Technical Journal Travel Log
Jun
30
2009
I was wondering how long it would take Google to rediscover the content loaded here. Almost immediately, it seems. I think trackbacks might trigger a re-index.
Also, I found this interesting. In some ways, most useful than Facebook. In other ways, almost frightening how hard it is to stay off the grid.
Jun
30
2009
They seemed to have gone back to their more sane format – the items were sticking around long enough to think about them and purchase. I was busy that day, so didn’t spend much time monitoring. However, purchased HDMI cables for $3 a piece.
Not sure what I’ll plug them into yet…
Jun
26
2009
The eternal optimism of the Clear mind – Joel on Software.
Joel Spolsky (who always creates a great read) posted an analysis on the foolishness of Clear. This news (like almost everything) is buried under Michael Jackson’s passing.
Jun
24
2009
So, here’s what happened.
lschofield.net has been pointing to a machine in my basement for 4 or 5 years. That machine was originally a home brew Red Hat Linux box, which eventually died. It was replaced with an old Dell machine running Ubuntu Linux which is still running admirably and is only rebooted when the power drops. However, I’ve decided a couple of things:
When you look at all the hack attempts in the log, point number 1 is the main point.
So, lschofield.net now points to a shared server account at GoDaddy.Com and not my house. I’ve installed WordPress which I’m comfortable with, is very flexible, and provides a ton of features. And the bandwidth and storage is more than enough for the family, friends, and stalkers out there.
Still a lot to do – skin, content moving, etc. And, I need to figure out how Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others fit into the mix. I’ll do all of this in my spare time…
Jun
23
2009
Boz Scaggs Ticket Stub
Second event at Wolf Trap for the season. The weather was a little more typical for June in Washington, but very much on the pleasant side. Not quite sold out, but a good crowd. Boz Scaggs was the first act, and we really enjoyed it. He went through most of the hits, but the surprise was a nice number of bluesey, New Orleans inspired songs with some great guitar playing.
Michael McDonald was the second act – a rapid fire collection of a large number of songs everyone knows well. The highlight for me was Michael playing You Don’t Know Me (the Eddie Arnold tune) accompanied by just himself on piano. A nice surprise.
First time seeing both performers.
Nov
17
2005
A dollar too short.
The greed of the music industry continues to amaze. I thought the popular stuff was always cheaper in the stores…
Apr
22
2005
I’m starting to migrate things in a different direction. Blogger is great, but I’m trying to get more control of a couple of things and learning PHP along the way…
I’ll probably leave all this here, but the action is moving this way…
Mar
6
2005
A Ziff Davis’ link sent me to a blog posting Markl’s Thoughts: Shipping Software. Mark Lucovsky is a former Microsoft “Distinquished Engineer” who had worked on the Windows NT kernel, and previously for DEC (presumably on the wonderful VMS operating system HP is in the process of killing). Mark has recently left to work for Google.
He writes in this entry about how Microsoft “used to know how to ship software”, and he seems to be in Email overload right now over this. The haters probably wanting to chime in with their own Microsoft war stories. The fan boys probably wanting to chastise him for saying anything negative about the empire. Mark’s comments are interesting and first person, and they remind me of a joke (probably old, so forgive me) I heard at a developer’s conference last week:
A developer was confronted by an angry manager about the constantly slipping ship date for a software project. "You know, its taking you months to get this code out the door. God built the entire world in 6 days.", the manager said. The engineer replied, "Yes, but he didn't have an installed base to deal with."
This was told by John McCormick of InterSystems while explaining the challenges of the new security model for Cache 5.1.
Microsoft, of course, has the world’s largest installed base. They need to deal with not upsetting that apple cart, while positioning to lock out other innovators and maintain their Windows/Office cash cow that keeps the whole house of cards up. All the while wondering what India and China and other emerging markets are going to do. It’s no wonder it takes years for a specific line of code to get out the door. Others obviously have the same issue. Intuit, Lotus Notes, Oracle, etc. all certainly deal with trying to get product to customers that are cautious about the amount of work it takes to upgrade the existing data.
The pure new net-centric business models allow for instant publishing of changes. This is also the advantage of the start-up looking at existing product but getting to develop from scratch on new development tools. It seems normal for us to have a leapfrog effect of dominant product getting replaced by new dominant product over time. Microsoft has had a great run of it, as the control of the platform lets them control the pace of advancement. But Java, Linux, HTTP, emerging markets not wanting to be locked into US companies, and other pressures seem to be setting the stage for a more fundamental shift from the Intel/Windows centric computing we’ve become accustomed to.
Feb
8
2005
Google Maps is out as a beta application. Brilliant implementation.
Jan
4
2005
Rx robot does all except give shot Robots have been counting pills for quite a while, but this one now fills syringes.
9th sphere website design |