Disqus - Latest Comments for just3ws

Re: Dad as I Wanna Be

Mike Hall — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:35:07 -0000

Also, try to think about how nasty and gross they are. And once you start to get your nails back you'll realize how useful they are. Believe me, I chewed my nails down from the time before I can remember.

Re: Dad as I Wanna Be

Mike Hall — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:34:00 -0000

Okay. Here's the alternatives to coffee that I used to break my caffeine addiction. To be honest though, after a couple months I am backsliding but even then I still drink these when I'm at home.

My favorite is Inka http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... but there are multiple roasted grain coffee alternatives you can find. Caputo's in Algonqui and Joseph's in Crystal Lake typically carry Inka or similar.

Decaf Earl Grey tea with cream. It has a little bitterness and smells great. Nice replacement.

If you go Decaf though it's a road to disaster for me. It's too easy to slide back into regular coffee consumption. Also, Decaf coffee isn't regulated and can have a LOT more caffeine than you might expect. Based on my limited research McDonald's coffee has the best caffeine levels for decaf coffee.

Re: It is No Use

Mike Hall — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:15:42 -0000

Oh. The dbaggery is what bothers you. Agreed. Unfortunately it's unlikely to go anywhere. In very young culture communities you're going to have ingroups and cliques, which bothers me as well but it is also human nature. I can only recommend focusing on what is important to you and your future. Learn how to create and collaborate and in time the cliquers will be irrelevant.

Re: It is No Use

Mike Hall — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:00:18 -0000

Are you talking about the consumption of alcohol at events like conference parties, at work events or user group meetings? The vast majority of attendees and people in the workplace are 21 and over, so I don't know if it's "worship" of alcohol. But I can speak for my UG SCMC that we don't serve alcohol and have a regular attendee who is 14 and comes with his father. We provide a safe environment for all ages. If there are events that you don't feel comfortable attending due to things like alcohol consumption, let the organizers know and remind them that there are people underage who would like to participate.

Re: Changing it up at Angle Bracket

Mike Hall — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:41:13 -0000

If only there was someone working on a service just like that...

Re: Why I Find Heroku Suboptimal

Mike Hall — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:52:56 -0000

Interesting article but the sentence "Heroku is great. It basically allows you to avoid growing-up" comes off as pretty douchey.

Overall I agree with your point in the long run. Heroku is part and parcel of a very good and fast (ahem, "agile") workflow. You can get up and running with an idea, grow it quickly and defer the decisions on how to configure the long-term home for you application until it's an appropriate time. I have deployed several apps to Heroko, know one or two dozen developers who use it for significant apps (gathers.us, soupcan.me, my own conference site chicagocodecamp.com and IIRC mercuryapp.com) that run on Heroku.

In a nutshell, Heroku first and then decide where to live long-term. Don't waste time with infrastructure up front.

Re: Luxury, horror lurk in Gadhafi family compound

Mike Hall — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:18:39 -0000

Can anyone direct me to the person who can handle funds for treatment of Shweyga? I need to know as soon as possible. Thank you.

Re: http://www.mattpolito.info/post/8731492521

Mike Hall — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:09:13 -0000

Does this mean I can hug you?

Re: Install PostgreSQL 9 on OS X - Russell Brooks

Mike Hall — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:54:57 -0000

If you're really lazy. :)

createdb $(whoami)

Re: New Doll That Teaches How To Breast Feed Causing Controversy

Mike Hall — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:14:55 -0000

My 3 year old daughter has play-fed her "baby" doll on occasion after seeing Mommy feeding out 4 month old. And ya wanna know what that kind of playing is? It's beautiful. She's expressing kindness and love towards her doll, just like she sees Mommy doing with her brother. Would it be better if I reprimanded her? Maybe buy her some Bratz or Barbies to teach her what is really expected of women in our society!

Re: Clojure: Checking for a nil value in a collection

Mike Hall — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:22:47 -0000

We're not even on the same project anymore and you still helped me! :)

Re: spong.org: Pictures from Chicago Code Camp 2011

Mike Hall — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:14:04 -0000

If you wore the CCC shirt at RailsConf you would be my hero forever. How about this... get a picture of the shirt on in a highly visible location or with someone "famous", ideally with them pointing at the shirt(!) then dinner and drinks will beone me when we can get together and you're in town. :)

Re: Answering some questions about my faith

Mike Hall — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:31:22 -0000

Ken,

Or you may be tentative to speak because you are not in a position of authority and fear negative consequences for holding a position opposite those in authority.

Religion is something that's very sensitive, and not just for people who are atheists but a quick spin through the news stations will make the sensitivity of religious topics obvious.

The overt religious, particularly Christian overtones of SCNA made myself and several others quite uncomfortable and made the conference that much less enjoyable. I'm a post-Christian atheist so I am comfortable enough with the references and the ideas espoused by Christianity, but what about those who hold different faiths? There certainly were Hindu's and Muslim's in the audience. The ideas of craftsmanship and professionalism can be expressed without an over statement of religious faith.

To talk about religion personally, from one's own blog or via medium's like twitter is perfectly good. But when we take our personal views and bring them into business situations (and I include professional conferences) that are intended for broad consumption by a diverse audience then witnessing your faith crosses the line and is likely to alienate people for the wrong reasons.

Re: Answering some questions about my faith

Mike Hall — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:08:19 -0000

Yep. I agree and am glad you're cognizant of your position and the weight of your opinions at Obtiva. I was a little hesitant to reply due to exactly that concern.

I've enjoyed chatting with Fred about religion and philosophy. He has inspired me as well.

Re: Answering some questions about my faith

Mike Hall — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:34:33 -0000

I'm glad that you have something that works for you and gives you peace.

I think that the cynicism is a minority voice outside of academia and hard sciences. Even in our industry my experience has been that Christians are hardly the minority. Maybe in the urban area or within the circles you've worked Christianity have not been popular but every company I've worked at has a very large and open Christian presence. Finding atheists who were willing to confide their position to me was actually quite rare.

My wife has even expressed concerns that my open atheism could be a career limiting move. Even now I can hardly think of any open atheists that I can point to within my current community. But I am quite aware of who is a follower of the Christian faith. There is far less stigma of from expressing faith than non-faith in my experience.

After my "coming out" I actually felt relieved. I felt like a huge burden had been lifted off of me. It's too hard to describe in a short sentence but the universe seemed like a greater place and all life was even more precious and delicate once I accepted that there were no second chances or redeemers. We've got one shot to love the ones around us and to live our lives. No magic, no supernature only the universe as it is. Only after I became comfortable with my position did I start to seek out atheistic writers like Hitchens and Dawkins.

Interesting read "Who's Counting: Distrusting Atheists". Basically summarized as that atheists are the most distrusted and disliked group in the United States. http://abcnews.go.com/Techn...

If you're interested in chatting more I'd like the chance to talk. I always enjoy discussing faith with intelligent people and learning from them. (I'm also an amateur philosopher.)

Re: Chicago’s Ruby Developer Crisis

Mike Hall — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:16:39 -0000

I just started as a full-time employee with Obtiva, after a year sub-contracting with them. I can tell you for absolutely certain that the management and ownership of Obtiva is not a bunch of sociopathic loonies. Seriously, they're a great bunch of people.

I can also attest to the commitment to help train people up. I am one of the .NET developers Dave mentioned. I had minimal experience w/non-Microsoft technologies until I took on a sub-contract for .NET work with Obtiva and even as a contractor they helped me to grow my skills. While I started doing .NET I am now working full-time with a team of experienced Ruby developers on a large Ruby on Rails project for a very large client. I've had to work really hard, but I'm also happy with the opportunity and assistance they've all provided.

So, if you're looking to work with some really great, audacious and non-loony people then Obtiva is a good place to check out.

Re: http://polgfred.tumblr.com/post/2325777058

Mike Hall — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:49:38 -0000

I am only positing this because I'm curious of your thoughts, not trolling. If you reject the things that have been declared as the unalterable truth and Word of God, doesn't that intrinsically mean that you reject the entire notion? In the end, if you pick and choose what is meaningful to you, aren't you "guilty" of the same selectivity as those who seek a security blanket?

Re: Thoughts Inspired By Ruby

Mike Hall — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:21:33 -0000

Sometimes sitting down and going through it with someone else, even just to get started can be a huge help. I've been sitting down with .NET developers over the past few weeks to work on getting their environments up and running then starting a very simple project. I'd be happy to do the same with you over Skype or some screensharing if you'd be up for it. Ping me at mdh@just3ws.com if you're up for it.

Re: Steve Hodgkiss - Using ActiveRecord Migrator standalone with SQLite and SQLServer on Windows

Mike Hall — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:04:23 -0000

Wow, I wish I had found this article earlier. Went through the exercise of getting migrations working the hard way. Thanks. :)

Re: My BABY Sells Better Than You

Mike Hall — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:54:20 -0000

Hadn't thought about it in the context of closing but I've noticed this behavior with my daughter. Screaming, stubborn, struggling followed by a moment of sweetness. Then the first three are forgotten.

Re: First look: 'Stargate Universe' trailer

Mike Hall — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:30:56 -0000

@Zack that is EXACTLY the comment I was going to make. "Hey, we have 10 years of canon to follow. BSG ignored their canon and were successful let's just imitate them." Hope I'm wrong about this, as I liked SG-1 and my wife and I really enjoyed Atlantis, here's to hoping that it's at least better than mediocre.

And, BTW, BSG was on the "road to Earth" about 20+ years before Voyager was even cast. But it definitely smacks of both shows.

Re: Tron: Legacy Title Image!

Mike Hall — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:24:01 -0000

So, the Light Cycle for TRON2 has been redesigned and dubbed the iLightCycle?

Re: phodroid | just3ws

Mike Hall — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:43:45 -0000

Hey, I just found my laptop mouse!

Re: Setting up a minimal ASP.NET MVC project in Visual Studio

Mike Hall — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:59:06 -0000

Really cool, this could probably also be called "ASP.NET MVC from Scratch". I like the bottom up approach and getting to the nitty-gritty without using all the wizards.

Re: SubSonic to Acquire NHibernate : Rob Conery

Mike Hall — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:52:49 -0000

Behind every joke there is a kernel of truth. :-) I voted on the internet that this is the winner for today, and now everybody can stop it with the puns and get back to work.