I had always suspected Leo Laporte was smoking crack. Now there is no doubt. I don’t know if I can ever listen to him again. Maybe if I take a little break I will be able to circle back around to it.

In other news, I declared podcast bankruptcy and erased about 7gb of podcasts I will not have time to consume.

Bah, I hate it when people use the word “consume” like I just did.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

A few years ago I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and put on a CPAP machine. The doctor thinks it’s because I am fat. That is probably true. The CPAP is meant to be a stopgap until I can get my weight problem under control. The CPAP has been a godsend to my quality of life. It has been responsible for so many improvements from blood pressure to energy level that I highly recommend a sleep study for everyone. Seriously. So many issues from headaches, narcolepsy, blood pressure, acid reflux and mood have improved dramatically.

This has empowered me to get on an exercise regimen. For two years now I have really not committed to solving this problem. It has been harder than quitting smoking for me. I have yo-yo’d for two years on the top 10 lbs. Of my weight. I am tired of it and have made tremendous changes in what I eat and how much I eat. I have started exercising fanatically and using livestrong.com to track my calories. I am now back to -10 lbs. From my starting point.

Today I encouraged myself by putting on a pair of pants that haven’t fit me for years. Not only do they fit, they are practically falling off of me.

If I can do this and really get down -130 total lbs., I will be the shit. It is extremely hard to modify my old habits that I have had for 24 years, but the fact is I just need to get off my ass and stop eating stupid crap.

So far it is working. We will see if it continues.

No, we won’t. It will continue, period.

It will.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Image via CrunchBase

Since today appears to be National Pile on RIM Day, I thought I would add a little fuel to the fire.

I see a lot of people talking about the Playbook, the devices and the terrible mobile device experience that RIM has brought to table in contrast to the sleek, new offerings from the competition. I do not disagree with anything that has been said in that area. It’s sad to see a once-mighty company implode the way they are, but given the leadership of the two CEOs in power there, it’s really not a surprise. I also noted that RIM thinks of their ecosystem in a backwards fashion from Apple: the corporate device usage drives the home device choices.

That’s wrong, but whatever.

One thing that I do not see many people talking about is how RIM’s core business is dying. I’ve often considered my enterprise to be a microcosm of what is likely happening around the world. Blackberry Enterprise Server is dying in just about every corporation I’m familiar with. In our own enterprise, the BES device usage is dropping month by month while the iOS and Android devices are skyrocketing. I can’t give you statistics due to privacy stuff, but I assure you that is the case.

I can also vouch that in our research into BES 5.0 has produced interesting results. It appears that the quality assurance on BES 5.0 when paired up with Exchange 2010 has been poor. I know of at least one major social networking organization that was so frustrated by the experience that they dumped Blackberry Enterprise Servers entirely, took away all of the Blackberry devices and handed out iPhones.

If RIM is relying on their core business to stay relevant, they are in more trouble than people think.

Related articles

• Could the News Get Worse for RIM? (blogs.wsj.com)
• RIM Financial Outlook Dismal, 500,000 Playbooks Shipped (mashable.com)
• RIM says second-quarter forecast lower than expected (macworld.com)
• RIM: The big reset (business.financialpost.com)
• Backslapping As Waterloo Burns: Tough Times Ahead For RIM’s Co-CEOs (paidcontent.org)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

At first, this whole thing comes off as a company entering legacy mode. Microsoft reminds me of the RIAA, MPAA and the newspaper industry. They clearly feel the edge is blunted and their technology is dying. They are unable to adapt. As a result they are engaging in a strategy of sue and destroy.

Back to the blog post from the executive. One of the complaints is that Google purchased YouTube in 2006 and has made it difficult, if not impossible, for search engines to index the content. Apparently this is a progressive action.

I do believe that when you are as big as Google, you have a responsibility to allow openness of this nature. However, I’m rather disturbed by the complaint. Essentially, Microsoft is saying that if Google were to put in a robots.txt file on a website they own to block search engines from indexing content this should be illegal. Uhm, what?

A great many people have employed the use of robots.txt throughout the web’s history to prevent indexing of pages. Could Microsoft’s complaint set a precedent for companies complaining about the use of robots.txt to force the hands of web masters?

I’m just asking the question. Sometimes I wish Microsoft would just quit whining and get back to making great software like they used to. It seems more and more that will just not happen. When a big company out-innovates them or outsmarts them in business, their first reaction is to sue.

Reminds me of the RIAA, MPAA and the newspaper industry. Get back to solving hard problems, Microsoft. Stop wasting your time and money on lawsuits. Are you a software company or a whiny bitch?

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

If the big three tech companies were characters in Back to the Future, they would be…

Microsoft == Biff
Apple == Marty McFly
Google == Doc Brown

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I also mailed my resume off to someone who asked for it. That was nice. It’s always nice to be wanted.

Anyway, what did I want to share with you this evening? Oh, not much. Just this TOTALLY FREAKY SHIT:

Okie, what the HELL is that? This picture was supposedly caught by a hunter’s deer cam or something in December. It’s probably some viral marketing effort for a new scary movie or whatnot (or maybe a senator who just lost the election) but I’m telling you right now, this thing is going to give me nightmares. Read up about it here. If you can’t get enough of that freaky garbage from a single article look around on there and you’ll find more links talking about it.

Now I’m not one to sit back and do all kinds of conspiracy theories and stuff, but the whole animals-dropping-dead-for-no-reason and this relative to someone on Sand Mountain just doesn’t add up to me. 2011 is off to one seriously weird start.

We also can’t forget about the river turning bright nuclear green in Canada.

Just… wow.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

It suddenly occurred to me that 2010 had flown past. I know I was getting all pensive about this earlier, but the other day I was looking over this blog and I noticed that I made ONE WHOLE POST in the entire year of 2010. That one whole post was in June, where I ran across this website (like it was some foreign thing) and noticed that I really should post more often. The problem is that I remember writing that post and I SWEAR TO @DEITY there is NO WAY IN HELL that I wrote that post in June. I wrote it in November or December. There’s no way I wrote that in June.

But… nope. I wrote that in June.

What in the hell happened to 2010? Everyone I know was sick as a dog. My family was sick on a regular basis. We were sick so often I started thinking that we needed to call some investigative reporter to have them run checks on our house for xenon or cosmic rays and shit like that. I just knew we were going to end up on 20/20 as the newest victim of some greedy corporate assmunch who built out house back in the 60′s on top of a Cherokee burial ground next to a pet cemetery. But I never did any of that. I guess it was just my kids being little disease vectors. This theme hooked up to produce one of those New Year’s Resolutions where I vowed to take better care of myself. Yeah well, I’m doing generally okay, but I really need to lay off the sweets.

Anyway, I digress. Time flew. 2010 is over and I can hardly believe it came and went. Like I said earlier, it was a time of massive transition for me. The news we got at the last week of 2010 was nothing more than the icing on the cake. Yes, Mr. Man, that really has been a transition going on and it took a year to fully blossom. How ironic that on the last week of the year the decisions were done and announcements were made. The transition was really happening.

So now 2011 is about another transition, but that’s more for the place that I work. My own personal transition is nearly complete. That’s a good thing, I do believe. Those New Year’s Resolutions should help with completing those transitions but we’ll see. I’m usually pretty good about committing to something, but I have to believe that it’s worth the commitment. (Those of you who are personal friends, kindly resist the urge to message me now with, “Your kids are worth it!” bullshit remarks because that just doesn’t work on me for some reason).

Here I am with new goals and new ambitions. I need to figure out where my wandering mind needs to go. There are so many things I enjoy doing and so many things I could make into a career… but as these things go, it’s all about experimentation and finding how you love to spend your time.

I’ve gone through stages in my life. My early child/teenager/20′s were spent being quite left-brained. Somewhere around the early to mid-20′s I made the transition to a very right-brained method of living and working. I still enjoy that, but oh how I miss the left-brained stuff.

I really need to line up some models and start photography again. I also need to get some of these scripts and stories (re)written and work them. I miss it terribly.

Frankly, the right-brained shit gets old. I’m not good in that part of the rat race. I need the creativity. If I can mix the technology and the creativity that is likely a sweet spot.

Wish me luck.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

First, let me speak a bit about 2010. 2010 was an interesting year. I label it a year of transition because there was quite a bit of that. If 2010 had an overall theme, it was definitely “transition.” I transitioned in many areas:

• Professionally, in deciding that if I had my way about it, I’ll never work with Windows again.
• Personally, in discovering that I’ve been doing a terrible job at taking care of myself.
• Spiritually, but not in the classical sense. By this I mean learning more about myself and others.

This is a personal blog and so therefore I’m only covering areas that are personal. Those of you who know me know that there have been multiple transitions in the family as well, albeit standard. (“My how the kids have grown!” “Wow, will that two year old ever stop talking!?”)

All of this being said I present to you… my 2011 New Year’s Resolutions. I’m going to do my best to make sure that I cover only the goals that I feel are attainable.

Create More

I used to create all the time. Something, and I’m not sure what, got me out of that habit. I want to get back. I miss it. I miss theater too, but I don’t think that goal is attainable until the kids grow a little more and I have a job that isn’t 24/7. Therefore, one of my goals is to create more. This can be writing, photography (oh how I miss photography!), video, programming or whatever. I must create more.

Read More

I’ve been doing a lot more reading of late, so this needs to continue.

Learn More

This plugs into the spiritual thing and 2010′s transitions. I want to continue to learn more about Chinese language and culture and Mac/UNIX/Linux/Web technologies.

Focus Better

You might think that with the first goal of creating more that this might be difficult. Focus has become very difficult for me and I’m not sure why. This needs to change.

Stop Idling

I idle on the computer too much. This is killing me.

Take Better Care of Myself

Eat better. Move around more. I have the tools, I just need to remember to do that. Stop eating so much garbage. I’ve been doing much better on that in 2010. I need to continue to do that.

Be a Better Father

I think I’m a pretty terrible father. I need to change that. Really, I do.

Be a Better Husband

My wife is a good woman. I consistently remind myself that she gave up so much to move here and have a new life. She entrusted me with her life and well being. I need to remember that and honor her. I need to help out more.

I think that about covers it. There will be some changes on this blog over the coming months. It’s gotten quite cobwebby and I think there is a place for this site after all. I let it grow stale after opening so many other blogs (which will be linked here) and using Twitter and Facebook. While I’ve met many awesome people on Twitter, I want to share a little more in an extended format. Twitter is for light, hilarious conversations. Ultimately, if you want to know more about just me, this is the place to come. If you want to learn more about my family or technology that I’m working on, there are other places to go. If you don’t know where they are you will soon.

2011 will be another year for transition and it is already offering new opportunities. On the last week of 2010 we discovered that we lost our massive contract supporting the government agency I work for. I’m not sure where that is going to take me but I’m definitely excited about the possibilities. I’m very optimistic that this will allow me to grow in areas that I need/want to grow.

Notice I didn’t call out “be more optimistic” in my goals for 2011. Optimism is a very personal thing for me. In general, I’ve always been hopeful that things work out for the better and have always looked for the silver lining. A lot of people see my negativity on the outside but they may not realize that in general it’s a facade. Negativity is funny. I like to make people laugh. I deal with stress by laughing. It comes off as negativity. That’s fine if you don’t understand. But deep down I know it will work out in the end, whatever and however that is. It’s quite optimistic.

If that surprises you, then congratulations – you learned something about me. Great way to start the new year, right?

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

If you don’t follow what I mean, here’s where I was: often times, large corporations or benefactors will offer a code fix bounty or developmental funding for an open source project they have come to rely upon.  What if an open source developer were to deliberately code a bug into an open source project or withhold a fix so they might extract some financial support with this method?

I brought it up in #morphix to Gandalfar, one of my trusted open source advisors.  We debated it shortly and he brought up several good points.  While this may happen, the scheme is likely to fall apart quickly.  The community is the resolver of situations like this.  If the community finds a bug and offers a fix for the problem, then the developer will find themselves in a political combat situation.  They would likely try to stifle the fix with some ridiculous excuses and/or start to censor discussion of the subject over mailing lists or on forums.  Speculation could be raised about the issue and ultimately, people could start to fork the project elsewhere, unless the license of the project disallows that.  In the long run, the community would resolve the situation by simply offering a new solution.

So while it could theoretically be achieved for short-term gain, in the long run the community makes the approach unsustainable.

Why do I bring this up?  Well, I think we all know that closed source entities often engage in this practice.  I could point out several examples that I have absolute knowledge of this happening, but I don’t think I have to.  I’m not completely absolving open source from this either – look at what “official distributions” do in some situations… Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Novell (SUSE) for example.  But in those situations, if you didn’t want to pay to upgrade the operating system and still resolve your situation, we all know that with the right application of effort and skill you could overcome it.

All in all, this whole thought process ends up with a positive note about open source.  If it’s broken, you can fix it yourself or work with others to make it happen.  The community – that incredibly large, global groupthink – keeps it all honest.

Or, you can put all your money and eggs into a closed source basket and find out you’re getting screwed when it’s too late.

It’s all about choice, right?

Related articles by Zemanta

• IDC: Linux support sales to break $1bn in 2012 (theregister.co.uk)
• Bug in latest Linux gives untrusted users root access (slumpedoverkeyboarddead.com)
• Novell’s Work Popular… in Microsoft Blogs (boycottnovell.com)
• Mentoring and Open Source (web2learning.net)
• What Makes Apache Tick? (grep.codeconsult.ch)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

But take note of what’s strung across the top of the kid’s fountain – and better yet, note how the water from one of the geysers really likes to spray all over it on a regular basis.

(NOTE: Click on the pictures below for an individual page, then click on the image again for full resolution.  You really have to do this to get the full effect of what’s going on here).

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites