So today I contacted Jak Stoll about tuning for my SPG. He gave me some good info on what I can do with the car, along with letting me know what components he could supply himself.

Since I don’t want to go too overboard with the SPG, (I’m only shooting for 230-250HP) He told me I didn’t need to go with the larger head. That a full downpipe/exhaust + his eprom chip and an upgraded APC should easily put me at that level.

So I’m going to look around, and keep reading up, and I’ll probably order his eprom along with some larger injectors soon.

I came across this site today : http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/ where this guy is telling the world about how his friend’s sidekick was stolen, and he is shaming them into apologizing and giving it back.

I like what this guy is doing, he is standing up for his beliefs, and making a public example of a group of people without moral conscience. I hope that his friend gets her sidekick back, and I hope the people involved each learn their lesson. I also think that it’s nice to see he’s not using all this publicity to make a buck. Heck, I’d probably put adsense or yahoo publisher network on there if I was doing that, just to recoup some of the bandwidth costs.

As of now, it looks like he’s gone through a couple different hosts to host a forum for people to chat on, and they’ve all crashed. I’m going to contact him and see if he’d be interested in giving it one more go with a forum, since I do have a couple dual xeons that are not active right now (although they are earmarked for another client, they are not yet in use). And from the looks of it, the other hosts had set up phpBB2, while I would set up punbb. And use a separate dedicated mysql server.

We’ll see. Hats off to Evan!

Last Thursday, I was registered to go to a Microsoft training seminar for Registered Partners.  My business is a Microsoft Registered Partner.  So I woke up at 6am on Thursday, and hit the road by 7am to make the long trek from Duluth Minnesota to Madison Wisconsin (6hr drive).    The conference started at 1pm.

Well the 2.5hrs to Eau Claire Wisconsin went well, but when I hit Eau Claire, it started to snow.  The snow then proceeded to turn into a blizzard with limited visibility.  This of course brought back memories of driving through Wisconsin over new years during a snow storm (when I went into the ditch and totalled my car).  And here I was, driving my brand new car that I hadn’t yet fully learned how it handled in snowy conditions.

Thankfully the hand of God was upon me and I made it to Madison safely, and by 1pm!  As I pulled into the Alliant Energy Center, I saw on the big billboard in big blaring letters: “Microsoft Seminar CANCELLED”.  Oh great!  I drove 6 hours through a blizzard for nothing!  So I called up a friend who used google to give me directions to the nearest Panera Bread so I could at least use their free Wi-Fi internet access to try to get some work done.  I also stopped by Best Buy and picked up Microsoft Streets & Trips with GPS for my laptop.  I hung around Madison for 4-5 hours and left around 6pm.  I wanted to wait and see if the storm would subside.  Nope, it got worse!

By the time I left, there was 8-10 inches on the ground, the roads were not plowed, so I was driving around town in at least 6 inches of snow, thankfully my car is like a tank in the snow with its nice winter snow tires.

The drive back to Duluth was long and tiring.  A 360 mile trip at 45mph with limited visibility.  Every few miles I would see someone in the ditch.  By the time I made it back to Eau Claire, it was around 9:30pm, I used my Mapping software with GPS to find a restaraunt, I didn’t want to eat McDonalds again, and didn’t feel like getting out into the storm to ask for directions.  The GPS navigated me right to a Fazolis Italian Restaraunt.

I got back to Duluth around 11:30pm, and went to my office to check my email.  And that is when I found out that I had a meeting at 10am in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis / St.Paul).  So I had to get up early again on Friday and drive to the cities to meet with a potential client.  Luckily the meeting went well and I closed the deal and now have another web-design contract.  So I guess it was worth it.

Just too much driving and getting up early this past week.

I’m excited!  Business has really been picking up steam the past few weeks/months.  It may not seem like it, but I have quite a bit of work coming in, and now I just need to buckle down and do it.  However, I have a lot on my plate aside from projects.

Current projects (both for clients and in house):

• Website Development for Client A
• Consulting for Client A: Setting up Video Conferencing Server
• Custom Programming project for Client B (Massive project)
• Website Development for Client B
• Consulting for Client B: Configuration of Cisco Routers for offsite locations
• Hosting for Client B: Setup & Configuration for 2 Dedicated servers
• Proposal For Clients B & C: RADIUS Server
• Consulting for Client C: Remote configuration of Routers/Switches
• Hosting/Consulting for Client D: Installation of Mailman Mailing List Manager
• In-House Projects

• Continue Development for Blovi.com
• Redesign/Development for Utaria.net
• Redesign/Development for Nerfix.net
• Redesign/Development for ServerCrossing.com
• Redesign/Development for YouResell.com
• Develop Script for ServerTrax.com
• Configure MS SmallBusinessServer 2003 for In-House Use
• Configure MS Exchange 2003 for In-House Use
• Configure MS CRM for In-House Use
• Locate and move to bigger/newer office location
• Hire a Fantastic web programmer (PHP/MySQL)

Wow, I thought my list was a lot smaller until I actually created it!  I guess I really need to get that MS CRM installed with Exchange so I can get these tasks organized and start taking care of them.

Luckily for the consulting ones, I have a fantabulous System Administrator who is more than worth his weight in gold.  So I don’t have to worry as much about those projects, since he’s already working on them.  Now to just find more help for the development projects, and find a new office location.

Well, today has been a really productive day… well, not really. I fell asleep last night on my futon in my office, so since I wasn’t in my bedroom, I didn’t have my alarm go off this morning. I woke up this afternoon around 2pm to a phone call. I can’t believe I slept until 2pm! Well, I guess I can, since I havent gotten much sleep all week. At least today I didn’t have any commitments or meetings, so that worked out ok.

Around 2:30, a guy I know, Donny, instant messaged me wondering if I would be able to give him a ride to the pawn shop. He had to pawn off his TV and Bicycle so he could pay for his car to get fixed. So I drove over, and helped him get his stuff to the pawn shop (so he didn’t have to carry his 27″ TV 8 blocks). He got his cash, and I drove him to the shop. Unfortunately, he didn’t get enough to cover the cost of the repairs (new water pump and some belts). So I drove him back home.

He had to be in Milwalkee for work on Monday, so I told him, if he couldn’t figure out a way to pay for the repairs by 5:30 when the shop closes, I’d give him a ride to Milwalkee on Sunday night. He made some calls, and an hour later, was able to get his boss to advance him $100 to cover the rest of the repairs. So I gave him a ride back to the shop and he got his car.

I think it was pretty cool that I was able to help Donny out. I like helping people, I guess thats why I’m in the business I’m in (web development and hosting) because I get to help other businesses and individuals succeed online.