From Shane

Productive Programming With Find & Replace in Visual Studio

Shane Crawford — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:07:59 +0000

Don’t waste your time typing. Use these examples to form your own regular expressions to more effectively copy and paste your code to other objects you create (Read: copy and paste from the web). If you do the same thing more than twice then you’re wasting time. Get good at using these regular expressions, they’re a huge time saver. As I do them in my own work I’ll be posting them here, mostly because I forget what I do and I’ll want to go back and reference them.

[DataMapping("avg-pts", 1)] public float Line { get; set; }

[DataMapping("rank-avg-pts", 1)] public int Line { get; set; }

Change all fields that are a ranking to a data type of int:
Find Expression:
DataMapping{.*rank.*\n.*}public float
Replace Expression:
DataMapping\1public int

We are finding anything with the the term rank in the first line and is already declared as a float in the second line. We then take that entire expression, denoted as \1 and just change floatat the end to int

[StatColumn(Visible = true, HeaderText = "")] public string Palming { get; set; }

[StatColumn(Visible = true, HeaderText = "Palming")] public string Palming { get; set; }
Change all empty quotes in the above property attributes to be the name of the property defined below.
Find Expression:
\[StatColumn$Visible = true, HeaderText = ""$\]\n.*public {(string|int)} {.*} \{ get; set; \}
Replace Expression:
[StatColumn(Visible = true, HeaderText = "\2")]\n\t\tpublic \1 \2 { get; set; }

There are two parameters we need to capture from the find expression to use in the replace expression. The first one is the data type (string or int). We denote the selection with (string|int). That’s just an “or” operator on that string so it would find anything with string or int, but not if we had a bool type. The second is the name of the variable, which we use everything (.*) between the spaces after the data type and before the property functionality.

public ShotReportLine DefensiveGameShotChart { get { return _DefensiveGameShotChart; } }

In this example, we want to just add a protected set to each of these properties that already exist, where we just change their private member variable. Easy enough:

Find Expression:
public {.*} \{ get \{ return {.*}; \} \}
Replace Expression:
public \1 \{ get \{ return \2; \} protected set \{ \2 \= value; \} \}

Next, we want to insert another object and change its property just like we changed the first property
Before
Player1.BoxScoreLine.Point = stat.STATVAL; break;

After
Player1.BoxScoreLine.Point = stat.STATVAL; pbpTeam.TeamStatLine.Point = stat.STATVAL; break;

I’m going to search for the first line with any property value in the BoxScoreLine, then make that same property assign to the STATVAL for the pbpTeam object.

Find Expression:
Player2\.BoxScoreLine\.{.*} = stat\.STATVAL;\n{.*}break;
Replace Expression:
Player2\.BoxScoreLine\.\1 = stat\.STATVAL;\n\2pbpTeam\.TeamStatLine\.\1 = stat\.STATVAL;\n\2break;

Airlines’ New Slogans

Shane Crawford — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:47:31 +0000

Cassandra and I recently came across these not-yet unveiled slogans for Delta Airlines and US Airways.

For when you don’t want to fly, but you have to

Because you have to fly on our airline if it’s almost free.

Bend over. You’re on US Airways

Fly US Airways. It’s the only way to use our vouchers when we scew up

We can’t promise you’ll enjoy your flight. But we can promise you’ll have a story.

Delta: It’s like getting a close up view of an antique.

Delta. Are you sure?

Delta. An amputee’s best friend

Delta: The only ones with a red logo

Delta: You’ll wish you had flown with US Airways.

US Airways: You’ll wish you were dead

US Airways. You’ll wish it was your own funeral you were traveling to.

Delta: Make friends with your neighbors. You’ll need a support system.

Delta: Make friends with your neighbors. This trip will last a lifetime.

Delta: Because your friends need a good laugh.

Delta. Because crying is good for your health.

5 out of 5 doctors agree that flying US Airways improves low blood pressure

Delta: If you find the nice flight attendant, you win a prize.

US Airways: When your tired of living the care-free life

When you’re depressed, fly US Airways. We’ll show you how good your life used to be.

Time moves slower in Delta Reality

Helicopters Aren’t For Greyhounds

Shane — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:32:52 +0000

I got to the point where I can fly my little remote helicopter around and have some
control. I even flew it through the little hole in our wall at the top of
the staircase. Cassandra, though…

One of the very first missions for the red helicopter started out spinny, as
it should. From there, though, it was only a short time until hit hit the
wall head on and fluttered down until it made a crash landing in the dogs’
water bowl. How she managed to find the one little spot of water in the
whole house to land it in, I do not know. The good news is that being
completely submersed in water did not seem to phase the baby helicopter.
After a short drying off period, it was time for another flight.

This time, it wasn’t the wall, but the ceiling. After making rather blunt
contact with the ceiling, the copter spiraled downwards towards the dog bed.
Ajax looked up with fear in his eyes. He tried to get up and run, but it was
too late. He was hit. Moving past “freaked out” and quickly into “fear
induced panic”, he sprung to his feet and sprinted as quickly as he could to
the stairs, trying to get to the bedroom, his one safe hideout in this newly
helicopter-infested house. The carpet, though, soon gave way to slick wood,
and his toes could no longer dig in to keep him running. All four legs slid
out from underneath his chest sending him rocketing on his back across the
floor. Traveling completely uncontrolled in a back-slide, he slammed into
the foosball table, moving it about a foot and a half towards the staircase.
Even more frightened, now, he scuttled his feet on the wood, trying to get
any kind of traction. Big round blurs replaced the places where his legs
used to be, much like the roadrunner. Finally he managed to get his weight
balanced on his feet and off he went upstairs, where he refused to come down
until the next morning.

Alaska Day 1: We are JetBlue and 10 Years Have Stolen Our Soul

Shane Crawford — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:49:54 +0000

JetBlue just hit their tenth anniversary. They used to have a business model built on great (okay better than crappy) customer service and planes with built in entertainment, or as it is commonly called, a TV. Well, like a naive young child, they eventually grew up and realized what being an airline was really all about. Treating people like crap and charging for everything. Basically, they are down to just the TVs at this point.

This week, we start on a trip to Alaska on a Royal Caribbean cruise. We will stop a few places in Alaska and once in Victoria, BC. Along the way we will eat some salmon, take some photos, and punch some eskimos. We leave from Seattle, so last night we hopped on a JetBlue flight for SeaTac. Just us, eighty children who apparently had no parents, and our thoughts of suicide. The good news was that the plane was only half full. The bad news, as i recently mentioned was the abundance of children and their propensity for being annoying.

As the plane boarded and then got set to take off, it was clear that we did not have a full flight. In an effort to improve a good flight experience, many passengers branched out to give themselves a little more space. The JetBlue flight crew would have none of that.

“You can’t sit there,” an effeminate flight attendant announced as a man decided to grab a spacious exit row seat.

“Why not?”

“We charge more for those seats. I can run your credit card for $40 for you if you wish to stay there.”

“But there’s no one sitting here and the doors are closed,” the man argued.

“If someone else boards the plane, though, they may have paid extra for that seat.”

Needless to say, no one else was boarding, and no one else did sit there. It was clear at this point, though that this flight crew was made up of Satan and his minions. From there, things just got worse. The girl sitting next to us was barked at for asking for a blanket. Of course, she was lectured AND charged $7 for the blanket. Another attendant had a frustrated look when I asked for a snack different than the variety that he randomly selected for me. I know, I was way out of line not wanting to eat the blue potato chips.

It was six hours of mean flight attendants, crying babies, and smelly old people. Now, about sixteen hours later, sitting on the cruise ship waiting to leave and writing on my iPad, I realize that the smelly old people part will not end with the flight to Seattle. Alaska attracts old people like honey attracts wild bears, which incidentally reminds me to advise you not to bring honey to Alaska. Lots of bears. We have been on the ship for only three hours and I’ve already grown weary of saying “old people” so much so that Cassandra and I have just coined the term OPs. Similarly, there are FPs here (Fat people) and the more uncommon but still abundant OFPs.

As for JetBlue, it looks like they are way past the experiences of five years ago when they would find out I was a blood clot risk and block the seat beside me so I had extra space. They have sunk down to the levels of all the hoer airlines because in the airline business, consumers just have to deal with it. I will still probably fly with them some due to lack of better options, but I certainly no longer recommend them to anyone else, and don’t go out of my way to book with them over other airlines anymore. Happy 10th anniversary JetBlue. You’ve grown into a real airline.

How You Found Us

Shane — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:24:00 +0000

If you own a website and publish to it semi-regularly, sometimes you ask yourself what you actually contribute to the world. With the help of Google, Cassandra and I found out how our website really helps others. Let’s just say it might not be completely as we planned. I give you, then, the search terms which brought you the public to our site over the past twelve months. My comments and analysis inserted where necessary or funny. Search terms are listed in order of frequency.

1   how to build a scoreboard
2   napoleon dynamite technology lyrics
3   shane and cassandra
4   damn boobs

Many people are really upset with boobs. My question is whether they are upset with their own damn boobs, or someone else’s damn boobs.

5 cassandra.com

You missed by adding an extra “shane” in there. Try again.

6 build a scoreboard
7 shaneandcassandra.com

I think you meant to type that into the address bar, not the google search box, champ. Learn the difference.

8   yes i love technology but not as much as you you see lyrics
9   build scoreboard
10   reasons to be a sports fan
11   desk no legs
12   “shaneandcassandra”
13   desk with no legs
14   how to build an electronic scoreboard

As you can see, many people are interested in building scoreboards. I hope they learned a lot from all the jokes I made on that page.

15   shaneandcassandra
16   always forever lyrics kip
17   boobs crap

They do? If mine did I’d certainly be looking for solutions to that problem also!

18   building a scoreboard
19   desks with no legs
20   dr pepper nausea
21   dr. pepper nausea
22   how to build scoreboard
23   http://shaneandcassandra.com/shane/?p=54
24   reasons to love sports
25   revolving door humor

This is a thing? Really?

26 stopped escalator
27 why people love sports

I’m pretty sure my sister was searching for this one.

28   “build a scoreboard”
29   “dr pepper” nausea
30   “freenewyork.net/dpfaq.html”
31   “how many rows” “progressive field”

Lots.

32   “i love you too football”
33   “you have reached the sprint pcs
34   ajax dog cassandra
35   al michaels sixty nine

Someone knows that we know something that nobody else, including ourselves didn’t even know.

36 always and forever kip keys
37 antitrust agree or disagree

YES!

38 are the words hell and damn bad

No, Mom, not really. Relax.

39 at&t park seat size fat

If you have to search for that, you should probably just go ahead and catch the game on TV at home.

40 balco
41 big cassandra.com

“I’m Muzzy. BIIIG Muzzy.”

42   boss office layout
43   boston scene in fabric
44   build lcd scoreboard
45   build led scoreboard
46   casandra salem, ma

A little too personal. That’s kind of scary.

47   casndra klarson
48   cassandra .com
49   cassandra ainge
50   cassandra bag
51   cassandra big boobs

I’m listening…

52   cassandra cavs
53   cassandra com
54   cassandra crawford
55   cassandra kentucky fried chicken
56   cassandra kfc
57   cassandra mexican food

Another specific one…

58 cassandra mexican texas

Okay, who is she making angry?

59   cassandra s. crawford
60   cassandra shane
61   cassandra sharne facebook

Get my name right, numskull.

62   cassandra tulips
63   cassandra website
64   cassandra.com.mx
65   cassandra/cleveland cavs

If she’s cheating on the Celtics with the Cavs, we’ll have problems.

66   cassie blanca + shane diesel + download
67   celtics leave hanscom field
68   city of peabody ma zoning decisions sonic
69   cleveland cavs private plane
70   collared sissy blog

I have to assume that “Collared Sissy” is a nickname for Ajax. Seems about right.

71 commercials during nfl opening night

Lots.

72   commercials opening night of nfl 9/10
73   coors nfl song, nbc
74   cream flowers on black
75   crowded escalators pictures
76   damn boobies

Yeah! They suck!

77 dear cassandra; it’s late, i just watched your plane take off

STALKER!

78   desk no legs attached to wall
79   desks no legs
80   did tike barber get demoted by nbc
81   drake way peabody townhouses

They suck. Move on.

82 drake way townhouses peabody

Suck.

83   escalator stairs
84   fabric camera case sewing patterns
85   fabric casandra

I have one of those for when the real one goes out of town.

86   faith hill on 10 sep nfl opening night, will she sing
87   first:”cassandra” last:”crawford”
88   fisherman’s wharf giant silver man

He’s not really that big.

89   flowery fabrics
90   greyhound blog shane and cassandra
91   half time show nfl opening night
92   hanging cassandras.com
93   heat dancers cassandra

I wish……

94 how do announcers know what pitch was thrown

They’re either magical, or they have eyes. I’ll go with the eyes theory.

95   how to build a scoreboard with lcd tv
96   how to build a scoreboard?
97   how to build an old fashioned scoreboard
98   how to build big scorebord
99   how to build cardboard scoreboard

Isn’t that just an exercise in using a marker?

100   how to construct a scoreboard
101   how to create a scoreboard for a game
102   how to look pretty with no legs

Can’t do it. Not possible.

103   how to make a at home scoreboard
104   how to make a cardboard scoreboard
105   how to make a giant scoreboard
106   how to make a scoreboard in a video
107   how to make a small scoreboard
108   how to make cardboard scoreboard
109   how to make scoreboard
110   how to make scoreboard cardboard
111   howto build score board
112   inurl:?p=2 “leave a reply”
113   kfc touchdown celebration nfl 2007
114   laws that protect the ncaa
115   look,ma no legs
116   lyrics “i caught you a delicious bass”

That’s not a song. That’s a line from a movie, smart guy.

117   lyrics to always and forever napoleon dynamite
118   make a cardboard scoreboard
119   make an old school scoreboard
120   men crying prior to a sporting event

I think this refers to the WNBA. Fun fact: Despite their appearance, the players are actually women!

121 mexician fabric dog coats

Oh, that makes me sad. But also, I think a coat made out of my greyhounds would be very comfortable, so I’m conflicted.

122   napoleon dynamite keyboard
123   napoleon dynamite songs keyboard
124   napoleon dynamite technology song lyrics
125   nbc commercial nfl opening night
126   nbc thursday night football commercial break song
127   new nfl opening song
128   nfl comercial with girl singing

It’s not just any girl. It’s the wife of Faith Hill’s husband. All right, Sunday Night. Where are you? Nobody ever puts you back when they’re done using you.

129   nfl opening commercial
130   nfl opening kick-off press conference kelly clarkson
131   nfl opening lines september 7

I don’t know specifics, but I bet it was something like Cleveland +[Insert Double Digit Number Here]

132   nfl opening night score
133   nfl pink opening night football
134   nfl player cassandra
135   p66 depth record
136   pa announcer jokes

Oh, I know a LOT of these, thanks to Eddie.

137 people think we make $3 million and $4 million a year. they don’t realize that most of us only make $500,000.”
138 pictures of cassandra crawford

Now I’m pretty sure she’s got a stalker and might get murdered.

139   pictures of shane crawfords family 2009
140   playing favorites
141   random stuff in consecutive order

Freak alert.

142   reason i love sport
143   reason to love sports quotes
144   reasons for liking sports
145   reasons of loving sports
146   riddle on escalator stairway
147   scoreboard = new scoreboard tictactoe
148   september 2009 pictures of shane west
149   shaine and friend boobs

Hello. This is my friend, Boobs. Meet her friend, Other Boobs.

150 shane and cassandra lesbiens

Shhhhhh! That’s a secret!

151   shane and cassandra wedding
152   shane cleveland
153   shane crawford’s family
154   shane’s trip
155   shopping achievement
156   sissy collar

With a fag tag.

157   song lyrics napolean i love technology
158   sonic august 26th peabody mass
159   sonic burger newengland
160   sonic in new england
161   sonic new england

Mmmmm. Yes please.

162   sunday night football commercial break song
163   take me into the holy of holies by shane n shane
164   tandem garage depth
165   the death of shane crawford
166   trust me if i say it’s ok
167   trust me though, there’s no un watching it.
168   ugly fabrics
169   using a non-moving escalator

It’s easy. Pretend it’s stairs.

170 video of guy jumping off pier and breaking open his face

Please forward along when you find it.

171   video of installing a center hung arena scoreboard
172   want to watch nfl opening celebration
173   we met in a chatroom, now our love can fully bloom. yea the world wide web is great, but you…you make me salivate. always and forever. lyrics
174   what is the song from pepsi commercial played on start of nfl season
175   what’s the song for the new football season (madden 10)commercial
176   whats that one song they played last night on opening night for football
177   when is sonic coming to new england
178   who’s singing in the thursday night nfl kickoff commercial 2009
179   why do people love sport?
180   your eyes are like a flock of doves napoleon dynamite
181   shane cassandra.com

Anti-Trust Me, It’s Okay

Shane — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:55:08 +0000

Cassandra sent me this article today, which is an interesting history on the anti-trust history of the NFL and why they end up playing Thursday nights on national TV but you don’t see any Friday or Saturday games until the College Football season is over. If you don’t want to read it, basically it says that there are anti-trust laws protecting the NCAA member schools from NFL games being broadcast in their markets on Saturdays because it would have an adverse effect on both attendance at the game and viewership of a telecast of the game. For that reason, the NFL can’t broadcast a game in any household within 75 miles of any college stadium in which a game is being played on a Saturday. That’s a lot of land coverage.

After I read it, we ended up talking about it, and trying to decide whether the government was justified in protecting college (and high school) football by limiting the broadcasts of NFL games. Read what we had to say, then let us know what you think. Here we go:

12:02 PM sir?

me: What

Cassandra: did you look at that article i sent you at all about the nfl?

12:03 PM me: I’m reading it now

Cassandra: ok

7 minutes

12:11 PM me: Done done

I think I had heard that before

Cassandra: oh ok.

very ridiculous.

me: I don’t really think so

12:12 PM Cassandra: how not?

me: Because colleges would lose a lot of TV viewership if the NFL was allowed to play Saturdays

Most people would watch NFL

Cassandra: yeah, so..

why is that the governments business?

12:13 PM me: Not only that, but CBS probably wouldn’t pay the SEC big money for that TV contract

Cassandra: letting them play on saturday actually encourages competition

me: Because the NFL would essentially become a football monopoly

Cassandra: separating them does the opposite

bascially they aren’t even letting them compete.

me: But college football is fundamentally a lesser product than pro.

Cassandra: anti-trust is supposed to encourage competition.

12:14 PM me: Competition won’t change that, it will just kill off college football.

Cassandra: so the gov’t should protect the lesser product

me: There’s no way to make NCAA football better than NFL football

Cassandra: right, so maybe it shouldn’t be on tv.

if peole would rather watch pro.

me: But I think the point is, the consumer wants to be able to watch both.

Cassandra: then they wil

12:15 PM don’t need laws to enforce that

me: Not if college isn’t on TV

Cassandra: if they want to watch it on tv and there is demand for it.

then it doens’t matter what the nfl does

me: If the NCAA can’t make money by putting it on TV, they won’t

And then the consumer misses out.

12:16 PM You’re not accounting for the demand by the same person for both offerings

Most people don’t have 2 TVs

Cassandra: then those companies should be aware of that.

the nfl doesn’t want to take over college football.

that was never the intent.

me: But if they play games on Saturday, they would

12:17 PM College would ose most or all of their TV revenue

If NFL only plays on Sundays, then they both make money

Cassandra: maybe that is true, but the answer isn’t the gov’t coming to the rescue of a product that is obvisouly not as desired as another.

that’s just ridiculous.

12:18 PM me: I think it’s more the government keeping a product with very high demand and a product with moderately high demand both alive instead of letting the one with very high demand killing the one with moderate demand

12:19 PM Cassandra: i think they should get the f out of the business, though

but that’s just me.

me: By making the law, they allow the consumer to watch both, rather than choose.

Cassandra: but the gov’t doesn’t exist to provide consumer choice.

it exists to protect rights.

me: Protects the consumer’s interests, though

12:20 PM Cassandra: you don’t have a right to watch any football you want at any time.

should only protect the consumer if fraud is involved.

me: No, but it’s better for the conusmer to have both products.

Cassandra: yeah, but it isn’t a right.

me: It doesn’t have to be.

Cassandra: so you want the gov’t making decisions about what is best for all consumers?

me: There are tons of laws that make things easier and better for consumers.

12:21 PM Cassandra: there are tons of useless laws.

12:22 PM me: I don’t think that government should allow monopolies.

Cassandra: ok.

me: Everyone gets screwed by that.

Cassandra: maybe..

12:23 PM but the law doesn’t necessarily prevent monopolies.

me: That’s what antitrust law is

Cassandra: you don’t know for a fact that it would take away college football

me: I’m pretty sure.

Cassandra: why not wait until it has happened or is about to, but not make a law to prevent what might make somehting happen.

companies are very wiling to adapt… or should be.

12:24 PM shouldn’t rely on the government to make the viable.

*them

me: If you’re CBS and you have to all of the sudden choose you Saturday programming, do you take 2 random SEC games or do you take two NFL games?

12:25 PM So some other network might pick up the SEC, but then people won’t be watching, because unless I went to one of the schools, I’ll watch Cowboys Giants over Alabama vs. LSU every single time.

Cassandra: ok.

that’s fine.

12:26 PM me: So no other networks would touch those college games that they know will compete against the NFL either

Cassandra: I don’t care if college football is on tv.

me: So now the NCAA is out of luch.

But you watch college football sometimes on Saturdays

Cassandra: only caust it is on.

12:27 PM me: Yeah, but you’re watching it instead of ALL other programming that is on on a Saturday afternoon

So there is demand for it without the NFL competing

And that’s for you personally

Cassandra: so if there is demand for it, there will be someone that picks it up and someone that watches it.

12:28 PM me: There is demand without the NFL.

Cassandra: if they lose money, i don’t care

well, we can agree to disagree

me: Except that you lose college football

12:29 PM You essentially lose the chance to watch college football at the expense of spreading NFL games out over two days instead of one.

Cassandra: it is like saying you can only have dr pepper on sunday because if you can have it any day, then you won’t drink anything else.

because it is a better product than coke.

who cares? if dr pepper is better, then coke should lose money.

12:30 PM me: It’s not a better product.

Cassandra: and if everyone in the world like dr pepper better than coke, why should coke make money.

(that was an assumption by me for apoint)

12:31 PM me: The difference is that Coke can make itself better if it chooses to, by changing flavors, adapting, etc.

College football can’t

Cassandra: then why should they make money via tv?

me: Lowering prices

Because consumers still want to see that product, even if it isn’t as good as the NFL.

They don’t want to have to choose.

12:32 PM They want both available on different days.

Cassandra: i see your point, but I can’t bring myself to agree with it.

12:33 PM at leas tthe enforcement of it.

you are right that most people want to watch both.. i just disagree with gov’t involvement with it.

me: In this case, moderate enforcement protects both offerings, rather than having one go away.

Cassandra: yeah.. i see that.

12:34 PM me: And, in this specific case, the consumer ends up with a better selection of products, and the football market overall ends up more profitable even.

12:35 PM It’s a case by case thing, I don’t think you can really apply this exact situation to many other things and say “It’s always like this”

Cassandra: yeah.. i definitely see that point, it just goes against what I beleive in at a foundation.

me: In general, I agree about government getting involved, but in this case, it helps random sports fan X more than it hurts.

12:36 PM Cassandra: i have to give the whole anti-trust thing more thought, also.

there is a group of people that believe the gov’t shouldn’t disallow monopolies.

I’m not sure yet if I fall in that category.

me: I like limited involvement

Cassandra: i see where it is applicable, but some cases are unwarranted.

12:37 PM me: Like I said, specific cases.

Cassandra: yeah.

perhaps.

me: I was against the government getting involved with Microsoft.

Cassandra: yes, me too

or most anything anti-trust really.

me: To me, that’s a clear “This company is just running their business better”

12:38 PM Cassandra: AND, if there’s any sector of the economy that has plenty of competition, it is technology.

i mean, look at prices falling all the time

someone always doing something better to improve.

that’s the whole point.

me: But I agree with the airline policies, because there are such a limited amount of companies that are able to get into that business because there is a finite amount of airport space.

12:39 PM So without regulation on that, it would cost $2,500 anytime you wanted to fly anywhere.

Cassandra: maybe, that’s where i need to do more thinking/research.

12:40 PM me: It’s a difference of regulation becacuse one company is better than the other (not okay) and because of special circumstances.

12:41 PM Cassandra: ok

me: And now… It’s time for me to try to turn Qdoba into a monopoly.

12:42 PM Cassandra: hehe

ok.

i should eat too before my meeting.

me: Eat poo before your meeting

Cassandra: ewwwww.

It’s my duty.

12:43 PM duty duty duty

me: Call of Duty

Records In Depth Perception

Shane Crawford — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:19:11 +0000

Our home has a two car tandem garage. If, like me, you don’t know what that means, then our home has a skinny garage where cars have to park nose to butt. Between Cassandra and I there has been for over a year an unspoken bet about who will be the first to hit the other person’s car by pulling in too far. Neither of us has ever said a word about it, but we know.

There are arguments to be had for both sides. I like to think that she will be the first to initiate a collision because she doesn’t really pay attention and can’t really see over the steering wheel. Also, she’s a woman.

I, however, will admit that there’s a small chance that it could be me because I like to play a little game called “How close can I get.” Hopefully the rules are self explanitory.

Well, as you will clearly see in the upcoming photos. I freaking win. There is no getting closer than this. None. Game over.

Try getting through THAT when you’re trying to run away from us to keep from going in the house, Tiki!

A Travel Map… Sorta

Shane Crawford — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:35:51 +0000

Because I think everyone needs to know, I’ve begun to document places that I’ve pooped. I’ll be adding places regularly, so check back often. I’d love to see your map, too.

View Places I’ve Pooped in a larger map

The Boss’ Office

Shane — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:30:06 +0000

With a technology department of exactly two people at the Celtics, my boss and I do just about everything you could imagine having to do with computers or electronics, including both moving a mouse to show a stupid user how a screen saver works to writing highly complex databases and web applications so our basketball people have the best information possible to make decisions in the NBA world. Needless to say, I work on a large variety of different projects from one month to the next.

My project in August: Do what you do at home.

The problem at home is that my wife and I both want to watch different football teams during the NFL season. She likes some worthless team from Dallas and I’m a Broncos fan. About half the time, they’ll be on in the same time slot. For the first three years we lived in the Boston area, we had to change back and forth between channels and whoever’s team had the best record got to be the “primary” game that week. That led to this conversation when we were getting ready to buy a house last summer:

Shane: “Should we get a bigger TV when we buy a house?”
Cassandra: “Maybe. But we need it to do a big picture in picture so we can both watch a different game at the same time.”
Shane (jokingly): “Yeah, like a second picture the same size as a second TV.”
Cassandra (absolutely serious): “Actually, we should probably just have two big TVs next to each other.”

Needless to say, we now have dual TVs, no more decisions about what to watch (because if we can’t decide, we just watch both), and a very impressive wiring job (done by me) which keeps 100% of the electronics required to run any Audio/Visual stuff in the basement completely out of sight. I will never be able to only have a single TV for my main viewing room again. It’s fantastic. I used to have to decide if I wanted to watch a Mavs game or a movie when I got home from work. Now? Mavs game on one TV, movie on the other! Want to keep up on news but also want to watch Seinfeld at the 6:00 time slot? Keep both on, and switch the audio over to the news if a headline comes up that you care about.

Apparently I’m not the only one with that idea. At some point last season, The Celtics GM, Danny Ainge, decided he also needed to watch more than one thing at once because his DVR couldn’t keep up with all of the college, NBA, international basketball, and Everybody Loves Raymond that he wanted to watch. So, this August, our job was to add more TVs in his office and make it basically the ultimate place to watch sports… You know, other than my house. In Danny’s office, though, we went with four TVs instead of just two together to accomodate for the four simultaneous games that go on during the NCAA Tournament. Also, it was a good excuse to have more than three. Also also, five probably wouldn’t all fit on his wall.

We have now set up this equipment three separate times. First, all at my house while waiting for other parts to be shipped since I already had much of what we needed. The second time was in the players’ lounge at the practice facility as basically a staging area while I ironed out details and did the programming of the control system. (Quick side note: We have used the Cinemar MainLobby Server / Client software and it’s working well. It’s inexpensive and does a great job. We’ve been impressed so far. So much so, in fact, that I’ve actually upgraded my house to use the same system at the same time because I liked it so much. So… Here’s a plug, Cinemar. Now give me some free stuff!) Finally, we moved everything up to Danny’s office on the second floor along with mounting all the TVs and running the permanent cabling. A few final touches on the remote programming and some cleanup of existing cabling, and we have created a pretty impressive setup. I don’t know what other NBA teams’ GMs have in their offices, but it would take some work to get it as cool as Danny’s office. In the end, here’s what it looks like…

Finally, here are the specifics for anyone curious.

TVs: Three 32″ LG LCDs, One 50″ LG Plasma, One Samsung 24″ HDTV / PC Monitor on the desk
Audio: Yamaha Audio Surround Sound Receiver with 5 overhead in-ceiling speakers and subwoofer in the back of the room
Video Switcher: Audio Authority AVAtrix
Video Sources: 2 DirecTV HD DVRs, 2 DirecTV HD Receivers, 1 JVC Blu-Ray Player, and 1 VGA input from Danny’s desktop PC.
Audio Inputs: All the DirecTVs, Blu-Ray, and PC, plus an iPod dock and radio tuner.

And yes, this is all basically the same equipment I have at my house. I know, I’m cool.

If you’re wondering, “Can you do my house, too?” the answer is yes. If you’re also wondering, “Is it cheap?” the answer is no.

The Seven Words That Probably Just Ended My Marraige

Shane — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:41:26 +0000

“I think I don’t like Swiss Cheese.”

Just over four years. We had a good run.