Brian Levine

Why you should vote for Martha Coakley

2010-01-17T19:40:00.004-05:00

Are you thinking of voting for another candidate because you dislike Martha Coakley? Here's a reason to vote for Martha.

Vote for Martha because you want to give Barak Obama as much of a chance as possible to lead. The fact is that although there are many opinions, no one knows for sure how to fix the economy; how to fix healthcare; how to defeat terrorists; how best to get aid to Haiti. Healthy debate is fine and is supposedly the hallmark of our system of government. But all too often our system of checks and balances results in paralysis. Problems are solved by strong leaders. So whether you think Barak Obama is right or wrong. Whether you think he's a strong leader or ineffectual. Give Barak Obama every opportunity to lead. Give Barak Obama the opportunity to see his agenda to its conclusion, regardless of whether the result is success or failure. Because no one knows at this point which way it will go.

Bipartisanship is nice, but the cost more often than not is compromise for the sake of compromise. This solves no problems. Scott Brown appears to be well-meaning and honest. But although he would have you believe that voting for him will tip the scales in favor of the Republican agenda, it will not. It will only add to the stagnation to which our government seems so susceptible.

Singing the JetBlue not-so-TrueBlue Blues

2010-01-04T19:48:00.004-05:00

Maybe this will serve as a cautionary tale for those who are considering enrolling in an airline frequent-flyer and affinity credit card program. In my case, it's JetBlue's TrueBlue program and the American Express JetBlue Card.

I originally enrolled in TrueBlue because JetBlue had direct flights from Boston to Phoenix (where my family now lives) and admittedly, because my family and I really liked the airline. I also got a American Express JetBlue card in order to increase the number of points in my account. One of main selling points of the card was that the points would never expire or so I thought...

I turns out that the terms of the card were very misleading--whether purposely misleading or not I can't say. You see, my TrueBlue account was credited with points when I paid for items using the card. When the account reached 100 points, the points were automatically converted to TruePasses. Each TruePass can be used to purchase a one-way flight on JetBlue. And there's the rub. It turns out that although the points don't expire, the TruePasses expire after 1 year! There was no mention of this when I signed up for the card. This made no sense. If the points automatically convert to passes (there's no way to opt out of this) and the passes expire, then how can they say that the points never expire? It seems to me that the passes are just another way to represent a certain number of points in the same way that a $20 bill represents the same amount as twenty $1 bills. Naturally, I contacted JetBlue. But, as you can see from this email thread with their customer service department, they weren't interested in the concerns of a loyal customer. You'll also see from the email thread that I am not the first to run into this problem.

In my opinion, the terms of the TrueBlue program (recently changed, perhaps because of similar complaints) and the JetBlue American Express Card are misleading. Whether or not they were purposely structured that way really doesn't matter. So, as promised, I am going to file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Department of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

I'll keep you all apprised.

IBM Automates Outsourcing

2009-03-31T14:35:00.002-04:00

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?

My product on Engadget

2008-12-22T21:58:00.002-05:00

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!

Still Life with Carrot (courtesy of Lucas Levine)

2008-05-25T21:54:00.005-04:00

Our Excellent Home Remodeling Adventure

2008-05-21T17:54:00.008-04:00

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)

Creative freedom in software engineering

2008-04-13T12:31:00.002-04:00

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.

Would that this were possible...

2008-04-07T18:10:00.002-04:00

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

Via Dishing

Help us get on Anthony Bourdain's show

2008-03-11T10:02:00.002-04:00

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!

My Album Cover

2008-02-02T15:16:00.000-05:00

Here's an album cover I created following a new blog game I found out about courtesy of Pete.

The album Finally Starting to Work by the rock/punk/folk/celtic/ska band That's Your Funeral is guaranteed to be a classic!

The rules are simple:

Go to Wikipedia's random article page. The first article you get is the name of your band.
Go to the Random Quotations page. The last four words of the last quote is the album title.
Go to Flickr's Interesting photo page. Third picture, no matter what it is, is your album cover.
Put it all together to make your album. Either crop it to CD cover size, or just use the raw image itself ... the only rule is you're only allowed to add the album title and artist title.

Rose Feldman, 1907-2007

2008-01-12T12:51:00.001-05:00

My grandmother, Rose Feldman, passed away just before Christmas. In July, we had celebrated her 100th birthday. She was lucky enough to have remained quite healthy (both mentally and physically) until just before her death, having survived her entire generation of relatives (and many of the subsequent generation). Everyone who met her said she was "a wonder" or words to that effect. I had always imagined that she would pass away in her sleep--peacefully and without any pain--because she had "earned it." Unfortunately that didn't quite happen, but at least she was looked after by some amazingly caring Hospice workers during the few weeks her illness lasted. I saw her over Thanksgiving and again a week or so before her death when I flew out to Phoenix after it became apparent that this might be the end. She was still pretty aware of everything and told me that my coming out to see her was a mitzvah. She really was an amazing woman who used to take my sister and me on trips when we were young, put up with us (well, mostly) when we became teenagers, and doted on her great-grandchildren after we had kids.

Although she lived in Phoenix near my mother and sister during the last years of her life, she was buried in West Palm Beach, Florida, next to my grandpa Jack, her husband of more than sixty years. It's difficult for me to adequately convey the type of person she was and how many people she touched over her long, full life. So I've chosen to post the wonderful eulogy read by the Rabbi at her funeral service.

Side note:

It didn't take me long to decide to fly out to see my grandmother while she was in the hospital. But still, there was work and other responsibilities at home. And my mother told me that there really wasn't any reason for me to come. But I did it anyway because I wanted to see my grandmother at least one last time. Clearly, that was the right decision. Just before my father passed away (about 4 years ago), my wife and son and I had made our yearly “pilgrimage” to Phoenix to visit my folks during my son's Spring break. I had actually considered not going that year because things were hectic at work and I didn't know whether I could afford the time. My father died suddenly about a month later. Moral of the story? If you find yourself in a similar situation and you're wondering whether to go...don't even take the time to think about it...just go.

Eulogy for Rose Feldman (Chana Rayzel bat Yitzchak v'Malka)

Dear Isabel, Dear Family and Friends All:

Although it is not always usual to deliver a eulogy at a small graveside service such as this one--on such a warm early winter afternoon as this--at a service at which just about everyone present is known and just about everyone present knows--our Jewish tradition teaches us that it is still a mitzvah--a religious obligation of the highest order--to eulogize the deceased. Indeed, we are not allowed to say our farewells--to begin the process of shivah and mourning - without telling the story--the story which no longer speaks for itself. Indeed, even at the very end - at the very moment of goodbye -we cling to the story of life.

The challenge then--the opportunity--is to try to capture in a few words the essence of the spirit of our friend, Rose Feldman. Our obligation then is to try to tell the story not only for ourselves but for those who will follow after us--l'dor va 'dor--from generation to generation.

But how does one tell the story of this very strong woman -- this family matriarch--this very interesting woman who was interested in just about everything from ballet and opera to plays and concerts to bridge and volunteering to the very end of her life--this woman who was a teacher of children through much of her life and who loved her students and her family and her friends and who was, in turn, truly loved by them - this woman who was, in the final analysis, a gutte neshuma--a good soul - and how does one do all of this and still reflect the love which was felt for her by each of you who are gathered here this afternoon - and by many who could not be here - and the love which fills our hearts for you Isabel and for your family?

And so, as I sat down to think about the words which you shared with me as we spoke an the telephone on Tuesday, Isabel, to describe your mother's very long life - words which reflected the sentiments spoken about her at her hundredth birthday celebration last July - I did, as I always do, search for the proper image - the correct frame with which to describe her life - a life which did, indeed, far exceed the "four score years" prescribed by "reason of strength" promised by the Psalmist - and as I did I began to think of our tradition which tells us that each of us writes a Sefer Chayim - a Book of Life - by our actions and by our words - and the legend that God opens each book as we die and reads in it who we are and what we have done with the years He has given is upon the earth. And it occurred to me that so much of Rose Feldman's life was, indeed, an open Sefer Chayim--an open Book of Life--which lies before us most vividly and most poignantly this afternoon. So let us together briefly read from that book and together gather strength and consolation from what is written on its pages.

And so I suppose that one could begin by saying that Rose was born Rose Suffis one hundred years ago on July 13, 1907 in Warsaw, Poland. That she was the youngest of eight children and that her father had immigrated to America and brought his older children one by one to Brooklyn where he settled in Williamsburg with them until he could finally bring his wife and the four youngest Suffis children to these shores--that Rose and her siblings--Max and Bella and Eva and Joe and Lilly and Sam and Abe--were finally united and grew up in Brooklyn where her father--who was already fifty years old and had been somewhat of an intellectual in Poland--and her mother--that they had a rather difficult time making ends meet in this new land--that Rose attended New York City public schools and graduated from Eastern District High School in Brooklyn and then from the Teachers Training School where she was awarded her teaching certificate and received a teaching appointment just before the beginning of the Depression in 1928 and taught generations of New York City public school students until she retired in 1966.

And one should surely speak of Rose's long relationship with Jack Feldman--her best friend's cousin--with whom she grew up in Williamsburg and how that friendship developed into something more and that they were married on July 7, 1929 just after Rose's twenty-second birthday. That she and Jack shared more than 60 years together in a marriage in which Rose made just about all of the decisions and Jack did just about everything that Rose decided to do. And that they never really fought—that he worked in the New York City Transit Authority--and that he suffered from osteomyelitis for many years and was, therefore, in and out of hospitals often and in and out of work while Rose continued to teach and care for him and their family. And that they lived modestly, but happily, in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn--and that they traveled together often by ship since Jack would not fly--all because that was Rose's decision and that their home was always organized and that their lives were always on an "even keel" because that too, was the way Rose wanted it.

And then one should, of course, speak of Rose as a mother to her only child, Isabel--how close and caring they were—that Rose always made sure that there was a plethora of intellectual stimulation for Isabel--that they attended the Brooklyn Academy of Music and listened to the Metropolitan Opera together on Saturday afternoons. That she took piano lessons and, of course, practiced appropriately. "Some day you will thank me," she always told Isabel--and that her daughter always had her own room and a very full life.

And then one must speak of Rose and Jack's long retirement together which began in 1969 and lasted for thirty years. Of the many good years they shared in Century Village here in West Palm Beach. Of the many friends they made and how she outlived just about all of them. And that Rose was left alone here in Florida with only one surviving cousin when Jack died seventeen years ago. And that finally Rose made the decision to move to Arizona to be near her daughter, sold her apartment by herself, took care of all the details on her own and, in her nineties she moved into an independent living facility—a move which she said nearing her hundredth birthday had been a good one for her.

And one must speak of Rose as a grandmother to Brian and Stephanie and their spouses, Patricia and Dean, and a great-grandmother to Lucas and Leigha and Jackie and L.B. How she saw her grandchildren often when they were growing up on Long Island and she and Jack were living in Brooklyn. How the many Christmas and Easter vacations they all spent together here in Florida following Rose and Jack's retirement to Century Village became memories which will live through the generations. Of the wonderful memories she left not only for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but for her many, many nieces and nephews and their children and of the special relationship she shared with each of them. How she never forgot a birthday or, indeed, how much each had weighed at birth. That she was an authority figure and a maven on just about everything to them and that when one did something wrong one did not want Aunt Rose to know and that when one accomplished something worthwhile, Aunt Rose would be the first to know. That all of them--grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews and great-nieces and nephews and beyond--felt very close to Rose and they, in turn, became her tomorrow--her bit of eternity.

And so finally one must speak of Rose's final years in Arizona--very good years, indeed. That she continued to play the piano and the organ and attend concert series with Isabel and Isabel's friends whom she considered her own friends and that she was very special to them as well. That they often took Rose out on their own because they enjoyed her company so much. That, despite some problems with chronic bronchitis, Rose lived a very full life being feted at a wonderful hundredth birthday party in the one hundred degree plus heat of Arizona last July by generations of family and shared Thanksgiving with Isabel. That when she was cared for by Hospice, the doctors expected her to recover and eventually return home and that she fully expected to attend a family wedding this coming April in Brooklyn. And that she died unexpectedly and peacefully having lived a very long and very full life.

And so when Rose Feldman's Sefer Chayim was closed but a handful of hours ago, it was closed with the knowledge that she lived her life as she wanted to--devoted to the people who meant the most to her--fulfilling whatever desires she had out of life and leaving a legacy of love and caring to those with whom she shared life. Shalom l'afro oo-l'nafsho--may peace, God's own sweet peace, ever be with her soul. And may God grant each of you who mourn so deeply this day a time of quiet healing.

Amen...

56 Geeks

2007-12-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

Oh, I just gotta have one these posters to put up in the cube.

Maybe some nice family member will get me one for Hannukah/Christmas.

Hint...hint...

From Extralife.

"The War" on PBS

2007-09-16T17:57:00.000-04:00

Next week, Ken Burns' latest series called The War will debut on PBS. These series are always fascinating, but this one is particularly special to me because Norah Jones will be singing American Anthem which was written by my cousin Gene Scheer.

Tell all your friends!

Yep, I guess this is pretty much me...

2007-09-12T15:30:00.000-04:00

http://devizen.com/blog/2007/09/11/ruin/

Via Devizen

Luke, Sha, and Brian's Excellent New York Adventure

2007-09-05T19:53:00.001-04:00

During Labor Day weekend, our family took a trip to New York City. We went to Coney Island, took in a Broadway show, and attended the U.S. Open tennis tournament. It was a fantastic weekend!

Click below to see a Tabblo of our trip.

Happy Birthday GG!

2007-08-21T11:44:00.000-04:00

My Grandma Rose (GG) turned 100 years young this July. Here is a tabblo of the occasion. Click on it to see more.

Hossegor Summer 2007

2007-08-18T14:12:00.000-04:00

We made our yearly pilgrimage to Hossegor, France a bit early this year. The weather wasn't very good, but it was still great to be in France, at the beach, with the family.

Here's a tabblo of our vacation. Click on it to see more!

Billy Joel fan with too much time on his hands

2007-08-02T09:12:00.000-04:00

Check out this Billy Joel We Didn't Start the Fire flash montage.

Summer Reading List

2007-07-30T19:44:00.000-04:00

Here's a list of the books I read this Summer. I'm not a literary critic, so no reviews. You can make up your own mind.

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Witch of Portobello, by Paulo Coelho
The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
The Last Templar, by Raymond Khoury
The Perfectionist, by Rudolph Chelminski
The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Armageddon's Children, by Terry Brooks
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (in progress)

New software development methodologies

2007-06-24T14:03:00.000-04:00

Scott Berkun has great post on a new list of (admittedly cynical, but honest) software development methodologies. I'm pretty sure I've encountered most of them and I've even worked for one company that combined many of them into a single, dysfunctional methodology.

via Bob

Beyond outrageous

2007-05-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

Mark Pilgrim recently posted a rant about how he was "forced" into submitting a patent by his former employer, IBM. I worked for IBM for 4 years and can attest to how maniacally focused they are on generating software patents.

Periodically, there are "patent scrubs" during which employees are reminded via email, during team meetings, and by senior architects that they should be thinking of ideas to patent. It also happens to be the case that senior managers typically have a patent quota written into their goals. I can remember some line managers begging us for more patent ideas because X (some manager a few levels above my manager) hadn't reached his patent quota yet. Like Mark, I found it disgusting. However, I clearly didn't find this experience as traumatic as Mark did. I think I authored or co-authored 4 or 5 patents during my time at IBM. A drop in the ocean as compared to the master inventors who seem to make a career (and livelihood) out of generating as many patent applications as possible, regardless of the insignificance of the invention.

What I take issue with is Mark's need to point out that he was coerced into filing a patent application and to justify it by pointing out that he has a mortgage. Lots of people have mortgages. Many more people with more significant financial responsibilities than that are asked to do much more heinous things than file a patent in order to keep those jobs. Get some perspective Mark!

Lastly Mark, I think you should be thankful. If during your time at IBM the only thing that made you cry was having to file a patent, then you've escaped that hell-hole relatively unscathed.

Tori Amos Meets PS22

2007-05-06T06:27:00.000-04:00

This is really special. Last Friday, Tori Amos met a group of 5th-graders from PS22 in New York. It turns out that their teacher, Greg Breinberg, is a major Tori Amos fan (just like me) and has been leading the PS22 chorus in adaptations of various Tori Amos songs. You can read the full story here.

Here is a video of the chorus meeting Tori and singing one of her songs during which she was obviously quite moved.

And here is Tori singing with the chorus.

Pretty cool...

Zen Judaism

2007-05-01T16:15:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine just showed me a book (booklet really) she purchased called Zen Judaism: For You, a Little Enlightenment, by David M. Bader. It's hilarious.

Here are two of my favorite selections:

Do not let children play contact sports like football. These only lead to injuries and instill a violent, war-like nature. Encourage your child to play peaceful games, like "sports doctor."

Zen is not easy. It takes effort to achieve nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkes!

You want to see more? Don't be such a shnorer and buy the book!

From a real bug report

2007-04-24T21:44:00.000-04:00

Observed:
the keywords entered displayed as gibberish character.

Expected:
The keywords should be illegible.

Once in a lifetime

2007-04-24T00:19:00.000-04:00

At three minutes and four seconds after 2 AM on the 6th of May this
year, the time and date will be 02:03:04 05/06/07. This will never
happen again in our lifetime.

Vienna Teng at the Regattabar

2007-04-14T12:10:00.000-04:00

Last week, my wife and I went to see Vienna Teng at the Regattabar in Cambridge, MA. This is part of Vienna's Green Caravan Tour.

What a fantastic concert! The Regattabar is an intimate setting that usually hosts Jazz artists and was the perfect venue for Vienna's rock, folk, pop-influenced music. She was accompanied by a small band consisting of a violinist, cellist, and percussionist who perfectly complemented her music, some of which is classically inspired. For those of you unfamiliar with Vienna, I'd say her music is influenced by a bit of Tori Amos and Aimee Mann, but with a style all her own.

It had been over 20 years since my wife and I visited the Regattabar and we were happy to have renewed our acquaintance by seeing one of our newest favorite artists.

Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite

2007-04-13T13:54:00.000-04:00

The product I work one, Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite, recently shipped. I'm pretty proud of it. I work on the wireless PIM part of the product which includes email, contacts, and calendaring targeted at the J2ME platform.

I've been a software engineer for quite a while. Mobile computing was a new area for me and this was a great learning experience. I learned about J2ME technologies such as CLDC and MIDP and tools such as EclipseME and J2ME-Polish. My team built a kick-ass product from scratch (no existing code) completely in Java in record time. It runs on a variety of mobile devices from various vendors.

The whole mobile area is really exploding right now so I'm pretty psyched to be involved in writing code for mobile devices.

First day on the job

2007-01-28T20:07:00.000-05:00

This is a great article on how to prepare for an employee's first day on the job. The first day in a new company can be pretty stressful even for the most seasoned worker. Making a new employee feel welcome and able to contribute as soon as possible is key. In my previous company, I waited one week before I could get a badge or key to my office and even longer than that before I had a reasonable computer to work on. At my current company, I had a phone, computer, mobile phone, office supplies, and a welcome message from our department admin on my whiteboard the day I started. The article begins with one simple piece of advice. "It just requires a little empathy." How true...

Via Hacknot

Five things you didn't know about me

2007-01-13T12:24:00.000-05:00

Tagged by Pete

You probably already know that I'm a software engineer. But you maybe you didn't know that I've been writing code since I was about 12. That's not so impressive nowadays, but back then I guess I was considered an "early geek."
I was actually going to be a Biomedical Engineer and was in that program at BU. However, having to get my Phd (which my father used to say stood for "piled higher and deeper") to do anything exciting in that field was incompatible with my severe dislike of school. So I switched majors at the last second to Electrical Engineering and then when I couldn't get hired during the recession of the early 80s, lucked into a software job at Computervision (if you're too young to remember Computervision, they invented CAD/CAM) and the rest is history.
My wife is 66% French and speaks French comme une vraie francaise. The 66% percent thing comes from the fact that her mother is 100% French (from Bordeaux) and her father was of French-Canadian descent, but born in the U.S. Of course, she's also a citizen of both France and the U.S. so maybe that makes her either 50% or 100% French?
I'd really rather be a gourmet chef rather than a software engineer. And I'd do it if it weren't for the: much lower pay, dealing with what other people think of your work on a daily basis, having to be on my feet (or awake at all for that matter) 12+ hours a day,...
I don't feel any pressure to blog daily. I only blog when I have something to say. I guess that makes me the Mr. Ed of blogging...

Unfortunately, everyone I'd tag has already been tagged...

New Year's Eve with good friends

2007-01-01T17:54:00.000-05:00

This year, we decided to do something different for New Year's Eve. We made dinner reservations for us and 4 of our closest friends (Jeff & Ellen and Stef & Sal) at Pigalle in Boston. It was a wonderful prix fixe dinner that included a great band and a champagne toast at midnight. Then Stef, Sal, Sha, and I checked into the Westin Copley Plaza hotel for the night.

Here's a few pictures from a fun evening.

Salade Frisee with Deep-Fried Poached Egg

2006-12-30T13:47:00.000-05:00

Ever since I saw this done on Iron Chef America (with an ostrich egg I think), I wanted to try this. You poach an egg, coat it in breadcrumbs and then deep-fry it. Then I saw Devra First's favorites list in last Wednesday's Boston Globe which included the frisee salad from Petit Robert Bistro. Devra called this "..the most decadent salad ever." So of course I had to try making one myself!

I didn't use quite as much frisee as the Petit Robert version and I also didn't include lardons or bacon (only because I didn't happen to have any on hand). I spiced it up a bit by mixing some piment d'Espelette (a red pepper condiment popular in the Basque regions of France and Spain) into the Panko breadcrumbs. Finally, I used a Basil dressing instead of the traditional vinaigrette.

Wow, was this good (if I do say so myself)! The piment d'Espelette added a nice little kick and the basil dressing still had enough acidity to cut through the egg.

This is not something I'll have every day, but it's definitely going on the list as a special occasion brunch dish. Can't wait to try this out on my wife's French relatives...

Click on the picture to see my creation in all it's runny goodness...

This is not your father's Doctor Who

2006-12-26T19:42:00.000-05:00

I am a major Doctor Who fan. For those of you unfamiliar with "the Doctor", this is the longest running sci-fi TV series in the world. It originally ran on the BBC from 1963 to 1989 and has since become a cult classic. I started watching Doctor Who some time in the 70s. It was known for its quirky scripts, quirky actors, and shall we say, a somewhat "conservative" approach to special effects. It was also known for the creative way in which the producers dealt with cast changes. When William Hartnell, who played the Doctor from 1963 to 1966, left the series (allegedly due to ill health, but perhaps also because of disagreements with the producers), it was discovered that the Doctor was a Time Lord and that time lords can regenerate. This enabled the Doctor to be played by 7 different actors (8 if you count the TV movie). The Doctor also had traveling companions who came and went over the course of the series. It was always a bit disconcerting when the Doctor regenerated or when a sidekick was replaced. But after a while, it seemed like they had been traveling in the Doctors time-machine/spaceship, the TARDIS, forever.

Last year, the series was revived by BBC Wales with the help of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the States, it's being shown on the SciFi channel. The original series is now referred to as the "classic series." It's not surprising that the new series is not generally considered to be a continuation of the old. This is something completely different... The production values are much better as are many of the scripts. The whole series has more of the feel of a modern-day sci-fi series.

We're now up to the tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant. Some of you may recognize him as Barty Crouch Jr. from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This Doctor is a bit more emotional than the "classic" Doctors and the writers have actually given us a peek inside his mind. He's still the quirky, not-quite-human Time Lord but, in this series, the Doctor has fallen in love with his sidekick, Rose, played by British actress and singer Billie Piper. I'm fairly certain that's a first for the Doctor. Or at least it's the first time that one of the Doctor's sidekicks admits to having fallen in love with him and that he appears to have fallen in love with her. It really gives the show a whole new dimension.

*** Spoiler alert. Don't read beyond here if you haven't seen this season's finale ***

Unfortunately, it also makes dealing with new Doctors and new sidekicks that much more disturbing. This season's finale was marked by the departure of Billie Piper in an absolutely gut-wrenching scene in which Rose escapes an invasion of Earth by traveling to an Earth in a parallel universe. In order to save his Earth, the Doctor has to seal the dimensional rift between the two worlds thus separating himself from Rose forever. Yes, I know... It sounds completely hokey, but it really wasn't. Especially in the last scene where the Doctor is able to communicate with Rose one last time before the dimensional rift is sealed completely. OK fine, watch the episode yourself. If you can honestly tell me that you weren't moved...well...then...your just a heartless CyberMan or maybe even a Dalek!

In any case, the new series has rekindled my interest in Doctor Who. I think it's as good as any sci-fi series on TV today. That includes Battlestar Galactica (which by the way, is not your father's Battlestar Galactica) which many devotees of the genre consider to be the best TV sci-fi series ever. I happen to be more in the Babylon 5 camp myself, but I digress...

So of course, I went and Googled Doctor Who and came up with a number of great sites including Outpost Gallifrey, the official BBC site, and WhoMix, a very cool site containing remixes of the Doctor Who theme posted by fans of the series and its theme music. Last time I looked, there were over 200 versions of the Doctor Who theme posted.

If you're a fan of the original series, you're going to love the new series. If you're not, maybe now is the time to give the good Doctor a shot?

Two-Martini weekend

2006-12-22T21:41:00.000-05:00

No. It's not what you think. Thanksgiving is always a lot of fun, but this past Thanksgiving was particularly special. My sister Steph married Dean Martini (yes, that's his real name) during that weekend after what can only be described as a whirlwind romance and even more whirlwind wedding planning.

I've created a Tabblo containing pictures from this very special Thanksgiving.

Bathsheba Mathematical Sculptures

2006-12-22T16:02:00.000-05:00

Here's one for Ned. Very cool mathematical sculptures by Bathsheba Grossman.

via Cool Tools

FCC drops Morse code requirement for "ham" radio licenses

2006-12-17T19:15:00.001-05:00

Wow, this is really upsetting. It seems that amateur radio operators no longer have to pass a Morse code test as part of the licensing exam. I was a ham radio operator in my younger days. My call sign was WB2AKB, my father was WA2SMB, and my uncle was K2JXP. A couple of friends and I took great pride in our knowledge of CW (which stands for "carrier wave", the ham-geek term for Morse code) and how many WPM (words per minute) we could handle. You could get a Novice license at 5 WPM and then for the General through Extra "tickets" you had to be faster and faster. I think I was up somewhere above 20 WPM when I finally gave up the hobby. And I can still read Morse code to this day, although not at 20 WPM...

The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) site called this the end of an era. I agree...

Jerome Murat - French Performance Art

2006-12-08T23:05:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly sure how to describe this work by Jerome Murat, but it's pretty cool.

Vienna Teng

2006-10-16T20:28:00.000-04:00

I recently became aware of a great singer/songwriter named Vienna Teng. She combines elements of two of my favorite female artists, Tori Amos and Aimee Mann, with her own distinct style. She's been around for a few years now so I guess I'm coming late to the party. To keep up withthe latest news about Vienna, I created a Google Alert. One of the first hits I received was an interview from artima.com written in June of 2003 by Bill Venners called, How Vienna Escaped the Cubicle. Turns out that Vienna was a Java programmer before she "escaped" to become a full-time singer/songwriter. How cool is that? I love this question from Bill Venners:

But what were the mechanics involved of actually going from typing public static void main in a cubicle at Cisco to performing your music on Dave Letterman?

I'm pretty sure I've never been asked that question...

It's summertime, summertime...

2006-06-22T09:16:00.000-04:00

sum, sum, summertime...

Yesterday was the first day of Summer! I love this season. Love the heat. Love the swimming. Of course, I might not love it quite as much if I didn't live relatively close to major bodies of water. And, oh yeah, the air conditioning helps too. It hasn't rained for a couple of days now so I'm feeling pretty good about Summer so far...

New Innuwindow

2006-06-11T13:46:00.000-04:00

My good friends Jeff and Ellen Kaplan are the owners of Innuwindow--a curtain store located in Natick, MA. They've just opened a new store in Danvers. If you're in the market for window treatments, I recommend you stop by (and tell them I sent you).

Movin' Out !!

2006-06-11T13:30:00.000-04:00

OK, this time this post is about Billy Joel.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I went to see Movin' Out, the musical choreographed by Twyla Tharp to the music of Billy Joel. This is a fantastic show even if you're not a Billy Joel fanatic like me. Backing the brilliant dancers was Darren Holden on piano and vocals who on some songs seemed like he was channeling Billy while lending his own personal interpretation to others. I have to admit that I initially didn't like the fact that some guy was doing Billy Joel covers, but I quickly got over it. The dancing was uniquely Twyla Tharp--extremely physical and a bit avant garde which kept the energy level high throughout the show. The ambiance of the recently refurbished Opera House completed the experience.

If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend you see this show.

Special thanks to our friends Jeff and Ellen who provided us with these tickets.

Deep Kimchee

2006-06-05T20:18:00.000-04:00

The Boston Sunday Globe on May 28 had an article about the health benefits of kimchee. For those not acquainted with Korean cuisine, kimchee is a spicy concoction made from fermented cabbage. It's not to everyone's taste, but I love it. Unfortunately, it's also pretty pungent and so my wife has declared our house a no-kimchi zone. But every now and then (usually when she's away) I sneak in a jar.

So I was happy to learn that a recent study in Korea found that kimchee could reduce stress levels and wrinkles...in mice. I never knew that mice led such stressful lives. Regardless, I think I'll need to point out these benefits to my wife. But I think I'll leave out the other referenced studies that suggest that kimchee and soy bean pastes may contribute to gastric cancer. In people...not mice.

Dad's Photographs

2006-05-28T15:27:00.000-04:00

When I first started this blog, I mentioned that it was in memory of my father who passed away a little over 2 years ago. I also mentioned that he was an accomplished amateur photographer and that I'd try to post some his photographs. Well, what better way to do this than via Tabblo!

Click on the thumbnail or link below to view this Tabblo.

... See my Tabblo>

Tabblo Beta!

2006-05-20T16:26:00.000-04:00

My good friend Ned recently joined a company called Tabblo. They've just opened their public Beta and I highly recommend you give it a try.

Tabblo is a photo-sharing site that also allows you to tell a story using both pictures and words. Here is a tabblo my wife created about our recent vacation in Arizona.

Enjoy!

Movin' Out

2006-04-28T20:59:00.000-04:00

No, this isn't a Billy Joel-related post.

In my previous post I mentioned that I'm changing jobs. I'll be taking a position at Nokia working on software for small devices (cell phones, PDAs, etc.). I'm pretty excited to be getting into a new area of computing. I've never worked on small devices before. I've spent the last 6+ years working on the server side of large enterprise-level products.

You may have noticed that I've never mentioned my (now former) employer by name. There's a good reason for this--I'm afraid to. A friend of mine earned a call from the legal department after posting some unflattering comments regarding the company and its work environment. They asserted that he had violated his employee agreement by releasing confidential information. An outrageous claim, but he wisely removed the post rather than go to court with a company that probably has more lawyers than most companies have employees.

I'm sure I could wax poetic about the many reasons I decided to leave, but I've already done that a number of times albeit in much less public forums than this. I'm leaving an environment in which a product that could have been great was destroyed by mismanagement and politics. And a fantastic group of engineers (the best I've ever worked with) who should have felt like they were changing the world, were instead made to feel powerless and inconsequential. I shared many of my specfic complaints with my former management. Hopefully, they'll take these concerns to heart and try to change things before we see a lot more posts like this...

On a more positive note, I would like to say that the last 3+ weeks since I resigned have been fantastic. As is often the case in these situations, I received a lot of positive feedback from my colleagues about the contributions I had made over the past few years. This really helped me feel a lot more confident in my abilities than I had in years. I also got to take a much-needed vacation with my family (details in a future post) which was made that much sweeter knowing that I was going to be starting a brand-new job when it was over. I was also treated to a killer going away party courtesy of some good friends. It was exactly what I wanted. Thanks guys! I'm sure they'll understand when I say that I have absolutely no regrets in leaving other than no longer having the privilege of working, lunching, and drinking with you. Although I'm sure we'll still have the opportunity to engage in the latter two activities from time to time.

Good luck to you all...

Winning Attitude? Not so much...

2006-04-24T12:13:00.000-04:00

Great post from Bob on motivating (or not de-motivating) employees. The article referenced is pretty timely (for me at least) since my own personal de-motivation and that of many of my co-workers recently caused me to leave the company at which I'd been working for almost 4 years.

More on that in the next post...

via Bob

Ah Spring...

2006-04-01T17:13:00.000-05:00

Need I say more?

Speed Demons

2006-03-20T10:41:00.000-05:00

A recent BusinessWeek article entitled Speed Demons, How smart companies are creating new products--and whole new businesses--almost overnight, really hits the nail on the head regarding the necessity of staying agile in today's business world. The following statement really hits close to home:

Everybody knows that bureaucracy means death to new ideas, yet most companies still insist on forcing innovative products and ventures through a gauntlet of presentations and reviews and refinements.

So true...

And...

Break your unwritten rules. Every company has them. They're those mental crutches that say this is the way we do it because this is the way we've always done it. For routine matters, that's fine. But not when you're trying to create something new, and quickly.

I'd take this even further and say that you need to be willing to break your written rules, especially when they are clearly not working. So many large corporations find this difficult or impossible to do either because of politics or just laziness.

Hopefully some of these small, agile companies can continue to innovate as long as they can buck the disturbing trend of quickly creating a product in order to be acquired by one of these not-so-agile companies.

Intuit responds

2006-03-12T11:11:00.000-05:00

Well, I never thought this would happen! My previous post related my experiences with Intuit customer support. This prompted a response from Bob Meighan, VP TurboTax apologizing for this and also setting me straight on the process by which the IRS processes refunds/payments and how TurboTax participates in that process.

He also let me know that there is an erroneous "...perception that Intuit knows when refunds will be deposited..." I understand that now and appreciate Mr Meighan's explanation. Mr. Meighan also implied that I'm not the first to be under this impression and so I hope a more detailed explanation of this process finds its way into the product and customer support training materials.

I've been using Intuit products (Quicken and TurboTax) for years. I'd like to thank Mr. Meighan for taking the time to respond to my issue and for providing me an opportunity to help make these products (and hopefully the customer support experience) better.

Fun with phone support

2006-03-11T12:32:00.000-05:00

First let me state from the outset that this issue ended up being my fault. But that's not going to stop me from ranting about the state of outsourced phone support...

I used TurboTax to do our taxes. This year, we owed money on both our state and federal returns. I used TurboTax's e-file feature to have the funds withdrawn directly from our bank account. I set the withdrawal date to March 7...or so I thought. In looking at my bank statement, I noticed that only the state funds had been withdrawn on the 7th. The federal funds had not.

So I used Intuit's "live" online chat feature to enquire as to the status of that payment. After 2 tries, I was able to convince the support person (assuming it was a real person), that I was not interested in checking the status of my refund. I was interested in checking the status of a payment. The support person then assured me that my return had been received and accepted by the IRS and I had nothing to worry about. I pointed out that I knew it had been accepted because TurboTax provided me with that status. What I wanted to know was why the amount I owed had not been paid on the date I specified. I was then told to call the support number.

I was on hold for a surprisingly short while after which I had to once again convince the support person that I was not expecting a refund. She then told me that they "did not have the resources" to check on the status of my payment. I then asked what I suppose to do about this and she told me that I should see the withdrawal in a few days and if not, I should call back and they'd take care of it. Of course, I couldn't let the illogic in that go unchallenged and asked how, if they didn't have the resources, she knew that the withdrawal would happen in a few days. And then if the withdrawal didn't happen, why they would have the resources to resolve this a few days from now, when they didn't seem to have the resources today. All she could do was repeat that they would be happy to resolve this at that time. Clearly, I wasn't going to get anywhere with this line of questioning so I just agreed to check my bank account in a few days.

Before I hung up, the support person asked, "Have we resolved your issue today sir?". I just hung up... Yes, that was very rude and if the support person happens to read my blog, I'd like her to know that I apologize...

So then on a hunch, I called the IRS e-file support number and in about 2 minutes I had accessed my e-file information via an automated response system. The nice automated voice reported that my return had been received and that funds were scheduled to be withdrawn from my account on April 7--not March 7! Hmmm... So I went back into TurboTax and lo and behold I must have accidently entered 4/7 instead of 3/7 when I e-filed my fed return. What a turkey.

Yes, this was my fault. But still, I was able to get information in 2 minutes from an automated service that I was not able to get from a live human being. TurboTax support should have at least been able to tell me that I had set the withdrawal date to April 7 instead of March 7. And maybe this is just an American thing (or maybe just a Brian thing), but the politeness with which they are unable to resolve customer issues is infuriating!

Yeah, I know. I'm far from the first person to complain about this sort of thing. But hey...that's what blogs are for ;-)

Consensus Web Filters

2006-03-10T14:00:00.000-05:00

Great post by Kevin Kelly on his Cool Tools blog about Consensus Web Filters. This is the new breed of sites being created to aggregate and tag bookmarks to information elsewhere on the Web. There were a couple I'd already heard of such as Digg and del.ico.us. And also quite a few I had never heard of.

Very useful.

Winter Olympics: a nine year old's perspective

2006-02-13T17:25:00.000-05:00

While watching the luge competition this weekend my son Luke said, "So the point of this sport is that you lie on your back and hope not to die?" I couldn't not laugh...

Remember when they used to light matches?

2006-02-05T12:31:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you're all on pins and needles waiting to hear about the Billy Joel concert. Well, it was simply fantastic! This was the last of 3 concerts in Boston and the Garden was still completely sold out. Sha and I first went out to dinner in Cambridge at the Craigie Street Bistro (review in a subsequent post) and were running a bit late. We sat down in our awesome seats (Loge 12, row 4) just as Billy started playing Angry Young Man. I was immediately transported to my youth as I'm sure were the majority of the 40-somethings (and older) in the audience.

Billy was in great voice and his band was as energetic as ever. He played for a bit over 2 hours including 2 encores. The last encore was, of course, Piano Man. But maybe the highlight of the evening was when he invited one of his longtime roadies (nicknamed Chainsaw) onto the stage because it was his birthday, and, as Billy put it, "he deserves his moment in the sun." Chainsaw sang lead vocals while the band accompanied him on a cover of AC/DC's Highway to Hell. It was amazing. The entire audience was on their feet singing along and didn't sit down for the rest of the concert.

He played the usual favorites, including an oldie from the Cold Spring Harbor album called Everybody Loves You Now. I had only heard him perform that once (at the Paradise in Boston more than 20 years ago) so this was a nice surprise. He also did a great rendition of Zanzibar including brilliant flugelhorn and trumpet solos.

I first saw Billy in concert at the Boston Garden (the original) in 1979. I was 18. I'm now almost 45 and Billy is 56 and I've lost count of the number of times I've seen him in concert. He's lost very little over the years in terms of voice, piano acumen, and on-stage presence and I've lost none of my appreciation of his music. Maybe it's because I grew up one town away from him on Long Island and so experienced some of the "suburban angst" that comes through so clearly in some of his early songs. Who knows? I do know that this may be his last concert tour and so I'm very glad that Sha and I had the opportunity to see Billy once again.

Oh yeah... So before the first encore, the lights dimmed and there was the requisite screaming and whooping and clapping to get Billy back out on stage. And you could see thousands of little lights all above the audience. They were cell phones! Remember when they used to light matches...?

It's the winning that counts

2006-01-28T22:53:00.000-05:00

Those of you in the greater Boston area may listen to WBOS radio. This week, in honor of Billy Joel being in town, they're running a contest where they give a lyric from a Billy Joel song and you have to sing the next line. If you get it right, you win the new Billy Joel boxed set and you're entered in a drawing to win a pair of tix to see Billy at the Garden.

I'm pretty sure I know all of the lyrics to every Billy Joel song, but the hard part about these contests is just getting through on the phone. In this case, you had to be the first caller. So while I was cooking dinner tonight, my wife was listening attentively to WBOS. The second it sounded like the DJ was going start the contest, she started dialing. And we got through! So those of you listening to BOS early this evening may have heard me sing one line from "Brenda and Eddy". And so we won the boxed set and maybe we'll even win the concert tix...

And you know what? The fact that I already have the boxed set and just today we paid scalper prices for Billy Joel tix didn't diminish the experience one bit. It's the winning that counts! ;-)

Boomer Bosses

2006-01-22T10:06:00.000-05:00

In today's Boston Sunday Globe BostonWorks section, Penelope Trunk has written an article entitled, Managing up means managing a boomer boss. I found this article infuriating. Ms. Trunk describes the difficulties today's baby boomer bosses have managing their 20-something employees and the difficulties those employees have "managing up".

The underlying theme here is that baby boomers are interested in things like better parking spaces and climbing to the next wrung on the corporate ladder, while the current generation is interested in challenging work and life/work balance issues. In reality, these kinds of disconnects are not generational--they're environmental. That is, it's typically the company that promulgates an environment in which management and individual contributors have completely different concerns. So much so that the individual contributors and managers can no longer understand eachothers motivations.

My group of friends at work ranges in age from the mid-20s to mid-40s. And although we certainly are at different life stages and therefore have different life concerns, we all have almost identical job concerns. The managers at our company also span a wide age range. As in any corporation, you'll find individual contributors (especially the younger ones) who exhibit some of the ladder-climbing aspects that Ms. Trunk would have you believe are associated only with boomer managers.

Ms. Trunk quotes Laura Shelton, author of "The NeXt Revolution: What Gen X Women Want at Work and How Their Boomer Bosses Can Help Them Get It":

"Don't sit in a job with a baby boomer boss who doesn't get it. Vote with your feet."

Good advice for anyone who does not feel valued in their job for any reason.

There will always be people in any work environment who are more interested in the rewards associated with climbing the ladder than those associated with simply doing a good job while plying your craft. And when those people are managers, this can certainly translate into a poor work environment for that manager's employees. But this has nothing to with age as much as the corporate culture that rewards management for that behavior.

Bizarre weather

2006-01-18T17:53:00.000-05:00

I've lived in New England for almost 30 years, and I thought I'd seen some weird weather. But the last couple of weeks have been truly weird. It's January, and last week the temperatures were in the 40s and 60s only to plummet to the single digits a couple of days ago. Today it was around 50 with fierce wind, rain, and sleet. And in the middle of that, the sun peeked through for about 5 minutes.

Bizah!

Worst Job Ever

2005-12-01T15:25:00.000-05:00

Wow this is funny. Be sure to watch it 'til the end for the punchline.

WARNING: lots of profanity. Close your door if you're listening to this at work!

(via Sami)

Happy Birthday Dad

2005-11-19T17:20:00.000-05:00

My father passed away in May, 2004. Today would have been his 71st birthday.

Happy Birthday Dad...

Dilbert

2005-11-13T19:52:00.000-05:00

I'm sure every high-tech worker has on occasion wondered whether Scott Adams (the author/illustrator of the Dilbert comic strip) has hidden a Webcam somewhere in his or her company (especially if they work for a large corporation).

I found today's strip particularly scary...

The role of chickens in software engineering

2005-11-13T19:43:00.000-05:00

Hmmm... Both Sami and Pete have recently posted chicken-related anecdotes related to software engineering. I definitely have worked on projects and with some engineers that turned out to be turkeys. But that's as far as the poultry connection goes. Sami and Pete are great engineers and so I'm wondering if I missed something in my programming education...

Those nutty insurance guys

2005-11-01T09:53:00.000-05:00

From the "what'll they think of next" department. Slashdot reports that some insurance companies are now offering "open source insurance" to protect companies that "accidentally" violate the terms of an open source license.

The French really know how to have a good time...

2005-10-25T10:29:00.000-04:00

...and have tought me well :-)

The picture lost some detail when I scaled it down.
That's a Jeraboam of really excellent Bordeaux in case you were wondering. This was taken at my wife's family reunion in Hossegor 2 Summers ago. There were two magnums of Bordeaux in addition to this.

Interfaces or Classes in APIs?

2005-10-22T14:21:00.000-04:00

Last week some colleagues and I were debating the use of interfaces vs. classes in API design. Believe it or not, this conversation started because "it had been decided" that we would not adopt the convention of beginning interface names with the letter 'I'. The reason was that this was redundant because all arguments and return values for all API methods for a service should be interfaces and not classes. And so the debate began. Should we use interfaces or classes?

I think the answer is both. Value objects passed into methods or returned from methods can be either classes or interfaces. If you assume that the service (API) you're designing can itself have different implementations, then you should use interfaces for parameters that can have different implementations that are tied to specific implementations of that service. However, in some cases, a method will include a parameter that is a simple "struct" that might be used to modify the behavior of the method. For example, for a "lister" method, you might pass in an object that determines how many values should be returned or whether you want a deep listing of a hierarchical structure. These parameters might as well be defined as concrete classes. There's really nothing to be gained by allowing alternate implementations here.

In general, I like the pattern in which you use a factory to get a specific implementation of a service. That service implementation then acts as a factory that returns other objects that might also be used as factories for additional objects. A good example of this is the Eclipse resource hierarchy. You start by getting an IWorkspaceRoot from which you can get other containers such as IFolder or IProject's from which you can get IFolder's or IFile's and so on.

And yes, I'd prefer to prefix interface names with 'I' even if in some cases it's redundant.

I can't wait for the debate on Collections vs. Arrays...

Dare to be Wrong

2005-10-18T22:05:00.000-04:00

Some number of years ago, I had started a new software project and I was stuck. I didn't even know where to begin much less understand what design choices to make. I was talking to a former boss (and still good friend) of mine and he gave me some of the most important advice of my career: "dare to be wrong". It seems so obvious now. Start in a direction and see where it takes you. If you run into a roadblock, back up and start again. This one phrase also embodies some well-known concepts in software engineering: iterative design, refactoring, agility.

Unfortunately, this advice only works if the environment in which you work allows it. I found this out the hard way when I joined a very large project at a very large company. The bottom line was that there just wasn't the time to be wrong. Actually, there was lots of time to be wrong--just not enough time to make it right. Coming in one day to find out that 3 other teams you didn't even know existed have decided to call the initial version of the API you just checked in to source control doesn't allow you the time to be wrong. Refactoring in an extremely large, distributed environment is at best difficult and often impossible.

At one point in this project, even the lead architects had to admit that we had done a lot wrong. The entire architecture was a house of cards waiting to fall. So almost an entire release was devoted to "refactoring", a misuse of the term that would probably make Martin Fowler physically ill. What was even worse was that rather than present this to the team as a good and healthy thing, the leadership of this project reiterated (almost daily) that we had lost a lot of "points" with senior management and this would not be allowed to happen again. How misguided... This was a very young project and the fact that we hadn't gotten all of the design right should have been expected.

Software engineers and managers need to be honest with themselves and their management and embrace "dare to be wrong". It avoids "analysis paralysis" and is healthy for employees, the process, and the project/product itself.

Sue is blogging!

2005-10-16T17:10:00.000-04:00

My friend Sue Senator has started a blog. Check it out!

I may not be able to resist any longer...

2005-10-12T14:41:00.000-04:00

Apple unveils the new video iPod

Must...not...reach...for...credit...card....

Google Calculator

2005-10-12T08:42:00.000-04:00

I just discovered this. You can type a mathematical term in English into Google and it will invoke Google Calculator. For example, I typed in "2 to the 6th" and Google returned:

		2 to the 6th = 64
		More about calculator.

You can also do unit conversions like "2 cups in liters" which returns:

		2 US cups = 0.473176475 liters
		More about calculator.

So cool. And yes, maybe I have been living under a rock...

Autism Book

2005-09-26T19:36:00.000-04:00

I recently finished reading Making Peace with Autism by Susan Senator-- a wonderful book about one family's experiences raising an autistic child. Sue and her husband Ned are good friends of mine. Because of this, I read this book on a number of levels.

A beautifully and sensitively written account of the day-to-day challenges involved in raising a disabled child. It's also a great resource for parents of autistic children or for those who may yet have an autistic child or a child with any disability for that matter. Sue is very open about the stress she endured and continues to endure because of these challenges. But she tempers that with advice on how to deal with various situations that family's might encounter.

Reading a book that details the lives of people you actually know can be a bit unsettling. I'm ashamed to say that there are things I didn't know about Ned and Sue that I learned only by reading this book. I remember getting to a certain chapter and saying to myself, "Oh, here's where I first got to know Ned and Sue", only to realize that I didn't know half of what was going on in their lives at that time and later. Sue writes about a period during which their son Nat was suffering from a sleep disorder which caused the rest of the family to lose sleep. I can remember thinking on a number of occasions that Ned looked very tired. But I had just assumed that he had been up late writing code (Ned is a software engineer who absolutely loves to write code).

I never realized the challenges with which Ned and Sue were confronted on a day-to-day basis. At work, Ned always seemed in command and able to concentrate completely on his job. On the occasions I was invited to their home, Sue always seemed more concerned about her guests than any behavioral problems Nat might exhibit. I remember thinking that Nat's excellent behavior must be due to some real effort on Ned and Sue's part and some excellent educational programs they must have found for Nat. But this book really opened my eyes to the amount of effort they had to expend to achieve this and the difficulty in finding the right programs for Nat.

As an aside, I always knew that Ned was a real family man and so I'd like to relate a story about Ned that didn't appear in the book and maybe even Sue doesn't know.

Ned and I worked at a company called Iris Associates ( the makers of Lotus Notes) which was a division of Lotus Development. Every January, Lotus would hold a big conference called LotusSphere which took place at Disney World. That particular year, we were all given Motorola text pagers that we could use to send messags and receive email. These pagers ended up becoming very useful in setting up various extracurricular activities during the week. On the last day of this conference, a number of us happened to have some free time so we rented these little motorboats that you could putt around the lake in. We were all having a great time except for Ned. One of Ned's kids (I don't remember which one) had come down with a fever and Ned was pretty upset about it. He really wanted to be home with his family instead of in a tiny boat at Disney World. But then Ned received an email from Sue on his pager. His son's fever had broken and everything was OK. Ned's whole face brightened and he ended up having a lot of fun for the rest of the day. That's the kind of caring family man Ned is.

Making Peace with Autism is just a beautiful book both in style and in Sue's honesty and her sincere desire to improve the lives of autistic individuals and their families. I highly recommend it even even for those who are not raising a child with disabilities.

Don Adams

2005-09-26T18:59:00.000-04:00

Don Adams passed away yesterday. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last 35 years or so (or are much younger than I am), Don Adams was the star of the comedy series Get Smart--an absolutely brilliant sitcom of the late-60s written by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. I loved this show even before I got all the Brooksian psuedo-Judaic humor. I can remember my father doing a wonderful imitation of Maxwell Smart. "Would you believe...it's bedtime?".

I loved the opening credits in which Maxwell Smart made his way through multiple door configurations to finally wind up at the telephone booth that would drop him into CONTROL headquarters with all the flair of Batman on the batpole. I loved his arch-nemesis Siegfried and his sidekick Starker, Hymie the robot, Harry Hoo, The "Craw" and of course, the lovely Agent 99.

Rest in peace Don Adams...

Favorite Albert Einstein joke

2005-09-18T19:32:00.000-04:00

How do you get an elephant into a black hole? That’s the easy part. Try getting him out.

911

2005-09-12T20:14:00.000-04:00

I wasn't around yesterday or I would have posted this sooner...

Not surprisingly, I was thinking back on the events of September 11. I remember it vividly. Just a week earlier, I had been "furloughed" from the startup at which I had been working. "Furlough" is a euphemism for "we're circling the drain and so we're laying you off. But if someone finds a plunger strong enough to suck us back out of that drain, we'll give you a call." My friend Ned was the only one of us kept on to make the product we had built do whatever a customer or company willing to acquire us wanted it to do.

I woke up on September 11 and immediately turned on NBC to see what what was new with Katie Couric that morning. She was reporting that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade towers and was wondering whether there was some problem with air traffic control in that area.

Ned was at work so I IM'ed him the news over Yahoo Messenger. As events unfolded, I gave Ned a play-by-play account of what was going on. I can remember typing, "Oh my God, another plane has hit the other tower" and "Now they think that this might be a terrorist attack!" Months later I was devastated to find out that I had inadvertently deleted the log file of that entire IM conversation. That's something I really would like to have kept around and looked at from time to time.

My friend Andrew was on his honeymoon in Europe and ended up being stranded there for quite a while until the planes starting flying again. I was able to contact him a couple of times via IM as he was able to find an Internet cafe in Spain.

Later on that day I realized that my father sometimes drove to downtown New York for meetings. It took me a while to reach my mother and when I finally did, I learned that he indeed had a meeting scheduled for that morning downtown and my mother had not yet heard from him. Luckily, my father had gotten a late start and by the time he reached the city, they had already begun closing the roads and he had to turn back.

Since I was unemployed, the day before I had sent out a networking email to friends of mine asking whether any of them knew of any job openings. This included friends at Sun Microsystems. It was then that I found out that a former boss of mine, Phil Rosenzweig had been on American Airlines flight 11. If this event hadn't been quite real for me, it became real at that point. A short time later, I attended a memorial service for Phil attended by hundreds of friends and well-wishers. Limousine 18, the limo service that had taken Phil (and me) to the airport so many times offerred to provide free shuttle service from a nearby parking lot to the synagogue. Just one example of the numerous small acts of kindness that were so prevalent at the time.

So here we are 4 years later with our country reeling from another disaster. This time, an attack of nature as opposed to an attack by terrorists. All of this makes one feel a lot less secure even while living in the "most powerful nation on Earth..."

Matt's Blogging

2005-08-19T19:51:00.000-04:00

My friend and coworker Matt Hatem has started a blog. Welcome to the Blogsphere Matt!

Brownie Points

2005-08-17T09:15:00.000-04:00

Dave has posted yet another wonderful missive on the politics of software development referencing the classic work, The Mythical Man-Month. Wonderful insights that are all too often part of our reality.

Aye, there's the rub

2005-08-09T22:19:00.000-04:00

Food is a funny thing. One person's run-of-the-mill staple is another's gourmet delicacy. When I'm in France, I pretty much eat everything in sight. Food genuinely seems to taste better and there are many things you just can't get in the States. I think my wife's French relatives find this pretty amusing. On more than one occasion, they've pointed at something I'm ooh-ing and ah-ing over and ask with a certain amount of disbelief, "You really can't get this at home?"

So when I cook over there, I try to make things that, for them, are a bit out of the ordinary. Last year, I made a grilled butterflied leg of lamb. I asked my wife's aunt to order a boneless leg of lamb from her good friend the butcher. This caused a whole stir. "How can he cook a leg of lamb like that? It's not flat!" I explained how you butterfly the leg of lamb and my aunt-in-law agreed to order the lamb albeit with a dubious expression that was so...French.

But the real kicker here was that I decided to use a spice rub. This is a risky proposition in France. The French palate tends to be a bit more delicate than the American so you have to be careful with the spices. I had brought along my favorite Lysander's Rub, which I used on the lamb. They loved it. This year, I brought some more rub and made the grilled lamb twice. Now that I've gotten the hang of the grill, it was even better than last year's!

That one packet of Lysander's Rub made it to the other family house where they also loved it. They then found something called "Barbeque Rub" in the local supermarket but had to admit that it didn't compare. It had numerous artificial ingredients and tasted like "badly flavored potato chips" according to cousin Anne.

The bar keeps getting higher. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next summer...

20Q goes to France

2005-08-06T11:03:00.000-04:00

Back in June, Bob blogged about the handheld version of 20Q. It was also reviewed back in May on Cool Tools. This is a little device that plays a game of 20 questions (actually, it's 25 questions). You think of an object and it asks you questions until it arrives at the answer.

So we decided to get a few of these to hand out as gifts to my wife's relatives in France all of whom love games. And we figured this would also help some of the kids with their English. The 20Qs turned out to be big hits both with the adults and kids. Here's a picture of some of the family using it.

The accuracy of this thing was pretty impressive. I'd say it correctly figured out the answer over 90% of the time.

Highly recommended.

Brian, Sha, and Luke's Excellent Adventure

2005-08-02T20:16:00.000-04:00

As promised, I've posted a bunch of pictures from our most recent trip to Hossegor, France. I suppose this is really more for the benefit of my family, but maybe this will give you just a taste of a wonderful vacation spent with family in a very special place.

Click here to see the photos.

Bob has left the building...

2005-07-28T08:21:00.000-04:00

My good friend and colleague Bob Congdon has decided to leave our company. He and his family are moving to Washington state where Bob will be taking a position at Microsoft.

Bob and I have worked together off and on for about the past 8 years. He's one of the finest software engineers I know and I've learned an amazing amount from him. I'll miss that. I'll also miss our morning coffee and afternoon lunch chats. Given the time difference between here and there, maybe we'll be able to combine my lunch chat with his coffee chat via IM ;-).

This is quite the career move for Bob (and his family) and I'm very pleased that he's finally found a company that recognizes his considerable talents, will treat him with the respect that he so richly deserves, and hopefully will provide him with challenging and rewarding work.

Best of luck Bob!

Well, I'm back...

2005-07-24T13:13:00.000-04:00

That's what Samwise Gamgee said at the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. For Sam, it was like he was returning home from another world. My family and I just returned from our yearly Summer vacation in Hossegor, France (see my previous post about Hossegor). I feel a lot like Sam did. Although Sam's adventures were certainly no vacation, for me, immersing myself in French culture for almost 3 weeks is like being in another world. And returning to the USA and work will require a bit of an adjustment. More comments on our vacation including pictures in subsequent posts.

Bonjour ma famille francaise!

Today is my Wedding Anniversary

2005-06-17T07:52:00.000-04:00

My wife Sha and I have been married for 16 years today. And what do we have to show for it?

A wonderfully supportive relationship without which I would be completely lost.

Our beautiful son Lucas.

All of those other intangible things that make up a marriage that you don't think about every day, but that I'll be spending a good portion of today reflecting upon.

Happy Anniversary Sha!

Happy Birthday Ned!

2005-06-16T14:53:00.000-04:00

Today is my friend Ned's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NED!!!

Turducken

2005-06-12T22:39:00.000-04:00

My wife and I were at a dinner party this evening and someone mentioned a dish called Turducken. I'd like to think that I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to food, but I had never heard of this. Turns out it's a cajun roast made by stuffing a boneless turkey with a boneless duck, which is in turn stuffed with a boneless chicken. Isn't this illegal in most states? ;-)

But seriously, anyone out there ever tried this? It sounds pretty bizarre.

I know what I did last summer

2005-06-07T19:58:00.000-04:00

And I'll be doing it again...

For the past few years, my family and I have spent a few weeks each summer in a small resort town in the Southwest of France called Hossegor. Most Americans have probably never heard of it. I certainly hadn't. But my wife's family has had summer houses there for many years. In fact, I think my wife's Grandfather bought the first house some time in the 1930s. There are now two houses and my mother-in-law owns one.

Before my son Luke was born, we'd go there occasionally to visit the family. In recent years we've gone every July since my son was 9 months old so he could get to know his French cousins. It's really a wonderful vacation. On any given day, the most important decisions to be made are: what time to get up, what time to go to the beach, what time to come back from the beach, and what to have for lunch and dinner. And, being in France, the lunches and dinners are magnifique!

I have a real appreciation for good food--French food in particular. And my wife's family quickly came to appreciate that appreciation. I also like to cook, although in France I do so with great trepidation. My mother-in-law and her sister are fantastic cooks. Needless to say, cooking for 6 to 8 (and sometimes more) French people can be intimidating. So I tend to stick to cooking things that French people would find unusual--typically on the grill.

For years the grill at the house consisted of a few bricks and a metal grate. So I decided a while ago that I wanted to get a "real" grill for the house. Two years ago, my wife and I searched high and low for a good grill. But I couldn't find anything I liked. All of the grills seemed kind of flimsy and pricey. And then on the last day of our vacation, on the drive to the train we were taking to Paris, we saw it: a store in the small town of St. Vincent de Tyrosse. And in front of that store was a giant banner with just one name written on it. A name that I never expected to see in France. A name that almost brought tears to my eyes. That's right, the sign read:

But there was more. Underneath that sign was a sign that read "soldes," which is the French word for "sale"!! But alas it was too late. Our vacation was over. But we promised ourselves that we'd return to St. Vincent the following year to buy a grill.

And so we did. We ended up paying about twice what we'd pay in the States, but we were on a mission! And it was worth it.

Here's a picture of my first attempt cooking sausages.

The sausages came out great. And my eyebrows have mostly grown back ;-)

And here's a photo we just received from a few of the French cousins in anticipation of our return in July

Isn't that nice? Note the empty bottle of Absolut Vodka on top of the grill, representing martinis past and future...

Divertor

2005-06-03T15:24:00.000-04:00

Bob reminded me about this short cartoon yesterday. It's absolutely hilarious.

Warning! Contains brief (almost indiscernible really) cartoon nudity

The cathartic value of after-work drinking

2005-06-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

And speaking of martinis...

I get together for drinks with a group of colleagues once a week after work. There's a restaurant directly across the street with a large bar at which we've become regulars. Jamie (bartender par excellence) sometimes has our drinks on the table even before we've sat down. I feel a Cheers moment coming on...

We used to call this the "Thursday Evening Drinking Club." But some (mostly the single ones) ended up there a bit more frequently and so "Thursday" really became more of a euphemism. And on certain days, some of us were so fed up with work that we ended up there a bit earlier than could be justifiably called "evening." Eventually we started referring to the destination by nicknames such as "WTF6" or "The Hall of Justice." I can't really explain the "WTF6" without giving away information about where I work. And you never know what a company considers confidential information these days. For all I know, the fact that many of us are driven to drink by the environment in which we work might be considered proprietary ;-)

But I digress...

We meet every week for reasons you can probably guess: to bitch about work. We do talk about other things, but the discussion invariably returns to work. I think most of us find these "meetings" quite therapeutic. You gets to vent a bit and also know that others are going through the same thing. And sometimes you find out that some folks are not going through the same thing, which gives you hope. Support and advice on how to deal with various situations at work is also plentiful. But even more important are the people. I work with a lot of great engineers who I like very much and who also happen to be great people. And most of these folks show up every Thursday evening at the "HOJ." Since many of us work on different teams, it's one of the few opportunities for all of us to get together to shoot the...breeze.

I really look forward to this time every week. And the martinis are pretty good too...

180 Degree Martini Bar

2005-06-01T19:53:00.000-04:00

Oh I have to have this! Actually, I guess I need a place to put it first. I really like martinis. Not the nouvelle frou-frou martinis, but your classic vodka or gin martini...very dry. I acquired a taste for martinis from my parents. Hmmm, my mother lives in Arizona. This might work really well next to the pool and jacuzzi! Mom, can I have this? Please, can I...

Deep Throat

2005-05-31T22:44:00.000-04:00

It looks like Deep Throat has finally come forward. I don't know why, but I consider this a really big deal even after all this time. It's one of the great unsolved mysteries (in my lifetime anyway). Recently, I've been feeling that a confluence of certain events is leading to something even bigger. I mean, no more Star Wars, no more Star Trek, Deep Throat is revealed... What's next? Will we finally find out who Carly Simon was writing about in "You're So Vain"?

Restaurant review: Great Bay

2005-05-29T23:18:00.000-04:00

I'm a foodie. I love cooking and eating (well, mostly eating). If I see something on the menu that I've never tried or better yet never even heard of, that's what I'm most likely to choose. My dream is to one day become financially independent enough to stop working for a while and study at one of the culinary institutes like the Cordon Bleu or the CIA. So I figured one good use of this blog would be the occasional food/restaurant review.

In our younger days, my wife and I would eat at restaurants quite a bit. This was in the early 80s when "nouvelle American" was all the rage. Since our son was born, we've had to curtail those activities a bit but when the opportunity arises (like tonight, when my son had a sleepover at a friend's house), we logged on to Open Table to see what was available. We decided on Great Bay in Kenmore Square in Boston.

Great Bay is in the relatively new Hotel Commonwealth. It's a beautiful restaurant in a wide-open space big enough to accommodate enough tables for a hotel restaurant while still ensuring that the tables are spaced far enough apart for an intimate dining experience. We were there on a Sunday night and so it was fairly quiet. I'm not sure what the noise level would be on a busy Saturday evening.

We were immediately brought to our table, which turned out not to be to our liking since it was somewhat close to a service station. The hostess very pleasantly agreed to seat us at another table. Big points for that one. I had my usual Chopin martini, which was perfectly made. For appetizers, my wife had a fresh corn soup and I had a red curry and lobster soup. Both of these were out of this world. The corn soup was sweet and smooth as silk. The curry lobster soup was rich and had just the right amount of kick for me. Some folks might find it a bit on the spicy side. My wife then ordered the golden trout and I had the sea scallops. Both dishes were perfectly done. These might have been the best scallops I've ever had. Perfectly seared on the outside and creamy on the inside. I was in heaven.

One thing on the menu that initially confused us was a reference to a "full island menu" that was available on request. At first we just thought that "island" referred to something from the Caribbean or Hawaii. Turns out that "island" refers to their raw/ceviche bar that is attached to the bar like a kitchen island.

The waitstaff was very attentive and professional and the meal was perfectly paced. This is not an inexpensive restaurant. I'd say that an average dinner for two (excluding drinks, wine, and tip) would come to about $90. Add back in drinks, wine and tip and you're approaching the $200 range. In general, hotel restaurants tend to be a bit more expensive but I'd have to say that this restaurant was well worth it.

Highly recommended.

There's something in the hair...

2005-05-28T13:22:00.000-04:00

My wife, Sha, is of French extraction. Her mother is from Bordeaux and her father was French-Canadian. Both of her parents taught French and spoke French at home, so Sha was raised bilingually. She speaks French just about as well as she speaks English and both with no accent. I've become quite a francophile in the 20+ years I've known my wife and can speak a little French. Not well enough given the 7 years of French I took starting in the 5th grade...

I've always been amused at the inadvertent slips of the tongue that can occur when you're speaking a foreign language. I don't even want to know what silly things I've said when speaking with Sha's relatives.

I also work with two Frenchmen. Sylvain has been in the states for quite a while and speaks English better than I do. Philippe recently moved to the US to work on the same project I do. His English is excellent but sometimes he accidentally says something pretty amusing either because he uses the wrong word or phrase or pronounces something with a French accent.

A couple of days ago, we had a pretty funny conversation because of this. We were discussing French food--specifically saucisson, which is a French sausage. Because of customs regulations, you can't bring saucission from France into this country. But some people manage to sneak it in. Not that I'm condoning that practice mind you... Anyway, I was discussing this with Philippe and he said, "You have to bring the ones in the packages without the hair." Without the hair? Huh? Is this some sort of authentic way of packaging saucisson of which I was not aware? Have I been eating inauthentic saucisson all these years? After some discussion, I finally figured out that he was talking about saucisson in cryovac packaging and what he was really saying was, "you have to bring the ones in the packages without the air."

J'aime les francais! ;-)

Revenge of the Sith

2005-05-27T06:26:00.000-04:00

OK. I saw it. First off, I LOVED IT! But I'm a complete sucker for well done escapist movies. Especially when they're sci-fi escapist movies. And even more so when they're Star Wars sci-fi escapist movies. I also agree with much of Ned's take on this movie. Some of it seemed contrived and way too easy. Especially how readily Anakin embraced the Dark Side. This should have been a setup for Luke feeling the good in his father in Episode 6 but there just wasn't anything there.

Warning: I'm going to give away a scene that happens toward the end of the movie so don't read the next paragraph if you don't want to know...

Interestingly, one scene I found absolutely gut-wrenching was one in which you could see no facial expressions. It was immediately after Anakin is fitted with his Darth Vader suit and the first thing he says in the James Earl Jones/Darth Vader voice is "where's Padme?" That really got me.

A question many parents want answered is whether they should bring their young Star Wars fans to see ROTS. I guess it depends on your child. My son Luke (no, we didn't name him after that Luke) is 8 1/2 years old and many of his friends have already seen it. My wife and I have decided that Luke won't be going to see this movie. He's way too sensitive. There's quite a bit of violence both explicit and implicit that I don't think he'd deal with very well. And even though he completely understands that nice Anakin transforms into bad Darth Vader, I think he'd be having nightmares for weeks about this. I think I'm going to be having nightmares about this... When I explained (without giving too much away) why I didn't want him to see ROTS, he said, "Maybe we should wait until it comes out on DVD". I agree...

Grand Canyon

2005-05-24T13:01:00.000-04:00

For Spring vacation, we usually visit my mother in Phoenix, AZ. This year we decided to combine that with a trip to the Grand Canyon. My wife and son and I had never been. Now I'm not typically overwhelmed by natural phenomena, but this was truly amazing. I had been warned by friends that there "just aren't the words" to describe the Grand Canyon and they were right. It was truly awe-inspiring.

To make it even more special, we took the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams, AZ to the Grand Canyon National Park. This is just a fantastic way to get to the Grand Canyon without driving. This also helps reduce the traffic congestion that occurs for most of the spring and summer at the Grand Canyon as well. My mother joined us and we got a package deal that included 2 nights stay at the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel, first-class train tickets, a bus tour at the Grand Canyon, and some meals. The food was nothing to write home about but I survived.

The hotel is definitely geared towards families as is the train. My 8 1/2 year old had a great time. Before you leave, they stage a Western-style shootout and on the train, you're serenaded by various musicians. On the way to the GC, we had a Native American man singing traditional (and some not-so-traditional), Native American songs. On the way back, a fiddler stopped by to play everything from Irish jigs to Black Sabbath. Also on the return trip, they stage a train hold-up which was a lot of fun.

I highly recommend taking the Grand Canyon Railway as part of a trip to the Grand Canyon. You can see some pictures from our trip here.

My father

2005-05-23T21:52:00.000-04:00

Many of my friends and colleagues have been asking me for a while when I'd be creating a blog. I never really had much interest. Besides, I was too busy reading other people's blogs to devote any time to my own.

But I started thinking about creating a blog more seriously as a certain anniversary approached. My father passed away one year ago yesterday. He passed away suddenly and at way too young an age. My father was a very creative person. He was a very good artist and an excellent amateur photographer. And so almost one year later I found myself thinking about something creative I could do to celebrate his life. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit his artistic gifts. My sister (and now it appears her daugher Leigha) was the lucky recipient. But I'm a geek. I like techie things. I write software for a living. That's my art. But this is not the type of art that's easy to share with others.

But then I also realized that my father was a techie too. He loved playing with his computer and calling me up to ask me why they didn't make these things easier for people to use. He also had a penchant for home automation. He had set up BSR X-10 units to control the lighting in his house which drove my mother crazy. We used to joke that you couldn't turn on a light in that house without an instruction manual.

So I decided that creating a blog was a good techie thing to do and about as artistic an endeavor as I'm capable of. A short time after my father died, I created a Web site as a sort of tribute to him. It contains a number of cards and letters my family received in the days following his death. I hope to add some of his photos to the site soon to balance the rememberances of his death with those of his life.

And from time to time I might post some additional thoughts of my own about my father...

My first posting

2005-05-23T21:47:00.000-04:00

This is my first blog posting. This blog is still somewhat under construction so please bear with me as I spruce it up a bit, add RSS feeds, and all that fun stuff.