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Orb Designs Grafitti -- December 30, 2002 thru January 05, 2003
Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message..
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December 30, 2002 - Updates at 0735 EST
Good morning. I'm running late as it is, so I'll just drop this in your laps and roll. Yesterday I did a nice long two-part post, a tour of the Daynotes Gang. That's a periodic journey for me here, just to refresh everyone on who's who and what's what. As usual, this journey provokes comment. First out of the gate this time is David Thor (Thoriassen? Did you change your last name, David?) with a number of observations...
From: David Thor
Subject: Daynotes tour
Date: 30 Dec 2002 00:22:22 +0100
Brian,
Thanks for the Daynotes tour! I myself have become stuck on a few places which I visit regularly (yours included) and the others I don't visit at all so getting a pointer to what the others write about has already made me visit the other sites I never visit otherwise. Who knows, maybe I will add a Daynoter or two to my daily visits!
There is one thing I have never understood: The Daynoters that stop writing, or the ones that write almost nothing at all, why are they kept on your lists as Daynoters? The word "Daynotes" gives me a sense of somebody writing every day or pretty close to it. I understand that nobody can write every single day of the year, although you come pretty close :-) but taking a break without ever saying anything about it to their readers is something I don't understand that well. I mean, you are a select bunch of writers that have a few things in common. You don't accept any new additions all that often but it happens that someone drops out and stops writing, without a word why but they are still kept on in your list of Daynoters.
For instance, I loved reading Shawn Wallbridge's notes. He is a true hardware geek just like I am and I loved reading about his latest adventures. He quit without a word. You can tell him from me that he is missed. If you know of anybody else who is as much into hardware as he is and writes about it, let me know! I also read Matt Beland's notes on a regular basis and he quit as well without so much as telling his readers why or how long he would be gone. It is like reading a book only to find out that once you are well into the story and getting to like it that the story ends, but you still got many pages to go, but the pages left are empty.
Also, Ator has a pretty interesting site which updates, unlike you said, a couple of times a month (see Nov. and Dec.). It is pretty hard to think of him as a Daynoter really.
Greg Lincoln spells it out quite carefully every time he posts: He has no time or energy for it. It is also possible to read the same message in the other sites where he contributes. He is quite an amazing figure and his level of knowledge in all things Linux, computers etc are amazing. However, he doesn't post.
Please don't get me wrong here. I am not trying to bash anybody. I am only trying to figure you guys out. It seems to be quite hard to become a Daynoter and you seem to have a process when you select somebody new into your unique group of writers. I understand that it could be a good thing to get a break from the writing, but you have no service to your readers to notify them of changes in writing habits.
Moshe Bar said he would quit, he gave an explanation and and he said he might be back someday. For all purposes, his entry at "www.daynotes.org" could be removed and added later if he decided to start writing again. That way we readers would know if he was back or not. Same goes for the other non-writers in the group (or links to their pages removed so we don't click them). Dave Markowitz writes a few entries a week so I visit his site every other day or so. Works good for him and me I guess. Dave F. said he was taking a few days off for the Holidays so it was easy to leave his site alone for a few days. Thompson also indicates when we should not expect his regular levels of writing.
Maybe you could split the "www.daynotes.org" website into two: practicing and non-practicing Daynoters? It would be a service to your readers I think. It could also provide to be a service to those within the Daynotes group that write on a regular basis.
Again, it seems like a terrible thing to be sitting here complaining about the way you write or not in your free time, for us to view for free as well. However, I like to think that everybody can gain from constructive criticism regardless of subject matter. I hope you regard the above as such.
On another note I would like to thank you for the entertaining reading you have provided me with during this year! I am looking forward to reading about your adventures, thoughs and ideas next year!
Best regards,
/Dave T.
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David -
Thanks, both for your appreciation of the effort that I put in here, and that the others do for their sites. Regarding your input on inactive Daynoters, I've thought about this on more than one occasion, as have we all, I'm sure. As I publish this letter, it may provoke some discussion on the backchannel.
My temptation at this point is to move currently inactive members to a section labeled as such, making Daynotes.org an easier-to-use resource. If we do make a change, I'll probably point Tom at what I've done as well, to see if he's interested in following the same rough format for Daynotes.com, which he's kept up so well.
Keep your eyes open for more thoughts on the matter.
Thanks for reading and participating.
.brian
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And with that, I'll be on my merry way. I'll be getting the Santa Fe oiled this morning, then working this afternoon. Tomorrow I plan on being onsite up in Rockville, then a quiet day at home for New Year's day. Dare I plan further ahead than that? I think not. Y'all have a lovely day, and stay tuned. There's always more fun to come.... Oh, yeah, I made great progress on the Rekall article yesterday, it's almost done. Now take care!
Top / Email Brian
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December 31, 2002 - Updates at 0715
Good morning. I've been pretty busy the last few days. One reason is that I finally got my head wrapped around the Rekall database front-end / RAD tool from The Kompany and .... taa-daaaa ... the article I've been working on, forever and a day is done. I posted it this morning in the Articles section of LinuxMuse. You're welcome to check it out. Of course, that was the result of just one idea from our community over there on LinuxMuse, there are others as well and we're going to write about them all. Stay tuned.
I note with more than a little amusement the disdain that some people seem to hold for the term "blog". It's a term that's a contraction of Web Log, and as such fairly accurately describes what many of us do. It appears that since software/sites like Blogger, Editthispage, Graymatter, and Moveable Type have made it easy for people to get their voice online, it's somehow cheapened things. Point in fact is that with the internet, you don't get your fifteen minutes of fame (or maybe you do, if you're struck by Slashdot). More truly, you get to be famous for fifteen people (more or less). Counting by visiting sites I have somewhere between 300 and 500 regular visitors here. I count myself honored and pleased by your gracing me in this way, whatever you choose to call what I do.
Is this journalism? Maybe, in a sense, sometimes. I write about stuff like Linux, software applications, and whatnot that other people get paid for. I think that I do a better job of it than at least some of them. Is this a diary/journal? Sure, also sometimes. I write about what's happening in my life, share some ups and downs. Nobody seems to mind, and it's cathartic for me. This is also sometimes a 'blog' in the sense of a collection of links that I've found and am sharing for your eddification and amusement. Sometimes it's mostly a Log, as in a record of something I've seen or done, that I might remember it, find it again in the future. Finally, sometimes, the best times, this is a conversation of sorts, where I hear back from you, kind readers, and we engage a little more fully.
I am pleased and honored by your presence here, as I said above. We're wrapping up another year here on the Grafitti pages and I'm glad to have interested, amused, and engaged your mind even just the tiniest bit. Thanks for dropping by, whatever you call this place.
Top / Email Brian
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January 01, 2003 - Updates at 0900
Happy New Year!!!
I've just sent out our New Year's day message to the Talkabout mailing list - you're welcome to join the very low traffic list if you wish. I've also spent a few minutes working at managing the bounce messages from other mailing list reminders off of domains that I manage either personally or for The NERDS Group. Now I'm going to go get a cup of coffee, a hot baked roll of kind or another, and enjoy my morning. Have a great day!
Top / Email Brian
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January 02, 2003 - Updates at 0715
Here it is past seven and I'm not even properly started with my day yet. Good morning and welcome to the first business day of the new year. Well, excepting the 8.5 million Americans who are counted as officially out of work, and the countless (or do I mean uncounted?) others who aren't logged on the governments rolls as in search of a job. There's interesting thing about systems that can be described by non-linear (chaos) equations... you never know how close to the knife's edge you are. That's true of weather, of economies, of most complex systems. Predicting the future of such without much more data than we have on any of those processes is like spitting upwind - more than useless except in the shortest of terms.
Mmmm. Yeah, just call me Mr. Cheerful! I don't worry much about these things, but I do get a good chuckle out of those who make their living prognosticating the future. They're all no better than Miss Cleo, and she's under indictment, neh? Sigh.
I have been having fun keeping up with the lively debates going on over in Bob's Messageboards, both in the Daynotes Journal Feedback and Linux Chronicles sections. There are so many opposing viewpoints that I can't begin to keep them all straight. We're not talking one hand, other hand, gripping hand here (no Moties, neh?), it's more like millipedes. Some poeple want more help than a stock RTFM, others can't be bothered to even read the help file that comes with the app they want to use, others wouldn't know tact if they bumped into it in a china shop. Yes, there's a learning curve to Linux. Yes, it's a longer, harder learning curve than Windows. There are two major up-sides to the effort. Improvement is happening for improvement's sake, not to keep the user on an upgrade cycle that costs cold hard cash and a more restrictive EULA each day. Oh, and generally, once it works, it keeps working. I just haven't run into a "Linux Rot" in the same sense as the infamous Windows Rot. I suppose (without knowing for sure) that it's largely dependent upon the registry, and the tightly interwoven nature of Windows OS and application development.
Ah, well. I use Linux on my desktop every day of the year, for business and for pleasure. It can be done, so it can be done by you, and you, and you, if you care to make the effort. And that's the real truth. Is it worth it? I think so, but then, I'm biased. I guess you need to find out for yourselves, right?
Happy second Monday. I'm off to work, hope your day goes well. In your spare time, check out a new daily writer, Rick Hellewell. He's got a three days under his belt now, which isn't much, but encouragement is always a good thing. Now I must fly. See you around.
Top / Email Brian
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January 03, 2003 - Updates at 0722
Good morning. The second Friday in less than a week, at least this one is named properly. Of course, this on-again, off-again sleeping in habit plays havoc with my diurnal rhythms. I am more whacked than if I had just worked through the week, rather than having Wednesday off. Oh, well. An item of interest: Starship Exeter, a fan-produced STOS-like episode, online in Quicktime format. This looks like fun - I'll have to pull that down in the next week or two, after the Slashdot rush dies down.
Yesterday is lost to me. I did a Mailman administrator's walkthrough for a NERDS client. I researched storage systems for another customer that is going to have image storage requirements totalling nearly TWO Terabytes of online storage. And how am I going to back THAT up? My guess today? A second system, or a suitcase full of hard drives. Then I popped back here and did some kind of work on the home front. In the early evening, we took Sally back for a checkup on her ear infection. The yeast is all gone, and most of the Staph. So we switched antibiotic drops, and have another weeks course of those for the lucky, lucky mutt (she hates them), along with a different oral antibiotic, this one chewable. She'll be OK.
Today's plate has on it setting up an bridge between the NT network and the Novell network in the customer offices up in Rockville. Has anyone else done this with success, using a Linux box? Drop me a line and do tell. OK, time for me to roll. See ya!
Top / Email Brian
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January 04, 2003 - Updates at 0930
Howdy. Now I have an ear-ache, and feel quite ratty. I think I'll pass on posting and just rest today - we're going out tonight and I want to feel better. So enjoy your Saturday. I'll do my best as well.
Top / Email Brian
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January 05, 2003 - Updates at 0900
Good day. Thanks, yes, I am feeling a spot better, and once the aspirin kicks in, I'll improve still more. I don't have this ear-ache beaten yet, but it doesn't feel like anything bad, or deep, so I'll let it ride for another day or two. Then I'll go see a doc if it doesn't abate. I did actually lay down and rest for a while yesterday afternoon, a terribly rare event. I'm not genetically predisposed towards napping.
As a result of the letter I received and posted last Monday, I put some effort in yesterday afternoon into a revised format for the Daynotes.org site, a portal for the "Daynotes Gang". This has the sites separated into Active and Sabbatical columns, to make the portal more useful for those who want to find current content behind the links. After passing the revision around for review on the backchannel mailing list, I've seen naught but positive feedback, so I've put the revision online. We hope the new version helps you when you come to visit any of us!
In the evening, we met with friends and went about an hour's drive north to spend the evening at the Twelfth Night Revels, a dinner and performance by The Frederick Chorale. It was one of several performances of their 26th annual Madrigal Feast. We ate well, they played and sang for us, and there was some audience participation, from the chain dance near the end of the evening, to a woman in the Chorale who kissed and/or was kissed by every male in the building. The girl gets around, but had she come around me one more time, Marcia was preparing to break her off at the knees... <grin>, There was even a rousing rendition of Men In Tights.
By shortly before midnight, when we got home, I was definitely out of steam. And we were up reasonably early today, alarmed at 0700 and getting the last of Marcia's things together for her business trip. I'll be running her up to BWI later today, and she'll be gone through to next Monday evening. The upside of this long trip for her is that she gets to spend time with family and friends, including supper with my folks. Sally and I will manage, moping about the house until our beloved returns. And we'll have another guest, too. Sally's friend Ebony is coming to stay for a few days. At least Sally will have a distraction.
Now I'd best hustle along here, there's more to be done. Have a great day!
Top / Email Brian
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Last Week
<-- * -->
Next Week
Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.
All Content Copyright © 1999-2003 Brian P. Bilbrey.
