Surplus words

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-09-05

Slava — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Flying on the jumbo airbus 380. It is definitely jumbo. #
Why do I always get confused with gate signs at Spb airport?
they have different numbers in English and Russian. http://twitpic.com/2ki5j1 #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-29

Slava — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Not sure what to expect, but installing the super sad true love story app #
RT @lennyzeltser: "Computer-side reading" = a book you read in snippets while waiting for programs to start or for the system to reboot #
Grease lightning on AMC. #faves #
today's lunch reading – http://bit.ly/aTsZlY #
The World’s Worst Traffic – By Jared Mondschein | Foreign Policy – http://goo.gl/1Hcz #
small steps: finally managed to move J. off Palm Desktop last updated in 2006. Whew. #
new work from @fridfurniture – http://t.co/V2n3E6H #

Understatement of the morning.

Slava — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:11:37 +0000

Understatement of the morning for me. Emphasis mine.

One issue that I ran into was leveraging Expeditor’s Accounts API. I wanted to use that API, but I kept getting NullPointerExceptions when processing an account update. I think the documentation could be improved a bit in this area.

via Socialize Me: Lotus Connections Notifications Plugin for Sametime.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

Slava — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 11:05:00 +0000

note to street card: egg and cheese w/ salt, pepper, ketchup is not nearly as good without salt, pepper or ketchup #
"Super Sad True Love Story" is truly sad. #
trying out @zemanta plugin for wordpress. Wish there was one for #LC – enterprise market could certainly use something like that. #
RT @nickgiglia: Love this quote: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."- T. Edison. #
argh. with no amazon prime I must now wait until I need *2* books before shipping them. Oh the humanity! #

Study shows pay discrimination makes sense

Slava — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:05:52 +0000

Just kidding. But what a great headline, eh?

Men in relationships with women who made about 75 percent of the men’s income were the least likely to cheat, said the study, which was released at the American Sociological Association’s 105th annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

via Men more likely to cheat on women with bigger paychecks, study says – CNN.com.

Seems to me that this is a pretty flimsy finding. Men are more likely to cheat if they make a lot more or a lot less money, and only “less likely” to cheat otherwise. So overall – pretty much cheating all the way.

On the other hand, these are results of examining,

married and cohabitating people between the ages of 18 and 28, who were in the relationship for more than a year. The study uses data from the 2002 through 2007 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

So how much can we trust findings about children in a particular generation to hold across 28-34 and other age bands?

Room Planning with Autodesk Homestyle

Slava — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:20:44 +0000

Longer post to follow, but initial playing with Autodesk Homestyle beta led to this picture:

that acts as a validation of my inept measurement — stuff mostly fits. Of course, it fits even better since we only have the TV and the couch right now. Art, vases – are a nice touch in the software that takes modeling a step (or 10) beyond what you can buy in Staples. Its catalog of “real” items provided in 3D by manufacturers is the real draw. It is high time these were available – ideally not just for proprietary software solutions. The 3D model is accessible here

Prior to Autodesk I was using Google Sketchup which is great – if you have a LOT of time to get good at it. I got the link and idea of using Homestyler from the DYI Stackexchange site.

Job Description – Wish I was qualified

Slava — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:02:01 +0000

This came my way, and I just like the scale of it. Scale of computer systems has truly changed over the last decade, and I imagine this is one of the job that brings SkyNet a little closer to being… :)

Database Architect will be responsible for evaluating the architecture of the Air Force Weather Weapon System with respect to minimizing data access times, expanding data storage from the Terabyte range to the Petabyte range, ensuring high availability (>99%) while minimizing overall cost.

Optimum database design is required to enable operational forecasters in functional and regional forecast centers worldwide to acquire and process both sensed and gridded forecast information from deterministic and ensemble prediction systems and create a forecaster modified layer for specific weather parameters in near real time.

New database architecture must also enable rapid and high-volume web-based hosting, collection, and dissemination of data subsets and post-processed files that include gridded data, text, and common visualization formats as well as KML (Google Earth)-compatible files. Database architect must be experienced with standard data sharing practices such as Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and SOAP based approaches.

I like the bit about keeping the costs down too – it is high time architects took business and finance objectives as requirements – not bureaucratic obstacles.

Posters, passions, and honing your skills

Slava — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:18:04 +0000

Experimenting on customers on customer projects is rarely fun and almost never good. Experimenting for a good cause, and then using these skills for your customers – perfect.

It sounds great, sort of. First, push the customer to adopt the latest and greatest, and figure out exactly how to operate that sharp, spinning, cut-to-the-bone blade of innovation without gloves and safety glasses during implementation. Second, learn your lessons on their dollars, deliver a half-broken system that sparked a thousand promises, and work hard to get a second contract to fix the problems from the first round. [If this situation sounds familiar - maybe you need to find a different partner for services]

Of course, there are other ways. Like doing good and fun things to learn and become better at something (it helps if you are passionate about your work). This is where the ‘Poster’ comes in.

A couple of good friends run a pretty awesome [IMHO] design studio in Brooklyn called Hyperakt. One of the things I really like about them is that in addition to their paid work they also do pro-bono work for various causes, and some just plain fun stuff. A radial bracket World Cup Poster is one such project.

The poster is nifty. I like how it is dynamic – taking its final shape over the weeks of the World Cup tournament. I also like that this is a project hosted on KickStarter , gets socialized on twitter, and helps Hyperakt to better understand how to do such things for their customers, without experimenting using other people’s time and money.

What can I say? Let’s watch some futbol!

Good riddance daily twitter updates

Slava — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:02:42 +0000

I have been going back and forth on pushing twitter updates to this site. I removed them for a while, but recently added them back in – right before stopping them again. While I liked having daily updates to this blog, they were clearly not useful to anyone.

I was flattered, of course, that my daily updates actually became an example of what not to do in a couple of blogs. All the more reason not to do them.

//TODO: Find a twitter archival service

Lotus Mashups – Working and Learning

Slava — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:36:19 +0000

I have had discussions with the [awesome] Lotus Mashups team for a long time. It seems like a product that has lots of uses, and one whose architecture I really like. Recently, I needed to build some demos for a customer, and while that is not going to be published for a while, if ever, this simple demo was kind of fun to try.

This one is very simple, a google doc spreadsheet parsed in using a DataViewer widget sending data to a NavTeq widget.

IBM’s Lotus Greenhouse is really great for trying these things, BTW, and the team’s YouTube channel ItsMashtastic is great for an idea or an example.

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-26

Slava — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

youtube channels for products are always great, when they have good content. Lotus Mashups do. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-25

Slava — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

seriously Penn. I cannot remember my PennKey, and this should somehow disqualify me from donating money over the web? #upenn #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-24

Slava — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Gemini is looking for a f/t senior technical recruiter. Email with recommendations. #
No longer homeless. In hock to bank now. Vivat capitalism. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-22

Slava — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

It took a decade for XSD and WS-* to raise and fall, but it will take 2*decade to undo the damage they did to the mind. (via @sallamar) yes! #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-20

Slava — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Toy story 3 – not a dry eye and applause when over. First time I've seen that at movies. #awesome #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-18

Slava — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

bad sign? when your mortgage banker calls you in Russia to double-check your credit history. Luckily – nothing new there. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-16

Slava — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

You know you are in Moscow when ride from airport takes far longer than the actual flight. #
tech star – that's what I want to be when I grow up – http://youtu.be/Xed8eVUvm_E #
big news from IBM – buing Coremetrics. http://bit.ly/c43XXd #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-15

Slava — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

loving skype when I am away from home. Spoke to kids, parents – good night to all. #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-13

Slava — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

and an even bigger one today… RT @mgualtieri: … Reminded how amazing the engineering feat it was to put a man on the moon 40 years ago #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-12

Slava — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Really?! Can't book a flight because Finnair does not recognize my phone format, yet provides no help on what it should look like. #ux #fail #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-11

Slava — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

loved this — NIKE FOOTBALL WRITE THE FUTURE – FULL LENGTH VERSION http://youtu.be/idLG6jh23yE #

Twitter Updates for 2010-06-10

Slava — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:05:00 +0000

RT @arkady_n: Shallow DOF, framing, tilt, creamy bokeh, all comes together for an excellent portrait : http://nyti.ms/c9fTPE #photography #
remembered that tinyeye can search for images by URL and see if other sites on the web link to it. http://www.tineye.com/ #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-27

Slava — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

great presentation RT @fredwilson: I am showcasing a couple things i read today and liked Digital Strangelove http://bit.ly/Ks6V0 #
spot-checking new production release. the toil and trouble of daily routine… #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-22

Slava — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

I do not understand Friedman’s references to untouchables in his op-ed – http://bit.ly/1wNHrD. Wikipedia doesn’t help – http://bit.ly/4JPga #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-21

Slava — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

$2.49/mo for Slate on Kindle. Is that because there are no ads on Kindle or because of bandwidth costs? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-20

Slava — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

after days of being remote and VPN, it is nice to be on a LAN and have things load quickly for internal resources. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-17

Slava — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

playing with new IBM Portal beta on Amazon EC2 #
only $20 difference between US Only and US+International coverage for kindle – http://bit.ly/1VEprc, seems like a good deal for travelers #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-16

Slava — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

downloading conference materials… hopefully every session is in there! #pec09 #
ok… google wave is a bit buggy so far :) #
one of my favorite columns, because nothing in law-land is as simple as it looks – http://bit.ly/4s7uiJ #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-15

Slava — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

watching a demo of Portal theme “ExtremeBlue” written entirely in Flex, using JS and REST services for portal data. very cool!!! #pec09 #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-14

Slava — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

cloud services – great presentation so far. and a full room. heard animoto story before, but it never stops to amaze. #pec09 #
new new thing for demos – do not bother with VMWare – just host it on amazon. #pec09 #
Why don’t status messages just expire after 12 hours? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-13

Slava — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

anyone organizing tweetups at #pec09 ? #
great line, “[sametime/uc2] designed to help eliminate human latency” very good point #pec09 #
people are building *really* cool sametime plugins. bluetooth + radio location services for sametime. #pec09 #
WCM portlets also supposed seedlist 1.0 – awesome. #pec09 #
theme development for 6.1.5 is finally what it should be — simple and powerful. #pec09 #
definitely drinking the cool-aid. Client-side analytics microformat FTW! #pec09 #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-12

Slava — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Mildly disturbing & accusatory posters at LaGuardia. “Lotus knows who will miss you.” & how to reach me? http://pic.gd/9f386f #
Very impressed with iphone photoshop mobile app. #
If you attend a conference, but it does not have a real #tag, did it really happen? #
IBM, Coke, and Microsoft are top brands worldwide? Really? Should we be more concerned about the world… #
More stalker sppech from lotus, “lotus knows… Reach them where they live and work” seriously??? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-10

Slava — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

ant-trust violation for mainframes? http://bit.ly/boHWx #
pretty interesting stackexchange site for just “users” – http://bit.ly/mW4ly #
heh. finally registred for Portal Conference a day before actually flying out to it. Now for those #ls10 abstracts… #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-09

Slava — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

RT @fredwilson: OH at #usvsummit “we tried charging for our api without much succes, then we paid developers to use it and it took off” #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-08

Slava — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Thinking of teamwork and marketing on the way home from the Yankees game after a customer event. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-07

Slava — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

of all airlines, only Delta has e-tickets that are classified as spam by gmail… #ls10 #
Sounds silly, but cannot wait for Spolsky/fogcreek announcements from their dev days. Are they on their way to ecosystem like 37Signals are? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-06

Slava — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

considering going to see http://bit.ly/WtHva – Serizawa:Master of Japanese Textile Design #
so I got to do #Lotusphere abstracts, but is there really a point? I *never* get in #ls10 #

Twitter Updates for 2009-10-02

Slava — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:59:59 +0000

proposed onion headline… “local teacher from elite university confused by two welcome emails” #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-26

Slava — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Last leg of the trip. AMS to JFK. Airlines must be making a mint – every flight I’ve been was full. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-25

Slava — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

What’s the difference between getting on a plane and missing your oversold flight? American passport, apparently, really helps. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-24

Slava — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

if you are a 3 days late on a 3-week iteration, is not that a 20% overrun? Or just 3 days late and it is not a big deal? #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-23

Slava — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Listening a customer talk about our solution at an IBM forum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Always fun. http://myloc.me/J3KG #
Didn’t realize they had 100 people just uploading content into WCM all day long. #
just bought skype credit for calling into conf calls while away. will see how well it works… #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-22

Slava — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

At breakfast. Place called elki-palki. http://pic.gd/994e00 #
really, really using up those 24 hours of internet access (RUB 900 at the hotel, free across the street) #
inbox zero? not really, but getting better. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-21

Slava — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Transferring at Paris CDG. Why would a french airport have no sit-down full service restaurant? #
Back in ussr. Broken escalators and a huge line to enter. Par for the course, that. Just hope 05.11.09 on my visa is nov 5, and not may 11. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-18

Slava — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

a bit excessive? .”wearing fine gloves collect the sole pekoe…with golden scissors…. At no moment do the hands …touch these leaves…” #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-17

Slava — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

today is quickly shaping up to be a ‘what’s wrong with DB2 now” day. 3 different problems in 3 different environments on the same day. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-11

Slava — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

heh. me like! RT @KathySierra: The FizzBin Secret Tech Support Handshake? I Want To Believe. http://tr.im/yjfg (thx @Wolfbyte @sajidnizami) #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-10

Slava — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

Dropping kids off at school. First time to first grade. freaky… #
just having major problems lately working with Windows and some websites. They are clearly designed for some strange breed of people. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-09

Slava — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

external drives making unhappy noises. I think it is time I bought new ones.. #

Twitter Updates for 2009-09-05

Slava — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:59:59 +0000

RT @debedb: … biographies of the First Family’s pets: http://bit.ly/FAKQO, and then, “Where did Vice President Cheney meet his wife?” #
Weirdly excited about stackoverflow becoming a platform (http://stackexchange.com/). Now to mash it with uservoice/getsatisfaction… #
ha! cheaper to print, store AND ship a book then to send a few bits over the wire? http://bit.ly/2OgzTs #