Happy Arctic Thursday!

So I wake up to this rain/sleet/snow and high winds. Bridges are Iced over, there are all sorts of wrecks on the News. They were quite entertaining to watch. I had to unfortunately drive to work @ 5 PM and come @ 5 AM in that weather.

Anyhow, Me, Jay and my brother Eric were messing around outside with my camera, here is what I took:




Update: You gotta love Texas weather, the next day it was 80 degrees.

Testing is Cake

As I posted earlier in the week, I started my new job at SPM Flow Control, Inc.. They've made me a tester. Basically what I do is test the parts that the Valve Assembly has produced, so that they can be sold and shipped out to the oil and gas field. It's a very easy job. All we do is grab a cart, bring them around to the testing booth.

The testing booth is a 12x12 steel reinforced box with 2 doors. One door has a conveyor belt going through it, the other is door is the entrance. So we push the cart in through the door, wench the part up and place it on a steel stand. Hook up the bull plugs to each end of the part. Bull plugs are a circular piece of steel with a special hose connection on the end. This provides the water and air pressure for the testing.

We get everything in place and shut the door with this control box. Sit down at the computer and pumping controls. You type in the job information and serial numbers for the parts you're currently testing. Start the pumping and hit the Begin Test button on the program. The software is pretty old, but isn't buggy at all, so that's a good thing. You run up the pressure at the specified working pressure, let it sit for 1 minute. Some are 15 minutes if they're DNV. DNV is a status given to parts that go over sea's to the Middle East, Russia and the Orient. You can also view the parts while being tested with 2 video camera's setup inside the booth and if the part passes the computer will tell you.

Anyhow, the job is cake, I love it there. I'm going to try to get my brother Eric a job there soon. So we can get back to collecting that cabbage.

That's all for now,
-Allen

A few things

I've been graciously working on the update for Shock 3. The update will include:

• Custom Fade (Custom Media/Chatsends) using [f1]text[/f1], etc.
• Details load 5x faster while refreshing/adding sources
• Scrobbler has been updated
• Find now looks at paths and file names (p *, r* as well)
• Delete now goes to Recycle Bin
• Sharing of Themes
• Advanced AOL options (chatscan, etc.)

This list will grow in time. I plan on adding subclassed chatscan support, AIM 6.0 Now Playing Plug-In, Mail Controls, and more. If you have an idea, feel free to comment or email me at allen[at]p-soft[dot]org.

I also got a new job very recently. I start my training Monday (11/20/06). The companies name is SPM Flow Control, Inc. They manufacture pumps, pipes, values and many other things for the Oil & Gas Industry. One of my grandfather owns an Oil & Gas company and I have helped many times in the field. So I do have experiance with these parts first hand. Another one of my grand fathers has worked there for a good number of years already. He has had a great experience working with them. I just hope I have the same type of experiences he's had so far.

The benefits are very good. Though I have to wait 90 Days to obtain them, they are well worth the wait. I only have to work Monday through Thursday, 3:30 PM to 2:00 AM. So I will have the full weekend to do what I want, which is a great upside. They do however have a 3rd shift which is 12 hours a day. Your schedule would be Friday through Sunday, 3:00 AM to 3:00 PM. You would still obtain 40 hours even though you work 36.

I have also been fighting my former employer over many things including wrongful termination. Major corporations are full morons making half ass decisions. They would rather terminate you than get to the bottom of the bigger problem. Oh well, I will more than likely win. Right now, I'm waiting the outcome of an investigation lead by the Texas Work Force Commission. I will keep you guys informed as things develop.

That's it for now,
-Allen

AIM 6.0 Released!

You're probably saying, who cares? Right?

Well I'm really not the type of person who goes beyond AIM 5.5.3595 but ever since AIM 6.0 has been released, I've been using it. It runs smoothly, it isn't buggy like Triton was. It's got several new features that AIM has always been missing for instance:

• Offline Messages
• Plug-In SDK
• 1,000 Buddy Limit
• Grouped IM's
• IM Catcher
• IM Logging
• Address Book (Plaxo)

It also has features AIM has always had, like sharing pictures (drag-drop), video, voice, files and folders. AIM 6.0 has a lot of neat features that can become unnoticed. Like AIM can tell if one of your buddies has updated their profile. It will put a small orange-glowing "i" to the right of their name on the buddy list if it has been updated. Once you check it, it goes away. You can also tell what time/date your buddy has last updated their profile.

The Offline messages are what really made me switch. It's nice to send a message to someone that may get on while you're at work or sleeping. You cannot send these messages to Mobile phones. But you can send them to any person using any AIM version, so it's not limited to just AIM 6.0 users, which is a very high plus.

The only down side that I personally choose is that it's skinned. There is no option to remove the skinning. I do not like skinned programs, unless it's a media player. Though it does not effect performance noticeably, I suppose there is nothing wrong with it.

So in conclusion I recommend using AIM 6.0. If you're still skeptical you can always install it without disrupting your older AIM installation to try it out.

I encourage that you download AIM Ad Hack by Cuban-Aftermath Software. It will download and install AIM 6.0 for you, while removing many annoying features AIM installs. For instance: Buddy List Ad, AOL ToolBar, AOL Browser, ViewPoint, Plaxo and much more. The installer allows you to check and uncheck what you want to do so you have full control over the process. You will not notice that AIM Ad Hack is installed. The only place where it has "AIM Ad Hack" is in the Help -> About menu.

Download AIM 6.0:
AIM Ad Hack (recommended)
AIM Official Website

Thanks for reading,

-Allen