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Saving the Universe from Boskone and Bugs
August 2003 - Posts
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I’m not sure how useful it is to hate a genetic flaw – but I found out recently that my mom has cancer. Earlier this year I found out that my cousin Ben does too. It really leaves me breathless, and asking myself those kind Read More...
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So, I’m on vacation here at my in-laws, and I’m blogging of course. It seems to be my new morning ritual, instead of reading the newspaper. Anyway, there are hordes of kids running around everywhere, so to keep them entertained, Read More...
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Starting today, I am on vacation, going to that * fabulous * vacation destination – West Virgina. Maybe I can get a tour of the coal mines. <grin> Seriously, you can expect the blogging output to decline over the next week; Read More...
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Seen recently at http://trademark.blog.us/blog/2003/08/19.html#a789 : "You have just received the Amish virus. Because we don't have computers this virus works on the honor system. Please delete all the files from your hard drive and manually forward Read More...
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I just read Eric Sink’s ‘Career Calculus’ post that is making rounds on the blogs I frequent. I’ll admit that when I first read it, I felt quite smug. I thought to myself, “I’m always learning new stuff, Read More...
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Gina and I went to Evergreen Hospital today for our week 20 ultrasound – you know, the one with legs and arms and toes. * She * is quite an active little tyke, rolling around in her comfortable little cubby! Yes, that’s right Read More...
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I was reading this link , about a guy who has an ASP.NET blog (i.e., hosted at http://weblogs.asp.net ), and he was concerned that his blog wasn’t in some sense technical enough for that forum. I’ve thought a bit about that too; since Read More...
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In the link below, John Hargrave goes to great lengths in an attempt to get his credit card receipt signature rejected. Unfortunately, he is unsuccessful; but the many and varied attempts sure crack me up! I particularly liked this line: “The Read More...
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Now here is an interesting article ; a man sends mail alerting some customers of a particular e-mail service that there are known security vulnerabilities in that service. He gets charged with a crime and spends 16 months in jail. Say what?! Read More...
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I few days ago, I posted a short note about 3D printers. Here is another article that explains some of the technology, and speculates on where it is going. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59648,00.html Have I mentioned that I really, Read More...
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One product blog that consistently has new and interesting stuff is Gizmodo . Well, they just turned one year old! I’m celebrating by plugging them here on my blog – go check them out. Congratulations, Gizmodo – Read More...
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The shine on the Howard Dean blog is wearing off for me. Most of the posts aren’t by Dean himself, and seem pretty much boiler-plate rah-rah stuff. (This seemed exciting at first, but is now getting a little old.) The ones that Read More...
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I read the following interesting snippet recently with some thoughts about ‘vaccination’ worms, related to the recent MSBlast worm: “…It all makes me wonder why we have not evolved in this fight much in a way that the medical Read More...
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I read this blog entry from Chris Sells recently, describing his thoughts about real estate agent fees. Having just sold one house and purchased another, I am completely sympathetic. 6% just seems like too high a vig to pay, just to Read More...
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What do you get when you combine a bunch of black tubes, silver balls, and a video camera? The world’s * coolest * mirror! http://fargo.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/%7Edanny/shinyballs.html (for some reason the link stopped working for me, but hopefully Read More...
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I just got a new laptop a couple days ago, and of course I had to wipe off the OS currently on it so that I could install XP Pro. In one swell foop, I eliminated scads of marketing-ware from the machine (phew!). However, the wireless – Read More...
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I really hope that UWB moves quickly from vaporware to reality, as
described in this article. It seems like just the thing to connect the wireless
stereo components that I dreamed about earlier on my blog.
Read More...
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In the “truth is stranger than fiction” department, this article claims that five gubernatorial hopefuls in California will be appearing in a debate, game-show-style. I’ll be the first to say that one shouldn’t take Read More...
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This seems strange, but I suppose it is inevitable in our ever-more interconnected, ‘wired’, world: “Half a million kids in the UK under the age of ten will have a mobile phone by the end of next year, according to research published Read More...
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Looks like the U.S. Navy is thinking about taking a more “market-based” approach to operations: “…To keep skilled sailors in the service -- which entails keeping their families happy -- Navy officials put some of those out-of-favor Read More...
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You know, logically, the following idea has so many flaws – security, privacy, is it even really useful… and yet, I find it mysteriously alluring. To watch in real-time the ebb and flow of my finances; to see how long it takes the bank Read More...
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I ran across this interesting post: “This upcoming week is shaping up to be one the most memorable in my young life. I'm taking a trip to geek mecca: Microsoft HQ. I get to meet Scott Guthrie, Rob Howard, Don Box, et al. And if that weren't enough, Read More...
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Here is an interesting story about home ownership; and perhaps, about responsibility, or cost-benefit analysis. I can’t really say it has got a great moral – but it *is* funny. Enjoy: http://www.unitedheroes.net/blogs/jr/archives/p/571/c/1 Read More...
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I have to admit to lurking around the Howard Dean presidential candidate blog . Its hard to explain the slightly dirty feeling it gives me. Normally I consider myself a quite apolitical person. I understand that government is important, Read More...
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More and more I see ‘personal’ software moving in the direction of providing “agents” for people. Agents do things for us, show things to us, and filter the information we see. Most agents today are pretty gosh-darned Read More...
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BBC: "Microsoft has announced that new versions of its mouse will be fitted with wheels that tilt as well as roll." Seems like the mouse is more and more turning into some kind of generic “hand tool” – someday it will become a glove, Read More...
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With WiFi and Howl , would it be possible to have a component stereo system without any cables at all? (Except the power cables, of course.) Each device could detect the others and intelligently hook up via wireless. Sure, quality would Read More...
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Fairly frequently these days, my laptop just slows down to an unendurable crawl. Everything slows, even screen refreshes. It is a Toshiba Techra 8200. Per helpdesk guidance I chkdsk'ed and defrag'ed; but it still happens. My current Read More...
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The more I play with this Wiki thing, the more cool it seems. The ability to let people build and enhance on each other’s work is nifty. The editing environment, though, could use a bit of work. Using cheesy markup to do italics or bold Read More...
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If you went back in time to the 1800s – what one thing from the present would
you bring with you?
How about 400 BC?
3000 AD?
Read More...
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I’m really getting into this new (to me anyway) collaborative tool called
a “Wiki”. My team has one set up inside the corporate network.
I’m finding it quite addictive!
Read More...
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I was thinking about the role of test this morning. We measure the quality of the product - but in some sense we have to take an educated guess what "quality" means. In the end, the customer determines if it is a quality product, and Read More...
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I use NewsGator to aggregate blogs so
I can read them in Outlook (where I spend much of my time), and also to post to this
blog. It is great!
Read More...
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My wife and I recently found out that she is pregnant; our first! A very exciting
(and scary) time. We've gone in for a sonogram, and seen its little heart beat!
So a year from now I expect to be a very different person than I am today - a daddy.
Wish me luck!
Read More...
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Interesting ideas about the public domain from Lawrence Lessig... http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/2003_05.shtml#001187 “The idea is a simple one: Fifty years after a work has been published, the copyright owner must pay a $1 comment Read More...
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At the recent WinHEC conference, a prototype PC dubbed 'Athens' was unveiled. One of its features is an attached phone; the computer is supposedly smart enough to mute its other sound output when the phone is in use. This seems very backward-looking Read More...
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I've seen a plethora of web sites recently that give you a small personality quiz, and use the information to associate you with some amusing object or feature. Anyone take the "What OS are you?" quiz? (I'm Win9x - bummer.) "How Read More...
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I heard a comment today that really struck home with me: "If you aren't willing to act on a metric, you might as well not measure it." This makes sense to me, and also strikes a nerve. I know I've seen any number of metrics over the years Read More...
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I believe the ultimate arbiter of quality is the customer. In my imaginary world, I wish I could get a list of all the bugs customers will find in our product, go back in time, and fix them before release. Needless to say, there are Read More...
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Technorati asked me to add this to my blog so they can confirm it is really mine...  Read More...
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Keith Stobie (a test architect on my team) made a comment recently, along the lines of: "If testers aren't getting some bugs marked 'by design' and 'no repro', then they are probably being too conservative in their bug filing." This intuitively makes Read More...
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A new PM just joined my team, and he scheduled time to come talk to me about the role of testing in our product development. While thinking about what I would tell him, the following (possibly unrelated) question popped into my head: "What are the Read More...
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Ok, I admit it - I'm a control freak. (Like you aren't. <grin>) What I really want is for the government to give me an itemized reciept at the end of the year saying "here is all you paid in taxes, and here is where each piece went." I don't mind Read More...
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I have a few older posts from my internal blog that I’m going to copy
out here to my public blog; so if you see some dated references (like to tax season),
that’s why.
Read More...
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Ah, the first post on my public blog. I’ve had an internal blog for a couple months now, and I’m ready to break out of my cocoon. <grin> Quick bio: I’ve been at Microsoft for about 7 years, pretty much always on the same team. Read More...
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