A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head. It’s unlikely that this project is a nerd’s day job because his opinion regarding his job is, “Been there, done that.” We’ll explore the consequences… More

I’m back from a few days in Vegas. Before I left, I decided it was time to talk a bit more about Vegas, and I decided I’d Twitter tips for what I consider to be a successful Vegas trip. Thing is, from the moment I set foot in the airport, I realized I had a… More

Coffee approach pattern Delta was in play today. This unlisted approach pattern is a stop in Los Gatos to hit one of two decent coffee shops, The Great Bear or the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting company. Neither shop can compete with Peet, but Los Gatos has other attractions. Namely, the soon-to-be-completed Apple Store: Store errata:… More

Mornings are a delicate proposition, but there are two events which, if they occur, guarantee a positive experience.  The first event is coffee acquisition. Currently, there are three different coffee approaches, each has its own consequences. They are: Crappy mountain swill.  This is coffee from the local store. They try, but it’s a serious B.… More

In the past two weeks, I’ve seen a second flood of friend requests on Twitter. Included in this second wave were several Twitter haters who apparently believe that they’ve made their point and now it’s ok to join Twitter. Welcome. I wasn’t the first person to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. In fact, my original… More

As soon as you decide to become a professional nerd, either via a university degree or simply because you sit up all night writing Python to scratch your particular technical itch, you think you absolve yourself of having to stand up in front of a group of people to make a presentation. And you might… More

Ok, stop reading right now and count the toys you can see from your desk. Don’t ask me for a definition, just count. Ordered by proximity, I’ve got: The amethyst ball the Mom gave me. A hockey stick given to me by a prior team. Near this hockey stick is a hockey puck. A cup-sized… More

Let’s start with the visual… This new monitor configuration keeps popping up the engineering team and after walking into enough offices thinking, “Useful or flashy?”, I decided to give it a whirl. The basic usage pattern is unchanged. The left screen is for the active workspace whereas the right screen is the palette screen —… More

As we discovered in A Glimpse and a Hook, it’s almost a miracle when the phone rings and a recruiter wants to set up a phone screen. The fact is, someone, somewhere in the organization has successfully mapped you to an open position. This is a really big deal because, in my experience, the chance… More

The terrifying reality regarding your resume is that for all the many hours you put into fine-tuning, you’ve got 30 seconds to make an impression on me. Maybe less. It’s unfair, it’s imprecise, and there’s a good chance that I make horrible mistakes, but there’s a lot more of you than me, and while hiring… More