Had an interesting situation at work recently that required a bit of hackery to make sure that everyone on the research team was on the same page. Since 95% of the actual work (everything but documentation) occurs through a central Usermin-powered portal, I had the idea to build a “nag” screen that I could periodically make users acknowledge before they’d be allowed into the system. Ideally, the system is used infrequently, only when policy changes are done that require everyone to know the new policy immediately. The system is pretty simple:

1. User Logs In, and if updates are present, they are shown the update page.

2. User reads the update, and enters a “codeword” on the update page. This is so the updates can be securely… Continue reading

I was on the phone today listening to a person tell me about a rough time they’d recently been having. Long before formally studying psychology I gained a reputation among friends as the person who would listen, and I’ll probably be listening long from now. The call today though was interesting in that, at a certain point, I made the observation that one shouldn’t give up all they had worked for simply because they were tired and times were rough. And since the person I was talking to shared the same religious beliefs that I do, I also made the observation that the Catholic view on suffering is that it is an ever present part of our world and not something that can be ignored.

Now whether you believe… Continue reading

So I am at the MVP Summit, in a room with a bunch of interesting people, and sadly I can’t give you any updates on the content (Other than to say Jack Cook is talking about suits right now, and no, suit isn’t a slang word for anything). But here are a few things I can talk about:

• It’s great to see everyone as usual
• Don Sorcinelli can apparently morph into a laptop bag. Be careful when he does this.
• The move to Bellevue is a nice change in terms of location, eventhough we aren’t able to bum around downtown Seattle.
• The reception last night (The “Welcome Reception”) was horribly executed. The room was way too small, the food kept running out, and there was

Last week, for about 3 days, my GTalk status (As well as my AIM status) read the following:

“If you’re reading this, open up a new e-mail and put my address in the To line, a noun in the body, and an adjective in the subject. I’ll write a story about them and send it back to you”. After a few days, I had two responses. Here’s the stories, in case you’re interested:

Story 1: diluvial Cinnamon

Old man Cinnamon knew it would surely be a horrible day as he gazed out across his farm. Earlier in the week his favorite cow, Bessie (a stereotypical cow in name only, as she had a graduate degree in physics, was an expert markswoman, and of course could talk), had… Continue reading

In the spirit of the book I just read on Abraham Lincoln, I’ve decided to write an open letter (to my wife). As I have no newspaper to publish it in, I suppose my blog will have to do. After all, blogs will most likely replace newspapers in the future anyway, much to the New York Times chagrin.

To my beloved wife Karey,

On many occasions I have allowed my love for you to dictate my behavior. Things I have had little predisposition over, such as the location of my shoes or the segregation of my laundry items, have been changed to your liking. And on many items we both agree harmoniously. However there are a few major things that I must protest your handling of, and assert myself at… Continue reading

Title: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Started: 11/30/09
Finished:  1/15/10
More Information: Amazon
Jon’s Summary: If you ever decide to read a book on Abe Lincoln, you should probably read this one. Why? Well because about halfway through the book I realized that it read more like fiction than history. You really feel connected to historical figures that died over a hundred years ago due to Goodwin’s writing style. And even though you know that the book will come to an abrupt stop on April 15, 1865, you still hope things may turn out differently!

Read this book mostly over 3 weeks, as I didn’t get much reading in over the holiday. It goes surprisingly fast as you want to… Continue reading

A few days ago I posted that I out-sniped a sniper on eBay to win an auction. Today that auction’s contents came in the mail: 4 of the new-style AAA Safety Patrol badges. Who would want these? Well as a bit of a collector of odd pins and badges, I do!
From Collectibles
These four are interesting in that they’re a radical change from the previous AAA badges of the late 80’s and prior. Originally AAA Safety Patrol used badges that actually looked like a police badge. I’ve got a set of the ones used from the AAA logo change until around the late 90’s, including my original Safety Patrol Membership Card (I “bought” my way up to Captain rank!):
From Collectibles

Photo by Karey, caption by Jon.… Continue reading

Got an interesting phone call this morning from a company that sells Voice over IP (VOIP) hardware and accessories on a Business to Business basis. They had my name in their customer database and were quite confused as the company name I had listed was simply “Jonathan Westfall”. The conversation went something like this:

Sales Rep: Hi, this is X from Y, and I was wondering if your previous voice over IP hardware purchases were for yourself or a company

Me: Uh… OK

SR: Yes, I know it’s an odd question, but you’re in our database and your company is just listed as “Jonathan Westfall”, and we were wondering if you had purchased the equipment for a company.

Me (realizing the purchases they are referring to): Oh yea… I think… Continue reading

A few weeks ago I got this piece of Comment SPAM in my e-mail:

A new comment on the post #94 "Does Spam Work?" is waiting for your approval http://jonwestfall.com/2007/04/does-spam-work/ Author : Make Money Online with Mr. X E-mail : russianmobvictim85943@gmail.com Comment: HELP! I’m currently being held prisoner by the Russian mafia and being forced to post spam comments on blogs! If you don’t approve this they will kill me. They’re coming back now. Please send help!

Needless to say I didn’t approve it… which probably means I contributed to someone’s untimely demise…

Photo: sindesign