This is the last post on this blog URI. The new URL is http://www.kraigbrockschmidt.com/blog. See you there.

You can probably tell that I haven't worked with my site's design for a while, but I'm hoping to give it a refresher here in the next week or two, especially as I plan to be blogging more about extra topics related to Programming Windows 8 Apps in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Thanks for your patience...

Just recently my family and I moved from Portland, OR to Ananda Village in Nevada City, CA. In the process of moving, it struck me that we were directly experiencing what data goes through when trasnmitted over the Internet.

First, we set up the protocols of the transfer: closing up connections where we were, opening connections where we were going, and arranging the transfer pipeline (aka UHaul).

Second, we did a serious job of compressing the material totality of our three lives into a 20' truck (and the minivan). The compression algorithm had several stages: the small scale (local) compression of packing boxes, then the large-scale compression of stuffing those boxes into the truck. I've always had a pretty good spatial ability (e.g. 3D Tetris), and got the truck completely stuffed floor to ceiling and front to back. If we'd had one more box we might not have done it!

It was quite amazing, in fact, to see that everything we owned could be fit into a 16.75' x 7.75' x 7' volume (OK, so the wheelbarrow was strapped on top of the minivan...). But it really shows what happens during compression--when you remove the extra space that normally surrounds our stuff.

Third, we did the transfer of all this "data" by driving the truck and van the ~590 miles down I-5 from Portland to Red Bluff (spending nights in Eugene and Mt Shasta), Hwy 99 (through Chico and Oroville), then Hwy 20 (Grass Valley and Nevada City), Hwy 49, then Tyler Foote Road. It was a long haul, but certainly made much easier with compressed data!

Fourth, when we arrive at Ananda Village on August 13th, we then started the process of decompressing the data--expanding from the truck into the house, again through a multi-stage process of unloading the truck, then unloading the boxes. Transfer complete!

As a fifth point, it was certainly clear that the compression algorithm (packing) took considerably longer than decompression. That is, it takes more analysis to understand how to pack things efficiently, whereas unpacking is relatively mindless (except figuring out just where everything is going to go in the new place!).

I can also say that while I won't be desirous of making a long-distance move again anytime soon, our data fortunatly has no emotional involvement in such processes and is very happy to be squished and exploded over and over again. For myself, I've been thankful for the good nights' sleep I've been getting for the last week. Phew!

A short time ago, my young son and I noticed a sign on Portland's Sesame Donuts shop (very near our home) that June 3rd was "National Donut Day." That piece of news wasn't so inspiring as the fact that the store would be selling 25-cent donuts that day. So of course we make the short trip on that morning to participate in this celebration, and I checked in my location to Facebook with an appropriate comment about the event.

Not long after, a friend of mine in Europe commented on my post. "Do you really have a national donut day? I love America :-)". I had to reply honestly, and say that it was probably just a marketing scheme, albeit a tasty one!

It is true that many such special days on the American calendar are just marketing schemes cooked up one some retailing association or another to bump up sales. Retailers have invented days for giving gifts to just about anyone you might know--family, of course, but also secretaries, nannies, bosses/managers, your neighbor's pet Chihuahua, you name it. And most of the time we just roll our eyes at such things, which I would've naturally done with the donut thing except for the fact that the deal was too good to pass up.

At the same time, I started to reflect more on something more true about these fabricated events. Success in any endeavor always depends not just on skills and know-how, but on the ability to overcome inertia and move energy. Once a flow of energy has started, in other words, it's a dynamic force you can work with, shape, and direct, whereas energy that's frozen into a solid and unmoving form is there, certainly, but very static. We recognize this by celebrating when people who we'd normally expect to knuckle under or cave into their circumstances stand up and put out the energy to overcome their challenges. We admire people who rise out of poverty through will and perseverance more than those who became wealthy through inheritance or other "strokes of fortune." In fact, how often do we see people become rich through no real effort of their own, only to squander that wealth entirely!

This, then, is exactly what fabricated holidays accomplish: they serve to awaken and move energy in a particular direction. This can, and often does, stimulate a greater ongoing flow of energy in that same direction. I had to admit, that is, that without a National Donut Day, I would hardly have thought to visit Sesame Donuts on a Friday morning with my family. We'd actually only been there maybe twice in the last five years, but now what we (and especially my son) has had the experience, there's a good chance we'll visit more often. Fait accompli.

In this way, I have a new understanding and appreciation for these events. Though they perhaps soar to the heights of corniness, they yet embody that important relationship between success and energy. So though many such days are probably not created with much noble purpose in mind, they yet serve this noble purpose of generating and moving energy across the culture. They serve as a subtle reminder of this important principle to us all, and in the end, I think we're actually better off for it.

Now if only National Donut Day was a monthly event!

I searched the Washington Country Library system (in Oregon) with the words "back care basics," looking for a book with that title. I didn't just do a title search, however, and rather searched on "any field." It was funny to see the variety of books that were actually returned, in the following order:

1. The 20-Minute Gardener: The Garden of Your Dreams Without Giving Up our Life, Your Job, or Your Sanity
2. Accounting for Dummies
3. Back Care Basics: A Doctor's Gentle Yoga Program for Back and Neck Pain Relief (the one I was looking for)
4. C++ for Dummies
5. The Chemotherapy Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Get Through Treatment
6. Complete Digital Photography
7. The Complete Guide to Growing Tomatoes: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
8. Country: Piano, Vocal, Guitar
9. The "I Have a Life" Guide to Baby's First Year: Get Through Your Baby's First 12 Months, Without Losing Your Life, or Your Mind
10. Jerry Baker's Gardening Wisdom

Go figure. Must be a curious database arrangement!

It's been a long time coming for me to finally get a blog going. That I've done it was pretty much motivated by the need to post materials related to my work at Microsoft, which will likely form the bulk of the first entries. But I'll also be using this space for non-Microsoft stuff too, things that aren't lengthy or polished enough to warrant being an article on my main website.

I've actually hesitated for a long time to create a blog because of the whole commenting business. Yes, I know this is a big part of the democratic information/web 2.0/social bit, but fact of the matter is that most comments on blog posts leave much to be desired where thoughfulness is concerned (and sometimes prove that the commenter didn't actually read the post). The last thing I really want when I post a carefully thought-out article is to have oft-random comments and rants carelessly negate the points I'm trying to communicate. In other words, I believe that an article should carry more weight than the comments, and that an article should be presented in its own context without the distraction of comments.

This way, the main part of kraigbrockschmidt.com is a resource for people who are interested in what I, individually, am sharing with them. Thus anything produced in that spirit will continue to go on that part of the site. I'll make a reference to that piece on this blog and invite comments here; that way, there is still a space for discussion that won't othewise interfere with the presentation of the work itself.

Most of my Microsoft-related stuff, on the other had, will go directly here because obtaining feedback is one of the primary reasons for writing such pieces in the first place. (A curious side-note is that at Microsoft I'm part of a group that's focused on 'modeling' where software engineering is concerned, while 'modeling' has another place in my life in terms of model rockets and trains, thanks to my almost three-year-old son.)

In any case, this blog is up and running now using BlogEngine.NET, which is an easy system to work with on an ASP.NET-oriented website.

For more about my intentions for the blog (any the name I chose for it), see the About "Luminarity" page.