Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Austin - So Far, Not a Fan
March 07, 2012

I visited Austin over the weekend for Brian and Tara’s wedding. We did a few cool things, and while I love Brian and Tara dearly and would visit them many times again no matter where they lived, I can’t say I’m a fan of Texas.

Mind you, my experience with many cities I visit is merely the surface scratching that a week or so provides, and doesn’t nearly encompass the depth of what any place has to offer, but I do get impressions. What impressions I have about Austin are very poorly baked, but here goes anyway.

How the Weather Should Be Told
February 28, 2012

I asked the kids this morning what the weather was like outside, attempting to prepare for the chill of a winter morning. Abby told me that it was supposed to be 50 degrees today, so relatively warm for winter. I mentally questioned this, since it wasn’t all that warm in the house and the heater was running. On my phone, I brought up the weather, and sure enough, the high was meant to reach 50, with a low of 32. But who thought up this absurd way of telling the weather?

Certainly the temperature outside was not necessarily the low. In fact, observing the current temperature at the time, I discovered it to be 37 degrees. I suppose that sometime around 3 or 4 pm the temperature would peak at the 50 the predictions suggested. But would the day be generally warm? Would the higher temperatures linger for longer? And what of the wind chill?

When to learn new things
February 27, 2012

I’ve come to believe that developers who do not continue to learn end up stagnant and dead. So it’s obviously very important to continue to try and learn new things if I’m to keep relevant. What I see other people learning is interesting, and I’m anxious to try a lot of the new techniques that I see come across my desk from day to day; However, I wonder about the proficiency of those developers with those tools.

A lot of the appeal of Ruby, for example, is that there is a robust architecture already in place (via things like Rails) to rapidly create applications without too steep of a learning curve. That sounds great, but I wonder if the loss of that initial learning curve ultimately affects proficiency with the language.

Burning the TV
February 17, 2012

London Bridge is falling downLet’s just get this out there right now: I watch way more TV than most of you. Yes, it rots my brain. Yes, I know that if I read or coded or did anything else I’d likely be a better person. And yet, I feel a certain need - call it an addiction - to the American OTC crack cocaine that is cable/broadcast television.

Suffice to say, I’m not satisfied with the status quo. Sure, I’d rather be a better person, or at least not be nailed to the couch like the typical American potato, but I’d also rather not pay for the privilege of having my brain rotted by the typical gutter-sludge quality of what passes for entertainment around here. So here’s the new plan: We’re going to cancel our TV subscription.

What Open Source Means To Me
February 17, 2012

I’ve been a strong open source advocate even since I discovered the movement for myself over 10 years ago, going by my online nickname “ringmaster”. People often scoff at how I can give my time up for free projects, but I see the benefit differently.

Last year, I quit my job to go out on my own, using open source as a tool, and all evidence says it’s worked out pretty well. Last October, I found myself in Melbourne, Australia, working as a contractor on a reasonably high profile project, with people I’ve met through my connections in open source.