Reading

I watched the most recent Silicon Valley episode last night. I laughed at some parts (not as much as a usual episode) and then there was a completely unbelievable tech-related plot twist — quite out of character for that show. I was surprised.

When the credits played, my draw dropped when I saw the episode's author was Dan Lyons. Lyons (whose work has been promoted by the Linux Foundation) once compared me to a communist and a member of organized crime (in, Forbes, a prominent publication for the wealthy) because of my work enforcing the GPL.

I find that in most situations where any mishap is involved, especially with any large institutions in the picture, Hanlon’s razor tends to apply, and is a good working model to base assumptions on.

This has been the case with most Internet censorship debates in Poland, for instance. Assuming malice really wasn’t helping to get our point across.

Of needles and haystacks

This is why I am flabbergasted with NSA’s (and the rest of the gang, too) insistence on gathering as much data as they can. Sure, for most regular Jacks or Jills, “you need the haystack to find the needle” might sound about right. A bit more observant person might however do a double-take: “wait, what?”. When I’m searching for a needle, the last thing I want or need is an ever-larger haystack. Something’s fishy.

I’ve been ramping up my running lately. It’s a type of meditation. Sometimes I just run. Other times I run and listen to music or podcasts.

Yesterday I went for a tempo run in the rain. I listened to the album, “Rave On Andy White” and entered my …

I know this decision is tough, as all the candidates in the list deserve an award. However, I hope that you'll chose to vote for my friend and colleague, Karen Sandler, for the 2015 Red Hat Women in Open Source Community Award. Admittedly, most of Karen's work has been for software freedom, not Open Source (i.e., her work has been community and charity-oriented, not for-profit oriented). However, giving her an “Open Source” award is a great way to spread the message of software freedom to the for-profit corporate Open Source world.

My Ma recently arrived home in chilly Totnes. I loved having her staying with us for the tail end of our summer.

We had lots of fun cycling and walking around the beaches, town and village. I had been worried she’d be too hot but I think it was …

It's amazing what we let for-profit companies and their trade associations get away with. Today, Joyent announced the Node.js Foundation, in conjunction with various for-profit corporate partners and Linux Foundation (which is a 501(c)(6) trade association under the full control of for-profit companies).

Joyent and their corporate partners claim that the Node.js Foundation will be neutral and provide open governance. Yet, they don't even say what corporate form the new organization will take, nor present its by-laws. There's no way that anyone can know if the organization will be neutral and provide open governance without at least that information.

It was the Saltwater Freshwater Festival yesterday. Suzy and I enjoyed it, we were volunteering to help out. Rodney and Agrippa took Zaida with them. I found myself hosting the tent for the tribal elders. A french woman kept coming into the tent and leaving her kids there for me …

I am tired on these summer mornings. The hot days and the humid stuffy nights leave me lying awake in the pre-dawn, tired to the bone. For the first few minutes I don’t want to get up and face the day. Then my bladder lets me know I have …

Agrippa and Choppy had been talking about the Alien movies for quite some time. Agrippa decided it was time for him to brave the terrors. Last night we stayed up and watched the first Alien movie. Agrippa had never seen it before and was …

I just murdered the four red chooks. They had been guilty of eating all their own menstrual waste and tearing the feathers off each others breasts. I rung their necks. The first one was patchy, she had lost most of her feathers to the others. She had a skinny neck …

Running shoes are wearing out. I’m dripping with sweat after a short (2.6k) run with Pippy. It was shorter than it felt. Listening to a Guardian podcast about AI. Nick Bostrom is worried super intelligent beings may keep us happy in the future by implanting electrodes in our …

This is the third time I have sat at the computer to write this. The first time I ended up looking up information about kayaks and drones. I had met with Dan Arden yesterday, we talked about drones and I wanted to send him a link I had referenced. I …

Why do I feel like this? There appears to be no good reason. I feel like killing myself, there is no reason to be hanging around. For years I have used the spinning plates analogy to describe my life. Either I have too many plates up and spinning. I feel …

Awoke after a restless night with an aching back. Lay in bed from two in the morning. My mind tangentially racing around pointless circuits. Exasperated I made the decision to get up at dawn and run to Villeville and back. As the sun rose I fell asleep. At eight Suzy …

The Brisbane summer has been hot and humid. Clothes sticking to sweaty skin and fresh cut watermelon turning sour within ten minutes of leaving the fridge.

It started with the dog. She could not look at anyone and hung her head in shame, “Poor dog, you must have eaten something …

I suspect this information is of limited use because it's far too vague. I didn't even file it as a Debian bug because I don't think I have enough information here to report a bug. It's not dissimilar from the issues reported in Debian bug 663868, but the system in question doesn't have foo2zjs installed. So, I filed Debian Bug 774460.

I thought recently of a quote from a Sopranos' Season 1 episode, A Hit is a Hit, wherein Tony Soprano's neighbor proclaims for laughs at a party, Sometimes I think the only thing separating American business from the Mob is [EXPLETIVE] whacking somebody.

The line stuck with me in the decade and a half since I heard it. When I saw the episode in 1999, my career was basically just beginning, as I was just finishing graduate school and had just begun working for the FSF. I've often wondered over these years how close that quote — offered glibly to explore a complex literary theme — matches reality.

Thirteen years ago I missed out on being in this family pic. Next year I hope to complete my Nursing degree and a year after that I hope to complete a Post Grad year. Maybe then I can afford a …

Our quails have been rooting a fair bit. The girls are popping out eggs without a care. Unfortunately, they are rather unreliable at getting clucky. Luckily Speedy, like many bantams, loves to keep eggs warm.

Today Rodney found that she’d hatched one of the quail …

Recently, I was forwarded an email from an executive at a 501(c)(6) trade association. In answering a question about accepting small donations for an “Open Source” project through their organization, the Trade Association Executive responded Accepting [small] donations [from individuals] is possible, but [is] generally not a sustainable way to raise funds for a project based on our experience. It's extremely difficult … to raise any meaningful or reliable amounts.

I was aghast, but not surprised. The current Zeitgeist of the broader Open Source and Free Software community incubated his disturbing mindset. Our community suffers now from regular and active cooption by for-profit interests. The Trade Association Executive's fundraising claim — which probably even bears true in their subset of the community — shows the primary mechanism of cooption: encourage funding only from a few, big sources so they can slowly but surely dictate project policy.

I found a series of photo’s on an old back-up a few months ago. Which reminded me of my pal Simon. I’m going to post them here so that he can ask me to unpost it.

I am quite an annoying old friend.

After several weeks of intermittent failed attempts I finally managed to get root on my crapass phone.

“Getting root” has a different meanings here in Australia but in this case it refers to gaining full control of my telephone operating system. A bizarre idea when I stop and think about …

John Lee was a friend of mine who died of old age. I say old age but the hospital would tell you it was stroke. John would have told you it was because his body betrayed him.

After going for a run this morning I climbed down the 74 steps …