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  <atom:title type="html">blog</atom:title>
  <atom:subtitle>This blog will hardly ever get updated, nevertheless, read on...</atom:subtitle>

  <atom:updated>2008-09-18T22:53:16-05:00</atom:updated>

  <atom:link href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog"
             rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>

  

  <atom:id>f2e88d12874ba8c52247000dc9707bbf</atom:id>

  <atom:generator uri="http://plone.org/products/fatsyndication/" version="0.1">fatsyndication</atom:generator>

  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Free the Airwaves</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2008/09/18/free-the-airwaves">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>8c3bb0c3d02943c9622a37d850c13f42</atom:id>
      

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          &lt;a href="http://www.freetheairwaves.com/"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.freetheairwaves.com/images/blog_badges/badge2_rev.jpg" alt="FreeTheAirwaves.com" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-09-18T22:53:16-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-09-18T22:53:16-05:00</atom:updated>


    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Trying out Posterous</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2008/06/29/trying-out-posterous">
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      <atom:id>bc11ef171ef37167fd99e3d2be2970c2</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>another blogging platform...</atom:summary>

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          &lt;p&gt;I just sent an email to post@posterous.com and set up &lt;a class="generated" href="http://skeeter.posterous.com"&gt;http://skeeter.posterous.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-06-29T22:38:03-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-06-29T22:38:03-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="geeky-stuff"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="general"/>
      

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>A letter to anyone who cares to read it</atom:title>

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                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2008/05/17/a-letter-to-anyone-who-cares-to-read-it">
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      <atom:id>12e066ae1ee9a61d86821a623d9e0d20</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Wherein skeeter mentions some things that he's been thinking about or doing</atom:summary>

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          <![CDATA[
          &lt;p&gt;Greetings gentle reader,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's been a while since I posted anything. There isn't really any reason, as I've said before, I'm not really a blogger. I recently signed up on &lt;a href="http://twitter.com"&gt;twitter&lt;/a&gt;. It's basically blogging, but you only get up to 140 characters of text. The limit is there because twitter is integrated with cell phone SMS (&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service"&gt;Short Message Service&lt;/a&gt;), which has message length limitations. Sometimes limitations are good and can lead to creative solutions. You'll notice, if you're looking at the site, that I put my most recent tweets (Twitter messages) on the side of the site. You can also see them directly at &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/skeetermurphy"&gt;http://twitter.com/skeetermurphy&lt;/a&gt;. If you use Twitter you can follow me there. If you aren't a Twitter user, there's an RSS feed there as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here's a pretty good article, &lt;a href="http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2006/id20060131_531820.htm"&gt;Turning Limitations into Innovation&lt;/a&gt;, that also mentions the concept of failing fast. I love the concept of failing fast. My friend Don was probably the first to tell me about failing fast. I think he called it "fail forward fast". &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At work we just did a major upgrade and were trying some new things out, because the software lets us do things in new interesting ways now. We've tried several things right away that didn't work so great. Failing fast meant we could learn a lot quickly, so we can do more in a stable and 'correct way' .&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I've also been using del.icio.us for a while now. It's basically a bookmarking site. So instead of blogging interesting sites I find, I've been just tagging them in delicious. My links are at &lt;a href="http://del.icio.us/skeeter.murphy"&gt;http://del.icio.us/skeeter.murphy&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unrelated thought: I'm polychronic. That's right, there's a word for people like me. Check this out: &lt;a href="http://www.time-management-basics.com/time-management-polychronic-time.shtml"&gt;Polychronic Time&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;
					
				
			
			
		
	



&lt;/p&gt;
 




	

		&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;...characterised by spur of the moment decisions based upon intuition, creativity,
Less adherence to rigid rules.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wow. That's totally me. I guess I'm not a freak. Oh well.&lt;/p&gt;Totally unrelated new activity: I bought a Ukulele. That's right, those little 4 string guitar-like dealybobbers. I used to play percussion/drums in high school. I've still got my drum set in the basement, but I don't play that often. I've always wanted to play something that was more 'musical' on it's own. Drums are kinda hard to just sing along with the kids (unless you're a rapper?!?!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I started watching Ukulele videos on YouTube and thought, hey that's not so hard. Well, like any instrument, it's going to take a while to get any good. I can play several chords and can butcher a few songs, if I have the chords in front of me. There's some good Uke stuff at these sites:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://ukuleleunderground.com/"&gt;Ukulele Underground&lt;/a&gt; - Aldrine Guerrero does some great instructional videos. He also does live concerts sometimes with Uke players from all over the world. The Internet is pretty cool.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://ukulelehunt.com"&gt;Uke Hunt&lt;/a&gt; - Al Wood runs a great site, with great stuff for beginners.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.chordie.com"&gt;Chordie&lt;/a&gt; - Not a Uke site, but there are LOTS of tablatures and you can convert them to Ukelele chords.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;My &lt;a href="http://youtube.com/user/skeetermurphy"&gt;YouTube&lt;/a&gt; page - I'm subscribed to several Uke people and have 'favorited' some good Uke videos.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;Well, that's all for now. I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;laters,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;skeeter&lt;br /&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2008-05-17T12:00:00-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2008-05-17T19:40:43-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="geeky-stuff"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="ukulele"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="general"/>
      

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>7 Rules for a Life Worth Living</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2007/11/10/7-rules-for-a-life-worth-living">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>73e310cdc4f297ffe9c2913182e3edb4</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>A PickTheBrain post with a nice list of things to think about.</atom:summary>

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          &lt;p&gt;Over at &lt;a href="http://www.pickthebrain.com"&gt;PickTheBrain&lt;/a&gt; is a great post with seven interesting things to think about. The items are listed below. Please check out the &lt;a href="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/7-rules-for-a-life-worth-living/"&gt;original post&lt;/a&gt; for the reasoning and explanation of each item.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Never let another person dictate the terms for living your life.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Don’t allow yourself to be chained by consumerism.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Rule money. Don’t let money rule you.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;You come first in relationships.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Never outsource your thinking.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Anything you lack can be trained.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Purpose comes from your creative faculties.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-11-10T12:03:27-06:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-11-10T12:03:27-06:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="education"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="general"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Quote for today: Lazy is good!</atom:title>

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        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>d8216a31761ff3ae7af45c401ee8b545</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>"Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." - Robert A. Heinlein</atom:summary>

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&lt;p&gt;I always say that good programmers/sysadmins are lazy programmers/sysadmins. Apparently Heinlein would agree. So next time someone calls you lazy, tell them you're "working on creating some progress".&lt;/p&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-07-07T14:00:25-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-07-07T14:00:26-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="geeky-stuff"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="humor"/>
      

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Some electronics stuff</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2007/06/16/some-electronics-stuff">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>fe0b3245d7e5790225f7e3c70ac15a07</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Note to self: Interesting bits and components that might be useful someday.</atom:summary>

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&lt;p&gt;I've had these tabs open in my browser for a while. I'm not sure why, but I think I might need to build something using some of the following things:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.maxstream.net/products/xbee/xbee-oem-rf-module-zigbee.php"&gt;XBee&amp;trade; ZigBee OEM RF Module&lt;/a&gt; - Low cost, low power wireless module. Less than $20 each.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://arduino.cc/"&gt;Arduino&lt;/a&gt; - an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board. About $35, depending on the model.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.hobbylab.us/USBOscilloscope/Home.htm"&gt;USB Oscilloscope&lt;/a&gt; - No longer are oscilloscopes really expensive, big and heavy; at least for basic project work. About $170.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.hamgadgets.com/product_info.php?products_id=51&amp;amp;osCsid=f2752378f919a2b2aa5782a190dc2b68"&gt;PicoKeyer Kit&lt;/a&gt; - Unrelated to the above, but if I need a small morse code keyer someday, this might be the one. About $18.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.drobo.com/"&gt;Drobo&lt;/a&gt; - Really not related to the above. Drobo is a really interesting RAID-like virtual filesystem, USB, 4-disk enclosure that presents the disks as a single drive via USB. It makes sure your data is safe, like a RAID array, but does not require the drives all be the same size. $500 plus up to 4 SATA hard drives. Could easily scale up to several TB of data storage.
&lt;/ul&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-06-16T11:54:24-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-06-16T11:54:26-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="browser tab cleanup"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="geeky-stuff"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Kurt Vonnegut - Eight rules for writing fiction</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2007/05/20/kurt-vonnegut-eight-rules-for-writing-fiction">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>4f6bdeac795f68768d40d24eb2082186</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>I find some of these rules counter intuitive, but I'm not an author, so what do I know?</atom:summary>

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&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

&lt;li&gt;Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

&lt;li&gt;Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

&lt;li&gt;Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.

&lt;li&gt;Start as close to the end as possible.

&lt;li&gt;Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

&lt;li&gt;Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

&lt;li&gt;Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.&lt;/ol&gt;

-- Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10.

Found at &lt;a href="http://www.americanstate.org/vonnegut.html"&gt;American State&lt;/a&gt; from who knows where...
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-05-20T11:58:16-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-05-20T11:58:18-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="general"/>
      

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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Links for 2007-03-17</atom:title>

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                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2007/03/17/links-for-2007-03-17">
        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>f70b3018b29c74b0f98de2f7f5d17f1b</atom:id>
      

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          &lt;h2 class="QuillsExcerpt"&gt;
Things to read and consider...
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For your consideration, in no particular order:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE"&gt;YouTube - They're Made Out Of Meat&lt;/a&gt; - I first saw this movie at a Science Fiction short film festival in Seattle, WA with Don and Scott. Great movie.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001619.php"&gt;Cool Tool: Storm Whistle&lt;/a&gt; - Loud and bright Orange, gotta get some of these...&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001621.php"&gt;Cool Tool: Bahco Swedish Clearing Axe&lt;/a&gt; - whack whack whack&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1277"&gt;&amp;#8230;My heart&amp;rsquo;s in Accra &amp;raquo; The Inner Life of the Cell&lt;/a&gt; - Interesting movie (follow the link). Visualizes the inside of a cell. Looks pretty amazing in there, and complicated.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/"&gt;Open Architecture Network | Improving living standards through collaborative design&lt;/a&gt; - Looks like a place to spend a lot of time vetting ideas for housing the world.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=1317"&gt;&amp;#8230;My heart&amp;rsquo;s in Accra &amp;raquo; Reinventing the City&lt;/a&gt; - Cities aren't the problem, good city design is the solution.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/09/ted_eliminate_parkin.html"&gt;Boing Boing: TED: Eliminate parking meters&lt;/a&gt; - Great quote: ...told the mayor that the problem was not about parking meters and how to use them, it was about people parking their cars all day on the street. "Don't use parking meters," he told the mayor. "Tell people they can park as long as they want for free, provided they keep their headlights on while the car is parked."&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://richarddawkins.net/article,716,n,n"&gt;Understanding Genetics - Daniel Dennett Interview&lt;/a&gt; - Dan Dennett rocks!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20782/20782-h/20782-h.htm"&gt;Triplanetary by E. E. Smith&lt;/a&gt; - The Project Gutenburg eBook of Triplanetary. Free book, time to get reading.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/age_of_reason/"&gt;Age of Reason (1795)&lt;/a&gt; - This book still seems relevant today.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-03-17T12:50:17-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-03-17T12:50:17-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="browser tab cleanup"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="general"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="sustainability"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="the future"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Web 2.0</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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      <atom:id>d68daab7ef7b9fd40899aa0074d79295</atom:id>
      

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          &lt;h2 class="QuillsExcerpt"&gt;
Ming the Mechanic reads the long paper and gives us the juicy bit to answer the question, what is web 2.0?
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ming the Mechanic: Web 2.0 by Flemming Funch&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What is Web 2.0?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf"&gt;Ideas, technologies and implications for education&lt;/a&gt; is a long paper in PDF format, written by Paul Anderson, giving probably the best overview I've seen, of what Web 2.0 is, and the various components that connect into it. The super-condensed executive summary would be that these 6 points are the main traits of Web2.0:
&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Individual production and User Generated Content 
&lt;li&gt;Harnessing the power of the crowd 
&lt;li&gt;Data on an epic scale 
&lt;li&gt;Architecture of Participation 
&lt;li&gt;Network Effects 
&lt;li&gt;Openness
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;(Via &lt;a href="http://ming.tv/flemming2.php/__show_article/_a000010-001804.htm"&gt;Ming the Mechanic: Web 2.0&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-03-17T12:11:22-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-03-17T12:11:23-05:00</atom:updated>

      
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    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>If Being A Programmer Were Like Being An Air Traffic Controller</atom:title>

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        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>cb67eabb06f8eaf56bad8ec44a9156e0</atom:id>
      

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&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://codist.biit.com/fiche/thecodist/article/if-being-a-programmer-were-like-being-an-air-traffic-controller"&gt;If Being A Programmer Were Like Being An Air Traffic Controller&lt;/a&gt;:
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Every time your software crashed, 300 people would die&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;You get new tools every 30 years, whether you need them or not&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Everyone has to use the same language&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A good day is coming home and not seeing your work on the news&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A bad day is coming home and seeing your work at the top of every news program being dissected in detail by experts&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If you sneak a peek at Digg or Reddit while you work, everyone knows it&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;No matter how much work comes your way you have to deliver in the time alloted&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;After just a few minor bugs you would be fired&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If your tools stopped working for any reason, you then have to work blind and from memory&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The video game you play has only 1 life&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The project manager is the government&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;When you use someone else's software, you need to know the programmer personally and how long they've been on duty&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If you do your job well, no one will notice&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a nice day being a programmer!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(blatantly copied from &lt;a href="http://codist.biit.com/fiche/thecodist/article/if-being-a-programmer-were-like-being-an-air-traffic-controller"&gt;the.codist{}&lt;/a&gt;.)&lt;/p&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-03-14T20:48:01-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-03-14T20:49:20-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="geeky-stuff"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="humor"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Sir Ken Robinson</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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        http://plone.org/
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      <atom:id>e3c0b8f6a1de6914800483c8270a835b</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Great talk from last years TED Conference about Education</atom:summary>

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&lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TEDTalks_video/~3/76547149/ted_robinson_k_2006.mp4"&gt;Download the Video&lt;/a&gt; - Sir Ken Robinson is an influential advocate for the importance of creativity in education. He makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for overhauling our education system. (Recorded February, 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20:03)

&lt;p&gt;Some quotes (transcribed/paraphrased)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We get educated out of creativity
&lt;li&gt;As children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up and then to their heads, and then to one side...
&lt;li&gt;University professors look at their bodies as a way to transport their minds...
&lt;li&gt;many highly talented creative people think they're not...
&lt;li&gt;Suddenly degrees aren't worth anything...
&lt;li&gt;We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.
&lt;li&gt;Our education system has mined our minds ... for a particular commodity... and for the future, it won't serve us.
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oh, and he's really funny too.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Via &lt;a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/TEDTalks_video"&gt;TEDTalks&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="ted.com"&gt;TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)&lt;/a&gt; is an invitation-only event where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration.&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-03-13T00:26:27-05:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-03-13T00:31:52-05:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="education"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Things to read and consider - 2007-03-03</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
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        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>384339d825e4110d8508548e541b005a</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Time to get those browser tabs closed again, check out these links...</atom:summary>

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          &lt;div&gt;


&lt;p&gt;For your consideration, in no particular order:&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://pandagon.net/2007/02/24/you-dont-stand-alone-wyoming-rep-zwonitzer/"&gt;via Pandagon...&lt;/a&gt;"It&amp;rsquo;s time to recognize a politician with a spine: Dan Zwonitzer, a straight state rep in Wyoming &amp;mdash; a Republican &amp;mdash; who voted to defeat a bill that would have allowed Wyoming to ban recognition of legal same-sex unions &amp;mdash; it died in committee." Here Here! Check it out and read the speech. Great stuff. If only more politicians were like this.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/garbage_plasma.php"&gt;Zapping Trash With Plasma Produces Clean Energy and Fuel&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/02/mont-saint-michel-photos.html"&gt;Really cool castle photos&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://limi.net/articles/report-plone-3-ui-sprint"&gt;Report from the Plone 3 UI Sprint&lt;/a&gt; - Plone version 3 looks to be amazing. Checkout the screenshot at the end of the article too.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/001874.html"&gt;Nice little card trick based on math, no slight of hand required!&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.space.com/searchforlife/070301_seti_globalstarparty.html"&gt;Join the Global Star Party&lt;/a&gt; - Help record data about light pollution, or just look at stars.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/mar2007/id20070301_063165.htm"&gt;The Face of the $100 Laptop&lt;/a&gt; - Great overview of this laptop project trying to educate the worlds children.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ning.com/"&gt;Ning&lt;/a&gt; - "Create your own Social Networks!" I haven't tried it, but it looks cool.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.hawkwings.net/2007/03/01/a-faster-way-to-speed-up-mailapp/"&gt;A faster way to speed up Mail.app&lt;/a&gt; - If you use Mail.app on your Mac, try this speed improvement.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://varnish.projects.linpro.no/"&gt;Varnish&lt;/a&gt; is a state-of-the-art, high-performance HTTP accelerator.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2025383,00.html?NewTItle"&gt;Liechtenstein: no retaliation for Swiss 'invasion'&lt;/a&gt; - Oops, Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein, but it's all cool, no worries.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.merzo.net/"&gt;Jeff Russell's STARSHIP DIMENSIONS&lt;/a&gt; - Compare science fiction spaceships. Very detailed. (via Ron)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.archibase.net/archinews/14261.html"&gt;Cool abandoned house photos&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.opencongress.org/"&gt;opencongress.org&lt;/a&gt; - Great resource for tracking what your US representatives are up to. RSS feeds for everything.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://faassen.n--tree.net/grok_tutorial.html"&gt;Grok tutorial&lt;/a&gt; - Grok is a web application framework built on Zope 3.
&lt;/ul&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-03-03T12:53:39-06:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-03-03T12:54:57-06:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="browser tab cleanup"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Things to read and consider - 2007-02-24</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2007/02/24/things-to-read-and-consider-2007-02-24">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>8e47739cc5afc2a830f17ceb51919973</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Time to get those browser tabs closed again...</atom:summary>

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          &lt;div&gt;


&lt;p&gt;For your consideration, in no particular order:&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://wii.nintendo.com/iwataasks.jsp"&gt;Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo Co., Ltd.&lt;/a&gt; interviews designers of the Wii console system. Long but interesting. Talks about many design decisions made.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.tumblr.com/"&gt;Tumblr&lt;/a&gt; - Little tiny blogs... Interesting idea.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/minnesota_sets.php"&gt;Minnesota Sets Pace for Renewable Energy&lt;/a&gt; - Go Minnesota!
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://blog.footle.org/2007/02/22/protecting-your-users-data-with-a-privacy-wall/"&gt;Protecting Your Users&amp;rsquo; Data with a Privacy Wall&lt;/a&gt; - Interesting idea to separate user authentication from user data to keep it safe.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/EMU06ULZ1MEY95WRNU/"&gt;Solar Wall Heater&lt;/a&gt; - Looks fairly easy to build. Gathers heat from the sun and puts it into your house. Might work on my garage....
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/videos_auto_evo.php"&gt;Videos: Auto Evolution: Fuel Cells, Plug-Ins, Electric Vehicles, Hybrids&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.violentacres.com/archives/116/im-sick-of-political-correctness"&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m Sick Of Political Correctness&lt;/a&gt; - Interesting perspective on being "PC". Maybe this isn't helping us actually change our behavior for the better. Maybe we're just hiding how we really feel, so we will never be able to address our true (and potentially wrong) beliefs.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://pandagon.net/2007/02/19/what-support-our-troops-doesnt-mean/"&gt;What &amp;rsquo;support our troops&amp;rsquo; doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean&lt;/a&gt; - We don't support our troops, do we...? Read this and get mad.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.gameproducer.net/2006/05/19/question-authority-take-2/"&gt;Question Authority&lt;/a&gt; - "If you believe somebody &lt;b&gt;just&lt;/b&gt; because his authority, &lt;b&gt;never&lt;/b&gt; questioning what he says, then you might not be thinking yourself."
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/the-two-essential-components-of-phenomenal-success/"&gt;The Two Essential Components of Phenomenal Success&lt;/a&gt; - Quick version: Vision, Communication. Do you have these?
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html"&gt;Einstein Quotes&lt;/a&gt; - "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." and other good ones....
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE"&gt;Video: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us&lt;/a&gt; - So what is Web 2.0 anyway... This video attempts to answer the question, and it's got groovy music.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/age_of_reason/"&gt;Thomas Paine's Age Of Reason&lt;/a&gt; - The whole text. Worth reading and thinking about, especially in our current America...
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/13/opinion/13crichton.html?ex=1329022800&amp;amp;en=e94c0cfca7b400fe&amp;amp;ei=5090&amp;amp;partner=rssuserland&amp;amp;emc=rss"&gt;Patenting Life&lt;/a&gt; - This one should really piss you off. Companies &lt;b&gt;own&lt;/b&gt; yours, mine, and everyones genetic code. The patent system is so messed up.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/"&gt;Learn CPR&lt;/a&gt; - Videos and instructions.
&lt;/ul&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-02-24T12:56:40-06:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-02-24T12:56:41-06:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="browser tab cleanup"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>I Like To See Her Smile</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2007/02/14/i-like-to-see-her-smile">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>62d1affc70abf086e3219135e6b1e9a3</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>A note for my sweetie...</atom:summary>

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&lt;p&gt;Misty and I have been married over ten years now. You know what, I love her more now than ever, especially on those hard days when nothing seems to be going right. You know those days? The kids are making messes all over the house, your computer keeps doing something annoying, and you need a stamp to mail the mortgage payment. You know, crappy days. Those are the days that you need to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and look at your wife (you need to open your eyes again for that last bit).
&lt;p&gt;See how beautiful she is? It gets better, just get her to smile. See, I told you, beautiful.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When the kids finally go to bed, way past their bed time of course, you can finally get some peace and quiet to sit together and remember why you married her in the first place. You remember why you did that, don't you? I'll give you a hint: she's smart, way cool, and beautiful when she smiles.&lt;/p&gt;

          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-02-14T19:03:05-06:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-02-14T19:03:06-06:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="family"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="general"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  
  

    <atom:entry>

      <atom:title>Things to read and consider - 2007-02-10</atom:title>

      <atom:link rel="alternate" type="text/html"
                 href="http://www.castlemurphy.com/blog/archive/2007/02/10/things-to-read-and-consider-2007-02-10">
        http://plone.org/
      </atom:link>

      <atom:id>34febf4ead3078965988ede7653be773</atom:id>
      <atom:summary>Time to get those browser tabs closed again...</atom:summary>

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          &lt;div&gt;


&lt;p&gt;For your consideration, in no particular order:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=7872"&gt;Healthcare Around The World&lt;/a&gt; - "Surprisingly, many people still don&amp;rsquo;t know that America is the only country in the developed world without universal government-supported healthcare." Best line here is about insurers not being "for profit" companies. Insurance companies in America make money from the suffering of American families, with no other option available but losing the house when someone gets sick... That's just screwed up.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/"&gt;Pipes&lt;/a&gt; - Yahoo's new RSS feed mix machine. "Pipes is an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator. Using Pipes, you can create feeds that are more powerful, useful and relevant."
&lt;li&gt;Bush's Impeachable Offenses, with references - &lt;a href="http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&amp;amp;no=340571&amp;amp;rel_no=1&amp;amp;back_url="&gt;Part 1, Illegal War&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?page=&amp;amp;menu=A11100&amp;amp;no=340571&amp;amp;rel_no=2&amp;amp;character_article_code=01"&gt;Part 2, Illegal Spying&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?page=&amp;amp;menu=A11100&amp;amp;no=340571&amp;amp;rel_no=3&amp;amp;character_article_code=01"&gt;Part3, Information Leaks&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2007/02/sea-giants_07.html"&gt;Giant semi-submersible ships&lt;/a&gt; - Wow, that's a big ship!
&lt;li&gt;"&lt;a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8920472176280937346&amp;amp;hl=en"&gt;Blogumentary&lt;/a&gt; playfully explores the many ways blogs are influencing our media, our politics, and our relationships. Personal political  ... all &amp;raquo; writing is the foundation of our democracy, but mass media has reduced us to passive consumers instead of active citizens. Blogs return us to our roots and reengage us in democracy. Shot in candid first-person style by director Chuck Olsen."
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://codist.biit.com/fiche/thecodist/article/the-absolute-need-to-understand"&gt;The Absolute Need To Understand&lt;/a&gt;
  &lt;ul&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;"One sign of a good programmer is their absolute need to understand."
    &lt;li&gt;"Programming is part creative, part technical, part detective and sometimes part lunacy."
    &lt;li&gt;"The challenge comes in how really stupid the computer is"
    &lt;li&gt;"The best programmers I have worked with understand the nature of understanding. It's why good programmers are always looking for open source alternatives, even if they never need to change the source, being able to understand what is going on inside the system is the most powerful aspect of having the source. If you need to you can even fix it."
    &lt;li&gt;"If you want to become a better programmer, read, play, experiment, dig into source, demand time to learn"
  &lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.beryl-project.org/"&gt;Beryl&lt;/a&gt; - Amazingly cool looking window manager for Linux.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project.cfm?id=392"&gt;Windows vs Linux&lt;/a&gt; webserver complexity - A simple picture to show why IIS and windows are always going to be more buggy and full of vulnerabilities than Apache on Linux. It's the number of system calls. High complexity -&gt; bugs.
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.space.com/xprizecup/video/"&gt;Wirefly X PRIZE Cup Video Archives&lt;/a&gt; - People trying to get into space...
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/04/the-5-smallest-countries-in-the-world/"&gt;The 5 smallest countries in the world&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.keveney.com/Engines.html"&gt; Animated Engines&lt;/a&gt; - internal Combustion, Steam, and Sterling. Nice little animations showing how many types of engines work.
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
          ]]>
      </atom:content>

      <atom:author>
        <atom:name>Skeeter Murphy</atom:name>
      </atom:author>

      <atom:published>2007-02-10T13:31:41-06:00</atom:published>

      <atom:updated>2007-02-10T13:33:04-06:00</atom:updated>

      
        <atom:category term="browser tab cleanup"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="geeky-stuff"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="general"/>
      
      
        <atom:category term="infosec"/>
      

    </atom:entry>

  

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