As I'm pathologically fond of pointing out - I'm a child of a bygone era. Oh,
I'm not old enough to remember the time before Sputnik, light bulbs, or the
coagulation of the planets from protostellar dust clouds, but I surely do
remember GI Joe at 45 caliber, Ray Stevens at 45 RPM, and factory-rolled
cigarettes at 45¢ a pack sold to anxious minors desperate to rebel (just
like everyone else).
It seems ironic to me that this column - gilding the edge of JDJ's
ultramodern fabric - deals mostly with dusty memories of my vanished youth.
On the other hand, I've heard that I should "write about what I know," so my
options are extremely limited. Extremely. I mean, how many cab-driving
stories can a person take? (Many would say that one is already too many.)
I suppose I could repeatedly spew the first 50 digits of pi - which I
happened to memorize as a teenaged proto-geek - ... (more)
The powers that be let me out of my cube long enough to attend the JavaOne
Conference a couple of months ago in San Francisco. While I was there, I got
the chance to meet some of the movers and shakers behind Java Developer's
Journal. Of course, I had already met a couple of the "big cheeses," but by
no means all of them.
At one point I was introduced as JDJ's "resident iconoclast." Naturally, I
smiled a big smile, puffed out my chest, and tried my best to look genuinely
proud of myself. Then, at the first opportunity, I made some excuse to steal
away and look up the word "icono... (more)
Life happens at a dizzying pace. It seems like yesterday that I was writing
my first Cubist Thread, in which my abundance of personal failings was first
publicly perused. One that didn't make the list at the time, but for which I
should be roundly criticized, is vanity.
Oh, I guess my account of frustrated aspirations to rock stardom could be
construed as vanity, though it's nowhere near as egregious as this most
recent incident.
The other day at the mall, while hunting for something or other, I was struck
by a desire to go into the bookstore and buy a hard copy of Java Developer... (more)
Our world has been changed. We have been changed. Emblazoned in our
collective consciousness are indelible, fresh images of unspeakable carnage.
We will carry these images with us - shaped in psychic scar tissue - for the
rest of our lives.
For some of us, September 11 will mark the date we lost an acquaintance, a
colleague, or a loved one. For many of us, especially our children, it will
mark the date we lost a certain degree of innocence. For all of us, it will
mark a dark milestone on the landscape of our memories.
My 11-year-old son came home from school that Tuesday with an ... (more)
Lately I seem to be getting younger. Oh, don't get me wrong - I'm not
complaining - it's just that puberty was bad enough in the forward direction;
the prospect of going through it backwards leaves me a little unsettled.
Fortunately, if the rate at which I'm getting younger matches the rate I had
previously been aging, I've got many years to prepare.
Why do I think I'm getting younger? Well, there are actually several
indicators. I'm feeling a little more fit, and getting back some muscle tone
in my upper body. I've actually got a great physique, but unfortunately it is
currently... (more)
Blair Wyman is a software engineer working for IBM in Rochester, Minnesota, home of the IBM iSeries.
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