I am in the process of recovery. You see, I have had a stroke. Fortunately, it was a teeny tiny one (which is kind of like saying that the nuclear bomb was just a small one). I had the “event” on a Sunday night then forced myself to work thru the week eventually going into the hospital on Friday.

Please, please, please, if this happens to you do NOT do what I did. When you think you are having a stroke immediately go to the emergency room. There are some things they can do if you get there fast enough. Within the first couple hours they can apply some therapies and treatments that make a difference. Do NOT do what I did. Do NOT wait.

I was very lucky. I entered on Friday. They admitted me and tested me. I had a CAT Scan (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_scan ) and eventually an MRI (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mri). The CAT Scan was easy. The MRI was terrible. A full hour inside a teeny tiny tube, loud as blue blazes and tiny. Good thing my claustrophobia is not severe. I left the hospital on Saturday and I’m doing pretty well.

I’m making changes in my life … those changes we’ve all thought about but haven’t made yet. Eating more healthy. Committed to gentle exercise. I’m joining a local gym. Gold’s Gym (http://www.goldsgym.com) has a great deal for AARP members. Not an AARP member? Just join. It’s cheap.

This is just a tiny start. But it is a start. Wish me luck

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Disclosure: I support Barack Obama. 

Well, that’s what Computerworld said.

And, it is what PHP said too (www.php.net/archive/2008.php#id2008-08-07-1). I’d considered it dead since 03.Jan.2008 with the release of 4.4.8 (www.php.net/ChangeLog-4.php#4.4.9). But it managed a few more breaths.

Of course users should migrate to PHP5. But gee, it is hard to blame them for not doing it yet. After all, post-beta version 5.0.1 has only been out since 12.Aug.2004 (www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php). You really can’t expect technology people to turn on a dime you know.

See article at www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1239055978

In the New York Times there is an article about Jay Harman. It is a good article and I enjoyed it.

But what caught my eye (courtesy of a colleague on a list) were these paragraphs about how long progress takes.

Even in fields such as the computer industry, which celebrates innovation, systemic change can be glacial.

Consider that Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse in 1964. It was obvious to many people that it was a better way to control a computer, yet it took two decades even to begin reaching a mass audience. Or consider the hyperlink, invented independently by Mr. Engelbart and the computing evangelist Ted Nelson in the mid-1960s. It took roughly three decades to reach the public in the form of the World Wide Web.

This summer will mark the 40th anniversary of the day when Alan Kay, the father of the modern personal computer, had his “aha” moment. Seeing a plasma display engineered for the Plato educational computing project, he realized that a portable computer with a flat panel display was possible. Yet computers that came close to matching his original “Dynabook” idea — which included a wireless connection to a global digital library — weren’t widely available for another three decades.