Life Web Log Entries
"It Depends" vs. "Fact With Exceptions"
Posted: August 18, 2008 at 1:27 PM by Ben Nadel
While learning object oriented programming, I've come up against the phrase, "It Depends" quite a bit. Actually, with almost every question, it seems that someone offers "It Depends" as the answer. For someone learning a completely new topic, answers like this can be very frustrating because it seems that not only do you need to find information, ... read more »
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Six Months Of Epicenter Consulting
Posted: July 24, 2008 at 9:58 AM by Ben Nadel
This last week marks the sixth month anniversary of my time at Epicenter Consulting. For those of you who don't know, I left my position as CTO at Nylon Technology back in January to partner with Clark Valberg and create Epicenter Consulting . It was not an easy decision to make; I had been at Nylon for close to 5 years and had seen it grow fro... read more »
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Chase Bank - Worst And Seemingly Most Insecure Telephone Interface Ever!
Posted: July 21, 2008 at 11:07 AM by Ben Nadel
I just got off the phone with Chase Bank . I haven't called them in a long time because overall my service has been really good. I don't know when they updated their telephone service, but this was so ridiculous that I needed say something. First of all, they want you so SAY all of your commands. I don't know if the number of people in this worl... read more »
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Happy July 4th From Kinky Solutions
Posted: July 3, 2008 at 4:46 PM by Ben Nadel
I know I'm jumping the gun a bit, but in case I'm not at a computer tomorrow (it might happen), happy July 4th! Note: While this is not what the holiday was intended for, feel free to take a few moments tomorrow and be thankful for the independence that ColdFusion has afforded ... read more »
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I Helped To Set A World Record
Posted: July 3, 2008 at 8:22 AM by Ben Nadel
I know you might think this is really cheesy, but I feel good about having helped set a world record. ... read more »
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Not Commenting And The Tipping Point Of Poor Programming
Posted: June 5, 2008 at 10:09 AM by Ben Nadel
Just this morning, I have read three different blog posts about why people should not be commenting their code (ok, that's not exactly what he was saying, but it is what the blog post title implied). Most of you know that I am strongly against this idea, and as you can see from my public code, I put a large amount of comments in my code. After rea... read more »
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I'm Not Dead Yet - But Blogging Might Be Killing Me?
Posted: April 11, 2008 at 5:25 PM by Ben Nadel
No worries, I'm not actually dying; but, I just read this funny / sad article over on the New York Times titled, " In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop ." It talks about the tremendous pressure that professional bloggers feel to pump out blog posts even milliseconds ahead of the competition in order to get the bigger traffic sh... read more »
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Been Busy, Ready To Be Back
Posted: April 7, 2008 at 2:43 PM by Ben Nadel
For the last month or so, I have been just working like a three headed ox to get out from under a pile of deadlines (I've never seen a three headed ox, but I have to imagine it would be an insanely beasty animal). As a result, I've hardly blogged at all. I feel bad about it, but there was nothing I could do - I was literally drained of all my ener... read more »
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Been Very Stressed Lately
Posted: March 19, 2008 at 10:08 AM by Ben Nadel
You may have noticed that my blogging has been really scarce lately. I have been super stressed at work and racing for some deadlines that are coming up on me very soon. This stress is not only eating up my free time, it has eaten up my creativity. I can't seem to get the juices flowing knowing that I have so much to do. The whole thing has put a ... read more »
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Never Be Conflicted About Being Nice
Posted: March 10, 2008 at 3:10 PM by Ben Nadel
I know that this is not a technical post, but I don't have much technical to say today so I thought I would drop this in here. If for no other reason, it is a post to remind myself of my own beliefs (and therefore to follow them more closely). I just wanted to say that you should never be conflicted about being nice to someone. I have definitely h... read more »
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The Mind Is Just A Reflex Organ
Posted: February 4, 2008 at 6:44 PM by Ben Nadel
A couple of weeks ago, I re-rented the movie, the Peaceful Warrior with Nick Nolte . It's one of those movies that just makes you want to be better, appreciate more, and be happier and I had a craving for that kind of a feeling. Anyway, this time, one of the lines really struck a chord in me; the lead actor had just finished describing that he fe... read more »
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Don't Be Lazy, Be Proud
Posted: January 10, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Ben Nadel
I was listening to a pod cast a while back and the speaker said something that always kind of rubs me the wrong way. He said: I do XYZ because I'm lazy. Now, if you didn't know what XYZ was, you might assume that it is something to indicate laziness such as: I never change my bed sheets because I'm lazy. or something like: I only use Cliff's ... read more »
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DNA Based Dating Service
Posted: December 17, 2007 at 8:39 AM by Ben Nadel
The other day, I happened upon this site, ScientificMatch.com , which is a dating service that finds compatible matches for you based on your DNA. As much as I want to believe in the mystical and spiritual aspects of love, anyone who has spent any time on one of the Discovery Channels knows that many aspects of love and attraction can be tied to ... read more »
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The Magic Of Thinking Big By David Schwartz (Thanks Clark Valberg!)
Posted: December 16, 2007 at 3:02 PM by Ben Nadel
On the recommendation by Clark Valberg , this weekend, I listened to the audio book version of The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, Ph.D. . It's a totally cheesy book with hilarious synthesizer music between sections and has the overall feel of a "Sexual Harassment In The Workplace" employee video filmed in the 70s. But, this quirkine... read more »
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I Will Never Be Tired Again
Posted: December 16, 2007 at 1:03 PM by Ben Nadel
I've been tired for almost as long as I can remember. In fact, I can't really remember not being tired. I have a general feeling of lethargy that is only gone when I am engaged in the most enthusiastic activities such as programming (thank god!), working out, talking about movies, walking around, hiking, and learning new and interesting things. Of... read more »
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