I love, and have strong confidence in, science. But sometimes scientists are pretty loopy. They're human, after all.

Maybe the reason I'm having so much trouble on my current software project is because my database design is abhorrent to nature.

Did a Time-Traveling Bird Sabotage the Hadron Collider?

In a series of audacious papers, Nielsen and Ninomiya have suggested that setbacks to the LHC occur because of "reverse chronological causation," which is to say, sabotage from the future. That papers suggest that the Higgs boson may be "abhorrent to nature" and the LHC's creation of the Higgs sometime in the future sends ripples backwards through time to scupper its own creation.

Here are two interesting articles. The first is 37Signals founder Jason Fried talking about the work culture at the company. I've suggested this type of culture, in discussions with colleagues. In my view, many companies would benefit by moving from an hours-based culture to a project-based one. More on that another time. Here's my favorite quote.

I don't believe in the 40-hour work week, so we cut all that BS about being somewhere for a certain number of hours. I have no idea how many hours my employees work—I just know they get the work done.

The second article is Lance Ulanoff discussing Google Dashboard. I found this to be surprisingly thoughtful. Here's a sample.

What will Google do with my years of search data, information about YouTube uploads and subscriptions, lists of products, image and maps searches, and the rest of the data when I'm dead? There's so much rich information, would Google preserve it and offer it to my family?

I wasted a couple of hours today due to unexpected behaviors when running the default Windows Service project in Visual Studio 2008.

I wanted to test replacing the default contract interface (IService1.cs) and service (Service1.svc). So, here are the simple steps that made me crazy.

1. Create a new C# WCF Service Application project.



2. Run the project. You'll see the metadata page. Stop running.



3. Delete Service1.svc and IService1.cs.
4. Right-click the solution, Add > New Item, choose WCF Service. Name it Service1.
5. Select the Solution in the Solution Explorer. (that's your first clue.) Run the project. You'll see a directory listing.




You can accuse me of being dense, or not thinking, but when I saw this different behavior, I assumed the service wasn't working right. Now add these factors.

* Sometimes, if I edited web.config at all, the directory listing would appear.
* Sometimes, if I edited the .svc file (using Open With > Text Editor), the metadata page would appear.
* Sometimes, I'd get an error "Unable to start program 'http://localhost:3571/Service1.svc'"

I kept trying things, including folder/file compares of a new project to a non-working one. (It turns out this would have led me to the answer eventually).

Finally, searching on "debug mode wfc service "directory listing", I found this site, and this sentence:

At this point, if you browse to the location http://localhost/ExchangeService using Internet Explorer, you'll be able to see a directory listing (as long as the settings are like those in the previous figure). If you click on the Service.svc, you are then brought to the default help screen generated by System.ServiceModel.Activiation.HttpHandler for *.svc extensions.

I ran the project showing a directory listing, clicked on Service1.svc, and sure enough got the metadata page. Then, the light bulb went on.

The WCF Service Application project automatically sets the project's default page to Service1.svc. When I deleted that page, the project reset to Current Page.



So, what about those behaviors where sometimes it showed the metadata page? Well, when I was editing the web.config file, it would show the directory listing. When I was editing the Service1.svc file, it would show the metadata, because that was the current page.

What a fucking waste of my time.

I've now read the President's speech that he'll give tomorrow. I think you should, too. I think the vast majority of us are reasonable, even if we disagree. And that's why I say:

No reasonable American could object to what the President is saying to our students in this speech.

Yesterday, Aug 23rd, I attended the memorial service for Kwanmukan Karate founder Grand Master George Anderson. You can learn more about Mr. Anderson here, but I'll just say briefly that his accomplishments in the martial arts, and as a person, were astonishing.

I met Mr. Anderson last year, and was honored to have a delightful discussion of violin with him. Before his career in karate, Mr. Anderson was already an accomplished violist, and he spoke with me not as a master and low-ranking student, but as two people sharing a love of music.

Here, in a form more lyrical, are my feelings about his passing.

Mr. Anderson's picture hangs in our dojo. One day, I said to sensei, "He reminds me of a bear." Sensei said, "He is!" A few weeks later, looking at the picture again, I said to sensei, "He reminds me of a tiger." Sensei said, "He is!"

Mr. Anderson had the body of a bear, and the heart of a tiger. The body contains the heart, and while we live the heart is struggling to break free, to share all that it is with everyone. Mr. Anderson's heart was freer than most, and he shared it with thousands.

Now his body is gone, and his heart is fully unleashed. The bear is dead, but the tiger roams the earth.