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Showing posts from 2011

The Butterfly Effect { } in Complex (Software) Systems

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I have been doing more hands-on software development in my new job and have experienced first hand (no pun intended) the principles of chaos, and not just because my skills had eroded. "the Butterfly Effect - the notion that a butterfly stirring the air today in Peking can transform storm systems next month in New York." ( Chaos:  Making a New Science ) One time someone else's copy and paste error of calling another method with the wrong variable took me a long time to figure out as everything looked right at first glance. foo(string param1, string param2) {   ...    bar(param1, param1 );   ... } This was more like a mocking bird flapping its wings. Another time, my own error of a single character in a PowerShell caused the progam to stop working for a day.  If a single character out of thousands of lines of codes isn't the butterfly effect then I don't know what is. Of course there is no tiny silver bullet for these dreaded Chinese butterflies, a

Like no other place on Earth

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Bare feet in Buddha's Point A Cardinal in disguise 100% Kona New Earthy Where the green ferns grow Better get Geiko Florida was too crowded this summer Where's my breakfast cereal royalty check? Running speed: just faster than mean 3 year olds Cha Cha's Veggie Enchilladas  National Park Only pick them when they are red as cranberries. Sun lights up at horizon It is pretty hard to take a bad picture of a sunset here. Torchy (a last minute substitute for slick Willy)  Fire to hold the darkness at bay Blue Purple

June 26th Summer day

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Sunday breakfast Whole foods muesli bread with Pineapple jam Strawberries stuffed with red grapes Peach blueberries and banana Paired with Black Tiger coffee  Cranberry Almond Rice Pasta with fresh tomatoes from the garden  Paired with Portuguese white whine with Peach sorbet, strawberry and red grapes

What a surprise!

A surprise gift from a virtual sender Artistry's craft in all its splendor Hospitality and thoughtfulness unmatched Grace and class, can't possibly surpass A box with a trick, slide to reveal Reminder of a journey, at times surreal Carved in my memory for safe keeping Not an elephant nor Dr. Seuss would be weeping A boy's joy at seeing treasured tales Reading and re-reading for hours, it never fails From whence they came, a piqued curiosity From halfway across the globe, a twinkled generosity A friendship made along life's path A new beginning or apogee? I hope I don't crash! A heartfelt thanks and best wishes! Namaste

Wildfires & Defense Conversion

Here is a simple idea, use the same technology in missile detection satellites positioned over Russian missile silos to place satellites over the world's forests for an early warning system for forest fires.  Another thought would be to dispatch remote controlled drones to investigate satellite warnings and potentially extinguish small fires before they grew.  A  NOVA episode  made a convincing case for controlled burns as the best defense against monster fires.  If there are roadblocks to being proactive, then let's use existing technology at least for a quicker reaction.  The idea to use tools developed originally for national security is nothing new, but that thought is perhaps too recursive considering you are reading this posting over the internet.

Annoying Dad makes breakfast

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My 9 year son is a picky eater.  He asks for Cinnamon toast not toasted or Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal usually without milk in the bowl.  You can see the possibilities with these two foods.  I would ask him his order while he was taking a shower before school.  When he ordered the cereal I would repeat his order: "You want Cinnamon Toast Crunch, not toasted." "Daaaaad!" was his usual frustrated response. I was trying to inspire a lesson in creativity by asking "what if..." I added this variation?  Because of getting burned on the previous day's breakfast, and not burnt toast as remember he wants his bread not toasted, he would over specify his order so that I would not do crazy things.  I always managed to find some loop hole in his order or I would just play dumb, which isn't hard to do. Milk in the cup only. You're not thinking 3-dimensionally Hidden Cinnamon Toast bread, not toasted. Inspired by Richard Feynman's

Saturday @Laboratory

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More experiments with food today.  I think my wife won for her salad and she didn't even know I was going to take a picture. Santorini sunrise Orange slices Banana slices Strawberries stuffed with blueberries Date nut bread with figs and pineapple jam Sprinkled fruit bits, cranberries and almond slices (always with the almond slices, what gives?) Paired with Cinnamon Coffee Cucumber salad Cucumber (who would have guessed?) Greek yogurt Fresh tomatoes from our garden Fresh dill from our garden Paired with ice water Pasta a'Darn (Cautionary tale) 4 day old rice pasta Parmesan cheese Quorn vegetable protein Home fries Fat free mozzarella cheese Sweet potato puffs Raw Carrots (this was the mistake as needed to cook these) Chopped pecans Paired with frozen drink Scientists should publish experiments that fail as well to be honest.

Barnes & Noble NOOK (NOt fOr Kids)

I returned a color NOOK today (less than 14 days). My son loves to read and I thought having a color e-reader would be better for using Wikipedia and the like.  Turns out even though Barnes & Noble markets the NOOKs to kids, they are not kid friendly. Must assign credit card to your account.  I tried to get an eCard to assign to it, but the Nook will not download anything without a default credit card.  It will not even let you download a free classic book, which are hard to find (have to sort on price and hope.)  I just looked Kindle for Android and free classics have their own category on the Kindle.  Some companies are on a mission and others are solely out for a buck.  Kindle lets you fund an account with Amazon gift card and doesn't require a default credit card. On the NOOK if you go to the category Alternative Comics, you will be presented with soft porn.  They label this on the website, but not through the NOOK and no apparent way to set up a filter. http://www.b

More Leaf Photos

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Nissan 2011 Leaf  ***** (5 star, Editor's choice award) The Leaf is groundbreaking.  The first all-electric mass produced car in case you haven't heard or seen one.  I received the 3rd one in Round Rock Texas.  As one reviewer said "It is like driving an iPod."  Being kinder to our Earth and having a blast at the same time.  It is e-xhilarating to drive and handles like a go cart with instant acceleration.  They did almost everything right.  The only improvement I would suggest is AC vents for the rear compartment.  It is kinda of important in Texas summers.  That is a minor thing as this will be used as a commuter car. At previous workplace. Plenty of trunk space.  Note the matching green grocery bags. Fill 'er up. Little Big Planet pose.  I wore my Nissan Leaf shirt to pick her up. A true shift has been made!

Fruitful Sunday

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We had some fresh fruit, so ate well today.  I started with a nice breakfast after practicing yoga ( Yoga Live DVD ).  My wife said she would be my yoga partner, but I got stood up as she chose gardening instead :(  I've been experimenting with the food arts and I'm just a beginner so follow these recipes at your own risk.  Fresh foods make it easy though to have something taste and look good. Breakfast: Cinnamon raisin mini-bagels toasted with pineapple and berry jam. Sliced fresh strawberries Fresh blueberries Red grapes Peaches Sliced almonds Paired with Van Houtte Raspberry Chocolate Truffle (Keurig coffee) Dinner salad Mixed artisanal lettuce Sliced strawberries Peaches California Mission Figs stuffed with California almonds Reduced fat Feta cheese Olde Cape Cod Balsamic Vigaigrette (fat free) Paired with La Crema 2009 Chardonnay Enjoy!

Leaf Revolution!

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Today's a new day. Getting my zero emission Nissan Leaf.

2011 summer reading

REST in Practice Source Code http://restfulie.caelum.com.br/ The Art of Unit Testing Source Code

Keurig Coffee

I ordered some more coffee for my Keurig this morning.  I don't trust the customer reviews on their site after previously ordering a box of Carnival d'hiver, based on great reviews.  It would be more accurate to call it Carnival d'eau.  As a coffee company, I suspect that they filter their reviews.

Fun with IM

12:30 PM you there? 12:30 PM I'm here, but I'm really not. whatever that means 1:14 PM hey can you ping me when u have a few? 1:14 PM how about after I've had a few? 1:23 PM hey can you please review my code? 1:23 PM sure.  You caught me doing email (what are the odds?) So I'm glad to do real work. 4:55 PM Are you there? 1:45 PM just logged on to my desktop. I guess that IM was from yesterday. 1:45 PM no worries, i think i have it covered.  thanks for checking back though 1:46 PM SLA = less than 24 hours on IM.  beat that! 1:46 PM Indeed! 1:51 PM Your message is very important to us. Please allow 18-24 hours for one of our representatives to respond to your instant message at their earliest convenience.  The speed of <insert company here> (TM) 5:30 PM I think they copied their process off of the doctor's office when you tell the person at the front desk that your address has changed, then you tell the nurse. The

Sleeping Standing Up

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Today's too sad. Even Garfield isn't enough. Even a DS doesn't distract enough. Enough is enough! Today is now tomorrow In a room with no view. Blue tape masking fluorescent reflections "Poor Mama" "I want to sleep" "What's the big idea?" Copyright @2011.  All rights reserved

.net video & training resources on the web

Here are some good resources: Site Description dnrTV .NET camtasia interviews Coding Katas Michael Norton's list of links to programming exercises on the web. Microsoft MIX11 Microsoft MIX 4/11 conference for web development Microsoft MIX10 Microsoft MIX 3/10 for web development Microsoft PDC 2010 Microsoft Professional Developer Conference 10/2010 Microsoft PDC Microsoft Professional Developer Conference 12/2009 Google IO 2010 Google IO Developer Conference 5/2010 Google IO  2009 Google IO Developer Conference 5/2009 DevelopMentor .NET presentations The Server Side .NET interviews Oredev Oredev 11/2009 conference NDC 2010 Norwegian Developer's Conference 6/2010 http://artofunittesting.com/ Ruby 1.9 WCF Web APIs

Sharpen the Saw

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Web videos for keeping up with industry (mostly Microsoft technologies) from last 2.5 years 2011 Category Title Rating Notes Effectiveness Brain Rules 5 EXERCISE | Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power. SURVIVAL | Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too. WIRING | Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently. ATTENTION | Rule #4: We don't pay attention to boring things. High Performance Teams Code Leaders and Beautiful Teams 5 Roy Osherove's presentation on transitioning from a chaotic to a mature high performance team. Resharper Shortcuts Visual Studio Shortcuts 2010 Category Title Rating Notes C# The Future of C# and Visual Basic by Anders Hejlsberg 5 Here is an accompanying blog post on Async: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2010/10/28/asynchrony-in-c-5-part-one.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/async Agile Practices eXtreme Programming Practices 5 LINQPad Writing LINQ queries with LINQPa

The Corporate Guide to the e-fficient use of Microsoft Outlook

How to turn off arrival indicator. Why?  I like frequent distractions.  I also enjoying distracting others with my Facebook notifications during meetings. How often to check email. Every waking second as we all are too smart for our own good (-6 IQ points) Email etiquette Be sure to reply all with ALL thank you notes.  ALSO, BE SURE TO USE UPPER CASE TO ADD THE PROPER EMOTION TO YOUR EMAILS TO MATCH OUR IN-PERSON COMMUNICATION. How to search email (From x) For those used to instant gratification from using gmail, delayed in-gratification is a valuable life skill. How to discourage email Office hours – 9:00 AM Brilliant timing as everyone else is still answering their emails so no one actually shows up, but we still get credit. 3 strikes and you're out or ball 4, take a walk. But long email threads provide useful material for the book I’m writing in my “spare” time tentatively titled “Miscommun

Corporate Email

Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9:26 AM Subject: got a missed call on support mobile Although 92 country code is for Pakistan, I would want to assume the call was from someplace else :P Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9:35 AM Subject: RE: got a missed call on support mobile Probably some real estate agent checking to see if you would be interested in a property that just opened up. “The perfect getaway from the modern world…” “No internet or phone service provided…” “High privacy walls…” “A fixer upper’s dream…”

Spring Forward!

When flower buds peel A smile breaks upon her face A welcome release from winter's embrace A flirting glance from her shoulder's Oh, to feel, to trace Vivid hues in life's endless race