cfyves.com - Yves Stuff

It's been far too long - Hello World!

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:00:00 -0300

Hi there!

It's been so long since I've posted on this blog.

I got busy blogging on sports and only touched a little bit on drumming.. which I intend to blog more on in coming weeks.

My plans for this blog is to blog solely about my work in technology and other technology related articles.

I was also planning to redo the graphics which is long long overdue.

Lot's has gone on in my personal life over the last several months.... it's pretty wild.

Anyway. Hope the internet hasn't missed me too much!

Another blog I started : yvesdrummer.com

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:24:00 -0300

Alot has been going on for me. Something I decided earlier in the summer was really to learn about blogging and learn about the possibility of growing traffic... or better put "readership".... getting it "out there" so people who share the same interests could find the blog. The next challenge with that of course if writing something that is worthwhile in reading!

So I started a couple of blogs and then moved on to my 3rd.

yvesdrummer.com

On this new blog, if you haven't guessed it by the domain name, it's centered around drumming. I've been playing drums since the age of 12 and have had the pleasure of playing in many different styles and have also had the pleasure of teaching.

So this new blog will revolve around practice techniques, drum videos of drummers who inspire me, drum videos of me, stories... ideas.. events... whatever I come up with.

The art of drumming is something I've always been passionate about.

My new Montreal Canadiens blog

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:10:00 -0300

Some time ago I had started a blog on my favorite NHL hockey team the Montreal Canadiens. Writing on it really became a fun hobby..... reading all the other hockey bloggers out there also became quite a fun hobby.

It was first started on a Blogger.com blog and I found there were numerous limitations so I was quite tempted to move it to a WordPress blog on 3rd party hosting.

After seeing a really great deal for a cheap hosting account, I decided to jump in and do it.

I used WordPress's import functionality to get all the content from the old blog onto the new one. This worked very well but there was a hitch. I used Blogger's labels as "tags" and not categories. Of course in the import the labels were treated as categories... so I spent lot's of time re-working the categories and redoing the tags for every post on the blog. Thank God that's over with.

So now I can concentrate on writing some stuff again. My new blog can be found here:

Mostly Habs Talk - Yves on Habs

New website - My adventures in learning to create income online

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:11:00 -0300

I'm pleased to have my new site online!

The last week and a half, I've been reading and thinking, reading and thinking... all about how I can try to create a second income online.

The point of this excercise isn't to get rich quick. The point isn't even to be "rich" in strickly financial terms.

The reason for this new website and this new journey is to experience something new. I enjoy doing research and I love trying new things. This is part of it. Of course, I do have a goal. And my goal is to try and generate a bit of revenu by doing something I love.

But there is also opportunity to learn, to face new challenges, to meet new people and to share what I find. Share useful information to anyone looking to do the same, share my successes, share my failures... share my experience!

This website will continu to be more "personal".

But my new website will be a blog about trying to create income online.

Join me and let me know what you think!

www.yvesarsenault.com/

Learning the ropes - building income generating websites

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:54:00 -0300

Lately I've been spending quite a bit of time on the internet. Well, I always do... but in the last week I've started to explore some websites that I've never really taken time and effort to discover.

What I've wanted to learn is different methods of building traffic driven websites. One of the goals in this would be to create another income stream.

But I also have been very skeptical of many website's that I've seen where someone is showing me "fool proof methods" to make oodles and oodles of money online. Some will even say that it's very easy and can happen really quickly.

I'm not a big believer in those kinds of messages as I feel they're really just giving people a "make money quick" scheme that likely even hasn't worked for them. Or, maybe it is working for them just because they're generating lots of traffic because of the (almost) empty message they're giving.

I've always been interested in building a few projects online and trying to build a revenu stream with them but was generally not to sure which way to turn.

In the last week I've spent some time looking for bloggers and online entrepreneurs who write about developping blogs and/or other types of websites that generate revenu.

What I've found this last week was quite refreshing. I've found some people who blog about creating money from affiliate programs and google adsense. These websites have been very beneficial to me in short term because I've learned something from them in a matter of hours... reading blog articles and also watching youtube videos (which were quite helpful).

These websites that I've found also have a much more sobering and real message. That it can be done. You can earn money online. But it's gonna take some hard work, some patience and it has to be something you're going to enjoy.

That's a much more realistic message in my opinion. So one of these projects is going to be a blog where I will be writing specifically about what I learn, what challenges I've found, what successes I have and generally what the experience is like.

Drum clinic yesterday for Music Rocks Academy

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:42:00 -0300

Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing a short drum clinic for Music Rocks Academy in Summerside.

I was invited by Moe Hashie, one of the Academy's instructors, to give an hour long drum clinic.

So I talked a bit about warm up excercises and some of the stuff that I've practiced over the years and currently practice. I took some questions about influences and favorite drummers. It was fun.

Got to see some faces I hadn't seen in quite a while. It was a fun time.

Played some grooves... Moe asked me to play some faster stuff, so I played around the kit a bit faster and talked about playing around the kit getting the motion of the body smooth.... talked about stick control a bit as well. So I played a pattern around the kit slowly and gradually sped it up.... which in fact I had to do a bit to get it going faster. Playing on someone else's setup is always a bit different..... when the toms are a couple of inchs off where you are a customed to, it makes a difference.

Finally, a couple of the guitar instructors got up on the stage and we had a little jam. Played Crazy Train, Enter Sandman and Moby Dick (which I hadn't heard in a long long time).

It was a fun time.

RIP - Michael Jackson

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:36:00 -0300

I must say that I, as many I'm sure, was surprised when I heard the news that Michael Jackson had been rushed to a hospital for cardiac arrest....

I was working... actually, I believe I was taking a lunch break when the news broke on CNN.

As time went on they got more updates.... to where he was in a coma... and then that he had passed away.

Wow.

He was in fact trying to make a bit of a come back to sold out shows this summer.

Very hard to believe that he had passed quite suddenly.

But, as a couple of days passed, I started thinking a little more about him.... as I had before. About how he grew up, what he had possibly gone through being an international star... what people had accused him of.... and the constant bashing of him in certain media outlets for quite some time.

The fact of his passing became less surprising... really. I don't know (or didn't) know the guy. But I do know that being through what he had been through would have been rough.

I try to let the kids be kids. Really. I love seeing my daughter learn and discover.... and play. She's 5 years old. She has talents.... I know that... she even has musical and dancing talents. But I would never imagine of getting her to work at performing. No way. She's got to be a child while she is in fact a child. I can't imagine attempting to force her to be at a stage where she is not.

Mr Jackson had quirks.... for sure. In fact, I'm sure we've all had things in our closet (to varying degrees)... and many still do.

But I can't imagine the kind of pressures that were put on this guy... from childhood... and though he was loved and adored by many... seemed totally reclusive and lonely.

One interview I saw of him... he talks about being about 10 years old and being in the recording studio for hours... and at times watching kids playing in a park across the street and crying because he would have loved so much to be a part of that.

How far would you be willing to push your child for your own wants/needs/desires??

Mr Jackson obviously wanted to be a child while he was a child. He needed to be a child while he was a child.

Kids need to be loved. And they need to be kids.

Mr Jackson had great musical talent... a gift everyone saw early on.... but the focus many had on that gift for their own gain robbed him of his childhood..... and in part having a whole life. The focus was on developping the gift and delivering the gift instead of developping the person... the child in this case.

That is my opinion.

Your kids need love. And they need to be kids.

Busy - The good and the bad

Wed, 13 May 2009 10:06:00 -0300

Been quite busy lately.

Workin' on a few projects. Writting lot's of ColdFusion which I love.

Even the getting up at 4 or 5 am to start work resulting in some fairly long workdays isn't so bad. But when I string several days like that together... a cranky man I may be. And did I mention tired?

Being a one man show, self-employed... being a one income home with family.... packs on some pressure.

I've been working on a project to build some residual income... but until that gets rolling it doesn't pay my groceries. I really like the potential this project brings and others have also thought that it's a great idea. But how to get "at it"??

That's part of the challenge.

Ah well.... coming into the summer months... I'm hopin' for some relaxing soon.

Peace!

Pretty neat retro super computer

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:35:00 -0300

I found this off of slashdot and somehow felt compelled to post a little "thing" on it.

It's a blog post about an old computer.... pretty neat.

The Non-Von Neumann..

Check it out here:
http://chrisfenton.com/non-von-1/

Blog was broke

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:31:00 -0300

A couple of days ago, I tried to post about a small problem I had with a Magento system and a php command...

When I posted, the blog generated an error and I've been hesitant to post ever since.

This is in part a test...

What are you working on?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:26:00 -0300

The last couple of weeks, after the christmas holidays, I went from finishing a bunch of stuff and getting a little bit "slacker" in terms of how much work I have... to now having work lined up for the next little while.

In the past 2 weeks I've had to upgrade software on a couple of servers... PHP, MySQL.. updates... I got to install and learn about APC for the first time.

I also got to work with Magento for the first time. Magento is an Ecommerce platform. Coded in PHP and using the Zend framework. This has prompted me to try to learn a bit more about PHP. Code it a bit more and I'm gonna learn "how it runs" just a tad more.

I've also got a project where I have to merge 2 existing ColdFusion apps... one using Model-Glue and the other a "home grown" kind of framework. These 2 apps then have to be merged into an existing intranet using another "home grown" framework.... user rights... etc.... should be a bit of a challenge in how it's supposed to work.

Then there's a couple of smaller ColdFusion projects.. which should be pretty straight forward.

And last but not least is something I've been trying to develop for quite some time... which I'm going to upgrade. A re-write. It's a ColdFusion app. The upgrade will use ColdBox or Model-Glue for the administrative section. Most likely keeping it's MySQL 5 DB in the backend.

Possibilities for a couple of things in near future too..... so, I will likely be busy.

Et vous??

2008 - Year in review

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:50:00 -0300

2008 was a great year overall. It brought me many many challenges to face both in my personal life, my social life (which still lacks IMO!!!), my work life, my family life.... my interests (and love quite frankly) with music and drumming....

Yes it was an interesting one.... and apparently we're getting a blizzard here to oust 2008 and bring in 2009.

In 2008 I became self-employed. Self-employment, running a very small business is something I had done for a couple of years back in 2004 and it was something that I'd wanted to try my hand at again. With it of course comes many many challenges. Trying to work on developping the ideas and vision that I have.... it's just begun... and a challenge!

In 2008 I bought an old home and we worked and worked at renovating it so that we could move our family into it. This home brings with it an extra piece of land.... so it's also a small investment... not a real money maker though. We spent many hours working away in this thing and we really just moved in (well, my stuff isn't there yet... we'll get to that!). Glad to have our little familiy in our little home. The simple life is the one for me.

In 2008 I played in Seventh Stone (and 2007), had some awesome times and loved playing with the guys. Great tunes and great times. After a bit I felt I had a tough decision to make, as I just couldn't make it fit anymore. And had decided to leave the band. It was a hard decision to make. I really enjoyed my time playing in Seventh Stone. Love ya Garth!

In 2008 my financial struggles have continued... and some even got worse! Lost a ton of money getting charged an arm and a leg for call forwarding while I didn't really know I would even be charged for it.... I should have read everything... and as I tried to make sense of the bill statements it took me a while to figure out I was being double charged for the second phone... costing me about an extra $100 per month.... So I'll likely take more losses and cut my account because I can't catch up and keep paying it.

In the first half of 2008 I spent some time on drumming techniques (which I love to work on)... in the latter half I spent much less time. After leaving Seventh Stone, this has been a big void in my life.

In the last month of 2008, I've re-kindled my love of reading..... reading 2 and a half books in 2 and a half weeks.... gonna finish C.S. Lewis Perelandra very soon and then will read "That Hideous Strength" to finish that series (first book is "Out of the silent planet")

2008 brought 2 of my favorite albums.

King's X - XV

Hiromi's Sonicbloom - Beyond Standard

I'm greatful for 2008. Got to watch my little Emily grow up just a tiny bit more.

Peace and best wishes to you in 2009!

Another article on Facebook Connect

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:04:00 -0300

Here's another article on Facebook Connect:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=51071&PageMem=1

We will surely see more and more adoption of the "OpenID".

Just who will win the OpenID race (or war)? We'll see.

Mac OS X Server in the workplace?

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:10:00 -0300

In my work experience, I've had to learn how to set up Linux DNS servers, Web servers (Apache)... hands on.... the fun way.

I also used Windows 2003 with database servers, IIS...etc.

But something that is really not common is Mac OS X server.

I have a MacBook (as well as windows based laptop)... and I really do enjoy working with Mac OS X. I've really gotten curious as to how setup a network server with user permissions and shared drives...

I must say, I would love to try it out. For sure.

Mac OS X server
Mac OS X Server specs