My Top News

Actually I've been back since Sunday, but haven't had the time to post until now. On Friday I went up to Geneva on the Lake. (Geneva, Ohio - near Cleveland) for my cousin's wedding and got home around 3-3:30ish on Sunday. At 6 that night I worked 6pm-1am and then yesterday (Monday) a family friend took my mom and me on errands. After that I went to work and today I talked to an old friend and picked up NCAA. A busy past few days.

Talking about NCAA, I'll have some impressions up shortly. I'm hoping for a good game as I skipped last years and wasn't super impressed with 08. (good, but not great) But with plenty of Birthday money and wanting a game to play, I figured I'd give NCAA a shot after seeing some good initial impressions.

In other news, with the launch of this site I'm continuing to almost re-start my web presence. There are plans in place to attempt to sell (or simply let the domain expire) of more than half my websites. This includes 24 Quotes (will be sold), Bengals Chatter (likely), Dynasty Wizard (unfortunately....likely) and GTA IV Universe. (if I can't sell, will let expire)

With those gone, that just leaves this website, AdaptCMS.com, AdaptBB.com, Adapt Software and Insane Visions. The reason for this gutting is either lack of interest (like GTA IV Universe) or no time for it. (like DW) The good news is that I can proceed with re-launching all the remaining sites. This is no coincidence of the work (currently brainstorming) for AdaptCMS 2.0, as the CMS will my top overall project.

Anyways, stay tuned for news on that and some impressions on NCAA 10.

Welcome to CharliePage88.com!

For those that don't know, this is essentially a re-launch of my previous blog - charliepage.net. Sporting a new look and feel, as well as new features, charliepage88.com updates the old blog in a big way.

As well as the new look, you will see a lot more activity and a wider range of topics, from technology and TV to current events. Other than updates on web work and general life stuff, most articles will likely be TV or current events related.

All that said, I hope you enjoy the site. Feel free to leave a comment on any feedback you have, as well, feel free to also subscribe to keep up to date on the blog. Thank you!

- Charlie Page

North Korea may be preparing for its third nuclear test, a show of defiance as the United Nations considers new sanctions on the dictatorship for conducting an underground nuclear explosion in May, according to a U.S. government official.

The White House National Security Council would not comment on the assessment of a possible third nuclear test in the works.

Every so often North Korea does something - usually not good that gets people's attention, otherwise they're ignored completely. This time North Korea REALLY wanted attention, one nuke and 6 missile tests later, here we are.

Not as often North Korea also likes to essentially threaten war - this time it disregards the 1953 armistice and threatened "nuclear war" for even any minor incidents. (right) This is the first time in a little while that North Korea has freaked out this much but there are some interesting theories.

One of the most interesting I've heard has to do with the president, Kim Jung Il. Since his apparent stroke the "dear leader" has been in declining health. One theory is that Kim is in dire health and essentially making a distraction for transfer of power or a distraction for infighting due to the transfer of power.

It's all speculation, but certainly interesting because of the apparent randomness of the latest North Korean freak out. Of course the worrying part is if the truth is something close to that, the normally crazy (but rational) leadership could do things it normally wouldn't.

But as I've heard a few say on TV. It's completely understanding why the US/SK military has upped it's alert level, but in reality North Korea does what it does best - blow smoke.

Ask anyone following current events and everyone is worried about Pakistan and Taliban. When this latest war between the two started I was very cautious, waiting for some good signs or bad ones before saying too much. Unfortunately there have been some signs and they aren't good.

Starting out is the latest news and it's very bad. When Admiral Mullen (Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman) was asked if he had seen evidence of Pakistan increasing the size of there nuke arsenal he said simply "Yes". This is quite shocking to a lot of outsiders trying to follow the events in Pakistan. This along with the recent announcement by Pakistan that they do not need any more troops (therefore not removing any troops from the Pak-India border) is just terrible news.

Those two together paint quite an obvious picture - despite the movements by the Taliban, India is Pakistan's foremost enemy and top concern. Besides an International promise that India won't attack pakistan if pakistan moves troops from the border, it's astonishing with the Taliban in actual control of part of Pakistan and 60 miles away from the capital, India is still a much more important concern.

Worse, with the recent aid to Pakistan and proposed more of it - this story of increased nuke production has to make many people wary that this aid has/is going towards there nuclear programme instead of more important areas.

Unfortunately it doesn't sound like the war for Pakistan is going great. Despite there claims of 1,000 (out of 5000-7000 taliban fighters) taliban dead, US intelligence claims it's wildly exaggerated and just yesterday the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint, capturing four policemen.

Stay tuned here and The Long War Journal for updates.

If you didn't already hear, AdaptCMS 1.4 was released. Despite being released 6 months after 1.3, I expect the new version to do well and I'm already looking forward to AdaptCMS 1.5.

However after having a change of hear, AdaptCMS 1.5 will NOT be a major version. In all likelyhood it will be another minor version with AdaptCMS 2.0 being the big one. At this moment the plan is to try and release 1.5 around April-May with the release of 2.0 sometime in Summer, like Julyish. While this may sound like only a 3 month development period for both versions, the idea is to slowly work on AdaptCMS 1.5 - this means a good 6 months (give or take 1-2) for the big version and smaller time for the minor release.

As for AdaptCMS 2.0, I don't have any details as no work has been done on it, but it will be the biggest release since it's inception. File structures will be almost completely different, the admin panel will be very different from the current one, new frontend look, new features and a new direction - User Friendly. While the frontend, especially the default skin, will have more attention to it now - the focus will be on the admin area with the biggest shift trying to make AdaptCMS much more user-friendly. All in all I have a LOT of ideas and with some early work already done on the admin skin - design wise - I can't wait to get started.

But long before then, there is still a good amount of work left to do on AdaptBB. The script is shaping up nicely and a lot of things such as the file structure will help AdaptCMS 2.0 when it's worked on. There are still features left to do, but progress is steady and an official demo will likely be up soon.

In the meantime for AdaptBB as well as AdaptCMS, I just put up a "Developer Area" over at Adapt Software. This allows anybody to see the latest Adapt scripts in action, as the files are updated constantly letting anyone to see the very newest features and progress made on the scripts.

Anyways, I think that about covers it all. I'll post here once an AdaptBB demo goes online or sooner, if that get delayed. Until next time.

Christmas is coming! It's crazy to think that less than two weeks from now is Christmas and a week after that, 2009. I just got done Christmas shopping myself and I just love this time of year. However one thing I'm not liking is the job market.

Luckily with saving money I had enough for Christmas, but financially I need to get something soon. Among the places I've applied at are Biggs (they aren't hiring), Blockbuster, Gamestop and others. But my timing couldn't be at a worse time with the job market in it's worst shape, likely, since I've been alive.

In better news I have found out a problem with one of my desktops. First, let me explain. My main PC is a Dell Laptop (inspiron 1501, im on it right now) and my desktop I use sometimes too. I then acquired a broken emachines, I figured I'd use for parts if it wouldn't work. However the other day after looking it up and then looking inside I found the culprit - leaking capacitors. From what I understand if that's the only issue, it's a small amount to pay at a PC repair place and it's back up to running. If so then I'll need to figure out what to use it for.

Among the many possibilities is trying a small web server type thing, DVR or I may use it as my main desktop if it's better than my current desktop. The nice thing about this emachines is a nice 2.66 GHz intel processor, I have an AMD 1.8 GHZ in both my other PCs.

I'm still also working on that possible software website. I'm adding software and going to do a few reviews, but I think there is a pretty good chance it becomes a full-fledged website. I'll be working on it more behind-the-scenes and have a proper release though and not rush it like the past few projects.

I think that's about it. I'll post within the next week again, want to keep blogging and not go away for a month again, but I still need to post on a few sites and finally get back into the "swing of things". Until next time.

- Charlie

With this post I'm finally ending the longest posting drought here. Ironically around the time of my last post or two I was frustrated I wasn't getting one a week, yet here's a span of two months.

Anyways I know I have a lot of catching up to do. I kind of dropped off the map a bit I suppose, I still need to update insane visions, pcr and a few others. Unfortunately my interest in programming and websites has dipped down lately, it happens every so often but not often like this. I'm hoping to get back into it with finishing and hopefully releasing a smaller than expected AdaptCMS 1.4 and getting AdaptBB 1.0 into beta.

Every so often I feel like a record player when I say this again "I need to trim down my sites". But I'm going to be getting a job very soon and am hoping to finally get into college in spring, so this time around it's forced. My interests have also changed quite a bit compared to the sites I have - I don't game much and my interests line in more with Current Events, Television and lately - PC Software.

With that I may try and sell GTA IV Universe, PCR (lots of space it occupies, just don't have the time needed for it) and possibly 24 quotes soon after the show starts up, maybe a few episodes into the season. If I can somehow find the time by spring, I'd also like to release one final version of OneCMS (2.6) that fixes the bugs found in 2.5.

If things go well I am going to be trying out a "software" website, basically reviewing pc software, blog, news (auto) and such. I've been doing a lot of pc software related stuff the past few months so I figured it'd be a good idea and it would be something easier to do than say an entertainment site or reviewing cms's, as well I could see my programming interest slide more to the pc side too. But I'm trying out on a sub-domain and going to write reviews and content first, then from there if the interest and capability is there, I'll get a domain and such.

I will be blogging more now, I may even post some software reviews if things get slow here. If you are a reader of this site - I'm back.

It's been since April/May since I haven't posted for a whole month, this time about 5 weeks, actually. Even though this is just a small blog that I don't place much importance in, I still try to write a few blogs a month. Every once in a while however I get "webbed" out and/or "coded" out, this happened although shortly after I was working on AdaptBB quite a bit. Anyways...

Just the other week I went to my Dad's Wedding which I was nervous about for various reasons, a smaller one being that it was a wedding and I don't like to be infront of a lot of people. (I was his best man) Anyways I had a good time, helped to be away for a few days. I'm going to FINALLY add pictures of myself in the Gallery the next few days.

I've also been busy off and on putting in job applications, as well as a few interviews but nothing has panned out yet. I'm hoping to get a decent part time job hopefully this winter so I can save up money. Also I'm finally going for my driving temps along with my Mom late this month/early November, really excited for that. I probably won't be able to get my license however, until early next year.

Other than the aforementioned I can't think of too much else. I have been working on AdaptBB and will be revealing some info and screen shots on Monday, so be sure to stay tuned to AdaptBB.com. The script is actually coming along nicely and I hope to have a demo and beta in the next few weeks.

Not to sneak this in at the bottom, but as I have in the past, I'm going to try and cut down the amount of web stuff I have. I have right now (I'd link to them, but it's 1 AM right now) - InsaneVisions (AdaptCMS - active, AdaptBB - active, OneCMS - not active), adapt, GTA IV Universe, PCR, DW, Bengals Chatter, 24 Quotes, PY and this blog. I know a lot of that isn't every day work, but to break it down a bit:

• InsaneVisions - Every Day (or nearly, work on adaptcms and/or adaptbb as well as posting 4 articles a month)
• GTA - Not bad now, don't have to post much.
• PCR - Don't know if I'll be able to keep this one, I'd love to but I just don't have the time to keep updating the list and write reviews.
• DW - I don't want to let this one go if possible, little work from me.
• Bengals Chatter - Especially with being on a nytimes online column twice because of it, I REALLY don't want to let this go unless I have to.
• 24 Quotes - Has always been up in the air what to do with this site. In the end it's a quote site with 24 news. (which is not often) So not a big hassle and it's a GREAT domain.
• PY - Another toss-up. It gets okay traffic and was a big project which didn't exactly succeed, but who knows.

As you can see, a good amount I don't want to let go or sell, whatever. But as was proven with Kroger, I cannot have all these sites and projects. Especially with both a forum and cms script, some of the sites will get neglected and if I have a job a decent amount may be updated very rarely. If I go to college soon and have a job at the same time, I'll be lucky to be able to work on the scripts.

Luckily I have time to figure this stuff out, but there will be changes. Anyways I'll be posting probably this week with a political or current evens blog.

- Charlie