Marktastic

In Honor of a St. Louis Holiday: Opening Day with Harry Caray

Mark — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:00:07 +0000

The home opener in St. Louis is practically a holiday. No one gets anything done as anticipation of the impending season distracts everyone from St. Louis from even a modicum of real work.

In honor of that, I bring you Harry Caray, sort of.

Go Cards!

Shingle Color Help

Mark — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:02:26 +0000

Dear Internet:

My house is in need of a new roof and I am stuck picking out a shingle color. Thus, I turn to you, wise Internet, to lend your assistance to help whittle down the choices of shingle color.

Here is a photo of the house:

The type of the shingle will be Tamko Heritage shingles. All of the color options can be found here.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Please take the poll or leave a comment below to let me know your thoughts, or suggest another color.

As I said, I’m currently stuck trying to figure out which color would look best. I’m debating between the following colors:

Books for Sale

Mark — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:00:55 +0000

I recently realized that most of the books I own will never be read again by me (if I ever read them in the first place). As such, I’m selling them all. Please see below for a list of books for sale.

I’m willing to ship books (via UPS), provided you paypal me the money, but this will be a better deal for those of you in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

Contact me if you are interested in any of the titles listed below.

Recent Titles (P=Paperback | H =Hardback)

Your Price $	Title	Author	List Price $	Format
3	The Treasure Principle	Randy Alcorn	9.99	H
10	It’s Not About the Bike	Lance Armstrong	13.00	P
5	Every Man’s Battle	Stephen Arterburn	13.99	P
13	The Works – Anatomy of a City	Kate Ascher	20.00	P
18	Drive Business Performance – Enablinga Culture of Intelligent Execution	Bruno Aziza	39.95	H
10	The Search – How Google and Its Riveals Rewrote the Rules of Business andTransformed Our Culture	John Battelle	14.95	P
15	The Myths of Innovation	Scott Berkun	24.99	H
1	Friday Night Lights	Buzz Bissinger	7.99	P
17	Three Nights in August	Buzz Bissinger	25.00	H
10	Better Off – Flipping the Switch on Technology	Eric Brende	13.95	P
10	A Clockwork Orange	Anthony Burgess	10.00	P
2	Patriot Games	Tom Clancy	4.95	P
11	He’s Hot, She’s Hot	Jeramy Clark	10.95	P
10	I Gave Dating A Chance	Jeramy Clark	9.95	P
10	Boundaries in Dating	Henry Cloud	12.99	P
10	The Catcher Was A Spy – The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg	Nicholas Dawidoff	15.95	P
5	Direct from Dell	Michael Dell	26.00	H
12	Guns, Germs and Steel	Jared Diamond	16.95	P
11	Strapped – Why America’s 20 and 30 Somethings Can’t Get Ahead	Tamara Draut	13.95	P
6	The Ten Things You Can’t Say in America	Larry Elder	14.95	P
14	Wild at Heart	John Eldredge	21.99	H
10	The Wal-Mart Effect	Charles Fishman	15.00	P
13	Economics for Dummies	Sean Masaki Flynn	21.99	P
5	All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindegarten	Robert Fulghum	5.95	P
12	The E-Myth Revisted – Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to DoAbout It	Michael Gerber	16.00	P
10	The Scientist in the Crib – Minds, Brains and How Children Learn	Alison Gopnik	14.99	P
18	Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus	John Gray	25.00	H
10	Bart Simpson’s Guide to Life	Matt Groening	12.95	H
12	Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man	David Hardy	14.95	P
3	I Kissed Dating Goodbye	Josh Harris	5.99	P
10	The Sexual Man	Archibald Hart	12.99	P
10	Einstein – His Life and Universe	Walter Isaacson	32.00	H
13	The Secret Life of Houdini	William Kalush	16.00	P
15	The Reason for God	Timothy Keller	24.95	H
12	Rich Dad, Poor Dad – What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money, ThatPoor and Middle Class Do Not!	Robert Kiyosaki	16.95	P
10	Into the Kill Zone	David Klinger	15.95	P
15	Liberty and Tyrany	Mark Levin	25.00	H
8	See, I Told You So	Rush Limbaugh	24.00	H
13	The Way Things Ought to Be	Rush Limbaugh	22.00	H
5	Bringing Down the House – The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who TookVegas for Millions	Ben Mezrich	7.99	P
12	Rigged – The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World ofOil, From Wall Street to Dubai	Ben Mezrich	25.95	H
3	James	Douglas J. Moo	9.00	P
5	The Magic Circle	Katherine Neville	7.99	P
5	A Calculated Risk	Katherine Neville	5.99	P
12	Diamond Ring Buying Guide	Renee Newman	17.95	P
14	When the Game is Over It All Goes Back In the Box	John Ortberg	21.99	H
12	Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts	Lee Parrott	17.99	H
12	Youth in Revolt – The Journals of Nick Twisp	CD Payne	14.95	P
10	Your Call Is Important to Us – The Truth About Bullshit	Laura Penny	21.95	H
5	This Present Darkness	Frank Peretti	9.00	P
10	Desiring God	John Piper	14.99	P
5	My American Journey	Colin Powell	6.99	H
9	The War of Art – Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner CreativeBattles	Steven Pressfield	12.95	P
10	Early Bird – a memoir of premature retirement	Rodney Rothman	13.00	P
12	Party of One – The Loner’s Manifesto	Anneli Rufus	15.95	P
10	Skipping Towards Gomorrah – The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit ofHappiness in America	Dan Savage	15.00	P
10	The Cuckoo’s Egg	Cliff Stoll	14.00	P
10	The Case for Faith	Lee Strobel	12.99	P
12	Click – What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters	Bill Tancer	25.95	H
10	The Nine – Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court	Jeffrey Toobin	15.95	P
5	Made in Amerca – My Story	Sam Walton	22.50	H
13	The Purpose Driven Life	Rick Warren	19.99	H
10	Legacy of Ashes – The History of the CIA	Tim Weiner	16.95	P
5	Night	Elie Wiesel	4.99	P

Bargain Bin – $3 Hardback | $1 Paperback

Price	Title	Author	Genre	Format
$1	Fatherhood	Bill Cosby	Non-Fiction	P
$3	The Pass In the Grass and OtherIncredible Moments from Racing’s Greatest Legend	Dale Earnhardt	Non-Fiction	H
$1	How Macs Work	John Rizzo	Non-Fiction	P
$5	Pro Football’s Heroes of the Hall(Sporting News)	Ron Smith	Non-Fiction	H
$1	All American Sports IQ Test	Sporting News	Non-Fiction	P
$1	Success for Dummies	Zig Ziglar	Non-Fiction	P
$3	God’s Wisdom is Better Than Gold	Adrian Rogers	Religious	H
$1	How Good is Good Enough?	Andy Stanley	Religious	P
$1	How Good is Good Enough?	Andy Stanley	Religious	P
$1	Overcoming Life’s Challenges	Bill Crowder	Religious	P
$1	Overcoming Life’s Challenges	Bill Crowder	Religious	P
$1	Improving Your Serve – The Art ofUnselfish Living	Charles R. Swindoll	Religious	P
$2	God’s Word for You CD Series (April2006)	Charles Stanley	Religious	CD
$2	God’s Word for You CD Series (July2006)	Charles Stanley	Religious	CD
$2	God’s Word for You CD Series (June2006)	Charles Stanley	Religious	CD
$1	How to Live Without Regret	Charles Stanley	Religious	P
$3	Success God’s Way	Charles Stanley	Religious	H
$5	How to Listen to God	Charles Stanley	Religious	P
$1	Can One Person Make a Difference?	Charles Swindoll	Religious	P
$3	Come Before Winter	Charles Swindoll	Religious	H
$1	Hebrews Volume 1 Bible Study Guide	Charles Swindoll	Religious	P
$1	Hebrews Volume 2 Bible Study Guide	Charles Swindoll	Religious	P
$1	Jesus Our Lord	Charles Swindoll	Religious	P
$1	Letters to Churches. . . Then and Now	Charles Swindoll	Religious	P
$1	Simple Faith	Charles Swindoll	Religious	P
$3	Strengthening Your Grip	Charles Swindoll	Religious	H
$3	The Darkness and the Dawn	Charles Swindoll	Religious	H
$1	The Grace Awakening	Charles Swindoll	Religious	P
$3	Understanding the Times – The Story ofChristian, Marxist/Leninist and Secular Humanist Worldviews	David A. Noebel	Religious	H
$3	God Will Make a Way	Dr. Henry Cloud	Religious	H
$1	The Da Vinci Code – Fact of Fiction	Hank Hanegraaff	Religious	P
$1	In the Name of Jesus – Reflections onChristian Leadership	Henri J. M. Nouwen	Religious	P
$1	Living By The Book	Howard G. Hendricks	Religious	P
$1	The Pursuit of Holiness	Jerry Bridges	Religious	P
$5	The Life God Blesses	Jim Cymbala	Religious	H
$1	The Passion of Jesus Christ	John Piper	Religious	P
$3	Debt Free Living – How to Get Out ofDebt (And Stay Out)	Larry Burkett	Religious	H
$1	He Did This Just For You	Max Lucado	Religious	P
$1	The Green Letters – Principles ofSpiritual Growth	Miles J. Standford	Religious	P
$3	Finishing Strong	Steve Farrar	Religious	H
$3	Romans Verse by Verse	William R. Newell	Religious	H
0*	What does the Bible Say AboutPatience?		Religious	P
$1	Macromedia Flash MX – Actionscript forDesigners	Doug Sahlin	Technical	P
$1	Macromedia Flash MX Virtual Classroom	Doug Sahlin	Technical	P
$1	Macromedia Flash MX	Katherine Ulrich	Technical	P
$1	Windows 200 Administration for Dummies	Michael Bellomo	Technical	P
$1	Practical Microsoft Windows 2000Server	Robert Reinstein	Technical	P
$1	Hacking Exposed – Network SecuritySecrets & Solutions	Stuart McClure	Technical	P
$3	Data Structures via C++ – Objects byEvolution	A. Michael Berman	Textbook	H
$1	Al Stevens Teaches C – An InteractiveTutorial	Al Stevens	Textbook	P
$1	Java for Computer Information Systems	Andrew C. Staugaard, Jr.	Textbook	P
$1	Structured and Object-OrientedTechniques – An Introduction using C++ (plus Lab Manual)	Andrew C. Staugaard, Jr.	Textbook	P
$3	Database Processing – Fundamentals,Design and Implementations	David M. Kroenke	Textbook	H
$1	Perceiving the Arts – An Introdutionto the Humanities	Dennis J. Sporre	Textbook	P
$1	Structured COBOL Programming	Gary B. Shelly	Textbook	P
$1	Voice & Data Internetworking	Gil Held	Textbook	P
$1	Java – How to Program	H. M. Deitel	Textbook	P
$3	System Analysis and Design Methods	Jeffrey L. Whitten	Textbook	H
$1	Technical Writing	John M. Lannon	Textbook	P
$3	Data Structures, Algorithms, andApplications in C++	Sartaj Sahni	Textbook	H
$3	Operating Systems Concepts	Silberschatz Galvin	Textbook	H
$1	C Elements of Style – The Programmer’sStyle Manual for Elegant C and C++ Programs	Steve Oualline	Textbook	P
$3	Programming Languages – Design andImplementation	Terrence W. Pratt	Textbook	H
$3	Artificial Intelligence – Theory &Practice	Thomas Dean	Textbook	H
$3	Understanding Data Communications& Networks	William A. Shay	Textbook	H
$1	Management, Information and Systems:An Introduction to Business Information Systems	William S. Davis	Textbook	P
$3	Cryptography and Network Security -Principles and Practice	William Stallings	Textbook	H
$1	Assembly Language Programming and theOrganization of the IBM PC	Ytha Yu	Textbook	P
	* – Free with Purchase

Connect to a Cisco VPN in a 64-bit OS without AnyConnect

Mark — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:00:39 +0000

The Problem

Using Cisco VPN in a 64-bit Windows Operating System

I recently made the switch to Windows 7 and at the same time made the jump from 32-bit to 64-bit. So far so good, except for. . .

The Cisco VPN Client

From what I have read around the intertubes, Cisco will not be making a 64-bit VPN client. They instead are encouraging folks to use AnyConnect. Currently, my office firewall is not properly configured to use AnyConnect and with other more pressing tasks at the moment, is not likely to be configured any time soon.

So my interim solution was to use VMWare Workstation to run an XP virtual machine for the sole purpose of connecting to VPN. While workable, this was not ideal.

I searched the other night and came across this post, which points to a great answer.

The Solution

Shrew VPN Client

Shrew works great and more importantly allows the import of .pcf profiles.

If you on a 64-bit OS and need to connect to a VPN, give Shrew a try.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Random Lockups on VMWare ESX

Mark — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:00:44 +0000

So the nerd level of this post is slightly higher than normal, but I have recently been working on a couple of Windows Server 2008 R2 systems. The machines are running on VMWare ESX 3.5.

Randomly, and usually while browsing the Start Menu or Windows Explorer, the system would hang. It was still responsive to ping, but I could not access the system through VNC, Remote Desktop or the VMWare console.

I started searching for answers and came across this thread, which points to the VMWare SVGA II driver as the problem on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The recommend doing a custom install of VMWare Tools to deslect that SVGA driver, but I found that disabling the driver in Device Manager was just as effective and faster.

So if you are having random lockups, freezes, hangs or stalls on Windows Server 2008 (or Windows 7) and you are running VMWare ESX, disable the SVGA II driver and you should be good to go.

What Up With That?

Mark — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:00:02 +0000

Mike Tyson, Jack McBrayer, Lindsey Buckingham

Al Gore, Mindy Kaling, Lindsey Buckingham

Leslie Faree, James Franco, Lindsey Buckingham

Lunarpages Sucks! – A New Host Recommendation: Dreamhost

Mark — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:00:13 +0000

About a year ago, I recommended to you, the handful of readers of Marktastic, that Lunarpages was a great place to host a website. This site was initially hosted there.

I want to apologize for any of you that took my word and went with Lunarpages. They are awful. I found quickly after this site got up and going that it would be frequently turned off by Lunarpages “Support”. Apparently, a portion of my site was pegging a the processor on my shared server. I run WordPress with a lot of plugins, so I can see that this would be possible if I had a suspect plugin or script installed.

What was very frustrating is that there was no warning about the disabled site and no usable information was provided about which script was causing the problem, when the problem was occurring or for what duration. I would get a process listing from their server showing that index.php had gone rogue, but that was all.

I would go back and forth with their tech support and eventually they would re-enable my script, even though I wouldn’t change any part of my site. It got to be too much, too often.

I had already pre-paid for 2 years of service when I gave up and sought out a refund from Lunarpages. Well, they have a very shady policy that only offers a refund within 30 days of opening an account. If you decide to abandon them before the end of your term, you are out the money.

I searched for a new host and am currently with Dreamhost. Thus far, they have been great. My site has not been turned off and the features of the site are so much better.

Ultimately, I’ve abandoned Lunarpages and would highly discourage anyone from using their service. Because they suck.

Dear St. Louis Blues: Please finish your games!

Mark — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:00:35 +0000

Dear St. Louis Blues:

I love you. I really do. You’ve been my hockey team for a long time. I’ve put up with a lot of mediocrity. I’ve put up with those God awful jerseys that had way too much red in them. For a time, I bought into the notion that simply making the playoffs was a successful season; that maintaining a streak of 26 consecutive playoff appearances was a great accomplishment. After the lockout, I hoped that your streak would be broken, so that the focus of a season was not getting to the playoffs, but winning them. The new ownership groups seems committed to that end.

This season has been hard for me. I had really high hopes of you extending the progress you made last season. Given all the young talent we have, we should be poised to make a deeper run toward Lord Stanley’s Cup. But you are letting me down.

Maybe you need to steal an idea from baseball and bring in a closer in the last 10 minutes of the third period. A Mariano Rivera quality shut-down-pillow-stacker that does nothing than make sure you don’t blow a late lead.

Maybe you need to not be so complacent with a third period lead and keep attacking. You sit back and let the other team shoot. Guess what? They are more likely to score when you let them shoot.

Or maybe it is as simple as allowing Cam Janssen to go out and beat someone’s face in late in the third period. Okay, maybe not, but at least it would be more fun.

Just do something different so we can get back to winning!

Thanks,
Mark

Celebrity Jeopardy!

Mark — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:00:19 +0000

Sean Connery, French Stewart and Burt Reynolds

Kathie Lee, Tom Hanks, Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds

Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler and Sean Connery

Bill Cosby, Sharon Osbourne and Sean Connery

Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet

Mark — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:00:00 +0000

A couple of hilarious Brian Fellows clips from SNL.

I wish Hulu would post the Brian Fellow’s sketches with the porcupine and the goat.