Mishkin
Berteig - Just Some Random Geek.
My full name is Mishkin Ben-Garry Vyordan Berteig. I have another home page. About Me
20031130: So, I haven't written much this month, nor the last two. I attribute that to being very busy. The project I've been working on for Schwab has kept me working long hours. That's good in some ways, but I would really appreciate a break :-) I'm hoping to take a few weeks off over the Christmas/New Year time. Quiet weeks.
I returned the laptop. I'll wait a while before getting a new one. I'm hoping to get something with a slightly better graphics card ( the one I returned had a GeForce Fx 5600 mobile in it).
I'm getting more and more into Morrowind modding. I made (copied) a house for Justice. He loves it, but he can't play the game because it is so violent. So I'd like to make what is referred to as a "total conversion" where none of the Morrowind gameplay exists, rather everything is completely re-done to create a new environment.
20031127: Melanie and the kids are with me in a corp apartment in SF. we've already been here for two weeks. Today we are going to go to Rich Freyberg's house for (American) Thanksgiving dinner. We're bringing the pies :-)
I read a great article by Umberto Eco today. It is about the differences between vegetal and mineral texts.
I purchased an HP pavilion zd7020us laptop. I'm going to return it. The main reason is that the touchpad is really flakey. The screen is nice: 1400x900, and it has lots of great features. But really I think I want a better model: the zt3000 with a 1920x1200 resolution screen...
20031107: I'm in SF again. This time around I've been very anti-social. I saw David-John on Tuesday evening, but other than that, I think I'm just hiding out this time around. Part of the problem is that I brought Morrowind with me. I've gotten to the point in the game where I have a place of my own (cleared out the Morag Tong building in Balmora) with tonnes of great stuff including lots of glass, ebony and Daedric weapons and armor. I've also got a huge cache of alchemic ingredients and soul gems. I've also got some rather serious potions I've made by using fortify intelligence. I can use a levitate potion to fly across the whole game world in only a few minutes. And the potions are worth just under 5000 Septims so I've got a great way to make money from Scamp. Morrowind is a great game, although maybe a little too adictive :-) I'll probably stop soon :-D
Last weekend I met with a woman who is the ex-CIO of a major bank in Canada. Christian and I were there, and we talked about business opportunities in the GTA. It looks pretty good. I've been throwing around the idea of Agile Software Masters and she was interested. I've also got an SVP of Schwab who is interested in the idea. Maybe get one more senior executive involved and I might have critical mass to make a go of it. I'll have to write some articles to get the idea out - see if I can get them published in some prominent places.
Melanie's pregnancy is going well. She has started to "show" just a little. I find that euphamism quite funny for some reason. Anyway, she's getting bigger all the time, but she's still at the point where she could hide it if she wanted to. Nevertheless, at last Feast, many people noticed and asked her about it.
Coming to SF every other week isn't too hard on me physically, although it still causes me to get really behind on all my personal work...
I am a Baha'i. The Baha'i Faith was founded by Baha'u'llah. Baha'is believe that Christ has returned, and that the world is going through a tumultuous collective adolescence in preparation for maturity: World peace is not only possible, it is inevitable.
I am a husband to Melanie Andersen, and I am a father to Justice and Haifa. I love to spend time with all of them. Haifa is learning to talk, Justice is learning to play Chess, and Melanie and I are learning about transactional analysis and heathy eating.
I am an independent consultant with over 10 years of professional object-oriented technology experience primarily in Objective-C and Java. I'm starting to do some C# and .NET work. Here is my resume.
I am a co-founder of Oomind. Oomind is a community education system. Oomind works on some community principles similar to those at work in Slashdot, Kuro5hin, and Wikipedia. Registered users can submit and rate Courselets, as well as submit, rate and answer quiz questions about Courselets. There are also facilities for instructors, recruiters and learners. Oomind is unfortunately suspended for the foreseeable future.
I also write electronic music, primarily using some freeware software called Buzz.
My favorite foods include Dim Sum at the Koi Palace, Sushi at Ino Sushi, and Persian at Yaas. Salmon is my favorite fish, and I have an unhealthy liking for Big Macs.
That logo at the top is my name "Mishkin" in very stylized Arabic calligraphy. I designed it myself.
I can be reached at mishkin@berteig.com if you feel like sending me something for some reason.
Older entries: October 2002, November 2002, December 2002, January 2003, February 2003, March 2003, April 2003, May 2003, June 2003, July 2003, August 2003, missed Sept., October 2003, home
Top Sci-fi and Fantasy:
1. Ship of Magic (Robin Hobb)
2. Songmaster (Orson Scott Card)
3. The Real Story (Stephen R. Donaldson)
Top Software Development Books:
1. Agile Software Development (Alistair Cockburn)
2. Software Craftsmanship (Pete McBreen)
3. The Inmates are Running the Asylum (Alan Cooper)
Top Movies:
1. Run Lola Run (CA$) (with Franke Potente)
2. Strictly Ballroom (CA$) (by Baz Luhrmann)
3. Groundhog Day (CA$) (with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell)
