Category Archives: uncategorized

Well, the first day has come and gone. The day opened with a nice continental breakfast, followed by registration. I also went to a brief speaker orientation, where I got my nice new polo shirt. Once everyone was settled in and signed in, we were treated to Geoff Perlman’s opening keynote.

And he had some surprises in store. One of the bigger announcements was the formation of REAL Software Europe and REAL Software China. He also spoke a great deal about the huge strides REALbasic in the Linux market. I knew they were doing well there, but I didn’t realize just how much progress they were making. It’s a market that’s growing, and it doesn’t show signs of stopping or slowing just yet. Our conference bags also contained free copies of Novell Linux Desktop, so maybe I’ll see if I can pick up a cheap hard drive to throw in my PC so I can try Linux again (I’ve tried it several times before, but it’s always seemed like more trouble than it’s worth, but it’s been a while).

After the keynote, we broke for lunch, then started our sessions. The first one I attended was Developing Slick UIs by Bryan Lund of Radical Breeze. He talked at length about the little UI details that give an application the “wow” factor. And I must admit, several aspects of his advice shamed me into rethinking some of my interfaces.

Then I attended Taming Complexity, by the esteemed Joe Strout. Joe shared some great tips on managing projects, such as using design patterns and using consistent naming conventions.

The third and most interesting session of the day was Jon Johnson’s Updating Your Application to Cocoa. This is a great thing that holds tremendous promise. Jon was practically giddy as he demonstrated some cool stuff coming down the pike. And afterward, he gave me some good news, but I won’t share any details.

I also had some interesting talks with Will, Joe, and the other Dave. All in all, a great first day.

Looking forward to tomorrow, although I’m a bit nervous about my own session.

Dave and I flew out of Philadelphia this morning around 11:30 and finally landed in Austin, TX, around 4:30 this afternoon (taking the time zone difference into account). Our flights were painless and relatively quiet, which was nice.

After we arrived at the hotel, I checked in with my family, then headed off to the Speakers’ Dinner. I had a great cheeseburger and some great conversation with Will, Aaron, Jon, Mike, and Thomas, among others. I started to get tired after a while, so I wandered out of the restaurant, but as I got closer to the bar, I found Dave and a bunch of others crowded around Thomas, who was giving an impromptu session on version control.

We went back to our room, where I had a brief videochat with Jen. After she went offline (and presumably to bed), Dave and I surfed around for a while before heading up to the rooftop hot tub.

And now for a good night’s rest, before the good stuff starts tomorrow morning.

I’ll admit, I’m intrigued by personality tests. I enjoy taking them immensely for some reason (probably because I’m twisted or something).

Rob sent me this one and it looks interesting, because it’s collaborative. Check it out. If you start your own, let me know in the comments.

Good news. As of today, I only need to work at Etown for another 22 years before I can retire. I started at Etown eight years ago today: February 23, 1998.

I started as Technology Specialist II. This is a fancy way of saying that I did frontline helpdesk kind of stuff: plugging in printers, restarting computers, and other deskside support.

After a short while, I was asked to whip up a database that we could use to track our tech support requests. That was when I discovered the joy of FileMaker Pro. I took that FileMaker project and ran with it, getting more and more involved in database work.

Then I took on a 4D project which shall remain nameless, which was to revolutionize the way we looked at curriculum. It did not, at least not much. But it did succeed mightily in getting our teachers fired up and pissed off. When Mike came on board in the summer of 2000, he brought with him a far greater knowledge of 4D than I have even now, so I was only too happy to give him that project.

By then, my title had become Assistant Director of Technology, and I was taking care of the servers, routers, and stuff like that, while still trying frantically to keep up with the day to day grind of tech requests. It was beginning to wear quite thin.

In 2001, I attended the FileMaker Developer Conference in Orlando, and I realized that databases were where my interests really were. Over the next couple months, I invested heavily in FileMaker Pro development, only to realize that FileMaker’s limitations were no longer something I could work around. I began searching for a better tool.

That was when I discovered REALbasic. I did the tutorial, twice. I did all the sample projects. I read Matt Neuberg’s book cover to cover twice. I read REALbasic for Dummies cover to cover. I subscribed to the REALbasic mailing lists and read every message, trying to take it all in.

But I needed a database to work with. I didn’t want mySQL, because I have some misgivings about the GPL, and mySQL AB’s licensing seemed to be deliberately hard to understand. I couldn’t afford to get into any of the commercial players. Then a CD arrived in the mail at work. It was a copy of PostgreSQL, another open source database, with a BSD license. Perfect.

While all of this was developing, Etown was deciding to make student achievement data a higher priority. Mike was ready to step away from the aforementioned 4D project (as well as PowerSchool, which we had also taken on). So when the district decided to hire an official Data Manager, I was able to walk right into the position.

I’ve shared before here, I think, how the products we were using simply weren’t cutting it, especially when it came to looking at achievement data. I was able to fall back on REALbasic and PostgreSQL to save the day in a number of ways.

So in eight years, I’ve gone from helpdesk grunt to database administrator and programmer. Not bad for an English major who couldn’t get a teaching job!

Bill noted that I should really include the Great Thin Mints Debate in the Greatest Hits links on the sidebar. I agree, look and I have rectified the situation. After all, it was, quite possibly, one of the defining moments of this weblog.

And rectify is a funny word.

10. Websites that don’t work correctly (or at all) if you don’t put “www” at the front of the URL. Come on, aren’t we past this by now?
9. The dead 60 GB Toshiba hard drive that we removed from my wife’s 12″ PowerBook G4 this morning. But I’m digging the 100 GB Seagate we installed.
8. The proxy server at work that blocks Homestar Runner. Seriously.
7. The media frenzy over Cheney’s hunting accident. Can we please let go of this?
6. Episode 38, Level 4 in N. I don’t think it’s possible. And yet I keep playing. I cannot stop.
5. The delay in the Star Wars live action TV series. All I can say is that after all the waiting, the show had better be all Boba Fett, all the time.
4. The pointless ranting and raving on the NUG. Enough already! Back to the code!
3. Comment spam in Movable Type and/or phpBB. What’s the point? Can there really be money in this? I mean real money?
2. The fact that I probably won’t win the grand prize in the iTunes contest. I mean, what are the chances, right?
1. The lazy and the quarrelsome. Again.

Via TheForce.Net:

Steve Sansweet interview with new info: “The other project is live action, and the live action is going to take place between Episode 3 and Episode 4. We’re looking at a 1 hour show and [Producer] Rick McCallum has said the ideal would be to come up with 100 hours to really get into the story line and characters, and that’s the direction we’re going in. So that is really targeted more towards the end of the decade.”

Reference

End of the decade? That sucks!

From a CHUD interview with Bruce Willis:
I’m a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion, I want them to stop pissing on my money and your money, the tax dollars that we give 50 per cent of or 40 per cent of every year, and I want them to be fiscally responsible, and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I’ll say I’m a Republican. But other than that, I want the government to take care of people who need help, like the kids in foster care, the half a million kids who are in orphanages right now, they call them foster homes but they’re orphanages. I want them to take care of the elderly and give them free medicine, give them whatever they need. There’s tons, billions and billions of dollars that are just being wasted. Okay? I hate government. I’m apolitical. Write that down. I’m not a Republican.
(Emphasis mine)

This is hilarious. Harrison Ford was recently a guest on Conan O’Brien’s show, presumably to push his new movie Firewall.

Conan brought up the ill-fated Star Wars Holiday Special. Harrison Ford’s reaction is priceless.

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