Another Twenty-Something

Nitty Gritty PHP

2011-11-23T02:22:00.001-05:00

Well here's an interesting PHP lesson for you: there's an interesting trick to finding a count of the number of items in the second dimension of a two-dimensional array. Say you have an array like:

$arr = array(
"1"=>array(
"red"=>1,
"blue"=>2
),
"2"=>array(
"green"=>3,
"yellow"=>4
)
);

A totally contrived example, but count($arr) = 2 here, and we can use the recursive flag to arrive at count($arr, COUNT_RECURSIVE) = 6.

So the trick to figuring out how many second-level items I have is to just do count($arr, COUNT_RECURSIVE) - count($arr) = 6-2 = 4.

Of course, one could do something like

$count = 0;
foreach($arr as $key=>$value)
{
foreach($value as $innerKey=>$innerValue)
{
$count++;
}
}

And arrive at 4 as well.

So let's say you have an array where those colors point to stdClass objects. All well and good, right? Right - COUNT_RECURSIVE halts at the second dimension, and properly counts the objects. Now let's say you have a multi (more-than-2)-dimensional array, such as:

$arr = array(
"1"=>array(
"red"=>array(1,2,3),
"blue"=>array(4,5,6)
),
"2"=>array(
"green"=>array(1,2,3),
"yellow"=>array(4,5,6)
)
);

This is possible if you convert your stdClass objects into arrays when loading them into each color index. Of course, our nested foreach loops will still work, but what happens with COUNT_RECURSIVE?

Now, the count doesn't stop at the 2nd dimension - it recurses all the way down through the arrays. Now you get count($arr, COUNT_RECURSIVE) - count($arr) = 18-2 = 16, a far cry from the 4 that we wanted.

Lesson learned.

Aspect Oriented PHP

2011-06-24T14:00:00.000-04:00

I'd heard about aspect-oriented programming a couple years ago and always thought it was a great idea, but never had the time/motiviation to learn a whole new language and environment to do it. Besides, aspect-oriented isn't mainstream enough (yet) to be well-supported.

Fast forward to working on a PHP application with plenty of cross-cutting concerns - logging, database management, etc., and a few google searches latter, I saw plenty of folks have tried to implement aspect-oriented PHP libraries on their own. Some are compiled, some use other languages/frameworks to do the dirty work and provide syntactic sugar. My favorite write up came from here. Simple enough to understand, and simple enough to even get my own attempt working. Here's the raw code in all its untested and unmodified first-draft form (and try http://codepad.org/PaL8PRce to see it actually work):

class LogAspect
{
public $object;
public $advice;
public function __construct($obj)
{
$this->object = $obj;
$this->advice = array();
}

public function weave($when, $method, $advice)
{
$this->advice[$method][$when][] = $advice;
}

public function __call($name, $args)
{
foreach($this->advice[$name]["BEFORE"] as $advice)
{
call_user_func(array($this,$advice));
}
call_user_func(array(&$this->object,$name),$args);
foreach($this->advice[$name]["AFTER"] as $advice)
{
call_user_func(array($this,$advice));
}
}

public function Log()
{
echo "Log it!\n";
}
public function LogAgain()
{
echo "Log it again!\n";
}
}

class Foo
{
public function __construct()
{

}
public function doA()
{
echo "DoA!\n";
}
public function doB()
{
echo "DoB!\n";
}
}

$foo = new Foo();
$foo->doA();
$foo->doB();

$fooAspected = new LogAspect($foo);
$fooAspected->weave("BEFORE","doA", "Log");
$fooAspected->weave("AFTER","doA","Log");
$fooAspected->doA();
?>

The output is:

DoA!
DoB!
Log it!
DoA!
Log it!

I was surprised that it worked as intended! Now I'll have to do plenty to it to support multiple advices, etc. But proof of concept!

Back on the Google Reader horse

2011-02-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'm back to my old tricks, after about a week-long moratorium on Google Reader. It was brutal, but interesting to get a little perspective. Now, I'm back to adding feeds to my gReader, BUT, I'm doing it a little differently.

For one, EVERY feed gets organized into a folder upon getting added. For two, my folder structure is slightly more well defined. I've got my always.comics folder, always.peopleiknow, always.peopleidontknow, and even sub-sub folders like always.pictures.cute, always.pictures.funny, etc. Then there are the trial.programmers, trial.funny, to see if these guys are any good. So far, so good.

What's scary is that in just a few days I'm already back up to 44 feeds, divided up into 14 folders. The volume so far is manageable, at least, aside from Hacker News, which, at 725 posts per week (100/day, 4/hour, 1 every 15 minutes!!!) is a little bit insane. What's worse is that a solid majority of the posts on HN are interesting and/or worth a read through. Time sink, back in action.

If you can dodge a wrench...

2011-02-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."

- Patches O'Houlihan, Dodgeball

Today's quote is from dodgeball, which is on the brain after yesterday's stunning turn-around defeat. While I wouldn't take credit for holding the team together, it was surprising that when I took a time-out for a conference call, my team was up 7-3, when I came back, they were up 7-6, and at the end of the night, we were down 9-7. Talk about losing your mojo. One game really stood out, where we had 5 players left, and the other team only had 1. Through a series of insane dodges (by him), and missed catches (by us), he managed to get to a 2-to-1 man advantage and the team won the game.

While I don't have a distinct point to make, the quote is designed to inspire some cohesion in these ramblings. I sort of take it to mean if you can dodge the small, hard, focused, precisely-aimed challenges that come your way in life, you can dodge the big looming ones too. By practicing dodging the day-to-day, or at least, rolling with the punches, you'll be ready to handle the big challenges that come up.

"Ok, you want me up in a cage, then I'll come out in beast mode

I got this world stuck in the safe, combination is the G-code

It's Weezy motherfucker, blood gang and I'm in bleed mode"

- L'il Wayne, No Love

Google Reader Bankruptcy

2011-02-07T14:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally did it. After struggling mightily, I decided to declare Google Reader bankruptcy. Last night, I completely unsubscribed from all my RSS feeds. I did take the time to export them, however, so that I'll be able to recover a few of the more important ones if/when I ever feel like it. Call it a soft bankruptcy.

It feels a little odd to not automatically pop open Greader all the time, or to pop it open and realize I don't have anything in there. On the other hand, it has saved me minutes (hours?) of productivity today.

I'm also trying not to reflexively add RSS feeds back in just because I find one article of interest on a blog. I really need to re-establish some ground rules about what gets in and what doesn't.

Oh well, here's to reducing a time-suck for 2011!

What Makes a Good Teacher?

2011-01-24T11:29:00.000-05:00

I finally had a chance this morning to read the Atlantic article "What Makes a Good Teacher," from a year ago. Very interesting article, as I've had a few friends that have gone through TFA. I can't knock the TFA for their methods, and the article is pretty well done. A couple sentences near the end caught my eye though:

"This year, D.C. public schools have begun using a new evaluation system for all faculty and staff, from teachers to custodians. Each will receive a score, just like the students, at the end of the year. For teachers whose students take standardized tests, like Mr. Taylor, half their score will be based on how much their students improved. The rest will be based largely on five observation sessions conducted throughout the year by their principal, assistant principal, and a group of master educators. Throughout the year, teachers will receive customized training. At year’s end, teachers who score below a certain threshold could be fired...To win money, states must also begin distinguishing between effective and ineffective teachers—and consider that information when deciding whether to grant tenure, give raises, or fire a teacher or principal (a linkage that the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, has criticized as “inappropriate” federal interference in local prerogatives). And each year, states must publish which of their education and other prep programs produced the most effective (and ineffective) teachers and principals."

Observation sessions? Only five of them? Let me guess, they're going to be scheduled too, so the teacher will know when they're coming, and be able to spend a good amount of time preparing. Kids are going to wonder why class was so good that day. The entire article is about the necessity of overhauling the system, and how teaching and improving education is a marathon, not a sprint, and here we are creating a system where teachers will be able to game it so easily. And teachers "could" be fired? Wow, talk about making a credible threat. "If you can't get your act together for 5 scheduled observation sessions, we might consider possibly thinking about planning to take steps to investigate the outside chance that you could be fired."

My Linear Algebra professor offered a deal in school - you could have an automatic A in the class if you agreed to teach two classes, and delivered successfully. The catch is that the professor chose which ones, and you wouldn't know in advance. You walk in, he says, "You're up," and you have to deliver a one-hour lecture on linear algebra. Fail to deliver, your shot is over. Of course, the idea is that you would need to be as prepared as a professor every day you show up to class, on the off-chance that you'll have to lecture. Of course, if you can be as prepared as a professor every day, then you deserve the A in the class. So don't schedule the observation sessions in advance. Let the administration pick random days, so that teachers are always on their toes. In fact, tons of other companies use management by walking around. Some say it terrifies employees, but it sure as hell keeps them on their toes. Why not do this to teachers?

Get the teachers' unions out of the picture, let the market do the talking. This reminds me of that article about the New York school system where hundreds of teachers with "tenure" but multiple infractions show up to detention 8 hours a day. They're required to clock in and clock out, but they sit there playing cards, reading, and costing the system millions of dollars, because of the unions. Hit a kid? You're out, kiss your 30 years of work and pension good bye. Can't get test scores up? You're out.

The Cave, The Zone, The Place

2011-01-19T12:21:00.000-05:00

I wrote about this before, but came across this article from Rands in Repose that made me stop and think more about "The Zone."

The Place and the Zone

Rands talks about "The Zone", that state where the "fucking magic happens." He also talks about the "Snap," the primal response to disturbing the Zone. How closely do I (and several thousand other nerds) relate! I've had several run-ins and interactions - er, fights - with the significant other because of the Zone, a disturbance, and a follow-on Snap. Thank you, Rands, for explaining it in a way that I never could. He also makes a distinction between the Place and the Zone. The Place is still exercising mental muscles, and could result in a Snap if disturbed, but he does make the delineation (or concession?) that the Place is acceptable to disturb, and the Zone is absolutely not.

The Cave

Rands also talks about the Cave - that essential place where nerdery happens. It has a few elements: computer and internet access, world-cancelling features, nerd-knacks, something to drink, well-defined layout, a view. In another article, Rands mentions "the hoodie" - which can be both a visual cue to stay away, and an actual physical hoodie to reinforce the Cave. I do wonder if my lounging-around sweatshirt with a hoodie that I wear at home actually makes a difference.

The Routine

Another critical discussion point involves the routine of getting into the Zone, the set of triggers that bring your mind into focus and let the magic happen. Rands has a back-and-forth between preparing his coffee and making sure the sky hasn't fallen. My routine isn't extremely well defined, but it mostly consists of making sure I have one or more drinks available, making sure I have an empty bladder, putting on headphones, and getting some music going (typically soundtracks, occasionally classical, occasionally trance/electronica/metal). Interestingly enough, I noticed a certain few tracks seem to trigger a state of flow for me. Embarrassingly enough, I'll tell you a couple - "In My Head" by Jason Derulo, "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy. I think it's because I've heard them so many millions of times that I no longer pay attention to them, but they still have a driving beat good for focusing mental attention. I don't know - you have to do what works, right? I just created a "Zonin'" playlist, which uses some of those songs to get into the flow, then moves into soundtracks, etc.

Home vs. Office

I realized this weekend and yesterday that I get far more done at home than I do at my office, and that's presenting a problem. Why do I spend an hour each way on the train, and over $5 each way, to go to a place that's less productive? What's the point? I'm costing myself, and I'm costing my employer money in lost productivity.

I decided to run a little productivity analysis:

Requirement	Home	Office
The Cave	10x12 extra bedroom as a shared workspace with the SO. Suboptimal glass-and-black L-desk with not enough leg room in the corner. White/off-white apartment walls, black bookshelves. Occasionally I turn the couch into a cave, typically with a hoodie and world-cancelling devices.	My own office, with tan/brown walls. Ikea half-L desk with plenty of legroom. Rickety wooden shelf in the corner.
The Hoodie	At home I usually wear a hooded sweatshirt and can pull it up to keep my head warm. Somehow that helps. I also have a sign that says "Not now, Chief, I'm in the fucking ZONE," as an indicator for the SO.	I don't usually wear hoodies at the office, though maybe I'll have to start. Today I tried wearing my beanie, which seems to be having a similar effect. I do have a door on my office, which is helpful to be able to close.
The Computer	I usually use a combination of my MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 420. I've got 3 monitors laid out, but only 2 hooked up to the Dell, and one gets hooked up to the laptop when I'm there.	15" MacBook Pro, 24" Cinema Display. Mac Mini Server for playing around with. Dozens of laptops. Free iPad.
Internet	Also, FiOS internet = WIN (when it works).	Verizon business DSL (SUCKS!)
World-Cancelling	Altec in-ear headphones. They've got nice soft silicone cups that form to your ear and block a ton of sound.	I bring them to work too. Work has a door. But work doesn't have a dog or SO.
Nerd-Knacks	Not a ton of stuff. Picture of my year-old nephew? Nerdknacks are mostly on the shelves. Some plants for liveliness.	None. Time to fix that.
Drinks	All manners of coffee (DeLonghi espresso machine, Vietnamese drip brewers, French Press), tea, carbonated water, water, OJ, milk, protein powder.	Grocery store across the street, with sodas, carbonated water. Tea in the building, hot water heater (funny how much instant hot water helps). Starbucks around the corner.
Well-Defined Layout	A highly-optimized setup for what I need to accomplish. Monitors go just here, lamp there, files there, old textbook to set the laptop on just so.	Still in flux and changing, as I'm trying to find the optimal arrangement. I'm just not totally comfortable yet, since it's only been a few months.
View	Large bedroom windows overlooking the metro parking lot from the 5th floor. Mostly sky from the sitting position. Gorgeous lighting all day.	One large window, looks into apartment building across the way. Afternoon sun tends to burn into the room, forcing me to put up paper and easel pads to block it.

The verdict? Home, by quite a bit. Small wonder I'm more productive there, eh, Rands?

Taming Google Task List

2011-01-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

My Google Tasks list was completely out of control. A while ago I tried to adopt a multi-list convention I found somewhere, with lists like "Watch, Listen, Read," "Bucket List," etc. It totally failed for me, which caused me to resort to tasks and sub-tasks in one massive list. "Links," "To Do," "To Call," "Movies," etc. were the new main tasks, with lists below those.

The list finally got to be so long and unmanageable, that I decided to take control tonight. I now have 8 lists:

Adam's List - this is my real to-do list. Things here are on my backlog, and actually need to get done, preferably sooner rather than later.
Apps - apps that I've heard about and want to try out
Books - books that I want to read. Also books that I've lent and borrowed.
Movies - movies to see.
Music - music to listen to, and acquire if I like it
To Follow - these are websites, companies, and software projects that I want to follow and keep abreast of goings-on.
Wants - things to buy. Good stuff here!
Wiki - wikipedia articles I'd eventually like to read.

I moved all of the links I had been saving as tasks into my new bookmarks system. They still need to be organized in there, but at least the task list is done! I probably will eventually move the Wiki list and the To Follow list into my bookmarks too, reducing the number of lists to 6.

Moral of the story? Don't adopt someone else's list convention. Group your tasks/open loops accordingly in a way that makes sense to you.

Side note - when I go mobile, I use GoTasks for iPhone. It's a pretty sweet app that seems to most closely re-create the Google Tasks interface. Give it a try!

2010 Money Goals, Redux

2011-01-15T13:38:00.001-05:00

I wrote last year (actually 2 years ago) about money goals for 2010. They were:

Emergency fund to $20,000
Checking account to $2000
Pay off credit card always
Carry cash more often
Generate an alternate stream of income.
Open an IRA

Emergency fund to $20,000 (success!)

I was able to take my emergency fund to over $20k this year, in part due to automated savings. I had a little struggle with this when I bought and sold a new car within a few months of each other, which ended up costing me a bit of money, but, this goal still held up!

Checking account to $2,000 (success!)

My checking account has been slowly rising, mostly helped by a couple weeks of overlap between my severance pay and starting a new job. Along the way, however, I've been mindful of spending and making sure to keep that balance going up.

Pay off credit card to 0 always (B+)

If I recall correctly, I only had 1 finance charge this year of a few dollars. Not bad compared to last year, but not perfect...yet.

Carry cash more often (success!)

I usually try to carry some cash now - it makes it easier when you go to lunch at the corner deli with no credit card swiper, or when you go to dinner with friends and you can't split the check up. The fun part is when you forget you're carrying cash, and you look in your wallet and realize you have $20 you forgot about!

Generate an alternate stream of income (success!)

I did start doing some freelancing a few hours a week for some folks who are building a Facebook application. That's generated a little extra cash, but nothing to sneeze at. Still, it's alternate income from my primary 9 to 5!

Open an IRA (failure :()

I never did get to this. Partly because Fidelity makes it difficult if you want to rollover accounts anywhere besides Fidelity. Partly because, well, I'm just lazy and not too terribly concerned about it. I do want to get this going though to establish my personal IRA for when I change jobs throughout my career.

How did your 2010 money goals go?

Bye Bye Goal Tracker...for now...

2011-01-14T13:37:00.000-05:00

I just realized I haven't updated my goal tracker in a long time, but it's past the end of 2010 anyways, so I took it down for now.

I was able to finally reach my goals of having over $2000 in my checking account, and approximately $20,000 in my emergency fund/savings (well, technically it's $18k-ish with a $2k-ish accounts receivable line item at this point).

Hooray for goal tracking and savings!

Perhaps my goal tracker will make an appearance again later this year...

Organization in the New Year

2011-01-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

For me, organization in the new year will revolve around 4 main areas:

Papers
Web Bookmarks
RSS Feeds
Life

Papers

I wrote about my battle with paper a few weeks ago, and have since managed to keep a pretty consistently clear desk. Papers always go into the inbox, though whether they make it out of the inbox is a different story. There are still a few tasks to wrap up that will get that down to inbox zero, and a couple pieces of hardware (like file sorters) that will help in the effort. The goal is a system/routine that keeps paper moving and off of my desk.

Web Bookmarks

I knew there was a reason I started using Google Chrome. Its sync feature is AWESOME. I've slowly collected bookmarks over the last couple years, in various categories, and the entire pile was turning into a mess, spread across several computers. With bookmark syncing, all 1000+ bookmarks now live in the cloud, and updates are pushed up and down to all my computers. Changes on my laptop appear on my desktop, and vice versa. Love it. Following a few tips, I created several bookmark bar folders for frequently-used bookmarks, and left all my reference material in folders in the "Other Bookmarks" section. There are still a few items left to be categorized, and also read and then deleted. I'll get into my system and its inspiration in another post.

RSS Feeds

Always the bane of my existence. Hip hip hooray, my feed count is now 969. How the hell does this keep happening? I cut feeds mercilessly! 966 down to 783, up to 932, down to 880, and now up to 969. I'm slowly expanding the folder system I mentioned in my last feed organization post, but I also keep getting new feeds almost every day. My goal for the year is to have my feeds entirely organized, and a system for moving and categorizing them, and also criteria for when to add and remove feeds. Do I really need a 15th blog feed about lean software development that only updates every 3 months? Probably not...

Life

I have this odd sense that getting a handle on those 3 things above will make a world of difference. The most important aspect, I think, is the information handling routine. How does information come in? Where does it go? How does it get categorized and assimilated? Is it important? How does it stay in or leave the system? If I can handle all the inputs in my life, I'll be better able to deal with the regular ol' day-to-day, and the "things-I've-always-meant-to-do-but-never-make-the-time-to." Selling off old books. Creating an efficient binder/folder/integrated system for managing and staying on top of my work and current projects. Actually getting to work on some current projects. By turning inputs into a standard, flowing routine, I'll be able to get into a higher plane of thinking and creativity. And THAT, my friends, is where the money's at.

How are you getting organized in the new year?

If I had a billion dollars I would...

2010-12-20T22:44:00.000-05:00

Just a thinking exercise...

If I had a billion dollars I would...

Travel
Fly to the moon
Go to culinary school
Practice cooking
Read magazines, blogs, and books all day
Audit classes
Teach myself everything I wanted to know
Maybe some other stuff too...

Everything is Everything, or, Everything is Meta

2010-12-10T10:52:00.000-05:00

Even the title of this is meta.

Very few people get rich from doing anymore. There are a few - your Zucks, your Gates', your Williams-Dorsey-Stones (although some might argue they're not rich...yet). So many people go for the quick way out - early moderate success, then write about it. And why shouldn't they? Today's technology allows for a 4 year old to start a blog. Why wouldn't everyone write about everything, in the hopes of landing a book deal, or some serious readership? And so they do.

People don't like to do anymore. I can speak from experience. When I was younger, I LOVED programming. It was like creation. Like art. But as I grew older (read: more corporate), I started to enjoy programming less. School certainly had something to do with it. An undergrad degree in computer science took all the joy out of programming. Deadlines? Grades? That's not what the world's all about. A master's degree in computer science actually didn't emphasize programming nearly as much as I thought it would. If I had wanted, I'm sure I could have gone the entire program without writing any code. Everything was an abstraction, a level up from the code, since it was assumed that we already knew how to code.

Now, programming tends to just be something to pay the bills. The real fun is thinking through hard problems. How would I solve this? Big block diagrams, API's, service layers, database schemas. Let me design, and let someone else code. It's much easier that way. Let me get rich on a single idea, and turn that into an even more lucrative career speaking and writing about it and these grand life lessons I've learned. "Don't have meetings," "focus on the customer," "follow your heart," and on and on.

It's sort of a shame that the people who work hard for 6 months, a year, 5 years, hit it big, then turn it into a speaking career get far more acclaim than the guys grinding it out every day, coding, fixing bugs, making sure shit that runs our modern world works. Those are the unsung heroes*. What has DHH done since the invention of Ruby on Rails and running 37 signals? Written books, "how-tos" with pithy little one-liners for how you can succeed too.

These are the VH1 One-Hit Wonders of today. The advent of blogging, and the prevalence of media keeps them around.

* I was thinking about this the other day as I look around at job opportunities. There's the cool start-up that's positioning itself to go public - a developer can get in, get a few thousand shares, and cash out at some point in the near future. Then there's the established game development company. They're not giving out shares - they pay a salary, and that's it. You fucking grind that shit out, you don't cash out.

Debasing Security, and 12 Programming Mistakes

2010-12-08T12:16:00.000-05:00

"There’s no purpose in security if it debases the very life it intends to protect..."

Great article. Loved the point about zoos, casinos, etc. Dead is dead, no matter the how; why do we invest so much to protect air travel, when the likelihood of getting struck by lightning is so much higher? Why do we not conduct a war on bad piloting like we conduct this war on terror? Let's take that $338 million and get portable lightning rods for everyone.

The dirty dozen of application development pitfalls - and how to avoid these all-too-common programming blunders

I thought for a second this might be a really good article, but it's a wishy-washy piece of garbage. Mistake #2 counteracts Mistake #1, every even-numbered mistake is the opposite of the odd-numbered ones. "#5 Trusting the client," "#6 - Not trusting the client enough." WTF? If #5 is a mistake, then isn't #6 the opposite? Also, nowhere do I see any mentions of how to avoid these problems.

Meal Plan, Week 5

2010-11-29T11:32:00.002-05:00

I finally found it!

Sunday:
Salmon and asparagus, quinoa, and mango salsa

Monday:
Chicken pesto pasta with broccoli and peppers

Tuesday:
Black and blue salad with sweet potato fries

Wednesday:
Grilled chicken, rice, and green beans

Thursday:
Taco salad

Practicing What You Preach, the David Allen Way

2010-11-28T00:06:00.000-05:00

Hm...two weeks and no post...guess it's time to do something about that...

Today's post is brought to you from the GTD realm. I've seen David Allen (of GTD fame)'s personal work space making the rounds here, and just this evening I began a the huge undertaking of cleaning off my desk.

My desk usually ranges from totally clean to somewhat messy but recently it got pretty bad. Times when it's clean often means that tons of paper has been shoved into a generic folder and dumped into a drawer. Times when its not usually means the paper is sitting on top of it. This evening's project came from last weekend, when I spent an entire afternoon cleaning and rearranging the office and its closet. I was able to successfully reorganize most of my paper files, and also found tons of paper that I want to digitize and then throw away, most of which ended up on my desk.

The project is still going - thank god for long weekends - but I wanted to jot down a few notes for myself and for any one else who might be in the same boat.

I'm taking at least one suggestion from David Allen - get an inbox. Get in the habit of putting all new papers there. Also get in the habit of emptying it out daily. Do, defer, delegate, or drop. I've got a little wire tray that works pretty nicely, and I'm trying to be militant about making sure paper ends up there and only there.

I'm contemplating the tickler file, you know, the one with the 43 folders for Jan-Dec and 1-31.

Also, a bit of inspiration from the video above, the "in progress" folders on the desk. Busted out an old letter sorter that I'm planning to turn into my active files.

Lastly, drawing some inspiration from Mac OS X RAM categories:

Wired - RAM taken by the operating system, can't be used for anything else. This would probably be like brainpower to stay alive, keep breathing, etc. Since that's already delegated to my subconscious, this might be more like the brainpower used for the job that's paying the bills, and making sure the dog gets walked, etc.

Active - Memory used by currently running applications. This can be taken by other applications as long as it gets copied out to virtual memory (the hard drive). This would be that "active" projects file set mentioned above. I can only have a certain number of active projects (3 in the case of this sorter) before things need to get swapped to virtual memory.

Virtual memory - A section of the hard drive dedicated for holding application memory contents that can't fit in memory anymore. This would probably be best represented by the filing cabinet.

Inactive - Memory from recently closed applications. Mac OS X keeps this memory available in case the application is restarted, allowing for a faster startup time. If an active application needs it, it gets reclaimed. Probably best represented by what David Allen calls his personnel files. I guess I don't really have an equivalent.

Free - Totally available memory for whatever the operating system wants. Hm...who has any free time or brainpower?

WHAT?! It's real?!?!

2010-11-12T14:23:00.000-05:00

No Freaking WAY!

What I'm Working On

2010-11-12T13:26:00.001-05:00

Headphones. Check.
Pandora. Check. (Bagpipe tunes today).
Scented Candle. Check.
Diet Coke. Check.

Everything I need for a productive session, right?

I wrote yesterday about office rhythms and productivity, and having documented it seems to make it a little easier. Instead of having to be in a meeting for an hour this morning, I got a good hour of following-up with contacts I made last night at a networking event, and a good hour of productive testing for what I'm working on. We had our coffee-pot catch-up, as we're calling it - 5-10 minutes of syncing up around the coffee pot with what's going on in the company. Today's was probably closer to 20 minutes, but still a far cry from the standard 60-90 we spend "syncing up".

So what, you ask, am I working on? Well, if you must know...reinventing the wheel, as usual.

We're designing a way to manage a calendar of events in-house, but using Google Calendar to help with a few pieces of functionality. We basically need Google Calendar for handling invites and rsvp's, but we want to stack on a ton more features on our end.

I'm working in PHP, just because it's a pretty standard go-to language, and I've done significant work in the past with it. I took a while trying to figure out the Zend GData framework, and decided against using it for two reasons: a.) it's massive, and has a TON of features and functions to learn to use effectively, and b.) it looks like it uses the atom format for communication, which is bigger than JSON, and I'm just biased towards JSON. Standard reasons to reinvent the wheel, right?

I've created my own GoogleCalendar class that takes an email address, password, and an optional application name, gets the AuthToken, and currently can quick-add an event, like "Client Session November 20th 9am-12pm". I need to extend the event functionality to support a regular addEvent function so that we can support adding attendees to the event. And that, my friends, is where I'll be for the next hour or two...

UPDATE: after fighting with Internal Errors for a while, I finally got the regular addEvent to work, so now I can add attendees and send them invites as well! Sweet!

Daily Rhythms for the Office

2010-11-11T13:52:00.000-05:00

We had an interesting discussion over lunch today, mostly about daily rhythms for the office. I've recently started to do a little meta-analysis on myself to note my more productive times of day and days of week and what helps me get in the zone.

The main result of the discussion is that all three of us are most productive in the morning from about 9 to 12, and if we're lucky, we get an extra burst of productivity in the afternoon from say 1:30 to about 3:30. We're going to try to reorganize our workday, so instead of 9 am daily catch ups that totally break up the morning, we're going to save team coordination type stuff for after lunch. We're trying to ascribe to Joel Spolsky's theory that the company that lunches together takes over the world...or stays together, or something like that. By socializing over lunch, transitioning into "what do you need from me for the afternoon," and finally transitioning back to work, we hope to ease back into afternoon productivity and get more done.

Some personal productivity notes:

1. Best time(s) of day for me are from about 10 am to noon, secondarily 8-10 pm, and finally 2-4 pm.
2. Best days of the week for me are probably Tuesdays and Thursdays. Close enough to the weekend to be motivating, far enough to not be distracting.
3. Headphones are a must. I use Altec Lansing in-ear noise-isolating headphones, though I plan to buy some Bose Over-Ear active noise canceling headphones soon.
4. Good playlist/pandora channel/internet radio channel. Current favorites include my "Six Organs of Admittance" channel on Pandora, which is good for just about any kind of work, and the "Goa/Psy" radio channel from di.fm, good for hardcore programming.
5. Adequate ventilation and/or scented candles. I just picked up a Glade Apple Cinnamon scented candle, which really freshens up the office.
6. Lighting is a must - I've got a window, but with night falling earlier come winter time, I'll need to think about some office lighting.
7. I like a clutter-free/organized/optimized desk. How often I get to that state varies.
8. Some plant life in my office would be amazing.
9. I think I'd like to start blogging each day after lunch as a way to transition back into creativity-mode.

Feed Organization, part 2

2010-11-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

This may perhaps become an annual battle. I wrote about organizing my feeds last year. I've made some progress (in terms of organization), but have lost significant ground as well (in terms of feed reduction).

Organization:

Using some tips found elsewhere, I've tried adopting a couple of conventions. I have folders called "always", "often", and "trial". Actually, they're -always, -often, and -trial, to help keep them at the top of my folder list in google reader. I originally had a -zzz category, but if anything's that bad, I might as well unsubscribe, right?

Since Google Reader doesn't support sub-folders, to provide that kind of organization I had to do something else. Within each top-level category, I have the ability to create sub categories, -always.subject, so for instance, -always.personalfinance, -always.funnypictures, -always.programming, etc.

I played around with using -aaa, -bbb, and -ccc as top-level categories, but figured the other names are more descriptive.

I haven't gotten everything categorized appropriately (yet), but the ideal process would be: a new feed comes in. If I can vouch for its value, it may go up into often or always, in some subject area, but more likely, it will go into trial. After a 5-30 days, I can check out my trends, and see if I'm actually reading that blog, and also what kinds of articles it has posted, how I like it, etc. From there, I can upgrade the feed from trial to often, or from often to always. It's an iterative process, and requires constant flux, but by being mindful, I can keep quality feeds towards the top.

Still working on getting this all implemented, but it'll happen.

Feeds:

932 of 'em. Yep, you heard right. I went from 966 down to 783, and back up to 932. I've become slightly more discriminating about adding new feeds (no more adding whole categories suggested by the Google Reader team!). I also discovered that Google Chrome is much more effective for using Google Reader with large numbers of feeds (gee, I wonder why...). I stopped using Feed Demon - just not worth the effort to use an additional client.

Some other stats: I've read 1200+ items over the last 30 days, and clicked 30 of them, starred 36, and shared 24 of them. I read most of my entries on Saturdays, and mostly between 9 and 11 pm. I've got 73 folders.

Meal Plan, Week 6

2010-11-07T11:59:00.000-05:00

I guess week 5 never made it up here, but here's week six.

For weeks one, two, three, and four, click those links!

Sunday - salmon wraps with guacamole and wasabi mayo, roasted garlic and sweet potato soup

Monday - sichuan tofu and scallops with rice and snow peas

Tuesday - roasted chicken with sweet potato puree and parsnip puree

Wednesday - londoin brol, and tomato and roasted garlic soup

Thursday - buffalo chicken wraps with parmesan french fries - ended up being leftovers from the rest of the week
Friday - Date night! We had Korean BBQ for dinner.

A Minimalist Thought Experiment

2010-11-02T12:05:00.000-04:00

I've heard of plenty of people that only have 100 things (challenge), and I was thinking about that tonight. I've got a lot of stuff. Just stuff. It's not physically overwhelming, because it's usually kept fairly neat, organized, put away, etc. But sometimes I do think to myself "gee I wish I had less," mostly when I move.

I'm not going to take the challenge (yet), but I did want to force myself to think of the most valuable/useful 100 things I have or would need. Ideally, if I could pack my whole place into just a couple boxes, that would solve the goal of this exercise.

Rules: I don't have any hard and fast rules for this thought experiment, other than that certain things might count as a unit when they go together, or when I need to reduce the total number to stay under 100 :).

Furniture (31)

Mattress
Bed frame
Pillow (x4)
Comforter (x2)
Couch
TV Table
TV
Desk (x2)
Bookshelf (x3)
Nightstand (x2)
Dining Table
Dining room chairs (x4)
Bar stools (x4)
Desk chairs (x2)
Floor lamps (x3)
Desk lamps (x2)
Floor mirror
Fan

Kitchen (14 units, excluding large sets)

Dishes (too many to count)
Cups (too many to count)
Silverware (too many to count)
Utensils/serving pieces (too many to count)
Pans (x3)
Pots (x1)
Coffee press
Knife set
Serving pieces (too many to count)
Fruit bowl
Dish drainer/rack
Cooler

Clothing (not itemized - 22)

Shorts
Socks
Underwear
Shirts
Dress Shirts
Dress Slacks
Dress socks
Jeans
Long pants
Sweaters/Sweatshirts
Undershirts
Long sleeved shirts
Shoes (x2)
Dress shoes (x2)
Boots (x1)
Flip flops (x3)
Bathing suits
Suits

Technology/Office (13)

Desktop computer
MacBook Pro
LCD monitors (x3)
Digital camera and case
iPhone
NeatReceipts scanner
Headphones (x3)
File boxes (x2)

Toiletries (16)

Soap
Shampoo
Deodorant
Mouthwash
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Floss
Contacts
Contact case
Contact solution
Razor
Shaving cream
Aftershave
Glasses
Facewash
Pharmaceuticals, band aids, etc.

Bedroom/Closet (4)

Alarm clock
ikea storage rack
plastic drawers
hangers (dozens)

Tools (6)

Hammer
Screwdrivers (many)
power strips
extension cords
flashlights
swiss army knives

Hah, actually turned out to be close to 100 (106 items to be exact)! Of course this doesn't itemize my clothing, my dishes, and doesn't mention my books (estimated 200+). I probably missed a few (okay, a lot of) things here and there. It includes some things that are shared, and excludes others. So it's not very scientific.

My "ideal" list might look something this (also pared down to reduce "shared" items):

Furniture (10)

Mattress
Bed frame
Pillow (x1)
Night stand
floor lamp
desk lamp
desk
desk chair
couch
tv (wall-mounted!)

Kitchen (11)

pot
pan
colander
french press
cutting board
chef's knife
plate
bowl
tupperware
cup
silverware (1 set)

Clothing (50)

Underwear (x8)
Jeans (x2)
Long pants/slacks (x3)
Dress shirts (x5)
Shorts (x4)
Shirts (x8)
Undershirts (x5)
Long-sleeved shirts (x2)
Sweaters/sweatshirts (x4)
Socks (x8)
Suits (x1)

Technology/Office (14)

MacBook Pro
iPhone
Digital camera and case
nook/Kindle/e-reader
physical books (x10)

Bathroom/Toiletries (16)

as listed above

Bedroom/Closet (13)

Alarm clock
ikea storage rack
hangers (x10 for dress clothes)
hamper

Tools (5)

hammer
screwdriver
swiss army knife
flashlight
first aid kit

119 items, totally itemized. Some of it is probably a bit unrealistic (one set of dishes? come on). I don't know if I could handle the number of clothes listed, but hey, it would be interesting to try. It would definitely take some work to get to that few items, but it would (aside from the furniture) probably fit in a suitcase, a backpack, and a couple boxes. Now THAT would be an easy move.

The Future of Money

2010-10-27T14:09:00.000-04:00

This video showed up in my Google Reader, so I watched it. I was about to leave a comment on the blog, but then I realized it might be a little bit long, so I decided to post it here.

The Future of Money from KS12 on Vimeo.

(via)

This video bothered me a bit. It's a little dreamy and hoighty-toighty (sp?).

First off, we've got about a dozen different people talking about "the future of money". 12 out of billions of possible contributors to the economy of the future. Not a very large sample size. Tack on the fact that the majority of these speakers are authors, bloggers, and founders, and you've got a heavily biased sample as well. While I'm all for the "digital economy" so-to-speak, no one here is offering anything new or concrete.

Around 4:30, talking about the "new bank" as an expression of the community. Ever heard of a credit union?

Around 6:00, talking about currencies as a free market. How about the billions (trillions?) of dollars traded every day between currency markets based on supply and demand? We're already operating "underneath the instruments built on top of currencies". If he's talking about digital/virtual currencies, what about Farmville dollars, and WoW gold?

This stuff isn't new or revolutionary, and it's coming from a select group of people with very different ideas about money. A favorite quote of mine that's somewhat relevant here comes from the movie Office Space, where they're talking about what they would do with a million dollars. Lawrence says, "...that question is bullshit to begin with. If everyone listened to her, there'd be no janitors, because no one would clean shit up if they had a million dollars." What about the millions of people who won't get to work in some new futuristic economy? We still need janitors who are willing to clean stuff up for cold hard cash.

The most positive aspect of the video was Jerry Michalski at about 4:15, talking about the successful business of the future will be the one that's the most transparent and the most human.

Meal Plan, Week 4

2010-10-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

I've been covering my meal planning over the last couple weeks, and here's the continuation of that series. For the discussion of meal planning, and week one's plan, see this article. For week two's plan, see this article. For week three's plan, see here.

Week Four's plan was:

Sunday:

Dinner: Mustard-seared Tuna (planned). Ended up having Chicken Tikka Masala, brown rice, and Warm Zucchini Salad with Ricotta.

Monday:

Lunch: Leftover tuna (planned), ended up having leftover tikka masala and zucchini salad.
Dinner: Chicken Tikka Masala (planned), ended up having more leftover tikka masala.

Tuesday:

Lunch: Leftover tikka masala (planned), ended up having
Dinner: Adobo rubbed chicken (planned - this meal is cursed!), ended up having Mexican Pizza and Spicy Cucumber Avocado soup.

Wednesday:

Lunch: Leftover chicken (planned), ended up having leftover pizza and soup.
Dinner: Mexican pizza and avocado soup (planned), ended up having grocery store sushi

Thursday:

Dinner: Turkey Sausage spaghetti (planned), ended up having turkey sausage penne with a balsalmic reduction.

As you can see, most of the meals deviated from the plan somewhat, or got shifted around, BUT, the important part was that we stayed flexible, and already had all the materials we'd need to cook.

Meal Plan, Week 3

2010-10-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

For the discussion of meal planning, and week one's plan, see this article. For week two's plan, see this article.

This week's plan was:

Monday:

Dinner: Breakfast Burrito

Tuesday:

Lunch: Leftover breakfast burrito
Dinner: Thai Curry Noodles

Wednesday:

Lunch: Leftover noodles
Dinner: Turkey Burgers

Thursday:

Lunch: Leftover turkey burgers and salad
Dinner: Mustard-Seared Tuna (planned). Ended up being Eggplant and vegetable skillet with grilled chicken and pearled cous cous

Friday:

Dinner: Adobo-Rubbed chicken (planned). Ended up having Thai food at a restaurant.

Saturday:

Dinner: Chicken Tacos (unplanned)