Want your 15 minutes of fame? Try out our anonymous soapbox. Send an email to
and see it listed here. No SPAM Please.
Disclaimer: Postings in 'the soapbox' are the opinions of the particular poster and not necessarily the operator of this site.
Monday, May 31, 2010
How to Pack for a Hiking Adventure
Hiking is a great way to get some healthy exercise while enjoying nature. If you're tired of the gym or bored with jogging, give hiking a try. What you pack for hiking depends on how long you plan to be out on the trail. A day hike would only need a few basic items, while an overnight hike would require a whole lot more. This article focuses on how to have a successful daytime hiking adventure
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Can't Buy Happiness Past $60k
From the Nimble Theory Blog
$60K a year can make you happy
Psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman says millions of dollars won't buy you happiness, but a job that pays $60,000 a year might help.
Happiness levels increase up to the $60K mark, but "above that it's a flat line," he said.
// //
var currExpandable = "expand1";
$60K a year can make you happy
Psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman says millions of dollars won't buy you happiness, but a job that pays $60,000 a year might help.
Happiness levels increase up to the $60K mark, but "above that it's a flat line," he said.
// //
var currExpandable = "expand1";
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Opposite of Fitts' Law
From the Coding Horror Blog
If you've ever wrangled a user interface, you've probably heard of Fitts' Law. It's pretty simple -- the larger an item is, and the closer it is to your cursor, the easier it is to click on. Kevin Hale put together a great visual summary of Fitts' Law, so rather than over-explain it, I'll refer you there.
The short version
If you've ever wrangled a user interface, you've probably heard of Fitts' Law. It's pretty simple -- the larger an item is, and the closer it is to your cursor, the easier it is to click on. Kevin Hale put together a great visual summary of Fitts' Law, so rather than over-explain it, I'll refer you there.
The short version
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Compiled or Bust?
From the Coding Horror Blog
While I may have mixed emotions toward LINQ to SQL, we've had great success with it on Stack Overflow. That's why I was surprised to read the following:
If you are building an ASP.NET web application that's going to get thousands of hits per hour, the execution overhead of Linq queries is going to consume too much CPU and
While I may have mixed emotions toward LINQ to SQL, we've had great success with it on Stack Overflow. That's why I was surprised to read the following:
If you are building an ASP.NET web application that's going to get thousands of hits per hour, the execution overhead of Linq queries is going to consume too much CPU and
Monday, May 24, 2010
Teaching Kids to program
I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts Steve Gibson/Leo Laborte on Security Now! In this episode (SN208) Steve relates a story about his childhood and the unexpected consequences of 'tinkering' around. There was a brief mention of alice.org a site that encourges kids to learn about computing using some pretty neat tools.
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Daring to Dream with Diabetes - Diabetes Compass Radio
Dr. Breay Paty - MD, Asst Professor, Div of Endocrinology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Funny story on Gun Regulation
First of all - Yes I know the story isn't real, and I only mention this so poeple don't send me emails saying "It's a hoax!" Although General Cosgrove is really a person in the army in Austrailia there is no evidence that this interview noted below every actually happened. However, if you do have an mp3 of the audio, I'd love to hear it!
...General Cosgrove was interviewed on the radio recently. Read his reply to the lady who interviewed him concerning guns and children. Regardless of how you feel about gun laws you have to love this! This is one of the best comeback lines of all time.
In a portion of an ABC radio interview between a female broadcaster and General Cosgrove who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military Headquarters.
...General Cosgrove was interviewed on the radio recently. Read his reply to the lady who interviewed him concerning guns and children. Regardless of how you feel about gun laws you have to love this! This is one of the best comeback lines of all time.
In a portion of an ABC radio interview between a female broadcaster and General Cosgrove who was about to sponsor a Boy Scout Troop visiting his military Headquarters.
Friday, May 21, 2010
After meal blood sugars - Diabetes Compass Radio Show
Gary Scheiner - MSc Exercise Physiology, CDE, Insulin Pump Specialist, Diabetes Author, Integrated Diabetes Services, Lives with Type 1, Wynwood, PA USA
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
One Touch Tool for Linux Users and SugarStats.com
I have recently become a very advid user of a site called SugarStats.com to manage control of my blood sugar records,
If you have diabetes, I highly recommend this site. It has great discussion forms stats, logs and graphs to help you or to learn more about your diabetes.
Since I'm also a bit of a 'techie' I've created some scripts for linux users to automatically upload your blood sugar results from your One Touch (Ultra/Ultra 2) meter.
I'm putting this out there for any techies using a "real" operating system :-)
If you're on linux, and you have the One Touch Ultra meter and cable, you can find some scripts I worked on to automatically download your meter results and upload them to SugarStats on a regular basis.
I have mine in a cron job, so I just plug in my meter and walk away and instantly they get pushed to sugarstats.
The tools are here free to anyone who wants them :
http://www.bwebcentral.com/utils/onetouch-utlis.zip
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Engage. Convert. Retain.
From the Nimble Theory Blog
Sendside.net, our corporate site, has a new look that focus on four selling propositions that point out where we really shine; lead conversion, channel communications, security and compliance, and customer retention.
To be honest, the old site was to busy, a byproduct of too many cooks in the kitchen.
This new site is svelt,
Sendside.net, our corporate site, has a new look that focus on four selling propositions that point out where we really shine; lead conversion, channel communications, security and compliance, and customer retention.
To be honest, the old site was to busy, a byproduct of too many cooks in the kitchen.
This new site is svelt,
Saturday, May 15, 2010
I know this is cheating but it's interesting
From the blog of Tim Scammell I was just looking for a bookmark for a web site on my Blackberry and ran across one for a blog and personal site that I started a couple of years ago. <br />Obviously I forgot about it and didn't feel up to really getting into blogging further.<br />There are four blogs on there dated January 18, 2007, January
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Not much to say today
From the blog of Tim Scammell <p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRCyfsug07FoxAGTwS4b27j2cod4B7_og3UNDHohvD4DPAd0UZ-lLelVNBUNts1Wtnm65zMg2YU6E59qjI5qrxTOSQePNvNF2XeB3X4DyQmEHN3Bjldn-CW9eiqPjszdVJCIcAg/s1600-h/=%3Futf-8%3FB%3FSU1HMDAwMzEuanBn%3F=-713475"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRCyfsug07FoxAGTwS4b27j2cod4B7_og3UNDHohvD4DPAd0UZ-lLelVNBUNts1Wtnm65zMg2YU6E59qjI5qrxTOSQePNvNF2XeB3X4DyQmEHN3Bjldn-CW9eiqPjszdVJCIcAg/s320/=%3Futf-8%3FB%3FSU1HMDAwMzEuanBn%3F=-713475" border=
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Non-Programming Programmer
From the Coding Horror Blog
I find it difficult to believe, but the reports keep pouring in via Twitter and email: many candidates who show up for programming job interviews can't program. At all. Consider this recent email from Mike Lin:
The article Why Can't Programmers... Program? changed the way I did interviews. I used to lead off by building r
I find it difficult to believe, but the reports keep pouring in via Twitter and email: many candidates who show up for programming job interviews can't program. At all. Consider this recent email from Mike Lin:
The article Why Can't Programmers... Program? changed the way I did interviews. I used to lead off by building r
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
TomTom strikes back with Darth Vader voice pack (video) -- Engadget
From Engadget Blog:
We guess TomTom was listening when we said it had to respond to Nokia's Own Voice app for custom turn-by-turn navigation instructions, as the Dutch company has announced a new Darth Vader voice pack. Following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Homer Simpson and Burt Reynolds, the Sith Lord has contributed his vocal stylings to the cause of guiding the lost and confused down the right path. Though it wasn't without hiccups -- check out the video after the break for the recording session -- the pack is now complete and ready for download, provided you have $13 handy to smooth the transaction. Yoda, C3PO and Han Solo packs are set to follow in the coming months. May the farce be with you
We guess TomTom was listening when we said it had to respond to Nokia's Own Voice app for custom turn-by-turn navigation instructions, as the Dutch company has announced a new Darth Vader voice pack. Following in the footsteps of such luminaries as Homer Simpson and Burt Reynolds, the Sith Lord has contributed his vocal stylings to the cause of guiding the lost and confused down the right path. Though it wasn't without hiccups -- check out the video after the break for the recording session -- the pack is now complete and ready for download, provided you have $13 handy to smooth the transaction. Yoda, C3PO and Han Solo packs are set to follow in the coming months. May the farce be with you
Monday, May 10, 2010
10 Ways to Suck at Programming
From Donnie Garvich Blog:
I recently inherited a web app from a dirty, nasty, stinking contractor that claimed to be a competent enough programmer to be left alone to get things done. Unfortunately, we took him at his word. Functionally, most of the web app seemed to work at first glance. However, once the client took over the reigns and actually started using it things went downhill fast. The contractor disappeared after payment (die reputation DIE!) and I was left to try and get things working properly and performing up to snuff while the client limped along with what they had been given.
I decided to document a few of the things that I found wrong along the way. These are really just things that every good programmer should already know to avoidÂ… but obviously some people need to be reminded (or taught).
I recently inherited a web app from a dirty, nasty, stinking contractor that claimed to be a competent enough programmer to be left alone to get things done. Unfortunately, we took him at his word. Functionally, most of the web app seemed to work at first glance. However, once the client took over the reigns and actually started using it things went downhill fast. The contractor disappeared after payment (die reputation DIE!) and I was left to try and get things working properly and performing up to snuff while the client limped along with what they had been given.
I decided to document a few of the things that I found wrong along the way. These are really just things that every good programmer should already know to avoidÂ… but obviously some people need to be reminded (or taught).
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Welcome Back Comments
From the Coding Horror Blog
I apologize for the scarcity of updates lately. There have been two things in the way:
Continuing fallout from International Backup Awareness Day, which meant all updates to Coding Horror from that point onward were hand-edited text files. Which, believe me, isn't nearly as sexy as it … uh … doesn't sound.
I
I apologize for the scarcity of updates lately. There have been two things in the way:
Continuing fallout from International Backup Awareness Day, which meant all updates to Coding Horror from that point onward were hand-edited text files. Which, believe me, isn't nearly as sexy as it … uh … doesn't sound.
I
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
George Carlin The Planet Is Fine
George Carlin's Take on the environment, and the green movement. Remember even after we are long gone and dead, the earth will still be around.
An interesting take on the little unimportant role we take on this world
An interesting take on the little unimportant role we take on this world
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
The Cove
From the Nimble Theory Blog
The Cove has won about every documentary award available.
I've been anxious to see it. First because it's obviously a really good film, and secondly, because it's equally obvious that it's emotionally charged.
It was.
If your family hasn't seen The Cove, which is probable, rent it and watch it as a family. There are some impo
The Cove has won about every documentary award available.
I've been anxious to see it. First because it's obviously a really good film, and secondly, because it's equally obvious that it's emotionally charged.
It was.
If your family hasn't seen The Cove, which is probable, rent it and watch it as a family. There are some impo
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Geek\'s marriage code: Propose Marty McFly-style | Crave - CNET
Who says geeks don't know how to do romance right?
Among the geeky gestures of amour we've seen, there was the guy who popped the question in Super Mario World, the guy who engraved a proposal on an iPod, and the man who asked for his love's hand via patent application.
The latest inductee into the Geeky-Proposal Hall of Fame? Google software engineer Corey Goldfeder, who went so far as to stage a fake Michael J. Fox retrospective at a local movie theater and then digitally edit himself into "Back to the Future" to pop the question to Andrea (and about 20 onlookers he recruited so the theater wouldn't look suspiciously empty).
Among the geeky gestures of amour we've seen, there was the guy who popped the question in Super Mario World, the guy who engraved a proposal on an iPod, and the man who asked for his love's hand via patent application.
The latest inductee into the Geeky-Proposal Hall of Fame? Google software engineer Corey Goldfeder, who went so far as to stage a fake Michael J. Fox retrospective at a local movie theater and then digitally edit himself into "Back to the Future" to pop the question to Andrea (and about 20 onlookers he recruited so the theater wouldn't look suspiciously empty).
