Mike-O-Matic

The past few days I’ve had three unrelated experiences that have made me realize something. This idea is blindingly obvious to most people out there, but for those who haven’t yet noticed it, perhaps this can serve as a wakeup call.
The easiest way to get rich in America is to write a book.
There is […]

Henry looked up from the manual to check the clock. 9:43 AM. Only been here 52 minutes today, he thought. Damn.
“Ready for coffee?” he heard over the cube wall.
“Sure.”
He threw the manual onto the desk and slinked out of the chair. Andy had just gotten in and didn’t even have a […]

Over the next few weeks we have a couple interesting projects coming along at 18th Street. For one, I am recommitting myself to get StevesLeads.com out the door in the next few months. The project was stalled somewhat when I decided I needed to overhaul the interface to make it more professional. […]

The IT manager is one of the most thankless careers there is. On the one hand, their direct reports are an eccentric bunch, often enjoying technology for its own sake regardless of the present business requirements. The only good code is new code. Written by them. With their favorite tools. […]

I am a huge Oakland A’s fan, and my guys are having a bit of a rough stretch right now. Somehow (until last night) they had been clinging on to first place despite having a league-low batting average, numerous key contributors on the DL or playing like they should be, more runs given up […]

This is the second in a two-part story about life at a small ISV. For Part 1, please click here.
Once the company decided to pursue the school food market, things began to happen pretty quickly. My dad started calling around and made some contacts within schools in the area. Eventually we were […]

When I graduated from college in May of 2001, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to end up. Like most kids who were a little wet behind the ears, I still thought that the Internet Gold Rush was in full swing. A number of my good friends had dropped out and found themselves in nice […]

So I’m looking for a new laptop PC, and I have it down to two different Acer models. One is an Aspire and the other is a Travelmate. Having not really purchased a computer in a while, I’m having a hard time discerning the differences between these two. The Travelmate as a […]

Microsoft has a complicated place in the lives of many software developers, present company included. It is often reviled or vilified, or simply dismissed as a provider of second-rate applications and operating systems. Is this criticism justified, or is there something else deeper lurking in the hearts of programmers […]

Over the past few years, the web interface for creating applications has come a long way. With AJAX and similar technologies, we now have the ability to have the browser interact directly with the server without page reloads in a more or less standard way, a critical step in perceived performance for end users. Applications […]