From this article:

The billion-dollar list now excludes Facebook Inc., which on Friday is set to become a publicly traded company, valued at north of $100 billion. But it does include a large share of high-flying Web players such as file-sharing company Dropbox Inc. and room-rental provider Airbnb Inc., as well as a few lesser-known start-ups such as e-commerce platform company Rearden Commerce Inc. [<--my employer] and business software maker Workday Inc.

Let's hope! I could use the cash.

As I sit in Dulles Airport, waiting to catch my flight to visit the mothership in the San Francisco bay area, I thought I'd mention my Dear Employer is still hiring. In fact, we have 52 open positions in San Francisco, the US east coast, Arizona and Bangalore!

If you apply for one of these jobs, use me me as a reference... we can split a generous recruitment bonus!

After last week's work-related ugliness, the weasels in California had a revelation: the problem which we were digging so deeply into turned out to be not in the systems we were told. Indeed, the problem seems to be a coding issue in the back-end core apps, completely unrelated to the web servers and translation proxies they had originally assessed as faulty.

So the many hours spent on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and all day Friday turned out to be a complete waste. Total.

You can imagine how happy I was at this news.

Since we didn't get to the trailer, we had an otherwise free weekend so I determined I should try to do what I was going to at the trailer anyway: cut myself off from the world and just read.

In all, I started & finished three books and got a good start on a fourth. We visited kent4str's mother in the rehab facility for her mild stroke --she's doing very well but still has some weakness on her right side. (She'll be released back into the wild in a couple of weeks.) And I wrote some good C2 choreography last night to be used later this week.

The reading helped improve my mood quite a bit. Paying some bills also lifted my spirits, even though the bank deposit from my latest pay period still doesn't reflect my raise or back pay yet.

My plan is to have a relatively relaxing Monday --as relaxing as Mondays can be-- and then join the gang for half-price burgers at Mr Henry's tonight. If I can, I'll try to generate a few more square dance sequences before the day is through but that'll be a bonus.

CALLERLAB officially announced yesterday that the Advanced call "half-breed thru" is being renamed to "brace thru." There has been low level grumbling for many years that the term "half-breed" was demeaning and insulting; I have cringed every time I've had to use it, and have taken great pains to avoid using the call unless absolutely necessary. Personally, I'm relieved it's being renamed to something innocuous.

I suspect a huge portion of the square dance world would shrug its shoulders, realize very little has changed and move on as though nothing had happened. Of course, those who object to the renaming are incredibly vociferous in their objections --after the fact.

I find the basis for the objections a little odd. For the most part, there are three lines of argument.
1. "I'm not insulted by the term 'half-breed,' therefore no one else could be. This is just political correctness!"
2. "I'll have to redraft *all* my choreo cards!"
3. "Change?! I demand a vote!"

Argument #3 is easily dismissed. Calls are determined by program lists issued by CALLERLAB; each list is maintained by a particular committee with open membership. Want something changed? Join the committee, lobby for your change and vote in committee. There is no cost except time. These things aren't done in secret by a cabal in a secret chamber in some faraway island. If you didn't know the change was coming, you weren't paying attention. And now that the change has been made, the same process can be used to change it back: those complaining have every right to join the committee, propose the change and vote as they wish.

Argument #2 is also pretty easily demolished. It's just a name change: there was no change to the definition or the program list where it resided. One can either just scratch out the old name and scribble in the new one, or just leave the cards as is and mentally substitute the new call on the fly. Any caller worthy of the title should be able to do this.

Argument #1 seems to be the most common reaction on the callers' email list currently. As you can guess, I don't give it much credibility. Whether a term is insulting or not is subjective, not objective; just because a handful of people don't find it offensive doesn't mean others can't. Social context matters a great deal too: an intimate friend calling me a 'dumb bitch' over cocktails at happy hour is a world apart from, say, a manager at a business meeting.

As square dance callers, the words we inject into a microphone are amplified by both the sound systems and by our position as community leaders. Verbal missteps by dancers are forgotten in seconds, missteps by club officers in hours or days, missteps by callers might as well be etched a mile high on the side of a mountain for eternity. What we say to whom and when matters enormously. Even if one could imagine a world where 'half-breed' wasn't an insult, the universe isn't static: there was a time the infamous n-word was commonly heard in even polite conversation but few would accept it today.

I think there may be an age split on the 'brace thru' renaming issue, but it's hard to tell. My perception (and it is only that, a perception) is that no one under the age of 40 has objected while those who complain the loudest are 50+ years of age. However, this may be because the number of callers under the age of 40 is miniscule compared to those aged 50 or more.

In any case, I follow CALLERLAB rules and heartily embrace this particular list change. And I can finally use the call without cringing.

A headhunter with which I've done business in the past is looking for a Linux engineer for Arlington, VA. If you're interested, ( click here )

My employer is looking for bodies to fill these positions, based in the San Francisco area:

Mobile Engineering Manager & Offers Engineering Manager

• 12-15 years development experience
  
• 3-5 years experience as Engineering Manager
  
• Agile Development Experience
  
• Java, JavaScript, HTML5, Ruby On Rails
  
• Mobile Development Experience

If you're interested, let me know!

Another camping season at Roseland Resort has begun!

Actually, since the campground is open 12 months of the year, it's always been camping season here, but the trailer is not exactly comfortable in the depth of winter so we close it up in early November and open it again when weather & scheduling allow in the spring. Since spring seems to have come early this year, we de-winterized in mid-March rather than early April.

De-winterizing was a breeze: connect the utilities, flush the antifreeze from the lines, install the battery & propane tanks, power up the appliances and park our asses.

Roseland has changed a little since we left last fall. The rec hall has been expanded by about 50%, making it much more spacious and including a wrap-around porch. An ATM is now available for those who need quick cash. Internet access has been outsourced to WVHotSpot.net who has installed wifi hotspots across the campground: we can even get a signal inside our trailer instead of the machinations I employed to find an open wifi signal in the dining hall last year.

The wifi is a bit less than optimal for us geeks. One purchases a block of time as one would at an airport: $4/hour, $10/day, $15/week, $30/month, $50/60 days, $70/quarter, $100/half-year. Alas, the purchased account is tied to that single device and isn't transferable. If I purchase wifi access on my laptop, I can't logout and then login with my tablet. If anyone has an idea of how to work around this limit, let me know.

If you're reading this right now, it's because I purchased a day's wifi bandwidth for testing & evaluation. If only Verizon Wirless' 3G or 4G signal reached into these rural parts of West Virginia, I could use my phone's hotspot instead. *sigh*

While talking over schedules a few hours after arriving, we realized we don't actually need to dash home Sunday afternoon. After all, Michael is effectively self-employed, I telecommute and Kent is job hunting right now: what's the rush to be home & refreshed for Monday morning? Accordingly, we're going to stay at the trailer until Monday morning, then head home at our leisure. I can handle my regular work remotely from the back seat of the minivan as we trek across western Maryland for home.

I had a long nap this evening as I was still exhausted from a late night work shift. This probably means I'll be up half the night, but that's no tragedy: I have lots of reading material, a couple of writing assignments, a business plan to compose and some square dance choreography to create.

As most of you have already figured out, I'm a man of simple pleasures: good friends, chocolate... come to think of it, that's really all I need for a decent life.

Every now and again, I treat myself to a special indulgence: shopping at Best Buy. Not to acquire yet more toys (although that can be fun too, albeit cheaper elsewhere) but to freak out the sales critters.

I occasionally go computer shopping with clients, advising them on what to buy by matching their requirements with off-the-shelf systems and ensuring they're not taken to the cleaners by savvy staffers. A few months ago, Tracie and I were shopping for a new laptop for her accounting practice. Settling on a suitable model & price wasn't a problem but the sales person kept trying to up-sell us on an extended warranty which we categorically rejected.

"But it would cover your computer parts & labor against practically anything which could happen to it for the next two years for only $250!" he would explain ernestly.

Tracie and I just smirked at each other. "The computer you're selling isn't worth that much," I said. Tracie added in her most polite church lady tone: "Son, I bill $300 per hour. In the time it would take me to open a claim for the warranty and ship the dead machine back to you, I'd have grossed enough income to buy two more. This computer --and every other one you've shown me today-- are disposable. If and when this computer dies, I'll pitch it like an empty candy wrapper and buy a new one."

The poor sales guy just stood there, boggling at the concept. I'm sure the cost of the computer was an entire week's salary for him, but them's the breaks. The computer is... disposable?! Yup.

Today's adventure at Best Buy was to buy something so I could throw it away.

To be more precise, I recently had two fibre cards and a disk controller card shipped to me for installation in two servers for my employer. The snag is that the mounting brackets on these cards are the full-height 4.75" versions instead of the low profile 3" brackets. In effect, the electronics fit but the card mounting bracket doesn't. I could ship them back for replacement but that incurs time on my part, delays to our deployment schedule and costs in shipping as well as possible restocking.

My cheaper solution was to simply replace the mounting brackets with low profile versions. The only snag is finding low profile brackets. I then had a clever idea...

I dutifully went to my local Best Buy because it's just 1.5 miles down the road and selected what I needed off the shelf. The sales guy came around to ensure I found everything I needed. I indicated I had exactly what I wanted, showing him the no-name 100baseT cards I pulled off the shelf. He then tried to argue for getting gigabit ethernet cards, pointing out some brand name cards nearby.

"Nope," I replied. "I have what I need."

"But these other cards will be faster if your network gets upgraded!"

"Doesn't matter. I'm not actually buying network cards."

"Huh?"

"I just want the mounting bracket of them to rescue vastly more expensive hardware I already have in hand. I'm throwing away the network cards afterwards."

"Come again?"

"I'm keeping the mounting brackets and throwing away the network cards."

"You're buying these... then throwing them away?"

"You got it."

He stared blankly for a full 15 seconds before he escorted me to the cash register and rang up the sale. I don't think he really believed me, but that's ok. I got the equipment I needed, my servers will get upgraded on schedule, I saved the firm a pile of cash and I got a cheap thrill causing yet another sales guy great confusion.

Like I said, I'm a man of simple pleasures.

It's been a bit of a blur, this weekend.

Chip came down from NYC on Friday evening to join us for a weekend of C2 square dancing in McLean, VA (dayleh calling); deege joined us Saturday morning.

We danced all of Saturday afternoon and the early evening with a dinner break at which we had superb thai cuisine in McLean. Sunday morning, we were back at it again, dancing until the mid-afternoon. Sadly, I was feeling a bit off in the Sunday session, possibly from burning the candle at both ends (and some in the middle) the past few days so I sat out the last 1.5 hours or so to recoup my energy.

deege departed for Richmond, VA, as soon as the dancing was over so he could attend a friend's birthday dinner. We drove Chip to Union Station in downtown DC so he could catch his bus back to NYC, but we were hours early so we enjoyed some ice cream and conversation in the station's food court.

Once home, I largely collapsed. We watched a little television, I caught up on some email and now I'm about to call it a night. It's been a fun weekend but oh what I'd give for a few extra hours of sleep right now.

I've been in an odd state of mind yesterday and today: being indecisive.

It feels a lot like procrastination but it's more than just deferring some action. Normally, I would make a conscious decision to do something, anything, rather than just avoid some activity. Normally, I wouldn't hesitate to make a commitment to a particular purchase, or taking on a new projects or selecting a book to read. Normally, I'd just look through my prioritized to do list for the next task to tackle.

I didn't quite realize how much I've been hedging lately until I was faced with the purchase commitment on eBay. Lately, I was thinking it would be pretty cool to hook either my tablet or my mobile phone to an external monitor & bluetooth keyboard. Purchase the right extras and I could use either device effectively as a regular laptop. Lord knows both devices are pretty powerful; my phone has more RAM than my netbook. The biggest snag is simply that I need a QWERTY keyboard to type effectively on either.

Both my phone & tablet have Bluetooth functionality so buying a Bluetooth keyboard would set me back only $20. An HDMI cable would only cost $2.50. So why am I so hesitant to hit the magic buy button?

My only idea on it at the moment is that my subconscious either thinks the purchase too frivolous or doesn't want to spend the funds, or both. I just wish my subconscious was speaking a bit more clearly 'cause I'd really like to know what I'm supposed to do. Limbo sucks. I'm supposed to be on mic for a square dance calling workshop tomorrow but I suspect I'm going to be somewhat less glowing than I normally try to be. Oh, well... they can't all be winners.

I'm sure this is just a passing mood and all will be well again in another day or two. In fact, we have a fairly loaded schedule for the next few weeks so I'm sure falling into normal routines again will help push me thorugh this annoyance. In the next few weeks, we have a number of square dance calling gigs, a C2 weekend with dayleh, and, most happily of all, dewinterizing of our trailer at Roseland in West Virginia.