IT Conversations

IT Conversations

Techinal talks & interviews

DigiBarn Screen Shots: Screenshots Funstuff

DigiBarn Screen Shots: Screenshots Funstuff

OMG...some of these are priceless. MS Offcie with EVERY toolbar showing is one of my favs.

DigiBarn Screen Shots: Screenshots Funstuff

DigiBarn Screen Shots: Screenshots Funstuff

deseretnews.com | Anti-U.S. feelings growing

deseretnews.com | Anti-U.S. feelings growing: "...Most people fear anarchy more than they crave freedom."

That about sums it up. We havent exactly been the best of stewards in Iraq, despite our heroics and sacrifice. We broke it...we bought it.

Personal space / local environment

Recently working on a death march project where I'm having to do much more coding than has been the norm lately.
That by itself is a treat and is making me forget my normal outrage at these kinds of projects and the organizations that are prone to them.

With about a week into what smells like another 4, I'm realizing/remembering how much the local environment matters to focus and productivity.

In fact, I havent really curled up to bang out an implementation once in this new cube yet. It needs some optimizing.

This is the essence of what Bob is chiming about with observations about how noisy EP can be.

I realize there's a lot you have to do for yourself to make your cube comfy. Headphones are a first line of defense. Mgrs usually hate them, arguing that they get in the way of communication. I've succombed to some good noise cancelling ones.

Hmmm...this noise / distraction issue isnt just a nit from Bob. I didnt think it was when he raised it. Hmmm.

How to promte a relatively distraction free working environment without being hypocritical or militant?

I think there's some wisdom in a) advertising the value of quiet and focus to those in the dept. and b) enforcing respect of quiet from people outside the department.

That is, we dont scold or even point out noise and outburts from within the dept. but we will not shrink from consistiently asking staff from other depts. to respect focus and quiet.

AgileManagement

AgileManagement: "and 'perfectionists"

Mitsubishi blues?

Kansas City Star | 11/29/2004 | MIDDAY BUSINESS REPORT: Fed looking for signs: "Mitsubishi Motors Credit of America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc.
Mitsubishi Motors has been plagued by a series of defect-coverup scandals in Japan that have badly tarnished its image and sent sales plunging here.
But its sales and profits have also suffered in the United States, partly because it had sold too many cars to people with bad credit.
Mitsubishi Motors has previously said it would scrap the risky financing deals, cut jobs, trim production and reduce sales to rental and other fleets to make its U.S. business profitable."

Safari 1.2 now supports XMLHttpRequest!

Foisted by MS in IE 5, a variant picked up by Mozilla 1.0, and now finanlly I find its supported Safari 1.2!
Dynamic HTML and XML: The XMLHttpRequest Object

I notice that Google is also using it in their auto-complete/Google Request beta.

We'll make some good use of this, knowing it's supported widely now.

"the 'how-the-hell-do-I-roll-back-the-changes-i've-made-to-the-db' problem" vs. mock objects.

I changed my mind - Mock objects are wrong for database unit testing

Heh...we went lazy too and ended up putting together a nice ADO transaction layer around our DAO...turns out to be also useful in the large.

Terrorism & Security: why do they hate us?

"They hate our policies, not our freedom"

Pentagon report contains major criticisms of administration. Actually not quite the Pentagon's opinion, just an independant Defense Science Board. Pentagon must have been obligated to publish it...slipped it out quietly Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I do wish we were hearing more clearly though the western media what the victory criteria were for the insurgents/terrorists. I'm too cynical to believe it's simple bloodlust. Did we ever wonder what the Black Panthers wanted, or the Palestinians, or the IRA?

Crap...I gues it doesnt matter anymore...it's their Red Dawn...Wolverines!

Yahoo! News - Families endure private war

Yahoo! News - Families endure private war

Really provking piece on the perspectives of our returning soldiers & the contrasts of war.

SketchUp 3D - Training - Video Tutorials

Really great example of using CBT and a smart marketing tool to show off features of what seems to be an amazingly powerful and yet simple new class of 3D drawing tools.

SketchUp 3D - Training - Video Tutorials

Smells like a really small shop...which is something I miss about the intimacy and clean slates of early dot com projects.

Ofoto Browse Photos

Sam & Jen's Ofoto Photos

eMachineShop - Online Machine Shop - with FREE CAD Software

Stumbled across this today. I remember seeing something like this back in the bitnet days at KU.
eMachineShop Downlod their CAD software, design your part, get quote, submit, ship. Coolness.

HP iPAQ h4355 Pocket PC,

HP iPAQ h4355 Pocket PC Cheap!

XPWeb | Introduction

A co-worker turned me on to XPWeb, an XP project management tool. Have to check it out soon.

Bulk Residue & Vesicles from Space, Press Release (1/30/01 PNAS)

"These droplets (~10 �m across) show structures reminiscent of cells (although they are not alive). They are from a chemically separated fraction of the bulk residue."

MeadCo's ScriptX

MeadCo's ScriptX may be a simple solution to the "why do I have to click "print" twice in a browser app?" befuddlement many users complain about.

Gwynne Dyer: Take Bin Laden's video message with a huge grain of salt

Gwynne Dyer: Take Bin Laden's video message with a huge grain of salt: "If the United States had not invaded Iraq last year (which Bin Laden could not have foreseen), 9/11 would have been a complete failure. Even with the horrifying images that Iraq generates and the fury and hatred that they engender among Muslims elsewhere, there has still not been a single revolution anywhere in the Arab world: The Islamists still cannot get the masses out in the streets to overthrow Arab regimes"

Error Logging Modules & Handlers (ELMAH): Workspace Home

Error Logging Modules & Handlers (ELMAH): Workspace Home May want to consider this for our portal apps.