http://blog.speljamr.com Just Another Pragmatic Programmer... Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:33:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en One of my all-time favorite bands, The Church, decided to make it's way to Buffalo last week. This was one of the best concerts I've been to in some time. The Church is stronger than ever with their performance and Steve Kilbey is an exceptionally entertaining front man. The show ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2009/07/13/the-church-rocks-the-tralf/ Kevin J. Anderson tends to spend a lot of time in other peoples worlds, from Dune to Star Wars. Recently he has taken a stab at the world of DC Comics. First with 'The Last Days of Krypton', and now with a story about the first meeting between Superman and ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2009/04/21/enemies-allies-by-kevin-j-anderson/ For several years I have been working quietly on a piece of software designed to mimic newspaper publication on the web. This software has been used for several years by the Akron Bugle and I would now like to put it out as an freely available open source project. I'm ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2009/01/13/presspointe-logo-drafts/ As another Christmas draws near Karlyn has decided to start a new holiday tradition with an annual Finucane Christmas newsletter. The first one is hot off the presses and ready for everyone to enjoy. Click the image below to download a PDF copy. And to all our friends and family, have ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2008/12/22/2008-finucane-christmas-newsletter/ Based on a very recent experience, I believe open source projects offer students a very good way to learn real world programming practices and improve their skills for the job market. Recently I inherited maintenance on a project that was originally developed by some computer science professors and their students. It's ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2008/12/19/why-programming-students-should-participate-in-open-source/ http://blog.speljamr.com/2008/08/22/tearwave-nothings-wrong/ A few days ago I was asked to fax some information to my auto insurance company. I did so somewhere around 8/14/2008 and thought that was the end of it. Not so, as I got a letter yesterday letting me know they had not received the information. So, being concerned, I ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2008/08/21/what-are-some-customer-service-reps-thinking/ About one year ago I began using an online service called BookMooch, created by John Buckman. The objective of BookMooch is to create a take-a-book leave-a-book service using the internet. Book Mooch uses a point system for the exchange of books. The point system works like this: Add a book to ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2008/07/20/i-love-bookmooching/ The Ride for Roswell took place on June 28th 2008 and was a tremendous success. The ride raised $1.8 million in funds for cancer research, a record for this event. I managed to ride 30 miles, good considering how little I've ridden lately. Thank you to my aunts who gave ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2008/07/02/ride-for-roswell-2008-completed/ June 28th, 2008 marks the next annual Ride for Roswell. I will be participating for the first time, along with a couple of co-workers from Algonquin Studios. This annual ride is held to help raise funds for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, an organization dedicated to the eradication of cancer. The ... http://blog.speljamr.com/2008/06/03/ride-for-roswell/