Planet

Last night I coerced Mike to run a few errands with me. We squeezed in the Micro Center exit doors quite literally as the store was being closed in order to purchase various removable media for our cameras. Thankfully, these items are stored right at the checkout counter, so we didn't attract too much attention as we walked from the exit doors to the checkout lanes. With media purchased, we stopped next door at K-Mart (mostly because we didn't want to drive all the way out to Meijer's), ostensibly looking for a European outlet adapter I could purchase for my upcoming trip (details soon). We didn't find any that were acceptable.

On the way out, I was reminded that I need a wristwatch. I had, earlier in the day, stopped at two other establishments looking at wristwatches and walked out of both of them filled with anger. All of the watches I saw for sale were either entirely too expensive, or filled with features I didn't want. Mike laughed out loud most of the time I was perusing the watch selection at K-Mart, delighted at how picky I was.

I want a simple watch. I want a watch that tells me the time, and does little else. The only real features I demand in a watch are that it illuminate in some capacity so that I can read the time in the dark, and that it be waterproof. I'm planning to take SCUBA classes this fall, and the instructor has informed me that I will need a watch, so waterproof is an absolute necessity. I do not want a chronograph, or a stopwatch, or a calendar, or a thermometer. I want a simple watch. I also want to spend less than $25.

It's surprisingly hard to find a watch that doesn't have all the features I don't want. Many watches were very close to acceptable to me, except that they displayed the current day. I don't want this feature, because the analog watches aren't smart enough to know how many days are in each month, which means that every month I'll need to fiddle with my watch to set the correct date. I don't want to fiddle with my watch. I want it to live quietly on my wrist until such time as I decide to glance at it to learn the time.

I prefer analog watches, mostly because they almost always have fewer buttons. The digital watches are filled with features I'll likely never use, and so the buttons become a distraction. I know from past experience that I will inadvertently activate one of the buttons at some point, and then I'll be stuck pressing buttons to cycle through the various modes until I get back to the simple time display. This is a frustration I wish to avoid.

I often scratch my head as I see various gadget websites fawning over the latest crazy product to come from Tokyoflash. These are watches that are almost impossible to read quickly, so I'm not sure what the draw is. To have to spend time to parse the information presented by your watch just to find the current time seems a poor way to spend one's time.

I used to wear a cheap digital watch obtained from a Burger King Happy Meal. It was a Star Wars brand toy, with the face of Boba Fett on the strap. I loved that watch. It was small, it worked without fuss, and it did nothing but tell me the current time. If I still had that watch, I would probably be wearing it today. If only it were waterproof...

After much searching, Mike found a simple digital Casio wristwatch: a single line LCD that looked in many respects like my old Burger Kind watch. This watch would have been fine with me -- it had only a single button, as I recall -- save for the fact that it was not waterproof. I found lots of watches that were almost acceptable, but decided that ultimately I didn't want to settle for something almost what I wanted: I wanted to spend the time to find a watch I actually liked. After walking back and forth along the watch counter for entirely too long, Mike finally spied in the back corner of the display case the watch for me: a plain analog Timex watch, with no date display, waterproof, and Indiglo. And it only cost $19.99. Perfect. I purchased it as fast as I could, and I expect it will be a perfectly satisfactory watch.

The watch is now unobtrusively strapped to my wrist, and if I'm quiet I can hear the reassuring tick tick tick of the second hand sweeping across the unadorned face of the watch.

After a few weeks of debate, my wife convinced me that we should get a dog…..

So, yesterday, we packed up the kiddies and took a trip to the local Humane Society to see if there were any doggies that could put up with our motley crue.

We took a couple out for a walk, but finally settled on a real cutie. We have no idea what the breed is (that’s the magic of a dog pound), but it sure has terrier of some kind.

In other news…..

Ohio Linux Fest is just around the corner!

If you are in the vicinity, and have the second weekend in October free, please plan on coming to The Ohio Linux Fest in Beautiful downtown Columbus Ohio.

The gang at OLF are taking papers for presentations up until August 15th, and are really looking for presentations on End User type goodies! So, If you love app(X)s, and can go on and on and on about it for an hour, please consider submitting a paper

More to come on OLF..

I mentioned awhile ago that I was looking for a new laptop. Folks who commented -- online, and off -- had good points to make about their preferences, and I took a lot of them to heart as I evaluated what, specifically, I was looking for.

Last week I bought an HP 8510w laptop. I had seven days to return it if I decided I didn't want it. That week has passed, so I guess I'm keeping it! Now I feel comfortable posting the details about this laptop.

The "w" indicates that this is the "workstation" class laptop (indeed, on the case it even says "mobile workstation"). This is intended as a desktop replacement, suitable for hefty applications. This is the laptop that is being recommended by the college of Engineering for students to buy, because it has the oomph to execute the applications used in our college. The biggest difference between the 8510w and the 8510p, which is the step-down professional consumer model, is the graphics card. The 8510w comes with an Nvidia Quadro FX 570M graphics card, and 512MB graphics memory. As I mentioned in my post linked above, hardware OpenGL acceleration was a requirement in a new laptop.

Predictably, I installed Ubuntu 8.04 onto this laptop. I installed the x64 version. To my delight, everything I needed worked right out of the box: wired and wireless network, touchpad and thumbstick, hardware WiFi kill switch, Bluetooth, and the volume slider at the top of the keyboard. I installed the binary Nvidia drivers to enjoy the fancy new desktop effects in Ubuntu.

When I got the laptop home, I connected it to my television via the HDMI connector. Using the nvidia-settings application, I was able to access the TV as either a mirror of the laptop display, or as a second display. The laptop also has an analog VGA connector on the back.

Both suspend and hibernation work. The wireless network re-initializes just fine after waking up, so I've taken to putting the laptop to sleep rather than shutting it down most of the time. For reasons now forgotten, I never used either suspend or hibernate on my previous laptop.

I get just under 3 hours of battery life when using the laptop on a regular basis. If I leave it on but not doing anything, the battery seems to last well over three hours, though I admit that I haven't bothered trying to quantify this. Putting the laptop into sleep mode uses almost no battery: I put the laptop to sleep with a full charge, then left it unplugged in my office through the work day. When I finally woke it up, the battery reported it had more than 2.5 hours of charge left. HP sells an extended life battery, which when combined with the stock battery provides more than ten hours of battery life. I've considered getting this extra battery, but frankly I don't need that much battery capacity right now.

The only thing I didn't try was the fingerprint reader, for which I have no real use. There do exists a few libraries and suites of applications for various fingerprint readers. The fingerprint reader in the 8510w is supported by at least one of these. However, since the libraries are not yet integrated into Ubuntu, I've not bothered to compile them. I'd prefer to wait for them to trickle into the distributions so that I know everything continues to Just Work.

Here's the output from lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro FX 570M (rev a1)
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b9)
02:06.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b9)
02:06.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 03)
02:06.3 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 20)
02:06.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 10)
10:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN Network Connection (rev 61)

And here's the output from lsusb:

Bus 007 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 08ff:2580 AuthenTec, Inc.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 03f0:171d Hewlett-Packard
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Several weeks ago we had a cookout to celebrate my birthday. A lot of friends joined me, and I think everyone had a good time. The evening flew past, though, and I didn't feel like I got to spend nearly enough time with any one person or couple.

The following weekend we hosted another cookout, this time for my sister and her husband. Another large group of people joined us, and it was a real delight to see so many kids enjoying the backyard and the playhouse. Everyone was well fed, and the afternoon seemed to last a really long time. When I checked the time, though, I was astonished to learn that only two hours had elapsed. Shortly after this, the skies darkened, the winds picked up, and thunder boomed out across the neighborhood. In an absolute flash we had the entire cookout shut down and cleaned up. Literally everyone pitched in, and within seven minutes we were all sitting comfortably on the porch, enjoying our beverages, and watching the rain pour down. I joked that we could all pursue promising careers as carnies, given our rapid tear down of the event.

The air was cool after the rain, and there was no rush to do anything at all, so we simply stayed on the porch. We were all laughing, and feeling good, and genuinely enjoying the simple pleasure of company. We stayed on the porch until the wee hours of the morning, and I was absolutely stunned to realize that many hours had slipped by so quickly!

The following weekend was the weekend in which everything seemed to be happening: Origins, ComFest, PodCamp Ohio, and my dad's birthday cookout. Things started Friday night when Owen arrived in Columbus. He picked me up, and I directed him to Goodale Park, so that he could see for himself what ComFest was all about. We meandered around a bit, and I shared a little of the event's history with him. We both gawked at the people, and enjoyed a little of the music playing throughout the park. At 8 PM I took my leave from him, and started my shift as a bartender at the Jazz Bar.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: selling beer at ComFest is one of the most entertaining ways to volunteer. The other bartenders have always been good-natured, and are almost always in a good mood. The crowds are usually mellow, and happy to receive the liquid gold you provide to them. My shift was over almost before I knew it.

A word of advice to anyone attending ComFest, or any similar event at which large plastic mugs can be purchased: always purchase as clear of a mug as you can. I further recommend against a koozie for your mug. The clearer the mug, the easier it is for the bartender to ensure that you get more beer than foam. Dark mugs, and mugs wrapped up in a koozie, present a real challenge, especially as the evening draws on, and you're often left guessing by weight alone how much beer might be in the mug. Every person with a clear mug absolutely got beer poured to the top of the mug.

I coerced Owen into picking me up from ComFest, and then treated him to a late snack at The Blue Danube. The Dube has been a favorite haunt of mine since college, and I try to expose as many out-of-town friends as I can. It was at the Blue Danube that Chris, Rich, Owen, and I officially conceived and started Habari.

After only a scant few hours of sleep I was up again, in order to help PodCamp Ohio. I had volunteered to help the check-in desk, so I had to be there an hour before things officially opened. There was already a small crowd of volunteers when I arrived. We quickly established the check-in process, and settled in to wait for guests to arrive. We had about 150 people show up for the event, the overwhelming majority of which had pre-registered. Everyone seemed pretty excited about the day's event, and there was a very positive vibe radiating from most everyone. There were a lot of video cameras recording impromptu interviews. I think things got a little silly when someone used a webcam to stream the (by then largely dormant) check-in desk online.

I have mixed opinions about PodCamp, which might merit a more complete post after I've had some time to really distill them. The day wasn't terrible, but I don't think it was what I had been expecting. As someone who put up money to help Habari be a Gold Sponsor of the event, I don't think we got our money's worth, which is deeply disappointing. The day felt at several times like it was dragging on, but that's likely because I had plans I was looking forward to later in the evening, and because I only attended two sessions.

Judging from the Twitter and blog chatter I've seen, most people seemed to have a considerably better time than I did, and I'm glad that the event was a positive one for them. Maybe I've just been using Internet communications tools for so long that I'm too jaded to get excited about building communities online -- I mean, I've been building and participating in online communities for over a decade now. Of course, I do so for the value it provides me in its own right, rather than for monetization, which was the focus of at least several PodCamp sessions, so maybe I wasn't the target audience.

After PodCamp, I high-tailed it home, and then over to my dad's house for his birthday party. He had the entire affair catered, so he got to spend the whole evening socializing with his friends and neighbors. There was a marked difference about this party from most of dad's other cookouts, which I found interesting. Usually, there are small factions of people who know one another, sitting together. Sometimes there's some cross-pollination, but it's usually brief, and very perfunctory. At this party, though, I saw a lot of people really mingling, and interacting with one another. That was neat to witness, and I'm glad that dad's social circles intersected so well. Dad seemed to really have enjoyed himself. I only stayed for a few hours, before hustling back down to ComFest, but Carina tells me that the party ran long into the night, and that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

My second shift at ComFest was much like my first of the weekend, except that it ended prematurely. Normally, the bar cashiers sell beer tokens until 10:30, and then bartenders accept tokens in exchange for beer until 11:00 PM. Throughout my shift I kept hearing the supervisors talking to one another about "crowd control". I didn't see anyone causing any trouble in the throng of people waiting for brew, so I didn't pay much attention. I saw a handful of old friends, and was generally having too good of a time to pay much attention to rumblings about crowd control.

As an aside, I only had to turn away one person for beer this year. His license had expired in 2005. I'm not sure if he was a plant by the cops looking to bust a lax bartender, or if he was underage using someone else's expired license, or if he genuinely forget to renew his license for three years. It looked like a real license, and the photo looked like him. I checked ID on almost every single person I served -- save those obviously old enough to purchase -- and only had the one invalid ID.

To my surprise, and without any warning or announcement, we were told at 10:30 PM to stop serving beer, and to step behind the taps away from the line. The police offers on duty walked up and down the row making the announcement that the bar was closed. People were surprised, but I didn't see anyone getting overly agitated or upset. We wrapped up, checked out of our shifts, and quickly left the area. I didn't bother to check the other bars to see if they were closing. I was ready to enjoy some of ComFest!

I meandered through the park for a bit, finally stopping to watch Anna and the Annadroids, a truly captivating dance performance. There was a very small crowd when I sidled up to the stage, but by the time their set was over the crowd had swelled considerably. After this, I called Owen and made him pick me up again. I had intended to take him to Columbus' goth bar, Outlands, but that plan was dashed against the rocks when we pulled into the empty parking lot: the place was closed! I next tried to take him to Bob's Bar, the cultural hub of the Midwest, but he complained that it was too loud. So we retired to O'Reilly's, where we nursed a couple of Guinness, and I nearly fell asleep in the booth as a wave of exhaustion finally caught up with me.

Sunday morning Carina, the twins and I went to dad's house to say our final farewell to Ann and Igor, who were headed back to Ukraine. It sounds like they had a terrific time in the States, and I'm glad we all got to see them as much as we did. I can't remember the last time I've seen Ann that happy. I'm really delighted for her and Igor!

After that, I took Owen to Nancy's Kitchen, and then we stopped by Origins -- an event I've never attended in all my years. I don't have a crew with which to play role playing games these days, so I was primarily interested in just seeing what the current role playing game market is, as well as to see for myself what Origins is all about. As I later mentioned to a coworker, after walking the show floor I felt somewhat better about myself for being as balanced as I am in the things that I do with my life. While there, I picked up two games from Out of the Box, Blink and MyWord!. Both are fast-paced thinking games, and both are outrageously fun to play. I'm really looking forward to playing both with the twins, as I think they'll get a kick out of them.

Looking back, the entire weekend seemed to slip by in a blur. I did an awful lot -- probably too much, and I didn't get to enjoy any one thing for very long -- but I had fun with what I did. It was terrific to re-connect with Owen in person again. One of these days I'll have to head out his way, so that he can be the host for a change! Maybe he can take me to one of the meetups he keeps talking about; or maybe I can crash the Philly PodCamp with him.

I am in the market for a new laptop. My current laptop is literally falling apart, as some of the case screws have fallen out. I could replace those, but that would only fix one small problem. Also problematic is the fact that my battery only holds about 25 minutes worth of charge. And lately, doing anything remotely CPU intensive causes the system to overheat and shutdown. I've taken the system apart several times, inspecting the system fan and looking for obvious problems that might cause overheating. Alas, I've found nothing. So I've been forcibly setting the CPU frequency to its lowest setting, which makes the whole thing more sluggish than I would like.

So I'm looking for something new. Through the OSU technology store I can purchase a Hewlett Packard 8510w laptop. This is the "workstation" caliber laptop, with a sturdy metal case instead of cheap consumer plastic. It also comes with a high-end Nvidia graphics card -- something I've really missed on my current laptop (I miss playing Quake, surprisingly). Other features include 2 GB RAM, roomy hard disk, Bluetooth, and a 3-year accidental damage warranty. That last is extremely appealing.

If I get that laptop, I'll install GNU/Linux onto it. Before I purchase it, I intend to take an Ubuntu LiveCD to the store to try it on the floor model, to get an idea of what hardware works and what doesn't work. I expect most of the hardware will work. Certainly the NVidia card will be supported by closed-source drivers. Bluetooth should work. The wireless chipset should work (though may require a binary closed-source firmware blob). Audio may require some fussing to make work; though I might be presently surprised. Assuming all the hardware works, after installing Ubuntu I'd have to install all the proprietary audio and video codecs so prevalent today (though I could consider purchasing the Fluendo closed-source GStreamer plugins).

I did use an Ubuntu LiveCD on the HP 8510p -- the consumer model of this laptop, with the ATI graphics card instead of the NVidia. Most everything worked just fine: volume control buttons, WiFi kill switch, touchpad -- including the scroll portion -- and Bluetooth. That was all very refreshing, and helped solidify my interest in the 8510w. This page about Debian on the 8510w leaves me more than a little concerned, though, as it describes considerable more hoop-jumping than I'm inclined to do.

In the interest of comparative research and being an informed consumer, I picked DrBacchus's brain about his satisfaction with his Apple laptop. A long-time GNU/Linux user, several years ago he purchases an Apple laptop and has been using a Apple ever since. He's mostly satisfied with it. He came to the conclusion that he was tired of trying to get all his laptop hardware fully supported and properly working with the various GNU/Linux distributions. I share his frustrations on this issue. He's grown to appreciate most of the iLife products (iPhoto, in particular), and he raves about Keynote for his presentations. I don't give many presentations, so that's not too big a deal to me.

My sister has been using a Mac for a number of years, and she seems fairly well satisfied. At least, I haven't heard her complaining about it lately. She purchased a Mac specifically for the ease-of-use when she joined the Peace Corps: she didn't want to suffer through system instabilities or application failures when she was literally isolated from any meaningful technical support. This seems to have been a good choice for her, and worked fairly well.

While chatting with Carina the other night, I admitted I was growing increasingly frustrated by all the hoop-jumping required to enjoy various multimedia in GNU/Linux, and that the ease of a Mac had a very strong appeal. She admitted that she intended to purchase an Apple when her current laptop expires. But then I remember that I don't particularly like OSX; nor am I keen to pay Apple every year for operating system upgrades. I'm also reminded of Mark Pilgrim's juggling oranges and when the bough breaks essays detailing his dissatisfaction with Apple. His comments really hit home for me, highlighting the subtle importance of "Free as in Freeom".

I don't expect to use iTunes, primarily for philosophical reasons; but also because I don't use my computers to listen to a lot of music (in fact, I don't listen to a lot of music). I might be willing to try iPhoto, but I've been working happily enough to date just making directories for groups of photos based on date, then manually selecting the ones to upload to Flickr and finally burning to DVD when I have several gigs worth of photos. I might enjoy using iDVD, since I find the GNU/Linux DVD authoring utilities to be more frustrating than they need to be most of the time. Time Machine doesn't interest me much; and the OSX Dashboard and widgets don't interest me too much, either.

The real value of purchasing a Mac would be the knowledge that all the hardware was absolutely supported by the software. Of course, I could also try running Ubuntu (or another distribution of GNU/Linux) on a Mac laptop, as I know folks do, but it would require time and effort to get everything set up. I expect that the latter would exhaust the former, and I'd be left with something that was almost but just not quite working perfectly. If I'm going to be in that situation, why should I pay the premium that Apple commands for their hardware? Better to save money and get less expensive hardware that is equally poorly supported!

Complicating my decision making process is my intense aversion to spending money. I particularly hate to spend large quantities of money, as I almost always experience buyer's remorse. I know that as soon as I purchase a laptop it will be largely out of date. I don't intend to purchase another laptop for at least three years (preferably longer), so I need to make sure that I can be content with whatever I purchase for at least that long. I expect the Apple to work through that time frame, and be well supported. I imagine that the HP hardware would last that long, though I'm not entirely keen on the way Ubuntu has been developing lately, as features and services continue to be added that I don't use and which will only suck up battery life (things like the Tracker service: I don't lose files, so I don't have a need for a file indexing service -- yes of course I can turn this off, but that's more hoop-jumping, dammit!).

And then I keep remembering that the overwhelming use of this laptop will be for low-resource tasks like email and news reading. Occasionally I'll record something for LibriVox, or produce a DVD of video of the kids. As previously mentioned I would sometimes like to enjoy the diversion of Quake and similar games. I could invest in a (reasonably) powerful desktop computer for these more demanding activities, and then continue to make do with my current laptop for mobility when reading email. I would prefer, however, to minimize the number of computers in my home, and using a laptop exclusively seems like the best way to do that.

This is the first time I've ever seriously considered purchasing a computer and not running GNU/Linux on it. In some ways I feel like I'd be selling out, but that's not a particularly compelling reason to avoid the Mac. I've certainly enjoyed the benefits of Free Software for many years, and in that time I've almost entirely ignored any benefits I might receive from proprietary software. I wonder if I could be happy using a proprietary system for three years? The fact of the matter is that I'm not a developer, I'm a user. What little development I do do is entirely web-based. So while I appreciate the benefits of Free Software, it's not something to which I am fundamentally connected.

I had hoped that distilling my thoughts into this post would help me reach some sort of conclusion; but I'm afraid all I've done is ramble! I guess that should be indicative of the fact that I'm not yet ready to make a decision. If anyone has any input on the matter, I would like to hear it.

I'll just say it: I don't like the so-called "social media" aspects of the current Internet. Maybe it's because I've been engaged in online communities for more than twenty years; maybe it's because I'm a misanthrope. I don't use -- nor do I have any interest in -- Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, MySpace, Reddit, or whatever other "social networking" sites are currently in vogue. I'm not particularly interested in meeting new people through these venues, and I'm extremely wary of the so-called "value" they provide. I have my blog, and I'm satisfied with it.

There is a very rigid limit to my capacity for continuous partial attention, so I am extremely conscious about adding new things to follow. I intentionally limit the number of email lists to which I subscribe. I'm very selective about the feeds I add to my news reader. I'm even more selective about who I follow on Twitter; and I refuse to participate in more than one microblogging solution; so Jaiku and Pownce and Tumblr and whatever else is out there are right out.

I recently attended the first Columbus TweetUp, at which Columbus Twitter users had an opportunity to meet one another face-to-face. I felt a bit like an odd-man-out at this gathering in part because many of the attendees seemed to know one another already; but mostly because I wasn't following any of them on Twitter, nor was I likely to do so. I'm simply not interested in reading the goings-on of a dozen or more people just because they happen to live in the same city as me. The (very) occasional gem of insight I might glean from following one or more of them would be almost instantly drowned out in the noise of constant updates and replies to one another.

Don't get me wrong: I'm glad that these folks find Twitter (and similar services) so useful. I'm glad that they've found a way to extend their network of contacts. It's just that for me, it's too overwhelming. Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I often approach signing up to receive quantities of new information from the "coming back from vacation" point of view. When I come back from vacation, is this stuff going to overwhelm me? Am I going to simply delete huge swaths of this stuff if I get too far behind on it? If so, why am I paying attention to it to begin with? Or maybe I'm simply too mercenary about the matter, looking for what benefit their Twittering and blogging will provide to me. Or maybe I really am just anti-social and not particularly interested in what folks have to say if I don't have an existing meaningful connection to them in some capacity (which begs the question: how do I establish said meaningful relationships with new folks?).

At the TweetUp I did have a very nice conversation with Denise. This was in part due to the seating arrangements -- she was the only person near me who wasn't already engaged in conversation with someone else -- but it was also due to a variety of similarities we share. It was nice to make an acquaintance, and I even started following her on Twitter when I got back to my computer. Thankfully, she updates as infrequently as I do, so I'm not drowning in updates I'm uninterested in reading.

It's ironic that I'm so ambivalent about local technology users communicating with one another, but so enthusiastic about global communications and the wonderful experiences it creates.

The current goings-on at a friend's place of employment, and the bad luck this friend seems to have with employers, has caused me to reflect upon my own employment history. When I think back, I realize I've had good bosses, and mostly good working environments.

My first real professional job after college was probably my worst. I was on my own in a small town in northern Ohio, working for a small company where everyone knew almost everyone else. I took the job because it was the first one offered to me, and I felt at the time that it was a good stepping stone to something better. In many ways it was: I learned a lot professionally and personally, but the job itself was remarkably unsatisfying. My boss was an interesting person, and I find myself having mixed opinions about that person now. I learned a lot, but I think the largest take-away from that experience was "what not to do". I do lament the fact that I didn't keep in touch with my peers after I left: they were a neat group of people, and I would like to be able to talk with them again some time.

After that, I moved back to Columbus and worked for the local branch of a national computer consulting company. A friend got me into the company, and we were put on the same assignment together for awhile. There was a lot of travel involved, which at the time I liked -- especially when I was put on an international project that took me throughout Europe! I earned my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certificate while working here, and I was excited about the doors that I thought that piece of paper would open. I was eager to start working on servers and advanced client networks, but my immediate supervisors were content to keep assigning me to simple desktop support contracts. I rarely interacted with my immediate supervisors, instead reporting to the assignment's project manager or client. It was from these gentlemen that I learned a lot about how to execute a successful project; the importance of a strong finish; and the value of teamwork.

The one strong memory I have of my direct supervisor at the time (I went through several, as the company cycled through management teams) was during a performance review. He used a scale of 1 through 4, much like an academic point system. He told me that he never ever gave anyone a four, because a four was perfection and no one was perfect. There's always room for improvement. I thought at the time -- and still think -- that it was pretty stupid to spend so much time explaining to me why I'd never get the best possible score. A better use of time would have been to talk to me about ways I could improve, and to celebrate what I had been doing well all along.

After the consulting company, I took a position at a small non-profit agency focusing on mental health for children. My job was to build a computer network for them, from top to bottom. It was, in many ways, a dream job. I got to select and implement the solutions I felt were most appropriate for the organization. Looking back, I see that many of my decisions were affected by hubris, and what I built, while functional, was not as good as it could have been. Nonetheless, I was very proud of the work I did there, and it was an exciting time for me. It was also very motivating to know that the work I did directly helped the mental health professionals provide long-term care to kids in crisis.

My boss at this organization was probably the most influential in terms of my professional development. Very early on in my time there, my boss explained to me that he wanted me to fail. I was shocked at first, but as the conversation unfolded, I learned what he meant. He wanted me to experiment, and try wacky things, and generally take risks in order to develop the best possible solution. Each failure I experienced was a lesson learned, and would result in that much better of a product at the end. If I got it all right the first time, I was either playing it too safe, or just getting lucky: neither of which would prepare me to deal with unexpected problems down the road. (I was reminded of this sage advice as I read J.K. Rowling's commencement address to Harvard.) My boss's job was to promote an environment in which it was safe for me to take risks and to fail.

My boss never once took credit for anything I did. He encouraged me to go home early after a couple of long days of work. He encouraged me to take long lunches (usually with him!) to brainstorm new ideas and look for ways to tackle long-standing problems. He supported me 100%. He was exactly the kind of boss I needed at that point in my life, and I'm eternally grateful that we got to work together for as long as we did.

After (almost) everything was put in place, it was agreed that we needed another person to help with the day-to-day support issues. We hired from within, and transitioned one of the clinical staff to an IT support role. I was made this person's supervisor. This was my first real experience with being a boss. Frankly, I was terrible at it. Even with a terrific role model to follow like my own boss, I was an ineffectual supervisor, a poor motivator, and worst of all not very patient. I'm not sure why the guy stuck around as long as he did, but he seemed to take it all in stride.

I was, unfortunately, let go from that organization. My boss and I had a great working relationship, but my relationship with the CEO of the organization was not as robust. (In fact, no one had a particularly positive working relationship with the CEO.) The CEO quickly hired a friend of his wife's to replace me. I stayed in contact with my former boss, meeting him for lunch on a monthly basis, and got updates about the goings-on since my departure. All the work I had done to build their network was ripped out and re-implemented from scratch by the new guy. That's pretty common in IT: it's easier to build it up your way than learn how your predecessor did things. Unfortunately for the organization, the transition was both expensive and complicated, and there was a major interruption in business continuity.

After several months on unemployment, I finally found another job. My first day was on September 12, 2001. As you might expect, things were more than a little hectic around the office, and it wasn't a particularly fun time to start a new job. I wasn't particularly thrilled about the specific job, but I was thrilled to be working again: unemployment sucked for me. This was probably the hardest job I had, because it was in an industry about which I knew nothing. I had to do an awful lot of on-the-job training while trying to keep operations up and running.

My boss was a programmer, who worked from his home several states away. He would fly into Columbus once every couple of months to meet with the users and management, and sometimes clients. He was an extremely challenging boss to work for, for me, because he was, without a doubt, one of the smartest people I've ever met. He would almost instantly see short-comings in solutions I proposed, and he constantly pushed me to provide better service than what I had done to date. It was also hard because the casual communication over lunch I had grown so used to at my last job was absent. Instead, we communicated most through email, and the occasional telephone call. I had to be very precise when describing my work to him, because he wasn't there day-to-day to see me doing it.

Although I was at times resentful, I grew professionally an awful lot under his supervision. Where my previous boss had helped me be a better person, this one helped me be a better employee, something which I absolutely needed. I regret that I let my attitude get in the way, and that my relationship with him was strained more than it needed to be. I liked him a lot as a person, and truthfully enjoyed working with him.

My current boss is very much a blend of my last two. He's demanding and driven, but balanced and supportive. We have a very positive working relationship, and we like each other personally, too. We share the same goals with respect to our jobs, and he helps me stay focused and on-task when I might otherwise wander off into less important projects. He protects me from a lot of the political goings-on, and ardently advocates for me and my counterpart at every opportunity.

I've been extremely fortunate to have such good bosses. I've learned a lot from each of them; and although I'm not yet ready to make the transition into any kind of supervisory capacity, I know I'll have a lot of excellent advice and experience on which to draw when I need it!

I took the kids to the pool yesterday afternoon for some rest and relaxation. It's always remarkable to watch the transformation that occurs as the kids hit the water. All the hostility and snottiness they usually exhibit toward one another instantly evaporates, and they're suddenly the best of friends. This usually lasts two or three swim periods, so I always try to enjoy it as much as I can while it's happening.

The kids love to clamber onto my back, or hold my arms, as I move about the pool. We don't actually do anything in terms of structured play: we just splash each other, and spin and frolic. And it's absolutely delightful.

My personal favorite thing to do at the pool is to jump off the diving boards. I like to jump, dive, do cannonballs and suicides and anything that will make a big splash. The girls like to jump off the 16' platform. Last year I spent considerable energy coaching and coaxing the girls to do head-first dives off the 3' board. Tyler took to it pretty quickly, but as usual Tayler was extremely hesitant. Tyler managed a couple dozen dives by the end of the summer, but Tayler was still in single digits.

Yesterday as I waited for my turn on the board, I told Tayler "I'll do a flip if you do a dive." This was no idle jest: I was never able to flip as a kid, and probably only performed as many somersaults last year as Tayler had dives. Without any hesitation Tayler walked to the end of the board and dove in head-first. As Tayler swam to the ladder, I ran to the end of the board, bounced as high as I could into the air, and hurled my feet over my head. To my delight, I completed the flip and my feet hit the water first. Tayler and I shared a high five for our respective accomplishments.

After a few more dives off the 3' board, and some more splashing in the swim pool, I suggested that both Tayler and Tyler dive off the 10' board. This was a major challenge, as neither had done it before, but they both readily agreed. And to my extreme delight, both girls successfully executed near perfect dives! To celebrate, we all climbed the ladder to the 16' platform for a victory jump. It was at this time that I noticed a small tear in my swim trunks. It wasn't a big tear, and hardly threatening: the stitching along the side pocket had torn loose at one corner.

We made our jump from the platform, then retired to the swim pool for some floating and splashing. I joked with the kids that the rip in my suit was dangerously close to causing me much embarrassment, and they laughed heartily. Tayler revealed to me that Carina hated my swim trunks, claiming they were old and something -- I couldn't make out what she said, but it sounded an awful lot to me like "dorky".

Tyler said emphatically "Daddy, you should get new trunks with flowers!" I looked at her quizzically for a moment before saying "Tyler, I'm a boy". Tyler said quickly "I meant fire!"

I put the small tear in my trunks out of my mind, and continued to play with the kids and dive off the boards. I did a few more flips off the 3' board, and generally had a great time. After what turned out to be my last flip I checked my trunks again, and saw that the small rip on the pocket had not grown any. Then as I glanced at the other side of my shorts I was mortified: the entire seam from hip down was ripped open! I hastily told the girls it was time to pack up for the day, and they both gasped as they saw the reason, and then fell down laughing at my plight.

In truth it wasn't as bad as I had at first feared: the bottom hem held together, and there was little risk of accidentally exposing myself. Nonetheless, I tied my towel about my waist as we walked to the exit.

Now I need to go to the store to buy some new swim trunks with flowers. I mean fire!

The first meeting of the Americas is scheduled for  29-May-2008, 00:00 UTC (8pm Eastern Daylight Time on the 28th) and and will be held in #ubuntu-meeting on irc.freenode.net.

Please review the information from the Fridge here if you have applied or are planning on applying for Ubuntu Membership!

See ya there

I took advantage of my being 21 tonight and bought my first bottle of wine, a 2006 Yellow Tail Shiraz. I can’t decide if I like it yet though. It’s really powerful and spicy, almost like pepper or liquorice. The alcohol content is 13.5, which if I recall correctly is pushing the higher end of the scale for wines. Anyway, this will probably last me all semester. If you’re over 21 and want a sip, stop by my room!

After:

Well I been selling almost everything in my store. My concern is minor items I tend to have sitting, like xbox360 face plates, headphones, tables, a $6,000 Emerson UPS for my server in the back… akk! Just not realistically going to sell here! It’s just Ub3rGeek fantasy toys. I guess I’ll find it running into the new place I plan on renting with my business server I built as well. Hopefully The place I rent is pre-networked, which out in Northern VA, that is likely with any current homes.

I’m still worried I’ll have allot of baggage. The kids all lucked out because of it. Each kid now has a really decent system running some form of Ubuntu on it, & the boys got 2 of my used copies of Doom3. They honestly, due to circumstances had a very good Christmas. Any money sent to me and my finance went strictly to either buying groceries, clothing, or a gift for the kids, though we were supposed to spend it on ourselves. Our focus is on making the best for the kids.

I’ve recycled over 3 truckloads of monitors, keyboards, cases, of undesirable computers that were just too old to donate or too many of one thing. (IE monitors… more monitors than enough parts to make another give away.). Thankfully the local kids that come to my store offered a hand to help, and deemed them all “hippies” afterwards and treated them to lunch for their help.

I’m also feeling the pressure not able to sit down and spend time with my finance. We have been both feeling the time is coming quick & worried I won’t be able to both celebrate her birthday here at home, and won’t be able to see her for a few months. I plan on being a home body while I get suited into my new role, get focused on studying for expected certifications for the job, and not expecting too much to go out. Just going from work and back. living cheap, knocking out bills, saving for a new place & moving an entire family. Pressure!

My target is making a better life for 4 people, besides myself. I love them so much. I’ve never been as happy on what I got now.

NOTE: GetDeb does not follow packaging guidelines quite as strictly as the official repos do, meaning that these apps may be a little less stable than apps from official Ubuntu sources. On the other hand, you will be able to get useful packages before they would regularly become available in Ubuntu. It’s probably wise not to do this unless you know precisely what it is you are doing.

NOTE: Support for undoing changes to programs is NOT offered by the author of this guide.

This guide will allow you to install and automatically update GetDeb.net applications through “apt-get” and Synaptic Package Manager. The process was converted to a regular Ubuntu guide from this version for Xubuntu. I wanted to publish this here in case it isn’t up to snuff for the T&T board on UF.

1. Open your /etc/apt/sources.list in a text editor.

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

2. At the end of the file, add these lines.

# GetDeb.net Repository
deb http://ubuntu.org.ua/ getdeb/

3. Save the file and close it.

4. Now refresh your software sources.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

5. Now you should be able to get updates for programs from GetDeb, and install GetDeb programs from within Synaptic. Ubuntu will warn you that packages installed or updated using the GetDeb repo cannot be authenticated. If you’re sure you want to install them anyway, just click OK.

To Undo: Simply open up your sources.list again, remove the two GetDeb lines you inserted in Step 2, and then run Step 4 again. However, this only removes GetDeb from your list of software repos, it will not undo updates to your programs. Support for undoing changes to programs is NOT offered by the author of this guide.

[Tested on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) 64-bit.]

Here it is, just in time for shopping season!

The North Face “Jester” backpack. Despite my efforts to evade rampant consumer culture, I can’t help this one. The bags I usually use end up falling apart sooner than they should because I use them so often for school, travel, and such. I need something a bit more durable, and this one was actually the cheapest of all the bags I looked at.

Logitech X-240 computer speakers. My Klipsch speakers, which are only a year old, are dying. There’s loud static when I adjust the volume knob and sometimes the left speaker doesn’t output sound at all.

American Eagle gift cards. Better than trying to shop at Kohls, less idiotic than going to Abercrombie.

Seasons of Scrubs on DVD. The best show on television. Period.

Books. I love them. Any combination of these would rock my literary world:

• Steven Pinker’s “How The Mind Works” and “The Blank Slate“
• Dan Dennett’s “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” (alliteration!)
• Robert Wright’s “The Moral Animal“
• Steven Landsburg’s “The Armchair Economist“
• Wheelan’s “Naked Economics“

I read an article today from By Bruce Byfield called It’s Time to Get Over Microsoft. He makes good points about being taken seriously & professional with your point of view will go a long way then bashing and running a smear campaign against Microsoft. Though Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been animate with any product by any one competitor such as Google, Apple, AOL, Adobe, Nintendo, Sony, Redhat, & every Linux Distribution out their, you have to understand it’s about holding confidence in their products, and selling it to their existing customer base that they are still in the running.

When working with many companies, many ask that you sign agreements to not slander competitors, since making misinformed statements, may put the company into jeopardy of a slander lawsuit. Even Canonical has a agreement which mentions these terms in their Ubuntu Code Of Conduct. This is for those who like myself participates in the Ubuntu community. One aspect is to be professional regarding advocating Ubuntu. Try not to use slander in references to other OS’s, which I believe is right.

The focus is to show the benefits of Ubuntu & Linux in General for a target audience & also be humble enough to know it’s limitations. Mark Shuttleworth has always tried to be realistic stating in public media he sees Ubuntu being good enough for the averaged user, & tries not to state it is a cure for every user. I myself have given up on certain aspects of computing with my PC which were more related to proprietary software which isn’t cross platform, or cannot be ran under wine due to too many dependencies that Windows has exclusively.

However their has been this year many huge leaps with whitebox vendors offering Linux now as an option, and it’s shown with in very few months a REAL competitor now with Windows. Example was an article just last week Novel’s preloaded on Dell’s, HP’s, leveno Laptops & desktops is preferred by Chinese public than Windows Vista, even after Microsoft started selling a lower priced version of Vista to attempt to reduce piracy which is rampant their. Articles I read Novel was selling 5 fold compared to Vista at this moment, & the U.S.

like I’ve said before has been testing the waters again with preloaded systems here at retail stores is catching on quick in places like Walmart & have already planned on expanding the line of Everex systems with this obvious line. The sale of Linux here obviously will be a bit different. The cheap, just pud around system on the web will attract those who can’t afford a Windows system & draw popularity. The next step is those services online or ISP’s that don’t directly support the Linux platform from their support centers will likely have to bend. Since Apple is now doing well for the last few years, ISP’s like Verizon’s DSL & others will obviously make changes to their Microsoft proprietary registration setup (Which uses Active X at the moment) in order to obtain customers. It will be likely cheaper for them to stick with a cross platform web systems then making software for every operating system out their.

Yes, “Web 2.0″ which it’s been marked. Though Adobe Flash is proprietary plugin, Macromedia prior being absorbed by Adobe had made leaps to be compatible with every browser out their. I have seen so many applications made with it online such as meebo, youtube, Mogulus, & many more that are not reliant on a specific OS. This helps reduce the gap and the issue will be down to “what OS do you use” to “what version of Adobe Flash are you running?” Microsoft has seen this, and Silverlight is their flagship to be the media platform to compete. They have already put in play making their plugin work with all browsers, but they could use it as a competitive play to make it only work with specific Linux vendors which complied with partnerships at this moment. If that is the case, they will likely not be adopted so quickly. We can only hope.

Sticking to the point though, Linux users should focus on the user ability improvements that have been conquered so quickly as other companies will continue to jump in to be present on the Linux desktop to join in the tide. Avoid being used as a puppet propaganda that Microsoft & those who support their business model will point to when trying to sell their products. It only helps them keep their share when it comes to a negotiation table with so many marketing models they use in every day business. Staying realistic, & professional while those who participate in development of new ideas that will surpass just being an alternative to Windows, but also make using Linux as a Desktop Uniquely different. That bridge has just been seen, & soon will be crossing it.

If you’re constantly on the go (and who isn’t these days?), you know that having an up-to-date schedule with you at all times is a valuable asset. Some people keep their calendars in day planners, others use their PDA’s or cell phones, but for the oddballs out there who want to keep their schedule on their iPod too, here’s how:

1. Browse to your Google Calendar. Go into Settings, then the “Calendars” tab, and click the name of the calendar you want to sync. At the bottom, to the right of “Private Address”, right-click the green “ICAL” button and select “Copy Link Location”. (Note: In this case, you do *not* want to use the “ICAL” button to the right of Calendar Address.)

2. Open up your favorite text editor and type “wget -N” and then paste your iCal URL. The end result should look something like this:

wget -N http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/email/address/basic.ics

3. On the next line, type this:

mv -f basic.ics /path/to/your/ipod/Calendars

You will need to replace that fake path with the actual path to the Calendars folder on your iPod, which may be something like “/media/ipod/Calendars”. You may also need to enclose the path in quotes if the name of your iPod contains a space.

5. Save the text file as “syncgoocal.sh”.

6. Now we need to move the script and let it run as a program. In terminal, type these two commands:

sudo mv syncgoocal.sh /usr/local/bin

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/syncgoocal.sh

7. Now that we’ve created the script, we need to set it to run automatically when you plug in your iPod. Go to System > Preferences > Removable Drives and Media. Under the Multimedia tab, you should see “Portable Music Players”. Check “Play music files when connected” and in the box put the path to the script:

/usr/local/bin/syncgoocal.sh

Your iPod’s calendar will now be synced every time you plug it in. Enjoy! Credit goes to Peter Howe for the original idea.

For the longest time, I’ve been a huge fan of documentary films. It’s been my irrevocable belief that fiction, while it can and does serve a purpose, is prone to excessive repetition of its basic structure. That is, many recent movies have merely been remakes of age-old narratives about heroes and villains that first originated in Greco-Roman antiquity, and were passed down through the ages via comic books and other forms of relatively new media. Merely updating these tales with a modern setting does nothing to increase the concomitant worth of the work as a whole.

These types of unrealistic stories, although no doubt enthralling, are not the best tools we have for interpreting the modern world. Truth is, in fact, stranger than fiction. Therefore, as John Grierson argued in his First Principles of Documentary, the “original” actor and “original” scene, “taken from the raw”, are better lenses with which to view the world. After all, isn’t making a documentary about real life inherently more representative of, and applicable to, the real world?

Having said that, some of the best documentaries are those that you’d rather not watch. For me, those kinds of films are about war. As a political science major, I tend to see war in a rather broad manner: as a consequence of precursors as numerous as they are complex. Some, especially those in the psychological and evolutionary psychology camps, would say this is indeed quite a detached view of war, which essentially boils down to violent conflict between people. Accordingly, I find watching most war documentaries quite distasteful and blunt due to their exposure of the personal side of war that I, if not most people, rarely glimpse.

Baghdad ER is one such film. It shows the war in Iraq from the standpoint of a military hospital in Baghdad that treats soldiers as they come in from IED attacks, firefights, and other combat incidents. The personnel of the 86th Combat Support Hospital were only filmed for two months in 2006, but during that time, grotesquely wounded soldiers and civilians poured into the hospital ceaselessly. There’s not too much graphic blood and guts, with the worst scene being the amputation of a soldier’s arm, but the Army nevertheless warned soldiers that simply watching the movie could result in post-traumatic stress disorder.

All in all, it’s a very honest and unflinching look at what real surgeons, nurses, and medics go through on a daily basis in Iraq. It doesn’t chalk up dead men and women as statistics or examine trends in violence, rather, it’s a very personal story about people who can’t afford to be personal. It’s only an hour long, and you can watch it below, or download it here.

I usually checkout Mark Shuttleworth’s Blog to get an idea what is happening generally with Ubuntu and Canonical. I havn’t seen him post since August of this year & really don’t know why?

Tons of good news this year with the obvious increase of PC whitebox vendors offering preinstalled Ubuntu machines or Linux releases in general, such as ASUS’s built in BIOS Linux Distro which is internet ready & selling so far at 10,000 a week, and Everex selling small ITX PC’s at Walmart as of November, and last checked, already sold out at $199.00 per unit! Leveno had started Eurpoe campaigns with Ubuntu preinstalles, as well as Acer & HP in certain test areas.

My instinct feeling this was happening, and happening FAST since the release of Vista, which at this time, XP is still outselling Vista, pressuring Microsoft to extend it’s support & sales of the operating system. I have also noticed from my Distributor a $10.00 increase for warehouse sales of XP OEM’s which tells me they notice the popularity.

I also have had talks with Microsoft developers I know who say even they have ran into frustrations with working with Vista, and many of their companies which they work for are holding out on releases to their companies products for Microsoft’s next OS release expected by 2009.

With the decline of the U.S. Market, and a slew of government agencies either migrating to MAC or switching to a flavor of Linux to reduce C.O.O. it’s quite clear that though in world of geekdom the wave is here. It’s just hasn’t hit many of the main sources of television news stories, and they are more embroiled in the elections, politics, & the decline of quality of life which is important to many here.

My advocacy on Youtube has now reached over 217 subscribers, with many people from ages 13 through 35. It’s an obvious shift that people are interested in trying it out, and though I do get problems in troubleshooting their issues that in some cases I can’t really answer, I find it has been a crash coarse in learning to tackle complex problems. I recently a few weeks ago learned using alien to convert some Lexmark drivers from .rpm to .deb for a customer of mine who obtained a disk from me, creating a bashscript to have him run on his computer to download, convert, and install for his z1650 model printer. Sounds minor to some, but I using linux more and more at home. Many of the skills I was trained in even for my days at AOL never really used on a every workday basis makes me feel more comfortable now since I got REAL issues hitting my inbox or my front doors.

Now that I’m on a job hunting mode, I also think this helps me in a situation for applying for these network jobs which many expect you to know. I’ve already received some good calls, one that I hope to receive this week form a potential job in Lima. I was comfortable with the owner of this company, and was excited about the job after he explained it to me after over an hour with him on an interview. I can only hope for another interview soon.

The Question: How many 5 year-olds could you fight at once?

The Specifics: There are no foreign objects or weapons, the fighting is all hand-to-hand. If you are knocked unconscious, you lose. If they are all knocked unconscious, they lose. Once a kid is knocked unconscious, that kid is “out,” and will not wake up to fight again. The kids are evenly split in terms of gender and will have no discernible abnormalities in terms of demographics, other than they are all healthy. The kids are also motivated enough to not get scared, regardless of the bloodshed. Every last one will give his/her best effort to take you down.

Strategies: Five year-olds don’t have a lot going for them. They’re not as smart, fast, or as strong as an adult, so you’d have these working for you. Their strength is purely in numbers here, so the key would be to stay mobile and not let them swarm you. That’s really the only way they could win. Since one or two kids alone would be pretty easily defeated, and you’d have the better mobility, “hit and run” tactics would be optimal. Just run around and pick off the kids that got too close until you’ve eventually won the fight. You’d have to be careful, though, to not let them catch hold of your legs. If they could get a few kids to sacrifice themselves by grabbing on and not letting go, the rest could pile on quickly, and soon it would be over.

The only two weaknesses you would have are 1) a limited amount of energy, and 2) injuries you incurred. You will run out of energy eventually, but how long could you last? You’d have to find a pretty energy-efficient strategy, somehow taking each one out quickly with little effort, in order to last any significant amount of time. Also, you’d have to be careful not to injure yourself and thus give them something to take advantage of. If you fell over or something and sprained an ankle, you wouldn’t last much longer. Also, punches and kicks would only last so long before they would start to hurt you more than the kid; you’d have to starting throwing elbows or kneeing them.
So what’s your magic number?

In a fantasy novel by James Morris, called Towing Jehovah, the two-mile long corpse of God is found floating in the sea. Charged with towing God’s body to the Arctic to preserve it, a small group of people aboard their tugboat soon come to the sobering realization that God really is dead and gone. The boat quickly descends into a chaotic mess of sin and violence. After one of the crew is murdered, however, the remaining characters overcome their desperation and realize that it was actually their own self-restraint that was leading them to behave morally all along.

This book, although merely fantasy, explores the rather relevant question concerning the origin of morals. Many people are of the somewhat pessimistic, in my opinion, view that humans are inherently evil. They say that the only thing keeping us from descending into utter lawlessness is the wisdom of God’s word, made manifest in the Bible. In spite of this, and the dire warnings of the worlds preachers, human morality continues to evolve with the changing societal landscape. So let’s take a look at some of the scientific evidence suggesting natural origins for morality.

First, let us not pretend that morality is restricted to just our species, Homo sapiens sapiens. There are many animals that exhibit forms of morality as well. Here are a few examples:

• Dolphins aid sick or injured animals, swimming under them and pushing them to the surface for air.
• Male baboons will stop to threaten predators as the rest of the troop retreats.
• Vampire bats have a “buddy system”, in which a bat who has had a successful night of feeding will regurgitate blood for its less fortunate companion.
• Bees will sting to protect their hive, although in doing so, their own death is assured.
• Vervet monkeys give alarm calls to warn fellow monkeys of the presence of predators, even though in doing so they attract attention to themselves, increasing their personal chance of being attacked.

Notice that all of these species are “social” animals (i.e. they live in highly interactive groups with a distinct structure). This suggests that perhaps morality evolved in higher-order organisms as an evolutionarily stable strategy.

Some animal altruistic behaviour is explained by kin selection, the natural tendency of all organisms to favor the reproductive success of their relatives, even at a cost to their own survival and/or reproduction. When apparent altruism is not between kin, it may be based on reciprocity. A monkey will present its back to another monkey, who will pick out parasites, and after a time the roles will be reversed. Such reciprocity will pay off, in evolutionary terms, as long as the costs of helping are less than the benefits of being helped, and as long as animals will not gain in the long run by cheating the system.

How this can be so is explained via game theory. Over many generations, one obvious solution is for cooperators to evolve the ability to spot potential cheaters in advance and refuse to enter into reciprocal relationships with them. Then, the canonical cheater response is to evolve a more convincing disguise, fooling cooperators into helping them after all. This can lead to evolutionary “arms races”, with ever-more-sophisticated disguises and ever-more-sophisticated detectors.

In this evolutionary arms race, how best might one convince comrades that one really is a genuine cooperator, not a cheater in disguise? One answer is by actually making oneself a genuine cooperator, by erecting psychological barriers to breaking promises, and by advertising this fact to everyone else. In other words, a good solution is for organisms to evolve things that everyone knows will force them to be cooperators, and to make it obvious that they’ve evolved these things. Thus, evolution will produce organisms who are sincerely moral and who “wear their hearts on their sleeve.”

This theory is strongly supported by the findings of modern research. Neuroscientists at the National Institutes of Health recently provided the first evidence for the neural bases of altruism. In their research, they showed that when volunteers generously placed the interests of others before their own by making charitable donations, a specific brain circuit was activated. These same structures are also intimately related to social attachment and bonding. Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges, but rather was intrinsic to the brain, hard-wired and naturally pleasurable.