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Bruce Abernethy Grand Rapids, MI, USA

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Posts

Don’t Get Cut by Hanlon’s Razor

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy 11 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Hanlon’s Razor tells us not to assume malice. Dreyfus, Dunning, and Kruger guide us towards what to assume instead.

LLMs get their own OWASP Top 10

Note / ai

Bruce Abernethy 5 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

An updated list for 2025 of risks and mitigations for LLM applications

The Seven Stages of Job Satisfaction

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy 10 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The mental stages job seekers go through over time, and the main factors that influence movement and decisions.

Laborer, Craftsman, and Artist

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy 12 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Thirty years of software labor and craftsmanship - and why artistry has been the elusive one.

AI Tools: Is it Ethical? Legal?

Note / ai

Bruce Abernethy 5 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Is using AI coding tools cheating? The legal answer is unknown, so here are both arguments.

Remembering Cal Van Dyke

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 11 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Stories about a friend, colleague, and genuinely good man, written down while they are fresh.

This Old House

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

I accidentally bought a 97-year-old house, and want to keep track of what we are getting into.

“Knob and Tube”

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Ceramic knobs, ceramic tubes, two conductors, and three days of electricians in a 1923 house.

The Case for Flutter

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

After a talk, an app in the stores, and a lot of notes - why I have grown to really like Flutter.

Flutter Talk Links

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The handout links from my Introduction to Flutter talk at THAT Conference 2018.

Circle with Disney

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A small box that budgets, filters, and enforces screen time. There is no filter for stupid.

Thought-Ending Cliches

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 5 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The phrases we reach for when we want a conversation to stop, and why they deserve a name.

EBook Innovations Needed

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 5 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Four things my Nook still cannot do, that someone with time and resources really should build.

Maker Faire Detroit 2011

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 10 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A science fair times a thousand, with some state fair and Star Trek convention mixed in.

Losing 70 pounds

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 8 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Seventy pounds in seventeen weeks - the what, the why, and where we go from here.

TalkTimer app for WP7

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Green, yellow, red - building a Windows Phone timer app for our Toastmasters meetings.

Rebooting the blog in WordPress

Note / blog

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Back to blogging after a hosting disaster, this time on WordPress - and here is why.

iPad Hands-On Impressions

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 5 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Twelve iPads on a table at lunch. I did not buy one, but it is a milestone at $499.

Toastmasters for Techies

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy 4 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A new Toastmasters group in Grand Rapids, and the five things that got me in the door.

Candyland, LCR, and Warstorm

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 8 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Three games that seem fun until you start thinking about them - and why that matters for kids.

What is hypervideo anyway?

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 9 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

What hypertext did for text, hypervideo does for video - and I first tried it on laserdisc in 1992.

CodeMash Apps for iPhone

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 8 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

CodeMash opened up its schedule as web services and let the community build the apps.

Why I am voting for Nessie

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 3 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Full disclosure - I am 50% Scottish. Here are my five reasons for this ArtPrize vote.

Fearless by Max Lucado

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A well-timed book against the spirit of fear running through nearly every headline.

Post Interesting Links to Blog 07/31/2009

Links / links /curated, not written

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Links saved from Diigo - the GR Social Marketing group and tomorrow’s meetup.

Post Interesting Links to Blog 06/30/2009

Links / links /curated, not written

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Links saved from Diigo - netbooks landing in school districts, and SMS polling for presentations.

NECC 2009 Themes

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Skimming the NECC program for the themes that never change, and the ones missing in 2009.

Tech Trends and Netbooks

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 4 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Notes from Keith Brophy’s tenth Tech Trends night, starting with the buzzword bingo card.

Marie Catrib’s Restaurant Review

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Valentine’s lunch date in East Grand Rapids, at a place sourcing food from a scooter trip away.

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Gladwell links the Beatles, Bill Gates, and Korean plane crashes - and makes it work.

What is CodeMash?

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Explaining the conference behind all those confusing tweets my friends keep asking about.

2008 Retrospective

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 6 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Shuttle launch, two puppies, an ankle fusion, and the least hi-tech gadget of the year.

What would make a good/great Netbook?

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 4 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Where One Laptop per Child missed, and what I would actually want in a Netbook for my kids.

Another reason I love Woot.

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A shipping delay notice with an actual sense of humor, which is rare in retail.

World Animal Day – boston.com

Note / nature

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Narwhals in Arctic Bay - a photo so strange I could not tell whether it was real.

Silverlight IRL – Requests

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 3 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

After a year of real Silverlight work in health care, here is my wish list for the next version.

Someone had to do it!

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

One of those personalized Flash videos everyone was passing around in 2008.

Community Clips

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Screen capture with narration that uploads itself - and a test of whether I can write a post in ten minutes.

Cool Tools: Window Clippings

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Screen capture that knows you want the window, and cleans up whatever Aero let bleed through.

Cool Tools – ZoomIt v1.8

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A free utility that does three things and does them very well - and saves every presentation I give.

Lunar Eclipse 2008

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Clear skies, a reasonable hour, and a red moon I had forgotten was that dramatic.

Microsoft DreamSpark

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Thousands of dollars of professional development tools, free, as long as you are a student.

Why I like Twitter

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 3 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

I thought Twitter was a waste of time. Six months later, here is why I actually use it.

Shuttle Launch Experience

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 6 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Seeing STS-122 leave the pad in person, and the Kennedy Space Center tour the day before.

Florida Photos

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A slideshow of photos from the Florida trip.

Vacation Update

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Coco Beach, terrible bandwidth, and T-minus two days to a Shuttle launch.

Missing You

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A rough trip down, and then a view of the pool that makes it hard to complain.

Shuttle Launch Passes Arrived!

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The passes came through for the February 7th launch, along with security rules that make the TSA look relaxed.

Astronomy "Craft"?

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A string of beads that teaches the real spacing of the solar system - and where Pluto went.

Retire Fire Extinguishers

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

You cannot just throw an expired fire extinguisher away. Here is what you do instead.

Computer Handyman and Plumber

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 3 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Home servers and media boxes are arriving faster than the people who can set them up.

Tribot Sumo Test #1 – WallBot

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A LEGO sumo robot built in one sitting - mostly a wall, with one sensor peeking through.

Mousetrap Cars – Any advice?

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Seven Cub Scouts, no mousetraps yet, and no practical experience. Advice welcome.

2008 Goals – Take 2

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

More goals for 2008 - foosball, the user group, staying debt-free, and shipping something in WPF.

2008 Goals – Take 1

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Goals for the year, starting with learning a new language - and I think I will do both kinds.

Florida Freeze

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Plan a trip to Florida and watch the record cold move in right behind you.

Heading "South" – Any Ideas?

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Three weeks out, driving south from Michigan, and still no plan. Ideas welcome.

PC ProSchools of Grand Rapids

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Microsoft training facility in Grand Rapids I had never heard of, and a tour I did not expect.

15,000 digital pictures (& counting)

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Fifteen thousand photos and no good backup story left. How is everyone else handling this?

My Chumby

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

My geek present this year - a little WiFi touch screen that pulls down widgets all day.

BlogEngine.NET 1.3 released

Note / blog

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Upgrading the blog to 1.3, and the one place SQL Server 2000 made me work for it.

Merry Christmas

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Wishing everyone a safe and blessed Christmas.

Bug or a Feature

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The right cartoon at exactly the wrong time of year, while trying to ship software.

Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Seven skills from Bill Gates that read a lot like the questions we use to interview new team members.

Cool Tool: Tourist Remover

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Take a few photos of the same thing and let the software delete everyone who wandered through.

Bug vs. Feature

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

When life gives you lemons, file it as a feature.

MS Math Add-In for Word 2007

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

You thought spell check was cool - Word 2007 will now simplify, graph, and solve for x.

6Gb of memory – Now What?!?

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Six gigabytes of RAM for $50, and the strange pressure of having more machine than I need.

Silverlight 2.0

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Silverlight 2.0 delivers just about everything people were asking for - starting with real controls.

Health Care

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Dave Barry quote that sums up at least one side of the health care debate.

Pet Peeve #26

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Black Friday price drop on Vista Home Basic, and three things about that tag that bothered me.

Chuck Norris Political Ad

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Chuck Norris finally has some fun with his own Facts, in a surprisingly creative ad.

VS2008 on Vista x64

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

How to get Visual Studio 2008 installed on 64-bit Vista without leaving the box in a bad state.

Visual Studio 2008 Ships

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 are out - start your downloaders.

Walking pneumonia

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

When that cough isn’t just a cough - and why I am glad I went to the doctor.

Bowling for Junior Achievement

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Bowling for Junior Achievement, which reaches 60,000 West Michigan students a year.

Useless data – but interesting

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

How many mouse clicks does one person add to the world in a month? I measured mine.

Made in America: By Robots

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A t-shirt that says a lot in three words, especially if you grew up near Detroit.

Day of .NET Ann Arbor

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A great Saturday in Ann Arbor, and a good reason to help start one in Grand Rapids.

"WIRED Science" on PBS

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The most interesting, intelligent, and still entertaining science show on TV right now.

Google Reader: Trends

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The Trends page in Google Reader knows exactly how many of those 9,564 items I really read.

UC Berkley launches YouTube channel

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Berkeley puts full courses on YouTube, free - and puts them everywhere you already watch video.

BlogEngine.NET 1.2

Note / blog

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Upgraded the blog over lunch, and it was relatively painless. Now to get back into the code.

Any good new fall TV?

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Down to two shows I watch regularly, and looking for something worth adding this fall.

Useful Microsoft Word Feature

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Type =rand(x,y) in Word and get real filler text instead of mashing the keyboard.

Statetris – USA

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Tetris meets the fifty states - and a good example of something a plain web page could not do.

Birthday Stuff – new Nano

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 2 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A birthday iPod Nano 3G - shorter, wider, thinner, and with a screen you have to see in person.

Crazy Canadian Dime

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Canadian dime I could not read, and what it took to figure out what was on it.

More Crystals

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A month of growing alum crystals, and what looks like a pocket full of diamonds.

Silverlight 1.0 Released

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Silverlight 1.0 ships for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux - let’s see where developers take it.

Wal-mart Telescopes

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A computer-controlled Meade scope in a backpack, on a Wal-mart shelf right next to the candles.

First Dangerous Crystal

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

The first crystal out of the Dangerous Book experiment - a 1cm pyramid, almost perfectly clear.

Mr. McGroovy’s Box Rivets

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Rivets made for cardboard, so the box fort finally outlasts the duct tape.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Vista SP1 is coming - so do you upgrade now, wait until spring, or run the beta?

If you have to work in a cube …

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

If I have to work in a cube, I want one like this - separate from the house and steps from fresh air.

Not Moving Sale

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 4 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Doing the math on moving in a terrible housing market, and deciding to stay put.

Microsoft Open Source Projects

Note / development

Bruce Abernethy 4 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Open Source and Microsoft are not opposites - nine CodePlex projects I have actually used.

Habits of Highly Effective Brains

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Ten habits for keeping your brain in working order - and I can testify first-hand that they work.

Sharpen the Saw for Developers

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Scott Hanselman’s ideas for keeping developers current - book libraries, brown bags, and Nerd Dinners.

Germany Exploring The Moon Too

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

NASA, China, and now Germany - the Moon is about to be a very busy place.

Tafiti (beta)

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Silverlight search concept from Microsoft that lets you shelve and stack your results.

Unskilled and Unaware of It

Note / jobs

Bruce Abernethy 4 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

How knowing less about a skill or topic gives the impression that you know much more than you really do.

64-bit Vista Oddness

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A few gotchas worth knowing about before you move to a 64-bit version of Vista.

Crystal Experiment – Take 1

Note / science

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Growing alum crystals on a string with the kids - and learning some patience along the way.

Quad-Core Laptop

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Admitting I was wrong - a quad-core laptop is coming, for $10,000 and almost no battery life.

Pessimistic Shipping Dates

Note / personal

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A book shipped from 159 miles away with a two-month delivery estimate. Yes, I did the math.

Water Weenies and Crystals

Note / physics

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Latex tubing, surgical clamps, and a supply of Aluminum Sulfate - summer projects with the kids.

Post from the Road

Note / blog

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Speaking a blog post into a phone and having it post itself - just to see if it works.

Turn On Channel 8

Note / tech

Bruce Abernethy 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Microsoft’s new community site for students who want to code, connect, and create.

Starting fresh

Note / blog

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Time to move to a new blog platform - BlogEngine.NET

Genealogy made easy

Note / ui

Bruce Abernethy less than 1 minute read Grand Rapids, MI, USA

A Genealogy app called Family.Show using WPF