The first software that I was actually paid to develop was a 2-page shell script that prompted the user for a dozen or so pieces of information, before launching a set of cooperating processes. Those processes formed the core of a performance evaluation suite for the public telephone network - a rather sizable system for its day with high visibility.

Yesterday, I read Doc's interview with Bob Frankston in the May 2008 Linux Journal. That, in turn, got me reading other things that Bob has written. Finally, that inspired this NicaLiving post.

MARENA, the government agency responsible for the environment in Nicaragua, has asked us to use a biofilter waste water treatment system instead of a traditional septic tank and drain field for the Geek Ranch. The reasoning is that as we are building in a nature reserve, we are being held to higher standards than is typical outside the reserve.

Recently I have been grumbling about project management, accounting and organizational software in general. Basically, Gixia and I want to just build the Geek Ranch rather than be bogged down with overhead. The reality is, however, this is too big a project to do without some back-end organization. As I looked for specific packages for each item I was overwhelmed with

I hate accounting. The one accounting class I took in college proved that to me. The fact that I could get an A in the class by doing one homework problem and copying all the others during class was only part of the reason. But, it's related. I hate doing the same thing over and over and, to me, that is exactly what accounting is.

You have been hearing about this Geek Ranch for a couple of months. I have been talking about computer things I have done. There is so much more to do that will involve Linux that I have decided it is time to ask you some questions. That is, ask you what approaches you would take to do various things.

As much as I know we need a project management system to build the Geek Ranch I will leave that discussion for another day. But, my current experience illustrates a case when project management software doesn't solve the problems. The first building we are going to construct is what I will call

In my last article I introduced the idea of the Geek Ranch. The facility will be more than just a place for geeks to write code. We are going to need a web site to promote the facility to the various audiences. All the pieces of that web site are not yet determined but we do have an initial features list. Here it is:

Many years ago, Carlie said to me, "You will never retire--just, someday, you will die." 100% correct. As I am neither retired nor dead, expect to start hearing from me on this site.