"In Motion..."
So these are just my thoughts. If you don't like them don't read them. If you do, great. Either way feel free to email me.
The Purpose of this blog is for me to do autobiographical writings about how I'm managing my life and things in it. I like to think this means I'm in motion....
I do photography professionally you can see some here
Finally here's me in a self portrait:
The archive is here if you're interested in reading some older posts...
~ Tuesday, November 19, 2002
~ Monday, November 18, 2002
Today
Went very well. Considering how much time I wasted on this or that. I got through my list and i'm ready for tomorrow.
I have a clean inbox in outlook and I have an empty inbox on my desk. I got a magazine in the mail I subscribed to, seems pretty cool check it out here, but they don't seem to upkeep the website like they do the mag itself.
I plan on getting up in the EM too... Early Morning.
Went very well. Considering how much time I wasted on this or that. I got through my list and i'm ready for tomorrow.
I have a clean inbox in outlook and I have an empty inbox on my desk. I got a magazine in the mail I subscribed to, seems pretty cool check it out here, but they don't seem to upkeep the website like they do the mag itself.
I plan on getting up in the EM too... Early Morning.
Super Size it
Got a new binder. Its bigger. Same size pages, but twice the binder size. The case folds at the top of the binder instead of at the rings. So you get more document storage and even a cell phone pocket that won't hold my cell phone but maybe my ear piece.
I also got next years pages. I'm all set I guess.
Got an empty inbox too... oh wait... no i don't... crap... thing keeps filling up... doh i know what to do...
Got a new binder. Its bigger. Same size pages, but twice the binder size. The case folds at the top of the binder instead of at the rings. So you get more document storage and even a cell phone pocket that won't hold my cell phone but maybe my ear piece.
I also got next years pages. I'm all set I guess.
Got an empty inbox too... oh wait... no i don't... crap... thing keeps filling up... doh i know what to do...
~ Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Photo
One of my photos is getting some unusual attention at least for me. Lots of hits and even some ratings.
Click here to see it.
One of my photos is getting some unusual attention at least for me. Lots of hits and even some ratings.
Click here to see it.
~ Monday, November 11, 2002
The Psycology of progress meters
So I've been moving some machines around and reinstalling some things... And I've found that diffrent performance meters have diffrent feels to them.
When installing windows xp the progress meter at the left starts off with 39 mins left. Now if you don't move neither does it. You're sitting at a box it doens't change just sits there. Does nothing. This is a reactive/passive agressive meter.
If you're downloading in IE like a video clip. It goes blank doesn't say a word. as if to say "shut up, you'll get it when you get it"
From windows update they bate and switch ya on the progress meters. sp1? oh thats 1.9 mins. To download the downloader... oh its 41 mins to get the actual sp.
The best one is the xp shell. Those guys must be so anal they update the estimate like every 3 seconds and I'm not sure how they figure the estimate. It seems to keep this update going must be impacting performance. But thats a secondary thing. This meter is the funniest.
imagine these numbers flying by at about 1 every 3 seconds or less
21;19;17;19;28;21;24;12;32; ad nasuem
Its the paranoid schitzofrenic... no wait 17 wait no 18
no no 21 no wait 17
no only 14
no 13
wait no 28
shit 17
crap 19
phew 14
oh man 28
uselesss
I like the mac's progress meter best. "Less than 10 mins" No updates until "Less than 5 mins" ... finally a few mins later "less than a minutes"... Not very useful but hey, It looks *good*... its a mac.
So I've been moving some machines around and reinstalling some things... And I've found that diffrent performance meters have diffrent feels to them.
When installing windows xp the progress meter at the left starts off with 39 mins left. Now if you don't move neither does it. You're sitting at a box it doens't change just sits there. Does nothing. This is a reactive/passive agressive meter.
If you're downloading in IE like a video clip. It goes blank doesn't say a word. as if to say "shut up, you'll get it when you get it"
From windows update they bate and switch ya on the progress meters. sp1? oh thats 1.9 mins. To download the downloader... oh its 41 mins to get the actual sp.
The best one is the xp shell. Those guys must be so anal they update the estimate like every 3 seconds and I'm not sure how they figure the estimate. It seems to keep this update going must be impacting performance. But thats a secondary thing. This meter is the funniest.
imagine these numbers flying by at about 1 every 3 seconds or less
21;19;17;19;28;21;24;12;32; ad nasuem
Its the paranoid schitzofrenic... no wait 17 wait no 18
no no 21 no wait 17
no only 14
no 13
wait no 28
shit 17
crap 19
phew 14
oh man 28
uselesss
I like the mac's progress meter best. "Less than 10 mins" No updates until "Less than 5 mins" ... finally a few mins later "less than a minutes"... Not very useful but hey, It looks *good*... its a mac.
~ Saturday, November 09, 2002
Pen update
The cart wouldn't fit... So i used the bottle adapter again... hope it works this time... At least holds me out until the tablet does what i need...
The cart wouldn't fit... So i used the bottle adapter again... hope it works this time... At least holds me out until the tablet does what i need...
a pen is just a pen, right?
Not to me.
My writing instruments of choice are as follows in the order in which is use them.
The Retro 51. A short Rollerball with a twist. I'm currently using a blue swirled one although there is a black one just like around the house some where
The Gotham rollerball from Levenger. A hefty pen, push button plunger. Uses the same refill as the retro... at least thats what I've been shoving up there...I also had the Gotham fountain pen, but let me tell you a steel nib sucks. Once you've used gold you will never go back. Where steel scratches out letters... gold flows... Its just softer. Oh and don't let them sell you on the "iridium' point... fuck that noise... steel is steel is steel...The gotham actually broke. I'm sure Levenger being the company they are would replace it, but fuck it, its just a steel nibbed fountain pen.
The Namiki vanishing point fountain pen. This sucker is a dream! 18K Gold nib, push button plunger, airtight compartment for the pen itself (and I've been stupid enough to take it on planes)...
Why isn't it at the top?... Because i'm a lazy fuck. It started not holding any ink and rather than clean it out i put it in the cup. I finally went to clean it. I had been filling it with bottled ink and I had gummed up the adapter. I'm not sure i'll use the adapter again, I have plenty of cartridges for it and they last longer.
I also have a complete Mont Blanc writing set, but i'm just not pretentious enough (i'm working on it) to use it everyday. Beside i've learned that i don't like pens with caps... hence the namiki being my fav.
Why am i even typing this? Why are you reading it?
Because to be truly effective with any planning system. It must be a joy to use. If it doesn't make you smile just to be writing on it then fuck it, it won't work..
Tablet PC will turn me back into a paperless geek. But not until Kurt gets off his ass and makes it clean up drawings! Kurt, you aren't reading this are you? Get back to work! I'm a stock holder! Quit surfing and schedule in my feature! I make something like a square... bing... its a square... something kinda curved and closed? bing it's a circle. Come on get with it. Just don't use the escher api, K?
Not to me.
My writing instruments of choice are as follows in the order in which is use them.
The Retro 51. A short Rollerball with a twist. I'm currently using a blue swirled one although there is a black one just like around the house some where
The Gotham rollerball from Levenger. A hefty pen, push button plunger. Uses the same refill as the retro... at least thats what I've been shoving up there...I also had the Gotham fountain pen, but let me tell you a steel nib sucks. Once you've used gold you will never go back. Where steel scratches out letters... gold flows... Its just softer. Oh and don't let them sell you on the "iridium' point... fuck that noise... steel is steel is steel...The gotham actually broke. I'm sure Levenger being the company they are would replace it, but fuck it, its just a steel nibbed fountain pen.
The Namiki vanishing point fountain pen. This sucker is a dream! 18K Gold nib, push button plunger, airtight compartment for the pen itself (and I've been stupid enough to take it on planes)...
Why isn't it at the top?... Because i'm a lazy fuck. It started not holding any ink and rather than clean it out i put it in the cup. I finally went to clean it. I had been filling it with bottled ink and I had gummed up the adapter. I'm not sure i'll use the adapter again, I have plenty of cartridges for it and they last longer.
I also have a complete Mont Blanc writing set, but i'm just not pretentious enough (i'm working on it) to use it everyday. Beside i've learned that i don't like pens with caps... hence the namiki being my fav.
Why am i even typing this? Why are you reading it?
Because to be truly effective with any planning system. It must be a joy to use. If it doesn't make you smile just to be writing on it then fuck it, it won't work..
Tablet PC will turn me back into a paperless geek. But not until Kurt gets off his ass and makes it clean up drawings! Kurt, you aren't reading this are you? Get back to work! I'm a stock holder! Quit surfing and schedule in my feature! I make something like a square... bing... its a square... something kinda curved and closed? bing it's a circle. Come on get with it. Just don't use the escher api, K?
~ Tuesday, November 05, 2002
How not to write a software manual for a dev tool
To those throngs of geeks out there who are writing dev tools for software. Specifically i'd like to address to PM that was in charge of the .net documentation. I would have one question for this person
What the fuck were you thinking?
I think I do know what he/she (I do not know them) thinking and I'll come to that. On the other hand, faced with this person my question would still be very valid as I would like to see them try to dig out an answer that was politically correct.
So what's the problem that's got me up in arms. I'm not really up in arms like on some of my posts. That being said.
I'm sure my question would generate a look of stunned, "what do you mean" kinda face. So I would be prepared to follow up with the question:
Why did you put all the reference material in print on fucking posters? Posters? POSTERS?
OK maybe they look cool. (They don't) Take my word for it.
OK maybe you can see everything in one nice place (you can't) there are 5 of them and they are big.
OK maybe they were cutting costs? ya thats the one. They got Steve Balmer looking them in the face everytime they hit the restroom asking them to boost the earnings per share by cutting the cost beast.
In truth they do ship a book called .net walk throughs. Its a helpful tool, if and only if you want to do something they actually walk you through. I can say this happened to me twice. And yes that manual is quite helpful.
I like to read docs in the can. I'm not taking 5 oversized posters in there with me. Even the dog would look at me funny!
These posters have the class hierarchy divided into namespaces (I want to know who coined this phrase, I'm looking into it) and they have literally no information other than the class names...
So where is the documentation. On CD. This is fine if you know what you're looking for. If you want overviews etc. the CD is not useful at all. You can't get a feel for how to attack a problem with just a reference. The walkthroughs are for very specific examples so they aren't useful at getting the entire potential of a tool.
So i say to that PM. What the fuck were you thinking? You saved some money, and they layout is easy as you have so much space, but the docs lack...
Wait... revenue through book sales? I know i gotta buy one.... At least MS press doesn't slap the geek author's face on the front of their books...
Lets talk for a minute about the CD. one word. Examples. There aren't any. Any good ones anyway.Take the Dataset.addrow member. They show how to add the row. dim the row, fill in a value, add the row. So right off the top of my head (or out of my ass depending on the metaphorical style you prefer) how do i get the ID of the record i just added? huh? its not there. I've looked... on the posters and the CD. When writing an example the writers were either given too little space, too little time or too little money to actually ask themselves the question, "how would a user really use this in real life?"
So the last question is why wouldn't i hang up these posters? besides the obvious "doesn't fit with my decor, i'm not 'modern' geek" or "I don't have enough cube wall real estate to accommodate such a plantation of colored boxes. The real reason no one will hang them up... they are double sided. Both sides. Lots o name spaces... double sided.
What the fuck were you thinking? huh?
To those throngs of geeks out there who are writing dev tools for software. Specifically i'd like to address to PM that was in charge of the .net documentation. I would have one question for this person
What the fuck were you thinking?
I think I do know what he/she (I do not know them) thinking and I'll come to that. On the other hand, faced with this person my question would still be very valid as I would like to see them try to dig out an answer that was politically correct.
So what's the problem that's got me up in arms. I'm not really up in arms like on some of my posts. That being said.
I'm sure my question would generate a look of stunned, "what do you mean" kinda face. So I would be prepared to follow up with the question:
Why did you put all the reference material in print on fucking posters? Posters? POSTERS?
OK maybe they look cool. (They don't) Take my word for it.
OK maybe you can see everything in one nice place (you can't) there are 5 of them and they are big.
OK maybe they were cutting costs? ya thats the one. They got Steve Balmer looking them in the face everytime they hit the restroom asking them to boost the earnings per share by cutting the cost beast.
In truth they do ship a book called .net walk throughs. Its a helpful tool, if and only if you want to do something they actually walk you through. I can say this happened to me twice. And yes that manual is quite helpful.
I like to read docs in the can. I'm not taking 5 oversized posters in there with me. Even the dog would look at me funny!
These posters have the class hierarchy divided into namespaces (I want to know who coined this phrase, I'm looking into it) and they have literally no information other than the class names...
So where is the documentation. On CD. This is fine if you know what you're looking for. If you want overviews etc. the CD is not useful at all. You can't get a feel for how to attack a problem with just a reference. The walkthroughs are for very specific examples so they aren't useful at getting the entire potential of a tool.
So i say to that PM. What the fuck were you thinking? You saved some money, and they layout is easy as you have so much space, but the docs lack...
Wait... revenue through book sales? I know i gotta buy one.... At least MS press doesn't slap the geek author's face on the front of their books...
Lets talk for a minute about the CD. one word. Examples. There aren't any. Any good ones anyway.Take the Dataset.addrow member. They show how to add the row. dim the row, fill in a value, add the row. So right off the top of my head (or out of my ass depending on the metaphorical style you prefer) how do i get the ID of the record i just added? huh? its not there. I've looked... on the posters and the CD. When writing an example the writers were either given too little space, too little time or too little money to actually ask themselves the question, "how would a user really use this in real life?"
So the last question is why wouldn't i hang up these posters? besides the obvious "doesn't fit with my decor, i'm not 'modern' geek" or "I don't have enough cube wall real estate to accommodate such a plantation of colored boxes. The real reason no one will hang them up... they are double sided. Both sides. Lots o name spaces... double sided.
What the fuck were you thinking? huh?
