Axodys

Had a performance review at work today. It went okay, but wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed. I think some positive things will come out of it in the end though as it gave me some areas that I can specifically work on improving over the next year.

As part of the process I was rated in a variety of areas on a scale that had four values: unacceptable, needs improvement, meets expectations, and exceeds expectations. Unfortunately, I realized today that for the technical portion of the ratings there isn’t really anyone besides myself that would know whether or not I was exceeding expectations as far as my technical skills go. My supervisor let me have some input on where I should be rated, but he doesn’t really have any specific IT knowledge or background so it makes it pretty hard to get an exceeds expectations rating (from my perspective that’s kind of rating you simply can’t argue for yourself). Anyway Joel Spolsky wrote a really good column on this very topic a couple years back entitled: Incentive Pay Considered Harmful.

Big news of the day: Google supports SOAP.

Using The Google API with Radio and Frontier

Today over at inessential.com Brent discusses his application design process. I think a little more planning along those lines could improve my productivity when it comes to all the projects I’ve thought about, but never really done anything with. Hmmm…

O’Reilly Network: The AltiVec Difference is a look at just how AltiVec processing works at the source code level. I hadn’t had the chance to look at any AltiVec coding examples prior to this article so I found it especially interesting. Vector programming is actually quite elegant once you see how it works, especially if you understand linear algebra. I just wish I owned a computer with a G4 processor at this point.

Chimera 0.2 is really, really nice. It’s not quite to the point where I’ll be using it as my primary browser, but it’s oh so close. I’m using it now and this is exactly what a MacOS X browser should be: speedy, tasty, and standards compliant.

Shoot, the Mariners lost again tonight. That puts them at 3-3 now. Hopefully they’ll be able to get back on track against the Angels tomorrow.

The Mariners game tonight was pretty fun even though they ended up losing to the A’s 8-3. Our seats were pretty high up in the upper deck, but the view was great thanks to Safeco’s great seating design.

I also tried sushi for the first time in the form of an Ichiroll from Sake & Sushi. Good stuff! I can’t wait to go to some more games this summer.

Hmm. Thought I’d be in Seattle by now, but things got postponed until tomorrow morning. I did get to watch the Mariners beat the A’s on TV tonight so that was pretty enjoyable.

James Baldwin looks like a pretty good acquisition for the M’s after tonight’s outing, but he seems a tad eccentric.

Funny things I noticed about him:
• Slowest walk from the mound to the dugout I’ve ever seen.
• During the game he had the largest plug of tobacco in his cheek that I can recall seeing.
• Wore a blue towel over his head around the dugout.

Sean Mallon Named 2002 Gatorade Washington Player of the Year

Big congratulations to Sean. Ferris fans have known for over a week that he had received the award, but this is the first time it’s been mentioned in the paper.

Seattle’s best saved for last. Wow! What a great, great game. Not only did Bret Boone come through at the end, but John Olerud, Jeff Cirillo, Ruben Sierra, Carlos Guillen, and Ichiro all contributed in the amazing bottom of 9th rally.

Next up the AL West leading A’s. See you guys Saturday night in Seattle.