razmaspaz

I’ve started biking to work.  Its about a 20 mile round trip, and I must say it hurts.  I’m really excited, because it is almost certainly a fast track to getting in shape.  2 hours on a bike every day tends to have that effect on people.  That being said, it really is exhausting.  I hope my body catches up soon, because this is gonna get old quick.

All of this is in preparation for this summer’s climb up Long’s Peak.  I’m pretty sure I can handle a 10 mile hike in a day, but doing it with a pack at 10-12k feet, is gonna be interesting.  Hopefully the biking I’m doing now will make it a little easier to take those final few steps up the mountain.

This weekend is my TU chapter’s annual trip to Southwest Wisconsin.  Its a trip guaranteed to have good conversation, good beer, and good food.  On top of that it takes place at one of the coolest hotels on the face of the earth.  The Eagle Creek Inn in Fennimore.  I’m getting excited, giddy almost.  The weather is widely rumored to suck this weekend, and the persistent rain may very well ruin the fishing for the week, but I don’t care.

It may be cold, it may be rainy, but today nothing can dampen my spirits, because the day holds the prospect of the tug of a trout on the end of a fly line, all is right with the world.

I’m planning a menu for a backpacking trip I’ll be taking in a couple weeks.  In preparation I’ve been pouring over old issues of Backpacker looking for meals.  During the course of my search I found a tip for cooking rice in a water bottle.  Its simple really, just follow the directions on a box of minute rice for the water to rice ratio, and boil the appropriate amount of water.  Then dump the water and rice into your water bottle.  A few minutes later you have cooked rice.

I’m sure this isn’t all that impressive to the non-backpackers among you, but for those of us who carry our lives on our backs on a regular basis, we know that every ounce counts.  This is a great way to dump those pre-packaged Uncle Ben’s rice packs, and carry the dry weight instead.  Backpacker had a recipe for Cajun Rice Fritters that is making the menu this time around.  Sounds yummy.

Every kid who has ever played a sport has dreamed of being the best player to ever play the game, with me it was no different. I ran track all through out middle and high school, and harbored dreams of one day being an Olympian. I knew then, as well as now, that those dreams were nothing more than fantasies, but it was always fun to pretend.

During the 1992 and 1996 Olympics I cultivated a true love for what is most certainly the greatest sports spectacle on Earth. Yes even more spectatular than the World Cup. The worlds nations come together and put aside their differences to compete. I have no doubt that in every corner of the world grown men are transformed into children as we stop to watch and cheer our countries with national and personal pride. Stories of personal triumph are played out on a grand stage, and they inspire the world to reach a higher plane of humanity. I am a perpetual cynic, but for a couple weeks every 4 years I put it all aside and believe that we can come together in harmony.

It is because of this childlike faith that I am saddened by protesters. If you aren’t aware human rights activists have been protesting the running of the torch, to the point that the running may be canceled. They are protesting China’s relationship with Tibet. I don’t want to say that its an unimportant issue, it is very important, but the Olympics is supposed to be above it. This is an event about sport, and the love of games and superhuman feats, not a political microphone. I would hate to find a cause like this used to justify promoting a more sinister political agenda in the future.

Because I’m a cynic, I know this plea will fall on deaf ears, but please, protesters, leave the torch alone.

I just finished reading a post by Adobe’s John Nack on the photoshop roadmap for 64 bit computing. The post outlines the plans Adobe has for 64 bit on windows and on the Mac. Let me say that if you are a Mac user you are going to be dissapointed.

Its not the Adobe roadmap I want to talk about though, its roadmaps in general. As a developer who makes decisions about what software to use and what platforms to develop on, roadmaps are important to me. I make decisions about what technologies I learn based on whether those technologies will meet my current and future needs. I absolutely need to know where a platform is going to make good decisions about my future and the future of my clients and customers.

There are 3 different styles of roadmaps that I’ve seen in the market lately. There’s the Microsoft roadmap, where most of the stuff happens in the public eye, and intentions are made known years in advance to anyone interested in knowing about them. There is the IBM roadmap, where a select few are allowed access to the roadmap under NDA. And there is the Apple roadmap where nobody knows anything and every word out of any employees mouth is dissected for hints of things to come. I think each system has its strengths and weaknesses, but there is one clear winner when it comes to consumers.

The Microsoft model works great for Microsoft. Microsoft has so many partners, vendors, and ISVs that it is impossible for them to stay in touch with their entire ecosystem. They have to communicate by press release to be sure they reach everyone. Unfortunately this style of communication leads to customer expectations that are often unrealized. Take the new file system MS was supposed to roll out as part of Longhorn, er Vista. that sounded so coo, but it never saw the light of day, as a customer I’m left feeling ripped off, and ultimately I didn’t buy into the Vista product.

The Apple style is the opposite. Keep tight lipped, don’t share a single shred of information, and let speculation run wild. Thats great for Apple, it builds excitement and keeps them from managing to a feature set. How can you be creative if you’re boxed into a roadmap? the answer for Apple is, you can’t. The downside is that none of your independent developers, vendors, or corporate customers know anything about whats going on either. Tell me why I should create a Cocoa application when it could easily be absorbed by Organic in 6 mos. I’m not willing to invest in a technology that could be dead tomorrow. I would contend that Apple’s customers lose out, just like they are losing out with Photoshop CS4 because Apple doesn’t provide direction.

IBM is not without its flaws, but I think its method of delivering a roadmap is spot on. Even though the customer is largely in the dark about a roadmap, the IBM partners, and vendors that the customer works with can keep the customer on the right path by steering them away from technologies that are no longer viable for the customer. They can serve as an enlightened guide through the soup of IBM tech. In addition to being able to guide custmers, vendors can get training and build products around what IBM has in the pipeline. Because there is an established relationship between IBM and its insiders, there is no crying foul when features are removed or changed. The customer wins because partners and vendors are able to deliver value adds in a timely fashion, and IBM wins because customers aren’t left in the cold when a feature they were hoping for is delayed or dropped entirely.

I was in Dominick’s at lunch today.  Posted at every register was a sign that said “New Alcohol Sales Hours”.  The sign went on to explain that alcohol would be for sale between 7AM and 10PM.  On the surface that seems fine, I don’t really know why it matters.  But upon reflection, I’m left thinking, wtf?  So its OK to get drunk at 7AM, but after 10PM we’re cutting you off?  Seems a little backwards to me.

I used to get annoyed on April Fool’s Day. I’m pretty lighthearted and always up for a good prank, but the fact that the jokes all came on the same day and never caught me off guard was well, boring.

The web has changed all that though. Now I’m excited to see what elaborate stories some of my favorite bloggers have concocted. I get some enjoyment from the posts, but its the comments that really get me going. Now instead of avoiding the stories, I make it a point to read them and see who wasn’t in on the joke. My favorite example so far is from Strobist.

Comments like:

Wow, sounds great. But I have tried it several times, without success. Is there a secret to it, or is it just about the times?

-Joe Kingley

and:

Just wondering how you got it working with the Canon 550EX as they have a physical switch as far as I can see.

Thanks

Andrew

They just make my day.

I was out at the grocery store last night.  It started as an innocent enough trip.  Just out picking up the basics for the next couple days.  Somewhere along the way though it turned into a discovery session.

I think it started with a search for powdered eggs.  I’ve got a backpacking trip coming up and a couple recipes I read through called for the fabled stuff.  Turns out they aren’t in my grocery store.  Powdered egg whites sure, but not the real stuff.  The powdered egg search turned into a hunt for all things backpackable.

I sifted through all kinds of sausages, dry batters, puddings, and the like looking for something interesting to tote along with me next month.  I came up with some good ideas for simple things to spice up the trip’s meals, and I’m really excited to try them.  I’ll share my results when I get back.

Its been my goal for a long time now to make a quality breakfast biscuit on the trail.  Sausage, egg and  cheese is the goal, but I’d be willing to settle for something less royal.  Last night’s trip took me one step closer to the possibility when there at the checkout line was the week’s”Extreme Buy”, “ready to serve ” bacon.  No refrigeration required.  I think its the final link in the biscuit quest.  With a simple outback oven I can bake fresh biscuits, eggs come in powder form (though that makes them of questionable quality), and now finally a suitable meat for the breakfast sandwich.  Score!

My other interesting discovery last night was that Pay By Touch is no longer available.  The company went belly up.  Its interesting, one of the big predictions of back to the future was that we would all “thumb” our payments.  Not so I guess.  This seemed like a security and privacy nightmare from the start.  I can’t say I’m shocked that if failed.  It will be interesting to see if this ever takes off for real.

I just finished reading an article on Vista SP1.

http://www.dailytech.com/Vista+SP1+Problems+Bug+Some+Users/article11164c.htm

Thats a lot of problems.  A major update to your OS causes some users to get stuck in a boot loop.  I really do feel for MS on this.  Its exactly why Apple won’t install its OS on 3rd party hardware, well that and the fact that they make all their money selling hardware.

All I can say is that I’m glad I haven’t positioned myself to be a MS customer for the next 10 years.  All that talk about leaving behind that old image of instability, and they can’t even roll a service pack out the door.

Apple announced full on Exchange support for the iPhone today.  Cool, really cool actually.  That’ll probably sell another 5 million iPhones.  What ain’t cool though is that they still haven’t updated Mail.app to support Exchange 2007 natively.  Sure, it works over IMAP, but I don’t have IMAP at work, so I’m SOL.  I’m tuck using Entourage for my corporate mail client.  Here I am with my last cord begging to be cut from the MS world, and I’m tethered by Mail.app.  its not supposed to be this way…Does Apple care more about their iPhone than their bread and butter customers, Mac users?  My guess is yes.  Oh well, where can I get an iPhone?