Dan Appleman: Kibitzing and Commentary

He's back…

Apr 24, 2006 | General

It’s been a while – a long while since I’ve posted regularly here.
Recently, I met Jeff Atwood at SDWest and he encouraged me to start up again. I’d been thinking about it for a while, and that was possibly the point that tipped it for me – at least enough to start the process of updating the server with the latest WordPress software (my existing blog site had become a magnet for comment spam, and my apologies to anyone who’s tried posting a comment that never was displayed – it was lost in the flood of messages in the moderation queue).
So where have I been? The best way to describe it is I guess a sort of Sabbatical. It actually took me a while to remember the word sabbatical – it’s not a word that often appears in the vocabulary of software developers (a topic on which I will write more on later).
The idea of a Sabbatical is simple – we get so caught up in the day to day activities of life and career (what my sister calls the “muck and mire of daily life”) that it’s hard sometimes to have time to just think – to gain perspective.
I can’t say that what I had was a true sabbatical – because I was still working. The point is – I was working less. Just a few conferences a year. No new books. Mostly handling Desaware and a few small consulting gigs (mostly to keep learning and keep my software development skills sharp). In short – my typical work hours in a week were what I think most Americans would call a “normal work week” (as compared to what what I, and many people I know, have grown accustomed to).
On the other hand, it was a long Sabbatical, and I do feel “recharged” so to speak. What I’m charged up for I’m not entirely sure yet, but returning to this blog is a part of that process. It’s nice to be back.

Enterprise

Dec 4, 2004 | General

Ok, I admit it, I’m a Trekkie from way back. Not an extremist, mind you. But I grew up on the original series, and by the time I was old enough to recognize how cliche it was, Next Generation was there as a deserving successor. Deep Space 9 was better yet, almost (but not quite) reaching the level of genius found in Babylon 5 (the best SF series ever made).

I must confess though, Voyager was a let down. I started watching, ready to give it the benefit of the doubt, but somehow it just didn’t work. Every other episode consisted of alien race threatens/invades ship, Janeway & Co. save ship, ship gets a few miles closer to home. Yes, there were a few gems in there, but on those occasions I watched I was more often than not disappointed.

With Enterprise, I started out hopeful, but again it seemed uneven. I almost gave up, but at the end of the last season something happened. Whether it was the introduction of multi-episodic story arcs (a key element of the success of both DS9 and Babylon 5), or just more sophisticated storytelling, I actually began to look forward to seeing it. With this week’s conclusion of a three part series illustrating a key historical event on Vulcan, I feel they’ve reached a level as high as any of the other shows.

So, for those of you who have abandoned Star Trek in one of its later incarnations, but remember one of the older shows fondly, I think it’s time you pay the franchise a visit. You may be pleasantly surprised.

The Joys of Comment Spam

Nov 15, 2004 | General

When I set up this blog, one of the key factors in choosing the software was that it supports moderation of comments. I’d seen other blogs flooded with comment spam (much of it obscene) and did not want to be put in the position of having to constantly check for and delete spam comments. This turned out to be a wise choice.

What has fascinated me recently is the cleverness of spammers trying to get their message posted. The vast majority of spam attempts seem to consist of very witty comments that are almost relevant to the original message. In many cases they consist of famous quotes where the only indication that they are spam is that the “relevant” links within the quote point to an online poker or porn site. I suspect these posts are designed primarily to get by automatic filters, and I expect they meet some success in that.

Today I received one that was clever enough for me to want to share:

A reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy. And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals … Now did the Lord say, First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.

Monty Python, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

What this has to do with refinancing mortgages I can’t tell you, and which mortgage refinancer posted this I won’t post here, but if you really want to know drop me a note. Any company choosing that quote deserves to succeed.

In Memoriam

Oct 12, 2004 | General

I know I originally promised not to post the “minutia of my daily life” on this blog. But please forgive this exception.

Today is my father’s funeral.

He passed away Sunday night at home, surrounded by family, in as much peace as I suppose is possible under the circumstances.

I know some of you reading this met him – he would often come to the VBits conferences where Desaware exhibited and where I was a speaker. Conferences then were somewhat of a family affair for us. Aside from the obvious pride he had in watching me do my thing, he enjoyed the travel and the technology, and I was glad to be able to give him the opportunity. He had spent his working life traveling around the world for Fluor (a major construction company), and the conferences gave him a taste of that again. He loved his work – I remember the pride (and amazement) he expressed after negotiating his first billion dollar contract.

My dad definitely qualified as a “geek” by today’s standards. He spent hours on the computer, participating in online discussions, paying bills, playing solitaire, and various sundry other activities. No technophobe, whenever he ran into problems he would attempt to tackle them himself, and if necessary spend hours on the phones with tech support people until things worked. Only rarely would I have to come in and help out.

I don’t doubt that I inherited my love of technology from him. Curiously enough, as I struggle to focus on how he was, rather than how he died, I realized that it’s not his love that I remember most, but rather, his respect. I suppose every good father encourages his children to learn and try new things. But for me the real turning point was when I was 12 or 13 and my interest in electronics had gone just a step beyond building simple kits and playing with 50-in-one project sets from radio shack. I don’t know whether that’s the time when I knew more about electronics than he did, but even if I didn’t – he let me believe that. Suddenly I was the one in charge of repairing frayed extension cords, replacing bulbs, rewiring outlets, and any other household tasks that had anything to do with electronics or electricity.

That respect, or trust in my ability, was the core, but there were lots of little things as well. Buying me my first transceiver kit from Heathkit. Encouragement without pressure when I dragged home an old WWII radio and then took almost a year to repair it. Patience the numerous times I blew out fuses at home (or in hotel rooms). And a stalwart defense when the neighbors were ready to lynch me because my transmissions were coming out of their TV, intercom systems, toasters and so on.

He had a full life, and there were many aspects to it. He’s not a person one can reflect on in a single eulogy. But of all the things I want to say about him, these are the things that feel right to express here.

Why Dan does blog after all…

Aug 16, 2004 | General

So I was at a Geek dinner in Seattle that Robert Scoble put together. Towards the end of dinner, there I was – surrounded by numerous bloggers, all chanting the mantra of blogging (whatever that may be). Finally, I cracked. I couldn’t take it. I left, a broken hulk of a man, promising Robert that yes, I would join the ranks of bloggers. Only a couple of months ago I posted “Why Dan don’t blog” on the Apress blog site , explaining my reasoning for avoiding it. And you know what? Most of those reasons are still true. No matter. Consistency is overrated anyway.

I still don’t plan to post daily. I still have no interest in posting the minuta of my daily life. I’m still not an information aggregator. But I came to realize that not every blog takes that approach. Maybe there is room in blogging for the mavens of the world.

I decided to name this blog Kibitzing and Commentary (which are sort of the same thing, just one has attitude). I know many blogs focus on specific topics; I have no intention of doing so. So if you aren’t interested in straying from purely technological topics, I encourage you to subscribe to the technology or software categories only.

So here goes. I hope you find what follows interesting and entertaining.
RSS feeds for sites referred to in this item:

• Scobleizer
• Apress