David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Keyon College commencement speech made the rounds a few years ago, never more intensely than after his death in 2008. As a guy in his mid–40s who reflects on what he has and hasn’t learned over the years, I find commencement speeches interesting and hopeful – little spoken placards of life wisdom by luminescent minds I almost certainly didn’t know when I graduated from college, but am happy to recognize now, some 20 years later. Better late than never.

Also let it be known that David Foster Wallace (or DFW, as the literary nerds denote him) is tops among my favorite authors. There are very few writers who ignite a passion for words and writing the way DFW does within me, and I find his writing invigorating, exciting, like a cold splash of water to the face on a hot day.

If you haven’t read his Kenyon College speech, which he gave in 2005, the entire transcript is here. Please believe me when I say it’s worth your time to read, and, if you’re obsessive-compulsive like me, print out several times and leave lying around your house in random locations, like rat-traps against the daily frustration and stress of adulthood we all have to manage.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

First Taste

by Jeff Ventura on May 15, 2013

Here’s a super slow-mo video of kids trying new foods for the first time.

It’s Wednesday and you need this.

{ 0 comments }

Windows Kernel Performance Relative to Other Operating Systems

May 14, 2013

Pretty interesting information from an anonymous Microsoft developer over at Zorinaq: I’m a developer in Windows and contribute to the NT kernel. (Proof: the SHA1 hash of revision #102 of [Edit: filename redacted] is [Edit: hash redacted].) I’m posting through Tor for obvious reasons. Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening. [...]

Read the full article →

The Psychology of Procrastination

May 13, 2013

Peter Bregman (whose blog posts I love, by the way), writes about the unspoken psychology of procrastination: Here’s the thing: More often than not, our fear doesn’t help us avoid the feelings; it simply subjects us to them for an agonizingly long time. We feel the suffering of procrastination, or the frustration of a stuck [...]

Read the full article →

Kids Sports: They Ain’t What They Used to Be

May 10, 2013

I was naive enough to think this day might not ever come — not for me, you see, because I’m semi-quasi-young(ish) and hip and I get this parenting gig — but the day is here. It’s so here. It’s the day when I officially start sounding like an old dude. When I was nine, I [...]

Read the full article →

PeopleSoft Search Framework: What’s the Big Deal?

May 8, 2013

Here’s a great SlideShare slide deck by Oracle PeopleSoft’s Anoop Savio that goes into why the PeopleSoft Search Framework is so powerful, especially when ‘enterprise data’ has become so all-encompassing. Moves from high concept to the fine details, so there’s something for everyone here, even sans audio. Check it out. People soft search framework from [...]

Read the full article →

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30

May 7, 2013

Self-described “secret nerd” Kareem Abdul-Jabbar lists 20 things he wishes he knew when he was 30 years old. The most poignant to me: 20. Everything doesn’t have to be fixed. Relax, K-Man. Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing. Read the whole thing. Heck, print [...]

Read the full article →

A Haunted Car Almost Did Me In

May 3, 2013

About six years ago, I had a car that was on a mission to kill me. It was like Stephen King’s Christine — equal parts beauty and hate – only with less chrome and no million-dollar book deal attached. I won’t identify the make and model, but I will tell you about how close it came [...]

Read the full article →

The (Beneficial) Power of Frustration

May 1, 2013

I have spent the last 25 years of my career either managing implementations or working with customers to ensure a successful implementation.  During that time, my most prominent theory for the use of consultants is that ‘trial and error is not an implementation methodology’.  It’s true. Many companies consider the use of consultants for various [...]

Read the full article →

Magnetic Putty Devours Magnets

April 29, 2013

Here’s the coolest — and strangest — video you’ll watch all day. The moral: physics is amazing. Let’s get this week rolling, shall we?

Read the full article →