Scattered shots across my bow

I have been so busy, my poor blog has been neglected and thousands of people have been deluging me with emails asking when my next very insightful post will appear.

Yeah, right.

Anyway, I have been incredibly busy doing some incredibly interesting stuff. Want to hear about it? Oh, okay, you twisted my arm.

First of all and most exciting, I and my development team have been putting in lots of hours to complete the beta release of Qute, the Quest Unit Testing Tool. If you write PL/SQL code, this product is going to rock you back in your shoes. It will completely change the way you think about and do testing of your PL/SQL code. We now enter a 6 week QA period and then move to an October 2006 release. The beta program is closed (unless you are really serious about getting involved, in that case, get in touch...), but you can download and try out the software - starting tomorrow, August 29. Just visit the Qute Community and have a look around after we load up the beta software at the end of this day.

Beyond that, I just finished one of the most interesting books I have ever read in my life. It is called On Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins, and it offers a paradigm for understanding how our brain works (that is, how we are able to function in the world, type on a keyboard, think abstract thoughts, build cars, etc.). He thinks that with this paradigm shift, we will relatively soon be able to make true thinking machines, as opposed to computing machines, the dumb things that we call "computers" today. Yes but what about Skynet?

Read this book. It is short and mostly very accessible. It could change your life! I strongly urge you to get a copy, only $7.99 at Amazon!

On to less pleasant matters. Just when I thought I had managed to put an arm's length between my emotional well being and the awful conflicts raging between Israel's fanatical, aggressive military-governmental complex and its neighbors, I read this article and found myself in tears.

C'mon, Olmert. Even if you are totally justified in using cluster bombs on towns in Lebanon (which usage almost certainly violates US law), couldn't you have the grace to now say: "We will help you clean up our mess. We will provide soldiers to gather up all those little colored balls that look like toys but will actually destroy life."

Just think how much good will Israel would gain.

Sorry, just dreaming about a better world again...may I never break the habit!

Meanwhile, my wonderfully creative wife, Veva, a ceramist of fine skill and aesthetic sense, just installed her latest "goddess" statue in front of our house. She calls it the Bird Lady. I like it alot.

I will end on that more upbeat note.