How Google Will Ruin the Cloud

How Google Will Ruin the Cloud

I really enjoy having access to my stuff in the cloud.  Docs I can pull down anywhere, anytime, mail that isn’t tied down to a single machine, etc. Unfortunately, there are problems with the cloud, and with handing off services to companies like Google, which most of us aren’t thinking of. Over the past couple months I have had 4 major problems big cloud based services.  In each case, save one, it was impossible to get actual customer service from…

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Updated to WordPress 3.0

Updated to WordPress 3.0

Nothing major, just did a quick backup then hit the upgrade button.  While things may have changed significantly in the backend code, there really isn’t much to show you here. WordPress MU (the multiblog variant of WordPress that is used on WordPress.com) is now built into the maintstream code.  Thus endeth the tyranny of MU, a code branch I personally despised. Custom menus make it really easy to create a special nav menu.  I’ve already used this, and it’s a…

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Thoughts on Hitting the Half Century Mark

Thoughts on Hitting the Half Century Mark

It’s official, I’m now 50 years old.  So get off my lawn, ya darned hippies!  Get a haircut! The transition to “grumpy old man Cahill” is now pretty much complete.  In addition to a new found desire to buy a straw fedora, drive 40 in the fast lane on the Pike, and hit the early bird special at Denny’s, I’ve also got some advice for all you young whippersnappers Get better by being better – talking about it is one…

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My Open Source Web Dev List

My Open Source Web Dev List

Here is the list of stuff I load onto my machine right after firing it up for the first time: 7-zip – open source package for handling zip, tar, gzip WinSCP – ftp, scp, sftp Putty – in case I need to talk to a server, this is my preferred SSH client TextPad – all the text editor I need for just about any task. Don’t forget to tell it to syntax highlight PHP and turn on line numbers! (not…

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Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts

A bit of randomness…since I’ve been working like crazy the past two weeks. Once again we have a foiled terrorist attack and the media immediately blames the usual suspect, middle age white guys.  Talk about racial profiling… The striped bass have hit Boston Harbor.  Personally, I want to head to the Cape and try the rivers for schoolies this weekend. I’m laying off the Red Sox tweets for a while.  Still watching the games, but I see we’ve still got…

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History Channel tackles “America The Story of Us”

History Channel tackles “America The Story of Us”

I’m an unabashed history nerd.  I love history, and I’ll admit I’ve had a real chip on my shoulder for the History Channel for the past two years, since they stopped doing history and started running shows like “MonsterQuest”, “UFO Hunters” and “Ice Road Truckers”.  No offense to those shows, I’m sure they’ve got their audiences, but they most certainly are not history, and neither is most of the other content that’s filling the schedule at History. Its easy to…

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Friday Music Video – Bow Thayer

Friday Music Video – Bow Thayer

Bow Thayer and Perfect Trainwreck performing ” RU Willin”.  Bow is simply one of the best musicians I’ve ever heard, and a great guy.  Check out his site at http://bowthayer.com/ You just have to love anyone that describes their musical style as “greasy” or “modern mountain”, right?

Show a Little Pride

Show a Little Pride

I’ve been working with software engineers for a long time.  The best are all united in one common attribute: pride. Not pride in the sense of the deadly sin, no, I mean the good kind.  The kind that makes them make that extra effort to ensure their product works right, or their website stays up, or their system isn’t going to need constant care and feeding. Most of these folks (and I say folks as this certainly isn’t males only…

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Skype Issue

Skype Issue

I use Skype a lot.  Be it to communicate with developers in the Ukraine, or to talk with the relatives spread around the globe, I pretty much leave it on all the time.  I prefer it to my cell phone for calls. So it’s funny to me to complain about the service, as in close to 7 years of use, this is about the only problem I’ve had:  they apparently don’t understand the meaning of “Block This User.” In addition…

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