Category Archives: Rants

Have a conversation once or have it over and over forever

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When a team is collaborating to create software, there are inevitably issues that come up in “big picture” areas like architecture and process. There are two ways to deal with these:

  1. Take some time out from the daily grind and discuss the issue until consensus is reached and a decision is made (and hopefully documented!) for how to handle stuff going forward.
  2. Don’t take the time to think (“We don’t have the luxury of time for thinking!”) and continually have mini-discussions about it (sometimes with other people; sometimes internally within people’s minds) every time it comes up again forever and ever…

I know which one I prefer. How about you…?

There is no reason ever to have the same thought twice,
unless you like having that thought” – David Allen

My phone is driving me crazy

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We are getting ridiculous amounts of bogus phone calls. Just this morning:

7/22 10:28am 916-290-4350 telemarketing background; then in foreground someone yells, laughs, and hangs up.
7/22 10:19am Unknown caller Nobody there
7/22 10:02am 916-290-4350 Nobody there
7/22 9:55am YPOR 440-331-6633 Nobody there
7/22 9:38am 916-290-4350

Here’s a bit more of our call log.

7/21 7:01pm Unknown caller
7/21 5:47pm Unknown name 866-524-7874
7/21 5:15pm Unknown caller
7/21 2:16pm Unknown name 702-835-0091
7/21 11:02am YPOR 440-331-6633
7/21 9:12am Unknown caller
7/20 6:20pm YPOR 440-331-6633
7/20 1:01pm YPOR 440-331-6633
7/20 10:47am YPOR 440-331-6633
7/19 7:21pm Unknown name 720-246-0422
7/19 6:15pm YPOR 440-331-6633
7/19 6:01pm Unknown name 702-430-4444
7/19 2:25pm Unknown caller
7/19 11:12am Unknown name 702-430-4444
7/19 10:18am Unknown caller
7/19 9:31am YPOR 440-331-6633
7/18 6:26pm Unknown name 702-430-4444
7/18 3:32pm Unknown caller
7/17 7:13pm Unknown caller
7/17 7:06pm Unknown name 720-246-0422
7/17 6:27pm Unknown name 702-430-4444
7/17 5:37pm Unknown name 702-835-0090
7/17 10:28am Unknown name 702-835-0090

We’re already done the donotcall.gov thing so we’re in the middle of our 30 day period, but even after that I’m not convinced that these folks are law-abiding citizens who subscribe to the donotcall list. I’ll probably try telezapping these folks and if that doesn’t work, I might just get rid of our landline. We don’t use our phone a heck of a lot anyway and I don’t want to pay $20 or $30 a month for something that rings 2 or 3 times an hour and disturbs us. Interestingly, neither of us are getting any of this junk on our cell phones.

TeleZapper TZ 900

What the world needs…

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Well, I’m not exactly sure what the world needs (“love, sweet love” perhaps?).

But I do know what the world doesn’t need:

  • Another cover band that performs “Brick House”.

Here’s the deal. The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact – we’ve established that. Guilty as charged. Anyone who’s been to a bar in the last 10 years is well aware of it. It’s time to move on and cover deeper issues like:

  • What the hell is Manfred Mann talking about in “Blinded by the Light”?
  • Why is Gwen Stefani singing about b-a-n-a-n-a-s?

Leaf blowers

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I hate waking up to the sound of a team of leaf blowers.

I don’t know why homeowners’ associations seem to love blowing (pun intended) money on this frivolous expense. I don’t really notice any significant difference in the way the grounds look and I’m sure whatever the effect is, it’s very short-lived anyway. Rather than blow a bunch of foliage around, I’d rather that they do something with the strip of land in front of our place besides growing peet moss in the dirt. Put some sod down, get a little bit of landscaping. Remove the 3 foot wide cob webs above everyone’s front door. At least that has a chance of permanently making the place nicer and maybe even increasing its sale value too.

But then we’re not in the HOA because we’re renters.

SMS spam?

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Last night I got a bunch of SMS messages from 1111302000 with insightful comments like “//SVAgIBMQBAAO5UJGo30rG…”. It’s annoying because I pay for incoming SMS messages and because my ringer was off but the Treo vibrated on my nightstands and woke me and my wife up, so I had to put the Treo in another room.

What is this stuff? Wrong number? Message garbled by a character set conversion? Is it possible to get a carrier to blocking incoming SMS from certain numbers?

Gavin DeGraw in Golden Gate Park

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Yesterday, we headed up to the city to see Gavin DeGraw give a free concert at Footstock, the after-party for the Bay to Breakers race.

I hate San Francisco. Every time I drive there, I spend an hour trying to park. So this time we thought that we’d be clever and take public transportation. We took the Caltrain from Sunnyvale to the city and then took the Muni N-Judah line to somewhere near the park. In total, it was about 3 hours of sitting on public transportation each way. So in the end, we spent 6+ hours on public transportation and spent something like $30, just to see a concert that lasted for an hour and ten minutes.

Luckily, I had my Treo 650 with me so at least I was able to browse news feeds much of the time when the train wasn’t underground.