You made it! Thanks for visiting.
Hello again! My blog is back, so I'm sure that's exciting for all 14 of you who noticed that it was missing. You may also notice that the site looks considerably different than previous iterations. It has taken me some time to get this going again because I've again switched CMSs - this time, from modx to Drupal. Both have their positives, but we use Drupal a lot for work, so it was a no-brainer to use that for my personal sites.
I found the book laugh-out-loud hilarious at some (many) points. Being a developer myself, some of the characters (or should I say caricatures?) were spot-on. When I tried to explain some of it to my girlfriend (non-technical), she said, "I don't get it...what's so funny?" The overall plot was an interesting one, although the timelines were (perhaps necessarily) compressed - a company of 5 people might not actually be able to put together a full-featured government portal like this one, and successfully pitch it as fast as they did.
Basically I really liked this book. Like, I missed my stop on the subway when reading it. I thought there was some trail off at the end, and it could use another edit, but especially for something self-published it was great. It was incredibly funny and reminded me of "microserfs" by doug coupland and "Company" by Max Barry. I highly recommend it to anyone who has worked in a techie office.
I would clarify, I think, because I liked the characters so much, any ending would have sucked, you know? Because it's an ending!
... it doesn't take a super sci-fi buff to see the potential implications of an Internet superpower and the American government operating out of people's homes hand in hand. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine having a serious love jones while trying to begin a new chapter in the world of technology. With the recent Internet chatter that has been surfacing about larger, more powerful Internet companies the book's message appears to be eerily relevant.
Here you go:
- " ... a great writing style, and I always appreciate a dose of subtle cynicism in anything I read."
- "The book was a humorous take on the corporate world, the stress, the relocation, the robot-type of requirement to fit it."
- " ... had me laughing out loud."
There's more on the reviews page!
For those of you who are unfortunate enough to be up ridiculously early Sunday morning, I will be appearing on WHAS-11 in Louisville, Ky., sometime around 7:10 a.m. to discuss "The Developers." I'm not sure what I'll say about it, but maybe I'll juggle, since it's silly to juggle while on the radio.
It's hard to ever say never, especially when it comes to email. The advice committee decided 4-1 that while cussing online isn't necessarily a good thing, it can come in handy every once in awhile. Click here to read the final opinions.
If you need advice about something, and you, too, think many mainstream columnists don't understand today's world, email the Good Advice Committee. Surely we'll come up with something you can use to justify your position ... there's five of us!
Spam has arrived, so much so that it is now more widely ignored than ever before. People in general, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life project, receive more spam but don't seem to care too much about it.
A recent PC World article shows that the main reasons people don't see spam as a threat is because the volume of messages has decreased, along with the fact that people are becoming more knowledgeable regarding spam.
Although my summer signing schedule is pretty light, I will be in Gaithersburg, Md., in July for "The Developers." The event will take place at 2 p.m. July 8 at the Barnes and Noble (21 Grand Corner Ave.). I hope to discuss this book, as well as my new project, "Polos to Ties," which is keeping me mostly off the book tour circuit this year.
In the web world, an upgrade is usually a thing of joy and agony. On one hand, you want to have the latest and greatest, but on the other, there are usually so many hoops to jump through that it can oftentimes be better to wait until the last minute.
I guess in this case, I'm a little late to the game with Drupal 9, but I've finally upgraded this site - all the way to 9.1 with the Gutenberg editor. Now it is time to dance.