Monday, June 29, 2009

Putting software "Softlets" online

I'm sure most programmers (either professionals or hobbyists) have this problem. I write tons of "one off" programs that eventually just get lost. These range from attempts-at-products down to one-liner scripts with everything in between. A favorite example is a very small java program that downloads streaming music into individual MP3 files. (shhh Don't tell the suits that "streaming audio" is just a text file of MP3 URL's ) Sometimes I use these programs, or I'll call them "Softlets" and sometimes I abandon them. I suspect they might have value to others even if they are not complete. When I have a coding problem the first thing I do is google the net and I get a lot of value from very simple snips of code. But how can I contribute to this Shared Mind of information ? Unless I'm going to publish a full blown product (such as xmlsh) I dont bother putting it on the net. Its too much pain. I would have to actually *document* it then make it into a buildable format (often I just run from a GUI). And let alone actually name the thing, find a web page for it, write the descriptions etc. That might take longer then it took me to write the Softlet in the first place, and the reason I write these things is I dont want to bother writing a full-blown program in the first place (or they become part of one later).

So what to do ? I'd love to point a Mini-Google at my hard drive and say "go get em", (excluding of course those directories where I do work for my employeers).

It would be nice to post these things in a wiki or blogish format, self archived and indexed with documentation AI'd out of the code. Ok maybe just a directory structure.

Any thoughts on this ? Are there any such tools to easily publish "My Codelets" web site?

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

What is your investing strategy ?

Curious minds want to know ! Feel free to reply as comment or to me personally.
Presuming, of course, that you have a monthly or periodic amount of "investment capital" say like I do pulled out of my paycheck before I can spend it on beer, horse feed or saddles, where are you putting it ?

Inquiring minds want to know !!!

Depending on who you listen to or ignore these options are recommended

* "Stay to the course"
Keep dollar-cost-avaraging a monthly amount into long term diversified mutual funds.

* "Invest like wild"
The market is at a long time low, NOW is the time to invest in risky high gain stocks ! Ya baby!

* "Gold"
Gold is at a long term high. So of course you should invest in it ! Who ever heard of "buy low sell high" , its "Buy High!" because your terrified of the future !

* "Hold Cash"
Play it safe and put money in money market, or under the bed.
There's scary dragons out there that want to eat your money. Better times ahead.

* "T-Bills / CDS's"
Atleast you can get what, 1.5% ? Thats good nowadays right ?


* "Invest? Whats that !"
The economy is crashing around us, money is worthless, spend while you got em and then try to go into debt before the system collapses. Who ever dies with the most debt wins !