Author Archives: Chris

About Chris

Chris is an IT/IS management professional with over a decade of experience in IT, IS, Network Engineering, and Telecommunications integration. Chris specializes in web server deployment and information management. This includes CMS, CRM, and dynamic content deployment. Chris also manages a full service Video Head End with over 200 digital TV channels. Chris also has five years of project management, knowledge management, and engineering design experience. He specializes in both the Agile and Scrum project management methodology. He also has a background in computer forensics and information security including federal or state compliance audits (such as SOX).

2010 DF.com Metal Challenge- Preview

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Skinny Puppy - "Too Dark Park"

Skinny Puppy - "Too Dark Park"

Want to see an exclusive preview of my list? You got it brother man!

* 25 Ta Life – Strength Through Unity: The Spirt Remains (1997) Hardcore
* AC/DC – High Voltage (1976) – Classic
* A Perfect Circle – Mer De Norms (1999) – Goth
* Alice In Chains – Dirt (1992) – Alt. Metal
* Candiria – 300% Density (2001) – Hard Core
* Clutch – The Elephant Riders (1998) – Alt. Metal
* Deftones  – Adrenaline (1994) – Nu Metal
* Faith No More – The Real Thing (1989) – Alt. Metal
* Filter – Short Bus (1995) Industrial
* Garbage – Garbage (1995) Industrial Goth
* Godflesh – Songs of Love & Hate (1996) Industrial
* Guns N’ Roses – Chinese Democracy (2008) Hair Metal
* Helmet – Meantime (1992) Alt. Metal
* KMFDM – Symbols (aka Windings) (1997) Industrial
* Korn – Korn (1994) Nu Metal
* Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake (2004) Metal Revival
* Linkin Park – Meteora (2003) Nu Metal
* Live – Throwing Copper (1994) Alt. Metal
* Living Color – Vivid (1998) Nu Metal
* Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar (1996) Industrial Goth
* Megadeth – Youthinasia (1994) Classic Metal
* Ministry – Rio Grande Blood (2006) Industrial
* Nine Inch Nails – The Downard Spiral (1994) Industrial
* Nirvana – In Utero (1994) Alt. Metal
* Nothingface – Pacifier (1997) Industrial
* Pearl Jam – Verses (1994) Alt. Metal
* Pig – Sinsation (1995) Industrial
* Rage Against The Machine – RATM (1992) Alt. Metal
* Rammstein – Sehnsucht (1997) Industrial
* Sister Machine Gun – Burn (1995) Industrial
* Skinny Puppy – Too Dark Park (1990) Industrial
* Slipknot – Volume Three (2004) Nu Metal/Industrial
* Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness (1995) Alt. Metal
* Snapcase – Progression Through Unlearning (1997) Hardcore
* Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger (1996) Alt. Metal
* The Mars Volta – Francis The Mute (2005) Metal Revival
* Toadies – Rubberneck (1995) Alt. Metal
* Tool – Undertow (1993) Alt. Metal
* Videodrone – Videodrone (1999) Industrial
* Vision of Disorder – From Bliss to Devastation (2001) Hardcore
* Weezer – Weezer (1994) Alt. Metal

Let me know what you think.

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The 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge – Intro

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Venom Live at Hellfest - Does it all start here? Yeah. Don't argue.

Venom Live at Hellfest - Does it all start here? Yeah. Don't argue. We're right-- so there.

It all started this morning when Dan and DJ SlipK started with the simple question “What is the greatest true Metal album of all time?” It all escalated from there. An entire day spent in on and off conversation over many facets of the question. What is Metal? How do we break this down? Can we truly compare 1990 to 2010? Do we include the classic roots? J Diddy then chimed in and spoke about how classically Metal is defined as a musical genre and broken down into categories. How it’s broken down genre by genre. Leader by leader. I chimed in with some truly off beat includes and some ideas as to how we present the thing. DJ SlipK came up with a play list and it is all a blur from there.

So it begins– the 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge. We will set out to define, analyze, and systematically define the best Metal album ever. This is obviously no easy task. No light decision. And no short gap to making it happen. This will require hours of dissertation and yes– you the viewer to help us decide. Because we’re going to put the whole damn thing on line. Poll by poll. Match by match. And it all burns down from there. It is time my friends– we shall pick the best Metal album ever.

The players thus far are as follows:

  • DJ digitalflood – All sorts of industrial, goth, and electro-metal leanings. Too much hard core loyalties burnt in from years of scene exposure.
  • DJ SlipK – Classic 80s metal leanings, new school Euro metal allegiance, and melodic metal yearnings. He’s into the true core Metal underground scene and maybe a metal snob; but he certainly isn’t going to include a Skid Row album on his list.
  • Dan – Classic hard core, punk, and old school metal leanings abound. He was metal before they had a name for it. If it wasn’t recorded on a cassette tape and baptized in the soul of all that is true metal– it just ain’t metal.
  • J Diddy – New school leanings, indie metal roots, and a passion for some true old school metal. He’s got electro metal leanings, but also holds true to his classic black metal roots. He is the living paradigm of metal that bridges the gap between new school and truly old school.

We may include more judges to “seed” the pool and choose who’s in or out, but those are who we got right now. Stayed tuned. This is about to get interesting.

Want in? Let me know!

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Random Thoughts

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Google Nexus One - Yeah it looks cool but can it brew me fresh beer?

Google Nexus One - Yeah it looks cool but can it brew me fresh beer?

Not much going on today on digitalflood.com. This is one of our rare “idle” days. As such, I figured I’d catch you up on some random things I’m following on the web that you may have missed in the “Around the Web” news feed on our site.

  • Google announced its new Nexus One Smartphone/Mobile device – While arguably very cool with a 1GHz processor, WiFi, 3G, and motion detection/GPS capabilities right out of the box; I couldn’t help but shiver when I heard HTC was the underlying manufacturer of the hardware. With their horrid record of buggy hardware and strange crashes, I don’t know if having HTC is an advantage. I’d rather stick with my LG Envy3 Touch or the slower, but more stable Google Android (running Motorola hardware underneath). Just my personal opinion. You can get the low down on all the specs at this MaximumPC.com article.
  • The world is pretty obsessed with this whole would be terrorist kid – Yeah, I’m not happy to hear US officials ignored his Dad’s warning, but I also cannot even try to imagine how many of these would nut jobs the CIA and NATO collective intelligence forces are tracking who haven’t done anything yet. Seriously, there are going to be terrorists who get this far– that’s a fact. There’s like 100 million nut jobs out there with access to chemicals to make a simple bomb. The real story here is that he didn’t get too far. As soon as he lit himself on fire some Dutch guy kicked the crap out of him. And all you thought they did over there was smoke dope in wooden shoes, shame on you! 😉
  • We have a new world’s tallest building – The Burj Dubai in Dubai is over 1,200′ tall and dwarfs every man made structure on Earth and rivals even the greatest natural treasures in sheer size. The video in the link shows you what it’s like to be 1/2 mile in the air. Many people were outraged by the Burj Dubai because Dubai itself recently fell into utter financial turmoil and ridiculous projects like this are to blame according to those aforementioned critics. I (as a skyscraper fan) cannot help, but smile– regardless of where it is, the tower is engineering excellence at its best.
  • The Mets attempt to look like they’re building a team – Carlos Delgado is in Puerto Rico trying to rehabilitate his recently repaired knee, but that doesn’t keep GM Omar Minaya sleeping sound. How does he rectify that? He signs Jason Bay to fill the iffy left field spot that has been arguably open for three seasons and reliever Kelvim Escobar. Meanwhile the majority of the bullpen is still up in the air, but hey– if it was a sure thing it wouldn’t be another Amazing Mets season, now would it?
  • Want to unlock all your features in Windows 7 – Then as shown on this article all you have to do is make a folder on your hard drive (anywhere on the hard drive as oddly as it sounds) named: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} That’s it– you’ll now have too many options in your Control Panel to configure and lots more you can break. Joy!
  • Thank you Gods of Horsepower – Yeah, the auto industry is a mess like every other industry right now, but nevertheless there are reasons to rejoice:

And that my friends is the world we live in… as well as the hands we give in to (thank you Mr. Phil Collins).

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Shoulder Surgery – 11 weeks in

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Upward Strength Training - Courtesy CommercialAppeal.com

Upward Strength Training - Courtesy CommercialAppeal.com

In my last post I recounted my continued progress towards being allowed to begin strength training some ten weeks away from Open Bankart Surgery on my right shoulder. This past week started off continuing those efforts and climaxed with my visit to my orthopedic surgeon yesterday afternoon (1/4/10). During that visit he checked both my upward and outward ranged. He was pleased I met both my goals (180 degrees inward and 30 degrees outward). With that, he lifted all previous limitations on my physical therapy with an updated prescription.

When I went to the my PT session later that day I was told we would begin strength training. I was told to drop the inward movement exercises (the pendulums and isometrics), as well as, the shoulder shrugs in favor of more intense exercise. With that we began with the normal massages. Since I could now (as of this week) lay on my stomach we also did a lot of back work on my right shoulder blade. The therapist was finally able to get to a spot along the inner ridge of my right shoulder blade that has been sore for sometime, but unable to be treated with full force. That of course changed with my ability to lay face down. We then had me lay flat on my back. I had to with both arms reach upward over my head holding a cane with both hands. This worked my upward motion and strength. We then stretched my arm upward to its limit. We then did upward and outward stretching. The therapist also ran me through a battery of outward motion stretches that literally pushed my arms to its limits. I then did the pulley with an outward motion. I then did scapular crunches against the wall with a towel between my shoulder blades. Finally I laid on my left side and did arm lifts away from body outward. I was pretty fatigued by the end of it, but not as sore as I thought I might be. I did not get either heat or ice. Again, we’re weaning me off those comforts.

I’ve been told the next six weeks will focus on additional outward flexibility and overall strengthening of my arm. I’m pretty excited to move forward onto new exercises and ultimately even closer to normality.

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Mopping The Deck

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Rig at Prow of Sailing Ship -- That's what she said!

Rig at Prow of Sailing Ship -- That's what she said!

I’ve been pretty busy mopping the deck at digitalflood.com over the last 24 hours (despite my continued and never ending bout with stomach flu) trying to improve some things on the site.

My most recent updates to the site include:

  • Updated WordPress CMS to latest version – Improves security, stability, and overall functionality.
  • Updated all plug-in’s for new WordPress – Again improves security and features.
  • Added Browser Navigation Bar Icon – That little thing next to our web address in your browser is our DF Pirate Radio symbol. If you re-bookmark the site you’ll be able to have a cool icon in your bookmarks. ROCK!
  • Updated Mobile WP – Improves mobile phone load times and reduces initial latency loading site.
  • Updated the digitalflood Pirate Radio Volume 5 Cliff Notes to reflect all that happened behind the scenes this year.

This adds up to putting us at digitalflood.com Version: 11.3.2 (Final) as reflected on our DF Code Tracking page.

Things have been humming along since my last updates and I’m not noticing anymore issues with the site going down. I found not only a spam attack, but a strange web attack as well linked to some configurations on our web server. Overall things have been better so there is no plans on upgrading the server anytime soon, but eventually we will have to go there– this is the price of fame I suppose.

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