… for giving me a $24 student loan.

At least it probably bought a bottle or two of wine and is contributing to my credit score.

Back from Thursday at Starland. No major injuries to report. But wow, what an amazing show…

I love being an engineer. My iPod shuffle was broken. The left audio channel became intermittent, but worked with a bit of constant pressure. What does any good engineer do? break it open, put some solder on the connection and seal it back up!

As good as new.

I love being an engineer.

“Open Letter To Hobbyists” by Bill Gates, 1976:

Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000.
The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these “users” never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour.

Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?

Is this fair? One thing you don’t do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn’t make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.

From Coding Horror, today:

I accept that software registration keys are a necessary evil for commercial software, and I resign myself to manually keeping track of them, and keying them in… Furthermore, registration keys are often the user’s first experience with our software– and first impressions matter.

Welcome to the age that thinks software is not the end, but just a means to an end; an end that is something useful to humans: communication, collaboration, creation, perhaps; something more than making someone else pay for something we made for the sole purpose of accomplishing our own goal that costs us zero dollars to give to other people.

Welcome to the age that has advanced itself.

This is disruptive technology. Deal with it.

(P.S. I’m around more often now and starting to contact people.)

afk until the beginning of December*.

* Monstar! party planning in progress. stay tuned.

After I saw this, I reflected how little news is actually made when Putin confirms a long running rumor and how much people actually want to read about “Tweens”:

Then I saw this, and thought, “Man, Columbia doesn’t have an army at all!”

I’m a big fan of management practices where management understands they only earn their money because of the employees under them.

McLaren Mercedes was recently punished by the Federation Internationale d’Automobile (FIA) for improperly handling documents containing Ferrari secrets. The penalty was stripping McLaren of all its constructor championship points they earned this season, awarding Ferrari the win in that competition, and fining the team $100 million. (In real terms, McLaren screwed itself out of a lot of money).

The interesting news: It was reported by the commentators of Speed during today’s Chinese Grand Prix that McLaren Mercedes management will still pay their employees the promised bonus based on the number of constructor points they would have had come season end. In that move, I see a company that recognizes the importance of its employees and cares about keeping the good people that created a potentially award-winning car.

Companies have a hidden incentive in treating its workers well. Sure, it’s hard to identify exactly how much benefit any given employee has on the bottom line, but it’s important to foster an environment that strives for results. Most people will only accomplish that by chasing after the carrot in front of them; one day, the carrot has to be caught for them to continue to the next one.

While I don’t know anything else about the working conditions at the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team, I applaud its management for this decision.

The blogs I read, the blogs I respect, both personal and professional, create content that is more than a “this is what I did today” story. That content is appropriate for a personal journal, not one that is published on the web. The blogs I hold in esteem write content that tells a story that could be useful or entertaining for whomever comes across it, be it regular readers or Google users.

I haven’t posted since July because I’ve been reduced to a continual vacationer. I’ve spent my days with little worry or mission, but I’ve been able to be whimsical and to take a break. Consequently, I’ve had a lot of time to write and think for me, and not a lot of momentum toward solving interesting problems or commenting on those of others.

I see that as a problem. The problem would have been solvable had I not been lazy and lacked an internal drive to complete some of the goals on other projects I am loosely involved in. Instead, I took the easy path, which annoys me. At the same time, I recognize that path may have been the right path to follow, given that I’ll very rarely, if ever, have the same opportunity again until I’m retired or beyond. What is done is done, and I have the future to look forward to.

I’ve come to a crossroads and that path will change starting Friday. After a long summer hiatus, I’m being forced back into the real world. Luckily for me, I have a lot of internal incentive to actually join society for the first time, not to mention the external incentives that are being given to me. On Friday, I start working as a trainee in the Morgan Stanley’s IT group.

For four months, I will be immersed in a college-like experience of taking classes, doing homework, collaborating on projects, and passing tests. The difference, as I’ve been told by past trainees and have experience myself during my previous summers, is the immersion into that environment with incredible, passionate instructors teaching pure technology to students with a like-minded interest in those subjects. (I should add that I’m actually getting paid for that, too.)

With the anticipated new stimulus that is work, I look forward to being interesting again, in a sense. I’m unsure what my new employer’s attitude toward public-facing employee blogging is, but I know I’ll be able to comment on and share interesting problems that I came across, solved, or new ideas presented to me.

While I’m really looking forward to the intellectual motivation that is at my doorstep, I’m also really looking forward to meeting those new people who have a similar interest in my passion. I’m looking forward to being a member of an organization again, even if it is a corporation. I chose Morgan Stanley because it presents me with both defined and undefined growth opportunities as well as actively facilitates getting me involved in something other that work. There are people there who are actively interested in seeing that I have the right skills and tools to do my job and my next job and who are willing to cultivate that. Also, I’m just looking forward to solidly being a part of something larger than myself.

In short, I’m looking forward to being (mildly) interesting to the internet again.

Some notes on my positive interactions with two local business:

Jacks Art Gallery - I had two small pieces framed there recently and both turned out wonderfully. The staff were very helpful in helping me pick a solution that would make the pieces really pop out. They even were nice enough to give me hanging hardware and wall bumpers. I definitely recommend them for fairly inexpensive, quality framing work.

Tiecrafters - Realizing I had become out of fashion, I brought both my ties to Tiecrafters to have narrowed into a cool, hip, new tie. The ties came out exactly as I wanted them. The gentleman with whom I dealt was extremely kind and accommodating in helping me pick out a size. Everyone I know has used them, and everyone I know who has used them loves them. Highly recommended.

In today’s world, you’ll never know when you will be incapacitated to the point where you need donations from others just to remain alive. To help others in their time of need, become an organ donor.

Note that the donor card on the back of your driver license is of dubious legal quality. Be sure to register yourself with your state registry. If you live in New York, sign up here.