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I hate GoDaddy

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:53:17 +0000

They were billing me for hosting on a domain I don’t own anymore … it’s exasperating.

Still alive

eric — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 06:44:28 +0000

Yep. Unlike some people, I am still alive as of this writing. Also, I finished the single-player campaign in Portal 2. The game itself felt too short, even at more than double the length of the original; I don’t think they could have made it long enough to do it justice. The ending was suitably weird, even compared to the original. I won’t link to it here due to massive spoilers (you can find it on YouTube).

Some backstory can be found in this comic about Doug Rattmann, the delusional Aperture Science engineer who survived the events surrounding GLaDOS‘ activation.

EDIT: Okay, okay. Since those last two links at Combine OverWiki also contain lots of spoilers, here is the Portal 2 ending video. But it will make absolutely no sense if you haven’t played at least through Chapter 5 of the game.

Fan Week is coming

eric — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:12:03 +0000

When I was interviewing at Amazon, my manager-to-be explained that nobody had air conditioners here in Seattle, because it was only hot enough to justify owning one for about one week during the year. Coming from Florida as he had, this was no summer at all.

The weather here did make a difference in my relocation from California. I spent my childhood in the midwest, and while I don’t miss the hot sticky summers, I liked the summer rain. I missed the change in the air, the thunder rolling across the fields, and the way everything smelled after it was over.[1]

My first Fan Week was in 2006. It was taking a long time to unpack my things, so I had the fan but not the cover. The first time I ran it, the cord from the venetian blinds got caught in the blades. Etc.

Smell that? … [The] smell of spring. All green and full of possibility. — Dr. Morgenstern, “Shades Of Gray” (ER, S04E19)

Hello world!

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:05:31 +0000

Just set up WordPress. Will be migrating old content from /weblog shortly.

Hold onto your butts.

UPDATE: Imported. Will fiddle with URL stuff later

mamablogga.com – The ultimate guide to migrating from blogger to wordpress

And there you have it …

eric — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:49:00 +0000

And that wraps up a whole month of blog posts. Well, I missed a few days here and there. :|

password for IE6 app compatibility VPC

eric — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:56:00 +0000

Needed admin rights for something on the IE6 VirtualPC image and couldn’t find the password on the web. Someone somewhere will have the same question, so according to the readme for the current image, The Administrator and IETest passwords are P2ssw0rd . Natch.

p.s. Happy National Blog Posting Month. Out of a misplaced sense of journalistic integrity I am not back-dating posts to fill in the days I missed already. :P

EDIT (2011-12-22) This information is now obsolete. :-( See comments below.

I may never get lost again

eric — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:27:00 +0000

Google Maps street level views are the greatest thing since sliced bread. All I have to do is drop the little dude icon in the middle of the freeway and it shows exactly what the visual landmarks are.

Argh!! I just missed the offramp! This is like the 3rd time!!

Not all who jump ship are rats

eric — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:41:00 +0000

I just finished an informal “interview” at blist in Pioneer Square. My brain stalled out when it was my turn to answer questions, but even so, I think there’s a >25% chance of getting an offer by Christmas. Before last week I’d never heard of them, but it sounded like they were doing something interesting, which would be a welcome change.

No. What they’re doing isn’t interesting. It’s mindblowing. It does for relational databases what Scripting News and Blogger did for writing. I mean, your grandma can keep recipes in this thing.

Pointless Section

skip pointless section

The computerized recipe file, to me, is practically the Holy Grail of usability — a marketing cliché older than the IBM PC, a diversion to distract your 1970s-vintage housewife just long enough for you to plunk down fifty grand on a box that smells like solid-state cologne and comes with 512 bytes of memory.

She tries to love the recipe software, she really does, even when that means upgrading to 16K. But after data-entering enough recipes to fill two boxes of Elephant diskettes,[1] you are both horrified to learn what happens to floppies when you decide to use a giant horseshoe magnet as a bookend.

She doesn’t even get angry. But a month passes before she forgives you for throwing out all of her cookbooks.

blist will save your marriage.

But blist is not only a really smart UI. Consumer applications for blists are also a free demo for organizations who are traditionally dependent on IT[2] to build and manage database applications for them. Need a timecard application? Drag ‘n drop. Need a gradebook for your school? Copy an existing design shared by the community. Need a warehouse management system? Tricky — you might need an analyst. This is everything Access was supposed to be.

The other end of the system is a massive-scale database fleet on a par with AWS or Google, capable of providing enterprise-class service with the same economies of scale. I’m a hippie-geeky idealist like my dad, so it pays to be skeptical, but I think these guys have the experience to pull it off. The CEO, Kevin Merritt, is a nice guy. He’s also got a track record. Even without attending the Steve Jobs School of Mass Hypnosis, he’s got me excited about this thing.

And they understand that the UI is crucial — with only a dozen or so employees, they already have a full-time UX person on staff.

I think I want this.

Elephant. Never forget.

Footnotes

Okay, sorry, Elephant wasn’t around back then. But there are plenty of other holes you could have picked at besides this one. Oh wait, it’s the only one with a footnote.[3] Never mind. As you were.
It always feels weird to speak of “traditions” relating to IT.
I’m not afraid to admit I was wrong.

Neo-Luddite

eric — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:07:00 +0000

Hey Lupin. Looks like your so-called “source” fell off the web. He hasn’t posted anything since the Fresh Prince hit his expiration date!

Are you even listening?

Oscars? Feh.

eric — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 02:50:00 +0000

This is why I love being off the media "grid": I didn’t even know about the Academy Awards until after the ceremony. People arguing the merits of movies I’ve never seen, actors I wouldn’t recognize, and prom dresses I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing.[1] Thanks but I’ll make do without it.

Footnotes:

Admittedly, since I’m a guy, and don’t wear dresses anyway…