Harry's Ruminations

New England Vacation Album Yeah, lots of pics of hotels and airplanes, I know...

Quick hits on a few things: * Quote of the Day: "We have two speeds of development: Fast, and Scalded Dog. Which is appropriate here" (no, that was NOT LXK ;-) ) * It's a fabulous day outside, if you're a duck. And, it's supposed to snow tonight. What month is this, again? * Thanksgiving: Looks like we're doing the Combs/Brentzel shuffle again this year. Thursday at the Combs family. Friday at the Brentzel clan. Looks to be a quiet week--lots of folks out, fewer meetings and distractions.

Haven't snoped this yet, but this seems a bit troubling. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up in case you tend to give gift cards around the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though they will be worthless as of January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is actually referred to as "Bankruptcy  Planning." below is a partial list of stores you should be cautious about.   Circuit City (filed chapter 11) Ann Taylor - 117 stores closing nationwide Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, and Catherine's - 150 stores closing nationwide Eddie Bauer to clothes 27 stores + after January Cache will close all stores Talbots closing down specialty stores J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots) Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots) GAP closing 85 stores nationwide Footlocker closing 140 stores + after January Wikes Furniture closing all stores Levits closing all remai...

Adobe Max 2008

Well, my abbreviated trip (Sunday->Wednesday instead of Saturday->Thursday) comes to an end today. Some highlights: - I saw a guy in a kilt & cod-piece yesterday. Yes, he looked alot like Henry VIII, jowls and all. - Had a nice dinner with Mark at Sam's Seafood Grille. Pretty good, overall. - The breeze shifted to a sea-breeze yesterday, and the temps plummeted. Imagine it being 72 and warm in the morning and 50, damp, and chilly by the end of the day. Lots of folks in shorts & t-shirts weren't happy. Not looking forward to that 7 hours on a plane...

Notes writeup: --------------------- "Top Performing Mobile Applications" Panel: - Allesandro Pace - Darren Osadchuck - Dale Rankin -> Moket - Scott Janousek Alessandro (BORING) 1) Keep UI simple 2) Keep memory below 70% 3) Use name/value pairs in lieu of XML where possible 4) XMLSocket where possible Daren (very low-key and monotone but obviously competent): 1) Optimize loops 2) Prefer the deprecated function calls ( in lieu of Math.* ) functions 3) Remap your keypad 4) Record Keystrokes on CS4 using Device Central's device set Scott (seemed nervous): 1) Demote on-device testing--Nokia RDA or www.deviceanywhere.com 2) Device Profiling -- use FPSMonitor or ASProf Component 3) Work with data informats that make sense--loadVars, SWX, 4) Buy my book (pfft!) Dale Narnkie (natural speaker/entrepreneur): Summary: Here's how to monetize and be successful. "Developer/Designer Deep Dive" Summary: "Developers and Designers are differe...

Turns out, it's The Tenderloin Savory, and only a few blocks from here. I particularly liked the stuff about it being resistant to gentrification...

8:47am -- Moscone center, West Well, public WiFi seems to be a pipedream. I sit here on the 3rd floor...it's wall-to-wall people, seems like a mix of folks--guys in french blue business shirts, Bohemian guys with messenger bags, and lots of fat guys with ponytails. Male to female ratio: 5:1. Better than I expected, but we'll see how things turn out in my sessions. Somehow my Adobe Login got hosed, and I can't log-in to my account on Adobe.com to change it (again, no WiFi out here) I feel vaguely sore and overful--scarfed roughly 2000 calories during the continental breakfast. Again, the "don't know a soul" factor is bizarre. Maybe that'll get better once I get into some sessions this afternoon. I'm listening to this guy beside me (whose voice reminds me of Paul Upton) go on about SF (San Francisco), talking about how it's past the "TL"...I have no frickin' idea what "TL" is...perhaps it's some line past which you don...

Ah, Bond is back ! Whitney and I watched this at the Stoneybrook Cinemas de Lux (in assigned seats no less!) last night. Some thoughts: * I now have epilepsy from watching 27 cuts per seconds during each action scene * Like the other good Bond , Daniel Craig is going bald. * The "Bond Girl" is awesome . * The homage to Goldfinger (dead girl, prone on the bed) * Judi Dench reprises as M, and she's fabulous. If you watched "Casino Royale" and wondered at its lack of falling action, wonder no more...the whole of "Quantum of Solace" is falling action. Bond is out for revenge, seeking to uncover the organization Le Chiffre was financing. He doesn't *quite* do it, but then again, if Dr. No hadn't been so helpful, Connery and crew would've sat on S.P.E.C.T.R.E. for a few films. At least in this installment, Bond uncovers a few more bigs inside "Quantum" (whatever that is...). It's a good film, action-packed, and full of Bond-isms....

9:15 am Nervous. I'm nervous...I get chatty when I'm nervous, but I don't have anyone to talk to. I'm in seat 46A, which is the last window seat, port side of the plane. At the moment, I don't have anyone to talk with. The 767 I'm on is NICE. Seems very much like the one I flew on to Zurich, Switzerland 3 years ago. Minus the smelly Eurotrash, of course. * * * Never seen so many laptops in a terminal before. These are Adobe MAX folks, all herding out to 'Frisco. Guy from an ad agency closed-down his whole shop for a week...funny though, a sycophant guy w/o a job (he's "freelance") sat down in the terminal and chatted him up. The guy wouldn't take the hint to leave, and was still yammering away as I boarded. So, for now, no one in the seat beside me 9:40 "we have a mismatch on how much cargo weight we have, but don't worry, this is a Good Plane we're on. We've requested about 2000lbs more fuel..that'll take some...

Off to Adobe Max 2008, I guess. Left Whitney asleep (or, groggy, at least) at the Airport Courtyard by Mariott. Flight from Louisville was cramped and cold on an MD-88 that sounded like a cuisinart from takeoff to landing. Glad Whitney wasn't there...wasn't quite so bad as the Embraer we suffered on from Philly to SDF, but bad enough. The Transcontinental leg has me on a767, seat 46A. I can't seem to get free WiFi at either airport; guess those innocent, available days are long gone...perhaps at Frisco. Can't say I was looking forward to VPN'ing into work, anyway. That can wait until Frisco. I've been very keyed-up about this trip, mostly in the negative--I feel out of place. This is a conference for designers and managers, not hardcore coders. That's the other thing...sitting here, I'm NOT A HARDCORE FLASH/ActionScript coder. I'm an expatriated Java Network Server-side coder, who did some time in Win32-land. For the last 3 months, I've ...

TV Cancellations thrill me. Stinker shows go circling the drain, and we all get to cheer. First big one to go: My Own Worst Enemy . Terrible show, poorly executed--just painful to watch, really. Sad thing is, most things on network TV these days aren't that much better . Grey's Anatomy jumped the shark years ago, as has every single reality show. Overall, TV's just ceasing to exist for me--I like House , though its formulaic nature and current shark sighting (House and Cuddy?! Hello Moonlighting !)

linky Banks helping out borrowers... ...dogs and cats living together. Mass Hysteria!

:-) NANO!!!! Every time I hear Paradise City , I'm apexing a curve in my old SE-R, Goodyears howling, somewhere just south of 6800 rpm in 2nd gear. The moonroof's back, it's 85 degrees outside as the sun sets in the West, and I'm headed to Louisville to see Whitney. Speed limit be damned, that car loved to MOOVE.

link Cerberus should acknowledge the financial reality and either file a Chapter 11 case for Chrysler or have a federal receiver appointed so that the value of the Chrysler assets can be maximized in an orderly sale procedure. Obligatory snarky comment: "Where's the *reality* in finance, buddy?!"

I drove home last night and plopped on the couch around sunset. I mumbled something to Whitney about not wanting to go to church, so she grabbed the kids and went. Then I went to bed around 6:00. I got up around 6:15 this morning. I'm still exhausted and this cold just won't leave me alone.

Wanted to snapshot this so I remember it when Maria's 30, has kids of her own, and they keep her up all night. So, Whitney and I watched Mr. Holland's Opus , then tuned-in the election coverage at 10:20 pm to get some returns (at the time Obama only had 200+ of the 270 needed). Maria was a bit fussy, but fell back to sleep around the same time. Then, the fun began. By 11:30, she was up, and Whitney went in to console her. I fell back into a cold-meds-induced stupor until she came back to bed at 12:45. Against wise counsel, I went in myself to console Re-Re. She seemed to respond well, and I rocked her to quiescence, and put her back to sleep. Whitney was not happy: "Okay, YOU get to get up with her the 6 more times she gets up tonight." Pfft , I thought. I've got this covered...she'll sleep through the night now because I'm AWESOME SUPER DADDY! Yeah...'bout that... So, that was 1. By 1:10 she was back up, screaming. I finally came around to Whi...

Two decent things came out of last night: 1. McConnell's still our Senator. Yay, Kentucky! 2. There's not a Democrat supermajority in the Senate. At least there's a *little* checks-and-balances remaining :-) * * * Congrats to John McCain on a solid campaign.

Well, today's the day. Either way it goes, we make history--the first African-American president, or the first female vice-president. Whitney got up and voted a little after 6, and faced a long line at our polling station. I went a little after 7; while there were lots of folks, I was done in 10 minutes. Everyone was chatty and "up"--we know this is a big deal today. I guess that ever-present barrage of advertising (particularly in the vitriolic McConnell/Lunsford Senate race) is good for something! Predictions: * Mitch is toast. The $700 Billion bailout killed him. History will show it to be the correct move, but Kentuckians disapprove of Republicans who make tough calls . Ironically, it's probably the move *I* respect him for the most. * Landslide victory for Obama, close to the 1984 Reagan landslide. * Absent his benefactor McConnell, David Williams, president of the KY state senate, is deposed in a palace coup come January. * The second coming of the Carter...