CBC Arts: TV anchor Peter Jennings dies at age 67

CBC Arts: TV anchor Peter Jennings dies at age 67: "
Tributes were pouring in Monday for Peter Jennings, the Canadian-born anchor of ABC's flagship network news program for more than two decades, who died from lung cancer over the weekend."

Qwest and Public Safety Officials Encourage ''ICE'' (in Case of Emergency) Entry on Wireless Phones - Forbes.com

Qwest is encoraging people to put an ICE entry in their cell phones. Started in England. Which is cool in that it is a world wide (or at least not just US) idea. So could possibly be of use when travelling internationallly.

I'm so aware

I'm so aware of my surroundings. I usually work in the dinning room, sitting at the end of the table and working on my laptop, over WiFi.

In the past, on the weekend, when I've left the machine on for extended periods of time, its gotten pretty hot and weired out a bit. So I come up with this enlightened plan this morning (as I'm about to head out for a massage).

I'll jury-rig it by sitting it on a cooling rack, which should let some air under it. (This is where the chef/hacker connection comes together ;)) - But that might dent the pine table... so I'll stick the rack on a placemat. That should help things.

I figure I'll pull a place-mat off the bar, so I grab the cooling rack, look over at the bar and just kind of stare at it for 30 seconds... "OK... there are no placemats on the bar. That is weird. Tina always has placemats on the bar." And then I start getting flashbacks of me preping food on the bar, or filling plates off the bar, for the LAST FEW MONTHS or so - and realize. "Hmm... she stopped putting placemats on the bar months ago. Weird that it just now registed it self with my conscience."

Yeah... there are lots of little details that my brain captures and stores away, but fails to make me aware of.

Happy Birthday to Me - Part 2

Last Tuesday Jaime and I went out on the town for my birthday. We went to Jun's and had sushi, then went and saw The Island, then went to Cold Stone after and got ice cream.

And she *paid* for it all. The coolness of having a daughter who now has a good job. :)

It was an awesome night. Just hanging out, having sushi, going to the movies, etc. We need to do it more often, it was so fun. And just a great "daddy/daughter" time. :)

We both thought The Island was pretty good. And we both enjoyed the sushi. Although it was the first time we had a Spider Roll. It looked interesting, but we didn't realize it was *soft shell* crab, not just regular crab. First time either one of us had that... and it was a little strange. I think the mutual feeling was, "Well that was interesting, but not sure I'd ever get it again."

Anyway - a great time. Love ya babe!

What Business Can Learn from Open Source

What Business Can Learn from Open Source: "If you could measure how much work people did, many companies wouldn't need any fixed workday. You could just say: this is what you have to do. Do it whenever you like, wherever you like. If your work requires you to talk to other people in the company, then you may need to be here a certain amount. Otherwise we don't care."

Once again, I'm lucky enough to be in a pretty good position. While perhaps not as much freedom as the above, I have close to it. Other than when there are scheduled meetings, I can pretty much come in when I want. Probably conditioned by years of working in a large company, I do show up before lunch and stay until at least 5:00 or 6:00, but no one is telling me to. And if I'm being fairly productive and home and in the middle of something, sometimes I won't go in at all.

Its kind of amazing "what you can get away with", if you are really productive. :)

Wired News: An Insider's View of 'Ciscogate'

Wired News: An Insider's View of 'Ciscogate': "Lynn knew that Cisco had fixed the problem he found and stopped distributing the vulnerable code, but he was deeply concerned that the company did not do nearly enough to persuade its customers to upgrade promptly, or to explain to them why upgrading was necessary."

Well everyone knows now. Now that they sued him, its the hot topic.

Enter the infobot

We just starting running an infobot at work on one of our irc channels. So far it is just amusing. But I can see how it could be helpful.

Whitedust: VoIP Security: Uncovered

Whitedust: VoIP Security: Uncovered: "VoIP insecuritywill most likely progress to the point where answering an incoming call could infect your OS with a VoIP enabled virus."

Article on VoIP, giving some backround on what it is and security wrt PSTN, etc. I thought the above statement was interesting. I hadn't really thought about that.

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Soft sell

A discussion by RMS on software pattents, something he is very opposed to. I'm not sure how I feel about it - given I have 3 of them. :) - Mostly I think it is cool for the recognition factor, i.e., ego I guess. "Hey... I've got 3 patents, that's cool." - He is against them, in my understanding, because they take software copyrights a step further. Not only can't you copy the software, but you can't even re-engineer it. So for instance I see a program that does some cool thing - and I can't copy it, but I don't want to pay for it. Or I want to add some stuff to it and decide - we'll its not Open Source, so I can't get the source, so I'll just rewrite it and add in my stuff. With a copyright you can do that. With a patent you can't. A patent says you can't even write something similar. So... given an "open source" / "free software" philosophy, you are pretty hosed.

I'm kind of in the middle. I'd probably rather have something be open or free then it copyrighted without a pattent. The main thing again is probably ego. We work hard on our stuff, and it is sometimes irritating if someone just goes and rips it off. I'd rather give it to them, letting them update it and keep the copyright that says I wrote it. :) - But then again, I don't get paid for the use of software, I get paid for writting it. So I don't have all the business concerns. But thinking about this stuff lately has made me start thinking about contributing to some open source stuff. We'll see...

Connexions - About Connexions

Connexions - About Connexions: "Connexions is an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web. Our Content Commons contains educational materials for everyone — from children to college students to professionals — organized in small modules that are easily connected into larger courses. All content is free to use and reuse under the Creative Commons 'attribution' license."

More free course materials, software, etc. on the web. Very cool.

Windows-NT is VMS re-implemented

Some cool Windows-NT and VMS stuff...

Oh yeah, its a *virtual* world

Logging in this morning, and CCM pushed some junk to my machine, so it took a while. So I finally get in and I'm moving a window from my primary screen (my monitor) to my secondary screen (my laptop). As I wisk it across the screen, a sticky stuck to the front of my monitor falls off. "Oh, I guess I moved the window too fast and the breeze blew the sticky off my monitor."

Oh yeah, blush. Its a virtual system. Grabbing a window and moving it "really fast" doesn't cause wind which effects the *physical* world.

So many little things in the day that remind me that I tend to blur things between the worlds. :)

Reading ban on leaked Harry Potter

Canada makes it illegal to read a book that you legally bought. Yes.. you walk into a store, you buy the book, you take it home - whoops, it wasn't supposed to go on sale yet. So if you read it, you are breaking the law.

How bizzare.

Found this on RMS's web site. I don't agree with most of his political views... - but I'll point to his site anyway, since that is where I found the story. And he is RMS - and whether I agree with him or not, he is still a great hacker.

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com: "SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man was arrested on Monday after calling police to complain about the theft of his marijuana, authorities said.

Stephen Knight, 17, said three men had broken into his apartment, hogtied him with Christmas lights and stole some marijuana, along with a plasma screen television, police said.

Police are looking for the suspects. In the meantime, they arrested Knight after finding several marijuana plants growing under heat lamps in the apartment, four grams of harvested marijuana and a tablet of ecstasy, Officer Chad Ripley said.

Knight said the men barged into his home early on Monday morning demanding, 'Where's the weed?,' according to San Antonio police.
"

FT.com / Home UK - Rapid results without a rugby scrum

FT.com / Home UK - Rapid results without a rugby scrum: "Now it is being targeted more systematically at chief executives of large companies that might benefit from using it. “We aim at CEOs because CIOs [chief information officers] are part of the problem, not the solution,” says Mr Schwaber. “We are trying to directly connect the software developers with the customer, and CIOs are not too thrilled about being cut out of the action.”"

Article discussing Scrum, some of the companies using it, etc. - and the fact that it works and is cost effective.

RMS: Free as in Freedom

Just finished Sam William's book, Free as in Freedom on Richard Stallman. Read it in a few days, which is pretty good for me anymore, as I usually don't take the time to read. Having read Hackers, I thought it was a great read. More insight into "the last true hacker" - which fits the hacker mold out of which he grew. Also some great insights into the "free software" movement. And a cool thing is that the entire book is on-line, and supports reader comments on errors, etc.

It seems to me an alternate approach would be to "publish" it as a series of wiki pages, offering faster updates - but I don't know all the issues associated with publishing a book in that manner. In any case, cool stuff.

I suggest that anyone reading this, that is a hacker or developer and wants some insights, should take a look at it - again, especailly since it is reproduced entirely online.

As a personal side note - I am more involved in the "open source" movement than the "free software / gpl" movement. Although my understanding from the book is that they are close to the same. The issue is that, in working for corporate america, the corporate charges for its software, and we can't give it away, disclose it to anyone, etc. etc. So - we can't use GPL software, because it requires that we give our software away as well. (in a nutshell - again, my understanding). However, "open source" software usually has a license that is along the lines of "use this if you want - resell it as part of your stuff if you want. You can send fixes back to us, or not." Which in general allows us to "comprimise" (according to RMS) and meet our company binding terms (what we can do as employees of the company), but at the same time turn in patches, help contribute to the open source software, without being under any obligation to contribute "our" software.

This has worked well for years - CLIPS being a prime example. We use CLIPS - and from time to time I'm a member of the CLIPS community, offering suggestions, providing bug fixes, requesting enhancements, etc. A win-win - from the "useful" point of view.

Anyway, interesting stuff. I find it always good to read this kind of stuff. It connects me to the "community" at large.

VI - a great place for free food

So... following up on the Score - Free Strawberry Pie story. Tina and I were both tired the other night... maybe Thursday? Anyway, neither of us felt like cooking and Jaime wasn't home, so we decided to just go to Gunther Tood's or VI. They are basically across from each other, so we headed over and decided at the last minute to go to VI.

So we eat and with the "free strawberry pie" episode fresh in our minds, Tina looks over and sees the check sitting on the table and asks, "Did he offer us pie?". "Nope." - we both grin. Then Tina finishes eat and the waiter stops back by,

W: "Would you like some dessert?"
T: "Ah... we were hoping to get it free. But you asked"
W: "Heh heh heh... yeah, I'm not going to let that happen!"
T: "Ah, you should give it to us free anyway."
W: "No way" and he laughs and takes our order.

So he brings it out and says "Something is up with the computer and it won't let me add the pie, so I guess you get it free anyway!" - SCORE.

And then we finish and take the ticket up to the register. The manager asks how everything was. Great. Then goes to ring us out.

M: Something is wrong with this ticket.
T: Yeah, that is what the waiter said.

So he messes with stuff and I had him my credit card.

M: This has already been paid by a credit card.

So he calls the waiter over, and they look at stuff for a while, with plenty of "Sorry about the wait" - "Sorry this is taking so long" type comments. Which really didn't matter because it was only a few minutes and we were in no rush.

Finally he says, "Well - I can't figure out what to do. So I guess the meal is on us." So we got the meal for free. SCORE AGAIN.

I'm telling you, I think I'm eating at VI from now on. The last two visists we've gotten something free, and its getting better. I thinking next time they'll pay us. ;)

cosAgile

"Joined" cosAgile a while back, after going to a Ron Jefferies presentation they hosted. It was good stuff.

So - one of the things that Ron talked about was "practice". Many "artists" practice, but as software developer's we rarely do. We usually just "do". (And there is a whole discussion about whether we are artists or scientists, whether the "art" that we do is artistic or a scientific displain, etc - which I won't get into here). Anyway... he talked about the benefits of practicing. Writing code, and rewritting it, and studying it with other people, and then writting it again. Not so much because of what it does, or for the goal of having something "done" - but for the joy and learning of just practicing.

So - cosAgile meets every Tuesday at lunch for about an hour to "practice". I've gone two weeks in a row now. After my first time I thought it was just a blast. Not perhaps in a skiing or riding a roller coaster way, but in a Hackers kind of way. Just getting together with other hackers/developers and working on some code. Learning from each other. In a non-work related, not within my own team or company, no management driven deliverables, kind of way. Just doing something for the joy of doing it. And it was very cool. So I'm going to try and go every week.

I've contributed a few pages to their wiki and added a small bit of code. Nothing large - but again, just the idea of learning a new language (since I don't know Java) and working in a new IDE (since I don't know Eclipse) and interactive with other people in the field. All good stuff.

I'm psyched about it. :)

Happy Birthday to me. :)

Yesterday was my birthday. Wow... 47. 3 years to 50. Who would have thought.

Anyway, got this cool online card from Tif. My gold-rider.

Had a wonderful day. Jaime wasn't around because she was at the Desperation Conference, which she and Michael are attending. She said the worship has been awesome. That's very cool. - So anyway Tina and I both took off work and spent the day together.

I did some work in the morning for a bit, then she got up and we got around. Went out for brunch, then down to the zoo and hung out there for a few hours. Then went to the movies to see when Stealth was playing. Had some time so went shopping for a bit, then saw the movie then stopped at Carl's Jr on the way home. Came home and watched Million Dollar Baby. Basically: got out of the house, and just hung out together, having a great time. Very simple, but very cool. Walking hand in hand through the zoo, etc.

We are usually so busy, and it felt so much like a Saturday... but it wasn't so we have today "off" as well. An awesome time. We need to do it more often.

Anyway, it was a great day!

NASA Suspending Shuttle Program Over Foam Debris - New York Times

"The maneuver followed a decision by NASA on Wednesday to suspend further flights of the space shuttle fleet after determining that a large piece of insulating foam had broken off the external fuel tank of the Discovery shortly after liftoff Tuesday morning, the same problem that doomed the Columbia and its seven astronauts in the last mission, two and a half years ago."

SANS Institute - Top 20 - Q2 update 2005

SANS Institute - Top 20 - Q2 update 2005: "Home users face heightened risk from new vulnerabilities in iTunes and RealPlayer, along with a seemingly endless stream of new vulnerabilities in Microsofts Internet Explorer web browser."

Yet another report stating that you shouldn't use IE.

Google Moon - Lunar Landing Sites

What will Google think of next? :)

Make sure and zoom in as far as possible, to get a good look at the surface.

Flemings Ultimate Garage :: 1969 Chevrolet CAMARO Z28

Wow - I used to have a Camaro that looked something like this ('68 or '69 Super Sport - I also had a '67 Rally Sport before that). Mine was more customized. It also had a 500HP 454 in it, with a straight-line shifter and a racing cam.

It was fast, it was cool. A great car. I bought it in MT for $3500 I think. Sold it for $1500 after thieves at UofM broke into it a couple of times and the insurance would no longer cover it. Sniff :(

This one is selling for $38,900.

CNN.com - Lawmakers move to extend daylight-saving time - Jul 22, 2005

There are numerous things that I just "don't get" about this:

According to some senators, farmers complained that a two-month extension could adversely affect livestock

Unless I'm missing something... I really don't think the cows, chickens, etc. pay much attention to the time. I thought they just used the sun.

"The beauty of daylight-saving time is that it just makes everyone feel sunnier," said Markey

Well there is a good reason to go through the cost of changing a law, changing all the zoneinfo files on every computer system, etc. Anything so that we can feel "sunnier".

Upton noted that the extension means daylight-saving time will continue through Halloween, adding to safety. "Kids across the nation will soon rejoice," said Upton, because they'll have another hour of daylight trick-or-treating.

When I was a kid, we always waited till it was dark.

Like I said, I don't get it.

Spectacular Mammatus Clouds over Hastings, Nebraska

Wow... those look fake. God is a cool artist. :)

CNN.com - James Doohan, 'Star Trek's' Scotty, dead - Jul 20, 2005

Beam me up...

eBay item 5789263206 (Ends 20-Jul-05 14:15:15 BST) - Death Star Home Cinema Subwoofer

The things you'll find on eBay :)

New York Medicaid Fraud May Reach Into Billions - New York Times

Is so fun to be a taxpayer. :-S

Great comment on the waterfall methodology

In Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional)

In retrospect, the more we improved the practice of software engineering, the further we windened the gap between stakeholders and developers. The last step in the estrangement was the introduction of waterfall methodology, which embodies all the flaws of sequential development. Waterfall methodology gathers all the requirements, then creates the design, then writes the code, then develops and runs tests, and finally implements the system. Between each of these steps, or phases, were review meetings. Stakeholders were invited to these meetings to review the progress to date. At these meetings, developers and managers would ask customers, "Do these reuirements that we've gathered and the models that demoonstrate them constitue a full and accurate representation of what you want? Because once you say yes, it will be increasingly expensive for you to change your mind!" As you can see, this wording implies a contract between the customer and the developers. By this point, there was little in-person collaboration; in its place were contracts that said, "If you agree with what I showed you is the complete dsescription of your requirements, we will proceeed. If you don't agree, we'll continue to develope requirements until you give up!"

And that is pretty much how it works. As bad as it sounds in hindsight, it was a step forward and got us to where we are today with Agile, imo. Still - there are people that don't recognize the above and continue using it.

The 12-minute Windows heist: ZDNet Australia: News: Security

Actually I thought the time was less than that...

NASA - The Devils of Mars

A very cool article (click on title to see it) on Dust Devils on Mars. Its kind of long - make sure and scan the whole thing. I think the the video from 15-Mar-2005 is extremely cool. I know I'm in the technology sector - but its still very cool to me to watch a dust-devil spinning across the surface of mars - giving off electrical charges, from my browser. Cool stuff.

Gracie Allen Quotes - The Quotations Page

"When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half." Gracie Allen

I used to watch "Burns and Allen" all the time when we were on the road in the band. We'd usually turn in around 3 AM and I'd watch TV till 8AM or so. Old musicals, WWII movies, etc. The above quote sounds just like her. She was cool.

What's That Bug?

OK... so this site kind of creeps me out, but it still very cool. What's That Bug? has photos of all kinds of different bugs - and is kind of a 'dear what's that bug?" site. Readers send in photos to ask "Hey... found this hanging from my porch. That the heck is it?" :)

Wildlife in CO

Got mail from facilities today warning us (MCI employees) to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes. That is the cool thing about living in the Springs. A pretty good size city, but at the same time there is wildlife everywhere. Fox, coyotes, deer, mountain lines, bears... and rattlesnakes. I'll take the bad with the good. Its cool.

WorldCom's Ebbers Gets 25 Years in Prison - Yahoo! News

Wow.

Geek thoughts at 03:30

This is the kind of stuff I think about when I can't sleep - yeah, major geek.

So like I've been whining... I'm part time on this project and this other manager is in control of it - and his team will be doing most of the coding. We (another guy and I) did the initial coding, and now I'm kind of in an advisory/architecture position. There is stuff that needs to be done, that would take 30 minutes to do - design, document, code, test, CM. But because he's in a very tight waterfall methodology, he doesn't want any code changing.

So at 03:30 I can't sleep and I'm thinking about this. How code can be viewed as a beautiful, living, breathing thing. Its out there serving some purpose, and its constantly changing. Making minor changes as the design morfs or as the customer's needs change. And that's how this code was. We got it running, and we starting discussing major functionality with a number of developers... and as we came across some small change that needed to be made, we'd put it in.

But no longer. Now it is a stagnant thing that is just sitting there, getting more and more out of date as the days go by.

And it is frustruating. 1) Because it could be easily changing as required, and 2) If you know a change has to be made you can either make it - and forget about it; or you can list it, track it, worry that someone is going to make it, etc.

Anyway - like I said, geek thoughts at 3:30 in the morning...

InformationWeek > Data Security > Iron Mountain Loses More Tapes > July 8, 2005

I'm doing some work in this area right now. As blogged in the past, its starting to get pretty high priority, what with the CA bill and the bill in Congress. Its a good thing, imo. As the article says, companties should encrypt (or take some security measure) to insure backup tapes are secure.

I tend to NOT leave my credit-card-number on web sites that need it. Yeah, it takes a few seconds to enter it every time I buy movie tickets or something... but better to take the time than be compromized... imo.

Score - Free Strawberry Pie

So Tina calls me last night and says they (her and Jaime) want to go out for dinner. We are starting a diet today and so they want to go out for burgers before they start dieting. So we decide to go to Gunther Toody's, which is right by our house.

On the way over I suggest we go to VI instead, because I really want some Strawberry Pie.

We get there and the service is pretty bad. The hostess seats us and gets our drinks, but the waitress never shows up for about 15 minutes. "Have you already placed your order?" "No." "Oh sorry, shift change, I guess I missed you."

So we order and Jaime orders a milk shake. The waitress stops by once to tell Jaime that her shake will be out "soon". Then she drops off the salads, "It should be any time". Then she drops off the dinner, "It should be right out." - and we ask for mayonaise... twice.

By the time she brings the mayo, Jaime has finished eating. She waited for about 10 minutes, but then decided she should just go ahead and eat her sandwhich before it got too cold.

So after we are all done eating, we notice the check is laying there. So Tina says, "Should we just leave and tell them she didn't offer us pie?" - There is a big sign that says, "If we don't offer you pie, you get it free." - Sure... why not.

So we go up front, stand in line behind a woman who is complaining about her order and it takes about 5 minutes to get that straightened out. Then Tina says, "She didn't offer us pie." and the hostess says, "OK - what kind do you want?"

SCORE! 3 pieces of free pie, 2 strawberry and 1 pecan

Still took them about 5 minutes to get that for us, and as I was walking out I heard the manager saying to the person behind me, "We comp'ed the one meal and all of your pie." - I guess it was a rough night for them all around.

As we were pulling away I said to Tina, "Gee we should come here more often." and she replied, "We are not coming here just because you know the service is bad and we'll get free pie." - Hey... its worth a shot. :)

Hurricane Dennis rushes toward Gulf Coast

: "Neighborhoods buzz with the noise of construction workers trying to rebuild coastal communities before the next hurricane."

Even though I have relatives that live there, I just don't get it. Tina's mom has just got her house rebuilt and refurnished, etc. Just in time for the next storm to come throught? I guess the fact that it wasn't touched in the preceeding 7 years or so is enough to figure, "Well Ivan hit it, but it probably won't get hit again." I know they are building them stronger this time, so hopefully things will be better... although this article doesn't suggest that.

What You'll Wish You'd Known

What You'll Wish You'd Known: Is a talk Paul Graham was going to give at a High School, but never did. Its probably worth reading by you graduates that read my blog (or by anyone for that matter). In addition to stating that, I figured I'd also show this quote - which explains me very well. :)

"Now I know a number of people who do great work, and it's the same with all of them. They have little discipline. They're all terrible procrastinators and find it almost impossible to make themselves do anything they're not interested in. One still hasn't sent out his half of the thank-you notes from his wedding, four years ago. Another has 26,000 emails in her inbox."

That's another great thing about my job. I'm so busy, and required to do so much, that I'll never be able to get everything done. Everyone realizes it. So for the most part... I work on stuff that I find interesting. Yeah, I have to do short things (like code reviews, and sometimes work on a standards page for 30 minute sor something) that aren't all that fun or interesting... but overall, I get to pick my own course. I get to work on what I feel is important. And that is usually what I think is interesting. So again, very cool.

Its great to be able to think

Its great to get paid to think, not just do. I'm lucky in that part of my job is to think out of the box. Think of new ways to do things. Push the edge.

Not everyone has that luxury... or at least that is their perception. Some times developer's don't take time to think about "what is right", they are to focused on "getting it done" or "getting it to work".

Following those thoughts (is this really the best way, could we improve this, what does this effect down the road), and concentrating less on how to just make it work; is great. We always try to emphasize, "Yes... it works - that's a given, that's what you get paid for - to make things work... but did you do it correctly?"

I know many people don't get what I do. So - to move it from computers to something more general... the above statement is kind of like building a house (This analogy seem s to work for most people). If you tell someone to build you a new house, and that you want it to have 2 doors, and 10 windows, and 6 rooms, etc... they could do that. But they could do it in a million different ways. They could use poor materials, poor techniques, etc. Even if it all "looks right" and "meets the specs". Many times people say "Its got windows, and I put them where they are supposed to go." - but I ask, "But do they all look the same, the ones you installed and the ones the other guy installed - so the house looks "consistent". And did you use good materials on the south side, so that they don't warp and have to be replaced in 2 years. And are they using the latest "patterns" such that they are easy to maintain, work on, etc." And some times the answers are NO.

• I do it the way I do it, I don't care how someone else does it,
• No, I didn't look at the latest ways of doing it, this is how I've always done it
• It will work for now, I need to get it done, it will take longer to make it last forever

So in a general, comparing software to building a house, that is what I do. Look at the overall, try to figure out the best (or better) way of doing things, and then try to insure that is what people are doing.

Some times its frustruating, but its also cool to see pepole "get it", to see the software improve. To see things move forward.

Wow... lots of rambling today. Thats what I get for getting up at 4:00 and working for a bit but then deciding to blog instead of do more work... :) Well - guess I should get back to it and give your eyes a rest of reading my stuff. :)

Agile vs Waterfall - blowing some steam

The Agile Manifesto states:

We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

The main group that I've worked on for the last 10 years tries to follow that manifesto. We may not be truly an "agile" team, and we may not be 100% "XP" (or even 50%)... but we are moving there, and we believe in the above. Lately I've been working with some other people. Mostly doing architecture, participating in some design thoughts, did some prototyping, etc. Helping out and trying to guide... but its their team and they are all forced to follow the standard waterfall process. Which is an extermely rigid. Nothing agile about it.

AND ITS DRIVING ME NUTS.

It is so against the manifesto.

• Process over interactions - no we can't do any coding until the design is 100% complete. And when it is all done, we'll have to manually verify that all interfaces are in sync.
  • Or you could just take the Agile approach and hook some code into the framework and insure that all the tests still work. Not worrying about whether the interfaces work or not, cuz they obviously do since everything compiled and is still working.
  
  
• Comprehensive documentation over working software. Don't make changes as better ways are discovered - instead lets just document it, review it, and then make it later.
  
  • Or you could just updating the code that currently works, make sure it still pasts the tests, and move on. Thus having one less thing to do later, and being able to see how it actually effects the system, and letting people code against the change.
  
  
• Following a plan over responding to change - Don't modify the system based upon user requests, but follow what was originally scoped, no matter what - for fear of scope creep. We can always change it in a later release
  • Or you could make the update right now, be responsive, and see how it effects things, rather than designing and building upon things that you know will eventually change

The manifesto is a great thing, a great way to think, and is trying to move us in the right direction.

I was talking to someone about all of this - and how from a "true" Agile/XP group - they may look at what we do and think "you aren't even close". But as this person said "You don't know how far you've come, until you are forced to look back at where you've been."

How true. I didn't realize how far we've come, until I was forced to work in the old way.

Now, not only working the new way (agile), but having the oppurtunity to compare it to the old way (waterfall) in a real environement, man... I can't ever imagine going back. Its just way too painful.

And a cool thing about process improvement, and new techniques, is that people (at least some people) are starting to realize that there is no "correct" answer. There is only a "better" answer. I believe, as do many others, that Agile/XP is the better answer... right here, right now. (To quote VanHalen). But that doesn't mean 10 years from now it will be. And that is something some people find so hard to understand and work with. "Tell me the correct process, and the one we will use forever. Tell me what it is and then never change it." We (the architects on my projects) keep trying to tell people - things will always change... if we are working towards making them better. Its not that they are bad now, just that they could be better.

Well... guess I should climb down off my soap-box now...

A great Hacker

I've posted about "Norm" before, and lately I posted some stuff about great hackers. Norm is a great hacker. Yesterday at work, we were having a problem, found the defect in the code, and discussed in which releases we'd fix it, when it would be available to our production sites, etc. This caused Tim to post on irc:

Maybe we should just get Norm to patch it in the running executable in production

This based upon a story I told Tim about Norm a long time ago, and that we still occasionally tell. There was this production system that had an issue. Development got involved but could not figure it out. So Norm took a look. He didn't actually work on the system any longer, but had for a point in time. He figured out what was wrong, and also figured out how to patch the running executable in memory - while it was running, in production. He was in his cube right next to mine... All of a sudden he stands up, looks towards some cubes a few rows away and says "They must be all at lunch", sits back down and "patches" the exe.

All of a sudden the user's are saying "Hey... its working now." Support gets back from lunch and some folks are kind of mad - "Hey... did you patch production?" - Norm had this great little kid look, "Who me? Nope. BTW: You might want to fix the code in CM a this line."

Some folks were pretty upset that the customer's problem was fixed... cuz it was done "the wrong way" and it was done "in production".

Norm was (well and I'm sure still is - I just don't work with him any longer to know of his latest exploits) a great hacker because

• He knew his stuff..., extremely well
  
• He almost always cared about "what was right" and hardly ever cared about the red-tape, process, etc. that got in the way of doing the right thing
  
• He evaluated risk vs reward and based his decisions accordingly

Yeah... we could have made the change, and then tested it, and reviewed it, and made a new kit, and deployed it, and taken a system outage... or he could fix it in 30 seconds and have the customer's back up and running.

Way too often, process, management and fear of the unknown (by people who just don't know) gets in the way of "doing the right thing" - to me, hackers hate that.

Anyway, since it came up yesterday, I sent mail to Norm, telling him his legend lives on and why. He responded with:

we all did foolish things in our youth :-)
now I do them as an adult!

Another great hacker attitude. :)

Another reason Great Hackers want to work with other Great Hackers - they make you better. Not only in how they code, but how they think. It infects you. It causes you to think about the "right" thing, rather than the "proper" thing... Many times they are the same, but not always.

Sis is gone

Came down stairs this morning to work. There is an empty table sitting where Arthur's cage was with a loud talking bird. He's gone. Which means Tif is gone. :(

But she called last night and was at her new home, in Tucson, with Brian. Cool for her. It was great having her around for 3 months. But she is back where she belongs. We definately have to go down and see her there. Its been ages since I've been there. Back in... probably '75 or '76 we played in Sierra Vista for 2 weeks. Except for all the bugs, it was a fun time.

PC Advisor - Advertiser sues Google over click fraud

I mentioned this a while back, but figured it was worth posting again. Someone will always figure out how to commit fraud against something. One reason we'll always be in business.

Independence Day

Jaime and I were up before anybody else, so we decided (after I went and got the macaroni and McDonalds) to watch Independence Day. We originally say it, with Tif, at the Centennial in Denver. I think it opened on the 2nd (same as the first day of the movie) and we headed up, figuring we'd maybe have to wait in line and go to a later shown. People just laughed at us, thinking we'd get tickets for THAT day... the line had been several blocks long the day before. But we stayed in line, got tickets for the next day, and went and say it on the 3rd.

We then got it on video and I've seen it several times since then, but Jaime had only seen it that one time. Brought back some "childhood" memories... although to me it was "just a little while ago". I guess that's the difference between a 46 year old looking back 9 years, and an 18 year old. Half her life - wow, goes by so fast.

Anyway, we watched it and I said, "You know, we should do this every year. You can bring the kids over and we can all watch the movie" (I'm a BIG fan of tradition), she just kind of looked at me, "I don't have kids" - "Well you know, some day!" :)

Tif eventually got up and watched the last half with us. It was a good day. Yeah... I think we'll do it every year, us, the kids, the grandkids, macaroni salad, Grandpa (that would be me) telling the "Yeeesss... Macaroni for the 4th of July" story for the 100th time, the grandkids rolling their eyes and giggling, corn on the cob, steaks. Yup... I like my life and where it is going. :)

Police Chase

Heading down Woodmen, where it is a pretty good hill, heading down towards Austin Bluffs, (returning with my bag of macaroni). There is a guy on a cafe racer screaming up the hill, wide open, going fast. Laying fairly flat, glancing back over his arm down hill. I glance down hill, and there is a cop coming up the hill, lights and sirens, kind of stuck behind two cars. I glance in my mirror and the bike is already crested the hill and gone, and the cop isn't making too much ground. The bike has at least a 1/4 mile on the guy.

As I get to the bottom of the hill, here comes another cop, lights and sirens, turning off Austin Bluffs onto Woodmen, a good 1/4 mile behind the first cop - helping in the pursuit I presume.

I get home about 3 minutes later, and as I'm getting out of the Jeep, I can still hear the sirens going.

I'd say he had about a 50/50 chance of getting away, depending on how quick he hit a side street, how much traffic there was, how many other cops joined in the prusuit.

What a way to spend the 4th... for all of them. High speed prusuit, lots of traffic out, etc. Having been in that kind of situation before when I was MUCH younger, I don't envy any of them. Sent up a prayer, hope nobody got hurt.

A Napoleon Dynamite moment

Yesterday Tina wanted Macaroni Salad for breakfast - and Jaime wanted McDonalds. We didn't have any macaroni, so I figured I'd just dash into King Soopers, grab a bag (they have a FMV brand that is only 99 cents, and it just as good as any of the other), then hit McDonalds. That way I wouldn't be gone too long.

So I go in, get the bag, get in line and wait for the person in front of me to get checked out. The cashier is a girl about 19 or so. She finishes with the person in front of me...

C: Looks up at me, "Did you find everything you were looking for?"
M: Yes
C: Looks down at the ledge where you can sit your groceries, picks up the one bag of macaroni, then looks back at me, "Is this it?"
M: Yes
C: In a great Napoleon Dynamite voice, "Yeeesss. Macaroni for the 4th of July", and then with a little bit of pity in her voice, "Well... some days are just like that".

Aside from the missing arm pump, it was a great ND phrase. The "Yes" was perfect. I thought about explaining the whole thing, 'cuz I figured she thought maybe that was all I could afford, etc... But then I decided it would ruin the whole ND moment... and it was just too priceless to ruin. So I just kind of grinned at her, said, "Yup", took my macaroni and headed out.

Just cracked me up. I get sooo many ND moments from Jaime and her friends, but not from a total stranger. I'm still laughing about it.

Great Hackers

Great Hackers: "If you want to get real work done in an office with cubicles, you have two options: work at home, or come in early or late or on a weekend, when no one else is there."

Hmm... and I get most of my work done early in the morning or on the weekend, when I can work from home. In fact, some times I'm getting so much work done at home that I don't even get to the office until 11:00. That used to tick people off, until they realized that making me come into work by 9:00 just caused me to do less "real" work.

Great Hackers

Ordinary programmers write code to pay the bills. Great hackers think of it as something they do for fun, and which they're delighted to find people will pay them for.

I don't know if I'm a great hacker, but I'm a good hacker. And I love that I get paid for what I do... which is why I was up at 4:45 this morning and worked for about 3 hours. Not because I was getting paid for it... since I've already got in way too many hours this week. And not because someone asked me to do it... since the problem I was working on was something that no one asked me to do, but just something I thought needed to be done. And besides... it was a cool thing. Someone did a transactions per second comparison between a home-grown query system and Oracle, and they had brushed aside MySQL. I had heard it was good, light-weight and fast. I've never done any MySQL programming from C++... but how hard code it be? So I wrote a program to create 10 million rows of data, and another program to do 10 thousand random queires. Then I loaded it all up and tested it. I got some impressive numbers. In any case, the point being, it wasn't that I was getting paid for it, or that someone asked me to do it... it was just a cool problem and something that sounded fun. So I did it :)

And I just got a promotion recently... which goes to prove, find something you really love, that you are good at, and start solving problems. Eventually someone will notice, and you'll start getting paid, fairly well - for something you'd do for free if you didn't have to earn a living.

One final note - I know I've posted stuff from Paul Graham before - probably this article. But if you are into programming at all, or want to know what makes them tick, you should read Great Hackers. And if you've read it before... go read it again. I consider myself a hacker - as it defines hacker. And I consider the best people I work with hackers as well. If you're going to program, be a hacker. Doing it as a job is just a drag - and anyway, it really drives the hackers nuts.

What?

In case I never mentioned it, I hate answering the phone. Its usually not for me, and I'm not a real "small talk" kind of person.

Anyway - it Saturday morning. Jaime is already gone and Tif and Tina are sleeping. I've been up for hours. The phone rings. I need to get it because I don't want it to wake up Tina.

It rings
I jump up, grab it and hit the on button
I hear, "Hello" - oh... someone must be up and answered it
I start to set it down and it rings again
What?? - I push the button again, so it won't ring again, and then I realize

IT WAS ARTHUR - the bird. Yeah... when the phone rings, he says, "Hello?"

Cracked me up. I should have known, he's been talking to me all morning. I just didn't expect it. :) Maybe next time I'll just let him talk to whoever is on the phone. ;)

Kids - how amazing

Jaime left a comment on one of my blog entries - which automatically gets mailed to me. Nothing special, just kind of a tease. I saw she had sent something, opened it and read it, and got all warm feeling inside. Wow... its just kind of amazing how much you can love your kids that just having them blog something back to you makes your heart warm.

I'm so lucky to have some a wonderful family. Love you girls!

AT&T to drop third-party security for its own software - Computerworld

Make sense to me.

My Philosophy of Worship

When I was starting out, my dad, who was a musician told me, that "You should play each night as if it was your last, knowing you'll be playing forever." Alex VanHalen

Yeah... that pretty much sums it up.

Overheard Conversation

Someone at work was in his boss' office talking about a stolen credit card. He lent the card to his daughter, someone stole it from her, and Friday night charged $800 on it.

If it had been stolen from him, the bank would have covered it. But he gave it to his daughter and it was stolen from her, so its not covered...

Something to keep in mind.

Justices reject Ten Commandments at courthouses

Sigh

Robert J. Lang Origami

That's pretty cool.

L.A. Times Suspends 'Wikitorials' - Yahoo! News

This rocks. Not that they had to suspend it because of all the inappropriate use, but that they tried it at all. And that many people used it appropriately. It will happen. I love to see this kind of thing.

WSJ.com - Portals

"Explanations about the source of the Internet's phishing epidemic often involve exotic tales of Asian gangs or the Russian Mafia. It turns out, though, that your average phisher is much more likely to be someone like 'C-Power,' who is probably a teenager somewhere overseas with a computer in his bedroom and a lot of alarming friends in his buddy lists."

iWon

Wow... I signed up for this in the beginning, when there were all kinds of giveaway sites. Then I forgot all about it. The winner for today is a friend of mine! I'll have to check this out and see if I'm still there somewhere...

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Inconstant Constants -- [ COSMOLOGY ] -- Do the inner workings of nature change with time?

"One ratio of particular interest combines the velocity of light, c, the electric charge on a single electron, e, Planck's constant, h, and the so-called vacuum permittivity, 0. This famous quantity, = e2/20hc, called the fine-structure constant, was first introduced in 1916 by Arnold Sommerfeld, a pioneer in applying the theory of quantum mechanics to electromagnetism. It quantifies the relativistic (c) and quantum (h) qualities of electromagnetic (e) interactions involving charged particles in empty space (0). Measured to be equal to 1/137.03599976, or approximately 1/137, has endowed the number 137 with a legendary status among physicists (it usually opens the combination locks on their briefcases)."

Just kind of funny what numbers have meaning to different people, and that a whole class of people would pick some number like this as a password. I'm sure its true in other fields as well, I've just never heard of it before or stopped to think about it. You think IRS people use some combination of 1040 for their passwords?

Michael Jackson Is Acquitted on All Counts in Molestation Case - New York Times

"Michael Jackson was acquitted today of all charges in connection with accusations that he molested a 13-year-old boy he had befriended as the youth was recovering from cancer in 2003."

In case you hadn't heard...

The Techgurus Blog ? Blog Archive ? First time with the Acrylic Beta from Microsoft

Ran across this. Acrylic is Microsofts answer to Photoshop. I don't use Photoshop, but I know some readers do, so figured I'd post this. This is just one person's prespective, but its always good to see what others think. I didn't read the entire article. It is beta, so some bugs should be expected... but it should be close to being done.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Jackson suicide spam hides virus

The message hopes to catch people's attention because of the huge interest in the on-going child abuse trial.
The fake message contains a web link that supposedly links to Mr Jackson's suicide note.
But anyone clicking on the link will have their PC invaded by a virus that gives others access to that machine.

komo news | 'This Is Not Right'

"DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist."

So much for common sense...

Wired News: Hollywood Orders: Apple Wed Intel

More on Apple's running on Intel

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

"Apple announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh computers using Intel microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007."

Gears of War - Xbox 360 Screenshot Gallery - TIME Magazine

Some very cool shots and commentary on the new Xbox 360 console and games. Available around Thanksgiving of this year - in time for Xmas purchasing.

I'm such a geek

In addition to my normal tasks, I'm now a part of another team as well. I'm serving in the role of architect on a new project. One we hope to get a patent on (which would be cool). For now we are meeting to discuss the application, interfaces, etc.

The task that Terry and I have for this week is to flesh out the API and create the initial collaboration diagrams. So I've been mostly holed up in a conference room all day yesterday (and probably most of today), doing Object Modeling with Rational Rose, focusing on class diagrams and collaboration diagrams. I moved my monitor and keyboard down to the room instead of just using my laptop. Anyway, modeling, drawing things on the whiteboards, recording this on the wiki, and creating jpg files for the diagrams and uploading them to the wiki as well. Using the wiki so that we can post fairly real-time progress, and get feedback as quick as possible.

Why am I a geek? Because I'm LOVING this. Its been a while since I've done any modeling, and its just so cool. And last time I did it, most of it was communicated via Word... and now we're using the wiki. It is just that cool. I'm happy.

CNN.com - Microsoft: MSN site hacked in South Korea - Jun 2, 2005

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Microsoft acknowledges that hackers booby-trapped its MSN Web site in South Korea to steal passwords from visitors. The company says it was unclear how many Internet users might have been victimized."

Blogger - thanks again

And thanks go out again to Blogger for their "system upgrades". I'm just loving how fast posting is.

For someone who worked on a 300 baud transport into the company databases, its just mind blowing to be sitting in my dinning room, not hooked to any wires, and be adding articles to the internet at this kind of speed. One of the nice things about getting old, you really appreciate advances in technology. And the speed of the computer, transport, etc. is only going to increase. How cool.

[ISN] BT Turns Sheriff On Lawbreakers To Stop Fraud

"'MCI is still cooperating on many aspects of Sheriff,' said Cooper, adding that the company is still expected to deploy the system this year."

Yeah... "still cooperating". For legal reasons (even though this is my personal, non-company related, disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer, blog) I'll avoid saying anything else.

But it is an article that has been released and is out there for anyone to read. Gives more details on the system than most google hits.

MCI NL

"Beginning next month, MCI will deliver an anti-fraud solution for its Remote Access customers that allows for the proactive identification, notification and termination of fraudulent customer traffic, which occurs when an end user's account is compromised by an unauthorized user. This unique MCI network enhancement provides customers with 24/7 protection via the company's patented and proven anti-fraud system, MCI Sheriff."

And another annoucement, from the company web site.

MCI aims to make remote access more secure

"MCI says by midyear it will make fraud protection available as a standard part of its dial-up and Wi-Fi-based remote-access services. The new MCI Sheriff technology has been designed to spot fraudulent traffic, such as simultaneous sign-ons, users who are over their traffic limit or traffic originating from certain countries."

And another article. :) - Hey... its my blog. I can be self-promoting if I want. :)

MCI adds SSL VPN, boosts secure remote access - Computerworld

"In May, the company plans to begin offering antifraud protection for Remote Access customers. The new features will use patented antifraud technology called 'MCI Sheriff' to spot fraudulent traffic generated when a user's account is hijacked by an unauthorized user, MCI said."

'MCI Sheriff', yup, that's the system I've worked on for 10 years. It makes the news. How cool! :)

TIME.com: It's a Wiki, Wiki World -- Jun. 06, 2005

"Inspired by Wikipedia, a Silicon Valley start-up called Socialtext has helped set up wikis at a hundred companies, including Nokia and Kodak."

And I've been using a wiki for a number of years. Yup, they are definately cool.

The ugliness has to go somewhere

"The ugliness has to go somewhere" - one of our standard design principles. Given there is some complex (or ugly) code that has to be done... do you put it in the client or in the supplier? If you put it in the supplier, then every client gets it for free. If you don't put it in the supplier, so that your class, function, etc. can remain "pretty" and simple, then every client needs to do it. Overall, putting the ugliness in the supplier makes the overall system easier to understand. For some reason not everyone gets this. But its something we pretty much live by.

I had someone ask me yesterday, who had been working on a class for a couple of weeks. "Was all of this that much easier than just the 15 lines of code that I could have hardcoded to accomplish this?" - In other words - was this worth all the effort, given it would replace 15 lines of code with a couple?

And in almost all cases, the answer to that is Yes. For one thing, it took the person a couple of weeks because they are new to OO design and to using COOL (CLIPS' OO language). So it was a good learning experience. But in addition to that

• The functionality is now encapsulated in one place, so can be maintained and performance tuned in that one place. This is better, even if the code is more complex because it is generic and meets several needs.
• The functionality, which is complex at times, is now encapsulated in an interface. Therefore, people that want to use the functionality only need to use the simple interface, they don't need to solve the problem or figure out how someone else solved it and copy/paste the code. This serves as a form of documentation as well, which is also a very good thing.

I've heard it said before, "A programmer is someone who will spend 2 hours coding sometihng that will save them 15 minutes." - To some extent that is true - and if that is all it was, it would be a waste of time. But factor in learning, reuse and maintainability, and it is often times the way to go.

WSJ.com - Blogging Becomes A Corporate Job; Digital 'Handshake'?

Paid to be a blogger. That's cool. :)

Private records discovered on server

More and more, protecting private information is becoming a hot topic. At least in the circles I move in.

05.24.2005 - Dainty pink Mt. Diablo buckwheat rediscovered

"BERKELEY – A petite pink flower that hasn't been seen in 70 years has been rediscovered on the flanks of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County by a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student."

That's kind of cool.

Minnesota court takes dim view of encryption | CNET News.com

A Minnesota appeals court has ruled that the presence of encryption software on a computer may be viewed as evidence of criminal intent.

Well that's just stupid...

Hatter Tea

Elizabeth Sharp has a picture site. There are pictures of Alan and Melissa's wedding, as well as pictures of the BABY! Wow... he is so cute.

And then there is a great picture of Melissa and Aiden. Yeah... she really looks like she just had a baby huh?

Way to go Alan and Melissa. Congrats!

Emily Terbush: Uuuuuuupdate

The following is via email from Emily. She is in YWAM in Lakeside, MT on staff for a production of Peace Child. This letter is so Emily, as are all her letters. So I just had to post it. :)

Hello everyone!

Can you tell by the subject that this keyboard has
issues?

So here is the latest on me and my fun YWAM existance!

Yesterday, I made lunch for 200 people! And some of
you may say "but Emily, I know you can't cook! How did
this come about?" And to that I would say "I have no
clue but apparently no one died and that's all that
matters!" Hee hee!

But, I shall soon be leavng the kitchen and my title
as salad bar queen to be in what is known as
housekeeping! I actually do like this job though! Some
people may think that scrubbing toilets is a very
unglamorous job but, when you do it everyday it really
isn't that gross! I have been a part of housekeeping
for every school that I have been a student in! And
now it has come full circle! I shall be in charge and
instructing fun summer students in the way of "if you
can't kiss it, it ain't clean!" Oh the joy of it all!
Exciting!

I finally have a roommate! Her name is Megan Chase!
She is tall and has very short red hair! She is quiet
yet talkative, enjoys reading, singing, skipping and
cool walks on the beach! :) She is very fun and I
enjoy her thoroughly! Although, her bed is almost as
tall as I am and sadly that is no exageration! Funny!

I am countng down the days till my dear
friend/co-worker/swinging in the park buddy Amber
leaves! Only 24 days left! Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please pray for sanity for both of us as we have not
really been separated for the past 2 years! Very sad!

Our directors, Chris and Cara, have only one more
month before their baby girl is born so please keep
them in prayer as their lives will become completely
different! In the mean time please pray for Me, Anne,
Amber and Kirsten as we are planning a fun, out of the
ordinary baby shower/luau/limbo competition!

My dance training is going well! As I may have told
some of you, we take 4 dance classes a week, one of
them being tumbling! I am now able to stay in a
handstand for up to 6 seconds (results not common) and
I can do a front walkover (but only on the grass! The
wood floor in the gym scares me!) Hooray!

My 3-5 year old's are starting to learn their dance
for the recital in July! They are going to be tigers!
YAY! So that should be very cute! As they can not
remember a thing though, I have to be in their dance
as well! I am their tiger trainer so I will guide them
as they do fun tricks and try to scare all of the
audience! Fun times!

My job as dance recruiter is going alright as well! I
have 9 dancers who are interested so we'll see what
happens with them!

Also, drum roll please . . . we have our 1st booking
for our 2006 tour! YAY! Somewhere called Baker,
Montana! North east so I have been told! Exciting! If
you or anyone you know would like to have Peace Child
come to your city, let me know!!!! I would love to
come visit you all! We are trying very hard to go east
this year so pray for favor for that too!

So that's pretty much it! Life is good! God is good!
The grass is green and there's lots of rain which
makes me happy! YAY! Thanks for your prayers and
support!

Emily

Wired News: Wright Hopes to Spore Another Hit

The whole concept was dependent upon this technology that did not exist, what I'm calling procedural animation. The fact that the player can create any creature, and then we figure out how it would walk and move and behave.

I think I've played one Sim game since the original. I may have to check this out.

Wired News: Want a Coke With That Railgun?

In-game ads in 2003 were worth a mere $30 million, compared to roughly $8.5 billion spent on internet advertising, Goodman said. But this year, that number will rise to $71.9 million, and by 2009 it will skyrocket to $562.5 million, he said.

BlogThis is very fast today

I've blogged a number of articles today, using BlogThis in my toolbar. Usually it takes a little while to come up, and then publishing it takes some time. Today publishing has take a few seconds... I don't know if Blogger did something or not... but if they did - Thanks!

Ah... after looking around found:

---

Scheduled Good Times

Blogger feeling snappier? The previously scheduled maintenance has resulted in a faster, better blogging experience for you, your friends, your relatives, your coworkers, and your fellow bloggers so post away my friends. Post away!

– Biz [5/16/2005 05:33:00 PM]

---

Cound't easily find where to send "Thanks" - there was troubleshooting, but I didn't want to send a bug report... So I'll just say it here again. Thanks :)

CNN.com - Reid: 'I am at war with your country' - Jan. 31, 2003

Sent a copy of this around in mail. This is the actual transcript as repoted on CNN.com.

heraldsun.com: IBM, colleges: More top students needed

With a critical shortage of Information Technology workers projected in the coming years, it's crucial that university computer science departments do all they can to attract top students to the field, a local IBM official said Tuesday.

That seems like it would be good news for those of us in IT. Well... bittersweet perhaps. Supply and demand would suggest that our salaries will go up. On the other hand, not having fresh new people come into an organization is always a drag.

I don't fully understand though how this all aligns with the whole off-shore/outsourcing strategies. But maybe it is driving part of it. As demand increases and supply decreases, it drives salaries up, and thus drives companies to look elsewhere to fill the demand.

But as it has been suggested in numerous articles, that just means that you stay in demand by increasing your skills, such that you can't easily be replaced by off-shore/outsourcing.

OK... back to work.

About Google's Schmidt - Part 2 :: AO

Schmidt: Well, I think the evidence is that more information is almost always the right answer to every question. My view is that the cure to the problem of free speech is more free speech, not less. And Google exists in order to further that outcome, which is more communication.
This was from part 2 - you should start with part 1, but I liked the above quote.

Google Labs - Personalize Your Hompage

New from Google Labs, the ability to personalize your homepage. Similar to homepages on Yahoo and other portals.

Yeah - that was easy and pretty cool. :)

Google CEO defends privacy policies | CNET News.com

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt acknowledged that his company's search engine can ruffle privacy feathers, but said the company's technology doesn't violate the company's founding motto, "Don't be evil."

No, I'm not crazy

One of the pitfalls of working at home is that there is no one to talk to. So sometimes you just talk to yourself... But then you get in the habit of doing it.

So I'm sitting in my cube, "Hmm... bug 306? Yeah, I think it was bug 306" and realize that I'm saying that outloud and the people around me may think that is weird.

I just have to repeat to myself - "I'm at work not home, I'm at work not home." ;)

Google window-shops for VoIP | CNET News.com

Rumors of Google entering the Voice over IP arena.

Mars Rover Still Stuck in Sand, May Start Inching Out

Drag. Hopefully it will get out!

Key-loggers the new phisherman's friend - vnunet.com

Yet another thing to watch out for on your computer.

Click Fraud: State of the Industry, Part I - Pay Per Click Analyst |PPCA|

A "new" form of fraud. Who would have thought... I'm too busy helping fight fraud to think about new ways of actually committing it. :) Interesting stuff.

My baby is back

I know that stress is a bad thing and all that, but I never realized how much.

Tina stepped down as Associate Pastor... what, 2 or 3 weeks ago? She is like a whole new person. I think I blogged how the kids thought she looked younger. But its more than that. She has stepped back in time. I got my wife back and I'm so happy. I never realized the extent to which she had changed. She smiles now and her eyes twinkle and she just looks at me like... like she used to. I'm so incredibly happy and glad to see her again. And I never even realized she had left.

Who would have thought. Work (and that is what being a pastor is much of the time, but its more than that because "its for God" and because "you can't hurt the people", etc., etc. So the stress is even more than a "normal" job) can eat you up and change you. I'm also glad that with all the stress that is in my job, I still really enjoy it and can find pleasure it in much of the time.

Anyway... welcome back babe, glad to see you again.

Profile change

Had to change my profile because:

• Tina stepped down as Associate Pastor
  
• Jaime decided not to move out so is back home. Yay!
  
• Tiffany is home now (and has been for a month. Yay!

Worship - you have to Lose Yourself

So I think about worship alot, as you've probably gatered if you follow this blog at all. And as I've said before, its all about passion and going for it. Sometimes I have that reinforced in the strangest ways. :)

So I'm listening to Lose Yourself by Eminem, and I start thinking, "Man, the chorus so applies to worship!

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better,

You can do anything you set your mind to, man

So... how does that apply to workship?

• You better lose yourself in the music, the moment - you have to be able to block out everything around you and just go for it. There's no congregation, there's no issues at work, home, church, wherever. There's no - what's for lunch, what's the service going to be about, what are we doing later. There's just now. That's it. The music, the team, and God.
  
• You own it, you better never let it go. You don't worry if you are doing good enough, the right thing, whatever. Its you, and you are worshipping God and you just follow the Holy Spirit and go where he says.
  
• You only get one shot, do not miss your change to blow Life and circumstances are fragile. This moment will never happen again. Don't pass it up. Who knows if everyone on the team will be here next week. Who knows if you'll ever play with these people again? This may be your last shot to worship like this, so go all out.
  
• This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better. Again, you never know. This moment, this leading of the Holy Spirit, each time is different. You better take advantage of it.
• You can do anything you set your mind to, man. And that is always true with worship.

You can do anything when it is you and God. The team matters, in that you are flowing with them. And the congregation matters, to the extent you let them. Eminem said something like, "Its all about the battle. And you can't lose it. Folks will say "If you lose, just go back and try again." But that's not it. If you lose, its over. You've failed. It doesn't matter if you are playing for 20 people or 200 people, its all the same."

And that can apply to worship. You live in the moment. It doesn't matter if you are doing worship and there are 20 people there or 200... because they shouldn't matter. What matters is you and God. And he's always there.

So you never think, "Today doesn't feel good - but I'll make it up some other time." You ALWAYS live in the moment and Lose Yourself in it, with Him.

InformationWeek > Software Quality > IT Execs To Vendors: Your Software Stinks > April 28, 2005

A panel of IT execs at Sand Hill Group's Software 2005 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., said the software industry needs to build higher-quality software and closer relationships with customers.

And yet there is still a disturbing focus on just "getting it to work" vs "doing it right". An issue, imo, is that "getting it to work", especially in complex systems can be very hard to quantify. Just because a test case passes doesn't mean the entire system is clean, it just means that one test worked. On the other hand "doing it right" often provides you with a simplier system doing a complex task, and makes it easier to spot issues, find defects later, etc. But many people just don't get it.