Aging Thoughts


Recently, my sister and her family visited me for five days. Among the 10 of us, we had an age spread from 12 to 70. As we juggled different interests, energy levels, and locomotion speeds through the museums, walking tours, and road trips, I thought about aging. I'm 54. I'll spare you the, "Inside every … Continue reading Aging Thoughts →

Open Source Bridge 2012 epilogue


I had a good time at OSB this year. But I enjoyed it more in past years, and I'd say that this year was good, but not great. In terms of focus and information, OSB is geared for projects first and technology second. Most of the talks are about the psychology, logistics, mechanics, or organization … Continue reading Open Source Bridge 2012 epilogue →

Open Source Bridge 2012, day 4


The Unconference day... Pro tip: For pure shock value, nothing can beat sitting in a talk and having it slowly dawn on you that the speaker married someone you knew in High School, eons and eons ago. Jeepers, that was odd. In the morning, Puppet. I've absorbed enough Puppetry via osmosis that I'll probably use it instead … Continue reading Open Source Bridge 2012, day 4 →

Open Source Bridge 2012, day 3


Open-source processes for security vulnerabilities: The speaker works for ISC, and the talk focused on a different software level than what I usually work on. But I still pulled some pearls from it, such as security bug classification, and security vulnerability terminology. Privacy and Security: The speaker works for Mozilla Labs, to which I had … Continue reading Open Source Bridge 2012, day 3 →

Sometimes Text should lack Empathy


Yesterday's "Text Lacks Empathy" talk got me thinking about the times when I've put others on the spot. Sometimes empathy is overrated. Sometimes it's a waste of time, and sometimes it's wrong. There's a time and place to pin someone's ears back against their head and clean their clock. It can be very productive to … Continue reading Sometimes Text should lack Empathy →

Open Source Bridge 2012, day 2


Not sure I'll listen to today's keynote. Update: Nope, I didn't go to the keynote. How not to Release Software: My warp engines are finally on-line. A good talk. It was oriented, not surprisingly given the conference at which it was being given, toward web sites/servers/applications. Holy crap, there are two Mozilla projects still maintained … Continue reading Open Source Bridge 2012, day 2 →

Open Source Bridge 2012, day 1


Yadda yadda yadda. Live post. You know the drill. Nginx: I've been an Apache httpd user since FSM knows when. I've never been persuaded by artificial benchmarks. I don't worry about small front-end inefficiencies when the application spends gobs of back-end time talking to other servers. It's more important to use a front-end technology that … Continue reading Open Source Bridge 2012, day 1 →

In Portland for OSB 2012


I'll do a live-post each day with bits about the talks and goings-ons. I met Amye for Happy Hour at the hotel where I'm staying. Because I was in a "Mad Men" state of mind, I had two Old Fashioneds. I am the Don Draper of my world.  

Online portfolios considered harmful


I've seen some software developer job descriptions require applications to submit an "online portfolio.". I.e., don't bother applying unless you maintain a GitHub or Bitbucket project that demonstrates your coding skills. This has been common for some time for front-end developers. For them, it means showcasing sites or applications they've designed in past jobs. That's … Continue reading Online portfolios considered harmful →