My buddy Bill Wagner of SRT Solutions has got quite something to be proud of here: a Hungarian edition of his book, Effective C#. Being unable to read so much as a word of Hungarian, I can't vouch for this one. But I highly recommend the English version!

And as you might have guessed by now, my main Tablet PC is back from the shop. What a relief! Everything is so much faster and more reliable. The old Tablet works, but it's taxed to the hilt with all the tools that I run on the new Tablet.

(Bonus points if you recognize the source for the title of this post. Double points if you recognize the source's source.)

In my defense, I had put in a lot of time in travel, and a lot of long hours on a project.

And for a long time now, I've done all of my teaching using Windows Journal on Tablet PCs, where I used to use flip charts and whiteboards. You can do so much more. (At some point, I'll blog about why Journal should put flip charts and whiteboards out of business.) Habits build up, ya know?

Still, I have to wonder whether I'm losing it. Tablet PCs have completely taken over my brain. In an impromptu conference with the client last week, I drew a quick sketch at the whiteboard, realized I got it wrong — and I swear, I reached for the Undo button.

This one's for my buddy, Epee Bill...

"Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." That phrase was the bane of clone-makers in the mid-80s. Companies would willingly pay five times as much for an IBM, just because no one wanted to take the fall for problems with a lesser system.

And no, that didn't mean that IBMs didn't have their flaws. It simply meant that if you bought IBM, no one would claim you cut corners and caused the mess. It was the safe choice.

Eventually, companies got more comfortable with compatibles; and eventually, IBM lowered their prices to compete. They're still pricey, but they're also still good machines (particularly the new Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet PC).

The funny thing is, I never actually heard of anyone who was fired for not buying an IBM. I'm sure it might've happened; but the phenomenon was really all about corporate folks unwilling to take a chance.

But apparently, someone just got fired for buying an Apple (link requires free registration):

After a divisive public debate, a lawsuit brought by a former county commissioner stopped the program last month, not on its merits but on the plan to fund it with proceeds from a special sales tax approved by county voters in 2003. On Aug. 14, school board members received a stinging report from a corporate investigator alleging bias and deception in the bidding process for the contract, which had been won by Apple Computer.

School board members voted immediately to terminate the contract with Apple. Three of the seven members called for Redden's dismissal. The other four said they still had questions both about the bidding process and about how the investigative firm, Kessler International, put together its report.

Well, after getting most (but not all) of the needed files onto the backup machine, I had to run to one client, work all day, run home, install more files, fly to Atlanta, and then work-work-work for another client. This project's a bit of a departure for me, but fun: the client wants me to model an existing, pre-UML system for them, so that they can use the model as guidance in transitioning to their next generation system. So I've been immersing myself in a wholely new, unfamiliar problem domain and trying to learn to think like an old hand; and then I've been converting my understanding into UML and communicating that back to the client, so that they can confirm or correct what I've learned. It's all NDA stuff, so I can't share any samples; but it's a great example of why I emphasize UML as a form of communication. I start with only a lay understanding of their problem domain; they start with only a classroom exposure to UML; and in striving to communicate between us, we're growing our understanding in both directions. It's loads of fun!

But that can't take up all of my time, can it? No, but it took up a lot. Then my weekend got derailed by an unfortunate ATM incident (since resolved) that left me planning how to stretch $20 for I wasn't sure how long. So none of the fun stuff I planned to do and blog about took place: no visit to the Bonsai gardens (next trip) and no visit to Borders to get fresh reading material. I just sat in the hotel room and worked on various projects and watched lots of Bond films.

And now it's my last day in Atlanta, and what a day it was! Today, we had our first review meeting, which went better than I dared hope.

Then I drove to Borders, and was delighted to find my book on the shelves. (For all that I'm unimpressed by their discount program, I'm usually pleased to find that Borders carries my book in most outlets.)

And then a little advance scouting had told me that nearby was Fire of Brazil, a Brazilian churrascaria restaurant. That means that the cooks skewer various meats on swords and cook the meat over open flames; and then gauchos bring the meat-laden swords around to the tables. You get a little card, red on one side and green on the other. If you turn it to green, they stop at your table and offer to cut you off a slice of whatever they happen to be carrying. Today I had slices of tenderloin, top sirloin, pork loin, turkey, pork sausages, and so many other meats I can't remember them all. It's not for every day (well, unless you're an Atkins devotee), and it's pricey; but as a treat, it's not to be missed.

And tomorrow, I get to fly home, and get my computer back from the shop, and see my wife and dogs, and then head to Ann Arbor for the 8th annual Duelist. I'll try to post photos.

Short answer: when you crack the LCD on your Tablet PC, it kinda puts a kink in your plans.

When you do so four days before travel to another state, it only makes life more complicated.

Transfering files to the backup machine and installing all necessary software is really time-consuming...

Or any satellite service? Or cable?

Not that I don't enjoy DirecTV's service. But I was glancing over my DVD shelf, and realized that there are a lot of DVDs there.

12,120 minutes, to be precise.

That's 202 hours.

That's almost eight-and-a-half days.

And that's not counting DVD extras.

And that's not counting all my VHS tapes.

And that's only my DVD shelf. My wife has at least as many, and more VHS tapes.

As a very rough estimate, if I watched 6 hours of video a day, I could probably go a month without having to repeat a video. And that would be a month of videos that I actually chose, as opposed to just whatever happened to be on.

It makes me wonder why I need DirecTV. At this point, habit has to be a pretty major factor.

This post will have an inordinate number of typos. To demonstrate a point, all paragraphs after this one will appear exactly as I type them the first time, with no editing.

I'm dfascinated by how the brain works and adapts.

Before I ever went to school, I was fascinated by my bnrother's tupewtiter. U know my letters, and I wanted to use that machine to tell stories. So I started typing at around age 6. At that age, I couldn't reach the tanle, so the great bnig manual typewriter went in my lap. To thus day, ketboards go in my lap (except when they don't — see below).

So I was too busyt typing to learn to tuype. People would laufgh at my 2+ finger typing, though they had to admit two things: I was fast (six pages per houe on a manual typewriter), and I was accurate (an average of five errors per page, despite what you see in this post). I always took a twisted pride tht I was so fast and accurate even though I wasn't a touch tuopist. And that certainly served me werll as a prohrammer.

But then a cowroker saidf, "Yes, you are a touch typist." He watched me, and had discovered that though I wasn't using traditional ten-finhered style, I was seldom if ever actually looking at the keyboard. Quite without intentional training, my brain had simply learned QWERTY and a form of touch typing simply through habit and practice.

At first, I disbelieved him. And like the old joke about the centipde who couldn't walk once he thought about how to coordinate his feet, I lost the ability to type any time I thought about where the keys were. But if I just let go and typed, I knew where the keys were.

Ober the years, I got used to this. But tonight, I'm laying doewn and listening to TV as I blog. Since I;m on my back, the only place for my Tablet PC to go, really, is on my chest. So the keyboard is actually parallelto my sterbnum. My head is propped up on a pillow so I can see the creen, but there's no way I can read the jkeys. Ny left elbow is firmly planted on the cushion, with my left thumb under the keynoard, and my left indesx and middle fingers reaching out for keys from aboyt T left. My right elbow is airborne, so my right middle finger can reach out for allof the other keys. The whole thing would give an ergonomicist the heebie-jeebies, and would give a carpal tunnel surgeon dreams of his next yacht.

And with all of that, mty trypintg is no worse than you see here, and my rate isn;t down at all. (It might be up, in this post, since I'm not slowing down to correct.) This can'tr be muscle memory (the usual explanation for such automatic performance): I'm not even using the same fingers on the same keys as I notmally use. It has to be something else. Somewhere in my brain is a map of the QWERTY keyboard (gee, I only spend about 14 hours a day in front of one, where would my brain get a map) that can be rotated spatiallu and navigated by my fingers not by muscle memory, but by the sort of subhconscious coordination of eye and brain and body that lets us not think abourt how we move, just move.

This stuff fascinates me, it reallyu does. If you asked me to draw or lay out a QWERTY keyboard, I don't think I could. But ask me to just use one, and I can do it, even in unfamiliar positions and circumstances. Some part of the brain takes over, some part I can't ecen tell is there, and just does the job. Wow!

From The Earth To The Moon reports that Buzz Aldrin has released a children's book on space travel. (They also continue to advertise a deluxe DVD edition of From the Earth to the Moon, the stunning miniseries from Tom Hanks. Drool...)

Dotfuscator and James Avery's book get a mention on Slashdot.

Speaking of books, Bill Wagner reviews Keith Brown's .NET Developer's Guide to Windows Security. "As I said at the top of this review, “The .NET Developer’s Guide to Windows Security” should be required reading for every .NET developer."

And speaking of James Avery, he got asked about blogs and RSS in a job interview this week. Hey, James, I hope that doesn't mean you'll take a new job out of town before I show up next month!

Tablet PC Buzz links to this Channel Insider report on unexpectedly high demands for the new ThinkPads, including the new ThinkPad Tablet PCs. "The ThinkPad Tablet has sold so fast since its introduction that Lenovo quickly ran out of stock and is now working to catch up, he said. The product, intended for vertical markets such as health care, has caught on in the mainstream marketplace, he said."

Howard Lovy takes a hiatus from his blogging hiatus to post outtakes from his Wired story on nanomedicine and cancer. These are parts that were cut for space, but they add nice depth to the overall article. I hope Mr. Lovy finds full-time employment soon, so that he can spare more time for blogging on nanotechnology.

Julie Lerman points out The Regulator, a regular expression testing and learning tool. RegEx has always frustrated me, since it seems to be very powerful yet is incredibly poorly documented. And no one seems to be able to recommend a good book on it. Instead, I hear, "Read chapter such-and-such from that O'Reilly book on SED," or something like that. The Regulator looks like a great help. Thanks, Julie! And thanks, Roy Osherove, for writing it. (Julie also experienced a tornado recently. We have a family friend who was trapped when her house was collapsed by a tornado, and I've had tornado-phobia my whole life. A post like Julie's will give me nightmares tonight. Thanks, Julie...)

Chris from PowerBlogs (my blog service provider; and yes, I'm very pleased with the service) reports that reports are working again. That will be good, because I haven't actually seen reports since I signed up. Now lest you think that's a complaint, I entirely understand the reasons why: Chris was away on his honeymoon; and unlike some people I know, he actually stayed away from tech for the duration. (Actually, judging by the timing, Chris was setting up my account somewhere right in the middle of last-minute wedding stuff.) I look forward to checking out the reports.

Sam Gentile posts on the power of blogs. "So what's the message? An investment in reading quality bloggers every day will increase your knowledge and make you a better Developer/Architect/Marketer, and also your own blog could do wonders for your career and exposure."

me: under a microscope (found via Eric Maino) struggles to balance school and work and like. At that age, I thought it would get so much simpler when I could drop school out of the mix. Sorry to tell ya, bud, but it only got more complicated. Keep working on your balancing skills. They'll serve you well.

Mike Swanson posts on the new WinFX, as well as other new stuff. Mike also bucks the trend in ironic, imaginative, and generally silly blog names, with "Michael Swanson's Blog". I respect that.

hack-a-day links to a robotic drum set that would make Herbie Hancock proud. (And if you don't get the allusion, you must not have spent the early 80s letting MTV rot your brain.)

Thom Robbins points out some new Sharepoint application templates. Some day, I'll understand what that means...

Patrick at The Tablet PC in Teaching & Learning asks about a tool for using Ink in IE. A commenter links to IE Ink 2004, which lets you Ink on any Web page and then save a local copy. I'll have to try that out. Patrick also points out a new Tablet PC commercial from Microsoft, aimed at the education market. This ad almost makes me want to go back to college!


UPDATE AND SHAMELESS PLUG: And And since there's Tablet PC information in this post, Richard Hale Shaw would have my hide if I didn't recommend our new Tablet PC BootCamp.

James Hudnall (who, by the way, writes great comics) links to a quiz that analyzes your dialect. It's specific to US English. The quiz name is Are You a Yankee or a Rebel?; but it's more region-specific than that. Time and time again, it traced my language back to the Great Lakes region, and even specifically to Michigan.

To real linguists, this is probably no big news; but I like how well it's implemented. I find it to be a step above many online "quizzes", both because it's based on real science, and because it actually analyzes your response to each question live as you answer.

Oh, and my results? "36% (Yankee). You are definitely a Yankee." I hope my clients in Atlanta don't mind!

So it's Sunday night. Well, technically Monday morning, since it's after midnight. And I'm online, and working. But a look at Windows messenger tells me most of the geeks I know are offline (or cloaked).

All except for one: Eric Maino, former GVSU student, now Microsoftie (on the C# team), just popped online. Now folks who know Eric know that he makes most of us obsessive geeks look pathetic. With a razor sharp mind, a bubbly personality, a zeal for technology, and the boundless energy of youth (Eric's a hair more than half my age), Eric's a one-man technology whirlwind. Some days, I feel like experience is the only edge I have on him.

But tonight, I think he has taken the tech obsession just a little too far. See, Eric has the habit of modifying his Messenger ID to tell where he's at or what he's up to. "Eric (working)". "Eric (skiing)". Like that. So look how he identified himself tonight:



I believe Eric's wedding was a little more than a week ago. Eric, buddy... It's OK to shut down the machine for a while. Really. The code will still be there later.