iBrasten

I like to believe that when it comes to programming, I’m usually within a step or two of the general industry. Sometimes I’m a step or two ahead (NetBeans), sometimes a step or two behind (Spring / AOP), but I usually figure it out quickly—and sometimes I’m leading.

Let’s focus on NetBeans. As most of you may know, I’ve been using Emacs as my primary development text editor. I simply hated IDEs that got in my way. Code complete is “nice,” but after a while of not using it it’s definitely not necessary. Keep a browser with the API handy and you’re good to go. Refactoring was tough, yes, but it was a small price to pay.

I had heard that Eclipse’ was winning the IDE wars in a landslide, so I decided to give it a shot. It was fine, but it was slow and really nothing special, in my opinion. Then I tried NetBeans.

NetBeans won’t change your life, but it’s a fast, relatively lightweight IDE that mostly stays out of your way. I really like it! I’ve had the advantage of using 4.0 first, and have heard that the 3.x and earlier versions were slow monolithic beasts that everyone hated. I know nothing about that, but I can say, you must try 4.0! Furthermore, the energy being put into killer plugins seems to have taken off recently. I just downloaded a collaboration plugin that lets me connect with other NetBeans users and work on the same files and chat via “VoIP.” VERY SLICK. Of course, I don’t know anyone else that uses NetBeans, so I’m limited to the demo and poking around with the interface, but it looks really nice.

There’s also a huge collection of plugins for UML diagrams, database browsers, etc. And the majority of it is open-source freebees.

Wrapping back around to the open-step-ahead thing, my only complaint with NetBeans was that it was way down on the popularity list, and I didn’t want to be stuck with an IDE that had little developer support. But alas, it appears that developers have rediscovered this long-forgotten little IDE. “Market share” has tripled in the last 12 months, and the buzz amongst the industry now is people leaving Eclipse for NetBeans.

So, this time I feel I was one step ahead of the industry. But they’re coming around.

Because Squire Did It, so I did too.

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional Your Verbal Intelligence is Exceptional Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

Interestingly, this was the most basic IQ test I’ve ever taken, and it was the lowest I’ve ever scored… Last week some time I took an extremely long and complicated one (they all claim to be written by Ph.Ds and such, of course) and scored 138, which I believe is 2 points below “Genius.” I was crushed! Oh well… I usually score between 130-148 (my highest so far) on these things. 125 was hard to swallow, so I’m blaming the test.

It’s that time again, folks! That time when the development elite (read: rich Java developers) descend on San Fransisco to take part in the largest, greatest development conference in the world, JavaOne—and people like me sit in front of the computer waiting for news from there. For the next week, Sun and other Java companies will be announcing product after fantastic product and technology after amazing technology based on or created for Java and it’s users. Already, several interesting announcements have rolled in, including a few pictures of the event. I will share what little I’ve seen so far.

So, for one thing, a new chip is being released that will allow Java instructions on cell phones to be ran directly on the cell phone hardware. This will increase Java performance on Cell phones drastically. I believe this finally solidifies Java as the development environment of choice on modern mobile devices.

Secondly, the backers of Blu-Ray (Panasonic, Sony, Dell, HP, 20th Century Fox, Disney, and Apple Computer) have agreed to include Java as part of the Blu-Ray specification. Meaning all Blu-Ray players will contain Java VMs, and Blu-Ray disks will have the capability of containing Java bytecode that can be ran. Blu-Ray players must also have networking ports, so a variety of uses for the Java VM can be envisioned, though I have no idea what the group is actually planning.

Java turned 10-years old this year.

IBM will be releasing versions of their Java software for Solaris x86… which, thanks to being open sources (OpenSolaris.org), may soon give Linux a good run for it’s money. :)

More information will soon follow…

I saw a pair of interesting surveys earlier today. I will look for the URLs tonight, I’ve since lost them (they were buried deep in a Google search). But, they were asking Java developers what their preferred operating system was (for development)... the first survey was taken about 24 months ago and the results were (roughly) a 50%-50% Windows/Linux split… a little less, as Solaris picked up one or two points. The second survey was the same question posed about 6 months ago to the same demographic… this time to results came back roughly 30% Windows / 30% Linux / 30% Mac OS X.

I read an interesting opinion that I largely agree with regarding Microsoft’s current state-of-affairs. It should be said that while I have little love for Microsoft, I’ve never been naive enough to think they were on the edge of collapse. They have always adapted and have a ton of cash. Nevertheless, consider this… Microsoft has always succeeded by identifying it’s largest competitor and focusing on it until it’s no longer a threat. And this has been successful through-out the majority of it’s history. Example: Windows vs OS/2, Word vs WordPerfect, Excel vs. Lotus 1 2 3, PocketPC vs PalmOS, Windows Media vs RealNetworks, Internet Explorer vs. Netscape.

The interesting thing is what’s happened since Netscape went down. Microsoft has entered into battle with several companies since then, and for the most part they have stalled, or in some cases even lost ground to an advancing competitor. XBox has sold poorly compared to PlayStation, Windows is stalling against Linux on the server end, Windows has lost a little ground to Mac OS X on the desktop, Windows Mobile for cell phones continues to stall against BlackBerry and Symbian, Google is thrashing them in search, Firefox is picking up ground against Internet Explorer, Windows Media has captured less than 25% of the market for digital music sales (compared to 75% for MPEG-4 Audio + Apple’s DRM).

Again, I’m not claiming this spells the end for Microsoft… I’m merely stating that recently their endeavours have been less than stellar compared to past performances.

If you’ve never experienced the Diamond Club at Safeco ( or your stadium’s equivalent)... wow…. It’s a selection of about 100 seats directly behind home plate… underneath the seats sits a very high-class restaurant serving some amazing food (buffet style, but you wouldn’t know it from the food). Every once in a while, Jessica’s CEO gives away his personal tickets to one of their employees, and last night it was her time again. This is the second time we’ve been there now. It was so great! I don’t have any pictures of the restaurant, but to give you an idea of what it was like in the seats, here is a few pictures:

Seattle Mariners vs Oakland Athletics

Final: Seattle 5, Oakland 4 – 12 innings.

I had a co-worker recently “ha-ha” me on the phone because my Mac can’t run PCAnywhere.

Seriously…

There’s a great little website that lets you tinker with the federal budget and try to cut the deficit.  It’s quite good.  Anyway, I thought I’d do it and show you my results.

My basic strategy was to cut all federal spending by 10% across the board, and increase tax revenue by 10% across the board.  So before you complain that your favorite program was cut 10%, keep in mind that that’s just the baseline.  Anything I’m not too excited about funding will be cut DEEPER than 10%, and anything I strongly believe in will remain at today’s funding levels.  On the whole, I tend to cut entitlement programs, but support infrastructure programs.

Feel free to yell at me about my fake budget in the comments section… being somewhat of a moderate’s budget, I expect to hear about it from both sides.

Alternatively, make your own damn budget.

This budget has a surplus of $5.03 billion.

Spending ($2443.89 billion: cut $228.63 billion)

$401.49 billion .... Military Spending

Cut $44.61 bil. from base of $446.105 bil.(-10%)

$89.48 billion ..... Iraq War and Afghanistan Operations

Cut $22.36 bil. from base of $111.851 bil.(-20%)

$115.48 billion .... Veterans & Retired Military Pensions and Services (No Change)

$22.11 billion ..... International Affairs

Cut $9.47 bil. from base of $31.590 bil.(-30%)

$21.57 billion ..... General Science, Space, and Technology

Cut $2.39 bil. from base of $23.967 bil.(-10%)

$1.91 billion ...... Non-Defense Energy Spending

Cut $0.2 bil. from base of $2.121 bil.(-10%)

$28.05 billion ..... Natural Resources and Environment

Cut $3.1 bil. from base of $31.163 bil.(-10%)

$20.82 billion ..... Agriculture

Cut $5.19 bil. from base of $26.020 bil.(-20%)

$70.67 billion ..... Transportation (No Change)

$17.19 billion ..... Community and Regional Development

Cut $1.9 bil. from base of $19.097 bil.(-10%)

$57.66 billion ..... Education

Cut $6.4 bil. from base of $64.068 bil.(-10%)

$47.81 billion ..... Training, Labor and Unemployment Programs (No Change)

$227.99 billion .... Non-Medicare Health Spending

Cut $25.32 bil. from base of $253.320 bil.(-10%)

$311.17 billion .... Medicare

Cut $34.57 bil. from base of $345.746 bil.(-10%)

$64.75 billion ..... Civilian Retirement (Social Security excluded)

Cut $7.18 bil. from base of $71.940 bil.(-10%)

$144.74 billion .... Aid to Low-Income Families

Cut $62.02 bil. from base of $206.773 bil.(-30%)

$25.62 billion ..... General Family Support (No Change)

$4.77 billion ...... Commerce and Housing Loan Programs

Cut $2.04 bil. from base of $6.816 bil.(-30%)

$544.82 billion .... Social Security (No Change)

$43.1 billion ...... Administration of Justice (No Change)

$15.98 billion ..... General Government Administration

Cut $1.76 bil. from base of $17.754 bil.(-10%)

$211.08 billion .... Net Interest (No Change)

$-44.37 billion .... Undistributed Offsetting Receipts and Allowance (No Change)

---

Tax Expenditures ($897.43 billion: cut $177.39 billion)

$147.3 billion ..... 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts

Cut $147.29 bil. from base of $294.6 bil.(-50%)

$60.36 billion ..... Corporate Tax Breaks (No Change)

$86.71 billion ..... Personal Business and Investment Benefits (No Change)

$168.47 billion .... Pension and Retirement Tax Benefits (No Change)

$126.89 billion .... Health Insurance Tax Benefits

Cut $14.09 bil. from base of $140.990 bil.(-10%)

$163.71 billion .... Housing Tax Benefits (No Change)

$143.99 billion .... Other Individual Deductions and Expenditures

Cut $15.99 bil. from base of $159.993 bil.(-10%)

Does anyone know what an onion grows????

“eh?”, you ask? The story: I found an old bag of onions in my fridge while I was cleaning it out about a week ago. This bag had been there for a while, and 3 or 4 onions had rotted into little sacks of goo. The word you’re looking for is “gross.”

However, springing out of the carnage was one solitary onion which appeared to be sustaining itself on the remains of it’s fallen brethren. It has developed a minor root system and was sprouting a teeny-tiny shoot from the other side. And this was in the hostile environment of a refrigerator.

So, out of curiosity, I took the thing and buried it in a little planter outside my condo. And HOLY COW, the thing is ALIVE!

So, back to my question… what is it GROWING?? I assume eventually more onions, but how?? Does it grow these leaves first then grow onions on the leaves?? Anyone have any idea??

I’ve decided to name him “Herb the Barbarian,” because he resorted to cannibalism to survive in the fridge.

I will give regular updates of Herb the Barbarian so you all can track his progress.

From this morning:

Everyone is shouting their opinions on the new Downing Street Memos. Instead of throwing my opinions into the ring and pulling out random quotes to “support” said opinions, I think it’d be best if you all just read the memos yourself. 40 pages or so, it won’t hurt, I promise.

1) Legal Background 2) Options Paper 3) Ricketts Memo 4) Straw Memo 5) Meyer Memo 6) Manning Memo

One of our most important servers - used for testing internal builds and such - crashed.

Now, this doesn’t upset me.  See, this was a Windows machine.

Another case were they just didn’t listen to me.  I’ll do my job and do whatever I can to fix the problem, but I have little sympathy for the headache this has caused.

In fact, I’ve started keeping a log of all the incidents that have cost us time or money that have been directly related to Windows or cheap PC hardware.  Just from what I can recall in the last couple weeks, it already totals 18 man-hours of labor and $1,100 dollars in hardware.

Two out here in the bottom on the ninth, team down by one, the sacks are full…

Baseball is my game, no doubt about it. There’s no better feeling than walking into the stadium and catching that first glimpse of the diamond being prepped. The grounds crew watering down the infield dirty, turning it from a light dust to a deep brown surface. 4 or 5 home team players sprint through the outfield while a few others play some long toss, getting read for the big game.

... Number 12 digs in at the plate. The closer leans in and gets the sign from the catcher… sets, and here comes the first pitch…

Baseball is my game, I don’t deny it. The pitcher throwing a two inch wide ball sixty plus feet trying to hit a roughly two-square-foot invisible target. Getting the feel of throwing four different types of pitches with four very different grips and release points and arm speeds, knowing that if he misses by even a few inches the ball will bounce away from the catcher, or the pitch will hit the batter, or the ball will be launched into the upper deck seats 400 feet away in left-center field.

... and STRIKE one called on the outside corner. The batter is ready, the pitcher leans in again, shakes off the first pitch… likes the second one… and he sets and here comes the 0-1 pitch…

Baseball is my game. A batter doing his best to knock a baseball somewhere in play and making it to first base. Fail seven out of ten times and he’s a hero. Fail eight out of ten times and he’s sent back to the minors.

... SWING and a miss for strike two. The home team is now one strike away from losing this game. The crowd is on their feet hoping for a miracle here from the batter…

Baseball is my game. A perfect blend of science and art. Numbers and luck. Skill and fate. A game built entirely on anticipation of what might happen, what could happen. Managers and coaches and players spending hours and hours studying opponents, planning strategies, setting up defensive alignments, planning offensive strategies. And yet, often times after all that - or perhaps because of it - the whole game comes down to one swing.

The pitcher quickly gets the sign and sets, runners take their leads… He winds up, and here comes the 0-2 pitch…

Yup, baseball is my game.

A lot of people are running around declaring the end of either Microsoft or Apple - depending on your preference - due to the recent decision by Apple to use Intel chips. There have been a few sane souls trying to speak truth to the masses about what this means and does not mean. I will now throw my opinion into the ring.

What Will Happen Now That Apple is Switching…

1) Apple computers will be much faster (and potentially cheaper, but that’s not guaranteed) than they are now.

...

That’s it. Everything else is largely the same. A Mac will still be a Mac.

Check out these latest construction photos from Tanner Springs Park in Portland:

Named after a stream that was buried a long time ago and currently runs under the ground through Portland, this park will have several surface “streams” that are supposed to represent that original stream now buried. Interesting thing about those streams though (viewable in the second photo), they will be supplied at the top from the pond they run into on the other side of the park… The whole thing is filtered and such, but the idea being that the streams will run at a consistent rate all year round, regardless of weather.

Anyway, click on the pictures for larger versions.

“A mind stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension.” ? Oliver Wendell Holmes

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Yankee

I know it’s probably not normal, but I’m tired ALL THE TIME. I mean, I’m not bed-ridden by any means.. I can get up and go to work… tonight I’ll be playing racquetball again, and it’s not like I’m exhausted after such activities. In fact, relatively quick and extremely active activities tend to help. Things like playing a sport for a couple hours make me feel VERY awake and everything. But the mundane activities, like walking around a mall then going to a restaurant with friends then running to the store then going home and doing laundry… within 30 minutes I’m absolutely exhausted and it’s a battle to get through the rest of the day.

I mention that because it’s particularly bad today. I’m writing here on my blog because anytime I look at my computer and try to do any work my brain fogs up and I want to just go to bed. In all fairness, I only got 4-5 hours of sleep last night which I’m sure is amplifying the situation. But even 8 or 9 hours of sleep will not fix the constant problem.

I used to think it was the mochas I was drinking. But as you know I stopped drinking them en masse a short while ago. And I DO have to say that it really helped my focus. The coffee was making me foggy headed. But there’s a difference between being foggy (which I’m usually not since I stopped the coffee), and being TIRED, which didn’t go away. Anyway, I’m just sharing that with you all in hopes that once I’m done typing this I can go back to work and actually think a little bit.

Interesting side note, I think I developed an addiction to sugar while I was drinking mochas twice a day. Because ever since I’ve stopped I’ve had the WORST cravings for Butterfinger candy bars! I hadn’t had a candy bar in YEARS, and now suddenly I just NEED THEM. I don’t know why, and I don’t indulge my craving very often, but I have had a few butterfingers here and there since I stopped drinking coffee…

Anyways… sigh... back to work.

I made a page with some screenshots of the Steve Jobs keynote, along with a super brief summary.  Check it out!

Yes, the rumors are true… Somewhere deep inside Apple, at a once classified location… ... for the past five years, Mac OS X has been compiled simultaneously on PowerPC and Intel processors… ‘just in case’... In fact, the machine Jobs had been using all morning to do demos was running Intel hardware.  (Audience gasps!) And now is the time to put the power of Intel to work inside Apple.
Of course, in typical Apple fashion, third party developers need only to check a check box to compile for the new architecture.   Intel’s CEO admits that it has at times been a rough battle between Intel and Apple.
Apple did toast Intel’s bunny man, after all. But in the end, it was a partnership that was meant to be.

Steve Jobs as usual was able to blow away the audience, even in the face of rumors which had let out his secret several days in advance. My prediction was incorrect. They will be switching to standard Pentium chips.

A lot of rabid Mac users are furious at the moment. But they don’t get it. It’s Apple’s software and tight integration to their hardware that makes the Mac so great. That won’t change. The only thing that will change is Macs will be quite a bit faster (on par with anything Windows runs on), and by some estimates up to 25% cheaper. Not a bad thing at all.

And for all the dooms-dayers who thing Apple won’t survive this “horribly messy” transition, Jobs once again elegantly and back-handedly made his point. After demonstrating Tiger’s newest advanced features for the better part of 20 minutes, Jobs informed the audience that the entire demo and presentation was running on Intel processors. Audience Gasps... Brilliant, Jobs… brilliant.

This transition will sounds like it will be largely painless for the average user and only have minor consequences for software developers. The big developers - Adobe and Microsoft - have already committed to fully supporting the new platform… and smaller development shops are begin provided with tools that will create “universal binaries” capable of running on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

This entire transition is being helped thanks to Jobs’ insight. He confirmed that Mac OS X has been living a double life since it’s creation 5 years ago. Apple has maintained an Intel compatible build of every version of Mac OS X since the original.

AAPL’s midday free-fall has completely reversed itself, by the way.

Well, as most of you probably know the Apple switching to Intel CPUs rumor has been running rampant over The Internets the last few days. I have been unusually silent about the subject on this blog, largely because I have no information to add, and we still really don’t know what’s going to happen.

Well, with 12 minutes before the keynote, people are flooding into the conference hall (shout out to MacRumors live streaming). I would like to take this time to make a prediction.

My prediction: Apple WILL go to Intel chips, but it will not be x86. PowerPC advocates have spent the last decade laughing at the inadequacies of the x86 architecture compared to PowerPC’s, it would seem almost silly to jump to it now. That laughing has been continually stifled, however, by the PowerPC gang’s inability to remain competitive in price/performance with the x86 gang. And given IBM’s “betrayal” of Apple over the last year, Steve Jobs no doubt would like to get off that bandwagon, and views now as the best opportunity. Apple’s revenues and mindshare are higher than ever, and any bumps in the road relating to a transition will likely be forgiven by the market.

So - you ask - if it won’t be x86, what will it be?? How about Itanium? I don’t know all the details admittedly, but the way I’ve heard it, Itanium was Intel’s “next-generation” chip, primarily for servers and workstations.. in other words, it’s a powerful sonofabitch. The problem is the Wintel world has so far rejected it due to the need to rewrite or recompile software to take advantage of the chip. But Intel still believes in it, and likely would LOVE to score a major customer win for Itanium. Enter Apple. Never ordinary, and unafraid of massive changes (one of the advantages of controlling the hardware and software aspects of your market)... I’m guessing Apple offered to switch to Itanium. They get to give the collective finger to IBM; Intel will hypothetically remain MUCH more price/performance competitive with… well, itself; and Apple can still claim to be on a superior architecture to x86—a claim that would be supported by the x86-king itself, Intel.

I could be completely wrong, but that’s my prediction. Now, if you’ll excuse me, 3 minutes to go and the lights are dimming in the conference hall.

I don’t typically put much stock into the whole argument that Apples don’t break as often as PCs and such. Both are computers, both will have their problems. While it is statistically true that Apples last longer and break less than PCs, if that’s the only argument one has, it’s not a great one. A calculator lasts longer than a computer, after all. I mostly base my Apple-PC arguments on the superiority of the platform itself (primarily the software).

I just read an interesting article that tried to differentiate between “market share” and “install base,” where market share is the total percentage of each year’s sales, and install base is the total percentage of users at any given moment. Example: The 2000 Ford Taurus has a market share of 0%, because it is no longer sold. However, it has an install base considerably higher (probably still well under 1%) because a certain percentage of current drivers still drive the 2000 Ford Taurus.

So, according to this study, Apple has a market share of approximately 4% (up a point in the last year, which is impressive enough). Not a huge surprise there, even at that they are the 5th largest computer manufacturer in the United States. But what’s even more impressive is the study concluded that Apple’s INSTALL BASE - the total percentage of end users using Macs - is a MUCH larger 16%!... This is by far the most important number to use when discussing Mac usage.

So now, people who do not address Mac users with their software or services are not alienating 3% of the market… they’re alienating 1 out of every 6 potential customers. Good to know.

So I’m sitting here at Caffe Ladro… looking at job listings… I’m too afraid of change, I believe. I was discussing with Jessica that if I was more capable of accepting change, I would have pursued these other jobs more heavily, and potentially good things could happen. I could find another job I really really like… I could find one I like marginally better but pays a lot more… I could find one that pays more and Starcom could beat their offer. Worst case, NOTHING would happen. Not much of a downside.

I need to get better and embracing - even pursuing - change.

I pick the movies I watch very carefully. I just don’t feel like blowing two hours of my life at a movie theatre without good reason. To that end the last movie I actually SAW in the theatre was The Incredibles (another fine Steve Jobs product).

I do keep my eyes open for the next cool movie that I want to see… barring any major surprises, it’ll probably be Serenity, scheduled for September 30th. (If you haven’t seen the trailer, you must!)... I did discover a couple trailers that look interesting though. War of the World’s latest trailer actually seems to redeem the otherwise unimpressive teasers to date. I may actually have to watch that one. The other surprisingly interesting one was Bewitched. But that looks like a good rental.

Anyway, I’m heading off to hang with Jess now… I’ll post again later tonight!

I’m just testing this new dashboard widget that claims to let me post to my blog. Hypothetically WordPress supports the BloggerAPI, and this DashBlog widget will post to anything that supports the BloggerAPI… sooo, it should work. It would be great if it did because it would allow me to post to my blog without actually even opening a web browser (or a separate program).

So with any luck, you all should be able to read this… right about…

“The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.”

OUCH!  I woke up with the tippy of my left index finger half numb!  I must have pinched some nerve or something.  I do tend to wake up with my hands folded or contorted in strange ways… as in under my pillow or sleeping on them or something..  They aren’t just laying there contorted…  nevermind, I’m not making any sense.  Point is I’m sure I twisted something. :)  It wouldn’t surprise me anyway, I injure myself playing Ping Pong.  You’re not REALLY playing Ping Pong until someone gets hurt.  Same with Air Hockey.  This other kid and I at SPU would hit these backhand shots in Air Hockey ("you can hit backhand shots in air hockey?", you ask…) that would score 50% of the time, and end up an airborne projectile the other 50% of the time.  Those were some painful days.

As we speak I have 911 job listings sitting in my RSS reader.  I should get to looking through those… it’s hard to keep up tho, that’s a little over a week’s worth of jobs.  80% of them are Java positions in the Northwest (about 5:3 ratio between Seattle:Portland).  Needless to say, the job market is doing well these days.

Also, it’s kind of funny that I started this post with "OUCH!", since by definition, numbness doesn’t hurt.  Let’s ponder that…

Happy June everyone!

Hopefully everyone’s May was good.  You pretty much know everything that’s happened for me if you’re reading this blog.  To summarize:  Not Much.

This month has started interestingly though.  I had to take Hobbes (my cat) in to a specialist this morning.  She has hyperthyroidism (or something like that) and requires a radioactive iodine shot.  Apparently it’s the same treatment they give to humans with the same problem.  I dunno, ask Dr. Jill.  Anyway, I should get her back tomorrow evening all healthy and happy!  For $825, I could have bought  4 or 5 more cats, so she better come back all healthy and happy!

If I ruled the world…
This two-party system of ours sucks.  Both sides spiraling out of control to the extremes… everyone starting to believe that winning is more important than the process…  it’s chaotic!  Furthermore, most Americans don’t subscribe fully to either the left or the right viewpoints.  That’s what reason why I don’t like a "line" analogy.  Left-Right.  It implies that any belief that goes against your "side"’s doctrine pushes you closer to a "middle".  For example: a fiscal conservative that supports abortion and gay marriage rights.  Where does she sit, politically?  Somewhere in the middle, correct?  In reality, she’s not a centrist, she has very strong sided opinions on these topics which lean one "direction" or the other.  They just happen to include opinions from both major parties.  And what about people who have ideas that don’t fit into EITHER party???

Unfortunately, our two party system will continue indefinitely without an inventive solution.  This is because most people will vote for the strongest candidate on their "side," even if they would have prefered someone else who they knew didn’t stand a chance.  Fortunately, I have a solution:

My solution - and the first thing I’d push if I ever got into office - would be to allow multiple votes per office on ballots.  In this way, a person wouldn’t vote for their "favorite" candidate, they’d be voting for candidates they’d be okay with in office.  So if you are a Liberitarian, for example, you could vote for your candidate AND the Republican candidate.  Greens could vote for their guy and the Democratic candidate.  The winner would simply be the person with the most votes, just as before.  In this way, the two party system would largely be demolished overnight, and suddenly politics could be a wide open field of opinions, instead of Left<->Right.

Just a thought.

If I ruled the industry…
I’m the kind of person that tends to form loyalties to companies if I have a reason to.  Example: Sun Microsystems.  Sun Microsystems created Java, which is the language I develop in, and thus is partially responsible for my ability to earn a good living.  As such, I want them to survive and flourish.  It’s exactly for this reason that I would consider spending extra money to buy a Sun machine over a cheaper generic brand if I was given the option.  Another example?  Apple.  80% of the stuff they sell I would buy over competitor’s products for purely technical or comparitive reasons.  However, because I’ve developed a loyalty to them, there are other things I buy from them that I might not otherwise.  Like my AirPort Extreme base station.  $150.  You can buy something similar for under $100 from other companies.  But the APE looks kind of neat (like one of the Batteries Not Included flying machines) and Apple’s earned my loyalty, so I spend a little extra.

(That "intro" had very little to do with this next paragraph in hindsight, so prepare yourself for the topic shift…) 

That said, I want Sun’s SunRay thin clients to succeed.  The thin-client model, if done well, would be perfect for SO MANY applications.  Almost all corporate PCs could be replaced.  They would be perfect for small businesses too.  They would hypothetically "save money" because there’s never a need to upgrade or troubleshoot the clients, and all problems or upgrading is done in a central location (the server).  And now with the SunRay notebook models, you can access your SunRay session from anywhere with WiFi.  Because the notebooks only need to power the WiFi and screen (and input), batteries last up to 8 hours… perfect for wandering around large corporations or going to the nearest Starbucks.

Here’s the problem though…  they run *NIX.  Don’t get me wrong, I run Linux at home and at work… Unix operating systems are - at their core—great!  But let’s be honest, their UI sucks.  They’re just not good systems for joe-schmoe out there.  So here’s MY idea…  Sun needs to get their Sun Ray Server running on Mac OS X.  Imagine being able to buy thin-clients for your entire enterprise with all the benefits of running thin clients (cheap, no upgrades, etc) and being able to run Mac OS X on them.  It’s a PERFECT marriage of ease-of-use and ease-of-administration, and light on the pocket book.  I’m assuming Sun’s already working on it, it makes perfect sense.  If this isn’t being worked on already somewhere deep inside Sun, then they’re dropping the ball big time.


Anyway, I’ll finish up this long rambling post now.  Thanks for listening!