Oh, all right, so maybe it’s not really a poem you’re reading now… Deal with it.

And speaking of coping: dealing with the repercussions of the Mega-Snowstorm of (February) 2010 seems to be quite a struggle for the majority of the Washington, DC region.
[click to continue…]

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As I’m tracking a variety of media channels at the same time as the Apple [AAPL] iPad announcement, I find it curious as to how the human condition, and certainly all of these so-called tech pundits, keeps wanting to compare new tech with old tech.

When I’ve been using the iPod touch in the practice, I kept thinking, “Yeah, the iPod touch is nice, but I really could use a larger touchscreen, and some more compute power”. But all of these “pundits” keep talking about netbooks and cheap 13″ notebooks and iPhones and BlackBerry devices… But given that my needs are more specialized (and some of you will call them “advanced”), the iPad may be the missing link in my product usage roster.

Something that fits the 8.5″x11″ form factor with a much thinner profile. Something that allows me to use my hands, enclosed in disposable nitrile and latex gloves, along the touchscreen. Something that does not require me to have an attached, or even wireless, keyboard and mouse to manipulate the viewpane and enter data. Something that allows me to quickly retrieve data from the Internet as well as my LANs, wirelessly. Something that lets me manage scheduling and patient data quickly and conveniently.

I’m not looking for a Kindle or mere e-reader. I’m not looking for a BlackBerry. I don’t need an iPhone in my office, or my lab, or my practice rooms. I don’t need yet another notebook with the keyboard and mouse/touchpad.

Certainly, I need to get a hold of an iPad to see if it really lives up to my requirements. But next to the Axiotron Modbook, this may be the frontrunner.

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Smack! Smack! Smack!

Ouch! That smarts!

Verizon [VZ] has now gotten two of  Palm’s [PALM] flagship devices that Sprint [S] has been touting, although some may say unsuccessfully due to the odd way that software developers and consumers have been treated– or at least very mixed– there’s that new question as to how Verizon will position these smartphones.

The TV commercials for the devices are already rolling out… and this is certainly a new entryway for Verizon to cater to Palm enthusiasts who have given up on the Garnet/Palm OS.

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WordPress 2.9.1 was released yesterday, after a relatively short beta and RC1 pair of cycles.

Some of you may recall the controversy surrounding WordPress 2.9, surrounding some defects that were discovered shortly after its release– although some people have mentioned that the problems, they felt, were present even in the previous versions of the software. As mentioned by Ryan at the WordPress development blog, those noticed defects were addressed by this release, as well as a few other minor issues selected to be included.

Operations Recommendations and Notes

Apparently, since the recent series of posts about WordPress 2.9 and the 2.9.1 beta came out, many of you have been sending E-mails and messages about providing more guidance to prod-ops teams and developers. The following recommendations should not be taken as gospel, since I strongly advocate sound development practices and practical management processes and more than a little common sense: rather, they should be considered in context with your current situation and deployment strategy.

Recommendation for Standard Operations Teams

At this time, the recommendation is that it is a worthwhile upgrade for most technically savvy production operations teams, as well as developers accustomed to using and manipulating WordPress. However, the customary testing procedure is strongly advised: download it, set it up in your testing environment and vet it through your test suite(s), prepare your CM machinery to handle the new version if it passes your tests, and deploy it to your production environment.

Recommendation for Agile Operations Teams

For the heavier types of agile development, if you have already cleared WordPress 2.9, you should be able to layer 2.9.1 on top of your previous iteration and restart your testing segment and merge back to your expected path. Once you have cleared it, you should be ready to deploy it to your staging/production environments.

For the aggro types, you probably have been tracking beta and RC1 versions of WordPress 2.9.1, but the latest changes for it should be considered as overriding the previous two changesets. If you are sweeper types, overlay 2.9.1 onto your outbound segment and restart testing. If you are satisfied with the results, you should be ready to deploy it to your staging/production environments.

Recommendation for Continuum Operations Teams

Yes, I know: this is somewhat redundant. But a couple of you have asked about continuum development recommendations, so here ’tis:

You most likely already know the outcome of your tests, but the question is in which order should your production environments be refreshed. The easy answer would be to use the exact order you have been using all along; however, some teams do have highly variable distribution orders, so the prevailing advice here would be to deploy into production prioritizing first in order of increasing code complexity and then in order of increasing network or traffic load. So your simpler outbound segments with lower traffic and integrations with other packages would be rolled out first, then you proceed upward in complexity and then frequency/traffic/load. For this version, avoid simultaneous or near-simultaneous rollouts unless your tests have already proven 0.00% disruption.

Hint: our tests showed ~4.33% disruption across all outbound segments, > 120.

N.B.

Other related Javamancy posts (in reverse chronological order):

Other related Javamancy mini posts (in reverse chronological order):

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Countdown to the New Year

December 31, 2009 Meanderings

Maybe this ought to be called “the FUD Edition”, Part II… After one year, remember the first FUD Edition?
As we count down the minutes to the start of 2010, let’s review some of the things that have captivated us (for lack of a better term) over the course of 2009:

The world economy, and certainly the [...]

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Stop the Insanity! Or, WordPress Development for 2010, a New Year’s Resolution

December 26, 2009 Management

I’ve always wondered how some popular open source and GPL projects keep going. Many times, they seem to implode upon themselves, whether due to internal or external forces imposing their undue influences upon the work at hand. The good ones realize that they are imploding and take measures to stop it from happening… and sometimes, [...]

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Complaining About WordPress: Does That Make You a Bad Person?

December 25, 2009 Management

Apparently, several people have had issues with WordPress 2.9 since its FCS release just a few days ago.
In fact, this has caught on such attention that there has been mention by Jeff (at Weblog Tools Collection), Keith (also at Weblog Tools Collection), and at the WordPress development blog about a beta version of WordPress 2.9.1 [...]

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Uh-Oh: WordPress 2.9.1 Coming Soon?

December 23, 2009 PHP

Jeff Chandler, at the Weblog Tools Collection blog, posts that WordPress 2.9.1 beta version will be available shortly to address a WordPress core bug in the 2.9 version.
While undoubtedly version 2.9.1 will include additional bug fixes, there is a bug fix reported in WordPress’ Trac issue tracker:
http://core.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/11505/ticket-11505-full.patch
So those of you who wish to assemble your [...]

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WordPress 2.9 Released

December 19, 2009 Operations

WordPress 2.9 was released yesterday, and with it comes several new features.

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Just in Time for 2009: A Snowstorm

December 18, 2009 Meanderings

It’s been several years since a massive, crushing snowstorm hit the Washington, DC area, so I suppose you could say that it was long overdue.
Given the craziness of the Congressional struggle over healthcare benefits this week (which appears to be the political version of last-minute cramming for an exam, rather than steady, deliberative, organized studying) [...]

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