May 2010
1 post
2 tags
BP oil spill, faceless corporations and mockery
Have you seen the unofficial account of “British Petroleum Global PR” on Twitter? Go ahead, read a few of the tweets. I personally find it pretty funny, in a dark-humor-but-only-if-it-wasnt-so-sad way. I’m not sure exactly why that is… Shouldn’t I be ashamed of myself for getting a chuckle from some wiseass jokes about what is obviously a catastrophe with severe...
February 2010
1 post
5 tags
Why do I write?
After reading “Nine Beginnings”, I was left puzzled by Margaret Atwood’s take on a seemingly simple question: “Why do you write?” Why was it so difficult for somebody of her stature to answer? She tried nine different responses, and after all of those, the reader was still left without anything tangible in a form of “I write because such and such”. So, if I tried...
January 2010
8 posts
4 tags
Nexus None
Last weekend I was helping somebody brainstorm gift ideas. A question arose: What would be a good smartphone to give somebody who is on T-Mobile and not planning on getting out of the contract? We talked about a second-hand jailbroken/unlocked iPhone 3G, which, everybody agreed, is a solid choice in terms of price and functionality (even if it has scratches on the back). Are there any good...
1 tag
Morning productivity
You might have heard this idea already. It’s often mentioned during discussions of productivity, focus and multitasking. It sounds something like this: “Try to do your most important work first thing in the morning, while your mind is still fresh”. It’s also usually accompanied by “Don’t browse the Internet, and avoid email as much as possible during that time”.
For those of us that don’t seem to...
4 tags
Terror is cheap in the land of the scared
Have you heard about the JFK terminal evacuation that happened recently? Remember the evacuation in Newark some time ago? Finally, what about some idiot trying to blow up his reproductive organs on a plane around Christmas?
Now, close your eyes, let your emotions go for a second, and think about it… Some guy opening a wrong door caused hours of delays?! Another guy going the wrong way...
3 tags
Fighting insomnia, tip #318: Dump your thoughts
Keep on reading if the following sounds familiar: you go to bed but cannot fall asleep because your brain is buzzing with thoughts, plans and reminders (“It’s so-and-so’s birthday on Wednesday, and I still haven’t bought a gift!”, “don’t forget to pick up dry cleaning tomorrow”, “it would be great to end world hunger, I should look into it in...
4 tags
Japan experience: Literacy is a wonderful thing
Every time I travel to a country that speaks a language that I can’t really understand, I’m reminded of just how powerful literacy is, and how much you are missing if you can’t do something as basic as reading and speaking.
This was especially evident on our recent trip to Japan. My fiancée and I spent 9 days there, running around armed with guidebooks and cameras, trying to...
3 tags
From software developer to software business owner
This post is a result of a long search for answers to the question “How do I need to run my company? And why does it feel like I’m stuck?!” and finally getting a lot of help from a book called “E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber. I tried re-interpreting his ideas in the context of our own software development startup, and that’s what you see below. As luck...
2 tags
Undead TV
I’ve been using DVRs for the last five years, starting with Tivo and eventually switching to an integrated recorder that came with the HD cable box. At the same time, the amount of TV that our household consumes has been going down, having recently stabilized around one sports program that we never miss, a couple of cooking shows, and an occasional comic relief with Jon Stewart or Steven...
A habit to keep trying and get your things done?
Background for this post: I distinctly remember being excited about David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” book for a couple of reasons: for one, it’s about an algorithm for your brain - the “software developer” in you gets a chance to go through the logic, trying to find flaws and make improvements. Geeky as it sounds, it felt a little like programming the way...
November 2009
2 posts
5 tags
Is Google the best dog food eater in the world?
Background for this post: After finally getting an invite, I was playing with the preview of Google Wave yesterday, trying to understand what the hype is all about. I personally find the “wave” concept intriguing, even though it can be difficult to grasp at first (hopefully it will improve as the thing matures and gets developed further). You have most likely heard people calling this...
4 tags
Project Unclutter Home 2009: The Pondering
I’d love to live in a clutter-free home. Ever since moving into a smaller apartment slightly more than a year ago and dragging a bunch of useless stuff along with us, we haven’t actually gone through and cleaned a lot of those old things out. It’s very friggin’ frustrating. Let me list some of the items that are kicking around our home, just to give you a taste: unassembled...