Wednesday, November 13, 2002

Just finished a science fiction classic, Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep. I read it years ago, and had forgotten what a great story it is. With things like The Straumli Perversion, The Powers, The Slow Zone, and the whole notion of variable physical laws based on matter density - it's a big story with big ideas. And Vinge, in spite of being a real "hard SF writer", writes wonderful characters. Recommended. 6:20:44 PM

In the midst of all the misery, inconvenience and pain of business travel, there is one outstanding benefit - room service. Thank God for room service. 6:09:19 PM

Just took a walk around the HP campus here in Boise. It's really nice. It brings back memories of when I started my career, and companies had parks, golf courses, lakes, etc., all for the employees and their family. Some people would call it paternalistic; I call it humanistic. People need more than PCs and coffee machines. The campus here houses ~3500 people. Just outside the door, I walked into a 20 acre park with a lake, softball field, a parcourse, horseshoe pits, mature trees and flocks of geese. It's great to be able to take a break in a semi-natural environment after having my head glued to a PC screen all day. This is one thing I *do* miss as a solo consultant - the few family/lifestyle perks offered by big companies. 3:27:56 PM

Greetings from Boise. Working at a client site here, so very little time or energy to write. First impressions of Boise - flat. Very flat. The terrain looks more interesting in three directions, but Boise sits in a gigantic valley between two mountain ranges. 6:30:53 AM

© Copyright 2002 Jeff Nichols.