Motivation

It’s generally really easy for me to keep going if I’ve already got a bit of momentum, but if things have derailed me and caused me to focus elsewhere, Newton’s First Law decides that it also applies to motivation and proceeds to kick my backside.

Translation – if I stop, it takes real work to get going again.

It’s also fair to say that, for me at least, large tasks are intimidating, but breaking them into smaller chunks makes them more manageable because it lets me just consider the current step and leave subsequent steps for a little later.

Big = difficult. Little = easier. Makes sense, right? Less stuff, less to be overwhelmed by.

Or, to paraphrase my sifu a bit “Concentrate on now right now. Later will come when it is time.”

A few years ago, I found a way to motivate myself when learning something new from a book or video as well as when working on projects. Thankfully it plays into the fact that I’m a big fan of marker boards (I have several in my office to help keep myself organized and to brainstorm) so it doesn’t take any additional expense on my part.

I write the name of the book or video series on the marker board and then put down the chapter or video numbers. As I work through it, I erase the numbers for the chapters that I’ve covered.

 

This does two things:

First, it lets me keep track of where I am. This is especially helpful if I’m doing a video series or a web-based lesson plan.

Second, it lets me see that I have actually been making progress so I don’t get lost in the feeling that I’m never going to get anywhere in what I’m doing (I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one that has this problem. It’s downright overwhelming to look at how much you have to learn, and every time you learn something, it shows you other things that you need to learn).

Some people will prefer to strike through the numbers or put a check mark next to them after they’ve finished, but I prefer to erase for one very simple reason – it lets me actually SEE the list of things I need to do shrink. If the numbers are still there, the size of the task never visually changes so my brain still says “Hey, there’s still this daunting list of things that we have to do.”

If I erase the numbers, my brain goes “Wow. We’re making progress! Maybe we can do this thing after all.”

Yes, it’s a stupid psychological trick, but in my case it works.

I guess that means it’s not so stupid after all…

 

Current mood: undecided

Current music: Adam and the Ants – Room at the Top

Product Review – Mimo 720S

A couple of weeks ago, I won a Mimo 720S (7” USB touch screen monitor) at the CONDG holiday party.

I’d seen them before online and was never really tempted because it just didn’t seem that useful. I mean, after all, a 7” screen isn’t that large. It’s okay for a tablet, but as a 2^nd or 3^rd monitor?

I’ll admit that I was wrong.

The screen’s a resistive touch screen, but it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to make it work unlike a lot of other resistive screens. That’s not to say that it doesn’t occasionally lose track of the fact that you’re doing a “click and drag”, but nothing’s perfect.

The size of the screen is just about perfect to fit on the desk under my monitor in the space where I usually put a book if I’m using it for reference. Since I have electronic copies of most of my tech books as well as paper copies, the Mimo’s primary purpose for me is as a book display.

Setting the size of the book to 120% in acrobat allows most books to be readable and take up most of the screen and since the Mimo is on an integrated stand, I don’t have to look at a book that’s lying flat like I do with its paper counterpart.

I’m also wondering how it will do as a test screen for mobile app development. Since it rotates 90 degrees, you could emulate either a phone or a tablet.

Honestly, my only complaint is that the screen isn’t a little bit bigger. I think a 10” screen would be just about perfect.

Just be sure to update to the latest drivers and calibrate the touch screen with the Calibrate program before you use it. Otherwise, you’ll be wondering why the mouse moves on your main monitor when you touch the Mimo

GPS - The Angry Wife Edition

I live in a city where I frequently have no idea how to get where I’m going. I used to use MapQuest before I got my GPS several years ago.

It’s a wonderful device, but I refer to it as “The angry little woman in the box” because the voice sounds rather annoyed when it says “recalculating” if you miss your turn or opt for another route. In fact, I think they must have multiple clips for “recalculating”, because she sounds angrier every time she says it, but that could just be my imagination.

It’s like having an irate spouse in the car with you (my girlfriend agrees).

 

 

“Turn left”

I don’t want to turn left. This road is a better option

“Recalculating. In 0.5 miles, turn left”

No, I want to stay on this road. It lets me bypass a lot of nasty intersections and is only 2 minutes slower

“If you don’t listen to me, why do you even take me along?”

I do listen to you, but in this case, I know a better route for this part of the trip

“You don’t love me anymore. I saw you looking at that other GPS in the store”

That’s a model for hiking and geocaching

“She’s a model, is she?? I bet you felt her up too! Damned skinny bitch”

Oh, now you’re just being silly

“I am NOT being silly. You don’t touch me like you used to! I catch you looking at other GPS’es and now you don’t even listen when I tell you to turn left!”

I’m just saying that this time, going straight is a better option.

“That’s it! I’m going to my mother’s! TURN RIGHT!”

 

 

Oct 31

Happy Anniversary

Oct 14

Happy Birthday

Recruiters

The tech job market in Columbus seems to be picking up quite a bit. This is a wonderful thing for a lot of people since we like to be able to pay rent and buy sandwiches.

Unfortunately, it also means an increase in the number of people that call themselves recruiters whose only purpose is to spam as many people as possible in the hope that some company will hire one of them so said “recruiter” can get a commission.

These people are not really recruiters. They’re parasites. Real recruiters are a completely different creature.

If you’re a “recruiter” and are located in an off shored call center, you aren’t really a recruiter. I’ve gotten a few calls of this sort in the last few weeks and they’re driving me up the wall – Broken English, lots of call center noise in the background, and follow up emails that say things like “I enjoyed speaking with you” when all they did was leave a voicemail.

If your “job description” is a page full of bullet points that tell me absolutely NOTHING about the position, you’re doing it wrong. I once got an email from a “recruiter” that had about 20 bullet points worth of “description” and all it really said was “write code, conform to company standards, and you won’t be supervising anyone”.

Don’t tell me that you have something you think I would be “perfect” for without telling me why. This is especially true when the job is for something I’ve never done before. This is the most common kind of resume spammer “recruiter”. Thankfully they also tend to be the least tenacious and easiest to ignore.

If you’re contacting me about a job in Ohio, but you’re located in New York, you’re doing it wrong. You can’t know about the developer community in Columbus, Ohio if you’re located in Rochester, New York. If you’re not in the geographic area that you’re hiring for, you’re probably doing it wrong (there are exceptions, but they’re not that common).

Bad recruiters leer at and hit on my girlfriend while she’s at an after users group meet-up with me (true story, sadly. Karyl almost dumped her drink on the guy).

By contrast, good recruiters generally display the following qualities:

• They work through word of mouth networks in the developer community. Referrals are the source of most of their candidates.
• They will tell you the name of the company that they are trying to put you in touch with to make sure you haven’t already submitted to them since multiple submissions basically kill your chances.
• They take some time to learn what you’re looking for instead of trying to shoehorn you into every position that comes across their desk.
• They take time to help prepare you for the interview. They will give you an idea of what to expect both in terms of interview techniques (if there are any tests, etc) and corporate culture including suggestions of how formal or casual to be in the interview.
• They do not act like a creep and hit on my girlfriend.

Good recruiters are worth their weight in gold. Bad ones only serve to make everyone’s lives difficult. Sadly, the good ones are also about as rare as gold while the bad ones abound.

Current mood: tired

Current music: The Call – Let The Day Begin

Lunch Time

 

Since some of the Devs on my twitter list seem to be in the mood for soups/stews and Bill (@sempf) suggested I place this recipe here, I present to you

Lamb Stew

• 1lb ground lamb or beef
• 6 cups beef broth (I use the beef base from Das Dutchman. It’s inexpensive and takes up much less storage space. It’s available at some area Kroger stores as well as here)
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 package beef stew seasoning
• 1 cup pearled barley
• 8-12 oz package of mushrooms (washed and diced)
• 6-8 carrots, sliced
• 2-6 whole tomatoes (about 1-1.5lb). Diced
• 1-2 medium onions, diced
• 1 can whole kernel corn (optional)
• Red pepper to taste

Brown meat in 5qt or larger pot (I use a 5qt cast iron Dutch oven)

Add remaining ingredients and bring mixture to a boil

Reduce heat, cover and allow mixture to simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.

It may be necessary to add water to the soup as evaporation will occur

Makes 1 gallon + of stew.

Ebook Pricing

This started off as a bit of a mini rant on twitter the other day, but I thought it deserved to be fleshed out a bit as well as updated since some other information came to my attention this afternoon.

I love my Nook and take it pretty much everywhere. I consider it a great way to carry not only a book or two to read for pleasure but also a way to carry and access my programming books when I’m not near my bookshelf.

My major complaint is how much the ebooks cost in comparison to their paper counterparts. Sure, they knock a couple of dollars off of the price, but for books that cost $20-40, that’s really not much of a savings.

This isn’t just a whine on my part. Logically, ebooks should be cheaper. Think about it – they require no paper, no shelf space, no transportation costs (other than an internet connection) and can be replicated essentially forever (or at least until a publisher’s claim to the book ends and it reverts to the author)

I’m not complaining that programming and technology books are expensive. Given the amount of work that has to go into them, the limited market, and limited shelf life of most technologies (unless we’re talking about something like the K&R C book), they have to be relatively pricy in order to make a profit. I understand and accept that. We all need to make a living.

What I’m complaining about is the price difference, or rather almost lack of one, between the traditional paper books and the matching ebook. In some cases, as @jbehren pointed out, sometimes the ebook can cost more than the paper one (which is ridiculous unless, perhaps, you are paying to get a copy before the paper book even hits shelves and you just can’t wait).

The question, then, is what is a reasonable price for an ebook as compared to the paper one? Of course, the publishers would claim that their current prices are reasonable, but I disagree. Taking into account the savings caused by the lack of materials and associated costs, I’d say probably about half the price of a paper book.

Books are fairly pricy to write, but most of the cost is in the actual manufacture, shipping and storage. At half the cost of the dead tree edition, there should be enough money to still make a decent profit on the endeavor.

The half price range was sort of my gut feeling for a while, but today it was more or less confirmed by O’Reilly. For people that have an account at oreilly.com, all of their ebooks are buy one, get one free with coupon code (just look in your account under the heading Membersip).

Additionally, they will sell you an electronic copy of most of their books (bundled in multiple formats, not just PDF) for $5 if you register the paper version with them. It only applies to O’Reilly and MS Press titles so I can’t get epub copies of my Pragmatic Programmers books, but it’s a great start. (For the record, I got the PDF version of the Programming Ruby book cheaply when I bought the paper version during the Pragmatic Programmers special a while back, but PDFs don’t always scale well on smaller e-readers so availability in a variety of formats is a great plus).

I cheered when I saw the $5 electronic copy “upgrade” option, because, to me, that’s sort of the sweet spot for that service. I would gladly pay an extra $5 to have lifetime access to an ebook version of programming books that I own. In fact, I spent some time today registering my O’Reilly books so I can buy the epub copies later.

I don’t know if this is a limited time offer or one which they always have, but it is sort of telling as far as book pricing goes. It’s also something well worth taking advantage of.

Current mood: tired

Current music: Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock

Oct 31

Happy Anniversary

Happy Birthday

I love you

 

When To Say No.

A lot of people that I’ve known, including clients and a previous boss, have been under the impression that we as developers (or sysadmins, or whatever else) are to do what the client (internal or external) wants. Period. They think that this is the reason why we are employed. This isn’t really true.

My old boss’s argument was that we were only a cost center and not the ones generating the revenue. This is an extremely short sighted view to take.

Our job, is to give the client what they NEED in order to do their job and for their company (and ours) to make money. There is a very large difference.

One thing we have to ask ourselves on virtually every feature of a program and even on every project is “why?”

Why are we doing this?

Does it fulfill a business need?

Does it make the company money?

Does it save the company money?

Does it make the life of people at the business easier so that they can do one of the above more effectively?

If it doesn’t fill some need, then why are we doing it? Most of the developers that I know don’t want to work on a system that nobody is really going to use, and adding features that make no sense only increases the chance of bugs in the software as well as increases the development time.

For example, say a client commissions a piece of software and one of the features, after all is said and done costs $10,000, will the value that they derive from that feature be greater than the cost? If the answer is no, then why (other than the $10,000 going into your company’s bank account) would you do it? Sure, you can keep your mouth shut and pocket the check, but chances are that the reputation may well catch up with you down the road.

Projects that come in on time and under budget tend to get you more projects. Projects that overrun on the budget and/or time don’t.

The problem is in convincing the client that they don’t need the feature (which I generally call “kitchen sink features” and a lot of people call gold plating). Sometimes the client doesn’t want to let go of a feature because they have a checklist that they want to fulfill for bragging rights/marketing material. Sometimes it’s because they don’t want to let go of *anything* and sometimes there’s some other reason.

If it turns out that you were wrong about them not needing the feature, then drop the argument and build the feature. If, however, you can deliver a better product (less bug prone, easier to maintain, etc) and do it faster without an unneeded feature, then you may want to make a business case for doing exactly that.

I’ll admit that it’s extremely difficult to make a business case against an emotional response (in this case, the desire for more more more), but it can be done.

I had a discussion with Jim Holmes on this topic at Stir Trek back in May and he had an interesting way to take care of the issue. In fact, I approve of it so wholeheartedly that it earns my Sneaky Evil Bastard Award.

He had a client that wanted far more functionality than could be delivered in the time and budget that was allocated to the project and, predictably, the client didn’t want to let go of any functionality, claiming it was all equally important.

Jim’s solution was to target one of the parts he knew they REALLY wanted as being impossible to complete given the resources since everything was equally important. Magically, the client changed their minds and decided that the unimportant functionality wasn’t vital after all, and they were able to finish the project within a reasonable time frame.

It’s funny how that works. =]

Failed projects are a bad thing. So are projects that nobody really uses. Don’t cave in to the pressure. Do the right thing when you can and work to the best of your ability. This isn’t a one-sided deal. Every piece of software involves a partnership between the craftsmen and the owners and that requires give and take from both sides. If you approach it that way, you frequently get better results.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Current Music: Jimmy Eat World – The Middle

Restaurant Review: Rusty’s Wharf

It always seems that the really fun discoveries are made by chance. That is certainly the case this time.

While in Pataskala for some personal business, I saw a little plaza across the street (60 Oak Meadow Drive), and Karyl and I decided to put off our plans for dinner to check it out as neither of us had really noticed the place before.

I’m glad I did, because when I pulled into the parking lot, I spotted a sign that displayed the words “Fish & Chips” rather prominently. For those of you who know me, you know that I’m a big fan of those words and have been searching for a good fish and chips place in the area (I can’t help it. I miss the beach and haven’t been able to go there in ages).

Thankfully, my girlfriend totally agrees with my fish and chips addiction (and my seafood addiction in general, being another beach person), so we decided to have dinner there instead of our previous plans.

We weren’t disappointed at all.

Upon opening the door, we were greeted with the wonderful aroma of cooking seafood (not the smell of grease that so many places have). The décor was straight out of a North Carolina restaurant, but the thing that first caught my attention was the fact that there was a bottle of malt vinegar at each table. Score!

 

Even at just before 5:00pm on a Saturday, the place was pretty busy, but not so busy that it was excessively noisy or crowded. The tables were about half full and there was a steady stream of people and families coming in to get orders to go.

The staff was very nice, the menu, which is available on their website, was full of beach-side staples (fish and chips, clams, chowder, and the like as well as chicken for those who are less seafood inclined) and the prices were almost fast food-like. Karyl’s basket combo (which is a basket of seafood, fries and two hush puppies, a side, and a medium drink) was $6.50 and mine with an extra side of clams was $9.00.

After ordering, we got our drinks and found a seat to chat and wait until the food was brought out. A few minutes later, the baskets were brought out and we were in shock – the food not only looked amazing, there was a small mountain of food in our baskets. Below is a photo of my basket (cod and chips, with an extra piece of cod as my side and an extra side of clams):

The cod was nearly perfect. It was light and flaky instead of oily like so many places make it, the hush puppies were crispy outside and the consistency of good bread inside with a sweet cornbread flavor, the chips were above par, and the clams were very lightly spiced and tasted as though the batter were at least partially cornmeal based.

I can’t tell you how their desserts are because neither of us had room for it after the mountain of food.

Just as we were finishing up, one of the ladies who works there came up to ask us if we needed anything. Our response was that we didn’t (We honestly couldn’t have even considered anything else), but we did have a few questions.  Among other things, I was wondering if this was a chain I had never heard of or a one of a kind restaurant as they had several hallmarks of a chain – customized floor mats, gift cards, etc.

It turns out that it was not a chain, but was, in fact a family owned restaurant. The very nice lady that we were talking to was the owner along with her son and it seems that her husband, a general contractor, had done the build out for the space (having done a little carpentry with my father as a kid, I can say that the man did himself proud on that space. It was very well done).

What’s more, the restaurant has only been open since November though she has, in her words, been doing this for years and almost all of its business has been due to word of mouth. With a following that makes it look like it’s been there a couple of years at least, this is no small feat and is, in all honesty, a testament to the quality of the food and the service.

During our conversation, it also came out that they’re hoping to eventually open a second location (possibly in Gahanna) if things continue to go well. We can only hope that this happens and that the second location is as good as the original.

If you’re in the mood for good seaside food a very short drive from the Polaris/Westerville area (and most of the rest of Columbus, honestly), I can’t recommend Rusty’s Wharf enough. Give it a try. You won’t regret it.

Current mood – calm

Current music – Bruce Hornsby – Every Little Kiss

Product Review: Toptech 35 LED Video Light

While looking for something camera-related on Google’s marketplace, I ran into a piece of camera equipment that I had to add to my eBay watch list.

It was a 35 LED continuous light with a hot shoe mount. It also came with an adapter that lets you attach it to the tripod mount of your camera (my Pentax Optio in this case). It’s extremely lightweight and powered by 2 AA batteries.

The one I first ran into was about $48 with free shipping, but poking around on eBay some more, I found the exact same model of light for $24 shipped, so I went ahead and got it.

I ordered the light a week or so ago and it came in today. Me being me, I spent some time playing with it around the house to get a feel for it and I have to say that I’m quite happy with it and want to get a second one (and possibly a third in order to modify it to use filters).

The light itself is about 3.5 inches by 2 inches, so it’s extremely portable. In fact, due to its size and the way that it’s made, there are actually three ways that you can use it. 

• It can be used with the included camera mount or on placed in the hot shoe (provided your camera has one). This works quite well for video and fairly well for photos. The downside is that you only have so much range of motion with the length of the bar.
• It can be used in your free hand. This doesn’t tend to work as well for video but works much better for photos as you have a much larger range of motion so you can light your subject from pretty much any angle you can manage to position your hands in.
• Due to the way that the camera mount is made, the hot shoe to tripod thread portion can be removed and the light can be mounted directly on a tripod (in my case a flexible mini tripod). This makes it absolutely amazing for photos where you are shooting a fixed object as you can choose the range and position of the light as well as the camera and have the two not be limited by the length of the bar or your arms.

With 35 LEDs, it is extremely bright. Make sure not to have it pointing toward you when you turn it on. Otherwise, you will be seeing large light spots for a while. I found this out by accidentally bumping the switch while looking the unit over.

It works well for providing extra light for videos indoors (and I would assume outside at night since I have not had a chance to test it in that setting yet) as well as for photos without having the washed out colors that using a flash typically produces.

As a set of example shots, I set up a blue background on my desk and took a few shots during the day and tonight after the sun went down. I chose a can of Ski as my subject since pretty much everyone is familiar with the size, shape, etc of a soda can (and if I am going to use a can of soda, I might as well pimp the beverage of my hometown).

All of the above photos were taken at a range of about 2-3 feet with no post production for color correction, etc. The only alterations at all were cropping and resizing in order to be more web friendly as the original photos also contain portions of my desk, are 3264x2448, and weigh in at 3-4MB per photo.

First, let’s look at the day shots.

Daytime shot, no lighting, no flash:

Daytime shot, flash:

Daytime shot, camera mounted LED light:

Not as bright as the flash, but the colors are far less washed out. Also keep in mind that this photo was taken with the light mounted slightly to the side of the camera which, in my opinion, is not optimal for still photography.

The night shots were taken in the same place. This room has a single overhead light (one bulb) on in the shots.

Room lighting, no LED, no flash:

Room lighting, flash:

Room lighting, camera mounted LED light:

Again, not as “crisp” as the flash, but much warmer

And a few with the room lighting turned off so there is practically zero light other than the LED unit for the sake of showing how it does in very low light. (This is why the photos appear somewhat dark)

LED camera mounted:

LED hand held from the left:

LED hand held from above:

I realize that some people prefer the hard, crisp nature of using a flash, but I really do prefer the more natural colors provided by a continuous lighting source. The really great thing, though, is that most flashes have a pretty limited range while this light illuminates pretty well to 12+ feet and works for video as well.

They make a larger 126 LED version as well that I plan to get a few of later when I get a more powerful camera. The reason I want more than one is that I have plans to make a portable light rig for outdoor photo shoots.

Current mood - happy

Current music - Van Halen - Dance the Night Away

I’m not dead

Honestly.  I’m still somewhat alive.  It has, however, been a long winter.

There just hasn’t been a lot of time for blogging.  On top of writing code and interviewing, this winter has been a series of injuries (mostly weather related) and illnesses for me and Karyl as well as dealing with the standard stuff around the house.

The last time I can think of that we spent any real time out just relaxing was the day we had lunch with Jeremiah to wish him well before he moved and that was at the end of January.

I’ve been that busy.  We both have been, really.  To give you an idea of the level of insanity, K’s parents live just down the road and we almost never get a chance to see them.

I haven’t really even had much of a chance to go out and wander around snapping photos (hey, it relaxes me).  Most of the things on Flickr since the end of November have been of things in/around the house, photos of a CONDG meeting or were taken while we were running errands.

I actually posted some photos from my first digital camera earlier this month because I haven’t been able to take anything new.

One of the many downsides to being as busy as I have been is that I don’t exactly feel motivated to write anything of any real length.  I’ve been posting on twitter, but that’s about it.  Every time I’ve had an idea for a blog post, I’ve gotten bogged down with other things and then lost the inspiration to write, or, if I did write, it felt too forced to post.

There have been a number of times when we’ve decided that we should try to get someone to pay us to do a study on human hibernation, but we didn’t think anyone would go for that.  Besides which, if you consider what going to the bathroom after waking up is like, I can only imagine how bad it would be after sleeping for months on end.

Current mood - Tired (hey, it’s almost 1:30am)

Current music - Fleetwood Mac – Temporary One

Oct 31

Happy anniversary

I love you very much

Happy Birthday

I don’t mind being wrong.

A few months ago, I was gifted with a couple of free one-month subscription cards to TekPub, an online learning site. For a while, I basically ignored them because I was busy with moving, studying, playing with code, etc. I’ll even admit that the idea seemed a little silly to me – sitting watching someone else code on a recorded video.

Since they expire in a couple of months, I finally got around to trying one of them.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was wrong for ignoring them until now. It’s a good resource. In fact, at times it feels a little bit like being back in college and being walked though some of the things that I’ve been trying to get a handle on.

The videos are actually, from what I’ve seen so far, rather high quality from an educational standpoint.

I started out with the Linq videos since that was one of the many things that I’ve been trying to pick up lately. To be honest, it felt like I was writing backward, drug addled SQL statements in the beginning (using the SQL-like syntax). Add to that the fact that the method syntax made no sense to me, and it ended up being like pulling teeth.

Seeing someone use the method syntax instead of trying to muddle through it myself made it a lot more understandable. I’m not a master at it now by any stretch, but I can at least work my way through it, which is a major improvement. Mastery, after all, will come with use.

The “This is what it looks like. This is what it means. This is what it does. This is how it works, and this is what happens if we change it” approach cleared up a lot of things for me on the subject. Also made me miss a couple of my favorite profs a bit =]

That alone made it worth taking the time to register and check it out.

Now I find that I prefer the method syntax for the most part because it’s much less repetitive and, once you get used to it, fairly easy to read. It also has the advantage of being “new” to my mind, so my brain doesn’t try to look at it like SQL code and make me second guess myself.

I don’t think I’ll be picking up the $200 annual subscription just yet, but then I still have another month after this one, so that may change. I can, however, see myself picking up additional months as they have more topics that interest me.

I don’t mind being wrong as long as I can recover and learn from it.

Current mood – tired
Current music – Shades Apart – Valentine

Equal Rights

Tonight, something that I believe strongly in came out in conversation. It started with Jim Holmes tweeting regarding an article written about another developer that I follow and have chatted with in the past:

“Disagree with Women-Only anything in IT. Why put up more walls? #fail RT @RWW Women-Only Programming Classes http://rww.to/aU9kme”

I happen to agree strongly with this, and said so. One of the devs that follows me, however, was of a different opinion and tried to justify the opinion, only to be shot down not only by Jim, but by me and even by my girlfriend, Karyl.

He went through a number of arguments, trying very hard to find something, anything, that would validate his claim and basically ignored anything that was used to counter him. Some of them, and my more lengthy responses (which, naturally, would not fit on twitter) are here.

“In this instance, I can understand it. The men are the main deterrent to potential female programmers. Plus, then they can focus on the material rather than deflecting awkward advances the whole time.”

I disagree. The deterrent to potential female programmers are the potential female programmers themselves. Women are not the only people that get hit on in college or while trying to learn or work. The number of classes that I was in where female classmates were trying to get me to go out on dates with them was rather high and I still managed to do all of my work. Besides which, most of the women in my CS classes (with a few exceptions) were under the impression that anyone who spoke to them was trying to hit on them and that really wasn’t the case.

From my personal experience, the women in the other engineering disciplines tended to be more driven than the ones in CS and were a lot more fun. There were more girls that dropped out of the CS program because it wasn’t “fun” or it was “hard” than because people were hitting on them (In fact, I can’t think of any of the girls I knew in those classes that stopped doing it for that reason).

“So, you're saying you don't think women should be allowed to have male-free anything?”

Are men allowed to have men only anything? No? Then there’s your answer. I believe in Equal rights. We are not getting into this “some people are more equal than others” mindset. That is a crutch and causes people to strive less if you constantly tell them “Oh, that’s okay. You’re a [x], we’ll lower the bar for you.”

Screw that. I want a professional in *any* profession to be held to the same standards as any other professional in that profession regardless of gender, skin color, or any of the rest of it.

To which I got the response of asking me how many men I’ve known who have been raped.

Bad question. And this made me very glad he wasn’t in the same room with me. I have good impulse control, but rape is not a woman only issue and it is not something I take lightly (nor is abuse in general).

For the record, I’ve known two that I can think of. Men who are raped undergo the added stigma of nobody believing them because, of course, rape can’t happen to men. Ask Karyl about her friend who was raped and was accused of being the one who did it instead. It has literally ruined his life.

Add to this the fact that many domestic abuse shelters will not accept men (who can be, and more often than you would believe, are victims of domestic abuse) and you start to see why this is a hot button topic for me.

Rape is not funny. Rape is not something that should be used as an argument against equal rights. Rape is also not just something that happens to women. I’ve known women who have been molested and raped as well and I don’t find it funny from either end. In fact, the woman that I loved more than anything else in this world was raped so I think I have some insight into how absolutely fucking horrible it can be (no pun intended and strong language more than justified).

“I've never been in a situation where I felt uncomfortable because the group was dominated by women.”

I have. It was not really fun. I’ll tell you something else – that group of women was more openly sexist and offensive than I’ve ever seen a group of guys be around a woman.

I’m not excusing guys who try to coerce women into doing things against their will. That sort of thing is, in my opinion, inexcusable, but it is not limited to guys. It’s not excusable from anyone, male or female (and, trust me, it happens with both).

Jim, the other voice of sanity, stepped in stating that he didn’t buy the attitude that all male programmers did was make passes at female programmers (and I agree).

This prompted a rather predictable response by our new “friend”:

“I'm not saying we do. All I'm saying is that if that FEAR is keeping one woman out, and the fem-only class lets her in, its a win”

No. What is keeping that person out is their own fear, not reality. If you are uncomfortable learning around men, how will you feel when you get out into the real world and work on development teams which, nine times out of ten, contain men as well as potentially other women?

“I theorize that by becoming exceptional in their trade, the unease when dealing with men is lessened due to being capable devs”

You become exceptional through practice and work. That involves working with and around other people, including men. You do the work and learn from it. You also learn from the people around you. That’s how you get better at anything (not just software development).

“By that logic, a group of women is not capable of creating great programs?”

No, by that logic, people who are afraid and never strive are not capable of creating great things. Letting yourself be afraid of your very surroundings and letting that fear control you means that you will never do great things and, in fact, may not do anything at all.

Greatness is accomplished by carrying on in spite of your fears (or sometimes even because of them). Giving up and going home because they let the boogey men in their head control them never really got anyone anything.

Am I afraid sometimes? You better believe it. However, I do my best to work through it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I’ll tell you that it’s better than letting what *might* happen rule my life.

You’ve got to try for yourself. Nobody else is going to do it for you, and even if they did, it wouldn’t mean nearly as much to you as it would if it was your own striving that got you there. Others can, and hopefully will, help you along your way, but you have to keep striving and push yourself to find your true boundaries. Then you have to work to break those boundaries.

I went on to explain why I have some of the views that I do – the fact that I’ve known women who were great and men who sucked (and the other way around), that I’ve taught and trained with martial artists of both sexes with various skills and skill levels, that I’ve known victims of domestic violence (both male and female) and that I don’t subscribe to the mindset of “men are evil and scary and need to go away” because that cheapens everyone’s accomplishments.

“My experience is that I'm an arrogant asshole, and I understand why a woman (or man) wouldn't want to be in a class with me.”

Finally something we can agree on. However, that’s a problem with you and not a problem with all men. All men aren’t like you (and for that I’m thankful).

In all honesty, folks, I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman. I don’t even care if you’re green and furry. I believe in equal rights, but that means equal responsibilities as well. If you want to bridge the [gender, racial, whatever] gap, stop using that thing as a crutch and strive. *That’s* the way to give people positive role models. Role models are created out of overcoming adversity.

You can’t create positive role models out of people that you let have an easier time than everyone else. Greatness is taken and achieved, not given and people need to realize that. It requires striving, not going easy on someone because they’re somehow different (whether real or only perceived). That only perpetuates the “I can’t do it because…” mentality.

"Freedom is something that you need to actively acquire. It’s not something that’s given with no strings attached. To be free means to take responsibility, and to prepare yourself for what’s to come."
- Charles Beams, "Eureka Seven"

The same is true of equality. In fact, equality and freedom are often very close to one another.

Don't beg for things. Do it yourself or else you won't get anything.

Current mood: grumpy
Current music: Eve 6 – Inside Out

Customer Service FAILURE

Please pardon me. I apologize, in advance, for any and all profanities which appear in this entry. Believe me, they are well and truly deserved.

A while back, the blower on the heating and air conditioning for my car went out. As I like to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer (not to mention being able to melt the frost and ice off of my windshield), I consider getting it fixed to be of at least moderate importance. I had already tried a couple of things, but to no avail, so I was quite happy when Karyl’s father was able to diagnose the problem.

Her father is a pretty nice guy and an industrial mechanic. Thankfully, he’s also pretty good with cars, which are not exactly my strong suit. I can do a fair bit preventative maintenance and fix some problems (largely through the experience of having done them before with my own father), but a mechanic I’m not.

He even suggested a semi-local auto salvage yard where I could get the part pretty cheaply. He’d used them multiple times in the past and was generally pretty happy with the service, but hadn’t been there in a while.

Oh what a difference a little time makes.

Marshall’s Auto Parts, located in Circleville is indeed cheap. The materials cost of my part was a whopping $10. That, however, is where the happy portion of this story comes to a complete halt (at least until, I hope, we replace the heating and AC control unit so that it works properly).

The service was TERRIBLE.

They have a website where you can make sure they have the part in stock (which is kind of nice). Her father suggested I do what he had done in the past – go down, order the part, and then come back after it had been pulled. He even said we might be able to call ahead and order it before we left for there since they take credit cards.

The children at this business, however, are special and don’t like to play that way now.

I called and tried to order the part only to be informed that you have to order in person because it is “first come, first serve”. Dude, I’m offering to pay you in advance, so I *would* be first come. Take my money and give me my part.

No. And we’ve stopped pulling parts for the day. Try back next week. (It was over 2 hours until they closed for the day).

So I headed over early this afternoon, thinking that it wouldn’t be too busy in the middle of the day on a weekday. Wrong again.

Okay, most places like this are still pretty quick, so I wasn’t horribly concerned. (This is where you can openly call me an idiot. I know I did afterward.)

I finally get to order my part and get told there are 8 people in front of me, so I asked if it was alright if I left to get a couple of other things done while the part was in queue to be pulled.

No. You can’t leave. If you’re gone when we finally get to your part, and we ask if you’re there, we’ll throw your order in the trash (and he was being serious).

So, again, I offered to pay in advance, only to be refused, being told that the part had to be paid for only when it was handed to you. (Which is bullshit, but moving on)

Three hours later, they get my part. Let me repeat that. Three hours later. Three hours. *Three* HOURS later, I FINALLY get my TEN DOLLAR part for which I was not allowed to leave lest my order be tossed in the trash.

By this point I was LONG past the angry stage and, frankly (and, again, please pardon my language) I WAS PISSED OFF. Justifiably so, I think (as does Karyl's father). I was seriously ready to drag the smarmy little douche over the counter and then toss him back over, minus a few pieces (and it takes a LOT to get me to that point).

The part that takes the cake though? Toward the end of the time I had to spend there waiting for no good reason, I hear them getting phone calls about SHIPPING PARTS TO RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.

Now, tell me WHY will they do THAT, yet they won’t let me pay IN ADVANCE and then just come and pick up the part? For crying out loud, I could have (and gladly WOULD have) ordered it and had it SHIPPED if for no other reason because it would have been cheaper than *my* cost of part + gas (to mention nothing of the amount of my time that you wasted and the meteoric rise in my blood pressure).

That was the point, dear readers, at which James nearly snapped and started killing people.

In closing, let me say this – if you ever need a part, do NOT consider Marshall’s Auto Parts unless you have them SHIP it. In fact, let me just shorten that to do NOT consider Marshall's Auto Parts.

And to the power tripping douchebags at Marshall’s, you have cost me a day of my life that I will never get back and went out of your way to make that day well and truly suck for no good reason (as you did to each and every one of your other customers that I saw that day). In return, I will do everything that I reasonably can to cost you business. You’ve earned at LEAST that much.

Current mood: Angry doesn’t even cover it
Current music: Soundgarden – Loud Love

I've Moved. Can I Have a Nap Now?

I apologize for the lack of communication both on the blog and twitter the last couple of weeks. I swear that I’m not dead. I’ve just been insanely busy. A lot of things have been happening.

A couple of weeks ago, I moved to Columbus. It reminded me that I hate moving and that I have muscles I keep forgetting about.

It also reminded me how depressing it is to see the material representation of your life transformed into a small mountain of boxes with hastily scribbled notes on them like “Glasses – FRAGILE” and “Books – Computer”. It seems somehow slightly dehumanizing to see things that are important to you being just another box of stuff that you have to find space for in a cargo van.

The move itself went pretty smoothly. My cat even took it pretty well, which was a big concern for me as well as for Karyl. In fact, if you want to have a look at the cat aspects of the move, she’s been chronicling the ordeal over at her blog (link is for the first post in the series).

Now we’re just hoping that her cat calms down since the stress is causing her some health issues (or, rather, aggravating a pre-existing one). We were convinced that my cat would be the problem as far as adjustment goes, but it seems that we were wrong.

The last couple of weeks have been taken up pretty much from the time I get up in the morning until I crash at night with far too many things at once (household, professional, personal, and even just trying to figure out where the heck all of my stuff is). On the upside, all of the running around has gotten me a little more familiar with some of my more frequently visited parts of Columbus, so my GPS is spending more time in my bag than it is on the windshield.

The downside of all of the hectic running around is that I’m not really sure what day it is anymore. I actually have to look at my phone and calendar to figure out when it is and what the heck I have coming down the pipe at me right now. Thankfully, that should improve before too long as things start to get a bit saner and we get into some sort of routine that doesn’t make either of us want to run around screaming. =]

To give you an idea of how busy I’ve been, I got to take off about 3 hours one evening a week ago to unwind and play Diablo 2. It’s seriously been that hectic.

The sad thing is that, when I get the new position (which is part of the hectic day to day stuff – interviewing is easier now that I’m closer, but I feel brain fried afterward), I’m seriously considering asking to start a week later just so I can breathe and possibly catch up on sleep lol

I hope that all of you are well and that I haven’t missed anything big.

Current mood: Tired
Current music: The Pillows - Little Busters