Author Archives: Randy Peterman

Communication Is Hard

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At least that’s what they tell me.  If you tell someone something enough times your job as a communicator will either get infinitely easier because they’ll finally get it.  Or it’ll get much, much harder because the repetition causes the pith helmets and ear plugs to be put into place.  I tell my daughters, “Think before you act,” about a bazillion times a month.  I’m pretty sure they think it’s some mantra that my parents told me.  It isn’t.  My dad told me, “it is your mother and I’s responsibility to raise you to be an adult when you’re 18.”  That worked out pretty well because I was a kid who was just looking for a place, a time, and a thing to be scared about.  At 17 and 365 days I was scared of 18 because it meat adulthood.

I hope that my children one day learn to think before they act.  I suspect it’ll be a lesson they learn throughout their lives.  I also hope that when they turn 17 and 365 days they don’t panic like I did – because if there’s one thing I’ve learned it is that I have more than one thing to learn.

Strange Day in Marriage Land

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So Harry Reid has decided that prostitution is bad for Nevada (I think it’s terrible for marriages).  And Obama thinks that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional.  If consenting adults… wait, you don’t suspect that these senators (one former, of course) are being inconsistent, do you?  Nah, that’s impossible.

My Favorite Child

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I just overheard some dialog on the TV show ‘House’ a character tell her daughter, “I like your sister better than you.”  It is absolutely craptastic to hear even if it isn’t realy.  I love both of my daughters.  They’re precious.  They’re both my favorite.

Don’t favor a child.  It’s the worst thing you could do.

Hiybbprqag

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I am flabbergasted that Google has its knickers in a twist over the Bing ‘copying’ strategy.  The truth is that Google spiders MSDN, Microsoft’s internal nerdvana site, and provides excellent results.  To the point that I go to Google to search Microsoft.  Just because Microsoft goes to Google to search Microsoft doesn’t mean they’re copying results, they’re just doing the equivalent to doping before a major competition.

Some folks have suggested that Google is upset because Microsoft copied their results because the algorithm Google has is better.  This could not be further from the truth.  Google’s algorithm is simply a bunch of code running on super-cheap hardware.  Microsoft’s code is simply a bunch of code running on Windows hardware and software churning out the best results Microsoft knows how to dish out: results from Google.  That’s just smart business.  Bing!

Oh, and Hybbprqag is one of the words Google says Microsoft copied results for.

Oh, and Oh, I should point out that I use Bing because I prefer their user agreement and privacy policy ever so slightly more than Google’s.

Smooth. Jazz.

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I’m praying for our friends the Masons as they gear up to head to China.  In China they will meet and adopt their new daughter for the first time.  They already have a precious daughter Nadia and she’ll be excitedly meeting her Chinese sister for the first time, but from the perspective of a child.  I’m hoping that the trip goes well, the kids settle in together, and that Nadia says something funny, like she usually does, and Louanne or Mike will tweet it, blog it, or Facebook it (where Jessica will see it).  She’s said some pretty funny things before – but she’s pretty jazzed right now, so the funny may be quite amped.

20 Below

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The temperature is supposed to drop to -20 Fahrenheit tonight.  It is at times like this that I’m grateful for engineers and those who went before me.  This part of Colorado, the plains before the Rockies, used to be populated with brave souls who lived in sod houses.  Their version of insulation was the thick mud and grass and they had a wooden door, probably with cracks in various places, and if they had the luxury of a stove or fireplace wood was more scarce, so you wouldn’t just burn it without considering the need to replenish the supply and cooking needs.

I suppose now would be a good time to point out that ice is an important part of making ice cream (in a traditional recipe and manufacturing process).  So bring on the 20 below, and pass the milk, sugar, vanilla, half-and-half and of course the mittens.