It’s not that I like or enjoy assimilation, but every time I analyze the requirements it really comes down to scalability and what it takes to scale and deploy your software architecture as it out grows one, two, “N” servers.

Even though there are some clever platforms, and most of web applications I’ve developed so far can run on a virtual private server (VPS), the Google App Engine by far ensures “scale up to millions of users without infrastructure headaches.”

So I’ve been assimilated. Resistance was futile.  No more Cake PHP …

Joking …

Sometimes you have weird dreams like tossing in the towel and taking a life of a less stressful job like a Truck Driver making runs up and down the frozen lakes of Yellowknife Canada.

I only know of a developer who actually tossed in the towel.  He and his wife sold their house at one of the California housing peaks in the late 80’s.  Quit their jobs and moved to Canada.  Eventually got bored and took a job as a bus boy.

He resumed his development career after he figured out that he was taking the same amount of carp but was getting paid 10x less.

But my Ice Road Trucker dream is still a reality and I’m planning to take off one winter to see if I can at least drive 18-wheels as good as four.  I’m sure that Hugh Rowland would hire me to drive one of his trucks.

Now how do I get this thing out of first gear?

Now I’m not going to bore you with all my phobias, and strutting around buck naked in the 24-hour Fitness locker room is not one of them, but I have to admit that I’ve got Gymnoputphobia.

(more…)

Of course there are lots of off page factors and topology considerations that Google, MSN and Yahoo have to analyze the macro view of the web. Each company has their own algorithms to present this view for given search terms.

All we know is that Google’s publication of its algorithm, via patent disclosure, indicates that links to your content are a contributing and weighted factor in determining content ranking. Other search engines have not disclosed their IP, so an educated guess would be that external links are a determining factor.

Even though you follow the SEO recipe, there are supply and demand factors where you are providing the supply side of the equation where Google and the other search engines are fulfilling the demand for their customers. There is enough evidence that suggests Google, with it’s massive parallel operations, provides new information near real-time where other search engines may take days.

Thus, with the proper SEO recipe, it is theoretical to achieve short and long-term results for certain terms that you are trying to market. But if you want to keep it simple, just become a PPC guy like Amit.

Please, someone at Intuit tell me why?  The last time I had to upgrade from Quicken 2002 to Quicken 2005 was because Intuit changed the QIF API to OFX.   I loved 2002 with a very natural UI and hated 2005 with it’s new UI.  Took me months to get used to it.

After I upgrade to Quicken 2008 and find out that Intuit didn’t change the API or put a stupid Office 2007 UI, guess what, I’m not going to upgrade to Quicken 2011 in three years.

I’ve been planning to retire PLMS1 this year, trying to go green and virtualize servers on a multi-core workstation. Another 6 months and PLMS1 would have been decommissioned and moved over to a Virutal Ubutu server.

So now, some of my development projects are put on hold right now. God, sometimes I just hate computers.

I don’t recall what was on the menu, but the Mac ‘n Cheese was pretty good. Apparently when you’re in the South, Mac ‘n Cheese is one of the staples.

My wife, from the South, makes a really mean Mac ‘n Cheese, but she doesn’t think I like it because I’m always putting Cholula hot sauce. But it made her feel real good when I put some Ol’ Louisiana Hot Sauce on Bubba’s Mac ‘n Cheese to spice it up a notch.

Excerpt From My First Dictation (unedited):

This is a review of Dragon natural speaking. Getting used to the headset is very difficult that tends to squeeze my head and makes my ear hurt. Perhaps this is why it took me almost 3 months to install the software.

So I decided to go to Wal-Mart and picked up a wireless microphone however the quality of the microphone was not good enough so I had to use the default headset.

Out of eight bucks, I installed software ran the utility to train my voice and my dictation and now I’m writing this article without typing.

It’s a pretty good utility that is easy to use, very productive, and very easy to learn.

Some of the important commands are:
“undo” (I had to type this ’cause it kept undonig it)
“select”
“go to end”

The undo command basically is a oops allowing you to correct your mistake. The select command allows you to select words or phrases enabling you to correct those on-the-fly.

The undo command allows you to correct the last mistake; however, it only allows you to correct one mistake. That is, it doesn’t appear to have endless undo commands. This can be a feature of the DragonPad since this is what I am using to write this article. It may not be a limitation of software if I was using Microsoft Word.

The go to command allows you to move within the text you’re dictating. It is very helpful after selecting the word, and correcting your mistake, to go to the end of a line or paragraph. Just say “go to end “and the program will take you to the end of the line.

This is an incredible program which I should’ve bought years ago to help improve productivity and my writing skills. I highly recommend it!

Now, trying to debug a simple error condition with an analyzer, is becoming a chore trying doing this remotely from home. 02h — You’re Killing me!