Well, this week sure started off interesting (but to any that may be concerned, Toby is home safe and sound now).
Debs and I went out to dinner with a few friends on Saturday, and while out, her mom called and left a voicemail, with a slightly sad attitude. Once home we called her back, and got the bad news…
Toby had run away a few hours ago.
We were shocked. We knew something like this was bound to happen, and discussed what we could do, how it could have happened, and how it’s actually better that he ran away at his new house than when he lived with us (we live on a busy road, and it would have been a lot more dangerous). From what it sounds like, he managed to jump up on some chairs on the deck, and then jump off the deck down into the yard (though, we are not sure if he jumped to the steps first – if he didn’t he would have fallen ~12 feet).
That night going to bed was sad. We both had dreams that he was barking on our front porch (after walking about 15 miles). But nothing all day. Since Monday was a holiday for the kids, some of the nieces and nephews spent hours looking for him, but no luck. I created a flyer that night, as well as made a posting on Craigslist and mentioned it on twitter as well as Facebook (which was seriously retweeted about 3o times, which is awesome). Her mom had also been in touch with vets, the pound, animal control, and everyone she could to alert about Toby.
Mid afternoon Tuesday, I got two calls from Debs about 15 minutes apart. I was in a meeting, so called her back when done, and immediately found out that he had been found! This was about 48 hours after him being gone!
He was found by a lady wandering around two subdivisions over. She drove by, then turned around when she noticed him just looking lost. From what we heard, she opened her car door, and he jumped right in and laid down. She took him to the pound, who then contacted her mom. The cool part is that earlier that morning, we had sent the pound a link to my flickr photos so they could have some references of what Toby looked like.
We didn’t get a chance to see him that night, but did visit on Wednesday. Her mom wanted us to try to cheer him up, since he was very quiet and odd. We figured most of this was due to exhaustion, not eating, and just being scared out of his mind. We examined him and got him to start reacting to more people.
Her mom took him to the vet the next day, where we got a full report. He was still covered in ticks (one of her brothers had already removed 10-15). He also had a bunch of grass seed in his eyes, which was hurting him quite a bit. His nose was also rubbed down from just trying to sniff against the ground so much. I took a few pictures and posted them to Tumblr. The vet gave him some antibiotics as well, and expects him to be almost fully back to normal next week.
Funny enough, we found out that when he went out for a walk the day after being back, he managed to get loose of his leash. But this time, he ran right back through the yard and sat on the steps 
.
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, im thinking about doing something different here. It’s just too much ‘work’ to sit down and do a blog post – especially on a personal blog. While WordPress is great, sometimes its just overkill to make a quick post, which usually means I don’t post as much.
So I started a blog on Tumblr to see how I like it.I suggest for now you follow both (if interested), and in the future I will probably be moving to just Tumblr (and my jmlumpkin.com domain tie into a lot of other services).
If you are also on Tumblr, add me!
One of the biggest reasons I have been rather quiet is being so busy with a personal project! I really wanted to push myself to finally ‘develop’ one of my ideas (which I recently talked about not being able to do), from start to finish.
While driving back to Richmond from a day trip, I had an idea about having a site that would index video game information going across Twitter. But I also wanted this project to:
- Let me learn another language, or at least be more comfortable with it (I am mostly a .net developer, and wanted to really learn more PHP for web work)
- Start learning a popular API, and the community around that
- Create a site that could be a testbed for various things (new HTML standards, learning new techniques, SEO, etc), but also provide a use to a community.
While it took a bit to long to get rolling, I spent a few weekends and nights putting everything together and came up with GamingTweets.net. Its ‘live’ now, and already seeing a little bit of Search Engine traffic. I still have plenty more searches to add, and I already have two new features I have been thinking about as well. I even had my first bug fix due to the Twitter DDoS attack on 8/6/09 (although I didn’t get to fix it until that night, after things were running again).
Now that this project is ‘out of the way’, I have a few other things I am already starting to work on. I have a few client projects to complete in the very short term, but after that, I’m going to be diving back into Cocoa again, and start writing some Mac and iPhone applications.
Not sure if I am missing something here, but what’s the actual ‘Live Developing Story’? Life?!?
I haven’t been posting much, mainly due to lack of time (and even sometimes interest). While I love having this blog, sometimes I really feel that writing a post isn’t as good as just generally describing whats going on. I’m starting to think, especially with the insane growth of social media, personal blogs aren’t that interesting any more. Not that I’m saying I plan on stopping, but I really have been thinking more and more of turning this site into a general ‘life stream’ of what I’m doing, be it posting a message to twitter, taking a picture, blogging here or on my tech blog, or anything really.
Since I last really updated about whats been going on:
- Have had the worse sinus problems ever I think during the summer.
- Finally got outdoors and went mountain biking on local trails with friends. Other than hitting some logs wrong and eating dirt, it was a blast, and ready to get back out.
- Did all the core work needed on GamingTweets.net.
- Been working with a few friends to make some really cool things on the web. Still have plenty of work.
- Worked on some really cool things at work!
- Spent a short weekend in DC, and had a blast!
- Working much harder on what I eat, and already starting to notice differences. Now just to loose 60+ pounds.
- Got to visit a great friend in Hampton, and spend a few hours at the beach.
- Have grilled so many times already this summer I have lost count.
- Every week has gone from rather empty to PACKED in a day. Looking back at my calendar for the last 2 months, something has had to happen nearly every night.
Its crazy that its already August. Deborah’s birthday is just a month away. I’ve almost been at my new job for a year in a few months. But its amazing, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Nowadays, everyone can be a media outlet. Traditional media (newspaper and TV), new media (whatever the hell you consider it, including bloggers), even down to anyone with a twitter account or random blog. Obviously information is power – and having a lot of information on something can usually be a good thing. That is, until you have ‘to many cooks in the kitchen’, and leave everyone having to dig through all the noise to find something meaningful. And those who ‘break’ the story get the fame, until the next story comes along, and then no one cares.
I’ve been trying to write this blog post a few times, with possible titles as ‘Social Media Freakout’ or ‘Hyperlocal Hyperactivity’ (and I may use them in the future). But some events today led to a perfect post, that almost writes itself. Case in point, the ‘OMG UKROPS IS GOING TO BE SOLD!!!!!!’ flurry of tweets today. First of all – this rumor is nothing new. This rumor has been flying around for a very long time now. And heck, I even had my own say in it recently (before all of today’s events broke out). I’m not saying its not true – im just saying some need to stop contributing to the noise!
For those that don’t know, there’s two things that happened today. First an entry is posted on Food World that Ukrops has been out looking for buyers. Then there happens to be a forum post yesterday mentioning that there have been 29 liquor licensees applied for at ABC. While I understand the Food World article (I used to read it at slow times when I worked there), how can anyone trust a random forum post? There are even emails flying around (my wife got one) that even mention the sale value ($850 million).
Over these two events is then the hype machine that surrounds it all. To the point that RVANews leads an article mentioning the sale. Then you have the hype machine that is twitter cast its wrath all over the information. Local news affiliates (both NBC and CBS, as well the RTD) make mention of it, but at least dont contribute much to the hype. All this is good – twitter is almost like todays ’small talk’, just only much more public, visible, and online. But with all this noise – you really have so much ‘he said/she said’ arguments, all targeting back to two random posts on the internet (and yes kids, not everything you read online is true). Twitter has got to be the fastest way ever in humanity to spread ‘misinformation’ (misinformation in quotes, because no one knows for sure whats true, whats not. Somethings going on – just not many know what yet).
It’s hard to say in words how I feel about all this. I am complaining, but not really. I want my news as fast as everyone. But I am finding it increasingly difficult to filter all the noise. To the point that I would rather jump back a few years, and have more ’solid’ news than fast news.
Sometimes this can be a good thing. A great example would be the plane crash in the Hudson. That was mentioned on twitter first, then brought to mainstream media. And all in all – handled in a very good way.
But let’s also look at the recent Michael Jackson tragedy. For hours the only trending topics on Twitter dealt with him. But you had people all over the world just plain out making stuff up! This got to the point where CNN (where we happened to be watching coverage) was jumping back and forth about what was going on. Obviously VERY few people in the world at that time knew what was going on – but social media freaked out the big guys enough to change their decisions based on whatever was more ‘hip’ at the time. And this all leads down into a downward spiral.
I wish I had recorded an AWESOME interview on CNN the next day. I don’t even remember the guys name – but he talked specifically on this topic. With all this going on – its hard for ‘true’ media outlets to also filter the noise, and therefore actually slowing the news down! Yes everyone may know something is going on – they may not know the truth.
I saw a great post yesterday from CodeBetter that had a great quote…
in general, the .NET crowd overthinks and over-engineers just about everything
No matter how bad that sounds – you have to admit it’s probably true (though, im sure its not just a .net thing – it’s a developer thing). Over thinking and overdoing isn’t always wrong – that extra step may be ‘the next big thing’ or pushing the boundaries of what’s already been done. But in most day to day work, sometimes we could just be wasting our time.
His post actually references a post made before it – about jumping the 20% fence. While I didn’t feel that this was pushed in the article, I feel that a good chunk of the ‘bugs’ every developer faces can be from over thinking the actual problem. The more complex your project (as a programer, or any other profession really), the more complex the bugs can be, and the more difficult it can be to get to the root of the problem.
That’s not saying you have complex problems to solve. When solving thee problems, its amazing to look back and say ‘wow, I really did that, and it works!’. But one thing that has always helped me is to break everything down and look at it piece by piece. Develop each piece, and link everything together. Then This not only helps simplify the problem, but helps you to refractor your code as well. Once you know each of these pieces, refactoring is much easier, and helps you see the problem solved as a whole in the end. Finally, if even a ‘little piece’ is to complicated, theres a chance that it can be broken down even more.
I have found that focusing on each of these pieces, getting them done, and moving on – it really adds up. Taking a break isnt bad either – plenty of times I have felt ’stuck’ on a problem, got up to get something to drink, and came back to easily solve something I thought was near impossible just moments before.
Personally though, I think this may be one of my favorite quotes:
Simplicity is beautiful.
Took this while outside at the annual fish fry for our Freemason lodge. The iPhone’s camera shifted the colors a bit, but I really love how this came out.
As like years past, I wanted to recap some of my thoughts on today’s WWDC keynote. This time more than ever im actually becoming an Apple developer (again) by starting to learn a lot of Cocoa this year. But with Apple using this time to announce new products and services, WWDC keynotes are like any other Apple keynote now.
What was announced:
- New MacBookPros: My wife and I recently (about 3 months ago) purchased the base Aluminum MacBook, the one that was upgraded today to a MacBookPro. Im honestly not as upset as I thought I was once going to be about this. While its nice to have more power, some new features, and possibly a new display, our MacBook is still much closer to a MacBookPro that previous MacBooks. I always considered it to be closer to the 12” PowerBook it replaced. I am curious to find out though if the new 13” has a new “Pro” display as well at the new price point ($1199)
- Snow Leopard: As I mentioned last year, I felt Snow Leopard was one of the biggest announcements. I still don’t think many Mac users really understand how awesome of a change this is. And only for $29. This is going to breathe a new life into all Macs, which makes up for the ‘loss’ of my recent MacBook purchase already being bumped today. Snow Leopard covers SO much, but were going to see a faster, more stable OS. With Apple’s close Hardware/Software tie, I’m sure were going to see a new breed of machines next year as well.
- iPhone OS 3: I actually felt that this was probably the most boring part of the keynote. Honestly, everything they covered was recently covered in March at the small developer keynote they had. This time around we saw a few apps that have been made for it, and honestly nothing else. I was honestly expecting a few last minute features to be thrown in to 3.0, but it didn’t happen.
- iPhone 3GS: Not as show-stopping as the original iPhone to iPhone 3G, but still pretty awesome. You get a better camera, video capture, TONS more speed, voice recognition, double the space, and a compass. This time though, 3G owners do not get a cheap upgrade, you only get to upgrade if it’s the end of your service (which many original iPhone owners should be nearing now). Honestly while this is cool, not really worth it to any current iPhone owner. While I would love the speed bump (while OS 3.0 will knock off about half the time loading a large webpage, the 3GS will knock that in half again), I can’t justify the $500 upgrade.
I was hoping to upgrade to the ‘new iPhone’ if they were going to have a plan, but now really don’t feel like its worth it. I would love to get the new features, but not at that price. Also, with the iPhone OS update coming out next Wednesday, its like getting a new iPhone anyways!
Some of the flops from today’s announcements:
- AT&T Sucks. Not supporting MMS and Tethering at launch is borderline unacceptable. They had as much time as all the other carriers (probably even more) to get their act together. And you want to bet whats holding it up – WHAT AT&T WANTS TO CHARGE YOU FOR IT. Yes, it may be more load on their network as well, but I think it relies more on how much fatter we need to make their pockets.
- Not allowing an upgrade plan like before. You have millions of users that gave you $200-300 last year for an iPhone 3G. Many of us would love to give you another $200-300 this year for a iPhone 3GS. Hell, I would even trade in my old iPhone to do this. While they don’t ‘need’ to offer this, it would have been nice if they did. Gizmodo had a post earlier (that they have now pulled) making it sound like there was a prorated upgrade plan available, so something may show up eventually.
- No real announcement on the AppStore issues. While Apps now have a parental rating – can nearly everything go into the store now? This honestly doesn’t affect me at all – im just tired of hearing so many people complaining about it.
- Not including more features into the iPhone OS 3.0 software. I wonder why the Voice Commands and Accessibility items are iPhone 3GS only. Both of those new features seem very software related, and no reason they shouldn’t work on iPhone 3G and be part of OS 3.0. They also don’t really seem to be major selling points of the new hardware either. Oh, and Voice Commands should have been in OS 1.0. My very first cell phone had this feature.
Finally, I think a lot of people are going to complain that we still haven’t seen an Apple tablet yet. I have two questions about that:
- Have any of these people WANTING a Mac tablet ever used a PC tablet? Its honestly not that awesome.
- Do people not already realize they already own an Apple tablet and/or Netbook? Seriously, think about that. Other than a bigger screen – theres not much more you would get.
I will be posting more on Jon’s Tech Talk later on, especially after the iPhone OS 3.0 release. My first things to cover will be what I am thinking about the new iPhone OS, as well as some points on why Mac OS X 10.6 is going to be so cool.
This past Saturday we decided to get out and enjoy some of the amazing weather we have been having in Richmond (except for right now – as I write this, its nearly pitch black and downpours and lightning everywhere).
It was great to see all these butterflies on top of the amazing blooms already at the garden. I was able to get quite a few great shots and really work on some macro shots with my XTi.
