Fuckin' A. Okay Gus, I know you don't like the cold, but not even the rescue guys are doing well in the mountains these days. 3 Climbers dead, 1 crewman on the helicopter seriously injured (but miraculously all the helicopter crew appear to have survived). There's video (WinMedia format - it's MSNBC ya know) attached to the news link above.
Nice evening. Got out to Golden Gate Park and did some kite flying - first time I've had my Legacy up in the air for a bit (it requires a bit more wind than you can sometimes find around here earlier in the year).
When the light finally faded, Nathan and I came on back to the house, turned on the Xbox, and fired up cooperative play Halo. I haven't been playing Xbox too much, mostly because I keep thinking there's something more productive I really should be doing. I almost never do though - surfing web pages is more the speed in the evenings. So we played through the first level or two, relearning the controls and getting a little more used to working together as a team in the game. That's the way to really make the game worthwhile to me - team play.
Tall Ships Challenge 2002 - Seattle is going to be amazing. It'll be happening August 15th through 19th at South Lake Union. I'm not missing this event!
With the reports of Ice being found on Mars, I recall the series of books Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars - by Kim Stanley Robinson. They're a fantastic series of books - an extended and intertwined storyline that's some really excellent science fiction. He also presumed the ice under mars, and goes to great lengths utilizing this feature in his first two books as an active part of the storyline. Stirs up the daydreaming a bit - thinking I'd like to stand on another planet some day.
I can't help but wonder if we're creating a new secret police...
Well, Byron's on the move to ChiTown. Got himself a new job and will be working to settlin in up there. MU will miss him, even if most of them don't realize it yet.
All's pretty quiet tonight. Chatted with my brother in law and his wife for a while tonight, giving them (mostly) sane advice on purchasing a new computer. Karen was out at a CQA meeting, and had tried to call to get a ride home. Fortunately, someone gave her a lift, because I was still on the phone with Dan and Sarah when she got back here.
I think maybe it's time to go hit the sack and see how sleep works tonight.
The Washington Post has an article on the FCC giving an open door to XtremeSpectrum, Inc to move into the UltraWideBand spectrum. These guys (802.11b does today. Way higher bandwidth, way lower power. UWB is a technology move that helps enable the ubiquitous connectivity that the Science Fiction books have been babbling about for ages.
Dave has a link to a pretty good essay entitled The New Economy. It's got some roughshod ideas in there - some I think are just plain bullshit - but the overall read is pretty good. At it's core, it's about how the Internet is enabling communication, and people are taking advantage of it. The end conclusion of the essay would be sort a "Power to the people, Marty" kind of rhetoric. I believe it somewhat, but not completely. I'm still pretty convinced that a majority of the US citizens are not only sheep, but WANT to be sheep. Give them more information, and they won't make much use of it. Some will, and that's enough justification for me - but I don't think most will.
Holy shit! I actually did work stuff until 7pm tonight! It's like a freakin' miracle - I haven't been engrossed enough to do that for ages. I spent the time after leaving work (and until 7pm, duh) reading design documents for current projects in Engineering. One of them is way beta/draft stage, and I only have a copy because I demanded to see what we happening (the guy working on it reports to me). It's not bad, but it's clearly scattershot. I wish I knew a good way to tell him how to organize this all in his head better. He's complained (well, complained isn't quite the right word) about how disorganized he is with this, knowing its a problem. I'm not surprised how disorganized he is, given how much stuff he's generated out into the design doc to date. There's a lot of shit in there.
I guess when projects get that big in my head, I start compartmentalizing it. Keep the lists simple, group things where you can, etc. I'm beginning to think that just letting him have his lead on this project may have been a mistake - that maybe a tighter rein on it would have created less hassle for everyone involved - him, me, the rest of engineering, etc.
The other design doc is for a prototype implementation. It's really well done. I don't always like the implementations this guy creates (they tend to me, in my opinion, overly complex and generalized to the point of utter confusion - but then I'm more of a hacker/cowboy style coder) - but his written docs are fucking amazing. He's got the gift of whitepaper, requirements, and design doc down. I've read several of them, and they're all really well down. This latest is no exception.
I have a hard time laying down design docs, requirement docs, etc. My idea of a thorough document is usually a notepad and a couple of napkins that I scribbled on with a ballpoint pen. I sometimes wonder if that's a skill I should refine into something better, but I usually decide not to.
You'd almost think Doc was from Seattle with the quote "Fifty-two degrees. Rain. Wind. Nice."
Courtes' to /. for the link: China and Taiwan are developing a royalty free DVD format. Thank god! Let's get some outside competition to the fucking MPLA goons to explain why all these patent royalty sets are stifling innovation, competition, and better products for me!
Of course, my expectation is that ole Pressy' Bush (or his goons) will set up some law against importing it...
Not quite sure why I'm still awake. I think I should remedy that.
My head is floundering with ideas and memes colliding, dripping out, sticking around. Interoperability, communications, geek fads and trends. Small pieces...
I finished up Small Pieces tonight. I think the earlier chapters reverberated with me more than the later chapters, but the whole book ties together quite well. So I'm lurking on the couch, finishing the book, logging in my blog, reading the periodic site, and checking out what Omnigroup is up to these days. All the while I'm fending off my cat (Pooka) who seems insistent on his desire to sit in the middle of my chest, trapping at least one, if not both, or my arms.
I had a interesting online chat with Val earlier tonight. We commiserated on the online vs. offline worlds, communicating with people, overcoming innate introvert-ism, and wildly babbled about writing, the state of normalism (which isn't), and public personas.
On a lark, I went and checked out Woodsmall's blog to see what he'd been up to. His blog is really a personal journal - no hyperlinks out, the references are all just for himself (I haven't a clue who these people are he references, and only vaguely know him from my time at MU). He wrote a day or too back (nobody reads this, right?) Heh. So I wrote him on the email link he included.
The batteries started dying at 1:30pm. I skipped out on an interview I was supposed to be a part of at 2:30 and was home by 3. Didn't take long to shuck clothes, open a window for breeze, and crawl into bed for some sleep time.
Karen woke me up around 6 - neither of us are really sure if I'd be able to sleep through the entire night or not, so I'm up for the time being. Had a little cold pizza leftover for dinner, but I didn't really feel like I needed anything with how much I ate this morning (food == sleep replacement).
So I'm out reading Blogs and catching up on the day's events while I was semi-comatose. It's interesting to see Cory Dorow (and others?) using $VARIABLE_NAME to indicate generic instances of words into his sentences. Sort of a strange english-got-hacked-by-Perl expression that I instantly understood.
I can't believe I'm still functioning. 90 minutes of sleep was all I got in last night when it was all said and done. I've caught a decent 2nd wind - been on the up since about 10am.
Shoulda put on sunscreen yesterday. Duh. Well, that'll teach me - my forehead is a little painful today, even with the regular Aloe applications yesterday.
Just for the record, Insomnia can be a real pain in the ass.
Last monday was all waves and wind. This was the opposite. Learned some great stuff though. Jeff Reinhold (not sure I'm spelling his last name correctly) joined us to assist in the training. This guy really knows his shit. Karen was learning cockpit and spinnaker, I was learning jib and spinnaker, Sean was learning foredeck and spinnaker, and JR was refining his steering and tactical knowledge. Jeff just took it all in, coached us all, and ran the mainsail the entire time.
Today was the first time ever I sailed with a spinnaker, let alone helped sail it. We worked with the spinnaker pole (man, that's a pain in the ass!) doing jibes back and forth (like tacking, only downwind), and then Jeff convinced us to go for the harder stuff and do free flying spinnaker work - which is where the two lines that attached to the spinnaker are free from the pole completely, and we just jibe it back and forth at will, keeping it full. We were doing (I think) a very respectable job of it all. The wind was really, really dead in a lot of the water, and we were managing to keep the spinnaker full of air and some movement actually happening. Not much mind you - about 1 knot - but something is better than nothin!
Got a fair bit of sun in today - probably should have used the sunscreen given the way my forehead feels now - sort of that tight, just slightly burned and dry sensation.
This evening was also another experience I'd never had before - I was in the sound studio helping out Scott Warrender (along with 36 other folks) in creating a laugh track for his songs. That was surprisingly hard work - the songs were all funny, but laughing on cue got really difficult after 90 minutes. It was easier at the beginning and end, where I found the songs funnier, but the middle was kinda rough - my throat was getting really hoarse and I didn't want it to sound all forced. I think in the end it worked out pretty well though. I guess we'll just have to see when it's all done.
On the other end of Sunday, things are quiet. Got some office work done this morning/afternoon and knocked out fairly quickly. Went to the maritime heritage museum on Lake Union (Center for Wooden Boats) and had a good time looking around and seeing what they had to offer. It seems like a really neat place, and they're doing some extrodinary work in restoring wooden boats there. There's a three master Schooner there being worked on that's a really impressive beast (and impressively in need of work).
While I worked, Karen went out with Nathan and Leah to Carkeek Park for some tide-pooling. Apparently it was really good today - as we're in the low-low-low tides of the year. I guess the best day for it will actually be tomorrow - just about the time I'm supposed to be out sailing with Jen and JR on the MantaRay doing spinnaker practice. Not sure if Karen will go again tomorrow or not. I suspect she'll be sticking around home this time.
Small Pieces has seriously caught me up. I was just about to start Chapter 4, when I decided to slap it shut (er, quietly - Karen's sleeping) and write some thoughts on it.
It's one of those books where you're saying to yourself "yeah!", "YEAH!", "fuckin' A, he's got it nailed", and "what?". He's been talking about space and the web - being in place, visiting a place, visiting a web page, and being in a web page. All the weird metaphor shit that just breaks down and gets redone in the Internet world of web and email. Then he started talking about "stickiness". I love this word. I love to hate it. There's a guy at work for whom, I think, "stickiness" is the end-all and be-all of his existance. That this attribute, so ill-defined, is the one thing that will make the ultimate difference to our business. I fucking HATE the word "stickiness". And SmallPieces does a good job of explaining the concept. And I realized that I hate this word because this guy has been misusing the concept I had only a vague understanding of, and when push came to shove, he was really wrong about how it worked. (So, I'm accepting that Weinberger, by the way, is correct in his assessment of people and their eyeball stickiness).
The other thing that I keep thinking about this book is "Oh yeah, we should do that..." You know, the sorts of things that you think would be a good idea to do for the job, but you never really do them? And maybe it doesn't really matter to the bottom line, but it sort of makes the difference to a few folks one way or another? There's a lot of things that we don't do at work that sort of sound like they'd be a good idea to do. But at the same time, it's not something that I'd tell one of my employees to go do. I'd think don't waste Kath's time with that, but at the same time it'd be something compelling for people to use.
Oh - and he talked about how people's words are recorded all the time on the web. He recounts this story of a guy who got elected when he had public statements on the internet about things like "driving a bus into a funeral procession". Things that you'd think would generally keep you from getting elected. I thought that was kind of funny. It makes me, sometimes, think of my writing here.
There's a person or two at work who knows about this blog. And I know it's read by my friends back in Missouri (and now moving askew to other places) who are relatively used to my rantings. But I'm also pretty sure that my rantings aren't well known at my office. I haven't tried to hide it, but I haven't gone telling folks it exists either. The average web goon hitting my home page (easily accessible via Google) would find it in about a click and a half. I sometimes half imagine the consequences of the CEO dropping a pile of hardcopy on the desk in front of me, demanding to know what I'm doing. I wonder if they'll ever find and read this stuff...
I'm counting on the average individual, and perhaps future employeer, realizing that this is my personal ranting journal. This I'm human, this is what I'm thinking, and it's a hell of a lot more transparent to view than lots of folks would generally think. And I'm not alone. Weinberger stated that there were over 100,000 blogs out there. I'd say that's pretty damn conservative. I read Doc's weblog all the time - almost as a news source in and of itself. I read it more often than I read CNN. But what can I say, I read /. more often than CNN. Not that CNN's news is irrelevant, but that /. tends to be MORE relevant. And CNN has fallen into the trap of hyping up stupid shit, and going for the gratuitous headline copy to get attention. Did I ever tell you that I think objective Journalism is a fucking lie?
Oh - I forgot to mention. I picked up a copy of David Weinberger's book: Small Pieces Loosely Joined. I first got turned on to his writing with The Cluetrain Manifesto. Haven't gotten through too much of the Small Pieces book, but the impression is positive.
If you thought the Cluetrain Manifesto was good, you might like this. If you thought it sucked, fine - you're welcome to your own bad opinions. And if you thought the Cluetrain was "the one true way", you're probably out of money with the dot-com crash.
Drove Karen down to Puyallup today (for you folks not used to the strange seattle names, it's pronounced "pew-allup"). She had some classes for her sewing machine (a very nice Bernina), but I don't think she really got a whole lot out of it. I was pretty sure (within 2 minutes of dropping her off at the store) that she was far ahead of the lady who'd be 'teaching' her in terms of skills. She said she got some good stuff out of it though, so it was OK by me.
We'd hit REI's annual 20% off sale earlier that morning - got me some pants, a new pair of sandles, and a pair of "jungle moc's" - a very comfy slip-on shoe with good traction. After escaping (and spending more than intended at) REI, we grabbed some lunch and headed south.
Dinner wasn't as good. We'd been thinking that Bar-B-Q sounded good, so we decided to try out a new place up on the Ave. I wouldn't recommend it. After the first bite, we'd both pretty well decided this wasn't fantastic Bar-B-Q, and that next time we'd head down to Lloyd's for some sandwhichs instead. But halfway through the sandwhich, Karen found some glass in her sandwhich. Yeah. So after a few words of sort of pissed off Karen inside (we'd been eating outside), I walked in to find out a flourescent light had fallen. Gee guys, thanks for serving us that stuff. What the FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?. I didn't ask for our money back, I just wanted to leave. They didn't offer - instead they wanted to make Karen a new sandwhich. I said no, and as we turned to leave I heard the guy (who'd been kinda grumpy earlier) say "Please don't be mad at us... It was just an accident. Accident's happen..." You know what? If he hadn't said that shit at the end, I wouldn't have even mentioned it or thought about it.
So... Cow's Meow (makers of fine hand-made ice creams) finished off the evening in something other than "Bleach!". Oh - by the way - I wouldn't recommend going to Queen Anne Bar-B-Q.
For a shitty day, it sure ended nicely. Well, is ending nicely. Took off out of the office about 4pm, walked on home. Got home sort of pissed off, sweaty, and definitely uncomfortable. Took a few minutes, calmed down, and then things started getting OK again. Karen and I walked down to the FolkLife festival. We snagged a bite to eat, and a little ice cream for good measure, and then just wandered and enjoyed the surroundings. We made it back home, with a stop at Kerry Park for a little scenic vista on the way home.
Not sure what the rest of the night holds, but it's better than the endless waiting that today turned out to be.
Heh: O'Reilly Network: Reuters violates the DMCA [May 24, 2002]
It's 3:30.
The power's still on.
Damnit, I gave that guy a $20 bill to pull the breakers today!
It's a sad state of affairs when I'd rather be home mowing my back yard than working. It's sunny and 60 outside currently, and the forecast would appear to indicate not as pleasant weather for the rest of the weekend.
On a lighter note, I am thoroughly convinced that large companies are stupid because they encourage stupid people. There are some companies of size that don't encourage stupid people, but frankly they're pretty rare. I got to deal with one such stupid person today. I was, unfortunately, reduced to sputtering while my compatriots retained their ability to speak. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing, and nothing was coming out of my mouth. I wish he worked for a competitor - that way he could suck up their resources for stupid things, and make them less competitive. Oh well.
By the way, I do mean "stupid", as opposed to ignorant or malevolent. He might be those too, but I couldn't say from today's conversation. Only stupid.
You won't see it coming. You won't hear it coming. You won't have any warning. Be Afraid.
Today felt like a saturday. For a wednesday, that's a pretty major leap - and it made my birthday just wonderful.
Jen and I worked on her sailboat all day - drilled and tapped a plethora of holes into the mast to set the spinnaker track on. Mounted it down, and even managed to get two holes drilled/cut into the mast to run the line that will hold the top of the spinnaker pole (the name of this line is utterly eluding me - but I remember it had a strange name). Wasn't too bad all in all. Morning started out a little chilly, then the sun came out and warmed everything up. It really didn't take long to get the holes all drilled and tapped, although we did have a little issue over lunchtime with breaking off the tap in the mast. That sort of slowed us down for a bit.
After taking a break for lunch, we came back it fresh and actually got it cleared out pretty effectively, and then finished up the track. It's really not too bad tapping holes into aluminum, it's a pretty soft metal. A hell of lot easier than tapping iron or mild steel, that's for sure. After the track was complete, I hoisted Jen up to the top of the mast to drill/cut a hole in the top of the mast. She indicated that using a jigsaw while hanging from a climbing harness 25' in the air on swaying platform was a tad difficult. I didn't have much trouble hoisting her up there though - she's light and there's a great winch to help out.
Karen joined us for the day too - although she kept it to reading and setting up for the classes she'll be teaching on towards the end of this month. We broke off the work party about ten till five, as Jen was heading out on a race with JR and another crew on another boat. Karen and I wandered back home, chilled out for an hour, and then headed over to the east-side to catch up with Nathan and Leah for a little sushi, ice cream, and chattin.
End of the day, closing on midnight now. I'm a little tired, so I think I'll wrap this up and head to bed.
