First Pictures with New Lens

We have finally had some rainy weather here in San Diego, which is great because this has been one of the dryest winters in recent memory. Of course with the rain comes the nasty stuff that gets washed into the ocean, so I've taken a few days off from surfing and plan to hit the waves today before the next storm system moves in.

However, yesterday I made my way down to the beach with my new Canon 70-200 F/4 L series lens, and took a few inaugural shots with it to see how it compared to the old Vivitar lens I was using from my wife's older Rebel SLR. The lens performed great, with super-quick auto focus, and just about every picture turned out crisp and clear. I am stoked! Here are a few shots from yesterday.

Rat, escaping work to enjoy a few a few quick waves.

A nice looking left:

Two other guys out there:

Damn I’ve Been Busy

I just wanted to briefly say, “I’m sorry” for the lack of updates over the last week or two. I have been slammed here at work trying to figure out a few new technologies for potential deals, and it isn't something you just pick up in a few hours.

I have gone surfing a couple of days this last week, but due to inclement weather, it appears as if I might not make it back into the water until next week. We need the rain despeartely here in southern CA, so you won't hear me complaining... to loudly. :)

Is Your Job Title ‘Evil Overlord’?

If so, make sure and read through the list of the Top 100 Things I'd do if I Ever Became an Evil Overlord. Avoid making the same costly mistakes other Evil Overlords have made in the past, and learn from their mistaks. Perhaps an example or two would whet your appetite:

• I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.
• No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.
• I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by.

Top 12 Things A Klingon Programmer Would Say

12. Specifications are for the weak and timid!

11. This machine is a piece of GAGH! I need dual Pentium processors if Iam to do battle with this code!

10. You cannot really appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in theoriginal Klingon.

9. Indentation?! -- I will show you how to indent when I indent yourskull!

8. What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software'releases'. Our software 'escapes' leaving a bloody trail of designersand quality assurance people in its wake.

7. Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' -- they have'arguments' -- and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.

6. Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak

5. I have challenged the entire quality assurance team to a Bat-Lethcontest. They will not concern us again.

4. A TRUE Klingon Warrior does not comment his code!

3. By filing this SPR you have challenged the honor of my family.Prepare to die!

2. You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where youstand!

1. Our users will know fear and cower before our software. Ship it! Shipit, and let them flee like the dogs they are!

Firebird Reborn as Firefox

My favorite web browser from the good folks at The Mozilla Organization was Firebird. I say ‘was’ because with the expected feature and performance upgrades in the newest release (version 0.8) also comes a change in name - to Firefox. The change in name is due to another open-source project called Firebird (a DBMS based on Borland's Interbase server).

So how does Firefox feel? Much snapier, and everything seems to run smoother than version 0.7. A new download manager is present, and my initial impression is that it is an improvement over the previous d/l manager. So download it and give it a spin.

Not to be out done, the Thunderbird team has released version 0.5. Thunderbird is the e-mail and newsgroup component of the Mozilla product line. Seems to be coming along nicely!

The “I Have No Moles and I Must Scream” Surf Report

Well, not quite. Today the stitches were literally pulled out of my leg and arm, and I was in the water with my board at lunch. Three weeks passed fairly quickly, although I definately missed being out there. Unfortunately, my return to the waves was greeted with some of the smallest surf we've had in recent memory. However, I made the best of it and had a good time. Looks like we'll be seeing increased swell in 4 days or so.

Programming Linux Socets

IBM's DeveloperWorks Tutorials site is a great site to keep your eye on if you are a computer programmer. They cover topics which range from Java to Python, XML to web services, etc. Note that to access the tutorials and other articles on the site, you must first go through a quick (and free!) registration process, which is well worth the effort.

As an example of what you can find there, take a look at this introduction to Programming in Linux Sockets, Part 1. This introduction starts out with the basics of IP networks and network layers, and then proceeds to show you how to applications which utilize these parts in C and Python.

Who is Joe Bloggs?

I stumbled accross this a day or two ago, and I had to chuckle. If you are in the software industry as a programmer, then you are very likely to relate to a lot of the humor in these episodic diaries. From the site:

Joe Bloggs is a software development group leader working for a small IT services company based in Reading in the UK. His team is involved in all stages of the development life-cycle. Currently they are nearly two years late delivering an upgrade to a legacy application which forms the backbone of the company's internal IT systems. Joe Bloggs is a pseudonym of Joseph Bloggs.

How I PC'd an Apple G5

Several computer-tech related web sites publish articles (or HOW-TOs) detailing how a new motherboard was installed into an old or unusual case, or how a case has been tricked out with a frozen nitrogen cooling system for the CPU so that it can be overclocked to 99.5 GHz. However, This article on how a gent converted his a $3,000 Apple Dual G5 to an Athon 2400 system (less than $1,000) is in a somewhat different vein. You see, it was a hoax. It appears as if some people just can't take a jok... The reaction to the hoax from induhviduals of the Mac community was so quick and brutal that it quite caught the author off guard. Wired also has an article on the whole affair, which I find enormously hillarious.