thoughthaus

I was at a party tonight and looked at the hosts’ book shelf. Not sure if that’s courteous or not. Anyway the guy had a bunch of these
Very Short Introductions. Each book is a brief overview on an interesting topic. Topics are mainly philosophical or history or art. Good stuff.

Committee on Certifiably Dependable Software Systems of the National Research Council published a book last year called “Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence?“. A free pdf download is available.

Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence?
Read this FREE online! PDF Summary

I rode my bike to work on heavily salted, ice-free roads this morning. It was perfectly clear at 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I wore my new goggles. It was exhilarating.

I got a MacBook a while ago. Ironic but the most fun thing I’ve done with it is setup Windows XP with Parallels. It went pretty slick after I polished up my scrated windows XP home upgrade cd with some toothpaste.

steps:

1. install demo version of parallels (downloaded from their website). I’ll have to pay $70 bucks for it later.
2. create new virtual machine image using express setup for windows XP
3. place xp setup disk in MacBook cd drive
4. watch in horror as installation complains about unreadable files from the cd
5. listen to strange clicking sound.
6. pull disk out using “reboot with mouse clicker button pressed” trick as regular eject button didn’t work
7. observe scratches on disk (are they new?)
8. polish disk with toothpaste.
9. go to another computer and make images of the disk ( make image of old windows ME disk too as this is an upgrade installation)
10. move disk image .iso files to the MacBook via usb external drive
11. restart parallels software, create new virtual machine image
12. attach xp setup disk image file to the virtual machine cd-rom
13. when xp setup asks for older version of windows cd attach ME setup disk image file
14. when xp setup asks for the xp setup disk reattach the xp setup disk to the virtual machine CD-ROM
15. watch the rest of the setup go pretty quickly.

Now I can run windows on my MAC. cool. I do have to uninstall windows on my old PC. But I planned on doing that at some point anyway.

Now I can use the MacBook to watch instant view movies from the netflix website which only supports IE on windows XP. Also I can run my company’s silly vpn software on my laptop. Doing late night deployments in bed rather than in the home office.

So the number one take away: treat the windows install CDs like gold. Don’t use them. Make backups or image files and use those instead. You can get replacement media from Microsoft but seems like a hassle best avoided.

I’ve also learned that I want to protect my investment in the Apple hardware by getting a AppleCare extension to the warranty on the MacBook. I’m still in the first year warranty so they are going to replace the Super[Broken]Drive in the MacBook.

My wife got me this great board game, Ticket to Ride, from this cool site that specializes in “gateway” games. These are proven games that get people hooked on designer board games.

Need to get some stuff for the bike.
here is a site: http://www.nashbar.com

Ice biking: http://www.icebike.org

The Checklist, another one to read. This one is about how stupid little checklists are saving lives in ICUs across MI.

Need to read this: “Business Rules Process Management”

I’m enjoying entry The Nerd Handbook entry from the rands in repose blog.

… everyone else is traipsing around picking dazzling fonts to describe their world, your nerd has carefully selected a monospace typeface, which he avidly uses to manipulate the world deftly via a command line interface …

Joel,

Isn’t the GWT what you’re referring to as the NewSDK for web apps?

This makes me smile. I love watching the Sheilds and Brooks weekly political wrap on the news hour. I’m very excited to start reading Brooks on nytimes.com now that the times is ending TimesSelect.

I got a new bicyle. My last one was stolen from my driveway. I’ve got to learn to lock things up. The new bike is a Jamis Coda. I’d never heard of it before. I like riding it. It’s a lot of fun and a major improvement over my last bike. Bought it from True Wheel in Council Bluffs, IA. Yesterday I took it out on the keystone trail.

Update: I forgot about going to this. I’m bummed.

I heard “Lost and Found” years ago at an outdoor Christian music festival. They are so fun. I’m taking the family to see them in a couple weeks.

They have a great time with their audiences. And the music is pretty special.

CONCERT INFORMATION

BLAIR, NE
First Lutheran Church
Time: 6:15 pm
August 22, 2007

For more information: 402/426-4073
Please call the local number to verify concert information, as details can, and do change at the last minute.

Directions
First is located at 2146 Wright St. in Blair. Visit our website for detailed directions.

This will be a 45-minute Camp Fire worship concert with a free-will offering as part of First Lutheran’s Wednesday night program. All are welcome.

This last July the philosophy of physics department at Oxford put together the “Everett@50” conference. They discussed the question of whether we ought to interpret quantum mechanics to imply that there are many parallel worlds.

Their papers are availible to read. They are heavy. But I’m working to understand as much as I can. I’d like to stress my brain enough to keep the neurons firing until I’m old and gray. To that end Cheryl and I also play more Scrabble these days.

“rational emotive behavioral therapy … would focus not on excavating childhood but on confronting the irrational thoughts that lead to self-destructive feelings and behavior.”

Albert Ellis, Who Streamlined Freud, Dies at 93

My last meeting today was just canceled. Bliss

Notice that I’m using lotus notes. It is the most unbelievable software I’ve ever used.

I guess I’m not alone. Google “lotus notes” and Interface Hall of Shame is on the first page of results.

I like to take “walks” though wikipedia. This where I stopped today:

“… all good theoretical physicists put this number up on their wall and worry about it.”

- Richard P. Feynman

Interesting article on forecasting the lifespan of the human race and the need to diversify our “franchise” to other planets.

Here’s what I want to do: have cruise control publish the build report in our confluence wiki.

One promising path is using the blogger api. Confluence has a plugin to support the blogger api. And cruise control weblog supports the blogger api. Any one else found a better way?

Bruce Eckel’s post on Java UI the web and Flex has reopened my eyes to flex. He points to flex.org which looks like a great place for me to restart.

I was initially really excited about Flex. My company sent me to Macromedia’s conference in 2004 (in New Orleans) to learn about Flex. Then I switched jobs a couple of times and Adobe bought Macromedia and it seemed like Ajax was going to save the world.

But after reading Eckel this morning I’m still impressed with Flex and I think I’ll give it another shot. Looks like Adobe’s made that easier by giving away more tools and making it free to start working with it.