DISQUS

Contrary to reports of its demise, cdo* is alive and well! Well, maybe not "well" well, but still active. Well, not all that active, but it is August.

Too bad Usenet died.

:-)

I was lucky to be close enough to see John's fingers at his last show in San Diego.

I also saw some reunions long ago.

Right there in the first paragraph, it's an oracle application.

Someone from WSJ complaining about gobbledygook. Hasn't he ever heard the term Red Herring? Sheesh.

Comment about turnip was funny.

And this will be really crowded: http://www.chargers.com/news/headlines/chargers...

"Over the past several months our Board of Directors, with the assistance of independent financial and legal advisors, has reviewed various ways to maximize stockholder value, including engaging in discussions with third parties about a possible sale of the company," said Alfred Chuang, BEA's Chairman and CEO. "This transaction is the culmination of that diligent and thoughtful process, and we believe it is in the best interests of our shareholders. I am confident our innovative products, talented employees and worldwide customer base will be key contributors to the success of the combined company over the long term. We look forward to working with Oracle toward a successful completion of the transaction."

Translation:

Woohoo! I've got 9 million shares at $19/share, I get $5M/year, and they pay me $10M if they dump me! Glad I paid back that couple $M in improper options.

(Aren't SEC filings interesting?)

I've been a big fan of user groups since forever (early '80s DECUS, actually), but I have seen some local groups go through a life cycle. Some wind up getting commercialized, especially when dominated by a particular large sponsor, some go off into lalaland and become Agile advocates, some grow and prosper, some die.

I think the key to growth and prosperity is to have a core group of enthusiasts willing to take on the job, willing to donate time and do whatever is necessary to keep things going in the right direction. When done right, everyone gets back more than they put in, just like successful blogs or usenet groups. Tom Kyte mentioned on his blog one time how to get him to speak at a group - ask him!

Different people learn in different ways, and the different ways reinforce each other. The presentations and intragroup interaction supports online learning.

In a practical vein, busy DBA's may not have time to do anything at work, but they may be able to take off to a group if there is an easy justification to management - very cost effective training sure doesn't hurt. Personally, I find that the simple change of environment makes learning "not-work!"

A well-organized website for a group can be helpful too.

I like the LAOUG, even though I've been too busy to hit up the last few meetings. LA freeways don't help :-(

LOL that http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/ link from MLIR made this all worthwhile!

You'll have to get the domain oracleabbslap.com
dealing with what all that bacn will do to your abbs database, of course.

This morning I went to intuit to order the cheap quickbooks, which oddly enough the local mortar Fry's hasn't had in stock in weeks. I tried putting in some expired discount code, which seemed to stimulate it to ask if I wanted to chat with a salesperson. Seemed like a reasonable thing to do, so I clicked on the yes tab, which crashed IE 7 XP java code, losing my half-done order. So I called and waited and waited, eventually getting some guy in AZ who was nice enough to waive the shipping charges.

Business needs a solid infrastructure, folks. Used to be I could make a phone call and be reasonably assured it would work. This creaky interweb thing with no non-repudiation or predictable response/availability is gonna come crashing down.

As far as all the new stuff, eventually everyone is going to realize the key to personal stress reduction/productivity maximization is being able to control the rate and volume of information. At one extreme, there's the Cuckoo's Egg guy, who simply turned off all access. At the other extreme there's twittervision. In between we have email bankruptcy, various techs-of-the-moment that come and go, and hucksters. Trust is the essence of all business, the sociobiologists even think it is hardwired into us. So what are you going to trust, email? Meatworld face-to-face salespeople? Your own personal Jesus in the video booth? People you got high with when you were a teenager? [A-Z,0-9*]logs?

I still find humor in that top-rated blogs aren't posted to for months. Another column of "last posted to date" might be embarrassing to some (and I might be near the top of that sort ascending :-)

Is it possible to make your Website/Blog field under "Post a Comment" larger?

Making the rounds forever, just got to me again today:

Go to google.com
click on maps
click on get directions
type New York in the first box
type London in the second box, click on get directions
see step 24

Can't help but wonder (not knowing anything about it) if the son's perception may have been because of a switch to a less congested node that will be able to handle the faster speed when you get it.

Kind of like driving 5MPH in 5MPH traffic on a road posted for 25MPH on a moped that can go 25MPH, then moving to a 75MPH road on the same moped. You'll go faster, but...

As a #6 ("underemployed" 50-year-old programmer) I gotta say, it's all relative. I prefer DBA work, but there's ten times as much programming work for an old-timer like me who is better at solving problems than emitting OCP answers in an interview. I have explicitly never wanted a management job (they're too much like work!). So oddly enough, I wind up in a crappy cubicle surrounded by unhappy accounting folk who of course know how much they are paying me, and people fight over my hours like I'm Angelina Jolie at a high school prom. But of course, someone needs to do the DBA work and I'm the only one who knows how, so at least there is some fun. And I get pretty much the same dollars as when I was an official DBA, so who cares?

Of course, you can make your own prestige. Marry a doctor!

I think it would be interesting to post the last update times of each of those blogs... and the one before that, too.

[grin, duck and run, screaming "way down insiyide, woman, youuuuu neeeeddd....]

Oh man, I thought I was the only one who was annoyed, I have to remember to complain more. Although I'm curious, why do some snaps show extremely old thumbnails?

Every time I see the word snap it reminds me of movies that have been cleansed for tv.

I got a book for my birthday called "The Rejection Collection - Cartoons You Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker."

One cartoon shows a stage, with a stripper upside-down on a pole, next to a little girl playing with a doll, in front of three gentlemen.

The caption is "It's 'Take Your Daughter to Work Day.'" (by Marisa Acocella Marchetto)

Congratulations Eddie! This is the best example of how doing something well because it's what you want creates excellence.

That's a good picture, it looks like knowledge is being piped directly to your brain. :-)

I cannot hear that song without thinking "MORE COWBELL!" http://www.sickjokes.net/index.php?disp=watchvi...

I'm Kurt's worst nightmare - old bald fat computer geek with glasses who likes his music.

I was lucky enough to see Nirvana (with Pearl Jam) in a Del Mar Fairgrounds cow barn with a leaky roof in the rain in the early 90's. It really _was_ good. Last year a local radio station broadcast that concert, I was so excited. Later I discovered my '80's vintage Luxman cassette deck no longer has two channels even though the meters work . I think the tape is still sitting in there.

E-books getting there:
HP

When someone finally comes out with a light inexpensive e-book reader, with a screen as large and readable as a good quality paperback - I’ll buy.
Sony Reader