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Not quite sure what that means, but I’ll take it :)

Look at me!

Typing away!

• We talk independently to each others family, friends, etc… since they call our cell phones, not a shared line. We miss just being the person to answer the phone and saying “hey!” and catching up.
• Unlimited minutes, fairly cheaply (we are using T-Mobile’s Talk Forever service, which is in Seattle and Dallas only for right now – though, supposedly, it is going to go nationwide on the 14th of May. You do need to have T-Mobile for cell phone). It is unlimited minutes from home, both local and long-distance, for only $10/month, so it is much, much cheaper than using the phone service or Comcast’s service (which was the reason we went away from having a home phone in the first place – they are so expensive!)
• The unlimited minutes would have been even more important this past month with me being at home so much. It was the first time I, for one, have ever gone over minutes. This should mitigate that for the future.
• Often, it is just a lot more comfortable to talk on a normal phone. We picked up some clearance cordless phones (with extendable # of handsets) from Office Max, so we can use the phones around the house.
• Another benefit we realized is that it is sometimes hard to hear someone when they are talking on the main floor of our house, when the other person is in the basement. With our new fancy schmancy new clearance phones, we can intercom to each other. Cool :)
• I wanted a new router anyway (I’ve been using a pretty old model for testing purposes for work), and this comes with an optimized one for the service (it has VOIP, or Voice Over IP, optimization built-in). It seems to be holding up pretty well – I am impressed.

So there you have it, we are now proud owners of a new home phone number! If you want to know it (and we know who you are), shoot one of us an email.

Don’t worry – our cell phones aren’t going anywhere. This is just an added option for us…

A few notes first:

• Not all of these show averbuch.net on the first page – people seemed to click through google/yahoo/etc… listings quite a bit
• Google (and yahoo and msn) update constantly, so for some of these queries, I showed up at one time, but no more
• As an aside, the queries are 84% google, 15% yahoo, 3% MSN

Here’s the list, in order of most frequent searching

• averbuch
• passover food rules
• pesach food rules
• molly averbuch
• aha thoughts of the day
• wedding + bedikat chametz + shabbat
• south lake union trolley
• “aaron averbuch”
• “aaron and joelle”
• aaron averbuch blog
• rules chametz
• “rabbi menachem creditor”
• “passover food rules”
• 1938 vs. 2008
• averbuch room owen school
• guy forced into a women’s dress
• jewish food
• foot pain
• seattle historic house pictures
• averbuch.net/2008/03/30/introduci
• beth shalom chicago averbuch
• sabich recipe
• +purim +cheese +custom
• moshe averbuch florida
• mike averbuch seattle washington
• +”redmond library”
• racoon on roof
• purim drag rabbi
• averbuch 1938
• bachelor party 2
• docs google.com teampresent docid ddp4zq
• thesweetspotcafe blog
• trolley slut
• “washington university declares war agai
• averbuch realty
• averbuch reality, huntsville, al
• out of whack back and the central nervous
• aaron averbuch

(Courtesy of WordPress.com blog stats)

• Twitter – you can find me at twitter.com/ahaverbuch (RSS available as well). This is strangely addicting – it’s like the facebook status updates, but much more real-time and conversational. You can also post from a bunch of different places – IM, web, facebook, cell phone, etc… (and you can follow your friends/associates postings as well). It’s weird – I know almost no one is reading it, but since I signed up yesterday, I keep wanting to post for some reason.  A few co-workers and friends are on it now, so I’ll see how the experiment goes.
• Latest posts are also embedded on the right side of www.averbuch.net at all times as well, and included in the FriendFeed (see below)
• FriendFeed – you can find me at friendfeed.com/ahaverbuch (RSS available as well). This services combines updates I make at lots of other sites into one feed for easier viewing. It also has the social aspect; I can add my friends who have FriendFeed’s (in fact, via facebook, it automatically found a bunch of them, which is sort of cool), in addition to adding “imaginary friends” if I want to track services for people who haven’t signed up. I get an uber-listing of any updates any of them make. Pretty easy to get information overload this way!
• Services I have combined so far into one feed: blog, picassaweb (pictures), facebook status, twitter, youtube favorites, Amazon wishlist, Google Reader shared items, flickr pictures, google chat notifications, linkedin updates
• This is also embedded at www.averbuch.net/around-the-web/ for easier viewing – it’s reachable by clicking “around the web” at the top of each page.
• It’s also embedded into my facebook profile as well – through the FriendFeed application.

Not sure if I will stick with paying too much attention to these, but it’s pretty neat how easy and seemlessly all of these different services play together, so I shouldn’t need to think about them too much. As these are getting much more press and utilization, I thought I would pass along the fact that I have signed up for them so people can track if they are interested in keeping up with what’s going on.

I realized I should share these through www.averbuch.net as well, in case any one wants to follow along on what I find interesting as I surf the blog world…

It is now up at averbuch.net/interesting-reading/, and will automatically be kept up to date as I add things (which I do more frequently than blogging itself).

RSS feed also available, by the way, of shared articles.

Not so bad to upgrade, but a couple of key things:

• The documentation says to use the Maintenance Mode plugin while you upgrade – don’t! It doesn’t appear to be compatible with 2.5 yet, so it was blocking my access to upgrade.php which you need to run to update the database. I had to hack the script to turn it off from running to get through.
• Most of my plugins work – the only one with problems is Popularity Contest (I use this to track which articles people read most) – it had a Fatal Error. Apparently I am not the only one – see wordpress.org/support/topic/164349 for more.  (Update: the fix at blog.evaria.com/2008/wp-plugins-1-fix-and-1-update/ works great!)
• What is annoying is that while the plugins work, a lot of them make you go through and re-click save options to get them to kick in again after the deactivate/activate cycle. While not a big deal, it does make you figure out the new dashboard a little quicker than I would have thought of.
• Set up automatic backups as part of this – BackupWordPress is a fantastic plugin for this – well recommended.

Senior Software Design Engineer

Founded in 2002, Seattle-based Pure Networks leads the rapidly growing wireless home network management market by providing next generation networking software that is uncomplicated, powerful and flexible and ensures all members of the value chain benefit from a connected world.
• We empower consumers and small business owners with software like our award winning Network Magic that helps them setup, secure and troubleshoot network issues quickly and easily.
• We help OEMs deliver products that connect easily to a home or small office network and provide solutions that help them better understand and service their customers.
• We enable broadband providers to cost effectively support their customers and prove tools for developing and delivering new services into the home.
Just as an Internet connection is fundamental to a connected experience, so is a reliable home or small office network. Pure Networks plays a leading role in making the digital lifestyle a reality.
Pure Networks offers a competitive benefits package, including: medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k), life insurance, vacation, and paid holidays.

JOB DESCRIPTION AND REQUIREMENTS
As an experienced Software Engineer, you will design and implement advanced Windows-based components of Pure Networks’ product line. You will become intimately familiar with Home Networking devices such as gateways, wireless access points and switches – play with cool consumer electronic gadgets such as network attached storage and media adaptors.
Candidates must be proficient in C / C++ however, experience with C# or Objective-C is a plus. You must also have experience with Windows design principles and related API’s (Win32, ATL, etc). You will also be very familiar with TCP/IP and networking protocols.
• 5 plus years of experience in software development using C++, COM and Win32.
• Experience with the following is a strong plus: MSHTML DOM, TCP/IP, ATL, Object Model/API Design.
• Have been a key contributor in shipping one or more versions of a world-class software product.
• Strong background in Windows networking.
• Understand how to secure applications and network connections.
• Very strong design and implementation skills are critical.
• Strong self starter with a track record of success in the software industry.
• Prior startup experience highly desirable.
• Great interpersonal, team building, conflict resolution, organizational and motivational skills;
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal including strong presentation skills.
• BS in computer science, electrical engineering, math or physics; MS a significant plus.

Software Design Engineer – Entry Level

Pure Networks is looking for developer, devoted to building world-class software, and motivated to get real world experience in an exciting software environment. If you are passionate about writing high-quality, performant code and eager to learn from a team of industry veterans, then you’re the developer we want to talk to. As a Software Design Engineer you’ll be given huge responsibilities as you’ll be designing and implementing advanced Windows/Mac based components of Pure Networks‘ product line by developing and building code.
Candidates should have strong experience using C++ and Windows design principles. You will also be very familiar with TCP/IP and networking protocols. You must be responsive, flexible and adapt easily to changing requirements and tight time frames. You have a desire to code and build features, while gaining experience and knowledge from our veteran staff of Software Engineers.

• 1-3 years of industry experience
• Strong attention to detail and ability to master new technologies quickly
• Must be proficient in C, C++ and/or Objective-C
• Good understanding of object oriented programming
• Background in computer networking is desired
• Have worked on a variety of school or personal projects that used your CS and coding skills
• Strong self starter with a track record of success in academia with a BS in computer science or electrical engineering

To be clear how it tracks, there are a few concepts:

• Subscriptions – how many RSS feeds it’s tracking
• Posts – # of posts the blogger/feed serves up, regardless of whether or not I’ve drilled into to actually read the article (often I just scan the title and discard)
• Items read – how many posts/articles I actually look at the article for
• Shared items – items I share as interesting to me; you can always find the list at: www.google.com/reader/shared/02645973665706385664 (rss feed available as well)
• Starred items – items I star for myself so I can go back and look at later; not shared publicly. I tend to only do this if I do any reading on my cell-phone (i.e. on the bus)

My overall view stats for the past 30 days are:

From your 494 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 4,244 items, starred 2 items, shared 20 items, and emailed 0 items.

Items read by day for the past 30 days:

Top 10 feeds that get me to read articles – many of these are because they post so many articles, so they bubble to the top (this is sorted by  # read, not by % read)

Subscription	# Read	% Read
Slog	206	20%
Chowhound’s Latest – Pacific Northwest	189	17%
Valleywag	188	25%
CNN Political Ticker	166	21%
Freep.com – RSS – Sports	159	12%
Fatwallet.com Finance	134	22%
Slashdot	118	20%
ProFootballTalk.com » Rumor Mill	107	24%
Lifehacker	107	23%
TMobile Howard Forums	76	27%

I probably will try to post about this every few months – it provides a nice view of what I am interested in over time, so I’d like it posted for my own archival purposes, if nothing else. Plus, if anybody else finds an interesting blog because of it, good for them!

In moving over to the new blog, I had a choice to make: move everything over, move nothing, or figure out what’s easy to do.

WordPress has some options for transferring between hosting engines built-in, but unfortunately, Spaces is not one of them.

So, easy it was, but not everything – I used www.blogbackuponline.com, which has a really nice backup and restore service that happens to cover Spaces, but as I found out, only the 20 or so most recent articles.

Since I already started, I figured it’s good enough – so only the 20 most recent articles have been moved to the new site; visit the old one for any previous postings. Hope it’s not too much of a hassle!

(also using this post to test Windows Live Writer interaction with WordPress)

With my transition to Averbuch.net, a few key settings will need to be updated on your end, depending on how you follow my postings.

1. If you just visit the web site: Change your bookmarks to point to averbuch.net
2. If you follow the RSS feed: Change (or add) averbuch.net/feed/ to your RSS reader
3. If you like receiving email when I post, click here to signup.
4. If you read my postings on Facebook, I already updated the link, so you have nothing to change here.

Please contact me if you have any questions about changing over or something doesn’t work for you.

NOTE: I will no longer be posting at averbuch.spaces.live.com again; all new postings will go to averbuch.net only.

I’ve been thinking about moving off of Spaces for a while, for a couple of reasons:

1. More flexibility in hosting (i.e. stats tracking, plugins, etc…)
2. A lot more theme choices
3. I wanted to host fully on my domain name, averbuch.net, rather than just having it as a redirect.
4. Microsoft locks down a bunch of functionality in the name of security, but this significantly impacts my ability to explore and play with various technologies.
5. I wanted a server to do some exploration with Ruby on Rails.

During the President’s Day holiday yesterday, I spent time exploring various hosting options, and ended up setting up a plan at hostingrails.com, which had the price I was looking for (including coupons), along with providing Ruby access, WordPress, ssh/shell access, and a bunch of other exploratory needs.

I’ve got the new site up, so I am going to switch everything over there; you’ll just need to switch over once, but don’t be surprised if I change the look and feel a bit over time as I explore various options and plugins.

My next post will describe how to get setup on the new server.

By the way, if you are on Facebook, and are not marked as my friend, feel free to add me; if I know you, I’ll accept. If I don’t, I’ll ignore…. www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694272115

Steps to do this if you have a blog and are on Facebook – posting since it took me a while to figure this out:

1. Log in (duh!)
2. On the upper-left side, under applications, click more
3. Click “Notes”
4. On the right side, under “Notes Settings”, click “Edit Import Settings”
5. Type in the RSS or ATOM feed of your blog, and check the “this is my blog” checkbox.
6. Click OK.
7. Confirm the preview matches your feed
8. You are good to go!

I am no good at FreeCell. Never have been. My goal for the rest of the flight (or as long as the battery lasts) is to get better.

Solitaire, I can win that (on the PC) often enough. FreeCell – not at all. Is it even possible?

Frustrating. (Then again, I haven’t played it in years; just remembered it even existed).