The Premier Development and Runtime Environment for Business Application Software
August 28th, 2008 Al Kalter
Let me start by saying, “Thank you” to anyone who might be reading this. Over these 30 blogs, I’ve covered a wide variety of topics, so if we can consider #30 to be a milestone, then it’s time to express some appreciation. And to discuss those magic words that we learn as children – not “more dessert” or “it wasn’t me,” but rather “Thank You” … “Gracias” … “Arigato” … “Danke” … “Grazie” … “Obrigado” … “Spasebo” … “Merci” … “Tak” … “Shishi” …
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August 21st, 2008 Al Kalter
In these times, everyone seems to take technology for granted. As Joni Mitchell sang in Big Yellow Taxi, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” And so, when a tropical storm hits Florida, and people start losing electrical service, and phone service, and internet connectivity, and so on, well, it’s enough of a disaster that the governor starts asking for federal aid and the TV talking heads start reporting from our locale. Last week, we had a similar technology catastrophe to deal with on a personal level - our daughter’s cell phone stopped working.
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August 13th, 2008 Al Kalter
I feel inspired to write something about the Olympics. However, while I am convinced that my words are suitable for this worldwide forum, I fear that my physical appearance could be, um, improved. Therefore, in true Olympic fashion, my image is going to be replaced by someone who is better looking and will appeal to a larger audience. I’m sure that will make the overall presentation much more effective.
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August 12th, 2008 Pete Brower
Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything about the new release. We have been in a limited beta the past two weeks. We’ve found a few issues so far that we’ve fixed. We should be expanding the limited beta to some new sites in the next week or two. Things are looking good so far. One thing that happened is that the release has been renumbered. Instead of 4.3 it will be 5.0. The changes in this release are so significant that it seemed to warrant a major release number update. That’s about all I can tell you about it for now. I’ll post again as things progress.
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August 7th, 2008 Al Kalter
After more than two dozen of these posts, it seems to me that my readers (both of them?) have been subjected to my opinions on a variety of subjects, but we really haven’t gotten to know each other that well. I’m not sure how I can learn more about you, but if you continue to read this post, you’ll find out a few more tidbits about me. I provided some general introductory info in my very first blog, so now, we’ll go into a few more mundane facts.
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July 30th, 2008 Al Kalter
Sharing a name with someone else is not a unique experience. Certainly, those with common names must get used to it. I have friends named Scott Smith and Gary Williams and Dennis White, and long ago, they must have realized that there were others in the world with the same name. Some people bring it on themselves, giving their offspring the same label that their parents gave to them. These “Jr.’s” and ‘II’s” and “III’s” no doubt had to deal with confused phone callers throughout their youth, and I often wonder why any such person would perpetuate that. Of course, no one took it to a further extreme than George Foreman. In my case, however, I just happen to share a name with someone who is, to some degree, famous.
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July 22nd, 2008 Al Kalter
It was 107 degrees outside yesterday evening. That’s what I was told by the electronic time and temperature sign in front of a local real estate office. Seems like it would be hard enough to sell houses these days without telling people that they are in an oven, but this particular sign seems to always read several degrees higher than reality. Maybe the wiring is overheating, or the surface is absorbing the heat. But that wouldn’t explain why their clock function is an hour ahead, would it? “Buy or sell your house with us, because we don’t know what time it is or how hot it is!” Or maybe what they’re saying is, “We’ll exaggerate anything to have your business.” I wonder.
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July 18th, 2008 Al Kalter
For many years, I was on the outside, looking in. Like several others in the APPX community, my first exposure to our products came more than 25 years ago, and I spent many years working as a reseller and providing software solutions to the customers of Speed II and APPX. But in 1999, my position and my perspective changed, when I came to work for APPX Software, Inc., and while I’m not directly involved in the R&D aspect of the business, I have found it interesting to view that process from inside the castle walls, and to gain an understanding of just what it takes to put out a major software release.
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July 14th, 2008 Al Kalter
When I was about 15, I was hooked on TV. Not uncommon, I know, but I could tell you exactly which shows were on at what time on each day of the week. I’ll grant you that those were the days of three networks and a total of about seven available stations, so this was no gigantic mental accomplishment. But still, life revolved around the TV schedule, until a year or two later, when I broke away, and pledged that I would never be a slave to TV again. For the most part, I’ve upheld that pledge ever since.
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July 9th, 2008 Al Kalter
Would my credibility suffer in admitting that I read the “Miss Manners” column when it appears every other day in our newspaper? Did I have any credibility to start with? It’s not exactly like reading the “Dear Abby” stuff, where I think one takes comfort in realizing that there are people who are making worse decisions and asking stupider questions than, in most cases, we would. Miss Manners expertly injects a bit of humor and a twinge of sarcasm while addressing etiquette-related issues that often seem trivial at best. Sometimes, though I find myself disagreeing with her response (in a civilized manner, of course). Let me provide an example.
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