Brian Levine

IBM has found a way to rub salt in the wounds of all those losing their jobs to outsourcing. In fact, in true IBM fashion, they've patented it. What's next, "A Method And System For Laying Off Employees"?

The question is, if computers started laying people off rather than IBM managers, would anyone notice the difference?

Mail on Ovi is the project I've been working on for the past 6 months or so. It was just mentioned on Engadget Mobile. Cool!

A few months ago, my family embarked upon a journey guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of most suburbanites--the home remodeling project. This was actually 3 projects rolled into one: a full bathroom gut and remodel, turning a breezeway into a four-season sunroom, and constructing a deck off the back of the sunroom.

The project was completed about a month ago and thanks to Darrell McCrensky and the rest of the crew from Hancock Building Associates, it all went off flawlessly and with surprisingly little pain. Everything came out exactly as we had envisioned it and in some cases even better than we had originally planned. Hancock's thoughtfulness , respect for our home (they always cleaned up at the end of the day), and attention to detail were superb.

As part of the sunroom remodel, we used a new bamboo product from CaliBamboo on the ceiling and received 1st place project of the month as a result!

Click here to see a Flickr stream featuring photos taken by Darrell McCrensky.

My family and I would like to thank everyone who worked on this project:

Hancock:

• Darrell
  
• Bob
  
• Brian
  
• Timmy
  
• Billy
• Wayne
• Tommy
• Doug

Valcourt Electric:

• Jeff
• George

American Air:

• Bob Guptill

Kitchen Associates:

• Jay Sponenberg

Touch of Tile:

• Tom (et al)

Bailey Plumbing:

• Kevin Bailey

Scott Cormier (tile installer)

I've been looking at the Google App Engine a bit lately. Pretty cool stuff. One thing I was wondering about is why they chose Python as the sole programming language. There's nothing wrong with Python and I'm sure they'll add support for additional languages in the future. But why Python as the first language? I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the answer is pretty simple. Maybe it's just because that's what the engineer(s) working on App Engine felt like doing.

Amazing the creative freedom that ensues when there is no pressure to immediately make money from your technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRL1SeTJ1rk

Via Dishing

My friend David Penn has created a video for a Travel Channel contest. The winner will be featured on Anthony Bourdain's show. David has created a video showcasing Rhode Island and S.E. Mass. Please help us out by viewing the video at:

http://yourtrip.travelchannel.com/clip.aspx?key=1C8236094E19B886

You can register and leave a (positive) comment and also give the video 5 stars by clicking on the rightmost star where you see the star rating.

Thanks!