Snob, I Am

snob n. One who tends to patronize, rebuff, or ignore people regarded as social inferiors and imitate, admire, or seek association with people.

Early this year i made the transition from coffee aficionado to coffee snob. It was no coincidence that this transition coincided with starting to drink black coffee. Without additives to mask the bitterness (or take the edge off the carbon taste that appears after the carafe has been on the burner for 5 hours), i tend to notice poor tasting coffee more often now.

I have determined that i am also a pistachio snob. Unlike the transition to a coffee snob, i grew up as a pistachio snob, but did not fully understand that until recently.

You see, i grew up on Iranian pistachios. Each year my grandfather would receive two or more large cans of pistachios from Iran through a business contact. I remember them quite vividly as they always had the picture of Ayatollah Khomeinin on each can.

Fast forward 30 years: now i find myself not really enjoying the tiny, bland nuts labeled as pistachios at the local grocery. This fact was highlighted when i recently purchased some "California Jumbo Pistachios". The Fiddyment Farms pistachios actually reminded me of those from my youth.

I don't see me buying any more from the local grocery; i'll save up and enjoy a tasty treat once a year or so. I can be a snob like that.

The Sickness: Update

At the follow-up doctors appointment the doctor had me do the two laps around the office again. The results showed that my lungs were functioning much better; however, my pulse was quite high given that i was simply walking (110 bpm).

The doctor was also still concerned about my fatigue; he ordered another blood panel to be sure i was not anemic (the results from the ER visit showed slight anemia). He also ordered an echocardiogram stress test and referred me to a cardiologist.

So the good news is that the blood test results were fine. It is also good news that the echo-stress test was perfectly normal as well.

The bad news is that all the tests were fine. :-/

The diagnosis has been amended to simply "nasty virus". Ideally we'd all love to know exactly what attacked my system, but things aren't always ideal.

The best news is that currently i am at about 98% of "normal" and feel pretty well.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers. I really appreciate it.

The Last Three Weeks

Have you been out of the country?

Have you taken any trips?

No, those aren't questions being asked by friends who have missed my smiling face, er, avatar.  [Those are more like "whazzup dog?" or "sup hos?" or "hey sweetie pie?" (the latter from somone called SpringBabe9783 via AIM)]

No, those questions are being asked by my doctors; the physicians being charged with fixing my physical condition.  Oh, the problem? Well...

It all started the 7th of March (or so we believe), ran a fever for one night, felt horrible, and spent the next two days recovering.

Two days later the fever returned and i went to the doctor for the first time. The diagnosis was walking pneumonia. The doc prescribed avelox and home i went.

Five days later -- having spent the majority of that time in bed -- i still had a fever and felt horrible. Back to the doctor i went.

After checking me over, the doctor decided to hook me up to a pulse oximeter. At rest the SpO2 reading was 94%. A tad low to start. The doctor asked me to take a couple of laps around the office.

After lap one, the reading sagged to 90%. After lap two, we watched the reading plummet to 84%. After sitting down again in the exam room, i began to feel hot and my vision got blurred...yeah, i was headed for la-la land; fortunately, the doc got me some water and up on the exam table pretty quick.

After recovering on the table for while, then receiving a shot of rocephin and a prescription for a Z-pack, i headed off for a chest X-ray. I also had a new pet name from my bride, hypoxic man.

The diagnosis was amended to community-acquired pneumonia.

But now it gets interesting. The nurse calls the next day to let me know the chest X-ray is clear.

Three days later things are looking-up, sorta. I was no longer feverish (yah!), but still hypoxic man; any exertion would leave me sucking-wind, literally. And by exertion i don't mean dance aerobics, i mean simply standing-up or walking. :-/ My wife called the doctors office, explained my condition. Their advice? Take a trip to the emergency room.

Simply getting checked in to the emergency department was a chore. The person in front of me had fell from the "second story" of a building and had head and back pain. The question posed by the check-in nurse must have been worth a million dollars: "how far did you fall?" It had to be worth that much because it necessitated twenty minutes and using all three life-lines out to spanish-speaking staff members to ask the question. Apparently the difference between 12 or 17 feet had huge ramifications for the questionnaire in front of her. Of course, it wasn't until she got her question answered that she offered the guy a wheelchair.

ER Tip #1: "i'm having shortness of breath" produces a wheelchair immediately.

After getting checked-in and triaged, i only had to wait about 15 minutes for a "room". Over the next 8 hours i would have: much blood taken, a flu test, another chest X-ray, two small cans of ginger-ale, some saltine crackers, and a chest CT. The latter was ordered after one of the blood tests (D-dimer) came back and the doctor wanted to rule out a blood-clot in a lung.

So after a day of testing they found nothing to warrant any further testing. Translated: it was time to go home.

So the latest diagnosis is generally: viral pneumonia. Which comes back to the questions the doctors are asking, because it would seem that i'm the only one around with this virus...or at least with this set of symptoms. The ER doctor actually came back in to the "room" twice to ask if i had been somewhere.

My wife and even my kids doctors are still concerned. The exertion => shortness of breath connection is also associated with many ticker-related issues.

The good news is that i am improving, but only a little each day. I'm sleeping a lot, usually taking a couple of naps during the day. This morning i stood up for about 30 minutes doing stuff in the kitchen and then needed to sit down.

On the improvement side, even though i am still having the shortness of breath it is taking a little longer to show-up when doing stuff and recovery after sitting down doesn't seem to be taking as long. Hey, i'll take it!

I have another follow-up with the doctor in another 5 days. He seems to expect me to be pretty well recovered by then and wants me to run laps around the office again. Should be interesting.

Freedom Zero versus Useful, You Decide

Jeff Atwood posed the question:

Why Doesn't Anyone Give a Crap About Freedom Zero?

First, what is freedom zero? It comes from the GNU Free Software Foundation free software definition:

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.

The context for the question is Apple Computer. Why is Apple so successful at selling hardware and software that forces vendor lock-in?

First, i should state that i don't believe in Freedom Zero. It is an ideal that can't stand alone, and never will. JP Rangaswami touches on many of the complex issues in his latest Walking the Plank: A Sunday Stroll through Piracy. One of the trueisms he touches on resonates with me and my desire to buy Macs:

People pay a premium for natural scarcity

In 2008, a computer that provides hardware that works consistently, software that works consistently and has a modicum of security, and provides a platform for getting work done is a scarce resource.

I will pay a premium (and ask my employer to do the same) for a computer system that works. I'm not saying that Apple nor the Mac is a perfect system; that will never happen. What i am saying is that the Mac platform takes care of problems and services that i would otherwise have to spend my time fussing over.

My time is worth something. Yes, i could play with a variety of back-up scripts/packages on an Ubuntu Linux system and mimic Time Machine, but why? I could go with a Linux system as long as i was willing to give up most functions on my printer/scanner. I guess that is my fault for researching the best value on a quality multipurpose print/copy/scan device.

Ten years ago, i would have (and did) build a Linux system for home use. I won't be doing that again; chalk it up to experience.

I love Linux and am a big proponent of open source software; however, Freedom Zero doesn't mean crap me. There are things of more value in life.

OpenID and Leadership

Suppose you believe your web application to have a significant value proposition leading you to request a user sign-up with your service. What should you do?

In 2008 the answer is very clear: OpenID.

"We're taking a leadership role in bringing OpenID to the mass audience." -- Denis Roy, Yahoo! PR

OpenID is about the user. It is about empowering the user to take control of their online identity. Soon, users will be asking for it.

If you really care about your users, OpenID has to be a priority. As with any change, OpenID adoption does require leadership. AOL, Google and Yahoo! are stepping up. If you're in the position of technology education and leadership, better not let this pass you by.

Account Sign-Up Usability Redux

There have been a few articles of late talking about usable sign-up procedures for sites wanting to provide user accounts; however, i think it bears revisiting is the "why" for accounts in the first place. The very number one mistake in the first article linked above:

Mistake #1: Having a Sign-in In The First Place -- Jared M. Spool

There are way too many sites that offer/require accounts to do the simplest of things:

• site feedback


• ask a question


• leave a comment


• provide location specific content


• just to buy something

Some props to some sites that do it right:

• Yahoo! - want to see TV or Movie listing for your area, just give them a zipcode


• craigslist - post and manage your item/event/rant, no account required


• etix.com - creates a convenience account post sales, because most likely you won't need it


• Bed Bath and Beyond


• most blogs - just ask for name/email to comment

The text at Bed Bath and Beyond says it perfectly:

You don't need an account to place an order. To make future shopping easier, you can create an account upon order completion.

Do you really want to serve your users? Stop creating artificial barriers that keep folks from performing the simplest of tasks. If you really think users want your email, ask them point-blank to join a mailing list (e.g. Birkenstock USA).

Forcing users to create an account to perform basic tasks as a means to collect their email addresses or generate some self-serving user statistics is just not user friendly nor customer centered.

Coffee Pains

When our coffeemaker went belly-up after Christmas, i had no idea how difficult it would be to find a replacement. Reading reviews for coffeemakers is a waste of time because every Joe Brewer expects something different. For some it is (1) simply a drug delivery mechanism, for others it is a (2) topping on a mound of sugar and/or cream, and for yet another group it is a (3) hot morning wine. Those in the first two camps really skew the reviews because i believe they are the majority. Previously, i was a nomad roaming between the three camps; today i limit roaming to camps (1) and (3).

I've had a coffeemaker at work for more than three years that brews a consistent cup of coffee so i was pleasantly surprised to find the same/similar model on sale after Christmas. After a rebate, it would cost five bucks; however, after trying five(!) different coffeemakers and not being able to find one that worked properly, we gave up. The sad thing was that those units made fine coffee, but the electronic clock did not work.

I'm only interested in three features in a coffeemaker: coffee, 2 hour shut-off (for safety), and programmable start. The latter is actually not a hard requirement, but it is a feature i will use if available. However, without a working clock the two extra features are rendered worthless.

We decided to try another model from the same company because the coffee did turn out well. The new model had the same set of features, appeared just to be a new (poorer) design. Our first test yielded decent coffee and a working clock. Tests two and three yielded hot coffee leaking out on the kitchen counter. I could not identify the actual problem while trying to keep from getting scalded. We cleaned it out well and tried again, but still failure.

Black & Decker, we bid you farewell. Models tried: DCM2500 and DE755B

A friend was in the market for a coffeemaker too. He bought one, so i asked what he thought; his response:

it heats water up, and sends it through a basket of coffee grounds - and it looks like a robot, so those all fit the short term qualifications -- @jasonadamyoung

Can you sense the excitement of the new coffeemaker? Yeah, me too.

Earlier someone had given him some advice that i found most interesting:

Melita manual drip coffee cone. Even the cheapest makes the best coffee there is. http://tinyurl.com/2gp2b6 -- @rconlon

This was interesting because i actually had one! Never been used. Got it as a promo from Melitta. Additionally, i had received an electric water kettle for Christmas (to make using the coffee press more convenient...and does it). She was right, it makes a great cup of joe.

So now we have a new coffeemaker at home; it happens to be the one from my office. It is good to have consistent coffee again.

At work i'll use the #2 Cone Melitta Perfect Brew Coffee Filter Holder (pictured above). The only question now is whether i need another electric kettle for the office...i'm thinking yes. :-)