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    June 18

    Why Can't Lakers Rewrite Finals History?

    Quoted: In the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, Marcia C. Smith reports "History lends the Lakers, who are down 3-2 in the best-of-7 NBA Finals, the word never. Only eight teams in NBA history have rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win a seven-game playoff series, but no team has ever done it to win an NBA championship.

    February 08

    Vizrea Snap

    Today the startup I joined is considering itself "unstealthed" and open to the public.  Our software Vizrea Snap is available for download now.  I am really excited to be working in a software space that I love so much - photos, blogging and online community.  My Vizrea space is here -- http://vizrea.com/tosh.  Email for a invitation to be a contact of mine. 
     
    Today our company was on the front page of the Seattle Times business section.  Tomorrow (in a few hours) Mike, BradC and Steve are demo'ing at DEMO.
     
    Would love to hear what you think about our stuff.  How we can do better and what you love too...
    October 29

    Home Improvement and the Internet

    Having just finished an episode of This Old House on tv, I am happy to find one of my posts from my Microsoft blog linked from a community area of WindowsMarketPlace.com in the Home Improvement category.  Apparently, I am humorous.  Somebody should tell my wife.
    October 22

    The Timeless Tonka

    Boing Boing points at a site that lists of favorite toys of the seventies and eighties.  In short, too many board games and no mention of Lego and G.I. Joe.  They also combined Transformers with Zoids in one entry (#92).  Geez, Zoids?!?  Zoids sucked.  Anyhow, in case you were wondering this kid of the 70s and 80s did love his Tonka dumptruck (#70 on the list) and so does a 1 year old I know.

    New Aggregator Time

    It's been a while since I moved off of my current news aggregator (RSS Bandit) and it's feeling a little stale.  That's not to say I don't like it, I do, but I am wondering if there's a better one out there.  I am trying out the Google Reader currently (after DLevin pointed me to it - thanks, Dave), but I don't think it's going to stick.  I _really_ like a folder or tag hierarchy.   The DHTML UI is kind of neat, but sliding list on the side doesn't feel smooth and the right pane's height gets bigger or smaller based on the length of the text in a particular blog entry.  This is jarring to me.  I don't like moving text on a page where I am trying to read.  Too disconcerting.
     
    In any case, drop a link in the comments if you have one you really like.  I have already tried the following:  SharpReader, Bloglines, RssBandit and of course Google Reader.
    October 17

    IE Development Toolbar

    My old OWA buddy Brendan forwards a link to the Internet Explorer Development Toolbar.  I haven't tried it yet. 
    October 16

    Knit Zombies

    And finally, in what has to be the the coolest thing I have seen all day and that includes the Cobra patch, the weird kid from New Zealand and the robotic Touareg, I find via Boing Boing that somebody has knitted up some zombies.

    I Missed the Grand Challenge Results

    More news I missed having checked out from the web last week was the DARPA Grand Challenge results.  Stanford built a robotic Touareg which navigated the 132 miles in 6 hrs 53 m, eleven minutes ahead of CMU's Red team's hummer #1 and 21 minutes ahead of Red team's hummer #2.  In all 5 teams successfully navigated the course, which is fantastic.  I actually had the opportunity to hear Red Whittaker speak at Microsoft last summer after the first race and am happy to hear that he and his team accomplished the task successfully.
    October 15

    Notes on Building a Web Based Software Business

    It seems clear that building software in a startup is about building something incredible in a really short amount of time.  If you're building one, I suggest doing the following from the beginning.
    • Choice of language / technology - language bigots will argue the merits of one language over another, but a good developer should have no trouble learning a new language.  For the founder, it's more important to understand what technology or language is most appropriate for your business.  Are you a PHP shop, .NET, J2EE or something else?  What can you afford?  What kind of developers are you likely to attract in your regional talent pool?  Once you start coding it's hard to switch to another language so choose carefully.
    • Coding guidelines - most developers have a preferred coding style and most times no two are alike.  Once you have more than one dev in a code-base one person's style will begin to annoy the other.  To avoid bugs due to an over-zealous dev reformatting code that he doesn't need to touch, come up with and agree to a set of coding guidelines that detail coding style, best practices and naming.  Be hard-core about rejecting code that was not written to the "standard".  It won't take long for your developers to write to the new guidelines and start to love them.  If you're writing .NET code, run FxCop.
    • Code reviews - if you have more than one developer on your team, start requiring code-reviews before each check-in.  Knowing that one has to present one's code to another developer forces one to really review it first, comment it and make it robust.  Another set of eyes on the code will help find bugs earlier and your devs will learn more from each other if there's an opportunity to give feedback before check-in.
    • Build a resource manager - you may think today you'll only need one UI language, but the day may come when you want to localize and pulling out hard-coded strings and re-writing parts of functions that build display strings by concatenation is a pain in neck later.  It's easy to create a resource manager.  Take the time to do it in the beginning.
    • Script Versioning - keep in mind when running a web site, you will be pushing new builds to the server all the time.  This means that you need a versioning scheme for cached resources like scripts, css and images.  Take the time in the beginning to make your URLs versionable.  One way is simply to put your files in a folder named after the version you are on, i.e. http://domain/[version]/scripts.  Update the version number in the paths and the browser will seek them from the server and not the cache.

    Payday for Weblogs Inc.

    See what happens when you get busy with work and check out of the sphere...  You miss big news like Weblogs Inc. getting acquired by AOL. 
     

    Dysfunctional and Shy Execs

    It's nice to know that even software company execs feel awkward and dysfunctional at conferences sometimes.
    October 14

    Engadget: Rip and encode a DVD for your video iPod

    In the "it was only a matter of time" category, Engadget posts instructions on how to rip, encode and view your DVDs on the new video iPod.  Of course none of this is new, but it's nice to have a pointer to some tools that apparently work ok.
     
     
    As a kid, I would have gladly paid $2 for an episode of a tv show.  Now, I don't see the point.  I might do it if it were cheap enough though, say $.50.  But who wants to watch a the same show twice?  After all, Lost is no A-Team.  :)
    September 30

    GoogleNet

    Here's a interesting post that rumors Google has been buying up miles of "dark fiber" (unused fiber optic cable laid during the dot com days, but left dormant as so many telecoms went out of business).  B2.0's Om Malik hypothesizes what they might be up to.  Free wifi hot spots for the masses on the parallel internet - GoogleNet? 
     
    If you owned an internet what would you do with it?
     
     
    September 26

    Technorati

    Time to claim this blog in Technorati.  Let's see if spaces strips the XFN rel attribute...
     
    Technorati Profile
    September 25

    Windows Powered Palm Treo

    The sphere is abuzz with rumors/news of the Windows powered Palm Treo device.  Engadget has pictures.  I guess it's not so much a surprise as an inevitability.  The Treo is a popular device and Windows for mobile devices is a great OS.  A pairing is natural thing after Palm's hardware and software split.  Now if they'd only do something about the looks of the thing.
     
    There's a press conference tomorrow. 
    September 15

    Initial Impression on the New 3-Series

    First impressions on the 2006 325i:
    • Engine seems fast and smooth. 
    • Smoothest automatic I have ever driven. 
    • 215 horsepower and 6 speed transmission is noticeably nimbler than the 170 hp 2000 323i.
    • Bluetooth bonded just fine with the Nokia 6680.  It would not bond to the HTC-MS smartphone.
    • Using the phone through the car's system is fantastic.  Perhaps the best feature next to the engine.  One can answer the phone from the steering wheel.  Radio automatically mutes.  One can browse one's phone's address book on the radio display and dial from the steering wheel.
    • I thought heated seats would be a waste in the mild winter of Seattle.  However, I can definitely appreciate them as a therapeutic aid for an intermittently bad back.
    • Cup holders are mounted to the dash like in newer Audi and Volkswagen models.  I am convinced a grande Starbucks mocha is going to burn somebody, but initial tests prove extremely stable.  :)
    • Steptronic transmission is a feature that is nice to know it's there, but I don't think I will have a need to use it as the automatic shifts really nicely already.  More testing needed however.
    • The "latch" system is hard to use.  It's difficult to dig into the seat cushion to find the hooks to attach the child seat to.  The car we test drove had little plastic flaps which flipped up to reveal the hooks, but our's does not.

     

    September 11

    The Way I See It #63

    Here are some words of inspiration (or not) from my Starbucks grande mocha...
     
    When you combine passion and hard work, then success is always possible.  While no road is ever straight, dedication and persistence will always lead you to your dreams.
     
    This is the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks.
     
    :)
    September 06

    Self-Respecting Home Owner

    After two plus years of telling myself I need to buy a wet dry vac for the garage, I have finally broke down and done it.  Yes, I proudly picked up the Ridgid 9 gallon Wet/Dry vac from Home Depot this weekend.  Now, I know some guys will tell you that that 16 gallon Pro Vac with 6.5 peak horsepower is the way to go, but I am secure enough to say that the 9 gallon / 3.5 horsepower is plenty sufficient to take care of the floor of my car and the daddy long legs' killing ground in my garage window.  I am probably going to pick up the Wet/Dry Vac Accessory Storage Center so that I can store the hose in a way that it won't kink up and get in my way.  Of course, what would a Wet/Dry vacuum be without the VT2502 Crevice Tool.  I'd better pick one of those up as well.  Hey, a noise muffler!  :)
    August 20

    Highlights of Week Two

    Week two is gone and I remain excited as week one about my new co.  Here are some highlights:

    • Meeting Brad Chase (ex. MS Senior VP and also a basketballer)
    • Getting to know my co-workers better over beer at the Palace Kitchen (Jeff recommends the $12 hamburger)
    • Morning Starbucks at an actual Starbucks (none of that Eurest cafeteria stuff)
    • The Dahlia Bakery's oatmeal and apricot cookie
    • And the feeling that my newbie cluelessness has faded a little with regard to what's what in the code base
    August 17

    Lunchtime Eats in Downtown Seattle

    One of my concerns about joining my new company was the long-ish commute into downtown.  I have found that it's not too bad off-peak and as a matter of fact the lunch options make it worthwhile.  I have the option to work at home, but to my surprise the city is making it worth the drive.  Yesterday we hit the Dahlia bakery.  I had the turkey sandwich (roasted turkey, queso fresco, smoked paprika aioli, frisee, pickled sweet peppers) and chocolate chip cookie.  Excellent.