The Cliffs of Inanity

Archive for the ‘personal’ Category

Calendar

I’m about to disappear for a while to get married, so there most likely won’t be posts here for a while.

On another subject entirely… last year I realized that there doesn’t seem to be a very easy way to get an overview of all the free software conferences going on worldwide. The last week or so I’ve spent some time digging up links and dates and whatnot and putting them into a google calendar. This isn’t ready to be unveiled but I thought I’d put the idea out there. I’m not sure exactly how I want to deploy it yet — plain google calendar? A web site with extra features? Your idea here — what would be most useful?

Also once it is up I’d appreciate info on what I’ve missed. I’ll probably set up a new mail alias for that.

Strategic Incompetence

I happened across a post about strategic incompetence — the idea that it is better to appear to be incompetent at unpleasant tasks, so that other people will do them for you.

I’m sure we’ve all encountered this in our work. I know I have; I’ve occasionally regretted demonstrating any knowledge of how autoconf and automake work, as I often get stuck with ugly build hacking as a consequence.

That said, I think this strategy is basically flawed. It can only work if you are in an environment full of enablers who don’t mind that you’re dumping on them. It isn’t easy, of course, to confront this kind of behavior; but in a team environment at least it is crucial.

I do wonder if sometimes a project as a whole can use strategic incompetence, in a milder form, as a way to attract developers.

District B13

Since hearing about parkour somewhere I was interested in seeing District B13 (btw I never liked making imdb links for films, but I found wikipedia — of course — has a film project so I plan to make links there). It finally came out on DVD and I rented it the other night.

First, it was dubbed, which is really bad. The voices didn’t really match the characters too well, so some of it sounded very silly. I suppose there was probably subtitling on the DVD, but I was feeling pretty lazy so I just let it play.

The plot is lame, as you might expect. And it was even funnier to watch the “making of” special feature and hear a couple actors talk about the social impact of the film. Funnier in a sad sort of way; I felt embarrassed for them.

Of course, you aren’t going to watch this film to be dazzled by its intricate plot, or to hear its witty dialog, or to see the characters grow and change. Instead you’re watching for the choreography, hoping to see a violent and hypercool Fred Astaire. The parkour practitioners don’t disappoint. The first chase scene was the best (really you could stop after this and not miss anything); it was delightful to watch.

The other sad thing about the “making of” clip was hearing David Belle talk a bit about parkour. As he talked I thought about punk rock, or the early free software movement, or all the other things I’ve occasionally wished were never commoditized; and I wondered whether he struggles through the same search to find something private, that can be shared, without being flattened, packaged, and sold.

Random Stuff

A few random things.

Hook a small camera to a video iPod-like-device… and you could make a TiVo for real life.

I spent part of Sunday trying to figure out a joke about “Car-pool chunnel syndrome”. But really this isn’t funny.

If I had an elephant I would name him Babar Fett.

Thank you for listening.

Return the Gift

I’ve been a Gang of Four fan since the very first time I heard “He’d Send in the Army” while watching Urgh. The only other time I imprinted on a song immediately this way was the first time I heard “Evidence” — which, come to think of it, is a similar song in some ways.

Today I found out (I’m not a very active fan) that they got together again and re-recorded their more famous songs and released them. You can listen to the album online.

It is pretty good, though not as raw as their earlier recordings.

Miami Vice

As I left the theater, an albino guy was sitting by the bike racks, smoking a cigarette. As I passed he said, “that was a movie with no soul”.

And though it was interesting, at times gripping, and darker than the series — yeah.

Normally a good soulless movie reminds me not to be too complacent: sitting in Boulder, hacking on free software all day, it is pretty easy to engage with my problems, personal or profressional, and neglect some of the wider issues.

But, soulless isn’t what these “fear up” times call for, and so to me this movie struck a discordant note. I don’t need to see soulless, I’m soaking in it.

Back

I’m back home now. I already miss Toronto — I had an excellent time there. Andrew Overholt, Ben Konrath, and Tom Fitzsimmons showed me around town, thanks guys.

If you’re ever in Toronto, be sure to try Fressen, a great vegetarian restaurant. As far as I know there’s nothing like this in the Denver metro area. We also went to another great vegetarian place near U of T, but I forgot its name.

Ben and a couple of his friends took me out to Toronto’s island park on Saturday. Anthony had told me about the island a long time ago, but I had never been. Most of it is a big park but there is a funky residential area on one end… looks like a great place to live for a summer. Maybe someday.

I spent most of my time there talking. I’m surprised I didn’t lose my voice; I talked more last week than I do most months.