Broadly vs. Locally-useful skills
Early on, I programmed on mainframes in COBOL... I'm sure I could do it again. But I'd be tossing away some highly valuable, broadly-applicable and...
Rosh Hashana (New Year) Update
It's been a busy year with a lot of changes, both Covid-related and otherwise. As is my custom, here's my update for this circle around...
How I got hired at AWS
Being yourself matters as much as anything.
And be nice to the airline staff. They can really make or break your life....
What the fuck are you doing there?
"Hey man. You're not gonna believe this, but I'm calling from Frankfurt..."
"What the FUCK are you doing there?"
It was a pretty good question....
No Undoing
The joy of photography for me was never in the finished product, and certainly not the moment of capturing the image on film. The joy...
Lessons from the top of a snowy hill
Things are rather treacherous out there. In my neighborhood, we have new-fallen (unplowed) snow, on top of wet (now frozen) fallen, partly-decayed, slippery leaves that...
How I became “glue”
As has often been the case in my life, I was in a category of people who were not supposed to exist. I was that...
Don’t buy tech from somebody you meet in Church
If the answer to why you should do business with somebody is ever "we're part of the same group, you can trust me," then you...
Software is hard
A horribly embarrassing software disaster happened on Monday. It was caused by a bad certificate, which is a mechanism used to verify and authenticate a...
Wrapping up 2019
In January, I packed up and shipped everything I wanted to keep, got in the car with Flash, and drove to Seattle. I arrived...