mark.veerman.com

Happy birth day AWS Management Console

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:41:58 -0500

I was part of the team that just launched the new AWS Management Console. If you're familiar with cloud computing, it's an easy to use interface to Amazon's EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) web service. If you've made it this far and have no idea what I'm talking about, then here's the elevator pitch. Amazon EC2 provides a way for businesses to rent computing power by the hour. This allows businesses to avoid paying for the electricity and hardware when it's not being used. The new AWS Management Console, which I helped create, is a website that will help people use the EC2 service without having to write as much code. If you still have no idea what I'm talking about, just know that I'm very excited about an important milestone in my career. Hi mom.

O.J. Simpson and the "Peter Principle"

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:51:00 -0500

Are you familiar with the Peter Principle? As I understand it, the principle states that every individual tends to eventually rise to their level of incompetence. The principle seems to indicate that this is an organic process that happens naturally over time. I've also heard a variation of the principle that implies that the easiest way to get rid of an under-performing employee is to promote them. There's lots of reasons why firing an employee is difficult: you're timid and fearful of their reaction, you work for the government and there's too much paperwork, you're married to them, etc. Regardless, this variation would espouse that you instead promote the worker. Lacking in skills, they're sure to eventually find themselves in a position where gross incompetence will virtually guarantee outright failure and dismissal.

I had a funny thought this morning while reading that O.J. was found guilty on all 12 charges against him. One could argue that back when he was acquitted of murder the jury was expediting the natural order and promoting O.J. to his level of incompetence. It seems that living as a free human in society was just too much. Truly Pathetic.

2008 Presidential Election

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:57:33 -0500

When people ask me if I'm a Democrat or a Republican, my answer is usually neither. I'm a vacillating member of the Cynical party. Traditionally, I'm drawn to the Democratic party for local issues: green space, responsible development, etc., and the Republican party for national issues: abortion, foreign policy, etc. Despite my historic voting record and regardless of party, I just don't trust anyone who has "succeeded" in a career of "public service" at the national level. At some point during their career I assume that their success was acquired at the expense of ethics or morals. I know this is a pretty bleak stance to take and recognize that it's much easier to trust no one (e.g. Fox Mulder) than to take on the huge task of independently vetting each candidate. I could only hope that the mainstream media would assist in this venture, but don't get me started on where they stand the in my ethical pecking order.

Regardless, I recently ran across a couple essays that accurately portray both my conundrum as a Christian voter and my stance on certain political hot potatoes.

This article by Dr. Mark Noll was penned in 2004 and I agree with all 7 of his "political convictions." I was even surprised to marginally agree with his views on taxation. Incidentally, I had Mark Noll as a history professor while at Wheaton. I can't say that I appreciated him as much then as I do now; I was a lousy student and he was tough.

The second article exists solely, to the best of my knowledge, as a Facebook note, so there's no externally available link. If you're my friend, I posted a reference to the note on my profile. It's titled, "Status Update: A Brief Expansion on my McCain Comment," by Chuck DeGroat.

Chuck's post didn't appear to be forthcoming, and I assume Dr. Noll will maintain the same stance for this election, so I'm still perfectly confused, despite and perhaps because of their eloquence -- Thanks guys.

My Victory: Jeremiah Bishop

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:06:40 -0500

Jeremiah Bishop, a local mountain bike pro and newly crowned USA Marathon and Short Track Mountain Bike National Champion is involved in an anti-doping campaign called My Victory. His wife Erin recently posted some promotional videos to his blog. You can read more about his involvement with My Victory and his recent national championships in his news blog.

For convenience, I'm reposting the videos here.

A teaser:

Jeremiah spotlight - The bike shop in the background is my local shop, Shenandoah Bicycle Company, and I'm pretty sure all of the riding scenes were shot at the western slope of Massanutten mountain a place I ride frequently. Very cool stuff.

The full video that you might see in movie theatres and other locations:

Star Wars cliff notes

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:49:10 -0500

Given that James has been on a Star Wars kick recently makes this YouTube video even funnier.

Al Sharpton's an ass

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:22:00 -0500

I should probably leave this alone, but it really bugs me when public figures, notably the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, co-opt someone else's problem or tragedy as a soap-box for their race and equality issues. It's very dangerous of me to question their motives, but every ounce of my being thinks their actions are motivated first by power, greed, and fame, and second for their desire to be a voice for the oppressed and marginalized. I'm not saying that they're entirely disingenuous, but because their motives are inverted they do more to escalate racial tensions than soothe them.

I was reminded of this opinion when I read this morning on CNN about Golf Channel host, Kelly Tilghman's, recent gaffe:

Excerpt from the CNN article:
-----------
"Tilghman uttered the remark during coverage of Hawaii's Mercedes-Benz Championship on Friday, while she and and co-host Nick Faldo were bantering about how young golfers might challenge ever-dominant Woods.

Faldo said, "To take Tiger on, well yeah, they should just gang up for a while until ..."

"Lynch him in a back alley," Tilghman interrupted with a chuckle."
-----------

It doesn't appear to me that this was intended to be racist. It doesn't point to inner racism coming out in a moment of weakness. She was just trying to be funny and made an honest mistake. I am constantly opening my mouth up to say something that I think will be funny or insightful, and realizing the second it's out of my mouth that it might be inappropriate or hurtful. Just this morning, my wife wanted to sit on the couch, and my daughter wouldn't move her legs, and even after Courtney told her to, Emma said, "I want you to sit on them." In a flash, I said to Emma, "Trust me, you don't want her to sit on them. Doh! You can bet I got a glare from Courtney. With humor, timing is everything. The faster your can respond, the greater the potential for humor. We don't always take the time to filter those statements. Like it or not, my brain has associated certain things, positive and negative, with every race on the planet. At some point in the future my brain may impulse my mouth to say something racially inappropriate before I consider the ramifications. That doesn't make me a racist, stupid perhaps, but not a racist. Tilghman has since issued a genuine apology to Tiger Woods,

Exerpt from the CNN article:
-----------
who through his agent issued a statement saying he was friends with Tilghman and respected her, said, "We know unequivocally that there was no ill intent in her comments."
-----------

Apology given, apology accepted, done. If Al Sharpton really cared about social justice and people he would see that the initial public outcry at Tilghman's comment, her subsequent and genuine apology, and Tiger Woods' forgiveness were information enough that the world doesn't condone statements like hers, and takes racial inequality very seriously. She's been suspended, and had her hand slapped, but he wants her fired. What!?

To me, the drunk rantings of Michael Richards and Mel Gibson likely point to repressed feelings and racial hate, but this was a simple mistake -- plain and simple. I know she's white and all, but demanding she be fired for that mistake seems way overblown. Tilghman is known for professionalism and speaks millions of words per year and six of them are unintentionally hurtful. Give me a break, 80% of the words out of Don Imus' mouth, trying to be funny, could easily be misconstrued and hurtful to someone, but I don't even think he's a racist.

It's not what you say, but how you say it.

Like I said, I should have left this one alone!

[Update: There's some great continued discussion of this post on a friends blog. Thanks Peter.]

[Update: My brother in law read this post while I was with him, his first comment, even before finishing, was that I may have undermined my position by starting the whole post off by calling the antagonist an ass. While I assumed a certain amount of license in rant mode, he may have a point. Thanks Dan.]

1979 Schwinn Spitfire "paperboy"

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:03:35 -0500

I got the coolest Christmas present from Courtney this year; actually it was last year, but you know what I mean. She got me 1979 Schwinn Spitfire "paperboy" bike. In biking circles, it's called a "Townie." I've been using it to go get a beer with friends, walk our new puppy (I'll write about her soon), and ride around with the kids.

I've been using it without the baskets, but it came with two really cool baskets -- I'm not sure if those were standard or not. Regardless, It's perfect. Thanks Courtney!

Houdini secrets exposed!

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:41:28 -0500

A while ago we purchased a fancy wine bottle corkscrew that they sell at Brookstone. The one where one hand holds a clamp around the top of the bottle and the other hand lowers a lever and raises it all in one smooth motion, and voila, the cork is removed with little effort. Well, the one from Brookstone broke, and since we don't have a Brookstone handy in the not-so-budding metropolis of Harrisonburg, VA, I decided to just replace it rather than go though the headache of trying to return it.

On the Monday before Christmas, it occurred to me that I should probably get some stocking stuffers for Courtney. So I took the kids to Target and and amidst the kitchen gadgets I saw what seemed to be a reasonable approximation of the Brookstone corkscrew so I bought it. I also bought her a really cool digital meat thermometer that is awesome, but I digress.

Anyway, on Christmas day, I went to use it -- isn't that great when you get to use someone else's present -- and proceeded to remove the Houdini from it's container. As soon as I picked it up, I was struck with how light it was. The one from Brookstone had obvious heft; this one felt like it was made of cheap plastic. I then picked up the box, and it was still rather heavy. Curious, I ripped off the cardboard backing on the box and found a rock screwed into the back of the plastic. What's up with that!?

It appears to me that this rock serves no purpose other than to exaggerate the weight of the corkscrew and thus inflate your perception of it's quality. It seems to me that this constitutes consumer fraud, and I'm tempted to do something about it, what do you think? Granted, the hefty Brookstone corkscrew without the sleight of hand did break, so in that case weight did not turn out to be an accurate gauge of quality. Regardless, I thought this was pretty curious.

How the other third lives

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:24:06 -0500

We're in the midst of a kitchen remodel. On Saturday, our drywall guy asked me what I did for a living. I gave him my standard short answer, "I build websites ..." That didn't get much of a reaction, so I followed that up with "for Amazon.com ..." I could tell that the name didn't register either, so I just said "I'm a computer programmer; I write software." His response, "I haven't really gotten into the whole computer thing."

Wow, he's not online, and he doesn't even own or use a computer. Here is a successful sub-contractor with a friendly, professional crew who doesn't use a computer and hadn't heard of Amazon.

In this Information Week article, found via a quick Google search, in February 2006, only 64% of US households are online. Of the 36% who aren't online, only 2% have a desire to get online. I don't really have time to find more recent data, but one can assume that things probably haven't changed too much.

I'm curious to know how much that demographic has been inadvertently marginalized by the assumption that, "everyone's online these days." This was refreshing and a good reminder that we could in fact live healthy and productive lives without computers and the internet. Unless of course you build websites for a living.

Cory Doctorow on Facebook

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 09:08:38 -0500

I read an article this morning that was interesting. The title doesn't really do it justice as many of the things that struck me had nothing to do with avoiding old friends.

How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook

"Facebook is no paragon of virtue. It bears the hallmarks of the kind of pump-and-dump service that sees us as sticky, monetizable eyeballs in need of pimping. The clue is in the steady stream of emails you get from Facebook: "So-and-so has sent you a message." Yeah, what is it? Facebook isn't telling -- you have to visit Facebook to find out, generate a banner impression, and read and write your messages using the halt-and-lame Facebook interface, which lags even end-of-lifed email clients like Eudora for composing, reading, filtering, archiving and searching. Emails from Facebook aren't helpful messages, they're eyeball bait, intended to send you off to the Facebook site, only to discover that Fred wrote "Hi again!" on your "wall.""

In some cases there might be a "wisdom of crowds," but the manner in which we consume "social" websites is more reminiscent of a herd of demon-infused pigs about to run off a cliff.

Taken completely out of context, this reminds me of a C.S. Lewis quote, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

But then again, until something better comes around Facebook is still my queen, and I think it's about time to change my status.

Sudo laugh

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:09:24 -0500

For my non-technical friends, who don't work with unix/linux, this won't be very funny, but I've been laughing about this for days. I don't know where this image came from, but I ran across it in this article. If you're curious you can read about sudo on Wikipedia. I can imagine some funny alternatives around the topics of beer or sex.

UPDATE: Topher pointed out that the comic's author has a website: xkcd.com. I did find this comic in the archives.

Oh really?

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:38:32 -0500

I've been wanting to take a picture of this sign for about 5 years. It really makes me laugh.

Gmail supports IMAP!

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:45:15 -0500

At some point this week, Gmail started supporting the IMAP protocol for remote email retrieval. If you own the iPhone, this is great news. Back when the only supported protocol was POP, there were only two options: Leave a copy of messages on the server (or not), and remove deleted messages from the server (or not). You didn't have access to your labels (aka tags, folders), and all of your email regardless of configured filters, showed up in one big Inbox (thankfully with the exception of the Spam label). This allowed you to read your email, but not really manage it.

IMAP is true synchronization between a client (iPhone) and a server (Gmail). On the iPhone it gives you access to your labels as IMAP folders, and your Inbox contains what's truly in your Inbox. You can effectively label an email by moving it to a folder, but it doesn't seem to be possible to move it to more than one folder so you're limited to one label per message. All labeling, deletions, and sent items are synchronized with your Gmail account in real time. If you want to access your mail from more than one location via IMAP, the synchronization features make this a lot less error prone. I noticed that if you decide to click cancel when composing a message, it asks you if you want to save it. If you do save the message it ends up in an iPhone Drafts folder instead of the Gmail Drafts folder, so it won't be synchronized. I've only used it for a day now, but it's a huge improvement over POP, and makes using my iPhone even cooler.

Update: I found a new label in my list of labels called "[Imap]/Drafts" and in that label was my draft that I had previously saved on my iPhone.

Future pro bikers

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:39:34 -0500

This weekend I was out riding bikes with my kids. James learned how to ride over a mulch pile. He fell the first time, but tried again and nailed it. He also started riding with one hand on the handle bars. Emma decided to start riding off curbs on her own, which is pretty funny since she still uses training wheels. I was really proud of them, and glad that none of their stunts ended in tears ... this time. I was also thrilled to have my 2 megapixel iPhone with me, which takes pretty good shots.

Giant sand castle of suck

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:44:29 -0500

So I just opened up Parallels to test a website on IE6, and was annoyed by the stupid little task-bar icon bubbles that pop up every time I login to Windows. You know, one's like "Your computer might be at risk," and "Your computer is out of date. Check for updates." I should probably do what they are asking me to do, but that's beside the point. Upon seeing their arrival for like the 50th time, this is what came out of my mouth,

"That's just one of the many grains of sand that make Windows a giant sand castle of suck."

I know it's bad form to laugh at your own joke, and it's even worse to then blog about said joke, but I thought it was pretty funny. But then of course, maybe you had to be there.