Ryan M. Lederman

Had To Share

2009-10-30T10:24:00.002-06:00

This was written by an unknown veterinarian.
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A Dog's Purpose? (from a 6-year-old).

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker 's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ''I know why.''

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try and live.

He said,''People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?''

The Six-year-old continued,''Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.''

Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!

Boise River Volunteers

2009-08-18T23:18:00.007-06:00

I am proud to be part of an excellent local non-profit organization called the Boise River Volunteers.

This is a group of dedicated, hard-working and caring people who spend dozens of man hours per week cleaning up trash, patching rafts, removing dangerous tree limbs and more from the stretch of the Boise river that is commonly used for floating.

If you're a business in Boise, please consider becoming a sponsor (Kayako's a sponsor!). BRV is only able to operate through the generosity of local businesses and volunteers. Logos on the BRV boats are available as well as logos on the t-shirts worn by all the volunteers.

If you live in Boise and enjoy helping people and keeping mother nature green, please consider joining the group and volunteering!

Check out their website for more information: http://riverhelpers.com/
Twitter: @riverhelpers
Contact "Captain" Chris Crawford (founder/director) : chris@riverhelpers.com

I Have Found The Internet

2009-08-07T10:37:00.005-06:00

Up until now the consensus was that the Internet was actually just a network of computers all connected together.

I have undeniable proof that the Internet is actually stored in a building.

Please see the following image (click for full scale):

Free Kayako for Non-Profits and Open Source Projects

2009-08-01T23:00:00.006-06:00

We're now offering all Kayako help desk software and add-on products free of charge to non-profit charitable organizations as well as open source software projects. See the official blog post for more information: All Kayako Software Is Now Free For Non-Profit Organizations And Open Source Projects

Kayako v4 Interface Preview and ETA for Beta!

2009-07-31T10:21:00.003-06:00

We've released the first in a series of "sneak peeks" of the version 4 help desk software product lineup on our blog!

There are screenshots, (not too many secrets revealed yet), but enough to get you excited. We've also given an ETA for our first round of Beta testing.

Check 'er out: http://blog.kayako.com/2009/07/v4-update-1-roadmap-and-interface-peek/

For Those of You With Slacker Employees

2009-07-29T18:34:00.004-06:00

I've created a small website that can easily be sent to your employees by IM, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook or what have you. It lets them know that you know they're not actually working and gets the point across quite effectively I think:

Get Back To Work, Slacker!

Side note: This is not a dig at my employees at Kayako; they're the best.

Kayako Version 4 Sneak Peek

2009-07-28T19:54:00.006-06:00

We've posted a version 4 sneak peek and some estimates for a Beta release, etc. Check it out: http://blog.kayako.com/2009/07/v4-update-1-roadmap-and-interface-peek/

I for one am VERY excited.

Kayako Giveaway!

2009-07-10T17:02:00.003-06:00

We're running an awesome giveaway all through next week. We're giving away two unlimited SupportSuite licenses and some amazing prizes like HTDVs, iPods, BlackBerrys and more every day of the week from the 13th to the 17th.

All you have to do to enter is send a message containing the tag '#kayako' on twitter and follow @kayako OR become a fan of Kayako on facebook.

More information: http://www.kayako.com/support-desk-giveway.php

I refuse to upgrade

2009-05-01T12:31:00.000-06:00

If you're like me, you have probably used mess patch to keep MSN messenger from displaying advertisements and being annoying in general.

Microsoft has been trying to force me to upgrade to MSN messenger 9.0 for a while now, but I refuse to upgrade on principle - I will not be shown advertisements on my desktop 24/7.

It seems like mess.be hasn't released a patch tool for 9.0 yet, and until they do, I will continue using 8.5.

I spent a few hours the other night trying to hack 8.5 so it wouldn't ask me to upgrade. To make a long story short, I found the solution on a forum somewhere:

Put msnmsgr.exe in Windows 2003 compatibility mode (right-click the file and go to properties). Looks like this keeps it from asking you to upgrade because it thinks your OS is too old.

Haven't been annoyed since.

Stimulus with Stipulations

2009-01-26T19:15:00.002-07:00

With all this talk about "stimulus packages" being proposed by the Bush administration and now the Obama administration, I've been thinking - I think if any more dollars are printed out of thin air, driving the government further into insolvency, they should have some rules about how they're spent.

I think if any U.S. citizen receives a single cent from the government as part of a "stimulus package," (I'd call it bankruptcy package but that's just me) there should be a requirement that they only spend that money on goods and services sold by U.S. companies. Yes, what a novel idea.

If this isn't a stipulation of the stimulus checks, Joe Shmo will just take his check, cash it, then drive down to Wal-Mart and by some Chinese furniture, a Japanese television and some tacos.

But wait, I bet you're asking yourself why didn't the powers that be think of this? Surely they are smart enough to have thought of this. Well, if you don't understand why the government doesn't care if you spend stimulus dollars at Wal-Mart on Chinese crap, do some research on how U.S. GDP numbers are computed. About 70% of our GDP is based on "clownsumer" spending - so, basically the government is going to finance this quarter's/this year's GDP numbers by giving people free money that they'll go blow all over town because Americans can't save money.

Cover up the problem with duct tape and paint and superglue, but by God, don't try to actually fix it!

The Definition of a Bank

2009-01-26T19:14:00.001-07:00

Bank (n): An establishment that charges you a fee to lend your hard earned money to someone else and give you a cut of the profits.

My New Blog

2008-11-25T00:02:00.005-07:00

Hi everyone. This is my new blog, which will contain mostly me complaining about things I encounter during my work day.

Big thanks to Brook Miles and Graham Batty for maintaining this awesome server (``todo") and not yelling at me for not giving them enough money for space on it.

Last but not least, I do not feel comfortable transitioning from my old simple site to this without retaining the content, so here it is (yes, this text was the entire content of my site's home page):

<zooka> i written a 32 bit (i think) encription program
<|^JaMeS^|> i got my CS degree in visual studio
<aclysma> does using asm count as compiling?
<wndproc> Anyone know how to CreateInstance an array?
<JJPeerles> when people refer to "C" it really C#..right.. or is there just plain old C too?
<James007> hey can SetTimer considered to be multithreading?
<adfdfgdsf> i've heard that getlasterror does some bad stuff