Heady Progress on Passwords Front

In just one major bored morning, I made huge progress with the passwords store component. You can now enter notes, the content will be filtered out and strong formatting will be stripped from regular view. Editing a note works, as does showing the list and the entry.

The piece missing now is the cookie for the passphrase storage. There I need to add the page that requests the passphrase, the one that allows you to create the passphrase, and the session cookie that will store the passphrase, encrypted using the master passphrase and the day (so that cookies expire every day).

Back (Briefly)

So, my life in Hawaii is actually quite close to what I wanted it to be, but someone thought I am a good CTO and invited me for an interview back to the Bay Area. Cool company, lots of problems in the product but nothing a good team couldn’t fix – and the money to do it, all of it.

I am flying out tomorrow morning, returning on Wednesday. Of course, Friday will see me flying out again – to Honolulu, to get a complete check-up at the Kaiser clinic after my doctor here is afraid I might have had angina, precursors to a heart attack.

Daughter of Fortune (I. Allende)

There is always something magical about South-American writers. They seem not to have forgotten how to write a novel – that it takes a story, then some chuzpa telling it, and a pinch of mystique in the presentation. All those things together make a compelling world in which you can get lost no matter where your physical self is.

The young Marquez had the gift, as the gigantic Isabel Allende. When you read their stories, they sound a lot alike: full of characters that are always described with humor in the mind; redolent with thoughtful and thoroughly researched descriptions of worlds the author does not know; filled with tension that finds its release on time, and slowdowns that never last too long.

One Week in Hilo

{moszoomimglink:Hilo side}A week at HauOli Mau and there is barely any visible change. Granted, I have spent a lot of time with my friends D and J, who came to visit over the long weekend, but I was hoping for more progress. Well, stay tuned!

One Way

Et in Arcadia ego. How odd it was to buy a one-way ticket to Hilo, how odd it is to sit at the Starbucks and not have to check email or anything else.

The morning was gorgeous, as if to make up for the short night. The plane was crowded, and getting out took forever, especially since this time around I had to check-in luggage – how else was I going to get the cherry jam to Paul and Charlie???

San Francisco to Woodside and Back

My friend Stephen and I decided to spend the Friday zipping down the peninsula, scorning the more common Marin ride. S. was about to embark on a week-long trip to the Caribbean and needed a boost of workout before languishing lazily at the pool, checking out the Caribbean belles.

We met at Peet’s on Market (which meant I had to log my sorry butt over the hills of San Francisco) and went from there. I immediately nixed the route over Great Highway, since the day was one of those blustery winter days San Francisco’s summer is so famous for.

Comments by jellomizer@slashdot

Great but now can we learn from our past mistakes of the 1990’s?
Mistake 1: Thinking IT is on top of the food chain. No we are not IT is on the bottom of the food chain we need to service everyone. You may get paid more then the other guy and you may be more skilled but who ever you are doing work for is your boss.

Mistake 2: Not being professional. You should not stand out as the IT Guy because everyone else is wearing business casual and you are in tee-shirt and jeans. It is unfair and wrong but it is the way it is you need to dress to fit in. Otherwise you make people uncomfortable if they are uncomfortable your job can be at risk.

Mark Twain said…

A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity.

Autonomous Surveillance Camera

An interesting project for the house in Hawaii – something totally exciting because it’s easy to use, yet very marketable. Something I would need myself, and something I absolutely know how to build. It’s the perfect project for the time after I quit, hopefully tomorrow.

My frustration with surveillance of my place in Ninole is growing. I never have the slightest idea in what state the house is, and it’s something I’d really like to know. The problem is that I have no power here, not Internet connection outside of Verizon Wireless, so it’s not easy to get a camera installed.

Open Source Phone Network

Granted, this is not originally my idea, but I cannot find where I read about it, so please get in touch with me if you know the source.

My frustration with mobile phone networks is growing. My own provider does a few nasty things:

• Voice mail setup is idiotic: you have to enter your password even if the call dropped and you get in again; you have to listen through the introductory message even though you know the menu options
• Contracts are bizarre: if you like the two year option, you’ll be happy, but why?
• Surcharges are unreasonable: come on, I get 5000 free minutes, but you charge me per SMS? How stupid do you think I am?
• Features are crippled: how come my phone can play my MP3 all day long, but I have to use your (expensive) MP3 for ring tones?

Of course, the answer to all these deficiencies is that it’s a way for the carriers to make more money. they compete on the base price, and jack up the charges for anything they consider non-standard.