New Computer

I'm writing this on a new computer I got yesterday. It's called Fit PC2, and it's really really small, and pretty green as well.

Not as cool as a new mac, but nice none-the-less. It's ridiculous how small these things have gotten.

Better World Books

For the last couple of months I've been ordering my books from BetterWorldBooks.com. It's an online book store with a soul. All the books I order are shiped in carbon free packages (if you exclude the air plane that delivers the package). In addition, the company diverts funds to help fund literacy around the world.

The nice part is that it isn't expensive either. Their prices usually compete with Amazon, especially considering that shipping is $3.97 around the world (free for the US). That alone would probably make it worthwhile for people outside of the states (yes, there are a couple of us out here).

They're also really nice. I occasionally get free treats, such a chocolate bars or tea. It's just fun. Alas, they give me nothing for writing this post :-).

Book updates

I've updates my current reading list page, and even added short reviews for books I finished reading. Right now this includes everything I read, including novels and history books. Most are computer related in some way, though.

The reading list is accessible from the menu to right, at the top.

First Donation

Today I donated money to an open-source project for the first time. And it felt good.

I've decided that paying for free open-source projects you use and find helpful is a good way to go. Money was more of a problem during my university days, and I think it's a nice model to use good software when you need it, and pay for it when you can.

If you're wondering, the project is Review Board, a code-review web 2.0 application. I've been playing with it at work for a couple of days, and it's really nice. A few glitches during the installation, but it's at the RC stage, which means that it's stable, but glitches are still expected. It also means it's a nice time to give the developers a kindly push in the right direction.

Maintenance Mode

After a vacation, you really need some time off.

So I'm not going to talk about computer programming today.

In computer programming, we have two modes of operation - maintenance of what we have so far and creating new features. Maintenance is about fixing bugs in the code, updating the documentation and every other task that we programmer love to hate. Creating new stuff is cool. That's why we started programming - to create stuff. We like to create stuff, we hate to support it. Kind of like parenthood, I would guess.

Too bad for us. We can't avoid maintenance mode (unless you happen to be a consultant or something). You really shouldn't add new features until you get rid of the major existing bugs. And the same thing is true in life - the caveman, sorry, cave-person, didn't have time to invent the wheel until he had food in his belly. Hungry men don't create things - they look for food.

Just as in programming you need to constantly fix bugs to maintain the quality of an evolving product, so too must you constantly maintain your body and mind before you start to improve yourself. There are the usual things:

1. Brush your teeth at least twice a day
2. Eat & Drink
   
3. Sleep

We all do the above to maintain our body at the most basic level. After that, we have to maintain our house:

1. Wash the dishes
2. Do the laundry
3. Clean the house
4. ...
   

At a higher level still, there are more maintenance jobs:

1. Exercise at least three times a week
2. Spend time with our loved ones
3. Do something unrelated to anything - see movies, read novels, go hiking in nature, ...

These maintenance jobs are the most important so far, but they can't be done very well unless we finished our other tasks. In particular, everyone acknowledges that exercising regularly is very important, but too many people don't actually do it. And spending time with our significant other is so important that I'm actually willing to use the stupid term "significant other".

I think I covered most of the maintenance tasks so far. Now, before I finish, I'd like to point out that I'm not a native English speaker, and I remember hearing that it's bad to use the same word over and over again. While I didn't bother looking for a substitute for "maintenance", mainly because I didn't get the spelling correct on my first try, I did intentionally avoid a synonym for "job" - the word "chore". This isn't because my wife would be offended if I said spending time with her is a chore, but because I really don't think of these tasks as chores. They are a minimal set of things we need to do to keep what we have so far. The higher up we go, the more fun these tasks are.

Finally, the last form of maintenance is:

1. Create something new. Challenge yourself each day.

This fights stagnation. We have to move forward. And it isn't really about maintenance, but it's good to force yourself.

Note also that I didn't put work anywhere up there. If your job goes up somewhere on your maintenance list, find another job.

Now, where did I leave those extra 10 hours a day...