Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Guido on the History of Python

Guido van Rossum, the creator and BDFL of the Python programming language has started a blog to write about the history of Python. So far it has been a very enjoyable read, I recommend it to anyone interested in Python.

He also has another blog that I find to be well worth reading.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

2008 in Review

I thought that I would jot down a few things from 2008, sort of a Highlights and Bloopers Reel overview.

  • I started the year with no job, which I liked, but was really not good, money-wise. So I spent some time looking for a job, at the worst time of the year to look for Setup Authoring jobs. And finally I decided to work on building up my side business. I had two partners who had been working on this company for a couple of years as their main job and we were struggling so I thought that I could help ramp things up.
  • I learned many things, but mostly I found that 3 computer geeks in the technology world have a really hard time doing effective marketing.
  • I spent our savings on bills while I tried to get the business to ramp up.
  • Eventually it became clear that what I was doing was ineffective and that I needed to get a normal 9 to 5 job to try to recover financially.
  • At this point we nearly had to move to Oklahoma, because the job market in Dallas was pretty weak for Setup Authoring and I had found job there. And so for weeks I would get up at 2 AM on Mondays drive from Dallas, Texas to Bartlesville, Ok. Work the job I had there, stay in a cheap hotel, a very cheap hotel, a cheap hotel that had something crawling around in the ceiling tiles. Something big. Then I would leave work on Fridays and drive back to Dallas.
  • Since then I have found one contract then another in the Dallas area so while we had to give up the house, we didn't have to leave the area.
  • We started gaming twice a week, "So I got that goin' for me, which is nice." (two games currently, both 4th ed D&D)
  • Several people important to me died this year.
  • Some Greats made more music.
  • Very excitingly a blog entry of mine got linked to by Lifehacker (here). Which increased my number of visits greatly.
And then the year was over.