This is an awesome article. I found the link from the Semantic Web group on LinkedIn. I haven’t spot-checked it for accuracy, but there’s a fair amount of dispute over the history of computers and the Internet anyway. But this article is very enjoyable, and includes many related historical points, like when certain companies formed, and the history of tangential technologies that made the Internet possible. It’s a good read for geeks, and a great primer for geeks-in-training.
Many problems have been caused throughout history due to lack of information flow from subordinates to superiors. This post discusses some examples. some reasons why this might be the case, and asks how we can move forward.
Today I’m trying to fix a friend’s Windows Vista laptop that BSODed because we had the audacity to hook up a Bluetooth dongle to it to use Bluetooth headsets with. Now it won’t run for more than a minute or so before it crashes again. My usual mantra of “Install Linux” is not an option in this case, because it needs to run iTunes. So far, the computer is winning. CHKDSK is running, and the percentage done on stage 5 is stuck at 11% , even though it continues to count how many files it’s processed, so I can see it’s about 80% done. Learn to count, and maybe I’ll think about buying your OS.
As a form of therapy, we went to Jake’s Dixie Roadhouse (yes, their food is much better than their website), to help them celebrate Hogtoberfest. For an appetizer, we shared Death By Bacon, which is chicken-fried bacon with southern gravy. I am afraid it was insanely good. Dangerously good. I’m glad this is a temporary special, or my Doctor would probably have me banned from the joint. Memphis dry rub ribs for the main course, natch. I’m not a big fan of BBQ sauce. It takes away from the flavor of the meat too much. Dry rubs tend to complement the taste instead of hiding it. I washed it down with a Three Philosophers, which is a Belgian beer.
For dessert, we had bacon drizzled in chocolate with spinkles. Again, I was pleasantly surprised how good this was. The bacon had a heavy maple component, which made it pair with the chocolate very well. The extra sugar in the sprinkles tempered the salt in the bacon nicely. Note that this bacon was cooked to the point that it was still moist and chewy, not hard.
Evil foods, truly. And I would do it again.
I’ve mentioned StackOverflow before. It’s a place you can ask and answer questions about software development. It’s got a strong reputation system that keeps the nut jobs and spammers at bay, and I’ve found it very useful. Not all the posts are about slaving away over a hot keyboard, though.
Disclaimers: This is not a new book, nor have I read it. I have read reviews of it, and am recommending its concept here, but can’t honestly recommend the book, not having read it. OK, that probably sounds awkward, but there you have it.
I found this review of the book The Art of War for Women: Sun Tzu’s Ancient Strategies and Wisdom for Winning at Work, which is a modern interpretation an application of the original The Ar Of War by Sun Tzu, now thousands of years old, yet still relevant. The reason I am promoting this book’s view of the original work is simple: It points out that The Art Of War is not just relevant to war. It is relevant in any situation where you are facing one or more parties with conflicting goals, or competing for the same resource. It could be at work, or dating, or politics, or even dealing with your relatives. It’s mostly about finding your strengths and the others’ weaknesses and using both to your advantage. It’s about looking for things in your environment that can help you. It’s about focus and balance.
Read on…
I found this trolling various blogs on wordpress.com. You know, the way we geezers used to surf the internet before Google indexed everything? Anyway, here is the National Post’s round-up of The Best Financial Jokes Of 2009 So far. In this case, the nation is Canada and the section is Financial.
Here are some of my favorites from the list:
- Bank of America-Merrill Lynch has adjusted its investment portfolio: 50% cash and 50% canned goods
- The courts allowed the bankruptcy proceedings for Chrysler to go forward. The bankruptcy was approved after the judge told Chrysler to sit in a room for a few minutes while the judge went to talk to his manager.
- How many stockbrokers does it take to change a light bulb?
Two. One to take out the bulb and drop it, and the other to try and sell it before it crashes (knowing that it’s already burned out).
Read on…
Ode to Jack Kerouac is a beautifully done picture on Flickr. The rest of Olivander’s photos can be found here.
Thomas Allen’s Book Art Photography on Paintalicious.
American photographer Thomas Allen constructs witty and clever dioramas using figures cut from the covers of old pulp paperbacks. Using salacious pulp art drawing’s of the ’40s and ’50s that covered books such as ” I Married a Dead Man” and ” Marihuana Girl’, Allen constructs one set of pictures up close while obscuring another, and in the process creates a different context. Each piece is given a brand new storyline, though never quite strays from their cheeky origins.
This is some pretty creative stuff. It’s like magazines turned into 3D images. But Paintalicious also has lighter fare, like The Secret History Of Kiss.
I am now the proud owner of geekwith.me!
I have a huge collection of links to geek cuture, communities, blogs, and quick reference material (and some of my own material) on my private wiki. I was going to move it over to thekramers.net, but now I must put it on geekwith.me.
One of the many ways in which I am weird is that I love pair programming (two Software Engineers working together on the same computer). I’m a social animal, and I have the self-confidence to appreciate corrections couched as constructive criticism. But many Software engineers hate it because they feel they’re being judged constantly. And of course a lot of Software Engineers are introverts or have poor social skills. Or just like a little breathing room.
At my last company, I was instrumental at rolling out Agile on selected projects (because I believe in using the right tools for the job, and because Agile was not right for every project). My current employer, alas, is nowhere near ready for Agile. We’re trying to make some major changes to a product that affect the Flex front end, the Java back end, the XML and XSLT documents that hold and transform some of the data, and the databases. All those components need to dance together, or someone’s toes are going to get stepped on. But there’s no one person with all those skills, and certainly not enough time for one resource to do it all.
So here’s what we’ve been doing; My partner in crime (let’s call him E. He hates that.) and I are working physically side by side, but not together on the same thing. While E’s flexing the Flex and pouring the Java it talks to, I’m torturing the data till it sings, and pouring the Java that manages the data. But when either of us has a question on how something should be working (E may have questions about what’s in the data to help determine the expected results, or I may have questions on how a particular query is formed or the results processed), we’re right there to point at things on our screen. The fact that we’re working on two different computers isn’t a problem because we’re both syncing regularly with the version control system.
Clearly this is not pair programming, because we’re both working on different things most of the time. But there’s something different going on than if we were both sitting in our own desks. The barriers to communication are very low, and we can point out stuff right on our screens because they are next to each other. It’s a great balance of supporting each other while still doing our own thing. I don’t know if there’s a real name for what we were doing, so I decided to call it Co-Programming.