Blogging Ottinger (tim)

Okay, it’s still pretty new and tender, but PDK/CL is a mighty interesting thing. It will probably change the world, once people understand what it really is.

1. Component-based Linux
   Rather than deal with individual packages, you can deal with functionality in chunks. This makes it much easier to build a custom distribution. The PDK toolkit is good already for generating installers, deb repos, and ISOs. Sam is working on making it very useful in the rpm world too. In a little while, PDK will be come the fastest and easiest way to build a Linux.

   And you can create your own components, too.

2. Version Control for Distributions.
   Something hard to do prior to PDK was to have your distro’s definition checked into version control so it’s easy to roll back, branch, etc. Now it will be very easy. You wouldn’t write code without VC, so why generate distributions without it?
3. Leverage for Traditional Package Sources

   You can configure “channels”, which are connections to remote package sources (like apt repositories and big piles of files). That means you can build components and resolve the package references against Sarge, or Sid, or Ubuntu, or whatever you wish. It also means you can publish your piles of files as channels for PDK users to use in their work. You can share packages as well as components. One may continue providing value by being a good source of packages, including update packages. The ‘channels’ feature should make it easier to incorporate updates from services like PTS.

4. Distributed Version Control for Distributions

   Not only VC, but DVC. That means that sharing with friends and strangers is much easier. This toolkit makes it possible to have an open-source (or closed-source) eco-system (pardon the E word). You can merge, branch, change all you want. Just as you could always do, but now with three-way and n-way merges. The system has no “top”, so everyone is a peer. This also makes it nice when there is a canonical source for some components, and you want to merge it in and take updates.

5. Metadata
   There is information about components and packages which isn’t easy (sometimes even possible) to derive from packages. It seems to make sense to have components step into the gap and carry the kinds of information you might have had in comps.xml or some other mechanism. This is just continuing the work done earlier on anaconda and CL, I suppose.
6. Installer customization

   I know that there is a tremendous amount of work going on in the area of generating installers and images, and making them easier to customize and modify. Basically, it can be done through metadata. This is getting active development at Progeny.

7. Extensions

   Well, it’s Python to begin with, so extension isn’t hard. But also there is a (rather pedestrian) plugin interface. One can write functions in python modules, and make them part of the pdk command line and shell. That means that open developers can add features as plugins for the world, and proprietary developers can have internal-only or for-pay extensions. We expect most to be in-house only. After all, you can add free features to PDK outright, since it’s open source.

That’s just a little of the potential we are talking about. There is much more. It has good ramifications for free and paid package and component sources. It is good for the distro developer, and gives the community a new level of collaboration. That’s more exciting than “a Progeny product.”

If you’re looking to move to better yourself, don’t move here. Things are not as tough as they are down south, but things are tough here. No wonder giving is down in churches, and houses stay on the market for months or years.

After the “death salsa” calmed down in the bottle to a tolerable plain salsa (must be the tomatoes), I had it on pork and loved it. It was quite delicious. It was chunky, but the tomato in it kept it kinda runny. For meat, especially leftovers, it was perfect. The juice soaked in, and the chunks piled up on top.

Then I looked at the pickle relish in the fridge (ground pickles and mustard it looks like) and a whole new ide hit me. Hmmmm… pepper relish. That should be easier to make, lest time to soak (for impatient me) and I could add whatever weird chunky stuff I want. Pepper relish.

I have visions of habenero/jalapeno chutney mixed with ketchup or mustard dressing up a nice hot dog or brat. Relish smoothed all over a pork roast. Chunky stuff on hamburger, held in by rings of onion. I can imagine it mixed into salsa, or rice, or … oh, man!… turkey dressing! What a great idea! Ladled into corn bread, maybe.

Now in addition to hot sauce, I have a new idea to play with. Mmmmm….

And the ex-death (resurrection?) salsa is so nice. It just needed a day or two to mellow.

Pepper relish. Who makes something like that? And why not?

There are lots of reasons not to use Linux, I guess. Depending on which way you turn your bias magnifier.

A guy told me that all versions of linux are incompatible. I was amazed. I had no idea. All this time I thought we were all running the same kernels and the same applications on all of them. Amazing what you can learn from a guy who’s never used it.

A fun experiment - in a lab I set all the machines running different window managers. I had kde, xfce, fluxbox, and gnome running. A good friend of mine asked me “which linux” I liked best. So I showed him that it’s all the same and you could switch between look-n-feel. He asked me if you could still run the same programs. He was amazed that you could. I guess it’s weird to have choices, when you’re used to being under a more dictatorial system. Especially when the choices aren’t slight variations of the same thing.

This bothered me for reasons that are more semantic and mathematical than anything else.

Aren’t 1/2 of all people below average in any category you can imagine? 1/2 of all saints are below sainthood average in holiness. 1/2 of all people are below average intelligence. 1/2 of all children are below average in looks. 1/2 of all cities are below average in hospitality. By definition.

Why is it that if the colts bring in below median revenue, they get a billion dollar stadium and special taxes? Shouldn’t any special additional treatment be based on a standard deviation, maybe a two-sigma or three-sigma control? And is that not based on performance? And if they’re not a big enough draw, is that really the fault of the state or the team? It seems that there’s already a lot of money being paid to them.

You may condemn me for not being sufficiently “loyal” to the local sports scene, but I frankly don’t see that the colts are a “public good” requiring a billion in investment (on top of everything else) in a time when we’ve got such unemployment and hard times, and when we’re laying off firemen and police officers. Frankly, I’d trade Manning and his crew for an equal number of firemen (though I could probably afford a few dozen fire stations and fully-loaded police stations for a fraction of the cost).

Ah, well. Employment and safety and fiscal responsibility are no fun to watch on sunday afternoon, and don’t sell very many beers.

Bah.

An interesting post by our dear friend Uncle Bob helps to make it clear what BDUF is and what it isn’t.

Mixed reviews, mostly positive, for Open Office Org

There is a really great book loaned to me by my pastor, describing the problem of church people who push their own agendas regardless of what it does to the church, and how well-intentioned people can do great harm. It is written to the point-of-view of a pastor, and talks about the heartbreak of well intentioned people who cause great harm.

It is all about conflict management and reconciliation. It’s not about removing “obstacles” but about ministering to, and with, people. It’s insightful, and contains many war stories of real ministers in real situations with well-intentioned “dragons” (not demons!) in the church.

On the mistake of regarding “problem people” as opponents:

Don’t look at them as lions, look at them as wounded sheep.

On people pointing out problems other people have:

We don’t need more bird dogs, we need more shooters.

Regarding rubber-stamping “stacked” boards:

The most effective boards can see issues from different sides and examine them fully, even when it means disagreeing…

Another mistake we can all make, whether pastors or lay ministers, teachers or other ministry leaders:

.. feeling they have to come across forcefully to maintain their position of authority or else they’ll be disregarded. But the opposite happens. They diminish their authority by pushing too hard. Real authority comes from proven credibility and caring.

It is good fodder for a study for pastors, lay ministers, board members, and maybe all members of a church. I’ve recognized myself on both sides of this as well as seeing the reflections of plenty of others. It is not merely an echo chamber, but rather valuable book that reveals more than one side of an issue and strive to create understanding on both sides. It is about being open, and building trust, and dealing with the distrustful. It is redemptive.

Chapter Titles

1. Church or Lair
2. Identifying a Dragon
3. Personal Attacks
4. The Play For Power
5. The Best Defense
6. The Second-Best Defense
7. When the Dragon May Be Right
8. When It’s Time to Confront
9. When There’s No Resolution

I’m impressed.

Well, I gotta use up a whole lot of jalapenos and habaneros. Time for some more home made madness.

I figured that I’d start by grinding up a dozen jalapenos with a half-dozen habaneros. It smelled so good that I did it twice. I ended up with a big pile of pepper mash, and the most wonderful smell in the kitchen. I put in maybe half a medium onion just for fun. Mmmm.. I can’t describe how my kitchen smells. You would be amazed.

So I got out some canning jars. In the first I put an inch and a half of the pepper mash, then some salt, alternating until pretty much full. Then splashed in vinegar. Now, this smelled wonderful too. Feeling pretty good, I do the next similarly but put garlic powder in with the salt between the layers.

I’ve got some cherry tomatoes. Hmmm, says I, I have some pepper mash left over too. What a wonderful coincidence! And we’ve got some dried cilantro. Providence has dictated a batch of DEATH SALSA! The proportion of tomato to pepper is pretty much upside down. No way I would feed this to the church social. But I gotta try it. So I dip in the spoon and give it a shot. Even fresh like this, it toasted my mouth. I let the oldest (high schooler) have a little taste, and he ran away. It’s dying to be the secret ingredient in my next actual salsa, but I can’t eat it as is.

I work with some pepperheads. I wonder if they’d like it?

Well, the canning jars get boiled & lidded, and now I can’t remember which is garlic and which is not. The death salsa is the only one with tomato, so that’s easy. Now we’ll soak the mash down for a few weeks and then maybe pour it off as a sauce, and maybe use the mash itself as a rub on something.

Updates:

The last batch of habenero & tomato looks good. It beckons me from within it’s little glass prison. I can hardly stand it.

The pepper juice (wimpy stuff) from the same batch sits next to the old green sauce from my first attempt. I see a romance developing between them, and the likelihood of marriage increases. But I’m also really interested in cooking up some rice with onion & seasonings, using the pepper sauce as part of the water instead of using chicken broth. Slightly spicy onion & rice sounds really good to me. So we’ll see if the romance is allowed to bloom.

The pepper mash from my wife’s sauce is still soaking into veggies in canning jars in the fridge. That was some good sauce.

It’s clear now that I’m going to have to start marking dates on these jars. Some “don’t open until” date. Frankly I’ve no idea how long these should sit. Weeks?

Ah, well, I’ve got a few dozen more peppers tucked away in the freezer. So many peppers, so little time.

A story of the humble pencil.

Another bond book by Ian Fleming. I’m really learning to love Fleming’s work. It’s not influential and deep like CS Lewis or Augustine or even Orson Scott Card, nor quite as gritty (and twisty) a mystery writer as Alistair McLean. But it’s descriptive, moody, and interesting. The famed bond gadgets like cars that turn into subs and cutting lasers in wrist-watches are completely missing from the novels. Rather than fighting world-dominating baddies, the books are generally about taking down criminals. Not earth-destroying, bomb-toting, ecology-poisoning madmen, but skilled spies and criminal organizations.

Essentially, if you know Bond from the movies, you don’t know Bond. You would like the book version better, even though I also enjoy the movies.

This one is great. It’s all placed in Jamaica and the US (not Haiti as in the movie). There is no voodoo cult and no obeah man. Nor does Bond escaped relatively unharmed from being dragged over coral reefs. This is an interesting book of intrigue and violence and Bond ultimately stopping a very bad man who ran a very big crime cartel. I could see reading it again, and I generally never repeat a fiction book. It’s not a long book, and not intellectually challenging, but it’s fun and a mighty good pleasure read.

The movie is absurd, stupid, ill-conceived, poorly directed, campy — really more of a parody of Bond movies than a bond movie itself.
The book, however, is rather interesting! I finished this one earlier in the week, and have to say that it was quite interesting. The movie has almost no relationship at all, other than the name of the villian and the existence of some kind of rocket. In fact, you can’t even recognize Bond other than by name.

Moonraker, the book, is about a false national hero who is planning to destroy the country who loves him. He’s a cheat, a liar, sabateur, criminal, but he’s utterly charmed the people and government. Bond is called in to protect Drax’s invention, but that turns out to be exactly what he should not do.

Very enjoyable.

A friend of mine (thanks Steve) wrote to remind me that Talk Like A Pirate Day is coming up next month. We should all be prepared.

Just in case you are so socially clueless that you didn’t know about Talk Like A Pirate Day, you should read up on it. And give me your lunch money, you wimp. An’ quit lookin’ at me with yer squiddy eyes, ye swabby. Arrrrr.

Learn the language.

Apparently standard learning skills actually make learning harder for students under stress. And all students are under stress, no?

I still wake up in a cold sweat from a recurring nightmare where I’m forced to return to my old High School to relearn all the things that I didn’t retain. It’s truly horrible. I can’t remember my schedule, I go to the wrong classes at the wrong time with the wrong books, I can’t find my homework, and I can’t remember which locker is mine (a total inability to recall the number). I wake up in a panic, absolutely no good to anyone, with my 43-year-old heart pounding like a jackhammer.

Actually, almost everyone I know has recurring nightmares about their academic experience. You think that would tell you something about the way schools work, wouldn’t you?

Instead of freaking out, the beeb apparently gets it. We want free stuff. You think more of the people who provide content would catch on.

It’s official now, Apple totally rocks.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote Harrison Bergeron, one of the best really short sad speculative fiction stories ever written. And he did it in 1961 (or so). Whatta guy. After all, when there is competition, there has to be a winner, and everyone else loses. Best to not risk that, right?

Funny, I’m not all that competitive of a person, preferring teamwork over competition. I’d rather work with you on an opportunity than do you out of one. But I think that people need to shine, and it’s good to see someone working at something they’re really good at.

Maybe this guy just spends too much time on the air?

Sigh. People have problems. Preachers no less than other people.

And the rest of us (chatterboxes) can use that warning from time to time, too.

I’ve heard a lot of sermons about idolatry. Now, mind you, we don’t see a lot of graven images and polytheistic icons around these days, and never are we told to bow to a golden statue at the blowing of a horn. We’re happy about that. We don’t embrace a state religion (knowing how poorly that has worked in the past). We have freedom of religion, including freedom to change if we find we’re horribly wrong.

So the application is always given that it doesn’t take a physical idol to create idolatry. People can idolize other people, or can idolize money or fame or some other image. The trick is that anything which is loved inordinately (more than The Lord) is an idol in practice even if not in name. Since there is a risk for even devout people the biblical injunction remains relevant. But what about the use of statuary or sacred art or music or imagery for worship? Is that idolatry? And what of non-idol idolatry? This has become a subtle thing, has it not?

One sermon-stuffer is the money test. Where do you spend your money? If you find that the majority of your money goes into your house or your hot cars or wardrobe, then perhaps you are spending more attention on these things than on the work of the kingdom, and therefore are slighting God. Are you giving to God’s work? Well, I think it’s worth considering. On the other hand, if we don’t care for our families, we are “worse than infidels”. We find that we spend most of our money on acquiring and maintaining a home, food, and necessities for our children. If families exist for which this is not the case, I don’t know them. After that, we spend money on our ability to continue making a living for our families. How can we not? These unavoidable things take much of our income. We’re doing as well as we can for our families, and we’re giving our tithes and whatever we can to the church. There is some entertainment, but it’s a lot less than the necessities and giving. I’m not surprised if this is the normal case. There’s not as much discretionary income as we might wish.

Another tried-n-true sermon stuffer is the “time test”. Where do you spend most of your time? If something takes most of your time, is it an idol to you? In tithe, your time would be almost 2 1/2 hours a day. Is that spent in prayer, study, and service? Well, here again we have issues. In everything I do, I find guidance and wisdom from the Bible. I squeeze in prayer in all kinds of funny times and places. Am I not always in worship, or nearly always? But I have to make a living and care for my wife and kids, and that takes time. After that a lot of discretionary time goes to caring for others. I suppose that a guy who spent all of his time on hobbies or career advancement, at the cost of family relationships, could be said to have some trouble with idolatry. But I don’t know how many idolize television and movies and music and hobbies, and I doubt it’s as common as some ministers make it out to be.

Whatever you’ve invested the most in, could it be a God to you? Where do you spend your intellectual and emotional energy? Maybe there’s something to this as well. Do you live for the bigger paycheck? Have you emotionally invested in your hobbies to the detriment of other concerns? Do you spend all of your mental energy on the job and nothing on the study of the Bible and prayer? What is it that you are so invested in that you could barely considering going on without it? Where do all your hopes and dreams go? Is it a person? An institution? A business? A church? A friend or relative (alive or dead) you want desperately to please? Is there anything without which you would rebel against God? Is your devotion conditional upon any thing? Whether a man is wealthy or idle, the question remains “what is everything to you?” Your idol could be your children, your schoolwork, your spouse, your pastor, your ministry job, your secular job, a goal you have set for yourself. This “investment rule” seems to have some weight, regardless of the resources available to you.

Perhaps a god is anything that differentiates right from wrong for you? To some crooked businessmen in the past decade, whatever will build their business is “right” and whatever would not benefit the business was “wrong”. Clearly responsibility is necessary, but if expediency becomes the ethical rule rather than being subject to the ethical rule, then scandal is never far behind. But not all of us are multimillionaire CEOs. Maybe an intent for preservation of a family could cause one to violate all other ethical rules, or protection of a loved one could lead one (otherwises well-intentioned) to lie or steal or hide evidence. It could be even the preservation of a kind of ministry which becomes an idol. It could be an image you maintain regardless of cost. The “ethical basis” rule certainly seems to stand up in modern application. Whatever we do should be done for God, not for our reputation or church or business. Then, when we are divested of everything else, at the end of our lives or in our day of judgement, we can be proud of what we’ve given.

I would offer that true idolatry should be judged by both the rule of emotional investment and the rule of ethical basis. If anything takes supremacy in these two areas, it is clearly a god. If in either of these two areas, obedience to God is eclipsed by loyalty to anything the earth has to offer then there is idolatry. If your obedience and devotion to God are conditioned on some other ethical system or emotional investment (even something intangible like Conservativism or Liberalism), then that thing is an idol to you. And such a god is truly a demon. As C.S. Lewis put it in The Four Loves “When love ceases to be a god, it ceases to be a demon.” This could be said of any idol, could it not? Such a thing could be placed back in its rightful place, subject to the true God, and it would lose its power to drive you against God’s laws and commandments.

Maybe I don’t have the proof texts for this, but please consider these things. The work you do, is it for Creator or for creation? Is there an agenda other than to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God? Something “grander” in your vision than to love The Lord with your heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself? Something that will be revealed in the fire?

Okay, this time I’m trying to track it.

2 cups of fresh tomatoes, quartered or better.
1/3 onion (yes, I learned my lesson)
Garlic (about a tbsp dehydrated)
Ginger (ground, about 1 tsp)
Water to cover
1 tsp fine salt (popcorn salt)

I cooked this into a pretty thin but tasty tomato soup. I might keep the recipe around just for that.
I strained it and returned it to the pan with some more water.

To this I added
5 jalapeno peppers, halved.
10 habanero peppers, sliced in half.

No, I didn’t vane and seed them.. I’m nuts.

I cooked this for about 7 minutes, then turned off the heat and covered the pan. The smell of the peppers was already pretty strong. I could smell the jalapenos from outside the kitchen, and the habaneros got stronger the closer you got. I’m hoping this will be a good sinus-opener. My wife says that her nose, throat, and mouth hurt from breathing the steam for a second. I have a cold, but it didn’t affect me the same way at all.

I made one mistake by putting in too much water. Sigh. It’s always something. I had so much of it that I had to put it in two mason jars. In the first I put all the peppers, and the second one is just juice. The juice is nice enough, but thin and weak. I drank a teaspoon of it and it seemed pretty hot all by itself, but when I put it on chicken it all but disappeared. I think the juice will be used to thin down chili or soup, or to pour over a roast. The one sitting with peppers in it, steeping is surely going to be stronger and thicker.

The onion and ginger were just right, and I’m glad I used tomatoes. The pepper flavor is really good. If you use the same recipe, make sure you don’t think you’re using enough liquid. The flavor seems great to me, but I thinned it too much.

Well, my head cold is so strong that our blended sauce (red + green + ginger + allspice) doesn’t have any effect at all.

I doused my hamburger in it to add some flavor, but nothing much happened. When your head is bricked in, and you’re on decongestants and sprays and extra rest, and still can’t taste the hot sauce… well. I need to make a real sinus-blasting hot sauce, I guess. I wonder what I can do about that?

Earlier I added a teaspoon or so to potato soup, and it had a pretty profound effect. It was good in the chili too. It must be a pretty strong head cold. Of course, it’s had me out cold for 1/2 the day (or more).

For some reason, when you aren’t feeling well, hot sauce seems to really help you feel better. My old friend Alan E. used to go to La Bamba’s for a Mexican sausage burrito with extra hot sauce whenever he didn’t feel well. It could be a cold, tiredness, or a stomach flu, and that was his cure-all.

I have to admit, it seems to help. It usually helps to clear your sinuses, at least. But you always feel good after a nice little burn. Kind of “discomfort food”?

The green hot sauce (jalapenos and onion & preserves) is really good on fish! My son cooked up tilapia with the green hot sacue, and it was wonderful. Whoodathunkit?

Popping balloons for science or pure fun is cool. I don’t know which is more amusing, the half-popped balloons or the flinching faces. But the balloons are amazing.

A friend of mine has two rules to describe all human behavior:

1. People are stupid.
2. They take the easy way out.

That is sadly true often enough. This is an example of the F Response. It’s a sad thing indeed.

Personally I think it’s probably true of the weak and the weasley, but people of faith and people raised to be strong will often take the hard way when they believe it is the right thing to do. Not that we should live in constant trouble, but when problems come up, we should be men and women and try to do something. After all, “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”

Though I suppose “resisting evil” could be seen as “the easy way out” for our families, churches, and governments. After all, living in an evil system is pretty difficult. Hmmm.

I have to go contemplate now.

I found out about a book I would like to read sometime soon. It made me think about a lot of things, just reading the reviews. A quick google and another article discusses confrontation and kindness in a level-headed way. It talks about niceness as a character fault:

There is more than one difficulty with this kind of behavior. To begin with it is dishonest. When we are angry with someone it is hypocritical to pretend we aren’t. While it is not appropriate to indiscriminately unleash our wrath against another person, it is also wrong to act as if everything is sweetness and light in a relationship that is at risk. God desires truth in the inner parts. He desires that that truth be manifest in the outer parts as well. There are times we must lovingly, but firmly, confront people. If we don’t we are pretending to be at peace with someone with whom we are not. We are living a lie.

For some the ideal church would be described as wrinkle-free, conflict-free, “nicey-nice” existence. Nobody raises a fuss. Nobody confronts, everyone just quietly forgives and goes along. The proof texts are quite ready and available. But the Biblical life is clearly a life full of justice as well as grace, of truth as well as love. Try to read a few chapters of any of the 66 books without seeing an admonition to stand up for what is right, to wrestle against a sinful complacency, and to struggle to promote the good (even at the expense of the “nice”). Indeed, being a follower seems to require disturbing the peace.

Fithian explained: “When people ask me, ‘What do you do?,’ I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible.” I wonder: Is this not what Jesus meant when he spoke of bringing fire to the earth? Did he not seek to bring crisis as “that edge where change is possible”?

I think that this is an important quote. While some see all conflict and turmoil as “the problem”, there are others who know that “the problem” is whatever lies behind the conflict and turmoil. The act of confrontation is not a problem, it is a means to the resolution of a problem. Sweeping problems under the rug is the surest way to ensure that the problems will continue and will continually fester. Sure, one could quietly walk away, but then there is no chance of restitution, no chance of reconciliation, and no chance of improvement. Conflict is merely the lancing of the boil.

The entire Bible is not the record of people who spent all their time figuring out how to avoid conflict. Instead, it is filled with patriarchs, judges, prophets, and teachers whose duty it was to confront people who were living at odds with their God, and who not only sinning, but encouraging sin in others. The Biblical heroes told others to repent before the day of their judgement was at hand, and they named names. They were immensely unpopular, because they stirred up trouble among people who were perfectly content to go on with their business as usual. They created conflict, they caused leaders to be doubted, they caused issues to be raised. They did not smooth things over. As a result, they found themselves ridiculed, dropped into wells, kicked out of the country, tossed into fiery furnaces, lions dens, and abused in every imaginable way. The greatest of them all was publically abused, humiliated, and finally executed between two thieves as a kind of “insult by association”. That’s not how you treat the nice kid next door who never causes any problems. Every once in a while, someone listened to them, and you can tell because those are the stories that turn out well.

There is another one I found tonight that struck a chord with me as well. I can be a little harsh, and it’s always good to have some kind of a reminder as to how things need to be handled.

I’ve now found myself in a church with people who believe in biblical confrontation, rebuke, and exhortation as a service to each other and as a growth opportunity. I think it’s very good to be among courageous people. It inspires trust.

A recent blog article discusses the whole Linux trademark situation. It’s going to be an interesting time. I’m not sure how to feel, personally.

We all got our library cards on Saturday.

As a young rural boy, I had a card. We had a bookmobile that visited our neighborhood each week during the summer. It was to me like an ice-cream truck. I’ve lived in towns since, but I don’t recall being to the local library. Now I’m re-discovering the joy of borrowing books for free. I’m reading a number of theologically-based books, some silly action-adventure, and one on guitar playing. My children are reading Garfield comics and all the Left Behind books, and on it goes. My wife is reading the same action/adventure/mystery books, and a few others besides.

Of course, this is all viewed very negatively by elements of the IP legal community. I remember past rants against libraries, arguing that it is wrong to loan books and movies and music. I had seen the arguments, that every free use of a copyrighted item is theft via the loss-of-revenue doctrine. Not only are books being read by multiple people without remuneration, but they’re being read repeatedly by the same persons, each time for free. We’ve heard it all, and still we believe that there is value in making both fiction and nonfiction, video, written word, and music alike available to anyone with a will to appreciate them.

Being well-read and informed is a public good, moreso certainly than the use of private property for land development, and the good to the public is used to justify the high property taxes common in residential areas. It is a public good. It is worthwhile.

I found an article by Michael O Garvey, who’s book (”Finding Fault”) I’m reading. I’m a protestant, but I like the way the man thinks, the way he writes, and the respect evident in his work.

I have doubts about the political motives behind our Iraq involvement, and have concerns about the grave cost of it, though I fully respect the men and women who risk everything — and the difficult task that lies before them. I may wish it weren’t necessary, but I am proud when it is handled thoughtfully and professionally by our armed forces. I think that it is good to keep some Christian perspective on the job they are doing.

It seems that there is a way now to detect diabetes via MRI, before clinical symptoms are apparent. Wow. Imagine a quick scan instead of that syrup test. I wonder if it will be cheap enough eventually to make it a standard health screening someday?

It really is an amazing time to be alive.

I found an interesting alternative view of Cindy Sheehan. While it is somewhat anti-liberal, at least one can say it is more respectful in its handling of soldiers, though I generally dislike “anti-” rants (anti-conservative, anti-liberal, anti-Christian, anti-athiest).

Don’t read too much into my political leanings this way, but I do share a respect for those men (not children) who serve our country. Of course, I’m also typically respectful of older men and women, too, especially those who have suffered such loss. I just felt that this was worth reading.

As a good friend pointed out, this seems to have become rather a majority view of late. I originally only heard the good, now I hear a lot of complaint. Well, for what it’s worth, she does believe she’s standing up for something she believes in. That’s good. Too many people stand for nothing at all. I don’ t know that she’ll have much impact on policy makers with the rhetoric, but maybe there is some kind of closure in here somewhere. My experience is that telling people they’re wrong doesn’t return much yield, right or wrong. I guess people harping on Sheehan won’t change her, either.

As a race we have problems giving and receiving criticism. We give it roughly and tend to receive it poorly. As organizations, we tend to be even worse. I don’t know the answer. But I’m betting attacking grieving mothers doesn’t help much. Her feelings are real, and her experience itself is valid, whatever you may think of her phenomonology and rhetoric. Without recognizing the pain, nothing will get better for her. And maybe nothing will get better for us.

The thing that’s certain is that the US is having some hard times. Maybe we all need to learn a better way to help out.

I’ve finally gotten around to trying out an Ian Fleming novel. Yeah, James Bond. I’ve seen a bunch of the movies, (being pretty fond of Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Dr. No) but never had read one of the books. This one is Casino Royale, in which Bond’s job is to beat a bad guy at baccarat. Yeah. Really. Doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as Gold Finger but it’s actually a fairly interesting read.

Movies: I’ve seen Luther. Wow. This is a move I’m going to own, rather than just borrowing it. It was very much worth the viewing. Martin Luther is a favorite of mine. He wasn’t The Perfect Man, but he sure was dedicated to biblical Christianity.

I also saw most of Winn-Dixie. It is one of those heartwarming family films. It’s pretty good also. It’s got cute kids, a crazy dog, and a lot of heart. I like it well enough, though I don’t know that I’ll buy a copy. It is pleasant to watch.

The GIMP has compositing aids that are kinda hard to beat. This really is an amazing addition toa very useful tool. There is even a short video.

I don’t have psychopathic bosses. Mine are cool. But maybe yours is nuts?

A friend has pointed me at a very interesting article on psychopaths.

The scary part would be if someone could find a correlation between psychopathy and short-term profitability… I don’t doubt that a lot of shareholders would start screening *for* psychopaths, if it meant better short-term stock prices.

It’s a clever idea. There are a lot of positions that should not be filled by the remorseless.

Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

Time to bid farewell to my old church, and move on to the new work prepared for me.
Thanks for the love, fellowship, and opportunities to serve.
May all things be made new again.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.

Everything hard seems to go through this, whether it’s death (the topic originally associated with the list) or even lesser issues like ugly chores or unwanted expenses.

This came up at work when discussing the departure of a coworker whose company I enjoy. I teased that we were still in the denial stage.
Good luck, pal!

All your apps are belong to me.

I read an interesting article on the famed 200 barrier that churches reach. The last paragraph is very interesting. It seems to coincide with the things I’ve heard from famous leaders of open source projects.

A church and a software project have little in common, other than the sense of a higher cause than the contributions of any particular member, and the fact that both are entirely volunteer organizations. I can see how in both cases, there are limited democracies, and either tends to take the form of a benevolent dictatorship. However, the leaders have to lead by influence and trust, because neither truly weilds any real control over their volunteer base. In either case, the offended or distrustful have other projects and other leaders to choose from. Any leader who was more focused on limiting an exodus than on drawing more people into contributing (time, devotion, effort, money) will soon find himself alone.

I like the discussion of small-church pastors and how some are definitely called to it. I’ve recently met one man who seems to be very competent at small church leadership, very intimate and friendly with the congregation, and very full of grace. His church is small, but he’s well-loved. It’s something only possible with a small church and a people-oriented pastor.

In larger groups, I can see how a much greater openness is necessary. In the case of open-source projects, everything is entirely in the open. The leader’s code is available for all, his decisions are made in public mailing lists (sent to thousands), or public blogs (read by millions?). Their skills tend to be more in following and influencing than in setting rules.

I don’t mean to make a religion of software, nor to secularize the work of the church, but the contrasts are interesting.

Please send links on this topic. I’m very interested in comparisons.

Matthew 5:37

33″Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

James 5:12

12Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.

That’s pretty much my whole set of beliefs on additional oaths. There is “privilege”, and in those cases, “I am not at liberty to say” is a truthful answer. Likewise “there are reasons you know nothing about.” That’s a “nay” to answering, and it’s perfectly acceptable.

In Japan, musicians have started to bypass their label in order to get music into the public’s hands via iTunes. It’s been said for a long time that the music industry (who otherwise try to ooze up-to-date-ness) are ‘way behind the times when it comes to distbution in portable-player-friendly formats.

Now, how about the whole free downloads thing? Free the music, sell the band. Most studies I’ve seen say that releasing music free on sharing networks causes a rapid rise in the number of CDs sold (hmmm… what about stickers, tee-shirts, and hats?). Or maybe lowering some prices. I would LOVE to buy five times as much music as I do, but at current prices, I have to consider which projects to buy and I have to plan to buy them. If they were $6.00 (a reasonable lunch) I could probably buy a few per month. Oh, and if I could hear them first, I’d certainly get a stronger hankering.

But it’s enough that artists are willing to embrace new(er) technology, and drag their labels kicking and screaming into the century.

Banging my favorite drum again: just because your system as-implemented is capable of doing X, Y, and Z does not make X, Y, and Z requirements. They’re potential features, and it’s nice that it can do them. But they are not requirements because it does them. They’re requirements if it was determined that they were needed to do a particular job, and that job is something that the end-user of your product needs to do.

If you are using a relational database because it makes it easy to generate required reports, then the reports are the requirement, the database is the mechanism. Not the other way ’round. If that gives you extra leverage for future add-ons, that’s great. But that doesn’t make them requirements.

Your feature isn’t a requirement because your implementation can do it, and no requirement becomes a non-requirement because the code isn’t written to do it. Requirements are the ruler your work is measured against. You can go beyond, but you can’t come up short. It isn’t the measure of what you’ve done, but the measure of what you should have done. It isn’t how you’ve done it, it’s a measurable end by which you’ll determine how much you’ve achieved.

This is part of my problem with requirement-free development — you have no measure, and you don’t know how close (or how far) you are from any given goal. It’s okay to take them a few at a time, and it’s okay to use an incremental system, but you have to know something about where you are and what’s next to do.

Without a decent grasp of minimal requirements, you may end up building a lot of brass rails and fancy navigation aids, only to find you have no boat to put them on.