Decisions, Decisions... and Recipes

Well, the Amigo has version 0.8 of his Nailtini inventory and order tracking program up and running. Quite a few features.  Not very many known bugs.  Certainly ready for the clients to try it out and provide feedback.  Angel is one such client, and she is already giving me input on how to make the program more useful.

This seems like a good time to study some more programming technology.  The Nailtini program uses: PHP, MySQL, html, css, and a little JavaScript.  It's been a fun experience and a great learning experience.  The question is: what's the next thing to learn?  What would give me the best ROI?  

I spent a few hours reading up on Java.  Not JavaScript, but Java.  The Amigo had an interview a while back w/ a manager at Amazon.com.  The developers there -- or at least those in that manager's group -- use Java under Linux.  Some of the best programmers (and smartest guys) I've ever met have been Java programmers.

OTOH, there's Python.  It's much more modern than Java, but it's not falling-off-the-leading-edge-modern.  Python's momentum is definitely on the upswing.  It's certainly easier to learn than Java.

Finally, I found a pretty nice website devoted to Python.  The author of that site recommends that if you want to be a Python programmer, you should also know (you guessed it): PHP, MySQL (or equivalent), html, css, and JavaScript.  Well, shucks.

Do any of you -- Subscribers to the Wrong Rock -- have suggestions?  Do any of you think it would be a Bad Idea or a Waste of Time to focus on Python learning for a few weeks?

The other thing that's going on today is an attempt at creating a recipe.  This is the 2nd try.  The Venerable Friendly One would like to have a reliable recipe for dark chocolate fudge that's made with honey (instead of white sugar) and with some combination of peanut butter and almond butter (instead of dairy butter).  

The first iteration resulted in scorched chocolate sauce.  Since it was chocolate, it was still good (sort of).  The recipe from which I started indicated that you shouldn't stir the fudge after it started to boil and that you should use a candy thermometer.  Thus, the mixture scorched before ever reaching the "soft ball stage".  

At about 50 minutes of simmering, with occasional stirring to prevent stickage, the fudge mixture was clearly at the "thread stage".  Barring other data, it shall be declared Cooked at approximately one hour of simmering.

This time, the Amigo will use an electric mixer to beat the fudge into submission. Hopefully that will address the lack of thickenage.

Stay tuned on this one.

Linux Journal

A few months back, picardOut convinced the Amigo to subscribe to the Linux Journal. I admit to being somewhat skeptical. These are somewhat lean times and the Venerable Friendly One cannot afford to buy another box right now... and in any case all free time is being soaked up in the Job Search and in trying to update enough programming knowledge to regain the mantle of employability.

Still, the February issue has a wonderful article on the Google Web Toolkit. Great explanations of associated technologies. Useful description of the interconnections between the various technologies that come into play. Readable and not too geeky either.

So this one issue is worth the whole price of subscription.  Thanks, picardOut. Great recommendation!

Now... back to the LJ.

If You're Not Outraged...

...you're not paying attention.

Do you follow Aaron Task & Henry Blodgett?  They have a video blog on Yahoo!Finance.  Yesterday, they had a segment that was so outrageous that it bears repeating.  In short, simple sentences, it goes like this:

John Thain used to be CEO of Merrill Lynch.

Merrill got into bad financial trouble.  They stood to lose $15B.  They needed help from taxpayer funds.  They needed to be acquired by B of A.  Oh, and they paid out $15B in executive bonuses that same fiscal year.

Then, they allocated another $4B secretly for more executive bonuses.  Usually Merrill hands out gobs 'o cash to their top trough feeders in January, but since the acquisition by B of A was going through, John Thain pushed the bonus program up into December.  Evidently there was risk that B of A management might not allow the bonuses.

Oh, and during the same period, Thain spent on the order of $1.2M to redecorate his office at Merrill.

The Old Amigo can't help but notice that the entire State of Washington is facing, oh, a budget deficit of between $3B and $4B for 2009.  The state legislature is trying to decide what programs need further cuts.  Under consideration: $1B cuts in public school funding, cuts in health care for children, and cuts nursing home care for the elderly.  Oh, and taxes will go up too.

And the year before, Merrill's executives walked away with $19B.

It is not clear that any of Thain's actions are actually illegal, but if you had any doubts about what passes for ethics in America's executive conference rooms, one could hope that those doubts are now settled.  The "invisible hand of the market" once again doles out massive amounts of slop to those already feeding at golden troughs, while slapping down the less powerful.

Shifts of wealth on this scale are not merely greedy, selfish, and disgusting.  Shifts of wealth on this scale actually threaten the future of our country.  When we, the middle class, cannot educate our children; when uninsured cannot get health care; when we do not care properly for our elderly we unravel the fabric of our society. We damage our place in the community of nations.

But Thain and his cronies get their mansions, their yachts, their private planes. One can but wonder how often this story plays out all over our country.

Are you paying attention now?

Good Winter Days

Something surprises the Amigo in this January here at the Edge.

Last night, the fog rolled in.  Dense, gray, muting.  Across the water, fog horns sounded throughout the night and morning.  In early light, there were no shadows.

As we enjoyed a late breakfast, the fog began to lift and the sun emerged, brilliant and bright.

The last two days have been mostly sunny, clear, and crisp.  Right about now (just before 2:00PM) it is 45 degrees Obsolete in the shade.  The sun is streaming through the south-facing windows.  Although neither the furnace nor the wood stove is running, is comfortable and warm in the room where I am typing this.

So many people cautioned that there would be essentially No sunny, bright days here in the Far North Winter.  This has not turned out to be the case.  The sun is low in the sky and big trees to the south shade our PV array.  This means that we generate little electrical energy this time of year.  Still, on days like today, we need little energy to be comfortable.

Right now, I'm working my way through a W3 Schools tutorial on JavaScript.  This is my latest milestone in the effort to learn enough skills to become once-again employable.  The weather is perfect for my studies and I am making good progress.  I've already used bits and pieces of JavaScript in my work for Nailtini, but there are many more things to do.

With MySQL, PHP, and JavaScript, I ought to be able to do some useful work. Probably, the next milestone after that should be Java; although I don't know if I can do that w/o paying for compilers, etc.  The Nailtini site is growing in functionality and my first "customer" (Angel) is giving me good feedback. 

Isabelle is sleeping somewhere warm.

But the Amigo digresses...

The day is beautiful, peaceful, comfortable.  Made for learning.

Later, I plan to attempt to modify a recipe for dark chocolate fudge.  That will be an adventure of a different sort.

Back to the studies.

Less Than A Week

I continue to worry that a new President - no matter how competent, sincere, and brilliant - can sever the Gordian Knot to release us from the constraints imposed by an army of lobbyists several times the size of our Congress.  I am confident that President Obama will pour his heart into it, that he will put forth real proposals that could make thing better for our country. Sadly, there is no doubt that nearly everything that needs to be done for the betterment of most regular folks will go against the perceived short-term interests of the captains of some powerful industry or interest group.

We, the People, must have patience where we sense that time is running out.

We must have the wisdom to take the long view - the view that seeks the betterment of our children's grandchildren.

We must turn away from the hateful, empty rhetoric that will pour forth from The Machine... empty rhetoric whose only purpose will be to paralyze.   

As long as our elected officials are paralyzed, the parasites who dwell at the top of the Greed Pyramid will be free to suck ever more life from the People of the Republic.  The parasites at the top of the Greed Pyramid are indeed insatiable.  No amount of wealth or power or privilege is enough.  The fight may be hidden, but it never stops.

Press on.  The fight will become manifest in less than a week.

Winter

Now winter is here.  Angel & I went over to another town today to do some shopping.  The wind was blowing.  It was cold.  Not the dry, sharp cold of Northern Colorado, but the wet, raw feeling of the Pacific Northwest.  Interesting and beautiful, but you want to stay out of it as much as you can.

When we returned home and the wind continued to blow, I went outside and snapped a few shots.  This one is on the north side of our house, part way up the hill, looking east.  You can see rounds that I've stacked up for next winter.  Farther down the hill, you can see many more rounds that I'll divide into two groups: stacking for later and splitting for the wood piles up by the house.

Right now we have a fire going in the Jotul.  It's the smallest Jotul stove we could get; yet the house is so well-insulated that the main room can easily get uncomfortably warm if the Amigo gets the fire going too much -- even on a night like this.

We are truly in winter now.  Isabelle is doing her "statuesque kitty" pose by the Jotul.  She knows it's a fire and hence dangerous, but she loves the warmth and likes to be close to the stove.  

Quiet, warm and cozy inside.  Windy, blustery, winter outside.  This is a pretty darn nice rock.

Countdown

January 20th is Inauguration Day.

If this does not warm your heart, the Amigo has some concern for your mental state.

The road will be long and bumpy, but Things Will Get Better if we can get behind the efforts to improve our lot.

The starting gate is fewer than three weeks in the future.