Wired News: Flickr Fans to Yahoo: Flick Off!

Google seemed to do this just fine with its google portal, gmail and Blogger. When Blogged was bought out by google, we weren't forced to start logging into google to get to Blogger, or log into our gmail account, etc.

I understand the underlying idea - from the company point of view, but it doesn't seem necessary.

That's just crazy!

I'm proceeding down the checkout line with my lunch at work, and I overhear the following conversation between the cashier and a friend of hers, as she rings me up.

W: Well maybe if they just played the music and didn't sing the words.
C: I don't know
W: Well maybe it would be quiter that way
C: I don't know. Originally they wanted to do Knocking on Heaven's Door, but she said that was too loud - so told them they had to do a song by Gun 'n Roses.
W: What? That's just crazy!
C: I know. I've never heard anything like it before. Its just crazy!

Denver Airport Saw the Future. It Didn't Work. - New York Times

DIA is turning off the automated baggage system.

Tarragon Roasted Chicken

Made Tarragon Roasted Chicken a week ago Tuesday. Jaime told someone at work and she keeps asking me to post the recipe. (Well she asked me to write it down, but what would be the sense in that, when I can post it? ;) ) So - I finally got around to it today, while taking a break from working on the yard.

Or course now I'm really hungry and thinking how good it would be for dinner! :)

Home Depot is alright

Any place I can get a freshly grilled brat at 9:30 in the morning is alright in my book. :)

(/me grabs new weed-eater line and goes back to working in the yard).

Yeah... its just a Def Leppard kind of day.

As you can tell from my previous post... its one of those days. Well really weeks. I can tell quite a bit about what kind of mood I'm in, by the music I listen to. I go back and forth between things like Evanescence, Avril Lavine (sp?), etc.; Worship music; and hard rock like Def Leppard, Van Halen, Aerosmith, etc.

I'm currently in a hard rock frame of mind.

Rarely is doing the wrong thing, the right thing to do

Living mostly in a technical world (as a Software Architect), and having a certain amount of control; I can almost always do "the right thing". And even when I have to maybe let something go because it isn't pure or perfect, I have a good enough reason for doing so. But it is vary rare.

I don't get the management philosophy that doing the wrong technical thing, is the right thing to do, because it appeases more people. "We know that is the right thing. And you know that is the right thing. But some people are having issues with pursuing that course... so tell them their way is right. Even though all the senior level people know it is wrong. It will make them feel better." And then there are the explanations about how polictically or feel-good or group-dynamic wise - it is right, even though it is wrong. I just don't get it or buy it. I think that just promotes people continuing to do the wrong thing, and not learning.

But what do I know... I'm not in management. And part of me hopes I never get pointy-haired enough where I understand it either...

Geeks to hold open-source campout | CNET News.com

If I lived in CA, I'd probably go. It sounds like fun to me. :)

Scenes from a rain storm

Driving home the other day, the rain is POURING down.

• Man bent over on his bike, pedaling for all he is worth, trying not to get blown over. - reminds me of Tif getting swept off her bike in a storm.
  
• Man waiting for the bus, hair slicked to his head, water pouring off his clothes, looking up the street with a "I just know its going to be late" forlorn look on his face
  
• Pulling up to the stop light, Teen jumps out of his Jeep, no shirt, and quickly tries to get his top on before the light changes
  
• flashing lights, sprinkles of broken tail/head lights everywhere, watch out for the wreak - and then a boom of thunder that makes you almost jump out of your skin - as the entire scene is highlighted by the lightening. Sigh of relief as it fades into the background, having made it past another wreak in this weather.
  
• Double rainbow - for every bad thing, there is a good thing
  
• Looking over at the empty seat, where my jacket laid for a week, but then I'm finally took it into the house becase, hey... who knows when it will rain again. Sigh
  

Flashback

Driving down the streat the other day... I notice a woman walking on the sidewalk, baby on hip, looking down at something. I glance down and there is a little, blonde, curly haired 2 - 4 year old, leaned over, pointing at some trash on the ground and then turning to look up at her mom.

In a flash I remember back to Ann Arbor... Tina telling me that her and Tif were walking to the store. Walking on the sidewalk, chainlink fence along a field, all kinds of trash blown up against it. Tif looks at the trash, then looks up at Tina with her "intent - I'm only 4 but I say things from a 30 year old" look pouring out of her piercing blue eyes.

Mommy, does it make God sad when people litter?"

Then I'm back in my car driving down the street again. Man... what makes a 4 year old "get it" so much, and ask such a question. I don't know. But I'm glad she did. One great thing about your kids - they can be such cool people.

Love ya sis.

RUP vs XP

A very good article (well actually a chapter in a book) by Robert Martin on the Rational Unified Process vs XP. In addition to the comparison, it also contains the Developer Bill of Rights and Customer Bill of Rights, which is cool.

As an aside... I accidently posted this to my photo blog. Sometimes BlogThis just seems to pick the wrong page... and I'm hardly ever paying attention. Oh well.

defective yeti: PIC 20

defective yeti: PIC 20: "I dunno -- this doesn't seem like the target demographic for Gibson. If we were guitar players we would have had girlfriends in high school, instead seeking solace in our Commodore 64s."

That cracked me up. I've been on reading mailing lists quite a bit, and haven't kept up on blogging. Erika mentioned there was some good stuff on DefectiveYeti. I'm glad I checked it out. :)

An Extreme Stake in the Ground

Although the XP mail list is very active, its well worth belonging to. I can't read every entry, but I'm trying, and I'm finding great things like this.

Meteor 'Outburst' Expected Friday Morning - Yahoo! News

Meteor 'Outburst' Expected Friday Morning - Yahoo! News: "For as long as records exist, the Perseid meteor showers have always been strong. This summer's Perseid shower will be exceptional. The moon is mostly out of the way later in the night, and higher-than-normal activity rates are expected over the United States."

Athought it was the best this morning, maybe it will still be good for a number of days. I didn't hear about this until just now... And I've been up before dawn every morning. I'll have to read this in more detail to see what hours.

Ex-WorldCom CFO Gets 5 Years in Prison - Yahoo! News

Another one bites the dust

Unhappiness drives open source adoption - Computer Business Review

Unhappiness drives open source adoption - Computer Business Review: "A common reason why more governments and enterprises around the world are moving to open source software is unhappiness, it was revealed during a panel discussion at the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco yesterday"

S.Korean man dies after 50 hours of computer games

OK... that's a little ridiculous.

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.