Tap My Mind - Scott Isaacs

Twikini – Windows Mobile Twitter Client

sisaacs — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:39:27 GMT

I have an HTC Windows Mobile phone (touch screen + keyboard). For the last several weeks, I’ve been using a trial version of Twikini to access my Twitter stream.

I really got to like it. There are a few things I’d like improved. For example, on refresh it seems to have to get the whole stream and reload it rather than just getting updates since the last request. Also, it does a timeline refresh after I tweet instead of just adding mine to the list on the client side. But aside from those couple of performance things, it’s pretty slick and simple.

I liked it enough to be really disappointed when it expired and I remembered it was a trial version of non-free software. It’s cost is reasonable at about $5, but they also have an option where I can get a licensed copy of the program by blogging about it.

So that’s what I’m doing here. I like it. I recommend it. If you have a Windows Mobile phone and use Twitter, you should give it a shot.

RTLB #4: Smart Is Sometimes Stored In Silos

sisaacs — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:38:58 GMT

This is the fourth in my "Rules to Live By" series. Like every other professional, in every other field, over the years I've picked up a lot of things that make my life easier, or better, both professionally and personally. Most of these things can be summarized in a sentence or two, and I've decided to call them "Rules to Live By". As much as any other reason, they are here to remind myself of things that I've decided to believe in, even if I don't feel like it one day.

RTLB #4: Smart Is Sometimes Stored In Silos

I was sitting at the keyboard and realized that I wasn’t sure how to spell a certain word I wanted to use. It’s a common enough word, and I’ve said it many times, but I don’t know that I’ve ever written it. When I started to think about it, I thought of a number of other similar words – words I should know how to spell, but am not sure I can.

To be honest, it made me feel stupid.

I know I am not a stupid person. I work in a technical field (writing software) and have a degree in Applied Mathematics. I am a successful professional. I run a small business outside of my day job. I manage a large community organization. None of these things makes me special, but they at least make me “not stupid”.

This led me to a series of obvious observations:

I don’t know everything.
I don’t know a little bit about everything.
I don’t even know a little bit about many things (in the grand scheme of all things that are things and all knowledge that is to be known).
I know a little about a few things.
I know a lot about even fewer things.

My knowledge is stored is silos. (I know. It’s a breakthrough, right?)

But remember from above, none of these things makes me special. Hence:

You don’t know everything.
You don’t know a little bit about everything.
You don’t even know a little bit about many things (in the grand scheme of all things that are things and all knowledge that is to be known).
You know a little about a few things.
You know a lot about even fewer things.
My things may or may not be the same as your things.

Give special attention to #6 here. Again, this isn’t rocket science, but it leads me to this three-part corollary:

I know things you don’t know.
You know things I don’t know.
Neither of us is stupid because of this.

At various times in my past, I’ve mentally dismissed someone as stupid because of a gap between our silos of knowledge. It’s not fair to either of us. I may act differently, even offensively, toward them and I may never learn from them what knowledge they do have in their silo. How might things be different if I shared what was in my silo?

This is obvious, I know. It’s not some big secret that I’ve revealed. It’s just something to think about that I wasn’t thinking about.

By the way, the word was “therapeutic” – that crazy “eu” combination is a killer for me.

June? Seriously? (And Tech-Ed)

sisaacs — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:38:01 GMT

June is just a week away. That’s insane. It’s cliché to say it, but time goes so fast. My son is already four months old, and my daughter is getting hilariouser by the moment. (I know some of you may not consider hilariouser a word, but as I mentioned before, I make up words and add them to my dictionary to get rid of the red squiggles.)

So anyway, I went to Tech-Ed a couple weeks ago and it was great. I had a lot of fun, met a lot of people, caught up with a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while, and actually learned a few things in the process. Maybe someday I’ll put all my new-found knowledge to practical use and make something, ummm, practical.

I went with a co-worker, Brennan, and he got the chance to interview a few people. He’s posted his videos here.

I also took my new video camera, but pretty much the only footage I got was of Jeffrey Palermo doing a head stand on the dance floor to “Whoomp There It Is”. I will leave you with that:

PS - Notice that I’m recycling post titles? It must be getting bad.

Jeffrey Palermo at UWM

sisaacs — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:37:00 GMT

On Friday, April 17, Jeffrey Palermo will be giving a full-day seminar on ASP.NET MVC at UWM in Milwaukee. The event isn’t free, but is affordable at $125 – cheap for a day-long training session, especially from someone of Jeffrey’s caliber.

If you’re interested, you can find out more at Jeffrey’s blog. I’m hoping to be able to go myself, but haven’t got that worked out yet.

P.S. This is not a WI .NET Users Group event, so I don’t have any more details than what you can find on Jeffrey’s blog.

March? Seriously? (And Tech-Ed)

sisaacs — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:35:05 GMT

Well, tomorrow begins March 2009. This year is already one-sixth over and it has been a blur. As I get older years seem to go faster, but this one even faster than normal. Maybe it’s the “big project” at work and the “big project”, errr, new baby, at home. The work project ends in about another month. The other one will last a little longer. Whatever it is, the last two months have flown by.

Also, I found out a couple days ago that I am going to Tech-Ed this year in May. (Before I know it that will be here, too.) Is anyone else going this year?

Brytan Seth Isaacs

sisaacs — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:17:00 GMT

I'm very happy to say that Brytan Seth Isaacs was born Saturday afternoon, January 17. He was 8lbs 12oz, 21in long, and has a lot of dark brown hair.

I snapped a ton of pictures yesterday, but most were duplicates just in case one didn't turn out. (I love that you don't have to worry about that with digital cameras. The 21st century is awesome.) We looked through them all and picked 35-40 and uploaded them to Baby Brytan's website.

In all the picture snapping the only picture of myself with him was when I was cutting the cord. I didn't have any pics of me holding him. So this morning, while Mommy was sleeping, I snuck this picture of him from my phone. I'm actually surprised how well it turned out considering it came from my phone.

Needless to say, I am a proud dad. I have two wonderful kids now, and an amazing wife.

I don't know what else to say, except, I'm happy.

Isaacs #4 Update - January 17 Arrival

sisaacs — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:35:13 GMT

Well, it's official. Unless he decides to come earlier on his own, we will be going to the hospital on January 17 to induce labor and meet our new son.

We're really excited. My parents are coming to town. My 2 year old daughter talks about the baby all the time, even though I don't think she has any idea what's about to happen. She, all of a sudden, likes to play with the toys that were once hers and will now be his. I think she'll be a good little helper.

I will post an update here once he is born, and hopefully be able to show a couple pictures as well.

Update: By Isaacs #4, I don't mean child #4. It's child #2. That plus my wife and myself makes 4. Just in case anyone out there thinks I'm crazy enough to have four kids, I wanted to set the record straight. :)

Weird Solitaire Hand

sisaacs — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:47:13 GMT

I was playing solitaire ("regular" single-deck solitaire) on my phone the other day and got dealt an unusual hand. All of a sudden I noticed a very weird combination of cards. Then another. Then another. Do you see it?

Click the picture to see a larger one.

Favorite Conversation

sisaacs — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:50:03 GMT

I just had my favorite conversation ever with my little girl (2yo).

Me: Charlie.

Charlie: (Stops playing and looks at me.)

Me: I love you.

Charlie: I love you, too, Daddy. (Starts playing again.)

Makes me wish there was a DVR for real life.

Words Are Hard

sisaacs — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:46:19 GMT

I've been sitting here at the keyboard for an hour now, and I've started writing half a dozen different posts.

They're all too much work for a lazy Saturday, though. They each require hundreds of words, time spent editing and more time spent re-editing. So I haven't written them yet.

Maybe tomorrow. Or next month.

Diabetes Research Fundraiser

sisaacs — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:06:16 GMT

At work, we are having a fundraiser for Diabetes Research Institute. To try to get more sponsors, one of my coworkers decided to turn himself into Mr. T, step by step. He's skinny. He's white. But so far he's raised $1400.

Read his story after you take a peek at this video of him getting the haircut. Share this link with your family and friends: MrTDiabetesChallenge.com.

Eight Years

sisaacs — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:51:44 GMT

Today, October 14, marks the eighth anniversary of the day I proposed to Kelly in the observation deck of the Sears Tower in Chicago. There were tears and hugs and all the stuff I would have expected from a marriage proposal. Since we got married 7 years ago (on 5/5/2001), there has been so much more than I would have expected from a marriage.

I love you, Kelly.

Silverlight 2

sisaacs — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:17:21 GMT

Surely by now you've heard that Silverlight 2 is being released tomorrow (Tuesday, October 14). Coincidentally, the WI .NET Users Group is having a Silverlight 2 presentation the same night.

There has been a lot of interest in this meeting and registration numbers are already very high. If you are interested in coming, there is still room, but please sign up quickly so we can have an accurate headcount.

Better Keep Things Clean Now

sisaacs — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:56:17 GMT

As of sometime yesterday afternoon, my boss' boss has subscribed to my blog. I guess it's time clean things up around here. :)

RTLB #3: Pain Is The Best Teacher

sisaacs — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:40:33 GMT

This is the third in my "Rules to Live By" series. Like every other professional, in every other field, over the years I've picked up a lot of things that make my life easier, or better, both professionally and personally. Most of these things can be summarized in a sentence or two, and I've decided to call them "Rules to Live By". As much as any other reason, they are here to remind myself of things that I've decided to believe in, even if I don't feel like it one day.

RTLB #3: Pain Is The Best Teacher

I really don't think anything else needs to be said. I won't let that stop me, though. :)

If, hypothetically, I was a betting man, and if, hypothetically, I had a dollar to bet, I'd bet a dollar that when you read this rule, you thought of some experience in your life where you were hurt in some way, physically, emotionally, or otherwise. If I had another dollar, I'd bet that, since that experience, you've done everything you can to avoid a repeat experience.

If, hypothetically, I owe you $2, let me know.

So, what's my point? Pain is unavoidable. Unfortunately, learning from pain is avoidable. Just because pain is the best teacher does not mean that I am an observant student.

Let me explain by analogy. Sure, it's easy for my two year old daughter to remember to keep her hand off of the stove if it's burned her before (it hasn't, by the way), but that probably hasn't taught her to stay away from the hot water valve in the bath tub. Why not? It's, of course, because she is too immature to see the correlation.

Ouch. Immature. See where I'm going here? If not, I owe you another dollar. Hypothetically.

Pain is the best teacher, but we can be too immature to learn everything from it that we should. Note that I am not talking about immature in the "adult acting like an irresponsible teenager" way here; that's an entirely different issue. It's more about inexperience and lack of wisdom to some degree.

Nobody wants to admit that they are immature, and many of us may not even realize that we are. But we are. All of us are immature; no one is 100% mature, just possibly less immature than others.

"But, Scott," you ask, "how do I become less immature?" Good question. The answer is simple: you need to become more wise. To paraphrase the best-selling book of all time, the first sign of wisdom is to seek wisdom. Wisdom is free for the asking.

With wisdom comes maturity, and with maturity comes the ability to learn even more and to gain even more wisdom. It's a vicious cycle except that it's not so vicious. Simply by seeking wisdom, you become more wise. As your wisdom increases, it becomes easier to see how "all of the pieces" fit together.

Suddenly, lessons taught by pain have so much more value than they did before. As my daughter grows, she will learn that the burns don't come from the stove; the burns are caused by heat and the stove is just a thing that makes heat.

The best teacher is unavoidable. Let's become more observant students.

I really don't think anything else needs to be said -- unless you have some comments.