Slightly Off KIlter

Normal is overrated

  • Thirty Years Ago This Month

    Thirty years ago this month (Sept 1984), we packed everything into a 24-ft U-Haul truck with a VW camper minibus on a tow bar, and drove across the country from Fort Washington, Maryland, to Walnut Creek, California (2830 miles). The original plan was to rent a house (owned by a friend who was moving to… Continue reading

  • In Mavericks, iTunes plays only audio, gray screen, no video

    I recently upgraded our Mac Mini to Mac OS X 10.9 (aka Mavericks). This Mac Mini is connected to our television screen; we use it primarily for movies and tv shows played via Amazon or iTunes. Imagine my surprise when I tried to play a purchased tv series episode and saw this: Continue reading

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  • My Brain on EEG

    I'm a Science Geek. I've loved Science, of all kinds, for as long as I can remember. I majored in Science from High School on and got my University degree in Microbiology (although I work with computers). In College, I also discovered Psychology and participated in as many Psych labs as I could, whether for… Continue reading

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  • Aim for the Gold

    Archery is the only sport I've ever loved. I took fencing, bowling, riflery, and pistol classes in college Phys Ed and I enjoyed them all, but archery was by far my favorite. I've loved it since I first tried it, in 6th grade. I was on the Archery Team for four years in college. But,… Continue reading

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  • The Price of a Cup

    — Or A Tempest in a Coffee Cup There's a sign at Starbucks that says "Love your beverage or let us know. We'll always make it right." I think we can agree that arguing with a customer doesn't make things right; it makes things wrong (and annoying). I like Coffee Frappuccinos. I like them a… Continue reading

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  • How Not to Handle Meeting Attendees

    We went to a meeting last night. We've been to many meetings, at many venues, throughout the SF Bay Area over the past 10 years but this one was … different. The security for the venue was both overdone and seemingly naive at the same time. Venue: Silicon Valley tech company. "Training room". Sign in… Continue reading

  • Challenges

    I had an interview two days ago… One of the questions stumped me. The manager asked "Tell me about some challenges you've faced." Now, I know from reading Ask A Manager (AAM) that the subtext is "work challenges that can be related to the position we're talking about." So, even if I broke my toe… Continue reading

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  • “Fun” with front-line tech support

    On April 14, I sent a bug report to ted.com because a video I watched claimed to have "subtitles in 7 languages". But I could find no way — no button to click — to get subtitles in any language. I could only locate the (supposedly "interactive") transcript, on a separate page. Back and forth… Continue reading

  • Why Most Unit Testing is a Waste

    I just finished reading "Why Most Unit Testing is a Waste", a paper (PDF) by James O Coplien. I spent several years working as a "Quality Lead" in two companies that were writing Operating System code in C++. Unit Testing was "in" at the time (and the engineers would write their own tests and that… Continue reading

  • Why Most Unit Testing is a Waste

    I just finished reading “Why Most Unit Testing is a Waste”, a paper (PDF) by James O Coplien. I spent several years working as a “Quality Lead” in two companies that were writing Operating System code in C++. Unit Testing was “in” at the time (and the engineers would write their own tests and that… Continue reading