At some level, we all spend a little time over the holidays thinking about something other than code.
At least, I hope so.
I'm happy to live in an area that has four seasons, even though there are times when that's a hassle.
You see, Dianne and I started SRT Solutions right around the turn of the millenium. We've generally stayed small, by design. But more recently, we've been growing. Two years ago, my family hosted our company's first Christmas party. It was great fun having everyone's family over. And, at that time, it wasn't that much work. There were about 20 people total, and quite a few small children.
Last year, Dianne hosted it, and while it was a little bigger, it was still not too much work. And, we got lucky last year, in that we had very warm mid-December weather (for Michigan) and people could spend much of the afternoon outside.
Then came this year. We were wondering if we could still hold the party at our house. We've grown again, and it looked like it might be too much work, and too little space. But, my wife and I both enjoy cooking, so we figured we'd give it a shot.
We were ready. Friday night we made the sauces. Saturday morning, we woke up early and started cutting up the mushrooms and other vegetables, and started marinating chicken and sausage. We took a break, and the whole family went to see the Red Wings game.
The drive home was when weather gets inconvenient. We were in the middle of a snowstorm that eventually dropped 14" of snow in our area. We made it home, but that's because we've had quite a bit of practice. The next day was worse, as the wind picked up even more and started drifting. That meant we had to cancel the Christmas party.
Well, I shovelled snow. The five of us ate what we could, and we brought everything else into the office for lunches all week.
I still enjoy the snow-covered landscape this time of year. I wouldn't want to live where that wasn't part of the Christmas season. And now that we've made it throught the last of vegetables and stuffed mushrooms, I'm just sorry we couldn't get everyone and their familes together at one time. We're still planning to try this again sometime in January, when we still have snow, and hopefully the drive will be a bit easier.
It's still important to look at the holidays with at least one eye toward all the people with whom you interact, and how different regions are affected by different things. My daughter is now in college in Memphis, and all day Sunday she was taking pictures of the snow for her college friends. Many of them haven't really seen it like this. They get 'snow', but that means it's a light dusting that melts by noon. They've never seen snow plows, of the large mounds we have at the ends of streets. It's worth remembering that sometimes the events we find simple, routine, or even a bit of a nuisance, are the very things that are special.
Enjoy your holidays, be they ordinary, special, or something completely unique.
Dustin Campbell blogged about his new daughter the other day. The good news: She's already more cute than Dustin.
She was born 5 weeks early, and that got me to thinking.
Were dual cores involved? How'd you get that kind of performance?
Thanks to Kate Gregory for the reference.
This article: http://www.avertlabs.com/research/blog/index.php/2007/11/02/password-policy-length-vs-complexity/ points out that increasing password length helps more than increasing password complexity in terms of security.
I've been using pass phrases for several years. Most of my passwords are several word, which means they may be as long as 400 characters. And yet, they are easy for me to remember, and I don't have to write them down on some little sticky note that can be compromised.
If this keeps up, I'll actually be Super Excited (tm).
Right after CodeMash, we're hosting a Rich Internet Applications Jam, covering Adobe Flex and Silverlight. James Ward and Bruce Eckel will be there to help attendees learn as much as they can about Flex. Josh Holmes will be doing the same for attendees interested in Silverlight.
I'll be attending. I know less about Silverlight than I'd like, and this is an excellent opportunity to remedy that. I also know nothing about Flex, and I'd like to have some knowledge of that platform as well.
Bruce Eckel is handling all registration through his site. You can sign up here:
http://www.mindviewinc.com/Conferences/RIAJam/Index.php
Yes, CodeMash V20.08 is happening again in Sandusky, OH at the Kalahari resort.
I've got two sessions this year: One on Real World C# 3.0, where I'll show how LINQ works with and enhances many of the other tools you're already using. The second is entitled Linq to <whateever> where I'll give an overviw of IQueryProvider and show you how to build your own Linq provider by creating a simple verison of Linq to Virtual Earth. It should be fun.
And, of course, there is a lot of other content I want to learn about as well: talks on silverlight, Python, and even the Google Android project.
Finally, we (SRT Solutions) are sponsoring / organizing an Experts Zone with speakers and other knowledgable folkswhere you can get more information about all the technologies covered at CodeMash. I'm quite excited about that one.