Another Christmas under our belts, with a 4-6 inch snowstorm predicted for tonight into tomorrow morning.<\/p>
\nOn the way to the festivities yesterday, my car had another exhaust system failure, so my son and I left it at the shop last night. Bad month for cars, two of my friends had major work done as well.
\nIt’s been great to have a 3-day weekend, giving me a chance to continue to clean up the stacks of paper that grow faster than I can get rid of them.
\nAlso, I was invited to speak at the next .NET Code Camp in Waltham this March, so have been using this “quiet time” to think about possible topic areas. I’d like to present something practical that people could use right away without having to invest cycles in learning fancy techniques or new software.
\nI’d call it “Making Do”, as in the old Yankee adage:
\n– Use it up
\n– Wear it out
\n– Make do
\n– Do without
\nMeanwhile, the fabulous grands – and, as it turns out, my son – are on vacation this week. They are looking forward to their annual hotel sleepover with my DIL’s parents, and the boys have started lobbying for their “turns” for overnights at my house, maybe next weekend.
\nMy son was smart this year, he and his wife put the lid on Christmas spending and the corollary clutter of new toys and electronic gadgets.
\nChristmas dinner was nice and I’m sure everyone is glad it’s over. There was a lot of conversation about upcoming vacations in Florida: at least 3 families will be away for all or part of the winter, and another couple are talking about looking for a condo down there.
\nAmong my friends, though, it’s same-old, except for higher heating bills and more job uncertainty.
\nI’ve been hunting for a laptop bargain on eBay and netmarket and, with unexpected car repairs in the immediate future, am just as glad that I haven’t found one.
\nThe disabled car also puts the kibosh on my yearly resolution to attend First Night in Boston. I hate crowds, I hate the subway, I was thinking about getting a hotel room but I’ll likely stay put, as usual.
\nShopped the LLBean.com site yesterday and was tremendously impressed. It includes, among other things, a CGI figure which can “model” your choice of clothing.
\nThis module also can change the facial features based on the customer’s age, and even sizes the items. So, it provides a reasonably accurate view of how the clothing would look “in person”, and it removes guesswork about remote sizing.
\nIt’s a trick piece of software, but it’s not powered by .NET: they use Java and Websphere against DB2 and Oracle databases. I know this from checking out their help wanted section, which is where I poke around for technology insights. Online shopping is a busman’s holiday for a web developer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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