| CTP's RECURSIVEirony |
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ENT News | News: Ballmer: Open Source is Not Trustworthy
Can you spell asshole?
Wow - two Ballmer posts in one week...ay yi yi
All I will say is that:
If Linux is such a non starter, why are the M$ guys still talking about it to this day?
And if commercial software (read M$ software) is so secure, why the continual "we promise to do better" initiatives while we continue to lose $billions in productivity from every newly found exploit - and there seems to be new ones every week or two - but then they never really do any better.
More info here:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1276333,00.asp
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1306801,00.asp
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1300563,00.asp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6043-2003Oct9.html
Posted at 9:02 PM
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(addendum - I just saw Andy has a post about it too...Maniahill.com)
The Norcal Ren Faire is dead...
I don't plan to rub salt in anyone's wounds, because I know this is a big loss to a lot of people...a loss of family, community, the end of an era really...but I feel compelled to talk about its demise, and why I stopped going years ago.
My first trip to the Ren Faire, at its Novato site, was probably the Faire's 3rd or 4th year...who knows? I may have been at the first one, but I don't remember that far back. I remember it being very interesting, and fun. I occasionally returned, a year here and a year there, but then stopped at some point...don't remember why. After college my friend Raybo got some tickets and asked if I wanted to go...I said sure, why not? So I went. I'm not sure if I changed markedly, or if the Faire did, or maybe both. I was not prepared for the medieval/renaissance shopping mall gauntlet I had to walk thru to get to the "spend your money on these here games of skill" gauntlet which I had to walk thru to get to the "spend $12 on a turkey leg and some ale" gauntlet, which I had to walk thru to get to the "spend some money on these other games" gauntlet, and end up at the place to spend money on juggling sticks, and ala carte beads and leather cords, and whatever else.
I also wasn't prepared for the barely masked seething disdain I could see the Ren Faire folks held for me and every other "Mundane" who dared buy a ticket and set foot into their little party. Before you ask, no I didn't show up in sports team garb, or a "show me your tits" T-shirt, or other such outfit...I was dressed casually and comfortably, for a day strolling in the woods, but not in period clothing...reliving the renaissance was not my scene, and I don't own any puffy shirts. Nor did my partner at the time own any bodices, or chainmail bikinis. But we liked the concept of being allowed to visit a recreation of it.
As it turned out, I hated it. I felt ripped off. I felt very unwelcome. I felt my childhood memories of the Faire were either dead wrong, or had somehow been betrayed by the current goings on at the Faire. Trouble is, Raybo kept getting us tickets, and I kept going back. I'd step thru the gate, look around, and with a feeling as sharp and sudden as a cold bucket of water being thrown on me, I'd say "what-in-the-fuck-am-I-doing-here-AGAIN???" It seemed that a year away from it would erase the illness that Faire had implanted in me. I can't remember exactly how many times I went back...I suppose I was trying to recapture, or at least partially validate those childhood memories. Or maybe I just kept thinking that it "had to be me...it's just me...everyone else seems to like it"
So fast-forward several years, to August 1999, I finally got our ducks in a row and we headed up to Burning Man, in the Black Rock Desert. Me, Stacy, and just barely one year old Sydney. It was amazing...it reheated that same feeling as those childhood memories I had from Ren Faire...but it was sooooo much more. Art, music, lights, diversity (of some kinds, anyway). We went up there "mundanes" as the Rennies call such people...but we were welcomed in with outstretched arms. We made fast friends with perfect strangers. We shared stories, and food, and drink, and helped each other out. We felt a little out of place, but it didn't matter. I was so taken by this community...a community without hierarchy among the participants (try finding that behind the scenes at Ren Faire) and with a welcoming, all inclusive feeling, that I was determined to come back the next year and repay this community with a gift. A gift I could provide ably, and that was badly needed in Black Rock City. That was the start of BYB, our bicycle repair camp at Burning Man, and we have been fixing bikes there ever since. For the most part there's no dress code at Burning Man. No us versus them. No insider versus outsider. No "you're new here so you have to do what I say" from fellow participants. And thank whoever....nothing for sale (aside from Ice and coffee, the proceeds of which return to the surrounding communities) No food stands, no overpriced trinkets, no archery booth, etc.
On the way home in 1999 we passed the Nut Tree in Vacaville. There were big banners up for the Ren Faire being held there that year. I can remember like it was yesterday, the feeling that washed over me as we passed. I realized that I had found a beautiful community that wanted me, needed me, welcomed me (and the feeling was mutual)...and I would never have to go back to Ren Faire again. And it felt really good.
BTW - go take this quiz - http://www.shades-of-night.com/larp/fairnerd.html
Posted at 9:40 AM
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Jury Doody Redux....
Well...I survived.
The good - someone at Jury Services must read my blog. There is a secure outdoor seating area now, places to plug in your laptop, and a little espresso kiosk in the secure area. Sitting in the fresh air, reading, and sipping an iced latte makes the whole thing seem that much more tolerable.
The bad - 9:30AM the court building gets a bomb threat, so we all have to evacuate and walk up the hill a couple blocks. Then after a thorough 15 minute search of the building, we are allowed back in. But of course everyone going in must now pass thru airport style security, so all 100+ of us get in line and wait. All tolled, from getting out, to getting back in - 45 minutes.
The strange - 11AM, half of us are named off, told to go to lunch, and to return at 1:15PM to get our court assignment. 1:20PM we are all called in, and told that our case was settled while we were at lunch - check out as you leave and get outta here.
The ugly - a day away from my office means that much more to deal with when I get back. $2.75, in the form of a check, will be on its way to me in 60-90 days for my mileage. And I didn't get to even get close to being on a jury. Can there not be a better way to do this?
I am thankful for that espresso kiosk tho :-)
ps - best line of the day - a woman waited in line at the kiosk. A sherriff's dept officer shouted, "LET'S GO!! BOMB THREAT!! WE HAVE TO EVACUATE!!!" Woman in line says, "can't I just get my coffee first?"
Ahhh, coffee...good to the last kaboom.......
Posted at 2:23 PM
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N E M O M A T I C- The kinetic, robotic sculptures of California artist Nemo Gould
The rest of the site title is = robots fine art kitsch interactive sculpture recyled material humor california bay area funk metal wood
And that about sums it up. I just had an occasion to write Nemo, and thought, "Hey...you haven't put Nemomatic on your blog yet" so here it is. Go. View. Enjoy. Buy.
Posted at 5:27 PM
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Ballmer lays out Windows security plan :
"Speaking at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, Ballmer said he believes there will be as much innovation in the next 10 years as there was in the last 10 years."
OOH - really? I think what he meant is that there will be just as much innovation out there for them to crush, suppress, or buy out, as ever.
But high-tech innovation is being hampered by pressure to focus enormous amounts of attention on security issues, he said.
No - my lack of ulcer is being hampered by your crappy-assed software. High-tech innovation is being hampered by you. Oh, you meant MS' high-tech innovation. I guess that might be true because all your monkeys-at-keyboards writing patches could be doing other work. Like looking for great ideas to steal or squash outside MS.
Ballmer acknowledged that the quality of Microsoft patches and the patching process itself is inconsistent, and he said that customers need best practices for patch management because they're simply overwhelmed with the sheer number of vulnerabilities in their systems."
You mean YOUR systems, dontcha Steve? The systems you sold me? The systems I need MCSEs to work on? The systems we buy because you've brainwashed all the PHBs in the world...DONTCHA STEVE???? Isn't that what you really meant Steve? And "inconsistent?" I find the whole process to be pretty consistent...or is that constant? Maybe persistent?
Do I sound bitter?
How much has their crappy security cost all of us already?
How many times have they said they'd make it better?
Why should we believe them this time?
I, for one, don't think I can. What are people gonna do if they don't? Stop using Windows? Of course they won't...that'd make too much sense.
Once bitten, twice shy?
As far as MS is concerned, I feel like shark bait.
Posted at 4:49 PM
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I just got word from YLEM that there will be a show, with artist discussion to follow, at Omnicircus on Saturday October 25th, at 2PM, for us YLEMmers. I'm not sure if I need to reserve or not, so let me know if you're thinking about going. If I can swing it, I plan to be there for sure.
Below is the description of the show from Omnicircus' site.
Welcome to the Omnicircus
COMING IN NOVEMBER! DeusMachina and the ROBOT ENSEMBLE of the OmniCircus will soon be performing 'MYSTERY BOX HOUSE', a haunting, mythic, and sexy scorched-earth mindscape; a hallucinatory phenomena... a dark-industrial cabaret by Frank Garvey, coming Saturday November 8 to the OmniCircus!! Robot hookers; surreal animations; actual SACKPEOPLE (accept no imitations); erotically expressionist dance and live avant-fusion music... all for 10 bucks. Forget the big hats and come see 'MYSTERY BOX HOUSE'
Posted at 1:54 PM
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Abusive Toll Takers
this is rich
Posted at 10:45 AM
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The Smoking Gun: Archive
christ...what fucked up people.
Posted at 10:28 PM
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JURY DOODY
Pigdog Journal (Brain-Dead Judge Watch) -- Do-It-Yourself Legal System
and
Twelve People Who Cannot Get Out of Jury Duty Are Not My Peers
Two semi-opposing views on what I am called on to do this Thursday. Actually what I am called on to do is to phone the court the night before to see if my group has to come in. I've never personally seen a group not have to. Then I'll go downtown and have to track down one of the 7 legal parking spots, all of which will be gone by 6AM. After finding parking - amazing how many places I CAN'T LEGALLY FUCKING PARK WHEN CALLED UPON TO DO MY CIVIC DUTY, AIN'T IT??? - I'll make my way to the sweat box, er, jury waiting area. Here is where a couple hundred folks get to sit and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait...then it's lunch time, woohoo!
After lunch we get to go back to our lovely little county building hovel and wait, and wait, and wait...sensing a theme here? Now here is where it gets very ugly. If they don't assign you to a courtroom by the end of the day, they have to let you go...time served...go home...thanks for coming. But what they'll do instead is drag X number of us up to a courtroom at 4:30PM. No case there. No judge. No lawyers. No witnesses. No bad guys. No stenographers. What this means is that we are assigned to a courtroom, and what that means is that we get to come back the following day, to sit, and wait, and wait, and wait.
Does anyone at the court really wonder why people get so pissed off about jury duty? Treat us a little more like people. At the very least, set aside enough parking places so we can all park without having to walk 1/2 mile to the courthouse, without fear of getting a ticket, or our car towed. Don't play games with us. Assign us to a court with a case, or don't. Inconvienience the lawyers for once by making them wait for _us_ for a tiny bit - by calling us when you really need us. What we are is a nameless, faceless pool of cattle, just to keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting at the ready in case something happens. And more often than not, nothing does. Don't have us call in to your automated system to find out yes, or no, or that we should call back mid-day the next day, or maybe not.
Tell us to come in on a particular day. We'll come in for that day. Select us for a jury, or set us free. Simple enough.
Next day have another pool coming in, and the next day another. For christ's sake, I know it's government work, but that doesn't mean it can't be done a tiny bit better.
Anyway, I'll be there this Thursday, and maybe Friday, and who knows...maybe into next week...waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.............X-(
Posted at 9:25 PM
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