Technical Books as Projects
I never seem to be able to read technical books. It’s fun to buy them, but then I get a little ways in and forget about it. I usually treat reading as recreation. Maybe I need to treat reading a...
View ArticleMaking Blogging More Awesome
So I got to thinking about what my next job might be today. I’m a software Developer, and to borrow Neal Stephenson’s terms, I seem to be more of a honer than a forger. I haven’t developed too many...
View ArticleA Long Shot
The other night I had a conversation with my friend AJ about what would be necessary for civilization to achieve a significant presence in space–not necessarily interstellar travel, but even...
View ArticleMisc RSS Links
The following are some links that I would delicious if Delicious still worked on my netbook: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-pyth11/index.html Tutorial on a couple Python RSS...
View ArticleGet Your Fingers Moving
When you’re blocked in your programming, you may be tempted to try to get your brain in gear, hoping your fingers will follow suit. You have it backwards. I’ve become convinced that, short of high...
View ArticleDragon, Wizard, Knight, Footsoldier
Jeremy Crow asked on twitter, “Do you believe we each have a Higher Self? If so, what are the qualities of yours?” Since I like to explain away spiritual things with rationality, I answered, “I think...
View ArticleBlog It Like You Stole It
I need to get back to this blogging thing. In the past few months my tweeting has increased by a completely-made-up 47%, but I haven’t blogged at all. Twitter is awesome for finding (or telling...
View ArticleBelief as an Action
Knowledge is belief from evidence. Faith is belief as an action. Like an actor believing in his character. To learn to contact the Force, a Jedi must have faith in it. Eventually he comes to know...
View ArticleChatRBotz
This is the archive of a tweetstorm originally found here. What if strong AI requires simulating not just a person, but a life? I mean, like, a human life. Ellie who has a family and cats, and drives...
View ArticleHow To Learn To Program
First, realize that the world of programming (and technology in general) is full of a lot of very opinionated people. They will say that this or that language is terrible; that language A is better...
View ArticleBullet Points About Software Development
Recently I got to thinking: I’ve been doing software development professionally for over a decade (gosh…). I must have learned something, right? Right?? So I thought I’d brainstorm some of the...
View ArticleStacks instead of Queues in Message Routing
What do you do when you’re building a message router that has to send clients both very up-to-date information, and very complete information? If the outgoing per-client queue is too short, when...
View ArticleScrum Cycle
(Originally a tweetstorm) T-1.5h to T-1h: Avoid getting into anything big T-1h to T-15m: Review previous day, plan what to say T-15m to T-1s: Mentally rehearse what to say T0: Say What you Did...
View Article2016 Career In Review, Part 1
Everybody’s doing year in review posts, and I feel like I should do one too. Career-wise, though, it doesn’t make much sense unless I also review the last seven years or so. So buckle up, because...
View Article2016 Career In Review, Part 2
As I said in my last post, in the spirit of Year In Review posts, I’m reviewing the last 7 years, because that’s the only way it makes sense. Last time I talked about the somewhat complicated answer...
View ArticleBreakout
This story was originally written as a tweetstorm. Hence, it’s broken into blockqotes, one for each tweet. MICHAEL: Welcome to your new home. SATAN: A simulation? MICHAEL: Yes. SATAN: A game! MICHAEL:...
View ArticleConsciousness Related To Entropy In Brain Connections
This Big Think article came across my Facebook feed, suggesting that higher entropy in the brain is correlated with consciousness. The article was a bit overexcited, though, saying this would, if...
View ArticleWordPress is More Complicated Than I Remember
I’m finally setting my blog back up, after some issues with my old web host. My not wanting to bother with those issues has caused it to be down for a while. I’m using WordPress again, this time with...
View ArticleIntroducing “Tech of the Week”
Each week, starting this coming week, I’m going to delve into a different thing related to the Web or software development. I’ll write about the experience of using or learning it, and provide links...
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Tech of the Week: CSS
Welcome to the first installment of a weekly(ish) segment where I learn some things about a technology and then write some things about it. This week, I spent some time looking at CSS, and I’ll share...
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