All posts by rbowen

SCO sucks

First, I want to be completely clear that i hate SCO for technical reasons, not for legal, financial, or corporate reasons. The OS, not the company, is a festering heap of dung. And not in a nice way, either.

I have now been attempting to boot a SCO server for 4 hours. I consider myself moderately knowledgeable about Unix-like operating systems. This should not be this hard.

I think that I should be permitted to testify in the SCO trial, if it indeed ever comes to trial. My role would be to laugh mockingly each time SCO suggests that someone would want to copy their code.

Then, during breaks in the trial, I can set up a mud pie stand on the corner, and sue the Mrs Smith’s pie company for stealing my ideas. I could submit evidence such as “Hey, they’re both pies! It should be obvious!” and then I could send bills to everyone making pies at home.

It’s pure genius!

Happiness

I had an interesting insight this morning. I don’t claim that this is in any way original or profound. However, I am still, in many ways, an African in my thinking, and so things like this tend to take a little while to sink in.

Americans (meaning USA’ians) have this conviction that they have the inalienable, God-given (ironically, even those that don’t believe in God) right to be happy. And this is interpreted in the narrowest possible terms, meaning “ME” and “NOW”. Now, clearly, not everyone is stupid, but these ideas seem to be so deeply installed in the psyche of people who have been raised steeped in this mindset that many folks don’t even question them.

Personally, I think that this idea that you have a right to be happy is hogwash. And I think that the idea that you have a right to *pursue* happiness (whatever that may end up meaning) is probably hogwash too, but I’ll have to think about that one a little more.

Anyways, this not-terribly-profound insight helped me understand, at least a little bit, why some folks can do certain things, and think that they are doing the “right” thing. In particular, it strikes me as being a significant contributor to the divorce rate in this country. Becase, after all, my personal happiness, and my being happy *right now*, is more important than any corporate happiness, any community stability, and more important than the fact that decisions will adversely affect people at least two generations in either direction, as well as a significant number of friends and acquaintances. This is how people can honestly believe that they have made a good decision, while doing things that are destructive, both to themselves, their family, and society as a whole, although, when observed with any degree of objectivity, can only be seen as being petty and selfish.

Further implications of this observation, in the context of our view of history, our reactions to the national security issue, and the way that we drive, for starters, are also very interesting, but I really need to get ready for work. Although, I suppose, my right to individual happiness suggests that I should just stay here and think deep thoughts.

But I’ll finish up with a quote from John Adams, which I think is very relevant. Adams said that the role of government is to “secure the maximum amount of happiness for the largest possible number of people.” Note that this is a very different thing from individual happiness, and that only 200 years of selfishness and misinterpretation can have turned it into that. Although, it’s moderately clear to me that if we work towards the happiness of everyone, the happiness of the individuals will unavoidably follow.

Hmm. Perhaps I’m a communist.

Glovens? Mittves? Um …

Nathan has some cool mittens/gloves, and then MHG went and posted something about his. So I just could not resist any more, and I got some.

These are the most wonderful gloves (or mittens) that I have ever had. They are mittens when I need them to be, and then I can use my fingers when I need to. And they are warmer than any mittens (or gloves) I’ve ever had.

Waiting for nothing

I think that what frustrates me the most about driving in Lexington is waiting for nothing. I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting at red lights while no traffic goes in the other direction. Invariably, about the time that my light turns green, cars start arriving at the perpendicular light, in order to wait while one or two cars go through the other way, and they they, too, wait for nothing, for another 2 or 3 minutes.

Surely *someone* has studied the mathematics of traffic lights and can make intelligent decisions about how lights should work so that this doesn’t happen. Indeed, in other cities, I don’t experience this sort of thing. It seems to happen only in Lexington.

What’s up with that?

Blazing saddles

On Thursday, driving along Richmond Road, around lunch time, I was stopped at a red light. As the light turned green and cars started to move, I noticed that the spot in the right lane, where a Chevy Cavalier had been sitting, which was blazing merrily. Then the Chevy itself burst into flames, with brilliant orange flames billowing out from under the vehicle as it drove off, oblivious. Various people beeped and waved, and the driver pulled to the side as black smoke started to billow voluminously from the engine, and from under the car. I held back just a bit, so that I’d be out of range when it exploded. The guy sat in the car for somwhat longer than I would have, and then slowly climbed out as his car turned into a cheery raging inferno.

A fire engine which just happened to be across the street pulled over as I was driving speedily away.

Note to self: Chevy Cavalier not a good choice for next car.

Mind over matter

Today was Sarah’s first day in her new swimming class.

While there there was another class going on with much smaller kids. One little guy suddenly plunged headlong from the side of the pool and disappeared from sight. About 1/28 of a second later, his father plunged in after him, fully dressed, complete with his pager, cell phone, and WinCE handheld computer. He came up with the kid, crying but unhurt, while the life guards were still trying to figure out what was going on.

After things calmed down, he borrowed a towell and disappeared into the changing room.

I spoke to him afterwards, and asked him if his hardware survived. He said that none of it had. but that he didn’t regret what he did. He’d thought about what he might do in a situation came up, and so when it did, there was no need to hesitate, and he knew exactly what he needed to do.

Way to go, dad!