Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Tiny Sci-Fi
August 18, 2010

I’ve been subscribed to @sfshorts on Twitter, which is not about short pants worn in San Fransisco. No, it’s a micro-fiction publication run by my friend ElizabethN and her friend (and someone I know online) preinheimer, wherein they publish a full science fiction story within the space of 1 or 2 tweets – that’s a full sci-fi story within 280 characters.

Micro-fiction seems like a great medium for people that aren’t as invested in the whole effort of writing, but it offers some challenges of its own. Stylistically, one of the rules seems to be no txt-speak; You can’t abbreviate every little thing to make your stories longer. And still, it has to make sense.

Making the Beer
August 16, 2010

Berta and I have started making beer at home. It’s actually not that hard, and it’s pretty rewarding as far as hobbies go. The effort is only a couple of nights out of a month, and the result is something tangible that you can enjoy and share.

We’ve actually been making beer for a little while now, since the beginning of June. Berta bought me a beer making kit from Artisan Homebrew for my birthday. The kit was a starter kit plus some extra parts. Altogether it included two brewing buckets, a glass carboy (basically, a big bottle with a stopper), some tubing, sanitizer, a siphon, a bottle capper, and some miscellaneous stuff essential to the brewing process.

Twitter Influence
July 29, 2010

Technically Philly recently cross-posted a piece to Philadelphia Magazine concerning the most influential Twitter users in Philadelphia. Twitter - along with general social bookmarking sites - have always intrigued me in terms of influence; how emerging topics in the social networks can indicate trends in the real world. This localized aspect of Twitter is also very interesting to me. I can think of a specific example from my recent vacation.

Around here at home, the kids have gone crazy for these things called “silly bandz”. They’re basically rubber bands molded to take a specific shape, like animals or cars or dinosaurs. There are different kinds. Some glow in the dark, some are tie-dyed, some are rare shapes. It’s not uncommon to see kids around here wrapped with armfuls of them. But on vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia, there was no sign of them.

Women in my Workplace
July 28, 2010

Although it’s not the topic of this post specifically, my workplace is currently all male. This is not by design. There have been occasions when we’ve attempted to hire competent people and they also happened to be female. The dearth of women in the software and web development industry is a sad fact that I believe is common worldwide.

Every so often the topic once again crosses my radar. This time, it comes in via an article unearthed by Chris Shiflett written by female developer, Nicole Sullivan. The article, “Women in Technology”, has been quoted by many on Twitter with the phrase “Why is computer science a sausage fest?” The article itself was spawned by a comment made on twitter about Google’s recent funding of a grant to allow female developers to attend JSConf on Google’s dime.

Levels of Camping
June 16, 2010

The whole family went with Abby’s Girl Scout troop to French Creek for an overnight camping trip. I’ve always suspected that Girl Scouts, at least at Abby’s level if not through the whole thing, was “camping light”, since every time that Abby and Berta had gone before, they had stayed in hotel-like cabins.

I remember some “luxurious” camping accommodations in my scouting days, like a cement-floor cabin with metal spring bunks (no, no mattress, just the springs) and a fireplace. But nothing with real furniture. Unlike the reports I’d gotten from Berta upon their return from Abby’s scout trips.