Sales  Thu Feb 22 11:54:00 EST 2024


  Sat Jan 27 12:07:00 EST 2024


  Fri Jan 12 11:47:00 EST 2024

I thought this video was interesting, probably because I did not realize how much of the ChatGPT thing is a surprise to its creators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Ymdc6EdKw

  Thu Nov 16 09:49:00 EST 2023


  Thu Nov 16 09:45:00 EST 2023


  Thu Jan 12 08:37:00 EST 2023


Not a lot of blogging going on...  Sun Nov 20 20:00:00 EST 2022


Not a lot of blogging going on. This page was down for a lot of 2022 after the great Log4J security scare. I turned off all my web apps for "a while" which grew to be quite a while. I also accidentally deleted the directories (mysql) used for holding the blog (during a disk drive space crunch.)


I had to do what I've now done two other times, restore my blog from the wayback machine. Pretty embarrassing and time-consuming. So I'm not going to use a relational database for the blog this time, and just use files in the filesystem. Hopefully, that will reduce having to restore from the wayback machine for a fourth time. KISS principle

My plan here is to add the occasional entry, although I tend to simply post screenshots to Facebook as my primary outlet for sharing... but perhaps I will post them here also. I also think I will continue to put out book reviews. I think it is useful for me to do for my own internal reasons and someone else might find it helpful.


The Goal  Wed Apr 28 17:55:00 EDT 2021


Someone mentioned this book to me 10 years ago (Susan?) and I noticed it popping up every now and then as a reference in the software automation world.


"The Goal" - I bought it used via addall.com but your library probably has it also.


I thought it was a surprisingly good read, usually, my tech books are super dull ... so perhaps I'm biased, but I thought "The Goal" was actually a fun read. I highly recommend picking this book up, It talks about speeding up a factory floor - but the principles and reflection include leading a group of people, problem-solving as a team, and stopping to ask why a lot of times. It made me think about improving things on my current project. I'm familiar with agile and all that (see review below of Accelerate) but I still recommend this book to anyone actually.

The book is a bit 1 dimensional. It was particularly strange in how it treated the lack of balance in the main character's family life. The book evokes a fair amount of sympathy for the main character, but his wife is characterized as being overdemanding in a very stressful situation. She is depicted as abandoning the children at one point without clear rationale - that part is very hard to square with the rest of the book.



The Princess Bride  Sat Jan 23 00:08:00 EST 2021





I read a book. "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman. My neighbor recommended the book highly. I have probably seen the movie at least twice, so I was pretty familiar with the story. The book did add background and color to the characters. Basically, if you liked the movie - you will find a lot of extra details in the book.



Driveway Camera  Sat Jan 23 01:05:00 EST 2021


I used a raspberry pi and an IP camera as a convenient way for our family to see what is in the driveway.


The problem is we can not see the driveway from inside the house, so the solution I chose was to mount a camera outside and then have a dedicated raspberry pi (and some open source software) show the drive\ way in the house. It turned out pretty good.

I tried using google's nest camera, but I found that it did not work well for this application. Namely, it did not like always streaming content.

Located in the center of the kitchen/living room, so now everyone can see the driveway.

The Camera is a SV3C 5MP Wifi camera. I ended up hard-wiring it via ethernet. It gets it's power over the ethernet cable. The camera cost about $65 off Amazon.

It is really handy to see who is in the driveway, or if the mail is getting delivered, etc...

I used the raspberry pi that I got as part of a kit off Amazon. "Vilros Raspberry Pi 4 4GB Complete Kit with Clear Transparent Fan Cooled Case" The kit was $99. I vaguely recall the fan was too noisy.

I used an old pencil box to stuff the raspberry pi and the needed power cords in. I drilled a bunch of holes to vent the pi. The pi tends to get hot in the summer and was overheating until I ve\ nted the pencil case. I used the 4 standard monitor screw locations to mount the pencil box on the back of the monitor.

I had to fiddle some with the software to get it to start up and run the web application in fullscreen automatically. I hope it never breaks because it will take some googling to refigure that out.

This is such a rare finished project, I figured I better document it.... some. I hope you enjoyed this ramble.



  Mon Jan 18 02:45:00 EST 2021




We have four people who feed the dog... to prevent the dog from getting more round, I created the pictured device for ensuring she is fed. When I retire for the evening I reset it, when we feed her during the day - the feeding person moves the nut to the right. Simple.



Scrooge Tip Calculator  Tue Nov 17 12:31:00 EST 2020





I've been learning Flutter. I've had multiple reasons for wanting to give it try. I've been watching an online course. I created the scrooge tip calculator based on what I have been learning through the course.

Learning a new technical thing is fun. And it is nice to create something tangible that people can actually use. I spend a lot of time creating things "on the backend" that aren't immediately useful or visible.

Get it on Google Play



Book Notes "Accelerate"  Sun Mar 01 15:11:00 EST 2020


I read a book. I don't read a lot of books in today's age of constant media consumption choice, but I still believe reading a book is a useful activity.

However, reading a book and forgetting its contents is something I've had happen. Sure sometimes I will recall an appropriate passage and no doubt reading it has enhanced my thinking in some way... but I decided that I will always try and provide a written summary of what I found important or surprising when reading a book.

Today's book is "Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations" https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Building-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/B07BMBYHXL

I presumed this book had to do with best practices in software development. I had seen the book referenced by many people. I also so copies laying around at a place I used to work (patientping.com) - so I knew it was an important read.

Essentially this book advocates for the Agile software development of rapid iterations. It essentially surveys a lot of IT people about their organizations then compares that organization's performance against the surveys. They spend a considerable amount of energy explaining why the approach of using surveys is sound.

The basic gist of the entire book is;

  • always be learning
  • always use small experiments to improve
  • use small iterations to get changes to the customer as fast as possible
  • use machines to do the thing machines are good at (any kind of drudgery or process.. like builds, tests, deployments )
  • broadly speaking, automate as much as possible
  • use small teams with responsibility from customers to data. (don't tier your org)

My impression was that it was a good book. It was well written and direct. It wasn't the most interesting read though - although I know it wasn't intended to be a thriller. It does tend to read more like a research report than a compelling and concise narrative.

I would give the book a grade of 4.5 out of 5. And I would encourage anyone interested in software development to read the book.

My big take away or surprise was: Automating everything (aka commit to deploy) resulted in a system which had greater uptime than batching releases and releasing on a release cadence. I'm more used to the traditional process where we typically release software every week, month or quarter - but they book advocates a system where releases happen automatically several times a day.

Releasing constantly like this is called Continuous Delivery (CD), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_delivery CD is scary as a developer because you don't want to be the one that breaks production.... so we tend to batch our releases to relieve that concern (aka we will test it later... or test it when everything is running together... right before release) ... but the book seems to say that all you are doing when releasing in batches is piling and mixing your problems into the future.

I have thought releasing many times during the day would be a horror show, but I now believe that you learn not to do things which cause the site to crash... or learn to quickly recover from such flubs... and I presume that once you internalize how to release often, you can give real value to the customer quickly... once you learn how to ride the unicycle of CD...

I think I need to push harder internally and externally for full CD.



  Tue Dec 17 16:08:00 EST 2019


Emails appear to be a simple thing. But the standard includes the ability to nest messages in messages, include attachments, etc... so the underlying model is fairly complex and open to extension. I thought this diagram does a good job of showing how the Javamail API represents the different pieces.



  Tue Dec 17 16:06:00 EST 2019


These things are delicious! Nobody in my family likes olives, so when I make them they are mine, mine, mine!!!!



  Tue Dec 17 16:04:00 EST 2019



  Tue Dec 17 16:03:00 EST 2019




  Tue Dec 17 16:02:00 EST 2019




  Tue Dec 17 15:59:00 EST 2019




  Tue Dec 17 15:57:00 EST 2019




  Tue Dec 17 15:55:00 EST 2019




Canon PIXMA G3200 - Canon Scam  Mon Dec 09 23:54:00 EST 2019


I recommend that you DO NOT buy any of the Cannon InkJet Printers.

On October of 2017, I purchased a Canon printer off amazon for $250. It seemed like a great choice for escaping the Ink cartridge scam of pricy ink. It comes with refillable ink wells filled with 2 years worth of ink!

ALAS NOT SO FAST, the printer includes a non-replacable, non-serviceable ink pad (aka the ink absorber) - which lasts about 2 years - then the printer is ready for the landfill - according to Canon Support.


Very very disappointed!

  • did not escape the costs of ink cartridge scams
  • did loose money on printers / ink
  • did contribute to the environmental disaster of a disposable society

Creating shoddy products like this, should be illegal. Class action lawsuit? Buyer beware.



  Mon Oct 14 13:48:00 EDT 2019




  Mon Oct 14 13:47:00 EDT 2019




  Mon Oct 14 13:45:00 EDT 2019




  Mon Oct 14 13:42:00 EDT 2019




  Sat Mar 30 02:26:00 EDT 2019


""Bought a mechanical keyboard with more resistance so my code will be strongly typed."
@jasonkarns


  Sun Mar 17 18:29:00 EDT 2019


If you are in the clojure repl or program and you want to stuff a result into the copy/paste buffer (helpful when generating Markdown from data) - I use;
(defn to-clipboard [^String jj]
  (.setContents (.getSystemClipboard (java.awt.Toolkit/getDefaultToolkit)) (java.awt.datatransfer.StringSelection. jj) nil)
  )


How it ends?  Mon Feb 11 11:51:00 EST 2019




lawyer  Mon Feb 11 11:49:00 EST 2019




T's Wall  Sun Jan 27 00:32:00 EST 2019




  Wed Jan 23 22:59:00 EST 2019




  Wed Jan 23 22:57:00 EST 2019




  Fri Jun 22 18:20:00 EDT 2018




  Wed Apr 18 14:52:00 EDT 2018




  Mon Apr 16 01:35:00 EDT 2018




age of...  Mon Apr 16 01:25:00 EDT 2018




Breakfast Truth  Tue Apr 03 13:27:00 EDT 2018




Liquibase IndexOutOfBoundsException  Fri Mar 16 12:23:00 EDT 2018


I'm moving a mysql database into using liquibase . Some of the tables have constraints on tables that no longer exist. This caused "generateChangeLog" to emit a mystery error like so,
    $ liquibase  --changeLogFile f.xml --url "$DBI" generateChangeLog 
    Unexpected error running Liquibase: java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0
I found that the following change allows generateChangeLog to complete.
$ git diff
diff --git a/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/ColumnConfig.java b/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/ColumnConfig.java
index 144980b49..8ef52837f 100644
--- a/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/ColumnConfig.java
+++ b/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/ColumnConfig.java
@@ -143,6 +143,10 @@ public class ColumnConfig extends AbstractLiquibaseSerializable {
                     if ((fk.getForeignKeyColumns() != null) && (fk.getForeignKeyColumns().size() == 1) && fk
                         .getForeignKeyColumns().get(0).getName().equals(getName())) {
                         constraints.setForeignKeyName(fk.getName());
+                        if(fk.getPrimaryKeyColumns().isEmpty()) {
+                            System.err.println("WARNING AN EMPTY SET OF PRIMARY KEY CONSTRAINTS!!! Table: "+table.getName()+" pkc:"+fk);
+                            continue;
+                        }
                         constraints.setReferences(fk.getPrimaryKeyTable().getName() +
                             "(" +
                             fk.getPrimaryKeyColumns().get(0).getName() +
I shared this discovery with the Liquibase Core team at https://liquibase.jira.com/browse/CORE-3189


  Mon Mar 12 14:11:00 EDT 2018




  Mon Mar 12 13:11:00 EDT 2018




Tomcat start when boot on Ubuntu 14.04  Thu Jan 11 15:22:00 EST 2018


Steps I took to get tomcat to start on boot (and run on port 80) ... I edited server.xml to enable a listener on port 80

install tomcat from tomcat site, unzip into /opt/tomcat

$ sudo adduser tomcat
$ sudo chown -R tomcat.tomcat /opt/tomcat
$ sudo chmod a+rx /opt/tomcat   # so all can read the files / logs
$ apt-get install jsvc

# create start up script
$ cat >> /etc/init.d/tomcat
#!/bin/bash

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          tomcat
# Required-Start:
# Should-Start:
# Required-Stop:
# Should-Stop:
# Default-Start:
# Default-Stop:
# Short-Description: Tomcat starter
# Description:       Tomcat starter
### END INIT INFO

export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk
export JSVC=/usr/bin/jsvc
exec /opt/tomcat/bin/daemon.sh $* 
 

$  sudo update-rc.d tomcat defaults
$ sudo update-rc.d tomcat enable

# I think that is everything...


Ornament  Fri Dec 15 17:05:00 EST 2017




Not sure about this  Fri Dec 15 15:59:00 EST 2017


Not sure about this....


  Thu Dec 07 19:18:00 EST 2017




Theory / Practice  Tue Nov 07 15:06:00 EST 2017


"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." - Jan L.A van de Snepscheut


  Thu Nov 02 11:37:00 EDT 2017




  Fri Oct 27 18:41:00 EDT 2017




  Tue Oct 24 13:06:00 EDT 2017


Max made a scary pumpkin!


  Fri Oct 20 14:13:00 EDT 2017


This is often what debugging software is like;


  Thu Oct 19 12:39:00 EDT 2017




  Mon Oct 16 12:49:00 EDT 2017




Ah well...  Tue Sep 26 15:33:00 EDT 2017




Fork  Tue Sep 26 15:32:00 EDT 2017




Salad?  Tue Sep 26 15:31:00 EDT 2017




  Tue Sep 19 12:07:00 EDT 2017




Passion for the job  Thu Sep 14 15:55:00 EDT 2017




Off to Sixth Grade  Tue Aug 29 13:39:00 EDT 2017




Don two  Mon Aug 21 13:16:00 EDT 2017




Don Three  Mon Aug 21 13:15:00 EDT 2017




Don one  Mon Aug 21 13:14:00 EDT 2017




Wrong on so many levels  Mon Aug 21 13:12:00 EDT 2017




Emacs!  Mon Aug 07 16:19:00 EDT 2017




Quite a fire pit!   Mon Aug 07 13:13:00 EDT 2017




Sad, sad, sad  Mon Aug 07 13:11:00 EDT 2017




check in time  Tue Oct 25 12:17:00 EDT 2016


I'm getting ready for checking in my code ....


  Tue Oct 25 17:20:00 EDT 2016


"Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do." - John Carmack


  Tue Oct 25 13:45:00 EDT 2016


a crazy juxta position


Quote  Wed Jul 06 13:42:00 EDT 2016




Prius maintenance required 2014  Mon Jun 06 20:28:00 EDT 2016


My Prius just left warranty, so now I have to take care of changing its oil. I had jiffy lube do it this time, but the display still said "Maintenance Required" This was driving me bonkers. I probably watched about 10 you tube videos on how to reset it. Finally I found a sequence that worked for me.
  • Put on Trip A
  • Press and hold the KH/MPH button down
  • Power off the car (while still holding KH/MPH)
  • Power on car (still holding KH/Hour)
It will then start updating the Maintenance Record and the message should go away. Happy Motoring


cljsfiddle.com #clojure  Sat Apr 23 02:49:00 EDT 2016


As a web developer, I've long been envious of the online Javascript tinkering tools (aka https://jsfiddle.net/ and https://codepen.io/pen/....

Finally something for ClojureScript peeps! http://cljsfiddle.com/



The Art of Stage Presence  Fri Mar 04 15:16:00 EST 2016


I recommend this great 3-hour presentation on giving presentations, "The Art of Stage Presence"

UPDATE: BOO this video is gone, but the presenter, James Whittaker, Seems to have a lot of advice for example, here is another presentation of his Microsoft TechDays 2017 l James Whittaker: The 7 Stages of Creativity: Developing Your Creative Self


Smuttynose Finestkind IPA  Wed Sep 23 12:51:00 EDT 2015




When I do enjoy a cold beer (stupid whole 30 plan bans alcohol), I reach for a Smutty Nose Finestkind. I highly recommend it.

It has a whole host of flavors. The first few sips are a blast of aromas and tastes. I find though that I don't bore of it. You should try it.

My wife originally bought a 6 pack for me because she thought I resembled the guys on the cover. I've come to believe the picture does represent me in retirement.... living out of a trailer, drinking beer in folding lawn chair, no doubt penniless...



The Martian  Tue Jul 07 12:04:00 EDT 2015




I loved, loved, loved this story. The audiobook was outstanding. A true voice actor makes a big difference.

The story made me look forward to my commute into work. I'd heard lots of others mention it, so I finally gave it a shot - glad I did.

The Martian



My Blog / dippybird #clojure  Sun Jun 21 13:28:00 EDT 2015


This blog is now hosted in Clojure. Why do you ask does that matter? It really doesn't matter much to you, unless you are a Clojure fan. As a web application developer, it would be pretty crazy if I were to blog using someone else's tool. Just like it would be odd for a shoemaker to wear someone else's shoes.

I've written simple blogging software in: Java (my jblog project), Grails (sunrise project), and now I introduce Dippybird!



Jack Welch  Mon May 18 13:26:00 EDT 2015


On the drive in, I really enjoyed this podcast interview with Jack Welsh. (see link below to interview mp3)

He talks about his time at GE, his school, performance ratings, thinking of business as a game, always learning and of course it is a book tour... I'm gonna get his book, The Real-Life MBA: Your No-BS Guide to Winning the Game, Building a Team, and Growing Your Career

Here is the interview http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.commonwealthclub.org/audio/podcast/cc_20150514_jack_welch.mp3



Today I learned  Fri May 15 15:51:00 EDT 2015


I learned about clojure's mapcat. It is a simple combination of map and cat - but it can come in handy. For example,
(mapcat #(repeat 5 %) [1 [8 2] 3])
(1 1 1 1 1 [8 2] [8 2] [8 2] [8 2] [8 2] 3 3 3 3 3)
I used this on a 4clojure problem.


Programming  Thu Dec 18 12:38:00 EST 2014


Programming is easy like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire and you're on fire and everything is on fire and you're actually in hell. @matixmatix


High Tech Interview  Thu Dec 18 19:29:00 EST 2014


Q: How many golf balls fit on a schoolbus?
A: Just hire somebody else
--@eventi


Out Standing by His Desk  Wed Nov 05 13:14:00 EST 2014


My motorized standing desk doesn't have a preset for my preferred height! Oh the agony of changing it's height #firstworldproblems


Clojure vs Java - switch/case  Tue Apr 15 18:34:00 EDT 2014


Java's switch
switch(num){
       7:  System.out.println("seven");
          break; 
       3: System.out.println("three");
           break;
       default: 
        System.out.println("deffy");
}
Clojure's equivalent
(case 7 (println "seven")
          3 (println "three")
          (println "deffy") )
    


Cool way to do testing...  Fri Mar 28 13:45:00 EDT 2014


I really enjoyed watching this talk yesterday… It's about an Erlang tool for testing, called quick check. Cool stuff...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi0rHwfiX1Q



Kinesis   Fri Feb 28 21:44:00 EST 2014



I swear by my Kinesis keyboard. It has helped me continue to be a productive developer since about 15 years when I got tendon pains from typing.


Today my Kinesis oddly forgot it's programming... I only have 1 key remapped... the apple/mac/osx command key is mapped to the left alt key... Took me a while using the google's to find the sequence for remapping this....

This sequence is

  • PROGRAM SHIFT F10 (resets all settings)
  • PROGRAM F12 (enter program mode)
  • KEYPAD (overlays keypad/numeric keys on keyboard)
  • N (the key pad N key is mapped to apples right command key)
  • KEYPAD (turns off keyboard overlay.. so alt is mapped normally)
  • Right ALT (destination key)

To turn off the key click, hold down Progrm and press the Backslash key (“\”) located just below the hyphen key).

Woo Hoo!



Tamper Monkey and Hacker News  Fri Feb 14 14:59:00 EST 2014



I like the hacker news site, but I wanted it to be a bit easier to scan. So I wrote a userscript to make it "cleaner"

Check out tamper monkey at http://tampermonkey.net/ and my userscript https://gist.github.com/bherrmann7/9002398



Docker for OSX  Thu Feb 06 15:31:00 EST 2014


I think docker.io is pretty awesome. Its a tool I wish I had when I was stomping snowflakes (aka trying to automate building a private cloud of machines.)

Docker would really be handy for mocking a staging setup as well.

Plus now they directly support OSX. Sweet.



Making a tool easier to reach  Thu Dec 19 13:54:00 EST 2013



I tend to use tools that are easy to reach. To make using clojure easier for me, I ran through the steps on this page,

Shell scripting with Clojure
Thus I can write small shell scripts in clojure. Win!


Interesting Bits  Mon Jun 17 14:50:00 EDT 2013



5 Panera's where you decide what to pay
How a restaurant with no cash registers and no prices makes money
http://qz.com/94447/how-a-restaurant-with-no-cash-registers-and-no-prices-makes-money/
A great talk on "Why should you learn Clojure now? " (Clojure is a modern highly concurrent programming language on the JVM - our loan processor uses it)
The Curious Clojureist
http://parleys.com/play/5148922a0364bc17fc56c62d/chapter0/about
My coworker and I have been taking online courses at codeschool.com The courses include 15 minute videos, then a question and answer period. I've found that I learned a lot.
Bob's report card
http://www.codeschool.com/users/bherrmann7


Deal sites  Thu May 16 12:07:00 EDT 2013



One of the hazards of looking at deals sites is buying something awesome!

For Mothers Day I purchased a backpack vacuum for my wife. She loved it.



Code School  Fri Apr 12 02:32:00 EDT 2013


I've become rather enamored with codeschool.com

It is a pay to use site for learning Rails/JavaScript/HTML in application development. They incorporate game like elements (scoring for comparing with friends, challenges for advancing to levels) - and it nearly makes learning fun.

It feels great to both learn new technology and see progess as I complete courses.

You can see my progress by checking out my report card



Technolgies  Wed Jul 11 13:19:00 EDT 2012


Trying to choose which technology to study.... so I searched an online job site... View Salary Graph

Interesting.... Although Clojure has fewer data points, so I think they are skewed....



Twitter Bootstrap - Responsive Design  Sat May 12 22:15:00 EDT 2012


My site is now using "Twitter Bootstrap" (TB.) Specifically the Navigation bar, fluid layout and responsive design.



Responsive design: When you shrink the size of the browser to "cell phone size" the menu switches to a menu icon in the upper left. Try it out.



I like kickstarter but....  Fri May 04 14:39:00 EDT 2012


I like kickstarter, but I have to wonder.... Who's going to be the first to create a kickstarter project, raise a million or two, then disappear and never make anything?


Twitter Bootstrap  Fri Apr 27 17:10:00 EDT 2012



I've got a recent fascination with "Twitter Bootstrap." I enjoyed watching these videos at the gym... They take you right through the basics http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/series/twitter-bootstrap-101/



Who's life are you living....  Tue Apr 24 18:29:00 EDT 2012


Humm....



View Tube: Videos at the gym.  Sat Apr 14 02:07:00 EDT 2012


Want to watch videos at the gym? This small chrome plugin lets you download html5 videos. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/87011 Most excellent.


add “open in terminal” to the right-click mouse menu  Sat Mar 31 01:14:00 EDT 2012


Q: How do you add “open in terminal” to the right-click mouse menu for folders/directories?

A: http://askubuntu.com/questions/117452/how-do-you-add-open-in-terminal-to-the-right-click-mouse-menu-for-folders-dire?atw=1

Open In Terminal



Breaking in a new Ubuntu machine  Wed Mar 07 17:14:00 EST 2012


The launcher Icons are too big... Fix for that is
$ sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
Then use ALT-F2 and type "about:config"  - move slider to 32 pixels -  WOO HOO!



Ubuntu 12.04 Clipboard manager  Fri Feb 24 19:15:00 EST 2012


I love having a clipboard manager (so I can paste something I cut many cuts back.) I've been using Glipper but had to google up the right magic to add it into Ubuntu 12.04.

This is the answer, http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/core/precise/universe/base/glipper



Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle  Tue Feb 21 03:06:00 EST 2012


Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle from CUSEC on Vimeo.


If you are a developer, this video is worth seeing... although you will feel like your current development tools are stone age things... Makes me loath my IDE....


New PC for me  Wed Feb 15 05:00:00 EST 2012


Pulled the trigger on my office @system76 order... i7-3820 - 32GB Ram - 240Gig SSD - $2500 Can't wait... I'm sure I will code faster.

Leopard Extreme ( leox3 ) 	Quantity: 1 	Price Per Item: $2,466.00 	$2,466.00
Base System Price 	$1,399.00
Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit 	
5 Free GB of Ubuntu One Online Storage and Sync 	
2nd Generation Intel Core i7-3820 3.60 GHz L2 10 MB - 4 Cores with Hyperthreading 	
32 GB - 8 x 4 GB - Corsair Vengeance Quad Channel DDR3 - 1600 MHz 	+$199.00
1 GB nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti 	+$135.00
240 GB Intel 520 Series SATA III 6 Gb/s Solid State Disk Drive 	+$499.00
CD-RW / DVD-RW Dual Layer LightScribe Drive 	+$39.00
3 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 3 Yr. Technical Support 	+$195.00
Shipping & Handling 		$64.20
Order Total: 	$2,530.20
            



Add custom program to the unity launcher  Thu Feb 09 05:00:00 EST 2012


I had to look this up twice, so here is a note to self... To add a custom program or shell script to the unity launcher do this

gnome-desktop-item-edit --create-new ~/Desktop


Monopoly Rare  Fri Oct 22 04:00:00 EDT 2010


I put together a quick Android application to display which stamps are rare in the McDonalds Monopoly game. I dont visit McD's often, but I wouldnt want to throw away a million dollars either.

Snapshot of Rare Monopoly Stamp application



Geb, Gradle, Groovy Console  Tue Oct 19 04:00:00 EDT 2010


Quite pleased with my short time with Geb (a groovy browser automation solution.) All 76 permutations of form filling now automated!! (took about 2 hours.) Now integration testing is going to be a breeze.

I used this short gradle script:

        apply plugin: 'groovy'
apply plugin: 'idea'
repositories {
    mavenRepo urls: ["http://repo1.maven.org/maven2"]
    mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
     groovy group: 'org.codehaus.groovy', name: 'groovy', version: '1.7.5'
     compile "org.codehaus.geb:geb-core:latest.release",
        "org.seleniumhq.selenium:selenium-firefox-driver:latest.release"
     testCompile 'junit:junit:4.7'
}
task(console, dependsOn: 'classes', type: JavaExec) {
    main = 'groovy.ui.Console'
    classpath = sourceSets.main.runtimeClasspath
}
      
Which lets you bring up a groovy console to test out groovy/geb code. Like so
        $ gradle console
      
And then noodle with a script until it's ready to be knighted as a unit test....
        import geb.*
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver

Browser.drive( new FirefoxDriver(), "http://google.com" ){
    go()   
    assert title == "Google" 
    $("input", name: "q").value("wikipedia")
    $("input", value: "Google Search").click()
}
      
Extra sweet!!

If you need a Grails/Gradle/Griffon/Android/Java hacker, I'm seeking my next gig right now!!



Build Failure popup on Ubuntu  Thu Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010


My current project uses cruise control, but it doesn't send emails on breakage.... so I put together this quick 3 line cron script script to popup a little notification when the build breaks... sweet!
# cron entry to put up notifications when the build fails. DISPLAY=:0
*/5 * * * * /bin/sh -c "if wget -q -O - http://cruisecontrol/rss/project|grep ' '|grep -v Summary|head -1|grep -i fail > /dev/null; then notify-send -t 15000 -i /home/bob/bin/exclamation.png 'Project' 'Build Problem'; fi"
Note the full path on the image is important. You Mac people can use Growl instead of notify-send.



Groovy web server using only the JDK in 8 lines please  Thu Jul 08 04:00:00 EDT 2010


      // Groovy web server using only the JDK in 8 lines please
import com.sun.net.httpserver.*;
HttpServer server = HttpServer.create(new InetSocketAddress(2222),0)
server.createContext('/', { HttpExchange exchange ->
    exchange.sendResponseHeaders(200,0);
    exchange.responseBody.write('hello from groovy land.'.bytes)
    exchange.responseBody.close();
}  as HttpHandler)
server.start();
    


Monoprice  Wed Jul 07 04:00:00 EDT 2010


Crystal misplaced her phone charger, but we still had one for the car.... I was thinking how nice it would be to have a 12 volt car adapter for the wall... Hello monoprice.com!!! , I love those guys...



Car Cast Pro  Fri Jun 18 04:00:00 EDT 2010


I created and placed in the market Car Cast Pro . I also updated the web page with a little more information about Car Cast. Car Cast Pro is $2.99 (about the cost of a beer.)



iPad apps that I recommend  Wed Jun 09 04:00:00 EDT 2010
Swapping Droids for Nexus One's  Tue Mar 30 04:01:00 EDT 2010


I'm very lucky to get a free phone from google as a part of the Developer Seeding program.

Alas I didnt get the one I wanted. Hopefully the Android Device Exchange can help everyone in this situation!



Ipad is cool  Tue Mar 30 04:00:00 EDT 2010


ipad is cool ... even if apple is not.



True and Scary  Fri Dec 11 05:00:00 EST 2009
Problem  Wed Nov 18 05:00:00 EST 2009


Does anyone else have this problem? ...



Looking for a challenge  Thu Oct 29 04:00:00 EDT 2009


UPDATE: Nov 4th, I'm booked till April, 2009

I'm seeking new full-time or part-time consulting work in the Boston area using some combination of Groovy, Grails, Griffon, Android and/or Java. I enjoy building stuff.

I've had loads of fun this year with both Grails and Android. With heaps of Grails, I helped modernise a innovative problem solving web site, innocentive.com . I also launched an Android Podcast Player, Car Cast . Thanks!!



Groovy Console Tip  Wed Oct 28 04:00:00 EDT 2009


I hack lots of small stuff together using the Groovy and Grails Consoles (using Groovy 1.5.x and Grails 1.0.3 - I know, I know... old versions...) A handy way to make your script so that it can be interrupted is to simply insert "Thread.sleep(0)" in any loop your doing. When you send it an interrupt the Sleep will throw a runtime and stop your script.

      while(true){
    println 'getting wiki text'
    new URL('http://wiki').text
    Thread.sleep(0)
}
    


Finding X the easy way.... think outside the box  Thu Sep 24 04:00:00 EDT 2009
Regrets  Wed Sep 23 04:00:00 EDT 2009
Image  Sat Sep 12 04:00:00 EDT 2009


I just like this image



Car Cast in the Market  Fri Aug 28 04:00:00 EDT 2009


I finally took the plunge and put Car Cast in the Android Market. Whoo Hoo, the new phone books are here!! Car Cast is a BETA podcast downloader and player. Optimized for use in a daily commute, it features big buttons, large text, remembers last played location. Give it a try!!



New System?  Mon Aug 24 04:00:00 EDT 2009


I'm thinking of buying a new system to replace jadn.com (and/or for use in my consulting business). The image has the specs. Any comments?



Steamrolled by GOOGLE  Fri Aug 21 04:00:00 EDT 2009


I've been working on my own podcast application, CarCast ,... and just announced so has GOOGLE, http://listen.googlelabs.com/ Queue big and scary music!!! Yikes. I think my own feeble attempt might just be crushed....

Actually though, they do some things well, but some things I think CarCast does better.... The road has room enough for more than 1 type of car... So I'm going to continue tinkering on CarCast.



Microsoft suxs  Fri Aug 14 04:00:00 EDT 2009


"Todd Finch, Dell senior product marketing manager, said the number of Linux returns are approximately the same as those for Windows netbooks. He categorized the matter of returns as a 'non-issue.' 'They are making something of nothing,' he said of Microsoft's claims."



Giving the Grails Console some recall  Mon Jul 13 04:00:00 EDT 2009


The Grails Console is a handy way to try and tinker with stuff. If you switch back to your editor/IDE and change a domain or controller class, the console restarts. This is good, but it drops all the tinkering that you were doing. That can mean a loosing quite a bit of work.

At a coworkers suggestion, I tried modifying the Grails Console to save the current text during a restart. This is what I did and it works. Edit $GRAILS_HOME/scripts/console.groovy and replace the existing monitorCallback with this one

      monitorCallback = {
            def text = console.inputArea.text
            println "Exiting console"
            console.exit()
            println "Console had ---\n$text\n---"
            createConsole()
            println " Restarting console"
            console.run()
            // wait for inputArea to be constructed
            Thread.sleep(500)
            console.inputArea.text = text
        }
    
Yea, the sleep is grotty, but without it the inputArea wasnt always constructed in time (race.) It dumps the current script to the console as a cut/paste backup if the console doesnt reload in a happy way.


Pandora coming to Android  Thu Jun 18 04:00:00 EDT 2009


Whew! Someone is working on the Android client for Pandora. I've really gotten used to Pandora, sorry imeem. Woot Woot Pandora.



Boston Grails Consultant needed  Mon Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009


A friend of mine says

We are a small company in Waltham, Massachusetts looking for a full-time Grails contractor for 3 months (Q3). Even a talented J2EE contractor could be of interest (with a passion for learning new technology), although a Grails developer would be our first priority.
Anyone looking in the Boston area?


CarCast new logo  Fri May 22 04:00:00 EDT 2009


Just like the first start up task is designing the tee shirt, I'm spending time tinkering with the logo for a program that is still pretty much a hacky prototope... ah well. Here's a New Icon for CarCast. CarCast is an mp3 player that's designed to be used in the car during a typical commute.



Car Cast  Wed May 13 04:00:00 EDT 2009


Some screen shots of my Android application, Car Cast ... it is still a work in progress... but it is fun!!



Swine Flu  Wed May 06 04:00:00 EDT 2009


So this is how swine flu spreads ...



Part time Groovy Gig in Boston Area  Thu Apr 23 04:00:00 EDT 2009


A buddy of mine, @cutshot , is looking for a part time (1-3 month) Groovy developer to help out with a project. Any groovy people in the Boston Area looking for some work?



Hallmark be damned  Thu Apr 09 04:00:00 EDT 2009
Secrets of social site success  Fri Mar 27 04:00:00 EDT 2009
Nice one.  Thu Mar 05 05:00:00 EST 2009
IntelliJ and HumanTime  Fri Feb 06 05:00:00 EST 2009


Two interesting things I found today.

First Thing

I use IntelliJ a lot when working on Grails and Groovy projects. Since IntelliJ doesn't have Eclipe's quick overview feature (Control-o), I do a lot of searhing when using IntelliJ. Alas the incremental search in IntelliJ, marks stuff yellow... and it doesnt clear it when you change your search. After a few searches your file is too yellow too look at. To clear all the highlighting, just hit escape twice. (thanks Ed for finding this one.)

Second Thing

I wanted to display how long it took to process something, but I wanted it to be readable by humans.

ie. Loading data took 1h 3m 33s
and NOT
Loading data took 28882 seconds
This little class makes that pretty easy, Date Formatting and Parsing for Humans in Java with HumanTime

Although I still wish I had a nice solution that would just do days.

println daysAgo( new Date(0) )
with output like
30 years, 2 months and 12 days ago


Mildly amusing  Wed Jan 21 05:00:00 EST 2009


      (copy/pasted from elsewhere)
Dear World:

We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of ideals of
democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in
service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage
has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4.
Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now
operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January
20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look
forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come.

We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
    


Google Phone with prepaid SIM  Tue Dec 23 05:00:00 EST 2008


I bought a Google Phone from craigs list. I really like it. I'm using it with the pay as you go t-mobile plan (10 cents a minute for voice, no data plan.) I use a wifi connection at home and at work to use the applications with the network. It's really a great device, and a no brainer if you are a Java Developer with an interest in carrying around some power in your pocket.



Don't Drink or Drive  Thu Dec 18 05:00:00 EST 2008


A funny tee shirt from BustedTees.com , it is titled Don't Drink or Drive ... Some of their tee shirts are offensive, but lots of them are funny.



Very interesting talk about religion from Sam Harris  Mon Dec 15 05:00:00 EST 2008
Buy American  Wed Dec 10 05:00:00 EST 2008
Make commuting (or treadmill time) fun with a groovy podcast downloader  Thu Nov 13 05:00:00 EST 2008


Make commuting (or treadmill time) fun with a groovy podcast downloader

I've received quite a bit of feedback on my earlier release of my groovy podcast downloader script. I've folded in this feedback.

Take a spin at http://github.com/bherrmann7/podcast-get/tree/master/src/pget.groovy Enjoy!! Please send along feedback! bob@jadn.com



Simple Podcast downloader for any mp3 player  Mon Nov 10 05:00:00 EST 2008


I use a small Groovy script to download podcasts into a single directory. It numbers the files uniquely and they can be simply copied to any mp3 player (for my long commute.) It uses an array of podcast urls as it's source. It keeps track of what is downloaded (so you dont get the same podcasts over and over.) You can stop the script and edit and re-run it (tweaker friendly). Rerunning is safe because it doesn't update the history until the end and it skips already downloaded files.

I wanted to try out git hub, so I posted it there. I'm interested in all feedback.

Download it at http://github.com/bherrmann7/podcast-get/tree/master/src/pget.groovy



Getting Groovy's Grape Going  Fri Oct 10 04:00:00 EDT 2008


Groovy's Grape looks wicked cool, but I didn't have much luck getting it going (posted on stackoverflow) . Anyone else have success?



OSCON 2007 - Nathan Torkington  Wed Sep 17 04:00:00 EDT 2008


Open Source Therapy by Nat Torkington . The talk covers, "Open Source finds itself at a midway point in its existence, with unresolved trauma and an uncertain future. Join noted open source psychologist Dr Nat as he works through these issues and, hopefully, helps open source achieve stability." I found it very funny. I'm sure it applies to the Rails and Grails community as well.



Making list rows clickable  Thu Sep 04 04:00:00 EDT 2008


Grails scaffolding generates list.gsp pages with tables. The default style when mousing over items in the list highlights the row. This provides nice feedback to the user about which row they are "selecting", but if a user clicks, nothing happens. This little tweak makes the click do the reasonable thing (which is drill down on the item clicked on.) In list.gsp, change

<tr class="${(i % 2) == 0 ? 'odd' : 'even'}">
to
<tr class="${(i % 2) == 0 ? 'odd' : 'even'}" onclick='window.location = "show?id=${YourBean.id}"'/>
This will make your users happy.


http://www.getjobdone.eu/  Sat Aug 23 04:01:00 EDT 2008


Get Job Done is a slick site for matching people and projects. Similar to grailscrowd.com , but "Get Job Done" is for all kinds of technology stacks. "Get Job Done" was written using Grails! Sweet...



Pandora  Sat Aug 23 04:00:00 EDT 2008


Pandora rocks. Not sure I will ever play one of my CDs ever again. It is like a radio station that only plays music that you like. My profile at Bob's Pandora Profile



What could make finding Grails jobs easy?  Wed Aug 20 04:00:00 EDT 2008


I was looking at te grails crowd website, grailscrowd.com and I discovered grailsjobs.com/ . I wonder if either will get enough interest to make finding consulting grails work easy? I know about, workingwithrails.com and I think it must do wonders for the Ruby guys.



Twitter  Thu Aug 07 04:00:00 EDT 2008


I've started Twittering using Twirl...



Talk with your kids about linux....  Wed Jul 30 04:00:00 EDT 2008
Ubuntu with Virtualbox running Vista  Sat Jul 26 04:00:00 EDT 2008


On Ubuntu I sometimes need to run the Turbo Tax Runtime (aka. Windows Vista), I recently installed the GPL Virtualbox from Sun Microsystems. It works great! and only took a few steps;

      $ sudo apt-get install virtualbox
$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.24-19-generic
$ sudo addgroup bob vboxusers
$ virtualbox
    
Then create virtual disk for vista, install it from the the DVD ROM. To get the network going, install the missing network driver. Bickety Bam. Now I can test using IE7.


Randy Pausch's Last Lecture  Fri Jul 25 04:00:00 EDT 2008


I found this pretty moving. The youtube link is, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo



Summer Reading  Fri Jul 18 04:00:00 EDT 2008


I listen to podcasts on the way to and from work. Right now my favorite podcast is the stackoverflow podcast with Joel On Software

They have a summer reading list. Looks interesting.

      1. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
   2. Don?t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
   3. The Non-Designer?s Design Book
   4. Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering
   5. Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully
   6. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
   7. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
   8. How to Win Friends & Influence People
    
I've already read 2, 5 and 8. Perhaps some of the others I should see if the library has....


Groovy/Grails contract work...  Thu May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2008


Got an interesting email today

      Please consider this position below, they are interviewing 10 people, and selecting 6.
 
The will HIRE OVER THE PHONE MONDAY 5/19!!!!!

Job details:

    * 6 contract positions
    * 2-6 month contracts
    * 3 internal projects that need to be developed rapidly 

    * Exclusive contract opportunities until Monday, 05/19
    * Up to 10 block interviews Monday, 05/19 

    * Prefers candidates to work locally, but will allow partial to 100% telecommuting
    * Will hire off of phone interviews
    * Must have documented experience using Groovy/Grails ?? please reference check all candidates
    * H1Bs with good comm skills are acceptable 

    * If we can??t find enough Groovy/Grails candidates, we will change the focus
      to Ruby on Rails.  We need to make this decision by Thursday morning. 

CJ Liles
Technical Recruiter - Technology Flex
Kforce Professional Staffing

2201 E. Camelback Road, Suite 405

Phoenix, AZ 85016

602-776-1179 (ph), 602-264-6969(fax)

We grow by referrals so please don't keep me a secret!

Cliles@Kforce.com

www.kforce.com

Great People = Great ResultsSM  

 

Join my network http://www.linkedin.com/in/cjliles
    
  


Buying a Groovy book  Wed Apr 23 04:00:00 EDT 2008


Going to buy a book? I always check AddAll before making a purchase. They seem to always find the best deal. I was at Barnes and Nobel looking at Groovy book. B&N wanted $40+ for the book, but I found it via AddAll for $23.03 with shipping. Ordered. The book was "Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer" by Venkat Subramaniam. Sweet!



Grails Fishbowl  Fri Mar 14 04:00:00 EDT 2008


I like Grails and Groovy. I do get to use it some in my current gig. Since I'm a consultant, I need to always think about my next gig... How do I find people and projects that are using Grails/Groovy? I know some people are working on a directory ( grailscrowd.com ) and I know other technologies have nice directories ( workingwithrails.com ), but I'm also impatient and like to noodle around, hence Grails Fishbowl .

But I recently discovered that linkedIn has a Grails User Group. I'm wondering why can't I just use that. Although I haven't figured out quite how to find the Grails User Group's list of people... but won't linkedIn do a much better job of this than me and my dinky hobby site?



2GX and IntelliJ license  Thu Mar 13 04:00:00 EDT 2008


Did anybody get their IntelliJ license after attending 2GX? I went online and did what I was supposed to do - but I haven't heard a peep from JetBrains or 2GX. I intend to start using it for the Grails work that I do. Anybody else had any luck?



New site for registering your Groovy/Grails skills?  Sat Mar 08 05:00:00 EST 2008


Would it be good to have a site that registers people's Grails/Groovy skills? It would be a networking site for finding and locating people who have G/G skills for possible question answering and or finding/helping (full time/consulting) with groovy/grails work or small fun projects.

Does anyone think this would be a good thing? (comment, or send email bob@jadn.com) I presume it would be a non-for-profit free to join kind of thing. And the code and data for the site would be open. That would mean you could host your own Russian version if you wanted to - etc...



GX2 Conference  Sat Feb 23 05:00:00 EST 2008


Today's the last day of the 2GX Conference. The conference was/is very good. The food has been amazing!! The conference has been like going to 8 Java user group meetings in a row... Two Ninety minute presentations on Thursday, four on Friday, and now the final two today... There is also a "coding jam" type thing to end the conference, which I'm looking forward to. Coming to this conference was a good idea.



GroovyGrails.com  Mon Feb 18 05:00:00 EST 2008


I'm going to the Groovy/Grails Experience this week! I'm looking forward to it. I plan to learn a lot. I'm curious about approaches for handling legecy SQL systems. How the plugin system works. Some more detail on creating DSLs. I'm also interested in Eclipse and Maven integration. It will all be goodness.



I like this image  Wed Feb 13 05:00:00 EST 2008


I find this image amusing...



A Big fat nothing g2g0  Sat Feb 02 05:00:00 EST 2008


The second OLPC that I ordered was scheduled to arrive today. I tracked it being put on the truck . I was waiting for the driver to arrive, and then it happended. "Order canceled" showed up on the tracking site. A quick call to FedEx says that Brightstar canceled/recalled the order 2 days ago (1/30/2008). I think I'm going to just give up on this OLPC thing.



OLPC Update  Mon Jan 14 05:00:00 EST 2008


Well. I didn't hear anything from OLPC (I've contacted them numerous times, to no avail.), so on the last day allowed to make purchases (12/31) - I ordered another OLPC. I did file a claim with FedEx, they rejected it saying OLPC must make a claim. I expect the second order to arrive with no problems. I started the dispute process with my CC company for the first OLPC.



FedEx Fun  Mon Dec 17 05:01:00 EST 2007


I figured I would fill out the FedEx claim form just for fun (for my missing OLPC pc - see below.) So I printed out the claims form PDF. When I called FedEx to get my "claim control number", they were surprised that would be filling out the claim. The FedEx claims lady said 9 out of 10 times the sender submits the claim. She said they usually deny the claim when it is submitted by the recipient. She said even if they do allow the claim, that they will send the refund to the sender unless the sender sends FedEx a letter stating that I should receive the refund. Super.

Well hopefully I will get the call from the OLPC Donor Services manager today or early tomorrow and they are going to take all this pain away.

Otherwise I guess I can call American Express and see what options they offer me....



OLPC Update  Mon Dec 17 05:00:00 EST 2007


I called OLPC's "Donor Services" this morning around 8:15 or so. I had advised them that I called already on Friday and that I was looking to hear something like "We will file a claim with FedEx, and your replacement laptop is being sent immediately." Alas, Daisy said that her supervisor will call me later today or early tomorrow. So I will keep my cell phone with me at all times :-)



olpc g1g0  Sat Dec 15 05:00:00 EST 2007
g1g1  Thu Dec 06 05:00:00 EST 2007
OLPC gets own channel in YouTube  Fri Nov 30 05:00:00 EST 2007


The OLPC project got it's own youtube channel... sweet. http://youtube.com/user/OLPCFoundation



OLPC XO Meetup  Thu Nov 15 05:01:00 EST 2007


There is a OLPC meetup group forming with plans to meetup and discuss modding and hacking the OLPC XO laptop. The group is named MOD the XO Laptop



I ordered an XO  Thu Nov 15 05:00:00 EST 2007


Woo hoo! I ordered an XO machine!! Sweet!



Mass production started  Tue Nov 06 05:00:00 EST 2007


Mass production of the olpc started today! I find this stuff terribly exciting, for a number of reasons
  • I think school kids can really benefit from a laptop.
  • The hardware inovations are cool. (battery life, screen, simplicity)
  • I strongly believe in open source and enabling technology - olpc is that
I can't wait till Nov 12 at 8pm to order one for me (and a needy child.)



ssh and clearing the screen  Fri Nov 02 04:00:00 EDT 2007


One annoying thing about using "ssh" is that it clears the screen when you disconnect. A lot of times I find I want to cut/paste something or just see something that I was just doing remotely. It finally dawned on me today that an easy way to avoid this problem is to just "disconnect" and not "logout". You can disconnect using the key sequence "~." and disconnecting doesn't clear the screen. Small potatoes for nearly everyone on the planet, but man - I find that nice.



Crystal and Bob's Honeymoon in Aruba  Thu Oct 25 04:00:00 EDT 2007


Way back in 2003, Crystal and I went on our Honeymoon. We've been pretty busy so I only am posting the photos now...
For our Honeymoon , Crystal and I chose to go to Aruba. We were there for a week starting on Monday May 19, 2003.



Old Old Photos!  Wed Oct 24 04:00:00 EDT 2007


Found some Old Old Photos! from way back in 2003



Watij  Tue Oct 16 04:00:00 EDT 2007


If you develop web applications in Java, watij.com is pretty darn cool. It allows you to write Java code which drive Internet Explorer's interface. This allows you to write Java unit tests that drive the web browser. The JSSH plugin for Firefox allows you to script Firefox as well.



IUI  Fri Aug 10 04:00:00 EDT 2007


This is a neat library, called IUI for creating web applications (javascript) that resemble the interface of the iphone. Nifty.



DVD Backups  Wed Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 2007


I bought 5 DVD Players. I backup DVDs using k9copy on Ubuntu. Mostly I backup titles that my kids watch in the car. The backups play fine in my kids Audiovox two screen DVD player, but the backups didn't play in my 4 year old living room player. So I went to walmart and bought a cheapy Magnavox DVD player, my DVDs still wouldnt play. Go get slightly different model. No dice. So then I buy three DVD players from Target and my disks play fine in the second one that I open. It is this one here. I return all the others. Sheesh....



Jadn now on Ubuntu  Mon Jul 23 04:00:00 EDT 2007


Jadn.com is now running on Ubuntu , a very friendly version of Linux... We finally moved off Fedora 4, which was getting very old. After trying out Ubuntu on Crystals machine for a few months, I finally decided to try it on the server. Basically it has been a delight.



Jbum 1.21 is out, groovy feature added  Wed Jul 04 04:00:00 EDT 2007


A new version 1.21 of jbum is out. I implemented my first Groovy feature (I had already added the Groovy console in to jbum for development testing - see the help menu.) The feature is "Order images by filename" which was 20 lines of Groovy. Very cool.



Mock Ads of {JAVA,PHP} vs Ruby  Wed May 16 04:00:00 EDT 2007


These are pretty funny if you do web technologies. The funniest part is usually the endings.... wait for it... (Press the little triangle on the lower left of each video to watch them in-page)

Java vs Ruby
PHP vs Ruby



Usability  Wed Apr 04 04:00:00 EDT 2007


Nice little cartoon about usability.

click on the cartoon for a slightly larger version



Pete the Artist  Tue Apr 03 04:00:00 EDT 2007


This is a snapshot of my brother's Desktop. You can see that Peter is quite the artist.



Download Status Bar  Mon Mar 26 04:00:00 EDT 2007


Handy FireFox plugin.... Download Status Bar (useful if you download stuff and get tired of the Downloads window)



My sister got married  Mon Mar 19 04:00:00 EDT 2007


My sister got married!!! WHOO HOO!!! GO SCOTTY AND DEE. I posted some photos.... (also mentioned on the kids page )



What ITA does  Tue Mar 06 05:00:00 EST 2007


There is an interesting article on eweek, Python Slithers into Systems , which talks about what ITA does (I work @ ita.)



Friends don't let friend use web services....  Thu Mar 01 05:01:00 EST 2007


A good mock interaction, The S stands for Simple , that helps explain why I shy away from web services (It is too complicated and it hurts my gentle head.)



Amiga Emulator  Thu Mar 01 05:00:00 EST 2007


Is this an Amiga Emulator? Your talking crazy talk!



Playing with Groovy  Mon Feb 26 05:00:00 EST 2007


I just started playing with Groovy . It's pretty cool. Bought the Groovy in Action book, and I'm still working my way through it.



Mackie is almost 1  Thu Feb 22 05:00:00 EST 2007
Snow in Rome, NY  Fri Feb 16 05:00:00 EST 2007
Dilbert has the Knack  Fri Feb 09 05:00:00 EST 2007


Nice....



Photobook  Fri Jan 12 05:01:00 EST 2007


For Christmas this year, I made Crystal a photobook from the pages on the kids web site. She loved it. I printed the book, Liam and Max Herrmann 2006 , at lulu.com

I used a program I wrote to generate the pdf. If you want to know more about how I did it, shoot me an email.



Lisp and Javascript  Fri Jan 12 05:00:00 EST 2007


I went to a nejug.org talk on Javascript. Mostly review for me, but covered a few interesting points and had some fun quotes. I like this one the best,

...Waldemar Horwat...lead Javascript developer... [at] Netscape... considered Javascript to be just another syntax for Common Lisp
-- Eric Lippert's Blog I also found out that the initial version of Javascript was a common lisp DSL (Domain Specific Language.)


More Camera Phone Shots  Mon Jan 08 05:00:00 EST 2007


Some phone camera shots taken at my office and on the ride home



My New Phone  Sun Jan 07 05:00:00 EST 2007


I took some shots with my new phone in December. Its a Motorola V325i which is verizon wireless most basic phone. I used the open source program bitpim to extract the photos (and thus avoid paying the carrier a toll).



moztraybiff  Tue Jan 02 05:00:00 EST 2007


If you use Linux with Thunderbird (anybody left?), then you must install the moztraybiff plugin... it rules. It shows a little new mail icon in you tool tray. Something that thunderbird really should have built in (and I think does when it runs on windows.)



Electronic Voting  Wed Dec 20 05:00:00 EST 2006


I like the phrase "snake-dancing simpletons" ... from The Dilbert Blog ,
Statistically speaking, any hacker who is skilled enough to rig the elections will also be smart enough to select politicians that believe in . . . oh, let's say for example, science. Compare that to the current method where big money interests buy political ads that confuse snake-dancing simpletons until they vote for the guy who scares them the least. Then during the period between the election and the impending Rapture, that traditionally elected President will get busy protecting the lives of stem cells while finding creative ways to blow the living crap out of anything that has the audacity to grow up and turn brownish.



added file upload  Mon Dec 18 05:00:00 EST 2006


Updated Jblog.sf.net ... Added ability to use a local file as the "blog image"... handy for posting little snippets, and for when posting images off the desktop... needs a little more tweaking to be really useful.



FireBug Beta  Tue Dec 05 05:00:00 EST 2006


If you develop web applications, go install the new firebug beta....



person who does not believe in Zeus  Sun Dec 03 05:00:00 EST 2006


Intersting quote,

The faithful do resist the bogus certainties of religion??when they come from any religion but their own. Every Christian knows what it is like to find the claims of Muslims to be deeply suspect. Everyone who is not a Mormon knows at a glance that Mormonism is an obscenely stupid system of beliefs. Everyone has rejected an infinite number of spurious claims about God. The atheist simply rejects one more.
--Sam Harris Read the rest in RichardDawkins.net or this exchange, http://www.jewcy.com/dialogue/monday_why_are_atheists_so_angry_sam_harris


Synergy rocks!  Wed Nov 15 05:00:00 EST 2006


Synergy ROCKS!! Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).



Selenium IDE  Fri Oct 13 04:00:00 EDT 2006


If you develop web applications, Selenium IDE - a open source firefox plugin - rules. It lets you record and playback sessions with firefox. Excellent for testing a web application or performing some routine web browser task. Very cool!



Farm House progress  Wed Sep 27 04:01:00 EDT 2006


My father continues to work on his Farm House located on his Christmas Tree Farm .



Religion in School  Wed Sep 27 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Should we be teaching religion in school? Should the Church of the Flying Spagetti Monster 's belief's be covered? Something to think about?



ITA Software ranked highly  Mon Sep 25 04:00:00 EDT 2006


ITA Software ranked as #27 in Deloitte's New England Technology Fast 50. Sweet.



Basement progress  Sun Sep 24 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I made some progress on the basement this month. I took some photos of the Basement progress . NOTE: I made this photo page using a new version of jbum , if you have any problems viewing the page, let me know! Thanks!



ITA Software  Thu Sep 14 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I love this place. I sent a request for an extra battery for my laptop this morning. In about 10 minutes, I got a reply from the IT department that asked where I sat so they could bring it to me. When I went down their to pick it up, they apologized to me for not bringing it to me directly. ITA is oriented towards making developers comfortable and productive. Wow. Anyway, I have code to write...



ITA Software signs deal with Air Canada  Tue Sep 12 04:01:00 EDT 2006


ITA is in the news, ITA Software signs deal with Air Canada I work @ ITA. Nifty. [ More bizjournals.com ]



Helium Knowledge  Tue Sep 12 04:00:00 EDT 2006


A friend of mine works at www.heliumknowledge.com . I think the site is an interesting start. Trying to solve the information discovery or findability problem, but from a different angle. (The Q and A angle.) I'm interested in what other people think about this site.



Microsoft's Quickest Patch Ever  Thu Sep 07 04:00:00 EDT 2006


if you really want to see Microsoft scramble to patch a hole in its software, don't look to vulnerabilities that impact countless Internet Explorer users or give intruders control of thousands of Windows machines. Just crack Redmond's DRM. Read about Microsoft's Quickest Patch Ever



Ubuntu  Wed Sep 06 04:00:00 EDT 2006


What would you do with 700 million dollars? How about create a Linux distribution? Interesting article Really Free Software



Same video, this time on google  Sat Aug 26 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Playing with uploading video to video.google.com (since youtube's upload api doesnt seem to exist.) This is the same video that I uploaded to youtube.



Interesting quote  Thu Aug 24 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Have the courage to take your own thoughts seriously, for they will shape you.
-- Albert Einstein



Cygwin good  Fri Aug 18 04:00:00 EDT 2006
Trying out youtube.com  Sun Aug 13 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Ok, Dvorak Is the last straw... I am finally going to try youtube.com. Here is small video of the Bean. When he was about 1 year old, I was giving him raspberry's and he responds. Ignore the sound of the cloths dryer in the background.



Liam turns two!  Wed Aug 02 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Happy 2nd Birthday Bean!!! I can't believe he's two years old already!



Fixed more RSS issues  Mon Jul 31 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I fixed the RSS dates (after using http://feedvalidator.org/ to find out my rss feed had issues.)



FireFox Beta!  Fri Jul 28 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I've just started trying out the FireFox 2.0 Beta 1 and I love it. How did I live without spell checking??? (It does the red squiggly line when you misspell)



RSS is back  Thu Jul 27 04:01:00 EDT 2006


Not too long ago I added rss feeds to jbum (the software that powers this blog), but I manged to botch it up a few days later.

Well, RSS should be working again. I've been noodling with a different client (since RSSOWL has problems on Linux - thats SWT for ya.) My rss client of choice is now liferea it is very good.

Note: the main rss feed is now http://jadn.com/~bob/all.rss



Google Tech Talks  Thu Jul 27 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Google keeps and hosts videos of Google Tech Talks made at their campus. Cool...



The Rotarian Menace  Wed Jul 26 04:00:00 EDT 2006


My parents are involved in a Rotary Club back home, so I was suprised to hear that Muslim fundamentalists don't like Rotary Clubs. But once you read the story (or I listened to it as a podcast on my way into work), you can understand how the situation arose. The Rotarian Menace



This Linux logo rocks  Sat Jul 08 04:01:00 EDT 2006


This Linux logo rocks ... from a story about Apple Hates Grandmothers ... or basically about how proprietary sucks.



JBlog: Added Categories  Sat Jul 08 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I added categories to JBlog (The software I wrote to generate this site.) Some testing is still in order, but it should also be generating rss feeds for each category. I want to stick my site into a planet site, and I really need categories for this.



JavaOne 2006 online  Wed Jul 05 04:01:00 EDT 2006


JavaOne 2006 conference slides and audio are online - Woo Hoo!



Moving to Linux from the Mac  Wed Jul 05 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Lots of geeky internet types are moving from Mac's to Linux (including one famous guy who has a mac tatoo, Cory Doctorow .) This guy, Mark, posted some advice about Linux programs that correspond to Mac ones. Even though I'm a die hard linux guy, I found his post, Essentials, 2006 edition , recommended a program or two that I need to check out...



ITASoftware  Wed Jun 28 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Well the winds of chance of changed, and now I'm heading off to work for www.ITASoftware.com . They apparently do lots of stuff with Linux/Lisp/Java . So I should fit right in. I found an article, Carl de Marcken: Inside Orbitz , which seems to give some real details of how the business works there.



No Apple  Tue Jun 27 04:01:00 EDT 2006


At lunch today, I was on my Microsoft is evil shtick, someone suggested I go Apple. I explained that, to me, Apple is just like a mini-Microsoft. But a blog post by Mark Pilgrim, When the bough breaks , does a much better job of explaining why I don't embrace Apple.

When people hear Free and/or Expensive - they usually think of money, but I usually relate them to freedom and time. I use Linux not because it costs nothing, but because it gives me freedom (to make any changes I want.) I don't avoid commercial software because it costs money, I avoid it because it doesn't do what I want and it costs me more to work around it's annoyances. (Google Toolbar spellcheck rules.)



Google Toolbar  Tue Jun 27 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I installed the Google Toolbar, because it was on http://blog.russnelson.com 's site. And I know Russ is both smart and very savvy. So I thought I'd try it out. I love the fact that it gives you spell checking in Web Forms!! Since I can barely spell, its hugely helpful!! Give it a spin yourself.



My OPML  Mon Jun 26 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I've been using the RSSOwl program for a few months now. I really like it - it helps me stay on top of whats going on. I track these sites myrss.html and the same list in opml format .



Flash can be good  Wed Jun 21 04:00:00 EDT 2006


An interesting advertisement http://www.bobscube.com/ and a good use of flash.



Damn sites that steal your content  Tue Jun 13 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Another thing I hate is these online photo services who let you upload high res photos, then only let you share them in a online photo album as low res photos. Shutterfly bad!



How to Succeed...  Mon Jun 12 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I find Ben Stein interesting. He wrote a short article about getting ahead, How to Succeed in Hollywood -- and Anywhere Else . He is pushing his book, but an enjoyable article none the less.



FireBug Debugger  Wed May 31 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I do the occasional JavaScript development. I was surprised this weekend when debugging some JavaScript to find that FireBug , already an excellent FireFox development tool, now includes a JavaScript debugger. Wow! Works great!



comment system added  Fri May 26 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Well, I used Ruby on Rails - and some JavaScript including using the Prototype library to layer on a commenting system on to my blog. It's pretty simple (so be nice.) It's kinda of neat that the page itself is still static html, the comment system is layered on as an AJAX application.



Classmates.com and LinkedIn.com suck  Thu May 18 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Classmates.com and linkedin.com are interesting social network sites. But I hate when they try to hold you hostage. For example, I wanted to email someone in LinkedIn and I get this....

Contact SOME PERSON directly through InMail?? To send an InMail now, upgrade your account or purchase individual InMail credits.
This is annoying and limits the growth of their system, as many people just wont use the system. Nobody wants information to be locked up... yet that is exactly what classmates.com and linkedin.com do, they try and hold information for ransome. I ranted and I feel better.


I've been learning about Ruby on Rails  Sun May 14 04:00:00 EDT 2006
tcpmon  Tue May 09 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Finally a public TCPMonitoring utility.... I can't even remember how many of those I'v written over the years.... why didnt I opensource any of mine? I think they were small hacks.... Yea, I know eclipse/wtp has one built in - but I like small little utilities that have source code - so I can go in an beat it when needed....



Linux is easy  Mon May 08 04:01:00 EDT 2006


If you know what Linux is, then you should check out this awesome user testimonial . Game on.



Cringely is sometimes interesting  Mon May 08 04:00:00 EDT 2006
Most popular programming languages....  Thu May 04 04:00:00 EDT 2006


The tiobe site, http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe_index , shows how popular different programming languages are. Although I mostly do Java (21.316%), I'm learning both Ruby (0.456%) and C# (3.271%).



RSS feed added, RSSOwl rules  Thu Apr 27 04:00:00 EDT 2006


My good friend Greg asked me about an RSS feed for my page, so I added one. It is the feed.rss link near the top of the page.

RSS is most often used with a news reader. Since I wanted to test out my new feed.rss, I tried to find a decent free RSS client. I tried google's reader and I thought it sucked. Then I found RSSOwl and it rules! It's built on the eclipse engine so I'm not too surprised.



More kids photos  Mon Apr 24 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I added a smattering of kids photos to the kids page



JavaOne Remote  Thu Apr 20 04:00:00 EDT 2006


Finally, the JavaOne 2005 presentations are completely online (slides and audio .) I've only ever been to one JavaOne, but sometimes I would like to attend a presentation (via the web), finally I can. This rules!



New Job - Miva  Fri Apr 14 04:00:00 EDT 2006


I now work for Miva.com as a senior architect (cloud-dweller). They do search and advertising stuff. I added the search box on blog home page Ads on the side of this page to toy with search/advertising stuff.

What exactly does Miva do? Well, from Miva's investor relations (Miva is a public company) here is a description;

MIVA's new media platform facilitates performance marketing for partners (publishers), advertisers and consumers (end-users). Our primary focus is on providing our partners with a complete set of innovative solutions enabling the acquisition, retention and monetization of their online audiences. For our advertisers, we provide solutions to manage, optimize and measure return on investment from keyword-targeted and context-related performance marketing programs. We generate traffic and leads to our advertisers through our network of publisher partners. Our integrated e-commerce merchant solutions allow online stores to capitalize on leads by offering robust online storefront, shopping cart, shipping, and payment capabilities.


Wanna B Archie-Tech  Fri Mar 03 05:00:00 EST 2006


I designed the process for withdrawing money from an ATM. I created a class diagram , sequence diagram and an activity diagram . (I assumed the card holder only ever has 1 account.) Pretty cool.



  Mon Feb 20 05:00:00 EST 2006


I just got a Garman C320 for my wife (Happy Valentines day honey!) I've been in cars that have GPS systems before, but I was never the driver. And I was never familiar with the display. After having tinkered with my wife's for a few hours, and then used it in the car - I was blown away. It's just amazing to have all that additional information available. Its like having a symbolic debugger for your travel. After only using it twice, I feel naked when driving without one. The C320 was almost $400. Amazing.



  Sun Feb 19 05:00:00 EST 2006


I'm an advocate of open source software. My rational is simple. I want whats best for everybody and I think the best thing for everybody is open source. Closed source has advantages primarily for the proceducer of software (developers). Open source gives advantages to the users. Since there are usually many more users than developers, typically the common good is for the software's source to be freely available. Thus open source software is in the commmon good. Open source enables freedom. The freedom to change, modify, and redistribute. Even though most users (and most developers) never do drop down and make changes to open source software, we all benefit from the developers who do. In the same way all citizens have certain rights and even if they don't all exercize them, everyone benfits from everyone having those rights.



  Sat Feb 18 05:00:00 EST 2006


Two new entries on the Kids page , Max is arriving in the "Year of the Dog" and we cleared out the cameras of all of our fall shots.



tech  Sat Feb 04 05:00:00 EST 2006


My coworker says the real power in EJB3/Hibernate is in the associations. Just mapping an object to the database is good, but mapping an object graph is better. So I expanded Person to have a collection of Subscription. Like so,

              
                @Entity
              
              
                (
              
              
                access = AccessType.FIELD
              
              
                )
              
              
                
                  public class
                
              
              
                Person
              
              
                
                  implements
                
              
              
                Serializable
              
              
                {
              
              
                @Id
              
              
                String email;
              
              
                String name;
              
              
                @OneToMany
              
              (mappedBy = "email", cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
              
                List
                
                  subscriptions;
}

So then I had to create another class, Subscription....
                  
                    @Entity
                  
                  
                    (
                  
                  
                    access = AccessType.FIELD
                  
                  
                    )
                  
                  
                    
                      public class
                    
                  
                  
                    Subscription
                  
                  
                    {
                  
                  
                    @Id
                  
                  (generate = GeneratorType.AUTO)
      public Integer id;
      public String email;
      public String subject;
}
                
              
            
Pretty simple. At first I didn't have the Cascade property on Person.subscriptions, so I was having to load/save them myself (yuckie). After adding the Cascade my life got easy again, woo hoo! I then split the simple driver (from previous blog entry) into two classes, a SessionFactoryFascade (for setting up connections to hibernate), and a FileLoader which reads a bunch of Person's and adds a bunch of Subscriptions. The I wrote Dumper to query the database and print the results. Nice.



  Fri Jan 20 05:00:00 EST 2006


At work we are tied to WebSphere and thus jdk1.4. So for the past 2 years I haven't ventured out into the land of Java5 or EJB3. Well, I have a small project that I wanted to do here at home, so I decided to try out both Java5 and EJB3. After two hours of tinkering, I wrote a class named Person ;

              
                @Entity
              
              
                (
              
              
                access = AccessType.FIELD
              
              
                )
              
              
                
                  public class
                
              
              
                Person
              
              
                
                  implements
                
              
              
                Serializable
              
              
                {
              
              
              
                @Id
              
              
              
                String email;
              
              
              
                String name;
              
              }
            
Then I wrote a simple driver , and Wow! I'm reading/writing my POJO into the database without writting any SQL (not even to create the table!) Sweet!!



  Fri Jan 13 05:00:00 EST 2006


I attended a NEGeeks dinner on Wednesday. It was cool to meet up with some other geeks and trade stories. I did learn one important thing. Never, if dared, agree to drink the contents of an upside down frisbee filled with beer. I turns out 5.5 cans of beer can be poured into such a vessel. Good to know!



  Sat Dec 24 05:00:00 EST 2005


The new fedora logo is cool. Its got the 'f' for fedora , and the infinity symbol for freedom forever. Swell.



  Wed Dec 21 05:01:00 EST 2005


We are expecting our second child in March. Do you guess boy or girl?



  Wed Dec 21 05:00:00 EST 2005


This site, http://reddit.com/ , is a cool geek site. It has user rated links to other interesting bits of geek news.



  Tue Dec 06 05:00:00 EST 2005


Seems like Sun is starting to get it. Back in 96, when I worked at Sun, I thought it was pretty simple. When Unix wins, Sun wins. So doing everything possible to promote Unix was good for Sun. Including open sourcing all products ( from Schwart's blog ) Seems they finally agree with me.. although did they leave out java?



  Mon Oct 31 05:00:00 EST 2005


Posted some photos of our trip to Disney on the kids page



  Sat Oct 22 04:00:00 EDT 2005


Released 1.7 of jbum! Mostly this added the menu item "File/Order images by exif date". This takes your photos and arranges them by the date stored in the photo. This is really handy when you use more than one digital camera on a trip or multiple people use their cameras (say a birthday party) and you want to merge the results into one story.



  Fri Aug 12 04:00:00 EDT 2005


The Bean turned one last weekend. One of my little projects was to do the artwork for a CD in the party favors. check it out



  Sat Jul 23 04:00:00 EDT 2005


Updated the Bean's page with photos from our Family Vacation to Florida.



  Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2005


Some people visit their parents and enjoy the relaxing warmth of home. My fathers idea of warmth and comfort means asking me to help go out to the tree farm and burn some trees... In these photos, you can see that the warmth part was pretty covered!



  Sat Apr 23 04:00:00 EDT 2005


If you know Javascript, then check out greasemonkey . It lets you modify webpages by injected javascript into every loaded page. It's crack

UPDATE 05/17, there's now a story on wired about greasemonkey



  Fri Apr 01 05:00:00 EST 2005


I wonder if I will be like this when the bean is older...

I updated the Bean's Page with some pictures of him and his pals



  Thu Mar 31 05:00:00 EST 2005


My home town, Rome New York, has an Amtrack Train station. My father snapped some photos at the dedication today... go pop!



  Wed Mar 23 05:01:00 EST 2005


I updated the bean's page with photos from Maine and St Patrick's day...



  Wed Mar 23 05:00:00 EST 2005


Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, that love of work is success. -David O. McKay


  Sun Feb 13 05:00:00 EST 2005


Well, after getting the top replaced... I had the new car for three days and then I got into a fender bender. Oops... It was just after a big snow storm and the roads were a little slippery.... Ah well, accidents happen.... I should soon have it all fixed up....



  Sun Jan 23 05:00:00 EST 2005


Woo Hoo, we get a new car... Here are some pics . Here is a pdf document showing exactly what I ordered. Happy Driving!



  Tue Nov 30 05:00:00 EST 2004


While visiting my parents, I took a trip up to my fathers Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree for Christmas. I took some pics.



  Wed Nov 17 05:00:00 EST 2004


A sometimes funny page, joy of tech had a funny anti microsoft image today... They have a new image every day....



  Sun Sep 19 04:00:00 EDT 2004


Updated Liam's page with some shots of him at 5 and 6 weeks...



  Sat Sep 18 04:00:00 EDT 2004


I updated my photo to web program, jbum.sf.net , fixed some more bugs, made it easier to use... enjoy!!



  Tue Aug 31 04:00:00 EDT 2004


My father is getting city water... He sent me some photos of the water works . I like the heavy equipment... cool stuff..



  Fri Aug 27 04:00:00 EDT 2004
  Wed Aug 18 04:01:00 EDT 2004


More farm house Rehab 5



  Wed Aug 18 04:00:00 EDT 2004


I now have a son... see my son's page over here



  Sun Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 2004


I thought this is a funny comic



  Sun Jul 25 04:01:00 EDT 2004


We get some Big Visitors in our neighborhood.



  Sun Jul 25 04:00:00 EDT 2004


Some shots of the new desk for Crystal



  Wed Jul 21 04:00:00 EDT 2004


My father sent out another update from Rome, New York...

Rehab 4 on the farm house



  Sun Jul 11 04:00:00 EDT 2004


My father continues more work on his farm. I even helped with some of it.

Isn't retirement for rest?



  Sat May 15 04:01:00 EDT 2004


I got a new gig at ph.com . I am helping move some Microsoft (C++/MTS/COM) stuff to Java.

My office is a desk in a hall way .... Crystal didn't believe me, this is my proof....



  Sat May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2004


Here are some pictures from our four days in Florida for a much needed vacation... We stayed at the South Seas Resort on Captiva Island... A Fantastic Time!



  Wed May 12 04:00:00 EDT 2004


My father is working a little project .... Nice to be retired.... although is this really "taking it easy" ?



  Sun Apr 25 04:00:00 EDT 2004


Crystal and I did some yardwork (last weekend) and took a small hike in our back yard... Photos



  Sat Apr 24 04:00:00 EDT 2004


If it doesn't have an open-source reference implementation, the term "standard" is an abuse of the language.
--Eric S. Raymond, from Q&A: Raymond Expounds on Open Letter to Sun, McNealy



  Thu Apr 22 04:00:00 EDT 2004


I got a new camera. The nice thing about my new camera is it's small size. It is a Casio EX-M20U.



  Wed Apr 14 04:00:00 EDT 2004


I cut up the card board boxes from babypea's crib and dressers into nice 2 foot by 3 foot strips. I bound them together with twine. Then I see the recycle guy come by and go, leaving my nicely bound and cut up behind... Sheesh... why do I bother... I felt like this cartoon.



  Sun Mar 28 05:00:00 EST 2004


If you program in Java, you must try it. Eclipse m8 is out. Eclipse rules.



  Mon Mar 22 05:02:00 EST 2004


Choosing a language for the Desktop.... Java, Mono, or C++? Naturally, I tend to favor java... but this Essay is an interesting overview.



  Mon Mar 22 05:01:00 EST 2004


Marc Andreessen, Netscape Co-Founder, 12 Reasons for Growth of Open Source

  1. "The Internet is powered by open source."
  2. "The Internet is the carrier for open source."
  3. "The Internet is also the platform through which open source is developed."
  4. "It's simply going to be more secure than proprietary software."
  5. "Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."
  6. "Incentives around open source include the respect of one's peers."
  7. "Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants."
  8. "Servers have always been expensive and proprietary, but Linux runs on Intel."
  9. "Embedded devices are making greater use of open source."
  10. "There are an increasing number of companies developing software that aren't software companies."
  11. "Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
  12. "It's free."


  Mon Mar 22 05:00:00 EST 2004


How much in our lives is real reflection, and how much is just spinning our wheels?

Quote: "A friend of mine once characterized the majority of computer scientists as people who would rather spend weeks of hard hacking than an afternoon in the library."

I wonder, am I more the *library* or more the *hack* type? I more likely to just take the afternoon off and search the web to see if someone has already done the 'hard hacking' :-)



  Thu Mar 11 05:00:00 EST 2004


We finally got our baby's web page started.... Woo Hoo!



  Thu Mar 04 05:02:00 EST 2004


My father recently took a walk through the snow in upstate new york to visit his Christmas Tree Farm he emailed along some photos of his recent walk. Updated the link My father put up a more detailed version.



  Thu Mar 04 05:01:00 EST 2004


"A witty saying proves nothing." --Voltaire



  Thu Mar 04 05:00:00 EST 2004


A quote from the Halloween 10 article, "The brave new SCOsource business model is now clear: sue your customers, shill for Microsoft, kite your stock, and pray you stay out of jail. "



  Thu Feb 26 05:00:00 EST 2004


Cute... (click on the image) "Something bad is about to happen...."



  Wed Feb 25 05:02:00 EST 2004


Good article about opensourcing Java . Much better than Eric's plea. I like this quote "A GPL-ed Java would be Microsoft's biggest nightmare."



  Wed Feb 25 05:01:00 EST 2004


An interesting interview ...

"Einstein once noted that an explanation should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. ... Explaining the world through a collection of objects is just too simple! The world is richer than what can be expressed with object-oriented syntax."


  Wed Feb 25 05:00:00 EST 2004


[Note: this has heavy programmer speak] Software today is all about complexity. Systems seem to grow until they are so complex that they collapse in on themselves. Something needs to be done to make things simpler... I think this Naked Objects is an interesting idea about how to use a framework that exposes all the details of your objects. I also like the idea of the user and developer having the same frame of reference. This stuff looks pretty neat. I think it will be important.



  Thu Feb 19 05:00:00 EST 2004


UPDATED - Pete finishes the floor!

My wife's office is getting a new floor . My brother Pete is doing the install. Go Pete!



  Wed Feb 18 05:00:00 EST 2004


Wow, I was mentioned in my buddy Bryan's weblog!!!

I thought it was funny that I mention his blog, he mentions mine, I mention that he mention mine. Funny because a lot of people reguard the entire blogging thing as pointless drivel... and I was kind of making fun of that. Too much subtlety.



  Thu Feb 12 05:00:00 EST 2004


My buddy Bryan finally got a blog . It's only got one entry so far, but way to go Bryan :) He mentions that he leased an Audi...



  Thu Feb 05 05:00:00 EST 2004


Interesting article, Why 802.11 is underhyped to quote, " With some 802.11 radio chips approaching $5 price points, Wi-Fi will likely be embedded in every electronic product under the sun. ... Make no mistake about it: 802.11, or one of its backwardly compatible descendants, will dominate the wireless communications sector over the next 10 years the same way the x86 architecture dominates computing and that Ethernet dominates networking. ".



  Thu Jan 29 05:00:00 EST 2004


This image from the Mars rover was just seconds before it started having problems.



  Fri Jan 02 05:00:00 EST 2004


I have been trying to learn and use UML for years... but it never seems to stick (other than the simpliest class and object interaction diagrams.) So, I like this quote...

"UML reminds me a lot of the old OSI seven-level network model: Everybody learned it, everybody referred to it, and everybody knew why it didn't apply to their particular situation." --Ed Nisley, Dr. Dobbs Journal, December, 2002, p. 74



  Sat Dec 27 05:00:00 EST 2003


Here is Our Weddding Announcement in the local Billerica newspaper.

Yea, this ran in the paper almost a year ago... Crystal has been sick (Flu?), so I have been catching up with my backlog of photos.



  Thu Dec 25 05:02:00 EST 2003


Well, this is our first Christmas in our house. Here are some shots of our first Christmas.



  Thu Dec 25 05:01:00 EST 2003


Here are some photos from our Griswald Family Vacation. The Gelinas Family somehow got the idea to go on a cruise for the week before Christmas. A good idea, warm sun and fun instead of shopping in the mall. The Gelinas's invited the Cameron Family. So we all went. It was good time, although the weather wasn't as sunny and warm as we would have have liked.



  Thu Dec 25 05:00:00 EST 2003


Sometimes I think I spend too much time on the computer... But then I look at see what other people do with thier free time ... and I think... maybe I am ok...



  Sat Dec 06 05:00:00 EST 2003


Well, jadn.com is finally back. I ended up returning 2 hard drives to Maxtor for replacemtent... lets see how long the replacement lasts....



  Fri Oct 31 05:00:00 EST 2003


A nice quote,
"Next time one of your non-tech friends asks for system advice, suggest a Mac. You'll be doing the entire world a favor." from this blog entry ... The blog entry is a comment on the register story I quoted 2 days ago.



  Thu Oct 30 05:00:00 EST 2003


I call my wife Sweet Pea . I had some fun using an image program to make an image of her as a sweet pea. I found it amusing.

I used the www.gimp.org to merge the images.



  Tue Oct 28 05:00:00 EST 2003


A interesting story about security, Joe Average User Is In Trouble Notable to me because I have started playing with Java's WebStart stuff. It is pretty cool.... I love this little quote (from the article)

"Do you update your anti-virus software regularly?" I'll ask them. Most look at me as though I'd just asked them if they refloozle their hossenblobbets with tinklewickets.
Sometimes I forget how non-programmers see things.


  Mon Oct 20 04:01:00 EDT 2003


An interesting read, An Open Letter to Microsoft , suggests to Microsoft to play nice with Linux. Good idea.



  Mon Oct 20 04:00:00 EDT 2003


My buddy Jerry's company got a write up. Interesting... Revivio Vies for Backup Bucks



  Fri Oct 17 04:00:00 EDT 2003


I work for Sun Microsystems. They make Unix systems. Developers love Unix. But Sun seems to do so little to keep developers happy. I hate Microsoft, but Microsoft does such a good job of making developers happy . When will Sun rise to the occasion?



  Tue Oct 14 04:00:00 EDT 2003


This article was pretty good... He focuses mostly on WiFi, but talks about the growth of technology in general.. I like this quote,

"Innovations happen when people have the opportunity to add value"


Atree4u.com  Mon Oct 13 04:00:00 EDT 2003


I recently got my father's web site, atree4u.com back up and running . It had been down since we got reset because of the hard drive crash. It looked to me like he updated his site since I last saw it... cool...



  Sun Sep 28 04:00:00 EDT 2003


If you follow the Linux -vs- SCO, you might appreciate how funny I thought this was

"In an apparent oversight, SCO forget to issue a press release this morning asserting yet another ownership claim against parts of the Linux kernel. Worse, no one has filed a new lawsuit against SCO today or even offered to indemnify Linux users against this predatory company's actions."
The whole story is here


  Sat Aug 30 04:00:00 EDT 2003


Two weeks ago Crystal turned 30. We had a birthday part at a nice resturant in Boston. Here are some shots



  Tue Aug 05 04:00:00 EDT 2003


I was suprised to hear today that the Apache Group is creating a new project in it's incubator. An open source EJB container... Yet another J2ee engine... wow. Seems kinda late to the game, but Apache's licensing terms might make this an attrative option for some companies.



  Sat Jul 26 04:00:00 EDT 2003


We had a hard drive failure... Yikes!!! Luckily I had a backup, so everything got reset to early May. Ah well, maybe monthly backups would be a good idea.... humm...



  Mon Apr 28 04:00:00 EDT 2003


I havent said anything thoughtful in a while.... how about " The unchallenged mind is fertile ground for the whims of any ideology "... I read a weblog by Dave Winer and he is always coming up with interesting insights.



  Wed Apr 09 04:00:00 EDT 2003


I enjoyed reading the story C# is just Java?only a little worse , but I tend to like stories that strengthen my own beliefs.



  Sat Apr 05 05:00:00 EST 2003


On November 9th, 2002 Crystal and I got married. Here are the photos from the wedding ! Enjoy.



  Tue Apr 01 05:00:00 EST 2003


I read this article about Understanding the Psychology of Programming and it stuck with me. I think it was an interesting read. Enjoy. Kinda scary picture of the author...



  Tue Mar 18 05:00:00 EST 2003


My next geek toy has to be a Wrist PDA available this summer. It runs palm's OS which is an excellent PDA. The palm is great with storing appointments and ToDo lists. Plus it works well with linux - Sweet.



  Thu Feb 27 05:00:00 EST 2003


The Watertown NotYourAverageJoes has been my favorite restaurant of late. We tried the Arlington one, but weren't very happy. The "baked pasta" special in Arlington wasn't as good as the Watertown one. Disappointment. The Watertown version uses bow-tie pasta in a tomato and cream sauce that is very awesome. The Arlington version was a strange pasta with plain tomato sauce... boo...

Ah well, the new house in Tewksbury is far away from any Joes...



  Wed Feb 19 05:00:00 EST 2003


How do you like that, having my own blog isnt edgy anymore.
As Internet trends go, the practice of publishing Web logs, or "blogs" for short, has followed the usual trajectory. In 1993 having an e-mail address was edgy, but by 1995 it was fairly common. So it has been with blogs, which started to really enter the cultural consciousness last year. See the rest
Sheeh



  Tue Feb 18 05:00:00 EST 2003


Only 10 days left before we move into Our new house , OH JOY!!!



  Sun Feb 16 05:00:00 EST 2003


A recent article in, "I, CRINGELY" entitled How to Avoid the Almost Certain End of Sun Microsystems was a interesting read. A bit scary for people who (like me) work at Sun... I have always felt Sun could do a lot better by making Solaris more like RedHat. RedHat bundles thousands of useful tools with their release, Solaris comes with almost nothing by comparison. It is a shame that Sun doesnt adopt a RedHat like approach to delivering functionality in/on Solaris.



  Tue Feb 11 05:00:00 EST 2003


If you are a linux user, then you should also find that switch to linux flash animation is hilarious. It mimic's the now famous "switch to mac" advertisements.



  Sat Feb 08 05:01:00 EST 2003


ZDnet has an interesting story on Blog's, " Blogs become key tools for developers "



  Sat Feb 08 05:00:00 EST 2003


Frank first mentioned the Shuttle PC after he read a review on Tom's Hardware . He was really excited about its small form factor and wide range of capabilities for a reasonable price. Some of his excitement rubbed off on me. And for Christmas I got one. (THANKS HONEY!!) The shuttle comes as just a case, power supply and mother board. I added;

2.4GigHz Pentium 4 (over clocked to 2.7 Gig)
a 60 Gig Hard Drive
512 Meg Ram
a CD-Rom RW
a GeForce2 MX-400 Video Card
and loaded with RedHat 8.0, It is a sweet little machine!



  Sat Jan 25 05:00:00 EST 2003


I am visiting my buddie Bryan in NYC. I went to Linux expo on Friday for an hour or so, pretty boring. We went bar hopping last night, that was fun.



  Wed Jan 22 05:00:00 EST 2003


This here is an interesting story on a cloned kitten . I love the name of the company that did the clone, " Genetic Savings & Clone ." Kitty so cute.



  Tue Jan 21 05:00:00 EST 2003
  Mon Jan 20 05:00:00 EST 2003


Well, Linux World Expo is happening in NYC this week. So there should be lots of exciting Linux news!! Woo Hoo!!



  Sat Jan 18 05:00:00 EST 2003


I have a new contract with Sun Microsystems. I work on the Capacity Reporter part of Sun's networks storeage management software, ESM Suite. It is great to be back at Sun and cool to be learning about new technology.



  Wed Jan 15 05:00:00 EST 2003


Wow, this could be very cool... google doing a pricing engine.... froogle.com



  Wed Jan 08 05:00:00 EST 2003


Some people whine about how opensource will destroy the software industry. I have always felt this was incorrect but I couldnt eloquently explain my position... I like this quote from Russell Pavelick (who is quoting Doc Searls)

Imagine a housing market in which trees are scarce. In that market, much money is made by the few companies that control the expensive commodity called lumber.

But then imagine that someone discovers a nearby land with bountiful forests ready to supply vast quantities of inexpensive lumber. Suddenly, the once-lucrative lumber trade is no longer the virtual gold mine it once was. Instead, the home builder becomes the chief money maker in the new resource-plentiful housing market.

Has the discovery of cheap resources destroyed the housing market? Not at all. In fact, the new market is likely to flourish because more people will be able to afford new homes at significantly lower cost. Has the market been disrupted by the change? Yes, because those that build the total solution (the house) stand to make more money from higher volumes, while those that provide lumber will only make modest profits on building materials.

Open source does much the same thing to the software industry. It will no longer be possible to charge exorbitant prices for basic software resources. There still will be plenty of room for profit in services, solutions, and even highly specialized closed-source software. But the days of high prices for basic resources will come to a close.



  Sun Jan 05 05:00:00 EST 2003


Heard the film, Spiderman , is all that and a bag of chips. We rented the DVD, but we weren't blown away. Crystal liked it. I didn't enjoy that much, I felt let down.



  Sat Jan 04 05:01:00 EST 2003


Crystal and I are buying this house . We can't wait to move in!!! We close on Feburary 28.



  Sat Jan 04 05:00:00 EST 2003


My page is a weblog. I mimic'ed slashdot.org , my favorite site, in setting up the layout of my weblog....

Anyway, lots of people now have weblogs. The technorati site keeps track of which weblogs are the most popular. Pretty cool! You can check it out here, http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/top100.html Chock full of interesting reading.



  Wed Aug 14 04:01:00 EDT 2002


Jerry and Gail had a BABY! I (per usual) snapped some shots



  Wed Aug 14 04:00:00 EDT 2002


Crystal's Birthday was August 13th. To celebrate we all went to Crystal's favorite Lobster restaurant in Maine. And I shot some photos.



  Tue Aug 06 04:00:00 EDT 2002


I just got a new toy! The Logitech Digital Camera, it works best in bright light (it has no flash.) Here are some sample shots



  Sun Jul 28 04:00:00 EDT 2002


Some photos of the trip Crystal, Zuzu and I took to Rome right before the Fourth of July.



  Tue Sep 04 04:01:00 EDT 2001


 

The project continues with painting the outhouse.

 



  Tue Sep 04 04:00:00 EDT 2001


 

The project continues with painting the outhouse.

 



  Mon Sep 03 04:01:00 EDT 2001


 

Crystal and I are going on a cruise leaving on Aug 8th. Woo Hoo. Not working is a difficult way of life. The cruise ship info is here

 



  Mon Sep 03 04:00:00 EDT 2001


 

Crystal and I are going on a cruise leaving on Aug 8th. Woo Hoo. Not working is a difficult way of life. The cruise ship info is here

 



  Fri Aug 10 04:00:00 EDT 2001
  Wed Jun 20 04:00:00 EDT 2001


Last weekend my sister rented a vacation home for the family's Cape Cod Vacation. It was a lot of fun!! My father put together these shots

 



  Tue Jun 05 04:00:00 EDT 2001


 

Took a trip to Rome, New York on Memorial Day weekend. Snapped some shots of my dad playing with his tractor and a tractor trailer that had overturned!



  Mon Jun 04 04:00:00 EDT 2001


 

On Friday I took a canoe trip on the Charles River and snapped some pictures .



  Tue May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2001
  Wed May 02 04:00:00 EDT 2001
  Sun Apr 29 04:00:00 EDT 2001
  Mon Apr 23 04:00:00 EDT 2001


 

As a big fan of AOL's instant messaging system, I found the article " My Two Cents on AOL's Blockings " very interesting. It explains when they have blocked clients and why.



  Tue Apr 17 04:00:00 EDT 2001


 

Here is a picture of me during a camping trip with my father and his brother in May of 1970. I was four years old.

 



  Thu Mar 08 05:00:00 EST 2001


Good news for me. A recent survey by Gartner,Inc says "Java Careers Still Hot" . Whew!


  Mon Mar 05 05:00:00 EST 2001


Today's quote
"[...] open source has the potential to bring the software industry back to the marketplace; following a decade in which one company determined what innovations would take place, when and at what price." ZDNET: Microsoft's spin on linux


  Sun Mar 04 05:00:00 EST 2001


Some interesting quotes....

First annoying Microsoft says something stupid

"Open source is an intellectual-property destroyer," Microsoft's operating systems chief Jim Allchin said, "I can't imagine something that could be worse than this for the software business and the intellectual-property business."
http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2001/02/15/unamerican/index.html

RedHat, a Linux vendor, Responds,

"I'd argue that a worldwide monopoly, enforced by business practices that a federal judge has found to be predatory and anti-competitive probably has more to do with killing innovation than anything the open source movement could ever do." Red Hat's CEO
from http://www.zdnet.com/sp/stories/news/0,4538,2689856,00.html

Richard Stallman rules! He says,

"The Free Software Movement was founded in 1984, but its inspiration comes from the ideals of 1776: freedom, community, and voluntary cooperation. This is what leads to free enterprise, to free speech, and to free software. "
Richard's article is interesting. Reat it here in this article


  Fri Mar 02 05:00:00 EST 2001


 

Try out Voice of the Web . I have been helping to hack it for months now and it is ready!!

 

 



  Sun Feb 25 05:00:00 EST 2001


 

This Boston globe article ECONOMIC PRINCIPALS Gates vs. the poets kicks ass! Amazed that a print paper understands these issues.

 



  Wed Jan 03 05:00:00 EST 2001


Some pictures of snow from Rome, NY


  Thu Dec 14 05:00:00 EST 2000


I think this article is a good read , for us geeks anyway. It is an interview with super geek Eric Raymond. Here is a quote,
IBM, it is now the policy of that company, announced by its president, [...] every new piece of software written at IBM must be issued under an open source license, unless the development managers can make a specific business case why that should not be.


  Tue Nov 28 05:00:00 EST 2000


An interesing article about aggregation sites.
About 400,000 people now use aggregation services that gather financial information, up eightfold this year, Marenzi says. With major banks and Web portals joining the fray, he predicts the total will double by year's end and reach 8 million by 2004.


  Mon Oct 09 04:00:00 EDT 2000


Microsoft pisses me off.
[..] Microsoft defended its statements in court by saying its reference to defining the standard "is mere puffery upon which consumers cannot reasonably rely and, therefore, does not constitute false advertising." Whyte [the judge] then examined the legal basis of puffery, or "puffing," as it has been defined in earlier false-advertising cases. Whyte noted that "puffing" is an exaggerated, generalized or ambiguous claim and not "a statement of specific fact upon which a consumer would reasonably rely."

From this story



  Wed Jul 19 04:00:00 EDT 2000


An excellent geeky article about the new Honda Insight . It a new electric/gasoline powered car from honda. Very nifty!


  Wed Jul 12 04:00:00 EDT 2000


WOO HOO!! I read a book! That hasn't happened in a while. I give this book, "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastican Junger, an A-. Very entertaining. Filled with interesting details and facts about fishing, weather, boating, emergency rescue, etc... I can see why the book spent 10 months on the New York Times Besterseller list ! I thought the story wandered a bit, but the book was pretty hard to put down. I liked the colorful and descriptive language used. The character descriptions were quite good.


  Wed Jul 05 04:00:00 EDT 2000


Now an article in the Boston Globe, Lumapath lights the way for Web surfers


  Tue Jun 27 04:00:00 EDT 2000


My company's first press release, LUMAPATH Inc. Launches Online Branding Solution , WOO HOO. And they changed their name to Lumapath from Netcontext.


  Sun Jun 04 04:00:00 EDT 2000


Good article Java and Linux. My favorite two technologies!!! The coming Java-Linux duopoly A must read for you geeks!!!


  Wed May 24 04:00:00 EDT 2000


Short but good article on Open Source The Cold War Bits .


  Tue May 23 04:00:00 EDT 2000


Updated my Resume to include my current work at NetContext. Since I suck at the written word, PLEASE LET ME KNOW if you find any boo boos. Thanks!


  Wed May 17 04:00:00 EDT 2000


Clearly my father is trying to out do me in the web photo album catagory of life.

See his latest entry A few shots on the twins new birthday swings to see what I mean!



  Mon May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2000


My fathers got some shots of some easter twins in fancy duds


  Wed May 10 04:00:00 EDT 2000


My sister twins had their first birthday party, and I grabbed some shots. I started writting little notes next to each picture. Then I got tired of that. Also I forget peoples names and such. Bad me.


  Fri Mar 31 05:00:00 EST 2000


some pictures from the office featuring myself and Ed.


  Wed Mar 29 05:00:00 EST 2000


Ok. Day 2 with camera. I bought the recharging station and a 48 Meg Compact flash for the camera. They should arrive in a few days. Just for fun, I took some shots at dinner. Here they are. I tweaked the software to generate 3 levels of detail: Thumbnail, 800x600, and the orginal image. I changed to three levels because of complaints from Ed about how long the images take to view. I hope you are happy Ed!!


  Tue Mar 28 05:00:00 EST 2000


Bought myself a new toy. A Canon Powershot S10 digital camera. Its neat-o. It is very compact (fits in shirt pocket.) Here are some shots I took today (just to test it out.) Frank and I getting pizza at Bertucci's


  Sun Mar 05 05:00:00 EST 2000


Jerry, Gail, Frank, Pete and I ventured out into the real world briefly then quickly ducked into a theater. We saw the movie The Sixth Sense . It was a very good film. It was a little bit scary, a little bit of a mystery, and a little bit of a love story. Everyone pretty much enjoyed it. I would encourage people to see it. I would grade it an B+/A-. It was very thought provoking too. One of those films that you think/re-think and talk about for quite a while. It doesn't leave your mind very quickly.


  Sat Mar 04 05:00:00 EST 2000


My father recently got this nifty camping chair . He says it is good for sitting in parks or up at the farm. It weighs 9 pounds and takes about 2 seconds to remove from the bag. The bag is hanging on the door knob. It cost $13 at Kmart. Life's simple pleasures.


  Mon Feb 21 05:00:00 EST 2000


I am no sports nut. But I can understand the circumstances that led to this creative solution .


  Fri Feb 18 05:00:00 EST 2000


Here is a story about the mill complex that our company is in. Kind of sets a boom or bust kind of tone that I am not too wild about. Hopefully the dot.com economy has some energy still in it.


  Wed Feb 09 05:00:00 EST 2000


The startup that I work at is called www.netcontext.com . We are still building our product in secret, so the web page is pretty vague. Ah well... That will probably change in a month or two...


  Sun Jan 23 05:00:00 EST 2000


I work inside the mill in Maynard. Check out http://www.clocktowerplace.com/ for the scoop on the mill. Its a corporate site so you might want to get some coffee first.


  Sun Jan 02 05:00:00 EST 2000


ESR's message on DVDs and piracy was a good read.


  Tue Dec 28 05:00:00 EST 1999


Here are some Christmas day snaps of my sisters babies!


  Mon Dec 27 05:00:00 EST 1999


An excellent article, Pied Piper of Technology , is all about Bill Joy. One of the many crazy brains at Sun.

"Voracious Reader at Tender Age of 3 A tousle-haired Shakespeare fanatic who consumes as many as a dozen books on an extreme range of topics daily, Joy still browses in the local bookstore, even after becoming Amazon.com's second-largest individual customer."

I am overjoyed when I read a book a month. Sheesh...



  Sun Nov 28 05:00:00 EST 1999


Articles by Bill Gurley are always a fascinating read. He seems to make the complex obvious... like this article on stock valuations . killer.


Thanksgiving  Thu Nov 25 05:00:00 EST 1999


We had a splendid Thanksgiving here in beautiful Rome, NY.

My sister's twins are Christmas ready .



  Sun Nov 14 05:00:00 EST 1999


Check this link, www.microsith.com specially if you hate Microsoft.

3 more baby pics right here



  Fri Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 1999


This kitty should cut back on the crazy lifestyle.


  Sat Oct 09 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Ok, where do I find parties like that? I hope my next job is in a bigger box.



  Fri Oct 08 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Continuing with my immature theme, here is a spoof on a popular commercial. DOH!


  Tue Oct 05 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Ok, a friend of mine sent me this picture of a city cross street. Can you figure out why he mailed it to me? (clue: He isn't my most mature friend ) This is in pretty bad taste, but humorous.


  Mon Oct 04 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Here is an intesting place to pickup unusual ideas, www.memepool.com . They even have a link to that Jive Delta Clip (that I posted below)


  Sun Oct 03 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Rented the off beat but funny movie Office Space and ended up seeing it twice. If you have ever worked in cubicle, I strongly recommend checking out this film. It has a lot of dilbert style office humor.


  Sun Sep 26 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Updated my Resume to include my current work at Radnet. Also updated some of the company links. Sweet. Let me know if you find any boo boos. Thanks!


  Tue Sep 21 04:01:00 EDT 1999


This audio clip is a 'Jive Delta Airlines Commercial' farce. It uses strong language, but it is very funny.


  Tue Sep 21 04:00:00 EDT 1999


This audio clip is a 'Jive Delta Airlines Commercial' farce. It uses strong language, but it is very funny.


  Mon Sep 13 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Here is the latest from my sister... arent they just the cutest!

My Father posted more pictures here



  Wed Jul 28 04:00:00 EDT 1999


FYI!!! This is (NOT) an actual radio conversation between a United States Navy aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and Canadian authorities off the coast off Newfoundland in October, 1995. (The radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10/10/95 as authorized by the Freedom of Information Act.)

Canadians: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Canadians: No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Americans: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS, AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH...I SAY AGAIN.....THAT'S ONE-FIVE DEGREES NORTH.... OR COUNTER-MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP!!

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

Ok, that story is pure urband legend... Not too suprising, but someone did actually check;

"That story about the USS Lincoln is pure BS. At the time it was supposed to take place the ship was on the West coast in dock. I can find no record of the USS Lincoln having ever been near Nova Scotia. My information came from official naval records."

- Mike.macmonagle@hill.af.mil



  Sun Jul 18 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Well, FYI, I quit laying about and got back to work. I am working at www.radnet.com on a Portal type project. It is interesting work with smart people. How can you beat that?

I updated my Links to be the sites that I currently check daily... the old list was pretty beat.



  Fri May 21 04:00:00 EDT 1999


      [ FYI, someone emailed me this, I didnt create it. -- lllike PLEASE ]

                                                Start with a cage containing five monkeys. In the cage, hang a banana
                                                on a string and put a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey
                                                will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the Banana.  As soon
                                                as he touches the stairs, spray all of the monkeys with cold
                                                water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same
                                                result --aaall the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon,
                                                when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will
                                                try to prevent it.

                                                Now, Turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and
                                                replace it with a new one.  The new monkey sees the banana and wants
                                                to climb the stairs.  To his horror, all of the other monkeys attack
                                                him.  After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to
                                                climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

                                                Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with
                                                a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The
                                                previous Newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again,
                                                replace a third original monkey with a new one. The new one makes it
                                                to the stairs and is attacked as well.  Two of the four monkeys that
                                                beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs,
                                                or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

                                                After replacing the fourth and fifth original monkeys, all the monkeys
                                                which have been sprayed with cold water have been
                                                replaced. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs.
                                                 
                                                Why not?
                                                 
                                                Because that's the way it's always been around here. And that's how
                                                company policy begins....
    


  Sat May 08 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Last weekend, Pete and I visited Rome and my sisters twins. Got some some photos right here.


  Wed Apr 28 04:00:00 EDT 1999


My sister had identical twin girls today!!! Woo Hoo!!! Pictures here!! Lets hope the circus is still hiring!


  Tue Apr 20 04:00:00 EDT 1999
  Tue Apr 06 04:00:00 EDT 1999


My brother and I recently saw The Matrix . We both thought it was a good movie. At first I was worried because the last movie that I saw Keanu Reeves in, Johnny Mnemonic , really sucked. I read the book (Burning Chrome) that Johnney Mnemonic was based on so perhaps that set my expectations too high. Mnemonic just seemed to get so cheesy so fast. But "The Matrix" was much better.

Another reason I was surprised to like this film is, I knew most of what was going to happen (ie. I saw the trailer). So I was surprised how much time I spent after the film mulling over all the things that were in play. The movie certainly provided some mental entertainment beyond just the smooth visuals and decent acting, it provided some paradoxes and situations that kept me thinking through stuff. Nifty.



  Mon Apr 05 04:00:00 EDT 1999


Jerry and Gail are moving into their new house . I helped a little by helping move the dining room table and packing 5 boxes of Jerry's computer games. Joy.

Getting rid of Jerry's games put me into a spring cleaning mood. I finally got rid of all the boxes of books that I had lying around. The books are now sorted into four sections:

  • Books to donate to the library (1 box)
  • Reference Books (1 box)
  • Books I enjoyed and want to keep (1 box)
  • Books I should read (3 boxes)
The "Books I should read" is my biggest category. I now have about 120 books on my "to read" book pile. Damn you amazon.com !!! Actually most of the books (about 60%) are science fiction books Jerry as purged from his collection. About 20% are books on computer languages and systems. The remaining 20% are on general science and self improvement stuff.

So If I were now to set out and read a book a week (a blistering pace compared to my current rate of a book every month or so), I would be done in about 2 years. Woo Hoo!



  Tue Mar 30 05:00:00 EST 1999


Ok, It has been been a while... I have no excuse for not updating this. I have been not working since February 15th. When people ask, "Why are you not working?" I give a variety of reasons,
  • My hands need a rest (I have some RSI issues)
  • As a consultant I can afford to take a few months off
  • My brother Pete says, "I am rich powerful and lazy like the rich of the world"
  • My brother Pete and house-mate Matt were looking for jobs and I envied their job free lives.
  • Because I hate getting up on Monday's to go to work.
  • I miss summer vacations.
  • Because I can.
There is truth to all of these. Not working kicks butt. Although keeping entertained is an issue. I have been using the time to visit friends and family. I also have been playing with the Dragon Naturally-Speaking product and doing some additional hand/arm/shoulder exercises. Fun.


  Fri Feb 05 05:00:00 EST 1999


Updated the picture page of my parents house. My father supplied me with a graph of their yearly gas consumption. These people know how to party!


  Fri Jan 08 05:00:00 EST 1999
  Wed Dec 23 05:00:00 EST 1998


I helped out with tree farming on yet another weekend. Here are the photos to prove it! My father ownes and operates a tree farm. This is his tree farm webpage.


  Sun Nov 29 05:00:00 EST 1998


Ok, by popular demand! Here are some photos of Thanksgiving and Tree Farming . Enjoy!


  Sat Nov 07 05:00:00 EST 1998


Jerry, Frank and I watched TimeCop . It is a pretty good film if you like action films. Jean-Claude Van Damme does a pretty good job of acting. The action combined with the time travel issues make for an entertaining combination. I would rate the movie a B+.


  Sun Nov 01 05:00:00 EST 1998


Just finished reading "The Microsoft File" . It was an interesting book, although not very well written. It seemed like it was smattered togther from many interviews and/or news accounts. It didnt have much of a cohesive story, but it certainly seemed to draw out a "pattern of behavior" of microsoft business practices. Basically Microsoft is pretty "evil". Concerned with its own survival and growth above all. Basically a disgusting a organization.


  Tue Oct 27 05:00:00 EST 1998


Volume 2 and 3 of the South Park DVDs showed up today! Frank and I rewatched two classics "an elephant makes love to a pig" and "Tom's Rhinoplasty." The image quality was not especially noteworthy. Every episode has a mini-introduction from the south park creators. The intros are funny but also somewhat lame. Worth seeing once, but I wouldnt recommend buying the DVDs for them.


  Mon Oct 26 05:00:00 EST 1998


I suffer from RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury.) It sucks. I recommend reading Erik Barkley's experience to gain an idea of what this is like. I have experienced and/or read about everything mentioned.


  Sat Oct 24 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Well, Jerry and Gail got married . I have some pictures here, http://jadn.com/wedpics/ . They did a fantastic job (fast bit in the Church, open bar at the reception.) Dave Goldblatt has some pictures here, http://www.psyton.com/ibrowse/ (see the nuptials section.)


  Sat Oct 17 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Movie Madness continues (I have been seeing a lot of films lately) with "The Player" . I would give this move a letter grade of B. This movie was recommended to me by JC, someone who actually works in the movie industry. JC is really friend of a friend. JC has done some music videos and worked for Tom Cruise for several years. He thought that the movie really captures the craziness of Hollywood.

I was expecting the Film to be a light hearted satire of the movie making business, but it was much darker film. It definitely did draw out the Hollywood scene, but the main character, played by Tim Robbins, was hard to identify with. For most of the film, he is "trapped" in a situation that he is unable to resolve. The situation slowly grows to nearly consume all his attention and then slowly wanes. For much of the film, he seems caught in a kind of low grade panic. The film does do this interesting thing of constantly reflecting upon itself (like the opening scene being one big shot.) Overall it was an enjoyable piece.



  Fri Oct 16 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I watched the DVD "Wag the Dog" tonight. It was a good film. I would give it a B+. It would have been a bit better if the Clinton thing hadn't occurred and made the story less of a satire. I enjoyed the movie enough to review the DVD supplemental material. It was interesting to hear Dustin Hoffman's approach and difficulty in playing the producer role. Especially since I thought he did such an excellent job.

I didn't like part of the films ending, so I was pretty pleased to hear it discussed in the supplemental material. After hearing the producers thoughts I can at least appreciate why that part was done the way it was.



  Wed Oct 14 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Saw my hand occupational therapist, Elaine, today. She recommends that I;
  • run my wrists under cold water every 2 hours for 30 seconds (to reduce swelling)
  • take Ibuprofen every day for 2 weeks (to reduce swelling)
  • stretch every 30 minutes (raise palms in a stop sign motion and move hands forward slowly straightening my elbow, then repeat with fingers pointing downward) (to keep tendons from shortening?)
  • finger stretch (hold palm flat and upright, use other hand to hold three fingers flat then curl remaining finger to palm. Repeat for each finger of both hands except thumbs.)
  • She recommends using the "no hands mouse" to rest my tired tendons...
She is the boss! Can you say "RSI sucks? Sure you can."


  Tue Oct 13 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I saw the movie Mr Bean this evening. Overall I would give it a C+, you really have to be a Rowan Atkinson fan to enjoy this film. It had many funny moments, but it seemed to take a while to get to them.

I was hoping that the DVD version would have some extra gaffes or an interview with Rowan, but no luck. It only had the trailers.



  Mon Oct 12 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Ok, A hacker broke into our site, so I have been pretty busy with rebuilding our system (only secure this time.) This month's Scientific American has a pretty good article about hackers.

Saw the movie Boogie Nights staring Marky Mark (or Mark Wahlberg). It was a trip. Toto this isn't Kansas anymore. It was similar to pulp fiction in that the film told the stories of many characters.

The DVD was pretty cool. It contained about 11 scenes that were cut from the film. The DVD also had a sound track where the director, Mel Smith, talks about the film. It is cool to hear the thoughts and intentions of the director. It gives extra depth to the film and the craft of film making.



  Tue Sep 22 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I saw a Harvard Healthcare primary care physician on an express visit last Thursday. He diagnosed me with chronic tendonitis. Which basically means the tendons in my forearms have been hurting for a while and not healing on their own. Seems like I use the computer too much. Bummer. Especially since I tend to make my living from using the computer (for now anyway!)

The doctor agreed to send me to occupational therapy. I will be seeing a Hand Therapist, Elaine LeCroix , hopefully soon. (UPDATE: Scheduled for Oct 14th)



  Thu Sep 10 04:00:00 EDT 1998


My father recently went to a renaissance fair and snapped some photos. He says he was just experimenting with the camera, so expect shots of the family or great lighting effects... Good to see Pop is getting out of the house! :-)


  Fri Sep 04 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I am going home for the long weekend. Lucky me! Must remember to snag the camera... Might camp out at the farm, don't yet know for sure.


  Sun Aug 23 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I installed a new door bell for our house. Notice the professional attention to detail, like the nail posts to wrap the wire on. I did a good job.


  Mon Aug 17 04:00:00 EDT 1998


If you think my pages are ok, check out roger's pages . A pretty wild ride...


  Tue Aug 11 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Ok. The vacation pics are ready. Actually my father beat me to the punch. He hosted the vacation pics here , enjoy!!


  Mon Aug 10 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I haven't gotten bored with updating this. Ok, maybe a little. But I also have been battling a RSI flare up. Mostly my tendons in my forearms. A good posture, keeping your wrists straight, and taking breaks are important to prevent this painful and crippling condition. YOU SHOULD TAKE ACTION NOW. Goto http://amazon.com and search on RSI. buy and read.


  Sun Aug 09 04:00:00 EDT 1998


We have been invaded. Jerry and Frank's cousin Matt has just moved in. Check out the first day of his job search here. GO MATT!


  Wed Jul 29 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Just got back from a week long vacation in South Haven, Michigan. My family was having a annual get together. The house was right near the beach and town. It was pretty sweet. I have some pictures of the trip. I will post them soon... :-)

Here is a Blast from the Past Check out this news paper article from when Jerry and I were little kids... sweet.



  Wed Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 1998
  Tue Jul 14 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Ok, here is a joke.


A farmer walked into an attorney's office wanting to file for a divorce. The attorney asked, "May I help you?" The farmer said, "Yea, I want to get one of those dayvorce's."

The attorney said, "well do you have any grounds?" The farmer said, "Yea, I got about 140 acres." The attorney said, " No, you don't understand, do you have a case?" The farmer said, "No, I don't have a Case, but I have a John Deere."

The attorney said, "No you don't understand, I mean do you have a grudge?" The farmer said, "Yea I got a grudge, that's where I park my John Deere." The attorney said, "No sir, I mean do you have a suit?"

The farmer said, "Yes sir, I got a suit. I wear th to church on Sundays." The exasperated attorney said, "Well sir, does your wife beat you up or anything?"

The farmer said, "No sir, we both get up about 4:30."

Finally, the attorney says, "Okay, let me put it this way. "WHY DO YOU WANT A DIVORCE?" And the farmer says, "Well, I can never have a meaningful conversation with her."




  Sat Jul 11 04:00:00 EDT 1998


A big howdy hi! I have been pretty busy working... Our product at work is supposed to go into "Beta" in 5 weeks and I am the guy who has to test it! Belch. So I have been pretty busy writting/worrying about automated testing and getting enough coverage.

As you can no doubt see, I have finished the paperback book on the right. I thought it was a pretty amazing read. It was just so weird to read Ben Franklin's own words. He talks about setting up shop in Boston and traveling to and from London. It is remarkable how down to earth the living legend was. In all of his writing, he is amazingly humble... Perhaps I could learn from him. Nah, I don't need any improvement. :-)



  Wed Jul 08 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I recently finished this book, How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. It is an excellent book! It describes evolutionary psychology, which is a way of looking at how humans are designed and built. Basically we, like dogs, cats and mice, have evolved in a Darwinian fashion. This implys that natural selection has crafted behaviors that cause us to live and reproduce. Little things like why we compulsively choose to eat cheesecake, or why guys are so much more aggressive than gals... This book explains the current state of the art in understanding how evolution has shaped us... And it is a pleasure to read!! I strongly recommend this book, click on the image to go to amazon and get a copy now!


  Tue Jul 07 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Not much is going on today, so here is a blast from the past. A lot of people point out that my writing skills suck, but here is real proof that they have improved. Click here to see a writting sample from when I was 13 years old (in 7th grade)... Probably not my best work...


  Sun Jul 05 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Frank and I left Rome around 5:30 and arrived back home in Arlington at about 10pm. I had fun this weekend. My aunt Roberta, cousin Jennifer, and Jennifer's cousin Sarra were visting. I see them about every 5 or so years, so it is a little like remeeting them everytime. I left the air hockey table in Rome. I will have to get it next time... It was quite fun playing, but it did make our hands a little sore...


  Sat Jul 04 04:00:00 EDT 1998


A nice dreary 4th, a good day to cuddle up to the keyboard or go shopping or do both. We did both... hit the dollar store, K-mart, and wall-mart... bought some odds and ends... including an air hockey table for $65 bucks... Don't know how I am going to get that home... Maybe Jerry and Gail can fit it in their car... humm...

Check this out , an excellent article by Dave Barry about Windows



  Fri Jul 03 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Rome I am in Rome, NY today! The 5.5 hour ride out here sucked, but the traffic was very light. Frank and I made a wrong turn near Albany, so we spent 15 minutes driving towards NYC. I am showing my Dad how to use http://quote.yahoo.com and setup a stock portfolio. It is a pretty cool feature of Yahoo to let you track your investments.


  Thu Jul 02 04:00:00 EDT 1998


A-OK! There was much rejoicing today. The product we are working on was accepted by the customer. Woo Hoo... At work we were a little nervous about this because we found a number of problems in the past few weeks, but we think we have it straightened out now...

I tried race walking today... Race walking is just like regular walking except you do it really fast... This causes a lot of hip swing and rapid arm movement, which in turn causes you to look and feel like a goof. But a race walk workout is as effective as a jogging/running workout with much less chance of injury. (Much lower impact) I might try changing 1/3 of my daily run to incorporate race walking...



  Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998


bug Happy Joy. I helped find a big bug in the product today (I am wearing a Quality Engineer hat this week.) It was a major flaw. At first I thought it must have been the test that was broken. We now believe that the problem has been there all along, but our customers just haven't come across it. It is good we were able to find it first! It is also good to feel I made a positive contribution. DOH!


  Mon Jun 29 04:00:00 EDT 1998


News Pretty normal day in the office until 4:30... Then Dave and I cut out and went to see the X-Files Movie. I don't do well with suspense films. Apparently the X-Files is big on suspense... The loud Jaws like music would set me on the edge of my chair... Quite frankly the Movie scared me and I don't enjoy being scared. So I got up and walked around the outside of the theater for awhile. I then continued to watch the movie but only by standing at the back of the theater near the door (so I could duck out.) That is just they way I am. It kind of sucks, but such defects are better than bone cancer. When I was little I watched the Wizard of Oz from behind the couch. I guess one of the things that make me "me" and diffrent from the "average person" is this funny problem of not being able to distance myself from the violence or suspence in a film (or a book.) Even though I know it is just a film or words on a page, part of me reacts to the idea of the circumstance independently of actual occurance. I once took a date to see "The Fly" and I had to get up and leave during the film because it freaked me out too much... Now that was scary and embarrassing...


  Sun Jun 28 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Spent today debugging problems with my IDE controllers and hard drives. Still don't completely know why certain configurations (Master/Slave) don't work while other configurations do... (all my hard drives are Maxtors...) But after many hours of jiggling and trying and tweaking, the system seems to be in a stable state... very cool.


  Sat Jun 27 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I lead an exciting and rewarding life. In part thanks to companies like Staples who by selling the simple and beautiful Bill Payment Center help to make my life a joy. I cannot even begin to convey how much this simple device has brightened my life. Gone are the stacks of bills, hunting for the check book, searching for stamps... I feel like a new man!! Seriously though, it is pretty clever... click on the image for more details.


  Fri Jun 26 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Today we visited provincetown. A very artsy and "expressive" place... Naturally we went up the Granite Tower, very cool. We also did some shopping (naturally.) I bought some Tee Shirts (like what else) and a plain (but quite nice) baseball cap (so I don't look like Don King when I first get up in the morning.) As the evening drew to a close, Frank and I realized we had nearly gone 48 hours without Internet access. Since the house had to be vacated Saturday morning by 10am (so the next renters can take over), Frank and I decided to get back to Boston. We made it home at about 1am and spent the next hour or so Surfing the net... :-)


  Thu Jun 25 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Today we went to the beach, great fun. Layed around in a folding lounge chair underneath the hazy sky... I only got a slight burn on the back of my neck (the Sun poked through late in the day), but Frank, somehow, managed to burn both his legs and his arms pretty good. Perhaps the slight tan that I got on the camping trip shielded me.

While laying about on the sand, I did get some major reading done. My sister loaned to me John Grisham's The Partner. It was a very good read, although more like an ice cream style read than a substantive meal like read. None the less, reading it was Fun!



  Wed Jun 24 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Ok, on Wednesday night Frank and I packed up and left for the Cape at about 8:30pm, so we didn't get to the house Jerry and Gail rented until about 11:30 (we stopped for eats at Pizza Uno.) The house they rented was interesting. It was a simple smallish 2 story A frame house, like you might find vermont near the ski slopes. The house had two strong themes; 1. it was decorated with lots of arty nick nacks that look like they were done by the owners wife (lots of painting of chicks and stuff) 2. the house looked like it was assembed with scraps from a 1000 other construction jobs (the owner was a builder.) So every window was different from every other one, every piece of trim was different from every other one... The house it self was almost art like in the strangely disconnected way everything was tied together... Perhaps Jerry snapped some shots of the house...


  Tue Jun 23 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Not much new... Jerry and Gail are lounging at the Cape so Frank and I are going it alone... although we plan to go out to the Cape Wednesday evening and hang out through Saturday. Roger Goun (the guy on the right) recently asked me If I intend to go with Jerry and Gail on the honeymoon too? I would just like to say that I haven't been asked, but my bags are packed.


  Sun Jun 21 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Well, I am spending this weekend working in the office. Oh poop. We have a deadline to meet, and I want to take Thursday and Friday off to hang out with Jerry, Gail and Frank in the Cape. That should be like camping, no computers. :-)


  Thu Jun 18 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Well, I mounted the computer tray onto the table. Sweet.

Brian and Linda Romano are visiting this weekend. They arrived this evening. They also brought thier mutt, Elvis. Jerry and Gail are going to play tour guides on Friday and show them around a bit... Fun fun...



  Wed Jun 17 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Watched SouthPark and B5. Kick ass. Ran twice today, once in the morning and once when I got home from work... Don't know what came over me... It was just a nice cool evening and I had the power! Bumming because I did want to finish setting up my "new improved computer desk"... I am in the process of attaching a keyboard tray to the folding table that I use as a computer desk... I will have to snap some pics of this project. As Red Green says, "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."


  Tue Jun 16 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Still cleaning up after the big hard drive problems... Lots of images in the picture gallery have gone funky... I am working to restore or purge problem images... :-(


  Sun Jun 14 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Installing Red Hat 5.1 did not go well. (should have been about 4 hours took about 10 hours) My IDE controller suddenly didn't like my second drive... Which was the one that held all my data (after installing RedHat Linux cleanly on to my first drive.) I think everything is back to normal now... but I still need to "deal" with my flaky controller... I think I will wait for "system doctor" Frank and seek his advice.


  Sat Jun 13 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Rainy weekend. Good weekend to upgrade server. So, today is the day I install the new Red Hat . Cool once I have it all going... suckey as I expect it will take a few hours of horking to get it all the way I want it.


  Thu Jun 11 04:00:00 EDT 1998


I worked from home today... that was a nice change... gets rid of that ugly 1.5 hr I normally spend riding to and from work... I was also able to run some errands. Like getting my hair cut (thank god), buying some new running shoes (asics gels - nice shoe), and some roller blades! Cool, now I find out it is going to rain all weekend... Must not use rollerblades on wet surface. Must not use rollerblades on wet surface. Must not use rollerblades on wet surface. :-(


  Wed Jun 10 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Saw SouthPark and B5... both good episodes... SouthPark was mostly about Jimbo and Ned's local access show titled "Hunting and killing". B5 had londo finding out that his home planet is guilty of attacking all the aligned worlds.


  Tue Jun 09 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Worked like a dog today... 14.5 hours in at 9:30am out at 2:30am (time off for lunch and dinner.) We were making a product release deadline. We made it, just barely.


  Sun Jun 07 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Saw the The Truman Show . It was weird. The film's story was as advertised, but result left me with many things to think about and contemplate. It is certainly an unusual scenario. It left me asking questions about "What is reality?" and "What is morality?" Overall I would give it a B+, and recommend seeing it.


  Thu Jun 04 04:01:00 EDT 1998


Updated the nolan page . Hacked on some demo Java code for dee. Went to a morning conference on Sun's "Ultra AXI" mother board. Mostly to drag out information about the JavaChips... Sun seems to be taking the "some day soon" approach to getting JavaChips released...


  Thu Jun 04 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Went camping at the farm! My father and I took some snapshots ...



  Tue Jun 02 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Beat on this page a little. Got the dates soft colored (gray) and in the upper left. It is good to have goals in life. Installed JBuilder2, it looks complicated. I think I am gonna stick with just emacs and the JDK. The gas pedal on my truck got stuck again today. That sure puts some excitement into the routine. It seems to loosen up with a few stomps, but it doesn't always happen at the best times... 1998


  Mon Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Ok Ok Ok! Changed the images sizes for the animations to be small... Shesh doesnt everyone have a cable modem? :-)



  Sun May 31 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Redid this home page. Always a work in progress.



  Wed May 20 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Put picture of my cousin's baby Nolan online. Bryan and Bev Bundle of Joy.



  Mon May 18 04:00:00 EDT 1998


Dee keeps whining about updating the images... like I have the time!!



  Sun Apr 26 04:00:00 EDT 1998

Jerry and Gail got engaged, to each other! Oh Joy!