I have been a professional software engineer for over 10 years.
I have written many kinds of software, but my particular strengths are interactive graphics applications,
compilers and interpreters, and algorithms.
I also enjoy writing,
woodworking, and
home improvement.
Also this.
Resumé
Email Me
|
Thursday, May 31, 2001
Welcome to the world: Helen Josephine Ganley!
comments (0)
|
permalink
Saturday, May 26, 2001
We were looking around on the web for unusual birth announcements, and found a few that bear mentioning. Definitely the coolest, though very expensive, are the carved wooden blocks. Also a couple of cool hand-drawn card options: a pencil drawing or a cute stick figure design.
comments (0)
|
permalink
Tuesday, May 22, 2001
In all the press about privacy and the collection of demographic information, I've never seen mentioned an obvious countermeasure that I use all the time: Make stuff up. Any information that is asked for, and that I don't believe they can easily verify, I make up, with a different answer every time. My birthdate, income, marital status, children, shopping habits -- all fabricated at random. Also, obviously, don't fill in any optional information.
comments (0)
|
permalink
Monday, May 21, 2001
We were going through a four-way stop this morning, and Cathy pointed out that a busy four-way stop sign generally is in one of two phases: rotation (e.g. north goes, east goes, south goes, west goes, repeat) or alternation (e.g. north and south go, east and west go, repeat). In the absence of people turning (one of those simplifying but unrealistic assumptions we mathematical types like to make), obviously alternation is much more efficient; it allows twice the throughput. We wondered briefly if there was any way to force the traffic into that kind of rhythm, short of a full-fledged traffic light.
comments (0)
|
permalink
Myvesta is a financial counseling organization that happens to have been founded by a relative of mine. Primarily they do debt counseling. If you are having debt/credit troubles, check them out; they're highly acclaimed. Even if you're not in a crisis, their site offers lots of useful financial advice (most of it debt- and credit-related).
comments (0)
|
permalink
Thursday, May 17, 2001
I love my Palm IIIx. But while there are newer models that are cool enough to make me drool a little, they aren't different enough from my IIIx for me to upgrade. It strikes me that as the market saturates, this may be the key problem for the PDA manufacturers: how to make the new models compelling enough for the people with older models to upgrade. In the PC market, the factors that drive upgrading are processor speed and graphics capabilities, neither of which is really an issue in the PDA world. Presumably wireless connectivity is the killer app, but there they have a different problem to solve: how to make the service itself economical. I'm not sure where the mainstream price point is for widespread adoption of wireless PDAs, but I'm sure it's substantially less than the current $40-$45 a month (for unlimited service).
comments (0)
|
permalink
Thursday, May 10, 2001
Hey, kids! Want to lay siege to your neighbor's house? Build your own trebuchet!
comments (0)
|
permalink
Wednesday, May 09, 2001
Hey, I just poked around the web to see if anyone else had anything to say about the Aztek, and lo and behold, some conversation on Dack just yesterday! Some people correctly point out the similarity to the LeMans, but that's not the car I'm thinking of.
comments (0)
|
permalink
 Is it just me, or is the Pontiac Aztek just plain mind-bogglingly ugly? When I first saw it, it reminded me of what I thought was some 1970's AMC car, but looking around I can't find an AMC that looks like the picture in my head. Anyway, the Aztek is just freakishly ugly.
comments (0)
|
permalink
Friday, May 04, 2001
I would like to draw your attention to a nifty feature found on most automobiles. On the left side of the steering column is a lever. If you move that lever, lights called "turn signals" on the outside of your car will illuminate. You can use these lights to inform other drivers that you intend to turn or to change lanes. Apparently this feature is either not well publicized, or a lot of people can't be troubled to move their arm about eight inches to use it.
comments (0)
|
permalink
|
Features
|
|
){kind=link}
