We are in the midst of a heat wave, three days or more in a row of 90 degree Fahrenheit temperatures and that makes me appreciate our new air conditioning. It also means there is a ten degree temperature difference between the top floor of our condo and the basement in which I work. #

Just read Martin Fowler's article on "expert generalists" and feel it defines me well, or at least how I aspire myself to be. In the IT services industry in which I work I don't think the contrast is specialists versus generalists but rather low cost labor versus high cost labor. My company has a focus on low cost labor, the consequence of which I think is a decrease in curiosity and with it ownership or personal accountability. I mean people are conditioned to stay within their box because that is all they are being paid to do. I am convinced that what I see, and what I am describing, is a deliverable of a managerial culture within a company as opposed to a leadership culture.#

I am using both River5 and FeedLand to monitor my RSS feeds. RSS items are retained longer in FeedLand than in River5, so I use it to catch up on feeds over the last 24 hours or longer. River5 is where I go for the most recent stuff. Of course, I am also using FeedLand to maintain my RSS subscriptions.#

I really need to get a UPS for my home servers. As I rely more on my self hosted services I am more reliant on the servers being up. #

Imagine that you are indigenous to a land in which ever since outsiders discovered it, which starts at the time of Jesus, those outsiders treated you as sub-human and believed it was their right to take your land and kill your people. If you wrap your head around this you might understand a bit of what it must be like to live in the middle east. How anyone wonders why there are people in the middle east to hate us outsiders is beyond me. The only reason why we in the United States don't live in constant fear of those indigenous to this continent is because we outsiders, the immigrants, were more successful in our genocide. #

I completed the first of my twice a year trips around Lake Michigan to visit mom and friends. Drove 1,500 miles most of which in warmer than average temperatures. Enjoying our new air conditioning today!#