Runtime Log

2008 Women's Olympic Marathon Trials

2008-04-24T10:33:00.002-04:00

Boston was the center of the marathon universe this past weekend. As usual, the Boston Marathon was held on Patriots Day. On Sunday, about 150 women competed in the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials. Deena Kastor (left) placed first with a masterful, come-from-behind performance.

But Joan Samuelson (right) was definitely the crowd favorite. Nearly thirty years after winning the 1979 Boston Marathon, she ended her competitive career just like she began it -- running down Bolyston Street wearing a Red Sox cap. Finishing in 2:49:08, she set a new American record for the 50-54 age group.

More photos in this set on Flickr.

2008 Boston Marathon

2008-04-23T12:11:00.003-04:00

More photos in this set on Flickr.

Fenway Park

2008-04-11T13:19:00.003-04:00

The American Institue of Architects recently posted an appreciation of Fenway Park and other historic buildings. If you follow the preceding link, you can view a short video of Fenway. The video features photos from the Flickr community including my May 2007 photo of the Sox championship banners.

That's so cool.

Signs of Spring

2008-03-21T12:57:00.004-04:00

Or maybe just signs of the end of winter. Either way, it's worth celebrating ...

Moon Shots

2008-02-21T10:58:00.002-05:00

Pictures from Germany

2008-02-07T06:39:00.000-05:00

I've just returned from a business trip to Germany. Luckily, I had some spare time to visit and take pictures in Speyer, Heidelberg, and other beautiful spots. Here's a sample. As I find the time, I'll be adding more trip photos to this set on Flickr.

The Library of Congress on Flickr

2008-01-22T08:56:00.000-05:00

Last week, the Library of Congress uploaded a small percentage of its photo collection to Flickr. The photos are from the 1910s, 30s and 40s. According to the Library's blog, this small pilot project has two goals:

If all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity.

In other words, they want viewers to enjoy, comment on, and tag the photos in their collection. They hope to learn previously unknown facts about the people, places and other subjects in these photos. They may have to wade through some sophomoric comments to get to the facts, but I think this is a great idea. I hope the experiment is a huge success.

And by the way, the photos are gorgeous. Check out the Library of Congress photo stream for more.

2008 New Hampshire Primary

2008-01-10T18:33:00.000-05:00

The 2008 New Hampshire Primary is history. Inevitably, the chattering classes will deconstruct the results and debate whether New Hampshire should keep its first-in-the-nation status. I'm biased, but I think the answer is Yes. We had a record turn-out of over 500,000 voters. We ignored the pundits and handed comeback victories to McCain and Clinton. We ignored Vermin Supreme. No, that's not my nickname for Mitt Romney. Vermin Supreme was an actual candidate on the Republican ballot.

One of the quieter successes was the way a group of amateur, New Hampshire photographers banded together to document the primary. The New Hampshire group on Flickr attended campaign events throughout the state and posted photos to the NH Primary Project. You can see a slide show of hundreds of these photos at the NH Photo Tour Blog or you can look for photos on Flickr tagged with "nhelection08".

Recently, New Hampshire Public Radio noticed all the activity on Flickr and commissioned some of us to visit the candidates' campaign headquarters on election night. The idea was to document the victory speeches, the concession speeches and the lesser known, uniquely New Hampshire moments, and post photos of all of the above to NHPR's web site.

NHPR dispatched me to McCain headquarters with my (ahem) colleagues from ABC, CBS and Fox News. It was standing-room-only. It was loud and crazy. It was lot's of fun. Considering I was at McCain's very first 2008 campaign appearance in New Hampshire last March, the victory celebration was very special for me. I felt like I had watched the whole story as it unfolded -- in person. I've collected all my campaign pictures in this Campaign 2008 Set. (You don't want to miss the photo of Vermin Supreme.)

In short, I am thrilled with the way Flickr enabled documentation and participation in the primary process. I commend NHPR for tapping into a pool of amateur photographers so they could provide a service to New Hampshire citizens. And I am sure there are lots of other examples of how organizations and individuals are pushing the New Hampshire Primary in new directions. It's not your father's New Hampshire Primary. It's an ever-changing process powered by serious and passionate people. Maybe that's the best reason for keeping it first-in-the-nation.

P.S. NHPR hasn't posted all of the election night photos yet. When they do, I will post a link.

White Album

2008-01-06T19:03:00.000-05:00

You've probably heard about the record snowfall in southern New Hampshire over the past month. As usual, I've been out taking pictures. Here are just a few of my recent uploads to Flickr.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-17T17:42:00.000-05:00

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season.

We Remove Vista

2007-12-10T09:29:00.000-05:00

Mark Twain on Heaven

2007-11-27T22:37:00.000-05:00

Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
-- Mark Twain

The beautiful statue above is near a headstone in the Mont Vernon, NH town cemetery. More...

Word Problem

2007-11-21T19:59:00.000-05:00

Dave never rakes the leaves in his backyard until the day after Thanksgiving. His neighbor Norm's maple tree leans over Dave's backyard. Norm's maple is the last tree in New Hampshire to lose its leaves each Fall. This year an early snow covered the leaves in Dave's backyard. Then Norm's tree dropped its leaves on top of the snow. By Friday this will be a mushy, leafy mess. How many excuses does Dave need to avoid raking this weekend?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Enjoy the long weekend!

Foliage Report

2007-10-23T17:39:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend, we visted the Woodstock, Vermont area. The foliage was definitely "past peak", but it was still gorgeous. Apparently, peak foliage is late all over. Southern New Hampshire is just peaking; as are parts of Massachusetts. Western Mass. must be beautiful about now.

My point is there's still time to get out there and enjoy it. It's a great show this year.

Tucker Brook Flows Again

2007-10-15T18:39:00.000-04:00

Tucker Brook -- in Milford, NH -- was dry for about two months. We've finally had some sustained rain and the falls have come alive again. I shot this photo yesterday morning. It's an eight second exposure.

Milford Labor Day Parade

2007-09-07T17:45:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos from the annual Milford Labor Day parade. Guess which of these folks are authentic presidential candidates.

There are more pictures on Tabblo too.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Imaging

2007-07-13T15:30:00.000-04:00

If you are an amateur photographer you have no doubt been disappointed, perhaps many times, by the shot that didn't turn out like you expected. Maybe it was a beautiful sunset that ended up with muted colors. Maybe it was a cloud-filled sky that became completely blown out. Or maybe it was a backlit subject that turned into an undifferentiated, monotone shadow. Each of these examples is a problem of exposure. The subject is either underexposed or overexposed. In the worst case, a single image can suffer from both underexposure and overexposure.

There's plenty of advice on how to deal with exposure problems:

You can get better at the craft of photography. Many exposure problems can be avoided simply by developing your technique.
You can buy more expensive equipment. All cameras are not created equal. Your $250 compact digital camera is not as capable as an $800 DSLR. For example, the DSLR probably has a better sensor with a higher dynamic range. And a DSLR lens can accept a wide range of filters that might improve your exposures.
You can just avoid backlit subjects and other tricky lighting situations.

I've listed this advice from best to worst. Number 1, "get better at the craft," is the best advice. You can always improve your technique and there are plenty of good resources out there. For example, I've just finished Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure. It's a great explanation of how the camera works and includes many tips on avoiding exposure problems.

Number 2, "buy more expensive equipment," is decent advice if it's important to you and it's in your budget. However, there are limits to even the best equipment. The dynamic range of the human eye is significantly better than the best camera. In fact, this discrepancy is the source of much disappointment. Your eye sees a beautiful high-contrast scene, you snap a picture of it, and your camera -- even the best camera -- simply can't handle it.

So those who have overestimated the benefits of Number 2 often shrug their shoulders and suggest Number 3, "avoid backlit subjects and other tricky lighting." The trouble is this is the one bit of advice that is really bad. There is another approach to handling tricky lighting; it's called High Dynamic Range imaging (HDR or HDRI).

HDR is really a two step process:

Step 1: When you capture the image, you make multiple exposures of the same scene. You'll need a good tripod for this. Just set your camera on the tripod and take 2 to 5 shots at different Exposure Values (EV). In fact, many cameras have a feature called Auto-Exposure Bracketing (AEB). AEB makes this step very simple.
Step 2: After you've loaded the exposures on your computer, you use special software to combine the exposures into a single HDR image. The HDR image stores the complete dynamic range of all the source exposures. HDR software can use this information to produce an image that is more faithful to what your eye perceived in the first place.

I guess I'll leave the technical discussion at that. I didn't certainly didn't intend for this to be a complete tutorial on HDR. If you are interested in a tutorial, you can start with this excellent one over at Tabblo and you can search the web for more.

My real object in writing this is to share the fun I've been having with HDR. All the accompanying images were created from multiple exposures made with my Canon PowerShot S2 IS camera. I used Photomatix to create the HDR images (again, there are other software options besides Photomatix). For more HDR samples you can check out my HDR set on Flickr. I still have a lot to learn about HDR, but I'm really enjoying having one more photographic technique up my sleeve.

Make Your Own Caption

2007-06-08T13:42:00.000-04:00

I was walking past Castro's Back Room in downtown Nashua this morning when I saw this guy dragging his cigar store indian out to the front of the shop. I snapped this picture as quickly as I could. I think it's a funny image, but it really needs a good caption. Can you think of one?

Memorial Day

2007-05-25T10:50:00.000-04:00

The New Hampshire and New York columns of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument is in the background.

The World War II Memorial was dedicated in May 2004. It honors "the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S., the more than 400,000 who died, and all who supported the war effort from home." It is a beautiful memorial and a "fitting and proper" tribute to those who served, but sometimes I fear we miss the point.

As Abraham Lincoln said in another time:

"It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled ... have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract ... It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought [have] so nobly advanced."

Red Sox vs. Tigers

2007-05-16T10:43:00.000-04:00

On Monday night, the Red Sox beat the Tigers 7 to 1 at Fenway Park. Dice-K mastered the defending American League champs and pitched the first complete game of his MLB career. It was a great night for a ball-game.

For more photos, see my Red Sox vs. Tigers set on Flickr.

Road Trip Photos

2007-05-08T11:05:00.000-04:00

Ten states. Ten days. Over 2800 miles and 400 pictures. We have just returned from a road trip to visit friends and family. And we did lots of sightseeing along the way. We visited Gettysburg, the National Zoo, the D.C. monuments, Williamsburg, the Outer Banks and more. I won't post all 400 pictures, but as I sift through them, I will add the best ones to this set on Flickr.

Subversion Links

2007-04-15T19:36:00.000-04:00

I've been working on a software project at home for the past several weeks. Until now, I haven't had the project under source code control. A few days ago, I installed open source Subversion and I'm very happy with the results.

I installed the Windows version of CollabNet Subversion from openCollabNet. The current version is 1.4.2. Installation is painless. You just have to answer a few questions including whether to install Subversion as an add-on to an Apache server or as a standalone server (svnserve). I chose the standalone option and my server was up and running in a matter of minutes.

One tip: You will want to check out the instructions for running svnserve as a Windows service. This lets you can automatically start your Subversion server when you start Windows. You can also use the services UI to stop your server, for example, when you back up your repository.

Although CollabNet Subversion includes a command line client, you can pick from a handful of GUI clients too. I chose Subclipse, an Eclipse Team Provider plug-in. If you've experienced the way Eclipse integrates with CVS, Subclipse will be very familiar. The preceding link brings you to a page with information on Eclipse update sites where you can get the version of Subclipse that's right for your version of Eclipse. And How to Use Subversion with Eclipse is a good tutorial for Subclipse beginners.

Waterfalls in the Souhegan Valley

2007-04-12T09:14:00.000-04:00

I have lived in New Hampshire's Souhegan Valley for more than twenty years. For most of that time, I was unaware of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. These are not grand, attention seeking, drama-queen-type waterfalls. They are unassuming, yankee-type waterfalls tucked away in town forests and at the edges of farmers' fields. But they are beautiful just the same.

Here is a concise guide to the local waterfalls I've visited. It is a guide I wish I had years ago.

Lower Purgatory Falls

Location: Off Purgatory Road, Milford (map).
Height: Approximately 10 feet.
Directions: See the Purgatory Watershed Conservancy page for directions. There are directions to both the lower falls, pictured above, and the upper falls. The upper falls are nice, but the lower falls are more accessible.

Tucker Brook Falls

Location: Tucker Brook Town Forest, Milford (map).
Height: Approximately 10 feet.
Directions: See the Tucker Brook Town Forest page. The Savage Road entrance is closest to the falls.

Old Reservoir Falls

Location: Off Isaac Frye Highway, Wilton (map).
Height: Approximately 25 feet.
Directions: From Nashua, take Route 101A west to Route 101. Continue west on Route 101 to Isaac Frye Highway in Wilton. Go 1.5 miles north and park where stream runs under the road (this is just before Putnam Road). You can park at the mouth of the dirt road on your right. Walk .25 miles down the dirt road to the falls. The road is private property, but the owner welcomes visitors. Just be quiet, considerate and carry out your own trash.

From the Milford Oval to the Oval Office

2007-04-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

If you are a regular listener of NPR's All Things Considered, you'll be hearing about Milford, NH for the next several months. As part of their presidential primary coverage, the show's producers decided to focus on one town in New Hampshire. And they've decided to focus on Milford. As reported in the first segment on March 22:

In many ways, Milford is emblematic of New Hampshire: It traditionally votes Republican, but has many independent voters, or "undeclared voters," as they're called in New Hampshire. Milford voted for George W. Bush in the general election in 2004 and 2000; it went for Bill Clinton in 1996 and for George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Check out the link above for the full story.

Spring in New Hampshire

2007-03-27T09:44:00.000-04:00

Spring has sprung. I've got the photos and a poem to prove it. The poem is by Robert Frost, once a resident of New Hampshire and, I imagine, often inspired by scenes like these.

See my Tabblo>

John Backus, 1924 - 2007

2007-03-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

As reported in an AP story printed in the Washington Post, John Backus died on Saturday at the age of 82. Backus, an IBM Fellow, led the team that developed FORTRAN, the first widely-used, high-level programming language. He also contributed to the development of the Backus-Naur Form (BNF), a language for describing the grammar of programming languages. Software developers, even those who have never used FORTRAN or BNF, owe John Backus a huge debt of gratitude.

As quoted in the AP story:

"Much of my work has come from being lazy," Backus told Think, the IBM employee magazine, in 1979. "I didn't like writing programs, and so, when I was working on the IBM 701 (an early computer), writing programs for computing missile trajectories, I started work on [FORTRAN] to make it easier to write programs."

Backus claimed to be lazy. In reality, his hard work hastened the development of the software industry we know today.

Thanks.

Internet Memory

2007-03-15T10:15:00.000-04:00

A co-worker recently told me she has been reading my blog. She told me I have "quite an imagination." I knew there was something wrong. When I asked her what she meant, she referred to my cool drawing of Elvis Presley. My ... er ... what?

It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. She had followed a link from this post in Bob's blog to another blog called Axis of Elvis. Bob clearly said Axis of Elvis was my blog and there is even a link to Runtime Log from Axis of Elvis. So it is reasonable to assume I own Axis of Elvis.

But I don't.

The explanation is simple. I originally called this blog Axis of Elvis but I quickly grew tired of the name. I renamed the blog, but held on to the Axis of Elvis address for several months as a way to redirect traffic to Runtime Log. After a while, another blogger contacted me about the Axis of Elvis address. He asked if I would be willing to give the address to him. In exchange, he said he would link to Runtime Log. I agreed.

In the month's since, there has been almost zero activity on the new Axis of Elvis. There was a cool drawing of Elvis Presley there, but now it's gone. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have transferred the address. The new owner could write strange and vile posts in that space and people might assume it is me. Then again, he could do something really creative and people might assume it is me. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Any how, it is two years to the day since I started Runtime Log (nee Axis of Elvis). I am marking my two year anniversary by reflecting on how Internet memory is like human memory. Links last forever. It's just that, after a few years, the links don't always take you to the right place.

How to Make Snow

2007-03-07T08:51:00.001-05:00

First, set the outdoor temperature to -38F. Then, boil one pot of water ...

Video courtesy of the Mount Washington Observatory.

There are lots of other Mount Washington videos on YouTube. I think my favorite is Wind Sledding.

Sunrise at Odiorne Point

2007-03-03T10:21:00.000-05:00

This week was school vacation week in New Hampshire. On Tuesday my son and I drove out to Odiorne Point in Rye to take pictures of the sunrise. To be honest, I'm not a morning person. I don't see many sunrises, but this one was incredible. See for yourself on this tabblo:

See my Tabblo>

Amazing Grace

2007-02-28T13:29:00.000-05:00

We went to see Amazing Grace last night. It's the story of William Wilberforce, the British MP whose long campaign resulted in the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807. It includes great performances by Ioan Gruffudd (as Wilberforce) and Rufus Sewell (as Thomas Clarkson) among others. I think Albert Finney's electrifying performance alone makes this a must-see movie. He has a small role as John Newton, a slave trader who, after repenting, became an Anglican priest and wrote the hymn Amazing Grace.

All of this might sound dry as toast, but it is a great movie about a largely unknown chapter of history. From our vantage point it can be hard to understand why such an obvious evil as slavery was so difficult to abolish, but the issue was entangled with other concerns of the day -- concerns like war with France and the revolutionary movements cascading across Europe. The movie effectively explains the broad historical context without ever becoming just a documentary. It's a reminder of the horrors of slavery, the ability of men (even great men) to defend great evil in the face of fear, and the rare courage it takes to not only speak truth to power but to tirelessly work for change.

Franklin Pierce, 1804 - 1869

2007-02-26T07:51:00.000-05:00

"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men."
-- George Eliot

Last week, the U.S. News magazine cover story was The 10 Worst Presidents . The article ranks New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce as America's fourth worst president. This of course is just the latest such poll, but Pierce is a perennial "favorite" on 10 worst lists. President from 1853 to 1857, he was a Northern Democrat with Southern sympathies. He supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which effectively repealed the delicate Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Missouri Compromise had, for thirty years, regulated the expansion of slavery in the western territories. The Kansas-Nebraska Act "established that settlers could decide for themselves whether to allow slavery". The results were guerrilla warfare in "Bloody Kansas", an emboldened pro-slavery faction, and eventually, the Civil War.

In a way Franklin Pierce is a symbol of nineteenth century New Hampshire's ambivalence toward slavery. Although there were no slaves in New Hampshire in the early 1800s, by Pierce's time the growing New Hampshire textile industry depended on a steady supply of cheap cotton. Many New Hampshire citizens, indeed much of the North, seemed willing to turn a blind eye to slavery in the South as they reaped the economic benefits from afar. But in 1856, possibly because of the disastrous Kansas-Nebraska Act, New Hampshire voters demonstrated a profound change of heart. Abandoning the Democratic platform, they backed John Fremont of the newly formed Republican party. Fremont was strongly opposed to slavery. Of course, Fremont lost to James Buchanan, but in 1860, New Hampshire voters again backed a Republican, this time a man named Abraham Lincoln.

In his own bumbling manner then, Franklin Pierce achieved the opposite effect he intended. The Missouri Compromise was a devil's bargain that tried to preserve the union at the expensive of protecting slavery. Pierce's support of the Kansas-Nebraska Act tipped the balance in favor of slavery. Without condoning Pierce's policies, we can thank him for speeding up the inevitable: Civil War and Emancipation.

We're All Americans Now

2007-02-25T10:18:00.000-05:00

The Granite Town, a history of Milford, NH, includes lots of interesting tidbits of small town life. This one recently caught my eye:

A human interest event that occurred [in 1913] was the death in October of "Jimmy the Reb," whose real name was Edward T. Bartol. Born in Louisiana in 1842, Bartol had served on the Confederate side in the Civil War ... He had lived in Milford for twenty-five years when he died and had no relatives in the South to claim his body. Two local Civil War veterans' organizations, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Sons of Union Veterans made arrangements for his funeral and burial ... The two organizations placed a gravestone to mark the resting place of Milford's only Confederate veteran. A Confederate flag was placed on the grave one year, but there was some objection to this, so eventually an American flag and flowers were placed there each Memorial Day.

I took the picture above this weekend. Apparently, to this day, veterans' groups still place an American flag on Bartol's grave.

Henri Renaud, 1890 - 1957

2007-02-08T11:49:00.000-05:00

It's been seasonably cold in New England this week. Daytime temperatures are stuck in the teens and twenties. When the wind picks up, it numbs faces and sends people scurrying for cover. I say it's about time. Although I've enjoyed this mild winter as much as anyone, there's been something missing; a figurative cloud hanging over us. The cold weather this week has set things straight.

Believe it or not, one of the things I've missed is cold weather running. I realize most people don't understand the attraction of running outside in the cold. When I run during the day at work, people question my sanity. I could try to convince you we cold weather runners are an incredibly hardy lot, a cut above the rest, but I'd be lying. After all, most of us depend on layers and layers of high tech clothing to stay warm. Compared with Henri Renaud, we are pampered pretenders.

A hundred years ago, Henri Renaud could be seen running through the streets of Nashua, New Hampshire on cold winter nights. Still in his late teens, Henri was employed as a mill worker by the Nashua Manufacturing Company. Since he had to be at work by 6:30 AM and didn't get home until after 6:00 PM, he had to train at night. After a meager supper, he would hit the streets. I'm guessing he did so in all kinds of weather. I know he didn't have the benefit of the high tech running clothes we have today. People must have thought Renaud was crazy -- until he entered and won the 1909 Boston Marathon.

Although Henri Renaud must have trained through the cold 1909 winter, the weather on race day was a different story. According to the April 20, 1909 edition of the Nashua Telegraph race day was hot:

The temperature rose to 97 degrees, with the sun melting tar in spots. Ninety-one of the one hundred sixty-four entrants did not complete the distance, and nine men who led at various times during the first twenty miles all dropped out. Renaud was in fifty-third place in Framingham, twenty-eighth at the half way mark, and third after twenty-four miles. But, after he passed his last two opponents, he turned on the burners and won by almost four minutes.

In an interview Renaud said:

"When I started I was nearly choked with dust, but when we got going a little, I did not mind it so much. I ran my own race and refused to be coached by anybody, for I knew just what I could do and how fast I could run the distance. Some fellows wanted me to drop out, as they said I was all in when I reached Wellesley, but I am an American for speed, and a Frenchman for gameness, and I guess that will hold them for a while."

Remarkably, the city of Nashua has largely forgotten Henri Renaud today. There is no monument, park or school building with his name on it. He is well known in local running circles, but I think his story, if it were better known, could be an inspiration to everyone in the area. Despite working long hours during the day and unfavorable training conditions, he worked hard at his sport. Despite hot temperatures on race day and doubters on the sidelines, he ran his own race and won the Boston Marathon. Henri Renaud is an unsung local hero. Perhaps he is an American hero.

For more on Henri Renaud, see Allan Rube's Henri Renaud page.

Long Exposure Experiments

2007-02-02T10:37:00.000-05:00

I didn't intend for this to be a photo blog -- really I didn't -- but lately I've spent a lot of my precious free time playing with photography. The following tabblo is a result of some experiments with long exposures. It's a bit of a gimmick, but I'm having fun slowing down the shutter speed to capture the motion of water.

See my Tabblo>

I may eventually get back to writing longer posts. I have a lot on my mind about software development, about our home improvement experiences, and about a few other topics of general interest. But good, thoughtful writing is hard. It is so much easier to step outside and snap some pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

Ice Storm Photos

2007-01-17T13:36:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you've heard about the ice storm that recently hit New England. Where I live, it wasn't too eventful. The roads were relatively clear and we never lost power. And we finally got a change in scenery. It's not the real white stuff, but ice is nicer than drab grey and brown.

Here are some photos.

And my here's my Ice Storm set on Flickr.

Five Things You Didn't Know

2007-01-11T10:49:00.000-05:00

Pete tagged me to participate in the "Five Things You Didn't Know about Me" game. I'll play along:

In 1979, I hitchhiked across the USA -- from Massachusetts to California, then up the coast to Oregon and down to Arizona. This sounds dangerous, but we met lots of very nice people, especially in the heartland. The only time we had anything like trouble was when we got a ride from a weird guy in Reno, Nevada. He promised to take us to Phoenix. Instead we drove around Nevada so he could say goodbye to his friends. When we were just outside Las Vegas, he stopped the car and said, "I just remembered. I can't go to Arizona. I'm wanted there." He left us in the desert and drove back in the direction of Reno.
The first new car I bought was a 1983 Honda Civic Wagon. It had a 5-speed manual transmission. When I picked it up at the dealer in Tewksbury, Mass., I had absolutely no idea how to drive a manual transmission car. Somehow I drove it about 30 miles to Gardner, Mass., where my father taught me how to use the clutch and shift. I have driven "a stick" ever since.
I once slept on the streets of Lowell. In the early 1980s, mortgage rates got as high as 18%. Housing prices were relatively low, but the interest rates were a huge barrier for first time home owners. The state of Massachusetts subsidized a limited number of low-interest loans on a first-come-first-served basis. The state gave 24 hours notice of the availability of small pools of these loans. When I heard about some loans becoming available the next day in Lowell, I grabbed my sleeping bag, drove to downtown Lowell, and camped out in front of the bank for the night. I think I was second in line, but by sundown there was a queue of twenty people. It was fun night and, thanks to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a small price to pay for becoming a homeowner.
I've never bought a lottery ticket and I never will.
I've worked full-time as a software engineer for 25 years, but it wasn't my first career choice. When I was in high school I wanted to be an architect. Usually, that meant going to a liberal arts school and then on to graduate school in Architecture. For some reason, I thought it would be better to get a degree in Civil Engineering first. I also took summer jobs working in a steel fabrication plant, at the Army Corp of Engineers, pouring concrete. I thought an architect should understand the materials, project planning and engineering before he started sketching buildings and bridges. In retrospect, I was naive. Mature industries like construction tend toward specialization rather than generalization. In any case, after undergraduate school I drifted into Software Engineering. I found a home in a very young industry, where generalists were still valued. Over time, I learned to be a software architect, but I still get to build software when I want. In a way, I've ended up exactly where I planned.

I won't tag anyone specifically, but I'd love to hear from the same group of people Pete mentioned. Roy has already joined the fray. Anyone else?

New Hampshire Photos on Flickr

2007-01-04T11:05:00.000-05:00

Photo by Tim Somero

I've been knocking around Flickr for about a year now, but I never really felt plugged into the community. Flickr is just so big. However, I recently discovered some cozier communities within Flickr.

The New Hampshire group has about 350 members interested in photographing (or just viewing photos of) the Granite State. The group is very active. Many members contribute photos to the group and there are even a few organized projects. For example, the Cupolas, Steeples & Vanes project is busy capturing some of New Hampshire's unique architectural features. The New Hampshire group even has a separate blog . The New Hampshire Photo Tour blog highlights the best work in the group.

Even closer to home for me is the Souhegan Valley group. This group has only fourteen members, but I think their photos are very good.

If you appreciate the beauty of New Hampshire, check out all the links above. If you have another passion -- from Architecture, to Cows, to the Red Sox - try searching all the groups on Flickr. You're bound to find a group that's more your cup of tea.

Random Flickr Links

2006-12-20T16:00:00.000-05:00

Photo by Ali Khurshid

Photography is a powerful medium. In the past few years, because of the availability of cheap digital cameras and the incredible popularity of Flickr, the medium has become more powerfully democratic. Now professionals and amateurs alike can share their work with the whole world -- with very little interference from governments or big media. When I explore photos on Flickr, the world seems a lot smaller. Here are just a few of the most compelling examples:

Tom Stone is a documentary photographer "known for his portraits of people living along the edges of society". His Poverty set on Flickr is an unflinching look at the homeless of San Francisco.
Ali Khurshid was recently profiled in Time magazine. His set, The Shadows They Draw, is a collection of dreamy images from one beach in Karachi, Pakistan. Words fail me on this one. You have to check out Khurshid's beautiful photos.
The 365 Days pool contains self-portraits of many Flickr members. Each contributor has committed to uploading a self-portrait once a day for a whole year. Honestly, I don't know why anyone would consider such a project. This is definitely a mixed bag, but there are some really interesting ideas here.

Favorite Christmas Songs

2006-12-12T09:23:00.000-05:00

Pete challenged me and others to list our five favorite Christmas songs. This is very difficult. I could probably list a dozen favorite Christmas Carols. They all bring back memories. And then, of course, there are some great Christmas pop tunes and novelty songs. So without further ado, here's my list (although it might change tomorrow):

Go, Tell It on the Mountain.
Anything from the soundtrack of A Charlie Brown Christmas, but Skating is my favorite. You know this one. It is the song where Vince Guaraldi's piano evokes snowflakes falling.
What Child is This? because it has the same tune as Greensleeves.
Carol of the Bells or anything else from George Winston's December.
Let it Snow. This is one of the few songs I will attempt to sing when other people are around. I can't help it.

World's Largest LEGO Construction

2006-12-02T22:33:00.000-05:00

This week, the SEE Science Center in Manchester, NH unveiled the world's largest LEGO construction. It is a three million brick, period replica of Manchester's Amoskeag Mill. It was built by the SEE Science Center and the New England LEGO Users Group. Check out this video courtesy of WMUR-TV.

The Writer's Almanac

2006-11-30T16:49:00.000-05:00

"It's the birthday of the man who wrote under the name Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in Florida, Missouri (1835)..."

So says today's online edition of The Writer's Almanac. You may have heard the inimitable Garrison Keillor read The Writer's Almanac on National Public Radio. Since I am not always able to catch the radio edition, I've recently pointed my browser's home page to the online edition. Now I am more likely to get my daily dose of literary birthdays and historical notes. (Who knew David Mamet, Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain were all born on November 30?)

I also get to read a new poem each day. I've really enjoyed the selections lately. On the web or on the radio, I highly recommend The Writer's Almanac.

Tabblo 2.0

2006-11-22T14:25:00.000-05:00

Just six months after it was first made available to the public, Tabblo has gotten a substantial face-lift. It may not exactly be "Tabblo 2.0" (those are my words), but I think it is worth a look.

If you haven't visited Tabblo recently, here's a quick summary:

It's a photo sharing site on steroids. In addition to uploading photos, you can organize your photos on a page that tells a story -- a "tabblo". Here's a shameless plug for the tabblos I've created.
If you are a big fan of Flickr, you might be saying, "That's nice, but I already use Flickr to share photos. I don't want to leave the Flickr community." Well, you don't have to leave Flickr because Tabblo can automatically access the photos you upload to Flickr. For me, Flickr has become the "shoebox" where I put my best photos. Tabblo is where I go to organize the photos into "albums".
Tabblo is a growing community of photographers and artists. Let me stress the word artists. I am amazed at the work other Tabblo folks are doing. I really feel privileged to be part of the Tabblo community. As a Tabblo member, you can comment on other people's tabblos, invite people to view your tabblos, or join groups of like-minded Tabblo members. In my opinion, Flickr can be a bit intimidating. The Tabblo community is still relatively small and vastly more fun.
Tabblo is advertisement free and, unlike Flickr, they don't charge for a "pro" account. So what is Tabblo's business plan? I guess they plan on making money on posters, postcards, prints, and eventually, books. You can order a poster-size print of any of your on-line tabblos and you can now create tabblos specifically designed for postcards. While I haven't tried the postcard feature, I can testify that Tabblo posters are wonderful. I recently ordered a poster of one of my tabblos. It was inexpensive and arrived just a few days after I placed the order.

If you have tried Tabblo before, most of the above is old news. You don't need my encouragement to try the new features. If you haven't tried Tabblo, what are you waiting for? Join the fun. Don't just browse; create your own artwork. And incidentally, if you like the "free" Tabblo features, you should consider supporting the Tabblo business by ordering a poster or postcard. I think you'll be happy with the results.

Update: According to Ned, Tabblo supports printing books as of now. That was quick. :-)

A Big Surprise

2006-11-09T09:58:00.000-05:00

Once in a while,
I'm standing here, doing something.
And I think,
"What in the world am I doing here?"
It's a big surprise.

-- Donald Rumsfeld

For more of Donald Rumsfeld's poetry, see Hart Seely's article at Slate.com.

Eclipse Rules

2006-10-31T14:33:00.000-05:00

Eclipse must be doing very well. I can tell because there is now at least one blog entirely dedicated to listing all of the problems with Eclipse. By comparison, I can't find any blog or website dedicated to NetBeans complaints.

It may seem counter-intuitive that one's vocal critics are a measure of one's success, but consider the case of author Dan Brown. In an interview on NHPR, Brown talked about the uproar over The DaVinci Code. He was initially surprised by the volume of criticism. After all, his earlier book, Angels and Demons, was just as controversial, but it didn't generate anywhere near the same number of objections from readers. Brown's mathematician father explained all by pointing out a simple fact: The audience for the earlier book was a tiny fraction of those that read The DaVinci Code. You can't please everyone, so statistically speaking, lots of complaints might just be a sign you are a smash hit.

Taking the Eclipse vs. NetBeans comparison a step further, try comparing the number of Google hits for these two phrases: "eclipse sucks" and "netbeans sucks". Using Googlefight to do the comparison, I recorded 1840 hits for the Eclipse phrase vs. 421 hits for the NetBeans phrase. Knowing what I know about Eclipse, I'm sure this doesn't mean Eclipse is four times worse than NetBeans. More likely, it's an indication that Eclipse is four times more popular.

Vast Centrist Conspiracy

2006-10-17T13:39:00.000-04:00

We have been listening to the thunder of partisan politics for so long, it can be difficult to hear the moderates speak. Is it just me, or are the moderate voices getting louder? Here are just a few I've heard lately:

Lou Dobbs on why the middle class needs to fight the politics of polarization.
James Baker (R) and Lee Hamilton (D) chair a bi-partisan panel looking for alternatives to resolving the war in Iraq.
John Danforth (R) on saving the Republican Party from right wing conservatives.
Sam Harris (D) on saving the Democratic Party from head-in-the-sand liberals.

I'm sure there are others too who want to replace all the talk about wedge issues with serious, civil discourse on the important issues of the day. The question is will their voices be heard?

I'm afraid both major parties have already nominated candidates from the fringes. It may be too late to inject reason into the mid-term elections, but I'm hoping for a vast centrist conspiracy to take hold in 2008.

Fall Foliage

2006-10-16T13:42:00.000-04:00

According to this online foliage report, southern New Hampshire foliage peaked this past weekend. We got our first hard frost on Friday night, so the leaves will be past peak before you know it.

As I scurried around doing errands this weekend, I kept my camera with me and got some nice shots. See my Fall Foliage tabblo for some samples.

Blogger Beta

2006-10-12T17:03:00.000-04:00

I just discovered Blogger has some big changes available in Beta. One feature I've been waiting for is tags. They are in the list of Beta features, but of course Blogger calls them labels -- just like labels in Gmail. To get label support you have to upgrade to the Beta and switch to a new template system called layouts.

So I've taken the big leap. This blog will be under construction while I try on different layouts and slowly bring back some of the customizations I did to my old template.

You Learn Something New Every Day

2006-10-11T18:59:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, my thirteen-year-old son and I completed the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Hunter Education course. This is a sixteen-hour course required by the state. You can't get a hunting license unless you present a certificate proving you have completed the course.

I am not sure I will ever get a hunting license or go hunting. We took the course because my son is absolutely crazy about hunting. I don't know how it started, but he has worked incredibly hard at this. He has devoured books and videos on the topic. He spends hours in the woods looking for deer sign. And he easily completed the hunter education course.

Although I was ambivalent about hunting at the start, I am very proud of my son and I'm glad I tagged along. I've known hunters all my adult life. I certainly respected the hunters I know, but I guess I had acquired the prejudice that most hunters are yahoo rednecks. I thought my friends were exceptions to the rule. Having spent hours over the past few weeks with dedicated volunteer instructors from our local fish and game club, I'm convinced my prejudice was unfounded. These guys are serious about their sport and committed enough to spend hours of their own time to help others learn. They are especially passionate when teaching hunter safety and ethics.

Yes, there are yahoos out there, and you will certainly hear about hunting accidents this Fall, but please don't assume the guys in blaze orange are idiots. Maybe they're not from your tribe, but they deserve your respect.

Ten Favorite Songs

2006-10-04T10:47:00.000-04:00

Picking up the thread from Pete, here's a list of my ten favorite songs:

Workingman's Blues #2
Ain't Talkin'
When the Deal Goes Down
Spirit on the Water
Beyond the Horizon
Nettie Moore
Someday Baby
Thunder on the Mountain
Rollin' and Tumblin'
The Levee's Gonna Break

All ten songs are on Dylan's new Modern Times. I love this CD.

Applefest Half Marathon

2006-10-02T09:45:00.000-04:00

It was beautiful weather for the Applefest Half Marathon this weekend. I worked at one of the water stations and took lots of pictures.

This tabblo features a few of the many Applefest runners and this tabblo is a behind the scenes look at what makes Applefest so unique.

Charles River Scenes

2006-09-11T16:37:00.000-04:00

While I was in Cambridge last week, I walked along the Charles River and took lots of photos. If you're interested see my Charles River Scenes set on Flickr.

EclipseWorld Wrap Up

2006-09-11T14:42:00.000-04:00

Friday, September 8 was the last day of the EclipseWorld technical conference. I won't go into all the gory details of the sessions I attended. If you read my Day Two report, it was more of the same: Some sessions missed the mark, at least for me. These sessions just weren't technical enough. In fact, in an informal poll, the consensus among people who have attended both conferences is that EclipseCon is the better conference for experienced Eclipse developers.

Of course, the conference did have some good sessions. The best session I attended on Friday was called Contributing Code to Eclipse. How to. Why to. It was conducted by Bjorn Freeman-Benson, Director of the Open Source Process at the Eclipse Foundation. Bjorn described the organization of the Eclipse Foundation, the motives of it's member companies *, and the details of development process.

As Bjorn puts it, one measure of the Eclipse project's success is they have released a version of Eclipse every year, on schedule, for the past seven summers. This is a record of which most commercial software companies would be proud, but Eclipse is an open source project. You might have expected it to disintegrate into anarchy by now.

How has the project managed to be so successful? Bjorn highlighted three points:

It's a meritocracy. Only the best developers become Eclipse committers. Even a paying foundation member company cannot install one of their developers on a project without approval from the current committers. Generally, you become a committer by contributing patches first.
The process is completely transparent. Everything from project planning, to staffing, to the actual source code is recorded on the Eclipse web site. This ensures that both committers and the eventual consumers know what is happening with the project.
Communication is key. This is related to the point about transparency, but Bjorn highlighted it a few times. He said even a great developer will not succeed in an Eclipse project unless he is also a good communicator.

This is a refreshing approach to building software. I think some commercial software companies could learn from open source. For more on the Eclipse Way, see Erich Gamma on the Eclipse Culture.

* Eclipse Foundation members commit resources to Eclipse projects not out of altruism. They expect to make money on the Eclipse framework.

EclipseWorld, Day Two

2006-09-07T19:57:00.000-04:00

For me, today was Rich Client Platform (RCP) day at EclipseWorld. I planned on attending four separate sessions on RCP. As it was, I took a small detour to learn about the Java profiling tools in the Test & Performance Tools Platform (TPTP).

The first RCP course was First Steps for Building Eclipse RCP Applications. It was mostly review for me, but I thought it would be good preparation for some of the more advanced courses. The instructor, Dwight Deugo, did a good job describing the basics.

I also attended Fundamentals of RCP UI Programming. This session was a little disappointing. The instructor is a good speaker, but he spent the entire two hours talking about JFace -- and from a very high level. Although he occasionally showed some sample code, it was difficult to follow along. The sample code wasn't reproduced in the presentation materials. Even though I was near the front, I couldn't see the details. Pity the poor folks in the back.

To complete "RCP day", I planned on attending a two part session called Successful Architecture Design for RCP Applications. I expected this to be about factoring your RCP application into features, plugins and fragments; interactions between views and editors; extension points; the job manager; and other hard-core Eclipse concepts. Ten minutes through the first part, I realized I was mistaken. The session was all about migrating three-tier business applications from the web to RCP. Although the instructor has good "Eclipse credentials", this topic didn't really fit with the other sessions in the RCP track. It certainly doesn't interest me personally.

Rather than sit through the second part of Successful Architecture, I decided to switch to Profiling Java Application Behavior with Eclipse TPTP. This was a revelation. The instructor demonstrated the features of the Profiling and Logging perspective which is contributed to Eclipse by TPTP. The profiling views let you track execution flow, execution statistics, memory statistics and object references in a running JVM. You can quickly sort these views to find hot spots like methods that consume lots of CPU cycles. I use Eclipse everyday but I didn't realize the free profiling tools have gotten this good. For a good introduction of the Profiling and Logging perspective, see this tutorial at eclipse.org.

EclipseWorld, Day One

2006-09-06T19:21:00.000-04:00

I'm at the EclipseWorld technical conference in Cambridge this week. I was hoping to blog from the conference, but there were technical problems with the conference's wireless network today. There are only a few hundred attendees, but the organizers apparently didn't plan for a large volume of network traffic. This doesn't reflect well on the conference.

Today, we each had to choose one of seven all-day tutorials to attend. I attended the Callisto Boot Camp:

This tutorial, for experienced Eclipse developers who are currently using Eclipse 3.1, will deep-dive on the new features and innovations in each of the 10 projects that make up the Callisto Simultaneous Release. By attending this class, you'll gain a unique perspective on these projects, not only about the individual new functions that they offer, but how they integrate together to advance the entire Eclipse ecosystem. Everything you want to know about Callisto--you'll find it here.

The instructor -- Eclipse Evangelist, Wayne Beaton -- acknowleged from the start it is difficult to do a deep-dive on everything. For my taste, he spent a little too much time on the Web Tools Platform (WTP) and not enough on the C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) or Data Tools Platform (DTP). However, I'm not really criticizing. Mr. Beaton struggled mightily to describe the whole elephant. He didn't quite pull it off, but he demonstrated a solid understanding of a broad set of technologies. It was a worthwhile overview.

Milford Labor Day Parade

2006-09-05T11:01:00.000-04:00

Admit it. You have been desperately waiting for pictures from the 2006 Labor Day Parade. See my Milford Labor Day Parade tabblo for exclusive photos.

Tabblo

2006-05-18T20:40:00.000-04:00

Ned Batchelder recently announced the availability of Tabblo. It's a new photo-sharing site focused on telling stories. I think it's a great idea and the interface is very cool. Ned and his colleagues should be very proud.

Here's my first Tabblo. Best of luck to Ned and the whole Tabblo team.

Reduced Speed Ahead

2006-05-15T22:13:00.000-04:00

Southern New Hampshire is in the midst of the worst flood since the 1930s. Here's a shot taken this morning. It shows the Souhegan River overflowing its banks in Amherst, New Hampshire.

By the way, there are some great New Hampshire Flood sets on Flickr here, here and here.

All Which Isn't Singing

2006-05-08T18:41:00.000-04:00

all which isn't singing is mere talking
and all talking's talking to oneself
(whether that oneself be sought or seeking
master or disciple sheep or wolf)

gush to it as diety or devil
-toss in sobs and reasons threats and smiles
name it cruel fair or blessed evil-
it is you (ne i)nobody else

drive dumb mankind dizzy with haranguing
-you are deafened every mother's son-
all is merely talk which isn't singing
and all talking's to oneself alone

but the very song of(as mountains
feel and lovers)singing is silence

-- ee cummings

Home Improvement

2006-05-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

Our 100-year-old house in Southern New Hampshire includes a twenty-year-young, two-story addition. The addition was built on top of six eight-by-eight wooden posts. The problem is some of the addition's main beams are sagging and the posts are slowly slipping off their footings. This is not imminently dangerous, but it will certainly make it difficult to sell the house when the time comes. (Why didn't our home inspector warn us when we bought the house? Good question, but I'm not going there.)

In any case, we are in the midst of a major home improvement project to fix the problem. Our contractor is going to replace the wooden posts with a solid concrete foundation. He'll dig, pour and frame above the foundation, one side at a time. The photo below shows the concrete forms on the interior wall.

A few friends and family members (probably very few) will be interested in more pictures like this, so I've started a photo journal of the project. It's called The Little Dig. If you are interested, you can even subscribe to this feed and watch the progress. Enjoy.

A Total Miracle

2006-04-27T20:45:00.000-04:00

The Notes vs. Outlook meme comes and goes. Because I put in my two cents last January, I occasionally still get comments on the topic. I don't want to restart that conversation -- really I don't -- but I do want to highlight a comment I recently got from one Daron Lawing. Daron's comment is much broader than Notes vs. Outlook. It's a profound appreciation of the "pure thought-stuff" we call software:

I'm a Notes end user ... I get my email through Notes and I send email through Notes. What's the big deal? Outlook looks like [it] does the same thing. For me the fact that I hit this button, the machine in front of me comes to life, and images appear on the screen then I type on this keyboard and my brother in North Carolina can get a message from me in a matter of minutes is frankly a total miracle. [You] geeks need to lighten up and be in awe and wonder about both Outlook and Notes ;)

Indeed.

Thanks for the reminder, Daron.

Spell Checker Irony

2006-04-26T09:48:00.000-04:00

The Blogger spell checker, when I remember to use it, saves me from posting entries chock full of misspelled words. It's great, but it has trouble with a few common words. "Blog" is one. It also has trouble with "Blogger" and "Google". Ha!

Advice for New Photographers

2006-04-26T09:10:00.000-04:00

In 10 Tips for the New Digital SLR Photographer, Thomas Hawk gives some great advice to budding photographers. Although some of the tips apply only to single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, many of them make sense if you have a point-and-shoot camera like mine.

For example, "Join Flickr" (#5) and "Take lots and lots and lots of photos" (#9) are good tips for anyone. Even "ISO, ISO, ISO" (tip #1) applies if you have a point-and-shoot camera with an advanced mode.

If you want to get more serious about photography, the message is simple: Take more pictures, learn all about your equipment, and as often as possible, try something new like shooting in low light. By the way, Thomas Hawk is a master of capturing great pictures at night. Take a look at his "night" tagged photos for some samples.

Dual Ladder Delusion

2006-04-21T20:30:00.000-04:00

There are two kinds of engineers -- those who prefer a career in management and those who prefer to climb the technical ladder. At least that's the conventional wisdom in many large companies. As the authors of a 1986 study concluded, it's really a cruel joke.

The study is called The Dual Ladder: Motivational Solution or Managerial Delusion?. It was authored by Thomas J. Allen and Ralph Katz, both associated with MIT's Sloan School of Management, and was originally published in R&D Management. I wish I could link to an electronic copy on the web, but I can't. A Google search results in many citations, but no copy of the article. *

The authors begin their article with a frank assessment of the dual ladder's effectiveness:

The problems underlying the dual ladder concept are several ... [One problem is] organizations tend, over time, to diverge from the initial design and intent of the system. For the first few years, the criteria for promotion to the technical ladder may well be followed rigorously, but they gradually become corrupted. The technical ladder often becomes a reward for organizational loyalty rather than technical contribution.

If the dual ladder is often implemented poorly, there must be a reason companies keep the system. Perhaps, if nothing else, it is an effective way to motivate technical talent. To test this theory, Allen and Katz surveyed managers and engineers in "nine major U.S. organizations". They asked:

To what extent would you like your career to be:
a progression up the technical professional ladder to a higher-level position?

a progression up the managerial ladder to a higher level position?

the opportunity to engage in those challenging and exciting research activities and projects with which you are most interested, irrespective of promotion?

The 2157 managers and engineers surveyed were asked to rate each of the above choices on a scale of 1 to 7. The results were 32.6% preferred "b", the management ladder, 21.6% preferred "a", the technical ladder, and 45.8% preferred "c" the opportunity to engage in challenging projects. In other words, twice as many engineers were motivated by challenging projects than by promotion up the technical ladder. Furthermore, this tendency toward a preference for challenging projects, irrespective of promotion, increased with age.

Although Allen and Katz did not study the software industry specifically, their conclusions are consistent with those of many seasoned software developers. That is: There is an inherent reward in doing interesting work. Even when there is a technical ladder available, many developers find more satisfaction in working on challenging projects than in climbing the ladder. The technical ladder is often the predominant rewards system for developers, but as you climb the ladder, you usually design and write less software. Therefore the dual ladder system is aligned neither with most developers' goals nor with the ultimate goal of the company -- to produce and make money on software.

What do you think? Is the dual ladder a good system that is just imperfectly implemented? Is it, like democracy, the worst system "except for all those others that have been tried"? Or is there a much better system out there?

* Update: Here's a copy of the article from MIT's on-line library. This version was published in 1985.

Camera Review: Canon PowerShot S2 IS

2006-04-20T17:12:00.000-04:00

I recently bought a new digital camera. It's only the second digital camera I've owned. Although I am far from an expert on cameras, I want to record my first impressions. If you are searching for a camera, this might help, but to learn all about the Canon PowerShot S2 IS, please check out this review or one of the other excellent reviews on the web.

There are several things I love about the PowerShot S2 IS. The first three are Zoom, Zoom, Zoom. The S2 IS is a long zoom camera with a built-in 12x optical zoom lens. If you have been struggling to get close-up shots with a 3x zoom camera, you'll love this feature. For example, I took this picture of Rita Jeptoo, winner of the 2006 Boston Marathon, from 40-50 feet away. With my old 3x zoom camera, I'd have to be 10 feet away to get the same shot. Of course at 10 feet, I wouldn't have been able to take the picture at all. I would have been whisked away by the BAA security volunteers.

The IS in the camera's name stands for Image Stabilization. That is my next favorite feature. Even if you have steady hands, at 12x zoom, you will find it difficult to keep most cameras steady enough to get a good shot. Image stabilization compensates for shaky hands. You will still need a tripod for long exposures (for example, in low light), but image stabilization works great for well lit scenes.

This may sound funny, but another great feature of the S2 IS is the batteries. It runs on four standard AA batteries. I bought some rechargeable NiMH batteries for everyday use, but I keep four ordinary alkaline batteries close by just in case. I guess it is common for Cannon cameras to run on AA batteries, but the elegant simplicity of this idea is new to me. My old Sony camera runs on an expensive rechargeable cell. I could never justify the expense of buying a backup battery. More than once, I was snapping pictures when the battery lost its charge. This won't happen with the S2 IS.

Although I am convinced the S2 IS was a wise choice, is has two notable drawbacks. First, the LCD screen is small compared with some other cameras in its class. As an example, the Sony DSC-H1 has a much bigger screen. I don't like to admit it, but at my age, I sometimes have to strain to read the S2 IS display. As I get more familiar with the features, this problem may become less severe.

The other big drawback is the lack of a pre-set high-speed shutter mode. I take lots of pictures at road races. With my old Sony camera, I could easily select high-speed shutter mode for stop-action photos of runners in action. With the S2 IS, I have to tinker with Tv (shutter-speed priority) or Av (aperture priority) modes to get the same effect. I suppose this could be a blessing in disguise. With fewer pre-set modes, Canon is forcing me to learn about the more advanced features of the S2 IS. It never hurts to learn something new.

110th Boston Marathon

2006-04-18T10:33:00.000-04:00

Robert Cheruiyot set a new course record (2:07:14) at yesterday's Boston Marathon. He shaved one second off the 1994 mark set by fellow Kenyan, Cosmos Ndeti. Rita Jeptoo (above), also from Kenya, won the woman's race in 2:23:38.

For more photos, see my 2006 Boston Marathon set on Flickr.

Google Calendar

2006-04-13T14:40:00.000-04:00

Blog union rules require me to mention the launch of Google Calendar. Since tech.memeorandum is buzzing about the launch, I'll take the easy way out. Go there for all the coverage.

Most of the early reviews are positive, and I like it too. Little touches like event reminder buttons make all the difference. For example, this button adds an important reminder to your Google calendar:

Monday, April 17 is Tax Day!

Very nice.

San Francisco Earthquake

2006-04-12T13:31:00.000-04:00

April 18 will be the 100th anniversary of the great San Francisco earthquake. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake devastated the city. The ensuing fire caused even more destruction.

Replace "earthquake" with "hurricane" and "fire" with "flood" and the story sounds a lot like New Orleans in 2005. Luckily New Orleans can learn from Frisco's mistakes. For example there is this word of caution in a U.S. News story about the quake:

As one civil engineer, John Debo Galloway, put it soon after the disaster: "The distant observer will ask why, with virgin ground before it, the city did not cut avenues, widen streets, and build nothing but incombustible buildings." For the business elite that ran the city after the disaster, such safety measures were not an option. "The city had suffered from the greatest fire in history," Galloway wrote. "What San Francisco needs is the cheapest building possible in which business can be done, to insure the community enough to eat. The other subjects can wait."

For more on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire see:

Three Years is Enough

2006-04-06T11:45:00.000-04:00

April 6, 1864 -- A solemn anniversary is upon us. On April 12, it will be three years since the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter to begin this tragic war. We did not start the conflict (though one could argue the Republican administration provoked it) and it is true most Northerners originally supported the war. However, let us mark this anniversary with an inventory of our progress, and let us hope the President will do the same.

To be sure, there have been some successes. Last July, General Meade repelled a strong Confederate force at Gettysburg. It has been nine months since Robert E. Lee last ventured north of the Potomac. The day after the victory at Gettysburg, General Grant accepted the surrender of Vicksburg and gained control of the Big Mississippi. Last November, Grant routed the Army of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Now Grant has been promoted to lead the entire Union Army. He is the sixth man to lead the army in these three long years. Without a doubt he is the most capable.

However, we must also consider the costs. The number of killed, wounded or missing at Fort Donelson, Tennessee was close to 20,000. The casualties at Shiloh, Tennessee were over 23,000; at Stones River, Tennessee -- over 24,000; at Second Bull Run -- more than 25,000; at Antietam -- 26,000; at Chancellorsville -- 30,000; and at Chickamauga -- over 34,000. At Gettysburg, more than 51,000 Americans were killed, wounded or missing. Those are just the figures for the costliest battles so far. To force the South to surrender, we must now chase Robert E. Lee into Virginia. General Grant's army will no doubt suffer tens of thousands of casualties at the hands of a desperate Confederate defense.

And what of the Deep South? With Grant in Virginia, "Crazy Bill" Sherman is now in charge of the western offensive. Sherman lost his nerve after Shiloh. Can he lead his troops to victory in the Deep South? Many Northerners are deeply troubled by Sherman's appointment.

Of course, the quality of our military leaders is only part of the problem. What really concerns most Northerners is our confusing war aims. Two years ago, the President said:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it...

But within a few months, Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. We have no great love for the institution of slavery, but freeing the slaves has reduced the chances of restoring the Union. How much more tenacious will the Confederate Army be now that they are defending, not just their homes, but their way of life? One can only conclude the President lied about his war aims. For Abraham Lincoln, this war has been about slavery all along.

Polls show only 30% of the North now supports the war and President Lincoln's approval rating is at an all time low. It is time Lincoln faced the facts. He cannot possibly win re-election in November and we cannot restore the Union. Let's bring our troops home and let the South go.

Book Review: The March

2006-04-03T14:03:00.000-04:00

The March, by E.L. Doctorow is the best Civil War novel I've read in ages. It follows General William Tecumseh Sherman's march from Atlanta to Savannah, through South Carolina, and on to Raleigh, North Carolina. Sherman himself makes many appearances in the book, but it is not a biography of the general. Doctorow gives equal time to dozens of other characters including a pair of Confederate deserters, a displaced Southern debutante, a brilliant Union field surgeon, and perhaps the central character, a precocious freed slave named Pearl.

At times the novel wavers between existential despair and existential absurdity. Favorite characters are killed or otherwise left by the way side as the rest march relentlessly on. Other main characters don't appear until the journey is two-thirds complete. At first, Doctorow's apparently haphazard plotting drove me crazy, but he seems to be making a point. This is war. Don't get too attached to anyone.

What's constant throughout is Doctorow's beautiful prose, masterful strokes in character development, and attention to historical detail. Abraham Lincoln even makes a brief appearance. In the hands of another writer, the scene might have been corny or unconvincing. Doctorow's glimpse of Lincoln is hauntingly believable.

Boston Marathon Countdown

2006-03-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

The 110th Boston Marathon is just over two weeks away. Race day is Monday, April 17. After months of training, most entrants are tapering. The hard work is done. Now it's time to cut back on the mileage, pray for good weather ("It can't be hot four years in a row."), keep a positive attitude, and try not to go stir-crazy. I've never run a marathon, so I've never experienced the mental stress of the marathon taper, but I know the signs. It can be a tough time for runners of all abilities. Hang in there, everyone.

Lots of people are excited about this year's elite field of runners. Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia will be back to defend his 2005 title. As usual, there will be a strong contingent of Kenyans. But the buzz is all about the American field. Alan Culpepper (fourth place in 2005) and Meb Keflezighi will lead the strongest American field in years. Could this be the year an American takes first in the men's race?

Luckily I'll have a front-row seat -- well, not a seat really. Just like last year, I'll be working the leader board with my brother and sisters. We just received confirmation of our assignment this week. I can't wait.

JavaScript Utility for Fixing URLs

2006-03-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I cancelled my dial-up ISP account. If you've been through the change-of-ISP experience, you know it can be tedious. I forwarded my email to a new account and I dutifully notified dozens of people and companies about my new email address. The last problem to solve was moving the many images stored on the web space provided by my old ISP. I've posted many Runtime Log entries that refer to those images. To avoid broken links in my blog's archives, I had to move the images to a new home.

Actually, the easy part was copying the image files to a new location on the web. The harder part was figuring out how to fix the references to those images in old posts. I could have edited each post by hand, but that would have been tedious and error prone. Even worse in my estimation is the edits would have caused Blogger to update my RSS feed. The old posts would look like they had been updated, when in fact I had just changed a URL or two.

I decided a better approach would be to leave the old posts alone and fix image URLs as each blog page is loaded into the browser. With help from a friend (thanks, Terry!), I wrote a few lines of JavaScript. The code is in a file called fixer.js.

To execute the code, I made two changes to my blog template. I added a <script> tag to the header:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://mysite/fixer.js" />

Then I added an onload attribute to the <body> tag:

<body onload="fixImagesAndLinks('oldsite', 'mysite')">

Voila! The old URLs are now magically fixed. In a way, this is a kludge. I wouldn't recommend this approach for a production web application, but this is just a hobbyist-type blog. Sometimes a kludge is the right tool for the job.

Tenants Wanted, Apply within

2006-03-24T13:57:00.000-05:00

Not Enough Enterprise

2006-03-24T11:36:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I tuned into The Daily WTF. (Warning: Regular readers of The Daily WTF may experience serious misgivings about the state of the art of software development.) It's probably not healthy keep up with all the insanity at WTF, but Bitten by the Enterprise Bug really made me laugh:

... their system wasn't the greatest, but it was fairly documented, easy to work with, and, most importantly, did the job. But one thing it lacked, so said upper management, was "enterprise." And that is something that no system should be with out.

Time to bring in the enterprise consultants!

You Are What You Post

2006-03-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

Have you ever regretted a comment you posted to someone's blog? Do you wish you could erase your posts from that alt.anarchism discussion way back in 1992? According to You Are What You Post, you should be concerned:

... because today there are two of you. There's the analog, warm-blooded version ... Then there's the online you, your digital doppelganger; that's the one that is growing larger and more impossible to control every day.

And:

Googling people is also becoming a way for bosses and headhunters to do continuous and stealthy background checks on employees, no disclosure required.

This is a good reminder to be careful what you say on the Net and how you say it. I am not advocating self-censorship, but it's worth looking down the road before you post. Are you sure you won't regret your words five years from now?

The Evolution of Software Design

2006-03-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

I think Software Development's Evolution toward Product Design* is an important essay. The author, Danc at Lost Garden, gets a lot of things right. His four distinct eras of software development sound about right to me. I don't quite remember "The Technocrat Era", but I lived through the "Early Business" and "Late Business" eras. I know first hand many products of those eras confounded users' expectations.

On the other hand, I think Danc is being unfair when he implies each product of those bygone eras was nothing more than "a pile of poo". His artist's rendition is very funny, but it's still unfair. Danc is also too sanguine about the glories of the "Product Design Era".

Danc seems to believe the key to successful software development is to involve people in berets (artists and designers) early in the project life cycle. He refers to a so called "Production Pipeline" in which the people in berets lay the ground work for pliant programmers. To be fair, Danc doesn't think this will be easy:

Unfortunately, many companies that attempt to adopt a product design philosophy will also fail, despite their best efforts. Cultural change is hard work. To adopt product design you must alter the most basic DNA of the company's values.

It's true we need cultural change and he's right it won't be easy, but inertia is not the only problem. In my opinion, the bigger problem is the people in berets don't have all the answers. They certainly don't always agree on the answer.

For example, many designers are orthodox User Centered Design (UCD) disciples. They design products for user personae and insist the software must always adapt to the user. They can cite chapter and verse from the high priests of UCD including Alan Cooper and Don Norman. But Don Norman himself recently broke ranks with UCD orthodoxy. In Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful, Norman dropped some bomb shells:

HCD asserts as a basic tenet that technology adapts to the person. In [Activity-Centered Design], we admit that much of human behavior can be thought of as an adaptation to the powers and limitations of technology. Everything, from the hours we sleep to the way we dress, eat, interact with one another, travel, learn, communicate, play, and relax. Not just the way we do these things, but with whom, when, and the way we are supposed to act, variously called mores, customs, and conventions.

People do adapt to technology. It changes social and family structure. It changes our lives. Activity-Centered Design not only understands this, but might very well exploit it.

And:

Now consider the method employed by the Human-Centered Design community. The emphasis is often upon the person, not the activity. Look at those detailed scenarios and personas: honestly, now, did they really inform your design? Did knowing that the persona is that of a 37 year old, single mother, studying for the MBA at night, really help lay out the control panel or determine the screen layout and, more importantly, to design the appropriate action sequence? Did user modeling, formal or informal, help determine just what technology should be employed?

I think Norman's Activity-Centered Design principles are much saner than strict UCD, but the art of user interaction design is still evolving. The people in berets don't have a silver bullet. It is unlikely they ever will. User interaction design, like software architecture, is hard work. It will be another era or two or three before we get it right even most of the time.

* via Ned

Google Mars

2006-03-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

What's the significance of today's banner on the Google home page? Click on the banner and be amazed. It takes you to a new Google Mars service where you can explore the Martian surface.

Since most of us aren't familiar with Martian geography, Google Mars lets you browse by Regions, Spacecraft and Stories. To see what I mean, click the links at the top left of the Google Mars page. Very cool.

NH Moose Rescued from Swingset

2006-03-12T09:46:00.000-05:00

On Friday, Don Valliere rescued a moose from a swingset in Milan, NH.

"It didn't like the idea too much that I stayed close to it, but it stayed calm," Valliere said Friday. "The only thing I was nervous about was getting bit."

Jumping on the Broadband Wagon

2006-03-05T16:25:00.000-05:00

Believe it or not, we used the same dial-up service at home for almost ten years. Until about a year ago, this was just fine. We didn't need more bandwidth. Like most things in life, the situation became untenable by degrees. It's amazing how we tolerated the slow loading of web pages and the glacial speed of retrieving mail messages stuffed with (often unsolicited) digital images. That wasn't a huge problem. The straw that broke the camel's back was the unavailability of our phone service while connected to the Net. With the phone tied up for an hour or two each day, there was no denying it. We had a (gasp) bandwidth problem.

I considered subscribing to digital cable and adding high-speed Internet to my cable service. One look at the monthly rate and I changed my mind. Instead we went with DSL. At least in my area, Verizon Online DSL is much cheaper than cable. Verizon shipped my DSL modem a few days after I placed the order. Just a few days after that, they enabled DSL service. The installation was incredibly easy. The Verizon installation disk includes very simple, audio setup instructions. We were connected in less than an hour.

Part of my motivation for getting broadband, was to have faster access to my company's Virtual Private Network (VPN). Getting to the VPN over DSL proved to be a little more difficult. When I authenticated with the VPN, my client went into an endless loop supposedly "exchanging keys with the VPN server". After googling for help and coming up empty handed, I finally consulted some colleagues at work. The solution was to upgrade my VPN client and switch from IPSec to SSL. I don't understand all the trade-offs of IPSec vs. SSL, but it's clear SSL is compatible with more DSL modems, cable modems and wireless routers.

So I am up and running. Broadband will make it possible for me to work more hours from home. When I'm not working, my family and I can now enjoy educational videos like Einstein Robot. This is progress? The only thing better would be to have a wireless router so I can work and watch streaming videos from any room in the house. I can't wait. If you can recommend a good wireless router, please let me know.

Getters, Setters and Object Orientation

2006-03-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

As I read Martin Fowler's Getter Eradicator essay, I wondered for a moment what I was missing. As Fowler says:

[One] sign of trouble [in OO design] is the Data Class - a class that has only fields and accessors. That's almost always a sign of trouble because it's devoid of behavior. If you see one of those you should always be suspicious. Look for who uses the data and try to see if some of this behavior can be moved into the object. In these cases it can be useful to ask yourself 'can I get rid of this getter?' Even if you can't, asking the question may lead to some good movements of behavior.

The problem is my work lately has been full of Data Classes, or what my colleagues and I call Value Objects. A value object is nothing but a bag of properties with getters and setters. A value object is almost devoid of behavior. It is usually passed to or returned by a service that implements the behavior. I found myself wondering, "Is this a bad thing?"

Fowler's essay refers to an even better essay by Allen Holub called Why Getter and Setter Methods Are Evil. Holub warns the reader about violating encapsulation with getters and setters and then back-peddles. There are some valid uses for getters and setters. For example:

The vast majority of OO programs runs on procedural operating systems and talks to procedural databases. The interfaces to these external procedural subsystems are generic by nature. Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) designers don't have a clue about what you'll do with the database, so the class design must be unfocused and highly flexible. Normally, unnecessary flexibility is bad, but in these boundary APIs, the extra flexibility is unavoidable. These boundary-layer classes are loaded with accessor methods simply because the designers have no choice.

That perfectly describes my recent work. I have been working on an abstract, highly flexible Service Provider Interface (SPI). Since I can't force reuse of behavior, I have to define transparent value objects and defer the behavior to each service provider.

All well and good, but Fowler and Holub have reminded me this is not Object Orientation. I guess it is closer to Service Orientation. I am reluctant to call it that only because there is so much other baggage associated with Service Oriented Architecture. In any case, the point is this: Use of getters and setters can be a bad habit. Although I continue to work on my SPI, I occasionally venture up into the Object Oriented layers above my interface. When I do, I'll be on the lookout for inappropriate getters and setters.

More Services from Google

2006-02-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

February has been a busy month for Google. If you use Gmail, you know they have integrated mail with Google Talk instant messaging. You can now send and receive instant messages right from your Gmail inbox.

The Gmail team also introduced a service called Gmail for Your Domain:

This special beta test lets you give Gmail, Google's webmail service, to every user at your domain. Gmail for your domain is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain.

I don't know what the terms of service will be, but this could be a big hit with small to medium size businesses.

More recently Google announced a beta test of Google Page Creator. This service lets you create your own web site at <yourname>.googlepages.com. It features a WYSIWYG page editor and a 100 Mb allowance for files at googlepages.com. That's 10 times more than my ISP allows and I have to pay for that service. Not surprisingly, Google was overwhelmed with people registering to test Google Page Creator. The beta is now temporarily closed to new registrations.

Finally, Garett Rogers reports Google is working on a new calendar service. There is no official word from Google on when the service will be announced, but you can bet it will generate lots of buzz.

Mail, instant messaging, calendar, blogs and home pages. Do you think Google is interested in the collaboration market? Right now, all of these services are funded by advertising revenue and tested by an army of unpaid workers (you and me). I wonder. Is it just a matter of time before Google begins selling a hosted collaboration suite directly to businesses?

No. 1 Ladies' Detective

2006-02-22T11:05:00.000-05:00

The hot, dry, dusty bush country of Botswana could hardly be further from New England in winter. Precious Ramotswe's job solving crimes and other mysteries could hardly be more different than working in an office. Maybe that's why I enjoyed The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It's the first in a series of books about the unconventional detective Mma Ramotswe*.

This is not an edge-of-your-seat mystery. It's much more of a character study -- both of Mma Ramotswe and of Botswana itself. Smith takes time to tell the story of Ramotswe's childhood and life as a young adult. He highlights her decision to become a detective to "help people with problems in their lives". Then he brings the reader along on many of Mma Ramotswe's early cases -- everything from a search for a missing person, to tailing a con man, to a surprising murder investigation.

The news from Africa these days is a litany of disease, civil war, genocide, and post-colonial turmoil. This has been the news for as long as I can remember. As Mma Ramotswe travels around Gaborone, Botswana, you sense those things in the background, but you also experience her abiding pride in the relatively peaceful recent history of Botswana and a strong connection to the land and the people. Mma Ramotswe loves her Botswana. I'm looking forward to another visit when I read the next book in the series.

* In Botswana, Mma is a term of respect. Mma is apparently the equivalent of Madam, just as Rra is the equivalent of Sir.

Do It Yourself Satellite

2006-02-15T08:55:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, NASA published photographs of SuitSat, a homemade satellite launched from the International Space Station on Feb 3:

SuitSat, an unneeded Russian Orlan spacesuit, was outfitted by the crew with three batteries, internal sensors and a radio transmitter, which faintly transmitted recorded voices of school children to amateur radio operators worldwide.

After the launch, ham radio operators around the world picked up SuitSat transmissions and reported them on the SuitSat web site. Unfortunately, the last report was about five days ago.

Although it isn't transmitting any more, I guess the suit is still up there orbiting the earth. According to the NASA site, "The suit will enter the atmosphere and burn up in a few weeks."

Correction: As of Feb. 16, SuitSat is still transmitting. Yesterday, I read the report table wrong. The table lists the most recent event first.

Common Ground

2006-02-13T10:57:00.000-05:00

Last week's feature by Charles Arthur in The Guardian set off quite a firestorm within the Notes and Domino community. Several people blogged about it and many more commented. For example, there are more than 50 responses to a follow-up on Mr. Arthur's personal blog. There are close to 80 comments on Ed Brill's blog.

Charles Arthur and the Notes defenders, including me, remain very far apart on this issue. Mr. Arthur apparently lives in a parallel universe where the last three major releases of Notes never happened and where a vocal minority of Notes haters speak for the entire user population. He is, of course, entitled to his opinion, but the Notes supporters are conceding none of his points.

In such a polarized atmosphere, it is difficult to find common ground. Yet there is this quote from Charles Arthur complaining about his readers:

This inability to read something online and follow the thread of its argument seems to be an amazingly common failing. I notice it again and again in the grousing emails I get about articles: people don't seem to twig what they're reading. They skim a bit, and then reach the bit they disagree with, then leap to their email program to fire off their prejudices.

I know how you feel, Charles. Change a few words and you have:

This inability to understand and use software seems to be an amazingly common failing. I notice it again and again in complaints on the web: people don't seem to grok what they're using. They tinker a bit, and then reach the bit they disagree with, then leap to their blog to fire off their prejudices.

Of course, I don't disdain users in general, but I know from experience some users will set their mind against a software product and concede none of its benefits.

So how should we handle this situation, Charles? I think we need to realize that the vast majority of our constituents couldn't care less about such debates. Most readers of The Guardian are moved to complain only very rarely. They are more interested in sports and weather and getting on with their lives. It's the same with Notes users. They are not interested the fine points of UI design. For them, Notes is a business tool. They've learned to adapt to Notes quirks and get on with their work.

We should get on with our work too. At the end of the day, it is not about scoring points in a debate. It is about practicing our respective crafts. On his personal blog, Charles Arthur appears to be losing interest in this topic. Notes supporters like Ben Rose, Alan Lepofsky and Ed Brill need to get back to the fine work they do. I certainly need to get back to writing software.

Slow News Day

2006-02-09T13:17:00.000-05:00

Today The Guardian published an editorial bolstering the claim, yet again, that Notes is the most hated software product ever. The editorial quoted my I Love Lotus Notes post from last month.

Ben Rose, founder of the UK Notes User Group, was also quoted in the editorial. Ben has already questioned both the data and the "research" behind the article. Ed Brill has responded too. I can do no better than to point you to Ben and Ed. I think they both got it right.

But, of course, I have an opinion too.

When I first heard about the piece in The Guardian, I was prepared to hate it. I feared being quoted out of context and expected I'd have to write a scathing letter to the editor. In fact the editorial didn't twist my words. To be honest, my reaction is closer to a yawn.

This whole topic has been rehashed many times over. Some of it is really old news. For example:

When new mail arrives, you get a message saying "You have new mail". But the mailbox display doesn't update; you have to press a key or menu item to refresh it. So the program is smart enough to know email has arrived, but not to show it - something the clunkiest free email program does routinely.

That problem was fixed years ago in Notes 6!

The rest of The Guardian piece is mere speculation about who hates Notes, why they hate it, and what percentage of users hate it. There is no actual research to back up the claims and many of the facts are plain wrong. Round over. The Guardian didn't lay a glove on Notes.

Waterfall 2006

2006-02-06T09:47:00.000-05:00

Register today for the Waterfall 2006 conference this spring in Niagara Falls, NY. Speakers include Ron Jeffries on Extreme Programming Uninstalled, Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt on An Introduction to Dogmatic Programming, and Jon Kern on WUP: Waterfall Unified Process.

The conference will be chock full of sessions celebrating the death of Agile Development. I had difficulty registering, but I am sure the registration page will be back soon. According to the web site:

We're sorry but registration is not yet ready. Our software developers have a really wonderful design. They're almost done entering it into it a UML tool. They've told us not to worry and that finishing it will be "trivial" because "all that's left is the coding."

Don't forget to mark your calendar. The conference is on April 1!

Googlefight

2006-02-03T13:25:00.000-05:00

What will they think of next? Googlefight lets you pit the results of one Google search term against another.

Click here for a Super Bowl XL prediction.

Buying Innovation

2006-01-31T20:45:00.000-05:00

The truth behind Yahoo's acquisition of Flickr and del.icio.us:

The truth is, I think, that Yahoo bought 'Entrepreneurial Spirit'. Ok, these small companies also have some technology, a few members, a little revenue and great PR but that wasn't the main reason to buy them. The truth is that big companies don't innovate. They can't.

Interesting perspective.

(via Ben Poole and Volker Weber)

Flickr

2006-01-30T09:01:00.000-05:00

Over the past several months, I've occasionally posted photographs to this blog. I've carefully crafted a thumbnail for each photo, uploaded the images to my ISP web space, and hacked the HTML for each image. I guess I've been doing it the hard way.

I've known about Flickr for months -- I've even used it to search for photos -- but this weekend I finally got around to posting some photos of my own. It's great! The Flickr uploader tool is easy to use and it is dirt simple to create photo sets. You don't have to diddle with image editing and HTML. For example, here's a small set of pictures I've taken this winter.

Flickr has been generating buzz for months. It is often cited as a successful example of a service fueled by a bottom-up taxonomy or folksonomy. I'm still not sold on the idea of folksonomies for organizing data, but Flickr is great. It's the photo sharing, stupid!

Roving Mars

2006-01-26T13:58:00.000-05:00

A couple of nights ago NHPR's The Front Porch aired an interview with George Burton, the documentary filmmaker from Holderness, New Hampshire. Burton is well known for making Pumping Iron (1977) and The Endurance (2000) among other films. This Friday his new film, Roving Mars, opens in IMAX theaters nationwide.

Roving Mars tells the story of the NASA mission that sent the rovers Spirit and Opportunity to Mars in 2004. According to the NHPR interview, it includes plenty of footage from Mars itself, high-definition images transmitted by the rovers. This sounds great. Unfortunately, it won't be opening at an IMAX theater near me. It looks like the closest showing is at the IMAX theater in Providence.

Online, Over Fed, and Under Surveillance

2006-01-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit overwhelmed with life online. I guess I'm not the only one. Pete recently wrote about unplugging some his information feeds. Before that, Rands wrote about Repetitive Information Injury. I can relate. Lately, I think I've been spending too much time checking my feeds at Bloglines. I need to get that under control.

But it's not just conspicuous consumption that worries me. I'm also worried about conspicuous production. I am just beginning to realize how much of an electronic trail I leave online every day. For instance, I let Google store my personal email and blog entries. That part of my electronic trail is intentional and I have a degree of control over it. But I also post comments to a handful of other blogs, enter all of my runs in an online running log, participate in discussions on various forums, and manage a queue of DVDs at Netflix. That's just off the top of my head. There may be more.

The problem is much of this electronic trail is beyond my control. If someone took the time to stitch all of the data together, they would essentially own my electronic identity. Antonio and Ned see some potential in helping "unwitting bloggers" establish a cohesive online identity. As Ned said:

People are more and more willing to have bits of themselves online. Some are more than willing, they are eager, but need help getting started with a substantial presence. I think there's lots that online services could do to turn members into unwitting bloggers. There's lots of exciting stuff coming down the pike.

Exciting, yes, but I keep getting stuck on that one word. Unwitting. I don't like the idea of someone else controlling my identity.

Om Malik recently wrote about the dangers of keeping too much of your life online:

Somewhere on some server, in some SAN your life is cached. We are living a cached life. And it is going to get even more cached, as we turn to always-on wireless devices. Our RSS will be cached somewhere. So will be our thoughts that appear on blogs. Our TiVo watching patterns to music listening patterns in iTunes, and other such new conveniences are part of a new cached, convenient albeit less private life.

Don't get me wrong. Life online is great. I like the convenience of Gmail, Netflix and other services, but we all need to be careful when trading privacy for convenience. Is your online data in good hands?

Kids Today!

2006-01-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal Online reports some Computer Science students are using the Internet to outsource their homework. Some use a service called RentACoder to put their homework out to bid. For example:

"I need a simple console-based program and a PHP script written that uses the openssl library."

"I need 2 algorithms filtering -- median and Gaussian."

"A C++ program that will implement a billing system using threads. Needs to be completed tonight if possible."

RentACoder is normally used for legitimate business purposes. The report stresses that a only tiny minority of students use services like RentACoder.

(Via Slashdot where there are plenty of comments about the offenders' bright future in middle management.)

Interfaces Overvalued in Java API Design

2006-01-17T14:04:00.000-05:00

In Java API Design Guidelines, Eamonn McManus says:

There's a certain style of API design that's very popular in the Java world, where everything is expressed in terms of Java interfaces (as opposed to classes). Interfaces have their place, but it is basically never a good idea for an entire API to be expressed in terms of them. A type should only be an interface if you have a good reason for it to be.

McManus goes on to explain the problems with interfaces and to list the cases where interfaces make sense. This is the best explanation of the tradeoffs I have seen anywhere.

Of course, the article isn't just about interfaces. It includes lots of other guidelines for Java API design. Good stuff.

Happy Birthday, Ben

2006-01-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

Today, January 17, is the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth. Although he lived in Philadelphia most of his life, don't forget he was born in Boston.

Here are some words of wisdom from Mr. Franklin:

"Beware of the young doctor and the old barber."

"If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect."

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."

There are many more Franklin quotes here.

Starbucks Media Empire

2006-01-13T16:15:00.000-05:00

Apparently their profitable Hear Music division, has Starbucks executives dreaming of a media empire. As reported by the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Starbucks plans to promote movies starting with the spring release of Akeelah and the Bee. An NPR story I heard last night claimed Starbucks also has plans to sell books at some of their 10,000 coffee shops.

I like Starbucks cappuccino. Although I've never bought a music CD at one of their stores, I also like the "Starbucks sound" and I can see the logic in their peddling music with coffee. But I think it's a stretch for Starbucks to be tying in other media. It feels like they want to dictate good taste in coffee, music, books and movies.

Since it is Starbucks, I won't bet against their success, but I don't like where this is heading.

Misuse of Chinese Characters

2006-01-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Over the years, I have worked with many engineers from Japan, China and Korea. I am always amazed by their ability to speak two (or more) languages fluently. I feel stupid by comparison.

Still, I get a chuckle whenever I visit Engrish.com. It's a collection of unintentionally funny English phrases discovered in Japan and other Asian countries. I think it's mostly a good natured collection. Hopefully, it's not offensive to Asians.

The good news is it is just as funny when the shoe is on the other foot. Hanzi Smatter is a site "dedicated to the misuse of chinese characters in western culture". The site specializes in translating chinese characters tattooed on gullible westerners. The tattoos don't always mean what their owners think they mean.

Photo from Hanzi Smatter

Best Database of 2005: Alpha Five V7

2006-01-10T15:30:00.000-05:00

CRN recently named Alpha Five V7 the Best Database of 2005. It beat FileMaker Version 8 and Microsoft Access for the top honor.

I was fortunate enough to work on Alpha Five starting with version 1.0 about fourteen years ago. Selwyn, Pete, and Doug deserve credit for designing the original product. I left Alpha Software almost 10 years ago. I wonder how much of the original code is still in V7.

In any case, congratulations to Richard, Selwyn, Cian and others for the CRN award. It's great to see a small company taking on the bigger players and winning in the SMB Database market.

(via Pete @ DevelopingStorm)

I Love Lotus Notes

2006-01-06T16:01:00.000-05:00

Lotus Notes is a truly great software product. It is slicker than black ice in New England in January. It may not be the best thing since sliced bread, but is better than anything invented before sliced bread. Alright, I may be over compensating to counter the claims at Lotus Notes Sucks (and elsewhere), but I really do love Notes.

In the interests of full disclosure, I worked on Notes from 1996 through 2002. As a software developer, I contributed to versions 4.5, 4.6, 5.0 and 6.0. Obviously, I don't like to hear people bash the product I worked on. On the other hand, I have also used Lotus Notes every working day for almost ten years. It is not and never will be a perfect product, but it also isn't nearly as bad as some people make it out to be.

Let's look at some indisputable facts:

When it was introduced in 1989, Notes pioneered the concept of groupware.
It is one the most successful desktop applications ever. For example, in 2000, Network Computing named Notes one of the top ten products of the 1990s.
Unlike many products of its vintage, Notes is still going strong. According to Ed Brill, Notes still has 120 million seats (see comment #9). Microsoft in particular has repeatedly tried to kill Notes, and Microsoft has a history of obliterating the competition in many market segments (think Wordperfect, Lotus 123 and Netscape Navigator). How many products have been able to withstand sustained competition from Microsoft? Notes and Quicken are the only two products that come to mind.

So why do many people dislike Notes? Why does the anonymous owner of Lotus Notes Sucks spend hours on his web site? Why does Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror fame rant against Notes on his other blog? Are evil CIOs intentionally torturing their users with a defective product? That would be ironic considering the early adoption of Notes was viral**.

In my opinion, people dislike Notes because their expectations don't jive with the original intent of the product. At its core, Notes is a runtime environment for collaborative applications, but when people complain about Notes, they are usually not talking about core Notes at all. They are talking about the Notes Mail and Calendar applications.

Why does this distinction matter? It matters because the Notes core is what a lot of people really love. The three core features I really like are:

Replication. This is what lets you disconnect from the network and continue to read and send mail. It's also what lets Domino servers maintain multiple copies of your mail file. I don't think any product does replication as well as Notes and Domino.
Security. Notes security was way ahead of it's time in 1989. It is still rock solid.
Programmability. You don't like the way Notes Mail works? Programmability lets you (or an IT developer) fix small problems and add completely new features in mail. It's also what lets you build entirely new applications for your business.

None of this means IBM should disregard people's complaints about Notes Mail and Calendar. Far from it. I know IBM takes these complaints very seriously. The Mail and Calendar applications have consistently improved from one release to the next. As a relatively new Notes 7 user, I am very impressed with the new features and quality of Mail and Calendar.

Here's what I am really saying to people who dislike Notes: Grow up please. You may have preferred the mail application you used in your last job. You may have a dozen small complaints about how Notes works. But don't say Notes sucks and recommend throwing it out. That's like throwing out the baby with the bath water. Chances are your IT department has many good reasons for sticking with Notes. Have you asked what those reasons are?

** I mean viral in a good way. In the early days, small groups in large companies used Notes to solve real business problems they couldn't otherwise tackle. At first, this drove central IT departments crazy. Eventually, the IT departments understood the business justification and adopted Notes themselves.

So Long, Weather Notebook

2006-01-03T09:29:00.000-05:00

The last edition of The Weather Notebook aired on Friday, December 30. In case the name is unfamiliar to you, it was a two-minute radio show produced from the weather station on top of New Hampshire's Mount Washington. It's mission was to educate the public about meteorology and weather-related issues. The show aired on more than three hundred radio stations nationwide.

The Weather Notebook received most of its funding from Subaru and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Recently the NSF decided not to renew it's commitment. I find this troubling. The show was a perfect vehicle for the NSF's mission to "promote the progress of science". I wonder whether the decision is a result of budget cuts, or the perception The Weather Notebook violated the NSF's advocacy guidelines (pure speculation!), or something else.

In any case, you can still read The Weather Notebook Archives online. And perhaps the producers will secure enough funding to return the show to the radio. I hope so.

Inside Symantec LiveUpdate

2005-12-28T14:38:00.000-05:00

Last April, I wrote about my problems with McAfee Internet Security Suite. Since I am on vacation this week, I finally got around to removing the McAfee suite from my home computer. I decided to upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 2 -- for the built-in firewall -- and then add Norton AntiVirus for virus protection.

I was particularly worried about removing the McAfee software. Last time I tried that, the uninstall program failed and left lots of remnants on the system. I spent hours first tracking down instructions and then manually removing services and registry settings. By comparison, the removal of Internet Security Suite 6.0 was painless. It took all of five minutes.

The installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) was painless too. I still haven't explored all the benefits of SP2, but I like the built-in Windows Security Center, the new Outlook Express security features, and the Internet Explorer pop-up blocker. (Nevertheless, I will continue to use Firefox for most of my web browsing.)

In short, things were going great. I had a brand-new copy of Norton AntiVirus 2006 and I expected that installation to be dirt simple. Twenty four hours later, I finally have things working. Although the initial installation appeared to go well, I couldn't get Symantec LiveUpdate to work. Without LiveUpdate, it is difficult to get the latest virus definitions. Without those, virus protection is incomplete.

When LiveUpdate fails, it tries to be helpful. It displays an error message and provides a link to a Symantec web page with trouble shooting tips. In this case, the message was:

LU1841: Connection to ISP failed. LiveUpdate could not connect to your Internet Service Provider. Verify your dial-up information is correct.

Possible explanations included problems with the system's Internet Options or misconfigured firewall software. I checked these and other possible explanations, used Symantec's Automated Support Assistant, and generally pounded my head against the monitor for hours. Nothing helped.

Finally, I stumbled upon this excellent document on the Symantec site. Near the end of the document there is a section about some Settings.LiveUpdate files. These files hold various settings including the names of LiveUpdate servers. If the files are corrupted, LiveUpdate can stop working. The document suggests removing the files and trying again. Since the LiveUpdate service appears to keep the files open, this is easier said than done. Unless you take some special steps, you will get sharing violations when you try to remove the files.

Here's what worked for me:

Restart Windows in safe mode. This causes Windows to run without the LiveUpdate service.
Backup all the files in c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\LiveUpdate. I just copied the files to a temporary directory.
Back in the c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\LiveUpdate directory, remove all files with Settings in the file name. In particular, you don't want to remove the Configuration and Product files. Those files apparently contain important information about your registered Symantec products.
Restart Windows and retry LiveUpdate.

While this whole process took much longer than it should have, I feel like I understand the inner workings of LiveUpdate a little bit better. I am posting this story with the hope that someone else can benefit from it some day. Now I just have to take care of some overdue vehicle maintenance, finish a few household chores, and defeat the legions of spammers assaulting my Inbox. Then my "vacation" will be complete.

Thomas Jefferson

2005-12-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

I am reading Paul Johnson's big A History of the American People. I am only about a quarter of the way through, but one of the pleasures of this book is seeing how Thomas Jefferson keeps popping up. From 1776, when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, through his busy years as President (1801-1809), until his influence diminished at the end of his friend James Madison's second term (1817), Jefferson managed to play a key role in shaping our nation.

I've read a lot about Jefferson before, but Johnson's history includes some facts that are new to me. For example:

As a result of the 1783 Peace of Paris, the United States gained a vast new tract of land, the so-called Old Northwest Territory. Jefferson, who helped negotiate the treaty, proposed dividing the territory into several new states including Metropotamia, Polypotamia, Assenisipia and Cherronesus. Fortunately, he was overruled. Instead, over time, we got Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

While he was president, Jefferson had an open door policy. He let it be known he would answer any letter from any citizen and he was true to his word. He answered, in his own hand, literally thousands of letters from ordinary people and he kept copies of all his correspondence. The result is a lively record of what was on the minds of both the great men and ordinary people of his day.

Although he was personally involved in adding the Old Northwest Territory and the Louisiana Purchase to this country, Jefferson wasn't satisfied. In 1812, he urged his friend James Madison to invade and "liberate" Canada. Jefferson and Madison expected to be welcomed by Canada's citizens. They neglected to consider the large population of loyalists who had emigrated from south of the Canadian border before, during and after the American Revolution. Even the French-speaking citizens of Quebec were not inclined to oust the British. The result was a disaster. The inexperienced American army was routed and within months the British invaded and burned Washington, D.C.

Thomas Jefferson was a leading light of the American Revolution and one of our greatest presidents. We have long admired him for his many deeds including writing the Declaration of Independence, building Monticello, and chartering the Lewis & Clark expedition. Recently, his image has been tarnished by his, to our eyes, profoundly inconsistent views on slavery. I guess this is human nature. We put our leaders high on a pedestal and then, every so often, we happily knock them off. But in Paul Johnson's hands, Jefferson emerges as a man in full. Johnson describes Jefferson's greatest achievements, his little inconsistencies, his most enduring ideas and his monumental mistakes. In the end, I am amazed not by Jefferson's inconsistencies (he was only human), but that a man of flesh and blood accomplished so much.