Next Week
Next week, I’m off to the Microsoft PDC for some “geek time”. I’ll either have a lot to say or no time to say anything . Ideally, the conference will have WiFi, and I’ll be able to do some “live blogging”. We’ll see…
9/9/2005 4:45:50 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

A Hit and a Miss

The new Fall TV season has started (sort of), and now I’ve seen the first two new shows on my list (also sort of).

First out of the box was Prison Break, on Fox. Now, I find prisons depressing, so I wasn’t looking forward to this show. But, Diane Holloway from TV Blog and Laurel Krahn from TVPics.com seemed to like it, so I checked it out. Also, it has Dominic Purcell in it, and I loved him in John Doe. As it turns out, the show is very good. It’s episodic, which I like, and the writing is also good. So far, the plot’s been pretty predictable, but the show’s definitely been entertaining.

Not so much with my second experience, Reunion. The show has a quirky twist: it cuts back and forth between the present and 20 years ago, when a group of six friends graduated from high school (20 year reunion, get it?). Apparently, one of the friends has murdered another one of them. So, we get a mix of nostalgia show with murder mystery. The second quirk of the show is that each episode will deal with a different past year, as the show moves up to the present, revealing more of what’s going on. In the first episode, we even don’t know who the victim is yet. One of the friends is interviewed by the police, so is off the list. I suspect that this will be the trend for the next 4 episodes until, by the process elimination, we know who the victim is. Which leads to my biggest complaint about this show: It’s sooo cliche. Here’s an example:

Two friends get into a car. They’ve been drinking a bit. They’re talking and goofing off while driving. Surprise, surprise, they run a stop sign and are in an accident. Of course, this means trouble. It turns out that the driver is the “rich” friend and the passenger is the “poor” friend. Can we guess who’s had more to drink? Yup. So the “rich” friend convinces the “poor” friend to cop to driving, because he’s had less to drink (Warning, Will Robinson, warning!). He does. Then, the other shoe drops. The guy in the other car dies, and the “poor” friend is arrested for vehicular manslaughter. Everybody tells him not to worry, he has a clean record and will only get probation (Hah!). His attorney cuts a deal with the prosecutor, life is good (double Hah!). The judge throws out the deal and sentences him to 12 months in prison instead (it has to be 12 months so he can just be getting out for the next episode!). So, he gets just enough jail time to completely ruin his “full ride” athletic scholarship. Goodness gracious, where do they come up with this clever plot twists?

This is just a piece of the pie. The good news (for me) is that the show is on a high traffic night (Thursdays), and so, even with 3 DVRs going, I don’t have the recording bandwidth to include this show when the season is in full swing. Thank heaven for small miracles!

And, I have to add, they could’ve redeemed this show somewhat by focusing more on the music. Each flashback uses music of the year as background, but they don’t emphasize it enough. They really should be pushing that, a la Big Chill.

9/9/2005 11:46:35 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

What I'm Reading

A couple of weeks ago, when I had dinner with Kurt and his wife, Patricia, we got talking about books. It turns out that Patricia is a fan of science fiction. Who’d have thought! I’m always surprised by just who reads sci fi and fantasy among bibliophiles.

Anyway, this reminded me that one of the things I wanted to do in this here blog was share the books I’m reading. So, here’s the first installment.

I’m currently reading Shadowfall, by James Clemens. This is the first book by Clemens that I’ve read. Apparently, he has a few other books under his belt. It’s the start of a Fantasy series. I haven’t finished it yet (I’m at the climax), but so far, its been a good read. It has a unique take on gods and god-magic. I always enjoy a twist in that area. The story concerns a fallen “Shadowknight” who witnesses the assassination of a god and is promptly blamed for the crime. The ensuing plot twists are fairly predictable, but still, that whole god-magic thing has me hooked. Get this: the gods’ power is tied to their bodily secretions! In fact, there’s a whole economy built around these secretions.

So, for those who enjoy a good book about god wars and divine magic, I’d recommend this book.

 

9/8/2005 7:17:39 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  books | general

Blame Game

Well, the news is (finally) starting to report good things out of New Orleans. It’s about time.

I was fascinated by the negative comments heaped on FEMA, the President, and (by inference) the Republicans. After all, both the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans are Democrats. Interesting.

Even more interesting is the fact that the Mayor, prior to running for that post, had been a long time Republican. In fact, he’d even supported President Bush prior to his “epiphany”. While I don’t doubt that the feds have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do (thank you Ricky Ricardo), I think the local and state leaders better put on their dancing shoes too. Of course, the media may just ignore their contributions to the debacle in the name of “news”.

On the other hand (and there is another hand), the lack of funding for the levees around New Orleans and Dennis Hastert’s comments about the rebuilding the city, smack of hardball politics: Louisiana is run by the Dems, they get no money. New Orleans is headed up by an ex-Republican turncoat, they REALLY get no money. If the Dems are smart (and they’ve shown little sign recently that they might be), they’ll use this to their advantage during the mid-term elections next year. They should stay away from the President, and blast the Republican Congressional leadership instead.

9/6/2005 9:07:58 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics

Some of the fog is clearing

It looks like some of the hype fog around Linux, and specifically desktop Linux, is clearing. ComputerWorld reporter Sharon Machlis recently published a series of articles on her experiences with various desktop Linux distributions, and let’s just say that she was less than complimentary.

It’s about time that there were more clear headed discussion of the Linux vs. Windows issue. Evangelizing (from both camps) is all well and good, but at some time, the guys that are supposed to be keeping us honest need to speak up. Frankly, in the past, there was way too much MS bashing and Linux rah rah-ing for my taste.

Way to go, Sharon, and whomever at ComputerWorld assigned this to you.

9/1/2005 10:44:12 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  development | general

Where the money is going

Last night over dessert, Kurt brought up an interesting question: Just where is all the money allocated for the war in Iraq going? This surprised me, mainly because it’s been a sore spot with me for a long while. Well, I’ve found a (partial) answer, or at least a way to get at the answer. The U.S. Central Command, who’s running the show in both Iraq and Afghanistan, publish two newsletters, a CentCom newsletter and a Coalition Bulletin, just chock full of information on what’s going on in these two theaters. Frankly, I think that the administration has done a piss-poor job of sharing this kind of information.

Those interested in keeping track of the real progress in the  mid-east can subscribe to the newsletters here.

On a more personal note, it was great having dinner with Kurt and Patricia last night. We always have some terrific conversation, something I sorely miss since moving on to a new job.

8/25/2005 9:52:56 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | politics | world affairs

A Chilling Thought
Here’s a chilling thought, from The Huffington Post:  Freshmen entering college this fall were born in 1987. 1987! That was almost yesterday! It gives me chills…
8/24/2005 4:49:28 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

Make one person responsible...

On Signal vs. Noise, Jason Fried talks about making one person responsible for a single task. Amen to that. I’d never really considered just how important this is, until I was put in the same sort of situation recently. My first impression of this was to appreciate how empowering it felt.However, I think the more important point is the one that Jason makes: when you assign a single person to a task, it gets done.

By the way, 37 Signals has some products that look pretty compelling. Anyone in need of decent project management software (MS Project, ) should give theirs a try. As it is, I’m going to give their Ta-da list a ride around the block…

8/24/2005 9:07:08 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  development

What are they up to?
It’s official. Google Talk is up and running (in beta at least). For the life of me, I don’t know why we need yet another IM system. At least, this one is Jabber compatible (for what that’s worth). The boys at Google have previously said that they don’t get into new markets unless they had something significantly different / superior to offer. So far, I don’t see anything that meets that criterion in Google Talk.
8/24/2005 8:45:58 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

Michael Graham needs to go back to school

Michael Graham is one of those talk-radio hosts who likes to shoot-from-the-lip. Until recently, he had a show on Washington DC’s WMAL-AM radio station. On July 25th, he said that “Islam is a terrorist organization” (according to the Washington Post). He said this 23 times (just so that someone would know that this wasn’t just some sort of slip of the tongue). He was then was sufficiently unrepentant that WMAL fired him.

Okay, that’s all well and good. So, why does he need to go back to school?

Well, Mr. Graham has responded, on townhall.com, “The First Amendment and I have been evicted from ABC Radio…”.

I’m sick and tired of people not knowing what their own Constitution says regarding their rights. The Bill of Rights says “Congress shall make no law…”. It does not say that a person can’t be fired for saying something so stupid that it harms the private enterprise for which they work. Congress (or any other branch of the government) didn’t get anywhere near you, Mr. Graham. And, besides, you deserved what you got.

8/23/2005 2:45:12 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics | world affairs

Crackpots

On Monday, our own, home-grown crackpot, Pat Robertson advocated the assassination of the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez. President Chavez has responded by stating that Mr. Robertson’s statement is a “terrorist” statement that needs to be investigated by the U.S. authorities.

I must say that I agree fully.

Granted, Mr. Chavez is no friend of the United States (hence Mr. Robertson’s comments). And, granted, Pat Robertson is a grade-A crackpot who has a long history of saying some ridiculous things. However, it should be noted that if a muslim religious leader were to make such a remark about President Bush, we’d be yelling for the same kind of investigation. And, Mr. Robertson is sitting on a big enough pile of money that he could go ahead and follow through himself.

People may want to dismiss Mr. Robertson’s comments as those of a crackpot. But, I wonder how many “crackpots” are there in Saudi Arabia quietly sending donations to Osama Bin Laden. Wouldn’t we want the Saudis to do something about that?

8/23/2005 2:25:35 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics | world affairs

Straw Poll Time

I’ve recently seen both Republican and Democratic straw polls for the 2008 Presidential nomination. Putting aside the fact of a presidential poll being done the year before the midterm elections (sheesh!), the results are a bit interesting.

On the Republican side, the top candidates are:

• Raul Giuliani
• George Allen (who? Senator from VA. oh.)
• Newt Gingrich
• Mit Romney
• John McCain

etc.

On the Democratic side:

• Wesley Clark
• Russ Feingold
• Al Gore
• Hillary Clinton
• Bill Richardson
• Mark Warner
• John Edwards

etc. (more candidates on the Demo side, because the last 3 are so close, and besides, I wanted to include John Edwards)

Other than George Allen (how the heck did he make the list? He has zero national exposure!), the Republican list looks pretty rational to me. Not that I think the top 3 are winnable candidates (maybe Giuliani, but I doubt it. His attractiveness is 9/11 related, and that’s becoming ancient history). Mit Romney is a possibility, being a governor. He has good presence too.

The Democratic side is a mess. Chris Bowers refers to the poll as the “Donkeys Gone Wild edition”. And I think that’s pretty accurate. The top 3 candidates are ridiculous (Al, you had your chance. Go work on your TV network). Hillary’s a possibility, I guess, but I don’t think she has the leadership chops that her husband has. The next three all fascinate me. They’d all have a chance to get my vote (of course, they’d have to get the nomination first, since I’m a Republican during the primaries  ).

Of course, as I said earlier, this is way early to be paying attention to this kind of stuff. But it’s fun anyway .

8/23/2005 11:50:47 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics

The Religion of Science

As reported in the New York Times, a student in the audience of a recent scientific conference at the City College of New York asked, “Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?”

To which, Herbert A. Hauptman, a Nobel laureate in chemistry responded with a quick and sharp “No!”.  Thankfully, his view is not one shared by all scientists.

More and more, I’ve seen a tendency for the non-religious in the US to adopt a world view where Science answers all questions and is considered “reality”. For those of us who remember our scientific method, we know that this is not the case. Science merely provides a “working model”, that helps to provide answers to questions in a mechanistic manner.

There is no basic conflict between scientific knowledge and belief in God, as many religious scientists will tell you. Now, this doesn’t mean that some religious tenets don’t conflict with current scientific knowledge (i.e. Creationism), but that’s an artifact of religious conservatism, not religious belief.

 

8/23/2005 10:01:11 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general | politics | world affairs

Alas

Well, the other shoe has dropped. I won’t be seduced after all. The Walken for President campaign was a hoax. sigh.

You know, I’ve always considered myself pretty good at spotting these Internet hoaxes, and I didn’t just accept this one at face value, but I guess we all get fooled sometime.

 

8/22/2005 8:28:52 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics