Alpha release of B3

The coolest thing since cheese in a can! The Browser Based Browser or as we like to refer to it, B3.
No more downloading updates or installing plugins. It is all right there ready to go. All you need is
your existing browser and you are off and running. No need to worry about security holes,
B3 takes care of everything. You are as safe with B3 as if you were locked in solitary confinement.
You think it is too good to be true? Well, maybe it is. Discover for yourself and try it TODAY!
There are a limited number of trial spots being offered.

Very busy (non-work releated)

It has been very busy the past week. I have had family visiting, birthday parties to attend, helping moving into our new church, etc... This week (I hope), I plan to post some of the new features that you will see in the next big release of Boxely. There are a lot of new goodies to play with. So stay tune. :-)

Having fun with Google Maps

So today I have been playing with the Google Map APIs. It is really cool and a lot of fun. I have only tested this with IE6. I need to get FireFox installed and make sure it works with that too.

Can anyone guess where this is?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cool Kid Gadget

Checkout the FLY™ Pentop Computer by LeapFrog.

Health Insurance

So about 3 weeks ago I had surgery to remove a cyst from the back of my neck. You want to see it? No, I better not. ;-) Well, today the insurance company sent me the first stack of “Explanation of Benefits” papers. Wow! I never thought it would have cost that much.

There were 2 columns in the report that caught my eye; the “Amount Charged” and the “Amount Allowed”. The “Amount Charged” by the hospital, surgeon, anesthesiologist, etc… was over $10,000. The “Amount Allowed” column showed values between 20-90% less than the charged amounts. Now my health insurance will be picking up the bill for this one (or at least most of it), but it made me think how anyone could do without health insurance.

I know health insurance is not cheap, but this was just simple outpatient surgery. What if you had multiple surgeries and an extended stay in the hospital, the cost would be unbelievable. You could end up back in the hospital with heart issues after getting the bill. Open the bill and see: “You will pay us, one million dollars.” (You have to say it like Dr. Evil. Come on use the evil pinky too.)

New Cell Phone

So today my wife and I got new cell phones. Our last phones we had for 4 years and believe it or not they were still working. So why get new phones if our current ones were ok? Why not? I renewed our Verizon Wireless contact and the store I went to had a deal on the Motorola RAZR V3c phone. (2 phones for free) I figure you cannot beat that.

Testing, testing, 1 2 3

Testing. Hello, is anyone there?

This is my third time trying to create and keep up a blog. Well, they say the third time is a charm. I guess we will see. My last blog was on AOL Journals, and as you can see it was last updated last July. I do have a good excuse; I work a lot of hours. I am a system architect at AOL, Inc. working on the Boxely team.

I enjoy computers and software development (ie. geek), so my job is perfect for me. When not at work I like doing improvements around my house. I also like cycling, which I have not had the chance to do in very long time. When my family has time (between church, work, dance, soccer, Girl Scouts, etc..) we head to the mountains for camping trips. Not really roughing it, but just car camping.