Life Under the Cross
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
The Warriors selected Ike Diogu with the 9th pick in the draft yesterday. He seems like a solid citizen and basketball player, which does not exactly translate to stardom in today’s NBA especially at the PF position. He doesn’t look athletic. He even looks like he might be a cheeseburger or two from eating himself out of basketball. I don’t know anything about Granger or Green, the guys most “experts” are saying they should have gone after.
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
Check out the music video “Can I Live?” over at http:///www.nickcannonmusic.com. This is how you debate the Pro-Life issue. Laws banning abortion aren’t going to make a difference in this day and age. If Roe v. Wade were overturned, most states would have state constitutional amendments on the ballot ASAP (California would probably hold a special election inside of a week). Personal privacy is too ingrained in our society. Change people’s hearts that’s how you win.
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
Here’s the press release for a guy trying to have Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s house taken using the same logic that was upheld in “Kelo vs. City of New London.” The claim is that a hotel on Souter’s property would generate “greater tax revenue or other economic benefit” than Souter’s residence.
To some extent, this looks like a play for publicity. The guy is pushing a TV show about individuals challenging government. However, I’ll bite and follow where this goes. The premise that someone try to do this to the Justices that made this ruling is the ultimate, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” The ultimate outcome is unlikely to be that Souter’s house is seized, but I hope the Justices get some clue as to how some their rulings are an affront to the Constitution.
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
Subversion is up and running. Took one evening and only a little bit of googling. My biggest problem was that I wanted to use https and had a little trouble setting up the certificates and Apache.
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
If you don’t know your personality type you might want to try the Jung Typology Test. I am an INTJ and it is quite scary how accurate the analysis is. I read some of the other types and I’m pretty sure this isn’t some astrology type of thing where the analysis is ambiguous enough to apply to anyone.
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
A friend of my told me he just got his new title at Big Software Company. I was happy for him because he’s been want the new title for a while. He started talking about how he was at the point where he needed to decide if he wanted go up the technical career path or the engineering management path. My company recently rolled out the engineering career ladders which, while different in titles, was essential the same thing with a technical path and a more people/project management oriented path.
In my younger years, I would have said I’d take the technical path without a doubt. In the last couple years, I’ve considered the more management oriented path, but have still leaned toward the technical path. However, as I’ve looked at it closer, I really don’t care about a career ladder or even a career in the traditional sense.
I like building software. I like the challenges, learning, and problem-solving involved in all aspects of this endeavor. Sometimes it involves writing a specification. Sometimes it involves coordinating with other teams. What in the world does any of this have to do with a career ladder?
I guess career ladders might matter if I want raises and promotions. I like raises, who doesn’t, although I’m not sure how much raises and the career ladder are really tied. If a company wants to keep me and it’s only a matter of money, if they can’t get around the career ladder I’d bail anyway. Promotions don’t really concern me because titles don’t define my level of expertise or ability to get a development job. They would concern me if I had aspirations of being a Director or V.P. but I have no interest.
While I’m working in the world of big companies, I’ll think I’ll play outside the career ladder. When I finally get my microISV up and running, I won’t need a ladder.
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
Marketing has always given me cold sweats whenever I think about the aspects of starting a microISV. Leah Maclean clears up some marketing misconceptions in her Marketing Has a Marketing Problem post.
From my understanding of the post, I can distill software marketing into, “Telling people why this piece of software built?” This is where you’ll find the passion and the belief.
If the marketing has to be any slicker than that, I’d wonder about the usefulness of the software. If the development team can’t tell you why they built the product how can you expect to make a compelling argument for someone else to use or buy it?
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
One of my goals is to create a game in Java. I have some ideas for a game and I know Java, but not specifically for game programming. So my next step on the road of this project is to read “Developing Games in Java”. I loosely follow the Getting Things Done (GTD) paradigm, so reading the book wouldn’t be a Next Action it would be more of a project or sub-project of the larger game development project. The Next Action would be reading Chapter 1. So that’s what I’m going to do.
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
Here are some of the things I’m going to tell my brother about in his switch to the Mac
• The Dock - I forget about this sometimes because I rarely use it. But it is there and big by default
• Installing applications - Most apps don’t have installers which is strange when you come from Windows
• Removing applications - ottid (ditto in reverse 
• Quicksilver - Might be too power user-ish for him, but we’ll see
• Spotlight - How do you find stuff on the Mac?
• Expose - What to do with all those open windows
• iDVD - The iBook 12″ doesn’t have a DVD burner so I don’t think he’ll want it and removing it will save almost 1.5 gigs of disk space
• GarageBand - He’s not really a musician and that’s another 2.5 gigs of space
• Azureus - It’s a tool
• iWork - He wanted this because he saw a Pages presentation. He doesn’t know PowerPoint, I don’t think. I haven’t used pages much, but I’m guessing it’s easier that PowerPoint.
• Widgets - Apple actually hides a lot of stuff these days. Who would have thought F12 would be useful on the Mac.
• iMovie - See if he’ll be using it
• iTunes
• iPhoto
• Safari
• VLC - Better than QuickTime MoviePlayer for playing movies
• Mail - Don’t know if he wants to just stick with webmail
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
I just picked up my brother’s iBook and I’m almost as excited as he is to get it. I’m loading some software that he’s going to need like Quicksilver. He’s moving to L.A. next month so he wanted a laptop he could use for his work and was looking for less spyware and viruses. I’m going to help him make the switch. Hopefully, it won’t be too frustrating for either of us. You know how younger brothers are. 
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