elizabeth grigg - the other fourth meal

Whew, I haven't been sick in a long while. One thing you forget is how everything starts to seem related, like reality when you were a kid, or like dreams are all the time. For example, we might have to move, in the middle of my last month on this assignment, in which I really want to do mind bogglingly well. Moving is perhaps even more disrupting than the other things currently attacking my chances of this mind boggling success. Yes, there is already a long list. Plus, it's furiously hot out. One person who I know remotely got into a limb-loss type car accident. People are dancing in my neighborhood on the sidewalk at 7 in the morning. My ankle has swollen up, but just one of them, so call me Igor for now. And during my absence working code that was really working just fine somehow breaks itself without me even touching it. The connection between all these events? Hmmm...

I had a great talk today with a person on the IIS team. We talked about threat modeling, impersonation, authentication. The amazing thing is how much there is to know, and an expert does not know all of it. The other amazing thing is I made it in to work at all...

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 05:49 PM | Permalink

Everyone here is running one. Even me! I haven't run a fever in years. It reminds me of childhood. I'm running one right now. 99 degrees, which is nothing, but if you're woozy it counts.

Tomorrow we will be going to Iron Composer, if it's only half as good as I expect I will be happy.

For amusement, you should know that my 20th referring search string is "housemates stealing food revenge." They should have put quotes around that one, and now they can. What is good revenge for housemates stealing food? Video.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 08:28 PM | Permalink

I pride myself on knowing how to write. This says more about my poor impulse control with regard to personal pride than it says about my writing. I am even more convinced that this pride is misplaced when I read the following two blogs. These two can write about anything at all, and you can tell betwixt it all is an occasional sense of desperation and anxiety. But does that stop their amazing writing talent from shining through - no! Even the dreariest of posts brighten right up. Somehow, the drearier the brighter in fact. Proof that you have to suffer for great art.

Take faster pussycat, for example. The thing I laughed out loud about, and still dwell on for some reason, is the idea of "attending a morale event in her usual way, driving in her car, towards home, in spirit." Now, that's good writing.

Then there's Rory, who is in the tech world so some of you might know about this already. Today he cracked me up talking about volcano barf. It doesn't sound very funny when I say it. I guess you had to be there.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 12:23 PM | Permalink

This is a NYTimes columnist, a paper that I read only when in NY which is a shame. Also for some reason I don't ever want to sign up for "full access" to the site, so there you are. I have a guarded relationship with the NYTimes. Except when it comes to David Pogue, one of two columns I consume via e-mail because that is my only choice, and the content is good enough to overcome their lack of RSS-idness.

Today David sent out a column reviewing some sort of iPod dockstation thing. I have no apple gear in the house, and it made me want to buy one. My family doesn't buy xmas presents but I forward this to my dh to buy it for me anyway. In other words, I want one.

The macro-point is, David is cool, the email is useful, you would do yourself proud by signing up.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 11:48 AM | Permalink

Today it hit me: no, it wasn't my age or my sense of mortality. It was more like everyone else's...

I was sitting in a meeting with seasoned dev professionals. In this company, I am barely on the credits. I'm like "key grip" or something, and these guys are headlining acts. So I listened. Hard. What I realized is this is completely different from perhaps 5 years ago, when everyone (in my meetings, at least) was 20something, and reactionary, and clueless. When I listened hard in those meetings I learned vocabulary. I learned what was going on. In today's meeting, I learned how things go on, and why. It was advanced battle strategy tactics when all I was expecting was brute force. I was very impressed.

The image I had was of the ocean. Very unpredictable place. You can get a boat and row yourself around on the top, but that don't mean anything. Compare that with someone who has evolved gills, and has learned all the different whale dialects, and has several successful symbiotic relationships with a variety of species protecting them or making life easier. This is what being a seasoned professional looks like, at least to someone like myself who is still in the rowboat.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 01:43 PM | Permalink

Okay, just one. Who ever decided that "merge forms" would be something completely different than "concatenate forms." Think about it.
Merge Forms:
Form 1:
Name: Myname Namius
Address: One Address Way, Milwaukie, WI 02134
Phone: 555 555 1212
Form 2:
Name: Whos Yourdaddy
Address: Two Myaddress Way, Spaceship, TN 90210
Phone: 555 867 5309
Merged Form:
Myname Namius
Whos Yourdaddy
One Address Way, Milwaukie, WI 02134
Two Myaddress Way, Spaceship, TN 90210
555 555 1212
555 867 5309
In other words, the merged form is completely useless! What was the point? What this does is make us have a master form that includes every person, which anyone can edit, so that all info is pre-merged the way we want it. This is incredibly lame and should be replaced or appended with a merge option within SharePoint that concatenates. And a better word for concatenates is: .

I got a big laugh out of this one, too, which is a list of features to turn off when editing SharePoint via FrontPage. And check out the interface to do this! This isn't your grandmother's oldsmobile, thats for sure. Meaning: don't try this without double-checking your MCSE credentials first.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. I've started doing recipes again after practically never doing them my whole life. I grew up with a great book called "The Kid's Kitchen Takeover" which had recipes in it, but woe to those who followed them without having any fun along the way. However, I'm not finding these grownup recipes very rewarding. I'm still going to give them a try. For one thing, they aren't pragmatic about your time. Today I finally found ground pork at the store, and added thyme and garlic and other stuff, all to make a kind of sausage that would follow a specific recipe. While I was stirring, I thought "I could have just bought sausage." But jimmy dean on a bun does not sell magazines.

It could just be my patience is thin, I'm low on sleep and on a quest to find a less humorous brand of underwear, so I'm a little cranky as well. (Please send e-mail if you want to find out more, I can't bear to post about THAT one. Let's just say it involved a shout from a passing car. You can imagine the rest). Perhaps I should start drinking while I cook, it will make me more amenable to taking orders. (Does drinking while you program help the same way?)

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 05:02 PM | Permalink

For those of you who have never seen Owen with his eyes open, and there are quite a few of you, here are some pictures.

Definitely need to get a cell phone with a camera that's higher quality.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 11:20 PM | Permalink

Finally got around to posting these pictures. All recipes are from Food and Wine magazine, but their web site is so annoying I won't link to them.

The drink is called "Louisiana Limeade" - it's like a mojito except with Bourbon.

The entrée is scallops which have been fried in olive oil and coriander, then arranged in a citrus sauce with tarragon.

The dessert is strawberry shortcake, except with homemade biscuits with actual buttermilk, and fresh raspberries from my friend's farm.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 11:18 PM | Permalink

This has been a tough few days. The cause seems to be that a) I love a challenge, and b) I love to code, and c) I love having lots of open projects so they can all connect to each other and become better. In other words, I can get overextended, overcomplicate matters, and never really come to closure on things. In other words, I've become one of those cats that are difficult to herd. In other words, a programmer.

The cure, is to continue to work hard and with the highest amount of integrity possible. The way to increase integrity with my work (perhaps yours too) is a) care more about the work itself than what other people might think of you, and b) care more about the work itself than keeping your job. The other way of thinking about this is, if you're concerned about your paycheck, and the popularity contest, and the implicit connection between the two, you will operate from one of the lowest and self-serving spheres of integrity possible. (Obviously I've learned this by falling for this one myself, so don't think I'm holier than thou).

I'm reading QuickSilver, speaking of a challenge. It's due back at the library the end of the month. I have, um, 500 pages to go. I should probably just return it unfinished, but I was on the waiting list for a year to get the reservation.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 10:34 AM | Permalink

I'm sure I'm not the only person this happens to. You're coding along and you add a new "using" for something. In this case I had to add the thingy so I could get Server.MapPath. (I loove Server.MapPath). Anyway, you add the reference and then code your new thing you were trying to do. Compile. All of a sudden something which was perfectly working before starts to break. It says "ambiguous reference" on a previous declaration. Trouble is, you wrote so much code with your new thingy, you're not sure what it is.

Turns out the library folks are not too concerned with overlapping names. For example, a name called "Document" might be used in "using Server" as well as "using MyWidget." As soon as you add a reference to something that duplicates it, you get an ambiguous reference error. The fix is to be explicit and say MyWidget.Document when creating your objects, instead of just Document. However, the error itself is quite ambiguous!

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 04:15 PM | Permalink

Here are the two food-related links I clicked on today:
NY Food Blogger: http://www.sweetblogomine.com/
The Hacker's Diet: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/

Last week, late on Friday, a recruiter told me that a hiring manager for Enterprise Server came across my resume, and would like to start interviewing. I am amazed. First of all, my resume is not up to date. Most importantly, my background is in consumer products. I admit I don't really get the Enterprise space much. I agree with my dh, it sounds like a pyramid scheme (businesses selling to businesses so they can do their business). So the first question out of my mouth will be: why me? Why would Enterprise Server have a need for a consumer-focused, UI centric, technological solutions provider - slash - PM? I suppose that's for them to answer. Meanwhille, I put my arms out, one to the right, the other to the left, like an airplane, and say "Enterprise Server" in my best "Superman" voice. Something with a name like that should really fly.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 07:50 AM | Permalink

Hi everyone and thanks for reading my post yesterday on emerging technology, with tablets as an example. I'm really happy to get some comments, all by incredibly smart and thoughtful people. With 5 total comments, it's my all time high for any post. So I'm just tickled. (Okay one of the comments is mine, so count it at 4.)

The most important thing for me to say is a generic disclaimer. Here goes. Whatever my employment status, my weblog does not represent the views of anyone other than myself. It does not represent any company or organization.

Okay, with that out of the way, I'll add to the comment thread.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 01:57 PM | Permalink

I use mspaint all the time to debug. I also use powerpoint to debug. I do this all the time. Really. For example, today I'm looking for the filename for the device manager in windows. I ctrl alt delete and go to the task manager. If device manager is the only thing running, then it should show up. Trouble is there's gobs of windows and IIS and sql stuff in there too. So I ctrl alt printscreen to capture the list. Paste into paint and save. Launch powerpoint and with alt-i, alt-f, arrow down, and return, I can select the image to paste it in. Now, using amazing process of elimination technology, I can find the exe in question by "crossing out" candidate exes in the image. For powerpoint, crossing out means drawing a little line. It's pretty cute, actually.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 12:47 PM | Permalink

Tablet is a new technology and a new form factor to most people. As with anything emerging in a post Cluetrain world, we (bloggers) are having a conversation about the Tablet in order to sell ourselves on it. Incidentally, our readers might be sold on it as well. In a pre-Cluetrain world, we called this “Evangelism.” In fact, that word is still around in job titles, such as “Tablet Evangelist.” (This is probably due to the fact that “Tablet conversation starter” does not have the same ring.) As we use this conversation to sell ourselves this new technology, the term “sale” applies to longest possible window, beyond the financial transaction of purchasing the Tablet and on to the personal interaction we have with it as an owner. One can buy a Tablet and still not be sold on it. Over time, you can chart your happiness with the sale with time on the x axis and happiness on the y axis, it would go up and down for quite a while until you abandon it or use it steadily for tasks you are used to. Those ups and downs hopefully are documented in the conversation, much like haggling. It’s all part of the conversation, and the conversation ultimately is about design.

Playing devil’s advocate, I have to ask: if the Tablet is so great, why does it need evangelized at all? Why the Socratic line of inquiry, to prove the Tablet’s worth by virtue of not being able to refute the proposed statement? (This is known as arguing to the contrapositive. Well, known by me anyway.) The answer is the Tablet needs all the cheerleading it can get, because it’s evident at this point there will not be any iPod-like adoption of the technology.

(Pause for dramatic gasp from audience.)

Yes, this is this evident! For one thing, all early adopters who were going to be buying Tablets have already bought one, so that kindling has been burned. Also, all the cheerleading and product placement in the world have still not turned the laptop market into the Tablet market (the way the walkman market has turned into the iPod market. And the Tablet has had a lot of cheerleading.) Let’s just say the revolution isn’t coming, and if there’s an evolution for the Tablet it will ramp up so slow, we might as well evolve touch screen technology on the palms of our hands via DNA. Now that would be handy. Last but not least, consider the choice to repurpose the windows tablet OS to not be its own standalone product. That should tell us everything.

The above may or may not be an accurate snapshot of the Tablet space, but let’s argue for a moment that it is. Remember that I’m also using Tablets as an example of an emerging technology, and this can apply to other cases as well. The next point of inquiry is how did this stagnation and slowness happen for the Tablet. What did iPod do that Tablet did not? The real question is what challenges did Tablet confront that iPod did not have to. Yes, I’m giving Tablet an excuse for slow adoption. It tried to do too much. For that matter, so do Computers.

Let’s define lowercase “computer” as a box containing a computing-type processor. This includes cameras, cell phones, personal information managers, Xbox, and the like. Let’s also define uppercase “Computer” as a box which is sold as a Computer. This includes wintel boxes, linux boxes, macs, laptops, and Tablets. Lowercase computers are primarily widgets for a specific purpose. This gives the designers a unique advantage. The markets are turning toward widgets and away from Computers as the place to store and do everything. In the end, uppercase Computers will only be around in order to fulfill the need for things that their colossal form factor supports: word processing, programming, media authoring. For that kind of long-attention-span type stuff, it’s great to have a behemoth on your desk with two monitors, a keyboard and a printer. Nothing beats it. The fact that the Tablet is a Computer has kept it in a murky success space. Consider in contrast:

iPod Slam-dunks:
* Design
* Portablility
* Functionality
* Easy elevator ride description

iPod designers never had to address:
* A million and one applications
* Short burst use as well as long attention span use
* Screen brightness, handwriting recognition, monitor rotation, shrimpy keyboard, embedded mouse control
* Having to still keep every single feature of a Computer, and every single use case.

I hear a lot of people incensed about why the Tablet has not taken off. The conversation continues, usually in the form of a question. Can you do this with a Computer? Can you do THIS with a Computer? And finally: Why is the Tablet not enormously successful at the moment? My thinking is we should stop asking these Socratic questions and start thinking about where computing is going. Little-c for computing. We should start thinking about widgets, and how to integrate them, thus absolving the need for a Computer On Which Everyone Does Everything* And, in case you were wondering, that would be widget with a lowercase w.

*COWEDE is pronounced "cow-weed"

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I hate to bring this up, but I had to laugh today at the elevators, because someone wrote a new caption on top of the women's empowerment conference posters I wrote about earlier. The caption was "Need sun?" This was only funny because the woman they chose to put on the poster was markedly ghost white even by microsoft standards. It's really cruel for me to mention this because I myself am ghost white, and am probably just as empowered (or in need of empowerment) as the woman on the poster. Really, she doesn't need to be teased any more than I do. Okay, she probably deserves it far less.

Then, right beneath the new caption, someone wrote "Quit." Har har, the fast way to a suntan. Fast way to drop that "Microsoft Ten" too (that's those 10 pounds you can blame Bill Gates on).

Then, coming back up, something definitley not funny was saying hi to someone who used to be a client of mine and have him not recognize me at all. Everyone has their heads down in some webcast I wasn't informed about. That serves me for making fun of someone.

Anyway, instead of being out of the loop, I'm going to become the loop. Granted I don't know what that means. Definitely there will be some posters.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 01:27 PM | Permalink

Hi Everyone. I know it's been ages. I had a terrific week at work, many items deployed, and thus got a break from the slave driver (me) to take the 3 day weeked I had coming. I'm not at work today, so no droning on and on about MS like usual (darn). Here's what else is happening, though:

iron composer: see link in my previous entry. this looks completely hilarious, and I'm racking my brain on who to nominate for TBD contestants on July 27. Possibly Jimm McIver?
anniversary dinner: for a complete shock, me and my dh are going to actually attempt to cook. From recipes and everything! This is happening tonight. On the menu is a) kentucky mojitos b) pan crusted sea scallops c) biscuits with berries and ice cream. It's our 7th anniversary, which means we've now been married/together longer than we have been dating/together, a real milestone.
trader joes: let me tell you, you can go in there with the best of intentions, but somehow my willpower is zero going in that place. I always come out with something I would never touch in a regular grocery store. Like macadamia nut caramel popcorn, which I'm eating right now and making quite a mess thank you.
thank you notes: we did all of them in one batch. what this means is anyone sending a gift after last week or so won't get a note until xmas probably. I was quite old and gray before I realized not all families are as compulsive about these notes as mine was, anyway.
car: our family is sans car again. We are saving up for a new one. The trick is we want the new one to be non-crappy. So this means quite a hill of cash. Meanwhille, thanks to Volt for letting temps get bus passes, after MS cancelled the program for temps. The bus is now our car. Sigh. I have to sign up for flexcar before we have some sort of emergency.
more about food: does anyone notice that every social event revolves around food? it's very hard for someone, um, "discipline challenged" to manage. If only they made food blinders. Sunglasses that made the visual input of the buffet blocked out with a large black rectangle. We don't need to see it!

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 12:53 PM | Permalink

IRON COMPOSER
A Live Real-Time 60 Minute Songwriting Competition, Drinking Game, and Aural Obstacle Course
hosted/performed/interloped by Seattle School (www.seattleschool.net)
Featuring 2 competing celebrity Seattle-area composers each night from the world of rock, pop and theater
and a celebrity panel of Judges
July 13, 20 and 27th (Tuesdays)
Doors open at 8pm - show starts at 8:30pm with a 2 song opening act each night
@ the Lower Level cabaret space at the Capital Hill Arts Center
1621 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
Admission: $5

Composers and Judges for the opening night on July 13th are:

COMPETITORS: Eddie Spaghetti of The Supersuckers VS. Joe Reineke of Alien Crime Syndicate
JUDGES:
The Stranger theater editor / playwright David Schmader
The Stranger music editor Jennifer Maerz
former Seattle City Council member Judy Nicastro
TWO SONG OPENING ACT: Subpoenaed Lemur

Live - from the CHAC Songwriting Stadium on Capital Hill - Seattle School hosts the first ever IRON COMPOSER competition!! Hosted by Chairman Min (Seattle School founder Mike Min), IRON COMPOSER is three public bouts (July 13th, 20th and 27th) of live-action composing, pitting local songwriting lumanaries against each other in a battle royale. The battle takes place in real-time, with the audience watching, while the composers must jump through aural obstacles laid in their songwriting path by Seattle School.

The "secret ingredient" used each night will be a person randomly chosen from the audience. Information culled from a 5 minute interview with that audience member about his or her present state of affairs or his or her past will be material from which the composers can draw musical and lyrical inspiration for their song submission. The final song will be performed by the composer and a house band provided by Seattle School.

Each IRON COMPOSER will have their musical kitchens equipped with 1) one guitar 2) one piano 3) paper and pencil and 4) one Sous Chef Line Musician. The Sous Chef will relay all information to the band on chords, melodies, back-up vocals, and horn lines, and will conduct rehearsals with the band live on stage. The Composers may only communicate with the band via the Sous Chef. Composers only get direct access to the band during their final performance.

HOWEVER: it's not that easy! the 45 competition is divided up into 5 nine-minute segments. Each segment will contain a Mystery Turmoil, performed by The Interlopers (Korby Sears and Ben Houge) to distract the composers from their work. As added molases, each composer must drink a shot of liquor at the beginning of the show and the beginning of each round, consuming 5 shots in the course of 45 minutes. THEN - they perform their composition.

SEE - the sausage making process in action!!
WITNESS - art crassly combined with cutthroat competition - where it belongs!!
THRILL - as one winner stands above the rest and takes home the Grand Prize!!

Line-ups for the 20th and 27th are the following:

JULY 20th - COMPETITORS: TBA VS. TBA
JUDGES: Three Imaginary Girls (www.threeimaginarygirls.com)
*Dana Weissman of Three Imaginary GIrls
*Liz Riley of Three Imaginary GIrls
*Char Davidson of Three Imaginary GIrls
OPENING TWO SONG ACT: The Von Trapp Family Singers

JULY 27th - COMPETITORS: Director / Composer John Kaufman (linger, Starball, Line One) VS. Paul Jensen of Dudley Manlove Quartet, Batum Schrag and Sexy American Girlfriend
JUDGES:
* Troy Mink as Carlotta Sue Phillpott
*Marcus Wolland as Orson Welles
* Cheryl Serio as Jennifer Tilly
OPENING TWO SONG ACT: The Big O Experience

For more information, go to: www.seattleschool.net or call Korby Sears at 206-335-3500.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 12:37 PM | Permalink

New posters went up yesterday. Perhaps this will temper the visual onslaught of the "who's your buddy" posters of the previous campaign. (That campaign apparently was for an ISV partner program, but also served as proof that an ad which tells you nothing (in the guise of "peaking curiosity") will in fact be ineffective, no matter how artistic you might feel making it). The new campaign is for some sort of women's empowerment thing, for MS women employees, two days in September to realize your potential.

I'm just incredibly puzzled how this got to the top of the priority stack. Here's why:
* Having a blue badge at MS is an incredible achievement, and only those already empowered will be in that group.
* If you're a woman, this is even more of an achievement, so you're not only preaching to the choir, you're preaching to the preachers.
* What women around the microsoft space need empowering at the moment. Need I say contingent staff? New mothers? People considering a job move? People considering leaving on a retreat to muster resources? People sensitive to work life balance? Folks overwrought with guilt at being or not being stay at home moms or dads? People suffering from unintended repercussions of taking "leave" (meaning vacation time you were due anyway)? People with incubation or venture-capital ideas but no time or funds to pursue? The whole campaign begs the question of what this conference was designed to do and why.

Perhaps I'm just crabby because I can't get doc.Load to work. You guessed it, it's some sort of security problem with accessing a local file. Security is a great gaping void in my knowledge set, so I may spend a fruitless day or two on this. By the way, all "A" works (local client app), but app "B" which also uses doc.Load barfs. It's ASP. Here's the message of doom:
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path "C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\orgwebservice\cdcatalog.xml" is denied.
My next tactic will be declaring a machine name and trying to see if somehow I can declare explicit permissions for ASP to access my machine. Sigh.

A smashing week otherwise, though, all the underlying feature set done and deployed, people returning my calls, contacts made, general "back in the saddle" type feeling. I'm talking to a potential telecoach today who works with David Allen to see if I can keep on a roll.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 08:54 AM | Permalink

Oh, hooray for Scoble finding the right people for me. That's right, this company doesn't know it, but my calendar app could be a kingmaker for this technology. How, you might ask?

Well, you might have to wait for the movie, but in short: The key to integrating your calendar with the rest of the world is data entry at point of discovery. Barcodes are a great solution for that.

Posted by Elizabeth Grigg at 11:29 AM | Permalink