The Matt Faus Blog

After much deliberation, I have finally installed and configured Gallery 2.1 (which I must say is amazing software). The main reason I wanted to use software was to cut back on the time it takes me to upload images, and boy has it been a mission accomplished!

The coolest feature is the integrated Windows XP publishing tool, which works miracles! To use this feature, you setup Gallery as you would for any normal install, and then download a .reg file to merge some entries onto your computer. Once the registry file is run, a link shows up in all folders that contain images that says ‘Publish to the Web’. I can make selections of images in the Windows folder, click that link, and presto! Everything is integrated into Windows, so there is no bulky upload tool or need to install anything, everything is handled through web services! The process I go through to upload and start sharing pictures is as simple as this:

1. Snap awesome pix with the digital camera
2. Download image files to local directory in Windows XP
3. Make selection of all images I want to upload to Gallery
4. Click ‘Publish the selected items to the Web’ button in the Windows XP folder task pane
5. Click through a wizard to create a new album with a title and summary information
6. Specify the thumbnail size I would like to use
7. Click GO, sit back, and witness the magic!

It now only takes me 5 minutes to upload a set of images as opposed to an hour or more previously. Needless to say, I will be uploading a lot more pictures!

Without, further ado, please check it out: Matt Faus Pictures

Just a quick update on Network Neutrality:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060525-6921.html

Well today was a pretty interesting day. I got a taste of a little bit of everything today. I started off the day doing a developer review with the other guys from the team. It’s always fun to have a brainstorming session and I think I get a lot out of hearing other people’s ideas, especially people that have so much more experience than me. After the meetings we went out for a rather long lunch at a Cuban restarant called, La Casa Del Mojito. It was good food and a very friendly atmosphere.

After letting the food settle a little and getting a little work done, I went for a rather long run. I traveled 8.5 miles but only really ran probably about 6 or 7. Afterwards we went to a japenese place for some dinner and I ate eel for the first time. It must say, it was delicious. I put the first piece in my mouth and it basically melted due to the tenderness of the meat. After all of this, I saw a movie as a part of the Seattle International Film Festival called “a/k/a Tommy Chong”. It told the story of Chong from Cheech and Chong was arrested an imprisoned for selling drug paraphernalia. It was a pretty good story and an interesting perspective on how a lot of politicians use the media to further their careers through special sting operations such as busting Tommy Chong, while not really accomplishing much. The movie stated that the DEA Office used nearly 12 million dollars and a whole year trying to bust this guy. What a ridiculous waste of money and effort. But, what more can you expect from any bureaucracy?

And, of course, to wrap up such a crazy day as this I came home and wrote a post on my blog.

Well, I haven’t written a whole lot about the work I’ve been doing up here in Seattle and I figured now would be a great time to start. In just a few hours Patrick Halstead and Shiraz Cupala will be demoing a solution that I have played a big part in to about 10 big players in the Procurement Group at Microsoft. The solution is called Resource Tracker and it is a project management suite built on InfoPath, SharePoint, and a new technology we have invented - Database Accelerator (aka DBXL). For the demo today it is mainly to show how DBXL works and the cool features it has, but we have been using it internally (which is called ‘dogfooding’ your software) for a while and things are finally starting to come together.

I’m incredibly excited and a little nervous at the same time. It’s awesome that something I’ve been working on is going to be demoed to such a key group in the software world. If they like it and want to hire us to make custom solutions with DBXL it will be even better!

Well, I went and saw The Da Vinci Code movie this afternoon and I must say that it was pretty boring. I haven’t read the book and that’s probably why I didn’t find it very interesting, but there was no revolutionary evidence given about anything that was said. It seems like one more fictional story with plenty of marketing hype and controversy to give something that people can latch onto.

Anyway, I can’t make much of an argument since I haven’t read the book, but I don’t recommend the movie. Go see M:i:III.

Yesterday was a lot of fun and I got to meet several new people. After taking a ferry to Bainbridge Island we cruised around for a little bit before heading back to a friend’s house for some awesome hamburgers. The ferry ride was pretty cool and I got some nice pictures of the Seattle shoreline. The house that we hung out at also had a great view of “The Sound” (apparently, that’s the hip name for Puget Sound). I met some interesting people, including a MIT graduate that’s now a Project Manager for Microsoft, the Autonomy Systems accountant (the guy who makes sure I get paid!), and several others. It was a great day with beautiful weather and delicious food. Maybe I’ll grab some burgers sometime this week and throw them on the Foreman.

Save The Internet - Fight For Net Neutrality!

Check out the website, and write a letter to your congressional spokesperson. In the words of William Wallace,

FFFFFFRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeddddddddoooooooommm!!!!!

I walked downtown this evening and happened upon the first Starbucks to ever exist. From here I bought a cup of coffee and walked a few feet further to sit on a ledge facing Puget Sound. A cup of coffee from the first Starbucks as the rays of the Sun’s light touch the last piece of America before receeding into the horizon.

I have now moved in and am fairly settled at my apartment in Seattle. My Aunt Verla has been a tremendous help over the past 48 hours, and for that I am incredibly grateful. Everything went very smoothly with the move-in this morning and as you can see I have Internet access (which, of course, is the most important thing). My apartment is awesome and below is a panoramic of the view from my 4 inch balcony. Click for larger view.

Two thousand miles and two time zones later, I made it. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, and my heart is beating. All is well.