"Murphy was an optimist!"
The early bird gets…tired December 18, 2006 3:01 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeNothing quite like getting up at 2am to get to work. Particularly when multiple deadlines loom and none of them look promising. I’d rather be hiding in bed right now.
add a commentWhat’s your office look like? December 17, 2006 6:57 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Of Being Dad
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Yes. Much room for improvement…
Update: You can now click the picture for a larger view.
6commentsSanta Isn’t At the North Pole! December 17, 2006 4:36 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Christmas, Daily Life, Family, Health, Holiday, MentalSanta Claus actually lives in central London! Here’s sending out a special thank you to a special person across the pond who has spread a some extra Christmas cheer to our children at just the right time! Merry Christmas!
add a commentDecember 16, 2006 2:17 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : UncategorizedI am the happiest sad person in the world
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We ain’t completely cityfied yet December 16, 2006 12:12 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Environment, Of Interest
On the drive home from getting Tommy from his visit with the grandparents, I spied 3 American Black Vultures feasting on a road kill (see last paragraph). I tried to photograph them with my cellphone but fumbled when the car behind me got irritated and started tooting its horn. I do love seeing interesting wildlife.
add a commentThese are very large birds of prey at 65cm length and with a 1.5m wingspan. Their plumage is mainly glossy black; they have broad wings with white tips, a short tail and a featherless greyish head. In comparison with the Turkey Vulture, the Black Vulture flaps its wings more frequently during flight. … Though not having any natural predators, they have become scarce in some areas due to lack of suitable nesting habitat. [Source]
Fenced-in Irony December 16, 2006 10:40 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Humor, News, Of Interest, Politics, Touchy Subjects, United StatesA Southern California fence building company hired to build some of the fence (stupid! Waste o’ money!) between the US and Mexico has been caught employing…wait for it…illegal aliens!
add a commentDon’t work for free December 16, 2006 10:26 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, HTML, Programming, TechnologyI have this standing rule that I break all too often: Don’t work for free. I had this bad habit of giving too much and asking too little. I like seeing people happy; that is why the stage is so appealing to me. On the stage, you instantly know if the audience is happy and, if they are not responding well, you can change the show on the fly to fit the audience. In the business world, not asking for your worth is a guarantee that you will not survive. The customer is temporarily happy but because you undercharged or over delivered their expectation will not be realistic. For future work, you will either not be around to service them because you went out of business due to not making your expenses, or the future work will appear exorbitantly high since they received so much for so litle from you in their previous experience.
I entertained a phone interview recently. The recruiter had explained that if the interview went well, the company would ask me to write a sample webpage. At the time, I thought this made sense. All creative types should keep a portfolio to demonstrate your worthiness. However, when you start running at the pace that I keep there is little time to manage a portfolio; simply pointing to work you have done is no good because other hands change it. For example, if my job was to paint a mural by the interstate, overnight my artwork could turn into a mess of graffiti. The Internet is very similar. You might make a wonderful site that validates and is Section 508 compliant but the minute your influence is gone from the company you cannot expect that website to stay compliant.
Section 508 requires that electronic and information technology developed, procured, used, or maintained by all agencies and departments of the Federal Government be accessible both to Federal employees with disabilities and to members of the public with disabilities, and that these two groups have equal use of such technologies as federal employees and members of the public that do not have disabilities. [Source]
Doing a sample website could show my skills that portfolio, pages due to time or lack of budget, may not reflect. Like I said, seemed like a good idea at the time. I did have the wherewithal to ask the recruiter if I would have an hourly rate for the sample project…no. When the interviewer got to that part of the phone interview, I was graced with the sample project. "Could you set aside 5 days?" My jaw dropped!
I have a checks and balances when it comes to estimating projects. I have dollar figures defined for lengths of commitments to clients. I do my estimate based on the specification but then I check my standards to see if my estimate is accurate. That means if a client says they need me for a day the estimate should be between $a and $b; if they need me for a week, the estimate should be between $m and $n; and if they need me for a month, the estimate should be between $x and $y. A week generally looks like $dddd.dd.
I mentioned in a chatroom, with ambiguity for client confidentiality, the request to write a sample website and asked if that was common. The online community of chatters responded with outrage stating that a portfolio should be sufficient or that questions in an interview should easily ferret out the developer’s skills. The people speaking are big names in my industry; I could walk through Borders and point to several books written by them. Frankly, they suggested I not consider the company and asked, "if this their expectation in an interview, what will their expectations be as an employer?" They implored me not to do the sample project and reinforced that such a trend could be bad for our industry.
Now in all fairness, I interpret 5 days as "we are giving you five days so that you can show us you can meet a deadline and we understand you have other work to do." The interviewer said that it really shouldn’t be a day’s worth of work (that would look like $ddd.dd). I hope he is right that it doesn’t need the full 5 days otherwise I have already blown the job possibility. This week I also had a small project that turned out to be somewhat painful. Additionally, a client was holding payment while I worked out a bug in an application so that had my focus. I have 3 people waiting on estimates (estimates are the hardest part of my job and they pay $0). I got the go ahead on the next phase of a client’s project. Another client said I could begin working on his project because he is certain the end client will give the go ahead on Monday. And a maintenance client needed me for half a day because their network went down; they also need me to upgrade their accounting software this weekend. Sounds equitable right? Maybe in a perfect world but if you read it again you’ll see that almost none of that pays until down the road (if at all).
I suppose I could have ignored everything except the sample project on the premise that I will nail this job. That would have shown a huge lack of ethics toward my existing clients plus I have assured them that if I step out of consulting or take a long term committed project that I will give them sufficient notice and make sure their work is uninterrupted. This potential job is with a company that I admire. And, if this sample project is indicative of how they organize their actual projects, working with them will be an absolute pleasure. However, I must manage my risk and assume that the job will not come through. I know the interviewer is a big blog reader so I am certain this post will appear in their feed reader. Hopefully it is not read negatively.
add a commentThey walk their own path December 15, 2006 8:04 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Of Being Dad, SarahChoose your battles. Choose your battles. Why so many battles?! Today I gave in and let my 13 year old girl wear a piece of shrink wrap to school today. If she doesn’t tug at it a good 2.5 centimeters of belly and back show. The sleeves have got to chafe her armpits. The boys will certainly know she has breasts. I hope the school chooses to send her home.
Dad: "Did your mother approve your outfit?"
Sarah: "Uh. Yeah."
Dad: "That shirt does not fit."
Sarah: "Yes it does."
Dad: "[Where the sleeves meet the shirt] should be here on your shoulders."
Sarah:"They make them to fit this way!"
Me thinks my girls needs some debate lessons. Think I’ll write a book: "How to win friends and influence people even though I am a bullheaded, know-it-all teenager." I read someone yesterday that lamented that their teen "child" is a young adult trying to prepare to make it in the real world on their own and that we need to give them space to do so. We must let them make mistakes. She can walk her own path but that path will still have laws to be followed. Today she got off with a warning.
English to metric conversion provided by OnlineConversion.com
7commentsPublic School Needs to Change December 15, 2006 6:59 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, HealthI am becoming increasingly down on public schools. I think they are failing. Steve Olson talks about How the Public School System Crushes Souls.
add a commentH20, Radiator, Very Cold Nights — Bad Mojo December 14, 2006 8:48 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Transportation, TravelRemember when I replaced the water pump on the Jeep? Seems I forgot to remove the water and replace it with anti-freeze. Tonight may have been the Jeep’s last ride.
3commentsAmbivalent…sorta December 14, 2006 5:25 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeSometimes I just wish the air would clear briefly. I accomplished today but I still feel so far behind…
add a commentWord Combinations That Don’t Work (and some that do) December 14, 2006 3:19 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Sex, Technology, Touchy SubjectsWords that should never be used in the same thought process: spray-on……penis…..vulcanization
On the other hand, fun and betty seem to just roll off the tongue.
Update: The sun-sentinel apparently archives their articles making the vulcanization link useless. Russ McBee comes to the rescue with his recent Tweet about the spray-on condom.
add a commentJohn McCain to shutdown blogosphere December 14, 2006 8:22 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Blog, Politics, Publishing, Technology, Touchy Subjects, United StatesThe trees thus spoke to the mother wolf, "mother wolf, you must teach your cubs not to be prey." Mother wolf replied to the trees, "But it is your forest, I shall implore the king lion to rule that the trees shall be punished if they do not watch over their own land." The king lion came to the trees, "I have heard mother wolf’s request. I have seen one man do a bad thing therefore I must assume that around every corner lurks a bad man. Mother wolf is too busy napping to watch over her cubs. Since you permit so many bad men to walk your forest, I must make you responsible for her cubs. Every time you let a bad man into your forest, I shall cut down a tree until you are a forest no more."
And John McCain thus spoke for in the name of fear and the safety of the children, any law shall be passed and any law shall be broken. McCain grew tall and his voice boomed, "I need only invoke the words child pornography or terrorism and I become a god!"
- Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000."
- Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face "even stiffer penalties" than ISPs.
- Social networking sites will be forced to take "effective measures" — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is "associated" with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.
[Source]
A crafty man so decided to pursue the American dream and thus spent his life savings on a building downtown from where he could deal his trade. Government propaganda encouraged him by describing "The American Way" only to take his profits with fees, penalties, and unusual taxes; and to overwhelm him with paperwork and legalities. Over time he came in earlier and left later. His family supported him but suffered and his trade turned from pleasure to torment. Vandals started painting graffiti on his building. The government explained that these vandals must be registered, and the business owner must file a report whenever a sex offender paints his building. One day the proprietor overslept. That night the vandals had painted his building with obscenities. On the way to work, the government employee saw the vandalism and took everything the proprietor owned then locked him in prison. The judge explained that the proprietor should have taken down the wall. If we give people the opportunity, certainly they will make the crime. We cannot possibly expect people to be responsible for their own actions under such circumstances!
When he introduced his legislation to the Senate, McCain offered no evidence that children are being victimized by people who post comments on blogs. [Source]
I am greatly bothered by how we are evolving into such a prude society.
Update: Apparently I am about 8 hours behind on this story. See comments here.
3commentsSome videos must be seen – Jerome Murat December 14, 2006 6:14 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Interest, Publishing, VideoThis excellent entertainer is worth the 8:19 of viewing time. So well presented! I can’t describe it without ruining the magic of the video.
1 comment so farScrubs++ December 13, 2006 10:41 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Interest, Scrubs, TV / MoviesSo last night on Scrubs, Zach Braff as Dr. John ‘J.D.’ Dorian is watching television and identifies The Janitor (Neil Flynn) as the transit cop in The Fugitive going on to analysis him as bitter over having to do janitorial work since acting hasn’t worked out. So, not being one to take things at face value, I look up Neil Flynn in the IMBD and sure enough, he was the transit cop that gets shot in The Fugitive! His credits are fairly lengthy including voiceovers in two Ratchet & Clanks (meaning we hear him everday and never knew it), the voice of XR in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and most amusing to me, the janitor in It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.
Kudos to Scrubs and Neil Flynn!
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