My order status is listed as backordered. I should have ordered directly from Apple rather than AT&T. 

I placed orders with AT&T to upgrade both mine and my wifes iPhones. Got an email a day and half later saying they couldn't process my card for some reason - so I called them within minutes of getting the email and re-verfied the credit card number again and it went through without a hitch. They assured me that my "place in priority" hadn't changed (which considering I was one of the idiots who got up in the middle of the night to place my order was kind of a big deal to me).  Coincidentally - my bank showed no issues with their original request going through.  I knew in my heart that it was probably a mistake to place my order though AT&T but after fighting with the Apple ordering system for over an hour and a half, I was ready to try anything.

Checked order status this afternoon - Wife's upgrade order has a status of processing - but mine lists a status of backordered. So I called AT&T again just to ask what was up.

Girl I talked to on the phone said that it's in backordered status because it's a pre-order. I really want to believe her that everything's okay with my order but my gut tells me to expect that AT&T has screwed up and my wife will get hers on Friday but I'll be S.O.L. And if that happens I'm going to be exceptionally bitter against AT&T and will regret not having switched carriers this time  (I only stuck with AT&T because I have one of the old unlimited data plans.)

[Spoiler]

yeah - just finished watching all of season 1 on netflix with my daughter and was very excited by how much she love it. For some reason she really loves the Wasp. I really enjoyed how each episode continues to build upon others. My only complaint right now is that

Spoiler for Hiden:

The whole Skrull thing building up for the 2nd season seems a bit too fan-boy oriented. i.e. my daughter who's never read any of the comics doesn't understand any of the Skrull reveals that are happening in season 1.

I heard that the new season starts on Oct 20th or 21st - and she can't wait.

I think it might be a GamingTrend DNS/Cookie configuration issue.

I've noticed the same thing happening to me occasionally, but didn't bother mentioning it - however I recently noticed a common link based upon whether I'm accessing the forums using either www.gamingtrend.com/forums or simply gamingtrends.com/forums.

Here's a simple way to test it

1. Log out and delete all cookies.
1. Open one tab - log into the site using gamingtrend.com/forums
2. Open another tab and go to www.gamingtrend.com/forums - you will probably see that you are not logged in
3. Open a third tab and go to gamingtrend.com/forums and you can see that you're still logged in.

It's been a few years since I've had to mess with setting this kind of stuff up. I remember it had to do with the domain name that was set in the cookie, I think the correct format was to either set it to be only the domain name (e.g. "gamingtrend.com" or to set it with a leading . (to match any and all subdomains -- e.g. ".gamingtrend.com")

But hopefully that helps.

I know it's a Day 1 purchase to me.  And then I can wipe my 3G and throw it into traffic.

ditto for me.  except I may have someone else throw it into traffic so I can try to be the one that get's to run it over

Taken it a step further. Now separating into two companies

DVD by mail is now Qwikster and Netflix is now streaming only

see http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflections.html

[Moliere]

Moliere

Do we need to vote since there haven't been any new additions to the thread in quite awhile?

Now that I started traveling for work - I just started doing several of these programs this week. (pushups, situps and squats) - alternating days though.

So far so good.  Not sure what the advantage that a smart phone app would give me though - since the full program is really only a couple pages long printed.

2. I wanted the opportunity to do some work that wasn't just about making a company money, but to do some work that would inspire me and make me feel that I was somehow using my talents to improve the world.

One of these days I would like to get there.

Another company I was strongly considering was a startup in San Francisco that's working to fight childhood obesity with a device that measures kids movement and gives them online rewards for their activity. Really wanted to take that job but just couldn't make the numbers line up with the cost of relocating family, higher cost of living, etc.

Google is supposed to be a sweet place to work.  Why not give it a chance and see what comes of it?

I thought about it. Really did. I don't want to get into any mud-slinging - but you know how they say that people don't leave jobs, they leave bad management.....

Things might have gotten better there over time, but honestly I was tired of it and ready to move on. I had already made my decision about where I was going next even before all the talks about acquisition got serious, and so I postponed my plans to leave until after the deal was done for the good of the company. Plus staying would have required a relocation within the next 12mos to Boulder.

On the plus side - even without Google on my resume as an employer - I think that having on there how I was so key in the design and implementation of a software product that was acquired by Google and that I chose not to go along in the acquisition should still look pretty darn good on the resume or during the interview.

Google did have some very nice perks - and they made me wonder if i was making the right decision.

But in the end - I made the decision that I wanted to focus on a few things over the next year or so.
1. I wanted to really invest in myself and try to go from being a good developer to a truly great developer.
2. I wanted the opportunity to do some work that wasn't just about making a company money, but to do some work that would inspire me and make me feel that I was somehow using my talents to improve the world.
3. I wanted to devote time to preparing for launching my own products in the next couple of years.

So I made sort of an unconventional choice to meet those goals - and I accepted an offer to join a consulting company named ThoughtWorks - which made me feel like it offered the best opportunity for me to meet these goals.

It's stuff like this that really tipped my decision towards them -- http://www.thoughtworks.com/mission-and-values

I'm going to go with Futurama for the first row.

Who is the second from the left on the second row?

Philip J. Fry, Bender Bending Rodriguez, Turanga Leela, Amy Wong, Dr. Zoidberg

Scruffy, Hermes Conrad, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, Kif

DarkEl is trying to make me cry with his avatar...

Just wait until I start singing that song that plays in the background of that scene

If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you
Till you're back beside me, till I'm holding you
Till I hear you sigh here in my arms

I can get my daughters eyes to water-up simply by playing that song.

[Why People Have Eyebrows]

Why People Have Eyebrows

Looks like they've reduced to the number of instances that you can have at one time to a single viewing.

Meaning: you can only stream one show at at time regardless of how many netflix ready devices you have.  What garbage.

Oh now that sucks!! I like to watch netflix on my iPad when I travel but would hate to have to coordinate watching times with the family back home.

BTW - that response was supposed to sound more tongue-in-cheek and not snarky.

I made some money from this deal but not life-changing money. On the plus side - I've also proven to myself that I can build something that will be desirable to other companies (I was the chief architect and director of development there)

Haha!

You could have been rich!!

Laff - yes because the quickest way to become rich is to become another cog in a giant machine.   

I downloaded Justice League on the Ipad yesterday.   I thought it was a good read.   At 3.99 though, I thought it was a little pricey but I'll probably ready a few monthly.  I thought there were going to be more titles available digitally but I only saw Justice League.  Have the rest not been released in print yet?

I read something that said the prices would decrease over time. i.e. after 30 days price will be $1.99 and then 30 days later down to $.99.

Not sure if I'm remember the timelines right (or even if that article is gospel) but i'm hoping it's true.

Big News for me

The startup that I've been working at for the last three years was acquired by Google today.  http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/google-zave-networks/

Adding on to that news - I decided that it was a good time to part ways and so I declined the offer to join Google. Lots of reasons for that but short answer is that as a software developer - I would have been incredibly excited to join Google ten years ago - today however, I just don't see it as a good fit for where I want to go and what i want to do over the next few years.

agree with that - luckily they'll still have the Starz content until February - so I'll give them until then to see if they are able to swing any other deals. Otherwise - not sure sure it would be worth the additional money.

I've never read a comic in my life but once I heard of a "reboot" and same day availability for downloads, I became "IN!".

I'm gonna grab Justice League, but maybe you guys can help with some of the other stuff. I'm a Batman fan, but it looks like there's going to be about 32,000 different types. Any recommendations?

I just started reading them through the iPad apps as well. Now that they're going to offer same-day availability - I'm probably going to need to set a limit on myself to keep from overspending.

As for good comics - I'm really enjoying the core flashpoint series which I believe is what leads up to the big reboot. And I did notice that there is a free preview issue that came out yesterday that showed off a bunch of the new titles. In that issue - I was pretty impressed with how some of the characters looked in this reboot and that art looks really great.

yeah I've been enjoying reading the occasional comic storylines on the ipad and this new move from DC will probably push me to buying even more.

I've been trying to read through the Flashpoint specials to prep for giving the new comics a chance but they've been releasing them sooooo slowly. Would like to see how that turns out before buying the new comics (which I believe are based on the outcome of the Flashpoint right?)

I like the last one in the series.

+1 - great ass.

Yeah - he must workout

[Kelli Hutcherson]

Gentlemen (and Purge),

I'd like to introduce you all to Kelli Hutcherson



Some very nice pics out there for you to choose from.

The full movie is even better   http://www.geekologie.com/2011/08/watch-captain-awesome-deflect-read-get-d.php

Azhag

Congrats - I just updated my old Macbook Pro for one of the new 13" MBA's as well.

Here's some of the Apps that I use a lot

Twitter client
Reeder for Google Reader (seconding GuidoTKP's recommendation)
Adium for Instant messaging
Skitch for capturing/sharing screenshots
MacVim for most of my software development
Xcode for programming ios
OmniGraffle for creating diagrams
Spotify / iTunes for Music
Toast for moving videos to/from my Tivo
Handbrake for "backing up" DVD's
ScreenFlow for capturing screencasts

I also order a lot of stuff online so I use the "Delivery Status" dashboard widget to keep track of all my packages
I don't play a lot of games on my Mac - but I've been contemplating re-activating an old World of Warcraft account once I start traveling again.

*Is the female agent possibly Sharon Carter (in the movie's case, niece of Peggy Carter in the current Captain America film)? I read that Amanda Righetti from the TV show The Mentalist was playing an agent, most likely her. Sorry I'm not more up on casting news.  
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/the_mentalist_star_amanda_righetti_joins_the_avengers/

Amanda Righetti has a small cameo in the Captain America movie - so it makes sense that she would also be in the Avengers.

I've been in for about a week (however I keep checking my account and it's never given me the ability to invite someone else yet).

It's growing on me. It's got a couple small bugs, but overall the experience is decent and the music selection is really good.

Not sure it's good enough to justify paying for it yet though (but that may be because I don't tend to buy a lot of songs per month)

Took my 9 year old daughter to see this over the weekend so thought I'd share my thoughts:

Was a bit worried at the opening when the main Winnie the Pooh song was sung by Zooey Deschanel in her hipster style  (don't get me wrong - think she's great but made me immediately worried that they were going to try to hard to "modernize" the characters), but am very glad to report that it's not the case. They made small changes but kept things true to the characters and the movie was really, really good.

The movie had an animated short about the Loch Ness monster prior to the main feature (much like Pixar does) - that was cute.

The movie had a lot of humor. I don't think I've heard my daughter laugh that much at a kids movie in a long time. The humor was all interactions between characters too (as opposed to most kids movies where the humor is either someone getting hurt or dealing with bodily functions). Rabbit and Owl were especially fun to watch in this movie. My daughter and i spent a lot of time after this movie talking about our favorite scenes.0

The end credits had animations throughout and also a small extra clip at the end that was good.

All in all - if you have kids or just liked Winnie the Pooh growing up I'd recommend going to see this - I thought it was a great movie. I'm sure I'll be picking it up on DVD once it comes out.

Azhag

I'll toss my name in the ring for an invite as well

alameda.eldon at gmail.com

Action film with Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert DeNiro.

Probably somewhat predictable - but hoping it'll be fun to watch.

Link to the Home page http://killerelite.com/ or straight to the trailer at http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810213946/video

Coming in a little late to the discussion but I'll throw a couple thoughts in here as I've had experience in decent list of programming languages. Every language has good and bad things about it, and the choice typically boils down what is the best fit for the types of project that you're planning to build and your own personal preference for types of languages (e.g. statically or dynamically typed, functional vs Object Oriented, etc, etc)

Based on your earlier comments that you're looking to build a few simple things for fun - I'd have to disagree with Skylander about his recommendation for learning C++ (not to imply that it's not good to learn C and C++ but it might be overkill for what you're looking to do). I'd personally recommend starting out with something a bit more "fun" and then moving on to something more complicated later if you're still enjoying it.

Java is okay and is a good learning language. The Head First Java books are a decent introduction to Java.

The .net languages used to be pretty horrible but they've gotten quite a bit better these last couple of years. So something like C# wouldn't be a bad choice for building apps for Windows. Unfortunately I don't have any recommendations on books for it.

As people have said - scripting languages like Python and Ruby are good choices as well.
- If you want to use Python - I've heard excellent things about this Free book  - http://learnpythonthehardway.org/
- If you want to use Ruby - There's the free Why's Poignant guide to Ruby (http://www.rubyinside.com/media/poignant-guide.pdf) which is the craziest computer programming book you'll ever read. Or any of the Beginning Ruby books

Another fun option - is this book (http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X) which will give you a VERY high level overview of seven different programming languages (Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell), highlighting the differences between them.

But no matter what you choose - have fun with it -- otherwise what's the point  :-)

• hit detection is terrible. Enemies who like to rush you are impossible to hit despite a point blank shotgun blast to the chest @ anywhere between 3 feet or less. I have to train myself not to shoot and to move aside and then fire. Lame

i haven't noticed this. I'm assuming you're talking about pig cops hurling themselves at you? Seems that when i hit them with a shotgun blast - I've been protected from taking any damage. But I do tend to always be moving sideways while fighting them (in an attempt to circle strafe), so maybe I'm just not noticing it.

• slapping wall boobies in the Hive never gets old

Wait.... What? I'm in the hive now (right after finding all the girls again). Is that something that I just haven't reached yet or have I been missing out on some interactivity this whole time?

Just got back from seeing it and the group i went with all enjoyed the film. Certainly not the best super hero movie of all time, but I'd put it on par with Thor and the (over-hyped) X-men first class that also came out this year.

I would agree that there was potential unfulfilled in this movie ( I would have loved a longer movie with more time on Oa and more of the other lanterns).  But it's still an enjoyable film carried mostly by Ryan Reynolds.

I'm hoping for a sequel that could show more of what this film tried to do.

I think it's safe to say I won't be taking to heart any movie reviews you (or Ceekay) post in the future.  

Wait - what's wrong with my movie taste? I hated Jonah Hex, Catwoman and Superman returns like any sane human being. Now granted - I did think that Hancock wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be (and would also like to see a sequel for that one as well).

My hopes for best super-hero movie this year have always been resting on Captain America (even though i never read a single Captain America comic as a child).