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February 28, 2003

2/28/2003 Introducing Kieran Gregory Johnston


Oh... Okay, so its not 3/3/3....

So my son, Kieran Gregory was born today at 8:13am weighing in at a powerful 10 lbs 10.25 oz and measuring 20.5 inches.

Thank goodness my in-laws arrived yesterday to watch Maura, because our great friends & babysitter backups gave birth to their son, Evan Abraham, this morning at 10:50am: 8 lbs 9.5 oz, & 20 inches!

Here are some pictures:

Posted by KnipSter at 02:20 PM | Comments (8)

February 26, 2003

3/3/3

Maura is scheduled to become a big sister on Monday. I'm nervous, excited, proud and terrified all at the same time. The grandparents will begin converging tomorrow. They are great... I couldn't imagine this process without their help. Thank you.


PS. Today is my Mom's Birthday! I love you.

Posted by KnipSter at 09:59 PM | Comments (7)

February 23, 2003

I swear I didn't make this up...


I am
p

Everyone loves pi
_

what number are you?

this quiz by orsa

Posted by KnipSter at 01:53 PM | Comments (2)

February 21, 2003

DRM, My brother, and the rest...

So my brother has been corresponding with the newsmakers lately, not only has he engaged in the recent 12-year old can kill Hollywood debate, but had his picture on the Business Section Front Page of a local newspaper.

We grew up in a very technical household, full of electronics and computers, I went the way of computers, and he the way of communications, specifically Video production.

Our professions and interests collide at the point of DRM, the philosophy of information freedom, and technologies ability to protect information. Here's some thoughts.

My employer is a redistributor of financial information to institutional investors (Money managers, Mutual Funds, etc...). My role often involves designing technical solutions to providing integrated access to disparate data sources to these client on our proprietary platform.

the point: I feed my family in part by controlling access to information. Of course, I feel I am controlling access to the value that I provide, which is a better organization of already (mostly) publically available data.

So I'm chatting (IMing) with my brother and point out that I believe that a broadcast approach to media (Video) is incompatible with a limited or controlled audience. Its BROADCAST!

If the "movie industry" or the "music industry" wants to control who gets what, then they have to pay to individually ship data to people. This is technically and socially possible. Here's a solution: Using a public key infrastructure, encrypt the content with a person's PUBLIC Key which requires decryption with a PRIVATE key that an individual would be unwilling to share (for example, the key to their checking account).

The challenge for the movie industry here is, they would need to manage individual copies/streams/encryptions of the same data for each "viewer" that wanted to purchase it. This means more linearly scaling bandwidth/storage/management expense. This is likely to be cost prohibitive and of course there's that pesky last mile problem.

These industries seem to want the benefits of the digital age without the new approach that it brings (demands?).

Posted by KnipSter at 02:10 PM | Comments (1)

February 17, 2003

Still Snowing...

Little HelperHoly Cow!

The porch is almost full. I went outside to shovel around the car. I began running out of room to throw the snow. Thank goodness it is fairly light snow (roughly a medium powder for you skiers). Otherwise I think it would have been coronary time.

The new neighbors peeked out to ask about borrowing a shovel, and mentioned they saw Lori head to the doctor's this morning, they were glad to hear that it wasn't labor! (knock on wood).

Anyway we have some pictures and videos, we'll upload.. Gimme a couple of minutes they'll be here.

Posted by KnipSter at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)

Still snowing...

Snow Coating Tree
I'm too lazy to take picture like my brother. But let me assure you that slightly farther north is as bad. I can't believe I let Lori leave in this "blizzard" (weather.com's word, not mine). But I unparked and reparked the Explorer in the snow bank (parallel parking in 16" of snow is a challenge). I didn't even whack another car! My neighbors should be thrilled.

Here's some pictures

Posted by KnipSter at 10:34 AM | Comments (1)

February 16, 2003

Let it Snow...

So the blizzard is on its way... As I came upstairs tonight (WiFi reaches the bedroom), a thin sheet of snow has settled on the cars outside. The news is calling for worst snow in 7 years for the area. Ironically, I been here just over 7 years, and I vividly remember the storm to which they refer. The cars were so covered with snow, and the roads were beyond empty. I remember walking down the middle of some streets in amazement. The serenity of 5am occurring at noon. Perhaps I'll take a couple of pictures in the morning.

I'll bet the paper deliverers are really unhappy.

Posted by KnipSter at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2003

Information Age vs FedEx (Ignorance was bliss)

Yesterday we were awaiting a package from Minimed/Medtronic with supplies for Lori's insulin pump. As the watched pot never boils, so does the tracked package never arrive. Tracking the package we watched it sit at the local FedEx delivery station for hours before supposedly going out for delivery (making the trip to our home in 9 minutes [not possible]) and being classified as Customer not home!

The greatest part of internet consumerism is not convenience, its avoiding stupid people...

Frankly, its less convenient to order stuff and wait for it to be "shipped." Its more difficult to return products. Its more risky to give out personal information.

These are all outweighted by the benefit of not having to talk to mal-incented salespeople at the local Circuit City/Comp USA/Appliance store. These so-called experts are more interested in selling you the highest commissioned items (surplus that noone wants) rather than meeting your needs.

Or the benefit of being able to check on the status of an flight without speaking to a customer representative.

Today's consumer values good customer service, but our retailers and service providers can't afford it. Today's consumer doesn't want to pay for good customer service, we expect it from our proprietors. We have so many choices for how we purchase goods and services, we will choose the least p. i. t. a. (pain in the...) apprach to acquiring them.

Real Estate Agents are going through a similar situation. So called "buyers brokers" put technology in the way of informed consumers by denying them full access to an already sophiscated information system (MLS) in an attempt to get them to call.

The incentives are already set up for agents to be paid by Sellers, in fact as I potential Seller I have no problem paying a reasonable fee for someone to help me prepare my home, provide me information and serve as an agent during negotiations. But as a potential buyer, I want information available for me to digest, let me evaluate it on my time.

*argh* its so close to goodness, why doesn't someone fix it?

Posted by KnipSter at 09:45 AM | Comments (2)

February 10, 2003

Strong vs Weak typing

In an Artima Interview, Python creator, Guido va Rossum discusses strong vs weak typing from a weak-typist perspective [via Slashdot]. I've never used Python, but success with PERL at work gives me thought that there may be something to Programmer Productivity with weak-typed languages.

In fact, many of the so-called Scripting Languages, even VB (gasp!) get a bum rap, not because of the language, but because of poor programmers to whom the language is more accessible than ASM, C/C++. While there are some tasks that need tight code, how often do today's programmers drop to ASM for such things? Its the overall algorythmic design that matters most.

Posted by KnipSter at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)

Busted

So I "outed" myself to a coworker (whose blog I've been discretely reading). I've been "lurking" reading people's "blogs" and only occasionally writing here. But if I'm going to be linked to, then I at least better have something new written here.

Both my in-laws and parents were in town this weekend, definitely a packed house. And this weekend I came into the office to remove my radio (a nice Bose Wave Radio) since I don't want it to get legs and leave. Of course I only had to write a simple description for the gentlemen at the front desk, but I walked out with it.

Blah Blah Blah... My mind is consumed with trying to find a house without any of the hassle. *argh*

Posted by KnipSter at 09:15 AM | Comments (1)

February 02, 2003

Distributed Bookmarks

I'm sure I'm not the only geek who uses more than one computer in a day. In fact, I'm sure I'm not the only geek to use more than one computer at a time. I've been using the Yahoo! Companion to centrally store my bookmarks, but Yahoo! is starting to annoy me (popups and huge ads). MyWay is getting close, but their Speedbar doesn't yet have bookmark integration. Does anyone have a good centralized bookmark manager?

The features I'd really like are:

Posted by KnipSter at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

Serenity Now

My father introduced me to the calmness of dawn. I recall a game my father and I played when I was little. If I could wake him up on Saturday morning without waking my mother (funny, she never woke up), he would take me to one of the local diners for breakfast. This was generally real early in the morning, before the streets were crowded.


I fondly remember driving to Sugarbush on Saturday mornings with friends while I was in high school. Getting up early to be the first up the lifts was hard, but the roads were empty, the stores were still closed, the only signs of activity were Dunkin Donuts, Gas Stations, and small resteraunts.

In college, early Saturday & Sunday mornings were the time for freerolls (practice runs for Carnegie Mellon's high-tech "buggy" races called Sweepstakes). We'd all be up before dawn, sweeping the road, preparing the buggies, and stretching our limbs.

Even today, when I manage to pull myself out of bed early, I'm reminded of those times. The sun is about to rise, sometimes I'll hear birds chirping and the world (or at least my little part of it) is asleep.

One of these days, I'll realize that its worth it to trade inane night-time television for the serenity of dawn.

Posted by KnipSter at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2003

New Children, Pregnant Wives, & Life

So even with work being an ever interesting place of late, my family life has been more so. Lori, of course, is pregnant with BabyToo and has an ever earlier due date.

Due Date
I'm at a lost on this one. With an original due date of approx. March 20, I figured that any time in March would be reasonable, and particularly early since Maura was a calendar month early. Of course, the calculation of this due date is date of conception and duration of gestation. In our case, I really believe that the possible error in our conception date is limited to 5 days.

But at our 20-week ultrasound, the doctor mentions that the head measurements really indicate a 22-week fetus. He backs this up with a strong and generally accepted correlation at this stage of development.

Now Lori is a Type-I Diabetic, and was a large new born herself, so a big baby is expected, but her Blood Sugar control is excellent. At Lori's last ultrasound, we get an estimated Fetal Weight of 8 lbs, at this point, they are preparing to test fetal lung development and deliver via caesarian. This could be before March 1.

My only conclusion is that Lori is the fetal Turbo Cooker.

I'm sure she doesn't mind a 30-week gestation, and I don't mind either. But it does blow my mind sometime.

Pregnant Wives
I'm a fortunate soul to have friends I work with and coworkers with whom I am friends. Similar backgrounds and experiences are shared, but we generally find ourselves in slightly differents stages of our lives. Of course its not a race, but the single, pre-engaged, engaged, married, parenthood, multiple kids path seems like a train we find ourselves on.

With this child, 2 coworkers are having their 3rd child, 1 coworker is having his 2nd and 2 more are having their first. We are particularly close with 3 of these couples and I wonder how Lori's ever changing due date is effecting them, particularly since 2 of them are also in their 3rd trimesters and ready for it to be over.

Of course, all of the pregnant wives have good supportive husbands, but when the wives want it over, you can be sure the husbands do as well.

Life
As a little kid, I couldn't wait to grow up and know all the answers. I figured it would make life so much easier, I'd know what to do, and be big enough to do it all. As the years go by, life seems to lose so much of that black and white, and grey begins to crop up all over (maybe thats what happens with hair!). I learn that I don't even know the questions, that everything is a balance, and that it isn't easy or straightforward.

Don't get me wrong, I have a great life, wonderful family, excellent friends, great job, plenty to learn. Its so easy to forget to step back and appreciate it all when I keep trying to move "forward."

I've been stressed out a lot recently. The general theme is the responsibility for others that I feel and wanting to take that role seriously. Perhaps this is warped. Certainly I have a responsibility to others (family, friends and coworkers), but perhaps my responsibility for others is limited to a my family, and shared with my wife. It may be arrogant of me to presume to take responsibility for the lives of my friends and coworkers: that's their privilege. So long as I am a honest, decent human being and treat people with respect, I am meeting my responsibility to them.

Being stressed about more than that is my problem. Maybe I should just get over it.

Posted by KnipSter at 10:18 AM | Comments (1)