Kalen Delaney : travelers lunchbox

Did You Know? It's Official...I'm a Geek!

Kalen Delaney — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:08:00 GMT

I almost didn't respond to the request for an interview with Richard Morris of Simple Talk. There were a few strange things in the request that made me think it might be spam or phishing. But I asked some trusted colleagues, and found out it was for real, and you can read the result here:

http://www.simple-talk.com/content/article.aspx?article=563

Thanks, Richard!

~Kalen

Did You Know? My First Meme

Kalen Delaney — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:54:00 GMT

I was just tagged by Andy Leonard, and truth to tell, I don't read Andy's blog all that often because he talks about really developer oriented stuff, which is a little outside my focus area now. But I was intrigued by the concept of a techblog meme, which I'd never seen before. I'd only seen memes discussed on my daughter's food blog, but at least I knew what they were because of that. You can read hers here, here and here. And then I realized I shouldn't have been quite so curious, because he tagged me! I saw today that Denis already responded, and tagged a whole bunch of people. I thought there was supposed to some sort of limit on the number of people you could tag; otherwise all the good tagees would get tagged too quickly. :-)

Although the meme is about software development, which I don't really do, I figured I could answer most of the questions, but for some of the answers I substitute 'working with computers' for 'programming'.

How old were you when you first started programming?
I was 16 years old and a Junior in High School.
How did you get started in programming?
I took a night class at a local Community College.
What was your first language?
Fortran... and it was mostly boring programs, but the 'idea' of programming fascinated me!
What was the first real program you wrote?
Hmm, what counts as 'real'? Commercially viable? Or just one that other people wanted to use? My first was a game I wrote for the Atari 800 that helped preschoolers to memorize their phone number. (My daughter was a pre-schooler at the time.) The teacher wanted a copy, then all the other teachers, then friends of the teachers, etc, etc....
What languages have you used since you started programming?
Fortran, Basic, PDP Assembly Language, Logo, C, Pascal, Lisp, Sequel, SQL, SQL, SQL, SQL.....
(...and probably a few I've forgotten)
What was your first professional programming gig?
I've actually never had a 'programming gig'. My first paid job with computers was being a teaching assistant for Computer Science classes at UC Berkeley.
If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming?
Too hard of a question. I absolutely love what I do, but I can see lots of other paths my life could have taken, if back when I was 16 I knew everything that I know today. :-)
If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
Have fun!
Who are you calling out?
Lara Rubbelke
Tibor Karaszi
Kimberley Tripp
Linchi Shea

Did You Know? I'm a Mother

Kalen Delaney — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:55:00 GMT

And I am going to use my blog to claim one of the sacred rights of motherhood, which is to brag about my children.

My daughter is an award-winning Food Blogger with an incredible blog, for those of you who like to make or even eat food.

For the past 4 years, the food bloggers of the world have joined together and donated their time and money for an incredible humanitarian effort. They have been holding a raffle and raising money for the UN's World Food Program and this year they are earmarking the money received to help support a lunch program in drought-stricken Lesotho. Each food blogger donates something food-related, such as a cookbook, a kitchen item, or even something edible! When you donate money, you can choose which of the donated items you would like to win.

Using the Internet to raise awareness of issues like this, as well as to raise money, is one of the most incredible uses of technology that I can imagine.

Since so many fabulous prizes are being donated, your chances of winning are excellent. (Last year, for a $100 donation, I ended up winning 3 prizes!)

Will you help?

You can get full details of how to enter the raffle on my daughter's blog, The Traveler's Lunchbox, as well as see what she is donating. Or you can go straight to the donation page.

THANK YOU!

~Kalen

Did you know? -- A Terrific Use of Technology

Kalen Delaney — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:29:00 GMT

One of the best uses of technology and the internet is the ability to get people connected to each other for a good cause. Now that the holidays are approaching, I frequently find myself counting my blessings and looking to share some of my good fortune with people who aren’t so lucky. During this season, my husband and I prefer to make our contributions locally, and give to local food banks, or provide gifts to foster kids in our area, or kids on public assistance who might not have as much under their tree as my kids do. But I’m going to tell you about a world wide gift that can make a difference, both to hungry people in the world, and to your own life.

If you have any interest at all in food, whether it is making it, reading about it, or just eating it, you can donate money to the UN's World Food Program and also have a very good chance to win some fabulous food-related gifts. You can do this by buying raffle tickets from Menu for Hope, an event organized by food bloggers from all over the world.

For details about the raffle, and to find links to descriptions of the incredible prizes, you can go to my favorite food blog, The Travelers’ Lunchbox, or to the main site, Chez Pim, and find out how to choose what prizes you might be interested in, and how to link to the donation page.

Once you get to the donation page, you can see another great use of technology. Anyone can set up a donation page like this, for fundraising efforts large and small. (Last summer, a 16 year old friend of ours ran in a triathlon to raise money for *** cancer research, and used a similar fundraising page to raise $500.)

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, and a new year filled with hope and joy.

-- Kalen