I don't know about the rest of you but my parents baffle me. When working with them on issues that crop up from time to time I try to view them as two average people so that I can be objective about the situation and not allow decisions to be marred by emotion. The recent situation that has arisen (and caused me to write this entry) revolves around my parent's view of planning. The way my parent's approach a difficult and potentially costly planning problem is to simply worry. "Huh?!?" you may be thinking. You read that right. Their solution to the a problem involving planning (and in fact most problems) is to worry. What's funny (in an ironic sense) is that their "solution" tends to lead to the worst, most costly and most stressful conculsions which leads them to worry more.

I could elborate further on this topic but I'm still in the head shaking phase (i.e. "denial"). Yargh!

After two hard windows crashes and horrible performance enough was enough with FireFire 2.0. Rolling back to 1.5 was simple and neither my bookmarks nor my profile were lost. This link provided me with enough information to get the job done.

If you've ever tried to report SPAM with Outlook 2003 then you know what a pain it is to get the full message header. Outlook 2003 also lacks the "Forward As Attachment". This source provides information on how to view the full message source. This source provides information on how to forward messages as attachments (look toward the bottom of the thread).

If you're using Outlook and wondering why you're still get image-based SPAM even though you have images turned off then you might want to read this source. There is some information here as to ways to filter out this type of SPAM.

I commonly use the following (or something close to it) to rip through third-party source to find something I'm interested in:

find . -name "*.java" -type f | xargs grep someMethod

The problem that I usually run into is that directories will have spaces in the names (xargs treats spaces as delimiters). The trick to getting around this is the following:

find . -name "*.java" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 grep someMethod

The -print0 on find will use null to separate filenames and the -0 on xargs will read them. This article has more information.

And for those of you that are wondering why I have spaces in directories / filenames, A) it's 2005 people, B) I'm developing on Windows where it's more common and C) I'm looking at third-party source (i.e. go b*tch to someone else).

If you're working through some ideas, are your fleshing them out or flushing them out? Accoring to both Merriam-Webster OnLine and this blog entry, it's fleshing out.

I have recently switched over to a new hosting provider. If you have any problems, please let me know!

Update April 21 8:00AM: The intermittent comment problem has been rectified. Thank you for being patient through this server upgrade.

So as to not be behind the curve, I had recently picked my epitaph:

Here lies Rob. It's tough to blame him now that he is dead.

I attribute the inspiration to the Reuters story Tractor Driver Dies Under Load of Manure. (And yes, the title is fitting for me too. *grin*)

I had the opportunity to attend Peter Schuh's presentation Integrating Agile Development in the Real World sponsored by Chicago Agile Developers. This was the first prenetation on agile development that I attended where the focus was not on XP and its techniques but (just as the title states) integrating agile development in the real world. Given my years of project management experience I can honestly say that the presentation was spot on. The moment I returned home I ordered his similarly titled book Integrating Agile Development in the Real World. I am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

If you notice a lack of entries in my blog, head on over to the Java Information Group's Yahoo! Group. Once some of those discussions level out I will attempt to extract the tasty nuggets and present them here.

I was recently reminded of a classic story that I want to make sure that I get out in print so that I don't forget it.

The story takes places in the mid 90's when the internet was just getting off the ground. I had developed an application that used a cron job to periodically check a file for entries and if they were found it would run another application to remove the entries and process them. Periodically the process checking the entries would hang and someone would have to kill them.

The story continues as follows:

   Me:  It's getting too tedious to manually kill all of these hung
        processes.  We're going to need to spend some time getting 
        to the root of problem.
   Manager:  Why burn the time?  Why don't you just create a cron job
             that periodically checks for hung processes and kills 
             them?

   [After much bickering the end result was that another cron job was
   created since it was the fastest path to a "solution".  In time 
   it too would hang while killing the hung processes.]

   Me:  We *really* need to investigate why the file checking process
        keeps haning!
   Manager:  Didn't you set up that cron job to kill off the
             processes?
   Me:  Yes, but it keeps hanging!
   Manager:  [Exhasperated and wondering why he has to explain my 
             job to me]  Just create a cron job to kill off that
             process too!

I wish that I could say that I was kidding but that would be a lie. I also wish that I could say that intelligence in the software community has increased in the past ten years so that these situations no longer occur, but that too would be a lie *grin*.

Because I was pounded with trackback spam I have disabled them. If anyone has any insight into curbing trackback spam with MovableType, please let me know.

I recently had the opportunity to judge at a regional science fair consisting of some of the brightest high school students that Chicago has to offer. I must admit that I was simply blown away by some of the work and presentations that the students did. I was quite dubious at first with some of the students believing that someone must have helped them through the majority of the work but after in-depth discussions with them, all doubt was removed.

The rubric for the competition required a the use of a control. A number of experiments involved comparisons in which students simply compared sample A to sample B. Unfortunately this lack a control. Sample A should be compared to the control and sample B should be compared to the control. For some of these experiements it required a great deal of effort to devise a suitable control.

There is one particular presentation that sticks out in my mind that was attempting to show if it was justified to swtich out a batter based on the handedness of both the pitcher and batter. There are four obvious combinations to be compared: left-handed pitcher (LHP) against left-handed batter (LHB), LHP against right-handed batter (RHB), right-handed pitcher (RHP) against LHB and RHP against RHB. But where's the control? Using confidence intervals and other statistics the student showed that switch hitters were representative of the combination of left and right handed batters! The student was then able to use switch hitters as the control. To me, this excercise alone was above and beyond what I expected that actually showing the comparison of handedness was moot.

If you have the opportunity, I recommend that you get in touch with your local school system and offer your time to either mentor these students in preparing their experiments or assist at the science fairs. It is truely a wonderful experience.

In the past I would put as much thought into my next job as I would put into picking out socks. Then I received some enlightening tips from the wonderful people at Stewart, Cooper, and Coon (if you're at the executive level looking for a job or want to make the transition to the executive level, look these guys up -- they're amazing).

Set aside a few hours when you're not going to be interrupted. Go to some of the major job boards (such as Monster.com or Careerbuilder.com) and start searching for jobs that interest you. Don't look at salary, location or experience. Just let your imagination run wild. Write down keywords that sound good to you and use them to help you narrow or diversify your search. You can also write down keywords for jobs that you don't want in order to help you quickly eliminate options.

I found out some interesting aspects of what I would consider to be my dream job that I had never known or thought about before. This process of free association (if you will) allows you to discover much about yourself.

Even if you're not currently looking for a job it is a worth while exercise. Esther Derby has a good article entitled Five New Year's Resolutions for Managers in which she encourages managers to "invest in you" and "create time for reflection". I believe that these strategies are valuable to all workers bot just managers. Make this career search part of your "invest in you" time.

I'm going to go off-topic and mention something that struck me the other day. As I was making my wife a pot pie (we alternate cooking duty) I wondered: why do we all have to speak venusian?

Allow me to briefly digress and state that unless you're a modern "enlightened" man, this entry will make little sense to you. You just go on sitting on the sofa (I almost gave away my midwestern upbringing and said "couch") drinking beer and farting followed by the statement "How about that one honey?".

I was startled by the number of situations that require all parties to conform to the venusian view. Why is the venusian view the preferred one? I came up with a number of theories about why men conform. The first starts at the lowest level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. You know ... *wink* *wink* (or at least a better chance of *wink* *wink*). You can easily ascend the hierarchy to come up with the other theories.

Personally, I conform to the degree that is necessary to find a local minima in the time dependent nagging function. I should stress that this time dependence is not just hourly or monthly as most men already know (or have learned very quickly) but changes quite gradually over a period of years. That thing you do that used to be "cute" or "funny" early in a relationship has gradually increased its weight in the nagging function (typically unbeknown to you). What's interesting in this case is that in venusian the time dependence is a given. It almost seems as if the time dependence of the nagging function is trying to reach a state of maximum venusian. Early in the relationship, some marsian is accepted but as time goes on the marsian is domainated by venusian. Physical proof of this can be easily seen in a couple that has been married for a significant number of years and is deemed a "happy couple" (interestingly, now that I think about it, it's women that are deeming them "happy"). I'm a people watcher and I enjoy watching the interaction of people. One of things I have noticed is the interaction between elderly couples in the mall. The elderly men follow the women like puppies and do everything that is expected of them (wait patiently off to the side, hold the purchases, hold the woman's purse, etc). These men have clearly reached a state of minimum marsian.

Just how prevalent is this necessity to conform? The canonical example of the proper position of the toliet seat identifies how pervasive venusian is. This facinating article provides some empirical data on a unbiased solution. Personally, I simply return the seat to the state it was when I started. If it ends up in the wrong state then it was not my fault. Of course, if it was found that I was at fault I would gladly accept the blame if it minimizes the nagging function.

The other day I risked my own life in the persuit of scientific knowledge when I broached this subject with my wife. Her immediate reaction was that the jig was up -- I could see the panic in her eyes. She quickly regrouped though and started talking about the repression of women, the role of women as primary care givers, the fact that I'll never have to carry a live person in my gut and other things that I no longer remember as I was rapidly attempting to reset the wrong that I had just caused (i.e. reset the venusian dominance).

There is clearly a conspiracy afoot and I intend to reach the root of it (while still maintaining the necessary degree of venusian conformance)!

(I'd like to add a small footnote: My wife is by no means naggy. She's a wonderful person and the best friend that I have. This entry is simply an attempt to understand the inherent differences that exist between the way that men and women understand the world around them and interact. The fact that I feel it's necessary to write this underlines the differences in the way that men and women interpret situations.)

I have been dealing with enterprise storage solutions lately (kill me) and I ran across NTFS's file system filters. I had a good idea what they did from the name but years of development has trained me never to take a name at face value. While doing some splunking I found this MSDN article on XP System Restore. There are no shocking revelations but it did interest the academic side of me.

I've been called "the Idea Man" by many friends for as long as I can remember. When I was younger I had this glassy-eyed idea that at some point I would be able to realize (i.e. make real) the ideas that I have. As I have gotten older I have begun to see that I will never have time to get to even a faction of them.

So that the world may be a better place, I have made an idea category. I will begin to record the ideas as time permits. All of the ideas are copyright Rob Grzywinski but given the fact that I'm am making them available to all, I make no exclusive claim over them. All that I ask is that if you take one of these ideas and realize it that you mention my name. If you ever make money off of one of them, I would be more than happy to accept a percentage!

My programming category was getting over used so I have added a Development category. The distinction will be:

• Development: generic problems, concerns, issues, etc with development, computing and all of that jazz.
• Programming: specific code, framework or tollkit related items.

I will be resorting the entries into the categories as time allows.

California Grill
Disney's Contemporary Resort
407-WDW-DINE

The California Grill is my favorite all-around resturant. The sushi is first-rate. Service is excellent. Food, put simply, is heavenly. And the view is sensational.

The trick to dining at the California Grill is to time your meal such that you finish the entree just as the fireworks begin at the Magic Kingdom. The lighting is lowered and a hush comes over the resturant as the eye-level fireworks seem to surround you in an amazing display. Once the spectacle completes, your dessert arrives (my pick is typically a heavenly souffle) and you are in pure ecstasy.

The instructions for my frozen lunch state: pierce film 3 - 4 times. "3 - 4"? Can you pierce something 3.3 times? What's a 0.3 of a pierce? Since pierce isn't defined (is it one inch long by 0.001 inches wide?), couldn't you renormalize to just 3?

And why not just "3" or "4". Why a range? Is there some legal precedent that caused this to occur? U.S v. Hungry Jack: Exactly n piercings leads to multiple deaths. And what happens if I go outside of the pierce operating range of my frozen lunch? Will death result?

Perhaps when they were putting the food through the QA cycle, the average number of piercings that caused a "perfectly cooked meal" was 3.6. Knowing that the average american is too dumb to know what a 0.6 of a piercing is (cuz I sure as heck don't!), they made it a range (Can you imagine the number of calls asking: what's a 0.6 of a pierce? The phone company would be brought to its knees!) This is just a theory at this point, but in order to finally get some sleep at night, I'm going to have to believe something.

The answer is out there!

I had the opportunity to visit Chicago's new Millennium Park over the weekend. To quote Cindy Pritzker, "Isn't this the spiffiest thing you ever saw?". Yes Cindy, yes it is and thank you for all of your contributions that made it possible.

Chicago threw one helluva party in a way that only Chicago could do. The number of activities and events that were available for all ages was simply staggering -- and they were free. From rap to jazz to classical all forms of music were available. There was dancing. There was drumming. There was juggling. I spent most of Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday in the park and I don't think that I saw everything that there was to see!

(I will be updating this entry with pictures and comments on the new park. Check back for updates!)

I was too lazy to get up and get a CD to burn an ISO to so I went searching for the next best thing: mounting an ISO as a virtual drive.

This ISO Recorder for Windows XP SP2 works well.

I have worked in an upper management position in a number of small companies throughout my career. It is always been my position to offer up as much of my control to anyone that is willing and able to take it. After a decade of watching people either ignore the opportunity or take the opportunity and completely fall apart, I have reduced the experiences down to the following:

If presented with a situation that will deliver everything that you've ever wanted in your career, will you:

• Recognize it?
• Be able to handle it?

Notes:

• People may be under the impression that the path to reaching their goals will be presented thru obvious opportunities and the challenges associated will be easily overcome similar to someone who "plans" financial success thru winning the lottery.

Corollary 1

If it is everything that you wanted in life and you could not handle it, will you be able to bow out gracefully?

Corollary 2

If it is determined that the situation will not be able to deliver everything that you've wanted in your career (as conditions do change) will you be able to control and change the situation such that it delivers on a subset of your desires?

There is much more to this post and as I have more time available I will elaborate.

Saiko
1307 S. Wabash
312-922-2222

I ordered the Heavens Door sake which started with a heavy chocolate flavor that would immediately vanish as you were trying to determine what it was. My wife had the Pride of the Village which was a crisp fruity flavor -- not overpowering.

We started with a california roll (it is a standard that we use to baseline new sushi restaurants) which had real crab meat, avocado, roe and sesame seeds. My wife also had tako (octopus). Both were better than average quality. We are both looking forward to returning to try other sushi.

For our entrees, I had the Cripsy Whole (Yokuzuna) Bass and my wife had the Sirloin Steak. Our server (Angelique) recommended presenting the bass and then having the chef filet it -- a wonderful idea. The presentation of the bass was excellent. Its flavor was subtle with a hint of spice tacked on the end and the skin remained surprisingly crispy thoughout the meal. The delicate flavor made this a perfect dish for me. My wife's steak was served with melted wasabi cheese served with pea shoots and a garlic oyster sauce. My wife is not a cheese lover so that was not her personal favorite but overall it was quite tasty.

For dessert my wife had the Saiko chocolate which was a flourless chocolate cake topped with green tea cheese cake accompanied by mint ice cream on the side. Unfortunately the chocolate completely overwhelmed the flavors (not that that's a bad thing) but it would have been better if the green tea was a better complement. I had the Fuji Apple Tart which combined a delicate apple tartlet with ginger ice cream with caramel drizzled on the side. Being an apple tart lover this was an exceptional choice.

This site is officially open! Woo-hoo!