Webthoughts

Last night at some point, the Searchware Solutions mail server went down (actually, it experienced an...incorrect configuration--it really amounts to the same thing). Because of this, messages being sent to any address in the searchwaresolutions.com domain bounced until early afternoon today.

If you attempted to send a message to a searchwaresolutions.com e-mail address and received a bounce message, please try doing so again. The problem has obviously been fixed and hopefully won't happen again.

I found a great post on a web forum on how to "Pixar" your car—basically, make your car look like the cars found in the Disney film Cars.

Here's my first attempt:

Although the eyes turned out great, the mouth definitely needs work. The big problem with the mouth, I think, is that I used the wrong type of mouth for the front grill of the truck. What would probably be better would to use Mater's mouth and replace the entire grill, or to use the mouth from Chick Hicks or Tex to better integrate between the grill and bumper.

If I get some free time, I'll try a new mouth and see how it turns out.

Happy New Year to me!

I just found out, through a routine furnace checkup, that the house's furnace is a safety hazard and needs to be replaced. Cost? Basically $3,000.

It seems that there is a crack in the heat chamber in the furnace. This, apparently, is a safety hazard. I'm also told that the furnace is putting out three parts per million of carbon monoxide—also, not a good thing.

This was not entirely unexpected. The furnace is the original that came with the house, which was built in 1983. That puts the furnace at least 23 years old. My wife and I knew that the time to replace it was coming soon, but we had hoped it might last at least another year, if not two. We had designs on a heat pump.

Alas, that is not to be. Because money is so very tight at the moment, we'll have to make due with a standard gas furnace replacement. The heat pump system was just way too far out of our price range at the moment. Perhaps, not the best choice, but the only one I can financially make at the moment. So be it.

The installers will be here on Monday to install the new furnace.

I'm an Uncle twice over as of early Saturday morning!

My brother and his wife just had their second baby girl, Katie Elizabeth, as of around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 9 oz., was 21" long, and was surprisingly not as wrinkled as her sister was when she was born.

My wife and I went by the hospital to meet our new niece yesterday morning. Baby and mom and both doing very well. Makayla, the older sister, seemed very excited to have a little sister (once she figured out what the new one was).

Of course, now that my brother and his wife are just getting past the diaper stage with their first, they have to do it all over again with their second. I'm sure that doesn't matter though. They are both beyond happy.

Shortly after a new addition to the family, we've lost another.

My paternal grandmother (Mammaw) passed away earlier today. Although details are not really necessary at this point, suffice it to say, it was probably time for her to go. She was a great person with a huge heart that was almost impossible not to like and it was a great tragedy to see her waste away as she was, body and mind.

I loved her very much. She taught me many things, including much about the importance of family. Our family has always been tight-knit and I credit her with much of that.

Although it is sad to see her go, I also know that she truly is in a better place now and has been reunited with her husband and her Lord.

Goodbye Mammaw. Thank you for everything.

I'm finally starting to see daylight at the end of the tunnel!

The next major version of Print Window is continuing on nicely and most of the major new features are implemented. All that's left now is to perform some interface reworking, do some code cleanup and test, test, test! (I might have a screen shot of some new goodies in the next few days—we'll see...)

If you are interested in becoming a tester for Print Window, I'd love to have you aboard! See the Searchware Solutions Testing Page for more information on how you can help!

So, obviously, the blog is sporting a new look now. I'm working to differentiate the blog from the Searchware Solutions website, and the old look didn't really do that.

The template that's being used right now is a theme called "Relaxation" that I found on the Style Contest website and used the StyleCatcher plugin in MoveableType to install. Unfortunately, it doesn't render correctly. The content that is supposed to be in the shared area on the right instead appears below the entries listed on the left.

I'm fairly sure that this problem is a problem in the CSS, but I'm very much clueless when it comes to CSS, so I don't even know where to look.

Does anyone have any suggestions they might be able to pass my way on how to fix this display problem?

UPDATE (2/1/2007): Thank you to "Su-" on the MovableType forums! He found the problem, which was a missing .css file from the theme that, for whatever reason, MT was not including when updating. The problem is now fixed!