Internet 2.0

Today Pew Internet and American Life Project released a report that says today's teens believe e-mail is for older people. They believe it is a "tool for communicating with 'adults.'" (!) That is so interesting. Here is the link to the actual report in PDF: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Tech_July2005web.pdf

Perhaps IBM's "on-demand world" campaign shows that it isn't so stodgy after all!

Hmmm...they did use Lee Majors and a reference to a 1970's show instead of Beyonce though...

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On a somewhat related note (because it has a keyboard I suppose), Motorola released a new handset today - the "Q." Its a nice looking phone! I wonder if I can get it on my Amazon wishlist?!

Argh ( or "Everything and the kitchen sink")

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

Well, Spring is here and it is project time. Although I did my best Tom Powers, I have been unable to make a few things a "Fall Project."

Here is my to-do:
* Put the doors back up
* Fix the ice maker in the refridgerator
* Put the changing table together
* Put clothes away (always)

As you can see, even though I have a door ready to paint on the sawhorse, I decided to work on the sink. I have also started putting together the changing table, but it sits unfinished.

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The sink was a mess. It still is a mess. I'm getting some help from someone knowledgeable today.

Another avenue for cleaning up technical debt

How do you get people to take an active role in cleaning up code? I think that many programmers really like clean code, but often never get around to it because of the time pressure they're under.

I like the XP approach to this - keep track of technical debt - this is a great idea. However, it is often difficult to get people on the business side to take on technical debt because it is hard to quantify a return... it is much easier to do so on a hot new feature. I'm always thinking that there must be another way to be able to take on the debt while still adding something else of value.

So, when I ran across this story - one that links to a story by Ward Cunningham, I took note. (Now, the story is about tracking down complex bugs... (more specifically in a bond report), but the bond report itself is a feature, and if they're doing TDD, they're finding the bugs before they release.) Anyway, this is a great story about getting to clean up code while providing ROI at the same time.

TiVo Developer Challange Winners

A few days back, the winners of the TiVo developer challenge have were announced! Here’s a summary of the results:

• Music Monkey
  Best Music Application
• Flickr
  Best Photo Application
• NBC Trivia (no download)
  Best Game Application
• Digital Home (no download)
  Best Information Application
• Galleon
  Most Creative Application
• AudioFaucet
  Grand Prize Application

(via TiVoBlog)

Today Ruth, Soleil, and I went and visited a Montessori school Soleil. It was a very nice visit. Ruth and I had looked at a number of other schools almost a year ago, before we knew that Shore was on the way. We really liked International Montessori, but Soleil was too young.

Now she is old enough, and we had a great time. The school has its own building, and is well shielded from street traffic. The facilities in general are nice, and very kid-oriented; things are at their level, their size, etc.

The school administrator met us at the door and gave us a tour (they do not have school in the Summer). She gave us a tour, all the while letting Soleil play with things. Soleil did a great job of helping put things away when she was done, and was very well behaved.

All in all, it was a good experience. We'll see what happens in the next month or so.

Scenic Plus - Cognac Maple

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

I decided not to post the close-up pictures of the carpet seen in the "before" shots. It's just to badly stained to really want to post pictures.

So far (4 days now), we've been really happy with the flooring. It's easier to clean than the carpet, but I did scratch it already. No too bad - and now we have some character.

We're trying to decide which furniture we should put pads under. The installer said that we should only pad the things that are moved often (dining room chairs, etc.). However, that means that the big things, such as the entertainment center, that would really scratch, aren't padded.

Hmmm.....

New Flooring - After

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

Here is the new flooring!

New floor installation - During

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

Here is the new flooring being installed. I think this is going to be great!

New floor installation - Before

New floor installation - Before
Originally uploaded by coreyt.

We're getting some new flooring installed. This is what it looked like the evening before the new flooring was being installed.

There is no furniture becuase we had to move it all (except for thet couch and a chair).

One thing this picture does not do justice to is the carpet. It was truly horrible; we didn't really want to put Shore down on it. Although it was vaccumed regularly, it had stains everywhere.

I thought I'd try to dig up some pictures of the stains, but I doubt Ruth would appreciate my documentation.

This is really quite an interesting thing I stumbled on: life hacks. Via del.icio.us popular links, I found all of this group of "lifehack" links. It seems to be centered around a book Getting Things Done (?), otherwise known as GTD. One of the more interesting sites in the list is 43 Things. Basically it is a social network site where you list the things you want to do with your life, see others who have similar aspirations, and get "cheered" on.
Social networking becomes more and more interesting to me all the time.

Some recent book purchases:

Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed [Paperback]
This looked interesting because I believe that good Agile teams actually need to be fairly diciplined. I do not view Agile as not having diciplne. What real-world trade-offs exist? This book is useful with both its "Day in the Life" and case studies. (Plus, any book with forwards by Booch and Cockburn is probably useful.)

A Guide to the CMM: Understanding the Capability Maturity Model for Software [Spiral-bound]
All of the CMM books I've read up until now (well, mostly browsed) seem so thick with jargon. These people come from a different planet than me. This one has drawings. I like drawings.

Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development [Paperback]
This is a book version of James O. Coplien's pattern website. It has a little more info in it as well, but this is a time that it ends up being easier to read paper and think about things than it was with a monitor.

Will we soon be able to download Netflix movies? Will I be able to play it on my TiVo? Some of the comments and trackbacks are interesting.

Why doesn't Blogger do trackbacks?

http://www.hackingnetflix.com/netflix/2005/07/glitch_exposes_.html

"If Netflix members, instead of receiving movies by mail, drove two miles each way to a rental store, they would consume 500,000 gallons of gasoline per day and release 6,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions daily or more than 1.5 million tons annually."

So there is a new domain for mobile-enabled websites: .mobi

Yeah. dot mobi. Have you ever tried to type a URL into your phone? It usually takes about the same amount of time as it does to loose interest. Now, instead of typing .com, I'll actually have to type an extra letter! Did no one think of making it .m?

Here is the spec. Here is the Reuters story about it.

Corey

Employees Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

Okay, I'm all for requiring employees to wash their hands, thus preventing a little splashback from getting on the books they're about to stock on the shelves.

But... does anyone else think that the sign is in the wrong place? At this point, you're preaching to the choir. Put the sign on the door next time! Or, better yet, put it where you KNOW they're going to see it - right in front of their face when they're doing their business!

Shore is really cool too

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

Hey, Shore our new son is a cool kid too. This is a recent picture of Shore when he was at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market with Ruth and her mom.

Cool kid

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

Here is my cool daughter Soleil. We were at the Barnes and Noble in the music section.

So tired...

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

This is how my daughter Soleil comes home from her friend Izzy's house.

Yes, the juice is empty and hanging from her mouth.

Flickr, Blogger, and del.icio.us

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Originally uploaded by coreyt.

So, for a long time I've tried to use TikiWiki (http://www.tikiwiki.org) as my blog, picture sharing, bookmark site, etc. (see my website).

It isn't working.

Tiki might do all of these things "ok," but it isn't as good as Flickr for sharing and archiving photos, Blogger for blogging, or del.icio.us for storing web bookmarks.

So, I think I'm going to try to turn http://www.coreyandruth.com into more of a portal that leverages these other sites. I do like the wiki part of TikiWiki.

So, what is this picture? Click on the picture to go to Flickr and find out!