Joe Ganley [http://ganley.org/]

Writing code since 1979

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

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Tuesday, July 31, 2001

I just saw the Royal Excelsior PDA at Costco for $25. Its functionality is a bit limited: six-line display, 384KB memory, no way to put your own apps on it (AFAIK), allegedly clunky UI, but it does provide fundamental PDA functionality (datebook, address book, to do list, memo pad, calculator, and a few others), it syncs with a PC, and the price is certainly right. The form factor is really nice -- just a little smaller than a Palm, which I've always thought were just a little bit too big. It's probably too limited for most people (though at that price, it might be fun to try to hack it), but I have to think there's still a lot of room for manufacturers to play in the space between this, at $25, and the Palm, starting around $100. I, for one, would be happy to give up a little of the Palm's functionality to make it a little smaller and cheaper. (Update 9/18/01: If you aren't Costco-compatible, they now have this at Amazon.com, albeit more expensively.)

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Monday, July 30, 2001

MIT Media Lab's blogdex lists the 10 most-blogged links, with an aim towards centralizing the timeliness of blogged news. I wonder how long until enough of us point it out that the blogdex site itself makes its own list?

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Wednesday, July 25, 2001

Tales of travel beverages:
1. I've discovered one, exactly one, way in which United Airlines is superior to American Airlines: they have frappuccino. On the other hand, American has the radical policy of actually having their planes take off on time, so I'll happily buy my own frappuccinos.
2. American Coke from a can sucks. From a bottle isn't much better. I love visiting parts of the world where they still make Coke out of sugar instead of corn syrup. Not only does it taste about a thousand times better that way, but it reminds me of my youth, when my grandmother kept stocked with Coke (again, the sugar kind) in those little returnable 6.5-ounce bottles. The empties would pile up on her back porch, and if we would lug them to the store and return them, she'd let us keep the money.

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Monday, July 23, 2001

I thought I remembered seeing, long ago, a book subtitled The Death of Customer Service in America, or something to that effect. Now, despite much trying, I can't find any vaguely similar title. Perhaps I imagined it in the first place.

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Wednesday, July 18, 2001

I just saw Kalifornia for the second time. It's a good film -- grittier and more realistic than more typical killer movies like Natural Born Killers. Those two would make a great double feature. Oh, and be sure to pay attention to the location captions in Kalifornia [spoiler].

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Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Two facts about telephone customer service: (1) They are always suffering "unusually high" call volume, and (2) The touch-tone options have always "recently changed."

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