Faith and Family

This Day in Geocaching History...

Erik Lane — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:52:00 GMT

We began our Geocaching journey 5 years ago on June 22, 2003. In late 2002 I remember seeing a show on the Travel Channel "Top 10 Lost Treasures" and #7 on the list was Geocaching (couldn't find a link). Using a handheld GPS to go "treasure hunting" was very appealing. It wasn't until the following summer when I was looking for something that the entire family could do and would also get us outside.

Being the geek that I am I immediatly started Googling and trying to remember that show or what the sport was called because I could remember the show in my head but I couldn't remember the name. I guess it didn't take long and the next thing you know I had created us an account on Geocaching.com. After just a few minutes I was amazed at all of the caches that were around our house. The next step in the process was to buy a GPS. I found a Magellan Meridian GPS on sale at Fry's and the Wife Acceptance Factor was high since Geocaching was going to be a family sport. We bought the GPS and headed out the following weekend. We didn't take the camera with us on our maiden voyage but we did on our second outing and here is one of those photos.

Fast forward 5 years and here is photo from two weeks ago when were geocaching here in Colorado. Everyone has grown up and we have added another kid to the team...not to mention I look a bit older too.

In the last five years Geocaching has really become common place with outdoor sports and there is software and tools all over the place to help out. My two favorite pieces of software are CacheStats (written in .NET) and Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK). When we started out we were all about the numbers...trying to find as many as we could and as fast as we could. After the second year we really slowed down and tried to enjoy the whole caching experience. Somewhere along the way we decided to start tracking which states we had cached in. Here is the most current map of the states that we've physically found a cache in (35 + Washington DC).

Well, enough memories for now. Since moving to Colorado we have really picked up the caching bug again and are excited about caches out in the mountains that require hiking, etc. and that has increased our enjoyment yet again. God is good!

Giddy Up!

The Great Calendar Sync Debacle

Erik Lane — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:24:00 GMT

Over the last few weeks my wife and I have come to the realization that knowing each other's schedules would be really helpful and we've started down the path of sharing our calendars.

Our setup:

Me (work): I use Outlook 2003 100%.
Me (personal): I use my Google Apps for Your Domain (GAFYD) calendar.

Wife: Outlook 2007 100%.

One of our primary goals was to try and find a free way to accomplish this task. After some looking around, the consensus is that we will use Google Calendar (GCal) as our go-between. I looked at what Scott Hanselman is doing since I've heard him talk about this on his podcast. He uses SyncMyCal which can probably do everything my wife and I are needing except that it fails the free requirement.

I then looked at Google's Calendar Sync tool but it will only sync up with the primary calendar. That's no good - even if my wife and I shared our GCal's we couldn't sync with each other's and so it didn't seem like that would work either. I threw out a tweet looking for suggestions and I got some great feedback (Twitter is great for things like this).

Prokrammer had the best idea that I thought might work for us and still be free. He recommended that I use the Google Sync tool since it was free, but create a GCal for my wife on my domain and have us both sync with it. Because this new calendar was in my domain I could grant myself full rights to it and could edit as needed. With this setup I would one-way sync my work calendar to it and then my wife would 2-way sync it with her Outlook calendar.

I would be providing my wife with my work calendar and she would be giving me her personal calendar via GCal. I would then use her shared GCal as my primary calendar and will make all of my personal appointments on it. Then, she too would get them when she synced up.

This sounded like it would do the trick...All the planning in the world doesn't take into account software failure. The GCal sync tool, for some reason, can not access my wife's calendar. It gives a beautiful error "Could not connect to Microsoft Outlook: error -2147319779, code 0".

Unless Google provides and update with the fix I guess we will have to bail on the free requirement and purchase something.

Giddy Up!

Some Stuff

Erik Lane — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:06:00 GMT

Things around here have been busy that's for sure. After spending the last year in Baltimore with Advertising.com I'm now a full time employee at Ciena. In addition to the new job we've also moved to the Colorado Springs, CO area and we're loving it. I'm getting the opportunity to work from home most of the time but have to make a trip up to Denver a couple of times a week and work in the office. The commute isn't bad and even when it's slow it's still nothing compared to DFW traffic.

Nothing special on the technical front is happening at the moment although I am enjoying the challenge of introducing Continuous Integration and Test Driven Development to my new team. I've got a couple of blog posts on using Entlib to create your own providers, etc.. but I don't think I'll be finishing them. However, I am using Entlib for audit logging so I may try and piece some of them together for something technical.

On a personal note, I did pass the Microsoft 70-536 exam at the end of the year - so I guess now I know I can pass a written exam to prove my knowledge? I know there are discussions on how much value certs add and I'm on the side of “they are worth the effort“. While I don't think they imply you're a coding superstar I don't think they hurt. In studying for exams (or interviews) I've learned a lot that I wouldn't have known about just in my daily coding. Now I have that knowledge in my tool belt for later use.

Because I no longer work in an office of developers everyday I've really taking a liking to Twitter. I can now have some pretty good technical discussion on there. Onward and upward.

Giddy Up!

Prayer Request for Stefan

Erik Lane — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:19:00 GMT

Just a few months ago a fellow contributor to AC180.com, Stefan, found out that he has Stage 4 Colon Cancer. Tomorrow he will be going in for his first surgery where the doctor will look around inside and try and remove as much of it as possible and bathe the remaining organs in direct chemo.

Please remember Stef, his family, and his doctors in your prayers.

Thanks and God Bless.

Remote Assistance with Copilot

Erik Lane — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:11:00 GMT

Copilot's tag line is "Safe. Secure. Simple". I would agree 100%.

I used Copilot this past weekend to help out my in-laws and it was easy to use and well worth the $5. I love helping people with their computers but doing it over the phone, where you can't see what's happening on the other end, can be very painful. I wanted something that would be simple to use for my in-laws but give me the control that I needed.

With Copilot all my father-in-law did was go to Copilot.com and enter the invitation code I read to him over the phone. He then downloaded the small app, click a couple of buttons, and then I had control of his machine. I needed to work on my monther-in-laws machine too and the $5 was good for 24 hours and no restrictions for the number of machines I could connect to. Cheap and easy!

Giddy Up!

From Saul to Paul - A Complete 180

Erik Lane — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:48:00 GMT

I've been as asked to be a contributor over at A Complete 180 (from Saul to Paul). This will be something totally new for me and I'm looking forward to it. Living outside of your comfort zone is when you grow the most - I should grow a lot.

If you're not familiar with the site I suggest you stop by. Here is a blurb from their mission statement.

"...Yet, like all men, we face a world and systems that challenge our intentions each day. We don't give up or quit. We battle. We fight. We band together as brothers. We pray. We seek grace. When we fail, we ask forgiveness. At our core, we want all men to do the same. It’s the very mission and prayer of each of the authors and contributors of ac180.com."

Thanks Aaron.

Giddy Up!

Quality Podcast Features from Tooth & Nail Records

Erik Lane — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:50:00 GMT

This post is more about a couple of neat features that Tooth & Nail Records have in their podcast than it is about the podcast.

Notice in the screenies.


In the timeline of the podcast there are tick marks that indicate segments of the show and the podcast logo is displayed.
A click of the advance button brings me to screenie #2. I've advanced to the next segment in the timeline but notice that the album art has changed. In this segment they are talking with the band pictured (Thousand Foot Krutch).
Two more clicks brings me to screenie #3. Again, I've advanced a few segments ahead in the timeline but they've changed the album art again. This time we're listening to a song called "The Flame in All of Us" and they put up the album cover.

These do not replace the quality of the content (awesome by the way) but they are nice features to have. It just shows the time and effort they put into the production of the podcast. To be honest, I'm surprised DotNetRocks hasn't done this already.

Giddy Up!

Time for a New Project

Erik Lane — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:50:00 GMT

Well, the life a contractor has set in. My current project, that was suppose last until January, will now end on 8/31 so I have begun the search for my next project. If you have the need for my skills in C# and ASP.NET please feel free to contact me. I'm open for going just about anywhere but with preference to Baltimore/DC, Dallas/Fort Worth, or working remote.

Giddy Up!

Prayer Request

Erik Lane — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:21:00 GMT

Aaron has requested to pass along a prayer request for one of the contributors to A Complete 180, Stefan Tarapchak. Please lift him and his family up in prayer.

Kids are so funny!

Erik Lane — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 10:35:00 GMT

These are not my kiddos but it's still so funny I had to share.