I’m launching a new blog over at http://www.webdevindie.com to focus more of my ‘web development’ topics over there. I’ll likely still post some here, but if you want more of my web-related stuff, I suggest that you subscribe to webdevindie.com. Yes, it’s the same theme as this blog for now, so it might be slightly confusing at first, but it is different. :)
Archive for the ‘General’ category
The independent web developer blog
April 28th, 20102008 goals recap and 2009
January 13th, 2009Last year, I wrote a post about things I wanted to do in 2008.
- Lose 30 pounds (I’d be fine with losing 10 this year, but close enough!)
I lost 10, then gained back 5. 
- One blog post per week – I tend to do more than that, but occasionally slip for more than 7 days without, so I’ll likely keep on top of that more. And keep them more focused. I may end up splitting in to two blogs. OR migrate WebDevRadio to WordPress and use that as a combined ‘tech’ blog and podcast.
Didn’t hit this.
- Write one new article per month – I’d like to write more in-depth how-tos than I do (which right now is almost 0). Focus will probably be grails or groovy, but I’ve got some PHP ideas I’m working on. Documenting those would be a good start.
Didn’t hit this.
- Another book in 2008. Funny enough, I did a book in 2007 – well, 2/3rds of one after the publisher reviewed it. It *may* come out this year, which would be nice. I have two other ideas I’m putting together, and I have interest from publishers on them. The issue is time to write, and I’ll work on making that happen.
Didn’t hit this.
- A picture a day in 2008. I don’t think I’ll be doing this one.
Didn’t try!
- Learn a new language. I was inspired to try to learn Chinese this year. I have a tiny bit of the spoken down, but the writing is what I’ll need to concentrate on if I do this. When I was in China, I couldn’t *read* anything, so trying to look it up in a dictionary was pointless.
Had been inspired to get into Chinese because of my 2007 trip, but ultimately didn’t do this either.
What the heck? Well, early last year I had an abrupt shift in the employment situation, which took some scrambling and readjusting to bring in to balance. I’m trying to take a more ‘ownership’ stance over my work and time this year. I made it through 2008 being entirely self-employed, and intend to do so in 2009, unless some great opportunity presents itself (basically, never say never to things).
So – 2009. What are the goals this time around?
- Lose more weight. 20 pounds lighter by January 2010.
- Financial stability – I have a number in mind (and written down) as to where I want to be at the end of 2009. Never written one down before – we’ll see how that goes.
- GroovyMag and related projects being profitable enough to meet all basic living expenses every month by the middle of 2009. This is a somewhat modest goal, not over the top. The over the top stuff comes a bit later.
- Get in to other information publishing arenas – books, videos, training – either produced by myself, or acting in the publisher role for other talented people.
- Speak at at least one conference this year (besides Codemash, which I just got back from).
What are your goals for 2009?
Couple of thoughts on music piracy
December 23rd, 2008Was reading a couple of blog posts on music piracy recently, and the same tired old threads kept coming up. “Music tracks are just advertisements for the artist – they should make their money selling T-shirts and tickets to live shows.”
I’ve contributed this rebuttal, as have others – “what about music that can’t be performed live, or wasn’t intended to be? Beatles’ Sgt Pepper being a prime example, but even most of Revolver couldn’t have been done justice ‘live’”. Rebuttals to that rebuttal inevitably come back with “technology is so great now – anyone can do it. Phish redid the White Album live, etc”. Not trying to be Beatle-centric here, just some points of reference that make most sense to me. Substitute Zappa or Pink Floyd or whatever to suit your taste.
The “sell tshirts and tickets” has always bothered me, but not until today could I put my finger on why. There are two separate reasons, really.
Point one: I don’t need that many tshirts. Really – I like dozens of bands and hundreds of albums – I do NOT need more clothes or trinkets to memorialize them. This adds to clutter/waste, enriches the Chinese companies that manufacture this stuff, and is wasteful (did I mention it’s wasteful?)
Point two: You can *not* replicate the range of experiences people can have with music at a live concert. I don’t enjoy much live music because there’s so much *other* stuff going on around, and usually I can’t afford front row seats for larger shows (Stones, etc.) And for smaller shows, well – I’ve been to a few, and they were enjoyable, but were poor substitutes for the sonic brilliance and subtle textures I get listening to the artist’s CD. Live concerts are just *one* experience – a very short lived one for most people – that you can have with an artist’s music. There’ve been plenty of times I’ve cried at music tracks while riding in the car, or sitting at home being reflective of life, while listening to music from artists that were able to articulate my exact feelings for that moment. I find myself reconnecting with old music on long trips that bring a new perspective to how I used to see certain issues, or help me to reframe my thoughts on old friendships.
In short, the music on an artist’s album can often become the soundtrack for many chapters of your life, for years to come. Marginalizing that power by implying that artist’s music should be given away simply as a marketing tool to attract people to live shows (expecting them to buy shirts to ‘support’ the artist) is narrow-minded, short-sighted, and dare I say insulting to the many bands and artists that strive to achieve something more permanent.
Line-item tipping
December 16th, 2008Was talking with my brother today and got on the subject of tipping (apparently it was on NPR today). We discussed the lousy experience we sometimes get, and there’s no way to indicate that in any way that anyone will notice. I’d like to suggest restaurants start “line-item tipping”.
When you come to leave a gratuity, you’d be presented with 3 lines:
_______ service
_______ food
_______ cleanliness (or ambiance, or something like that)
This would *easily* allow you to let the entire restaurant know – immediately – whether the food was good, the service was good, and the place was clean. Yeah, those stupid little survey cards are at some places, but I never trust they do anything with them.
If I get lousy food, but the server is still good, I’m tempted to leave the server a bad tip as a way of ‘sending a message’ but ultimately it’s really only hurting the server. Never going back to that restaurant is an option, but likely will hurt everyone.
The line-item gratuity would go a long way towards identifying the good parts of a restaurant on a real-time basis.
What do you think?
Hypocrisy of the Detroit automaker bailout status
November 20th, 2008I could write about the execs flying in on private jets and how dumb that looked, but I won’t. They *could* have driven a small cavalcade of Ford and GM cars from Detroit to Washington, doing a small 2-3 day roadshow building public support for their cause, visiting dealerships and parts manufacturers along the way saying “we’re doing this for you”. But they didn’t.
No, what gets my goat is that the Big 3 (Big 2?) are asking for assistance and seemingly being left out in the cold, but the banking and finance industries get 5-10x what Ford and GM are asking for, *seemingly* with no strings attached (did any heads roll at BoA?). Yet it’s primarily the banking and financial industries that *caused* the collapse we’re in right now, which is hurting F and GM especially bad.
Yes, Ford and GM should have seen this coming. They’ve fought CAFE standards for years, yet can produce natural gas cars for other markets, and can produce higher MPG cars for other markets. They’ve lived high on the low-MPG SUV gravy train for too long. But really, they’re getting caught in the crossfire of something far larger than they can handle, through *some* fault of their own, but not entirely.
Ideally, what would happen is Congress would agree to a certain amount of loans, provided a decent plan of turnaround is proposed, which would need to include high MPG cars *immediately* (within next 6 months on showroom floors) and some degree of leadership change. It’s clear that the long-term vision of the entrenched leadership at F and GM have been asleep at the wheel with respect to real product vision. In many respects, I don’t even care who the replacements are – almost any new blood would likely be better than the old blood. While this is partially me spouting off, it’s also informed by some conversations with friends in Detroit and at some of the Big 2, both recent and from years ago. The story’s been pretty much the same for years. As an extreme example, go find the ‘death of the electric car’ video someplace and watch that.
Yes, Detroit should have ‘seen this coming’, and perhaps we shouldn’t ‘reward’ their failed leadership for not seeing a potential financial crisis. But somehow we, as a nation, endorse bailing out many of the same institutions that had a much greater hand in *causing* the crisis in the first place? Unconscionable, in my view.
In Vermont for a couple days
October 10th, 2008I’m in Vermont (near Thetford) for a couple days. Beautiful foilage here. 
(spelled like Marge Simpson pronounces it).
Catch up…
September 10th, 2008I knew it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but 2 weeks! There’s been so much going on it’s been hard to keep up with life, much less a blog, but here’s a few highlights (mostly geeky):
* Wrote a small C# app for a client, and had to deal with all the lovely intricacies of ‘publishing’ an app. Really, I *just* want to generate a EXE and give it to someone to test, but the VSExpress wizards didn’t have that option. The auto-numbering version stuff was sort of neat, but everything assumed (of course) this would all be pushed out to an IIS/Windows server. How do I know? Cause the directory and file names it made were capitalized, but the HTML page generated to link to the files used all lower-case references. Windows servers aren’t case sensitive, but Unix/Linux are. Just one more small little thing to make it harder to deploy on non-MS tech (and completely avoidable).
* Got Zend certified. Bit of a long story to this one I won’t bore you with here, but I managed to get that done last week. Was nervous as heck (always am before tests) but it went OK.
* Had a good catchup with Fred and Shawn from our Java group over dinner last night. Nothing amazing in and of itself, but it was *great* to just sit and talk tech with some friends for a few hours. Very refreshing. While I don’t know Fred or Shawn terribly well yet (have met each just a few times before) both are very sharp, experienced, and tolerated my rants, so automatically I think they’re great!
* Am making some more progress on my Groovy Magazine project. I think we’ll be ready for a Nov 1 launch. Oct would be too soon I think, given current schedules.
* Signed up for devunity.com – looks suspiciously like a system I’ve tried twice (unsuccessfully) to write, and if it’s half as good as I’m expecting, it’ll be awesome.
* Have been bombarded with more project ideas than I care to have, but can perhaps implement one of these in November if things slow down.
So many things cross my mind over the course of a day, and yet I rarely have time to write them down here. I’ll try to post more regularly here!
Introspective few days – learning about “TMA”
May 31st, 2008I’ve had an introspective few days, taking stock of life and whatnot. The recent IQ tests (and first set of results) played a part in this renewed self-examination, but it’s been brewing for a while. I stumbled on this page and it was as if someone had been following me around for the past 15 years or so. I’m self-diagnosing as a “TMA” using the article’s terminology – TMA meaning someone with “Too Many Aptitudes”.
From the article:
“Among the clearest psychological effects of having many talents are problems of focus. TMAs are drawn in many different and conflicting directions. It is like being an engineer, a lawyer, a cook, a teacher and a musician–all at once, with all of them demanding their share of time and energy. Self-structuring thus becomes a major problem for TMAs. Unable to use themselves well, they usually end up as employees–and resent it.
TMAs often become job hoppers, instinctively trying to satisfy their diverse needs. Job hopping rarely leads to financial success. It also doesn’t lead to the consistent building of knowledge, expertise and reputation that is necessary for significant success in any area.”
This has summed up the last 5 years of my life for sure, but even the decade before that had strong echoes of these two paragraphs.
The problem, as I see it, is that the article just describes what’s going on, but not how to fix it. I kept reading on, hooked and fascinated, but ultimately disappointed, as there’s no ‘cure’ to speak of. How do you focus? How do you fix this? In rather stark terms, the author goes on:
“TMA is not something that can be ignored or cured. It is something that has to be worked with. For most multi-talented people, it is likely to cause problems at one stage of life or another. Many TMAs never learn to use themselves well. Usually their worst problems are associated with lack of financial or professional success.”
Again, like this person’s been following me around for some time now.
This was probably not the thing to be reading right before going to bed, as it’s put me in a rather sour funk. If you’re a “TMA” (as described in this article) how are you getting along?
Election year time of year
May 31st, 2008Around this time (heard some rumblings last week) we start hearing about candidates’ vice-presidential choices. Inevitably talk turns to the candidates’ weak areas and speculation abounds about what VP options might best shore up said weaknesses. Should Barack choose Edwards, who would be stronger in the South and among the poor? Should McCain choose someone with a ‘soft’ image to take the edge of his reported ‘temper’?
Frankly, I really could not care who the VP is. Short of an assassination or or incapacitating event, the VP breaks a tie vote in the Senate. And likely makes a run for the top spot in 4 or 8 years. What’s never discussed is who the presidential candidates have in mind for cabinet positions. While I realize it’s a bit early in the cycle to float names, I think that’s mostly an historical byproduct. *Now* is the time when the cabinet nominees should be being discussed. Cabinet members and judges are two of the most important positions a President appoints. It’s not practical to discuss judgeships – they’re generally on an ‘as-needed’ basis anyway. But cabinet positions will have a direct impact on policy shaping and implementation almost immediately. You want to talk about ‘hit the ground running’? Get a cabinet team lined up *now* and promote that team. Why?
A) It’ll give people a better idea of how your philosophies espoused on the campaign trail will be realized.
B) More cynically, it’s a larger pool of people for voters to connect with (or react against). If a VP nomination is viewed as a way to shore up a candidate’s weak areas, a core cabinet team would accomplish the same thing, but many times over.
We won’t see this in this election, and probably not for many more. Hopefully we’ll see this approach within my lifetime!
Driving speeds and $4/gallon gas – are you slowing down?
May 22nd, 2008I currently don’t drive much, so when I do I tend to be more aware of others’ driving habits than I used to be. Maybe it’s the speeding tickets I’ve had over the years, or maybe I’m just getting old, but I don’t tend to drive very fast anymore. If anything my wife thinks I drive too slow sometimes. With that said, with gas coming up to $4/gallon ($3.95 by my house today, and $4.69 for diesel!) I’m somewhat surprised by how many people haven’t changed their habits.
I was passed numerous times today by SUVs flooring it to pass me, apparently because they wanted to be first to slam on the brakes before the red light (which was already yellow when they were passing me). I want to say I’m exaggerating this behaviour, but I’m not. I was driving 60 on the freeway (yes, in the right lane), but was a bit stunned to see people obviously doing 75 or more. While I realize that people need to get to places on time, it’s reported all over the place that driving slower reduces your gas usage by up to 10%. That’s the equivalent of paying $3.60 instead of $4.00 for each gallon.
My mom told me a few weeks ago she’s paying $80/week to commute across town. It’s likely now close to $100/week. A 10% savings would be saving $10/week – $520 per year. People switch car insurance companies for that, go out of their way to buy extra things to get ‘points back’ for ‘free’ airmiles and whatnot, but won’t just slow down to save money. I don’t get it.
Back when gas was $1.10/gallon, it was much harder to make the financial argument for slowing down. It’s been much easier the past year or so, but I haven’t really seen any difference. Have you? Do you drive slower now than you used to to save on gas use?
