand!"
you: "you're a liar! the map for the alarm on the nite stand! where is it? you said you had it!"
me: "derek! there is no map, you are dreaming! you aren't even making sense! go back to bed!"
you: "you are lying!"
me: "okay." hysterically laughing! haha!

then you just got pissed, and went back to sleep. and when i tried to rub your back, you were real mad at me.. hahaha!

...At least I didn't pee in her closet.

Tags: none]]> From Sea to Shining Sea Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:02:57 -0600 broox news 0 comments
Tags: none]]> east and west coasts... And actually, I also touched the northern border and was only 30 miles from the southern border. I know I'm a geo dork, but I think that's pretty rad... and while we're on the subject, I'll just go ahead keep gauging the success of last year based on travel... so here we go.

We started and ended the year in Iowa City. Visited Arizona, Harper's Ferry, NYC and New Jersey, and Long Beach and LA.

Made several stops in...
Minnesota for Bock Fest and my first Boundary Waters trip.
The Cedar Rapids Area for Lindsey and Stevee's Birthday, Wall Paneling, Mother's Day, Flooring, Kayaking, Cornell Homecoming, Cigars, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Chicago for Joyce's Birthday, Liz and Jon's wedding, Lollapalooza, and Partying with Diverse.
The Quad Cities for Mother's Day, My Birthday, HS Reunion, and Christmas.

I'm talkin about some serious traveling! Then in addition to that I checked out some shows and festivals like Girl Talk, Gross Domestic Product, 80/35, Lollapalooza, and ICP.

2009 did had a couple rough spots - like losing Ninja and losing that house we were fightin for... but overall, I think 2009 was pretty solid. I got a new little nephew, did a lot of kayaking, my "little cousin" Anthony graduated High School, dad got to visit for fathers day, and I picked up some sidework getting to help out with dipity.com.

Going through my site and finding all this info seriously puts me in a good mood. I have a good life.... and have really high hopes for 2010. I'm excited for THE FUTURE!

Tags: none]]> Where Did December Go? Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:04:54 -0600 broox news 0 comments
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I've been meaning to blog so freakin hard but have just been swamped beyond swamped.

The main thing that I wanted to write about was my trip to Long Beach for Pragmatic Studio's iPhone development course... but now that's a month past and a lot of other stuff's been going on.... I'll try to keep this semi-short.

So Red Five (my employer) is starting to work on a little iPhone app for a client of ours... and since neither of our engineers really knew iPhone dev, let alone objective-C, we decided it'd be a good idea to get schooled. So the first week of December, Todd and I flew out to Long Beach to do just that. It was awesome.

Long Beach is kind of a weird place, but definitely showed us a good time. There was more than enough to keep us occupied on Pine street - seafood, tapas, wings, irish bar, mai tais (Todd LOVES mai tais), etc.

The iPhone training was also really, really solid. Those pragmatic people are great teachers - and really know how to take care of developers. Soooo many snacks and refreshments. I'm really happy our company was able to send us. It was a great class. ...and now I really wish I had a bit of time to work on my own iPhone app. I've got a couple ideas and now have a bit of know-how.

After the iPhone conference Kari flew out to visit me and spend the weekend in Hollywood. LA (again) is such a weird place. It just feels like 1 giant suburb. Regardless though, we had a good time. The Standard hotel was pretty fun, plus we got to meet up with Katie, Bryndon, and Cecil.

Other than that though, I've been keeping busy helping friends/family build sites (www.marymcadams.com and www.smithsonwoodworks.com), editing all sorts of family videos and burning them to DVD, getting tattooed, shoveling snow... and most importantly spending lots of time with friends and family for the holidays.

Some pretty exciting news for me is that I was recently offered a part-time contract position for a San Francisco based web startup. It's a pretty awesome little company that wrote a crazy JS based timeline. They then have creative ways of mining for data and displaying it along special timelines. I love data collection, I love timelines, and I'm really excited to get to play with both... with some really smart people. www.dipity.com - check it out.

So yeah... Currently working on an iPhone App, Rails apps, Dipity, and various other stuff. I'm happy with this. I'm happy for the future...

Tags: none]]> Ninja, The Million Dollar Bionic Legged Dog Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:43:32 -0600 broox news 19 comments
Tags: Ninja]]> I don't even really know how to start this... But as I'm sure you all have heard, our dog Ninja died this morning at just over 5 years old.

He'd been battling what we think was Addison's disease for the past couple weeks. Addison's disease is a disorder in which his adrenal glands don't produce enough steroid hormones. This basically sent his electrolytes out of wack, causing him to lose his appetite, become very weak, etc. It all came on super fast the monday before last. He was lethargic, unresponsive, and as what I can only describe as doggy-emo. So we took him into the vet, they hooked him up to some IVs, gave him a couple shots and he bounced back to his regular self - literally overnight. We then began weaning him off of his medicine again so that we could do the official Addison's test tomorrow. Needless to say, he didn't quite make it that far...

Last night he started to slow down again. He got pretty weak and wasn't really walking a whole lot, however he was extremely responsive and as happy as he always is - snuggling, wagging his tail. My only thought was, we have to get him through til Friday so we can get this testing done and begin treating his disease. He seemed fine aside from the walking thing, so we gave him more medicine... it didn't seem to help.

This morning, he wasn't walking at all. However, he was still the same, happy Ninja - showing no sign of pain... Just wagging his tail, happy to be by my side. Even so, I knew something was up, and I was going to take him to the animal hospital to fix it.

So I carried him up to the couch and hung out with him for a bit... he was happy. The first thing I noticed, was that Kari took her car - no big deal, I'd just take the passenger seat out of my truck and lay him in there.

I hung out with him for a bit more on the couch; he was playful, happy, but completely helpless. I asked God at that point, "please. fix this," and carried him upstairs to bed while I got ready to take him to the vet. As I started to get ready I looked over at him and his happiness was gone. He was laying on his side with his tail straight down, breathing super heavily. I put my arms around him, he started trembling, shaking. I started screaming his name while shaking him. Completely unresponsive. I splashed cold water in his face - I didn't know wtf that would do, but I was panicking. I held him and called his name some more - he went limp right there in front of me. I watched the life go right out of his eyes.... I lost it. Yelling at myself for not fixing it in time, at the dog for not waiting for me to get it taken care of. I lost it.

Watching Ninja go and then having to take care of him afterwards was without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done.

But that dog was an ultimate fighter. He showed absolutely no sign of pain right up until his death. I mean, we cut his thumbs off as a puppy, he didn't care. He was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, he didn't care. He tore both of his ACLs, had his tibia's sawed off, and reattached with metal plates... he didn't care. He even had allergies so bad he'd rub the fur right off his face and gnaw his feet til they were raw. The dog was basically a lemon... but he didn't care. And last week when his legs began to randomly stop working... he still didn't care. He was happy to be alive, happy to be by our side. He was literally wagging his tail right up until his last breaths.

Some of you probably think this is a little ridiculous. It's just a dog, right? Nah. He was a part of our family. Try to look at these photos and tell me otherwise... I mean... we had a freaking dog birthday party for him.

I don't really know what else to say at this point. I loved that dog.

Tags: Ninja]]> New York City Speed Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:05:28 -0500 broox news 4 comments
Tags: Travel]]>
So Kari and I flew into NYC last Saturday and took a cab from the airport to dad's friends' place. As soon as we left the airport, I started to realize how giant NYC is - it's ridiculous. I mean, I'm a huge fan of Chicago and think of it is a huge city… but the difference between Chicago and New York seemed like the difference between Des Moines and Chicago. The size and amount of life amazed me. I really didn't expect it to seem so much bigger than Chicago, but it really is... and we didn't even leave Manhattan.

Anyway, while we were in the city, we stayed in Harlem with dad's friends, Joe and Eve, who were crazy nice, great hosts, and gave us all the inside NY info.

So Saturday we came in, hung out at Joe and Eve's for a bit, then checked out Times Square before having cocktails with a bunch of Dad's friends at a little place called Monte Blanc. Afterwards, Kari and I met up with an old High School buddy (goch), he showed us around to some various bars in the lower east village. We checked out Angels and Kings, The Library, and Welcome to the Johnson's. Welcome to the Johnson's was like walking into someone's basement - hilarious. It was awesome to run around with Goch for a bit.

Sunday we woke up to Eve making us a fancy/amazing brunch, then we headed out to explore the city some more and see a show. Kari really wanted to see a broadway show while we were in NYC, but the only show we really agreed on was Stomp. So we checked that out, then went to this indian restaurant my friend Katie suggested. In fact, here was her exact suggestion, "Milon Indian Restaurant. SO SO SO FUN. you'll see it, there are 3 different restaurants, decorated like you've never seen. they have indian people outside screaming at you to come into their place, but go to the top right hand one, you'll know what i mean when you see it. good, cheap indian food.. and you HAVE to tell them its your birthday, you wont be sorry."

She was pretty much right on - except the top right one wasn't Milon, it was another one. So we walked up the steps and toward the top right restaurant while indian dudes from each restaurant are yelling at us to come to their place instead. We got into the restaurant and realized it was the wrong one. So we left and started to go to the top left restaurant, which sent them into a rage, yelling even more. Kari even got flicked by the manager, haha. So we finally got to the correct place, sat down and had dinner. The place was decorated like none other, the food was good, and it was cheap. And when I told them it was Kari's birthday, some birthday club music came on, lights started flashing, and we got some dessert. It was an awesome time.

After indian food we shopped, explored more, and checked out the empire state building. The inside of the building is beautiful and the views from the 86th floor are amazing.

Monday, we went out and explored some more, walked through Central Park (which is ridiculously not small), and paid a visit to Tiffany for Kari's birthday. The Tiffany in NY is a bit out of control - 6 floors. While we were there we got our rings polished, and got Kari a new necklace. She obviously left smiling.

After Tiffany we walked around more, grabbed some BBQ, then met my friend Alexei for a beer before heading to Dad's place, which is a 45 minute ferry ride away. It was definitely cool seeing the whole night skyline and statue of liberty while boating across the bay. There is so much life right there; it's incredible. (and really hard to photograph)

Tuesday was Kari's actual birthday. So Kari and I woke up then went for a bike ride up the Jersey shore to a little restaurant for lunch. It was a really nice time except for the part when Kari broke her new necklace on her bike seat, haha. It was kind of a bummer, but we kept on going, checked out a lighthouse, then ended the day by going out to get some seafood.

Wednesday, we drove down the Jersey shore, checking out some crazy houses and parks, and also went into the lighthouse we visited the day before. And luckily, there was another Tiffany just a couple towns over from dad's place, so we went and got Kari's necklace replaced, had a nice lunch then came back home to chill for the evening.

So yeah, that was our trip to NY and NJ... we stayed busy for sure. My favorite part of the trip was just exploring unfamiliar territory and seeing new things.

Here are a ton of photos

Tags: Travel]]> Conked My Head! Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:37:16 -0500 broox news 9 comments
Tags: Chicago, Pain, Travel]]>
It all started Saturday when we somehow forgot to eat more than 2 slices of pizza, walked all over Chicago, then partied. All of that combined... turned out to be a really solid recipe for low-blood sugar, which is no stranger to me and my family. My dad is hypoglycemic, and I'm pretty sure this has been passed down to my sister and I.

I've passed out a few other times due to low blood sugar. The last time was my freshman year in college. We were doing these crazy exercises in my morning acting class. I put my arms above my head, and passed right out. Luckily that time though, there was a mirrored wall behind me. I basically slammed into that and slid down to the floor... The rest of the class thought I was acting... then Tyler Broders and Matt Loptein walked me to the health center.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I woke up, went to the bathroom, and halfway through the pee, I got super light headed. The next thing I remember is waking up on the bathroom floor to German and Diverse going absolutely nuts, screaming for an ambulance.

What basically happened was: I fainted while flushing, hit my forehead on the toilet, then went straight backwards nailing the back of my head on the tile floor. German was sleeping on the floor right outside of the bathroom. He heard the toilet seat slam down and a body hit the floor, so he opened his eyes and could just see blood pouring out of my head under the crack of the door. Scary. Everyone thought I was dead.

So they freaked out, got me woke up and I sat there for a few minutes composing myself. I then took a photo of my blood, tweeted the incident, walked to Walgreens to get a dewski, then took a cab to the ER with German and Kinnera. It was a pretty crazy start to the day for sure. Quite annoying actually.

But the hospital was pretty awesome. They cleaned up my cut, took a couple tests, got me caught up on my tetanus shots, took a ct scan, stuck 5 staples in my head, and sent me on my way.

I was at the hospital so long that I didn't even get to eat lunch until about 5pm that day, haha. I'm glad to be home and back on an eating schedule. ;)

So, I'm still pretty sore and swollen. I think I got some serious whiplash in there somewhere cause my neck is really the worst part... but all's well. I'm not dead, nothing is serious. And sorry for scaring anyone. I can't imagine waking up and seeing your friend laying in a pool of his own blood. Thanks a million to everyone that took care of me.

Tags: Chicago, Pain, Travel]]> Not Having TV Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:15:44 -0500 broox news 0 comments
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And since then, I haven't had TV. I mean, I've had TVs, but I haven't had channels; I've never even hooked the coax up to the wall.

Usually when I tell people this, their first reaction is something along the lines of, "what!? omg, wtf do you do all night!?" Which I find hilarious. I just can't imagine coming home from work and flipping on a TV. I also find it pretty hilarious when we have TV-head guests over and they have no idea what to do.

So what do I do instead? I guess the short answer is that I just let my A.D.D. decide. I try to stay social, work on 1000 random projects (at once), and listen to music non-stop.

I'm pretty proud of not having television for over 10 years. I've been doing more productive things, right? Probably, but I feel like I should have more to show for it... I feel like, without TV my house should always be spotless, I should have no unfinished projects, etc.... Definitely not the case - there's always more to do.

And I guess there are a few downsides that come along with no TV. I find that I miss out on a lot of jokes, sit silently while people are talking about the latest shows, rarely hear about new movies, and miss out on commercials (which I think are hilarious). But uh.... if those are the only cons I can think of after 10 years... I'm pretty sure no-TV is for me.

Another interesting thing that happened 10 years ago... I bought my first computer, which I don't think is a coincidence. If I need to sit down and do something mindless, I'll work on photos, find new music, organize something, browse the internet, etc. Most of which I still find fairly productive.

So yeah... 10 years. Kinda crazy.

We should go have a celebratory drink or something.
You'll find my face glued to the bar TVs. "omg! what are these moving pictures!"

Tags: none]]> New Homepage Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:42:33 -0500 broox news 2 comments
Tags: Web]]>
Come to think of it, it seems like everyone's personal site basically follows that same model. We've all focused on our "blogs," however, after a few months/years, everyone seems to get bored with blogging. Don't get me wrong, I still like to blog - it's just something I don't do often...

So I started thinking about my web presence and where most of my online "footprint" lies these days. The answer is microblogging, photos, and geolocation. These are the things that my homepage should be reflecting.

So here it is... it's not the prettiest thing in the world, because as it turns out - I'm a horrible designer. But it's functional and seems to represent the latest of my updates. (For real - whichever section has the most recent update will automatically be pushed to the top of the homepage)

Enjoy! and please tell me what you think or how I can make it better.

Tags: Web]]> Boundary Waters 2009 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:27:20 -0500 broox news 1 comment
Tags: Minnesota, Travel]]> Well, you may have noticed that I've been completely off the grid for a few days. At least, you must've noticed that your internet was slightly less clogged with my nonsense. That's because I've been camping, canoeing, and hiking the boundary waters with Josh, Chris, Will, Scott, and Cal.

No phone service, no internet, no toilets, no running water, no electricity - just straight wilderness. In fact the area we were in doesn't allow motorboats or even wheels on land. Add in a few of our own rules like "no watches" and paddling miles a day - you start to question whether or not you're really on a "vacation."

So last Wednesday we started our adventure by driving to Voyageur Outfitters in Cook County, MN. Josh's sister and her boyfriend both work at Voyageur, and Josh used to work at what you could call Voyageur's sister outfitter. That said, we got mad hookups - the first of which being hooked up with their cabin for the first night. Immediately after throwing our gear into the cabin we jumped into the river out back. The clarity was ridiculous - I could see my feet while swimming in a river. A river!

So after swimming for a bit we headed to dinner at the Gunflight Lodge, saw a moose along the way, then checked out the meteor shower from the dock by our cabin. I've never seen such an amazing view of the sky. Crystal clear night, zero light pollution, and a couple dozen meteors. It was amazing - you could see the Milky Way so clearly.

Day 2

We woke up early to get our tow out to American Point - where we'd start our canoe journey. Once at American point we got into the water and continued a tradition of Josh's old BWCA group - 5 minutes of silence. You just sit in the water for ~5 minutes and listen to complete silence. It's pretty awesome. After that, we paddled out to deep water, dipped our SIGG bottles into the lake and drank fresh lake water.

We then paddled and portaged til lunch, enjoying the scenery, clean waters, GORP (Good Ol Raisins 'n Peanuts), and remembering that we forgot all of our lunch meat and cheese in the Voyageur cabin fridge. The only sandwich ingredients we had were peanut butter, onion, honey mustard, and Tabasco sauce. All were combined to make sandwiches... You'd be surprised how good a peanut butter onion sandwich tastes after a morning of paddling.

Also, if you don't know what portaging is - it's what you call hauling your gear and canoes across land to get to lakes that aren't connected by water.

So after lunch we paddled until we found a campsite that we liked, swam for a bit, setup camp, waited out a storm, then made dinner - which consisted of Beef Stroganoff, Corn, and Pudding. It was a great day.

Day 3

We woke up, had pancakes, packed up the campsite and started canoeing again. Much of the trip is pretty repetitive... just canoe, camp, and enjoy the wilderness.

So we made our way around Knife Lake stopping to hike to the top of Thunder Point for lunch.

We then paddled til we found our second (and amazingly awesome) campsite. It was really setback, open, had an awesome swimming hole, and a shitter with a view. I loved it. So we swam, goofed off, napped, and I got to use my first latrine. We then had dinner, saw some otters, almost got landed on by a golden eagle, and watched the sunset.

Oh - and we also saw a few bald eagles, lots of loons, and no other humans. it was a really good day.

Day 4

We cleaned up the campsite and took off with 1 goal - to get the awesome campsite with a beach on Saganaga Lake.

So we paddled, saw more bald eagles, loons, another moose, and more beautiful wilderness.

While we were stopped for a quick peanut butter/onion sandwich break, we noticed another group of canoers passing us. So we quickly got back in our canoes and the race began. In fact, at the next portage, Will overheard that the group that passed us was also trying to get in early to grab the awesome beach site. So Josh and Chris took off while the rest of us portaged the gear. The only problem was - Josh and Chris forgot the map.

When the rest of us caught up to Josh and Chris, we noticed they were going the wrong way; the other group was 50 yards behind them looking at their map. It was a good accidental distraction, but the other group wound up taking the lead... until the second accidental distraction - a moose.

So while they were looking at the moose we caught up, admired the moose, but also quietly kept paddling past them. That's when they knew it was on. Both of our groups just bolted - it was the most childish, awesome thing ever. We weren't talking to each other, we were just in an all out race to the beach... All probably about 20 yards apart.

There's one point, at the bottom of Saganga Lake where the lakes get incredibly narrow with lots of rocks. 1 canoe can safely fit through at a time... But Josh's dad (Cal) and Will slammed through the rocks at the same time as the other group, haha. They literally crashed into each other while fighting to get through the rocks. Cal even pushed off of the front of their canoe with his paddle, haha.

The race ended with Scott and I in an all out battle with 1 of their canoes. We'd both left the rest of our groups behind - paddling as hard as we could; we barely won the 3.5 mile race to the beach... only to find out the campsite had already been taken. Mega bummer.

So after all that work, we decided we were gonna swim there for a bit anyway - so we did. It was really nice. But while we were swimming the group we were racing got the last campsite between there and the outfitters. Seriously.

We then had to paddle the rest of the way in, across giant waters, after a 3.5 mile race - missing our last night of camping. It sorta sounds like a story your grandpa would tell you, but we literally canoed 22+ miles with either crosswinds or headwinds - all in 1 day. It was ridiculous, hilarious, and I never want to do it again.

So after the amazing race, we made our last camp dinner, had some beer, showered, and checked out The Windigo - a bar Josh used to visit when he worked there.

All in all, it was an amazing trip. It was hard work, short - and inadvertently got cut shorter, but it was really beautiful and a lot of fun. We've got some ideas for next year... I'm excited to do it again.

Here are the rest of the photos.

Tags: Minnesota, Travel]]>