Bill Gates has announced he is leaving Microsoft to focus full-time on the Gates Foundation. Bill Gates is the most philanthropic human being in history, giving more to charitable causes than anyone before. He puts his contemporary billionaires to shame. (Larry Ellison, you know who you are). He leaves behind…
I have spent most of this week at Usability 2006, which is a conference run by the Nielsen/Norman group. I started at the Usability in Practice sessions but then switched over to Interaction Design. I am really enjoying Tog. He has great stories and clearly has had a really fun…
Ok, to set up the story, put your fingers up in the air in a peace sign. (Index and middle finger up, with other fingers down under the thumb). Then point your two fingers towards your eyes. Then point them away from you, straight ahead. Do this 5 times back…
Also Known as Vista Beta 2, I have sucessfully installed the operating system. I also have installed the beta of Office 2007. So far, I am pretty excited. The glass interface is very cool. The performance is pretty good. Alot of the new features are nice. On the down side,…
Katie and I celebrated out 8th wedding anniversary by going to a nice French (Freedom) Restaurant and watching The Miser by French (Freedom) playwright Molière. The play, at the Berkeley Rep was fantastic. We enjoyed the costumes, the sets, the acting. It was the best play I have seen since…
They are called Vitreous Floaters. There is a whole website dedicated to them. They are the little hairs that you sometimes see floating into your field of vision like little ghosts. When you try to look directly at them they move out of your field of view. When you stop…
There was this award at work. Everyone had to nominate another person and say why they thought that person embodied the corporate values. The Intuit values are actually pretty interesting. I did not win the award, but rather, my nomination was the winning one. Everyone mentioned the quality of the…
Matthew was carrying something he shouldn’t have. Can’t remember what. I said, "Matthew, put that down". Matthew: "Mine" (Matter of fact) Daddy: "No." Matthew: "Mine?" (Are you sure?) Daddy: "No." Matthew: "MINE!!!" (Screaming like a teradactyl) Daddy: "No." Matthew: "Miiiine" (Whining) Daddy: "No." Matthew: "mmmmmmmiiiiinnnneee" (Like Gollum from The Lord…
A colleague lent me this book. Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. I read the first few pages and I am really intrigued. Here is the cliff-notes edition of the first 5 pages. The guy is a sculptor. He visits elementary schools once a month for a whole day.…
Check out this framework for motion tweening in javascript. This is brilliant. It is pretty concise code. Easily readable. It allows for Flash-like effects making things fade on and off and move on the screen. I am using it for a bunch of effects. It is the best framework of…
Monday, May 22 was my birthday. I am 34. I used to be 33. 33 gets rounded down to 30 and is almost like being in your 20’s. 34 gets rounded up to 35. 35 is nothing like being in your 20’s. This is the first time I have felt…
Ever since Shaq entered the league, I have hated basketball. It was all bump, bump, slam. The post was the worst play in the world. It was boring. What happened to the no-look pass? What happened to the 3-point shot? What happened to faked him out of his shoes that…
Yesterday, we had a great Mother’s Day. In the morning, we went over to Burlingame (a very nice community that we hope to live in one day). Ethan was petting someone’s dog and said that he could make the dog sit. The owner said, “Ok, give it a try, but…
I volunteered with some people at work to help a non-profit. They provide technology and communications specialists to emergency areas. So if an earthquake hit San Francisco to help drive the prices of homes down, then they would swoop in and set up wireless networks so people could communicate. They…