9October2011
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
Yesterday, once again, I received no mail from the United Stated Postal Service. I really must write the Postmaster General about the declining quality and quantity of the mail I’ve been receiving.
Against the ebbing tide, I’ve noticed an odd pattern of late, though. I ordered a microphone a while back from my favorite audio source, Sweetwater. They shipped it by FedEx. All well and good. I happily tracked it along until it got to Atlanta. There, FedEx dropped it in the mail to me and was done with it. The tracking ended and I received the mic a few days later. Really Odd, I thought. Then this week I re-ordered checks. Yes, I’m Neanderthanl. The checks shipped via DHL (didn’t know they were still going!) but again, as soon as the package got to Atlanta, DHL handed it off to the USPS, this time with a tracking number. Has anybody else noticed this new hybrid shipping scheme? What’s the logistical wrinkle that makes this cost-effective?
8October2011
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
I like Jazz, especially bebop and cool. Jazz is both a style and repertoire. The style sets the rules of the game: the rhythms, chord progressions, etc. The style sets the framework within which improvisation can take place. But sometimes overlooked, but just as important, is the repertoire. Early jazz artists all knew the same core of songs, like Sweet Georgia Brown that they could all play together and improvise around, a common ground where all the players can participate.
Open Source Software is similar. Open Source is both a license and a process. The license, GPLv2 or MIT or whatever, sets the parameters of what can and can’t be done. But often overlooked is the process by which open source software gets written: the collaborative, give-and-take of programmers creating small gems of contributions, filling in corners, adding functionality, pushing and stretching the borders of what the software can do. This collaboration is similar to jazz’s improvisation around the repertoire. It’s the tools, design patterns, language idioms, conventions and collaboration that enable the construction of a larger piece.
Some outfits get one part of Open Source, but not the other. Some companies like SugarCRM or Magento, release their software under an Open Source license, but don’t enable others to contribute. This is like a jazz performer playing an original composition. It may fit the Jazz style, but nobody can join in the playing. Others like Salesforce.com have an open development platform, but the license isn’t open, so that the rules of the game aren’t set by the players. It’s like the manager dictating to the band the style of music they can play, e.g. only Hard Bop. If the band’s style can’t grow and evolve, they feel increasingly constrained, lose enthusiasm and move on.
Recap: just as Jazz is both a style and repertoire, Open Source is both a license and a process. It takes both to be successful.
9August2011
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
Way back in 1981, when I got my first Unix system to administer, there was a section of the manual for us SysAdmins to learn from: Section 8. One page titled ‘CRASH’ contained distilled, helpful advice on what to do when a system crashes. One paragraph addressed ‘Repairing Disks’ and had the sentence “This is an area where experience and informed courage count for much.” I though that was a nice turn of phrase and remarked to my co-worker, Danny Cox, that I’d love to have that on a t-shirt. The years marched by, the computer was sold as scrap, and even the building it was in was torn down. But I kept the manuals. I looked that page up the other day to see if it was as I remembered. Sure enough, my memory ran true. So I finally broke down, went to cafepress.com and constructed my t-shirt. It arrived this week and here’s the photo. Yes, I tried to take a photo of me wearing it in the mirror, but I ended up looking like a MySpace refugee.
Moral of the story? I dunno. Maybe that in the Internet age of instant gratification, that waiting 30 years for a t-shirt I wanted shows delayed gratification? or extreme laziness?
More practical moral: the cafepress process is pretty nice, and when you’re done with making something for yourself, you can easily set up an onlike ‘shop’ and offer it to your friends so they can buy one as well.
8August2011
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
My last post about libraries got me thinking. Libraries are trying to change to adapt to the times, but are all the changes for the better? Here’s one example: the new University of Chicago library will have no books that you can browse. When you want a book, you go to a computer terminal, click on the the listing of the book you want, a robotic arm in an underground chamber brings up a metal box that contains the book you want and about a hundred others to the circulation desk. The librarian pulls out the book you want and has it waiting for you at the circulation desk. It should take about five to ten minutes. All very high-tech and wonderful, but it saddens me. For me, part of the joy of going to the library is to browse what’s on the shelves. To be looking for a book and find a better one is pure joyous serendipity. To have to know what you’re looking for before you find it would for me kill a lot of the joy of the library. Yes, the new U of C library is better for the staff and the books, but is it really better for the patron?
7August2011
Posted by Brent under: Nothing Special.
The other day we went to the newly expanded and re-opened Union County Public Library in Blairsville. I admit it, being a bookworm I’ve always loved libraries. The new library is much improved from the old one, but this and other libraries are changing. The most-used room seems to be the computer lab, which Lora reports as being full on her last visit there. They now have paperbacks and old books they give away or sell for dollar-store prices. Probably only around 5% of the floorspace is dedicated to adult non-fiction. Other idiosyncrasies can be chalked up to the local demographics rather than the changing times, e.g. Lewis Grizzard volumes outnumber Tolstoy six-to-one, and they still have VCR tapes to loan. In any event, the library is changing, but can it change enough? Is it a dead-end or will it still be of value in the future? Some say the library will be obsolete by 2020, replaced by the web and the Kindle. If that day comes, I shall mourn, and put my library card on the ‘things past’ shelf next to my slide rule and cassette tapes.
5August2011
Posted by Brent under: Suches.
We live in Suches, GA, and for a long time one had to drive a half-hour to get any cell coverage. Then a couple of years ago, Verizon put up a tower and started service. I got an email from my next-door neighbor yesterday saying that AT&T had started service. So yesterday evening I went on my front porch and got one to two bars of signal and was able to call the landline. Wow!
AT&T has a billboard campaign running that claims they cover 97% of all Americans. I wanted to start a website called ‘ImInThe3Percent.com’ for fellow Americans that aren’t covered. Guess I won’t now.
And I know that it’s really not Verizon’s tower. In the old days, each cellular company had its own towers, often leading to two towers being built side-by-side. Now all the towers are owned by cellular tower leasing companies (wholly owned subsidiaries of the telco monopolies) and the telcos just lease space on them, effectively passing dollars to each other.
In looking around, I can get a Wilson 50dB amplifier to boost the cellular signal inside the house, for $300-$400. I don’t know if it’s worth it.
AT&T also has a microcell that plugs into your broadband Internet that hands the call over to their internet service. Interesting, but I’d just use skype if I wanted to go over the Inernet.
The trouble with having cellular service in Suches is that most of the high ground is owned by the National Forest Service. The private property is generally down in the valleys. For instance, the National Forest starts about 8′ behind one corner of our house. It’s like a 65,000 acre back yard. That’s where the bears hide.
So if you are driving by in the evening and see me standing on my front porch, holding my iPhone in my outstretched arm, you’ll know I’m trying to get one more bar so I can listen to your voicemail.
