Blogging Ottinger (tim)

Okay, I think that television could really work out. There are some really crazy stretches here, but let’s play with the idea.

1. PVRs become pervasive. Everybody has them. Entire home networks like MythTV become common.
2. Networks broadcast to PVRs, intentionally. No broadcast flags and DRM nonsense. They provide content for download to PVR/player, and catalogs of programs.
3. Aware that people will skip commercials, but that people also love catalogs and reviews and product news shows, networks make commercials available for download in those formats.

Think about this for a minute, though it’s mighty unlikely.

PVRs and MP3 players are already the rage. We don’t watch 80 channels of 24-hour broadcasting every day (and not only because it’s impossible). Most people have a few shows they like, and they surf channels to see them. We aren’t loyal to the networks. We don’t care if we’re seeing our favorite stuff on HBO, CNN, Fox, NBC, or TNT. We’re all about shows, not networks. So in a PVR world, it’s much easier to work bandwidth-wise. You don’t have to send 80 channels of gunk 24 hours per day to every household. You can let them bittorrent the stuff that they actually want. You can track it better, you can charge for it, consumers can pay for a subscription (we already do) and networks can pay back the hot content producers.

The whole choice v. censorship bug can be resolved. Make all kinds of content available. Don’t bother with the censorship stuff, just tag it. See, right now it’s a problem because whatever the network send will come into our houses without us wanting it or having a voice. That’s wrong, because we want control of the content that comes to our house. Also, whatever the networks don’t send is not available to us, and that’s a first-amendment freedom problem. We want to have unpopular content available, and freedom for people who think differently from ourselves. The networks can’t win under this circumstance. You can’t send me all the stuff I want and filter all the stuff I don’t want, and you can’t send my personal channel to all the neighborhood and expect them to be happy. But what if it’s all available, but each family can choose what they want? Hmmm… now choice is individual, and freedom of content is corporate. Not a bad deal.

Networks can still make money because the “right” advertising is very attractive. People watch movie reviews shows and gadget news shows. People want to know about new technology, new cures, new food products, new recreational activities. I get catalogs from musical equipment stores and I love looking through sales papers. What if all advertising were done in that fashion? Frankly, I like to watch those shows that repackage old commercials “the best commercials of xxxx” or “funnies commercials”. I listen to the engadget podcasts because the new tech is cool. I would imagine that most people would be happy to take in hours per week of advertising. I can even imagine downloading something called “this week’s top 10 new commercials” or “favorite commercials” as a video to watch. What people hate is when semi-porn commercials are shown during kiddie times or when unwanted “dud” commercials are in tight rotation, or when there are commercials on for products and services they have no interest in watching. Strangely enough, shopping channels do an incredible business — why? It’s not advertising we hate, it’s the way it’s thrown at us. Given a choice, we’d probably go a while with no advertising, but then we’d wonder what goods and services we really want. We’d ask for ads from supermarkets, restaurants in our area, home improvement, house and garden stuff, new clothes fashions and prices, games and toys, food and drink, kitchen gadgets — eventually we’d be watching more advertising than we actually watch (as opposed to ignoring) now.

I can also see pseudo-networks of “recommended programs”. Reviewers and maybe even customers could vote and select programs. Nobody is going to watch the same old programs every week, so we’ll want to see what else is available. That means that we’ll want to see advertising for programs and advertising for other people’s lists of preferred programs.

I don’t even mind if my free content includes ads for other shows that I might like, along the line of Amazon recommendations. Nor do I mind targeted advertising based on the kinds of commercials and programs I’ve asked for. I could make compromises for the sake of an all ale carte world.

The thing that is really inverted in this picture is control, and that’s why it can’t work. It’s too perfect and utopian. It solves problems in a way that does not leave a monied minority in control of the masses, and control is the one thing you can’t wrest from monied interests. Our democracy is really a capitalism, and none of the content providers have the stones to give up control, even for the sake of big money. It will have to be the work of small entrepeneurs.

That means that in all likelihood, video podcasting will be the television of the future.

I’m grateful this year for TFUG. Superbenk and Fear_cult have given me so much help.

This year we found a nice stocking stuffer for my kids. They’re little USB digital cameras. They have the form factor of … umm… well, a really really fat pen. A really, really fat pen. But they’re still kinda cool-looking. I would tell you the brand and all, but somehow the manufacturer didn’t feel like putting their own name on the device. it was all over the wrapper, but that’s two trash-days ago and I don’ t know anything about it. Maybe they were ashamed of it.

The device (like so many others) stupidly comes with a windows driver/software disk, and nothing else. I hope that other people with Linux or Apple can be more careful and avoid buying things that don’t really work with their OS. It frustrates me with my wireless cards, and also with these cameras.

I just tried to copy the pix to my Linux-based computer (redundant phrase: I have no non-linux computers) and there the trouble started. My real cameras use CF cards, but this one doesn’t. My other USB storage devices all use VFAT file systems, so I can very easily mount them as a file system and copy and delete files. Not this one. This one is very different.

I got lsusb to tell me some information about the device. It is a “Bus 002 Device 017: ID 2770:9120 NHJ, Ltd Che-ez! Snap / iClick Tiny VGA Digital Camera.” It will not mount as a file system, using vfat or anything else I tried. It is kind of frustrating, really. After piddling around a while, I contact my friends on TFUG. They find me some good resources and we learn about PTP. Ah, now there’s something sensible. I find that PTP is being well-supported in Linux, so there’s a chance that I can work this out.

The trick for me to use PTP is to 1) run with sudo as root until I figure out my permission problem, and 2) run gphoto2 to do the file copying. Now my kids can take pictures, and I can copy them to my computer. The bad news is that I can’t delete the photos with gphoto2, so we are hoping that they saved at least one of the manuals, and there’s some other way. I was hoping that they *really* supported the PTP standard, but maybe not.

Anyway, I can get pix from the cameras. Things could be worse.

Some references:
www.teaser.fr
Linux Dev Center
FAQs org

I must be from outer space. In addition to all of the other ways I fail to connect with people (little interest in politics an no party association, no interest in sports, don’t play video games, no mechanical skills, no homes-n-gardens hobbies) I have managed to even isolate myself from all the programmers I work with. Not only do I not know my way around Windows all that well, but … and I’m half-afraid to admit it… I never learned Java.

Really. I don’t know a Java Bean from a JNI from a J2EE from a hole in the ground. I couldn’t sit down and write a functional Java program off the top of my head. I don’t know any standard libraries, and can’t tell you right now how to format a comma-separated list to a file. I don’t know the first thing about Ant, and barely remember using Make. I don’t know how to install a java program and I couldn’t set up my classpaths at gunpoint.

Oh, now, I put more emphasis on “know” than a lot of people do. I’ve used NetBeans development environment for a few months of an aborted Java programming misapplication. I’ve installed and played with a little of IntelliJ (Object Mentor License) and I did a few ‘hello world’ examples. I’ve read a little bit. I could write “Hello World” and could figure out how to do string processing and basic IO, and could probably make little changes in existing programs. I can read Java. That would be sufficient for a lot of people to put it on their resume as “mastery”, but not this old dad.

I have a few basic tests for “knowing” a language:

1) I understand articles written about the language.
2) I can sit down and write programs from scratch (without having to copy from an example), then compile it, and run it.
3) I know what the error messages mean 80% of the time.
4) I know enough of the standard libraries that I will spend less than 20% of my programming time looking in the documentation.
5) I can converse with people who know the language well.
6) I can think in the language.

C#: I’m getting a little closer now, but the .NET library is still largely new to me. I don’t “think in C#” yet.
Python: Unless I’m reading the effbot or tim-ly-yours postings, I feel that I know python in my bones. I think in python.
C++: I used to be right on all points in C and C++. I think I’m still pretty close in C. Maybe in C++ I’ve lost quite a bit.
Java: None of these. I do not know Java.

It turns out that the guys I work with are all experienced Java developers. You’ve no idea how much the Java experience has polluted their ability to speak about software design. It’s all beans and EJBs and RMI and IOC/DI and Swings and AWTs and JFC and JAINS and JDK J2SE and Jini and JNDI and JNI and JMI. Frankly, I have no idea what they’re talking about 80% of the time. I make them translate. I’ve found myself looking up terminology in Java, and then googling for a ruby article on the same subject. If it’s ruby I can finally understand the examples and the explanation (even though I have less than 3 days experience in Ruby — it’s that much more obvious). In java articles, I have to stick to the code (which is never complete enough) because the textual exposition is invariably written with the expectation that the reader is a dyed-in-the-wool Java pinhead.

My minimal experience with Java to date has taught me only one lasting lesson: it’s not worth your time. I might care more if it were an open source language — open standards, open participation, open licensing. As is, it’s less open than C# .NET, and that’s just sad. Not only is it unpleasant, it’s managed unpleasantly.

Now maybe I have found the one thing that Java is good for: giving programmers a common language and shared memory of pain. Sort of “one ring to bind them all” (pardon the slaughtered quotation). A shared history which I, of course, do not share.

I wish the shared experience had been smalltalk, or C++, or ruby, or python. Now I’m going to have to learn all this (unwanted) Java stuff just so we can carry on conversations. It’s kind of like a tee-totaller memorizing articles about wine-tasting so that they won’t feel left out at fancy parties. I don’t really desire the experience, but I need the vocab. Ah, well. Of such is life.

I can’t feel good about this link. I’m so tired of RIAA lawsuits. I don’t know how it’s smart business or good PR. I guess it keeps the association in headlines, as if that were the important thing.

In related news, you can still take advantage of the Free Culture’s list of RIAA-free giving.

Ahhhh… it’s good to report things like this, however late.

I can’t remember where I heard about this. Probably either the SlashDot Review or else Engadget podcast. I have a script that sucks out my podcasts and throws them on my Zaurus for the morning and evening commutes. The news isn’t that new, but it’s new to me.

Anyway, whatever the original source (sorry guys) I was very pleased to see that Microsoft wised up and is changing Windows to work more in the way that Unix/Linux/BSD do. They are moving the graphical system out of kernel mode. That is such a smart thing to do. I would like to see them go all the way and make it possible for windows to run window-free. I suppose that would make it a horribly misnamed OS. But anyway, it would be good for server hardware requirements and also would help it survive GUI program errors.

I’m glad to see them moving in the right (linux) direction.

I keep expecting to see better and better things from Microsoft. First Kempin was gone, then C# gets standardized, then IronPython is accepted as a .NET language — they may have started shedding evil.

I’m getting pretty sick of this.

It seems that the new corporate strategy of the 21st century it to try like the devil to ensure that people cannot use your products. I guess it’s success through failure or some other stupid and pointless strategy. Now, don’t give me that talk about how vendors need control of their products — that’s hogwash. They need to sell them and to sell lots of them and may be to sell supplies and services that go with them.

Example 1: RIAA (including Sony and BMG) try like the devil to keep you from listening to the music you buy from them. They don’t want you to make it useful and make it part of your lifestyle. Doggone it, Pepsi is happy for you to wear their Tee-shirts, but heaven forbid you should listen to your CD on your computer. And heaven help you if you want to get it on your MP3 player (that you may have purchased from Sony!?!). No, no, no. They don’t want you to make use of their products.

Example 2: The MPAA companies don’t want you to watch their videos, or at least only under closely-controlled laboratory conditions. What’s that for? How is that paying them? They load up on DRM protection measures that are ultimately defeated by a sharpie marker or piece of tape or a snippet of software that any noob can download from p2p.

Example 3: Hardware vendors not releasing drivers or specs. I guess they don’t want to see their products used in new an innovative ways, and must avoid at all costs any opportunity that some programmers in their basement or den might come up with a killer app that gives their company the coveted “Halo Effect” and starts a mad buying spree. Can’t have that. Not only would that be success, it would be popularity too. Somehow, that doesn’t make it on the corporate agenda.

Maybe it’s time to loosen up… unclench the cheeks… think this over one more time. Why is it you don’t want us to use your stuff?

The bee in my bonnet right now is that I own three (COUNT THEM: THREE!!!!) wireless internet cards. How many have linux drivers? None. BSD? Don’t even think it. Mac? Maybe one. I guess that people who are clever early adopters and who are willing to try new things, and might start a trend or a new technology are not the kinds of people you want buying your products and using them. Heaven forbid!

Now, I run a proprietary NVidia driver on my laptop. Y’know what? If I couldn’t I wouldn’t use this laptop. I’ll not have windows on my home computers. Anything that runs windows-only is anathema to me. I am also a regular on the Tucson Free Users Group irc channel, and you ought to hear people complain about unsupported equipment (especially 802.11 equipment — network vendors take note). As one of them said tonight about hardware vendors releasing specs or drivers, “they would get into a whole untapped market.” Is that not exciting? I would LOVE to have a PCMCIA card that actually works, so I can spend my time learning to configure and secure it. I’m good for a lot of hardware recommendations. I will tout anything that works with Linux. I will pay the fair price. I might buy two or three. My friends would probably buy many more than I would.

Well, there’s that and more. I have seen enough of winModems and winPrinters and winJunk and winGarbage. I am now at a point in my life where I know relatively few windows-only users. Everyone uses Linux or Mac or BSD somewhere, and all those people are unable to use equipment that doesn’t have open-source drivers. Look at all the hype around Asterisk and the businesses growing up around this wonderful, programmable, free PBX. What if they couldn’t use the hardware? By the way, my Brother laserjet printer is awesome and has never given me even a minute of trouble. Same with the HP I have set up at my old church (in Avon). It seems to run all the time, and it doesn’t mind that I don’t pay a microsoft tax or install weirdo DRM. So there.

Kudos to the hardware providers and content vendors who have the guts and common sense to make their wares usable to the modern world.
Shame and nothing but shame for the control-mongering others.

This one is must-have listening for 2005. I had no idea what all was going on in the world of prosthetics, robotics, and neural engineering. I heard this on the way home from work today and was totally energized. There is a long way to go, but science and technology are really starting to help.

Seriously, even if you’re not into podcasts and science in general, this is something you are interested in hearing.

I discovered the python codecs module today. That took long enough. I haven’t been playing with unicode much, or at least not in python. The trick I needed was the codecs.open(fname,mode,encoding) for reading and writing unicode files. It’s awesome stuff.

Of course, as I wrote at the company blog I was able to do verification and exploration in the python interactive environment (the only environment, heh) and get this resolved very quickly with minimal help from DiveIntoPython.

Now I know how THATs done.

In python, try: help(codecs)

St Casserole has a list of those sermon topics that nobody wants to hear. It has a little more Calvinistic bent in one place (10 non-redeemable tottinge blog points to the reader who finds it first), but is thought-provoking.

I found an article from July about piracy, IP wars, etc. It was very interesting, because the people actually sharing and converting music are not much different from me. I think that they’re right more than they’re wrong.

Gotta close that in order to save civilization from the evil forces of people watching stuff they paid for in ways and places that the industry didn’t predict (and doesn’t control). Evil ipod and iriver and sony mp3 player owners. Cruel and insidious fiends who watch DVDs on their laptop computers, and the worst offenders of all — free software users. Indeed, this whole trend toward convenient and portable media has got to be crushed before the people get a taste of insidious, creeping freedom which threatens to our sacred old-fashioned business models. Why, this could be the end of the world as we know it!

Good riddance to the world as we know it, and welcome to the emerging world.

Did I mention that there is no market for media that I can’t fit into my lifestyle? If I can’t carry it in my pocket, watch/listen on my (Linux) PC, haul it around on a USB-capable device (or USB flash drive) and watch it on my neighbor’s computer or media PC, write my own decoder for free, and adapt it to whatever media player I happen to buy next year, then I don’t want it or need it.

Don’t close the analog hole. Open the digital deathgrip. I’m not talking about piracy, I’m talking about people watching and listening to content that they acquired legally. That’s not wrong, and it’s not piracy. I think that PC conversion from analog to digital (and back again) should be encouraged.

If the DRM sellers are really and truly losing market share, I bet I can tell them why. Oh, wait, I don’t have to!!! It looks like someone else figured it out already. But I can tell them that their DRM-enriched (DRM-polluted) stuff is less desirable and less useful than non-DRM-polluted content.

I guess in France, they have a whole different way of dealing with the “dire threat” of file sharing (which we’re told will cause civilization to collapse).

I found out about Freedom to Tinker from the CNet Buzz Out Loud (a fun show).

Oh, look! Sony did it AGAIN. Not only have they released more DRM nonsense, but this time they also allowed attackers into your system. And so does the fix!!

Hey, isn’t the creation of viruses against the law now? Can they get into a lot of trouble by knowingly and willing having them propogated via their CD sales? How much trouble are they in? Tell me it won’t hurt PS2 and PS3 (soon?) sales. I like the consoles, guys, but you gotta let go of this DRM nonsense.

There is no market for music that I can’t listen to when, where, and how I want to. There is no market for video that’s restricted to “controlled circumstances”. Just forget that, and get back into the business of making stuff we want. Don’t bash your brains out on this unwinnable, untenable, unwanted DRM silliness. Quit while you still have a salvageable reputation — if it’s not too late already.

From Glen, I find a new challenge to Fair Use. It looks like someone is trying to take this away from us. The DTCSA doesn’t remotely look like a good idea.

According to Reps. Sensenbrenner and Conyers, the legislation is absolutely necessary because of the dire threat PCs and the Internet pose to the content-creation industry’s very livelihood

Probably true, if you believe that it’s absolutely necessary for the “content-creation industy” to continue into the future unchanged while the rest of the world adjusts to new markets and new technologies. Do you really believe that this is “the way forward”? That we need to preserve the past by force of law?

Of course, it was also absolutely necessary to prevent home consumers from having VHS recorders and players, because of the threat to the industry’s livelihood. That was before VHS sales were better money-makers than actual movie watching. And of course, before that, it was absolutely necessary to prevent home consumers from having tape recorders, which would allow them to make copies of albums and even radio broadcasts. That was before the recording industry made a mint off of audio tapes. Oh, and digital content (DVDs, CDs) had to be kept from the hands of home consumers, because allowed them to make perfect copies, whereby the industry would collapse overnight. Never mind that CDs are dead cheap to make and sell for 20x their cost, or that DVDs are an incredibly lucrative business. The idea apparently is that if there were no room for alternatives, the industry could charge even more.

Maybe they think that the future of content is to get out of producing it and into suing over it.

This is the stupidest world yet. Look, you can’t stop the future. It helps to remember that your customers made you successful to begin with. You can’t rely on law to force your customers to tolerate being run over by corporate fear and corporate ambition. The market doesn’t like to serve corporations. The market expects to be served. Ultimately, the market gets to choose. Don’t make your customers hate you.

For the kind of control these guy want, you have to have control over the media players by law. Hey! Let’s make it illegal to develop music players and video players. What a great idea for the industry!

Worse, this isn’t going to work. What it will do, perhaps, is get a lot of harmless people sued or arrested. Why put ridiculous limits on your faithful repeat customers. It won’t stop those people (who make no money) on the freely-copying side. There is no market for content you cannot copy or convert. The market clearly prefers format-shifting.

Another important fair use factor is whether your use deprives the copyright owner of income or undermines a new or potential market for the copyrighted work. As we indicated previously, depriving a copyright owner of income is very likely to trigger a lawsuit. This is true even if you are not competing directly with the original work.

Hmm… what if the copyright owner is depriving themselves of a income, reputation, and a new or potential market for their work? Copying a movie that I actually purchase (at a ridiculous profit) from a companty to VHS or MPG/AVI/wahtever for viewing on my (hypothetical) iPod video, (dream) ArchOS, (hypothetical unwanted) windows computer, (actual, beloved) linux computers, etc. is not a loss of revenue. If I can’t copy my CD to .ogg and play it on my (actual) Zaurus PDA, then I don’t want the CD. I don’t want to spend money (especially TAX mone) on building limits on my freedom.

Here’s another link to info on the doctrine.

Well, I don’t know what they’ve done, but cygwin is now much faster than it’s been in previous releases. Now it’s running nearly at Linux speeds. Finally svn is quick, and bash is responsive. It’s a good thing.

If you don’t know cygwin, it’s a GNU (as in Unix/Linux/BSD) dcommand line ported to windows. You can operate as if you are in some kind of *nix. This is good for people who come from unix/linux/bsd to windows, and for those who might be interested in transferring out of windows into a more enlightened environment. It’s also just nice for techies in Windows. You should give it a shot.

Tim

The most despised term of 2006 may be “content owner.”

While customers and musicians and software people have made it clear that they want more freedom and more access (sort of the success story of the web, no?) the “content owners” (as opposed to those who create content) are constantly fighting for more restrictions, and less access in attempts to create lucrative shortages. Apparently the Sony rootkit lesson wasn’t nearly enough (and did I hear that their “solution” for the root kit opened up an even worse vulnerability in IE? Is that so?). Apparently now those music publishers want to get their fair share of public hatred as well.

I’m talking about the crackdown on lyrics and tab sites. People have for years and years been able to publish the lyrics to their favorite songs (which I believe has increased the popularity of many songs, though it may have turned people off of some turkeys) and have been able to publish guitar tabs (like sheet music for guitarists, kind-of) for their favorite songs. Years ago, some music publishers started to “defend their copyright” by trying to drive lyric & tab archives out of business.

Now they are wanting to throw in some jail time if possible, in the name of “protecting” their business model . I guess people are still convinced that the way to conduct business is to make people afraid to participate by promoting their works. I guess the ideal customer base is characterized by great fear and vulnerability. I wonder if they’re into some police brutality and torture, too? Does it make sense that I should push to use the legal system to terrorize potential software customers to keep them from popularizing my software? Is that what “a free country” means? Is that “innovation?” Is this the best possible use of a legal system? Should our police be busy arresting those who un-licensed-ly hum copyright-protected tunes in public places instead of trying to stop all the violence and manage the real disasters in our world?

I’m getting really tired of this whole realm of law that punishes people for trying to be involved in promoting and recommending their favorite artists. I’m tired of legislation that creates an atmosphere of fear and a real drag on the so-called “justice system” to protect some corporate business model.

American businesses: It’s not the government’s job to make you successful, or to keep you succesful once you have “arrived”. It is their job to make it possible for people to enter the market fairly and compete on merit, to produce new goods and new categories. When new goods, services, and categories arrive, then it’s natural for old ones to die.

Capitalism, last time I checked, was supposed to be about efficiently providing goods and services that serve the needs of consumers. That means that some companies will have to become unsuccessful when their work or their category is no longer the best of the choices that consumers (aka “citizens”) have. It also means that your customers are your real bosses, not your shareholders. If you don’t believe it, then let your customers go away and see how long your shareholders last.

It’s the government’s job to avoid the kind of police state that you keep pushing for. It’s their job to protect the little guys from the big bullies. It’s their job to make this a place where we want to live, and frankly I think that commercial interests have gone far too far to make this a place we want to leave. You’re screwing up my country. As a citizen, I want more freedom and less ways for people to take that away from me.

American Government: don’t let these things continue. One great statesman once said that this country was intended to be “for the people, of the people, by the people.” Don’t forget us now.

Does the Morris suit make you as angry as it makes me? I used to smoke, and I went to light cigarettes becuase I thought it would reduce the damage to my lungs (before ultimately quitting, which was the better choice). I didn’t use light cigarettes because they contained “new, more toxic tar!”

Well, there you have it. They had permission from the government to do it, so clearly they’re not responsible. Pardon my slow burn.

More news on OpenDoc format today. M$ is getting their proprietary format standardized.

In an FAQ, the company said it will grant royalty-free access to third parties that want to use the file formats and that it will not sue any other party for using patented Office technology.

In answer to a lingering question following the company’s announced plans, Microsoft said its licensing scheme will allow for creation of open source products.

“Because the [open source] GPL is not universally interpreted the same way by everyone, we can’t give anyone a legal opinion about how our language relates to the GPL or other OSS licences, but we believe we have removed the principal objections that people found with our prior licence in a very simple and clear way,” the Microsoft FAQ stated.

Looking at the bright side, I don’t much care what doc format most binary-format editors use, as long as it’s an open standard — meaning that the standard is freely usable by all without fear of patent or copyright or other silly lawsuits. In other words, if a teenaged kid in his basement can acquire the standard for free, and implement it without fear, and without ever paying lawyers’ fees in order to protect himself from fine-induced poverty or jail time.

If it’s free from fear and fees, I’m all for it. I know that some of my DSFG friends will be angry about that, but in this less-than-perfect world, I’m happy to see “good enough.”

My programming articles are going to be moving up to But Uncle Bob since I’m an Object Mentor now (again) and there is a place provided for it. I mostly will be moving those articles dealing with agile programming and test-driven design. Some other articles may continue to appear here. I was not going to split my blog, but this is a different situation and will be good for all concerned. Catch you there.

Okay, that applies to many areas, but the two that come to mind are the traffic and windows. My commute is not an easy one, and the time that it takes is highly variable. I had to take extra time because of snowfall, which is pretty but gets in the way. I am learning how to sit quietly for a few hours a day in traffic, even when other people aren’t always so nice. For the most part they’re all decent.

I’m working in windows again, which means that I get to sit and wait more often. I noticed that they’ve really optimized the startup and shutdown times. I guess that’s a good idea because you do those things an awful lot (like every time Visual Studio crashes). In linux, those things are not optimized, but for non-laptops you only shutdown or start the computer once every few years, so nobody cares. I’m starting to care b/c of my laptop.

I’m a subversion user (version control) and that’s a lot slower, too. Apparently it is general windows slowness (even comparing NTFS to other journaling, high-capacity file systems like ReiserFS or ext3). It’s frustrating having to wait.

I’ve also learned how to wait for the 15th of December. My Object Mentor friends and Progeny friends know what a great day it is, and how much we have been looking forward to it.

I had my first taste of Iron Python. I didn’t get to spend much time on it, but I was looking for a way to get a MS Sql Server connection set up. I will hopefully play with it a little more later. It’s Python for the .NET platform. I don’t know how useful it will be in the future, but it’s at least a decent idea, and beats having to use some weird basic derivative to do scripting kinds of work.

My latest is a serano pepper hot sauce. I have been making hot sauces with ginger and onion and garlic in them, and decided I needed to back off and get some basics down. I have used too much onion and too much garlic in the past and need to get a better handle on the process so this time I kept it simple.

I put the peppers in a little water and vinegar and kosher salt, boiled them until fairly soft, and then pressed them through a strainer with a spoon until I had nothing left but the skins. I poured off the thick, gobby green stuff into a small dish (I need bottles) and have been enjoying it for a while now. It brightens up just about any dish, especially omelettes or potatoes. My family is a little afraid of it, but I think it’s reasonably mild and has a nice flavor. I also wimped out and didn’t include a lot of the vanes and seeds. It would be stronger if I did, but wouldn’t taste any better.

Next time, I’ll probably leave out the vinegar or add it after straining (and in small amounts purely for preservation). As is, it’s a nice condiment. I guess less is more.

I’ve got a lot more peppers. When I get a few bottles, I’ll hit it again.