Pulled from the archives along with a lot of similar photos. No address, but if I had to guess, this was somewhere on the way to the D.H. Lawrence memorial. (F100, 24mm f2.8D, Ektachrome 100)
]]>
My writing has always suffered, but I can honestly say that I haven't missed it as badly the past few months as I usually have. Also, this fact alone does not worry me, since worrying about not writing has never done me any favors in the past.
Health-wise, I'm a bit more concerned. A few more sleepless nights, cutting corners on diet and exercise-- people tell me this is normal when you're married and have a kid on the way, but I refuse to believe that this is just par for the course. After all, these factors must invariably impact the level of happiness and satisfaction of the rest of the family, no? Better to keep good habits now than to make the extra effort later to adopt them.
]]>I've been messing around with TextMate lately, trying it out for several unrelated tasks that seem to always require a little bit more than your basic text editor. I had not tried the blogging bundle before, but figured it was worth a try.
Markdown support has always been pretty crucial for me, as well as the ability to construct new posts with a minimal amount of effort (I hate mouseclicks!). So far so good. The only remaining issue is dealing with the strange default template that TextMate seems to use when constructing the headers with markdown, but that seems to be fixed by using nothing but the following at the top of the entry:
Title: __insert title here_
Format: markdown
Not too bad. Now if I could only figure out how to add keywords, and set comments to be turned off by default, that would be fine. Cheers. --ivan
]]>In other news, I've been lugging around this book the past few weeks, hoping to have a solid hour to devote to re-reading it here and there. But every time I sit down to go over something in it, I'm interrupted. At home, alone at a cafe, or times like this. I'm hoping to come up with a few good presentation ideas on modeling in general that I can start introducing into our informal developer "brown bag" meetings which we have at work once a week. I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but lost sight of these things in the midst of constant change.
]]>Lost in the news of this latest acquisition is the small detail that the software I worked on is no longer considered a strategic piece of the new company's larger pie. Apparently it's being shelved. Even though I am no longer at that company, I still wonder what to make of it all..
]]> A three year investment by 5-6 developers might be a drop in the bucket for a company the size of Oracle, but that investment does not count for the many small successes we had along the way, the discoveries we (as developers tied into the business) made along the way, and the speed with which we were able to extend the software to reflect changing business priorities throughout this period of time.The news that our old code is effectively being shelved drives home the point that, as far as software development goes, we can not simply describe the product of our labor to be the software we produce-- because as this lesson teaches, its very existence is predicated on the belief that there is an immediate business need. And as that need changes, the software appears, evolves, and in some cases, dies.
It still doesn't take the sting out of hearing such news. For the unwary developer, this feels like destroying a house because the new owner doesn't think the bathroom fixtures are as nice as the ones in his other house.
All this said, I don't believe that the software developer needs to take a back seat to all of this. Even a year later, the core business concepts are still fresh in my mind. I still remember all the false-starts and wrong turns we made along the way-- but will I remember this in three years? Five years? What does it mean that I could write that piece of software all over again, better and faster knowing what I know now?
I don't doubt that three good developers and a single domain expert working a year could build something better than we had before. If I knew it could be sold, I'd be tempted to do it again and again. I'm sure that at some point in the game, I'll feel the same way about the software at my current company. And somewhere in the "doing it again and again" must be the true product of my labor. To distill that set of ideas, that nugget would be to create something which, in the end, drives all (good) software developers forward into another day of changing business requirements, false-starts and takeover bids.
]]>It might actually work out for the better. The desire to post a few photos on the web (since photography is what I aspire to do in my off hours) overshadowed the original purpose of this site to be about other things. But photos fit in with the short attention span most of us keep on the web, so to keep them off this site would probably be a mistake.
That said, not having photos here for a few weeks has taught me an important lesson about myself-- I'm getting lazy doing non-photo related things outside of work.
]]>Pulled from the archives along with a lot of similar photos. No address, but if I had to guess, this was somewhere on the way to the D.H. Lawrence memorial. (F100, 24mm f2.8D, Ektachrome 100)
]]>
We walked past the Walnut Room last Saturday right before closing. They were setting up some food around the fountain, presumably for Sunday morning brunch.
Not that you asked, but I'm a fan of the french dip at the Frango Cafe. On a weekend downtown, when all the frou-frou restaurants are full on Michigan avenue, it was always empty. Sure hope it's still around when Marshall Fields becomes Macy's.
]]>
Flower and candle, taken one evening at Jane's. We arrived just before closing, and they were nice enough to seat us. We've been there a few times now and always have a good meal. Recommended.
As a side-note, this was my first time re-acquainting myself with the Nikon FE. Funny story about it-- I had problems loading the film! I took a picture of the candle at our table while winding the film, and noticed that it wasn't advancing. Eventually I remembered that the film spools counter-clockwise, and took this shot again as a test.
]]>
I need some help identifying this one. It comes off a damaged and seriously underexposed negative.
As much as I can tell, I took it around 1996, and it appears on a same roll of film as a few random pictures from my college days. This doesn't look like any place in Champaign I can remember, nor does it look like Chicago. Is that a train in the foreground? Where is this place? Help!
]]>
Work has been all-encompasing this week. I saved this scan a week or so ago for reasons that I can't remember. Photograph most likely taken in 1997 (yet another reason why I like having a film scanner-- being able to make all these old memories available and fresh). From back in Bolivia, behind my family's house. If I recall correctly, I moved an ugly chair out of the way in order to take this picture. The pool (which was new then) was just filled. I wonder if it still looks the same...
More work tomorrow, then a weekend of phone calls and then some. I have three rolls of film sitting in my in-box, two from my weekend with the FE, and one from Vegas.. Although I've been considering holding off on posting pictures for a while and concentrating on other things.
]]>
Eventually everything looks and sounds the same. This might be the first casino, or perhaps the last. Since slot machines are just an obstacle for getting in and out of the other areas, I usually people watch on my way through. The eery glow of the machine on a player's face is curious. This was a great opportunity for some stealth photography (too bad very few of them actually turned out). The real trick is approximating the average distance from your hip to the subject, set the shutter speed fast enough, keep the lens wide open and hope for the best. Yet another reason why a fast lens is crucial for such risky shots. High risk photography in Las Vegas. Heh...
]]>
On the drive from Los Angeles to Vegas, somewhere between LAX, the In-N-Out, and a giant, pulsating hangover...
]]>
I usually carry copies of previous work that I think will make me friends. If you can't speak the language it's a real help, and even if you can, it help with those "what's this guy taking our pictures for?" moments. Usually just photocopies, nothing fancy.
On another note, before last year, I used to take my F100 everywhere, but after spending the past week with the FE, I had tons of fun with it. Should have a few images off of it next week.
]]>