This morning I saw the headline on InfoWorld: “Oracle stopping development on Itanium — slap at HP or obvious decision?” At my previous employer, we were entertained by a couple visits from both HP and Intel folks ballyhooing the Itanium, HP-UX, and the future of the platform – especially in the database arena. I thought those visits …
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the codebreakers by david kahn
My interest in cryptography has extended, now, for more than 15 years. The first book I read on the topic was {{David Kahn}}’s seminal work, {{The Codebreakers}}. Several years later, I received a copy of the book for Christmas, which I promptly reread. Kahn’s writing style is eminently inviting, sucking the reader into an extensive …
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flatland by edwin a abbott
I have read, and reread, {{Flatland}} several times. It’s subtitle, “A Romance of Many Dimensions”, would most likely have been surprising when it was originally published in 1884. {{Edwin A Abbot}} weaves a tale of exploration, heresy, discovery, enlightenment, geometry, and more in a mere 81 pages (in the copy I have). We are introduced …
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the secret fire by martin langfield
I had high hopes for {{Martin Langfield}}’s book, {{The Secret Fire}} when I purchased it several months ago. The cover headline reads, “the world is under threat… from a weapon launched in 1944”. Sounded good. The back cover, likewise, sounded pretty good, too: Sotheby’s, London, 1936 A paper by Sir Isaac Newton is sold at …
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startups and thinking clearly
I have a great deal of interest in early-stage startups: they’re generally the most interesting to watch, and if they play their cards right, have the best opportunity to Win Big™. Y Combinator is a seed fund organization started by Paul Graham. I first heard about them several years back when a couple friends and …
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the cuckoo’s egg by cliff stoll
Several years ago, {{Cliff Stoll}}’s amazing, true-life account of espionage and system administration in the 1980s was recommended to me. Mr Stoll started his professional life in astronomy, but, due to budget cuts at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, he moved into systems administration. Interspersed through the book are both political commentaries (he was after all at …
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how much does “quality” matter?
For several years, I have done business with Harbor Freight and Northern Tool and Equipment. Both are low-medium cost suppliers of tools, supplies, and equipment. This morning I received the weekly email sales flier from Harbor Freight, and see they have a 19.2v cordless drill for $24.99 (regular price $29.99). This got me to thinking …
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the host by stephanie meyer
While I was living in Singapore, I read {{The Host}} by {{Stephanie Meyer}} (of {{Twilight}} fame). I had completed the Twilight series, and had, overall, enjoyed her writing style and was interested to see if she would be able to write a story that did not involve vampires, werewolves, and a bizarre romance between a …
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folding@home – ewok cabaret
For several months (I guess, more accurately, “years” now) I have been contributing to Stanford’s folding@home project. That’s my team I just linked-to (88135). If you’re interested in donating your spare CPU cycles to a pretty worthy cause, I’d invite you to join my team 🙂
new job
Today I started a new job, which will hopefully involve a bit less travel than my last one did. I enjoyed working with my team at my last employer, and wish them the best in their future ventures. Now off to find out where my first customer will be 🙂
the deadly sins of programming – again?
InfoWorld this week published yet another article on “The 7 deadly sins of software development”. For those who don’t care to read the ~1 page article (that’s split unless you use the “print” option that puts it all on one page), here’s the list: Lust – overengineering Gluttony – not refactoring Greed – cross-team competition …
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dollar
For the past several months I have been traveling almost weekly into CT, specifically flying into BDL. I have rented almost exclusively from the Dollar location next to the airport, and have experienced nothing but overt professionalism and friendliness from the staff. I had a couple rentals with Hertz, and the staff, while formally polite, …
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outliers by malcolm gladwell
I have now read a few items by {{Malcolm Gladwell}}, but so far have liked {{Outliers}} most. The premise is Mr Gladwell’s research that if you hit ~10000 hours working on something, you become fabulous. That, and being born right after an age cutoff (say, 3 Jan when the age cutoff is 31 Dec) will …
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a modest proposal
Today is Valentine’s Day in the US (and, I presume, elsewhere). This is the first such day I have had with my wife (last year we were only engaged, so she was my fiancee, not my wife). And two years ago we had only just been matched on eHarmony. Yesterday in our Sunday School group, …
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without remorse by tom clancy
One of the [very] few novels I have ever reread is {{Without Remorse}} by {{Tom Clancy}} – and I’ve reread it several times: each time noticing something I hadn’t before, and each time reacting quite viscerally to how the book’s main character (I hesitate to call him a “hero”) goes about his desired objective. If …
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firsts – programming
I realized earlier this week that it’s been 19 years since I first started programming. Not my first exposure to computing, which was in about 1986 on my aunt’s Mac 512 .. but still a long time ago 🙂 My aunt gave me a Tandy 102 laptop that had a whole walloping 21446 bytes of …
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the 4-hour body by tim ferriss
Upon the recommendation of my friend Steven, I picked-up a cheap copy of {{Tim Ferriss}}’ {{The 4-Hour Body}}. My first observation is that Tim Ferriss is not one to necessarily edit his speech patterns for writing. While not rife with them, there are a fair number of vulgarities throughout the book – all of which …
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jeopardy tryouts
Jeopardy! has been a favorite of mine for years: it’s the reason I eat fast. I’ve tried-out a couple times in the past – once in person at Southpoint Mall in Durham NC and once online. Tonight I did again – so here’s hoping I did well enough 🙂
moving – what a pain!
I hadn’t paid attention to all the things that have to be setup when you move in such a short period of time before: electric, gas, water, change of addresses… what a pain! But it’s worth it since we’ll have more privacy, more space, and less-close neighbors 🙂 I have the electric set to switch …
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new residence
Though it’s not the ideal we have of owning our own home, my wife and I will be one step closer in a few days as we will be signing a lease on a rental home here in Lexington and moving out of the apartment complex we’ve been in since we got married. I think …
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upgrades
I fly quite frequently – last year I re-met Delta‘s Gold Medallion status, and made it all the way to Platinum (go me!). One of the perks is that I frequently get upgraded from the coach tickets I book to First/Business seats instead – for free (and free == better). I was about 23k miles …
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quick coffee
Last year for my birthday, my lovely wife bought me a Keurig coffee machine. I have used several at different places of work, and had been wanting one for almost a year when she got me one – she’s pretty awesome 🙂 I had had a traditional drip coffee maker for years, but only broke …
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gideon’s spies by gordon thomas
{{Gideon’s Spies}} by {{Gordon Thomas}} claims to be “the secret history of the Mossad”. From the myriad reviews on Amazon, I didn’t know whether to be expecting a massive work of historical fiction, or a insightful tour de force. After having nearly finished it, I don’t know if I have an opinion of whether it’s …
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continuing the book theme…
From the reading-more department, I’m going to attempt to put one review of a book out every week, with a target day of Wednesday. Might end up putting a couple out on some books because they take a longer time to read, but that’s the goal. Today started with a quickie overview of {{Aesop’s Fables}} …
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reading via the kindle app
To help fulfill my stated goal of reading more, I have installed the {{Kindle}} app on my laptops. So far I’ve found scores of free ebooks that I’ve either always wanted to read, or figured I’d give a chance since they’re free. The first one I read was a collection of {{Aesop’s fables}}. Some reactions: …
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