| Latest 7 Posts |
Book Review - Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 16 by Mark Frauenfelder
Fri, Nov 28th 2008  4
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Book Review - The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield
Fri, Nov 28th 2008 5
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Book Review - Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End... by Philip Plait
Fri, Nov 28th 2008 19
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Book Review - The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha
Wed, Nov 26th 2008 8
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Book Review - Portland's Rose City Ghosts I by Jefferson Davis
Wed, Nov 26th 2008 4
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Michael Sampson's Seamless Teamwork book just showed up today!
Tue, Nov 25th 2008 16
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A tip for converting your PowerPoint presentation to the Symphony format...
Sat, Nov 22nd 2008 81
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Finally, someone building tools to migrate *TO* Notes *FROM* Sharepoint!
Sun, Apr 27th 2008 237
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OK... I'll bite. Gary's "congrats" posting is in very poor taste...
Tue, Feb 5th 2008 184
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Strange articles coming out of SearchDomino...
Tue, Jan 29th 2008 173
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Why Ray Ozzie can't save Microsoft
Tue, Feb 12th 2008 143
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SearchDomino... probably not the most opportune timing for this article.
Fri, Mar 7th 2008 141
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And if you don't think PlanetLotus.org is making a difference...
Mon, Jan 21st 2008 139
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Would you like a free 512MB Solar USB key from IBM?
Fri, Mar 21st 2008 135
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OK... so Lotusphere 2009 is going to be entirely out of my own pocket, it seems...
Thu, Aug 7th 2008 130
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Lotusphere Yellow...
Sun, Jan 13th 2008 127
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IBM launches "Microsoft-free" PC initiative
Tue, Mar 4th 2008 122
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Book Review - Your Brain: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Aug 10, 2008 3:48p |
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Book ReviewMatthew MacDonaldYour Brain: The Missing Manual |
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Tom Duff |
When you think about it, the thing we
think *with* is one of the biggest mysteries to us. In
Your Brain: The Missing Manual
by Matthew MacDonald, you'll gain some level of understanding about how
the brain works, what makes it tick, and how you can manipulate it to work
better. Even better, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand
it all.
Contents:
Part 1 - Warming Up: A Lap Around the
Brain; Brain Food - Healthy Eating; Sleep - Taking Your Brain Offline
Part 2 - Exploring Your Brain: Perception;
Memory; Emotions; Reason; Your Personality
Part 3 - Understanding Other People's
Brains: The Battle of the Sexes; The Developing Brain
Index
The thing I appreciate most about the
Missing Manual series is the way they are designed to be readable for a
"normal" person. Part 1 takes you through more of the "hardware"
part of the brain... what the different parts are, the roles they
serve, and how they interact with each other. Couple clear writing
with plenty of illustrations, and you end up with a firm foundation in
Brain 101. From there, MacDonald starts digging into more of the
"software" aspect of the brain, as in how are memories stored.
He uses the most current studies and findings to explain what makes
you, you. The items that made this exceptionally interesting to me
are the examples of people who, through some abnormality in the brain,
don't quite process things the same way we do. For instance, "Henry
M." had his hippocampus removed in 1953 to prevent seizures. The
side-effect was that he lost his ability to form long-term memories. Imagine
your mind stuck in a time warp, where your last memory is as it was before
your surgery. Anything presented to you since then only lasts a few
minutes before you have absolutely no recollection of it. By tracking
what he could and couldn't do in this state, researchers were able to draw
conclusions as to what role the hippocampus played in memory. That
kind of stuff is something that amazes me, and confirms the fact that we
still only have a fraction of a clue as to how the mind works.
If you're at all interested about your
mind, or if you're simply curious about how such things as optical illusions
work, this would be a great book to read.
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| Blog Posts |
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Book Review - Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 16 by Mark Frauenfelder 
Fri, Nov 28th 2008 8:59p Thomas Admin Duff
The DIY (Do It Yourself) movement is
very much alive and well, and one periodical that carries the DIY banner
is Make magazine. I *really* liked Make:
Technology on Your Time Volume 16
this month, as it touched on some projects that cover a subject I've always
been fascinated with... spying. :)
Contents:
Made on Earth
The First Picture Show
Making Make: Television
Cool Old Chemistry Sets
Junk Pedalers
The Make: Way Race Car
Star Bust
Kalavinka Bike Frames
Sparky 2: [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield
Fri, Nov 28th 2008 6:49p Thomas Admin Duff
I had seen the book The
War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle
by Steven Pressfield recommended by quite a few experts in the field of
creativity and productivity. I finally got around to putting it on
hold at the library, and I eventually worked my way to the top. That
should tell you something considering the book was released in 2002, and
it still had a hold backlog. After finishing it (it's not very long),
I'll be buying my own copy for reference. I felt as if I was looking [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End... by Philip Plait
Fri, Nov 28th 2008 1:19p Thomas Admin Duff
Media seems to love stories that involve
some astronomical event that threatens wide-spread devastation. The
problem is, they never really explain the very small odds of the event
actually coming to pass. Philip Plait takes these gloom and doom
headlines and humorously (and scientifically) places them in the right
context in his book Death
from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End...
If you're interested in phenomena like death by gamma-ray bursts
or black holes, you'll r [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha 
Wed, Nov 26th 2008 1:53p Thomas Admin Duff
One of the review titles that I opted
to accept for a recreational read was the young adult novel The
Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha.
I'm often hesitant to venture into the YA genre, as 1) I'm definitely
not a "young adult" any more (at least based on the calendar...
"immature adult" may still apply), and 2) any lessons that
are trying to be taught are often no longer applicable. But the premise
tweaked my interest, and the tweak was accurate in this case... The
Rule of Won is an ent [read] Keywords: office
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Book Review - Portland's Rose City Ghosts I by Jefferson Davis
Wed, Nov 26th 2008 12:59p Thomas Admin Duff
I saw Portland's
Rose City Ghosts I by Jefferson
Davis at the library the other day, and thought it looked interesting (and
short). Living in Portland, I wondered what locations were considered
the "most haunted" around here. The best part about the
book is that it *was* short, as the writing and content selection was very
uneven. I would have enjoyed this much more as a series of blog entries...
Contents:
Introduction; Founding Portland and
its Ghosts; South Old Town Portland; [read] Keywords: |
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Michael Sampson's Seamless Teamwork book just showed up today!
Tue, Nov 25th 2008 9:19p Thomas Admin Duff
This may be the first time I've been overly
excited about reviewing a book on Microsoft technology... :) [read] Keywords: microsoft
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A tip for converting your PowerPoint presentation to the Symphony format... 
Sat, Nov 22nd 2008 11:59p Thomas Admin Duff
For Lotusphere 2009, all our presentation
files have to be in the .ODP format, which means using Symphony or OpenOffice.org.
For the first time, IBM is only supplying the Lotusphere presentation
template in .OTP format. If you've ever done presentations before,
you're probably planning on pulling content from existing slides to make
up your session(s) slides for January.
Veterans know what this means... the
dreaded "conversion".
I'm working with Chris Blatnick on our
presen [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
symphony
template
desktop
eclipse
openoffice
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Book Review - Curling, Etcetera: A Whole Bunch of Stuff About the Roaring Game by Bob Weeks
Sat, Nov 22nd 2008 3:49p Thomas Admin Duff
I'm not sure what it is that draws me
to semi-obscure sports... at least sports that are semi-obscure to
the average American. I got hooked on curling during the Olympics
a few years back, and now I'll sit and watch a match if it happens to be
on (which is rarely). I saw the book Curling,
Etcetera: A Whole Bunch of Stuff About the Roaring Game
by Bob Weeks and thought it might be a way to learn a bit more about the
history and game. While the book is most useful to those who are
heav [read] Keywords: network
office
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Book Review - Things Forgotten by Thomas N. Tabback
Sat, Nov 22nd 2008 2:59p Thomas Admin Duff
I was contacted by PearlGate Publishing
awhile back, and offered a copy of Things
Forgotten, a debut novel by Thomas
N. Tabback. The premise sounded somewhat interesting, but debut novels
are normally such that I try and keep my expectations in check. Turns
out that I need not have worried... Tabback has written an incredible
novel, made even more so by it being his first try. I was mesmerized
by the story, and eagerly looked forward to picking it up each night for
reading...
Th [read] Keywords: |
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ACCLAIMED NEW BOOK OFFERS ‘JUST ENOUGH GOVERNANCE’ FOR LOTUS NOTES
Fri, Nov 21st 2008 8:29a Thomas Admin Duff
OK... I got a kick out of finding
this in my Google News Alerts this morning... ACCLAIMED
NEW BOOK OFFERS ‘JUST ENOUGH GOVERNANCE’ FOR LOTUS NOTES
* Submitted by: 80:20 Communications
Limited
* Friday, 21 November 2008
Ely, England, November 21, 2008 –
In many organisations, Lotus Notes and Notes applications are critically
important to business. Equally important today, however, is the need to
exercise effective governance over all IT processes to protect [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
applications
development
enterprise
google
php
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Microsoft Exchange's challenges: partners, the cloud, and (still) Lotus Notes
Tue, Nov 18th 2008 8:49p Thomas Admin Duff
From Computerworld: Microsoft
Exchange's challenges: partners, the cloud, and (still) Lotus Notes
A number of things caught my eye in
this article, both good and bad...
But Microsoft hasn't fully
answered questions about how Exchange Online won't hurt its loyal army
of partners, nor how the service can overcome some of its limitations and
aid the war against IBM's Lotus Notes.
"Microsoft may in fact succeed
with Exchange Online," said analyst David Ferris of Ferris Research [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
notes
archive
email
exchange
exchange
microsoft
outlook
server
sharepoint
sql
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Microsoft kills Windows Live OneCare and Equipt subscription services
Tue, Nov 18th 2008 7:29p Thomas Admin Duff
From All About Microsoft from Mary-Jo Foley:
Microsoft
kills Windows Live OneCare and Equipt subscription services
Microsoft’s Equipt — which Microsoft
launched in July of this year — is dead and Microsoft is having to go
back and pull copies of Equipt from the channel (Circuit City in the U.S.
and DSGI in the U.K.). Microsoft is offering customers a pro-rated refund
for the service and allowing purchasers to keep Office Home & Student
edition for free forever, [read] Keywords: collaboration
microsoft
office
openoffice
security
workspace
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Microsoft’s cloud is more about Notes migration and less about a new IT architecture
Mon, Nov 17th 2008 10:09p Thomas Admin Duff
From ZDNet.com: Microsoft’s
cloud is more about Notes migration and less about a new IT architecture
In his ZDNet blog, Tom Foremski writes
the following about what Microsoft's cloud initiative is targeting:
However, of those half-a-million
users, only a third are there because of the great benefits of using Microsoft’s
cloud, they are there because they want to migrate away from IBM’s Lotus
Notes system. That means that there is a massive amount of education nee [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
exchange
exchange
microsoft
security
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Book Review - The Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on Computability and the Turing Machine
Sun, Nov 16th 2008 1:29p Thomas Admin Duff
This is one of those books that you'll
love if you're into mathematics or hard-core computer science, but you'll
become somewhat of a skimmer if you don't have the chops to keep up with
theory and proofs.. The
Annotated Turing: A Guided Tour Through Alan Turing's Historic Paper on
Computability and the Turing Machine
by Charles Petzold. And in case you're wondering, I fall into the
second category. :)
Contents:
Part 1 - Foundations
This Tomb Holds Diophantus
The Irrational a [read] Keywords: foundations
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Book Review - Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom
Sun, Nov 16th 2008 12:49p Thomas Admin Duff
Ever wonder why you pick up one brand
of soup over another, even if the other one is just as convenient, tastes
just as good, and costs less? Wonder why some commercials are funny
or memorable, but have the exact opposite effect than what the advertisers
intended? Martin Lindstrom digs into the subject of marketing and
how the mind reacts to it in his book Buyology:
Truth and Lies About Why We Buy.
While you won't be able to run the same types of experiments (anyone
have an MRI machin [read] Keywords: notes
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Book Review - Thou Shalt Not Whine: The Eleventh Commandment: What We Whine About, Why We Do It and How to Stop
Sat, Nov 15th 2008 11:00p Thomas Admin Duff
If you're a parent with kids who
know at least two words, you hate whining. It was absolutely amazing
how the kids could push all my buttons with that simple act. But
now, it seems like nearly all of society has picked up on whining as being
the preferred form of communication these days. January Jones takes
a humorous look at this phenomenon in her book Thou
Shalt Not Whine: The Eleventh Commandment: What We Whine About, Why We
Do It and How to Stop. Along
with pointing out the mos [read] Keywords: |
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Interesting Report... Twitter and the Micro-Messaging Revolution - An O'Reilly Radar Report by Sarah Milstein
Fri, Nov 14th 2008 4:39a Thomas Admin Duff
I recently received a copy of the O'Reilly
Radar report titled Twitter
and the Micro-Messaging Revolution: Communication, Connections, and Immediacy--140
Characters at a Time by Sarah
Milstein. Like a number of my colleagues, it took me awhile before
I ventured into the Twitter stream. Even then, it was primarily due
to issues I had with not being able to contact my virtual network via instant
messaging while at particular locations that block those sites. But
in a short time frame, I [read] Keywords: connections
blogging
network
twitter
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Microsoft SharePoint security concerns surface
Thu, Nov 13th 2008 8:59p Thomas Admin Duff
From vnunet.com: Microsoft
SharePoint security concerns surface
Before you start laughing about another
Microsoft security issue, read the article...
Most business managers have little
visibility into their Microsoft SharePoint environments,
and believe that the collaboration tool could put them at risk of data
theft, according to new research from enterprise provisioning firm Courion.
The company found that, although
SharePoint sites are proliferating among organisations, 8 [read] Keywords: collaboration
lotus
notes
enterprise
microsoft
security
sharepoint
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Great new (FREE!) online graphics tool... SUMO Paint
Tue, Nov 11th 2008 9:59p Thomas Admin Duff
Today one of my bosses at work blogged
about a really cool Flash-based graphics program called SUMO
Paint...
I think I'm already addicted!
It takes care of most of the things
I do on a regular basis, like cropping for screen prints or emails. I
liked the easy color gradient tool, as that could be useful for button
or page backgrounds. Quite a few of the effects like smudging, erasing,
magic wand, and so forth are also there for your use.
I normally use a rather old v [read] Keywords: |
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Study: SharePoint, Lotus in for Long Collaboration Fight
Mon, Nov 10th 2008 11:39p Thomas Admin Duff
From PC World: SharePoint,
Lotus in for Long Collaboration Fight
Nothing like being in the front row
for this battle... :)
Microsoft and IBM have been duking
it out over e-mail and messaging software for years with their respective
Outlook/Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino products. As their product lines
have evolved, however, a new fight is brewing between Lotus and Microsoft's
SharePoint Server as the platform of choice for enterprise collaboration
strategy.
According to [read] Keywords: collaboration
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
enterprise
exchange
exchange
microsoft
outlook
server
sharepoint
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You can rent this space for 30 days. Interested?
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Book Review - The Passerby by Thomas Ray Crowel
Sun, Nov 9th 2008 8:00p Thomas Admin Duff
I received a copy of the novel The
Passerby by Thomas Ray Crowel
for review. The premise of the crime story sounded interesting, so
I accepted the offer. Passerby is a leisurely tale about a writer
from a small town who takes an interest in an unsolved murder from 20 years
ago. The killer of Trudie Brice, an 11 year old girl, was never found.
Ray Krouse needs material for a new book, and the Brice case seems
to fit the bill. But the deeper he gets into the case, the more disturbed
t [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - Jack's Notebook: A business novel about creative problem solving by Gregg Fraley
Sun, Nov 9th 2008 1:29p Thomas Admin Duff
There's a reason why storytelling is
such a powerful concept. You can embed concepts and truth in the
narrative, and they offer much more impact than a dry recitation of a method
or facts. Gregg Fraley does that with his book Jack's
Notebook: A business novel about creative problem solving.
Fraley frames his problem solving technique around the story of a
young man who wants to do something exciting in his life, but finds himself
locked into survival mode, just struggling to work two j [read] Keywords: application
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Book Review - The Boomer Burden: Dealing with Your Parents' Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff by Julie Hall
Sat, Nov 8th 2008 11:19p Thomas Admin Duff
I'm at that age where sometime in the
foreseeable future, I'm going to have to deal with the passing of one or
more parents in our family. In addition to the grieving process,
there's something that often doesn't get discussed until it's too late...
what do you do with all the "stuff" your parents have accumulated
over their lifetime? Julie Hall has made a career of working through
that process with people, and she's written a book called The
Boomer Burden: Dealing with Your Parents' L [read] Keywords: notes
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Book Review - Saving Face: The Art and History of the Goalie Mask by Jim Hynes and Gary Smith
Sat, Nov 8th 2008 10:39p Thomas Admin Duff
Being a long-time hockey fan (and having
a certain affinity for goalies), I knew I had to get this book when I saw
it appear on my RSS feed... Saving
Face: The Art and History of the Goalie Mask
by Jim Hynes and Gary Smith. If you're not a hockey fan, you might
wonder how on earth you could write a book about a single piece of sporting
gear, and not even a actual part of the game at that! Ah, if you
*are* a fan of the game, you know that the goalie mask has a rich and storied
history. [read] Keywords: |
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An incredible night in America...
Wed, Nov 5th 2008 7:49a Thomas Admin Duff
In past elections, I watched with a certain
feeling of detachment... a feeling that it really didn't matter one
way or another who won, because nothing would change anyway.
Tonight's the first time I actually
teared up for an election result.
Obama won't be perfect. The honeymoon
will be short, I have no doubt. But for the first time in years,
I have hope that things will be different.
And for once, I was there to listen
to a speech that will become a classic... one th [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - Head First Software Development by Dan Pilone and Russ Miles
Sun, Nov 2nd 2008 10:39p Thomas Admin Duff
When I first looked at Head
First Software Development by
Dan Pilone and Russ Miles, I was thinking that it would be best targeted
at people who had never formally written software before. It definitely
fits that bill. But I can see a use for experienced developers who
have never been exposed to agile development techniques. Either way,
it's a very good book.
Contents:
Intro
Great Software Development: Pleasing
Your Customer
Gathering Requirements: Knowing What
The Customer [read] Keywords: development
integration
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Book Review - High Altitude Leadership: What the World's Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success by Chris Warner and Don Schmincke
Sat, Nov 1st 2008 4:19p Thomas Admin Duff
This ended up being one of the few business
books that I couldn't put down... High
Altitude Leadership: What the World's Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About
Success by Chris Warner and Don
Schmincke. The positioning of leadership skills compared to mountain
climbing made a lot of sense, and the stories of what happened during the
expeditions were riveting.
Contents:
Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction;
Danger #1 - Fear of Death; Danger #2 - Selfishness; Danger #3 - Tool Seduc [read] Keywords: collaboration
notes
applications
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Book Review - Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt
Sat, Nov 1st 2008 12:39p Thomas Admin Duff
I tend to gravitate towards books that
explore how the mind works, and how you might be able to manipulate it
into better performance. Naturally, when I saw that Andy Hunt's Pragmatic
Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware
had been released, it went up on my to-be-reviewed list. Hunt does
a great job in exploring your "wetware", and there were some
chapters that squarely addressed certain issues I'm currently dealing with.
Content:
Journey from Novice to Expert: Novices
[read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - The Unseen by T. L. Hines
Fri, Oct 31st 2008 9:39p Thomas Admin Duff
I needed some diversionary reading while
away at a conference this week, so I took along my latest library acquisition...
The
Unseen by T. L. Hines. Between
the flight and the first night at the hotel, this one didn't last very
long. But it was an enjoyable read with some different angles usually
not encountered in novels...
Lucas doesn't have much of a past that
he can remember. All he knows is that he was raised in an orphanage,
was very much a loner, and enjoys observing peop [read] Keywords: agent
office
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Book Review - The Happiest Days of Our Lives by Wil Wheaton
Fri, Oct 31st 2008 8:49p Thomas Admin Duff
A friend and colleague recently pinged
me and asked if I had read Wil Wheaton's latest book, The
Happiest Days of Our Lives. That
one somehow got past my radar, as I enjoyed his first two books. To
my pleasant surprise, I had an autographed copy waiting for me when I checked
into a hotel at a conference I attended this last week. The Happiest
Days is not a long book, but it's filled with the same type of writing
that had me hooked with his earlier works. Wheaton is able to tell
stori [read] Keywords: php
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Book Review - Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time By Jackie Fenn and Mark Raskino
Fri, Oct 31st 2008 6:29p Thomas Admin Duff
It happens almost without fail for every
new technology and innovation... A new idea becomes a hot buzzword
destined to change the world. Then the euphoria bubble pops and no
one wants anything to do with it. But over time, the core concepts
become ingrained in the day-to-day flow of business, and reality finally
emerges. This "hype cycle" is exactly what Jackie Fenn
and Mark Raskino cover in their book Mastering
the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time.
[read] Keywords: notes
database
soa
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Book Review - Financial Intelligence for IT Professionals: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers
Fri, Oct 31st 2008 4:59p Thomas Admin Duff
Like most IT professionals, I try not
to get deeply involved in accounting stuff. While it's the scoreboard
for how well the business is doing, all the terminology and techniques
used to get the final score seem confusing and arcane. But with the
book Financial
Intelligence for IT Professionals: What You Really Need to Know About the
Numbers by Karen Berman, Joe Knight,
and John Case, it's now actually possible to me to understand much of what's
going on in an annual report. If I had [read] Keywords: forms
notes
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Comparing the Microsoft PDC conference with Lotusphere...
Thu, Oct 30th 2008 5:19p Thomas Admin Duff
So I've spent the last five days getting
inundated with information about where Microsoft is going in the next two
years. My thoughts on the technology will be a different blog post,
but I thought it might be interesting to compare how the conferences were
run. Not having a huge pool of conference experience, it was hard
*not* to compare PDC to Lotusphere. But here are a few of my observations...
Meals - Both conferences do a nice job
on meal planning. When you're serving thousand [read] Keywords: lotus
lotusphere
microsoft
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Here in Los Angeles for Microsoft PDC...
Sun, Oct 26th 2008 6:52p Thomas Admin Duff
I'm finally here in LA, in my room at the
Westin Bonaventure, getting caught up on emails and hoping for an early
and restful night. I arrived around 1:15 pm, and found that they
were already running shuttles between the hotels and the conference center.
I didn't register for the pre-conference, but I did head over there
to register for the main conference and get all that taken care of. It's
hard not to want to compare this to Lotusphere, as that's my conference
point of reference for [read] Keywords: lotusphere
development
laptop
mac
microsoft
vista
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Book Review - Darkfall by Dean Koontz
Sun, Oct 26th 2008 8:43a Thomas Admin Duff
I've been keeping a reading log since
the mid-90's so I can figure out if I've read all the works of a particular
author before spending time with the "this looks vaguely familiar"
syndrome. Darkfall
by Dean Koontz is one of his earlier
works written originally under the pen name of Owen West. It came
available at our library, and I didn't see it on my log. But, given
the original date of the novel, it *was* before I started keeping track.
Fortunately for me, I think this was truly o [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - Pelham Fell Here by Ed Lynskey
Sat, Oct 25th 2008 11:42p Thomas Admin Duff
Pelham
Fell Here by Ed Lynskey is a gritty
detective novel about Frank Johnson who isn't quite yet a private investigator,
yet needs to solve a crime before he's tried and convicted of the murder
of his cousin. Along the way, he uncovers a nasty subculture of neo-Nazi
sympathizers who have ended up in a number of positions of influence in
his small town. He has a background as an MP, but there were some
anger management issues along the way that led him to leave the job. He's
gone thr [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - Wrestling's Greatest Stories: Inside Stories About Cage Matches, Royal Rumbles, Smackdowns and Wrestlemania by Colin Burnett
Sat, Oct 25th 2008 1:32p Thomas Admin Duff
Like many guys my age, I spent some
time growing up watching that testosterone-driven soap opera known as "professional
wrestling". It's been years since I've watched a show on TV,
but when I saw the book Wrestling's
Greatest Stories: Inside Stories About Cage Matches, Royal Rumbles, Smackdowns
& Wrestlemania by Colin Burnett
at the library, I had to pick it up. Most of the entertainers and
matches he covers were the ones I fondly remember, and it was interesting
reading about some [read] Keywords: notes
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Wow! Major changes in the Amazon review ranking system, and I'm now #22!
Fri, Oct 24th 2008 8:59a Thomas Admin Duff
Talking about a shock (and pleasant
surprise) this morning. I logged onto Amazon to check my
review activity, and found the
following:
Looks like they've done a major overhaul
on their ranking system. Recent activity counts for more than overall
historical work. Block voting has been minimized. Who knows
what else went into it. Either way, it's nice to be able to say I'm
in the top 25...
And Esther Schindler went from 472 to
72! Congratulations...
Thanks to all [read] Keywords: |
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Dad, where do babies come from?
Thu, Oct 23rd 2008 9:29p Thomas Admin Duff
I found it amusing... :) [read] Keywords: |
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Surviving the Pink Slip
Mon, Oct 20th 2008 10:09p Thomas Admin Duff
From Kurt Cagle on O'Reilly's website:
Surviving
the Pink Slip
An excellent article on surviving when
your job is a victim of today's economic crisis... It won't make
the pain go away, but it can help you start to move in a positive direction.
Everyone's been nervous for months,
watching the market numbers, the stock prices, the declining sales figures.
In the IT department, it's not uncommon to see programmers with one window
open on code, the second on the app the code's supp [read] Keywords: development
security
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6
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Book Review - Cast of Characters: Common People in the Hands of an Uncommon God by Max Lucado
Mon, Oct 20th 2008 7:19p Tom Duff
Max Lucado is one of my favorite Christian
inspirational authors, and his latest book Cast
of Characters: Common People in the Hands of an Uncommon God
continues to reinforce that opinion. Max has a gift of taking a character
or story from the Bible, resetting it in an unusual environment, and then
drawing out the application and message. It's wonderful to encounter
a common passage and see it in a whole new light.
Contents:
Joseph - Joseph's Prayer; Matthew -
Friends of Flops; W [read] Keywords: notes
application
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Book Review - The Paranormal Caught On Film by Dr. Melvyn Willin
Sat, Oct 18th 2008 1:49p Tom Duff
I follow my local library's new books
in circulation via an RSS feed. So when the book The
Paranormal Caught On Film by Dr.
Melvyn Willin showed up, I though it might be a fun few hours of reading.
In reality, it wasn't much more than about 90 minutes of pictures
and commentary that in the end didn't do much more me one way or the other.
The book is 141 pages of pictures and
commentary on photographs that purport to show paranormal activity or beings.
They are classed into the cat [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - The Thin White Line: A History of the 2012 Avian Flu Pandemic in Canada by Craig DiLouie
Sat, Oct 18th 2008 12:39p Tom Duff
A couple years ago, you couldn't turn
on a newscast without getting a story about how avian flu was about to
break out into a global pandemic. As with most news stories, the
hype eventually wore down and media moved on to other hot topics. But
the reality remains that a pandemic flu outbreak is something that could
realistically happen with little to no warning. Craig DiLouie takes
a fictional "after the fact" look at the effects of a pandemic
in his book The
Thin White Line: A Histor [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About by Bertrand Cesvet
Thu, Oct 16th 2008 10:30p Tom Duff
So how do you create products and offerings
that people rave over? The things that become urban legends and nearly
sell themselves with almost no effort? Bertrand Cesvet (with Tony
Babinski and Eric Alper) looks at that elusive target in the book Conversational
Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About.
You may not be able to turn your product and brand into the examples
covered here, but you'll have a much better understanding of why the conversations
happen in the first [read] Keywords: |
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"Think Globally, Act Locally"... does that apply to our Presidential elections?
Thu, Oct 16th 2008 9:19p Tom Duff
One of the "green" sayings
that is often quoted is "think globally, act locally". Normally
this is applied to making wise personal decisions that show responsible
behavior towards the global ecosystem. But lately, the same phrase
has been echoing in my mind in terms of our Presidential elections. Should
we be thinking globally when we vote locally?
The article that triggered this post
today was from CNN titled Europe
mocks 'half-baked Alaskan' Palin.
The journalist gets bonus po [read] Keywords: |
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Musings on starting to practice "Dark Side" (Microsoft) skills...
Wed, Oct 15th 2008 9:55p Tom Duff
Now that I'm going to start straddling
the Lotus/Microsoft fence, I've had to readjust my mindset more than a
little bit. I'm feeling a bit chagrined over having to reconcile
my anti-Microsoft stance with the realities of life in the IT world. But
I think there are a number of positives that will come out of this skillset
expansion.
For one, more skills makes you more
valuable. Although I've been very happy with where my Lotus expertise
has taken me, I've always had a gnawing fear [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
lotusphere
notes
application
microsoft
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Book Review - The Shack by William P. Young
Tue, Oct 14th 2008 10:17p Tom Duff
OK... So I'm a bit behind the
curve on this one. Already nearly 1600 reviews out on Amazon for
The
Shack by William P. Young. Needless
to say, it took a bit of time before I got to the top of the library hold
list. It didn't take me long to read the story, as I found it intriguing.
It's a different slant and method for looking at how God works. Theologically,
I can't say I fully agreed with it. Still, I think it was a worthwhile
read.
Mackenzie Allen Philips, or Mack to
near [read] Keywords: |
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Anyone going to the Microsoft PDC conference in LA in a couple of weeks?
Tue, Oct 14th 2008 9:00p Tom Duff
I'm going to be heading down there myself
in order to start ramping up on some additional skills for work. If
you're going to be there, let me know and perhaps us brave Lotuspherians
can band together for protection... :)
I'll admit this will be rather strange.
I'm sure it'll be similar to my very first Lotusphere when I sat
there not understanding 90% of what was going on. I'll also have
a hard time not comparing it to Lotusphere as it's the same type of conference.
The party i [read] Keywords: lotusphere
microsoft
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Book Review - Peaceful Endings: The NOPOSAM Project by Michael K. Tucker
Sun, Oct 12th 2008 9:49p Tom Duff
Michael K. Tucker contacted me and asked
if I would be interested in reviewing his novel, Peaceful
Endings: The NOPOSAM Project.
Billed as a nanotech thriller, it was definitely in the genre range
that I enjoy. For a first novel, Tucker has done a good job. It
suffers (in my opinion) from a common problem in first novels... realistic
dialogue. But it's not enough to detract from what was a story that
kept me coming back to learn the outcome.
People are dying in droves in tiny Rh [read] Keywords: |
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Book Review - slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte
Sat, Oct 11th 2008 9:40p Tom Duff
It's almost a cliche to complain about
how most presentations are horrible. But fortunately there are a
select few books out there that take you beyond the mechanics of creating
a presentation. Nancy Duarte has one of those books that need to
be read by every presenter... slide:ology:
The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations.
It's my hope that this book gets a wide reading by all who stand
up in front of groups and convey a message.
Contents:
Introduction; Create a N [read] Keywords: designer
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Book Review - The Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word by Tony Simons
Sat, Oct 11th 2008 3:49p Tom Duff
Quite often I'll read a book that I
think is very well done, with truths that resonate with me. But less
often do I find that book at a time when it fits so well with current events.
One such book is The
Integrity Dividend: Leading by the Power of Your Word
by Tony Simons. As we watch corporations and financial systems crumble
under the weight of unethical and dishonest actions, Simons presents a
truth that is too often neglected in the workplace. But even more,
everything that you r [read] Keywords: notes
applications
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Book Review - The Walk-In by Gary Berntsen and Ralph Pezzullo
Sat, Oct 11th 2008 3:10p Tom Duff
A friend recommended The
Walk-In by Gary Berntsen and Ralph
Pezzullo as a good spy thriller. I picked up a copy from the library,
and it made it to the top of my recreational reading list rather quickly.
This ended up being an excellent story with elements that are all
too imaginable in real-life...
Matt Freed is a counter-terrorism agent
who is tasked to interview an Iranian thought to be a highly placed intelligence
operative. He tells Freed that there are two major terrorist op [read] Keywords: agent
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Book Review - Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth by Steve Pavlina
Sat, Oct 11th 2008 2:09p Tom Duff
I was recently sent a copy of Steve
Pavlina's book Personal
Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth.
I'm always game for trying to make myself better. Pavlina's
book is quite a bit different than most personal development books that
you'll read, in that he deals much more with *who* you are rather than
*what* you are doing. I don't know that I would recommend it for
everyone, as it's got a number of slants that run contrary to my own personal
faith and b [read] Keywords: application
applications
development
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Shred My Code - Parsing text in a Rich Text Field
Wed, Oct 8th 2008 10:58p Tom Duff
I thought about naming this feature
"Pimp My Code", but I know what people have done to code I posted
in the past. Therefore, "shred" sounded more appropriate.
:)
But seriously, I wanted to share this
code and open it up for comment. It's a part of the Domino Object
Model I haven't played with before, and I'm sure there's a ton of room
for improvement.
Scenario: I have a Rich Text field
in a Notes client document. The document is edited in Notes, but
viewed in the browser. [read] Keywords: agent
document
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
notes client
rich text
properties
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Book Review - Fade Away by Harlan Coben
Tue, Oct 7th 2008 9:49p Tom Duff
I've been on a bit of a recreational
reading kick lately... probably trying to escape the stress of the
economy. Anyway, my number finally came up at the library for the
latest Myron Bolitar novel by Harlan Coben... Fade
Away. It's been awhile since
I've had the pleasure of reading Bolitar's irreverent dialog and his interaction
with his partner Win Lockwood. And as always, it's a treat.
Bolitar, a sports agent and one-time
promising basketball phenom (before his knee was blown [read] Keywords: agent
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Book Review - The Master Planets by Donald Gallinger
Mon, Oct 6th 2008 11:22p Tom Duff
I was contacted by Donald Gallinger
recently, asking if I'd be interested in receiving a copy of his book The
Master Planets. The description
and premise was such that I was interested enough to agree. Within
about 25 pages, my "I need to be doing..." list was completely
shot, because I didn't want to put the book down. That surprised
me a bit, as Master Planets isn't necessarily an action-driven novel. But
the characters were so real that I found myself emotionally drained at
the en [read] Keywords: |
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I work with a great community of people...
Sat, Oct 4th 2008 2:39p Tom Duff
As part of my Articles of Interest project,
I'm going back through over a year of tagged RSS entries to pull out things
that mean a lot to me. What quickly became interesting is how often
certain names and blogs appeared repeatedly. Chris
Blatnick shows up quite often,
and I think everything Andre
Guirard ever blogged has been
copied over. :) All in all, I think most of the Notes community
makes an appearance (or 10) in my new repository.
Thanks to everyone who shares what they
[read] Keywords: collaboration
ldd
lotus
notes
community
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So do you keep an electronic "Articles of Interest" database?
Sat, Oct 4th 2008 2:39p Tom Duff
I finally spent some time this week
starting a project that's been gnawing away at me for awhile. It
started when I looked at my Starred category on Google Reader and found
there were over 500 entries out there. Some items were Notes tips
I wanted to look at later, some were great posts on public speaking and
presentations, tech how-to's, cool software... you get the idea.
But listed as they are in a single category in Google Reader, they
might as well have been missing in action. I [read] Keywords: document
notes
template
application
database
google
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Book Review - The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory by Torkel Klingberg
Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 9:59p Tom Duff
I received a copy of The
Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory
by Torkel Klingberg via the Amazon Vine review program recently. Working
in the tech industry, I'm all too aware of the massive amount of information
we're exposed to each day. What I was hoping for was an understandable,
practical guide for dealing with it. Instead, the book turned out
to be tilted more towards the academic side of the equation, citing study
after study about how and why [read] Keywords: |
53
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The Workspace Picture meme...
Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 8:59p Tom Duff
Since my home workspace is a real mess
(and doesn't have any cool toys compared to the rest of you), you get to
see my Cubeville location instead...
It's quite amazing how much cleaner
this space is than my home space...
Actually, it's quite sad... sigh... [read] Keywords: workspace
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6
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Book Review - Fixation by Mark Schorr
Wed, Oct 1st 2008 11:19p Tom Duff
I followed up the book Borderline with
Mark Schorr's next novel in the Brian Hanson series, Fixation.
As with Borderline, I loved the setting of the story in my home town.
Also, the suspense of being stalked and harassed at each turn was
good enough to keep me turning pages. I don't think I was quite as
enthralled this time as with his first novel, but it was an entertaining
read.
Hanson's semi-love interest, Louise
Parker, leads a failed raid on a white supremacist compound. The [read] Keywords: |
6
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Book Review - Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 by David Crystal
Wed, Oct 1st 2008 9:49p Tom Duff
As part of the Amazon Vine review program,
I requested and received a copy of David Crystal's book Txtng:
The Gr8 Db8. Being the proud
owner of an iPhone with two older children, I've done my share of texting
with them and others in my circle of friends. While the book does
do a good job in examining the pros and cons of texting on our language
skills, it was far too academic for my liking. Conversely, if you
were teaching a class (or were interested) in linguistics, there'd be a
lot [read] Keywords: iphone
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10
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Book Review - Billy: The Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham and the Test of Faith that Almost Changed Everything
Tue, Sep 30th 2008 10:39p Tom Duff
I recently was sent a manuscript for
the book Billy:
The Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham and the Test of Faith that Almost
Changed Everything by Bill McKay
and Ken Abraham. I've read and reviewed other books about Billy Graham,
but not any that restricted itself to the beginning stages of his ministry
told in narrative form. This book is meant to coincide with a soon-to-be-released
movie titled "Billy: The Early Years." In the book, the
authors tell the story of Billy Graham's mi [read] Keywords: |
86
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Would *you* ride in this airplane?
Mon, Sep 29th 2008 11:20p Tom Duff
When we went on our DisneyWorld vacation
earlier this month, Alaska Air unfortunately ended up changing our reservations.
What started as a direct PDX to MCO flight turned into the more typical
PDX to SEA to MCO. Not a big deal for me, but Ian doesn't share the
same opinion.
Ian hates flying... *really* hates
flying. Medication is necessary, be it capsules or liquid. But
getting on a plane stone cold sober is *not* an option for him. The
Portland to Seattle leg of the flight us [read] Keywords: |
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An abstract I'd love to present and be part of...
Mon, Sep 29th 2008 10:59p Tom Duff
I was honored to be approached by Chris
Blatnick of InterfaceMatters.com
fame, asking if I'd like to co-present with him. Well, duh! Of
course!
If you'd like to see what we're proposing,
you can catch it here on IdeaJam: Getting
to WOW: Interface First Design for Lotus Notes Developers
It's not often you get to share the
stage with someone you've looked up to for a long time. This would
be a lot of fun to present, and quite useful to boot... [read] Keywords: lotus
lotusphere
lotusphere2009
notes
ideajam
ideajam.net
interface
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Oh, and for those wondering about our Disneyworld Segway tour...
Mon, Sep 29th 2008 10:59p Tom Duff
Sorry I didn't get around to posting
sooner on this...
As you can see, these aren't the normal
"whizzing around Epcot" Segways. No, these are the two-wheeled
SUV versions! This tour kicks off from Ft. Wilderness with about
12 people and two guides. After a short training session, it's off
on the trails around the resort, both paved and off-road. These have
a top speed of 12 miles per hour, but the ones they let us loose on are
limited to only 6 miles per hour. Still, that's a pr [read] Keywords: |
8
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Book Review - Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Mon, Sep 29th 2008 10:59p Tom Duff
Based on a recommendation from a friend,
I took the opportunity to read Little
Brother by Cory Doctorow. While
this is technically categorized as a "young adult" novel, it
completely and totally transcends age boundaries. This should be
required reading when it comes to thinking about what our "terrorism-adverse"
society is coming to. Of course, the government would probably prefer
you just ignored the book and trusted them to look out for you.
Marcus Yallow is a teenager who is m [read] Keywords: network
security
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Book Review - Molecules of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases by John Emsley
Mon, Sep 29th 2008 10:59p Tom Duff
The history of death by poisoning has
a long and storied past. But many times, the average person (like
me) doesn't really understand the "why" behind the chemicals
used. In Molecules
of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases,
John Emsley uses a successful format that should appeal to both the scientist
and the average reader. And in the end, you'll see why certain
chemicals have the reputations that they do.
Contents:
Part 1 - From Medicine to Murder: Ricin
and the ass [read] Keywords: |
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