Sorry about the outages lately.

I recently upgraded to a new hosting provider, SliceHost, and it turned out to be a larger learning curve than expected getting everything set up perfectly. However, you’ll be happy to know that the website should be a bit snappier now and much more reliable.

Let me know if you run into any problems!

Has Microsoft completely lost touch of its customer’s needs?

I used to be strictly a Microsoft user. I developed in Microsoft .NET, used Windows XP, had a Pocket PC. Not quite a fanboy, but you can see that I liked them.

However, over the past few years I feel like Microsoft has completely lost touch with reality. I just don’t get them. They release products that are behind the times and try things (like selling online Office to desktop Office owners only) that make no sense. Isn’t there anyone at Microsoft shaking their heads saying, “What are you thinking?”.

I really hope they turn around some day. Adapt or die.

Everyone talks about Facebook being the world’s social operating system. They couldn’t be any more wrong.

This isn’t a revolution. This is what I envision as the next step in the design of operating systems. It’s what I refer to as the “social” operating system… a real operating system like Windows or OS X. Except that this operating system, I call Sobuntu, is designed with the “social graph” in mind.

In Sobuntu, the account you log into on your computer is your social profile, shared through a protocol possibly similar to OpenID. Your account profile knows things like your interests, birth date, etc. Everything on your computer can be shared with certain friends, groups, etc. by changing the properties of those files. Every shared file has a set of wall posts that your friends can comment on. And the activities of your friends can be seen through a “system feed” that’s integrated on your desktop.

There’s more, but I think you get the idea. There’s no reason social networking must exist solely on the web. Let’s take a leap forward and put it on the desktop.

Even when you’re in front of people you don’t know, it’s okay to make a fool of yourself. Really!

I don’t recall where I heard this or who I heard it from, but whenever I’m with a group of people I don’t know, I never worry if I make a fool of myself. “You’ll never see those people again, so who cares?” I always say that to myself after I do something stupid. It gives me a sense of relief.

So if you just tripped over yourself in the grocery store and fell flat on your face and are worried about what everyone around you is thinking… stop worrying! You’ll (probably) never see them again, so who cares!

I wanted to take a minute to thank Jessica, my guest blogger, for her last post on weirdness. Hopefully she’ll be willing to come back soon and do it again

Thanks Jess!

Do “weird” people think people are “weird”? This thought crossed my mind as I was standing in the crowded subway on my way to work. As I was looking around at the people near me, I noticed that I tended to classify them as “normal”, “strange”, and “weird”. I know I probably shouldn’t be doing that, but it was a natural inclination—perhaps a survival mechanism in the morning before I am fully awake. So, then I began to wonder, “What are these people thinking of me?” Moreover, do the people I deem “weird” think that I am equally as “weird” as I think they are? Is it a reciprocal thing? Or, is it that they think “weirder” people to me are their “moderate weird”?

I’m sure I’ve lost you by now, but I just wanted to raise this question. In no way am I saying being “weird” is bad (since I’m not even positive I’m not thought of as “weird” by the other people in the subway), but I am wondering if “weirdness” is a matter of style that lends itself to reciprocal judgment by two opposite parties. Or, is it a gradient, whereby if I fall on the “more normal” side than the “weird” person, then the “weird” person to my “weird” person is “uberweird” to me? Think about that one.

So, the moral here (because these things are supposed to have a moral or something) is: Be careful who you make eye contact with on the subway—and that, most likely, you are considered “weird” to someone. Have a nice day (you weirdo)!

After my first few jobs, I learned that the best way to answer “How do you like your new job?” is with “Ask me in 3 months”.

Most of us tend to like our new jobs because we’re working with new people on new projects, where everything we do is more interesting than the last job. However, after a few months, many of us find ourselves changing our mind about the new job. Everyone’s annoying, the projects are boring, management is terrible, etc. It’s sort of inevitable.

It’s so hard to find that perfect job that will always satisfy us. Luckily we have friends and family who are always there

Pumpkin carving, aisles of candy, haunted houses… it’s that time of the year again

Halloween is a kid’s paradise. The one time of the year you could eat gobs of candy and your parents didn’t mind. Trick-or-treating was like a rat race. Let’s see, I can do 30 homes in an hour. If I stay out for 4 hours… make sure I visit those “jumbo-size candy bar” homes and … jackpot!

It’s gotta be great to be a parent, though. You tell your kid you need to go through the candy and make sure everything’s safe to eat. Meanwhile, he’s missing half his Butterfingers afterwards. Hmmmm

Now I just buy bags of candy, knowing I’ll probably get no visitors. “Oops, looks like I bought too much candy. What to do… what to do” ::munch:: ::munch::

The camera (digital or not) is still an amazing device I’ll never fully understand.

Have you ever taken a moment to think about how some device is able to take a snapshot of what your eyes see? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s crazy we’re able to take something in real life and reproduce it on paper.

It’s like magic, isn’t it? It’ll blow your mind!

Advertising is like a love-hate relationship. I hate that it seems to have found itself in every part of our lives, but I also enjoy a funny or clever ad It can be so annoying, yet it’s probably one of the oldest and most successful forms of business ever. Sort of a double-edged sword, isn’t it?

I wonder whether advertising will always remain the “undefeated champion” of business. My gut feeling is probably so since it’s the only way we can get the word out about new products or services. It’s seems to be one of those “necessary evils”.