Daily Archives: September 13, 2004

Note to self – write a post about contracts vs. letters of agreement

Just Rambling

I meant to do this after talking with a friend who has been contracting for only 2 years.

Except for a project that was through a consulting company, I have used the same base letter of agreement with clients for almost 20 years. I even used it when working with G.E. Capital – oh but maybe not 3M. It’s easy to understand. No lawyers need be deeply involved. It has been enough for everyone I have worked for.

I’ll try to remember to write more about it at some point.

Vay-Kay-Shun

Purely Personal

First real break in three years – even if it’s only for 4 or 5 days.

YES: My hubby, Maine, ocean , camping, kayaking, lobster, steamers, beer, fudge

NO: Computer, email, blogs, cell phone, clients

imagine! Not leaving till tomorrow and will work until I get shoved into the car, but getting used to the concept.

Common problem faced by new Microsoft hires

Purely Personal

Reading this (touching) post by Peter Provost who recently moved with his family (including a newborn) from Denver to Seattle for a hot job at Microsoft, struck a chord. I remember having a  conversation with another person and his wife who recently moved from Florida (where he was already a Microsoft employee) to Seattle. They have young children. They were having a difficult time figuring out where to live (that was affordable as well as commutable) where his wife and children would be able to re-create their social world that they had to leave behind (along with family) when they moved. These are obviously huge and difficult choices to make. Quite different than when you are young and single and without a lot of ties.

Organizing WS Security

Just Rambling

I was having a hard time putting the different pieces of WS Security into buckets so that they are easier to explain.

The problem was authentication. I finally realized how I wanted to explain it. Authentication is done with security tokens, but authentication does not really belong in a bucket. It is done in tandem with all of the other processes – authorization, encryption, signing. Now it makes more sense to me.

I am starting to realize that one of the reasons that I have had such a difficult time with WSE is because I am not really a linear thinker. I’m more, well, spherical. But I was somehow unable to take wse as a whole and shove it into my brain. I really have had to go through this detailed process of breaking it apart, analyzing it’s pieces and then seeing how they fit back together.

And the sad part is all of this effort has only been for grokking the security stuff. There is a lot more to WSE than security.

The happy happy part is that I do really have a handle on this and one that I know I can easily share with other people who feel about this info the way I have for the past few years!

I seriously need to shout out to Don Smith for some hefty support over the last bunch of days. He’s been amazing in helping me clarify some of the things that I was still fuzzy with. THANKS DON!

Vermont’s Swimming Holes – not always just pleasure

Vermont

There are a lot of wonderful swimming holes in Vermont thanks to the Green Mountain range and lots of creeks and streams running down from them. Some of these swimming holes, are just gentle tubs along a stream. Others are in gorges. There is a popular spot called Huntington Gorge where many people have died over the years. They get caught in water that, due to the topography of the gorge, can be like a turbine. There is another extremely popular spot called the Bolton potholes which is not so notorious. I lived up the road from them when I first moved to Vermont. On Saturday, a young man who would have turned 20 on Sunday, drowned in the Bolton Potholes. He jumped in to a spot and due to the heavy rains which creates strong currents coming down the moutains, got held under the water. It took 60 rescue workers and 2 days to retrieve his body. I don’t know this kid or his family. I just read about it in the local paper. But it is just too heartbreaking, even with all of the horrors going on in the wider world around us. It’s much more personal.