In a recent article I referred to the stages of competency, a concept I recall from my NLP days. Seems there is a company that consults in psychology and software that has mapped this to software. For an interesting read, see The Five Orders of Ignorance

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Other than my endorsement and reviews, there is not much new available at http://fywservices.com/bestFreeUtilities.php.

While I’m sure it will still screw up my workout and waistline, apparently it may help me screw it up longer:

Genetic engineering could give Joe Six Pack anti-aging and cancer-fighting benefits

Pushing Data to the Browser with Comet at http://www.developer.com/tech/article.php/3756841

I’ve said since the beginning of the SOA boom that it was the right idea being done wrong. Now, looks like people are giving up all together, according to this eWeek article.

SOA is still a good idea, but not the way most places are going about it. They expect the vendor software to solve all their problems, essentially dropping the A of SOA.

Found a really well-written article on how to cheaply debug Javascript in Internet Exploder at http://www.jonathanboutelle.com/mt/archives/2006/01/howto_debug_jav.html. But, since the paranoid client I am currently working for has Advanced Options locked, I’ll never know if it works until I try it at home

I added some DHTML tricks this weekend. Partly to make the site easier to read and partly just to show that I can. The most useful are the expand/collapse icons for the sections under Optimize and the most fun is my Doogie Howser impression on the Articles page.

While still a work in progress, all of the “under construction” includes have been replace by real text and functionality at http://fywservices.com/index.php

It is not complete, but at least people can find me again at http://www.fywservices.com

A distinguished young woman on a flight from Ireland asked the Priest beside her,’Father, may I ask a favor?’
‘Of course my child. What may I do for you?’
‘Well, I bought an expensive woman’s electronic hair dryer for my mother’s birthday that is unopened and well over the Customs limits, and I’m afraid they’ll confiscate it. Is there any way you could carry it through Customs for me? Under your robes, perhaps?’
The priest answered, ‘I would love to help you dear, but I must warn you: I will not lie.’
‘With your honest face, Father, no one will question you.’
When they got to Customs, she let the priest go ahead of her.
The official asked, ‘Father, do you have anything to declare?’
‘From the top of my head down to my waist, I have nothing to declare.’
The official thought this answer strange, so he then asked, ‘And what do you have to declare from your waist to the floor?’
‘I have a marvelous instrument designed to be used on a woman, but which is, to date, unused.’
Roaring with laughter, the official said, ‘Go ahead, Father… Next!’

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders & says..

‘Oh shit….she’s awake!’

(Ah, the wonderful humor sent along by a sister-in-law with a sense of both reality and humor)

This is the fairy tale that should have been read to us when we were little:
Once upon a time in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle.

The frog hopped into the princess’ lap and said: ‘ Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome prince, until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.

One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle with my mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so. ‘
~~~~~~~~
That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sautéed frog legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself…"I don’t fuckin’ think so.”

Just got around to updating the Dilbert RSS feed on the Fun Links page. If this is your only place to pick up your Scott Adams humor, you can now read the latest again and realize that it is too late to get a life.

Updated http://www.fywservices.com/portfolio/ yesterday, adding http://www.fywservices.com/jonesco/.

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company.

One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he’s lost. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old poodle thinks, ‘Oh, oh! I’m in deep doo-doo now!’ Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, ‘Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?’

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. ‘Whew!’ says the leopard, ‘That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!’

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, ‘Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, ‘What am I going to do now?’, but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says.

‘Where’s that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!

Moral of this story….

Don’t mess with old farts .. age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.

She was in the kitchen preparing to boil eggs for breakfast. He walked in; she turned and said, “You’ve got to make love to me this very moment.” His eyes lit up and he thought, “This is my lucky day.” Not wanting to lose the moment, he embraced her and then gave it his all right there on the kitchen table.

Afterwards she said, “Thanks” and returned to the stove. More than a little puzzled, he asked “What was that all about?”

“The egg timer’s broken.” she explained.

One day I will update the blog database and re-catagorize everything. Originally there was a philosphy category. A better name for it would be “Random Thoughts While Driving". Enough of them occur behind the wheel where I could lump them all together, rather than listing all of the locations where they occur, some less appealing than others.

Anyway, thought for the day (actually from yesterday)…

While possession is 9/10 of the law, perception is 9/10 of reality.

Oh, there, that feels better.

As much as I hate spam, this sender id looked pretty cool:

< @> Dream Cars < @>

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Discover the 10 most common causes of portal project failure and how to avoid them, based on 12 years of experience.