Comments for Duane Gran's log of thoughts

Comment on Declarations of two kinds by Keith Casey

Keith Casey — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:03:08 +0000

Actually, yes, they would do the same thing at a funeral or wedding. Code Pink (and other protesters) has been invading funerals of servicemen killed in Iraq for the past couple years. At least until Rolling Thunder stepped in…

Here’s Bush thanking the Rolling Thunder guys on Memorial Day - http://bagelofzen.com/blog/?p=57

Comment on Profanity and schools by michael zumbro

michael zumbro — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:39:41 +0000

I believe that profanity in middle schools is kindve a way of getting it all out, i am, after all, a middle schooler, i found this website while looking for aritcles for school, i hear profanity at school in the hallways, classrooms, busses, everywhere, I sometimes use it myself, after all, everyone HAS used it once in their life, so you cant get mad at a 15 year old punk kid:) but yes, i agree with all of you, as my friend once said after reading a rough draft i wrote” use better insults, grammars there for a reason, if you want to swear, write a R rated movie script, i dont want to hear the F word again today
This is my thoughts, everyone has a voice no?

Comment on The dreaded software rewrite by Keith Casey

Keith Casey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:42:55 +0000

Wow… are you stalking me or what?

http://caseysoftware.com/blog/the-broken-window-fallacy-in-software - I take a more economics-based perspective on the situation noting how these re-writes cost us in productivity (and stress) in both the short and long runs… I have a followup coming out this week too.

Comment on Sorry techies, you need business people by Jason

Jason — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:24:19 +0000

Marketeers sell the things that technologists wouldn’t necessarily make on their own, but that provides the income to the technologists that allows them to do what they want without having to worry about what the marketeers think. Rarely do the two converge without guidance.

Or, as a friend of mine says, “Fake it until you can make it.”

Comment on What is a project? by Keith Casey

Keith Casey — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:09:02 +0000

I think you’ve nailed it.

If it’s ongoing with no planned end, it’s a program.
If it’s not measurable and still ongoing, it’s a government program. ;)

Comment on Profanity and schools by Duane Gran

Duane Gran — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:21:40 +0000

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Jennifer. The core issue for explicit and inappropriate language is lack of appreciation for the divine. We profane things, such as language and intimacy, when we fail to understand their higher calling. Our words have the power to bless and curse, to build up or tear down, and adults must set a standard of discipline.

Comment on Profanity and schools by Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:19:12 +0000

I have noticed this language increasing at an alarming rate but how can you tell a child to stop when the parent’s recourse is to swear at you. One of my other heavy concerns in the classroom I am in is how sexually explicit their speech has become. It’s not just calling the staff some nasty names, but really digging into the subjects and making jokes some adults would refrain from saying in front of anyone else. Unfortunately, this issue cannot be resolved by just one person searching for a solution, it takes the whole team of adults who are part of a child’s life to help things change.

Comment on Proper sorting of lists in Java by salva

salva — Mon, 14 May 2007 08:06:06 +0000

This is usually called “natural sorting”. In Perl there are at least two CPAN modules doing it: Sort::Naturally and Sort::Key::Natural.

Comment on Footnotes in digital writing by eduo

eduo — Mon, 14 May 2007 08:04:19 +0000

This has probably died. I can’t find anyone else updating this plugin and it’s defunct officially from owen’s side. Which is a shame.

For the “note only” I usually do anchors instead of links, linked to the first word of the paragraph. This does the trick of sending you to the footnote and back.

It’d be great if this plugin added a checkbox in the “link” button of the WYSIWYG editor. The checkbox would just add the appropiate ‘rel=”footnote”‘ code and have it do the rest. I don’t use the graphical editor but I guess this is doable.

Comment on Housing and the law of supply and demand by Duane Gran

Duane Gran — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:16:22 +0000

Thanks for the perspective, Jim. I’ve watched the sub prime market well before it became part of the every day lexicon, but I’m sanguine for three reasons:

1) With respect to spill over worries, the equity markets are very good at pricing risk. These mortgages are sold as CDOs with multiple tranches so that investors choose how much risk they were willing to bear. Some will be left empty handed but they are largely sophisticated enough to know what they were getting into. Very few 401k and pension plans are invested into sub prime mortgage instruments, therefore I don’t expect a ripple into markets.

2) Similar to the previous, most people who buy into sub prime mortgages couldn’t qualify for A paper loans and are unlikely to have sizable stakes in the equity market. Why does this matter? They probably don’t have 100k or more in a securities account to liquidate, thereby creating spill over into the market.

3) I’ve read some analysis which says that sub prime mortgages represent less than 3% of all mortgages issued. This sound pretty well contained.

None of this diminishes the acute pain that some people will feel when they can’t meet the bill and go into foreclosure. On the matter of ARMs, I expect that those who can will refinance into fixed mortgages and those who can’t will eliminate discretionary expenses. I read in the Financial Times last week that most people who face rising costs from an ARM maturing could offset the increase by eliminating cable TV.