October 27, 2001
Oh, that's too funny. Workopolis, a Canadian job site, has a link to a "boss panic button" in their menu bar.
October 24, 2001
Good article in New York Times about Illy: Discovering La Dolce Vita in a Cup. Registration required, more than likely.
Illycaffe is one of Italy's premier espresso roasters. I've tasted some of their stuff, it is indeed superb. It surprises me to read that they eschew robusta (dismissed as "truck-tire consommé") in their blend. To my understanding, most Italian roasters prefer a little robusta in their cup, and I'm quite fond of the American roasters here who use a bit in their espressos (I'm convinced that Maravonda does, for instance, and they're one of my favorite espresso roasters). It's obviously quite possible to produce a wonderful espresso with only arabica, though.
I'd also like to emphasize that contrary to those who may claim otherwise, it's perfectly possible to find exquisite espresso blends outside Italy. In fact, you're often better off buying a locally roasted blend instead of a can of Italian espresso.
October 24, 2001
The 2001 Mars Odyssey has entered orbit around Mars. I don't spend nearly enough time on NASA web sites. They do some of the most amazing educational work.
October 22, 2001
Three professors and a student are suing St. Cloud State over treatment of Jews. Y'know, this doesn't surprise me one bit. There are some truly excellent people working at SCSU who would never tolerate this sort of racist, anti-Semitic BS, but my experience with St. Cloud in general and stories I've heard from those excellent people do little to discourage me from believing the allegations in the lawsuit.
October 21, 2001
Tuesday night I went to a class at the TeaSource, our local tea shop. Gong fu is a Chinese way of preparing, drinking, enjoying, and experiencing tea. While discussing the aroma of one of the teas we were trying, I commented that I'd pretty much shot my nose when I was a coffee roaster. Spend several years inhaling hot smoke through your nose and you'll do the same.
This led to the surprised question of how I got from coffee to tea. "It's the natural evolution upwards," the shop owner joked. This isn't the first time I've had that question, though, and it exposes an attitude that usually surprises me. It also begs an explanation. So here goes.
When I drink tea, I drink it with the same mindfulness that is emphasized in gong fu. Carefully, attentively, I prepare the water, the tea, the infusion. Tea is an opportunity to pause and reflect. I focus on the tea, on friends around the table, on this moment in time. In some ways, when I'm in a mystical frame of mind, it's an act of devotion, a prayer. This is one of the things that first drew me to tea: its subtle flavors and need for careful attention in preparation are an occasion to practice the mindfulness I seek in my daily life. When I'm being social (yes, this happens from time to time) tea's relative ease of preparation facilitates rather than impedes conversation. When I'm facing a particularly stressful time, I look forward to its soothing warmth.
I feel the same way about coffee. I don't drink coffee just for a caffeine fix — I have other ways of getting that. I like coffee for many of the same reasons I enjoy tea: it offers a withdrawal into a moment in time, an opportunity to savor its subtle flavors. Make no mistake: coffee may by and large taste a lot stronger than tea, but its flavors can be just as refined and elusive as tea's. Especially once you move into the world of espresso, where coffee truly becomes a cuisine.
That's something that surprises people who align themselves with one camp or another. Coffee people usually can't handle the mild flavors of many teas, especially greens or whites. Tea people often can't stand coffee's strong flavor, so don't take the time to delve into its subtleties. The thing is, though, that coffee and tea share a whole lot more than people usually think, and it's what they share that I love about them both.
October 19, 2001
The Electronic Freedom Foundation's comments on the SSSCA, including information about what you can do.
Ten years ago or so, I was really active on a local BBS called The Dark Knight's Table. As I recall, Erik Jacobson, TDKT's sysop had something to do with the Electronic Freedom Foundation -- maybe something in his sigfile or on the BBS somewhere. Clueless me, I was intrigued but never dug too deep. Now it seems that every time I turn around I see the EFF in the news, fighting the good fight.
I see now that I should have paid more attention to what Erik had to teach me in his self-effacing way. Now that I think about it, he was the one who introduced me to UNIX.
October 19, 2001
SSSCA gets a hearing Oct. 25. This is a good, reasonably comprehensive and clear article covering the effects of the proposed Security Systems Standards and Certification bill. It is written from an ardently pro-open source position. I don't think you have to be an open source fanatic to see the dangers this bill poses, though.
October 17, 2001
With Mozilla's support for the link element, you might be wondering how to use it. Wonder no more.
Now, how can I reconfigure this blog to take advantage of link? Doesn't take much to imagine flipping back and forth between entries or months. I might have to move away from GreyMatter, though, which I've been considering anyway.
One of the things that attracted me to GreyMatter was that it creates static HTML pages instead of making database queries, which made for much faster response times. Now that I've moved back to PHP, though, and added that news sidebar, that benefit's pretty much shot. And since it's too much of a pain to add my own HTML to entries and still produce valid code, and since I've been thinking about producing the same content in multiple versions, well it may be time to move on already.
So now I'm on the search again. Maybe I'll turn to Blogger after all. Or just write my own. Or hack GreyMatter's code, if the license lets me. There's a whole lot that I like about GreyMatter to just throw it away. Time will tell. It'll most likely come down to what I have the patience to work on.
October 16, 2001
October 16, 2001
"If the current version of the USA Act becomes law, the RIAA believes, it could outlaw attempts by copyright holders to break into and disable pirate FTP or websites or peer-to-peer networks."
Damn straight!
Apparently the RIAA feels that this would maintain the status quo, ensuring that current Federal law, which gives them these rights (?!), wouldn't be overturned. Yeah.
Update: Looks like their efforts failed, thank goodness. See Lisa Rein's weblog on Oreillynet for more information and an update.
October 16, 2001
MySQL 4.0 has been released. Currently in alpha. Why is it that major version releases are alpha? It's that way with Apache 2.0, too. As time goes on, I understand version numbering schemes less and less. This does not detract from my excitement over MySQL 4's release. I'm looking forward to a stable server that I can feel comfortable using in production.
October 15, 2001
Eight planets found around nearby stars. "The eight new worlds bring the total number of planets known to be circling other stars to 74." I had no idea.
October 15, 2001
General details of the MAPE settlement.
People are back at work today. I haven't noticed any tensions yet, which is a relief to me. Oh, except for this message from our Vice Chancellor for Human Resources:
"As we all get back to the business of serving students and our campuses, I want to make perfectly clear to all employees that we expect everyone to respect the choices individuals made during the strike. We will not tolerate favoritism, retaliation or harassment of individuals based on their actions during the strike."
Nice words, and they have to be said, but there's been some grumbling about them. Probably because of the phrasing of "We will not tolerate" . . . Oh well. Make a common enemy in HR, maybe it'll help smooth things over. :-)
October 15, 2001
WebReference: XML Import/Export for the Masses. Add-ons for Word and WordPerfect that allow the import and export of XML.
Or you could just use StarOffice.
October 14, 2001
A couple releases: Mozilla 0.9.5, which includes a couple neat new features like tabbed browsing and (at long last) support for the link element, for easy browsing of multi-page documents. Mozilla just keeps getting better.
Too, Apache 1.3.22 has been released.
October 14, 2001
I've made some changes to the layout. Got rid of the news page in favor of the sidebar on the left there. It probably looks pretty nasty on Netscape 4 and other older CSS-almost-supporting browsers, but I no longer care.
October 14, 2001
The state and the unions reached a tentative agreement this morning! Looks like people will be headed back to work Monday. Yay!
Details of the TA are forthcoming, being withheld until the union boards have a chance to ratify it.
October 12, 2001
Dust storm on Mars. Gotta get me a telescope! Not that I'd be able to see the storm, but it's been a lifelong dream to have a telescope. About time I acted on it.
The BBC has an article, too, with some useful links.
I guess that I'm particularly interested in this story because I've been reading Ben Bova's Mars and Return to Mars. Good science fiction, that.
October 12, 2001
Network Associates is selling PGP. I don't know yet if this is a good or a bad thing.
October 11, 2001
Minnesota Public Radio's web site has pretty good strike coverage, especially over the last couple days. For the first time, I'm seeing real information about the state services that are being affected by the strike. It's about time; both the state and the unions have failed to highlight those on their own. Note, too, the comments in their little "Soapbox" section. Interesting perspectives.
Bummer, though. Since I first wrote that paragraph, MPR's taken down a couple articles. Can't find 'em yet.
Picketers where I work have posted a "rats list." I'm not on it. Tomorrow morning I plan to make sure I'm added (ever a stickler for details :) and take the opportunity to talk with the picketers to see why they're striking. I'd very much prefer to hear it from them rather than union leaders.
October 10, 2001
Edd Dumbill: XML You Can Touch. Hey, GNOME's doing some neat stuff with XML.
October 10, 2001
Although I did watch Almanac the other day, I have very little to add to my nutshell explanation of why I'm not on strike. I'd like to hear from striking MAPE members who aren't union leadership about why they're striking. I'm tired of the rhetoric on both sides and want to hear some genuine thoughts on the matter from people on the line. Seriously. I'm aiming this request in particular to friends of mine who are offended and maybe hurt by my not crossing the picket line.
I will say this: I'm upset about AFSCME's director's comments on Almanac about those crossing the line: "They have a perfect right to cross the picket line, but our members we think have a perfect right to not talk to them when this is all over, not to associate with them. The decision to cross the picket line is a very serious one. [If] workers want to ostracize themselves from their coworkers, they have a right to do that." (My emphasis)
I realize that that wasn't MAPE's response, but it is exactly what bothers me about this strike. It's not about union solidarity. The strike isn't just against the state, it's against other union members as well. It can do permanent damage to people's relationships, to their ability to work together as professionals. It frustrates me to no end to hear talk about unity at the same time that garbage like this is being put forth. The decision to cause that sort of rift doesn't lie just with the scab -- it's also squarely in the lap of the strikers who decide to ostracize their peers.
I knew the risks when I crossed the line. I'm fortunate to work in an office where I don't think I'll be facing much enmity for doing so. Hard feelings, yes, but nothing that we can't work on and move beyond. Together. I fear for some of my friendships with colleagues on MnSCU campuses, though.
I wonder why this issue is so much more personal than others, why it can bring such pain.
If the strike were about more than just money (and you'll have to do some fast talking to convince me otherwise), I might be able to support it. But I don't. I go over it every day, consider all the angles I can, and I still think that this is worth something as divisive and destructive as a strike.
I truly do feel for employees at the low end of the pay scale, for whom a $10 or $15 copay will be tough. I've been there. All too recently. Maybe the unions should be negotiating for a break for those members, or (as I believe just happened at the University of Minnesota) a minimum wage that makes up for it. Maybe the rest of the union members' pay scale wouldn't go up so much to make up the difference, and it could still fall within the limits the state's working with. How's that for unity? That's something I could get behind.
Lest you think me nothing more than a State crony, let me hasten to add that the Governor has been acting like an ass through this whole debacle (though he, like the unions, has made some points with which I agree). And the State Legislature, despite their attempts to come out looking sweet through the strike by pitching in on the Jesse-bashing and glossing over their part in this mess, really set us up for the whole thing. Don't forget it come election time.
The State and both unions return to the bargaining table tomorrow. May they reach some sort of agreement. Soon.
October 10, 2001
I've been testing Sun's StarOffice 6.0 beta and have to say it's excellent. Truly. It's everything that I'd hope to find in an office suite. Superb interoperability with Microsoft Office, even Word's revision marks. I'm pleased, too, with their use of an XML file format. See Matt Sergeant's Adventures with OpenOffice and XML for more discussion of that. If you're looking at office software, even just a word processor, I happily encourage you to check it out. It's even a free (albeit hefty) download.
My only complaint is that there is no version for the Mac. I'll have to wait for an OS X port of OpenOffice (the open source version of StarOffice, sorta what Mozilla is to Netscape). Pity, too, since AppleWorks pretty much sucks. I'd happily drop MS Office in favor of StarOffice, especially considering the $500 price tag on Office2002 for the Mac.
October 10, 2001
Minnesota Historical Society: Electronic Records Management Guidelines. Good information, probably really important for anyone involved in maintaining a Minnesota government web site. Useful even for those who aren't, because it offers some useful information about strategies that the government is (or should be) using to ensure citizen access to government records. Aside from some rather ironic accessibility concerns, quite good.
October 06, 2001
And now Damian Conway's Exegesis 3 has been released. See Apocalypse 3 in action. Who knew Perl operators could be so much fun? ;-)
October 05, 2001
Cool: no sooner do I start working on a Netscape/Mozilla sidebar to get a Meerkat news feed than a new project starts up on Mozdev: RSSZilla, an RSS syndication reader for Mozilla that will include a sidebar.
October 05, 2001
I plan to post an explanation of why I'm not honoring MAPE's strike, but first I want to watch tonight's Almanac to see what the State and the unions have to say.
Oh, heck. Here it is in a nutshell: I believe that going on strike was the wrong decision, and I'm not enough of a union guy to go along with it even though I disagree. I believe that when a union makes the decision to strike, it should be for a helluva lot more than just money. Fundamental things like job security and worker safety need to be at stake. True, health care costs and wages in the State's proposal will be painful, and they ought to be negotiated. But union leadership made the wrong decision when it voted to strike. The cost is far too great.
Okay, more later. After Almanac. I'll probably be taping it if you miss it and want to watch.
October 03, 2001
Larry Wall's Apocalypse 3 is out. I am so psyched for Perl 6.
October 01, 2001
Eric Meyer's CSS/Edge, a playground for CSS layout and such.
