Welcome to www.JoeThielen.com
Thoughts from a TWISTED MIND
11/11/2007 - Still Alive
For those who are interested, I'm still around. What have I been doing? Working!
I've been the MIS Administrator at LHS - Family & Youth Services for just over 13 years now.I am the CIO of DRACONi Digital, I've been there for almost four years.I am the technical consultant for the OACCA Outcomes Data Project, for roughly the past two years.Last, but not least, I am the author of Freemed-YiRC. This is open-source, free software for the child care community. This part of things has quickly picked up over the course of 2007 and I've been installing it at multiple agencies.
I've learned quite a lot over the course of the past few years. A lot. It's been a roller coaster, but things are very good now. I've been with my girlfriend, Laura, for nearly a year now. I am very thankful for her.
Oh, by the way, I've finally updated the Picture Archive!
06/24/2007 - Toledo Veterans' Glass City Skyway Pictures
You know, I've complained about Toledo a great deal in the past. And for sure I've complained about the bridge construction and I-280. But after driving over it for the first time today, and seeing the lights for the first time tonight, it kind of puts it all in perspective. So here it is, my first update in YEARS, and I'm giving it to you Toledo! Enjoy the pictures!
12/28/2005 - 2005
02/10/2005 - Code 46
Code 46... what a wickedly good movie. Every once in a while a movie comes along that seriously makes you think about things. This is one such movie. A buddy told me about it, then there I was standing in front of it at the rental store.
You know, a lot of really good things come in really bad packaging. This movie is definately one of them. Almost didn't want it. Love? What the fuck, move on! But thankfully I got it anyway. I guess I should know better. I've always been partial to sci-fi B-movies with strange titles (Moon 44 comes to mind in this case).
This movie really inspired me to write a rant about government (and my feelings therein). But at this point, it's like 2AM, and I just don't have it in me (or rather I do, but I'll never make it in tomorrow if I put the effort into it that it deserves)! Look forward to it... maybe :)
02/10/2005 - 2005
It's 2005. And JoeT is all over it like FLIES ON SHIT. It's been quiet here, but I've been running full steam for as long as I can remember (which is far shorter than it should be).
I love Battlestar Galactica. I love Stargate SG-1. I love Stargate Atlantis. Friday night is happy night. Or rather, any night after Friday is happy due to TiVo. God I love TiVo + DirecTV. When I get off work, I want to be entertained. Here I am now, entertain me. That's why I love Carnivale. Entertain me, indeed. Can't wait for The Shield.
If I run out of (or get bored with) TiVo, then comes the PlayStation 2. Talk about a wonderful form of stress relief. I've been finding that games where I can roam free are far more interesting (to me) than traditional video games. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is AWESOME. It's so incredibly big. Even months and months later, I'm still finding new things to do in the game. I loved the timeframe and location as well. Was well worth the wait (even though it was killer). But right before GTA:SA came out, I also got Star Wars Battlefront. What a great game. What great stress relief. Where else can you come home from a vexing day of dealing with people by continously killing mass amounts of people, eh? Don't hate me. You know you love me! Screw you guys, I'm going home. Anyway, a few weeks ago I saw a TV ad for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. At first, I found it a bit boring. I don't like to slowly get into a game. I want to get the full blast of the game right away otherwise my attention wanes :). Anyway, then we found the C-4. Then we found the cheat codes. Then we found the fuel-air bomb and portable air strike. Wow. Sounds like someone we all know needs a little something like this...
...guess who's president? Oh wait, that was decided some time ago, huh? Well, not if you live in Ohio. Where do I live? ...
... I refuse to answer that on the grounds it might incriminate me.
I sure as hell didn't see that one coming. All that Florida bashing, and here I am at ground zero. Unreal. I'll dump more on that in a different post.
My 2004 Toyota Prius is still running like a champ. I beat the crap out of it, and it takes it. With all the snow we've been getting, it's proven itself quite useful. I used to think it wasn't actually heavier than most cars. However, I recently found out that the damn thing weighs something like 3,000 pounds. Wow. Good advantage in all this snow! The car is so heavy it doesn't slide very well. Combine that with the engine break feature, and it's actually pretty fun in the snow! My gas mileage when using the heater is down to about 37MPG though... I know... stop my bitching!
DRACONi Digital is going EXTREMELY WELL. Actually, it's the reason that I've been non-existant here. I need to update the site badly, as we've been doing some VERY exciting things not reflected there.
08/23/2004 - MEGA UPDATE
Wow. Been over two months since I've updated. You guys must hate me!
I've been so busy it's not funny. Working seven days a week. Harsh stuff. Trying to maintain current job as well as starting up DRACONi Digital. We've been doing some AMAZING things in terms of automation and surveillance integration. We now have a demo set up where you can have a side by side demo of the automation and surveillance systems. On the one side you can turn things on/off, open/shut doors, etc... On the other side you can SEE those changes taking effect. We're installing Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) cameras that can see for a mile or more. And they can be controlled via the Internet! Very cool stuff. People just don't get it, when I try and tell them what our company does. We cover so much ground that it's hard to boil down into a template format for people.
Anyway, enough business. Guess what? Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be released in October! It's been two years, so if you've not been keeping up on your skills, better get out GTA: Vice City and re-familiarize yourself!!! Wish I had time for more :).
I've been listening to the Insane Clown Posse for a very long time. Lots of people think it's dumb and some go so far as to call it devil-music, but if you actually took the time to listen to it, you'd realize it wasn't. It's just horror music, just like you'd watch a horror movie. So anyway, the second part of their Sixth Jokers Card is due out the end of this month. It's been a long ride, and I hope this particular journey ends well!!! I wasn't satisfied with the way the first part ended, while I realize it was a joyous time for them and all, I was looking forward to some hardcore stuff. I'm hoping they make it up with this. We'll find out!
You guys see that Ohio is suing Best Buy? Isn't it great?!? They've been screwing people out of rebates for a long time, and deserve what they get. I understand they want to draw people in and still make a profit, but doing that with deception is not fair. Fuck them!
Resident Evil 2 is coming! Jeah!
In case you haven't checked out my new DRACONi Automation software lately, give it a try! I'm doing some very amazing stuff with it as well. Control over multiple sound card outputs, macros that cover all modules, it's great.
Anyway, that's what is up for now. Summer was sure a cooler one. I'm not complaining though. Just hope it'll last a bit longer, it's hard to make any use of it when working every day!
06/21/2004 - Today
Something amazing happened today. Something that may forecast great things to come. On this day, the first privately funded manned space ship left the Earth's atmosphere and entered space. For years I've bitched about space travel. We've taken the very first step today in my personal goal for humanity of spreading ourselves beyond this one planet.
I like to think big. When I think, I like to think on a broad scale. Quantity in addition to quality. In order for the human race to survive the most cataclysmic disasters, we need to SPREAD THE FUCK OUT. And the first step is the colonization of other planets.
There are lots of thoughts out there on the subject. Many argue that current technology is simply too slow to be of any practical usage. I say true. HOWEVER, what these people are lacking is the realization that while something may come along 100 years from now that may drastically speed this up, we have only the smallest knowledge of how to build an actual colony. Lots of theory, but really small practical experience. We spend TONS and TONS of money collection really small samples and examining them remotely. Fuck that. We need people out there.
Now, at this point, I'm just talking shit. I have no space background other than science fiction. But I do have my own personal experience to bank from. I know that 10 years ago I couldn't do what I do now. But I also know that if I haven't been TRYING IN THE FIELD for the last 10 years, if I had just sat there for 10 years and waited for things to progress and then tried to jump in, it would take even more time to adjust. Today I can adapt to new technologies because I have the background and experience to take the new stuff and figure out what it is.
I'm not saying that we're just standing still. I bitch about NASA a lot. But I like NASA's internal mission. To get people into space. But let's face it, with just one big setback every decade or so, they take one step forward, then three back. Plus they have a ton of commercial shit they gotta do all at the same time. NASA is underfunded, understaffed, and overworked. Fuck you, I said it here.
Look at what is happening here. PRIVATE commerical entities are building space ships. Are there going to be setbacks? You betcha. Are people going to die? You betcha ass. Are more people going to die in 5-10 years in private commercial entities than in the entire history of NASA? I think so.
These people are putting their money where their mouth is. They have a vision, and are willing to die for it. Do I want to die? No. Would I jump on board a space ship given the chance knowing I could die, but given the chance that I could be in space, or even better, on another planet for just a brief period of time? YES. Human beings are explorers. We've explored this planet to death. Now we're bored. And when humans get bored we turn on ourselves. We do stupid things like fight each other over personal beliefs and create reality TV.
You want to unite the human race? Give us something to shoot for. Give us a challenge, 21st century style. Give us space. Give us our god damned dream back.
06/06/2004 - New Home Automation Software Released!
After years of work, I've finally released my new home automation software!
DRACONi Automation
It's being hosted on the DRACONi Digital site. And, of course, it's released under the GNU GPL, so it's FREE baby! This software also merges the functionality of my XMMS-Control software.
Go and get it!
05/17/2004 - DRACONi Digital on Toledo WTVG 13 ABC!!!
Tonight, DRACONi Digital was featured on WTVG 13 ABC here in Toledo for our segment on Wi-Fi security.
Check Out DRACONi Digital!!!
05/13/2004 - Joe Thielen in the Toledo Blade!
Check me out, I made the Toledo Blade for geocaching :)
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040513/COLUMNIST03/405130395
05/06/2004 - Internal wireless working on Averatec 5110H laptop in Linux
This is great. I've got Linux using the internal wireless wi-fi card on my new Averatec 5110H laptop. It's an Intel IPW2100 chipset, 802.11b. Previously I had to use my old Netgear card, which got crappy reception (well, crappy compared to the new generation of internal cards). Now, after finding out about this Linux driver from The IPW2100 Sourceforge Project, I am in business, and my reception is unbelievable! I did have a major problem trying to figure out who to get the RF wireless radio to turn on, but turns out you do a 'modprobe av5100' right before 'modprobe ipw2100', and off you go! The av5100 module appears to turn on the wireless radio.
04/19/2004 - 2004 Toyota Prius Page Created
Finally, six months later, I've created a page with some limited info on my Prius (including a picture). I hope to update it later on, but for right now I just wanted to get it added to my cars list!
2004 Toyota Prius
Cars Page!
04/19/2004 - Picture Archive Updated
It's amazing what you can get done with some spare time!!! I've updated my picture archive with pics of my wedding, our Vegas honeymoon, and my current Cumberland Falls/Smoky Mountains trip!
Check out the picture archive!
04/18/2004 - Archives Finally Working
I finally got the archives working so you can view my past crap ranting! Woo-hoo, isn't that great!!!
Click on the Archives! link.
:)
04/18/2004 - New Laptop!
I've got a new laptop, I'm so happy. I've been using my faithful 600Mhz Celeron laptop for awhile now. Would still be using it except I think the drive was going out. Tried to run an X terminal, and took forever to come up. Plus, my boss just got the same one and I put Knoppix on it and it seemed to run great, so I knew it was good.
Anyway, I've got a new Averatec 5110H. Sam's Club special, baby! ~$1000. Pentium M 1.3Ghz, built-in 802.11b (sorry, no 802.11g), 512MB RAM, 40GB HD, etc... I love it. Linux loves it too, mostly...
So, how was my experience putting Linux on it? Mostly good. Firstly I ran Partition Magic 8 to shrink the WinXP Home partition down from 40 to like 25 (Since Linux can read a WinXP partition, I left most of the space in that format). I installed Mandrake Linux 10.0 Community (OK OK, I decided NOT to wait for Official) without much of a hitch. However, the video didn't work. After some fussing, I finally figured out that in the BIOS the memory set aside for the video card was only 1MB! WHAT THE HELL? I set it to the max (32MB, I think), and it was off to the races. Jeah! As of right now the only major issue I'm having is the built-in wireless. I figured it wouldn't work off the bat (or at all, really). However, after searching for the chipset, I found a project in the works. Great! Aside from the wireless, I'm having a problem trying to get my CF memory card from my HP camera in there (using a CF to PCMCIA card converter). It shows up in the logs, but I can't mount the damned thing with vfat or msdos or anything. Anyway, no big deal. The sound works, the video works, the network should work (haven't tested it, but worked in Knoppix on my bosses), and even the CD burner works (using K3b)!
To most people, this laptop is probably just a cheapie. But I can work with cheapie stuff. I love E-Machines, so you know where I'm coming from!!! As long as Linux loads, I'm good with it. And this is fast (with WinXP too), so I'm quite happy. Except it doesn't come with a serial port :). Three USB ports, hafta get a USB-Serial adaptor so I can connect my serial GPS.
03/31/2004 - Mandrake Linux
I love Mandrake Linux. At work, we've been using Mandrake Linux 9.1 for a year or so. I've had 9.0 on my laptop since it came out (as a developer, it'd take me DAYS to reload my laptop, so I don't do it very often). I skipped 9.2 because 9.1 has been working quite well for me.
Now Mandrake has changed the development process, and I think it's going to work GREAT. What they've done is two move to a two-tiered release process. The first release is called the "Community" release. This is their basic Mandrake Linux product that we've come to know and love. Then, a few months later, they will release the "Official" version. This will have all the bug fixes and updates to the Community product. I love this idea, and when Mandrake Linux 10.0 Official comes out, I'm jumping on the wagon!
For more info on the new release process, click here.
