Coffee and Code

This picture scares me horribly. Please, don't ever let me see this monkey in person.

Picture: ARDILES RANTE / BARCROFT MEDIA. Source: www.telegraph.uk

Will someone please buy me this shirt?

Sometimes, I embody what the pictured shirt says. Every few months or so, I become obsessed over some programming project and spend almost all of my free time working on it until it's done. That's how this weblog, and the website it sits on, came into being in the first place.

Is this a good way to work? I'm not sure. One one hand, single-minded focus can be handy, because it makes it easier for me to push through and complete large bodies of code. I tend to overdo caffeine and sacrifice too much sleep during my code-a-thons, though, and it becomes more difficult to communicate with other humanoids when I've got code on the brain constantly.

I manage to get a little balance in my life by simply going months and months without doing any techie-type stuff at home. It's a feast-or-famine approach, I guess, but there really is more to life than just the internet. Seriously. Someone told me that, and I believe it.

You'll see a new design for my website appear this summer, the details of which are still quite secret. I have a couple of smaller code project planned as well. However, I am devoting most of the summer to non-techie stuff, such as looking for a house, marksmanship, taking care of our awesome dogs (see: my flickr account), and some awesome summer concerts (Iron Maiden/Dream Theater in June, and also RUSH! in June).

Today, I will be getting some sun in my backyard... mandatory sun, as I must bring the rule of law to my yard with my mighty weed-trimmer. As the weeds are trimmed, so too must beer be consumed. If you're a home-coding geek, reading this post: How do you like to work? How do you achieve balance? Do you try to? Tell me.

Happy 2010 everyone! I couldn't resist getting a blog post in on the first of the year. I actually slept straight through the turn of the New Year last night. Why? Sick as a dog... but enough about that.

This year, I'm simply resolving to lead a healthier lifestyle. Now that I'm in my 30's, I can't really eat the same way that I used to, and for Christmas, I got a bleeding ulcer to reinforce that fact (Don't worry, I'm feeling fine now, really). I'm just going to have to practice a little more moderation and get a little more physical activity. I'm very lucky to have my girlfriend Lisa as a great role model for healthy living. She takes good care of herself, and it shows (insert catcall here).

What are your resolutions and hopes for 2010?

Wishing for peace in the world,
- Jeff

I recently re-installed Windows on to my Dell Inspiron 6000 machine, with a new hard drive. I reformatted the disk fully and used the NTFS option for filesystem.

After re-installing Windows, and then all of the drivers, the machine is noticably slower than it should be. I think I may have figured out what the problem is from a forum post out there (Allan - posted Oct 25) - after reading that, I googled "dell inspiron", "chipset driver first". I found good evidence that it's important to install the Dell chipset driver first, because it has some effect on subsequent driver installations.

Dang. I'm not sure if I installed that one first or not. So, I'm going to have to back up all my stuffs again, wipe the disk and reinstall. If the correct driver installation helps, I'll post the results!

p.s. The batteries in my mouse just died. A sign? -Jeff

Autumn has taken hold in Santa Fe. My front yard attests to that, being completely blanketed in fallen leaves which I have no immediate desire to go out and rake up! (Lazy.) Anyway, it was a busy summer, and my girlfriend and I almost missed our chance to indulge in a standard summer ritual: our informal margarita tour.

Our favorite margarita spot is the same place most Santa Fe locals would guess: Maria's. In terms of both variety and quality, we weren't disappointed. This year, I was drinking the "Silver Bullet", and two of them left me feeling quite nice.

We checked out a couple of other local joints with mixed reviews. I won't name those places since  you can get a margarita pretty much anywhere in Santa Fe and the drink has to be really good to stand out. I will mention, however two other places that have done right by me in the past with regard to margaritas: The Cowgirl is one: I usually get a frozen margarita there since they serve it in a nice, tall frosty mug. I've had their house margarita as well, which isn't bad. The atmosphere is really western there and if you go in the wintertime, you can sit next to a wood stove.

The second place I'll mention is Tomasita's. (I couldn't find a website for it.) I've had margaritas there before that I bought by the pitcher with some friends. They were delicious and Tomasita's offers some varity in tequilas. I've heard they they offer a frozen margarita with a swirl of sangria, which sounds awesome but I've never tried it.

One other place in Santa Fe that I've had a good margarita at is Del Charro. Its prices are reasonable and they give you the shaker with some extra margarita in it along with your drink. That ain't half bad!