Jamaica

Uxoriousness / maritusiousness

Nat and Ed

An Air Jamaica employee in Montego Bay told me she couldn't remember the last time the flight actually flew non-stop. On the way back, the Philadelphia - Boston leg was populated by 65 pissed-off passengers, arriving at 1:30am instead of 10pm like they expected.

I don't think I'd be quite as annoyed, but I didn't even get an apology from this she-beast. When I yelled "FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" she rolled her eyes and scolded me not to put my bottles in the overhead bin. "They weren't my bottles!"

So, if anyone knows of a good personal injury lawyer, let me know. AirJamScam is gonna pay. OSS Projects Talk 28 June 2005 12:20 EDT Last Friday Miguel and I gave a talk to the Massachusetts Software Council about how to create a successful open source project. Our slides are here, and the audio is here. If you only have a little time, you might listen to the first ten minutes, in which I tell the story of what I think is the earliest example of an open source-style project. Maybe someone knows of an earlier example?

At the end of the presentation, I talk about Hula a little bit. Raw files needed 20 June 2005 16:47 EDT Larry Ewing is working on adding raw file support to F-Spot so that Linux will have a high-quality photo management tool for professionals.

In order to test the raw format support he's written, he needs to build a library of raw files from various cameras. He particularly needs raw format photos from Kodak, Olympus and other non-Canon/Nikon cameras, as they are harder to find.

So, please mail raw format photos to Larry's special gmail account. Garmin Forerunner == piece of shit 12 June 2005 13:42 EDT I wrote earlier about the wrist-mounted GPS I bought for running. Having tried to use it several times since, I can confidently report that it is a total piece of crap. Friday morning in Utah I did a short 30-minute run, and, after taking fifteen minutes to lock in the satellites, the Forerunner reported that I covered 163 miles. Jogging along the river in Boston, it informs me that I'm running 4-minute miles.

Superheros don't actually do anything cool, they just stop uncool things from happening.

It's not clear whether it's creativity or organizational skills they lack.

In any case, you've got to hand it to the bad guys for taking the initiative. Some people are better than others 9 June 2005 11:57 MDT The Incredibles was airing on the flight from Boston to San Francisco on Tuesday. I'd seen it before, in the theaters when it came out, but I liked it so much I watched it again on the tiny monitor four rows in front of me. And it's just as good the second time.

What's fascinating about the movie is that it's based on this powerfully undemocratic, unegalitarian message.

DASH	You always say, ''Do your best.'' But you don't really mean it. Why can't I do the best that I can do?
HELEN	Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in, and to fit in, we just gotta be like everybody else.
DASH	Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of. Our powers made us special.
HELEN	Everyone's special, Dash.
DASH	Which is another way of saying no one is.

He must be stopped.

There are a few choice bits of dialog in the plot (Bob is Mr Incredible, and Helen is his wife):

BOB	Reliving the glory days is better than acting like they didn't happen!
HELEN	Yes! They happened! But this, our family, is what's happening now, Bob. And you are missing this! I can't believe you don't want to go to your own son's graduation.
BOB	It's not a graduation. He's moving from the fourth grade to the fifth grade.
HELEN	It's a ceremony!
BOB	It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity but if someone is genuinely exceptional...

The Mozilla TAG meeting was pretty great yesterday; maybe I'll post some thoughts here later. I'm in Utah today, and going back to Boston tomorrow. Living in the future 7 June 2005 08:33 EDT Got into Boston from Europe Saturday night. It was a strange 7-hour flight back. The person sitting next to me didn't do anything the entire flight. He didn't watch a movie, didn't read a book or magazine or newspaper, didn't play video games on the seat-back monitor, and he didn't sleep. He did eat the in-flight food. But mainly he just sat there, staring straight ahead. Creepy.

The weather was superb this weekend and I got to eat dinner on my porch Sunday night with the de Icazas and the LeSages. Robert and I went to New York yesterday to meet with one of our customers. Due to some mainly inscrutable logistical reason, all the shuttle flights back to Boston were canceled, so we ended up renting a car and driving back. Bored on the car ride, we made videos with my new phone and SMS'd them to Miguel. He in turn recorded himself sitting in his office and sent replies to us.

(You can view these videos with Real player)

It was cool, sitting there in the car watching Miguel sitting there in his office.

Later in the drive, we called Joe on the speakerphone and he gave us an aerial tour of the region using Google's satellite maps. It went like this:

Joe:	There's a golf course on your right.
Us:	Cool.
Joe:	Huh, what's that strange building coming up on your left?
Us:	It's a Marriott.
Joe:	Oh. Cool.

[nat@booyakasha ~]$ hcitool scan

Scanning ...

        00:13:70:A8:8A:62       Nat

        00:13:70:A8:86:EC       love machine

Oh yeah, it can also place and receive phone calls. Six-day GUADEC 4 June 2005 14:52 CEST GUADEC should be six days. Three days is not enough time to talk to everyone or to accomplish much. It's just enough time to remind us that we like working together, but not enough time to actually forge or strengthen working relationships. Conversations just get started; they do not get finished.

It was a nice moment. Until some dirty hooligans stole my camera from its resting place next to my knee. I knew as soon as they'd lifted it and sprang up to give chase, but they had a motorcycle waiting and so there was no hope.

I just wanted to look them in the eye, you know?

So you won't be getting any photos from Paris.

The sad thing is, this was my second Canon 20D; the first one I left in a taxi a few months ago, and had to replace. The day I replaced it, I remember, I left the replacement in a taxi as well, and had to run down the street after it. "Stop!" I yelled. "You have my camera!"

On this trip I also lost four badmitton rackets, two books, a frisbee and four airline upgrade certificates.

Mom was right. I really wasn't meant to have nice things.

On the positive side, I had some delicious breakfasts at Le Pain Quotidien, did a lot of nice walking around Paris, Miguel and I ran into Jon Trowbridge in Les Tuileries, and it was nice to meet Jean-Baptiste, the author of Cecil.

I am going to be in New York on Monday for a customer visit and I'm supposed to go to San Francisco on Wednesday for the Mozilla TAG meeting but my level of enthusiasm for time spent in airplanes is pretty low right now. Nurembergian Photos 2 June 2005 11:18 CEST Steve Jobs uses GNOME 2 June 2005 10:42 CEST After my post about DreamWorks using GNOME to produce Madagascar, several Pixar employees mailed to remind me that Pixar produced both The Incredibles and Finding Nemo primarily using Linux and GNOME.

These posters are in French in recognition of the fact that I am headed to Paris tonight. I'd love to meet up with any hackers in the area who are free for dinner tonight or tomorrow. Mail me! Nuremberg 1 June 2005 14:47 CEST I am in Nuremberg today meeting with friends and colleagues at SUSE. If anyone in the area wants to get together for dinner tonight, mail me.