Zentropy

In an effort to maintain karma I will pass along some internet wisdom to my more technically challenged readers.

For some time now, pretty much ever since it was launched, I’ve been using Google Reader to organize and share my daily web reads. It’s a wonderfully simple way to have interesting information pushed to YOU, as opposed to scouring your favorite sites on the innarwebs on a daily basis. Most blogs and online publications (such as MSNBC, ABCNews, TysonTrotter.com, etc.) use a publishing technology called RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. Google Reader, along with other applications like Feedburner, is designed to “subscribe” to these RSS feeds. The applications then pull down headlines, and in some cases the entire article, moments after they are published to the web.

The only thing left for you to do is decide what sites you want to “subscribe” to (after setting up a Google account, of course). The user interface is incredibly simple, and mimics an email inbox. Subscribing to RSS feeds is a fantastic way of personalizing and organizing the web to your tastes, and this long-time user couldn’t live without it.

This is an absolutely true (and hilarious from my perspective) representation of what software engineers go through:

“Dear Mr. Architect:

Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion.

My house should have between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdowns for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one at a later time.”….

Click here to read the rest…..

Edit: Here’s a great article on why software projects fail…just another insight into what I do for those of you who “know he works in computers, but I’m not sure what he does exactly…”

Okay, so Carson is really about 6 and a half weeks right now, and I’m just getting around to posting his 5 weeks pictures. He’s smiling now, though kind of sporadically, as he gets his smiley muscles into shape. He’s holding his head up under his own power, although we still have to support his head from time to time, and he really likes to do squats on daddy’s lap (with daddy’s assistance, of course). Genetically, I think there’s a very good chance he’ll have massive quadriceps (thighs). Mommy has state-qualifying cross country legs, and daddy has thick powerlifting thighs (at one point 26 inches in circumference during high school). He’s up to about 9.5 pounds right now, which is fantastic considering he was 5 and three quarters when he came home from the hospital. He’s extremely alert, following us with his head, smiling at me when I get home from work, and getting better at reaching out and grabbing objects.