All Things Cahill

Blog

  • WordPress 3.2 – Good, But Wait!

    I’m really just posting to test that everything is working in WP 3.2 – I’ve just done the upgrade here as a test.  So far it’s looking good, but you should be aware this is a major level upgrade and also is the point at which WP leaves behind legacy support for older versions of PHP and MySQL – you should have:

    • PHP version 5.2.4 or greater
    • MySQL version 5.0 or greater
    This upgrade means that not all hosts are ready (although, if your host isn’t supporting this level, you should change hosts).  It’s also a problem for some dependencies in plugins like FeedWordpress, Tweet This and Facebook Comments.  Fixes are available, but you’ll be cracking open a code editor if you want them right away.
    Otherwise, lots of admin changes, promises of speedier performance (I see it…) and a new theme with all the features (I have it turned on, but will be constructing one of my own soon).  Full feature list here…and here is a summary:
    • Refreshed Administrative UI – Admin redesign
    • New Default Theme “Twenty Eleven” – Uses the latest Theme Features
    • Full Screen Editor – Distraction free writing experience
    • Extended Admin Bar – More useful links to control the site
    My advice, as always, with this major level release is this: if you aren’t technical, have someone who is do the upgrade just in case.  If you are, do your backups and make sure you meet the minimum requirements for the upgrade.  In general, I suggest you wait a couple weeks and let the plugin makers get caught up, and let the bugs get sorted out by the community.

  • I got nothing…

    It’s been a long time since I posted.  I’ve been wrapped up in endless development cycles, dealing with real world stuff and generally had way too much going on to have the time to deposit any gems of wisdom on you.  Of course, that presupposes that at this point, I do.  Which I do not…

    I’m not making any promises now, but I will certainly try to post more soon.  For now, that evergreen post maker, a list:

    • We’re moving to an Agile development process.  It’s painful.  Really painful.
    • The stripers and blues are in, but I haven’t had time to fish.
    • I did a really cool secret project recently that I’ll never tell you about.  Just look on me in awe.
    • I’m rocking a really cool 64 bit 8 meg i7 lapworkstation now.  I think it has more processing power than any of my webservers.
    • Sad to see Gil Scott Heron pass – check out some of his tunes, and also read his bio.
    • 51st birthday – my friends once again show me how utterly cool they are, and throw me a really cool party. Gerhard, Kim, Mike, Caroline – you guys are the best!

    Hey, maybe I DO HAVE SOMETHING!

    Oh, and GO BRUINS!

  • Thoughts on Completing a 15 Month Long Project

    Team, it’s been a long project, it’s been a tough project. You’ve developed bravely, proudly for your company. You’re a special group. You’ve found in one another a bond, that exists only in engineering, among brothers. You’ve coded for long hours, debugged each others work in dire moments. You’ve seen error messages and suffered through full regression tests together. I’m proud to have served with each and every one of you. You all deserve long and happy lives in peace.

    Paraphrased from Band of Brothers

    15 months upgrading from Php 4 and Mysql4 to the latest versions.  This was a project previous engineers had been tasked with.  Some ran screaming out of the building.  None seriously attempted it. For us it only happened because our Senior Architect Brian Kirsten was smart enough to know it was possible, and because I was too dumb to say “no way.”

    The key to this upgrade was that we couldn’t just shut down and do the upgrade.  Our steady flow of enhancements, bug fixes and general day to day operational tasks had to be maintained.  In fact we were able to release several major projects while this was ongoing.

    I could go through the details, but they’re way too “inside baseball” to be of interest.  Let me just say this:  my Ukranian development team, Irina, Andriy and Artem are absolutely the best.

    Over the past month it’s been a lot of long hours.  Obviously that left no time for blogging.  Now that it’s wrapped up, you’ll see more.

    As far as projects, I’ve still got a little clean up.  I realize some of you are waiting for my help on some stuff, and I can promise I’ll be catching up quickly.  For now, I rest.

  • In Praise of Assholes

    This piece is in honor of the most under appreciated among us, the assholes.

    You know of whom I speak, perhaps it’s that boss that relishes dumping a 3 day project on you at 2pm on Friday, ruining your weekend, maybe it’s that brother in law who reformatted the disk on your computer losing all your file, or perhaps its that neighbor who keeps slipping into your now denuded garage to borrow tools which somehow never find their way back..  For the lucky among us, it may even be a spouse.

    Think about it, if it were not for the assholes among us, how would we ever truly appreciate the truly good?

    • Could we really savor our moments of triumph if they weren’t standing behind us telling us that our zipper was down?
    • What would we talk about endlessly if it weren’t for their antics?  Let’s face it, our good friends are honestly boring by comparison.
    • How much fun would it be if our plans all came off without a hitch?  Without the assholes, who would be there to trip you up once in a while, there by making the achievement of your eventual goal that much sweeter?
    • Where would we be if we were allowed to become so full of ourselves as we basked in the glow of our unimpeded march towards perfection.

    Could we truly savor sweet, had we never tasted bitter? Would we appreciate light so much, had we never seen dark?

    Indeed, I think we need to embrace those assholes among us, to reward them for that great service they provide.  So the next time one walks up to you, as they walk up, open your heart, throw wide your arms, then kick them in the nuts.  Just so they will feel your joy in the same manner in which you experience theirs…

  • Friday Music Video: String Cheese Incident

    Here’s a well produced cut from String Cheese Incident of Joyful Sound.  I have no idea where or when this was recorded, but I’m betting by the general quality it was from sothe 2005-2010 period.

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4rbbS2hhRY[/youtube]

    Band Site

    Wikipedia Site

    Archive.org Live Concert Archive

  • iPad/iPhone In App Purchases Are Today’s 900 Numbers

    I got a bill today, or rather a receipt for a purchase already completed, from iTunes.  $20.93 for a variety of $.99 transactions.  Strange, as I haven’t  bought anything lately.

    On further investigation, it was an App called “Pocket God” that one of the girls apparently added.  That came for $4.99 and then all of a sudden a slew of in app purchases.  It reminds me of “The Eagle” in “Angry Birds” which allows a user to get past a hard part in the game, but costs $.99 every time you use it.

    My best advice here is that for anyone who has kids, or anyone else that is using their iPad, be sure to change your iTunes password, and don’t let them have it.  Apple doesn’t have any interest in limiting this chicanery, as they are taking a 30% cut on it.  It’s up to you.

    Also, I strongly urge you to shun purchasing any app for the iPhone, Android or iPad that allows such crap.  Apps should not have direct access into your bank account!

  • Without Further Ado, Dancing Weasels

    It occurs to me that around the first of the year, I promised you more cute and cuddly weasels.  Promise delivered…

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCSTouqYLnc[/youtube]

  • Thoughts on the 2011 New England Boat Show

    I shot plenty of video as I walked around the 2011 Boat Show with my two daughters, but I haven’t had time to post edit and honestly, I’m not sure it’s all that good to begin with.  My hand shake (essential tremor) has gotten bad enough that I don’t think I should be handling the lens work anymore.

    My initial thought was that there were a whole lot more ski and sun boats this year.  The true coastal fishing machines were somewhat few and far between.  In general, I found the prices on most of the boats utterly shock worthy, enough that I question who has the money to spend on a 42′ boat that’s north of (touching pinky to chin in the best Dr. Evil I can manage) $1 MILLLION DOLLARS.  I guess that’s a good way to weed out the folks who would have trouble tossing a grand or two into the fuel tanks a weekend.

    The good:

    • J-Way Diesel of Scituate offering Diesel Engine Courses for boaters – If you can’t do basic triage on your engine you shouldn’t be running one.
    • Allied Boat Works WB-20 – A no nonsense, no frills 20′ center console with a good casting platform, clear deck and sqat console, for under the price of the truck you’d tow it with.
    • Rampage 34 – now available with IPS Pod Drives – you absolutely have to check out their video of them dancing the boat around.  It doesn’t squat when you back down on a fish, and is the most nimble boat in that size I’ve ever seen (oh wait, this is the web, why don’t I just show you…)
      [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y0hR_wS0jo[/youtube]

    The Bad:

    • Edgewater Boats getting $65,000 for a 20′ center console –   Seems like the decimal point is in the wrong spot there. I love the boat, but the price point on this and so many others is wayyyyy out there.
    • Sealegs – the boat with wheels – an amphibious rigid inflatable center console.  So you can drive to the water in your boat.  Really?  Again, let’s go to the video…
      [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMR2Azr-NsI[/youtube]
    • Starcraft, my beloved Starcraft…only showing a handful of mundane center consoles…with FIBERGLASS hulls.  Maybe its the economy, maybe NE just doesn’t hold my affinity for aluminum boats, but not seeing a decent aluminum boat makes me feel empty inside.
    • Me for pulling a rookie mistake and wearing work boats (we’d had 2 inches of snow the night before) instead of boat shoes.  Dumb, dumb, dumb…

    The Ugly

    • Guy getting in a fist fight with a parking attendant when he asked to park for a second at the side of the hall, was turned away, then the attendant let the next car park.  Literally, the guy got out and chased down the attendant.  Wonder how he like the police station…
    • The Boston Convention Center –  who employs something like half of Southie: perhaps they could find someone with the technical prowess to plunge a toilet once in a while.

    I’m sure there were a lot of other monsterously priced center consoles, but here’s my take: for $65k, I’d give up and start chartering exclusively.

    Boat dealers, you know where the comment form is…many of you will remember it from last year…flame on.

    Not enough?  Here are the reports from last year and the year before…

    Random 2010 Boat Show Thoughts

    The New England Boat Show 2009

  • Making Shopping Carts Suck Less

    I found this  brilliant graphic over at oatmeal (hat tip to Matt Brodeur for pointing the site out) and it hits on a subject that’s been on my mind the past couple days: shopping carts that suck.

    The oatmeal crews has definitely hit the nail on the head, so much so that I forwarded the thing over to the other Senior Engineer I work with as well as our Front End Design Lead, intending it as a subject for Monday discussion.  Unfortunately, we fail on numerous of these items today, I’m sorry to report.

    I don’t normally copy the full content of something like this, but I have to say, it’s too important not to in this case.

  • Adventures in Comment Moderation – How to be “That Guy” on Facebook

    Most of us never even realize it, but Facebook allows us to moderate the comments that show up against our posts.  In the base usage, it is very important as it allows you to remove the comments your college roommate posted containing links to the pics of you doing belly shots off an Asian hooker in Vegas last week when your boss thought you were home sick.

    The problem is that it makes us all Online Community Moderators, and even worse, untrained, and potentially unprincipled Online Community Managers at that.  Luckily, most of Facebook users appear to get it;  they leave their comment stream alone, or only delete the occasional offending post “for cause.”

    …when you attempt to control the discussion, it ceases to be a discussion, it becomes a lecture…

    There are others, however, who treat their comment stream with a more Stalinist view.  It’s “agree with me, or you won’t be seen with me” for them.  You’ve probably run across them in the past, and not even noticed.  Have you ever posted a comment, only to find hours later that it disappeared?  Does it happen every once in a while, generally with the same Facebook “friend”?

    You’ve run into “That Guy.”  You too can be “That Guy” by following a few simple tips (in Madlib format, select the one that applies):

    • Have an agenda.  We all want to hear all about being (conservative/progressive/a grateful dead head/transgender) all the time.
    • Flood our streams with your words of wisdom.
    • Take us to task for not being as (conservative/progressive/grateful dead head/transgender) as you are.
    • TYPE IN CAPS because we’re too stupid to read your missives in lower case.
    • Accept no comments other than “Right on”, “You rule” or “I wish I was you.”  Delete the rest.
    • If you are unfortunately called out on something simple, like the fact that bipeds walk on two feet, not three, delete the post and all the comments, rather than fessing up.
    • Routinely suggest that anyone that disagrees with you should be (flogged/shot/tarred and feathered) then blame everyone else for fostering a culture of violence.
    • By all means, block anyone that appears to disagree with you.

    Here is the sum of my 16 years in Online Community Management: when you attempt to control the discussion, it ceases to be a discussion, it becomes a lecture, and that pisses people off and makes you look like a fool.