Well I needed to buy some new tire for one of my cars this morning.
So I went over to one of my local tire places and got a new set of tires. All said and done they were over $700! There has to be some serious mark-up somewhere in this process. Now I understand that there are now environmental costs associated with the Tire business (recycling fees and the like), but still that seems like a lot of money.
They say these are supposedly good tires (their own brand) and they do have a good reputation and warranty service, so we shall see.
Have a great day.
Enjoy
Friday, March 23, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
femoore.myopenid.com
I found something interesting today...
I have been toying with an application that would allow for DVD/Music - Media sharing between friends. Not file sharing, but the loaning of the physical media to friends you trust to return it.
Anyway... I have been thinking that there should be an easier way to manage user identifies. Specifically, I don' t want the legal hassles of maintaining the personal infomation of a number of users in yet another login/user database. That is why when I found OpenId I thought I found the holy grail!
I haven't had the time really look at the interface specification or the libraries provided to access the user information, but on initial look it seems pretty good. We shall see.
Having all this person infomation floating around the internet is just an invitation to identity theft. I am hoping that a service like the above will succeed, if only to let developers focus on the unique value and not on replicated functionality like identity management.
Enjoy.
I have been toying with an application that would allow for DVD/Music - Media sharing between friends. Not file sharing, but the loaning of the physical media to friends you trust to return it.
Anyway... I have been thinking that there should be an easier way to manage user identifies. Specifically, I don' t want the legal hassles of maintaining the personal infomation of a number of users in yet another login/user database. That is why when I found OpenId I thought I found the holy grail!
I haven't had the time really look at the interface specification or the libraries provided to access the user information, but on initial look it seems pretty good. We shall see.
Having all this person infomation floating around the internet is just an invitation to identity theft. I am hoping that a service like the above will succeed, if only to let developers focus on the unique value and not on replicated functionality like identity management.
Enjoy.
Friday, March 09, 2007
My wife is away...
Well my wife is gone to here womans retreat for the weekend. She does this about once a year and I get to spend the weekend being Mr Mom. It wouldn't be too bad, but with my son's weekend class at OSU tomorrow and church on Sunday, I don't get to sleep in at all.
She will bw home Sunday afternoon and hopefully I can keep the house in order.
Enjoy the weekend.
She will bw home Sunday afternoon and hopefully I can keep the house in order.
Enjoy the weekend.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Mothership
I just finished reading a great science fiction book: Mothership by Tony Chandler.
I really liked this book. I was looking one day for a good e-book I could load into my IPAQ and found this one on fictionwise.com. It was stated to be more of an teen novel and not really that great (according to some reviews on amazon.com). However, I liked the premise and the sample chapter that I read, so I bought the book.
Now I don't recall if I looked at the page count when I started the book or not, but for an e-book then is a fairly large book for me. It was over 2000 pages on the small screen of my IPAQ and even over 400 pages on my PC's screen. This is larger than any other e-book I have read.
It turned out to be a great simple read. No real deep thoughts or strange plot twists. A really simple plot (some have written it is too simplistic) that I found captivating. While others mentioned the transparency of the characters (no real depth) I found the characters enchanting and could empathize with their plight early on. I was caught up in the story and needed to finish it.
I would recommend this book. Don't expect too much, just enjoy the story.
Enjoy.
Spring Irony
Seems kind of ironic that here ir is March and I have only now thought about having my chain adapter installed on my car.
To be specific my vehicle is a 2003 Saturn Vue and need a special set of chains (they are called 'Spiders'). They attach to the wheel via a metal plate that is mounted to the wheel lugs and the chains snap and lock into these adapters and circle the wheel like your hand would grab a hockey puck around its perimeter.
Now we don't see snow really around here (a few flakes and some small storms), just not enough to justify the use of the chains. We have them to use in case we want to drive over the mountains during the winter months. This weekend my wife is going to a conference over on the Oregon coast (Cannon Beach) and will been to travel over the coast range. The weather reports are predicting rain and it could turn to ice/snow easily. Wo to play it safe I am running out today and getting the adapters installer on the Vue. She will probably not need them, but it is cheap insurance.
The really ironic part of the whole thing is that we moved out here from Colorado! We actually purchased the Vue from a dealer in Fort Collins when we were living out there. We never used chains and actually didn't even own then until we moved here. Now the State Patrol is really strict out here with regards to the chain law, so we went ahead and got the chains. Just seems ironic that we lived for over 15 years in Colorado and never used chains, and have been here in Oregon only 4 years and now have chains for both vehicles and have actually used them.
Just a little bit ironic.
Enjoy.
To be specific my vehicle is a 2003 Saturn Vue and need a special set of chains (they are called 'Spiders'). They attach to the wheel via a metal plate that is mounted to the wheel lugs and the chains snap and lock into these adapters and circle the wheel like your hand would grab a hockey puck around its perimeter.
Now we don't see snow really around here (a few flakes and some small storms), just not enough to justify the use of the chains. We have them to use in case we want to drive over the mountains during the winter months. This weekend my wife is going to a conference over on the Oregon coast (Cannon Beach) and will been to travel over the coast range. The weather reports are predicting rain and it could turn to ice/snow easily. Wo to play it safe I am running out today and getting the adapters installer on the Vue. She will probably not need them, but it is cheap insurance.
The really ironic part of the whole thing is that we moved out here from Colorado! We actually purchased the Vue from a dealer in Fort Collins when we were living out there. We never used chains and actually didn't even own then until we moved here. Now the State Patrol is really strict out here with regards to the chain law, so we went ahead and got the chains. Just seems ironic that we lived for over 15 years in Colorado and never used chains, and have been here in Oregon only 4 years and now have chains for both vehicles and have actually used them.
Just a little bit ironic.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
NIH to the max!
Man do I hate the old Not invented here syndrome (NIH).
If you knew me you would know that there are only a few things that really get under my skin. The big one is patronizing me. This NIH stuff reaks of the patronizing. It makes you think that you don't know what you are saying and and demeans your authority.
A simple coorolary to NIH is the adage "well why should we change? The old was isn't broken so why fix it?". I HATE THIS!
I have wasted too much time in the last few years of my professional career trying to explain why people should change their older (and in more than just my opinion) broken methodologies, to adopt more standard industry trends and tools. When we think we have made a decision and are moving forward, a month later the conversation will come up again and we have to spend more time justifying our previous answer.
So how do you fix this? I really don't know short of eliminating all of the old guard when the new group comes in and then start from a fresh slate. In government that works, but in industry it is a little more difficult. Especially is you value your people beyond simple existance as resources. So you have to tread lightly, try not to make too many people mad, and take small victories where you gain them.
In life as in business I am learning a lot regarding management, even though I'm not a manager.
Enjoy.
If you knew me you would know that there are only a few things that really get under my skin. The big one is patronizing me. This NIH stuff reaks of the patronizing. It makes you think that you don't know what you are saying and and demeans your authority.
A simple coorolary to NIH is the adage "well why should we change? The old was isn't broken so why fix it?". I HATE THIS!
I have wasted too much time in the last few years of my professional career trying to explain why people should change their older (and in more than just my opinion) broken methodologies, to adopt more standard industry trends and tools. When we think we have made a decision and are moving forward, a month later the conversation will come up again and we have to spend more time justifying our previous answer.
So how do you fix this? I really don't know short of eliminating all of the old guard when the new group comes in and then start from a fresh slate. In government that works, but in industry it is a little more difficult. Especially is you value your people beyond simple existance as resources. So you have to tread lightly, try not to make too many people mad, and take small victories where you gain them.
In life as in business I am learning a lot regarding management, even though I'm not a manager.
Enjoy.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Memories (part 2)
Interesting...
After my post on Friday regarding the differing value of education and experience (beyond the Undergrad level and mainly directed at work in industry not research), I had a couple of conversations with some friends on the subject. And they agree with me. I will slightly adjust some of my ideas though.
With regard to Graduate education. There are valid reasons for the added education. In some industries the competition for jobs is fierce. In order to make yourself stand apart from the rest, the advanced degree can help you out (like I mentioned in my previous article). However, if you are looking toward any type of teaching, at any level, then you should pursue at least a Masters degree.
A few years back I was looking to change careers. Not exactly by choice, but it was a good excuse to look. I ended up back in the same industry, but I was looking. One position I was interested in was a teacher of Math and Computer Science at the Junior college level. I have over 15 years experience in the field and a good command of the subject. However, since I didn't have a Master Degree I was out of luck. Learn more every day.
However, I do stand by my original thoughts. An advanced education just as a way to earn more money is not effective. If you are doing it to position yourself for a particular job's requirements that is different.
Have a great week.
Enjoy.
After my post on Friday regarding the differing value of education and experience (beyond the Undergrad level and mainly directed at work in industry not research), I had a couple of conversations with some friends on the subject. And they agree with me. I will slightly adjust some of my ideas though.
With regard to Graduate education. There are valid reasons for the added education. In some industries the competition for jobs is fierce. In order to make yourself stand apart from the rest, the advanced degree can help you out (like I mentioned in my previous article). However, if you are looking toward any type of teaching, at any level, then you should pursue at least a Masters degree.
A few years back I was looking to change careers. Not exactly by choice, but it was a good excuse to look. I ended up back in the same industry, but I was looking. One position I was interested in was a teacher of Math and Computer Science at the Junior college level. I have over 15 years experience in the field and a good command of the subject. However, since I didn't have a Master Degree I was out of luck. Learn more every day.
However, I do stand by my original thoughts. An advanced education just as a way to earn more money is not effective. If you are doing it to position yourself for a particular job's requirements that is different.
Have a great week.
Enjoy.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Memories
It really shows that experiece is must more valuabe then education. Now there have been some studies that show for people early in their careers an advanced degree is valuable. However, later in life the value of experiece wins out as the memories and lessons learned from earlier come to bear.
Today was just that kind of issue. Now I have been working for this same company for quite awhile. While many people, including a number of external employment adviser, say this can be a problem (too much baggage), I don't entirely agree. You learn how an organization works and have professional associations. Today we needed some information for a new project and I told my collegue that I knew some people from where I used to work in the company that could help out (memories). I called the person and after a short conversation I found the information that we needed.
Now while this 'baggage' means that I still have a number of freudian slips, calling here there and the like. It also means I have been through a lot as well.
Never underestimate the power of memory and experience!
Have a great day.
Enjoy.
Today was just that kind of issue. Now I have been working for this same company for quite awhile. While many people, including a number of external employment adviser, say this can be a problem (too much baggage), I don't entirely agree. You learn how an organization works and have professional associations. Today we needed some information for a new project and I told my collegue that I knew some people from where I used to work in the company that could help out (memories). I called the person and after a short conversation I found the information that we needed.
Now while this 'baggage' means that I still have a number of freudian slips, calling here there and the like. It also means I have been through a lot as well.
Never underestimate the power of memory and experience!
Have a great day.
Enjoy.
Smoke and Mirrors...
Well it was dust and not smoke, but the title sounded better.
Last night I spent most of the evening working to install an equipment rack for some sound equipment at my church. Now the rack was about 1/8" too tall and so I needed to carefully 'modify' the edge on the counter where we have our equipment so that it would fit...
No dire consequences here. Everything worked as planned and I was able to sand the small amount off the bottom of the counter with my hand-held grinder (a dremel tool specifically). The only issue was the sheer volume of fine dust liberated in the process. A major pain. If I don't end up with a case of lung cancer from all the dust I will be surprised.
Anyway...
Enjoy.
Last night I spent most of the evening working to install an equipment rack for some sound equipment at my church. Now the rack was about 1/8" too tall and so I needed to carefully 'modify' the edge on the counter where we have our equipment so that it would fit...
No dire consequences here. Everything worked as planned and I was able to sand the small amount off the bottom of the counter with my hand-held grinder (a dremel tool specifically). The only issue was the sheer volume of fine dust liberated in the process. A major pain. If I don't end up with a case of lung cancer from all the dust I will be surprised.
Anyway...
Enjoy.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Is a blog just random gripes?
I was talking with some friends/co-workers during lunch the other day. A one point in the conversation the question came up regarding blogs.
Now my boss to the forth power, has an idea that the only way our organization can survive is by embracing web2.0 technologies. In the spirit of this he personally has started up a blog. I have read it, along with a number of the comments that were posted by us underlings, and it seems reasonable. If they can gleem any new genuine ideas from the comments then is will be worth the effort. As well it has been said that the management is too far apart from the people doing and having a way to get to a directors ear is probably a good thing.
It seems the while people view email in a similar way to voice communication, it is personal, they don't view blog posts in the same way. The same people who would never talk in public, or send a personal email to a manager, seem to be extremely free to post replies on a blog. Possibly this is a 'new' thing and will change as people get more comfortable with the medium. It is an interesting effect.
Enjoy.
Now my boss to the forth power, has an idea that the only way our organization can survive is by embracing web2.0 technologies. In the spirit of this he personally has started up a blog. I have read it, along with a number of the comments that were posted by us underlings, and it seems reasonable. If they can gleem any new genuine ideas from the comments then is will be worth the effort. As well it has been said that the management is too far apart from the people doing and having a way to get to a directors ear is probably a good thing.
It seems the while people view email in a similar way to voice communication, it is personal, they don't view blog posts in the same way. The same people who would never talk in public, or send a personal email to a manager, seem to be extremely free to post replies on a blog. Possibly this is a 'new' thing and will change as people get more comfortable with the medium. It is an interesting effect.
Enjoy.
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