Mishkin Berteig - Just Some Random Geek.

My full name is Mishkin Ben-Garry Vyordan Berteig. I have another home page. About Me

20040629: Today is our wedding anniversary: we've been married for a full seven years!!! It's been an amazing time. I feel no regrets at all, only gratitude and optimism for the future. Melanie has turned out to be a perfect fit for me: she's careful where I'm careless, diligent where I'm lax, her smile is still the most beautiful I've seen, and I love her completely. She's gone to the enormous trouble of bearing three beautiful children, and is caring for them superbly. She gives me support when I need it, and is still willing to let me support her when she needs it. I am constantly astonished by her incredible patience with my stupidities, wierdnesses and bald mistakes. If the next seven years are as good, I'll probably just explode from sheer joy.

Oh and if anyone wants to get me a gift, here's my ideal computer monitor. (And this one runs a close second - it's a little less expensive.)

20040624: I'm re-reading "Ship of Magic" (its over on the sidebar there -->). What an amazing book! I know I've said that before, but really, it bears saying again. Get a copy and read it.

I've got an idea for a robot. It might even be an idea that can make money. I'm going to try to build a prototype on the super-cheap (using discarded computer parts and household materials for structure). It'll be a fun project and if it makes it, I'll be sure to let everyone know :-)

I've reorganized my office. My desktop is out - I don't use it anymore. I've completely switched to my Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop. It's an amazing little machine. Top notch. It's got a 1.7GHz Pentium M processor, 1GB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, and most importantly, 802.11g wireless and an absolutely incredible 15" WUXGA screen (1920x1200 resolution). I've probably said all that before too. Nevertheless, it hasn't taken me all that long to switch over completely. The desktop (a pretty good one too) is now downstairs in our "media room". My desk is finally uncrowded even with an office phone, a scanner, two USB2.0 hubs and two external hard drives. In the meantime, I also reorganized my server closet. I put my Cisco DSL router in there and hooked up my Xerox DocuPrint N17 laser printer to my file server. The file server is an older Dell tower that runs Windows Server 2003. Lots of fun stuff.

I'm going to be starting weekly firesides soon. I've decided it's been long enough since last I had firesides. I'll start by inviting some neighbors and other people I know in Markham. We'll see how it goes.

20040622: Ahh, the longest day of the year, the start of Summer! So, some new things:

I've started a web site about Baha'i Homeschooling, called bahaihomeschooling.org, appropriately enough. Right now, there's just a few volunteers working on some content. We'll start with links and go from there, maybe to articles and lesson plans. We'll see.

I've started a web site about Graphical User Interface Refactoring, called guirefactoring.com. Not much there yet, but a few short blurbs that give a general idea about what I'm talking about.

Melanie has put up a page about Verity. Verity has gained over a kilogram in the last two weeks - apparently that's fairly normal for breast-fed babies.

I've planted a bunch of trees at our new home. Gardening work has been lots of fun. Photos to be available soon.

About Me

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 and Verity. I love to spend time with all of them. Haifa is learning to read, Justice is learning Arabic, and Melanie and I are learning about home design.

I am an independent consultant with over 10 years of professional object-oriented technology experience primarily in Objective-C and Java. I'm also doing 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 no longer like Big Macs after reading "Fast Food Nation".

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, November 2003, missed Dec., January 2004 , February 2004 , March 2004, missed Apr., May 2004, July 2004, 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)