I've had a great idea for an iPhone app for a couple months now and even created an Xcode project for it, after spending a bit of time planning it. It's one whose paper equivalent I use nearly every day so having a digital version would be super handy. If I had already made it, it would occupy a spot on the bottom Dock, which holds four apps.
So I deleted one of those apps, leaving an odd and disconcerting Dock. I'm hoping that that irritation will provoke me to actually fill that spot.
It has come to my attention that some people dispute my way of replying to email threads. I elide all but the minimum necessary to supply the context.
Be brief without being overly terse. When replying to a message, include enough original material to be understood but no more. It is extremely bad form to simply reply to a message by including all the previous message: edit out all the irrelevant material.
That's from RFC 1855, people. You think you're better than an RFC‽ Come on!
Code belongs in production.
I have had this as my mantra for as long as I've been developing software professionally. Tonight we released a new version of my product and so I tweeted it in celebration.
That got me to thinking: did I coin that phrase or did I read it somewhere? I often forget some clever tidbit that I've read, so it wouldn't have surprised me to find it in a Google search.
But there were no matches! I therefore claim its origin.
Winter is normally the time when I lose the weight I gained over the summer. Unfortunately, I did not take advantage of the cooler temperatures nearly enough and succumbed to the temptations of my wife's excellent cooking. I weighed myself this morning and I came in at 196 pounds—not bad by any means but heavier than my preference of 180–185 pounds.
So it looks like I'm going to have to step it up a bit by doing the No S Diet and some Urban Ranger. I got a FitBit One for Christmas and that'll give some quantification to my walking.
I really like the No S Diet because it's easy to stick to and doesn't force you to get rid of the food you have on hand. Many a diet was wrecked by the latter:
I got my Gmail invitation back in June 2004 and was able to register my preferred username with no trouble. At the time, I was supremely excited to a) get an invitation to the great new service and b) get a username that is easily read out loud. I used it a little bit but soon got my own domain name (this one) and set up my own email address.
The Gmail account mostly just sat idle and I would use it sparingly—mostly on Web forms with terrible validation that wouldn't accept this domain name. In the last three or four years, though, it's seen a terrific increase in activity.
The problem is that my username can easily be used by every Barb, Barry, and Brandon. And they use it! For a while, I dutifully replied to email threads saying that they had the wrong email address. Once that became overwhelming, I just started deleting them en masse and reporting everything as spam.
Then I couldn't keep up with that. I now get about 10K emails a month that Google accurately deemed spam and I manually cull at least another thousand by reporting them as spam. That's irritating but not the most boggling part of this story.
Lately, I've been getting confirmation and "welcome to" emails. People around the country are using my email address for their accounts. In so doing, these people give me full access to their Dish Network, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Redbox accounts. They are lucky that I'm a fine upstanding citizen, but you can't count on that in this day and age.
Today was the real shocker, which precipitated this blog entry. I got an itinerary confirmation from Priceline for a trip to Portland, Oregon! Who on earth attaches their travel plans to an email address they don't control. I'm flabbergasted!
[UPDATE (4/28/2013): Apparently I'm not the only one this has happened to.]
I've finally decided to take the plunge: I'm installing a Linux distro as a VM on my Mac.
I have resisted doing this for years and years and years. I've long thought that going Linux just meant that you're doomed to perennial tweaking and figuring out incompatible drivers. I don't give a rip about either of the "free as in's" when it comes to operating systems—I'm an unabashed Mac user, I pay for all of my software, and my programmatic life is completely Windows-based.
So why am I doing this? And why now?
Python.
I have been reading some really intriguing books on data analysis, social networking, and monitoring and all of the examples are in Python. I've always been tempted by Python the language and Python the community, and I've even made minor forays into that world. I know that Mac OS X is a great platform for Python but I have zero familiarity with Linux.
In the end, if I make anything significant, I'm going to want to host it on Linux so why not start now. With a virtual machine, I can duplicate my final environment without polluting my Mac or worrying about the differences between the two. I initially looked at Ubuntu but I think it's really more of a consumer-grade distro whereas I want raw server.
A colleague at work said that he uses CentOS; I figured that's as good as any and he certainly knows more than I do. So I downloaded CentOS 6.0 minimal and I'll see how it goes.
In moving my blog from Quick Blogcast to MovableType, I had a chance to revisit my decision to enable comments. Comments are always a mixed bag: the price of good discussion is eliminating comment spam—the blog's version of "broken windows." We've had decent success at it over at The New Clarion, but it took a long time to tweak the blacklist to get where it is today.
In the meantime, I had also started using Twitter quite aggressively. That is, essentially, a broadcast medium: you say things and people listen to them. There is some interaction but the key difference is that it's not exactly public.
That's the part about comments that I don't like. If you want to discuss some of my work, send me an email. If you want everyone to see your thoughts about what I've said, get your own forum. I don't care to host the opinions of those that disagree with me.
I have no regrets about turning off comments—I even did it over at Found on the Web. I spend zero time doing moderation and the extra work to send an email (while also not getting to vent in public) has severely limited the vitriol and bile.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.– Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech (text)
I've never been much of a career planner. I just try to do work that interests or fascinates me for as long as I can. Once it starts to get boring or I start getting wanderlust, I look around for opportunities to seize or work on creating my own.
Sometimes, though, I get a little down on the distance between where I'd like to be and where I am. That Steve Jobs quote, from a commencement address that I listen to more regularly than I ever would have thought, reminds me to not worry about it and to trust that great things are afoot.
After more than four years—incredibly—I got caught speeding. I got a 2011 MINI Cooper S Convertible back in October and it is way sportier than my previous one, Buzz. Let's just say that I frequently drove it rather rapidly.
It was just a matter of time before I got another ticket—going over 100 MPH was not terribly uncommon and I once got it up to 131 MPH. Unfortunately, I was clocked going 92 MPH in a 65 MPH area. The patrolman was generous and wrote it up for 85 MPH so that it wasn't criminal speeding.
Because it had been so long since my last one, I was able to take a defensive driving course to expunge it from my record. I had heard from other perps colleagues that you could take them online now, so I checked out the available schools in my county. I was prepared to go to my usual one, the Arizona Chapter of the National Safety Council, when I spied The Improv Traffic School.
Genius marketing! If I had to choose among approved schools teaching the same curriculum, one that promised to be funny would stand out from the pack. Intrigued, I signed up.
There were a couple of chuckles but they weren't any better than what a decent driving instructor would provide. The quizzes were exceedingly easy and it took four hours, which is required by the courts. (I thought about trying to defeat the mechanism that prevents you from completing early, but decided that I'd done enough already and toed the line.)
So now I'm on the straight and narrow for the next two years, driving like a "normal." I just might make it, thanks to cruise control.
Every year, I have a ritual I do about a week or so before my birthday: I make my birthday private on Facebook. The reason? I don't want the onslaught of hollow birthday wishes on my wall or in my inbox. Unlike this person, I think birthday recognition on Facebook is worse than not recognizing another's birthday at all.
The author contends that there's very little difference between writing down someone's birthday in a calendar as a prompt for subsequent years and Facebook notifying your friends that it's your birthday today. I emphatically disagree.
A person who takes the time to notice your birthday, write it down somewhere, and then follow through on the day of (or planning ahead if there's lag time) is head and shoulders above entering your birthday into your profile and then Facebook prodding people to make an empty gesture.
Sure you can customize the greeting, and that should be the least you could do. What about taking the time to get a card or a gift or even do something nice for that person? In this day and age of doing the minimum, such effort becomes that much more valuable and appreciated.
So maybe you should take a moment to scour through your Facebook friends and plan something real for their birthdays. Resist the urge to thoughtlessly post something electronic.
It's time to announce my goals for the coming year. Apparently, I missed last year (even though I did a recap on New Year's Eve). I love making resolutions because they crystallize the big picture plan for the whole year, but I do believe that goal setting is an ongoing process that's part of the general self-improvement that should be a part of everyone's life. So here they are:
I think that covers what I'd like in resolutions: general statements about this year's direction.
I have much to be thankful for this year. Honestly, every year of my adult life has been great even with the ups and downs. My wife and I work very hard at living consciously and deliberately, so I feel like I've really earned whatever success and pleasantness I've experienced. Here's a smattering:
I was going to list my iPod, my MacBook, and my MINI Cooper but their importance in my life is different in kind from the items listed above. They're great and all but their absence wouldn't leave a void in my life.
Let's compare how I voted to how the rest of my Arizonans voted. Outside of my district and county, I pretty much am out of step. I'm glad they voted down the "homeowner's bill of rights" and took a tax on home sales off the table permanently, but they also stopped same-sex marriage with a constitutional amendment, snuffed payday loans out of existence, and enabled a Masschusetts-style denial of private insurance.
My wife thinks that the proposition voting mirrored the spending trends on commercials. I cannot believe that, but it's a compelling argument. Some of the proposition wording was very precise and commercials about those measures were very deceptive—did people not look into the matter further?
It's done finally, so now's the time to move on and start accepting the outcome. I have got a couple of months to lay low, relax, and study before I join the Kulturkampf. An Obama presidency is a grand opportunity to publicize Ayn Rand and Objectivism since he represents such a stark contrast to us.
| Issue | Me | Them |
|---|---|---|
| President | McCain | McCain |
| U.S. Representative, District 3 | Shadegg | Shadegg |
| State Senator, District 6 | Gorman | Gorman |
| State Representative, District 6 | Crump | Crump, Seel |
| Corporation Commissioner | Wong, McClure, Stump | Kennedy, Newman, George |
| Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 3 | Kunasek | Kunsaek |
| Maricopa County Assessor | Russell | Russell |
| Maricopa County Attorney | Thomas | Thomas |
| Maricopa County Recorder | Purcell | Purcell |
| Maricopa County School Superintendent | Covey | Covey |
| Maricopa County Sheriff | Saban | Arpaio |
| Maricopa County Treasurer | Hoskins | Hoskins |
| Justice of the Peace, Desert Ridge | Henderson (write-in) | Jayne |
| Constable, Desert Ridge | Hazlett | Hazlett |
| Maricopa County Special Health Care District, District 3 | Gerard | Gerard |
| Maricopa County Community College, District 3 | Petty | Pearson |
| PVUSD School Board | Kenyon, Case, Greenberg | Case, Greenberg, Skidmore |
| PVUSD Question 1 | No | No |
| PVUSD Question 2 | No | Yes |
| Proposition 100 | Yes | Yes |
| Proposition 101 | Yes | No |
| Proposition 102 | No | Yes |
| Proposition 105 | Yes | No |
| Proposition 200 | Yes | No |
| Proposition 201 | No | No |
| Proposition 202 | Yes | No |
| Proposition 300 | No | No |
I've been searching for the perfect word to describe Barack Obama fanatics. Portmanteaus seemed to be the perfect neologistical type but all the ones I have found were unsatisfying to pronounce. "Obamaniac" was the closest but it just doesn't work as a word and I've seen too many of them co-opt it for themselves. I don't disparage people who like it.
While driving home from dinner tonight, I came up with a doozy. With a sigh of relief at the conclusion of a long, tiring expedition, I offer up Obamaton. Looking over the results at Google and Twitter, I cannot lay claim to originality but at least I'm well clear of cliché.
I am a longtime fan of John Shadegg. I have voted for him in every election he's been on my ballot. I was heartened to see his name in opposition to the bailout bill when it failed in the House of Representatives. And I was disgusted when I saw his name in support when it came back around, this time with pork.
My initial idea was to punish him by voting for Bob Lord, his Democratic opponent. But that was just the initial feeling of betrayal talking. If I let politicians stabbing me in the back determine who to vote for, my voting would be governed solely by revenge. In today's political climate of unprincipled pragmatism, flipping politicians are in fashion.
After reading his reason for the reversal, I'm certain that he is definitely not his father. If Barack Obama gets elected, we'll need all the Republicans we can get in Congress so I just couldn't let my disappointment affect the long-range view. And he is more oriented towards small government than most of his GOP brethren.
Here's how I voted, starting at the top of my ballot and working my way down:
Here's how I voted on the propositions:
If you are interested in why I voted for a particular candidate or proposition, leave a comment.
Google's made their 2001 index available for a month to see what the Web was like back when Google was first starting out. It was like a trip down memory lane: there I am at #7 in a search for my name.
Oh yes, I was on the Web since maybe 1996 back before there were blogs. We used to call them home pages, kiddos, and I called mine The Bill Brown Information Center. It used hover effects on the links and everything. It also reveals that I have loved yellow and blue for at least a decade now.
It's worth a look see: I used to have all of my essays available, exhaustive lists of my values, and a funny bio that is just so me. It's also interesting to note that back then Google and Northern Light were tied as my favorite search engines.
Man, I was so cool!
[UPDATE: Ooo, there's also this Bill Brown-designed club Web site that brings back a wave of nostalgia. I loved that font!]
The A.V. Club had a feature asking a bunch of people I've never heard of the question "what's your most-rewatched movie?" Their responses were interesting—and would be more so if I were familiar with the individuals—so I thought I'd share my answer.
I've thought about the subject a lot because my favorite movies aren't necessarily the ones I watch regularly. It's a crucial distinction because there are several movies that I don't think are good or great by any stretch but I enjoy watching a lot. My favorite movies aren't necessarily those that I can (or do) watch regularly but they really resonate with me whenever I do.
My all-time most re-watched movie has to be Happy Gilmore, which I think most people who know me would be surprised to find out. I watch this at least once a month and sometimes more, I can quote from it liberally and extensively. My favorite scenes are definitely the ones with Ben Stiller as a nursing home orderly. It makes me laugh every time.
Aside from that, I like The Italian Job, Dumb and Dumber, and Back to the Future. I must say that getting rid of satellite and the three-at-a-time plan from Netflix have cut into the time I have to re-watch movies: I could have made a much more extensive list two years ago, for example.
Go Daddy's bringing Merlin Mann out to give a new talk tomorrow and I'm pretty jazzed. You may recall that he came out for an earlier event just this May for his Inbox Zero talk.
I'm excited for this presentation because its subject matter has been on my mind lately. I've been experiencing a debilitating sense of ennui and a lack of motivation. After much introspection and deliberation, I think I've located the source: too many great ideas and a fundamental uncertainty about which is the best course of action.
When I say too many great ideas, I mean it. At this moment, I've got some compelling ideas to contribute to an open-source project I've taken over—I still need to write up a blog entry about that fine mess I got myself into; a book idea that is unique, unprecedented, and possibly the start of an entire franchise—two actually, but the second one is going to require the first to be very successful; an iPhone application that could make me some decent side income; a historical project that could bring me enormous satisfaction; and a raft of business ideas that are all feasible to varying degrees.
In the face of all these nearly-equally viable choices, how do you pick one and set yourself to it? Normally, I'd consider a matrix of factors like which one has the most potential, which one lends itself well to maximizing time with my family, which one fits in with the life I envision for myself, and which one is best suited to my strengths. But there's no clear winner in this regard.
So I stew and dawdle and get distracted easily. That lack of focus makes me upset because that's not me! Any time I start to make some progress on one of these big-ticket ideas, some inner voice nags that another one is a better use of my time. Meanwhile, I'm caught up on my feed reading and on top of Twitter, which makes me even more unsettled because I know that these things are not the best uses of my time right now.
Merlin is not going to tell me anything I don't already know. Heck, I am even familiar with all of the techniques he's listed in his slide deck. But maybe his talk will be rousing enough to jar me from this rut, to just pick one from the many and get things done.
Then again, maybe writing this blog entry itself has provided sufficient impetus.
[The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]
I'm getting ready to fly out to San Francisco for the F8 Conference put on by Facebook. We're leaving Phoenix at 7:20 AM and returning to Sky Harbor by 10:30 PM, so it's going to be a long day but very much worth it—I hope. I plan to blog my raw notes for each session throughout the conference for my colleagues that couldn't attend as well as posterity.
