The entire 1st floor is now the domain of my 9 month old. Not quite crawling, but she can go wherever she wants.
Now the choke toy alert really goes up. Also no more leaving the basement door open.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Bazaar
The oldest two kids have fallen in love with one of my favorite childhood games. Yes, I still have the sale price, and rents memorized for every property. For a time I knew all of the house/hotel/mortgage values as well.
While at the in-laws this last weekend, we were looking for Monopoly. My mother in-law was sure she had a copy, but it was not to be found. Instead she pulled out Bazaar
It is an old game of logic. I played with my oldest and one brother in-law. I was hooked. All these years I have seen it sitting in their closet and I didn't play. Tisk Tisk
While at the in-laws this last weekend, we were looking for Monopoly. My mother in-law was sure she had a copy, but it was not to be found. Instead she pulled out Bazaar
It is an old game of logic. I played with my oldest and one brother in-law. I was hooked. All these years I have seen it sitting in their closet and I didn't play. Tisk Tisk
Friday, April 6, 2007
Out Like a Lamb?
On Tuesday, it rained. Sans a few small shaded locations, we had no snow on the ground. When I put the trash out at midnight, it had turn to snow and was just starting to not melt when hitting the ground.
On Wednesday we had high winds and heavy snow. At times I could not see the building a block away from my office window. By Wednesday night we had 3 foot snow banks outside my office window. My drive was drifted shut. The kids and I shoveled for over an hour. The snow was wet and heavy. To make it worse the bottom was slush. We cleared just enough to get the van out. My wife took the one of the kids to the beach. The waves were roaring, crashing many feet higher onto the shore than normal.
Thursday was no change in weather. There were 5 foot drifts outside the office in the morning. The kids and I again shoveled out the drive. Still some slush and a little less drifting. Because of the wind, I have areas of my yard with almost no snow and others with huge drifts. Again my wife had been to the beach. This time she met my neighbor with the dogs. She said her husband had been out surfing both days. Very cool!
Today, Friday, the storm warning has been extended another 2 days! We are back to barely being able to see the building a block away. We are headed for Harbor Springs this afternoon. I think we are going to take the long route and get on US2 as soon as possible.
Kind of too bad I put the skiis away already!
On Wednesday we had high winds and heavy snow. At times I could not see the building a block away from my office window. By Wednesday night we had 3 foot snow banks outside my office window. My drive was drifted shut. The kids and I shoveled for over an hour. The snow was wet and heavy. To make it worse the bottom was slush. We cleared just enough to get the van out. My wife took the one of the kids to the beach. The waves were roaring, crashing many feet higher onto the shore than normal.
Thursday was no change in weather. There were 5 foot drifts outside the office in the morning. The kids and I again shoveled out the drive. Still some slush and a little less drifting. Because of the wind, I have areas of my yard with almost no snow and others with huge drifts. Again my wife had been to the beach. This time she met my neighbor with the dogs. She said her husband had been out surfing both days. Very cool!
Today, Friday, the storm warning has been extended another 2 days! We are back to barely being able to see the building a block away. We are headed for Harbor Springs this afternoon. I think we are going to take the long route and get on US2 as soon as possible.
Kind of too bad I put the skiis away already!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Interaction Testing
I am a fan of unit tests. From the first time I saw them I have been selling their benefits.
Up until this time I have not used a mock objects framework. It is time. I am considering NMock2 and Rhino Mock.
Oren Eini, author of Rhino Mock, has some good feedback on how to use a mock library effectively in his post Guidelines to Using Interaction Based Testing. I had not thought about the distinction between fake and mock objects.
Up until this time I have not used a mock objects framework. It is time. I am considering NMock2 and Rhino Mock.
Oren Eini, author of Rhino Mock, has some good feedback on how to use a mock library effectively in his post Guidelines to Using Interaction Based Testing. I had not thought about the distinction between fake and mock objects.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Right not Revolutionary
I got a chance to listen to Tim O'Reilly's 2006 O'Reilly Radar while traveling. Tim did a great job presenting how asynchronous competition creates the big changes in industry.
First off, Tim is spot on, but second while Tim's message is very interesting, it is not new. It is the subject of Clayton M. Christensen's 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma. Clayton calls it Disruptive Technologies where Tim calls it asyncrhonous competition. They are really the same idea.
I cannot do The Innovator's Delimma justice, but here are a few quotes.
Kudos to both Tim and Clayton for introducing us to new ways of viewing the world.
First off, Tim is spot on, but second while Tim's message is very interesting, it is not new. It is the subject of Clayton M. Christensen's 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma. Clayton calls it Disruptive Technologies where Tim calls it asyncrhonous competition. They are really the same idea.
I cannot do The Innovator's Delimma justice, but here are a few quotes.
Surely few in the technology world have heard of Clayton M. Christensen, but who there hasn't heard of Tim O'Reilly. Tim brought some excellent graphs and some serious study to locating disruptive technologies. And certainly, he will make the idea known to many many more people. If you get the chance, don't stop with Tim's work. Read The Innovator's Dilemma as well.the established firms stayed atop wave after wave of sustaining technologies (technologies that their customers needed), while consistently stumbling over simpler disruptive ones.
...It is very difficult for a company whose cost structure is tailored to compete in high-end markets to be profitable in low-end markets well.
...Companies whose investment processes demand quantification of market sizes and financial returns before they can enter a market get paralyzed or make serious mistakes when faced with disruptive technologies.
Kudos to both Tim and Clayton for introducing us to new ways of viewing the world.
Vocabulary
I enjoy hearing people with good vocabularies speak. Jim Harper who I referred to in Identity is Not Fixed is one who uses vocabulary well, not attempting to make himself look more important, rather to communicate concisely.
I am listening to a Channel9 interview and one of the speakers used the term "hugely". Okay, okay, it is in the dictionary. But, for me it is like drawing fingernails across a chalk board. I am not enjoying recent the increase of this word in common diction.
I am listening to a Channel9 interview and one of the speakers used the term "hugely". Okay, okay, it is in the dictionary. But, for me it is like drawing fingernails across a chalk board. I am not enjoying recent the increase of this word in common diction.
Identity: It is not fixed
I took a trip this last weekend. As is my usual style the podcasts were playing much of the driving time. Due to this I have many thoughts running through my head.
I relistened to Jim Harper's talk about Identity on IT Conversations. He outlines the four categories of identity:
About half way through the talk he states; "Children don't have identities. They have to build them, and we get our identies from the things we do, and the people we know, and the institutions we work with." I thought this was interesting. You can change your identity.
One of the unstated pieces in the Tree of Self-Realization is that if you change the inputs to your life (the roots), you change the results. I have found that by forcing myself to learn new things about software development, it changed my position within the software development team. I changed my identity from newby to expert.
Do you have an identity you are not happy with? You can change that!
I relistened to Jim Harper's talk about Identity on IT Conversations. He outlines the four categories of identity:
- Something you are
- Something you are assigned
- Something you know
- Something you have
About half way through the talk he states; "Children don't have identities. They have to build them, and we get our identies from the things we do, and the people we know, and the institutions we work with." I thought this was interesting. You can change your identity.
One of the unstated pieces in the Tree of Self-Realization is that if you change the inputs to your life (the roots), you change the results. I have found that by forcing myself to learn new things about software development, it changed my position within the software development team. I changed my identity from newby to expert.
Do you have an identity you are not happy with? You can change that!
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