The FuzzyBlog!
Marketing 101. Consulting 101. PHP Consulting. Random geeky stuff. I Blog Therefore I Am.

Sunday, June 30, 2002

Mandrake 8.2: 85% Icky Poo (that's Bad), IMHO NOTE: There is no way that this doesn't come off as negative.  I so didn't want that.  I've always heard good things about Mandrake and shelled out $39.95 in the hopes that it would really work.  Sigh.  Hopefully someone at Mandrake will see this and use it constructively.  Making these things public sometimes helps. People I really respect have always told me good things about Mandrake.  So in my current quest for an operating system that will support my ThinkPad since Windows 2K does not (see here), I picked up a copy of Mandrake 8.2.  Rarely, if ever, has a Unix variant been so disappointing.  I've now installed it 4 times and I can feel a 5th time coming on later today.  My specific issues: ==> Read Story <== 5:27:57 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

Cats, the Crack of Dawn, Digital Farmers and Programmer Productivity Anyone who follows the posting times on my blog entries knows that my schedule is, ahem, interesting.  And, while I've always been an early riser, I really got into the habit compulsively when I joined Dataware and learned that my buddies Ed and Pete were what I called "Digital Farmers".  They rose with the sun, actually before it, and were always at work by 5:30 / 6.  Ed and Pete are just two of my favorite people and this gave me a huge incentive to get in early.  We'd all start, do some work and then head over to Christines on First Street in Cambridge for the obligatory greasy breakfast.  Ah... Good times.  I'd also make the observation that there seems to be something very different between certain individuals productivity at different times of day -- or after a nap.  For example, I can grind out code MUCH more productively from 5 am to 10 am.  Ed's the same way -- he's always maintained he gets the bulk of his work done in the 1st 3 or 4 hours and then does email & meetings for much of rest of the day.  I'm similar -- but I would add that even a short nap can put me back into pretty much full productivity.  Other programmers I know don't really start going until late in the day or even the night.  I'd really love to know if this is psychological or if there is actually a biochemical basis for this.  NOTE: The normal argument for enhanced early or late day productivity is lack of interruptions due to your contacts being offline.  This really isn't the case anymore thanks to the joy that is Instant Messaging.  At any time of day there are always at least 5 or 6 people that I IM with regularly.  Early?  Europe.  Late?  California.  Mid Day?  East Coast Folks. Oh and cats?  My cats now rise at 4 am with me, wander around dazed and confused for a bit and then scowl at me and go back to bed (I'm not kidding). 6:07:12 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

It's a Retro, Retro Sunday! Any time that you are happily up at 4 am, coding in VI server side, logged in though a terminal program and then realize that your copy of VI lacks: Syntax highlighting Visual mode (i.e. no visual block marking) You just have to come to the automatic conclusion that you've been time warped back to the 70s.  So what do you do?  Well I dug out my Village People MP3s -- it just seemed right.  I wonder if I can find any Donna Summer online....  If I only had an ADM-5 and some polyester to where then I'd be fully retro'd. 4:58:42 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This