Recently came across a seriously funky issue with one of HP’s products (don’t laugh – I know there’s loads of funkiness in HP tools). HP Cloud Service Automation (3.1) allows you to schedule requests in the future. It also allows you schedule end dates for subscriptions. That’s neat. Here’s the problem: if you delete a …
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Category:ideas
reference materials
I learned recently that my wonderful wife was never taught how to use a dictionary, thesaurus, almanac, or encyclopedia as a child in school. Not all of that can be because she went to public school whereas I was homeschooled. Nor can it merely be that she grew up in KY and I in NY. …
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replace the restaturant buzzer
Somebody needs to replace the ubiquitous restaurant buzzer with either an SMS- or smartphone-based tool: when you put your name on the waiting list, you give them your phone number. When your table is ready, they can buzz your phone. Fewer moving parts for the restaurant. Fewer chances to lose stuff. Less crap to carry …
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organizational knowledge capture, retention, and dissemination
Knowledge capture, retention, and dissemination has been an interest of mine for a long time. I have written about various aspects of it before. The most vital commodity any organization has is the knowledge of its members – it does not matter if it is a historical society, company, church, or school: the organizational knowledge …
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redecentralizing school
I have a very long–term interest in education. As I look at the current public education “system” in the US, I can see a variety of major problems. The biggest problem, endemic of any system built around the premise that the only people who should be together all day long should all be “similar”. Somewhere …
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passive income is not a business plan
Shortcuts. Shortcuts are great. But only when you know the long way. Without hard work, the short cut will seem hard. Passive income seems to fall into this category. Some people think panhandling is a form of passive income. It’s not. The panhandler works for his money – he talks to people, shakes a cup, whatever: he …
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mastery by robert greene
In {{Mastery}}, {{Robert Greene}} continues in the style of his excellent work, {{The 48 Laws of Power}} (which I previously reviewed and have been posting excerpts from). Sadly, it is not quite to the level of The 48 Laws – though it still a good book. Unbeknownst to me, I’ve already been practicing most of what …
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zombie crime
If zombie apocalypse stories could be true, there should be no crime (other than the zombies’ havoc-wreaking). In a world where the dead are rising and attacking anything living (in the process making those attacked zombies, too), ‘normal’ crime should cease: folks’d be too busy trying to stay alive to be worried about anything else.
more fixes for patents
An addition to my previous post on patents is due. If you are a non-producing entity, ie you have a patent “just to have it” (you’re a company, not a person, and you only have patents to use as legal ammunition), you relinquish rights to sue over infringement. If you are not producing anything the …
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establishing a data haven cloud
In {{Neal Stephenson}}’s seminal book, {{Cryptonomicon}}, he describes the creation of a “data haven” in the fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta. Why has no-one started building such a service (or, at least not in a public way) on existing cloud services (eg {{AWS}} or Rackspace) and/or create their own global network? Data backup and replication is not …
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taxation as a solution to the “gay marriage” issue
While I have some pretty strong personal views on the issue of “gay marriage”, I have a possible solution that not only gets it away from being a societal problem, but also gets the government out of being involved in our personal lives a little more. There is a side benefit of being able to …
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fruitful city planning
Lots of cities have grassy medians on roads with trees planted in them, or on the sides of streets, in parks, etc. Since the basic cost for planting a tree is more-or-less constant (at a given size), and the cost of differing types of trees tends to be similar at any given size, why do …
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asking the wrong question
A recent question (“Is it possible to trace someone using Google during an online exam?“) on superuser had me thinking about asking the right question again. I want to design an online exam for over 1000 students via around 50 computers right after the vacation ends. Now the problem is that I have heard that …
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credit cards
If you overpay a credit card, they should be required to pay you the interest they would charge on a balance. THAT would help the ratio of consumer debt to assets.
digital preservation
I have been an active member on the Stack Exchange family of sites [nearly] since StackOverflow started a few years ago. Recently a new proposal has been made for Digital Preservation. Many of the proposed questions are interesting (including one of mine) – and I would strongly encourage anyone interested in the topic to check …
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tax day
Tax Day in the US is “late” this year because the 15th of April was a Sunday. I was able to prepare and file my taxes early-ish (January) thanks to a proactive employer who got our W2s out quickly. Every month I look at my pay stub, and am appalled at how much the various …
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baggage
I see Allegiant Air is starting to come around. For several years, many airlines have had checked bag fees – but carry-ons are free. But it’s having carry-on bags that slows everyone down while inept and hapless travelers try to wedge their carry-on and “small personal item” into overhead bins, under the seat in front …
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creamy, cheesy baked potatoes
I don’t like sour cream (not when I know it’s there, at least). However, I do like creamy baked potatoes. And I like cheesy baked potatoes. My solution? Cream cheese instead of sour cream! Directions: bake potato(es) to desired doneness split in “Wendy’s” fashion (perforate with a fork, and squeeze the ends perpendicular to the …
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fill-in-the-blank takeout and delivery
Somebody should start a fill-in-the-blank takeout and delivery service. Want Arby’s? Call FITB. Want Chinese? Call FITB. Want groceries? Call FITB. I bet there are a *LOT* of people who’d take advantage of services like that if they were offered – I would. Maybe I should start the first one in Lexington.
doing technical phone screens
Related to a previous post on career development, I thought it could be interesting to look at one approach to the technical screen that I have used over the past few years when interviewing candidates. for folks with no “real” experience yet, I ask them to rank themselves on a few key technologies on the …
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effective error messages
I had a recent conversation with an old classmate, and he stated that using asserts when programming Java is useless because an exception can generate more useful information. Exceptions are only “more useful” if you are a developer or perhaps supporting an application. When a bug report or support case needs to be created, supplying the “raw” …
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apple should buy sprint
According to The Street, Sprint-Nextel is at a 52-week low with today’s closing price. Their market cap is $10 billion. Apple as $70 billion in cash on hand. Google is buying Motorola. I think Apple should buy Sprint. And they should stop distributing the iPhone via Verizon and AT&T in the US. guarantee a distribution …
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technical career development
Career development. Career path. Development opportunities. Taking your career to the next level. Terms and phrases we all hear and pretty much pass over in our day-to-day lives. Right up until we want to move to a new/better job or performance reviews roll around. But what do they mean, and how can you advance your …
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how intel could save itanium
It’s not news that the Itanium processor is doomed in its current incarnations. Microsoft has dropped support, as has Red Hat – meaning only HP supports it with an active platform in the US (with HPUX). The Itanim should have been Intel’s chance to totally walk away with the processor market – but they blew …
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the ticket smash, raw metrics, and communication – how to have a successful support organization
When I worked at Opsware, and for a while after HP bought us, we used to try to have once- or twice-a-week meetings for each support group wherein we would bring our most difficult cases (with the difficulty being determined by the case owner), and have an opportunity for everyone on the team to ask questions, …
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