Sunday, January 1, 2017 - The Wit and Ramblings of David Giard
Demanding rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty

1/1
Today I am grateful to all those who touched my life in 2016. Yes, all of them.

12/31
Today I am grateful for an amazing 2016!

12/30
Today I am grateful for my new electric toothbrush.

12/29
Today I am grateful for all the fresh food that is now in my refrigerator.

12/28
Today I am grateful
-to spend a few days with my family in Michigan
-for my first visit to the Four Winds Casino last night.

12/27
Today I am grateful for:
-The hospitality of Diane and Pat this week
-Dinner last night with Ken -A drink from Paul at The New Parthenon
-Visits yesterday to the homes of my brother, my sister, and my mother

12/26
Today I am grateful to spend Christmas Day with my family.

12/24
Today I am grateful for an excellent dinner last night at a Turkish restaurant in Roscoe Village.

12/23
Today I am grateful that last week's painfully cold weather has abated.

12/22
Today I am grateful to spend much of yesterday afternoon with Nick and to see the SIUE - Marquette basketball game last night.

12/21
Today I am grateful for
-a basketball game at UIC last night
-my second sleep study and my new cpap machine

12/20
Today I am grateful for Christmas presents from Emilija.

12/19
Today I am grateful I get to watch TV shows after they already aired.

12/18
Today I am grateful to see a performance of Stomp last night at the Broadway Playhouse Theater.

12/17
Today I am grateful for free, self-paced, online courses.

12/16
Today I am grateful that I still get to give away stuff that other people paid for.

12/15
Today I am grateful to deliver my final technical presentation of 2016 last night.

12/14
Today I am grateful for 2 user groups in1 day, including a chance to speak at a new one.

12/13
Today I am grateful that I can learn so much, sitting at my laptop in my living room.

12/12
Today I am grateful for my new winter coat.

12/11
Today I am grateful for pad thai last night in Lincoln Square.

12/10
Today I am grateful to see Stanley Clarke in concert last night.

12/9
Today I am grateful for the soreness in my upper body, thanks to yesterday's training session.

12/8
Today I am grateful to attend the Chicago User Group Holiday Party last night.

12/7
Today I am grateful that, after attending for years, I was finally the featured speaker at the Chicago JavaScript meetup last night.

12/6
Today I am grateful that I finished my final work trip of 2016 yesterday.

12/5
Today I am grateful to J. Tower for returning my socks to me.

Aral and Corelia Verkosigan have just married and returned to Aral's home planet of Barrayar. They are looking forward to Aral's retirement and to raising a family. But the Emperor is dying and Aral is forced back into service as Imperial Regent until the heir to the throne - 5-year-old Gregor - comes of age.

They quickly find themselves trapped in the political machinations of the Barrayaran Empire and of those scheming to gain power vacated by the dying Emperor.

Shortly after Aral's appointment as Regent, a failed assassination attempt leaves Cordelia's unborn child severely injured and in danger of dying.

And then, a group of Barrayaran noblemen attempt a coup.

Barrayar is Lois McMaster Bujold's sequel to her first novel - Shards of Honor. It concludes the story of Cordelia - former adversary and now wife of Aral Verkosigan. At the end of the story, Miles Verkosigan is born. Miles is the character upon which much of this series of books revolves.

But for now, we focus on Miles's mother Cordelia - a woman caught in a revolution that she did not plan for. She is the strong female hero often lacking in science fiction stories. And Bujold builds her character well - from her distress at her new environment to her fight to save the life of her unborn handicapped son to her role in battling the traitors trying to usurp power for themselves. We see her as a full person complete with weaknesses to soften her and the strength to overcome those weaknesses.

But the novel isn't just about character development. A Civil War, multiple assassination attempts, and a quest to rescue a princess provide plenty of action.

Barrayar is an excellent follow-up to Shards of Honor.

Episode 449

Matt Groves on Couchbase

A friend recently emailed me to say he accepted a job leading the Microsoft practice of a consulting company that doesn’t work much with Microsoft technologies. As part of his job, he is expected to evangelize the practice and technologies. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone do this, so I’m sharing my response below.

Congratulations on the new job! It sounds like you are on the right track.

User groups are a great way to connect with the local developer community. They are good for finding customers, but better for recruiting talent. Consider sponsoring. Also, encourage your team to speak at user groups and code camps. This builds credibility and name recognition.

The lunchtime sessions to teach technology sound great. Consider having a long session once a month and inviting the public.

You are smart to focus on Azure. Azure is a big part of Microsoft’s future and, because Azure supports so many open source and competing technologies, it will fit in well with existing projects and existing customers. Key parts of Azure that appeal to non-Microsoft technologists are:

• Web Apps that support Java, node, Python, and other languages
• Mobile Apps provide a back-end for Android or iPhone apps
• Linux VMs on Azure (about a third of all Azure VMs run Linux)
• HD Insight Big Data Analysis based on Hadoop open source supports any data type (and you can code in Python)
• Azure Machine Learning supports any data type (and you can code in Python)

There are others, but this is a good start.

Episode 448

Safia Abdalla on nteract

Before Neil Gaiman became a famous novelist, he was a famous comic book author. And one of his most famous comic book creations was The Sandman.

The Sandman debuted in his own DC Comics title in 1989 and was moved to DC's Vertigo brand a few years later. Gaiman penned the first 75 issues over a 5-year span.

The story begins in 19th century England as a group of amateur sorcerers attempt to trap Death, but mistakenly capture Dream instead. After a century of imprisonment, Dream manages to escape and return to his dominion.

Dream (a.k.a.. Morpheus, a.k.a. The Sandman) is one of The Endless - a family of god-like beings, each with control over a specific dominion. His siblings include Death, Destiny, Delirium, Despair, Desire, and Destruction. Dream is as much human as god and shows many of the weaknesses of a human, similar to the pagan deities of ancient Greece or Rome.

Although we saw very little of the DC superheroes in the pages of The Sandman, many character's from the horror and macabre titles of that universe were featured. Cain and Abel of The House of Mystery and The  House of Secrets respectively made frequent appearances.

Gaiman introduces us to a host of new characters that populate and interact with the Dream World. But he also sets the series firmly in the DC universe by brining in established characters. Mainstream super heroes, such as Batman and Superman make brief cameos; but we see much more of the alternative and macabre DC personas. For example, we learn that the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets (and their caretakers - Cain and Abel, respectively) are located in the Dream World. And Dream's brother Destiny is the same Destiny who narrated Weird Mystery Tales and Secrets of Haunted House. Other pre-existing characters in this series include Etrigan the Demon, John Constantine, Doctor Destiny, Mister Miracle, and The Fury. We also get brief appearances by Golden Age Sandman Wesley Dodds and the bizarre Jack Kirby Sandman of the '70's. Even a teenage US President named Prez - an obscure character from a 4-issue run in the mid-1970s is referenced in the story.

The stories are dark, but entertaining. They require more focus than most comics, given the complexity. Storylines may take a year or more to resolve, while other subplots unfold.

Some might be turned off by the artwork, which tends toward more abstract and sketchy; but this fits the dark mood of the series.

A few years ago, DC released a set of 10 paperbacks that include Sandman #1-75. Rather than making each volume of equal length, DC chose to keep related stories together, so that subplots are introduced and resolved in the same volume. This is how I read the series and I would recommend others do the same.

I loved the mythology of the story and I loved the humanness of it. We see Gaiman evolve as a writer over the course of the 5 years he wrote the series. If you are a Neil Gaiman fan or a fan of dark fantasy comics, I recommend this series.

This is not the Stanley Clarke I remember. I remember Stanley Clarke in the 1970s and 1980s recording Jazz-Rock fusion and collaborating with the giants of the day, such as Chick Corea, Al Dimeola, and George Duke. He was all that was new and modern with his electric bass and his giant afro and his talking guitar.  The albums he recorded with Return to Forever are among the best of the genre.

Friday night at S.P.A.C.E. in Evanston, IL, Clarke began as the electric jazz hero. Now in his mid-60s, he no longer sports the afro, but he retains the energy of his early days.

Clarke began the show, electric bass in hand, playing songs reminiscent of his fusion heyday. But halfway through his set, he swapped the electric bass guitar for an upright bass. One song later, his keyboardist slid from an electric keyboard set to a baby grand and suddenly the jazz was more straight ahead. And more sweet. The music ranged from fusion to funk to bee bop, including a few bars of Coltrane's classic "A Love Supreme".

His quartet consisted of 2 keyboardists, a drummer, and Stanley himself. The 3 others were between a third and a half Clarke's age, but they blended really well and Clarke still brings the energy of his own youth.

Clarke ended with an frenetic encore that included a call and response with the crowd.

His drummer - Mike Mitchell, aka "Blaque Dynamite" - was especially impressive.

Based on the energy and enthusiasm I saw Friday night, I expect Stanley Clarke will be entertaining audiences for a long time.

Episode 447

Jon DeJong on JavaScript Observables

Episode 446

Douglas Crockford on the Seif Project

12/4
Today I am grateful for the first snow of the winter.

12/3
Today I am grateful for a week in New York City and all that I learned there while coding with smart people.

12/2
Today I am grateful to see a Nets game at the Barclay Center last night.

12/1
Today I am grateful to see "The Book of Mormon" on Broadway last night.

11/30
Today I am grateful for a walk around Times Square last night.

11/29
Today I am grateful for my first visit to New York City in over 3 years.

11/28
Today I am grateful to relax and watch the NFL on a Sunday afternoon.

11/27
Today I am grateful for a dinner party at Emilija's last night.

11/26
Today I am grateful for a few days in Michigan.

11/25
Today I am grateful for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with my siblings and their families.

11/24
Today I am grateful for an afternoon in St. Joseph yesterday.

11/23
Today I am grateful for my first visit to New Buffalo, MI.

11/22
Today I am grateful for those who said they were inspired by me in the same way I was inspired by others.

11/21
Today I am grateful there is a gym inside the building where I live.

11/20
Today I am grateful that I still live in a country where freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution.

11/19
Today I am grateful for: -an after-work drink with Jon -the Flatlanders concert last night at the Old Time School of Folk Music

11/18
Today I am grateful for my first-ever sleep study last night.

11/17
Today I am grateful to David, who made me look good this week.

11/16
Today I am grateful to meet one of my work goals for the current half-year with 6 weeks to spare.

11/15
Today I am grateful to get a new laptop set this morning up after mine died yesterday.

11/14
Today I am grateful to eat lunch on my balcony in mid-November. In Chicago!

11/13
Today I am grateful for extra sleep last night.

11/12
Today I am grateful to see Dr. Strange during a rare visit to a movie theater yesterday.

11/11
Today I am grateful to our nation's veterans, especially my late father Lt Cmdr E. Normand Giard, US Navy.

11/10
Today I am grateful for dinner with Kevin last night.

11/9
Today I am grateful for a Personal Trainer session yesterday for the first time in months.

11/8
Today I am grateful for: -a visit from Randy the past few days -a chance to cast a vote for elected officials

11/7
Today I am grateful for a walk through the Linne Woods Forest Preserve yesterday morning.