Bradley Pinkston

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I'm an engineer by training. Below is an annotated bibliography of interests and useful solutions to reoccurring problems. I've also included my occupational history and links to my profile on social networking sites like my Bradley Pinkston Facebook and Bradley Pinkston LinkedIn profiles.

Software

Adobe Flash
I usually find flash to be such a distraction that I only install it for one browser. And even then I disable the plugin in the browser until I need it. The worst part of the prevelance of flash is the historic lack of support for the 64 bit platform. What version of Adobe Flash Plugin is installed?
vim
I use vim in many different places. Since I usually use utf-8, I need to turn off the byte order mark by changing the vimrc file.
Peer to Peer
I use micro torrent to download SXSW and other independently produced music or updated linux distributions. I've also tried Miro or democracy player. It has a builtin bit torrent client. The Miro media guide is just as important as the software.

Microsoft

I also end up using Microsoft Office. Such use necessitates keeping updated security patches from MS Office Downloads Either Office 2003 on Windows XP or Security Update for Windows XP (KB951748) disabled the ability of clicking on links in this page. Right now, I'm guessing the combination did it. Bleah. When JPGs attack, use MS's GDI+ detection tool.

Computer Programming

SGML entities in HTML 3 SGML entities in HTML 4 Document Object Model or DOM javascript vb script reference regular expressions in java CSS selectors CSS Box model css left nav

Hardware

WRT54G

Tomato — I have not used it but will save this link for later. OpenWRT freedom to tinker

Other Pinkstons

While there are many Pinkstons in the world, I am only distantly related to most of them. Here are a few other Pinkstons easily found with an internet search.
Janet Pinkston is my sister. She participates in conversations about art and writing. She wins awards. She likes the Sing for Joy music program. She has never lived in Connecticut.
Janet worked as a writer in Duluth Minn. She is an active change agent.
Lake Pinkston in Texas features Large Mouth Bass
I participated in the OGR search. I was born near Louisville's Bradley neighborhood.
I did not go to Mercer County High School. I did not play in the band there. I did not serve in Iraq. I have not carried a casket in a funeral ceremony.
I did not go to Century College in Louisiana. I do not work at EMC. I did administrate an installation of EZProxy just like that Brad Pinkston did. He asked more questions of the internet.
I do not play guitar.
I am not a mechanic.
I have not been interviewed as part of a newspaper (or other media) article on the space Columbia space shuttle disaster or tornado strike. I have never lived in a trailer.

Occupational History

View Bradley Pinkston's LinkedIn profile University of Louisville Career Development Center

University of Louisville Information Technology

As part of the web team. At the time, the web team was part of Data Center Services of the University of Louisville's Information Technology department. My last direct supervisor was Kurt Bendl. The University has a dedicated USPS zip code of 40292.

KVB Enertec

I worked at KVB Enertec for only a few months under Matt McCullough. At the time that KVB Enertec purchased STACKDAS, all of the engineers working directly with customers joined KVB Enertec. KVB Enertec was privately held. Enertec started out as a software language development company. KVB was a CEMS competitor purchased by Enertec.

I realized that KVB was likely to be purchased early on. The same GE employee who interviewed EC Systems for prospective purchase happened to be walking the halls in Hatfield. Just after GE Power purchased KVB Enertec, the Louisville office was closed. I just recently reconnected with another KVB Enertec coworker, Becki Oeswein. KVB Enertec is purchased by GE Power Systems. GE press release with a mention of the purchase of KVB Enertec by GE Power. Here is a similar press release with more detail. KVB Enertec now redirects to GE Energy Continuous Monitoring.

GE Emission Monitoring Systems 2849 Sterling Drive Hatfield, PA 19440

EC Systems Inc.

EC Systems had multiple products. I worked primarily with STACKDAS. STACKDAS was a software system that provided the data collection and human interface to the continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) attached to smokestacks at power/steam generating plants. In the beginning of my time at EC, I created custom and standard human interfaces using Intellution's FIX32 (SCADA/DAHS/MMI).

EC Systems has a new name. If I recall correctly, the majority of the main product was originally developed by Matt McCullough and Bill Cullop. Matt worked at Humana for a time.

KVB Enertec purchased part of EC Systems at the end of 1999. GE purchased Intellution as announced on November 5, 2002. Also, GE now owns Intellution FIX, the Humana to Machine Interface software used to create some of the STACKDAS user interface. I first used this software platform while working at Reynolds Metals.

While at EC, I often ate lunch and chatted with folks from Orr Protection. John Whitt also worked at EC Systems.

Reynolds Metals Louisville Laminating Plant

I worked at the Louisville Laminating plant when it was owned by Reynolds Metals. A year previous to my arrival, this plant was owned by Alcan Aluminum. Before that Anaconda Aluminum owned this plant. I believe Arco Metals operated in this building. I understand the same building housed furniture manufacturing operations. Marilyn Pinkston worked in that building.

Reynolds Metals has since merged with Alcoa. While the "Reynolds Wrap" brand survived, the company name is now Alcoa. I believe that Ellen Harwell still works there. Brian Siders did his internship at this plant a few semesters prior.

Louisville Laminating 1225 W Burnett Ave Louisville, KY 40210 (502) 635-6331

University of Louisville Computer Centers

I answered general computer questions and introduced novice computer users to email, ftp, world wide web, gopher. I worked with folks like Tim Garrett. I understand Tim started working at Xerox right out of school. Jason Dour, Jeff McAdams and Billy Boone, a fellow Speed School alumni, worked in the computer centers, as well. Billy ended up working at Lexmark.

Toys

I just bought one of those flip racer remote control cars. It wasn't apparent on the box, but it seems there is only one version available at 27MHz. Which is a bummer. I'll need to get a 59MHz car of some other sort to have races. Others have noticed this as well.

photograph of colored blocks in a wagon Blocks are fun. So are logs. And Fisher Price little people. FiddleSticks seem to lose their paint in sweaty little hands.

photo of a voltswagon jetta automobile with different colored body panels I see this car every now and then. Reminds me of a calico cat or frankenstein.

I've been having some fun with Fisher-Price Little People toy sets. Some of them are the exact same toys I played with as a kid.

Internet etcetera

The internet is full of weird things. There are sites and books to explain some of this weirdness. Is this your paper on single servings sites?

Some of the weirdness comes from the group think that surrounds discussion forums and commenting systems. Slashdot is one of the first successful group web logs. It was started to share links to web sites and news articles that were of interest of the authors. The discussion of each link was encouraged.

boing boing is another. boing boing exploded as the founder published the details of the segway when it was known simply as "ginger" or "it". The site has only recently started having a commenting system.

If you have ever used really small fonts or photoshop, then you have used the product of kottke.

Podcasts

This American Life is a radio show (and podcast) with Ira Glass and long pauses.

Planet Money is the same guys who explain the finacial meltdown on "This American Life". It is produce in parternship with This American Life and NPR News.

Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me

The Sound of Young America — The interview with Ira Glass is great. You can almost see Ira squirm during this interview.

iTunes U has some great stuff from Stanford. I can't link to it directly because you have to use the iTunes store to get to it. The "Entrepernerual Thought Leadership" series from the engineering school is my favorite. The old episodes are still worth listening to. I plan to listen to the iPhone lectures available on iTunes U as well.

mp3 Podcasts iTunes

I think iTunes or my iPod is clipping off the last few seconds of some songs. It is particularly pronounced with spoken word. As a result, I've started listening to only podcasts, SXSW songs and encoding with AAC. Others have the same problem with iTunes 7.6.1. For me, I've switch to apple's lossless format until I figure something else out. I'm almost ready to upgrade to 8.0.2 to see if there is a genius playlist capability for my iPod and if there is fix for the clipping mentioned above. iPod touch screen article

Other interests

Perm

Andronic Nikolsky lived in Perm, Russia. Perm is a sister city to Louisville, Kentucky. Perm is located in the Federal Republic of Russia at Latitude: 58° 01' North and Longitude: 56° 10' East. Perm is on the western edge of the Ural mountains. I've been there in late June. Man, those "white nights" are weird. It didn't get dark until midnight and then it was light again at seven in the morning.

University of Louisville Medical School

A unique approach to examinations built into curriculum.

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