"I don't know, you guys," Bill said, "Is anyone really looking into all the details of how to do this? Like, all those date and time functions. Excel has so many date and time functions. Is Basic going to have the same functions? Will they all work the same way?"
"Yes," I said, "except for January and February, 1900."
Silence.
The f*** counter and my boss exchanged astonished glances. How did I know that? January and February WHAT?
"OK. Well, good work," said Bill. He took his marked up copy of the spec
...wait! I wanted that...
and left.
"Four," announced the f*** counter, and everyone said, "wow, that's the lowest I can remember. Bill is getting mellow in his old age." He was, you know, 36.
Later I had it explained to me. "Bill doesn't really want to review your spec, he just wants to make sure you've got it under control. His standard M.O. is to ask harder and harder questions until you admit that you don't know, and then he can yell at you for being unprepared. Nobody was really sure what happens if you answer the hardest question he can come up with because it's never happened before."
I usually keep two 20" screens side by side on my desk, so I can code on one and test on the other. I find I can work much faster if I can just make a change in Eclipse, and by the time I turn my head to the other screen, the tests have already run. My new laptop, however, has a 15" screen, which feels a bit cramped when I'm working away from the office. I've been using the fancy Desktop Manager by Richard Wareham, which is a very nice utility to let you keep several virtual desktops, and change between them easily.
Of course, if you're using something like Emacs or Butler, all your keys will be taken already, so you'll need to use some sort of Command-Ctrl-Shift-4 keystroke for the actual desktop switching.
Turns out, the laptop has a built-in motion sensor. Nominally, it's there to protect the internal hard drive. The basic idea is this: If the accelerometer suddenly notices that the gravitational pull of earth is no longer present, the most likely explanation is that the laptop, sensor and all, is currently accelerating at 9.81 m/s� towards said earth. In that case, it will (wisely) try to turn the hard drive off in preparation for impact.
It can, however, also be used in situations not involving lobbing the laptop across the room, fun though that may be.
Recurring Dream: Whereabouts | Sharing Mac Address Cards over the Internet
Topic: Technology
1:19 am EDT, Jun 16, 2006
Whereabouts
Whereabouts helps you share address cards on the Internet. Friends and colleagues can automatically keep up-to-date with changes to each other's address, email, and phone numbers.
I finally started using Address Book on my new Macbook Pro. This is great. Along with Plaxo, I am now more efficient because of this tool.
The day has finally come. After spending many long hours, the features are implemented, the code is optimized, the testing is complete: The application is ready to leave your protective care and head out into the real world. This article is the first in a series of three covering deployment of Qt applications on various platforms. This one focuses on Mac OS X.
* Static Linking * Shared Libraries * Plugins * Deploying on Panther and Jaguar * Conclusion
Mac OS X handles most applications as "bundles". A bundle is a directory structure that groups related files together. Bundles are used for GUI applications, frameworks, and installer packages. These are presented to the user as one file in the Finder. When set up correctly, bundles make for easy deployment. All one needs to do is to archive the application using some preferred method. Users then open the archive and drag the application to wherever they please and are ready to go.
The diagram below shows the directory structure of a bundle. Files are shown in italics; directories are shown in roman.
SmackBook: Smack your Apple notebook to change virtual desktops
Topic: Technology
10:37 pm EDT, Jun 15, 2006
Setup your apple so that smacking the side of the screen changes the virtual desktop. The link is a video showing how it works. WOW. When used with the Cube... I'm gonna get this working. I just got this working. It is badass.
Here is how to do it:
after playing with smacking my laptop around i thought it was honestly easier to use the shortcut keys that virtuedesktop has and looks just as cool.
my version for intel owners: easy and painless
download and install VirtueDesktop (which is a pretty cool app in itself) http://virtuedesktops.info/
Start the app after adding it to your Applications folder
extract smackbook to a folder, place it wherever you want on your HD (I chose applications). then extract AMSTracker, and put AMSTracker in the smackbook directory. From Terminal, navigate to the smackbook directory and run 'perl smackbook.pl &' without the quotes and command-H to hide terminal if you want. voila, you're done. smack away.
Instructions for establishing business credit once you get a DUNS, bank account, etc.
Topic: Business
7:23 pm EDT, Jun 15, 2006
In this thread on creditboards.com there is a list of businesses that will give young businesses net-30 that report to D&B. Once you have 5 people that report to D&B/Experian saying you paid your bill, you are able to get some corporate credit cards, and its all uphill from there.
I have recently learned that business to business checks take forever to clear, so this stuff really matters as a buffer against that.
I am a Project Manager for construction projects, and I have just been hired to help with the planning and oversight of a $100 million construction project. My primary task at the moment is to make sense of the schedule, milestones, critical path, and, in general, make a very complicated project more comprehensible.
Yesterday I received the current schedule, which was done in MS Project (Gantt view), and is now 770 lines (18 pages). Gantt charts have a lot of good qualities, but at this size they are very hard to read.
After thinking about it for a minute, I realized I have never seen a construction schedule that I would consider an "excellent visual diagram."
Does anyone have any ideas for me?
Hella good discussion by (the Man) Edward Tufte and a dozen or so really good experts on GANTT and PERT charts and managing large projects.
Duns and Bradstreet-Your Credit File - CreditBoards
Topic: Business
3:59 pm EDT, Jun 13, 2006
The first thing to understand about Duns and Bradstreet (D&B, DnB), is that you do not HAVE to buy anything to receive a Paydex. D&B will tell you otherwise but it is not true.
The first thing to do is get a D&B number and this can be done through three ways: First you can go online and get a number for free. It will take 30 days to get the number. It has been some people�s experience that they do not get a number after 30 days and when contacting D&B they say �all you are applying for is a marketing number and you have to buy creditbuilder.� This is not true. Second, you can call 866-705-5711 and state you are applying for federal grants/contracts and you need a duns number. They will give it to you on the spot with no solicitations. Finally you can purchase creditbuilder which will include a duns number and you also will get the number right away. Also if you speak to a rep on the phone they sometimes give you the option of buying creditbuilder lite. This can be different prices as it is not listed on the website but others have paid $199 or $250 for it.
This board has a howto on establishing corporate credit.
ActiveState - Perl Dev Kit application development kit - Dynamic Tools for Dynamic Languages
Topic: Technology
11:40 am EDT, Jun 13, 2006
The Perl Dev Kit (PDK) provides essential tools for Perl programmers, making it easy to create, build, and deploy applications.
Turn your Perl programs into ready-to-run executables for AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris, and Windows. Painlessly debug Perl scripts. Generate code for sophisticated filters, or convert useful VBScript code to Perl. Plus create .NET and ActiveX components, Windows services, and system tray applications, all written in Perl.
