• 1/2 lb. hamburger
• 1/2 lb. bacon
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp. yellow mustard
• 4 tsp. vinegar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 can pork and beans (30 oz.)
• 1 can garbonzo beans (15 oz.)
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 package frozen lima beans (10 oz. or 16 oz. canned)

Brown hamburger.  Chop onions and cook onions with hamburger until slightly carmelized.  Fry bacon and cut into small pieces.  Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.  Heat several hours in slow cooker until ingredients have come to a boil and flavors have combined.

After a few weeks of driving my new 2008 Mazda 3 5-door, I felt it was time for a review of the vehicle so far.

1.) The Drive - Very fun to drive, responsive, and very quite

2.) Gas Mileage - Better then my previous car, 27+ miles per gallon

3.) Moonroof - Ah, very nice

4.) Seating for 4 - Tested this out atleast once, and there is room for 4, instead of my old car

5.) Price / options - I believe for the price I paid, the options/value is great

In a few short hours I will be an owner of a new 2008, Mazda3 5-door. Moonroof, 6cd changer, ipod hook up, shiftronic trans. This is my first new car that I have actually purchased on my own and am excited about it. I will be taking delivery of it in about 9 hours (not short, but oh well).

The color is Aura Blue Mica…very nice looking.

I will be dropping off my old car with my parents, as they requested to keep it. Naturally my insurance for the car almost double, but that is the way it goes.

The car also has remote keyless entry for the doors and hatch, tire pressure system, traction control system, and many other goodies.

I will try and post again about my first thoughts on driving the car more then just the initial test drive.

Introducing the UW-Platteville Rock Band. We have Josh on the guitar, Mike on the bass, and Greg on the drums!!!

Day four on the Novell BrainShare conference started out with a General Keynote session with a few product demos. There were two new Suse Gecko movie. Which are currently downloading now and will have to post later or tomorrow morning.

• Video 4 - 5 Minute Warning
• Video 5 - 1 Minute Warning

Breakfast and lunch were good as usual. Basic eggs, waffles, hashbrowns…etc for breakfast and sandwiches, burgers, pizza…etc for lunch. After lunch it was time for breakout sessions.

My first session today was about Network Reconnaissance: Tracking back to a Suspect Host. Like one of my previous sessions it was very interesting how one can track back to a host and what a host should reply with if given a command. If replied with the wrong command, it might be a suspect host and should not be trusted.

Second session was all about OpenOffice.org, the Novell Addition. From what I could tell, there was no real big different from OpenOffice and OpenOffice: The Novell Edition. Basically if you know how to use the advanced features in Excel, you are set to use the same features in OpenOffice: Calc. Interesting to know that a open source / freeware package is just as powerful as something that one would have to typically buy.

After these two sessions, I decided to take a break and visit the vendor room and see what snacks were at the snack shake, homemade freshly baked cinnamon rolls. I grabbed a few bags of nuts and 2 juices. I ran into Greg and we decided to take a break since we both looked confused and had brain strain.

We took a walk to the Mormon Palace, which was a few blocks from the convention center. When we got there, it was open to the public and we took the tour. Greg snapped a few pictures and 30 minutes later we were on my merry way. The architecture was stunning and the buildings were huge. The organ in one of the buildings had 11,600 pipes and it took up an entire side of the building.

We walked back to the buses and when we got on our bus Mike was sitting there. We heading back to the hotel to rest up from the day of sessions and learning. We met in the hotel lobby at 6pm for dinner, which was being held at the Energy Center, home of the Utah Jazz. We got a shirt, to go along with the other 10 shirts that we already got. TTP, Technology Transfer Partner was the group that we were in, we were VIPs and we got to eat in the lower level of the center. There was also a drawing for some prizes, but none of us won. After dinner we headed up to the main floor to see what was happening up there. At this time Greg decided to go back to the hotel with his camera that was checked in to the customer service office. Mike and I continued to look around and grab some desert. Once the doors opened to the arena we got a seat and Greg showed back up in about 20 minutes.

The show began with Frank Caliendo doing impressions of the president and Bill Clinton and other famous personalities. He also was trying to get one of the guards to turn around and look at him, but the guard did not budge.

After Caliendo was done, the stage was set up for Collective Soul. They played some new songs and old songs. It was a great show and the band interacted with the crowd very well. The lead sing picked up one of the glow sticks and put it around his neck. For the encore, people began to throw more of the glow sticks on the stage and when the band came back on, the lead singer had a guitar and began to collect the glow sticks around the guitar neck. It was a very good concert.

I am outta here for the night. 2 more days to go.

Day 3 started off with another fantastic breakfast. There were eggs, omelets, ham, egg bake, pretty much the same stuff that was offered on Day 2, but different”flavors.” When breakfast was done, we broke apart to go to our individual sessions.

My first session (Greg was there too) was about Linux permissions, I was somewhat familiar with the permissions because my web hosting is on a Linux box and set permissions. The instructor also went into some greater detail. I learned that Linux does not care about inheritance, basically Linux does not do inheritance.

Second session (Mike was there too) was about SSH on Linux. I understood what was happening in this one because the reslife server on campus employs this. I got a better grasp on what SSH is and how it works and what else SSH can be used for.

The third session was awesome. It was about Network Forensics. The instructor was able to “sniff” the wireless that was happening around the convention center. She looked at a few of the logs and also showed the network traffic that was going and what web pages people were looking at. Greg had a class with her too later in the day and she told the group that someone’s computer was infected and should be quarantined.

Fourth session, was way over my head and I skipped it for lunch and met up with Mike and Greg to finish up some turn ins to get some swag. We found the “Secret Agent” and had to say “Training is the Key” to get the brief case from him and continue on the clue hunt. The clue hunt got us running around all over the place to get clues and do the secret “C” symbol at a station to get the next item. After all is said and done, we ended up getting a wrist voice recorder and enter in a drawing for a chance to win 1 of 6 stuffed brief cases….one of the items was a 200gig external harddrive.

Lunch, once again was very good. There was salmon with a molasses glaze, au graten potatoes, green beans. Pizza, soup and other similar items from yesterday. They once again offered the wall of candy and desert table.

Fifth and Sixth sessions were good to attend. The fifth session discussed how to package Advanced Applications (like Office Suite) to work with the imaging software the Novell offers. It was easy, and hope it will be a solution in the future for the UW-Platteville campus. The sixth and final session for the day was a discussion group on “Good Passwords.” From the people in the group, a lot of the businesses do not have a password policy as strict as UW-Platteville. Some did not require password changes, 6 characters for the minimum length, no special characters or case changes. UW-Platteville had one of the better password policies from the other people in the room, and I thought that we were going to be on the other side with a poor policy.

After all the sessions, it was time for the party, Party with the Partners aka…World of NovellCraft. The main event hall was decorated with WoW towns…like ThunderBluff and UnderCity for the Horde. There was also a few people walking around dressed up in WoW characters. There were nelfs, belfs, and orcs. I was hoping to see a big Tauren, but nope, no Tauren running around. Prizes were given away again. And $1100 phone was given away, a 24in iMac, and other various electronics. We also played Rock Band and shot a rabbit (plush toy) with a bow and arrow for a hat.

The food at the party was also very good. Fruit smoothies, make your own Philly Cheese Steak, chicken and beef on a stick. And it looked like there was also a fajita bar.

Tomorrow is another key note and a half day of sessions. And tomorrow is our TTP dinner and a music concert, Collective Soul is the band. There is also a comedian.

Pictures of the past days will be posted on my Gallery shortly. And a link to Greg’s Gallery.

Day 2 of BrainShare started out with breakfast. This breakfast was great…so many choices. Eggs, pancakes, waffles, italian egg bake, cereal, oatmeal, juices, coffee, milk, the list goes on and on. After the breakfast hour, we had 1 of 3 general sessions. This first session was and overview of the future of Novell and their cornerstone vendor, SAP.

The general session started off with short films of current clients that Novell has helped setup a system for their networking management needs. There were three Suse Linux Gecko videos that were very cool.

• Video 1 - 5 Minute Warning
• Video 2 - 3 Minute Warning
• Video 3 - Ready to Rock

B efore I get ahead of myself, the room that this session in was huge. It had 7 projectors atleast, and the main screen had to be a good 40feet wide. After the general session, it was time for lunch, and like breakfast, there were so many things to pick from. Cold-cut sandwiches or the hot dish of the day, which was chicken cordon bleu. There was a wall of candy, chips, sodas, salad, soups, pizza and more that I did not get a chance to get to, but saw other people eating other things.

After lunch it was time for the break out sessions, which I had 4 today. Each session was about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. Some of the sessions were very interesting and others were way over my head, but tried to get the most out of them as I could. While there was a break in the sessions, I ran around collecting all the goods that I could. I got 3 shirts an a notepad today. And I was attacked by the Microsoft group to answer a few questions, but I could not because I did not watch the demo and the table the night before.

Dinner was the Blue Iguana, a little Mexican restaurant that was in the basement of another restaurant. The food was great. We all got some form of fajitas. I personally got the chicken fajitas and they were great. Before the Blue Iguana, we stopped at the Brew Fest (see BrainShare - Day 1), enjoyed the food that was there and it was good. Since it was St. Patrick’s Day today, we were handed a flashing shamrock.

**Update** Mike did have a strawberry margarita in honor of Colleen and Jerry. Greg and I did not bring our cameras for pictures, our bad. **

After all the eating, we made our way back to the hotel to turn in for the night. Tomorrow, is a full day of sessions and more drawings for prizes. Hopefully maybe one of the three of us might win a prize.

Greg’s Photos of The Day.

Day 1 started with the flight from Madison, Wi to Minneapolis, MN, then to Salt Lake City, UT. The flights were ok, both were delayed a bit on standby passengers. We got to Utah and it was just as cold as it was in Wisconsin, which was about 26 degrees.

When we got to the hotel, sure enough my luggage was once again checked by TSA. It has been checked for the past three conferences that I have gone too in the past few years. Once all settled into the hotel room, we went to the Salt Palace for the Novell / BrainShare registration. This place is huge, words can not describe how big it is.

As we walked through the convention center, Novell has provided a ton of entertainment. Wii stations, relaxation centers with oversized beanbag chairs, computer labs and wireless, a 200in TV to watch movies on and it just continued with more and more entertainment. After registration we went around and looked at everything else and the general layout of this big place.

At 2:30pm the convention center opened up the vendors/partners arena and we all broke loose to get stamps on cards for chances to win stuff and get all the free garb that the vendors had. Pens, shirts, candy, hats, cups…so much stuff. Nearing the 5:00pm hour, the GWAVA group had a drawing for a few higher end items… iPod Nanos, TomToms, and the grand prize…a 24inch iMac.

But while roaming around, we ended up at the GroupLinko game, and we signed up for the drawing to place GroupLinko…basically it was Plinko, and a chance to win $300 cash. So after the info session, they picked three names and I was the second person called. We had to guess the price of a Monopoly game. First all three of us went over. The second time I guested $9.99 and that was the exact price. So I got 2 GroupLinko chips instead of 1 (bonus for getting the exact price). I walked up the stairs to the top of the GroupLinko board and I looked down and saw Greg taking a picture of me. I like the first chip go on the board and it had a wicked bounce and I got $0.00. Then I let the second chip go and I landed in the $30.00 slot. So I won the Monopoly game and $30.00 (in $2 bills).

Then it was time for dinner. It was held in the big reception hall. There was a live band a Moroccan theme. There were ice sculptures (which I did not get pictures of). The food was good, shrimp, a table of deserts, Moroccan chicken and lamb.

Now I am just chilling in the hotel room watching TV. Waking up at 3:30am and all the walking, I am tired and need to rest up for the fun that there will be tomorrow. Training sessions and Brewfest at Squatters since UW-Platteville is a client of M+, we get VIP treatment at the dinner tomorrow (Monday).

Well I am out for now. More to follow. Pictures will not be posted until I get home from the trip because I did not pack my cable to get the pictures off the camera.

Greg’s Photos of the Day.

• 3/4 stick butter
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 cups canned fruit (peaches)

Melt butter in casserole dish. Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, and milk in bowl. Pour mixture into casserole dish (do not stir). Pour canned fruit over mixture (do not stir). Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, then 300 for 30 minutes.

I am in the process of building a Home Theater PC. I have ordered all the parts already and are awaiting them to arrive so I can start to build. The parts are listed below:

• EVGA 112-CK-NF75-K1 LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
• Antec earthwatts EA380 ATX12V v2.0 380W Power Supply
• SILVERSTONE LASCALA 10 CS-SST-LC10B Black
• Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

I already have 2 hard drives(SATA), 1×160gig Western Digital for boot drive and 1×500gig Western Digital for the PVR drive. To timeshift TV, I have a Hauppauge 1600. Down the road I am thinking of getting the 1800 series from Hauppauge to allow me to timeshift 2 shows at a time.

As of right now that is the plan, more details to come with final conclusions on the hardware mentioned above.