Category Archives: Jack Handy

I once purchased a “bagless” vacuum cleaner, thinking that it would be convenient to not have to worry about keeping up a supply of vacuum cleaner bags. (To be fair: that part went according to plan.) What I did not … Continue reading →

Seth Godin has got a pretty good post up on “the law of the little shovel”. (Basically, if you have limited resources, and want to make a big impact, you need to concentrate.) It’s a good metaphor. And since I … Continue reading →

Today marks one year since I began regular posting on this blog. It also marks the 200th post, which is the sort of coincidence that makes me happy. So, some brief reflections.

As in the XKCD comic to the left, sometimes I just can’t resist a good rant. I hope you’ll indulge me. Scott Adams has put a post up on his blog that contains a large number of wrong-headed notions. In … Continue reading →

Last Wednesday, I discussed Chapter 7 of “Men Against Fire“. That chapter ends with a discussion of leadership, closing with the admonition that “It is not always possible to lead from behind”. At the time, I wasn’t quite sure what … Continue reading →

Congratulations to Mark Webber on his first F1 victory. I’ve been a fan of Mark’s since his inaugural F1 race, when he took a Minardi from 18th on the grid to a points finish in 5th. He’s in a tough … Continue reading →

It’s easy to go overboard with Bob Dylan fandom – Dylanology, etc. – and it’s true both that a little Bob goes a long way, and that most of his songs Make No Damn Sense Whatsoever, but surely we’d be … Continue reading →

The Declaration of Independence is not without interest. It’s not much longer than a blog post – and even features what looks to be an early form of the bullet point – but a lot more important.

Here are three quick, vaguely iPhone-related items: Datacase looks like a pretty neat app. plistlib is a useful way to manage plists from within Python. It’s a Bad Idea to manage plists with over 100K items from Xcode. (Actually, this … Continue reading →

While reading through a 1938 copy of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, I came across this paragraph: Shortly after the close of the war, I learned an invaluable lesson one night in London. I was manager … Continue reading →