I’ve never been lonely. I’ve been in a room — I’ve felt suicidal. I’ve been depressed. I’ve felt awful — awful beyond all — but I’ve never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me . . . or that any number of people could. . . . — Charles Bukowski Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Aren’t Cell Phones Great?
Now not only can I call home and get no answer, I can call my wife’s cell phone and get no answer and call my kid’s cell phone and get no answer . . . Read more →
James Bach on Software Testing
Jerry Weinberg has suggested that “it works” may mean “We haven’t tried very hard to make it fail, and we haven’t been running it very long or under very diverse conditions, but so far we haven’t seen any failures, though we haven’t been looking too closely, either.” In this pessimistic view, you have to be on guard for people who say it works without checking even once to see if it could work. “No user would do that” really means “No user I can think of, who I like, would do that on purpose.” Who aren’t you thinking of? Who don’t you like who might really use this product? What might good users do by accident? In general it can vastly simplify testing if we focus on whether the product has a problem that matters, rather than whether the product merely satisfies all relevant standards. . . .… Read more →
Cat and Dog (Not Cat or Dog) Photos
Originally uploaded by wendyophoto. Found a cute photo pool on Flickr: Cat and Dog : not Cat or Dog, please read the guidelines! Read more →
Managing Teams
Instead of “managing” the process in the traditional sense, management can help a lot more by: realizing that it is the teams that will discover and make the improvements, not management, giving teams the responsibility to manage and improve their own process as well as the freedom and authority to do so, establishing an environment that actively encourages teams to be totally honest about their problems and impediments, listening to what the teams say they need and respond to those needs, observing teams in action instead of just collecting numbers, providing useful feedback to teams instead of instructions or pressure. — Steven Gordon Read more →
The Peanuts Kids: Where Are They Now?
ANAHEIM — Authorities say a woman apparently jumped off an Anaheim freeway overpass Thursday and died. The Orange County Register reports that 50-year-old Sally Brown plunged to her death just after 11 a.m. from the East La Palma Avenue overpass onto the westbound 91 Freeway. Read more →
EppsNet’s Greatest Love Songs: I Can’t Explain
Why it’s great: Love makes you hot, cold, dizzy, happy, mad . . . I can’t explain it . . . Got a feeling inside (Can’t explain) It’s a certain kind (Can’t explain) I feel hot and cold (Can’t explain) Yeah, down in my soul, yeah (Can’t explain) I said … (Can’t explain) I’m feeling good now, yeah, but (Can’t explain) Dizzy in the head and I’m feeling blue The things you’ve said, well, maybe they’re true I’m gettin’ funny dreams again and again I know what it means, but … Can’t explain I think it’s love Try to say it to you When I feel blue But I can’t explain (Can’t explain) Yeah, hear what I’m saying, girl (Can’t explain) Dizzy in the head and I’m feeling bad The things you’ve said have got me real mad I’m gettin’ funny dreams again and again I know what it means… Read more →
Lightning on the Balcony
Remembrance of Things Past
Here’s an email that went out to everyone in the office this morning: Good Morning Everyone! There was a clip on earring turned in to the receptionists desk this morning. Please come and claim it if it is yours! :o) Happy Friday…. A clip-on earring!!! I thought those went out with hula hoops and pay phones. Who will claim it, I wonder? Is Marion Davies in the building? Gloria Swanson? Read more →
Rick Neuheisel
UCLA has hired Rick Neuheisel as its new football coach, replacing Karl Dorrell. UCLA people love this guy. They’ve been blowing Neuheisel’s meat whistle ever since the announcement. As a USC man, I say this: Great hire! Neuheisel will fail for all of the reasons listed here. Excerpt: “Neuheisel’s one great genius turns out to be his ability to make people think he’s a genius.” FIGHT ON! Read more →
Rose Bowl 2008: USC 49, Illinois 17
The conventional wisdom in recent years has been that USC has trouble defending spread offenses and mobile quarterbacks, like Illinois’ Juice Williams. I’m not sure that’s true. They’ve had trouble defending some mobile quarterbacks — Vince Young, Dennis Dixon — but so has every other team in the country. We took it to a real personal nature because we wanted to figure the spread-thing out, defend it really well and take the mystery out of it. We practiced so beautifully that it had to work out well. That’s a big deal. A really big deal. — Pete Carroll A total systematic beatdown. FIGHT ON! Read more →
CFNM
I like to think I’m up to speed on my acronyms, abbreviations and fetishes, but CFNM is a new one on me. No, I’m not going to hyperlink it — this is a family-oriented website — but go ahead and Google it if you want to . . . Read more →
Rose Parade 2008
A few years ago, my son went to the Rose Parade as a spectator. This year, he worked as a volunteer float decorator with a community service group from his high school. They worked on the City of St. Louis float, which won the President’s Trophy for most effective floral use and presentation. Yeah, I know pretty much every float wins some kind of trophy, but the President’s Trophy is one of the good trophies. To give you the flavor of the thing, here’s the list of “suggestions” given to volunteers by the float-building company: PLEASE DO NOT BRING RADIOS, WALKMENS, CAMERAS, HANDBAGS OR JEWELRY. BRING YOUR I.D. AND MONEY ONLY. FANNY PACKS WORK GREAT. WEAR OLD BUT WARM CLOTHING AND STURDY SHOES WITH CLOSED TOE AND HEEL. TIE BACK LONG HAIR. FIRE LANE MUST BE KEPT OPEN AT ALL TIMES AND THE AREA AROUND THE FLOAT SHOULD BE KEPT… Read more →
Playing the Expert Game
If . . . you are able to get important things done you are seen learning things on your own you are seen trying to do things even if you aren’t sure how you share freely the things that you know you don’t hide your ignorance, but also don’t rest on it you honor what other people know you know more often than not how to find out what you don’t know you know how to ask for help you offer to help people on their own terms Then . . . no one will care whether you succeed by learning or succeed by already knowing no one will care if you mess up occasionally because they assume you learn from it no one will mind if you forget (or don’t know) any given fact or method at any given time you will be treated as if you’re smart and… Read more →
Happy New Year 2008
We toasted the new year with a $42 bottle of Moet et Chandon — marked down to $25 at Albertson’s! Lightning enjoyed gnawing on the cork . . . in fact, when anyone turned their attention away from their champagne glass, he’d stick his snout in and lap up some bubbly . . . Read more →
Torvalds on Specs
A “spec” is close to useless. I have _never_ seen a spec that was both big enough to be useful _and_ accurate. And I have seen _lots_ of total crap work that was based on specs. It’s _the_ single worst way to write software, because it by definition means that the software was written to match theory, not reality. So there’s two MAJOR reasons to avoid specs: – they’re dangerously wrong. Reality is different, and anybody who thinks specs matter over reality should get out of kernel programming NOW. When reality and specs clash, the spec has zero meaning. Zilch. Nada. None. It’s like real science: if you have a theory that doesn’t match experiments, it doesn’t matter _how_ much you like that theory. It’s wrong. You can use it as an approximation, but you MUST keep in mind that it’s an approximation. – specs have an inevitably tendency to… Read more →
Another Difference Between Dogs and Cats
PULLMAN, Wash. — A 6-year-old border collie died in a house fire after waking up his owner out of a deep sleep to warn her of the blaze. Marilyn Harvey and her son, Brent, rushed out the basement door, but Sandler turned back. Marilyn’s husband, John Harvey, who was in Seattle at the time of the fire, thinks it was because Sandler wanted to save the family’s 17-year-old Australian shepherd, who was still inside the house. Both dogs died in last Friday’s fire, along with a bird named Kellogg. A cat named Raja escaped unharmed. — Associated Press Read more →
Pug and Chihuahua
Originally uploaded by Studio 950. Read more →
Lightning on the Balcony
Blame Roger Goodell
My son’s explanation to his mom on why he can’t turn off Madden 2008 like she asked him to: I can’t stop in the middle of a game. Roger Goodell has not sent me a notice that we can do that. Unless there’s a weather delay or fans throwing things on the field, which there isn’t, so that can’t happen. Read more →