Paulitex ][

Help - being forced to use IE 6 SP1!

I actually have no idea how to respond to this email. On one hand, it’s fucking hilarious.

On the other hand, this is our shiny new medical plan company wide. For, you know, being able to visit the doctor and stuff.

Very open to helpful suggestions.

Dear Mr. Lambert,

Thank you for your interest in BlueLink and/or our BC Life Enrollment website.

Before we begin please make sure that your PC has Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Service Pack 1 with 128-bit encryption capability and an Internet connection capable of secure web browsing (https). If your PC does not meet these system requirement we will not be able to provide you with BlueLink access.

If your PC does meet these system requirements we can proceed. Please fill in the attached form and return to me. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.

«Introductory Email.xls»

Regards,

I’ve been referencing this video for a month and finally found it.

There’s something incredibly uplifting in the idea that tenacity trumps all. See also Paul Graham’s What Startups Are Really Like point 5, “Persistence Is the Key”

(via markthinks)

From http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Startups+pitch+their+visions+Demo/5889120/story.html

Interview on Lining Things Up

Chad, who was a student in one of our courses, asked me to be on his show recently and talk about startups, GrowLab, and Vancouver. I thought I bombed it right away after, but it actually turned out pretty good. :)

This was so much fun, thanks so much to everyone who came and listened.

Neat Scala null -> option idiom

Working with Java APIs in Scala? Things potentially being null when you wish they were None?

I had this problem working with servlets… request.getQueryString returns null if there is no query string in the url (as opposed to an empty string) and without explicating checking for nulls (a good 3-4 lines of clutter), the code throws an unhelpful null pointer exception. Turns out Option(value) does exactly the type of conversion I want: a Some[return type] or None if it’s null.

so checking for null conditional (4-5 lines) becomes a single line:

val queryString = Option(request.getQueryString).getOrElse(throw new NotLoggedInException)

nice.

Capitalizing on a General Education

Great article on the divide between generalist / non-technical degrees being studied by most University students and the economic/job prospects of their graduates.

But no fear, you army of BAs who wax eloquent (I am one of you). Keep your eye on Matygo. We are here to help. Get the concrete skills you need to get on the track to positions where you can actually exercise the abstract and holistic thing your big brains have been trained to do.

Jobs on organization core values and what marketing is really about. I actually saw this video a long time ago and have been wanting to find it many times since. It surfaced in the wake of the news so i’m logging it here.

“Here’s to the Crazy Ones” narrated by Steve Jobs himself. Never aired. By far the most touching of all Steve tributes I’ve seen tonight - fair warning.