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June 30, 2006
Flag Burning: A Solution
Here's the solution to the flag burning question. Enact a law that says to be a genuine United States flag, the flag must be made of some heinous material that pollutes like crazy when burned. Ergo, burning the flag is...
June 29, 2006
Welcome to the strange and mysterious
In the last 24 hours, I ran across three different odd stories on the net. I thought they were interesting. So get out your tinfoil hats, and join in the fun!...
June 27, 2006
Pouring your drink on your notebook -- not so good
Yes, I am a bone-head. Last Thrusday I managed to dump a drink on my notebook computer. I was sitting out on the deck, IM'ing some friends, when I decided to go inside. I stuck my drink in the crook...
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June 26, 2006
Consultants: Who Needs 'Em?
I've been in technology management consulting for over 20 years, starting off in the Blue Ridge Mountains and ending up in places like San Francisco, Detroit, and Washington, DC. My clients have included Charles Schwab, the INS, Ford Motor Company,...
June 25, 2006
The Reading List
I've got a good set of books I'm tackling this week. First up iwth "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" -- Counterinsurgency lessons from Malaya and Vietnam. The second book is 'The Sling and the Stone" -- on war in the 21st century.
June 22, 2006
Take The Top Off!
What could be more fun than this on a hot summer day? Where's the beach! Now that summer is really heating up in the Southeastern US, one of the things I love to do is take the top off of...
June 21, 2006
Am I Hot, Or Not?
batBack is my program to give out free blog tools to folks. I'm learning a lot writing batBack! Here are thoughts from this week:
Write it up, I'll take it
Yesterday I pitched a local business journal. They are looking for "wisdom of life" columns -- so if you're an accountant you tell all about what you've learned as an accountant. If you're a mechanic you tell about the pitfalls and stupid stuff you see as a mechanic. They want it edgy and outside-the-mainstream material.
June 19, 2006
Good Luck, Ray Ozzie!
Way to go, Ray! But you got a long, hard road ahead of you. Let's take a minute and look at why Microsoft is in the mess it's in right now.
June 16, 2006
Rotating 4-D Cube
Here's a really cool 4-dimensional cube graphic. If you click on the more link, there's a larger version. i found this and more cool stuff over on this site....
Software Patents: Getting Wrapped Around the Axle
Sometimes when I tell people I have applied for a patent it's like I just told them I abuse my dog with a fork. I am amazed at the vitriol that people have for software patents! People who in every other way hate big businesses are more than happy to rip apart the system into something where only the big guys control everything.
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Support Group: Not Going So Well
So I decided to start a support group for compulsive list-makers. This is not going so well for a lot of reasons. I would tell you them all, but then i would have to go to extra meetings this week....
June 15, 2006
Enough with the lists!
Ok. Ok. I have had a lot of fun over the past week or two with these lists, but I gotta stop. I started out just having fun, but then I started seeing everything in lists -- ways to code...
Is Your Project Off-The-Rails?
In an ongoing public service to my fellow programmers, and an attempt to keep from working as much as possible, I hereby offer you these signs that your project might be off the rails.
Lessons in Letting Programmers Build Your House
Everybody says that software construction is like building a house, but what if it was really true? What would really happen if you hired programmers to build your house?
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June 13, 2006
Tell Me What I Say
Are we listening? Are we really listening?
Signs You Are Living in a Matrix
God may be a programmer, but I've done some code slinging myself, and I think it's time we programmers helped out the folks in other universes.
June 12, 2006
Farm Pictures
I thought I would record some pictures from my grandma's farm. For those of you who have never seen a rural Virginia farm, it might be interesting.
June 9, 2006
Things I Learned From My Grandmother
Yesterday morning my grandmother died. She was 94, and lived a full life, but she died rather suddenly and she was part of so many people's lives that her loss is great.
June 8, 2006
Helpdesk Form Letters
In my ongoing crusade to provide useful information to IT Professionals and find ways not to work, I'd like to present you with form letters you can use when your users bug you with problems. Let's face it, those users are always whining and complaining about something, so why not give them form letters to moan about too? It'd be a little something extra you offer for no extra charge.
June 7, 2006
Hosting Providers: Love 'em or Leave 'em
I used to say I have been very happy with using a hosting provider. But lately, I'm not so sure. Here's a round-up of the current bugs we're working on batBack and their status.
Sixteen Hints That Your Program Might be Buggy
As those of you who have read the blog know, I have a small start-up web application that I think is really cool. I'm still doing programming, management, and technology consulting, but I am also writing this program and doing user support. In the interest of sharing with you some of what I've learned, here are SIXTEEN HINTS THAT YOUR PROGRAM MIGHT BE BUGGY
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June 5, 2006
21 Reasons Programming Is Better Than Dating (For Guys)
I'm an old married guy with four kids, but I remember being in my 20s, single, and looking for love. So you're staying home on a Friday night writing web code, what's so bad about that? What you need to remember is the 21 REASONS PROGRAMMING IS BETTER THAN DATING.
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June 4, 2006
Kick me in the Teeth. Please.
Right now at the top of my list for batBack I'm putting together a business plan. I'm doing this for a couple of reasons: 1) to organize my thoughts about where we are, and 2) to seek some mezzanine growth...
June 2, 2006
Whining and Complaining
My last blog entry was basically me whining about having to do a business plan, and how I lived in the middle of nowhere. I also whined and complained a bit about trying to get some help from a web...