Mr. Artest demands trade, then sorry?

I didn't want to do it, but I now feel that I have to. Just what lala land does Ron Artest or his agent think us fans are living in? I will admit that I was shocked to hear Artest's demand to be traded, not by the fact that it happened, but by the fact that it was done in a very public manner. I thought Artest had more class than that. But in today's professional sports world, it happens. We fans move on. However, apparently Artest and his agent think that us fans are stupid. While reading espn tonight, I came accross this quote from Artest's agent.

Stevens said though he understands the Pacers' desire to trade Artest, he's
disappointed that his client's apologies to teammates and management didn't
change the situation.
"What's more complicated is when you feel sorrowful for
the things you have said and there's no room for amends," Stevens said. "Now,
we're moving past that."

Like anyone's going to believe Artest now? I know I don't. So, here's my christmas wish, that NO general manager in the NBA will want Mr. Artest and that he'll never play again in the NBA. It's attitudes like his that have caused fans to leave the NBA.

Article Link [^]

Code Project - Java Forum

Once again I would like to post the link to the java forum on code project. It gets lost in the "anti-java" sentiment of the site, but somehow it's still there, you just can't find a link to it anywhere. So, here it is.... Java Board

I try to check the message board as often as possible, but if you find no one is getting back to you, leave a comment on this post and I'll hurry over and check it.

Rss feed

Ok, since I haven't found out how to get blogger to automatically add an rss button to my page, I'll post one here. (Actually this is an ATOM feed, not an rss feed. But if you're using a feed reader that doesn't support ATOM, I don't feel sorry for you). So here's the link.

My feed

I have now added a link to the feed for this blog on the sidebar

For all of you (broke) betters out there.

Just a quick shout out to the boys over at My Sports Radio on yet another cool feature they've added. If you go to the sports betting podcasts message board, there is now a thread for vBookie. This feature is a way for listeners of the podcast to make their predictions on games and track their bets. But that's not all, there is also a competition, a race to 5000 vBucks. The first to get there gets a free 6 month subscription to Sports Illustrated. I like this feature because it allows people like me to get involved and attached to the podcast and also some experience on the sports betting scene.

Java Gregorian calendar

Is it just me or do others also hate the gregorian calendar implementation in java? The problem arises when saving a date to a database. As you know, we save the date as a java.sql.date format. So first, in my data acess object, I have to do the following conversion code:

Date l_date = newResultSet.getDate("transaction_date");
if(l_date != null){
transactionDate= new GregorianCalendar();
transactionDate.setTimeInMillis(l_date.getTime());
}

And then of course when saving back to the database, I must use the following code:

java.sql.Date l_date = null;
if(newRow.getTransactionDate() != null){
l_date = new java.sql.Date(newRow.getTransactionDate().getTimeInMillis());
}

SqlStatement.setDate(
newPreparedStatement,
l_index++,
l_date);

I do all of this because the setYear method, setMonth method, and constructor with params for day, month, and year are depricated for the java.sql.Date and java.util.Date classes. And I am one of those people who absolutely hates seeing the stupid warning signs in eclipse saying "method x is depricated". So, there's my rant. What do you all think?

What podcasts do I listen to?

I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to the podcasts that I listen to reguarly. I figured this would be a good idea for a couple of reasons. First, to give these podcasts the exposure they deserve. And second, because I find it hard to find good quality podcasts. I end up wasting time downloading shows just to listen to a really crappy podcast. So here goes.....(p.s. I'll put a (M) next to the podcasts which I consider mature in nature).

1. Mondays - a GREAT podcast. This one is my favorite. Comes out on...you guessed it every monday. This is seriously the FUNNIEST podcast you will ever listen to....(M)

2. All-In Poker Podcast - fun podcast. One of the few poker podcasts that actually are worth listening to. (M) (side note: also take a look at the other podcasts on this site)

3. Michael and Evo's Slice of Scifi - just an overall fun podcast

4. Treks in SciFi - fun Star Trek podcast

5. Rounders the Poker Show - podcast of a radio show. Good interviews with professional poker players are this shows main strong point.

6. The two Harry Potter Podcasts (MuggleCast and PotterCast). I'm sorry, but I'm a Harry Potter geek.....(p.s. if anyone knows of a Narnia podcast, let me know).

7. The Java Posse - good overall discussion of java related topics

8. DotNetRocks - maybe the grand daddy of all computer programming related podcasts. They never cease to deliver quality informative content.

Well, that's it for the one's that I recommend. I also do listen to various video gaming podcasts, if you'd like to know which ones, let me know and maybe I'll post them at a later date.


Also, let me know which podcasts you're listening to, I'm always on the lookout for any good podcasts to add to my work week listening time.

First Post

Just a quick link to my previous blog (on msn spaces). I'll probably keep it around to host my pictures and links and etc....

link to: My Previous Blog