A Real virus warning e-mail

Wow, this one is actually real, snopes has confirmed it. Instead of sending out an e-mail, I figured I'd post it here :)

Subject: SNOPES VERIFIED VIRUS---NO JOKE!

With Christmas fast approaching,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,watch out for this...
be alert..



Please read the following. It applies to FedEx as well,
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The newest virus circulating is the UPS Delivery Failure. You will receive an email from UPS Packet Service along with a packet number. NOTE: The word packet is mis-spelled on this line. It will say that they were un-able to deliver a package sent to you on such and such a date. It then asks you to print out the invoice copy attached. DON'T TRY TO PRINT THIS. IT LAUNCHES THE VIRUS! Pass this warning on to all your PC operators at work and home. This virus has caused Millions of dollars in damage in the past few days.

Virtualization on Mac OS X

I've really enjoyed using virtualization on my computers, both when I was running Windows machines, and then when I switched to Macs.

When I first switched to a Mac I did have to give up my favorite virtualization software from VMWare, and start using Parallels. My experience with Parallels was less than endearing, and when I found out that VMWare was coming out with a version for my Mac I was overjoyed.

I've discussed various versions of both Parallels and Fusion, and I always leaned towards VMWare. The performance to me always seemed much better, and the graphics compatibility has also been better. I've recently finally removed Parallels (I actually purchased both versions) and am using Fusion only now.

Version 2.0 of Fusion is even better, the interface is much more 'Mac' like and easier to use, and it's just cemented my appreciation for this application. I've even taken to doing presentations on my Macbook for Windows Development conferences, and if people can't see my laptop, they never know that I'm running a Mac.

I just read an article where someone compared the two applications side by side, and it basically reinforces my perceptions that VMWare is definitely the better performer of the two products. I'll be really interested to see his next article after he compares VMWare to VirtualBox.

Phoenix Mars Lander - Popular on Twitter

Just read this article discussing how popular the Phoenix Mars Lander had become. Turns out that someone at NASA setup a twitter account for Phoenix, as a way for some 'dedicated' space fans to get updates as it made its descent.

The feed was live updates from the lander, and ended up becoming very popular. Something like 40,000 people had signed up toward the end as Phoenix succumbed to the Martian winter.

Nasa was surprised by the response, and is going to use this as a 'blueprint' going forward to engage the public more with the Space Exploration Program.

I wish I had known about this earlier, to me this is an excellent use of Twitter. I've never really enjoyed the 'following' of someone who was just going about their daily life. I think the real attraction of Twitter is when it's something unique or unusual happening, or if the person is unusual as in the case of the Phoenix Lander.

I'm definitely going to be watching for more feeds like this, and I wonder what other unique uses could be found for Twitter. Maybe a server monitor, where a server can scream for help if something goes wrong? It would be much better than a constant stream of status e-mails.

Raleigh Code Camp

Well, it's fall so it must be time for another Code Camp.

I'm going to be presenting a session about using WaTiN in Visual Studio and some best practices for using it with TDD.

The ironic thing is, if I had done the presentation two months ago, it would be much different from the presentation I'm going to give on Sunday. TDD and Agile (which is something we are working on implementing within our group, with an eye toward seeding it out to the other dev groups in our company) has definitely been a learning and growing experience.

Looking back over the two years that we've been slowly changing our processes and development methods, it's been a very eye-opening experience. When we think back to where we were at when we first started, and how we did things back then, we simply say 'Wow, how the heck did we get anything done?'.

We implemented Agile and TDD in small pieces, using each scrum to try things out and see what worked and what didn't. Fortunately if something didn't work, it was not something that prevented us from meeting our backlog items, or effecting our schedule.

So in the past two years, we've never missed a delivery date on our scrums and projects, and we've had to switch projects a few times due to business needs. We've gotten buy in from the Strategic consulting group, QA, Managers, and product owners at our company. The best part is, all the feedback to our team is how much they enjoy working on projects with us compared to the old Waterfall method other groups are still using.

In fact, one of our latest scrums, we actually accomplished something I have never seen before. We completed an entire release to our production application without a single bug for the whole process. That's from initial Product backlog meeting, to the final release which was about 2 months ago. To our group this was the huge pay-off, and it was so awesome to be able to accomplish this without having to kill ourselves. We didn't work a bit of overtime, and we ended up delivering extra backlog items as well.

Anyway, WaTiN was one of those pieces that we tried, and unfortunately we made a wrong assumption or two on how to use it. We've now got it in the right place in our development lifecycle, and picked up the right tool for our true Unit Tests.

I'm just wondering now after reading this over, where our group will be in another 2 years?

Life is Good :)

Sad News

I just read about the passing of Michael Crichton. I still remember reading Andromeda Strain when I was about 10 or 11 years old. It was the first 'Adult' book I ever read, and I still remember how amazed I was with the computer technology he presented.

I've read a lot of his books, and played a few of the games based on his books, and have always enjoyed the places he took me, and the doors he opened with his questions about ethics and technology.

I highly recommend his book Next that talks about genetics, patents and the issues surrounding it.

I'm very bummed now that I won't have any more of his books to look forward too :(

Those nutty Druids

I just had to share what my buddy at work John came up as a nickname for those druids. We were listening to our boss complain about how Druids in WoW have been so abused for so long, and they are finally getting buffed instead of nerfed. That's when John said 'Yeah, that's because of the Dr-hoo-hoo-ids crying about it' (crying sound in the middle of Druid).

I busted out laughing and I'm still using it when I talk about the Dr-hoo-hoo-ids.

Of course he comes right back with Huntards, so I guess it's finally gotten evened up a bit :)