My government never really ceases to amaze me with their judicious use of our tax dollars. Two weeks ago, the ACHD (Ada County Highway District) went through and laid down a chip seal coating on the street in front of our subdivision. The chip seal is primary used for pavement preservation and rehabilitation.

On Monday, the ACHD (same group from above), came through and tore up  the street to replace a sewer line. Not one that was broken, but just one that was on schedule to be replaced. Amazing…

No reasonable person would ever considering laying down his sod and landscaping only to come back two weeks later to rip it all up and put in the irrigation system. Why do we consistently put up with this foolish overspending by our government?

I’ve been hearing quite a bit lately about software factories. The more I hear about them, the more I wonder if software factory is just the 2007 way of saying code generation.

Much attention has been given to code generation, some good and some not so good. Most of the negatives associated with code generation has been around the maintainability of it. I see the same issues with software factories.

It makes sense to factor these things into reusable libraries? I’m always a fan of removing code and/or duplication wherever possible. If I dont have to maintain scads of generated code in my project, I’m ok with that. And that is a major reason why I do not use datasets in my projects.

Of course, it is entirely possible that I’m missing what software factories are all about… If that’s the case, I’d love to have one of my readers point me at some good reading about them.

I happened to stumble across John Lam’s post about Outlook Zen the other day. I’ve finally taken the time to implement his macros and key bindings. I have to say that this has really streamlined the way I can zip through email during the course of my day.

Two key bindings (ALT-Q and ALT-W) are the core things here. As you read your email, you either hit ALT-Q to move it to your archive, or ALT-W to move it to your followup folder and mark it as a task.

Getting an empty inbox is very easy utilizing this technique. I’ve also followed John’s lead and removed all the other toolbars from Outlook as well. The only toolbar I have left is SpamBayes, only because I cant figure out how to get it on the main bar.

I’m loving it… Thanks, John.

A little note to myself: Whatever advice or samples that you give to a client is most often going to be exactly what they implement. In order to minimize your support costs, it should be very important to treat your sample projects with the same level of care as you would your main source tree.

Giving a client a well-factored sample, instead of something hacked up in an hour or so, will not only increase the likelihood of a successful implementation but also give the client a good feel for the overall internal quality of the product they have purchased.

Go A-Rod… Enough said.

Wow, what a busy weekend for milestones in Major League Baseball. As I’m sure most people have heard by now, Barroid Barry Bonds managed to tie the most hallowed record in sports by hitting his 755th home run. I suspect that since the Giants are at home for the next few days we will see Bonds surpass that record, hitting number 756.

Also this weekend, Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs. With any luck, he’ll be soon overtaking Bonds’s inevitable record.

You know, there’s quite a bit of controversy around Bonds and his involvement in the steroid scandal. I know that nothing has been proven, but come on… you just have to look at before and after pictures. Jose Canseco also promises to deliver some dirt on Alex Rodriguez in his next book. Nobody really knows what this is going to be.

However, if you’re looking for someone that has come up and done this the right way, you dont have to look much farther than Tom Glavine. Last night, Glavine recorded his 300th win last night against the Cubs. Fantastic… even in this era of scandal and cheaters, there is a guy that shows everyone that it can be done naturally.

This is the statement from a lady here in Boise who followed up on a craiglist scam for a free iPod. Thank goodness that she followed her hunch and that this warning is getting out to people. This could have had another, very dire outcome. The news story is available at http://www.idahostatesman.com/boise/story/122874.html.

This is a situation that I think needs to be brought to the attention of the community as a warning!

Yesterday, Friday, July 27, 2007, there was a posting on Craigslist.com for a free iPod. I responded to the posting and received a very odd response from the man, “Terry”, about why he was giving the iPod away. He created a sob story about his wife cheating on him and that he needed to hide the iPod from her so he was putting it in a public place where she couldn’t find it. He continued to tell me that several people wanted it but he was waiting for someone who could go at a ‘certain time’. I purposely fed right into his luring type responses, interested in what information he was going to give me. This all took place around 3pm.

At 10pm I received another email from him stating that no one showed up to get the iPod. He asked if I was still interested. Obviously this guy was after something. I wanted to know who he was so I emailed back and asked the directions. He gave me specific directions to the area of Eagle and McMillan Road. He said to go to the park, walk to a certain porta-potty, and the iPod would be on top of the paper towel holder. He told me if I didn’t respond he would contact the next person waiting. I was afraid for anyone who would fall to that lure, so my husband and I decided to pursue it; with absolutely no intentions of actually meeting at the location.

My husband and I told some friends exactly where we were going and programmed the Boise City Police non emergency phone number into our cell phones.

When we got to the area, we drove past the park, but noticed a red colored car parked by a porta-potty in the park. We pulled into a nearby business and tried to get a better view of the car. The headlights on the car then went out. We drove around for about 20 minutes while continuing to pass the park, still watching the car. We then drove to the Albertson’s parking lot and called the Boise City Police and told them the story.

Fortunately, the dispatcher took me seriously and sent some officers.

The officers came to the parking lot where my husband and I were parked. We told them the entire story, and I gave them the emails from the guy. The officers called us to come to the park about 15 minutes later to sign a statement. They told me they found the guy in his car with a black nylon mask on. He also had a pair of black gloves, a BB gun, and a butcher knife in the seat; with his laptop, where he had evidently been emailing people from. We saw that it was a red Ford Explorer with California plates.

He was arrested – you can see him on the Ada County Sheriff’s website as Stephen Donald Newman, arrested on 7-28 for being in a park after hours and with a concealed weapon.

The police told us that we saved someone’s life by calling for help. Had we not gone, and someone else more gullible had, there could have been a horrific accident. We followed a hunch that something wasn’t right.

This guy has been released from Ada Count Jail because he didn’t really hurt anyone – Yet. The police said because he didn’t actually commit a crime, he couldn’t be held.

I went on to Craig’s list today to post a warning to others. To my surprise, there were SEVERAL posts from other users that had responded to his “free iPod” posting. You can go to craigslist.com and under the Personals column, ‘rants and raves’, to see all of the posts about this same person.

Also, his email was from a domain that I had never heard of: anonymousspeech.com. I researched it on Google and found that anonymousspeech.com is for users who want complete security in protecting their identity. The off-shore based company does not give information out to anyone, for any reason, about its subscribers. Perfect for a scammer.

We need the media’s assistance in warning people to not respond to these types of things and to be aware of him! This guy will just advertise something else to lure gullible people in to his trap or move to another area to work his scam. I felt this was very important to share. I appreciate your time and consideration in reading this.

You can contact the Boise Police Department to verify information.

The Internet sure does bring out the best in people, doesn’t it?

I really have a wide taste in music and can listen to most anything for at least a little bit. For the most part though, I’ve always enjoyed music in the hard rock genre more than other genres. That changed not long ago, after I was introduced to Josh Ritter.

Josh is a musician from right here in Idaho and currently, my favorite artist. If I had to describe his music, I would have to say minimalist with a very strong emphasis on lyrical content. Josh is an exceptional poet, a modern day Jim Morrison. Josh is able to craft hauntingly, beautiful lyrics. None of his lyrics are more mesmerizing than Thin Blue Flame (free mp3). Here’s a sample:

Borders soft with refugees
Streets a’ swimming with amputees
It’s a bible or a bullet they put over your heart
It’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart
Days are nights and the nights are long
Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs
And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign
Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine
Now the wolves are howling at our door
Singing bout vengeance like it’s the joy of the Lord
Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round
They’re guilty when killed and they’re killed where they’re found
If what’s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high
It’s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die
Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please
The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees
Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage
Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage
Lead pellets peppering aluminum
Halcyon, laudanum and opium
Sings kiss thee hardy this poisoned cup
His winding sheet is busy winding up
In darkness he looks for the light that has died
But you need faith for the same reasons that its so hard to find
And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck
And like a good tragedy that’s what we expect

There’s so much more to this song; essentially a diary of what’s been going on in our world for the past year. This song could easily be used for a college level study in the English language. Every time I listen to this song, I pick up yet another reference from it and find myself learning more and more about it. This song has spoken to me much more than any other song I can remember.

The rest of Josh’s current CD, entitled “The Animal Years“, is equally impressive, from the haunting introduction via ‘The Girl in the War’, to beautiful a cappella ballads like ‘Idaho’. This album has it all and presents it in a very dramatic and melodic fashion. Very highly recommended. Josh’s new CD “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter” will be publicly available on August 21 (available for preorder now). This promises to be a very solid sequel to Animal Years.