edward spurlock

Back in my geek days, I found MajorGeeks.com a help. It’s a download site focused on shareware, freeware, and demoware with an emphasis on tools for geeks. I don’t know how current they are anymore, but they’re still online, and I was able to download a search enhancement utility for my old version of MS Outlook.

I’ve been reading Joel Spolsky’s blog recently, going back through the archives, and I found this gem of a post from about a year ago:

How to be a program manager

What does a program manager do?

1. Design UIs
2. Write functional specs
3. Coordinate teams
4. Serve as the customer advocate, and
5. Wear Banana Republic chinos

…

It is possible to be an effective program manager without being a coder, but the burden of earning the respect of the programming team will be higher.

…
How do you learn to be a Program Manager?

Mostly, becoming a program manager is about learning: learning about technology, learning about people, and learning how to be effective in a political organization. A good program manager combines an engineer’s approach to designing technology with a politician’s ability to build consensus and bring people together. While you’re working on that, though, there are a few books you should read:

As far as I can tell, Scott Berkun’s book Making Things Happen is the only book that’s been written that pretty much covers exactly what a program manager has to do, so start with that. Scott was a program manager on the Internet Explorer team for many years.

Another big part of the program manager’s job is user interface design. Read Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, then my own book User Interface Design for Programmers.

Finally, and I know it sounds cheesy, but Dale Carnegie’s 1937 book How to Win Friends & Influence People is actually a fantastic introduction to interpersonal skills. It’s the first book I make all the management trainees at Fog Creek read, before anything else, and they always snicker when I tell them to read it, and love it when they’re done.

Huh.

I’ve been having a big pity party over the past year and a half.

I’m too old.
I don’t have a degree.
I’ve got a crappy dead-end job.
I can’t get a real job without a degree.
I can’t afford to get a degree.

Anyway, what the hell could I do? In my 30 years of working for a living, I’ve not seen anything I really wanted to do. I’ve gotten involved in things like technical writing, involved to the point of forgetting to go home at the end of my work day — but I’d need a four-year degree to go anywhere with that. Back in college, I got involved like that with computer programming - but I’d need a four-year degree to go anywhere with that, too.

But that list — design UIs, write functional specs, coordinate teams, serve as a customer advocate - I could DO that! I could even wear Banana Republic chinos (although I usually buy Dockers).

I may look into becoming a software Program Manager. I’ve got “month-end” coming up next week at work, but after that, I’m going to pick up Scott Berkun’s book and see if being a Program Manager still seems like a good idea after reading that.

Check your Facebook privacy settings. Now!

MSNBC’s Helen A.S. Popkin goes step-by-step through Facebook’s recently changed privacy setting, giving what I think is very useful information about the settings changes that need to be made. This is NOT the useless “Un-check the ‘Allow indexing’” advice that’s currently making the rounds of email and Facebook Status messages. Setting your Facebook privacy settings correctly takes more time than unchecking a single box - but Popkin’s advice can help.

From PC World online:40 Fantastic Time-Wasting Web Sites

I’ll check it out after I get home. No, really!

In April 2008, Wired magazine published an article about software developed by a Polish developer named Piotr Wozniak that is designed to help aid memorization.

The principle of the software is that the most efficient way to memorize information is to refresh/review it just before it’s forgotten. This principle has been known in psychology for over a century. If the information is reviewed too soon, it’s redundant — but if it’s reviewed too late, it might be forgotten and need to be re-learned.

Wozniak’s software is called Supermemo. It’s an electronic version of old-fashioned flashcards - but with a huge difference. From the Wired article:

SuperMemo is a program that keeps track of discrete bits of information you’ve learned and want to retain. For example, say you’re studying Spanish. Your chance of recalling a given word when you need it declines over time according to a predictable pattern. SuperMemo tracks this so-called forgetting curve and reminds you to rehearse your knowledge when your chance of recalling it has dropped to, say, 90 percent. When you first learn a new vocabulary word, your chance of recalling it will drop quickly. But after SuperMemo reminds you of the word, the rate of forgetting levels out. The program tracks this new decline and waits longer to quiz you the next time.

The software can be purchased at supermemo.com for $45.00 (the most recent Windows version is from 2006). Unfortunately, there is no current Macintosh version at this time, but there are versions for Palm OS and Pocket PC devices. There is also a freeware port to the Android OS (used on the T-Mobile/Google G1 smartphone). It would seem to be a natural for an iPhone app, but the restrictions on iPhone development by Apple is causing the folks at Supermemo to tread cautiously, according to the Supermemo Wiki.

Besides the standalone versions, there is also an online version of Supermemo with free courseware in Spanish and other languages.

There are Open Source alternatives to Supermemo, including Mnemosyne and Anki, both of which are based on older versions of Wozniak’s algorithm. However, Mnemosyne runs in Linux and Mac OS X as well as Windows, and Anki is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and the iPhone. In fact, an older version of Anki has been bundled in Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Redhat.

An article on various password-management apps from the NY Times’ Gadgetwise section:

How to Securely Manage All Your Passwords

Marathon Tech Review: Music You Can Run To:

If you want to compile your own running mixes, there are a few applications that scan music files on your computer…I tried MixMeister’s free B.P.M. analyzer, but I could only load one song at a time to the tool.

A good list of apps can be found at mmartines.com.

I’ve thought about compiling my own playlist of music to a given beats/minute for exercise.

Revive your Cell Phone or Electronic Devices from Water Damage:

Tips from the article and comments:

1. Remove the battery. This is the first step to take, no matter what!
2. Rinse with distilled water if the device fell into salt water or dirty water.
3. Remove covers, etc. Find a container big enough to submerge the device and add isopropyl or rubbing alcohol, enough to cover the device. Let soak for five minutes — agitate the device gently to make sure the alcohol reaches all parts of the device. Remove the device and put it somewhere to dry for an hour or so.
4. Instead of #3, put the device in a bag of dry, uncooked rice, seal the bag, and put it somewhere to dry overnight or longer.
5. Alternately, put the device in a container with a Dri-Z-Air unit (available at many retailers) and seal the container. Leave overnight to dry.

There are other suggestions in the comments thread of the post. But these three alternatives (after removing the battery) sound like the best ones to me.

The Death of Windows

If the primary function of computers these days is to run a browser and connect to the Internet, do we really need Windows and its 50 million lines of code?

Didn’t we go through this years ago with the Oracle Network Computer? That was going to be the Windows killer too, IIRC. How’d that work out, again?

One interesting link from the above Slate story, though — the almost instant-on HyperSpace mini-OS from BIOS manufacturer Phoenix. Try it free for 21 days — if you have supported hardware (just a few laptops, right now).

From lytebyte.com, here’s a list of the email addresses you can use to send a 160-character email to a cell phone:

Here is a list of domain for popular service providers in US

ATT or Cingular - number@cingularme.com,

number@mobile.mycingular.com,

number@txt.att.com

T-Mobile - number@tmomail.com(Update: If it doesn’t work, try number@tmomail.net) Thanks lex241

Verizon - number@vtext.com

Sprint - number@messaging.sprintpcs.com (Sprint PCS)

number@messaging.nextel.com (Nextel)

Alltel - number@message.alltel.com

Virgin Mobile - number@vmobl.com

Boost - number@myboostmobile.com