Proposition 13
Proposition 13 was passed in 1978. It cut California property taxes by 30 percent and capped the rate of increase in the future. It still arouses strong passions for and against, but the pro and con viewpoints seem to me to miss the most significant effect of Prop 13. That effect was identified by the Santa Cruz City Manager, Richard Wilson, who wrote, "In 1978 Proposition 13 reconstituted the financial structure of California's public sector. The result was system change, from one in which the State, counties, cities, special districts, and school boards all made independent financial decisions to one in which the State is the only financial decision maker of any consequence".
This is the reason why all of California's municipalities are in trouble along with the state. Since the passage of Prop 13, the state has increasingly taken revenues historically dedicated to local government for itself. During the boom, an adequate amount was returned to municipalities. Now, with the bust and concomitant deficits, that money won't be returned and local governments will be forced to make significant and painful budget cuts. So we should expect local services and infrastructure to decline noticeably in the next few years.
Yet another example of the law of unintended consequences. It's why good policy - the wonkish, obsessed with both minutiae and outcomes, boring-as-hell kind - is so important and so critical. The devil really is in the details. California's rising property taxes and spending did desperately need to be reined in the late '70's. But Prop. 13 wrecked California's school system and transferred fiscal control from local to state government. It's worth analyzing what went wrong and what better approaches could have been taken, because those lessons could be applied today. Maybe we could find a better way to hold down property taxes, revoke Prop 13, and even transfer control over local collected funds back to the localities where they were collected. It's never too late for good policy.
Oh, and the idea of deficits being concomitant with the bust isn't quite true. Our huge state deficit can't be blamed on just the economic downturn. Good policy and realistic planning would have ameliorated the effects of the bust. Unfortunately, our Governer and the Legislature elected to go on spending as if the boom would continue forever. I'd like to oppose the recall initiative because it's just a ploy by the Republicans to get Arnold into office two years early, but Gray Davis fully deserves it. Too bad there's no way to recall the legislature as well.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Iranian Blogs
Discovered a relatively new blog called Iranian Truth, written by two Iranian women living in Cairo and Los Angeles, respectively. In addition to being interesting and well-written, it also has plenty of links to other Iranian blogs and news sources. It's good to have the opportunity to read authentic voices talking about their country and their people instead of trying to discern the truth through the haze of ill-informed and ideologically-driven Western news sources. It's a pity that Afghanistan's infrastructure is so ruined and lacking that it's impossible to get first-hand information like this from there.
Discovered a relatively new blog called Iranian Truth, written by two Iranian women living in Cairo and Los Angeles, respectively. In addition to being interesting and well-written, it also has plenty of links to other Iranian blogs and news sources. It's good to have the opportunity to read authentic voices talking about their country and their people instead of trying to discern the truth through the haze of ill-informed and ideologically-driven Western news sources. It's a pity that Afghanistan's infrastructure is so ruined and lacking that it's impossible to get first-hand information like this from there.
Monday, July 21, 2003
War and Peace
Strategic Forecasting has a story that's crystallized my thinking about this Administration's grand strategic vision (or apparent lack thereof) in the war on terror. Key quote: “Lurking in the shadows is the not fully articulated perception that the Iraq war not only began in deception but that planning for the Iraq war was incompetent -- a perception driven by the realization that the United States is engaged in a long-term occupation and guerrilla war in Iraq, and the belief that the United States neither expected nor was prepared for this.”. The deception, by itself, isn't fatal - the real problem, according to the article, is that “what bothers the American public is the idea that the lying is not designed to hide the strategy, but to hide the fact that there is no strategy.”.
And that's what one of things that's bothered me all along. I have not heard any believable or even coherent formulation of "this is how we win". Because I think the real key here is not winning the battles - that's been ridiculously easy - but winning the peace. Winning the peace is the province of grand strategy. And we don't seem to have one.
The consequences of not having an overarching and achievable grand strategy are pretty severe. Here's what B.H. Liddell Hart says in his seminal book, Strategy: “They did not look beyond the immediate strategic aim of "winning the war" and were content to assume that military victory would assure peace - an assumption contrary to the general experience of history. The outcome has been the latest of many lessons that pure military strategy needs to be guided by the longer and wider view from the higher plane of "grand strategy"”
Liddell Hart was talking about the outcome of World War II, which led directly to the Cold War. He could have just as easily been talking about the outcome of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles led directly to WWII as well as to many of the other ills of this century. Among those was the somewhat arbitrary redrawing of the map of the Middle East, which has had a wide variety of direct and indirect consequences - one of them being the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1991. We won that war and then failed to win the peace, which ultimately led to our invasion of Iraq early this year. And so here we are.
I think we need the notion of Hart's “Indirect Approach” to strategy now more than ever. The neo-cons, unfortunately, are the direct heirs of Kissingerian RealPolitik and so suffer from the same ills of short-sightedness and ethically challenged expediency. Put another way, they're content to try to fix problems with sledgehammers and then immediately walk away. You can criticize their approach on all kinds of grounds, but the very worst thing you can say about it is that it's unlikely to decisively win this conflict. And we need to win; the alternative is that the Middle East and Africa succumb to a post-industrial Dark Age and drag the rest of the world down with them.
Now, I'm only an amateur student of history and politics. But it seems to me any approach at the level of grand strategy should deal with root causes and not just our immediate circumstances. Since this is a war on terror the grand strategic goal should be to remove the underlying causes of terrorism. Have we really asked ourselves what those underlying causes are? And if we identified them, how would that shape our grand strategy? What is the longer and wider view?
I have my own answers to those questions, but I'll save them for another post.
Strategic Forecasting has a story that's crystallized my thinking about this Administration's grand strategic vision (or apparent lack thereof) in the war on terror. Key quote: “Lurking in the shadows is the not fully articulated perception that the Iraq war not only began in deception but that planning for the Iraq war was incompetent -- a perception driven by the realization that the United States is engaged in a long-term occupation and guerrilla war in Iraq, and the belief that the United States neither expected nor was prepared for this.”. The deception, by itself, isn't fatal - the real problem, according to the article, is that “what bothers the American public is the idea that the lying is not designed to hide the strategy, but to hide the fact that there is no strategy.”.
And that's what one of things that's bothered me all along. I have not heard any believable or even coherent formulation of "this is how we win". Because I think the real key here is not winning the battles - that's been ridiculously easy - but winning the peace. Winning the peace is the province of grand strategy. And we don't seem to have one.
The consequences of not having an overarching and achievable grand strategy are pretty severe. Here's what B.H. Liddell Hart says in his seminal book, Strategy: “They did not look beyond the immediate strategic aim of "winning the war" and were content to assume that military victory would assure peace - an assumption contrary to the general experience of history. The outcome has been the latest of many lessons that pure military strategy needs to be guided by the longer and wider view from the higher plane of "grand strategy"”
Liddell Hart was talking about the outcome of World War II, which led directly to the Cold War. He could have just as easily been talking about the outcome of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles led directly to WWII as well as to many of the other ills of this century. Among those was the somewhat arbitrary redrawing of the map of the Middle East, which has had a wide variety of direct and indirect consequences - one of them being the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1991. We won that war and then failed to win the peace, which ultimately led to our invasion of Iraq early this year. And so here we are.
I think we need the notion of Hart's “Indirect Approach” to strategy now more than ever. The neo-cons, unfortunately, are the direct heirs of Kissingerian RealPolitik and so suffer from the same ills of short-sightedness and ethically challenged expediency. Put another way, they're content to try to fix problems with sledgehammers and then immediately walk away. You can criticize their approach on all kinds of grounds, but the very worst thing you can say about it is that it's unlikely to decisively win this conflict. And we need to win; the alternative is that the Middle East and Africa succumb to a post-industrial Dark Age and drag the rest of the world down with them.
Now, I'm only an amateur student of history and politics. But it seems to me any approach at the level of grand strategy should deal with root causes and not just our immediate circumstances. Since this is a war on terror the grand strategic goal should be to remove the underlying causes of terrorism. Have we really asked ourselves what those underlying causes are? And if we identified them, how would that shape our grand strategy? What is the longer and wider view?
I have my own answers to those questions, but I'll save them for another post.
Saturday, July 19, 2003
Two American Success Stories
An interesting article in Good Times, one of SC's weekly alt-mags, on Swanton Berry Farm. Swanton owner Jim Cochran was the first commercial farmer to grow strawberries organically (in 1983), after watching the effects of the toxins used as pesticides on the field workers and on himself (he got pesticide poisoning several times). "It was less of an issue about consumers than about workers" says Cochran. After learning how to grow strawberries organically and convincing people it was worth the higher price, he now says "We're not only successful, we're successful paying good wages". Good organic strawberries are now easy to find around here; but Swanton's are reputed to still be the best.
The best place to get your oil changed in the Bay area is 9 Minute Oil Change, just off Page Mill Road on El Camino Real in Palo Alto. These guys are amazing; you pull in and a team of four immediately goes to work and is usually done in about 5 minutes or so. It's like pulling into a pit stop, and it totally puts places like Quick Lube or Jiffy Lube to shame. I mean, it's fast, it's easy, and it's kind of cool to watch. It seems to be run by an immigrant family who I would guess are Eastern Mediterranean/Middle Eastern. This is the kind of thing that, to me, makes America great - you come up with a better idea, you work hard, and you build a great business. I'm sorry I work farther down the Peninsula now, because it's time for another oil change and I don't want to go anywhere else.
An interesting article in Good Times, one of SC's weekly alt-mags, on Swanton Berry Farm. Swanton owner Jim Cochran was the first commercial farmer to grow strawberries organically (in 1983), after watching the effects of the toxins used as pesticides on the field workers and on himself (he got pesticide poisoning several times). "It was less of an issue about consumers than about workers" says Cochran. After learning how to grow strawberries organically and convincing people it was worth the higher price, he now says "We're not only successful, we're successful paying good wages". Good organic strawberries are now easy to find around here; but Swanton's are reputed to still be the best.
The best place to get your oil changed in the Bay area is 9 Minute Oil Change, just off Page Mill Road on El Camino Real in Palo Alto. These guys are amazing; you pull in and a team of four immediately goes to work and is usually done in about 5 minutes or so. It's like pulling into a pit stop, and it totally puts places like Quick Lube or Jiffy Lube to shame. I mean, it's fast, it's easy, and it's kind of cool to watch. It seems to be run by an immigrant family who I would guess are Eastern Mediterranean/Middle Eastern. This is the kind of thing that, to me, makes America great - you come up with a better idea, you work hard, and you build a great business. I'm sorry I work farther down the Peninsula now, because it's time for another oil change and I don't want to go anywhere else.
Monday, July 14, 2003
Random Thoughts on Bastille Day
It's Bastille Day, which makes it a good excuse to dis the French. But not here. Read what Molly Ivins had to say on this subject. For those who disagree, I'll be glad to take any spare bottles of Bordeaux or Beaujolais off your hands.
I used to live in Milwaukee - a very pleasant city, if you've never been there - where they had (and still have) a great Bastille Day celebration. The last (and first) time I was in France, S. and I met an English couple who'd lived in Milwaukee (and loved it). They lived in what had been the old Blatz brewery before it got converted to condos - close enough to walk to Jefferson Square and the Bastille Day celebrations, which they did every year they were there. I once heard my uncle Joe say that some of our ancestors where French soldiers who settled in Poland to become farmers during or after the Napoleonic wars. Now the French army is apparently the least feared in Europe and the Germans have become pacifists. Although as Ms. Ivins points out, 16,000 French and German soldiers are helping to try to keep the peace in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Just another example of the gap between the memes of the ideologically-driven and reality.
On the other hand, I still find "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" hilarious. I never can manage to be politically correct.
It's Bastille Day, which makes it a good excuse to dis the French. But not here. Read what Molly Ivins had to say on this subject. For those who disagree, I'll be glad to take any spare bottles of Bordeaux or Beaujolais off your hands.
I used to live in Milwaukee - a very pleasant city, if you've never been there - where they had (and still have) a great Bastille Day celebration. The last (and first) time I was in France, S. and I met an English couple who'd lived in Milwaukee (and loved it). They lived in what had been the old Blatz brewery before it got converted to condos - close enough to walk to Jefferson Square and the Bastille Day celebrations, which they did every year they were there. I once heard my uncle Joe say that some of our ancestors where French soldiers who settled in Poland to become farmers during or after the Napoleonic wars. Now the French army is apparently the least feared in Europe and the Germans have become pacifists. Although as Ms. Ivins points out, 16,000 French and German soldiers are helping to try to keep the peace in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Just another example of the gap between the memes of the ideologically-driven and reality.
On the other hand, I still find "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" hilarious. I never can manage to be politically correct.
Friday, July 11, 2003
Disk Storage
Jim Grey is mailing disks and computers because it's a faster way to move gigabytes of data than sending it through the net. A fascinating interview with JG and David Patterson (co-inventor of RISC and RAID) at ACM Queue.
Key quote: “We have an embarrassment of riches in that we're able to store more than we can access. Capacities continue to double each year, while access times are improving at 10 percent per year. So, we have a vastly larger storage pool, with a relatively narrow pipeline into it. We're not really geared for this...the fundamental problem is that we are building a larger reservoir with more or less the same diameter pipe coming out of the reservoir. We have a much harder time accessing things inside the reservoir”.
The excess of capacity versus access is already having some interesting second-order effects, not the least of which is providing the raison d'etre for my new employer. I have to send this to some of the folks I work with. The implications are just huge. Among other things, I hope this is what will end the retrograde directions we're seeing in the database world.
Jim Grey is mailing disks and computers because it's a faster way to move gigabytes of data than sending it through the net. A fascinating interview with JG and David Patterson (co-inventor of RISC and RAID) at ACM Queue.
Key quote: “We have an embarrassment of riches in that we're able to store more than we can access. Capacities continue to double each year, while access times are improving at 10 percent per year. So, we have a vastly larger storage pool, with a relatively narrow pipeline into it. We're not really geared for this...the fundamental problem is that we are building a larger reservoir with more or less the same diameter pipe coming out of the reservoir. We have a much harder time accessing things inside the reservoir”.
The excess of capacity versus access is already having some interesting second-order effects, not the least of which is providing the raison d'etre for my new employer. I have to send this to some of the folks I work with. The implications are just huge. Among other things, I hope this is what will end the retrograde directions we're seeing in the database world.
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Music and Poetry
The thing that gets to me
is how you're never free.
Though the spirit yearns,
the body is a prison
Neil Finn, Astro
Throw armfuls of emptiness
out to the spaces
that we breathe -
maybe the birds
will sense the expanded air
flying more fervently.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, First Elegy
The thing that gets to me
is how you're never free.
Though the spirit yearns,
the body is a prison
Neil Finn, Astro
Throw armfuls of emptiness
out to the spaces
that we breathe -
maybe the birds
will sense the expanded air
flying more fervently.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, First Elegy
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Iran and Afghanistan
Today is the 4th anniversary of the Iranian student protests in 1999. Iranian student leaders called off demonstrations today after being threatened with violent reprisals, but it appears that some protests went on anyway. Worldwide protests in support of the Iranian demonstrators were held today. Some are predicting the imminent fall of the regime.
USA Today has an article on progress in Afghanistan. This is in contrast with a story about the Pakistani embassy getting trashed by protesters in Kabul over alleged border incursions by Pakistan. As always, it's difficult to get a real sense of what the situation in Afghanistan really is.
Today is the 4th anniversary of the Iranian student protests in 1999. Iranian student leaders called off demonstrations today after being threatened with violent reprisals, but it appears that some protests went on anyway. Worldwide protests in support of the Iranian demonstrators were held today. Some are predicting the imminent fall of the regime.
USA Today has an article on progress in Afghanistan. This is in contrast with a story about the Pakistani embassy getting trashed by protesters in Kabul over alleged border incursions by Pakistan. As always, it's difficult to get a real sense of what the situation in Afghanistan really is.
Monday, July 07, 2003
Blogs, Books, Blockbusters
I don't watch TV anymore. I read blogs. I don't buy newspapers. I read blogs. As far as I'm concerned, I've traded up.
I still read books - just finished Hayden Herrera's biography of Frida Kahlo. I want to read W. R. Clement's Reforming the Prophet next. I had read Clement's previous book, Quantum Jump: A Survival Guide to the New Renaissance about 4-5 years ago and dismissed it as interesting but wrong in its predictions and conclusions. I re-read it a year ago and discovered that Clement's vision looked a lot sharper than it had during the Clinton Belle Epoque (to borrow a phrase from Bruce Sterling's latest). I need to read C.J. Date's Temporal Data and the Relational Model. It's a geek thing.
And I still see movies (recommended: Respiro), although I've missed all of the big summer blockbusters. I strongly suspect that I haven't really missed a thing. I really want to see Winged Migration, too. Then maybe I'll go see Matrix Reloaded at the drive-in (we still have one, here in the land that time and neo-conservatism forgot).
I don't watch TV anymore. I read blogs. I don't buy newspapers. I read blogs. As far as I'm concerned, I've traded up.
I still read books - just finished Hayden Herrera's biography of Frida Kahlo. I want to read W. R. Clement's Reforming the Prophet next. I had read Clement's previous book, Quantum Jump: A Survival Guide to the New Renaissance about 4-5 years ago and dismissed it as interesting but wrong in its predictions and conclusions. I re-read it a year ago and discovered that Clement's vision looked a lot sharper than it had during the Clinton Belle Epoque (to borrow a phrase from Bruce Sterling's latest). I need to read C.J. Date's Temporal Data and the Relational Model. It's a geek thing.
And I still see movies (recommended: Respiro), although I've missed all of the big summer blockbusters. I strongly suspect that I haven't really missed a thing. I really want to see Winged Migration, too. Then maybe I'll go see Matrix Reloaded at the drive-in (we still have one, here in the land that time and neo-conservatism forgot).
Sunday, July 06, 2003
Software
Incredible messes in the software world:
SQL99/SQL3/SQL2003/SQL-XML
Web Services/SOAP/WSDL/UDDI/ebXML
Semantic Web/RDF/CDF/RSS/XML-RPC
I won't go into details about why these things are such messes. Life is too short, and there are too many interesting and worthwhile things to learn. But I will ask this question: Have any of the players (standards organizations, gurus, big companies, etc.) involved in any of the above produced anything simple, easy to use, and/or worthy of broad, large-scale adoption recently? As usual, the really interesting stuff is happening outside of the standards mainstream - weblogs being one obvious example.
Funny how so many of these things are tangled up, in one way or another, with XML. XML is here to stay, and it's very useful in some contexts. But the drive to make it the panacea for every problem in computing is doomed to failure. Perhaps I'm just getting old and crotchety. Then again, perhaps it all reminds me of the other failures I've seen in my career (CASE tools, Network Computers, Object-Oriented Databases, CMM, "Push" technology, CORBA, 4GL's, ASP's, etc.).
Things that are not as messy: (note that I don't think less messy is necessarily a good thing)
.NET
LAMP
Incredible messes in the software world:
SQL99/SQL3/SQL2003/SQL-XML
Web Services/SOAP/WSDL/UDDI/ebXML
Semantic Web/RDF/CDF/RSS/XML-RPC
I won't go into details about why these things are such messes. Life is too short, and there are too many interesting and worthwhile things to learn. But I will ask this question: Have any of the players (standards organizations, gurus, big companies, etc.) involved in any of the above produced anything simple, easy to use, and/or worthy of broad, large-scale adoption recently? As usual, the really interesting stuff is happening outside of the standards mainstream - weblogs being one obvious example.
Funny how so many of these things are tangled up, in one way or another, with XML. XML is here to stay, and it's very useful in some contexts. But the drive to make it the panacea for every problem in computing is doomed to failure. Perhaps I'm just getting old and crotchety. Then again, perhaps it all reminds me of the other failures I've seen in my career (CASE tools, Network Computers, Object-Oriented Databases, CMM, "Push" technology, CORBA, 4GL's, ASP's, etc.).
Things that are not as messy: (note that I don't think less messy is necessarily a good thing)
.NET
LAMP
Inalienable Rights
Read this wonderful essay by Thom Hartmann on what the framers of the Constitution intended with respect to our rights. Key quote: “...the Constitution wasn't written as a vehicle to grant us rights. We don't derive our rights from the constitution. Rather, in the minds of the Founders, human rights are inalienable - inseparable - from humans themselves. We are born with rights by simple fact of existence, as defined by John Locke and written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," the Founders wrote. Humans are "endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights...."”
Read this wonderful essay by Thom Hartmann on what the framers of the Constitution intended with respect to our rights. Key quote: “...the Constitution wasn't written as a vehicle to grant us rights. We don't derive our rights from the constitution. Rather, in the minds of the Founders, human rights are inalienable - inseparable - from humans themselves. We are born with rights by simple fact of existence, as defined by John Locke and written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," the Founders wrote. Humans are "endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights...."”
Friday, July 04, 2003
Life, Politics, and the Fourth of July
Today's the Fourth of July
Another June has gone by
and when they light up our town I just think
what a waste of gunpowder and sky
Aimee Mann, Fourth of July
Actually, I like fireworks. And the above isn't even relevant to my hometown. Santa Cruz does not have a Fourth of July fireworks celebration. You'd have to drive up to Scotts Valley for that. (SV, BTW, is the kind of place that would gladly have accepted Mr. Rumsfeld's suggestion that they structure their Fourth around the war in Iraq. Heck, they probably did.) What we do have is a fireworks celebration in October to celebrate the founding of the city. The first year I lived here, I thought it was a little weird. Now I really like it; we can walk down to the beach on a beautiful fall evening with friends and neighbors and watch a fantastic display over the big curve of the bay. And there are no tourists around to clog up the roads and the beach and act stupid.
Favorite bumpersticker: "They call it tourist season, so why can't we shoot them?"
But I digress. The real question is, does failure to wrap ourselves in the flag indicate we (including me) are unpatriotic? Or does it indicate that we/me believe that symbolic gestures ultimately don't amount to much? Well, since I served my country/pay taxes/vote (most elections)/etc., I choose the latter.
I love my country. I'm still willing to give my life to defend it. America is an oasis in human history - there have been others, but we're the biggest and longest-lasting one. But I don't subscribe to the "my country, right or wrong" point of view. That's unworthy of any thinking adult. What we are - as a nation, a society, and a culture - still falls short of what we could be. And we should aspire to be more than what we are - to be truly great (not merely powerful); to advance the causes of freedom and justice; to bring prosperity to all; to live up to all of our ideals. Thomas Jefferson reputedly said "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance". What we need to remember is that Jefferson was warning us against internal enemies as much as external ones; our history is, among many other things, a constant battle between those who would defend the letter and spirit of our founding fathers' legacy and those who would sacrifice it for their own self-interest. The only way that ever ends is if we give away our liberty. We're still a long way from that, but we're not winning the battle either.
This shouldn't be taken as a polemic against the current administration. All of our politicians on both sides of the aisle are failing us. A few notable exceptions (e.g., Robert Byrd, John McCain) are isolated and mostly powerless. And it's a bad time for the system to have become corrupted. We're well into one of those great transformations in human history that fundamentally alter our world. As Peter Drucker puts it, "Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation...Within a few short decades society rearranges itself - its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions. Fifty years later, there is a new world. And the people born then cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born" (Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society). Is our current and future leadership up to the task of successfully guiding us through this transformation? Or are they going to follow the lead of so many elites in history who abdicated their responsibilities in order to enrich themselves?
Today, the most fundamental act of patriotism may be to look at our society, decide what we don't like about it, and then do something about it. Then again, has that ever not been the case?
Today's the Fourth of July
Another June has gone by
and when they light up our town I just think
what a waste of gunpowder and sky
Aimee Mann, Fourth of July
Actually, I like fireworks. And the above isn't even relevant to my hometown. Santa Cruz does not have a Fourth of July fireworks celebration. You'd have to drive up to Scotts Valley for that. (SV, BTW, is the kind of place that would gladly have accepted Mr. Rumsfeld's suggestion that they structure their Fourth around the war in Iraq. Heck, they probably did.) What we do have is a fireworks celebration in October to celebrate the founding of the city. The first year I lived here, I thought it was a little weird. Now I really like it; we can walk down to the beach on a beautiful fall evening with friends and neighbors and watch a fantastic display over the big curve of the bay. And there are no tourists around to clog up the roads and the beach and act stupid.
Favorite bumpersticker: "They call it tourist season, so why can't we shoot them?"
But I digress. The real question is, does failure to wrap ourselves in the flag indicate we (including me) are unpatriotic? Or does it indicate that we/me believe that symbolic gestures ultimately don't amount to much? Well, since I served my country/pay taxes/vote (most elections)/etc., I choose the latter.
I love my country. I'm still willing to give my life to defend it. America is an oasis in human history - there have been others, but we're the biggest and longest-lasting one. But I don't subscribe to the "my country, right or wrong" point of view. That's unworthy of any thinking adult. What we are - as a nation, a society, and a culture - still falls short of what we could be. And we should aspire to be more than what we are - to be truly great (not merely powerful); to advance the causes of freedom and justice; to bring prosperity to all; to live up to all of our ideals. Thomas Jefferson reputedly said "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance". What we need to remember is that Jefferson was warning us against internal enemies as much as external ones; our history is, among many other things, a constant battle between those who would defend the letter and spirit of our founding fathers' legacy and those who would sacrifice it for their own self-interest. The only way that ever ends is if we give away our liberty. We're still a long way from that, but we're not winning the battle either.
This shouldn't be taken as a polemic against the current administration. All of our politicians on both sides of the aisle are failing us. A few notable exceptions (e.g., Robert Byrd, John McCain) are isolated and mostly powerless. And it's a bad time for the system to have become corrupted. We're well into one of those great transformations in human history that fundamentally alter our world. As Peter Drucker puts it, "Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation...Within a few short decades society rearranges itself - its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions. Fifty years later, there is a new world. And the people born then cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born" (Peter Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society). Is our current and future leadership up to the task of successfully guiding us through this transformation? Or are they going to follow the lead of so many elites in history who abdicated their responsibilities in order to enrich themselves?
Today, the most fundamental act of patriotism may be to look at our society, decide what we don't like about it, and then do something about it. Then again, has that ever not been the case?
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
War and Peace
"Microsoft Word documents are notorious for containing private information in file headers which people would sometimes rather not share". Looks like Tony Blair's people forgot to cover up their tracks. One more piece of evidence that the WMD hype went way, way over the top.
Perhaps that's why a poll indicates the majority of Americans believe the administration stretched the truth about the Iraqi WMD's and alleged ties to al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.
No WMDs have been found. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, though battered, are still out there and active. The Administration is trying to create an international peacekeeping force to take some of the burden off of the overstretched US military forces. Unrest in Iraq may be on the rise.
Some good news. Protests in Iran appear to have resumed. Colin Powell has stated that the US does not intend to intervene, suggesting it would be wiser to leave the internal conflict in Iran to play itself out.
"Microsoft Word documents are notorious for containing private information in file headers which people would sometimes rather not share". Looks like Tony Blair's people forgot to cover up their tracks. One more piece of evidence that the WMD hype went way, way over the top.
Perhaps that's why a poll indicates the majority of Americans believe the administration stretched the truth about the Iraqi WMD's and alleged ties to al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.
No WMDs have been found. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, though battered, are still out there and active. The Administration is trying to create an international peacekeeping force to take some of the burden off of the overstretched US military forces. Unrest in Iraq may be on the rise.
Some good news. Protests in Iran appear to have resumed. Colin Powell has stated that the US does not intend to intervene, suggesting it would be wiser to leave the internal conflict in Iran to play itself out.
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Theology
Robert Martin writes: "For millenia we have searched the heavens to find messages from the gods. Today we found such a message...Now we know what God thinks of us".
Robert Martin writes: "For millenia we have searched the heavens to find messages from the gods. Today we found such a message...Now we know what God thinks of us".
Monday, June 30, 2003
Software, Work, and Learning
My last day at my old job. Thinking back, I'm appalled to realize how little I learned over the past year working there. Almost everything was a rehash of what I've done before or work that wasn't worth doing. And I'd already had the experience of watching bad management run a perfectly good company into the ground. It hadn't hit me before, because I've learned so much outside of my day job. My other milestone today was that I finally finished the first alpha version of Chrysalis and sent out an announcement to a bunch of other developers I know. Even if it never goes beyond being a vanity project, the time and effort I've invested have totally been worth it. I've deepened and refined my skills, learned lots of new stuff (ant, xml, html, various dusty corners of Java, etc.), and put together something that amounts to an on-line portfolio of my work. I don't know if my new employer looked at Chrysalis after I told them about it, but I think they were at least impressed by the fact that I'd done my own Open Source project and was more than willing to show them my actual code. Slam-dunking most of their interview questions probably helped, too ;-).
I'm looking forward to the new job. It will be real learning experience, I have no doubt, and there's good reason to be optimistic about how successful they'll be. I want to write a book about high-performance techniques in Oracle and this will be the perfect job to give me lots of real-world feedback. Work on Chrysalis will slow down for a little while, but that's OK. It's got enough momentum now to sustain itself for a long time; I expect to be working on it for the next few years.
My last day at my old job. Thinking back, I'm appalled to realize how little I learned over the past year working there. Almost everything was a rehash of what I've done before or work that wasn't worth doing. And I'd already had the experience of watching bad management run a perfectly good company into the ground. It hadn't hit me before, because I've learned so much outside of my day job. My other milestone today was that I finally finished the first alpha version of Chrysalis and sent out an announcement to a bunch of other developers I know. Even if it never goes beyond being a vanity project, the time and effort I've invested have totally been worth it. I've deepened and refined my skills, learned lots of new stuff (ant, xml, html, various dusty corners of Java, etc.), and put together something that amounts to an on-line portfolio of my work. I don't know if my new employer looked at Chrysalis after I told them about it, but I think they were at least impressed by the fact that I'd done my own Open Source project and was more than willing to show them my actual code. Slam-dunking most of their interview questions probably helped, too ;-).
I'm looking forward to the new job. It will be real learning experience, I have no doubt, and there's good reason to be optimistic about how successful they'll be. I want to write a book about high-performance techniques in Oracle and this will be the perfect job to give me lots of real-world feedback. Work on Chrysalis will slow down for a little while, but that's OK. It's got enough momentum now to sustain itself for a long time; I expect to be working on it for the next few years.
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Software
Fred Brooks was right when he wrote that turning a simple program into a programming systems product took 9X the effort of just writing the simple program. A big part of that 9X is writing user docs in HTML.
Fred Brooks was right when he wrote that turning a simple program into a programming systems product took 9X the effort of just writing the simple program. A big part of that 9X is writing user docs in HTML.
Saturday, June 28, 2003
Music and Code
Paco de Lucia's Siroco - maybe the greatest flamenco album ever made - is the perfect music to motivate you to finish the last gnarly parts of a code release.
Paco de Lucia's Siroco - maybe the greatest flamenco album ever made - is the perfect music to motivate you to finish the last gnarly parts of a code release.
Business and Injustice
I bought a real newspaper for the first time in months and sat down to read it while sampling some of the local barbeque. Alas, the BBQ here on the NorCal Riviera is as bad as the Mexican food; times like these are when I really miss living in Texas. Reading the paper proved more interesting. An article on page 3 entitled "Study: E-waste program dangerous" (online version here) compared Dell's e-waste recycling program with H-P's. Dell subcontracts out to a company called Unicor. Unicor, based in Washington state, employs 1,100 convicts who they pay anywhere from 20 cents to $1.26 an hour to handle and dispose of cathode ray tubes and other unsafe tech by-products. The study says the Dell/Unicor program exposes the prison laborers to dangerous chemicals, partially due to the low-tech working environment. The study contrasted this with H-P's program, which pays civilian workers $8 to $13 dollars an hour plus benefits, and minimizes their exposure to chemicals and other toxins.
Now we know one reason why Dell's prices are lower than the competition's.
Several things about this really disturb me. First, there are plenty of unconvicted citizens who need a decent job, and $8-13 an hour in a safe working environment surely beats unemployment. Second, most of the prisoners doing this kind of work are going to be the "safer" ones, i.e., they're in for non-violent crimes or misdemeanors. So putting them to work for third-world wages is exploitative to the extreme. Even if you don't care about the inmates' working conditions, you should realize that your and my taxes will have to pay the cost of their getting sick from performing unsafe work. I should also point out that our taxes are already paying the costs of their incarceration, thus providing a totally subsidized pool of labor for subcontractors who use prison laborers. I don't doubt the folks who run Unicor think that this is just good business. And it is, at least for those born without the scruples or ethics genes.
It's a sad comment on this society that this story is buried on page 3 of the business section and will probably only outrage Unicor's management (who are already on record calling the study "deeply flawed" and "disturbing"). If the matter is brought to HP's management's attention, they'll probably close their facilities and outsource to the prison contractors, too.
All so you can get a few bucks off the price of your computer. I have two Dell computers here in my home. I won't be buying another.
I bought a real newspaper for the first time in months and sat down to read it while sampling some of the local barbeque. Alas, the BBQ here on the NorCal Riviera is as bad as the Mexican food; times like these are when I really miss living in Texas. Reading the paper proved more interesting. An article on page 3 entitled "Study: E-waste program dangerous" (online version here) compared Dell's e-waste recycling program with H-P's. Dell subcontracts out to a company called Unicor. Unicor, based in Washington state, employs 1,100 convicts who they pay anywhere from 20 cents to $1.26 an hour to handle and dispose of cathode ray tubes and other unsafe tech by-products. The study says the Dell/Unicor program exposes the prison laborers to dangerous chemicals, partially due to the low-tech working environment. The study contrasted this with H-P's program, which pays civilian workers $8 to $13 dollars an hour plus benefits, and minimizes their exposure to chemicals and other toxins.
Now we know one reason why Dell's prices are lower than the competition's.
Several things about this really disturb me. First, there are plenty of unconvicted citizens who need a decent job, and $8-13 an hour in a safe working environment surely beats unemployment. Second, most of the prisoners doing this kind of work are going to be the "safer" ones, i.e., they're in for non-violent crimes or misdemeanors. So putting them to work for third-world wages is exploitative to the extreme. Even if you don't care about the inmates' working conditions, you should realize that your and my taxes will have to pay the cost of their getting sick from performing unsafe work. I should also point out that our taxes are already paying the costs of their incarceration, thus providing a totally subsidized pool of labor for subcontractors who use prison laborers. I don't doubt the folks who run Unicor think that this is just good business. And it is, at least for those born without the scruples or ethics genes.
It's a sad comment on this society that this story is buried on page 3 of the business section and will probably only outrage Unicor's management (who are already on record calling the study "deeply flawed" and "disturbing"). If the matter is brought to HP's management's attention, they'll probably close their facilities and outsource to the prison contractors, too.
All so you can get a few bucks off the price of your computer. I have two Dell computers here in my home. I won't be buying another.
Friday, June 27, 2003
Business and Justice
The Labor Department on Thursday sued Enron, its former top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and its board for failing to protect the retirement assets of its employees.
Finally. Here's hoping this is followed by indictments of Lay and Skilling.
The Labor Department on Thursday sued Enron, its former top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and its board for failing to protect the retirement assets of its employees.
Finally. Here's hoping this is followed by indictments of Lay and Skilling.
Thursday, June 26, 2003
War and Peace
Are we winning or losing the peace?
It's still far too early to say. The latest posts from Salam Pax and G In Baghdad hardly give one reason for optimism, though. Neither does this story in the Washington Post. Some additional data points here and here.
I think we needed a post-war analogue to the the Powell doctrine of striking the enemy with overwhelming force; a doctrine of rebuilding the occupied infrastructure with overwhelming rapidity - a high-impact Marshall Plan for the new century. Unfortunately, it's a little too late for that in Afghanistan and Iraq. See what a retired US general says about “ the consequences of failing to prepare for victory”.
Guerilla action against the coalition forces appears to be on the upswing, as evidenced here, here, and here.
Is the news all bad or is it only bad news that gets reported?
The documents seized several days ago may lead to some discoveries of WMDs. Or not. Perhaps I'm far too cynical, but does this story have the fingerprints of the Administration's spin machine all over it?
But hey, Bechtel, Halliburton, and WorldCom are making hay out of the occupation. Now that Enron can't sell electricity in the US anymore, will they turn their attention to Iraq?
Very little news out of Iran, so it's hard to know if the protests have been crushed or if they'll resume. Here's hoping we don't have a replay of what happened in 1999. Ending the rule of the Mullahs would be a real victory for freedom and self-determination.
Are we winning or losing the peace?
It's still far too early to say. The latest posts from Salam Pax and G In Baghdad hardly give one reason for optimism, though. Neither does this story in the Washington Post. Some additional data points here and here.
I think we needed a post-war analogue to the the Powell doctrine of striking the enemy with overwhelming force; a doctrine of rebuilding the occupied infrastructure with overwhelming rapidity - a high-impact Marshall Plan for the new century. Unfortunately, it's a little too late for that in Afghanistan and Iraq. See what a retired US general says about “ the consequences of failing to prepare for victory”.
Guerilla action against the coalition forces appears to be on the upswing, as evidenced here, here, and here.
Is the news all bad or is it only bad news that gets reported?
The documents seized several days ago may lead to some discoveries of WMDs. Or not. Perhaps I'm far too cynical, but does this story have the fingerprints of the Administration's spin machine all over it?
But hey, Bechtel, Halliburton, and WorldCom are making hay out of the occupation. Now that Enron can't sell electricity in the US anymore, will they turn their attention to Iraq?
Very little news out of Iran, so it's hard to know if the protests have been crushed or if they'll resume. Here's hoping we don't have a replay of what happened in 1999. Ending the rule of the Mullahs would be a real victory for freedom and self-determination.
Weather With You
Late Spring is when the winds off the Pacific shift from W to NW; hence, days usually begin and end with a cool haze of fog all along the coast. Occasionally (like maybe once every other year) the winds will shift radically and come from the southeast. When this happens, temperatures in the Bay Areas (SF and Monterey) rise dramatically. We're in the middle of one of those radical shifts right now. I know this, because I started my day in SC (high 92°), went to the city (SF) for lunch (high 95°), and finished my day in the Valley (high 101°). It wasn't as bad as 2 years ago, when the temp in SF rose to 103° - I remember it well, because I was trapped in my no-AC apartment recovering from surgery. Today the heat didn't bug me too much; probably all those years in Texas (high today in Austin: 96°).
Worst thing about the weather: It causes a thermal inversion in the Valley, so all the smog gets trapped. Coming down the hill, you see a dirty gray blanket over San Jose. You'd think there'd been a forest fire recently if you were anywhere else.
Best thing about the weather: It doesn't stay hot here. After sweltering all day in the Valley and the City, you come home to SC in the evening, roll down the windows, open the sunroof, and let in the delicious cool while you listen to Bebel Gilberto sing Samba e Amor. Any haze you see is just a whisp of fog.
Late Spring is when the winds off the Pacific shift from W to NW; hence, days usually begin and end with a cool haze of fog all along the coast. Occasionally (like maybe once every other year) the winds will shift radically and come from the southeast. When this happens, temperatures in the Bay Areas (SF and Monterey) rise dramatically. We're in the middle of one of those radical shifts right now. I know this, because I started my day in SC (high 92°), went to the city (SF) for lunch (high 95°), and finished my day in the Valley (high 101°). It wasn't as bad as 2 years ago, when the temp in SF rose to 103° - I remember it well, because I was trapped in my no-AC apartment recovering from surgery. Today the heat didn't bug me too much; probably all those years in Texas (high today in Austin: 96°).
Worst thing about the weather: It causes a thermal inversion in the Valley, so all the smog gets trapped. Coming down the hill, you see a dirty gray blanket over San Jose. You'd think there'd been a forest fire recently if you were anywhere else.
Best thing about the weather: It doesn't stay hot here. After sweltering all day in the Valley and the City, you come home to SC in the evening, roll down the windows, open the sunroof, and let in the delicious cool while you listen to Bebel Gilberto sing Samba e Amor. Any haze you see is just a whisp of fog.
Cars
Is it just me, or does the Lexus SC look like a supersonic, 21st century Karmann Ghia? Speaking of which, why doesn't VW bring the Ghia back?
Is it just me, or does the Lexus SC look like a supersonic, 21st century Karmann Ghia? Speaking of which, why doesn't VW bring the Ghia back?
Monday, June 23, 2003
Software
Found lots of interesting stuff surfing:
Random Hacks posits a third alternative to the showdown between Microsoft and Open Source as to the future of software development.
Artima is a software community-oriented site with lots of good content that also hosts a remarkable set of weblogs. Among other things, a good interview with Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas (the Pragmatic Programmer guys) on the value of storing persistent data in plain text and the ways they feel XML is being misused. Bruce Eckel's interview on Artima and some of the entries in his weblog have convinced me to give Python, a language I'd previously dismissed, a try.
The only problem is that I still want to learn Ruby. Plus I need to finish crossing the t's and dotting the i's on Chrysalis so I can put out an initial alpha release and then work on adding support for MySQL. Plus I need to get working on finishing my series of essays on software development. Not to mention that I start a new job in a week. And there's that biography of Frida Kahlo I'm trying to read.
Found lots of interesting stuff surfing:
Random Hacks posits a third alternative to the showdown between Microsoft and Open Source as to the future of software development.
Artima is a software community-oriented site with lots of good content that also hosts a remarkable set of weblogs. Among other things, a good interview with Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas (the Pragmatic Programmer guys) on the value of storing persistent data in plain text and the ways they feel XML is being misused. Bruce Eckel's interview on Artima and some of the entries in his weblog have convinced me to give Python, a language I'd previously dismissed, a try.
The only problem is that I still want to learn Ruby. Plus I need to finish crossing the t's and dotting the i's on Chrysalis so I can put out an initial alpha release and then work on adding support for MySQL. Plus I need to get working on finishing my series of essays on software development. Not to mention that I start a new job in a week. And there's that biography of Frida Kahlo I'm trying to read.
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Software - Ted Codd's Legacy
I'm re-reading Codd's 3-page monograph on Data Models, originally published in 1980, and I'm struck once again by the sheer elegance of the man's ideas.
What's sad is that so few people doing software development actually understand these concepts. If they did, we'd have database management systems that correctly implemented the relational model. And then we'd have simpler systems that could manage data more reliably and effectively, and could build simpler and more reliable applications on top of them.
I've been predictiing for the past few years that the relational model gets "rediscovered" about 10-15 years from now when all the current data management fads and fictions have finally been shown to be hollow and hopelessly flawed. I'm assuming Codd's reputation gets refurbished at about the same time.
I'm re-reading Codd's 3-page monograph on Data Models, originally published in 1980, and I'm struck once again by the sheer elegance of the man's ideas.
- “Numerous authors appear to think of a data model as nothing more than a collection of data structure types. This is like trying to understand the way the human body functions by studying anatomy but omitting physiology. The operators and integrity rules are essential to any understanding of how the structures behave.”
What's sad is that so few people doing software development actually understand these concepts. If they did, we'd have database management systems that correctly implemented the relational model. And then we'd have simpler systems that could manage data more reliably and effectively, and could build simpler and more reliable applications on top of them.
I've been predictiing for the past few years that the relational model gets "rediscovered" about 10-15 years from now when all the current data management fads and fictions have finally been shown to be hollow and hopelessly flawed. I'm assuming Codd's reputation gets refurbished at about the same time.
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Ideology - Things that make me go hmmm
Glenn Reynolds, who should know better, implies anyone who's questioning our efforts in rebuilding Iraq is a fifth columnist who will cost us the war. This comes at the end of a link to a thought-provoking article by Victor Davis Hansen in the National Review Online.
Ann Coulter, who doesn't know any better, resurrects the ghost of Joe McCarthy as a great patriot smeared by treasonous liberals. Actual, unretouched quote: “The left cut down a brave man, but not before the American people heard the truth”.
Fortunately, I can get away from all this and head down to San Diego to “take direct action against the many issues and facets of the system that maintains a world based on power, class, race, sex, and species”.
Or I could just stay home and oppress my loved ones, like any good middle-aged white male.
Glenn Reynolds, who should know better, implies anyone who's questioning our efforts in rebuilding Iraq is a fifth columnist who will cost us the war. This comes at the end of a link to a thought-provoking article by Victor Davis Hansen in the National Review Online.
Ann Coulter, who doesn't know any better, resurrects the ghost of Joe McCarthy as a great patriot smeared by treasonous liberals. Actual, unretouched quote: “The left cut down a brave man, but not before the American people heard the truth”.
Fortunately, I can get away from all this and head down to San Diego to “take direct action against the many issues and facets of the system that maintains a world based on power, class, race, sex, and species”.
Or I could just stay home and oppress my loved ones, like any good middle-aged white male.
Life
Yes, I did go to the Farmer's Market this morning, and, yes, I've already eaten all the English shelling peas. But I got two cartons (3 pints each) of Raspberries, so there's plenty of those left. I also added support for Oracle 8i to Chrysalis between snacks.
I've missed a beautiful day up til now, so we're off to the beach with the dogs.
Yes, I did go to the Farmer's Market this morning, and, yes, I've already eaten all the English shelling peas. But I got two cartons (3 pints each) of Raspberries, so there's plenty of those left. I also added support for Oracle 8i to Chrysalis between snacks.
I've missed a beautiful day up til now, so we're off to the beach with the dogs.
War and Peace, cont.
A grab bag of stuff, all of which I'm still digesting myself.
A really fascinating article in Wired News on how the sysadmins at Iraq's State Company for Internet Services (SCIS) have gotten Iraq back on-line. Apparently, SCIS is still being run by Baathist holdovers with the apparent approval of the Coalition Provisional Authority, according to the lead sysadmin.
That's just one bit of Good News/Bad News from Iraq. A poll says almost 2 out of 3 Iraqis want the U.S. military to stay until Iraq is stable and secure; only 17 percent want American soldiers out now. “But some U.S. lawmakers are increasingly uneasy about the daily killings of soldiers, the stretching thin of troop forces, excessive demands on reservists and the costs of the war.” See this article for a perspective from the troops. Strategic Forecasting takes a pessimistic view of the current situation: “Suppressing a guerrilla operation without alienating the indigenous population represents an extreme challenge to the United States that at this point does not appear avoidable -- and the seriousness of which does not appear to be broadly understood”. The Economist calls these efforts counterproductive.
Other reports suggest that the situation elsewhere in Iraq isn't as bad as it's made out to be, and that the Iraqis are spontaneously organizing themselves to restore services and civil society. At the same time, this article in the NYT says “United States military commanders say foreign fighters are being actively recruited by loyalists to Saddam Hussein to join the resistance against American forces in Iraq”.
It looks like Saddam and his sons are alive and in Iraq. We may have just found documentary evidence of Iraq's WMD program. We'll see.
The latest in a series of continuing operations in Afghanistan is underway. Here's a story about how the civil situation there continues to deteriorate.
There are reports of student arrests in Iran; after 10 days of demonstrations, things appear quiet for the moment. Hopefully, this is just a respite and the reform movement will continue to gather strength. Here's a photo essay of the protesters from Iranian.com. How should the US respond? Read this.
Here's a post making the imperialist argument in US foreign policy. Here's a better, more considered set of ideas.
Some links via Slashdot, Instapundit, The Agonist
Update: Now there's a report that Saddam and one son may have been killed in an operation last Wednesday. DNA tests are being performed.
A grab bag of stuff, all of which I'm still digesting myself.
A really fascinating article in Wired News on how the sysadmins at Iraq's State Company for Internet Services (SCIS) have gotten Iraq back on-line. Apparently, SCIS is still being run by Baathist holdovers with the apparent approval of the Coalition Provisional Authority, according to the lead sysadmin.
That's just one bit of Good News/Bad News from Iraq. A poll says almost 2 out of 3 Iraqis want the U.S. military to stay until Iraq is stable and secure; only 17 percent want American soldiers out now. “But some U.S. lawmakers are increasingly uneasy about the daily killings of soldiers, the stretching thin of troop forces, excessive demands on reservists and the costs of the war.” See this article for a perspective from the troops. Strategic Forecasting takes a pessimistic view of the current situation: “Suppressing a guerrilla operation without alienating the indigenous population represents an extreme challenge to the United States that at this point does not appear avoidable -- and the seriousness of which does not appear to be broadly understood”. The Economist calls these efforts counterproductive.
Other reports suggest that the situation elsewhere in Iraq isn't as bad as it's made out to be, and that the Iraqis are spontaneously organizing themselves to restore services and civil society. At the same time, this article in the NYT says “United States military commanders say foreign fighters are being actively recruited by loyalists to Saddam Hussein to join the resistance against American forces in Iraq”.
It looks like Saddam and his sons are alive and in Iraq. We may have just found documentary evidence of Iraq's WMD program. We'll see.
The latest in a series of continuing operations in Afghanistan is underway. Here's a story about how the civil situation there continues to deteriorate.
There are reports of student arrests in Iran; after 10 days of demonstrations, things appear quiet for the moment. Hopefully, this is just a respite and the reform movement will continue to gather strength. Here's a photo essay of the protesters from Iranian.com. How should the US respond? Read this.
Here's a post making the imperialist argument in US foreign policy. Here's a better, more considered set of ideas.
Some links via Slashdot, Instapundit, The Agonist
Update: Now there's a report that Saddam and one son may have been killed in an operation last Wednesday. DNA tests are being performed.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
War and Peace, cont.
More Salam Pax. And I thought the cabbies in NY and SF were a little scary.
More on this later.
More Salam Pax. And I thought the cabbies in NY and SF were a little scary.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Software
Some dirt on SCO from Forbes. Apparently, SCO's parent company has been doing quite well suing other companies for the past several years.
Some dirt on SCO from Forbes. Apparently, SCO's parent company has been doing quite well suing other companies for the past several years.
Software - MSFT taking aim at Google?
Prompted by this report about a web crawler called MSNBot, Dave Winer investigates and posts this anonymous email that says it's so. Interesting, in light of the rumours about a possible Google IPO (which Google's co-founder had earlier denied). Here's another recent story from C/Net on the subject.
Now, I'm no lover of Microsoft. But they're perfectly within their rights to compete against Google. And Google needs to take a page from Intuit's book: the only way to defeat MS in head-to-head competition is to continually out-innovate them and then delight your customers better and more often than they do - because MS will surely out-spend you, out-work you, and out-market you. But it can be done; you just have to be (to steal someone else's phrase) insanely great.
Of course, if you are, they may just turn around and buy you. And the government's probably not going to step in to prevent it this time.
Prompted by this report about a web crawler called MSNBot, Dave Winer investigates and posts this anonymous email that says it's so. Interesting, in light of the rumours about a possible Google IPO (which Google's co-founder had earlier denied). Here's another recent story from C/Net on the subject.
Now, I'm no lover of Microsoft. But they're perfectly within their rights to compete against Google. And Google needs to take a page from Intuit's book: the only way to defeat MS in head-to-head competition is to continually out-innovate them and then delight your customers better and more often than they do - because MS will surely out-spend you, out-work you, and out-market you. But it can be done; you just have to be (to steal someone else's phrase) insanely great.
Of course, if you are, they may just turn around and buy you. And the government's probably not going to step in to prevent it this time.
Monday, June 16, 2003
Culture
A brilliant post on why real environmentalism (of all kinds) is about protecting the shared commons. Favorite quote:
“Linux is another kind of environmentalism”
A brilliant post on why real environmentalism (of all kinds) is about protecting the shared commons. Favorite quote:
“Linux is another kind of environmentalism”
Software
IBM isn't giving an inch to SCO's demands.
At lunch, I shared this nightmare scenario with my colleagues:
SCO wins intellectual property control of Linux. Microsoft buys SCO.
That, of course, is the exact opposite of what I predicted earlier. I still think that's the most likely scenario. But given our judicial system's general level of cluelessness about IP plus the Justice Department's blind eye towards antitrust concerns, particularly where Microsoft is concerned, the worst-case scenario can't be dismissed.
But it's notable that IBM isn't giving an inch. And they might know a thing or two about defending and using their intellectual property rights, yes?
IBM isn't giving an inch to SCO's demands.
At lunch, I shared this nightmare scenario with my colleagues:
SCO wins intellectual property control of Linux. Microsoft buys SCO.
That, of course, is the exact opposite of what I predicted earlier. I still think that's the most likely scenario. But given our judicial system's general level of cluelessness about IP plus the Justice Department's blind eye towards antitrust concerns, particularly where Microsoft is concerned, the worst-case scenario can't be dismissed.
But it's notable that IBM isn't giving an inch. And they might know a thing or two about defending and using their intellectual property rights, yes?
Another Anti-Ideological Rant
Further proof that ideology is the opposite of critical thinking:
Read this for the brilliant insight that because Bill Clinton lied about a sordid affair with an intern, the debate over whether the Administration lied about the WMDs is irrelevant. The original article being criticized is equally noteworthy for overstating the case to fulfill its ideological biases: “[there is]...an odd unwillingness to state the simple fact that in many cases the White House lied to the American public, repeatedly and unashamedly...”.
A pox on both your houses. This is how the real truth gets obscured - by being hidden under the rubble of partisan nonsense.
The White House didn't lie - it slanted and manipulated information in order to sell its already agreed-upon strategy. This isn't a story about conspiracy; it's about how those in power use the tools of modern public relations to advance their agenda, obscuring their real intentions by hiding them behind a smokescreen of emotionally charged issues. The previous administration practiced essentially the same tactics (although perhaps not with the panache of the current one).
The second-order story is how pundits of all sides also use the tactics of modern P.R. - most notably, the personal attack to discredit the target and obscure the target's argument - to advance their agendas (and careers).
An informed citizenry needs to understand this, so that it can look past the smokescreen and gain an understanding of what's really going on and why. Cheap gibes at overly earnest partisan rhetoric are just noise.
Here's something to help clear away the fumes.
Further proof that ideology is the opposite of critical thinking:
Read this for the brilliant insight that because Bill Clinton lied about a sordid affair with an intern, the debate over whether the Administration lied about the WMDs is irrelevant. The original article being criticized is equally noteworthy for overstating the case to fulfill its ideological biases: “[there is]...an odd unwillingness to state the simple fact that in many cases the White House lied to the American public, repeatedly and unashamedly...”.
A pox on both your houses. This is how the real truth gets obscured - by being hidden under the rubble of partisan nonsense.
The White House didn't lie - it slanted and manipulated information in order to sell its already agreed-upon strategy. This isn't a story about conspiracy; it's about how those in power use the tools of modern public relations to advance their agenda, obscuring their real intentions by hiding them behind a smokescreen of emotionally charged issues. The previous administration practiced essentially the same tactics (although perhaps not with the panache of the current one).
The second-order story is how pundits of all sides also use the tactics of modern P.R. - most notably, the personal attack to discredit the target and obscure the target's argument - to advance their agendas (and careers).
An informed citizenry needs to understand this, so that it can look past the smokescreen and gain an understanding of what's really going on and why. Cheap gibes at overly earnest partisan rhetoric are just noise.
Here's something to help clear away the fumes.
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Life
Took the dogs down the beach both Saturday and Sunday. The beach is a little funky, however. We went a week ago Sunday evening and found a mess; high tide had washed up all kinds of gunk, including kelp and thousands of little Jellyfish known as By-the-Wind-Sailors. There's a cool QuickTime image of one here. The tide came so high it left standing pools of water about 50-100 feet up from the beach, which have stagnated in a week's time. Pretty cool if you're a biologist studying one of these accidental microcosms; less fun if you're trying to keep Mr. C from laying down in one.
Took the dogs down the beach both Saturday and Sunday. The beach is a little funky, however. We went a week ago Sunday evening and found a mess; high tide had washed up all kinds of gunk, including kelp and thousands of little Jellyfish known as By-the-Wind-Sailors. There's a cool QuickTime image of one here. The tide came so high it left standing pools of water about 50-100 feet up from the beach, which have stagnated in a week's time. Pretty cool if you're a biologist studying one of these accidental microcosms; less fun if you're trying to keep Mr. C from laying down in one.
Software - The SCO Follies Continue
IBM concedes nothing, ignores SCO's Friday the 13th deadline, and prepares for a legal battle. A German sidesteps SCO's NDA and reports on what he saw in a comparison of SCO's code and Linux. Wisps of smoke rising from recently discharged revolvers are conspicuous in their absence. Finally, a Linux kernel hacker (could it be Alan Cox?) alleges misappropriation of his GPL'd code in SCO Unix.
Updates: Novell backs off its claims to the Unix copyright (but not its claim to the Unix patents). And SCO is apparently going to sue another hardware manufacturer.
IBM concedes nothing, ignores SCO's Friday the 13th deadline, and prepares for a legal battle. A German sidesteps SCO's NDA and reports on what he saw in a comparison of SCO's code and Linux. Wisps of smoke rising from recently discharged revolvers are conspicuous in their absence. Finally, a Linux kernel hacker (could it be Alan Cox?) alleges misappropriation of his GPL'd code in SCO Unix.
Updates: Novell backs off its claims to the Unix copyright (but not its claim to the Unix patents). And SCO is apparently going to sue another hardware manufacturer.
Saturday, June 14, 2003
The Middle East, cont.
An excellent article from the Royal Institute of International Affairs on American strategy and prospects in the Middle East.
An excellent article from the Royal Institute of International Affairs on American strategy and prospects in the Middle East.
Thursday, June 12, 2003
The Middle East
More Israeli attacks in Gaza as a response to yesterday's suicide bombing. ABC Australia reports that the Israeli Army has been ordered to “'completely wipe out' the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas”. The Administration said the violence was not surprising and that it remained committed to the peace process. For an Israeli perspective see this article on Ha'aretz.
Iranian students take to the streets in Teheran. The Economist also reports on this story. The Iranian Prime Minister calls for restraint. This comes amidst charges that Iran is harboring Al-Queda leaders who directed the recent attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Unrest in Iraq, as the US mounts a major military operation. Read what Salam Pax and G. in Baghdad say about daily life in the Iraqi capital.
Oil sales are set to resume.
More trouble brewing in Afghanistan according to a Swiss security expert. Here is the story on the latest suicide bombing there.
More Israeli attacks in Gaza as a response to yesterday's suicide bombing. ABC Australia reports that the Israeli Army has been ordered to “'completely wipe out' the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas”. The Administration said the violence was not surprising and that it remained committed to the peace process. For an Israeli perspective see this article on Ha'aretz.
Iranian students take to the streets in Teheran. The Economist also reports on this story. The Iranian Prime Minister calls for restraint. This comes amidst charges that Iran is harboring Al-Queda leaders who directed the recent attacks in Saudi Arabia.
Unrest in Iraq, as the US mounts a major military operation. Read what Salam Pax and G. in Baghdad say about daily life in the Iraqi capital.
Oil sales are set to resume.
More trouble brewing in Afghanistan according to a Swiss security expert. Here is the story on the latest suicide bombing there.
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Monday, June 09, 2003
Life
I let S. rope my into taking that stupid Fox faux-IQ thing tonight (OK, I really did it to get out of going for a run). I missed 6 questions out of 60, so my faux-IQ is 133. S. got 130, so now I'm walking around the house singing "I'm smarter than you are, I'm smarter than you are".
I know, I know - childish.
I let S. rope my into taking that stupid Fox faux-IQ thing tonight (OK, I really did it to get out of going for a run). I missed 6 questions out of 60, so my faux-IQ is 133. S. got 130, so now I'm walking around the house singing "I'm smarter than you are, I'm smarter than you are".
I know, I know - childish.
News
Two things that might not get buried:
First, NPR and CBS Marketwatch report that an independent study of WorldCom's twisted finances reveal former CEO Bernie Ebber's complicity: “Ebbers was aware, at a minimum, that WorldCom was meeting revenue expectations through financial gimmickry”. The report could be used as a basis for charges against Ebbers.
Good. First Bernie, then Skilling and Lay.
Second, the adminstration is now being forced by the mainstream press to face up to the question of why WMDs haven't been found. Yesterday, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice; today, the President.
Both of these issues deserve a full-court press from the media. Let's see what happens.
Two things that might not get buried:
First, NPR and CBS Marketwatch report that an independent study of WorldCom's twisted finances reveal former CEO Bernie Ebber's complicity: “Ebbers was aware, at a minimum, that WorldCom was meeting revenue expectations through financial gimmickry”. The report could be used as a basis for charges against Ebbers.
Good. First Bernie, then Skilling and Lay.
Second, the adminstration is now being forced by the mainstream press to face up to the question of why WMDs haven't been found. Yesterday, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice; today, the President.
Both of these issues deserve a full-court press from the media. Let's see what happens.
Sunday, June 08, 2003
War and Peace
Opinions from all over the spectrum on those well-hidden WMDs:
Molly Ivins has the best line: “The ex post facto development of tender concern on the part of hawks for human rights is delightful to see”. As always, the humour is matched by the clarity and brevity of her writing.
Glenn Reynolds, on the other hand, delivers a rambling, illogical, humorless screed. He does, however, make a good point (finally!) at the end: “In a way, of course, the "Bush lied" stuff serves the Administration's interests, by muddying the waters so that less dramatic, but more pointed, questions are hard to ask”.
Howard Owens does a good job of summarizing the arguments across the board.
The Agonist points to a summary of opinions from the world press. It also points to a claim by a Norwegian weapons inspector that the US provided the UN Security Council with misleading information about Iraq's possession of WMDs.
Finally, the controversy over the WMDs and how it's affecting the British political scene is captured here by the Observer.
My opinion? The "Bush lied" and other conspiracy theories are worthless distractions. So is the right's revisionist argument that we did it to free Iraq from Saddam. I never believed that we went to war because of the threat of WMDs, much less to liberate the Iraqi people or to get Iraq's oil or to go after terrorism. The real reason was always power politics - the desire to reshape the political landscape in the Middle East in a way favorable to US interests and control. The threat of Saddam possessing WMDs was a critical tool in the Administration's P.R. campaign to gain the necessary support for the war. And so their existence and relevance were hyped as an effective way to influence public and political opinion.
And now the outcome (at least so far) doesn't justify the hype. This is causing real fallout in Britain. The PR machine is in full spin cycle here to try to contain the damage to the Administration's credibility. Ideological lines have been drawn - and Reynolds is right: “less dramatic, but more pointed, questions are hard to ask”.
Opinions from all over the spectrum on those well-hidden WMDs:
Molly Ivins has the best line: “The ex post facto development of tender concern on the part of hawks for human rights is delightful to see”. As always, the humour is matched by the clarity and brevity of her writing.
Glenn Reynolds, on the other hand, delivers a rambling, illogical, humorless screed. He does, however, make a good point (finally!) at the end: “In a way, of course, the "Bush lied" stuff serves the Administration's interests, by muddying the waters so that less dramatic, but more pointed, questions are hard to ask”.
Howard Owens does a good job of summarizing the arguments across the board.
The Agonist points to a summary of opinions from the world press. It also points to a claim by a Norwegian weapons inspector that the US provided the UN Security Council with misleading information about Iraq's possession of WMDs.
Finally, the controversy over the WMDs and how it's affecting the British political scene is captured here by the Observer.
My opinion? The "Bush lied" and other conspiracy theories are worthless distractions. So is the right's revisionist argument that we did it to free Iraq from Saddam. I never believed that we went to war because of the threat of WMDs, much less to liberate the Iraqi people or to get Iraq's oil or to go after terrorism. The real reason was always power politics - the desire to reshape the political landscape in the Middle East in a way favorable to US interests and control. The threat of Saddam possessing WMDs was a critical tool in the Administration's P.R. campaign to gain the necessary support for the war. And so their existence and relevance were hyped as an effective way to influence public and political opinion.
And now the outcome (at least so far) doesn't justify the hype. This is causing real fallout in Britain. The PR machine is in full spin cycle here to try to contain the damage to the Administration's credibility. Ideological lines have been drawn - and Reynolds is right: “less dramatic, but more pointed, questions are hard to ask”.
Saturday, June 07, 2003
Poetry
“Wir sollen nicht wissen, warum
dieses und jenes uns meistert;
wirkliches Lebenis stumm,
nur, daß es uns begeistert,
macht uns mit ihm vertraut”
“We are not to know why
this and that masters us;
real life makes no reply,
only that it enraptures us,
makes us familiar with it”
Rainer Maria Rilke, May, 1924 (Translation by John J. L. Mood)
“Wir sollen nicht wissen, warum
dieses und jenes uns meistert;
wirkliches Lebenis stumm,
nur, daß es uns begeistert,
macht uns mit ihm vertraut”
“We are not to know why
this and that masters us;
real life makes no reply,
only that it enraptures us,
makes us familiar with it”
Rainer Maria Rilke, May, 1924 (Translation by John J. L. Mood)
Life - Things to do on a lazy Saturday
Run with your dogs on the beach.
Go to the Farmer's Market and buy everything you really want.
Eat the whole bag of English Shelling Peas.
But save the raspberries for guests tomorrow.
Browse, dreamily, in the bookstore's travel section.
Memorize some more of the words to A Felicidade so you can really sing along instead of just making sounds.
Nap on the floor with the dogs for a little while.
Then nap with your significant other.
Walk by the flower lady's house and admire her roses.
Dig out that old Roseanne Cash CD so you can remember how much you love "Bells and Roses".
See, no day is wasted if you waste it in the right way.
Run with your dogs on the beach.
Go to the Farmer's Market and buy everything you really want.
Eat the whole bag of English Shelling Peas.
But save the raspberries for guests tomorrow.
Browse, dreamily, in the bookstore's travel section.
Memorize some more of the words to A Felicidade so you can really sing along instead of just making sounds.
Nap on the floor with the dogs for a little while.
Then nap with your significant other.
Walk by the flower lady's house and admire her roses.
Dig out that old Roseanne Cash CD so you can remember how much you love "Bells and Roses".
See, no day is wasted if you waste it in the right way.
Friday, June 06, 2003
War and Peace, cont.
Another good speech by Robert Byrd yesterday concerning those MIA WMD's. Courtesy of Best of The Blogs. A good article by Jake Tapper in Salon on the same subject.
Today's scary thought, courtesy of Senator Byrd: What if Iraq did have usable WMDs and they dispersed them to other Arab nations or to terrorists before the fall of Baghdad? It's interesting that the administration hasn't (publicly) sounded an alarm about this possibility since the end of the war.
Questions, questions...
Update: Interesting viewpoints that I don't agree with (but are worth pondering):
Thomas Friedman in the NYT: Because We Could
John Dean in FindLaw's: Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
Another good speech by Robert Byrd yesterday concerning those MIA WMD's. Courtesy of Best of The Blogs. A good article by Jake Tapper in Salon on the same subject.
Today's scary thought, courtesy of Senator Byrd: What if Iraq did have usable WMDs and they dispersed them to other Arab nations or to terrorists before the fall of Baghdad? It's interesting that the administration hasn't (publicly) sounded an alarm about this possibility since the end of the war.
Questions, questions...
Update: Interesting viewpoints that I don't agree with (but are worth pondering):
Thomas Friedman in the NYT: Because We Could
John Dean in FindLaw's: Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?
Thursday, June 05, 2003
Scandal Mongering and Media Politics, cont.
Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd, the executive editor and managing editor of the New York Times, have resigned as a result of the Jayson Blair scandal. Conservative pundits and other opponents of the Times are crowing, of course, but I think they miss a larger point.
The real scandal isn't the Times' poor fact-checking, editorial favoritism, or its supposedly left-wing bias. The real scandal is how poorly the Times reports the news, in terms of reporting what actually is happening and, more importantly, why what's happening is happening.
And that's a scandal that encompasses all of the major media in this country, left, right, and center. What gets reported is so circumscribed, neutered, and watered-down that it's nearly useless. The scandal at the NYT is simply an extreme example of the overall mediocrity of all of our major media outlets.
Unfortunately, this will have the appearance of legitimizing those news outlets who have replaced reporting with ideology. Ideology doesn't require fact-checking; it requires faith, the opposite of critical thinking.
Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd, the executive editor and managing editor of the New York Times, have resigned as a result of the Jayson Blair scandal. Conservative pundits and other opponents of the Times are crowing, of course, but I think they miss a larger point.
The real scandal isn't the Times' poor fact-checking, editorial favoritism, or its supposedly left-wing bias. The real scandal is how poorly the Times reports the news, in terms of reporting what actually is happening and, more importantly, why what's happening is happening.
And that's a scandal that encompasses all of the major media in this country, left, right, and center. What gets reported is so circumscribed, neutered, and watered-down that it's nearly useless. The scandal at the NYT is simply an extreme example of the overall mediocrity of all of our major media outlets.
Unfortunately, this will have the appearance of legitimizing those news outlets who have replaced reporting with ideology. Ideology doesn't require fact-checking; it requires faith, the opposite of critical thinking.
Scandal Mongering and Media Politics
So they've indicted Martha Stewart for selling 4,000 shares under suspicious circumstances. Big news? Only because she's a high-profile celebrity with a tarnished reputation. Important? Only in the sense that it serves to distract attention from real, serious criminal activity by other business executives.
WHAT ABOUT SKILLING AND LAY?
David Weinberg relates some irrelevant facts about this.
So they've indicted Martha Stewart for selling 4,000 shares under suspicious circumstances. Big news? Only because she's a high-profile celebrity with a tarnished reputation. Important? Only in the sense that it serves to distract attention from real, serious criminal activity by other business executives.
WHAT ABOUT SKILLING AND LAY?
David Weinberg relates some irrelevant facts about this.
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Music
Stuck in my CD player:
Bebel Gilberto, Tanto Tempo
João Gilberto, Live in Montreux
Gigi, One Ethiopia
Moreno+2, Music TypeWriter
Kathleen Edwards, Failer
Aimee Mann, Lost in Space
João Gilberto, Vóz e Violão
Wayne Shorter, Footprints Live
Yeah, still hung up on the Brazilian thing.
Stuck in my CD player:
Bebel Gilberto, Tanto Tempo
João Gilberto, Live in Montreux
Gigi, One Ethiopia
Moreno+2, Music TypeWriter
Kathleen Edwards, Failer
Aimee Mann, Lost in Space
João Gilberto, Vóz e Violão
Wayne Shorter, Footprints Live
Yeah, still hung up on the Brazilian thing.
Software
An article by Farhad Manjoo in Salon on the SCO suit against IBM and Linux comes to almost the same conclusion I came to last Thursday - that the suit could end up legitimizing Linux to the mainstream business customer.
Relevant quotes: "...the SCO lawsuit may do more to ratify Linux's ascendant position in the software universe than anything else. Amateurs tend not to create software that inspires billion-dollar lawsuits. SCO's frantic scrambling to salvage something out of its Unix holdings -- with Microsoft's support -- is the clearest sign yet that Linux has arrived...'In the end I think IBM starts indemnifying its customers'...if IBM does do that, it would be quite a win for Linux; all those claims, so often casually mentioned by the likes of Microsoft, of Linux being somehow dangerous for business would be wiped away."
An article by Farhad Manjoo in Salon on the SCO suit against IBM and Linux comes to almost the same conclusion I came to last Thursday - that the suit could end up legitimizing Linux to the mainstream business customer.
Relevant quotes: "...the SCO lawsuit may do more to ratify Linux's ascendant position in the software universe than anything else. Amateurs tend not to create software that inspires billion-dollar lawsuits. SCO's frantic scrambling to salvage something out of its Unix holdings -- with Microsoft's support -- is the clearest sign yet that Linux has arrived...'In the end I think IBM starts indemnifying its customers'...if IBM does do that, it would be quite a win for Linux; all those claims, so often casually mentioned by the likes of Microsoft, of Linux being somehow dangerous for business would be wiped away."
War and Peace
A nice collection of quotes from various people in the administration about those damned WMDs. From billmon courtesy of David Weinberg.
No, I can't leave it alone. The post-war rationalization that we did it to liberate the Iraqi people rings hollow.
A nice collection of quotes from various people in the administration about those damned WMDs. From billmon courtesy of David Weinberg.
No, I can't leave it alone. The post-war rationalization that we did it to liberate the Iraqi people rings hollow.
Software
I'm appalled to find, in the latest issue of Communications of the ACM (CACM), two vendor puff pieces - one from the from the "Master Architect for Sun Professional Services", the other from the "CTO for Microsoft's U.S. Central Region" - professing to compare the merits of J2EE and .NET. The actual technical content in each piece could be reduced to a couple of paragraphs. The rest is marketing dribble that seeks to cast aspersions on the other product. CACM bills this as a "lively debate". I think it should spark a debate as to CACM's credibility and relevance.
We do need in-depth, unbiased, highly technical comparisons of J2EE and .NET by independent sources with no axes to grind. Hiring shills from the vendors of these products is not the way to go about this.
By way of contrast, the June 1993 edition of CACM - a special issue devoted to the next generation of Graphical User Interfaces - does not contain any pieces from Microsoft about the next generation of Windows or from Apple about its future GUI plans. I'm now wondering when exactly in the ten year span between these issues did CACM lose its integrity?
I'm appalled to find, in the latest issue of Communications of the ACM (CACM), two vendor puff pieces - one from the from the "Master Architect for Sun Professional Services", the other from the "CTO for Microsoft's U.S. Central Region" - professing to compare the merits of J2EE and .NET. The actual technical content in each piece could be reduced to a couple of paragraphs. The rest is marketing dribble that seeks to cast aspersions on the other product. CACM bills this as a "lively debate". I think it should spark a debate as to CACM's credibility and relevance.
We do need in-depth, unbiased, highly technical comparisons of J2EE and .NET by independent sources with no axes to grind. Hiring shills from the vendors of these products is not the way to go about this.
By way of contrast, the June 1993 edition of CACM - a special issue devoted to the next generation of Graphical User Interfaces - does not contain any pieces from Microsoft about the next generation of Windows or from Apple about its future GUI plans. I'm now wondering when exactly in the ten year span between these issues did CACM lose its integrity?
Monday, June 02, 2003
Culture
Further proof that Barbara Streisand is an shallow, self-obsessed, hypocritical idiot. She's as bad a representative of true liberals as Ann Coulter is of thoughtful, intelligent conservatives. Couldn't they both just go away?
In the meantime, let's just ignore them. Put me down as anti-idiot as well as anti-ideology.
Further proof that Barbara Streisand is an shallow, self-obsessed, hypocritical idiot. She's as bad a representative of true liberals as Ann Coulter is of thoughtful, intelligent conservatives. Couldn't they both just go away?
In the meantime, let's just ignore them. Put me down as anti-idiot as well as anti-ideology.
War and Peace
More Salam Pax. Apparently, someone has set up free access to the Net in Baghdad. Instapundit discusses post-war malaise in the blogosphere, but then goes on to make some good points about the current situation and why there's reason for optimism. Frankly, I think that winning the peace is far more important and interesting than winning the war (which I expected to be every bit as easy as it was). I'm not very sanguine about the eventual outcome. But I'd love to be proven wrong. We'll see - this will be one of my continuing topics, because I think it's going to be one of the critical events of the next 25 to 50 years.
More Salam Pax. Apparently, someone has set up free access to the Net in Baghdad. Instapundit discusses post-war malaise in the blogosphere, but then goes on to make some good points about the current situation and why there's reason for optimism. Frankly, I think that winning the peace is far more important and interesting than winning the war (which I expected to be every bit as easy as it was). I'm not very sanguine about the eventual outcome. But I'd love to be proven wrong. We'll see - this will be one of my continuing topics, because I think it's going to be one of the critical events of the next 25 to 50 years.
Panic, in Paradise
[NOTE TO S.: I didn't tell you all the details. Don't read this until you come home Thursday]
Took the dogs to Schwan Lake Park today. I started out intending to go the beach, but the fog was so thick (and I was worried about SM causing trouble without S. to help me wrangle her) that I opted for the Park instead.
Bad choice. It's the time of year when foxtail seeds start to mature - I'd thought we were safe until July or so. Mr. C was off leash and, as is his wont, decided to roll around in the tall grass at the end of the walk. He came up sneezing. Clueless, I laughed at first, thinking that he was getting a little taste of how SM feels with her allergies. Then he started sneezing a second time after we got home, and I began to get concerned. Our vet lives next door but unfortunately he was out. So I decided to wait for his return, keeping an eye on C. Then C.'s third sneezing attack spattered drops of blood on the wall in the hallway.
Blood will quickly move you from simple concern to outright panic. Greyhounds aren't babies, but they are a little more sensitive than some breeds. Interesting fact: they scream bloody murder about small things (getting their toenails cut, having their tails pinched, etc.) but are completely stoic about the big things once they're over the initial pain or shock. C.'s spasmodic sneezing was so violent he was banging his nose on the carpet. But when he stopped he didn't react any further - no whining, no nothing - which moved me to a whole new level of fear. I talked to the emergency vet (Pacific Vet) and quickly packed C. into the car and drove there. Interesting fact: I can be completely, totally panicked and still be able to function without getting hysterical.
The receptionist there told me C. was the 7th dog in today because of a foxtail seed getting lodged somewhere. She had a Borzoi - you meet sighthound people everywhere - and her calm manner helped us both relax a little. The vet had plenty of experience with greys and other sighthounds, so we decided she would put him under in order to be able to thoroughly clean out his nasal cavity.
They kept him there for a few hours, which gave me time to make Osso Buco for the H's which I'd promised I'd do earlier in the day. Interesting fact: I can make a fairly complex recipe even when I'm filled with panic and dread. The O.B. wasn't great, like most John Ash recipes we make are, but it wasn't bad. Certainly it was more productive than, say, hysterical paralysis.
C. seems fine, although his nose is dripping a little bit of blood (which the vet told me to expect) because it bled a lot (let's avoid words like profusely, ok?) during the procedure. She did find the foxtail seed in his nose and showed it to me. S. called and I told her about it, although I left the gorier parts out (hence the note at the top). I'd like to take him to work with me tomorrow, but that means leaving SM alone all day.
We're going to the beach tomorrow morning, because I know there's no foxtails there. In fact, I think I'll buy a tent and live there with the dogs for the next few months.
I know this is a long, boring post. But I'm still freaked, and writing about it makes me feel a little bit better.
[NOTE TO S.: I didn't tell you all the details. Don't read this until you come home Thursday]
Took the dogs to Schwan Lake Park today. I started out intending to go the beach, but the fog was so thick (and I was worried about SM causing trouble without S. to help me wrangle her) that I opted for the Park instead.
Bad choice. It's the time of year when foxtail seeds start to mature - I'd thought we were safe until July or so. Mr. C was off leash and, as is his wont, decided to roll around in the tall grass at the end of the walk. He came up sneezing. Clueless, I laughed at first, thinking that he was getting a little taste of how SM feels with her allergies. Then he started sneezing a second time after we got home, and I began to get concerned. Our vet lives next door but unfortunately he was out. So I decided to wait for his return, keeping an eye on C. Then C.'s third sneezing attack spattered drops of blood on the wall in the hallway.
Blood will quickly move you from simple concern to outright panic. Greyhounds aren't babies, but they are a little more sensitive than some breeds. Interesting fact: they scream bloody murder about small things (getting their toenails cut, having their tails pinched, etc.) but are completely stoic about the big things once they're over the initial pain or shock. C.'s spasmodic sneezing was so violent he was banging his nose on the carpet. But when he stopped he didn't react any further - no whining, no nothing - which moved me to a whole new level of fear. I talked to the emergency vet (Pacific Vet) and quickly packed C. into the car and drove there. Interesting fact: I can be completely, totally panicked and still be able to function without getting hysterical.
The receptionist there told me C. was the 7th dog in today because of a foxtail seed getting lodged somewhere. She had a Borzoi - you meet sighthound people everywhere - and her calm manner helped us both relax a little. The vet had plenty of experience with greys and other sighthounds, so we decided she would put him under in order to be able to thoroughly clean out his nasal cavity.
They kept him there for a few hours, which gave me time to make Osso Buco for the H's which I'd promised I'd do earlier in the day. Interesting fact: I can make a fairly complex recipe even when I'm filled with panic and dread. The O.B. wasn't great, like most John Ash recipes we make are, but it wasn't bad. Certainly it was more productive than, say, hysterical paralysis.
C. seems fine, although his nose is dripping a little bit of blood (which the vet told me to expect) because it bled a lot (let's avoid words like profusely, ok?) during the procedure. She did find the foxtail seed in his nose and showed it to me. S. called and I told her about it, although I left the gorier parts out (hence the note at the top). I'd like to take him to work with me tomorrow, but that means leaving SM alone all day.
We're going to the beach tomorrow morning, because I know there's no foxtails there. In fact, I think I'll buy a tent and live there with the dogs for the next few months.
I know this is a long, boring post. But I'm still freaked, and writing about it makes me feel a little bit better.
Saturday, May 31, 2003
Policy - A picture is worth...
This is the concentration of the media now. It will get worse if the FCC votes to end long-established rules on multiple ownership on Monday. The picture comes from this (eminently readable and worthwhile) post on Connected. Via Larry Lessig.
This is the concentration of the media now. It will get worse if the FCC votes to end long-established rules on multiple ownership on Monday. The picture comes from this (eminently readable and worthwhile) post on Connected. Via Larry Lessig.
Life, in Paradise
Took S. up to San Francisco to an event she's working. I also took the dogs and decided to visit the old neighborhood before heading back. After cutting through a particularly lovely section of the Tenderloin, I went down Polk to see if the neighborhood had changed any. Not much; same restaurants and shops, mostly, same traffic, same double-parked cars all over. Went for a walk around the circle at Fort Mason. I would have walked up to our old place, but C. decided he'd had enough of this little nostalgia trip and so we headed back.
Do I miss the city? Yes, but not enough to want to return. On the way back, I got off I-280 at the Pacifica exit and took Highway 1 home. Now 280 may be the "world's most beautiful freeway" (a title some find oxymoronic, although I'm partial to the sight of the low clouds creeping over the mountains and down the hillside by the reservoirs), but it doesn't compare to the glories of a trip down the coast road. Steep, wave-drenched cliffs alternate with long stretches of golden beach. It's still spring on this (the ocean) side because the hillsides are still green and the flowers are still in bloom; it's gone to gold and straw on the other side already.
Stopped at the Whale City Bakery in Davenport. Some guy was playing what looked like an electric mandolin, and playing it very well. There was hardly anyone there - the staff, me, two guys at a table, and some guy at the counter - but we were mesmerized. When he took a short break between tunes, there were several heartbeats of complete silence and then everyone applauded and cheered wildly.
And that's why I don't miss the city. These little moments of accidental serendipity seem to happen all the time in Santa Cruz. They hardly ever did in the city, because almost everything required so much planning and effort to make happen that spontaneity got squeezed right out. Nothing ever feels forced or rushed here. I mean, what can you say about a place where most everyone obeys the 25 MPH speed limits?
Took S. up to San Francisco to an event she's working. I also took the dogs and decided to visit the old neighborhood before heading back. After cutting through a particularly lovely section of the Tenderloin, I went down Polk to see if the neighborhood had changed any. Not much; same restaurants and shops, mostly, same traffic, same double-parked cars all over. Went for a walk around the circle at Fort Mason. I would have walked up to our old place, but C. decided he'd had enough of this little nostalgia trip and so we headed back.
Do I miss the city? Yes, but not enough to want to return. On the way back, I got off I-280 at the Pacifica exit and took Highway 1 home. Now 280 may be the "world's most beautiful freeway" (a title some find oxymoronic, although I'm partial to the sight of the low clouds creeping over the mountains and down the hillside by the reservoirs), but it doesn't compare to the glories of a trip down the coast road. Steep, wave-drenched cliffs alternate with long stretches of golden beach. It's still spring on this (the ocean) side because the hillsides are still green and the flowers are still in bloom; it's gone to gold and straw on the other side already.
Stopped at the Whale City Bakery in Davenport. Some guy was playing what looked like an electric mandolin, and playing it very well. There was hardly anyone there - the staff, me, two guys at a table, and some guy at the counter - but we were mesmerized. When he took a short break between tunes, there were several heartbeats of complete silence and then everyone applauded and cheered wildly.
And that's why I don't miss the city. These little moments of accidental serendipity seem to happen all the time in Santa Cruz. They hardly ever did in the city, because almost everything required so much planning and effort to make happen that spontaneity got squeezed right out. Nothing ever feels forced or rushed here. I mean, what can you say about a place where most everyone obeys the 25 MPH speed limits?
Policy
Molly Ivins, who never stoops to being a mere ideologue, hits the nail on the head again in this article about how the FCC has been taken captive by the industry it's supposed to regulate. Go here to protest to your congressman and/or register a public comment to the FCC.
Molly Ivins, who never stoops to being a mere ideologue, hits the nail on the head again in this article about how the FCC has been taken captive by the industry it's supposed to regulate. Go here to protest to your congressman and/or register a public comment to the FCC.
Friday, May 30, 2003
Politics and Society
Ah, so now you're bigot if you don't like Republicans? Oh, those poor oppressed GOP'ers. Let's just make it a hate crime to call any registered Republican mean or vulgar names, OK?
Now, I dislike the condescension, elitism, and hypocrisy of certain elements of the left just as much as I dislike the mean-spiritedness and intolerance of certain elements on the right. But comparing the above to having a cross burned in your front yard or being denied employment because of your race/religion/gender is specious nonsense.
I read Instapundit every day and like it. But there are those moments, like the reference to the article above, where Glenn Reynolds stops thinking and starts being a conservative ideologue. And that's precisely when Instapundit stops being worthwhile and interesting. (To be fair, I can make a similar criticism of, say, Noam Chomsky's writings or of the Tom Paine site).
Subscribing to any ideology - liberal, conservative, or anything else - means you've stopped thinking for yourself and have surrendered that most personal of prerogatives to someone else.
Ah, so now you're bigot if you don't like Republicans? Oh, those poor oppressed GOP'ers. Let's just make it a hate crime to call any registered Republican mean or vulgar names, OK?
Now, I dislike the condescension, elitism, and hypocrisy of certain elements of the left just as much as I dislike the mean-spiritedness and intolerance of certain elements on the right. But comparing the above to having a cross burned in your front yard or being denied employment because of your race/religion/gender is specious nonsense.
I read Instapundit every day and like it. But there are those moments, like the reference to the article above, where Glenn Reynolds stops thinking and starts being a conservative ideologue. And that's precisely when Instapundit stops being worthwhile and interesting. (To be fair, I can make a similar criticism of, say, Noam Chomsky's writings or of the Tom Paine site).
Subscribing to any ideology - liberal, conservative, or anything else - means you've stopped thinking for yourself and have surrendered that most personal of prerogatives to someone else.
Dining
When was the law passed mandating that every restaurant serving entrees priced over $10 must incessently play Kind of Blue as background music? Now, I love KofB. But is it really the perfect aural accompaniment to every single freakin' meal?
When was the law passed mandating that every restaurant serving entrees priced over $10 must incessently play Kind of Blue as background music? Now, I love KofB. But is it really the perfect aural accompaniment to every single freakin' meal?
Thursday, May 29, 2003
Software
Lots of news on the Open Source front. Microsoft loses a major deal to Linux in the German city of Munich. The President of India urged Indian IT professionals to favor Open Source over proprietary solutions such as MS Windows. This comes on top of actual or proposed adoption of Linux in Germany, China, Japan, Peru, and many other nations. Microsoft is attempting to counter this with steep discounts and alleged "slush fund". But the effectiveness of these tactics is being questioned.
The other side of this story is the continuing saga of SCO's suit against IBM and Linux. Now they're going after Linus Torvalds (maybe) and giving high-profile interviews. Novell has countered by threatening to sue SCO, as has a German Linux Group. SCO's share price has fallen despite positive earnings reports.
What does it all mean? My take is that Open Source Software (OSS) is winning both mindshare and market share, and SCO is desperately trying to capitalize on this either by extortion or by gaining some measure of control over Linux. I think this effort will fail and will somehow eventually, in some unexpected way, mark the tipping point for wide-spread acceptance of OSS. Why? Because SCO's claims will shown to be spurious. If and when that happens, it will set a precedent in favor of open source licensing, and the more conservative mainstream adopters will start moving towards OSS. I'll follow this over time to see how this prediction holds up.
Lots of news on the Open Source front. Microsoft loses a major deal to Linux in the German city of Munich. The President of India urged Indian IT professionals to favor Open Source over proprietary solutions such as MS Windows. This comes on top of actual or proposed adoption of Linux in Germany, China, Japan, Peru, and many other nations. Microsoft is attempting to counter this with steep discounts and alleged "slush fund". But the effectiveness of these tactics is being questioned.
The other side of this story is the continuing saga of SCO's suit against IBM and Linux. Now they're going after Linus Torvalds (maybe) and giving high-profile interviews. Novell has countered by threatening to sue SCO, as has a German Linux Group. SCO's share price has fallen despite positive earnings reports.
What does it all mean? My take is that Open Source Software (OSS) is winning both mindshare and market share, and SCO is desperately trying to capitalize on this either by extortion or by gaining some measure of control over Linux. I think this effort will fail and will somehow eventually, in some unexpected way, mark the tipping point for wide-spread acceptance of OSS. Why? Because SCO's claims will shown to be spurious. If and when that happens, it will set a precedent in favor of open source licensing, and the more conservative mainstream adopters will start moving towards OSS. I'll follow this over time to see how this prediction holds up.
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Music
Tristeza não tem fin
felicidade sim
A felicidade é como a gota
de orvalho numa petala de flôr
Brilha tranquila depois de leve oscila
e cai como uma lágrima de amor
[Sadness has no end
Happiness does
Happiness is like a drop
of dew on a flower petal
It shines quietly then swings lightly
and falls like a tear of love]
If I could be anyone else for 5 minutes or so, I'd be João Gilberto singing A Felicidade.
Tristeza não tem fin
felicidade sim
A felicidade é como a gota
de orvalho numa petala de flôr
Brilha tranquila depois de leve oscila
e cai como uma lágrima de amor
[Sadness has no end
Happiness does
Happiness is like a drop
of dew on a flower petal
It shines quietly then swings lightly
and falls like a tear of love]
If I could be anyone else for 5 minutes or so, I'd be João Gilberto singing A Felicidade.
Software
A nice tribute to Dr. Ted Codd by C.J. Date at Database Debunkings. I'm kind of surprised at how little notice/commentary there's been since his death. It's due, I guess, to the relational model currently being out of fashion (until everyone realizes that the OODB-XMLDB-whateverDB nonsense is just hot air and hype and we see a "rediscovery" of relational).
A nice tribute to Dr. Ted Codd by C.J. Date at Database Debunkings. I'm kind of surprised at how little notice/commentary there's been since his death. It's due, I guess, to the relational model currently being out of fashion (until everyone realizes that the OODB-XMLDB-whateverDB nonsense is just hot air and hype and we see a "rediscovery" of relational).
War and Peace
Rumsfeld suggests that Iraq destroyed all of their WMDs. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, meanwhile, is confident that they'll be found. Two trucks were found that could have been used as mobile bioweapons labs, but no prohibited weapons were found. Now Paul Wolfowitz weighs in - WMDs were just a "bureaucratic reason" everyone in the administration could settle on as a reason for justifying the invasion. Stories courtesy of the The Agonist
UPDATE: Now Rumsfeld claims that WMD's will be found in Iraq.
Rumsfeld suggests that Iraq destroyed all of their WMDs. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, meanwhile, is confident that they'll be found. Two trucks were found that could have been used as mobile bioweapons labs, but no prohibited weapons were found. Now Paul Wolfowitz weighs in - WMDs were just a "bureaucratic reason" everyone in the administration could settle on as a reason for justifying the invasion. Stories courtesy of the The Agonist
UPDATE: Now Rumsfeld claims that WMD's will be found in Iraq.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Monday, May 26, 2003
Music: Unexpected Pleasures
When I went to Streetlight Records the other day, they were playing Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece - quite a contrast to their usual hip-hop/punk. I started (softly) singing along with "You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River", which got a smirk from the tattooed and pierced 20-something salesgirl. Browsing, I discovered Gigi's One Ethiopia and also bought Joao Gilberto's Live in Montreux.
I'm listening to Veedon Fleece right now. Someone once described it as "incandescent", but that's not quite the right word for music this subtle and evocative.
In my mind, I'm walking through the streets of Arklow, head filled with poetry...
When I went to Streetlight Records the other day, they were playing Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece - quite a contrast to their usual hip-hop/punk. I started (softly) singing along with "You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River", which got a smirk from the tattooed and pierced 20-something salesgirl. Browsing, I discovered Gigi's One Ethiopia and also bought Joao Gilberto's Live in Montreux.
I'm listening to Veedon Fleece right now. Someone once described it as "incandescent", but that's not quite the right word for music this subtle and evocative.
In my mind, I'm walking through the streets of Arklow, head filled with poetry...
Sunday, May 25, 2003
War and Peace
The good folks at The Agonist point to several articles on the state of affairs in Iraq. From increased patrols in Baghdad to counter the gangs reported to be running amok to the rushed appointment of the bureaucrat now overseeing the occupation to armed and unpaid former Iraqi soldiers, things look to be unsettled at best, chaotic at worst. On a more positive note, oil sales will resume sometime in June.
They also ask the following questions.
I'll ask this question: are all of the events described above bumps on the road to peace, justice, and democracy in Iraq? Or are they markers on a path leading to a quagmire?
Time will tell. I'm not hopeful.
The good folks at The Agonist point to several articles on the state of affairs in Iraq. From increased patrols in Baghdad to counter the gangs reported to be running amok to the rushed appointment of the bureaucrat now overseeing the occupation to armed and unpaid former Iraqi soldiers, things look to be unsettled at best, chaotic at worst. On a more positive note, oil sales will resume sometime in June.
They also ask the following questions.
I'll ask this question: are all of the events described above bumps on the road to peace, justice, and democracy in Iraq? Or are they markers on a path leading to a quagmire?
Time will tell. I'm not hopeful.
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Bounty
Another Saturday, another trip to the beach with the dogs (3 today, we're watching K.), and another trip to the Farmer's Market. Cauliflower, raspberries, tangerines, English shelling peas, avocados, grapefruits, and a big bouquet of Alstromerias. Cherries, tomatoes, and peaches are now in season with basil to come in June. You can get 3 pints of raspberries for $10 from the guys at Vasquez Farms; they're so sweet that you'd think they'd been lightly dipped in honey. This time, I didn't even wait to get to the car to break into the shelling peas; I just started right in as soon as I'd paid for them.
Another Saturday, another trip to the beach with the dogs (3 today, we're watching K.), and another trip to the Farmer's Market. Cauliflower, raspberries, tangerines, English shelling peas, avocados, grapefruits, and a big bouquet of Alstromerias. Cherries, tomatoes, and peaches are now in season with basil to come in June. You can get 3 pints of raspberries for $10 from the guys at Vasquez Farms; they're so sweet that you'd think they'd been lightly dipped in honey. This time, I didn't even wait to get to the car to break into the shelling peas; I just started right in as soon as I'd paid for them.
Society
"Thucydides wrote years ago that hegemony kills itself. A power that has hegemony always becomes arrogant. Always becomes overweening. And always unites the rest of the world against it. A countervailing power always reacts. A hegemonous system is very self-destructive. It becomes defensive, arrogant, and a defender of yesterday. It destroys itself. Therefore no monopoly in history lives for very long"
Peter Drucker, Managing in the Next Society
Drucker was actually talking about the Microsoft antitrust trial here. But what else do you think this could apply to?
"Thucydides wrote years ago that hegemony kills itself. A power that has hegemony always becomes arrogant. Always becomes overweening. And always unites the rest of the world against it. A countervailing power always reacts. A hegemonous system is very self-destructive. It becomes defensive, arrogant, and a defender of yesterday. It destroys itself. Therefore no monopoly in history lives for very long"
Peter Drucker, Managing in the Next Society
Drucker was actually talking about the Microsoft antitrust trial here. But what else do you think this could apply to?
Friday, May 23, 2003
Software
Lest my previous post, together with my comments about my current job and my article on software development, seem too depressed and/or bitter, let me say this.
I still love programming. I've never gotten tired of it, and my skills, far from stagnating or becoming obsolete, continually deepen and grow. I can't imagine doing anything else and I wouldn't want to. All I need to do is find the right place to practice my craft. Surely there's a stable, well-run company in need of a kick-ass database architect/engineer out there somewhere?
Lest my previous post, together with my comments about my current job and my article on software development, seem too depressed and/or bitter, let me say this.
I still love programming. I've never gotten tired of it, and my skills, far from stagnating or becoming obsolete, continually deepen and grow. I can't imagine doing anything else and I wouldn't want to. All I need to do is find the right place to practice my craft. Surely there's a stable, well-run company in need of a kick-ass database architect/engineer out there somewhere?
Policy
Just when I think William Safire is a complete wanker, he goes and writes something like this: "The concentration of power — political, corporate, media, cultural — should be anathema to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the greatest expression of democracy."
If those were the beliefs that so-called conservatives actually acted upon, I'd call myself a conservative too.
All this comes in the context of discussing FCC Chairman Michael Powell's relentless drive to remove the last barriers to total consolidation of the media by a few congolomerates. Dan Gillmor, Larry Lessig, and Glenn Reynolds point to various facets of this issue here, here, here, and here.
Just when I think William Safire is a complete wanker, he goes and writes something like this: "The concentration of power — political, corporate, media, cultural — should be anathema to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the greatest expression of democracy."
If those were the beliefs that so-called conservatives actually acted upon, I'd call myself a conservative too.
All this comes in the context of discussing FCC Chairman Michael Powell's relentless drive to remove the last barriers to total consolidation of the media by a few congolomerates. Dan Gillmor, Larry Lessig, and Glenn Reynolds point to various facets of this issue here, here, here, and here.
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Politics
Salon is reporting that the US Intelligence community is reviewing the quality of pre-war intelligence vis-a-vis Iraq. Full story in the NY Times.
Salon is reporting that the US Intelligence community is reviewing the quality of pre-war intelligence vis-a-vis Iraq. Full story in the NY Times.
Politics and Society
TalkLeft on the Justice Department's Report on Use of the Patriot Act. Most revealing sentence: "the INS did not charge any aliens with the expanded terrorism grounds of inadmissibility or deportability provided under section 411 of the PATRIOT Act". But it's been used plenty of times in non-terrorism cases. Courtesy of Instapundit.
TalkLeft on the Justice Department's Report on Use of the Patriot Act. Most revealing sentence: "the INS did not charge any aliens with the expanded terrorism grounds of inadmissibility or deportability provided under section 411 of the PATRIOT Act". But it's been used plenty of times in non-terrorism cases. Courtesy of Instapundit.
Life
Fog off the ocean, cool and delicious as a crisp apple, this morning in SC; looks like summer's here. Driving to work, it clears to reveal a pure blue sky as I start up the hill on Highway 17. The drive over the summit and down is perfect and beautiful. Then, just past Lexington Reservoir, I see a dirty gray shroud of smog over the Valley.
Can you blame me for thinking of life in the Valley as a lesser existence?
Fog off the ocean, cool and delicious as a crisp apple, this morning in SC; looks like summer's here. Driving to work, it clears to reveal a pure blue sky as I start up the hill on Highway 17. The drive over the summit and down is perfect and beautiful. Then, just past Lexington Reservoir, I see a dirty gray shroud of smog over the Valley.
Can you blame me for thinking of life in the Valley as a lesser existence?
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Software
OK, so I'm working on adding an enhancement to some low-level code that creates objects in the database. Bad enough that the DB schema is defined using UML (a subject I'll write about some time in the future) and implemented using XML. Worse is the actual code itself. The primary class I have to modify is 7000+ lines of code. The primary method in this class is 3000+ lines long. The critical code is contained in a for loop that's 1200+ lines long. The code revolves around picking out fragments from an XML schema definition and processing them. Calling this code opaque would be a wholly undeserved compliment.
No one who writes code like this should call themselves a professional programmer. I've seen lots of bad code in my 15+ years as a (real) professional programmer, but this is the absolute nadir. I understand the person who wrote this is now at Oracle. Perhaps this explains the laughable XML bullshit that has been emerging from Larry's boys the past couple of years.
I'm in the middle of refactoring it into something understandable, otherwise I'll never be able to modify it. Apparently, everyone else is too scared of this code to have done it before. Not that I blame them.
Roedy Green has a much funnier take on How to Write Unmaintainable Code. It's less amusing when you actually have to work on it.
OK, so I'm working on adding an enhancement to some low-level code that creates objects in the database. Bad enough that the DB schema is defined using UML (a subject I'll write about some time in the future) and implemented using XML. Worse is the actual code itself. The primary class I have to modify is 7000+ lines of code. The primary method in this class is 3000+ lines long. The critical code is contained in a for loop that's 1200+ lines long. The code revolves around picking out fragments from an XML schema definition and processing them. Calling this code opaque would be a wholly undeserved compliment.
No one who writes code like this should call themselves a professional programmer. I've seen lots of bad code in my 15+ years as a (real) professional programmer, but this is the absolute nadir. I understand the person who wrote this is now at Oracle. Perhaps this explains the laughable XML bullshit that has been emerging from Larry's boys the past couple of years.
I'm in the middle of refactoring it into something understandable, otherwise I'll never be able to modify it. Apparently, everyone else is too scared of this code to have done it before. Not that I blame them.
Roedy Green has a much funnier take on How to Write Unmaintainable Code. It's less amusing when you actually have to work on it.
War and Peace
Everyone interested in what's happening right now in Iraq should read Salam Pax's blog. The pictures take forever to come up, but they're fascinating. There's one shocking passage - with pictures - about how every Iraqi (44 in total) who approached a US Army checkpoint during a sandstorm got killed on a particular day after there had been some suicide attacks. What makes it so appalling is how matter-of-fact and laconic Salam's description is - "[They made] the mistake of getting near the Shamia checkpoint on a day when the US army was having a bit of a mood."
This isn't a condemnation of the US Army on my part - I was once a soldier too - because I can understand their feelings and motives. But this is why we shouldn't kid ourselves about what really goes on in wartime.
Everyone interested in what's happening right now in Iraq should read Salam Pax's blog. The pictures take forever to come up, but they're fascinating. There's one shocking passage - with pictures - about how every Iraqi (44 in total) who approached a US Army checkpoint during a sandstorm got killed on a particular day after there had been some suicide attacks. What makes it so appalling is how matter-of-fact and laconic Salam's description is - "[They made] the mistake of getting near the Shamia checkpoint on a day when the US army was having a bit of a mood."
This isn't a condemnation of the US Army on my part - I was once a soldier too - because I can understand their feelings and motives. But this is why we shouldn't kid ourselves about what really goes on in wartime.
Life/Software
Had lunch with D. in beautiful downtown Santa Cruz. Cafe Campesino was closed, so we had omelets at Walnut Street Cafe. While I was waiting to meet him, I walked into the atrium of the Cooper building and listened to the saxophonist who was playing on the street - perfect acoustics!
D. talked about how he had adopted the idea of test-driven development (TDD) from the XP guys and how it had changed his coding style. We talked about Chrysalis also, and I decided to try to use TDD to help finish the current module I'm working on. He also recommended using Eclipse, which sounds like it's got a lot more features than NetBeans.
Had lunch with D. in beautiful downtown Santa Cruz. Cafe Campesino was closed, so we had omelets at Walnut Street Cafe. While I was waiting to meet him, I walked into the atrium of the Cooper building and listened to the saxophonist who was playing on the street - perfect acoustics!
D. talked about how he had adopted the idea of test-driven development (TDD) from the XP guys and how it had changed his coding style. We talked about Chrysalis also, and I decided to try to use TDD to help finish the current module I'm working on. He also recommended using Eclipse, which sounds like it's got a lot more features than NetBeans.
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Monday, May 19, 2003
Software
OK, so now I can publish the first draft of Why Don't Software Executives Understand Software Development?. It still needs a lot of work. But I'm going to write the second article I'd planning on doing - Outsourcing vs. Open Source - Which One is the Real Revolution? and then come back to it.
OK, so now I can publish the first draft of Why Don't Software Executives Understand Software Development?. It still needs a lot of work. But I'm going to write the second article I'd planning on doing - Outsourcing vs. Open Source - Which One is the Real Revolution? and then come back to it.
Tech Culture
How could I have left Dan Gillmor off of my bloglist? Check out what he has to say about a new form of net journalism.
I also added RageBoy, and I'm about to add Esther Dyson and Halley Suitt
How could I have left Dan Gillmor off of my bloglist? Check out what he has to say about a new form of net journalism.
I also added RageBoy, and I'm about to add Esther Dyson and Halley Suitt
Sunday, May 18, 2003
Software
I've finally finished the first draft of an article entitled Why Don't Software Executives Understand Software Development? I'm not quite satisfied with it. The ideas are good - my thesis is that it's not a lack of understanding of process, it's that sociological barriers (culture and class) prevent senior management from understanding what the process needs to be. Not the conclusion I expected to come to when I started writing the piece. But it needs a lot more work. Worse, I can't publish it on the web until my new site is up, and that won't be until Tuesday.
I've finally finished the first draft of an article entitled Why Don't Software Executives Understand Software Development? I'm not quite satisfied with it. The ideas are good - my thesis is that it's not a lack of understanding of process, it's that sociological barriers (culture and class) prevent senior management from understanding what the process needs to be. Not the conclusion I expected to come to when I started writing the piece. But it needs a lot more work. Worse, I can't publish it on the web until my new site is up, and that won't be until Tuesday.
War and Peace
Where's Saddam? Vigilant eyes are everywhere. He's pumping gas near Tikrit. No, he's mowing lawns and pruning trees in Aptos.
Where's Saddam? Vigilant eyes are everywhere. He's pumping gas near Tikrit. No, he's mowing lawns and pruning trees in Aptos.
Life
Took the dogs to Arana Gulch this morning. Because of the late spring rains, it's green and overgrown and full of flowering thistles and plants in grass as high as your head. C. didn't go running through the grass and rolling in the milkweed like he usually does. I thought about climbing my favorite oak tree but decided to leave it for another day. I took the trail that leads down by the creek and saw the tide pushing the water up the creek. Odd; at that point, we must be a half-mile from the entrace to the harbor marina that the creek flows into.
Took the dogs to Arana Gulch this morning. Because of the late spring rains, it's green and overgrown and full of flowering thistles and plants in grass as high as your head. C. didn't go running through the grass and rolling in the milkweed like he usually does. I thought about climbing my favorite oak tree but decided to leave it for another day. I took the trail that leads down by the creek and saw the tide pushing the water up the creek. Odd; at that point, we must be a half-mile from the entrace to the harbor marina that the creek flows into.
Foreign Policy
Certain neo-con elements are now advocating regime change in Iran, according to Forward. Meanwhile, civil disorder still seems to run rampant in both Afghanistan and Iraq. All stories courtesy of the Agonist.
Certain neo-con elements are now advocating regime change in Iran, according to Forward. Meanwhile, civil disorder still seems to run rampant in both Afghanistan and Iraq. All stories courtesy of the Agonist.
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