Prancing Pony Attack
July 9, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
5comments Categories: Castle, Friends, Insider, Picture of the Day, Squirrels
Tags: hackysack, pony, prancing
There’s a handful of people who have witnessed the raw power of the prancing pony attack in real life. (A Jedi like maneuver I’ve been known to do while playing hacky-sack.) And while I always envisioned it more like a baby unicorn coming at you, this is probably more along the lines of what the rest of you actually see.
Shout Out to the Peepguins
June 19, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
3comments Categories: Castle, Friends, Insider, Picture of the Day, Squirrels
Tags: peepguins
Not everyone is pictured here. From left to right I’m thinking Poem, Jed, Karl and Kevin.
The Hulk: More Powerful Than Superman
June 2, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
5comments Categories: Insider, Marketing, Religion, Science, gnash-teeth
Tags: comics, hulk, superman
This will probably be the first of many posts to address the misguided, fanboy, delusional belief that DC Comics Superman could defeat Marvel Comics The Incredible Hulk. This is a topic that has always bothered me and my friend Lauren Miller recently reminded me that this gross, almost religious denial of fact continues.
An excerpt from Wikipedia
The Hulk possesses the potential for limitless physical strength depending directly on his emotional state, particularly his anger.[32] This has been reflected in the repeated comment “The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets.” His durability, healing, and endurance increase in relation to his temper.[33] The Hulk is also extremely resistant to most forms of injury or damage, including physical, psychic, environmental extremes, and is immune to disease and poisons. His powerful legs allow him to leap into lower Earth orbit or across continents.[34] He also has less commonly described powers, including abilities allowing him to “home in” to his place of origin in New Mexico, and to see and interact with astral forms. He has been shown to have both regenerative and adaptive healing abilities, including growing tissues to allow him to breathe underwater, surviving unprotected in space, and when injured, healing from almost any wound within seconds, including regenerating lost mass.
As Bruce Banner (and the Merged/Professor Hulk), he is considered one of the greatest minds on Earth. He has developed expertise in the fields of biology, chemistry, engineering, and physiology, and holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. He possesses “a mind so brilliant it cannot be measured on any known intelligence test”.[35]
The image ^ is from Incredible Hulk Vs Superman (1997) where the Hulk easily breaks the surprise hold Superman nabs him with and throws him into space.
So to summarize, the Hulks power (strength, durability & regeneration) is essentially unknown and possibly limitless. It’s important to note that magic, viruses, diseases, and psionics have no effect. He’s also the smartest man on the planet.
Let’s now take a look at this “Superman”.
Excerpt from Wikipedia.
As an influential archetype of the superhero genre, Superman possesses extraordinary powers, with the character traditionally described as “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound”, a phrase coined by Jay Morton and first used in the Superman radio serials and Max Fleischer animated shorts of the 1940s[75] as well as the TV series of the 1950s. For most of his existence, Superman’s famous arsenal of powers has included flight, super-strength, invulnerability to non-magical attacks, super-speed, vision powers (including x-ray, heat, telescopic, infra-red, and microscopic vision), super-hearing, and super-breath, which enables him to freeze objects by blowing on them, as well as exert the propulsive force of high-speed winds.[76]
As originally conceived and presented in his early stories, Superman’s powers were relatively limited, consisting of superhuman strength that allowed him to lift a car over his head, run at amazing speeds and leap one-eighth of a mile, as well as incredibly tough skin that could be pierced by nothing less than an exploding artillery shell.[76] Siegel and Shuster compared his strength and leaping abilities to an ant and a grasshopper.[77]
….The extent of his powers peaked during the 1970s and 1980s to the point where various writers found it difficult to create suitable challenges for the character.
Superman began as essentially that, a super man. Overtime though Superman was so over inflated with God like powers that it became too ridiculous of a storyline to continue. Ultimately though this alien, (but a very human alien) is charged with power from our sun Sol. His power is then finite and not able to increase depending upon his mood. His use of this power in turn must then diminish it. Additionally he is highly susceptible to psionics, magic, several viruses and of course Kryptonite.
It is simply too unbelievable that this little man, with his silly underwear, cape and boots could possibly pose a problem for the intelligence and raw power of the Hulk.
Child Zero
January 11, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Fashion, Friends, Insider, PRWeb, Squirrels
One of my dear Penguins and friends Kevin, aka Zero has recently gotten almost back into blogging. The other day, finding no new content on his site I began checking out the sites on his blogroll, including his sisters blog - when what a great treasure I find.
Heeee
Kitten Penguin
January 9, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Insider, PRWeb, Picture of the Day, Squirrels
Zero,
This is the picture I’m using as my IM avatar.
It is someones cat dressed up for Halloween as a penguin.
That is all.
Google, PRWeb and the Audio CAPTCHA
January 2, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
2comments Categories: Castle, Insider, Marketing, PRWeb, Puter Stuff, Web Design & Dev
Darrell Shandrow of Blind Access Journal made a celebratory post of his many accomplishments this year (including marriage - congratulations Darrell!) and was kinda enough to mention the hard work last year that went into quickly making PRWeb’s CAPTCHA enabled contact forms more accessible to visually impaired and blind users.
January 2006 - PRWeb makes their visual verification scheme accessible in less than one week of the request! We thank Al Castle, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, for his amazing communication and responsiveness.
See the InternetNews article for more details including Google dropping the ball (repeatedly).
Unfortunately it appears, as of this writing, that the audio alternative is no longer available on the PRWeb “Email Contact Form”. I know after I left PRWeb there was a lot of work going on in upgrading the impressively complicated infrastructure which runs the press release juggernaut. It is perhaps a simple oversight (no pun intended) and I’m sure the team at PRWeb is on it.
All the best in your endeavors for 2008 Darrell.
No Pants
December 21, 2007 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Fashion, Friends, Insider, PRWeb
My first week after leaving PRWeb / Vocus, I spent lazily around the house. Often sitting at my computer in something skimpy. My daily delight was when Lauren was working, so I could instant message her, “NO PANTS”. To which she’d usually reply, “Me Either”. She’s pretty cool.
This past week due to the recent plague outbreak I haven’t gone anywhere. It’s important to note that I haven’t been bed-ridden. Yesterday I had to take my pets to the vet, it was as I got dressed that I realized this is the first time in a week I’ve been forced to wear pants.
That’s right, a whole week without having to wear and not wearing pants. I consider it a small victory for all good looking people who are forced to wear pants by our oppressive taboo-ridden culture.
So Thankful It Hurts
November 23, 2007 Posted by Al Castle
5comments Categories: Castle, Family, Friends, Insider, Must Listen, Squirrels, TimeKillers, TimeWaster
I’m immobile. Perhaps permanently confined to my lazy-boy and a soon to be 60 Minutes or Oprah special on obesity. A gluttonous mountain of hot Latino, stuffed with such tastiness I fear the police may come knocking to question the legality.
My mom really outdid herself this year, every dish was superb. The turkey wasn’t dry, the mashed potatoes weren’t lumpy and the gravy… oh the gravy! Such delectable roasted flightless fowl juice! It challenges my refreshing Sprite for the tile of ‘Sweet Nectar of the Gods’. I find myself drooling at the memory of it. Too many trips back for more, I lose count and just keep calling them “seconds”, I might have blacked out from the pain and joy. The bottles of wine might have played a part as well.
Slowly I recover from the feeding frenzy as the gravy lust subsides. My body finally forces me to stop, the laws of physics call. The new jeans I wear, which were too big, are now much too tight. I fear the lining of my stomach may tear apart if I move too suddenly. Internal organs bathed in masticated flesh and vegetables…no I must not think that. The horror of all that wasted gravy….
Sitting here, unable to reach the remote - I think of what I’m thankful for. My old co-worker Sue would call them blessings, my dear friend Jason would call it luck - the good fortune I’ve been allotted has taken many forms and shapes, sometimes not so obvious and other times so delightful I feel wrapped in joyx.
The engineers who designed this chair to hold my massive girth come to mind. As do the engineers from Nissan who designed the crumple zone of that Nissan Sentra which kept me alive many years ago. Of the emergency room witchdoctors which may have saved my life when I had chest pains. Pam the nurse who assisted when my daughter was born.
I think of the true friends I have in my life - old and new. David McInnis who’s taught me many things about business, management and generosity. Willybob for always being true and understanding. The Bonz for mentoring and forgiving me. Travis for being the poster child for a life-long boyhood friend and McGerr for not making me listen to his music. Carl I can’t imagine my life without you in it. My dear talented Penguins whom I judge all others against. Cari & Terry who let me vent, make me laugh and think my “quirks” are adorable.
And of course shout outs: Paolo you’ve shown me there’s hope yet for mankind. Jiyan, Robin, and Ryan - for showing me that creative and intelligent people do exist on the East coast. Bob & Mark of Vocus, I learned a few things about surviving in a large, public company. Mike & Joe who claim that not every gay man wants me. Chris for entertaining me by being a closet Mexican and Matt for not being a Latino.
My family, well most of them - you guys aren’t all that bad. I’m thankful for my animals - as Izzy and WeeWee play fight at my feet. The only thing that would make that scene better is if the Star Trek fight music was playing as they circle one another… Izzy becomes distracted and attacks a wall outlet. I love that damn cat.
It’s been a long time since I’ve reflected on what I’m thankful for. I also skimmed over a few people, but my greasy sausage like fingers are tired of typing. The gravy is taking its final hold on me, time to sleep.
Missing text From Feature Video Post
November 6, 2007 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Castle, Insider, PRWeb, gnash-teeth
This is the missing part of the PRWeb Feature Video blog post that I took out at the request of a co-worker so he wouldn’t have to deal with it. One of the links for the products and services now redirects. It used to take you to a page like this which listed out all the major services we built during my watch.
————————————————
The code for Feature Video was completed long ago, but as with all things in a larger company there are many levels to go through before anything I develop is shared with the customer base. The official announcement and press release has gone out this morning and the first thing I notice is my quote from the release is missing.
You’ll notice many places throughout the PRWeb products and services both before and after the sale where I am quoted (Holy Shift, SEO Wizard, New Analytics, Console Redesign….) mentioned, and thanked for my work. It is with some disappointment that I was not done the courtesy of being informed that our press release on Feature Video and containing our own Feature Video, would not include its charismatic creator in any way.
SysAdmin of the Year - Ode to Jed
November 5, 2007 Posted by Al Castle
add a comment Categories: Friends, Insider, PRWeb, Puter Stuff, Techy
I wrote this last month(?) or whenever System Administrators day was, to enter Jed in for a contest. I’m not sure if this is the final version I sent or not.
———————————————
PRWeb was small company two years ago with less than 15 employees running all operations on a single antiquated home built Linux server. In order to keep pace with our explosive growth Jed researched, designed and implemented a robust and scalable network infrastructure that in short order doubled our profits, and enticed many a buyer until we sold to Vocus last year for a tidy sum.
Our entire operation is web based, including the interfaces used by our customers and internal staff. If for whatever reason DDOS, bad cable, dead router, code typo, caused the databases or websites to fail we could not accept payment from customers or provide the services for those payments and our internal staff would be sitting there unable to do their job, which is 24/7 year round. During our explosive growth to clusters of redundant database and web servers there were a few problems, most corrected before any customer or employee realized, others cropped up, especially the DDOS and other attacks from China in the wee hours of the night. In all cases Jed was the point man, first to be called in the wee hours despite having two small children, one new born - ie complete lack of sleep.
His dedication, knowledge and resourcefulness is impressive to say the least. In short our company would not have had the extreme success we’ve achieved without this scruffy individual who has sustained many a war injury on sharp edges from generic PC cases, bruises from contorting during late non-peak times to install 4U terabyte servers single handedly in cramped data center cabinets, and of course the mental trauma all support staff deal with when having to address users and customers directly.
He’s been the administrator of it all single handedly, systems, network, web, database, email, network engineer, hardware monkey, programmer and technical support. Intimate knowledge of every major networking protocol and service. Having written some of the most advanced bash shell scripts for backups, automation and other tasks. A warrior monk - Python, Perl, Java, Bash, Awk, Sed, PHP, Javascript, HTML, XML, CSS are not so much languages as melee weapons he wields. His minions, MySQL cluster trolls, load balancer orcs, powerful Apache elves, and Cyrus wizards and a host of hobbit like user workstations. A vast interconnected machine greater than the sum of its individual electronic components and miles of cabling rumble - he’s in tune with all of it. It’s a bit creepy at first, if you watch him working, he’ll suddenly stiffen as if he’s wondering if anyone heard him fart, over the sound of his speed death metal blaring, but its almost a sixth or seventh sense with him that he knows something is afoot on one of the servers even before one of his monitoring script alerts him.
Its not merely that Jed did all this, perhaps there are a few highly intelligent individuals who could have taught themselves and completed all of this in a few years. Nor is it that he has done so with the good attitude of a crufty old Unix admin that he must channel. (We call him the Mumbler among other things.) It is that we of PRWeb / Vocus have all benefited in ways that most of the staff and executives can not even comprehend except in the loosest of ways when they refer to “The Server”. He is the Morlock Supreme of this company, a thankless and sleepless position he maintains and protects so that everyone else can sleep soundly, IM their friends, watch Youtube videos and of course email and do their jobs without thinking what makes it all work and grow. Day after day he is Sisyphus and Atlas and my friend.
To Jed. Thank you
