I wouldn’t have done it that way
Posted by Geoff | Filed under Rants, Technology
I’ve recently run into a common programming problem. While turning a development project over to another development agency, we heard that worst of comments:
Why did you build it that way?
It seems like a simple question. But it belies it’s true meaning. What they’re really saying is:
We wouldn’t have done that. This design is bad.
It’s a completely valid point. And you know what? I probably already thought that same thing.
Tags: analysis, development, hindsight, management, solution
20 years of blogging (and Post #1,000)
Posted by Geoff | Filed under General
Well, okay, not so much “blogging” as journaling, but most of them are now online for everyone to ignore.
Twenty years ago, I got to do something that (comparatively) very few westerners got to do, and will never get to do again: I went behind the Iron Curtain. I visited the (former) Soviet Union. Believe it or not, the journey was a field trip, organised by one of the teachers in my school board. We had to do prerequisite classwork and had to write two length reports, all of which added up to academic credits.
And we had to write a journal.
Tags: 1000, blogging, milestone, russia, soviet union
Odio pasar a un nuevo hogar
Posted by Geoff | Filed under Costa Rica
I hate moving.
But you already know that.
About two weeks ago, our first lease came due. This is when I had hoped to renegotiate our lease, as I felt the rent was about 33% higher than it really should have been. (There’s a longer story to this. I might be writing it sooner than later.) That discussion went in circles before we finally ended up where we are now.
In a new apartment.
Tags: apartment, avalon country club, moving
The “Power” of Word in Outlook
Posted by Geoff | Filed under Rants, Technology
You may have come across a URL for a webpage that is (effectively) building a petition to Microsoft to correct HTML support in Outlook — and if you haven’t, just click on the link. The petition’s purpose is quite simple: Please, Dear Microsoft, replace the HTML rendering present in Microsoft Outlook 2010 with something better.
Microsoft, to their credit, has seen this petition and has authored their own response: The Power of Word in Outlook. The sad reality is that, even though written by William Kennedy, Corporate Vice President, Office Communications and Forms Team, that team has completely missed the point of the petition.
And it raises the question: Why is Microsoft — yet again — refusing to listen to the people who know best? Not the developers of a system, but its users.
Tags: email, html, microsoft, outlook, word
Día del Padre en Costa Rica
Posted by Geoff | Filed under Costa Rica, Family
Hey kiddo,
Today was Father’s Day. Not just here in Costa Rica, but in many other places around the world. Today was a special day in many ways, notably in that you and I got to spend a lot of time together (sadly, something we don’t get most days), and that you gave me a wonderful present: a photo of you, and a nicely-coloured picture of your favourite Sesame Street character — Elmo! (Even if Mommy had to help you. A lot.)
You also gave me another wonderful gift: sleep. You let us sleep in a bit instead of getting us all up for 6:00 (or earlier).
Tags: father's day, la sabana, san jose, tandoori palace
A year in Costa Rica
Posted by Geoff | Filed under Costa Rica
This morning was cool and wet, something I can say with confidence to be a rarity here in the Central Valley region of Costa Rica. I can say this because today marks my first anniversary in Costa Rica. One year ago today, I moved from my comfort in Canada, tucking my poor cat Asia into the space under the seat in front of me, and braved the 14-hour trip south (counting the six hours one spends in Houston during the layover).
It’s been a year of utter chaos, extreme stress (I now look back at what I used to think was stressful, and have realised a tremendous amount of new strength), and unbelievable challenge and testing. It’s been mixed with wondrous discovery, gorgeous vistas (even though we’re hours from a beach), many new friends, and a truest definition of experience: skills and memories that can’t be acquired any other way.
Tags: challenge, stress, year in review
WordPress 2.8 acting weird?
Posted by Geoff | Filed under General
I just finished a rather arduous upgrade from WordPress 2.7.1 to WordPress 2.8 (arduous only because I had to do a massive migration to get rid of a lot of old kruft in my previous WP install).
But it’s acting really weirdly. The dashboard isn’t working properly, some of the JS functionality refuses to work in any browser (and returns an error in Firefox: “commentReply not defined” when I try to use the reply shortcut). But no 404s.
Anyone else seen weirdness?
Failure is an option
Posted by Geoff | Filed under General
One afternoon, a few years ago now, the head of my department uttered something completely heretical while we were in a fairly high-stressed meeting about some technical difficulties we were having on a project. It was one of those utterances that made everyone take pause, look at him, and wonder if he was off his rocker.
He wasn’t, for the record. In fact, he was striving for us to not view impending doom as a bad thing. While his two words were at first shocking (especially to the Account Managers present, who’d ultimately have to deal with the client), it was also one of those moments you sat back and actually thought about what you were doing.
So what did he say?
Embrace failure.
- Allard Losier
Tags: failure, management, option, risk
How to handle a problem
Posted by Geoff | Filed under General
Problems fill our daily lives. Sometimes they’re trivial (”where are my keys?”), sometimes they’re pretty significant (”how do I hide this dead body?”); sometimes you can solve them on your own (”they were in my jacket pocket”), and sometimes you need help (”Mr. Wolf”).
How you approach a given problem shows not just your critical thinking process, but also a lot about your character. People will react in different ways to the same problems, even seemingly trivial ones. Some people try to solve problems on their own, while others will look to others to solve the problems.
In a busy work environment, problems are frequent. And I’ll argue that putting the solutions in the hands of a few people is a recipe for disaster.
Tags: management, problem, solution
Where to find great Indian in Costa Rica
Posted by Geoff | Filed under Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a long way from India. It’s also a long way from Vancouver and Calgary, which are the two places where I’ve come to really know and love Indian food. (It helps that both cities have large Indian populations.) When we came to Costa Rica, we were ready for Latin American cuisine, and thus far we’ve not been disappointed.
But still, you hanker for the things you love. Like a good butter chicken.
So image our surprise when Alex talked to the owner of Tandoori Palace in Lindora … and finds that he lived in Calgary once upon a time.
Tags: butter chicken, food, indian, korma, palak
