Psychic Dustbunnies

Lists: Countries

Lists:  Countries, in order of visit (Bold = Lived In)

United States of America
Mexico
Japan
Canada
Singapore
Malaysia
Indonesia
Taiwan
South Korea
Hong Kong (before handover to China)
China
Thailand
Australia
England
Switzerland
Spain
France
Czech Republic
Netherlands
India

On the Road

Just back from 2 weeks in India and Singapore for work.  Hadn't been back to Singapore for nearly 10 years, when I lived there for work.  There were some changes, but still very familiar, still building all over the place, still easy to get around.  India, however, was not familiar at all.  Very interesting place - chaotic roads, lots of much needed infrastructure projects going on, malarone leaves a metalic taste in my mouth.

What Every Software Project Needs to Know About Ajax

Great article from Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog on AJAX - some great stuff you can accomplish but he points out 7 important things to keep in mind as you start up an Ajax project.
I've excerpted a bit here, but go read the whole thing on his blog.

What Every Software Project Needs to Know About Ajax

The Browser Was Never Meant For Ajax.  About a week into your first Ajax serious application you'll discover that Ajax pushes the browser nearly beyond its limits and there are definite lower engineering tolerances to get used to.
You Won't Need As Many Web Services As You Think.  I used to think that going the Ajax route required the development of a bunch of new Web services in order to feed the application data and provide a backing store.  In reality, I'm finding a great many projects are quite happy to scrape HTML and/or use plain old HTTP POSTs to existing service endpoints that have no formal Web service structure.
Ajax Is More Involved Than Traditional Web Design and Development.  The loss of HTML user interface conventions, the almost limitless potential for hidden or latent functionality, the programmatic creation of page elements instead of declarative, and other intrinsic aspects of the Ajax approach throw out much of what we know about Web design and development.  Web designers must much more deeply understand the capabilities of the DOM, Javascript, CSS, and how the browser renders graphics, layouts, and elements.  ....  The bottom line: Ajax development, at least for now, usually takes quite a bit longer than traditional Web development and requires a higher level of skill.
Ajax Tooling and Components Are Still Emerging and There Is No Clear Leader Today.  Though Dojo is getting one heck of a running start, the race is very far from over.  .... In the meantime, be sure to check out script.aculo.us, Prototype, Google Web Toolkit, Yahoo! UI Library, JackBe, Zapatec, Bindows, Nexaweb, General Interface, Backbase, ActiveWidgets, and last but not least Microsoft Atlas.
Good Ajax Programmers are Hard to Find.  Zimbra's Scott Dietzen has lamented recently about the real difficulty in finding good Ajax talent.  See point #3, but building sophisticated Ajax applications requires more computer science skills much more than it does Web design skills. 
One Must Actively Address Ajax's Constraints of the Browser Model.  Though the final result can be very rewarding, Ajax is not a perfect Web development approach and it has a few genuine weaknesses.  One is that it tends to break the model of the Web including preventing users from bookmarking content, breaking the use of the Back button, and more. 
Ajax Is Only One Element of a Successful RIA Strategy. As I've written before, the addition of RIA platforms such as Flex, OpenLaszlo, and WPF/E to a RIA strategy is virtually required to properly exploit the range of capabilities you'll want robust online applications to have.  This is particularly true around rich media support such as audio and video -- which Ajax is virtually incapable of -- but even such mundane things as good printing support.

Really - go read the whole thing here.

Israeli forces mass near Gaza

I saw that headline on yahoo and couldn't figure out why in the world Isreal would be "forcing mass" - are they trying to get in good with the Catholics, are they trying to only have mass near Gaza and not elsewhere?  Finally realized what it was saying...

Later I saw the headline was changed to "Isreal masses forces near Gaza"

Wiating for Your Cat to Bark

So I've now heard from 3 sources that this is a great book on customer persuasion.  If you work in marketing or product management you know that customers are increasingly ignoring your marketing message.  Waiting For Your Cat to Bark, the newest book from Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg ia all about persuading customers to do business with you when they ignore marketing.  You can read an excerpt from the book here at Michele Miler's great blog on marketing to women.

Here are some topics they cover:

How the customer's buying process works in a cross-channel, new media-driven marketplace
Why customers respond differently today than they used to
How to use the Web to generate persuasive momentum across multiple channels
How the various touch-points within a business affect each other
How to guide prospects through the buying process at every customer touch-points
How personality traits influence customer behavior online and offline
How to anticipate the different angles from which customers approach your business
How to identify and provide meaningful answers to your customers' questions at each stage of their buying process
How to begin implementing Persuasion Architecture™ techniques for your business

The book also comes with an 80-minute DVD of a conversation about the book that took place between the Eisenbergs and some of the great marketing minds of the day.

You can buy the book HERE now and you'll save 35% off the publication price.

Tyler In London

So we are in London for spring break with the boys, tyler got a little sick on the way over and then the first day had just orange juice for breakfast - threw up in the hotel elevator right after!  Great way to start the trip.  He told us that London in sickening.

But his best quote came later.  Pam had talked to the boys sometime about paparazzi and how they take pictures of famous people and bother them...  We were going out to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards and I asked Tyler if he was going to take his camera 'Are the guards famous?' "Yes" 'Then i don't want to because they will think I'm paparazzi.'

Winter (Olympics?)

So I have the misfortune of turning on the TV to watch the news and am confronted with "Ice Dancing" - how is this still an Olympic sport?  Bad dancing, bizarre costums combined with announcers who are entirely too enthusiastic.  It feels like watching an SNL skit, but it's not.  I have nothing against them ice dancing, just stop it as an olympic sport.  Seems like someone would be on to them by now "Ahh, you've fooled us for so long but now we realize it's just been an elaborate hoax, you got us." 

If they are going to continue on with this in the Olympics I think they should put 6 pairs on the ice at once and make it a cage match - then you've got something!

And while we're on the subject - CURLING???? HUH?  It looks like it might even be fun to participate in, like horshoes, but again how is this an Olympic sport?  Sliding and sweeping, hmmm.

And since this is about Winter Olympics I'm not even gonna get started on the ribbon twirling, ball catching summer olympic 'sports.'

Chess Tournament

Johnny & Tyler played in a chess tournament today.  Tyler ended up winning for 1st graders and Johnny had a bit of bad luck with 2 stalemates and 2 draws.  Good job guys! 
A picture from their performance in Pirates of Penzance (if you click it, it's big!):

Christmas Ninjas

If you're looking for Christmas presents it's hard to go wrong with ninja gear.  Not sure what the best ninja gear is to get your significant other?  This site will help - 'hundreds of years ago ninjas roamed the earth hiding behind things and killing local officials.  Today there are just as many, but they are even better at hiding."
- endangeredman.com/source/ninjitsu.html

The Producal Manager

Tyler put on my coat this evening and told me he was wearing my 'producal manager suit.'  He then pointed around and said 'you take out the trash, you do the research, you bring the donuts, you bring the soda.'  I think I should hire him!

Blingo - Search and Win

Have you seen the "new" search engine, Blingo?  They basically repackage google's search results, inclulding paid results at the top and then provide prizes to random winners throughout the day.  You can check it out here: