Keyboard, Mice and Monitors, oh my

The keyboards are stacking up on me again. I’ve added another Windows box for some IE testing, and things are getting out of hand. At least it’s using the a Lenovo keyboard that closely mirrors my main laptop keyboard. The rats nest of wires and mouse pads is about to take over, however. I’ve considered getting a KVM switch for a while now. I think a small box below one monitor, keyboard and mouse would help matters a lot.

Cycle Commuters: Watch out for school buses

I’m a daily cycle commuter, and 75%+ of the close encounters I have are with school buses. I usually leave the house in the mornings around 6am, and the school buses are out in force. I’ve had them scrape by me and make a quick right hand turn, or brush by me trying to beat me to the light. I know I’m not fast, but I deserve a little extra room when passing. I’m afraid that a disability appeal may be in my future if the school buses don’t start showing a little courtesy.

Campsite search

I’m planning a bike trip to New Orleans and Baton Rouge in a month or so, and I need a camp site between the two cities. I’ve been searching Google and others high and low and am having trouble locating something. There are plenty of site in New Orleans and in Baton Rouge, but none in the middle where I need to camp. Since we’re taking bikes, I’d like to camp one night in between the two cities, which means I need something in the 45 – 55 mile range from MSY.

I’ve thought about stealth camping, and still may do it. I’m just afraid of the natives in need of http://www.hormonalacne.org, or stumbling on some dudes grow patch. I may end up paying for a hotel room.

Punctuation Heavy Languages

A couple of years ago, I had a chance to implement a small application that would bring big benefits to my employer at the time. This was an application of minimal complexity and business rules, and followed a familiar pattern:

• Small back end database
• Small user community
• Large savings in time for both users and IT personnel
• Automate a manual process
• Provide an audit trail

One of the “approved” languages of the company was Perl. While I was familiar with Perl, my direct reports had never used it. As I set off to implement the application in Perl, I realized that it was much too punctuation heavy to expect a folks to use. Hashes of Hashes used waaaayyy to many curly braces. I set out to have a curly brace and colon cleansing, and pulled out the latest language / framework in my arsenal – Ruby on Rails. The app was easy to implement, and equally easy to understand, even for developers who had never seen the language.

I would have loved to use Perl, but Rails was too right for this project. If I’d had more performance concerns, or a more seasoned set of Perl developers, Perl would have been the right answer.

High School pictures unearthed

A Facebook friend of mine just got a scanner. That’s a dangerous thing in the hands of someone with lots of old photos of me from high school. She’s already pulled in 4 or 5 pictures, some of which I can’t tell where they were taken.

Looking at those pictures sure brings back memories. And it drives home the message that in the ’80s, we couldn’t use the Internet to look up natural remedies for acne. Rural life just didn’t afford some of the luxuries that I’m able to give my kids now.

Buzz – another inbox?

Ok, so Google just rolled out Google Buzz, their answer to twitter and facebook. I don’t think that it’s a drop in replacement for either of those, but it’s almost exactly what I’m looking for.

• No Farmville
• Easy to checkup on followers and block them
• Don’t have to wade through weight loss success stories if that’s not what I’m looking for
• Right there next to my inbox

I’m a fan of Google, and yes, they can work on the privacy aspects of Buzz, but for now, it’s pretty much what I’m looking for.

New Gloves

My winter time cycle commute is where I get to try out my cold weather gear. I’ve got everything dialed in except gloves. Layering works for my body, one layer plus a jacket down to about 30 degrees, and two layers and a jacket after that. Thin tights down to 35 degrees, and thick tights after that. I’ve tried various cycling gloves and been disappointed. Last night, I found some ski gloves on clearance at the local Academy, so I’m waging a shock and awe campaign on cold hands. If these thinsulate ski gloves don’t work, I guess I’ll have to try testosterone boosters or something.

Wintertime tests more than just patience

I think wintertime was designed as a test. If you can make it through the cold / dark part of the year, you can certainly make it through the spring / summer / fall.

My inclination during winter is to just stay inside and wait for spring, but I’ve learned lately that passing winters tests can give you the confidence to CRUSH summer. Particular tests I’ve passed during cycle commuting have taught me to plan ahead and push through pain. I feel like I’ve tested my limits in the cold (down to 17 degrees) and don’t fear the cold nearly as much. I’m also a much better cyclist in the dark.

So, I’m no longer going to be thumbing through the San Diego rentals during the winter. I’ll be devising (and passing) tests that will help me know more about my limits. You should do the same.

What’s up (down) with the job market

I keep hearing that the leading indicators are up, but still poor employment numbers keep coming in. The stock market stumbled a bit last week, and I’m not sure if it’s buying opportunity, or a signal that it’s time to move to the sidelines for a month or so.

I’ve seen a twitter post or two from very accomplished developers indicating that their contracts are expiring. I’m sure that the job market is soft in areas and fine in others. I wonder if sites like job philadelphia and careerbuilder are seeing this softness regionally or nationally?

Outliers – the Story of Success

I’d heard of Outliers a few months back in some of my geek feed reading. I’m sure the portions of the book that were cited were the portions about Bill Gates and Bill Joy. At least that’s what I remembered when I saw the book last Sunday at Barnes and Nobel.
Continue Reading…