Author: Tony

Posted on

A forum

The discussion forum that I started working on about a month ago is finally ready for a little testing. I haven’t put a link for it under navigation yet, but you can get to it by going to http://tonyandpaige.com/forum/.

It should be pretty simple to use. You don’t have to sign up, or enter a password to get in. Just click on a topic to view the posts or use the form to start a new topic. Once I’m sure that the system works pretty well, I’ll replace the current comments system with this forum.

In case you’re wondering why it’s so simple, it was inspired by the forums at . Joel is a really smart guy with some great ideas about running a small business and writing good code. This forum is based on the ideas in his article .

Try it out, and let me know if it breaks…

Posted on

Software Sharecroppers

There was an interesting article posted the other day on Slashdot comparing programmers to sharecroppers. Here’s a quote:

If you’re developing software for … any platform that is owned and operated by a company. They own the ground you’re building on, and if they decide they don’t like you, or they can do something better with the ground, you’re toast. They can ship their own product and give it away till you go bust, then start charging for it; and use secret APIs you can’t see; and they can break the published APIs you use.

The full article is available here. This is just one more reason to avoid proprietary software.

Posted on

62 Words

I just got 3 hours of college credit for typing 62 words on a computer. How is that possible, you ask? Simple, I typed those 62 words in one minute… Texas A&M – Commerce gives credit for the keyboarding class to anyone who types over 35 wpm and pays them $25.

Posted on

Tech Vocabulary

Do you really know what all the latest technology buzz words mean? AMD has put a quiz where you can test your knowledge. They call it the Technology Terminology and Complexity Test.

All of these seemed pretty easy to me, but that’s probably because I read about and use words like these every day. Let me know how you do.

Posted on

Happy 4th

It’s kinda funny, my last post was about the great lack of vacation time in the US and now I’ve got a week off from work.

Everyone thinks that you get tons of vacation time when you work for a school district, and they’re half right. There are several weeks during the year that I don’t work. The trouble is I don’t get paid for those weeks either. As far as paid time off is concerned, I get just about as many days as anyone else.

Oh well, at this point I’ll take what I can get. I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July. I know we did. It seemed like three straight days of cooking out and fireworks. Paige was nice enough to buy me a new charcoal grill a few days ago, so the cook outs will continue.

Posted on

What’s a vacation?

There’s an interesting article at ABC News titled Vacation Deprivation about average vacation times in the US compared to the rest of the world. Here’s a nice quote:

If it feels like you’re stuck behind your desk on a sunny summer day while the rest of the world is on vacation, that’s because you are and it is.

I’m using all of my vacation days this summer to attend classes, so I can relate to this.

Posted on

Stop Telemarketers

Maybe we’ll finally be able to eat a meal in peace. I swear some idiot calls trying to sell us something during lunch and dinner every day.

You can now sign up for the National “Do Not Call” List online. Here’s the address – http://www.donotcall.gov/.

Of course 90% of the time I’m on the Internet so I don’t know if anyone’s calling or not, but for the other 10% of the time, maybe the phone won’t ring quite as often.

Posted on

Busy, busy

Summer is flying by. June is almost over. That means I’ll be graduating in about 5 months. Woohoo!

It seems I’ve been to busy to update the site for a while. I’m working hard on a couple of programs right now. Hopefully by the time I graduate I’ll be able to start selling some of my software. We’ll see.

In other news, Apple announced some new computers yesterday. The PowerMac G5. These are a lot faster than the older PowerMacs, but unfortunately they’re still too expensive for regular people to afford.

I’m going to try to get some screenshots of my new programs here soon, and maybe a little info about my upcoming software business…

Posted on

7 Years

Paige and I have been married seven years today. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long really. It kinda seems like we just met, but at the same time I feel like we’ve known each other forever.