Monday, October 30, 2006

The Astronomy of Halloween

I just discovered that tomorrow is one of four "cross-quarter" days on the solar calendar. Read more at this link, The Astronomy of Halloween


Halloween means more than just a day for costumes and candy corn. It's the halfway point between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice, the last of four "cross-quarter" days on the solar calendar.

Friday, October 13, 2006

I forgot why I forget ...

While browsing SlashDot, I found this quote from Steven Wright
"Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time."

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Motley Fool's CAPS

I tried the web site mention in this link, Motley Fool's CAPS software last night.

It did not take long to create my account on the site http://caps.fool.com/. I have been following a few different stocks (each pays a quarterly dividend) for several months.

I entered those stocks along with my best guess as to how they will perform for the next few weeks. I checked back today after the market closed to see that my net worth had increased today.

Friday, October 06, 2006

15 best practices for pureXML performance in DB2 9

Here is a new document written by Matthias Nicola about XML performance using IBM's DB2 version 9.

DB2 9 introduces pureXML support, which means that XML data is stored and queried in its inherent hierarchical format. To query XML data, DB2 offers two languages, SQL/XML and XQuery. Additionally, DB2 9 has sophisticated XML indexing capabilities and support for XML Schema validation. While most existing performance guidelines for DB2 also apply to XML data, this article provides additional XML-specific performance tips.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Borrowed from my Google home page ...

The problem with political jokes is they get elected.
- Henry Cate VII

Saturday, September 30, 2006

MoPhos

Check out this link to learn more about modern lifestyle in Phoenix, AZ. Modern Phoenix is a neighborhood network featuring information and photos of art and architecture in the Valley of the Sun.

Tips for keeping Maven projects portable

A recent posting on the DevX.com site asks " How portable is your Java project? How many modifications must be made to a build environment in order to produce a successful artifact?"

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Word order ...

I was listening to an American football game a few days ago. One of the announcers made some comment about " ... an awful lot of players ... ". This made me wonder what would happen if he had talked about " ... a lot of awful players ... " instead.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Bucky's Bean Bag

The last two times I visited Prescott, I bought a bag of Whiskey Row coffee beans from Bucky's Bean Bag. This shop is located on fabled Whiskey Row. My co-workers and I enjoyed the coffee we made from the whole beans.

Arizona Coffee information

While stumbling around the Internet the other day, I found this interesting site about coffee. I live in Phoenix and I like good coffee. I hope to make good use of the information that Chris and others provide.

Link to Arizona Coffee

Word order ...

Many months ago after listening to a radio commercial for a local tire company, I began to ponder the difference between

  • a wide variety of tires

  • a variety of wide tires

Monday, September 18, 2006

Willie got busted again ...

According to a story on MSNBC, Willie Nelson and four others were issued misdemeanor citations for possession of narcotic mushrooms and marijuana.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Reference site for online documentation

I found this link in today's email from SD Times.

Friday, September 08, 2006

A recent edition of The NewOrleans.Com - WEEKLY FOODFEST LETTER by Tom Fitzmorris contained these WORDS TO EAT BY:

"Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus."--Peter Ustinov.

Coffee Fool site

Another site for the coffee fools of the world

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Programming Quotations

Ideas to ponder ... Link to Programming Quotations

Dark Reading - IBM Fights Crime in Canada - Security News Analysis

Link to Dark Reading - IBM Fights Crime in Canada - Security News Analysis

SEPTEMBER 6, 2006 When it comes to data classification and search, IBM has adopted a "grow your own" stance via Java-based development tools called the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA). But a project in the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia could yield something more generally useable.


IBM is working with a local company called ADM Solutions (no Website), Cape Breton University, and the Cape Breton Regional Police Services, all of Sydney, Nova Scotia, to create a system that stores, classifies, and searches police crime data.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Naked Truth from a Motley Fool email message

Three-fourths of workers age 55 to 64 have less than $56,000 saved for retirement.