Was recently sent this story/joke and thought it was funny. I’ve been working a lot on my golf game lately and sometimes take it too seriously. Phil Mickelson reminds me not to take it too seriously.

A gushy reporter told Phil Michelson, “You are spectacular, your name is synonymous with the game of golf. You really know your way around the course. What’s your secret?”

Michelson replied, “The holes are numbered”

I tripped over this post over at some blog that appears to be a very interesting attempt to dissuade folks from thinking Google is as great as it is. However, I actually read the article and conclude that Google is at least as wise as they say in terms of recruiting and maintaining developer satisfaction.
All devs hate dealing with IT issues. Anyone who has ever tried to run a company knows that IT management is just a big, frustrating distraction. This idea of “Tech Stops” is brilliant.

“Google has the concept of “Tech Stops.” Each floor of each building has one. They handle all of the IT stuff for employees in the building including troubleshooting networks, machines, etc. If you’re having a problem you just walk into a Tech Stop and someone will fix it. They also have a variety of keyboards, mice, cables, etc. They’re the ones who order equipment, etc. In many ways the Tech Stop does some of what our admins do. If your laptop breaks you bring it to a Tech Stop and they fix it or give you another one (they move your data for you). If one of your test machines is old and crusty you bring it to the Tech Stop and they give you a new one. They track everything by swiping your ID when you “check out” an item. If you need more equipment than your job description allows, your manager just needs to approve the action. The Tech Stop idea is genius because:

1. You establish a relationship with your IT guy so technical problems stop being a big deal - you don’t waste a couple of hours trying to fix something before calling IT to find out it wasn’t your fault. You just drop in and say, “My network is down.”

2. Most IT problems are trivial when you’re in a room together (“oh that Ethernet cable is in the wrong port”)

3. The model of repair or replace within an hour is incredible for productivity.

4. It encourages a more flexible model for employees to define their OWN equipment needs. E.g. a “Developer” gets a workstation, a second workstation or a laptop, and a test machine. You’re free to visit the Tech Stop to swap any of the machines for any of the others in those categories. For example, I could stop by and swap my second workstation for a laptop because I’m working remotely a lot more now. In the Tech Stop system, this takes 5 minutes to walk down and tell the Tech Stop guy. If a machine is available, I get it right away. Otherwise they order it and drop it off when it arrives. In our current set up, I have to go convince my manager that I need a laptop, he needs to budget for it because it’s an additional machine, an admin has to order it, and in the end developers always end up with a growing collection of mostly useless “old” machines instead of a steady state of about 3 mostly up-to-date machines.”

I’d posted this clip on my blog once before but a family member who is into videography was interested to see what I was talking about so here’s a repost. Pretty cool.

irregular flow from 4khz on Vimeo

I took this photo a few days ago near Mt. Si in Washington State.

This is a fun and easy video. I’ve always believed that “how to” videos were going to be big on the web. Just sit back and watch this video in the comfort of your own home and you’ll start to wonder what else the web can teach you. I found a few pointers in this video that should help out on the links this summer.


VideoJug: How To Perform The Perfect Golf Swing

Maybe he can’t win but I like this guy.

Tonight I was listening to some old MP3’s and it was the former front man of Dire Straights - Mark Knopfler - whose CD titled Sailing to Philadelphia got my attention.

The title track seemed a curiously thoughtful bit of verse and I began to get curious what “Sailing to Philadelphia” was really about. Listening to the lyrics it all began to get more clear that Mark Knopfler is a bit of a history buff. Turns out his song is a very romantic interpretation of two Englishman “sailing to Philadelphia” to conduct surveys for what would ultimately become known as the Mason Dixon line. Remember that from your basic history classes? The English team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon are the focus of Knopfler’s (very compelling) song as they are tasked by wealthy English royals to resolve a long running dispute in colonial North America. In 1732 the proprietory governor of Maryland, Charles Calvert (British noble and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland), signed an agreement with William Penn’s sons (the other wealthy land owning English family) which drew a line somewhere in between, and also renounced the Calvert claim to Delaware. But later Lord Baltimore (as Calvert was also known and which is also the origin of the name for the city of Baltimore) claimed that the document he signed did not contain the terms he had agreed to, and refused to put the agreement into effect. The issue was unresolved until the Crown intervened in 1760, ordering the English team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to survey the boundaries between the Province of Pennsylvania, the Province of Maryland, Delaware Colony and parts of Colony and Old Dominion of Virginia. Both Mason and Dixon were astronomers who first gained favor with the English crown when they traveled around the Cape of Good Hope to track the “Transit of Venus”. In fact the whole lot of characters in the story of the Mason Dixon line were privileged and that doesn’t just include the wealthy land barons for whom the line was drawn. Dixon’s father was a wealthy Quaker coal mine owner. He became interested in astronomy and mathematics during his education (at Barnard Castle) and early in life he made acquaintances with famed mathematician William Emerson and historic astronomers John Bird and Thomas Wright.

The Mason–Dixon Line was marked by stones every mile and ”crownstones” every five miles. The stone was shipped from England. The Maryland side says (M) and the Delaware and Pennsylvania sides say (P). Crownstones include the two coats-of-arms.

Today, while a number of the original stones are missing or buried, many are still visible, resting on public land and protected by iron cages.

The lyrics and the very choice of story clearly suggests that Mark Knopfler is quite a bit of a deeper individual than his “money for nothing and chicks for free” fame would otherwise cast him. In fact, the selection of the story of Mason Dixon couldn’t be more of an antiquated royal remembrance of United Kingdom aristocrats which really doesn’t encapsulate Britain the way it used to. Apparently we should be careful to judge a rock star by the pop CD’s that make them rich. Knopfler, in particular, is more of an academic than most of his earlier work would have otherwise suggested.

I recently found some fantastic high resolution images on a rather obscure site called 20Years20Lives. In accordance with their requirements I’ve been able to use the images to start making a small series of enhanced images from the collection. The images hopefully capture the essence of this past tragedy and I’d suggest its probably too early to forget how dangerous nuclear energy (and weapons) can be when placed in the hands of careless or politically motivated individuals.

Click here to view the images I’ve developed so far.