Month: August 2015

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Inside the life of a programmer

Some days require the environment be just right for productivity. Today, I need a darkened room, incense burning, attire that doesn’t include button down anything, bare feet, herbal tea, and very, very loud cyberpunk music. Instead, I am in Cubeville. Florescent lights burn through my eyes searing my brain. The glare is so harsh. A din of conversations float over cube walls as ambient noise but not soothing as white noise, oceans, or rain. Interruptions are imminent. Such is the live of a programmer.

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Goodbye Ultimate Boot CD

Throughout the years of helping people fix their computers, one of the handiest tools in my armory was the Ultimate Boot CD. Not this one, although I did use that version often, but this one. I had an huge number of other tools EBCD, hacker tools, some websites common Joe has no reason to know exist, knowledge and experience, and an impressive Internet searching ability (a little understanding of boolean logic goes a long way). Them: "I don’t know my administrative password." Me: "No problem." Well, perhaps a 30 second delay. Anyhow, I’ve decided to upgrade my last functioning Windows box (Windows 7) to Windows 10. See, all those Linux boxes, and Windows boxes (at one time I had 5 physical machines under my desk, several dual booted to different OSes, and virtual machines on the Linux box…I even had a laptop that I could boot to Windows 3.1, wait a min, I still have that.) have been scraped and sent to e-waste as my home has become a shrine to Steve Jobs as we became fully indoctrinated into the Cult of Mac. As the Windows 10 installer inspects my Windows 7 machine, it discovers UBDC4Win 3.60 and declares that it MUST be removed as incompatible for the installation to continue. With some sadness, not dissimilar to when your goldfish dies, I approved the uninstall. (I still have the iso of the last UBCD I built so I haven’t completely crippled myself.)

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Changing habits

Humans…we get in ruts because we like consistency. Change is good but for the most part, we silly humans despise change.

An eon ago I traveled to Dallas for consulting work. While there, my friend and I would tour mansions being built. (I grew up exploring houses under construction. I love the smell of the wood and imagining the final design.) I noted how the millionaires all seemed to have bedrooms with his and her (separate) bathrooms connected to the bedroom. These bathrooms were HUGE and often were part of a walk-in closet that is comparable in size to one of my children’s bedroom. This creates the opportunity for one of the couple to awaken, go into the closet/bathroom, closet the door, groom and get dressed without disturbing their domestic partner.

I awake before my wife. I try to be as respectful and quiet as possible. She interprets this as me trying my damnedest to wake her with loud talking to myself, banging, clanging, cursing, and spotlights…bright, bright, fiery lights. I use my cellphone to guide myself through the darkened room sometimes having to turn on the flashlight, go into the closet, close the door, turn on the lights, … you get the picture. I glance over at my sleeping beauty and she’s pulled covers and pillows over her head. I grimace but repeat the process the next day and the day after that and so on.

A couple of days ago, I thought I should begin my day by setting everything I need out the night before. This is a productivity habit that I should be ingraining in my children and exercising in my life anyway. This morning, I glanced at the wife with pillow over head and redoubled my commitment to really think about changing my habits. Then I arrived at work and eventually went to the restroom. Glancing in the mirror, I see a guy looking back at me in an orange button down shirt that goes nicely with the black pinstriped dress pants, and…the brown belt. I find it striking and out of place. My new habit begins tonight! (Now I just need a much larger house so I can have one of those his/her bathrooms and one of those clothing valets that you use to hang the next day’s clothing.)