For those looking, WordPress.com support on IRC is on the Freenode servers at #wordpress.com while WordPress.org support is on the Freenode servers at #wordpress. #wordpress.com is primarily WordPress.com developers/employees and staff of Automattic while #wordpress is the open source community.
c# Support on IRC is on Freenode
Just for the record, the active IRC server for c# is #csharp on Freenode. I’m sure there are others. I just didn’t find anything on Efnet. I know. Who does Efnet anymore? Old schoolers.
Outlook Dim
I am retiring Outlook as my email client and moving entirely to GMail. I’ve used numerous clients over the years including Fidonet and the other BBS packages (my first email experiences), sendmail at the command line, emacs, cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Outlook, and others I can’t remember. Outlook express isn’t bad if you are simply checking email. If you are doing scheduling, group collaboration, todo lists and the works, then you should be using Outlook (not Express). As much as it goes against my philosophy of "be in control of your content," I think that using an email client and downloading email to your desktop is old school. Collaboration is moving to portals such as BEA’s Plumtree and Microsoft’s SharePoint. Meetings are done online now with Webex, GoToMeeting, Skype (I am djuggler), Adobe’s ConnectNow, and even Microsoft’s instant messenger using ShareView. Communication is being accomplished through instant messengers and in some cases instant messengers are being replaced by services such as Twitter. Text messaging is frequently favored over a voice call as it reduces the urgency of the conversation and can provide additional benefit such as retention of information (if I give you a phone number via voice you have to memorize it or write it down..in a text message the number is stored). I can make argument that email is in its death bed. Much like snail mail and fax, it won’t go away completely but is bound to be ignored in favor of better technologies.
The way we communicate is changing rapidly. Video conferencing over mobile phones was promised by AT&T last fall in the Motorola RARZ v3xx and looks to be delivered on July 11, 2008 with the new iPhones will come sooner than later. Collaborative tools are far more powerful than hording information on single machines. And using third party or server tools to store information makes the information portable and available to you from any computer and any location. A couple of decades ago Bill Gates said the personal computer would evolve into a terminal and all software and data would be managed on network connected servers. He was right.
ps. I didn’t forget IMAP but that’s for a different post.
Note: During my transition from Outlook to Gmail I may overlook some email. If you have emailed me and been ignored, please resend your message as I am having to adjust some email habits in light of the different way Gmail handles email.
Back in the groove
This past week we took the family to Ocean Isle, North Carolina and joined my brother, his wife, and my parents for a week of relaxation. I feel great! I am relaxed and my mind is clear. Time to get back to the grind and try to maintain this peace of mind.
Oh, that’s right, first day back from vacation is like being marinated in blood and thrown in a tank of piranhas…
Before:
After:
Boycotting the AP?
A week of vacation has put me a little out of touch. Am I boycotting the AP?
Ambivalence from Too Much
Ever feel overwhelmed? Sometimes we have too much on our plates and cannot decide what to do. I have just returned from the beach and feel very relaxed. Nonetheless, I look at my desk and my todo list and know that I should be doing something productive. Instead of doing anything, I hid in bed and pondered what to do. It is vicious because the more you think about it the more you can raise your anxiety level and still accomplish nothing. A half an hour later you may still be under those covers having accomplished nothing and still unable to decide what to do.
I don’t want to lose my peace, the relaxed state of being I achieved over this past week. So how do you break this ambivalence? Easy! Achieve and succeed! Pick something small and achievable and do it! You must succeed so make sure the task can be done in a brief time. For me, I am going to clean out the car. For others, that may be too much. Perhaps for someone else, the task might be "make a cup of coffee." But set a goal that can be done in a brief time, focus only on it, and get it done quickly. Welcome back!
From the mouths of babes
Loud thud heard upstairs.
Amy: "I’m okay!"
7 people, 1 car, and a long drive
The beach heals
As a child, when I had a wound, my grandmother would send me to the ocean. "The ocean will heal that!" A cut surely stings wading out into the salt water but it does seem to mend quickly. Perhaps the healing is psychological. The fun of the surf making you forget your scrape. Maybe its more. This week we had the full moon overhead. It lit the ocean remarkably. Thunderstorms blew in briefly and gave vivid light shows. Tides swelled and the ocean gave both lulling calm and thunderous waves without explanation for the ocean’s mood swings. Great forces were at work. And magical times for long lasting memories.
We have not had a family vacation since the last week of December 2000. This was a much needed break. Time to go home now.
ps. We only got referenced as "The Griswold’s" once.
Commenting Problem Fixed
The past couple of days no one has been able to comment on Reality Me. Two of Spam Karma’s tables had consumed 78MB of database storage. Clearing both tables solved the problem. Commenting should be working again.
Beach Update
Big sisters!
Beach Update
I think almost everyone had a great time on the beach today.
Beach Update
This morning dolphins jumped out of the water playfully. We have pelicans all over the place. The kids appear to be having a blast. And a couple of wetsuit wearing brainiacs think this is the Pacific Coast and are sitting on surf boards in the warm Gulf Stream looking around like, "dude! Where’s the waves?"
Who’s the crab?
One of the challenging things about marriage is relationship management. In the corporate world, we go to training classes, seminars, mentoring, internal training, and read books on how to get along. In marriage, we wing it. In work, you leave the people you "relate" to at the door at 5pm. In marriage, you are glued to each other non-stop. People are creatures of habit and routine. We come to expect a person to be a particular way with a particular attitude. Vacations wreck havoc on routines, bring a new set of stresses and the unknown. Our attitudes and moods change with a vacation.
This morning I felt rested and relaxed. Evan rose at 6:30am and asked that I rise with him. I thought I’d be nice and let everyone else sleep in. Evan and I enjoyed some time together watching cartoons, playing with toys, and eating breakfast. I was happy. So I thought. When Cathy rose, I noted to myself that she was grouchy but I said nothing figuring that her morning caffeine was not working yet. Then came a moment where she complained about how I was relaxed then became terse and crabby when Evan got up. So who is right? Which one of us is the morning grouch? Doesn’t matter. Once someone declares me grouchy or crabby I turn into an ugly person. My mind decides, "Why try to be nice if when you are trying its not working?" Karma gets me back though. In my exasperation, I went to the porch to get some air and the door sprung back in my face spilling coffee on my most comfortable shorts.
Were either of us crabby? Probably not. We were probably working two different agendas and our moods are different than the usual. Subconsciously we probably assessed the other as off and because the other wasn’t working the same unspoken plan, labeled them crabby.
It’s a beautiful day today. I think I’ll spend it on the computer.
