Comments for Systems Savvy

Comment on To The Moon, Alice! by Shel Israel

Shel Israel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:34:36 +0000

Spam tends to come in batches, often from the same server and very often at off times like Saturday at 4 am, Thanksgiving, etc.

Comment on To The Moon, Alice! by Rick Ladd

Rick Ladd — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:30:53 +0000

Yeah. Oh well, we’ll give it a 9.9. Do you get absolutely inundated? I’ve had as many as 40 or so spam comments filtered in one day!!!!

Comment on To The Moon, Alice! by Shel Israel

Shel Israel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:11:43 +0000

Yep, Akismet is stuendous… but it must be what filtered you

Comment on To The Moon, Alice! by Rick Ladd

Rick Ladd — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:34:22 +0000

Thanks, Shel. It was Don’s comment that gave me the idea (for the title, that is). In case I didn’t say it elsewhere, I am learning how to be a good blogger from people like you, Euan Semple, and JP Rangaswami. Reading you guys is helping me open up to what’s possible and how to share what I have to offer without fear. I think I’m getting the hang of it. Thanks again.

PS – I’m thankful for Akismet. I assume you have the same spam killer. If not for it, I would have had to moderate thousands of spam comments just in the last year.

Comment on To The Moon, Alice! by Shel Israel

Shel Israel — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:06:56 +0000

Rick a good piece and I envy your headline. I have no idea why this got caugt in comment moderation. My settings are to allow anything that is not clearly spam. Could be that the length confused the filter. It’s posted now.

Comment on A Quick Quora Quest by Rick Ladd

Rick Ladd — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:05:18 +0000

Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Comment on TED, Alain de Botton, and Atheism 2.0 by Rick Ladd

Rick Ladd — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:04:20 +0000

Thank you for our kind words and comment, Matthew. I was raised a Jew and am convinced one of the best things I got out of that experience – which translates well into the secular world – is the idea of living “the good life”. The idea has nothing to do with Champagne and Caviar, either, but is about being a good person; doing “mitzvot”, good deeds. In Judaism as I’ve studied it, this is paramount even to believing in God. I think it’s a useful concept. Glad to be helpful. I’m just learning about de Botton myself, so I too will reserve judgement somewhat until I know more. I was recently told he is completely disconnected from others and want to check that out. Thanks again for your comment.

Comment on A Quick Quora Quest by PM Hut

PM Hut — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:28:00 +0000

Hi Rick,

That Quora answer is spot on. It’s really, really funny! He just estimated the time it takes to get them there, he didn’t calculate in any risks/obstacles, etc…

He did really spend a lot of time answering, and preparing all these pictures!

Comment on TED, Alain de Botton, and Atheism 2.0 by Matthew Minas

Matthew Minas — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:42:38 +0000

I have to do some more thinking about Mr De Botton, so I haven’t yet formed an opinion on the man’s ideas. I can see merits in both the arguments placed for and against so I’m just going to wait a while and soak some more knowledge up.

However, something I did agree with and support in your piece was the idea of being a good person over the “right” politics. I never thought of it actively in that way, but I guess I do agree with it. Even though I am an atheist myself and will defend it staunchly without end, I would much prefer that someone be a good person first than be a disbeliever. I have done a large amount of voluntary work in my time as I thoroughly enjoy it, with both religious and non-religious organisations, and I can definitely tell you that more good people can always be used in the real world. This is because there are real people out there with real needs.

And so, thank you Rick for opening up my eyes to that specific nugget of information; something I guess I always had lurking in my mind somewhere but never really actively thought about it or put it to words. That is why I felt I had to write this comment. Thanks.

Comment on I Can Be This Boring. Really! by Rick Ladd

Rick Ladd — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:46:19 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Steve. I hope you didn't interpret my comment about Engineers as a slam on all. My experience at PWR (a large aerospace corporation) did, in fact, involve sitting through lots of briefings that were difficult to endure. In fact, I earlier wrote about my first briefing given by the Flight Ops team to NASA, where I fell asleep and started snoring. Truth to tell, I think the fact that so much of what was being discussed was new and sort of unknown to me had as much to do with how I responded as the presentation itself. Back then all the briefings consisted of overhead charts, some of which were hand drawn. I'm glad to hear Engineers, who weren't in any way the only ones who presented poorly; just the predominant presenters, are learning to become better at communications. I think it's not only due to the group projects, but also the proliferation of computers and other technology that allows us to create far more engaging presentations.